Yoga bag

This bag hanging from the side of a baby stroller. The wording reads:
"Do Yoga. Jealously works the opposite way you want it to"

Can somebody enlighten me what this means?

Yoga practitioners

We saw this the lineup outside of Lululemon, a shop specializes in Yoga wears, two days after Boxing Day. Can one assume all or most of these people are Yoga practitioners?

On track

A different mall offers a different type of rail train ride.

People mover

The Metrotown added this ride last year. It runs from one end of the mall to the other. It is a major hit with the younger crowd. It is not uncommon to see people waiting in line for the ride.

Foggy

The other morning at about 9:00 AM, it started to fog up. This was taken about half an hour later. I think the red glow is the sun as I was heading east.

Where is Santa?

Where is Santa? Has he left? But wait! His presents ares till unopened. May be he`ll be back later.

Peace on earth!

Merry Christmas and Peace to all!

Christmas Eve

Looking through the window there is a speck if red. Yes, it is Santa sitting in the chair.

Christmas tree

The Christmas trees at International Shopping Mall aka as Tinseltown are much better than a lot of other mall in the Lower Mainland.

Ginger bread house II

A ginger bread display in the window of a bakery on Hastings.

Ginger bread house

Without ginger bread houses Christmas just isn't Christmas.

Letter to Santa

It is getting late. Better hurry if you haven't written your letter to Santa yet!

Tin soldier

Some all-time Christmas favours.

Christmas lights VII

This house has a lot of lights. It is across the street from a school. The camera lens isn't wide enough to encompass the entire display. Lights on both ends are missing. We happened to drive by and was waiting for the traffic light to change.

Christmas lights VI

You can see some of the Christmas lights reflecting off the wet driveway

Christmas lights V

The star on top of the roof really does the trick.

Christmas lights IV

This house uses the primary colour, white. It is very effective due to the brightness. It wouldn`t be half this bright if they had chosen another colour such as blue or green.

Christmas lights III

The lights at this house is very simple, just a string or two across the top with another set outlining the path leading to the house from the street.

Christmas lights II

Another house with mega watts of lights. A friend of ours used to lived next door when this property was owned by somebody else. Actually both houses changed hand during the same year. The previous owner was much more modest when it came to outdoor lights during the holiday season.

Christmas lights

The owner of this house puts on an annual display of lights. In front there is a sign asking for donation to the owner`s favourite charity. I must apology for the noise in the pictures but it part of this camera`s limitations. Actually it turns out a lot better than expected.

Christmas tree

By Madison Centre's main entrance

Christmas tree

I know these aren't in the forms of pine or hemlock but are constructed in such a way that they can't be anything else but Christmas trees.

Christmas tree

Two Christmas trees in the newly expanded food court.

Christmas Tree

One of the smaller Christmas trees they placed all over Brentwood Mall's second level.

Christmas tree

Starting today we'll run a series on Christmas trees. Our first is a Christmas in one of the shop inside Aberdeen Centre.

Aberdeen Centre

This is somewhat disappointing since I was expecting more, much much more. However, this is pretty well the management of this shopping mall is doing for Christmas.

In the air

Wrapped presents suspended from a skylight over an open air stair case.

A closeup view.

Snow and lights

This mall has a simple and effective approach with snowflakes and strings of lights hanging from the second level.

First snow

After forecasting it for at least a week it finally snowed last night, Saturday. Proof again if they are persistent enough eventually they'll get it right. It wasn't heavy, just a dusting but it continued to fall on Sunday.


This was taken about 5 hours later. More than enough had fallen to make a snowman. For the last week-and-a-half they were shooting some movie in the house across the street from this snowman. This is the special event on the snowman's sign.

Hanging basket

A basket with gifts

Smile

Take a close look and you'll see that Santa doesn't looked too happy. Could be a very busy day with many misbehaving children. See the lady standing in front? Initially thought she is one of Santa's helpers but then thought she is the child's mother. Looked again and saw the child is held by a pair of hands belonging to a person off camera whom is more likely the mother. What do you think?

Photos by Santa

Looks like St. Nick is checking out what life is like on the other side of the camera and turned a session of photos with Santa into photos by Santa.

Small car 2

Another day, another spot, another car but same outcome. This SUV is not as big as the minivan of the other day. Nonetheless both spot are clearly marked for small car. May be these drivers have a literacy problem. This driver seems to have a visual problem also, clearly onto the parking space on the right.

Beard Papa's

From the photo you can pretty well guessed that Beard Papa's is in the food business. From what I was told it is very popular in Japan. Early this month they opened an outlet in Richmond. There were reports of lineups snaking around the corner.


To give you an idea of its popularity, they even placed a ceiling on the quantity a customer may purchase. I've seen people buying the maximum and it sure slowed things down.


Now this is not for anybody who is fighting the battle of the bulge. Eating a couple of these is almost as bad as chowing down a Big Mac but much less filling. It represents almost a quarter of my required daily calories. Certainly not something I would see on my regular menu.


This is what it looks like. If you said, "Hey, this is cream puff!" then you are correct. Except it is bigger than your run-of-the-mill cream puffs and baked not fried.

I happened to be in Richmond today and saw not much of a lineup. However, still have to wait 15 minutes which gave me plenty of time to take these photos. The last one was taken at home just before taking my first bite.

Is it worth it? Will I buy it again?

The answers are: no and maybe. My reaction after the first bite was is this all there is to it? Perhaps I was expecting too much because of the hype. In any case the vanilla is too subtle; could be stronger.

by the entrance

Pacific Centre has its Christmas tree in the solarium by the Georgia Street entrance.

Reindeer

In this section of the mall where they have water fountains we fond Red plastic reindeer with lights.

Overhead

The colour scheme at Oakridge Mall is predominately red. I know the traditional Christmas colour is red and green. But the green is conspicuous by its absent. Wonder if management isn't making an all out effort to meet the custom of the growing Chinese population in the area?

Photo with Santa

Another shopping mall, another photos with Santa setup.

This the view from the rear

Small car

Global warming is not going to get better until owners of minivans, such as this one, start to realize a minivan despite the word mini is not a small car.

Geranium

Another sign of global warming? This geranium grows in a pot by our front door. This photo was taken yesterday, November 21. Still has three blossoms when even the leaves should not only wilted and yellow but fallen.

Winter scene

The display is much wider. Too bad the camera doesn't have a wide angle. Earlier in the year this store doubled its size by taking over the adjacent store. Have noticed that its display has become more seasonal in nature.

Poinsettia

Today we continue with our Christmas theme. This is the first poinsettia I've seen this season. By next month they'll be all over. Years ago each year Eaton's would've hundreds by the downtown store's main entrance. On Christmas Eve the entire lot was donated to charity to be given to families.

Aquarium

Initially it was the vivid colours which had drawn my attention. Mine first thought was "what a great idea to have an aquarium in the fish section". Upon closer examination I realized it wasn't an aquarium but a thin screen with a jpg display.

No, we don't buy our seafood from here. Who knows what else is fake in this place.

By the fountain

Christmas decoration over the water fountain and sitting area.