Of course it is. I don't even know where to begin, but there are very few other places I would ever live. Period.

If you have never been here, even for a short visit, than you can not know:
- Running along Spanish banks beach in shorts and t-shirts, while the North Shore mountains show off their fresh snow... where you will ski/board later this evening...unless you decide to drive up to Whistler - arguably one of the BEST places to ride in NA.
- The best Chinese food outside of China and more sushi restaurants than coffee shops - and we LOVE our coffee.
- 1 hr drive to pristine wilderness, where you can get lost and eaten by bears if you're not careful.
- Fly fishing for steelhead (think: rainbow trout the size of big-ass salmon) on the Elaho River in January.
- Great schools.
- Liberal environs, very inclusive of all walks of life.
- Pretty good transit - still needs work in a couple areas.
- Lots of good jobs in all sorts of fields.
- 2010 Winter olympics and paralympics!

Some major CONs:
- Poorest postal code in Canada (DT Eastside)
- Same postal code area has 95% HepC and 75% HIV infection rate
- Same postal code area has 75% intravenous drug use
- Cost of living is insane - An east van small Old-timer bungalow hit $500K today.


Love it. Everytime I come home from a biz trip and I see the NS mountains, I nearly cry.

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

Well, I don't live in Vancouver but I have been there and I would certainly agree that it is a wonderful city and area. I myself prefer warmer weather and no rain (or as little as possible) so I live in San Diego, but whatever strokes you in the right place ;-).

Vancouver strikes me as quite a culturally diverse area and that always seems to make a city well rounded. Just look at SF, LA, or New York. They are all melting pots and have great culturally diverse activities, attractions, and museums.

I'm a former Vancouverite, does my opinion count? Well, I won't wait for an answer.

Vancouver is a great city to live in, during the summer. Winters were really getting to me (not a native Vancouverite, so maybe that was part of it). Cost of living, especially rent/mortgage, is extremely high (Vancouver is something like the third most expensive city in North America). Traffic was steadily getting worse over the years of living there, but I biked, so didn't notice the traffic jams as much. The last two are fallouts from being a desirable place to live.

I do miss being able to literally go mountain biking, kayaking, road biking, skiing, etc. outside of my back door (I lived in North Van.).

Chris

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"I do not hurt on the bike, I punish."

I agree - I've only been there once, but it was great. I really liked Vancouver a lot. Of course the same article has Cleveland and Pittsburg as the most liveable U.S. Cities - give me a break. No offense meant (especially since I grew up in NE Ohio), but most liveable in the U.S. - hardly.

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____________________________________
Fatigue is biochemical, not biomechanical.
- Andrew Coggan, PhD

I hear the smoke is good in BC...

from the article:
"Cleveland and Pittsburgh had the highest American scores"

HUH????

I agree... however I don't know why Victoria isn't up there in the list.. I guess because of the job climate?

I live in Calgary now and wonder why the hell anyone would live here... and yearn to be near Vancouver/Victoria one day... why is Calgary on the list ?? Cuz we have oil? It's a great place to make money (not for me unfortunately) but it's a sucky place to actually live.



Trev

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Trev Williams
http://www.thedoctrine.ca

Agreed a beautiful place. I spent two weeks on the island (Victoria, Tofino, etc) and in Gulf Islands on honeymoon. Returned via ferry to Vancouver and one hour after arriving my jeep was broken into and all valuables (including camera with all pix) taken. It was in some shopping area called gaslight or gaslamp or something like that. For some reason whenever I think of Vancouver I think of that lone bad incident in an otherwise great trip.

Gastown? Yeah, about 1 block away from the DT Eastside (poor drug and diseased postal code area). Sorry to hear it but not surprised.

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

What the article doesn't say (which they wouldn't know) is that Vancouver has one of the Best Triathlon and Running communities in North America. UBC tri in March gets 3,500 or so athletes...tons of events all year long regardless of weather. Sun Run 54,000. North Shore Tri Club, Pacific Spirit, Tri BC and ITU headquarters...Not to mention Victoria is a ferry boat ride with the National Triathlon Training Center...very cool sports town. And other than San Francisco...one of the very best eating towns. It would take 3 or 4 years to get to all the great international eateries.

