Lei

Two Sunday Evenings

My friend Manuel spent his last sunday in Canada with myself and some other friends. We went for pork hot pot at a korean restaurant called Spice Island which was really tasty.

Afterwards it was off to Fantacity to sing some karaoke. More specifically, I wanted him to be able to sing some german karaoke. Going back four or five months I had gone to this place with a bunch of other people and one of them happened to be german. He had managed to find a german song in the massive albums of predominantly japanese, korean and english songs. This time however, we were not able to find the german song which me and that other german fellow had sang for the group. So I went up to the front desk and asked them if they knew where the german songs were. There reply was that they had none. I then told them that there was a german song there because I had sang it just a few months ago pointing the the room we had at the time. They just continued to deny any knowledge of ever having any german karaoke songs. So in the end we decided to bugger off to have drinks at a bar nearby.

"Glug glug"

Am I a Puffy fan now? On remembrance day I went to a Puffy AmiYumi concert with some japanese friends. They were performing at a small night club downtown which I had never been to. I did a quick brush-up on what they were all about and how their tunes sounded by looking at their myspace page. Even still, I wasn't really sure what to expect but after seeing their show up close, I'm glad to say it was great. As one of my friends has described, it was like going to a rock concert in Tokyo without going to Tokyo. Incidentally, I had asked another japanese band what costumes or outfits they would wear for halloween a few weeks ago and their reply was for me to go to Tokyo to see for myself at their show live. I still have to check back with their website.

Left: Puffy drummer Kawanishi-san and myself after the show. Right: The keyboard player wearing a panda on his head while Ami and Yumi dance around behind.

These photo's were taken with my old Yashica T4 film camera using Fuji Superia 800 speed colour film changed to black and white with photoshop. This was the first time that I have used 800 speed film because I didn't want to miss any shots shooting in a dark club without any manual controls on my camera. My pocket digicam is pretty bad at high ISO's with low light action photos as one would expect from a Jpop rock band. Even though the Superia 800 was better, it still has its limitations.

Also at the concert were the camera police. Scanning across the crowd in front of the stage at any given time you could see the small lcd screens from peoples tiny digicams anf cell phones taking pictures and videos. Guys from the tour were kept busy for the most part going into the crowd to confront the offending picture takers. As a result, I was not able to get some of the shots which would have been really good closeups of Ami and one of the guitarists when they would jump up on the stage box directly in front of me.

More pics of the Puffy concert can be found here.

Again I see that this site is having technical difficulties and my half done upgrade of the site software continues to sit on my computer here at home. Arrrgh! My apologies to everyone who use this site for I know not what I am doing.

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Tsubame! Congradulations! You've opened pandora's box. When I first read the words Schrodinger's Cat, all I could remember was the geek sitting in front of me in my advanced calculus 121 class. He turned around and laughed out loud after the teacher had made a comment about Schrodinger's cat. I just sat there and thought to myself, oh my god... what a geek...

Oooh Can't Wait! Can't Wait!

I can't wait to go back up to whistler. Winter returned with a fiery after last weeks sudden warm blast. It hailed today. Hailed hailed hailed all over me, my truck, the building, the ground. Everywhere it hailed. All hail the weather gods. Let there be fresh snow up at whistler during this week long telus ski and snowboard festival. Let there be snow. Now back to studying.

Last week I didn't go up to whistler though. Instead I went to another salsa night with some friends. There we saw the dancing instructor couple perform a short routine for everyone. They are Ron and Sanaa Martinez of the martinez dance co. A really nice couple. In fact most of the people I've met in that circle are all really nice and friendly. Everyone there just to dance and have fun. My friend is on a mission to dance with all the salsa dancers in his salsa fundraising calendar. Each month has a different local female dancer with which he can dance with. Good luck my friend.

Happy Easter

The robot is back at home in the world of electronica and house beats moving up and down to the deafening base of the underworld. It's time for a changeup.

Thursday night was a long weekend special at the Lotus nightclub. I went there with a group of friends to celebrate breadbakers birthday. Her coworker came along and got quite drunk which made it all the more interesting. Especially her performance at the post club meal in the Denny's restaurant on Davies, making rude remarks directly or in the presence of the restaurant staff. I haven't been to a Denny's in ages and on this evening I was reminded why. I prefer the korean late night on robson instead.

Friday was a right off as I felt sick by the time I got home. As a result I bailed on Cakemaker's afternoon lunch engagement with the former owner of the catering company which she helps run. By the time I woke up, most of the day was gone so I just went to work and recouped my energy for the next day. That was my good friday.

Saturday was the Sakura-con anime/manga conference at the seattle conference centre. I went there with my sister and her friends to see what this was all about. A building full of anime fans all dressed up in their favourite characters. The night before I had asked my sister if she or any of her friends would do the same. She promptly said no. I thought I'd spike out my hair like some jpop rock star since there was an article in a small magazine on how to do this that came with a 'tofu' t-shirt that was given to me as a gift. A very late birthday gift all the way from San Francisco by mail. I don't watch much anime but did follow the Initial D series when I got may hands on a box set for my birthday a couple of years ago. I got hooked right away and eventually became a fan of the band which produced many of the songs used in the series. 'M.O.V.E' - the band, was performing live doing a small tour of the US in the afternoon along with 'Lin Clover'. After waiting in a god awful three hour lineup just to register for conference tickets, we got in. We were able to catch the last three songs performed by M.O.V.E. and that made my day. Domo arigato gozaimasu!! It's too bad that their set was so short but they sounded good live and looked great doing it. The concert room was huge but square and only filled about a third to capacity. The dance floor was amazing bouncing up and down to all the concert revellers. Far more than the famed bouncing dance floor of the commodore here in vancouver. I managed to sneak some photos onto my camera but won't post them here due to the crippled state of this blog.

I didnt' care about the rest of the conference but still spent some time looking around at the booths and all the items on sale and for display. Many people did come yet the strange thing about this conference was that there was very few asian anime fans in attendance. One japanese friend was with us and she told me that anime festivals are quite popular in japan. Yet here, hardly any of them would come out of the woodwork for this conference. Even so, it was really quite interesting. Where can you go to see predominantly american teenagers dressed up toting seven foot long gigantic guns across their backs and walking through the street of downtown seattle on their way to the conference. Where else can you see forty-something old adults wearing costumes and wigs to match their favourite characters. Where else can you see what sailor moon or hell-sing and Tifa would look like twenty years later all out of shape with their guts hanging out of their tiny sailor moon outfits and neo-blonde wigs. I know. Downtown seattle, top floor at the Todai's all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant by the bubbling chocolate fountain of youth desert table. It would make an amusing 'where are they now' show.

Snow conditions have been horrible up at whistler and as a result, I have not been up any where near as I have wanted to. I managed to make time on sunday and got lucky despite the sections of thick clouds on the mountain. It didn't rain. It hardly snowed. It was wonderful spring like conditions. Jumps on the terrain park were fast as was the nicely prepared halfpipe which again had just been pipe-dragoned and painted for a competition earlier in the day. I brought a friend who would be going back to japan soon and had not been up to whistler before. Next week is the telus ski & snowboard festival. I hope to find some time to go up and see some of the events as well as get in some photos.

Bye Bye Black Bird

My head hurts and I'm not sure what caused it. It could have been the scotch because I hardly drink. It could have been the cigar because I don't smoke. Maybe it's from all the chocolate. I eat chocolate.

I went to see the parade of lost souls yesterday and there were some cool costumes. One was a guy dressed up as the 6 o'clock news guy. The most notable are as follows.

1. Six FOOT tall walking penis complete with testicles and squirting liquid into the crowd. This was funny. All the stuff he squirted came down on the people. I wanted to get a picture of my three female friends with their tongues on him but he ran away.

2. 6pm breaking news guy in plasma tv. He had a hole in his box so anyone cold stand beside him inside the box and be on the news.

3. Tall guy in seven foot tall pink panther suit.

4. Mr. Jack in the Box head.

5. The funniest one was the guy dressed up like Richard Simmons. Ever seen Richard Simmon's drinking and looking drunk?

Afterwards. we went to an apartment in the area for a house party. Just like that part in 'Big Fish' but with a halloween twist, the theme was 'freaky carnival show'. Before the party got started, we went looking for some guy that was supposed to be stationed up in a tree in an alley nearby. We went and didn't find them. Instead there were two women on a small balcony dressed up as crows.

"Excuse me?" my friend said. "Do you know where the singing man is?"
"I'm sorry." One woman replied. "We don't know what you' re talking about.
"Oh. Well, can either of you sing for us?" my friend asked.
"ha ha. umm sorry." they said.
"Sing like this... caww, caww!" I said to the woman in the crow custume. Bird talk. They just smiled and looked at me.
At that point, we decided to give up and leave.
As we left, I turned around and said one last thing to them.
"Bye bye black bird!" waving as we left to go to the house party. Roni's friend slapped me on the arm and couldn't stop laughing. The rain started to come down but it didn't matter. We were going inside to a friends house.

A Few Weeks Ago

Down at Spanish Banks I had a small bbq again. My friend had a couple of old buddies from Toronto who were just passing thru on a roadtrip to the states.

A Good Few Days

This will be a record year on many fronts. I just hope I have enough energy to keep up with the pace of life.

I went in to my friends engineering office for orientation late last week. My job is to fill in for another engineer in his firm who will be gone on vacation. So while I sit there in front of the computer staring at architectural drawings of a very expensive house behind the chinese consulate on granville street, I get a chance to go out with my friend for a site inspection of another house currently being built from the ground up. The owner wants to do everything himself so the process is slow with a very small crew.

Here the forms are almost ready for concrete to be poured.

This house will have a basement in the hills of North Vancouver.

The ground has been dug up and we are there to inspect the surrounding ground stability to provide a temporary permit so other crews can come in and work on the house.

After work on Friday, I went out for some food at Central on Denman street downtown. They had on special pitchers of marguaritas which two of my friends had.

A live band performed playing some cool jazz tunes. Afterwards, we went wandering around Granville and Davies and came across the smoke shop. Only two of us in our group of four smokes regularly. And I am not one of them but these bongo things are easy. They come in many flavours and you don't cough when you inhale a lungful of this stuff. Apparently the water at the bottom filters out the addictive nicotine.

Here my two friends sit with the shopkeeper as he explains to us what we are smoking.

Oh my god! I'm smoking!

Saturday I watched Pirates of the Carribean with some other friends before my german friend and I took off to go to the White party! Rules were that you had to wear white and, if you are a guy, you bring a bottle of tequila or malibu if you are a woman. The music was blasting, the open bar was operating on the patio and you could play twisters in the backyard shed on the hardwood floor inside. A couch was provided for people to sit and view the game from inside the shed along with coloured lights for ambiance.

Shirts aren't so white as my camera phone is unable to provide the proper metering. Spin those records Mr. DJ!

Everyone was given a name tag to wear and with the crowd the way they were, there was very few name tags which were 'normal'. My german friend learned a few new words that evening.

It was all good until the cops showed up. Those pesky neighbours. It turns out having only a few of your close neighbours on the invite list isn't enough. You need to get them all. The loud music stopped and a laptop and a smaller system was fired up inside the twister shed. And just as we thought things would wind down, my friend and I met some other new people and ended up being one of the last ones to go. Strange how things always turn out as I ended up driving two other people home.

Sunday I had another bbq at the beach. My stainless steel hibachi-like contraption gets alot of enquiries from other beachgoers. It's been the best sixty bucks I've spent all year. This will be the seventh bbq this summer already. The thursday free beach volleyball sessions we've been having will end this week. Next week we are back in a new league and I've fielded a slightly different team losing some players to other summer activities. Sunday volleyball is still going good as the weather has continued to bring warm rays to our courts.

*Note: New pics have been added to the July 4th Canada Day entry.

Canada Day Weekend

A few weeks ago at the Richmond night market I saw a stand where they sell samurai swords. I spot the display from a distance as there is a sign that says in english "Practical sword".

For amusement I decide to ask a man working there some questions about the swords.
"Hi"
"Hello"
"I was wondering, how much does one of these cost?"
"These one's are only $120."
"Hmmm. That seems quite reasonable. I see that it is not sharp."
"We do have ones which are sharp. I can show you some over here."
"What is the difference between the dull and the sharp ones?" I ask.
"Well, the sharp ones are made with high carbon stainless steel which has been folded over hundreds of times. They will last much longer and start around $300."
"So for instance, could one say that I could keep on cutting off many peoples heads without worrying about it getting dull then?" There is a pause as the man has to think.
"Ok...let me rephrase that. So are you saying that with this stronger sword, I could kill like, a hundred evil ninja warriors as opposed to maybe just ten with the cheaper one before it becomes a dull blunt object which I would be batting someone over the head with little effect?"
"Yes, ha ha. It will stay sharp much longer."
"I was also wondering, what does that sign 'Practical sword' mean?"
The man just gives me a blank look and can't answer.

I managed to get up early on Canada Day. First it was off to work in New Westminster at the nursing home before continuing on out to Point Grey to help a friend move. Everything he had fit in the back of my truck and we moved everything to a new two bedroom condo downtown near Stanley Park. My friend is from germany and recently broke up with his girlfriend who also lives in germany. As a result, he is wondering how he can stay in Canada because he likes it here. At the law firm where he is currently working temporarily, they have created a profile for him on Lava life with little success. Someone there suggested that he would be able to extend his stay if he had a live in girlfriend. He is currently the big joke around the office.

"Dieter, this is going to be great for you. No longer will you be in that small apartment alone. That location was sort of in no man's land sitting between the two popular beaches." I tell him.
"Yes Lei. And it's much closer to where I work too."
"So what is your new room mate like? It's a woman right?"
"Yes" he replies.
"There you go Dieter! Maybe she is single. Or if she has a boyfriend, maybe you'll get to meet some of her female friends?!?!?"
"I think she might be a lesbian Lei."
"Oh...thats no good. But maybe you can convert her. Like Kramer in that Seinfeld episode."
"Sorry Lei, I don't know what you are talking about." Dieter has never watched the old Seinfeld series so he has does not understand.
"Ok. Then maybe you'll meet someone in your building. Someone you might run into in the elevator or the lobby-"
"What? That's silly. Do you think I will stand in the elevator all day waiting for people? hahahah"
"No no no. After you live there long enough, you might run into the same people over and over again. Maybe someone you'll like."
"hahaha, ok. I will wait in the elevator everyday when I come home from work."
"Plus with so many restaurants nearby, you won't have to cook any more. Maybe meet a cute waitress..."
"Yes, that would be good."
I sit there in my truck at the entrance to the parking garage for the building. It is locked so Dieter decides to go up and get some new batteries for the remote. The weather is clear, hot and sunny and it is only 10:30am. As I wait, I see three young women rollerblading towards me. My truck is blocking the sidewalks. Two go around but one rolls onto a grassy section stumbling before falling down.
"There you go Dieter. There's your new girlfriend."

The building is old but exhibits signs of luxury. Wood trim, marble floors, tiles and countertops. He is moving into a furnished two bedroom unit with an interesting layout. When you go in, you enter a large round lobby if you will. From there all the other rooms are connected. Both bedrooms are large. The two bathrooms are well kept. The dining room is separate from the living room which itself is quite spacious. I walk in and help put his belongings in the center lobby. In the living room is a desk against one wall where there is a large board with photos tacked all over it. I look closely at all the photos.
"Uh huh. Maybe there's potential for you Dieter."
"But she's standing with a man in this photo."
"Maybe thats just her brother. Her friends don't look bad. Find out Dieter. Talk to her."

We went for brunch afterwards. I had eggs benedict and the hollandais sauce didn't sit well. I had been sick earlier in the week and still had problems with digesting food.

Afterwards, I met up with cakemaker at Dockside on granville island. There we waited two hours before the people she was meeting showed up. Argh!!!

Cakemaker was trying to set up a friend of hers with our other friend who is a chef at the hotel restaurant. As we waited there for two plus hours, I became delirious not feeling good from the brunch earlier. All I had was water the whole time and listened to the live band play some cool tunes on the patio. I was just blabbering on and on and humming whatever tunes were being played.

Cakemaker thought I was drunk on water. The waittress serving us came by and thought that we were the most laid back people on the patio.

Later on it was back home to pick up the bbq and cooler before driving all the way back out to Jericho beach for a canada day bbq and beach volleyball. This time Rodney was hosting the gathering instead of me and again it was another different group of people. This makes it the fourth large gathering which I've organized or helped organize and had a different group of people come out. Only a handful of people have been going to all of them consistently. It was mostly female as the guys had driven to seattle for a weekend on the town. I didn't eat or play much not feeling well.

Sunday I drove down to Seattle to meet up with the guys after sitting at the truck boarder crossing for an hour in the morning sun. I had missed the partying at a bar called Cowgirls saturday night but for sunday, we were there to see a baseball game. The Mariners played against the Colorado Rockies in a nooner game. Safeco field is great. I love the stadium. Everyone got cooked in our bleacher seats high up in left field but the view was still good. Too bad they lost though. I also missed a really good photo-op of Ichiro, camera wasn't ready. I walked around the stadium checking out the views from different locations and at one point when I was looking down the steps almost directly behind home plate, Ichiro had a base hit and ran all the way to third. Later on in extra innings with the mariners behind by two runs, Ichiro hit a lone homer. Sadly it was not enough as no one else afterwards was able to generate a run.

Before leaving, we went for some clam chowder at Ivars. Half the guys liked it alot so they each bought a bowl. The other half ate at a thai restaurant which had a huge selection of teas. Plus a good selection of tequilas as one person had pointed out. Monday I ignored all requests to go out and just vegged and relaxed at home. Too much excitement and people for one weekend.

An old friend called me up the other day and sent me some plans for two houses which his company has designed to look at. It looked interesting. He wants me to help design houses and buildings with him. As an incentive, he said that they have a construction company for me to use. What am I going to do with a whole construction company? Construct something I suppose.

The Relentless Persuit of Perfection

It was overcast and there was no sun beating down on us. The light breeze was moderately warm. Looking out across the water and all around us, I could see a wall of mist, acting as a barrier in the far distance against the impending rain from our dry sandy beach. My team is protected.

At the other end of the beach a production crew had set up equipment with lights and camera's to film a car commercial. They had a tall ramp with water running down it while a Lexus suv sat on the sand near the real water.

We played our last game of the spring series yesterday and once again we only won the first match. After that we began to lose most of our games. At one point the ball was falling down in front of Wendy when Calvin came running across and practically pushed her aside in a moment of desperation. Similar to the seen in that Seinfeld episode where George pushes the children and old woman out of the way to save himself first when the fire starts in the kitchen at a kids birthday party.

Despite our losses, every team there envied us. They did so because they could smell the food from our bbq close by. Throughout the three matches, we always had one or two people sitting out to tend to the food. I even noticed a tall guy from one team we lost to sneak some chips from us. He was the loudest and most vocal person on his team. A bit rude at times too but he went to the extent of turning away from his team so that they wouldn't see him eating. They too wanted our food. After most of the games in our end of the beach had ended, a young man and woman from another team we lost to stood alone at the net watching us as we ate, drinking our beer, eating our thick juicy burgers with freshly sliced tomatoes, red onions, edam and provolone cheese with crisp green lettuce. So we offered them some and they obliged. I brought the majority of food and supplies for my team bbq again and it turned out good. Now we also have a couple of new friends to play beach volleyball with. Offer strangers good food and you will make new friends. By the end of the evening, it would start to rain. Once again we are protected by heaven as before.

Even though we will have no league to play in for the summer, we now have enough people to fill a couple of courts plus a few sets of nets and lines. I also found a couple of spots to play at which are not used by any leagues during the week.

Paintball this weekend is going as planned. I've gathered approximately twenty nine or so people for four hours of chaos in the woods of south surrey. This was at the request of two friends who are celebrating their birthdays and somehow I've become the organizer. I was rather surprised when I found out that it was really Wendy's idea. It's her birthday. Volleyball girl even likes it too. This also surprised me but who am I to complain? I was almost beginning to think that I would not get to see her again despite her reassurances that I would.

At hockey last friday, I went up to the bar for some food and drinks with the other players. At first it was mostly just the guys as the girlfriends or wives were playing back to back games helping another coed team who were short female players. As I sat there in the bar, I found that the new people playing just for the summer like myself are all organizers of their own teams as well. Kind of like a meeting of the coaches as they all shared stories of deadbeat players and such. It didn't sound that bad though. My friends on our team already cut one player for not showing up. The husband and wife duo currently running it didn't seem too pleased.

Weekday Evenings II

My former coworker drove up from Portland, Oregon with his family. I spent a whole day helping him troubleshoot a satellite system at his parents house. We later went to a taiwanese restaurant for lunch that I had never tried before. If anyone is in the richmond area, it's right beside richmond sushi. I'm not saying it was great but the sauteed eggplant in sauce was really good. Everything else was alright. Afterwards, we went around to the various asian video stores in the same shopping complex looking for a chinese movie on dvd. My former coworker had borrowed it from his friend who claims that he had never returned it. So we went around looking for this movie only to find it on vcd's instead of the real dvd's. One place openly offered to sell us a copy on a blank vcd. We didn't think his friend would appreciate that so I brought him to a store in Park Place mall. Another asian shopping center except here the shop had all the good legal stuff. After that, I brought him and his family bowling. The last time I saw his daughters was about two years ago and boy have they grown. The youngest one is three and is twice as big as before. Still cute as ever as I watched the mother help her with the five pin bowling ball. She would just throw the ball straight down with a loud bang. I shuddered to imagine the cries of pain if she had dropped the ball on her own feet.

It was only the second last class and having looked at the days lesson online and feeling a bit off still from a hike the previous day, I skipped class this week. Yeah, I'm really bad but the material wasn't anything new. Instead I did some work at the nursing home and went for dinner with the cakemaker and a couple of friends. They wanted to have barbecued lamburgers which I'd normally be up for except that I wasn't feeling very well. Luckily by the time I got there, I was feeling much better. After watching my friend and his fiance struggle to chop up and tenderize the meat off some fresh lambchops with a sorry excuse for a butchers knife and a borrowed but broken tipped Henckel knife, the patties were made and I ate mine.

Wednesday evening volleyball was good this week. Even though the weather was questionable grey clouds hovering above for the duration of the evening, I pressed forward and held my first beach bbq for the team. Finally I got to use my shiny new stainless steel portable bbq. We got there late so I had one injured player on the team tend to the food while people rotated in and out of the lineup for food breaks. My last minute shish kebobs were good, one guy burned his mouth with the cheese filled smokies and we won two out of the three matches this time. A first for our team. Woohoo! Being the organizer of this team, I feel like I am both the coach and the captain of everyone. And with the majority of the players being younger than me and without prior knowledge or skill in this sport, I have come to feel as though I am the coach and organizer of events for the children who are just my friends. Even more so because some of the women are rather short. Similarly, the other day I was teaching a friend how to swim. No one had ever done that for her apparently.

Tonight was the last session of train & play down at urban beach volleyball. It rained briefly in the afternoon leaving the courts filled with wet and packed down sand in all but one. Strange right? All the nets were waterlogged and sagged way down in the middle unless you drained them at which point, the centers would instantly rise up almost a whole foot. Regardless, it was still good. We were all pigs happily playing in the mud to a certain extent. Not many people were diving for balls and it wasn't too cold either. Afterwards, everyone went to Original Joes for food before departing. I exchanged contact info with some of the tall people who play regularly on the weekends and enter tournaments at the various beaches; spanish banks, jericho and kits. The summer series starts soon and I look forward to it. Finally what I wanted last year!

Weekday Evenings

So many hours wasted. Tuesday was the web class and I probably spent as much time helping others as I did working on my own stuff. I should be the teachers assistant.

The beach volleyball team is puttering along. Again we win just one out of the three matches for the evening except this time, we win it legitimately. Previous weeks saw us take matches by default or forfeiture: our opponents being late, pulling a no show or not having the minimum number of guys and girls for coed.

My sister invited me to the new Sync exhibit produced by the folks at Nettwerk records. She thought that I might like it since it was also thought that they would have equipment for me to play and mix music with, knowing the small dj course I took some years ago. So we signed up on the guest list along with my friend the cakemaker and went to the opening reception. Nettwerk is the record company that has brought us the likes of Tiesto, Delerium, Skinny Puppy, Stereophonics, Sarah McLachlan, Grapes of Wrath and many others for our listening and viewing pleasure in Canada.

We thought the place would be big but when I got there, it was tiny. Just a long room with many of Nettwerk's music memorabilia including original proposed artwork for record and cd covers. They had free wine to enjoy while you walked around and look at all the various pieces of music history up for auction too. There was a rack of cd's and records containing various unreleased tracks from numerous artists which we picked up; Volumes 4, 7, and 8 of Reel to Reel, Autour de Lucie, Luce, The Parishers, Tiesto set from the Greece Olympic party. Some we never heard of since, well I've been kind of out of the loop lately. We wondered who were some of these new acts out now like the parishers for example. My friend had picked it out on pure curiosity. As I have already mentioned, the event was not what my sister and I had expected. I think she thought it would be like going to a record store and playing with their turntables or something. Instead it was like an event for the people in the music industry. Various Nettwerk people and performers. Everyone was so nonchalant about who was there since it wasn't the type of thing that groupies and fans would be at. The only popular artist we recognized was Sarah McLachlan with her husband and baby. When we realized this, we started to scour the room for other performers by comparing the picture of the band on their cd covers and the people in the room. We found the Parishers standing beside us chatting amongst themselves. The lead singer is this tall guy who didn't really say much but their music isn't that bad. Kind of a take on Coldplay after having listened to it afterwards in the car. My sister and friend were bored and didn't want to stand around talking with industry folks so we left.

