Thursday 25 September 2014

Campbell River again.

One of my favourite posts that I've done was of visiting Nanette in Campbell River last year. Once again, Jose and I made our way up there and had another lovely weekend.

We arrived to the ferry terminal only to find out that the next ferry was full, and so we had to wait for another two hours. Poor José, that's all I can say! It was hot, I was hungry and I hate waiting. Some seriously hangryness!

Once we got to Nanette's, we were all hungry and so opened the wine and enjoyed a very nutritious dinner!


Saturday morning, coffee and bread.


Nanette was very kind and arranged for us to go horse riding. I loved watching José trying to move in rhythm with the trotting horse - highly entertaining!




I have a thing with animal noses...






I know this picture is blurry, but it truly shows my joy at feeding the horse an apple. The way that they gobble it up is just so funny. Actually, the horse looks quite terrified of me. 


This is the horse that Nanette rides at her lessons, he is for big people, and Nanette made sure José and I had 'little people horses' haha. Nanette has such a way of saying things!



In the evening, we all grouped together and made this lovely pie called the 'Very Full Pie' that we found in an Ottolenghi cookbook.  



We spent the rest of the evening lazing around drinking wine, eating chocolate, reading and then we watched a movie. 



On Sunday morning, we went to a cabin resort called the Dolphins Resort. To me, the name sounds a bit tacky, a bit... Acapulco 1980s... however it is rustic and cozy and the views are incredible. They should think about a new name. Breakfast was great, I had the salmony benny, Nanette had crepes and Jose an avocado moose benny with a carrot cake pancake on the side. 



Of course, I had to make a boob joke at this point of the breakfast. 





I had never ever seen a tree like this before. 



We found this wedding site and thought we would get our rehearsal out the way! Just kidding, we just pretended to get married on the beach. 



I wonder which flower company this is? 


As we were driving alone, we came across a small farm with a pumpkin field. 


In my next life, I'd like to a sunflower. 







I really feel like we got the last of the summer sun, it was actually really hot all weekend. We slept lots, ate lots and laughed lots and I think we came back to Vancouver feel revitalized and refreshed. 

Sunday 14 September 2014

A catch up.

It has been a month since my last post... why? Busy, lazy, busy, lazy... that's about it! We had some friends from England visiting a lot in August (Lovely to have you Fiona and Glyn!), and then Rocky was unwell so it has been an eventful couple of weeks!

Starting off with the Squamish Music Festival, which was my present to José for his birthday. I bought Sunday passes as the thought of camping in fields of puke wasn't really appealing. It was a boiling hot day, there isn't much shade! Luckily, I bought my SPF 60 and a big floppy hat, so as you can imagine I definitely didn't fit in. We enjoyed the day and I'm glad we got to see the Arctic Monkey's (Although they didn't play When the Sun Goes Down!!! I love that song and I was pretty gutted they left it out). Also, Eminem was quite good, even though I'm not a big fan, it's hard to not keep watching. We also saw the Temper Trap. 








We also had a little gathering for Jose's birthday at The Distillery in Yaletown. The food is really good, they have excellent Gin and Tonics and I personally love the Italian music playing in the background. I really recommend this place for a couple of drinks.












We had dinner at the restaurant that Antony works at in Horseshoes Bay called Olive and Anchor. It is the nicest little place, especially at night time with all the twinkly lights and the view of the marine. I always have the same thing, Chicken Tikka Masala with brown rice, although it is much lighter and fresher than a typical Indian style dish. 




The chocolate molten cake is also rather yummy. Usually we always share dessert so we can still have something sweet after dinner, but half the guilt! I think this picture looks a bit Christmasy to me. 


Next, we had some birthday drinks (more?) with Akira and Andrew. José and Andrew have very close birthdays, so it was a joint thing. We went to the Score on Davie as they wanted to order this monster of a drink. It's a huge caesar with a chicken on top... yes, a massive chicken, hotdog, burger, onion rings, brownie and who knows what else. I have never seen anything like it, and to be honest I felt quite guilty having it at our table, but the boys were loving it. Lots of chatting, laughing, card games and the most enthusiastic server I've ever seen!




Lauren and Martine Cheek, our very good friends from England came to see Rachel as a surprise. Dad and I picked them up and then nearly sent Rachel into early labour as they surprised them at Trattoria at Park Royal. It was so lovely having them here and I want to say thank you so much for helping us out with Rocky. x


We had an engagement dinner for Billy and Rachel at Bridges on Granville Island. Very slow service, but we had great company and lovely view so who cares!


I forced José to eat an oyster. I think the Devil Wears Prada Miranda pursed lips illustrate how he feels about it. 



Last week, there was a huge rainbow and the sky changed colour so many times, it was quite amazing. 


After about a year, I have finally got back to the Hunger Games. I am on book 2 and I find myself reading it everywhere I can. I quite like this bookmark too! I think it was a present from a Russian student!


Martine got this perfumer first from Anthropologie called Dogwood Blossom by Royal Apothic. I can't even begin to describe how much I like this scent. It is about $20 for this size, and it has titular flower, tobacco flower, amber, ginger, cocoa, honey, tonka bean and teakwood. It is sort of smokey/cigarette smelling, which sounds horrible, but it's totally not and I'm completely addicted to it. It is on sale now for $9!