XMAS

Stomach flu
...starting Tue nite. Threw up all my supper I think... then diarhhea every 2 hrs or so. I think it's because I used the knife that was used several hrs before or there's something wrong with the chicken cold cut.
The next day, have trouble walking and going downstairs. Almost didn't have enuf energy to walk towards the doctor's office when my mom dropped me off.
Doctor said it's stomach flu, told me to stay home 2-3 days.
So Tue, I slept for most of the day. Got so hungry during lunch cuz I only had a small box of apple juice for breakfast (which my doc said I shouldn't have since it's bad for diarrhea she said altho I donno y). Thought I was gonna die cuz I thought no one was home and I didn't have enuf energy to bring the stuffs out from the fridge to microwave. Luckily my sis was at home preparing for her interview.
Wed, no more diarrhea but that's because I didn't eat much on Tue. The whole day I only had apple juice, 1 sausage, 1/2 small bowl of congee. So lightheaded when I woke up, so decided to stay home.
Ate a lil more on Thurs, had a piece of pecan butter cookie in the morning. For lunch, had sausage, a bowl of congee, a lil dim sum leftovers. For supper, had only a slice of orange juice and grapefruit. Then I found out that I still had diarrhea.
Fri, felt that I could've gone to work but still very tired and had to help John open doors. Almost couldn't do it, but I'm gaining a lil more energy as time goes by.
Tim came to help us move, such a nice guy. We had lunch at Happy Days afterwards. It was ok. I had beef congee. I wanted to have fried egg and ham sandwich but I was afraid that I would have trouble with digesting the fat.
For supper, had xmas dinner at home with family and John. We had yummy spaghetti and turkey. I made the apple/mandarin orange/lettuce salad. We all had a great time.

Xmas dinner
Went to John's parents place for Xmas dinner. It was SO NICE. Turkey again but with very nice homemade cranberry sauce. Nice salad, pickles, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes with gravy. I had a lil too much for my recently "shrinked" guts. It was so nice tho I couldn't resist the dessert. Pie with rasin and figs inside, topped with homemade rum/butter/icing sugar cream sauce. Yum yum yum. Her mom told me that it's about 1/2 cup of butter, 1/2 cup of sugar, and 2 Tbsp of rum. Mixed them and let them sit over nite. I wanted to make my own someday but I'm kinda afraid that I'd end up eating lots of butter.

Boxing day
Went to church, had lunch at home, then went shopping for only 3 hrs. Didn't buy too much, line up in many stores. Then saw "A Series of Unfortunate event". It's ok. I like Violet's dress and their auntie reminds me of my dad. Then had turkey pasta for supper and cookie and Guylian chocolate, and Mr. Big (just a lil). We saw "Ted, the Bunny" DVD. It's ok, funny at times. I don't like puppets tho, no offense.

Short trip
Very sunny on Mon. Did my running then went to Bellis Fair with John. He did the driving and we didn't get insurance. It's smaller than I expected, and not a lot of boutique. A lot more department store tho. There was no boxing day sale. So weird, we have a whole week of boxing day sale here. But, I did get sth from Victoria's Secret. John didn't had to return the whiskey from duty free since we didn't stay there for more than 48 hrs. It's so confusing.... I'd thought duty free is duty free no matter what. Oh well... Then went to Rogers and rented "Elf" and "Napolean Dynamite". "Elf" is very good and very funny. The other one is lame lame lame. John and I finished almost all the leftovers in the fridge.

Last day of holiday
Did my running then went shopping. Didn't buy too much again. I saw very very nice dress shirt in MEXX but again no size. It was such a good deal tho, only 19.99 for a shirt, normally it's like at least 60bux. Wanted to buy new running shoes, and again no size... and the sales stinks there wanted to get out as fast as possible. Then went to Aberdeen Center, there were sales there too but nothing caught my eyes. Got yummy veggie pork wonton in the food court. It's SO delicious! Then later went to Daiso and got junk food... i'm so bad. Then saw "2046" with my sis at home in front of the PC (what a pain) and it's so boring. I couldn't finish watching it and felt sick afterwards cuz we finished all the junk food. Looks like I'm back to my old self....eating machine.

Rather fun weekend

Fri nite
Met Jekyl and Hyde in person. Thought I was gonna die on Steveston Highway.
John's car broke down, called BCAA. It was fine after some cooling down.
Went to my friend's church w/o incident. Had a good time there.
They taught us several dance... mostly cha cha. It was fun. I got a lil stuffed animal, a dog. For gift exchange, I got a whole box of truffles. They r very good.
I only had oatmeal (@ 5) before going there, but they had snacks there. I had some honey roasted peanuts and cachews, yum yum yum. In the next day, I found out that I lost a pound. Must be just because I had less stuffs in my stomach.. heheee.

Sat
Woke up late, around 8:40am. Went to church.
Watched skating. Sasha did so bad, only had 2 clean triple jumps. Michelle faltered on her double axel and doubled a planned triple jump. Irina was great, she won.
Ran on the treadmill, forgot how long, probably just 35mins or so.
Had family xmas dinner with my uncle, aunt, cousins and their gfs. It was fun.
We had the set dinner A in Gingeri.
- turkey salad (very thin pieces of turkey w/ skin, and lots of miracle whip)
- veggie with slices of abalone
- lobster and crab
- fresh steamed fish
- kung po beef with celery (my fav)
- fried rice
- noodles with mushroom (kinda blend)
- mango pudding (my fav too, had never had pudding that tasty)
- chinese donuts and almond cookies

Then we went xmas lights hunting. We went to Richmond Nature Park, and ppl houses. They were more beautiful than VanDussen. Oh and we dropped by my friend's place to use the washroom... hehee.

Sun
Did 15 laps running and 2 laps walking. It took about 45mins.
Skipped skating, hanged out with John instead. Went to New Westmin to get John's wallet.

Last lesson

We did
- forward cross roll (1, 2, 3, 4) then hold the left outside edge (5, 6, 7, 8) and repeat the cross roll with holding the right outside edge in the end... and alternate
- backward cross roll (1, 2, 3, 4) then hold the outside edge(5, 6, 7, 8) and repeat
(have trouble with the back outside edge, cannot seem to get into the left outside edge)

Later, Kevin looked at my corkscrew spin and pointed out that I should rise up earlier. Right after he said that and right after I saw his, I could do it. But, again... that's just temporary memory. At least now I have some idea where to fix it.

Then we practiced a lil group number thing.
- 6 of us stand in a line (hands on each others' shoulders) with 3 facing one way and 3 the other way. Then we did lil steps and rotate as a line. It's pretty cool.
- 3 of us in a line (hands on each others' shoulders) skate towards the other 3. Then we dropped our arms and we pass the opposite line thru the spacing in between.
- then we practiced lunges (do lunge while gliding, with most of the weight on one bended leg and extend the free leg behind). I think Kevin wanted to add the lunge while we pass thru the opposite line.

Good workout

This morning woke up early to program the universal remote for the TV. It found the code, can turn power on/off, volume +/-, but that's about it. Can't use the PIP or the menu button. Going to exchange for another one later today.

Was able to put in a 30mins workout afterwards. Could've done more, but in a hurry again....

Went to Kensington during lunch, had a great workout eventho the ice was terrible. They didn't clean the ice after the kiddie section. For some reason, I feel that I have more control. Maybe it's because of all the added-on frictions from the dryness of it. The girl that I saw in 8-rink before (several mths before) came to this one today. She can do good backward crossovers and working on single axle and double salchow. She skated gracefullly. She left early. Another lady (that I see everytime when I go there) said my skating is prettier than the girl's.... i was like.. huh? excuse me? did i hear correctly?... She said that girl had an attitude and it's shown in her skating. I totally disagreed. I think that girl was just concentrating on her stuffs and she's doing everything very well.. not like me ... keeps scratching the ice. I guess sometimes ppl feel intimidated by good skaters. I guess I do too... after that girl left I was more at ease and practiced lots of backward crossovers and single jumps. I'm prerotating on my waltz jump now. I think it's from practicing single axel off the ice. Off the ice, I create my momentum from swinging. So now, my hips r too open when I step onto my forward left outside edge and thus the swinging. Also, I think how I glide backwards affect it too. I should have more inclination while gliding backwards before I step onto my forward outside edge.

Shopping week

The day before yesterday, went to Richmond Center. Bought a nice dress in Gitti, but it's a lil tight actually when I sit down.... it'd be my motivation to loose weight :P. I actually like another dress more but they don't have my size... it's either XS (I can barely fit it) or XL (it dropped on the floor). They said Metrotown might have it since they're opening a new store there.

Went to Lansdown shopping yesterday. Not much to see there. Bought a universal remote since my TV remote is breaking down for many yrs now. Also bought Gwen Stefani's CD in Music World, couldn't find it in Future Shop. In Future Shop, I saw RF modulator for 29.99 and adapter (can be used as power source i suppose) for ..oops forgot... around 27 i think.

Went home and discovered mom bought lots of chinese pastry again. So after yummy pork chop stewed with onion, I had 1 big slice of Napolean cake, almost 1 pastry with super sweet lotus paste and salty egg yolk inside (so much like a moon cake) - the yolk, 1/2 a paper wrapped coffee cake, 1/2 slice of a piece of bread made with egg. So this morning, forced myself and did 15 laps of running. Still feel bloated now.

So busy

Fri nite
Shopping
Went to Richmond Center and shopped around for new dress for the wedding the next day. Went to almost all the stores, couldn't find one decent dress that fits me. Most of them are too long or too mature looking for me. At last I found it at a formal dress store next to The Bay. Very good service there but very pricey. 115 or so for a sparkly sweater (that goes with pants)??!!!! I bought a dress, a jacket, and a Chanel waistband. Didn't buy the sweater... cuz I saw another sparkly sweater at another store for just 60 bux or so. They like to do mix and match for you at that store. Maybe they want me to buy the whole set. They showed me 3 sets (2 sets for parties and 1 set for office wear), but I only bought half a set. And, there is no refund or exchange at that store. I like the dress and jacket very much, I think it's worth it. I can reuse it for dancing or some other parties :). I think I'll go to that store again when I'm more prepared for it.... like have a budget of 500 bux or more.

John's place
After the shopping, I went straight to see John. We snuggled and wrestled in front of the TV. It was a LOT of fun! In the end, John let me watch what I wanted to watch :). heeheee...I had a piece of bread at his place, with just jam. 2 hrs earlier I had eggnog decaf latte at Starbucks and a gingerbread macadamia nuts biscotti. Light supper for me.

Sat
Dentist
Woke up early, did a 30mins run. Then I went to my dentist for regular checkup. The appointment was at 8:30 but I arrived at 9:10. Still... I have to wait around. It's so annoying. He actually had to leave in the middle and left me waiting for another 15-20mins before finishing up with me.
Since Chapters is just next door, I went there for an eggnog latte and biscotti. I think I'm addicted to it now. It's SO GOOD!

Wedding
In the afternoon, went to my friend's wedding at an anglican church (I never knew that he was a christian...). It's beautiful (nice architecture and nicely decorated) and big. Not a lot of ppl went. The bride was very beautiful. There were beautiful photos albums of the bride and groom at the entrance of the church.

Vandussen Garden
In the evening, John drove us to Vandussen Garden. There were tons of lights, not much design tho (except a lil bit of it besides the restaurant) besides the color coordination. It's like they just cover the trees with lots of lights and that's it. I had never seen that much light at one place. There were so much that when I was looking at the lights my vision was blurred. There were dancing lights too. They changed color and switched on and off with the music. It's beautiful. There was santa too, but I didn't go see him. We had expensive chestnuts, they were very sweet and wonderful. John loved the chestnuts. I was a lil too full to have too many of them, I had a lot of chinese pastry (one whole curry beef bun, slice of napolean cake, half a sweet winter melon pastry...) before going. I also had apple cider. It was very sweet and good and hot. John had hot chocolate. It tasted like plastic cup.

John's place
Interesting thing was after we came back from the garden, I was a lil hungry. Ended up having some more chestnuts and pasta that John made for me earlier before.
We tried to set up the DVD player, but an AC/DC power cable was missing from the RF modulator. So we just watched TV instead.

Sun
Went to church, then went to Aberdeen Center to get card and $$.
Then went running with John. We did about 20 mins running outside. Afterwards, he lifted weight in the gym and I played with the Elliptical/Ellipse and the trampoline.
I found out that I can lift 165 pounds. Cool!
Afterwards, we watched a lil TV and then I went to the banquet.

Banquet
The banquet was very nice. I was very stupid, forgot to bring my card :(.
We had very expensive nice food.
- roasted pork with very crispy skin
- cold cut: beef shank, veggie duck, jelly fish strings
- steamed geoduck
- fresh fish
- 2 lobsters per table
- 1 big bowl (about 2 cups) of shark fin (2 whole strings about half an inch thick and 3 inches long) soup with chicken and salted pork per person
- fried rice with spring onion
- very peppery shrimp wonton (2 per person) in soup
- squabs
- chocolate wedding cake with purpleish taro filling and white cream on top
- very very tasty yellow biscuit with sweet pecan on top
- white sesame ball with sweet lotus paste inside
- red dates with longan sweet soup
Games that we played:
- Each table brings out an object and the groom has to use it to describe the bride.
There were chopstick(as slim as the bride's arm), kettle(as white as the bride...and in chinese being white is a good thing), diaper (as shiny/watery as the bride's eyes, the mickey mouse on it is as cute as the bride)...
- Groom was blindfolded and had to touch the fist of all the girls (a girl from each table) and the bride and then decide which fist belongs to the bride. He almost got it wrong.
- Each table wrote a few congradulation words on a piece of paper and a person from the table would read it outloud. The kid on our table drew the word "Kissing", and a baby with mickey mouse diaper and something else...
- The bride threw the bouquet of flowers and all the single girls (if they didn't come out their names would be called) in the banquet tried to catch it. And, I caught it! Yay! It's real white/pink roses. Very beautiful.
- The groom threw the leg band (?) and all the single guys tried to catch it. No one caught it.

Today
Ran only 11 laps. My thighs were very tired and my stomach wasn't feeling very well.
I had a pastry with pork inside, a piece of coffee bread, and a cup of milk before running.
Now I'm sick with indigestion.

Stupid staff at the admission booth

told me to put the Disclaimer (this rink is not responsible for ..blah blah blah...) band on the sole of the skate. Another person said it might fall off and asked if it's ok to put it around the wrist. That staff said no it won't fall off and specifically told us not to put it around our wrist cuz otherwise they wouldn't be able to see who'd paid!!! Asking for disaster they r.

So I did exactly what was told and guess what. It fell off the sole and was hanging onto the blade. So when I was doing a forward crossover and was on my left skate only (where the band was on), I slipped and fell onto the side of my left leg. It HURT!!! It was so weird I thought there was a deep gash on the ice. But then I kept on skating (for a few steps) and fell again!! Then I checked my skate and noticed that I'd been stepping on that paper the whole time.

I hate that staff. She knows NOTHING!!!! She is the same one who overcharged me a while back. Before, I was told by the other staff (the regular one) to put that band on my wrist. Stupid stupid person!

Thurs lesson

The only new thing was doing the scratch spin from crossover.
He wanted me to have the right arm movements when doing the spin. That is, as ur hands are meeting from opposite sides (like holding a ball) put left hand in front of right hand and left thumb on top of right thumb.
The problem is I can't really do the spin and all these efforts of getting the right arm positions were kind of useless. I can't even control my edge on the ice and gonna fall any second, how could I have the right arm movement.
However, once I cheated, spinning using mostly the toepick and digging into the ice, that time I did have the right arm movement all the way. Close in and up. But it's absolutely wrong to do the spin this way.... the coach didn't say anything about that tho.

For my clockwise backward crossover, it's finally getting a lil better. I'm more on top of my blade now, however, once I do the cross I'm still scratching the ice too much. Oh well.. better than nothing.

I did not do any workout or skating before the lesson, so I had feet cramp (esp my right foot). Coach said that might be because I don't have enuf potassium in my diet. He said when he sees atheletes like that he'd advice them to take a banana a day and it'd go away. So I wanted to take one banana to work, and there is none at home. Like always, when u don't need something they tend to show up in abundance but not when u need them. Better buy some banana after work.

We have 2 new students today sorta. They will be starting officially Jan. One of them live in Vancouver, and another live in Tawassen!! They are both beginners. They said we're very advance but...mmm... I've seen even more advance... like adults doing single axel and nice camel spin and even double axel and tiple salchow.

We didn't get any time to practice our "group program". Kevin said from now on, we do our own warm up exercise before the lesson really starts. I think we should have done that long time ago.

Tired...

After work, went to John's place. Wrapped my sis's gift. I don't think I did a good job of it but John said it looked great. Should have wrapped my parent's gift too, just too lazy to take it out of the car. Had a piece of whole wheat bread with no sugar added blueberry jam and a lil peanut butter (since there is only a lil left in the jar). We then headed down to the gym, there was no one there. I did a lil biking. It's too big for me, even after I botched down the seat to its minimal height. So, I stopped after a few mins. Then I just practiced some of the skating jumps imagining that I's on skate. It's quite different since I don't have heels on my runners. Also tried to do the ballet thing that I saw other skaters do at 8-rink, just jump up and spin several rotations in the air (I think it was like 3). Of course, I can't do it, but still it's good exercise. We spent about 25 or 30mins in the gym. It was a good workout for me, just jumping around. Oh.. and I tried to do a split. Not to my surprise, cant' do it. I was like a feet off the floor. Getting old....
Afterwards, John did some reading and watched a lil Jeopardy at the same time. I changed the shoelace on my skate. It fits perfectly :).
We then watched "Lost" together. So many flashbacks in that series now, kinda annoying.

After I got home, although I's not hungry I had a few pieces of beef with bok choy, 1 Quakers blueberry oat yogurt granular bar (sis and mom bought it), 1 chocolate caramel rice krispy square (sis and mom bought it), almost half a roastbeef with cheese and lettuce sandwich (sis and mom bought it). After all that junk, I was just full not stuffed at all.

This morning I was so tired. Woke up at 6 then was informed by my sister that she needs the bathroom at 7. I was planning to workout and use the bathroom at 7... so then I stayed in bed (oh well not before I went down to feed my fishy before I forgot again) for a lil while then a lil while turned out to be a lot longer. I ended up waking up at 8am!!!! This is record time for me. I also had a big breakfast when I went down to feed my fish. Don't worry, I did not eat the fish. I had 2.5 cups of skim milk and 2 blueberry yogurt granular bars. Also had 1/2 a vanilla cream filled butter cookie. It's not as good as the Quaker's bar so I stopped after only a bite and went back to the granular bar. Hahaha I'm really an eating machine. I weight myself after all that food.... and guess what I lost 1 pound (compared to last week where I gained 1 pound). I guess I did a lot of exercise yesterday, first running, then skating, then jumping around in the gym.

Interesting thing is after all that sleep I'm still tired. I think I need a day where I can sleep till noon. My arms and legs were also a lil sore.

Have to clean up my shaw email account. I have emails from a yr or 2 ago. It's warning me that it's 91% full. While I was checking out which one to delete, I found a 2004 horoscope. It's pretty accurate. Mainly it says...
- All the good stars are heading your way! Good profits will turn in this year. However do not use this money lvaishly nor to plough them into dubious projects. Improve on the security aspects of your business.
- It's a good year to get married. Your charm and beauty will attract many suitors but you have to choose one. Your partner horoscopes include rooster, ox and monkey.
- You also have good side-luck this year and strike lottery but please get a ticket first.
I'm still waiting the 3rd point to materialize...

:O

This is my 7th day w/o coffee. I seem to be succeeding in getting rid of it from my diet ^^. Even if I do get coffee, I'll only get the decaf one. However, I still have too much liking towards those yummy chocolate wafer sticks. I purposely brought lunch today so that I won't get hungry too soon but still ended up eating 6 of them. I tend to be getting more sleepy during the day too donno if it's because I'm getting back to my morning workout or because I really do need coffee....ZZZZzzzzz...

BTW, you should try Starbucks Eggnog Latte (and of course I got the decaf one). It is SO GOOD!!!!!!

Nice...