I am grateful that I had the opportunity to live there for 10 years( '91 - '01). Indeed, it is a very special place. Not sure if it was sustainable for me. Real-estate was insane, but I missed the boat on that. Should have suffered and got in the game in early 90's. The other weird thing I found was no rec-propoerty like we have in Ontario - you know semi wildernss areas that you can drive to a few hours and have a cabin and feel like you are getting away from it all. Gulf Islands are out - over the top $$$$ and transportation hassles with the ferries. I don't consider Whistler - getting away from it - it's busier than Vancouver. Where else - the Cariboo or the Okanagon both 6 hours plus drive.

I did not mind the rain, but people do need to know that it can rain almost every day from early November through until March!! It is kinda neat to know that in January there is this tiny little patch of all of Canada in the Lower Mainland that is not under 2 feet of snow and suffering through -20C weather!

Traffic - all big cities in North America have terrible traffic, but Vancouver - that's just ridiculous. It's a good thing that I walked, biked or bused around when I was there. Driving a car would have sent me around the bend.

Government - Unfortunately during my time there the province was being run by the biggest bunch of buffoons that I have ever seen. Things are a bit better now that I am told, but it does say something when a city like Vancouver, as cool as it is and as great a place as it is, has so few corporate offices.

I travelled quite a bit for work when I lived there and I to also enjoyed "coming home" to Vancouver when I had been away. Indeed, those North Shore Mountains looked pretty nice . . if you can see them through the clouds and the fog!

Fleck

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

You could always pick out the tourists in Gastown, they were wandering towards the downtown eastside without knowing any better. Seriously, you don't think of this tourist area being right next to a serious crime infested area, but it is. They needed a sign warning people or something!

The Gastown Criterium was fun to watch. Glad they brought it back, as some big names won it in the past. Did it run again this year?

Chris

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"I do not hurt on the bike, I punish."

Yep, great place. I'm from Seattle, and traveled to Vancouver several times. Very cool vibe up there, much like Seattle. If I'm not mistaken, Victoria is in a rain shadow, and thus gets significantly less than Vancouver. That's the place to live, in my opinion.

I was there once to talk at a conference, and I stayed in a UBC dorm. Mountains and water, both from my window. Can't beat that.

-Colin (hoping to get back west as soon as possible)

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Any run that doesn't include pooping in someone's front yard is a win.

More Vancouver negatives - highest B & E rate in Canada. It's straight forward - people need money for drugs, so they resort to petty crime. The only place that I have even been broken into was the time I lived in Vancouver. House was broken into twice and the car stolen once in 10 years. Compare to living in Toronto for the other 35 years of my life and this has never happened.

Fleck

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

that is a deal breaker right there for me. Beautiful place but that is way too much clouds and rain

I know that there are folks who NEED to see the sun for sustained periods of time. If that's the case, Vancouver in the winter may be a bit of a challenge. Never bothered me.

Fleck

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Coming from Southern England, the property prices seem reasonable to me (a 2 bed flat on the coast where I am cost $500k cdn 3 years ago and 8 miles from here a 4 bed house can go for $4 million cdn). But here it rains less than 1/2 as much as in Vancouver and the temperatures are similar for 9 months of the year. The rain seems to be the major downer for me. I have the sea to swim in, trails to run and forest and hills to ride, but no mountains.

That said I do like Victoria, for the lack of rain, not too sure what the sea swimming is like though.

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"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

Get a job.

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Kyle Marcotte
Team Timex Multisport
http://teamtimex.timexblogs.com/ - http://calgarytriandbike.blogspot.com/ - http://twitter.com/dukyle/

Only theft I have ever had was in Kelowna (lived there for 3 years in early 90's). But never had any theft in Vancouver. Been here 30 years.

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

Poor luck on my part then. Thankfully when they did break in, both times the bozos left all the sports gear( thousands of dollars worth of bikes, wheels, xc-skis and other gear) and took the usual - the computor, the CD's, the TV and the stereo. I guess they were entertainment deprived!! No, I know those are the things that they can pawn fastest and easiest for cash to buy more drugs and round and round the cycle goes!

Fleck

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Visitors seem to get hit waaaaaay more often than the locals. And if you have ever walked or driven through the DT eastside and seen the human misery there, it makes one sad to see that such conditions could exist in a country like Canada. Truly sad situation.

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

The only thing that really bothered me is that this was at the end of our honeymoon and all our photos were lost. They also got a case of very good California wine (how they carried all that stuff is beyond me). I imagined the bums on the street drinking a nice Alexander Valley Cabernet out of a dirty plastic cup...hope they enjoyed it.

