Hucky Duck

Now that the snow is gone..Why was it so hard to get rid of the snow?

2009-01-08T23:47:00.000-08:00

I guess this advice is not timely enough because by now the snow that may have been blocking your car has washed away..But for future reference, and in case one is ever stuck in a ditch.

I love this structure, so beautiful and modern amidst the beauty of nature.

I gotta bitch now. Why is the City of Vancouver so unprepared for snow. The City needs to review their response plan to snow. It will only get worse when we get more snow again. It was ridiculous. Most people I know were snowed in. Lots of people missed important things, like work, medical appointments, Christmas dinner (?)..

They couldn't go anywhere cause they couldn't drive through any side streets. People from Ontario and MANITOBA said that our city's cleanup of the snow is a joke. Sure, we don’t get as much so we may not have as much equipment, but guess what, we’ve pretty much been getting snow every year, and it’s always a major problem.

I can't begin to count the number of vehicles stuck, abandoned, in accidents, burst pipe issues, the number of people I saw walking in traffic because the sidewalks were unwalkable even around major urban areas like skytrain stations. It's ridiculous.

I believe the City's response plan is, let’s plow a couple major streets, and important areas like the west end. Then let’s just wait for rain. Forget the plows. We’ll operate them like maybe 10 of them for half a day. Let people slide and slip and get stuck, and wait two hours for a bus, only to pass them cause it's already full. Then let the buses get stuck on a miniscule hill because of the snow. “In the meantime, who cares cause I’ll be in Hawaii driving drunk and shit-faced”

And even dumber, people were getting ticketed because they had to park their cars in non-parking areas because their cars were stuck. These people should not pay their ticket. And people that got into car accidents should sue the city. We should be complaining to the City. Yeah, it costs the City money, but can you imagine how much money was paid to get our cars fixed, the wages lost, the tow fees.

Gee, I’m glad the City has such deep pockets to make improvements to ice rinks and such for the Olympics, but can’t do a little more plowing to protect it’s taxpayers.

It’s a disgrace. If it’s even half as bad when the Olympics are here, it’ll make Vancouver look like a joke.

Been noticing how weird some of my friends are...

2009-01-08T23:29:00.000-08:00

I was at lunch today at Milestone's with my long-time friend Paul. Everything was going normal, I was enjoying my Eggs Benedict and we were basically talking about how glad we are the rain is washing away all the snow..

All of a sudden, Paul puts his fork down, wipes what appeared to be Mayo from the corner of his mouth, and it went something like this:

Paul: I was helping Jeff the other day in his garage. When he bent down to pick something up, I felt like grabbing the hammer on the counter and smashing it over his head. Do you ever get thoughts like this?

Me: umm.. (looking for the nearest exit and flashes of Jack Torrance in my head... all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy)....

Paul: Like yesterday at work, my co-worker was telling me about his new Ford truck, and I got an overwhelming urge to throw my book at him really hard in the head just to see what he'd do. Hey, don't tell Jeff what I said about the hammer, Okay?

Me: Umm, why would your co-worker buy a Ford?
Actually, I didn't question the Ford, I said: do you really think I would tell Jeff what you said? You want to smash a hammer into Jeff's skull for absolutely no reason. I can only imagine what you would do if you found out I betrayed you. By the way, I am moving to Guam tomorrow. (actually, I didn't say the part about Guam either)

Yesterday I was eating out at a new restaurant. I was enjoying a very savoury soup but then I found a pig's foot in my soup.

Guide to Dine Out Vancouver

2009-01-05T22:46:00.000-08:00

This year's Dine Out Vancouver starts January 14, 2009 and ends Feb 1, 2009.

I remember when Dine Out first started, there were some really good deals to be had. You actually got your moneys worth compared to if you were to just go to that same restaurant on a regular night and order from the menu.

Now it seems you get less food, or it simply is not worth it as the food quality and service suffer from the sheer quantity they are putting out.

I remember my experience at Joe Fortes last time. Literally they packed everyone like sardines, and they had like one person taking care of about fifteen tables. My wine glass still had lipstick on it. Not just the waxy post-wash lipstick, but FRESH lipstick. I could tell the busboy noticed it, but didn’t say anything and silently hoped I wouldn’t say anything. But come on, I don’t want some chick’s L’oreal all over my mouth too.

That experience did not encourage me to go back which I think is supposed to be one of the main points of the Dine Out from the restaurant's point of view. But I did end up going a couple months ago for a bday dinner, and the food was delicious, and the service was above par.. But I didn't go back based on my experience with Dine Out.

I remember when Lumiere and West were on there and the lineups to get in were crazy. At quick glance of the website (the website keeps going down probably cause everyone is looking at it now) I think the only thing that has the caliber of those two restaurants are DB Bistro Moderne (Formerly Feenie’s now headed by Daniel Boulud, - a Michelin chef and restauranteur also formerly sued for his questionable employment practices)

The menu for Ocean Club looks pretty good, and surprisingly, it's only $28.

I’m not sure what some restaurants are doing on there. I mean come on, Milestone’s? Hon’s Wonton house? Salt? The Old Spaghetti Factory?? Red Door? Fogg n Suds? Boathouse? Aqua Riva? I'm not knocking all of them cause a couple of them are actually pretty good. but, you can get those same prices any night of the week, or find the coupons in the Strait for the same price, or it’s simply not worth it to go. I would rather just go to Les Faux Bourgeois. You couldn’t pay me enough to go back to Salt. Service is good, but the food. What a joke. I can just go to Save-on-Foods and get that same meal for free with their deli counter samples during lunch hour sans wine. Keep on walking past Salt and head over somewhere else.

I’m going to check out Trafalgar’s, Gastropod and DB Bistro Moderne. any other suggestions?

And the prices have gone up 20% from last year. Cut us a break. With the economy the way it is at least let the prices be..

My pet peeve about the DineOut is how the waitstaff push liquor sales. It's like, suggesting is fine, but stop being so damn pushy. Funny story, last year at a restaruant which name now escapes me, the person at the table next to me was pregnant, and the waiter was recommending all these wines with each course.. she finally told him she was six months pregnant. She looked visibly pregnant, and then he was like, ohhh, well, how about a virgin cocktail.

Small tip, don't just try to reserve through Open Table. I've had several experiences where the Open Table indicates it's full, but when you call, it's a different story.

Prix Fixe basically means set menu and it's pronounced Pre feex. I keep calling it prefix or grand prix.

Please be careful in the snow. So many people are walking on the roads since some sidewalks are unwalkable. People need to slow down. And the city needs to plow some more roads like in the residential areas. So many people still can't get out of their alleyways.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-04T20:24:00.000-08:00

I put so much thought into new year's eve, that when it finally rolled around, it ended up being very boring. I didn't want to pay $100 just to gain entry into some club or hotel for a cheap plastic cup of champagne. I think I'm just very jaded or something, but the thought of doing the countdown out loud, and running around hugging random people just wasn't my thing. Nor is partying with a bunch of 21 year olds. When I was 21, I would pay the $85 to go to some hotel wearing a slutty dress I bought from somewhere lame with really uncomfortable shoes and wonder why the 30 year olds are still going out. and think, I would never want to be like those "old peole". Now here I am in my 30s being a slave to my former 21 year old thoughts.

We ended up going out for dinner and drinks with friends, and then over to a really lame house party. It was boring. I knew as soon as we stepped into this downtown condo that it was not good. From the hallway, I heard no sounds or music, just smelled what can only be described as Bath and Body Works cucumber melon scent and Lysol disinfectant. I can tell by the shoes in the hallway it was going to be a bad party.

There was another house party we could have gone to, but it was all the way in Maple Ridge, and I wasn't about to go there. (I regret it now, cause I saw pics of this party we missed on Facebook, and it looked like a good party). So we walk in, and everyone's just watching tv, and eating the oriental party pack from M&Ms alongside of cheap liquor, you know, like the sour puss crap. About twenty minutes after we arrived, some more people arrived, and it seemed like it would get better, but the sour puss drinks got to me and I passed out.

I just watched this show on Lululemon and Westjet, and how they operate their business, treat their staff, etc. The founder of Lululemon is Chip Wilson, he's the same guy that started Westbeach, he seems like a good guy. But the CEO looks really bitchy even when she smiles.. Christine Day. She is the former CEO of Starbucks. I'm not a big fan of Starbucks. I can't believe they have the gall to charge what they do for a cup of coffee. When I read their sales were down, I was actually happy. I'm glad people realize when there is a recession, the first thing that goes should be overpriced coffee.

Abreva or Herpestat

2008-12-29T23:34:00.000-08:00

My friend made me drive him to London Drugs today for two reasons.
1. He couldn't get out of his driveway because of the snow.
2. He has a big meeting coming up, and had to get some medication to get rid of his coldsore.

He said it's not herpes, and cold sores are what he gets when he's under stress.

So I pick him up and we head over to London Drugs and find the cold sore medication. There's two different types. Abreva and Herpestat. The Abreva is 19.99 but the Herpestat is 10.99. Clearly, the Herpestat is the better choice. But my friend doesn't want to go to the cashier to buy something called Herpestat, so he decides to fork out another $10. Who are the marketing geniuses behind the naming of Herpestat? Who would want to buy something with the name Herpes on it. That's like instead of buying "Summer's Eve" for *feminine* odor, I'll just buy some "smelly vagina stat". Couldn't they come up with a more subtle name then Herpestat? I think the extra $10 for the Abreva is to pay for the brains behind the people that came up with the name.. We buy Preparation H, not Preparation Hemerrhoid.

BTW, did you know you can use Preperation H for puffy eyes?

Boxing Day shopping in Vancouver. Coach store on Burrard

2008-12-28T01:14:00.000-08:00

I actually went Boxing Day shopping on the 27th.. On the 26th, I was snug as a bug in my bed watching more movies.

The Coach store on Burrard (755 Burrard Street) is having like one of the best handbag sales I've ever been to in Vancouver. Tons of purses are marked down to $59. And a whole lot of them are 50% off. The sale was on Boxing day and the 27th, and apparently on the 28th and 29th as well. The salespeople said they will be REPLENISHING THE STOCK. All the goods on sale are on the right of the store. So don't even bother looking on the left part of the store.

I don't even like Coach. But my friend and I were walking down Burrard on our way to HMV and saw a big-ass lineup in front of Coach.

We heard about the sale the day before, but didn't know stuff would still be on sale after Boxing Day. We decided to wait. This was 2pm. At 3pm we got in. The lineup to pay inside was looped all around the store like a kids train track set. If you even strayed an inch from the line, one of the sales associates would correct your position.. It was another 1.5 hour wait. We browsed for about 30 minutes. I picked up three Coach bags, at $59 each. Which is nothing. I saw people with about 15. The limit is three per style. Some of the wallets were 50% off, some scarves were $19, shoes were $29. The regular price for my bags were $338 each. My friend bought three.

And while you're in line, the salespeople bring out more purses from the back for your consideration, so be friendly with a salesperson when you walk in. I saw tons of people standing in line with several purses, but while they're slowly moving through the line to pay, they have second thoughts and put the purse on a nearby table, or hand it back to the salespeople, so keep an eye out for these too.

I took some pics which I will post later.

I went to a few other stores. Lululemon, Future Shop, Winner's, B2, Aldo, Aritizia, Mexx, TNA, Banana Republic. The sales were no good, in fact, they were kind of a joke. Perhaps they only had their good stuff on the 26th, which I somehow doubt.

I would recommend you check out the Coach store. Even though the stuff on clearance is last year's fashions, it really doesn't look like it. There's some really good staples, and excellent for a gifting.

One thing I need to remark is how polite all the customers were in the store to each other, I didn't experience any pushing or shoving, nor was there any grabbing. I heard the day before, there were a few catfights. I did see a few customers YELL at the sales staff. ohh, what was annoying was that the cashiers didn't remove the security tags, so every store we went into after that, we would sound the alarm as we walked in and left. We were a public nuisance.

I'm now listening to Amanda Seyfried from the Mamma Mia soundtrack. Something about her voice is very soothing.

I sometimes get depressed on Christmas

2008-12-25T23:34:00.000-08:00

You probably know this song already, but just in case you don't, have a listen. Jeff Buckley drowned at 29. So tragic. I don't know why, but I often like listening to songs of people that have passed on. I also like to listen to Elliot Smith. I can hear the tragedy/sadness in his voice.

Sometimes I guess I wallow a bit on Christmas. Like today, I've been feeling like shit, so after coming home from the movies, I soaked in the tub with some Lush bathbombs that I got for Christmas and I cried and sobbed for no reason. Then I noticed a hair stuck on the ceiling, how the heck did that get there??? But the cry made me feel better. I love Lush products! I used to hate walking past their store cause of the strong smell, but after using a bathbomb and some of their other products, I'm hooked.

I think Christmas is such a commercialized holiday. I mean, once in a while, I get someone something they really want that makes them happy, but really, does your friend really need another hoodie or perfume?? Most of my friends have everything they need. I prefer to give to someone that actually needs it. I think we need to stop buying gifts for each other, and use that money to help those less fortunate. I wonder if I can start a, "stop buying Christmas gifts" campaign. I'm sure Future Shop and department stores nationwide would be all for it. We're only lining the pockets of some rich assholes. The weather's been so bad, and all these people are like taking the bus and going to crazy busy malls to buy some gift that the receiver will probably tire of. Buying a gift just for the sake of it. Next year I'm only gonna donate to charity, and make baked gifts (I don't bake though, so I will have to learn)

Merry Christmas and to all a good night.

Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Christmas in Vancouver

2008-12-25T22:51:00.000-08:00

I don't have much family. The family I do have, are overseas working. So I didn't have turkey dinner. I got invited over to a friend's place last night, and had dinner there, but no turkey.

Today I woke up around 11:30 with a terrible hangover. I planned to only watch movies and catch up on my tv programs this week. So yesterday and today I have watched:

Wanted - very unrealistic, spoiler alert: but why after finding out MF has been lying all this time, Angelina would blindly believe that their names came out on the weaving machine??? (I know it's supposed to be a non-realistic movie, but it's not even consistent within itself). Angelina looked friggin hot in this movie. It inspired me to change my makeup. You see her butt too. I don't know, it's kinda really small. I didn't think the butt was nice, but her tattoos, so beautiful.

Notes on a Scandal - very good. I love Cate and Judi.

Kung Fu Panda - entertaining, but I didn't need to see this.

Curious Case of Benjamin Button - I watched this today at the theatre in downtown. I can't even remember the name of the theatre, is it Scotiatheatre?? We wanted to watch the 4:30 showing but it was sold out at 3:30 so we watched the 5:30 show (forgot to go and feed the meter again, but no parking ticket - Merry Christmas to me!!) I love Brad and Cate and Tilda. I don't want to spoil it, I liked the first 65% of the movie, but didn't like the way it ended. Some movie reviewer said it was the best movie of the decade, but I beg to differ. I didn't think it was that great. It was good, I cried a few times but it wasn't like the best movie in the last decade. Oh, and what I thought was really weird was the way Mr. Button grabbed the baby out of the bassinet and the way he first was holding him after he grabbed him. Like he's carrying a bag of apples.

Since we had so much time to kill before the movie, we went to the Japadog stand in front of the Sutton Place. I had the Teri-Mayo dog, and my friend had the jalapeno cheese dog. I dont' like the Teri-mayo. I should have gotten the oroshi. A lot of people were taking pictures. They have a sign showing all these ads they were featured in, but the way it's set up, it looks like picturs from some surveillance tape. Anyways, as we were waiting for my dogs, I was close enough I could hear what the workers were saying. One of them was excited because someone left a four dollar tip. I wonder where they use the bathroom??? I'd hate to be working there if I had like the runs or something.. I don't want to be gross, but that shit happens right? (Haha, no pun intended)

At the theatre, there was this Asian chick there with her boyfriend. She was wearing a sequined purple evening dress (ended above the knee). She was in the lineup to get into the movie, and I saw her pouting to her boyfriend about something, and he went and got a chair for her to sit in in the lineup. Then she goes to the bathroom, and she takes off her jacket to go strutting all the way to the bathroom. A lot of people were snickering cause she thought she was like Paris Hilton walking the red carpet. Don't want to be mean, but she looked like an idiot. All the people around me were laughing at her, including me. It was just the attitude she had. Her boyfriend is an idiot too for getting her the chair. There were tons of old people in the lineup, they were standing like everyone else. I really wish I had a camera. But then again, she would probably think I'm like paparazzi.. Oh, and I saw some lady wearing a fur coat.. First of all, I'm like a silent animal rights activist, I wouldn't throw paint at anyone I don't think, but seriously, that's so tacky. Leave that shit at home, or donate it to a homeless person.

Afterwards, we were hungry, and there wasn't much open on Robson except for Blenz, Guu, Gyoza King, Hon's and some Korean restaurants. We tried to go to Guu but the wait was one hour unless you wanted to sit outside. No thanks. So we went to a Korean restaurant called Book Jang something. It's on 1638 Robson street. I'm not a big fan of Korean restaurants. Don't get me wrong, I love Korean food, but the service and food is usually inconsistent in Vancouver Korean restaurants. This place was no different. The service was good, but there was a hair in the food. I had a noodle dish. The noodles were really soft. I like my noodles firm. Al dente. is that too much to ask? And it wasn't even spicy. I like my Korean food spicy. OH MI GOSH. and the music. so annoying. It was like really loud pop music. They played Timbaland, Christina Aguilera, and some Korean pop. I don't mind that music, but I don't like listening to it over dinner.

Very funny story, but apparently I was so drunk last night I was dancing furiously to Christmas music. I'm just a slave to Christmas music. I don't remember any of that, but I know I woke up today with a bump on my head. Oh, and took a look at my camera, and there are definitely things happening that I don't recall.