Went to 8-rink instead of the Loonie skate in the Burnaby Lake Arena. So nice this time, altho it's the same rink with lots of trees. They must have recently cleaned it up with the zamboni. I have the whole ice most of the time :). Yay. And, it's free this time for me, u get 1 free skate for every 5 skates.
Took a bathroom break in between and when I head back in I saw the guy that I saw in the Kensington and Burnaby Lake Arenas. He was just standing at the entrance for a whole 5 mins or more and then left.
I went to the skate shop there and bought shoelace for my left skate.... it's a lil longer than the original one and a lil skinnier too. I'd prefer a thicker shoelace. It's about 4 bux. I'm sure it was overcharged as well.
My left ankle hurts most of the time :( esp when I try to do backward crossover. I hope to return to 8-rink to practice on Friday. But then... it might be extermely crowded.

Shopping

Went out last nite and bought some xmas presents for John and parents. Turns out that I should have bought the coffee maker + grinder set.

Woke up early and was able to complete my usual 30min run (altho my left foot and my left hip joint ligament is still hurting). Like always, I felt that I could have run more. Like always, I was in a rush. Also managed to cleaned the changed the water for my fish, and threw out all the water plants by accident. I just realized that I haven't named him yet. Maybe I should name him John... nah.

Having microwaved wheat bread now.... yum yum. It's a lil like toast w/o the carbon.

John made a cool comment

comment

Ouch...

I think I'm hurt from skating. My left shin hurts, just above the ankle, from doing the Salchow with Mohawk entry. The bottom of my left foot hurts from crinching while practicing backward crossover in the clockwise direction. :( I'm gonna ask my coach to see if it's ok to change it with an outside 3-turn entry. And, my right hip inside joint hurts (if there is such a thing). It hurts when I sit on the toilet (when the seat pushes against my thigh and lifted the bone and moved the joint a lil...is that too much info?) and when I sit hard on my chair. It was like that when I practiced Bracket a lot, but I didn't do that this time.

Time just flies by

Is it just me or is time passing us faster and faster? I remember that when I was a kid, I just wished that it would go faster. After school and homework I remembered that it would still be bright outside. Now, it's like... oh it's monday.... and then...it's monday again!!! See the difference there? Before I was counting time by the hour... now I'm counting it by week.

Hmm... maybe I need a break. But, break is expensive and I'm cheap.

Bad skating

Very very bad skating lately. Altho I successfully get rid of the bad habit (rotate before I'm in the air for the waltz jump) that I gained from the axel preparation exercises. After watching another skater did a few good backward crossover for the clockwise direction, mine got a lil better immediately. I think I should spend more time practicing those.... but they r SO tedious and they hurt my feet. Still haven't gotten my backspin back. *sigh*. But, it's very hard to fix something that is automatic. For many of the spins, I was not crossing my feet enuf :(..i.e. having trouble centering the spin. I think the problem is that the time I spent on the inside edge entry into the spin is not long enuf. And, I have to keep reminding myself that I should let the right side of the body catches up and not force the left in front of the right. That is, should let it occur naturally. This is a trick that I googled from the internet. I sometimes wonder the usefulness of my coach.

Very bad habit lately (besides skipping my morning run)... there is no food at home... and I'm too lazy and cheap to buy some myself... so ended up eating chocolate waffle sticks for lunch and for the whole afternoon... I think I ate like 30 today. It's a wonder that I'm not sick or stuffed. It's our big boss's 20th aniversary at the company today. So, there was a lil celebration. I got a cinnamon powdered donut. After just eating that, I felt sick. But then, after skating, I felt ok and was able to eat some more waffle sticks. Like John said, I'm an eating machine. Definitely should do some running after work before going out for shopping. But then... lets just hope that I didn't not get tied down to the couch by the TV.

Fun weekend

Fri nite
Friend's bday party. We went to Ginger & Garlic. Very good, esp the "Malaysian Charbroiled Pork Toro". Later we all went to the bday girl's place and had bday cake, Napolean cake, the best bday cake I have ever had. I was very sleep when I was driving to her place and then went into auto pilot mode and almost drove home instead....
The kids also came, they were very busy as usual. Matthew grew a lot, looked so much more mature now, so is Ashley. Lucas was a baby and now a kid.

Sat
Woke up early, did work out, went shopping with John. Had decaf gingerbread latte from Second Cup. Bought sis's xmas present and Amanda's present... still have to buy my parent's, John's present, and friends' presents (..still owing a Nov bday person's present). Maybe I'd do it sometime during the weekday. Hope the malls open late. They should be rite? It's xmas time.
Later went to Amanda's house warming party. Mmm...it's interesting. Never went to a party like that before. Lots of ppl we don't know, we shy ppl ended up just talking to each other. Lame. Good food tho. Love the chocolate covered biscuits, had 3 different layers inside.... tasted like mocha, milk chocolate, and coffee crisp. Yum Yum. I had 3 at least. The Macadamia nuts chocolate chip cookies were also very nice, I love the nuts but not the chocolate, too bitter. John had a cup (instead of a shot glass) of tequila. He was all red, but wasn't drunk. Gotta see who Patrick is.
The dancing pole in the middle of the room was nicely decorated w/ xmas lights. I'd love to try that someday, looks interesting.

Sun
Woke up early, finished watching taped Ice War, went to church. Napped an hr or so then work out. Then went skating with John. It's so very crowded. I was told not to do spin or jump in the middle :(. John didn't want to try crossover at all. After skating, we went to Nando's chicken and used up the coupon from the Entertainment coupon booklet that I bought from my friend. It's very very good. I would like to try it again sometime later.
John is winning the football pool so far. Too bad there isn't a prize for the winner.

Waste of time....

Coach seems to have completely forgotten that he sorta taught me those axel preparations.... just told me to do the basic waltz jump 3 in a row instead.

For the "show", Kevin wanted me and Aaron to do the waltz/falling leaf/mohawk/salchow/toe loop at the same time towards opposite side of the rink (since Aaron is a lefty). Problem is I'm scared of falling leaf altho it's only a half-turn jump, and the salchow I donno how to do it with a mohawk entry. However, by the end of the class, I was able to do the falling leaf but not the salchow. My salchow tends to be too forward even before I start to jump, i.e. my toe pick is scratching on the ice. Since it's already scratching the ice, it slows me down and I had almost no speed for the toe loop jump that follows it. Kevin said at the beginning it's like that, nothing to worry about... yeah rite.

As a group, we tried just walking down the ice in one straight across the ice. Then we tried going left and right together and then it's all messed up, no line at all in the end.

Kevin also paired me up with Aaron to do the sorta ice dancing step. It's very basic just go left, right, left, right, then crossover... Already forgot how many long I'm supposed to do the crossover. I think it's harder for Aaron since I'm much shorter...

My waltz jump sucked today after all those waltz-backspin exercises. I now automatically force myself to rotate even before I leave the ground. My waltz looks so woody now :(.

Andrew, the 50yr or so man, decided to quit today. So we're one person short now.

:(

Tried and tried the waltz-backspin with no avil. Although now I have the free leg in front of me, but when I'm landing my landing edge is always sorta not in line with the direction that i'm travelling and making a big gash on the ice. Most of the time almost impossible to start a backspin. And the loop-loop-loop-loop-loop jump always turn into a loop-loop-loop or just a loop-loop. And, can never do waltz-loop.

I've lost my backspin. Last week, I had just learned how to make it really fast. But after several hrs of practicing on ice that is softer than the usual (with intention of getting more practice for my waltz-backspin), I had destroyed it.

Arghhh....

Found some tips on Axel

"Entry and takeoff-- as you set up for the jump, look over your left shoulder, and pick a spot on the wall/bleachers/whatever to jump towards. Step onto the left forward outside edge and keep your chest up. Jump, bringing your arms and right leg through, towards that spot that you picked.

Make sure you are not swinging your right leg around in an arc, as that will make it more difficult for the rest of your body to "catch up" to it in order to convert into the rotating position. In other words, don't think about rotating before you're in the air--it's actually counter-productive, because you will be off your axis of rotation.

Make sure that you are not letting your left shoulder drop on the takeoff, as that will pull you inside the circle (and away from your axis of rotation).

Do not let your free leg turn out on the takeoff. (This may have been a problem that is particular to me, as I have very naturally open hips and I was turning my right foot out as I kicked through. I had to think about pigeon-toeing in order to straighten that out)

If you are skidding a lot on the takeoff, or if you are having trouble with pre-rotation, and you don't think it's your shoulder or your free leg, then think about pressing your left big toe into the ice as you jump into the air. I didn't think I was pre-rotating the jump at the time, but now I know that I definitely was, and that I was jumping inside the circle (because I was more worried about the rotation).

The "axis of rotation": You must think about rotating over the RIGHT side of your body. That's the "backspin" that everyone talks about...for some reason, saying "backspin" never clicked with me (and yes, I could do waltz-backspin, waltz-loop, etc). When you bring your arms in, bring them in over your RIGHT side. This was tremendously helpful--for the longest time, I was bringing my arms in over my left side (because that's the direction of rotation), and I could not get into that nice "backspin" position in the air. Only when I started thinking about getting my whole body over my right leg did I begin to feel that "backspin." (Actually, this probably helped me out more than any other piece of advice)

When you're in the air, push down with your right leg and point your toe so that you're ready to land on it (this is crazy, but for about two weeks, I was getting everything right about the axel, in position, etc, but I wasn't thinking about actually landing it on one foot, and so I never did).

Otherwise, there's practice, perseverance, and prayer...and padding."

Cold

Fri nite...
Went to Dem Bones with John and his friend, Amanda. She looked nice.
John and Amanda ordered the baby back ribs. I ordered the chicken salad and bean.
The ribs were wonderful, much jucier than last time. The salad was good too, just a bit too much. Bean was as fantastic as before. I regretted that I didn't order the ribs.
A few waitresses there were very pretty, including the one who's serving us.
John got a nice card and "The Office" DVD. He was very happy. We watched some of it right after the dinner. John said he couldn't sleep well and watched all the special features himself.

Sat...
Did almost 4 hrs of skating. Tried to learn the waltz-spin thing. Exhausted in the end. Felt like I could fall asleep any minute. I felt better after a lil while. Starting to get sick of all the preparation exercises, maybe I should just forget about them and just try out the single axle.
Went to John's place and watched "The chronicles of Riddick". It's good. I recognized the girl in there. She was in Angel before, the girl who could give out electric shock. After Riddick, we watched "The Office". David Brent's so pathetic. Made me sad watching him. Tim finally got together with Dawn. Dawn made a good choice.

Sun...
Went to church.
Washed my car.... got freezed thighs and exhausted right arm in the end.
And, I just found out today that I missed one whole window.
Later on, went to a nature park in South Delta. We walked almost 30mins in the cold. My face was freezed, very hard to move my lips too, had trouble talking.
Then later went out to Lansdown and Richmond Center. I picked out my xmas present :). John bought gift certs from the Bay and Toy R' Us. We saw Suki, John's friend in Richmond Center.
After the shopping, we made pasta and watched some TV. Pasta with baby clams, sun dried tomato sauce, and onion. I pan fried the clams with the onion. It was wonderful, I did it just right. John is glad that my cooking seems to be a lil better than him.
John wanted to see me more, i.e. besides weekends :).

Today...
Woke up early and did my 30mins run. Taped my skates (made several new holes and scratches last time) and went to work.
Going to finish my test report and go fall some more in the rink.

No Luck so far

on the axel preparation exercises.
For single loop, can only do a max of 3 in a row.
For waltz jump, can sorta do a spin in the end but it'd be all over the place. Worst, the spin doesn't even happen everytime I try it. And, can never successfully attach a single loop at the end of the waltz jump.

The only thing I'm good at now is the stand-alone, backspin.
Too bad, my coach is gonna be disappointed. I don't think there is enough time for me to learn the actual axel jump come easter.

As usual, saw many elite skaters practicing at the figure skating rink. Again, saw Mira doing her triple lutz double loop combination, but it was so crowded out there that she doesn't have enough room I think, so the jump doesn't really look good. She did sucessfully complete it, just that it doesn't have much height or flow. Saw many practicing spins. Their spins were all super fast.

Lots of new stuffs

Learned lots yesterday. Some new edge exercises and some exercises to prepare for axle.
1. Mohawk, cross leg in front. Mohawk on the other side, cross leg. Alternate this down the rink.
2. Outside 3-turn with one leg "stick" to the back of the other leg. Step on to the leg at the back and glide backwards. Then step forward and repeat the sequence.
3. 5 single loops in a row.
4. Skate in a circle (anti-clockwise). Practice pushing with the left leg behind while having the arms back and the skating leg bend. Thrusting the arms up to a 90degree, left leg up (also a 90 degree), and pull straight the skating leg.
5. Waltz jump and immediately do a single loop without stepping in betweens.
6. Waltz jump and immediately turn into a backspin when landing.

For #3, the most I could do is to have the last 3 single loops on the same spot... so ugly. ...exactly like bunny hopping.
#4, he said the worst thing in starting to learn a single axle is to have the skating leg bend while the free leg is up in front of the body. This exercise is to help prevent that.
For #5, somehow I can't keep my free leg in front after the waltz jump so can't do the loop after.
For #6, my backspin wobbles after the waltz jump. Unlike the stand-alone backspin, I don't have the benefit of the deep forward inside 3-turn to start with.
For #2, on the anti-clockwise direction (i.e. skating on the left leg) it's hard for me to glue the free leg to the back of the skating leg, probably from all the practice of single flip and salchow where the free leg is wide away from the skating leg. The coach was trying to show me why it is important to have the "glue". He demonstrated by doing a few ice dancing steps with me. First we started by him going backwards and I go forward (anti-clockwise direction). Then, he changed direction and stepped forward while I do the outside forward 3-turn. After the 3-turn, I stepped onto the free leg and glide backwards. At the same time, he was doing a 3-turn. We did this 3 or 4 times in a row. He said if the 3-turn was wide (i.e. free leg away from skating leg and on the side), then I would pull my partner off track. He asked if I see it. Well I said I couldn't see anything. That's because he's way taller than me and he's blocking my view the whole time. He said the dancing steps felt good to him, i.e. I did good, but actually it's him leading all the way and I'm doing everything wrong.

At the end of the class, he told us that there is a club event during easter and asked if any of us would be interested in being a part of it. He said the point is to show other clubs what is going on in our club and vice versa. My classmate, Andrew, said the point is to use us to attract more students :P. He said, it'd be a 3.5min program. He said back in the UK, he always made sure that he involved the adult class ppl. This is the first time he's involved in this in Canada. He also said that we're a good group. Back in Scotland, he said there were bars on the side that can be pulled away so that ppl can still be grabbing onto something while skating across the ice. Well... in compare to THAT, we're good. Somehow we all said ok... so I guess I'll be doing a group number with my classmates come easter. He said we'd use 20mins of our 1hr session to rehearse... so I guess if I didn't participate then I'd be doing my own thing while all other ppl r rehearsing. That I don't like.

Disgruntled Designer

Disgruntled Designer
My friend's new blog.
His xanga site is also very interesting.
spini2k's Xanga Site

Life is life....

Turns out that not only IT ppl can get layoff. My sis was just told that she can either quit or work only part time in her company. She is choosing to not work part time. I wonder if they would give her severance pay seeing that they give her the option. She is about to sell her furnitures and move back here this mth or so.
Actually this might be good for her since she hates working in that lab anyway. So much labour (eg. yanking 10L water up to the sink) and yuckiness involved (pig's blood, egg yolk, chemicals and such).

Before this, she is planning to go back to school and get a cert anyway. And, also looking for new job... but no luck so far I heard. Donno if taking the courses is a good idea since those courses are actually for high school students. My mom totally doesn't like her to do that. She said it's a waste of time. But now that she's not gonna have a job I guess my mom might be ok with that.

No response on any of the job applications that I sent out too :(.

~_~

So so so sleepy today. Woke up at 6 to get my 30mins run in. I actually didn't start to run till 6:30.... spent 15mins eating 1.5 small blueberry muffins and 15mins napping on the couch. As I was driving to work, I felt like I could have fallen asleep any sec. I'm so sleepy now that all I want to do is sleep, doesn't even want to drink coffee.

Yesterday, I also did 30mins run in the morning. During lunch, skated about 1.5 hrs. After work, skated 40mins. Don't know y... seems like the more I skate the worst it's getting. My upper body is now getting out of sync with my lower body, it's always moving ahead. I am thinking that it might have something to do with the sharpening that my skates had recently.

I'm so very under stress now. Work is very slow and I'm not contributing anything at all. As a result, I turn to food for my comfort again.
The most I eat in a day...
coffee w/ cream
a white ovaltine drink (4 spoons of ovaltine)
veggie with pork for lunch
20 coconut waffle sticks
small portion of veggie with beef for dinner
after dinner... a muffin, 2 pieces of 9-grain bread, 7 girl guide's cookies
...basically non-stop eating till I go to bed.

Weekend

Went running outside on Sat. Did 15laps with a break at the 8th lap. Then, went home and got very hungry and had muffins. Later on, went to Lansdown to buy shin guards and a Canada hat for John's bday. =) He seemed to like them. We went to see "National Treasure". It's a good movie. It has history stuffs in it and a surprising ending (for me at least). I got a lame Simpsons character...so expensive :(. John bought car cover for his 'vet. He had to cut a hole in it to fit the antenna in. I wonder if that would ruin the cover.

Went to John's parent's house for his bday gathering on Sun. Their place is so much warmer than John's place. We had roast beef with mashed potatoes, pickles, olives (which I skipped and still don't like), and wonderful fruit spinach salad. We watched Simpsons and had a nice time. Saw John's dad's china trip photos, has HK in it too. Some of them are quite beautiful but I'm glad that I came here and away from the pollution. John got his parents TV. I hope it's still functional after the drive.

8-rink

Arghh!!! Supposedly it's twonnie skate today but the new person wouldn't believe me said that it's not on the sheet that was given to her. Got charged 4.25!!!
The cookie/chip vendor machine got broken, so instead I got mocha. Didn't feel too good afterwards. I think I had too much coffee..... 3 in a day!
Saw pair skating practicing again when I was waiting for my coffee. Saw a beautiful triple toe loop.
Then afterwards saw Mira Leung and Annie Bellmare. Both of them doing triple. Mira was doing a triple lutz double loop combination. It was awesome, she was spinning SO FAST in the air.
In the public skating sesson, a lady was doing a single axle and attempting double salchow. Her scratch spin was great.
My crossovers still suck. Maybe I need to use one of those scooters to fix them...meaning I need to go to one of those public skating sessions in Richmond.

Thurs

Kevin went to Kamploops with the kids for their provincial competition so we have Lee today. She didn't teach much, but I did learn one new thing about scratch spin. The spin should be initiated by itself. That is, the 3-turn should wrap around itself like the following tracing:

If you're doing the 3-turn too wide (i.e. it is not wrapping around itself), then you're probably creating a tracing like this:

Right after she drew that first tracing out for me to see, I could do the spin. It felt wonderful, no scratching toepick, no compensating to keep my balance. However, I could not repeat it.
Also, she told me that I shouldn't lean too much during the entry.
If I'm leaning too much, then I'll be on an inside edge once I get out of the 3-turn to spin. That'd in turn make me skate in big circles instead of small ones, meaning almost impossible to stay centered and actually do the spin.
Somehow I have to fix my outside 3-turn entry into the spin...
Now I'm thinking maybe Lee is a better coach than Kevin. Kevin didn't tell us that.
Lee said she has faith in me, that I can do a double jump one day ^^!
And, another classmate said I'm her role model ^^! Wow... do I actually look that good? I just felt that I'm always tipping forward too much.
Oh and 2 more things...
For the salchow, the free leg should be right in front of the skating leg (or at least as close as possible) before we start to jump.
For the waltz jump, the free leg should come straight (i.e. no swinging the free leg around) thru with the knee up.

:D

Yay! Got reply from FishOnly. Finally cleared up with her.

No response from any of the companies that I had applied to. Oh well maybe it's still early. Worst come to worst... i'll just ask for a permanent position here. Or... maybe go take some more courses and just sit back and relax.

I'm officially a pig. Had a muffin and 4 pieces of pecan cookies after a light supper with cauliflower and beef. Didn't go back to running since last Sat. My only workout is skating. Recently, I'm practicing spin more than jumping, meaning, even less cardio for me. Not much improvement eventho I've been practicing a lot.

Just found out yesterday that I could skate w/o wearing stockings. If I really get comfortable with it..donno what I'd do w/ my skating tights... > 20bux a piece.

Skating went terrible today, kept slipping. Gonna get sharpening tomorrow. Since I didn't get much exercise from skating, gonna have to run today.

Nothing much...

Lazy as a bun. Only sent in more cover letter & resume.
Didn't do any studying at all.
Didn't even go apartment hunting with John. He said he went to a few good ones. I hope that he'd buy the nice ones and not the one with weird smell. But then, that's his choice.
Such a dilemma... is an old relatively big place better or a new small place? Hehee I'm superficial I'd go for the new place. Big place = more cleaning to do. :P

Saw so many movies lately. Friday, saw "The Incredibles", and it is incredible! It's so funny and exciting, not a boring minute. Sat, saw "Shrek 2", good animation. Kinda boring. Not as exciting as "Finding Nemo" or "The Incredibles". Then saw "The Collateral", too tired in the second half... couldn't keep my eyes opened. It seemed very exciting in the end.

Lazy

Planned to study all weekend but ended up going apartment hunting with John. First apartment was really small but it's on the ground floor. But, it's new and looked really nice. Good layout and good interior decorations. Second apartment was much larger but smelled like old ppl home, and had a scary elevator. Third apartment was very old as well, but at least it didn't smell funny. However, the exterior looked really old and unstable, and the parkade does not have a gate. The agent was trying to sell us ..."the more lock you put in, the more break-in will occur"... Well, I totally disagreed. I think the more lock you put in, the more noticeable the break-in. There might be a break-in to other ppl's car but if there were no lock then you might not have known unless it's a tight community where everybody knows everybody's business.

FishOnly seemed to have either filtered my email to her (that she misread my blogger, "Disappointed") or that she got it and just ignored me.

Aching all over

Sent my comment to FishOnly. Hope she gets it.
:( Probably it's my bad English that she misunderstood me.... anyway...

Aimed for 8 laps yesterday. Felt good at 8th. Took a break then did 11... then still feeling ok so ended up doing 15. Then, John came. Ran 3 laps with him. In total, did 18 laps. Oh man... my left ankle was so stiff afterwards.

John was so nice. He went to my fav mall with me :). Had Caprioca(?sp) green tea. It's too sweet for my taste. John's lemon grass pork was really good. Restrained myself and only took a bite. In Daiso, got another pair of charcoal deoderant for my skates, and hairpins (my old ones r too loose).

Skating was ok. Didn't really learn anything new. Coach sorta showed me a layback spin.
Learned some new edge exercises:
1. Russian stroke (backward crossover in one direction, then deep knee bend, and do backward crossover in the other direction... and repeat)
2. Choctaw, backward crossover, step forward, forward crossover.

I still have trouble with my backward crossover in the clockwise direction...
Lissie said it's because I'm tipping too forward. I think I need to relearn how to go backwards in the clockwise direction with 2 skates side-by-side, no crossover that is.

Donno y.... I'm now having feet cramps again the first 30mins or 40mins of skating. Is it because I skipped skating Mon and Tue?

Disappointed

Dished seeing John's parents, workout, and skating for this enormous career fair. And... what a disappointment. 800+ ppl registered I heard. Lined up for at least half an hour. I did such a poor job at the 5-min so-called interview with one of their hiring managers. I so totally prepared for the wrong thing.
Questions were...
1. What positions r u looking for? Java/C++.... he said "oh. ok. it's actually VC++". well.. yeah i know.
2. How many years of exp? 4
3. Out of those how many were Java?.... cat caught my tongue here... cuz mmm i only took java courses while and in between working.... so "It was mostly C, I did some Java on and off".
4. What kind of things did u do? application, one is written in Java, and another one is also in Java and with servlet..so it's a web application....
5. Can you tell me a situation where you got challenged by it and how did u resolve it?... again couldn't recall immediately but did say something like..."back then when i was using COM there was no java type library and i had to go do a lot of internet research.. u know... with the java type library they compiled everything for u and u just use it like normal java classes".... He just said "yeah yeah".

The hiring manager was an asian guy with cantonese accent. Not a lot older than me. How can he be a team leader??
He said there are 5 java positions available and 20 C++!! I said I am interested in C++ position too but I'm more interested in Java.
In the end, I just said "I love Java". And, I started out the "interview" with saying how nice Java is... so clean and portable.

I donno. I think I sucked. He's probably thinking... yeah doesn't matter how much u like it.. u don't have the experience!!

Hmm... maybe I should go back to BCIT and take several EJB courses...
since I'm sick of C now and C++ syntax is not as good/neat/clean as Java.
I think I'd like to work with Java more than anything else.
Hmm... one of my coworkers is applying too I know. Heehee... maybe I should hope that he gets the job and then I can get his job here doing Java. :P
That's probably the best I can hope for now.

And, because I was so sad/embarrassed, I treated myself with a blueberry muffin and 4 chocolates after supper. Supper was just veggie (kale) and soup. During the career fair, I had 2 huge yummy cookies (bigger than my palm), and few chips. Before bed time, I had more veggies.... I feel so fat now.

:(

Studied all weekend, no fun. Just finished the basics of Java, didn't even have time for servlet, or thread yet. Still have to read COM and J2EE. The J2EE tutorial is HUGE! U can check it out here.. http://java.sun.com/j2ee/1.4/docs/tutorial/doc/
Called BCAA to fix John's car. Finally, a new battery. No more jump start.
Had cramps/diarrhea on Sat. Missed out at least 5 hrs of studying.
Thought it was because I finished the whole bag of pecan cookies.
Now I think otherwise.... do I have colon ulcers or even cancer? Will go see a doctor after Tue's career fair.
Thinking I might have to take tmr off too and I'm already taking today's off clinging on the hope that I would finish COM and J2EE in one day! Rather impossible actually ...
And, grandpa passed away, funeral held in China.

More edges

Learned
- backward 3-turn. Tip: to turn and change direction, need to rock the blade a bit using the end of the blade
- bracket

  ___/\___

 /        \   

/          \

A turn made on one foot from forward to backward (or backward to forward) from one edge of one character to an edge of another character, i.e. outside to inside or inside to outside, where the body rotation is counter to the natural direction of progress causing the cusp to print outward from the center of the lobe curvature. The edge before and after the turn is on the same lobe.


Learned more edge exercise from last nite's class.
- 3-turn on right skate, change direction and stepped onto the left skate, and followed by forward crossover, do the same in the other direction and alternate.
- backward 3-turn, mohawk to go back to skating backward, then backward 3-turn in the other direction, then mohawk, repeat in the other direction and alternate.
- bracket, backward 3-turn, forward crossover and repeat.

Trick to perform 3-turn with free leg in front is not to tip forward when doing the 3-turn. This way there'll be no scratching on the ice and you can move on to the backward crossover easier.

Practiced a lot of edge exercises during lunch, didn't do much jumping. I definitely know how to do bracket now altho on the left skate it's not as comfortable.

:O

Being a good girl yesterday, finished up my first draft of resume.
Got to work early and finished my cover letter.

Since I did my cover letter in the morning, I didn't go skating, stayed and worked during lunch instead. However, it turned out to be a complete waste of time. I'm again stuck in the place where I don't know if I found a bug or if I did something wrong.

I was asked to use "snoop" to see the network trace, which I did. But afterwards I was told "This is not what I wanted. But I'll have a look at it and see if I can find anything.". I donno what to say... well I did exactly what was told.

This gives me more motivation to look for new job in company where I don't have to tip toe around ppl.

Donno if it's stress I suddenly developed a liking to chocolate. And, yesterday ate 3 pecan cookies before bed, this morning too.

...

So distracted at work lately. Been reading too much of my friend's xanga site, online forum, and job sites.

Decided to start my job hunting saga since the market out there seems to be so much better now. If I didn't try it, I'd hate myself later. Gonna first update my resume and write new cover letters. The resume shouldn't be too hard since it's not too out-of-date. It's only been several mths since I last updated it. The cover letters r another matter. For the career fair, I need to write a generic but yet specific letter.

I found one job that I'm so interested in, application programmer for device. But, it's in downtown. I'd like to work in Richmond for a change. Oh well can't hurt to apply.

Skating is getting boring by the min. Doing the same stuff over and over... No new improvement.

Lazy as a snake

Yesterday, woke up at 5 thinking that it was 6 but still stayed in bed till 6. U would think that fallback would give u an hr more sleep....

Skating wasn't really good. Boots felt so stiff. I should have skated on Sun. But, got lazy, stayed home and watched "Charmed" instead.

Found another person from www.loyaukee.com that likes skating. She's lucky she started when she was 9 but she's off of it now.

I wonder if I'll ever be able to do backward crossover smoothly.

Instead of running after work. I mean workout...not looking for job, but I think I should start doing it. Watched "Lost" and "CSI: Miami" instead. "Lost" is so good. The new episode is coming out on Wed. Can't wait! My mom likes it too.

A guy friend of mine asked when I'd be able to see him... But I'm busy with my bf and he's busy with his gf. And I wonder if it's appropriate to go see a guy alone now that I'm not single anymore. It's probably ok but I wonder if John would mind.

Today, woke up at 5 again.... I wonder when my body would go into fallback time.

Signed my online friend's xanga guestbook. His blogger is so much interesting than mine. I'm such a boring person.

There is a career fair on my friend's friend's company in Richmond on Nov 9. Maybe I should go take a look.

Going to a bday gathering tonite. Such a big group of ppl. I already forgot whose bday it's for.

Forecast sux

Didn't anticipate such nice weather, ended up just staying in Richmond the whole weekend :(. Oh well.... my parents don't want me to go down during election week anyway.
On Fri nite, watched a chinese vcd, "Three of a kind". It was funny the first time, not the second time.
On Sat, ran running with John. Did 8 laps run and 2 laps run/walk.
We then went to Metrotown for John's clothing, new winter jacket. Tip top had the best service!
Later, we had supper at Honolulu. Their logan red dates drink is terrible. Tasted like they just added in the logan and red dates a min ago but because of that the logan and red dates were very sweet. Afterwards we walked by the Gelato place around the corner, didn't go in. We went to the small coffee shop instead. Very good service. I had the soy decaf latte with hazelnut flavour. John had the french vanilla. We sampled the Kona cheesecake. It's very good. Might buy one slice next time. Then, we rented "Mean Girls" and "Ella the Enchanted". Both very good; light and funny.
On Sun, ran 8 laps by myself and then later walked around the Steveston Village with John. I was tempted to buy icecream but resisted.
Then I went to have my haircut. Pretty nice place. I didn't leave enuf tip I think... didn't bring enuf coins. I want to go there again next time.

Good practice

Just one guy in the rink when I first started skating today... and then just me afterwards. Have the whole piece of ice by myself!! Cool!

Did many forward and backward sculling using only one foot. So cool! Felt wonderful! I finally got the idea. For backward sculling, I can now do it across the whole rink with just one foot :). And of course, my right leg is much better than my left leg.

Still can't do the swizzle and glide on just one skate and the other skate touching the ice, or the Ina Bauer. I've got to ask him again next time.

My waltz jump felt good today too. Still gutless to try the axel.

Tried some lutz today. Out of my 10 or so trials, pretty sure one of them qualifies as a lutz.

Flip is ok. Not so sure if I'm doing it right though. I still tend to lean on its entry.

Loop is normal. Still don't know how to initiate more than one revolution.

Salchow still sux. Still curving too much on its entry.

Toe loop is still terrible. No height and no speed.

Tried to do backspin a different way... using a lil of my toepick on the big 3-turn entry. Well... can't do it yet... ended up crashing onto the ice. It's ok since I know I'm going to fall and did prepare for it.

Toepick is still scratching the ice too much when doing scratch spin. Well.. more than scratching.. more like I stick my toepick in automatically now.

Tried the couter-clockwise forward and backward crossover with one of my arms moving from outside downwards and in and up like a ballet move like he taught me yesterday (think I forgot to mention that in prev blog). It's ok. I looked a lil awkard I think. On the other direction, can't really do the backwards one. Donno y :( still can't do the backward crossover in the clockwise direction. I thought backward sculling would help but it didn't.

While I was practicing skating I missed the Halloween Pot-luck lunch.
I was allowed to eat the leftovers tho.. altho I didn't bring any food in. :P
Oh and there were SO MUCH leftovers. I had a small piece of Lasagna, a small piece of pumpkin pie, 2 small sausage/samosa rolls, and a small piece of apple pie. The pumpkin pie was too sweet.

Thurs nite

Went to skating class as usual. Only taught us basic stuffs this time. He said basics are very important, it helps with the more complicated stuffs later. I totally agree and I complete sux at the basics.

1. Forward crossover in one direction, lift the leg in front, and then do the other direction, when reaches end of the rink, do 2-foot sculling down to ur starting position.

2. (this is for all kind of skating, including hockey!!!) Forward swizzle then bend left leg and lean on the left, putting all ur weight onto ur left leg and just have the right leg skimming/touching the ice (right leg should be straight), thus skating in a circle (anti-clockwise), then do the opposite. Forward swizzle again then bend right leg and lean on the right to skate in a clockwise circle. This is extremely hard for me. I can't just have all the weight on my bended leg. I think it's because my center of mass is not over the bended leg enuf, meaning I should create more speed when I do the swizzle and be able to lean more, having my weight over the bended leg as if I'm about to tip over. Like all the way over, the weight should be to the right of ur bended leg if you are in the clockwise direction, and to the left of ur leg if you are in the anti-clockwise direction. Gonna try practice this later today. From this exercise, he also showed me how this could lead to a scratch spin and Ina Bauer. And of course, I can do neither.

For the Ina Bauer, skate forward on ur right inside edge, skate a straight line. U should be facing to the left. Then gently put ur left skate on the ice behind u and behind the tracing of ur right skate. You'll be skating in a big circle in the anti-clockwise direction. When you're comfortable, you somehow pull into skating a straight line. How that is done is totally a mystery to me. My problem is again I have too much weight on my left skate and it pulls me off balance. And right at the start, I'm already curving too much. But how is one supposed to be on an inside edge and not curve. I totally don't understand.

3. Walk backward by putting leg skate behind right outside ankle and vice versa. Once comfortable, start to glide backwards when u'r putting the skate behind and transferring the weight on the skate behind.

4. Hands on board and have ur legs facing sideways to the board, left leg in front of right leg. Deep knee bend on your left leg and pick up ur right leg at the side and behind ur left leg. U'll be gliding on the left inside edge. Put down right leg and do the same. Deep knee bend on right leg and pick up left leg behind. Once comfortable, do it away from the board and skate backwards this way. I don't quite understand this. I's skating too much with my toepicks.

According to the Coach, there are a total of 36 different kinds of edge exercise routines!

We did the usual warm up.
1.Forward swizzle, stand on our toe pick and rock ur center of mass backward, then backward swizzle, stand on end of ur blade and rock ur center of mass forward.
2.Stand up straight on both of ur skates, then stand on ur toe pick and rock ur weight backwards, pushes off of ur toe pick and blide backwards. Then turn ur body a 180deg using ur heels and skate forwards. And repeat.
3.Cross feet exercise. Cross right in front of left and vise versa to walk sideways left and right. The coach did it really fast to see if I would stumble but I didn't. Haha. This's fun.
...

After only doing 2 runs in a week instead of 4 or more, I'm already gaining some fat on my tummy :(. I've got to start running more again next week, apparently I can't just rely on skating to give me the same amount of aerobic exercise. mm.... or maybe I just had too much Horlicks the past few weeks. OK. No more Horlicks and they are too expensive anyway.

Brought C, C++, and Java books to my cousin. Saw his new gf. She is ok. Can't say if his ex is better. Saw my uncle's dog, Cindy, too. She is 91 yrs old in human yrs. Looks like she is in perfect health. Uncle said she would bite ppl that she didn't recognize. He said she must have recognized me since she's wagging her tail.

Wow

Went to the Kensington Rink today. Saw a guy practicing figure skating there. He's awesome. Huge double axel, huge triple salchow, huge triple toe loop, and double loop. His spins were awesome too. So super inhumanly fast. He did scratch spin, backspin, and flying camel spin. He was talking to one of the staffs and said that he hasn't sharpened his skate in 2 YRS!!!! Said he was busy with all the competitions. I wonder who he is.... probably one of the adult figure skaters... cuz I don't recogonize him and he's not as good as the skaters on TV.

After I saw his spins, my scratch spin instantenously got better. Probably just temporary improvement. My toe pick is still scratching the ice a bit too much than I'd like but at least I'm balanced, not going left and right. I found out that my sweet spot for the spin is a lil more left on my skate than I would have thought. My waltz jump is getting better and better now. I found the sweet spot to jump to obtain maximum height. I think after several more sessions of skating I'm ready to learn axel. Actually who am I kidding! I'm gutless!

Ecllipse

Went out with John to watch the ecllipse last nite. I was late and we missed the beginning of it. My fault :(. Tried to take a photo of the copper moon but it was too small for the camera to see. It might not even have registered on the camera's lens, probably not even a dot. I haven't looked at the pictures in the PC yet. We did take some pics of ourselves and John found his jumper cables :). Not too bad a day.

Decision decision

Went to RIC last nite. Wow! The ice was so incredibily. My loop was much higher as a result. My crossover felt very good as well. But still I can't hold the edge after the 3-turn entry into the salchow... it always curves too much.

Skating in 8-rink today is ok. The ice is of course not as nice but much bigger area and much less ppl. Just me and another couple. Felt like the "lamp post". Altho my salchow still sux I think I'm getting my waltz jump back.

Boss asked if I'd be interested in doing my job long term. I hesitated and told him that I don't know. Hmm... so tempting to not look for a job on my own. Maybe I should have said yes. Deep down inside I think I want to go back to programming. Programming is more fun and for testing well... it always has the stigma associated with it I think. Ppl who can't code do testing. Many ppl think that. I'm not saying that I'm an expert in programming but it seems like a waste for my CompSci degree. And, I know nothing about hardware so if I want to do this for the long term and if I went someplace else where I'd be the only one doing the testing then I wouldn't know where or how to begin. On the other hand, testing is much more relaxing compared to coding. With testing, I'm able to have a personal life. With coding, I'd be working super overtime. But in general, coding pays more.

Ouch again

Did many loop jump during lunch. Trying to see if I can attempt a double... well would be in my dream only. My right thigh hurts so much now esp when walking upstairs.

Work is slow again but found out why I reported a previous bug as a bug after I interfered with my coworker's testing. It's usually just me using the system so I forgot about him... again. He seems ok with it tho.... looks happy at least.. that I fixed the problem (the problem that I caused in the first place).

We celebrated my boss's bday today. The actual day was actually last Sun so he said his bday is not for quite a while ... at least 365 days. We had bitter chocolate Save Way cake. Yuck. I finished it all except the icing. I guess it's ok since I had just skated. It'll just be a source of energy for me to heal my muscles.

Stressed out

Work is so hard lately. Donno what I'm doing... First the script that I'm supposed to run didn't work. After I made it work, then the database that I'm supposed to use with crashed the system. So then I switch to see how to use simulators to manually create the database that was crashing the system... and then found out that I can only have one simulator per machine. But I need like 100 simulators... Afterwards, I found out that I can just ask my coworker for more IP addresses. Still waiting for him.

Later found out that the bug that I reported was not actually a bug... I just didn't wait long enuf (like an hr or more) for the result... so embarrasing ... yet again.

I was so tensed that I kept stuffing myself with food. Almost non-stop eating the whole day. Stuffing myself with cereal while working. At home, after supper I had the sweet lotus paste white bun, then one big T&T Halloween cookie, and then a sweet sponge cake. After all those I finally made up my mind and went running on the treadmill. Only did 8 laps, 20mins.. and then had cramps.

Nice weekend

Went running with John only did 8 laps with a break. Was feeling lethargic to begin with and then had cramp near the end... So many mosquitoes in the minoru park. Scary. Lots of squirrels, ducks, and bunnies too. Ppl were feeding the ducks. Not a good idea. A posted sign said the food would be a source of food for rats. Obviously ducks don't tend to put leftovers in fridge like we do....
After the park, we had a long walk from Lansdowne to Wendys then to Parker Place and then back. John treated me the oriental salad, my fav.

Went to Gingeri with John for dad's bday. We ordered the right thing this time.
Pan fried chicken with celery and cashews,
spicy eggplants with pork strings,
stewed lamp with spinach, watercrest, mushroom, and beancurd sheet, and
eel balls with garlic, black pepper, and onion,.
We were given free dessert, chinese bday bun, those white sweet bun with lotus paste that shaped like a plum. John would never look at them the same again after I said how much they look like asses.
We also had the chocolate cake that I bought it with John in Parker place.
It was very good food. We were all stuffed.

