More Shopping and Eating

Ohmygoodness! Another long of eating and shopping! This afternoon, grams, yee mah and bui jei had appointments at grams's hair stylist on Granville and 60th. Grams had asked my mom to pick up yee mah and bui jei after their hair appointment and take them out shopping but by the time we arrived, everyone was finished including grams! Yee mah was quite hungry so they decided to have dim sum at Red Star which is where we are going for grams's birthday but yee mah had insisted that she wanted dim sum and there wasn't anywhere else close by to get dim sum before 3pm. Yee mah had ordered way too much food and we had to take a lot back with us. It was such a waste cos we three had already eaten before coming out and we all ended up going separate ways cos yee mah, bui jei and grams headed over to Oakridge Centre while we three headed home but made a stop for HK tea. Once back home, we did some resting before heading over to the Dollar Store (needed to pick up frames for grams's table placements) and Costco cos bui jei wanted to pick up some stuff to bring home to Hong Kong. After a lot of shopping at Costco, we headed home and it was time for another meal altho I choose to skip out and eat the dim sum leftovers cos my mom's car can't fit 7 of us. It seemed pointless for me to drive myself and my sister so I decided to stay home. But my sister decided to keep me company so she stayed home with me leaving my mom to be on her own with yee mah and bui jei. I am so stuffed that I can no longer button my button on my stretchy denim! I can't imagine trying to get into my R&Rs or Citizens! I def need to go on a diet once everyone leaves, way too much eating out!!!

Two of Us - A Day of Shopping

What a great day we had, my sister and I :) We manage to escape go out on our own for the afternoon without the rest of the family cos we had to exchange the jersey I picked up for my nephew the day before. My sister wanted a smaller size cos she is sure the jersey is too large for him. We headed off to Metrotown but made a quick stop at The Boss so my sister could get her HK style tea and in peace, no one telling her she drank too much HK tea and smoked way too many cigarettes! Every time we have lunch with my grams and mom, both are constantly reminding her that she drinks too much tea and smokes way too many cigarettes. I think this is the most peaceful lunch she will have during this trip. After lunch, I took her to Build A Bear cos she has never heard of this place and she built a bunny for her daughter. I also picked up a Hello Kitty PJ set for my Hello Kitty. My sister picked out a cute bunny with long ears, stuffed it, gave it a heart, picked out the cutest Hello Kitty outfit and pink sunglasses to match finished with little pink ribbons on her long ears. My sister thought it was kinda silly stuffing the bunny but she quite enjoyed it and she knows her daughter will love the bunny and will want to come to Vancouver to build her own bear or bunny! It's too bad Winnie The Pooh is no longer available cos my sister loves Winnie they way I love Hello Kitty (ok, maybe not as obsessively as I love Hello Kitty!). After Build A Bear, we headed towards SportChek to exchange the jersey, over to Starbucks for a coffee (quick smoke break), and checked out a couple of the jewelery boutiques cos I was looking for my diamond hoops. I finally find a really nice pair and within my budget at Ann-Louise Jewelleries Ltd but these are not exactly hoops but look like hoops! Very pretty and look really great! While purchasing my hoops, my mom called and surprise, they were in Metrotown by the Bay. My bui jei wanted to go over to Body Shop to purchase a few items and my yee mah wanted to look for her hair products. My sister and I met them at the food fair and decided it would be best if we took bui jei to Body Shop and grams/yee mah walked around the Bay. After shopping around with bui jei, we decided to head back to meet them and drop bui jei off with them. My sister and I had to pick up a surprise birthday cake at Saint Germain's for my yee mah cos it's her birthday today so we left saying we were heading home. Once we got home, everyone was home and napping - we've had some early mornings. My sister took a 30 minute nap on the couch too. I rested by watching some TV and catching up on my entertainment news. We have dinner reservations at 730 but we'll see if we'll make it on time since it's close to 7 and people are still napping.

