absolutum dominium

11.11am.

1 hour, 49 min to my psych class. psych quiz this fri and i have done absolutely nothing.

not tt i would have it any other way. the weekend was a blast. van's left to catch her bus to board the 11.30 am pacific coach to victoria after our breakfast - giant ham n cheese scone, ham and eggs, a shared cinnamon roll, and fruit yoghurt for her. i'm so full now i can barely move.

anyway just to continue where i left off, sat afternoon we went over to metrotown. although we started pretty late coz we had trouble getting up and moving off, eileen and i got our butts there by close to 4pm. and then we went about scouting for the students' discount card, and then for the shoe stores. well. let me explain to you - metrotown is a fucking labyrinth. it is so huge it's easy to get lost and difficult to find what you are looking for. it's fine to visit if you have 1 whole day to kill and nothing to do, but it's a horror if you need to buy some things, you have only 2 hours to buy them coz the shops close at 6pm on sat, and you have no idea where the hell to go.

but tt said, it got better after van met us after coming from the art gallery. i bought my pair of winter boots from payless shoe source, and you *have* to see the pics when i upload them. you will not believe how the shoes look like. they're *furry*. i look like i shot a raccoon to get the boots. but they are so so so so cute. i swear no one is law school is going to take me seriously from now on.

and after tt we went to winners, and van bought a pair of her winter boots from there. this pair of really nice black almost-knee-high boots from roxy. and eileen saw this nine west pair of boots selling at half the price, but she decided not to get them because it was still pretty expensive anyway. and i bought myself a pair of ugly chunky, but really practical black wellingtons for the rainy season.

and i lost my umbrella too. :(

it was a rush back to the skytrain back to downtown vancouver from burnaby. we were all really tired and cold. coz of the rainy season, the weather's been really cold. we were supposed to meet the other singaporeans, diana, andy, weiquan, adrian, shawn, charlin and anne for greek food at davie st. but they were late so we joined the queue first.

which was btw, very very long. we were queueing all the way till the end of the next outlet! it took over half an hour just to queue for food. and even then we got broken up into tables of 4-4-2 - with the 2 guys shawn and andy sharing the table for 2, and a bottle of red wine between them. now tt was an um... unusual picture. very romantic actually. hmm.

but van and i managed to pass some time in the shoppers' drugmart across the road! where she bought snacks... and i *still* cannot find my bottle of kraft extra creamy peanut butter to satisfy my insatiable peanut butter addiction. what i did find: reese's peanut butter cups, 3 more kinds of hershey's chocolate with reese's peanut butter in them, reese's pieces, and reese's snack bars with rice crispies filled with peanut butter and covered in hershey's chocolate. *everyone* now knows i'm a peanut butter addict (in addition to my ice-chewing addiction).

we got into the restaurant by 9pm, therabouts. diana, eileen, van and i shared one table. and between us we ordered the calamari, the roast lamb with rice, the moussaka, which is like a lasagne containing layers of egg plant and ground beef and cheese, and a yveti for eileen who can't take beef, which is a baked pasta dish with lamb instead of beef. the food was really appetising. the calamari was tasty, esp with the tangy sour cream, and relatively crispy. the roast lamb was incredibly tender and came apart easily, although it was really heavy. and the moussaka was delicious and i love eggplant, but my only complaint was tt it wasn't piping hot the way i like baked dishes. all the dishes came with greek salad, which is things like red and green bell peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes etc tossed with a generous amount of feta cheese and a vinegarette.

and we met some more singaporeans on our way back to ubc on the bus. even now i still don't know most of them. imagine tt.

and totem was crazy again. when we went to take van's things from diana's room so tt she could stay over at my place, there was this half-drunk half-naked guy hanging out of the lift when the door opened, scaring the hell out of us. and my floormates were blasting strange disney songs and britney songs and spice girl songs and singing along to them (very badly) and dancing (apparently) to them till past 12.30am.

sunday morning we went to granville island market. met eileen at the bus loop around 10.30am for the bus. we wanted to go to the new revue theatre to catch the improvs, but they only had a kids' show on sun, so we decided to just visit the public market with its generous displays of fresh fruits and vegetables, its deli and all its meats and cheeses and hams and italian staples, its seafood, its fudges and chocolates, and its bakery.

eileen bought bananas and nectarines, van bought a nectarine to eat, and i bought this chocolate rum ball tt looked too good to resist. and after tt we had lunch at the market, and i ordered a clam chowder pot pie with the phyllo pastry covering, as well as this ham and cheese scone. yum! and i also went to queue up at this terra breads store for their cinnamon bun, chocolate coconut macaroon, oatmeal cranberry cookie, and raspberry scone. i had the cinnamon bun for lunch as well. now i know why the queue is so long.

we also walked through the net loft/artists' market, which had so much stuff tt my mom would love. the barefoot contessa cookbooks, the escargot serving trays, the whisks and wine-openers, the kitchen utensils etc... and i bought this white scarf from the hat shop which had so many funky russian looking hats. and van suits russian hats really well. eileen saw this really nice blue striped cap, but it was a little too expensive to buy.

we then made our way down the the granville island brewery, where they brew the honey lager tt they sell in stores here. we didn't get to take the brewery tour because it was full, but we did do some tasting at the tap room. on tap they had the kitsliano maple cream lager, which was rich and forthy and kinda light, and the robson street hefewiezen, which is an unfiltered wheat beer, their usual lager, and the limited release oktoberfest brew, which eileen tried, and is darker and stronger than the normal lager.

we also went to the kids' market with its selection of toys and other stuff tt you would love to just dump on your kids; the adventure playground is the perfect way to keep your kids entertained for a long time! and eileen and van bought wellingtons... form the kids' store! haha. but the wellies were cheap and they were waterproof! so tt was a pretty good deal.

it was only 3-something when we left granville island, so we decided to go back downtown. went back to the aldo shoe outlet so tt eileen could go find her shoes, and van found this ugly blue flowery umbrella tt someone had left on the seat for the past half an hour, and she handed it to me. so i don't have to get another umbrella yet! wahaha.

then we went to winners at granville, where we spent a long long long time at again, and then it was over to sears and the boot stores to see if eileen could find the pair of boots tt she'd been looking for. but even with the number of boot stores around, it wasn't easy because either the boots weren't the right length, or the heels were too high, and when we find the perfect boot, the pricing is far from perfect.

in the end we gave up and decided to just go for dinner. so i took them back to the oysi oysi japanese restaurant back on alberni st tt my parents and i went to when we were here. we ordered the salmon carpaccio to start; eileen had the chicken teriyaki dinner special, and van had the miso ramen with prawn tempura. i had the tofu steak teriyaki, which was really good! haha i'm a beancurd lover, but ever since coming here i haven't touched beancurd. been mainly eating breads and donuts and cookies and meats meats meats.

and they were showing the iron chef america on tv, so we were completely glued to the tv.

if dinner sounded reasonably healthy, post-dinner was not. went over to tim horton's for their famed hot chocolate. but they ran out!!! of everything, except coffee and tea. *pout* but we had their cookies. eileen and van each ordered 6 for $1.99, and van got me a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie, and i also bought an old-fashion glazed timbit for $0.16! haha.

boy were we full when we walked out of timmie's.

into the cold and wet. it was raining and cold again. welcome to vancouver.

then we took the bus back to ubc, bid farewell to eileen, and van and i shuffled our way back to totem in the cold and wet, while my stolen umbrella seemed to prove to me tt there was more than one reason (i.e. tt it was fugly) why its owner left it behind. like, for example, it *leaked*. and my forehead was getting wet.

and tt in a nutshell, was my weekend for you.