Waiting For The Rugby

This is a really big weekend for rugby, with the World Cup quarter-finals being played in New Zealand. You probably have to be into rugby to fully comprehend why this is the biggest weekend for the sport for the next four years — but trust me, it is.

It will certainly be another four years at least before we see four such important games over two days with well-matched and powerful international teams, and where New Zealand’s romp over Argentina is the only certain result of the four.

The Northern hemisphere goes first (on Friday night here in Vancouver): Ireland takes on Wales, and then England face France. My guess is that Wales and England will win out.  The Southern hemisphere play their games on Saturday night, with South Africa versus Australia followed by New Zealand against Argentina.  My prediction is that South Africa and New Zealand will be the winners.

If you’ve never seen top-quality rugby, these are four games that should turn you on.  These guys are hard, fast and really good!

Fog At Sunset

“Fog At Sunset”, Steveston.

World Class Library?

The last week or so I have been heads-down doing serious final work on the next book. That means hours and hours spent up in the seventh floor of the VPL Central Library. I love being there, but getting upstairs is becoming a genuine pain.

There are two public elevators serving the seven floors of the library. One of the elevators has been out of service for three weeks — THREE WEEKS!  I was told today that the staff elevator was also broken.  So two out of the three elevators servicing seven floors are not available.

This morning, I waited the usual three or four minutes for the one elevator to get back to the main floor.  It was packed, of course. We stopped at each floor — a milk run! — until we got to the sixth floor at which point the up arrow turned down and we returned to the main floor without visiting the floor I needed.  In the end, it took me nine minutes to get from the main floor to the seventh.

How can anyone think that is acceptable for a major public building in a world-class city like Vancouver?  It is not!  Doesn’t the City have proper maintenance budgets for this?