FIRST SHOT

Approximately thirteen hours ago I received my first AstraZeneca vaccine shot at a local pharmacy. I felt fine the entire day and evening. In the last hour or so, I started detecting a bit of a muscle ache in my arms. Not sure if that’s because I’ve been gaming on my PC for the last hour or so. As for the rest of my body, I am definitely feeling something. It’s very minor, like something is a little bit off. Maybe I’m just tired. No headache, no fever, and no chills so far.

We’ll see how sleep goes.

NEAR DISASTER

I nearly pooped my pants today. I made some salmon for lunch and did it sous vide style. Who knows, maybe I the temperature a tad too low and it was undercooked.

All I know is that later in day, I was at the grocery store and without warning, my stomach made one huge gurgle. I instantly knew something was wrong because I felt my insides shifting like my gastrointestinal system was a water slide. Except it wasn’t water making its way through.

i quickly finished up my shopping and headed home. Luckily, I live close and after that initial gurgle, I was still in control. Nothing felt imminent just yet.

Things got real intense once I got into the apartment. I dropped off my bags and immediately took off my coat and headed to the bathroom. In the time it took me to walk to bathroom, the situation went from to zero to nuclear detonation. I didn’t realize how badly I had to go. As I struggled with my belt, I felt the most powerful urge to poop that I’ve ever experienced before. Words fail to describe what I was going through. I can only say it felt like a bomb had gone off in my colon and the pressure needed to be relieved through my butthole.

I had to clench my anus muscles to prevent a torrent of sadness from soiling myself. I wasn’t sure if I was fully successful but after an eternity, I finally got my pants and underwear off. My butt wasn’t even fully on the seat before I let go. I felt a mixture of both sweet relief and horror. It came out with shocking force, a violent expulsion, like it was angry. My colon spasmed probably three times in total before I was empty. It lasted probably less ten seconds in total.

Once I felt I was done, I checked my underwear for damage. It was free of soiling to my surprise. I then cleaned my butt up as best as I could. This was one of those situations that called for an immediate shower afterwards.

What a short but intense ordeal that was.

VACCINE UNCERTAINTY

For several days now, since Friday, I had a confirmed booking for my first vaccine shot at a local pharmacy. I was scheduled to get my shot tomorrow at 3pm.

This afternoon, I was napping in bed and I had fallen asleep with my phone in my hand. I was woken up by my phone ringing. I looked and call display showed the number of the pharmacy. I answered the phone, thinking they were just confirming my appointment. No, it was actually quite the opposite. The gentlemen who called me wanted to know if I had booked an appointment for tomorrow at 3pm. I said yes. He then informed me that the pharmacy was all out of doses of vaccine and they wouldn’t be able to honour my appointment. How did they just run out of doses? Why would they even make appointments available if they didn’t have the doses to back it up?

I understand I don’t have all the information behind the missing doses but it does seem odd to send out confirmation e-mails when the pharmacy couldn’t actually confirm the booking. Maybe they were depending on a new batch arriving for tomorrow and the batch wasn’t delivered and it was out of their control.

Not all was lost though. The gentleman on the phone said that they would have more shots on Thursday and Friday of this week and I could re-schedule for then. I asked if he could re-schedule me but he said he couldn’t. If I wanted a new time slot, I’d have to book again through the pharmacy web site. He even told me to hurry as he said that he was the one that just pushed the button to open up the available slots on Thursday and Friday. I thanked him and luckily I had the link to the booking site available on my computer. I rolled out of bed and got to work to book myself for an 11:30am appointment on Thursday.

I’m hoping this appointment won’t get cancelled as well but who knows. The vaccine supply situation in Canada is constantly in flux. I’ve wait for well over a year for a vaccine shot, so I guess another 48 hours isn’t so bad. In the meantime, I need to continue to be safe and smart.

FRIDAY NIGHT DINNER

On Friday evening, I wanted to have some fried chicken for dinner. In my part of town, Korean fried chicken places are very popular. I decided to try one of the places close to me but that I had not ordered from before.

I looked at their menu and along with fried chicken, they had a “delicacies” section. One of the items listed in that section was “pupa soup“. “Pupa” as in insects? I did some quick Googling and yeah, that’s what it is. As strange as consuming a soup made with insects sounded, I didn’t see any pictures beforehand and life is about trying new things, so I ordered it, along with my fried chicken.

