By Shelley Budd
This weekend’s forecast: isolated showers and light rain.

Ahh, the sweet nourishment of Vancouver rain. Even if it lasts a touch too long, we had a good run of sun this summer; it’s time to give indoor activities some overdue attention. After waking up last Sunday with the heaviest of hangovers – I’m talking gargoyles gauging out the back of my eyes, motion sickness incurred by a centimeter’s shift on the pillow, general sense of looming death – I was relieved to find something other than a blaring sunny beach day knocking brightly at the window. First thing to do, in that case, is take a morning bike ride and get some delicious breakfast cereal. It took a cautious bowl of Golden Grahams and an on-off nap through ‘80’s Schwarzenegger hit Running Man to ease the previous night’s red wine, and the Biltmore’s shots of fireball, from my soggy excuse for a head.

The second step in gaining a sense of life back from the grungy hangover sloth is, I’d say to ‘indulge,’ but the bill is way too low for that, in a comforting feast of the Chinese persuasion. The best and cheapest Dim Sum in town is at The Roc, a modest stark-white room on the Kingsway between Clark and Knight. Sometimes friendly and often short, Chinese women show off bamboo boxes full of steamed three-bite-sized food, ready to eat right off the carts that circulate to each table. Plates of spring rolls, BBQ buns and other more mysterious dough encased treats roll by accompanied by one or two recognizable descriptors, if you’re lucky – Red Bean Paste, Spring Roll, Lotus. We took in the classics: fish balls, pork buns, beef balls, shrimp dumplings, and the rest we nodded blindly for, ready to discover new fillings and textures. The bonus is, at The Roc, the delicious and never weak tea is free! If you go, be sure to catch the little pastry thing that ‘white people’ are known to call footballs. Footballs are amazing. We have no idea how and what they’re made of.

Across the street there’s a wicked vintage poster shop, featuring old action, romance and horror film obscure movie posters, amongst a load of wacky 90’s memorabilia and well-aged copies of Playboy. Lunch had really warmed me up and I felt ready to work off some more of the last nights head sludge, so after a short peruse of the shop we headed over to Varsity Ridge at 15th and Arbutus to play Glow in the Dark Bowling, where the lanes are simple 5 pins, the computers are a kind of hilarious ancient-futuristic behemoth, and the Grower’s Ciders are kept cold in a fridge beside the shoes.

All in all, that comes to a total of:

Lunch = $6.00

Shopping = $0.00

Bowling = $10.00 (2 games)

Growers = $5.00

Grand Total = $21.00