It was another good sunny day a week before, on a Sunday - too good to waste lazing inside a house. And so like what we've been doing the past couple of sunny weekends, we decided to set out early morning for a drive to Whytecliff Park in West Vancouver. It was a good hour drive from Richmond (ok, that's just my estimated time) and so we got there at a good time, when the sun's rays still wasn't harmful to the skin.

Like all parks or lakes that we've been to, it was quiet, and surprisingly so, not much crowded. There were a few families and some recreational group of friends who went there to scuba dive. The park is surrounded by the Horseshoe Bay, near the BC Ferry Terminal, where you take ferries to go to Vancouver Island. So seeing a speedboat or a jetski in the waters comes as a no surprise. Of course, there's also the occasional BC Ferry ride which would startle the calm waters and send big waves to the shoreline for a couple of minutes. Other than that, it was a really calming place, quiet and reserved.

Blossoms at Buntzen Lake

Some Fun Out In The Sun

Excuse me for the very cliche title, the summer heat seemed to have parched my creative juices. But never mind that, what's important is we have summer heat! Lol! Allow me to explain - we've had quite a gloomy start of the summer that everyone out here in the west thought the sun wouldn't be too present this season. I'm not kidding. For weeks at the start of summer the forecast was variably cloudy, showers and chance of rains - it was mid-July and we're all wearing jackets and have umbrellas over our heads. Summer bummer indeed. 

It was a funny sight too, I remember we had our annual company picnic, it was the 22nd of July and we were out at the park around 12 noon, wrapped tight in our jackets and wishing we could make a campfire. Haha! And one of my co-workers, upon arriving commented, "So it's a beautiful February day." That gave us all a chuckle. 

On to the adventure....

The first long weekend of the summer came and it was a bit cloudy. But because there was no forecast of shower, we set out to Delta and picked strawberries! It was both fun and tiring. It was fun hunting them big red strawberries down and tiring because we had to bend down to pick them. I felt so old because I suffered leg and lower back pain after. Haha!

I shudder to think what the future might be

1945.

There's nothing special about that year for me personally, I just happen to see it in an article I was reading. It made me think, it's 2011 now. Very random, right? It then brought me back to imagine what life must be like then, without the aid of technology we all enjoy now. And sadly, we can't live without at times, and I'm guilty of that as well.

I remember my "massage nights" with my Mom (read: me massaging her. Haha!) and while I don't exactly look forward to slaving the night away, I was always excited because it meant bonding and story-telling moments with her. We'd talk about her love life, "funny" ex-boyfriends, friends, school, and the most basic of girl talk. But what I enjoy the most, aside from the hilarious terms she used to describe her exes, are her childhood memories of  her life in the island of Marinduque, where everyone seems to know everyone and community activities are in abundance and attended by most families in town. I would beam at hearing her describe their make-shift toys from seashells and whatnot, the games they played, adolescence years, singing and dance contests she and her friends competed in, funny sister stories, and basically everything under the sun. Those were good times that seem to scream simplicity and joy. I've had my own share of memories in that town which are centered mostly in the swimming pool, playmates, clubhouse, makahiya plants (I was so amazed to see the plant close its leaves at the slightest touch), and the playground. And yes, I would use the same words to describe the first three to four years of my life I spent there.

Hearing these stories, I would look at my life in the city and be a bit saddened that I am almost always cooped up inside the house, afraid of strangers lurking about. I did enjoy school though as there I had friends I always hang out with. But still, a little part of me longed to be able to go out without fear and have neighbor playmates, and enjoy community curricular activities like the ones my Mom had. As a 90's kid, pastimes include watching cartoons (remember Remi, Ceddie, Cinderella, Heidi, Little Women, Mary And The Secret Garden?), going to the mall for some eats and movies, and reading books. Most playmates at home are fictional, the characters from the books I've read and cartoons I've watched.

While I know some of these simple activities are not totally lost in time, they sure have evolved into something more virtual. Games and activities now require a gadget or an internet connection to enjoy and mostly everyone owns a mobile phone. Simple cellphones are now even in the danger of extinction as we were introduced to smart phones. And of course, the idea of a phone's purpose not limited to talking and texting was most appealing and thus, well bought. I mean, being able to surf the internet, check your email, watch video, listen to music, and play games at a press of a button - what's not to love right? While we thought that was it, Apple had a multimillion idea, taking the "with a touch of your fingertips" idea literally and transforming it to what we now know as iTouch and iPhones. "Apps" are now what we depend on to help us what we need or to just pass the time. Internet, of course, is not far behind, with Google monopolizing the industry enough for us to coin the term, "Google it" to find information on anything we need to know. Anything. Internet has produced stars out of YouTube videos and bloggers, and created a whole new industry to supply to its growing needs, the online marketing where keywords and pay-per-click advertising matter as much as three meals a day.