Right now I'm listening to Tie My Hands - Lil Wayne

Why do I write this blog?

2008-12-23T21:48:00.001-08:00

I write this “blog” as a diary. I know I don’t need to do it publically online and just do it in a word document, but something about putting it online is very thrilling to me. I don’t tell anyone I write it, but sometimes I think if I ever get framed for like a murder or something, I can use this online diary as like my alibi. And to be honest, when I get like a comment or something, it is quite exciting. I guess in some way I hope I can help someone whether it is picking a good restaurant or avoiding a bad one.

I have to sleep with the closet door closed. And I have to brush my teeth in a certain way and gargle in a certain way otherwise I can’t like sleep. So I can’t let anyone watch me brush, cause it’s probably a little bit weird. Never been a problem though since no one exactly begs to watch me brush my teeth. I'm glad I got that off my chest. It feels incredibly liberating.

The other day my co-workers were talking about some blog where some couple blogs about their dining adventures, they were remarking how this couple must have no life because they write that blog. I took this very personally. I didn't talk to my co-workers the whole day which is hard since I work in a small company of 12 and we tend to work quite closely together. I get along quite well with four of them. The others either just aren't in my age bracket (that's 29-45) or we have absolutely nothing in common. I don't hang out with any of them outside of work, but I do enjoy their company. I think people at work will say I'm a nice person, but have no idea what the heck I do outside of work except for the fact that I have a lot of pets and like to eat out a lot.

I'm listening to Keep on Pushing - The Impressions

Why do people say Vancity? Christmas gift update

2008-12-23T21:25:00.000-08:00

I really hate when people say Vancity. Or people saying, the 604 (as in the area code) as if we’re in New York saying 212. At least 212 is cool, but saying 604 sounds so lame. And really, 0 is supposed to be pronounced “zero.” I also don’t like when people say, what’s the 411. I guess I don’t like when people use numbers to replace words. At least in Vancouver. Why do I feel like I’m the leading authority on how people should say things about Vancouver? Why does shit like this bother me. It’s ridiculous. I saw a show today about all these elephants getting killed for their tusks (ivory). I couldn’t watch it. It makes me so sad. If I watched the entire show, I would probably start some kind of crusade against people that buy ivory, or stores that sell ivory, but to be honest, around this time of year, I just don’t have that kind of energy. So I had to stop watching it for my own mental health. But really, the three minutes I saw was heartbreaking. All the dead elephant carcasses. Apparently China and the US are the top buyers for this. I am never going to get anything ivory. And if I see it in someone’s house, I’ll probably resent them and not talk to them.

Update: Costco Burnaby no longer has any Ugg boots. On Friday they had about six pairs of size fives left. They have tons of Ugg slippers for 74.99.. But please, if you want to get someone Ugg boots, do not get them the slippers instead. At that point, get the special Sex and the City DVD set with the wedding theme.

Winner's - all Christmas stuff is an additional 50% off. I got some stuff for next year. not too bad.

Book a flight through Air Canada or Tango up to December 26 (for travel up to May 2009) and get an additional 15% off with this promotional code: GF6V9EW1

Planet Earth DVD set - this is a safe bet with anyone. It's 99.99 at Costco, it can be had a lot cheaper elsewhere if you don't mind waiting till after Christmas.

Beard Papa in Vancouver

2008-12-17T22:03:00.000-08:00

YUMMY. I love them. It's a cream puff chain from Japan. Or as the Japanese call it, choux cream. The cream is very delicious, "It's like a flavor explosion in the mouth" (as the Japanese Iron Chef judge would say) it's not too dense nor is it too light. It's perfect. And I love the actual pastry part of it. It's a little crunchy, you need to eat it immediately. They are almost $2 each. Some people think it's too hyped. Well, I think they are better than any pastry you can get at a Vancouver bakery. I can't think of any bakery/pastry treat that comes close except for the Creme Brulee they had at Senses when they were still open.

There were mad lineups when they first opened, but now I never see them. In Hawaii I tried their breakfast puff, no good. The other flavors are not bad, I like the Royal Milk Tea one. I can't remember if I had that in San Fran though. I don't think they have that flavor in Vancouver yet.

I'm now listening to "Keep on Pushing" from The Impressions. It's on the Vanilla Sky soundtrack.

Costco Burnaby has Uggs. Winter tire shortage in Vancouver

2008-12-17T21:38:00.000-08:00

Yup, they're real. They got the tags in the back and everything.
They just brought them out yesterday. They are $199 for the talls. I believe they are $160 at Nordstrom in the US, so the price isn't bad.

Winter tire shortage in Canada
Since it's mandatory in Quebec to have winter tires as of December 15, 2008 there is a shortage of winter tires. My friend just tried to buy some and was told she would have to wait three weeks, and pay $1,200 (for the shipping costs). At Costco last week it was a four hour wait to get your tires on.

Everyone needs to slow down when it's snowing. I decided to drive over to Metrotown mall today cause I figured it wouldn't be busy, (I was right) and it was slippery as heck, and I witnessed three different incidents: a two vehicle accident, one car up on the sidewalk and one car that drove into a no-parking sign. (all in different places) I also went to the gym today (Fitness World) thinking it wouldn't be busy, and it was packed.

Let's see, what else is going on, I'm listening to "I Might be Wrong" - Radiohead. There's gonna be a sale at Bebe this Saturday morning. All tops are $29. They had this same sale a few weeks ago, and I totally banked. I got 7 tops at $29 each, and the actual value for all the tops was over $800!! I don't normally like Bebe because I always thought their stuff is for tiny people, but that's not true. You definitely need to try stuff on because some small tops fit medium-like, but some small tops are really tight. So I got a mixture of XS, S and M stuff. The tops on the website are the tops they have in the store.

Brentwood Mall

2008-12-15T23:37:00.001-08:00

I come here once in a while if I need to pick up a gift or something, since it's a lot less intimidating then Metrotown. Over the years, it's definitely improved. It's lost some stores, but gained some decent ones. (E.g. Gap become Bryan's Bridal, American Eagle became Children's Outlet). Other than that, the stores that I'd likely go to here are Le Chateau, Kin's food mart, Aldo (crappy selection), London Drugs, La Senza, liquor store, and maybe the Naturalizer outlet cause they have some good deals. There's a postal outlet on the ground floor. There's also a Sears and a Zellers.

Generally I think this mall is pretty unfriendly in terms of sales staff. You can walk from store to store, and perhaps one out of five, you MIGHT get a somewhat genuine greeting. If you go into Bryan's, it's a totally different story, it's like used car salesman sales people. They are all over you. And anything you try on looks SOOOO NICE! Even if it is two sizes too small, and it's clearly unflattering, they'll say something like, ohh, just take off the shoes. There, there! look how nice you look now! umm, no. I would hate to work here, because you can tell it's very competitive in terms of sales. The moment I had something in my hand to try on, two women with the gaits of olympic speed walkers came rushing over to me to "start a dressing room for me"

I don't know what's better, getting totally ignored, or getting totally hounded, and told that you look so wonderful even if you come out looking like a sack of potatoes.

The food court is decent for a mall that size. It's nothing to write home about, there's a couple somewhat healthy alternatives, like the Mediterranean food stand, and maybe Roasty Jack for a turkey wrap (it rhymes). Other than that, it's got standard fare like A&W, KFC, Orange Julius.

There's a skytrain station there now. But if you plan on doing some Christmas shopping, I think you're better off going to Metrotown. There's much more variety. Or if you have a car and want to avoid the craziness of Metrotown, I would prefer to go to the Queensborough Wal-Mart and go to the shops there, like La Senza, Dynamite, Le Chateau outlet, Aldo outlet and much more.

Lululemon outlet in Burlington

2008-12-15T23:24:00.000-08:00

I went to the Lululemon outlet in Burlington for the first time. It's about an hour south of Bellis Fair. They have other stores at this outlet. Some worth noting are the Gap, Nine West, and I'm sure some will like the Coach outlet there. For some reason I find this outlet a little sad compared to the Premium Outlets. This outlet center was recently bought by the Horizon Group. They gave it a new paint job, and although it seems a bit brighter, it does not have as many good stores as the Premium Outlets. I think it needs a few more clothing stores.

Lululemon OutletLet me tell you, even with the exchange rate, the deals were good. You need to look at the chalkboard behind the cashiers for the prices, because the price on the label is not necessarily the actual price.
A few things I saw that I thought were decent to awesome deals:
Nylon vest $19. (regularly priced $100+)
Yoga mat bag $10.
Bras $8-14. The $14 bra tops were, buy two, get one free
Dance leotards $4.
And the men's clothing is very reasonable. Lots of stuff from $10-$19.
The only problem is, the sizes, the sizes are either very small, like size 0 or 4, or very large. I think their stuff fits a bit weird. I can fit into some of their size six tops, and sometimes even size four tops, but when it comes to the tanks, I can barely get a size six top over my head. I wear a size eight for tanks.

Before you buy, do a check, a lot of the tops had foundation or lipstick on them. Some clothing were missing something, like a bra pad, or like a zipper cover. And you don't get the Lululemon eco bags here. Although that should be expected.

I don't think it's worth it to buy any pants or hoodies here. After the exchange rate, it basically works out cheaper to buy in Vancouver.

As for the other stores, the Coach and Nine West, they have what you could get at the Premium Outlets. I think the vitamin outlet next to Lululemon is pretty good too. They have some very good specials. Like I got a bottle of liquid Echinacea for $2.

Trattoria Italian Kitchen on 4th Ave

2008-12-15T23:19:00.000-08:00

Trattoria Italian Kitchen on 4th Avenue is great. We tried to go there a few times, but it was always very busy. Despite how busy it was the times we tried to go there, I found the hostess is always super nice without any kind of attitude. And she doesn't give you the feeling that she doesn't care if you don't decide to wait.

We happened to be walking past, saw a long line, but decide to give it a shot. We were actually planning to get some fast food.. We got seated like right away.. I think the manager mistook us for some regular important customers or something cause he was all super nice and there were lots of other people still waiting. Which was kind of funny cause we were both dressed very badly. We were only planning to get fast food, but ended up walking past here, and thought we’d give it a try. I was wearing a dressy black coat, but I was wearing blue jeans that are too big and brown clogs. Oh, and a t-shirt I wear to sleep, that is too big. I looked really weird. Especially with the dressy jacket.
The guy I was with just finished at the gym, and was still wearing gym clothes. It was a little hard to enjoy our meal, cause I thought he would realize we were not the important customers, and tell us the jig was up.

Everybody else there eating is very dressed up and trendy looking. I liked the bathrooms there, I don’t remember why now, but I remember liking something in there, maybe it was the tile or something. Only thing is, it’s really far from the front of the restaurant. I don’t like walking through crowds of people like that. Especially wearing oversized blue jeans with brown clogs and a pajama shirt. I always thought Pajama is spelled “Pyjama” but my spellcheck is telling me it’s wrong. It’s also telling me I’m spelling spellcheck wrong..

The service was excellent. There was absolutely no pushiness when it came to drinks, and our waitress was very attentive. They give you a survey card to fill out in the end, and I had nothing but praise. You may be thinking we got good service because they mistook us for some important customers, but I noticed everyone aruond us was receiving just as good service.

Les Faux Bourgeois

2008-12-07T18:05:00.000-08:00

I called several times to make reservations, but majority of the time, no one answered the phone and if they did, they were fully booked. Finally got a reservation here for four during prime time (7pm) on a Saturday! It was worth the wait.

I was a little bit disappointed by the music they were playing because it seemed a little cliché. They were playing the "Chillout in Paris" compilations.
One thing I didn’t like is that the names of all the dishes are in French. Like, “Fillet de Boeuf Grille” or “Steak Frites” I had a bit of a dilemma, if on a date, would it be pretentious to order using the French title, and risk sounding really dumb if pronouncing it incorrectly, or will it look “uneducated” to just say, “give me the duck”. Then again, if you are the kind of person that eats duck, you can probably say “Canard Confit” Anywho, I ordered the fish, cause it was the easiest thing for me to pronounce, and I knew I was saying it properly.

I find the décor a little cold, but it is pretty stylish. I think it’s the subway tile floor that makes it appear kind of cold. The waiters at Les Faux Bourgeois are francophones and service is pretty good.

The prices are very good for what it is. I was very satisfied with my meal. It was $200 for the four of us including tip and a bottle of wine and a couple of cocktails. This is much better than going to like Earl’s, or even worse, Milestone’s. This is a nice date place, but it is a little crowded in there, so it may not feel so intimate. If you’re single, this is probably a nice place to pick up women at the bar, I saw a lot of cougar types at the bar. Good looking ones.

Oh, and free bread!! Oh yes! It’s good too. And the napkins are awesome. You’ll know what I mean. Speaking of free bread, I met this couple that were on some tour through Canada, and they went to an Italian restaurant with the tour group, and they served free bread, and they thought that was all they were getting for their meal, so they kept eating it, the waiter kept refilling it, the food was running late, so when they got their meal like 30 minutes later, they were shocked, and couldn’t eat it cause they were full. Ahhh, cute tourists. Love it!

As for parking, there wasn’t anything on Kingsway, but there was plenty on Fraser street. I noticed at about nine pm, there were a few tables for two available, so even if you don’t have reservations, I think it would be worth a try to just walk-in, and perhaps sit at the bar if no table available yet.

Drunk Assholes in Vancouver

2008-11-23T21:48:00.001-08:00

On any given weekend in downtown Vancouver, you get the young 20-30 something exiting from the clubs at about the same time. Of course lots are drunk, and some are acting like idiots.

A girl friend and I were walking along Granville street and we see some drunk guy with his friends terrorizing a homeless guy. They were kicking his stuff, and yelling at him cause he asked them for spare change. We were waiting for the light to change, and by the time we crossed, those guys had walked on.

When we approach, the homeless guy is crying, so I give him some money, and he starts sort of shouting about the assholes that were kicking his "bed" and his stuff. One of them heard, comes running back, and gets in his face all menacing. I was really mad. So I just blurted out, "what's wrong with you, why do you have to pick on someone lower than you, just leave the guy alone, pick on someone your own size." he says, Bitch, mind your own business. I was getting scared, cause the guy was big, and if he's such a loser he needs to pick on homeless people that are like 60 years old, then he's obviously got issues. So I just started walking away, and he comes after me, and pretends to punch me in the head. I said to him, "Fuck you idiot, why don't you go pick on someone in a wheelchair" He then mumble-shouted some other stuff to me relating to our female parts, and when my friend turned around, she saw he was giving us the finger like a little kid, so she shouts to him, "come over here and do that why don't you," so he comes running across, and lunges at her like he's going to punch her out.

Some guy across the street saw this happening, and he comes running over to help, and I'm not joking, the drunk is obviously scared because this person is a guy of his size. I'm getting mad just writing this now, looking back, I wonder if I had called the police they would have done anything. I'm kinda glad we stood up for the guy, but I'm kinda thinking we should have just ignored it cause it could have potentially been very dangerous.

There's nothing I can't stand more than people picking on people lower than them. Or treating other people like garbage for absolutely no reason to "impress" others.

The last time I was in front of Chill Winston, I saw a homeless guy ask a couple of early 30's guys for a cigarette, they told him, if he got on his knees and begged, he would get one. The homeless guy got on his knees and begged, and the guys laughed, and threw a cigarette on the ground to him. Seriously, if I was a guy, and I was built like, oh, I don't know, Jason Statham, I'd kick the shit out of them, then make them beg for mercy. I'd also humiliate them and make them say stupid shit. I'd then pull out their wallets, and give the money to the homeless guy, and then I'd put their IDs and credit cards in a pile of crap and make them fish it out with their mouths. I'd make sure it was videotaped, and youtube it, and show all their friends and colleagues. But I barely weigh 120 pounds soaking wet and I sometimes listen to the Carpenters. Oh, and I sometimes listen to 103.5 FM.

My shitty experience with ICBC. Bad drivers in Vancouver, and the new casino in Burnaby

2008-11-23T21:42:00.000-08:00

So last week I’m stopped at a light and some 19 year old kid in an $80,000 car (BMW) decides to change lanes at the last minute going about 120 k. I did not suddenly stop or anything. In fact, I was stopped for a good 30 seconds. But being such a dumbass he hits my car, and doesn’t realize there’s a TRUCK in the next lane, and hits the truck as well. I was so stunned. Pieces of our three cars were all over the road. The BMW driver was immediately on his phone to his friends who all ‘raced over’ in their BMWs. Really awkward and unnecessary.

We exchange information, and I actually felt sorry for the driver, cause the truck driver was freaking out on him. I thought he was gonna kick the shit out of him. He somehow calmed down, and we all got each other’s numbers and license and registration information.

So I go to the new casino in Burnaby since we are meeting friends there, although I felt like going home and drinking a bottle of wine and watching lame reruns at that point, but I couldn’t not show up, cause I’m not like that.. anyways, my bumper was hanging off my car, so I parked, and my friend picked us up.

I call ICBC at approximately 2 am, and I speak to a really dumb call center rep. He asks me for my driver’s license number and license plate. I give him the information, and he tells me my license plate number is incorrect because it’s not in his system. So I repeat it, and he still says it’s incorrect. I used the military alphabet (Alpha, Charlie, Bravo fiiiive threee sixxxxx) to spell out my license plate, and he still says it’s not in his database. He suggests I reversed the numbers and letters, so we try 536 ACB. And he asks me, “Are you Joyce D Nord?” UMM, idiot, he should ask ME what my name is, and confirm whether or not it matches what he’s got in his system, he shouldn’t be releasing this kind of info as it’s a matter of privacy. Anyways, I’m like, NO, that’s not me. Also, I’m thinking, he has my driver’s license number, he should KNOW my name is not Joyce. He tells me to go outside and check the number. I was like, I KNOW my license plate. But I go and check it, and sure enough, I gave it to him right the first three times. So I tell him, he enters it again, and he goes, “oh… there it is, I musta pressed the wrong key” whatever. That’s fine, so I tell him what happened, he kept asking if it was the guy in the truck’s fault. It’s like, umm, NO, it was the guy in the BMW. And then he was like, oh a BMW truck?

