Author: Rae

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Thuan Hoa Vietnamese Restaurant, Lethbridge

After work, I needed to get away from the apartment complex, so I decided to walk to a restaurant for dinner. I was in the mood for ‘exotic’ and decided to head over to a Vietnamese restaurant, Thuan Hoa, near head office, about 1.5 km away. It just so happened that Jody’s daughter recommended it to me during Thanksgiving lunch.

I haven’t had Vietnamese in ages, maybe even since I left Ottawa. I used to meet a friend at a Vietnamese restaurant in the Hull sector of Gatineau on a regular basis, with my favourite dish being squid in a sweet and spicy black bean sauce served with tasty minty spring rolls. So tonight I looked forward to a wonderful, fragrant, tasty dinner.

Well. There was nothing wrong with the food at Thuan Hoa Vietnamese Restaurant, but it was bland! What?!

I had the dinner combo 1A: two salad rolls, a spring roll, vermicelli, and pork, for $11.50. When I’d looked at the menu online, it said I could add a bubble tea for $2.50, but I found out that was just for take out orders. The server let me have it for that price anyway since I had waited so patiently to order; I asked for a mango tea.

The salad rolls were very pretty roll ups of rice paper, vermicelli, shrimp, cucumber, and lettuce served with a sweet peanut dipping sauce. Where was the Vietnamese mint?! Without the sauce, the rolls had great texture but no taste.

Dinner came in a giant bowl. If I had known the portions were going to be so outrageous, I would have had only one roll and half the dinner and brought the rest home. Anyway, the dinner was a bed of vermicelli over which were a carroty over-cooked spring roll (at least there was sweet fish dipping sauce on the side), really tasty crispy pork, and more lettuce and cucumber. I had to drizzle peanut sauce over everything to get any real flavour.

The mango bubble tea was a huge disappointment. It was the creamy kind that was pure sugar. The tapioca bubbles literally made my teeth hurt they were so sweet. I thought I’d had bad bubble tea before, but this was terrible! I didn’t even finish it. Next time I want a mango bubble tea, I’ll do like I did last time, and pay the $5 for a fresh juice one at Umi Sushi.

It would be grossly unfair of me to say that this was a terrible meal. Tea excepted, everything was fresh and beautifully prepared with generous portions. I just can’t get used to the way flavour is stripped out of cuisines out west to suit the meat and potatoes palate of the population. The only thing I was pleased with was the pork. I’ve only just started to eat pork again and am finicky about grizzle, but this was cooked and seasoned perfectly. It’s just a shame that everything else was so plain.

The restaurant is very popular and was super busy. I won’t be going back, but I can’t categorically not recommend it. It was really a case of the food not being right for me rather than the food not being right.

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Special Deliveries

I was thrilled to have Jody stopped in yesterday afternoon for a quick visit. She brought me some of her addictive banana-chocolate chip muffins. I terribly miss raiding her kitchen for them in the late evening. 🙂 It was nice to sit and chat for a bit. I think I surprised Jody when I pulled some pop out of the fridge for her. I don’t drink the stuff, but I figured that I’d have her over at least a few times during the winter, so I bought a case of a type I see her drink often.

This morning, I was sitting here working on some stuff and trying to ignore the sound of the contractors going about their business a few doors down until it was closer to my starting time of 10. I’m working really hard at drawing that line between work and home right from the start. But the inevitable knock on the door came… I was still in my pjs, so I quickly threw on a long skirt, a sweater, and a kerchief. I checked the peephole and it was one of my minor maintenance guys. Oy, I hate starting my day like this… I opened up and he handed me a Tim Hortons cup! That was all, he was delivering the Friday treat from our boss and figured there was no reason to wait another half hour.

Between muffins for breakfast and overly sweet (but yummy!) ‘French vanilla cappucino’, I have come to realise that, hey, it’s Friday! I’ve just about survived my second week in The Apartment.

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One Down, Twenty-Five To Go

I have been living in The Apartment for a full week now and definitely back to as normal a routine as exists for me.  While I am pretty much settled in, I still need to get my really cold weather gear out of Miranda’s basement and figure out how to plug in the rig. The Apartment is surprisingly cozy and looks much better than I would have expected. It’s amazing how I was able to get everything to reasonably coordinate! My colourful bedspread is definitely making a huge difference:

The biggest advantage to living here is that I have so much more time now. Yes, I did stop delivering the fliers, but I’ve also gained the hour I spent commuting every day. The best part of living here is being able to walk to the services, especially the grocery store. I needed English muffins and fresh fruit for the week, so I just ambled on over the Safeway and took in a lovely crisp October afternoon. Coming home, one of my tenants/friends was on her deck, so I stopped for a chat, the first chance we’ve had to talk where I was really off the clock.

