Suppose to Move In With a New Stranger
This story is maybe a little complicated and I'm still not sure exactly what happened. My boss Phoebe has a friend named Ling. Apparently she is living with another girl name Vera (Still getting adjusted to Hong Kong names). I never met Ling (though Alvin tells me she has great legs). They thought that since Ling was moving out that I could take her room as long as Vera was fine with it. I went over to take a look at the place and I liked it, the most important thing was there, I could shower separately from my toliet. The girls were relatively clean as well so the place seem fine. It boiled down to personalities at this point. Vera hasn't lived with a guy before, and she has to decide if I was good enough to live with. I can see it is pretty scarey for a girl to choose to live with a guy, even though in North America we have become accustomed to it. Vera seems like a good person. She told me straight up the cost of their rent so that I could break it down. She seemed a little shy with so many people around but she said she felt okay with it and wanted to consult with Ling. I heard through the grape vine this girl can't make her own decisions. Anyways, we made arrangements for me to live with them (while Ling was still around) and they could test me out. I was going to live in the Living room and just split the rent and utilities. Nothing I haven't done before (Westmount anyone?). The night before I was suppose to move Vera calls me up and tells me she feels it will probably be easier if I moved in with another guy and that she had talked to one of her guy friends and made arrangements for me to live with her. This was kind of freaky. I don't really know Vera already, even though I felt she was an honest person. But I really don't know about her friends. These two guys were talking to me and one of them was trying to speak to me in a broken English to make it easier on me. But when I replied back in English he didn't understand, so it was probably broken Chinese vs Broken English. To make a long story short, I kept getting cancelled on, and I ended up moving all my luggage from Tin Shui Wai to Tin Hau (New Territories to HK Island) just to be cancelled on again. I ended up moving in with Phoebe and Erine. Thus the rest of my adventures downtown begin. We doubled our effort to find me a place to live.
MJ and shopping in Mong Kok
This is my first day off. Wendy's mother and husband go to play MJ on the weekends. They go to some place near Mong Kok where a group of about 14 people play. "Uncle" took me around Mong Kok to look for t-shirts to buy for my brother. There are tons of little stalls setup in this one part where so many cheap and fake goods are sold. The streets are full of people in the market, native and foreigners alike. I ended up getting one t-shirt from a vendor ($60 HKD) and a pair of white "DC" skater shoes ($200 HKD). Of course everything I got was fake and I got ripped off. What a lesson learned; I found out on the second day after I noticed my shoes were falling apart. Still it was a good day spent seeing the sights. We went to a big restaurant afterwards and I got to meet with the MJ group. They invited me out the next week which I will try to make if I can. They're an older playful bunch.
2nd Night in Hong Kong in Some Girl's Living Room
Hong Kong really is such a busy place. I haven't had any chance to really rest. I met Alvin at work and he gave me a bit of orientation. I started to shadow his work for the day and he was nice enough to invite me along at night to hang out with his friends who were visiting as was as introducing me to a hookup for a cell phone. This is the first time I have been in the reverse, usually we add a UWO friend into our Waterloo group. One of his friends was also named Freddy making him the 2nd Asian Freddy that I have met. The interesting thing was that out of the 4 of us I was the shortest. I think we were getting quite the attention that night, Alvin and another of his friends I would think girls would find attractive, the other one was the tallest out of us, and I kind gave people a baseline to look at the rest I suppose. After a conversation I had at my last lunch meeting with Gene, Wendy, and Ji Na I decided to try a slide phone. I ended up picking up a Samsung SGH-630C since it was a slightly older model and I could get a good price for it. Nick, the guy who hooked me up out in Mong Kok, managed to get me the phone for $1750 HKD (about $300 CAD). It was pretty tempting to get the Motorola Razor but at close to $4000 HKD it really wouldn't be a smart decision for someone who just got into the country and doesn't even have a place to live. I got to see a little bit of night life in Hong Kong. We went out to eat first at Time Square. There is a nice Japanese restaurant above. I was so surprise to see such a long line up for the elevator. Good thing Alvin can turn on the charm, we got some good smile filled service from the girls working in the restaurant and the food was pretty good. Not a bad start in Hong Kong. After we met up with three other friends of Alvin. I would find out later that two of them worked at readership as well, one of them I actually met before when I was out eating with Erine and Phoebe. We met up with Tina and Jason plus another of Tina's roommates and headed to this Lounge called "Shelter". The waitress (Joyce I think she said her name was) really lit up when she saw Alvin. I met another friend there, a guy named Carlos who was travelling around China. It turns out that Carlos works over at ATI and knows Aaron (my old Waterloo roommate). It really is a small world isn't it? Carlos is a looker as well, we really stood out that night. Anyways, they partied really late and I was stuck with the MTR closed. I still did not know Hong Kong enough to get back to Tin Shui Wai from the island and I was told the Taxi would cost me an arm and a leg because I need to cross over. Not only that I couldn't explain my location in Chinese. So Tina offered to let me stay in her living room. Since Tina was out with her roommate that night it seemed like it would be okay. I met the third roommate the next morning. Actually it was kind of funny, she had wandered out to clean up and use the washroom. I swear she looked right at me but kept walking and I heard her run the water to wash her face. On her way back to her room, she noticed me again, but this time she really noticed me. I didn't explain my situation well which probably didn't help, I started of stammering about how I just arrived in HK less than a week, etc, etc. It all worked out in the end when I said I was Alvin's friend. That was certainly a memorable way to start my stay in Hong Kong.
