2010 Olympics Countdown Timer

The top photos were taken on February 21st. The bottom photo was taken on March 14th. Notice the security guard in the yellow vest. Must be nice to be guarding this installation at 3 in the morning.

At the north courtyard of the Vancouver Art Gallery there are two Olympics countdown timers. The east-facing one shows a countdown with the words "until the opening ceremony of the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games". The west-facing timer shows the message "until the opening ceremony of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games". Based on the countdown numbers I saw, that means the Paralympics will start on March 12th, while the Winter Olympics will start on February 12th.

Until I examined these photos today (March 20th) I had assumed both clocks were identical.

Sayonara to Estella

Friday, March 16: Our MSF team had lunch at Kamei Royale Restaurant. It was Estella's last day at TDCT. The service at the restaurant was a bit chaotic. The difficulty was probably due to the separate dishes that had to be given out at intervals. The meal that I chose started with miso soup, then they gave me a plate of sushi, followed later on by a plate of beef strips and vegetables, and lastly a bowl of udon in broth.

I have a few more photos on my Flickr webpage.

Canstruction at Canada Place

Thursday, March 8th, 2007: I visited the "Canstruction" art exhibit at Canada Place. It was in a hall at the back of the lower parking area. Admission was free, though they did have a donation box at the entrance. This was the 5th annual Canstruction in Vancouver, and this year's theme was "My Favourite Things". There were a few red boxes in the hall where you could put in a vote for your favorite sculpture.

Various teams competed to stack food packages (mostly canned food, but also other types such as cardboard boxes and plastic bags) in artistic ways. At the side of each exhibit was a sign describing the sculpture and listing the names of the creators. Some of them already had prize-ribbons awarded to them. This Canada flag and beaver was entitled "As CANadian as it Gets" (it used 9340 cans and was given the award of "Structural Ingenuity"):


Here I am standing in front of "CANana Split" (it used 5200 food items, and won the prize of "Best Meal"):

This last one is called "PicniCANtics" (it used 6500 cans and was awarded "Jurors' Favorite"):


I've got some more Canstruction photos on my Flickr website. See the link at the right side of this blog.

Aberdeen Centre

March 3rd, Saturday: I visited Aberdeen Centre in Richmond for the first time. There was a multicultural show going on, performed by various groups from the Richmond school system. I arrived there at 3pm and only caught sight of the Taiko drum group and a highland dance group. The show had started at 11am.
Afterwards, I checked out the Daiso store, which was my main reason for coming out here. They didn't have the type of umbrella I was looking for, so I didn't buy anything. I took enough photos to make this trip worth my while anyway.