Seawall

Last week, Wilby & I biked the Stanley Park seawall. I'm loving these long-ish bike rides. I feel so accomplished afterwards! We made lots of little photo stops to take pictures that I'm going to dump below.








There were A LOT of other bikers/rollerbladers/walkers/runners out too because it was such a gorgeous day.






This was not my idea.... But awwwww yeah. ;)


I even drew out our route for you! It was about 12km in total. We hadn't planned on biking the Coal Harbour part but after we came out of Stanley Park, we just happened to be at Coal Harbour so we thought we might as well just bike to Waterfront and get on the skytrain there instead of getting on a bus to go to Burrard THEN get on the train.


There were SOOO many beautiful views along the way.




And so many quirky momuments & structures I've never seen in Vancouver before. Like this random tree on a rock! I'm sure there's a proper name for it...




This is the Lost Lagoon. Spooky name but a gorgeous, totally not scary place. In the daytime, anyway.

This Is Real

Thank you for all your nice comments on my last post. :) I guess I've just been really caught up in a life that's going too fast. So many things have been happening and I'm constantly running around doing one thing after another without having a quiet moment to myself to just observe everything around me and enjoy the beauty of my surroundings. I should also probably try not to take this blogging thing so seriously. This is supposed to be fun, right? And you guys make it just that!

Soooo, here's some brekkiefast!



Pouring agave while taking a picture lying on the floor put me in the most awkward position ever. This was just simple oats with half a gala apple cooked in at the end so that it released it's sugars and got all soft and fragrant. I love doing that now! It makes the apple bits taste so good. Plus some cinnamon, the rest of the apple, natural peanut butter, coconut, and agave. I didn't really need the agave because it was already sweet enough but it was just for photographic purposes haha. Do you ever do that? Add extra food or seasonings in that you don't really need just to make the dish look nicer when photographed?

Something more exciting today is the Versatile Blogger Award that Elaine passed on to me! Thank youuu again!

So now I'm supposed to share 7 things about myself.. Wow, this is hard and I haven't even started yet.

#1: I'm a huge Harry Potter fan and have been since I was in grade 3. I've read all the books several times each and went to get Half-Blood Prince at its midnight release. Oh, and I cried every day for 2 weeks after Sirius died in the book.

#2: I'm one of those people who walk into a clothing store and touch every single thing on the racks as I walk by it.

#3: I have the most annoying, loud, high-pitched hyena laugh you will probably ever hear. That's something you wouldn't know about me through this blog! Ha hahahahahAH!

#4: I'm deathly afraid of horror movies, black holes, and the girl from The Ring.

#5: I can turn myself into a human basket, do the splits, turn my hand around 360 degrees while placed palm down on a flat surface, hyperextend my elbows, wrap my leg behind my neck, annnnnd see my butt through my legs when I bend forwards far enough. How's that for a freak show?

#6: I'm currently pursuing a degree in biology but still undecided about my area of specialization. I'm thinking marine biology, developmental biology, or more recently, I've taken an interest in nutrition (although I think that's more kinesiology/health science? than biology).

#7: My two front teeth are fake. Surprise! I broke my real ones in half when I fainted and hit my face on a bench almost a year ago. I had to get them root canal-ed, cut down, and encased in porcelain replacements. That's why they look a bit funny sometimes when the light hits them at a certain angle.

And 15 bloggers that I'm giving this award to:

Now get attt it, all of you! :D

Simple Joys

Last week, I went to Amy's dinner at Ebisu before she went back to LA. The veggie options on the menu was pretty disappointing but that was expected. I find it rare for Japanese restaurants to have a good selection of meatless dishes that aren't lightweight. Maybe I'm just not going to the right ones! I only really had three options so I went with the vegetable yakisoba and one of the two veggie rolls.


The yakisoba turned out very yummy!




Tasty!




They're all crossword obsessed. I've only finished one entire crossword in my life and I'm not even sure if I got it right because I didn't check it in the next day's paper.



We stayed there for quite a while and then while everyone went to watch the meteor shower, I had plans to watch it with Wilby.

