My 2012 Christmas

Note: Part of this is adapted from Facebook posts. Thankfully that meant that the most stressful sections were already mostly written ahead of time.

I got up just before 6 and started wandered around taking photos outside in downtown Victoria, including the harbour.  I was going to eat at McDonald’s, but I passed them before 7 when they opened so ended up eating at Burger King instead. I continued taking more photos, about 4,000 or so total. Sunrise was a bit late happening and unfortunately my memory card ran out just as it was happening. I dashed home and grabbed a replacement card but still missed some nice shots. I went back out and got another 1,000 or so photos. It was starting and getting close to when I thought my dad might call so I went in. My dad did call soon after. I did a few other things like unwrapping presents and looking at photos I took in Portland while the rain and wind storm raged. The rain finally subsided to I decided to go ahead with a plan to visit Sidney. I nice stranger was giving out candy canes (still wrapped) from his car. I just missed my bus so I got in some downtown shots plus I checked the DVD sections of a few 7-11’s.

I made it to Sidney and gone some unfortunately rainy photos of Sidney’s downtown. Video Express was open so I bought some DVDs from there. Surprisingly I couldn’t find any place to have lunch so I just grabbed some pizza from the 7-11 there and then took a bus back to downtown Victoria. I relaxed at home briefly and then decided to go for an early dinner.

I arrived at the Chinese food place I ate at least year (Dynasty) but there was now a reservations only sign which wasn’t up earlier in the day. Then some homeless teen accosted me and started accusing me of taking photos of him deliberately and wouldn't believe me when I said I was taking Xmas photos of buildings and hadn't even noticed him. He insisted I delete the photos so I agree to that much (partly to demonstrate my point that I was photographing everything. But then he started grabbing at my camera and wanting me to let go and give it to him. Obviously I wasn't going to hand over a $400 camera to someone who might smash it. Luckily he finally stopped (maybe because there were lots of witnesses). It was 4:40 and I decided to try Dynasty anyway because it was only about 4:40 and practically empty (plus I wanted to get inside where it was safer). They wouldn't budge on the reservations rule so that left me with Don Mee next door if I wanted a Chinese food dinner.

A woman outside Don Mee was getting people into the restaurant and said there was a combo plate for one. I decided to go in before the teen and his friends returned. Well, it took about 10 minutes for the Chinese tea to arrive and another couple minutes before the menu arrived (at this point it was maybe 1/4-1/3 full, though it did fill up more while I was there). Then another 5-10 minutes to take my order (the combo plate and a glass of water). The water took about half an hour after that to arrive and the platter another 20 minutes after that (note: times all estimates). When the platter arrived I asked for a fork but seeing how slow they were decided to scoop the food as best I could with the chopsticks even though I lack the coordination to use them properly. I actually finished the food before any fork arrived despite my haphazard use of chopsticks. Throughout the greeter/busser kept saying how busy it was but again it wasn't that full when I first arrived so it was partly a busy period of their own making. Only one group was ahead of me when I went up to pay (no way was I going to sit for the bill) but the woman handling the bills disappeared for a bit to help someone else. Finally she returned. No tip but the food tasting okay saved them from an insult 2c tip. I didn't complain at all because I was still shaken up by the camera bit but it took well over an hour including half an hour for a small glass of water.

My photo uploading program has gotten pretty slow so I downloaded another and let both run at the same time (different photos being uploaded of course). I watched part of a movie I bought at Video Express and fell asleep.