island bound

Yesterday I took the day off to attend KA's graduation from the University of Victoria. Michael and I got to witness another milestone event in her life. She graduated with her nursing degree.

Being the well organized person that she is, KA had pre-planned our day for us. We miraculously boarded the 7am ferry bound for Vancouver Island. Luckily there were some slow foot passengers who took their sweet time getting onto the ferry as we were the last car allowed on and was squished between a school bus and a cargo freighter. :-) Speed bumps? What are those?!

Ferry food has improved since I've last ridden. The last time I went to the island was when Tanya was looking for a place to rent in Nanaimo. Wow - long time ago! I had forgotten how long the ride was and tried to pass time watching a Crystal Reports training video (for work) on the laptop. "Critical battery failure" prevented me from completing video - which wasn't so bad as I think I had lost interest in the content about 5 minutes into the video.

Once in Victoria we drove down to see my sister office - downtown Victoria. I stopped in to say hi to my manager and the rest of my collegues. Then it was off to the Royal BC Museum to see the Titanic Exhibit and catch the Titanica IMAX show. This year is the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic - hence the exhibit. $36 and 2 hours later we emerged from the museum a bit disappointed. The IMAX show was lacking in content and quality. KA/Mike actually slept through it. Since the 3 of us have seen the Discovery Channel documentary on the Titanic - this IMAX show had bits of irrelavent content (such as the fascination with filming a Russian submarine captain expressing his views on fish and other marine life). We're spoiled by Discovery Channel. The only good thing about it was that before going into the exhibit - we're all given "boarding passes" which is a mini biography of a real passenger on that ship. I got to be Mrs. Strauss...an aristrocat...passenger 1st class! Lol - we had fun with our characters and went around the museum looking at stuff found at the bottom of the ocean. Part of the exhibit were people "in character". Reminds me of the Burnaby Museum tour - also speckled with actors.

The museum took the life out of us so we went to find food. My coworkers recommended the Noodle Box. An asian fusion take out restaurant. Basically everything was packed in those chinese take out boxes. Thinking that it's a western run joint - I ordered my meal mild-to-medium. OMG - I could barely eat it as it was so spicy! Which says alot as I tend to eat pretty spicy food. :-) Well - good thing it was already packed to go - as I took it home.

We got lost on the way to convocation. KA had to pick up her regalia. The ceremony was 2 hours long as the law class was also convocating at the same time. It was great to see KA walk across the stage. We cheered her on. During the ceremony I couldn't help but think that the costumes that the professors, etc wear remind me of the Harry Potter movie! :-) Obviously I haven't been to that many convocations in my life so I don't know what all the colors, hats and stripes mean. After convocation we had snacks then went around to take pictures. There were so many bunnies on UVIC campus. Couldn't help but take some pictures of them as well. All pictures are loaded into my album if you want to look.

my 2nd job

The social club has turned into a full time job lately. Since the induction of the new Board of Executives, I've been running around doing a lot of clean up and administrative things. Since my role now is "secretary" - I'm tasked with a lot of the tracking of information, control of access to documents and overseeing the website. This also includes many more meetings with vendors. The new board members are enthusiastic and want to take the club in a new direction. Their energy is contagious! I missed our first meeting yesterday but published the agenda before hand so in reality didn't miss too much. The best thing about it is that we finally have a team that has chosen to be on the Executive. Not like our last 4 "leaders" - who were coerced to stay on till the end of their term. They were good people but I'm happy to see them go and take their negativity with them! Can't wait for our 2007/2008 Planning Session with this crew.

After work today I went over to PNE to meet with the Special Events Coordinator to go over the plans for the Summer Picnic event and to make a deposit on the location. I was a bit lost (PNE is too big) and felt rushed as being off yesterday meant that I was behind on my real work and had to catch up with that first. Since our time is valuable (as this is all VOLUNTEER work) - most vendor meetings consists of the vendor and just one of the Executive members to represent the Club. I looked a bit harried today and felt sloppy at the meeting. I always like to attend vendor meetings looking crisp, assertive and energetic. It's a business meeting so we should all dress and act the part! Guess I should brush my hair or something for the next vendor meeting! Oh well - at least I'm always prepared paperwork wise. Tomorrow I have a meeting after work at the Bank of Montreal with their financial officer to complete the paper work to get me signing authority to the Club's main accounts. Muahahaa....access to LOTS of money! Just kidding. It would mean that there will be more flexibility in terms of who can issue the corporate cheques. I've been coordinating many of the events to so it makes more sense if I can cut the cheques to the vendors directly without having to go through the treasurer, president or vice president. It's amazing how much the Club runs like a business and not so much as your typical run-of-the-mill-social-club. :-) Doesn't really surprise me though. Due to the magnitude of the membership (nearly 1000 PAYING members) and the amount of vested interest from the members - we HAVE to make sure that everything is legitimate and documented. Lol - plus it keeps the auditors (PriceCoooper Waterhouse) happy at the end of the year when they have to review our statements.

burning the midnight oil

Work and school is getting hectic. I'm feeling a bit burnt on the edges. Monday morning was the usual chaos at work. It's becoming pretty much a routine now. To the point where I don't want to get out of bed on mondays. Having survived the mayhem, I came home, gulp down dinner and attempted to study and do homework. Needless to say I passed out on my books. 2am I wake to find the lights still on and a bad kink in my neck. I turn off the lights and try to sleep for 3 more hours. 3 hours fly by, the alarm rings and I have a pounding headache. Most likely caused by my previous sleeping position. I lay in bed and contemplate my options. I decide that I'm in no mood to drag myself to work so I call in sick. Feeling somewhat guilty for doing so and thinking about the meetings, work items and emails that I will be missing out on - I go back to bed. Woke up in time for lunch, an hour of TV and another attempt at studying for my midterm (which was that night). By this time of day I'm totally lethargic and walking around the house is quite a chore. Panic and anxiety creep in at about 4pm and I decide that studying infront of the TV is counter productive. Especially when I'm tuned into HGTV for all the home renos, etc. I head out to school to cram an hours worth of math into my mind. It's realistically a feeble attempt as with all math topics - you either know it or don't. I opted for winging it. Lol...I'm counting on partial marks for "showing steps" to equations. Having pumped myself full of caffeine, I walk into the exam armed with my calculator and a few basic equations memorized. :-) Ah...quadratic functions are formed from base equations anyhow...how hard can it be right? I wrote the exam and sweated a few times. Crazy word problems, have to get the right equations built first before you can even attempt to solve it. Lol - nothing like erasing a whole page worth of equations and notations when you discover (at the very end) that one of the 3 equations you wrote was incorrect and that it affected all other equations that are built ontop of that one. What did Ashdin use to say? "Show confidence...use pen". Of course he was a math whiz and calculus class came second nature to him. I spent calculus class writing/passing notes to Chris and Josie. :-)

red egg and ginger party

Tonight Chicky and I attended Joshua's red egg and ginger (one-month) party. It was very sweet of Chris/Cindy to invite us as everyone there were close relatives. It was good to see old familiar faces. What a surprise it was to see David and Melissa, who are Chris' cousins. I haven't seen them in years (not since before they got married). They are expecting their first baby in a month! Melissa looks great and is excited about the new baby.

The food was wonderful and I had a chance to talk to Cindy's sisters and their family. They sat with us so we chit chatted in Vietnamese about life in general. Most surprising of all was when Chris' dad pulled out the original "menu" from Chris' own red egg party (30 years ago). Wow - talk about a sentimental family! Lol - I can see where Chris gets it from. His dad even gave us the origin of the red egg and ginger party. As many of us have been to them but don't know what the significance of the egg is for.

