life has been pretty action packed lately

march - april: studying for the Project Management Certification exam

may: passing of the Project Management Certification exam. woohoo! + my mom's arrival for an 8 week visit + 2 spot prawn feasts

june: bill starting his new job in the ecommerce team of a large company known for its hardware and software + 24 hrs in Seattle to eat at the amazing Spinasse restaurant in celebration of said new job + watching a ton of films for VAFF

july: my last month with OpenRoad + more VAFF volunteering + 3 days in San Francisco (see flickr set)

with august comes exciting (and scary, if I'm honest) new adventures at my new job at Tyze which requires an actual commute! the excitement for the new is being tempered by the sadness of leaving a bunch of fantastic people at OpenRoad. i will never forget them, especially now that i have a google+ circle for them!

here are some of my favourite pictures from the past 5 months that didn't make it into flickr.


- st patrick's day celebration courtesy of @seafoam



- sarah letting me convince her to put on this hat and strike a cute pose



- june birthday celebration at OpenRoad



- @selmaz post laser operation



- spot prawn boil at Refuel




- spot prawn feast at Ken's Kitchen



- dimsum for Bill's going away lunch



- freshly made angel hair pasta w pork ragu at Spinasse. my lord it was good.



- bill at Save On Meats



- @CarolienD and @selmaz at The Diamond



- a fresh bite of delish from Bob Likes Thai



- bill at The Precidio in SFO

a jaunt to Seattle and Portland

Bill and I left work early last Thursday and spent an evening in Seattle then 2 nights in Portland. We had some delicious meals, had tasty drinks and bought a bag full of books.

HIGHLIGHT #1:

Thursday night dinner at Spinasse restaurant: Based on compelling urgings from friends Brian and Cheryl, we went to Spinasse and wow are we glad we listened to them. Our server was very knowledgeable about their list of wines and friendly without it being weird but the food, THE FOOD! OMG! OMG! OMG!

Between the 3 of us we ended up trying many dishes but the standouts for me were:
#1 poached egg 'under glass' with fonduta and local black truffles
#2 lamb ragu tagliatelle
#3 2008 Moscato d'Asti - "La Selvatica" Romano Dogliati

Once the poached egg was placed into my mouth, a flavour explosion happened that rendered me unable to say anything else but: OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!

I guarantee foodgasm if you try this dish which explains why I forgot to take a picture of it. I highly recommend Spinasse.


Spinasse: lamb ragu tagliatelle

HIGHLIGHT #2

Friday night dinner at Little Bird (their website seems to be down)

Little Bird is a french restaurant run by the same folks who also run Le Pigeon (website is also down) which Bill and I have eaten at the past 2 years and love.

We started with the escargot which was buttery and delicate and lip smacking good! For our entrees, Bill had Coq Au Vin and I had the lamb shank. It was really good but, I hate to say it, I've had better lamb shank. The lamb was almost fall off the bone but not quite although it had good flavour. The Coq Au Vin was perfection! Not too acidic at all. I still highly recommend Little Bird.

I also owe a lot to our server who gave us a great recommendation for a brunch place the next morning: Broder!


HIGHLIGHT #3

The server from Little Bird positioned Broder as Scandinavian via Wisconsin. Actually, I don't remember which state it was but the server really sold me on a smoked trout based breakfast.

I had the smoked trout hash with 2 eggs on top. They cooked the 2 eggs in a small square cast iron pan. How cute! Bill had fried eggs on apple fritters with a side of sausage. It was really delicious. And I loved how the cream that came with the coffee was actually hot.


Broder: fried eggs on apple fritters with a sign of sausage



HIGHLIGHT #4

Powell's book store is a big draw for us. We buy a lot of books. Ok, Bill buys a lot of books. The picture below makes me smile because it so aptly captures the spirit of Powell's.


Powell's


More good stuff

Poco Wine Bar in Seattle: we had pre-dinner drinks with a colleague and his wife who live in Tacoma. The bar's wine list had a strong focus on wines from the northwest along with a tapas menu. Our server was fantastic and the atmosphere was cosy.

Portland's food carts are legendary. Immediately upon checking into the Ace Hotel we made straight for the food carts which are only a block away from said hotel. I had curry chicken drumstick on egg noodles and lots of sauce. Bill had korean bbq tacos. Both were delicious but the korean bbq tacos were clearly the winner.

