Too bad Darwin’s law didn’t apply here.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/08/31/national/a070437D12.DTL&tsp=1
I’m going to try and make an effort to write more in my blog.
A friend had sent this link to me… aren’t you glad your name isn’t his?
http://www.ece.uah.edu/Individual_Staff_Pages/HoF.html
I’ve been teased tons as a kid with my last name ‘Ho’. I can’t even imagine what this guy went through!
Last week, I had visited my friend Ming, whom is acting as a foster home for abandon cats/kittens. He has 4 little monsters (and a big momster) running around at home. God they’re sooo cute! The one with the patch on it’s eye (can’t remember its name) but she plays up the cute so well, yet, she gets into sooo much trouble. Jumping around, exploring, etc.
Here are some really adorable pictures that I managed to take of them:
More pictures can be found here: http://flickr.com/hokicanadian
Comments are always appreciated!
Meowing out!
Cherries galore this year in the Okanagan. Apparently the perfect weather to produce to many cherries that they’re making the trees droop.
Now how to find the best U-Pick? Check the newspaper in the classified, under the food/produce section. They will usually tell you the price for the U-Pick and call just to confirm the price. We found that some people would jack up the price compared to the newspaper! Evil!
We went driving on highway 97 and we stumbled upon the Bellman’s farm. They had $1.50/lb U-Pick raspberries! OMG, they’re so good. And Jen (whom owns the store) was super nice. She even told us about the paper and the cherries. She ended up directing us to her father in-law’s place and we picked at $1.00/lb! Oh yeah!
So go Cherry picking! it’s cheap and it’s good!
Paris Paris Paris. It’s quite the city! The flight was good and I have to say that Air Canada fed us very well. A dinner, small snacks, and breakfast! Of course, I couldnt sleep on the plane and having been up for 24 hours, I was starting to feel the effects when we landed. The drive from the airport to city centre was brutal! traffic everywhere! But at least the cars were neat to see. So different and so much smaller.
Once we checked into the hotel, we actually just continued to sleep until the next morning. Our first day consisted of going to McDonalds for breakfast. Yes…that’s right McDonalds! I know, I know! What they serve for breakfast was quite a bit different than what you can get in North America. They have espresso/cappuccino machines and lots of pastries! And the pastries were sooo good! Oh and you have to try their Dijon Mustard! It’s the best!
Anyways, we headed to the Louvre after breakfast, but before that, about 1 hour of searching for the Metro. What a pain! We asked a transit worker where it was and she said down a few blocks when in fact it was where we were! arg!
The Louvre is amazing. There are no words or pictures to describe the beauty of all the artwork. The detail and the history/story behind each is amazing. If you had one day in Paris, just head to the Louvre! After about 4 hours, we headed out and walked by the Seine and just taking the view of the city. We stumbled up St. Germain and this little street which was occupied by different types of restaurants.
We attempted to go to Notre Dame three times. Not on the same day 
. The first time, there was media everywhere and the bells of the Cathedral was going. It was a very low, sad sound. Of course we weren’t certain what was going on, then we saw some people with AF wings on their jackets. It was a memorial for the Air France flight that had gone down. We decided to jet back to hotel since we didn’t think it was appropriate to be there. Our third attempt at Notre Dame was well worth it. The gothic architecture was amazing!
We went to the catacombs. I was clutching onto Tina for dire life! The sign before entering was ‘not for small children or people of nervous disposition’ OMG! I’m a person of nervous disposition. First we had to go down miles and miles of stairs. Then once we got down there, they had a bit of history on the catacombs. Then you had to walk miles and miles of dark underground tunnels. You never really know what was around the corner, whether it was the start of the catacombs. We finally reached it and I can’t tell you how eerie it was. Bones were piled on top of each other, and there would be a row of skulls in the middle. And this went on for who knows how long. It was a bit damp and musty in the tunnels, and since it was underground, there was some water dripping from the ceiling. We rushed out of there…miles and miles of walking. Arg!
Once we got out of the tunnels, we went to the grocery store. Bought this big gouda cheese wedge and two small bottles of wine for 3 Euros! Then we took it to the park and ate it. Where a bylaw officer said something to us in french… of course it’s in reference to the alcohol LMAO. Me playing dumb … ‘huh?’. No alcohol at the park! OH!
Sean, we can’t drink in the park!
We took a hot air balloon ride which cost 10 Euros each. Not too bad, but we got to see the city from an aerial view. Beautiful!
Tour de Eifel was quite beautiful, especially at night. Though going up to the tower doesn’t really seem worth it since it’s overly crowded with people. Barely any room to breathe.
One of the most interesting neighborhoods is Montmartre. I would say it describes what you would think Paris was like. Very historical, old, and not an ounce of modern architecture. There would be streets and streets of fabric. Of course there was also this very good coffee shop! mmm Espresso!
Overall the experience was positive. We did have sewage smell coming from our drains, which was disgusting. C’est la vie! Majority of Parisians weren’t the most friendliest, but of course the ones who helped us with directions were wonderful!
BAGUETTES BAGUETTES BAGUETTES. So fresh, so good and so cheap! Cheese was good but smelt like dirty sweat socks, which made it hard to eat! My oh my, that rhymed!
Would I go back? I would for only a few days. Maybe catch up on some sight seeing that we missed, but that would be it! Next trip? hmmm…maybe South America next year! heh!
