you are my biggest fan . . .

I blame Tiff & her friend Alice >__>"

2011-03-02T23:23:00.002-05:00

Most of you know that Kevin and I went on a shopping trip to Tokyo in January. We were able to fill lots of gaps in our collection, and unintentionally started collecting figures from a couple of new fandoms as well. Most of these new things will be staying in their boxes until we renovate the house and add some more display cases but the main new addition to our life is the Dollfie Dream Saber Lily.

Tiff has owned a Volks mini Super Dollfie for a few years now (and I brought home another kit for her on this trip too) and she and her friend Alice have made this hobby much worse for me - there are so many beautiful and cute things out there! But my goodness this hobby is expensive! I've started selling off some of my makeup collection (because at this point, I'm never going to use all of it) and the money that I've made has pretty much been recycled into this new hobby! >__<" Geebus. (Oh, and it's partly because of them that I've revived my blog after a long hiatus! Expect some rants since that's what I love to do.)

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

My flight home from Shanghai earlier this week encountered some severe turbulence. Luckily we were wrapping up the first meal service so all the passengers were still in their seats and we had enough notice to stow everything away and take our seats. For a good 25 minutes we were shaken quite badly - even with the shoulder harness of my jumpseat I came off the seat a few inches at one point! You would think that common sense would prevail in a situation like this, but that didn't stop at least 2 parents from getting up and taking their babies into the lavatories to change their diapers... >__>" Luckily no one was hurt, and that's all the "matters" right? Sigh...

FREE uniform shirts for AC ladies

2010-09-08T17:05:00.005-05:00

Hey AC Friends -

By now the backlog with VF Solutions has gotten ridiculous, especially with even more new hires to come online in the next couple of months.

I was cleaning out my closet and found a few shirts in an assortment of sizes. If you want one, send me a message (facebook, email, etc.) with your name and employee number and I'll slip it in your mail folder.

I think I rescued a few of these from the YUL freebie bin last year and they have been hanging unworn in my closet since then. These are coming from a smoke-free home, but I do have cats (in case you're allergic, wash before wearing).

Size: Medium (Petite)
Style: Short sleeved, non-striped fabric (the old kind that doesn't wrinkle!)
Notes: Clean. Not my size, so this was probably from the donation bin.
Quantity Available: 1

Size: Large (Petite) - CLAIMED BY C.T.
Style: Short sleeved, non-striped fabric (the old kind that doesn't wrinkle!)
Notes: Clean. Not my size, so this was probably from the donation bin.
Quantity Available: 1 0

Size: Small (Regular)
Style: Long sleeved, non-striped fabric (the old kind that doesn't wrinkle)
Notes: Clean. Pre-owned by me. Worn a handful of times between May 2007-July 2007.
Quantity Available: 1

Size: Medium (Regular)
Style: Long sleeved. Striped cotton fabric.
Notes: Brand new, in plastic wrap.
Quantity Available: 2

GALLEY APRON: Brand new, 2 available.

Köln (Part II) and Stuttgart, Germany

2008-09-17T19:46:00.002-05:00

So I worked a very laid-back pairing to San Francisco for the Labour Day long weekend. I ended up getting a pedicure and doing some shopping down there. It was productive, but restful if that makes any sense. ^__~"

The day after I left again for Frankfurt and was back in Köln in no time. It really was like I never left - JP had been away most of the weekend and everything was just as I'd left it. That evening we went over to Daniel's residence and we had an evening of wine, cheese and conversation.

Friday morning we took the train to Stuttgart to catch the end of the European Music Festival. JP was singing in the final concert and I was more than happy to come along, hear some good music and see some old friends again. I think my job has opened my eyes to seeing cities that I visit from a new perspective and I'd forgotten how beautiful Stuttgart is. My previous summers there were with the attitude of a working singer and aside from lots of shopping and some light sightseeing there is a lot the city that I had never seen. After JP's afternoon rehearsal (into which he made a noisy and fashionable late entrance) we walked around, had awesome Schnitzel and Käsespätzle for dinner and then met up with his friend Adrian for drinks. While we were walking on the street we ran into Robin E. and his reaction to seeing me totally made the trip worthwhile! He was so shocked, surprised and totally caught off guard. I had an unspeakable amount of beer that night @__@" Who ever thought that I would be a beer drinker?

Saturday morning was a bit ugly. JP had a migraine from hell and was a mess, so I went out and got stuff to make him... not messy. When he was finally ready to face the world we went out for cake and coffee. He had an afternoon rehearsal so I went shopping. It was a bit fruitless - mostly because I really didn't need anything. In the evening I sat in the lecture concert in the Beethovensaal. We had a quiet night in and watched P.S., I Love You on his laptop while eating junk food.

Sunday morning we were woken up early by clanging church bells. Since we were up anyways we went for a walk in the park behind the Schlossplatz, sat around and had ice cream. Another very lazy morning :) In the evening I went to hear the final concert of the music festival. I had an amazing seat, and ended up sitting next to the new head of the Bachakademie. The concert was fantastic; I had gotten a taste at the lecture concert but it was so much more powerful to hear the entire works. After the concert we went to the Hospitalhof for the final party. It was an odd feeling being there without the other members of FES, but I caught up a bit with some old friends: Theresa, Ulrich, Andreas, Tobias and of course it was like being with family to see the staff again, particularly Birgit, Tobias and Hollie.

JP took an earlier train back to Köln because he had to get to work, but I took the slower train that followed the Rhine river before making its way. The ride was very scenic and beautiful. There are lots of of castles dotting the hills along the length of the river.

My remaining days in Köln were very laid back. Lots of grocery shopping, cooking, wine-drinking and eventually we did make that apple pie :) While we were out shopping for pie ingredients JP found Federweizen (unfinished white wine) at the grocery store and bought a couple of bottles. It is SO amazingly good! This trip made me realize that while I may not be amazing at it, I really do enjoy cooking when I have the time, resources and a good space to work in. JP has an awesome little kitchen and it was definitely a plus to have several grocery stores just steps away when I needed something.

I had a great trip - even if it was interrupted by "layovers" in Toronto and San Fran, hehe. I have a new-found respect for beer, and I totally want a set of electric salt and pepper mills now and a J.A. Henkels paring knife.

As I am writing this blog entry I am eating homemade Japanese curry, enjoying a glass of white Zinfandel and listening to the new album from New Kids on the Block. It's amazing to think that I will be seeing them live on Friday - it brings back memories of the "Magic Summer" back in 1990. Whoever thought it.

And I met Andreas Scholl this summer. Truly I am very happy.

Köln, Germany - Part I

2008-08-30T16:31:00.003-05:00

I'm writing this from Toronto - and if you're wondering why this entry is called "Part I" it's because my vacation isn't done yet, even though I'm at home. Keep reading . . .

So I left for Germany about a week ago. Everything went smoothly - got on my flight to Frankfurt, had plenty of time to catch my train up Köln and even managed to find JP's flat even though I only had a rough idea of where it was in my head. Then we went to the laundrymat (so that I would have bedsheets and clean towels >__<"), had lunch at a little Italian place and went grocery shopping. We ran into Chelsey on the street while she was on her way to do her own laundry. (And spotted Thomas Heyer trying to avoid us... awkward... and funny.) I totally love his flat - it's the perfect amount of space for one person and the location is fabulous.

Saturday morning I awoked to "Patty, what would you like for breakfast? I'll make you whatever you want." Hehehehe... My first request for pancakes was denied because JP isn't a fan of them, so we had french toast and breakfast sausages instead. Yummy! That evening JP had a concert so I went along to hear him.

Sunday morning we both slept in like lazy butts. In the afternoon we met up with a couple of JP's friends and had a few beers at a Brauhaus. I'm really not a fan of beer, but I'm starting to get used to it and starting to appreciate them. We went for gelato afterwards and then walked along the river to get home.

Monday morning JP had to work - so I hit the streets and went shopping! For more groceries. LOL. (Actually, I was totally jetlagged and was up at 6am.) JP had offhandedly said that he loved wonton soup but hadn't had it in forever so I went out and picked up the ingredients to make wontons. There's a small Asian supermarket near his flat that I went to hoping to find wonton wrappers - but it was the tiniest, dingiest, smelliest place ever! I walked in and walked back out again. Gross! Left with the small dilemma of no wonton wrappers for wontons, we decided to make them ourselves. So when I say we made wonton soup - I mean it. We made wonton soup from scratch.

Tuesday JP and I went into town in the afternoon to shop (and buy more groceries). It was a bit fruitless as neither of us found anything that we wanted. After work his friend Yoshiko came over and we made sushi for dinner. I had somewhat planned for this so I brought a maki rolling mat, miso paste and soup mix, powdered wasabi (instead of the ready made because of the liquids restrictions on the airlines), nori, green tea, and sushi rice seasoning when I was on a layover in Vancouver. Yoshiko was so happy - this stuff is pretty hard to find in Germany, and even if you can find it, it's pretty expensive because it's imported. It was a lot of fun to prep and make everything. I love social cooking. We had some great conversation and Yoshiko was quite impressed with how much Japanese I knew (which is only what I've picked up from watching anime) and how much I knew about Japanese culture. After dinner we played on JP's Wii while trying not to make to much noise because his neighbour is a grouch - hehe.

Wednesday JP came back from an early session at work and made Caprese salad for lunch. OMG the tomatoes and cheese and everything were so fresh and so good. Total foodgasm. Feeling restless, we went out again into town and walked around, going down towards the Dom and crossing the river to enjoy the view from the other side. Then we sat by the river with a couple bottles of Kölsch in hand and just watched the city go by. I haven't had such a relaxed day in a long time.

Thursday morning JP didn't have to work, so we had another lazy morning and eventually made it out of the house to go grocery shopping and pick up some fresh bagels. I went out and did some last minute shopping for Ritter Sport chocolate and in the evening we went out with some friends for cocktails. I've discovered my new favourite drink - strawberry coladas! Mmmm....
Friday we both woke up obscenely early to catch the train to Frankfurt. JP had a teaching conference so he took me to the airport before catching his connecting train, and I hopped on a plane and came home. I tried to switch my flights this weekeng but no one realy wants to give up their long weekend so I was stuck coming back to work. *sigh* So I promised JP that I'd be back later in the week, but for now I'm home.

It's nice to be back - the new computer has arrived and Kevin put together the extension to the desk that will be my area. The kitties are being their naughty, cute selves ^__^" I went over to my parents yesterday for a BBQ, but ending up falling asleep in Tiff's room on the floor and didn't want to get up to eat. Ooops... I spent most of today doing laundry, repacking my suitcase for "layover mode" and I'll be off to San Fran tomorrow.

Germany - Part II will follow next week or so ^__~"

Planning for Germany trip

2008-08-14T18:03:00.003-05:00

I've been working non-stop for the past few weeks. I did a flight switch with a girl who really needed to be in Vancouver last weekend, and for my end of things I went to London this weekend. It worked out fabulously since I had some errands to run in SoHo and I wanted to buy more of the fantastic pantyhose from Marks & Spencer (and shrimp chips! Hohoho! Shrimpy chips ^___^").

The first week of the month I was ready to collapse from exhaustion - but no rest for the wicked - only partying! Kimmy's bachelorette was that weekend and we had a great time. Although all this sillyness (combined with the nonsense Kevin's sister went through earlier in the year) and the stuff Kevin has to do for Darryl's weekend just puts me off the wedding thing even more @__@"

We bought a gorgeous office corner unit for the computer from Ikea last week, which then prompted Kevin to buy a new computer. He has bought a new Dell XPS system. My corporate discount probably helped him make that decision LOL The cats are being their usual furry lumps and sleeping all over the desk. Charlie likes to jump up to the very top and sleep with my stuffed animals up there. He has also learned how to open up tupperwear containers so now we can't leave leftovers or anything out on the kitchen counter. That cat is too smart for his own good.

I'm determined to travel with just a carry-on suitcase when I go to Germany next week, which has meant a lot of packing and planning. I tend to overpack and bring all sorts of non-essential but practical things with me (like tape, scissors, etc.) so I'm going to have to par down. It will be an interesting feat ^__^"

Whirlwind weekend in St. John's and New York

2008-07-23T16:51:00.003-05:00

I had another pairing that took me all over the place last weekend. I spent my first of 3 layovers in Calgary. I got to the hotel around 3pm, but since my sleep patterns were screwed up I didn't want to crawl into bed right away. I walked around and went shopping, picking up a couple seasons of the X-Files at HMV for $20 each and found the first season of The Lone Gunman too. Walking back to my hotel I was so tired that my eyes were starting to black out on me - not a good sign. After a quick bite to eat I crashed into bed and woke up at something ridiculous like 5am for our check-out.

Day 2 was completely unproductive. Our original flight was canceled so we flew back to Toronto - I watched 21 and slept some more; and then we flew to St. John's. The whole day was just riding on planes, but not working! In Newfoundland I went out with my crew and the crew that had brought us in. We walked around and explored downtown a bit and had dinner on George Street. It was really nice that all of us were able to go out - it doesn't happen often. I found a cool shop in St. John's that sells travel stuff - cute things like what they have on Flight 001. I bought a pair of travel chopsticks (the same ones that are on thinkgeek.com) and a travel pepper grinder.

Our next day was yet another very early morning and we ended up in New York by the early afternoon. My crew-mate Laura and I took a cab into Manhattan and wandered along Fifth Avenue doing some shopping here and there, and then had our nails done down on Third.

It was so nice to have time to actually shop in New York, since the last time I was there was in 2004 and we had an hour to run around before everything closed (it was a Sunday afternoon). I had a great time in St. John's and New York and I can't wait to go back and explore those cities some more!

I've been finishing up my marathon of the X-Files so that hopefully I'll be caught up for the movie release this Friday. Kevin and I are taking the kittens to be neutered tomorrow, and then popping downtown to watch Batman on IMAX at the Paramount (oops! I mean the ScotiaBank whatever....) I've also had this nostalgic feeling for watching the old Sherlock Holmes series staring Jeremy Brett, so I've got those on my computer to watch now too. I've got lots of stuff to keep me busy this week.

In Memoriam

2008-07-16T17:44:00.004-05:00

I woke up this afternoon feeling a bit nostalgic so I went looking for old pictures from my high school days and from my first summer in Germany. I had a bit of luck - which was surprising because the last time I went looking I didn't find anything. I noticed that Laura was killing time on Facebook tagging people in my photos, which was a bit of my motivation to find some of those old memories.

I just received a message in my inbox from the older brother of one of my classmates from high school that we tagged into a photo telling me that he passed away this morning. I'm too shocked. I don't know what happened, and it's not my place to ask, but he was my age, living his life and now he's not here anymore. Just like that.

Be at peace Morchel. You are loved and missed.

Jeans & Gelato

2008-07-07T15:42:00.004-05:00

I spent the better part of last week curled up in bed trying to sleep off my jet-lag from doing my 2 red-eyes + Hong Kong combination. It worked a little bit but my body is still a bit confused. I thought my weekend in Vancouver had fixed my internal clock, but then I didn't roll out of bed this afternoon until about 2pm... Good grief!

Last Friday I dragged Kevin out to the Eaton Centre because he wanted some new pants, and I needed jeans. We were getting annoyed with each other because our shopping styles when it comes to clothes is so different - so I left him to his own devices at Old Navy and met up with him later. I exchanged my cute Lacoste flats for a smaller size (because there is no way I can wear size 42 - aka US size 10...), and was peeved to find out that the ballerina flats I'd bought at Geox in Hong Kong were on sale at the Eaton Centre for 50% off - but if it's any consolation they didn't have my size. Kevin bought jeans - omg! In all my years of knowing him I've only seen him wear jeans twice! He's a strange creature and he still surprises me. We went out for a quick dinner at the ever crowded Salad King, and discovered a little gelato place had opened near the Dundas subway station. It was good, but not fantastic. Their hazelnut was a bit watery and their Baccio was a bit too chocolately. It made me miss Überlingen's Eis Paradis...

I had a very restful layover in downtown Vancouver over the weekend. The hotel is in an amazing location - seconds from Robson Street. The decor is somewhat hideous - with lime green carpet and sunshine yellow walls but it has every amenity I could ask for. Give me a room that has a fridge and a microwave and I am a happy camper. I walked around downtown a bit (Yay! Sale at Lululemon!), made some YVR phone calls, gave myself a pedicure while watching TV and called it an early night. In the morning I heard my cellphone go off and I quite literally jumped up and across the massive bed to hunt for where I'd left the phone the night before LOL A couple of my friends had come in on an early morning flight for their layover so I went out for breakfast with Mike. He was VERY hungry... we inhaled our savoury crèpes, and then he bought a couple slices of pizza and he inhaled those too... Then we had gelato at Mondo Gelato 0__0"

I was happy to be home with my kittens again. I get so detached from them when I'm gone for more than a couple of days. I'm also the one responsible for trimming their claws since Kevin never seems to do it. We never had to trim Timmy's claws - he was always able to take care of this matter himself. Bubba doesn't offer much resistance; I love how complacent and squishy he is. Charlie, on the other hand, is a squirmy, wiggly handful. I try to get him when he's sleeping but I can never get more than 3 or 4 of his claws at a time before he'll wriggle away and hide his paws from me.