I love how the Seattle Ace Hotel offers complimentary waffles as part of the stay. Wish I had taken a picture. You make the waffles yourself within a common room/small eating area that also provide guests with tea, coffee, juice, toast and cereal. But it's the make your own waffles opportunity that you don't want to miss.

Teardrop Cocktail Lounge has some great bartenders. They make their own bitters and will make custom drinks for you. Unfortunately, the crowd that seems to come to this place seems to be a tad douchey and the music really sucks. But if you are lucky enough to snag a seat at their massive bar, you will be well taken care of.

Coava is a cafe in Portland that is housed in this massive warehouse and shares space with a custom bamboo manufacturer. It was a big space but there were, it felt like, almost a car length between the 5 gorgeous raw wood but solitary tables. The coffee was good, according to Bill.


Coava - coffee

Tetro by Francis Ford Coppola

I finally watched Tetro last night and there were a lot of things to like about it.

Going into the film I felt sympathy for Frances Ford Coppola (FFC) for finally being able to return to his art house beginnings since The Conversation.

And sure I could be all cynical and wonder what FFC's been doing all these years since The Godfather besides his vineyard but who am I to judge when I'm going on month 9 of studying for a project management certification exam? Even though FFC's got buckets and buckets of money doesn't mean he doesn't have responsibilities. But I digress.

Tetro is indeed art house fare.

LOVED
- the cinematography
- the casting
- the acting

DIDN'T LOVE
- the soundtrack
- the editing (sorry Walter Murch)
- a story that was interesting but kinda lost me at the end
- the story line with the critic
- some of the visualization scenes

I found this film visually stunning and thought the casting was excellent and I was transported but there some of the scenes that were confusing and didn't even need to exist. At the end of the film, I was plain confused and no longer transported.

Despite my criticisms I still think this film is pretty wonderful and worth a watch.



Here's the trailer

spain vacation report

B and i spent 2 weeks in Spain in June.

We came back with full bellies and lots of wonderful memories. It was my first trip to Europe and I can't wait to go back.

I haven't finished my spain video montage but in celebration of spain's world cup win today I thought I would upload my 27 photos to flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chinalily/sets/72157624348091243/


BEST PART OF THE TRIP
Going to Bilbao (for 24 hours) ended up being the best part of the trip. We experienced inspirational art at the Guggenheim, consumed two delicious meals and had a small taste of Basque life. Even when you include the torrential downpour of rain and high winds on the second day at Bilbao, it was still the highlight. You'll have to ask me in person for our Bilbao story.


THE MOST DISAPPOINTING PART OF THE TRIP
Spending good euro coin at two highly recommended restaurants for okay paella.


LESSONS LEARNED
1) do tons of research: we bought 3 travel guides and had a list of places to eat and visit. go to Wanderlust in Kitsilano for the best selection or you can borrow the 3 that we have for Barcelona.
2) 2 weeks can be the perfect vacation length: at the end of 2 weeks, we felt we had gotten beyond the touristy parts of Barcelona and emotionally felt ready to come home.
3) if you have a travel partner, create a google map to plot all the places you want to visit then print out the google map.
4) convert your currency BEFORE you leave town.
5) try to meet up with someone in the town you are visiting. getting a local (or even an ex-pat's) opinion on where to eat and what to see is invaluable. Thanks Naheed!
6) accommodations: i found trip advisor super helpful. for our 2 week stay, we stayed in 2 different places in 2 different neighbourhoods. we really liked changing it up that way and highly recommend it.
7) pack half the clothes you think you need: i have yet to master this lesson. i brought way too many clothes.


*the picture above is of the Maman sculpture piece by Louise Bourgeois which is permanently installed outside the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao. I was actually close to tears when I came across the piece as Ms. Bourgeois had only passed away 3 weeks previously and after watching a documentary about her (2 years ago), I felt a deep respect for her as an artist (she created this piece in her 80s!) and also an emotional understanding of her art.


...UPDATE...
Barcelona video montage!

New York City vacation footage

first the recriminations:
- sorry for the shakey images. the hd flip mino is great cuz it's small and lightweight. and small and lightweight encourage shakiness.
- sorry for not colour correcting this.

there's a lot (and I'm not kidding) of footage of the subway trains in this. i think i was too busy being in the moment to remember to capture the moment on HD. funny that.

my extensive itinerary was supplied in a previous post here

music is "Shot In The Head" by Moby

summer weekend report

1. nibbles with friends
- M and C came over after work this past Friday to catch up on our lives, drink Joie rose and nibble on goodies.


