Come and tell me your dull and unexciting news 31: Calmly through the day

[MissConductUS]

I've started a new one. Please join us and share the boring and mundane things happening in your world. It will be calming for all.

Here is a link to the prior thread:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5077459-come-and-tell-me-your-dull-and-unexciting-news-30-calmly-through-the-day

Welcome to all regulars, lurkers, and new contributors! Everyone is welcome to join.

The area is called False Creek. Expo '86 lead to a construction boom. It's gorgeous and $$$ now.

Took a look at the pie place, but ended up with donuts.
(Sprouts' dh knows, it if I recall?)

Now having a snack plate... sausage rolls, pizza, gyoza and donuts to follow. Yeah, don't judge me. 💁‍♀️

@bizzey
Pineapple on pizza is a crime against.....well pizza innit? I shall have to send the boys round (yes the ones that leave horses heads in your bed!).

Listened to the wind last night Hard not to! I had only opened the window a small amount a while back but loved listening to it. It mad a ghostly whooooo sound all around my room!

Uman, that's rough, and weight can indeed be very challenging. Have you considered going on one of the new GLP-1 medications like Wegovy or Mounjaro? They are highly effective for most patients. I've been on Wegovy for a little over a year and lost about 20% of my body weight, with minimal side effects. I've had to replace a lot of my clothes, though. I think both drugs are available on the NHS if you meet the criteria.

Havoc, you live in such a lovely area. And I like pineapple on pizza, as long as it's accompanied by ham.

I heard about Storm Bert yesterday. I hope everyone in the UK is okay. We had two days of desperately needed rain here this week, but everyone further north got snow, up to a foot in some places. It put out all of the fires, which is nice.

I have to work tomorrow, but have the rest of the week off. DD and SiL fly in Wednesday morning and DH has hired a car service to pick them up at the airport. Then Thursday we're off to my brother and sister-in-law's house for the holiday. His sons will be there, one with his wife and two boys, so it will be a full house.

Kitchen remodeling is moving along. The cabinets will be in next week, and the builder has asked if we want to get started in December. I think we'll wait until after Christmas. There is more paperwork associated with the building permit than we anticipated, and they want to come look at the kitchen as it is now, before we start work for some reason. DH has pushed back on this, as we're just replacing the cabinets, flooring and worktops, not making any structural or layout changes. We'll see if they insist.

Daisy and her toy bird chirp eagerly await the holidays.

My dd put pineapple on our Halloween pizza to make teeth, the eyes were tomato slices I think. I can take or leave it but because the pineapple was all in one place I took a different slice. My favourite pizza involves chicken, red onions and maybe some sweetcorn.

I think the new year is a great time to do your kitchen MissC, rather than trying to rush when you have thanksgiving and Christmas to deal with. We wouldn’t need any formal permission here to simply replace a kitchen. Over recent years it has been made easier to get permission and some things like small extensions can also be built without informing or asking anybody.

We had snow last week and just as it was melting storm Bert dropped lots of rain. Driving last night and this morning was interesting. There are certain hot spots locally which drain very slowly so the traffic has to take turns driving through the middle of those puddles.
We went to the local garden today for a nosy round their very over the top Christmas shop. It has singing reindeer and takes an hour to get around with lots of corners for each colour and theme. I did well to come out with just a couple of fairly tasteful clear penguins to hang on the tree.

The beauty of pizza is that you can make it exactly how you like it. It's a blank canvas for creativity. It's perfect to put left-overs on to stretch to a meal and make you look utterly chef-like. 😃

Miss, thanks for the very cute pic of your Daisy girl. I've got a contractor coming by in a week for a counter-top replacement. I'm hoping it will be fast and not impact Christmas baking etc.
Yes, very lucky to live here. Incredibly expensive, but we get out a lot for walks/exploring which are free and I economize by buying year passes for the Aquarium and Science World.
You will have to post pics of you Thanksgiving table!

Death, I love the sound of howling wind, too.

Dandy, water was pooled in two places when I went out yesterday. I phoned the city to report the hazard and when I drove home the storm sewers had been cleared and the water drained. 😃
(Way to go COV! 👏)

We all had a good sleep last night. Amazing!!!
DC are fed (steel cut oats with butter, cinnamon, banana and berries; cinnamon, brown sugar, walnuts and banana for me); I made a banana bread (with walnuts and choc chips); and I put a large load of laundry in and it is now hung to dry.

It's almost noon and we'll be heading out shortly. I've got something special planned to do with the dc and if it turns out I'll post a pic later. 😊

Loving all your beautiful pictures Havoc

Wow at winter swimming Duckling I'm impressed. I love swimming but not brave enough for that - I am currently not allowed to swim due to operation but am close to date allowed.

