an interesting joe

check out this short film by joe.
now i know why your knees are all banged up...

reunited

reunited and it feels so good...

mr. mooks was here for a little visit

arrived alive

so i arrived safely back into the us of A. i noticed when i was leaving heathrow that they had us departing from an older area of the airport where we had to walk through this dodgy maze inorder to board our plane. i think they had all the US direct outbound flights situated in one area where you had to pass by a few police officers with these massive automatic uzzis. you then had to walk through a long ramp towards a bunch of other security guards that were staring you down. then we had to board a shuttle bus that was strategically situated beside some kind of bomb squad truck...totally unreal. nonetheless, the flight back was great and i had no issues going through us customs. the agent was kind enough to even extend my h1-b visa with ease and at no charge. pretty sweet!

but i must say, i feel sorry for a lot of minorities who can't really speak english. i noticed through the random custom searches they were all of asian and middle eastern decent. and then the guy in front of me must of flown in from africa via europe and he was being bombarded with a bunch of questions that he didn't seem to understand. i hate it when customs agents go on their power trips.

ker was kind enough to pick me up from the airport and we chatted and caught up on what's going on with work, the girls and our crazy lives. i decided to fight the jet lag and lace up my blades for a nice cruise along the lake washington waterfront. i'm seriously on this high right now. i know you can get it from traveling and such and i've been fortunate to have this chunk of time off but it's the coolest feeling. i'm learning to love myself again and just enjoying every little moment i have with my nearest and dearest friends and even with absolute strangers. i guess this is suppose to be some kind of springboard to the big unknown. as vic once told me, 'no guts, no glory, cath'.

so on that note...here are some pix from my bday trip to london and another video clip just outside of dolly and 'drew's flat. enjoy!

along the thames...

so it's a sunday night and we're all just hanging out at dolly & drew's flat until we head out for dinner. i knew this would be a short trip and can't believe that i have to leave in a few days. it's kind of strange. though i know i'm in london, there are times when i don't feel any different being here. not sure if it's some kind of sign or it's because i'm hanging out with good ol' friends. it was great to see dolly on weds night when she got back from work. we went for a jog along our usual route (from tower hill to the millenium bridge, over to the tate modern and then along the south side of the thames river and over tower bridge). it's always nice to hang with dolls and continue from exactly where we left off...

the first night we walked over to the wapping area and had dinner at il bordella. a fabulous little italian restaurant where the portions are huge. dolly and i shared an alfredo dish and the rocket parmesan salad. i realized after eating this fine meal that when i go home, i will get back into the swing of things and try some new dishes out.

the following morning, i made joe go for a morning jog with me. joe (andrew's younger bro) was in town since mid august and had come here via vancouver but had spent an entire year over in japan. the boy is fluent in so many different languages...it's pretty impressive. we took a leisurely jog and i thought it would be funny to document the start of it. by the time we hit the south side of the thames, joe thought it would be funny to run through a water fountain and then i thought it would be even funnier to follow suit.

later that night i took the tube over to the marleybone area to meet up with rick for dinner (and gave the alchie his bottle of crown royale). we ended up going to a great thai restaurant in st. christopher's place and had dessert in leicester square. the funny thing was along the way we were roaming the busy streets of london and this range rover turned the corner ... all in slow-mo. rick was like, 'hey, that's ross!' as i raised my head up and took a quick glance at the passenger seat (with the window rolled down). low and behold he nodded his head and gave us this quick hand signal to say 'hi'. david schwimmer must get that all the time. here's to another celebrity citing.

so on friday, we decided to pick up the rental car for the weekend and head over to the putney area to check out a place that dolly and 'drew were interested in getting. it was an old woman's college (with a chapel) that was designed by sir giles gilbert scott and was recently converted into new apartment units. drew was interested in this great 3bedroom set up that had this huge living area with a terrace that was equal if not greater then the living space. i would say that this unit was a gem but the location was a bit questionable and dolly wasn't happy with the small bedrooms. later that night we had dinner at the rocket bar and shared a chorizo calzone that just melted in your mouth. yum scrum!

by the time we got home, we were so exhausted! andrew works long i-banking hours and the commute time for dolly to and from (four hours total each day) work made it a very long week. so we debated whether or not we'd call it a night. but i bit the bullet and popped into the shower. i figure, let the married couple rest...i'm in london, it's a friday night and i better not fall asleep at 11pm. hit the shower and headed out to the soho area and had a tasty little grape martini at a cool place called cocoon. ended up having late night chinese at HK diner at about 3:45 in the morning. yikes!

