Winners Haul

So a while ago Lance and I went to Winners for a bit of shopping. Oh man... I can't tell you how much I love this store. They have everything at reasonable prices. I always spend at least an hour plus in this store and trust me, Lance hates it. In all honesty, Winners and Walmart are my favorite places to walk in. There's so much to see. I am so dorky because these kinds of stores amuse me. For me, I have to do a Winners and Walmart run at least once a month, twice if possible. For reaaaaaals, I was in Walmart yesterday... But that was to help a friend pick up some things for his new place. I even bought myself a single serve blender. I've been making fruit and veggies smoothies lately because I am very terrible at cutting up and eating fruits. So drinking them is the way to go for me.

Anyway, we're getting off topic here. I went to Winners just to window shop but then I stumbled across their cart of sale items and oh, maaaaan. That was just terrible and torturous to me because I picked up all these perfume for super cheap. All these perfumes together cost less than a low end small bottle of one. Yup, I couldn't put them down. I had to get it. 

DVF Diane and DVF Love Diane perfumes.  

Juicy Couture perfumes and Paris Hilton Tease.

I also managed to pick up these two curling wands on sale. They were what I wanted for a very long time but never bothered to get it because I secretly hoped a sale would go on for these bad boys. It was worth the wait that's for sure. And guess what? They happened to be pink! Of course, I would be happy with just a black curling wand but since they sold the pink ones, I had to take them. 

The wand has a on and off switch button. You can't control the heat settings, but that's okay with me since the iron is pretty hot. I believe it's 400 degrees F? The thing I hate about it is there's no LED light to tell you it's on so if you're forgetful, you may forget to turn it off. But for me, it's okay because I always unplug it. I really like how simple and easy it takes to curl my hair. I can curl my hair between 15-20 minutes now rather than the usual 30-40 minutes. It does take a bit longer with the smaller curling wand, but that's okay. It definitely holds the curls really nicely and I can honestly go to bed with a head full of curls and be ready to go out again the next day with it. These curling irons makes me want to curl my hair everyday... Only I don't because I'm lazy! 

This is the home of my essential hair tools. Can you tell I love pink alot? Hahaha. To be fair the Corioliss Pro straightening iron is Lance's but since he doesn't iron his hair any more I gave it a home in my shoe box... I never straighten my hair. I only use this just to flip my bangs out when I'm feeling fancy. Underneath it all is my BELOVED Hot Tool curling iron. It is the first iron that I bought that actually held my curls and made it easy to curl my hair. My beautiful thick long hair. I will never cut you short again. 

February 2013

Sorry for the long disappearance. I have been so busy trying to focus on life, school, etc. Not much has happened though just the first half of my midterms which were okay. Also I'm sick again, not that that's a shocker to me. 

My dad came home early one day and I was surprised with some sushi from him, hehe. Though it's not fancy sushi it's okay because we ended up getting some more that weekend. I really appreciate spending time with my father when I can. He's so easy to talk to face to face and I always appreciate his advice on life and his life stories.

Plus he spoils me once in a while like the other week I wanted to borrow his car to go shopping but his tires weren't on the right traction. He didn't think I could handle the truck as it was slippery. It is a pretty large truck after all. Unfortunately for him I started pouting and he caved in: "oh okay, here you go". Muahahahaha.

I got the Clump Crusher from Covergirl in the waterproof version. I really don't like the formula. It runs down my face and gives me that raccoon look after a few hours which I hate. It does no volume action for my lashes as it claims. It actually lengthens my lashes which is weird. When I pair this with my Maybelline Illegal Length it looks like I have fake lashes on or so Lance says. As for the clumping? It's alright, not the greatest, but the brush is pretty nice.

Nom, nom, some apple chimicheese cake from Apple Bee's. I think the last time I had this was with a friend in grade 10 and that was just ages ago. This was after a quiet dinner with Hubert and Lance.

Three Thursdays ago, Hubert, Lance and I headed to a friend's apartment to play some board games. The drive there was beautiful as the sky was peachy pink. it was breathtaking.