Of the cd's we grabbed, I liked the following. The mix of electronica, rave and house in Reel to Reel, the cool french tunes of Autour De Lucie and Sway by The Perishers.

Afterwards, I went with cakemaker to Bin941 for tapas. A Cool trendy restaurant with a great menu. Again we are in a long and narrow room and they pack the place like sardines. It really is tiny. If you're ever in town, its worth it.

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.

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.

More Birthdays

*Revised with additional photos.*

On saturday, Tsubame left for the sunny islands of Hawaii. With his camera gear in hand, he will attempt to get photos of the lava and other supernatural wonders of nature. When he returns, he will leave again for the final time back to Japan.

My screwed up sleeping habits caught up to me late last week as I ended up sleeping in and finally getting enough sleep on the day I was going to head up to Whistler. That was last friday. Saturday I was invited to a small birthday party for three girls at Crush downtown. Photo album courtesy of birthday girl and a friend. Another friend of the party was the girlfriend of the owner of the lounge/club. She got us all on the vip list and reduced the price for all the guys to get in. Women got in for free - of course. It has been quite a few years since I have been to this place. Way back when it used to be the Yale I think. Now, it attempts to be one of those trendy places with a sectioned off 'vip' area, complete with staff to let you in and out, bordered by fat felt rope and chrome posts. The kind you used to see in movie theatre line ups and such. In the mens washroom was an even more pathetic attempt to imitate that of a five star hotel. It was small and decorated in dark coloured walls, counters and floors. At the sink was an array of cologne and other sprays. A man dressed in typical club black stood at the side to turn the tap on for you and hand you a paper towel once you were done. In the middle of the sink was a round frog mouth shaped object for you to throw tips into. The whole thing just seemed out of place. This isn't a fancy restaurant nor Bellagios in Vegas. Everything looked like they were 'trying' to be cool. I have just one suggestion. Replace the sound system. From the frapping mid and bass tones to the not so clear and crisp high's, it was almost enough to make you run from the dance floor. We stilled laughed about it though as we stood there covering our ears and laughing at each other at times. And I don't know about you folks but I can't stand the way some DJ's these days completely butcher the songs. Despite this, everyone had fun still. Enough said.

The group went for Denny's afterwards. Some of them being a little bit tipsy from drinks. One birthday girl kept trying to tickle me and I watched another fumble with her toasted ham sandwich. It took her forever to eat one half and while eating the second half, she had this glazed and lazy look in her eyes as she stared at it. Parts of it started to shift in her hands and she probably could have just fell asleep right there burying her face into her weak hands and sandwich. Mind you these were weak drinkers. Some only having four drinks all evening. I on the other hand only had one rum and coke and lots of water. I'm asian and I was driving. Thats my excuse.

Here I attempt to pluck the light blue and white furry creature from the bin for the bday girl. Note: These two photos have been provided by Roz.

Grab that head damn it!!!! Oops! I'm getting over excited.

My conversational mandarin class ended today. A third of the class was absent with it already being tiny and the traditional restaurant outing at a chinese place was postponed to the first lesson of the next course. That sucked as one fellow student responded by saying that he hadn't eatin for three days. To add to this, I don't know if I will be able to make it to that class because it conflicts with another course which I am interested in.

The Brazilian Festival at the Commodore

Two hours of sleep wasn't enough from the previous evening. However, when I got back from whistler on saturday and took a shower, I felt rejuvenated to some degree and that was that. I went to the Brazilian Festival down at the Commodore. Home of the famous bouncing dance floor.

I found out on Friday at the CakeMakers birthday dinner that her friend Luiza managed to get us tickets for this event.

There were a number of songs which the people in the crowd seemed to know. I didn't recognize any.

In the photo directly above and standing second from right, Luiza is wearing a traditional brazilian outfit known as a Baiana. The white dress, long necklaces and colourful headband. Both her and her mother were dressed alike as well as a number of other partygoers.

There's a whole lotta shakin going on. Shake Shake Shake... Makes you want to hop on the plane and go down to Rio De Janeiro for the carnival.

During the last song, the singer from the live band came down from the stage to run around on the floor. I managed to hold him up enough to pose with the weekend birthday girl.

The Weekend Edition

I am not a regular watcher of this game known as football. But this weekend, I went to a small superbowl party at a friends place and so my thoughts are as follows.

"F**k! How could they make those calls!?!?!? What were they thinking?!?!? The whole game was decided in backroom dealings to support East coast america. Just like in Canada, the west coast always gets shafted! F**k! F**k! F**k! F**k! F**k! Where are those Texas cowboys when you need them the most to go stick up for the west with their guns ablazing?"

Phew. Enough of that. During the game we made turkey. Apparently some kind of tradition with this group. With a professional chef at the helm plus a back up, the food turned out great. Three hours or so plus all the sides. Mmmmmm... I just carved the turkey and peeled the potatoes. I am Mr. Henckel.

Juicing up the bird.

I was tired though having basically spent all weekend downtown in peoples condos. Saturday a bunch of us helped a friend move into his new yaletown condo way up on the 37th floor. What a bargain! The view and an almost penthouse like location.

One block west of the future site of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Everything but the size. 660 sq. ft. That evening we went to Yaletown Breweries for dinner before settling on the Plaza for some drinks and to hang out a bit. It was one of the few places without a long lineup by the time we got around there. I became the first person to crash at the new condo unit. Everyone else already lived downtown. One beer and three gin and tonics. All against the doctors orders. I don't feel so good.

Another Day in Whistler - The Happy Boarder

Me and my friends.

Me.

Me eating snow.

More pictures from me --->Scenes of Montreal

Pipe Dreams of a Happy Boarder

Midweek, I went with two friends up to Whistler while all the other normal people were busy working. Lineups were short and there was lots of room on the mountain.

The weather was clearer than expected despite the initial forecast. I felt like I was the tour guide for my friends as we started on the left side of Blackcomb and worked our way across the slope boarding on all the different runs.

I was the more advanced rider and got my friends to bravely follow me into the Nintendo snowboard park. It comes complete with massive jumps, a boarder cross course, rail slides and last but not least, the huge half pipe. It was icy but this time I had an easier time of it. Previously, I would be worried about falling down on the hard ice if I went up too high on the sides. Having picked up the current five day edge card topper deal, I will be returning back to this pipe in the hopes that I will one day get some "air". One or two feet above the top of the pipe would be nice. For now, it is just simple kick turns about a foot from the top. The picture above does not make the tub look as big as when I'm in it.

No broken bones. No bad spills for the day. Everybody stays a happy camper.

As I said, I will continue to go back to Whistler with different riding groups of various levels. So far, I have lead two with three other groups still to go.

Plaisirs de chocolat

On my coffee table are two more boxes of After Eight. Those minted morsels of wonderful chocolate continue to find their way to my mouth. Like someone pouring tidbits of them down funnels which wind in the air before ending at the bottom of my stomach.

At the airport, I bought a large flat bar of dark cocoa Lindt chocolate. I didn't eat it right away. I saved it. One evening in montreal, it lay there on Gambits marble island in the kitchen. I broke into it for the first bite. A little while later, I watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

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The flight there was nice. Staring out the window in the early hours of the morning I could tell that the sky was perfectly clear and cloud free once you get through the not so stellar glass of the airplane window. And while gazing, I saw a shooting star come down.

Most people on the plane had fallen asleep. The woman two seats over sat there with a blanket completely covering her head as though she were a ghost or simply a dead body that needed to be covered up. The young man next to me turned out to be an artist doing work for the free newspaper called DOSE. He was on his way to Montreal because there was nothing to do in Montreal. It is peaceful and quiet away from the clubs so he could use it as a retreat and hang out with fellow artists like himself. He was also going there to promote his first book. A comic book type of novel which was being published in hardcover. For New Years, his friends were going to pick him up at the airport before making the dash to either New York or Chicago for new years. I don't think they made it to either of the two places.

I got into Montreal early morning on New Years Eve. The day prior to departure was pure frustration as I contended with one problem after another at the rental property. The hot water tank pressure relief valve started leaking, the evacuation valve failed and the drainage line running out of the house became all plugged up. I think I went to Home Depot five or six times that day.

Montreal was great. After asking a waitress at a small place we went to for brunch, we decided to go to the old part of montreal for new years eve. There were lights and a stage set up for live bands to perform. We were lucky and got a parking spot not to far away and began exploring the area. The only thing which we didn't plan on was turning into popsicle sticks. It was minus seventeen and went as low as minus twenty seven with windchill. I saw a shop with had stacks of frozen bottled water just inside the open doorway. Previously recorded music played through the speakers on the stage. I have a feeling that none of the performing bands would actually dare to venture on stage until ten minutes to midnight and after before rushing back inside somewhere for heat.

Next day we cooked breakfast. Andre was making the eggs. I walked into the kitchen to see how they were coming along when he asked me "how does that look?"
Ro stood there, "they look a little under done for sunny side up."
I agreed. He let them cook for a little longer before giving them to me. They seemed alright.

We explored the streets close by my two friends places. One was a loft between St. Denis and St. Laurent near Rachel. Cool area with lots of great little shop and restaurants. Sales everywhere as I wish I could have stayed longer to check out the other places. Another trip back in the summer hopefully.

We brought our ice skates along and went to one of many outdoor frozen rinks. The makeshift ice scrapers were used to keep the waterways somewhat smooth to skate on. Below, Ro and Andre take a photo together of the skating area.

I later went on to get sick. The eggs had their revenge for the next couple of days sapping half my will to be a tourist and try new restaurants.

By the time Gambit and two other friends had returned from their New Years celebrations in Toronto and Vancouver respectively, I was almost back up to normal. Tending to avoid the colder spots, we went to the BioDome. There we saw biological things that lived there like this penguin.

In the evening, it was dinner at Chez Doval complete with live music. Here we ate biological things which were now cooked. Please do not be alarmed as these were not the exact same ones that we saw at the dome.

Gambit didn't feel well so I left him at his loft. i went to meet up with some others at Champs sports bar to catch the final period of the junior world championships. As much as we liked the tv video camera just left of the tv in the photo pointing at us, providing a possible brief moment of stardome on public tv, my friend tried not to draw any attention and look at the camera as he had given his boss some excuse for not coming to work the next day.

A small Bob and Doug Mackenzie monument at Champs bar.

For lunch I walked to Swhartz deli just a couple of blocks away. After perusing through Gap -the first thing I bought on Montreal was a wool scarf for ten dollars, and the shoe store beside it for a bit too long, I managed to get into the doors of Swhartz. Boy was I lucky as when I left, I noticed a line up of about twelve peoplehad formed outside. Plus a begger had planted himself at the door way on the sidewalk asking me for some change. For some reason, I just said, "no thanks." How silly of me. The viande fumee sandwich was the smoothest I had ever had. The tourist book did not lie.

On my last day, most of the group wanted some home cooked food. No rich restaurant stuff so we had hot pot at Gambits newly rented loft. Below is a small turtle for sale at a shop in China town. All two blocks of china town that is.

With only an hour or so to eat, I was off to Dorval airport. However, my flight was delayed. Looking out my window seat, I watched the de-icing machines come and do their work. We left over an hour late.

Au revoir montreal et bon chance Gambit!

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The package of Ferrero Roche is finished. Krinkled up pieces of gold wrapping fill have the empty round holes once filled with those balls of nuts, wafer crumbs and chocolate. I've made my way through half of the thin squares of After Eight mints with no end in sight. Oh the sweetness and the sugar, it is simply too much. Yet I can not avoid it. Like a bad addiction, I must have another. This will be my downfall.

One by one, another square disappears. A mountain of empty black After Eight envelopes form on the table in front of me. Some fall over the edge and onto the floor. Others on my lap. Soon I will have to get up only to get more. To get, the other box.

Shaken, Not Stirred

I got sick last tuesday and wednesday. Good thing the mandarine class is over because I would not have enjoyed it. I did make it to the last photography class only to see that I got a really low mark for one of my assignments. The reason was that I didn't label the slides with a description of the light source used. The teacher was good about it though as she said that she'd let me relabel the slides to have her remark them.

Then I continued to get sick for the rest of the day. Body aches all over, coarse dry throat, a small fever throughout the evening. I plopped myself on the couch and watched reruns of MASH. Images of Captain Pierce and MacIntyre drying martini's from their inhouse distillery. By next day noon, the worst of the symptoms had subsided. It was now thursday and I decided to skip badminton. Instead, I had purchased a ticket the to the 9th Annual Martini Challenge which was being held at the Storyeum in Gastown. I went with Susan and Jason whom I originally met at a softball game during the summer. Jason brought another friend, Conny and she brought two of her own friends.

The event was a blast. Approximately fourteen restaurants or bars from around town were there for us to sample their special martini's. The best was one from Ocean's Restaurant that served a drink with lychee in it. Another one was served with champagne which had a nice crisp taste to it. Three exhibitors were no shows unfortunately. I recognized some old faces from UBC. A woman who is now a teacher at Windermere. She showed up with a coworker of hers as the two had decided that since they were both the only single people on their school staff, they'd come here and mingle. Jason liked her.

Meanwhile, I ran into my good clubmed party friend Farzad. He was there with his sister and a group of thirteen others. His sister's friend was responsible for booking the swing band that played that night which was great. Conny and her two friends started the dance and soon others joined in. Amazing for three girls who couldn't drink much. Conny herself had an exam to write the next day too. Meanwhile her friend Cynthia proceeded to hit me at least ten times throughout the evening as we chit chatted and whatever. And she hit me hard. Silly girls.

Here Conny, Cynthia and Farzad dance to swing music.

I think the martini's helped me get over whatever it was that I had.

That night, I only managed to get around three hours of sleep before getting up to go snowboarding with some other friends. I forgot what time I had told Marty I'd pick him up. It didn't matter as he got up late having been woken up by his girlfriend who arrived before me. Then it was off to Ro's place. The four of us piled into my small truck, snowboards and all before driving off to Cypress Bowl for the first ride of the year. It snowed the night before and was still snowing lightly. Perfect conditions to start off the season and reacquaint ourselves with the mountain.

Li La Li, Li La Li Li Li Li Li

There were three birthday dinners this weekend. I made it to two of them. First was for Leslie in the badminton group. Calvin, me and another friend bought dinner for her. We went to Sui sha ya for all you can eat.

Saturday, my other friend Lynette celebrated her birthday by having a potluck dinner at her place. So of course, we had to have her usual Dr. Pepper shots. Glug glug glug we went.

Afterwards, she fired up the karaoke machine. After everyone finished embarassing themselves like *cough* 'Sarah' *cough*, only Lidia and I sang in the end. Many had already left and as she put it, if she was gonna go down, she needed to take someone down with her and that person happened to be me. Down we went where all the horrible singers are sent in the afterlife. Thankfully, some songs are not terribly difficult to sing. Songs with words like the 'Li Li Li's' in The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkel, or 'dit dun dit dun' and 'thong thong thong thong thong' of the thong song by Sisqo. Yes, karaoke can be humiliating and painful to ones ears but as long as you can repeat simple words and somehow hold a tone, thats all you need. What wonderful songwriters there are.

I missed the third birthday. It was my sisters. Doh!

7:30

Yesterday morning I went to sleep at 7:30am.

Friday evening I worked at the nursing home after cancelling out on ice hockey. Afterwards, I met up with Eric at a club downtown. I don't know why but for some reason it seems that whenever I get into the clubbing phase, it's always back at the same place. Way back it used to be called Madison's with my asian clubbing friends. Then it changed to the 'Drink' during my DJ lesson era, and now with the predominantly south or latin american ESL group, it is reborn as the Red Room.

The place was pretty good and I felt like I was in Cancun at the disco hut again. Nice crowd, great music. Jose got drunk. Eric danced with some people whom he already knew through school.

Some south american woman grabbed me as I was taking some photos and started dancing. I made my attempt at it and she put her hands on my hips gesturing me to swing them side to side. I think it was supposed to be merenge and I think I'll need more lessons. In another song, I held her lead hand with my left and put my right against her back, taking two or three steps forward and another two or three steps back facing each other. It was some popular dance that they all knew.

A little while later, I found myself watching a young woman not too far from me. She was standing at a table with a group of female friends, some of whom were dancing on the small platforms found at the edge of the dance floor. We glanced at each other a few times. Then she moved to stand at the side of the table so that her body was facing me yet she wouldn't look at me any more than a brief second or so.

A couple of footsteps and I stood in front of her. She turned away from me as I approached but eventually turned back to face me again. "Hi."
"Hi" she said back. "I'm Ann."
"My name is Lei. It's nice to meet you."
"How old are you Lei?" I was worried about this. At this point, I feel like some older guy preying on some young woman or something. "Guess" I replied.
"thirty?"
"Nope. Go higher"
"Thirty four?"
"You got it... How old are..." She started to move her head side to side. "Okay, I shouldn't be asking that."
"What do you do Lei?"
"I'm an engineer." I hesitated for a moment leaving out the part about leaving my job in the summer. "And what about you? What do you do?" Just as I said this, the music from the speakers immediately above me became really loud. I could hardly hear myself speak.
"I work with deaf people."
"What?"
"I work with deaf people!" she yelled. I was about to become deaf I thought to myself and maybe she will have to work on me just as soon as the song decides that it doesn't need to be this loud anymore. Now I remember why I'm not too fond of trying to make small talk with people I don't know in clubs. Or at least, try doing it while standing in front of a speaker. I was also starting to feel like this was one of those dates where you start off with a whole bunch of questions. So did I pass or meet her standards?
"I want to dance to this song with my friend" she then said to me. They danced but I decided to just watch not continuing to persue her although I could tell that she was still interested.

We stayed until closing before deciding to go over to a friends place just a block away. Three ESL students got together and rented this condo/suite because they didn't want to live in a homestay anymore. It was a small get together for a friend which included Yuki and company from japan, Maria and Janet from brazil, and Lily and Carlos from Venezuela. I couldn't figure out where Natasha was from as she and a canadian guy kept joking it. Natasha she was able to speak many languages. Suki's boyfriend recently left to return home to Italy. Of them all, I liked Janet. Too bad the majority of them will be gone by christmas. One by one they will all disappear. We stayed at the small apartment until 5:30am.

Eric was getting hungry so I brought him to Denny's instead of Pho noodles. By the time I dropped him off at his homestay house, the light from the morning sun was already coming up. I went to sleep around 7:30am.

Here Eric shows his disappearing cigarette trick to everyone at Maria's go away party.

I woke up around 1:30pm. My sister dropped by with her weekly laundry. "So did those people get back to you yet?" she asked.
"Nope, I'll talk to Eric later about the others later."
"So you'll be there at 4:30 right?"
"Yes. we'll be there."

An old friend and former teammate was having his birthday today. About sixteen of us went down to richmond for some indoor go-karting. I came out with my usual first or second fastest time. Only Ben was faster in the first race. He bumped his way around the track pushing people all over the place. As a result, he received the only warning from the track officials for his driving tactics. In the second race, the two of us once again fought for position only to find ourselves held up by Tony who was slower. He didn't leave enough room to pass on the tight track.

Fellow night owl and birthday boy Ko getting ready to race.

Eric getting ready for his first lap around the track from the starting grid.

Then it was off to Sammy J Peppers for dinner with the group and some more. Not everyone raced. Eric had never been to this restaurant before and liked all the canadian waittresses there.

We all went to silvercity to catch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I was hesitant at first but after watching it, I liked it. All but the ending that is. I won't go into details. We also kill time in the lineup by playing card games for over an hour and a half before we were allowed to go into the theatre.

I woke up at 7:30am today. At least that's what I thought. I think there might have been a power outage during the night because the clock was about two and a half hours behind. Back to work I go to replace an old bathroom fan with a new one at the nursing home.

The Great Pumpkin Patch

I played ice hockey for the first time in a couple of months on Friday. It wasn't bad. Still felt great to be gliding around on the ice with my skates.

Saturday, I went to a birthday dinner for a friend in the badminton club. In all, there was a little over twenty people there. Mostly people that I had never met before. A nice bunch I would have to say as we all chowed down on all you can eat sushi at Sui-Sha-Yi in Metrotown.

Afterwards, it was off to a friends house for the great pumpkin carving contest party. Everyone had really good designs and everyone used a pen and/or a stencil. Mine was the only one to be cut completely freehand and it kind of showed as I didn't prepare ahead of time what I was going to carve. Wing it I did and it showed in the form of slight disproportionately sized patterns on each of the four faces. My pumpkin was not very round.

Here I have a scary goblin face carved on one side of my pumpkin. I wanted to make mine more scary than just a neat, clever or intricate design.

On another side of my pumpkin, I carved a tree with a pacman-like ghost hanging off a branch. The top is cut into a starfish shape opening instead of the seemingly standard jagged or round opening found on everyone elses.

Not seen in any of my photos is a large cutout of a witch on a broomstick. Unfortunately, the broom end kind of looked like a fork. Maybe I should have used a pen to draw out the design first afterall? By the time the fourth face had to be carved, I was all out of creativity and just carved a C-shaped moon. It wasn't worth taking a photo of.

Next is Ronni's ghost.

I can't remember what this was called but Marty took first place in the non-stencil category.

A table full of carvings for judging.

An interesting one which had a strobing light inside to match the 'mystical' design theme.

Note in a previous image of a pumpkin with a spiderweb carving. The spider here is the other side of it complete with the cut out spider pinned on the outside of the pumpkin.

More photos from my friend have been uploaded to this site for viewing.

So, this still leaves the question will the great pumpkin rise from the pumpkin patch this year?

Uncle Lei and the Pie

My cousin brought my not so little niece and nephew for a week this past summer. It has been almost eight years since I last saw them when my other cousin had gotten married. They used to be so small. Now I'm being called Uncle Lei yet even to them it seemed weird because I didn't exactly look like an 'uncle'. I seemed more like someone closer to their age.

I chauffered them around and got to know them a bit more taking them to Van Dusen Gardens, Whistler and various other spots around Vancouver.

Yes, they are just teenagers. The perfect models during our visit to Van Dusen Gardens. Better than other models that I've photographed.

Celebrating after making it to the centre of the maze. The complete set of photos taken during their visit can be viewed here.

It's thanksgiving here but I'm not in a turkey mood. Yesterday I passed on an invitation to an old friends house for a turkey dinner in favour of playing volleyball at the roundhouse downtown. Similarly, I passed on roasting a big bird of my own and went straight for the pie. A large 12 inch pumpkin pie first appeared in my fridge two days ago. I acknowledged its presence knowing that it would be safe. Now it is half gone sharing only two small slices with my sister and her boyfriend when they dropped by. I should not let myself overindulge in such delicacies. Unfortunately my strength to resist such temptations is low.

(After some time has passed by...)

Just an update, only a quarter of the pie is left. I threw a portion into the oven to brown the crust a bit more. That's the way I like my pastry. When I told Gambit the other day that I would eat the whole pie myself, he said that I was crazy. My stomach would beg to differ.

Hands Up! Baby Hands Up!

Give me your heart, Baby Give me your heart...

Everybody stand around the pool and dance! A common sight at Club Med.

Strange how things just seem to work out. On the way to Cancun, some people on the plane said that they saw dark clouds that went way up above our cruising altitude when we passed through the gulf. For the majority of the week, the weather was perfect. Hot and sunny when it needed to be. On the day we had to leave, another system started developing and as we made our way through the Cancun airport in the province of Quinton Roo, thunder showers surrounded us.

The Club Med resort hasn't changed much yet this second time here was great. Everyday I did two or three activities picking up a few new ones along the way. By the end of the week, I had learned how to windsurf, rode the wakeboard,

become a flying trapeze artist hanging by my knees, learned a new song on the guitar, thrown up from too much alcohol on one evening at the Disco Hut, flipped

a Hobie Cat, played tennis, saw the iguana's, won the volleyball tournament, practiced my french with all the montrealers and parisians that I met, visited Cozumel while my friends went scuba diving, partook in a foam party, danced the Club Med medleys and even took in a bit of Nadine's Yoga class and the prelunch water arobics class done in the usual Club Med fashion.

Everyone in our group of four had a great time as by the end of the trip and for the first time in the six or seven times that they have been here had they not felt bored on the last day. Instead, they were contemplating whether or not they should extend their stay in Cancun. I kind of wish we did too except that reality beckons back home in Canada in the form of work.

I can't get one of the Club Med songs out of my head right now. It's as though I was still there somewhere in the compound hearing the song played throughout the sound system.

All the Group Organizers or GO's were cool to hang out and party with.

