Thursday 30th. "Parkgate, The Village"

AM
Come out of our road, turn left and there, situated at the bottom of Mount Seymour is Parkgate Village. On the surface it doesn’t look much but dig a little deeper and what a cornucopia of facilities – everything a family needs – a big Safeway with a good selection of foods – Post Office – Chemist – Doctors – Bank – Insurance Broker –as it turns out not one, but two bike shops, a Greek taverna and oh yes a Starbucks. But the real find is the library and community centre. So armed with our passports and BC Hydro bill, we head off en famile to join the library. This new two story building is beautifully kept, with friendly and helpful staff, a great selection of books for everyone – internet and photocopy facilities, DVDs, in fact just about everything a library should offer. So we give the nice lady our documents and five minutes later we all have library cards – ‘Let’s get a DVD’, ok … Ah, we don’t have a TV, never mind, let’s check out the community centre. So, now I’m thinking at best this will be full of old people playing cards – but no – this place has it all – a massive sports hall, an enormous indoor climbing wall, a state of the art gym, a BMX and skate park, a weight room and for the ladies pottery, art classes, crafts, Pilates. Oh yes, and a room full of old people playing cards.

PM
‘The Boys need Bikes’
The troops are revolting, the boys are demanding bikes – you can hardly blame them as we have visited our local bike shops on more than one occasion just to have a poke around. However, a quick scan of Craig’s List (BC equivalent to online Loot) reveals a nice little bike for Tom, so off we all go to down town Vancouver to check out the bike. The nice man shows us his son’s 20” wheel mountain bike, a $50 bill is dually handed over – Bingo, Tom has wheels – hooray. That evening Tom and the local hoods hang out on their bikes with Charlie running behind them dutifully like a loyal man servant, we are not worried as to their where abouts, as we can hear the screech of Tom’s brakes for miles, well what do you expect for $50.
– note to self – must get some tools and WD40 for that bike, and oh yes, must get Charlie a bike too.