Want to know what the Top 10 Symbolic Chinese Foods are?! Click here.

bbq weather

This evening KA hosted a planning bbq for her wedding party so that everyone could meet each other. I got to mooch in on the festivities - ah...the benefits of living at home with them! Just kidding, I was invited too as KA has appointed me the wedding coordinator. I given my own personal schedule (so nicely put together by her) and contact sheet of the "important" people and vendors. The great part is that KA is VERY organized so it's no work at all. She knows me well and put together the package so that I can go nuts in my hyper-organizational ways. Oh - sticky notes are so fun! I'm all about the stationary! This should be a breeze to help organize as KA has a type A personality but won't admit it. :-) I just have to make sure everyone plays their part in the whole grand scheme of things. Lol - she's utilizing my bossy/persuasive personality to her advantage.
The bbq was wonderful. TONS of food (as always) and lots of wine. Another task for tonight was for the wedding party to help in the selection of wine for the wedding reception. One bottle of red and white wine will be left on the tables for the guests to help themselves. KA and I went to the liquor store last night and picked up 6 bottles of wine that were reasonably priced (considering she wants to provide wine for all the guests). The consensus is that most of the guests won't know how to drink wine so it won't matter so much what she serves as long as it's easy to drink. So we ate the chicken, ribs, salads, appetizers, fresh fruits (which was the favorite dish for everyone), desserts and sampled the wines. Only some of KA's friends actually drink - so it turned out to be 6 people who actually had wine. Which meant we would have to drink an equivalent of a bottle each. Doh...dumb asian blood prevents me from having more than one glass before I look drunk. :-) Good thing I'm at home already and can stumble around the house without embarrassing myself too much. It was nice to meet the wedding party and I'm looking forward to seeing them on the BIG day. But till then there are many more parties to plan for and last minute details to put together.
By the way - BBQs are so fun and easier to prepare food for. :-) Chicky and I had our own bbq dinner friday night - just the 2 of us as everyone in my family had things to do or go to. He made himself lamb and I waited for him to cook something as it was taking too long. He still needs help in the bbqing-meat department. While standing around the bbq last night we agreed that if we ever owned a home, a bbq would be one of the first things we'd buy. Not just any size...has to be Chicky size! :-) Mmmm....bbq meat...

along came a mouse

I broke down and bought a new mouse for my laptop. My other Microsoft mouse was dying as the cord was loose or something. There would be moments when I would have to shake it to death in attempts to get the optical light to turn on. This was dangerous as I'd be peering into the light to see why it went off. Lol - and who said I was free from occupational hazards?!

Went to Future Shop. Picked up a Logitech mouse and stood in line to pay for it. The line was so long that I had time to thumb through the weekly flyer. Low and behold there was a wireless mouse on sale. Hahaha...so I ended up getting the MS one for half the price of the Logitech. Sweet. Yah - I know. Not exciting for some of you but for my fellow geeky friends out there - a deal on any kind of tech product makes you smile all day long. I totally love the new mouse - so responsive and convenient. I'm no longer tethered to this laptop! :-)

getting in the mood

My coworker Chris came back from Las Vegas last week in which he won an all expense paid trip to compete in the Help Desk Institute International competition. Nothing like staying at the Mandalay Bay for a week and getting paid for it too! I'm so proud of Chris as he's the winner for Canadian division and is also a coworker. Part of his presentation on what he learned at the conference included a video of the "Evolution of Dance" in which the original performer was at the conference. :-) So cool. I'm not sure if any of you've seen this yet but it's HILARIOUS and inspiring! Click on the link below and see for yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg

seek the peak

Well - it's summer and time to kick off our Grouse Grind 2007 season. Rav and I hit the trail today. Haven't hiked this since last summer so we were weary about how well we'd do. Our goal was to just complete the hike and not worry about time, etc.

This is our 3rd year doing the Grind and I have to commend us on not complaining. Sure - there were moments when I questioned what in the world made me think that hiking on a day that is 26 degrees outside is a smart idea. :-) So we silently grumbled to ourselves and carried on. Each of us encouraged the other to keep going. We took MANY water breaks, leaned against trees and let other hikers pass us by. there was much chit chat on the way up as this is a social activity for Rav and I. We're not the types to leave the other person behind in pursuit of a "decent" time. I was surprised to see the amount of snow still on the trail. Made some parts very wet and slippery. :-) Ah..bad day to wear white shorts.

We emerged from the top still breathing normally, chatting about work and checked our watches. 1 hour 30 mins - not too bad for the first attempt. :-) Hiking Grouse is only fun when it's social - and since Rav and I are both executives of the Social Club - we have much to discuss. In the early days we use to have a large following of coworkers. Over the years people dropped off and lost interest in the weekly hikes. Rav likes to try to convince me to join numerous things as once. He's got the enthusiam to jump on any bandwagon that comes his way. Only problem is that he's notorious for jumping off the bandwagon on a whim. I kept trying to convince him that buying a pass would be a waste of money. He doesn't think so. I happy to hear that Shannon is hiking the Grind now so maybe I'll join her on one of the morning ventures (when it's cool out and not many people are on the mountain).

dim sum time

Today I had dim sum with the girls. it wonderful seeing everyone again and being able to talk to them. It's been a couple of months since we've gotten together to catch up on our lives. We went to our usual place at Metrotown. Tanya, Shannon, Tracey, Nicole, Charlene, Josie, Mary, Brandon and I showed up for this round. I'm not use to ordering by a ticker-card and ending up ordering WAY too much food. It got to the point where the plates were being stacked on top of each other because there was no room at the table. Mental note: let someone else order next time. :-)

After dim sum some of us strolled around the mall to work off some of the food. We went to look at make up, clothes, etc. Kenny came by and joined us for some shopping so that was good. Looking forward to seeing everyone at the next outing. Maybe we'll change it up a bit and do something other than dim sum. :-)

dress shopping

Went dress shopping with my mom today. We're looking for something nice to wear to KA's wedding. The wedding is a month away. Can't believe how fast time is flying by!

So for 6 hours I drove from Coquitlam to Metrotown then to Richmond and then finally back to Metrotown. After numerous dress shops and road rage experiences, mom decides that she didn't see anything "interesting". I nearly shook my head. Being the chauffeur - I lost interest in trying on clothes once we were in Richmond. Goodness - how can anyone drive around in that city without getting road rage?! We witness 2 close-calls for pedestrians being hit by cars backing up in parking lots. Not to mention Number 3 Road is a nightmare. :-) I feel for Chicky as he has to work in that area. Hahaha...

Tonight Chicky and I are going to see Pirates of the Caribbean with The Kids (Carol, Minh, Betty, Hanif, KA and Mike). It's going to be a super long line up but we have strategy. :-) My family has no qualms about sneaking outside food in. We're not so fond of having over priced Burger King meals at the theatre. The movie should be good. So many summer blockbusters coming out. :-) You can bet that Chicky and I will be there for each of their opening nights!

social butterfly

On Friday I had the Social Club's Annual General Meeting. It was a fun event. We had a buffet dinner and dance at this banquet hall close to work. The meeting is pretty official as it's where we introduce the new Board of Executives to the membership. :-) I'm happy to say that there has been a big turn over and that the people who weren't excited about the Club have finally left. The new faces will be an asset as many of the people we recruited have particular skill sets that we desire (hence why we went after some of them!). Hahhaa...I think I can pitch the "join the executive" speech pretty well by now.

I'm looking forward to the 2007/2008 term as "secretary" for the club. Being actively involved in it has opened doors for networking and building on my leadership and organizational skills. :-) I find that I'm quite social and don't have much hesitation when it comes to making a fool of myself infront of large crowds. As you can guess...no one wanted to be the first on the dance floor so the executive turned to me to "get the party started". My feet were tired from wearing stillettos and running around all night making sure that the food was filled up, that the bartender wasn't over charging us, etc. So I laughed, slurped down some wine (liquid courage) and went to the dance floor by myself. Danced a bit then went around the room and pulled strangers to the floor. Eventually I had the whole floor filled. The rest of the night was pretty much like that - walked around the room, asked people to dance and wouldn't allow them to say no to me. Most were good sports about it. Haahaaa...I think people laughed at one point where I was walking across the room with a clipboard (looking for the head waitress to clear up our bill) when a swing song blasted on the speaker. :-) I couldn't resist! So I slauntered onto the dance floor and did my little swing number (alone) and with no shoes on (I had to take off my shoes hours earlier as my feet were killing me). Some old lady thought I was funny so she came onto the floor and twisted with me. The 2 of us danced by ourselves till others joined. I had a blast because the music was from MY era (which is oldies and disco stuff). I could sing to every song so it made it even more fun! Ah...the party ended at midnight and it was just the DJ and I getting our stuff and saying good night to the staff. I was pooped and pumped after 6 hours of dancing. I love Abba music and swing music. I got home and had an urge to watch "So you think you can dance?"

additions to 2008

Congratulations to Nick and Lisa who just got engaged. Nick is Chicky's roommate and has been with Lisa for many years. We're very happy for them. :-) More weddings to attend in 2008!

Nathan is a month old

Nathan is a month old now. How does time fly! We went to his one month party at Chicky's parents clubhouse. Chicky's parents sold their house so we won't have the clubhouse to entertain in much longer.

