Fun stuff I've seen in London so far

The honest bus in st Katharine's docks. No one is in there and u just take the things u want to buy and leave money?!?!? It wasn't just tat in there either!

Cool sign indicating this shop is closed!

Frozen

Never seen the countryside all frozen like this! Glad I brought my earmuffs.

They've got to be kidding me

Ampelman

On the streets of Vancouver this morning, sighting of Soviet East Germany paraphernalia ! The ampelman pedestrian traffic lights that we were told about during our Berlin walking and cycling tours. I miss Europe!

Hope it didn't look like I was stalking this lady on the streets!

All dressed up

To walk 20 minutes to Bubble World to
get a mango slush with bubbles on a cold winter evening. Those earmuffs from Scotland sure are good warmer

My Short Review of Skyfall

Q uses a scrabble mug, just like the ones that Keith and I own. It's done subtly and I don't think you ever see the front face of the mug but I assume the letter is a Q. Also the actor is cute. who is he?

Javier Bardem was also cool. I liked him flirting with Bond.

And we obviously enjoyed all the London bits. Keith made a point of nudging me to say that the Tube train they were on was NOT a District line train even though they were meant to be on the District line. What a geek.

I even enjoyed the little movie intro montage/music video thing and usually I think those are so cheesy???

And I guess I can get on board with Ralph Fiennes. He's pretty cool.

Get let off work early...

End up sobbing on the couch watching the Ellen Degeneres show.

Because she had the family of a woman who previously came to a taping of her show as the last thing she wanted to do on her cancer bucket list come back on after the woman died and an Ellen viewer saw them and anonymously bought the two kids new MacBooks and a trip to Hawaii.

When Keith gets home he's gonna tell me again that I get too upset watching TV.

I guess it's a good thing I am normally never home in time to watch Ellen!!!!

Sunny day in Vancouver

Means everyone is out in full force soaking sun up while they have a chance. As are we, after a long riverside walk, chilling out with a nice buckos on the sidewalk patio.

With the crowd, it sounds more like a Sunday afternoon dimsum session

And here's Keith reading the hobbit while my grandma peruses my us magazine

The Continued Bastardization of My Very Simple Name

I don't understand! Why is it that difficult!!! Over the years, I have been called (in person and in emails):

- Maylee (this one bugs me the most. I feel like saying to offenders - You also have a first name and last name. I never try to smush them together to make one combined supername. Is just May too inadequate and unsubstantial to you? Huh Johnsmith? Huh? Would you not think it awkward and weird when I say to you in a meeting, can you pass me that pen Johnsmith? HUH?? HUH????)
- Lee
- Mary
- Amy

And today this at Starbucks:

The girl who handed it to me (not the girl who wrote it) couldn't even read that so she just mumbled "tall skinny chai latte?" when she put it on the counter.

Touristy pics

Went down to the convention center at the waterfront for a Xmas craft fair (which allowed me to do a big tick next to "mother in law" on the old Xmas list) and had a look at the 2010 Olympic torch for the first time, as well as an orca which is of course very northwest!

Who feels like an ass now?

That would be me.

Oops

Narcissism

Two things that made me feel good this week, entirely based on vanity and being totally superficial!

1) going to drinks with a bunch of coworkers and one of them asking how my husband is settling in, which prompts the other to say "You are MARRIED?" confused by the shocked reaction (maybe she thinks who would want to marry that?) I respond "Yes I am! Why?" amusedly, and she says "You look too young!! How old are you?" "Oh I am almost [age censored]!" "I thought you were in your early 20's!"

Oh YES. Ok maybe she didn't say "early", and just 20's but I am going to assume it and attribute the omission to the language barrier given she is from Argentina. She couldn't be that shocked if I was 29 and married RIGHT?

2) zipping on a dress with ease this morning that I haven't fit into for a good 4-5 years. #4morepounds (I may have spent too much time reading tweets on the election last night)

W00t!

