Vancouver Trip 2010 part 3 - Vancouver Island (1)

So it's off to the islands on the next part of our journey.

Taking a ferry landed us on Vancouver Island where we drove down to Victoria. The 1st thing on our mind when we reached was of course lunch (or brunch a. We stopped by this place called Lady Marmalade where I discovered my new favourite drink - the London Fog. It is actually earl grey tea mixed with vanilla cream and foamed milk. I chose soy milk which gave it a rather different taste. I don't usually take my earl grey with milk as I like it strong and "spicy", but the earl grey here was strong enough to be tasted still. I ordered a Crepe Monsieur (as opposed to "croque") while the others ordered the bennys and waffle. Very satisfactory.

Following lunch, we proceeded to visit the Royal BC Museum, not forgetting to walk along the wharf and smell some huge tulips at The Empress. The museum hosted a natural history museum, which saw the various creatures from past to present, sea life, land life and also the First Nations exhibits.

 

After the museum, it was off to our lodgings in Esquimalt to check in. A nice little cottage (Cottage Piroutte). After checking in, we headed off in search of dinner. My friend had researched on a place, but unexpectedly, it was no longer there and in its place, was a sukiyaki place which we decided to try. And it turned out quite well.

After dinner, we were surprised by the light-up of the parliament houses and the nice sunset view of the wharf, with artists working.

Vancouver Trip 2010 part 2 - City (1)

The first few days in Vancouver was to stay on the mainland before venturing to the islands. My friend/colleague studies at UBC, so it was only natural we did a campus tour. As spring is, lots of flowers, with tulips everywhere. We visited places like the Irving Barber Centre and Museum of Anthropology on campus. An ex-colleague happened to be taking his PhD at UBC and we met up with him as well.

Near campus was also Wreck Beach where we took a morning stroll, checking out the North Shore Mountains and sea. It's actually a nudist beach where "clothes were optional", but we didn't see anything lah.

We found out a little more about the natives of the land, or what they call "First Nations" and ate a sumptuous meal of First Nations food at this place called Salmon & Bannock (1128 West Broadway). Interestingly, they opened not too long ago for the Winter Olympics and since then have been quite popular. Definitely, since they are so hospitable! The food was delicious, with the hot favourite being the salmon mousse with fried bread or bannock. There's also this thing called Indian candy, which is actually a thicker, sweeter version of smoked salmon.

Besides these, we visited Granville Island (which really isn't an island), False Creek and Steveston Village. Granville Island is like an artist town, with Emily Carr University there. There's also, however, the Granville Island Public Market where lots of foodstuff and other local produce are sold. Steveston used to be a major salmon canning centre. There's a pretty well-known fish & chips eatery called Pajo's, which was indeed good.

We ended off this part of our trip with a meal at Excelsior Restaurant in Richmond, which was a Cantonese restaurant.

Vancouver Trip 2010 part 1 - airport boo boo

How shall I start the documentation of my trip? Hmm...think the first place to start would be an incident that occurred during my journey there.

I was told at the SQ counter in Singapore that my luggage was tagged all the way to Vancouver and I would just need to check myself in when I reached Shanghai. This of course, didn't happen.

By the way, I had to check in separately as my connecting flight, Air Canada, doesn't fly to Singapore from Vancouver (SQ doesn't fly there anymore) and I couldn't do online check in. On arriving at Shanghai, I was a bit short of time since I only had 2 hours to clear immigrations, clear customs, and go check in for my flight (I haven't got my seat yet you know), and most check-in counters close like 1-2 hours before the flight. Thinking my luggage would automatically transfer to my connecting flight, I tried to clear the immigrations and customs quickly but upon reaching the check-in counter, to my horror, I was told that I needed to collect luggage from my earlier flight and check that in as well. She asked me to hurry as they were closing counter soon.

So I made a mad rush to get back into the customs area, collect the bag, pass customs again (fortunately they allowed me to take a special queue as I explained the situation). So yah, I had a pretty good workout running round the airport like a mad woman and got myself checked in for my flight. Think the counter girl kindly waited for me, and good thing I was meeting a friend to fly to Vancouver together (she had been in Shanghai for a couple of days) so there was some comfort.

I think it was a good thing it was Shanghai, which is a rather efficient airport and not to mention there's the World Expo going on, so service was exceptionally good. And of course, maybe being able to speak Mandarin helped. :) Fortunately, having had the experience, my home flight was more relaxed.