Kevin and I watched Batman: Gotham Night last night and it has me excited about the upcoming movie. It's like the Animatrix, only for the Batman franchise and I thought it was very well done. I think I need to re-watch Batman Begins before the new movie releases.

Working through the holiday weekend

2008-07-03T16:57:00.002-05:00

Well, Kevin completed the computer dump and we are slowly reinstalling everything. The good news is that the CD burner works (thank you Roland!!), but now I don't have Photoshop installed yet, and my iTunes is messed up because the program is on the C: drive and all my music files are on the D: drive @__@" It will be a slow process....

I finally saw Prince Caspian last week. Mmmm... Ben Barnes... Not sure I like the weird Telemarine accent he put on, but the film was decent. It was a lot more to look at than the old BBC specials.

I did 2 back-to-back red-eye turns last week, got home Saturday morning and then left for Hong Kong on Sunday morning. Way to screw up my sleeping patterns, eh? The HK pairing was great - I worked with an awesome crew and had a nice, productive layover. I finally found more of the blue galley gloves that I've been hunting for - I went into about 5 Daiso's in Tokyo and couldn't find them. Go figure that I'd find an abundance of them in HK. The weather over there this time was beautiful - the sky was so clear and we could actually see across the harbour! That is so rare, and of course my camera has to be MIA (Kev's mom borrowed it). I went out for dim-sum with my aunt and then did some shopping in the morning before getting picked-up to go to the airport.

When I got back the family went out for dinner at that place mom likes so much. It was nice to come home and just relax. I slept almost all day yesterday, with the cats sharing the bed with me :)

Kevin has me marathoning Star Wars (ep. IV-VI) right now since I've never actually seen episodes V & VI...

Home again. Time for a computer dump.

2008-06-22T16:21:00.003-05:00

Tiff and I got home without a hitch on Wednesday. It was a nice treat for her to fly in Executive First Class - I wasn't sure if there was going to be room up there. She was getting some weird looks from the passengers - kinda like "Stupid rich kid" glares... If they only knew... hehe.

I was supposed to operate to Hong Kong yesterday but there was some kind of maintenance issue and the entire crew went illegal. I was actually looking forward to going - but these things always seem to pop up when I make tentative plans... Argh!

So I'm at home now, deleting old files on my C: drive and streaming down to only the important things (ahem! music and photo files!) so that Kevin can do a complete computer dump, defrag and the reinstall the drivers that the tech support woman from Dell somehow deleted. Grrr!

I talked to JP and the likelihood of a Germany visit in late August is very possible. I can't wait - I miss Stuttgart so much. However, me being the last minute queen that I am, I can't really book anything until I know my schedule for August. But just the prospect of it makes me happy! With all the rumours of layoffs and cutbacks, I need something like this to keep myself motivated!

Patty and Tiff in London

2008-06-16T11:49:00.001-05:00

I had some time off this month so I decided to take my sister to London. We're here visiting my cousin and seeing the sights :)

We flew over on the overnighter flight and luckily there was space up front so Tiff got to experience Executive First. When we got to London we had to take the tube over to Notting Hill Gate with all the tourists heading to Portobello Market @__@"

On Sunday we checked out some of the private gardens in Notting Hill that are usually open only to local residents - including the ones that were used for the "Notting Hill" movie.

On Monday Tiff and I went to Kensington Palace and after visiting the state rooms we had tea at the Orangery. On Tuesday we went to the British Museum and did some fabric shopping in Soho. We did some more wandering in Soho on Wednesday and in the evening went down to the Southbank Centre.

I had planned this trip around a concert that Andreas Scholl was presenting - and it was completely amazing. After listening to his CD's for so long and admiring his work, it was an absolute thrill to finally hear him live. He was doing a signing session after the concert so I brought his new release to have it signed. It was so lovely to meet him. He was very gracious and sweet.

On Thursday Tiff and I took a daytrip out to Windsor Castle, Salisbury and Stonehenge. On Friday we housesat at Michelle's new flat to wait for a delivery, and then popped down to the V&A Museum. We went to the Portobello Market on Saturday morning and were slightly overwhelmed by everything there... Tiff found a cosplay item she had been looking for though.

Yesterday Tiff and I rode around on the tube to visit a bunch of touristy spots. We went to the Tower, Parliament & Big Ben and then walked up towards Trafalgar Square. There was a huge police presence because George W. Bush was visiting Gordon Brown at Downing St. We popped by Leicester Square, and then up to King's Cross.

Today we went to the V&A again to see the exhibits that we missed last week, and then we went the Museum of Natural History. We have a bit more time here before we go home later this week.

WARNING - Huge Update Alert!

2008-06-05T20:23:00.001-05:00

I haven't updated this blog in many months, so I'm going to do one big long update to get myself up to date.

December 2007 - I spent Christmas in Vancouver and Edmonton... I didn't really care because I had a cool crew that I chilled out with.

January saw me in San Francisco during torrential rains, but that didn't stop me and my crewmates from heading into town. Easily one of the best layovers I've had yet. I also got sent to Sao Paulo, Brazil, which was a lovely experience. We left just as Carnival was starting up so we missed out on the fun.

February was cold - and I was working every day that there was a snowstorm! It was also the month of lot of Montreal turns. Not a productive month. I was happy for it to be over.

In March I went down to Las Vegas with Dani and Maral - because I'd never been there before, I had the days off and I wanted to check out a trade show down there. We ran into Dawn and Alex down there and went out for dinner together. We had a great time. It was the perfect blend of productivity and touristy stuff ^__^"

April was a hard month. Timmy's health took a turn and we had to put him down. I was completely heartbroken and it still hurts to think about it even now. Kevin and I went down to the Humane Society to adopt a new kitten - and ended up coming home with two little darlings. We named them Charlie and Bubba (for Beelzebub, in remembrance of Timmy). Later in the month, I took a trip with my family to Hong Kong.

May saw us in Hong Kong and Tokyo. We had incredible time in Tokyo. We spent 6 days there and visited Shibuya, Daikanyama, Harajuku, Ueno and Asakusa, Akihabara and took a day trip out to Mitaka to visit the Ghibli Museum. I really loved Japan and can't wait to go there again.

At Anime North this year Kevin and I helped out at Dani's booth, and I also helped out at Tiff's table in the Artist Alley. The weekend was cut in half because Kevin and I had his sister Cecilia's wedding to attend.

For Kevin's birthday we went out to dinner at Moxie's, and then I had to poof off to Hong Kong. It was a fun layover - I got to work with Kim and Jacky again!

Now Tiff and I are off to London to visit Michelle and do touristy stuff :)

It's December already!

2007-12-01T16:12:00.000-05:00

December kind of crept up on me. Since it's "the season" again, I've updated my My Wishlist to help anyone who might be thinking of getting me a gift. PLEASE don't get me make-up! (unless it's something specifically on that wishlist...)

So I guess it's time to re-cap the month of November.

November 2 - Left for London.
November 3 - Arrived in London. Note to self, arriving on a Saturday morning with all the tourists trying to get to Portobello Market is NOT fun... Got to Michelle's, unpacked a bit and fell asleep on the couch. Then we went out to do some shopping errands - i.e. Christian Louboutin shoes.
November 4 - More shoe shopping with Michelle. Made good use of my MAC addict knowledge helping her with some stuff.
November 5 - Went to the V&A Museum to check out the "Golden Age of Couture" exhibit. It was fabulous - lots of Dior and Heims. Bought 2 beautiful books for Tiff.

November 6 - Took a day trip to Leeds Castle, Dover and Canterbury. The tour left 30 minutes late because the scheduled tour guide never showed up and we ended up getting another guide from one of the other tours. He was a bit stressed out but did the best he could. We had a few Japanese tourists in the front of the bus and he translated everything he said in English into Japanese for them. It was neat to eavesdrop a bit to see what I could pick up (not much! LOL). That morning was also the opening of Parliament or something and lots of streets were blocked off in downtown London so it took even longer to get out of the city. The tour itself was great - Leeds Castle is very picturesque, and I had enough time in Canterbury to explore the cathedral and wander around the old part of town.

November 7-10 - Took the train up to York to visit Laura. Did lots of touristy things during the day, and when the sun went down and the shops closed we watched Heroes on her laptop. The trip to York was great - we visited most of the local tourist attractions (and a few tourist traps!) and even had time for tea & scones at Betty's and shopping.(Julia - start planning your visit!)

November 12 - Went out with Michelle to watch Wicked. It was a bit strange to have the actors speaking with a British accent but singing in an American accent. Other than that the show was awesome! I finally bought myself the "Defy Gravity" shirt that I've been wanting for over 2 years :)
November 13 - Flew on Lufthansa to Cologne. They lost my luggage, but I can't be mad at them because they have SERVICE! On the short flight they did a full bar service and everyone in economy received a small sandwich and chocolate bar. It certainly wasn't gourmet, but it is better than the kibble and bits that I'm used to serving to people. Filed a lost luggage report and then met up with JP to head over to his place. We went grocery shopping with his roommate Agata and then made dinner. We had homemade pizza and apple crumble, followed by sitting around and chatting over warm mugs of Glühwein. We invited their friend Daniel over to join us too.
November 14 - JP had an early morning rehearsal so I slept in. Lufthansa phoned him and told him that found my suitcase and would be brining it over early in the afternoon. Then I took the train into Köln on my own and did some shopping. I had been so good in the UK about not spending money - it all went out the window as soon as I arrived in Germany :) That evening JP and I went out for sushi, and then went over to Daniel's for wine and cheese. We stayed up chatting for ages, and I did my best to follow along their conversation in German.
November 15 - Did more touristy things and shopping in Köln. Discovered the MAC Pro Store and bought stuff for JP (hurray for my having the sense to bring my PRO card with me). Found fabulous ingredients for dinner and went home to cook. We made bruschetta and oven-roasted chicken breast in a garlic cream sauce, with salad. So good! I really enjoyed the social aspect of cooking together - it's not something that I get to do often and it was so much fun.

After leaving Köln (which was very tight since the DB was on strike and I was really worried I'd miss my flight!) and I had one last day in London to go shopping for last minute purchases, and then flew back home. It was a very nice, laid-back vacation.
November 21 - Since I first saw the trailer for Enchanted back in the spring, I made Kevin promise to take me to see this. So we went on opening day :) It was so adorable! It's filled with the usual Disney clichés but I couldn't help smiling through the whole film. I highly recommend this to all my Princess friends ^__^"
November 22 - My Birthday - went out for a family dinner. Probably the first time Kevin and my parents have seen each other in ages. It was good to see my grandmother and my cousin Athena again since I rarely see my relatives. The dinner was nice - the food was "ok-la" but a bit expensive. Kevin ordered me a fabulous strawberry shortcake that even my mother (who doesn't like desserts, cakes or sweets in general) had to admits was yummy.

We went to the One-of-a-Kind show on Tuesday and ended up coming home with mostly food stuff. (And a Mr. Chow monster from Monster Factory). Since Kevin had most of this week off he splurged and bought us a Wii - along with Super Mario Galaxy and Cooking Mama. Hehe... it's addictive and fun.

Off to London again - soon!

2007-11-02T08:37:00.001-05:00

October was a good month :) I had a really great layover in Hong Kong a couple weeks ago and a bunch of us went out to Flower Market Street and the Ladies Market to do some shopping. Since it was the first time to HK for a couple of the girls we went out for dinner to try and show what "real" HK food is like. I found the Tiffany's bracelet for Kevin's sister - how fun was it to just walk in, try it on and say "I'll take it!." Funnily enough I found a knock-off of the same bracelet at the Ladies Market for a fraction of the cost. But a knock-off is a knock-off and you can't ever compare it to the real thing, especially when jewelery is concerned. I bought myself a new watch at Swatch - it's from the Divimos collection and it's so pretty!!

My aunt had a spare ticket to Cirque du Soleil's production of Kooza on the 17th and invited me to see the show with her. It was a fantastic show! There were many diverse acts and the overall experience was spectacular. My favourite acts were the 3 contortionists, and the "hamster wheels of doom." I will definitely check out future performances because I was so impressed.

Stefan came into Toronto for a med student conference a couple weeks ago so we got together for brunch and a bit of walking around before I had to get off to the airport. It was so great to see him again! Of course we were both zombies since I had been up since 4am and he hadn't gone to bed until 3am - HAHA! Stef - are we still on for Andreas stalking? =P

I went out to dinner with my family and some relatives from my mom's side of the family for Tiff's birthday. It was supposed to just be a family dinner until they found out it was Tiff's birthday >__>" Oops! It was quite funny because mom "Tai-Chi'd" out Tiff's candle on her cake before Tiff could blow it out! Typical of my mom . . .

I'm off to London later tonight to visit Michelle for a couple weeks. I plan to pop up and visit Laura at her new campus home, and pop down to visit JP too. It should be fun!

What I've been up to (mid-September to mid-October)

2007-10-13T15:53:00.000-05:00

It's terrible that I've been reduced to a massive post every 3-4 weeks. When I'm on a layover I can usually only use the computers for a few minutes and when I'm at home there's so much other stuff to do. So here's my massive update on what I've been up to:

Sept 18- Went shopping and picked up stuff from the new collections at MAC. Bought a new foundation at Sephora (it's called Dior Forever) which was made for extreme wear (humidity, sweat, dry air) to test on long-haul flights. So far I'm loving it :) I met up with Laura for sushi dinner and then we sat in on a Tafelmusik rehearsal. I really do miss singing. Luckily for us they were working on the Bach Magnificat and not the Soundstreams stuff @__@" Afterwards we went out for cake with Mark R. Mmm.... cake!

Sept. 22- Hong Kong weekend. Flew with my friends from training (Michael, Kristen, Denise, Esther, and Bianca too! LOL) and it was a great crew and a great layover. I went up to the CTMA Centre in Mong Kok and picked up the Atelier Sai KOS-MOS figure and found a copy of the Bomé black variant Kasumi!! I was very pleased. The morning before we left I was up at 6am so I went down for tea and pastries in the hotel and met up with a few of our crew who were also running on weird time changes. Michael, Esther and I went out for breakfast before doing some last minute shopping and picking up some groceries.

Sept. 26- Was bored so I met up with Tiff and brought her pad thai and freshly squeezed OJ for lunch. Discovered the neat underground path that connect the Ryerson business building with the Eaton Centre. Took the Jane Street bus to Laura's house (a bit of a scary experience...) for a send-off party. It was nice to see Sumi (Laura's beautiful fluffball of a cat) and some of the Carter-ites again

Sept. 28- Had a family dinner for my No. 7 Great Aunt's birthday. I really like her, otherwise I would have skipped the dinner =P Saw some relatives that I usually only see at Christmas, weddings or funerals. Saw some "relatives" that I don't know how I'm "related" to (and don't want to know...) Food was unimpressive. Decor was garish. That's enough about that.

Oct. 1- Met up with Laura and drove around town so that we could FedEx some of her stuff to her new place in York. It took way too long! LOL Wished her on her merry way to the UK.

Oct. 5- Went up to FMP for some shopping and picked up some yummy pot-stickers for dinner. I was quite amazed that I left empty-handed - not even a Gloomy Bear! *shock*

Oct. 6- Did a silly milk-run between Calgary, Toronto and Montreal. The crew was awesome though :) Actually, with the exception of my extremely disfunctional crew from first day on the job most of my crews have been pretty awesome. I phoned in and told crew scheduling that I'd like to work this week. I was supposed to be off from Monday - Saturday. I would have sat at home growing mould if I didn't get out and do something!!! Had the sense to do laundry when I got home. Thank goodness, because . . .

Oct. 8- Crew Sched. wakes me up and asks me if I'd like to leave that afternoon for Tel Aviv. Why the hell would I say no?! So I ran around like an idiot packing my bags (I had only packed my roll-aboard for the quick Montreal and Ottawa's I've been doing lately) before heading out to the airport. The layover was amazing! The hotel is right on the beach, and Sanaa and I took a day trip out to Jerusalem on Wednesday. I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend my week. Operating the flights there and back were interesting. Can't elaborate too much more without it turning into a rant. More about my adventures in Israel to follow!

Today- I had plans to go out this afternoon, but Kevin's mom brilliantly decided to turn off all the water. Why? Don't ask me... But I couldn't shower, brush my teeth, use the toilets or cook... so I sat around the house drinking nasty soymilk and eating microwave food. NOT HAPPY....

Hard to believe it's September already

2007-09-15T15:55:00.000-05:00

I spent Labour Day weekend in Vancouver. A few of the crew went to Moxie's for drinks and some dinner before crashing for the night. I was surprised at how busy it was! I worked with a Mandarin qualified FA named Marc who told me some interesting...er... "potty stories" about Beijing flights. Doesn't give me much enthusiasm to qualify my Mandarin language skills after hearing about some of the passengers - LOL.