Election madness

I wasn't as intrigued by the US election this time around as I was in 2008. But I did watch 2 hours of election coverage tonight, which on Canadian TV featured talk of a bridge between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan NOT being vetoed by the State. Gripping stuff.

So once again I am an emotional sap, because, despite my lack of interest in the event besides never wanting a republican to win, I was almost moved to tears by the picture Obama tweeted of him hugging Michelle against a backdrop of a cloudy gray sky. That's a good photographer they have working on their campaign team.

Mmmmm Sunday brunch goodness

My niece and nephew stayed overnight last night so I suggested when my sis and bro in law came to pick them up that we go for brunch and make a little outing of it.

Despite not being a lover of breakfast foods (I never get up early enough to eat a proper one, so maybe it feels like a treat, like when u go to a fancy hotel and it's included in your night's stay!) , I do love brunch. I think it might be the fact that it allows u to eat the breakfast foods that I never eat AND sleep in all the same.

So I excitedly googled best brunch places downtown Vancouver and on the first list I found the first restaurant, The Twisted Fork Bistro, was a block away from our flat. Excellent and done.

As we approached the restaurant this morning at 9:50 in time for the doors to open at 10am I was shocked by the line of probably 30 people already lined up outside the door. Oh no, I thought, if we have to wait there's no way the kids would have the patience! Thankfully my sis and bro in law were well prepared and early and were about 10th in the queue. They even mentioned that the guy in front of them in the line had been there yesterday as well and reassured them that he had gotten seated despite beings further back in the line. Phew. (and what? Two days in a row?)

Well we figured out why he'd need to come back - we will too if we want to try more than one item on the menu. The portions were so huge that we couldn't even take a bite of each others dishes just to sample the fare because our own portions had made us so full!!!

To those in Vancouver, I highly recommend the banana stuffed brioche French toast, and the eggs benny!! To those of u not in Vancouver, this is a must if (come on, when!!!!) u visit!

My sis made us pose outside the restaurant afterwards and told us to make "full" faces, I was the only fool to comply and it turns out a full face is hard to pull off without turning into a "got-the-runs" face

Trick or Treat!

Despite the soggy weather (in which I trotted out my new pink floral rainboots), we bravely went trick or treating with Cinderella and Superman on Wednesday. This was a first-time experience for Keith so it was nice to see some of the houses in my sister's neighbourhood going all out with their pumpkins and their decorations. One homeowner was so committed, he'd built a maze of cardboard walls in his garage so that you had to venture into an entrance at the front of his house and then at the end of the maze (scattered along which were scary skulls and cobwebs etc) you reached him standing at the end, inexplicably dressed as Darth Maul, handing out candy. My niece and nephew required hand-holding and gentle prodding to move along the maze to get to the end. Hilarious!

We also got treated to the sight of some amazing pumpkins:

That's a Darth Vader in the poor picture at the bottom.

But the funniest story was when my nephew Ethan went up to one of the houses and after he got his candy he remarked to his Dad that the houseowner looked like Uncle Keith. My brother in law came giggling down the driveway to tell me this and said that the houseowner wasn't even caucasian, just not Chinese.

The next evening when we went to dinner with them again Ethan was still saying how Keith looked like the man that gave him candy, and then added "but not as handsome". We found this hilarious but pretended that Uncle Keith had very hurt feelings from this comment, so Ethan felt the need to clarify "But you're still goooood!" (i.e. still handsome, just not as handsome as their neighbour). "And you're stronger!", he reassured Keith.

No wonder Uncle Keith gave them double piggyrides after dinner!

Halloween Fun Part One

In which we carve beautiful pumpkins using no stencils at all and our abundance of creativity, using little stone picks and chisels:

I lie. We used store bought paper cut out stencils and we even abandoned using traditional knives to do our carving and had battery operated mini mechanical saws that much eased the great difficulties of pumpkin carving!!!

Didn't mean it took me any less than two hours!!!

