As the 45th US president was being sworn in, some Canadians were watching closely. Others, like me, decided to hit the slopes at Whistler. There was quite a crowd, even though the snow wasn’t the freshest and the sky wasn’t the clearest. A mountain day is always a good day… 

We drove up to Whistler on Friday night, right after work (9-5 office life for all 4 of us in my car), stopping by Squamish to grab a late dinner at Mag’s 99:

 

Top: Fried chicken, fries. Bottom: Chimichanga

This must’ve been the best chimichanga I’ve ever had. It was packed with rice, and the pool of mysterious orange sauce it was sitting in really complimented the flavors of the rice and meat inside. I’m hungry just thinking about it. This was enough to put all of us into a food coma.

It was not easy to finish it off, because LOOK AT ALL THE RICE, from just a quarter of the chimichanga!

The chicken was OK, slightly dry. I’d give this a 3/5 for the chicken and 4/5 for the chimichanga. 

We got to the hotel, started playing Machi koro, and didn’t get to bed till 1:30AM… Staying up late and struggling to wake up the next morning seems to bring us together.

This is going to be a slow new years eve. I feel the urge to stay in, be an introvert, and mourn the end of another year. I always feel like I haven’t done enough. What have I accomplished?

What did you manifest this year? – Aaliyah @YYOGA

Let’s start with yesterday, New Year’s Eve eve:

I made breakfast.

I went skiing. P had a leak in his front tire, something punctured it, so he didn’t get to go, and ended up being our driver. Thanks dude.

I ate some more at Kyo, but it was a disappointing meal. Top left: beef teriyaki. Top right: Aburi (not really though?)

I think I know what aburi sushi should taste like, as I’ve had some great ones before around Vancouver. I came to Kyo last year, and it blew my mind that they offered such aburi for $30 a person, all you can eat. It obviously wasn’t going to be as good as the ones offered by “authentic” Japanese restaurants, (based on my little experience with Miku, Victoria Sushi, Kishimoto), but I was able to distinguish it from regular sushi. This time around, it looked like they just torched some regular sushi and put on a line of sauce. Their cooked food was disgusting as well, with the most memorable being the beef teriyaki. We were all shocked at how it looked like it might have been boiled, or microwaved, and it was still cold. The menu had some changes too, and didn’t have the same options that would spark joy (prawn tempura? udon?). There are other things I could rant on about... But moving on. 

Never going back.

I went to a onesie Christmas party, but was too tired and ended up leaving early. Too old for this.

Thinking back through the rest of the year, it’s hard to think of things that I’ve accomplished, off the top of my head. The same applies though to the opposite – what did I do that I wasn’t satisfied with?

It’s been a while since H has been this sick, and I guess it really hit him hard for 2 days straight. He missed a shift at work, he stayed in bed for 1.5 days (where the 0.5 went towards going for dim sum across the street from him), and he is still coughing and sniffling. I guess he breathed on me or something on Friday, because I started feeling the headaches and chills on Saturday. Almost missed a powder day on Sunday, but woke up after a dose of Neocitran and 13 hours sleep to make it into P’s car for this:

It wasn’t my best day, it was certainly hard to breathe and get circulation to my legs for them to work proper-like. We went up the t-bar to do the glacier bowl on Blackcomb… I was not prepared for the low viz pow that would hit us right in the face. Not bad though. Then, moguls left right and centre, and my cardio was shot because of the flu/cold that I thought I’d slept off the night before. It just hurt so much to breathe in that –10/-15°C air… Still felt amazing, adrenaline rush.

Any day on the mountain is an awesome day. I still swear by this.

I’m looking forward to going up more often, maybe in the new year, because looking at the calendar for the rest of this month, I think things will get too busy too fast.

I just took another pack of Neocitran... Goodnight, world.

Spent the day at one of my favouritest places on earth – Whistler!

Pulled pork poutine at the cafeteria near the Wizard. Gourmet. $13.95. Worth it, come back for more!

That’s the end of this season for ski/snowboard. It was a rather uneventful season for us this year in terms of winter mountain sports, because we didn’t go up that often. S and V think I’m on drugs, partly because I’m changed. It’s nice that they’re worried enough to talk to me about it though. Spent some time with H after dinner with J and V, and now watching vlogs. Now that I think about it more, why am I worrying so hard? Great new products and technologies are on their way. Check out this edible disposable utensils: https://www.ketto.org/bakeys

They just need to find a way to make it more affordable.