We got to try outa bunch of different games that we weren't exposed to. We usually play Settlers of Catan, Monopoly and Clue but this time we got to try Ticket to Ride, Small World, Pirate's Cove, and Tsuro. I won't lie, some games were a bit confusing that I sat out and watched the three of them play. I didn't win any of the games. I only came in second place when we played Ticket to Ride and Tsuro. I wanted to win so badly at Tsuro but nope, Lance kept winning. :(

Ahhhh, my lonely dinner for one when Lance worked night audit that weekend. Normally we go out on Friday with friends or cook dinner together, but nope, just some garlic butter clams. Yum.  

For Lance's birthday, we didn't really get to celebrate it between just both of us as he worked over night. However, I did get to bake a red velvet cake for him. It was pretty amateur baking and I kind of messed up making the cake part... Oops! It was still pretty delish. I surprised him with the cake in the morning when he came over and then we went out with his aunt for some dim sum. 

At night we headed to his grandma's to celebrate his birthday with his family and we had their CNY family reunion dinner. Goodness, there was so many meat dishes, Lance kept apologizing because he knew I wanted to eat veggies. I felt so sick from the amount of meat on the table, it was weird because normally I wouldn't care. Nope, I'm not a vegetarian just trying to cut down on meat, but hahaha, we'll see... I love my steaks!

Eating with his family made me miss my family reunions in SG. Speaking of SG, I miss the delicious food there. I want some pandan waffles with some ice cream, please!

Last week, Hubert, Lance, Andy and I went out for some super spicy Southern China food to celebrate Lance's birthday. It's the South Silk Restaurant. I think I was mentally prepared for the food to be super spicy so it actually wasn't that hot to me. Not trying to be cocky or anything. I think I just got to mentally prepare myself to eat hot food because many a times I have eaten spicy food (and it wasn't as hot as that night) that I didn't think I was going to have and just be in total pain. Apparently the spiciness of the food grew as they brought the dishes out one by one. The pain for each dish felt the same to me though. I am weird. I loved the cold beef/ tripe dish and the eggplant we got. I would recommend this place to the spicy food lovers. Asian spiciness are always terribly hot so if you're in the mood for it go try it. It's located on 823 14th street NW.  

Our Valentine's celebration happened to be small this year and it was memorable because I enjoyed it. I will post about it later.

This past Monday, Hubert, Thomas, Lance and I decided to meet up to go to The Keg for yet another birthday celebration for Lance. Hubert's treat. What the heck... So many celebrations, but he truly deserves it since he always give me many birthday celebrations each year. He tends to hate having lots of people at a party and rather have a more intimate dinner which was perfect and exactly what he wanted.

I had to grab Hubert's car as he didn't drive it to work that day, pick Thomas up and then pick him up after. I was having a heart attack driving that car as the brakes were so sensitive... LOL. I looked like a maniac driving it. Oh well, luckily we got there safely and in one piece and onwards to dinner it was. 

I got the prime rib for dinner. Blergh. It was alright but it could have been better. I don't think I like the down town location as much as the one in the NW. Our waiter was fantastic though. He was very on point with us. He made sure our glasses was always filled with water and that we were comfortable. He even comped our desert as he found out last minute the creme brulee wasn't done, so we got to pick out a new one. 

I will attempt to blog more this week. Promise.

Chinese New Year 2013

Happy year of the snakes!

This year we celebrated my mother's birthday and Chinese New Year early. Since both dates were so close to each other we decide to kill 2 birds with one stone. Traditionally, the eve of Chinese New Year, families gather and have a big family reunion dinner, but since my family is scattered all over the world: 2 sisters in B.C., 1 sister in Germany, and a whole lot of aunts and uncles in Singapore, we could only celebrate it with my parents and two younger siblings. 

This year, my dad took us to Sakana in the Crowfoot area for some Japanese food. I really like this place for as a Japanese chain restaurant as I tend to find a lot of other Japanese chain restaurants plain and bland. I actually used to hate this restaurant because back when I was in high school, every so often my friends and I would go to the one in Chinatown for their sushi boat. It was alright, kind of boring and we only chose it because of our cheap budget.

