Food Appreciation + Mealtime Etiquette?

Before I start, I wanted to say a few things:

Somehow, our page views have went up in the last couple of days. When I look at the map thing, it showed that most of our views are actually coming from Germany? Haha, whoever it is that's reading this blog from Germany, thanks a lot!

Anyways, as anyone can see, this blog has been a big update on our lives and I feel like I haven't exactly been blogging like I used to where I would rant about random crap or just talk about music. So here's to my first random-post/rant on yu-ai... 

So for anyone that knows me well, they know that I adore food. While the biggest reason for me being fat is probably because I'm a lazy turd who sits at her computer all day, the fact that there's soooo many amazing types of food out there is probably also another great reason. Truth be told, I probably eat as much as all my other super-thin friends if not less, but since my metabolism runs at the speed of a snail and I don't even exercise...

So, being from a Chinese family, I tend to eat a lot of these dishes:

Lo mein, har gow, xiao long bao, sweet and sour chicken...

For people who don't know, my mom's side of the family is actually from HeiLongJiang of China. She moved to Macau when she was around 20 which leads to me being able to speak both Mandarin and Cantonese. My dad's parents were both from Chiu Chow but married in Vietnam and had my dad. That being said, I'm also part Vietnamese but I know absolutely nothing about Vietnam other than that popular cuss phrase. Aside from my last name, I'm pretty much 100% Chinese, but I do love me some Vietnamese cuisine;

wait wait, pardon me while I wipe my drool.
...

and then there's the fact that I'm Canadian, so let's throw in some good ol' American-styled junk food:

Oh, I also love foods from other cultures.

So anyways, enough spam about food...

What inspired me to write this post was because I was at dinner and my dad was doing a couple of things that irked me... and BAM! Mealtime etiquette post.

Note: All photos from Google. I take no credit!

Top 3 things I hate that people do during meal-times:

1.  I hate when people just grab my food as if I'm totally cool with sharing. I mean, I am... IF YOU ASK. Like, bro... come on, common courtesy.

2. I hate when people try something, declare that it tastes horrible, and then continues eating it. Well, if you hate it so much... stop eating it + People who eat a free meal and then complain that it tastes like crap later. Can you be any less appreciative?

3. I hate when I'm sharing a box of fries with someone and they take a handful at a time. What ever happened to a fry at a time? You just look greedy now.


ANYWHO...

Quick update: I'm moving into residence on September 3rd and I think I'll be back in Toronto on the 5th or so since I don't plan on staying the whole week for orientation. Plus, I also want to learn how to bus home and bring back anything I might have missed. I'm lazying around these last couple of days and doing basically nothing.

I also got a new cell phone! Woohoo! I've been using this old ass LG stainless steel cell phone for the last four years and I finally got a Blackberry Curve 9320. Not my favourite phone but I'm not complaining.

Random thought... Since we're actually getting some views on this blog, does anyone mind commenting and letting me know who's out there? Probably won't happen but it's worth a shot.

- eggtart

Summer 2012 Pt.1 - Going "home" ...

Hi! So it's been 2 days? 3 days? since I landed came home and I've been procrastinating on everything including this post but here is it!

African Lion Safari

Yesterday, my family packed up and went over to Cambridge, Ontario to venture through the African Lion Safari. Haven't heard of it? Well, it's kind of like the zoo, except there's really no cages... Here's the commercial just 'cause I have the ability to put it in~

 

My dad's been addicted to his new GPS and took the liberty of using it to find the place. It was a good thing he did, because, honestly, I do not think Google would've helped much with finding this place. It's virtually in the middle of a million small roads and rural heaven, which is probably a smart idea since all these lions and cheetahs and such are running around free there...

After we headed out, our first stop was for gas 'cause Costco is awesome, has cheaper gas than everywhere else, and the Woodbridge one (which has the Costco gas station) is conveniently located beside a highway 401 entrance.

We also got our tickets from there, which was good 'cause it's like Asian heaven in there: everything is cheaper there at regular price than anywhere else~ (I'm like a walking talking Costco advertisement, though it's not like they're lacking customers...)

Once we were on the road, I tried taking a nap. Key word: tried. I have this inability to sleep in cars. Maybe I've watched one too many movies, or read one too many books, but in like half of them there are car accidents. One that stuck out to me was the beginning of If I Stay by Gayle Forman, where the MC falls asleep in the car ride and then next thing she knew, the car was flipped over, her parents were dead, and she was basically gone too. Yeah... I know that's a little weird, but that's how I function...

