Good morning! I woke up at 10 after going to sleep at 3 the night before. I wasn’t feeling the tired until now, 12:30.
The plan was to go to the airport to write.But my parents are going to look at a store and apparently my 11 year old brother can’t stay home alone for two hours, so I can’t leave until around 2. By the time I get there it will be around 4 or 5. Which is usually when I come home. That’s all right, I guess. My mom has already yelled at me because I told her that. She started saying how she never asks me to do anything, blah, blah, blah. So now I’m staying home with my 11 year old brother even though all he does is watch TV in his room.
Well then, since I have lots of time before I leave, I’ll write more.
I got another letter from my friend, Hubby (because she married to me on Facebook), who is in the middle of nowhere for Air Cadets summer camp. I spent an hour writing back to her. When I go to the airport today I have to remember to buy her a postcard.
This is probably the most snail mail I’ll ever have to write in my life.
I’m wearing my Agent P shirt that I got from the Disney Outlet store in Calgary. :O
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Transit Travels: Day 1
August 3 – Lonsdale Quay
Since I only made this blog yesterday, I’m starting to write about my adventures on the third day. Let’s take the (huge amount of time because of my parents) I have to fill to write about that.
On the first day, I decided to go somewhere, generally familiar to me – Lonsdale Quay. My brother used to love going there (mostly he loved taking the SeaBus) so we use to go there a lot. I didn’t bring my camera that day so I’m going to use a picture I found off Google Images.
I sat outside, under the giant Q, over looking the water. It was a beautiful day. I forgot to bring my power cord for my netbook and in any case, there wasn’t anywhere to plug into, so I wrote by hand. Although I’ve only gone to two different places, this one was the most productive. It was busy enough that I could sit there for a long time without being noticed, but not too busy that I couldn’t focus on my work.
The lack of wifi also helped productivity.
The food that I got was pretty damn good too. I got a Hawaiian chicken burger from a place called Rex Gourmet Burgers. Price was standard for gourmet burgers, around $9 for the meal and drink. It’s not something I can afford to do every single day, but it was definitely worth it.
Favourite place to write so far, definitely will revisit.
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Transit Travels: Day 2
August 4 – Waves Cafe, Downtown Port Coquitlam
I think Cafes could be a great place to write, but this one wasn’t. This cafe had a constant stream of people walking through, not many of them staying. The ones that did were all spread out in the room. We were clearly noticeable and after a few hours, the staff started starting at you. I bought another drink after two hours, but I still got this feeling from them that I was overstaying my welcome.
The prices were pretty standard for a coffee shop, which is to say still overpriced. I paid almost $8 for a panini and a medium caramel frappe.
It wasn’t anything special. The frappe tasted like a frappe, pretty good, but it didn’t stand out against Starbucks or any other place where you can get coffee. The panini was not bad, but I really couldn’t find the ham under the overwhelming taste of egg. It should have been called Egg breakfast panini with some ham on the side.
I stayed there writing for a while. The goal was 7,000 words, but I stopped after getting to 6,770 because I decided I would go to the farmer’s market that was happening across the street.
It was not a great place to write. It was too empty and too quiet that any sound is amplified. When I walked in there were two women conversing loudly in Chinese, then there was a couple having an argument, then there was a group of four women that talked in unnecessarily high pitched voices who also decided to sing along to the music that wasn’t bothering me until they started singing along to it. The sounds of drinks being made was also ridiculously loud because there were only isolated groups of people talking at once.
It seems like a great community gathering place – for a small community. It was never busy to the point where I can write in peace. I need the place to be full of noise, but not deafening. I need there to be so many people having so many different conversations at once that I can’t hear or understand what individuals are saying. I don’t need to know what you did last week, I don’t need to hear about your irrational fear of bruises.
I also got a Belgium Hot Chocolate after a few hours, just so I didn’t seem like I was only there to use their wifi and their space (which I was, and they knew it). It was a bit less than $5. Which is too steep for me to pay for regularly.
It was amazingly delicious, but extremely sweet. After drinking about half of it, I was a bit sick of it. It’s great for a treat, but I wouldn’t buy it too often.
All in all, it was a nice place right in the middle of Port Coquitlam, but we’re too much of a suburb to have a “real” coffee house atmosphere.
I would revisit, but to hang out with friends, not to write.
heiding away. 