Cousins

We were invited to spend the long Victoria Day weekend on Vancouver Island with my cousin Rubens and his family. Joining us was our mutual cousin Vincent. Rubens, his wife Stacey and baby boy Jordan live in North Vancouver, while Vincent, a lecturer at the National University of Singapore, is completing his PhD in Sociology at the University of Toronto. It was great to reconnect with Vincent, whom I hardly see and am now getting to know as an adult. Thanks to Rubens and Stacey for putting together a superfun weekend!

Food discoveries

Ever the foodies, we drag our daughter around Vancouver and stateside to discover fine dining experiences. Now, daddy's soul food is anything Singaporean/Malaysian/Indonesian, so we were delighted to discover an Indonesian rijsttafel restaurant. Talya evidently shares her parents delight in good food.

The only thing, in our opinion, that Vancouver lacks is good Mexican food--the kind that is served in hole-in-the-wall restaurants and out of food trucks anyplace you have large immigrant Mexican populations. For that, we have to venture to Bellingham, USA, where great dirt cheap Mexican food is available--we're talking burritos the size of babies, traditional sopes, and exquisite pig tripe tacos, served perhaps on cheap plastic Chinese dishware (e.g. pictured above). Daddy had the cow tongue taco; the close-up was blur so I didn't post it (lucky you).

Meet BeeBop

He is a beluga and the mascot of the Vancouver Aquarium. When Talya first met him (this is her second encounter with the thing), he was wearing bunny ears for Easter. Poor girl now has species confusion.

Hands on learning

Boppa loves activities with Talya. Ever the professor, he makes fun educational as well. Here he is giving Talya a lesson about mixing colours. Her attention span is of course short, as reflected in the sequence below.