We visited Ding Tea today after a 2 hour walk (I'm not going to call it a hike, because I don't think it really deserved to be called that...). There was a line up out the door, but after looking inside the little cafe, I realized that the line was just caused by the lack of waiting space between the order counter and the front door. 

I'm sure this whole experience could have been improved if we arrived at a better time. We started lining up at 2:56PM, and they were actually closing at 3PM to prepare inventory, then reopening at 4PM. The line up had to rediverted inside the cafe, instead of looping around the outside; there were concerns about the availability of standing space, but luckily we were all able to fit inside. I'm sure when the hype dies down a bit, and their BOGO ends, the service will speed up and the lines will move faster. If you're sensitive to waiting in line, don't go now. 

The worst part is that the wait wasn't really worth it for any of us. We had the Hokkaido milk tea and the regular bubbletea. The taro milk teas were complimentary. Their pearls are very fresh, but the tea was not smooth or milky enough. I'm starting to think that Chatime's roasted milk tea and Houcailei's Bull Demon King (brown sugar jelly in milk tea) have ruined normal milk tea for me... I can't say I'll be back anytime soon, and this really teaches me to line up, just because everybody else is waiting.

This streak of bad tea will hopefully pass soon (talking 'bout you, YiFang Coquitlam!) just like everything else, including bad days at work and low motivation. As #instafamous Jenn Im said in her recent talk, 

"It's not the universe's job to had you motivation everyday, like here, take it. It's your job to look for it."

 Going to go read a book now.

The beginning of a weekend with no plans.Woke up later than usual (9AM), and remembered seeing beautiful waffles in the display case, at the nearby Whole Foods Market bakery. Weather's nice today, so I went for a quick walk to pick some up for breakfast.

Note that the Starbucks cup in the back contains the Kickstarter smoothie from the Whole Foods juice bar. Pretty slow service today, but I wasn't in any type of rush to get anywhere. Hopefully the smoothie satisfies my vitamin quota for the day, because the waffles were just straight carbs. 

There were 3 flavors available - pistachio, chocolate with almond slices, and chocolate with round chocolate crisps. I chose the pistachio and the almonds to take home and snack on while finishing up the last season of Game of Thrones. These waffles are the soft kind, not crispy on the outside. For $3, can't ask for too much! 

This week has dragged on, and the weekend continues to drag. I couldn't even kickstart my mood (ha, ha, referring to the smoothie...)! Something's missing this weekend, but what?

What is the thing you do to make your day feel complete?

This weekend, I made plans for next weekend, while sharing a few meals with a couple friends. One of those meals was at Sawasdee Thai:

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality. We had the pad thai, deep fried tofu that came with a delicious honey sauce, red curry with chicken, some more chicken and basil stir fry of sorts, and a seafood stir fry of sorts with squid. I didn’t really help out with ordering, left the others do all the work. Can’t forget to mention the coconut rice. Always get the coconut rice, because it’s just the perfect combo with the curry sauce.

The whole meal came to about $80 only for all 6 of us. Afterwards at home, I chugged a whole 2L of water, probably because of all the MSG and salt, but hey, it was delicious at the moment and I have on regrets.

Also spent the weekend reading all of Startup by Doree Shafrir instead of going out. I borrowed an eBook from the library and zoomed right through it, pretty easy read. It’s like Gossip Girl for the Tech world. I’ve never been part of a Startup, but I can totally relate to the themes of the book (ie, females in the Tech workforce, information in the Internet age, office life, etc…) Would recommend.

So about those plans for next weekend... I'm excited, and you should be too. 

After multiple failed attempts, since the CIBC Run for the Cure in 2017, to visit 49h Parallel on Thurlow for their egg sandwiches, H and I finally made it! But first, coffee:

Here is the Doug, which is a pile of the softest fluffy scrambled eggs and thick, chewy bacon (a bit too chewy for my liking) between soft brioche buns. It was a really small sandwich that I could have inhaled in 5 bites.

