Snowest Day of the Year and Productivity came to a halt

Merry Christmas Everyone!

This month had been a hustle bustle, pile on pile and uber-matrix of holiday activities, Christmas jingling, shopping in our household and with work! I love this time of the year! It's my excuse to put on that lovely red dress, wear my highest heels, so high in fact, that i can actually noozle by husband's neck without tiptoeing, heh... and of course eat all the cookies and chocolates with no remorse. It's also my time to unapologetically go crazy with baking and cooking... the other weekend was a Filipino Christmas Party at our house... We had a roasted suckling pig and it's all sooo yummy. Needless to say, dieting is out of the question.


And to top off the holidays, it's snowing like crazy here in Vancouver and everyone is in a tizzy! Snow is Vancouver's kryptonite. See, Vancouverites cannot drive in the snow. They panic at the sight of the white stuff and lose their control. Accidents litter the streets, bus services are stopped and productivity grinds into a halt. Case in point: I am supposed to be at work but because the buses are not running, I am snowed in and blogging instead. This year is extra special because the snow decended on the city with such power and force. That red strip of thing in the image? That's our lovely car, buried underneath that snowy goodness. Poor car.
As for me? I'm in my pajamas, beside the fireplace, sipping my morning coffee.. no use fighting nature, i say... :)


Happy holidays to everyone!!!

Hiatus explained in 200 words or less.

I am not going to apologize for not being here for a long time... I don't want to use the same old, tired excuse "I am too busy". I was not that busy, in fact. Life had become a bit boring and predictable after March, but it's my laziness that got me. June was a happy time, but then August came. August exhausted me and drained my energy, zapped my willpower to do anything exciting or requiring a new venture. Then September came and things started to look normal again. October found me working in a new job, possibly a new career, and dare I say, new hope?

Regardless, I'm back and I am going to make the best out of it.

March came in like a lion,

And I was not talking about the weather...
I am talking, dear friends about the amount of work I need to do. Work that claws and begs for attention every single day, whether it be from work that pays me or the stuff that occupies my time until the midnight, like chores, lists, calls, classes, photography, etc... sigh.
I am not complaining though. I like being busy. And seriously, for the past 4 weeks, this blogging thing has always been on my mind.

"crap, i should write something to the blog today"...
"it's been 2 weeks"
"crap, it's 3 weeks..."
"man! a month!"

But, here I am... I made it, albeit late. This blog, I declare is not dead.

I'll start with this photo taken by the husband a month ago. Really good photography. The stripes, the mirrors... They all go together. Love it. The study in infinity.

Outside it is raining again... constantly,incessantly. infinite... so tired of it.

sigh... this is Vancouver, y'all...

Valentine's Day and Great Expectations

"So what are you and your husband up to for Valentine's Day?" asks my co-worker in this saccharine-sweet voice bordering on annoying and demeaning, which, if not for the fact that I have to work with her everyday and have to maintain a nice working relationship with, I would have answered in the most bitchy tone " It's not your frackin business". Instead I opted to reply in my nice-saccharine sweet voice bordering on annoying and demeaning "Oh, we're newly married! Everyday is Valentine's Day... We'll probably just have a nice dinner and cuddle afterwards", followed by a nice smile.

Valentine's day is the most annoying of all "celebration" days, a day where men are expected to buy expensive jewelery and chocolates or so help them God, won't get laid in the next 10 years and be the object of scorn by their significant others, all part of the huge clusterfuck of Great Expectations for Great Relationships and How to Survive This Mad, Mad World. It is truly insane. And it does not help that the commercials, a month before the day are relentless...

"Buy here the necklace she'll keep forever" - but not you
"The 7 stone diamond ring... For all the memories...past, present and future" - whatever happened to the 3 stone diamond ring?
"The Heart Pendant. Show her that you care" - a nice massage would work the same

... and so on and so forth.


The main message in all of these are the same: Buy her the most expensive jewelery now so she'll forgive you for your transgressions later. This is your only chance to redeem yourself.


