Killing is from Satin

So, like I said, I was meeting up with Jen in a hour in the igloo at Pacific Centre and so I headed over that way to peruse some wares prior to that…





We headed to Benkei for some delicious ramen (gochisosama) and then headed down to the water to be true Canadians…and scope out the craft fair happening next door.




Even if that flame has been distinguished, mine still burns bright. Sniff.

Frankly, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to the cauldron – I had an umbrella and I wanted to poke it.



Yeah, turns out the base of the cauldron is guarded by lasers! How very James Bond-esque of them. My arm + umbrella was just a wee bit short to poke it. Another day then.


There’s also this Lego whale. The Lego whale also looks cool through Salvador Dali’s eyes app.



So after freezing our buns wandering around the waterfront, we headed indoors to Mink – a chocolate café.



Jen was so kind and offered me a bevvy of my choosing and I chose the pre-discussed Drinking Chocolate. The barista handed me a cup of water with it. What was I in for?



HOLY SMOKES. It was like drinking a tasty pot of fondue. Of the 10 generous ounces they gave me, I had maybe four. And even four made me feel as though I had just enjoyed 20 chocolate bars.



Jen and I did some shopping and wandering and eventually I headed off to meet up with B-Mal for another night of rowdiness. I headed over to his luxe digs, the Fairmont Waterfront, and was pleased to discover his room was on the 23rd floor – the top! Now I can see how the other half live.


Yeah, that about sums it up. $6.50 for a bottle of Evian.

After several libations at that elevation with B-Mal and his pal Josh and I was once again happy. Two nights in a row – I think I may need to join a support group soon. We headed off into Gastown for dinner.

We ended up at this place called Revel Room and they have free cookies at last call! Well, we didn’t stay until then, but there was a lot of talk of it.







After noshing, drinking and chit-chatting, I headed back to pick up my car and crap from the Listel and head on to my destination for this night – Jen’s house! Her and Chris are so kind.

Oh yeah ps – it was snowing kittens and cats this night and we woke up to inches of snow. Oh Vancouver. Jen had to work so Chris and I had brekkie and headed back downtown as I was going to half-heartedly attempt to grab a piece of the sacred Lanvin for H&M collection.



Ah, silly me. Unlike my success at the H&M Comme des Garçons collaboration in 2008, I wound up empty-handed. Of course, for that one I did actually arrive early and wait in line and this time I was four hours late. OH WELL. I did have my hands on the last coat, but it was a miserable size 4 and ridiculously shoddy quality for $350. Moving along…

I met up with B-Mal again and we began to wander the streets like nomads. We stopped for lunch at Steamrollers (giant-ass burritos) and then watched some flying cats.


They look so evil.





We headed to a pub on Granville where we met up with Josh once again and had our glorious libations ruined by a screaming protest which marched up across the street. WAHHHH it sucked. They were protesting the killing of Christians in Egypt (I think) which is a fair cause – but quit screaming the same five words over and over again. Ugh. And I’m probably a horrible person for saying this, but is this sign not hilarious?


Love is from God
Killing is from Satin

I LOLed.

Then we headed on over to Granville Island for a last stop on this tour of Vancouver.




This is a Delica. Amazing ride.








Yusssss – HOLY CRAP indeed. I just kept as the lady if this was “for real”. She said it was and they were all sold out.

So that was that. I bade farewell to B-Mal and wished him well on his forward journey into Singapore. Oh didn’t I mention that? Yes, that’s where he’s moving too. So, yeah. Cool, hey?

Okay, no more blogs will be forthcoming for the next few weeks. I’m off to Japan (YES AGAIN) next week so I need to do something worth blogging about. See you later.

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Hunters & Gatherers

Life was exceedingly dull throughout October and most of November (of course, that’s in comparison to my September and, well, everyone else’s lives.) I divided my time between three different kinds of work: working out, homework, and work-work at my two jobs. My life suuuucks. Feel sorry for me! Okay, whatever – you likely don’t/won’t. Though I seriously worked for 20-day stretches at a time, I suppose I did that to myself. ANYWAY – onwards and upwards.

In November every year, our department does a professional development getaway into Vancouver and it’s pretty much THE event of the year. You can read about our past adventures here, here, here, and here. I’m sure you didn’t click on any of those so…yeah, I did that coding for nothing. This year, we headed to the same hotel as last year, The Listel on Robson Street. I did manage to score a slightly better room though…







Too bad I’m only going to spend about one hour of non-sleeping time in here. Boo. As soon as we checked in, it was time to head down for lunch and our first (and only) session of the day.


Brenda (second from right) is EATING! Grrraaaaggghh!


Cold lady food with a swimming pool of dreshingu.


Lady-sized dessert. Do you see a theme emerging?

Our first session involved organizing our online document filing systemmmzzzzzzzzzzz. Actually, it’s not so bad since I’m kind of nerdy and like organizing.



The second part of the session involved a scavenger hunt - I’D BETTER WIN! I hate putting effort into things that don’t work out in my best interest. Well, on scavenger hunts anyway. I was paired with my co-workers Blanca and Mark and under my superb leadership, we stormed the downtown core. I was like a woman possessed with acquiring items like a box of crayons from Red Robin, a catalogue from Pandora jewellery, and a business card from the coffee shop inside the HSBC building. And as for our efforts…well…what do you think happened? We won, of course.

Then came time to shop! Brenda and I headed out before dinner to spend the hard-earned money we made from working at this difficult job. And you would be proud – all I ended up buying was mascara! Ok fine, it was Chanel mascara, but let’s celebrate the victories people. Dinner was at the Fairmont at my favourite haunt, Griffins.





Why is it my favourite? Why, their all-you-can-eat dessert buffet with every meal, of course!



Our table was taking ages to be ready, so they offered us free wine…and kept it flowing. Before I knew it, I had drank four glasses…




Of course, I sat at the head of the table because…then I can shout down the length of the table. But I wouldn’t do that because that’s rude.




Blanca telling one of her killer stories. One year, she told us one about a male stripper who gave someone scabies.





The party began to break up shortly after 9 and I didn’t mind because the party for me would continue, just down the street. I headed over to the Cactus Club Café to meet up with my old pally B-Mal and two companions, all of whom had little porno ‘staches for Movember. We moved the party from there a little further down the street to the Elephant and Castle (at this rate, we will be in the water shortly.) I had some cocktail drink (the count was now up to five) and the dudes had this ridiculously massive bread pudding that kind of made me want to chuck. What? I’m still full from all-you-can-eat-dessert buffet, mmkay? After that party wound down (we all gotta work in the AM), we parted ways and I made my way down the deserted Robson street in the rain alone. Cue violin.



That night was a bit of a struggle since I think the alcohol was speaking to me in a language I don’t want to understand. No no, I didn’t throw up or anything (I’m sure your are like, THANKS! right about now) but like that Christmas so many years ago, I got this weird sleep nausea. No more drinking for me!

The morning’s session involved more discussion of filing and by lunch we had called it a day. BRING ON THE WEEKEND! But I’m going to spend it here…and I’m meeting up with Djds in an hour…(to be continued…oooo)

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