Tuesday 4 October, 2005

Bus driver humour

As heard on the very full number 16 bus this morning as I boarded it on Davie and Granville:

On the last stop before the bridge: "This is the last stop before the bridge! For those of you who just want to get across the bridge, and climbed in like lemmings, there's a number 7 just behind us! It's not too late to change your mind!". And then a lady shouted from the back of the bus: "I've been here since West Georgia! I'm not leaving!" The bus driver continued "If you're not leaving, you have to squeeze in a little! If I can't see the front doors, somebody's gotta get out!" Followed by giggling and lot of shuffling so that everyone fitted in.

And we started across the bridge and the bus driver goes on: "So we continue! We're now crossing the bridge so enjoy the view! It's nice and sunny, and we're now...higher than the rest of the city! Look, there are trees. Aren't they pretty!" (Which are all true, the bridge rises very high while going across False Creek, and the scenery is indeed very pretty.)

And then coming to the first stop after the bridge: "OK, we're here! Seven and a half second before number 7! Isn't that an advantage." And he was starting to tell everyone how to email to Translink when I climbed out on the next stop but I'm afraid I missed the punch line there. I think that's exactly what I needed, a giggle in a cold autumn morning.

Posted by kolibri at 4 October 08:22, 2005
Comments
# 1 - erityistutkija (on October 4, 2005 12:11 PM):

This is a wee bit embarrasing, but as a recent Vancouverite, I'm still trying to find my way around. Staight to the point: do you get salmiakkikoskenkorva [1] or the necessary ingredients anywhere in the city? I've seen a peculiar Finlandia Pharmacy joint along Broadway and Maple but it didn't really seem to be the place to get salmiakki.

I'm invited to host a room at a UBC SJC College room crawl with a Finnish theme, and was kinda thinking about just sitting in utter silence, force-feeding the stuff to residents of potentially 43 different nationalities. Now that's marketing!

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmiakki_Koskenkorva


# 2 - kolibri (on October 4, 2005 12:28 PM):

Ah, a fellow ex-pat, welcome to the beautiful city of Vancouver. Unfortunately I don't know a place where you can get turkinpippuri here - we usually extort our guests from Finland to bring us some. For the quick salmiakki fix, we have a... er, dealer on Granville Island - The Grainry - a small shop owned by an Egyptian couple. They sell little unmarked bags of proper salmiakki, they call it Dutch but it's the real stuff.

As for that Finlandia pharmacy, I have no idea where it gets it's name from... certainly it seems just like a normal health food/pharmacy store to me.

And if you need any help with anything at all, we're happy to help :)


# 3 - erityistutkija (on October 4, 2005 06:48 PM):

Thanks for the information! Yes, I expected it to be somewhat hard to be an addict over here, but I was still secretly hoping to find a well-hidden oasis of the stereotypical dark bread / Fazer chocolate / salmiakki variety. Oh well, as I'm running out of stash, I'm certainly taking a note of your dealer :) Perhaps I'll have to ask the guys back home to send me some ... merchandise as the Wikipedia entry did already attract the interest of some enlightened fellow residents.

It's certainly relieving to know there are some connoisseurs around here, though -- or "old hands" as the hilarious (from a Finnish point of view, that is) proverb goes! :-)


# 4 - kolibri [TypeKey Profile Page] (on October 5, 2005 07:01 AM):

All is not lost, it's still possible to find some home comforts here. We go to the organic store Capers on 1675 Robson Street and they have Panda liquorice (as do most health stores), Wasa and Ryvita näkkileipää, Fazer hapankorppuja and pretty decent rye bread (it's not Reissumies but it's still ok).


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