More Gems - Those Glasses in their Original State!

Tonight I went out with a friend that I have known since we were 10. We went to the same elementary school and high school (and the same university as well because it's not strange to stay in your hometown to attend university). She went on to get a post-grad degree in education and her career is now constantly peppered with blasts from the past - she teaches at the elementary school that we attended (crazy enough!) and often runs into teachers that taught us, whether in elementary school or high school. Tonight she was telling me a few stories of a teacher which taught at our high school and is now a counsellor at her elementary school, and that inspired us to have a look through our old yearbooks (her versions, mine are in a box somewhere in the garage, hopefully intact).

We discovered many funny yearbook comments (and some cheesy graduation quotes, well cheesy on my part, hers were just sarcastic), but the biggest find was my Grade 8 (age 12-13) picture which I am pretty sure is when I wore those pink frame glasses that I found in my closet! Shall we have a look?

OHHHHHH yea. I told you all I was styling. Why on earth am I wearing a hooded shirt underneath a vest? I cannot tell you. What I can tell you was that vest was purple suede, and I must have really liked it because you know ahead of time when picture day is and you would choose your attire carefully. Purple and suede are two of my favourite things. My favourite shoes for years were these purple suede heels with leather straps criss crossing over the top and at the ankle. And I also found these purple suede shoes at Nordstrom Rack down in California but they were unfortunately not in my size. I was despondent as you can see:

Anyways I digress. I also feel the need to end this post with a better picture from my graduating yearbook to make up for all the ugly photos above. My friend said I still look like that, and I was like REALLY? I'm still that cute? And she said No you've still got those cheeks.

Discovering Gems in My Old Bedroom

After two weeks of having an aunt and uncle visit and having them sleep in the larger bedroom downstairs, I have moved back into that bedroom on their departure. This is in fact my old bedroom. It has a tv in it and the internet modem is also here (meaning the best wifi spot in the house). I might never leave.

Upon moving my few possessions into the bedroom again I discovered some old gems that I'd forgotten and left behind.

First, my old Hello Kitty clock:

You may wonder why the two Hello Kitty dolls set into the face of the clock aren't facing outward, well that is because they rotate and a song plays every hour on the hour. That can be annoying in your bedroom. Hence, they have long been deactivated. Mid-spin.

Then, I discovered these old glasses of mine tucked in a drawer in the closet - they are so old the frames don't really fit my face (they might have been from when I was 12)! Plastic pink transclucent frames. Oh man, I was such a stylin' kid.

Comedy.

Richmond Night Market

Went to the night market tonight! Haven't been in at least 3 years - it's an annual market that gets set up over the summer months and opens on weekend evenings. Originally just one row of stalls in an empty parking lot selling mostly junk (I think I bought 2 mechanical pencils from there in its first year), it has evolved to become more of a food market with all sorts of street food, mostly of the Asian (and by Asian I mean South-East Asia/Oriental) variety.

Stef wanted to go tonight so we braved the crowds by going early-ish and being very methodical in our food search - first we went up and down the 3 aisles to fully peruse the offerings before choosing what to use our precious stomach space on. In the end we settled on the following:

Some Chinese dimsum - curry fishballs for Stef (not pictured), pork siu mai for me:

We then moved on to a new experience for me - the Hurricane Potato. Apparently this was introduced last year and this year multiple stalls were copying it. Rightly so, it is genius. The Hurricane Potato is a whole potato sliced thinly into a corkscrew, slid onto a skewer, and then deep-fried. Can't picure it? Not to worry! I have a video, complete with Hurricane Potato man chanting about the merits of his potato throughout:

 It is then dipped into ketchup or mayo or a variety of flavoured powders. They took it to a whole other level this year by sticking a hot dog in the middle of the potato, so of course we had to try that. Stef kept hers simple with ketchup topping and I ordered sour cream and onion flavoured topping on mine (in hindsight, a slight mistake, because it just made the potato taste a bit too much like chips/crisps). This is a winner - I will definitely have it again:

Last but not least, I wanted to try a okonomiyaki (japanese octopus pancake) - potato, cabbage, and octopus pan fried and topped with shaved dried onions, mayo and a special sauce - a thicker and sweeter worcestershire sauce.

All to be washed down with a nice mango drink - mine was mango with tapioca and coconut milk. We queued at least 25 minutes for these bad boys, all the while commenting on the stall's production process and lamenting that we could do it faster and better:

But don't forget, the original intent of the night market was to sell junk products. So of course I had to pay $2 for a comedy eye mask. Look! I have pretty anime eyes!

p.s. did you notice the girl behind hurricane potato man had a fake hurricane potato skewer in her hair? if not go back and look again. also comedy.