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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The Rainbow

Now that the holidays are over, it’s back to the hard, hard labour I’m subject to on a daily basis. After a strenuous three days of work, it was time for another (sort-of) break – it’s time for our department’s yearly professional development excursion into Vancouver where we reflect on the hard labour of the past year and try to figure out solutions for the group to push on ahead for another year. As is my tradition, each year I blog about where we went, what we did – considering those things, this is my fourth PD blog! Have I really been working here that long? Yikes.

Regina, Brenda, and I carpooled in together mid-morning on Thursday. This year we were staying at the The Listel on Robson Street – my idea. Hope the hotel is nice or it’s my neck on the chopping block.











Not to shabby indeed! It’s no Westin in Ottawa or anything like that, but it’s certainly sufficient for my needs over the next 24 hours. Our meetings were held downstairs in the (duh) meeting rooms, so I dumped my junk and headed down there for lunch.








Deanna is just pretending that I’m not there, taking a picture. Nice try. It’s part of my schtick.





As you can see, I was a pig. Well, I was storing fat for the long afternoon ahead. Our workshop today was Colours. Have you had your colour done? When you do, you get totally pigeonholed into a specific stereotype and then you spend the rest of the day discussing how you are like your stereotype. Awesome. No really, I love colours.





As you can see, I’m the strongest in Orange, but Green isn’t far behind.

Orange

seeks change and variety
makes quick decisions
independent and competitive
extremely generous (I know, right?)
quick witted and funny
impatient with theory and semantics
may be pushy in seeking a decision (heh…heh?)
bend/break rules to get things done

Hm…well. What about green?

Green

logical and rational
quality conscious (and how!)
strategic thinker
innovative and ingenious
needs independence
requires private time
insensitivity to the feelings of others
provide information overload
impatience and lack of understanding towards emotional arguments/pleas
lack of concentration if disinterested
argumentative

Oi! It’s like voodoo.




Blue people. I know it might be difficult, but they are not to be confused with “Blue Man Group”.

Part of the workshop was to try to think like your least colour – mine was gold. Gold’s are really organized, dependable, prepared, loyal, helpful, narrow-minded, self-righteous, unforgiving, and pessimistic. Ha ha ha ha. It’s funny if you think about it. Anyway, I was the only one in my whole department, apparently, who is the least likely to be gold. I think that says something, but we can’t focus on that now. I was given $10, all by my lonesome, to try to run out and find a gift for the group of golds. I had 20 minutes, so I used the first 10 to dawdle and use the washroom, and the last 10 running like a chicken with my head chopped of.



I ended up buying them a giant pack of tealight candles because there were a lot of them and I didn’t want them to never forgive me for forgetting a person or two. Ha ha ha. The group of people buying for Oranges bought us scratch-and-win tickets. Yay! Us Oranges absolutely love money. And we didn’t win one thing. BOooooO!

We had some free time until dinner, so Brenda and I headed down Robson to do some shopping and eventually make our way to the Fairmont Vancouver for dinner.







The restaurant, Griffins, was also my idea. Call me selfish, but the only reason I suggested it was because of their bountiful dessert buffet that I knew would be included. But it all went over well – that place is great!













No late-night shenanigans this year…everyone just retired to their rooms and I got on the phone calling everyone far away as we had free long-distance. At least, I hope we did…I yakked for ages.

Ed. Note: I’m getting these things done finally! With this blog, November 2009 is done. Ha ha ha. I’ll be up to Christmas in no time…just in time for Easter!

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(Day 16) End of Days

At last my endless days of traveling for 2009 have come to an end! This day in Japan is my last, for now. I can’t usually stay away for too long. I packed up the last of my goods and donned my flying clothes…I always wear the same outfit flying in and out – I feel like it adds closure. Tomoko again prepared a sumptuous feast for my last meal – she’s such a gem.


Oinari-sama! I am so lucky to know Maya and her family.

In a completely unexpected move, they also offered to drive me on over to Tokyo station since I had so many heavy bags. To put it into perspective, they are a good hour away from Tokyo station by car and it would involve heading downtown. I am truly humbled by their generosity! It also gave me a good chance to chat with Maya one last time.







After bidding the Suzuki clan farewell, I juggled my bags onto the Narita Express train and zoomed through the city toward the airport in a nearly-two-hour journey. My last glimpses:





The airport seemed busier than usual and it took quite some time to check in. There was a very kind Air Canada lady that helped me with my bags and then it was off to the shops and my last snacks before the long fright (“r” used intentionally) home.




The goodie-sack from the Suzukis…I love goodie-sacks! What shall I have?





I don’t want to give any long wrap-up speech or anything, but let me just say it was a lot of fun for me, and I hope you enjoyed reading about it! Given that I live a little longer, I will come back (from the point of writing, it is roughly five months until I go back.) So…yeah. Did I answer the question that I posed on my first blog about why I love Japan? Mmm…I’m going to try to come up with a good, direct answer for next time.

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