5 posts tagged “vancouver”

I’m supposed to be packing my stuff for travel today. Instead, I slept till noon, after an interesting Friday and Saturday.

I met up with my good friends last Friday to bike around Stanley Park. Vancouver is so beautiful, we are totally kicking ourselves for even thinking of leaving.

Friday felt like a week too early for Friday the 13th with all the series of unfortunate events:

1. I couldn’t find my house keys when I needed to run to the bus stop. Bus didn’t show up. That was nice.

2. When I got my bike, the chain got yanked off the gears TWICE. Hello. Our hands got black grease less than 5 minutes into riding.

3. The Sea Wall re-route? God, what a re-route. Uphill! (4th photo from the top)

4. Because we got so tired from the re-route, we took a snack at the snack bar…completely forgetting about the time (That’s where we met the raccoon that I seriously contemplated on putting in my bike’s basket…so cute!)

5. Time! It was 5 minutes to 9pm and we were still at Third Beach. The bike rental shop closes at 9pm.

6. My friend called them but the manager said they couldn’t wait 15 minutes.

7. We got there 9:15pm. They were closed.

8. Problem: What do we do with 3 bikes?

9. We tried desperately to fit 3 bikes into one car. Of course, not possible as these bikes were big.

10. One nice soul offered to keep one of the bikes on his boat on the dock. And we were able to go home.

Thank goodness.

1. Let me tell you how dedicated I am to this NaBloPoMo. The night before I left for Vancouver, I stayed at a friend’s place and wasn’t able to access the Internet. When my boyfriend got home from work around 11pm PST I actually asked him to access my WordPress blog and type my entry for me. I understand this is a bit too much.


2. Violence among kids. Last night, while with my boyfriend at the bowling alley for his Wednesday bowling league, I was witness to how violent kids are today. The older sister, about 9 years old, was unashamedly hurting her younger brother, about 6 or 7. I say unashamedly because she had no qualms about hitting her brother at the back of his neck, or threatening him not to tell their father (one of the bowlers), or digging her elbows into his ribs. What…the…fuck. It terrorized me to the point that I’m still thinking of it. I was afraid she was going to stab her brother with her pencil (they were supposed to do homework while they wait for the dad, I assume). It’s just unbelievable. I hope and pray my future kids wouldn’t be this way.


3. Eye candy. Has anyone had the pleasure of reading through Wallpaper*’s October 10-year (5-pound) anniversary issue? I brought it from Vancouver, read it on the plane and last night at the bowling alley. I’ll post links to my favorites later.


4. Even if I’m not home I think of you.

   All Greater Vancouver residents urged to boil water

   A boil water advisory has been issued for the entire Greater Vancouver Area.

   Vancouver Coastal Health spokesman Viviana Zanocco said Thursday the warning was issued because Wednesday’s storm dumped large amounts of dirt and mud in the region’s three reservoirs.

   “We’ve never seen turbidity this high,” she said.

   The entire region is affected, but the problem is worst on the North Shore.

   The health region is advising hospitals, care facilities and restaurants to change the way they prepare food.

   Water should be boiled for one minute, then cooled thoroughly before drinking. Or persons should drink bottled water.

   The ban applies to brushing teeth and washing food. Showers are okay.

   Zanocco said she doesn’t know how long the ban will last.

   Persons drinking water are at risk of suffering diarrhea and vomiting because bacteria is present in the water.

   [source: Canada.com/The Province]



5. I thought I was evading just the rain in Vancouver. My roommate said I was lucky enough to get away from the torrential rains and the power outages.


6. I opened my first bag of Winter Chex Mix. Oh my. <3 It's hard to watch your diet when your boyfriend has a supply of sinful indulgences when you arrive. He's sweet like that. He's actually on his way home right now with a "surprise" meal. He wouldn't tell me what he's getting us for dinner! Damnit!


7. Sauce.” We had lunch here before shopping at Scottsdale Fashion Square. We walked be it last Tuesday and the food looked good so we checked it out. We weren’t disappointed. The food was gooood and very reasonably priced! And bonus points for them because they have the San Pellegrino orange drink I like. Haha. We ordered the Chicken, Pine Nuts, and Gorgonzola salad, Turkey, pesto aioli and Fontina cheese panini, and make-your-own sausage and pepperoni pizza. So, so good. The salad was surprisingly filling, and the flavors mesh well together. I really appreciate that the greens were cut bite size, not Godzilla-will-be-eating-it size. The this crust pizza was awesome as well and the turkey panini was tasty! For everything, including drinks, I think we paid only $28. Not bad. We even had leftovers to take home!

I can’t remember the last time I had coffee to jumpstart my morning. It’s been a while.

This morning I had instant coffee (Vile and unacceptable! to hardcore coffee drinkers) with cinnamon and heavy cream. Mmmm. Perfect for a chilly morning.

Wait. Remember I was basking about the warm weather?

