Vancouver Cheese and Meat Festival (Photos)

Vancouver Cheese and Meat Festival held it's very first event in Vancouver's iconic Terminal City Club this past Saturday.

The event hosted two seminars for passionate ticket holders. We went to a Cheese and Wine pairing seminar that gave us great tips and tricks for hosting our own cheese and wine party. 

I realized that I really love Chardonnay, which until now, I have always strayed away from. 

Some of my favourites:

1. Villa Maria Taylors Pass Chardonnay 2013

2. Villa Maria Cellar Selection Malborough Sauvignon Blanc 2014

3. Cows Creamery Extra Old Cheddar

4. Farm House Heidi

5. Mt Lehman Cheese Co

Where: Terminal City Club

When: Saturday September 17th, 2016

What: Cheese and Meat Vancouver 2016

Racism in Real Estate - What's the Deal Vancouver?

I had a really interesting conversation yesterday which brought up some of my own opinions and feelings.

Obviously Vancouver is changing. But it's pretty disappointing when you hear insulting and negative comments about the Chinese buying up all the real estate.

I'm sorry, but how many people do you know that have Chinese last names who are born in Canada?

How many Chinese friends do you have that are 3rd/4th generation but still have Chinese last names. The statistics don't look at that. They just look at the buyer's last name, and they make a generalization about that.

For example, my friend's last name is Chow, purchased a house, both owners were born in Canada.

I expect more from people than to just believe anything they hear.

I think you need to look at more than just the last name of the buyer. Come on now.

And even if that was the case, what's the big deal? Our communities have been changing for decades. If you look back to the 50s and 60s, do you think our communities looked anything like how they look now?

I say embrace it, make the best of it, and love the beautiful city that Vancouver currently is, and that Vancouver is becoming.

But hey, maybe I'm being too optimistic.

Me, My Mortgage and I

Last year in the month of June, I became a homeowner. 

Or as I like to call it. A home possessor. 

And by home I mean condo. 

 

So really, last year in June I borrowed a bunch of money from the bank to be able to possess my 750 sqf condo for an undetermined length of time. 

The reason I use the word possess rather than own is because this is what you get in Canada when you "buy property". 

Real property laws in Canada state that the Crown is the only absolute property owner of land. All people who "purchase" land are fee simple owners, and they have the right to freely use the land, enjoy it, sell it, rent it, lease it, and to pass it onto their heirs.

 

This might surprise you, especially if you have recently purchased a home. 

This might surprise you, especially if you are thinking about purchasing a home. 

This might surprise you and turn you away from purchasing a home. 

What you need to remember is that it has been this way since the year 1066, when William the Conqueror captured England. (I know, hard to understand why this even matters)

So don't let this turn you off from purchasing a home. I think it's really good information to be aware of. 

Azin Yazdani 

Mortgage Consultant

4Front Mortgages | Mortgage Alliance

950 West Broadway, Suite 105, Vancouver, BC V5Z1K7
Cell: 604.561.5045

Fax: 604.738.8121

azin.yazdani@4frontmortgages.com

www.4frontmortgages.com

The Only Thing That's Predictable About Life is That It's Unpredictable

The tough thing about life is accepting its unpredictability. 

Sometimes your house may be near a forest fire or maybe your wife is paralyzed  in a car crash or maybe your dog dies from heatstroke or maybe you find a lump and it's cancer. All of these things happen every single day. 

But for the most part they don't happen to us. 

Until they do. 

So what do you do until then? 

Every plan and goal you have will literally have to be put on hold when your life is in jeopardy. The big kitchen renovation you're doing or the dream to open up your own brewery or the Masters program that you've been working towards.

They just all lose any priority. I guess that's what people call "the important things in life". 

Well I mean the only really important thing is your health. 

Because without it you can't do all those things. You're either dead and can't do them or you're physically, mentally and emotionally unable to do them. 

So that's kind of depressing. 

But it's not! 

You just really have to do whatever you want to do. 

Do what makes you happy and don't apologize for it. 

If you want to take a thousand selfies then do it! 

If you want to watch hours of reality TV then do it! 

If you want to adopt 5 kittens do it! 

If you want to start every morning with an expensive latte then do it!

My perspective is that if you're not hurting anyone else then do it. And pay no attention to what other people say. Do it and don't stop doing it. Because one day you won't be able to anymore. 