so saturday was one of my favourite days so far. for several reasons. one, i was proud of myself for actually getting into a UK rental car and driving on the other side of the road while handling a stick shift in my left and driving on the right. we drove into putney in the afternoon to check out a place that dolly and 'drew were interested in buying. and now onto the second highlight...they signed and reserved a place in this quaint little area in putney (carlton square). i'm sooo excited for them. it's a beautiful unit and i know that it'll be a great investment for them. later that night we sped back to the flat and got ready to celebrate my belated bday. now, this is the part that got me totally floored. they made reservations to this great restaurant called the wolseley and i didn't know that it's a place where british celebs dine and it's ubber hard to get reservations. i just read in the paper today that catherine zeta jones and her hubbie m. douglas were there last night celebrating both of their bdays. anyhoot... after being seated at our table, dolly gave me my bday card and i was on the verge of tearing just reading it. she has been such a solid gem to me and i'm so grateful to have her and 'drew in my life. so then shortly after, she hands over this blue box and said, 'happy bday'. OMG. i'm thinking why do i have a this tiffany box in front of me. even before i opened it, i hugged her incestuously and thanked her and drew over and over again. and then at some point drew looked at me and said, 'don't thank me, it's not from me' and then seconds later, out from under the table he hands me another tiffany blue box and says, 'now this is from me'. what the fu? i was in so much disbelief and at that point so stunned and shocked by their generosity. i will forever remember that special night and will cherish my 'return to tiffany' heart necklace and bracelet. thanks for making me feel like a million bucks!

so later that evening we ended up going to 'the long bar' for drinks. according to 'drew it was another pretentious place in london but dolly really wanted me to check it out. after having a few rounds of drinks (obviously not me) dolly and rick got into a lengthy discussion about their family history and some of the interesting life lessons that were passed down to them from their respective gmas. at one point, drew and i figured out that there could be a possibility that dolly and rick are long lost relatives. their gmas come from the same village in china, they speak the same dialect (which is very rare among most chinese immigrants) and have so much in common in terms of family background. too uncanny.

so sunday was yesterday. we ended up sleeping in and decided to hop into the rental car and head to spitafields mall ... a cool little district in london where on the weekends it's sort of like a flea market but better quality. had a bunch of cool knick knacks from local designers (jewlery, clothing, design, furniture, etc). i guess you would say a huge open forum like pike place/granville island but with less food and more design. got a few things to bring back and hopefully my friends will like 'em. i ended up ditching dolly, drew and joe and took off with rick to hit 'wagamamas', a great little japanese noodle shop. i think they have a whole bunch of them franchised throughout europe. not sure if it's in nyc yet but i know it would do really well in the pacific northwest. anyhoot...had my chicken ramen and then went over to rick's to go over some alberta pool stuff. i'm really thinking that work life would be more exciting if we got involved with the alberta or cali pool market. headed back to the flat for dins and then had an interesting convo with joe, on the eve of his departure. for the first time since i got there he actually opened up to me and we yammered away on the meaning of life and what makes us tick. how happy we are in our lives. what do we need to make us happy. what really is happiness? joe is an interesting fella. i told him that i still want him to email me his best man speech. once i get it, i will be sure to post it on my blog. to this day...it had to be the best friggen best man speech i've ever heard anyone present to the groom. deep in thought and purely genius. here's to joe and pulling himself out of his happy numbness.

so now it's actually tuesday (2:49am).

monday, we had another great day! dolly and drew were at work all day but we agreed to meet up to catch the 'mary poppins' show in the theatre district. dolly scored perfect seats and it was such a sweet little show that brought back that childhood spirit in all of us. here's to 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious'! ended up having a late night dinner at this cute little japanese restaurant that served delicious pancakes that were fried right infront of you on a teppanyaki grill. ended up taking the cab back by midnight and as soon as i heard that ed was coming down for a quick visit, i knew i had to break open my surprise for 'drew. on my shopping stint today, i walked into hmv and bought the latest nhl '07 for 'drew's xbox 360. i was going to save it for him as a surprise when i left but i couldn't resist as his partner in crime was paying us a visit. i was so thrilled to see 'drew turn into a little kid again as he skipped to the tv and popped in his game.

i only have one more day to go...hopefully it'll be just as good as the rest, if not better.... will follow up with a post and with some pix.

i'm headin' to bed!

euro blog pictures

so i finally had the chance to upload all the pictures from my european getaway back in june. for some reason the kodak gallery kept crashing so you'll only get a chance to view some of the pictures. as i was uploading them last night i was in perma-smile mode again and thinking about how fabulous these moments were in such a strange time in my life. i think travelling does wonders for your soul...