Whew! That's a whole lot to take in right? But it doesn't end there.

For us not to lose "socializing skills," the genius by the name of Mark Zuckerberg invented Facebook; Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone together put up Twitter; and Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai joined heads to create Foursquare. Everyone's now entitled to their own opinion in their very own personal space free of charge in the blogosphere world of Wordpress, Blogspot, Live Journal, Tumblr, to name a few. Photography is now almost everyone's hobby with the help of DSLRs and online sharing sites like Flickr and Photobucket. Instant messaging and video chatting through yahoo messenger and Skype have now made it so easy to connect to someone from across the globe. Online shopping and bidding made possible by Ebay and Amazon. Online social networking at its finest - everyone's now connected and always updated with news from around the world. Wow. Oh my gosh. We can all go on and on about these changes as we're all witnesses to these. It is so easy drown in them, right? It's so easy to be dependent 'cause they offer the ultimate convenience in our fingertips. All these within a span of what, 10 years? Wow, right? I mean, didn't we all use to rely on 3.5 floppy diskettes before to save up our reports and homeworks? Lol.

But what I love about these is that they don't only offer convenience and entertainment, but also knowledge. With the news sites taking to twitter to share their news, we're all informed of what news-worthy events are happening in other countries. History and vast information are at our beck and call should we want it. Everyone now has the chance to be creative and showcase their creativity in different platforms. People could become knowledgeable should they know how to utilize the different platforms technology has offered for us to use for our pleasure.

It seems the possibilities are endless.

For that, I shudder to to think what the coming years would bring, what new knowledge and technology people are going to come up with. Technology has become so far advanced in as little as a decade. What can 10, 20, 50 years bring? I cannot even wrap my head around the thought. The future technology might not come as a surprise at that time as everything evolves in an orderly manner, but if we compare it to what we have now, we might just get amazed.

I don't know for you, but if God-willing, I'd like to be there in 50 years time to see what has changed. And hopefully still sane enough to understand it all. ☺

And After Three Months...

... I'm back! I know I've said a number of times already that I'd be diligent in updating this blog but hey, I've got a life to live, and it has been crazy busy... in a good way. :) Thus, I've succumbed to micro-blogging that is Twitter and also started writing my innermost thoughts in a private journal. Not that my thoughts will harm anyone, mostly just my pride (haha), but it isn't wise to put all our thoughts out there in public, right?

A lot has happened in the past three months or so that I've been up and down so many times I lost count. March has come and brought in a bit of a good time, only to be taken away by the start of my birth month, April. I think I've had the worst April Fools in my life. So it wasn't that much of a good start and I've only dreaded the days to come as I near my 20-something birthday. April to the early part of June were spent trying to reprogram my life back to what was normal to me before, but a BIGGER part of it was spent cheering for the Vancouver Canucks! Yeah! (I don't wanna dwell on past aches anymore, so, on to the good parts!)

Anyone following me on twitter would have been (but I hope not) sick of my constant tweets about the Canucks, game day or not. Of course, it increases ten-fold if it's a great game and we're winning! Lol! I've had the pleasure of watching the Canucks' every step towards the Stanley Cup Championship Game. They made it! And all of VanCity was only too happy, for the third time, we went as far as be in the very deciding game. They say third time's a charm right? So all our hopes were so high up and almost everyone's favorite hockey team was suddenly the Canucks! Unfortunately, that saying didn't apply to us. We lost to a great team. It was heartbreaking and didn't feel at all like how a Stanley Cup Final Game 7 should be, with how the game was so against us, and in our own arena too. But oh well, that's how it goes, there's only one winner, and sadly, it wasn't the Canucks.

Moving on (I was sad for a while because of the loss), I decided that it is time. It is high time for me to get out there on my own, yep, I moved out! Yay me! Hahaha! So between watching the Canucks kick the puck's arse to the goal, and working mine off, I was stressing out over finding the best apartment. And oh my gosh did I stress out over that! I've literally had a few sleepless nights worrying over finding the right place and I was always on craigslist, checking if new apartments had been listed. I prayed about this so much like my life depended on it. And because God is so awesomely amazing, He gave me the perfect apartment! The rent's such a good deal too because it includes everything already, plus my landlords seem nice people. :) So, thank you Father God, all the glory to you! =D

Lookie here, some photos of my new place! It's so cute and neat, I ♥ it!