Horrendous weather here, windy and rainy, so been in all weekend and just packing and also got DS a new ipad and set it up.

Just signing the agreement for the house I will rent so I can get a bank account set up there. Had roast dinner and apple crumble and custard. Floof still loving Jingle Bells.

@Penguinsa ...job is happening!
Wow ...when do you move and to where ?

How exciting 😄.

Will ds be ok with the move ?

Just read back there comments.

Yes I had a good experience ith the GP.

Did online photos and message at 8.10am.
8.30am .. message to say someone will call me between 9-2pm ...

9.30 am ..phone call !

Got steroid cream .

Neck much better now.

Still old and wrinkly ..but not as itchy 😂😂!

You are brave navigating traffic to Langley! I've lived in Vancouver 10+ years and have never been to Langley proper, just Fort Langley once 😂

Will you be visiting the Lights at Van Dusen? I went pre-pandemic and am excited to go back without the masks and social distancing. Highlight of my holiday season... mostly for all the food trucks!

Hello and welcome @HighlandsExpat !
It's so nice to have another YVR local on here! 😄
This was our 3rd visit to Glow Langley.
First time was '21 and since it was Covid it was drive-thru. Last year was freezing I was pregnant...
It was worth it each time, though. It's gorgeous.
Not hard to find off the highway, straightforward, really. Each time we've gone it was during the week and the earliest entry.

Made it to the Christmas Market today to take part in the Lantern Parade!!! Random people in the parade in front if us in the pic with Santa walking along, too. Another pic is our Olympic Flame "cauldron" and a few in the market.

@Mumtobabyhavoc

That looks lovely. You do go to some nice places.

@DandyDandylion

Iused to love going around garden centres and having a cuppa and a cake with my friends from Hampshire!

@Umanresources

That really sounds tough. I remember watching those programmes with Dr Nowzadian where his patients are put on a very strict (well, for them) diet. Just out of interest I got a copy of 'his' diet book but it was written by someone else and was full of meat I think. Very disappointing

Lovely photos of Vancouver lights, havoc.

penguinsa wow, your plans are taking shape fast. Will DH and DS stay in the family home or are you all moving?

The local Christmas lights are officially on as of last weekend, with a parade to mark the kickoff of the Christmas shopping season. I spent the weekend ferrying DD3 to two universities where she's applying to do a PhD. She wanted to see the lie of the land. Traffic was a beast.

Now gearing up for Thanksgiving - I bought the turkey but now have to make room for it in the freezer. A good few packs of frozen veg and a cornish hen will go into the cooler with ice later today.

Permits are needed for any work involving electricity or plumbing here, and contractors and trades have to be licensed and bonded. The housing stock is mainly older (from the 1880s to the 1930s), and there are several historic districts too, with architecture of note. Before the city tightened up its permit system, a good deal of bodging was done by amateurs. The building code department now sends out inspectors to check all work done as it progresses.

Glad meds are helping Bizzey and thanks. Thanks Math To start with it just me going out there and I fly out from the UK on Sunday and arrive at the island on Tuesday afternoon on a small plane. Sunday is an overnight flight and Monday am in South Africa overnight.

Lovely pictures Havoc

Have a wonderful thanksgiving Math and MissC

It was Oxmas today in Oxford, they celebrate Christmas a month early so now DD has had 2 Christmases already and its only November. 😂Its apparently Bridgemas in Cambridge Uni, not sure when that started, think its a relatively recent thing.

DH is going up north for work tomorrow so will be a long day he's gone for, 6am to 9pmish but a colleague is driving and train back.

Had a Thai takeaway tonight which was nice. Floof is loving the heater, he puts his paw on it to ask for it on and then rolls over and warms his tummy or sometimes his tail or his bum and purrs. He still loves jingle bells and we have that on about 10 times a day for him and he bounces his tail along. Got the cleaners coming this weekend, nice to have house nice before I leave and DD is back a week after on 7th.

@Mumtobabyhavoc , there are so many types of countertop materials to choose from. I found this article helpful:

8 Types of Countertops: How to Choose the Best Countertop for Your Kitchen

We went with quartz for its beauty, low maintenance, and the fact that it is completely non-porous, so it is very sanitary. If I ever have to put something hot down and it can't go on the stove, I always put a cutting board or trivet down to place it on, so the caution about hot objects doesn't worry me.

Math, some people don't bother with a permit here if the job is small, like replacing a toilet and a sink in a bathroom. It's expensive. Our town charges $1,500 for the permit and inspections, and they are always on the lookout for a reason to raise the value of the house so they can raise your property taxes. For those outside the US, we don't have council taxes here. Local municipalities raise money by taxing the value of real estate, both residential and commercial. Our taxes won't (or shouldn't) go up because we're just replacing cabinets, worktops, and flooring without making the kitchen any larger, so it's considered maintenance, not an improvement.

