In and out of Vancouver

This was written on the flight back. I’ve been too busy since to post it until now.

-T

Friday Night – I’m tired

Jen arrived in the first 5 minutes after I landed…we went back to her place. I was kind of hungry, but I wanted something warm and soupy to take away the damp chill that was prevalent all weekend.

She suggested A Ramen Noodle house near her place. Jen ordered a Miso-flavoured Ramen and I ordered a Shoyu flavoured ramen. That really hit the spot. Jen didn’t really like her Miso flavoured ramen, so we switched at the beginning.

I also had “Gyoza”, Japanese Dumplings.

I basically became deleriously tired after the meal and a half (I ate Jen’s half).

<aside: I had been up until 3:00 AM the previous night. The fact that I even lasted to 1:30 AM PST amazes me.)

Jen and I woke up the following morning after a much needed sleep. I complained that I was tired, but she wanted to do something, so we headed out to “White Spot” for some breaky and then headed to Stanley park. The walk around stanley park was nice. It was sunny for most of the part—with foggy breaks that would roll in from the water.

This is a picture of Jen and Tai in Stanley Park, along the sea wall.

This is a picture of Jen just along the sea wall

One thing that made me curous was this “9’oclock canon” that sits along the sea wall, about 1/4 around the Stanley Park loop. Apparently they fire this canon everyday at 9 PM. Go figure…. I wonder why.

One thing about it…you have to love the sign:

This is a picture of the warning sign for the 9 oclock canon.

And here is a picture of a large Sulphur pile that sits near North Vancouver. I love the colour:

This is a picture of the sulphur pile that sits along North Vancouver's shore line.

After walking around Stanely park for 2 and half hours, we dropped by Blendz ( a local coffee chain), picked up a regular French Vanilla coffee and a Caramel Mochiatto and headed back to Jen’s house. I called my friend Allison Salter, arranged plans for lunch Sunday morning, and then took a brief nap.

We slept for an hour and 40 minutes.

Dinner

Dinner was one mistake after another. To drink, I wanted something a little more exotic…so I walked into a nearby Korean/Japanese corner store and bought a 1.5 L bottle of Calpis Water (see my other blog about the wonders of Japanese Beverages). That ended up costing $8.55 CDN. Damn!

Jen had gone grocery shopping earlier, so we decided to prepare some Shake and Bake, using the rest of the shake and bake to cover some red bell peppers that would be roasted in the oven.

Now, Jen lives in a rather “luxurious” condo overlooking Robson Street (kind of like the Yonge St. of Vancouver.

It’s too bad that her oven didn’t work. So i ended up pan frying the chicken breast…

I was sooo upset…almost visibly so.

The only things that really turned out was the steamed rice and the stir-fried green beans.

Too bad..we had the ingredients for a great stir fry….

Technology 1, Tai 0.

I was bummed for the rest of the night.

Jen had really wanted to go to this café called “Death by Chocolate”, but I wasn’t in the mood.

I know she was kind of upset.

I never had the chance to see Allison…it wasn’t in the cards. Oh well.

Jen made some excellent French Toast that morning. We topped off the meal by visiting a hot new food location that sold gourmet cupcakes.

The store was called (and all the usability specialists will like this one), “Cup Cakes”.

The flight back was uneventful.

-T