I tend to call January the black hole – it’s a downward spiral after the jollies of Christmas…as well, I have usually become more jolly. The weather is cold and dry and there is no stat holiday on the horizon until Easter. Oh cruel fates! To temper this hostility, B and I tend to try to shop the month away. I did a pretty good job too, as you will soon evidence on my other blog. It’s terrible, really. But, like I predicted, the sweet new wardrobe pieces somehow make everything seem alright.
Like most of the planet, I went to see ‘Avatar’ for the second time in January – this time in IMAX 3-D. We arrived a ridiculous 4-ish hours early and were only second in line. What? At least we got good spots.
For some reason, I look like I’m in pain here. Oh wait…I think it’s because I climbed over a seat at one point and overestimated the length of my legs – ow.
A couple of days later, I headed into Fort Langley with my friend Yukimi to show her the quaint little village she had yet to see. iPhone pictures in the dark aren’t so hot.
Oi! This house looks like its on fire. It wasn’t. I really should carry around a proper camera.
Yet another couple of days later (did I mention this blog is really random? You may have gathered that already…), B and I headed into the Vancouver to shop again. This time though, there were little Olympic artsy stuffs cluttering the streets.
Oh my gosh – B fits perfectly into the cut-out for a snowboarder. It’s like she could be competing in the Olympics!
Yet another couple of days later, the highlight of my month came. One Saturday while watching SNL, we happened to see a commercial for a taiko drumming group from Japan who was going to be playing in Vancouver. We bought tickets. On the 28th, we went to see TAO at the Orpheum.
First off, the Orpheum is a super-rad place; just like those theatres you see in the movies that take place in the ‘30s and ‘40s.
Let me just say it was absolutely mind-blowing. It wasn’t overly theatrical or anything, but it certainly had type of suspense that is required to a hold an audience. The music was great – I didn’t realize muscle-bound men yelling to the beat of drums could be so appealing.
I was almost a little high after that show. WOOT! If they come back again, I’m there.
So February comes after January (duh) and the big event of February was….WAS….WAS!!! my trip to Florida. You were thinking about the Olympics, weren’t you? What, you didn’t know I was going to Florida? Well, yeah. It just kind of came. And went. And it will be blogged about next.
(ALL photos in this blog were taken with my iPhone – I would be sorry about the shoddy quality, but it’s really Apple’s fault.)
It’s been a solid year and nine months since Jean and I had one of our infamous hotel excursions, so when a deal popped up for The Listel back in October, Jean and I booked a room and saved the date. The Listel is the same hotel we went to for our work PD this year, so I was looking forward to taking advantage of its primo location once more. We took the first working Friday in January off and headed down.
After check-in, we walked down the block to the Japanese convenience store for some lunch. We got a motley crew of items!
Of all the items above, the one that is most curious to me is the ‘Sangaria Sherpet’ (not to be confused with sangria) – what is a sherpet?! I keep thinking of a Sherpa – maybe a pet Sherpa? A Sherpa pet/Sherpet? It was some strawberry-flavoured milky water. Tres bizarre.
The Vancouver Aquarium is now equipped with BC’s only 4-D theatre, and I absolutely love 3-D, so this was a must-see for the day. 4-D is like 3-D…only 33.3% better!
The Aquarium is always a fun time and though I was here mostly for the theatre, nothing says we can’t enjoy all the other attractions this place has to offer, though I’ve been here (and blogged about it) several times already.
Okay, enough of the scary-ass birds.
Aw! This little beluga is soooo cute! I want one! Well, not really. That would be messy. And really…where would I keep it? My tub is too small.
We finally made it to the theatre for the 4-D spectacular.
The show was ‘Planet Earth’ and it was all about sea creatures (which is totally appropros because we are at an aquarium). The 4-D effects were super-cool. I kept getting sprayed by the humpback whale blowholes and needed to take my glasses off for cleaning. The crawly sea creatures by my feet scared the crap out of me, but nothing did that more than when the sea snake poked me in the back. Vibrating coral, the smell of a sea breeze…it was all a part of this experience. I give it two massively swollen thumbs up!
