Victoria Day Long Weekend - Saturday

A weekend home alone - time to decompress and to attempt my detox cleanse with my amazing new Breville juicer thanks to Joe Cross. Just need a weekend to read, watch Tv and play games - well with Wings work in between as well.

So the only way to do something successful is to journal so I will attempt to do that just so that I have notes to look back on to see if I would do this again.

Was up very early just as if it was a work morning. Somehow overnight I seem to have developed a head cold and a cough.

So up and showered early.

7:30 a.m. Hot water with 2 lemon slices

8:00 a.m. First juice: carrots, apples, ginger - more ginger this time and I liked it much better.

11:00a.m the mid-morning juice consists of: cucumber, celery, kale, ginger, lemon and apples

1:30 p.m. Lunch juice - not sure about this one - tomatoes, celery, red pepper, onion, parsley and lime. This juice was a little bitter-ish. I could use juicier tomatoes and cut back on the onion.

4:30 p.m. The mid- afternoon juice - oranges, cucumber, kale, Swiss chard

6:30 p.m. The pre-dinner juice - this is a weird one - sweet potato, red pepper, apples, oranges and beets but really yummy! My second favourite after the first juice of the day!

For dinner - a vegetable curried stew with sweet potato, potato, mushrooms, broccoli, onions and cauliflower.

Besides spending the time cleaning the juicer, watched Moulin Rouge, played my games and finished a book and started another.

Sunday Afternoon Catch up

So much for trying to blog everyday...guess I shall just have to try and recap what I can.So...The last thing I posted was probably on making my pink timeless wreath.Ok - this was back to Wings evenings for me so that made for a tiring week - next week Wednesday evenings start up again so then its 3 nights I am at work and home late.Friday evening was a home night just to relax and play my new-found Candy Crush and Bubble Witch games - it is always nice to have an evening to do absolutely nothing. Found out that Terry had been admitted to the hospital for severe back pain - at first we thought abdominal pain and thought he had stones in his bladder but turns out it is his lower back that was causing him severe pain. He was under observation for a couple of nights but has to go back as they need to further assess a lesion on his liver. Tough being far away and not really knowing what is going on.

 Saturday we decided that we would take a sunny Saturday drive down to the mailbox in Bellingham. Truth be known Darcy had some xbox games waiting for him - his excuse is to play with Todd, Evan and C.K and he is actually doing that right now as I am typing - playing some shooting game with Todd. It's getting annoying so I might have to vacate the doggie/man cave in the basement. Back to going down to Bellingham...so the usual...went to Trader Joes' and then to Cash & Carry, the usual Costco and then back home. We never go down for too long...just get the stuff we need and head home. The worst thing that I ever saw where two giant jars of sausages that I have attached picture of - so gross!

So far on this Sunday - went for lunch at Cotto - Gabriel's treat for Chrissy and Darcy's pre-birthday. It was alright - not really somewhere we are likely to return to. We did have a nice fried Gnocchi with arugala and pancetta bits, prosciutto with melon and 2 pizzas. One was good but the other with was a little bitter with the fried brussel sprout leaves. Darcy has likely posted pics.  Today I also completed my re-reading of Pride & Prejudice. I love this book and each time I read it I find more memorable parts

.Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved reading this classic Jane Austen again...I cannot even recall how many times I have completed this wonderful gem of a book. The reason why I re-read it is because I ran a series of Jane Austen classics movie versions at Glen Pine and that motivated me to read the books again. Of course I am also planning to go through all the prequels and sequels - all the fan fiction that has Mr. Darcy at the centre. I have to say that Jane Austen was brilliant - she really was ahead of her time and she wrote some great truths. Of course this book has so many memorable quotes that have become so popular.
I highly recommend everyone to have a Jane Austen binge!!!

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Watched the Golden Globe Awards and had grilled cheese sandwich for dinner as Darcy was making a pot of his speciality chili. House smells very spicy Mexican. I am sure it will be delicious. He really has become quite an accomplished chef.

What a day!