Anyways, instead of taking a nap, I stared out my window and watched trees pass. When we had handed over our tickets and parked, we lined up to get tickets for the guided tour bus. Everyone has the option to drive their cars through the animal areas, but you risk damaging your car. Also, the baboons were notorious for stealing souvenirs from tourist cars (wind shield wipers, antennae, etc) and leaving their own souvenirs (poop, scratches, etc). Already up to our limit in car expenses for the year (people like rear ending us at red lights (half the time they're using their cellphones or REALLY old)) we opted for the bus.

Map of African Lion Safari

After we got our ticket, set for the 3:30 ride, we went over to the Kenya Gate to get pizza for lunch.

At pretty much every tourist attraction, you'll find pizza somewhere. Pizza Pizza was the venue there - not our favourite company (they put A LOT of tomato sauce), but it was pretty good. Once we were crammed full of pizza (I ate four pieces 'cause my parents didn't want it to go to waste, but no one else wanted to eat it), we headed over to the 12:30 Elephant Swim event, where you basically watch four elephants swim. Sounds boring, but they were fun to watch and the little baby elephant was adorable.

After that, we went to go watch the Parrot Paradise Show, which featured a number of flying creatures, including fox bats, parrots, emus, and chickens, haha.

Clever parrot getting her food

Yeah, that's right, the parrot is biking on a tightrope

Other parrot sliding down the pole to get his food

There was anther bird, can't remember it's name, but he was a real talker, not a parrot. His name was Wasabi, and he said 'hello', 'happy birthday', etc, and sang 'O Canada'. It was funny, and very cute~

After that show, we went to see Birds of Prey, which is where the meat eating birds come in, like vultures, eagles, and owls. We saw a snowy owl and barn owl! Being the book worm I am, I loved that part thanks to Harry Potter, haha. We didn't get a good picture of it, unfortunately... /sad.

As we sat there watching, the sun scorched us. I'm now tanned, and my brother's neck got burned. It was harsh sun.

Setting out to the last show of the day, we were blessed with lovely clouds to keep us sane. It was called "Elephant Round-Up". It was quite fun, and the speakers were friendly and happy. They also joked around which was fun/cute. The elephants were adorable too. They were very talented elephants. We watched them paint, move logs, play soccer, lie down, and do some tricks.

It was a lot of fun~ I think that was my favourite show.

After, we raced back to go on the guided tour around the place. It was cool~ There were baboons hitching rides on some of the cars, which was funny, and then an ostrich was staring at a car, which had reflective windows, and our guide was like 'that ostrich, right now, is seeing another ostrich and is trying to get to it, which displays their utter lack of intelligence.'

We saw cheetahs, elephants, rhinos, ostriches, zebras, giraffes, etc. Our camera died by then though, which totally sucks... so, yeah, no pics from that. But it was a lot of fun.

Then we went back and rode a little train that goes around on a 10 minute ride, and we saw swans and storks. Later, we got funnel cakes. I think it's safe to say that it was freaking amazingly delicious~ I haven't had one in years ! Yumm~~

After, we went to the gift shop and got a bunch of goodies~

Along with this, I got a bracelet, but this little tiger was absolutely adorable!

Hmm, not a bad pic for my cell phone.. (was testing it out, haha).

African Lion Safari is definitely a place worth going sometime. When we go there, I was a little wary of how the day would pan out, but I had a blast, surprisingly, haha~

-fishandchips

Olympics 2012 - Closing Ceremony

Today (or well, yesterday for London now... and everyone else on that particular side of the earth), was the Closing Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. It was pretty awesome ~! The night was dedicated to celebrate British musical talents among other things, such as fashion, and of course, the Olympics. During the Closing Ceremony, Prince Harry was there to represent the Crown.

The Ceremony started with Emeli Sande performing a cover of a song called "Read All About It", originally by Professor Green. As she sang, riding in a circle around the stadium, the scene displayed the major landmarks of London, celebrating everyday life with a newspaper city.

The Eye, Big Ben, etc (the streets are up only 'cause the scene is changing)

Emeli Sande

The stage, shaped as the Union Jack

There was also a little something done by STOMP. If you don't know what STOMP is, they're a group of people who use everyday items as instruments, such as pots and pans, sticks, books, etc. Their performances are really cool (I'm not sure if they did their own little segment 'cause we had a commercial break, but you should really check them out!).

STOMP's drumming led to the National Anthem. Then, the big performances began. Madness sang the ever popular song "Our House".

