Monthly Archives

August 2015

Relationships

Bad Dates part 2.

Posted on August 18, 2015

As I previously wrote about some of the bad dates I’ve been on, which can be found here. I’ve been reminded of so many more awful dates that I just couldn’t hold back and needed to share.

Have you ever been told you don’t eat enough well on a date? Well I have. Have you ever been to Anton’s pasta bar? Well if you haven’t ever been, you get a plate of pasta which is about the size of a small baby. I had been once before with an old boyfriend, so I was prepared for the sheer size of the plates.
At our scheduled time for my date to pick me up, I got a text which stated “Hey, sorry I’m running late”. When he finally arrived, turns out he lost track of time getting ready. We finally left for Anton’s, and somehow managed to get in before it got too busy*. We get seated, served water and menus. I got the Gnocchi Cardinale and he ended up with Linguine Alla Siciliana. Is it bad that I remember what we ordered but for the life of me, can’t remember his name? Anyway, once the meals where served, we began to enjoy our food and some more small conversation. After about 20 mins, I have eaten so much food, but I’ve only made a small dent in the corner. This is where my date tells me “You know for a girl, you don’t eat enough. You should at least try and enjoy yourself when you are out with me.” Food aside, the conversation wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t like he was actually trying to get to know me. I simply told him “Well, just because the food is in front of me, doesn’t mean I need to eat all of it. I’m getting full and rather than over indulge and feel gross after, I would rather enjoy my food then stuff my face with it.” He had no words for that and we carried on to other topics.
I offered to pay for my part of the bill, he insisted to pay all of it. I wasn’t going to argue, and we left. We ended up going for a walk as it was super nice out and then he drove me home. We reached my house, we have stopped for no more than a few seconds. I was getting ready to leave the car and the conversation went as follows

 “What, after all that you aren’t going to invite me in? Where is my goodnight kiss?”

Note, we are still in the car, I’m holding my leftovers from dinner. I stopped what I was doing and said

“Excuse me?!” Date replied with “Yeah, I paid for dinner, we went for a walk and you aren’t even going to let me inside or kiss me good night!”

Cue angry redhead,

“Well –dates name I don’t remember- If you were a nice guy, you would have walked me to the door instead of trying to kiss me like a 16year old who just got the keys to his car. Secondly, I offered to pay my part, you said no. That doesn’t grant you a free ticket inside, a goodnight kiss maybe, but no entry into my bedroom. Thirdly, for future dates you go on, never comment on how much or how little a women eats at dinner.”

This guy, now realizing the date is over, leans in for a kiss anyway. My reaction was to dump the contents of my dinner in his lap and left the car.

There was also a date I went on when I was newly single in Vancouver, where I agreed to meet a date named Don, at a Starbucks. If I’m meeting someone I don’t know, it’s always in a coffee shop. I knew instantly who he was when I walked in. Don was dressed nicely, but he was also seated with 3 drinks. A coffee, a latte and a tea. He wanted to see which one I would choose and the reason behind it. When I told him I would get my own drink because I’m particular about my drink at Starbucks*. He said got defensive and said “Well it’s not like I drugged any of them or something! I wanted to try a experiment on you!
I stood up, left and didn’t look back.

*Antons gets crazy busy, go early if you want to beat the line
*Grand white mocha with two pumps of raspberry. Very sweet but delicious.

What is your worst or awkward date?

All the best,
Bailey B.

Life

Life Lessons.

Posted on August 16, 2015

I believe that every person who enters our life teaches us a life lesson. Some lessons are more important than others. Some will be learned over and over again. However, some lessons will be learned the hard way.

Let’s roll back to 2006 and my first official relationship. For privacy reasons we will call him Lowie.

Lowie taught me about Love, self-respect and most importantly: Cheaters never prosper.

I took an interest in my art and always had my nose in a book, so dating wasn’t an interest to me until very late into high school. So I didn’t get my first boyfriend until I was 17 and the last year of High school. This was also the time that Lowie entered my life. At the time I found him to be charming, sweet, he could hold a real conversation, and he was a looker. Curly blond hair, Blue eyes, athletic. The total length of our relationship lasted 2 years. Although, looking back it should have ended around our 1 year.

