Tuesday, August 25, 2009



BetterU Tuesday, and a fine day it was
.


I spent the day in Victoria.

Fortunately, I weighed myself first thing this morning. I have lost two pounds this week (jumped right off that plateau, I did! I believe (though I'm tired and a little hazy) that the official reading is

July 25 X- 17

which makes my total weight loss to date 23 pounds.

As I said, it's a good thing I weighed myself this morning, because I fear I may have put all that weight back on today (all 23 pounds). This is what I did:

I ate my usual porridge before we left for the city.

We met my niece and her husband at their hotel, and R and I drove them down to Dallas Road and around to Oak Bay, because this was their first visit to the island. The threatened rain had not come to pass, so we had perfect, perfectly comfortable weather. We looked out across the Strait of Juan de Fuca, strolled along a path by the yacht club, looked at the beautiful homes.

Then the men said they were feeling a little lunchish. We drove back to town and across the bridge to Esquimalt, where Spinnakers pub is.

For lunch at Spinnakers, I had the luscious spinach salad (same as I ate last week) - but my niece was having clam chowder with her salad, so I asked what the soup of the day was.

Mushroom pesto - it's a cream-based soup.

Oh dear. I ordered that to go with my salad, and I ate it all. Every bit. I refrained from licking the bowl, but that's because I had a truly beautiful slice of artisan bread that I could use for mopping - but no, I had already slathered butter on the bread. Never mind. I did my best with the tool (spoon) at hand.

Things were still under some sort of control at that point, but on the way out, we stopped at the little counter by the exit and bought a few handmade truffles - with lavender and black pepper, a new one with tequila, lime & salt (quite surprisingly delicious), and I forget what else. So we had three tiny truffles each.

After that, we drove downtown to have a look around the Provincial Parliament buildings. There was a whole lot of traffic. It turned out that the ceremony surrounding the opening of the new Parliamentary session was going on. A red carpet had been laid on the front steps, and both the Canadian Forces band and the RCMP band were playing. Hot damn. They were putting on a show for us!



Because of the ceremony, we couldn't go inside the building, so we settled for smelling the roses. Someday our digital cameras will 'photograph'
fragrances along with images, but in the meantime, I'll just tell you that every rose I sniffed was fragrant. Maybe it's something to do with the air in Victoria.


After our stop outside the halls of power, we went across the road to the BC Museum. We decided to go to the IMAX, which is inside the museum. After all that stressful eating and rose sniffing, we felt like sitting down for a while. We watched a film about the Sea of Cortez. It was so relaxing, I think we all dozed off at one time or another.

After the movie, we made tracks for Sidney, so our guests could catch the ferry back to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands, where they are spending a few days on a friend's boat. We got to the terminal with time to spare, so we scooted into town (Sidney, I mean) to make a pit stop at the local supermarket for - Nanaimo Bars.

Do you know about Nanaimo bars? They are made from cream and sweet butter and chocolate and sugar and coconut and more calories than anybody trying to lose weight has any business taking in. My friend Joyce won a prize years ago for the best Nanaimo bar recipe, so that's the one I'll link you to. It's here.

I ate one on the way back to the ferry. It was my first Nanaimo bar in years.

I checked Facebook, and I see that my niece and her husband have arrived back in Friday Harbor. We got home at 7:30 p.m., and I'm sitting here feeling larger than life.

Tomorrow, back on the wagon. Better still, I'll just follow the wagon down the road. I could use the exercise.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sandra, no fair! I've got to stop reading posts involving food-LOL! that mushroom pesto soup sounds just divine :P( licking my lips ), and fantastic shots all around, especially the marina area( nice contrast of the flowers in the foreground with the white and blue of the boats, in the back ) HUGS!

Sandra Leigh said...

Good morning, Subby. The soup was yummy, but it was very rich. Thank you for your kind words.

Anonymous said...

Sandra, you are most welcome. And take care as there is a spammer about the bloggosphere. 'Tis automated and is going after older posts (which seems pointless, really )

And anything with mushrooms in it, I'll eat( just about ) :P

T. said...

Hmm. A post which begins with weight loss and ends in Nanaimo bars. Sounds like my typical morning: weigh-in,
plan a day of healthy, low-cal meals,
then start reading recipes for things like Nanaimo bars. Alas.

Sigh.

(I'm going to make these marvelous yummies!)

Unknown said...

I say good for you--good to indluge yourself every now & then. You've been quite disciplined as far as I can tell, so I think a bit of a food fest is quite appropriate. Glad you had such a pleasant day.

Kathryn Magendie said...

OMG - MUST HAVE ONE - MUST HAVE A Nanaimo bars ohhhhhhh!!

There's nothing wrong with having a good day like that with food - just hop right back on it! Remember, it's a science - so cals in energy out - input and out put -just be careful for a few days... :)

And congrats on your success *smiling*

Sandra Leigh said...

Subby, what is the spammer doing? It seems to me I got one strange comment a few days ago, and I deleted it on the grounds of weirdness, but that was it. As long as they aren't stealing my immortal words... ;>)

T. - Be sure to use sweet (unsalted) butter. Apparently that's important. Bon appetit!

John, it was a wonderful day, and I don't regret it. I think I panicked a bit because it was my second trip to Victoria in two weeks, and it's hard to stay on track when you're out playing hooky.

Kathryn, are you going to make Nanaimo bars too? How cool.

Anonymous said...

Sandra, looks like it's just flooding comments on older posts but I've got a bit of system damage and may have to re-format :(

I back-tracked it to Japan and didn't get any further. Google has been made aware of the problem...

I've got a capture on now but it will probably come done, in a bit, as soon as I do another check. And what-ever it is, was getting by any word verify set-ups!

Sandra Leigh said...

Thanks, Subby. In that case it hasn't found me yet. I have my system set up to notify me if anyone comments on a post that is more than one day old. Phew.

Blog Archive