Fat Teas

I was reading the Vancouver Sun the other day and they had an article that said scientists have discovered that milk may negate the slimming effects of drinking tea.

Boo-hoo. This is a sad day for all those English teas (like Earl Greys & English Breakfast) because those teas definitely SUCK without milk (or copious amounts of sugar, I don't need a degree in nutrition to tell you "sugar" spells "spare tires").

I guess this article comes to no surprise to all those people who love their morning mistos from starbucks because I've tried that drink before and it's like a tenth brewing of a regular cup of Earl Grey plus half the sugar and milk that goes into a slice of cake. Although that might sound like a positive review (coming from me), it's actually not. That tea is a surprising cup of disappointment and poor taste (sorry, misto fans, I have to stay true to my buds... taste-buds). 

Anyway, just thought you all should know my feelings towards certain teas because that's what's important on thursdays (not radioactive rain from Japan, not the strange police database that records wrong info on citizens).

 This is another day to raise my cup of Chinese teas (my mom being awesome that she is, has brought lots of Pu-erh, which looks like "poo" in cake form... see below)

How can I not love this stuff?

Have a Hobbit Monday!

Hobbit spotting number... I'm not sure.

I've spotted people previously who remind me of hobbits but I didn't have a blog back then to record my observations and findings.

The things you see on a bus. Most days, the strangest thing I see on transit is a can collector (which, if you know Vancouver, isn't all that strange a sight at all). But today was different. Today was my day. Yes, my day to spot a hobbit.

He had very round cheeks (a bit rosy, not from running or any exersion because he was sitting down and reading). He had a frilly cap of red hair (everyone knows that not all hobbits have red hair, but all red hair people are hobbits... I might be very wrong here). He had fat little fingers that wrapped around his novel. And also, the fattest thighs to ever try to squeeze into those small bus seats we have.

It was awesome! I wish I had a camera with me just show I could show you what I mean. And I wish I also had the balls to take out a camera to take a picture of this guy (I'd tell him it was for my blog. No, not a fashion blog, but one about hobbits).

Anyway, this is a great start to the week. If I see any other magical creatures, I'll keep y'all posted.

Have a Hobbit Monday :D

Best Bagels

Yesterday was lovely unlike today (but I admit that today's rainy weather is definitely much less intimidating as it provides ample excuse for an unproductive monday). So it was necessary that I go out of doors to get myself a good (free) dosage of vitamin D.

It's been a long time since I've had bagels, and my boyfriend (being the foodie that he is) decided we should go to a bagel shop to get ourselves some snobbishly good bagels. We decided to go to Seigel's. It was a small little store with nothing but bagels.

My boyfriend, who has no training in weight watchers or other forms of portion control diet, decided that we should get a dozen bagels so that we can munch on them during our walk and still have some leftover for the next day.

A few blocks and Starbuck's Tazo Earl Greys (which is disappointing as always) we had finished about half the bagels.

That's right. We finished six deliciously addictive bagels with salmon and garlic cream cheese. Justifiably we had quite the long walk since we went from Granville & Broadway down to the seawall, then went all the way along the seawall, then back up to Alma & Broadway and walked the whole way back to Granville.

By the time we got back home, we were all bageled out. So we had two more and now our "dozen bagel bag" looks hopelessly sad on the counter.

I guess this means we should finish these last four today.

Anyway, I don't know what my point is. I think I am just trying to give you a warning about bagels and how they can foil any dietary plans (especially ones that try to keep your carbs down) because they are hopelessly addictive (especially if you get them from Seigel's and not the supermarket).

I'm just going to roll over and eat these other bagels before I start my day. Happy Monday, everyone.

No Apologies. No Cells for Lend

Today when I was walking my dog, I was approached by a guy in his late teens/early twenties asking to borrow my phone.

As I was approaching, he looks kind of shady already but that could just be because he's dressed in baggy jeans and a sweatshirt and not very professional.

In any case. I didn't have my phone so my automatic answer was. Sorry dude, walking the dog here and don't have my phone. He looked a bit annoyed and so I suggested maybe he borrow the phone from the local community police (because they are just around the corner and they have phones to use for free).