During this time he’s yawned twice. Okay, understandable, he is working a shitty shift, and it’s 2 am, but really, this is ridiculous. ICBC should not offer a 24 hour service if they can’t even get a semi-professional person working there. They might as well have Miss Carolina working there. So he asks me if there are any injuries. I tell him my passenger appears fine, but I was bleeding and part of my body is stiff. While he’s listening, he’s yawning again, but he doesn’t even try to conceal it. I am sure he hears about accidents all day, but still, he should be at least somewhat capable of being a little compassionate, or at the very least, NOT FUCKING YAWN. So then he tells me he can’t give me a claim number because something is wrong, and someone will call me back the next day. By the way, his tone was very condescending, and I can tell he was rolling his eyes when I was telling him my license plate information.

The next day a rep calls me and this person is very professional, empathetic, and obviously intelligent. She asks me to repeat what happened, and she then tells me the information she has on her screen is different. The dumbass I talked to the night before wrote that it was the truck driver’s fault. &^@*$. She tells me I need to wait a WEEK to meet with an ICBC rep regarding the accident. I was like, I can’t wait a week. My car is undriveable, I need to take it to a bodyshop right away, and get a courtesy car. She tells me because of the personal injury, I need to go to see an adjuster. I was like, I’m not waiting a week, I don’t even feel that bad, so forget that. I’m not claiming personal injury. I’m sure ICBC is happy with that. But honestly, I just don’t want to deal with the hassle, and I knew I would feel okay. I’m sure I could have milked it, but I’m not like that. I don’t even take sick days… yeah, I’m a humble motherfucker with a big ass dick. Just kidding. I’m a girl. So I don’t have a dick. But back to the story. So she tells me if I’m not claiming I can take it to any approved ICBC repair shop, and she’ll email me a list. She also tells me the BMW driver has not reported the accident, and that I will have to pay the deductible. To which I argue as it’s clearly not my fault. She tells me unfortunately, that’s just the way it works, until he calls in. WTF??????? So I say, so he can just not call and be off the hook, and she tells me, no, they will send him letters and try to call him to get him to make a report. A fucking letter? A phone call? Judging by the demeanor of him the night of the accident, I doubt he’ll even read the letter, nor would he answer a call that would show up on his call display as ICBC. But whatever, my goal was to get my car fixed and get a courtesy car in the meantime.

I take my car to Craftsman Collision (they are awesome) and I have to drive a sweet Toyota corolla that says Craftsman Collision on every visible surface. Okay, this is mean, but normally I AVOID corolla drivers, cause there’s always some very slow driver, or bad driver sitting in the driver’s seat. Especially the beige ones. But my courtesy car is silver.

Three days later, I call back ICBC to ask if the BMW driver has reported the accident, and he still hasn’t. I’m fuming now. If I hit someone and it was my fault, believe me, I would call ICBC immediately, apologize to the people I hit for the severe inconvenience I am about to put them through, I would not sit around touching myself and avoid calling.

So I am fucking mad. I want to sue the guy now for being a dick. So I call back ICBC, and let them know I want to be compensated for:
-the half day I had to miss from work
-the fact that I have to drive around in a car that is a downgrade from my usual car for two weeks
-the fact that I was supposed to go the US the next day to go shopping, and couldn’t nor can I the whole time I have my courtesy car and I normally go fairly often
-that now when I sell my car, it loses value cause it was a pretty bad accident.

I am only wanting to “sue” because this ignorant jerk that can’t even take the time to be a teensy bit courteous and call and report his mistake. The response I get from ICBC. “If you have to line up for a long time at the bank, do you expect to be compensated for that? So why would you expect to be compensated for a little inconvenience. You didn’t have to take time off work, you could have gone before, or after, or during your lunch hour” Umm, first of all, I don’t wait in line because I use the fucking ATM and they offer alternatives like online banking. Also, some banks offer like $5 if you have to wait more than ten minutes, and the bank I go to, if I ever have to go in, I never line up for more than ten minutes, and there’s tvs to watch while you wait.

Well, so I decide I am being dumb to bother sueing, so I just fume some more. I actually have the guy’s number, but when I polled people about calling him, it was pretty much a resounding NO. But I’m mad, and I call. It turns out the guy (no longer a jerk) called to report the accident. I ask him for the claim number and I call back ICBC, and they say, ohhh, sorry, sometimes our system overlaps (whatever that means) and it takes awhile to relay. So yeah, he did report. Umm, okay. In this day and age, where you can get information in like a millisecond, ICBC can’t afford a better system?

Anyways, I dealt with five different ICBC reps, two of them were for just very basic questions, and I only got one really bad rep, so they’re not all bad. Two were excellent, two were average, and one was like below average. It left me with a bad taste. I’m gonna look into other options. I have driven over ten years with a perfect driving record. I have never even gotten a speeding ticket. I have tons of parking tickets, but that’s a different story.

Okay, so here’s this. I don’t know this for sure, but I’m pretty sure the actual road test has not changed much in the last 15 years, and things have really changed in Vancouver in the last 15 years in terms of the number of drivers and cars on the road. Yeah, I know there’s this graduated licensing program, but come on, I see these N cars at all hours of the day. BTW, I find it annoying, when they try to be cool and put it on the car sidewasy.

We have a lot of people here from other countries, and even if they can’t speak English, they can get their license. I have no problems with that, but the rules for driving here are different compared to other countries. There are lines to follow, and rules to follow.

Here in Vancouver, your cousin can teach you how to drive. A cousin that thinks it’s okay to drive like an asshole as if he’s auditioning for a role as a stunt driver in the Fast and the Furious. In many other countries, it is mandatory to go to a professional driving course. In Denmark, potential drivers need to take a first aid course.

It should be a lot harder to get a driver’s license. There are so many bad drivers in Vancouver. It is not uncommon to witness more than one accident in a month. Once a week depending on the route you take to work.
My friend told me she knows a girl that pays a premium of an extra 400% and she just hit a pedestrian, yet her license does not get taken away. Driving is a privilege, not a right. The government needs to do something about this. There are way too many accidents here in Vancouver.

I was in Japan recently, and I did not even see one accident, and you should see how many cars are on the road, how much traffic, and how fast people are going, and how narrow some streets are. Same as in Italy, did not see one accident, and I was in the car for like at least five days straight going from one region to another.

Voya lounge in Loden Hotel

2008-11-01T03:05:00.000-07:00

I got a chance to check out the Voya Lounge in the Hotel Loden on Melville street.
Service: From the doorperson to the hostess to the waitress. Excellent.

Clientele: Trendy, and a dress to impress type crowd. Mostly a 30s and up crowd, but there was some younger too. Including an Ed Hardy wearing couple. And some guy that was too cool to take his sunglasses off even though it was dark in there.
It wasn't that busy. Perhaps there was a hockey game on. Good place to take a date perhaps. Maybe on a non-busy night in the lounge area though, or else you'll be elbow to elbow with strangers.

Drinks: Cocktails are expensive but very good. $10 and up, with the average cocktail around $14. At that price, I'd rather pay half, and just get a good drink, or a very nice glass of wine.

Food: Only had some appies, and they were good. The chef used to be at Lumiere. Not Rob Feenie, I believe it's Marc Choquette.

Decor is nice, but for some reason, I got this feeling of loneliness in there. Maybe I felt out of my element. I thought the location is a little bit strange too, like in a residential condo area. I don't think I would suggest going here again.

Although the service is good, you get the feeling that you better be getting bottle service, or ordering drinks constantly, and not the cheapest thing on the menu either. My friend was supposed to meet us there, I'm so glad he didn't show up, cause I would have felt embarrassed for suggesting the place. It just seemed like a very cougar place to invite someone.
I'd prefer to go to the Italian Kitchen Trattoria and have drinks and food there instead.

RocknRolla at Tinseltown. Movie theatre mistakes. Why I don't like going to the theatre anymore.

2008-11-01T02:00:00.001-07:00

I watched RocknRolla tonight at Tinseltown theatre. This is the new Guy Ritchie movie, and I thought it was weird as the night before I watched his ex-wife in concert, but anywho, during the movie, there are a few scenes (four or five) where the characters speak in Russian, and it is subtitled.

The projectionist did not frame the movie properly, so you could only see like the very tops of the subtitles. Just enough to know there were subtitles, but no way of knowing what they said. Also, you could barely see the beginning credits, E.g. you could only see the words, "Directed by" and no name, cause Guy Ritchie's name was underneath.

VERY VERY frustrating. I wanted to go out and complain, but I didn't want to miss the movie either. Well, by the third time a subtitled scene came on, I noticed a lady storm out to complain. But the next Russian scene, you still could not read the subtitles. Finally on the fifth scene, you could see the subtitles clearly.

My complaint: Why the fuck am I paying good money to watch a movie that isn't even framed properly? I don't know what's going on, but the last few movies I've seen in the theatre, there's been technical issues. Let me list them:

-Metrotown, the sound was off. Like no sound completely. Then the screen was so out of focus, I thought it was supposed to be some weird drug trip sequence, but that wasn't the case.

-Fifth Avenue cinemas, during a foreign film, you could only see the top 60% of the subtitles, so you had to try to figure it out.

-Downtown, the sound was off from the picture. so annoying. plus it was like 28 degrees in there and all I could smell was BO. Okay, that's not a technical issue, but still.

-Tinseltown (again) I could see the boom mic. Another framing issue.

Back to RocknRolla, I found it hard to enjoy the movie because I knew I was missing a piece of the movie. At the end of the movie I went to complain, and she told me I could get a refund, but I would have to LINE UP to get it, or she could just give me a raincheck to watch a movie another time. I took the raincheck option. It took her awhile to "authorize" them, and in the meantime, only two other people complained. I thought that was weird. There was at least a 150 people in there. Does everyone else not mind?? Do you see nothing wrong with paying for something, and not getting what you paid for? It only takes like two minutes.. And the more people complain, perhaps next time they won't screw up cause they know that people actually care about enjoying the movie in its entirety. Please people, complain. I'm sure Guy Ritchie spent endless hours editing scenes, and kept in important scenes, only to be undermined by the movie theatre who isn't even paying attention to frame the damn movie properly. If not for the director, then for the sake of getting what you paid for. I'm not being cheap, I just want what I paid with my hard-earned money.

When I watched Ironman, literally, the entire theatre missed out on the first five minutes of the movie, and the sound was cut out about 10 minutes of the movie. I swear, only 6 people complained and got vouchers. I actually went back and watched the movie again, I don't think I should have to pay money again. Plus I had wasted time the first time I watched it.

These are my main reasons I don't like going to the movie theatres anymore:
-People talking during the movie.
-People that forget to turn their cell off. Or even worse, I had some asshole sitting a few rows in front of me and answer his phone, and exclaim how boring the movie was.
-Theatregoers that munch loudly.
-During a full movie, being asked to move by the theatre staff to accommodate late people. I got there 30 minutes early to get a good seat, why the fuck do I need to feel bad if I don't agree to move five seats down so some couple that came in at the last minute can sit together. Fuck them.
-Movie watching technical issues (see above)
-Sitting in front of a bunch of 15 year olds that put their foot right behind your head and giggle about nothing.
-Sitting in front of someone that puts there feet on the back of your chair and shift a lot, or just kick the back of the seat every so often, you know, just enough to be reminded you are not in the comfort of your own home.
-The cost. For two people to enjoy a movie with some refreshments and some popcorn, be prepared to spend close to $40. At that price, I'd rather just BUY a DVD. I could even get the Blue Ray option.
-Paying money so I can sit through twenty minutes of commercials, including commercials for like cars and soda. WTF? I don't mind a commercial for a soon to the theatres movie, but for a fucking cell phone plan?

Best Theatres to Watch a Movie in Vancouver Area
Fifth avenue cinemas - most people here are serious about watching a movie, so you don't get the Fast and the Furious crowd. And the concession stand has a pretty good selection. But the seats are not comfortable.
Tinseltown - for the comfortable seats, and free parking considering it's pretty much downtown area. There movie selection is not that great though. And I find it really dark in some areas. Plus the escalator from the food court area to the theatre is pretty damn scary.

Worst Theatres to Watch a Movie in Vancouver Area
-Metropolis - Metrotown station. Especially opening night of like, 2 Fast, 2 Furious.
-The movie theatre in Surrey. Can't remember the name of the theatre now, but some 16 year old Eminem wannabe called me a bitch, because I shushed him since he was literally talking at normal volume during like half the movie. It was a horror movie, and I think he was scared, so he was trying to be cool.
-Silvercity in Richmond - depends on the movie, but a lot of people texting during the movie. If you don't mind seeing the bright screen of someone's cell, as people repeatedly check their phone for their latest text message, than this theatre is for you.

I think I'm going to avoid the theatres for awhile. I so much enjoy watching a movie at my home, and being able to pause it when I use the bathroom, and kicking my shoes off, with the close captioning on so I catch every word. And getting to skip through the commercials. I really can't think of the pros of going to the theatre right now.

To any movie theatre people. Please pay the projectionists more. I don't care paying an extra dollar if you are gonna treat your staff right to make the movie theatre experience better. If you get a hundred people to watch each screening, that's an extra $100 plus all the money you must make from pop/corn sales and from advertising for cars and soda. You can afford to hire someone to make sure the movies are projected properly, and there's no assholes making a nuisance of themselves, and asking people in the beginning of the movie to turn off their cells and to shut the fuck up when the movie starts.

Sample shoe sale at Shriner's hall on Wayburne

2008-11-01T01:49:00.001-07:00

So I checked out the sample shoe sale in Burnaby located on 3550 Wayburne Drive. It is only from October 31-November 2. Well, I got there October 31 at 11:30 am and there was some very anxious shoppers and a very long lineup. Surprisingly it moved pretty quickly. But it was not worth the short wait. The brands I saw a lot of was
-Marc (not Marc Jacobs, but using the same font)
-Arturo Chiang
-Hespanitas??
I can't remember what else, but really nothing worth noting. It was not cheap. In fact, I was looking here, and saw the same shoes for under $50 which they were selling at the sample sale for $50. But I saw people with bags and bags of shoes.. So I don't know what I was missing.

The lineup to pay for shoes was ridiculously long. I found some cute Marc shoes for $40. Again, I will state they are NOT Marc Jacobs. They were not worth the lineup. My shopaholic friend also did not think it worth the wait. Some of the shoes were brutally ugly. Like one looked like it was made of pasta. On top of this, I was hot hot hot.. I had my halloween costume on, and I felt silly wearing it, so I was wearing a long trench. and couldn't take it off. Plus I was hungry, so maybe that's why I just was not in the mood to shop. But seriously, I did not see anything that caught my eye.

Madonna concert in Vancouver October 30

2008-11-01T00:54:00.000-07:00

The ticket indicated a 7:30 start time. My friend told me that since this is her first concert in Vancouver, it was best to get there early to buy a t-shirt that said, "vancouver" on it (a mere $45) I'm not really big on concert t-shirts, unless it's a really vintage shirt, I feel kind of silly wearing them. But my friend was eager to get one, so she wanted to get there early before they sold out.. and she drove... so we were there at 7. Surprisingly, there was a huge line-up just to get in. and the line ups to buy $7.50 beer were all at least a 10 minute wait.

Madonna did not come on stage till 9:25. I've been a Madonna fan since 1986. In fact, I performed as her at Airband when I was still in school. I did a version of Jimmy Jimmy (from the True Blue album). I have every album of hers. I admit, the Hard Candy album I have is a copy, but every single other album I own of hers is an original. Plus I have her singles, and I have two of her records, and True Blue album on cassette, and CD. I even have the freaking "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" CD single. But I was not happy with having to wait almost two hours. To keep 55,000 people waiting that long is rude. If I knew she was going to be that late, I would have had dinner somewhere.
The concert was okay, but I was sitting so far, it was like watching it on a small television. In fact, I used binoculars to watch the big screens. That's how far I was. I may as well have been sitting in GM place.
My favorite parts:
-How the show opened up with her sitting on her chair.
-Video backdrops were amazing.
-La Isla Bonita
-When she had EVERYONE in the stadium singing Like A Virgin with her. How amazing to hear over 50,000 people singing together, "didn't know how lost I was until I found youuuuu"
-The video about change. Powerful.
-Get stupid video
-The video for the Like a Prayer segment.
-Surprisingly, I thought the video segments of Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, and various others singing worked really well. it didn't seem "cheap" that they weren't there. Although I did have faint hope that one of them would make a special appearance.

Besides the fact she was late, I did not like:
-The lip-synching
-Her costumes (looked like she was just wearing shiny gym clothes.
-Sometimes her movements/dance did not match the beat. Perhaps I was sitting so far, the sounds didn't match her moves. Kind of like thunder and lightning.. the further you are, the further out of synch they are.
-I couldn't get the fact that she was 50 out of my head. And when I was using the binoculars on the big screens, I noticed how veiny her hands were. They looked like a detailed map of the Tokyo subway system.
-The fake Kanye West.
-The freaking venue.. I know it was necessary, because she is a HUGE star, but come on.. BC Place is not the place for a concert. The people on level four might as well have been watching a 14 inch television from 30 feet away..
-How hard it was to get OUT of the stadium at the end of the concert. You had to go through the revolving doors because of the unique stadium roof, there can't be any open doors, otherwise, the roof will deflate. Imagine if there was a fire in there, I shudder to think.

