Tinkerblue

Vancouver Aquarium After Hours

Last week I won two tickets to the After Hours evening at Vancouver Aquarium from Marc Smith at 30 Day Adventures. After Hours is just that, the Aquarium is open after it's normal hours and for the over 19 set only.

4 hours at the Aquarium with no school groups, day camps or other assorted rugrats. It was awesome.  It was busy, the event sold out but it was not crowded and the only lineups were for the beer.

I forced Andrea into coming with me and we had a great time. Our first stop of the evening was at Penguin Point to visit the African Penguins.

I like penguins. I'm partial to Fairy Penguins, but I could have watched the African Penguins for quite some time. In fact I think I did. Andrea was very patient. 

After saying goodnight to the penguins we made our way around the rest of the Aquarium. Some of the highlights were:

• Hanging out with the Belugas
• Saying hi to the Otters
• Sea Lions napping in the sun
• Welcoming Dory, Nemo and Marlin back from the EAC

• The touch tanks in the lab - sea cucumbers, urchins, anemone, crabs, jelly fish and sea stars

• Playing dress up in the kiddie area 

But suprisingly my favourite thing of the evening was the tiny tiny sea gooseberries. These are video I took on my iPhone. Andrea and I spent quite a bit of time watching the colours light up.

 

 

The After Hours event was a great way to enjoy the Aquarium without kids running wild. I go again. Tickets are $21.95. Not bad for an evenings entertainment. Thanks to Roxanne from the Aquarium and Marc from 30 Day Adventures for the tickets that Andrea and I were lucky enough to have last night.

 

 

 

 

 

Enchiladas Verdes

This in an older recipe. The first time I made it was 2008, and it's made a couple of reappearances since then. I promised to cook dinner for a friend on Monday night, I was craving Mexican, so Enchiladas Verdes it was. 

• 2 tsps vegetable oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Heat oil in a medium saucepan. Add onion and cook until softened (5-7mins). Add garlic, and cumin and cook until fragant - about 30 seconds. Decrease heat to low and stir in broth. Add chicken breasts, cover and simmer until 160C about 15-20 minutes, flipping halfway through cooking.  Transfer chicken to large bowl. Place in refrigerator to cool. Remove 1/4 cup of liquid and set aside; discard remaining liquid.

 

 

• 3 Poblano chiles, stemmed, halved and seeded
• 33 oz of canned tomatillos or 1 /12 lbs tomatillos, husks & stems removed, rinsed well and dried
• 2 tsps olive oil

 

 

Toss with olive oil, place cut side down on foild lined baking sheet. Broil for 5 to 10 mins until they blacken and start to soften. Let cool slighty. Remove skin from peppers.

 

Place peppers, tomatillos, and accumulated juices, a clove of minced garlic, 1 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of sugar and reserved cooking liquid in food processor and blend, about 8 pulses so that the sauce is chunky not smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Spread 3/4 cup of tomatillo sauce over bottom of 13 x 9 inch baking pan. 

When chicken is cool, shred into bite size pieces. Combine with 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro and 1 1/2 cups grated pepper Jack or Monterey Jack cheese. Season with salt. 

 

12 corn tortillas

Spray both sides with olive oil, place in single layer on baking sheet. Bake for 2-4 mins at 350F until tortillas are pliable.

 

Spread chicken mix down centre of each tortilla. Roll tightly.  Place seamside down in baking dish. Pour remaining tomatillo sauce over top of enchiladas. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of grated cheese and cover tightly with foil.

 

Bake at 450F for 15 to 20 mins. Until enchiladas are heated through and cheese is melted.

 

Garnish with spring onions, serve with sour cream and enjoy.

** Needed a little more spice. Plenty of left overs for lunch. Yum.

*** Original recipe from Cooks Illustrated, August 2008

Scissor Sisters

More new music for my iPod. When I'm at home (Australia home) I watch a lot of Doctor who with my Dad and my girlfriend Jo.

Back in Season 3 of the rebooted Doctor Who, the series with David Tennant as the Doctor, there was an episode where the Master tormented the rapidly aged Doctor singing I Can't Decide, by Scissor Sisters.

 

 

Scissor Sisters also had a song, Isn't It Strange on the Shrek Forever After soundtrack:

 

 

I Don't Feel Like Dancing reminds me of our high school Milkshakes and Koffeepots for some reason:

 

 

They were playing at the Commodore in Vancouver last week, but I couldn't go. Michelle went. I was a wee bit jealous. 

The Naked + Famous

New music for my iPod. The Naked + Famous is a rock band from New Zealand (Don't hold that against them). I'd been hearing their music a lot on TV without realising it was all the same group.

The Sun on Ringer, Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill and Grey's Anatomy:

 

 

No Way on Grey's Anatomy:

 

 

Bells on Grey's Anatomy, and Gossip Girl:

 

 

Serenade on Hawaii Five-O:

 

 

Young Blood on Gossip Girl:

 

 

The friend I'm staying with right now, was blasting one of their songs throughout the house for a couple of days. He also made the album cover is screensave.  Another friend sent me a link to the album. I finally gave in and downloaded their album, Passive Me Aggresive You 

 

(No commenting on my choice of TV viewing!)