Best part, the PEANUT BUTTER AND BLUEBERRY BISMARK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



I would come back for this donut, I think it’s my favourite, replacing their classic peanut butter and strawberry jam donut. The peanut butter filling is very creamy and more evenly distributed than their PB&J donut. So, yes, I will be coming back, not for this egg sandwich that I have hyped up for so long, but for the Blueberry & PB bismark.

I slept really poorly last night, partly because of the extra cup of coffee I had in the late afternoon after a day of grocery shopping, and mostly because of driving in the snow to get home after a couple of hours playing board games. It’s so stressful!

I also had a nightmare about falling asleep while sitting in the audience of a presentation (or maybe it was a training session) at a new job… I dreamed that I had trouble staying awake during the presentation, despite really struggling to focus on the speaker. There were important folks to impress. I just could not keep my eyes open, and in real life, I could not wake up and get out of bed!

Today has been a weird one. This week has been a weird one. 

I guess this is what it will be like for the rest of Dog year. Looking for that one big happy event that will block out 3 negative ones...

This weekend was a blur of sleeping in to recover from Minnesota/Kansa, short hike at Rice Lake before dim sum, and then eating as much as I could... Weekends are too short.

Got these little seawood, almond brittle snacks in the mail the other day, called Super Snaps. They’re pretty delicious, $4.99 at select stores, apparently. I keep forgetting to bring them into the office so people can try them out. Crispy, sweet and salty, pretty fair price for the resealable packaging.

Speaking of the office, I think we need more nature in there. Mainly to bring some new life back in, since the office fish has passed away. Nature helps people destress as well, and with all the changes, the ups and the downs... "If it's good, it's wonderful. If it's bad, it's experience."

Went for a quick sploop with the original bike gang (plus or minus 2) and ended up here, at Musette:



I had the macchiato (middle), while R&B had the espressos on the side. Yum. I think it was Pallet, but it could also have been Phil & Seb. I’m pretty sure it’s Pallet though, because I remember visiting there and it tasted awesomely similar. Sparkling waters in the glasses above the coffees. L had a drip coffee and a roll, which he seemed to really quite enjoy. Prices were decent, and the coffees tasted great. We were also ravenous from our sploop.



What’s a “sploop”, you ask? Most bikers from Vancouver will know this term - it’s a Stanley Park loop that a lot of cyclists regularly visit to train, because it’s got ups for pushing hard, and downs for cruising and breaks.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen so many of my friends in one weekend. My horoscope did say I would socialize this month. It also said I’d travel… and I’m hopping on a plane in about 12 hours!

This week will be about hand shakes and hustlin'.

Hit up the PNE because H’s mum wanted to check it out. I used to work here, and I never really understood the appeal of paying to go, but it was actually pretty interesting. There were a lot of really cool booths and sad looking farm animals. Another reason I didn’t mind was 'cause I wanted to try out some of the food options.There were some appealing options, and I went with the Praguery food truck:


Look how happy I am with my ice cream and delicious chewy cone:



I had the chocolate flavour, which came with a cute piece of chocolate on the top and a good slather of nutella in the cone. I do question whether this was worth $10, but hey, I was there already and I was hungry. Satisfied my sweet tooth, and the fresh chewy cone!!!! I would love to have these again.

H’s mum had the corn from the Corn Castle, and she said this was really sweet. I’m not really a corn on the cob type of girl, so I didn’t try it:



I also made a couple of impulse buys at the Fair. Sometimes, when I’m with H, I get suckered into things that are really gimmicky, but in the moment, I’m just convinced it will be useful. He’s a bit of an enabler. More on this later. Goodnight.

