Meeting Jacqueline

One of the overseas blogs I read is that of Miss Jacqueline Mackie Paisley Passey. When I read she had been in Vancouver I e-mailed her to see if she would still be there, when I was there, so we could catch up.

Apart from always being nice to meet other bloggers, I figured it would be useful to meet someone whom I almost went out with! 🙂

Jacqueline and Terrence had actually crossed the border back to the US by the time I got here, but as they are not far away, popped back for a day so we could all catch up. As the conference wasn’t allowing access until today, I had the whole day free.

We met at my motel and went for lunch at a local restaurant. Terrence is from Vancouver, but despite this we managed to walk past the restaurant several times. It was quite funny being known to Terrence as the “runner up” 🙂

After lunch Jacqueline and I let loose with our common passion for science-fiction and oh Buffy! First we headed to Warriors & Wonders where we looked at some great weapons to purchase. The trouble is that I suspect Customs would object to me travelling with a Mace, even a smallish one.

This is Jacqueline trying out a Roman sword and helmet.

And now with a nice battle-axe.

Upon discovering there was a Buffy section at the local bookstore, J made herself comfortable.

Then went to a pub for a while and we tried Canadian Cider. Very very nice I must say. J was shocked by how stingy my tip was, and made her one larger to compensate. Seems 15% is recommended.

A photo of us taking photos of each other. I imagine J will put up the matching one on her site.

We then met up with Terrence who had nobly lasted for most of the shopping expedition. His apartment is next door to the stadium which had just had the Canadian Superbowl final, so we had 40,000 people walking the other direction towards us which was fun.

By this stage it was becoming somewhat apparent that J had possibly had a bit too much cider. This led to some amusing conversations, along the lines of her reminding Terrence that if it didn’t work out with him, I was the backup. As it happens Terrence and Jacqueline are a very good couple, and I have little doubt they will last. In fact Jacqueline even confessed that if they ever marry she thinks it would be cool to then be known as Jackie Chan 🙂

We then all headed out to dinner, where J provided a running commentary, as only slightly drunk people can, on the faults in the TV coverage of the poker tournament that was showing on the screen (Terrence is a professional poker player).

Then dropped off at the hotel around 10 pm to say good bye. Was very nice to meet J in the flesh so to speak, and we managed to talk non-stop pretty much the whole day (heh except when engrossed in reading new purchases) which confirmed that our instincts were pretty correct. I may be staying on in Canada for a while (on which I will blog later), so if so may end up catching up with them again next week, by driving down to Seattle.

Thanks to Terrence and Jacqueline for the hospitality. What could have been a slightly awkward day was in fact great fun, and I look forward to staying in touch.