Today I was talking to my friend, and she said they said on that horrible radio station which will not be named, that she was not to appear till 9pm.. So I guess that's what I get for not listening to that horrible radio show. The one that rhymes with Dave. Oh well, I'd rather wait two hours for Madonna, then listen for even one minute to that station. anyways, i guess she was only late 25 minutes. And she's one person I am willing to wait half an hour for.

I would love to see her again, but next time, I am going to go at a smaller venur, and try to sit much closer to the stage.. Not sitting Miles Away from her.

Designer shoe sale at PNE

2008-10-22T23:14:00.000-07:00

So I went to the designer shoe sale at PNE tonight. Apparently it is Vancouver's first ever designer shoe warehouse sale in Vancouver. All shoes and boots are $49, and boots are $99 and the sale runs till Sunday October 26th.

So let me give you the lowdown. There is plenty of free parking on the street if you get there early. The "VIP" sale started today which entitled everyone to an additional 10% off, but you don't actually need to be a VIP, anyone could have gone to it. We got there about 45 minutes before it started, and already there was a bit of a line. Well, it's a good thing we got there early, cause they handed out large plastic garbage type bags, cause everyone just started filling their bags with the intention to try on later, then just leave their shoes on the ground. So you really needed to get there early to get first pick.
The shoes really were not that great, and almost all the shoes were from the brand Arnold Churgin which is from Calgary. That's not exactly what I think of when I think of "designer." They also carried other brands like Nine West, Via Spiga, but it was few and far between. Some of the shoes were obviously returns, and obviously shop-worn (E.g. one shoe was a lot lighter than the other from being in a store window too long.) I did however end up buying three pairs of shoes. But looking at the shoes, it's not really something I would have bought if they were that price somewhere else. It's almost like I felt I should buy something. When we left about 7pm, there was a huge lineup of at least a hundred people. I felt like telling them not to bother lining up.
There were some good deals though. my friend got $600 boots for $99. If you decide to check it out, head straight for the boots. I would skip the purses..
I saw some shitty deals, like some boots that showed a sticker price of $69, they were selling for $99, and a lot of the boots, the regular price tag showed $129 so be careful.
I would say the service was good though. Normally at the other semi-yearly sample shoe sale I usually go to, the service is really crappy. But the ones at this sale were great.

I must also say, there were some pretty rude people at this sale, like people grabbing other people's shoes, and people butting into line. It's like calm down, it's just shoes, and it's not worth fighting over..

Eco-bag, the reusable grocery bag

2008-10-15T21:11:00.000-07:00

What I'm finding annoying is when I'm at the supermarket and certain people think they're mightier than the next person cause they're using an eco-bag and you're not. Surprisingly there's a lot of people like this. They think they are superios because the believe they making more of a difference in the environment than the person that is getting the plastic bag. This is my co-worker. He drives a huge gas-guzzling SUV. When he leaves the office for the day, he leaves the lights on. Prints almost every email out that he gets (single sided), then he ends up throwing it out later. Half the time, he just puts it in the garbage. But he acts all high and mighty when he pulls out his fair trade 19.99 bag at Caper's. I feel like punching him in the face to wipe that smug look off his face. Or sometimes he'll forget his bag, so he'll make a big show of saying very loudly, "no bag!" and carry his bananas, cereal, soy milk and chips to his car instead, cause you know, he needs to show how green he is. Yes, I go for lunch with him sometimes and we stop by the supermarket so I know his annoying shopping habits. Oh, and he only lives five minutes to work, there is no reason he needs to drive.

Yeah, I do reuse bags and I have a couple eco-bags for this purpose, but I also need these plastic bags cause I use them to clean up dog poop.

What happens to unclaimed luggage. How can I avoid a lost luggage problem

2008-10-15T20:41:00.001-07:00

How do I avoid lost luggage, or advice for the extra cautious..
If you ask ten of your friends, it’s likely a couple have had luggage issues – lost or stolen. Two people I asked actually took someone else's luggage by mistake.. This happens more often than we’d like to think, especially in situations when you are not on a direct flight and have to do a transfer or two. Since not checking luggage is not always feasible, there are some things you can do to minimize the risk of this stressful and frustrating problem.

I like to dress up my luggage. In fact, I’ve seen a few people point and laugh at my luggage on more than one occasion as it makes its way around the luggage carousel. But believe you me, no one will mistakenly take my luggage, nor would they attempt to steal it because it would be so obvious. So whose laughing now bitch?

I have four pieces of check-in type luggage. Two hard clamshell type suitcases and two plain black Samsonite type luggage. I dress up the clamshells with colorful luggage straps and stickers. I use In-N-Out burger stickers, or any other stickers I get for free. I dont' use any obnoxious type stickers though, cause I don't want the baggage handlers to not like me based on my stickers..

Most of my travels I use the black Samsonite type cloth suitcases. I think if you decide to get the unique orange suitcase set at Costco, it’s not the best idea, cause several other people will have that same idea and they might not think it's not as necessary to check the baggage cause they think no one else has luggage like them.

What I do to differentiate my common black bag is, I buy colored duct tape or electrician’s tape in different colors. You can get these at any dollar store. If you use electrician tape, make sure you tape it all the way around and tape it together as it sometimes peels off. I sometimes like to do a rainbow pattern. I'm sure the baggage handlers enjoy this too. If you have the kind of luggage tag that is kind of like a snap on belt, put some duct tape around it to secure it. Keep in mind, these often break off. If you don’t like having the tape all around your luggage, even tape it around the handle. When someone attempts to grab your suitcase in error, they will realize they didn’t have red tape wrapped around the handle. Another option is to use those body puffs because they are always attached to a string. Just loop it through the string. I don't use the body puff, but I tie different coloured ribbons around the handle. It looks very festive going around the luggage carousel.

Always keep a copy of your itinerary and contact information inside your suitcase in case the luggage tags go MIA.

Make sure your luggage tags indicate your current contact information. My lazy friend often uses her sister's suitcase, with her sister's information on there still..

How to pack
I first lay a clear garbage bag in the suitcase and pack a layer or two (I put stuff inside the bag.) I then tape it closed with packing tape or whatever, and also put on a label with my name and contact info. I then layer another clear garbage bag on top, and pack another layer. and repeat till I'm packed. I do this in case the suitcase breaks open (it does happen) and that way I won't lose everything. Also, if for some reason my toner or perfume decides to leak, then it won't damage everything. If security happens to open up my suitcase, it will also keep everything together. I'm sure little knicknacks fall out, and you don't get it back.
This plastic bag layering is surprisingly very easy since it doesn't need any special accommodation.

Even if you don't do the plastic bag thing, at least put a copy of your itinerary in your suitcase in case the luggage tag breaks off.

When checking it in
Make sure to check the three letter airport code on the luggage routing tag the airline staff puts on your suitcase.

Oh, and I would really avoid using a "fragile" sticker on your luggage. I know a baggage handler that told me when some people see this, they treat the luggage like a football. Just really pack things very well in clothing, bubble wrap, whatever. in situations like this, a hard clamshell type suitcase is very good.

If you are re-routing, you may even go the extra mile by taping a label on your suitcase that shows something like, YVR to YYZ to final destination: HAV. Yeah, it's a little excessive, but I'd rather not be drinking a mojito in Cuba wearing my underwear inside-out, and still wearing my plane clothes three days later..

This is what happens to some unclaimed baggage.

Annoying people on Dinehere.ca

2008-09-04T22:49:00.000-07:00

I like reading dinehere when checking out new restaurants, but I have to admit, and maybe I'm PMS-ing, but there's a couple of reviewers on there that I can not stand. So much in fact, I tried to contact one of them, but there's no way to do that. I am going to copy and paste a couple of the gems that one of them writes. He is so condescending and rude, he throws in unnecessary info like that he lived in Silicon Valley (it's like who cares) are we supposed to feel so lucky and privileged in Vancouver that he decided to grace us with his presence?? Also tries really hard to sound like he is much better than everyone, and that he's sooo well travelled. I know some of the reviews he writes are good, but generally, his attitude is rude, and I must be pms-ing, anyways, here's some examples:

"Would I return though? Well, yes. Given how everything else was carried out, I'll gve it a free pass this time." - uh yeah, gee, we just can't wait for you to come back. thank you thank you so much for the free pass..

"Now, just a word about the previous review from another poster. If he/she really does hail from Sunnyvale, well that explains it. I spent many years working there and for the standards in Silicon Valley, yes, this would be worth 3-4 stars easily. But this is not Silicon Valley, this is Greater Vancouver and you have to work much harder." -- He mentions in several reviews how he lived in Silicon Valley. I think he's just jealous another reviewer lived in Cali. I don't think he realizes there's probably several reviewers that lived in different places, but they don't feel the need to brag about it on Dinehere like he does.

"I feel sorry for their kids that they don't get to sample finer fare during their time here." How fucking rude. Does he really need to insult other reviewers. (kind of like what I'm doing now lol, I love the irony)

I really think I know this person.. That's what's scary. I can tell from the restaurants he frequents, and little tidbits he reveals about himself, well, actually brags.. not reveals. The funniest thing is, my friend actually brought this poster up to me as well.. total coincidence, so I know I'm not the only one that finds him annoying!

Wild Rose Detox and weight loss

2008-09-04T22:39:00.001-07:00

I spent 12 days doing the Wild Rose detox. It basically consists of taking 12 pills a day plus about 60 drops of some liquid that some people find pretty nasty tasting. Surprisingly, there's a lot of foods you can eat, and you won't starve provided you like fish. In a nutshell, this is what you can NOT eat:
Flour
Sugar
Dairy
Fermented products (vinegar, soy, wine, ketchup)
Alcohol.

In case you're wondering, yes, you are allowed two cups of coffee, but no cream or sugar or milk. just black.
There are other specific items that you can not have, like no bananas or peanuts. To be honest with you, the hardest part for me was the no alcohol. I don't even drink that much, but come on, it's summer. there's so many barbecues going on.. The first three days were tough cause there's a lot of that having to go to bathroom. But after the first three days, you feel pretty good. And on top of that, I lost 8 pounds. Yes, 8 pounds. And I was eating a lot. Someone told me it is just water weight, and they might be right, but I felt friggin awesome, and I looked like a million bucks. Right after that I went to Vegas, and pretty much pigged out at the buffets every day.. so kind of defeated the purpose. But will definitely be doing this detox again. It's about $32 to buy. and surprisingly, it seems only Canadians do it. Oh yeah, how can I forget this, my allergies went away after I did this. seriously, well, actually, they came back, but not as severe as before. (i'm allergic to dust, mould, grass, you name it).
I have a confession to make, I cheated on it. Knowingly. I ate some seafood with black bean sauce on it which is not allowed.. Fish is fine, but no shellfish.. i felt pretty bad after I did that, but I still turned out okay.. I think..

I bought the kit at a health food store in North Vancouver which I don't recommend, I don't remember the name so I can't even unrecommend it.. All they try to do is sell you a bunch of crap without any good explanation on why you should buy it.
The reason I got the Wild Rose detox is because I know several people that did it, and they had pretty good results.

Las Vegas for Canadians flying out of Bellingham

2008-09-04T21:40:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in awhile, nor have I had a chance to read this. I have been so busy with my friend's destination wedding in Hawaii. Then after the wedding, two friends that are now living in Japan came to visit and stayed with me for a month!! Not that I'm complaining of course!

I just got back from Vegas and have some hints for anyone planning to go to Vegas.
I was able to fly roundtrip including taxes for just under $300. Here's what I did:
Booked my ticket from Allegiant. I checked this site everyday and I notice the prices often drop but sometimes only for a day, and it helps to book about a month in advance. Bellingham to Las Vegas was $28, and the return was $88. As the date neared, the prices shot up to $288 each way. The parking charges at Bellingham airport is about $6/day. I believe my total charge for four days was $28 or $24.. can't remember now. You have to pay extra to pre-select your seat, and to check any luggage. But really, if you get there early, you'll have no problems sitting with your travel partner. Also, for a short trip to Vegas, you really only need a carry-on. The only thing is, you can't bring any liquids. If you do a lot of shopping while you're there you can check luggage for $25. If you pre-pay this option when booking your ticket it is $15 per way.

Warning, I have flown with Allegiant four times, and twice, they were considerably late. I talked to a fellow passenger on my recent flight, and she told me once they left EARLIER than the stated time. That's why you need to be there 2.5 hours early to check in cause they might decide to leave earlier. It really is a no frills airline. No music, pillow, blanket, drinks, you need to pay for everything. There is however, a mint at the end as you're getting off the plane..

The airport is very easy to get to from the I-5. It is about 20 minutes from the border, but when I went last week, we were stuck at the border for 2.5 hours waiting to cross at the Pacific Crossing. This crossing is almost always a shorter wait than the Peace Arch. If you want to be an asshole, you can always go to the duty free and buy a bottle of water, so you can butt into the line by going out the parking lot which i do not recommend, but it's a free country.. But warning, sometimes it takes longer to go through the duty free which is what I have heard, cause so many people do it, and then no one lets you cut in. So i would highly recommend not doing this, and if you're lining up without going through duty free, don't let anyone in that tries to butt in.. :)
You may even want to go a day early and spend a night in Bellingham cause twice I was at the border and they SHUT IT DOWN cause of some incident. So you're basically shit out of luck if this happens.

Hotel
Checked this website for hotel prices other people were getting www.cheapovegas.com as well as Biddingfortravel, which is where people post what they're getting through Priceline. My buddy actually works for a hotel, so we got a smoking deal on a very nice hotel on the strip. Normally though, I would just check expedia for ballpark figures, then check with the hotel websites directly. My favorite hotel there for reasonable prices is the Paris. and I tried the $20 trick there and it did NOT work.
Even if you smoke, you should request a non-smoking room. The smoking rooms in Vegas usually have such a strong smell, it's like sitting in an ashtray..

Food and Misc
Definitely sign up for the player's clubs at the casinos, for people that sign up for the first time, you often get a funbook, which is basically a coupon book. At Planet Hollywood right now, you get $5 for slots, an extra $15 if you play $40 as well as a funbook that includes a $25 matchplay for table games. It also includes coupons for their restaurants including their spice market buffet. So the $17.99 lunch buffet is only $12.99! The Rio offers a free t-shirt.. probably size x-large..
If you want to have a nice dinner, but have a budget, have a nice late lunch instead. I would really recommend sitting out on the patio at Mon Ami Gabi which is in the Paris Hotel. It's right across from the Bellagio fountains, so try to go about three pm, so you can watch the fountain show while you eat. (The fountains don't start till 3pm and run every 30 minutes). In the evening the fountain show is every 15 minutes.
View from Mon Ami Gabi

The Paris buffet is also very good. It's 24.99 for dinner which is not bad.
If you are looking for good food that is served 24 hours, there is a restaurant in Planet Hollywood serving foods such as braised pork ribs and breakfasts 24 hours a day.

Transportation
From the airport, when taking a cab, it should run you about $15-17 including tip. Ask the cabdriver NOT to take the tunnel, cause that is the long way. A shuttle is about $6-$8.50, but if there's two of you, you may as well take a cab because a shuttle can take an hour to get to your hotel cause it has to keep stopping at each hotel.
The double decker bus that runs along the strip in Las Vegas, called The Deuce is very easy to take. You can buy a 24 hour all you can ride pass for $5. Make sure you have exact change though. When you board, you just put $5 in the billtaker and you get your pass. Very easy. Apparently you are not allowed suitcases or large bags on the bus so I wouldn't take this option from the airport.
If there's over four of you, consider taking a limo.
There's also the Monorail

Entertainment
I highly recommend checking out a show while you're in Vegas. Besides the free shows such as the beautiful fountain show at Bellagio (I'm such a sap, I get tears in my eyes because the combination of the music and the fabulous spectacle make me weepy) and seeing the lions at MGM if you don't mind seeing caged animals, try to take in a show. I really like Mystere, and nowadays, you can get discounted tickets for Mystere (Cirque de Soleil) if you look around. I also really like O which is a Cirque de Soleil show, part of the show takes place in a pool. I don't think O tickets are ever discounted, but it is truly worth every penny. There are some limited view seats which are 92.50 which are the cheapest.. The Blue Man Group is also a fun show especially if you're into music.
There are a couple TKTS booths in Vegas, one is in the fashion show mall by Treasure Island. You can get discounted tickets for shows and buffets here.
personally, I would avoid the Sirens show at Treasure Island.

Shopping
There is tons of shopping in Vegas. There is everything from outlet malls to high end stores like Manolo Blahnik (the only Manolo boutique in the US besides the one in New York). If you're like me and like bargain shopping, check out H&M in the Miracle Miles mall, in the Planet Hollywood funbook, there's a coupon to get another couopon book at the Miracle Miles mall, that coupon book includes a coupon for $10 off a $50 purchase at H&M. There's also an Urban Outfitters at this mall, but there's one in Vancouver, so not really a big deal. There's a Bettie Page store in this mall, the dresses are so much fun. Definitely check it out. If you make your way to Fashion Show Mall, there's a Forever 21 there if you want to pick up some trendy clubbing clothes.. If you go to the Palazzo shops next to the Venetian, you can check out the Christian Louboutin store!

Liquor exemption
If you are not checking luggage, but want to take advantage of the liquor exemption you're allowed, there's a 24 hours wal-mart right by the Bellingham airport, so you can stop by there before you head back home to Vancouver. They have champagne, wine and beer there. If you are checking luggage, buy a bottle of hard liquor in Vegas. At the ABC store in the miracle mile shops, they sell Grey Goose vodka for $30 which is normally about $50 here (it could actually be 47.99 or $60.. can't remember now). there's cheaper places to buy liquor, but the Miracle Mile shops next to Planet Hollywood is in a pretty convenient location.

Ripped off on Craigslist

2008-06-23T00:34:00.000-07:00

I guess this is obvious, but I wanted to post this cause I see tons of these ads on Craigslist, and I know someone that got ripped off with this.

