Tonight we are going to Ed’s work Christmas party, I love any chance to dress up, do my hair and makeup and have free dinner, booze and dancing.
Last night, we had a very successful dinner and hilarious evening as always. Dinner was delicious, I love all holiday dinner fixings, they always remind me of Grandpa and those yummy dinners he used to cook for us. And as an extra dedication I even made scallop potatoes from a box just like he used to.
Since Ed’s bachelor party was on Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, we missed out on having a thanksgiving feast with our friends, so we are making up for it tonight.
I love that we can throw together an impromtu dinner party at Trondee’s house in a matter of days and it is always a good time!
I will be truly sad when these dinners go on hiatus during Chress’ and Trondee’s adventures abroad. But I know that when we all reconnect it will be just the same đ
After the Santa Claus Parade, it becomes acceptable to start thinking about Christmas. The city starts to be illuminated with bazillions of lights, the Bay windows are unveiled, the Christmas music is playing in the malls.
I was excited yesterday to remember that with Christmas, comes coffee places adding Christmas flavours into hot chocolate. The best is still Second Cup peppermint white hot chocolate, but I am always game to try new ones. And last night I had the gingerbread hot chocolate at Tim Horton’s, it was “interesting”, both mom and Jon seemed delighted by the strange concoction.
Additionally, I love Christmas flavoured ice creams too. Even though I just want one bowl of it. And Ed always groans and moans when I get excited about the newest release. I do truly like the peppermint fudge crackle from President’s Choice, but I agree that one year I had an eggnog one, it was in there till June.
YEAH Christmas flavourings!!!!
I can feel myself rising up from my bridal brain mush, like a newlywed phoenix. There were a great few months spent thinking only of red and aqua details, entertaining our guests and throwing the best damn wedding we could afford!
Now I am ready for the next challenges and details that will occupy that brain space.
As I re-charged my i-pod this morning, I realize that I need a new set of running music to get me back to full force. And with that energy, I hope that soon there will be no looking back from the next whirlwind adventure.
p.s. I will be writing about the honeymoon diary soon enough
I am challenging myself to do a blog a day from now till New Years, by then it will hopefully become habit.
Today is our one month wedding anniversary! We survived! “They say the first month is the hardest…” Ha! if only every month could be started with a fabulous trip to Asia. We are going to celebrate by trying a highly recommended Thai restaurant called Sukhothai – just like the hotel we went went in Bangkok was called Sukhothai Hotel.
With the holiday season approaching, a few things to think about, eggnog, baking, decorating and making a wish list.
well, I clearly missed the boat on writing about our wedding adventures, now that it is is half way through November and nearly a month since our wedding day…
I even missed out on writing about our honeymoon, sheesh, what a lazy ass I am!
I will try and be a little more persistent in writing about our actual lives.
We arrived home from our 3 weeks in Asia in a daze and love for HK. We have actually discussed moving their and the adventures we could have…tho I think the adventure we are having here is just as invigorating, tho comfortable.
Our domestic adventures begin with our new appliances, our need for creative storage solutions and of course our daily episodes with our furry babies.
Ikonica!
We fell in love with Jackson at the wedding co show…sadly he is a fortune. So we are happily investigating his other associate photographers.
We will be meeting Lisa on Wednesday, I hope she impresses and we can get this all settled.
I found this old video…it’s old but I like it
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0ffwDYo00Q
We took the MTR into Shen Zhen with Gooma. The ride is only 45minutes.I donât really know what it is like in China, because we just stayed in the mall that is right outside the customs. The mall is like Pacific Mall but 5 floors tall.
When we arrived at the border we had to go to the âForeignersâ entrance and get through customs. And then meet back up with Gooma, which was difficult because there are multiple exits and you are not supposed to go back in to the terminal once you have left. We were outside waiting and I could see Gooma inside, so as I tried calling to her, the security guard became very cross with me. So eventually Ed had to sneak in to get Gooma. I was worried about getting in trouble if I got caught.