Less than 12 hours before we take off from Calgary to Montreal, our connecting city then to Paris.
Can’t wait! Got most things packed… just a few little things left to do.
Will see you all when we come back!
(0)So we’re preparing our trip for Paris. You know, hotel bookings and stuff. Luckily we wanted to book our hotel and get that out of the way. It’s very much a pain to book a hotel in Paris. Not only is it expensive, but it appears that the quality of the hotels are not as good as the US/Canada. It’s quite surprising!
We decided to go through hotwire and we’ll probably get a decent hotel. Or at least we thought. In the past we have tried hotwire and got the Sheraton which was pretty awesome. This time we went with a 3 star hotel and got something called ‘Hotel Cheverny’.
For those of you who don’t know how hotwire works, essentially you pay for a hotel, you don’t know which hotel. You just specify an area, price, star, etc. and they choose the hotel for you. So in essence, it’s a gamble. No refunds, no changes.
I had a gut feeling to not do this but we went with it anyways, since sometimes it’s fun not really knowing what you’ll get. It’s like going to a buffet! LOL. Though I have to admit, I’m a bit scared about our potential sleeping place. Having read some negative reviews on tripadvisor.com, this has really gotten me worried.
I just have to remind myself that this is our sleeping grounds and only there to sleep. Not to hang out, just to sleep, since we are in Paris! We’ll make the best of it!
(0)Funny conversation between my friend whom I’ll define as ‘N’ and me as ‘K’
K: ‘God it’s snowing here’
N: ‘Snow? I’m trying real hard not to say some rather vulgar four letter words right now.’
K: ‘LMAO’
N: ‘Is Spring ever going to arrive?’
K: ‘Snow is vulgar! LMAO’
N: ‘And it’s four letters :S’
Yes it’s snowing in May…late May I might add! Welcome to Calgary!
Tina had corrected me on my last post. Apparently a Jiggs dinner consists of potatoes, carrots, turnips that’s boiled with salt beef. The dinner we had was a baked dinner, but it had a jiggs dinner with it. Confusing? I know I am!
Over the weekend we had tried out the Bali Indonesian Restaurant in Calgary. Never have had Indonesian food before, (other than the soto ayam that my roommate made for me) it was quite exciting. We had ordered the bali platter (spring rolls, triangular spring rolls and croquettes), soto ayam (chicken soup), mee goreng (fried noodles), and the rendang (coconut beef stew).
It was definitely an experience going there. The service was really good and the owner who was our waiter had explained what everything was. The food was mediocre. Though there was a lot of similarities to Thai and Malaysian food, there was quite a bit of spices used in comparison. (Spices were stronger, not hotter). The soto ayam was overly salted and was our least favourite. The spring rolls we felt could have been cooked a little longer.
And everything else was tasty but definitely not our favourite.
I guess the real question is, what does really good Indonesian food taste like? I’m not entirely sure, other than that it’s no Banana Leaf! I know I know, I can’t compare Malaysian with Indonesian, but all I know is banana leaf is uber tasty and totally eye rolling!
I’d rate the restaurant 3/5. The restaurant does get thumbs up for the guava juice. Yum!
*sigh* I have to say that I’m missing Newfoundland. I miss the beauty and the culture of the province. It’s too bad that we didn’t get a few more days just to hang out with the fish! .
Big question for you all, how do you pronounce ‘toutons’?
You’re probably asking, what are toutons? Toutons are pan fried bread dough. It’s really really good! Traditionally it’s served with molasses. I like them as is, with molasses, but they’re also great with stew!
Speaking of toutons, here are some of the things that I had an opportunity to eat while in Newfoundland. We had cod tongues, which are absolutely fabulous and tastes better than cod fillets (if you ask me). Fresh fish, fresh lobster. Violet, Tina’s aunt made us a jigg’s dinner (which consists of a chicken or turkey or roast, with boiled veggies that was cooked with salt beef). She’s such a sweetie that she also made moose stew for me to try! Scrunchions….mmm oh scrunchions (cured pork fat that’s fried). Had a ‘scoff’ = feast, the first night.
And how do you beat a $30 lobster dinner at a fine dining restaurant?!?! We were lucky that they had a devour downtown (similar to Dineout Calgary) during the last few days that we were in St. John’s. We ended up going to ‘The Cellar’. Their seafood chowder was amazing! Service was fantastic. Not pretentious like the ‘Gypsy Tea Room’. We had gone in to quickly check out the menu for dinner that evening and the waitress did a double take on my sweater! It’s not the most fanciest sweater but goodness! it’s cold out there! No skimpy skirt for me! ha!
Another great place to eat in St. John’s was Merlo’s Press and Bean Restaurant. Not sure how they came up with the name but service was really good and the Mango ice tea was so yummy. I would recommend the sandwiches there.
Sun sushi had really fresh and delicious sushi. Can’t complain! That was the only Asian food we had while in Newfoundland. I had to cave at one point! haha!
Overall the food experience in St. John’s was positive. The only complaint I have is that there are absolutely no Vietnamese restaurants any where! By the end of the trip, we were both craving pho, and we had to wait till we got back to Calgary to satisfy that.
Advice: The thing to watch out was the amount of salt that was used. If you’re not big on salt, ask for no salt. A lot of the time, food was over salted and it was a little hard to eat.
Bon appetite!
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