Mr.HappySilp is back

RIP DoughBoy

Just adopted/foster to adopt a second dog, at the behest of the wifey:

https://i.imgur.com/pBnvzw8.jpg

Called Westjet, today.
The estimated hold time was 6+ hours, so I left my number for a call back. Then, I called back and left my phone on speaker while I was on hold. Got someone in under 90 min. Got my travel bank refunded to my credit card. 2 hours total on the phone. Worth it.


EDIT: The refund showed up on my credit card today. (Jul 7)

Another business closed forever:

Ronsons

https://www.tricitynews.com/news/sho...ver-1.24163936

File dispute with credit card company and got my flights all refunded a couple days ago. :fuckyea:

WestJet offering actual refunds now instead of credit? We had booked a flight with them back in Dec for travel in May but was issued credit for travel at a later date. With how things are going, I don't think we will be flying any time soon.

Just file dispute with your credit card company, they will handle it when you provide all the flight details. I didn't even bother contacting WestJet to begin with as I know these assholes won't give money back (just even trying to contact them whether livechat/phone is hard enough due to the volume they dealing with). Ain't got time being on hold for an hour.

My bank asked me when I contacted WestJet what did they advise/say, I just read exactly what WestJet emailed me, flight original payment to be issued at later date.

Thanks. I'll attempt this as well with my CC company. Have flights with WestJet and Air Transat. Air Transat is even more shit than WestJet.

Damn, just ran out of the last tube of TJ ginger paste. I thought I had whoreded a bunch of stuff, but down to last bottle of TJ's Tea Tree Shampoo. No more Winco deli items, or sugar free creamers from Walmart. Cheap Salonpas at Costco, Sugar free chocolate covered malt balls.............. shit you can't get up here.


Damn you, Wuhan Covid............


oh, and Silver Thief Casino seniors freebies.

My Nexus application I handed in last August got pushed back to January. No big deal since the borders won't open until 2025. Probably, knowing my luck, when I have to renew it again. Gulolol.

After approximately 9 months of this pandemic, I can honestly say it has forced me to develop myself in quite a few ways.

The first thing I got into was cooking. The inability to hit up my usual restaurants really motivated me to learn how to cook all my favourite asian dishes (especially HK cafe favs!). I'm too lazy to upload the photos but I made a buttload of delicious things!

Once summer rolled around, I got lazy about cooking and didn't feel like sweating in the kitchen. I turned my attention towards home decor instead. Honestly, I have never in my life put so much effort into making any place I've lived in look nice or trendy. It was kind of a nice distraction to spend time at Ikea, local furniture stores and online sites like wayfair etc. A big one here is actually FB Marketplace surprisingly. It's been pretty addictive looking for great deals on the second hand market. I guess that goes back to my previous experience working at Value Village. Quite glad I did though because it really makes a noticeable difference to make a place your own.

Naturally, home decor goes hand in hand with house plants. Other than looking nice and adding to the decor I had already, keeping plants at home is proven to improve air quality as well as your mental health/mood. I initially had a single bamboo plant and have now grown my collection to about 15 plants. Again, addictive and fun to find good deals on plants using FB marketplace as well as hitting up local stores for these. There's something about taking care of plants and watching them grow that's actually kinda cool.

Perhaps it's also worth mentioning that the pandemic really motivated me to stay informed. For years now, I have mostly ignored the news since I haven't paid for cable in probably a decade now. I also ignored it because of all the stupid, irrelevant news that gets covered. I really had to struggle for awhile as to where to get my information from as well as decipher which sources were actually correct.

Anyways, despite all the shit that has happened this year I can honestly say that I have been able to create a positive experience out of it and I hope others have been able to as well. Keep your heads up RS. Things will get better soon I hope.

Pretty similar to spoon.
I did learn to cook a lot more things. I made grocery runs without a list, see whatever was on sale or caught my eye then take it home and google a dish with whatever I had and just wing it. 4 of 5 times would turn out delicious!
I was always into plants so yes I know how what you mean.

