This is going to be my last night in Toronto for this trip. I did feel a little strange during the day, leaving a place causes people to think and remember. I had lunch first with De over at Jack Astor's. This is one of those fun restaurants. They give you crayons at the table and you can draw all over the paper they cover the table with. Since my brother and his friends are artists they have a tendency to go wild there. I've had to postpone my meeting with De countless times this trip but I was glad we finally got to meet up. We chatted about a lot of things and then she helped me finish some of my shopping over at Walmart. Ms Pamm should be happy because that's where I picked up most of her stuff.
I went back to my grandmother's place and had my final farewell. My grandmother has been crying a lot this trip. She's a bit overly dramatic at times, but she does end up getting her way most of the time. It has been pretty difficult juggling the family time with my friends time.
I planned to stay over at Simon's my last night in Toronto to make things easier. Simon picked up my luggage and we hung out at his place until we were ready to go. and then off to Jen's house for my final party in Toronto for 2006.
Last night to see my school friends this trip. Last night in Toronto. Last night of 2006.
I had a great time at the party. I got to meet a lot of new friends this time around and I did a bit more drinking then I normally do for New Years Eve. The summary is all in the pictures so if you're interested take a peak and enjoy!
Happy New Years! Best of luck 2007!
Pictures:
My Shutterfly PicturesJen's icturesVeronica's PicturesLabels: Canada, Friends
Hot Pot and Chilling with Old Friends
We pretty much relaxed today. Sai hosted a big hotpot at his house with most of his brothers and their girlfriends. Noel was there of course and I got to invite a few friends over whom I haven't seen for quite sometime. I was chatting with Daag online and Dan and I told them to drop by. Dan has met Simon before back in Japan. We've been good friends for a while, ever since first year. We all watched the Toronto/Ottawa game (damnit! c'mon Leafs!) had some delicious home hot pot and just chilled. It was interesting trying to have a conversation with their younger brother. He is a fairly introverted guy and somehow we just ended up talking with his girl friend most of the time.
The timing was really tight though and i felt a little bad but I had to leave the group to meet up with another friend. Even though I would love to mix and match all my friends together so that I could see them all, friendships and people aren't like that. Some people you form a friendship with but it is a very personal kind of friendship. They aren't looking to expand, or they're shy, and so I end up having to pick and choose.
There's another interesting story about the next person I was meeting up with. Apparently Noel helps out a friend at a beauty salon. They had a company Christmas party and Noel invited Simon to go. To entice him to show up she mentioned there was a cute girl by the name of Mary working there. Not that Simon was interested in meeting other cute girls, but with his super memory Simon remembered another person named Mary. The Mary Simon knew was one I introduced to him who use to work at Pacific Mall. Noel assured Simon that she wouldn't know this Mary as this Mary wasn't a
CBC. Noel made a call and it came out that the girl was the same girl I introduced Simon to years ago. Of course Noel would chat with Mary at work and Mary had no clue she actually knew Noel's boyfriend already.
So I had dessert and
Tim Hortons with Mary and went home to start my packing for my trip to
Vancouver.
Labels: Canada, Friends
It is nearing the end of my trip and my schedule is filling up. Sai and I took a trip downtown to meet up with our ex-coworker, and friend, Wendy. I picked up an
iRiver S10 for her in HK and a pair of rhinestone studded ear phones for her friend Arifa. We had a pleasant lunch got to catchup a little bit but, it was short lived since she had to make it back to work.
We did a quick walk around Fairview mall and then headed to our next stop. Seems like everyone is getting their own place these days, the next house visit belongs to yet another ex-coworker and friend. One of the smartest and nicest girls I've had the pleasure of meeting is Veronica. She has moved around quite a bit but recently purchased a place with her boyfriend. I had picked up some cosmetic products for her as well, with some help from Angie, and this was our next brief drop off. Her boyfriend and her had some photos taken (which looked suspiciously like wedding photos) in China. I have to admit I like the wedding photos taken in Asia a lot more than the ones I've seen in North America. The quality and the feeling is a lot more professional.
The last stop for the day was a
house warming for another friend. He had the most creative segment of the farewell video given to me when I moved to Hong Kong.
Right around when I left Toronto, about a year and a half ago, I saw these two hooking up. Lia forgot about me already even though at the time everyone was talking about the racy photo I managed to capture of the two of them. I'm happy for Andrew in terms of making this step they seem great together and it is always good to see my friends happy and progressing in life.
This was another good chance to catchup with my good friends from back home. I introduced them to
The Big Brain Academy, we had some good food, dessert, some
Texas Hold'em Poker,
Xbox, and
MJ action. The poker kept us there until around 3am.
This trip has just been great. I guess the best part is going back to see my friends but having the feeling like I never really left. These are your good friends for life. If you know Andrew and Lia drop by their place. It is pretty chill'n.
Labels: Canada, Friends
I've been spending a lot more time with family then I initially planned. Not that it is a bad thing per se but it really has cut into the time I have with my friends. I have to say sorry to those friends I haven't had much of a chance to call and/or see. My family is important to me and since I only have one remaining grandparent left I of course will be at
her birthday.
