It’s good to spend some time in the city to see the both advantages and disadvantages of life on Hornby. I feel like I have come back into civilization. I stayed at the Ponderosa suites at UBC which was a great choice. The suites are brand new, with cable tv and free fast Wi-Fi access…. which is so much better than Hornby. Prices ranges from $186-$197 per night and parking for 7 days is $55 for a total of $ 843 for a 4 day stay. The suites are a 10 min walk to the Museum of Anthropology, the Chan Center and 2 art galleries. There are restaurants and Starbucks within a 10 min walk. The parkade is across the street. This building is not airconditioned, but it does have windows that open and a fan. If I was coming in the summer I would pick the other building that is airconditioned but a little more expensive.

UBC has been undergoing a lot of development over the past few years and now has a community village with lots of brand-new rental housing built and under construction, surrounding a small village style shopping area including one supermarket that was quite crowded last night. I kept bumping into people. The aisles are narrower than usual. UBC also has a brand new aquatic and fitness center with a daily pass available for $12. There are bikes to rent/share all around the campus and it is easy cycling. There is also a community center with language classes, music lessons, yoga etc. There is a puppetry exhibit at the MOA what I would love to see on behalf of my puppeteer friend on Hornby. The Georgia Strait is the best site to find out what is going on in Vancouver.

I was stuck that everything is paved and handicapped accessible compared to Hornby. If one was to live in Vancouver, UBC might be an option if you don’t care about spending time downtown.. and who does? UBC is a pretty self-contained neighbourhood. There are buses to the rest of Vancouver but not an express bus. It’s a long bus trip downtown. The skytrain cannot be built soon enough. All that student time spent on buses!!!! The nearest gas station is a few miles away. There are not many older people in the UBC neighbourhood. Everyone is young and fit. The UBC hospital has an urgent care center open 7 days a week from 8:00 am – 10:00 pm.

I was struck by how much foot and bike traffic there is everywhere. You have to drive slowly and pay attention to cyclists and pedestrians everywhere. There have been a lot of changes in the lane markings, including bike lanes. It was a bit confusing finding the correct lanes… got honked at a few times! Download the Honk app for parking at UBC and Pay-by-Phone for city parking.

The thing that blew me away was the new Polygon high rise development called Cedar just outside of the UBC gates. Construction does not appear to have started but it looked like the site will be huge judging from the signs around the site. A one bedroom homes starts at $778,800. Two bedroom residences are priced from $938,800. The pictures suggest about 15 floors. It almost looks like a site for a whole new village.

I had a new adventure by attending my first rock concert. The line-up at BC Place for the Paul McCartney concert was like a tsunami but it moved quickly. I found the acoustics were pretty bad and the strobe lights prompted me to put on my sunglasses which helped. I guess it’s not about the quality of the music. I wish I had seen the Beatles in a low tech venue. The food choices at BC Place are terrible…burgers, fries, deep fried chicken and beer. I opted for the chicken but I should have opted for the beer. There was a constant flow of people in and out of seats during the concert as people either needed to tank up on beer or relieve the beer flow. The bus on the way home had a party atmosphere as everyone on the bus had been drinking and kept urging the bus driver to load more people!!!