Canada Day 5: Happy St Patrick's Day!! (a day early)

Yay, no rain today :)

We had a nice lazy morning, and a slow stroll down to Granville and Davie for the St Patrick's Day parade which started at a very civilised 11 o clock.



It was cool, but it did go on and on and on and on - in fact we didn't stick it until the very end. But in our hour or so of parade watching we did see a rather random two people and a banner representing our very own Belfast Giants from the UK Elite hockey league, endless police pipe bands, many many troupes of Irish dancers, various members of the armed forces and emergency services,lots of people on stilts, some mounties who had lost their horses, and a frankly rather drunk looking assortment of people with a Chinese dragon, who I think perhaps had come to the wrong parade :D

More piccies:










After the parade, we went back to the Playdome fun fair for a few hours. Connor was suddenly very brave and wanted to go on all the rides he had written off yesterday as being too fast or too scary, I was proud of him.

His favourite being this one, where you lie down on your front and fly like Superman:



And then as evening fell we hopped back on the trolley bus from yesterday, as our ticket was still valid, and went down to Gastown for some shopping and a meal.



Since we arrived I have been looking for a very special ring, one I knew I had to buy here, that means stupid amounts to me. It had to be gold, not a metal I usually wear, and I wanted it to bear the image of the orca whale.

Well, I finally found it in Hill's in Gastown....and isn't it ironic that I fly half way around the world to buy a piece of Haida jewellery only to buy it from a chap from Gloucester :)


(nasty flash makes it look really brassy in the pic, it isn't really, I'll take some better photos later...)

My beautiful ring was handmade by Carmen (Tlaagjang Nung Kingaass) Goertzen:

Carmen was born in 1963 in Vancouver, a member of the Haida nation, and was educated on Massett, Queen Charlotte Islands. Since the age of eleven, carving has been his main interest, after being taught to make tools by Robert Davidson, an internationally acclaimed Northwest Coast Native artist.

By 1987 Carmen had experienced various mediums including silk-screening, wood, stone and argillite, but he would soon focus solely on precious metals. He now creates wearable masterpieces in gold and silver. His ingenuity, craftsmanship and attention to detail have made him one of the most prominent Northwest coast jewellery artists of our time.

In 1991, he was named hereditary chief of Dadens, Queen Charlotte Islands.


We had our dinner in the Old Spaghetti Factory - delicious food, cool surroundings, tremendous value and very friendly staff.

And it is now past midnight, Canadian time, this is definitely the latest I have managed to stay up here. I had better go get my beauty sleep, because tomorrow is GAME DAY, woooooot!!!!!!