- M holding a glass of the rose


- we were all setup on the patio but then had to move everything indoors because the lawn mowing generated lots of dust and pollen.



2. chef for the day
- a call at 8:15am saturday to ask if B and I would be available to take over 2 spots for the Chef for a Day put on by Edible BC meant a quick get ready to be at granville island by 9:30am. not that it was really a hardship as we were soon to realize.
- we shopped for ingredients, prepared the food at the Miele showroom in yaletown and then sat down to enjoy the meals
- the expensive henckels knives and cookware were so lovely to work with i'm convinced i need to invest in some nice knives.


- chef cari infront of city seafood to pickup 3 lbs of spot prawns


- the 8 of us split into 3 groups. B and I were part of the spot prawn group cuz it's a favourite of mine. here B is snipping off the longer tendrils and legs of the prawn while it was still alive.


- one of my tasks was to poach the prawns in clarified butter for a minute then line them up on a roasting pan. notice how i meticulously alternated the alignment of the prawns. i was pretty proud of myself.


- we finally sit down to the meals we prepared. everyone was rather exhausted from 5 hours of shopping and cooking and was happy to just be sitting.


- the rhubarb crumble dessert was rather fabulous. i asked for a second scoop of ice cream.



3. main street car-free event
- spent an hour taking pictures of Brian's food table at the Blim
- i might have also bought a dress at eugene choo and some yarn


- yummy rustic italian breads and pies which all sold out by 2:30pm


- herb twists for only $1!!!


- i couldn't resist taking this photo for J who has claimed that "feather headbands are the devil's playground"

New York trip: a summary

instead of providing a eye-numbing list of all the places we went to and delicious things we ate, i'm going to offer some interesting moments that i remember.

moment #1
- being at the airport 3 hours before a flight to the US and hearing B agree to letting me dictate airport arrival times next time

moment #2
- after taking the red eye to new york and being lucky enough that the hotel had a room for us at 8:30am, then falling into our king size bed and waking up 3 hours later to find we both fell asleep fully clothed and hadn't even unpacked.

moment #3
- the hipster server at the expensive hipster asian restaurant was skinny, wore super tight WHITE acid wash jeans AND had 7 pens in her right side back jean pocket; seven pens all lined up in a row.

moment #4
- the bow-tied server at the max brenner chocolate emporium remarked to B and I as he gave us our bill: "you're my most mellowest table today."

moment #5
- overheard at a fancy italian restaurant by a blond-hair, blue-eyed, born into wealth woman in her late 60s to her artist friend: "it's a masters of sustainability or sustainability economics, whatever, it's at Columbia which is an ivy school."

moment #6
- sitting in a tea house partly owned by moby (yes, that moby) and not hearing a single moby song being played. instead i hear a lot of wilco and a pair of hipster boys talk about ben affleck non-stop for 20 full minutes.

moment #7
- while watching the play "desire under the elms" from the second last row in the theatre, i can barely make out the expressions on the actors but i am almost blinded by brian dennehy's overly whitened luminescent teeth.


..........
ok, ok here's where and what we did

day 1 - sunday
- arrive in new york at 6am and go to the hotel and nap for 3 hours
- have late lunch at momofuku noodle bar: eat the best ramen i've ever had. the house sake was smooth and complimentary. the steamed pork buns are not to be missed.
- giggle like teenagers at standup show, Sleepwalk With Me, by Mike Birbiglia.
- nap
- have late late dinner at momofuku ssam: have amazing raw seared fatty beef with ponsu-marinated cucumber
- long walk back to hotel

day 2 - monday
- muji: clothing/housewares/stationary chain from japan. i buy 2 dresses, a top and a raincoat.
- go to Queens for the MOMA off-shoot, PS1 art gallery and see lots of video art from the 1970s plus a great pool installation
- uniqlo: a clothing chain from japan with lots of cool graphic tees
- strand books: a huge bookstore that stock new and used books together. i pickup 2 books on knitting
- max brenner chocolate restaurant: i order a humburger and a cheesecake. yummy. i enjoy some of B's shake and hot chocolate
- muji: another quick visit

day 3 - tuesday
- Guggenheim: great exhibit on frank lloyd wright. they have a disappointing museum shop.
- i have a bit of a meltdown
- muji a third time
- dinner at fancy italian restaurant, convivio. the best pasta.
- go to the cake shop (an indie live venue) to catch Nick Krgovich perform. we also catch someone who does a 80s electropop cover of a kris kristopherson song.

