Some of my workmates took me out Friday night. I confess I’ve been hesitant to establish non-working relationships with workmates. Tricky business sometimes, and I also always had family and close friends to rely on, hang out with and otherwise know were around if I needed help.
But, given my position as an ex-pat with zero ties to anything in Vancouver, non-working relationships with workmates are unavoidable. And you know, that is OK, which was clearly demonstrated when a workmate took me to IKEA after work, and then helped me haul a bed frame with drawers up three flights of stairs. My bed arrived via UPS, and since I have no elevator, I was left to carry the box up three flights of stairs myself. I rolled that sucker up. The bed frame? Um, no, not so much.
Anyway.
So we went out to a place called the Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company. By design or just chance, it’s a pizza place. Friday night. Pizza night. Yay! Except this is an experience. There’s no such thing as a simple cheese and sausage pizza. Nope. Smoke Salmon pizza. Caprese. Ocean Wise, which has maple cured wild salmon (whatever that means) and shrimp, so how can you go wrong? Even BBQ Pulled Pork!
My eating habits have gotten a little more adventurous since I got here, so I was game. And I will tell you, smoked salmon flatbread pizza is unbelievably good. Smoked salmon itself is just good, but combined with the various ingredients at Rockey Mountain Flatbread Company, just fantastic.
Over good food and sangria (new thing for me), we talked about work, life and things I must do in Vancouver or things they will take me to (make me do?) in Vancouver.
Apparently, when hockey season ends, everyone wants to go out and do stuff. And the weather hasn’t been too terrible, or perhaps no worse than normal, so more people seem out and about. Rather interesting.
The thing I discovered that was remarkably efficient, though, came at the end of the meal when it was time to pay.
Now, back in the States, going out to dinner with friends was a common thing for me. And it was always a bit of a hassle trying to get the waiter or waitress to split the bill so we would each just pay our share plus tip. Almost always, there was someone with no cash, so that person either took the cash from the rest of us and put it on the credit card, or sheepishly asked the waiter/waitress to put the remaining balance on the credit card.
In Canada, this is completely different, and far more efficient.
Somewhere there’s a post about debit and credit cards in Canada, and how they are distinctly different. My bank card, for example, has no Visa or MasterCard logo. It cannot be substituted as a credit card as like in the States.
Three of us paid in cash, two paid with debit. And you know what? They paid exactly their portion of the bill.
The waitress walks around with a card reader, you tell her the amount you are to pay, she punches it in, you slide your card and poof! Your portion of the bill is paid and she moves on, around the table to the next person. Everyone pays what they owe in a remarkably efficient manner.
Who knew?