ouchy!

yesterday was the vancouver sun run, a fundraising 10 km that just so happens to be the largest in north america. my company was part of the corporate challenge, so i joined for the first time ever.

i was not disillusioned and did not think that i could run it - i instead decided to walk it *very quickly*. normally i'm a pretty fast walker, so i figured that i could do the full 10 km in less than 90 minutes.

on sunday we took our place and i kinda left like an ant in the crowd of 54'317 people. we had to wait over an hour to start but thankfully, we had good weather. the crowd persisted the entire way through and i consistently had to dodge people and make my way through. i walked fast, the fastest i've ever walked and the whole time my legs were hurting. i kept thinking how glad i was that 1. a month ago i spent insane amount of hours walking around hong kong and 2. i had good music to listen to.

on km 7, someone tapped my shoulder. it was an older gentleman, sweaty but smiling. "thank you!" he said. "you have a really good pace. i kept up with you up until stanley park but i went to take a piss and then i lost you. i finally caught up to you! i just wanted to say thank you." i smiled at him "i don't mean to say that i've been staring at your ass the entire time. just that you're going at a good speed. anyways, thank you." laughing, i wished him good luck while he invited me to go in front and set the pace.

near the end i was getting tired but i was still happy, enjoying myself. proud of myself. i crossed the finish line as # 29'897 and finished the race in 85:55 minutes, which i think is pretty fast for a walker. i achieved my goal of coming in within my time category. i did good!

now, i just need to stop feeling so sore! my legs, my ass and joints are making me walk like an old lady!

pastéis de nata

before going to macau with victor, we consulted the LP hong kong world food guidebook to find some good eats. LP said that macau made the best egg tarts, and so i decided that i was going to try one over there.

we headed out to sweet street, an ex prostitution row turned pastry street that LP likes to call "tart street", pun intended. we arrived and surprisingly, every shop on the street was shut down except for the big, non mom 'n' pops one. what happened to the sweets, we don't know. but we were faced with rows of locked red doors.

we finally found some tarts at the base of the ruin of st paul's church, an iconic macanese sight.

the tart was warm, and it was flaky, with a silky smooth filling that had the perfect level of sweetness. it was delightful. this is the kind of stuff addictions are made off.

we continued our walking tour and even managed to find a portuguese restaurant on the island close by (finding such restaurant isn't as easy as it sounds) but afterwards, we were craving more tarts. so, we hopped on the bus and headed back to the main island's historical district (unesco protected and very charming) to eat some tarts and take in more sights. unfortunately, we arrived there at 9 pm and macau being the good little christian city that it is, had hardly any shops open. no tarts to be found. disappointed, we started to head back to the ferry for hong kong.

on the way there, we spotted a bakery that was selling some tarts. they weren't as good, but we were happy to get more of them.

on return to hong kong, i looked at the egg tarts there with a vast quantity of nostalgia. tarts in hk don't look nearly as good... i wanted the golden brown top of the macanese version. and guess where we found it? at kfc! yes, that's right! kfc. i never eat there but i made the exception for the tarts. they were greasier but quite tasty. and i curse hk airport for not having a kfc and thus, not allowing me to eat one more satisfying warm egg tart before flying back home.

time flies

i've been meaning to do so much since i've been back to hong kong. i can't believe that it's nearly been a month... i've started posting some pictures of the trip but not too many - i took an insane ammount of pictures and i'm still trying to get through all of them, sort the good from the bad or ordinary and tweek them in photoshop. and all along i've been taking more pictures of cherry blossoms and random things in vancouver. i'm getting burried underneath pictures - i need to step away from the cameras!

on top of that, things at work have been hectic: restructuring and layoff is what i've been dealing with since i've been back. which means more work for me.

talking about work, i have to go! so many things to do, so little time.