Fancy about town

It sure comes in handy having a camera in the cellphone, because I'd lose so many moments worth wondering about otherwise! While stuff like my subjects below may not interest any or all, there's a certain curiousity at the human mind that I find wonderfully underrated, and I'm always delighted to see something that makes me raise an eyebrow and wonder at the quirks of humanity! For Instance...

Rod and I were out walking at Jericho Beach back in May, and we came across this sad little sight. Shoes, left alone. We speculated that perhaps they belonged to a lady further down the beach from us, or the lady taking pictures in the grass park area, and continued on down the beach towards Brock House. About 45 minutes later, we walked back the way we came, and not a soul was in sight to claim the wayward little shoes. I got to wondering how it was that someone would just forget something like shoes. We can only wear one pair at a time, you'd think you'd notice that you walked all the way home or all the way back to your car without your shoes on. So I can only speculate that perhaps these shoes were abandoned in favour of some newer pair...oh what a callous speculation! Poor little shoes.

Back in April, the SFU Burnaby Campus was awash in the business of finals, and I was treated to the sight of the final projects for visual arts classes all over the place. The tiles of the Convocation Mall turned into Scrabble boards, statutes, installations...and tents in the trees of the Academic Quadrangle? My first thought was, umm...those branches wouldn't support the weight of the idiot camping out up there, which shows how woefully ignorant I am about conceptual art, because it took me about a full minute to understand and connect it to the rest of the curious sights around campus. Then I wondered whether the tent was sent up and hoisted up, or whether it was set up while off the ground...How would I do it?

Springfield, USA? No, this is Coquitlam, BC. If you ever wondered about this, well...so am I. Part of the promotion for The Simpsons Movie in late July is a cross-promotion with 7-11, and 12 of them in North America were transformed into Kwik-E-Marts, and the only one in Canada is in my backyard. I hadn't really planned on going out there, but Jeevan is a big fan, so I drove us out there and acted as his official photographer :) While at it, I snapped a couple of shots with my cameraphone, just so I could say I took part in the experience. Later in the day, Jeevan treated me to a showing of The Transformers, so all in all, it was a very commercial day :)

And finally...my favourite shot...

One fine afternoon in June, I boarded the 144 bus at the SFU Burnaby bus loop, bound for Metrotown. I almost always ride at the back of the bus where I can watch the world buzz passed the bus. On this particular day, I say enjoying the sunshine through the window, as I always do, but something that day told me to look up, and I'm so happy that I did, because this ugly little face greeted me, and I got a good laugh. I wonder who put that sticker there, and I wonder why. Mostly, I wonder if they miss not having it around, or if it's one of dozens of copies. Either way, he was a bright spot on an already bright day. I wonder if I'll ever get to see him again, if he's been removed, if he's floating about the city still.