First Day of Fall

What a lovely start to fall! With sunshine and warm temperatures (it's suppose to be as warm as 24C), it almost doesn't seem like we are in a new season! But I'm not complaining, it's nice to see as much sunshine as we can possibly get cos once the rain falls and the sun sets sooner, it will be cooler and not so bright. One positive thing about fall in Vancouver is the FALL FASHION, I love fall fashion, colours and the SHOES!!!

Skytrain System Down

OMG, the skytrain was down during rush hour!!! Luckily or unluckily, Kay was also downtown cos she came down for a japadog so we met up at the corner of Burrard and Georgia to decide how to get home. I have no clue how to bus it home from downtown and I need to map out a route for emergencies like this. Kay had a few options on how to get home and we decided to take the Canada line since I have not been on it yet. It's def much roomier, faster and quieter than the old line but still not a subway! Unluckily for us, it started to rain very hard while we were in downtown and we were getting soaked! It took us an hour to get home, not at all impressed and I was going to run and do my strength training but I was too tired from the trek home. After we got home, I said DANG it, we should have stayed downtown to do a bit of browsing or shopping cos I bet the train was working by the time we got home! Instead of taking a very long route home, we could have relaxed a bit before fighting the crowd. Oh well. Next time, I will def stay downtown and wait it out.....

Weather in Vancouver

What does local smoke mean??!!??

Record Breaking!

33.8C but with humidity it's at 38C!!! Record breaking!! 22C overnight...... that is WRONG... another sleepless night....

Summer's Thunderstorm

WOW, what a nite! Late in the afternoon, the clouds started to roll in and around 5pm, we heard thunder and watched the sky light up with the most amazing lightning show! For most of the evening, we had warm showers and such incredible thunderstorms, quite relaxing actually. It was still very warm and it was so nice to get some rain but I'm sure people watching the fireworks were not too happy to see the weather change so drastically! Kay headed out in the middle of one of the many thunderstorms but I'm sure she'll be fine. Even tho I did not take any photos with my own camera, a co worker of mine did manage a few cool shots.

Sunny Sunday

What a perfect warm sunny day to bike around the seawall and that is just what we did! Although, we started a bit later than planned as Vince and Meryl woke up late in the afternoon, it was still quite warm out by the time we were finished. V & M came by around 3ish to pick me and my bike up, V put the bike on the roof rack and we started off towards Science World. Lucky us, we found free parking on the street and not too far from our starting point. Gosh, it was it ever busy and there were so many people out on bikes and blades enjoying this spring weather! We started off at the beginning of Science World and biked until Denman and Beach Avenue. We decided to lock up the bikes at the beach and walk up and down Denman Street for a bit, wow, so many new restaurants and so many changes to this street. We stopped into a store that sold and carried candy and novelty items like Simpsons, Hello Kitty and a lot of old skool lunch boxes and Disney glasses (from McDonalds) and I picked up a cute little Hello Kitty tin with sour candies! So cute lah! As we were walking back towards the beach, we decided it'd be a good idea to have a snack (or dinner!) before getting back onto the bikes. Meryl wanted to have a burger (craving it!) and we were trying to decide on a Vera's Burger Shack or Fat Burger - we decided on Fat Burger cos those 2 hadn't tried FB before. V ordered a turkey burger, M ordered a swiss cheese mushroom burger with fries and I ordered a baby fat (mini cheeseburger) with a side of onion rings. Both V and I were not impressed with our burgers and M thought her burger was pretty tasty altho when we (V and I) tried it, we didn't think it tasted like anything but mushy burger on a mushy bun! I don't like FB's burger bun is soft and mushy like McDonald's buns and the cheese was not real cheese instead it was processed cheese slices (also like McDonald's!). We agreed the next time, we are heading straight to Vera's Burger Shack! Vera's has a great selection of regular and specialty burgers (also they use great buns and REAL cheese!) plus it's a local business from Vancouver since 1977 which is awesome! A bit more pricer than the FB but def worth the extra couple of dollars for quality burgers! After our meal, we started our bike route around English Bay to and thru Stanley Park and back around to English Bay. It was a really easy scenic bike route and with awesome views of the mountains! We biked about 2 1/2 to 3 hours total (not including the walking, stopping, eating etc.), since we all biked at different paces and some of us stopped to take in the views, we ended up meeting back at Denman and Beach Avenue. Finishing the route and returning to the car, my bum and muscles were def feeling sore.