Yesterday afternoon, a tenant saw me come out of Miranda as he went to throw garbage in the dumpster and he came to ask me about a non-urgent maintenance matter. I firmly told him that I will see him on Tuesday morning, refusing to even go into the office and write down his query. I have to draw that line right now because word will get out very quickly that, hey, the manager’s living on site and available for the asking! Nope!

 


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Winterizing My RV Water System

Today’s goal was to winterize my RV water system. I decided to walk over to Safeway for a few things, then come back to get the car so I could drive across town to Canadian Tire to get RV plumbing antifreeze.

On the way to Safeway, while standing at the light to cross Scenic Drive, I happened to glance south and jumped back in shock. Look at what I could see:

Surely that Canadian Tire is a mirage…

WHAT?! There’s a Canadian Tire directly across the road from my apartment complex?! Getting there is a bit roundabout, but it still only took about 10 minutes. What a find!

Anyway, I decided to forgo the groceries and get straight to winterizing. I had an absolutely painless shopping trip (!!! for CDN Tire!) and picked up:

-3 gallons of RV antifreeze (the instructions said I needed to pour 2 into the fresh water tank, so I figured I’d need extra for the P-traps)

-a funnel that I was thrilled to discover exists:

funnel with flexible spout

and a few other sundries not related to this post.

I got back to the rig and reread the instructions:

part of the winterizing instructions

The following winterizing instructions are taken from my 1997 Glendale Royal Classic owner’s manual and may not apply to your RV. Always check your own manual. RV tech Les Doll has a good RV winterization manual.

1) Drain your fresh water system

Done.

2) Clean out your holding tanks

Done. Not as well as I would have liked, especially for the black tank, but I would have needed to go to a FHU RV park to do the job properly.

3) Drain the water lines by opening the lowest outlet in the system (in my case, that’s the outdoor shower). Drain the water heater by opening water heater drain cock and pressure relief valve.

Done. And this is why you should occasionally flush your water heater with vinegar (something I did last spring in Blaine):

calcification on water heater drain cock

4) Remove the output line at the water pump…

I omitted this step because I couldn’t figure out why to do it. The RV has been winterized a few times before me and I could tell this step was never done.

It’s in this step that they mention water heater bypass kits. If your RV does not have one, you will have to completely fill the water heater with antifreeze. I have what is apparently an unusually large water heater, 10 gallons, so that’s a lot of antifreeze!

Thankfully, I also have a higher end rig:

water heater bypass diagram

water heater bypass valves

So before the next step, I made sure to turn the valves as directed to bypass the water heater.

6) Pour 2 gallons of antifreeze into the fresh water tank.

Done.

note to self, that’s what two gallons of liquid in the fresh water tank looks like

7) Turn on water pump.

Done.

8 ) Open each faucet until a change of water colour is noted.

Done. And I knew I had all the water out of the lines because I got bright pink immediately at all faucets:

-Dressing room sink hot and cold
-Indoor shower hot and cold
-Outdoor shower hot and cold
-Kitchen sink hot and cold
-Toilet

antifreeze in the dressing room sink

9) Run the toilet…

Done.

10) While water system is pressurized, depress the city pressure inlet one way valve so that antifreeze flows outside the unit.

Done.

11) Get a little antifreeze into the water heater and through water heater drain cock.

Done (thank you flexible spout funnel).

12) Finally, be sure that antifreeze has circulated through the entire water system and that antifreeze is in all P-traps.

Done. I poured the last gallon of antifreeze down all the drains:

-kitchen sink x 2
-dressing room sink
-shower
-toilet

Not counting draining the rig (most done at Jody and Gary’s), this was a very, very quick and easy process.

I ended up not blowing the water lines due to the lack of power outlet for running the compressor. The instructions really make this step out to be optional, so I feel okay with having skipped it. We shall see how the rig fares in the spring… Les feels that blowing out the lines isn’t a good idea.

Next project, figure out how to hook myself up to a power outlet 150′ away…

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I Love Leftovers

I just got in from having Thanksgiving lunch with Gary and Jody. I now know that not only is Gary an awesome cook, he’s also an awesome leftover packer!

This is the container he sent me home with:

Even though he taped the lid shut, I just had to see what I can look forward to as soon as I can eat again, in a day or two:

Starting at 12 o’clock, there’s stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy, deep fried turkey, sweet potato fries, and mashed potatoes.

Isn’t his compartmentalized method of leftover packing inspiring?

I just want a nap now, but instead I am going over to the rig to read up on how to get Miranda winterized.