Evening Paddle - Summer Solstice, First Day of Summer, Longest Day of the Year

The summer solstice is the first day of summer. While is usually falls on June 21st (in the Northern Hemisphere anyway), this year it was on June 20th - yesterday.  

The summer solstice is when the sun reaches it furthest point north from the Equator. So from here on here the days start getting shorter again.  

Last night was such a beautiful evening, it was warm and sunny and the water was flat, just a slight ripple as the tide was coming in. I had been in Vancouver most of the day visiting friends and running errands, but I couldn't resist going for a paddle when I got back to Sechelt.

I loaded the kayak onto wheels, pulled it down the highway to the beach access, hauled it across the driftwood and then paddled to my hearts content. I was the only one out on the water and it was awesome. Lots of quiet. Just the sound of the ocean, some birds flying overhead and my paddle in the water.

No idea how long I was on the water for, probably only an hour or so.  The tide was coming in, and I needed to pull the kayak out while there was still some flat areas, and not just driftwood.

A nice, relaxing way to start summer on the Sunshine Coast.

Active Vs Lazy. Last Week Vs This Week.

So last week, I pretty much kept to my plan for working out.

Monday - does weeding count? This was my rest day.

Tuesday - 7km run. 48mins 36 secs

Wednesday - Swam 1 mile

Thursday - 4km easy run

Friday - Swam 1 mile

Saturday - 3.5 km run. 

Sunday - Unplanned rest day.

 

This week was a pitiful effort.

Monday - 8km run. This was good.

Tuesday - Dental surgery. I could have gone for a swim before by 1030am appointment. But I was lazy and didn't.

Wednesday - doped up on painkillers and slept away most of the day

Thursday - The peridontist said I shouldn't run or swim for a week. Why not? I had surgery on my mouth, not my legs or my arms.  So did nothing

Friday - another day of nothing

Saturday - today I finally grew bored with no workout.  I was restless. I went for a run. I didn't get far. Not even 1/2 a km. My gums started bleeding. I guess there was a reason they said no running for a week.

 

So, next week? Not sure what'll happen yet.  But I can't sit round doing nothing much longer.

 

 

 

Excess Packaging

Are you kidding me? I thought the Girl Guides were supposed to encourage environmental friendliness, reducing, reusing and recycling. Yeah, not so much.

I ordered some earrings for my mum from The Girl Guides of Canada. See the size of the box they came in?

Check out all the paper inside.

Then look at the tiny bag of earrings.

They could have just sent them in a padded envelope.

How disappointing.

London 2012 Biscuit Tins

I have a bunch of old, not vintage just old biscuit tins that I use for all sorts of junk.  There's an Arnotts bus that now contains my collection of wine corks.  A toy shop tin with R. Wilson on the awning that is full of girl guide and athletic pins.  A Tim Tam tin holds coupons and membership cards. My Mum and Dad store tea bags in my tins from Tokyo Disneyland.

I need more biscuit tins like I need a hole in the head. But these three appeal to me. I'm sure I could find a use for them. Pity I'm not going to London anytime soon.

 

 

This is the Jubilee tin from Marks & Spencer

 

 

 

This is also from Marks and Spencer. It's covered in London landmarks most of which I have been to.

 

 

 

The red phone booth has typical London characters on each of the four sides. This was their 2011 Christmas tin

 

 

 

This bus is a chocolate tin, and it's really small. It's very cute. It could hold all that loose change in my car.

 

 

 

 

 

Running Along

Since the beginning of May I've made a concerted effort to exercise regularly again. Why? Because it's good for me. It also means if I want to have a beer or glass of wine in the evening, or a cookie during the day, I can.

Not only is it physically good for me, it's mentally good for me. I run out all the crap that's cluttering up my head. Week before last there was one day where I was particularly antsy. I was restless, I couldn't sit still, and nothing sound good. It was pointed out to me, half in jest that I hadn't done any exercise in two days and that's why I was irritable. So I went for a run. Felt much better afterwards.

Around the middle of May I started swimming again. Right now I'm running three times a week and swimming 3 times a week. I'm used to swimming in a 50m pool. The pool here is 25m - that's a lot of turns. I can't flip turn do it means lots of stop/start turns. I usually swim between one and two kilometres. I run between 3 and 5km.

I still don't run very fast but my times are improving. Previously my fast time for 4km was 32:54 in October 2011, at the beginning of May I ran in 30:46. This week I ran 4km in 29:22. Not a huge improvement but I'll take it.

The only problem is my muscles all ache. No injuries or anything. I've just been lazy for so long that my muscles are not used to all this exercise. I need to find a yoga class, to get some stretching in.

I'm determined to keep the running and swimming going through June. Don't let me slack off.