WE ARE IN VANCOUVER....Again

Caught a taxi from the Montreal Sheraton Le Centre to the Montreal-Peirre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.  Airport code is YUL.

• This you probably did not know, but the major Canadian airports also start with Y.
• When the International Air Transport Association shifted to 3-letter codes, most of airports in this country kept their original identifiers, and simply prefixed them with Y.
• Thus, Vancouver is YVR and Toronto is YYZ.

Qualified for Air Canada's airport lounge, for they are part of Star Alliance, and I have a lifetime pass.  Very well appointed club:

From the left:

• Had a Cucumber Gin Caesar or Cucumber Red Snapper.  Replaced the tomato juice with clamato, and vodka with cucumber gin.  
• Aberfeldy scotch on ice,
• Molson and Blue Moon beers.  Molson, formerly a Canadian beer, is now called the Molson Coors Beverage Company, #5 in the world, with key brands, Molson, Coors, Carling, Miller and Blue Moon.  Molson and Coors merged in 2005.

The cuisine was excellent, with a salad, aglio olio pasta and Italian Wedding Soup.

, 

We took off almost an hour late.

Except for that tardiness everything else went well. Nuts and Johnny Walker Black.

Chicken teriyaki meal.

I started watching A Decent Man, a 2025 series from Poland.  Six episodes.  As I wouldn't be able to see the entire production, I only saw the first.  I can go to Max at home for the rest.  Very well made series.

I then went on to a Japanese film, Tokyo Taxi.  Like my first feature, Rotten Tomatoes did not yet rate either one.  But I enjoyed this one, too.  An expected, but nevertheless comforting, ending.  Noted that the main actress was Chieko Baisho.  

• I remember her, for I'm not quite a year older.  That photo to the right is Chieko in 1962.
• She made more than a 100 films.
• She was the sister of Tora-san, a Japanese series that had 50 films, with Atsumi Kiyoshi as Tora.  Holds the Guinness World Record for that feat.

Made it to Vancouver, 

 No freeway.  While only 9 miles away, the ride to our hotel during the afternoon rush was almost painful.  Took a couple of photos from the cab,

That soccer ball looked different than the one we saw when we were in Vancouver earlier this year.  They transformed the geodesic dome at Science World into a 17-story replica of the FIFA World Cup ball.  Vancouver hosted 7 matches.

At the JW Marriott Parq, we were given a beautiful suite.  One of our views.

Hotel welcomed me with a Birthday gift.

The Executive Club was similar to the one in the Montreal Sheraton,  Maybe posher, but drinks were similarly ridiculously expensive.  Same type of appetizers, but a lot more veggies.

The hotel opened in 2017 as part of the Parq Casino entertainment complex.

• Has sister boutique hotel, the DOUGLAS, an Autograph Collection.

• 
  Located next to BC Place Stadium of the BC Lions Canadian Football League and Vancouver Whitecaps of Major League Soccer, and Rogers Arena, where the Vancouver Canucks of the NHL play,
• Parq Casino.
• Is the only casino in Vancouver.
• Became the largest privately-funded development in British Columbia at $640 million.
• Casino supposedly lost at least a billion dollars when the COVID-Pandemic came, and the casino was locked.
• Casino has 75 game tables, a sports book room and 900 slot machines. Open 24/7.
• Canada has more than a hundred licensed casinos.  
• Casino de Montreal has more than 3000 slot machines, but the Great Canadian Casino Resort in Toronto has more than 4800.  The most in Las Vegas is the Red Rock Casino in Summerlin with 2860.

• 
  If you thought a Macau casino (above) had the most electronic games in the world, you would be wrong.  The Venetian Macao, at 6,000 is #2.  #1?  WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma is #1 with more than 10,000.  Has town population of roughly 400,  Is roughly an hour north of Dallas.  Texas bans casino gambling.

