Just got home from the JiuZhaiGou 6-day trip, in Hong Kong now. The trip was pretty nice, saw some crazy views from top of Mt. Emei, some really clear water at JiuZhaiGou, and checked out some shows during the nights with quite a few really talented performers. I got sick 4 days into the trip since it was super cold, I think I caught a cold on day 1 but it didn’t develop until day 4. Luckily, thanks to this cold meds I bought at the JiuZhaiGou airport, the cold magically disappeared.

Bought two really good books from the airports in China. Books were really cheap, like $2-3 Canadian could get you a full colored, 300 pages book, couldn’t resist not to get some. One of them is kinda like world geography, talks about all the cities and countries around the world, with their flags and info and stuff. The other one shows the prettiest places around the world.

Some shit happened during the trip though. I lost the eye cup for my Olympus camera, and the lens cover for my 12-60mm lens. Not really sure where I lost them, probably due to the fact that it was so crowded in China and somehow these parts came loose when people around bumped into me. I was able to buy a new eye cup at the Olympus service centre in MongKok (Hong Kong) for $190HKD, and a no-brand 72mm lens cover for $30HKD. Sucks.

Today I came across some stores that sell kitchen/bathroom hardware, so I checked out some nice faucets and ended up getting this really nice one, for $1888HKD. I already got one from Ikea but it was kinda too short, I’ll return it and install this new one when I get home.

Got Xmas gifts from Wendy and her mom today! Got a set of four crystal drinking glass from her mom, and from Wendy I got a pajama, a box of pearl sized Godiva mint chocolate, a sandwich with smoked beef in it (popular delicacy in Montreal), some lollipop she made from a candy store, and some biscuit/candy combo that she made =D She got a Xmas card from me and a pair of star shaped earrings (handmade) ~ Happy!

The kitchen’s almost done, some guy installed the light fixtures today and tomorrow Mr. Luk will come over to do some final inspection and stuff - and to bill me… Everything looks pretty good except for a few kinks like scratched hardwood floor, cracks in the coiuntertop granite, broken glass shade on the sconce…etc.. things that I can probably get away with after some time…

Got the rest of the teas from Wendy today that she bought in Montreal, I had all the ingredients that were needed to make a cup of HK style milk tea. I’ve got the Assam Black Tea, Irish Breakfast Tea, English Breakfast Tea, Pu-erh Tea, and Lychee Black Tea. In addition I needed evaporated milk and condensed milk which I had bought last week. I think total cost for the teas were ~$70 CAD, it’s expensive but oh well, it’s my favorite drink so no choice. Anyway I followed this recipe and it WORKED! Tasted 95% similar to ones they have in the HK style cafes. I made two cups and was so stoked (still am). I’ll be experimenting changing the quantity of the different kinds of tea, trying a different water temperature…etc.

Went out today for some Xmas gift shopping / walk-arounds. I went to The Bay, Sears and London Drugs to check out toaster ovens and coffee makers, ended up buying a Hamilton Beach 31509C Toaster Oven ($69 on sale) as my current toaster oven is really old/greasy/ugly and it just look bad on my new kitchen granite countertop. It’s much bigger than my current one I guess I can even put a pizza in. Also bought a Toastess 1-cup cofee maker ($13) as I dropped my old coffee maker on the ground 2 days ago and broke the glass jar… I was thinking to get an espresso machine but they were so pricy so I didn’t. I’m glad that I didn’t get it as when I got home I realized that I already have all that’s needed to make espresso/latte/cappucino, thanks to the espresso steamer and milk frother that Wendy bought me when she was in Itaty. It’s all “manual” and takes much more time to prep the cup but then I can save $100+ on getting one. I actually just tried making a cup of latte and it tasted pretty good! I guess I spent too much lately and I should really stop spending too much money on things.. Anyway, now off to Alice’s place for some dinner.

Just back from Whistler, stayed there for a night with Wendy, at the Residence Inn. It was a nice drive up there, in about 2 hours we were at the inn. The inn was nice, had nice decor, fire place, flat screen TV, full kitchen….all that one ever needs. It’s got a little balcony too even though it was too chilly to even stay out for a minute. We spent the first day strolling around the Whistler Village. There were lots of shops, in fact much more than I thought. It’s interesting cause I’ve been to Whistler for quite a few times but I’ve never been to the village itself. We were supposedly looking for helmets but we ended up getting some hats. After the stroll we headed to the “Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre” to check it out. Luckily we got two adult tickets free (included with the hotel booking), otherwise we would had to pay $18 * 2 = $36 for two adult admission, and the place was small and boring, what a rip off. We watched a semi nice film there though, talked about the native people…etc. We took the bus around by the way, there was this free shuttle bus that goes around the village. We went to Monk’s Grill for dinner, made use of a $23 coupon =D I got a fillet mignon and Wendy got a mushroom stuffed pasta. They were very yummy =D

The next day was snowboarding of course. Had a free buffet breakfast at the inn, then headed up to Blackcomb. It was SUPER COLD. I think I’ve heard that it was -11 C at the village level, so it had to be even colder up on the mountain. We spent some time on Blackcomb, did some runs, then headed to the Peak 2 Peak gondola for Whistler. We went to the new foodcourt area for (a pricey) lunch, then continue our way down Whistler. At some point I thought Wendy went off the cliff, so I took off my board and searched around walking uphill, then when I wore the board and went down for rescue, I saw her sitting and waiting just a bit past where I was checking out… Anyway, all in all it was a fun trip, not too expensive too =D I’ll probably go up again next week with co-workers, but not sure yet as I think it was too cold up there…