Coal Harbour, Vancouver

We went for a walk in downtown Vancouver. Behind us is where Suds used to work, flying float planes for West Coast Air.
We also shopped on Robson, had lunch at Milestone's and took in a UBC student art exhibit.
We were amazed by the clear air and complete lack of "haze" we are so used to in Hong Kong. It was just gorgeous in Vancouver this weekend!! Of course I packed for more typical Vancouver weather and only have jeans and T's, when I would have loved a tank and flip flops!

Matt's stag

This is a waterfall on the way up to Harrisson Lake, 2 hours away from Vancouver. A dozen or so guys headed up for a camping weekend in the woods to celebrate Matt's remaining time before he gets married May 6th.










This is everyone at our campsite on the beach Sunday morning.



This is Kenny, after backing up a little too far and almost rolling the truck!
Luckily some "hicks" came to save the day and get him out of this mess before the vultures came to strip the truck.




Me on the first day, on the drive up. The view and scenery is amazing!
I am not a real cowboy. (we ain't going fishn' are we?)





Went straight from the stag to play a few innings of softball. The weather was perfect, 20 degrees and clear blue sky. Too bad we were one run shy of a win! It was good to see "the Team" again.

Cheese Fondue

Here we are about to dig into some fondue!! That is Matthius and Lisa from Switzerland. Matthius was Suds' partner in training.
The fondue was SO good!! We dipped bread cubes or pineapple in this gooey cheese. I believe it was all very low-calorie. Yummy!

Stow-away

Suds left for Vancouver today and because of changing flight loads, I am frantically planning my own trip there ASAP.
Poor Lexi knows when the luggage comes out we abandon her! I guess she figured I might not notice her and she could come along for the adventure.
Poor, poor Lexi....
I have managed to find her a comfy place to hang out...she can have her own room and use of the exercise facilities...there are pictures if you want to check it out...
http://www.kennelvandego.com/

Suds in LA

Hey, long time lurker, first time poster!
This is me on a overnight in LAX. We stay in Anaheim, right across from Disneyland. It is also a 5 min. bus ride away from Angel Stadium, so I decided to take in a game! They beat the Rangers 5-4 in the bottom of the 9th.
My flight usually arrives around noon, and I don't leave until 9pm the next night. I have a few hour nap when I get in, because it is 3am Hong Kong time at noon LA time.
I now have time to do 'stuff' on my overnights, instead of studying during the first few months!
I'll try to post more from my end of things.

Recipe of the Week 2

It's that time again!! Since last weeks was such a success (not) I have TWO recipes for you this week! One for Easter breakfast and one for a weeknight quick dinner.

BANANA AND BLUEBERRY FRENCH TOAST
Use any fruit you like along with the banana, frozen if not in season.

Get 2 slices of white bread and butter thinly on both sides. Toss fruit combo in a little honey or sugar to sweeten a bit. Add in some mashed banana to hold it all together.

Beat a couple of eggs in a bowl with a couple of tablespoons of sugar, then dip both slices of bread in the sweet egg mixture so it is egged on both sides. Let the excess drip off then smear the fruit mix on one slice, leaving a slight space around the edges of the bread. Put the other slice on top and press down. The egg will help the fruit to stick. Fry in a little butter in a medium hot pan on both sides, pushing down so the fruit is pressed into the bread. Once the bread is golden and slightly crisp, dust with sugar and serve with a dollop of creme fraiche, or whipped cream and any remaining fruit mixture spooned over.

BEEF WITH BOK CHOY, MUSHROOMS AND NOODLES
As always I will be omitting the mushrooms. This recipe should take less than 20 minutes to make.

