Weekend Wonders | 003

This was the last weekend before work officially starts. So, I made the most of it!

On Saturday, an old friend came back from Toronto and we reunited with our childhood friends. It's pretty amazing how we're still together after so many years - it's been since elementary school and now some of us are about to graduate from university! Time sure flies!

We grabbed lunch at Jimoco Cafe & Pasta, where I've never been before. The portion size was pretty decent and the food was tasty. I ordered the Linguini Soul and although the seafood was a bit lacking, the noodles and sauce was good!

After lunch, we headed up to SFU's Summer Festival event presented by SFU Anime. There were a lot of cosplayers, vendors, merchandise, and games. I bought a knitted Totoro and now he sits on my shelf with my Instax camera.

Before we left, we watched part of the cosplay contest. There were a lot of amazing cosplayers and costumes.

On Sunday, B came back for the weekend, so we went out on Sunday to catch the new Disney x Pixar movie, Inside Out! The movie was the last thing for the day, so we were planning on getting some brunch first. On the way to brunch, there was an event going on, and we stopped for a really cool (and funny) performance by an international street performer, Alakazam.

Not only was his show intriguing, but very entertaining as well as he had audience participation and great jokes.

After the performance, we finally went for brunch. The place we wanted to go had a long wait time, so we went next door to a Japanese restaurant. The food is just your typical Japanese food. We both ordered bento boxes.

So that was my weekend... I wonder what next weekend will bring.

Goodbye's and Hello's

The end of my third year at university and final goodbyes at my place of residence for the past two years. On Wednesday, I turned in my keys and visited B's place one last time before he moved out the next day. The view from his residence is a lot nicer than my teal coloured ceiling basement suite. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

From his place, you can see the waters at UBC's infamous (nude) beach: Wreck Beach. The view is phenomenal - especially during sunset. When you exit his place (but still on the same floor), just around the corner there's a window where you can see the path leading up to Main Mall. There's construction going on to build another residence building because UBC just loves old, abandoned parking lots and grassy green fields - perfect spot for construction, which UBC is becoming infamous for.

After that, we left to watch The Age of Adaline. It was a nice, relaxing movie. Relaxing not in the way that it's mundane, but just very different from the action packed movies coming out these days (like The Avengers: Age of Ultron, which I can't wait to watch!). The "science" parts (if you can even call it that) of the movie was a bit... interesting. And fictional-sounding. Very much so. So much so that it was a bit laughable. I don't know science well, and although I'm sure miracles do exist somewhere in another galaxy, the science-y parts were just... I can only offer a dry laughter: ha ha ha. But, the movie was quite nice - interesting story line, and like a few others have pointed out, similar to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (online version).

We left for dinner shortly after and decided to eat at a place we haven't gone to in a very long time - Kawawa Japanese Restaurant. I had my "coming of age" (aka. 19) birthday here back in my first year of university. Good times.

We ordered from the regular menu, and I had Cuttle Fish & Scallop Course and Ika Sugata Yaki (aka. grilled squid) while B had Box B, which included ebi & vegetable tempura, beef teriyaki, gyoza, and chicken karaage, and an agedashi tofu side dish.

Maybe it's because it was a while ago, or I just didn't ordered the "right" thing, but the portions this time were pretty big. It was difficult trying to finish up everything and, in the end, we had some food leftover.

But, of course, there's always room for dessert! I had the Fresh Fruits Parfait, which came without the spoon. It took a few minutes for me to find somebody to ask for a spoon.... Other than that, the service was pretty attentive, especially towards our drinks; They would keep refilling it even before it reached the 1/3 mark.

That day, I also said my final goodbyes to my place of residence for the past two years and finally moved back to my parents' place for the summer. Although I haven't completed unpacked yet (too... much... stuff...), I took some pictures once I got home since the sun was basically welcoming me back that day with its glorious rays. I was able to whip out the lenses that B got me for my birthday and put them to good use, capturing as much as I can with the fisheye lens and trying out the macro lens as well.

Even though it's good to be back, it's a lot harder to eat whatever I want, whenever I want. When I got back, the first thing both my parents exclaimed was "OMG, YOU GAINED SO MUCH WEIGHT!" Thanks mom and dad. I'm glad to see you again as well. Thanks for welcoming me back - I can just feel the love oozing out of your words.