When I got my food order home, I admit I ate a lot of fried chicken first before opening the container of pupa soup. It was in a Styrofoam container which was sealed with a plastic bag. I opened all that stuff up and when I took the top off the Styrofoam container, I was met with the pungent odour that Google had warned me about. It smelled like a woodsy decaying smell, as strong and as distinctive as the Internet had warned me. While the smell was unique and strong, it looked like a normal broth that any Asian soup could look like. That’s when I got a spoon and to dig up the contents at the bottom of the container.

As you can see above, that’s what greeted me. The restaurant did not skimp on giving me the silkworm pupae. There were lots of them. There was also some onion and slices of jalapeno peppers. While this particular soup was odd, I wasn’t put off from it. I really wanted to try it. I cautiously spooned up one pupa, along with some of the soup. It all went into my mouth.

The soup itself was bitter. The decaying woodsy smell was now in my mouth, strong, bitter and spicy because of the peppers. I then bit into the pupa. It wasn’t crunchy. It sorta had a thin and chewy outer skin and I could tell there was a soft fleshy part inside of it, I guess that was the pupa insides. It did not taste great. It was bitter in a different way that the soup was. The spiciness of the soup made everything a bit more palatable for some reason.

I took sometime to process all the flavours and textures. I decided I needed to try more of this, that one spoonful of soup and one pupa was not enough to fully experience it all. So, I spooned up three large pupae with some soup and took it all in. It was more of the same, just with a larger concentration of the chewy pupa skin and more of the pupa guts.

I went back to the well about two more times before I decided it was enough of this soup for this time. I had a lot leftover but I didn’t need try any more of this.

Would I order it again? Maybe. Do I regret ordering it? No, not all. It expanded my horizons and that’s never a bad thing.

VACCINE UPDATE

I just want to say that at the moment, I have no idea when I’ll be getting my first vaccine shot. AZ is now available to people in my age group but the supply of it in this province has essentially dried up. The province won’t be getting more of it anytime soon is my understanding. The next available chance now is for my age group to be made eligible for Moderna or Pfizer. Unfortunately, British Columbia is still stuck at vaccinating 60+ with those vaccines. I’ll have to wait for the 50s to be cleared before it gets to me. I’ll be lucky to get my shot in May.

BIG MONEY

I received a cheque in the mail this week. It was a rebate from the provincial auto insurance company, ICBC. The reason for the rebate is explained here, but essentially less driving because of the pandemic led to less crashes and thus less claims for the insurer. Less claims means more money was saved by ICBC.

Though they say the average rebate would total around $200, my rebate wound up being $11. There’s probably a few reasons behind that small amount. One, compared to most drivers, especially younger ones, my insurance is much cheaper, by the thousands annually. Also, I only insure my car for leisure because I don’t use it to drive to work (even before the pandemic), so that leads to a smaller amount. So, it makes sense my rebate isn’t that big.

I am not complaining about getting $11 back. Indeed, someone got a $1 rebate and wasn’t that happy about it. $11 can buy me a few groceries, so that’s not so bad.

HEAVY

I weighed myself for the first time in months yesterday and the results were not good. I’m about ten pounds heavier than my desired weight. I’m also the heaviest I’ve been since the pandemic started.

I’m this fat because of my diet mostly. I’ve consumed too many carbs. As we approach the warmer weather, I need to eat healthier.

TIRED

I woke up very early to take my Dad to the ophthalmologist for a check-up. I am very tired now. I will go to bed “early” tonight. I hope all of you are well.

HOT

We’re in the middle of April and here in the greater Vancouver area, it’s feeling like summer already. The highs this weekend hovered near 20 degrees Celsius. People were wearing shorts and t-shirts like it was July. I was caught off guard by the good weather, didn’t have any summer clothes cleaned or pressed, so I was forced to wear pants all weekend.

It felt particularly hot and muggy on Saturday. That was the day that I was outside the most. It did not feel like a day in April. Traditionally, and perhaps in a cliched manner, April in Vancouver means rain. I don’t think it’s rained here in almost two weeks.

I did laundry Sunday night and washed some of my warmer weather clothes so I’ll be ready for more sun. The good weather will be around until at least through Wednesday. I am not complaining about the nice weather. With everything going so badly lately in our province, at least this is one thing we can enjoy (but not in large groups without physical distancing!).