We poked around at the other sea lives in the Aquarium before rummaging through the gift shop.
I love those floaty poof things. I wish I had one in a tub of water at my desk at work – I’d never get any workd done. I’d just stare at it all day.
Emo whale.
Our plan for dinner was to experience shabushabu at the Korean restaurant across the street from our hotel. I wasn’t quite sure if it was going to be the same as the Japanese version, but we had high hopes.
Not too bad! We were so pathetic…every time a server walked by, they’d help us by adding more vegetables, cutting up some of our meats and putting them into the pot, etc. We just acted like we didn’t know what to do, and they had us covered. Ah, sad little whities.
Bloated, we walked down Robson street for some exercise. It was pretty much all for naught as we planned to pick up some treats and a movie on our way back. C’est la vie.
Jean was tired, as usual. We rented the movie “Waruboro” (my choice) as it had “English” subtitles (you’ll see) and it starred the cutie-pie known as Shota Matsuda. So we popped it in and prepared for some totally rad throwdowns – it was a movie about high school gang turf wars. Funnest!
Um….what? What what what. I’m so confused.
I watched it as best as one could when watching a movie that conveys no comprehensible information. Jean ignored it and went to sleep. I give it two skeletal thumbs down.
The next morning was checkout before heading down to Richmond for lunch and some shopping.
We bummed around for a while before we decided to call it a day. Another adventure is sure to come along soon enough…
So it’s finally Christmas! Ha ha…ha? After spending last year’s Christmas in BC with my family, we once again made the trek out to Manitoba on snowy Christmas Eve (snow in MB…not here.) I hadn’t been back to Manitoba in nearly two years, since my Granny died in early 2008. When it came down to it, I was actually quite excited to be jetting down into Winnipeg’s decrepit airport.
After work on Christmas Eve, my Aunt drove us into Vancouver airport for the evening flight out. To our surprise, the airport was mostly deserted – I suppose the Christmas rush had already passed. We took our time eating dinner before making our way to the gate.
Ramen! It tasted awful. This place is no Ichiran.
The flight was dark and cold – as to be expected. I listened to some K8 while Marty snoozed…typical. We pulled in on time and were pleased to find Tracy and Morgan waiting for us…in thick winter apparel. I prepared for the worst.
Tracy is really giving her side of the story here, it would appear.
Tracy and Morgan were kind enough to let us sleep in Tori and Cole’s beds at their apartment to avoid the long commute to Altona in the threatening snowstorm raging outside. The temperature wasn’t actually too deathly – I was surprised, but it’s amazing what a steely will can do.
After a glorious sleep, my parents came into the city to pick us up from Tracy and Morgan’s and then it was back to the airport to pick up B. Too much decrepit airport in 24 hours. But it was very nice to see the parents and chow on lunch waiting for B’s plane to arrive.
Oh yeah, ps – MERRY CHRISTMAS! I’ve totally forgotten already as this day has been anything but opening presents and holiday cheer. I just ate lunch in the airport, for Pete’s sake.
B arrived and we all jammled into the truck for the trek home. The next few days were filled with food, family, and frigid weather. I didn’t have much time to breathe, much less take any relevant photos about the whole schmozz. (It was over three months ago anyway – like you care! Ahem…) So yeah. On the 28th, I finally got around to whipping out the camera to show you a bit of my snowy holiday.
Nothing like pyjamas and mukluks in -30 degrees.
More lazy days went by at the speed of light…Sis arrived on December 31, just in time for Christmas(?). Well, our Christmas, anyway. B and I and picked her up at the airport and then headed to Mongo’s to devour a few bowls of Mongolian BBQ – YUMMMO. That night was, for all intents and purposes, Christmas Eve. It was a very Holt Renfrew Christmas for me.