Granville Island

What a lovely sunny day we had today in Vancity! It is so nice to have such lovely spring weather and it was very warm this afternoon. We had such a beautiful day, I decided it would be a great day to head over to Granville Island. Rhoda needed to get out of the house and wanted me to be keep her from going to sleep too early (still jet lagged from HK) so we hung out for the day (which we haven't done in a while or since she's been back!). Wow, GI was soooo busy, traffic bumper to bumper but it was worth the wait cos once we arrived, the first stop was the GI market cos there are a lot of yummy edible items are sold. I bought a couple of pineapples from Maui (usually it's from Costa Rica or Mexico - those are not as sweet) and loaves of bread from Terra Breads. After an hour and half of walking around, we decided to drive over to Yaletown to do some more walking and window shopping. We have also been meaning to stop in at Gateau Lingerie which is owned by a friend of a friend. Nice designer lingerie but priced a bit more than what I would want to pay. Yaletown wasn't as busy as Granville Island and we walked through Yaletown within an hour so we decided to go to the new London Drugs on Cambie and Broadway. I picked up some natural shampoo and conditioner for HonHon's place cos it's getting to be a pain to bring all my bath stuff to his place after my swim. We quickly did a browse through LD and decide to head back to my place so I could prep dinner. A fun filled day and we might go for dessert with Jess later tonite. I love dessert!

Sunshine

Sweet, I'm def. gonna head out on my bike this weekend, I can't believe we are going to get sunshine and warm temperatures this weekend! AWESOME!!!

Vancouver's Umbrella

Since it rains so much here in Vancouver and these past few months, the weather has not been too kind I decided it was time to own a well built and sturdy umbrella. I have gone through a few Totes umbrellas and a Fulton umbrella - this one lasting longer than the Totes! But I find that the Totes brand cannot withstand the Vancouver rains or winds! I decided to check out The Umbrella Shop and pick up a two fold auto in a pink with a special fabric called Fonewr Nano (super durable water/oil/dirt repellent fabric) for $24.95. My umbrella has a lifetime warranty (perfect) and TUS will repair the umbrella at either no cost or a very small cost depending on what needs to be repaired. That is GREAT news since I have replaced quite a number of Totes umbrellas at their cost! The only downside to my new umbrella is that it can only open automatically and I have to manually close the umbrella. This will be a pain since I usually have my hands full and would prefer that it opens and closes but TUS does not carry their own branded open/close umbrellas. If I could justify myself on spending more money, I would have gone with one of these:

The pattern above is the Vancouver skyline designed by a local artist, Barbara Wood and it is made in Vancouver. TUS has a small selection of their own branded umbrellas which are made in Vancouver but unfortuantely none of their folding umbrellas are made locally but they are designed by TUS. Vancouver skyline umbrella priced at $84.95 - it's not that bad considering I've spent more than $100 on my crappy umbrellas. Oh well, maybe next fall as Vancity's rainy season should be lightening up!

Spring Has Arrived & HB!

What lovely weekend weather we had in Vancouver! I can't believe we were lucky enough to have sun for the entire weekend! Too bad, rain is forecasted for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday tho :( I didn't really do much except run errands and do my grocery shopping for the week. I am really hoping that the weather is nice for following weekend as this Saturday is the Farmer's Market, it would be nice to have some sunshine and no rain for once! This weekend was really about doing nothing and even tho it was so beautiful out, I really wanted to do as litlle as possible. I have been doing some overtime this past week that and this quit smoking thing has been tough on me all week. I did get out in the sun for a bit but not for outdoor fun or fit activity. Oh well, maybe next weekend!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GINGER!