This month I'm flying a lot between Ottawa and Montreal and I've been working with so many friends from my training. It's been awesome to see the familiar faces again!

Last Thursday I went out to lunch with Laura, Tiff and some of Tiff's classmates. We decided to stay close to her school so we went to Mr. Greenjean's at the Eaton Centre. I don't think any of us were impressed. The food was mediocre and the service was deplorable. Afterwards Laura and I did a bit of shopping and I took her to the Buff Nail Lounge for her first pedicure! ^__~"

I put myself available for extra flying and was sent down to Los Angeles this week. The weather is much nicer now! I'm looking forward to going back there later this year. Kevin and I still have to go to Universal Studios :)

In other news I finally got my MAC Pro card - so there will be a massive shopping spree happening soon! I also found out that my mother had an invitation to the Estée Lauder warehouse sale on Labour Day weekend... My mother, who has little interest in skincare and still has makeup in her drawer that is older than me @__@" Oh well LOL

Some final words for August

2007-08-31T17:41:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted. I guess this will be another one of those blitz entries @__@"

I spent the last 2 weeks of July and early August going back and forth between Toronto and Vancouver. On July 18 I had the "privilege" of flying on the Gimli Glider @__@" Luckily my In-Charge Xavier only told me that at the end of the flight or else I would have freaked out!

Kevin's mom and his grandmother went on a 3 week vacation so my camera went with them. It was horrible... I missed my camera so much!

The weekend of July 29 I was out in Vancouver again. Our crew checked into the hotel quite late and then rushed down to Kitsilano Beach to watch the finale of the Benson & Hedges fireworks. I believe the show was Spain, Canada and China. Tina, her friend Jeff, Sophia and I then went to Moxie's afterwards for some girly drinks and food. I took some photos on my camera phone, but my phone and my computer aren't getting along lately.

On August 2nd a bunch of Carterites had a reunion near the school at Boston Pizza for dinner. It was awesome to see everyone again and catch up!

On August 8th I was in Vancouver (again!) on a horridly long layover in Richmond. My crew mate Tommy and I decided to take the bus downtown and walk around a bit. Later in the afternoon we met up with Colette for all-you-can-eat sushi and KBBQ at Shabusen. Laura was muchly missed due to a communication mishap - my fault, since 3 hours of sleep doesn't do me well.

August 11 - I did a turn down to Las Vegas. The pilots were really nice and let me sit in the flight deck with them for take-off out of the Vegas. They let me listen on the spare headphones to ATC. Vegas at night is beautiful, but from 20,000 feet in the air it's spectacular!

August 15 - had an unplanned layover in Boston because my aircraft went mechanical and my In-Charge and I had no intention of working a 16 hours day. The hotel was awesome with an awesome American-style buffet breakfast.

At some point Tiff and I went out and watched Stardust. Wonderful movie - so good in fact that Kevin and I went out again shortly afterwards to watch it. How many movies can I say were worth seeing twice in the theatres?

August 22 - Had a long layover in beautiful Halifax. My body was completely confused because we got in at 6am, and then had to leave again at 6am the next morning. The whole crew (pilots included) went out for drinks at a nearby pub, and then went down to a seafood place down on the waterfront for dinner. I had fresh Atlantic lobster - mmm! Also, on this date Kevin's grandma and mom came back from their trip - which meant my darling camera came home too!!

Plans kind of fell through for me to go to Germany to visit. I was devastated, but life doesn't always work out the way I want it to. It's just sad because the thought of visiting Überlingen again was what motivated me through my AC training. Anyways, I didn't want to sit at home for my days off so Kevin and I packed our bags and flew down to Los Angeles!

On the way down we weren't able to get onto our original flight due to a weight issue on the plane so we sat around the airport for a while. Kevin found an electrical outlet and plugged in his PSP so he was happy and I did sudoku puzzles :P We got onto the flight that left a couple hours later and got bumped up for first class because the plane was completely full - what a treat!

His aunt took us out to a lovely Italian restaurant on Sunset Blvd before we went home for the evening. On Sunday we went out for brunch at Marie Callender's (Mmm... pie!) before Kevin and I went down to the Beverly Hills Center to do some shopping. On Monday we took the train out to Anaheim and went to Disneyland! Of course the first ride we went on had to be "It's a Small World" ^__^" We had an awesome day and I took lots of pictures. We were both pretty tired and theme-park'd out so we took the rest of our trip fairly easy. Kevin took me to the Hollywood & Highland Center (for more shopping LOL) and to see the Grauman's Chinese Theatre and the Kodak Theatre. It was a lovely "end of summer" trip.

June & July 2007 (so far)

2007-07-16T16:46:00.000-05:00

It’s been over a month since I’ve made a blog entry so I’ll do a blitz entry to sum up the past… 5 weeks or so.

June 10-17: Went over to London, UK and stayed with Michelle. I had an awesome time doing touristy things like visiting the British Museum, Westminster Abbey, walking around taking lots of pictures and the occasional bit of shopping. Marg and I got together on the Tuesday and went to Harrod’s, ate yummy desserts and did some shopping. I met up with Phil on Thursday and we went to the Tate Modern and walked around. As I was seeing him off at Liverpool St. Station we ran into Natalie – it was so awesome to see her again! On Friday I took a bus tour to Windsor Castle, the Roman baths at Bath and Stonehenge. Michelle’s flat is right off of Portobello Road so I checked out the market on Saturday morning, but it was pouring rain and not much fun. Instead we went shopping and then visited the Victoria and Albert museum. It was my first time traveling on stand-by status but I had no trouble and got home when I planned to. I spent more at Duty Free in the airport than I did most of the trip.

Kevin and I bought tons of figures in June and I had fun taking pictures of them :) I flew to Victoria near the end of the month and got to ride one of the little Jazz planes. Interesting experience, I hope that I don’t have to do that too often.

I’ve been getting tired of airplane food so I started packing bentos for lunch and it’s worked out quite well. I can’t wait to visit Daiso later in the month to get some cool Japanese lunch stuff.

I finally got around to taking the ACTRA member’s weekend course and I was happy that I took it. It was very informative and now I’m a “real” member – I got my card in the mail today! I’ve also had some time on my hands so I depotted a huge lot of my MAC eyeshadows, and then returned the empties for new colours! Since I have my ACTRA membership card I can finally apply for the MAC Pro card – it’s been a long time that I’ve been waiting for this! The only downside was that the weekend of the course was also the weekend of Polaris so I didn’t get to go to the con. Boo!

I got together with Laura a couple weeks ago and we had lunch at Café Crêpe and then did a bit of shopping downtown (UMBRA is a great store, eh?). Their sandwiches are to die for!

Last Thursday I met Kevin after work and we went and watched Harry Potter 5 at the Paramount. It was also the night it poured and crapped rain on the city. The theatre smelled like wet geeks LMAO!!! The entire staff of Silver Snail had a reserved row behind me and Kevin. It was interesting eavesdropping on their conversations. The movie was ok. Not nearly enough camera time for the characters I wanted to see - like Bellatrix, Draco, Neville, Snape and Sirius. Way too much Cho-ness and the crazy old cat lady o_0"

So that’s what I’ve been up to lately. Whoopee.

A crazy milk run!

2007-06-09T13:52:00.000-05:00

This week saw me in Montreal, Edmonton, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary and LA before finally getting home. For the most part I didn't get to see much of the cities because the layovers were short and I was pretty tired after flying all day.

On Tuesday Stefan met me at the hotel in Ottawa and we went out for a lovely sushi dinner and then went to a get gelato. It was so great to see him again and catch up! We had lots of stories to share.

Yesterday Kevin and I went downtown to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 3 (since we didn't make it out of the house last week!) - and I liked it. Yes, it was farfetched, but it's not about realism, it's a story and it's entertainment! After the movie we went to the Café Crêpe on Queen St. and had some delicious sandwiches and yummilicious dessert crêpes. There's a new umbra store that has opened down there and I picked up a couple of cute coin holders for all my foreign coins @__@"

I'm all packed for my trip to London. I'm looking forward to seeing some faces I haven't seen in a long time again!!

Hong Kong, London, Anime North

2007-05-27T22:31:00.000-05:00

I haven't had time to blog in a while but a lot has happened o_0"

Over Mother's Day weekend I went to Hong Kong. On the way over a Canadian political VIP was on board (no names for the sake of privacy) but it was funny because I recognized his face but couldn't remember his name. I had to check the passenger list - hehe... That tells you a lot about me and politics =P Kelly was on my flight and when we arrived we went out shopping together with my mom's cousin (my 'biu yee ma') My goodness the girl is a shopaholic - worse than me!! I had gone out for dinner with my parents the night before leaving (and to pick up some HK dollars) and something wasn't sitting well so I was fighting with an upset stomach the entire weekend. Thank god for Pepto Bismol @__@" I barely bought anything in HK. I found the CTMA Centre up near Mong Kok and went figure hunting but most of the things on my shopping list don't come out until later in the summer so I picked up some old things for cheap and that was all. Generally I was grumpy, tired and just wanted to get home. Bleh, no points for HK, it's still not my favourite place.

On Victoria Day I got called in for standby duty. Nothing happened but Monto was there too (also on standby) and he dropped me off at Union Station at the end of our shift. As we drove by the lake the fireworks were going of at Ontario Place and it was very pretty. I met up with Kevin after his work and we took the subway home together.

I was on a weird 36-day, sleep for anywhere between 5-12 cycle when I got home - my body was very confused LOL! Earlier this week Crew Scheduling called me while I was out at the mall and told me I was going to London, England! Whoo. That was a nice flight - friendly crew - and I was on the new 777. Mmmmm, so shiny and new. It's a gorgeous plane. What sucked is that the 4 girls that were on reserve got put in the hotel near the airport instead of the one downtown with the rest of the crew. It took me over an hour to get downtown and the cost of transportation was ridiculous! I did a bit of shopping but didn't buy anything and met up with my cousin for dinner. We went out to a Szechuan restaurant near King's Cross and it was very good. An hour and a bit later I was back at the hotel and crashed into bed. Luckily I didn't have to work on the flight home. I got to travel in the Executive First cabin - so sweet!

This past weekend was Anime North. Like the previous years Kevin and I helped out at Dani's booth. It was very busy and I was very tired by the end of it @__@" Yesterday Tiff and her posse went to the con as well and we walked around dressed as members of Organization XIII from Kingdom Hearts. I love no hassle cosplays - but Tiff was freaking out about them because up to Friday her custom-ordered zippers still hadn't arrived yet... After the masquerade show we went out for dinner at Sushi Dragon. Maybe it was the fact that we had our costumes on, but the service was absolutely deplorable. Kevin and I went their last year and it was so good. I don't know what happened but I don't plan on going there again.

Today Kevin and I had a lazy day in. It was brilliant. Tomorrow I have Pirates on the agenda to celebrate pookie-bear's birthday!!

Late night musings

2007-05-05T00:16:00.000-05:00

Kevin and I went down to Paramount today to watch Spiderman 3. We have this funny thing where if we don't see movies on opening day, we generally don't end up seeing them. It's not deliberate - it's just how things have turned out over the years. And when did Paramount get renamed to the Scotiabank Theatre??!

I'm not in the mood to talk about the movie, that's not what's on my mind right now. After the movie we had dinner at Sushi Time on Queen - that place is BUSY!! We were lucky to get in there when a few tables were just clearing out but the lineup to get in there never seemed to decrease! The food was good. How should I describe it? It was consistent, which is what I look for when I go to places that are ridiculously busy.

Last night we went up to FMP and we picked up the Xenosaga figures set that we've been oogling for a couple weeks. I very pleased that we have it how - it looks amazing in our display. I spent a couple hours rearranging things to make space for them, as well as some figures that have been sitting in random shelves here and there waiting for a permanent home.

I'm feeling a strange mixture of nostalgia and what I can only describe as homesickness for my summers in Germany. I realize it's ridiculous to call that "home" since I've only spent about 3.5 months there in total over the past few years but I miss the people and the atmosphere. I know that even if I were offered the chance to go I would have to decline because of my new job but that doesn't change the fact that sunny Überlingen is one of my favourite places in the world. God, wouldn't I kill for a tiramisu right about now =P

And now it is the month of May

2007-05-01T15:39:00.000-05:00

How quickly time goes by! I can't believe it's May already! I've guaranteed off the weekend of Anime North so I'll be there this year! Last Wednesday I went out to dim sum with my family and afterwards went over to Tiff's so that she could measure me for my AN "runaround outfit" =D

In the evening I went down to the Elgin to catch the tech rehearsal for Opera Atelier's Orfeo. I'm really glad that I had the opportunity to see the show, I would have been so sad to miss it. One of the choir members offered me a comp ticket for the opening but I couldn't go because I was sent on an overnight flight - boo!

Kevin and I went out on Thursday in the muck and rain and I picked up the bag that I've been eyeing for a couple weeks now, and also the new FFXII figures. We are seriously running out of space now @__@"

Over the weekend I was sent out on 2 back to back overnight flights. It played havok on my body clock and I'm not really back to "normal" yet. I got to see a little bit of Las Vegas, which just makes me want to go back there sometime soon to explore!

Last night Kevin and I set up the new TV and watched Moulin Rouge. Every time I watch that movie I notice something new! It was a good "test" movie for the TV because of all the colour and movement. I'm happy with our new toy :)

I'll be going to Hong Kong in mid-May. Does anyone have tips on where to shop (other than the usual Ladies Street, Fa Yuen Street and SOGO)? I haven't been back there since high school 0__0"

Seven Years of Happiness

2007-04-19T19:16:00.000-05:00

I really have no sense of time or days of the week right now. I know that today is today and yesterday was yesterday and tomorrow will be tomorrow. Ask me what number day it is and I really don't know. And you know what, it's a very nice, relaxed sensation. Since I was drafted on one of my days off I'll be off until Friday.

Yesterday Kevin and I went out to lunch with Brynne. We went to Sushi Train - partly to make up for the icky sushi place we went to in Stuttgart. I haven't seen her in so long so it was awesome to just sit down and chitchat. After gorging ourselves on sushiness we walked down to the Just Desserts at Yonge & Wellesley for some dirty dessert! Between the 3 of us we had 5 slices of cake and it was awesome!

Afterwards we popped into One Million Comix where I bought Kevin an early birthday present (both of the Neon Genesis: Evangelion box sets) and then we walked down to the Eaton Centre to do a bit of shopping. Brynne and I tried on a few things but neither of us found anything to buy. We went our separate ways after and Kevin and I went across on Queen Street to our usual haunts.

It was too bad that Loomis & Toles was closed because I wanted to get a porfolio thing with clear sleeves to throw some of my notes into. We went up to Anime Xtreme and bought each other silly gifts. I bought Kevin the mini Ragnarok set I had seen at MTAC and he bought me a little Mokona and a couple sets of mini Fate/Stay Night figures.

When we got home we crawled into bed and put on Eva since I've never really watched it. It was nice to be able to spend the whole day with him. We've been together so long that we don't really celebrate things like Valentine's Day and sometimes anniversaries go by that we acknowledge but don't really get to do anything. After seven years it's easy to feel comfortable and "domesticated," which isn't always a bad thing. We're still as happy now as we were back then and that's what counts!

Another weekly recap - my first days flying

2007-04-15T15:13:00.000-05:00

On Monday I went downtown with grandma and bought a few things for my luggage like PJ's and more doubles of makeup, L'Occitane hand cream and whatnot. I'm ashamed to say that we hadn't gone out as "just the two of us" in probably a couple of years. We had lunch at Tako sushi and then went down to Bloor St.

On Tuesday Tiff and I went out to dim sum with some of my AC training friends. We went to a place called Royal Teahouse Dim Sum Specialist up near Hwy 7 and Woodbine. The food was alright, but nothing exceptional. It was more about hanging out with my friends than anything else :) Afterwards Tiff and I went over to First Markham Place and I bought 2 more Gloomy Bears! I had to reorganize my room a bit so that I could make space for them. They are SO adorable.

On Wednesday Disha and I went shopping at Fairview and she bought mini toiletries for her travel kit. She was lucky and got sent to London on her reserve day =P In the evening I met up with Tanya to just chill out and we had dinner in Bayview Village. Of course that had to be the day that I wore my flip flops out and it snowed -__-"

On Thursday I met Jessica Ruth at Yorkdale and we went on a crazy driving adventure! Hehe. Her dad was driving and her sister were navigating and we ended up in Brampton before finally making it to our uniform place. I had to exchange a couple of things because there had been a mix-up a few weeks ago that I didn't notice until recently. Afterwards we went to the airport to learn how to use some of the antiquated computer programs. There were some really nice and friendly people that helped us out.

Friday was my first day operating as a crew member. It was Friday the 13th and I think I'll always remember it that way. It was an interesting day - and I'll leave it at that. The highlight was sitting in the cockpit for a landing - it was like watching a video game :) Yesterday was an awesome day! I had an amazing Service Director who walked me through things but let me do things on my own in economy class. I was able to learn so much and he gave me lots of tips and feedback as I went. Since the flights were longer we had time to sit down and chat about everything under the sun - from music to home renovating. The pilots invited me up to the flight deck and I chatted with them for a while too and they answered a lot of my (sometimes silly) questions.