About those three ocean storms in the vicinity of Hawaii:

• Hurricane Lowell was only a tropical storm yesterday, but dramatically strengthened up to 145 MPH today:

Hurricane Lowell has doubled in strength over the last 24 hours and is poised to begin moving south of the Hawaiian islands on Wednesday.

At 11 p.m., Lowell had maximum sustained winds of 145 mph and higher gusts, was centered about 470 miles south-southeast of Hilo and moving west at 12 mph, according to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. Hurricane-force winds extend up to 35 miles from the center and tropical storm-force winds extend 90 miles out.

Just 24 hours earlier, Lowell was a strong tropical storm with 70 mph sustained winds.

The storm is expected to remain a Category 4 major hurricane and continue moving west as it passes about 300 miles or more south of Hawaii Wednesday through Friday.

“A westward motion is anticipated during the next several days due to a mid-level ridge over the Central Pacific,” forecasters said. By Sunday, when the storm is far southwest of Kauai, “an upper-level trough is expected to weaken the ridge, causing Lowell to slow down and take a more northward turn, though there is considerable uncertainty on how sharp that turn might be.”

That caution is worrisome, for just a little earlier right turn north, and Lowell can become a Category 5 through Kauai or Oahu, as did Iniki, which caused severe damage to Kauai in 1992.

• Also at Category 4, equally strong hurricane Karina at 145 MPH.  We board the the Silver Whisper tomorrow, and will sail in that general direction from Vancouver to Hawaii.

In the East Pacific, Karina is also a Category 4 hurricane with 145 mph maximum sustained winds, according to the National Hurricane Center. At 11 p.m., Karina was about 1,500 miles east-southeast of Hilo, moving west at 12 mph toward the Central Pacific.

Unlike Lowell, Karina is expected to start weakening Thursday over the open ocean. The National Hurricane Center in Miami predicts it will be a tropical storm by Sunday, hundreds of miles northeast of Hilo and moving northwest away from the islands.

• 
  Finally, Tropical Storm Marie has formed, will become a hurricane today and move west away from Mexico.

Closer to Mexico, Tropical Storm Marie was forecast to become a hurricane Wednesday. At 11 p.m., Marie had maximum sustained winds of 65 mph and was moving northwest, away from the Mexican coast, at 1o mph. A turn toward the west-northwest, farther from land, is expected later Wednesday and continue through Friday.

In case you didn't know, from Google AI:

Why the Pacific Becomes Active

Warmer Water: El Niño brings warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures to the central and eastern tropical Pacific, which fuels more intense tropical storms and hurricanes. [1, 2]
Low Wind Shear: Upper-level wind shear drops in the Pacific. This calm upper atmosphere allows storms to maintain a steady vertical structure and exhaust heat effectively. [1, 2, 3]

Why the Atlantic and Gulf Are Suppressed

Strong Wind Shear: Rising air over the warm equatorial Pacific alters global atmospheric circulation, producing sinking air and powerful upper-level winds across the tropical Atlantic. [1]
Tear-Apart Effect: These fast upper-level winds create strong vertical wind shear that rips developing thunderstorms apart before they can organize into hurricanes. [1, 2, 3]
Global Monitoring: You can learn more about these shifts through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. [1]

-

MY LIFE: Part 3h--Incredible Journeys during Retirement...Episode Alpha--2005 La Reunion, Mauritius and Norway

 We are just about to leave the Montreal Sheraton for the airport.  Next stop?  Vancouver.

I had an unexpectedly great lunch yesterday in Montreal.  First, thanks to Olivia, Montreal Sheraton Le Centre's VIP Services Manager, who provided a birthday gift.  That's a bottle of Sangiovese and pastries below, which were a total surprise and most thoughtful gift.  Olivia greeted us at the lounge with a big smile and somehow knew it was my birthday.  She is a huge asset to this hotel for treating her VIP Bonvoe customers with  a very special touch.