enjoy the pix!

before and after

so i'm in the process of uploading a bunch of pictures from dolly's computer from our trip to the italian lakes and barcelona.

once i have them all loaded up, i'll be sure to post them. just came across some funny shots that i thought i'd share.

it's called the before....

and after....

cobblestones

so i'm back in the great city of london for a short little visit to see dolly and celebrate our birthdays together. i told her that since it all started when we were in sardinia, italy last year that we should make best efforts to make this an annual thing. however, we were chatting tonight and she suggested that next year we should do st. tropez again and stay there for an entire week. then i realized, now that we have a hook up through our french captain alec...perhaps we could aim for st. tropez in june for the rolex sailing regatta. would anyone else be interested in joining us?

this is day one of my week long trip and nothing really is planned other then a few cuppa joes and roaming the streets of london. i think dolly and 'drew will be renting a car this weekend so we'll most likely escape outside of the city. take note....upon my arrival, i was instantly reminded that i was in london after i got off the tube at tower hill. welcome to coblestones. you'll find it a bit of a task to roll your luggage and heavy carry on bags while walking in heels through the cobblestone streets of london. my carryon kept getting knocked off as the uneven pavement bounced things around and in turn kept tugging my headset out of my ipod socket. aarrrgghh!

up, up and away...

just about to go to bed but i saw this video of a 2006 reno hot air balloon competition that looked pretty cool. make sure you have your sound on. gnight!

so you think you can dance?

so the girls came down last night, after our eager friend (and closet contemporary dancer) kellbell wanted us to check out this show that was coming to seattle. never watched an episode of, "so you think you can dance" but i thought i'd take one for the team if all the girls were into going. despite the fact that we had to sit in the 3rd mezzanine, row Z and were surrounded by a zillion screaming tweens, i was able to enjoy the show and appreciate the extraordinary talent that some of these kids have. it's so amazing to see how strong yet fluid their bodies are and how moving to music can be so theatrical and pleasing to the eye. i would have to say my favourite routine would be the group dance to JT's sexyback - hot number. it made me wonder, maybe i should grab that purple unitard i got for my bday and head to some open dance class....;)

anyways, it was great to reconnect with the girls again and to just be in each other's company. i enjoyed my late night convo with kells and loved how i talked her ear off once again. lesson learned kells, "it's all about finding the perfect pair of jeans and loving yourself and not having a care in the world of what other people think of you..."

and then it was a wonderful surprise to be woken up by some shadow that was hovering over me. i opened my eyes and there standing was ms big haired forbes. "good morning, girlies" as she jumped right into the centre of my bed - "KATHUNK" - what a fabulous way to wake up in the morning!

getting the zest out of life

have you ever taken the myer's brigg personality test? back when i was in university i was given a condensed version of the test to see what kind of career i would be suitable for. i've always remembered that i was an ENFP type personality and that i always had a zest for life.

so why not take an online test again years later just to see if i've evolved in anyway or if i'm still the same old zany self. i was a bit curious to see where i would fall so i took this short test online tonight which only consisted of 72 questions and once again, it concludes that i'm an ENFP type person.

interestingly enough after reading up on it, i found this funny website that had a few bullets points on ENFPs...most particularly, i was pleasantly surprised by the career suggestion that i should be an advertising account executive. perhaps, deep down inside that would be my calling. if you didn't know, before i moved over into the world of power and gas i was seriously contemplating in working for an advertising firm in vancouver. and then several years ago, i even took a short leave of absense from powerex to pursue a multimedia program before i made the move down south. makes me wonder....

anyways, take note dear friends... this is how you can love the ENFP in me.

lucky number nine

my lucky no. 9 comes from the 9th day of the 9th month which just so happens to be my little birthday. i'm flying solo today and unfortunately have to work nights this whole weekend : ( but such as life and i guess it's time again to reflect on the year that's passed and look forward to the next...

i would have to say that i'm ubberly grateful for all the special people in my life. i came into work last night and was pleasantly surprised by a cute bouquet of roses and i woke up this morning to a slew of voicemails and giggled as i heard my half awoken brother wish me a good day to ker and the p singing a cute little bday duet with the "go get bonked" in the end. i am sincerely thankful!

thanks to a bday spa certificate, i treated myself to a european facial this afternoon and bought myself a simple birthday sweater. i'll be heading out to get some grits and will hopefully enjoy the rest of the evening ... all by myself.

in case you wanted to know what my office was like - here's a video clip of me just playing around with my camera.