days to remember

I'm one of those people who likes to take pictures of everything they're about to eat, or pictures of random things that I see, or grab business cards from small shops for the future. It's like memory hoarding - I hoard pictures and little souvenirs to remember. The past five days (though especially the last two) provided so many moments like that ... and they were days to remember :)

Last Wednesday was The Boy's birthday - and it was lowkey but awesome :) His gift? A portable BBQ that he's already used a handful of times. The destination? Exploring lakes within a one-hour drive of our city and attempting to fish even though the winds were gusting like crazy. The food? Yummy burgers and sausages followed by my 'birthday cake' (banana chocolate chip loaf) to him and then ice cream (nom nom nom~). 

 Gorgeous lake on the left (that had 'keep out' signs all around it, meep) and our BBQ spot.

Rainbow sherbet and peach ice cream and a surprise bouquet(!!) from The Boy the next day :D

And then came the Unionville Festival!! I haven't seen my friend Isabelle in forevvaaaaaa and adding a festival on top of that makes for a weekend of epically awesome proportions. The bus rides there involved a crazy thunderstorm but it cleared up for a nice afternoon, an amazing night of fireworks, being introduced to Katamari which is so much fun and I'm disappointed there's no demo available on PS3 to play it, and trying out delicious new foods (including going to a Chinese dim sum restaurant where I was the only non-Asian hahah).

YUMMY YUMMY corn from an inflatable corn tent (that I want, with corn included plz).

Posed next to random things like a Wizard of Oz display (and close by you could hear little kids butchering Journey in karaoke hehe) and a HUGE Jack Daniel's bottle ... unfortunately it was only inflatable.

A scruuumptious steak salad with goat cheese, and then we also had amazing ravioli.

FIREWORKS! So pretty. And we sang along to QUEEN's Bohemian Rhapsody at the beginning :D

We also saw cool kilt-wearing men in a band called Seasick Sailors, they were so good!

Add me finding the sea salt spray I unfortunately had confiscated at the Vancouver airport, talking until our throats were itchy and our voices were hoarse, and finding amazing hand-made things like soy pineapple candles, yummy-smelling soaps, and other knick-knacks like gnome keychains ... it was such a great weekend and I'm so thankful she invited me over! I'm hoping the rest of June brings along more great memories :)

What were you up to this weekend?

And what's one meal you could really go for right now?

(I want to cook more and I'd love some ideas!)

COMING UP THIS WEEK: an indepth look at my sister's wedding day :)

left a piece of my heart

I'll admit, I left a little piece of my heart back in British Columbia. While the rest of my life might be in Ontario (or Onterrible as some B.Cers call it), my heart remains back where my sister and my niece and my new brother-in-law are, where the sea meets the sky over a highway, where I can meet amazing people like Sarah and Kym (again!!) and do lots more jumping/levitating photos. There's so much to say about that one week in B.C. and I know I couldn't sum it up in one post ... so instead, here's some 'teasers' of what I've been up to :)

My sister & J said "I do"

The invite promised it'd be "anything but boring" and it delivered: a teary-eyed ceremony with a beautiful bride and groom, followed by a relaxed dinner with amazing food (and my dad losing a tooth, but more on that later! haha), then taken up a notch when all the 'adults' left leaving us late teens, 20s and 30-somethings to party it up and have the time of our lives (and dancing to BEP's "Time Of My Life"). I promise, lots more details to come (unless my sister wants to share them, in which case I won't spoil it!). Either way it was a beautiful night and I am SO happy for her and J!

Being vampires at the after-party :D

P.S. I've got The Boy hooked on The Vampire Diaries, bwahaaha.

All dressed up with my mamusia.

When I wasn't spending time with my family, I managed to meet up with two awesome gals; though I only got to see Kym for a bit, I loved every moment and wished we lived in the same city (or at least province!). We graduated to levitating photos, ate some yummy gelato, and got suckered in by U.K. accents (more on that here!). P.S. shameless plug, vote for Kym and her amazing t-shirt line here!

Bees + Kym! And trying out an Italian eatery with a southern name with Asian employees haha :) Love you lots Patty!

A British man held my camera to take this photo haha. 

Gah, Vancouver scenery is b-e-a-utiful.