Is it only Wednesday? I cannot even begin to describe the kind of day today was - more than crazy but at least the work day concluded with some fun and laughs making postponed Christmas wreaths. We did have our postponed GoFitlam hot lunch which was nice and full of spirit. Invited to join the book club at City Hall by Andrea which I am seriously contemplating. They are currently The Piano Teacher which I have completed.
The rains did stop today so I did manage to go for a walk as a break. We had an interesting meeting in the afternoon about keeping seniors in their homes longer. How we can assist those who wish to retain their independence for as long as possible with non-medical needs.
The biggest stressor today I cannot even blog about - it is that controversial that we have to remain discreet and quiet about. It caused a great kerfuffle and craziness! Needless to say we were under a great deal of strain.
However the fun part was staying a bit later to craft and have some laughs. I have attached my pretty pink timeless wreath that I made. Next week it is back to working on Wednesday night!
Darcy had made Asian slaw and chicken wings - quiet evening and time to unwind. My ultimate thought today courtesy of Joanne - don't allow myself to get so bothered by other peoples' actions especially when you know that they are never going to change.

Oh my!

Rain rain rain it has been raining nonstop all day it is miserable out there. The forecast seems to be continued West Coast Wetness - it could be snow and we would be complaining about having to shovel. Such a long day it is to go from one job to the next.
Today the crafters had their Christmas luncheon that was postponed from the snow day before the holidays. We set all the tables and we waited on them served them! I am sure they appreciated it. Today I got a belated gift a very cool tea glass with a loose leaf filter. I was very touched by the gesture - a lovely and kind token of affection from someone from back home as well originally also from Petaling Jaya but having lived in Canada as long as I have. She is a well-loved Yoga instructor. I admire her sense of peace and serenity and her gift was an unexpected surprise but I know it came from her heart because she knows I am a tea drinker.
Anyway it was busy at the gym too with current session ending and next one set to begin- lots of parents with rather weird questions too.
On these nights it's a late dinner and very little down time. It is only Tuesday.

Manic Monday

Woke up to the sound of pouring rain outside on the deck. What a way to start up a new work week - the first full one of 2013. So much to do right of the bat at work -that is the only downfall of being on a break and coming back to pick things up again. The day went pretty fast and in between all of this I was dealing with a Wings issue that needed immediate attention. Such a shame that a long term relationship with Omega for training space could change with new owners at the helm. Anyway, looks like we may have resolved it for now and just move forward.
Tonight we had fish again with potatoes and onions which was really good. Spent a bit of time on Wings paper work and then time to play candy crush and bubble witch.
Currently watching The Vow that I had taped - Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdam are so cute together -I hope the movie ends well. Yes it ended well - I intend to read the book in the near future.
Time to lie in bed and continue reading P&P. I am so amazed still with the number of spin-off sequels fanfic type novels that I do intend to red as well - in the new future.
Alright then...tomorrow it's back to a 13plus hour work day /sigh not quite ready for it. Today's photo from a little model hawker stall to remind me of yummy food back home.

First Sunday in January

So I was already delinquent and missed blogging yesterday yikes that did not take that long to already miss. However, Saturday was a very quiet rainy home day. Chrissy and Gabe popped over in the morning so we had a little visit. We then spent the afternoon just relaxing. Darcy put on a Dutch oven of ham and split peas to slowly simmer. He then escaped to his new man cave below to play on his Xbox. I enjoyed my afternoon playing on all my electronic devices - finally caught up with Jocelyn on the Candy Crush Saga game but am stuck on the Bubble Witch game. I also watched not one but 2 girlie movies - the Cinderella Story and 13 Going on 30. Both were cute and completely mindless entertainment. We also spent a very lazy evening!!
This morning we decided that it was best to get to Costco first thing in the morning so we heded out just after 10:00am. To our amazement it was already super busy - we were out of toilet paper, dishwasher detergent and laundry soap too. Following this, we happened to go by Chrissy's new neighbourhood stopping by and investigating the local Buy-Low Foods. We called and they said we could pop by for a quick visit which we did with eager anticipation. What a nice space in Gabe's Nona's basement. They have decorated and renovated it quite nicely and it's quite a nice change from the apartment that they were in New West. We decided that we would also take them out to lunch at Sushimoto which is close by the Holdom sky train station. It was a little pricey but it was certainly of good quality and interesting. Darcy posted pics on his FB.
The decor was quite interesting - figurines everywhere of action men!
After our little lunch session we headed home for an afternoon of laundry and more bumming around.
For dinner we had a really lovely broiled cod with lime-cilantro, brown rice and steamed Kai Lan - our efforts to eat better this year! We have our fancy vacation at the end of the year for Ali's wedding so must be able to wear a bathing suit.
Watched the movie Waitress with Keri Russell while I was multi-tasking -
Tonight my long awaited Downton Abbey season 3 begins - I have been waiting patiently for this to come back on PBS Masterpiece Theatre. Over the Christmas holidays I got totally caught up with the new Upstairs, Downstairs only to find out that there is not going to be another season - how bummed I am about this - hoping that the critics are wrong. I just so much love my British dramas.
Today's photos were from our lunch at Sushimoto. The Prince William figurine caught my eye. Loved the lanterns, and the food was very nicely plated. I must say that eating the prawn heads was a little crunchy. Oh yes and the uni was actually putridly disgusting.