H and I went shopping early on Saturday morning (Patagonia sale = $10 base layer originally priced at $35), and by the time we were done, it was time to meet up with C and S for brunch at Olive + Ruby:



After an excruciatingly long wait in line to order and another painful moment of waiting at our table for food, I had the latte and the grilled cheese apple sandwich, with a glass of water (see photo above). The sandwich was quite crispy, and despite looking not the most appetizing, it was not the worse. I mean, how badly can you mess up bread and cheese? There was some tomato sauce/paste that I didn’t think really added to the sandwich in any way… The latte was strong, using beans roasted by Pallet, a reliable roaster, but there was no latte art. Disappointing. H also had a peanut butter smoothie, which again, I did not like. Perhaps it tasted too healthy. Perhaps it was just my tastebuds because H enjoyed it. All in all, the place has a nice atmosphere because of their wall decor of plants and their pendulum seats, but I wouldn’t come again.



This weekend was quite packed with activities, and I’m a bit late with this post because H didn’t get enough hugs (ie, he wanted me to hang out longer). There will be a part 2 because I ate a lot on Sunday too, and I have more thoughts and feelings to express.

H is back! I missed the weekend post, because we were busy catching up, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t do things. H and I visited Hugo’s Churros on Sunday:

I was disappointed by how small the churros looked, and how dinky the scoops of ice cream were. Can you even see it in the photo? What did I pay almost $8 for?! There was no way I could’ve made this look pretty, and it wasn’t for lack of trying. The ic ecream churro combo was also too sweet (I had vanilla and pistachio ice cream in the cup). Let’s not come back.

Back to hanging out with my teddy bear boyfriend (girlfriend?), who doesn’t love hiking as much as I’d like him to. Luckily, we snuck in this hike to Eagle Bluffs:

It was an easy hike, except for the first 45 minutes or so when I almost fainted going uphill. This is one I’d like to come back with my drone and the floaty that I’ll be ordering after I pay off the drone.

Visited Platform 7 for coffee with S before going to Closet Raid this weekend:

The ambience here is fantastic, especially the little garden outside where we chilled for a bit. Other than coffee, I’ve lately been obsessed with plants, so this was a perfect environment for me. Fantastic cappuccino, energized me enough to battle the other girls looking for deals at the sale.

S had the mocha (top):

On Sunday, I went to Twin Falls with Mom: 

This was such an easy view to get to, not more than 15 minutes from the parking lot at Lynn Canyon. Going back up the stairs was a bit more work for my mother. She also yelled at me to not go down into the trees, off the sturdy wooden path, to get this shot, but I knew it was safe enough. There was a good system of roots to form a bit of a staircase. Listen to your mother, but not when she hikes less than you.

Today, I spent an extra 30 to 45 minutes, schooling somebody to do a task the right way. It was tough, they fought back hard because they believed that there are lots of different paths to get to the same destination. I knew I was right though, and I didn’t even bother to say it in my usual passive aggresive way. I was too tired for that today. How do some people have such faith in their believes, thinking with their heads up their ass, that they don’t bother trying to understand the other side? 

If I’m not happy, it’s not the end yet.

Finally it was VinJu’s special day. It all turned out beautiful, as it usually does at weddings, despite forgetting things and losing track of time. Everything is ultimately perfect.

Let's backtrack. Started the day off with a nice coffee and croissant combo at Kaibo Espresso:

I was up at 6AM pretty much every day of this trip, and we arrived at Kaibo before the rush at around 7AM. Thank goodness, because the lineup really accumulated by around 830AM. Good coffee, not roasted (Miami) or grown on the island (Columbia). Not much space for any type of industry other than tourism on the island… Then, P, V, Ju, H and I went to the grocery to pick up some last minute things, as well as Sam’s one more time. The other dudes were just waking up when we got back, at around 1130AM. Ju had to start getting ready around 1230PM, so we got back in time for her to have lunch. The other dudes went to see the starfish, but luckily got back in time to sneak in a nap before getting ready. So much easier to be a guy, just throw on a shirt and go. I was busy enjoying the wedding and all the vegetables at the buffet, which we were deprived of during the Jerk Chicken Tour, so that's it. We went home the next day.

Back to the beginning of the GCM trip: GCM DAY ONE // JERK CHICKEN TOUR – Chicken!Chicken!

