Laufey in Vancouver in A Matter of Time

Laufey has so many fans in Vancouver they filled an arena

Last night I went to watch the artist Laufey perform in concert live at Rogers Arena in Vancouver. This multi-talented half Chinese, half Icelandic singer, songwriter, cellist, pianist and guitarist knows no bounds.

She has literally had a stratospheric rise in the last few years after she started filming herself while studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston when the Covid-19 pandemic began. She played her cello, and sang jazz numbers which caught my attention. Her fashion sense is "very demure", mostly covered up, long gathered skirts, lace blouses, and flats, the opposite of the stereotypical female singer who reveals a lot of skin.

Fans wearing bows and crowns

I missed Laufey when she performed in Vancouver at the Orpheum Theatre about a year ago, so when she announced her A Matter of Time tour with a Vancouver date, I was compelled to buy a ticket, which was not cheap -- $180 and that was the early bird price too, sitting in the lower level but at the back.

In the afternoon I passed by Rogers Arena on the way to watch a documentary in the Vancouver Film Festival, I saw crowds of people already gathering outside the venue. They were super early for the concert!

After 5pm I got a quick bite of beef pho at the food court in the shopping mall and did a quick five-minute visit to the Michelin event before heading to Rogers Arena. And there were a lot of fans, mostly girls dressed in Laufey-esque outfits, skirts, ankle socks, flats, big bows in their hair, or crowns; at every concert a super fan is chosen for their outfit and is given a Laufey crown by Mei Mei, her giant bunny.

The opening act was the antithesis of Laufey, Suki Waterhouse, a model, actress and singer who wore basically black lacy lingerie with lacy pants so her form fitting shorts were showing through. A fan blew her hair constantly on stage to give her a sultry look.

After about 45 minutes her set ended and the stage was set for Laufey. The wave went around the arena several times which was fun. 

Finally when the lights dimmed people screamed and the show started off with an intro much like a musical. Laufey appeared in a white spaghetti strap dress with a billowing full skirt.

Here's the set list:

This giant arena was almost all filled last nighte

Act I

• “Clockwork”
• “Lover Girl” (extended outro)
• “Dreamer”
• “Falling Behind” (extended outro)
• “Silver Lining”
• “Bored”
• “Too Little, Too Late” (extended outro; contains elements of "Bewitched")

Act II

• “Seems Like Old Times” (Carmen Lombardo cover)
• “Valentine” (Jazz version)
• “Fragile” (Jazz version)
• “While You Were Sleeping” (Jazz version; shortened)
• “Let You Break My Heart Again”

• 

  The sets were creative and elaborate

  Act III

  • “Carousel” (Live debut)
  • “Forget-Me-Not”
  • “Cuckoo Ballet” (Interlude)

  Act IV

• “Mr. Eclectic”
• “Castle in Hollywood” (extended outro)
• “Promise” (extended intro)
• “Goddess”
• “Tough Luck”
• “Snow White”
• "From the Start" (extended outro)

She removed the billowy skirt to reveal a fringy dress, sang a few jazz numbers in her own "jazz club" in the centre mini stage, and played the piano and guitar a few times, and an interlude on her cello. 

The screens showing Laufey were helpful!

During her costume change, a pre-recorded video of her showed a "backstage" back and forth with Laufey and her sister Junia who is her stylist that was quite amusing. Laufey changed into several outfits, including Snow White that got everyone excited, and it was a song she sang towards the end of the show.

One extra song was inspired by Vancouver's rainy weather, and she sang Misty while playing the piano.

Laufey is one talented young woman, and authentic in what she says. At the end she sang From the Start, as a song to inspire everyone in the audience to chase their dreams, because she did, and now she's filling arenas around the world!

Vancouver's Two New Michelin Stars

Chef Lee of Sushi Hyun with one star

The 2025 Michelin Guide awarded two new Japanese restaurants a star each -- Sumibiyaki Arashi and Sushi Hyun, making it 12 Michelin-starred places in Vancouver.

The last two years have also seen Japanese restaurants win stars: last year was Sushi Masuda and the year before Okeya Kyujiro.

Sumibiyaki Arashi has a star

In a way Japanese restaurants tick the boxes for Michelin, with impeccable service and food, fresh produce and exquisite presentation. The price tag is stratospheric though, starting at $200 per person!

Will Vancouver have two Michelin-starred restaurants? Highly doubt this, but the excitement around Michelin has definitely brought foodies to Vancouver. This helps when a lot of locals aren't dining out as much because they can't afford to...

Remembering Jane Goodall

Goodall was fascinated with animals at a very young age

This morning we heard the sad news that primatologist and passionate advocate for animals Jane Goodall died in Los Angeles. She was 91 years old.

My memory of her dates back to 2007 when she visited Beijing as founder of the Roots and Shoots program, where Goodall inspired the next generation to care about the environment where they live through local conservation projects.

This was my blog post on November 18, 2007 when Goodall was 73 years old:

In her youth she dreamed of going to Africa

Dr Jane Goodall has arrived in Beijing for a week-long visit to China.

Known for her ground-breaking research on chimpanzees in Tanzania, Goodall now travels the world some 300 days a year, spreading the word about environmental and animal conservation.