We had dim sum when we arrived as we waited for the stores to regain electricity. This was dim sum #3, Gooma was worried we would get sick of it, but there is no way. My favourite dish was the ginger steamed milk. And surprisingly they didnât have any hot mustard.
We found the cheong sam store that Goomaâs friends recommended. We found a great material that was left behind by some other foreigner for my dress. It will be ready on Tuesday for a fitting. We also got Ed a jacket and pants made for the tea ceremony.
Then the shopping frenzy began. Gooma had a list given to her from her friends for the best places to go, so we sought those out and we were happily surprised. The first shoe store we were in, the sales girl walked us quite far to a bedding store and behind a big box was a door to another room. Inside this room were âbrandâ name shoes that cannot be seen by the police because they have labels on them. Everything was there Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Versace, Chanel, etc. They had to run back and forth to where ever their warehouse was to get the shoes, which took a long time. Gooma used this to her advantage when bargaining. The final sale was $700 Yuan for 3 pairs of shoes and a t-shirt. I got red âGucciâ pumps and Ed got a t-shirt.
Next we got 20 socks for $200; the original offer was 8 pairs for $100.
Another shoe store, the store looked closed from the front, with their windows covered. There werenât any fake labels here that I had heard of; but lots of shoes none the less. I got away with a pair of grey boots.
Next target, a purse store where Gooma selected several gifts for Christmas presents and I tried to find a purse for Mom but there werenât any nice ones really, so I will have to keep looking. I did get a brown leather purse though.
Ed started noticing the mass amounts that I was accumulating and started looking. The store next door had fake Abercrombie and AE but nothing really spectacular.
On to the next store, my favourite, it was truly ghetto. I spotted several patterns of âLe Sportsacâand was suspicious that if they can make fake âLVâ and âGucciâ, how they cannot have âLe Sportsacâ. And I was right, turns out the ones they show with all the fake words on them are just for show. So I was asked to pick a few models and colours I liked and then a girl would go get them. So I figured she would go to storage somewhere. Then she climbed up the shelves and into the ceiling!!!! She had to move a ceiling panel and go in, slide the panel back over and then someone would put a purse back on the shelf. It was truly amazing. I picked out 3 bags, I could have easily picked 10, and Gooma bargained from $480 to $180. I would have paid $300. What an amazing deal.
Finally, we stopped to have an afternoon snack, Peking Duck. First and second course and then we were stuffed. Then before we left we used the facilities, I peed in a toilet bowl in the ground, twice!
And I finally found Starbucks mugs, one Hong Kong and one China, the mugs in HK are espresso cups. So I am happy to have found the full size mugs.
It was a very productive day!
We came home to rest and ended up staying in the night.
We met Gooma and Mah Mah for dim sum. Gooma wanted to show
Mah Mah just how clever Ed is with his knowledge of Chinese words, so she gave
him the order sheet and told him to order 5 dishes. We picked out the chung
fun, the har gao and si long bao. Then we had to order, cause it was taking us
too long, so Gooma just picked a few more. But we continued to look at the
order sheet to try and figure out more words. They were both impressed with our
deductive skills and are convinced Ed is more Chinese than me.
Then we walked to Sogo to check out their anniversary sale.
We bought some Puma stuff on sale. And Gooma researched what bags Mom might
like; the one I picked out was $1900HK.
Then it was time for my facial and massage which lasted 4
hours with a shower in between to kill some time. Ed met up with his friend
Bettina and they went out for snacks.
Nathan came to meet us for dinner, Bettina took us to a
Shanghai style restaurant where we had a 4 person set meal.
Again we did not have bubble tea. It is not as common as we
thought it would be.
By the way, I love sleeping with âThe Americanâ, who I have
named Frank; he makes me look forward to coming home at night.
Ed has given up on the Starbucks game at a score of 11 to
-1âŚ.HAHAHAH!!!! I rule at that game đ