On my way home I met a really nice FA on the bus and he was really friendly and it turns out we had so much in common. On the subway ride home a lady approached me and started talking to me. It turns out she's starting training tomorrow and she had lots of nervous questions and she was so surprised when I told her that I had just finished a week before!

So far I've been to St. Lucia and Cancun and seen the view from the airplane, hehe. I'm relaxing at home today and hopefully I'll get to go somewhere and have a layover soon :P

I'm a Flight Attendant now!

2007-04-07T17:34:00.000-05:00

When I went to the airport on Wednesday things were running on Irregular Operations so Jacky and I were taken off our scheduled flight because they down-graded the aircraft and there weren't enough jumpseats for us. So after a few phone calls to make sure everything was ok I headed home. I met a F/A named Robert at the bus stop and we chatted for a while and he told me lots of interesting stories - like the Frankfurt layovers are in Mainz now... eeeuw - been there, done that.

So on Thursday morning I headed out for Ottawa. I was with Romina from one of the other classes and we were lucky enough to get one of the 767-XM's :) Our crew was really friendly and helpful and our In-Charge, Maro, was wonderful. I had the chance to work in both economy and executive classes and I have to say that working in executive was a bit overwhelming. I felt like I was being watched by the customers and travelling employees @__@" After the flight I had my base orientation which consisted of a couple of presentations and then another 3 hour tromp around the airport. My feet were SCREAMING by the end of it.

Yesterday we had our final lesson modules and then graduation! I received my Brevet pins and my language pin :) After the ceremony everyone rushed home to take a shower and eat something so that we could attend the party downtown at Andy's Pool Hall. It was nice to see everyone with their hair down - including our instructors. We had a great time just hanging out.

I have most of the next week off and don't start flying until Friday. I'm going to take the time to relax and get my bags together. Who knows, I could end up somewhere overseas or end up in Winnipeg.

Going to Montreal today

2007-04-04T10:56:00.000-05:00

I've got my roller-bag packed and I'll be meeting my friend in about an hour to head over to the airport. Today will be my first working flight :) It seems like years ago that I was standing with that mass of people at the open call. More news to come when I get home.

As a side note, I've had to turn comment moderation on my blog because someone is leaving comments trying to provoke me. Since this person won't even use their name or email I am not going to justify them with any sort of reply.

A date with myself

2007-04-01T12:03:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I went into class for what turned out to be very frustrating and negatively productive. Afterwards Kim dropped me off downtown and I went shopping at the Eaton Centre and had a mini spree at Sephora. Since the Precriptives TM is sold out I bought one by Stila, and picked up a BE foundation and a Shu Uemura eyelash curler to throw in my travel bag. Afterwards I went up to Bloor & Spadina and had a nice bowl of udon at J-Time before heading to the concert at Trinity St. Paul's.

I can't express how much I needed something like that. First off I haven't heard a Tafelmusik concert in years (since I've been on the stage... hehe) but add to it that it was Bach and that there were two familiar faces on the stage it just made everything so much more personal. The choir didn't sing, we brought in Les Voix Humaines from Montreal but I've worked with Matt White so many times now and David (the voice coach from FES 2 summers ago) was also performing. During the intermission I changed seats and found Cindy so I sat with her and her husband. It feels like I haven't seen anyone in months so it was nice to catch up.

It felt great to just get out and do my own thing, completely not related to work. . .

Last Sunday I went out shopping with Tiff and my parents. Tiff needed to go zipper hunting but we didn't find anything so we ended up at Markville and I ended up buying more stuff at MAC - hehe. I met up with my mom on Tuesday morning to go shoe shopping and have breakfast. That ended up being a very good thing because on Wednesday we went on our "field trip" to the airport and basically ran around for 4 hours looking at aircrafts and the comm centre, etc. Most of the girls had blisters and bleeding feet by the end of the day but I was in my comfy ugly loafers that mom bought for me and I was fine =P

On Thursday we did a module on economy class service and got to have airplane food for dinner - it was so good! I can't wait until we do the module on executive class food ... hehe. We've also been learning about bar service which has always been something that piqued my interest.

After class on Friday I met up with Kevin downtown and after popping by One Million Comix we went up to Sushi Train for dinner. We've ogled the place for a while but had never eaten there. I really liked it - their maki is quite unique. About 15 minutes into our dinner Kim and Trevor came in too - how completely random! We had a good laugh about it since we can't get away from each other - hehe! Since I was still partly in uniform (it's the hair I tell you... ) the waitress asked me if I was a "cabin attendant" and we had a little conversation. She was so cute.

M-TAC 2007

2007-03-18T23:37:00.000-05:00

Last night we went out for a family dinner to celebrate my grandmother's birthday. It was a nice intimite affair at a golf club restaurant up in the middle of nowhere - LOL.

Today Tiff and I decided to visit MTAC down at the convention centre. Since it was free admission it doesn't violate my "I'm never paying for any Hobbystar con" pledge :) We were probably in and out in about 30 minutes. I picked up 2 beautiful statues of Saber from Fate/Stay Night by Alter that I've wanted for a while. After the silly con we went hunting for some possible photoshoot locations for later in the spring/summer. We walked down to the Music Garden (and were entertained by some Lake Ontario ducks and swans) and the over more towards the Queen's Quay marketplace.

We did a bit of shopping on Queen Street but it wasn't very productive so we went back to my parent's house for dinner. I GOT TO WATCH TV!!! Over here the TV is a piece of @#*& and I haven't watched anything in 2 weeks T__T" It's partly because I'm busy but also because it takes half and hour to turn the stupid thing on....

Anyhoo, back to business. Time to do some laundry. =P

(and yes, I know my website is down, hence the weird graphics on my blog. I'm in the process of rectifying the problem)

Midpoint of sanity

2007-03-13T22:11:00.000-05:00

The past three summers in Germany I've noticed that around week 4 of the program people get testy, irritable and more grumpy than before. Little things that never used to get on each other's nerves suddenly become unbearable and tensions start to build between people. I guess that's why programs like OYC and NYC were so awesome because in 2 weeks you can't really build anything up to a point where things are uncomfortable.

I'm just into week 4 of my training and I'm starting to feel it. It's hard when you are cooped up with the same group of people for 8-10 hours a day and having to constantly throw on the happy face is exhausting. I'm feeling the pressure and I feel that it's harder for me to stay focused 110%. On my practical exam today I nearly made a critical mistake that would have meant failing. I caught myself in a split second when I caught the intructor's eye and warning bells went off in my head that something was missing and something was wrong. I was so relieved I finished the exam successfully but the close call threw me off for a while.

I'm glad the weather was so gorgeous today because it really made a difference to be able to go outside and enjoy the sunshine. Right now I'm just telling myself to suck it up because in 22 weeks I'll be able to go to my happy place.

Warmness

2007-03-11T11:40:00.000-05:00

Kevin and I went to Tako Sushi (on Don Mills, south of York Mills) last night for dinner. As many friends have commented their food is good, for very decent prices however their wait staff are pretty deplorable. Whatever, we were there for the food and it was yummy. For dessert I ordered a Crème Caramel that cost $2.55 - and was just as good as the ones I get a Marché.

Kevin brought home a warm mist humidifier for the room and it is SO much nicer for our room since it's always so cold! Hurray for warm humidifier and sunshine :)

A lighter week

2007-03-10T18:20:00.000-05:00

This week the homework assignments and general workload was noticably lighter, but I suspect it's just part of their carefully choreographed program because next week looks like it will be non-stop exams every day. Whatever, bring it on.

Since we talked a bout water evacuations and ditching last week, on Monday we got a fun surprise. We were given special training versions of the aircraft lifevests with loaded CO² cartridges so that we could inflate them! It was silly fun! Those lifevests inflate instantly and are very tight against the head & neck (and also very cold from the compressed CO²).

On Tuesday my uniform was delivered and it was like Christmas opening up that big box. I was one of the lucky ones that didn't have anything missing or back-ordered. Everything fit nicely except for the blazers which hung like a potato sack, so I had to take them to a tailor to have the waist area taken in.

On Thursday morning I woke up at the crack of dawn to meet my carpool buddies so that we could head over to the GTAA office to apply for our restricted area passes. When we got there at 8am the receptionist informed us that each of us was missing something (passport, birth certificate or whatnot) so we all drove home (luckily we live close to each other!) and back again. We were lucky to get back around 10am and we still got our temporary passes within an hour or so. Whew! It would have sucked if we had to go back this Monday.

Yesterday was a very loosely scheduled day. All that was scheduled for us was a practical exam (not just for my class alone, but for all of the students) as well as progress reports. Since each student's exam takes roughly 10 minutes each there was a lot of waiting around and chit chatting ^__^" I can't do much studying in the classroom since there are so many conversations going on and it's so hard to focus so we took silly photos and just talked.

This afternoon I went to Staples and bought some much needed stationery supplies - hurray for Post-It notes! Then I went over to Fairview to pick up one of my blazers from the tailor. It looks SO much better now. He had to take in the side seams as well as the centre seam so it was quite expensive. Maybe next time I'll take it to a Chinese place - haha!

Tonight Kevin and I are planning on going out for sushi. I was talking with Noriko and Anne from the other classes yesterday and we got onto the topic of Japanese food and now I want some!

Another weekly update

2007-03-04T14:13:00.000-05:00

I can barely remember how this week started. They days are so long and there's so much to do that the past 2 weeks have felt like 2 months. I've gotten used to the routine now and the nights we get home before 11pm feel like a real treat! This week I learned about First Aid (and it's a bit different than the standard EMS stuff that I was taught), my first aircraft and how to operate it's door, and water evacuations.

On Friday we doubled up with another class to learn about the slide-rafts and survival stuff. Since I will probably never seen one while on duty my lifetime (and I sincerely hope I don't!!) it was an interesting experience. There were only 42 of us on the raft and it was so crowded - it's difficult to imagine it pack to full overload capacity at 80+.

I've been fighting a cold since Thursday. ColdFX is helping, but it's still distracting to be blowing my nose ever 5 minutes and it's hard to think when I'm so congested. I feel a bit better now after getting some much needed sleep.

The highlight of the weekend was going to Yorkdale with Kim and her bf Trevor and buying shoes. We ran into one of our classmates who was also on the same mission! I found a really cute pair of wedges at Naturalizer and was expecting them to cost $150 or so and was shocked when the lady rang them up and they were $30!!

I'm a bit bummed about missing Ad Astra - I hope those of you who went had a good time! The weather turned out to be decent for you :)

Resurfaces quickly for a quick update

2007-02-24T00:20:00.000-05:00

This has been the most ridiculous week ever. I don't think I ever studied or did my homework so diligently through all my years of high school (and certainly not through uni.. haha!) Training has been so stressful with long days and so much information to absorb all at once. On Tuesday (day 2) we had 2 practical tests (hand's on stuff) and 3 written quizzes based on the homework from Monday night. To my annoyance I still don't have an employee number assigned to me so I can't access the readings that I'm supposed to do online at home. Grrr....

We already lost one person in my class, so now there's an even number of 20. I can understand why people get so stressed out, but I've never been one to stress about anything academically. Maybe it's a good thing, but it also works against me sometimes. Last night all my classmates were freaking out about studying for the exam we had today and I just read our material and then went to bed early and slept in. The training policies about testing are very strict so I understand their anxiety, but I don't relate =P

There are a lot of confidentiality issues so I can't talk about what I'm studying or being tested on, but I can honestly say that I am enjoying myself. The whole program is very supportive (because they obviously want us to succeed) and my classmates are really friendly. One of my classmates lives literally 3 minutes from me and is kind enough to pick me up and take me home every night. It really makes a huge difference not having to commute 2 hours each way.

I learned how to do a French Twist hairstyle (which I've been trying to learn for years but never found decent instructions) and now I just have to refine it so that it's more tidy :) I'm trying to avoid throwing my hair in a bun cuz I think it's unflattering on me.

In other news, big hurrays to Mark for hooking me up with my new cellphone. I now have a smexy black V3 Razr. I think the previous owner was an Indian guy because the box smells like cologne and there are Indian songs downloaded as ringtones (anyone know how to delete them? o_0")

Tomorrow I plan to have a bit of a life and go out. I need to return some stuff at H&M and then there's Roland's "surprise" dinner party downtown. Then on Sunday I'll drown myself in my manuals again and you won't see me until who knows when. Ad Astra is totally not happening :(

Home Work

2007-02-17T14:01:00.000-05:00

I went out to dim sum yesterday morning with my mom, aunt and uncle. It was too bad my grandmother couldn't make it. Lots if interesting conversation went around the table.

After lunch I went to mom's house to monopolize the printer and print out the hundreds of pdf files that I have to read up and study before Monday. I think I spent a good hour just arguing with the printer because the paper feed didn't want to work properly. ARGH! I did get it done eventually and got the necessary information from my parents about their immigration dates which I'll need for my security clearance pass.

I wouldn't have had time to go home to eat so I had dinner at mom's (dad and Tiff weren't home yet) and she dropped me off at the subway afterward. While I was eating, something on the table caught my eye. A while back a lady contacted me through Flickr about wanting to publish pictures of Tiff's plushies. I forwarded the email to Tiff and never heard any news about it. On the dinner table was the March 2007 copy of The Official Playstation Magazine - UK Edition, and I flipped through it. There was a short article about fans of Playstation games and there was the group shot of Tiff's plushies! So cool!

Valentine's Day 2007

2007-02-15T12:48:00.000-05:00

I had comps for this concert run so I asked Kevin if wanted to come to see the "Chariots of Fire" show. We started the day at the Eaton Centre where I bought a pair of practical shoes at Geox, and walked around a bit. We grabbed some cheesy pretzels at the food court and sat down at the fountain and I remembered that was where we had our first date, almost 7 years ago :)

The concert went well and I had a lot of fun - how can I not have fun singing "Singet dem Herrn"?

Afterwards we went down the the KBBQ on Queen St for dinner. Mmmm meatfest! I made the mistake of ordering an HK-style milk tea and the caffeine (and MSG) kept me up all night. Bleh . . .

I received the introductory email from Air Canada with a link to their training website. There are lots of forms to fill out and homework (already! haha!) that has to be read before day 1. This is going to be bootcamp =P

I got the job!

2007-02-13T17:03:00.000-05:00

After a few mysterious references to the new job I have been applying for, I can now share it since I got hired! I was offered a position as a Flight Attendant with Air Canada and I start training next week!

I had to go through 2 one-on-one interviews, language proficiency testing, a personality test, a group activity and a medical screening. My medical was yesterday and I got the phone call this afternoon. I'm so excited!

This does put a wrench in some of my plans. After the concert run this week I have time off with Tafelmusik until the end of March, but this may make the opera impossible for me. In all likelihood my convention season is up in the air too (no pun intended =P ) Ad Astra looks unlikely and Anime North my not be happening for me either.

The craziest job interview ever

2007-02-08T14:04:00.000-05:00

I went through day 2 of the interview for what will hopefully be my new job today and it was so intensive. I was so nervous about it last night that I could barely sleep so this morning I was running on sugar and caffeine o_0" I think I did well because I've been asked to come back again next week.

More to follow . . .

Porings and porings and more porings!

2007-02-07T20:55:00.000-05:00

OK, I found my passport. No more need to freak out. Now I can focus on my interview tomorrow.

Kevin got bored and decided to start playing Ragnarok again since they have new character classes. He made a ninja, which means nothing to me... all I care about is newbie training=poring poking! *bwahahaha*

Today I saw an Angel Poring, a Santa Poring, a Deviling, a Master Poring and some big white ghostie things (Giant Whisper). I was highly amused ^__^"

M.I.A.

2007-02-06T16:55:00.000-05:00

I can't find my passport.

CRAP!

//Patty freaking out!

Singet ein neues Lied

2007-01-16T23:16:00.000-05:00

I haven't made a blog post in almost a month. Wow.

The holidays were nice and quiet. I think that's the first time I can ever say that. I went home for a Christmas dinner, but ditched the ones I usually ditch - not cuz I don't want to see my family or anything but just cuz I can only bear so much sitting around doing nothing, eating the same food and sketchy desserts.

For Christmas Day Kevin was working so I met him after his shift and we went down to Marché to have one of our "a little bit of everything" dinners. Honestly, it's not the same there as it was 3-4 years ago. I think I need to find a new haunt because I don't want to go back there again. It's little things that I noticed have changed that are disappointing. I didn't want any of their cakes so for dessert I decided to do something usual and have street-style Belgian waffle instead.

A couple Friday's ago we went out to see Pan's Labyrinth. I was curious since the reviews for it were excellent and a few good friends had said they were looking forward to it. Of course the only place it was playing 2 weeks ago was down at the Varsity. T__T" What a shoebox of a theatre! I had never watched anything there before and I hope to never have to go back there. The movie was ... provoking. And that's all I want to say about it. I never want to see it again. I had a physical reaction to that movie (which has never happened before!) and it left me with hypersensitivity and migraines for the better part of a week. I could barely function - it was ridiculous. But enough about that....

