I’m going on a road trip down to Portland, OR with Nelson and the twins from August 2 – 8th so I won’t be able to update for a while. It’s been years since I’ve gone anywhere outside of BC so I’m pretty excited about this trip. Stay tuned for photos and funny vacation stories in August.
The much anticipated pre-wedding photoshoot took place yesterday with HN Wedding. I didn’t quite believe Vivian when she said it takes two hours for hair and makeup but it’s true! It was fun to watch (another) Vivian, the makeup artist, use a special trick with tape to make my eyes look bigger. After she’s finished with my face and hair, Sandy helped me in the red “Moulin Rouge” dress. I still don’t feel all too comfortable in it because it shows my legs. But both Al and Sandy said it looked good so hopefully they were right.
The first shoot was the evening gown in the studio. It was very difficult because both Al and I were very stiff since we’re not sure what to do. I think Jackson (the photographer) and the others mush had told us to “straighten up and stick out your chest” like 500 times through out the day. I think the first shoot was the hardest because I know my eyes were darting everywhere, so it looked like they were out of focus. I also don’t know how to do the faint smile so the photos must look very weird. Maybe I should’ve practice how to smile before going to the shoot.
Anyways, we rushed to Hycroft Mansion after the evening gown shots. We were about 30 minutes late because I had to change in to a wedding gown and redo my hair. The staff there was nice enough to let us still till closing time. We took a lot of photos in main living room, it’s very bright there with all the natural lighting. Both Sandy and Vivian loved the place. We also took pictures on the big stair case. It’s a bit dim there but it’s very nice. I think the only other staircase that look as nice is the one in Hotel Vancouver. After taking photos inside the house, we went outside to take some more shots in the back and the garden.
After changing quickly and setting a new hairstyle, we made our way to Gastown for the final outdoor shoot location. It’s already 5 when we found parking near the edge of Gastown. The location we wanted, Blood Alley, had been closed because of construction so we ended up taking some building/street shots. There were a lot of people starring as we walked down the street. We head back to the studio about an hour later.
Back at the studio, we did a make up retouch and a new hairstyle for the wedding gown studio shots. Taking pictures became easier and easier as the we know what we’re supposed to do. We ended the photoshoot session with a few pictures taken with Jackson’s dog Ah Bu. They even put a black bow tie on him and he looked adorable.
The funniest thing about the photoshoot is that all through the day Al had to carry phone books with him as “vertical enhancements”. During the first shoot in the evening gown, I was wearing my 2.5″ heels and so he needed about 4 phone books to look slightly taller than me. Even when I’m wearing my flip flops for the outdoor shoots, he still need about 2-3 phone books. So today, he went to measure my height and it turned out I’m close to 5′8″ instead of 5′7″, which was my height since highschool. It’d be pretty funny on the day of the wedding because he won’t have any “vertical enhancements” to help him. But I’ll be nice and just walk around in flip flops all day, except when I’m wearing the qi pao.
I can’t wait to see how the photos turn out. Hopefully some of them will turnout alright. If they didn’t I can only blame my “smiling problem”. I managed to take a picture of me with makeup on at the end of the night and also with the HN Wedding staff. For the pictures and more information about the photoshoot, visit Jan’s Wedding Notebook: Pre-Wedding Photoshoot with HN Wedding.
Last Saturday I had dim sum at Golden Swan on Victoria Street with Al, Ken, MH, MK, Ani and WuWu. Now usually I won’t go into details about dim sum because, it’s pretty standard with the shrimp dumplings, spring rolls and bbq pork buns. However, during dim sum this time I had the “honor” of watching someone eat 6 – yes, SIX – egg custard tarts. That was pretty entertaining.
After dim sum, everyone but MK and Ani headed to Metrotown to watch Dark Knight. We started lining up for the movie about 1.5 hours before show time. Our show was at 3:30pm and I can already see a line forming for the next show. The movie was great! It’s one of the better batman movies I think. There were several scenes where I had to cover my face with my hands because I found them really scary. Thank god I wasn’t the only one (right mun mun? hehe).
The movie ended at 6:10ish. WuWu went home and the four of us headed down to Parker Place so Al can pick up some trial contacts to wear for the photoshoot, which is this Thursday. The store was still busy when he got there so we went to walk around Aberdeen for a bit. Guess what I found there. Moofias! It was only $8.95 at Beans Gift & Toys so I got another one of those adorable milk carton and found Soya. Now both Milk and Soya are stationed at my desk in the office to keep me company.