People are selling Westjet credits on Craigslist. Westjet credits are transferable. My friend found an ad for a Westjet credit of $700, and he was selling for $600. She contacted him, and she offered $500. With no hesitation, the guy agreed. So he asked her to meet him at Metrotown Mall in front of Yogen Fruz. She waited for the guy and he never showed. He called her from a "private" number and then told her his son had some trouble in school, but his friend would meet her at Lougheed skytrain station. So she drove over there, and some guy met up with her, he called Westjet from his cell and transferred the credit to her name, and then she called Westjet to confirm the credits were in fact in her name, and WJ confirmed the credits were now in her name. She paid him, and about an hour later, Westjet called her to tell her the ticket was purchased that same morning with a STOLEN credit card, and they just found about it, so the credits she had would not work. Although my friend did in fact make a mistake, I just want to point out, why the heck does WestJet sell a ticket that day, and when someone calls back the SAME day to cancel the ticket, and DOES NOT want a refund (if the purchase is within a 24 hour period, they are entitled to a refund) and insists on a credit, THIS SHOULD RAISE RED FLAGS!! Apparently a year ago, some con artist ripped off 50 people with this scam, and Westjet said they would put more controls into their system to stop this from happening.. Obviously they are doing nothing.

Anyhow, my friend called Westjet and complained, and she was told it is her fault, however, they were willing to help her out a bit.. anyways, lesson here is, be very cautious about buying credits and gift cards and that sort of thing from Craigslist.

Ramen in Vancouver. Motomachi Vancouver

2008-06-23T00:24:00.000-07:00

Hello, it's been awhile.

Motomachi on Denman in Vancouver is quite simply awesome. The soup tastes so "clean" if that makes any sense. Not greasy at all. It's a bit pricey for Ramen, we're talking $7-$10. It's owned by the same person that started Kintaro which is also on Denman, but there is no lineups like there are at Kintaro. Motomachi's soup base is chicken based, whereas Kintaro is pork based. Motomachi uses good quality organic ingredients. Make sure whatever ramen dish you order, it includes egg. It's like the best egg you'll have in Vancouver. The service is good, and it's consistently good. I've been at least 10 times now.

Today I decided to be adventurous so we tried out Benkei on Robson street. Originally we wanted to try Kintaro, but the line up was too long. I was very disappointed. The soup is oily, and the server should not be allowed to serve. To top it off, when the server brought the bill, she charged for three bowls of ramen, when there were only two of us.. The only thing good about it was the spinach in the soup. The decor is bad. Something about it just looks cheap and busy. The vases at the front are so ugly that it's disturbing. (the vases are from Ikea.) I like the clean minimalist feeling of Motomachi. I felt bad I strayed from a good thing. It's like cheating on your boyfriend with some asshole that isn't worth talking about.

Clip-on hair extensions

2007-10-01T23:00:00.002-07:00

My friend just got hair extensions and they looked so fabulous. She told me she was wearing clip-on hair extensions which she purchased in Burnaby from Abantu. She told me she paid around $200. Two days later I went and bought some myself. The saleslady was quite helpful and told me the ones that don't have the clips sewn in yet are better quality hair,and also less expensive but I'd have to do some sewing and cutting as it just comes on one super wide piece called a "weft". The weft is basically a long piece of "ribbon" with hair attached to it. Like a very wide beaded curtain, but you need to cut the width to match your doorway. But I was too chicken to sew them and cut the pieces myself, as I didn't know how wide to make each one and so on and so forth. So I got the 18" seven piece clip on set. The total I paid was $180.80. I absolutely loved them. So now that I could use my set as a "pattern" I decided to buy the unclipped hair and make another set myself, but this time a shorter length, so instead of going to Abantu where the unclipped hair is $90 and each clip is $2 (you need 17 clips to make a seven piece set) I decided to drive down to Sally's beauty supply in Bellingham. The hair there is $74 (real human hair) and the clips are three for $1.99. The clips they sell at Abantu for $2 each are actually better, but the Sally's ones do the trick. I decided with this second set, I would cut the hair short. Big mistake that was. I thought it would be easy to cut, but easy it is not. I think I'm going to have to take them into my hairdresser to fix this botch job.

This is my friend's hair:

Anyways, the extensions are a lot of fun to wear, as they don't damage your real hair, and in five minutes you can really change your look. I think the long extensions I got were a little too long as it's difficult to "blend" my real hair into the fake hair, I do one of those half hair up type hairdos, so it makes it look a lot more real. I've only worn them out in public once, and I got tons of compliments on my hair.

North Face sample sale in Richmond, H&M in Coquitlam Centre

2007-10-01T22:40:00.001-07:00

I finally checked out the North Face sample sale in Richmond. The sample sale goes on about twice a year, and it's next to the Brick on Alderbridge. Everything is 50% off of regular price. They are sample sizes, so it's basically mostly medium sizes. I'm not really a big fan of North Face, so to me, even if it was 75% off I probably wouldn't be that interested, but my friend went crazy and dropped a few hundred buying some outdoorsy gear. What I found interesting was that they sold some dresses, like the kind you might see at Express or Banana Republic. I thought that was a little strange. Kind of like Express selling thermal underwear or Banana Republic selling sleeping bags.

While I waited for my friend to comb the racks, I was just observing how some people get at these sales, this one family literally hoarded a bunch of coats, and the whole time I was there, they would not give any of them up and kept trying them on MULTIPLE times and hogged the one mirror in the store.

So checked out H&M in Coquitlam Centre on Saturday. IT WAS NUTS. It's my second time going. Each time it's cause a friend was visiting from out of town and wanted to check it out. The line up to try clothes on is literally an hour. To buy, the lines are long, but they move fast. But if you plan on going there, wear a tank underneath, and if possible, wear a skirt or something so you can try on pants in the lingerie section instead of lining up for soo long. Or better yet, go on a weekday. There was some outdoor concert in the parking lot on Saturday so they blocked off about 80 parking spots, so I was literally circling for 15 minutes trying to get parking, then someone STOLE my spot. Then in the mall, it was so crowded, and everyone was so grumpy so I ended up getting grumpy too. At H&M it just got too busy, so I decided to walk around the mall while my friend lined up to try stuff on. Apparently I was moving too slowly for some cow at Jacob (there was people in front of me, so it's not like I'm going to plow them down). Anyways, as she walked past me, she said, "GAWD", really rudely. I was feeling bitchy, so I loudly asked, EXCUSE ME? and she ignored me and walked into the dressing room. That kind of put me in a worse mood.

If you are interested in getting Christian Louboutin, the shoes with the sexy red sole, but don't want to pay the hefty price tag, Le Chateau has some look alikes for around $69.

Saltlik on Alberni

2007-10-01T22:34:00.001-07:00

I came here on the labour day long weekend for a quick drink with some friends. At 9pm, there was only two other tables. The other customers were a table of asian exchange students and a caucasian couple. The decor is very nice here. I only had a vodka soda, not too hard to screw that up and a couple shots of Van Gogh Espresso vodka (YUM). Despite the fact it was not busy at all, when the couple left, they got no thanks, they were completely ignored by the staff. Our service was good though, but because it was so quiet in here, I doubt I would go back again. The bathrooms are upstairs. It's quite nice looking inside, and the staff are good-looking.

My understanding is that it's owned by Earl's, and it's an experiment to see how well they do with a higher end restsaurant. If it does well, they plan to open more.

Goldfish in Yaletown

2007-10-01T22:03:00.000-07:00

Back in June we walked past Goldfish in Yaletown and after taking a look at it from outside, we decided we wanted to go back to check it out. So in July we tried to make reservations but was told it was fully booked. I then tried again the week after that and was again told it was fully booked. So I asked the hostess what's up with that, and she told me they only book half the restaurant since they just opened and they want to get more organized before booking more than half the restaurant. Two weeks ago I tried to make reserations for six people for Saturday night and it was no problem. So I thought, they're organized. After making the reservation and letting the rest of the party know, I went on to dinehere and read these bad reviews. I thought to myself, well, give it a chance. So my friends also raed dinehere, so we decided to eat an early dinner elsewhere first, just so we don't drop $60 on food alone. We all ordered either appys or dessert or both at Goldfish. And of course some drinks. The appy's I had were overpriced and unappetizing. Six non-fresh slightly stinky oysters for $19. The wine and drink selection is mediocre at best. The ambiance is nice, and the outdoor patio area in the back is also really nice. The staff are nice and friendly, but the service is slow. The manager/maitre'd was walking around just talking/socializing, but not actually helping the waitstaff so that was annoying. I mean, I know it's tough to make small talk with random strangers, but it was frustrating because the service was so slow and there was obviously problems getting food and drink and taking orders in a timely manner, yet he didn't seem to have any sense of urgency.

Someone wrote in one of the reviews it is a place to be seen, but I really don't think so, there were a lot of tourists, and I saw two tables of seniors.

The decor is definitely impressive. It does not quite feel like you're in Vancouver. In the bathrooms instead of paper towels, they have terry handtowels, but they were cheap old ones that you can pick up at the dollar store at three for a dollar. They should use the thick paper towels instead.

We'd probably go back there for a drink, but I think I would prefer to go to George, they have a better selection of wines and cocktails.

CDs to listen to on long road trips

2007-08-01T18:49:00.001-07:00

I love road trips! Besides the company and destination, the third most important thing to me is music. Normally I make mix CDs that pretty much run the gamut from Dolly Parton to Snoop Dogg, or I just bring my IPod (if it's actually charged) but if you don't have the time to make mix cds and can't play your IPod in the car, then check out some of these cds.
I hate when I buy a CD and there's only two or three good songs on there, so the following CDs have AT LEAST four good songs on there. Oh, and I'm not going to list the standards that everyone already knows you should have, like, Bob Marley's Legend or Led Zeppelin's Disc 2.

The Carnival - Wyclef Jean, what a great CD, I can actually listen to the whole thing without skipping any songs. There's so much scratches on my CD, I'm going to have to buy another one.

Back to Basics - Christina Aguilera, no I'm not a teeny-bopper, but this album is good, and there's some fun songs to listen to. I really love track 10!

Greatest Hits - Beach Boys-is this an obvious one? anyways, I have so much fun singing along in the car, and it's a great way to keep you awake by singing out loud!

The Sound of Music soundtrack-I love singing along to this, my friends think I'm crazy cause I know every song by heart. I've had a few guy passengers that knew all the words too. So much fun.

M.I.A. - Kala

Madeleine Peyroux - Careless Love, A jazzy bluesy album. She sounds a lot like Billy Holiday. I like her cover of Elliot Smith's Between the bars.

80s albums like Chicago's greatest hits, George Michael and Pet Shop Boys and Madonna's True Blue album

Breakaway - Kelly Clarkson. I repeat, I'm not a teenybopper. but singing to "Since you've been gone" is fun!

I also like listening to books on CDs. The last one I listened to is "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil". But I find the recording is too low, so I'm alwasys straining to hear.

Paul Potts

2007-08-01T18:42:00.000-07:00

Wow, so, I was just browing through Youtube's top rated videos and came across Paul Potts audition on "Britain's Got Talent"
His audition made me cry it was so beautiful. Pavarotti may be better skilled, but the emotion which Paul conveys during his performance is so poignant and beautiful it is just as moving if not more than Pavarotti's performance. Give Paul some time, and he can and probably will be our generation's Pavarotti.

Paul Potts singing Opera

2007-08-01T18:32:00.001-07:00

Paul Potts

2007-08-01T18:27:00.000-07:00

If you are just getting into opera, check out The Number 1 Classical Album 2006. Or if you just want to download some songs, and you liked Nessun Dorma, check out these classic favorites:
O Mio Babbino Caro
Flower Duet/Lakme
Vissi D'Arte
Che Gelida Manina
and then there's of course Con te Partiro (time to say goodbye)

Kedah House on Marine Drive

2007-07-06T23:33:00.000-07:00

Had an early dinner at Kedah House on Marine Drive a few days ago. This was my first visit there since they moved from the original Fraser and 41st location. Like their former location, the décor is still tacky. Think pink Pepto-Bismal walls. It feels like you’re in the basement dining area of a Vancouver Special fused with a mom and pop travel agency. The sign out front showed they were having a 9.95 all you can eat, but once we were seated, were told they weren’t doing the buffet. There seemed to be only one server. She was the hostess, cashier, waiter, AND bus person. I noticed several people standing at the cashier waiting to pay for their bill while we ate. Once in a while, you would see two other people helping out the server, but despite several people lined up to pay the bill, or order, or get their food brought to them, there was no sense of urgency amongst the staff.

We ordered the Roti Canai $5 (pronounced Chanai), mee goreng, a curry dish (which I didn’t try) and beef and broccoli. Within ten minutes, the server brought us two of our dishes. After poking it with my fork, the server came back and told us it wasn’t ours, and brought it to the next table. Yikes.

Our “correct” food arrived a few minutes later and it was pretty good albeit a bit too salty for my taste. It was then that she informed us they were out of beef for the beef and broccoli dish. But they could make chicken and broccoli . So we said, fine, literally one minute later, she brought it out to us. Which makes me think they screwed up, so they just said that about the beef so we would order the mistake. The fact that she didn’t tell us they were out of beef when we made our order or immediately after she put in the order confirms my suspicion. Gosh, I sound like Inspector Holmes. The meal came to around $33 before drinks. Unfortunately, it took awhile to pay. It sounded like they were playing Disney Princess music, but it still would not cover the loud sound of their air conditioning or fan.

Their service is too laid-back, which is not good when most people are in a hurry or are on their way to something else. Their former location was well-known for closing whenever they felt like despite their posted restaurant hours or not opening at all that day. I think the former location was much cleaner. Here are some reviews from other diners. Most are not so favorable. Despite my review, I think I would go back there if I had a leisurely day.
1652 SE Marine Dr, 604.325.9771
If you decide to check it out, ask for the bill mid-meal and make sure to bring cash in different denominations so there’s no need to wait for change.

If you don’t mind the drive, check out Tamarind Hill in New Westminster. The ambiance is nice, décor is beautiful right down to the small details, service is good, and most importantly, very clean and downright delicious! Oh, and the prices are similar to Kedah House, and I think the menu selection and drink selection is top-notch at Tamarind Hill.

George Bar in Yaletown, Cactus Club in Yaletown

2007-07-06T00:39:00.000-07:00

So headed over to George again on the weekend, despite the fact it's apparently a "cougar" bar which was kindly brought to my attention after I enthusiastically told people how much I liked it there. It was also brought to my attention that I am at the cougar age. Real nice. I asked, aren't the 40 year olds the cougars (aka Demi?)?? and was told, 40 year olds are MILFs. But then again, this is coming out of the mouth of a balding 30 year old guy. Donald Trump has a better hairline then this guy.

For some reason I didn't notice the cougarness the last time I was there, but this time I noticed cougars on the prowl. It was Friday night and it was pretty busy (but no line-up). The drinks were still good, but we decided to go somewhere where we could actually sit and rest our tender stilettoed feet. We tried Yaletown Brewery and were told each person must order an ENTREE which is really ridiculous as it was already 10:30 pm. And there were SEVEN of us. There's no way all of us would be hungry enough to order an entree.

So we head over to Cactus Club. Maybe I'm getting old, but it was so loud that I got tired having to shout across the table to talk. The drinks there are soo watered down. It's like, an 11 year old could down six of their drinks and still be able to compete in, "are you smarter than a fifth grader" and win. If you want to get your money's worth, order a beer, at least they don't seem to water the lager down.
Normally the service at Cactus Club is pretty good, but the service at the Yaletown location was definitely below average. But still better than like a Sammy J Peppers..

I'm feeling old, I was talking to someone that NEVER HEARD OF THE GOONIES. WTF??

2007 Miss Universe Riyo Mori

2007-06-01T00:30:00.000-07:00

I was surprised to watch a taped 2007 Miss Universe this evening. It’s changed over the years. The ladies are much sexier, thinner and taller. Some of the contestants looked like the ladies in the ads in the back of the paper, or in those “pamphlets” they give out on the strip in Vegas. The bathing suit montage that was taped earlier in various locations looked like some late night commercial for those pay per minute chat lines complete with wet girl in front of fountain doing sexy poses.

What’s with the ungracious way 2006 Miss Universe gave up her crown to the new Miss Universe. They didn’t even hug, or do the cheek air-kiss.

I don’t think Miss Japan should have won. She was not pretty, looked a little village, and the way she spoke was unclassy. The 2006 Miss Japan contestant (pictured below) deserved to win, not 2007’s. The contest is about looks, and I think the other finalists were much prettier. Like Miss Venezuela. Miss Korea and Japan both speak English well so there’s no reason they needed a translator. If anything, it’s unfair to the other contestants as it gives them more time to think of an answer, and if they answer with run on sentences or bad wording, the translator will not translate that. By the way, Miss Japan lived in Saanich, BC for a couple years while attending high school.

I really liked Miss Tanzania, she was gorgeous, and not many women can pull off bald and beautiful the way she did. I felt bad for Miss USA when everyone was booing during her interview question. Especially after she had her nasty fall in the evening gown competition. Oh, and she looks just like Emmy Rossum.

What was with Miss Canada’s national costume?? A hockey uniform? Give me a break! Even SHE looked embarrassed.

One of the prizes include a crown worth over $200,000 but it’s like, where would you wear that to? And it’s not like there’s a high demand on ebay for these crowns. I’d rather get a necklace of the same value. I guess she can get it remade by a jeweler. I always think about weird stuff.

I didn't like Slater before, and I like him even less now. He seems so full of himself. And to think he may be a possible candidate to replace Bob Barker on the Price is Right. Say it ain't so!