But, over the last few years, my family started coming here as their go-to restaurant for Japanese food and my sister and I have been ordering their specialty rolls ever since. Let me tell you, their rolls are something! The sauces that they use are wonderful! There's different kinds of sauce that they drizzle over their rolls from avocado sauce, to kiwi sauce and mango. You would think fruit sauce with sushi is weird, but it works!

We only just converted my father to start eating their sushi approximately 2-3 visits ago. He's only used to his fancy sushi when we lived in Singapore and he's never liked eating sushi in Canada. So when he says he likes the rolls here, it's gotta be some special!

Our appetizers for this meal were the Large Assorted Tempura and the Takoyaki. They were both delicious. I mean hello? Deep fried batter food, yums. But remember now, only in small amounts. The tempura was super crunchy and the prawns weren't over cooked. And the takoyaki? Mmm, these cute little battered dumplings, with a chunk of octopus in it, topped with bonito flakes, mayo and takoyaki sauce, are exactly what I imagine I would find on the streets of Osaka.

Now here comes the stars of the meal. The salmon and tuna sashimi were fresh and at the perfect temperature to enjoy them. For the rolls, we chose the Cowboy Roll, House Roll, Philadelphia Roll, Dynamite Roll, Caterpillar roll, and some other roll with mango. All the rolls were a hit with my family. It was was delightful and fresh. They don't over fill the sushi with rice like some places do. It was the perfect amount. I think sushi has come a long ways from when I used to eat it as a child. It's just so fancy now, but it's okay with me because I still love it. 

I would personally stay away from the Caterpillar Roll as you really couldn't tell there was oysters in it. I think they tried to overcompensate with a crap load of rice in that. That one was miss, you really couldn't tell what is going on with that roll. I would not get the Cowboy Roll if you have a weak stomach to raw beef. Even though the beef is grilled lightly, it's still pretty raw. I actually love raw beef and it is probably my favorite roll out of all the rolls we order. So if you don't have a weak stomach and you're adventurous, try it! 

Top to bottom: Caterpillar Roll, Philadelphia Roll, Mango Roll, Dynamite Roll, Cowboy Roll and House Roll.

Mango Roll and Dynamite Roll

Cowboy Roll

House Roll

The service here tends to be pretty good every time that we go. Unfortunately this time we got a pretty terrible waitress who was rude. I think it's terrible when service people treat their customers with horribly, but expect to be tipped? Mmm, okay. 

I generally don't expect much from Asian waiters but she thought that we were just another typical Asian family that couldn't speak English and she would act so brash and make herself seem so high. I CANNOT stand it when we go to any type Western food and Caucasian waiters do this to us, but when another Asian does it to us... It's even more infuriating... My family may be Chinese but English is our first language. It's the only language my parents speak to me. My father was even educated in the UK. 

Anyway we survived dinner because the food was worth it. The waitress started clearing some dishes and came back with our bill to which I thought was really rude because we brought a cake in to celebrate my mother's birthday and she hadn't brought it out yet. I asked her about it and she's like 'Oh, I didn't know you were celebrating a birthday", to which she leaves to go grab it. This wasn't her fault as the hostess forgot to tell her. Generally, they're pretty on top of things like this when we bring cakes in to celebrate. 

They brought out their whole crew to sing my mother Happy Birthday in English and Japanese and took a Polaroid picture of her in their dress up clothes. LOL. I love how they celebrate big occasions here. It's fun. Afterwards, our waitress just became super nice and kept wishing my mother Happy Birthday non-stop. UM WHAT?! 

Though this time wasn't a pleasant dinner, we will DEFINITELY come back because it was 1 out of the multiple times we've been here. Plus we always get different waiters when we dine there. 

To conclude I want to wish everyone a Happy Chinese New Year and some well wishing phrases. 

Gong Xi Fa Cai! 

Shen ti jian kang! - Good health

Wan shi ru yi! - May things go as you wish.

My slowly growing pile of red packets.