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Saturday, September 24, 2005

Sat, 24 Sep 2005 00:06:40 GMT

Wow. Hard to believe how the time flies. Since my last blog:

1. Visited Calgary and Vancouver - unfortunately, we managed to hit Calgary right in the middle of a cold/rainy spell. We had a very pleasant drive from Calgary to Vancouver in the Honda Civic....I think we made in in about 10 hours! As always, the visit was great but not nearly long enough.

2. We went to my co-worker's cottage up north. It took us about 4 hours to get there.....only 2.5 hours to get back though. Traffic in Ontario is ridiculous! We're still a little baffled at the whole cottage phenomenon in Ontario...how people are willing to drive 8 hours in one weekend just to get a taste of the outdoors. Guess we take the outdoors for granted in BC. Grace and I also had our first experience wake boarding!

3. Visited Ed in Kingston. Again, it took us a ridiculous amount of time to get there as we hit a bunch of traffic numerous times and then also drove through a rainstorm which made visibility very very poor. Kingston turned out to be a pretty nice town with some decent restaurants....much more than Hamilton!

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Sun, 07 Aug 2005 04:53:15 GMT

Just a quick note....have I ever mentioned how much I hate playing hockey against teams who play dirty. I can't stand it.....it takes all the fun out of playing. Now I don't want to stereotype, but in my experience the teams who tend to take this approach to the game are mainly composed of east indian players. For some reason, they feel the need to assert their hockey abilities by intentionally trying to injure opponents who potentially may make them look bad. Why is it that they choose this approach rather than attempting to play some good quality hockey? I think it is because in their eyes, winning is life or death to them....what a sad state of mind.

Saturday, July 16, 2005

Sat, 16 Jul 2005 22:19:13 GMT

So, it's finally raining and thunderstorming here in humid Ontario. I cannot even remember the last time it rained....all I remember are the scorching hot, humid, and smoggy days we've had for the past few weeks. Thank goodness we have air conditioning!

This past week we watched Fantastic Four....overall pretty entertaining movie with good action, but a fairly simple storyline. I was a little surprised at how quickly Dr. Doom was defeated by the Fantastic Four. The movie reminded me of how I used to read the comic books when I was a child. And no, I wasn't a comic book fanatic (unlike one of my cousins whom I vividly remember was very protective of her plastic encased comic books) .

Thursday, June 30, 2005

Thu, 30 Jun 2005 03:28:08 GMT

Did I mention that I hate the smog? Just came back from hockey practice in Toronto and I can't take a deep breath without coughing....this stuff sucks . I think the smog's going to take at least 5 years off my life.

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Wed, 29 Jun 2005 19:06:08 GMT

This past weekend Grace and I saw TWO movies: Star Wars Epsiode III and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. We were both a little surprised at how graphic Star Wars was and how, if we had kids, we would be a little hesitant to bring them to the movie....especially when Anniken's legs were chopped off! Overall, I thought it was much better than the Episode II and it did a good job of linking into Epsiode IV. Mr. and Mrs. Smith was also an entertaining movie moreso for the amount of humour rather than the plot.

We also took a trip to the Ikea midnight madness sale and picked up a Noby footstool to add to our "living room"....we bought beige, faux suede slipcovers...not the ugly blue ones . I demonstrated some of my mom's savvy shopping traits by taking back 2 of the footstools (small cuts in the cushion covering) and ended up getting an extra 15% off!

The weather in Ontario has been scorching hot (above 30 degrees) ...However, with hot weather there is always a lot of smog and humidity. The next few days the province has asked people to try and conserve energy usage to avoid any brownouts.

The long weekend is almost here!! We don't have any plans yet, but we'll probably head into TO or something like that.

Sunday, June 19, 2005

Sun, 19 Jun 2005 18:36:47 GMT

This is indeed a record blog entry! Neways, I've just gotten home from 2 days of learning acupunture....where a number of basic points are located, their clinical uses, and most importantly how to properly insert them. I must say that initially I a little nervous about being needled by fellow novices (such as myself). By the end of it, I was quite comfortable with most of the points....except some that are on the face.....those can be a little bit painful to insert just because the skin is so sensitive there. The longest needled we used was 3 inches....gallbladder 30 is its name...suppposed to be helpful to treat sciatica. Basically, the needle just goes right into your butt....surprisingly quite painless!

Last night Grace and I met up with Ed for dinner. We went to that sushi place in Yorkville just behind the Nike store on Bloor street. We all ate way too much....but it was tasty nonetheless. It was also a good chance to catch up with Ed to find out how his time in Oshawa went.

That's all for now! Back to the regular routine tomorrow!

Saturday, June 18, 2005

Sat, 18 Jun 2005 01:24:30 GMT

I've finally managed to force myself to update this blog thing....not even sure who reads it anyways.

So, at the end of march Grace and I went back to Vancouver to get away from work, the weather, and generally everything that's associated with Ontario. Grace organized a "surprise" b-day party for me....Arthur accidentallyi leaked the surprise to me when we were at church. People became really hooked on mario cart!!

Work for me has been about the same. We just finished doing interviews for a new physiotherapist on our ward.....the physiotherapist who came back to us from her maternity leave found it just too draining to try and balance 3 kids and a FT job...the kids ended up winning. She was awesome to have on the unit because she had so much knowledge to offer. It was actually pretty interesting to be one of the interviewers....I could definitely notice a distinct difference between the 2 physiotherapists we interviewed. Beyond the usual patient care stuff, I started to get a little bit involved with McMaster's PT program. I helped out with 2 labs this past week to go over managing a hemiplegic shoulder and walking with canes. It's kinda fun teaching...hard to believe it was only a year ago that I was in school =). Thinking about doing some tutoring in the fall (cause that's what MAC does!).

