Andrew Kay: A foggy day

The perils of sight-seeing in a cold climate

I’m back, well at least for now. My recent international jet-setter status is on hold until the next trip to film International Chef Exchange, which, all being well, is to Dubai.

Vancouver turned out be be an extraordinary experience, not least because I spent 36 hours in bed with a stinker of a cold.

Fortunately though I had booked extra leisure time in the city which I took full advantage of before the virus felled me.

Clouds poured into the city over the mountains like custard pouring over steamed pudding

I was joined by my friend Mr M after a few days. He had flown out using a different route and his body clock was set differently from mine. Which is why he texted me at 6am to say that he was up and ready to go. Given that his hotel was a good 45 minutes’ walk from mine, it gave me a chance to shower and dress and at 6.45am I was in reception.

It was not the most promising of days with thick fog cloaking most of the city and on Granville it looked pretty bleak.

We climbed in a cab and headed out of town to a drab area where we had been told we would find the very best diner in town, Red Wagon – and at 7am we did, which was rather a pity as it did not open until 8am. Fortunately we found a Thai diner where we were able to have a coffee and I did a phone interview with Alison Ferns at BBC Radio Sussex. The owners were very impressed by that, especially as I name-checked them.

At eight we moved to Red Wagon. Now as diners go it was pretty ordinary to look at, but this was not my purpose. My purpose was to try the special, a stack of buttermilk pancakes layered with pulled pork and topped with lashings of Jack Daniels spiked maple syrup. For breakfast!

It was good, very good, but perhaps a bit heavy at 8am. Still this is all about experiences – and this was a good one.

After that we took a cab back downtown and it was then that we saw the true splendour of Vancouver, as clouds poured into the city over the mountains like custard pouring over steamed pudding. It was more than impressive, it was breathtaking.

Once downtown we swapped to a vintage tour bus and headed off to see the city with a guide. Sadly for her, the fog was hampering her usual tour as so much of what she would have liked to point out was shrouded in mist. She did her very best, resorting to pointing out a municipal maintenance yard when the rose gardens were not visible and a ‘heritage’ building that boasted The Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Andrew amongst its most esteemed members – yes I know, we smiled a lot at that.

And finally she introduced us to a new word – ‘heritageness’. I cannot wait to bring that one into play.

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