Porridge
Porridge is like congee made from oatmeal. We can cook it in water or milk, or both. Or Microwave it.
I first tried it more than 10 year ago at my husband’s father’s place. His father was eating it almost every morning. I thought he was eating warm cereal, but then he explained it wasn’t so I tried it. It wasn’t so good, or very tasty… My husband doesn’t like it so much, so we never had it at home.
Plain porridge has no salty or sugary taste. So you might mix some salt or syrup or nuts and fruits, whatever you like. Cinnamon apple would be great with it, I think!
After we came to Canada this time, somehow we had it at home. Did my husband buy it by mistake or did he intend to start eating it for health? Anyway, it was in our kitchen cupboard for a while. He’s still not so interested in eating it, so I started it today.
During the time I had morning sickness, I really craved congee and often made it in the morning. But I didn’t want to use too much salt (Japanese congee is often flavoured simply with salt), so I used a very small amount or tried to get flavour from other foods or broth like Cantonese congee. I got used to less flavoured congee.
Thanks to that habit(?), I didn’t mind this flavourless porridge. I just added some walnuts. Quite delicious. It’s a grain congee, right? I usually make congee mainly out of white rice, so I thought it would be a nice change.
I tried to take a photo of my first porridge, but because our place is in the basement and has a lack of natural light, the photo didn’t look so good.
I borrowed a photo from a recipe website.
I just did an image-search for porridge. I see some of them with cinnamon powder on top, which is looking so yummy! Japanese kinako would also go well with it, even though it would be very difficult to get in Canada.
In western countries, we often see oat cookies, oat muffins, and so on at cafes and stores. Health conscious people must be eating oats quite regularly, I’m guessing. It lowers cholesterol and contains a lot of fiber, minerals and vitamins. Even though I’m low on cholesterol, I’ll eat more from now on for sure!
Edit:
I was reading Wiki, and now I realized that we’ve been eating muesli or granola cereals often, which are oatmeals mixed with dry-fruits and nuts, or sugar-coated (a little junkier though). So not a big deal… hahaha!
Lake Louise 2
Feb 18th (Mon)
Lakeview Lounge doesn’t open for breakfast normally but this day it was very crowded as it was “Family Day” (a holiday), the last day of the long weekend. So it was open to serve and satisfy the amount of guests. We were able to get a table here luckily! A buffet breakfast with beautiful scenery! Perfect!
The other side of the hotel looking down from Chateau Lake Louise.
Ice sculptures in front of the hotel.
A refreshing morning.
Went for a walk on the frozen Lake Louise.
He attempted to shake off the snow from the tree, but he failed…
A water fall also got frozen. Nicely turquoise.
The snow looks delicious, doesn’t it?
We went back to the hotel and had lunch at the Chateau Deli. They have great sandwiches, in my opinion. The bread had flavour with herbs. I became a fan here since when we came here last year. At that time, a veggie sandwich came with grilled bell peppers, but this time it had none of that and had some asparagus instead. The ingredients might change seasonally. The soup is also asparagus. Anyway, they were delicious!
After that, my hubby went for a skate. As I’m pregnant, I was sitting warm at a fire place.
Dinner at Poppy Brasserie inside the hotel.
This cocktail is called Lake Louise. It’s a vodka base with Midori (the green flavor and color). He said it wasn’t too bad, but not too great.
Seafood pizza (Temple Pizza) and Spinach Salad.
He has a bottle of wine as well in the room…
Outside was cold but inside was nice and warm. Enjoying Lake Louise.
I enjoyed the day again even though I still had coughs and morning sickness.
My Works in 2012
I wanted to review this at the end of 2012, but I haven’t yet. It’s already March!
Here is a list of my works done in 2012 (brand-new websites and renewed websites.).
Thank you, my clients!
Brand-new websites:
- Aoba Business Consulting
- Nezu Style
- Cafe Kokage
- 食べ隊（香港ママの便利帳）
- 買い隊（香港ママの便利帳）
- 行き隊（香港ママの便利帳）
- The University Alliance for Japanese Studies in HK, Macau & GDP
- subcontracting website from an IT company
Renewed websites:
- 香港ママの便利帳
- 美容商材のアルファプラス
- さいとう淳一郎 * renewals 2 times
- Aroma Sweeties
- Let’s Learn 香港
I was pregnant at the beginning of 2012, so I didn’t take any brand-new customers at that time. So I couldn’t do as much.
You can see my other works and samples before 2012 from this page.
* Some are updated by me and some are updated by clients. So it’s not that everything was made/designed/laid-out by me.
I’m pregnant again, so I decided not take any new projects for now, but I do updates/renewing/adding some functions etc. So please consult with me, if you are already my clients.
After giving birth and settling a bit of my chaotic time, I’m planning to start taking orders of new websites again.
The cost starts from HK$5500 (about CAN$730). Shop sites, multilingual sites, etc…
Normally after signing a contract, I schedule to complete it within 2 months. It sometimes take longer, but I’d like to ask clients to co-operate with me to complete making a website within 6 months at longest. Co-operation means providing materials for the website and deciding on the layout style, etc. I make the best effort of that time, but when the time passes, it won’t be the best anymore as the system, the style and the contents could become old, and I have to upgrade and edit everywhere again. Thank you for understanding.
By the way, Cafe Kokage is owned and managed by my friend with her sister. She’s been my close friend since junior high school.
It’s been a year already since it opened. Congrats!
Because I’m in Canada, I haven’t made it there yet. But I would like to introduce the shop a bit here.