I didn't do too much during the day. I was suppose to meet Veronica but due to problems related to contacting her we didn't really have enough time so we postponed that meeting. I went to get my teeth cleaned and then just proceeded to dinner with family.
The good side of this was spending a lot of time with my extended family. I don't see my cousins that much but I love my cousins. There is kind of a bit of a problem when we meet for my grandmother's birthday. I never paid attention to it in the past but it really showed this year and my grandmother was kind of upset.
Our family structure on that side is a little strange. Each family speaks a different dialect of Chinese at home. It all depends on which two couples were married. My grandmother really only speaks a Ninbo (similar to a Shanghai style) dialect. Since our cousins speak a different dialect than I do we all end up using English. Which is one language my grandmother can't do.
Despite my grandmother being unhappy, I really enjoyed the night with my family. It is just too bad we couldn't accommodate more.
Labels: Birthdays, Canada
Toronto Part 2
Back in Toronto for Christmas. The weather has been crazy mild this year. I was really hoping for a white Christmas but that wasn't going to happen for sure. A lot of things happened so I just have to summarize quickly.
Spent a lot of time with family at first. I really have to thank Simon for helping me out and driving me around everywhere. We even had a trip to the beaches to drop of a present for Janice. That was really weird since we were outside this guy's family's house forever trying to decide if we should go in through the unlocked door to confirm their identity (no one was home) or go bother a neighbour. We ended up going to their neighbour who wanted us to go away fearing we were trying to sell her things but we quickly blurted out our intent and she told us that the family went to a house party across the street. I heard through Janice later that they actually did recieve their present.
While my parents were still here I went to check out their new apartment condo out by Yonge and Sheppard. Pretty much right beside my cousin's apartment.
I met up with Rick down at Go for Tea. That tea house is doing really well judging by the amount of people waiting by the door. Ten Ren opened up a few more shops with some equally long wait times.
Jesse and Alison were nice enough to invite us over to
their new apartment down in Sauga. They were renovating for a while and I'm pretty happy I got to see most of it before I left. The colours are really different and they really make the place look modern. I personally love their new place, it feels like it came out of a catalog. Jessie prepared a terrific dinner for us and we chilled there talking for quite a long time. Best of luck to them and I promised not to share the photos until they shared it first with their families.
Labels: Canada, Friends, Travel
Back in Sarnia
I had a relaxing week in Sarnia. We went over to Michigan one day (I found out later that Karen as actually passing through Sarnia from Detroit the same day I was over there) and I did quite a bit of shopping.
Macy's had a pretty good sale for two days when they added an extra 50% off the ticket price of almost everything in the store. I've been looking to update my
polo shirts collection and managed, with help from my parents, to pick up two. I had a hard time in the past deciding on the classic-fit from
Ralph Lauren or their custom-fit. I'm still pretty thin so the custom-fit seems better. I managed to do some shopping for some friends as well while I was in the US.
Johnson & Johnson Purpose cleaners for Janice and some
See's candy which I ended up constantly forgetting about. My trip to the US was a pretty productive shopping day.
Back home I didn't really want to go out. I spent some time with family, walking in the park with my dad feeding squirrels. I spent some time cleaning up my basement trying to sort out the things I wanted to keep if we decided to move from the house in the near future.
Justin drove back from Toronto Friday night so he could introduce his new girlfriend to me. It was nice to chat and catch up with him. I was using
Skype a lot with the twins, Angie and Janice, while I was in Sarnia. I managed to forget my webcam in Sarnia though. We traveled back to Toronto the next Saturday.
Labels: Canada, Travel
Return to Toronto Part 1
My first stop in Canada of course is Toronto. This was kind of a sensitive area because my parents initially wanted to pick me up from the airport and wanted to head back to
Sarnia right away. Since the weekend is the best time to meet and see my friends I really needed to use them wisely. I ended up telling my parents to stay in Sarnia while I went to meet up with friends in Toronto.
Simon picked me up, of course, and he's just been helping me get around everywhere. Saturday afternoon Arthur drove up to Mike's place in Sauga then they came down to
Pacific Mall to have dim sum with me. Korean Justin Lee was there to keep us all entertained. We got to catch up a little and have a few good laughs talking about Justin's experiences, Arthur's work problems (mainly due to Gene recommending some girl to work for him), and of course Mike's marriage.
After lunch we walked around the mall a bit and chatted. We ran into John Fung (another recently married friend) who was waiting for his wife to finish her facial. With another guy in tow we went to find a place to get some drinks. We ended up at the RBT Cafe in Market Village where Simon and Noel joined us as well. Actually they were at the dim sum but they left to grab something from
FedEX while we were walking around.
That night we went to go for hotpot at "Hot Pot King" with my brother, his girl friend, and my traveling to Asia companion Steph! Steph will be returning to Japan soon and so I won't be seeing her in Toronto again any time soon. That's okay I kind of want to travel back to Japan myself.
Sunday we had a belated birthday lunch with Jesse and Alison at
Cafe Nervosa down in Yorkville. In attendance was Coral, Amy, Andrea, Alison, Wayne, Simon, myself, and of course Jesse. I miss these types of meals. Good food with good friends. We chatted away, I was just catching up with everyone. Some people have been doing really well for themselves. Andrea fired off some tough questions that I really needed to ask myself. Once I get myself back on track I'll have to thank her. It really brought into focus why I returned to Canada. To clear my head of Hong Kong and to focus on my life again. We took a look at the remains of
Sassafraz Cafe and did some shopping down at
Holt Renfrew.
Since we were downtown, and since Janice was yelling at me the night/morning before, I asked Simon to drive down to
the Beaches to look for some house to drop off a present for her. Luckily Simon asked me to print off the map we looked up earlier. After some time driving we managed to find the house but I had no way to confirm the inhabitants were really the ones to receive the present. The doors were left unlocked and open, like most Canadian residences, but there was no one inside. We checked the mail box for mail with a name, we walked around the back and yell inside. We ended up going to the neighbour's house who told us to go away because she thought we were trying to sell things. Their neighbour was an elderly person and even after she confirmed what we wanted to hear I was still uncertain she heard us correctly. But it was getting quite late and I had made a commitment to go visit my grandmother Sunday night so we left the package by the door and left.
We stopped off at Pacific Mall again to pickup a phone card. I had someone to call in Hong Kong plus I needed to pick up an adapter for my brother. I made a recent purchase on his behalf but the provided plug was intended for Hong Kong of course. We ran into Carol and her friend at Pacific. Now both Carol and Simon firmly stand by the fact that they rarely go to Pacific Mall. Yet, within 10-15 minutes Carol was talking to 3 to 4 different friends.
Simon dropped me off at my grandmother's place and I stayed there the night. I had dim sum in the morning with her before meeting up with Simon to go downtown. He took me down to Korea town to get my hair cut and then to the train station. I had my first bite of juicy, tasty, delicious,
Harvey's since I got back to Canada.
It was about a 4 hour ride on the train but at the end it was nice to have both of my parents come pick me up at the station. They made a comment about how I should cut my hair, and they were quite shocked when I told them I just had it cut earlier. The differences between Asia and Canada.
Labels: Canada, Friends, Travel
Return to Canada
It has been really busy recently leading up to my return to Canada. I was out buying things for friends and family. I had some help from good friends from Angie and Diana. The con is that I haven't been actually working out at the gym. One of my suit cases was dedicated to bring things back. I really didn't have much to bring back so that isn't a problem.
The craziest thing today was running into Pam on the airplane. I was putting my luggage into the overhead compartments when I heard my name called. To my surprise it was my friend Pam. Flying with a friend made all the difference though, my 14+ hour flight was actually pleasant and a good time for me to catch up. Luckily no one sat beside Pam so I moved seats. We had a very Canadian lunch at
Tim Hortons and I had to ask on the second flight to switch seats with someone. It felt very natural traveling together though, like we've done it before. This is the kind of feeling good friends should have.
Simon was waiting at the airport, true to his word, and we headed out to eat some Korean food with Noel and then back to his house. I'm pretty tired right now from the flight and it is a bit chilly in Toronto. I'll include more updates later.
Labels: Canada, Friends, Travel
The last few weeks have been really calm. I haven't really gone out, I've been spending time with a few friends and special people.
We went to this month's Image at Volar and I met some guy who is 7 feet tall. I also have two new workout buddies who I proudly force to sweat. Though Janice had an incident the other day when she lost her wallet at the restaurant we ate at in Mong Kok.
I've got about a week left before my trip back to the T dot. My parents plan to pick me up at the airport so hopefully they'll remember to bring me clothes to wear. I really don't have any clothes for the winter here in Hong Kong. I've been slowly buying things to take back to Canada for my friends and family. So far I've picked up an
Instant Dict MD8050 for my mom and a two gig (2 Gig)
iRiver S10 mp3 player for Wendy. I'm really looking forward to a white Christmas this year. Not that the fake snow and pine cones aren't nice. The overly commercial Christmas trees are really well done. The feeling without snow just isn't the same.
I had a good lunch today at
Genki Sushi. This was my first time eating it, I wasn't overly impressed but the soft shell crab hand rolls were pretty good. We were out with Angie's friend Amy (from Malaysia), Steve, and some of the
Dreamodels girls. We were pretty noisy and active but it was a fun lunch.
I've been thinking about buying a pair of sunglasses for a while. I'm looking for a particular style though. I have my eyes on a pair from
DKNY,
Miu Miu,
Fifty Five Diesel and
Ray-Ban Someone tell me which one looks better on my face. Thanks to those who have given feed back already.
On a side note good luck to Tsujimoto sensei who flew back to Japan last night. A lot of people are leaving this holiday it seems.
Edit 2006.12.11: Updated the sun glasses picture and experimenting with voting.
Update 2 (2007.02.28): Thanks for the votes people. I've listened to the masses and I've decided to go with the DKNY. I was lucky because one of my friends has a friend working at that particular store and managed to get me a good deal. I'll post the results of the voting and a picture of the final purchase.
Labels: Canada, Friends, Travel