The party was good - lots of family and friends came out to see Nathan. He was a very good boy too - didn't fuss at all when people took turns holding him. Mary's aunt even baked some cakes for all of us to share in. It was really sweet to see all the kids. Logan, Amy and Avery were there to entertain us as well. May is looking VERY pregnant and is ready to burst. She's due in a couple of weeks so that will be exciting. :-) We commented on how many kids there are at the family get togethers. The great part is that they will all be close in ages (just like their parents are). Can't have too many cousins right?!

I've loaded some pictures from the party to the photo album.

pineapple express

There weren't many people at work today so we had a little fun. It was hawaiian shirt friday. People dressed up in some brightly colored clothing and we celebrated our own ray of sunshine on the cloudy day.

After work I went out to Ambleside Park with Ian and Mike. Mike is a photography enthusiast while Ian just bought a digital SLR. It was cloudy and windy so we didn't stay very long. We saw MANY cute dogs in the park and Mike took some pictures of them. There was one dog owner who was a cute girl that wanted to give her email to us as she wanted copies of the pictures we took of her puppy. Hmmm...great way to meet girls in the park?! Take note boys...you don't need a puppy to attract girls. Just get a camera and take pictures of their dog. Of course it's probably easier to go in a group - that way you don't look like the crazy stalker type. I've put the pictures in my album under May 18th.

not pizza again!!!

This afternoon I attended a seminar on team building hosted by the Help Desk Institute of BC. Title of the seminar? "Not Pizza Again!!! Having Fun with Your Team". As always I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to attend such seminars that are centered around this topic as it's dear to my corporate-heart. :-) I think my manager doesn't mind giving me the afternoon off for this type of seminar because I am actively involved in the social clubs. Beats going to tech seminars! The speaker was great and had interesting ideas on how to mold your team towards functionality. I quite enjoyed the ex cerises (such as drawing a giraffe at the start of the seminar). Hopefully we'll be able to incorporate these ideas into future events or integrate them into the subculture. I was quite pleased that our departmental social club had already accomplished many of the goals and on a corporate social club level we were pretty organized. I met other team leads and discovered that many support centers suffer from the same issues on stress, morale and attrition that we did.

At the end of the day I had a smile on my face and was pumped full of Gung Ho energy. Now to bring that same level of energy and enthusiasm back into the office to conquer those skeptics that stand in my way! I'll even try out some of the games we learned on you guys one day! :-) They make good party games.

Happy Mother's Day!

Sunday afternoon we celebrated Mother's Day with Chicky's family at Kirin Restaurant. Had some dim sum and enjoyed the company of Brandan and Nathan. I haven't seen Nathan since the hospital. He's growing up so quickly! Took a few new pics of him for my web album. His one-month party is this weekend so time is sure flying by!

In the evening my family and Betty's family had a Mother's Day bbq. My family LOVES to bbq and even though the weather was cloudy and gusty - it didn't stop them from standing outside next to the grill. Plus it's easier than trying to get a table for 15 people at any restaurant. It's so fun having a big family - get togethers are so loud and obnoxious. We had some great food, played with Nyah, painted nails, ate some more and played some poker. It was nice to have the whole family relaxing and doing their own things. We're all looking forward to the summer bbq season and are already scoping out potential sites for us to spend our weekends at. I think Cultus Lake will remain a family favorite though. Lots of great memories there and it's so convenient.

After dinner the women centered around the kitchen and did some manicures and pedicures. Betty painted her mom's nails and Carol's nails. I wasn't really interested in painting my nails as they always get chipped at work. Nyah is such a cutie and growing up very quickly too. She's very strong and wants to sit up at 3 months - we think she might be teething too! Hanif told us that he wants to pierce her ears. We all said to wait till she's at least 6 months old. She's at the age where she's starting to be interactive so it's fun to play with her and watch her react to us. I've loaded new pics of her to the album as well. Everyone was here till nearly 1am and I got barely any sleep as I had to work EARLY today. I think it was eating cake and dessert so late at night - we were still on a sugar kick. Only Angelina had to go to bed early as she has school the next day. Oh boy was I tired after having like 3 hours of sleep last night! Time for bed now!

bump - set - spike!

Today I played in a volleyball tournament with some coworkers at the Harry Gerome sports complex in Burnaby (the white dome on Barnet Hwy). The tournament was hosted by some other coworkers and is an event that the Social Club participates in. This is my second year playing and I suck just the same. It's a very casual event - which equates to people just showing up to play. The skill levels range from a couple of players that are international v-ball players to those that have never played before. Our team fell in the middle (or closer to the bottom) of the skill scale. Normally we like to have (social club) "executive member" participation at all events, so that means going to things that we normally wouldn't go to.

The game was from 9am - 3pm with an hour lunch in between. We weren't able to find that many girls to sub in this year (I think those that played last year had no interest in coming back this year). So Robyn and I groaned at the thought of having to play 6 hours straight. Luckily one of the guys brought his girlfriend and she sub in for us. Rules dictated that there has to be 2 girls on the court at all times. :-) Lets just say we're the weakest link in our team. We showed great sportmanship though. Many teams slaughtered us and we went from playing on the blue courts to being sent to the courts on the outside of the main arena. :-) At one point I took a spike in the face. Pro: I reacted fast enough to turn my head slightly and not get it straight in the face. Con: I thought my face had caved in and was crying opening from the shock and pain. That's right - pain over came any feelings of hesitation or dignity for not crying in public. The good thing was that the spike came off of one of our blocker's finger tips so it wasn't at FULL speed. Ah...silly me...thought for sure that it was blocked. In any event the guy who did it felt totally bad as everyone rushed over to see if I had broken my nose, etc. I tried to croak out an "I'm OK" but couldn't really get past the gasps and tears. Lol...I'm a wimp but it BURNED like hell and I couldn't open one eye. As I sat on the bench with my ice pack on my face, I wondered if I would have a black eye for Mother's Day. How lovely that would have been. On the bright side though...the other team felt bad so they restrained from spiking and resorted to tipping (which is equally hard to defend against). I sat out the rest of the game but was back on the court for the next round. Can't say I'm not a trooper!

We were happy to have played against really good players though as it was cool how they did some of their moves and many of them astonished me with their vertical reach (for shorter people). I'm quite impressed with those players that can rush forward for a power spike and at the last second turn their arm and send the ball cross court to the other side. :-) We anticipate cross court spikes but are always surprised by tips or ones where they change the direction of ball as they hit it. I think I'll let Chicky play the competitive volleyball. I'm alright with messing around with beach v-ball with friends.

Here we are watching the top 2 teams in the tournament battling it out. Their teams consisted mostly of league players. I'm proud to say that one of my coworkers in my department plays on this team. He's like 5'2 but can jump straight up (in dress shoes and work clothes) and reach a bit over a foot more than his height. He attributes it to isometric training. It was great watching those games (the teams on the blue courts) as the score is so much closer and the games are more intense. We had time to kill in between games because the really good teams would play 2 games against us in like 10-15 minutes. Kill us swiftly instead of dragging out the pain. Oh well...more time to watch and recuperate between games.

radical expressions

"log 8 in base 2 is 3...cause 2 cubed is 8 you see..."
(only Tanya will find this funny)

Tonight was the first day of class. It's been a long day. I left the house at 5:45am enroute to work (normal time) and didn't come back home till 10pm (after school). Business mathematics...hmm...what can I say...boring content! :-) I groaned to myself when the instructor walked in as I recognized her cheery "good evening everyone" sing-song-voice. I've had her before - she's flaky. She didn't get the response that she wanted so we had to practice saying "good evening" to her until she felt that we were "enthusiastic" enough. Thus begins the first hour of introductions. We went over the usual course schedule, plagiarism rules and exam schedule. To make things interesting - she decides that in order to help us understand if we should be in her class or not - she wants to "pretest" us. She does realize that this course is a prerequisite for all Business students - so they have no choice about attendance.

Yikes...I didn't bring a calculator. She pipes in that it's multiple choice and that you shouldn't need a calculator. I shake my head and wonder how I'd do at multiple-guess. Don't get me wrong - Laurel is a good teacher but she's more suited for the elementary school level. She speaks to us as if we're kids - and some of us in the class were - but there are still others (like myself) who are probably as old (if not older) than she is. Trying to stay positive I turn to the exam and blink a couple of times. :-) It's an array of algebra, trig and calculus questions. No calculator needed eh?! I couldn't do it - had to pull out my cell phone and try to fumble with the calculator on it. Argh those tiny keys are so annoying when you're in a rush. In the end I didn't do to badly and scored high enough to not have to question my mathematical abilities.