Back to GCM Day 2: GCM DAY 2 // IT’S A SMALL WORLD AFTERALL

Back to GCM Day3: GCM DAY 3 // STINGRAYS ARE TIRING

Another busy weekend.

Went to the Monplaisir macaron sampling event with B on Saturday. Bumped into J from work with her kids and husband there (still amazes me that she can bring her 2 kids around everywhere and be as cool as a cuke!). We spent a few minutes learning about their all natural macarons. No preservatives! No artificial flavoring! They’re mainly available in Calgary, where they have their headquarters, but I am ready to buy more when they come to Vancouver.  I tried the margarita one, and actually tasted the shot of tequila. There were a bunch of flavors that I’d be really curious to try (champagne?). We also had a few to take home. Perks. Woot.

So we took the macarons to Prado in Gastown, for coffee to balance out the sweetness and to grab a quick bite:

This was the cappuccino (with Monplaisir’s honey lavendar macaron, we couldn’t wait to take a bite of it…). We also shared their feature sandwich (ham, cheese, pesto, cranberry bread). B was surprised that a cappuccino could be so smooth, and I was impressed by the stringy cheese in their sandwich. I had the macchiato. Did I really need the extra caffeine? Yes, because H woke me up at 5:30AM.

I left the extras in the fridge, and ate them today with a regular Nespresso shot:

I need a kick in the butt to hurry up and post about the trip to the Cayman Islands before the rest of life kicks in. Weekend 69 and 70 are currently missing because a lot of wedding stuff happened. Pretty sure it would’ve been helpful if I had a laptop to document on the spot, so I’m now on the hunt for a good one. Recommendations welcome.

H and I sat at Pallet Coffee, while waiting to meet up with his parents for dim sum at Sun Bo Kong on Saturday. We were at the café from around 1030AM to 1130AM, and the line up just would not stop. Luckily we came in early enough to grab 2 comfy chairs by the back and watched the place bustling and hustling. All the tables filled up, and it was not surprising either, because their coffee was on point. I had the macchiato, and learned that the real traditional way to do it is with 2 shots, and just a dollop of foam on one of the shots. Sparkling water on the side to go with it, because the coffee was stronger than Gregor Clegane. Chocolate croissant was good and flakey (I should do a series on croissants... hmmm...). Drip coffee was not bad, but the espresso shots had already ruined it for me.

Then, just did some basic shopping, played Munchkins Marvel Edition with M+P. We need the expansion packs.

I had quite a bit of free time today to do whatever I want, and so I wasted about half of that time thinking about things I want to do. Then, I started reading This Changes Everything, and realized that I still haven’t finished this book even though I started it half a year ago, because it gets a bit depressing. I did learn a lot about the state of our world. Really though, what can I do as an individual consumer to try to lower that carbon footprint?

I think another reason I felt off this weekend was because of the offensive jokes at the Yuk Yuk Comedy Club by Jason Rouse this friday. To each their own, but some warning would be nice. The other acts before his were fantastic. 

This weekend was a slow one… Is this what retired life will be like? I hope not. 

The next day, it was pouring. 

M was not feeling her usual self (possibly wine induced) so we thought a pick me up at Salt Spring Island Ales would really help. We arrived at the sign that said “Spring Island Ales this way, open from 12 – 5PM daily) at around 11AM… So, we stopped at Fulford Harbour and explored the southern part of the island a bit, because we knew it would be another while before we would come back this way. Picked up a turkey sausage roll from the Salt Spring Mercantile (more on this at the end…).

12PM sharp:

Very friendly bar tender, told us about the offerings of the day. They had a sweet winter ale that was only available on tap. Earl Grey IPA was sharp. The others were drinkable. I would buy this again, if I saw it on the shelves and felt like a specialty IPA. The seasonal pour tasted very organic and not like beer at all, and it was really just for the gimmicks that we tried it. The flight cost about $8.50. We spent about 30 minutes here, and took the advice of the bartender to hit up Salt Spring Cheese Company…

View from brewery entrance. It’s tucked in the middle of a grove of trees.

