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I guess you could say that the moment you try on your usual dress size on in the shop and realise that you’ve cut yourself because you’ve caught part of your love handle in the zip, it might be a good time to lay back on the donuts. Well this is the predicament I found myself in last week when I couldn’t get the dress past my hip! Turns out I can no longer eat whatever I want and not worry about putting on weight but rather all those muffins and late night snacks have started catching up with me and I’m noticing it’s taking a lot longer to lose the weight than put it on. I suppose a lot of this is down to the fact that since being here I haven’t really been following a particular routine with meals or in fact preparing meals properly at all. I’ll wake up, have my standard whole grain porridge with milk and honey and then rather than packing a lunch or making dinner I find I’m picking up a wrap or some sushi or a muffin for lunch, then snacking on something else throughout the day and then picking up something light for dinner and then snacking throughout the night. I am not making substantial meals to keep me going throughout the day but relying on bits here and there and not clocking the amount of sugar I am taking into my body each day. I’ve also noticed if I opt for a cold meal for dinner, something like sushi or a wrap I’m immediately craving something sweet or something else to fill the gap that a good warm curry or even rice dish with meat and vegetables would achieve. Continue reading
The weather for the last two weeks in Vancouver has lived up to its saying, that being the rainy city. It has been grey and cold and raining constantly therefore unfortuantely this has left little opportunity for exploring. For Easter weekend however with four days off I definitely did not want another weekend stuck indoors and therefore intended to fit some hikes in and travelling to new places in Vancouver.
As you can imagine, with the move to Vancouver, things have been pretty busy for the last few weeks. I’ve been working long shifts on the show Arrow, the longest one being 17 hours so far and therefore just have not had much time to do my favourite thing, that being baking. Not only have I not the time, I don’t have any of the utensils yet. The flat I moved into is quite new so we just about have cutlery and some saucepans. It’s funny when you move into a new place, how at first you think you have enough to get by and gradually over time you realise what you have missed. The other night I steamed my vegetables and went into the cupboard to look for a drainer, we didn’t have one. I am therefore resting my saucepan filled with hot water against a plate to let the water run down and hope that my peas don’t escape with it. I didn’t think I’d miss baking as much as I do but I’ve always loved it and found I look forward to it. I also miss the cake club I used to go too and the fun conversations with the girls. My plan is to set one up whilst I’m here and run it for a few months so will keep you posted with that! It will be a lovely way to meet people and keep the tradition going. 
So I’ve been in Vancouver now for three weeks can you believe?! My first week flew by and despite the first two days of feeling a bit tired and worried with wondering whether I’d done the right thing, the rest of the week was great. I met some lovely people, did some sight seeing, took a ferry over to the beautiful Bowen Island and started to feel really settled. My second week, although still enjoyable, was a lot more sorting out things such as phone contract, flat, bank account and all the joys that go hand in hand with moving to a new place.
It’s been over a week since I took part in this delightful event put on by the 
Before I flew out to Vancouver I read that the Chinese New Year Parade would be taking place on Sunday 22nd February which left me very excited! There had been build up events and stalls spread across town to mark the year of the goat/lamb (this didn’t seem to be clear!) Some signs said it was the year of the goat whereas others said lamb and therefore there was a big display of lambs at one of the exhibition areas and then random posters of goats at other parts. The festival kicked off at 11a.m and if there’s one word to sum it up I would say disappointing. It seemed quite badly organised and was really long that it grew quite tiresome. It didn’t seem extremely professional and at one point there was a worker walking down the parade smoking and just having a general chat on the phone. I do not mean to take this away from some of the beautiful costumes on display as well as the drums and people dressed up as dragons as this was impressive, however the whole thing together did not not flow smoothly and after 20 minutes of watching we grew bored and headed elsewhere.
So I’ve been here just over a week and can safely say I’ve found a room in a good part of town which is a nice room however I wish I had taken a little bit longer to work out prices and best places to live around Vancouver. I’d read a lot about the different places, asked friends also and had a lot of recommendations so I wanted to explore the different options. Here’s a few I looked into but there’s a good site which gives tips on prices and what you can find in each neighbourhood 
TEA and TAKES 