He immediately walked faster away and was like mumbling something so I asked him what he said (I felt confrontational anyway). He repeated that he's waiting for a friend and needs to call him.

I walked away. Dog was walked and when I got home I remember that my friend had her new phone stolen months ago when she lent it to a young guy who needed to "call his mom" but had instead ran off with it. I became kind of suspicious that the guy waiting for his friend could remember his phone number (who in the world these days remember their friend's phone number anyway? I know I sure don't. Also, it was suspicious that he didn't use a pay phone or borrow one from the coffee shop that was a block away.

So I searched the internet and I found that there are many scams people do with borrowed cell phones (you can check it out here). I guess that means that next time someone wants to borrow my phone, I'll have to say no, even if it means that I've just been talking on it and they see that I have one. Because I don't care if they run away with my crappy old phone, I just don't want to get signed up to some spam that will waste all my airtime!

Too bad you just can't trust people these days. Oh well, I guess the thing to take away here is that you should never forget to bring your phone with you because the chances that people will risk lending you a phone should be close to zero, which is understandable I guess.

Earthquake in Japan Shaking Our Reality

The huge earthquake that happened in Japan this week is a reminder to Vancouverites to be prepared.

I for one am not prepared. I don't have dried goods or water to last me the first 3 days of surviving should I become trapped. And I don't have a first aid kit (i'm not sure if I even remember how to use it in any way that would be useful during a natural disaster).

Then again, I'm kinda putting that off because I figure that if the big one really hits, I won't make it anyway.

That's because I haven't heard anything about Vancouver being really conscious about earthquake proofing our buildings. I live in a concrete condo and this is scary because I don't think this building is earthquake proof. And I know that in an earthquake these buildings will come tumbling down.

So now I ask, how am I going to prepare myself then? There's no way I can change my building's structure. Should I move away? But of course all those options need lots of money... lots and lots of money. So I guess when an earthquake comes, my first thing to do is just to try to get the hell out because if I fall, I'm sure it's a long way down.

How does everyone else feel about this?

A Spoiler Alert!

This post is just going to be a hate-on for this fictional family in the movie 28 Weeks Later. I recently re-watched this sequel to 28 Days Later, to dilute the effects of a horrible movie with Nicolas cage (that's not even worth mentioning here on my blog).

Anyway, you should stop reading here if you plan on watching 28 Weeks Later (which I recommend you watch if you like your zombies real scary) because this isn't really a review at all, but more like a rant on a stupid fictional family because I just hated them in the movie (yes, I've used the word hate quite a few times now and I know it ain't zen).

So this movie starts out with a couple (husband & wife) trying to survive in a farm house and they're trapped in there with other strangers who have come together to hide from what you soon find out are zombies from a strange and incurable "rage virus" (or as I call it, Zombie flu). So everyone is having dinner and having a nice little argument about whether or not this jerk should keep telling this stupid girl that her boyfriend is already dead because he ventured out a few days ago. He was a real jerk, so I'm glad he dies. But before it gets to that, there's the man and the woman (the couple) and they seem all loving and shit, but the woman has the kind of personality that makes me wonder how the hell she survived to get to this barn because as soon as she hears banging on the door, she wants to go get it. Plus, now there's a child begging for them to open up. Of course, the rest of the gang just sit there and stop offering any input, and the guy is like, no, let's not let the zombie flu in. But of course, he caves because how else are they going to get into shit in a zombie outbreak but to open up to take strangers in. Needless to say, their stupid action got everyone else killed, and it shows that the man leaves his wife screaming for help in the attic of the barn house as he's running away all chicken shit.

Ugh. I didn't like the wife so it wasn't a great loss to me when I watched this, but now I definitely don't like the guy either, but part of me was like, it's OK. He might die. So the story now follows that this man's children were deported and for some reason (unknown) and USA decides they will be the boss of everyone and sends these deportees back to Britain (because you know, THAT sounds safe to do so soon after a mysterious outbreak of Zombie flu). And with the US Army and the way they are always depicted in these zombie movies, they screwed this up big time (or there'd be no movie).