Enter the Pet Shop Boys, singing their own signature song, "West End Girls". I have to say, they get the weird vote this year. I think they were trying to be like Lady Gaga or something? I don't even know.

They're the ones in the black (just to make it clear)

It was definitely an interesting performance. The singing was fine too, just the outfits... and the bikes... just... I don't know...

Next on the performance list was One Direction, singing "What Makes You Beautiful" !

Zayn dyed the tips of his hair blond, while Niall donned the same hairdo, only I guess he'd had to have dyed everything but the tips of his hair brown... Let's just say the hairdo looked better on Zayn than Niall, I think he should just stick to blond. The group was excellent as always. They're voices are awesome, and always nice to hear ;P

After them, there was another group, but I didn't manage to catch their name. It was a short performance, and then Ray Davies came out to sing his song "Waterloo Sunset".

Again, Emily Sande took the stage and finished off the segment with the rest of her cover.

Then came the flag bearers, Canada's flag bearer being Christine Sinclair, captain of our women's soccer team. She was grinning ear to ear as the walked with her escort.

As they walking in, highlights of the 2012 London Olympics where shown on screen as workers scrambled to create a mini stage of sorts out of three hundred white blocks, each one representing an event in the summer Olympics.

Once all of the athletes were in, they took a moment to hold the victory ceremony for the last event of this Olympics: the Men's Marathon. Two Kenyans won Bronze and Silver, while a Ugandan Olympian won gold. Once the Uganda anthem was played, they did a little tribute to all of the volunteers who took part in creating both ceremonies and helping throughout the Olympic games of 2012.

Then, the music began.

The audience was lit up as Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody was played, transitioning to Imagine by John Lennon. A choir sang it along with a recording of John Lennon in a video (likely his music video or something). As the song finished, volunteers rushed on stage with grey pieces in hand. As everyone watched they formed a puzzle of sorts, creating Lennon's face.

I personally thought it was cool, and yet a little weird, haha.

Once the stage was cleared, George Michael came out and sang "Freedom", and a new song of his own (which was cut off by RONA and RBC commercials, which I'm not too upset about... /guilty.). Honestly, though, I'm not too sure how many people were interested in him (no offence bro). Great voice, but eh.

Next came the Kaiser Chiefs, performing The Who's song "Pinball Wizard".

There was a David Bowie tribute during the next segment as large billboards stage things (technical, I know) were rolled into the stadium. Upon ripping off the outer posters, top models were revealed, wearing fashions designed by a number of British designers, including Victoria Beckham.

Ladies and gentlemen, make way for the amazing Annie Lennox, singing "Little Bird"!

In all honestly, her performance was like a creepy dark angel version of Pirates of the Caribbean, haha. Her voice was as powerful and amazing as its always been. I also really liked her dress ~ Dark Wings, behind her, kind of stalked her through the performance, though refused to get off of that boat when she did...

Then came Ed Sheeran, singing "Wish You Were Here", with Genesis guitarist Mike Rutherford and Pink Floyd's drummer Nick Mason. As the song was sang, a little tribute to Pink Floyd was performed by recreating one of their album covers in real life, with a tightrope walker and a flaming dummy.

Welcome, Russell Brand to the stage performing "I Am The Walrus", originally by the Beatles. As per usual, he was as crazy as ever, but it was definitely entertaining as the dancer flew around him, and the bus he had ridden in on spontaneously transformed into an octopus, revealing Fatboy Slim, who gave a party worthy performance.

Now, for modern day hits, we had Jessie J, performing her hit song "Price Tag", as well as singing Eric Turner's parts in Tinie Tempah's song "Written in the Stars" as he rapped awesomely. The place blew up as Taio Cruz came out singing Dynamite, all of them cruising around in Roll Royces, zooming around the stadium, pretty fast. Gathering together on stage, they performed their rendition of the Bee Gee's hit song, "We Should Be Dancing".

Tell me what you want, what you really, really want!! Well, my mom told me over and over during the Opening Ceremony: The Spice Girls. She finally got them, as they reunited once more to perform "Wannabe" and "Spice Up Your Life" in a show stealing performance!

After that were performances by Beady Eye, Eric Idle, and Muse.

Then was a moment were Queen's lead singer came on screens to get the crowd revved up, and then an epic guitar solo was performed by Queen's Brian May, which led into their hit song "We Will Rock You" with Queen drummer Roger Taylor at the drums (duh) and featuring Jessie J for vocals.

I really loved Jessie's outfit there! And her voice, it was amazing!