This trip felt entirely too short - there's so much of Vancouver I wanted to rediscover and explore, but I'm psyched I got to see where my sister now lives (Squamish) and do the touristy things every tourist has to do while visiting Whistler! Plus, see how darling my niece is and how genius she is ... especially when pretending to be a raptor or a zombie :D

In Whistler, baby!

Since then, life has been about catching up with friends, reclaiming my summer school job, learning how to drive(!!!) and planning The Boy's upcoming birthday :) OH! And finding out that I now have 200 followers ... you are ALL AMAZING. I love following your blogs, love the friendships that have been made, and am definitely planning a proper way to say THANK YOU!!!! to come soon :)

Thank you for the well wishes for the trip - it's one I won't forget and I just hope I get to go to B.C. again soon. And now I just have to get back into the swing of blogging properly again, we'll see how that goes!

Is there a place that you've left a little piece of your heart to?

And any plans for the weekend? Hope it's great! :)

leaving on a (west)jet plane

All my bags are (half) packed, not yet ready to go ... but I'm really excited that in less than 24 hours I'll be seeing my amazing sister and niece for the first time in nine months! British Columbia, here I (+ parentals) come! While being on a plane - and in this case two since we have a layover - makes me feel a bit antsy, I have my mp3 player, the Water for Elephants novel, and my camera to keep me company and help me admire the clouds below instead of fearing what might happen. Plus, having The Boy drive me and my parents to the airport in the wee hours of the morning will warm my heart enough to last the whole airplane trip!

{image source}

While I'll try to catch up on your awesome blogs, I know I'll be preoccupied by the mountains of Whistler, the hustle and bustle of the main city, spending time with my family, and hopefully both meeting someone new and meeting someone again (hello Patty!). Weird that my kitchen board countdown now reads "1 day!" to Vancouver; here's what I've been up to in the days leading up to it:

Enjoying delicious vegetarian fare with a friend I haven't seen in a year!

Relaxing near the lake on a cool day and cuddling as often as we can :)

Having Starbucks with a close friend (something I'll have a lot in Vancouver!) and my haircut!

Now I'm going to keep packing while I recover from last night's finale of The Vampire Diaries (who saw it and OMG'ed a hundred times like I did?). I hope you all have a great next week and I'll try to update when I can! I bid you all adieu for now!

Annnnd I'm a wee bit curious (and bitten by the travel bug):

If circumstances allowed you to hop on a plane and go wherever, where would you go?

the couple that gets fillings together...

Since I left the beloved west coast of Canada, I've plunged myself into a list of to-dos-but-don't-really-want-to-do, including going to the dentist. Once my baby teeth fell out it was sayonara cavities, and I was sure my teeth would forevermore be perfect (haha, wishful thinking). After a year or so of not going, my longtime dentist (who reminds me of Dan Aykroyd for some reason) happily informs me, "You have three cavities, possibly four." Imagine me, looking absolutely traumatized.

So I've spent most of this week with my mouth half-frozen and two people prodding around, drilling into my teeth. The Boy, whose dentist is frequently busy, decided to schedule his filling appointment at my dentist office on the same day, half an hour after my appointment. The couple that gets fillings together, stays together? :)

Apart from that, I've been spending some time with friends before the hecticness of September arrives. Lately it's been watching movies with The Boy (seeing The Expendables in the theatres, which was loaded with testosterone and the awesome Jason Statham as well as getting What Happens In Vegas on DVD courtesy of an early birthday giftcard), as well as catching up with a longtime childhood friend over coffee and mini-putt, and  now I'm making some plans for my birthday next week.

Mini-putt pro? :P

On the last day of August, I'll be twenty-two! I have officially passed the ages worth celebrating (sweet 16, turning 19 in Canada, being legal everywhere at 21) but since age ain't nothin' but a number, I'm still going to have a celebration with my close girlfriends a couple of days earlier :) Mainly I just want to take as many pictures as my memory card allows since it'll most likely be our last big hangout of summer '10.

Speaking of summer '10 ... 

what are your plans for the rest of it? 

Are you looking forward to Autumn?

I'm still being nostalgic about this summer coming to an end, so I'm going to be sharing more photos/memories from Vancouver from time to time, if you don't mind!