Later on in the night when the memories of trig equations set to bible songs started flowing from my memories - I enjoyed the class and remembered that at one time (long time ago in a galaxy far far away) I actually LOVED math and even took it up to division 3 courses at SFU. I even met some of my now long-time friends through math/calculus courses at SFU. :-) How far I've wandered away from math and the sciences to end up back where I started.

On another note - I ran into Anna on the way out of class tonight. She was one of the students renting from us. Both Anna and Crystal moved out at the end of April. So the suite downstairs is empty. It's weird not having them around and the basement is so scary now! The house is too big and empty during the day and when the family is out. At least there will always be Muimui around to make noise.

chicago

Yesterday afternoon Chicky took me to see Chicago (the musical). It was playing at the The Centre. He was really sweet and surprised me with the tickets Friday night. :-) A late birthday present.

We had lunch at Tan Popo on Denman before going over the theatre. I really like musicals, plays, etc so that was a sweet surprise. I thought the musical was good and with each scene, I couldn't help but remember the movie that came out of this play. :-) After 3 hours of song and dance, both Chicky and I were tired. Chicky has strep throat so he's been on drugs for a week now and I had another long week of sleep deprivation. It was quite a feat for him to stay conscious throughout the musical. After the play we headed back to his place. I passed out for 3 hours then woke up to find out it was dark. Chicky wanted to watch Spiderman so we went to the theatre to try to catch a late showing. Only one left was an 11:15pm show. So late! But we saw it anyways. Chicky had to work on Sunday so he must have been tired. Spiderman 3 was a disappointment - maybe there was so much hype about it that I expected more. Oh well...there's still the "summer block busters" like Transformers to look forward to!

another face

So I've joined yet another online network (FaceBook). I said I'd stay away but succumbed to peer pressure. :-) Actually - I partly joined because Shannon intrigued me with the idea and because Kinisky posts all his images to this site. I like to look at what friends are taking pictures of. Now that I've got a profile created, I'm starting to peruse the other features on the site. I went to check out the various groups that my FaceBook buddies have joined. Some are serious while others are just for fun. Tanya belongs to the "It's called a BunnyHug and always will be!!!" group. After seeing some pictures and reading some of the discussions - it warmed my heart to know that prairie folk are still weird as ever. Ah - I miss seeing blue skies, fields of wheat, meteor showers, Northern Lights and tornado funnels. :-) Well...not necessarily the tornadoes...

TGIF

After a long week of work and going to the gym with Tracey a couple of times - it was nice to have dinner with the girls tonight. I like the fact that we're pretty flexible and can pull together a dinner meeting with only a half day's notice. :-)

We went back to Green Basil near Metrotown. The girls and I like the location as the food is great and the service is outstanding (also helps that I know the some of the staff). It was Tracey, Shannon and I tonight. Tracey and I indulged in a bit of retail therapy at Metrotown before having dinner. :-) Tracey is looking for the perfect pair of shoes to go with her wedding dress. I cringe when I see how high she wants the heels to be. Yikes! At dinner we giggled, sighed and groaned about the things that are going on in our lives. It was nice to touch bases with them in a more intimate environment. The food was wonderful as usual. I was a bit thrown off when one of the waitresses asked me if we wanted to order dessert. The 3 of us looked at each other awkwardly. :-) Thank goodness my buddy came over with 3 bowls of ice cream (on the house). It's funny, the icecream is always a "nice" gesture but I'm so use to it now that I EXPECT it with every meal! Lol...till next time!

running out of time

The last 2 days KA has been talking about running the Scotiabank Half Marathon and encouraging me to do it as well. It sparked my interest to the point that I had to spam some of the girls to see if they could be peer pressured into doing it as well. You see...I'm a lemming...I may not look like one at times but I am one. I need others to run off the cliff with me.

Truthfully - now that I've had a full day to think about it - the idea scares the crap out of me! I haven't run a real race in my life. The closest I come to exercising is doing the MS Bike Tour each year. Shannon has been pondering the idea as well. So much so that she even wrote about it in her own blog! :-) Josie suggested that we try a 10km run first before committing to a 21km one. She's interested in the Pacific Spirit Run. But that one is in a couple of weeks - no time to train (or pretend to train). It's just a "get-there-and-run" event.

There are so many pros to doing this. Pros included increased overall fitness, a sense of accomplishment and being able to say "I ran a half marathon ONCE". One of those things that you can check off of your "to-do" lists. I love lists. So why hesitate? I'm plagued by cons such as time commitment required for training, lack of enthusiasm as time passes (I tend to adopt hobbies in phases), possibility of injury and fear of failure. :-) Maybe I'll roll it around in my mind for a few more days....

give life

So I got my new drivers license in the mail today. The picture didn't turn out as bad as I thought it would. :-) Yah! Included in the package was a form to become an organ donor. I'm pretty sure I registered to be one a long time ago but I filled out this new card anyways (just in case). I'm all for giving others what I don't need when I pass away. Plus they make it so convenient for you...easy to fill in card, prepaid envelope...how much simpler can it get?!

birthday bashes

On Thursday last week I celebrated my 30th birthday. To my surprise and amusement, Robyn had decorated my cubicle so that everyone walking by knew it was my birthday and how old I was turning. :-) She's such a sweetie! We went out for lunch with some coworkers to celebrate. That night was pretty quiet. I had dinner with my parents then rushed to the mall to get my drivers license renewed. My 5 years was up and it was time for another picture. Thank goodness the Expressways are open till 8pm - otherwise it would have been the WestCoast Express for me the next day. I still have a paper interim license - waiting for the real card to be mailed out.

On Friday the celebrations continue. Robyn organized a dinner/drinking affair down at the Keg downtown. I had a delicious meal and drank way too much. Each of my coworkers bought me a drink. I'm a cheap drunk so just sniffing liquour gets me all red and blotchy. :-) Needless to say I wasn't able to drive home and had to call Chicky to my rescue. By that time I had emptied my tummy into the toilet and was feeling much better. We went back to Chicky's place where I filled up on some delicious KFC and watched this strange Japanese movie (Shinobi). I wasn't able to stay up for the second movie and crashed till the next morning.

Saturday was the big bbq. Chicky and I got up as early as I could manage (luckily there wasn't a hangover involved). Went out to Costco and filled up on groceries. I went home, cleaned the house and prepared some food for the guests. It was so nice seeing everyone as I missed the girls. Haven't seen you guys in such a long time! The hockey game was on and everyone seemed to have a good time mingling and munching on food. Nyah, Logan, Katarina and Joshua came to the party as well. They were the big hits! It was fun BBQing and I'm hoping to do more of it when the weather gets better. I've posted some of the pictures to my album.

07109

Kim's blog, Julian date 07109. As I leave the comforts of being 20-something and embark on the dirty thirties, I find time to reflect on what I have accomplished. I'm happy to say that I've done many different things, had good and bad experiences that made me grow as a person and cultivated friendships that will last a lifetime. My continuing mission: To explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before.

On this day: Aisumasen (I'm Sorry) Day created as a day of reconciliation in 2005 for all who want atone and seek forgiveness; allowing us to put "the past in the past" and rather than letting them fester and effect the future. It was inspired by John Lennon's song by the same title.

The Syringa Tree

"The deeply evocative story of an abiding love between two families, one black and one white, and the two children that are born into their shared household in the early 1960s South Africa.."

On Wednesday night Tanya invited me to see The Syringa Tree at the Vancouver Playhouse. The show was intense and spectacular. I was surprised to find out that there was only one actress playing many characters. I was hesitant about what the performance would be like. When I saw the simple set (a swing) I was even more worried. I was blown away by her performance though. The character transitions were very smooth and the pace of the story was great. KA says I enjoyed it because I love audiobooks and this was in a sense an elaborate audiobook! Thank you Tanya for sharing the experience with me!

little boys

What are little boys made of?
Snips and snails, and puppy dogs tails
That's what little boys are made of!

Congratulations to Mary & Peter who are the proud parents of Nathan. Born April 17th at 5:57am. Weighing in at 6lbs 6ozs. Both mom and baby are doing well and are expected to be released from the hospital tomorrow.

first birthdays

First steps, first words, first birthdays - these are just some of the milestones that new parents get to look forward to. On the weekend we were invited to celebrate Katarina's 1st birthday. It was a wonderful party - in good old Lozada tradition (LOTS of food and family). I think I stuffed myself on all of Josie's mom's homemade dishes. Mmm...spring rolls!