May 28 Police Concert and cheap parking by GM Place

2007-05-29T23:47:00.000-07:00

The moment Ticketmaster was selling Police concert tickets, I was on their website repeatedly hitting the refresh button and getting the "sold out" message. After numerous attempts, I got the option of buying row 30 Gold Premium floor seats for a mere $425 each with only a minute to make my decision. In the frenzy of the moment, I ended up buying them. Of course I regretted it after entering in my billing info. I mean, what the heck was I thinking? I could go to Vegas, catch a concert and fly back for that price.

So when they added the second show, I bought two reasonably priced tickets at around $111 each with the intent of selling the floor seats for face value. Well, imagine my surprise when my friend was able to buy floor tickets for $225. In Row 19. Closer than my pricier seats. It turns out my tix cost $425 because they were Gold seats, which essentially means you get some kind of Police memorabilia. Oh, the memorabilia we got was a fanny pack. ?!?

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, I post my tickets on Craigslist a little less than face value. No response. So a few days before the concert, I post them for half price. Not. one. response. So we ended up going yesterday. It was a great concert but not worth $425 a ticket. And they were saying it was sold out, but it wasn't. I ran into some friends that were sitting in row 36 on the floor, they told me they were sitting in the nosebleeds and an usher asked them if they wanted to move to the floor, so he gave them some Comp floor seat stubs. After they moved down to the floor, basically everyone sitting around them was all giddy because they also got the free upgrade. So basically they are just trying to make it look sold out, because it looks strange to look out on the floor and see tons of empty space.
Oh, we saw scalpers outside selling tickets for ten bucks. And, I saw tickets selling on Ebay for $25.

As for the concert, Sting sounded amazing, and he looked amazing. He looked so serene and relaxed up on stage, and he looked genuinely happy. His physique is WOW. Put it this way, I signed up for yoga today.
Apparently Pearl Jam was at the concert.
Anyways, I'm pretty pissed I spent so much for this concert, and about the way they sell the tickets. I guess it's all about the concert promoters making the most amount of money. But come on, charging an extra $200 to sit further back for a vinyl fanny pack? that thing is going in the garbage anyways, taking up more space in a land fill.

Tip: If you're going to any concerts or events at GM Place in the evening, park in the International Mall on Keefer Street. It's $2.50 for the entire evening and most people don't know about it so it's not too busy. It's much better than paying upwards of $15 for parking and have a hard time getting out when the concert/event ends.
Also, instead of getting the pricey food at GM Place, walk across the street to Costco, and get a hotdog and drink for $2. If you want to splurge, get their fries too.

Bosa Supermarket and Grocery Shopping in Vancouver

2007-05-29T22:48:00.000-07:00

I noticed Bosa Foods several times from Highway 1 by the Cassiar Tunnel and finally got a chance to check it out. The original location is on Victoria Drive, but they opened up this big store in Burnaby on Kootenay Drive. It is an Italian supermarket. If you're going northbound on Boundary, you want to make a left after 1st avenue where ICI paints is.
The supermarket is quite nice, it sort of reminds me of Whole Foods in North Vancouver. The deli has a great selection, especially the olives. I tried a grilled sandwich which was delicious.
They don't have a big produce section but they more then make up for it with their good selection of olive oils, cheeses, fine meats, kitchen supplies, breads from Pane Formaggio and of course pastas. Definitely worth checking out. I will be coming back for their cheeses and deli items.

Grocery shopping
I do most of my veggie shopping at Kin's. (you should go on the website just to hear the cheesy music..) Aside from the price of the avocados, I find their prices good and the produce to be good quality and selection. Plus they always have specials going on, and if you look in some of the free local papers like the Courier, they often have coupons for free stuff, or purchase a minimum of $5 and get a free bag of onions. Depending on the location you go to, they have a good selection of organic items (Park Royal location=good, Champlain Mall=not so good). I have two complaints about Kin's. The music they play in the stores, the other day I heard "My Heart will go on" from the Titanic but done music box style. Also, if the line up is long, they open up a second cash register, but they don't ask for the next in line. They just serve whoever runs up there the fastest. And if you ever go to the Champlain mall location, some of their customers know that, so as soon as they see a long line up, they sort of hang around the other register knowing they'll open it up. Annoying!

I'm super picky and selective when it comes to food shopping. I'm the person in the supermarket aisles inspecting a bunch of cans.. That being said, I think I can offer a few tips on buying produce:

-For most fruits, eg orange, take turns holding a few of the same sized oranges, and buy the heaviest one.

-Try to pick the medium sized, or medium to small sized fruits. Bigger does not necessarily equal better.

-People like to squeeze to find produce that yields to slight pressure, but after several people are squeezing the produce, it's most likely to get soft anyways, so this is not always a good test.

-Fruits from afar have to travel so much further so it's been picked way before they are ripe. Melons need to ripen on the vine, much like stone fruits. Once picked, they only get softer, not any sweeter. I like to buy local produce.
Sniff the stem end of the fruit. It should smell good. If no scent, it's probably dry.

-I love tomatoes, but it's hard to find good tomatoes in the supermarket. Unlike stone fruits, tomatoes ripen after picking, so when you bring them home, keep them in a paper bag to slow down the ripening. Also, don't store tomatoes in the fridge as it ruins the taste.

I try to buy organic, but sometimes, price is a factor, as is limited selection. And to be perfectly honest, I hardly eat any fruit..

Online sites that ship to Canada

2007-05-23T00:15:00.000-07:00

Online shopping sites that ship to Canada

Revolve clothing, FREE shipping to Canada
Shopbop.com
Bluefly.com orders up to $300 are $34, over $300 is $45
Sephora.com (not fashion, but how can I not mention Sephora)
Victoriassecret.com (starts at $11.95) http://www.victoriassecret.com/
Activeendeavors.com Shipping is FREE to Canada!
Neimanmarcus.com, not really online shopping because you need to call to make an order, 1.888.888.4757
and of course EBay. A lot of sellers will say US only, but if you contact them, they are often willing to send to Canada. It’s actually not expensive for them to ship to Canada at all.
If you really want something from Zappo’s, you can always order through myus.com, which is a mail forwarding service so you can shop from any online store that ships to the US, but it ain’t cheap. It’s $35 set up fee, then a $132 for annual membership. These are the shipping charges for air. Each 100 grams up to 1 kg $2.20, each 100 grams over 1 kg is $1.45
Mail Network also does the same thing, but it’s more pricey for the annual membership, however, the shipping charges are cheaper.

Personally, I opened up a PO Box in Blaine. I found it to be much cheaper, and I used to go to the US about once a week so it made sense. Now I don’t go as often.

Martini's on Broadway

2007-05-20T23:51:00.000-07:00

I haven't been here in ages, so I was surprised when I went this weekend that the place looks a lot better than before. It sort of reminds me of an upscale pub. But like in the past, they seem understaffed, however, the waitress we got was excellent. And our food was quick, she was attentive, came at all the right times. The food is still mediocre, but their reasonably priced drink menu makes up for it. Martinis for 5.45. I had a Tropical Breeze and it was pretty yummy. Monday nights they are less than 4 bucks. I remember coming here a lot because it was open late, and they served liquor late and I remember the service was really bad back then. The clientele when I went this weekend was very mixed. Some very young people, or senior citizen types. The food they have is like a pizza/greek joint. Souvlaki, pizza, pastas, kalamari, you get the picture. I think it's still an okay place to go to for a drink or some late night food.
151 W Broadway (across from Mountain Equipment Co-op)

Teaworks on Victoria Drive
This is a bubble tea restaurant in East Vancouver close to London Drugs (Victoria and 41st). This place can get really busy, a lot of young student types. The menu is pretty cheap, and the food and drinks aren't bad, but the service is not that great. Some of the waitstaff seem inexperienced and they are definitely understaffed.. I've only been twice though so maybe I went on off nights.
The last time I was there, we were seated before a group of four guys. We kept trying to flag the waitress to order. It took a while for the server to come around, and when she did, she served the four guys first. What was annoying was, those four guys KNEW we were there first, AND they saw us trying to flag down the waitress, but they had no sense of courtesy to say something to the waitress. What was even more annoying was, the guy that started ordering looked almost smug cause he knew they were getting served first, acting like he was some VIP. I think most people would say, "i think they were here first". Anyways, they were right next to us, so she took our order next, so I told the waitress we were here first, "and those guys know that we were here first AND that we were trying to order, but they were too rude to let you know". The waitress apologized, glanced at the guys and looked uncomfortable, and she ended up bringing our order first. The four guys started whispering to each other, probably plotting what they'll say, but think they realized they are assholes. Anyways, the tables are very close together, and it's a super busy environment, and the temperature is very cool in here. So bring a sweater, and be prepared to be in a noisy non-relaxing environment. In that part of Vancouver, there's not that many restaurants open late that are good except maybe Neighbour's restaurant, but the food is very mediocre there.. Oh, and there's Mui Garden, but after my last experience there with a very strange smelling dessert I will not go back there again.

Seto Restaurant in Richmond
I was here a few days ago, and I was pleasantly surprised. It's a little bit pricey I think for what it looks like, but the food is good and quite authentic. In fact, I saw a couple Japan Airlines flight attendants that made their way out here, perhaps on the way from the airport to their hotel in downtown. (They were not in uniform, but I know a flight attendant when I see one)
They have a good selection of sake too. One thing that was a bit funny was, there is a poster for some Japanese girl pageant in Vancouver. There's a picture of five girls (probably the finalists) I think, and it's autographed by all the girls. I just thought that was funny for some reason. If I come back again (which I'm sure I will), I'll take a pic of it if it's still up.
Service is average.

Beauty Product Reviews

2007-05-20T23:08:00.001-07:00

Jergen's Natural Glow Daily Moisturizer

I bought this a couple weeks ago (the one for pale skin), after about five applications, there's a noticeable difference in my legs. I only applied it below my knees because I wanted to test it out, and usually the only skin I show on my lower half is below the knee anyways. Someone actually asked me yesterday if I've been tanning cause my legs looked tan. So I guess it works well. I definitely like this product, the scent isn't bad either. Normally self tanner smells pretty horrible. Also, because it develops so gradually, there is hardly any streaking.

Softsoap Vanilla Brown Sugar

Not really a beauty product, but I had to include this cause I was just thinking of it. I bought one of those soap pump dispensers and I fill it with dishwashing liquid and keep it in the bathroom. But it makes my hands really dry, and it's too soapy. I hate using bar soap to wash my hands, and I'm too cheap to buy the liquid hand soap, so when I was at the dollar store and saw Softsoap Vanilla Brown Sugar hand soap, I had to buy it. Also, I love the scent of Vanilla as long as it doesn't smell like hot chocolate. Well, this stuff actually smells like vanilla and tobacco. seriously. I thought it smelled like tobacoo, and I thought it was just me, but someone actually told me I smelled like cigarettes. (I quit smoking a few months ago, so they thought I started again). Anyways, for some weird reason I like the scent, but I don't think I'll be buying it again.

Philosophy 3-in-1 Waffle Cone shower gel

I LOVE the scent of this. It does not have that cheap fake smell like some other body washes. It seriously smells good enough to eat. It's $16 US at Sephora, and it's totally worth it. It's a 3-in-1 because it's a shampoo, soap, and shower gel. However, I don't really like using it as a shampoo because it makes my hair a bit dry, and it made my hair colour (my hair's coloured) a little bit brassy. If you see it in the store, you must buy it. You will smell delicious enough to eat.

MAC brush cleanser

I'm pretty cheap, I used to wash my makeup brushes with shampoo and thought it was good enough. Well, a couple years ago I splurged and bought this and I couldn't believe how well it worked. I put a little in a plastic cup and add a little water, and just push my brush around in there and all this makeup comes off even though my brushes look clean. This product is very easy to use, it disinfects and conditions your brushes, and it's safe for use on high quality brushes. This is well worth the splurge, it's $11, and it lasts a long time. I actually keep a couple bottles of these. My skin breaks out easily, so I try to wash my brushes regularly. I've seen makeup artists put some in a spritzer bottle mixed with water, and spray their brushes after each use. I haven't tried this yet, but thinking of doing this to keep my brushes clean.

Recent restaurant visits

2007-05-08T23:39:00.000-07:00

Toshi's in Vancouver
I've been here six times, and five out of six times I lined up over 30 minutes (the one time I didn't line up was on a Tuesday or Thursday night during a Canucks game). All I know is, never again will I step foot in this place. First off, if I get really crappy service, I will complain to the manager. Unfortunately, complaining at most Asian restaurants for lousy service will pretty much get you nowhere, and most likely nothing will really get resolved unless they feel like their restaurant may possibly be fined or shut down for uncleanliness. But bad service? Pshaw! And for a place like Toshi's I didn't even bother. Some of the waitresses there have really let the lineups get to their head, as if people are lining up to be served by them. People are lining up because that's pretty much the only restaurant in the area serving "authentic" Japanese food with "nonauthentic" Japanese restaurant prices. This is one of those restaurants where it's, sit down, order, eat your food and leave, don't linger around when there's like 16 pairs of eyes willing you to hurry up. But of course this restaurant boasts some really obnoxious customers, like these three ladies I've seen there three of the six times I've been there. Each time that I saw them, they were already seated, and pretty much finished eating, but half an hour later while I'm still waiting, they're still sitting there, and when I finally get to sit down, after I pay the bill and leave, they are still there (two of the three times anyways). Why don't they just go around the corner to Bellagio's and have some ice cream or go to Denny's and spend all night there??

My chief complaints and observations during my six visits
-2 of the six times, the bill was incorrect, once over billed, once under billed
-1 of the six times, I received the incorrect amount of change. so basically half the time they screw up the bill
-the table next to me complained they never got something that was charged on their bill, and the waitress argued with them about it.
-the young waitress with bob length hair has a really irritating tone of voice
-they will keep calling names all night, even if after calling it three or four times the party is not there. If not being there after being called twice, they should lose their spot.
-if you are a table of 3-4, you will never get a table, they will keep putting couples and singles ahead of you, but if they went in the correct order, you would have sat down long ago, eg, tables A, B, and C. Each table seats two. Table A opens up, so they seat one couple. Then table B opens up, so they seat another couple. Meanwhile the party of four that has been waiting way before the other two couples could have sat down. And it's not like when Table A left, Table B was still eating, table B is also waiting for their bill.

Anyways, I'm not going back there because one of the waitresses is such a friggin bag. If I ever seen her again, I may handle it like an adult and only punch her in the face.

If you decide to check this place out, make sure there is only one or two of you. Otherwise you're in for a long wait.

Nu restaurant
After a recommendation from a friend who went during the first week of opening, I decided to check this place out. I didn't like it. The service was great (at least from our waiter), the dishes ranged from horrible to good. I did like the butternut squash soup and caesar salad a lot, but I wouldn't go back there for it. And I just didn't like the decor. It looks too trendy, and something that will require a serious update in about 15 months. And I don't know what my friend is talking about, and I certainly don't know what En Route magaine is talking about, "#1 best new restaurant in Canada"?? And trendy and cool clientele?? At least not the day I was there. The only thing I liked about the restaurant was the ample and free parking. The night we were there, it appeared there was a restaurant critic there, (not anonymously) and he and his group were getting the royal treatment. Maybe if you say you're a restaurant critic, you get the better food too? When I spend $70 for just the meal portion, I think I deserve to have fare better than Cactus Club.

The Main on Main
I used to come here when it first opened quite a few years ago, and I really liked the ambiance and food and easygoing attitude of the staff. I was recently here, and the service was so bad. And it's not like they are rude, they are just soo friggin slow. After it felt like it was taking forever just to order, I checked my watch. Twenty minutes later (after checking my watch), the waitress finally came around. There were two waitresses that night, and only 6 tables. Both of them were chatting and flirting with some guys that were seated outside.. Meanwhile, the owner was sitting at the bar talking to some guy and wasn't doing anything about it. The food was good, but I won't be returning here again. If I'm in this area, I'd much rather go to Locus or the Reef. I have yet to check out Hawker's, but I think they keep weird hours.

It's a good thing Vancouver has a never ending supply of restaurants. Cause I just added three more restaurants to my list of restaurants not to go to.

Feenie's
I love this place. I've been here five times and each time it's been great. The food and desserts are good, and the prices decent. The drink menu is great, and my drinks have always been made nicely. The service is great, although I have to admit it was a lot better back when the tall bartender still worked there. My only beef is, I don't really like the lighting and setup in the dining area. It feels very cramped. I prefer to come here for appies and drinks in the bar area, better lighting and ambiance. I had a squid ink pasta which isn't part of their regular menu that was simply fab. I've even ordered the Feenie's Weenie once, which I regretted ordering the minute I got it. My friends were picking at their charcuterie plates and seared tuna, while I'm biting into a hot dog with ketchup and mustard is dripping onto my shirt. All whilst wearing my stilettos. Ahhh, glamorous. flossy flossy.

Nobody Knows - True story, The Affair of the Abandoned Children

2007-05-08T23:08:00.000-07:00

Just watched this film based on a true story about a mother that leaves her four children for weeks at a time while she goes off to party and meet men until she finally abandons them altogether. The movie is definitely worth watching. For the good acting (the boy who plays Akira won the 2004 Cannes Film Festival best actor award), beautiful cinematography and imagery. Actually, Ella Taylor of the LA Weekly sums it up perfectly, "Nobody Knows unfolds with such leisurely, terrible beauty, it takes a while to realize that what we are witnessing is the children’s long slide into beggary, exacerbated by the slow torture of faint hope."

The horrifying thing is, the real life story is much more horrible than the movie version. I'm trying to find out more about the story, but all I keep finding is this Wikipedia article which indicates there were five children, one of them died of malnutrition so the mom wrapped her up in plastic and hid her in the closet and another was killed by one of the kids' friend. All other sites basically refer to the same Wiki article, or offer the exact same information. Apparently it was big news in the 80's in Japan, but none of my Japanese friends seem to know any specifics about this story. I want to know what ended up happening to the four children, and what happened to the mother. Apparently she only went to jail for two years.

