the hollow tree in the fog, drunk in blood alley and other related stories

There were several times in the last couple days where I went “oh I have to blog this!” and then promptly forgot about it. That or I remember then go home and get all distracted by pretty things like anime and SL and I get so busy “oohing” that I completely forgot to go “blogging”.

So without further ado, here’s my catch up post, first thing in the morning after I get into work! (Stop looking at me funny tank! You’re no longer the boss-substitute!)

Drunk in Blood Alley
On Valentine’s Day, I got the pleasure to be the 100 watt light bulb between Tank and his wife. (It’s a Chinese metaphor. Imagine a couple making out on a park bench in the middle of a dark park. What do they fear most? The big spotlight!) We went to a little tasting bar named “Salt” right on Blood Alley. Yes, the alleyway, looking like any other alley in down town, was actually called Blood Alley.

How cool is that?

Now, I’m not much of a cheese person, and I was definitely skeptic when the little plates of cheese and meats came out. I stared at it and went “oh boy…I’m going to need a hot dog later.”

Er…no?

You put everything on bread. Lots and lots of bread. I think between the three of us, we went through 3-4 baskets of bread. And wine. Oh my, the wine. for $15 dollars more, you get to taste 3 small glasses of wine to go with the 3 small combination of meat/cheese with a “condiment”. I fell in love with Reasling. Now, normally, I’m not much of a wine drinker. If I want something heavy, give me tequila. Light? I like my girly fruity drinks. But oh dear gods! Forget about the red wines, Reasling is where it’s at!

Strange. I can handle 3 shots of tequila, but what’sone glass equivalent of wine, knocked me right out. I spent a portion of the evening walking down Blood Alley and other similiar streets going “ooohhh… I don’t feel so good….”

(I didn’t have pictures of the food unfortunately, or else I will be blogging this at hoyummy.com. But watch for my future guest posts there!)

The Snow Angel Murderer

We really struggled a nickname for T&T, so we decided to go with T&T. She hates it. We love it. (But let’s not confuse it with the supermarket!)

We includes Mabs (aka Killer), Chuly, Honjai and Deeb. It was great. She hates it. But she never chucked a snowball at us in all of the three hours of us snowshoeing this weekend. Amazing ne?

We threw snowballs at her! Or rather, sometimes we threw snow at the branches that hung over her, so that snow would fall. WHEEE!

Snowshoeing was AWESOME. Except when T&T went down to make a snow angel, then got up, she ended up destroying it. It was a very very sad event and so in revenge, I pointed at her all day and called her murderer!

I love my friends.

As a side note, honjai and I also stopped to build a snow pirana out of one of the mounds. It WAS suppose to be the face of Prince Charles at first, but somehow, it didn’t quite turn out. Well, I suppose if you take it Picasso-style…

Hollow Tree in the Fog
Downtown. It’s a maze of one-way streets. Fair enough. Because you can almost depend on the next street going in the opposite direction. But what’s with all these no left turns?!?!?!?! What started as a 5 minutes drive from my new office to my acupuncturist, turned into a half an hour drive because the entire street wouldn’t let me turn left! So what happened? I nearly got stuck in the busiest bridge in the area, Lion’s Gate Bridge, and ended in another city over water!

Luckily, last second before I got shoved on to the bridge, I saw a turn-off into Stanley Park. Now, all day, the sun has been shining, birds have been chirping, and life has been good. But once you turn into the park, with all the large trees looming over you? Oh dear…

Now, normally I love the forest. I can spend an entire day sitting still there. But somehow, with the fog, and passing by the blackened tree stumps caused by crazy storms that swept through the park a couple of years ago, everything just seems a smidge creepier. Just a smidge.

Did I mention I never drove through Stanley Park by myself before and at this point, had no idea where I was going anymore?

And then, I see a sign! A sign! I’m saved.

It said Hollow Tree.

Greeeaattt. The most haunted spot in all of the park, and I get to be driving through it in the park, completely lost, alone and near no visibility in the fog. Sounds like the beginning of a horror story, does it not?

By now, I’m speaking out loud to myself. “It’s okay, just follow the road, follow the road.” And so, the brave soul I am, I drove on.

For the record, luckily, I didn’t see anything besides the fog. And I made it to my acupuncturist okay, only 15 minutes late!

Hey, just because I love the dark side doesn’t mean I’m all that eager to meet angry spirits looking for retribution…

SL Updates
Following my rather popular last post, I just wanted to give an update that I am revelling in my abilities to be a consumer whore on Second Life. Having completed my new make-over, my avatar now has white hair tipped with red, light-gray skin, silver lips and dark eye-liner.

I love fashion. Contrary to some people’s believes, I revel in my own style, a cross between punk and goth, I also love steam punk though I don’t believe I have been able to grasp that fashion entirely yet to be able to come up with my own combinations. I see SL as a medium to explore this cheaply. Hey, if something looks good on my avatar, maybe I’ll buy the items irl and give it a whirl.

I fund my consumer whoreish tendencies by selling paintings and doing commissions. Not that I’ve made much yet, but I have one commission outstanding right now that I have to work on tonight. That’ll justify my recent shopping spree!

Seccond Life in general however (not just sex), is really a place to explore and take risks. I’ve done things in there that I would never have been able to in real life. I’ve sold a piece of my writing. I’ve sold my art. I get to wear all these crazy clothing, and have crazy hair-dos only to run into someone that has crazier clothing and crazier hair-dos. What more can you ask for?

(Some of my favourite stores right now include Goth::Gemmed, Curious Kittens& Deviant Kitten and BareRose. Go check them out.)

The “I Have Issues” Group
There has been a suggestion sent out today to work off-site in a group to do some team building. Basically it consists of us heading to the apartment close by work, and doing some hard core program and sharing of what each other is working on. This is honjai’s response:

<raises hand at the back of the class>

Umm … Mr. Chuly … have you seen Mabs’ place let alone been in Mabs’ place? That’s like stuffing a sarcastic Mii character, some T&T, an issue laden work-a-holic, little bo peep, somebody’s biatch, and a dictator in with a can of sardines. How do you think that’s going to turn out? In real time, the 22nd floor ain’t that far from the street.

(Guess which one I am! Yups, you got it, the “an issue laden work-a-holic”!)

Chuly’s response:

Yes, I am glad that you asked that question, what is your name again?

The plan works out perfectly along with the combination. The dictator can drive somebody’s biatch and that little bo-peep, while the work-a-hol-ic can work happily regardless. Some T&T can get food from T&T with the sarcastic Mii character to feed the dictator.

After all, it is a self-sustained environment that will deliver!

Wait…did Chuly just offered to feed honjai?! Why do I have this picture in my mind of Chuly feeding honjai by hand? Wait…I don’t want to know. *shudders*

~ by darksilvercorbi on February 20, 2008.