Even Albert the crocodile that lives in the Lagoon where we water ski and wake board everyday. The kitchen staff just kept him fed so that he didn't go after us club medder's playing in the water. Incidentally, during the five or six years that I have been away, Albert has been busy as we were told that he now has a family. A female crocodile plus two babies. Way to go Albert!

We missed the hatching of the turtles on the beach. I wish I could have gotten some photos of the event but alas we never knew when exactly they would decide to come out of their shells.

Photos of the trip are now online.

I will not fly to Houston

I told Lee that our connection in Houston on saturday will probably not be a very good idea. It has been forecasted that hurricane Rita will arrive on the same day and the evacuation notice was just given to the coastal residents of Texas.

We rebooked with Continental airlines on a different flight at a cost of an extra thousand dollars per person. This should be returned to us after all is said and done. The trip is still a go.

On the phone with another friend, Fuzz says to me " hey man, I'm gonna bring my own tennis balls. You should bring your racquet. You know their equipment won't be that good. Everyone uses their stuff and its just recreational."

I thought about this and held my tennis racquet diagonally over the large suitcase. "This isn't going to fit" I said to myself. I was hoping to take two carry on sized pieces of luggage but maybe I'll have to increase the one and bring everything. The full camera gear, some sporting goods equipment and god knows what else I can think of. So much for just one carry on.

Lee and the rest are going to come by my place around midnight tomorrow and pick me up. We'll then drive down to Seattle for a 6am flight direct to Cancun and hopefully around that large swirling mass of wind and destruction.

Everything looks ok so far as I quickly try to go through my first batch of scanned slides. These are photos which were taken during the past three or four months ever since the photography course started and now I will be able to show people some of the pictures which I took.

I also picked up a new lens yesterday. A Canon EF 28-135 IS zoom lens. It was used but appears to be in excellent condition along with the skylight filter which came with it. Now all I need is a lens hood and I'm set to shoot away.

Wide World of Sports Weekend

Both shoulders are bruised and my legs are tired and sore. I spent most of saturday and sunday riding up at the cypress bowl mountain bike park. Since I bought the Marzocchi Z150 Freeride front shocks for my bike, I've wanted to try more downhill style rides. The old, but still new on my bike Manitou Skareb Comps just aren't enough for bigger downhill courses with jumps and drop offs.

This was the last weekend that the park would be open as the mountain prepares for the coming ski season I think. So I decided I'd better get up there at least once, if not twice.

The park has a lot of nice wall rides, fast burms and table top jumps. Great for learning on. On the first day, I figured out how to jump properly without scaring myself. Believe me, it is quite unsettling to be flying in the air and suddenly not feel your pedals against the bottom of your feet. At this point, you're hoping that you can at least land on the wide cushy part of your seat and that your feet will find their proper places. There are no clipless pedals used here like in cross country and road racing bikes.

I also had to pick up a full face helmet per the bike park rules. And as luck would have it, the only one which would fit my large head at the bike shop on short notice was a Mace CarbonFoil. This happens to be one of the most expensive helmets out there because of the lightweight carbon shell but I managed to get it for only $140 brand new. And buying this helmet proved to be a very, and I mean very good idea as I ended up testing its capabilities on the first day. Now I just need to buy the upper body armour. My shoulders could have benefited from them during my intimate appointment with the mountainside. Hello collar bone. Meet Mr. Rock and Mr. Dirt. Did I introduce Mr. Tree?

I rode with some seasoned downhillers and racers this day. They all pretty much dissappeared down the path as I slowly got the nerve to pick up the pace over various obstacles.

Sunday, I rode for another few hours with some slower riders who were trying the mountain for the first time. Most of them got tired and exhausted within the first two hours. Plus the rough entries into many of the burms was enough to deter them for a bit. Fortunately, all they need to do is get up the courage to ride faster as the bike will tend to skip over all the little dips. Unfortunately, going faster also means getting a bit too much air rather easily in some sections, losing control and falling down harder. Then there's the fatigue factor of trying to hold onto your handlebars as it vibrates up and down and squeezing the brake levers everywhere. I was told that a set of hydraulic disc brakes could fix this easily.

Aftwards, I went to drop in volleyball downtown. I managed to get myself the last available spot for the current session. One problem with this is that the only spot that was available was with the level I group instead of the beginners group. Pretty much everyone can set, bump and spike the ball with moderate control. I think I was the achilles heel on my team but only a little bit I think.

So despite feeling worn out and tired from mountain biking all weekend, I managed to feel alright once the volleyball matches began.

I checked the weather map for the Gulf of Mexico and it doesn't look good. In less than one week, I am scheduled to be on a plane bound for Houston, then Cancun, Mexico. The current temperature there is nice and warm, but it is raining too. Please rain gods, go away!!! Just for one week so I can enjoy my vacation.

The Headless Hiker

Fear plus opportunity equals regret. That is what was inscribed on a wooden post inside the small hut at the camp site. This phrase sticks in my mind as there were only a few shots which I now wish that I had taken instead of worrying about the result. When Tsubame and I were climbing down the nearly vertical rock face off the side of Fissle Peak, I could have taken a picture of him perfectly in focus with the huge moraine and the Overlord Glacier blurred in the background. It's the type of shot which would have shown well the immense size of the great outdoors compared to one human's attempt to experience it up close. The other picture which I regret not taking thinking that I would be taking too many shots with the similar up close style and blurred background is again of Tsubame as he trudged along slowly on the trail. We were leaving the camp grounds and had to hike back up to the top of a small hill where a large cairn was built with a bunch of rocks. With the trail as a path leading directly to Tsubame, the rocks on the ground in the foreground and the Spearhead mountain range and glaciers behind, Tsubame upper body was just exposed above the foreground horizon. Another perfect picture of the great outdoors which I neglected to take in favour of some photos of mountain bikers in the bike park lower down on Whistler mountain. I only had a few frames left on a twenty four frame roll of film. In the end, I ran out of film and didn't even get a shot of some mountain bikes flying down the trails.

And so Tsubame's photo of me attempting to climb down without a head is right. I made all the wrong decisions in choice of film length and shot selection and now I will be glad if I get even a handfull of descent shots out of this trip that I like. Where was my head at you could ask and maybe I smoked too much of that huge mushroom.

This couldn't have happened given that we did not encounter this mushroom until the end of the trip on the long and painfull hike back down to Whistler village. All is not lost however as we can easily "stage" these photos again simply by going back on another trip however unlikely this may be.

I was slowly starting to feel better after the series of 'liver flushes' the other week. And during the hike, I could at times feel some slight discomforts inside my upper abdominal area. It wasn't my stomach and it wasn't my lungs but near the same spot which has bothered me before. Today I ended up with a headache which made me feel weak at times. It slowly dissipated when I left hot Surrey to go to Jericho Beach and watch some friends in a windsurfing class.

The weather has remained hot and every time I pass the Pacific Boarder store on West Fourth street, I get the urge to go and buy a surf board. MSN's home page recently had a article on the top ten places to go surfing. One of the things which I think I'd like to try is getting close ups of people surfing somehow. Similar in nature to the outdoor action shots which I could have taken on the weekend hike to Russet Lake and Fissle Peak behind Whistler Mountain. Anyhow, the top ten is as follows with number one being the best of course.

10. Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain
9. Kandahar Beach, Mexico
8. Huntington Beach, U.S.A.
7. Isla Ensenada, Panama
6. Surfers Paradise Beach, Gold Coast, Australia
5. Tamarindo, Costa Rica
4. Jeffrey's Bay, South Africa
3. Buzios, Brazil
2. Papara Beach, Tahiti
1. Waikiki, Hawaii

Soooo. All I need is to buy me a board, find some cheap flights and take some lessons... again.

A Picture of the past week

Last wednesday kicked off the first evening of four in the HSBC Celebration of light fireworks competition at English Bay. The weather was perfect and we were able to set our equipment up at a good spot. It was only too bad that my first stab at a fireworks photoshoot was a bit of a flop. There were no problems with focusing or aperture settings but the exposure timing was off or too long in some instances. As a result, I got pictures after a spectacular pattern had just fizzled out into the darkness of the sky or ones which were filled with too many explosions. I will have to go back this coming saturday for the fireworks finale to do another photoshoot. Looking at the website for the event, there are some downloadable photos except that I find them to be not very appealing either. Artistically, the composition and even the content aren't very good as they aren't that much better than mine. Maybe you will see a future entry on what not to do when taking pictures of fireworks.

There were three of us together taking photos with our cameras and tripods. Craig is a fellow budding amateur and Jorge is a studio model photographer from Mexico. I met him at the Photoclub meeting the other week as he was looking to network and get a foot in with a local studio. He had a portfolio with him displaying a collection of his work from back home. There were many young models, middle aged pregnant women and one photo of the Mayor of his small town. They were all very good as many of the other club members remarked. One went so far as to give him advice on how to apply for his own exhibition in September at the same gallery that the photoclub just had theirs. Jorge has been doing professional studio photography for the past six years and being a new person here in Vancouver with sometimes no one else to talk to, he was very happy to make my aquaintance. He has an easier time talking to me than most people and is very open to helping me. So far I haven't come across anyone who has not been open to giving advice.

I received an email asking those interested in a photo contest in London from the club and spent this evening going through all the photos I've taken in the past year from my trips. Many of them good and some bad. The Swan's from London, friends from the San Francisco road trip, candid shots of more friends on the Oosterdam cruise and in Disneyland, and the Maui wedding including the woman that I met and her son. In our backyard, we have planted a number of bamboo plants amongst the other bushes and small trees. When I first saw the bamboo shoots stand up with their leaves sprouting over me, it reminded me of a similar photo of my relatives standing in front of a large group of bamboo plants at a pineapple plantation in Maui. Every so often, my sister n law will bring us a pineapple from the Costco in Washington state. A funny lesson for us after packing a suitcase full of Hawaiian pineapples and other fruit only to find out that they could be purchased locally nearby.

At first I thought my photos were good because of the candid nature of the pictures. The spur of the moment strike a pose shots which I find much more appealing than the standard touristy pose beside a monument, and believe me, I have those as do everyone else. Then I think that maybe I like them because of my personal relationship with the people. Does my empathy towards them bias my opinion of the photos? What would a total stranger think if they saw the pictures which I would show? How would it make them feel and is there a mood to the photo?

After the evening of badminton almost two weeks ago, I decided to buy a Victor Discovery Ti 58 racquet. It was the only thing I could find in the middle price range. Everything else was either really cheap or really expensive. And no sooner than I had made the purchase, I chipped the frame in a clash with my playing partner just hours later. Lets face it, I suck at the game but hey, it's fun. On saturday one of the members held a movie night in the theatre room of his condominium complex downtown. The unnannounced movie which we watched was "A World Without Thieves", winner of last years Hong Kong or Asian film festival. I highly recommend it despite some of the farfetched actions of the characters but being an asian movie production, it is not to be expected. We watched the film in mandarin and I spent most of the time trying to match the speech to the subtitles. After turning down the offer to spend one month with the chinese snowboarding team in Whistler thinking that my mandarin wasn't strong enough, I've decided to work on my mandarin. On my bookshelf I still have the two text books from the mandarin class I took at UBC before my one and only trip to Peking many years ago. I think I was supposed to return those books at the end of the term but that was nine years ago...

Project Red Neck Truck Revival has begun. The appointment with the bodyshop has been made for the back end of the truck to finally be repaired after all these years. I'm surprised that the small dent has only rusted so little. All four tires were replaced with a set of rare Toyo Open country A/T's. I say rare because the 225/70R14 is a rare size and not many tire companies make it. I had the outlined white lettering put on the outside thinking that it would give the truck a more sporty look. Maybe it may have backfired but its done now and I'm stuck with it. There was also some hidden damage from the accident earlier this year. The radiator mount was found separated the other day which means that the whole radiator will probably have to be replaced. I don't mind this little freebie as ICBC will have to pay for most of it I hope. Fingers are crossed...

The free time has been good as it has allowed me work on my health without worrying about planning my alterred meal plan and sleeping pattern around a day job. The pain and discomfort has come back to the extent that I can't take a deep full breath. It's like there's a blockage inside. I decided to do a series of consecutive mild liver flushes last week. Both were successful but another one is needed. Everytime I do it, more stuff comes out and there's an instant relief. Unfortunately, I feel that it is not completedly unobstructed yet requiring further attention. No more crappy post softball pub food. I'm glad this week is the playoffs. The season will finally end and I've turned down further requests to play hockey for the rest of this month.

Mt. Seymour MTB Trail - The Boogeyman

The fat fleshy part of my palms were bruised badly and I can barely grip the handlebars on my bike. This will make riding that much more difficult and we're less than halfway down through the mountain forest. The Red Machine is still intact as this is probably about the third time I've been thrown over my handlebars. Dark small blotches of blood infected with dirt clot on my elbow while the mud on my right shoulder and arm dries. The white t-shirt is no longer white. When I hit the ground, I could feel the impact on the top of my helmet directly through to my head.

There are lots of drop offs, logs, bridges, roots going in all directions to negotiate, wet and muddy rock faces and streams along various sections of the path. Everything is going down the path. The rocks, the water, your bike and you in one way or another, on or off your bike.

Part of the group is way ahead while two others are behind me having problems. One has a hardtail which he is testing out and the other is tired and relatively new to the world of downhill trail riding. I am the only other person who doesn't have a full downhill style mountain bike. My full suspension cross country bike has roughly half the suspension travel that everyone else has and I've blown an O-ring seal on the rear Rock Shox piston. As I stop and pull myself to the side of the trail, another rider slowly passes by and looks at my bike at the same time.

"Hardcore I see..." he says to me noticing that I'm not riding a downhill bike. I laugh and he rides on in the water over the rocks and down the trail.

We had debated between riding Boogeyman or Pangor. We eventually chose Boogeyman and today, it was unusually not busy. Most of the other riders around were on the other easier trails. There's a section of the path which consists of three or four logs one after another. Each one is about twenty to thirty feet long. The logs are big and have a flat manmade platform or surface on top. The only thing is that the logs are at minimum about five feet above the ground and at the highest, they appear to be almost twelve feet up in the air. Two in our group fell off and for the most part, there is no safety rail or rope. When Jon slipped, all I could here was "@#$@" in the distance as I was still just on the smaller bridge which twists and turns before the long log sections. He did a good job on his head but thankfully he was wearing a full face helmet. A malfunctioning rear derailleur helped to throw his balance off.

Darren on the other hand had a more comical fall. When he realized he was about to go down, he threw his bike down first and attempted to hug the log for dear life. Unfortunately all he could do was grasp hopelessly as he was too far down before landing beside his bike far below.

I watched Doug go over his handlebars in front of me on some rocks. Unfortunately for him, he did not have any gloves on.

Humans and animals in general have a distinct physical attribute in that they have a thumb to grasp things with. Just think what life would be like if we didn't have any thumbs and right now. That's pretty much the way I feel. I had to use both hands to squeeze water from my water bottle and the same goes for just removing the key from the ignition switch of my truck when I got home. I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to swing the bat at tomorrow evenings softball game.

The group met up in the parking lot of the safeway plaza and there Doug met a former coworker of his. A friend who had spent a year or two writing articles for some mountain bike magazine until it got taken over by another magazine. He was in another section of the forested park with a Mongoose sponsored rider. They were taking photos as the guy performed spins and tricks in the air. I'll just be glad to make it through the trails alive as long as I don't attempt anything crazy.

Gemini's Birthday

This weekend we celebrated four birthdays at the same time. Meanwhile, hundreds of kilometers away, another birthday dinner took place for Gambit. (Sorry Gambit. You're too far away...) So for the cake, we had to modify things a bit. Renée's son Kaz had the honours of blowing out the candles for the four birthday folks.

This cake was purchased at Costco. Previously, we had done the same thing for another member of the group except at that time, the prized piece was damaged en route a la maison. Notice the shifting of the large techtonic plates and the numerous fracture lines. The rainbow and clouds was a source of ridicule for said birthday boy, Martin at the time.

And of course, we have to have our Dr. Peppers. Shots of amaretto all waiting for the birthday people.

From the moment the gun is fired, the shots are dropped in the glass and down it all goes. A race to the finish. Glug glug glug...

We all took turns including myself but strangely enough, I didn't feel anything being the weak drinker that I am. Unfortunately for Pebbles, all she could do was look on. Sorry. No alcohol for you.

On a personal front, I've taken what may be the first steps towards a new hobby. I've signed up for a beginners film photography course at a small photography school called Focal Point. Classes start at the end of the month so look for me to have a better camera as well as better photos in the not too distant future.

Two Day Trip Overview

The trip started on this tiny twin propeller short haul airplane. I didn't anticipate the first flight to be a small airplane and was a bit worried about getting air sickness. My fears were soon to be unfounded and the ride went off without a hitch.

I arrived at the Luxor around three or four in the afternoon. The weather was nice and hot sitting around 94 degrees fahrenheit. I was tired before even getting here and just took a short break to settle into my hotel room before Gambit called. He got to his Texas friend brendan's hotel room next door at Mandalay Bay about an hour after I got in. Timing was perfect and we all met up to walk around and do some gambling.

This trip was basically about Gambit playing some Texas Holdem Tournament's and the three of us playing Black Jack. During the first evening, he played in his first ever live tournament. Brendan and I popped in and out of the area to watch him play. Right next to this open room is the sports betting area. Brendan likes to put bets on sports games and had a few going on this evening's baseball games. On the large screen was the basketball conference finals. This was almost the perfect guys night out - playing poker and watching sports in Mandalay Bay, and free drinks for the gamblers! Not that I was drinking alot but everybody around us was into it. I should have put a bet in for the basketball game as the team I was rootin for won. San Antonio beat Phoenix and will go on to the championship finals.

Gambits performed admirably as he said that he was really nervous. The tournament started out with players enough for three tables. Approximately thirty in total. As people fell out, a table was closed until it was just Gambits table left. Everything came down to a blonde woman who sat beside Gambit and a older middle aged man. In the end, the older man caved in a bit and the two had the choice to play no more and just split the pot. They did and that was the end. Anticlimactic it was. Gambit thought that the tournament would have been a bit more glamorous but unfortunately it wasn't like what you see on tv. No banks of people watching participants bet to the end. All in! And I should have bet on the Spurs. Did I already mention that?

In the beginning, I had all intentions on relearning James Bond's favourite game Bacarat. Instead, I didn't play it at all. I learned to play Black Jack. This was the most fun as Brendan, Gambit and I would all play together and at least one or more of us usually had pretty good luck. Gambit gave me some tips on how the game is played and I was hooked. For the rest of the trip, this was the only game I would play. Six deck Black Jack. Here's a tip. Stay away from single deck black jack. It's just a money pit.

Next day our schedules kind of got a messed up. We were all separated until the evening but not really. I woke up really late, Gambit was up early playin tournaments and Brendan had conferences in the morning being there on business. I got a message to sign Gambit up for a high stakes tournament down at the Bellagio. So I went there and looked into it only to find out that the entrance fee was five hundred and forty dollars. I balked at it and left a message with Gambit that I wasn't gonna fork out the dough for it. Especially if he might have already entered. It was only ten minutes before the tournament would have started and he wasn't on the list yet.

I decided to play some Black Jack at Bellagio's and had some luck again. Then I walked over to the Aladdin and spent the afternoon browsing through the shops and playing the single deck black jack which was a failure. Finally I went back to the hotel and just soaked in some Lei's at the Oasis - Luxors outdoor pool area. We managed to reconnect for the evening again at the Aladdin. Coincidentally, despite being separated, the three of us spent most of the day in the same places. We just never saw each other.

In all, we played at Mandalay Bay, Bellagio's, Aladdin and MGM Grand. Every game except for the single deck black jack I was always able to double my initial stack of one or two hundred dollars. All tables we played at were ten dollar minimums and the bet sizes occasionally went up to a couple of hundred dollars. Gambit was mostly conservative in his bet sizes until we played at MGM. He started betting upwards of three or four hundred to reach a high of around eight hundred in his stack of chips at one point. This was welcome given what he had laid out in tournament fees and other gambling debts. Me on the other hand, if I had kept all my winnings and not played on, I could have paid off my trip easily. But, I didn't... What you see in the movies is true. Luck comes and goes quickly. But again, that's not to say that you can't get it all back again quickly...

Vegas Trip Update

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas...

Excitement Reigns down at the Igloo!

*Revised at 2:51PM*

LPP* 2005 - The series resumed from its Victoria day holiday and Team Beast was back fighting for its life down at the Igloo. This was by far one of the best games as no one side had any considerable advantage over the other and chances were numerous at both ends of the ice. Team Beast pulled out a much deserved 9 - 7 win over Team Feast keeping their hopes alive for yet another game.

Beast Captain Ron Pong should be proud of this win as his team never fell behind always finding a way to answer back whenever Team Feast tried to tie it up or take the lead. This was a complete team victory. Following the game, one of his first comments was "well guys, just another three games to go!" showing a small bit of exhuberance.

Substitute goalie Sherman Chan made his first appearance between the pipes for Team Beast after the recent birth of his new born baby. Maybe thoughts of his new son was still in his head as at one point, he almost let a goal in turning his back to the play not realizing that his team was not able to clear the puck out of their zone successfully.

Similarly, Beast defenseman Gordon Chan was seen heading to the wrong and opposing teams penalty box, sitting himself beside Feast forward Travis Wong who was already in for holding.

Team Feast played a much more risky and open style of game as they left them self open to being scored upon. Beast fowards Chris Stampvincent, Nixon Tham, Allen Leung and Albert Chang had many opportunities including some breakaways only to miss the mark more than once.

Feast Captain Derek Lowe tried everything including mixing and matching his lines in an effort to try to gain the lead.

Towards the end, Team Feast was able to pull within one(again) before pulling their goalie for the extra man attack. Unfortunately Team Feast lost possession of the puck on a weak break out attempt from their zone. Seconds later Feast forward Jason Lai was found trying to play goalie as LeanPorkLei scooped up the free puck for the empty netter and his second of the evening.

The excitement didn't stop there as Feast captain Derek Lowe reinjured his ribs while being checked into the boards. With their leader down in extreme pain, the final seconds ran off the clock killing the second extra man attack and the game. They were looking for two goals to tie things up.

Rookie Dennis kept his goal scoring streak alive stretching it to seven games as he helped Team Feast see another day or game in the current series.

For the second game in a row, Team Feast failed to finish off the series. They currently lead it by five games to two.

The Three MDHL stars are...

1. Chris Stampvincent - Led all Beast forwards with goals and his play this evening.

2. Anthony Chang - The usual. Just keeps putting the black puck in the net whether its by himself or off a linemate.

3. Sherman Chan - The new son gave him life.

Honourable mention goes to Derek Lowe in an impressive display of team leadership as the C dictates only to go down himself in the end.

-------------------------------------------------

Outside the Igloo, things are getting hot. The weather has been nice for the past couple of days which is unusual this early in the year. A nice way to ease myself into the upcoming forty degree oven in Nevada. That's dry heat thankfully.

Tickets are booked and I'm heading to Vegas this week! Wednesday to Friday with accomodations at the Luxor. That black pyramid in the dessert beside the newer and much larger Mandalay Bay hotel! Gotta love that travelocity site. Much better than what the local flight agencies offered me by a couple of hundred dollars.

I went to see the final episode of Star Wars and was pleased to have all the loose ends tied up in the story line. I can now start the trilogy DVD collection. Or maybe not. Maybe I'll just borrow them from my brother. Remember, no dough from the company. Will I find my luck in sin city? That by the way was also a cool movie. I don't know if it is true but I was told that FedEx almost went bankrupt at one point. With only one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to cover the payroll and any other operating expenses, the owner flew to Vegas and gambled it all. He came back with a whole lot more and it is what you see today.

My friend in New York is flying to Philadelphia to see the Salvador Dali exhibit. She had tried to see it before except that it was so busy, they couldn't get in. This time they made reservations. How crazy is that? Reservations to see an art exhibit.

An Act of Immediacy

Finally a break. A small break. Even though it's almost the next weekend but because of the site outage, this entry now seems outdated. Hopefully it'll be up long enough for me to save this entry.

Today I went to see the specialist and got the results of the blood test. AST and ALT are 70 and 59 respectively. Both being just slightly high. He noted that the viral load was low. That is, lower compared to some people who have hundreds of times more than what they found in mine. Plus there was no detection of a mutant strain so everything is fine for now. In another couple of months, the results may change and the doctor may at that point decide to switch me over to any of the many newer drugs which have just come on the market. Adepovir and Entecovir are two. Yet these and other drugs have yet to be completely approved in the canadian medicare system. Apparently the government is bickering about the cost if that is any indication of what to expect. Although the doctor has told me that the drugs are much better than the one which I am currently taking(lamivudine/heptovir), I found out that for the most part, they tend to keep people on the new drugs without stopping. Only those who were on the initial one year trial period were stopped. Everyone else has continued to take it for about two to three years now. I don't want to be on these drugs forever.