Yaletown

2007-04-19T23:22:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I was in Yaletown the other day, and for those of you that don't know Yaletown, it's described as Vancouver's "trendy and upscale renovated warehouse district". Personally, I don't like Yaletown at night, or even much during the day for that matter. As much as I like a lot of restaurants and bars in Yaletown, I find on the weekends the parking is horrendous, and the one-way traffic in the narrow two main streets is not enjoyable, and everytime I think I found a parking spot, it's "reserved" for a garbage receptacle.
What I don't like about it besides the parking is some of the people that hang out there trying to be cool. If you go in some of the boutiques, you'll see the girls that look at a top that costs about $430 try to look really bored, touch the fabric with their acrylic nails, and say something like, 'oh, it looks okay I guess, but I don't really like the colour". Yeah, right. Meanwhile she's wearing a Sirens top with a fake horsebit-Gucci bag.
Quick story, my handsome male friend met some girls in Glowbal, they said they live close in downtown by Burrard. Anyways, end of the night, he ends up going home with one of them, and she actually lives on Hastings and Gilmore area close to Burnaby..

If you go there during the day however, there's plenty of parking (all paid meter parking of course). I think cause the shopping albeit funky and some cutting-edge stuff, there's just not that many stores, and it's pretty spendy. I checked out Basquiat which is owned by Trevor Linden's wife. It's a nice store, but tops run about $500, but they do have some cool designer ware and some nice jeans too. I'm wondering, how come they can name their store Basquiat and there's no problem, and DeNiro's restaurant had to change their name because Robert De Niro threatened to sue. They changed their name to Section 3 (Tuesday highballs are $3.95)

Anwyays, I'll have to go back to Basquiat when I start making more money..

Good deals

2007-04-19T23:07:00.000-07:00

In Tuesday's Vancouver Sun's Style section there's a $30 off coupon at Wear Else which expires April 30. The great thing about this coupon is, it's not one of those, spend at least $100. As long as the item's over $30, you can use it. So you can buy a $40 item for $10. Doh.

www.beancoffeeshop.com
Get $12 off your first order for new customers. I'm not a coffee drinker so I've never tried their coffees, but they appear to have a pretty good clientele.
Looks like no minimum order.

Cheerios select cereals has a free adult admission movie pass inside!

Canadian Tire online, free shipping for any order over $49. Use this promo code SPRING316

:)

Craigslist Vancouver

2007-04-17T00:35:00.000-07:00

I sold my car within TWO HOURS! I posted my ad on Craigslist, and within 45 minutes I got THREE replies. An hour and forty five minutes later we are meeting up in a sketchy parking lot and I'm receiving a $100 deposit. A few months ago I posted an ad (which I paid good money for) on another website and I didn't even get one response, and it was a better deal too.

Now I gotta buy a car. Groan. I find it so stressful, but what can you do, I am not a public transportation kind of gal. I just can't get up early enough to catch a bus. I literally wake up 35 minutes before work starts, get ready within 15 (including a shower) roll into work one minute before I start with my Mighty Leaf African Nectar tea in hand and my Vancouver Sun (actually, just the page with the crossword puzzle - the easier one, not the New York Times crossword)

Joey's on Broadway, George in Yaletown, Kyung Bok Palace

2007-04-15T02:58:00.000-07:00

Joey's

I finally had a chance to check out Joey's on Broadway. They don't take reservations and we ended up waiting about 40 minutes (there were five of us). We were really hungry so it helped that they gave out samples of food and drink (non-alcoholic) while you wait!
I ordered the Forbidden Fruit martini which did not taste good (it's way better at the Joey's in Coquitlam). Too much lime. I had the ahi tuna tacos, which was decent, but I wouldn't order it again. Maybe it was an off night, but I think the Joey's in Coquitlam is a lot better. On the other hand our waitress was fantastic! Despite how busy it was, she was attentive, helpful, and just an all round great server. The hostesses were nice enough, but a couple of them seemed like they were just there to chat with each other which comes across unprofessional. I had a couple other drinks including the pomegranate mojito which is nothing to write home about, (but I guess blog-worthy).
Although the food and drink wasn't exceptional, I would go back again for the ambiance. I'm not a big fan of having to take the stairs to go to the bathroom, but it was a pretty cool bathroom. I love the paper towels they provide, and the oil paintings in the bathroom stalls is a nice touch.
It's pretty much a Cactus Club atmosphere, so as for dress code anything goes.

George Bar in Yaletown

I went last week and the drinks are very good. I especially like the Old-Fashioned (bourbon, brown sugar and some citrus) which I think is the very first thing on the vast drink menu. Tried some appies as well which were equally impressive. I thought I saw Gary Busey there. The cocktails range from $8-12.
If you haven't been, you can just walk in and sit wherever which anyone can probably figure out, except we stood at the door waiting to be seated.. We got there about 9 so pretty much 90% of the seats were full. Around ten the place was really happening. I did not like the bathrooms which is shared with Capone's restaurant out in the hallway.
I'd come here again, but next time I'll make sure I'm wearing some stiletto heels and a smaller top to fit in with all the other beautiful people. Oh, and ladies, there are definitely more guys than girls here.

Kyung Bok Palace

This Korean restaurant in North Vancouver has gotten a couple of awards for best Korean restaurant. In addition, numerous Koreans have recommended this place, so I went quite a few times until they opened a second location in Richmond (Lansdowne Mall) which is actually more convenient for me. I happened to be in North Vancouver recently so I went in for lunch but was I ever disappointed. First of all the service was horrible (it used to be decent), when we asked for extra bowls for the soup, she brought us plates (?!?) and on top of that, one of them had kimchi looking red spice specks all over it and the other one had brown sauce on it. To top it off, the waitresses hands were dripping wet! and she was holding the plates with her thumb on the middle of the plate dripping water onto it. It was not very busy, and when she wasn't serving (which was hardly ever), she sat at a table eating food and watching TV.. The waitresses never came around to refill tea, and I never got my drink order on top of that. The menu pages were stuck together which is so gross. I worked at a restaurant before and when it wasn't busy, we were wiping menu pages.
The tea was lukewarm and tasted like they used the same leaves all day. The noodles were overcooked, but the side dishes and bibimbap still rocked.
The waitress was only attentive when it came time to pay and she stood there to see the tip. How utterly tacky.
It seems like the majority of Korean restaurants in Vancouver are hit or miss and if it's a hit, it's often inconsistent. The only place that's been consistent everytime is Kyung Bok Palace in Lansdowne and a restaurant in Coquitlam but I don't know the name. There's one on broadway that's good but the name escapes me.
Other than that, the best Korean restaurants in North America seem to be in Cali or New York.
I haven't been to many Coquitlam Korean restaurants, if you know any good ones, let me know! I love kimchi, seafood pancakes and kalbi.

Victoria Beckham fashion

2007-04-15T02:12:00.000-07:00

How come she always looks so good? I always thought obvious fake breasts look so tacky, but she somehow manages to make it look fashionable.
I like this outfit, it's simple yet chic yet sexy. I need to recreate this look minus the big breasteses. oh.. and I guess my legs aren't this skinny either.

.

Rude drivers in Vancouver

2007-04-15T01:39:00.000-07:00

Why are there are so many rude (and shitty) drivers in Vancouver.
The other day I was at Champlain Mall circling for parking. The driver in front of me stopped his car and it appeared he was talking to his passenger. About twenty seconds later (meanwhile traffic is building up behind me and there's no way to go around him) the passenger gets out, I guess so she wouldn't have to walk all the way from a parked car to the store. It wasn't even raining AND she was a healthy fit person in her 20s. Once she got out, you'd think she'd walk immediately to the store. Nope, they continue their conversation. Car stopped, all while blocking traffic. So I honked. The girl turned around, gave me a look and continued talking. I layed on the horn (for a continuous 5-6 seconds), started opening my window to say something and she turned around and gave me the finger then finally walks towards the store. I was so fuming mad, and as luck would have it, there were two parking spaces that opened up and the guy that dropped of his passenger parked in one, and I parked right next to him. He took one look at me, saw how mad I was, he reversed and took off..

Vancouver shopping

2007-04-02T22:21:00.000-07:00

I guess I've been too busy going south to do my shopping and haven't yet had a chance to check out Urban Outfitters in Vancouver which opened up on Granville and Robson. I wonder if there's any comparison to the Seattle location.
I love their stuff, but I think it's a little overpriced.

Vancouver restaurants

2007-03-17T00:23:00.000-07:00

I haven't had a chance to check out Joey's on Broadway yet but apparently they had to change their "Diva Salad" name because Diva at the Met threatened to sue them. What a joke. I understand if it was called, "Diva at the Met Salad" but come on, "DIVA"?

I just found out Tojo's moved across the street from Toys R Us on Broadway about a month ago. Tojo-san bought the building.. And now the minimum price for Omakase is $120 when it used to be around $40.

Koji Restaurant on Hornby closed down a few weeks ago. All these cheap Japanese restaurants opening up is making some of the pricier restaurants close down. Too bad, because Koji had a really good menu as well as good food.

Lately I've been getting my sushi fix at Toshi's on 16th. The lineup can be long, but it's worth the wait. Make sure to get their early, and as soon as you go in, go to the front by the sushi counter and have your name written down. Try the negitoro roll, house special roll, and the soft shell crab. I always get those and just try other new things. My only beef is that they don't have red wine.

Dragon Boys Review

2007-01-07T23:45:00.000-08:00

A two part miniseries airing today and tomorrow on CBC. It’s about a Chinese Canadian RCMP gang squad officer and westcoast Asian gangs.
When I read about it in the paper I expected it to be another bad Canadian production. Well, I watched it tonight and it was not as bad as I expected it to be. In fact, it was entertaining and there were talented actors, but nevertheless there was still a very Canadian production element.

The warning indicates, “Disturbing, realistic portrayal..” umm, the following scenes were very disturbing, and gave it a low-budget look. *Warning-Spoilers*

-The Caucasian girl in the yellow sportscar with a 1991 spiral perm drinking a bubble tea and smoking a cigarette. They should have saved her $8 extra wage and used it to buy some tea pots for the restaurant scenes, which brings us to:
-Jason working in his parent’s restaurant walking around with a pitcher of ice water. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a Chinese restaurant in Vancouver where the waiter/ess walks around with a pitcher of water.
-The hairstyle of “Movie Star”. It looks like a mullet. Horrible haircut. “Movie Star” actually has a handome face, but that stringy mullet is so distracting it takes away from the show.
-Movie Star in his black silk robe screaming at the girl on the couch to “Take a shower!”. That whole scene was just so bad.
-Why is it that Movie Star has an accent, but his brother Linkoln has no accent. “…we’re in this togedder”
-What is the point of the stripper and the RCMP officer having a sexual relationship. It adds no value to the show.
-Vancouver is known for having very good looking strippers. Why do they have to use one that looks so old??
-The soundtrack..
-At the crime scene when Willy gets shot, all the neighbours are outside the yellow tape. More than half of the spectators are Caucasian. Come on, it’s Richmond.
-The scene where “Movie Star” beats up the white guy outside his car for no reason.
-When the Cambodian model goes shopping with the big guy with tattooed tears, they’re obviously in some Asian mall store but there’s a white guy working there. That’s like an impossibility. And what’s with the strange dancing in front of the panda.
The OUTFITS on the younger actors
-The red fur coat on Jason’s friend, I saw it twice on the show, each time cringe-worthy
-Black thickly knitted sweater with shiny leather coat, cheap sunglasses, thick gold chain and fancy mullet on “Movie Star”. Come on now, Asians, and Asian gangsters dress really well. They don’t wear cheap ass International Clothier clothing.
-The supposed junkie white girl that assists in the home invasion, aside from her hair, she looks so healthy and fit.
-Tommy’s (RCMP guy) and Jason’s bitterness about Asian stereotypes.
-it seems like the junkie girl and Jason take a pretty long bus trip and stay in a motel (with sliding glass doors?!?) anyways, Jason goes to pick up some food, and during the time that he’s gone, junkie girl calls her boyfriend and he’s already at the motel.

I actually felt kind of embarrassed in some of the above scenes.

On the other hand, these features were really good.
Majority of the actors, especially:
-RCMP officer Tommy – Byron Mann
-Willy the duck – Eric Tsang
-The lady playing Willy’s wife
-one of the guys in high school, he really looked gangster, one of the three guys that go to the restaurant grand opening. The guy on the very right. NOT the albino with the blonde hair.
The sets they used, houses, condos, massage parlor and restaurant.

If they got rid of the scenes I mentioned earlier, it would have been sooo soo much better. And I don’t know why, but I really liked the scene where the guy comes out of the Casino.

I think if “Movie Star” had a normal haircut, the show would have been so much better. Or maybe Movie Star and Linkoln should have traded roles. I found Jason’s role (the son of the restaurant guy that gets involved in the home invasion) really annoying. In fact, I was hoping he would get beat up.

I thought it was cast well, but I think it might have been more interesting if Linkoln was the RCMP guy, Tommy was the "movie star", and "movie star" had a haircut.
Anyways, I’ll be tuning in tomorrow to watch the conclusion. I feel they jammed too much in during tonight’s show. They could easily spread it out over 8 hours instead and developed some of the side stories.

The Departed

2007-01-05T22:40:00.000-08:00

I finally watched the Departed. Now I have questions. Warning! *Spoilers*
-What happens to the first envelope Leo gives the psychologist chick? The manila envelope. I see her open up the letter that gets mailed to Damon but not the manila envelope. I felt like I was just left hanging.
-How does Marky Mark find out about Damon?
I guess I'm supposed to conclude the shrink gives the manila envelope to Mark.
-I didn't think Jack Nicholson was a good pick for this role. He didn't seem very Boston to me either. A better replacement doesn't come to mind right now. I do think Seamus O'Reily (Kevin Conway) from Oz should have had a role as one of his men.
-I think Damon, Leo and Marky Mark were fantastic in this movie. I wonder if it would have been better if Damon and Leo had switched roles.
-A lot of times they make gangster life seem so glam in movies, but not this one.
-If someone told me this move was filmed 7 years ago, I would have believed them. The hairstyle and makeup of the shrink and some of the styles people were wearing looked really dated.
-Damon did such a good job at playing a hateable character. I find often in movies, even the bad guys, you can't help but like them or feel sorry for them, but not Damon. Joaquin Phoenix is also good at playing a hateable character (e.g. his role in Gladiator).

Rating out of five: 3.5
Would I buy the DVD: Yes. if it was under $10
Would I watch it again. Yes, but only for Leo.
Scariest scene: When Jack is in the theater with MD and pulls out a you-know-what.
Favorite scene: When MD and the shrink are having dinner and he asks her if he actually thinks he likes her.
The Departed is a remake of a Chinese movie titled Infernal Affairs.

Burglarized. Job postings.

2007-01-05T22:30:00.000-08:00

Hee hee, this makes me laugh.

A few weeks ago, my place got burglarized. No one was home except for the cat. The idiot(s) busted down the basement door and took all valuables. On top of that, they watched some television and left urine on the toilet seat and floor. Of course we had no insurance which is really dumb because the insurance would have been less than $400/year.

Anyways, the cop we talk to tells us there is no point in the police coming to investigate. And that it’s okay to clean up the mess that was left behind. Two days later, some officers show up. (these guys were great, I wish one of them was assigned to the case) To take fingerprints and DNA of the urine. They tell me the guy I talked to made a mistake. Whatever. I then later find out my neighbor got robbed a week prior but they were home and they beat the wife unconscious. Nice neighborhood.

A half-assed cop story.
A girl in my old neighborhood got into a huge fight with her boyfriend outside his house. Because of all the yelling, some people came out to watch. She gets into her car, and rams her car into his car THREE times, plus hits another neighbor’s car in the process. Then she comes out of the car holding a pie and just stands outside her car crying. The cops come, The neighbor that got his car hit and myself tell the cop about the fight and what happened. The officer talks to Ms Crazy, and she tells him they were not fighting. She says something was wrong with her gas pedal, and that’s why she hit the two cars. The pathetic boyfriend actually backs her story up. The cop actually BELIEVES her. He writes some stuff in his notebook and leaves after like five minutes. Any moron can see she hit his car three different times.. How can it be a mechanical problem?? He just didn’t want to do the paperwork. Okay, I realize no one got hurt here, and there are more serious crimes like rape and murder, but why the heck should ICBC pay for this. In the end, everyone’s rates goes up. This girl obviously has issues. I’m sure if the guy was outside his house she would have rammed her car into him.

On New Year’s Eve, there was a huge accident in front of my friend’s house. It actually involved a very drunk driver hitting FOUR parked cars. The impact was so hard, his airbag went off, and one of the cars’ tire actually came off. The police were called, and although it was obvious he was drunk, they didn’t bother doing a breathalyzer. They just got his car towed and the drunk guy’s friend came to pick him up. They had already left before the tow truck driver came.

I know there’s some really good cops out there. But it seems they are understaffed and overworked. It’s unfortunate because most people don’t really have anything too nice to say about the police here. Like any business, there is always the handful of bad employees, but I think it has more to do with just not enough resources. Some people actually asked me why I even bothered filing a report about the burglary.
On that note, if you don’t want to be invited to any more house parties, apparently the Vancouver police is doing a lot of hiring right now. If you are a female, AND you are a minority, you have an even better chance of getting in. Please don’t apply because you like the power a gun provides..

