It has been a busy few days, starting with Thursday evening’s Crystal Castles concert.  The concert was pretty amazing to start.  The light show was intense and the sound was pretty amazing, provided you were standing at the back of the room.  We had been up near the front, stage left for the beginning, but all we heard was distortion and a very narrow range, so we made our way to the back.  I typically bring ear plugs for concerts, but I forgot mine this time.  I thought to myself that sunglasses would have been a better way to enjoy the concert because the of the intensity of the light show.  I found that Alice Glass’ was screaming just a bit too much for my liking.  The few tracks that she is screaming on the CD are the ones that I typically skip, but it seemed that more than 60 - 75% of the show was her distorted screaming, rather than the chaotic mixes of Ethan Kath.  The show ended abruptly, so the crowd was left scratching their head wondering if it was over, until the lights came on, followed by several “Boo!”s.  After the show, we went over to a friends house and were up much later than we should have been for a work night.  It was a rough morning, even rougher for Neil, but we managed to get through the day.

Friday evening, I took a quick nap at home while Neil was out with colleagues enjoying an after-work drink.  We met back at home before heading out to a friend’s place to participate in his Apocalypse Preparedness Film Festival.  Every couple of weeks, we gather with several others to take notes and share ideas in preparation for the eventual end of the world.  Yes, we have learned much and you would be wise to stick with us if the world is handed over to zombies at its conclusion.  We have all the tips and tricks to counter the sneaky ways of the dark masters, starting with a machete, Pepsi and Maltezers, finishing with never entering a room of zombies and asking “Hello?”  These tips will prove to be of immeasurable importance for the success and survival of our species.

Saturday, Neil and I packed up our car for a quick, car-camping trip just an hour outside of the city at Anmore Campland.  It wasn’t the distance that mattered; it was about getting out of the city for an evening and enjoying the sounds of nature once again.  After arriving, we were a bit disappointed, but not too surprised, that there was a fire ban in effect.  I was most looking forward to sitting around a fire, particularly since the temperature had dropped a fair bit that morning.  We set-up our tent and sleeping pads before heading for a hike around Buntzen Lake.  The hike was 8 km with an easy elevation gain of 100 m.  We finished in just over 4 hours, having stopped several times for photographs.  There were many interesting flowers along the trail, with a few great views.

After returning from our trip, we took a few minutes to just sit and relax at the picnic table before even thinking about getting preparing dinner. That’s when we started seeing columns of smoke rising from various camp sites.  Hmmmm, interesting. We ventured off towards the campsite office to inquire about the possibility of a campfire, when we noticed that the sign indicating a ban had been moved and a young woman was driving around with wood. Yay! We walked to the corner store for a package of hot dogs and stopped off for a bundle of wood. Soon after its delivery, Neil was chopping wood into slivers for a fire.

Neil had the fire roaring before long and we were roasting our spider dogs seconds after. The perfect end to an exhausting day. We sat around the fire, struggling against our will to roast another delicious tube of compressed beef and fat, for several hours before the campsite managers came ’round at 11:00pm to request that we extinguish our fire. It would have been nice to know the restriction ahead of time to prevent putting the last two logs on the fire only minutes before. Instead, we had to dump water on the logs and call it a night. The guy wasn’t the friendliest, to say the least. We overheard him admonish a couple of families for not having extinguished their fire, “I told you once before and I won’t tell you again to put your fire out.” One woman was rightfully upset with a response “Excuse me? We are not rowdy and simply enjoying a nice, quiet fire. I will never return to this site again.” I have to admit, I was none-too-impressed with their lack of courtesy, both with their dealings with the fire and the next morning when they woke us up (at 10 am, mind you) to tell us to leave.  I wasn’t told the check-out time, but 10:00 am seems quite early.  Not to mention, I’ve never actually been told to leave, ever.  With all the camping we do, I was disappointed with this site for its lack of courtesy and fore-warning.  I would think that if they are so strict with fire-extinguish and check-out times, they would be certain to notify their visitors upon check-in.  I just think they have the wrong motivations for running a campground.  It is certainly not for the people that enjoy it.

After check-out, we dropped our camping gear off at our storage locker before picking up a few things at the grocery store.  That afternoon, we spent a few hours tidying our place that had been severely neglected since leaving for Hawaii.  It felt great to have it all clean and organized again.  To enjoy its tidiness, we decided to have a couple of friends over for dinner.  We chilled a couple of bottles of Gewurtztraminer to pair with savoury Dungeness Crab and spinach salad, sprinkled with a mandarin orange/honey/olive oil dressing, topped with soft goat cheese and figs, finished off with an Amaretto Sponge Cake and Vanilla Mango icecream.  Delicious!  It was a fine finish to the end of a busy few days.  Now to get back on track with our physical activity.