Last week I had a random craving for Strawberry Shortcake. On our way down to One Million Comix we stopped at the Just Desserts right on Yonge St to check out if they had anything that looked good. (And btw, for anyone that cares, the Sen5es bakery at Bayview Village is gone now) We ended up sharing a slice each of yummy strawberry shortcake and strawberry cheesecake. Mmm... yummy dessert. I haven't had anything that sumptuous since Antonio's tiramisu. *drool*

Tafel started up again today and we started looking at the rep for the concert set in February. There's lots of gorgeously fun Bach stuff - like Singet dem Herrn, but I can't figure out how it all ties together. It's going to be one of those "multimedia" productions that I like but it's called "Chariots of Fire" @__@" I duuno . . . It's confusing singing Choir I since I lived in the Choir II part when I did it in Germany, but it's good for the brain. Singing Bach makes me happy.

Kindnesses

2006-12-19T17:19:00.001-05:00

So the exhausting Messiah run is over and I can relax again. I've been so tired the past three weeks since there has been virtually no time to eat or sleep, just running around from this place to that. The warm weather on Sunday really helped to draw out the crowds for the Sing-Along. The line started at Massey Hall, down the side street and then curved around the block towards Yonge Street. It was ridiculous! As always it was a lot of fun, but this year being the 20th anniversary of the Sing-Along Ivars had something extra nutty planned. He was escorted into the hall with armed members of Scotsmen in traditional kilts, to the fanfare of bagpipes and drum. It was hysterical!

I finally mailed out some of my Christmas cards so those of my friends that I have addresses for, you should be getting something eventually . . . (Oh, and btw Dani, the stuff came today. Thanks a bunch!)

Since yesterday was the first day in a while that I had some free time I sat down and wrote some emails that have been on my "to-do" list. While I was floating around online I found a picture of the kind gentleman that had helped Anne-Marie, Brynne and myself back in August when we were on our way to Freiburg. Imagine my amazement to realize he was the Oberbürgermeister of his town - the mayor! I wrote a short message to thank him and imagine my surprise to see a reply in my inbox this morning! A part of me feels resolved now that I know the name of the kind stranger who had been so welcoming to three travellers.

It's about that time of year again

2006-12-12T23:58:00.000-05:00

This week is the annual Tafelmusik Messiah marathon! Tonight was the second rehearsal with the orchestra and the choir call wasn't until 7:30 so I sat up in the center of the balcony to listen to them rehearsing.

I've never had a chance to sit in those great seats for a performance since I usually end up with B section comp tickets or I used to buy C section student seats so it was a completely different experience. I understand why the audience members like TSP so much, it felt like I was sitting in the orchestra's lap. The space (though a shoebox acoustically) is ridiculously intimate.

The moment I wait for in every Messiah is the short recitative before the bass sings "The Trumpet Shall Sound." He sings the words "behold, I tell you a mystery" and it takes someone stellar to give me chills. I still think that Gary Relyea owns that line. We'll see if Daniel Lichti can chill me =P I'm really happy that Rufus is singing with us again since I just adore him and I'm looking forward to hearing the soprano and alto - it's a chick alto! Hehe... I miss Matt White though.

Anyhow to keep up with my own Messiah traditions I've dyed my hair red again and I'm fixing up the sequins and rhinestones on my Ruby Slippers to wear them at the Sing-a-Long on Sunday.

When a girl doesn't need more

2006-12-05T17:40:00.000-05:00

Last Friday I went out to lunch with my family for dim sum and then afterwards Tiff decided she wanted to go to the One of a Kind show and coerced Nhan into driving us down. We both ended up buying the same necklace from the girls at Foxy Originals. It's so pretty! It's a bit silly that we both have the same necklace, but somehow things turn out that way since we both have similar tastes. We also picked up some soaps and candy - yum!

On my way up to Tafelmusik I popped into the MAC store on Queen Street and remembered it was World AIDS Day so I bought the new Viva Glam VI lipglass. It is SO pretty! It's more pink and sparkly than VGV and it looks really nice in real life and on stage. The store was having a contest for anyone who purchased any VG product on December 1st, so I had my name entered. And guess what - I won!!

I went down there after work on Saturday to pick up my prize. It's a box worth about $200 and it had 4 eyeshadows, a blush, mascara, eyeliner, lipgloss, a makeup bag and a package of wipes. Most of the colour products will go to Tiff (since I have them already) -__-" but I was just so excited to get free makeup! (as if I need more!) I also picked up a couple of the limited edition Couture lipsticks because they look so gorgeous. I need to hold off though because I'm anticipating the Danse collection coming out in late December.

I'm hoping to getting around to writing up Christmas cards tonight, but since my wrist is acting up I may not get around to it. I don't function at work unless I bring my mousepad in from home, and I stupidly left it there tonight - ARGH! So I went over to Grand & Toy to buy another one so I can stop the travelling mousepad nonsense and found a cushy keyboard wristrest and mousepad set for $20! (It has an optical mouse in it too, but I don't care about that) Yay for cushiness!

Craft show overload

2006-11-28T23:51:00.000-05:00

Last Friday Kevin and I went to the One-of-a-Kind show together to just have a quiet day together and actually celebrate my birthday since I was working all day on Wednesday. A lot of the vendors that were there last year were back again this year so I was able to pick up a few things that I fell in love with last year. (Jordan, have you tried the stuff from the Sweet Truths Candy Company? *drool*!) Last year I bought Tiff a 'Marla the Ghost' t-shirt from the girls at Fixeight, and this year I bought an 'Evil Stray Cat' one for myself. We went out for teppanyaki at Tako Sushi near our house. It's a couple block or so north of Memories of Japan on Don Mills, and it is INFINITELY BETTER!! (Actually, any place is better than MoJ nowadays. I don't know why it is still so popular.) The portions were very generous, and instead of the usual salmon and kappa maki that most places give you as appetizers, they gave us salmon maki and california rolls. It was a nice dinner and the chef put on a good show.

On Saturday I went to the Signatures craft show down at the MTCC. I haven't been to that show in years - the last time I went they were still having free admission. The traffic was pathetic compared to the One-of-a-Kind show and it was a lot smaller but there were some nice things to look at. The Orange Crate food booth was there (as it has been FOREVER!) so I picked up some cooking stuff for us.

The trouble with going to craft shows and seeing all these pretty things is that I come home thinking "I can do that!" and then I get in a nutty beading mood. I've started making a gorgeous new necklace that hopefully I'll finish in the next couple of days when I get some free time. I was working on it before rehearsal and during our break this evening and I was getting a lot of spectators :)

I've been planning on hacking at my hair for the past 3 weeks now since it's gotten so long and gross. I've noticed that when I use Pantene shampoo or anything other than my Aveda Rosemary Mint stuff I will wake up in the middle of the night to find the cat sitting next to my head, chewing on my hair!! (I guess he doesn't like the minty stuff - hehe). As a result, there's a lot of damaged bits in my hair so I went to see Dany this afternoon and she did her magic again. I now have fantastic looking hair ^__^" I'm going to have to sleep with the blanket over my head from now on to keep the cat off of my hair!

On my subway ride home, an elderly lady sat down across from me and took out a pen and a piece of scrap paper. She had it in her lap, on top of her tote bag and it looked like she was just making notes or something. I was listening to my iPod and completely spaced out and oblivious. As I was about to get off at my stop, I glanced over and realized she had been sketching me - and it was fairly good too! It surprised me.

My birthday

2006-11-22T00:07:00.000-05:00

It's been a difficult year for me. There was a lot of uncertainly, doubt, worry and anger. These things are still there but I hope that they will ease themselves out of my mind slowly. I learned so much from just living, so much more than I could have ever been taught in school or picked up from a book. I'm grateful.

Tonight my aunt picked me up from work and we went out to dim sum with my grandmother. It was a bit surreal because it was the first time I've gone out with any of my relatives other than my sister since I've moved out of my parent's house. I've talked to most of my relatives but we haven't had any family dinners or anything in s while. Oh well.

I didn't have a choir rehearsal tonight and I didn't feel like going downtown so I hopped up to P-Mall just to look around. I didn't find anything but it was just good to get out instead of spending the night in front of the couch - that's what Thursdays are for (Grey's Anatomy & CSI night!).

I've spent most of the evening downloading old malt shop era songs. I think it reflects my current state of mind.

More Purcell and the beginnings of a new wishlist

2006-11-18T17:06:00.000-05:00

I had another rehearsal for Fairy Queen this morning. For some reason we weren't at TSP and instead we down at St. Vlad's Theatre at 620 Spadina. It's an orthodox Ukranian community centre I think and it seems to double as a univeristy residence for guys. Anyways, it was just a weird morning all around.

I was tired afterwards and didn't feel like shopping so I just popped into One Million Comix to get the new Civil War comic for Kevin, and in the process picked up all 4 books of the NANA manga (since they were there, hehe).

I've started putting together a photo wishlist in my Flickr account, because when I constantly see things that I want it will propel me to get them. That said I've updated my wishlist in this blog too :)

Blonde Bond

2006-11-17T01:13:00.000-05:00

Kevin and I went downtown this afternoon and bought tickets for Casino Royale as a backup plan, and then went over to the Canon Theatre to line up for the lottery tickets for Wicked. We ran into a couple of friends of his, who's names elude me now. We didn't win tickets, so off we ran back to the Paramount to watch the movie.

Without spoiling too much, there was no plotline to the film, just a lot of action, cars and fighting sequences. Where Pierce Brosnan's Bond was a more gadget-using, smooth-talking and elegant Bond, Daniel Craig's Bond is more brute force and impulsive. The thing that I though was strange about this film is that it's supposed to be going backwards to look at the roots of the Bond character, and even the opening scenes give that impression. Why then does M talk about 9/11 and in one scene you very obviously see the date "July 17, 2006." If this film was meant to be for the 007 franchise what Batman Begins was for the Batman franchise the timeline doesn't make any sense.

Anyways, Cineplex has done away with those nice holiday gift certificate packages now and they just have giftcards, but if you buy any combo you get a $10 off coupon for a $50 purchase at Indigo/Chapters. I miss the $10 off coupons for the Bay ;) I used mine last year at the MAC counter and got no arguements. Darn.

Impulse buying

2006-11-07T22:48:00.000-05:00

This morning I went for more professional training at head office, so now I can make a bit more sense of things when I read pathology, cytology and other reports that will be passing through my hands. I had to head back to the office afterwards and it was a headache because it seemed that every electronic machine that I laid my hands on would cease to function. It was one of those days.

Got emails from Andrejus and Antonio which made me feel warm and happy. I miss all the conversations we had.

Had a rehearsal for Messiah tonight. It's one of those things that no matter how many times I perform it, it is still always fun. But since our next set of concerts is of Purcell's Fairy Queen I won't see it for a while. The Purcell piece is lovely except that doing it at A=392 is driving me CRAZY!!!

I didn't do much for Hallowe'en. I dressed up as "Dark Dorothy" to work, pretty much so I could get a chance to wear my Ruby Slippers. It's a good thing too, they need some minor repairs before I wear them again at the Sing-a-long Messiah.

On Sunday I made it a mission to go and get myself a pair of proper boots for winter. My criteria were pretty straightforward:

brown leather or pleather
NOT suede
no fur accents
at least a 1cm rubber sole so that walking on salted sidewalks won't hurt my feet
preferrably mid-calf or to the knee
heel height totally negotiable
not ugly

I went into EVERY shoe store in the Eaton Centre and had very little luck. The one pair that met every criteria I found at Payless (of all places...) but they didn't zip up. Damn my fat shins. So I settled for a pair of boots from Geox, which in hindsight I think I bought purely out of frustration. They are camel-coloured suede, flat rubber soles, ankle length with fur trims, comfy ... and ugly. Why did I buy them? I don't know but I'm taking them back... The cat seems to think I brought home 2 new friends for him. -__-"

Mozart-ing again

2006-10-24T23:30:00.000-05:00

Dr. Rao invited me to sing with the MacMillan/Bach Festival Singers/ Elmer Iseler Singers group for the Mozart Mass in C happening this week at Roy Thompson Hall under the direction of Helmuth Rilling. I'm there for the music and for Rilling, nothing else really matters. I did have some doubts about the entire thing - some which are still hanging in the air. Of course the TSO is great, and the soloists are superb which is all I can expect. It's a treat to hear James Taylor in person, since the last time he was supposed to sing with us he fell ill and Michael Schade sang in his stead (also a treat). Simona is absolutely divine and I really enjoy listening to her. If I focus on only her and Helmuth it almost feels like I'm back in Germany. Music is wonderful that way, it can transport me to a completely different space, place and time.

And of course it's fantastic that Phil is the baritone soloist. It's not the most amazing part (it's one of the most boring baritone bits out there...) but he's here and I get to hear him and it's all wonderful. Tonight we went out to dinner with his friends Frank and Brittany at the Lone Star Grill down on Front St.

Doreen has given the ladies pretty much free reign with the dress code so I'm going to take advantage of it and wear some of my gorgeous gowns that I can't wear in the normal Tafelmusik season. Huzzah!

You cannot put a price on beauty

2006-10-20T19:31:00.000-05:00

Today Kevin and I went to the Creative Sewing and Needlework Festival and met up with Tiff and Nhan. There were some interesting things there and I bought some neat rubber stamping and embossing things. I haven't played around with that stuff for over 6 years, but I have a nice little collection from when I was in elementary school.

We went to the KBBQ on Queen St for lunch - my first time :) Kevin and I must have walked by a hundred times and said "next time!" and then ended up at Marché instead LOL!

Afterwards we went to One Million Comix to pick up Kevin's gorgeous new statue and bring her home. Luckily the Fushigi Yuugi artbook that I ordered came in so I don't have to worry about getting Tiff a birthday gift ^__^"

What else to say? Not too much. Work has been keeping me busy, and next week I'll be even busier with the Mozart concerts down at Roy Thompson.

Anyways, here is the new glory in our collection:

A great way to finish off a day

2006-10-13T23:15:00.000-05:00

This morning I went down to the ACTRA office to update my address - and it turns out that I am over-qualified to become a full member. They took my money ($600... ouch!) and upgraded me. That kind of screwed up the rest of our plans for the day, and has set me back about a month in terms of finances. I hate thinking about money.

We went over to One Million Comix to pick up the four Kingdom Hearts II figures that came in, and to put down another payment on Kevin's baby. There was a cute shirt I wanted to pick up for Tiff but they were sold out of mediums - durr.

We popped into Starbucks on a whim and they have resurrected my Oatmeal Raisin cookie!! I was SO happy!! I haven't enjoyed food like that since tiramisu in Überlingen. Oh how I have missed those cookies ^___^

Tonight was also the 25th Anniversary gala concert for the Tafelmusik Baroque Chamber Choir. We were at the George Weston Recital Hall, and it was a lovely change of venue compared to Trinity-St. Paul's. The concert was sold-out and the performance was stellar. As I've said before it was such a pleasure to sing next to Matt White, it felt so comfortable. There was a charming reception afterwards where the choir presented Ivars with 2 gifts: an engraved set of silver cufflinks from Tiffany's, and a heart-warming rendition of Willan's Rise Up My Love.

Num-nums...

2006-10-11T22:27:00.000-05:00

Work has been a bit more noise and stress than I bargained for. I miss the simple days when I would just deal with patients, answer phones and that would be the end of my day. Now I have paperwork and deadlines and so much more protocol to deal with. It makes my head hurt... or is that the side effect of the Cold FX? Probably a mix of both but at least I'm not sick anymore!

Tafelmusik's choir is celebrating it's 25th anniversary this season and we are having our big gala concert on Friday night. We've been rehearsing with the orchestra for the past couple of nights and as a bonus Matt White has joined us in the alto section. I can't tell you the joy it gives me to sit between 2 amazing countertenors (Matt on my right, Richie on my left). It brings back such good choral memories :) It makes me miss John and Andrei from last year's FES a lot too. But OMG we are sounding so good. I can't wait for our concert! I hope my head doesn't explode before then...

In other news . . . Brynne, he emailed me today. Yes, him.

More cookies!

2006-10-08T23:06:00.000-05:00

Kevin and I have taken a liking to baking cookies, and we've gotten pretty good at it too. Last week we made chocolate fudge cookies with chunks of dark chocolate in them, and tonight we made Vanilla-Chocolate marbled cookies. Mmmm...

What is it about Chinese-style weddings??

2006-10-08T14:15:00.000-05:00

Last night Kevin and I went to the wedding reception for his cousin Priscilla and her new husband Ronald. The food was decent (11 courses, OMG~!!), the space was nice and the bride didn't wear anything hideous =P

Anyhow, I've noticed some weird traditions at the more recent weddings I've been too that are a bit gauche. Bear in mind that the most ideal (but still not perfect) wedding in my mind is still the one of my aunt Belinda to her husband Kelly, and that was almost 10 years ago. It was so elegant and beautiful, and had the perfect balance of her North American-born sensibilities and Chinese tradition.

