It was another gorgeous day outside. Loving the weather.
Started off the day a little late with lunch with my family at Menya, a ramen place. I've been here before with my brother and we thought we'd bring our parents this time. The restaurant is simple, not too big, and there are tree stumps for seats.
My brother ordered the Shoyu Ramen. My mom got the seafood Champon Ramen. And my dad and I both got one of the classics, Miso Ramen. (Notice I never divert away from what I'm used to and like?).
As much as I love my family and my friends, sometimes I really long for alone time. When you're not at work. When you're not engaged in conversation. When you're with your own thoughts. Nothing deep or self-reflecting or meditating or anything like that. But just some quiet time. I wasn't sure where I wanted to go... somewhere on Main St. or West 4th? There is always potential in either place for a nice stroll and end up at a coffee shop.
I ended up at Kits Coffee. Not as crowded. Ordered myself a matcha frappe. I took a short stroll along West 4th beforehand and ended up buying a card at the Oh My Gift shop. I was totally basking in the sun, writing my card, replying to text msgs, and people watching (mainly the couple sitting at the table infront of me). I brought the first of six Scott Pilgrim books because I'm determined to read the series before I watch the movie. I didn't get to it though. I was done writing my card when Maria called. I totally appreciated the call 'cause I rarely get to chat on the phone with her.
When I felt like I've had my dose of quiet time and sun, I headed over to KDer's and watched Ray put up some artwork around their place. Ahh, so homey. Dragged KDer out of her place to go for a walk. We went down Granville St. and ended up at Granville Island. I'm instantly reminded why I love it there so much the moment we got there. We picked up some blueberry bread from Terra's and teas from Granville Island Tea Company and sat outside on the benches listening to the live performer crooning famous french tunes like La Vie En Rose. Ahh, did I ever mention that I love french music?
Anyway, it was absolutely perfect. For me. I continued to bask in the sun, listening to the singer, and watching a couple get their engagement shoot. I could sense that KDer was at times a bit uneasy... in fear that the seagulls flying around with drop one on her. And when one came to peck at a piece of bread by her feet, she flinched. Hmm, if I didn't have the blueberry bread, I might have indulged in a gelato. But the blueberry bread was absolutely decadent.
It was good that we ate 'cause we had a feeling dinner would run late. We showed up at Cascade Room of course expecting a full house. We had to wait an hour for our table. Good thing that the sun and seeing the girls again had me in a good mood so no wait was going to bother me. The seven of us crammed into a booth which made for easy conversation. Lily was back in town from Toronto.
After dinner, Shum had plans to play bingo at the bingo hall across the street. We've seen people lurking around when we've driven by, and the place does look super sketchy from the outside. The big neon lights and the flashing signs, as one of the girls said, looks more like a cheap strip club than Vegas. Nonetheless, that was what the birthday girl wanted to do.
The moment we walked in, we were stared down. We quickly bought our cards and took a table in the corner. Gosh, the caller went really fast! For the first game, I swear we all missed at least half the numbers. We didn't even know how we could win. We later figured out that we had to make certain patterns on our bingo card and you have to be quick and sharp to dab your heart out. Oh, there was a lot of laughs. The whole bingo hall was completely quiet though except for us... as everyone was trying to concentrate on listening to the numbers. We were the slow ones whispering to each other, "What was that number again? What did he just call? Oh no! I just missed it!."
Alice was too shy to yell out BINGO! She did have a legit winning card. Could have had $100 in her pocket. Someone else yelled BINGO instead and we all let it go. Haha. Oh well. We had a hoot. Jen swore she'll definitely go back to play. Actually, it may be a good thing for the aging... (like us)... because it's definitely mind stimulating. Who would have thought.
Shum got us all dabbers in our favorite colours. Mine was purple. When we whipped them out at the restaurant before we went over to the bingo hall, everyone came by our table asking us if they were lubes. Umm. No, just bingo dabbers.
What a day. And what a night.
Good times.
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