Cute t-shirt, sincerely friendly . . .

If you’re anywhere near Vancouver and you haven’t yet had a chance to check out the Vancouver Art Gallery exhibit of Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomical sketches, you really must find a way to fit this into your schedule. The exhibit was free to the public all the way through the Olympics, yet there are still many visitors willing to pay to see this stunning collection, as evidenced by the small crowd moving reverently from sketch to sketch on Saturday morning. I suspect many of these may be medical students, so intent were they in their examination of this brilliant Renaissance artist’s keen observation. I know our daughter, currently studying anatomy as part of her training as a Registered Massage Therapist, was blown away by the knowledge this man already had, centuries ago, about the innermost workings of the human body.

Also interesting was the juxtaposition of da Vinci’s work with earlier representations of the body as well as with contemporary responses to, and representations of, the body and the bodily — I’ve been very impressed over the last few years with the contexts that the VAG sets up for the works they exhibit.

Before we went to the Gallery Saturday morning, we had both first run to, around, and back from the Stanley Park Seawall (I figure 14-16Km), so we’d worked up good enough appetites to enjoy our “Usual, No 5 on Buckwheat” crêpes at our favourite crêperie. I’ve mentioned before that we were first anxious, then reassured, to see how the new owners handled the transition. Service isn’t yet as fast as it used to be, but it’s very friendly and it’s becoming more efficient. The crêpes are as good as ever and they’ve kept the buckwheat ones on the menu, so we’re very happy (each crêpe is made from scratch after ordering unlike so many places that pile them up to fill later — there’s a big taste/texture difference).

But there’s a new addition we’ve noticed — t-shirts hanging on the wall, clearly available as merchandise, with the restaurant logo on the front

and a very cute slogan on the back, one whose ESL freshness has been making me giggle for the past several visits (the new owners, although they can turn out crêpes like a Breton, apparently hail from Thailand, or so one of the servers told us):

Given how pleased we were when the waitstaff under the old owners first started to recognize us and to anticipate our order — Your usual? — you can imagine that we were tickled that not only does the new owner greet us warmly already (I’m sure he’s glad to be seeing return customers in his new business — must be a relief to know that people are going to continue frequenting a new investment), but he called us over on our way out last Sunday to hand over a t-shirt for each of us. Might not be as fashionable as some of the other outfits I’ve shown you, but I’ll happily wear it running off the calories that I’m going to put back on with my Number Five with Buckwheat! Real food, my sincere friend — how about that?

(and yes, I nervously note that while the front of the t-shirt refers to the Original Crêperie, the back adds an “s”, suggesting that a franchise may be in the works — I do wonder how long those crêpes will be made from scratch after ordering. Better get them while they’re good . . . )