It isn’t the most expensive property for sale in BC. A waterfront mansion in Oak Bay near Victoria has that honour. It’s listed for $29 million.

From http://www.news1130.com/news/local

Developer Milan Ilich is attempting to notch a new entry in Vancouver’s ultra high-end real estate market by listing his and his wife Maureen’s equestrian estate property, known as Ivy Manor, for $24 million.

The property, which realtor Jamie MacDougal plans to have on the Multiple Listing Service by the end of the week, comprises a 22,000-square-foot country manor-style home set on 20 acres, half of which is landscaped into a lavishly manicured English garden, and half that has been groomed for equestrian use.

An immaculate barn with stalls for five horses is one of the buildings located on the property, situated past the Steveston Highway at the bucolic end of No. 3 Road in Richmond.

A $24-million price wouldn’t be out of the question for an estate property the size of Ivy Manor, according to Malcolm Hasman, one of Vancouver’s leading realtors in the luxury market.

Hasman, who is with Angell & Hasman Associates in West Vancouver, wasn’t yet aware of this specific listing, but noted “there are so few large estate properties for sale in the Lower Mainland, it would not surprise me if an out-of-country buyer purchased it.”

While Vancouver’s overall real estate market is slowing down, the upper echelon he operates in, and where the Ivy Manor is situated, remains brisk, Hasman added.

“There’s no question the real estate market is going through a change,” he said, with sales slowing and prices “set too high at unrealistic levels” being readjusted.

However, he still sees significant numbers of high-net-worth buyers being drawn to Vancouver, many of them from Mainland China.

“They still see incredible value in [Vancouver] properties at current prices compared to other cities in North America,” Hasman explained.

Currently, there are 65 homes in B.C. listed at prices above $7.5 million, the most expensive a $29-million waterfront mansion in Oak Bay near Victoria.

Just in the last week, Hasman said, Vancouver has seen two sales in the $10-million-or-over range.

read more - http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news

BC is about to get a little more green. The Province is planning to invest $5 million in a new program to boost the use of solar heating.According to the Vancouver Sun, people who install the technology in their homes will be eligible for up to $1,600 in government rebates.

By 2020, Victoria hopes to have solar panels installed on 100,000 roofs across the province.

From http://www.news1130.com/news/local

photo from http://flickr.com/photos/dtes_people/2555805736/

The B.C. Liberal party candidate in Vancouver–Mount Pleasant, where Vancouver’s supervised injection site is located, wants drug addicts taken away to an “island”.

There, according to Stephen Chong, addicts could get training so they could later get jobs. “After they have finished their term, they can come out and they have their own skill,” Chong told the Georgia Straight by phone. “That’s what I want.”

The 67-year-old retired businessman and former TransLink bus driver, who was acclaimed as the Liberal candidate on July 3, said that continuing to allow addicts to inject drugs “will kill them in the long run”.

But Chong said that “if you cannot get a place for them [addicts]”, he prefers to see injection sites in each riding, not just in Chinatown. That way, “they have a choice” where to go, he said.

Still, he considers moving Insite away from Chinatown a “good” idea, a measure that he deemed “possible”. He said, “I prefer it further out in the city.”

read more - http://www.straight.com

Diana O’Brien, 22, of Saltspring Island, B.C., was found dead in her apartment building in Shanghai on Monday. (CBC)

Friends of a B.C. model killed in Shanghai said they have doubts about the story told by an 18-year-old Chinese man who confessed to stalking and slaying her.

Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency, reported Friday that Chen Jun was arrested in Xuancheng City, several hundred kilometres west of Shanghai, around 8:15 a.m. local time.

Diana O’Brien, 22, of Saltspring Island, B.C., was found dead in her apartment building in Shanghai on Monday, two weeks after leaving for Shanghai for a three-month modelling contract with a talent agency.

Chinese police said Chen confessed to following O’Brien into her apartment Sunday night with the intention of robbing her and killed her when she resisted. The suspect then fled to another city in a nearby province before leaving for Xuancheng City, according to police.