Arrival in Hong Kong
The plane ride was uneventful. I was asked to change my seat because this young couple was split up but that really wasn't anything. Cathy Pacific is pretty nice. I have to admit, the stewardess for the asian airlines are a better sight. It must be diffice all the time as well. When I got off the plane, I was a little lost in the HK airport. It was my first time seeing the doors that separate the subway platform from the trains. I was a little lost in the HK airport. It was my first time seeing the doors that separate the subway plateform from the trains. I was lucky to have the 3 prettiest stewardesses ride in my train car. One of tem even chatted with me until the security check point. I arrived an hour early, there was no problems at the airport, though I think they may have cut one of the locks on my luggage. I'll have to remember to ask my brother to look for it back in Toronto. I left him a big mess to clean up. As soon as I stepped out into the streets of Hong Kong I felt the humidity. It was so early in the morning, but you can feel the heat creep into your skin. I had no problems following Wendy's instructions to her mother's place. It all worked out perfectly. I met her at the Mei Sum in Tin Shui Wai. I went into Readership right after (my place of employment). The MRT is really convient. It is very convient to use the Octopus card to take the transite. Too bad toronto doesn't have something similar, that dexit card is really dumb. Phoebe met me at the Tin Hau station and I was introduced to Readerhip. I started my house hunting as well. It really is expensive to live here. the rooms are so small. what I'm not use to is the fact that some of the bachelor appartments have the shower/bathroom/toliet all bundled into one small area. you take a shower in the same room as the toliet. I hope to find a place I can share. right now I do not know how long I will stay though. My bosses's boyfriend, Erine, took me around to meet a few agents. they just have an office setup in the corner of some place and you walk in. They get up and show people around walking around the city. What I wasn't prepared for in Hong Kong was the rain. It really started to pour, my shoes were soaked, and the water even started to climb up my jeans towards my knees. the rain starts and stops like typical mountain side cities.
Last Lunch before my flight
My last day was still a busy day. I spent the morning calling companies to cancel bills and to change my cell phone over to Ming Jian's boyfriend. I had a last lunch meeting at the Japanese restaurant Tokyo Grill. I decided to bring Gene since he was in the area. We had to wait for Ji Na who got lost and Wendy surprised me by coming out as well. The service was pretty bad this time, the food was the same as normal, since it is pretty difficult to find a real Japanese noodle shop in Toronto, This is an old favourite. I went to return my router afterwards and went to the Starbucks at Yonge and Bloor for the last time. That Starbucks is one of my favourite spots, it started when Yoshiro and I were making the first video for Rui's birthday. I went home afterwards to finish packing. I was busy moving things right up to the last moment before Sai showed up to take me the the airport. Sai, gave me a preview to possibly the biggest surprise I have ever recieved. Sai and Mike apparently spent around a week putting together a going away video for me. I know video work is really intense so it wasn't quite finished yet. He gave me some sneak previews and it is looking very promising, I am dying to see the finished product. We spent some time at the airport before the plane. I appreciate all my friends, and Sai is one of the closest. He has always gone out of his way for me. This was totally an amazing surprise.
Return of the Surprise Birthdays
For the last 3 days I have gone to "Go For Tea" out in Richmond Hill. I had the same server twice in a row and at least this time I got to meet the day time staff. The plan was something thought up by Horace when we were actually at Go For Tea. I invited Alison and Jesse along the previous night from my farewell party. Ma Shite actually brought the cake and we went in separately, with Alison and Jesse bringing in the cake. The plan was that Jesse would pretend to be a guy name Tony and that we would force Sun Qiang to sing happy birthday to him. Sun Qiang's English name at Go For Tea happens to be Tony. It was ironic that when he was picking up the cake he made a comment to the waitress about "how did she knew it was his birthday"?
First off, originally Jesse and Alison was suppose to be seated right beside us, but some old man sat there instead. It was okay because they were seated right across from us, which turns out to be better. Except Sun Qiang went to the wrong table first, then turned around to Alison and Jesse's table. He put the cake down and almost ran off if we didn't stop him! All in all it was a success. He had just started working there, but now will be famous amongst the day staff. We have all sorts of happy photos of him with many of his female coworkers. I've never seen him so happy.
We went out to eat afterwards at Tako Sushi (Don Mills and Yorkmills). Ma Shi Te is so famous here, everytime we go we get free food on the house and discounts on the meals. The food isn't bad at all for a non-Japanese run Japanese restaurant. The service is pretty good, even with the grumpy serving girls. Arthur and Daag came up to see me for the last time from Waterloo. Daag has always been willing to drive to see me, even to Toronto. Arthur, only if it is important, and only if he remembers. But, I would hate to leave Canada without seeing both of them. Simon, Mike and Christine were also there briefly. We took about 2 hours to eat they must have wanted to kick us out.
I think I screwed up the plans for Poker because I had an extra 6 people with me. I was told poker was cancelled and we ended up eventually just going to Simon's to watch a movie; Kung Fu Hustler. It was okay funny, more Chinese than the previous one, but the sweet childhood love scene was too suddenly added in there.
I spent most of today sleeping so far, my cold or sickness has gotten a little worst. But, I really want to spend time with my friends before I leave. Leslie's coming over in a bit to get her computer fixed, then I'll probably head downtown to See Rui one last time and the Aritzia girls. Rui told me he just found out his favourite love has returned to Canada. Look out Naomi, the wolves are hunting.
Today started kind of slow, I tried to get a bit more sleep because of the late nights I have been pulling. The sun was nice enough to wake me, and I decided to get out in the afternoon to work out and visit my grandmother. I'm going to miss rollerblading here. The weather has been perfect for it, nice sunny days, and a cool 14 degrees C.
The work out was cut short, my parents made it into town and we just talked a little bit. I headed out right after for a get together hosted by my friends from Waterloo. They are really the best group of friends I have ever known. I was a floater most of my life between groups of friends. This group I feel like I belong in. It has been establish for quite some time, probaby over 7 years now. There is a strong bond between the people and a level of comfort that you can only find with a close group of friends.
The food tonight felt like I was at a wedding dinner. Coral picked the location because her mother insisted that she take her friends there some time. I was overwhelmed that 20 people came out to see me. I did not know I had so many close friends, we are usually so scattered these days.
The comic relief for the night was Andrew. He's a great guy, so I won't elaborate but he was a good man for taking my jokes. His new girl friend was looking for revenge though. I'd better hide my camera from her.
There is so much history in our group, I will really miss them. I recieved a lot of stories tonight about what I need to be aware of in Hong Kong. I left with a touch of fear. I'm use to an environment where I can be so open and helpful. My friends have always been around and they've been so dependable and honest. Even after I got home Mary called me, and repeated many of the same warnings. I'm a little afraid I will be cheated when I get to Hong Kong.
Time to get some sleep. I have another full day tomorrow. I wonder when I will ever find time to pack? But, tonight was well worth it. I can not thank my friends enough. I hope they all visit me.
So The Moving Begins
Jason came by this morning from London and we headed downtown to catch the new Starwars. I was hoping to plan a lunch meeting with either Gene or Lilly downtown but we didn't have a lot time and ended up making my last ditch run to Hosu to eat. Susan wasn't in, apparently she was injured, but I managed to say goodbye to Wonni. We had a waitress with a nice smile serving me. I forget her name though even though she told me.
Starwars was pretty good. Out of the new 3 Episode III was the best on. There's a lot of action in it, though there was quite a few bad acting scenes. Overall, it is worth seeing in the theatre for the starwars fans.
I got home and I really don't know what happened I wasted time online until I got ahold of Tiffany. She was nice enough to offer to use her van to help me move things. We ended up moving a small Ez Boy rocking chair, a 27" Prima TV, a small ikea desk, leather chair, ikea dresser and a white board out of my place and to my Grandmother's. I really owe her alot, she has been so helpful these days. My uncle from Halifax arrived last night apparently, and he also helped us out.
Horace and De treated me to Alice Fazooli. The mean was okay, I had some sort of Lamb sirloin steak which may have been medium rare but by the time I bit into it, it was medium. It was acceptable however. Our server was great, a very charasmatic personality. She also rides a motorcycle and is slightly afriad of electronics. In a short period of time we've [De, Horace, and I] started to bond well. They are really nice people, soft spoken and very playful. I will miss our talks of cameras, movies, and food. The summer is just around the corner and we only had begun to rollerblade. I know that people get home sick in a month or so after the "honeymoon" period is over. I didn't believe I would be affected, but last night I started to consider what I would miss leaving Canada. I shouldn't rush my last week so much.
We ended the night at Go for Tea in that area. De spent a third of the night trying to embarass me. She had friends over and wanted me to act gay with them in order to scare them. I was talking to one of the waitresses to arrange something for my friend and she wanted to push to get a phone number. We're trying to arrange a little birthday surprise as well.. more on that later...
Sold out by the Aritzia girls
The day started off well. Wendy made an arrangement for me to stay with her mother when I got to Hong Kong. I got out around noon to go to my grandmother's place to work out. I decided to take a little bit of extra time to help her buy groceries and was a little late getting downtown afterwards.
I was at Yonge and Finch station heading down the stairs to the subway platform. Even with my ipod shuffle blazing I heard the chimes go off. The wost thing, there's a person infront of me down the stairs. People are always slower than me, I get screwed over so many times by the person in front. Because I am familar with this, I pick a door slightly further down and I make a mad dash from the stairs just making it inside at full speed. I grabbed onto a pole to stop my movement and I heard my named called; it was Sora just behind me. That was a pleasant surprised, I had company all the way down to Eaton centre. I got off on Queen so I can go to the bay to buy more jewelry cleaner for Wendy's mother and got out to find Lilly and Linda who were shopping along Queen. I took the girls up to the Gorilla Surplus shop to look quickly for an s-video to s-video cable. I found it, and an s-video to RCA cable. But I ended up not buying it, I probably won't even have a TV over there. We headed towards the 168 Tea Shop on Queen, and Lilly treated me to some Ben and Jerrys. They took off to someone else's going away party, and I went over to Rui's to deal with his slow computer problem.
Stopping by Aritzia I ran into Amy and Anna working. I got some contact information and tried to convince them to come out to celebrate with me tonight. It ended up that no one could make it out on a Wednesday night and I just ate at Frans with Rui and Takeshi. Sora dropped by again later at Rui's and we just hung out there all night. Takeshi gave me a going away present as well. a Japanese
Omamori.
We'll try to reschedule a time for the girls this weekend. At least Germaine called me.
Gay Ol' Meetings
Tiffany managed to keep me up until about 3:30 am. I think we got kicked out of every place we went to; Asia Legend, and the Ten Ren at Metro. We had some really long conversations, and again dove into the mind of women. I gave her a quick peak at the web development tools she had requested and opened her eyes to a whole new world of ebooks.
I was so sleepy waking up this morning, But I needed to get out the door. I was lucky enough to run into Wendy online, and arranged a meeting with her for the afternoon. The biggest accomplishment was going to get my Tetanus Diphtheria Polio shot, and my Hepatitis A shot. I'm just about ready for my trip. Wendy has been helping me locate a place to stay in Hong Kong. Apparently her Uncle is moving out, so we are trying to talk to the owner to see if I can move in. I still need to make the call to see, hopefully things will go through.
My meeting with Wendy was great though, it has been a while and it really was nice to see her again. She has been a terrific influence on me (and also a bad one at times, her and Sai are famous for tempting me to buy things) and has helped me grow a lot since I've come to Toronto. We did a bit of shopping in the mall and she treated me to some snacks at Starbucks in Indigo. A while back she helped me choose a pair of sunglasses. We took a lot of pictures back then, and this time around we took a few pictures of her trying on sunglasses and hats. She has this tendency to collect gay pictures. I have to admit she is very thoughtful with her gifts, she gave me the perfect gift. She gave me an adapter so that I can plug my Notebook into the sockets in Hong Kong. Once I am travelling, I will rely so much on my notebook. Becauseof this meeting I was really late for class.
I had about 30 minutes of Mandarin class today. We were dealing with time, but really I won't remember unless I practice. We had a smaller group go out to eat today, Sara, Caesar and the regular Chinese crowd of Ma Shi Te, and Sun Qiang. I also invited Takeshi to meet my classmates. I showed them table cooking down in Korea Town. The famous Korea Village, probably the best Korean restaurant down there. It isn't cheap, but the people are always friendly, and the food is good (in my opinion). An interesting thing happened afterwards. Takeshi road his bike out to meet us, and we were commenting on it (being gay, etc) but actually it really is a stylish bike. I have to admit it suits him. A person literally got out of his SUV across the street to ask him where he bought that bike. He must be very proud of his choice now!
I am still trying to juggle my schedule for the rest of the week. I am not doing too well for time actually, and I'm so tired right now I actually have bags under my eyes. I feel bad, but my schedule doesn't fit well for seeing Starwars with Jason tomorrow night like we originally planned. I saw storm troopers and Jedi in training camped outside the Grande Theatre near Sheppard station. Wayne was planning on going around 8 I believe, so I'll have to tell him to go earlier.
It has been a long time since I've seen my old friends. Life has been busy with a lot of new friends lately but there's a lot of history and feeling with my old friends, and it was really special seeing them all again.
We started the evening at Carol's potluck. The amount of people was staggering, it was bigger than your standard classroom. No matter where you were in the house, the air was a constant buzz of talking. The drinking was really something as well, I've never seen a person turn purple from drinking alcohol but at that party I did. Horace seemed a little stressed, but there's a lot of bodies to keep track of and a lot of spilled drinks to watch over. A coke can exploded in the kitchen leaving quite the mark. I ran into Kevin there which was a pleasant surprise, he's still not done his Masters at Waterloo but he's getting around to it. He decided to join us at C Lounge downtown later in the evening.
It turned out to be a good choice for him. He seemed to enjoy himself, there were a quite a few people and we managed to get in on guess list. I was just so happy to see my friends. It really has been too long, and it truely was a lot of fun. I danced the night away like I normally do around just my friends. I really enjoy dancing, good music and being in the company of my friends. Since I've only made the decision to buy my ticket to Hong Kong yesterday, my friends (and my parents) just found out today. There was a lot of shock, and encouragement. Alison broke into tears which really tore at my heart. She's such a great person, I didn't want her crying that night. She put up a strong face though, I promised to rollerblade to her place before I leave since it is so close. I'm fearful that I do not have enough time to do even my packing. But there's a lot of people asking to meet up one more time before I leave. I really can't turn them down.
Tomorrow I will be out at the trade convention with Ma Shi Te. I hope to pick up a feel on how the Chinese market connects with the Canadian market. Monday is open at the moment, Tues I have class and I need to make arrangements to meet up with Gene. Weds I will probably need to go downtown again to meet up with different people. Jason is coming in from London and we will be preparing for Star Wars Episode III.
Now all of a sudden I wish I had more time... I really value my friends, they have been and still are the best. I am proud of each one of them, and have many stories to bring abroad. Though I should probably leave the complicated homosexual relationships isolated to Canada.
Hong Kong Here I Come...
The other night I recieved an e-mail from Phoebe at reader-ship pretty much giving me the go ahead to come to HK. She outlined the basic pay which should be good enough for me to live so I've decided not to waste anytime (since I've wasted so much already). She requested that I arrive on the 25th of May. I had Dim Sum yesterday with Chen Ming Jian and some of her friends. She helped me book my flight so I'm already to go. I have a lot of packing to do this coming up week, my mind hasn't fully absorbed what I'm doing, but maybe it is better that I don't think about it and concentrate on the things I need to have done. Nothing is set, I just bought a plane ticket with no guarentees.
It is raining today, and Carol is suppose to have a get together. I'm a little fearful of it because it sounds like she'll have about 30+ people at her house. De and Horace sound like they might not stick around that long so I might be left fending for myself with Simon. I still don't know about this evening with Andrew, the weather is really putting a damper on my mood.
The good news. I picked up an Apple ipod shuffle off of redflagdeals. It is used but you can't tell (supposingly 5 weeks old) but $140 for a 1 Gig shuffle is pretty good. I already used it as a flash memory key transfering picture files from my computer to Ma Shi Te.
Korean Day
I was long overdue for a hair cut. Since I had a date with 지나 yesterday night I though I could be efficent and just get everything I needed done down town at the same time. I waited around the morning because I was in the position to pick up an ipod shuffle for a reasonable price but the buyer had not replied before noon and I decided to leave. Actually Leslie was trying to fix her laptop which kept me around for a little while longer. She'll probably just drop it by my house and I'll set it all up for her like her desktop. I saw Takeshi online before I left and had a short conversation. I found out that he wasn't working today so just before I got to Yonge and Finch I gave him a call and told him to meet me at Bathurst station. He bought a bike to travel around the city and it turns out to be one of those stylish old style bikes. It suited him so well I had to take a picture.
My typical spot is a place called Hair Classic down in Korea town. I honestly recommend this place to any guy with short hair. She gets female visitors but I do not have any experience to recommend the location for a female hair cut. I use to go to the one beside Hair Classic (called Cinderella) which is owned and run by a Korean lady who lived in Japan for a short period of time. She's not bad as well but was $5 more for the same type of job. Actually I prefer someone younger cutting my hair, they are more in tune with what looks right, even for a short hair style it comes out a little different.
On my way up Takeshi ran into his old roommate from Oakville. That was a big surprise and they started chatting and totally forgot about me. I told Takeshi quickly that I would go up first then since I would be a while. I have been going to the environment for so long, the people there are very comfortable with me. The atmosphere is very friendly when I am around. Like usualy the owner is very quick cutting my hair. Efficent I would say. They had a new part time worker this time and he was very friendly. After my haircut we were sitting around for a little bit talking about languages, the differences and similarities between Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. They taught us a few Korean phrases while we were there and then we left.
I was running close to my scheduled date time and I was taught by Alison never to be late for a girl! But actually, I always am, I'm horrible keeping track of time. Takeshi and I had a conversation about what was going on with Rui over at his place. He remembered to bring my MD disc and my "Pride" drama DVDs. He seems to easily agree with my decisions and he even got to meet 지나.
We went out to a restaurant called Myth, recommended by Alison. The environment by the patio is nice. I wasn't exactly fond of the square paper covering the tables, I think it defeats the purpose of having the table clothes. I also did not like the fact that the middle of the floor seemed more like a club then a restaurant. I think those would be my only complaints. There really was no one in the restaurant around us so the service was excellent. We recieved a lot of attention, they were prompt with the orders, and also mindful of our water. We both had a kind of sea food pasta, 지나 had one that was specifically mussels and shrimp in a creme sauce, and I had a generic sea food pasta. My dish was a touch spicey, enough to give it a little bit of a kick without it being overwhelming and distracting. The creme sauce in 지나's dish was just right as well, flavourful without being too runny or too thick. I think they did an excellent job on the meal.
We headed over to Demetre's a little bit afterwards which just happened to be across the street. It has been a while since I went to this one and I miss having the sweet desserts. She was told by her friends to try Demetre's so this was the perfect opportunity for her. I think it has been too long since I've had such sweet desserts. My fudge chocolate cake was so sweet it was a little difficult, even for me, to finish but I managed. Overall I would rate the evening a success, I'll have to thank Alison for the recommendation, this is one of the few times she choose a good restaurant. Well... maybe not one of the few times...
Chinese Style Dinner
I recieved a nice invitation from Ma Shi Te to a chinese style dinner. I was interested to see how to cook sea food in a traditional chinese way. I was told by Chen Ming Jian that all Shanghai men can cook and that they typically clean for their women. This of course raises the bar for Shanghai women and makes some of them lazy. I needed to grab a few groceries myself so I gave Ma Shi Te a call before heading out to Food Basic, he was actually at the grocery store but said he was going to be about 30 mins before he can drop by to pick me up. Perfect I thought, it only takes me about 10 minutes to walk to Food Basic, I should have just enough time. It ended up that he finished in about 10 minutes and he was at my house the same time I arrived at Food Basic. I told him to come meet me at Woodside Square and that I had to grab a few items. I tried to quickly do my shopping, and while I was inside doing my shopping he told me that he's a little nervous because he left the house with no one in it, and he was boiling water. I still needed to drop off items and pick up stuff at home! Plus he wanted to stop by a Chinese grocery store to buy soya sauce and some "lump" sugar.
His town house is very nice. The parking outside is really cramped but I was surprised at the amount of space indoors. He really went all out for dinner, he picked up fish, a lobster and short ribs. Watching him cook the lobster was a bit strange. I mean I know how it is done, but we did not have a cover so he used a large plate to hold down the lobster as it moved around in the hot water. About 5 minutes he turns the lobster, it moves a little bit still but seems pretty weak now and quickly it turns a bright red.
Overall the meal was delicious and very simple to make. I'm already trying to think of some ways to dress it up a little bit.
Sushi after Mandarin class
I had a great work out with Ma Shi Te and Sun Qiang last night. We were at my grandmother's condo until 11ish. We really tried to kill Sun Qiang, I don't think he wants to come work out with us agian, but we will force him.
We made arrangements again to meet for dinner after my Mandarin class today. We had a fairly large group this time with Aileen and Sara joining us (there was 10 people in total). We decided on Japanese style food this time. Specifically at a shop called Takomi Sushi near the corner of Bloor and Bathurst. Apparently there was no waitress that night, the person serving us, was actually another customer who just happened to be a regular. The night went well. I learned some valuable information about my classmates and I think Sun Qiang and Ma Shi Te had a lot of fun. We harassed the Korean waitress/customer a couple of times and then asked her to join us at the end. She finished up her meal with us and we took a group picture afterwards. Overall a successful Mandarin class dinner get together again.
This week might be a bit busy. Planning on meeting up with Ma Shi Te to work out tomorrow, he's suppose to teach me a Chinese method for cooking fish. Thursday I will be meeting with Ji Na who has just returned from her trip to Vancouver, and Friday I might be going down to Waterloo. Saturday we are double booked for events so that will need to be figured out.
The weather is warming up, and the events are picking up. Now I wish my Asia trip could be settled.
There has been a debate about principles surrounding frendship that has always existed between myself and another friend. We had a flare up based around this disagreement of views and I've decided to blog about it after seeing
my cousin's post on personality types. My cousin and I are both actually ENTJ and his post reminded me why I take certain positions within arguments.
My friend has always taken a position that suggests that friendships are above everything. Certainly I will not debate that friendships are not important, but I still have a moral standard that I need to balance with my friendships.
There was a story passed on from a Korean friend, about a boy who boasts to his father that he has so many true friends. His father tells his child that his friends are not really his true friends and provides a test to his son. They kill a pig and put the remains into a large bag. He is told to take the pig to each of his friend's houses and ask for help, telling them that he was forced to murder someone and that he doesn't know what to do. He goes to several friends and one after another they give him an excuse to keep him out of the house. Eventually the father takes the pig and approaches his own best friend who takes him inside without question offering to help in anyway.
I can not say, even with a best friend, that I could trust every situtation without question. I will even question my parents, and myself. Everyone is prone to mistakes, no matter how smart they are.
The incident that brought this whole debate up again happened with my friend and one of his friends. He felt that his friend had intentionally infected him with a virus via MSN messenger. He was emotional about it because he felt his friend betrayed his trust by sending him a virus and apparently the other friend "mocked" him about it. He was looking for revenge and looking for me to help him. I do have some background with security, attending a couple of
SANS conferences, but of course we were presented with a moral guideline not to use our knowledge for ill. I felt that for revenge in a situtation where nothing is really damaged was uncalled for. But, should I be there when my friend requests help? Help to inflict damage on others because damage was inflicted on him?
I wonder how other people feel about this situtation. Should I quesiton my friend's request, or should I have acted because he is such an important friend?
As I wrestled with the thought my friend Jason passed me a quote that fits this situtation perfectly. One of the greatest works in the English literature is Shakespeare's Hamlet. The play's theme is nearly identical to this basic concept of duty versus morality. Act 1 Scene 3 as Laertes prepares to leave his father implores him to commit a few "precepts in thy memory". Namely the famous quote " This above all,--to thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."
The evening with Ma Shi Te (马世特) was pretty good. After giving Jason a quick tour of Pacific and saying goodbye, we headed over to my grandmother's condo to work out. We started out with a nice twenty minute run, and I proceeded to wear him out with a proper work out routine. He met up with my parents, and I think my grandmother was happy that he could speak the Shanghai dialect. He ended up treating me to some chinese over by Finch and Don Mills and I got home pretty late.
Only to be woken up in the morning when my parents came by to help Gary move things. I did nothing really after that, except try to prepare a Windows 98 SE cd and a Windows 2000 install cd for my Uncle. Gary's friend John got ahold of me about going to a party tonight, so I made the commitment with them but headed down earlier to meet up with Rui. He had some trouble at work to report, and some good news on a potential target. I think the waitress at Hana will remember him after our night's trip. She was nice enough to teach me the meaning of 그래. I know it should be easy, but I hear it in movies and it sometimes doesn't fit the translation.
I ended up at Down One Lounge down by Church and Front St. It was R&B/Hip hop with some funk today, a good combination. I didn't know but apparently it was a birthday party. I met a lot of people and we had a good time, just chilling and playing pool. I had a surprise bumping into Brian though (the magician) which was cool, and he wowed the whole group of girls. They were nice enough to give me a ride home and now I'm beat.
Late visitors
I fear my Circadian rhythm will be thrown off again if I continue this trend. After the previous night's 4:00 am work on the webhosting problems, my friend Jason informed me he had a problem. One of his room mates needed to catch a plan at 3:30 am this morning in Toronto. Jason is out in London. The girl originally had a ride from a female friend, who went to pick up her drunk brother and was beaten up by said drunk brother! Jason being the chivalrous drove her, since he has some sort of training at Sprint in Toronto today. But, since he has from 4 am to 9 am to kill I offered to let him come over. We stayed up for a bit to catch up on old Sarnia gossip and managed to get an hour or two of sleep. I still feel tired, but the sun is up and I should be prepared to go. I have made arrangements with 陈鸣剑 and 马世特 for a late lunch. If I try to go back to sleep, I don't think I can wake up on time.
I spent a little time last night tweaking a template for digit7.com. I haven't used a lot of web development tools for a while. Photoshop I have always been familar with, and the changes from Photoshop CS to Photoshop CS2 really don't effect me too much. Now that
Adobe has bought Macromedia I need to decide whether or not I should become familar with the Golive interface or try the upgraded dreamweaver. In the end I decided with Golive. If Adobe audition is any indication, Adobe will assimulate Macromedia into it's unified studio. Flash there really isn't an alternative to Macromedia Flash. The new MX has a more complicated layout then I was use to. It took me a while even to find the library files for the Flash project I had opened. Luckily I am highly adaptive.
Website Woes
I had a meeting with Tiffany yesterday. She's been quite helpful in my goal to go to Asia. Her brother (who recently shot a video which can be viewed
here) has been helping me a lot with a company in Hong Kong. Here father is planning on a web presence for their business prior to a major trade show in China. Arthur and I have one domain hosted on readyhosting already. Another friend of mine has bought hosting from us, but due to a problem with the company holding the DNS (Justweb) we've been having a complication with the account. Arthur and I have been eyeing digit7.com for a while, it originally was taken when we registered digit7.ca but we decided to take the leap and move to digit7.com.
Tiff and I ran numerous names for her business website last night until close to 4 am. I've been trying to get things setup since this morning though and until I'm certain we have the .ca name and can transfer the nameserver then I won't setup another account. In the last month we've cancelled 4 accounts with readyhosting, and have only recreated one (digit7.com).
Other news, my classmate Matt reports that the sakura have yet to bloom in Highpark so we still have a week or two to wait possibly. My dinner in Korea town was small this time around with only Jody, Lee, and Ma Shi Te coming out, but pleasant as always. It looks like we'll be turning this into a weekly event.
I hope to hear good news from HK this week, and also I hope I can get all this webhosting head ache resolved. I got screwed over by a one time setup fee for the new digit7.com, but it is over and done with.