In order, that is mine, my niece Kaylie's my nephew Ethan's (more appropriate to give the credit to my sister since Ethan lost interest after cutting out the top and scooping out the guts), and Keith's!

Mine is a cute bat, just in case any of u respond to it like my friend Vina did when I showed her the picture - "Cool! Is that a dog?"

Our favourite new spot in the flat

Beeeeeean bag

Grammar Pet Peeve

Besides about furniture, I haven't had a random rant in a while. We are long overdue.

Today's pet peeve:

The difference between ITS and IT'S

I'll be the first to admit I don't know any grammar rules. I just don't remember being taught them in school. What I did do, though, is read a lot of books. If you read a lot of books, you learn proper grammar without knowing the grammatical rules behind them. It's not rocket science.

ITS is the possessive form of it, applied to nouns. For example, an orange has peel on it. so you could say, the fruit of an orange is hard to separate from its peel.

IT'S just means IT IS. 

So in the above example, if you write, the fruit of an orange is hard to separate from it's peel, you are saying, the fruit of an orange is hard to separate from it is peel.

It is very simple to understand that is wrong. It is also very easy to figure out if you have chosen the wrong one, when if you replace it is for your apostrophe and suddenly your sentence does not make sense.

People who stick most in my mind for not understanding this:

- whoever the Deloitte manager was that used to write the Sky audit committe paper. FFS (wo)man, you are a highly-paid professional addressing a bunch of rich geezers on the board of directors of a FTSE 100 company. Pull yourself together.

- Justin Timberlake. I wonder if he kept writing his lyrics in his N*Sync days as "Its" Gonna Be Me.

Oh no now that's stuck in my head.
(Every little thing I do
Never seems enough for you
You don't wanna lose it again
But I'm not like them
Baby, when you finally,
Get to love somebody
Guess what,
It's gonna be me..)

doo doo doo

Furniture Woes Continue

We bought a little extendable dining table from a trendy furniture store a couple of weeks ago (not Ikea!!!) and I had expected we would walk in, pay, and walk out with it. So we were sad to discover that it takes 2 weeks to get it shipped out from their warehouse in Winnipeg, Manitoba (the armpit of Canada). Fine, we say, resignedly, it is the perfect dimensions for our place so we will wait.

Keith goes to pick it up today and he tells me that it is... MISSING A PART. And when he called the store to say so, they said we have to EMAIL someone to find out what to do next. What is up with the antiquated defective product procedures? Should we also telegram someone and request a tri-carbon-copy defective goods form, which we can then fax to a secretary of the Furniture Factory Foreman?

As I gouge my eyes out with two blunt chopsticks.

Getting ready for Halloween?

There may be only one fancy dress occasion a year in Canada, rather than every other month in all sorts of outlandish themes, but on the one occasion we certainly take it seriously. Check out these pumpkins for Halloween at fancypants grocery store Urban Fare in yuppie Yaletown!

Keith looking at things

Keith looking at the sea

Keith looking at a train

My nephew said "you guys have so many adventures!"

Olive bread

Attempt number two last night at making olive bread, with attempt number one last week literally falling flat because stressed out me neglected the baking powder. So that one was a soggy dense mess. Attempt number two seems to have turned out ok... Think it still coulda used a few more minutes in the oven but edible. Gonna smear butter on it ( butter covers all flaws) and sic it on ppl anyway.

Why it sometimes pays to be an impatient bee-yatch

Yes I know it's more of a fault than a merit. It's my worst trait and mostly ends up being damaging to my relationships (with anybody - husband, friend, family, colleague). But sometimes, just sometimes, it pays to be a bit of an impatient b*tch.

Or maybe it's better to phrase it this way - I expect things to be done right and I have no problems letting you know when you are not meeting that standard. No that still sounds pretty b*tchy.

Anyway! The point is, we had a most lovely meal at Fable, the trendy new(ish) restaurant in Vancouver opened by two Top Chef Canada contestants earlier this year. I'd heard about it from multiple sources and so decided that was where I'd take Keith for his 30th birthday meal.

