Maple ice cream

I was still feeling a bit sick this morning - in addition to my coughing, I woke up with a sore throat. Nevertheless, I got up early this morning and went to work.
After I finished work, I decided to give the two festivals I had visited yesterday another chance. Even though I had worked 8 hours, I still walked all the way, first to the Indian MeLa festival and then to the Dragon Boat festival. However, there wasn't anything going on at the festival sites that could have caught my attention. Thus, I settled on eating some ice cream instead. I decided to try and go to the ice cream shop close to the gift store, as I had heard that it sold good ice cream. I ordered a scoop of maple and a scoop of chocolate ice cream with a dark chocolate dipping. As it was such a beautiful day, I walked to the harbor once again and enjoyed my ice cream sitting on a bench down there. The maple ice was extremely tasty. The chocolate ice cream and the dipping were good but not really note worthy.
After I finished eating I went home, where I took a shower and relaxed.

Chinese and Indian Festivals in Victoria

Today I met with Xue and her husband Charles in order to check out two festivals that were supposed to start today in Victoria. At first we went to the opening ceremony of the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival. However, I wasn't too impressed by it - there were just a few Chinese people in traditional robes chanting something and painting the eyes of some dragon heads red.
Thus, we quickly decided to go on to the Indian MeLa Festival. On the way there, we passed some people giving out free subway sandwiches as a promotion and even though I am no subway fan, I never say no to free food. I'm still not a big subway fan - the free turkey sandwich I got was ok but I wouldn't have wanted to spend money on a sandwich like that.
There was a little more going on at the Indian Festival - at least there were a few booths to check out. Xue discovered a Henna tattoo booth and since she had always wanted to get one, she did just that. We spent some time deciding which tattoo might be best for her. Then, the artist quickly drew the fascinating pattern on Xue's hand and arm. After that, she really had to be careful not to touch anything or brush her arm anywhere since the Henna tattoo was very fragile.
Unfortunately, apart from the booths there wasn't much more going on here either. Apparently the show program was only supposed to start later in the afternoon and as it was still early and we didn't want to wait that long, we decided to walk to Beacon Hill Park instead.
We spent some time in the Beacon Hill Children's Farm with the goats. As Xue really wanted to see the goat stampede at 5:10 PM, we had a bit more than an hour to pass in the park. I was thirsty and just out of water. Consequently, we walked to the nearby Beacon Drive In. As I didn't want spent 2.50 CAD on just half a liter of water, I decided on a blue raspberry slushie. As it turned out, the slushie was too sweet for my taste but as it was nicely refreshing (it was a really hot day), I drank it anyway.
After seeing the goat stampede, we walked back Downtown. I still wanted to print some stuff at the library, thus we parted ways here. I arrived at the library just 10 minutes before its closing time, so I barely managed to print what I needed.
Afterwards, I went to check out the Indian Festival again. There were some people singing and a Zumba dance group but I wasn't too impressed by that. Therefore, I went home after a quick stop at the supermarket.

The missing magnet and closing the shop

Today I was feeling a bit better than yesterday, but I still had a bad cough all day long. Since I had to work from 4 to 10 PM, I spent the morning and early afternoon resting at home and drinking a lot of tea to get better.
Once again I was working in 'Overboard' this evening. However, most of the time I was on my own, which was a bit exciting for me.
Among some other things, there was a weird incident with a magnet today: Someone was buying a magnet and two shirts and just when I wanted to put everything in the bag after he had paid, I couldn't find the magnet anywhere. At first I thought the guy had already put the magnet in his pocket, but it wasn't there. We were searching for the magnet for a few minutes until I finally discovered it - it must have stuck to the credit card machine when the guy had paid for his stuff and was now lying beneath that machine.
All things considered, the shop was just the perfect amount of busy since I could keep everything tidy without getting bored.
Tonight was also the first time that I had to close the store on my own. I had done most of the closing procedure already a few times but this was the first time that I had to set the alarm and close the door. I was very worried about making a mistake but I think that I did everything right.
After getting home I was still very much awake. Thus I took a shower and spend some time watching TV.

Just relaxing and planning

As I was still feeling more or less sick today, I used my day off to relax at home and plan my trip to the Canadian Rockies in October. It was actually kind of weird to spent all day inside without really doing anything - I haven't done that since coming to Canada. I think I have actually developped some kind of drive that makes me want to explore and go out every day... I am quite curious how that will manifest once I am back in Germany.
(In fact, I apparently can't even spend one whole day inside since after writing this I suddenly felt like I had to take a short night walk around the block...)

Working half sick

Even though I had slept almost 10 hours last night, I didn't feel too well this morning. In fact I felt kind of sick. Nevertheless, I had to go to work since if you are sick in Canada and can't go to work, you just won't get paid. Working an 8 hour shift and not feeling well was tough so I was quite happy when I could finally go home. I didn't really do anything anymore today except for drinking a lot of tea, eating dinner, and watching some TV.

Watching cookies at work

My first task at work this morning was to watch cookies - there was a huge shipment of cookies today and I had to make sure that no one took any of the boxes while some other workers were bringing them into the warehouse.
The rest of my work day consisted mostly of restocking clothes. I was working from 10:30 to 3 PM, which meant that I didn't have a lunch break. Consequently I was very hungry when I was finally done. On the way home, I ate a small snack and went to the small supermarket on Johnson Street to buy the vegetable mix they always have.
At home, I cooked a nice meal with potatoes and those vegetables I had bought. As I was extremely exhausted, I spent the rest of the day relaxing and watching some TV.

The Flamenco Festival

I was working two 4 hour shifts today - first in 'Royal Garden' and then in 'Overboard'. I had an one hour break in between my two shifts and since I had wanted to check out the Flamenco Festival, I spent most of my break on Centennial Square, watching one of the Flamenco shows. I enjoyed the show, the dancers were quite good and one of them could also sing quite well. The only negativ thing I did notice was that the dancers didn't smile, whereas I had learned that the most important thing during dancing was smiling. Nevertheless, I was almost sad when I had to go to work as I had only been able to see a fraction of the show.

When I got home, I finally took the time to clean the bathroom - I had been planning to do that for a week now but so far, I had just never had the time. Since I had to clean our two bathrooms in 'Royal Garden' today, I felt like I really shouldn't put off cleaning my own bathroom any longer.
I also took a shower and did my laundry. Thus, all things considered, I'd say that today was a very busy and productive day for me.