I was lucky enough, to be elected to be part of the jury, for a 80 days criminal case.
Well...I started to get worried...since I heard that company do not pay during those days. There is court fee but it's minimal. So that means...4 months without regular pay? I have no idea how I'm going to survive.
After a bit of asking around, I finally realized that getting the court letter doesn't mean I AM the juror right away. I still need to go through an "interview" from both side of lawyers and the judge. Perhaps I won't get picked by the judge or the lawyers. Another things is, the employee handbook does state that company will pay full during the jury period. So that's good news.
The court day is early September, we'll see.
Although, being the juror is part of the responsibility of the citizen, I seriously doubt my limited English capability will lead me to wrong judgment. I do hope I won't be that "lucky" again to be picked in that day.
* * * * *
I don't consider myself as a very lucky person. I don't win much lottery nor big prize from any draw.
But my excessive speeding charges do get dropped after two years for no reasons. I considered myself very lucky.
And since then I drive slow every day (ok, almost) and there is one day, that only 1 day that I'm kinda tired and do not pay attention to the speed too much when cruising downhill. Then there comes the police. When I see the police's laser gun pointing at me, I guess it's all OVER. Surprisingly he didn't stop me. There is already another car being pull over so I guess they are too busy to stop me. But if I drove 2 minutes later, I'm sure there is no escape.
So perhaps I do have the luck, who knows?!
When can I get the Lotto 649 or Super 7 jackpot...... :P
Friday, August 3, 2007
Monday, July 23, 2007
Busy weekends
I always ask my Mom to give me a month notice before she comes back for a visit. Just because it could take a month for me to clean up the house! A month actually means 4 weekends not that I need the full 30 days.
But don't get the impression that my house is a TOTAL mess, it's not. The place where a guest will pass by, is usually clean and tidy.
Here's the To-do list:
Downstair den: All the bills/letters piling up since last year. Tons of plastic bags still there since my wedding last year.
Kitchen: clean up the stove.
My bathroom: clean the floor, counter top and toilet. The floor is a mess since the last repair.
Mom's bathroom: mop the floor and clean up the counter top, sink, and the shower area.
My Den: the most clustered place: all wedding materials and some of the gifts still on the floor, and you almost can't see the table top.
In general: vacuum and do the laundry.
Garden: try to remove the weed and water the plants.
And yes. with the help of my husband, I can get it done in 2 weekends. My house feels so different now.
But don't get the impression that my house is a TOTAL mess, it's not. The place where a guest will pass by, is usually clean and tidy.
Here's the To-do list:
Downstair den: All the bills/letters piling up since last year. Tons of plastic bags still there since my wedding last year.
Kitchen: clean up the stove.
My bathroom: clean the floor, counter top and toilet. The floor is a mess since the last repair.
Mom's bathroom: mop the floor and clean up the counter top, sink, and the shower area.
My Den: the most clustered place: all wedding materials and some of the gifts still on the floor, and you almost can't see the table top.
In general: vacuum and do the laundry.
Garden: try to remove the weed and water the plants.
And yes. with the help of my husband, I can get it done in 2 weekends. My house feels so different now.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Long Weekend
Beautiful Wedding
June 30
This is in fact the first outdoor wedding that I attended over the past few years.
It took place in the London Heritage Farm in Richmond.
Not many people knew this place, though. This is a nice place with an heritage house and a small garden. How do I know? I have been there for the company picnic before.
It was raining very heavily the past few days and I started to worry for the bride and groom. But luckily, the sun decided to come out on the actual wedding day.
The bride and groom are very considerate, they provide umbrella for the guests as well.
The wedding ceremony took place in front of the gazebo, there are tent set up with platters and a few picnic style table set up as well.
Outdoor wedding is indeed pretty. But with the guests, we need to put up the umbrella when the sun gets too strong. It may not look too nice in the wedding pictures then.
The buffet style wedding banquet took place in the Westwood Plateau Golf and Country Club.
Lots of food! Beautiful decoration of the hall, fish bowl as center piece and it's the first wedding I attend that the couple make the donation instead of buying the wedding favour.