Obviously, I'd chosen my starter (duck meatball and spaghetti) and main (duck breast - what? I love duck!) well before we even got there, but Keith settled on his chickpea fritters after perusing the menu, and also decided to go with the duck as well.

His fritters arrived and the first warning sign was probably when the server (not the one we'd ordered from) said "Here you go, chickpea fritters to share" and we said - nope they are just for him! but he it didn't seem like any mistake had been made since he did immediately say - "that's right, you've got a duck meatball on the way". So after a minute or so I told Keith he should just start since I'm sure mine was on the way. But even though he paused halfway through his starter and waited for me again he ended up finishing before mine had even arrived. During this interval the waiter did come by and say he didn't know why mine was taking so long and that he would check. But no sign of it. I expect more from any restaurant that attempts to provide an overall dining experience. Like Keith said, "this ain't no Chinese restaurant where they bring the food out to you willy nilly". Over a romantic dinner I would like for us to get to eat together and experience our food at the same time. So I beckoned our waiter over again and said "Is my starter still coming?" with a slight air of disapproval, and when he said "Yes I'm sorry, I'll check on it again" I did not smile widely and say "oh that's fiiiine" cuz it ain't fine! but at least I didn't say what was in my head which was "Yes, I think you'd better".

I must have conveyed the right amount of dissatifsaction because he came back within a minute and although he didn't have my duck meatball, he had something even better - a free starter! weeee! And it was the one that I'd debated ordering instead of mine. It was called "The Best Canned Tuna" and there was no description. What it turned out to be was seared tuna, potatoes, in a bit of sauce (don't know what), and a spoon of sea salt that you were required to grind into the tuna and potato mixture in the jar before spreading the whole concoction on tiny brioche slices. It was YUM! All forgiven. That's customer service!

And if I hadn't complained, we wouldn't have got it, that's the lesson I learned. Of course, What I guess I'll never know is whether my mouthiness ever triggers any wait staff to spit in our food. I hope not!

Overall everything was yummy and I highly recommend.

Attached pics, including Keith's birthday raspberry macaron.

Fraud!!!

Walked by this store and saw some really cutesy things in the window. Stopped and looked at the store name:

What the what? Notting Hill is not in SW1. Do the most basic research before you NAME YOUR STORE?!?!?

Update:

Showed this to Keith and David Duncan Digby Delware Dawson at the bar, which was followed by this exchange in which I prove my superiority as a Londoner, and by extension, superiority as a Brit, over those two amateurs:

M: Can you believe it? Notting Hill's not even in SW1. And it's not even like SW1 is Chelsea or something swanky. It's Victoria and Pimlico!

K: yea! hahahaha... what's the postcode for Notting Hill again?

M: W11?

DDDDD: nah W11 is Ealing!

M: ? Are you sure? Isn't Ealing W5? I'm pretty sure Notting Hill is W11. It's W-something anyway.

DDDDD: I think it's W4

M: No ways DDDDD. W4 is Acton.

DDDDD: Well i'm sure W11 is Ealing, because my old postcode was W11 8RY when I lived in Ealing.

K: you better trust him, May, if it was his own ADDRESS he should know!

M: I guess....

(15 minutes later, I break out my iphone and type W11 8RY into google maps)

M: AHA! you can't get more Notting Hill than that!!!

DDDDD: whaaaa?? oh wait a minute... I swear I lived at W11 8RY. oh wait maybe it was S11 8RY!

M: There's no S11 postcode in London!!!

K: I think there might be... but where in the south is it?

M: uh DUFI (no s because DUFI is the plural of DUFIS and they were both being a DUFIS) there are no S postcodes in London, only SW and SE. How do you guys not know this shiznit?

DDDDD: Oh I know!!! S11 8RY is where I lived in SHEFFIELD (i.e. not in London at all)

Amateurs.

