The Orange Room Tapas and Fine Food in New Westminster, B.C.

It may seem a little late in the year, but New Westminster has a new patio!

It looks like it will be a little dripply and wet this week, but at least it isn't snowing!

There are safety issues with turning out all the lights in a restaurant, especially in the kitchen where there are a lot of hot appliances, but with a few modifications we managed to do une petite hommage to the idea of saving energy on Earth Hour 2009.

Earth Hour started in Sydney Australia in 2007, by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the local paper and spread across the world in 2008.

For 2009 Wikipedia mentions 88 countries and more than 4,000 cities turning off or dimming non-essential lights between 8:30 and 9:30 pm.

We started a little late. A few tables asked if we were doing anything for Earth Hour around 9:30. We started by turning off the big lights and dimming the others. Everyone was enthusiastic so we turned them all off (except in the kitchen). The bartender turned off the music. We argued a little about turning off the fireplace, but in the end it went too, since natural gas is not renewable.