TGIF

For a very short week it seemed like a really long long haul. Not that it was bad being back at work it was actually really good to be back at work it was nice to see everyone to get right back into the swing of the day but somehow all that time off exhausted me. Not much exciting to write for today. I went to work came home had instant noodles with lots of kai lan for dinner for lack of anything else interesting to consume. It is always good to really have no plans the evening – Darcy went down to play his game on the Xbox and I just kind of bummed around. I watched some TV and now I'm going to go back to reading on my Kobo, The weather forecast for the weekend is not very good so I expect we won't do anything too exciting pretty much a few errands here and there and then spend some quiet time at home.

Abdul's for dinner

It was a very foggy day and very slippery due to the minus temperatures. Certainly it was a crisp winter day. Took a walk to the new public library and it was quite treacherous ! Anyway - best part of today was watching Pride and Prejudice with Mrs.Bishop and one other lady. It was wonderful - funny yet dramatic and simply a good movie from a classic novel.
After work a jaunt out to Metrotown whereby we had an interesting time with a salesperson trying to serve us. Well without saying too much I am typing on my new ...yes...indeed. Love love love it!! I have spent the evening playing games and chatting with my sister - all in the comfort of my bed. So here is day 3 of my blogging...no excuses anymore about writing. Perhaps I can use Siri to type for me And as it turns out she did exactly that how amazing!

First day back at work

It was rough getting out of bed in the morning after having been on holidays for a week - part of me wanted to crawl back and hide under the covers and the other part was eager to get back to things!! It was a great day except that by noon it felt like it should have been quitting time! The most exciting part (not) was doing activity group juggling allocations on a whiteboard with my daiso special magnets😊. Helga, Beatrice and I were done like dinner after this exercise.
Came home - prepped the Wings Jan deposit - had a late dinner of yummy roast beef and potatoes.
Started to re-read an all time favourite since I have been doing Jane Austen specials - Pride and Prejudice! Love love the language and so many most excellent quotes.
Today's pic is a painting of a Ben Ben like puppy or the way we want him to be - just thought it was a cute picture to share. So day 2 is completed!!

Happy New Year 2013

As promised, my attempt to blog again thus year even if just to recap the day and my photo of the day! Christmas decorations were carefully packed away and the tree untrimmed. Darcy and Benny hauled it off to the sports court for chipping. Even the outdoor lights came down - Chinese New Year red lights stayed up and lanterns were hung. Not much else - late start to the day after our New Year's Eve wine tasting party at Sharon and Tino's - fun in a never done before way. The food was so rich and delicious - an indulgent feast!
Finished reading Monica Ali's debut novel Brick Lane - will review at Goodreads in the morning.

Brick Lane by Monica Ali
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had a bit of difficult time with this book - not that it was not interesting which it was. It was different to read a book from a muslim Indian perspective as most Indian books are predominantly Hindu-focused, and the author did a wonderful job portraying the community with its myriad of people finding their "new" lives in London, and yet imposing and maintaining their culture upon the present by dwelling on the past. My difficulty had to do with how I felt about the main protagonist Nazneen and her actions. At times I had a great affinity for her, admired her resolve but then I questioned her actions and her involvement (no spoilers). I had a great deal of sympathy for her husband and for all his flaws he was a good man, albeit living in his own world of rights and wrongs. The atmosphere of living in the council flats and the whole immigrant attitude was very well written. At the end of it all, the decisions what were made worked for everyone - the whole other story with the errant sister back in Bangladesh served well as a life comparison for the two sisters and the choices that they made.

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