Idiot can't hear accents

It's Keith's birthday. Booked the coolest restaurant in town. Seated by our lovely hostess. Keith asks her where the loo is. The loo, I think, he's slipped up! She won't know what he's on about! So I smile at her and say patronisingly oh he's English. They both look at me. And then Keith says - so is she.

I really need to learn to decipher accents

Holy moly

This just happened outside our flat:

The driver is ok, she got loaded up into the ambulance but she was able to stand and take two steps to the stretcher when they got her out of the flipped car.

I said to Keith immediately, never mind your pedantic opinion on jaywalking and how it's allowed in the UK... no more jaywalking. There be crazy drivers out there.

Broken Stuff

Internet and wifi and TV at home... it's like paradise!

Our nest building is almost complete, but after quite a lot of strife. We have had the worst luck possible in terms of defective goods and things breaking on us, all of which required driving half an hour each way to the stores we went to in order to return things. I think this is the full list of things that broke on us:

1) Keith's Samsung Galaxy S3. This is supposed to be one of the nicest phones out there right? The girl selling it to us even made note when trying to get us to buy extra insurance that without the discount when you join a mobile provider, the cost of buying this phone outright was a lot more than the iPhone and without insurance could be quite onerous. Well, that did NOT stop it from being a piece of crap. Keith rapidly discovered that every application and function on the phone would crash and provide error messages.

2) The biggest nightmare: our Ikea sofabed. It got delivered in 3 full-size 6-ft tall boxes (i.e. too big to get into my little Honda Civic). After a day of building, we got to step 21 of 32 and found that the arm refused to attach itself to the seat and the back, only one or the other. we forced it the first go, leaving it not fully aligned and wobbly. So we had to drive all the way back to Ikea to exchange the arm, thinking that was the problem. Came home with a brand new arm which STILL did not attach to the seat and back simultaneously - the pin holes simply did not align. We have currently left it with the pins connecting the arm to the back left completely out. We await its imminent collapse.

3) Pleather bench - cushion had a rip in it

4) 46" TV - only 6 screws to fit stand to flat screen. And yet, one of them refuses to affix itself. returned, same day, after some tantrums.

5) Floor lamp with side reading light. Bought two. one of the reading lamps, no worky.

We still need to buy a dining table... but I bet whichever one we choose only comes with 3 legs.

Update imminent

Sorry for the lack of updates. Tomorrow we rejoin the 21st century and have wifi at home again (hopefully), which means I will be much more able to upload photos and blather on incessantly about nothing again from the comfort of my own home, not on a tiny device that counts my data usage and threatens to bite me in the butt for it, etc etc etc.

Even my iphone was screaming at me today - something about my iCloud not having been updated and synced in two weeks, and how iCloud syncs automatically when I'm on wifi and my phone is locked. Well sorrrreeeeeee iCloud, sorrrreeeeee.

Progress day 3

Half a couch - screw set was found to be incomplete

Bed frame with the wrong slats so can't put the mattress on

2nd bedroom sofabed is a wonder though , as Keith lounges on it! (yay no more sleeping on foam mattress on floor!)

Back to ikea we go tmw to exchange slats and get screws. And to the furniture store that sold us a bench with a rip on the side. After we already returned a Samsung galaxy 3 that was defective. I guess when u buy a lot of crud, some of it is bound to not work.

Ooh and here's a shot of me drinking a tiny overflowing tumbler of wine at Rodney's Oyster House. Yum oysters

Progress - both fast and slow

Sorry for the lack of updates lately!!

Since Keith arrived last Thursday it has been absolutely manic. We went to the Ahlborns' beautiful wedding of course, and even brought along my bridesmaid bouquet and some of the flowers from centerpieces along to pick up keys to our new rented flat. They are now the only pretty thing in the place and completely surrounded by chaos!!!

That first day the flat looked nice and tranquil and now it looks like some boxes ate it. Added to our UK shipment are a billion boxes from Ike's that we got delivered today.