I went to the Vancouver Art Gallery for the first time on sunday. It was a nice break from the busy week as I wanted something to do which I hoped would be calming. Still with too much energy inside and maybe anxiety, I wasn't completely able to feel at ease.

There's a photo exhibit showing the collection of Claudia Beck and Andrew Gruft. I was interested in the Henri Cartier-Bresson pictures in the collection. They had a small tour which I took part in. A woman brought us to some photos which the 'vancouver photography school' was commissioned to work on. It was mentioned that there really isn't a 'school' but rather just a group or association of professional photographers in vancouver calling themselves as such. The result was a set of pictures themed 'denaturalization'. That is, the removal of the natural environment from urbanization and development. I found the lecture interesting but most probably wouldn't. No one else in the group was as young as me and I'm not exactly young either.

There were only three photos in the collection from the late Henri Cartier-Bresson unfortunately. I had read an article about him after his passing last year and saw some of his more famous works. A perfectionist in "surrealism, master of composition and the capacity to seize the decisive moment". This is what I hope to incorporate into my photos one day.

"A photograph, he said, is an act of immediacy. Drawing, which was his passion, is an act of meditation."

--As quoted by Henri Cartier-Bresson to fellow photographer and editor Jean Jacques Naudet, American Photo December 2004

Game 4 of 10 - The Usual Please

LPP* 2005 - The game was almost an instant replay of game three except that this time star foward Anthony Chang was back in the lineup for Team Feast. Team Beast was without both their captain Ron Pong and assistant captain Chris Archibald assigning the duties to Allen Leung and Albert Chang respectively.

Team Beast actually had a bit of a spark this time in newcomer Pavel Dosanjh. In his first game he looked dangerous with some blistering slapshots but unfortunately almost all were from long distance outside the face off circle. Team Feasts young netminder Calvin Cheng was solid in net welcoming all that Team Beast could throw at him.

Still this wasn't enough as Team Feast simply outnumbered their opponents with the depth of their lineup.

Rookie Dennis Chan and Eric Lun both made considerable contributions to the score board adding over a third of the goals for Team Feast.

And to make things worse, the substitution of newcomer and still developing forward Chris Stampvincent with seasoned defenseman Leanporklei, Team Feast was able to spend the whole game sending in wave after wave of attacks. It didn't matter what line was playing, they were all dangerous.

Meanwhile Tommy Wong failed to convert for Team Beast on numerous opportunities. He was left alone in front of the net. "His weak skating skills means that the opponents tend to view him as a non-threat" commented one person. "And as a result, all he has to do is just get into position and wait to be fed after his stronger wingers have finished all their hard work just to get the puck to him."

It may be early but with a three game lead in the best of ten and all by considerable margins, the future of Team Beast looks dark. Life may end in just two more games.

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What a busy weekend reconnecting with various groups of friends. Friday night hockey was alright despite not feeling very good before hand. My liver area is starting to bother me again as I didn't feel all that strong during the game. As a result, I slept in really late on saturday before I was finally able to get up and do some work at the nursing home.

This week has sort of stressed me out and whenever I detect any sort of health issues cropping up, it just doesn't help. Ever get the feeling like you don't know what the hell you are doing and why? What is your goal? All I do know is that I really need a vacation. There was a bit of a bright spot in that the administrator at our nursing home came to me for some support as she had just come through a few months of very stressful times battling a bacterial infection. Luckily I was able to help her feel better in dealing with all the obstacles she's been faced with by the doctors and some of their ignorance. In the end what made her really happy was after I sent her a really long email on my thoughts on healing and various alternatives and solutions. She thanked me for it and told me that I was in the wrong profession.

I tried a new restaurant on saturday night called Spice Islands. It's a tiny place way out on W.41st near Dunbar. On the menu is a map of malaysia with a whole page explanation of where the name came from and the origin of the food. Some of the places and names sounded similar to those mentioned in Among the Star's blog on her travels. The food was pretty good but the dessert could use some help. Many of the main dishes were similar to Tropika and Banana Leaf as both are the same style. I didn't bother with the fried banana and ice cream dessert. Instead I had the grass jelly drink. It wasn't bad. It didn't taste the way I thought it would have.

Softball season is starting this week so we had our first practice. Ready or not, its the bad news bears again. My new glove from last year is hardly broken in yet. A few of us tried pitching and for me, it was horrible. I remembered my few attempts at pitching last year and thought that they were pretty good. Then my first at bat performance was even worse. It took a few, make that a lot of swings before I finally started connecting again. Mind you the pitches I was going for were also really bad. Gotta work on that hand to ball coordination.

It's been awhile since I've seen this gang as I've been keeping to myself lately. So we went for some cheap Pho noodles afterwards. Lisa has a new job at an investment company downtown. It will be the first time for her with this type of company and when she described it to me, I knew exactly what it was. Just another one of those shell companies in the TSX venture exchange. All they do is raise capital for multiple mining and resource companies through the markets. The same core people are always there but the companies being represented go through cycles changing names every so often.

In the evening visited a friend whom I grew up with. He lives just down the street from me but I drove anyway because I didn't want to be late. He was giving us a slide show of his photos which he had taken on an expedition in south america. It was a tiny group and about half of us all knew each other since grade three or so. It's been years since we've hung out and when I went to his place, his mother answered and knew it was me right away. I was surprised. The pictures were great and I gave him some leads as far as putting on his own photo exhibition here in vancouver for paid audiences instead of just friends and family. And it turns out his mother gave him the same ones. He's already achieved some success in magazines and various other publications both in canada and japan but is still struggling to get his name out. I still need to get my own camera. One of those full featured digital SLR's maybe. Although I still question the results when compared to the detail of a 35mm film or a 645. This interest has sort of fallen by the wayside in the past few months.

Toys

So what do you do on a friday afternoon with no work and time to kill? You sit around a tennis court and contemplate life and its meaning. Again the small band of engineers left at my office not including me. Someone has to aim the camera phone.

We played doubles tennis for an hour and a half at some courts near our office. The weather was perfect for some outdoor exercise and behind us is what appears to be sports day for a large elementary school. Little do these kids know that one day when they grow up, some of them will probably go through what we are currently going through. Incidentally, I finally got to try out my brand new tennis racquet. I bought it late last year but never got to use it.

My brother dropped by on the weekend and I decided to spend some quality time with him. It's not that often that I do plus I wanted to take his new 4Runner for a spin. We drove down to Richmond Motorsports as a destination because he needed to pick up some parts for his Bombardier power boat. I wanted to look at the bikes.

Out front was this Honda CBR 1000RR with REPSOL racing graphics. This is a sweet looking ride and was already sold. The 2005 600RR and the 1000RR's have improved this year losing a lot of weight.

A couple of years ago they started designing the exhaust pipe so that it was high up underneath the tail instead of just sticking out beside the rear wheel. This year the housing for the small twin pipes received cosemetic changes and are ovalized instead of just being round. All in the name of looks as I don't think it improves the performance greatly.

Representatives from Kawasaki were onsite promoting this years new models. They're currently running commercials for this Ninja 636.

A group of four riders wanted to take this and two other kawasaki's for a test spin but the Kawasaki rep didn't sound too thrilled that the Richmond Motorsport salesman was going to let the guys go. Bike theft is all too common even straight from the dealership. The rep even challenged the salesman to ask the owner of the dealership to give approval because it was the salesman's father.

Meanwhile across town at the Carter Honda bike shop, they're itching to lend bikes out for hour long test rides.

Before we left, this Yamaha R1 was put on a dynometer. It measure the horsepower at the wheel. All you have to do is rev the bike up and see the numbers calculated and displayed on the computer in front. Note the laptop on the bottom of the picture. Have you ever stood beside a stationary sport bike firing between 12k and 14k rpm's? Where's the earplugs when you need em.

I had a look underneath the hood of my brothers 4Runner and noticed what appears to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. Those engineers at Toyota had a brainstorm and mounted the oil filter up front vertically with its own oil catch reservoir. No more spilling oil during the oil change and all the oil will already be drained from the filter. In short - no more mess! And as an added bonus, there's still lots of room in the engine compartment for easy access. Unlike some vehicles where you'd have to remove a portion of the engine just to replace the oil filter.

Leimon's Sunday - A Series of Unplanned Events

Yesterday was weird. I met up with four people to go to the 2005 Pacific International Auto Show (For pics, see the DGP link). In the group was my sister, her boyfriend and another couple. As we walked through the stadium looking at all the vehicles on display, I ran into a woman that I haven't seen for about four years. She was a half hearted participant at my old Tae Kwon Do school. Her mother was the instructors significant other. We chit chatted and sort of got all caught up on what has happened to each other and found out that she has become an avid motorcyclist. Great. Another cyclist whom we can add to our group of riders if we ever decided to start one. There's one problem though and that is that her bike was just stolen recently.

Afterwards we left the Toyota displays, I walked over to the Subaru vehicles and as I stood to take a picture of the WRX, I noticed standing behind the vehicle directly opposite from me was my manager. He was there with his younger brother and some other folks. I went over, said hi and briefly talked about the cars there. Here's a tidbit of information. The 2005 Saab turbo's have the same drivetrain and engine as the 2004 Subaru WRX's. GM bought into a partnership agreement with the japanese group which builds Subaru's.

A little while later, I ran into my coworker and his fiance and her father. We talked and I told him that our manager was there also but he didn't see him for the rest of the day.

My group soon left and went to Honolulu Cafe on Main street and 28th. It's a really cheap Hong Kong style restaurant and you can get a complete meal (not large) for six or seven dollars after taxes and tips. The meal includes the main dish and a typical Hong Kong style drink and of course, tea. Some places will serve huge servings. Enough to feed both you and your partner. So at this point you kind of have to feel bad for the place because you've basically had a meal which costed around three dollars per person. Now if you tried to make it yourself at home, it would be next to impossible to do it for such little money including the time you would have spent in preparing everything.

After the dinner we all went our separate ways. I drove down to the Superstore on Marine Drive in east vancouver to get a prescription filled and as I stood their waiting, the other couple which was with us all afternoon showed up. It was raining outside and around 7pm so they decided to do some grocery shopping. They continued on their way while I continued to wait. The pharmacy only had seven of the pills that I needed so I asked them to call around to the other locations for stock. Nobody else had any except for the one in Richmond.

I drove to this location and gave them my prescription. They told me to wait thirty minutes so I just wandered around the store looking at things when I bumped into Stan from Mad Dogs Hockey which I play with on fridays sometimes. He was surprised because I don't live in this part of the woods and I told him that I was just passing through having come from downtown for the auto show. And I before I forget, he's another motorcycle rider.

So that leaves the question of where else should I have driven across the lower mainland to run into people? It also kind of makes wonder why things happen sometimes. Back home to Surrey I go...

A Day in the Clouds

Hmm. I've never had breadfruit before. I wonder what it tastes like. I had a horrible headache today. So bad that at times it made me feel nauseous while on tv there's the constant stream of news regarding the death of the Pope. Such an iconic figure in the lives of so many people regardless of whether or not they are religious. It might be interesting to see who and how they choose his successor.

On Thursday my coworkers and I broke for lunch earlier than usual. We went to TBC Indoor racing just a few blocks away for some fun. They had a month long half price special so each race was only ten dollars. We signed up for two. On the waiver form there was a question asking why we were there and one of the answers was to 'blow off steam'. We looked at it and kind of laughed. Then I checked that one off. Below is a picture of us four. That is all that is left of our tiny crew of engineers. I brought my own motorocycle helmet this time so try to guess which one is me... We look kind of funny here as the helmets make us look like we have big heads.

There was us four plus four others. A father and his three teenage kids I think.
I managed to do pretty good being the lightest of the bunch. In the first race, I started from mid pack. I slowly made my way up through the field before finally passing the first and second place drivers in the last lap as they got caught in traffic. I won just in the nick of time. In the second race it was from the back of the field. This time I almost caught up to my coworker who started in pole position but couldn't quite pull it off. Another lap and I think I would have gotten by him as he admitted to being pressured in that last lap. Up until that point, I had the fastest lap of the day clocking in around 33.64 seconds on their slippery concrete track. The staff their told us that the fastest laps are down around 31 seconds and with a low fuel tank by some small teenager.

On Friday I didn't come in for work. I told my manager at the last minute that I would not be in. Instead, I went up to Whistler with two friends to go snowboarding. The snow season was looking pretty bad until the past week or so when it has been snowing constantly. Whistler side was partly closed but blackcomb was mostly open. Winds were abit high at the top but the sun did come out occasionally and the snow was generally good. The line ups were long because the upper glacier and 7th heaven was closed. Everyone had to go to glacier side and solar express or jersey cream. I ran into a former coworker of mine in the lineups that day. We exchanged greeting before she asked me why I was up there instead of working. I jokingly just said "yes, I should be working" with a smile on my face and we all just laughed. I would guess that this is a common joke here in the lift lineups.

Lisa wasn't very good as this is only her second year so she had a bit tougher time in the deep and steep stuff. Ro on the other hand was quite capable choosing to go through the trees. The best snow was found at the terrain park. It was just above mid mountain where it was cold enough that the snow was still light. The rows of trees down each side would shield this section from the weather. None of us tried any of the huge quarter turn jumps or rails and obstacles. I did take a couple stabs at the half pipe: year 2005 goal number three. No one else was there because the walls were all frozen with not enough fresh snow. Perfectly carved to olympic spec's. It looked daunting as I don't think I've ridden a half pipe this big with walls that were at least ten to twelve feet high and three or four feet of vertical. The only thing close was the halfpipe my highschool friends had built in a friends backyard. We'd ride it every week back in the days when Tony Hawke was at the height of his young skate boarding career.

I went down and did some basic kick turns back side and front side but that was about it. Ro was at the bottom watching when I finished. We went back up and came down to the same spot. This time I tried to start with more speed by dropping in from the top of one wall instead of rolling in on the bottom flat section. And this time, I fell down quite a bit. In front and behind me were two groups of little kids in ski schools. It was funny to see that the instructors would take such young children down the half pipe. They didn't go very high but at least rode it with enough skill so as to not fall down. I on the other hand felt like I was surrounded by all these little children on skis as the second instructor let me ride the half pipe between the two groups. Including me, there was probably about sixteen of us in total on the pipe at the same time. On the lift up, a ski instructor asked us if we could let one of her young students share a lift with us up. It was just a tiny girl and she sat there beside us quietly all the way up.

The forecast is for more rain all week in vancouver which means a daily dumping of the good stuff up on the mountain. I think I'll try to ditch work again mid week...

Food for Thought

Some friends of mine played in a co-ed ice hockey tournament this weekend and I subbed in their second game on saturday. They named themselves the 'Sanitation Engineers'. I contributed my one goal and we won 7-1 which allowed us to get into the semi-finals on sunday. I didn't play any other games but the team came in second (woohoo!). Instead, I hitched along for a trip down to Seattle with some other people.

The whole trip was about shopping and eating with the primary goal being to pick up approximately seventy dollars worth of cookies made in Australia. Gabriel is infatuated with them and went to the extent of having a batch ready for pick up from one of the few distributors in the north west. We hit various outlet malls, the REI store in Seattle and other shops in downtown Seattle.

We stayed overnight around Lynnwood and came back on Monday after some more food and shopping. The next trip back down will be in approximately three months, when Grabriel runs out of his cookies.

The trip started early sunday morning with a big breakfast at an asian bakery and restaurant in Richmond. For around five dollars, you could stuff yourself silly Denny style but with westernized HK dishes.

After waiting in the lineup to cross the border and fill up on gas, our first stop was the Burlington outlet mall. Being Easter sunday, many of the shops were closed and others opened late.

Here the future newlywed couple munch on a bag of freshly made kettle popcorn. It was interesting talking with them as I found out that they are also about to get married at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas in just over a month. It gave me a chance to share with them my other friends wedding experience a few years ago at the same hotel.

A giant Swiss Army Clock by the entrance to REI.

I picked up some Ahi and Albacore Tuna at Trader Joes. I also noticed that they sold precooked white and brown race in small sealed plastic bags. All you have to do is put the pouch in a microwave for sixty seconds and you're good to go. Conveniences of modern technology? Get a rice cooker!

At the Sephora cosmetic shop, I came across a line of products called Urban Decay. Now I don't know about you but if I was trying to sell products in this market, somehow I don't think I would choose the same name...

Chocolate covered fresh strawberries anyone? Courtesy of Godiva chocolates.

Something amazing happened this weekend. Really. I actually read a book from beginning to end given my level of literacy. I kid you not. If any of you know me well, you'll know that I rarely do this. So last year Gambit gave me 'The Alchemist' by Paulo Coelho. He received it as a gift except that it didn't particularly interest him. Well I brought it back from London and it just sat on a shelf all these months until Friday when it just seemed like it was time that I should read it. The book is pretty good and I recommend it to anyone interested.

Vampira in the Cabaret

A bunch of my friends met up at the Foggie Dew on saturday around seven for dinner and drinks. It was a free evening for two of them because they had a baby sitter for their son. I and three others showed up three hours later. When I arrived, there was a lineup in front of the pub so I asked the doorman how long it would be. He said an hour. I called my friends inside and told them what was going outside before they decided to come out and meet the rest of us outside.

We hopped in our vehicles and drove up North road and found another pub called the Rhino. The people that came out of the Foggie Dew was glad to come here because it was getting too noisy for them to talk. Unfortunately, on the otherside of a short wall trimmed in animal shaped glass was the house band. They went on stage and fired up their instruments. The music selection wasn't bad playing all the mainstream hits filling the tiny dance floor they had.

We left near one in the morning. Some went home. Five of us piled into one station wagon and went searching for the Boon County Country Cabaret. It took awhile to find the place but we eventually did after driving in circles on Lougheed highway.

Most people were dressed in western garb and the cowboy hats were a plenty. If they sold them there hats inside I would have bought one. The crowd was generally a bit older than us and mostly caucasion putting me and two others in the extreme minority. I don't know if my friends noticed but I got a lot of looks my way as I probably stuck out like a sore thumb. Despite this, the place was alright. The stage was huge and the 'country band' played Brian Adam's Summer of 69' when we first got in. There were two bars inside the large open space which was decorated to look like a barnyard complete with a giant metal tub holding alcohol and ice. My friends liked the large dance floor they had if you can make out the three shorter women in the mix. On the ceiling and looking slightly out of place was a disco ball roughly four times the one found at the Rhino pub.

The big guy in the SFU blazer is from Brighton, UK and as luck would have it, some of Roni's old highschool friends happened to be here too. While they danced, I played pool. And after losing horribly to Martin, I met a woman unlike the rest of the crowd. She came up to me wearing a long black coat and began sinking the balls which were left on the table. We began to play when she took off her coat revealing a fancy textured black pants with an intricately laced brilliant red corsette top. Her skin was pale and she had dark straight hair styled just like Morticia in the locally produced show the Adam's Family from a few years back. And now that I think about it, her face even looks like Morticia or Ellie Harvie. Back then I had actually known a friend of the actress. In addition to cutting my hair, Ann worked on the set doing hair, make-up and special effects for the glumly dressed characters of the show. She would occasionally give me the inside scoop on things going on with the show like how the kids on the show are so amazing memorizing all the lines and even getting my hands on some of the scripts before the episodes had aired on TV.

During the match, I jumped into a huge lead before Vampira clawed her way back to the point where she was about to put me away. I had been played but as luck would have it, she scratched at the same time that she sank the eight ball.

I didn't meet any cowgirls that evening. Instead I met Vampira in a barn.

Netminder Ray, Goaltender Lei

Friday night I subbed for a friend's co-ed hockey team who was sick again. We won but only thanks to a goalie named Ray who agreed to play for us after he finished a game for another team. The regular goalie Chuck called saying that he over knapped. The substitute goalie was great. Ten times better than Chuck as the team went on to a 2-0 win.

Sunday morning, I attended a woman's team practice. It was a new team put together by some of the women from the co-ed team. I and some of the other guys from the co-ed team were there to run the practice and teach them some things.

Every now and then, I strap on the pads and take that position between the pipes. I borrowed some goalie gear and joined the one female goalie, Tanya on the team. Funny how goalies gravitate towards each other. As soon as I got on the ice late with everyone already doing team stretching routines, the two goalies got along pretty well and began talking.

With more people running the practice than previously, two of my friends and myself were able to devote all of our time to just goalie drills. Andre and Doug were the shooters and Tanya and I practiced lateral movement and break aways and continuous close distance shots. With me there, we could alternate doing the drills allowing her and myself to get a break in between. Tanya did pretty good. She's played off and on for a few years but had no regular team to play on. The only obvious thing which we could see her needing to work on was resisting the urge to go down early and guess beforehand which way a player was going to shoot or deke. This is unlike my style of playing a standup game only because I do not have the flexibility to flop down like a goalie normally can.

We played a short scrimmage game at the end and during the game my head started to hurt alot. I had changed the foam lining so that it didn't press so hard on my head but it still wasn't enough. My head has grown too big in the last couple of years and probably in more ways than one. I felt drained the rest of the day. Time to get another goalie helmet I think.

My own private paradise.

I watched the movie Hitch last night and thought it was pretty good. Don't worry. I won't talk about the ending except to say that it's another one of those romance comedies. It reminded me of the Hugh Grant movie Notting Hill except american style and with a slightly different set of events or twist to the story.

Another year. Another single digit increase on the ol biological clock. I had dim sum with the family today and this was the dessert. A little piece of tropical paradise in the form of mango pudding all for myself. A cup of hot soothing tea to balance against the sweetness of the pudding partly covered by a milky shore.

I am also a little bit richer. Richer in the form of a tiny sculptured pig cast in gold from some asian jewelry shop. Bling Bling? That's what my brother and sister gave me today. When I saw it, I wanted to laugh abit. The reason was that it looked more like the little dog when he wore the mask in that movie with Jim Carey. A head practically as big as the body but sans the large fangs.

Takumi's Drive to Whistler

The snow conditions at Whistler have been really bad as in barely any new snow this past week. I drove up there anyways on saturday just for the fun of it. Some friends had booked a room for friday and saturday night while I took my time by waking up really late. Then I went to an automotive parts store to buy a new distributor cap, a set of Bosch spark plug wires and a PCV valve. The engine had been running kind of rough partly because the contacts inside the cap were corroded and covered in carbon. I also suspected that the spark plug wire to piston number one may have been damaged when the spark plug blew out the last time I drove up to Whistler. At a PetroCan gas station nearby, I popped the hood, replaced the parts and filled the windshield washer fluid reservoir with more fluids courtesy of my petro points. A small tweak of with a screwdriver to adjust the idle speed and the truck was good to go.

I got back on the highway and noticed the difference right away. The engine ran much smoother and with more pickup. Get it? Pickup? ...Anyhow, the drive up the coast was fun wherever I had room to speed managing to avoid getting snagged at two speedtraps. Once at an overpass where I decided to slow down and noticed the cop hiding on the onramp. The other time was when I decided to follow a bright yellow Lotus. But no sooner had I begun following him that a car in the opposite direction flashed its lights to warn us of the radar trap ahead. I slowed down and let the Lotus disappear around a corner. As I came around, I saw the cops waiting and the Lotus being flagged to pull over and two police officers walking towards him. They looked like they had a bone to pick with him. Slowing down, I took a look at the driver and gave no sympathy towards him. He looked like a middle aged sleazeball with slicked back dark brown hair and sunglasses. It was foggy with some light rain.

Along the way up, I thought about pulling over and taking some photos of the rocks on the side of the highway. With rain soaked sediments and the fog in the background, it made for an interesting picture. I thought about it but didn't stop. I need a better camera.

I hung out with my friends for just a few hours. Watched a movie while playing a game of scrabble. Then we went to see if we could use the hot tub but there were too many of us so we split up. I joined the group that went to the Irish pub under the Pan Pacific . No pool table but darts of course. A couple of us were getting kind of hungry being close to dinner time and the menu at the pub looked pretty good. Unfortunately the women called to say that they had gotten a table at Earls. A half hour later they called again to say that it was now at Milestones. When we arrived there, the place was full. Whistler village was dead for the most part so we figured that the restaurants would be as well. We were wrong. One group took a large booth while another sat at a separate table. I didn't mind Milestones for lunch as I frequent the one near my workplace but most of my friends here didn't think much of the food in general. For the whole Whistler village in fact. I've always found that Earls just tried to look like a fancy restaurant but didn't have the menu to match.

After debating between my usual healthy chicken salad and something else, I decided to try the winter seafood pan roast special. The pictures of it looked really good with all those steamed mussels, fresh wild salmon, scallops and herb garnish on a bed of rice mixed with a sort of tomato sauce. When I ate it, the taste was alright and didn't look as good as the one in the picture. Isn't that always the case? Like the McDonalds burger ads where its perfectly made yet when you get one, it's just a mess and looks kind of squished. My friend ordered the steamed mussels in white sauce. We traded mussels. White sauce for tomato sauce and both of us found the mussels to be bland. The white sauce had no flavour. She decided to add fresh ground pepper to it but I knew that that would not make it better. Aside from that, we had a good time even though the group was separated.