However, some of O’Brien’s friends told CBC News on Friday that she would have run if threatened and would not have tried to protect her possessions.

While the investigation in China continues, Joel Berry, O’Brien’s boyfriend of five years, said he just wanted to bring her body home.

“Hopefully it’s just one more step closer to her coming home,” Berry said of the arrest of the suspect.

“It’s kind of tough to plan a memorial for her when you don’t really know where she is and how close she is to coming home,” he said Friday.

“It just seems like we’re so out of touch with it and helpless really. So, I think, just to have her back would kind of empower us a little bit and [we’ll be] able to find some closure

Earlier reports from those who discovered the body said O’Brien was stabbed and found lying in a pool of blood in the apartment building’s stairwell, but police did not disclose the cause of death.

Chinese police said Friday their initial investigation shows the suspect’s motive was money, according to Xinhua. It happened that O’Brien was home so they ran into one another and a botched robbery turned deadly, the news agency said.

Police said they found a laptop and other articles belonging to O’Brien, according to Xinhua.

O’Brien had been in China since mid-June after landing a contract with Jh Model Agency in Shanghai. The agency appears to have vanished since news of her death. No such name could be found at the listed address and the company’s website has been inaccessible.

One of the woman’s friends alleged O’Brien had been stalked by a Chinese man she met during a modelling job about a week before she was found dead. It’s unclear whether the suspect is the same man her friend mentioned.

Read more - http://www.cbc.ca

Police describe B.C. model’s slaying

Police formally charged the suspect in B.C. model Diana O’Brien’s murder this weekend, saying that her camera and jewelry were in his possession when they arrested him 10 days ago.

They said Chen Jun, 18, “stabbed her heart and liver” during a botched robbery.

According to police, the accused confessed that on July 7 around 11 p.m. local time he followed O’Brien into the Changning District apartment building in central Shanghai, where she had lived since arriving in the city two weeks earlier.

Chen told police the apartment door was unlocked so he rushed in, apparently hoping to grab her valuables and run, but O’Brien, 22, resisted. A struggle followed and he killed her.

Witnesses said earlier the model was stabbed multiple times and that there was a trail of blood leading from her apartment to the stairwell where her body was found several hours later.

Police did not reveal anything about that in the official statement. They made no mention of whether she tried to flee the scene or whether Chen moved the body in an attempt to cover his tracks.

When police caught up with Chen in his hometown of Xuancheng in Anhui province, hundreds of kilometres from Shanghai, they said, he had a rolling suitcase containing O’Brien’s digital camera, two mobile phones, one necklace, two bracelets and three rings.

It is rare for a foreigner to be murdered in China and Chen will likely face the death penalty if he is convicted.

From http://www.canada.com

Photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/vancouvergo/575927900

The Cambie Village Business Association has decided to seek over $20 million in compensation for what a local merchant calls “an appalling tragedy.” “There’s hundreds of businesses along the Canada Line, and many have already been forced out of business and many have already failed and I think that’s just an appalling tragedy. It’s something that was entirely preventable,” said association member and Cambie Street business owner, Susan Heyes.“I don’t think that there’s any possible way that they can deny the impact that this has had; the disruption to our lives has been unprecedented.”

After remortgaging her home twice and losing more than half a million dollars in revenue due to construction, Heyes said legal action is the only remaining option for her and other small business owners.

“This is not loss of profit, this is eating into all the equity that I’ve built up in my business over decades … I’ve poured a fabulously sound foundation for my business and they’ve been consistently just jack-hammering it away.”

While Heyes’ case will return to court in November, she said the association is currently deciding what to include in their statement of claim.

Michael Kapoustin, 55, from the Penticton, B.C. area, has been imprisoned since the mid-1990s on fraud charges that he has denied committing.

“There are no words to express my feelings right now. Joy. It’s the end of a 13-year nightmare,” said Kapoustin during a stopover in Toronto earlier in the day.