Looking down from the above view, you can see Stanley Street.  Around the mid-point on the left side are our previous Chinese, Korean and Japanese restaurants.  Walking up the street, a right turn will lead you to Reubens.

Ordered a Reuben's original:  smoked meats on rye bread, swiss cheese, sauerkraut and Russian tangy dressing.  With the birthday gift wine, plus a bottle of beer, had my best lunch in Montreal.

On to my topic of the day.  If you regularly visit this blog site, you are aware that I have continued through a dozen or so episodes on My Life, which traced through the first two 27-year periods, education, then work.  I am in the next to final 27-year phase, retirement.  My most recent chapter was posted on August 18, 3g:  Pearl's Ashes--Machu Picchu.  I say "next to last" because the final 27-year phase is sort of post-retirement, and if I live till the end, I will be 113 years old, not even close to the oldest person who ever lived.  Jeanne Calment of France passed away in 1997 at the age of 122 years and 164 days. (By the way, if you're doing the math, My Life actually began at the age of 5.)

Depends on how involved I get, Part 3h could itself have several chapters, for these incredible journeys might well have a life of their own.  For example, here is a quote of one I took in 2005 when I was in my fifth year of retirement:

The Year 2005 was a particularly memorable one for me, highlighted by a trip to Europe and the Indian Ocean.  I was already retired, but as no one wanted to represent Hawaii on a paid trip to La Reunion, which is located just east of Madagascar, I went.  One of 18 French regions, with a population approaching 900,000 and land area about equal to Maui and Molokai combined.

I flew from Honolulu to Los Angeles to Paris to Saint Denis.  Google says 10,287 miles, but that is going west from Honolulu.  So I went to Google and added up the flights, giving me 11,458.  It took forever and I caught a cold.  When I landed it was raining...and I learned there was a Chikungunya outbreak.  No kidding.  Read that article.  This virus eventually infected about a quarter of the population.  Like COVID-19 there was no vaccine.  The symptoms are like dengue fever, but a lot worse, for you can get crippled.

The first day was as boring as a conference could get.  The rooms foreigners occupied were, and I'm being nice, barely tolerable.  There were flying cockroaches, and worse, mosquitos, which transmitted the virus.  Then came the day for what they said was a simple hike to a solar facility up in the mountains.  So I showed up with the same shoes I wore coming over from Hawaii, and everyone else had those hiking boots, some with a walking stick.  The organizers gave us a loaf of bread, a gallon of water and some cheese.  That was all we would be eating/drinking for this overnight (we were to sleep on the floor of the facility) tour.

I coughed as badly as I could and bowed out.  I asked if someone could drive me to Hotel Bellepierre up on the top of the hill (where there were no mosquitos).  Best decision I made in my life, for this was a resort with a fabulous view and no mosquitos.  The food was terrific, and I ended up staying there until the end.

The last day of the sessions I made an impassioned plea for cooperation, touting the Blue Revolution.  The conference organizers loved the concept, so they later sent to Hawaii a team to explore what we were doing.   Of all the coincidences (the Gould family above), we had lunch at Orchids, next to House Without a Key, where we took this photo with Diamond Head.

A group from Mauritius liked what I said and asked if I could come over to their island, which was around 145 miles away, to give a talk on the Blue Revolution.  I did, and the days I spent on their island were even better than my hideaway on Reunion.  The resort I was sent to was like Mauna Kea Beach Hotel with a better buffet, with free champagne for breakfast.  Mauritius joined the Blue Revolution.

I might add that drugs, racial unrest and unemployment were also problems on Reunion.  French colonies just do not do well.  Mauritius was a British colony, and there was ethnic harmony here.  Lee Kuan Yew came here to learn how to establish a similar society for Singapore.

 This was also a prosperous community.  One misfortune is that this was where the Dodo bird became extinct in 1662.

