Day of Revisiting Lost Youth

This is a recollection of my memory a few weeks ago. I have been really busy finding excuses and activities to write this down :P

Few weeks ago, on a beautiful sunday afternoon, a rare treat in the winter of Vancouver, a call awoke me from my sweet afternoon nap; my brothers asked me to enjoy the sunshine in Stanley Park. With long negotiation and hard struggles, I was forked out of my comfy bed and into the chilling sea breeze.

My captors were right. It was a wonderful day to be out in the open. With windows down and 70's chinese songs(鄧麗君) flowing in the car, my body had started to revitalize from its slumber. My friend figured that was a great way to start the afternoon and, in the same time, educate the young the goddess of chinese music history. =.=" we had a new participant today who is almost a decade younger than us. Damn.. what happened to our youth~~~~ We swore to capture that was lost, today !!

The biking started out as enjoying as the fresh scent of trees and sea water surrounding us. There were many people crawled out of their warm covers to take a peak at the incoming spring. "wow, she is gorgeous", "man, she is hot", "dang, what a nice *beep*", those were the thoughts going through my mind as I toured the seawall of Stanley Park; biking had become a very difficult task to master with all these distractions. Am I getting this desperate or spring is really coming?! I quickly crossed that out of my head as I rode towards the incoming tree. The result of my "super shoulder check" almost ended in utter humiliation. Nevertheless, with these pretty eye candies around me, it was rather hard to learn from the mistake few minutes ago. Man, I need help!!

English Bay was lively as ever; the winter did not seem to affect the crowd at all. We stopped for a breather and decided to go visit Granville Island for the last hour stretch of our tour. Out of nowhere, the smell of delicious smokies had interrupted our group huddle. I swear those damn hot dog stands are evil!!! They know, when and where to stand, to cloud your judgment into buying their food. With the clock ticking and a long lineup of hot dog slaves, we had no choice, but to give up on such atrocious seduction.

We sped down the coastline and up the steep hill, in order to cross the Burrard Bridge. Our age had begun to catch up to our willing spirit. Everyone was panting, sweating, and losing will to go on. Aaah.. my legs sore... my back hurt..... can't breath..... but must go on.... sweet fish and chips, oyster burger and a nice glass of beer is waiting for me on the other side of the bridge. My foody sense is tinkling~~ they are close~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Time and aching body were not on our side. We had to settle with the nearby Starbucks. I did rejuvenate myself with a cup of "grante extra hot latte", my daily shot of stimulant. I felt like a stim-packed marine, ready to go, "ooh yeah..." The effect, however, did not last for long. The stupid Burrard Bridge was harder to ride through than imagined. We raced through the streets and cross-walks like one of those Indy 500 games. We arrived at the bike shop with 20 seconds to spare. phew~~~ almost lost another 10 bucks from being over time. The result was rather fatal. Everyone could barely walk. We must had looked like four recently risen zombies, dragging our feet back to the car.

In the end, we did regain our lost youth for a few moments at the cost of sore muscle pain and inability to move in the next few days, but it was worth the effort.

Mission accomplished!!

- Feb 24, 2008

Wii-ly of "Three Box Boys" Squad

Sunday breakfast @ IHOP

There are things that if you don't do usually, it is probably a good idea not to do them. For example, having breakfast early on a sunday morning at IHOP was one of them. It was a bright and shiny morning. I dragged my ass painfully out of my warm comfortable bed and prepared for something I don't usually do... Early Breakfast on weekend. After the emotional struggle, I got out and was happy that I am going to be on time. In fact, I was 'early' according to the taiwanese gathering tradition. When I went up to the lovely front desk personnel and asked for seats of 9 people, the waiter replied me with something that totally shocked and destroyed my morning. "How many kids seats would you like to have?" *dun dun dum(as the music plays)* I was sent to the dark abyss of my shiny despair. =.=" The waiter stared at me for about 5 seconds before I could recover from the trauma. "none?!", that marks the end of an awkward conversation and my happy sunday morning. *sigh.....*

Anyways, the breakfast was rather pleasant with spectacular insights into human physiology. We talked from automated needle treatment of chinese medicine to ingredients of chocolate fondue. One of the girls claimed that chocolate goes well with chinese meatball, as well as chinese sausage. That inflamed a debate of salty food vs sweet sauce. There were some very disturbing instances of actual marketable combination, such as strawberry jam with sausage. One of the girls even recommend, from personal experience, peanut better and rice. The awe of human creativity and stomach susceptibility bring to the end of my delightful sunday brunch.

Daddy, that's my chicken nuggets!!!

Today's proposed schedules were rather interesting. I had offers from either photographer shopping with a soon to be married couple or Valentine's gifts shopping with a troubled friend. Neither were fun for a single guy, so I decided to sleep until my hunger awaken me. When my stomach mumblingly chanted, "food! food! food!!", I knew it was time to pay my friend Wendy's a visit.

While waiting for my not-so-fast fast food, there was this little 5 year old girl telling her dad what she wanted to have when her dad asked. She was really decisive on her meal plan, kids' meal with chocolate milkshake. Upon the arrival of her colorful kids' meal bag, with sparkling eyes, she jumped for joy and yelled "Daddy daddy, that's my chicken nuggets!!" She continued her excitement for a while with the same expression, which got me thinking about adults' definition of happiness, why adults' pleasure harder to satisfy.

To a kid, happiness can simply be a decorative paper bag filled with greasy junk food and a little plastic surprise. That little girl knew exactly what she wanted and was extremely happy with it, why can't adults do the same. What happened to us? As we grow older, our vision to our desire seems blurred and our taste for happiness seems numbed. I know a few people who struggle to find what they want and are depressed by it;I can safely say they are not the only ones on earth. With so many depressed people in the world, rich or poor, I think perhaps it is time for us to sit down, re-evaluate ourselves and get in touch with our inner child. Why get depressed by trivial matters in our daily lives or something more serious like love(or lack of it :P). Time to look for that magical paper bag. The simplest form of happiness is inside that bag and that bag can be anything around us, if only we look closely enough to discover it.

~tribute to those with broken souls

Lost of Soul for Brownies

Few days ago, I was presented an opportunity to obtain some devilish Brownies. Miss Devil's advocate offered me the deal for details of my illicit activities during the winter holiday break. Jan's Brownies are to die for; it is hard resist the godforsaken temptation. After few seconds of soul searching, I decided to give in to what they asked for. Even after agreement and preparation of the photographic evidences, my guilt had interrupted my sleep and forced to negotiate for a separate arrangement for the poor victims. Dear God, please have mercy on my soul. What am I supposed to do to resist such devilish temptation. My condolence to the poor for my weak will.

I curse you, Jan Chan, for baking such addictive brownies.

NooOoooooOoooooooooo ~~~~

Poor slave Wu Wu,