One big positive I am glad about was that my entire family (parents, spouse and siblings) was finally able to spend a LOT of quality time together. Pre-pandemic most of us worked 60+ hours a week for over a decade and all at different times of the day so we rarely ever see each other for more than a moment. The only time we ever got really together for a full family dinner was like Christmas or Thanksgiving. This gave us an opportunity to bond. Take turns cooking, watch some movies, learn more about each other, etc ... it was nice.

I mean there were also moments when we saw each other TOO much and started to go stir-crazy ... lol

^
Yah a lot of quality time... but sometimes way too much.

I have definitely weighed the pros and cons of murder a few times in the last 6 months or so :lol

It was pretty nice of them to send this to us Canadian visitors............ Never got a letter from the other casinos down south.

I spent Saturday afternoon on Granville Island. Went there with my three children. They went off on their own and I sat on a bench by myself on the pier. Because of this pandemic, there was hardly anyone there. Closest person to me was 15 feet away. Anyway, it stopped raining and the sun was peeking through the clouds every now and then. Slight breeze. It was awesome. The smell of fresh air by the water. Looking across to the Burrard Street Bridge, I remembered how, as a child, I went to help my father out on his commercial fishing boat that moored under that bridge. Now it's all pleasure crafts. Anyway, just thought I'd share that. Oh, got a dozen Lee's doughnuts (must have when at Granville Island) and some Arancini from the Italian deli in the farmers market. I just wish my wife was still around. We would have enjoyed the scenery and the moment together. It still hurts when I see couples holding hands and walking............... I have my wife's cremains in a small container on a chain that I have in my watch pocket. I bring it out every now and then. Work all your life making ends meet, finally retired, no mortgage, and the one person you love is no longer there with you to enjoy it all.

Guys, if you have someone you love, hold on to them like there's no tomorrow.

Not being able to enjoy the destination together must be very rough, but as they say... it’s all about the journey to get you there.

4 o' clock in the morning.......... couldn't sleep. I don't know what came over me to spill out the touchy feely stuff. Not very asian male of me. At least older Asian male. I guess I'm one of those in between generational types. Anyway, yes, the journey was amazing. My biggest regret was not telling her how much I appreciated her support and friendship. As mentioned before in another thread a few years back, we grew up in the same DTES neighbourhood and went to the same schools. When we got married, I promised her we'd live in a brand new house. We managed that four times. It wasn't easy. After she passed away, my daughter, who spent a lot of time with her during the last few days of her life, revealed to me what mom said to her - that dad was reliable and kept his promises. That was the greatest compliment anyone could have given me. I still visit her everyday with flowers from our backyard. Driving up, I find myself still smiling - sometimes a sad smile. Damn, I have to stop this. I don't like talking about it in real life to friends and family, because it's so awkward. It makes people very uncomfortable. Maybe because RS is an on line community, it's different?

Anyway, I stay positive and look forward to a new day every time I get up.

Sorry for the long post, and thanks RS for listening.

Because of this pandemic, I’ve been forced to play on-line casino games. Can’t keep an old Asian down. Just got a welcome letter from Parq Casino. Damn, I miss that place.

Alright... who the heck is cutting onions in here???

I'm getting so used to wearing a mask............

I often forget I'm wearing one. Ice cream on mask. Embarrassing to say the least. Good thing it was vanilla soft serve and not chocolate. Poked my mask with a straw a few times. Oh, and there's sneezing into the mask - no time to take it off or both hands are full of shopping bags.

Yet to have bleeding nose. That would be disastrous.

Because of this pandemic..........................

Been cooking/baking aside from steaks for once

Made some mooncakes for the first time ever, I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, thought I'd share (used a stamp/mould from amazon)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...cc0507d6_b.jpg

I love the carp. It looks fantastic. Taste good, too?

Yeah I had a lot of trouble with the carp ones, so I just ended up with 4 of em :lol

I made mung bean filling only, wanted to try some others but the whole process took longer than I imagined

Tastes good! Just as good as the mini ones from t&t so I'm happy, can save a tonne this way lol

I ended up pouring water down my shirt as my mask blocked it all