4 ounces thin rice vermicelli noodles
4 ounces beef sirloin
olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
sea salt
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
thumb sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
1 fresh red chili, de-seeded and thinly sliced
small handful of shiitake and oyster mushrooms, cleaned and torn up
1 cup chicken stock
1 bok choy, quartered

Boil some water in the kettle and soak the noodles in the boiling water according to package directions. Meanwhile, rub the beef with olive oil, sprinkle with the cumin and a pinch of salt and rub all over. Place in a really hot frying pan and sear on all sides. Add the onion, ginger and chili and cook for a couple of minutes, then add the mushrooms, stock and bok choy. Drain the noodles and add them to the pan. Stir around, and correct the seasonings. Slice up the beef and serve the noodles and bok choy in a big bowl, with the beef slices on top. Pour the broth over from the pan.

Underwater camera pictures

Can you hear the Jaws music??



Here are the underwater camera pics from our private picnic in Bora Bora

You can click on the picture for a close up, and then click once more for the super closer up
















Swimming with the Sting Rays











A pile of Sting Rays hiding in the sand












Feeding the fishies. This was nothing!! At times we could be surrounded by 100's of fish!

A tour guide lured this monster Moray Eel out of its hidding spot in the coral.













It was a scary creature

























Suds chasing the Rays

Recipe of the Week

This is my new plan for the blog. Every week I will post a different recipe, plus any tips or suggestions I have. Then we can all cook it together. Some recipes will be new, some will be from my cookbook to encourage people to actually use it! Then we can share our experiences in the "comment" section of the post. Who's game?
***check out my results in the comments section and post yours***

The first recipe is.....

CHICKEN MARSALA

1 3/4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth (14 fl oz)
2 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
10 oz mushrooms, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 1/2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh sage
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 skinless boneless chicken breast halves (2 lb total)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons dry Marsala wine
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 200°F.

Bring broth to a boil in a 2-quart saucepan over high heat, then boil, uncovered, until reduced to about 3/4 cup, about 20 minutes.

Cook shallot in 3 tablespoons butter in an 8- to 10-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring, until shallot begins to turn golden, about 1 minute. Add mushrooms, 1 teaspoon sage, salt, and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid mushrooms give off is evaporated and mushrooms begin to brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove from heat.

Put flour in a wide shallow bowl. Gently pound chicken to 1/4 inch thick between 2 sheets of plastic wrap using the flat side of a meat pounder or a rolling pin.

Pat chicken dry and season with salt and pepper, then dredge in flour, 1 piece at a time, shaking off excess. Transfer to sheets of wax paper, arranging chicken in 1 layer.

Heat 1 tablespoon each of oil and butter in a 10-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until foam subsides, then sauté half of chicken, turning over once, until golden and just cooked through, about 4 minutes total. Transfer cooked chicken to a large heatproof platter, arranging in 1 layer, then put platter in oven to keep warm. Wipe out skillet with paper towels and cook remaining chicken in same manner, then transfer to oven, arranging in 1 layer.

Add 1/2 cup wine to skillet and boil over high heat, stirring and scraping up brown bits, about 30 seconds. Add reduced broth, cream, and mushrooms, then simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce is slightly thickened, 6 to 8 minutes. Add lemon juice and remaining 2 tablespoons wine and 1/2 teaspoon sage.

Serve chicken with sauce.

Makes 4 servings.

Sarah's propsed changes:
I have not made this recipe before. I am leaving out the mushrooms because I don't like them. I am not splurgling on the Marsala and am going to try it with red wine. I will cut down on the amount of butter used, but am using unsalted. I am only using 2 chicken breasts but not cutting back on the amount of sauce so there will be lots! I am using whipping cream for the heavy cream because I have some leftover from dinner last night. My dinner last night also involved flattend chicken (I found a wine bottle worked better than a hammer) so I flattened all the chicken and cooked it in one batch so tonights chicken is waiting to be re-heated in the fridge (smart, eh?) I am serving the chicken over some spaghetti topped with a little butter and parmesan cheese, and some steamed pumpkin.

Toilet Bowl Critter

My skin is crawling!
Look what I found in the toilet when I lifted the lid!!
How did it get in there? We always leave the lid down! Was it chilln' right under the seat last time I went pee? Did it swim up, cause it certainly wans't enjoying the water whenI saw it. Are there more? Is there some sort of bug nest in the bathroom?
HOW DID IT GET IN THERE?
Now I am going to have to turn on the lights when I go pee in the middle of the night.
I will take spiders over cockroaches any day!
(you can click on the picture for a close up, if you dare)

Our jouney begins....

