Vancouver
We got back on Monday morning (6.30am), and while Jeff headed straight to bed when we got home, I showered and got dressed and headed to school to TA.
But I'm starting at the end.
Last Wednesday
4am in the morning, we got up, got dressed, got out of the house to walk half a city-block down the street in 0°c before I realised I didn't have my cellphone on me. Ran back to the apartment and stuck my hand in my pocket only to realise I'd taken my office keys with me instead of my house keys. Ran back up the street to Jeff, who then had to walk me back, since we were going to miss our scheduled bus (that goes straight to the airport). Ran up, got my house keys, got my phone, left my office keys. Walked back up the street and 3 city blocks to Bloor, where we had to catch the next bus, which wouldn't go to the airport but went only halfway, and we were dumped out at the edges of the city to wait for the airport bus.
We still got to the airport with plenty of time - flying domestic is simple as pie, really. I read some Martian Chronicles (R Bradbury) and slept some on the plane while Jeff played Star Ocean and marked assignments. Karen and Andy were waiting for us with umbrellas when we arrived. Good stuff.
On the way to their place, we had brunch at this lovely egg place. I don't remember the name of it. But it was good. Mmm, eggs benny. [eta: Paul's Place Omelettery, 2211 Granville St.]
After we dumped our bags and rested up a little, we headed out to Granville Island to poke around a little. Lovely place. The condos along the bay on the south side of the downtown area reminded me of Hong Kong and Macao. After some munchies, we headed to a Chinese restaurant for some xiao long bao, and then did some groceries and went back. We mooched about while Karen made shepherd's pie for dinner, and had an easy, relaxed evening.
Thursday
Andy went to work, and the three of us headed to Chinatown (Hastings/Main) for an incredibly comforting Cantonese lunch at Hon's (I had the liver and kidney congee with pei dan and yau zha gwai). We wandered about, then headed to T&T, where Karen bought some groceries. We poked around downtown for a bit (regular stuff, with a side of window-shopping, but nobody was that interested), then headed back.
In the early evening, Jeff accompanied me to UBC for the conference registration and reception. Regular obligatory show-your-face stuff. Juice and soft drinks were free, but alcohol cost $3 each, and the finger-food were meh. Met up with a whole bunch of people, but ultimately just way too much forced pleasantries - usually better when people are slightly drunk, but I didn't want to pay for alcohol. Eventually JM (whom I'd met just once before, about 3 years ago), who had no problems with buying his drinks, and who'd had about 5 glasses of wine, suggested we blow the joint and go to his apartment, cook dinner, and have some drinks. Bored out of our skulls, we agreed, and it turned out to be quite the fantastic time.
JM had a weird assortment of food but between the three of us, we managed to whip up some sort of hybrid fried rice (with beans, cranberries, and tuna, among other odd ingredients) that was surprisingly good. He even had absinthe - and served it to us French-style (according to him), and taught us how to make a burnt martini (ice-cold gin + whatever single-malt scotch you have lying around that you don't like neat). Great stuff. He turned us out at 10, though, because he had to go get another conference delegate from the airport. We left him with only 2 beers, heh.
Friday
Crawled out of bed while it was still dark to catch the bus to UBC for conference day 1. Ok stuff. Met up with Karen later and hung out at her office, then we met up with Jeff and Andy, and went for Singapore-Malaysian food at Tropika with JM and Mark (who had spent some time doing research in Singapore and Indonesia, respectively). Such good food. The sambal was incredible.
Saturday
Crawled out of bed, etc; had my presentation after lunch on a Singapore panel that turned out to be surprisingly very good. I was impressed, and I think JM was very pleased with his organisational success.
That evening it rained so heavily there were rivers running down some of the roads, and some intersections were flooded (what is this? Saigon? Rangoon?). When I got back to Karen's, we decided to go for sushi nearby. While we were deliberating over the menu, a pipe in the restaurant wall burst, and we were flooded out. We decided to head for another sushi joint a couple blocks down the street, but halfway there started getting worried about the possibility of a flooding situation in Karen's house. Andy was sent to get take-out from the other sushi restaurant, but Jeff had forgotten to bring the keys, so we had to wait for Andy, who brought back the menu.
Karen's entrance hall had flooded.
Anyway, after the cleaning up, we had sushi delivered, and everybody snuck off to bed, exhausted.
Sunday
Headed out to Richmond for possibly the best dim sum I've ever had. Best char siew pau and the freshest egg tarts (I burnt my tongue on them!), and just incredible siew mai (topped with scallop!). Overdose of fresh, meaty prawns. mmmm. I don't remember the name of this place. [eta: Empire Seafood Restaurant, 7997 Westminster Hwy, Richmond]
Walked around Richmond, taking in all the HK-Chinese sights, malls, supermarkets. So classic.
We had dinner at Trattoria - once again, really good food, and surprisingly very affordable for such a chi-chi-looking place. Jeff and I were a little bit worried when we arrived, but most of the pasta mains were $11-$15. We had complimentary kobe meatball appetizers and really good foccacia to start with. Jeff and I shared the pasta platter, which gave us a portion of kobe-beef lasagne, spaghetti with kobe meatballs, penne pomodoro, and gnocchi pesto. Oh SO GOOD.
We rolled off to the airport after that, full and happy. We met up with Priya (UBC postdoc) and had a drink with her there (we were bringing some stuff back to Toronto for her), and then boarded the plane for our too-short red-eye back to Toronto. Too short because I was trying to get some sleep, but it was the briefest night ever - taking off at 11pm and arriving at 6.30am after 4 hours.
We had a really amazing time there, and love Vancouver a lot... except that it just rains way too much. I was getting SAD from all the grey. I'm also now down with the ickiest cold I caught somewhere there. But many, many thanks to Karen and Andy for their excellent hosting. :) It was good to see them again, and Jeff finally got to meet Andy. :) :)
But I'm starting at the end.
Last Wednesday
4am in the morning, we got up, got dressed, got out of the house to walk half a city-block down the street in 0°c before I realised I didn't have my cellphone on me. Ran back to the apartment and stuck my hand in my pocket only to realise I'd taken my office keys with me instead of my house keys. Ran back up the street to Jeff, who then had to walk me back, since we were going to miss our scheduled bus (that goes straight to the airport). Ran up, got my house keys, got my phone, left my office keys. Walked back up the street and 3 city blocks to Bloor, where we had to catch the next bus, which wouldn't go to the airport but went only halfway, and we were dumped out at the edges of the city to wait for the airport bus.
We still got to the airport with plenty of time - flying domestic is simple as pie, really. I read some Martian Chronicles (R Bradbury) and slept some on the plane while Jeff played Star Ocean and marked assignments. Karen and Andy were waiting for us with umbrellas when we arrived. Good stuff.
On the way to their place, we had brunch at this lovely egg place. I don't remember the name of it. But it was good. Mmm, eggs benny. [eta: Paul's Place Omelettery, 2211 Granville St.]
After we dumped our bags and rested up a little, we headed out to Granville Island to poke around a little. Lovely place. The condos along the bay on the south side of the downtown area reminded me of Hong Kong and Macao. After some munchies, we headed to a Chinese restaurant for some xiao long bao, and then did some groceries and went back. We mooched about while Karen made shepherd's pie for dinner, and had an easy, relaxed evening.
Thursday
Andy went to work, and the three of us headed to Chinatown (Hastings/Main) for an incredibly comforting Cantonese lunch at Hon's (I had the liver and kidney congee with pei dan and yau zha gwai). We wandered about, then headed to T&T, where Karen bought some groceries. We poked around downtown for a bit (regular stuff, with a side of window-shopping, but nobody was that interested), then headed back.
