Day 4: Keep looking - you never know what you'll find

Keep trying and something will work out. Well it did. We originally had plans for a walk on the beach, but we ended up in Yaletown sampling the local hospitality. It had been a dull day, and I didn't have much hope for anything grand photo-wise. On exiting the Canada Line station near the Roundhouse, I spotted an interesting sculpture which looked like it would be my photo for the day. I took a couple, thinking that would be enough, and we continued on our way to the pub. We went into the New Oxford which claims to be a modernized version of a traditional British pub.

Inside, the decor was dark oak panelling with larger-than-life portrait photos of various Oxford University alumni. Tony Blair greeted us at the door, while Michael Palin and others kept us company where we sat. But the crowning glory, much to our amusement, was the huge portrait of Margaret Thatcher which dominated the wall next to our table. In keeping with being in a pub, the Iron Lady was sipping a glass of beer. However, she was not drinking from a traditional British pint glass - oh no - but from a European or Belgian-style glass. Oh, the irony! Maggie Thatcher drinking from the cup of Europe. Ha ha ha.

Well, the place was alright I suppose. Attempts to make drinking establishments look like "traditional" pubs almost always fail in one way or another and they invariably end up looking cheesy. (Having said that, there's many a British pub with plain awful interior decor.) Oh, I got that wrong: apparently the New Oxford is classed as a restaurant, not a pub. Huh? Make up your mind, folks. And how on earth can you justify serving some draught beers in different-sized glasses than others? Just bizarre. The food was good, although I feel they were trying a little too hard to be some combination of trendy/cool or whatever. I suppose that's what Yaletown can be like.

We left the pub and headed up to Granville St to catch a bus home. Along the way we passed a building which stopped us all in our tracks with its attendant gargoyles over a gateway into a courtyard. On closer inspection we noticed that one of the gargoyles was distinctly femininely endowed. How confusing! A gargoyle with a feminine figure, and striking what could be called an alluring pose. Was I supposed to be attracted or repelled? Perhaps if I were a gargoyle I'd feel differently ;-)

And with that, the gargoyle easily won the prize for photo of the day, though I have to say Maggie came a close second (and arguably maintaining the gargoyle theme...).

An "alluring" lady gargoyle