Bastards. Yeah they'll often take wierd shit, that has no real $ value. Maybe next time you come visit, I can take you down there and we can steal shit out of their shopping carts (ha!)

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

Out of curiosity, can I ask where else you've lived? I run into very few people who don't think Calgary is one of the best places to live. It's not without it's share of problems but all are fairly manageable.

Personally, I've lived in Ottawa, Waterloo, Toronto, Edmonton & Sudbury. Of those choices, the only ones I'd ever give any thought to living permanently are Calgary & Ottawa. There are no jobs for me in Ottawa, so Calgary it is. Vancouver is nice, but from what I understand real estate is prohibitively expensive, especially for young, single people like me.

I agree. I'd love to live in Victoria, but seems like there aren't any jobs there (at least I haven't been able to find any opportunities there).

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Kyle Marcotte
Team Timex Multisport
http://teamtimex.timexblogs.com/ - http://calgarytriandbike.blogspot.com/ - http://twitter.com/dukyle/

The other common things that they take from houses are a pillow case - to take CD's, jewlery and other small stuff in and kids strollers - makes for a benign and anonymous getaway vehicle for the loot , I guess. They took my son's brand new stroller on the second go round at our place.

Fleck

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I grew up in a trailer park called Cranbrook, then lived in Australia, then Victoria, Prince George, Vancouver, and now Calgary.

You know, I am harder on Calgary than I should be. I must admit, the trail system here is pretty awesome, and there is no smog. The problem I have is that we had to buy quite a ways from the center and I hate driving. I find I can ride my bike most of the time, but it really has cut down on the time I can spend with friends since I get home so late.

I lived in Victoria for 7 years and got used to being able to ride most of the year. The trainer really gets to me.

If I was like duKyle and bought a little place before prices went ballistic right downtown, and be living life large with a rad job that pays me too much, then I think I would be singing a different song I'm sure.

duKyle's right in one regard, maybe if I had a real job and was making better cash I wouldn't be so down on this place... lord knows there is some cash around.

I live up by the Prisons and you can see a gun tower from where I live.. so that adds some security too. :)

Trev

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Trev Williams
http://www.thedoctrine.ca

I moved from London England, also lived in the Far East. I done more than my share of travelling mostly for work (particularly in Europe, Asia and South America). I now call Vancouver home. Its no contest in terms of quality of life compared to many many other places. There is about the right balance interms of what I get paid, my housing cost (bought pre boom), and the opportunities I have to play (train). Furthermore, there is just about enough diversity to keep me from getting bored. weigth up all the cons and I come out streets ahead. Just to make sure I got it right, I took a contract back in London for 8 months in 2002, within a few days I was very sure my move to vancouver was the right one!

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__________________________________________________
Simple Simon
Where's the Fried Chicken??

Fuel Cell Gurus don't make that much. The bank owns my place.

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Kyle Marcotte
Team Timex Multisport
http://teamtimex.timexblogs.com/ - http://calgarytriandbike.blogspot.com/ - http://twitter.com/dukyle/

Fair enough. Most of my time has been spent east of AB, so I can't speak to what it's like to live in BC.

I just bought a place so I know exactly what you're talking about. Working in oil & gas I got off a bit better than the people in other industries. I'm extremely thankful for that. That said, I'm still further from downtown than I had originally planned, but at least I'm not living in Forest Lawn or in a condo. Instead of buying even further still, I bought a place that needed a lot of work. At least it's not a super-old house and I know that the paint isn't supporting the walls, like some of the places closer to the core.

I'm actually happy that I'm living out of the downtown area. One of the criteria I gave to my real estate agent was that the place not be "shopping cart accessible". Having people going down my back alley every 15min (starting at 5am) and picking through my trash got to be a bit more than I could handle.

Traffic hasn't been a problem for me as I've been biking since I moved. The bus is nearby and I'll for sure get a seat for the morning ride to work. I purposely moved far from the C-train because it tends to give me panic attacks. I'm quite convinced that riding public transit is the #1 way to catch a cold/flu and the C-train is the worst for that type of thing.

I noticed on the weekend that there are no longer any traffic lights on the Deerfoot. WTF was with that? What kind of city planners would do that kind of thing? Traffic lights on a major artery.

