We had a very suburban day today- no sightseeing of any sort, just shopping. After our French toast and pancakes breakfast, we were picked up in da jiu jiu's jeep, and while Mum and Ee ee were in the bank, with da jiu jiu asked us another puzzling question, we drove past a church with a sign outside proclaiming "LET GOOD BE A NECESSITY". We had second breakfast (say this with a thick Scottish accent) in a seafood restaurant that serves dim sum in the morning. We then headed to Metrotown. It was nice and empty being Tuesday morning, and the crowd was made up mostly of old folks and ASIANS (or both). It appears that the Chinese make up half the population in Burnaby (even more in Richmond)- they were everywhere we looked, from Orange Julius countergirl to HMV worker. While I was sitting in the foodcourt I could hear more Cantonese speakers around me than English.

Anyhow, I was pleasantly surprised by the friendliness and service of the people. The clothing outlets are very nicely decorated, with really cool dressing rooms.



And the salesgirls help each customer personally! Quite a far cry from This Fashion where you squeeze with all the aunties. Accessorize here is quite different from the Singaporean version- they have really pretty handbags, hats, shoes and stuff. Very bohemian. I obtained a patchwork bakerboy hat (at least that's what they called it in the receipt).


Chapters is a great bookstore, somewhat like Borders. Ning loved the expansive graphic novel section, and we happily purchased Pablo Neruda and Philip Pullman.

They seem to have a habit around here of eating without spoons. I ordered some beef rice from the foodcourt and I stole a spoon from another stall when I didn't get one. Later an Asian girl sat down near us and she had ordered the same thing as me, and I watched her to see how she was going to eat her rice with just a fork. And that's exactly what she did, scooping up food with the fork. She has to be from Around Here. In fact my mum said once she saw a local, when given both a fork and a spoon, used the spoon to put food onto the fork before putting it into his mouth!

The foodcourt is shiny and new, and has Mexican and Greek stalls. Typically the food is in overly large portion and oily. The Chinese stall uses garden hose as noodles in its oversized model of a bowl of noodles on its signboard.

We later went to Costco, which is one of those gigantic supermarts where you buy stuff in bulk very cheaply. It wasn't terribly exciting, though Ning and I amused ourselves with a particular travel book on sale, 50 Places You Must Visit Before You Die, squeaking over the exotic destinations. These include Havana, Machu Picchu, Greece, Scotland.

We went to da jiu jiu's house after that where his walls are covered with his photography. I gawked over a lovely, swirly painting-like scenic shot of the rolling "Haunted Hills". There's a funky sombrero, or Mexican hat, hanging on the wall, brought back from my cousin's visit to Mexico. We watch Jamie Lynn Spears teach Ellen DeGeneres to cheerlead and Chad Michael Murray and Paris Hilton be poser on MuchMusic (Canadian alternative to MTV) for House of Wax, live from some area nearby probably.


Ning attempts to play our uncle's ukulele

I did uni acceptance on my uncle's computer and helped da jiu jiu with the great mysteries of e-mail. We had dinner with the whole clan at another Chinese restaurant where we overorder again, but driving past the water and seeing endless rows of pine trees and the shadows of the mountains far away beyond the city made it all worthwhile.