Eating out and supermarkets

2007-01-04T00:23:00.000-08:00

I haven't cooked a meal since the 14th of December. Every meal I've eaten (including breakfasts) has been in a restaurant, fast food establishment, delivered to my door, or take out. It's crazy. My skin looks like a catcher's mitt and I always feel fatigued. Actually, on Christmas I had a home cooked meal. Oh wait, and I had homecooked spaghetti (sauce out of a jar) on the weekend. So I had two homecooked meal in like three weeks. Oh, and in the past five months, my total fruit intake has been: two bites of a banana, two mandarin oranges, and half a navel orange (which I had today). I tried to adopt a macrobiotic diet about five months ago, and the only thing that really stuck with me was avoiding most fruits.

Food shopping sucks.

When I do go food shopping, I like to go to the following places, (but most of the time I end up at Superstore and Safeway):

-Choices - I like their bulk foods and stock up on the Lundberg organic brown rice when bulk foods go on sale (sometimes 20%)
-Whole Foods in North Vancouver - I love this place. The service is good, the samples rock, but watch the price/100 grams if you buy anything from the prepared foods, I was shocked by my $16 chicken with fries.. I was too red-faced to give it back to the counter guy.
-Kin's farm market for vegetables - prices are good and they sometimes have coupons for free celery or onions in free newspapers like the Courier.
-Fujiya - kinda pricey, can find cheaper stuff like Japanese mayo at Superstore, but decent selection of Japanese foods and cheap bento boxes (I love the spicy chicken karaage). As for food products, always check the expiration date. They're kinda notorious for having expired items on the shelves.

William Hung coming to Seattle

2007-01-02T23:16:00.000-08:00

William Hung of Season 3 American Idol fame, she-bang she-bang, will be making an appearance at Alderwood Mall in Seattle at 11am on 1.13.07. He'll also be at the Spokane North Town Mall at 11am on 1.14.07. Here's a little tidbit, did you know he's sold over 100,000 albums??

Deal or No Deal Model Search coming to Vancouver

2007-01-02T19:09:00.000-08:00

Did you know they're making a Canadian version of Deal or No Deal? There's some awesome Canadian game show hosts but I can't think of any good game shows filmed in Canada, if they follow the same format and set, maybe it'll be just as successful, although I'm shuddering thinking about the show Canada's Next Top Model that was on a few months ago..

Anyways, Deal or No Deal is looking for some suitcase wielding models, and if you can stand for like an hour in one place with a huge smile and make witty banter with Howie, they're auditioning across Canada starting tomorrow. Apparently natural charisma, wit, warmth and enthusiasm are a must. Translation: HOT. Here's some info:

DRESS CODE: Come dressed to impress the judges. A cocktail/party dress, or a skirt and sweater or blouse - whatever you feel presents you at your best. Pants are not acceptable, and dress shoes with heels are a must! Hey, why does it have to be a woman? I wouldn't mind seeing some guys holding onto the suitcases instead.

DATE AND LOCATIONS
**Please be sure to check back at globaltv.com closer to your city's casting date to confirm time and location.
Vancouver: Wednesday, January 3, 2007 at the Hyatt Regency Vancouver located at 655 Burrard Street, Vancouver
Calgary: Friday, January 5, 2007 at the Sheraton Suites Calgary Eau Claire located at 255 Barclay Parade SW, Calgary
Winnipeg: Sunday, January 7, 2007 at The Fairmont Winnipeg located at 2 Lombard Place, Winnipeg
Montreal: Tuesday, January 9, 2007 at the Hotel Omni Mont-Royal located at 1050 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal
Toronto: Friday, January 12, 2007 at The Royal York Fairmont Hotel at 100 Front St. W. Hopefuls will not be allowed to line-up outside the venue before 6:30am. Doors will open at 8 am, and close at Noon. Each contestant is allowed only one supporter.
**Those women selected to appear on the program will not be notified at the casting - they will be notified by producers at a later date.
**Due to the time constaints of a one day casting call, attendance does not guarantee an audition.

Dine Out Vancouver

2007-01-02T18:46:00.000-08:00

What we in Vancouver lack in good shopping, we make up for in really yummy restaurants. Vancouver is hosting their fifth Dine Out Vancouver event starting January 19 and ending on February 4. Several upscale Vancouver restaurants will be participating in this prix fixe event, offereing three course dinners at either $15, $25 or $35. Some of these restaurants include Bacchus, CinCin, Il Giardino, Blue Water Cafe, La Terrazza, The Cannery and West. I was disappointed Lumiere and Feenie's wasn't participating this year, but I'm glad Chambar is.
These are the restaurants I'm trying to make reservations at:
The Ocean Club
La Terrazza
Chambar
They've alphabetized the list, but they are alphabetizing "the", like instead of The Mill Marine Bistro & Bar being filed under "M", it's filed under "T".

I question why some of the restaurants are even on there since their regular menu stuff is below the 15/25/35 mark. If you're going to make reservations, make them now! This year some of the restaurants are allowing online booking, but the site is soooo friggin slow it might even be faster to keep hitting redial on your phone.

Some deals

2006-12-27T22:46:00.000-08:00

Alaska Airlines has some pretty good deals right now if you're traveling within the US. If you're a Vancouver person like me, you can drive up to Sea-Tac, or take the quickshuttle there and fly out to LA. For airfare, taxes and fees included, you're looking at $218.60 return. Even better deals if you're flying out to Oakland (very close to San Francisco). If you're flying out of Portland, there are some even better deals. I just booked a flight to Oakland (return) for less than $179 (flying out of Seattle). I'm probably gonna book a car rental and hotel through Priceline.

Roots (brick and mortar store), 50% off at items including sale items. For online shopping at Roots.com use coupon code BOX06. They've got some comfy yoga pants and some cute purses. Mexx (brick and mortar) also has stuff 50% off, but that's not really a big deal since Mexx has this sale often. In fact, I think it's just plain silly to buy anything regular price from Mexx or Buffalo for that matter.

Staples.ca $30 off $200 or more purchase, coupon code 81741.

American Apparel.ca 10% off orders of $85 or more, coupon code HOLIDAYDEC06

Future Shop, Prison Break Season One is $29.99. I just rented the whole season a couple months ago, and it cost more to rent (six discs). And isn't watching Wentworth Miller sitting in the chair after he gets his toe cut off in the dr's office just priceless?? Ahhh, Wenty!!

I am not a fan of Roots or Staples. For some reason I can't stand most of the staff at Roots and I've had multiple problems with online ordering from Staples.

Boxing Day Shopping

2006-12-27T21:58:00.000-08:00

Hope you had a nice Christmas holiday!
As much as I like to get a bargain, I'm not really a big fan of Boxing Day shopping in Vancouver. I went boxing day shopping (similar to US Black Friday sales) and picked up some stuff at Lululemon only to peel back the sales stickers to find out I saved, drumroll please, 10%. There was a lineup to get in, a lineup to try it on, and a lineup to save 10%. On top of that, they put your purchases into a clear plastic bag instead of their regular paper bags. What an insult. It's not like they are passing off incredible savings so they need to save on the overhead by providing plain bags. When they're offering 15% off, perhaps they will be providing plastic bags you get from the grocery stores for putting your produce in. And it's not like I collect shopping bags, but it's just part of a store's service. You know, wrapping your purchase in some coloured tissue and then putting it in a monogrammed bag. Even outlet stores will do this. Even La Senza does this when I buy three pairs of underwear for less than $15.

Maybe I'm just bitter cause I ended up getting two pairs of pants that make my ass look like a wide pancake. And the fact that I normally spend less than $39 for my workout gear. And that it's absolutely no exchanges or refunds. Not that I exchange or refund a lot, but it comforts me to know the option is there.

The other purchases I made were not that phenomenal either. It's almost like I bought stuff just for the sake of buying it. On the other hand, I went down to Seattle Premium Outlets for the Black Friday sales last month and got some major bargains. I'm talking 75% off stuff I actually use, and fluffy blood orange towels from Restoration Hardware for $3.99. But ended up taking ten hours to drive home because of the snow..

Speaking of Restoration Hardware, I really love that store. I never really buy much from there, but I love the fact they send their beautiful catalogue to an Ikea frequenting non-Restoration Hardware buyer like myself. Actually, I look at their catalogue and store for ideas and try to find a decent equivalent at Ikea or gasp, Real Canadian Superstore.

Best Places to Shop in Vancouver

2006-12-20T19:11:00.000-08:00

Okay, okay, these might not be the best, but these are the places I go to shop, get inspiration or get ideas. I get asked a lot where to shop in Vancouver since I get a lot of bargains. The truth is, the best place to shop is to just drive across the border and go to the US. The sales in Vancouver when it comes to clothing are certainly not phenomenal, and then there's the taxes. But if you're planning on doing some shopping while you're here, and you're from a very expensive country for clothing like Australia, then check these places out.
Let me get one thing straight. I'm really cheap when it comes to clothing, not only do I look for like a second or third markdown, I need to research the original price to make sure that's not just some inflated price to make it look like a real sale. I actually have like a notebook where I record prices of stuff, so I can keep track.. so I know if I'm really getting a bargain. Like I have a constantly updated excel spreadsheet where I enter prices of like purses, and cosmetics, or certain jeans and at what stores, so if I'm shopping overseas or something, I'll know if it's a better deal.
When I buy staple items like the black pants for work and for going out, the jeans, basic black shoes and boots, coat, and everyday purse I'll get something of pretty high quality, but try to find like the best price on it. But I don't mind paying more for quality as long as I know I'm not getting ripped off.

Clothing
Winner's - it's like a one level outlet department store with a bunch of different clothing brands for all ages, shoes organized by size, some furnishings, toiletries, gift items and even jewelry. I come here a lot since there's one close to my work. I can easily spend an afternoon here.

Service: Decent, but seems like there's always new staff that are just learning the ropes

$: Better than most stores in Vancouver

Pros

No salespeople to hassle you.
No guilt when you try on hundreds of stuff and don't buy anything.
Pretty good return and layaway policy.
Some of their clearance stuff is pretty darn cheap.
They have some nice dresses during prom and Christmas season.
Convenient one stop shopping cause there's something for everyone.

Tips

If you see any damage or anything like a loose button, they easily offer percentage off, usually 10%.
Keep an eye out for the clearance shelves for stuff like photoalbums and housewares. Some really good prices and you can get a cool gift for someone on a very low budget.
If you see something you like, try to find another one to see if it's been marked down, sometimes it's got the red tag sticker, but it's not on all of the same items.
Apparently they get their stock every Thursday.

Cons

It's not that cheap and you really have to comb the racks.
Some of the cashiers at the Richmond location are so friggin slow.
Some of the returns just get retagged and back on the shelves without inspection so keep a close eye for deodorant marks and BO, seriously. When shawls were trendy, I bought a shawl, brought it home and it smelled so bad, like BO with a spritz of perfume. I don't know how I didn't notice it in the store.
Saw them selling fake seven jeans once. (like Seven7) but they put it on one of their "designer" racks so some people might think it's the Seven for Mankind jeans when they're not.

Le Chateau
Yes, a lot of people think the clothing is of cheap quality, but if you've been in there lately, their stock is so much better than before. They have staple dresses that they carry throughout the year and they're pretty flattering on most body types. Personally, I love the cut of their pants, they make my butt look nice and my legs look longer. They also have a Le Chateau outlet in the Wal-Mart complex in New West.

Service: It really depends who you get. Generally it's either a commission attitude or don't care attitude. Personally, I like the service best on Burrard Street. Most people that work there are quite trendy, so they can be helpful putting together an outfit with accessories.

$: Reasonable.

Pros

Clothing is Made in Canada.
Trendy pieces at decent prices.
Lots of accessories.

Cons

Return policy is not very good. I believe it's exchange only, or return for credit note.

Aritzia

If you're a trendy tween or even a trendy 30 something with an above average spending budget, this is the place for you. They carry Mackage, Juicy Couture, Seven for all Mankind, Havaianas, CoH, Rock and Republic, and have three or four house brands including TNA and Talula. Their newest house brand is aimed at 30 somethings. They have even more variety at the Hill's location in Kerrisdale. If you live in town, wait for their warehouse sale especially for jeans. And if you know someone that works there, beg them for an invite to the friends and family sale the day before the warehouse sale opens to the public.

Service: mediocre. There are a few that stand out for exceptional service, but generally the salespeople BS to make a sale, and some obviously judge how nice they'll be to you depending on how deep your pockets look.

$: Spendy

Pros

Good selection of higher end jeans.
Nice boxes for gifts, although I sometimes just ask for a box even though the item is for myself and use it to store stuff.
Lots of cute trendy items.

Cons

Return policy. Also, can sometimes be time consuming just to exchange something.
If you get a TNA tracksuit, don't forget to get the mandatory streaks, a Bebe top with sparkly rhinestones and an LV Speedy bag to complete the look. and if it's cold out there, you need the puffy jacket with tight wide waistband and furry hood to go with it...(if you're not from Vancouver, take a visit to Metrotown mall after school hours and you'll see lots of girls sporting this look).
Most of the sizes are like teeny tiny.
I sometimes find it a little intimidating to go in the store.

If you like this store, you'll also enjoy Atomic Model, Off the Wall, Below the Belt, upstairs upstairs section of Holt Renfrew.

Holt Renfrew

This is probably Vancouver's most upscale department store. I know there's Leone too, but Holt's is a lot more popular, and also a lot less intimidating. Holt Renfrew is like Canada's answer to Nordstrom. They carry all the higher end brands like Hermes, Gucci, LV, Tiffany's, Balenciaga, Marc Jacobs, Manolo, Prada, Armani and also carry brands like C&C California, Juicy, and jeans labels like Rock and Republic. They also have an awesome makeup department with trendy brands and high end brands. Yes, they carry Nars, Giorgio Armani cosmetics, as well as Cle de Peau concealers (around $80).

Service: good

Prices: Spendy. Even when they have sales, you can still find some stuff cheaper elsewhere.

Pros

Fun store to browse in.
Who doesn't like receiving a gift from this store? Some of their stuff can be reasonable, like a Holt's brand robe for example.

Tips

If you open a credit card at the store, you get an extra 10% off on your first purchase. So if you plan on getting a very spendy item, it may be worth it.
If you get cosmetics or perfumes, be sure to ask for some samples.
You can get just about anything gift wrapped (for free)

Cons

I don't know why, but I don't like their latest pink shopping bags, I like their old bags. The new bags look like something you'd get from the cosmetic counter at the Bay or Shoppers Drug Mart.
Some of the customers really suck here.

Old Navy (cheap tees, flip flops, jeans, sweaters, and even clothing for dogs)

Jacob (only because it's Canadian although I can't stand this store)

Walk down Robson Street for a slew of stores including French Connection, BCBG, Banana Republic, Zara, Armani Exchange, Aldo shoes, Lululemon, B2 shoes

Cosmetics

MAC, especially the pro store on Robson street.
London Drugs
Shoppers Drug Mart
Holt Renfrew cosmetics department
Sear's downtown cosmetics department
Can't remember the name but there's a nice cosmetics store in that shopping center next to Park Royal in North Vancouver.
Also another cool cosmetics store in Aberdeen mall with hard to find brands like Anastasia of Beverly Hills and Blinc.

Will be adding more and including a guide to shopping in Seattle, Portland and surrounding areas!

$39 for 30 Minutes

2006-12-20T18:58:00.000-08:00

I HAD to have a massage today. My neck and scalenes were so stiff I could barely shoulder check. So I’m at work going through the yellow pages calling all the massage therapists between my workplace and home, but no one’s answering the phone. Due to the lack of responses I widen my criteria and call the ones in a 10 mile radius from my house, and the ones that actually answer the phone tell me they’re completely booked till the new year.

I finally find a place that tells me they’ll see me if I get down there by 5:45 for a 45 minute massage, but that I need to get there five minutes early to fill out some forms. At this point it’s 4:43 and I know traffic's gonna be crazy. But I ask the receptionist, if I get there at 5:30, can I have an hour long massage? Her answer is YES. The address is in the Marpole area.. Like I thought traffic is nuts, and at 5:27 I’m stuck on Granville street, slowly inching forward, not even halfway there. So I take a turn into a side street and try going that route. A few people follow me, but I have no idea what the heck I’m doing. I’m driving like a madwoman, I’m scared I’m going to get there at 6 and only get a 30 minute massage but be charged for a 45 minute massage.

At 5:57 I arrive. Late. I fill out the stupid forms, and I can’t relax during my entire massage cause I’m getting upset that they’re going to charge me for 45 minutes when the massage therapist still made me wait another few minutes while she got the bed ready which basically meant even if I got there on time I still would have had to wait till 6:02. When it comes to bill time they only charge me for half the hour so I was upset for nothing.

I’m going to have a glass of water now and wash it down with a McChicken.

Prison Break

2006-12-11T21:46:00.000-08:00

Is it just me, or is Wentworth Miller much hotter than Jude Law? And is it just me, or does anyone else feel sorry for Bellick.. Yeah, he was a complete jerk when he was the "Boss" of Fox River and I hated him in Season one, but I can't help but only feel sorry for him now.

Bellick can convince he is innocent of killing Geary (Sp?), and the actual suspect is T-Bag. He can start by telling the officer about his 911 call reporting T-Bag tied up to the radiator at T-Bag's former flame's house. They'll find his hand dropped behind the radiator and maybe connect the dots that T-Bag is actually involved. Or maybe I'm missing something..

Sleeping

2006-12-11T20:46:00.000-08:00

Does any of this happen to you when you're about to fall asleep?

-All of a sudden it feels like you're slipping down towards the foot of the bed, but super fast..
-Out of nowhere, you hear a loud sound, but you realize you only heard it "in your mind".
-You've fallen asleep, you wake up, you're looking around, but you can't move your body.

I haven't had these experiences in a while, but they all happen to me occasionally, and on top of that, once in a while I feel as if someone just slapped the top of my head.. Yeah, I sound nuts, I actually opened up to my co-worker and told her the above, and she told me I was just imagining things, or only dreaming them. But I'm telling you, it's not a dream, and it's not my imagination!