151: MARKET TIME

Granville Island market. I wanted to buy that $95 piece of ham!

150: MADAMA BUTTERFLY

I went to the opening night of Puccini's Madama Butterfly with Giosy and Miranda tonight. The music was beautiful, but I think I ate too much for dinner because I kept nodding off during the first act. The ending was well done - very dramatic and tragic. I just wish operas weren't so slow and had more action in them. It takes them 10 minutes to sing something that would take me two sentences to say!

The lesson I have taken away from Madama Butterfly is: If you're an Asian woman, do not trust or marry a white man, because he will leave you for a white woman, and they will take your mixed child away from you.

149: ROSE TINT MY WORLD

Yellow roses in my backyard.

148: PUZZLE IMPOSSIBLE

It's not looking good. All the pieces are the same size, shape, and colour (either green or brown).

147: RIBS AND PASTA

I came over to Giosy's house and she made me pasta and ribs. Yum!

146: LATE NIGHT SNACK

My family left for Las Vegas this afternoon, and I came home to find that they had left me three egg tarts that are only good until today. And then of course I need my fruits, so I had an apple, an orange and a banana (not in picture).

145: WOODEN FENCES

This was in someone's backyard. I hope they didn't see me trespassing.

144: WHALE CHIMES

Porcelain houses, hearts, and whales.

143: DOWNTOWN EAST SIDE

The downtown east side of Vancouver is notorious for its poverty, crime and drug use. It is also the site of a new branch of the company I work for, and today was my first time there. I was already wary of going there, but today when my bus let me off a block east of the store, I was struck by the seediness of the area. A block makes such a huge difference in this part of town; one block east of the store is incredibly shady, while going one block west or north leads to a more expensive, touristy area.

Because of this, the clientele is very interesting. There are the residents from the more expensive Woodwards units, there are the tourists from overseas, and then there are the drug addicts and the ones with mental illnesses.  Most of them are friendly and well behaved, some are belligerent, and others just don't care. But it's not everyday you hear about illicit drug use and needles from the customers. Just in downtown East Hastings and in Whalley!

142: MR LUMPY

I've really been lacking motivation recently...

141: WIZARD BEAR INDOORS

Here he is with a bottle of olive oil.

140: WIZARD BEAR OUTDOORS

For my homework I had to take pictures of a colorful object (I chose my wizard bear).

139: EXPOSURE WORKSHOP

We learned about different exposures during today's class, where we took pictures of black, white, gray, and colored objects. My group didn't get to do this "gray" setup but I liked it so I took a picture of it anyway.

138: SURREY KITTIES

Their names are Rocket and Rumble, and they can do acrobatic jumps in the air.

137: A WALK ALONG FALSE CREEK

One day I would like to be able to afford a home on False Creek (although these condos are built on toxic ground).

Here is my friend taking a picture of dogs playing in a dog park while standing behind the bushes so the owners would not see her.

136: TULIPS

I love tulips.

135: RUSTED CHAINS

During the golden hour before sunset. I am loving the bokeh on the water.

I walked 8k today just going to and from the hotel and work and dinner (I saved the company $20 by not taking the taxi today!). But I rewarded myself for all that walking with a nice ice cream cone after dinner, and that made my day.

134: BUNNIES IN THE PARK

I was in such a good mood during my lunch break today, because I got to eat my sandwich in the sunshine while sitting by the water and looking at the boats and seaplanes. After eating, I went for a walk and found two bunnies in the park! Then a man nearby told me that we had to call the SPCA to catch those bunnies. Poor bunnies.

133: THE ROPES

At the ship dock - back in Nanaimo. It looks like I am going to be coming here even more often for this summer.

132: RESERVATION FOR CIAMBELLE

Ciambella provided by who else but my friend and fellow blogger, Ciambella Rae.

131: CARIBINERS

Some equipment for one of my favourite hobbies, on the hood of my car.

130: SUN RUNNING

At the start line

The Vancouver Sun Run is one of the largest road races in the world (according to wikipedia, it broke a record in 2008, making it the largest 10k race in the world).  It was my first time doing the Sun Run, and I was in a crowd of 51,419 people.

The weather was fantastic, and for lunch I had a lamb sandwich from Sciue while sitting on the steps by the water with my friends. I love: a.) lamb, b.) Italian food, c.) bodies of water, and d.) friends, and therefore I had a great day!

129: ULU

Ulu: an Inuit knife

128: A BOWL

I've had this in my room since forever but I don't even know what the stuff inside is

127: THE CORONATION OF NAPOLEON

By David.

This is what my puzzle will look like when I finish. It's my only souvenir to myself from Paris...

126: FILM ROLLS

Eight rolls of Holga film. Twelve photos per roll. Five to ten minutes to scan two photos at a time. It took awhile.

125: DON'T PANIC

Why do I always seem to end up at a doctor's office after every trip?

But don't worry, I'm (mostly) healthy!

124: PAPER PLANES

Vacation over. Stopover at the Toronto airport.

You know what's not fun? Being nauseous during a full 5 hour flight even after taking 2 Gravol tablets and 3 ginger tablets. I had my puke bag ready in my hands!

123: WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN

Hieroglyphs at the Louvre. I love.

I desperately want to go to Egypt...

In fact I am reading a comic book about Tintin's adventures in Egypt right now! (The Adventures of Tintin: Cigars of the Pharaoh)


I should have kept in touch with the Willy the Egyptian who I met at a lake in Italy two summers ago. Anna and I called him Ramses because we didn't think Willy sounded Egyptian enough.

122: THE HUMBLE ABODE OF KING LOUIS XIV

Impending storm clouds loom over the golden gates of Versailles.

We had big plans for today, and it was the only day on our trip where we actually woke up early to get everything done, but little did we know that it was a national holiday and all the stores and museums were closed. Oh, the irony! And this was how we ended up going to Versailles, although the palace itself was also closed and only the gardens were open.