I guess now's a good time as any to (finally) start - or should I say, restart my diet. I bet I'll start seeing results in less than two weeks considering the restricted diet my mom's putting me on by cooking less food. Life is tough, but then beauty is pain. I should probably start exercising... maybe then I'll be able to eat more food. Isn't there a saying that the sole purpose of exercising for some people is so that they'll be able to eat more? The lengths that people go to eat whatever they want just shows how powerful food is. And how great some people's determination are. Anyways, I'm just rambling on now. I will end this post with a picture of my forever big baby Labrador, Winston:

Isn't he just the most adorable dog ever? Still behaves like a puppy and - like his owner - knows his angles for taking the perfect picture: never a full on face-on picture, but always either a side or tilted profile of his handsome face. He knows how to work the camera.

One Year Anniversary

Saturday was our one year anniversary! Time really passed by quickly for us. It's been a great year so far and I'm sure it'll only get better from here on out!

First, we got brunch at our traditional place for brunch at the International House of Pancakes (IHOP).

After we were nice and full, we transited down to Yaletown for the Warhol art exhibition. We arrived a bit too early, so we took a walk around False Creek since the weather was just perfect (#nofilter).

When it was almost time for the exhibition to be opened, we started heading back. All the artwork were impressive and the little information cards on each piece were quite interesting as well.

"Warhol: A Different Idea of Love". Throughout the exhibition, the information cards had references to his lifestyle - especially the luxury side of it where he was obsessed with stardom and money. I think that's what they meant by "a different idea of love."

The iconic Campbell's soup can.

The artwork of the different men all have a unique background story to them. Some of them are famous, and some were "little information is known about this subject." I remember one of these men committed fraud to gain his riches.

The picture on the left with the dining table full of a cluster of wine glasses represents the excessiveness of luxury. The information card said that with the mess on the dining table and rainbow colours of the artwork, it shows how excessive and messy as a result the riches are.

The picture on the right is of Ali Muhammad. There's a interesting story to this. Apparently, although Warhol was interested in celebrities and stars, he was never really into the sports stars. He did admire Ali as a sports star, however, and at first Ali did not want to be the subject of Warhol's new painting. But, Warhol didn't give up and took some pictures during Ali's fight and painted them. Now, even Ali has a series of himself - I guess Warhol won him over with his style of artwork.

The left picture is scary.

The left picture is about "Space fruits." I have no idea what that means.

Although some of the artwork were not originals by Warhol, they used either his style or print to recreate some of the artworks. It was a bit disappointing, but at least I got a close up on how he achieved his pop art style. I was fascinated with how he used little lines and vibrant colours to paint people - and still be about to get their features right to be recognizable.

After Warhol, we went to Canada Place to try the FlyOver Canada flying ride. I can't believe we didn't go sooner - the whole experience was exhilarating and exciting! Now I know why so many people are recommending others to go - and I would too!

We managed to catch the special AboveUSA and FlyOver Canada back-to-back for a limited time only showing and it was just... amazing. Words cannot describe how cool it was - figuratively and literally!

While walking towards Stanley Park, we passed by this high rise apartment building and outside it has a fountain walkway kind of thing going on, and a Canadian goose was just waddling in it.

I think it has either mistaken that for the pond, or it likes the fresh, calm waters of the apartment. If I were a goose, I would probably do the same thing - don't have to share the waters with other geese and don't have to endure their annoying squacks.

We also saw the police on horseback. The horses were gorgeous and it was like they escaped from Prince Charming's hold. Too bad the policemen weren't very Prince Charming-esque (haha).

Anyways, we finally got to our destination to rent some rollerblades to cruise through Stanley Park. It was both our "first time" rollerblading... as in the last time we did was when we were really young.... It was really hard trying to go downhill. I had to ask an employee from another store while trying to make my way down to the park for help as I didn't know how to brake and traffic was right in front of me.

I only got two bruises and a somewhat sore ankle, but it was definitely an experience and great memory to remember! The whole time the sun was shining, birds were chirping, bikers were passing, and people were selfie-sticking (haha). It was a great weekend to rollerblade, but I don't think we'll be doing that for a while.

Unfortunately, I couldn't take as many pictures as I'd liked considering the weather was perfect for selfies. But, I'll rather not risk falling down on my butt just for taking a few narcissistic photos of myself. It's too dangerous in skates.

