Pepper Lunch with Auntie Catherine! / Nando's Chicken as a birthday dinner!

Wed, 19 Sep 2018 01:33:00 GMT

IT IS MY BIRTHDAY. BOW DOWN TO THE FIRE DRAGON!

Since Auntie Catherine wanted to change our lunch at Pepper Lunch (which I have always wanted to try - Japanese Teppanyaki cuisine!) from Saturday the 15th to today at 11 because she has a doctor appointment in Richmond anyhow, I was semi-amenable to that prospect. I left at 10:45, but had to wait a while because she was at least 15 minutes late. I thought she'd be coming from Brighouse Station, but nope - she had driven instead! The manager seemed very friendly and personable, and helped me cook my raw rare Angus beef steak, green beans, bean sprouts, and carrots in the sizzling iron pan (which came with rice): I even got free miso soup and a free mango mochi for dessert since it was my birthday! Auntie Catherine and I talked about Frances and her baptism (ha ha ha), Auntie Emily / Ellen / Andrew / Brian, prayer for the meal (I guess...), hugs hello AND goodbye, Steph, and the Translink website being largely good for trip planning. (North Van to No. 2 and Francis? Sure, why not...)

I left at 4:20 for Oakridge Station (just managing to catch the 407) to meet Mom and Dad, who were really late. We went to Nando's on West 41st, and talked about garlic bread / spiciness level for the chicken / roasted peppers / Ayler wanting to puncture the napkins with his fork / Ayler almost stabbing me with his fork / cleaning / tips / Patsy Hui (Aaron and Denise Hui's mom) being related to Uncle Stanley and Auntie Vonnie / all the buses going by / real estate. I finally got home at 7:35 on a 407. PHEW!

Mom, to Jon: "How much money did you raise last night?" Jon and I heard, "How much money did you WASTE last night?" Mom also called a wristwatch a WRISTBAND, but it's kinda similar-ish...

Random stuff from Mom and Dad: A Colgate toothbrush, 95 mL of Colgate Cavity Protection toothpaste which expires in April 2020, a Joe Fresh wristwatch already set to the correct time, a broken Cadbury Fruit and Nut dark chocolate bar (not that it matters), nine Halloween puffy skull stickers, a religious Gratitude Journal with a tree on the cover, and a Michaels ruled journal with an L on it.

A Michaels spiral notebook with speech bubbles on it plus a bonus pen, a set of Paper Mate Ink Joy Candy Pop! ballpoint pens (orange / red / black / purple / green / light blue / pink / dark blue), and a birthday card ("YOU ARE... the [green] apple of my eye") with $20 in a red lucky envelope... all in a Vitamin World plastic bag protected by a Sunmore Ginseng paper bag with handles!

Angus beef steak with carrots, bean sprouts, and green beans at Pepper Lunch!

A set of eight Paper Mate Ink Joy Candy Pop! ballpoint pens (orange / red / black / purple / green / light blue / pink / dark blue) which now seem to write curves better than when I banned them from my apartment in March 2013!

Cadbury Fruit and Nut dark chocolate bar!

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Beckett's baby banquet at Golden Spring Restaurant!

Mon, 10 Sep 2018 17:46:47 GMT

After COFFEE TIME, Eric M. picked me up at 5 so we could go to Golden Spring Restaurant (near the old VCEFC church site) for Beckett's baby banquet. Unfortunately, I forgot his birthday Lindt Excellence dark chocolate bars (Madagascar / Pink Peppercorn) and birthday card on the way out the door, despite leaving a note for myself. I guess I'll have to give it to him at the Felico's dinner like he wanted. UGH! At least he can give me a ride to that one! We talked about his first hockey practice today, his first game on Wednesday, there being a good reason why Steph / Lisa / Fraser / Henry weren't here this weekend, Highway 99, Steveston, and more.

We had seafood soup, sweet and sour pork, chicken, fish, yee mein, red bean soup, jellyfish, Chinese cold cuts, seafood soup, tea, and more for dinner - I got to take leftovers home, too! Dad thought he had to remind me to say hi to Mom, Uncle Richard, Auntie Gloria, Pastor Fulton, Auntie Teresa, Auntie May, Uncle Anthony, Uncle Andre and his wife Anna, Uncle Joe, Auntie Wing Yee, Auntie Vivian (who said that she missed me and wondered where I'd been "hiding"), Uncle Eric, Auntie Brenda, and their other friends. No, I just wanted to get settled first! I did say hi to Holly, Peter, Evander, and Everett when they got there, of course.

When Auntie Catherine got there, we caught up a little later - she remembered my birthday in September as "a special time," and wanted us to get together. She said that Frances is getting baptized next week - ha ha ha, good luck with that! (from what Ellen tells me...) I'm probably not going to go for THAT service, but did personally tell Jon that I would be willing to go to Beckett's baby baptism service if VCEFC ever got around to organizing one. Auntie Catherine also would be willing to meet me in RICHMOND (!) on Saturday the 15th, and maybe invite a friend my age. Okay, then! As long as it's not about religion AGAIN...

I taught Ayler about Talk Like A Pirate Day since he was wearing a pirate T-shirt. He asked what people did for that, and how he could celebrate; he eventually figured that he could wear his shirt and say "Arr, matey!" like I suggested. Good ideas! He did ask about my skin scars, but I told him that it was my choice to make boundaries about my body, just like him. Later, he refused to ask my reasonable question about how Grade 1 was so far; then he didn't want me to see the time on Eric's watch, so he covered it up. Okay, then. I did say hi to Hiero, but Harmony was wearing Beckett all evening, probably to prevent people from taking photos.

Nathan, Jeremy, Randal, Caleb, Rebecca, Jon, Harmony, Eric, and I talked about Batman / Quentin Tarantino / Twitch streams / my new glasses and upcoming eye surgery / my Felico's celebration (Jeremy and Nathan say they'll confirm later) / Danielle travelling these days / FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL / learning to ride bikes from Ron and Veronica / CRAZY RICH ASIANS / JOY LUCK CLUB / Kendrick Lamar / some guy named Danny Miller / addiction issues / rappers / the weird Asian shows on the TV, which Harmony did NOT feel the need to ask the staff to turn off / counting the courses. We saw Alan and Tracy with their kid Noah, so waved at them on their way out of the restaurant. I wished Myles a happy early birthday while saying hi to him, Brittney, and Naomi. Then Eric had to wait a few more minutes while I said bye to everyone that I knew... oh well.

Eric dropped me off at 8:40, which is still pretty good. Time to relax now! Oh wait, Mom wants Jon to choose the location of my birthday dinner AGAIN - yeah, I'm not putting up with that this year. Let ME pick the damn restaurant, although at least the Oakridge area on a Monday afternoon is better than Commercial Drive with Sunday bus schedules! Not saying I'll never go to Commercial Drive, but NOT at the behest of another person ON MY ACTUAL BIRTHDAY! No, I'm not feeling guilty about that. She tried calling me twice, but I was NOT in the mood for yet more social interaction. That's the true introvert nature!

Random stuff from Mom and Dad: $20 cash (making up for yesterday's pizza plus a little more), an old one-litre Proctor-Silex water boiler (half the size of my current one), a pair of white socks, a pair of pink-and-white candy toe socks, and 200 sheets of Hilroy lined paper.

Chinese jellyfish with chili!

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Tatiana's Wanderings

Pepper Lunch with Auntie Catherine! / Nando's Chicken as a birthday dinner!

Beckett's baby banquet at Golden Spring Restaurant!