Anniversary 2010

This year we decided to stay in town to celebrate our 4th Anniversary. Time flies!
On Friday, I took off a bit early and we went to downtown Shangri-la for lunch. Then we shop around a bit, until dinner @ UBC Golf Club, where we got married.

Saturday, we went hiking in Mt Baker, WA, after seeing the gorgeous view from friend's picture. We didn't really "hike" but just took a couple pictures there, since we took off a bit late. When we were in Costco, people just sit on the "ice-box" to watch the World Cup game USA vs Ghana. Just managed to watch the extra time but too bad USA lost. I was hearing positive feedback that USA indeed played well in the World Cup game this time. Btw, US Costco is so generous in giving out food sample. The sample size is often HUGE (I considered 1/3 of the Hagan Daz ice-cream bar to be huge portion for food sampling). Also, lots of varieties. There is no need for "lunch" any more, at least for me. Dinner @ Palisade Waterfront Restaurant. Gorgeous view of the marina. Decent food, great service, all come with a price tag. Around $120 with 2 appetizer, 2 main course and 1 dessert.
Got home around 1am, super tired after the long day.

Sunday, even I set my alarm clock around 8am, I am able get up by myself to watch the World Cup! This is the first game that I tried to get up early to watch. It's England vs Germany. But too disappointing that the England lost 1-4. In the afternoon, we went to Meloty Fine Tea for afternoon tea. I'll talk more about it in the next post. After that I went back to work for 2 hours and then head home. Too stuff that I feel like "do some housework". So I clean up the bathroom. Want to mop the floor as well but seems too late now...

4th Anniversary

Mt Baker

Anniversary 2009

We had a nice 4-day trip @ Oregon to celebrate our 3rd anniversary.
I have spent quite a bit of time for hotel research and there is no disappointment. It's always good to go through Trip advisor! I love this hotel!
The pictures says it all.

Day 1 - Oregon Coast. The only glitch is that the weather is not picture-perfect. It's a bit cloudy for photo shooting and quite cool. But it's alright, at least it doesn't rain.

Day 2 - Cannon Beach. We were so lucky to be able to walk to the Haystack Rock during low tide. Otherwise we can only view from far.

Day 3 - Portland shopping.

Day 4 - Heading back home and join my Seattle friend for dinner.

2009 Oregon Trip

Oregon Trip Day 2

2nd Anniversary

Time really flies!

This year we decided to take a day off and took the train tour to Whistler. We have bumped into a TV crew on board. Perhaps we will be on TV show? Urban Rush on Channel 4.
I emailed them and asked about the show time. The air time would be Aug 1st. I'll definitely stay in front of the TV that day!

Pictures here:
2nd Anniversary

Getting hitched

The wedding season starts particularly early this year. The first wedding I attended was in mid-May. In fact, I have attended 2 weddings in May, 1 in June already. And there are five more coming, all in August! August must be a very good month to get hitched. Out of the 5 invitations, 4 of them are actually on the same date! I can only choose to attend either the banquet or the ceremony.

The first May wedding took place in a very popular wedding venue: Minoru Chapel.





Whereas the other wedding took place in a hotel ballroom.
Very pretty decor but of course, I love the dessert buffet the most! haha :D
And it's very nice to meet with some old friends too.







The 3rd wedding I attend this year. Minoru Chapel as well.
It's a long day for the wedding couple and me too! I was helping out in the wedding and participate in the door game.



And yeah..the ladies have gone quite "wild" that night. Everybody has fun!

Looking forward to the upcoming 5 weddings in August!

September wedding

I don't recall I have been to any wedding in September, except this year. I do think that September is not a very popular wedding month, compare with June July August.

Two wedding invitations happened to be in September this year. They have one thing in common: the wedding venue is the same as mine!

The September 16th wedding took place in the UBC Golf Club. The ceremony took place in the Westpoint ballroom. Although it's not the same ballroom as my wedding, I'm still very glad to be the guest of this small but yet intimate wedding. The groom is an old friend of my husband. He even met some of his old highschool friends from out of town, what an added bonus!

The other wedding is on Sep 29. This date is certainly very special: it's also my parent's anniversary day! The ceremony took place in a Catholic Church while the dinner banquet is also in Richmond Kirin, same restaurant as my wedding banquet. And this time, I can finally taste the dessert! I still remembered during my own wedding, I don't even have a chance to have my own wedding cake and dessert! After I changed to another dress and was about to try my wedding cake, I was told that I need to go out and say farewell to the guests. After that, the table is clean up and my wedding cake and desserts are all gone! Finally, I can try out the wedding banquet dessert this time!

Anyway, they all bring back good memories. My wedding seems just happened not long ago and yet it's already a year. How time flies!

幸福瑪利亞

好像是一首歌的名字。不過不記得內容了。

對我來說,瑪利亞是一個神聖的名字,可能是我自小在天主教學校唸書的關係。

我認識的瑪利亞,活脫是聖潔純真的小天使;也是虔誠的天主教徙。

嬌小的個子,甜美的笑容,長髮飄逸的她,性格卻不盡然是嬌艷羞澀,正如她自取的別號一樣,是充滿活力的快樂小兔。

跟她一起游泳,才見識到什麼叫做「雙腿好似摩打」。

跟她一起跑步,我用盡了吃奶的氣力都跟不上。

使我更佩服的是,一但她決定要做好的事情,必定會愒盡全力,力求完美,有着無比的幹勁與毅力。看她自己動手油漆的家居便知道,比起我付了幾千塊的「專業」裝修人員更專業:所有的牆壁都先給打磨,才掃上油漆。遇到不平滑的地方便加以打磨,再重新補上油漆。在工作上我也同樣看到這種認真的工作態度,真的使我自愧不如。

在感情路上,我很慶幸她找了屬於自己的幸福。在她身上我看到了無私的愛情,在這功利的俗世裏,連我也差不多相信再沒有這種愛情存在。

謹以此文,祝福我的好友瑪利亞,婚姻美滿,永遠幸福快樂。

Pictures of the Victoria Trip

Victoria Trip (Day 1)

Victoria Trip - Day 2

Victoria Trip - Day 3

Anniversary

It feels like yesterday; yet it's been a year already, since my wedding day.

