Friday, May 28, 2010

Under the Vancouver Sky : Skywatch Friday ~ May 28, 2010

[Please click on photos to enlarge].



For more sky photos from around the world, click here.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Bananas Anyone? How about Banana Bread?

I always have bananas on hand and though I try to buy only a few at a time it seems I overbuy and the bananas are ripe before I have eaten them. Half of the time when I shop, the bananas on offer are already over ripe or I would purchase them slightly green and let them ripen on the counter.

When I have over ripe bananas I put them in a fruit smoothie (more on this another day) or I make some banana bread though I can't say I've baked any for some time. Yesterday I had a hankering for some banana bread and didn't want to purchase any while I was out for coffee with a friend. I meant to bake the banana bread last night but was a little too tired so today (Thursday) was the day.

Banana Bread Recipe



Ingredients

  • 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
  • 1 chopped and mashed apple (i only used 3 bananas so I added a Fuji apple)
  • 1/3 cup melted butter
  • 1 cup sugar (I reduced mine to 3/4 cup and it was still a bit too sweet)
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Method

Mash the bananas and then in a large bowl add the melted butter into the mashed bananas. Next add the sugar, egg, and vanilla into the bowl and mix. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last and mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

This recipe was found here . It was my first time trying this recipe and it was very simple to make as well as quite tasty. I modified the recipe with the addition of the apple as I also had some apples that were going brown. I reduced the sugar by 1/4 cup and I think it could easily be reduced by another quarter cup if you don't like things too sweet.


For your convenience, I have now added a recipe converter to the side bar (on right hand side of your screen). Enjoy!

Have Passport, Will Travel

Well it's that time of the year to dream of travel plans.  Before I can do anything concrete I need to renew my passport. I got my last passport in November 2005 but they are only good for 5 years. Actually it works out to 4 1/2 years since you must have a valid passport with at least 6 months left on it before you can travel. Mine will expire in about 6 months so it must be renewed.

Passport applications and renewals are done at the Passport Canada Office at the Sinclair Centre in downtown Vancouver (corner of Hastings and Granville).  That is where I spent my time Tuesday. I had to wait until Tuesday since the Monday is the annual statutory holiday, Queen Victoria Day in honour of Queen Victoria.

Photograph of Queen Victoria by Alexander Bassano, 1887.

On my way to the passport office I caught a glimpse of this demonstration. I also decided to stop off at the Dressew, a Vancouver institution; where I bought skeins and skeins of wool and cotton yarn to make dishcloths and try my hand at a child's sweater. See  more about my knitting adventure here and here.

I finally made it to this place.



The passport office is on the second floor. There were a lot of people in there but the line up moved fairly quickly. I waited in one line for an agent to review my documents and give me a number which would be called when another agent would take my money and give me instructions.

Altogether I was in and out of the office within a half hour. It cost me $87 Canadian. Twenty of this is for the processing fee which includes sending my passport to me by registered mail (requiring adult signature for delivery acceptance).  It is the same price for an original application or a renewal application. I was told to expect my passport around June 8, 2010.  If I needed it quicker, I would pay an additional $20 and be able to pick it up at the same office on the third day after drop off.

This got me to wondering how much it costs in your country for a passport (original or renewal) and how long it takes to process. I'd love to hear from you!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Demonstrators Gather at Carnegie Center ~ Wordless Wednesday, May 26, 2010

 
Click here for more Wordless Wednesday.

Update May 26, 2010 - This update was posted due to the great interest in the subject matters of the demonstration. I am not 100 percent sure about the demonstration but I believe it was organized in protest of the closure of a health centre located next door. The building where the people are gathering is a community centre which provides recreation and other programs for the very dispossessed people living in the area. These people are the  poorest of the poor in Canada and many of them are on drugs and have health issues such as HIV.

The regional health authority removed funding for the health centre recently because it said that the same services were being provided at another location in the neighbourhood. The residents disagree with this assessment and so took to the streets. This is only one of a series of demonstrations on this matter. When I passed through the area on the transit bus the crowd was just getting organized.

Thank you to  my readers for your keen interest in these photos.

Monday, May 24, 2010

My World Tuesday - May 25, 2010


I was on a walk earlier this week and wanted to share some photos of the houses in the area. If you look at the map below, the area in which I took these photos is represented by the purple house icon.

Many of my blog readers are from Australia and Africa and are curious to know how we live in Canada and what the houses, shops and tourist sites look like. This post will give one little peek into some of the housing here though there are many other neighbourhoods with many styles of houses and apartments.  This particular neighbourhood is a well established one and the costs of a detached home in the area would run upwards of $1 million Canadian dollars. Perhaps they even cost more than that as a fabulous two bedroom condominium here can now cost over a million dollars at the higher end of things. That is a lot of money but these are by no means the most expensive properties in the city.

You can check out the real estate market and see what is available in different parts of the city at this site used by realtors.  Click here.
Enjoy the tour.

















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A Friend in Need

Hello friends and fellow bloggers, How are you all doing? It's been a hectic time of late in my life but things are getting done. Nothin...