As u can see, the first day there was the progress of one chair and a lot of boxes to unpack.

On day 2, the progress of the chair is literally and figuratively hidden by the Ikea invasion.

... And I keep wanting to buy more stuff. Next step, 46" TV.

The Tintiweb is magic

It's my niece's 7th birthday next week and she had her birthday parties this weekend (yes, plural). I asked my sister what my niece would want for her birthday, since she gets so many presents and already has so many toys and art supplies (she loves drawing).

My sister asked me to get her some chapter books that are a little more grown up but still have drawings and short chapters that they can read a chapter at a time before bedtime.

Have I said this before? I LOVE BOOKS.

I especially loved books when I was a kid.The library was only a 5 minute walk down the street and I would go there on a regular basis with a big cloth bag and come home lumbered with books. I remember one summer we went to Hong Kong and my carry on for the 12 hour flight was a dozen paperbacks, most of them Baby Sitters Club books. I used to spend my recesses in Grade 4. That probably was taking it too far. I probably should have been getting some fresh air or something. But I didn't. I just wanted to read my books.



So I tried to think of all my favourite books around that age. I ended up getting her the the first out of the Ramona Quimby series, as well as the first of The Mouse and the Motorcycle series. Both are by Beverly Cleary, which I'd completely forgotten! I also wanted to get The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden, but that wasn't stocked by Chapters. The whole section reminded me how old I was, given it was stocked with these fairy ballerina series and a whole shelf of stuff by some guy named Stilton. What is all that stuff?

But what it got me thinking about was one of the books I'd gotten at the school Scholastic bookfairs when I was 10 or so (not quite appropriate for my niece and nephew yet but it goes on the list for future) but all I could remember was the following:

1) it had a brown cover
2) it was about time travel by two kids
3) the time travel had something to do with an old house

That didn't leave a lot to go on, but this afternoon I suddenly remembered:

4) someone was stuck in a birdcage elevator

so I googled "time travel birdcage elevator novel" and the miracle of the internet is that someone had asked a similar question on a forum in goodreads!!! By that random far-fetched search I was able to determine that this book I was after is called Voices After Midnight by Richard Peck!

What did people do back in the day when you couldn't google random crap like this? did they just go crazy wondering and never find out?

Beam me up!

After a beautiful wedding (which led to 10000 hugs handed out by Keith and whoa vomit #2 by me) with lots of crazy dancing, two visits to a brand new baby Paige (who I held for two hours and then got a sore arm, to which my mother expressed some concern over my potential mothering abilities), and just a few nights at the pub which were fun as ever, my London week is over and I am back in Vancouver. Siiiiigh

Thankfully we have a long weekend in Canada as kids prepare themselves to go back to school.

That means the last day of the Pacific National Exhibition, a fair of sorts with performances and, what do you know, exhibits. On the menu, a Star Trek exhibition!!! Of course I was in, as I often express, I am a fan of all things Star related except for Star Wars.

It was mostly pretty cool, with the costumes and a timeline that I have decided I need to have as my living room wallpaper, but the best part was the recreated sets with official photo ops (ka-ching ka-ching)

i can't figure out how to rotate that second photo so just tilt your head sideways.

Ta da!!!!
My conversation with Keith when I emailed him these pictures with just the headers Engage! and Beam me up! went as follows:

K: what the heck? Where were u?
M: Why, on the Enterprise, of course!
K: no but WHERE were u?
M: in SPACE Keith it's the starship Enterprise!
K: grrrrrrrrr!

Please note that is a Tribble that my friend Stef is cradling. But that was the only trivia that she knew more than me due to catching the Tribble episode on rerun in a hotel on a business trip. Hahaha!

Well now that we are on the same topic I might as well show u all my photos from the London Harry Potter studio tour, which I highly recommend because they have taken the care to lay it out with lots of additional info, in clear displays, with extra commentary and insight front the actors!! Love it!!