Rosanna, the lady who does my eyelash extensions, is also a wedding planner and I've looked through her portfolio before while waiting for Frances. It really is a ludicrous business because you have to please a client who usually has no idea what will work and what won't and many times their demands conflict with your own sense of good taste -__-"

Pet peeves I've collected about these new-fangled Chinese weddings (and these don't all apply to the wedding I went to last night, this is just a rant):

the couple's name in big glittery letters, made of cut out illustration board and craft glitter dumped on them
when said glittery letters don't match in FONT or SIZE because they get re-used from couple to couple
slip covers on the chairs, particularly SATIN slip covers -__-"
when the bride's colour scheme doesn't work with the colours of the space. Do some homework!
Water fountains with dyed water underneath the wedding cake
sequins on traditional Cheongsams
Cheongsams in neon colours -__-" If you are going to wear one, stick with red, pink, white or off-white, gold . . . whatever, but not HOT PINK.
Karaoke. Totally inappropriate
DJ's that blast their music so loudly you can't converse with people at your own table.
Banquet halls that explicitly forbid clinking on the tablewear. Yes, it's noisy and sometimes annoying, but it's part of the fun at Asian weddings
Shark's Fin soup thickened with corn starch
Red Bean Soup for dessert. It's mundane, and not 'banquet' food.
Photographer's that are more click-happy than client-focused.

Anyhow, despite all my ranting, their wedding was nice and they were a fun and 'co-operative' pair who knew how to please their guests ;) I've been to many lovely weddings, and also a lot of weird, wacky and horrendous weddings in my life. The prize for 'Worst Wedding' still goes to Arnold (one of my many distant relatives). The church service was 2.5 hours long, the bride dropped the ring during the service, and the dinner was FIVE hours long and the food was bad. When my elderly uncle said at the 4 hour mark that he couldn't sit anymore, about 15 of us all jumped up and said "Oh, let's help Uncle Howard too!" and high-tailed it out of there.

Two new bears and Mermaid

2006-10-06T21:22:00.000-05:00

Kevin and I both had the day free today, which is a rare but lovely thing. We decided to go up to P-Mall/ Market Village since neither of us has been there in ages. We had lunch at my favourite won-ton noodle place, bought some "little egg" waffles and just walked around. As we were leaving One's, the corner of my eye spotted a little corner with a small collection of Gloomy Bears! They were all the 'arcade prize' style ones and the handpuppets but I bought the big silver vinyl "Robot" Gloomy Bear ^__^"

Later in the evening we went up to Costco to pick up a few things and I got the new Little Mermaid DVD. Yay! I can scratch that off my wishlist now! We went to First Markham Place to grab something quick to eat and on a whim I wandered over to Toys². They were technically closed but the guy opened the door to let one of his friends in as well and I followed him in! LOL They had a few Gloomy Bears too - the same ones I had seen all over today except for a couple in the paisley-esque bandana fabric! I picked up a yellow one since it was so cute!

I took a sick day

2006-10-04T17:08:00.000-05:00

I rolled out of bed this morning and the throbbing pain and pressure in my head prompted me to crawl right back in. Walking up and down the stairs to the bathroom was dangerous since I nearly rolled down the flight of stairs -__-" So I stayed home and didn't roll out bed until about 2pm. My head feels a bit better after an Advil, soup in my tummy and more herbal stuff. I have to say that Cold-FX really has helped. This germ never got a chance to take a firm hold of me and I should be back to normal by Friday.

That said, I did sit out at rehearsal last night. It's the first time I've ever had to sit out at a rehearsal, but it gave me the chance to listen to our choir again. It was probably the first time in 3 years that I have heard the choir, since everything is a little different when you're in it. Now I know why people love us so much and it makes me look forward to our recording even more ^__^ In more good news, since it's a CBC recording, the contracts will count towards ACTRA. Yay for money!

Chicken soup is good for the soul

2006-10-02T20:29:00.000-05:00

Around bedtime last night I had a strange itch in my throat. The only way to describe it is that it felt like I had a clump of cat hair stuck at the back of my throat. It was dry, itchy, fuzzy and really annoying. I didn't think much of it, but when I woke up this morning my throat was so raw. I knew something nasty was going to develop today -__-"

I woke up late and had to call a cab to get to my training session in time. It's not too bad since it will be written off as a company expense, but I won't make a habit of it :P The day started off completely on the wrong foot since I went to the wrong building - although that was the address that 4 different people had given me! It turns out that head office had moved to the next building over. DIU! So I was late and felt moronic. Other than that, the training was technical stuff related and really not much that I didn't already know since I've been working with the computer system for almost 6 years anyhow.

After training, I had to head back to the clinic to close up since we are THAT short of staff that I couldn't have the afternoon off. It's not too bad though, our new receptionist is quite bright and catching on fast. I managed to get out of there around 7:15 tonight. I was feeling dizzy - mostly due to the fact that Tanya's perfume fell out of her locker and smashed onto the floor and made a big smelly mess. I went to SDM and picked up some Cold-FX which I hope will help me, and I found some Echinacea & Garlic capsules at home. I made myself a lovely bowl of chicken soup and I'm feeling better already.

A Gloomy arm!

2006-10-01T20:33:00.000-05:00

My fingers are healing so I almost fully functional again -__-" This afternoon I popped down to Magic Pony and bought a new Gloomy Bear item - the Gloomy Bear arm pillow. It is so amusing! Not only is it very comfortable to sleep on, you can stick your whole arm into it - even the claws. I can flip someone off with my Gloomy arm - LOL!

Tomorrow I head over to head office to get "official" training for the new parts of my job. It's all formality since I have been doing some of this stuff for the entire time I've been at the clinic anyhow. Oh well, it should be interesting but I'm not looking forward to getting up at the crack of dawn to haul my ass out to Scarberia -__-"

Girlie day with Christine

2006-09-29T22:41:00.000-05:00

This morning Christine and I went out to a little place in Scarborough to get our nails done. First off - I now understand the difference between a place that charges $26 for a pedicure and $45. From now on I will gladly pay the $45 for the peace of mind that the tools being used on me are either new out of the package or have been properly sanitized. The place we went to wasn't dirty, but the attitude was a little to casual for my liking and it grossed me out.

For the first time ever I had a set of acrylics applied - and I swear I am never doing it again. I don't mind the look of the nails or the length. I had deliberately grown out my nails a bit so typing and functioning normally is still possible. What troubles me is the fact that the technician used a Dremel (really, it was. I read the model number on the side of the tool -__-") on my nails. I vaguely remember Dani showing me Dremel attachments for manicures before and for buffing and filing it makes sense, but he used the thing on my CUTICLES! My cuticle beds are now raw, sore and any pressure on my nails is very uncomfortable. I think I will give my hands some time to heal and then get these god-awful things removed.

After getting our nails done we went to Fairview Mall just to wander around a bit. After 2 years of searching I finally bought a slim-fit ladies white dress shirt with French cuffs ^__^"

I went to pick Kevin up after work and we went down to One Million Comics to inspect his new treasure and make a payment on her. She is number 0135 of 3000 - nice. What boggled my mind a bit was how many guys were just hanging around in the store watching whatever anime was being shown there. After all, it was a Friday evening - don't these guys have anything better to do?

New beginnings and more stress

2006-09-27T19:36:00.000-05:00

Frances and Josephine will be leaving the clinic for good this week - which is sad because they have been around for a long time. Frances has been working there almost as long as I have, but both of them are moving on to new ventures and I wish them well.

With their departure leaves a few voids in our work schedule, particularly with responsibilites regarding the research program that our site is affiliated with. I was asked by our site manager last week if I would interested in jumping in and taking over these responsibilities and I agreed. It is a lot of paperwork and communication with doctors and specialists, but I think it will be a nice change. Today I went through how to do most of the procedures and next week I will train at the central hub. I'm a bit boggled by the medical terms but things will become clearer with practice.

I have also been in contact with Doreen Rao to see if it would be possible to sing in the Mozart C Minor Mass performances at Roy Thompson Hall later in October. There are a few things I need to clear in my schedule, but it looks like a go! She also offered me a spot in the Bach Festival choir but one of the rehearsals conflicts directly with our Tafelmusik recording sessions and I'm not about to miss that.

In other news I have some kind of contact dermatitis on the back of my neck - I think it's the same rash that I had in Germany 2 years ago. I quite sure the trigger is Feria's hair conditioner. Bleh!

Chinese Lantern Festival

2006-09-24T18:19:00.000-05:00

On Friday night Kevin and I did a double date with Roland and his new girlfriend Jessica. My first reaction was that he wants to make a nice impression on this new girl and he's introducing her to ME??!! He's nuts ^__^"

We went to Tako Sushi for a quick dinner and then went down to Ontario Place to see the Chinese Lantern Festival. First off - it was ridiculously expensive, even with the group discount coupon! But the pavilions were quite pretty and I was amused with all the panda lanterns. They even had a little marketplace where they sold typical Beijing-style street food and had some vendors selling parasols, silk purses and other "Asian" stuff. We took some beautiful photos - hurray for having my sexy camera back!

Today the QMIS stuff went out for lunch to wish Frances and Josephine farewell. Frances had been around almost as long as I have so it's sad to see her go, but she's moving on to more interesting things. That doesn't mean we won't still have our girly days :)

When words don't matter.

2006-09-18T19:10:00.000-05:00

I have been emailing a few of my friends that I spent the last month with in Europe - and it makes me happy when I get a reply back. Today I opened up a very sweet email from Andrejus. While reading his words I could hear his voice, and it made tears well up in my eyes.

I knew we were nuts =)

2006-09-17T11:11:00.000-05:00

On Friday night on my way to meeting Dane and Brynne for dinner I stopped into one of my regular haunts and something caught my eye. Since I had my stealthy camera in my purse I took a quick photo of it and showed it to Kevin - who promptly decided he had to have it! I know I have very good taste when it comes to figurines and stuff, but his reaction was ridiculous.

He went down to the store yesterday and worked out a deal. I would have never fathomed we would spend so much money on one piece but it's worth it. And what is this crazy item we've bought? A statue of Belldandy and Holy Bell sculpted by Volks -

A little FES reunion

2006-09-15T00:11:00.000-05:00

Dane and his friend Patrick Jang were in town to watch Siegfried at the COC so we arranged to have dinner afterwards. Brynne and I met up with them at the Green Mango and had a fantastic dinner, and then Christine joined us afterwards. It was nice to see them all again.

A month in retrospect

2006-09-14T09:20:00.000-05:00

I'm still jetlagged, but I'm home now and I spent most of yesterday uploading over 700 photos from my wonderful trip. To view them, check out my Flickr Account.

I'm working on posting my handful of videos as well, but I'm not in any hurry for those.

I saw some amazing things this summer, met many wonderful people and sang in some incredible spaces. This year wasn't as much as emotional whirlwind as last year, but I definitely had a more sociable time.

Flying on September 11th

2006-09-12T10:19:00.000-05:00

Nothing happened. I'm home now. Very tired. But it feels so good to be home.

I've started uploading my photos onto Flickr.

Last day in Stuttgart

2006-09-10T09:59:00.000-05:00

I can't believe that I'll be coming home tomorrow...

Today I went to the Stuttgart zoo and botanical gardens with Brynne, Erica, Christine and Dave. It was a great way to spend the afternoon.

I have my last rehearsal in 10 minutes so I have to run!

A familiar face

2006-09-08T07:08:00.000-05:00

Imagine my delight when Phil Carmichael appeared at our rehearsal yesterday afternoon! With all the things going on in my head right now, words can't express how happy it made me to hang out with him again. It felt just like old times. He'll be around for the next rest of our stay since he's studying in Mannheim this year.

Brynne got smashed again and wasn't rolling of bed yesterday morning, so instead Raphael, Elina, Misel, Emily and I went to the Stadtgalerie to see a Claude Monet exhibit. It wasn't as big as the Roy Liechtenstein collection at the Kunsthaus Bregenz that I saw last year, but it was very beautiful. What amazed me was that the curators were able to put together sets of 3-5 paintings that were likely done very closely together. Everything was grouped by period and subject matter. It was special to see these masterworks up close and in person.

Afterwords we had lunch in the Schloßplatz before heading to the Liederhalle for a lecture concert on the Mozart Requiem. I'm SO glad it's over -__-" Robert Levin seems to not comprehend the concept of a lecture concert, and things just turn into 'lecture.' The presence of the choir and orchestra felt completely unnecessary since he can just whirl out all the choral and orchestral parts on the piano anyhow. Ugh...

Anyhow, after that miserable concert I felt a bit of fun was in order and well deserved so a bunch of us went to the Hospitalhof and made merry! There was salsa dancing, great conversation and it was just a great time. Even some of the usually shy and quieter people got involved and had a great time. Ariel led the group in some salsa line dancing and it was a lot of fun. Since a large group of the 'grumpy' people left early on, it made the environment so much better. I had a great time but Misel and I decided to leave a little early since we were tired. We did pop into one of the gay bars to check out the karaoke night, but it was really smokey and gross so we bailed out of there ASAP. There was a huge bunch of people hanging out in the breakfast room of the hotel so I stayed up and chatted with them for a while.

This morning I took it nice and slow. I ran a few errands and did speed shopping. Kev - remember that last conversation we had and you asked me if I bought that something? Well I picked it up, and I bought an outfit for Jacqueline's wedding too. ^__^ No more shopping for me...

Tomorrow I'm planning on going to Ludwigsburg with Michael Carty.

My first couple of days in Stuttgart

2006-09-05T09:17:00.000-05:00

Our first night in Stuttgart we sang a fantastic C-Minor Mass, the last time we will be performing the entire work together. Afterwards we went to the Stuttgart city hall for a lovely reception. Mr. and Mrs Heinrichs, as well as Theo Schweiker and his wife were in the audience and came to the reception. It's always nice to recognize faces in the audience - it makes it feel more like home.

Yesterday I went shopping with Christine and Keith and I was very good - I only bought 5 shirts, and they were all for Kevin!! This morning Brynne and I went out again and I picked up a nice black dress, some pashmina shawls and some earrings. I'm not very impressed with the shopping this year. I went into Breuninger hoping to get a nice evening gown and nothing called out to me, and the styles and colours at most of my favourite stores are just hideous -__-"

I nearly freaked out yesterday because my iPod crashed on me after I did a photo dump. It wouldn't respond to any buttons or cables. Eric had a look at it too and was baffled - but this morning it miraculously was working like normal. PHEW!! If I lost my photos I would cry! However, on the train ride from Mainz to Stuttgart Hollie copied the photos off of my memory card onto his laptop so hopefully some of my photos will be on the website ^__^

In the meantime, there are some decent photos of me on our website (www.festivalensemble.org) - and I'm even having fun in some of them *gasp!* There is a fabulous picture of Erica, me and Christine in a gorgeous stairwell backstage in the Lucerne Congress Centre.

Tomorrow night Herr Schweiker is taking the Canadians out on our traditional outing. This year they are taking us to the Ritter Sport factory! We will be able to buy chocolate at their factory prices - how awesome is that?!! Then we will take a tour of Tübingen and then go out for dinner. I'm sure it will be fantastic.

Dani, I'm not sure if I will be able to run that errand for you - the next few days will be manic and nothing is open on Sundays over here...

Home is Stuttgart!!

2006-09-03T07:47:00.000-05:00

Whee! I'm in Stuttgart now. Access to computers and shopping heaven! It' strange how much this feels like home. It feels wonderful to be here.

I'm at an internet cafe right now so I don't want to say too much. Salzburg was amazing (Ruth, I found the cutest postcard for you!), Lucern was just as gorgeous as I remembered and the concert in Eberbach was splendid.

Kevin - my hotel room number is 102 if you call me at the Reiker.

Goodbye Überlingen

2006-08-30T00:53:00.000-05:00

This is my last morning in this beautiful haven. In about 20 minutes we are leaving fot Salzburg. We had our first of many Mass in C Minor concerts last night and it went very well.

Last night's party was fantastic! Lots of dancing and merry-making. I'm sure there will be photos. ^___^

What I will miss most about this place is the wonderful strangers that I met this year, like Martin of Waldshut, and Antonio D'Angelo. Good times.

A birthday party for two

2006-08-29T02:02:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we celebrated Brynne and Michael Carty's birthdays. It was a wet and rainy day, but nice and laid back since we didn't have any concerts to worry about.

I went into town in the afternoon with Audrey, Asuka and Agnieszka to run a small errand and I heard someone yell "Patrizia!" in the street while I was walking into town. I turned, and saw only parked cars and an empty street. "Patrizia!" and I looked up and there was Antonio hanging over the side of a balcony! LOL What a weird scene out of a movie. So I yelled up at him that I'd be by the restaurant later on.

After finding some things at the drugerie and apothecary we popped into the Café Piccolo for hot chocolate and I dropped off balloons and candles for our party in the evening, with advanced warning that a large group would be coming.

