Keira-anne.com

I can’t stop looking at this. Every time I’ve toggled to that page this morning while sitting at my desk, I’ve died a little on the inside.

I hate you, Internet Explorer. Everytime I blog with you, you squish my pictures and make me look schmucky. I should basically just always use my laptop, me thinks. (Translation: click each picture to see it in my Flickr stream, not looking schmucky.) Safari FTW.

Okay, so Lady Phae wanted to treat yours truly to a divine dinner at my absolute favourite spot. The first time I went to Boneta was on my birthday last year and I have been back a handful of times since.

We let the amazing men of Boneta pick wine for us, and so we had some Italian red vino. My friend Toni claims to be Italian red wine but I am not sure he’s as drinkable.

We had cheese. And crustinis. And cheese.

Normally I’m pretty lush-ous when drinking red wine, but for whatever reason I managed to remain pretty sober. The same cannot be said for my hot date. She’s charming.

“Boneta loves you.” It’s written all over their restaurant, literally and figuratively. We were treated like royalty, and at one point, one of the owners actually stabbed at one of the fresh, local strawberries with my fork and fed it to me.

Being that Jack popped my Pimm’s cherry on my birthday at Boneta, I decided Phaedra needed to do the same, so we capped off the evening with a Pimm’s-based cocktail of our own. Needless to say, it was a hit.

Just yesterday, Duane wrote a blog post that touched down on customer service. I agreed with his points in that I feel as though it’s largely a lost art. I am rather adept in the kitchen and know very well how to pick out a good bottle of wine to tote home, so when I go out for dinner, it’s the service and experience I am paying for.

At Boneta, phenomenal food, killer wine and service to knock your stillettos off are all guaranteed, all the time. Why else would my darling and I have gone two times already?

Thanks for a truly stellar date, Phaedra…

When arriving in the Comox Valley on Wednesday evening, I was positively giddy when, upon nearing my family’s home, I saw a brand spankin’ new sign directing folks to a vineyard. I managed to grab the name, and upon doing a quick Google search, I found Beaufort Vineyard & Estate Winery [website]. Being the lover I am of both wine and consumable products made and bought locally, this excited me greatly. Today I managed to stop in during the middle of a sun-soaked afternoon in the Comox Valley.

The grapevines at Beaufort have been growing for close to two years and on May 30, 2008, Beaufort was ready to open its doors to the public. Jeff and Susan Vandermolen turned their passion for wine into reality by bringing the Comox Valley its first-ever winery and vineyard.

I was instantly greeted with a friendly smile and warm handshake from the vineyard’s proprietors, and Jeff was quick to fill me in on the wines being produced and sold through the vineyard. After sampling a few different bottles, I chose the 2007 Ortega - winner of the Northwest Wine Summit 2008 Bronze Medal. I’m not normally one for white wines, and being that I knew how young the grapes were, I was slightly hesitant. However, to my ultimate surprise the wine was fantastic! Light, crisp, slightly fruity with a near-perfect aroma.

The property also features a lush and shaded picnic area with a view of Vancouver Island’s mountains that’s incomparable.

Beaufort is open for viewing and wine tasting on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., but make sure you double check the website instead of taking my word for it.

I thanked Jeff and Susan for their hospitality and promised that I’d encourage you all to check out Beaufort next time you’re in the Comox Valley, so check out Beaufort next time you’re in the Comox Valley! It’s a few minutes north of Courtenay on highway 19A, just south of what was Tsolumn School. Click here for directions.

Beaufort wines are currently available at the Coast Hotel Beer and Wine store, as well as several select restaurants in the Comox Valley. One of those restaurants happens to be at the Kingfisher Spa, which was my next stop this afternoon. Being that I’d put the call out but got no response, I went to the one place that I know treats its guests to stellar pedicures.

Today Amanda scrubbed, buffed, soaked, trimmed, softened, moisturized, massaged and polished my tender feet and it felt like heaven. She’s also a super cool girl and comes highly recommended for excellent conversation! And as a bonus, the Kingfisher lets you keep the OPI polish you choose. I walked on the semi-wild side and came home with poppin’ purple on my toenails.

And now it’s time, oh my brothers, to get my booty into bed. Sunday starts soon and I’m getting up early to make a beeline for Victoria to spend a bright and shiny afternoon in the Province’s capital city with my friend Antonio before we hit up Lucky Bar (he’s working for a few hours and I promise you all not to make a repeat of my last trip there) before rooftop cocktails at midnight. More fun, more photos!

Becky and I have spent all week looking forward to The Style Spy’s Fabulous Life fashion show. With designer names like Chulo Pony and Kensie, red carpet entertainment, swag bags and cocktails, we figured that there was no way we could go wrong with an event like this. Turns our we were wrong.