That’s it – a bunch of gift cards and pair of socks – but it’s what I asked for!
After the gifts came the many rounds of eating. It was like, eat, break for half an hour or so, then eat again, repeat. B escaped to some lame dood’s party in Winnipeg, so Sis and I were left up to our own devices.
After digging through some boxes, I found the most entertaining piece of our evening – my old journals/diaries. Oh my gosh…this was some priceless stuff.
Sis and I nearly died laughing. Pretty much if I had anything at all to do with you throughout my formative years (grades 4 to 10), there’s an entry (or ten) in these books about you. Oh, and it is priceless stuff. I was so serious…and teenage. Perhaps I’ll do a short series of excerpts in the future so we can all have a laugh. I’ll try to not be too embarrassed.
And then it was midnight. Happy New Year.
A few days later, some friends had an impromptu get-together with foods. It’s been only what, two years? Too long mates…too long.
There can be only one.
Oi! I get the stink eye. It must have been something I said. I say a lot of things.
This meeting also revealed some absolutely fantastical old photos – kudos to Suzy for keeping us forever young (cue Rob Stewart song). As you will see, I wasn’t always such a fashion-focused individual:
Oh 20” hem circumference Randy River jeans…I don’t miss you.
This is a classic Erin-circa-1998-2000 look.
OI OI OI OI! This is dreadful. I remember this night though – grade 12 Christmas banquet. Marty and I had already broken up yet he decided to go with me anyway. As you can see, there was no place else he’d rather be.
A Panic Button classic, plus Lora D, minus Lori F. After a gig and sleepover in Landmark. Damn, my memory is clear!
Token action shot. What I’m holding is a Wagon Wheel. Lunch hour tradition dictated that we hurl that thing against the wall until it was crumbs, and then Jen would finally get to eat it. HA HA HA HA HA it makes me laugh even now. I guess you’d have had to have been there.
And finally, the present-day version of a few of us…sometime soon we’ll all have to congregate!
The drive home was a bit of a cold one:
Sister-time doesn’t happen very often…but when it does, things can get a bit ridiculous, as evidenced by New Year’s Day, 2010.
They just might kill me for that one. In fact, this picture may have been deleted by the time you even read this. Let me know Sisses!
Oh no! B is getting mauled by Stitch and a caveman! Poor thing.
A busy trip was made yet busier by the wedding of Tracy and Morgan in Winnipeg during our last weekend out. I didn’t take any pictures of the wedding (I’ll leave that to the pros), but I did manage to snap a few shots of our ghetto-fab Travelodge room. No windows to the outside here…only a great view of the pool area. I didn’t even know rooms like that still existed! But they do, dear readers, they do!
The ride back to town from Winnipeg is so beauteous in the winter cold.
We now go to the last full day in the sub-arctic of MB which was also our last family gathering. I really love my extended family (which is great, btw), so it was a really nice way to wrap up the Christmas festivities. Before they arrived, I braved the outdoors once more to run up and down the driveway a few times. Sis cheered me on from inside the house.
…and welcomed me back inside with open arms. I was so freaking cold. My Gramps thought I was nuts.
After consuming copious amounts of delicious foods, we kicked back and chatted, joked, and even horsed around a bit (well, the younger ones, anyway.)
Can you tell we are sisters? SISTERS!
Al and Martha, in Christmas-y matchy-match shirts.
He’s too proud of his heater remote control and needed to show it to me.
Oi! No makeup. Me sitting on and squishing Snacks.
Aw! Cousinly-love abounds.
After gatherings, one must always consume excess snacks. This is how we all end up fat after the holidays.
The next day we zipped on back to our homeland. There was no one available to pick us up, so did the best we could with public transit. I’m not gonna lie – it was a bit of an inconvenience lugging our massive sacks of dirty clothes and Christmas goods onto the rush hour train home. But…the scenery was nice and the temperatures milder.
Hello to the new-ish year and all it brings. I have a feeling this will be a good one. --> \(^_^)/
