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Kate and I jumped on a plane last night and ended up in Belfast. Dave and Kate were silly enough to say “come visit” so now they have to put up with us! We’re yet to meet baby Ella, she was sleeping when we got in… but there are stacks of sings that she’s here- particularly all the brightly coloured toys.. there’s an orange cow looking at me now. moo…

In my old age, I find myself making notes to myself.  Its far more socially acceptable than talking to oneself and serves the dual purpose of making one appear organized AND helping one remember miscellany that one might otherwise forget.

Many of those notes are “to dos”.  ie: buy groceries.  get lottery tickets.  get introduced to Jessica Alba.  That sort of thing.

Yesterday, Slanty2D, Wolf and I knocked one off the “to do” list.  I had clipped an article out of the Vancouver Courier two and a half years ago about a downtown eastside bar that was making its own microbrew as a way to sell a cheap pint.  A really cheap pint, like a $2 pint.  So last night, we went down to the Pacific Pub at Main and Georgia for a pint.

Pacific Pub was exactly what you’d expect for a bar that serves cheap beer at Main and Georgia.

When you get beer that cheap, anything you get extra (like a clean glass) is money in the bank.  We arrived just at last call and ordered up three beers.  They sold bottled beer, but the big draw was the microbrew stuff.  Maybe the price had gone up in the last two years — sleeves were $2.50 and glasses were $2, pricing front and center.  The barkeep warned us to drink up quick as they’d be closing the doors soon, whether or not we’d finished up the beer.  We grabbed our beers and made our way to a table in the mostly empty room.  We sat with our backs to the wall, probably with good reason.  There were a few grizzled veterans of the place, some keeping to themselves and nursing their beers.  Others were muttering quiet incoherencies to themselves (they should have written it down instead, thats what I say).  The rickety tables and the cheap, worn carpets were not flattered by the tired fluorescent lights.

The beer was exactly what you’d expect for $2.50 a beer.

We made our small talk and chit chat warily, eyeing the patrons and staff as we drank.  There seemed to be an animated banter or mild confrontation between the staff and some of the patrons, which gradually got louder as we drank.  One of the staff started locking up, carrying what appeared to be a poleaxe or other hefty weapon around the pub — to bar the doors or clear out the riffraff, we weren’t sure.  The lights started going off at the back, and we took our cue.  We exited while listening to the staff swear quietly at the customers, and the customers swearing at one another, and took a look to see if somebody had really peed on the car.

Good times.

Since the night was still young, and I was persuasive enough, we wandered down Main Street to Campagnolo, another review I had recently read in the paper.  On the way southwards, we passed by three cops and two men cuffed on the ground.  “Nothing to see here”, I thought, as we continued walking.  The restaurant was empty, with a sign that said “Open 5PM to late”.  “Late” gives them some leeway to shut the door if its pretty quiet (which it was), but we dashed their hopes of heading home early as we wandered in.  Unfortunately, the kitchen was already closed, but we sat down for a beer ($6.50 each?  We could almost have three beers for that!)  Our server was earnest and happy to chat about the menu.  The restaurant was really made cozy by the wood finishing.  Made me think a little of Aurora Bistro (RIP).  The menu looks really promising (read the linked review) and we’d probably go back — unlike the Pacific Pub which would require quite the dare to necessitate an encore visit.

Good times.

I’m glad we went out for the midweek jaunt.  It makes me think fondly of the Caffeine Monkey, his colleague, and “We no longer water down our beer”.

So on Saturday Kerrisdale Community Center is putting on a little Olympic Celebration.

Jen, in her new job capacity, had a big part in putting it all together. It’s a kid orientated event, so those of you with offspring may be interested. I’ll be headed over as well, nothing completes my week like a good mascot bash!

“Millions of peaches,
Peaches for free,
Millions of peaches,
Peaches for me!”