Afterwards I had to leave having not prepared for the day off, there was work waiting for me back home early next morning. The drive back was quick. Probably the quickest ever with hardly any traffic. It was dark and the roads were wet with a bit of fog still. I had never realized how badly marked the winding road is. There were no reflective markers or proper warnings for impending turns. I started off going a little bit fast before I noticed a set of headlamps approaching me rather quickly. Not too much longer it passed by. It was just a limousine and would be an unusual guinea pig. From that point on the two of us drove in the darkness, rain and fog around 130 km/h. I got back home nearly an hour faster than the usual two to two and a half hours it normally took with traffic.

The snowboarding will have to wait for another weekend. but for now, Takumi lives again.

Slow and Steady, The Turtle Wins the Race.

The pain has disappeared from my abdomen now but after snowboarding the other day, a small cough has joined in on the attack against me.

New Years was spent at a small gathering of friends. Again, the host couple served a huge turkey enough for at least eighteen to twenty people. Too bad there was just a few of us. Their late invitations didn't go as planned.

Everyone was instructed to bring a recycled gift for another white elephant gift exchange. There was not price limit as it really didn't matter but we did see some really lame gifts. One guy had the misfortune of picking out a small stuffed husky dog and a few tea bags. Thats right, a few bags. Not a full set or a box. Another guy got a sampler package of womens fragrances. It was all too funny. I put in the mandarin cave man movie which a korean friend gave me months ago and on an impulsive move, threw in a small sculptured turtle. Everything I had turned out to be quit sought after. I first picked out a glass serving dish which was immediately stolen by the wife of a newly wed couple. So then I got a large bottle of Corona with a pair of matching glasses. This too was immediately stolen by the next person. By then it was down to my own gift and a glass punch bowl which was revealed to me earlier. I figured I might as well just get my own gift back to only have the turtle stolen right away by the same newly wed couple. It turns out that a turtle is supposed to be a sign of longevity. Heh. I could have used it. Afterwards I decided that it was serving a better purpose. The longevity of a new marriage as opposed to me the single guy with health problems. The weak shall perish beneath the footsteps of the strong. Darwinism at its best. The wife also seemed rather interested in the movie as she had a native mandarin tongue. I explained a bit of the movie to her realizing at that moment that she had taken everything good from me.

I had the last pick between us. I stole the DKNY t-shirt from her husband.

Xmas Weekend

It's noon the day after boxing day and I just called some friends to tell them that I won't make it to Dim Sum. I was supposed to be at a restaurant almost an hour away but all the speeding in the world won't get me there on time. I the evenings of both Xmas day and Boxing day at my friends homes. The Liew's were so nice to host a huge dinner for their already large and extended family never mind their friends as well. All their aunts and uncles, little nieces and nephews, and then us. Even though we all got stuffed with food early on, we continued to munch away at the table full of appetizers and snacks all night. We started drinking the hard liquors when they decided to get out a really expensive bottle of Otard Cognac. Then everyone wanted a drink. Even I had some and probably against my doctors orders. It was smooth with a peppery bite.

Afterwards, everyone went home,got a few hours of sleep. They all probably woke up for a bit to do nothing around their homes before taking a nap followed by another dinner. Most of us met up at Leigh's place this time as well as some of her own friends. I managed to do a bit of boxing day shopping and found a M&M shower radio with a built in toothbrush holder. When I saw this in the ad, I thought it would be perfect for a friend who had a whole bunch of those little M&M chocolate candy characters. I dropped by Costco and picked up one of those party veggie trays too. When my friends saw it, they couldn't believe it. I was about forty minutes late so they all had finished eating already and were quietly watching 'The Last Samurai', digesting dinner before seeing this huge tray of food. It still got finished as everyone started to pick at it throughout the evening.

When I finally got home and into bed last night, it started to hurt again. The pain was more constant this time and longer from the middle of my back to the front of my heart. I had only taken two thirds of the medicine. I had ran out of cranberry juice so I couldn't make the hot lemon drink. I knew there was a reason why I paused in front of the cranberry juice bottle at Costco earlier in the day not thinking that I needed to buy it...

The Night Before Xmas

I stayed up all night, listening for him. The jingle of the bells. The swoosh of the sleigh. The cheery voice of the big fat man in the red suit on my roof. The only problem is that there's no snow. The flute in the chimney is closed so if he manages to get himself to even fit inside, he'll be greeted with a 'metal plate'. I suppose I should unlock the glass fire place door as well.

And what if there are no reindeers. Reindeers can't fly. Have you ever seen one fly? How about a small herd of them? In Japan, they celebrate Colonel Sanders of the all too familiar KFC chain. His statue is decorated to make him look like Santa while people feast on fried chicken. That would be so much easier than watching a turkey tan in my oven for four or five hours. I think they still have the bucket deal for ten dollars. Don't ask me how many Yen that is and I guess I should substitute the sound of deer hooves on my roof with the ticking noise of tiny chicken feet instead.

The presents were already opened today. We're so untraditional. With so many people and their own shedules to keep, its just not possible. My friends opened gifts at our own gathering. My coworkers opened theirs at work last week.

Our family never really celebrated it to begin with. It used to be the big family gathering at my grandparents home but after losing grandfather to old age and uncle leaving our aunt, the cohesion is diminishing. As a result, planning the family dinner has now become a last minute thing to do.

So what is this bloggers xmas wish or wishes? In no particular order of importance, here they are.

1. To see more people blog at this site. I quite enjoy getting a peek at peoples lives here whether or not I even know them. It is as though I have moved into an apartment complex and they are my neighbors.

2. Cheers to my health. Or rather, its improvement.

3. To learn to do more than just 'work'. It's been a slow transformation on my part.

4. To get back some of that 'cohesion'.

Okay. That's enough for now. I think I'm confusing this with a list of new years resolutions. We can save that for later.

Ho Ho Ho... Merry Xmas to the Iqexchange!

Feats of Strength

The shopping is done. I avoided the malls on the weekend like the plague. Instead, I went on a week night in the downtown area. The siblings and I agreed that this year, the new addition to mom's Swaroski crystal animal collection will be me. The pig. I went to a jewelry store in Pacific Centre except that they only had one left. It was a display model and had finger prints all over it. When I told the sales woman that I didn't want it she responded with a shocked look on her face. Instead, I found out that there was an actual Swaroski store on Robson street so I went there. Afterwards I found a Radio Shack on the same strip and decided to browse around. They had a whole bunch of cool little gadgets that would fit the bill. In the end, I chose the bug shaped massager. Just press the button between the eyes and the four legs massage away. It would have gone perfect with the sex dice and the oil at my friends gift exchange.

It's been two days of festive eating. The company Xmas party was held at the Vancouver Golf club again. A buffet style lunch where the menu has been the same for the past three years. After two full plates of food, I stayed away from the dessert table. Everything but the chocolate mouse. It was wonderful and probably my favourite. Following that was the gift exchange which involved a game of picking and stealing. In the end I gave part of my gift to my coworker. I kept the gel time capsule and gave the digital tire gauge and clock back to the coworker that I stole it from. The time capsule is like one of those glass bottles with the sand falling down except its filled with a thick gel. Oh and before I forget, did I tell you how much I liked the chocolate mouse?

Next was my friends Xmas party. I was running late so I abandoned the idea of picking up some assorted mouse cake for them. Instead, I only had enough time to throw on my suit and put the supplies in my truck after work. I was responsible for bringing the paper plates, plastic utensils and cups. I also brought some extra chairs because the couple hosting the party didn't have enough chairs for a house full of guests. I'm usually the late one so this time, I had to get there on time otherwise people would have nothing to eat on/with. That's what my friends told me at least so as usual, I drove as fast as I could from my house, down the hill, over the bridge and on the small highway to Coquitlam. When I arrived at the house, no one was there except for Roni. When she opened the door, she quickly grabbed my bag of items before disappearing up the stairs. I brought the chairs up from my truck. Roni was home alone, preparing appetizers ina frenzy while her husband was out buying ice. Everyone else was late for once. I helped put up some Xmas decorations across the ceiling and felt like I was taking her husbands place. There were around thirty people there and it was pretty good. They all found out that I was sick for the past while so now they don't try to push alcohol on me anymore. This became the big joke on me. Does Lei want some of the non-alcoholic punch? And to spice things up, I met some great new people and had a friend ask if I didn't mind being setup on a blind date. I'm open but as always, not a big fan of blind dates. In fact, never had any luck in the whole 'oh I know someone who would be perfect for you'. That's Festivus for now.

Lunch No. 2 at Ikea

Even though it was almost 3 pm, I passed on the pasta special. At this time everyday, Ikea serves their plain ol pasta dish for a buck a plate. So naturally I saw a few people with two plates each.

Instead, I had the meat pie with salad. Woohoo! Hooray! Okay. It's not that exciting for most of you but I guess that's about as exciting as my life is right now. And when you eat their as frequently as I do for lunch and see the same dishes all the time, any new dish is a welcome sight. As long as its decent enough. Anyhow, it's a new item on their menu and wasn't too bad. The crust was especially good as it was just light enough and flaky. The type of crust I would have preferred on the blueberry pie I bought a few days ago. Quite a bit of that pie is still sitting in my fridge waiting to be consumed.

And if you wanted to get even cheaper than that, I found out that the hotdogs are just 75 cents each. Can't beat that for a super cheap 'snack'. Bring the kids there. Bring the whole family. There's no reason to go hungry if you can't get yourself to an Ikea store at these prices.

As for breakfast, one dollar gets you the full breakfast plate.

This has been a free plug for Ikea Restaurant.

My Weekend

Health has been a bit sketchy all week. The body tired but there was lots of work to do still. Then on Friday I carried on and subbed in again for my friends hockey team. I did not get any goals and the rest of the team felt about as good. We were barely able to keep our first period lead and ended up in a tie. I had as much energy as an old man as ironically enough, the team we were playing against had an average age which was about five years older. On the way home, I could feel that my lower left back was sore, inside that is.

Next day I got up really late after getting about eight hours of much needed sleep. I immediately started work on the truck. The valve cover seal needed replacing. The other day we had my truck up on a hoist in my friends garage installing some new snow tires. I saw fresh oil from the recent oil change all over the top of the transmission and it was leaking from near the top of the engine. The inside of the aluminum valve cover was covered in a thick dark sludgelike layer of worn oil. With some paint thinner, I cleaned off as much as I could before putting everything back together. The other day, one of the headlamps broke so I had to remove half the front end just to replace both lights.

It was already dark outside before I had the hood closed and the back all loaded up with the supplies. I was late so I drove out really fast. Down the hill, across the low lying roads towards the river before crossing over the bridge. After crossing the bridge, I began to wonder what my driving would have looked like to the other vehicles on the road. They must have thought I was a mad man. I had about thirty minutes to stock everything at the home before continuing onward to a greek restaurant for a friends birthday. I was stuffed. I had the Greek Lamb Village which consisted of a huge portion of marinated meat. Following that, we went to a small theatre to watch a live play called "The Back Kitchen". It had received rave reviews from the recent Fringe Festival so someone suggested that birthday girl would have liked it. I started feeling sick towards the end of the play. I don't think it was because of the play.

Next day I got up early to go riding with an old university friend at 9am. Starting at the bottom, we rode all the way around to the back side of SFU or Burnaby mountain. The sky was grey and small pockets of fog were scattered in the lower levels below, extending out to Deep Cove and then Burrard Inlet. The view was refreshing from about three quarters of the way up. We had ridden about an hour and a half before getting to this spot with just another fifteen minutes to the top. Once at the top, we took a quick breather before making our way across campus to the top of Nicole. A slightly treacherous downhill trail covered in rocks, mud and littered with obstructions. At the top, three other mountain bikers decked out in downhill bikes and protective gear were practicing some small jumps on a grassy slope. My friend and I started down the trails quickly going much faster than I had the first time with the other group. We took a different route and soon found ourselves riding up to the three guys we saw earlier at the beginning of the trail. They pulled over to the side to let us through but no sooner than I had passed the first person of the group did I hear him crash behind me. I yelled out to see if he was alright and received a reply saying that he was okay as I kept riding on. My friend began telling me about our second ride up the mountain but the thought of the exercise was more than I needed. luckily, fate was in my favour and with just ten minutes left to the bottom of the trail, my back tire went flat. The ride now turned into my first ever cyclocross event as I ran my bike down the rest of the way.

Incidentally, during our ride up, we had received a phone call. One of my friends cycling buddy had broken his femur on Grouse mountain the day before.

The Eleventh Annual Grand Ball

Even though I was feeling really tired, I went anyways. Sunday evening I was at Grand Ball Room in Richmond to watch their annual dance competition. Many of the club members competed in the gold level including the current senior canadian champion. For approximately five hours or so, I watched heat after heat of fox trot, waltz and slow quick step. The whole event kind of reminded me of the japanese movie Shall We Dance except with out all the antics. Although there was the occasional collision between pairs as room on the floor was sometimes limited.

For the most part, the ballroom dancing was fairly ho hum but not the amateur open latin dancing category. From sexy skimpy outfits to bodies twirling all over the place, it certainly was an interesting display. Below are some of the pics of various dancing couples. Here we have a shot of the winning pair from San Francisco.

See the passion. Feel the intensity. He calls for her. They are together.

This event is one of the largest in western Canada so couples came from all over. Nova Scotia, San Francisco, Seattle, Quebec, etc.

Below is a local couple from our own Richmond, B.C.

Strike a pose! Where's John Travolta?

Greetings!

Happy Birthday Liferaft! =)

A River Runs Through It - Sort of.

In the garbage there are five torn wrappings of Reeses peanut butter cups, three empty bags of Lay's potato chips and a tiny empty Smarties box. I feel like I will eventually become overdosed with halloween treats. And there's still much more to go. I don't know what happened this year. All the children disappeared leaving me with enough candy and junk food for a whole elementary school. I could try to eat it all but that doesn't sound like a very good idea.

I stayed home alone last night waiting to hand out all the treats but at the same time, I tried to watch a chinese horror movie called 'The Eye'.

To begin, last monday I went to the Orpheum to watch the VSO. It was the first time in ages and Anne Meyers was the guest violinist. Her performance compelled me to pick up my violin and try playing again. I began by listening to a couple of my old violin records with recordings done by Itzhak Perlman. Then I went through my music to look for various songs which I had liked before but found that I had lost them. Paganini and Zigerweissen to name two. If I have time, I think I'd like to pick up a copy of Carmen's Fantasy. Perlman's rendition of it is simply perfection.

At one point while playing or tyring to play (its been almost fourteen years), I stopped thinking that I heard the sound of children knocking at the front door. I passed by the television and on the screen was a blind woman in the movie playing a violin. She was playing in an orchestra for the blind. I also noticed that this weekend the movie Ray was playing in the theatres. Ray Charles that is. Notice the theme? Blind people of music? Maybe I'm blind too - figuratively.

I finally got all the pictures of the San Francisco road trip scanned and uploaded. The collection has been whittled down to 167 pictures from the sixteen rolls of film. Have a look if you are interested. Click on the 'show all' at the top right corner to have all the pictures displayed at once instead of just twelve or so at a time. Then you can pick and choose which ever one that you might find interesting. Below are a few of the pics.

The camp did have a river which ran through it and like I said before, it was cold and the temperature dropped to minus seven celsius over night. Some of us would seek shelter in the public washrooms because they were pretty clean and really really warm! I went to university with the guy in the front flossing his teeth. Engineers...

Not even the freezing cold wilderness could keep us from having freshly made cake. It went well with the authentic Wisconsin Bratwurst sausages which we had brought with us. Our water froze during the night.

Again, it was good to see Mr. and Mrs. LifeRaft in the cold and sometimes foggy city.

We really lucked out with the weather the whole trip. Otherwise, I would not have been able to get some of the photos. Click on the link above or go to the DPG page to view some of the photos.

Yeah I know, I shouldn't slouch so much. But I'm working on it. Did I tell you that I'm also the part time pool boy for the spring?

What would San Fran be without a trip to Alcatraz island? Notice the attempt to conceal my identity by wearing the dark sunglasses. There are two pigs in this picture if you haven't noticed.

My friends 22 month old daughter happy as can be.

Uh oh! Save the car!

A number of us went mountain biking the other weekend up in Whistler. I managed to one or two good shots. Everything else was too much for my camera to handle. The trail which we rode on is called "A River Runs Through It". It is mostly sheltered by trees and is probably getting very close to being buried in snow now. We managed to get in there just in time again just like the Yosemite park which is now closed to vehicles and rode the bike trail twice. The first time was very slow as the women came along and we experimented with the various obstacles. On the second loop, it was just the guys so we covered the whole trail in just forty minutes as opposed to an hour and a half.

Here my friend carefully crosses a bridge but cheats. He grabs onto the safety rope!

This is the bridge which Doug fell on. Next is a shot of me on the teeter-totter. Its been years since I've been on one. Now I'm riding one on my bike instead.

Engine Failure

The road curved and twisted as I sped through it as fast I could. I needed to get to the chalet to meet the gang on time. The cars in my rear view mirror were getting smaller and smaller when my truck let out a small bang and began to sputter unevenly. I released the gas pedal and without hesitation, pulled the truck off the road onto some gravel.

I quickly got out of the truck and walked around to look for any signs of failure. None of the tires were flat so I started wondering if I blew a radiator hose or something like that. Looking underneath the truck and the ground which I drove over and back to the highway, I couldn't see anything leaking from my truck. I then got back into the truck and tried starting it again. It coughed and sputtered and was not able to idle without me having to give it some gas.

I pulled on the remote switch for the hood latch and popped it open. Scanning the engine compartment, I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. No steam or sprayed liquid except for one thing, the number one spark plug was dangling in the air held by the spark plug wire assembly. I couldn't believe it. For the past two hours of driving, the spark plug had slowly been working itself free until there finally wasn't any more thread for the engine to hold onto. And all that time, I had not noticed any sort of change in the engines operation. I temporarily breathed a sigh of relief. This could be fixed if I had the proper tools and was way better than a blown gasket or tube.

I stood there wondering how I was going to fix it. I didn't have BCAA and I didn't want to call someone way back in vancouver or even squamish for a tow truck. Plus, now there was no way that I was going to make it in time to go mountain biking with my friends. I didn't have my spark plug socket wrench with me but instead, I thought of something else. I taped the one spark plug to the end of a smaller socket tool with some electrical tape. I had my small toolbox with me. The plug was not broken and could still be used. I inserted my makeshift socket tool with the plug into cylinder head and screwed it in until the tape was too weak to turn the plug against the engine. It was good enough. My fingers alone could not have held the plug as it was still really hot. I attached the spark plug wire back on and packed my small toolbox away. The hood fell down closed and I got in the truck.

With a turn of the key in the ignition, the engine came to life as normal. I waited for an opening before pulling back out onto the road. The road curved to the right and to the left before the first sifns of Whistler showed up. A large sign and some houses and buildings. I was surprised realizing that I was so close to Whistler and only ten minutes away from the chalet where my friends were. They were supposed to go riding around ten or eleven in the morning. It was now almost half past noon. When I found the place, some other people had also just gotten there as well. The people that were already there were still just getting up or eating breafast.

After I unloaded my luggage and gear, people finally started getting ready to go for the ride. It wasn't until two in the afternoon that we were on our way to the trailhead. Some people didn't ride and stayed at the chalet to keep an eye on the turkey. There was approximately twenty of us crammed into this one three bedroom chalet which we rented for the weekend. And tonight, we were going to have an after Thanksgiving turkey dinner in addition to celebrating three birthdays.

Next episode: A River Runs Through It.

House Hopping

We made the all night dash from Vancouver to my friends place in Tracey in about 16 hours. The co-occupants of the vehicle are all relatives of my friend so this trip was kind of like a family reunion for them. For the cousins that is. Four other people flew in from New Orleans and Wisconsin for the weekend.
On the first saturday, we walked along the pier, the beach and finally to the golden gate bridge. I think it was about 13 miles in total and along the way, there were many things to see. Sea lions on the marina, the air show farther down and the many local or american exhibits on display in tents for the Columbus day holidays. The army included. It was a great surprise to see the canadian snow birds flying squadron perform their precision maneuvres. I found them to be more impressive than the americans blue angels display of simple patterns. Though the sound of the engines of the american air force plane was awe inspiring as well.

The next day we packed two vehicles and drove through Yosemite stopping along the way for some shot of various lakes and mountains. Half dome was within site at one point but our destination was INYO national park. At 8800 feet, we set up camp here where it was freezing. Minus seven degrees celsius to be exact. All year my friends have been trying to get me out into the woods camping so I finally gave in. Everyone tried to tie up their mummy bags as tight as possible except that I didn't have one. One friend did give me her puffy down jacket - thank god.

The next two days we stayed at another friends house in San Jose. A nice couple with four dogs. They were really cute except for Sam. Sam is a large chocolate coloured or cocoa dog and liked to hump everyone. I can't remember what breed he was.

We went to the aquarium in Monteray as well as did some shopping at the Gilroy factory outlets. Lots of stores and some good sales. Then we returned to Tracey for one final day with my friend again. On the way there we stopped and had dinner with LifeRaft and his wife at a great indonesian restaurant in downtown San Francisco. Parking was horrible on a Thursday night but the food and the company was worth it. Our last day in the San Francisco area was spent driving away to Pinnacle national park. Here we hiked and rock climbed a bit. Large natural rock formations were everywhere. We found pine cones almost as big as a regulation sized football.

On the return trip, we decided against another all nighter and stayed at my friends place in Portland, Oregon. It was a good chance to see him and his family again. Their twenty-two month old baby daughter had grown at least a few inches since the first time I saw her around May. Back then she found the greatest pleasure in just crawling up and down the stairs on her butt. Now she can practically walk up and down those same stairs. The older daughter is taking horse back riding lessons. Previously, she had a leg cast on.

The backyard has been covered in bark mulch and there are also some small fruit trees and flowers. They had tried to find a grafted dwarf fruit tree which I think I told them about before but couldn't find one with the asian apple pears. My brother had managed to find one and planted it in his backyard last year.

Pictures will be added to this blog later. With sixteen rolls of film developed yesterday, there's a lot of editing to do. Some turned out good, and some will go into the garbage bin. I never found the digital camera I wanted so I'm still stuck with my 35mm point n shoot. It took some more beating on this trip as the case is only made of plastic. Sooner or later, the body will probably crumble into tiny little pieces.

The past month or so has been rather hectic with all the travelling and some quiet time will be good. Now back to work...

Shopping

Looks like Gambit has been on a spending spree. I just received my VISA bill and its rather high due in part to the week in London even though I really didn't spend that much. It's just that horrible exchange rate and cost of living over there. This coming month will not be much better as a number of large expenses have already started there way through.

Today I went to look for a new fridge. The one in the basement is kind of warm and rather old, its time to replace it. I ended up buying a new stove as the one in the basement has been an eyesore for quite some time. And since I picked one which has the controls on the front of the stove and no surrounding backsplash, I can no longer put off replacing the countertop I think.

Then there's the new coat of paint needed for the whole basement...

An old friend of mine who races mountain bikes will be up at Whistler this weekend and while there, he's going to look for a bike for me. During September and October, many of the bike shops at the mountain resort begin clearing everything out to get ready for the ski season. My friend had seen bikes sold just fifty dollars above cost.

My online photo album is now available for viewing. All pics are scanned in low resolution (300 DPI) but if you want the high res and supersharp files with true to life colour, you'll just have to wait as the Nikon Coolscan V ED film scanner which I ordered won't arrive for another two weeks. With an optical resolution of 4000 DPI, the picture quality should be exceptional. I won't part with my film camera just yet. And due to the cost of the scanner I hope that some prospective marketing company will stumble across this site and help me recover the cost by buying my prints! They are all from 35mm negatives so blowups should still look good.

Relief in London

I get the funny feeling that every time I return from a vacation, it is raining here in Vancouver. Last week was spent in London as everything managed to fall into place at the last moment. Even just having enough gas in my truck to drive to my brothers house before taking a cab to the airport nearby for my departure.

I flew on MyTravel airlines and had tried out the 'Premiere Gold' seats. Needless to say, it was not worth the upgrade from economy. Just before arriving at Gatwick airport in the morning, we were served a small muffin, and tea or coffee for breakfast. That's it. There was one really cool feature on the personal viewing screens. Two of the channels were used for the front view and a bottom view from the plane. So for the whole flight, you could see everything outside the plane right from the moment the plane begins to pull away from the loading ramp to mid flight some thirty to forty thousand feet up in the air. Every so often the clouds would have a gap to allow you to see the land and sea below.

The flight in was over an hour late I believe and it was raining. One of my friends parents also happened to be on the same flight as they had come to visit their son in Canada. I briefly said hi to them at the baggage pickup during all the mayhem before leaving with Gambit. On the way out of the airport roads I saw my friends parents again in the vehicle behind us before separating for good.

My itiniary consisted of visiting the typical tourist sights including the new British Airways London Eye, walking the Jack the Ripper Tour, visiting Hyde Park, shopping in the heart of London near Piccadilly Circus, eating in Notting Hill, viewing the sculptures on the walls of Westminster Abbey, walking through the markets of Greenwich Village and taking part in the Thames river boat tour.

