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?

Winter holidays wouldn’t really be complete without Boxing Day shopping, dim sum, and a trip to the mountains. We did our shopping online at Air Canada (looking forward to travels in the new year!), taking advantage of the 15% deal (code GIFT2016), and we had our dim sum on Boxing Day with T, who was back from Edmonton, M, J&K, who were back from Calgary. We made it up to Cypress today, with M, who was back from Waterloo:

We made some new friends with the Grey Jay residents of Hollyburn:

After an hour on our rented snowshoes (much too short but we had other plans), we went to Boiling Point in Burnaby for lunch with M, M, and C. H and i will be back to snowshoe more. We will also be back to Boiling Point to try all the other soups (#goals2017?). Lunch is a better deal than dinner, you get a cold tea to go with the meal, and it’s $1 less.

More links to information on Hollyburn:

https://www.vancouvertrails.com/trails/hollyburn-mountain/

http://vancouverhiatus.com/hiking/hollyburn-mountain.html

https://www.outdoorvancouver.ca/hollyburn-mountain-snowshoe-trail/

http://www.cypressmountain.com/snowshoetours/

Snowshoe rentals and ticket to access trails for 2 people were about $55. I now have heart burn because of too much food in the past 4 days, and not enough exercise. It's so nice to have everybody back in Vancouver. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS, THANKS EVERYBODY FOR THE WONDERFUL MEMORIES AND PRESENTS THIS WEEKEND. LOOKING FORWARD TO CRAMMING MORE JOY AND LAUGHS INTO THE NEXT 4 DAYS BEFORE 2017.

Read more about how I spent Christmas this year:
http://luwesa.blogspot.ca/2016/12/jolly.html
http://luwesa.blogspot.ca/2016/12/magical.html

These pancakes were not though. Went across the street this morning in search of a hearty breakfast to help me get through Christmas day. Ended up here at Ricky’s for some eggs:

My meal on the bottom - pancakes tasted cardboard, the sausages had a strange aftertaste. The White Spot buttermilk pancakes are so much fluffier and have so much more sweetness and flavour.
H’s meal on the top – chorizo was OK, corn bread was disgustingly salty, as was the eggs benedict hollandaise sauce.

Coffee tasted like water.

I don’t think I’ll come back… Sorry, kind ladies who served us.



H’s Chinese beads bracelet had been on his bathroom floor for at least 2 weeks, and I had noticed that it was there, but never bothered to pick it up because I thought that if I moved his belongings, he would get confused about it. Sometimes, he leaves things on the ground in plain sight. Today though, I had to pick it up, because it was in the way of closing the door. I left it on the bathroom counter, next to the sink. 30 minutes later, at Ricky’s, right after we sat down and had ordered the coffee, the bracelet was staring me straight in the face, on H’s wrist! He either finally realized he owned something like it, or he was just too lazy all along to bend down and pick it up. You be the judge.

We got back to my house, after grabbing last minute groceries, wrapped presents, and now I must rush off to the parties. Merry Christmas. Happy Festivus.

This weekend was just the beginning of all the celebrations and parties and FOOD…

Started off with a work Christmas party, then a party at H’s best friend’s house, then a dinner with my very Chinese family. Snuck in some time during the snow storm today to yoga and then make up for the lost calories with this creation from Lucky’s:

Mont blanc donut – chestnut poop thing on top, sprinkled with sugar and festive gold flakes.

Orange filling. Not really into orange flavored things, but this was really popular with H’s parents.

I would like to try out the rest of the holiday flavours.

Also just wanted to document the work Christmas party at the Vancouver Convention Centre. The food did not disappoint (please see below). Sorry for the crap photos, I was sort of buzzered, even though we only had 3 drink tickets each (open bar all previous years, but 3 drinks is really more than enough).



Won a Biolite… H is such a lucky fella. We won the extra prize draw tickets, and then we won the Biolite. Still haven’t used the pizza oven from last year, but really looking forward to trying it.

Snow sucks. Being sick sucks. Merry Christmas (probably won’t be).

1. Lost luggage
2. Lost on the trail
3. Lost cellphone
4. Lost Altoids box
5. Lost passport

All found. This is the place to find yourself. There’s so much space to develop and grow. It was exactly what I needed.

1. Lost luggage

We arrived on the 24th after a 7 hour plane ride at the lovely KEF airport. I was feeling quite excited and refreshed, because I slept pretty much the whole way. H makes a magnificent pillow. We went through customs with no problems, met up with TPL, and went to grab our luggage. We all grabbed our stuff, and waited for T’s suitcase to come out of the chute. We waited and waited and waited for a black suitcase with a little red string on the handle. Where was it?!

As the rest of the crowd dispersed, we realized it would not make sense for us to keep waiting pointlessly, so T went to the counter to ask. D and TPL went to get the car, while H and I went to pick up alcohol at the duty free (it’s so much cheaper!). T eventually had some forms to fill out and was sitting near the conveyer belts, where one of the airport attendants was checking the remaining pieces of luggage left behind. There was a black one, a random stroller, some other bags, and a grey one. The airport attendant approached T, who was sitting forlornly by the belts.

“Is this one yours?” she asked, pointing at the grey one. “It has your last name on the tag.”

“No, it’s not, mine’s black, it’s probably somebody else’s.” T was sure that it wasn’t his. “If it’s mine, you can laugh,” he says, stubbornly.

“Pretty sure it’s yours, it even has the same flight.” The attendant starts laughing.

At least we picked up some good alcohol:

We dropped off stuff at the place we were staying (Airbnb is the way to go in Iceland – we each spent about $218CAD for 7 nights), and headed back out for what was supposed to be breakfast, now brunch. Went to Kaffi:

This place took a bit of hunting to find – had to ask a kind stranger for help. Food was great, maybe because we were all starving. It was pure vegan heaven. Too bad I’m not a vegan. We were now ready to continue exploring the rest of this quaint little city (town?).

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.

Much hunger. Could’ve finished this entire Whole Foods carrot cake by myself:

The state of the world has been on my mind for the past month… How do I live a zero waste life?
I’m pretty sure that would be too difficult, but I’m hopeful for change. Here’s something to consider if you like coffee! If you’re familiar with coffee pods, used in Keurigs and such, you will know how much hassle it is to recycle them properly. Nespresso offers aluminum pods that can be brought back to their stores for recycling, which is slightly easier but still takes time to transport each pod back to the store. I read today about 100% biodegradable coffee pod by G-PAK! Not available yet, but these will be a must have in 2016! (I’m excited enough for 6 exclamation marks in 1 post). They’re a local Vancouver company too.

Here's another shot of the inside of the cake:

 

Biked around the city to find a coffee place (not Starbucks) open on Christmas. Propaganda was the only one I found (maybe I wasn’t searching hard enough).

As my attempt to lower my carbon footprint and save money (the world is dying; see #cop21), I decided to stop using disposable cups forever. Other than a slip last week during a team Starbucks run, I’ve been pretty good at using my Intelligentsia Thermos mug and this mason jar:

The mason jar survived the bike ride home, full of coffee, zero drops wasted of my $3 Americano. I am IMPRESSED!!!!!!
I think next month, I will make it a goal to bus or bike to work only. Merry Christmas everyone.