Out with the music and in with the traditional formalities. As Queen and Jessie J cleared the stage, Greece's national anthem was played as well as the Olympic anthem. The Olympic flag was lowered and passed on from London to the Olympic 2016 host, Rio. There was a segment for them, as Brazilian stars, dancers, singers, and performers took the stage in a very bright and colourful performance.

Back to the formalities, speeches were made (I didn't really listen to them...), and then Take That sang to close the speech portion of the night. Darcy Russell, blasted off as a phoenix.

Once she was back on stage, she and a number of others danced beautifully before the Olympic torch (or well, horns) was extinguished, signalling the end of the 2012 London Olympics.

The Ceremony was closed by a performance by The Who.

Here it is everyone, the end of the 2012 London Olympics, the last, the final... Google Doodle!

We hope everyone has enjoyed watching the 2012 London Olympics as much as we have (fishandchips more so than eggtart)

-fishandchips

Hi! 

Just wanted to add in a quick little blurb before I go out later on. I'm currently in Vietnam right now and will be leaving here on the 16th to go to Shenzhen, China. From Shenzhen, I'll be heading back to Hong Kong to board the flight on the 18th back to Toronto! I have a super long post coming up about my entire trip this summer, hehe. 

Anyways, unlike fishandchips, I probably wasn't able to watch as much of the Olympics as I hoped. I was able to catch the opening ceremony back in China. However, much of the Olympics there focused on the  success of Sun Yang, China's newest Olympic hero. I missed a lot of the days due to many reasons; going out with family, flights, and because certain events in the Games just bored the hell out of me.

Today, unfortunately, I was stuck on the other side of the world, so I had to wake up at around 2:00-3:00 a.m to catch the closing ceremony. With my iTouch locked, which means I had no alarm clock, I missed a huge chunk of the closing ceremony. I woke up right when the Spice Girls were about to finish. I managed to miss One Direction's performance, which I was super excited for and anticipating since the opening ceremonies. Le sigh.

Anywho, I'm off to do random shit. See y'all when I'm back in Canada!

I miss Canada so much :( 

- eggtart

Olympics 2012 - Day 13 to Day 15

If you haven't noticed, my days are a little off since I named the first day of the the Olympics Day 0. In total, this year, though, there were/will be 17 action packed days of the Olympics. Tomorrow being the final day of the 2012 Olympic games.

Before I get ahead of myself, here are the recent Google Doodles for this year's Olympics:

Day 13 [Mini Game - Can be played here]

Day 14 [Mini Game - Can be played here]

Day 15

The games, this year, had been dubbed the Twitter games (vaguely acknowledged by the Olympic committee when they put in the social network segment into the opening ceremony two weeks back). As such, Twitter has been on fire with updates all around the world about results, judging comments, athlete fandom, as well as tweets from sport castors and Olympians alike. There were one or two Olympic participants who took the liberty to post racists comments (and were promptly sent packing), those who raged at judges and ref calls (especially after that Canadian penalty fiasco), and those who hated on Olympians because they're jealous, insecure, or whatever. Honestly, those were the tweets I couldn't stand. Heck, those were the tweets that made it onto the news as people were outraged by them.

The one that stood out most to me was the tweet to Tom Daley, Great Britain's greatest hope for a Gold in Syncro Diving with his partner Peter Waterfield. When their fourth, and final, dive was off time, they saw their chances of Gold slip away, landing fourth place, just off the podium. Soon after the event, someone tweeted Daley saying "you let your dad down i hope you know that".

Let me take a moment to give some back story. Daley's father had cancer within his brain. The first tumour was taken care of, and he was in remission for a while, and then a second one came along. Brought into remission again, Daley's father had high hopes in seeing his son in the London 2012 Olympics (this year). However, relapsing once more, hope was slowly dwindling. The cancer took his life late last year, 2011.

Tom Daley took one day off from training after his father's death. One day. Note: Daley is only 18 years old. Not only did he have his father's death to contend with, but also Great Britain's hopes of getting a Gold medal was resting on his and his partner's shoulders.

The fact of the matter is, this person, some Twitter user out there, tweeted "you let your dad down i hope you know that". Now, not only is that cyberbullying, slander in a sense, but to say something like that to an eighteen year old kid, who just lost his father recently, as well as lost the Gold medal for his nation is horrid, inhuman, heartless. Add that to the fact that according to the news, Daley's dive was immaculate, Waterfield had pulled up too soon, and he couldn't stop it once it happened. I could go on an extreme tirade about how wrong that tweet was on so many levels, but I don't even think it needs to be said. Something like that is just inexcusable.

