It's the Little Differences

When living in a new city, one must be prepared for the inevitable kooky little differences that make daily life odd, yet strangely refreshing. One particularly delightful difference is that smoking is banned in bars and clubs here, which makes going out in Vancouver pretty heavenly for a non-smoker like me. No stinging eyes, no stinky clothes and no drunken idiots staggering into me and burning me with cigarettes. There are even happy little smokers' clubs outside too, lighting up and giggling about cancer or something. Whoops, maybe that was a little harsh.

We went out to one such clean-aired bar on friday night, and had an excellent time chatting with some friends and grooving to the live band. The band were great, belting out lots of James Brown covers and other such funk, and got the whole place jumping. Canadians are hugely warm and hospitable to new folk too, so we had no trouble making new friends during the evening and sharing many hearty laughs about Americans. Good times.