Sat and Sun

What a weekend! On Saturday, all 4 (me, sista, mom and grams) of us spent the day together shopping and eating. We headed over to Metrotown cos grams needed a new outfit for her big party on Friday. But first, my sister needs her Hong Kong tea so we decided to have lunch at The Boss. She needs her HK style tea every day! I cannot keep eating out like this, I'm going to gain all the weight I've lost in these past few weeks!! Oh well, I guess I can lose the weight after since my sis leaves cos she is only here every 10 years. After lunch, we headed over to The Bay so grams could look for her new outfit but she didn't find anything. Instead she bought a nice pair of "modern" dress pants (straight legged, all her pants are tapered) on sale and almost bought a jacket but it was a size too large. Since we were at Metrotown and grams needed to replace her black shoes, we walked over to A Step Ahead to pick out a new pair of shoes. I wanted to buy them for her but she would not allow it, I have not thought of what to buy for her birthday altho I think I'll just give her lucky money. Mom and sister did not end up with anything, I bought a couple of cute camera bags for Kay and myself at Blacks Photography - both on sale 1/2 priced! Once we were done at Metro, we headed over to the pet stores on Grandview cos my sister wanted to pick up a foldable metal cage for her small dogs in Hong Kong. While we were shopping, auntie inge called mom and she somehow invited herself over for dinner. I didn't really want to go to dinner but my sister convinced me to keep her company. We headed home to meet auntie and while they were upstairs chit chatting, my sister kept sneaking down to my suite to get away from our aunt! Good thing we were going to a good restaurant for dinner or I would have been miserable! After dinner, I was hoping we would head straight home but auntie inge invited and treated us to gelato. She kept saying how great La Casa Gelato is and how my sister had to have it while in Vancouver. I was much too full for gelato and declined the treat but grams gave me half of her gelato cos she can't finished a whole scoop. Of all the 218 flavours in the store, my sister went with vanilla! But we had just finished dinner and how can one eat right after a huge meal?? After gelato, we headed home and while aunt, grams, and mom watched a movie, my sister stayed downstairs with me. We talked about life and mom, mostly how mom and I fight and have our spats. All 3 of us are quite similar and she gave me some advice on how to handle mom and our fights. I will take it in consideration and be more sensitive towards my mom cos she is our mother and the advice is from my big sister. We decided it was probably a safe call to head back upstairs afte 1am cos they were probably done with the movie. We stayed upstairs and chatted with mom before calling it a nite.

On Sunday, we went out for dim sum with my sister's friend friend/hubby from HK who have been in Vancouver for 3 years. My sister had introduced them last week and hoped the two of them could be friends cos both have a lot in common. I didn't really like the dim sum at the restaurant (can't remember the name but it's on Main and 29th?) and the conversations at the table were interesting but boring. I couldn''t really follow much of it cos they were speaking way too fast. After dim sum, we (minus hubby) headed home cos they were going to play mahjong and I decided it would be a good day to run my errands. Plus I really didn't want to eat the take out from Kent's kitchen (their dinner) so I headed over to Superstore to pick up fruits, veggies and SALAD. I spent most of the day watching TV, playing with Ginger and visiting upstairs (during their mahjong breaks). But the nite is almost over and now it's time to head off to pick up Kay. I can't believe my sister is only here for 7 more days and my mom's sister (yee mah) and my cousin (bui jei) is coming tomorrow! I am not looking forward to having 7 women under 1 roof with only 4 bathrooms and I'm sure once they arrive, this visit will go by much quicker than I want it to. I'm def going to visit HK next year so I can see my sister . It already makes me sad thinking she's got only one week left in Vancouver!

Shopping in the Mist

( My sweater dress is black with grey print)( I didn't see the jacket or I might have picked that up too!)

At lunch time in the mist, I headed over to Granville Street to look for a sweater from a Montreal designer Ruelle at Spank Clothing. I had an idea of which sweaters to try on but once I arrived, the blue ones I wanted to try on where not available and the cranberry ones that I did try on were not as nice as I thought they were! I ended up trying on a sweater dress and skirt by Cici which is designed by my fave local (Vancouver) designer, Jenny Yen of JY Star Apparel. For quite some time now, I have been looking for a fitted skirt for work but all the mass produced labels (i.e. R&W, Jacob, Dynamite etc.) do not make skirts to fit a girl without hips. I am Asian and I have no hips therefore all the skirts I try on have these mini flaps on the side. These flaps are not very attarctive and does not make the skirt tailored. But this skirt (Cici's) is BEAUTIFUL and fits me like a glove as if it was made for me!!! Sweater Dress $119 and Skirt $89 - the tailoring of these two pieces are beautiful and will outlast any skirt made by R&W or Jacob. Very very happy with my purchases :)

Granville Shopping District

Today, Jas and I headed over to Granville street to have lunch at Red Door Pan Asian Grill and to do a little bit of window shopping on Granville street. We really wanted to eat at CHOW but it's not open for lunch on weekends and it is really too bad cos I'm not so sure I want to pay the dinner prices! Red Door is asian fusion and the food was good not spectacular but pretty good. I had another reason to head over to Granville street, I didn't realize that there was a Rocky Mountain Soap Company in Vancouver!! I wanted to pick up a few more items and I had planned to order these items online but checked the store locations, to my suprise there is a store in Vancouver! After lunch, we headed over to RMSC to pick up my items and we decided to walk up and down Granville (to Broadway) to do a bit of window shopping. We realized that most of these stores cater to the older women and really nothing for us. The weather wasn't too nice so we decided to head back once we reached Broadway. It was a lovely lunch and shopping trip!