The reason for this is after about a year, Lowie cheated on me. He had gone on a date with a girl and sealed it with a kiss. Finding out Lowie took the time to get to know this girl over a date, driving her home and kissing her good night. First boyfriend and heartbreak. However, I was going to stand my ground. It’s been almost some years since that breakup. I can still remember being on the phone with him asking who this girl was and he didn’t lie to me; he told me he was sorry, it was a mistake. I remember telling him that he didn’t really love me; he didn’t respect me as his girlfriend. How could I continue dating someone who could so easily betray me? My heart was broken by not just some guy, but someone I considered at the time to be a true friend. I was done, relationship over.

Cue getting roses and love notes every day for a week. It was especially romantic because he was away working at a summer camp. So of course, I took him back. I was being wooed! What kind of 18 year old wouldn’t love this?

We dated another year before we broke up, for good. Why did we break up after another year? Well, he cheated on me again. This time I would let him go, I deserved better.

This relationship taught me many things. One was one of the most important life lessons to date.

Cheaters never prosper and aren’t worth it to keep them.

I find it funny how lessons you learned in your past can help you in your present. Over  the years I’ve had other boyfriends who’ve cheated, but unlike the first, they don’t get to come back. I refuse to allow myself to be with someone who can’t make the effort to stand beside me on this crazy ride called life.

It’s like the saying goes, When Life gives you lemons, and you make lemonade. You have to put in the work to get the reward.

All the best,
Bailey B.

Travel

London.

Posted on August 14, 2015

I spent a few days exploring London during my first ever vacation. I decided to come to London because my friend Paul lived their and I thought, hey why not? The UK is home of my favorite crisp, Monster Munch and its also the home of Harry Potter! I saw so many great and wonderful things, but let me tell you about a couple of my favorites.

London Natural History Museum

London Natural History Museum

London Natural History Museum. AMAZING! I did not know that the do-do bird was actually that big! Dinosaurs where massive creatures. Old rocks and fossils are really, really cool. Most of all, it was free. I was shocked when Paul told me we didn’t have to pay. It was one of the things I really enjoyed about London, Museums are free. Well most of them anyway,

Westminster Abby was an experience. It was breath-taking, inspiring, it was moving. The amount of history, architecture, and artwork is amazing. I will admit, I’m not the most religious person, although I do have my beliefs, being in the Abby was very emotional and spiritually moving. I spent about 4 hours, reading, looking and just absorbing the world around me. I could read as many plaques as I could, looked at every square inch of public space. My favorite room was Henry VII’s Lady Chapel. The reason; the ceiling, which is hand carved by the way. In one area of the room they have a mirror so you can look up at the ceiling without putting a crank in your neck. Even as I think back to my time in the Abby, I feel tingly.

Westminster Abby

Westminster Abby

If you are ever visit the Westminster Abby, visit the little green concession stand just outside, buy yourself a tea, find a spot to sit and just reflect.

Some people might tell you that the Tower of London is over-rated and I will tell you, they are wrong. If you a fan of castles, history, jewels or all the above. You most certainly shall not be disappointed. It’s full of twists, turns, history as well as the famous crown jewels. The valet, where they are kept, is grand and massive. You walk into a room, into another room, down a hallway and then finally you enter the vault. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything sparkle like that room. The one thing I found to be nice little touch is when an item is out on loan or display somewhere else, they leave a note card in its place explaining why and where it is.

Big Ben.

Big Ben.

The Elizabeth tower, home of Big Ben, was a place on my bucket list. I took this lovely picture after walking about it for 20 mins. It is a landmark of London, Its grand, and it’s beautiful.

Platform 9 ¾ was everything I thought it would be. I deliberately chose to leave for Scotland from Kings Cross, just so I could stop at Platform ¾. Yes I bought myself a ticket for the Hogwarts express and had to refrain from purchasing a official HP robe. When I go again, well that’s another story.

When I make it back to London, I would love to do the London Eye, the aquarium, do the tour of Warner Brothers Harry Potter and explore so much more!

Do you have any recommendations of things I MUST see well in London? Leave me a comment!

All the best,
Bailey B.

Uncategorized

GISHWHES

Posted on August 12, 2015

The Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen.
G.I.S.H.W.H.E.S.

Last year my good friend Mel approached me to do this thing called GISHWHES, and I thought she was crazy. It is a week of find just how silly, spontaneous and creative you can get with a list of 100+ items. Set the stage, take a picture or a video of your creation and move on to the next item. Did I mention you are on a team of 15? You could know all those people or they could be from all over the world.

Build a nest in a upscale neighborhood, nest in it.

Build a nest in a upscale neighborhood, nest in it.