There were a few interesting tidbits of information which I was told. At Hyde Park, they had built the Lady Diana Memorial. It was only by coinicidence that the memorial was being reopened the day which we happened to be there. All the news crews were there and the place was filled with tourists and children playing in the water. Surrounding the memorial were a handful of guards in blue jackets which the news people referred to as the paddle police. If you haven't seen this sight, you'll know why there has been so much controversy over this and the British press being the way they are did not help matters either. Instead of the typical statue or towering carved figure in the center of a fountain, the memorial is simply a large round stone ring when viewed from high above. Water is fed into the highest point of the ring and flows down both sides to the lowest point of the ring and along the path, the carving in the ring channel varies producing smooth and turbulent sections of flowing water. The problem with this is that there are no fences or barriers to prevent people from playing in the water and when they do this, they track the dirt from their shoes into the ring. Algae grows quite rapidly on the computer crafted cornish granite making it slippery and a real physical health hazard to the general public. When you see a small river, what is the first thing you do? Run towards it and play in it regardless of how dangerous it may be and how you affect it. Every week the ring is closed for cleaning. The paddle police are now there to make sure that public only go so far as to dip there feet in the water. When the memorial was first opened, all these problems began and it had to be shut down for a short period before reopening. The running joke among the english is if it really costed three million pounds to build this rather simplistic object of artistic design and where did the two million pounds go? Another running theme is that a few of the major tourist sights such as this have all suffered the same fate. The giant London Eye failed to rotate in front of her majesty and all those before her. It was shut down for a few months. Once reopened though, it is a magnificent structure and resembles a giant ferris wheel from which you can see all of London in every direction and beyond.

Just before our boat tour of the Thames river, Gambit reminded me of my trouble with motion sickness. So while he stood in line to buy the tickets, I ran off to look for some motion sickness pills wherever I could. And in doing so, I came across a busy little tourist street nearby. Both sides were confined by the typical tall english buildings with an assortment of small shops at street level. The street rose uphill upon which a drug store called 'Boots' was located near the top. Halfway up the street the local british police had begun to close off public access to. I went through it and up to the drug store to buy the pills before coming back down and finding that the street was completely blocked off now. Apparently something had happened the night before and this was now a crime scene. It looked like things may have started at a pub but the officers guarding the area would not say. I stepped back up some thirty feet to take a downward photo of the street. In the background would have been a tube station, the train station to my right and the Thames rivers directly behind. But as I went to take the picture, one of the officers started shouting at me telling me that "there was nothing to take a picture of" and that I would not find any bodies and such. I never got the photo as I didn't want my camera taken away. Later on that day, we went on the Jack the Ripper walking tour.

I met many of Gambits english and canadian ex-pat friends at various social engagements as well as his badminton friends at the local recreation centre.

Gambit had an extra racquet so I was able to play at the same time as there was almost the perfect amount of people to play in all of the courts that evening. I think I was the worst player there being how I never really play badminton but most of the group there was accommodating.

The next evening we bought some tickets to see "The Bible: The Complete Works of God" which was playing at the Criterion Theatre. There are alot of small kiosks or stores which sell tickets to all the shows at roughly half price. We tried to buy tickets at a place right in the centre of Piccadilly Square but their computer system went down. As Gambit and many others waited for it to be fixed, I found the tickets at another place just fifty feet away. Later on that evening, we were able to meet up with Gambits canadian ex-pat friends (Nancy and friends) for dinner. While on the way to a sushi restaurant, we passed by an empty pedestrian sidestreet partly hidden between two large office buildings. Just pass half way through this street was a small neon sign for a semi-posh sushi restaurant which we decided to try. It was good but not filling unfortunately. Afterwards our group went to see the play. This was just by coincidence as we had thought that Nancy's group wanted to see a different play. A lucky choice on our part. The Complete Works of God was great and I wanted to see the other three plays which was performed by the same group, "The Complete History of America" and "The Complete Works of Shakespeare".

On the way back home in the underground subway, we all got stuck as the system had broken down. While standing there, a young japanese woman came up to us and started chatting us up as we were the only other asian people in the tunnel. She was an english student with sponsors in California yet she was living in New York with another japanese student. Her roomate had gone back to Japan with her boyfriend for the week so she decided to book a last minute deal for London.

Next evening, Gambit had a go-away dinner at a korean restaurant in central london. He had held his birthday dinner there previously but this time the service was pretty bad. We had a semi-private room which became completely private after the korean staff filled it with smoke from bbq'ing the food. To add to this, the staff could barely understand english and no one in our group could speak fluent Korean. On one occasion, I asked the waittress if one of our dishes was "no. 47" on the menu and she responded by looking at me and laughing out loud before quickly running away. A bunch of us looked at each other and just had to laugh at the situation.

While in London, I made an effort to try the typical english dishes. One was sausages with peas on mash(bangers and mash) at a regular eatery in a touristy area and while in Greenwich village, we came across a small shop called Goddards Pie's. Compared to everywhere else, it was cheap and the menu looked really good. I of course had to try the Shepherds pie which was my favourite. For an english dish that is. The only dish which I didn't get to fit in was traditional fish and chips. To be done on another trip sometime in the future and on that trip, I hope to travel to Paris and Spain or Italy. Grounds on which I have yet to set my footprint on. I envy all those who live in the Uk because of the fact that for a fairly low price and only a couple of hours, they can travel to any of the nearby countries for a day or two on a whim or a fancy.

The last engagement consisted of another go-away gathering for an Irish woman named Christine. The weather was cooperating and so she held an afternoon picnic in Chiswick Park for all her friends. She herself was also moving out of London to Geneva for a new job and as she told everyone, if anyone needs a place to stay, there's a free room complete with an ensuite available now. The park was beautiful with its carefully layed out trees and partly manicured lawns centered around a giant old building complete with its own historical design.

In the evening, we went to a french restaurant called Cafe Rouge. They are found all over the city but the one we went to was on the river front hidden from the busy city streets. On a previous evening I had gone for a walk along the same river and just past this restaurant I decided to turn around. The tide was coming in and the path was starting to become flooded. Not long after some dark clouds above decided to open up and dump water on me. I was completely soaked in my shorts and t-shirt to the likes of which I had never been before. But getting back to the restaurant, it was great and the service was quick. The food was typical french and better than the other places we ate at. I wanted to try the calf liver which I saw at a different location but this one didn't have it. Instead I ordered the Confit de Canard for dinner. For brunch I tried the Oeufs Benedicte which was delicious and a croissant toasted to perfection. Although the food was good, the social atmosphere was thinly bearable as in attendance was Gambit, his recent partner of interest Sophie and a coworker named Ed. Thankfully, Ed and Sophie had a common topic of interest to talk about and break the ice with all of Ed's food allergies. Sophie was just about to start on a reduced diet to weed out her allergies. During the dinner I could tell that she thought that I would be upset at her because I would have heard all of Gambits side of their tumultuous relationship.

Monday morning saw me getting up really early to take a minicab to Gatwick airport. It was a black Volvo with walnut trim and a leather interior. For forty pounds, this was their taxi. The regular black top english cabs could go as high as ninety pounds for the same trip. Highway robbery. And on the drive it began to rain. There was a multicar accident on the M23 right where you'd guess it to be. Just metres before the exit to Gatwick Airport. Again the return flight was horrendously late and after reaching Vancouver some nine hours later, the rain had followed me back. Summer is over and I hope the photos turn out well.

And I almost forgot. I big thanks to Gambit for the free place to stay!

Journey, World and Cosmos.

My second attempt at the race against the clock up the Grouse Grind last week has improved. The new time is 42 minutes and 20 seconds which is almost exactly two minutes faster than the first week. This time I felt a bit better at the beginning and the faster pace showed. Three quarters of the way up I had to pause behind some people because a tiny little squirrel was blocking the trail. It said to us "who dares to cross my path and disturb me while I eat my acorn nut?" Okay. The little squirrel didn't talk to us but it was busy eating and just decided not to run away even though large humans were trampling the path. When it did finally move, a woman and a man in front of me began debating whether the squirrel was a female or a male. The woman thought that it was a male because it thought that eating was more important than being stepped on and dying. The man had a different reason which I can not recall unfortunately. I told them that I agreed with the woman. Just like most of the men on the trail which I pass, they'll hike until what may seem like their last breath before giving way out of exhaustion whereas the women tend to step aside without any hesitation. It's more of a pride and dominance sort of thing instead of logic and safety. Hence the male squirrel does not step aside. Men are from Mars and women are from Venus.

The march upward continues this week as I make my third attempt to crack the all elusive 40 minute time barrier.

On Saturday I drove down with my sister to Seattle. We went and explored the Supermall in Auburn and bought some groceries at a place called Trader Joes. It's a neat little store which sells specialty foods kind of like Capers in Vancouver but a bit cheaper. I bought some giant roasted cashews and a few steaks of Albacore Tuna. My sister stocked up on frozen diced mango chunks. Last week I had lent her my cooler and this is what she was using it for. To transport large quantities of diced mango's across the border into Canada for her, her friends and her coworkers.

Later we walked around downtown Seattle and browsed around some more shops before having dinner at Todai's. At $23 USD per person, it was expensive compared to the all you can eat sushi places in Vancounver but the selection just did not compare. Todai's menu and layout is similar to the buffets found in most of the major casino's in Las Vegas. Lobster tail, Alaskan King Crab, prime rib, assorted sashimi, oriental chicken salad, various other types of cold asian dishes etc. etc. And the dessert selection was much better also. No mango pudding but ample Creme de Broule. Not bad for a restaurant located on the food court level of an upscale plaza. One complaint though, some of the hot dishes were over cooked. I don't know how this company can serve what they serve since I think the buffet kitchen's in Vegas do not really need to make as much profit. Heavy subsidization from the casino operations.

Finally at 11pm we drove to the Sea-Tac airport which was the primary goal of the whole trip. My sister's boyfriend and his brother were returning from a week in Philadelphia to attend a funeral for their aunt. As we drove back to Canada in the middle of the night, they told me about their trip which included a day in Atlantic City and one in New York city. I didn't know that Atlantic City was on the coast and the description of New York was as I had expected. Despite the huge congestion of people everywhere, it peaked my interest. I want to go see New York city and taste a bit of the big apple. Just like the painting of the green apple(click on the drop down link at the bottom left corner of the web page and scroll down to the painting called "Green Apple") which I saw in a Maui art gallery. My only problem now is how shall I fit the trip into my schedule. On a slightly different topic, I made a drawing at the Mr. Picassohead website but wasn't able to download the picture file for my own distribution. My artwork is now lost.

Everyone wants me to travel everywhere in the next few months. I can't believe the number of times I've driven to Seattle this year already. Regardless, the cruise is set for Anaheim. I submitted part of my vacation request last week. I wonder what my boss will say.

From France to Robson Street, Forever Today in the City of God

My sister called and asked if I wanted to drive down to Seattle early sunday morning to drop her boyfriend off at the airport. His aunt in Philadelphia had just passed away. When I found out they were going to leave at 3am, I declined. I wanted to relax this weekend but told her that I'd go next weekend to help pick them up when they return. Driving off in the middle of the night to go to an airport far away did not sound too appealing. A group of my friends went camping in the hot weather but I decided to stay in the city instead. I can picture them now. Three days in the bushes with no shower and sweating every night in their down sleeping bags. Sounds like fun?

Saturday an old friend called up asking if I could sub in on their roller hockey game. The team is called the Cows and it was game two of their playoff matchup. Some of their top guys couldn't make it. These guys are hockey addicts. Even though some of them are married and have kids, they live and breathe hockey.

I got to the rink early with time to clean my blades. The dirt from the fall in Stanley Park a few months ago was still caked on the wheels and chassis.

The team is horrible. The other team started with only four players while we had two full lines. And once again, I had not one but a number of golden opportunities to win the game for the team. An exact identical play to the playoff game in the co-ed ice hockey tournament the other month. If you had a tape recorder, you could rewind and view the same sequence of me coming down the left boards to scoop up a free puck or ball and cutting across to take a shot with no one in front of me only to watch the puck go straight at the goalies body. My life story. If I were only to stop and take a look, then these opportunities would not slip through the large gaps between my fingers. When I hold up my hands, you can see a large gap between the pointing finger and the middle finger but very little space between the other fingers except for the thumb of course. When I was young, my mother read this as "I would always lose money". My brothers' wife read this as "I would have an abundance of opportunities". Now stop looking at your fingers and keep reading! I think hand reading or any kind of forecasting is completely dependant on one's perspective. As for the game, we lost! The Cows were officially out of the playoffs. Enough said.

We went to a chinese restaurant for a late night team dinner only to find that the service was horrible. Not far outside there were hookers on the street corner yet we were no where near the block downtown where they normally ply their trade.

Sitting there at the large round table, I got a chance to catch up with this group as I hadn't seen them since last years roller hockey season. Being all asian, they all looked the same and seemed to act like children still. But in all fairness, these guys averaged about four or five years younger than myself. The goalie is handicapped and isn't able to walk normally but his performance is still commendable given his physical condition.

Next morning I bought some more tools needed for the gazebo next door at the rental property. Jeff needed a special blade called a hook knife for cutting roofing shingles which I had bought. This tiny little blade was an exercise in itself as no one carried it. All the roofing stores were closed already. When I first went to Home Depot, I was given the wrong blade having never seen one before. I ended up buying a carpet knife at first on the recommendation of the Home Depot staff. One thing I've learned is that Home Depot's selection is drastically limited when it comes to specialized items. The local Rona Revy stores are fewer in number but certain locations carry a broader selection of the good stuff. The other thing is that Home Depot's staff is sometimes not very knowledgeable. The guys in the plumbing department are good though.

Afterwards, I drove downtown to browse around some of the shops. Walking down Robson street I noticed a young asian woman which I guess was either from mainland China or Taiwan. She was kind of cute and what surprised me was that I had seen her the evening before at the chinese restaurant with the hockey team. She was with a large group then and the other people standing around her in front of me were a part of that same group now. The restaurant was sparsely filled as we were there until 2:15 in the morning. I looked at her and her friends as I walked by and one of her friends looked at me. At that moment I wondered if they recognized me from before. Without a word, an opportunity may have been passed up. The gap between my fingers is still too big.

Its been a while since I've been down to Virgins, Chapters and some of the clothing shops. At Virgins I picked up a copy of DJ Tiesto's latest cd 'Just Be" as well as Yeah Yeah Yeah's "'Fever To Tell". Both were good though born of drastically different styles or origins.

My favourite ones are as follows.

Just Be - Forever Today
The opening prologue is a bit too synthesizerish as it is all digitized orchestra instruments. The part afterwards gets much better. A good beat and excellent composition without sounding like cut and paste trance samples. Truly original. A good track to listen to on a quality system with the deep base or in a car on a long drive up to Whistler! No crappy sound systems. Invest in a set of Paradigm speakers. I did. In fact, for a little while, I was cutting deals with the local suppliers and flipping them on EBay.

Just Be - Traffic
Just a cool dark type of anthem song. I'm sure most of you have heard it in clubs around the world already. At about two minutes into the track, you get to the main part which everyone likes. The beginning is just build up fluff.

Just Be - Sweet Misery
Wonderful vocals and again, it possesses good composition. I've been collecting almost all of tiesto's cd's released in the past few years and over time, I've noticed that his composition skills have been getting better with more originality as well as being more musical. From his early days of just remixing other people's dance tracks to slowly working on his own music, he's come a long way. He's even said this in an interview which I read a while ago where he realized that he had to develop his own music in order to survive. Anyone can spin together music from other people as it won't get you very far.

While at Chapters, I found a book called "The French Country House" on a table with other books categorized as home improvement. Interior decor and architectural design has always caught my eye as well as the beautiful photography that is generally found with these types of publications. This book which has been translated into english from its original french version is less of an instructional book but rather a pictograph and historical display of many of the wealthy homes in France. The author Christiane de Nicolay-Mazery is a bit of a french historian. The book contains a rich collection of french garden design, house decor and use of colour in everything. Aged walls, light reflecting off torn fabric in an old sculptured chair with a wooden frame, or a view of a set of real french doors with the sun lighting a small tile patio outside before a garden. My brothers french doors in the back of his house just seems rather artificial and cookie cutter like. Christiane de Nicolay-Mazery also talked with the occupants of the homes to get insight into the history and events which took place at the homes. Most if not all of the homes photographed are owned and have been owned by the well to do upper class of the french society and aristocrats. Having been handed down generation after generation. A hand to the photographer Bernard Touillon for his great work. I believe that he is also a photographer for a european fashion magazine as well as working on many other books in France.

I watched City of God last night. It's an excellent movie about a young man known as "rocket" growing up in a south american slum city. I consider this a must see along side Master and Commander. Aside from the serious story line, there were some funny moments. One in particular was where a gang lord known as L'il Ze gets turned down by a girl at a party. He gave the camera this dumbfounded look which seemed to last an eternity. What happens right after turns ugly unfortunately. For those of you who have not seen it, L'il Ze is a trigger happy killer who has barely come of age yet he has managed to end up controlling almost three quarters of the drug market. The ending is somewhat ironic in the way everything unfolds. I was about to say clever but this movie is taken from a real life story. Interesting how events in peoples lives transpire.

Peanuts

The season is over and we finished with a perfect record. No wins, no ties, just straight losses. There were brief flashes of brilliance but beyond that, nothing enough to generate a complete win.

Last Thursday we got pounded something like 21-1. I managed to get the only run in that game. Yesterday evenings seasoning ending double header started with the same team from Thursday followed by what I believe was the second or third worst team in the league. We had a chance against these guys (and gals) but our late surge of runs came to a grinding halt as it was a quick three up three down last inning. It had also rained somewhat hard very briefly in both games. Ugghh.

Again, we had our bbq in between the two games and on one occasion I had just taken a big mouthful of my burger before I had to bat. The other teams bench saw that I still had food in my mouth also. This was the beginning of our small run. During the team handshake, I heard someone on the other team mention that "that guy" still has food as I was holding a chocolate chip and pecan nut cookie in my left hand while shaking hands with my right. I had bought a big box of them for the team from Costco.

I had an idea. Next year, we would use charlie browns yellow and black shirt as our team jersey.

Tricouni Meadows

We were all getting ready to leave in our separate vehicles to head up to Squamish again for a day hike. Part of the group was going to camp over for the night as well but not me. Unless the weather was going to be really hot and that the camp site was going to be on some beach near water, I had no desire to sleep on the hard ground with the possibility of rain running everywhere.
Just before leaving, I noticed one thing. My hiking boots were not in my truck. To the groups dismay, I had forgotten to pack them in my haste to get to the meeting point on time. All I had were my sandals.

I urged the group to drive on without me and not wait. Instead I would drive home back to Surrey from West Vancouver and get my trail runners before driving back and catching up to them on the trail somewhere. It was supposed to be a two and a half hour hike each way and me being by myself, I knew I would be able to travel faster than the group as a whole.

They left up the highway and I went in the opposite direction. If I was lucky, I would only be forty minutes behind. As I started driving, I realized that the traffic now was much more busier and that I would not be able to drive home and back as quickly as earlier on. So I took the next exit and went to Park Royal Mall which was just down the road. There was a Sportchek store there where I found a pair of Nike cross trainers on sale for sixty dollars. After comparing the Nikes with a pair of Fila runners, I took the Nikes. They were sort of like the runners which I already had but newer and fit better.

Afterwards, I got back on the highway and drove as fast as I could to Squamish. Along the way I was temporarily held up by really slow drivers and large trucks. Most of the route on the Sea to Sky Highway going up to Whistler is single lane so you have to make the most of the various sections of double passing lanes. When I got to Squamish, I stopped at the local McDonalds to use their washroom. Then I continued up the highway before taking another exit to go to a Canadian Tires store. My tires were somewhat overinflated to reduce wheel friction so that I could drive faster but for the roads which I would soon be on, I needed to lower the air pressure for better grip as welle as increase puncture resistance from rocks. I bought a small digital tire gauge and set all my tires lower.

Forty kilometers later off the highway I was at a gravel logging road doing 120 kilometers per hour trying to find Branch 200. I had passed it by mistake as the names were not marked. The only way to find it was to use your odometer and measure how far you have travelled from various way points described in the trail book. Eventually I found it. On my right was the beginning of a long twisting hill climb which was really steep and rocky. The trail book recommended that only 4x4 vehicles with high ground clearance go beyond certain parts of the road. I started my way up in first then second gear. My truck is not set up with extra ground clearance but is still higher than the average vehicle. This was the first time I had taken my vehicle on such an "extreme" offroad. In some sections I had to use first gear to make it up with the occasional rock bouncing off my underbody. I will have to check for any damage after this whole trip is over. As I kept making my way up, I came upon another Toyota pickup except that this one had large offroad tires and a much higher ground clearance. It was much newer. The only thing was that this guy was going much slower. After following him for a few kilometers, he finally pulled over at an opening to let me by. I passed him and after another ten kilometers of rocky uphill driving, I came upon the convoy of vehicles which belonged to my friends. They were coming back down only a kilometer from our final destination which would have been the beginning of our hike on foot. I stopped beside the first vehicle coming down and John told me that something in his engine had sprung a leak leaving a trail of oil behind him. He needed to drive back down to the town in Squamish and have it checked out. The other two vehicles were following him back.

Interesting I thought. Of all the vehicles in our group, only the Ford Explorer failed. The Toyota 4Runner, my Toyota pickup and the small little Toyota Corolla had made it almost all the way there. Domestics... The group was now going to head back down to the Canadian Tires which I stopped in previously. With my shopping and bathroom stop, I had managed to catch up to the group. I figured I had made up about an hour on them.

Five hours since meeting early in the morning, we were now back in the town of Squamish. The employee at Canadian Tire recommended that they keep a few litres of oil with them before they drive back to vancouver and have their Explorer looked at by a different mechanic. The rest of us bought some food and supplies before heading back to the same road and look for a camping spot.
I suppose this was a good thing that we never made it on the hike because throughout the day, there was brief periods of flash rain storms just as the weatherman had predicted. No thunder though and now it looked as though the worst was over. Tomorrow is supposed to be better.

We found a really good spot right by a river with a great view. The river itself was interesting because it was low so three quarters of it was above ground exposing a rocklike island. Nearby our campsite was a fallen tree which was not very big but was wet. Mike and Martin crossed it to get to the island. The stream was not very wide there but it was fast and somewhat turbulent. Maybe around four feet at the deepest. The rest of us sat around what would become the campfire as food was being prepared. All the tents had already been set up.

As well sat there talking, one of us noticed Mike's fiance coming out of the stream all wet on the other side. She had fallen off the tree, tried to hold onto one of the small branches but the water was too strong and carried her down about forty feet before she managed to get herself to the other side. We couldn't believe what had just happened. The water was very cold but she was alright. Mike was on the island already and she was trying to cross the river on the tree to follow him yet he was unaware as he was some two hundred feet ahead with Martin already. She later told me that she was scared while trying to cross on the fallen tree. Afraid of falling in the water as well with her fear of heights. I saw this as a reflection of what was happening in their real life. The possibility of her hesitancy to cross the stream and make that life long commitment. To be alone with Mike on the island by marrying him because once that commitment is made, there is no coming back.

After they had explored enough of the other side of the river on the island, they had to come back across the same tree. Mike had no problem. Martin on the other hand was petrified and ended up sitting down on the tree and sliding himself across sideways. The bride to be on the other hand, did not want to cross that tree again. She looked for a shallow section of the river but could not find one. As I looked at her on the other side all soaked and seemingly stuck away from the rest of us, I saw her stuck in her future. The island of married life with Mike with no return.

She eventually made it back over the tree and we started the camp fire. We went through the fire wood really fast and toasted marshmallows and smores.

At 9:45pm, I got in my truck and headed back home. Carrie came with me as she couldn't stay either. She didn't have her gear and after already buying a pair of runners today, didn't want to buy a sleeping bag just so I could stay because I already had one at home. Tomorrow I will return with some goodies and we will hike a different trail. Maybe even attempt the same one. Tricouni Meadows.

One Sick Day.

On Canada day I spent most of the day indoors. My sister and her boyfriend dropped by after returning from their road trip to San Francisco. They brought back a Nike dry-fit tank top plus a tiny silver pig which had a chocolate candy inside. It was nice but I felt horrible. On wednesday my sinuses started getting really congested before the body aches started and I emailed my friends that I would not be meeting up with them to go hiking today. I've been sleeping since coming home from work yesterday and woke up in the afternoon. Even in this condition, I needed to do something. So I went out to Sears and Canadian Tires to get a spark plug socket tool to check the plugs in my truck. I was told that the noise my truck is making can be from worn out plugs and carbon buildup in the combustion chamber. I couldn't remember the last time I had changed my plugs.

I removed one of the plugs and could not believe the amount of build up. No need to check the others as this one plug told me enough. Tomorrow I will replace all the plugs with a set of Bosh Platinum +4's and feed my truck a few more doses of fuel injector cleaning solution. So while the heart of my truck gets cleaned out, I also did another liver flush to clean myself out as well. It's been a while since the last one.