Anyway, an aerial view of Shanghai to share.

post holiday ramblings

*sigh* I hate the aftermath of holidays. Once I touch down back in Singapore, they seem like a dream and I'm back to the reality of life. Was I even gone?

Anyway, had a great time in Vancouver, very R & R, with all the good scenery and good food. A bit sunny (must have brought the sun from Singapore man) so am a little tanned. A little cuddlier too. Will slowly update on my blog, so stay tuned.

*sigh* back to work tomorrow...am starting my guitar classes tomorrow too so hope my skills will improve! Hopefully I can get out of the "G key" mode and also learn plucking.

Mahler's "Quartet for Strings and Piano in A minor"

An early work by Mahler, I was very moved by this piece when I heard it during the film Shutter Island performed by the Prazak Quartet.

not an arts rounder

I am not an all rounder, but I try to appreciate and try out, where possible, the different forms of arts (literary, performing, visual, film) as best as I can. For literary, I try to read and write. Performing? I try to listen & watch more, sometimes write too and try to visualise things. Visual, I look at art pieces, try to interpret them, and had done 1 weak attempt at art installation. Finally film, I watch as many as I'm interested in and try to appreciate the cinematography if I can. But as it is, I'm still a "jack of all trades but a master at none".

Probably because of this, I tend to see these things as a whole or overlapping and relating them to each other...it can be as a form of inspiration (a bit abstract) or just to appreciate the whole sensory aspect. Example: I could be listening to some music and start to visualise some art piece, or even dance movements, or even how to use the structure for maybe producing a theatre show. All these concepts...

Food Moods

I was just thinking the other day of how we relate food to our moods. When we're happy, we eat. When we're sad, we eat...or eat to be happy. So what foods to what moods?

Personally, I think that (warm) waffle with ice-cream is usually what I crave for when I'm down. I think Shokudo's waffle isn't too bad. Unfortunately, Gelare has shut down. Think waffles also bring back childhood memories of A&W. Fresh Belgian waffles in Belgium are great.

Happy? I guess maybe something crispy like chips or pocky? Ice-cream (without the waffle) works too, but maybe the sorbet variety for that extra breezy feel. (I love ice-cream for anything)

When I'm angry? Hmm, not really sure yet, but I think any good fulfilling meal helps.

出国的原意

出国的理由有很多。我发现近一两年来，除了公事、见识或享受之外，我其中的原因是逃避。

去年的欧洲之旅逃离某种心情，而不久后的美国公干旅程也让我更能忘记。

这次，我要到远方的温哥华去了。 起初，我是怀着无奈的心情（工作）想逃到远远的地方散心，也顺便探望在那里的朋友。原本只是一个人去的，不过不知为何突然多了两个人。。。无所谓。
飞行的日子即将到来，而我发现现在我想逃避的不是那个无奈，而是另一个无奈；逃避某些人、某些事。我需要时间让情绪上的璇祸跟上理智所得到的答案。

Blessing in disguise

As mentioned in earlier posts, my organisation is in the middle of a major re-org and as a result, my job scope has totally changed, with me looking set to move to a new dept, although still in the same division.

Some time back, I had applied for a transfer which was rejected by the division I was hoping to join. Now, I feel it might be a blessing in disguise as it's a big mess over there now due to the re-org as the management tries to sort out the roles, collections and structure.

So currently, while still awaiting instructions/details on my job scope, I have more or less settled 1 aspect (though small) of that, which still lets me deal with the arts (music) in a way. It's still pending final approval, but I think shouldn't be a problem, except maybe some adjustments to the weightage. I will also get to do a "try-out" at the division I had intended to transfer to, in the form of an ECA, where staff can choose to do something outside of their main scope of work as part of our personal development.

Hope everything pans out nicely as I await God's guidance.
The bulk of my new job scope is still unknown, but my supervisor will discuss with me when I get back from Vancouver.

Savage Garden

One of the few English pop bands/singers I followed in my schooling days (I used to be more Chinese pop) was Savage Garden. I liked them because they wrote their own songs, and their songs had meaningful lyrics that sometimes touched on social issues (there's a name for such music but it slipped my mind). Examples are like Two Beds and a Coffee Machine which talks about abuse, and other interesting songs like Santa Monica, Lover After Me, To the Moon & Back, etc.

I was listening to my iPod and suddenly remembered how I really loved this song which was on their compilation album "Truly Madly Completely", by Darren Hayes, who's still singing & writing. It's called So Beautiful.

The other song on the compilation album is California, which is really nice too. There isn't a music video, so I picked one with the lyrics.

I doubt karaoke will have these songs, or else I would sing them.