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May 2nd – May 9th, 2016

Our flight from Vancouver to Glasgow was super cheap. I think it’s because it had a very long stopover in Halifax, which was actually perfect for us because I’d always wanted to take Scott to my old university town. We had enough time to take the bus into town, walk around the waterfront, have lunch with my old thesis supervisors (Kazue and Chris), get candy at the Freak Lunchbox, eat Economy Shoe Shop nachos, climb citadel hill, have a few drinks, and bus back to the airport. Perfect.

We went to Glasgow to visit Scott’s bff Jono and his wife Kirsten. They were awesome hosts. They took us into the Scottish highlands, where we had a wee dram at the Glenturret distillery, haggis neeps and tatties at King’s House Hotel, and took in the scenery in Loch Lomond National Park. It was lovely. Jono also took us around Glasgow itself, where we went into a few museums, ate some really delicious foods, and had a few drinks.

Scott and I went to Edinburgh for a day on our own. The castle was a bit out of our budget so we mostly just walked around looking at stuff and tried to find a restaurant that served homemade Scotch eggs (did not succeed).

Scottish food was something special. Jono made sure I tried everything. Highlights included: the most enormous plate of haggis anyone has ever seen, deep fried halloumi (delicious), macaroni pie (delicious), blood sausage, square sausage (salty!), cold grocery store Scotch eggs. They really do deep fry everything. Nom.

After Scotland we flew to London Stansted, and then took the train for 2 hours for the sole purpose of going to the Jorna Indian Restaurant. If you have not had the pleasure of listening to their amazing theme song, I have uploaded it HERE.

We ordered our food based on the song. Tasty saag aloo, creamy korma, and Peshwari naan. It was OK. TBH the best part of the meal was telling our waiter that we came all the way from Vancouver specifically to go to their restaurant. I think we blew his mind.

The next morning we took the train back to Stansted to fly to France to start our camino!

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Dad, Rosemarie, Scott and I roadtripped to Listowel, to squeeze in some visits with grandma and grandpa, Aunt Joanne and Uncle Terry, and Maggie and new baby first cousin once-removed Violet. It was a quiet visit, because my grandma isn’t feeling well at the moment, but full of good chats. Rosemarie and I decorated grandma’s lawn dolls for Paddyfest.

Then Rosemarie, Scott and I bused to Toronto for more famjam. We had dinner with Auntie Hsi and Auntie Pai and Uncle Norman, and then the next day we had lunch with grandma and grandpa Chi too. Unfortunately grandma is not doing very well, but thank goodness grandpa seemed great. One cool thing is that I am now re-connected with my aunt and cousin who live in Germany and now we’re going to try and visit them while we are in Europe!

We visited the Steamwhistle brewery with Dylan O, and then went on a DIY cider crawl (with an epic ice cream sandwich stop — I had Froot Loop icecream with a chocolate cookie). Scott and I couchsurfed with Zsofi and Dylan D (who are doing awesome things these days!!) and Janine and Tony (so nice to see her again after so long, and to meet her fiance). Thank you for letting us crash with you, it was great.

Scott and Rosemarie flew back to Vancouver to go to the Rugby 7s and I went back to Ottawa with dad. They dressed up in stingray costumes and flags and cheered for Australia and Fiji in Vancouver, and I squeezed in second visits with Natasha, MEP and Paul, more eating, and more Brier curling watching with dad and Kate.

It was sad saying goodbye to dad at the airport. :'(

I imagine we will come back to visit next next summer. Like July 2017ish.

And now I am in Whistler. I got the bad news while I was still in Ottawa that my skeleton sled was broken beyond repair and that I would have to switch to a new sled if I wanted to do these last races. That sucked (and still sucks). But, I did 2 runs from corner 3 on the new sled on Wednesday, and moved back up to the top yesterday. My first run yesterday was HORRIBLE, no control whatsoever, pretty much every corner terrible. I bit my cheek really hard even with the mouth guard. But then Jane Channell :) helped me check my balance point again and turns out I was off by like 2 inches (which is huge). So my second run went better. Still not great at all, but at least better. I actually got a new top speed on the second run (132.1 km/hr), even with a run full of flaws. The ice was FAST last night.

I’ll do two more runs in official training tonight, and then it’s a four heat BC Championship race on Saturday and Sunday. The tentative plan so far is to take Monday off and go back to Vancouver to do some errands, then come back for Tuesday OT and then race in Canadian Champs on Wednesday. Although we shall see how it goes day by day.

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Vancouverites are so lucky when it comes to sushi.

Ask me what my favourite sushi place is and my answer is something like “Cheap sushi? Fancy sushi? Mid-price sushi? Am I with people that like mayo? Do I want to be able to have conversations? Any neighbourhood?” and so on. It is impossible to narrow it down to one.

Sushi Oyama is my favourite mid-priced, mayo heavy, Burnaby sushi joint. Ha.

We’ve been here many times before.

Rainbow roll. Tamago, tuna, salmon, tai, tako, ebi, avocado, mayo. Basically a bit of everything! Very delicious.

Sound trap roll. Cucumber, avocado, eep fried prawn, tuna on top, tempura bits, mayo. Too much mayo in my opinion though, and I am a mayo fan! And weirdly sweet.

We also had yam tempura but it was not very photogenic. Tasted good though.

Sushi Oyama Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

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We were craving something warm after a cold morning of errands and shopping at MEC. I saw the sign for “ROBOT CUT NOODLES” and the decision was made.

This is the robot. I should have taken a video, but basically the robot is holding a big chunk of noodle dough in one hand and its other arm moves back and forth and shaves off little bits of irregularly shaped noodles which the dude is collecting in a basket.

Sichuan pork ribs (?) shaved noodle soup

Beef shaved noodles with sour spicy soup

Both soups were good. The noodles were nice and chewy, the broth flavourful. We ate and slurped and splashed droplets all over the table. It was spicy but not too spicy.

Old Ginger Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

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Way back on Scott’s birthday I brought him to the Downtown Eastside for a surprise dinner at Ask For Luigi’s. We got there just after 5 (they open at 5:30 for dinner) but just missed getting a table in the first seating (they don’t take reservations). But no worries, they take your phone number and text you when the table is ready. So we headed down the street to Alibi Room and had a drink while we waited. PS totally need to go back to Alibi Room sometime, it’s cool!

Anyway Ask for Luigi’s is a teeny tiny Italian restaurant on the edge of Gastown. They have a small menu, a bunch of wine, and cozy atmosphere.

We started with the crispy bucantini and fontina crocchette. The waitress described it as blended up pasta, mixed with cheese, deep fried, in a rich tomato sauce. It was yummy.

Scott ordered the tagliatelle with rabbit ragu, porcini and olives. With tons of parmesan of course. Salty. Very tasty.

I ordered the (whole wheat) pappardelle with wild boar ragu. Plus parmesan. It was nice, a lot like pulled pork. Very generously meaty and very manly.

I ended up liking Scott’s more than mine and he liked mine more, so we switched plates part way through. Which amused me, because I purposely didn’t make Scott change his order (I have a terrible habit of telling him what to get) since it was his birthday, haha.

We both left happy and very full. However, both of us didn’t feel super great that evening or the next day. I wonder if it was because everything was super rich? Maybe our stomachs aren’t used to that much butter.

Ask for Luigi Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato