There are few occupations that allow people to walk around during the day soaking up what is going on in neighbourhoods. After all, most of us spend our day inside our offices. I’ve spent my fair share in them as well over the years so I know that feeling. I can however, think of two occupations that include a significant amount of walking about neighbourhoods as part of their job. One is a postal worker, although that may end soon with community boxes and they always seem to be half running so who knows what they are taking in? Then there is my occupation, a professional Realtor®. Of course I’m going on the assumption that other real estate agents do ‘walk-abouts’ as well in order to hand out flyers and meet prospective clients.
So here I go, this is my blog and my first entry into the blogosphere! If you haven’t guessed its about my ‘walk-abouts’ in and around Vancouver.
Ok before you run in the other direction … this is not a play by play on each step I take (3000 steps today folks! Aiming for 4000 tomorrow!) Nope, this is different … this blog is on my observations on what I see, hear and experience in your Vancouver neighbourhood. If you ask my partner Amy, she will tell you that it’s a bit like Cinéma vérité or Direct Cinema as it is known, only in blog form. I’m observing and recording things and events in which the subject and audience are unaware of the cameras presence (or in this blogs case, my presence). Now, one more disclaimer, no it’s not my own unique brand of neighbourhood watch disguised to get your business ‘yes I’m sure I saw a burglar trying to get into your home Mr. Jones. Perhaps you should think about moving soon?’. In a nut shell, think of my blog as Mr. Rogers’s neighbourhood meets the pied piper (yes your dogs and cats have been known to follow me). The only difference is that I leave the living room unlike Rogers and I don’t blow into a flute like Piper. The rest is pretty much the same when you combine the two together. You get the picture right?
Ok, so my blog will also have observations from a couple of important people to me. My grandmother-in-law who is a second generation Vancouverite since 1919, my-mother-in law whom I have come to think of as the counter balance to everything I say. Plus there’s my team who also walks about the city and there is my partner who is an artist, she will be contributing to this blog and believe me she can see the beauty in things that shouldn’t be seen as beautiful, like walls with multiple paint colours peeling off “Ian… when the light hits that wall just right, it is simply magnificent!” I’m sure she will present a whole new perspective from an artistic stand point on whatever topic we decide to discuss.
On my walk-abouts there are two subjects that I want to keep updating, well at least in picture form. One is your ‘Fur Children’. Vancouverites love their pets and they are in truth the highlight of my day so expect photos of your Feline and Fido friends. When I can, I will leave my card and a note to say I have taken their photo and for you to check it out on line. There’s the wild life as well. Recently I came across a squirrel with a white tail (picture skunk colours with a squirrel body). No I wasn’t dehydrated from a long walk. I did see the squirrel that looked like a skunk near East 19th and Lakewood Dr. However I will concede that it may have got its tail stuck in a can of white paint since there is a lot of ‘renos’ going on in that area. There was also the time when someone from my team was chased by a coyote in the Kits area and there are rumors of a flying parrot near west 2nd Ave and Trutch St., that will attempt to land on your head according to a lady who told us that it had escaped years earlier and now just flies around her neighbourhood. I’m not sure why but I can’t get my team to go back to that area so you will likely see me there next time! Essentially, I will report on all manner of species (not just human) that I meet on my walks.
If you read my biography on my web page you will see that I am clearly a techie person. I have well over a hundred websites that are a part of a vast Real Estate Network. This is my business but I promise that I won’t sell homes on my blog. You can go to my own real estate website IanBrett.realtor or the CaptainVancouver.com network to check out homes and get real estate advice instead of getting it here.
Well at least if I’m going to promote a home for sale on my blog I won’t do it in too obvious a way (after all I’m still a Realtor® and can’t very well miss opportunities!). If I do find something I want to say in that area, I promise to do something to soften the sell like take video doing something dramatic so that you won’t really care as much and it will still feel like entertainment to you. Plus I have to say you’re going to want to hear some of my team and my more intriguing observations that touch on real estate and shall we say the VIP life. There was the time when one of my team was walking through Point Grey when she swore she came across a famous actor or something (she wasn’t entirely sure)…there was a whole lot of commotion and security guards and the PR rep. questioned her for just being on that road at that particular time. Unfortunately since she can’t speak Chinese it all remains a huge mystery to her (she probably should have just asked the PR lady) Nevertheless she now can’t let it go and since she is prone to exaggeration, there is no doubt that the story will take on a life of its own and may well be recycled a year or two in this blog, although it may not be recognizable by then.
Now as for where I go in Vancouver, since I’m ‘CAPTAIN VANCOUVER’…yes I have registered the trademark so don’t be fooled by knock offs and please don’t call me Captain America…that’s a super hero and although I like to think of myself as a hero, at least I am to my kids, I don’t walk around in tight pants and a cape….just a fake Naval Captains outfit in bright blue so that no one will mistake me for a real Navy Captain–Vancouver is a major Port after all. Anyway my territory is pretty much all of Greater Vancouver. In fact my team has walked a couple of hundred kilometers between us last summer alone. So I’m sure you’ll see me at some point. Make sure you say hi! Restarting my walks in a week, so check back then for the next update!