day 4 - wednesday
- lunch in a korean restaurant that also services vietnamese and chinese food. i'm all confused.
- go to the photography art museum and see lots of beautiful fashion pictures from the 1920s to 1940s.
- line up for an hour to get rush tickets to a play
- line up at post office to send a card to work and a card to my nephew
- line up for 30 mins to order a burger and shakes from a place called the Shake Shack. i'm slightly underwhelmed.
- wander around B&H, the venerable electronics good deal place. i look at field recorders. B looks at cameras.
- meet up with B's friend and have drinks then have late night perogies which are pretty great.

day 5 - thursday
- MOMA for 3.5 hours: i really like a rousseau painting and also an exhibition on leon ferrari
- have some chicken on rice from a street vendor.
- rest up at hotel before the big epic dinner
- dinner at the prestigous Per Se. even the pepper is heavenly. the server asks us: "are you foodies?" as we're obviously not wealthy.


day 6 - friday
- The Metropolitan Museum: it's amazing and i'm dazzled and also art-ed out. there are 2 rooms of picassos and a whole room of rembrandts and van gohs and... i'm enjoying original (and large) pieces of robert longo
- i spend almost 30 minutes in a yarn store
- the most amazing edamame hummous was had at the tea store/restaurant, teany
- flight home

portland

just came back from a wonderful weekend in portland.

stayed at the ace hotel which is unobnoxious hipster central.
made multiple trips to powell's books.
only 1 trip to anthropologie.
and ate and ate and ate.

besides two gourmet dinners (le pigeon and clyde common), we partook of some decadent junk food:
- from pine state biscuits, i had the biscuits with sausage gravy with an egg on top
- from cupcake jones, i had a red velvet cupcake
- from voodoo doughnut, i had a donut with oreo crumbles drizzled with chocolate and peanut butter

i need to not eat for about a week to recover.

this is a shot of the cute ceiling light at pine state biscuits. i decided that even a picture of the biscuit i ate was too fattening for visual consumption.



also, some of you may know of my recent obsession with the nelson swag leg desk.


design within reach (not much is within reach at this store, let me tell you) has a location in portland and i had the delightful opportunity of seeing the nelson desk with my own two eyes and touch it with my own two hands.

B knew to let me have a few moments alone with my current obsession.

but, honestly, i was a little underwhelmed by it in person. i thought the chrome looked a little gonna-rust-in-about-3-years and there just seemed to be too many different surface types (wood veneer, white laminate, black plastic, and the chrome).

but it sure looks lovely in this picture, doesn't it?

luckily, i don't have the funds to purchase this desk so i am happy to keep looking.


on the way back to vancouver, we stopped in at seattle's scarecrow video (which sells criterion collection videos for $30 each!!!) and i picked up the following which are available for borrowing from me:
- in the mood for love (cc)
- the royal tenenbaums (cc)
- metropolitan (cc)
- a woman under the influence (cc)
- three times
- lady vengence
- pinky violence box set

faux pas?

so i just twittered about a show i saw this past friday night.

i twittered tonight - sunday night.
the show was on friday night.

is there some sort of understood rule about only twittering about shows immediately after viewing said show? i.e. within 2 hours? 4 hours?

if so, too effing bad.

#20 bus

on some of the buses, an automated voice announces the next stop.

the voice is female.
the words seem strung together by vowels and consonants rather than recorded in whole.

it sounds robotic.

and when i ride a #20 bus with the automated announcements, the stop "abbott street" sounds like "addict street" which is rather unfortunate given the neighbourhood.

i listen for it every time.

I am not sure irony translates on a bedazzled cell phone

this awesome line comes from Mimi Schmir on firstwivesworld a website i had never heard of minutes before reading the article in question.

.
.
.

here's the intriguing route i took to get there:

- go to salon.com looking for interesting articles

- - start reading Sex and the superdelegates by Rebecca Traister

- - - Traister's article metions "Simon Dumenco's asinine Details blog post" and i think: huh, i wonder what articles they have online at Details?

- - - - at "Simon Dumenco's asinine Details blog post" entitled Welcome Back, Asshole where he quotes from "Jill Brooke, editor of First Wives World"..... whoa! there's a website called First Wives World? i immediately stop reading and find the website which provides tips on getting a divorce, financial advice, finding a lawyer, dealing with kids, and...