Toshiki took many good pictures so you can view them here.

consolidating

For a while I didn't blog and now I'm posting like crazy tonight! Lol...must be a full moon.

2007 has been a year full of new babies. Many of the new mommies have asked me for photos of the other kids in the group. I've decided to create a shared album in which we can all enjoy images of the kids. You'll find the new album under my new link on the left hand side. This will consolidate all the pictures I have of the kids and give you a one-stop-glance of them (instead of visiting each blog site to see pics). Plus it's helpful for those that don't blog but want to share their beautiful babes with us.

picture this

I know everyone has been asking to see some pictures from the trip and I really want to show you guys too. But the primary reason I haven't been able to is that I wasn't able to upload the pictures into Blogger as they are way too big and too many. I've encountered some difficulty finding a photo sharing site that will allow me to load 3GB+ worth of images. That's a lot of pics. On top of that each time I see a button that says "sign up now" - I want to turn the other way. :-) I have too many sign in ids and passwords. So far I've only signed up for the Google photo sharing site as it makes sense (Blogger is managed by Google and so is my Calendar). I've linked the photo album to my photo blog as well. It only has 1GB of space so I've only chosen a few images to load - not that many of food.

Check out the pics from Malaysia here.

number crunchers

Did you guys ever play that game in school? It was a dorky computer game where a pacman like creature went around and ate fractions. Why am I talking about this? Oh - I just committed myself to another semester at Douglas College. Back to school time again. I feel like I'm a perpetual student. Realistically I never stop feeling like it. The schooling goes on and on without any light at the end of this academic tunnel. So what have we committed ourselves to for the next 3 months? Business Mathmatics. What does that have to do with anything I'm doing at work? ZIP. Why in the world would I take it? Because I have to (part of my program). In other academic news - I've been peer pressured into signing up for programming courses through work. I had my Performance Review last month. Once a year we get to "discuss" with our managers and supervisors on our work performance for the whole year, write a pretty little report and plan for my goals and expectations for the coming year. The underlying emphasis I've been getting is that they want me to UP my technical abilities. Unfortunately I don't score as well in that area. Boohoo...lol...just kidding - doesn't hurt my feelings as it's not shocking news. As you move up the ranks of being an analyst - the expectation is that you'll also be more technical than the junior staff (duh!). So 2007/2008 is dedicated to "training". Which equates to numerous programming and technical courses. I'm kind of looking forward to it (operative word here is "kind of"). I like to learn new things and if they're willing to pay for it then it's just topping on my cake!

Herman the German Giant

So my sister sent me an Happy Easter email the other day about Herman the German Giant. I'm intrigued by the picture and follow the link. Turns out it's about a giant breed of bunnies. That's right folks - that picture has not been digitally enhanced! Isn't he so cuddly looking? I'm sure I'd throw out my back trying to hug him - that or have him bite me - but he's so interesting looking that I want to touch him!

Right about now you're probably thinking to yourself: "I don't really care". :-) But I do! Lol - I'm always interested in naturally oddities. Which includes but is not limited to: medical miracles, new things discovered in space, people who have unique gifts, new inventions or gadgets (of course!) and anything else that has a "cool" or "gross" factor. As you can tell I was one of those little kids who pulled bugs limbs apart because I wanted to see what color their blood. Poor bugs - they were my favorite test subjects. :-) That's one thing we had lots of in Saskatoon - bugs. That and there wasn't that many things to do while growing up on the Prairies except for torturing insects - or maybe that was just me...

I'm a BIG fan of the Discovery Channel though. It's right up there with YTV and the Cartoon Network. :-) Can't live without my cartoons either. What is your favorite TV channel? Or do you even watch TV at all?

happy Easter

My family is doing Easter dinner today. Since it's Monday and everyone had to go back to work - except for me - I was in charge of cooking the big meal. So early this morning I went out to Save On Foods, pick up a butterball turkey (my favorite kind) and some other food. Came home and started thinking about what to make. The turkey was still frozen so that was a pain in the ass - had to run hot water over it for awhile for it to thaw out enough so that I could remove the innards. After some thought I started making garlic mash potatoes (which took some time as the potatoes had to boil), fried rice (mostly for lunch tomorrow), snow peas, garlic bread and a dip. Carol and them came over near dinner time and brought some food - so now we're ready to feast! Mmmm...so good. Now it's just a matter of waiting for KA/Mike to come home from the states so that we can eat. Where are those guys?!

changed the look

I was bored tonight so I changed the look of the blog. It's been a year since I've made any major changes to the layout. The new interface is much easier to navigate through - thus making the change seamless. I must say - these blog sites are making it easier and easier for the computer-unsavy-types to maintain blogs as well.

catching up

I've survived the first week back to work. I walked in on Monday to a room bustling with chatter from the call agents. It was nice to see everyone. I had some problems remembering what my passwords were (my only excuse is that I have way too many systems with passwords) and had to get them reset by my coworker. I soon found myself overwhelmed with the amount of emails in my Inbox. 600 emails - I cringed and decided that I would deal with them after I checked in with my supervisor. I then discovered that they had booked me to train a co-op student for that morning. That wasn't fair as was barely back and already the tasks were piling up. I grumbled and went back to my desk to try to look at the emails. Email has always been and will always be the greatest challenge at work. Trying to manage the amount is always daunting. Shifting through stuff that HAVE to be read and stuff that you can just skim is not fun. Good thing we have all kinds of ways to tag emails for importance. Make it easier for me to mass delete stuff! So as of now I only have 109 left to address. Blah - the only drawback of going on holidays...coming home to "email-jail".

The rest of the week was hectic. Between training the new person, attending meetings and catching up on my normal work, I found myself at the office for nearly 11 hours per night. Of course that's not paid time either. The good and bad thing about driving - people know you're not in a rush to catch a train so they want your attention for "just a sec" - which is never a "sec". But some of that time was also dedicated to catching up on Social Club work. Some of my thoughtful colleagues gave my name to "adventure" companies while I was gone. So now I'm being bombarded with reps who want to sell me this outdoor package or that package. They all sound like fun programs to buy into but nothing can be done till I get a handle on who will be part of the new executive. I wish the Club would just sign off on some of the proposed events and let me get on with other club duties. :-) I'm getting frustrated with the bureaucracy of it all. I'm so happy that we have a 4 day long weekend. I need a break from work! Lol - I think it's just a matter of catching up. I don't like having so many things uncompleted - makes me tense.

baby Clayton

Congratulations to Jane and Danny who gave birth to their son Clayton on March 6th. Wishing your family all the best in the coming months.

Easter Bunny time

On Sunday the Social club hosted it's annual Easter Egg Hunt. We held it at head office this year because Stanley Park is out of commission. A lot of work went into planning for this event and I'm happy it turned out well.

I woke up early, had a coffee and drove to work. We had to set up the tables, etc for the kids. Robyn took charge of the event and I just had to take pictures and direct people to the right places. One of our colleagues was the Easter Bunny. She was sweating in the costume but the majority of the kids loved it. Only a few of the really young ones were freaked out by a giant rabbit. I finally put the pictures together tonight to bring to work so that it can posted to the website.

home sweet home

We arrived back in Vancouver on Thursday afternoon. The 16 hour flight was long and I didn't get much sleep due to a whiny child that sat infront of us. The little boy didn't sleep very much and whined for about 10 hours of the 16. So brutal - many of the passengers wanted him taken off the plane. They compromised and moved the father and son to the back of the plane where the flight attendants sit. We could still hear him...oh well - some kids just can't be calmed. :-) I kept telling Chicky that they should drug the kid - it'd be good for him(as he was exhausted) and the rest of us.

Since coming home, I've enjoyed the small things that home offers. Such as a nice shower and western food. :-) First thing I ate once back was a good Club House sandwich. Mmm...so good! It's always nice to come home to familiarities after a month of living out of a suitcase.

Today we worked on sorting through the enormous amount of pictures. After finishing - we had 3GB worth of images that were ready to be sent to FutureShop to print. I'm looking forward to putting together the photo album/scrapbook.

