Monday, February 8, 2010

I've caught the Olympic spirit

But before I delve into my Olympic experience today, a quick update on other on-goings. I want to start by saying that I am feeling a bit better. The coughing has eased up a bit but I'm still hacking up phlem. I'm not knocked out by coughing anymore but still, stuff is coming up ;)

Rob and I ventured downtown a few times last week. On Wednesday, Rob and I started out at Metrotown (which Rob calls Metromall and refuses to change) where I finally broke down and bought shampoo and conditiner by Biolage. I'm going to strip my hair with baking soda or dish soap to get all the wax off of my hair so I can start using proper salon shampoo and conditioner and not weigh down my hair. A trick I learned from my hair-dresser friend Mary-Ellen. During our patrols of Metrotown, I had to sit down a few times as I just felt wornout. Pathetic!

In the evening, we met my parents at the Corner Suite Bistro DeLuxe. It was my sisters birthday, we didn't go there to celebrate (without her!) but it would have been a good excuse! We got there two hours after it opened for the very first time! I'm not a big restaurant foodie but this was a neat experience. The atmosphere was good, the service was great and the food was delish! I had the 24/7 special which included an appetizer, an entree and desert for $24.07. I had the dried summer fruit salad, fried camembert, pistachios, banyuls vinaigrette as a starter but I had it without the fruit, too much sugar for me. The fried camenbert was to die for! Then as a main I had the arctic char, olive oil pomme purée, caper beurre noisette. The pomme pure though was apple, but it was potato! I couldn't eat the potato but the fish was awesome! The desert was chocolate caramel pot de crème which I couldnt eat at all so Rob ate it. I actually felt like I was eating foodnetwork food. The presentation was incredible, well for me anyways, I dont have that much "fancy restaurant" exposure! This place was not fancy actually, just so cool!

On Thursday we started in Yaletown. There are a lot of salons and spas there! I thought the area was saturated with specialty shops and no real quality places to shop. We had a late lunch at Section 3. I was able to get a green salad with a chicken breast. It was perfect for the diet and really tastey! We progressed to Robson Street. I felt good during our adventures which eased my worries as I was barely able to keep up the previous day. While on Robson Street, I kinda splurged on a few things like new, bright nail polish and some grapefruit scented soaps and lotions for Nikki for her birthday and a few odds and ends at Winners. We'd parked at the HSBC parking lot around 4pm and when we left around 8, I caught a big surprise when I paid for parking. $17.50!!! What?!?! Because we parked before 6pm, before the eveing rates applied, we got screwed!

On Friday Rob and I stayed local. I had a doctors apointment and the doc sent me for a second chest xray. I also went to physio for my chest. It was unlike anything I expected. The physio taught Rob to smack/beat/paddle the phlem out of me. It's similar to him playing the drums on my rib cage and it totally works! I was coughing up phlem like nobody's business. Strange but cool! Later in the day, we hit up a few used book stores in Langley and then saw It's Complicated at Colosus. It was laugh-out-loud funny.

On Saturday we were faced with another day with nothing to do and it was our 6 month anniversary. We trekked downtown again and I noticed a few changes to Granville Street since Wednesday. There's all sorts of neat art and street performers out and lots and lots to look at! We had an early dinner at Il Nido, a little italian restro beind the Starbucks at Robson and Thurlow. Why did we go to an italian restro when I cant indulge in pasta? Aurgh! It was a tough go but again, I enjoyed a salad with chicken. Lots of walking around and checking stuff out (Robson Square skating rink, zip line, shops, Holt Renfrew, street performers etc) made us hungry again by 9 so we hit up the Keg on Hornby. I was able to get a rel meal of chicken with roasted red peppers, snap peas and asperagus. Yum! We toasted to 6 good (sometimes turbulant!) months in the past and another 6 good months in the future. We got home late after a great night out! :)

So that's the long way around to get to today. The Olympic Torch Relay came to Langley today and my team and I worked overtime to ensure crowd and torch security. The torch came to the Langley Events Centre around noon, then ended up in the City later in the afternoon. The torch bearers themselves didnt do much for me but the crowds and the hype were really cool. I especially liked the sponsor's trucks; RBC and Coca Cola did a good job of getting the crowd into a tizzy right before the torch itself rolled through. The weather today was a beautiful 15'C in the sunshine. Some people were saying they were getting a sunburn on their faces. Ironic for a winter olympics torch relay?!?!














































1 comment:

Meg Baxter said...

I am so jealous. I originally was glad to leave before the Olympics but it would have been really cool to be there.

Happy half-iversary! (If you think about the word anniversary, "an" is one year in French. So you've got half of one year. Yes, I'm SOOOO smart!)