The Forbidden City at Vancouver Art Gallery

I have always wanted to come and look at the exhibits here at Vancouver Art Gallery. It was just fortunate that when I did got my Canadian Citizenship, part of the package was you get a Cultural Access Pass that will get you to lots of places in Canada for free. One of those places is the Vancouver Art Gallery...

They were featuring am exhibit called "The Forbidden City". It was a long line as it was the last day of the said exhibit but it was fun to see the things they use during that era.

* No pictures inside

Art exhibit "Unscrolled"

* * * * *

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

Vancouver Art Gallery

Downtown, Vancouver

Chinese New Year at Burnaby Montessori

I had Kimi in her Qi Pao (旗袍) for Chinese New Year in School.

Korea also celebrates New Year same day and Yena also wore a Hanbok to school...

* Kimi in her Qi Pao; Yena in her Hanbok

***Thanks Ninang Sabrina for this nice dress :) 

The teachers also prepared some ampao (red envelopes with money) which signifies good luck. It was distributed to each student as the exit the classroom. 

* Small Ampao with little blessings inside :)

* Lucky Pennies 

* A Final pose before entering our home

Chinese New Year Dinner @ Dai Tung

For Chinese New Year, we were able to reserve for an early spot at Dai Tung's, Kingsway.

It was way too early for dinner at 5 pm but we wanted to celebrate it nonetheless and every other restaurant only had 8pm onward which means that it will be a late dinner....and with kids on tow, early is way better than dealing with cranky and hungry kids.

I was not able to take note of our orders so I have labelled them based on a copy of a menu I found on the net and some I tried to label as best as I could... :)

First off, we had Kenzo sat on his diner's chair and equipped him with an iphone with data to keep him quiet. 

Before the dishes arrived, Kenzo should have finished his food so that he won't get distracted with the grownup food which we were sure he'd love to try.

* Full concentration

* Picture Menu- More enticing!

This dish was so so. I like the jelly fish which is a given but the others were just okay. I love the presentation of their dishes though. 

* Cold Platter

* Crab Meat and Fish Maw Soup

Everyone agreed that the Peking duck was really good...

* Peking Duck 2 Way

I love seafood with hard shells- mussels, bamboo shells, but crabs and lobster are my absolute favorites. I put this dish on my finale. I ate all the dishes then got myself ready to have my hands ready as I dived into this dish until everything was gone- almost. I left 2 for my lunch next day :)

* Lobster and Crab Combination

Perfect combination, dried scallop add a bit of saltiness to the tofu. Something healthy to start the year?

* Braised Egg Tofu with Dried Scallop

The eel was really tasty, I just don't like the fish bones that goes with this dish.

* Sizzling Eel Hotpot 

...this dish was as expected. Tasty but nothing special...

..and to end the meal... Something sweet :)

* Red Bean Dessert

...we had a couple of friends that doesn't have any family here in Vancouver to join us and celebrate the start of the Water Dragon :)

* Friends: Eron, Stone and Twinny

...and Kimi tried to demonstrate her version of the Dragon Dance... Kenzo doesn't care at all.

* Initial Pose...

...and the Finale

* Bottoms Up.. Cheers! "干杯"

* * * * *

HAPPY NEW BEGINNINGS

FOR THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON

* LOVE* HEALTH* FORTUNE*

*FAMILY*FRIENDS*

Reminiscing Shanghai 2004...

When I was still single, I remember going to places with my friends... One of the most memorable one is the Shanghai trip with one of my closest girl friend, Hannah. Those were carefree moments of being single and having fewer responsibilities and we decided to try our luck in finding a job in China. We ended up extending our stay to 5 weeks which was full of discovery and picture taking...

China, like Canada, has lots of parks and we went to endless parks and even went to trade fairs, museums and meet up with our ex-boss from Manila for dinner and just simply to keep in touch...

2004 June 06
Century Park

In Shanghai, we had to do all the chores. We had the eating covered since we ate outside most of the time. Sometimes we eat at fast food and some days we just splurge on some fine dining and treat ourselves to something fancy...like crab, but crab were expensive at that place and ended up eating the imitation crab (he he!).

2006 May 23

Yu Yuan Garden

Xin Tian Di

One of the funniest things that happened to us in Shanghai was when we had to operate the washing machine... (Operating it for the first time was hard enough but having to read them in Chinese characters was much harder...) and the dryer. One of Hannah’s favourite sweaters ended up way too small after the drying up... (Uh-oh) It was pure wool and we didn’t read the instruction on how to dry it. Now, I know that washing instructions ARE important. I do the washing here and I always remember that incident whenever I do the washing here... and it makes it less of a chore when I think about my Shanghai Washing Incident.