Then we went to Silver City for the midnite show, "The Grudge". It's very similar to the Japanese movie, "The Curse". It's just as scary. Since we went there early so we went to the arcade. So much fun. I beat John several times in air hockey and John beat me in other games, the soccer, the shooting, and the racing. After the movie, John were commenting on how the dead should just grow up (mmm... but they were already dead) and move on and then we stepped into big gigantic puddles.

The next morning, woke up with soar right arm.
Spent the whole morning looking at skating tape, so exhausting.
Then went to QE park, small but nice park. Saw a girl in Kimono, but she speaks Cantonese not Japanese.
Then went grocery shopping with John. He bought me Horlicks and cereal :).
Watched some more skating (Canadian champ) afterwards and going skating later.
So tired now...

Aqua Riva

Went to Aqua Riva for a friend's bday. Food was great. I had the wild green salad, the lamb, and the pear crisp dessert. Had some of John's chopped scallop salad, Salmon, and white chocolate pudding. I love the chopped scallop. The sauce was wonderful. The scallop was very good too but I had too many of that in chinese restaurant (that's y i didn't order it). My wild green salad was just average, but the salmon cream cheese on the lil piece of bread was good. The lamb was medium rare, but to me it's a bit too rare and it didn't have enuf lamb taste in it. I like the lamb stew in chinese restaurant more. But, the whiskey with hazelnut sauce was quite unique. And finally, I liked the rolled oats and the vanilla ice cream that they put on the pear crisp. Don't really like the pears or the raisins... nothing special, it's like the apple in apple pie. John loved it tho. And, I love John's chocolate pudding. It's so sweet but I still love it. I like the pancake syrup that they put on it. I guess I'm just a breakfast person. I just love oatmeal and cereal and pancake :).

John didn't get to talk to my friends too much. Well... since he doesn't know them and sometimes it's just automatic for my friends to talk in chinese. But, we still had a great time. I talked with John more than with my friends :P. It'd be better if John was sitting on my left side.

Ouch!

Fell hard on my left butt while practicing my corkscrew spin. My right leg was already wrapped in front of my left leg when I tipped backward... can't prevent the fall. It was a 90degree fall on my hip joint while my hip was at an angle. Hurt SOSOSO much :'(.

But my loop loop is getting better. More height on the first loop. Still can't do 5 in a roll tho.

Flip is ok. Still able to complete 1 revolution while maintaining a straight entry, i.e. no curving after the 3-turn entry.

But my salchow is still the same... too much swinging after the 3-turn entry. And, it feels funny when the entry is straighter.

Found a very useful link
http://home.pacbell.net/anamga/figureSkating.html

Busy busy

Went skating during lunch at the Kensington Complex, $4.10. There were several adult figure skaters there. Their skatings r so much smoother and can all do the corkscrew spin. One of them can do an axel and another can do very big single jump.

Speaking of axel, the coach yesterday said he'd teach us the fundamentals of it. But we just added up going thru all the jumps first, the waltz, the toe loop, the salchow, the loop, and the flip. Tried to fix our salchow. Most of us swung too much and did not have enough curve on the takeoff edge. Then he told some of us to do 5 loops in a row... well I could only do 2 in a row. Theorectically I could do 5 but then I'll just be hopping on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th cuz after the 2nd one I'm already at a stand still.

Going skating in 8-rink today, twonnie skate again! :>

Work was so slow, didn't find any new things cuz I was stuck at looking and modifying scripts.

Going to a friend's bday after work today then tomorrow going to my dad's bday.
Then later maybe I'll catch some movies with John and probably go running / skating. I think should do running. Didn't run this whole week except Mon.

Busy Wed

So busy today. Reported 2 new bugs, 1 big 1 small. Spent 2 whole days to confirm that it is indeed a bug....

Went to the Twoonie Skate in 8-rink instead of the Loonie Skate in Burnaby Lake Rink. For the first 30mins, it's just me and another guy... and then just me for the rest of the session! But, the ice is so hard in 8-rink, I slipped while I was practicing my spin. I was able to rollover as usual so didn't hurt any joint but I bumped my left cheek on the ice, a lil only nothing serious.

And guess what????!!!!! Our BC hopeful, Mira, was skating on the rink right next to the one that I's using. She was with a choreographer putting her new program together. And the choreographer is Victor Kraatz, the one who just retired from ice dancing. This is so COOL!!!!! I got to open and hold the door for Victor while he said thank you... he actually said something like... "at ur service" but I didn't quite hear it but I know he meant thank you.

I'm now sure that I can do a single flip now . I can feel the spring as I jump. Now I can complete 1 whole rotation instead of just doing a 3/4 turn.

There is skating in Richmond today but maybe i'll be lazy and stay home and watch TV instead.

Tue

Had an "interesting" meeting today. Clearly it stemed from one of our co-workers who don't speak chinese... and we sure know who that is. She already complained at least twice about it before... always suspected ppl were talking about her behind her back. But that's not true. So, from now on, no more chinese in the workplace. Exception would be if u're on the phone w/ ur friend or mom. mmmmm.... does that mean we can gossip about her on the phone :P. Fine by me, I'm always stuck in the lab anyways.... Now she just made many of us feel awkward.

Went to the Burnby Lake Rink (just down from 8-rink) during lunch. Very few ppl. Just a tiny bit cheaper (4.25? 4.15?..) and the rink is smaller. The ice is just as hard as the 8-rink one. They have Lonnie skate on Wed. I think I'll go again there tmr. 8-rink apparently has Loonie skate too on Fri according to the web.... so how come last time that person charged me 4.75???!!!!
Ok skating today. Several times.. actually just 3... I almost almost almost did a corkscrew spin. My flip is better today, gaining a tiny lil bit more height. I think I figured out a lil more about it today. But my loop sucks, not much height at all. I found out that my loop is higher when I'm skating on softer ice, probably because my blades catch the ice less. My pants r in bad shape... ripped a lil hole on the inside thigh while landing a jump.

Left ankle hurts after skating. I'm now sure that it's from the 3-turn deep knee bend entry for the spin. Have to take off from running tonite.

Rainy day

Woke up at 6am today and lied in bed till 7am. Took a shower and got to work before 8am!! Then I was so so so sleepy.... so couldn't resist the temptation and had a Nescafe Instant Latte, felt a lot better afterwards.

Work was so slow today. Just find out that there is something not working. It's probably because of configuration problem again, but donno what yet.

After work went to Save On Food and bought Horlicks (yes i finished the whole bottle in a week), 1% Dairyland Milk with Omega (and yes i finished my milk within a week as well), Post Honey strawberry oat cereal... WOW only 2.99!!!!!!!!!! (originally 5.99) Horlicks was the most expensive, 6 bux!!!!

Altho it's raining a lil bit I still went running since I have a hat now :). Thank you John! I only did 11 laps tho... had stomache and too bloated after supper. Nice supper of course. Potato chicken stew and leftover from lunch, shanghai food, pork with sesame pastry and spicy radish.

Weekend

Sat...

Went to Richmond Center and bought bird's nest drink with John for mom's bday. 40 bux about. I hope it's real. There was a kind that's like 132 bux... but I think that's a bit too expensive. Then John went to do his workout and I went to have my skates sharpened.

When I was at the skate shop I also tried out some skating tights while I was waiting for my skates. They'r so warm, comfy, and strong. So I bought 2 pairs, 20bux per pair :'(. Also, the sharpening costs $8.99. But I decided to buy the sharpening punch card since that would give me one free sharpening per 5 sharpenings and that costs about 40bux. :'(... total to about 80 bux.

Later we went to "Man Wa" for my mom's bday. We had the 4 ppl set lunch + one extra abalone for John. The abalone is SO filling. I loved the sauce tho but maybe not the abalone. Well..actually i like the edges of it since it's tender and soft, the center of it's a bit too chewy and dense for my taste.. and not to mention hard to digest. After the abalone I felt like I had already finished a meal already. But afterwards we still had seabass, "veggies with dried scallop and salty ham", "chicken with ginger/spring onion sauce on the side", and the very routine dessert, red bean soup with lil chinese seasame donuts and almond biscuits.
The dinner went really well. It was a lot more comfortable this time around, conversations were flowing more, and I no longer felt awkward to talk to my parents in English. I think actually John would have more things to talk to my dad than I'm with my dad since they both follow politics and news.

After the dinner we rented "Empire Strikes Back". It was very well digitally mastered. Like a new movie just came out yesterday. Luke still looked freakish to me. He's a lot more buffed in this episode but still freakish.

Sun...
It's raining cats and dogs. Big cats and dogs too. So I decided to go skating with John. Good idea eh? What better things to do than on a rainy day esp when u'd watched too many movies. We skated the 3-5 "Everyone Welcome" session. So so so many kids around. Couldn't do much... have to look out for ppl all the time. But, I was still able to do a few single jumps and backspin. I was actually surprised that I could still do the spin right after my sharpening cuz last couple of times I could never do that but then I was on a different kind of blade. John skated really well. We practiced a bit of bodycheck with each other (mostly me) and John said I should stay in the box since he did not have the puck. So I said the whole big rink is one big box... haha.

Afterwards I just went home and had snacks and then supper. So super tired after the skating altho I didn't do too much.

Fri nite

Toastmaster contest was fun (might be partly because I wasn't one of the contestants :P). There were 3 humourous speeches and 4 2-min table topic talk. The first humourous speech was about hockey. It was wonderfully done and really funny. There was prop used too, a hockey T-shirt which she showed us at the end. The body language and gestures were very good. It was a very well orchestraed piece.
The second one was about Calamity sailboat "trip". It was also funny, eg. how her wife jumps onto the boat and nearly missed it and was hanging on by the edge with her arms. But, there were some sailboat terms that I didn't really get.
The third one was the funniest I think. The title was to ask God to let her come back as a man. It's about how troublesome and uncomfortable it is to be a woman.... the shaving, the waxing, the long bathroom lineup, the pregnancy/labour, the painful shoes...
To me, the one with the funniest content was the one about woman. However, the hockey speech was more beautifully done. But, it might be hindsight cuz the hockey piece won the contest and the second runner up is the one about woman.

