30/8 The great double gulp disaster

Thursday 30^th – The Great Double Gulp Disaster

Or not – we didn’t feel like going out and just checked the emails on the hostel computer (nobody cares about either of us) and had an early night instead. But the photos are all ready to go later today. We have today in Vancouver then we board the Radiance of the Seas (4.5*) tomorrow for 3 consecutive cruises totalling 24 days that will take us to Alaska and back via the Inside Passage, then to Hawaii. In fact the boat continues to Seed-a-knee but we will be jumping off to spend a week on Waikiki beach and then come home via Asia.

We went to a coffee shop nearby and uploaded the blog.  We walked to China Town, nothing flash there.   Continued on to False Creek and walked the cycle/pedestrian track to Granville Island.  Quite a lively place with kiddies water park and play centre.  Lots of arts and craft shops and the big draw is the Food Market.  Quite frankly, we have seen better and this one was very touristy and overpriced.  We managed to find the way onto the bridge that was way overhead and crossed back to the downtown side of False Creek and walked back to the hotel.

Science centre with stadium in background - football I think

These sparrows were put in place for the 2010 Winter Olympics

Snazzy bridge

Cool fun

Later we walked to the Davie Street area which has a lively gay community. On the way we perpetrated The Great Double Gulp Disaster. There are Seven Eleven stores (guess what time they open??) all over Vancouver – typical convenience stores. We were really thirsty from our first walk and went in for a drink. We were looking at Coke Zeroes but then suddenly realised that the Great Double Gulp (only 32 oz – about a litre) was cheaper. There was some confusion over choosing the right cup to fill because the Double Gulp post-mix is on special for 99c but the cups were labelled Super Slurps. Anyway I hurried up to the checkout where J was in line.

Malfortunately, the Super Slurp cup has a double tapered bottom (to make it look taller than it is) and when I pushed the cup forward onto the counter, the bottom bit caught the edge and flipped forwards. This caused the top to fall off and the whole thing flooded forwards all over the counter.

Somehow, very little of it fell on the floor – but that was because most of it was soaking into the credit card reader and the other electrical gadgets on the counter, and the wires that connect them all. The Indian owner seemed stunned and didn’t move for the longest time. Perhaps he had never seen a Super Double Gulp poured all over the electronics before?

We all set to mopping and sopping and eventually got most of it off the counter. I headed off and filled another one. The poor man’s eyes were as wide as dinner plates as I approached the counter and his feeling of Horror was palpable. This time I managed to keep it all upright and we made our way safely out onto the street.

The Great Canadian Double Gulper

We made a point of walking up the pedestrian mall, but it turned out to be a normal street with wider than usual pavements either side. Strange interpretation of “Mall”.  Now ‘ time to go out and get this blog up and try again to pay the Council rates by Skyp. We got online this morning but the Commonwealth would not process the payment. Apparently their mainframes are busy at midnight Aus time.