The thing about the internet is that once it's there, it's set in stone. Nothing said on the internet cane ever really truly be erased. Cyberspace is infinite.

On a brighter note, Daley won Bronze in his individual event, and no one, not even a user on Twitter, could take that away from him. By his reaction, that Bronze medal was a Gold to him. I'm not even of Great Britain, but I have to say I am proud of him. He really deserved that medal.

(Also, he is the best looking eighteen year old I've ever known. OMG. If the guys at my school looked like that... my gosh... /foreverswooning. This may well be the closest I'll ever get to a celebrity crush *A* so hot. He's only 22 days older than me too... it's a totally rational celebrity crush... However, his achievement also makes me feel widely unaccomplished... he's over in Britain winning medals and I'm here at my computer writing this... well...)

Thomas Daley - Great Britain - Bronze Medal in 10m Platform Dive

On the other hand, while Daley's celebrating the Bronze like it's a Gold, and the USA's celebrating the Gold 'cause it's a Gold, China's Qiu Bo, who won silver, was said to be inconsolable and quite upset at the results. However, feelings aside, all of them performed well. And just 'cause I'm biased, I'd liked to just say: Congratulations Tom Daley !

Back to Canada, Matt Gentry skimmed the Olympic podium, placing 4th in Men's 74kg Freestyle Wrestling. Faced with old World Champion, Gentry was unable to hold his own in his final rounds. However, he definitely made Canada proud by even making it that far. Fourth in the world, that's pretty good.

Canada, today, was disqualified in the Men's 4x100m relay. Third-leg runner, Jared Connaughton, had stepped on the line marking the lane's boundary, leading to their disqualification. Landing third place in the finals only to have it taken away from them, that is heartbreaking, not for Canada, but for the runners themselves. All the way to third place and conquered by a line. However, besides the line step, the team had an amazing run, unfortunately, that wasn't enough though.

Tomorrow is the last day of the Olympics, the closing ceremony taking place at 4pm EST, 9pm in London. According to leaks and gossip, the Spice Girls are making a return to the stage, and The Who, Ed Sheeran , George Michael, and Muse have all said that they will be taking part in some way. It's said Tinie Tempah (Rapper, known for his song "Written in the Stars" ft. Eric Turner) and Jessie J (Pop singer, known for songs "Domino", "Who You Are", and "Price Tag") are highly likely to perform. There will also be a small bit created by the next summer Olympics host, Brazil, which is said to have a fair amount of samba dancing, though whether that's true, we'll just have to wait to find out. Also, One Direction has been rumoured to be closing the closing ceremony, though that rumour has neither been confirmed nor denied by officials.

One more day world! Tomorrow is the end of the London 2012 Olympics! I hope everyone had fun watching and will tune in tomorrow to watch the finale the these amazing games!

-fishandchips

Olympics 2012 - Day 7 to Day 12

Olympics have been a total challenge for Canada. Monday, in their game against the USA, there was a bad call by the ref, therefore ending in Canada's loss. I suck with soccer, so this is what I've read and heard from  people. News articles are saying that they may be looking into the play again to see if the call was right, but a day before the game for Bronze, in which Canada will supposedly be playing in, it'd be hard to make the call.   I heard that said ref has been suspended and will not be refereeing any more games in this particular Olympics. However, it's still not known whether anything is happening with the ref's ruling.

On another note, here are the new Google Doodles from the past few days (:

Day 7

Day8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11 [Mini Game - Can be played here]

Day 12 [Mini Game - Can be played here]

Onto Canada's success, we won Gold for Women's Trampoline; Silver in Men's 1500m Freestyle and Men's Kayak 1000m Single; Bronze in Men's Canoe 1000m Single, Men's High Jump,  Women's Team Pursuit (Cycling), Men's 81kg Judo, Women's 63kg Weightlifting , Men's 100m Freestyle, and Women's 48kg Freestyle Wrestling. Canada's doing fairly well, medal wise.

As always, Jamaican runner Usain Bolt is flying through his rounds. It's always fun watching him run, because, really, he makes it look like such a breeze.

Then there's Phelps, USA's druggie star (or not so drugged up star now...). He couldn't even make finals for the one or two races he had been expected to win Gold for, which was a shock to everyone, though he ended up winning Gold in the 200m Individual Medley Race.

It's interesting, watching the Olympics, 'cause this is when the underdogs rise up and when the champions fall back, we see the expected the win, but we also get a chance to see the unexpected to succeed, to dominate, to make their country proud.

Have fun watching, world!

-fishandchips