Last year was fantastic! I adorned a fabulous dress made of things only found in your bathroom. I built a gingerbread scene depicting a seedy neighborhood with a heavy police presence. I even managed to build a giant birds nest in the Olympic Village, completely made of straw.

This year however, was like night and day. I found it to be completely different from last year for me. Why? Well, I’ll be honest with you, I hated it.

It’s not that I hated my team or the offical GISHWHES Item list, both of which where wonderful and awesome. The problem had to do with me and not being able to unlock that creative person I know I can be. Give me crayons, a hairdryer, some tape and sparkles and I can build you a grand rainbow. Last week also happened to be a very stressful week at work, which in turn, make it very difficult to pull at that creative person.

I tried to create a sculpture of a few different landmarks out of sugar cubes, roughly 2 ft high. Every time I got it to around a foot and a half, it got knocked over by the wind, I accidentally knocked it over, a bee landed on it. Each time I fell over, I tried my best to keep a good attitude in putting it back together, but after a few attempts and a couple of days putting it back together, I gave up. Giving up is not an easy thing for me to do once I find something I want to do, but sometimes its best to go back to the drawing board.

I ended up building the stupid thing in the bathtub, not as elegant or awesome as I wanted, but I did it. I built the tower, in the tub and looking back, its how it suppose to be.

I also found that being presented with a list of random and awesome things to do, I work best when I have someone to bounce ideas with. All of my team members lived hours and miles away from me, so I had to pull at people I knew. A big shout out to Geoff, Richard and Anthony for your help during last week.

A special shout out to Anthony. I needed someone I loved to hug for 20 mins, in a public space, and then time-laps it into 10 seconds. So naturally, I choose my boyfriend. During a bad week at work, me doing random and strange things with food all week, Anthony was there.

Made entirely out of extra things in my fridge.

Made entirely out of extra things in my fridge.

This year I managed to make a few random things out of leftover foods in my fridge, yell “This is how you get ants!”. Learn that sugar cubes are only good after 3 drops on the floor before they become round and you can’t use them to stack. But most importantly I learned that even if I’m having a bad week, I will always have someone, near or far, to help me be silly, spontaneous and creative.

All the best,
Bailey B.

Transit

Kindness.

Posted on August 10, 2015

Kindness.

When you take public transport you see a lot of weird, questionable and crazy things. With that said you also see a lot of really great things. Vancouver is a hard place to meet people and make friends but I find it is a very friendly city full of really kind people.

Just last week I was waiting to take the bus home when I noticed two women chatting. From the looks of it, it appeared to be two old friends catching up after a long day. One woman was sharing her frozen cherries and asking her if she wanted her unopened smoothie drink. Although, after listing to the conversation they were two strangers who had shared a love for frozen cherries. The one woman was kind enough to share her food and drink with someone she didn’t know, simply because she wanted to.
The bus came and everyone got on, the two women said goodbye to each other and took different seats. The one woman who was sharing her food didn’t end up bringing a bag big enough for all of her items and things kept falling to the floor. A nice young man pointed out she dropped something and handed it back to her. After a few moments, she had dropped her bag of frozen cherries. She then picked up every last frozen cherry she dropped and took her seat again. Another older Asian woman had taken out a plastic bag from her purse and handed it to her.

When your car breaks down on a busy street, it’s never a good thing. Especially if it’s on Burrard St and Dunsmuir St, at 5:00pm on a Friday and you’re an older women of about 70 years old.
Many people walked past her car parked in the cross walk, on the corner, but also in the bus lane. After about 5 minutes a man came and asked if she needed help. She did, her car stopped working and she didn’t know what to do. This man then got her to put her car in neutral, and began pushing the car up the street to Melville St and out of the traffic. Three other men came to help this guy out in pushing the car up and out-of-the-way.

I see small acts of kindness and large ones all over the city. Like the many people who give up their seat on the bus or train to someone in need or that small child who wants to look out the window. Or the person who picks up a dropped shoe for a mom instead of walking over it. Holding open a door for someone simply because you can.

Vancouver is a great place to live and it has its moments of crazy on public transport but its reasons like these that I actually enjoy taking the bus.

All the best,
Bailey B.

Travel

Scotland.

Posted on August 8, 2015
One of my favorite pictures from my trip to Scotland.

One of my favorite pictures from my trip to Scotland.

As I mentioned in my post on Ireland, Scotland was an add on to that trip. Looking back on my trip to Scotland I’m so glad I added it on because I had such grand adventures! It started by taking my very first train ride from London to Scotland.