Later I tried watching a movie which a friend had given me on dvd. It was a chinese mandarin movie which was given to her except that she is not chinese so she couldn't understand it. She couldn't understand why her friend had given it to her because of this fact. I tried to watch it but it was of typical poor picture quality from China and somewhat boring. People in cavemen like attire with two men fighting over one woman I think. There was also an older woman practicing witchcraft and spells. My sinuses were hurting.

I found in my tool box some small allen wrenches and one was the exact size I needed to adjust the string height on my old electric guitar. I straightened them as they were crooked for some reason and lowered them so that the strings would not be so high off the fingerboard.

I went over parts of the Maps song, plus the three standard chords which cover most of Brian Adams songs (Summer of 69, Heaven, etc.). Then I relearned the opening to U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday and tried singing it as well. Kind of tough as it is like trying to rub your tummy and pat your head at the same time but at least I figured out the solo part. I also remembered the opening chords for Van Halens Girl You Really Got Me. I need a Boss distortion pedal. I don't know how those guitarists do it buy my fingers are killing me.

My head hurts. Excuse me while I blow my nose.

RumRunner's Lose Again...

It was election day. Management released us from our cubicles so that we could go home early and participate in the elections. Right after a few of us had just finished watching some people narrowly avoid causing a huge accident on the entrance to the Knight street bridge.

I got home with just barely enough time. During lunch, I had driven to Home Depot to get a five litre pail of paint for my tenants. I had agreed to supply the paint while they repainted the house. When I reached home, I got all my gear together and handed the paint to my tenants. Then I drove to a nearby grocery store to buy some pop for the team before stopping at a PetroCanada gas station to get another two dozen bottles of water with my PetroPoints. We were going to have a bbq in between the two games and I was responsible for bringing some of the drinks.

The park was hard to find. Blanca street acts as the eastern border of the UBC (University of BC) grounds. West 10th ran from Blanca and straight through to the heart of UBC and near the long entrance, there is the University golf course on the north or right side of the road. Across the road from the golf course is a small Anglican church and from its parking lot are a number of trails which many people use. I used to go mountain biking through these trails with a fellow student and we'd race all over the place. The trails were wide and fast in many parts of what was know as the UBC Endowment lands and went all the way down to Spanish Banks via some steep narrow sections. Sometimes you would have to be careful not to ride into any joggers, pedestrians with dogs or people on horseback. In the spring and fall, you would have to be really careful not to let your front wheel get caught in the roots of the trees as they would be completely submerged by rain in huge puddles.

At the other end of the church parking lot and hidden away was a small bridge to a playing field and a small secondary school called University Hill Secondary. In the six years which I had spent at UBC, I did not know that this school even existed. Coming here was like driving to class everyday in my earlier years. All the young students, the campus environement, the beautiful summer weather. And just entering what may be considered the entrance or gateway to UBC, the road along west 10th shields UBC from the rest of society with its long row of trees and bushes before reaching the center of campus.

I didn't actually have time to vote as I got to the park with only a few minutes to spare. The first game was against a much better team. They had one really big player who was wearing a team canada jersey. I called him Mr. Canadian BackBacon Boy because that's what he looked like. We got slaughtered and the score did not reflect it as there is a five run limit per inning except for the last and seventh inning. At one point they were arguing over a small detail and most of us just got tired if it. We were glad when it ended and so was I having played through most of the game with a pulled leg muscle. We had no spares this evening and I was playing right field because of my ability to run down balls.

Some other friends showed up and we started our bbq. Then the umpire came back from the game at the opposite corner of the field and told us that we had five minutes. Some people ate during the game while others waited until the end. Maybe we could have bribed the ump and the second team with some food to buy some time but I left it as just a thought.

We started the second game much better. We could keep up with this team. I on the other hand just wanted this game to be over. Half the time I would crouch down to try to stretch out my leg muscle as it was killing me. I could temporarily put out the pain as I ran bases yet I still had a few diving catches and saves. Plus one blunder. A huge overthrow into the bushes past Ro at first base from twenty feet away.

After the game, we kept the field and Larry and Mike started pitching overhand fastballs just to see how they could do. Mike wasn't on the team but he tried it anyways with my glove. Mike and Roni were there just to support the team and as they did most of the food preparation.

We didn't use a real hard ball but even still, the softball can still hurt. No one wanted to play the bat catchers position with the softball being hurled so hard. Greg tried it for a bit and so did Larry as each one took turns. Then I tried it. With no protective gear other than Larry's fielders glove, I received Larry's and Mikes good and bad pitches. I let the ones which were way out of the strike zone be caught by the chain link fence behind me instead of chasing after them. The rest of the co-ed team ate and watched or stood in the field to catch whatever could be hit though it was rare. When I tried batting, all I could get was a few high fouls and tip balls. Greg would flinch with each swing as he'd try to catch the ball behind me. Keep in mind that Greg is the biggest guy on our team at somewhere over 6'4" I think. Larry's pitches tended to be high fast balls or way inside towards the batter and I missed most of them. Mikes pitches were better. They were lower in the strike zone. Larry's arm was also getting tired after just fifteen or twenty pitches as on one occasion, I had to scramble out of the way to prevent myself from being hit.

Later on, I pitched but only regulation underhand pitches as some of the women wanted to try batting. This was my second injury. Tanya hit a small grounder which hopped up and hit me just below the inside of my left knee. Ouch! What a day for injuries. Bruised left leg, a pulled right leg muscle, scraped up right forearm from sliding back to second base when Canadian BackBacon Boy tried to chase me down, I was done. After a whole weekend of ice hockey with just a bruised left elbow, one evening of softball surpassed it all.

It soon got late and was time to head home. Everyone packed up their gear and all the leftover food. This was the fourth day of bbq type food for virtually the same group of people. On wednesday, they are going to go camping up near Squamish where I went climbing last weekend except that I won't be going. So I offered the rest of the pop to them for their camping trip.

On the way home, I stopped off at our nursing home in New Westminster to replace a drain basket in the third sink of the kitchen. The threading underneath had somehow disintegrated and would not seal properly. Home Depot only had a cheap plastic one so I bought it anyways. I'll get a stainless steel one later from HillCrest Plumbing. Lately I've found that when I needed a specific plumbing part, Home Depots selection has been rather limited and not of very good quality. They're only good if you're buying the whole thing.

For a very animated version of this blog, go to the digital photo gallery or DPG link.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

The game started to get really chippy as one of the other teams big male players was going after Doug and even using his body against some of our smaller women players. The pace was starting to pick up more at this point even though it was now halfway through the third period of the finals. The game was all tied up and Greg had also just missed a clean break away. I sat there on the benching knowing that the game would go into overtime and that I would get a spectacular opportunity to put the game away and win the cup finals for the team.

Fast forward eight recreational hockey minutes and it is now partway through sudden death overtime three on three. This was a co-ed team so it had to be two guys and one woman on the ice at all times. My mishmashed line of Doug, Ronnie and myself were on the ice now and I had passed up to Doug to carry it in over the opponents blue line. He got pinned down in the corner and the puck squirted out towards the bottom of the left face off circle. I pinched in from the point to scoop up the free puck beating the person covering me and cut across the slot and straight in front of the goalie. Ronnie was trying to gain position in front of the net while the person covering her left to take a poke at me. I pulled the puck back to avoid the swipe at my blade before letting a shot go. The goalie went down and kicked out his left leg. I couldn't believe it! If I had taken the time to look for a proper opening, my chances of scoring would have increased ten fold. But now the opportunity had slipped away. Ronnie had the only other good chance on a previous play where she slipped the pick just wide.

The game went to a best of three shootout. Again it was a two man and one woman order. We put out Doug, Vince and Ida which some thought was supposed to be our best players. No one scored and the other team managed to get just one of their goals in. That was it. Our final defeat of the weekend ice hockey tournament. Second place prize was a t-shirt for everyone. Or second last place I should say. There was only three teams in the whole event with the third and last place team having come up from Seattle. They were pretty bad as some players had just learned how to skate last year. We basically ran circles around that team although the score did not reflect it.

Now I needed to unwind after an all out hockey weekend. My health seems to be better this time as I've only got a small headache. The tournament started on Friday evening and on saturday I also went to a friends bbq way out in North Vancouver. I got there late as everyone had already chowed down and played in the pool but it was still good to meet some new people and just chit chat. Sunday I finally got to get together with Gambit and Trip Enel. They were in town for a mutual friends wedding on saturday and we were going to have sushi for lunch today. I have to say it was a pleasure meeting Trip and his wife and Gambit and his girlfriend(hee hee). The sushi place wasn't my first preference but still it was fast and cheap. Five people for thirty-two dollars? The place which I originally thought we were going to go had changed owners. It used to be run by a japanese family and was called Bonichi. That also means number one in japanese apparently and it was also the name of the woman who owned it. I used to go to it with my coworkers when it was really good. Now it's run by a chinese family I think and the music inside is different. Trip Enel and his wife liked it but we had to walk up to Sushi King as Gambit was already there.

To cap off the weekend. I went to the MTV site and found a link to a recording of Yeah Yeah Yeahs performing Maps at the MTV movie awards. When I first saw it I thought it was so cool. The lead singer is dancing happily in a giant rose filled set before a huge pile of petals is dumped on her at the end of the song. The guitarist looks like someone from the Cure. After playing this song over a number of times, I have figured out most of the guitar notes and found what may be the lyrics as well. It is just the second album I think as they only formed 18 months ago.

Pack up
I'm a stray
enough
Oh say say say you'll
Say say say you'll
Say say say you'll
Say say say you'll
Say say say..

Wait.
They don't love you like I love you
Wait.
They don't love you like I love you
Maps...........
Wait.
They don't love you like I love you

Made off
Don't stray
Well my kinds
Your kind
I'll stay the same

Pack up
But don't stray
Oh say say say
I'll say say say..

Wait.
They don't love you like I love you
Wait.
They don't love you like I love you
Maps...........
Wait.
They don't love you like I love you
Wait.
They don't love you like I love you
Maps...........
Wait.
they don't love you like I love you

Wait.
They don't love you like I love you
Wait.
They don't love you like I love you
Maps...........
Wait.
They don't love you like I love you
Wait.
They don't love you like I love you
Maps...........
Wait.
they don't love you like I love you

Cool I say.

Ronin's Corner

I got to my friends house ten minutes late. He and his other dentist friend were inside with his parents having breakfast. Originally we were supposed to meet at 8:30am but the dentist had an emergency crown operation for a patient. Who comes in asking for a crown on a sunday morning? After taking care of his patient, the dentist was about to rush by McD's for breakfast there when my friend quickly reminded him that every time he did that, he would get stomach problem later on.

We chatted with my friends parents about power boats before collecting our gear together climbing into the dentists' Isuzu Tropper. His parents were thinking of going out on their boat today. The drive up the sea to sky highway is really nice almost anytime of the year. Splendid view of the coastline, water and islands. The highway ends in a double lane lineup for the horshoe bay ferry terminal but as soon as you take that single lane exit on the right to continue up the coast, its like you're leaving civilization behind. Rightaway the ground seems to drop away down to the water and there's just this huge space which you dare not enter. Just stay on the road as it twists and turns around the mountain side on the right. Leave the concrete barriers on the left side to sit in peace.

Our general destination was the rocks around Squamish. Our exact destination was still unknown. As we passed a small lake on the left side of the highway my friend settled on a group of rock faces which was located farther down the highway on the right called The Smoke bluff's.

Once in the gravel parking lot, we began getting the climbing gear together when I noticed the dentist had passed out in the back seat of his Trooper. My friend had not noticed. Apparently he had had too much excitement for the weekend. The day before he went river rafting which includes a seven hour drive to and from the interior. Combined with a bit of late night partying on Friday evening as well, he was spent. The emergency crown operation this morning didn't help either. I could sort of say the same for myself. Friday I played ice hockey with some old friends to get warmed up for next weekend's tournament. I stopped playing with these guys regularly because their ice times suck. I have only skated once in the past two or three months. Plus I ended up with a bruise on the inside of my left foot after taking a shot from one of the strong players. On saturday I had gone to a friends potluck dinner birthday and stayed late. After leaving I went to our nursing home to deliver some groceries from the house because I had no time during the day. The only thing good about it was that it wasn't so hot at 1am in the morning so the vegetables wouldn't be ruined. I think I only got five hours of sleep.

The dentist got up after a few minutes and realized that he was done. He gave me his climbing gear to use since I didn't have any and wished us fun as he climbed back into his vehicle and went to sleep. That was the extent of his climb.

Down to the two of us, we began our hike to the rock face. Squamish has seen alot of housing developments and this has taken away from the appeal of outdoor climbing. At least for me that is. Imagine climbing up only to see someones backyard fence? Along the trail, we passed approximately four different rock faces where people were already climbing. Burger & Fries, Penny Lane,

Further into the trail we came to our destination, Ronin's Corner. Only two other people were there and the base was completedly sheltered in mountain terain and trees. It was the farthest of the series of rock climbs. My friend took a 'quick side' route to the peak to lay our anchors for our ropes. We were not lead climbing today since the dentist was not with us and my friend was not in as good a shape as he used to be. Meanwhile, I talked with the couple that had also just reached their moments before us. They were setting up for their climb up Magical Child which which was just left of MCM which is what we were going to do. The whole rock face is called Ronin's Corner but each individual path up has different degrees of difficulty and names. MCM is a 5.6 while Magical Child is a 5.8. The woman in the couple was the more experienced climber and was lead climbing for her friend. As we chatted, I was beginning to wonder why my friend was taking so long and after a while, he finally showed up at the top. From there he began laying the anchors and rope.

After my friend rapelled himself down from the peak, I hooked up my gear and he belayed for me. Climbing up was exactly as I had expected. As long as I was able to maintain a sure foothold or grip at all times, I need not worry about the height or falling. The face was about sixty or seventy feet tall. It had a steep slope and a few ledges to rest on. The woman had told me that you had to use your hands as a wedge if all there was was a crack to grip with and the two adjoining faces were basically smooth. MCM is has a main face directly in front of you and to your right but meets another face immediately to your left at approximately 110 degrees. It is like climbing up the corner of a room with sloped walls. I made it up pretty quickly as only one or two spots gave me a bit difficultly. Then I learned to just wedge my feet into the corners to support myself. That's why these climbing shoes have to fit really tight and look like rubber coated pointy toed leather shoes with a rubber coating all over the sides and bottom. With this, you don't even need a ledge to stand on. We also practised falling and to get a feel of the rope stretch. It felt like it was a lot more than the indoor climbing place as we were using a much longer length of rope.

I rappelled down and my friend climbed up and came back down as well. My first successful climb! After some snacks, we began packing everything up. I volunteered to retrieve the anchor straps and ropes via the 'quick side route'. My friend had told me how difficult it was going up and I was eager to see what all the excitement was about. I didn't think that it could be as bad as what we had just done even after he told me that he had almost gotten stuck. At one point he was considering taking some things out of his backpack to lighten the load, tie it to a rope, and pull it up afterwards separately.

With my pack on my back, I started up the path. It started out moderate but still just looked like a somewhat tame climb. Soon it was getting pretty steep. There was a large flat rock face on my right and on my left was another big rock with no easy edges to step on. Instead, the two faces met at 90 degrees and at about ten feet up this section, I began thinking this was no different than the climb we just did with all our ropes to support us. I might as well be lead climbing a 5.6 and started having thoughts of slipping and falling. I had already taken off the dentists climbing shoes so now I was wearing my big clumsy hikers. With no small ledges for me to step up with I had to wedge the toe of my hiking boots in the corner between the two faces. A few feet higher up, I noticed a flat spot. I was relieved at the site of this as to continue straight upward was not appealing without ropes and anchors. As interesting as it may have looked. Once I got myself on that flat spot I noticed a gap on the other side. I coulding believe it. There was an easier path behind this rock if I had only taken the left fork lower down.

Once at the top, I packed away all the anchor straps and supporting equipment. When we got back to the parking lot, the dentist was awake and reading his rope manual. He had just bought a brand new rope which we didn't use today. He had also just woken up after sleeping through the two or three hours which we were away. Although we were lucky as there was a breeze to keep us cool. Heading back to Vancouver, the weather was much hotter. I was greeted with the typical downtown traffic and congestion.

Vertical Reality

First, we put the rope through a figure eight knot before passing it through the belay strap and back through the figure eight knot again. The leftover rope is finished off with a stop knot. My personal instructor was really good. A young woman who was quite athletic and built. She had big arms and shoulders and plays on a womans rugby team. She went through all the drills with me and the partner which I was paired up with. In all, our group of friends was about eight in total. My partner was belaying for me so she was anchored down to the floor as I ascended the indoor climbing wall.

The main instructor spoke with a bit of an american accent. He was really good and I'm glad we received such good instruction between him and the other woman. The main instructor also liked to talk about the time he spent with another young woman who worked there as well. They were going to go to the casino later this evening and play three card poker or something like that. I forget what some of the different types of black jack and poker were which is why I have stayed away from those tables. Instead, I have tried abit of roulette, pak kow (not sure if thats what its called) and my favourite, bacarat! That's mini bacarat as the betting size is much smaller than regular bacarat which is usually only found in the high rollers section. The young woman which the head instructor was going with is also somewhat accomplished and circulates with the well to do and semi celebrity crowd.

Most of the walls seemed relatively easy. Those that were near vertical that is. As for the ones which changed to a large negative slope, well... Many of us had soar arms from hanging onto the various climbing fixtures. Afterwards, our young female instructor left my learning partner and I to spend some time climbing on her own before the place closed. We started belaying for each other within the group and trying other walls which some of us had not attempted before.

This was the funny part. One of the women in our group is really small and by default , she was originally paired up with one of our short male friends. He attempted one climbing wall but could not make it past the eight or nine feet level before losing grip. The sweat on his hands was making the small grab points slippery. A few attempts and he gave up always slipping and falling. Next was an english bloke in our group as well. He was taller but thin. He too tried the same path and grab points as the first guy but failed in the exact same position. As he lost his grip and fell away from the slightly negative sloped wall, the short woman belaying for him rose from the floor and was floating a foot off the ground. I being the closest person to her at the time grabbed the rope with her and pulled her back down to the floor. She was too light.

Next and last was me. I tied the rope to my belt and the small woman in our group was anchored down to the floor. I made sure that she did it properly this time despite what would happen in the next few minutes. I quickly ascended to the point where my two other friends had stopped and managed to continue higher to where the wall changed to a very large negative slope. At this point I was basically hanging by my arms and feet as resting my body against the wall was not an option. If I try to go higher I would have to detach the rope from the anchor point on the wall and reconnect it to a new anchor point on the ceiling. From there I would have to transform myself into something like that of a spider crawling on the ceiling.

I yelled down to my friend "lowering" and let go of the two grab points and pushed off. My belayer held me up before slowly letting me down. As I reached halfway down from the ceiling my descent stopped. I heard a bit of commotion below from the small woman and some other people and just hung there for a few seconds before I fell the rest of the way down to the floor. I missed the futon mattress padding by a couple of feet but thankfully, the floor had extra thick padding beneath the carpet. I'm guessing that one of the instructors helping my belayer might have had a tiny case of rope burn as he tried to break my fall by holding onto the rope.

Despite this little incident, I will be looking forward to the Squamish trip with great enthusiasm. The weather should be hot and sunny so the scenary should be wonderful. The great outdoors of BC!

Where's The Seventh Inning Stretch?

Crack!

The ball wizzes by first base and the runner starts for second. The first baseman scurries for the ball in a vain attempt to recover as another runner crosses home plate. The next four pitches are illegal or balls. Nothing in the strike zone and the bases are again loaded as the batter walks to first. The umpire criticizes our pitcher for being slow and lethargic. She lets balls roll by her feet on the ground as she does not bend down to get the ball when it is thrown at her. Keep in mind that she is not our regular pitcher as he could not make the past few games. His wife gave birth to a new baby daughter a few weeks ago.

On the ensuing pitch, the ball is sent into shallow left field and our man is caught playing too deep. The maximum amount of runs per inning has been reached and it is over.

At this point the score is about 18 to 6. Great number? It is now the bottom of the seventh and last inning. Two batters get on base and the next batter is up. We are feeling confident because no one is out yet.

The opposing pitcher is tough. Even though this is a beginners co-ed division, this guy is throwing spins, curves and change ups at us. I was only able to contribute a couple of line drives to advance my teamates one base as well as getting myself on base. He pitches and our female hitter bloops it between second and shortstop. It seems fine except that the second baseman springs up and steals it out of the air. Right away he tags our man running from second, throws the ball to first and tags a our girl out who stumbled and fell in the process. We were done in one quick swoop.

The game was filled with numerous errors and the score reflected it. We dropped balls, misses catches, threw wildly and had trouble chasing down balls on the ground. The bad news bears reincarnated.

Both teams cheered for each other before the traditional handshake. As this ceremony was about to end, 'Scout', our managers pet dog came running through barking at a dog sitting near the other teams dugout before stopping by their pile of bats and urinating beside it. Wonderful...

Our only consolation was the spectacular setting. With the sun beginning to set in the west along the trees, we had a clear view of the North Shore mountains above the many masts from the small sailing club on the beach. After the game, we held a short practice since our game ended so quickly.

To Portland and Back.

5:30pm Friday. I left work early to get a haircut. Then following that I dropped into the Pottery Barn store nearby to pick up a house warming gift for my friends new house. I asked my hairstylist for some suggestions and she came up with a picture frame. I listened and picked out a large rectangular one which held three small pictures within a thick black wooden frame.

On the way back home, I noticed an accident on the highway in the opposite direction. A truck had flipped its load and was laying across both lanes. Just before it was a Toyota Corolla which I assume had been a part of the accident. Traffic was completely blocked and there was a small crowd of people standing behind a baracade. Random onlookers, new people, etc. I quickly sped by and drove home.

Nothing was packed yet and time was getting short. The groceries still had to be delivered to the nursing home so I began loading up the truck. One weeks supply of fruits, vegetables, frozen items, some dairy products as well as many large canned goods and dry goods. Six or seven large boxes were filled and I was on my way to New Westminster. Everything would then be put into the storage room in the basement. With one upright freezer, a chest freezer, and two full fridge units, there was just barely enough space to put everything. In the back of the appliance room is another room where all the dry goods are kept. Some in huge bins the size of a regular garbage can. Enough to feed someone for months I think or until you get tired of it. At around eleven pm I quickly checked on all the rooms making sure nothing needed to be fixed, refilled or replaced. Then my brother showed up as he routinely drops by on his way home from his regular day job to also check on things. Messages, mail, notes from staff - administrative type stuff. I handle more of the building maintenance, contracting and supplies.

Saturday morning I woke up around 9:15am. This is later than I had hoped as I forgot to change my alarm clock. I quickly packed away some toiletries, clothes and such in my travel bag. earlier in the week I had checked my oil and it was low and heavily contaminated. I needed to change it before subjecting the engine to the long trip. Forty minutes later, a new filter was installed and all the oil was replaced. Hinges were oiled to stop squeaking and locks were lubricated. My key is getting worn down causing at least one of the locks to jam. A replacement will have to be made soon. By the time I've finished everything and had gotten my stuff packed, I was an hour behind schedule. At half past noon and I was finally on my way but not before stopping by a currency exchange house for some US bills. I do so much with my bank yet they continue to offer me horrible exchange rates.

1:30 pm and I'm at the Peace Arch Border Crossing. The line up is short. Maybe four or five vehicles long but of course, my line is the slowest. A number of minivans are in front of me and through the window I can see that they are completely packed with people and whatever else. Realizing my late schedule, I call my friend to tell him and his family not to wait for me tonight for supper. I don't expect my arrival to be until around 8:30 or 9pm now.

When I finally drive up to the customs officer, he asks me where I am going and I tell him "Portland, Oregon. I'm going to see a friend of mine who I used to work with." This friend had left the company which I currently work for about three or four years ago and landed a high paying one with Agilent in Santa Rosa, California. A few months later, Agilent began multiple rounds of huge layoffs but he survived. Soon thereafter, he moved the rest of his family to be with him. Three months ago, he switched jobs and now works for Techtroniks in Portland. The homes are not as ridiculously high priced as they are in and around Santa Rosa and he managed to get a higher salary at the new job. He had repeatedly asked me to come and visit him in Santa Rosa and I had repeated said I would but had never followed through so now it was time to do so. If not now, then probably never I suppose. Back at the border crossing, the customs officer asked me what I did and when I told him that I was an electromechanical engineer, he said "does it keep you out of trouble?" I was puzzled by his remark but just responded with a small chuckle followed by "yeah, it keeps my out of trouble." Then he sent me on my merry way.

My tank was low so I drove to a Chevron station in Blaine which is right at the entrance to the beginning of the I-5 highway. Having just replaced the oil, I checked it again at the station to see what the level is at now having operated the engine. I needed to add another half litre and then it would be perfect. No rattling noises from the rocker arms when the engine is revved under load. At the same time I purchase a bottle of Chevron's own fuel additive which I've heard is really good. I used the washroom before setting off on my trip and notice an ad for a plastic car which comes with a thumb pig. Both are painted like they are covered in mud. The little pig is cute and I start seeing images of having one sitting on my dashboard. I wasn't particularly interested in the plastic car. After a few seconds, I procrastinate and pass on the deal before heading back to my truck. I start the engine and proceed towards the I-5 south on ramp.