Anyway, the man's kids get out of the detainment area because they're punks (hating them already). And they see their zombie mom in their old house (that's just great *eyeroll*). And the weird thing is that she isnt' a zombie yet but of course she's not communicating because of the shock I guess, so the army lifts everyone back to the detainment area but under quarantine. That just doesn't seem like a smart thing to do, so the whole time I'm like "wtf people, wtf". Of course this family doesn't stop bad shit from happening yet, because the dad has access magically since he works as a janitor in the "new city" that he gets to go into the room where they've quarantined the wife. And this is the scariest part of any zombie movie I've seen, and also like both touching and stupid at the same time. Very stupid. He kisses her and of course, turns CRAZY, and like after some bloody gruesome scenes later, she's dead and he's this mad zombie king that dashes out and reeks havock on the whole city.

So just after you think that this family can't cause no more trouble after that with the whole city dead, they saved the kids (those stupid punk kids), who are also somehow carriers like their mother, and they airlift them away. And of course this movie ends with Paris all in zombie flu mode.

Yep, this zombie movie has been the hardest to watch in a very long time. No, it was good. I liked it because it was scary and very very graphic. But this family.

ARGH!

This is one of those movies that makes me just wanna go into the movie and shoot them myself. Talk about a rage virus.

Chips, You Make Me Sick

Nope. Chips isn't a person. I'm talking about real chips (not the British version, though sometimes they do too). But I find that potato chips and tortilla chips always make me sick.

Chips are my kryptonite.

It seems like there really is no plausible explanation for it except that there might really be something in these deep fried foods that just makes my body give up on living completely. I sort of figured this out already throughout my life that whenever I partake in the chip eating and partying, I usually got sick. When I was younger, I never believed my mother when she told me that I can't have chips, so I'd go off to some birthday party, load up on the good stuff and come home pretending I was all good. But inevitably the next day would mean that I would have a sore throat or a fever or a combination of the two.


On Monday, I went boozing with my friend in broad daylight. Well, not super broad daylight. It was after 1pm and it was a nice day out, so naturally, we went to get some beer at the Granville Island brewery. But they don't have real food there, they only have chips and other things of the like. And since I didn't particularly feel like being an elephant shelling peanuts with my beer, I decided to go for the ol' chip & salsa. I was hoping that it wouldn't affect me, but by the afternoon of that same day, I could feel the top of my palate getting sore.

Shit. So now I've been having this crazy painful swollen palate for a whole two days now, and I'm not seeing it go away anytime soon either. Why must I always succumb to the temptations of chips? I know they are bad for me, but sometimes, I just want to live like a normal person!

I bet this is what Superman must have felt like.

Fashion Fiend

Ugh. Fashion. I knew I should never have been sucked into The Sartorialist for its pretty pretty pictures of people who dress all interesting and cool. Nah, it's still an awesome blog. But the contents got kinda heavy for what I expected.

I read from The Sartorialist, that John Galliano (of Dior) made racial slurs and was suspended from his role as head designer. At first, people were in disbelief and quite a lot of people just couldn't believe it was true.

But now, there's this video of him saying these nasty things (they are pretty bad) from this article in The Sun. (Thank you, technology). It's quite sad and there were lots of people who commented on The Sartorialist's update article saying how it was mental illness, or how he was drunk. But I don't think it's excusable.

I mean, we've all  been drunk before.  But how many of us will say this kind of stuff? It's pretty serious and very hurtful. I mean, most of the time when we're drunk, we might do stupid things or even fight with people, but I don't know how someone can just spew racial slur like that if they weren't already a racist to start with.

So to all the people who are super compassionate about the whole thing, I will have to say that I can't agree with that. I don't think being drunk or saying it's a mental illness is any sort of excuse to racism. Also, being an artistic genius doesn't excuse anything and being under high stress of being head designer (and living your dream job boo-hoo) is certainly no excuse!

If anything, I think John Galliano should serve time because there's a law in France and if he doesn't then it really shows that being a head designer means you're above the law and that isn't right. The good thing is that at least he's apologized but I'm really not sure if he's forgivable given what horrible things he has said and how so many people looked up to him.