And she specifically focuses her message on young people, which led to the establishment of Roots & Shoots, an education program in 1991. There are now more than 800 of them in 98 countries, with over 300 R&S in China.

Some of these groups, ranging from elementary, secondary and university students came from Shanghai, Dalian and Tianjin as well as Beijing to show Goodall their environmental projects.

They ranged from planting trees in Inner Mongolia, to conserving rain water, feeding bears in a zoo with a pinata filled with fruit, and making crafts out of aluminum cans.

The famous scientist was dressed warmly in a large red coat and her silvery hair tied back loosely in a clip. When she arrived at Beijing City International School Goodall received applause from the students and they practically mobbed her, trying to take pictures and getting her to autograph pieces of paper.

She handled the attention quite well, and visited each of the booths and praised the students for their work.

The event then moved to the theatre where she gave a speech encouraging the audience to continue their conservation efforts as they are the next generation.

She said they were like roots and shoots, like the name of her program, growing and taking root and then breaking through tough barriers to grow.

She studied chimpanzees for decades

Then she told a story about a chimpanzee who was taken from his mother when she was shot dead. He was nicknamed "Old Man" after enduring 15 years of tests scientists conducted on him.

He was left to retire in a zoo on an island with three other female chimpanzees. A zoo keeper called Mark was to look after them but was warned not to get too close because they didn't like humans.

So he fed them by throwing food at them. He later noticed they got excited and hugged each other when he rowed the boat towards them. So Mark gradually brought his boat closer and closer to them until he could hand a banana to the Old Man.

He then stepped onto the island and nothing happened to him. Later on, he and Old Man made physical contact, grooming each other.

Old Man even had a baby chimpanzee with one of the females.

One day Mark was on the island but he tripped and fell on his face near the baby. The mother was horrified and came to rescue it, but not before biting Mark on the neck, thinking he wanted to harm her child. The other females followed her lead, also biting him on the leg and arm.

When Old Man came, Mark thought the chimpanzee would surely kill him. Instead the animal pushed the three females away so that the zoo keeper could get off the island and row back to safety.

Goodall said that if a chimpanzee, after all the years he was treated badly by humans, could bridge the gap and look after a man, we humans who are even more intelligent, should do the same, if not better.

It was a message that resonated with the audience and hopefully that will spur them on to continue their green efforts.

Goodall taught us to care for our community

But the fight for funding, especially non-profit organizations in China is tough. Only foreign companies step up to the plate and make contributions as there's no such thing as tax breaks for charitable donations. Non-profits do get some donations in kind by local companies, but those are few and far between.

The Chinese government is looking at creating a charity law. But this needs to be established soon, otherwise the momentum for non-profits like Goodall's will quickly fade when in fact they're making a huge impression on young people who are eager to make a difference. 

Rereading her story about Old Man, I can already imagine her talking about it in her soft voice that left everyone rapt with attention. 

A few weeks ago she was interviewed on CBC Radio and the host asked her how to have hope in the world when there's so much destruction, war, climate change, and so on.

Goodall replied that one can start by caring about their own community, finding something they want to save or conserve, and looking for others to help out.

When she was young she intently observed what animals, and in her case, chimpanzees did, and from watching them, she gave the rest of us more insight into their lives.

What she was doing was in a way mindfulness, being in the present and focusing on what was happening around her.

I've read she was most comfortable being with animals -- and actually her favourite is not chimpanzees but dogs for their unconditional love.

We are so lucky to have had Goodall in our lives, to remind us to look after the animals and environment around us, and that every little bit of care for them helps not only them, but us do better. We all have the capacity to help, love, nurture and care.

Cooking the Classic Stir Fried Tomato and Egg

Many Chinese kids learn to cook stir fried egg and tomato

A classic Chinese homestyle dish is stir fried egg and tomato and I'm getting the hang of making it. 

It's one of the first things Chinese kids learn how to cook, but I'm learning how to make it decades older!

Cooking the tomato first in the wok

Nevertheless, it's a dish young and old like -- the savoury-sweetness from the tomatoes combined with the silkiness of the eggs make it kind of saucy so it must be eaten with rice or noodles.  It's a bright colourful dish, and for the elderly it's easy to eat and has a good amount of protein.

A few days ago I walked by a neighbour's house where they have a cardboard box out and put extra veggies in there and this time there were some tomatoes! I picked two and brought them home where they ripened a bit more.

Tonight we made stir fried egg and tomato, first by heating up some water in a pot and then scoring the bottom of the tomato and removing the core. When the water was boiling, we put the tomatoes in for about a minute or two before taking them out, running them under cold water and peeling the skin.

We then sliced up the tomatoes and heated up the wok. We added oil and when it was hot, put the sliced tomatoes in and then chopped them up a bit more with the wok spatula and added a dash of maple syrup (or sugar). 

Picked up some juicy tomatoes!

In the meantime we cracked four eggs and mixed them together, adding a pinch of salt to the mixture. Then we added the eggs to the wok, and used the spatula to stir the mixture periodically to let the eggs cook a bit until it was incorporated with the tomato, but still a bit runny thanks to the tomato liquid.

The end result was fantastic, as the homegrown tomatoes were sweeter than the ones you usually find in the supermarket, and I had a better handle on cooking the eggs.

Delish!