The weekend is almost over and I'm sort of looking forward to the predictability of work on Monday. Tomorrow morning I have to attend the Social Club's Easter Egg Hunt event. :-) Even though I've been on vacation - my social club responsibilities didn't go on hiatus. Good thing that Robyn has been a wonderful organizer and my only job for the event is to take pictures. I'm happy with the Club's executive and am looking forward to the 2008 Executive Election. Hopefully we'll be able to recruit more assertive members - we need more "doers" than "talkers". I've been told that I've been nominated as president. I'm flattered but am hesitant about taking on that role - even MORE work involved. :-)

little Joshua

Congratulations to Chris and Cindy - they are the proud parents of Joshua Cameron Lee. Born last Saturday and weighing in at 6lbs 4Oz. We wish them the very best and hope to see Joshua in person in the next few days.

For pictures - visit Chris' site at http://cindyandchrislee.blogspot.com/

There and back

Well the last couple of days Chicky and I had about 4 hrs of sleep each night. It all started with a planned trip to Genting Highlands. Chicky accidentilly mentioned taking a trip up there to his old uncle who doesn't speak very much english. He goes up there on a regular basis to gamble etc so he insisted on taking us up. Needless to say the ride with the uncle was pretty scary. Driving in Malaysia is hair raising on a good day. Throw in an old man who runs reds and almost takes peoples side mirrors off their cars = one heck of a scary ride.

The trip to Genting Highlands required a pickup at 7:30am and a bus to the base of the mountain and then a cable car up to the casino/theme park/hotel. It's definately no Vegas. The theme park for Genting Highland is split into an outside section and an inside section. You have to buy a ride pass for each section or buy a package that includes both. Not learning from our past experiences we bought a package that allowed us to ride on rides in both sections.

The first thing we noticed is that they made the seats for these rides to fit tiny asian people. Whenever Chicky got into a ride he dwarfed the seats and was almost to big to fit into them. There were a few rides that he couldn't go on because they had a maximum weight of 70kg and well Chicky definately is 70+kg

We didn't think we could spend all day at the theme park but with all the lineups and waiting we didn't leave the park till around 4:30pm. We decided to try to find our way back to his cousins place ourselves. In order to get from the top of Genting Highlands to where we were staying we needed to

• take a cable car down (20 min)
• Catch a bus to an LRT (Light Rail Train) station (1hrs)
• take the LRT to KL Sentral to catch a komuter train (30 min)
• Take the komuter (how the malays spell it) train to Serdang station (45min)
• Walk from the komuter train station to the apartments (15min).

movie time

Chicky and I spent the day watching movies at Fong's place. Kenny has "connections" and therefore hundreds of DVD rips. Including stuff that hasn't been released in the theatres. So cool. It's been raining hard so we can't go anywhere.

We did go to a theatre in KL though. At Mines Plaza. Cost us $3 each to watch the movie 300. They have assigned seating here. We weren't aware of this so we came early to buy tickets for the 10:30pm show. It was sold out except for the front row seats. So we bought seats for the midnight show. This was distressing afterwards when we were wandering around the mall area at 2am (when the show was over) and there were no taxis to be found. We had to call Chicky's dad to arrange for a cousin to come pick us up.

They have arranged seating for movie theatres but not for commuter flights. The trip to Langkawi and Penang proved to be a battle of wits as we rush to get on the plane first to get the "good" seats. :-) It's a silly system - Asia Air should assign seat numbers to the tickets they sell. Would make life so much better for everyone.

hawker stalls

Just because a majority of my pictures are of food experiences in Malaysia. I have to write a quick note about what we've eaten so far. The most exotic would have to be sting ray. 90% of the time we eat at the hawker stalls. Which is basically street food. Reminds me of Vietnam. But a bit different because the vendors tend to hover in one building and then you walk around, point at what you want then go back to your table. The tables usually have numbers on them. When the food comes - you pay for it on the spot. We've discovered that everything is "cash only" over here. Chicky has been engorging himself in satay and char keow teo. I'm pretty easy and eat whatever is being served.

Vacationing wouldn't be complete without a taste of MacDonalds! Yes - I travelled half way around the world for some rotten-ronnies. We actually had our first meal in Singapore at this posh mall. We couldn't afford the clothes so we thought we'd eat cheap. The meals are so cute over here...so small and SPICY. Mmmm....spicy McChicken meal. Unfortunately we've had McDonald's on a few more occasions since then.

KFC is really big over here. Maybe it's an asian thing. The restaurants are usually large and elaborate. The prices are horrendous though - equivalent to back home. I guess that's why it's almost like "fine dining" over here....who can afford to eat like that?! I even say a KFC glass building...thought it was a car showroom or something like that (by how nice it looked) but then the blazing red KFC letters spoiled it.

Penang!!!

Sigh...Langkawi was a lot of fun and it was time to head to Penang. We got on this boat that was going to take us to Penang. During the voyage it rained pretty hard and I guess there was a leak somewhere because water was dripping on Chicky from the ceiling above his seat.

We made it to Penang and was assaulted by Taxi drivers when we left the terminal. We finally agreed to take up the services of this one gent who would end up being our tour guide for 8hrs on another day.

The place we stayed at is um...not worth writing about. Penang is quite a bit larger then Langkawi. We spent the next 2 nights shopping at the night market they setup on the sidewalks along the street our hotel was on. One night there was this huge thunder, lightening, rain storm and Chicky and I left our rooms to try to snap some shots of the sheets of rain that was coming down. The hallways to our rooms is open and not enclosed so the wind was howling through the corridors. Next to our rooms was a room that had a broken door that looked like someone had kicked in. It was creepy looking and held closed by some wires and a latch with a pad lock on it. The wind broke the door more and it opened on it's own as Chicky and I was standing there trying to take pictures. It was creepy with the lightening and wind and darkness that we decided it was too creepy to stand out here anymore.

Chicky's dad is a theif

I forgot to mention that Chicky's dad is a major theif. During our stay at Langkawi he walked away with 2 coffee shop mugs. One was from Coffee Bean and another was a Starbucks mug!

Langkawi - Motorcycle (scooter) Adventure

The snorkeling adventure was not the end of our day. We got back to the hotel and after a dip in the pool decided to try to rent what they call a motorcycle but it's actually a large scooter. By the time we got the scooter and I had Chicky demonstrate that he wouldn't crash it was about 6:30pm. I jumped on with my skirt hiked up and we went bombing around. We went to ty to find a place called The Seven Wells. The Seven Wells is at the top of this really steep road and Chicky tried to get us up the hill but the motorcycle couldn't get our heavy backsides up the hill. I got off and Chicky turned the bike around to go back down the hill. I'm standing around watching these monkeys in the middle of the street with some locals watching us, when all of a sudden I hear this scary giggling and whinning of an engine. I look up in time to see Chicky with the throttle pinned roaring past me up the hill. I'm a little confused and one of the locals yelled at me..."He don't love you".

For dinner we didn't know where to eat or how to get there. So we just jumped on the motorcycle and rode around. First thing to remember is don't open your mouth you'll get a mouth full of bugs, second of all Chicky likes to ride fast. More then once I thought I was going to get thrown off the motorcycle and it's not fun when cars pass you on the street!! We finally ended up on this strip where all the tourist eat and chose an eating establishment had only tourists. There was a nice live band of 2 people.

After we ate it was time to head home. It's about 9:30pm and very dark. The motorcycle had the worst set of lights and there were round-abouts that didn't have any lights to show us the exits so we drove around and around a few round-abouts. Needless to say we got lost and there were more then a few occasions where we drove up and down the same streets. It's a good thing that Langkawi is a small island. 2hrs later we finally find our way back to the hotel. YAH us...!

Pulau Langkawi

We went on a 3 day retreat to a spa resort on Langkawi island. I was so impressed with the hotel and loved the bathroom. Ah...a "normal" shower/toilet. :-) We shared a hut with Chicky's parents, aunt and cousin. The hut was in a rain forest and there were monkey's everywhere. We were warned not to keep our doors or windows open unattended as we'd get "visitors". :-) More photo opportunities!

During our stay - Chicky and I managed to get a day away from the family. This was a nice break for me as we haven't done anything by ourselves since our first day in Singapore. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy Chicky's family but wanted to just spend at least one day in 3 weeks by ourselves. So we booked a snorkeling tour. There were 2 packages available - we chose the cheaper one as the tour guide said they only differed in type of boat you get to ride on and food that you'd eat.