Any significant changes or transformation? Not really.

The difference I would say....before and after, is that, I cooked dinner on a regular basis. (i.e. 99% on weekdays)
I used to cook enough for a few days. Now I would cook on a daily basis. Sometimes it's not that easy to think of new dishes, especially my choice of ingredients are rather limited. My hubby has higher level of 尿酸, together with his problematic skin, he's not supposed to have too much meat, beef, tofu, spinach, seafood..... the list go on and on...basically anything high purine is not good for him. Therefore, the main dishes are "rotated" between meat, fish and chicken.

Another difference is ...rather sad..but I have gained 10 pounds since last year. I'm sure it's very noticeable. Why? I have no idea...I'm not on any medication, perhaps I cooked too much? But my hubby on the other hand, maintain his weight pretty well. So I don't know.

Victoria Trip (June 23-June25)
Our anniversary day falls on the Monday this year so we just took that day off and enjoy the long weekend. At first we planned to go to Las Vegas but the hotel in that weekend is just ridiculously expensive due to some convention. Together with the desert heat, we finally give up this destination. In the end we went to Victoria for 2 days.

It turns out to be not a very relax trip and almost feels like joining a tour! Here's the list of places we have visited:
Butterfly Garden
A must see! What a unique experience that plenty beautiful butterfly flying around you? My favourite spot!

Royal BC Museum (Titanica exhibition and the IMAX movie)
An exhibition worth to see.

Miniature world to see miniature railway
Henry loves it since he is a fan of miniature railway.

Undersea garden
I wouldn't want to go again, nothing much to see except the giant octopus in the dive show.

Butchart garden ,
A must see for all tourists. We had high tea there (as lunch) too. $26/person, a pack of tea bags as gift. I like the food in this high tea more than the one inthe Empress Hotel. However, the tea is just so-so.
And needless to say, the garden is just spectacular. I wish I could stay longer!

Whale watching tour
It is not part of our plan to join whale watching tour. But as we pass by the booth, we were attracted by the "95% success rate" so we decided give it a try. And yeah..we saw TONS of whales, dolphin etc. OK not tons but groups. The tour is around 3 hours, including about 1 hour travel time to the whale watching spot. The ship is quite comfortable and they give out big jacket. On the way back we go back to the covered deck to enjoy our hot chocolate :P There are different companies organizing whale watching tours. Some with medium size cruise (that's what I called) and some with "boat" (like the big one you go with rafting). As I saw the other boat going up and down in the sea as it travels...I imagine I would throw up at once if I'm in that boat! At first I thought that the tour with the bigger ship cost more (the one I joined is $89/person). Surprisingly the "boat" one costs $85 too!

High tea in Empress Hotel.
It's $46/person and seriously, the food is not impressive for this price tag but the tea scores a bit. I like both tea that Henry and I chose. Of course, the $46 includes the cost of sitting in the grand dining hall of the Empress Hotel...

Dinner in the Marina restaurant by the Oakbay
How come we don't have these kind of restaurant by the marina in Vancouver? This venue made me think of the wedding of my Seattle friend, whose wedding also held in the Marina restaurant last August.
The 2nd night, we had fish and chips in Fisherman Wharf as dinner.
It's 8pm on Sunday, people just keep coming to order fish and chips. Can tell by the fresh fish, and the light and crisp batter.
Thanks to Perry's post about Victoria so we got some nice idea about where to look for nice food. And of course, we took his recommendation of staying in this hotel (we were choosing between Delta and Marriot).

Of course, we manage to rush back to the hotel for the FREE hor'devours which serves between 5pm and 7pm!

Why no pictures? My computer is down (broken CPU?) so please stay tune for the pictures.

June 25, 2005.
After coming back from Victoria, we had dinner in the UBC Golf Club. It's been one year since our last visit. I had my wedding ceremony in the ballroom there and now I had dinner in the restaurant across the ballroom. This place certainly brings back lots of good memories. It's funny that I keep checking out the time today and think about the things that I have done in the same time last year. One thing in common: on wedding day I'm tired, after the Victoria trip ....also tired!

But overall, we had a great time and happy anniversary!

Engagement Party

Over the past few years, my friends are getting married one after another. Nonetheless, I haven't been to any engagement myself (either they don't have one or I was not invited). And I don't have one for myself either.

So this time I'm excited to go to one of my best friend's engagement party.

It's a luncheon event in the Samba Brazilian Steakhouse (http://www.thaihouse.com/samba/)

I haven't been to this restaurant myself. It's all-u-can-eat type, but instead of getting all the food outside, the server comes to you with a long pole of meat, and slice it for you if you want one. There is a salad bar (with a lamb stew and rice) outside though.

I wasn't a "lamb lover". So this is actually my first time try the lamb stew since it's heavily spiced and it doesn't taste like lamb to me. And it certainly tastes good.

The day is filled with laugh and joy. There's a toss, photo taking and gift session, which almost like a preview of the actual wedding?

Pictures here:

Jeanne & Humphrey's Engagement Party

Welcome to the great event planning stage!