“You have to imagine one-fourth of your life going by in a country where you don’t speak the language, and you don’t have contact with family. You’re solitary; you’re beaten,” he said.

“It’s been an experience and it almost feels like it happened to someone else.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper personally called the Bulgarian president in 2006 to ask for Kapoustin’s release to Canada.

Conservative MP and secretary of state for multiculturalism Jason Kenney visited Bulgaria last year for three days to work for Kapoustin’s release.

Kenney spoke to CTV Newsnet and said the way Kapoustin’s case was handled raised a number of flags for him.

“He had not (had the) benefit of basic due process or natural justice in the way his case had been handled,” he said Sunday.

Kapoustin spent five years in pre-trial custody and was originally acquitted. But an appeal court convicted him of a charge that he had not originally been charged with, he said.

Kenney added there are thousands of Canadians in legal trouble abroad and that working through each case takes time.

“We treat each consular case on an individual basis,” said Kenney, who was contacted by the man’s family about his plight several years ago.

“Sometimes these cases are fairly straightforward, and others a lot more complicated.”

The court found Kapoustin guilty of embezzling about $4 million in 1994 and 1995 from Bulgarian investors.

He has maintained his innocence.

From http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca

photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/vancouvergo/2275023066/

Vancouver’s prices continue to be reasonable when compared to other world-class cities such as Sidney, Tokyo, Hong Kong, London and New York.

When is a home a bargain at more than ten million dollars? When that home’s seven thousand square feet are set on a private half acre on a hillside overlooking Eagle Harbour. Its two-hundred feet of waterfront include one of the few private docks in West Vancouver.

Inside and out, the home has every feature needed for luxurious living, executed with attention to detail and with the best of quality. The stone and wood exterior and the unique roofline with its turreted balconies lend a touch of old-world grandeur.

The three-level home has every amenity for gracious entertaining. The bar and billiard room has a fan to remove cigar smoke, wine coolers and a refrigerator with an ice maker. Off the Bar and Billiard room is a private balcony with a hot tub with views of the harbour. The living room welcomes guests with a gas-fueled fireplace–there are four fireplaces in the home. At sixteen by twenty-two feet, the dining room is perfect for dinner parties.

Outdoor patios and balconies provide views of lovely Eagle Harbour and of the luxuriant gardens. The gardens are designed for year-round enjoyment. Although the home is only seven years old, the gardens were planted with mature rhododendron, roses, wisteria, cedar and arbutus accented with colorful perennials. An extensive lighting system allows guests and family to enjoy evenings outdoors.

The kitchen is a chef’s delight with its professional-grade Dacor stove and oven, subzero refrigerator with pull-out drawers and tumbled marble work surfaces on countertops and island. It includes space to dine en famille while overlooking the bay. The butler’s pantry has its own sink and a second dishwasher.

The master bedroom suite is the “jewel within the lotus.” Opening from the bedroom are a private sitting area with a fireplace, an exercise room, a walk-in closet, a bath fit for royalty with a pedestal tub and jetted shower. Just off the Bedroom is another private patio to soak up the sunsets from the comfort of the master suite.

Two other bedrooms, a family room and a media room keep the family together. The three-car garage and six additional parking spaces will accommodate family and friends.

A virtual walk-through of this elegant home is online at westvancouverwaterfront.com. It is presented by Jordan Hurdal of Prudential Sussex Realty; he can be reached by phone at 604.786.6131 or via email at sold@jordanhurdal.com.

Situated in Vancouver’s downtown on the northeast side of Stanley Park, Coal Harbour is 23 acres of award winning community design. Stretching from Canada Place along the Burrard Inlet shore. The stunning design of Coal Harbour with it’s focus on waterfront living and its close proximity to Vancouver’s downtown core has contributed to Coal Harbour being one of the premier neighbourhoods in Vancouver.

read more — http://www.canada.com

Playland at the Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver. The future of this rare wooden roller coaster is unknown as the City of Vancouver considers several redevelopment options for the future of Hastings Park/PNE.