We had a great turnout! Besides the birthday pair and myself, Christine, Misel, Ben, Skip, Marielle, Dane, Keith, Shawn, Audrey, Ulrich, Ricky and Erica were there, and Nigel the oboe tutor and Thomas the voice coach came as well. The food was fabulous and there was enough tiramisu for everyone! Antonio had set aside a little nook for us and decorated it with the balloons. It was such a wonderful evening.

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

We had our first concert on Sunday at the Reichenau Münster Mittelzell, a gorgeous old cathedral not too far from where we are staying. The acoustic was to die for and we did a wonderful Requiem concert. I'm looking forward to tonight's Mass in C concert - and of course the party that will follow!!

After this I leave for the tour leg of this trip so I won't be around, but I'll hopefully pick up some more pretty postcards and have the lot mailed out when I settle in Stuttgart in about 5 days.

Our first concert

2006-08-27T03:22:00.001-05:00

We had our first performance last night - not of any of the yummy Mozart repertoire, but the mixed a capella and orchestra stuff. I wasn't exactly enthusiastic about it since I think the repertoire is a pile of Käse, but oh well.

Brynne and I went into town for lunch in the afternoon at a café by the lakefront. The place was so busy we had to sit inside, but it was still nice. I've never seen it so bustling in Überlingen. There was a farmer's market and a pottery festival (the same one they have every year around this time) and Brynne bought an ocarina for her mom. Hehe, there's something amusing about those things seeing as I bought one 2 years ago for Tiff. It was a lovely day.

Maybe I've been spoiled working in a professional setting with Tafel, but I really feel like sometimes we are treated like a high-school choir. There was a rehearsal where Kathy had us count-sing and sing scales and I found myself thinking "WTF? Where the hell am I??" I think that considering the amazing calibre of the orchestra members here, the choir is definitely capable of much better things.

Anyhow, I'm off to a rehearsal now and this afternoon we have a concert of the Mozart Requiem. It should be fantastic!

Überlingen/ Freiburg

2006-08-25T01:21:00.000-05:00

So I do believe in miracles ^____^

Yesterday Anne-Marie, Brynne and I took the train out to Freiburg. It was going to be a crazy day from the get-go. For one thing, Richard Monk was supposed to come with us, but didn't show up (we found out later that he didn't wake up until 11am -__-"). We boarded the train at Überlingen station, and 2 minutes before we reached our transfer point at Basel the ticket collector came buy and told us that we had been sitting in First Class and that the 3 of us had to add a supplemental 40 Euro fare or else he would call the police. Then we found we had missed our train to Freiburg because it had left from a different platform, but there was another train due in 30 minutes so we waited a little bit and caught that train. On this train we sat across from a friendly German man named Martin. We chatted a bit at first about where we were from and what we were doing in Germany and he told us a bit about the sites to see in Freiburg. When the ticket conductor came, he told us that our ticket wasn't valid for this particular type of train - we had boarded one of the high-speed ICE trains -__-" Luckily the conductor was a nice guy, and Martin helped to explain that we were tourists and we got off without having to pay more fines.

Freiburg was a nice change from the quiet of Überlingen - it's a city of about 200,000 - and there are a lot of students and tourists there. We did a bit of shopping at the H&M there. For kicks we went into a little shop that sold Liederhosen and Drindls. Anne-Marie and Brynne tried a couple on, and the shop woman looked a bit annoyed at us, but the girls ended up liking the tops so much that they bought them!

Of course we visited the famous Münster (catherdral) and we even climbed the stairs to the top of the tower. It was exhausting, and my fear of heights came back to haunt me -__-" But the view at the top was worth it. It's a gorgeous city and the view was spectacular. There was a farmer's market around the church.

Of course we couldn't go to Freiburg without having Black Forest Cake, but we had a very difficult time finding a café that sold any. We checked out at least 10 before finding one, so we had an early supper and shared the monstrous slice of cake. It was delicious!

We were fairly exhausted after a busy day so we decided to take an earlier train home. This time we made sure to sit in the right class and board the correct type of train -__-" The ride over to Basel was blessedly uneventful, but when we got got off there we weren't sure which platform our connecting train was leaving from. We decided to try to find a ticket counter and ask someone. As we were looking at the train schedule - who did we run into but Martin!! He was on his way home from visiting his father. He took a look at our ticket and realized we were on his train so we all RAN to the platform and got on the train. If we had been 3 seconds late, we would have missed the train. This man was certainly our guardian angel for the day!

On the train home, he pointed out interesting landmarks like a castle that was owned by the Templar Knights in the Middle Ages, the hometown of Anne Sophie van Otter, as well as a lovely town that was split in half by the German-Swiss border (the Rhein River). There was another rainbow in the sky. We had a safe journey home, but we were a bit hungry so we went down to the café Piccolo for hot chocolate and tiramisu before taking a cab home.

I learned from Antonio that his family is closing the restaurant in early September. *sigh* no more tiramisu for me . . .

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I'm amazed at the genuine kindness of people here. Wonderful local people like Martin and Antonio, who really are just strangers to us, have really helped to make this trip fantastic.

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On Wednesday night we went out to celebrate Shawn's birthday. There was some craziness going on, but out of respect for my friends here I won't share the dirty details online - but do I have stories to tell!!

The bottom line is - for the moment, I believe in miracles.

Überlingen - Day 5

2006-08-21T07:56:00.000-05:00

Not too much to talk about today. It was wet and cold and we spent the day working on most of the chamber choir repertoire.

In the evening we were a bit bored so Erica, Christine, Brynne and I dressed up like crazy little tarts and sang happy birthday to Shawn Oakes. I guess we're all partners in crime now -__-"

Since our rehearsals are all down in the Aula today we plan on going into town this afternoon, come rain or shine.

Überlingen - Day 5

2006-08-21T01:25:00.000-05:00

We had a full run-through of the Mozart Requiem yesterday afternoon and it was wonderful to hear the soloists. They are infinitely better than the singers we had last year (since last year then were masterclass students, and these are hired pros). I took a short video which I'll post eventually. It's nice because you get to see the masetro conducting as well. I'm not sure what I think about this 'newly completed' edition. There are a lot of moments that are decidedly un-Mozartean and make me cringe. Whether it is more academically correct or not, it is still not wise to try to re-write 200+ years of accepted history.

The weather has been erratic - going from 25C to sudden torrential downpour, and then sunny after 5 minutes, and the pouring rain again. A lot of people are getting sick - more likely from over-partying than the weather though.

Last night I went out to dinner with Audrey, Dane, Skip and Keith since none of us were in the mood for cafeteria quiche. We went to the little pizzeria at the end of the road and it was nice to chat with them.

At the boat house they showed Amadeus, which was highly appropriate considering the repertoire that we are doing. I don't think I have ever sat through that film completely from beginning to end since Bravo cuts a lot of scenes out of it when they air it on TV. A bunch of people were playing a drinking game where every time Mozart does his signature giggle they had to take a swig of their beer. It certainly made the evening more amusing as people got progressively more drunk LOL.

Überlingen: Day 4

2006-08-19T02:28:00.000-05:00

Last night as we walked home the sky was filled with stars. There were stars behind stars behind stars. The Big Dipper was so huge and bright, it was unbelievably beautiful. Tonight we had a sunshower and the sunset was a real treat since there was so much mist in the air. Beautiful shades of pink, orange and purple; but the most amazing thing was the double rainbow arcing across the sky. This photo was taken by our staff photographer - you get an idea of how gorgeous the sky was but it's not the same as being here.

We had our first rehearsal with the choir and orchestra together with the maestro today and it was a bit rough at times, but I think we are at a better spot than things were last year. Things need a bit of time to gel, but it will be amazing.

I went into town this afternoon hoping to pick up something at the pharmacy but since it's Saturday they were all closed -__-" And since tomorrow is Sunday, nothing will be open at all. That's the one thing about Europe that I'll never get used to.

We've been eating too much so Brynne, Christine and I stayed up in our dorm tonight and did our nails and chatted - which is when we saw the sunset out on the balcony. I did take photos so I will share them when I get home.

Überlingen - Day 3

2006-08-18T16:23:00.000-05:00

More rehearsing. I passed out this afternoon and took a long and much needed nap, (but staying up till 3am chatting with Brynne last night sure didn't help). Damn, I was tired. I think my body is finally over the jet lag. The Mozart pieces are coming together and I'm realling looking forward to our first rehearsal with the orchestra and Maestro Rilling tomorrow morning.

From previous years, I recall that Friday night dinners are always a bit sketchy (tonight it was that babyfood and applesauce stuff again) so Brynne, Christine and I went down to my favourite little café down in town - the Café Piccolo. The adorable waiter that was there last year was there again and now I know his name: Antonio D'Angelo. Dinner was delicious, made only more perfect by the wonderful tiramisu.

It turns out a lot of people weren't exactly satisfied with dinner and came into town as well. A bunch of us sat on the steps chatting for a while, with some wine and beer being passed around. It was fun but the three of us decided to come back up to the campus. The night sky is so clear and gorgeous - you can see stars to the furthest regions of the sky. There have even been some shooting stars.

I love this place. Time has no meaning here.

Überlingen - Day 2

2006-08-17T14:14:00.000-05:00

It's silly to do daily posts here since all we do is sing, eat, walk up and down a big hill, sing, and eat some more LOL! However, today was just so gorgeous that Brynne and I had to go into town again for gelato. I swear that's my main motivation to hike down there -__-" We showed Ben and Skip the way down too, since it's their first year here and introduced them to the silly local things like the ugly fountain and the 'Bad Hotel.' I've taken a few photos but since I don't have a USB cable for the camera I can't upload anything until I get home.

Time has a strange way of stopping here. I was having morning coffee with Robin (our amazing accompanist) and it felt like just yesterday we were having lunch in Leipzig, when in fact I haven't seen him in 11 months! There is something timeless and wonderful about this place. I'm trying to savour every moment but my body is still suffering from jetlag.

Kevin - did you mom ever get home? For that matter - what happened to the camera. GRRR.... And did you manage to send out that package for me? ^____^" I bought you some Strawberry-Rhubarb Ritter Sport, I can bet they don't have THAT flavour at home.
Dani - email me that address in Stuttgart again!!

Anyone that wants a postcard, I'll create a friend-locked post on LJ so you can post your addresses.

In the meantime, the site Daily News is up. There are a couple of live webcams if you want to watch live streams of the rehearsals or just check out photos of our goings on. The site is www.festivalensemble.org

Überligen - day 0

2006-08-16T01:21:00.000-05:00

Well, I arrived safely. After being awake for what amounted to 48 hours straight my body was NOT happy with my and my stomach was gurgling at me. Dinner last night consisted of cucumber and watermelon slices. -__-"

I went into town in the afternoon yesterday to pick up a few things - like a water bottle and some other odd things that I needed. I've met a lot of new faces, as well as lots of old friends. It feels great to be back.

Well, that's it. I'm off to breakfast now! Tschüß!!

Flutter flutter

2006-08-13T10:20:00.000-05:00

After work on Friday afternoon, Frances took me up to see her aesthetician friend and I had eyelash extensions done. I am so amused. I have these fabulous eyelashes now - and so far I've only lost about 5 LOL. The lady individually glued each extension onto my own eyelash so the effect is very natural. And my new order of contact lenses came in on Thursday as well, so to go with my new lashes I now have BRONZE eyes.

Yesterday I picked Kevin up after work and we did some last minute shopping for my trip. I gave him the choice of going anywhere he wanted for dinner and he decided to go to Marché!! We ate so much that we both had tummyaches so we walked around downtown for a bit.

Today will be dedicated to packing for my trip, doing laundry and whatnot.

Vaughn Mills and a new plushie for me!

2006-08-08T20:47:00.000-05:00

Kevin and I both had the day off today so we decided to take a trip up to Vaughn Mills Mall since neither of has been there since it opened and everyone keeps raving about how fabulous it is there. It took us almost 2 hours to get there, and it was our first experience with the VIVA and YRT line.

I wasn't exactly impressed with the mall - its' a MALL. It has STORES. -___-" Since I'm not really into buying discount designer name brand stuff, there wasn't much appeal to shopping there. However, Kevin did put together a really cute Hello Kitty plushie for me at Build-a-Bear. She's wearing a pink ballerina outfit, angel wings and Hello Kitty panties ^__^ I am very amused!

I spent a lot of time sorting out my address change today calling the 'important institutions.' For the not-so-important institutions I purchased the mail forwarding service from Canada Post because I know I will forget something. Despite all the changes my cell phone number is still the same - although it took me about 45 minutes with the Rogers Customer Service people to sort out.

I've been enjoying mundane things like grocery shopping and cooking, which I never really had to do for myself while I lived at home. For kicks I placed an order with grocerygateway.com (since I had a $10 credit from ages ago) and I was really impressed. Yeah the delivery/ service fee is a nuisance, but the produce is really fresh and the prices are on par with Loblaws for the most part. At least I know that it's there for when I'm feeling lazy =P Tonight we had a simple chicken stir-fry for dinner. Tomorrow - who knows? =)

Some random banter

2006-07-26T19:48:00.000-05:00

My internet connection has been very unstable for the past few days. Don't know if it's the connection, the router, the network or whatever but it's getting annoying.

On Monday Dani took me shopping on a couple of errands and it was a lot of fun. Never a dull moment with him around! I picked up an inexpensive hanging bustform and some display risers for Kevin (since he eats through them with all his figures). Afterwards I spent a few hours flipping though his catelogs - making a list and checking it twice ^__~ I'm curious about gettins some stuff from his "dancewear" line because the Supplex fabric is the same as Lululemon's fabulous Luon fabric and the possibilites are endless! I also got a chance to look at the catelog for his new wig line - Chez Coiffure.

Every now and then I try meeting Kevin at work an hour or so before his shifts end so that we can head home together. The first night I did that (ages ago) I flipped through about 3 magazines and got bored pretty quickly, so now I help out so that he can get out faster. I don't actually handle any photos - I just log orders as they are received and processed. Of course sometimes there isn't anything to do so I will sit around and eat my dinner, and then customers start asking me or help. Um, I'm not wearing a uniform and I'm eating - why are you talking to me??

Tiff and my parents have gone on vacation to California - YAY! I have the house to myself and it's so nice. So QUIET!

Superman - finally

2006-07-22T21:44:00.000-05:00

Kevin and I finally saw Superman Returns yesterday at the Paramount on IMAX. They had specially altered 4 scenes to be 3D, but it was more an annoying gimmick than anything else. It was a nuisance to have to put the glasses on and off and having them on my head gave me a headache!

The movie itself was a "feel-good yay the good guy won" film, but over dinner Kevin and I started talking about our reactions and I realized how many holes there were in the plotline - particularly about the 'Jason' character. I don't want to spoil anything for people who haven't watched the film yet so I won't post all my questions here. The bottom line is - I enjoyed it.

Has anyone ever had an ear infection? I'm wondering if I have a small ear infection because my left ear has been very sensitive to loud noise for the past few days. It doesn't cause me any pain, but I don't seem to have a tolerance for noise. Even watching Superman I had to sit in the theatre with my iPod earphones on just to block some of the volume. Marf -__-"

With time on my hands

2006-07-19T22:27:00.000-05:00

I'm loving that even only working 3-4 days a week my paycheque is about the same as when I was tied down at the store. I love that when my shift ends at 5pm - I can drop everything and go at 5pm, not 5:15, not 5:30 -__-"

Anyhow - I was reminded of why I took up my retail job in the first place. It wasn't so much for the money as it was to get out of the house and away from my crazyass mother. Things will definitely be changing since I'll have to start thinking about "grown up" things like bills, rent, groceries, etc.

With more time on my hands I've found myself wandering around shopping and mallcrawling a lot more. I bought myself a lightweight portable music stand today, as well as a couple of tops from MEXX. MAC has a new collection called 'A Muse' releasing tomorrow and it looks really pretty, but I doubt I'll buy much from it because it consists mostly of the mineralized items like the ones from Rococo (summer 04), and I wasn't fond of them because I couldn't depot them.

story about my day at work yesterday

I had a some strange race related events happen at work yesterday. First I happened to answer a phone call from a lady who had an appointment for next week and wanted to confirm it and make sure she'd have enough time to get out in time for work. It turns out the girl who booked her appointment (and I do know who booked it, I can check the login) only booked 3 out of the 4 tests that she needed. The patient was a little annoyed, but I was able to find her a time for the missing examination. I asked the lady if she remembered who she spoke to and if she recalled what she said to that receptionist. She replied 'It was one of them Chinese girls. I could barely understand what she was saying. What's your name, dear? I should ask for you next time I call because you're not Chinese' LOL! I could only laugh because 1) duh, I'm Chinese, although the lady on the phone didn't believe me; 2) the receptionist who originally booked her appointment isn't Chinese. Not that race has anything to do with it, but she's also Canadian like me so there's no way that she would have had any hint of an asian accent. Oh well, people are silly.

