Weekend Madness

Sat:
Got the Fit tinted in the morning.
Had breakfast with Jeff, checked out his not-so-new condo and office and ran some errands with him. I was also his last minute stand-in date for a wedding later that evening. The bride is actually a highschool acquaintence, who's finance works at the company my friend works at...small small world. Then went to Jeff's friend's place to say hi...end up not getting home until 2am.

Sun:
Dim Sum avec ma famille uptown. Ran into ex-colleague who's company got bought out last week from a chip processor maker...umm..think you know which company I'm talking about...
Then hung out at my mom's for a while until my father came screaming for Neil to help him move some concrete slabs in the backyard. He found traces of "animal" under the slabs. When it came to lifting the last piece,...I saw a black fur ball with a white strip.
SKUNK!
Neil immediately placed the slab back onto the ground. My father even used a big piece of branch to poke it! Long story short, after we left the house, my father hosed the skunk out of it's hiding place, waking Pepe Le Pew from his sleep.

Finally, 1 detail of the trip is confirmed!

KL to Tawau flight confirmed and booked! Thank you Aileng!

Now we have plenty of time to figure out where we should stay for the 1 nite in KL and which dive resort to go with. Or better yet, there can even be a home-stay package with the local villagers! I would however require once again Aileng's help to find out more details for that type of trip.

Anyway, once Jennifer, my dive buddy confirms her itnerary for Penang=>KL, I will book my HK=>KL flight. Have to solicit help from relatives to do that!

Otherwise, not much else going on with me. Getting the car tinted tomorrow and having breakfast w/ Jeff, visiting parents on Sunday and some rigorous studying.

Trip Planning - Part Deux

Sorry, not a lot of postings this week. Have been juggling studying and trip planning this week...stressful!

I lied, it won't be Phuket, just b/c I was advised the diving is only "okay". If I was going to be in Asia and the diving was just going to be "okay" then I must as well dive in the Caribbeans.

We are now going to Sipadan, Borneo. Still part of Malaysia but a whole lot harder to get to.

I have to:
Fly to Kuala Lumpur, stay the night.
Fly to Tawau the next morning, 7am flight!
Land transfer from Tawau to Semporna (fishing village where the Jetty stations are at)
Boat transfer out to the islands.

Good thing I arrive to tranquil island pace for the next few days. Hopefully, we will get to do an intro dive the first day we get there. Then it will be 3 days of diving, 3 dives each. Day 5 is pretty much spent travelling back to civilization. :(

Then back to HK again for a few days, then to Taipei w/ mom for a few days, back to HK for the wedding and the rest of the time, spend it in Hong Kong.

Man, just tired talking about it! Think I might need an extra week back in Toronto to rest from this vacation!

Saturaday Fun

Massage @ 10:00 with Joe. The man can work my legs!

Lunch at Krispy Roll @ 11:30.

Nike Employee Store @ 13:00 . (bought shoes and a cardio outfit)

Home @ 15:oo to watch the Tour. (okay, Neil watched most of it, I drew a bath for my sore muscles. Floyd Landis won,..another American winning the Tour, the French most be PISSED!)

Lolo @ 19:00 for Summerlicious. Great dinner...I had the liver, it was done well. Hey, it's a French bistro afterall, you gotta do liver!

Had some great conversations, thanks for the lovely evening Mike and Debbie!

Tomorrow will be filled with studying and ribs eating....the big man wants to do All-You-Can-Eat Ribs at Montana's. I won't have to eat the rest of the week after I'm done there!

It's Tour DE France, not Tour DES France!

Chubby ex-cyclist, Mr Bob Roll continues to butcher this competition's name. This guy was in this race when he was a cyclist himself! (not that you can ever tell now, he's a porker) Enough times that he should know to pronounce this properly!

It is not Spanish, you fat American.

Will someone correct this guy already? I guess that's not happening when he's been pronouncing it incorrectly for 17 stages.

How to make low cost geographies work for you.

Low cost should not equal low-skilled. It should mean that you can hire a person with the same or higher qualification at a fraction of the price.

Hiring less qualified workers at a fraction of the price will only cost you more to manage them.

Finally can upload pics!

I've been having issues uploading pics onto Blogger, think their "upgrades" were causing issues last night. Anyway, here they are, FINALLY.
Here's Neil trying to load his bike into the floor of the backseats. But the bike is too long, so we folded the seats down in the back and loaded it that way instead...see below.
I've made an appointment to get the Fit tinted next Sat. Because of the small windows this car has, the labour is going to cost me a little more to get this done. But I'm still happy with the price,...it's suppose to be a good shop, highly recommended by car freaks.

Yesterday, I was advised NOT to go diving in Phuket in November...all because of the Tsunami crisis in Indonesia, claiming the region is not save. That's like saying I should never go to Califronia or Japan. I do not want to live in fear nor would I ever choose to live in fear. I will be going to Phuket, unless a Tsunami hits Thailand now causing devastating damages! If that happens, then it's never meant to be.

Unbearable Heat

Highest temp hit 34C, felt like 40 with the humidex.

Played about 2 and 1/2 hours of ball today and couldn't with stand the heat. Hid under my umbrella for the rest of the afternoon.

My new PutPut

Sorry, haven't taken pics of the new car yet.

We picked it up yesterday and I finally got to drive it this morning. Was a little rusty with the clutch in the beginning but soon got a handle of things. If you are wondering, no, I did not stall the car.

