Lei

The Island Up There

Not a soul around for days, the cold sun beats down on the rough white sand. Beautiful tropical trees surround me as I stare out at the horizon of endless waves. Hours, days and months have passed. To the point where I cannot tell the difference between one that is more significant than another. Not one soul has been seen for an eternity.

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We had the first session of beach volleyball today. Despite the cold weather, it was pretty good. The blue tent where the league officials organized everything. The courts all set up down the beach side by side. All fifteen of them at Spanish Banks. What a lovely site and all the people who have come to play. This is so much better than the outdoor grass volleyball leagues of the past. I love the setting. To be out their on the sand with the occasional log to rest on, the water nearby. I just love it.

I organized my first ever team of any kind and everything has started off with only a minor hitch. The young female recruit from bonsor dropped out due to problems with her school. In her place is one of the other female part timers. An interesting young woman. Another member of the SFU lab rats as are four other members of the team. I also recruited a tall german doing a law internship for about a year here in vancouver. His height and skill will be to our advantage.

The sand was really cold though. Filled with many small rocks, most people either wore their runners or played in their socks. Cal tore a hole in his sock somehow and the tall german ripped both of his pant legs diving for balls in the sand.

Filling the team has been surprisingly easy as the more people I talk to about it, the more I find want to play. For a moment I had almost thought about setting up another team. Whatever the case, please god, just give us warm sunny weather to play in!

It's been almost a year since I left my job and I'm starting to feel like I don't want to just sit around and do nothing anymore. The couch has too much of a dent in it and laziness does no good. It might be time to leave the safe confines of the snowy mountain slopes and delve back into civilization amongst all the other worker bees. In my mind, I can go back to that place up on the mountain slopes without having to really go there. For me, it will always be there.

The new web development class at the photography school is slowly chugging along. The base computer skills of everyone is kind of all over the place so the teacher has to teach at a very slow pace. He tried a new approach with our class on tuesday which seemed to be more effective. Apparently his other class of full time students had a lot of trouble learning what we were taught. At the end of this course, I hope to have a new website up. It will become my own personal web gallery. Admission will be free.

Spring Run Off

An exhausting weekend it was with my insomnia not helping. Saturday was the last day up at whistler and the Telus ski and snowboard festival. We caught a bit of the superhits competition back at the Salomon superpipe. Blackcomb is now officially closed. Whistler side is still open for another month and plans are in the works for a group of us to go sometime this week before everything melts away.

More photos can be found here.

Sunday I went to a bbq with some friends in the afternoon. Then I bailed on a last minute invite to the beach to go to another bbq with the old gang. It's time to go look for a bbq.

10,000 ppl and the non-mutant

Sitting there in the office, I clench the small sponge object in my hand watching the arteries and veins in my arm become more pronounced and defined. The sponge is red and formed in the shape of a liver. How cute.

My arm is stretched out on the table in front of me and I can feel the needle come closer and closer to my skin. Lined up with the one large artery across the middle of the joint, it punctures me and the pain accompanying it is immediately felt before dissipating soon after.

"There now, that wasn't so bad was it?" the nurse says to me. "How are you feeling now? Do you still get the pains and discomfort? Is anything bothering you."

There was a lot of things bothering me but I didn't mention any of it. Some totally unrelated to my health.
"No. I'm ok." I told the nurse.
"Lets see. Did we get your ultrasound...."
"I'm not sure. I think you did but can't remember exactly when it was done."
"It says here sometime back in january. Ha! You don't even remember having your ultrasound exam."
I didn't feel embarassed for some reason. It didn't matter too much to me with the way I felt at present.
"The report says that everything looked fine except for some polyps which they found in your gall bladder."
"Polyp's? What are those?"
She drew a small diagram resembling an untied balloon with some small nodules on the inside of the walls.
"It's like that."
"So should I be concerned?"
"Well, I'm not exactly sure but no, not really. Sometimes they can become cancerous but that is rare."
"I'd like to keep it rare thank you." I became a little bit concerned but not much.
"Everything else looks good. The ALT and AST's all look fine. This one reading is a bit high but we expect that for your kidneys when you're on this medication."
I continued to just sit there and listen. What was I going to do? Complain?
"And looking at the viral count, its coming down quite nicely." This was the only thing which made me feel better about the drugs and herbs that I was taking. Over a year ago, the viral load was somewhere around 775,000 ppl of blood. The next test it dropped down to 250,000 ppl of blood with the most recent one being only around 10,000 ppl of blood. So hopefully, if all goes as it has, we should see virtually zero amount of virus found in my blood with the sample I have just given today.

I watch as the blood rushes into the test tube via the syringe. Quickly it becomes filled and the nurse pulls the tube out for capping, then the needle out of my arm.