Valentine's day is demeaning for everyone. For the men, who are expected to buy their significant others all the useless crap (lotions and potions, jewelery and chocolates, flowers and lingerie, stuffed toys to name a few) and for the women, who had to stuff themselves with the chocolates and force their bodies in the lingeries and are expected to "put out" that day. You don't buy your wife or GF something because you're expected to, but because you want to, and similarly, wives and GFs should not be obligated to do things they're not supposed to want to just because of a certain day. St. Valentines would be horrified.

So this year, just like every year for the past 5 years, my husband and I are not celebrating or buying anything on the 14th. We'll start the day just like any other day, a warm kiss before going to work, IMs throughout the day, come home from work and have a normal dinner, talk about the day's events, a nice long cuddle and a kiss to end the day. No big meals or expensive trinkets, no chocolates or bonbonnieres. Just plain old lovin.

Happy Valentine's day, everyone!

I am not productive when my husband is around

It's true... I just cannot do anything when Pat is around. Somehow, the multi-tasking, uber-industrious, checklist-following, type A person that I am turns into a ball of extreme laziness and sloth when my husband is in the vicinity.

The problem is not the husband, per se. I lay all the blame on me, and this incessant need for cuddles. I have to admit, I am a freaking cuddle fiend. I'll cuddle Pat everywhere and this affliction is very bad for those weekends when things need to be done at home.
The thing is, he is more that happy to oblige. For Pat, being lazy comes naturally. He's not a slob, nor does he not help around (my husband is well trained) . But cuddling together comes so easy and spontaneous for both of us.

But during those times when he is off somewhere I turn into a superwoman. I finish errands, get things done and still have time to laze around.

Case in point, this morning. Pat decided to go out and take pictures of Rice Lake in Lynn Valley.
In those 3 hours that he was gone, I managed to:

1. Do the laundry
2. Mop the floors
3. Clean the toilets (we have 4)
4. Vacuum the living room
5. Dust the entire house
6. Sort the recycles
7. Take a shower
8. Surf Perezhilton.com (Britney was committed, y'all)
9. Read emails
10. Finish my French class homework
11. Gossip with my friend, Chat
12. Made plans for the evening
13. Cleaned out the fridge
14. Went out to Timmy's and bought myself a coffee, bagel with cream cheese and 2 donuts

I rest my case. Cuddling makes me not want to do anything but cuddle.

The fight for heat - a negotiation exercise

I don't like being cold. I hate it with such passion. My husband knows this and so does everyone else in my family, our friends and relatives. During our honeymoon in Italy, I was comfortable in the sweltering humid hotness of Rome in about 30 degree C weather and my husband was just about ready to melt in a puddle of wasted heat.

Vancouver is in the midst of its coldest winter since 1956. And it sure is damn cold. So cold that in the mornings I am transported back to that year in 2001, when I used to live in my cold, damp, one bedroom unheated apartment at Yonge and Eglington, trying to stay warm in my threadbare pajamas under a heap of blankets. Back then, heating was a luxury for me (yes, I was not paid much back then). I tolerated it because I could not afford the cost and was still paying for the heating bill that I racked up the year before, amounting to several hundreds of dollars. How was I supposed to know that heating up an old building made of bricks in Toronto would cost me that much money? To add injury to the insult, when I moved to Vancouver, I threw all my waffle warmers and all my thick tights and long johns away, thinking I never have to use them anymore. I sorely regret that move. I found myself stealing my brother's waffle warmers this week and in the mornings layering up 3 socks before heading to work.

But my office is an exception. Because I am oblivious to the cost of heating and more concerned about being productive from 9 - 5 rather than keeping warm, the first thing I do when I enter my office is to make sure the thermostat is cranked up to 26C. Yes, I can hear you gasp with displeasure... I know this is indulgent but what can I do? I am from the Tropics dammit! I want to be warm and comfy and not turn to a Flipsicle (get it, lol!) This nasty habit had gone on for a few weeks and I was happy.

So imagine my annoyance when I found out that my thermostat controls the whole floor's heating. Unbeknown to me, my co-workers have been boiling the past weeks to the point where one of the developers threatened to wear shorts in the dead of winter or take his shirt off. Emails were sent to our VP. A mutiny was called; a mass protest was assembled. The building folks were called in to find out where the heat is coming from.
After pouring over the building's wiring blueprint, they located the culprit thermostat... it's in my office. I had good intel that this is going to happen so I prepared myself. I was not ready to give up my heat.