I told my boyfriend last Friday that it was a perfect sunny day with a cool breeze. Saturday, I almost cursed because I was freezing.
He said, “What? I thought it was perfect?”
Welcome to Vancouver.

Vancouver, it seems, is like the wife that you come home to. You go places, but in the end, you’ll go back. And it will embrace you with a warm loving hug, and icily slap you (with its temperamental weather) the next day–for being the prodigal husband that you were who didn’t remember to check in on her for the last 3 weeks.

Autumn is here. I can see it. I can feel it. I have mixed emotions about it as I think about the winter doldrums.

Old Powerbook. I tried to revive my old 12-inch Mac last weekend once I received my DiskWarrior in the mail. It took more than 12 hours to rebuild the directory. Almost 11,000 overlapped files. Yesterday it asked me if I wanted to replace the old directory, but wait! It’s best if I save a copy of my old files which totals 40GB in size. My existing external hard drive has no more space. So I have to buy a new backup drive. I ordered a 250GB external hard drive. I’m paranoid about data loss now.

Animal Crossing. There’s always a first time, I say. Last Friday I went to EB Games on my own for the first time. To buy something for myself, for the first time. This is monumental for a self-confessed non-gamer like moi. Yesterday I began visiting another town, thanks to random strangers on GameFAQs.com. [Yes! I opened an account on GameFAQs.com!] Someone gave me bells (moolah), a crown and a halo. My house is a bit bigger now, too after a ‘renovation’. I’ll buy stuff for it tomorrow with the town’s store re-opens. Take a look:

Yep, she’s in a pink frock I designed. I designed the wallpaper, too. And that is my “painting”.

I start playing RPG games at age 28. YEASH.

Thursday Next series. I’m on my first book, The Eyre Affair. I started reading it during my flight back. Interesting. I blame Libby for getting me hooked. ;-)

You Won’t Be Single For Long Vodka Cream Pasta. D and I cooked this 3 weeks ago and it was goood. I made it again the other day. I used linguine and added sliced beef sausage and ham. I placed the leftover sauce in the freezer and it tastes better every day. Highly recommended. By the way, if you make the recipe as is, it will probably serve 5-6 people. Four, if they’re very hungry.

Something to look forward to. I booked my next flight to the US last night. I’m joining D and the fam for (the US) Thanksgiving! =)

I can’t remember the last time I had coffee to jumpstart my morning. It’s been a while.

This morning I had instant coffee (Vile and unacceptable! to hardcore coffee drinkers) with cinnamon and heavy cream. Mmmm. Perfect for a chilly morning.

Wait. Remember I was basking about the warm weather?

I told my boyfriend last Friday that it was a perfect sunny day with a cool breeze. Saturday, I almost cursed because I was freezing.
He said, “What? I thought it was perfect?”
Welcome to Vancouver.

Vancouver, it seems, is like the wife that you come home to. You go places, but in the end, you’ll go back. And it will embrace you with a warm loving hug, and icily slap you (with its temperamental weather) the next day–for being the prodigal husband that you were who didn’t remember to check in on her for the last 3 weeks.

Autumn is here. I can see it. I can feel it. I have mixed emotions about it as I think about the winter doldrums.

Old Powerbook. I tried to revive my old 12-inch Mac last weekend once I received my DiskWarrior in the mail. It took more than 12 hours to rebuild the directory. Almost 11,000 overlapped files. Yesterday it asked me if I wanted to replace the old directory, but wait! It’s best if I save a copy of my old files which totals 40GB in size. My existing external hard drive has no more space. So I have to buy a new backup drive. I ordered a 250GB external hard drive. I’m paranoid about data loss now.

Animal Crossing. There’s always a first time, I say. Last Friday I went to EB Games on my own for the first time. To buy something for myself, for the first time. This is monumental for a self-confessed non-gamer like moi. Yesterday I began visiting another town, thanks to random strangers on GameFAQs.com. [Yes! I opened an account on GameFAQs.com!] Someone gave me bells (moolah), a crown and a halo. My house is a bit bigger now, too after a ‘renovation’. I’ll buy stuff for it tomorrow with the town’s store re-opens. Take a look:

Yep, she’s in a pink frock I designed. I designed the wallpaper, too. And that is my “painting”.

I start playing RPG games at age 28. YEASH.

Thursday Next series. I’m on my first book, The Eyre Affair. I started reading it during my flight back. Interesting. I blame Libby for getting me hooked. ;-)

You Won’t Be Single For Long Vodka Cream Pasta. D and I cooked this 3 weeks ago and it was goood. I made it again the other day. I used linguine and added sliced beef sausage and ham. I placed the leftover sauce in the freezer and it tastes better every day. Highly recommended. By the way, if you make the recipe as is, it will probably serve 5-6 people. Four, if they’re very hungry.

Something to look forward to. I booked my next flight to the US last night. I’m joining D and the fam for (the US) Thanksgiving! =)