Oregon again
July 1-2
This is our 2nd trip to Oregon this year.
Things wroth to mention:
We stayed in Comfort Inn, instead of Holiday Inn Express this time because of its location. It's half way between downtown and the factory outlet. Holiday Inn Express is a bit far from the outlet.
However, it turns out to be a "mistake".
First of all, the hotel is a bit old and outdated.
OK...I don't mind staying in 3-star hotel. But if I have a choice, I'd prefer staying in a newer hotel.
Then after I flip over the blanket...I found BLOOD STAIN on the bedsheet.
I quickly called the front desk and got another set.
But I still feel gross and didn't sleep well. :(
The next day we went shopping in downtown Portland and the outlet.
We decided to leave Oregon after dinner and we thought that by the time we come back to Vancouver, the lineup should be all clear.
It turns out that it's a "mistake" again.
We left Oregon at 6:30 and it's around 11:15 that we are close to the border. There is the line up, THREE MILES before the border.
People started using the shoulder lane as a "passing lane".
If there is no road construction close to the Truck Crossing, I think we can get home an hour earlier. Because of the road construction, there's only 1 lane to the custom and all the trucks block that lane. After the construction area, there is actually NO ONE waiting at the custom booth. And it's 2am we passed through the border.
Got home at 3:30am.....
June 30
This is in fact the first outdoor wedding that I attended over the past few years.
It took place in the London Heritage Farm in Richmond.
Not many people knew this place, though. This is a nice place with an heritage house and a small garden. How do I know? I have been there for the company picnic before.
It was raining very heavily the past few days and I started to worry for the bride and groom. But luckily, the sun decided to come out on the actual wedding day.
The bride and groom are very considerate, they provide umbrella for the guests as well.
The wedding ceremony took place in front of the gazebo, there are tent set up with platters and a few picnic style table set up as well.
Outdoor wedding is indeed pretty. But with the guests, we need to put up the umbrella when the sun gets too strong. It may not look too nice in the wedding pictures then.
The buffet style wedding banquet took place in the Westwood Plateau Golf and Country Club.
Lots of food! Beautiful decoration of the hall, fish bowl as center piece and it's the first wedding I attend that the couple make the donation instead of buying the wedding favour.
Oregon again
July 1-2
This is our 2nd trip to Oregon this year.
Things wroth to mention:
We stayed in Comfort Inn, instead of Holiday Inn Express this time because of its location. It's half way between downtown and the factory outlet. Holiday Inn Express is a bit far from the outlet.
However, it turns out to be a "mistake".
First of all, the hotel is a bit old and outdated.
OK...I don't mind staying in 3-star hotel. But if I have a choice, I'd prefer staying in a newer hotel.
Then after I flip over the blanket...I found BLOOD STAIN on the bedsheet.
I quickly called the front desk and got another set.
But I still feel gross and didn't sleep well. :(
The next day we went shopping in downtown Portland and the outlet.
We decided to leave Oregon after dinner and we thought that by the time we come back to Vancouver, the lineup should be all clear.
It turns out that it's a "mistake" again.
We left Oregon at 6:30 and it's around 11:15 that we are close to the border. There is the line up, THREE MILES before the border.
People started using the shoulder lane as a "passing lane".
If there is no road construction close to the Truck Crossing, I think we can get home an hour earlier. Because of the road construction, there's only 1 lane to the custom and all the trucks block that lane. After the construction area, there is actually NO ONE waiting at the custom booth. And it's 2am we passed through the border.
Got home at 3:30am.....
Friday, July 6, 2007
Thursday, June 28, 2007
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!
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!
