A New, Delicious Dining Experience,

What a mixed bag of weather we had today. It was raining when I got up this morning for our usual laundry time and by the time I went off to the gym, it had stopped, but there was a cold north wind blowing on my walk there. I must have just missed the rain, cause George said it started to downpour shortly after I left. Then by the time we left for breakfast, just a steady rain. During breakfast another downpour. I saw reports and tweets of snow falling in various parts of the lower mainland too. Then by mid-afternoon, the sun was shining bright in the sky. Later when we went to the Broadway area, it was cool downtown, raining when we got off the train, pouring by the time we got to the restaurant, and then comfortable on our way back with no rain.

We did notice today a couple signs of spring. Firstly, on our walk from the gym to breakfast I noticed a few flowers starting to bloom by one of the hotels.

The second sign was one of the clematis on the balcony. George noticed it has started growing new leaves out of the end of the old parts of the plant. Hope the cool weather doesn't damage it. I always thought they were a little susceptible to cold weather.

When we got to our breakfast place this morning, we also noticed that the sliding door to the patio was boarded over. The owner told us he got a call this morning around 0550 saying there was a break in. Apparently they only got an old amp that they would be lucky to sell as its really not worth anything. It's a shame when this happens. I want to say it was some street person just looking for something to sell for a few dollars or a fix, but one never knows. Either way, it's certainly not pleasant for the owner to have this happen to him anytime, but on the weekend, when he is busiest and often uses the patio to seat close to 30 more people and now they have to wait a lot longer. We got there at a good time, as we only had to wait about 5 minutes, but shortly after we got there, there was a long lineup forming outside. Hope it's fixed for tomorrow.

This evening we met George's friend, Dixie for dinner over on Broadway where she was staying. We had decided to try out The Banana Leaf since it was close to her hotel, and it was a place we were wanting to try for sometime since we now have one about 1 1/2 blocks away from where we live. After ducking under awnings to stay dry from the rain, we got to the restaurant and were seated right away. We were a little worried, as the first thing we were asked was 'Do you have a reservation?', which we didn't. I'll say, it was a good thing we got there when we did, as within minutes, the place was full, and there was a lineup waiting to get in during our entire time there.

We decided we would pick some dishes to share for dinner tonight as none of us had been there before and were unfamiliar with anything. Dixie didn't want anything that would be too hot or spicy which was fine with us. We normally have a little spice in our food, but since we hadn't tasted Malaysian food before, we didn't know if their version of hot meant 'hot' or 'HOT'. Needless to say, all our choices were excellent. I can see this place being on our list of favourites that we like to visit.

We started with appetizers of a chicken satay and some vegetable spring rolls. The peanut sauce for the satay had chopped up peanuts in it, while the spring roll dip was a nice mixture of sweet and spicy. We each picked out a main course, which we would share. The curry boneless chicken, the mixed vegetables with brown shallots and garlic, and the pineapple fried rice with seafood & chicken (served in a real pineapple that was cut in half and had the centre carved out as a serving bowl). If these dishes are representative of the rest of their menu, I want to try everything, as it was delicious. An hour later, I was still tasting the superb flavours of these dishes in my mouth and that was a good thing.

We also saved room for desert. I kept mine simple, just a mango ice cream served with crushed peanuts and grated coconut. George had the Pisang Goreng, a crispy fried banana with vanilla ice cream with crushed peanut and gula melaka (palm sugar). This was to die for! The last time we tried this, they served us a plantain instead of a banana. Some people may not notice the difference, but we certainly did. Sweeter and heavenly. I'm getting hungry again just thinking of it.

After dinner we got Dixie checked in and her boarding passes for her flight home tomorrow (love the kiosks at the Canada Line). She was going to stop at Whole Foods to pick up something for breakfast and a snack for her flight home after, so we caught the train back home. As I mentioned before, by this time, it was nicer out than when we went for dinner, so the walk home from Yaletown was much nicer.

So that pretty much brings us to the end of the day. Oh, I forgot to mention that I received a couple of lovely pictures from my mom in the mail yesterday. They were of her and her mother (grandma), and another of her youngest brother (who also lives out here) and grandma. They were wonderful pictures, and two of the first things I noticed were her smile (unchanged over the years), and the full head of hair on her head after nearly 99 years here. Lovely pictures that I'm going to have to find a suitable frame for.

So now I will end my rambling and get ready for bed. Nothing big planned for tomorrow other than the usual weekend morning stuff. We'll see what comes up in the afternoon. So I'll sign off for the night, and wish you all a wonderful nights sleep.