We flew from Hong Kong to Auckland, New Zealand leaving March 22 at 3PM. We arrived here in BoraBora March 23 at 7am.
It seems like a quick journey but we managed to squish in an 11 hour flight to get to Auckland, a 12 hour delay in Auckland (broken plane), a 5 hour flight to Papette Tahiti, a 5 hour sleep in the airport on the floor, a 1 hour flight into Bora Bora, and finally a 20 minute private boat from the airport to our hotel. Time change can be a killer, especially for Suds who had arrived from London mere hours before we ran out the door to start the trip!
It is way easier for Vancouverites to get Bora Bora (if only we had known that!) just a 2 hour flight to LA then 8 hours direct to Papeete!!! Keep it in mind cause this place is awesome!!!! Paradise on earth. We were pinching ourselves for days, but I am quite sure it is real!!!!!

This first pic is on the Air Tahiti Nui flight. The flight kept getting delayed, which was SO annoying! If we had known from the start we had so much time, we would have headed into the city. Instead we just sat on our asses doing Sudoku puzzels, a new obsession that everyone else seems to have. While waiting in the airport we were surrounded by "sudoko'ers". There was a whole shelf dedicated to it in the airport bookstore. A worldwide craze, I guess.

We finally got into Tahiti at about 1am. Our next flight left at 6am.










The view from the plane from Tahiti to Bora Bora. Being the fab travel planner I am, I knew the best side was the left on the plane, so we had great views.








We are really on our way now!! Now on the Air Tahiti flight to Bora Bora. You can hardly tell that I spent the night sleeping on a cold concrete floor...and no cardboard (hahahaha Whitney)







We arrive at 7am.

in Bora Bora

The airport is on its own "motu" or private island. It was built by US army guys in WW2. They occupied the island for 5 years, but the feared Japanese invasion never happened.
The only way from the airport to anywhere else on the island is by boat.


That is the airport behind me.
The hotel boat picks us up at the airport and we were given flower lei's, which I have always wanted!!
All those trips to Hawaii and never a real lay, I mean lei. lol




Ah... the honeymooners. This is a well earned relaxing trip!! No lugging of backpacks, no switching hotels every 2 days, no shared bathrooms! Just pure luxury!





So happy to have finally arrived!! And it is more beautiful than we imagined!

Checking in

The boat took us right up to the hotels dock. We were greeted by a hotel employee with cool moist towels to refresh ourselves with, while someone else carried our luggage. You sure don't get service like this at hostels!! Then up to the lobby for a cool coconut milk as we checked in. It was so nice. The lobby was open air with a waterfall and hibiscus flowers everywhere. Suds just couldn't believe his eyes! He just thought it was the coolest thing ever!




Walking to our bungalow we kept stopping take more pictures. We were just blown away by how beautiful everything was, especially the water. It was SO clear and blue and so many fishies!!


Our hotel is on its own private motu. There is nothing there except the hotel, retaurant and the shack where we can get snorkel gear and kayaks (free) so they provide a free boat to take us accross the water to their sister hotels the Novetell and the Marara. The Marara is getting remodeled so it's just the Novotel open for now. There is a pool we were able to use, as well as another restaurant and bar. Also across the water and a short walk from the Novotell is a car rental agency, supermarket, and several restaurants.




Across at the Novotel there was a Polynesian dance show in the bar. At one point they grabbed Suds and I and we had to dance the hula in front of everyone!! How embarrasing!
We ate lunch here one day. A cheeseburger and fries was about $25CAD. Luckily an American tourist out for a day from a cruise ship gave us the burger her little son ordered and then didn't want. I am never one to pass up free food! Score!

Night snorkelling and blue water

Our first day we crashed big time and had a 4 hour nap. To make up for the lost time we did some night time snorkelling. The water turned up so cool in the picture! This was just off the side of our bungalow.