Now that I’m in my late 20’s, I go skiing without a hangover. Whistler was beautiful this Saturday:



Then, we picked up a Nespresso on Saturday, and decorated my house with red and champagne (not white) roses:



This is the Inissia model, uses only the OriginalLine capsules. We took advantage of the $100 coffee credit to pick up about 14 boxes of capsules, including the limited edition Ciocco Ginger (intensity of 6, which is the middle).  When they run out, I’m going to scalp these on Craigslist. H laughed when I told him my plan.

It was difficult getting back to work on Monday.

I just want to go back to this…

Might as well just eat.

Look at all that butter. @Happy Date Bakery & Restaurant. Maybe I don’t exercise enough to have this, but we’re all going to die one day, and I’d rather eat this and be happy than deprive myself of all that fluffy bread with butter.

Reasons why I cannot sleep:

1. SimCity BuildIt is keeping me awake.
2. I dread transiting to work, but how else am I going to save some money?
3. Too much coffee today to stay awake.
4. Just not ready to sleep yet.

Waking up at 6AM tomorrow to bus to work when I could be riding comfortably in my Veloster. (Maybe not that comfortably, I get pretty nervous when I’m driving these days, probably because of all the previous accidents). It’ll be my first time using the monthly pass on the Compass card. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Cypress on the 30th. This is where I crashed and slid straight down the slope. Stupid moguls. I need a helmet.
It’s now 12:21AM, and I’m sorting through my photos from last year. What a tremendous year of changes – new job, new car, new hobbies, new relationships, new injuries, new prime minister. This year, I traveled mostly by car around BC and Alberta (Clearwater, Banff, Sunshine Coast, Whistler… I guess Whistler doesn’t really count). Horoscopes this year seem quite unreliable, but who cares what the feng shui masters say? I’m going to make 2016 great and full of more new things. Here’s a list of things I plan on doing:

• Travel to Iceland (tickets are already booked!)
• Travel to San Francisco (I should be going for work anyways)
• Ski on Mt. Baker
• Go snowshoeing
• Camp at Tin Hat Mountain
• Donate some money to a good cause
• Read at least 12 books (1 a month sounds reasonable)
• Invest in property (have you heard about the Vancouver housing market?)
• Protect the environment by using 0 disposable cups (this is going to be hard)
• Eat a lot and not gain weight  
• Blog more…

Yesterday, I made an egg boat for breakfast.

And now it’s 1:20AM, and I’m only halfway through the Gareth Emery Music That Made 2015 podcast. Listen to it here:

It was so crowded when we got to Cypress around 6PM. Poor J had to line up for an hour to get her rentals. We went for pho after, but I lost the picture. I think my phone has too many photos now and is no longer saving them properly.

Very strange to think that this winter wonderland is less than an hour’s drive away from my house. Will this snow last? I’m planning to enjoy it as much as possible before it’s gone forever.

Le sigh. #Whistler #vancouver #explorebc #explorecanada #nature #mountain #snow

A photo posted by louisa (@luwesa) on Dec 12, 2014 at 10:19pm PST

WHISTLER! My favourite place to go in the winter. Finally went up with V. Scraped down some moguls on our 2nd or 3rd run, almost ran into trees a few times and ended up on my bottom to avoid rolling down the slope. V got upset too because he fell into a tree well. We were both not happy with this, so we went up 5 more times. Owned it.

So glad we went, distractions are required.

It’s never a bad day up on Whistler (just like Cypress).

Last time we went to 7th Heaven (the peak of Blackcomb), I could barely see my own hands in front of my face, but check out the same view from today:

My favourite run of the day was Cloud Nine.  On the Whistler side, at the Peak Express. We tried to make it up a 2nd time, but the chair was closed already.

The snow was melting near the base of the mountain, which means that Spring is coming.  Until next year... 

We went to Cypress this Sunday, and got lost not once, but twice, down the same run. There was no escaping the diamonds.

It’s always a good day when I get to go skiing, no matter how tired/stressed/angry/ANYTHING I am.  It’s like I’ve entered a whole new world (like Aladdin whisking Jasmine into the air on his magic carpet).  On the other hand, I’ve been sighing all day at work.  Make the phones stop ringing, and stop sending me emails!