With my niece at the gorgeous fountain in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery!

Posing it up!

 Spying on my sister, tee-hee.

A grizzly bear on Grouse Mountain! This was after it charged some lady, hehe.

And food porn in the form of a baguette with pear, blue brie, prosciutto, roasted walnuts, oil & vinegar. Probably the most delicious and most filling sandwich I've had this year :)

Hope you have a great rest of the week :)

eat, pray, sisterly love

It's an odd feeling to be homesick for a place that's not even your home. The same thing happened when I left Poland - I met all my relatives for the first time, had difficulties constantly speaking in my native tongue, but by the end of it felt secure and at home. 

This time it was in Vancouver - as the train left the station and I blew kisses to my adorable niece and my amazing sister I realized I had made another home away from home on the west coast of Canada, two thousand miles away from my actual home. 

My first thoughts as the plane left B.C. soil were:

This trip went by way too fast. 

I'm so glad I got to see my sister.

I wish I could have stayed longer.

My niece is the most curious, smartest 4-year old I've ever met.

I can't wait to see The Boy.

But I don't want to leave Vancouver.

But he's picking me up from the airport and it'll be awesome.

But it would be even more awesome if he was here with you right now.

True say. Maybe next time.

There were two pieces inside of me, both of equal size that knew my life - for now - belongs in Onterrible, but mostly because the man I love is there. But that other equal part of me just wanted to live life on a whim and create something new, and maybe move the man I love out to British Columbia haha. I know that I'll definitely be coming back to take in more of the sights (gorgeous greenery, the oceans, the mountains that create a permanent background in any view), the sounds (the cruise ship noises, my niece laughing, me & my sister creating a new script while watching Eclipse that is full of the word 'llama') and lots of hugs from my sister and niece. 

After seeing Eat, Pray, Love earlier this week I realized I've done a lot of eating in Vancouver, errr a bit of praying (on the plane, mostly) and loved spending time with my sister, a woman I admire far more than I can probably put into words, and meeting Kym, too. And now I want to read the novel since the film was pretty good! I'll probably have more Vancouver recaps to come, but here's just a few pictures of moments that stand out:

 The breathtaking view atop of Blackcomb Mountain at Whistler.

KOOZA! This Cirque du Soleil show was amazing.

Exploring in Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden.

With my model-esque niece on Bowen Island.

The most Starbucks I've ever had in a two-week duration due to jet lag and overall addictedness.

Thanks to everyone who has kept commenting and sticking around here despite my absence; life is slowly returning to its normal routine so that means more blog entries and catching up hardcore on your blogs, too. Hope you've been having a great August so far, though :)

my first & second meeting with cats

It's been an amazing week-and-a-half so far with my fave blogger/sister, exploring different islands and areas of Vancouver ... and then, last Friday and just yesterday on Thursday I had the pleasure of meeting another amazing blogger/designer - Kym! It was my first ever blogger meet-up and it was comforting to know we both had pre-meeting jitters, but we had such a good time last week that we decided to meet up again! Here's a little recap of our meetings (Kym has all the video footage since I need to make room on my memory card).

Last week was hugs in front of the Vancouver Public Library, heading off for my first eating at Japadog which has amazing hot dogs, exchanging presents with Kym (I now have my first official herro hachi item of clothing and an adorable "I <3 Coffee" pencil case, thank you!), getting harrassed by a spa guy who called us "hot chicks", talking about how teenagers nowadays frighten us, and then heading off to Cafe Crepe for delicious Nutella crepes ... because Nutella is the stuff. And then we filmed our first shout-out video which featured my infamous beat-boxing skills - basically it's boots and cats really fast (I am now Boots and Kym is Cats). 

Backwards recap in pictures:

 Last photo from our first meeting - we asked so many random strangers to take photos of us :)

Nutella and strawberries with a hint of cognac crepe = yummy in my tummy.

Nom nom nom-ing on some Japadaog ... I love the stretching lady in the background, too!

The whole Japadogs seconds before we attempted to devour them but then got sidetracked by a guy asking us to purchase a spa package from him (oo-er).

My gift for her - a scarf from my/my mother's future scarf company!