Passing through Bellingham, there is a multiple car accident and the traffic is really slow. Four regular vehicles are all parked against the concrete divider with a huge truck at the end which did a number on the last vehicle. Emergency crews everywhere, lights flashing, it was quite the scene. A young woman was crouched down with her back against a concrete barrier crying and probably in a state of shock as well. Another person was already strapped into a stretcher with three attendants standing around.

I reach Seattle and take one of the exits into downtown. It's raining and the streets are somewhat empty anymore than half a block away from Pikes Market. On the radio I hear something about a korean woman raised by a german family. During the whole trip, I do notice all the Nissan Sentra's driving around. This coupled with the multitude of instances of accidents between trucks and small sedans and kids. I come across a "Seattle's Best" coffee shop and park in front of it. The woman attending to my order is a young brunette with dark highlights in her hair and has a nose ring. For some reason, I associate this with the old grunge scene of Seattle back in the days of Nirvana. Even though the style has been around much longer, it is expected but not confined to the city of Seattle.

I leave the shop and a short while later I was near the Sea Tac airport exit off the I-5. Here the highway began to curve to the right and upward. I was in the left or fast lane and was approaching a vehicle on my right in the middle lane. It was a Chrysler Intrepid, between 1999 and 2002 I think. Dark blue and clean. As I passed the vehicle I looked at it and the driver. I could see a big strong arm holding the steering wheel. A very muscular person with dark brown hair and dark skin. Maybe of a european descent, was wearing a light blue dress shirt and seemed to have a demeanour about him. A not so nice demeanour. I passed him as we both made it up the small incline before the highway levelled off. He then passed me back and I in turn switched lanes so that I was now behind him. A mile or two later everyone around me suddenly slowed down and stopped. A young black teenager appeared in front of the car on the left. He ran in front of the Intrepid as the driver had not noticed before bouncing off the front of the car, flying over and landing on the concrete on front of me. Time seemed to stand still for a couple of seconds. The boy then got up and continued to run off the highway to my right onto an onramp. An older black man appeared on my left chasing after the boy followed by a middle ages caucasion woman. She stood in front of my car holding up one hand. I can read her lips as she said "stop" to me and the other drivers. In her other hand is a cell phone which she is using at the same time. I look to the left and see what looks like a black Honda Accord parked against the concrete median. The tires are all blown and on the other side of the median is a minivan with the side doors completely open. A woman driver is sitting inside looking at everything. I look at the woman in front of me expecting to see a gun pulled out as for some reason, I expect her and the man to be plain clothed police officers. There is no gun and she runs off the highway and helps the man who has caught the young teenager. At this point I pull out my camera and start to take pictures. I get one of the abandoned car, then turn to the front to get a shot of the car in front of me when I realize that the dark blue Intrepid is gone. I quickly look along the right side of the highway to see if it had pulled over but could not find it. The man had driven away.

Seeing that there was no one in front of me, I immediately take off looking for the vehicle and call 911 on my cellular phone. An operator answers and I ask for the washington state patrol. I've caught up to the last group of vehicles before the incident but do not see the Intrepid. Now there are too many vehicles and having driven three or four miles, I can not see the one which I am looking for. On the phone, there is a number of clicks and various tones and pauses before it too is lost. I make a note to myself to call the state emergency again when I reach my destination. With no licence plate number, all I can provide is a visual description of the vehicle and driver.

Incidentally, the female police officer left a message in my voicemail the other week. She wanted to know if I could come in and pick out the missing suspect from a lineup. I could also tell by her voice at how surprised she was at the report which I submitted. It was a rehashed version of the blog plus a hand drawn diagram of the area.

Somewhere around 9pm I finally reach Vancouver upon crossing one of many bridges. How interesting. I just drove from one Vancouver to another. It looks like Seattle in a way and also Montreal or any other industrial city built along a river I suppose. On both sides I see many industrial types of buildings and structures. From the I-405 exit to the US 26 West, I travel over another river bringing me to the downtown Portland area. I am now driving up a hill into a short tunnel. One which reminds me of another in Caracus, Venezuela. The terain is similar. About halfway through my phone rings and it's my friend. He is wondering where I am and surprises me since I can still get a reception inside the mountain. I told him that I was in a tunnel and he says that I will arrive in ten or fifteen minutes.

His house is in a new subdivision. All the houses look very similar and in fact are because the developer only has four or five different plans to choose from. While following the maze into the neighborhood I see quite a few american flags mounted on the front of various homes in all its glory. They stand out quite predominantly as they are full sized flags and look somewhat overstated on a standard sized home as opposed to a public monument in a park.

I reach his street and see a Honda Odyssey parked on the street. The house looks like the one I saw in a picture which he sent me and I easily assume that this is the one. While parking my truck, I notice that there are two other vehicles in the driveway. I think to myself, "hmmm, he has guests over." A great opportunity to meet new people. A knock on the driver side window and I see my friend standing there from behind. We greet each other before he tells me that his house is behind me on the other side of the street. I had just avoided a potentially embarassing situation, showing up at a house full of people with a travel bag proclaiming "I'm here!"

His house is different from the one in the email he sent me. After a bit of discussion I find out that he had mixed up his digital photos and had sent me a picture of another one which was still for sale. The last deal had fallen through and the developers had raised the new asking price by fifteen thousand. And at the same time they were advertising a savings of five thousand in fees. Some deal...

This was the first time which I have met his whole family. He has a wife from China, two daughters and his wifes parents were also visiting at the same time. One daughter is a seventeen months old that is really happy when you smile at her. She spends all day getting all her joys out of climbing up and down the main stairs. Imagine if we as adults could find such joys in a relatively menial operation. I remember Raymond Romano once had a joke about babies and how they could be so happy just standing there swinging there arms in the air.
I gave her a small stuffed Hello Kitty which came in its own little half box. At first she liked it a lot but when we removed the zap-strap which was used to hold the doll to the box, she didn't like it. She immediately put it back in the box to keep it together and tried to run away up the stairs.

The other daughter is approximately nine years old I think. It never occurred to me to ask but she was in crutches. Three weeks ago she broke her knee doing hurdles at school and had to wait two weeks before they could operate. I only found out about this accident on Friday evening so when I saw her, I was surprised at how cheerful and upbeat she was. She seemed like any other small kid except that she hobbled around with a huge cast one one leg. In talking to her, she would eventually drive me and her mother a little bit nuts as she would continue to repeate the phrase "don't count on it" in reference to anything. Kids...

Next day, we plotted a course to the Gorge along the Columbia river. There were some sightseeing spots along the road which provided a nice view of the valley as well as a number of waterfalls. At the largest and main waterfall, the parking lot was full. It was already raining but as we all started to head toward the viewing bridge, it really started to rain. A quick walk up to the platform and back and we were gone. We drove further down the highway to a restaurant which was recommended to us. It wasn't bad except that my friend was a little bit disappointed with his. He ordered a "Buffalo" burger and expected one in the literal sense. What he seemed to get was just a semi-big beef burger. The rest of us had the salmon special while his oldest daughter ate fish & chips. She inhaled her food down while I slowly ate my burger. I'm a slow eater.

The restaurant is situated along the river with a view in both directions, the low clouds and rain hampered our enthusiasm to venture any further. Plus, this was all the time we had to explore for today. After arriving back home, my friend and I jumped in my truck and drove to Costco for some groceries and to look for a ladder. His wife wanted a ladder so that they could fix some pot lamps in their home as well as clean the gutters. I offered to help them pick up a suitable ladder as well as gave them some other tips as this was the first home that he has ever owned. I told them that they would need two if they wanted to be able to get at everything but also suggested that they start with the shorter one. It would cover most jobs except for the really high things.

On the way there, we started talking about his neigborhood. I found out that there was a korean woman living next door with kids who's father was never around. At the same time my friend was puzzled in that everywhere he went he had a neigbor with this same profile. He could not escape it. Interesting coincidence I thought as I told him about my encounter in Maui. Maybe this is a reflection of what my life would be like if I were to choose this path. From one life in Vancouver to a parallel life in another Vancouver. Or, nearby.

Costco carried a fibreglass framed eight foot traditional triangle ladder. For thirty dollars more, you could get an aluminum ladder which could be tranformed between various configurations and was fully adjustable. In short, it was almost perfect for what I thought they needed. From cleaning the lower level gutters to putting up a bird house on the front tree where every morning, a tiny hummingbird always sits on the top branch of, it could do it.

My stay was quite short but needed. If the opportunities comes again, I hope to be able to spend more time as well as continue on further to California. I already have a cruise from Vancouver to California booked in September with some friends. Next morning I declined a tour of my friends office and parted.

I drove off to explore a bit of downtown Portland. At eleven thirty on a monday morning there just wasn't much going on other than to shop. At Pioneer square ther Budweiser Clydesdale horses were on display. These horses were massive in real life and somewhat impressive. Although I didn't see any beer booths or budweiser models. Instead, most of the spectators belonged to a school of small children on a field trip. There was also supposed to be a rose festival which the state is famous for but I didn't see any displays or parades. That was enough sightseeing for me and I started on my way back home. Not a super exciting trip but a good one just to visit and catch up with some people which I haven't seen in a long time. One thing though, it did give me ideas of buying my own house or condo. My friend offered to be my property manager in his neighborhood.

The drive back only took four to five hours. Much faster than the seven hours on the way down. In Blaine, I stopped at a Chevron station to refill my tank before crossing the border. There was the ad for the toy car and thumb pig again. Inside the store the cashier clerk told about how cute the commercial was as the pig falls in love with the car because its all covered in mud. The thumb pig is fixed to my dash board now.

The Long Weekend

On the eve of the long weekend, I had no grand plans to go anywhere. The day before I was considering buying an airfare ticket for a short get away but no tickets were available for where I wanted to go. Air Canada was also busily settling their contract disputes so the thought of having my return ticket cancelled on me wasn't very enticing. I've heard stories of this happening to my friends parents when Canada 3000 went under. Instead I just went to my Muai Thai kickboxing class for some much needed exercise to burn off the stress from work this past week. After class, the instructor organized a club dinner. Not many of the guys went but most of the women did. Most lived nearby in the new condos downtown. Others had all their 'gear' with them already as though they knew we were all going to head out ahead of time. All the guys waited around. Typical...

We made reservations at Milestones down on Denman and Pacific. In total there was around fourteen of us in two booths. One other woman showed up who didn't even go to class this day. The food was pretty good and so was the seafood fetuccini which I ordered.

Afterwards, I left early because I lived the farthest away. Everyone else lived downtown and my ride with the head instructor was leaving as well.

Next day I did have plans which consisted of time spent at the nursing home before meeting up with some friends. At the nursing home, all the patients just seemed to talk continuously on and on like they really were crazy. Sometimes I feel guilty when I try to sneak away while they are talking as I know that they probably won't stop. I then headed to Burnaby. Once there, three of us piled into a small station wagon and headed to another friends apartment to take him to a local Irish pub called Foggy Dews. It was the first time that I had been to this Irish pub with this group of friends. Once there another five people showed up to help fill up the tables we had in the one corner of the pub. The place was pretty cool except for the annoying partitions which were placed between every two tables along the walls. With the live band set up in another corner, you couldn't see the band. I think the interior decor was designed to look like you were in a small Irish town. Each group of tables within the partitions was meant to be a small watering hole among many in an Irish town. The beams or columns in the middle of the room were finished with a brick fascia and had black iron outdoor lamps. This is just like what I saw in Wales. Within two blocks you could go to five or six pubs. Plus the rural towns are so small it would be hard not to know anyone anywhere. The pints of beer at that time were only 63 pence I think.

The band looked like they came from Surrey(ahem) but played some descent tunes. I just wished that the singer was better. They played hits from U2, Rolling Stones, Billy Idol and some others which I can't remember the names of. They ended things off with Ozzy Ozbourne and Kiss. I used to listen to all of that stuff except for Kiss.

Within an hour or so we had the whole group of around twelve people and the pitchers were coming. Then the shooters. The plan was to get Mr. Birthday boy drunk. While some of the people danced, we kept the pipeline open. I had a couple of pints plus a shot of what seemed like watered down Sambuka. That was it for me. The last time I drank any liquor was in Maui. A few shots of hot sake with the woman before we first separated. Meanwhile, birthday boy decided to down two pints in four seconds. I couldn't believe it but at the same time I could. He was from Britain and I always thought that those british folks spent all their spare time in the pubs right? I suppose its kind of like how some american's still think that canadians live in igloos and go ice fishing all day. In spite of this, the two quick pints would be his downfall after having drank alot before hand. The night was young and he disappeared in a cab back home. The rest of us stayed, disappointed at birthday boys performance. I was the designated driver and sped everyone home quickly. Yes I like to speed and my friends found this out for the first time. Soon there after I was speeding myself home. About a block away from my house I started to feel sick. "Take deep breathes and relax. You just have to make it up the hill and you're there." is all that I was thinking.

The next day everyone got up late and no one made it to Pho's for brunch. We all managed to convene at the baseball field near one of their houses for softball practice. It was reported that Birthday boy was still in bed at 2pm. Tuesday will be the first game which I will actually play having sat out the first third of the season due to other commitments. The team is having fun. I say this because they have not won any of their games so far. They even received some mercy's since they were so far behind in some games. I was told that the umpire got bored on a occasion and tried to call the game off.

This practice was one of the better ones as it ran more like a practice as opposed to just a bunch of people goofing around. Only half the team showed up so there were alot of holes out there in the field and hitting the ball into different areas was neat to do as well. There was no pitcher today so we had to just toss the ball up ourselves to hit.

While practicing, there was this one guy who always seems to be at the same field with his son. While standing at third base, he came up to me and in broken english, he asked if he could play with us. He went on to tell me that he was from Taiwan and liked to play baseball. I also learned that his son had the same name as me. This was interesting I thought to myself, same names and home country. I could understand some of the mandarin which he spoke with but not all of it. I told him he could if he had a glove after asking the team as well. After running home, he returned with two gloves. As we practiced, I found out that he was really good. I then remembered during a previous practice, he had caught a fowl ball with his bare hands for us. When we gave him a turn to hit the ball out to the field for us to practice our field positions, he hit almost every one perfectly. A gesture of his finger towards you and he hit it straight in your directly. You'd get a line drive, a grounder, short fly ball, a small blooper or a deep hit depending on the position you were playing. He was a batting machine. You just had to keep plunking in the quarters and select which hit you wanted , how far and he'd do it. Every hit was consistent and perfectly placed in all sections of the field.

After seeing this and being up at the plate for my turn, I decided, if he could do it, so could I. So I tried. Grounders, line drives, flies in all parts of the field so that no one would be left standing doing very little for a lengthly period of time. Aside from some whiffs, it seemed to work, about 85% of the time.

Three straight hours of drills and my arm was getting tired. We sat on the grass hill beside the field deciding what to do next before disbanding. Some other friends had just returned from a vacation in Europe so some went to visit them again. I already did before the practice and wanted to go home and relax. I was due for another liver flush. How splendid.

On the drive back, I stopped and bought some gas in New Westminster. The price had dropped down to 92 cents per litre. A little better than it was just a few days before when it was practically a dollar per litre. Thank god my truck isn't a real gas guzzler. At the same time, I need not worry as my oil and gas stock is making up for the increased gas price by a fair margin. That puts a smile on my face.

Gone Fishin'

Sometimes I feel like my mother can read my mind. Not too long ago I was saying to a friend of mine that my family doesn't go out for Dim Sum anymore. Well a day or two later it happened. I got an unexpected phone call and we were convening at a local chinese restaurant. It sure tasted good as I remember a few of the dishes which we as kids used to order all the time. Shrimp dumplings, pork dumplings, Steamed ribs and the favourite, chicken feet! Yes I know some of you will gag at that but it is good when made right. The other thing which I had not noticed as a child in a chinese restaurant is how loud it can be. People talking away so loudly, the noise of all the staff carting around the food asking people if they want to order something, and kids screaming for whatever reason. God I hope I didn't scream like that in a restaurant back then.

Afterwards I had abandoned my original plans to drive to the local nursery down the street to buy some plants. I had ideas of buying an apple or cherry tree to plant in the yard. There isn't much space in the back now so I was going to get a dwarf tree which had branches from different types of fruits grafted onto the main branch. My brother's neighbor bought an apple tree which had four or five different types of apples on it and was not supposed to grow over eight or nine feet tall. The same goes for the cherry tree which my brother bought for his backyard. Agricultural science, what will they think of next?

Instead, I went to the local pharmacy and bought some gravol. on the package it says twelve hour relief from nausea, dizziness and vomiting. It came in gel capsules, regular caplets, tablets and split capsules. Why so many different forms? I chose the regular caplets but didn't splurge for the non drowsy version.

I returned to my brothers house and began pulling things out of his garage. They had bought a Bombardier challenger jet boat last fall and today we were going to go fishing. It had room for seven people and just fit in his garage diagonally. We hooked it up to the back of his truck with all his fishing gear before driving out to the Steveston docks on the north side of Vancouver Airport. As we pulled up to the loading ramp, it looked as though it was a bombardier boat show. A large family had brought a slightly smaller and less powerful version of the same boat as well as a sea doo. That's what I'd like to get if I ever lived in a place where the water was always warm. I remember learning to ride one in Montreal on a small lake. You could have the thing wide open and do a full 180 degree turn without falling off. Those little things are so much fun and relatively safe.

We waited for the people to put their boat in the water and clear the ramp before we backed down the ramp ourselves. It was close to low tide so my brother had to submerge a little bit of his rear wheels to get the boat far enough into the water. Once it was released from the trailer it was free. His wife sat in the seat beside the drivers position and I sat behind him. The Challenger does not have a standard front windshield to protect you from splashing water. The boat is open down the middle between the driver and copilot allowing you to walk from the back to the front where there are more seats arranged in a circle. Anyone sitting at the front while its jetting along in anything but smooth waters will be soaked almost instantly. Plus racing along with the hull bouncing off the water would make the ride up front even less enjoyable as the vertical amplitude is the greatest up front.

My brother sped out of the richmond area and soon we were heading north up towards Burrard Inlet and Bowen Island. With the engine at full throttle, the twin 2 stroke engine sounded just like my friends Yamaha RZ350 motorcycle which I learned to ride on. Once we got near Burrard Inlet he let me take over. I took it easy in the beginning just to get the feel of the boats handling but before long, I had the engine near full throttle. The boat was soon smashing the small rolling crests yet remained intact. Thank god for the well cushioned bucket style seats. The cheap ones at the boat rentals on Granville island give no comfort or safety.
At the same time we lost our caps almost immediately from the wind. I had to turn around retrieve the two baseball style caps which were floating in the water some one hundred and fifty feet behind us.

Just south of Bowen Island is a smaller island with a few houses on it. There were some dingy's sitting way up on the rock ledges to protect them from high tide and stormy waves. We chose this spot because it is where my brother and his wife had come previously to catch some bottom fish. Rock cod, flounder and such. He had with him a digital fish finder which he picked up in a pawn shop in Washington. After getting the fishing gear ready we trolled around for some fish. On the screen we could see the occasional fish swimming beneath us only a few feet but that wasn't what we were looking for. We were looking for the ones which were near the sea floor.

I don't know if they had noticed previously but I had eventually figured out where all the cod fish were. The fish finder gives a reading of how deep the fish and the sea floor is beneath the boat. Without looking at a topographical map I had gathered enough live data to see how far the ground dropped away as we went further away from the small island. At approximately forty feet away from the northwestern side of the island the floor was between 112 to 130 feet deep and this small "ledge" probably ran all the way around the island. This small ledge is also where the cod had congregated on that given day. I know that fish are really sensitive to temperature so on any other day, they may move to a different location given the weather condition. The water temperature will probably drop a specific range the further you go. There was a buoy which marked someone's crab trap approximately two hundred feet northwest of the small island. I used it to gauge our position. We had forgot to bring our anchor so the current kept pushing us North and quite fast. I ended up having to over shoot what I called the "hot zone" so that the current would carry us past it as we dropped our line. This hot zone of bottom fish looked to span approximately five or six feet wide and the fish showed up being as much as four or five rows deep on the digital fish finder. We went along a strip of about a hundred feet long around the island. With heavy weights to drag our lines near the bottom floor, we managed to catch two rock cod's. It was all we needed as that's all that we had enough licences for.

The boating trip went off without a hitch. I didn't get my usual bout of motion sickness though when we started doing some high speed banked turns on the way back, my head started to feel dizzie and naucious. Eventually we had to slow down as there was a long train of log boats towing hundreds of feet of wood. They were heading down the same small river which we were going to get back to the landing. The site was amazing as it reminded me of those pictures of old war ships all travelling one after the other in one long convoy. The tugboats weren't warships but nevertheless, looked impressive because of the huge stream of logs which they were towing.

That evening we prepared the fish in the same popular way many asian restaurants do. Steamed cod with a simple sauce made with soy sauce, freshly sliced green onions, ginger and garlic and some vegetable oil. The fish was simply delicious. And so when JC says to go fishin when there's no good new plays in the money markets, I went fishin and found me a different prize.

A Day at the Office.

It has been sunny and warm the past few days and working in the office has become quite tedious. Sometimes I wonder how people who live in warm climates can ever get motivated to go to work everyday aside from the necessity of paying the bills. There are two groups of people that I have encountered in my life and I'm trapped somewhere between the two. The first group are those who work to live. I joined a softball team with some friends this year except that I will only be playing in the second half of the season. During the first half, I will stay with the Muay Thai kickboxing club because I had only started it just recently. I did not want to abandon it so soon. When I read this last sentence, I also see "I will be abandoning it in the future". Getting back to the softball team, the friends on that team are those that work to live. Their job is their obligation out of necessity but their primary goal is to live. To live and have fun, play sports and enjoy life.

The second group are those who live to work. These comprise of workaholics or people who spend all their time consumed with their work. If they are passionate enough about it, then they may end up alienating their friends and family. But then again, they may have a partner who is likeminded in which case it might not be a problem at all. I watched "Intolerable Cruelty" recently and in it is an old man in a poorly lighted room with medical tubes hooked up to him. He is supposed to be the big boss of a law firm who is all consumed with creating a successful business and making money. So do my former and present boss as well. I don't want to be like them.

So as I said previously, I find myself somewhere in the middle between these two groups. Midway through last year I started on a process of transformation to move from the one group to the other group. I think a balance of the two would be best instead of just one way completely. Just like the laws of thermodynamics, physics and or chemistry, all things must maintain equilibrium or if you want to use ancient chinese wisdom, the ying and the yang. Everything must balance out in order for there to be harmony.

Despite the lack of enthusiasm for my job, I had a breakthrough in the database software which I am currently developing. It is considered a breakthrough because one, I was able to get the basic transactions working between the windows interface and the database and two, because I am not a trained software programmer. Yet the company which I have been working for the past seven years has been so kind to allow me to try just about every aspect of the business. Everything but upper management and accounting. My interests have expanded to other things now.

At work today I spent quit a bit of time thinking about what to write for my online stockcharts and this blog. I also brought one of my video tapes of the 1999 World Tae Kwon Do championships which I went to see in Edmonton and no, I did not compete. I believe I was only a green belt at the time. One of my coworkers enrolled his wife and kids at a Tae Kwon Do school where they are being sped through the belt system. There are schools now which will guarantee you a black belt within x number of months for a nominally high fee and many parents like the arrangement. Some just want to see their kids get a black belt regardless of whether or not they are qualified. The school which I happened to choose stayed with the "we don't care how much or how long you have already been with us, you must prove to us that you are at this level". As I have already seen, there are black belts, and there are, black belts. I could go on about the sport and how it is changing but that's another story. I showed my coworker the footage of the mens featherweight semifinal and finals. He had never seen anyone at his school spar that way before. I had specifically picked a match where a chinese taipei opponent knocked his korean opponent all over the place before losing because of penalty points. Then I showed a match where the same korean opponent knocked his danish counterpart down with a spectacular 360 high round kick. Both matches consisted of numerous attempts by both participants to knock each other out by using kicks to the head. It was an eye opener for my coworker as his school is just introducing chestpad protectors into their training regiment. Something which my school and others have been using for a long time.

I was on msn messenger with a friend in London today. We were chatting about tv shows which are now airing in North America. The topic moved to American Idol and how the current batch of singers are not very good. Gloria Estafan was this weeks celebrity guest judge and all the contestants had to sing one of her songs. Even though I didn't see the episode myself, I would have to agree. The singers sang well within their comfort range but when they had to sing anything else, their performance was less than spectacular. Different styles, complex intonation and tone combinations, things which they may have not trained themselves to do. While everyone's trying to sing like Mariah Carey, Arethra Franklin and Clay, not many want to sing like Gloria. My friend's favorite was the entrant from Hawaii. I liked the one from Hawaii too. I miss Maui.