Al took about 45 minutes to learn how to put the contacts on (and he still need to go back there today to continue his “lessons”). We head to the night market at around 8:00ish. The place was pretty busy and the food section was super packed. We went around to look at what’s available before deciding what we want to have for dinner. The twins had 2 soups each, MH had one along with a cup of corn. We also got a bunch of skewers to share. There were two food vendors which stood out, one is the Korean pancake. It’s similar to Japanese’s taiyaki, but a bit smaller and chewier. They also sell sweet rice pancake which Ken liked. The other sells Chinese dessert soup such as red bean soup, tapioca with sea coconut and tofu dessert. We each ate one there and the twins also got some to take home. Here are some pictures I managed to take in between fooding.
I was pretty tired when I got home but I really enjoyed spending the day with the guys. I wonder what movie we should watch next. Any suggestions? Oh and last Friday, we tried out Craves on Main Street. I like the place, small, cozy and the service was excellent! I had the baby back ribs, doesn’t that look delicious?
Here’s a follow up from the previous post on the family reunion. This morning, we met up for brunch at the Glowbal Grill & Satay Bar in Yaletown. I haven’t been to the restaurant before and had read some not so great reviews but the menu looked decent so Kally and I decided to host our family brunch there. Originally Kally and Vivian were going to treat everyone to dim sum but I thought we could do something more western (since they can have dim sum in Hong Kong) so the three of us gathered our piggy banks and changed dim sum to brunch.
During last week, I had contacted Glowbal regarding a limited menu (we picked a short list of items for the menu) as well as having a special plate for my grandma. We know grandma isn’t a fan of western food but she will eat pasta so Kally and I had requested for a chicken pasta in white sauce for her. However, they had never confirmed that request prior to our brunch. Also when we arrive, the menu is the standard brunch/lunch menu and not the limited menu we had thought we’d get. So I was a little disappointed.
Everyone arrived around 11am and we all got seated at the back corner where we got a lot of privacy. We can be pretty loud so that location is perfect! I helped everyone order their drinks as well as explained some of the menu items to the aunts and uncles who aren’t familiar with the dishes. The most popular items seemed to be the P.E.I Lobster Benedict and the Woodland Mushroom & Havarti Cheese Omelet. The Lobster Benedict had chunks of lobster between the egg and crispy pancetta with hash and greens on the sides. Grandma’s pasta was really nice. Lots of grape tomatoes, sliced asparagus, and chunks of chicken with spaghetti. She also loved the hash (potatoes) since I caught her taking them from grandpa’s plate a lot. Oh another interesting thing to note is that they gave us mini donuts in a bamboo steamed basket instead of the usual bread and butter.
Here’s the slide show of the family, the food and the baby jar of ketchup:
The food turned out better than I had expected. My experience with one of the restaurant under the same umbrella, Italian Kitchen, wasn’t that great so I was really glad that Glowbal pulled through for the family brunch. Our server, Ben, was excellent! He was very patient with us and had met all our needs, such as getting more baby ketchup bottles (see slideshow). I would definitely recommend Glowbal for brunch/lunch.
It’s been a while since the Chan family had all been gathered at one location. We were always missing a couple of people each time when there was a wedding or when people travel around to HK/Vancouver. However, we held a family reunion here this year and it reminded me of the Sunday dinners we used to have at grandma’s house when I was little. Almost everyone is here with the exception of Uncle Randy and my cousins who had to work. It was loud, just like old times. Here is a group picture. It’s a bit blurry because the photographer (aka Al) is pretty bad at his job.
Here’s my Picasa slideshow test:
Dad also took this opportunity to “officially” announced my engagement. Everyone knows already since I told my grandma and Kally. They each told one person and then it spread like virus (ok maybe not as bad). Anyways, I’m glad Al get to finally meet all my family because I’ve already met his a while back. Now we’re “even”. For the photos of the Chans, visit my Picasa Album.
We’re having a family brunch tomorrow at Glowbal Satay Bar & Grill. So stayed tune for more photos.
Today I went to pick up some gifts for my cousins in HK. I saw on The Laboratory of Edibles that you can purchase Tokidoki toys at Hills of Kerrisdale. So I nagged Al to take me there and got 4 Cactus Pups for my cousins as well as a Moofia toy for myself. I got the Milk!
After shopping, we headed to HN Weddings to do pick out the dresses for the photoshoot. You can read about my experience and the dresses I picked at Jan’s Wedding Notebook. When we were at HN Wedding, we also got to meet Ah Bu (not sure if that’s the right spelling). He seems to love Al a lot. Maybe it’s because Al smelled like the French toast we had for lunch?
*Piss. This is the first time I’ve posted a picture of Al here just by himself! Yay Jan for sneaking this one in!*
