Old

Another birthday came by my way. Urk! I suppose I should be embracing the onset of middle age, but in my mind I still look the same way I did when I was ten…funny how creepy that sounds. Also, my birthdays never tend to be big blow-out occasions, so I can pretty much get by with ignoring it all together. When did I get so jaded? It must have been on one of those many birthdays that seem to pass me by. Anyway, it was here whether I liked it or not, so Janelle and I made a day of going into Vancouver shopping – we usually do this regardless of a birthday, so I kept forgetting. But I did manage to get a new haircut on the occasion.



Birthday lunch was held at Benkei, my go-to ramen shop in the city. There’s nothing like ramen to power one’s afternoon of shopping.



Apparently I didn’t take any pictures of the afternoon. Well, really…you don’t need to see Janelle and I wandering through a mall and Holt Renfrew for hours on end. That brings us to dinner. Unoriginality prevailed again as we hit up a restaurant we’ve been previously, Ciao Bella on Denman. I took another picture of my new hair.


I’m digging it.

The place seems to be run by real Italians. Italians, that are, of course, a million times nicer than the ones in Italy, which made the experience pleasant. Janelle doesn’t seem to be impressed with her food at all today – what’s with the pained expression?



After that, we headed home for some family togetherness time. People probably wonder why I didn’t spend my birthday with my husband, so I figured he should be featured in here somewhere. We went to our main haunt, ABC family restaurant and did the usual dessert. And for that, Janelle always smiles.



I do believe that my birthday concluded with a trip to see Avatar (for the first time). For some odd reason, Avatar-fever hadn’t caught yet and the theatre wasn’t even full. But I was so thrilled to see a 3-D movie that I didn’t even notice another soul in the room. As you can guess by now, the movie was awesome.


At least these 3-D glasses are more stylish than their forebearers.

So there was my birthday for another year…the blog is nothing monumental, but it will help me in future years to remember what I did on my 27th birth day on earth. Earthlings, rejoice! I was born.

Let me conclude with a random picture of some Japanese curry I made. It wasn’t even for my birthday, but since I love curry, it should be mentioned in a blog that is all about me. YAY!

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An Arresting Experience

I really missed Jean…I hadn’t seen her, in all actuality, throughout most of 2009. That’s why we finally set aside some time at the beginning of December to head off on one of our legendary Vancouver day trips, partaking in touristy activities, courtesy of her tourism passport. Today’s destination was the grisly Vancouver Police Museum, which we had attempted to visit earlier back in 2008, but they were closed. We parked Jean’s jalopy (which I love) downtown and boarded the “Big” Bus which would take us down into the seedy corridor of the Downtown Eastside, where the museum is located.


Apparently we are the only tourists today.







The museum was pretty quiet even though it was a Saturday. The displays started off harmless enough…some regalia, old motorcycles, different articles…you know, kid stuff.




BEST BIKE COP EVER!


The bathrooms kind of felt like drafty old church bathrooms. Creepy.

As we kept on moving through the museum, eventually it turned more violent: a wall display case filled with homemade weapons – brass knuckles, flails, maces, spiked shin-pads, etc. To think people made these items to use just makes me uneasy. Then we got to the rooms with graphic content advisories – these are the actual rooms of the old city morgue. They still had the body shelving units in the wall, a la CSI. There were body-type objects inside but I was too creeped out to look closer.





Some of the articles they had on the wall were downright disturbing – they had photographs taken of murder victims, still lying in their own pools of blood, and photos of homes after a murder spree. Gak! I’m too young to see these things. I didn’t take any pictures of those, don’t worry. They also had a boy who accidentally shot an arrow through his eye and into his head…and then the arrow was on display! Not even enclosed in a display case! I could have touched it if I wanted. Gross. They had the original autopsy beds still out…with the original tubing. It was dirty. Me and Jean eventually felt so ill we had to leave.

Outside the museum was a different kind of uncomfortable feeling…we were waiting for the trolley car to come take us back downtown, but as it was off-season, it didn’t come around very often, so we had to wait. And we waited. And waited more. Eventually a prostitute came by and started to solicit on our block. She had a long blonde wig and a bright pink dress on. There were potential customers…that’s all I’ll say without grossing you out anymore than you already are. Eventually the trolley came…and I couldn’t climb on fast enough.



After a bit of shopping and picking up a smoothie, we headed home. I think that was enough for one day…and who is hungry after all that? YIKES!

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