Safe travels, penguinsa. Are you just going to arrange housing and coming back to England for Christmas, or is this the start of the move?

I did more cleaning out of the kitchen cabinets over the weekend and wound up with three bin bags of things to discard, most of which were expired food. For some reason, I had a lot of canned goods that expired in 2017-2020. I also had one can of cooking oil spray that expired in 2005. We moved into the house in 2003.

We FaceTimed with DD and SiL on Sunday and spent a lot of time discussing DD's job options. Her job with the Federal government has many advantages, but the problem is that it's fully remote, and Trump has said that he wants to end remote work for Federal employees. We all think she should take it anyway, as there are union protections for Federal employees, and it's so embedded now that they won't be able to function without it. It will be lovely to see her and our son-in-law this week for the holiday/

We get random letters from the city asking about any improvements/renos we've done. I suspect they reassess your property value if you've done work, too. I don't know if they send someone out or not.

It was 1c when I woke up this morning. Luckily no rain/snow.

Was on the North Shore/in West Van last night. Here's a pic of Park Royal Village, a shopping area adjacent to Park Royal Mall. There were some very pretty Christmas lights up. Was also at Vanier Park and took a pic of Burrard Bridge with it's pretty blue lights for the holidays.

@Penguinsa 😲😲😲!
Are you a penguin researcher 😁😜!

How exciting..

@aibutohavethisusername...sorry can't delete or edit !!
Tapped by mistake 😲..

Stupid flipping nails 😲😂

@MissConductUS ..that sounds like my cupboard!

Ok, ladies, when are you coming here???

https://www.foretnoirepatisserie.com/viennoiserie-2/

Did a run to Costco before closing. Left at 7:45 and was back by 9. Groceries away, bath, dc washed, teeth brushed and in pj's (yes, it's late) and now have a snack plate of strawberries, grapes, satsumas and stollen (with marzipan inside). Got the Voice on tv. Time to unwind. ☺️

Just back from the Ideal Home Exhibition. Not normally interested in cakes but for a few years now they had a cake competition. It was fantastic this year. A life sized model of the green witch from Wicked! Pinnocochio in a cage, Shrek etc

We never eat there as it is too expensive but my bought elsewhere tuna and sweetcorn sarnie wasn't cutting it so I decided to get some chips. The cheapest were £4 from a Greek stall but they did taste of fluffy potatoes and were crunchy. My friend then bought a doughnut for herself and some 'school cake' for me. Anyone that doesn't know about it - it is a sponge cake with icing and hundreds and thousands (sprinkles). Readers that was a delicious bit of cake!

I like the sound of Oxmass Penguinsa I fondly remember dragging a branch into uni halls and decorating it in place of a tree. I think we did a secret Santa with a £5 limit which at the time bought something small but nice. At that age your friends at university are your family whilst you are there so it’s nice to celebrate Christmas with them before heading home to see your real family. Hope the reconnaissance trip to the island goes well, do keep us updated.

Duckling I forced myself to do some cold water swimming this summer as I know it is meant to be good for you. I did enjoy it more than I expected and on the day I sat and air dried so got really cold I was so chilled out for days afterwards. That was summer though, I admire you carrying on in winter. Maybe I’ll see if I can do more of it next year.

Permits for plumbing sounds a bit over the top, I do understand with electrics as that could be a fire risk. Here it is perfectly normal for diyers to fit things like sinks and repair basic plumbing. My dad did all his own plumbing and electrics and would never dream of paying someone. He worked an office job so definitely not qualified though he was very educated.

Glad to hear your dc are recovered and sleeping better Havoc, I wish I could reach into your photos and pick a slice of that Swiss roll cake.

I have had a quiet week so far but off to see the new Paddington tomorrow and then out for lunch with some other parents. Then at the weekend I am having lunch with some old school friends. I could get used to being a lady who lunches.

This thread is starting to get quite full…

Yes we are at 999 posts with this one.

Thanks Dandy Hope you enjoy Paddington.

Lovely cakes Havoc

Glad cake was good Death

Something like that Bizzey 😂

Good you are making progress on kitchen MissC

Had a busy day with an all day online research conference and also got flights pushed back to mid Jan so will start wfh from start Dec then fly out later so will be home for DD back from uni, Christmas and DSs birthday. Conference was really interesting. Another day of it tomorrow. Have botanic garden Christmas lights on Friday.

Apologies to all for my tardiness on opening a new thread. It's here:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5219345-come-and-tell-us-your-dull-and-unexciting-news-32-calmly-through-the-day

I'll post my update there to start us off.