Tinkerblue

25 Things You May Not Know About Me

1. I went to Greek School every Saturday morning for 6 months when I was in high school. I can't understand a word of Greek.

2. I don't like talking on the phone. Yet I worked in a call centre for the better part of 4 years.

3. I cannot whistle.

4. My favourite veggies are spinach, brussels sprouts and pumpkin.

5. I am shy and introverted. Meeting new people is terrifying and stressful.

6. I have a hearing loss in one ear. Im not ignoring you, if you are standing behind me, I just can't hear you.

7. I grind my teeth at night. It's loud. The noise has actually woken me up on more than one occasion.

8. I've only been a bridesmaid once. At Narelle and Justin's wedding.

9. My favourite gift to give is books.

10. I'm long sighted. I wear glasses for computer work.

11. The moisturiser I currently use is from Australia. I stock up when I go home.

12. I hate emus. They bite.

13. I like crosswords and playing board games.

14. Some of my childhood friends are still my friends today. Jo and I have been friends since 1977. Sharyn and I were trying to work out when we first met, around '74, we think.

15. I once skulled a liter of beer. Never again.

16. I used to collect stamps. My stamp collection is still at my parents house.

17. Now I collect Christmas decorations.

18. Up until a few years ago I had every letter that anyone had ever sent me. They were kept in boxes and boxes and boxes at mum and dads house. I finally threw them all out in 2006.

19. When I worked for the bank I won (earned) a 7 day Caribbean cruise.

20. I don't like bubblegum or fruit roll-ups.

21. Having a glass of wine, a warm bath (or a hot tub) and reading a good book is my favourite way to relax.

22. The first tune I leaned to play on the flute was "Suicide is Painless", the theme song from M.A.S.H.

23. I have finally learned to like dark chocolate.

24. I'm a Taurus through and through. Stubborn, reserved, loyal, methodical, practical, slow to anger, (but ferocious temper once roused), reliable, dependable, obstinate...

25. I almost failed Math in high school. I had a tutor. For whatever reason I could not wrap my head around algebra and trigonometry. Still can't.

Well Meaning Advice from Well Meaning Friends

When something major happens in your life, friends and family love to give advice, solicited or otherwise. I'm sure I've been guilty of it.

Right now I'm on the receiving end of a lot of advise. Some of it helpful, most of it not, some of it contradictory and some of it is just plain hilarious. Oh and the cliches. Don't forget the cliches.

So here is the advise I have been given in the last week or so...

You need to get laid
What doesn't kill you will make you stronger
Go back to school
You should sign up for plenty of fish (online dating service)
Time heals all wounds
Become a cougar, date a younger man.
You should date an older man
Give up men, date a woman
You need to find a job
Cut all the buttons off his shirts
You should move to Russia
Get a dog
Don't make any major decisions for a year
Move back to Australia
Stay in Vancouver
Exercise
Eat healthy
Set goals
When one door closes another one opens
Have a bath
Have a glass of wine
Don't drink any alcohol
Things will work out for the best
You shouldn't rely on (insert name here) so much
Take a holiday
Now is the wrong time to be going to Australia
Get over it already
Every thing happens for a reason
People are in your life for a reason
It's a chance to start a new chapter in your life
Go out & have yourself a one night stand
Your life is going to change so much
Drink lots of water
You should wait at least a year until you start dating
Punch a hole on the wall
Change the locks
Buy some goldfish
Don't go back on the train
Sell everything
Move on
Take one day at a time

I'm not sure what good moving to Russia will do me.

Winter is Finally Here

Poor Morag. She was here for 3 weeks and desperately wanted it to snow. It did not.

Hmm it snowed last Friday night, Sunday night, Wednesday morning, Wednesday night, and now it's snowing again.

I'll be running in the snow again.

Sorry Morag!

My New Favourite Hot Chocolate

For Christmas Morag gave me a jar of Mexican mole spice hot chocolate. I'm not a coffee drinker, I'm a sometimes tea drinker, but I'm a big hot chocolate drinker.

Usually it's just powder in boiling water, with a little milk. I don't like hot chocolate made with hot milk because of the skin that forms on the top. Yuck.

This hot chocolate needs to be made with milk. Not water. It's not a powder, it's chips of chocolate. They melt better and are creamier in milk.

It's a dark chocolate, so a little bitter for me. But with a teaspoon of blue agave syrup it's really good.

The ingredients are listed as Chile mulato, Chile ancho, Chile pasilla, Chile chipotle, almonds, tortilla, thyme, clove, coriander, all spice and hojan santa leaves. What are Santa leaves?

Good choice Morag.

Bandit Roads by Richard Grant

Jane and Cindy sent me Bandit Roads for Christmas. Jane wrote a note, "Mexico - somewhere we all know and love - a different viewpoint (unfortunately)." How true.

I've travelled quite a bit in Mexico, not just to coastal resorts. I love the culture, the history, the people, the food. I've seen wealthy Mexico and not so wealthy.

Luckily for me I have never experienced any of the crime that is now associated with Mexico even when I travelled in the Sierra Madre.

Bandit Roads sure highlights some of the not so desirable Mexico - drugs, bribery, rape, murder, robbery. But the author also meets some truely friendly and generous locals, who give him places to stay, act as your guides, take him places he would never get to on his own.

This is not your normal travelogue, but it was a good read. Despite the subject, I even laughed.