"Are you okay with continuing to take the lamivudine?" she asks me.
"Yes. I can handle it" with a bit of hesitation.
"It has been quite effective at controlling the virus for many of our patients. For those with problems, we have this other new drug here." She points to a fancy glass block on her desk with the name of the new drug and its side effects etched on the front surface.
"It costs $1600 per month. Many of our patients are asian and most don't have extended health coverage. Many operate their own businesses and...oh I don't know where they get their money from. Whatever the case, it's expensive."
"I don't think I will need to or want to go on that new drug" I told the nurse.
She smiles.
"We currently only have one person on it. If not that, then there really isn't anything else on the market which we can use with great effectiveness. This new drug only has a three percent cure rate so it isn't very cost effective. We are finding that Lamivudine and our other drug to be the best at present. Except for the possibility that the virus can mutate with Lamivudine."
We passed the typical time when the virus would mutate many months ago and nothing happened. This was good. I fully expect that todays blood samples will produce as expected results and I have become eager at the thought of not having to pay for any more prescriptions of Lamivudine. I don't even want to entertain the thought of paying $1600 per month for some new medicine that has such a low rate of complete success. It's just like the big drug companies to do this.

I just want you to be happy

"I can't do this. I'm sorry but I don't think we can go out on friday. After the talk on monday and yesterday... do you understand?" she said. "When you first asked me, I was surprised and didn't know what to say. But after thinking about it, I think we are not really on the same page... I still need time to get over my last boyfriend."

That wasn't what I wanted to hear but at the same time, I knew she might say that and I can't even begin to describe the pain inside.

All hopes of having a serious relationship with her has now evaporated into thin air. In the end, all I had to say was, "I just want you to be happy."

Into the hole I slowly fall down, my limbs grow weak and my blood is still. It flows no more through the veins in my body. The damp cold air can not be felt, I am alone and forever falling into my soul.

The hair waivers, clothes flutter, there is no beat, no rhythm no rhyme or sound.

Sayonara...

A Kind of Funny Black Day

Quote of the Day

"Hmmm, it must be black day here in Whistler. I've never seen this many black people in the line up before."

As mentioned by one of two black men in a line up after seeing two other black people in the same line up. All were waiting to get onto the gondola for Whistler mountain.

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The price in the states is no mistake...

Today was the first day of the Telus ski and snowboard festival up at Whistler. I drove up alone giving me an opportunity to listen to the cd's which I received in the mandarin class. After about an hour of it, the cd player decided to have a fit. Errr.... No more mandarin cd's to listen to after the first hour.

My two riding buddies had free greyhound tickets while I joined in todays trip at the last minute. During the bus ride, Dieter passed out in an upright sitting position. He was completely unconscious, both eyes open and non responsive to anything. His brother Arrete checked his pulse and tried to wake him up by tugging on his arms for about a minute before Dieter finally woke up. Neither had any idea what had just happened.

We first ate a quick breakfast at Ingrid's near the middle of the village before heading off to the Whistler gondola. This would be my first time this season. It also proved to be a good choice as there was more powder snow on Whistler than Blackcomb. In the Whistler terrain park, course officials, camera crews and boarders donned in bibs competed in a qualifying round. But being a regular lift pass holder, my friends and I just went on the regular runs through the trees. Lift lines were long at Whistler side so halfway through, we decided to hop mountains after a few good runs.

There was one particularly funny incident on the way down. I was ahead when I decided to look back to see where my friends were. What I saw was Arrete upside down with his board facing the sky, and his whole body curled up while sliding across the slope on his back at a good pace. Just before this Dieter had himself crashed in the snow.

After recovering from the crash, we continued on down to the village and on the final slope down, Arrete fails to make a turn and buries himself face first into the not so white artificial snow found in the valley. At the bottom, we went over to the other gondola and rode to the top of Blackcomb. One run down to the bottom of Jersey Cream and Arrete was done. And then there were two.

On the next chairlift ride we sat with two other people. Halfway up we noticed a bunch of small children skiing down a blue run(level) hill. Each one was carving small turns while maintaining the snow plow position. They all did fine except for one in the middle of the pack. The little kid slowly went into a parallel ski position across the slope after successfully negotiating a turn only to have one ski pop off as she hit a tiny bump. Then the little girl slowly collapsed onto the snow hunched over with her helmet leading the way. She continued to slide in this position for what seemed like an excessively long time given that she showed absolutely no movement in response to the fall. It was as if she was lifeless. Everyone on our chair laughed before she finally moved.

We got a few runs in on Blackcomb before Dieter started feeling dehydrated and tired. So for the last run of the day, I took him through the terrain park ending with the great Salomon superpipe. The conditions were pretty good but my board felt slow. The wax was all gone and it was warming up despite fresh snow which continued to fall very lightly. I got in all the jumps and a good run through the pipe with no spills. Who says you have to get injured on the last run of the day?

The last time I came up with Dieter, we sat on the highway coming back for a few hours. The highway had been closed for seven or eight hours due to a motorcyclist who had been killed near the horseshoe bay exit. Today I found out that the said motorcyclist was a friend of Dieter's. That was the shocker. Finding out that you know someone who has just died in an accident which you had to wait for.