I miss those times... I wish I can go on a vacation with my friends when I go back to Manila next year...

China: Day26 Pig out on Jap Foods!

We ate at the Jap food in GuBei with Eric's friend, Irene, together with her sister Sally and their house-mate, Roselyn. We also met Steph, another school mate of theirs...Fiesta Jap-style. We weren't able to get pics of the group but I have gotten some pic of the resto interior also it's not that good (i mean, the picture taken...kinda dark). Haven't uploaded it yet but will post it soon.

Shrinkage

We had an emergency shrinkage of Hannah's blouse...The wool top was accidentally mixed up for dryer and it ended up too small for wearing =(.

Went for another lunch our current fave resto...Bi feng tang. On the way to the interview we passed by the other 'Bund', which is the Bund Centre. Didn't go out for dinner anymore...Cost cutting, hehe!

P.S. Type 'guest' as password...

China: Day18

We went to another park here in Jing an area called the Jing An Park. It's free of charge =)... It was way much smaller than the Century Park but the place was ok. More of an oasis type than the one at Century Park. They have waterfalls and man made (i think!) lagoons...

**Password to open pix is 'guest'

China: Day17

2004-06-04: Day at the Park...Century Park, Pudong

We spent the majority of our day in the park... Had lunch at their canteen inside the park:

Canteen:
1*2

Inside the park:

**By the flowers:



1*2*3*4*5*6*7*8*9*10*11*12

**By the cottage:



1*2*3

**By the rocks



1*2*3*4*5*6

**By the lake



1*2*3*4*5

**By the trees



1*2*3*4*5*6

**By the garden
1*2

These are the first batch...more pix to come...The most pix we took in one place =O for an afternoon hehe!

China: Day15

2004-06-03: For today, we had a full schedule ahead of us. We were mainly in the Pudong area because we had to go to Quia guo road for a scheduled meeting. We were done by lunch time.

Afterwards we went to the Shanghai Art Museum... Some pix were not that good because taking pix are not allowed and we just get by without the flash when there is someone guarding...and tried using the flash when no one's around...

Looks real? It's not...

Pix with the statue...
Hahn * Mel

Paintings:
1*2*3*4*5*6(Apec mtg in shanghai)ZOOM (Arroyo with the China's President)*7*8*9*10

Sculpture:
1*2

Paper Art (Cut-outs):
1*2*3

Outside the Shanghai Art Museum:
1*2*3*4

Orient Pearl Tower Area, Pudong:
1*2*3*4

We went to Shimen road to have look around the area but ended up seeing the great strip of bargaining stores and little resto when we were about to leave and meet a friend of Hannah's, Dwight.

From Shimen Road, we went to ride the subway to Lujiazui station to meet up with Dwight. We decided to meet at Shanghai Ocean Aquarium. Some pix...Some pix are blurred because of the moving objects (fish...) background.

China Day 12 to 14th

China: Day12

2004-05-30: We had lunch once again at 'Bi Feng Dang', our new fave resto as of the present...=) everything ordered is quite delicious. Maybe the dish tastes resembles our food. As for dinner, we ate at Xin Dian di...(another new find) the meal was great up to the dessert, except for the noodles which turns out to taste like the instant ones we buy from the supermarke =(...We went to starbucks to hang out and do some works (works daw!? hehe!) there...Hannah bought a laptop with her to make some adjustments to her documents...Just to get the feel of working in a coffee shop =)

China: Day13

2004-05-31: Today, we went to Nan Jing Lu (Again for the nth time) and had a foot massage in the evening...ahhh,this is life! =)

China:Day14

2004-06-01: We were supposedto have breakfast @ Mc DOnalds...Unfortunately, we were behind someone at the counter at 10:30am exactly and he got the last breakfast being served so we were left with no choice but to get the regular meals... Afterward,we went to take a look around Lotus Supermarket and bought some things we need for the house.

For Dinner,we ate at the Hot Pot restaurant,referred by Warren, it was quite good and I think pretty nutritious compared to the foods we ate this past few days... Here are some of the pix taken...

Hotpot...see how big?Anyway,not that big because there is a metal in the center sorta like a donut plan if you look at the top view of the hot pot...Anyway, I just got the front view