Then came part two yesterday - meeting up in the Aberdeen Centre to go to Daiso, the BEST $2 store I have ever stepped foot in, complete with Engrish notebooks.  She then treated me to my first ever milk tea  before we headed out. As we got into her punch buggy Kym warned me, "I hope you don't get freaked out but I'm taking you to an empty parking lot." Immediately I fearetd being mobbed by some gang but fortunately she was just taking me out for food! (Food carts in random parking lots? A-okay by me!) We had Japanese fritters at Bakudanyaki and I had a chopstick fail (I'm Asian at heart, but not Asian with my skillz) but the food was scrumptious.

We then drove to Steveston (a quiant little fishing village) for a series of jump shots, walking on docks, holding our mouths closed to avoid swallowing flies, sitting on "make-out hill" and then transforming it to "scar-sharing hill" as we told each other about our various battle scars, and then indulged in some gelato before we *sniff* said our goodbyes. But not before we did some gangsta raps, did some air guitar/drums to "Summer of '69" and secretly yelled at people to get off our dock ... we are sane bloggers, indeed.

Wish you all could have been here!

Sketchy empty parking lots - thankfully not too sketchy in this meeting! And we're both repping the herro!

Delicious fritter - a surprise in every bite, literally :)

"Look ma, no hands!" teehee, just kidding ... she is an excellent driver :D

Jumping shots in Steveston! My camera had a timer fail so Kym has all the good ones - and looks like Buzz Lightyear in this photo haha.

Hanging out on a dock - we wanted to shoot a music video but it was too crowded (maybe in our part 3 meeting in the next few years?)

Couple photos by the water ... awwwww.

Would you like to be in our next photo? :D

All in all it was an amazing time meeting her and just added to the amazingness of this trip so far :) I'm heading to Cirque du Soleil tomorrow with my sister and then off to Whistler ... weird to think that by Tuesday my adventures in Vancouver will be coming to a close ... I've definitely fallen in love with the city and with the idea of seeing my niece and sister all the time. 

What have you been up to lately?

Sorry for the absence in commenting, I'll be back at it soon!

live from vancouver!

You know you're in Vancouver when all the ads on the Internet keep talking about day trips to Whistler and Groupon tickets for Vancouver restaurants. Such smart advertising robots! I AM HERE AND ALIVE! And currently dealing with a problematic off-on Internet situation ...

... But on the plus side, I'm here with my sister and my niece (and my bro-in-law) in a beautiful city whose "humidity" feels like a soft breeze compared to my city. I've only been here for a couple of days and am just starting to get over my jetlag, a jetlag which means I'm up at the crack of dawn-ish (6:30am) every morning.

It's amazing looking down at the hustle and bustle of the city, the boats making their constant trips, the runners who work out at any time of the day, the other fellow camera-obsessers who have MUCH nicer cameras than I have, and relishing in the fact that I have yet to be carded here in Vancouver (which is also a relief because I kept forgetting to stow away my ID in my wristlet). There's so much to be explored still, and I am stoked to see it all.

But enough chit-chat for now: here are some pictures from my first couple of days in Vancouver. And today I'm meeting up with KYM! I'm so excited and by the sounds of some comments I'm getting, you're all going to seriously hurt me if I don't take lots of pictures with her haha. Never fear, my camera is with me wherever I go :)

Reunited and it feels so good :) And a mere twenty-four hours later, we may or may not have dyed our hair (it's what us sisters do!).

With my adorable niece (who always wants to hold my hand, cute thing) on a water taxi.

Eating scrumptious gelato next to an artsy-fartsy (and I mean that in the kindest way possible) building. I've come across tons of public art, much of which I don't understand, but it's refreshing to look at compared to my lack-of-public-art city.

Standing next to the Olympic torch! It wasn't lit but y'know, it only costs $3,000 to light it up on special occasions. And my birthday is the very last day of this month. Any donations? ;) 

In a nutshell my days have been full of gasping at the amount of Starbucks here, trying out new foods, singing B-B-BENNY AND JETS loudly on the patio at a restaurant because it's our song (ever since 27 Dresses) and trying to catch The Boy on MSN whenever I can. And now it's Friday - time to take care of my niece, meet up with Kym(!!!), and take in more of this place.

What are your plans for the weekend? :)

Hope you have a great one!