We watched this same shower last year on the same lawn chair in his driveway. This year's Perseids didn't impress as much as last year's! We saw 22 meteors last year, while only about 3 this year. S'okay! It's all about the experience. I remember a few years ago when I first "discovered" the wonder that is our night sky and I had this phase where I had epiphany after epiphany about how amazing our universe is. I stayed up until morning most nights and would go out on my porch wrapped in a blanket and just stare. I cried seeing my first meteor fall. I tried to train myself to remember the names and positions of constellations & nebulae. I had a notebook that I would draw that night's sky in and record the exact positions of everything and the exact times I saw something unusual. I watched the ISS circle the skies until I couldn't see it anymore. I wanted to be an astronaut. With serious plans!

How much has changed since then. I'm surprised that I was so passionate about it. I spent so much of my time dedicated to exploring & learning about it even though there was no material outcome to be gained. I kinda really miss that. I miss being so inspired with something that I had learned myself. Not because it was something that I saw on the internet somewhere that everyone else was into. I was truly inspired by it for what it was. I miss loving so many things at once. Geez, I was bursting with love! I felt so much when I saw the colours of the sky in a sunset or when I heard the first bird chirp in the morning after an all-nighter or when sharp, cold winter air hit my lungs. I could cry over those things!

Whereas, now, I'm just trying to get through each day focusing on tiny, unimportant things that only involve myself. I'm living for weekends. Everything I do needs to have an outcome and that outcome should preferably benefit me. I don't know where my love for the bigger picture went. I also don't know why I'm saying all this. Wow, I really didn't mean to. I started by talking about a meteor shower.

That brings me to something else I had on my mind today. I started this blog as a means of sharing photos of little, beautiful things that inspire me. I never intended it to be a food blog or even a diary sort of blog where I keep chronological records of my days. So... now what I'm saying is that I really don't know what this blog is about. I'm just a really confused person. And I'm surprised you're still reading this.

This may have been the most I've ever spoken on this blog. Like, really speak. Mostly it's just some nice comments about a pleasant experience I had. Most of the time I make things sound more positive than they really were. Like that yakisoba I had at Ebisu? It was really oily and the hostesses were wannabe-skanky. At least the servers weren't because I didn't really want misplaced fake eyelashes in my food. ..Again, I don't know what's with me today. I'm going to stop typing riiiiiiggght

now.

Why do you dance?

Sometime last week, I had this

(green monster with an apple, a peach, blueberries, spinach, cashews, coconut, flaxseed, honey, and rolled oats to thicken)

made these





(honey&agave-prune-oatmeal cookies)

and ate this





(roasted carrot, sweet potato, broccoli, red pepper, zucchini with quinoa & garlic hummus)

Yesterday, I watched Step Up 3D and it was awwwesome. But way too much 3D! It made everything look so fake. I'm so inspired to dance again. I've been urgently looking for ways to do so without shelling out hundreds that I don't have on classes. I miss it so much every muscle in my body is yearning to move in those ways again. AaaaaAah! It's all I want to do at this moment. But what I don't want to do at this moment is study for my physics exam.

New Day

Friday, Wilby & I biked about 9km there & back to New Brighton Park. Those hills were a pain but it buuuurned so good. For dinner, we went to try this restaurant called The New Bohemiam, as per suggestion of Amy. It was wonderful! This is another restaurant to add to my tried & true restaurants list.


I love their menu. It's not a vegetarian or vegan restaurant but they had a generous selection of veg-friendly dishes.


To start, we had their breads & spreads. Warm flatbreads & foccacia with this spicy spread that I forgot the name of, this spread with olives, and pesto. I'm not a fan of olives at all but I think that one was my favourite out of the three.


Then I had the quinoa salad! I've seriously never seen quinoa on a menu anywhere so of course I had to order that to compare it with the quinoa I make at home. I forget what was in it exactly but I know there was goat cheese, some kind of yellow fruit, olive oil, onions, green beans, and crunchy-yum walnuts.




Wilby had their nachos. It was like a party on a platter! He couldn't even finish it all.


And then dessert! That's the most important part, right? We like to look at the dessert menu first the moment we sit down before we even decide what we're going to have for dinner. I had the summer berry napoleon. And Wilby had a triple chocolate amazing cake thing. It was a chocolate-coma on a plate. Sooo, soo good.

Make It Mine

Two days ago,







Green Monster enjoyed with carrot zucchini cake with a lot of almond butter.