Here's the conversation in my office that day:

Office Manager: Ms. Viever do you know that your thermostat controls the whole floor's heating system?
Me: No.
Office Manager: Well it does and everyone thinks it's too hot. Can you bring in down to 20C?
Me: No.
Office Manager: Why not? That's the ideal room temperature. It's not too hot, not too cold. It's perfect.
Me: Yes it's perfect, if you're a polar bear. Do I look like a polar bear to you? I am a small girl and I need all the heat I can get. I don't want to be cold while working. Look at me, I am wearing my jacket inside the office.
Office Manager: Yeah well, everyone is too hot at that temperature. You need to bring it down... In fact, let me do it for you. I'll crank it down, OK?
Me: Step away from the thermostat or so help me God...

At this point, there is a small group of curious developers starting to assemble in my front door... Overhearing the conversation, they decided to join in to the drama.

Dev1: C'mon, give us 20.
Me: No.
Dev2: 22?
Me: No.
Dev1: 23 and a space heater?
Me: How big?
Dev1: Big enough.
Me. Done.


Truth to be told, I was Ok with 20C. I am not a selfish person and I understand the repercussions of co-workers threatening to go semi-naked at work. I have my granny sweater with me and ready to wear it at work if I get cold and shivery. But I am a brat and I very rarely exercise my brattiness at work. I've always been nice and accommodating.
It's the heat, man... It got to me.

Lobsterfesting - my first lobster meal

I've never been a big fun of these bottom feeders. Mainly because,well, they're bottom feeders and they eat the crap from crap that other crappy fishes crapped. It will taste nasty... and fishy... and gross. Under sea crustaceans that look like spiders. Or so I thought.

It all changed when I saw the ad in a local newspaper that said "Lobsterfest, $29.99.Sunday only" at the Boathouse Restaurant. I know a good deal when I see one.

Before the day though, I surfed the web to find more facts about these creatures and stumbled into this site and this one, both written by the same guy. It was informative and funny at the same time. Check out the post on the myth of lobster cruelty. Who knew lobsters can be so interesting and tasty. A very rare combination.

So, here's a pic of me getting ready to eat the orange thing (I meant the lobster, not my coat).




















It was delish... The butter dip was fantastically fat and warm, the lobster was meaty and juicy, and the claw-cracking was satisfying. I ignored my side dishes the whole time. Yep, I don't think this is going to be my last lobster meal. I also knew that I had to workout like a mad woman the next day.
Warning: don't wear anything fancy such as a silk shirt when eating lobster. If you're like me, with the claw-cracking and the butter dipping, you're splatter everything on it and ruin your expensive clothes.
Damn, butter stains.

Cooking and my husband

I love cooking. There I said it. I love cooking for my husband, my friends and my family. I am happy and comfortable to admit that their is nothing more gratifying in this world than seeing my husband's reaction to a well thought of dinner spread in the middle of the week; a 4 course gourmet dinner that starts with delectable nibbles and ends with a thick slab of cake (admittedly, the cake is store-bought...I said cooking, not baking). More so, I feel like a super woman, having conquered an unconquerable feat everytime my husband finishes eating and looks at me straight in the eye and says "I am the luckiest husband alive".

The reason I write about this is because these days, I felt like cooking, for the most part, has somewhat lost its appeal to women. It has become some sort of an aberration, a throwback to the old days, back when women can't vote and women and kids are only seen and not heard. With all this bruhaha about women's lib and such and the proliferation of restaurants, it has become almost extinct. Not to mention everyone's lack of time to actually prepare and sit down for a proper meal. Why cook when you can order take out? Why spend half a day cooking
for a party when you can cater? Why buy all those kitchen tools when you can have them prepared and cooked for you?

My thoughts on cooking are these:

1. It is never an extravagance or a frivolity to cook for your loved ones. Knowing what nutritional value and the quality of food that my husband eats is of foremost importance to me and I will not compromise that
2. When I cook, I get in the zone... Almost Zen like, where every ingredient in the recipe has a purpose and I can create a meal that is in perfect harmony with the world. The spices mingle with the meat, the rice softens to mix with the sauce and the potatoes surrender to the taste of the chicken broth. I become the creator of something that will be enjoyed later on and for me, that is something. A sense of accomplishment.

What I want to emphasize here dear readers, is that cooking is not surrendering to slavery or purporting domesticity. That is a different story. I hate cleaning up after a meal. That is something my husband has to do. Thankfully after each meal, there is really no room for him to complain after eating like a king.

My hopes for this blog

I started this blog with the intention of learning to love Vancouver (my city) more. Hopefully by the end of this year, it would be enough for Tourism Vancouver to feature me and start paying me to write articles for them, get featured in the local news, get all the accolades and be recognized for the smart, funny and creative person that I am...

BUWAHAHAHAH!!!


Even I don't believe that crap...

Seriously though, I hope you guys that read this blog would tell your friends about it and give me comments, etc.
I promise to put more content in the next few days and write about more interesting things and funny, creative observations...

Next week I am going to start blogging about Vancouver "fashion" (or the lack of it) I am going out to the streets and start photographing people and comment on their choice of outfits...
This could get hairy...

More things about me... A few here and there facts

Since I am technically just starting this blog, I thought you might be interested:

1. I love The Simpsons,
2. I love sleeping, I can sleep anywhere, with or without a pillow. I once slept at a Rave right beside the huge massive speakers...
3. I've been hooked in carbonated water lately,
4. I eat some form of a chocolate substance almost everyday
5. I don't like eggplant
6. I just had my first lobster dinner this Sunday... see separate blog entry about this experience.

Bon Fin de Semaine!

Summary of the Week's events

The whole week have been really busy, and this blogging thing has somewhat gone through the backburner... I have all the intentions of blogging daily, but alas, good intentions are not always very realistic.

So my first post is a summary of the highlights of this week, 2 days at a time....

Friday: The Four Sisters of Yaletown

Last night I had my first French lesson at UBC and while waiting for me to finish my class, my dear hubby walked around Yaletown and took this amazing shot. It's a raw shot, not photo-edited yet. The picture was taken at dusk with the camera set to high light sensitivity.

This photo is a good representation of what's been happening downtown over the past 10 years. A terrific building boom has totally reshaped the city. Yaletown has been transformed into a forest of these pretty residential towers.

A few years ago this area was nothing but a construction zone; debris and cranes scattered all over the place with a small makeshift walkway to walk your dog or take a jog.

Vancouver is evolving very rapidly, and these buildings herald the change in this city...


Thursday: Henna is home!

Our favorite couple, Shawn and Erin, brought their baby home this week! And at 2 months old, she's keeping them busy. She's frisky and playful and high maintenance, but she's ever so delightful to play with. As all babies do, she keeps the couple awake at night and stressed out. Erin invited us over to meet her. In case you were wondering, Henna is a baby German Shepard. Here she is!

A not so pretty confession...

Like pretty much 85% of the people living in this city, I am not a home-grown Vancouverite. I was from Toronto and I loved it. Toronto for me was like a smaller version of New York... The financial district (where I used to work), the fashion, the arts, the culture, the food, the nights and the summers, Queen St and Yonge, TTC and Chinatown. The events, the gay pride parade, the Caribana, CTV and Much Music. Toronto was world class, very high fashion and I adored it...

And now for my confession...

I disdain Vancouver. I can't stand the Gortex raincoats worn on the streets and not on the ski hills, the overpriced Lululemon pants, cliquey house parties,the snotty West Van trust fund kids, the hypocritical "we're greener that other Canadian cities" mantra and the non-existent nightlife. The RAIN... how I hate the rain. It gets in everywhere. My shoes, my pants, my purses... Don't get me started with DTES (i.e. Downtown East Side).

Why then, do I call Vancouver home? For 5 years now?

I blame it on a boy... This boy i fell in love with and married who loves Vancouver so much. I cannot pry him away from it.

Little by little, day after day, I am trying to like this city and learning more about myself.

This blog is my chronicle of the things that we (my new husband and I) discover about Vancouver, my new city. The food, the fashion, the places, the people.

Come learn with us.