Next situation - at 1:40 a lady called me and said she had an appointment for 2:40 and needed to cancel it. She was booked for 2 tests and I knew that if I rescheduled her she would have to wait until the end of August because we are so fully booked. So I asked her what had happened and why didn't she call us earlier. The patient then asked me what time it was, and what time her appointment was scheduled for and said "OK, I'll try to make it" and hung up on me.

When she arrived at 2:45 (already late) she had forgotten her health card and her requisition form from her doctor. It's not an unusual situation - it happens all the time. If it's a patient with a file with us, we can just call the Ministry of Health hotline and verify that the health card is valid - it's not a big deal at all and I can do it in 30 seconds since I have the codes memorized. For the referral form, we are technically supposed to happen but I know that shit happens and it doesn't seem fair to have to reschedule a patient 3 weeks later especially when they drank 5 cups of water, or if they already waited 4 weeks to get an evening/ Saturday appointment. In these cases I'll tell the patients that I'll do them a favour and we'll do the exam, but until I have the requisition in my hands our radiologist will not even look at their case. This makes the point if their visit pointless if they can't get a report, so they always get it back to me by the next day at the latest. Worst case scenario is we can call their referring doctor and ask them to fax us a copy - but I hate doing that. It is a hassle for the doctor's office and it's a hassle for us because we are waiting for the form before we can go ahead with the exams.

Anyhow, I wasn't at the front desk at the time when the patient arrived, but one of the other receptionists agreed to call her doctor's office and get her form faxed over. So we solved the small kink with this particular lady. At this point another patient who had been sitting in the waiting room came up to the front desk and declared that this was unfair treatment. (Let me add that the lady who was late was of African descent, and the angry lady was caucasian - both were in the 60's) She claimed that if she had forgotten her form we would have sent her home and that because of the other woman's skin colour she was given preferential treatment.

Yikes. That was one can of worms that I wasn't going to get involved with, but it made me think. If someone has racist ideas in their head already, they will look to see things to support their single-minded ideas even if there's nothing to see. We were being accomodating to one lady, and somehow managed to piss of another. I don't know - you just can't win!

Remembering Les Misérables

2006-07-17T17:44:00.000-05:00

I don't quite know why, but for the past few days I've had a ridiculous to listen to musical soundtracks - particularly Les Misérables. I own the Original Broadway Cast recording, and I downloaded the 10th Anniversary Gala and the Complete Symnphonic recordings as well. I was thinking about when I actually saw the show live and it came as a shock to realize that it was in 1991 - 15 years ago! I saw it back when it played at the Royal Alex with Michael Burgess as Jean Valjean.

I know it came back about 5 years ago to the Princess of Wales with Colm Wilkinson in that role but I never got a chance to see it. It's hard for me to believe that I saw that production so long ago. I still remember so many fine details: my mom's friend got us the tickets for free because she worked at the box office. We were late because we were trying to find parking, and when we arrived we had to wait outside of the mezzanine until a gap in the show to be let in. I remember watching the scene with Valjean and the priest on the feed monitor. It was such an experience for me - I was only 7 years old and I don't think I've had the same wonderful reaction to watching any preformance since then. Maybe it was my young age and inexperience, but you never forget your first time ;)

I saw Miss Saigon in September 1994 at the Princess of Wales and for MONTHS I had the songs stuck in my head. I'm surprised how many people don't know that the Princess was built specifically so that Toronto could produce Miss Saigon - in particular the scene where the helicopter flies in and lands onstage. They really should bring that show back. I'd love to see it again. I mean c'mon - Phantom of the Opera is coming back next spring; Saigon is due for another run!

While I've forgotten completely about some opera productions that I've been to see (and other's I'd like to forget -__-" like Atom Egoyan's production of Salome at the COC... what crap...) I still remember all the musicals I've seen. I saw the Buddy Holly Story a total of 3 times, my cousin and I saw Kiss of the Spider Woman at the Elgin, and of course Phantom of the Opera at the former Pantages theatre.

I do regret never seeing Sunset Boulevard, Beauty & the Beast and the Lion King. Kevin has promised to take me to see Wicked this fall since I missed it last year. I want no more regrets about that one!

Swishy pants!

2006-07-16T22:38:00.000-05:00

Tiff and my parents went out deep into the 'Sauga today so I asked to be dropped off at Yorkdale. I went to Lululemon and picked up a couple of tops - they wear and wash well and it'll make my life a bit easier in Germany when doing "sink laundry." I love my 'Deep-V' top so much that I bought a white one :)

I've wanted a pair of swishy black capri pants (gaucho pants), but most of the ones I've tried on have been very unflattering - but I found a nice pair at La Senza! They are 88% modal/ 12% spandex, which I hope will wear as nicely as lyocell fabric.

To kill more time I took the subway down to the Eaton Centre and wandered around there for a while, before walking down to Marché to have a bite of something sweet. Then I went up to meet Kevin at work, but since I was an hour early I just hung around reading magazines and helping him with this and that.

When we got home I tried some of the custard that we had prepped for the Crême Brulée... OMG -__-" it was like eating egg flavoured ice cream.... Note to self, the next time a recipe calls for "heavy cream" don't buy 38% cream (aka whipping cream)... It was SO rich and heavy. TOO rich and heay. Next batch I'll have to mix the cream with 2% milk just to tone it down a bit. Yikes!

Superman didn't happen -__-"

2006-07-13T22:16:00.000-05:00

Kevin and I planned on going to IKEA for $1 breakfast today but we got there 15 minutes late so we had lunch instead - LOL. They we did some shopping for some household stuff and I bought myself a proper red wine glass! We also bought some ramekins so that Kevin can try making crême brulée tomorrow for dessert.

We planned on going downtown to see Superman on IMAX but I wasn't feeling too well so we stayed in and watched R.O.D. before I passed out. I felt a bit better after my nap so we went grocery shopping *gasp* He doesn't have vanilla extract in the house! Only a bottle of the fake crap - so next time I'm at Williams & Sonoma I promised to buy him a bottle of pure Madegascar Vanilla Extract.

We came home and I did a bit of prep work in the kitchen while Kevin made a nacho platter for dinner. Oy, so heavy... my tummy is gurgling at me @__@"

Successful shopping

2006-07-09T22:35:00.000-05:00

I went down to the Eaton Centre today intending to pick up some inexpensive cotton t-shirts at Fairweather or Suzy Shier so that I could "customize" them. I ended up buying 5 at Fairweather (3 plain and 2 with Rock'n'roll prints). I decided to brave the crowds and mess and went into Zara to see if I could find anything to add to my concert wardrobe. In the midst of the strange things I found a lovely cotton floor-length skirt in my size but the zipper was completely wrecked. It would be an easy fix, but some stupid woman had probably tried to yank the zipper up and tore the fabric alongside the zipper... And since everything was final sale I wasn't going to drop money for something damaged... But I wasn't going to give up on my pretty skirt so I decided to wander over to the Zara on Queen St W and check if they had it.

The streetcars just weren't happening today so I walked along Queen Street and came upon the Art Expo at Nathan Phillips Square. In the back of mind I knew this was going on since Francie had a booth there (duh). I did a quick look around and saw a whole lot of paintings and pottery and no Francie so I went on my merry way.

And yay! They had my skirt at the other store! After buying it I popped over to BEDO across the street and found a lovely black corset-style cami for $15.

There was a pretty dress at MEXX that I'm sorely tempted by, but right now I can't justify throwing $100 on a dress when I've got Darryl's wedding coming up, and my trip to think about.

Kevin came home early so we ordered in pizza and had some "us" time. It was nice since we've been doing the phone rant thing for the past week or so.

15 men on a dead man's chest . . .

2006-07-07T22:23:00.000-05:00

I went out tonight with Kevin, Tiff and Nhan to see Pirates of the Caribbean 2 at the Paramount. Since Tiff and I came from work we were famished so we stopped into Sushi Time and got some take-out and ate it in the theatre while we were hogging seats. It was pretty odd eating sushi in a movie theatre o_0" (although I'm glad I had the sushi before the movie since the nasty octopus tentacle scenes put me off fish for a while...

I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. It's hard to make comments on the "middle" movie of a trilogy since the storylines tend to suffer the task of trying to tie everything together and create cohesion between the original and the finale. The fight scenes were awesome and the comp-animation was awesome. There were also moments when I thought to myself "The score is awesome. I wonder who composed it?" - duh it was Hans Zimmer =)

Hopefully I get a chance to see Superman and Devil Wears Prada soon too.

Blue Eyed Girl Eating Purple Yam Pocky

2006-07-05T21:39:00.000-05:00

I don't remember where I picked up this flavour, but I was drawn to it mostly because the box was pretty. I ate some of it tonight and it is really good! This may rival Strawberry Mousse Pocky as my favourite flavour =)

My new contacts came in the mail. I'm still looking for the perfect brand and colour. I've been wearing the grey Expressions colour lenses and I like them but I think I might be allergic to them because after 8 hours my eyes get quite red (and I can normally wear my contacts for 12+ hours with no reaction). I decided to get the blue Freshlook Colorblends since they boast UV protection. I'm not crazy about the blue. They look like a royal blue on me, but at least they aren't as electric as my TruColour lenses. I call those my "Sailor Moon Blue" eyes because they are so fake looking I end up looking like a cartoon!

13 and 13

2006-07-03T22:40:00.000-05:00

After a long day at work, it's nice to come home and relax. I caught up on the new episodes of xxxHolic and Ouran Host Club tonight while eating a yummy mango fruit salad.

It's too bad I had to miss Darryl's bbq, but I think the guys need to hang out on their own. It'd be another awkward night since I don't know most of Kevin and Darryl's high school friends (except Roland), although I vaguely remember meeting some of them last year.

Does anyone know where I can get a pair of over the elbow (opera length) black satin gloves that aren't too expensive? The ones at Claire and Ardene are just elbow length. I'm looking for the ones that practically come up to my armpits and I'm too lazy to make them.

By some random events I have Saturday off from both jobs. I might decide to go in for a shift at the clinic since I need the money, but it means that I could possibly drop in for TT for a little bit... (or pull an Ad Astra - show up just for the masquerade LOL) We'll see.

New iPod acquisitions

2006-07-01T17:54:00.000-05:00

I made good use of today by downloading some new music for my iPod. Most of you know I'm a sucker for 50's malt-shop/ jukebox stuff since I grew up listening to Buddy Holly. I found a great list of musicfiles at http://haremsheiks.com/MALT-SHOP-MEMORIES except that all of the files are Real Media - grrr! So I used that list as a starting point and found torrents for some of the songs I like the most.

I have a good collection of Bobby Darin, Bobby Vinton, and Beach Boys - and threw in some Alanis since I found a torrent for it. If anyone wants I found my cd of The Beatles that has everything they ever released, nicely arranged by albums and singles. If anyone has any Frankie Valli send it my way!

I'm happy because my library requests are all "in transit" so I'll finally get the soundtrack for Sunset Boulevard!

Relaxed and pampered

2006-06-30T19:26:00.000-05:00

My feet and legs have been aching like crazy for the past few days so I made an appointment at TonYc for a paraffin pedicure since I've found a lady who gives wonderful foot and calf massages. It was so relaxing!

I woke up this morning and decided that I was sick of black hair and that my hair's lack of shape was pissing me off. So I added a cut & colour to my pedicure appointment as well. I've never paid so much for a hair cut, but DAMN it was worth it. Remember how awesome Kevin looked after going to Spellbound - well I look better ^__^"

The stylist had to strip the black dye out of my hair first with bleach. Ouch it stings! I thought of Michelle from cycle 4 of ANTM and how much pain she was in when they bleached her hair to ice blonde. I've never felt anything quite like that sensation before @__@" The colour that I chose is a dark brown with mahogany highlight. It's very soft and pretty. I told her what my general limits for my hair were (length, long bangs, thin it out a little bit) and let her do her thing - and I love it! It looks a bit like my Maple Story character, hehe. (And oddly I don't think the cat recognizes me o_0" )

Opinions wanted

2006-06-28T22:44:00.000-05:00

Friends - I refer you to my latest LJ entry and ask you to throw your thoughts at me.

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

My package of Mozart music came in the mail today. Someone pinch me. I still think I'm dreaming. I won't believe it until I'm in Überlingen again.

Of panties and men . . .

2006-06-27T21:49:00.000-05:00

I was covering Charlene's lunch break today in the lingerie side of the store and she was telling me "That lady has a couple of bras; and that man is buying some panties . . . for himself." And I just shrugged. Meh.

I've had conversations before with the other girls before and they all get weirded out when men come in shopping for themselves. I've helped lots of men shop for gifts for wives or girlfriends before, but today was my first experience dealing with someone shopping for himself. And you know what - it was exactly like helping one of our regular ladies. He was very friendly and we chit-chatted for about 10 minutes before he left with a bunch of underwear. He was the nicest customer I had all day =)

So what did I learn about myself today - nothing weirds me out anymore. That's what the cosplay community does to a gal ^__~" In other news - Mary-Frances (my friend's sister and the amazing artisan that made my Amelia necklace is having a showing:

The Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition
July 7, 8 & 9, 2006

Friday: 10am – 8pm
Saturday: 10am – 7pm
Sunday: 10am - 6pm

Rain or Shine - Free Admission

Mary Frances Jung
Come visit my booth at the show this year!
I will be located at Booth # 373 in the Green section.

Her website is: http://www.mfjdesigns.com/

A nice Sunday

2006-06-25T20:14:00.000-05:00

I haven't had a Sunday off in a long time - I've either had rehearsals, concerts, work or something else. Today the whole family went out to Yorkdale and we went our separate ways to shop. Tiff bought a pair of the skater pants from Jacob and some t-shirts to "improve." I bought a couple of tops and a skirt (and only spent $33!).

I hadn't been to Yorkdale since November and was a bit shocked by how junky it's looking right now because of the construction. Cinn - I popped into Zara but it was such a mess that we had to leave @__@" I'm not the kid of shopper that can dig around for bargains. I prefer to see something on a mannequin that I like, and just buy it. Messy stores just turn me off - which is probably why we didn't spend much money today. Most of the stores are in having sale season right now so they are all messy looking -__-"

After shopping we went out to Le Biftheque for dinner. It wasn't awesome, but it wasn't bad either. It's been a while since we've gone out as a family unit - and it will probably be the last in a LONG time.

Happy Birthday Cece

2006-06-24T17:03:00.000-05:00

My plan today was to have Kevin pick me up afterwork so that I could move a shitload of my stuff over to his house in one fell swoop. I was up until 3am packing little things into the gaps in shoeboxes and cleaning stuff up.

He calls me after my shift to tell me there's a change of plans. It's his older sister's birtday today. He forgot.

So there will no moving of stuff today.

Remembering great old PC games

2006-06-23T18:39:00.000-05:00

I remember the first computer we had - it was this IBM thing, everything was DOS based and I thought that having an A:/ drive was the coolest thing since all the computers at school used B:/ drive floppy discs.

There was one RPG game we had called Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (obviously based off the movie) and it was the hardest mofo of a game I've ever played. Mind you I was young back then and the only computer games I'd played were math puzzles. I spent many afternoons with my cousins and my sister playing that game. I think I finally went back to it and beat the thing on my own when I was about 10 or 11. Yup - I'm a geek!

Another favorite classic PC game of mine was King's Quest V. There was a time when I had the entire desert map memorized and could navigate all 4 of the oases safely without killing King Graham. We had all of the 8 of the King's Quest games cuz my sister and I enjoyed them so much. KQ7 was the easiest, most mindless thing I've played to this day; but KQ8 was the death of the franchise. I was never a fan of first-person-shooter, dark 3D games like Doom and Wolfenstein and I didn't get very far in KQ8.

Anyhow - I was bored today and found that Infamous Adventures has released a "re-vamped" version of King's Quest 3. It's been "modernized" to look like the KQ5 (and the officially revamed KQ1) interface. I've downloaded it and so far I'm quite amused. I thinkg I still have my KQ companion guidebook somewhere... I have a crazy urge to play ALL of the games again @__@"

TBSI '06 memories

2006-06-22T18:45:00.000-05:00

I've uploaded all of my TBSI photos into my Flickr account, organized into neat little albums for your view ease. I love the slideshow feature. Please feel free to leave comments :) I've put my Germany pics up there as well since it was so easy. I've finally found a site that doesn't re-size my pictures.

I've also put my TBSI Chamber Ensemble concert videos up HERE so check them out. It got progressively darker since we were in the lobby of the music building, but it's more to listen than to look =P. I love my digicam, but it's not the best for taking videos. A lot of high notes are fuzzy since the mic isn't made for classical recording but you get the gist of things. Enjoy!

I bought an adaptor for my iPod that lets me transfer my camera files onto it and use it as a portable hard drive. It works very well - it doesn't resize my files or change the formats. The downside is that since my iPod isn't a video model I can't preview my videos once they've been transferred. And the transfer process sucks the battery life out of both the ipod and digicam. It's definitely not for quickly freeing up space on your memory card (and I have a 1 gig card), but I think it will do nicely for taking to Germany with me.