巧合
上月的某星期三是本市某家高檔百貨公司開幕的日子。一向愛shopping(或是window shopping)旳我,當然不能錯過,非要「到此一遊」不可。只可惜連續兩個週末都未能抽出時間,直到本週末有幾小時的空檔,便驅車前往這個給消費者建立的新天地。
百貨公司本身很有香港連卡佛的味道,對象同樣是中產或以上的高消費者。場內遊人絡繹不絕,人人拿着大包小包的戰利品。在興奮獲得心頭好之餘,有否留意到美倫美煥的裝修,竟與富時代感的Cyber feel 並重;華麗昂貴的貨品滿目皆是,使我不得不承認,本市已從十多年前的農村小鎮,走向大城市的奢侈繁華。
閒逛之餘,目光正好被角落的一個手袋吸引,當我正擠身於角落處拿着手袋細看,身旁突然聽到別人呼喚我的名字,轉身一看,天啊!再一次碰到了我的一位舊同事。在幾萬平方呎的商場內,剛好就在那一分、那一秒,走到那個角落,再一次遇上。我說的是「再一次」,其實簡直是一次又一次,每次都在一些很出奇不意的地方遇上。如移民十多年都從未到過Coquitnam的Superstore,第一次去便碰到。另一次我們於中午出席朋友的婚禮,距離晚宴尚有幾小時的空檔,便到某大型手工藝品連鎖店逛逛消磨時間,竟又撞上,至於相遇在Parker Place, Abetdeen Center, Canadian Tire 這些華人常出沒的地方,已不值一提了。
幸好我不是浪漫派的小說家,對於這種偶遇不會說成是有緣千里能相會,只會說是巧合的奇遇,猜想下一次,我們會在哪地方遇上?
百貨公司本身很有香港連卡佛的味道,對象同樣是中產或以上的高消費者。場內遊人絡繹不絕,人人拿着大包小包的戰利品。在興奮獲得心頭好之餘,有否留意到美倫美煥的裝修,竟與富時代感的Cyber feel 並重;華麗昂貴的貨品滿目皆是,使我不得不承認,本市已從十多年前的農村小鎮,走向大城市的奢侈繁華。
閒逛之餘,目光正好被角落的一個手袋吸引,當我正擠身於角落處拿着手袋細看,身旁突然聽到別人呼喚我的名字,轉身一看,天啊!再一次碰到了我的一位舊同事。在幾萬平方呎的商場內,剛好就在那一分、那一秒,走到那個角落,再一次遇上。我說的是「再一次」,其實簡直是一次又一次,每次都在一些很出奇不意的地方遇上。如移民十多年都從未到過Coquitnam的Superstore,第一次去便碰到。另一次我們於中午出席朋友的婚禮,距離晚宴尚有幾小時的空檔,便到某大型手工藝品連鎖店逛逛消磨時間,竟又撞上,至於相遇在Parker Place, Abetdeen Center, Canadian Tire 這些華人常出沒的地方,已不值一提了。
幸好我不是浪漫派的小說家,對於這種偶遇不會說成是有緣千里能相會,只會說是巧合的奇遇,猜想下一次,我們會在哪地方遇上?
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Eat Eat Eat!
Supersize Oyster (Friday)
Got a call from a friend on Thursday night that we are invited for another "私房菜" dinner on the following day. I almost started drooling ... are we going to have a lobster feast since lobster is in season now?
Finally...to my surprise, we got a SUPERSIZE OYSTER as "appetizer".
The oyster is longer than the normal size china spoon! And it's baked with cheese and bacon. I didn't eat oyster before but this one...the nice smell or cheese and bacon...I just can't resist! (actually...I didn't eat oyster not because I don't like the taste of oyster, just because of the black stuff inside that make me "feel" gross). This oyster...just tastes SO GOOD!
Sai Z restaurant (Saturday)
Seeing an ad from Mingpao that there's a tasting menu on special ($40/person) so we give it a try tonight...
The environment is nice...nice ambience and they have live piano playing too.
The menu comes with two choices per dish. (5 dishes menu). Since we have two people we can try all different things.
First comes two spoonful of sphegetti "on the house".
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Then the prosciuto roll with the melon inside. Tastes good!
.jpg)
The soft shell roll is not too special though.
.jpg)
I have the lobster bisque with mussels. It has the lobster bisque taste and some miso soup taste as well. Very speical. The mussle is quite large.
.jpg)
The seafood clear soup has a big shrimp and it looks like those live shrimp (look very fresh), but unfortunately, the shrimp meat taste a bit "mui" so kinda disappointed. The mussel and clam are quite large.
.jpg)
Then comes my tuna tataki and the tuna mango crepe. Both taste very fresh and good.