Then I went to Wilby's house to make lunch together. He had this awesome idea of finding a dish from Cactus Club Cafe's online menu and using the description of it to recreate it ourselves! We recreated their Raincoast Greens salad. This is their description of it: "raincoast greens - grilled chicken, avocado, tomato, feta, egg, pecans, seasonal berries, lemon-thyme vinaigrette". We replaced the chicken with potato croquettes and sort of improvised the dressing.


My tater croquettes before they went in the pan. We had a competition to see who made the better croquettes. I think I won. :)





It turned out deeeelicious! I wish I could say I had that whole dish to my myself! I really want to do this again sometime. There's a plethora of food inspiration in restaurant menus for people like me lacking in meal creativity as of late!

Over My Head

I'm so majorly backlogged with photos to edit. I don't even remember when I ate these things because the dates on my folders or camera is messed up.





All I remember from this day was this amazing garlic hummus I slathered on in this wrap. Oh my so good. It makes everything taste like heaven. But at $4 for a little tub that I could finish in two days (one if I really wanted to), I've decided it'd be a better idea to make my own. I'm excitedddd!

Oh and in the whole wheat wrap was red bell pepper, baby spinach, zucchini, salsa, parmesan, and garlic hummus, of course. It wasn't until I was halfway through eating it that I realized I forgot to put in my roasted broccoli so I just ate it afterwards with some newly made almond butter! I made Wilby a jar of it too!



That's all. I have no idea where my dinner went.

Going Green

Last night I made some carrot zucchini bread before I went to bed. It turned out very... VERY dense & moist. Too dense & moist. It feels like I'm eating pudding. I think I used too much zucchini because I got carried away with the cheese grater. But it's still good! And it's a million times better than my failed banana bread from last week. And I really like the recipe!



And for lunch today, I had the most exciting thing I've eaten this week. I was on gorgeous Angela's blog last night and came across her Green Monster Movement site. So that's what Green Monsters are! I had no idea she was the one behind it. I've been seeing Green Monsters on people's blogs for ages and I would scroll over it in disgust because I thought it just looked so gross and must taste so gross! BUT after reading about it, and having bought some fresh spinach yesterday, I decided to go for it today to see what it was all about.



I used:
1 cup baby spinach
1 cup milk
1 tbsp ground flaxseeds
1 banana
1/2 cup blueberries
a drizzle of honey

I didn't even use ice because I didn't make any. And holy smokes. It was so good! It came out so thick and luscious. After it settled for a few seconds in my bowl, it thickened to a custard-like texture and I could eat it like pudding with a spoon! I was blown away by how something so ugly could be so good for you (and taste the part too)! I was like a happy little kid slurping up a milkshake. Except it's really packed full of antioxidants and yummy veggies & fruit! And it was SO quick too. I felt like I literally just whipped it up in 3 minutes tops. Faster than any other lunch I could make. I liked this so much, I went out and bought more spinach so I can be stocked up for more green monsters this week. Lovvveee it!

Kokoro


"Carrot cake" oats! With a banana, chopped dates, and coconut. Eating veggies sweet! I'm starting to love oatmeal. Normal, (microwave) cooked oats. I can't seem to get overnight oats to the right texture.. but that might be because I use rolled oats. The next morning they still taste raw. Well, I mean, they actually are raw but I just don't like the taste of it.



Saturday
Wilby & I went to the Powell Street Festival. It's basically a Japanese-Canadian festival with a line up of Japanese music, dance, & martial arts showcases, yummy food, Japanese clothing, art, & craft vendors, and lots of people in traditional Japanese clothing.


GORGEOUSSSS kimonos.






There were so many cute Japanese crafts. I LOVE Japanese fabric. I wanted to buy everything there!





On the other hand, my dinners lately have been much less exciting and tasty as my breakfasts. These are just random things (or everything) from my fridge thrown together. I'm seriously lacking dinner inspiration.

About


Hi, I'm Gail. I'm a 20 year old student in Vancouver, BC. I dance and I take photographs. I have a wishbone where my backbone ought to be.

This is a place for experiments and mistakes and inconsistency and trying to find out who I am and what I want to do. This blog is a collection of bad pictures, great pictures, good luck, real food, run-on sentences, happiness, inspiration, beautiful things, and moments in time.

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