It will be sweltering heat for the next few days. It will be roasty at the beach tomorrow! But I am ready, I bought sandsocks today! :p

And a replacement ball for Wyatt. But, uhh...it'll have my name on it....hahahaa.

Will post some car pics soon.

Sleepless nights

Once in a while, I get these nights....I'm tired, physically and mentally, yet I can't get to sleep.

Maybe it's the excitement of finally getting the new car.
Maybe it's the excitement of knowing I'll be diving in Phuket with my long lost dive buddy in November.
Maybe I'm just over-tired.

I sub'd in for my friend's work beach vball team this evening...now THAT is a team! Had a great time and got quite a bit of opps to touch the ball. I felt like part of the team for once!

Pops and Pancakes, good luck with the rest of the season!

*woot woot* car has arrived!

It's getting ready at the dealers and will be ready for pickup tomorrow! I won't be picking it up until Friday though b/c I need Neil to come with so we can drive both cars home.

Things to do:
Cancel current insurance
Activate new insurance
Get certified cheques
Buy floor mats

Trip planning is a bitch!

Aiyah...what a painful task.

I'm trying to do research and some costing for my Nov. trip to Asia.

Dates that can't move: Nove 19th (Mayze's wedding) week of Nov 13th (going to TW with mom)

I would like to spend 4/5 days in Thailand for a diving trip, REALLY want to do a live aboard...but flight prices are looking ridculous at the moment. It's looking at two grand just to fly, then add the live aboard package (approx. $600), TW package (approx. $300/400), food (???), shopping (???)...

Have to be stingy until Nov...*sigh*

Mundane Mondays

Things are kinda slow today...recap for the weekend.

Slept. Like a lot of it.

Watched Pirates 2. It was a fun movie, I like the first one better.

Played some beach vball Sunday.

That's about it, but geez do I feel tired...very tried for some reason.

Oh and watched World Cup...such shame that games are determined by PKs now. Suks,..what happened to the Sudden Death days? Is it because the term is not PC?

Dr. Slump

A friend triggered my childhood memory of this hilarious cartoon series. It was never imported to Canada...since it was a little perverted, and had the characters poking at pooh for fun. (It was sometimes a piece of talking Pooh too.) hahhaaa....I watched it under the age of 10, and I came out alright. (well, depends on who you ask)

Needed: Remedies for bites and Poison Ivy

Since we've been back from our camping trip, we've been scratching out skins raw. Me from the squito bites and Neil from the poison ivy.

I've looked up remedies to ease the itch and pain. Many of which we've tried already but the relieve just doen't last long enough!

I wish I can sit in a pool of calamine lotion and work at the same time...I wonder how many bottles of lotion I have to buy to fill my bathtub....

Squeeters and me. Part 2

The water was quite cold at the Falls, so we only went in to cool off and take a quick rinse.
Snack: Hard boiled eggs, tea and S'mores.

We chilled for a litte while and left the Falls at approx. 12:30pm. We hiked back to another old spot and started a fire for lunch. We've made an awesome firepit and stove setup, check it out.

There were many blueberry bushes along the trails. Neil picked a bunch for lunch. :)Lunch: Chicken weiners, S'mores, blueberries and tea.

After a while of burning stuff and eating, we packed up once again and headed back to the car. On the way out of the forest, we encountered big groups of non-wilderness lovers. Folks that come out with their loud music, booze and stupidity. Why waste your gas to go out there to do that when you can do that at home? I don't get it...them and the trash they leave behind!

Here Squeeters Squeeters! Part 1

The boy and I went camping for 1 nite in the High Falls area, 40mins north of Peterborough. It's crown land, so no park fees required, first come, first served. It's not a problem for us since the location we want to camp is quite obsure. It's a clearing that we found last year and Neil doesn't think that anyone else has been there since. Why? Because you have to bush-whack for about 30 mins before you can get there. It was Sept last year when we went so it had significantly less vegetation (and bugs).

Day 1
This time of the year, it is mosquito city. Squitos, Squeeters, Mossies, whatever you want to call them...they LOVE me.

Current bite count: 22. (There may be more as the itching sometimes doesn't start a full day later.)

We set up camp, built a fire and started out our "Meat on a stick" food fest. Souvlakis and sausage weiners. It is Atkins diet when we go camping. We finished our meal with some S'mores and tea.

As forecasted by the weather man, we got rained on that nite. It started about 8ish, so we tidied up and went to bed early.

Day 2
We woke up at approx. 5:30am.
Between the tent and the vestibule were lots and lots of mossies! They must've used the vestibule as a hide-out through the rain. But let's get back to the story...what is really important is that it is REVENGE TIME! I must've killed a dozen of them! Muahahahaaaaa....(I smashed them between the tent's mesh lining and the vestibule.)

Neil saved some firewood from the nite before under a tarp so we can have dry wood for the morning campfire. When he was fixing up the firepit, there were slugs all over it...all the wonderous things that come out after the rain!

Breakfast: Hard broiled eggs, oatmeal, tea and S'mores.

At about 8:30am, we left our campsite and hiked back to the car to lighten our load before hiking into the Falls.
Here are some pics of us hiking through the trail. In this picture, Neil is actually STANDING on a beaver dam.

After an hour of hiking, we are at the Falls!



cont'd in next post....