Apart from the rant above, Calgary is a good place to live. Plus, the government is giving us $400 to be here. How great is that?

Ever been to Auckland New Zealand? First city in the World! (It happens here first)

Beats Vancouver IMHO, but that's just one assholes opinion.

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TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

I loved Ottawa, but I live in Calgary now.
It's a toss up.. but I think Calgary wins. I'm too much of a westerner and prairie boy.
I grew up in Regina and have lived in London, England, and ChristChurch, NZ.

Calgary has the best cycling, trails, mountains, etc... but I could do without the crazy weather

Only other city outside Canada I'd want to live in... love Auckland, will be stopping there on our way to Perth for IMWA next month...

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

Well, that's good, as I may be moving to Vancouver in a year or two. Lot's of things that might happen between now and then, but I will certainly be visiting there once or twice next year.

J.

That does it! I'm moving in with you hon! :-D

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-
"Yeah, no one likes a smartass, but we all like stars" - Thom Yorke


smartasscoach.tri-oeiras.com

AndyPants , very well summarised and educational I might add.

Would have to disagree with the above though. Or your definition of good.

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"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream" - Les Brown
"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment" - Jim Rohn

Really? OK, granted I'm in high-tech but the job market here is pretty damn good compared to most other Canadian cities... high-end jobs, low-end jobs, stuff in the middle. Trades, tech, film, financial, lots of small biz and self employment... I guess it depends on your specific field.

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

Sure, we can charge you rent! Ha ha!

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

My opinion only AndyPants.

Being originally from Vancouver , I visit family on the island every 2 years so stay in Vancouver for a couple of days in transit. In general , I love the people and miss their friendliness, politeness and manners. In my opinion , amongst the best in the world , if not THE best.

On the downside , I find there are too many rednecks. Night clubs , bars and general entertainment establishments on a global standard , rank 6 or 7 out of 10 at best . I found there to be virtually no entertainment venues that catered to a more "mature" crowd , who didn't want to wear jeans and a flannel logger shirt. For a city of 1.5 to 2 million people , there is a definite shortage of this , without a doubt.

If Vancouver , as is stated in the CNN survey , is the best in the world , pertaining to their respective selection criteria , great. But I can assure you : Sydney , Tokyo , Hong Kong , New York , Johannesburg , Singapore....to mention a few only , have a far superior level of entertainment across the board.

I took a couple of customers from Asia to Vancouver in 2003 to watch 4 hockey games in a 7 day period. GM Place and the "nucks was an awesome experience , but that was it for Vancouver entertainment sadly.

In a nutshell though , a truly beautiful area , with some truly beautiful people.

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"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream" - Les Brown
"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment" - Jim Rohn

Those are good points, we have been dubbed a "no-fun" city before, and we know our clubs and bars are no comparison to many other cities. I think this stems from many folks just not being that into that scene. At least they are open til 3am now, and there's no smoking at all in any of them... some slight improvements there.

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

Good thing that I'm too young to be a yuppie. Personally, I'm sick of all of the people from Sask. Alberta is overrun with you folks. Seriously, who is left in your province?

I can imagine that Ottawa has changed considerably since I left there ten years ago. I'll bet that my mum is happy that I didn't follow her "go high tech" advice and went with oil instead.

I'll take Calgary's +20ºC mid-winter days, but I'll happily leave the mid-summer snow. I miss water. I really miss water and hate all the private lakes around here.

Well that's a great start with the no smoking. I don't frequent bars as such very often myself , but most big cities have decent places you can go and have a quiet drink and it would be nice if Vancouver had something similiar.

That aside it's still part of" Beautiful British Columbia".

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"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream" - Les Brown
"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment" - Jim Rohn

Classic. I wouldn't even think of putting V-Couver in the top 20. I would put it at the top of Canadian cities, though, no doubt. It all depends on the selection criteria, of course.

I find it interesting how many people really think wherever they live is THE place to be. You gots to live around a bit for your vote to have any credibility. I'm lucky -- I've lived in good places. And I've seen crappy ones...

I'm shocked to see Tehran low on their list! Foul!!! :-)

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**************
Too f@ckin depressed from various injuries to care about having a signature line.

Sponsored by Blue Shield PPO.