- - - - - a fictional blog series by Mimi Schmir, one of the writers from "Grey's Anatomy" and go straight for Episode 21: Breast Intentions which is where i come across the awesome line.


i love the webnets

storm watching in tofino

spent this past week in tofino during storm watching season. this is tricky marketing at its best, people.

tofino's main draw is its good surfing and i think some very smart marketing types came up with a reason to NOT ONLY compel tourists to visit during non-surf season (aka storm watching season) BUT ALSO convince tourists that it's worth paying premium to WATCH HARSH WIND AND RAIN.

but wait, it's harsh wind and rain... ON THE BEACH.
AHA - we have them now! Yes.

well, there was 1 night of the storming but since it happened mostly while i was sleeping, i guess i didn't get my money's worth.

otherwise, i had a really nice time in tofino: eating yummy scallops at shelter restaurant, walking the beach, enjoying quail at sobo, taking pictures at glice bay, dining on lamb at raincoast cafe, getting my new deck boots soaked by an unexpected wave, and experiencing food heaven at the wickaninnish inn restaurant.

my artsy tofino photos are here


.
.
.
here are a couple that didn't make the artsy cut:

on jan 1st, at the beach at pacific sands where we stayed, 3 people decided to do the new year's dive into very chilly waters.



a little boy is hesitating before making the jump over a patch of water. don't call the child protection dept, his mom is just out of frame.

i stood in the snow for 10 minutes

a little something i put together. it's 5 minutes long.


in the snow for 10 minutes from chinalily on Vimeo.

the white stuff

taken on my patio yesterday...

...

yes. i'm back.

in other news, it's like a winter wonderland out there.

no, i'm not talking about canada's wonderland. and i don't think anyone deserves a canadian passport unless they experience a truly mediocre disneyland knock-off like canada's wonderland either.

but i digress.

snow = i rock my "they're not ugg" boots ALL THE TIME




also, i was doing some cleaning and rearranging of furniture when i came upon this:


it says "44" then below it "291." i don't recognize it. please let me know if you've accidentally left pharmaceuticals at my condo.

oh and can you create a 30 second commercial in 7 days?

so vaff received some sponsorship in the form of a 30 second commercial shot to be shown during a CityTV show called AZN Lifestyles which airs wednesdays and sundays.

i was asked if i could come up with a commercial in like, oh, 7 days.

my first reaction was: wtf! 7 days!! do i look like a full-on ad agency?

then i realized what a great opportunity and said yes right away. of course, when i say yes, i'm also really saying yes for rob, too. poor rob.

then came the hard part: coming up with an idea.

i begged rob for help on this since he's the ideas guy and he didn't disappoint.

for those of you who have seen the commercial, i've already changed it about 5 times this evening.

.
.
.
.
also, please note my DISCLAIMER: although i'm super thankful to rob for coming up with the idea, this isn't the type of stuff i do. i like the mood and tone stuff.

but oh well, here we go......

link to 30 second commercial

casey and rob's scene


diana, terry and me... for the all asian girl scene

fire at whitehouse night gallery

the house where ladyhawk recorded their 2nd album (shots) and where rob and i filmed our first feature documentary (let me be fictional) is now no more.

link to the kelowna sun article

and now i'm all nostalgic for the 2 weeks we spent (a year and a half ago) with some really cool dudes. here are some stills (taken on our old shitty camera) from when we filmed the doc.

more rob and than me

so i've been bi-zy with MAMM and don't have much to report except...

-- midnight showing of shaun of the dead at the rio theatre just off commercial drive tomorrow night. we be going. i hear it's a good flick.



BUT IT'S ALL ABOUT ROB....
rob will be flying to the toronto international film festival to attend the world premier of When Life Was Good (WLWG), which is terry miles' film in which rob has a significant but non-speaking role.

i would totally be flying to toronto as well except that WLWG is playing sep 6 (sat) which is the same night as the MAMM Gala Screening where i will also be the projectionist because: how difficult can it be to hit the PLAY button on the dvd player?

anyways, rob is psyched to be part of the cast & crew Q&A in toronto and (more likely) psyched to be part of a rather debaucherous celebration as well.

this and that

i'm currently in the jubilant throes of editing k+k's wedding. i'm getting really good at this and taking MUCH LESS TIME in putting together an edit.

i need to finish all the editing before this weekend because the MAMM-alicious action starts on sunday which means i will be missing an awesome work event - boo!

but here's something, i have a title for the work i'm doing for MAMM: MAMM Technical Coordinator

that's pretty sweet.

in the meantime, here are more pictures from the wedding including rob doing an impersonation of bill murray's suntory time and photographic evidence of UNCOOKED INSTANT NOODLES being used in a salad.