Love hard

Live hard

Laugh hard 

Xoxo

Azin

Whose Life Is It Anyway?

The more and more you live your life, the more and more you realize how precious it is. We want to live our lives to the fullest because it can be so easily taken away. So do you live your life more aggressively because what have you got to lose, or do you try to be as safe as you can because you'd rather not take the risk?

I like to think that I live my life the way I want to live it. I have the job that I want to have, I eat the foods that I want to eat, and I spend my time with people that I want to be with. I would say yes, I am the ruler of my life.

But then I meet someone who completely blows me out of the water. I have a friend. His name is Yashar. He is that guy who has completely taken over the direction of his life. He is that guy who quit his job to pursue his passion. And now he is literally doing what he loves. He has Yummus, Chinatown Experiment, Midtown Experiment, and I'm sure so many other projects that I don't even know about.

I imagine that it must have been so hard to make a change like this. Not only to make the initial decision, but to follow through with it and really go for it. I'm sure it was really hard, and I bet it still is. But wow, what a feeling it must be to create something and make it yours.

I admire and am motivated by people like Yashar. Although I don't really see myself following his path, it still makes me reflect on the decisions that I make.

It reminds me of a South Park episode. When Cartman is on Maury Povich and he says "Whateva, I do what I want!!"

Well hell yeah. It's literally your life. We each get a life. So make sure it's actually yours.

Warning! Don't Take Tylenol When You Have a Hangover.

One of the most distinct memories that I have of nursing school is some advice that my instructor gave me on our first day. She said:

“If there’s one thing that you take away from this program let it be this. Do not take Tylenol when you have a hangover."

So the reason is that when you drink alcohol your liver becomes very irritated and inflamed because it has to process all of that alcohol. And when you wake up in the morning your liver is under a lot of stress, so the last thing you want to do is give it more stress by taking Tylenol. 

Tylenol is metabolized by the liver. 

Advil is metabolized by the kidneys.

But how can I deal with my headache? Well here's the thing. You can take Advil because it does not get processed by your liver.

Unfortunately this information isn't common knowledge. I'm sure we can all admit that we tend to drink more than a couple glasses of wine. Over your lifetime this adds up to a lot of liver damage and can take years off your life. So this is a simple way to give your body a fighting chance.

Make the switch. Get rid, hide, give away, or just ban Tylenol from entering your house.

The recipe below was given to me from my dear friends Stephanie and Rick. Always on the cutting edge of hangover technology.

Hangover Smoothie

Ingredients

2 Bananas

1 apple

1/2 lemon

1 bunch kale

1 cup coconut water

4 liquid Advil gelcaps

Add all ingredients to blender. Blend. Enjoy. Take a nap.

Bee Hives and Skyscrapers. Are They Really That Different?

Driving out of downtown tonight I looked back at the city-line and noticed something that I've never noticed before. We are like bees! 

For the first time ever our skyscrapers reminded me of bee hives. They are just shaped a bit different. A human hive is made of concrete whereas a bee hive is made of natural material. But in essence they are the same thing. 

So how else are we like bees? Well we have the same hierarchy as well. Every hive has worker bees and a queen bee. For example, a bus driver is definitely a worker bee. He transports other workers around. He is very busy. A teacher is also a worker bee. They show younger workers how to become good worker bees when they grow up. Yoga instructors are also worker bees. They guide other worker bees to become better at calming down their queen bee. 

And then you have queen bees. Well we all know that each family or couple or even individual person has a queen bee. All the workers try to provide a safe life for this queen. They try to protect him or her. When the queen bee is happy then all the workers are happy. But when the queen be is upset we all feel the consequences. 

I consider myself the queen bee for my little hive. But I guess I am also the worker bee. At different times I have to work really hard and get things done so that I can please the queen side of myself. So obviously during the week I am a worker bee. I go to work, go to yoga, write, and create new possibilities. And then on the weekend I get to be a queen bee and reek all of the benefits that my worker self has done. 

We seem to think that humans are very complex and the most intelligent species out there. But then you see how similar we are to other animals and species. It is very grounding to feel this connection. We are all just trying to survive and build a bee hive for our queen bee to love.

I love my bee hive and my worker side and my queen side. xoxo.