I'm taking the acupuncture course this w/e....hoping to be able to eventually try it out on some of my post-stroke patients who experience shoulder pain....have to discuss with the doctors first (what a pain!).

Last w/e we went into TO to have dinner with a bunch of friends at 7 Numbers.

The weather here in TO has been scorching hot the past couple of weeks...sometimes >30 degrees....thank goodness for air conditioning!! This past week has been a little bit cooler (~20 degrees).

Guess that's all for now!

Monday, January 03, 2005

Mon, 03 Jan 2005 04:21:55 GMT

As with most people, 2004 has been a year full of changes, adjustments and exciting events. This year was particularly special for me :

1 Learned how to waltz so I could propose to Grace in Hamilton.

2. Successfully graduated from UBC (again!! ) with a physiotherapy degree. Also, the UBC Men's Field Hockey Team won the premier league division after an 7 year drought (we won the league in my first year at UBC.....hard to believe I was there that long!)

3. Successfully passed my national board exam...the dreaded PNE! (no, not the place with the rides)

4. Packed up and moved out of the house I've called home for the past 20 or so years....leaving my dog, Kiree, behind to hang out with my parents. Somehow I thought that 2 weeks was plenty of time to get everything organized...boy was I wrong! Also, had a LOT of help getting everything over to Hamilton....thanx Warren.

5. Moved out to Hamilton to be with my FIANCE and start my first real job as a physiotherapist working on the stroke unit of the Hamiton General Hospital.

6. Grace and I planned our wedding, with lots and lots of help from family and friends, in a span of 6 months.

7. GOT MARRIED back in Vancouver at our home church ECBC....which we dearly miss

8. Went on a very "memorable" honeymoon cruising around to avoid Hurricane Ivan.

9. Joined Toronto Field Hockey Club so I could continue to play hockey....and avoid getting too out of shape . This also meant taking up a second job as a taxicab driver since I end up commuting to TO at least 2 times a week (usually more)

10. Went back to Vancouver for my cousin Delwin's wedding....and to visit friends and family. We successfully fulfilled our sushi quota by going to all-you-can-eat at Kamei Royale 2 times during our visit!

11. Spent our first Christmas together as a married couple.

12. Spend our first New Year's together as a married couple....Lynn said the night was boring.....the food at 7 Numbers was pretty good though.

That's all I can think of for now!

Lata.

Sunday, December 12, 2004

Sun, 12 Dec 2004 20:21:45 GMT

I know I'm quite a bit behind on my monthly blogging so I figured I'd take this opportunity to catch up. As always (and unlike my wife who is a superb blogger), this will be brief but to the point:

1. Went back briefly to Vancouver to visit family and friends, and to attend one of my cousin's weddings (Delwin). Highlights of the trip included (in addition to hanging out with everyone): Dragon Ball bubble tea , All you can eat sushi at Kamei Royale x 2, Glouchester, chinese beef noodle house, real dim sum food, seeing the ocean and mountains.

2. Lost $20 betting that the B.C. Lions would win the Grey Cup . I rarely bet on anything (cause nothing's a sure thing), but in this case I had to support B.C. against all of my fellow TO colleagues (they are really Hamiltonians, but the Ti-Cats didn't fair so well this year). The game was anything but close....darn that Damon Allen!!

3. Experienced the first snow fall of the year last tuesday....almost bailed on the slippery porch in the morning...at least I'm covered by the hopsital if I get injured . Fact: there was a car accident every minute that morning....Toronto drivers just don't seem to know how to adjust their driving habits according to the weather...they think they can tailgate (which is so annying) and slam on their brakes and stop in a blink of an eye. What are these people thinking?

4. Grace and I are one step closer to getting a couch for our place....we went and added it to our registry to take advantage of getting the sale price. We also added another duvet (cause it's so cold in TO ...at least we're able to freeload heat from our neighbors downstairs!!....we have yet to turn the heating system on in our place...we mainly use the fireplace for brief periods), as well as a KitchenAid blender...can't wait to make some smoothies!

5. Started playing a little bit of basketball with one of my co-workers and a bunch of his old school friends/teachers. Took me a little while to find my shooting touch again (started with a couple air balls), but I managed to hold my own, especially since I haven't played in a pick-up game for at least a year (the 1on1 games vs. Meng on the mini-hoops don't count!!)

Off to Yorkdale mall for yet another round of shopping!! Crossing my fingers that I find something suitable for my mom....any suggestions? (no scarves, no gloves)

Lates.

Friday, October 29, 2004

Fri, 29 Oct 2004 21:38:45 GMT

Surprise, surprise.....it's been just over a month since my last entry!! Where did all the days go? I figured that since my wife updated her blog, I'd better make an effort to keep up with her . So what's new in my life? Not much has changed since coming back from our honeymoon. Work, gym/climbing, eat, sleep, Costco (of course).....pretty much day to day routine.

We're going to finally get the chance to take a look at our wedding photos! (thanks Warren for bringing them back!) Hopefully there are lots of good shots in them.

We are looking forward to going back to Vancouver in about 3 weeks for my cousin's wedding. We definitely miss Vancouver....esp Dragonball!!