A moment of silence for all those who have crashed and burned on the mountain today and any other day.

(Photo from a Motorola Razor)

A Social Weekend

Friday I went to Section 3 for a friends birthday dinner. Cool place with an inhouse DJ as well who played some good tunes. I also liked the interior decor. If you ever go there, look on the wall immediately on your left when you walk into the entrance. You'll know what I mean. It is, however not too raunchy. Afterwards it was to the Plaza night club to attend a fund raising event for a friends dragon boat team. We got there late. The line ups were long. We didn't want to wait. So we decided to go to the Nelson Street Cafe for drinks and live music. The live music was awful and I couldn't get drunk on my watered down rum and coke. So that was it for the evening.

Saturday, one of my friends had a small house party for their new digs. Her and a fellow labmate at SFU now share the rent and invited everyone at the lab as well as each others close circle of friends. While getting there, I had not yet found the exact building but parked in a spot which was very close. As soon as I opened the door all I heard was really loud music blasting from one room on the second floor and immediately I knew that that was the place. Cool people although I didn't mingle too much with the predominately SFU folks. Both of the two sharing the place and another friend of theirs are playing on my beach volleyball team.

Sunday I met up with the cake maker to have panini's for lunch. The place she brought me two was typical of the shops in the busy and eclectic commercial street area. I tried the montreal smoked meat wondering if it would be as juicy as what I had at Schwartz deli on Montreal. It was close, and with all the fixins, it was really good. Cake maker's business is going through low season(for weddings) so I was helping her with advice on what she could do to change her business. She's been tinkering with the idea of adding a deli or panini shop in the front plus coffee instead of just wedding cakes.

Afterwards I went to Burnaby 8 rinks for some ice skating. This was a private event for the staff and relatives of a law firm downtown which my friends worked at. I was there as the supposed 'brother' of my friend. Hosting the event was Victor Kratz of the Kratz and Bourne pairs ice dancing champions. A few years ago they had captured the world ice dancing gold medal but a year or two later, the team split up. Teenage skating wiz Mira Leung was supposed to be there as well but I didn't see her. That is unless I mistook someone else for her. A small squad of the local figure skaters demonstrated various standard moves in figure skating. I even had the chance to spend some time just talking one on one with Victor Kratz himself with regards to what he's doing now and his life here in Vancouver as he approached me and started asking me questions first. I didn't realize that he lived and worked here.

We took a german friend in the group to chinese Hot Pot. We over ordered and everyone went home stuffed. Now back to the work week.

Help I've Fallen and I can't get up!

Another monday, another week has begun. Had dim sum with the cakemaker and the baker on sunday at a place called Golden Phoenix. I didn't know where it was so I googled it and what came up was a link with a personal review of the place. They quoted staff as saying to them that "hey, the food is cheap, so the service is too. What do you expect?"

Needless to say it was correct. The food was alright and one of the cheapest dim sums in town. $1.90 per dish I think it was plus if you have a VIP card, you'd get another ten percent off.

Earlier last week while working away at home, I got a call from thte cakemaker asking for help. Her sister was on the floor experiencing alot of pain and couldn't get up. No one else was around so she just called anyone she could think of and I was one of them. I almost made it there to their small catering shop when I noticed a message saying that her relative had just arrived to take the sister to the clinic. She's pregnant. I was kind of relieved. On the way over, I started wondering how in the world was I going to lift her up with my one wrist being injured and all (snowboarding injury). It didn't matter at that point. After turning around to head back home, I decided to turn around and go back. Standard protocal for ambulances and emergency services to all arrive at the scene in case backup is needed right? I went there and the shops was empty.

The indoor volleyball league wrapped up last week. All we needed to do was win two games and we'd get third place overall in the lowest division. Unfortunately we crumbled at the words of our first opponent which was "you guys are gonna win." We got jinxed.

Registration for the beach volleyball league is coming along. Still waiting for people to get back to me and confirm. Remarkably, the team is quite different than what I had expected as there looks to be many new faces. Plus a lot of newbies to the sport I think so this should be interesting. Beginners volleyball all over again. My fingers are crossed for decent weather by the end of this month and beautiful sunsets after each and every game.

One of the new recruits is a very attractive young woman I just met today at Bonsor drop-in volleyball. A japanese foreign exchange student who was looking for a team to play with. So as luck would have it, we were short one or two players.

So while Tsubame leaves Canada to live in Japan, someone else enters my life in the opposite direction. Maybe this will give me more incentive to actually crack open the "japanese for everyone" exercise books which Tsubame left for me sooner than I had expected.

"Chiemi-chan. Yoroshiku!"

The SFU mandarine class department called me today asking if I would like to preregister for the next session of the conversational mandarin class. I turned them down because tomorrow the web photo class at Focal Point was starting on the same evening. With this next session covering the last few chapters in the text book, it doesn't look like I will be able to finish it in class. However, this might give me a chance to start taking photos again.