DON'T get me started on the lakes around here :)



Trev

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Trev Williams
http://www.thedoctrine.ca

I am a Canadian from the east coast and had never spent much time in Vancouver until this year. After a business trip earlier in the year I decided to take my family for a week vacation in April. We all loved it. Definitely a great place, especially the North Shore mountain bike scene. However, I will still take Halifax and the south shore of Nova Scotia from July to October over anywhere in Canada. It has the wilderness that Fleck mentioned, great weather (July through Oct only), warm ocean water (for the north Atlantic), great city (Halifax), nice people, great windsurfing, a decent tri and running scene, etc. Someday I will manage to actually be there in the fall.

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Andrew Inkpen

Most of them are man-made swamps anyways. Besides, who cares about swimming.

Still though, summer in Calgary does rock. Riding in K-country until 10 PM in daylight is awesome. Just don't expect to see any daylight from October until April if you live here (unless you are like Trev and don't work :). Plus, we have the Stampede and there's nothing like the urban cowgirls (I'm sure every cowgirl wears a white mini-skirt and thong on the farm).

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Kyle Marcotte
Team Timex Multisport
http://teamtimex.timexblogs.com/ - http://calgarytriandbike.blogspot.com/ - http://twitter.com/dukyle/

yup twice, liked it a lot the first time not so much the second time. In part because we just spent 3 weeks on the west coast (Taurang, Ohope area) so auckland felt like a zoo in comparison. Back to the point - I still prefer Vancouver

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__________________________________________________
Simple Simon
Where's the Fried Chicken??

Vancouver might be top of the list, but its the only one that can beat MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA.

2nd on the list and I believe as first last year, so there's no way im leaving my home town to move anywhere else.

Its mid spring now and coming into summer here too, and there is no better time here than spring. Weather is nice, plenty of world calss events on ie. Melbourn Cup, Spring racing carnival, Moto GP, World Series Cricket etc. etc.

Truely a world beating city at the bottom of the world.

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Day by Day, Week by Week, Month by Month

I´ve been reading this thread and been thinking about if this rankings are some how infuenced by the fact that Canada and Australia are both countries with strong inmigration programs trying to attract qualified people to migrate over there. Would these rankings be influenced by some lobbing by these countries?



Please don’t get me wrong both Vancouver and Melbourne are lovely cities, but looking at the top ten cities must of them are either Canadian or Australian and that got me thinking. Somebody might have some info that would bring down what I´m saying, I´m just trying to see the big picture.

Last time I checked, CNN was owned by Americans.

Yet another one sold on his home town. Good thing, I suppose, otherwise we'd have a damn miserable global population!

Just know this... most of you who think your home town is THE place to be are wrong. :-)

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**************
Too f@ckin depressed from various injuries to care about having a signature line.

Sponsored by Blue Shield PPO.

Drop me a line if you want, when you come to Auckland. I love meeting other Slowtwtichers. Maybe we could eat or drink something to hide the awkward pauses in the coversation :-)

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TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

I have heard some very nice people live in those private lake communities in calgary. If you stop saying nasty things about them I'll let you in for a swim. The water is a little cold now though :-)

As for Vancouver, I really enjoyed living there but I prefer Calgary. No Oceanhere but it is way easier to escape and do some road riding, skiing, camping or whatever. In Van I always felt like I was battling a crowd in order to do something fun.

Hey we're stopping over in Auckland for 1.5 days on our way to Perth for IMWA (not sure where we're staying yet, haven't made a hotel booking yet but it will be somewhere downtown), maybe you could come out to a feeding session at some scary place like the Sultan's Table (we'll have little miss K with us so I assume the Loaded Hog is out ha ha)...

I'll PM you closer to the date.

AP

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

You don't want to go to the Loaded Hog. I did the A/C design for that place and thier budget forced a really crap design. Besides, they had no acoustic engineer involved and you can't hear yourself think at that place. It does get pretty hoppin' after midnight however. I often see druinken sluts pouring out the doors just before 7:00am as I drive past on my way to a TT along the waterfront on saturday mornings.

PM me when you know some details of dates and times.

BTW I recommend against Wildfire restuarant near the Hog. It's a South American BBQ place. Pricey but great food. Too much meat and your bowels don't need to be that plugged too close to an IM :-)

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TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

CNN: Last time I checked it was the network for democrats and terrorists. No surprise it likes Vancouver.

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Latest Duct tape QR Superfull fashion model

Awesome thanks for the head's up. ;-)

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

LOL!

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS