Pleasure Trip
This weekend was a pamper-me weekend. Having turned my Canadian tax return into the tax office, there's nothing else really pressing going on, and I'm feeling a lot better lately, so I engaged a guilt free spree of wandering around town and following my impulses, which included:
A shawarma sandwich at Falafel House — when the hummus meets that hot sauce, man it's good.
A haircut. I think my haircut lady actually called me ahead of someone who got there before I did — I didn't have a chance to look back to see if the other person was irked or not. She doesn't have to ask how I want it anymore, and takes some liberties with my hair to good effect. She also asked me if I had a girlfriend. "You've come here five months. If you have a girlfriend, she needs a haircut by now, too." I chuckled to think of the unkempt beast of a woman she must think I've been keeping at home.
Some belt shopping, unsuccessful. I'm not exactly a belt expert, but I do know belts are measured by length, and you're supposed to get a belt about 4 inches larger than your waist size. That being the case, I'm utterly mystified at why three different places had almost nothing left in stock (in black leather belts anyway) that weren't 28s and 30s. 28?!? They don't even make size 24 pants for men (or not that any stores carry), so why should they carry a size 28 belt? Just in case things have changed and they're sized by exact waist size these days, I tried a few on, but the traditional wisdom still applies. It's not the end of the world, but maybe it was something to put the rest of the weekend in perspective.
A sushi snack at Sushi Bento Express. $10 for a plate of BC wild sockeye salmon sashimi and BC albacore tuna sashimi. It doesn't get much better than that. Oh, they also had a poster up (I'd noticed this at the Vogue a while earlier, too) that Puffy AmiYumi are coming to town next week. Yeah they're silly Japanese girl pop idols, but their music is fun, and it oculd be a fun show. Unfortunately, I'm pretty convinced that any of my friends at work I try to entice into coming along will either laugh at me, or ask me how the therapy's going. But I'll probably end up asking anyway.
A green tea and red bean slush at Bubblemania, in the Robson Public Market. I hadn't had one of these since I was in Beijing. They were also selling "love mittens", which, despite their sex-toy sounding name, are actually one of those bubblegum-sweet Japanese inventions for a couple who want to hold hands in the cold. I couldn't find a link to the Japanese version, but here's someone who makes something similar.
Sitting on a bench on English Bay Beach reading a book for a while.
A wonderful, relaxing bubblebath at home.
A wonderful, relaxing Sunday morning sleep, and for once the cat didn't have me out of bed at 7am telling me to make his food dish even more full or take a shower or look out the window at some other cat-urgent but non-Sunday-morning-urgent activity, so I was able to really enjoy it.
A wonderful, relaxing . . . uh, a tasty breakfast/lunch at the Noodle Express on Thurlow. One of the waitresses there was one of the first people here whose Chinese I could understand nearly perfectly. Maybe it's a dialect thing? Granted, most of the conversation involved trying to figure out why the light would not turn on, and then figuring out how to turn on the music, so maybe it was also a matter of vocabulary. Regardless, it made me happy.
Looking at the clearance snowboards at Comor.
A latte on the front porch of Caffe Artigiano (no good weekend could be without it).
A cassis chocolate mousse cake at Sen5es. Their desserts always look so good, and I decided today was the day to do it. I wasn't disappointed. I was looking at one of their chocolate assortment boxes thinking of who I could surprise with it, but most of the good options would require putting it in a mailbox. If anybody would like a box of some of the best chocolate around, so so I can see the smile on your face, let me know. Random? Yes. Fun? Sure. ("Hi, I don't know you, but I bought these especially for you anyway. . . .") I'd get some for myself, but, well, too much sugar and all that. . . . (The cake didn't count.)
All that wrapped up by a quick trip to the grocery store for some milk and a canned food treat for the cat (for letting me sleep in), a glass of wine, and the Sideways movie — makes me almost feel ready to get back to work tomorrow. I mean, really, what else is there to do?
All that wrapped up by a quick trip to the grocery store for some milk and a canned food treat for the cat (for letting me sleep in), a glass of wine, and the Sideways movie — makes me almost feel ready to get back to work tomorrow. I mean, really, what else is there to do?