What a feast… Samples of their cheeses, different jams and jellies, all along the bar:

H was in heaven. We picked up some of the truffle cheese and a jar of the Pear and Ginger jam, as well as Onion and Thyme jam from Salt Spring Kitchen.

There was still time leftover before our ferry reservation, so… one more stop at the cider place. I don’t like cider, so don’t ask me about it. There was a cute pooch there by the name of Penny.



So back to the turkey sausage roll from the grocery store right next to the Fulford harbour:



This place is amazing. The pastry was so fluffy I could die, the sausage filling was so flavourful… They had other pastries, but once you walk in, all you can smell is this mix of butter and meat. I still wouldn’t ride the ferry for 3 hours for this, or any of the above places, but it’s nice to know that it’s there, for the times that you want a quick get away from life.



Return to Day 1 on Salt Spring
Return to Day 1.5 on Salt Spring

Weekend getaway to Salt Spring Island with M+P and H last weekend. H recently purchased a 4runner, 2nd hand through Craigslist, so we drove down to the ferries after work on Friday. After a 3 hour ferry ride, and a 15 minute drive to St. Mary’s Lake Resort, we unpacked and just went straight to bed. The next day would be a long one, at least I hope I had instilled that expectation in everybody, because there were so many things we wanted to do!

7:27AM - I was adamant about catching the sunrise.

We made breakfast:

We tried to go to the Saturday Farmer’s Market, but they were still setting up the tents and because it was still early in the season, a lot of the vendors were not attending yet. We left shortly after that and bought groceries at the Thrifty’s instead.

10:30AM - P was adamant about digging for clams, so we set off for a beach that apparently was safe for clamming. He found the advisory online, through some government website:

We sat here for about an hour, I think… Got bored. I wandered off.



This is literally somebody’s backyard. The houses are right off the beach, and one of the neighbors actually came out to chat with his. He had recently purchased one of the properties lining the beach, and the struggles he had with bidding for it. Real estate market is still a war zone. Anyways, he recommended we find some fish and chips in Vesuvius.
 

It started to pour, but it quickly passed. We got impatient, and the boys jumped into the water. That was when we realized it’s still too early for clamming. We cleaned up, and decided to follow the friendly Islander’s advice to find lunch at Vesuvius, a bit defeated by the lack of fresh clams for dinner, but still excited for the island adventures to come.

Go to Day 1.5 on Salt Spring
Go to Day 2 on Salt Spring

Got Netflix recently. It’s a bit of an obsession to just easily just click it on and lose myself in hours of scandalous politics. A great friend for an introvert. What an effort it was to drag myself away from it and see real human beings. Coffee usually gets me going out though:

Visited Tuc with the gals. Sorry M, for being an hour late and for making you guys wait in line for us… I had the lavender latte:



That’s it, what else do I need on a rainy Sunday afternoon? Lavender lattes are one of my favorite beverages (I used to sit outside Waves and read with one by my side), and this one did not disappoint. The others had the chicken and waffles, some egg thing with beans, and some other egg and potato thing. Apparently, it was good, but I was still full from breakfast and could really only handle a latte. Too bad the wait times are so horrendous (1 hour today).





OK, back to Scandal. More meaningful posts to come.

And the rest of the weekend was skiing and eating.

Sunday morning, we just chilled around the village, because we stayed up late playing Machi Koro the night before. We originally wanted to brunch at Araxi, but it was no longer open for the breakfast hours and we were hangry.Ended up here, at Stonesedge:

I was impressed by the décor, and the presentation was very appetizing. The Mexican mocha hit the spot, I could imagine hitting up this spot for a drink après ski (wow so much French today). The food was not the best though… Everything seemed a bit overcooked on my plate of Breakfast Poutine, while S’s steak was a bit undercooked. Drinks, good; food, meh.


I feel like we missed the whole Women’s March, and now, looking at the news is just depressing. Hoping for the best, still…

Read the previous post for Part 1: http://luwesa.blogspot.ca/2017/01/55104-inauguration-weekend.html