Monday, April 4, 2011

603 Kingsway, Vancouver


Kingsway sounds like a very regal street. It dashes diagonally through the strict grid system of Vancouver heading southeast of historical Gastown towards Burnaby. It has seen a lot over the years but nothing close to royalty in recent decades. It has many ethnic eateries, garages, car lots and many Vietnamese Pho restaurants, some of which are actually private clubs with nicotine stained walls where gambling and after-hours affairs take place.

And well, this is the street Stephan and I chose to open our baby, Alibaba. In fact, we are turning one of these Vietnamese "restaurants" and the print shop next door into something more enjoyable for the ever-changing neighbourhood. There will be a yoga studio on one side and a restaurant on the other. They will work together and be a place to indulge in holistic therapies such as yoga, food, wine and conversation. It's been 6 months in the dreaming and it's at a very real stage. We have a vacant building, design drawings, and a team in the making. Tomorrow I'm scraping the letters off the windows, so I thought I would say goodbye to the old businesses with a few photos.
















the old Pho restaurant

















restaurant back door
















front of the printing shop which is becoming a yoga studio

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Like a water flea


I heard that in Chinese medicine the belief is that people are born with a certain number of heartbeats in a lifetime. So energy is not made, but spent. Here is a nice quote bringing that idea into modern day. 

"The wish to live as intensely as possible has subjected humans to the same dilemma as the water flea, which lives 108 days at 8 degrees Centigrade, but only twenty-six days at 28 degrees, when its heart beats 15 million times in all. Technology has been a rapid heartbeat, compressing housework, travel, entertainment, squeezing more and more into the allotted span. Nobody expected that it would create the feeling that life moves too fast." - Theodore Zeldin



Saturday, February 19, 2011

Life These Days

Nostalgia, the simple life, heritage, authenticity and ideas about the past seem to be the innovative ideas these days. Reality tv wasn't real enough,  and now the quest for all things "real" has begun. From holistic medicine to backyard chicken coops, to  home cooking and family values. The western world seems to be looking for roots.

All of a sudden I'm seeing the value in a baker pounding dough day in, day out. I feel like our society has become so evolved - that there's nothing real to do anymore.  I for one have had me mind in an international, cross industry, innovation state of mind. What about the planets, the dinosaurs, the Mayans, and the trees and the plants that used to live where I'm standing?  I can only speak for myself, but they are all things I learned about in elementary school and haven 't put much thought towards since.

 What if doing less, helps more? Maybe moving slower, producing less, making less money, enjoying the moment and consuming less could actually bring more satisfaction in my life and also be better for humanity? hmm.