There was a small bit of glass floor in the room. This is Suds swimming under our room. We also swam under other peoples rooms but only saw someone else once. There was a glass-topped coffee table over the glass floor, but we moved it right away. At night it was all lit up so you could see the fishies.
















This is the infinity pool at the Novotell. You can see our hotel island across the way (the one on the right). This picture is now our computer wallpaper! We only used the pool once. It was just too much fun to snorkel right off our own place.

This is our hotel dock where we cuaght the boat across. It was available whenever we wanted it, from 6AM-11PM. We just stopped at the lobby on our way down and requested the boat and it would be there in a few minutes.

Can you believe the color of that water?



This is the Novotel's dock and our water taxi coming to take us back.

Bugster and Vaitape

Can you tell it's raining? It was pouring!!
A couple of days it rained, but usually at night and not for very long. The first few days we were there it was calm, but afterwards it was windy everyday. It wasn't bad because it was so warm, the breeze was nice. But it did churn up the water some and reduce the visibility.


We were up early almost everyday and this day watched the sun come up and got some great pics (or maybe is this sundown? whatever). The island shuts down early and everything pretty much closed around 10PM so we were early to bed every night (insert dirty honeymoon joke here) and up early in the morn.

One day we rented a "bugster" for 4 hours and toured around the island. The floor of this coconut forest was full of holes inhabited by crabs! Apparently you can eat the crabs if you feed them a diet of coconut for a month, to clear out their systems i guess? We saw these crabs holes all over the island.
Suds just can't let a dirt road go by without seeing where it leads. This one went nowhere (shocker) but that didn't stop him from exploring others. We went up one road and on the way back there was an electric gate closing us in!! We were in shock! We honked a few times and someone in the closest house beeped us out.


This is in the "big city" of Vaitape. There are 2 banks, post office, 2 supermarkets, snack huts and tons of pearl shops and pareo (sarong) shops. An open air mini bus left from the Novotel 3 times a day and took us to the town in about 15 minutes. We went there twice.
Bora Bora is so expensive its crazy. Breakfast in a little pattiserie was over $25 and to have our pics put onto a disc was $50 CAD. Even the bus was $10 return each.

Private Picnic

We were picked up in the outrigger boat at 9:45 by Pierrot, the owner of the small tour company. We headed out into the lagoon to feed and swim with the Sting Rays and Reef sharks.

The day couldn't have been better, sunny and calm. The water is unreal. Never have we seen water so beautiful and clear.


The perfect view.

It was about 10 minutes by boat from our hotel to where the sharks and rays are. All the way there, the water looks like this. Even before we were at the spot Peirrot pointed out some rays swimming below the boat.



You can see a couple of sharks, and the darker spots are the Sting Rays. We have some underwater camera pictures as well, but they are not deveopled yet. They will be even better.
Pierrot tossed some fish bits in the water and next thing you know, there were 8 sharks and over a dozen rays. I could not wait to jump in the water!! The rays look like they are flying in the water. The feeling of being in the water and surrounded by sharks!! I could hear the Jaws music in my ears.


Next stop was some snorkelling in a "coral garden" 15 minutes or so away. The water was much deeper there and with a strong current. All it takes is a little bread in the hand and you are surrounded by 1000's of colourful fish. The snorkelling here was some of the best we've experienced. Topped only by the Red Sea in Egypt. It just seemed so untouched, no suncreen clouded water, no dead coral and tour buses to fill the lagoon.


We toured around the entire island, and checked out all the other hotels and their bungalows. In the next year there are 3 mega hotels opening up. I think we planned this trip in the nick of time. With each of those hotels probably capable of 300 guests a day( in water bungalows) plus staff, the island with be packed!

We hung out in our private "pool" while Pierrot prepared our lunch. We feasted on fresh salad, and tuna cru (raw tuna "cooked" in lime juice and coconut milk) , then prawn skewers and a lobster tail, then steaks, mahi mahi and potatoes and finally fruit for dessert. Of course we washed it all down with champagne!