She turns one today!

What??!!??

Click to enlarge

White Weekend

What a white weekend we had! All weekend, the snow continued to fall over our city causing major traffic delays and transit/road chaos. Of course, mother nature did give us a few breaks in between, teasing us with rain and clouds but the white stuff always came back and sometimes with a vengeance! On Saturday, Rhoda and I decided to head out anyways and we were in luck, Jess is in Jamaica and we got to borrow her SUV to drive in the snow covered city. We had a bit of time before the Festival of Lights at VanDusen Gardens so we headed over to Richmond IKEA. I had a $10 GC which I thought I could use or find something on sale but nope, I didn't and there wasn't anything that I needed. After our short trip at IKEA, we decided to go shopping at Richmond Centre and of course, again, I did not leave empty handed :( I found a couple of great deals, picking up a pretty black leather jewelry case at Danier ($19.99) and a jersey shrug ($40.00) at Aritzia. After walking through the entire mall, we decided to make a quick stop at Starbucks for some coffee before heading over to the Festival of Lights. As soon as we drove into Vancouver, the snow had started to fall and quite heavily making the roads very WHITE. It was quite a beautiful sight at VanDusen with the lights and the snow but really really cold! My feet were freezing and I was wearing the wrong jacket for this festival as it didn't keep me warm plus I didn't have any gloves which means my hands were freezing and felt a bit frost bitten! It would have be nice to have stayed longer to enjoy all the beautiful lights but it was super cold and snowy! I didn't bring my camera so I didn't get to take any photos but Rhoda did and she got tons of great shots, will post them as soon as I get them from her. Once we finished looking at all the lights, we realized that Rhoda lost a set of keys attached to her sis's keychain, oops! There was no way we would find them and we obviously didn't hear them fall cos of the snow!!! But hopefully, someone will turn them in if they find them .... we were planning on stopping at Superstore before heading back to my place for dinner but we decided against it and I thought it was best if Rhoda went straight home since the roads were becoming icy and slippery and traffic was piling up on the main roads. After she dropped me off, I made a quick stiry fry with what I had left in the fridge. Since being snowed in and no access to my car, I didn't have much left in the fridge. It was a quiet night at home and I shoveled the driveway/sidwalks before calling it a nite. Sunday didn't seem so bad outside cos it had rained a bit over nite and washed most of the snow away. Mom and I decided to go over to Superstore cos we both needed to pick up groceries. We first stopped by Commercial drive so my mom could pick up some veggies and I grabbed my fave kind of yogurt, Fraser Meadow - Organic Plain Yogurt, 1.5% MF. Fraser Meadow, def one of the best yogurts made locally! We headed over to Superstore and as always it was CRAZY BUSY, I usually don't pick up too many veggies or fruits there but the Farmer's Market got cancelled cos of the snow so I had to pick up my veggies/fruits for the week. Mom and I decided to have something hot before heading over to Cheong Lee Market (where she gets her asian veggies/fruits) but that might have not been such a good idea cos it started to snow and hard. Not just lightly fluffy snow, hard icy bits that stuck to the car, ground, lights, street posts etc. We had only stopped in the cafe for about 40 minutes and when we went outside, we couldn't even see my mom's car cos it was covered in snow!!! We quickly picked up her asian veggies next door and started the drive home, gosh, it was a bit scary cos all you could see in front of you was WHITENESS, I kid you not, it was snowing so hard that it was difficult to see more than a block in front of you!! Lucky we weren't too far from home and I was glad to be back as there were tons of traffic jams and cars getting stuck on the slopes in our area. But I just heard on the news that it's gonna rain tonite and tomorrow, the temperatures are going to warm up which means we should all be weary of the future flooding!!! Better than snow I guess......