Isn't she lovely? Teehee. ^‿^

Food Round-Up

Before anything else, I just realized that in my last post, I made it out like Spring follows Fall, and totally forgot about Winter! Lol! Blame it on the fact that it rarely snows in Vancouver (at least since I've been here) and Winter is mostly just cold and rainy, so much like how Fall is. We actually got snowed on just last Saturday (last time was November) and now we're back to rain showers. Great.

Moving on now. My family and friends know me as fond of taking pictures of food before I eat them, I even have an album on Facebook solely for them, titled Food I Love. I haven't updated that in ages and have just succumbed to posting either on my Twitter, Tumblr, or my Facebook wall. I should probably do restaurant reviews - though I don't often try out different places, my friends and I on occasion check out other places besides our ever-favorite hangout, Boston Pizza. But I don't think I can do good reviews, so yeah, scratch that idea for now.

Anyhoo,  I'm just rounding up photos of food I've taken recently. I know I already posted them on my other social networking sites so this is making it redundant but for the purpose providing a backgrounder, I'm posting them again. Lol.

 Triple Seafood Roll from G-be Izakaya. Yes, the 7-grain sushi rice is violet! I've had better ones, but I'd give it to them, they know food presentation from the heart.

 

Assorted dishes for Filipino Pot Luck Party.

 Roses given to my Mum for her birthday. I know it's not food, but aren't they pretty?

 Chocolate chip cookies and milk I had one night to pamper myself. Dipping these in milk make 'em so yummy! I thought I'd sleep better 'cause of the milk but since cookies are sugar, had a hard time falling asleep, of course.

 Seafood, seafood, seafood. It is apparent I love seafood. Indulgence courtesy of Mum's birthday at King Buffet.

 King Buffet. The place seems not to have a lot of people but it was actually pretty packed that night. Funny thing was, half of the diners were actually my Mum and aunts' friends from way back in high school! Talk about sudden reunion and small world. Who would've thought right?

 Kyung Bok Palace. Sunday lunch date with Janey. I liked it there, plus the price is just right methinks.

 Our Pastor's wife' birthday cake from La Patisserie. Looks really good but not sweet enough to be really a cake.

 Instant and improvised Japanese meal at home. I'm pretty resourceful when it comes to feeding myself. Haha! Oh yeah, Mum and I made those Sushi ourselves. Since I so love Japanese food, I better know how to make 'em!

 Sunday lunch with friends at Misoya, said to be one of the best Ramen places in Richmond. It was alright for me, I think I still like Rai Rai Ken better. Sadly, there isn't one here. But the best part for me - I was able to use my little knowledge of the Japanese language! Haha! 

 Black Sesame Ice Cream by G-Be Izakaya. Surprisingly, I found it to my liking, it's actually pretty good. Those biscuits (I think they're lenguas?) topped it off.

 Soy Milk Hot Pot in Paper by G-be Izakaya. Name is weird plus it being a paper in a hotpot made my friend try this one. Plus points to presentation again but taste is bland. Basically, just vegetables in soy milk and put in a hotpot to make them constantly hot.

G-be Izakaya's Sansho Chicken Karaage. I think they described it as flash fried rice-covered chicken with Japanese salt and pepper. They had me at flash fried rice. What is that right? So I ordered that and this is what I got. I actually like it especially when dipped in the 'yellowish' pepper and salt. Yum.

Spring Is Near ☼

I know it is too early to welcome the change of season, after all, we're just in the middle of February, but I'm just excited to see lively and vibrant colors again. I do like Fall, but I'm not really a fan of the gloomy weather coupled by the rain showers it brings. But I admit there is joy in seeing green change into dramatic hues of orange, yellow, and brown and stepping onto crunchy fallen leaves is a plus as well. And weird as it may be to some, looking at skeletal trees lined up gives me a sort of calm albeit with a tinge of sad. And to some, Fall is a favorite for the fashion it brings - layers and layers of clothing, fun, classic scarves, cute rain boots, coats and topped with an equally cute or nice umbrella - and you're just about ready to sing and dance in the rain, in style! But I'm really not one to talk about fashion, I still have yet to acquire a sense of it!

Going back to the topic at hand (for a minute there I was lost in Fall), this post is really but a poor excuse for me to post some photos I edited way back, but I've been lazy to post at that time. As apparent as it is, timeliness in blogging is something like a "Whut?" to me. Haha!

A little backgrounder, these photos were taken in the Summer of last year when we were enjoying the sun and clear skies of Victoria's Butchart Gardens. I felt absolutely like a girl in love (you know, when you feel like flowers are blooming around you 'cause of giggles of love). So yeah, this might just be me when I am blissfully in love with someone. ♥