Around two hours later, we had skated all around the seawall and started heading back towards the rental shop. We returned our skates and, finally, our feet could breath again. It felt insanely nice to be able to walk in shoes-without-wheels again. My legs hurt, my calves hurt, my feet hurt, my ankles hurt. But, it was all #worthit! We slowly slowly slowly made our way back to Canada Place for dinner. We had a reservation at Five Sails and it was located inside the Pan Pacific Hotel.

"Amuse bouche" that I could only enjoy half of because I can't eat raw things. Good thing B can.

For appetizers, I had the Lobster Bisque "Cappuccino" with fresh Atlantic lobster. The bisque was really rich and flavourful! B ordered the Caramelized Weathervane Scallops with root vegetable purees & caper emulson garnished with egg & finger lime "caviar."

As for the main course, I had the Crispy Sea Bass pan seared chickpea & fava bean cake, saffron aioli, maple caramelized vegetables, citrus butter emulsion. The one thing that really fascinated me about this dish was the fried leaf. It was actually surprisingly really good. Who knew?

B, of course, had something raw and deathly as usual. He asked for the Lemon Glazed Roasted Rack & Loin of Alberta Lamb with garlic infused whipped potato and ragout of vegetables in season & natural jus. Lamb was medium-rare of course (or as I'd like to call it - asking for a trip down to the ER). He really liked it and said the lamb was very tender and cooked to perfection. I think I'll stick to my cooked seafood though.

Once the main course was over, we talked for a bit before the dessert menu arrived. If you don't want to eat the appetizers or main course from Five Sails, at least definitely try their desserts. It was oh so delicious. I love dessert. I'm picky, but once I find that perfect dessert it's like I'm floating on cloud nine.

The plating was on point and it was almost too beautiful to eat... keyword: almost. It tastes as good as it looks and definitely did not disappoint! I can still remember the taste... just... heavenly.

I had the Luxe Lemon Mille-Feuilles with its delicate layers of crisp phyllo pastry and chilled lemon cream & lemon parfait, fresh berry puree topped with pearls of orange "caviar." B had their Chocolate Opera Slice with Bailey's truffle, caramel ice cream demi-sel, and hazelnut garnish - it really looked like a piece of artwork with the cool chocolate spiral.

After dessert, I quickly went to the ladies' room and came back to this:

Apparently, they had called B a day or two ago inquiring if our visit was for a special occasion, and he had told them that it was for our anniversary, so they prepared a little something for us. I finally get to blow out a candle that's been lit just to be blown out! It was really sweet of them to prepare this for us - that level of service is just simply amazing. Especially their French - so good that I didn't understand a word of it (haha).

And to finish the already amazing dinner off, we were greeted by this gorgeous sunset.

With the clouds and precipitation in the air (or so I was told by the man dining next to us), it created this gorgeous and rare pink northern lights-like effect in the sky. Simply stunning. Many people were going up to the windows to take pictures and I wouldn't blame them - I did the same thing! It's not everyday you get to witness such a beautiful sunset like this!

After that, we left for... more dessert at our usual place (True Confections). We just can't celebrate our one year anniversary without going to True Confections - it's tradition. And who would argue against getting more dessert anyways? After our second round of dessert (no guilt), we headed back to my place to re-watch "Just Go With It" starring Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler. Although it was rated 19% on Rotten Tomatoes (unbelievable!), we both really enjoyed it - even the second time around!

As for presents, even though we agreed not to get presents for occasions like these (eg. Christmas, Valentines', etc.), we still got presents for each other. I walked around all of downtown Vancouver the day before to get all the necessary components of my presents for B and let's just say it wasn't easy, but I was pretty lucky with each one of them.

I got B a white Polaroid camera knowing that he takes pictures on his iPhone but never prints them out So, with this instant camera, he'll get the pictures he wants whenever he wants. Also included some films to get him started. In addition, I saw this cute book from Chapters - it's a book that gets you to list reasons of "What I Love About _____ by _____" and I had to get it. Of course, a card is also included and a striped bag with pink details - gotta love the pink accent!

B got me a really pretty bracelet from Pandora. It has "Always in my heart" etched onto it and differently shaped heart charms. It's hard to put on and take off by myself so I had to ask B to help me with that. I guess this is never coming off seeing as how I have two left hands (instead of two left feet) that can't even take off a bracelet by myself. Oh well, I quite like it on me at all times anyways. It's very sweet.

Overall, it was an amazing day spent with an amazing boyfriend. I can't wait to see what our second year will bring us and I hope we'll have even more good days like these.