In autumn, the shop was introduced and visited by a TV program “The Ekimae TV” in Nagano. In that program, Jo Hisaishi’s daughter, Mai, was introducing the sites of Nakano, my hometown . Jo Hisaishi is from Nakano, Nagano, where I was raised also. She and the program personalities visited the cafe. My father videotaped it on a DVD and sent it to me.
I’ve had a conversation with Mai before. When I helped as a translator at Jo Hisaishi’s concert in Hong Kong, I met her. She was really an easy person to talk to and a very charming lady.
These are screen shots from the program.
They were explaining this cafe as a hidden-away comfortable place, and they liked the coffees and cakes a lot.
They are looking so good! The plates and cups are also very beautiful.
If you live near here, or passing by Nakano, please drop by.
Cafe Kokage Tel: 0269-38-0011 Address: 935-2 Shinbo, Nakano, Nagano (長野県中野市新保 935-2) Business hour: 8:00-18:00 Closed: Thursday
Lake Louise 1
Feb 17th (Sun)
After having breakfast at our hotel, we left Calgary for Lake Louise / Banff. It was a long weekend and everywhere was crowded!
We drove through a nice wintery landscape and entered the Rocky Mountains. If you are only passing through, no cost, but if you are staying for sightseeing, you need to pay the National Park entrance fee.
A group of between two and seven people traveling in a single vehicle pays C$19.60 for a day’s pass. We planned to stay for 4 nights, so it will cost about $100. Quite expensive…
Then the receptionist told us that it’s $136.40 for an annual park pass which is valid in 27 of Canada’s national parks. So we decided to get an annual pass. This year we will have a BB, but my parents are planning to visit us to Canada (their first time traveling abroad!). So we can use it at that time as well. More details and fees.
If you don’t want to pay for this entrance fee, there is a way to do it. You can stay at Canmore, which is out of the national park, but it’s only 10 minutes away from Banff. It’s a smaller town, but it has a lot to offer for leisure and nice restaurants. We did so last year, and we had a good time in Canmore. My diary on Canmore 1 and Canmore 2 (sorry only in Japanese).
On the way to Lake Louise, we dropped by at Banff for lunch and browsing. But it was really cold and snowing. It was difficult to get out of the mall once inside. Banff has a lot of nice Canadian souvenir shops that we don’t have in Edmonton. So I did some souvenir shopping.
It’s Wolf Street. There are other animal name streets here. It’s fun.
When we were leaving Banff, the sun was coming out… yes, it’s mountain weather. It changes very quickly.
Arrived in Lake Louise.
We had 4 nights at Chateau Lake Louise. Probably the last trip before having our BB. We got some discount because we are Alberta residents. You should check if you live in Alberta!
It’s a very nice hotel, so we enjoyed it a lot. The frozen lake was right in front of us. Very different scenery and leisure from summer time.
This is the landscape from our window. They are all skating rinks. The front left is for games, the front right is for fun and the small ones behind are for pond hockey tournaments.
The mountain in the middle, which is covered by cloud and snow, is the Victoria glacier. It’s getting smaller every year because of global warming.
Valentine’s treats that my hubby had ordered in advance! Nice surprise. Thank you, David!!
An excitable lady here.
A great coffee machine! Decaf was of course there.
Night time:
It was a long weekend and the hotel and restaurants were packed! We had dinner at a bar & restaurant inside the hotel.
I was only coughing before, but by this time, my nose started to run… I have to take care of myself really…
Maternity Wear
I couldn’t fit into any more of my trousers since more than 1 month ago. I wear stretchable trousers at home, so no problem, but I don’t have many choice of clothes when I go out.
So we went out to get some new stuff.
Some women who have many fashionable and practical items don’t seem to be bothered about buying “maternity clothes” and wear stretchable skirts, dresses or tunics that cover not only the tummy but also the butt. But when I look around my closet, there are not many items like that at all. So we went to buy some, but it’s difficult to decide how many I would need, as I don’t know what type of body I’m going to have after giving birth.
My bras also got a little too tight and a clerk at the shop took my measurement. The bottom had no change. Good! But the widest got 2 sizes bigger! I heard that the bust will be bigger, but I wasn’t expecting this much. Anyway, looking ahead I guessed that I would use them for more than 1 year, so I bought 2 new bigger bras. I also got a nice loose dress and a pants with a stretchable waist.
I think jeans might be quite tight and could prevent blood circulation so I don’t want to wear them, but it looks like women love jeans. These shops below had many kinds of pairs (of course they have the stretchy waists like above). Breasts and tummies get bigger, so maybe they want to show off skinny legs, I guess?
There are 2 shops that specialize in maternity clothes in WEM (West Edmonton Mall) :
And also
– but the section for maternity wear was quite small.
If you think it’s a waste to buy clothes just for the period that you are pregnant, you have other choices to look for some that are wearable for both times. If the clothes can cover your tummy comfortably with stretchables or pleats, that would do.
At one of my recent favorite shops, Anthropologie, and we got one nice dress with pleats for me. This shop is not cheap, so I had to make sure that I can still wear it even after my pregnancy.
By the way, the mall was very dry. After spending 3 hours in the mall, our lips got rough, and as I took my sweater off and on many times for fitting, my hair got really fluffy with static electricity even though I had on some hair product. My eyes got red as well…
Maternity shopping… quite boring for my hubby but he patiently waited for me. Thanks!
Usually I wait for him at book stores and CD shops. So even-steven?
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