They took us to a marine park which is about 2hrs away from the main island. There we put on our life jackets and waited for instructions. The dive master said that there was a black tip reef shark seen the water and to not bother it. That prompted me to want to stay a shore. Chicky was delighted and wanted to take pictures. We didn't have an underwater camera. So we a paid ridiculous price for one (sold by the tour boat of course). Then the dive master announces that there's a large (1-2 meter) baracuda swimming around us as well. Great...shark AND baracuda. There were so many coral fish though! I think it was because so many people were throwing food into the water. Off the pier they would hover and wait for tourists to throw things into the water for them. Chicky was super excited about this and didn't want to wait any longer.

We headed for the beach with our snorkeling gear. There was so many fish that they were near the shore as well. I walked in with my fins and stood in knee deep water as I adjusted my snorkel and prepared myself mental to go into the same water as the shark. Then something bit my toes! I squealed in surprise. Some of the fish wanted to take a taste test out of my toes. I think it's because they are painted and probably look yummy. We went in deeper. More fish came by to take bites out of us. At first it was unnerving but then we got use to getting nipped every now and then.

Swimming out farther I was looking at the schools of LARGE rock cod when Chicky pulls on my life jackets and points to my left. I look over and nearly swallowed down a mouth full of salt water. There was a shark! Not very big..maybe 2 feet long. But very close! Naturally I reacted by trying to swim AWAY from it. Chicky went after it trying to take pictures. After a while we got out of the water for some lunch. A few minutes later the guides were pointing at the water and throwing food into it. SHARK they yelled! I don't know about you but when someone yells shark I stay away from the water, however Chicky grabbed his snorkel gear and told me to jump in. We swam into the mess of fish that was gorging on all the food. The baracuda was slinking around and came really close to Chicky as he tried to take pictures of it. All of a sudden a large dark shape swam by under our feet. It was another shark accept bigger (about 2 meters). OK...time to surface and voice my paranoia. We were already getting nibbled by the fish and then all of a sudden we feel something hitting us. The tourist were throwing food AT us with the shark and baracuda in the water. I think they wanted to see some one get eaten. Chicky swam down and grabbed a chicken leg bone and was feeding the fish. They swarmed him and I got some pictures off. He then handed me the bone and I got swarmed. In the end the day was very enjoyable. The best thing of all was the fact that Chicky was too much of a man to wear a t-shirt or put on sunblock (in his defence it was cloudy and no sun was really out). His back was so red I laughed at him for days and whenever he got out of hand I would slap him on his back.

reflexology

Day 2 in KL - Chicky's mom suggested that we go get massaged because it would relax us. So off we went to the massage parlour near the apartment. They do reflexology. His mom said it would hurt at first but then feel good. So I let Chicky be the guinea pig. He was wincing in pain the whole time. I took some funny pictures. I passed on the reflexology but got a head/neck/back massage instead. Asian massages are similar. A lot of banging against your back, hair pulling and slapping. Not "relaxing" either. After both of us got tortured - we had to pay for our pain. :-) Good thing that it didn't cost too much.

arriving in KL

Greetings from Kuala Lumpur! Sorry I haven't been able to post lately. We're staying with Chicky's family in KL. There's a dial up connection but that means that the phone will be out of commission if I'm surfing the net.

I know all of you have been looking forward to the pictures - haven't been able to load them as they are too large (remember...my camera shoots in 10MB). We've taken over 1000 pics so far and still counting. There's going to be a lot of sorting to do when we get home. We miss everyone though!

As of the last post - we left Singapore bound for KL via train. The idea was novel at first but I don't recommend it unless you've never travelled by train before. The train was delayed by an hour. The duration was 7 hours. The country side view blurred together after awhile. The bathrooms aren't as scary anymore - getting use to the squat toilets. The train was old and part of it was coming apart (such as the sections that linked the individual cars to each other). Chicky was thrown around while attempting to move between cars. We read our books and took pictures to pass time. Chicky totally scared me at one point as we had stopped off at another station to pick up/drop off passengers. There was a sign that was funny and I wanted him to take a picture it from the platform. So off he went...then the train started moving and he wasn't back yet. I stood up and frantically looked around and didn't see him. I thought I was going to head to KL on my own and he would be left in the middle of nowhere with just a camera.

The interesting thing about train travel is that you go through Malaysia immigration at the train station - get your "welcome to KL" stamp. After a hour or so on the train - you get off and go through Singapore immigration and get your "departure" stamp. So backwards...

KL is just as hot as Singapore. The drivers are pretty scary too. Unlike Singapore - we're traveling with Chicky's family everywhere via car. Met a lot of Chicky's relatives. Good thing is some of them speak english. But most of the time everyone speaks chinese and I just sit around and wait for someone to tell me what's going on.

We're staying with Fong's family. The 5 of us share the apartment. Chicky and I have been sharing a single bed - it's interesting as we're both big people. Everyday the relatives come over early to the apartment and eat breakfast, talk, do chores, etc. Chicky discovered that one of his cousin is into movies (he's got so many binders with burned movies) - so he's latched onto the TV now.

Singapore - Day 3

Got up this morning. Euston has already left for work. Chicky and I looked at the washer and dryer and figure we should do some laundry while the opportunity presents itself. We try to decipher the symbols. My clothes turned out bad - mixed colors and whites. Now my shorts are tainted blue. Chicky is watching anime as I write this. We have to walk to the grocery store, buy some food for lunch and the trip on the train. Train leaves at noon so we have to be out of the apartment by then. I think we'll cab it - too much luggage for the MRT.

Time to go to find some food. I don't know if our next destination will have internet. So adieu to till. Miss you guys tons!

Singapore - Day 2

Got up later today. Wasn't as gung ho about having breakfast. Today's menu was baked beans, fried rice, white sausages, spam and scrambled eggs. The eggs were grey in color - not light grey....dark grey...worthy of a picture. We only booked 2 days at the hotel so we had to check out at noon. I went back to bed after breakfast as my pounding headache and stuffy nose was killing me. I got up, packed and headed out. Today's agenda included a tour of Sentosa Island. But first we had to visit Orchard Road to get more money.

Thus begins our afternoon of misadventures. It took us a few wrong turns to find the cable cars that would take us to the island. We didn't want to take the train over - wanted an adventure. Upon arriving - we bought a packaged tour as there was enough time to see Underwater World, Butterfly and Insect World, the Jewel Box, etc. Paid $48/person for this tour. We got in the wrong line up for the cable cars. No problem there - the engineer had us hop between moving cars, slip through then engineering rooms and out the other side, past some more moving cars and into the right line. Chicky laughed as this kind of running around wouldn't be "ok" with the WCB folks in Vancouver. We went up to the Jewel Box on Faber Mountain - turned out to be a lookout point with a big trinket store. The cable car ride was similar to the one at Grouse Mountain. Not impressed. Back to the main cable station.

We went on a cable car over water. I was a bit freaked so I sat in the middle and didn't look down. :-) Chicky took pictures. In his excitement - he left his sunglasses in the cable car as we left. Duh - he just bought them prior to leaving for our vacation -he was sad.

Underwater World was great. Got to pet creatures of the sea. Chicky pretended to feed some sting rays by putting his hand near the surface of the water. He jumped when they swam towards him and tried to give him a friendly lick. I took some pictures of that - but not of his expression - it was priceless. He was scared - so he did it again. Always pulling away when a big ray would come out of the water and see if there's anything in his hand as he's pulling away. :-) I think the Vancouver Aquarium should have a sting ray petting pool. The starfish one is a bit boring. Though I can see the fear from some kids if this was allowed. Lots of big fish, sharks, crustasians, etc. Lots of picture taking as well.

From UnderWater World we only had an hour left before having to meet with Euston - Chicky's cousin. We lined up but the line was so long - what was going on? Luckily for me - there were 2 vietnamese tour groups infront of us. I listened to the kafuffle and translated it back to Chicky. There was a car accident on the main road to the attractions. So the buses couldn't get through. The island is fairly large so each attraction is accessible by bus.

Disappointed we didn't know what to do. We've already wasted half our money by not being able to see 3 of the 5 exhibits. Chicky decides we'll walk it back to the main entrance as it's easier than waiting for them to clear the roads. We follow the beach. Chicky wants to walk barefeet through the sand. How romantic - even when it started to sprinkle. We had fun splashing around and taking pictures. Then I hear thunder. The rain comes down a bit harder. We think this is funny and take more pictures. Then a tropical storm! I was like OMG! The camera!! Hahahaaa...who cares if we get hit by lightening...as long as the camera doens't get wet. As we sprint towards a palm tree for cover, I hear my photography teachers' comment about always be prepared for weather when traveling going through my mind. Duh!