The leader of the group was president of Air Mauritius, and he arranged for me to fly back to Paris in first class:

The flight from Mauritius to Paris was, courtesy of Arjoon Suddhoo, in First Class, and wonderful. However, I soon noted that virtually every notable location we flew over started with an M: Mauritius, Madagascar, Mombasa, Mogadishu, Misratah, Mediterranean Sea (and several other seas, which, when you approach Italy, become Mer, for Sea), between Marseille and Monaco, at which point I began to get worried. I still had that M Curse in my mind. Clearly, this was a clue that the plane would be hijacked and flown to Munich, or, more probably, Moscow. However, as we approached Paris, riots were still going on, and the city was, indeed, burning. The civil unrest was worrisome, so I immediately transferred planes at Charles De Gaulle for Oslo.

Norway was cold, but relaxing.  When you saw a leaf rolling on the pavement, it was a leaf, not a cockroach, like on Reunion.  Reminded me of my escape from Papua Guinea to Brisbane.  I then flew to Bergen where the conferees said:

• Whereas, fishing fleets need to travel greater distances for diminishing catches. 
• Whereas, some aquacultured products may suffer from the concentration of chemical toxins or drugs, and may be affected by diseases. 

• Whereas, the consumption of seafood is increasing relative to beef, chicken and pork, being stimulated by the growing human population and recognized nutritional benefits of bioproducts from the sea. 
• Whereas, the seafood industry faces increasing challenges posed by fish stock depletion worldwide and international fishing regulations. 
• Whereas......it goes on and on to produce the Bergen Declaration for Next Generation Fisheries.

I think I then went home to Honolulu.  Round trip distance:  28,115 miles.

Which led to another quote:

I'm now back home and this is also the 14th day since I left Reunion, so I, apparently, escaped the curse of Chikungunya. This is also my final trip anywhere. Almost for sure. 

Aloha. 

Pat 

But, that was in 2005. In 2006, the staff of President Verges volunteered to look closer at the Free Hydrogen Economy. Let’s see, now. They are about the same size and population as Oahu. Tourism is important; the sudden calamity of Chikungunya has left them in a pickle. They have a dying sugar industry and their mother country wants to convert them into a coal economy. They just might be at that critical stage to enter doomsday, which is almost a necessary requirement for human societies to transcend normality. If France can be convinced to pick a year, say, 2020, for good vision, when renewable hydrogen is suddenly made free, Reunion might have as good a chance as any to tap her nation’s deep pockets to get a jump on what might be the only solution for humanity, too.  Stay tuned. Reunion Island might just someday make my top place to live in my update of Simple Solutions, Book 2.

That Free Hydrogen Economy I mentioned above later became one of my articles for The Huffington Post.  Here is part 3 of a 4 episode series in HuffPo.

I certainly don't want to return to La Reunion, but have long been planning a return to Mauritius.  To quote:

• 
  
  I had Mauritius as a stop on my Winter 2025 trip, getting there on a cruise from Doha, Qatar.  
• Unfortunately, it is too dangerous to get to Mauritius via Qatar, or any port in the Middle East.

• 
  There is a new cruise terminal that became operational in Port Louis, Mauritius, and cruise lines go there, including the ship we just sailed on, the AZAMARA  JOURNEY.
• These are:
• 
  Regent Seven Seas Cruises: Offers luxury sailings from Singapore to Port Louis, Mauritius [1, 2]:  
  • Departure Date: March 28, 2028
  • Duration: 17 nights
  • Route: Singapore to Port Louis, Mauritius
  • Ship: Seven Seas Mariner
  • Key Stops: Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, the Seychelles, and Madagascar [1, 2]
• Azamara: Operates itineraries like the 17-night Azamara Onward Singapore to Mauritius voyage, stopping in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India, and the Maldives before reaching Mauritius. [1, 2]
• Other Lines: Cruise lines like Norwegian Cruise Line and TUI Cruises also feature occasional repositioning or grand Indian Ocean voyages departing Singapore and visiting Mauritius. [1, 2]
We are now on our way to Vancouver.

-