I booked myself a 1st class ticket to Edinburgh Scotland when I booked my Contiki trip months earlier. I remember taking the train from Kings Cross Station in London.Yes the inner Harry Potter fan girl did a sequel when I stopped at Kings Cross and found myself at Platform 9 ¾.

I had never traveled 1st class on anything. When I booked my ticket I thought to myself, hey why not? It’s about the same amount to take the greyhound to Kamloops and back. Fact: If you book your tickets far enough in advance, you get a cheaper price.

I remember getting off the train, collecting my luggage and heading to the taxi pickup to head to my hotel. I had the best taxi driver. I gave him the address and asked him so many questions on the way. He had answers for all of them.

I saw Edinburgh castle, sterling castle, Loch Ness, St. Andrews, the isle in the sky and so many other things! I ate so much amazing and delicious foods, I even tried Haggis! I found a love for Irn-Bru

This place had the best pasties I've had to date.

This place had the best pasties I’ve had to date.

It rained once on the trip, well what I call rain anyway. It was on the first full day of my Contiki, also the day we went to Edinburgh Castle. I had purchased a rain jacket for this trip. Living in Vancouver you think I would have owned one prior to this trip, but nope! It came in great use that day wandering around the castle for about 4 hours, exploring each room, taking everything in! The rest of the trip it was cloudy and a bit moist but nothing in compared to that day.

A wet day at Edinburgh castle!

A wet day at Edinburgh castle!

Haggis is amazing! But apparently only if Its made and cooked right. I found it to be a bit spicy. I enjoyed it so much I wanted seconds.

Best Haggis Ever.

Best Haggis Ever.

I leaned a bunch of Scottish dances in Oban; I danced the night away with friends, great drinks and a bunch of Scottish gentlemen in Glasgow. A night of dancing does a girl wonders.

On every trip you take, you will stay at a place where somethings just don`t work or you don`t understand how they work. Like the time I stayed in a hotel in Oban, Scotland. Worst. Shower. Ever. The water was too hot one moment, too cold the next. Then I had only hot water coming out of the facet and my feet where just boiling. I ended up having to get out of the shower and ask my roommate how the thing worked! She also had the same problems and eventually figured it out.

But on every adventure we go on, we will always come out with some not so great but they are great memories now and a bunch of amazing stories!

Scotland, I can`t wait until I get to see you again,
All the best,
Bailey B.

Transit

The Skytrain.

Posted on August 3, 2015

I feel that you should know that I do not drive and as a result public transportation is my best friend when it comes to moving around the city. As I posted last week about my adventures on the bus I have had a few more on the skytrain.

Now, I’m used to being approached by strangers, having obscure conversations with them and having random things said to me. Here are a few of my true stories of taking the skytrain in Vancouver.

This took place on a Sunday morning, waiting for the skytrain at 29th ave. I got approached by a fellow redhead to and I quote “Hook up and keep the race alive among the reds”. I remember telling him it was too early for this shit and walked further down the platform away from him.

Picture Joey from friends and how he says “how you doing?!” in the way that he does. Now picture a creepy old man coming up to you saying that. Now picture me awkwardly walked away from him, hands outstretched and making a cringing face.

You sometimes find yourself standing between two strangers and somehow get caught up in things. This time I was just simply standing in the wrong spot on the train. Cue racist Italian singer belting out some Italian lyrics. How do I know he was racist? Well another passenger speaks Italian and called him out on it. Ensure argument with me in the middle of the two. Oh public transport early in the morning, I enjoy you and I hate you at the same time.

I find that when you take any sort of public transportation you end up seeing the same people week after week around the same time of day. You start to smile at them, work up to a good morning and how are you. This is a normal thing for anyone who isn’t me because I try to stick to my coffee, my newspaper or my phone because it could eventually lead to inappropriate conversations or see some weird things. I swear I’m not being rude, I’m just cautious first thing in the morning.

But sometimes it’s when you are coming home from work and you’ve stopped off at the grocery store. I had kept running into the same guy all over the store and kept smiling in the way you do when this happens to you. This does happen to people other than myself right? Well, who shows up well I’m waiting for the skytrain? None other than grocery man! He too was on his way home. This guy then proceeded to tell me that he could make use of my strawberries tonight if I wanted to follow him home for dinner. I declined and moved away from him.

I wish I could tell you that these are it for my transit adventures but they aren’t. I have many more and I’m sure many more will happen to me at some point.

I hope you got some enjoyment out of them because looking back I do!

All the best,
Bailey B.