17 December, 2016

On Holidays

Well it's been  a nice relaxing and fun week for me. Though I quit my job on saturday, I couldn't catch up on the blog last week because I was rushing a whole bunch of deadlines for merchandise planned for the new year! Very excited for some of these merch :D I want to have more focus on stationery items. 

Karen came back for the holidays to her family and I. It's been awesome to be together in real life rather than skype and chat apps. We had a lot of fun just chilling, and going around the city!
Anyway, today I am having dinner at Karen's mom's home and we are making traditional taiwanese dishes! Karen and I have prepared Turnip Cake 蘿蔔糕 and BaWan 肉回. This morning I made some AiYu 愛玉冰 to compliment the food afterwards. I realized that AiYu is really good for Taiwanese food, cuz we eat a lot of heaty foods. AiYu is made from the seeds of Ficus pumila. They are these tiny dusty looking seeds you put in a cheese cloth baggy and soak in water. You massage the bag to release all the gelatin from the seeds into the water.

It has a light fresh taste, it is eaten with lime juice and sugar water! It's really refreshing - not really something for winter, but hey, it's yummy!

Short post today :D I should get some laundry done and pack a bit!





04 December, 2016

On Rainy Days

I can't say that I've had many many remarkable rainy days in my life, but it almost feels like I've had a downpour this week. It started Tuesday night... as I was going home from a long day at work. I left work with my cellphone in the red and my bladder full thinking that I will be heading straight home so I can just wait it off till I get home. How very wrong I was.

As I was driving, ten minutes onto the highway, my car began to sink and power down. I steered the car onto the shoulder of the highway and turned off the ignition. I really had hoped that I could restart it after a few moments but no. I quickly messaged Karen to let her know I was in a mud hole and proceeded to call CAA. After pressing five or so options I'm put through to a helper only to learn that it was illegal for the company to operate on the highway so I would have to get the city to tow my car to an accessible point where the CAA could get me. There were also parts of that conversation that were very confusing because the person was french and didn't seem fluent in english. This is the curse of Québec. I then called the city and waited for the tow to arrive. While waiting I made a quick call to CAA again to ask how long would the wait be when I get to an accessible area; they told me approximately 60mins. I'm sorry but 60mins wait is WAY too long, especially how I was still 40mins away from home. So the city tow came, and before I could really decide on what I was going to do, my phone dies. This made my choosing much easier I can't call the CAA anymore, so I will just get towed all the way back to my little suburb neighborhood.

Arriving at the garage on the tow was actually somewhat interesting, and amusing. I try not to worry so much when this kind of thing happen, and just take it as is. After leaving the car at the garage, I asked the tow if they could just drop me a block or two down on their way. Luckily my garage was not too far from the strip mall, and I didn't live too far from the strip mall either. And at the strip mall I could finally use the bathroom and charge my phone a little. I was sure Karen was worrying so I tried to message her as soon as my phone had some juice. I pulled a cookie out of my bag and ate it as if it was rationed for times like these. After reassuring my boo, I walked home and just took it easy.

The next morning I woke up at 7am and decided to call the garage just to let them know my car was at their shop. The mechanic picked up and asked me why the tow person didn't deposit my car keys. (Because I didn't know and I hadn't taken off my house keys yet...). He urged me to get to the shop as soon as possible because my dead car was blocking the front entrance to his garage. I then rip out of bed and slap on clothes, I look horrendous as I speed walk/jog to the bus stop. At 7h13, I get on the bus, arrive at 7h24 at the garage, drop my keys, talk with the mechanic. I make my way back on to the bus taking me home, and was home by 7h46. Pretty amazing. I made breakfast, and did some stuff, and got a call from the garage around 10h30. He told me my battery died because my belt had a crack, plus the alternator died. On the plus side it was the original battery and it lasted pretty much 10 years... Anyway, the whole of it costed around 550$ (on top of that the towing was 200$). Of course the repairs had to be done, but after I hung up the phone I teared up from the shock of it, and turned to Karen who was an angel and comforted me right away by telling me a story that was even worse than mine.

Honestly, right now, I don't feel bad about the car, because I feel safe in it, but even the money.. It's okay. I saved up for this kind of emergency. Its got nothing on me. It was just the unfortunate circumstance it had to present itself when I'm about to move away and would ideally save that money (laughs). It's a little ironic how I posted about saving money and this happens.

On a lighter note, I did some christmas shopping with Carey on the Wednesday while my car was in the garage. We also ate at this Korean restaurant and ordered way too much food unintentionally... Yes despite the unforseen dent in my wallet by my car, I was still able to enjoy myself because I have learned to save for these circumstances.

Foods from this week!!

Learned to make patterned rice rolls. With some left over tofu fish cake I made :>
Jukebox burger bar! They have a poutine burger I'll have to try when Karen comes back.

The feast between Carey and I... It was hella good and great price too...