Regarding a cattle ranch that the owner wanted to turn into a eco tourism venture - "It sounded good to me, although it was a long drive on a bad road to get there and there was no law or emergency medical services, a lot of rattlesnakes and scorpions around the house in the summer, and some of the neighbours carried machine guns and crack pipes. Perhaps it was more of a niche market than the mainstream eco-tourism experience."

I travelled on the Copper Canyon railway from Los Mochis to Chihuahua with a couple of nights in each of Creel, Chihuahua and Ciudad Juarez in 1997. Here is what the author had to say about the tourist train.

"Nor did most of the tourists have the vaguest idea that they were passing through one of the biggest marijuana and opium producing regions in the world, with roving bandits and a murder rate far higher than the worst American ghetto."

"Bandit gangs used to rob the train regularly, sometimes masked, sometimes wearing military uniforms but with tell-tale sandals. They would go through the carriages demanding money and jewellery at gunpoint, sometimes making their escape on horseback."

"According to newspaper reports at the time, on both sides of the border, masked bandits with automatic weapons stormed the train in November 1998, jumping aboard as it slowed down in a tunnel and spraying bullets around to announce their presence."

It goes on, the bandits shot and killed a Swiss tourist. The mafia executed the bandits. "The train robberies, and especially the murdered tourist, had brought unwelcome attention from the authorities and the media at a time when many mafiosos were investing and laundering their money through hotel building and other projects in the booming new tourist economy in the Copper Canyon country.....don't mess with the tourists. If you mess with the tourists, you mess with the mafia."

Sure glad I read this book after my travels and not before.

Winter Wonderland

Yesterday and today I woke up to fresh snow.

Seemed like a good excuse to stay home and relax. Candlelight, a mug of Bailey's, warm baths (#1 with pink bubbles from Heather, Yves and Isabelle, #2 with bath salts from Carlea and Andreas), bad TV and good books.

Today was a day for friends. Brunch with Carlea. A movie and exploding tea with Carlea and Andreas. Dinner and apple pie with Mark, Laura and Julie.

Salt Tasting Room

A friend of mine told me I need to set goals for myself. Small goals. Baby steps. One step at a time. My goal for this year is to spend more time with friends.

For years now Michelle has been trying to talk us into going to Salt in Gas Town. Dave and I never made it. Finally I did.

On Friday night I went with Michelle, Katie, Rose and Thierry. Michelle, Katie and I started with a beer (Innes and Gunn for me) at the Irish Heather.

We met up with Rose and Thierry at Salt. Cheese and wine. This place is my idea of heaven.

There are various options but I went with the 2 cheese and 1 meat platter. I like my cheeses strong. Like blue cheese, Stilton... Rather than me picking, I just told the waiter what I liked an he brought his best recommendation.

On my plate....

Corned beef with Guinness mustard. Bet you didn't know I like mustard? The grainier and stronger, the better. I ate the whole bowl of mustard and a second. Michelle was horrified and/or embarrassed when I licked the spoon and yes, the bowl.

St Paulin cheese and hazelnuts. This is a soft creamy cheese and mild. It was good, especially with the hazelnuts. I' have like something a little stronger but I'd have it again.

Shropshire cheese and honey. This was my favourite. The Shropshire was suitably sharp and tasty. Add the honey, and it was oh so good. I need to have this in my fridge at home.

I also ordered a wine flight, and again left it to our waiter to match the wine to my cheeses...

Las Perdiers Pinot Noir with the corned beef.
Tellus IGT Marche with the St Paulins.
Kettle Valley Viognier with the Shropshire.

I enjoyed them all. I'd buy a bottle of either one of them.

It wasn't a cheap night. $15 for the cheese/meat platter and $15 for the wine flight. But it was a fun night. I really enjoyed it. And I can't wait to do it again.

Thanks Michelle for the suggestion and for driving (in the snow).

7 Years of Bad Sex

Last weekend I had some friends over for drinks to start off the new year.  At one point we all "cheers"ed our drinks.

It was pointed out to us, that when we say cheers we should look each other in the eye.  Otherwise you get seven years of bad sex.

It's even mentioned as point 3 of this Wine etiquette guide.

http://joannagoddard.blogspot.com/2011/12/wine-etiquette.html

Someone else commented that it was impossible to look everyone in the eye, so they'd take their chances -  7 years of bad sex was better than no sex.

We did a lot of cheersing.  I'm not sure how successful we were at making eye contact.

 

Christmas Toothpaste

I've made a few trips down to the States in the last month or so. A few absolutely random things that caught my eye and made me smile.

Christmas toothpaste - the flavour is watermelon. How is watermelon Christmasy?

 

Escalators for you shopping cart - they need these at the airport for my luggage cart, so I don't have to cram into a crowded lift:

 

A bike gift wrap bag:

 

Toilet key at Kidd Valley. I bet Barbie never thought that was a job she would end up doing:

 

Canucks t-shirts for sale on amongst the Mariners, Huskies, and Sounders gear:

Lemon Meringue Kisses and Lemon Curd

This is a recipe from Barb's cookbook. "It'll be in... My Next Cookbook" by Barbara Qualley. She first made them about 4 years ago. Well she'd probably made them before that, but that was when I first inhaled them.

I'm a lemon and lime type of girl. Lime margaritas, lemon cheesecake, lemon cookies, tequila lime coconut macaroon slices, tequila lime BBQ chicken...

So these are right up my alley. Barb does a better job at them than I did. Hers are much prettier. Mine look like blobs not kisses. They still taste good. And the lemon curd I could eat by the bowlful. Ooh maybe on my toast for breakfast?