.jpg)
.jpg)
The main dish is the halibut and angus beef steak.
.jpg)
.jpg)
Although I order "medium well" for the steak, the beef is still tender. And the server gives us a large cup of the green tea icecream parfait ON THE HOUSE too! At least 2 scoop of green tea icecream inside! It filled up at least 40% of our stomach!
Originally I order cheesecake as my dessert but the server later comes to me and say "the cheesecake is in bad condition tonight". So I change to the cream burlee combo as well.
It has orange, green tea cream burlee and another small cup of mango ice-cream.
.jpg)
Overall, I give 4.5/5 for food. (-0.5 for the "mui" shrimp)
Server is very polite, most servers looked like Japanese.
However, one thing that I think they can "improve" is that...food often comes a touch before I finish the previous dish. And I wait for 30 minutes for the first dish to come. The roll came first before of the soup (although the server do appologize).
If they can "improve" a bit on the timing of the dish, I'll give higher rating for the dining experience.
The dish portion is not too big so in case you have big stomach, u can plan for "siu yeah". But since they give us a free parfait, then we are stuff! Without the parfait, we probably are not too full.
Overall, I give 4.5/5 for the dining experience. I will go back again to try out other dishes.
I like the dish presentation, and also the environment there.
OK...time to exercise more...
Got a call from a friend on Thursday night that we are invited for another "私房菜" dinner on the following day. I almost started drooling ... are we going to have a lobster feast since lobster is in season now?
Finally...to my surprise, we got a SUPERSIZE OYSTER as "appetizer".
The oyster is longer than the normal size china spoon! And it's baked with cheese and bacon. I didn't eat oyster before but this one...the nice smell or cheese and bacon...I just can't resist! (actually...I didn't eat oyster not because I don't like the taste of oyster, just because of the black stuff inside that make me "feel" gross). This oyster...just tastes SO GOOD!
Sai Z restaurant (Saturday)
Seeing an ad from Mingpao that there's a tasting menu on special ($40/person) so we give it a try tonight...
The environment is nice...nice ambience and they have live piano playing too.
The menu comes with two choices per dish. (5 dishes menu). Since we have two people we can try all different things.
First comes two spoonful of sphegetti "on the house".
.jpg)
Then the prosciuto roll with the melon inside. Tastes good!
.jpg)
The soft shell roll is not too special though.
.jpg)
I have the lobster bisque with mussels. It has the lobster bisque taste and some miso soup taste as well. Very speical. The mussle is quite large.
.jpg)
The seafood clear soup has a big shrimp and it looks like those live shrimp (look very fresh), but unfortunately, the shrimp meat taste a bit "mui" so kinda disappointed. The mussel and clam are quite large.
.jpg){kind=spacer}
Then comes my tuna tataki and the tuna mango crepe. Both taste very fresh and good.
.jpg)
.jpg)
The main dish is the halibut and angus beef steak.
.jpg)
.jpg)
Although I order "medium well" for the steak, the beef is still tender. And the server gives us a large cup of the green tea icecream parfait ON THE HOUSE too! At least 2 scoop of green tea icecream inside! It filled up at least 40% of our stomach!
Originally I order cheesecake as my dessert but the server later comes to me and say "the cheesecake is in bad condition tonight". So I change to the cream burlee combo as well.
It has orange, green tea cream burlee and another small cup of mango ice-cream.
.jpg)
Overall, I give 4.5/5 for food. (-0.5 for the "mui" shrimp)
Server is very polite, most servers looked like Japanese.
However, one thing that I think they can "improve" is that...food often comes a touch before I finish the previous dish. And I wait for 30 minutes for the first dish to come. The roll came first before of the soup (although the server do appologize).
If they can "improve" a bit on the timing of the dish, I'll give higher rating for the dining experience.
The dish portion is not too big so in case you have big stomach, u can plan for "siu yeah". But since they give us a free parfait, then we are stuff! Without the parfait, we probably are not too full.
Overall, I give 4.5/5 for the dining experience. I will go back again to try out other dishes.
I like the dish presentation, and also the environment there.
OK...time to exercise more...
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