From http://flickr.com/photos/squeakymarmot/131038938/

One of a few remaining wooden roller-coasters still in working order, Vancouver’s classic coaster celebrated its 50th anniversary Tuesday.

The old-fashioned scream machine reaches speeds of more than 70 kilometres per hour after dipping over its first hill, prompting shrill cries from riders as they plummet down the track and bounce around in their seats.

“It’s my favourite ride,” Ariana Louwe, 16, said after taking a free ride as the Pacific National Exhibition celebrated the anniversary.

“The first hill is the best, definitely, it’s really fast. It’s not so much scary, just exciting.”

The ride - simply named The Coaster - was built in 1958, and now sees half a million riders each year.

It’s made from Douglas fir wood and stands 23 metres tall at its highest point.

The 90-second ride is mostly powered by gravity. The trains are pulled by a chain on a motor up each slope, allowing momentum to carry forward to the base of the next big climb.

As the trains twist through the track, riders are held in only by a lap bar, compared with the seatbelts and snug shoulder restraints on modern-day roller-coasters.

And while Vancouver’s wooden coaster doesn’t go upside-down or travel at the same break-neck speeds as its modern-day steel cousins, riders say it still provides a thrill.

“It’s got great hills and it’s got great curves,” said Paul Kool, 47. “Growing up here, I remember wanting to ride it ever since I was not tall enough to ride it.”

Ulyana Yordan, a 31-year-old Ukrainian currently studying in Vancouver, rode the roller-coaster more than two dozen times Tuesday.

“I love it - we don’t have such roller-coasters in Ukraine,” she said. “I like how you fly around, because in other ones you are fully fixed, you don’t feel it as much.”

The ride was designed by Carl Phare and built by Walker LeRoy. It’s now the only standing roller-coaster built and designed by Phare and LeRoy, who are legendary in the coaster world.

Read more http://canadianpress.google.com 

A baby Beluga was born June the 10th at the Vancouver aquarium.
I was going to go there without knowing of this event and I didn’t.
So I decided that I would go this morning before work.
I didn’t have a great view point and am posting these only because I had to share the joy.
I took these shots at 11 am and the calf was born at 4:28 pm the previous day.
They say that 50% of calves die in the wild and the odds are

From http://flickr.com/photos/eyesplash/2572538162/

The baby beluga’s tail pumps back and forth as it latches on to its mother for a mid-afternoon snack Thursday at the Vancouver Aquarium. Like the two-day-old baby, its mother is also getting the hang of things, said Clint Wright, an aquarium representative.

Qila, a 12-year-old first-time mother, still pauses slightly when nursing instead of continuing to swim, he pointed out, but overall things are good.

“We are thrilled with the progress. We’re seeing lots of nursing continuously,” said Wright, standing next to the tank in a area separated from a crowd of spectators gathered to watch the calf and mother. “The calf is getting better at nursing. It’s holding on for longer and seems to be getting lots of milk.”

On Wednesday, a day after giving birth to the 1.5-metre female calf, Qila ate about 11 kilograms of food, consisting of a mix of capelin and herring.

read more http://www.canada.com 

A study published on Thursday by the Dutch Centre for Insurance Statistics (CVS) showed that fewer accidents and reports of fire and theft occur when the 13th of the month falls on a Friday than on other Fridays.

“I find it hard to believe that it is because people are preventatively more careful or just stay home, but statistically speaking, driving is a little bit safer on Friday 13th,” CVS statistician Alex Hoen told the Verzekerd insurance magazine.

In the last two years, Dutch insurers received reports of an average 7,800 traffic accidents each Friday, the CVS study said. But the average figure when the 13th fell on a Friday was just 7,500.

There were also fewer incidents of fire and theft, although the average value of losses on Fridays 13th was slightly higher.

From http://www.canada.com