In light of tonight’s events, I present to you… “How Not To Hold A Fashion Show”

Photo: thestylespy07 on Flickr

Okay, so I’ve had a few cocktails and now I’m onto pinot noir. But buzzed or not, my sentiment remains the same. After waiting for an hour to check in with the RSVP table, the mess that was ‘Fabulous Life’ was anything but. We scoped the crowd to touch base with the adorable J-Sto (shoot me if you hate the nickname cuz it’s stickin’, baby), then ditched the scene and headed to Gastown to slip inside Boneta on West Cordova.

Roasted duck, sweet n’ savoury cocktails and cleavage talk made for a far better evening. The maître d’ seemed to remember me either from my birthday or from around the ‘hood, but either way, he wouldn’t let us ladies leave before downing a divine glass of complimentary champagne. Class act, that Boneta.

And so now I sit here, adorned in my little black dress and moccasin slippers, inches away from going nuts over the party raging next door. They call it a “housewarming” and I call it “horseshit.” Why party when you can opt for red wine in bed? They’re “down with OPP”; I’m under the down with the Bee and Casey.

…when you have fun that awaits you. Normally I’d be a bit bummed on a Sunday afternoon, unhappy about the fact that with the next morning comes yet another work week. However, not only did I have an amazingly fun weekend with fantastic people, I have next weekend to look forward to as well (a weekend which, I might add, starts at 4pm on Thursday). This past Friday I just took it easy and relaxed, and yesterday I spent the day with Amy and my favourite geeks to celebrate her birthday. We spent the afternoon on Granville Island, exploring the market, shops, Kids Market and downed a sampler of sleeves at the Granville Island Brewery. From there it was on to Wings, Commodore Lanes and the Marble Slab on Denman Street. Click over to my Flickr to see all the photos.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, step right up to the second post in my happyfrog purchase series. What particularly excites me about this happyfrog purchase is that it was entirely unplanned and has a story behind it.

A little over a year ago, I made my first visit to Salt Tasting Room with Jack. Instantly we were both hooked on the unique concept and fantastic finger fare offered. What struck us both about our dining experience was the glass of pinot noir we each had. It came from Winchester Cellars, a small winery based on Vancouver Island, and was a wine that was both full-bodied and very rich in flavour. It was this very glass of wine that began a love affair with pinot noir that we both embarked on after that night. What I love most about pinot noirs, as opposed to other varieties of red wines, is that in any good bottle, you’ll be treated to three or four different flavour notes in a single sip.

Photo courtesy of Wines Of Canada

After that evening, the journey began to find a bottle of Winchester Cellars’ Sharp Rock 2005 pinot noir that could be uncorked at home. Unfortunately, it was a journey that would soon fall flat. Between the two of us, we canvassed wine shops downtown, and on a trip I made to Victoria not long after the experience, a search of every liquor store in the Greater Victoria area turned up empty. I even went so far as to visit the actual vineyard - it was a lost cause. I had long forgotten about this wine, and was only briefly reminded of it when I saw that happyfrog had listed the vineyard on their site.

Fast forward 13 months…

Sunday evening, the day before Christmas Eve, my mother and I were scrambling around Courtenay, trying to gather up any last minute grocery items for the feast I was to prepare only 48 hours later. At her suggestion, we stopped into one of Courtenay’s local beer and wine stores to grab some wine so that we could entertain our guests with a little bit of style. I had spotted a pinot noir that looked rather savoury, and upon picking the bottle up off the rack, my eyes darted to the left and instantly locked with the Winchester Cellars logo. Said logo was plastered onto a bottle of their Sharp Rock 2005 pinot noir! And even better, there were two more bottle stacked underneath!

I truly could not believe what I saw. I felt as though I had found the “Holy Grail.” Needless to say, I snapped up two bottles on the spot. And at $35 and change for each bottle, it’s a super price for an even more superb wine. With only 400 cases produced, all I can say is good luck finding it.

You can, however, find Winchester Cellars’ other fine vino selections at a variety of wine shops and restaurants throughout British Columbia (visit their website at the above link for more information). What makes their wine so great is that not only is it local, which means you’re not polluting the environment having your wine imported via jet from France, Italy or even California, but their grapes are grown in a Certified Organic Vineyard, so you know you’re getting a high quality product.

Stay tuned for another happyfrog blog post tomorrow.

I take much guilty pleasure in the programs that A&E has to offer. It started innocently enough with shows such as Cold Case Files and American Justice, but has more recently branched out into a show which is now running into its third season: Intervention.

Two weeks ago I spent an entire Saturday on the couch in my pajamas and legwarmers with a 3-hour Intervention mini marathon to keep me company. Undoubtedly, each episode’s chronicle of the life of an addict tugs on the most delicate of heartstrings, but a particular installment that rainy Saturday afternoon completely ripped on them.