In the early evening, Jeff accompanied me to UBC for the conference registration and reception. Regular obligatory show-your-face stuff. Juice and soft drinks were free, but alcohol cost $3 each, and the finger-food were meh. Met up with a whole bunch of people, but ultimately just way too much forced pleasantries - usually better when people are slightly drunk, but I didn't want to pay for alcohol. Eventually JM (whom I'd met just once before, about 3 years ago), who had no problems with buying his drinks, and who'd had about 5 glasses of wine, suggested we blow the joint and go to his apartment, cook dinner, and have some drinks. Bored out of our skulls, we agreed, and it turned out to be quite the fantastic time.
JM had a weird assortment of food but between the three of us, we managed to whip up some sort of hybrid fried rice (with beans, cranberries, and tuna, among other odd ingredients) that was surprisingly good. He even had absinthe - and served it to us French-style (according to him), and taught us how to make a burnt martini (ice-cold gin + whatever single-malt scotch you have lying around that you don't like neat). Great stuff. He turned us out at 10, though, because he had to go get another conference delegate from the airport. We left him with only 2 beers, heh.
Friday
Crawled out of bed while it was still dark to catch the bus to UBC for conference day 1. Ok stuff. Met up with Karen later and hung out at her office, then we met up with Jeff and Andy, and went for Singapore-Malaysian food at Tropika with JM and Mark (who had spent some time doing research in Singapore and Indonesia, respectively). Such good food. The sambal was incredible.
Saturday
Crawled out of bed, etc; had my presentation after lunch on a Singapore panel that turned out to be surprisingly very good. I was impressed, and I think JM was very pleased with his organisational success.
That evening it rained so heavily there were rivers running down some of the roads, and some intersections were flooded (what is this? Saigon? Rangoon?). When I got back to Karen's, we decided to go for sushi nearby. While we were deliberating over the menu, a pipe in the restaurant wall burst, and we were flooded out. We decided to head for another sushi joint a couple blocks down the street, but halfway there started getting worried about the possibility of a flooding situation in Karen's house. Andy was sent to get take-out from the other sushi restaurant, but Jeff had forgotten to bring the keys, so we had to wait for Andy, who brought back the menu.
Karen's entrance hall had flooded.
Anyway, after the cleaning up, we had sushi delivered, and everybody snuck off to bed, exhausted.
Sunday
Headed out to Richmond for possibly the best dim sum I've ever had. Best char siew pau and the freshest egg tarts (I burnt my tongue on them!), and just incredible siew mai (topped with scallop!). Overdose of fresh, meaty prawns. mmmm. I don't remember the name of this place. [eta: Empire Seafood Restaurant, 7997 Westminster Hwy, Richmond]
Walked around Richmond, taking in all the HK-Chinese sights, malls, supermarkets. So classic.
We had dinner at Trattoria - once again, really good food, and surprisingly very affordable for such a chi-chi-looking place. Jeff and I were a little bit worried when we arrived, but most of the pasta mains were $11-$15. We had complimentary kobe meatball appetizers and really good foccacia to start with. Jeff and I shared the pasta platter, which gave us a portion of kobe-beef lasagne, spaghetti with kobe meatballs, penne pomodoro, and gnocchi pesto. Oh SO GOOD.
We rolled off to the airport after that, full and happy. We met up with Priya (UBC postdoc) and had a drink with her there (we were bringing some stuff back to Toronto for her), and then boarded the plane for our too-short red-eye back to Toronto. Too short because I was trying to get some sleep, but it was the briefest night ever - taking off at 11pm and arriving at 6.30am after 4 hours.
We had a really amazing time there, and love Vancouver a lot... except that it just rains way too much. I was getting SAD from all the grey. I'm also now down with the ickiest cold I caught somewhere there. But many, many thanks to Karen and Andy for their excellent hosting. :) It was good to see them again, and Jeff finally got to meet Andy. :) :)