Wet and tired we hiked it back to the main entrance. We're already 1/2 hour late to meet Euston. On the way to the cable car we stop by the butterfly exhibit to see if we can run through it and sort of get our money's worth from the tour package. It was closed. Disappointed we hop onto the cable car and went to Vivo City. Vivo City is a very spacey-looking mall. New and fresh. Reminds me of Metrotown with all the people walking through it. Much different from the mall we went to in the morning. We went to a posh mall on Orchard Road in the morning. Had MacDonalds there. Yes - I travelled half way around the world for some McDonalds. :-) Had a McSpicy...mmmm....loving it!

Euston is a really nice cousin. The great thing about Singapore is every speaks english! So easier on us. We went to buy our train tickets. Euston thought we were nuts as it's faster and more convenient to travel by bus. Oh well - we're still on the whole novelty kick. After the train station we went to have dinner near the beach. It was like Richmond Night Market...food vendors lining the edges and tables in the middle. Minh and Michael would have loved this - strange food for cheap prices. :-) Chicky and I laughed as we paid nearly double when we went out for dinner on our own. That's the benefits of knowing a "local" - can always take you to the good eating spots for cheap. We had sting ray - tasted like fish. Even the sugar cane drinks were this pretty bright green color - much different from Vietnam where it was murky brown. :-)

Euston's apartment is great. Really big, new and modern (Ikea motif) - we were impressed. I regretted not staying with him from the start of our journey. Chicky was mesmerized by the remote control air conditioner in our room. He turned our room into a freezer. I wore my sweat pants, long sleeved shirt, his blanket and mine to keep warm. He thought I was crazy - I told him I'm sick and he's freezing me over. I've discovered that I'm pretty comfortable in the heat - reminds me of hot yoga. Chicky doesn't cope well. I think he'll want to stay in the apartment near the tv, anime and computers - Euston's place is the perfect bachelor pad. I must agree...it's hard getting motivated to go out in the heat when the apartment is so comfy.

Singapore - Day 1

We slept for about 5 hours. Woke up excited about our complimentary breakfast. Went down to the buffet room. The breakfast buffet consisted of baked beans, white sausages (which didn't look good), some kind of chinese dish (today it was fried noodles), toast, croissant and bland cereal. Thank goodness there's coffee. Chicky and I weren't impressed. But by this time we've learned to LOWER our expectations for this hotel.

Excited about exploring the city - we got ready and were overwhelmed by heat. Chicky was literally melting before my eyes. I wanted to ride the MRT (subway system). So we did. This was easier said then done. We did our research though. We found the subway, watched the locals use the gates, bought some tickets (which was a bit of a learning curve as everything is touch screens), and tried it out ourselves. Didn't work - we forgot to notice that you can only enter through some of the gates.

In Singapore - their version of Robson Street is Orchard Road. We will frequent this street as that's where we change our money and use the MRT.

We went to one end of town to see Little India, ate some Indian food and visited the big markets. When asked if you want something spicy in Little India - the correct response would have been "no thank you". I learned the hard way. I thought I was breathing fire.

Then we travelled to the other part of town to Chinatown. By this time we've mastered the switching of trains and reading the various maps. In Chinatown Chicky bought pork jerky that cost $5 for one piece. I blinked a couple of times. Singapore money is equivalent to Canadian dollars. We walked around Chinatown and bought food/snacks. Walking is going to be our primary mode of transportation.

After Chinatown we head back to the hotel. By this time I'm so tired and pass out after a cooling shower. Chicky feels the same way. We fall asleep - 3 hours later we wake up and decide that there's still time for Night Safari. We rushed out to the zoo. Night Safari is pretty freaky. :-) Nothing like walking around when the creatures are let loose. There was one area that had huge cages that you had to open a series of doors and go through. Chicky and I stood infront of the first wire gate and looked at each other. We weren't apprehensive of what was on the other side. I pushed Chicky in and told him that I would wait for him to get to the second gate before I walk in. :-) That was pretty much the same attitude for the rest of the walk. :-) I jumped out of my skin when a zoo worker came out of the bushes. He was wearing all black and feeding something on the other side. Lol...low fences and dark pathways give way to paranoia.

After Night Safari we had dinner at 1am along the river. Very nice but I was tired - I've got a cold and the heat doesn't make it better. We finally made our way back to the hotel at 3am.

getting there

After a 16 hour flight and very little sleep due to an all night family poker game - I was able to manage a few winks whereas Chicky didn't even sleep. Friday night we celebrated my mom's birthday as well as KA's (as we'd be away when their real b-day's happen). Hanif, Betty and Nyah came over for dinner as well. Nyah is such a cutie - growing up so fast!

We had a long flight. Made friends with a contractor from Calgary who was on his way back to India. I can't remember his name right now but I took a picture with him. :-) Figured he has to sit beside me for the whole flight so we might as well be buddies. I got the middle seat in a 3 seat row. Chicky managed to get an aisle seat.

Hightlights of the flight included:

• frequent meals (which were pretty good)
• a transfer in Korea - which was to get off the plane, go up some stairs, through customs again and then back into the plane. During this useless excersize, Chicky lost his water bottle which he paid $4 for. He was heartbroken.
• Chicky breaking pieces of the seat upon sitting down. I shook my head and hoped that the flight attendant didn't see.

We lost a day on board the plane which made the flight seem even longer. We left Vancouver at 12 noon Saturday. Arrived in Korea at 5pm Sunday and got into Singapore at 12 midnight. From there we took a taxi to the Garden hotel. The hotel left a lot to be desired. We discovered that the toilet and shower required special instructions on how to operate them (due to the fact that they were broken!). We were too tired to complain so we lived with it. Chicky and I were more concerned with the condition of the rug and possibilities of bed bugs. We inspected the mattress. Then wore sandals in the room the whole time. Time to have a few hours of sleep before our continental breakfast!

all done

My last photography class was Wednesday nigth. I was a bit sadden that there's no more opportunities to for field trips and discussions about picture taking. The class overall was great. For the last assignment we had to compile our images into a photo slide show. This was a good opportunity to see various types of software available (not only PowerPoint). One of my classmates brought in a presentation that he created for a friend who had taken pictures of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. :-) That was a hard act to follow. The good thing was that we weren't restricted to using the pictures we took in class. We could use any pics - the point of that night was to feature photo editing software. My favorite! I enjoy Photoshop Elements 5.0. It's much simpler to use then the full blown version of Adobe Photoshop but is more advance then the software that came with the camera (Canon ZoomBrowser). Having done this course - I'm interested in taking another one in the summer when the weather is much nicer for shooting pics.

rolling along

Hey guys - sorry for not posting this week. It's been hectic at work and home. Just one more week till my vacation - YAH!! Here's a brief summary of what I've been up to this week.

Crazy work schedule - with a launch of a new product for the corporation and the untimely absences of staff, my schedule this week was changed numerous times. On the most part I worked a lot of over time and am here at work right now (on a Saturday!). I'm burning out fast and am in dire need of a vacation.

Chicky was sent to Toronto this week to do some course training. He went by himself so he was a bit lonely. The weather over there was windy and with the time difference we didn't really talk either. No biggie as I usually don't talk to him during the week.

On Wednesday night I had my usual photography class. I can't believe it's gone by so fast. Next week is our last week. We did show-and-tell for the pictures that we took last week (Burnaby Mountain field trip) and did some macro and micro photography. :-) Basically fine tuning the art of taking pictures of pictures. This will come in handy when I'm not creative and can just buy a pack of post cards from Singapore or Malaysia and pretend that I was "there".

Thursday night I had dinner with Kininsky. He's having his 30th birthday dinner party tonight and since I'm having the dinner for Chicky - I can't come to his. We ate at Joeys Meditteranean Grill. The food was great. Got to catch up on what's going on in his life. Talk about photography, tech stuff and his friends.

Friday - had dinner with Chicky's family as his parents are off to Malaysia today. They went a week earlier than us. Got to see Logan and Brandon. Logan is growing nicely. He's such a deep sleeper for a newborn. Can sleep through anything! After dinner I went home to get my stuff as I figured there's no point in driving out to Richmond to pick up Chicky, going back to Coquitlam then going to work the next day. Might as well just sleep over and sea bus across in the morning.

Saturday - at work right now. Dinner tonight with Chicky.