It told the story of John, a 33-year-old Bostonian who lost his mother as a little boy, and in the last year had lost his sister, his cousin and his best friend. Over the course of the last 12 months, John’s dive into the rabbit hole of crack cocaine and alcohol had seemingly hit rock bottom. He looked sickly and completely unhappy. However, what became glaringly apparent to me in the solitary times between John and the camera was the deep hurt behind watery eyes. An intervention was his only hope.

John’s story moved me in way that I can’t explain, but it got me thinking about dependency on substance and how prevalent it has become. As someone who has dealt first-hand with a person whose substance abuse problem cost them their life, it’s easy for me to view those who share the same struggles with a slightly less biased (and more open) eye.

A few weeks ago, as I sat in the sunshine with a girlfriend, the topic of conversation drifted to substance abuse. I stated to her that I think, based on the picture that’s painted within the media, it’s one’s natural reaction to judge. Abusers are labelled as foolish people who “should know better.” Unfortunately, that’s not the case and the solution isn’t nearly that simple.

To turn to any addiction, whether it’s gambling, alcohol, heroin, compulsive shopping, purging after a meal or smoking crack cocaine, is more often than not the direct result of deep-seated pain most likely and completely unrelated to the addiction itself. I believe that the reason so many people from all walks of life battle with the compulsions is the desperate need to self-medicate - a hopeless attempt at numbing the demons that possess.

We turn on the news and see a profile of Vancouver’s downtown eastside. We see incoherent people stumble back and forth across East Hastings, bouncing from alley to alley, fix to fix. We think “what a sad life they lead.” Few of us stop to think how these people got to such a place. The truth is, they are sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and friends.

The misconceptions about those who struggle with various compulsions is, in my own opinion, vastly misunderstood and largely misjudged. And why is it so crucial to open our minds and our eyes to the true nature of this reality? Because the people that struggle aren’t just the ones you see on the 11 o’clock news or an A&E series. It could be the very person living right next to you, and the need to overcome the internal ache is so much larger than the need for another fix.

Allow me to preface this by saying that Rebecca and I just shared a bottle of Quail’s Gate 2005 pinot noir at Moxie’s. Over the last eight or nine months, I’ve lost about 20 pounds. Man, this is hard to type out. Having lost that much weight has made me somewhat of a “lightweight.” I mean, let’s face it…I wasn’t in “the best of shape,” right? Now just two and a half glasses of rouge vino and I’m ready to go!

I needed to buy new shampoo and more Tonic spray, so after work I tripped over to The Lounge to stock up on Bumble supplies. I met Becky on the corner of Richards and Helmcken. We wanted to walk to Robson and Burrard so she could buy presents for the relatives. We walked along Granville part of the way…

“You ladies can take my virginity…”

That came from a young man, clean cut and well dressed, as we walked along Granville.

Giggles from both of us. If only he knew.

After Becky bought presents, we went to Roots. It’s “Friends & Family” week. Everything in store is 25% off, including sale items. Their remaining pairs of legwarmers were on sale for $24.99. Sooo…

Hot, hey?

Then we went to Moxie’s on Robson. Our waitress had huge boobs that were practically hypnotic and most certainly plastic. The food was good though and we ate too much and drank lots of wine.

Bye.

It’s 12:52 p.m. and I’m sitting in an Internet cafe in Victoria. I think I’m on Yates Street. I just bought some legwarmers, but they absolutely did not work for me in the way that retail therapy should.

Did I mention that things suck right now? Okay, I’m being a bit dramatic by saying so, but it feels like they do. Coming over here yesterday, we missed the ferry and got stuck at the terminal for two and a half hours. We played Keno to pass the time. Driving into the city I had a bad feeling. Here I am hanging out with all these people that are two, three and sometimes four years younger than me. Why?

I miss him and I’d rather be with him right now. And always. And I’m a huge fucking idiot who made an even huger fucking mistake.

I feel ditched out on by my friends here, even though that’s not technically the case. We’re all supposed to see Titanica at IMAX at 2:00 p.m. but I ditched out to talk to all of you until then. Alone time was very necessary. I just want to get on the bus and go home. I miss my mom. I actually miss Vancouver. I miss him. Shit. Bye.

Oh and my cell phone’s dead.

Tonight me and Becky went to the hockey game.

It was the Canucks’ first pre-season game.

We played against the Anaheim Ducks.

We lost 3-2. In overtime.

Before the game, we had beers and chicken wings with the birthday boy, Darren.

He’s awesome.

I bought Darren a Muff Diver.

Then we went to the game.

I spent the first period in the handicapped bathroom stall alternating between tears and vomit.

Then Becky bought me a churro and another beer.

Then I finally got into the game.

Sometimes life sucks a lot.

I’m drunk righ tnow.

Plus I am feeling sad.

Love sucks.

We lost the hockey game.