The table topic was "What is the most you like about yourself?". The first contestant talked about how much he likes to interact with people, and how he learned history from his grandparents and his fellow toastmasters. We were just talking about that when he was having dinner with us at Daimasu. So, he "used" us in a way..... that's ok i guess.
The second one talked about his offsprings cuz it's a reflection of himself and that he's having good relationships with this son and daughter. It was quite funny too, the thing about how scary it is that his daughter has a learner license now and how "annoying" it is that his son got a new set of drum.
The third contestant talked about how fortunate it is that he has good genes and brought up in nice environment. So, the most he likes about himself is that he is fortunate. He talked a bit about paraolympics too. His speech really flows and it's very natural. Obviously, the best by far. But, in the end he addressed his mistake, forgot to address the audience. If not because of that I'm very sure that he'd win.
The fourth contestant says the most she likes about herself is her generosity, how much she likes and cares about ppl, and that she likes to travel. It was ok but it's not as much fun as the other pieces.
The third contestant own, not surprising at all. The fourth contestant got second runner up. But, if I were the judge I'd give the second place to the third contestant.

There were a funny lil piece done by the Joke Master in between the humourous speeches and the table topic talks. Talked about how a stupid guy wanted to join Hell's Angels. The stupid guy told the member that he once got beaten by a shark and had his arm biten off. How he was able to fight back and got his arm back and sewn them back. The member said he was tough and he could join the club. The stupid guy then hold up both his thumbs and said "Yeah!"... but one thumb was up and one was down.... well u know what i mean if u get the joke.

The refreshments were very good too. I had the grapes, the wheaties, the sausage pieces, orange/peach juice, and a delicious shortcake with pink stuffs on top.

All in all it was a very good entertainment for only 3 bux.

Afterwards we went back to my workplace and got my wallet back. I left it in my drawer... stupid me. Even worse, I also had my alarm code in my wallet so when I got into the building I also made the alarm went off. I hope it's ok since I did use the security card to get in... donno if the alarm company would charge us.

Short day

Going to John's Toastmaster contest tonite. Have to leave work early today. Should be fun. So, went to work so early today. It's probably because I slept quite early last nite. I was able to wake up at 6:30am this morning and get to work before 8:00am!

I think my skates is badly in need of sharpening. The coach said it's time to sharpen if the blade doesn't cut into ur nail when u glide ur nail from top to bottom of the blade. Mine doesn't at all and I can see that the blade is not very smooth now :(... I could see a lil rugginess. Donno how I got them. Just in case... I bought blade covers or soakers as my coach said for ~25bux :'(. Afterwards I found similar thing in Sportmart for only 8.99!!! What a rip off! Oh well.. mine is prettier.

Let me do a recap again of what I learned yesterday....
1. Corkscrew spin .... can sorta do it like 1 out of 10 times.

- deep knee bend for the 3-turn entry

- arms and free legs in front of body

- before pulling in have rounded arms (like a ballerina)

- feet should be slightly turned out and pulled in just below the knee

- arm movement first before leg movement:

closing in legs first before closing in arms

pushing down legs first before pushing up arms

show/hide...
2. Salcow... already know this but I didn't do it totally right.

- the outside edge 3-turn should be very straight

- the inside edge 3-turn before the take off should be deeply curved

show/hide...
3. A Loop right after a Salcow.

- have to change the Salcow landing with the left foot in front so that you can do a loop right after.

show/hide...

The coach again asked if any of us would be interested in Adult figure skating competition. Said it's a very big in Europe. You finish top 5 in regional competition then you can compete provincially... etc etc. But I donno... Yeah it seems fun to skate to a piece of music as supposed to just doing elements. But my edges suck and I hate being judged or ppl staring.

Relationship

Just know from MSN that Nicky Hilton is getting an annulment!! What's with the world these days? First Britney then Nicky.... Marriage should be sacred. It's not something that you just try and give up on. Right?

It's clear that one should not rush into marriage. However, I do not believe in common law or just living together and try it out first. It will give u a bad start I think. U'll always be thinking that u can bail out easily. With that in your head, you might not give the relationship ur full 100% effort. And, I believe that there is always incompatibility between 2 ppl. Different background, different habits.... etc etc. Maintaining a relationship is not effortless. And, once you started living together.. it is really no different than a real marriage except that you don't have the legal right of a spouse. To me I think that is really unfair to ur other half.

Sunny Wed

Work is going better today. Finally figured out why the setup did not work all by luck; just stumpled onto the screen that had the wrong configuration.
However no new bug or crashes today.

Went out during lunch and had a Starbuck's almond biscotti but resisted the temptation and didn't buy any drink. Went back to Office and had my Horlicks drink with 1% milk instead. Today's lunch is < $2...not counting the Horlicks which is $4, the whole jar.

Talked to ex-vp after skating.... :'(..... said he's too busy hiring RF guy now... no time for me... first his priority is to hire whoever is not working... and then now his priority is to hire hardware ppl...sounded like my chances of going back there is getting lower and lower. Now it looks like I should never have taken this contract job :(.

Gloomy Tue

Had such a bad day today....

First my 1%milk ran out so I used the office 2%milk for my cereal... and I got "caught". The admin later sent out an email to everybody saying that that milk is for coffee only! Jeez. I just ran out of mine today not that I'm using urs all the time. So during lunch I went out and bought my own 1% 2L milk.

Then I'm trying to set up something for testing and I spent the whole day on it and I just couldn't get it working. The fact that the installation document is still in writing doesn't help. So now I might need to undo everything that I did today to go back to the original version and resume my testing on some other things. What a waste of time and effort.

On a lighter note I finally contacted my ex-VP but he was in a meeting and we didn't talk at all. I only left him my number thru the phone and also sent it to him through e-mail. I so wanted to get out of this place (dirty lab, noisy pagers, carcinogenic?? transmitter/exciter??) and back to my clean quiet office. At least on the phone he doesn't sound like he is avoiding me....

Had too much bran today I think. So had terrible run tonite. Had to take washroom break almost every 3 laps.... toke me forever to finish 15 laps.
And, I had a blister on my left foot now . Next time I better remember to put on a bandage before I go running.

Thanksgiving

Sat...
Went rock climbing (Cliffhanger in Vancouver) with John and several of my ex-coworkers as planned. Scary at first. Don't quite know which rock to grap/stand. Almost finished 3 walls; 1 easy route, almost finished 1 harder route, and 1 5.8 route. Also did the ladder and the "cave"(climbing sideways). Sorta cheated on the ladder, used a lot of my wrists and shoulders (climbing with my palms facing towards me). Overall I think I did pretty good for a first timer. I think I got my money's worth...$20bux!!!
Saw one of John's exs too. Turns out that she's an avid climber. Such a small world!!!

Then went to KFC... John's craving... I only had 3 pieces tho...shouldn't be too bad. But, the chicken wings were really good. I like the honey garlic one better than the BBQ one. BBQ has a lil weird taste in it... a lil mexican taste.

Afterwards we saw "Infernal Affairs 3". Didn't totally get it. I think 1 and 2 is better.

Then we walked to the video store, rented "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", and walked back. The movie is GREAT!!! So romantic!!! and not boring!!! I think its main theme is that if 2 ppl r destined to be together then no matter what happens they'd still end up together. It's just too bad that I was SO SO SO tired when I was watching that movie. But I still managed to stay awake throughout the whole movie.
BTW, on our way to the store, a guy was biking on the pedestrian sidewalk. He said "Excuse me"... John thought he meant we're blocking the road... so he got worked up and yelled at the guy. I totally think that he meant "Excuse me" as in "sorry...". When we walked back we saw that guy again... he said "Sorry for blocking our way" so I think I'm rite. He was just being polite before.

Sun...
Went to church in the morning. My shoulders hurt. Not my forearms tho. Probably because we did stretching with our forearms but not our shoulders. Cuz at that moment we had sore forearms not shoulders. But, I'm still able to run. Only did 13 laps cuz I was in a hurry to go meet with John for shopping.

We went to Lansdown again and bought some new pants and a plastic hockey stick for John. I bought Ashlee Simpsons "new" CD. (so far I only like "Pieces of me" and "Shadow").

Then we had supper with my family in Fisherman's Terrace. We had "Chicken with Honey flavour", "Tong choy with beef", "Pan Fried ... fish", and a cold dish with BBQ pork, soy sauce chicken, baby octopus, and jelly fish strings. They were all very good. Service was good too. It's kinda weird to talk to my family in English. But, I guess it went great. John was quite good with the chopsticks and was adventurous enuf to try the baby octopus. And, he likes it.

Afterwards we rented Star Wars IV. Besides the quality of the tape and the history/background of Star Wars, it was a very good movie. I like R2D2. I don't like Luke Skywalker, he looks weird.

Mon...
Had brunch with John's dad in Ricky's. It's so very good. I only had the fruit plate (pineapple, grape, orange, yogurt and 2 pieces of toast) cuz I still felt bloated from the supper the nite before. But everything on the menu seems very tasty. I think I'd like to go there for brunch again....on an empty stomach. I didn't talk too much throughout the brunch. I don't know Politics and he doesn't know figure skating. But I wasn't totally silent.. so I guess it was ok.... I'm thinking our common ground is John... maybe next time we should talk more about John. His dad said he's surprised that John brought me along cuz it was usually just john and his parents... Is that good or bad??

Then we went shopping around in Richmond Center. Our goal is to buy John some new sweatpants.... but I ended up buying a new jacket and pant for running/skating and he didn't get anything. And we walked outside a bit to get to the car cuz he was afraid that I might see more stuffs and want to try them on... That's so funny... in a way. I'm such an impulse buyer sometimes .

Then John went home and did more homework... and I went out with my family for lunch.... again... WOW ate so much today! We went to Tropika. Had the fried rice being served on top of half a pineapple, bbq skewers, fish balls with rice noodles soup, and fried rice with egg, bean sprout, and some very salty stuffs... (probably called "malay jan"??) I just had lil bits of everything.

Just a lil while after I went running with John. Need to burn off those extra calories. I did 8.5 laps. John's knee hurt a lot today so then we stopped and walked around in the park. So many mosquitoes... at one time.. a flock of them "enveloping" John's "tasty" jacket. Then we ran 5 extra laps... and John's limping afterwards. Hope he'll be ok tmr