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.

taking me back to a happy place...

still waiting on my batch of barcelona pictures and the italian lakes from dolly's uploaded computer (draft blog dated july 13 - will update it as soon as i get 'em). but until then, here are a few pictures that rick emailed me today. his family flew out to london to see him graduate from the london business school and were en route to barcelona the same week that dolly and i planned to go. we had such a blast even though dolly and i ended up on the wildest end of the barcelona olympic beach. the kwans decided to stay on their end after we told them that we hung out on the liberal left ... tonnes of fully naked men and women sprawled out and even showering down in the open. it turns out, after talking to our host at the tapas bar that we were on the "gay" side of the beach - whatever that means. dolly and i just thought the spaniards were a lot more open then other europeans - doh!

so here are a few shots that bring me back to that happy place...

couldn't upload all the pictures as some of them were pixelated :(

here's a picture of me and rick in this crazy barcelona club.

two floors, old school r&b upstairs and some house on the main floor.

a lotta fun!

dolly and i were so exhausted. we only had 1.5 hours of sleep and then had to drive to the girona airport where someone mysteriously took a picture of us sleeping. i believe our plane was delayed by about 4 hours so we missed the england world cup match. i had such a blast in barcelona - gives me a perma-smile just thinking about it.

skateboard m

i'm so missing my little mookster. it's kinda embarrassing how i keep calling my parents to keep tabs on him. he's recovering from yet another touch up to his entropion eye issues and will be a cone head for a few more weeks - hence, he's shipped off to canada.

wanna know something funny? a prominent plastic surgeon that my parents know have been asking to see pictures of mooks' before and after. it's hilarious how a doctor who probably does tonnes of breast augmentation and rhinoplasty all day long has somewhat of an interest in my little one. but then i'm thinking with all the costs involved with this entroprion problem and having to go back in several times for re-touch ups, i should just ship him off to a real plastic surgeon.

gotto love him though.

in the meantime, i'm gonna convince skateboard T to teach mooks how to do this....

lake chpd

what a splendid day today. i decided to make the trek out east to go visit opey in wenatchee and check out lake chelan. kinda crazy - but since i've moved down here, i haven't driven any further east then north bend along the I-90. but alas, today was the day where i drove through the scenic route along blewitt pass and through leavenworth on the way back. the weather was scorchin' and we were able to make it to chelan for a quick dip into the immaculate lake.

it's always good times when hanging out with opey. such a great story teller and i'm so grateful that we managed to attend the same wecc training class in salt lake. if it wasn't for opey and glen @ gcpd, the week long class would of been so dreadful for me. here's to driggs and fried chicken ;)

i also thought i'd share with you some pictures of opey & kris' place. when i met opey in salt lake we were exchanging notes on architectural plans and my fascination with design and layout. little did i know that this former linesman, now chpd dispatcher, had an architectural degree from UW under his belt. i was pretty impressed with how passionate he was about his house plans and his creative flare. well, if only you had the opportunity to witness it with your own eyes. i was blown away with every little detail of his house. the pictures actually don't do it justice because there is a story with every little nook and cranny of his home. this house is a result of exquisite design, blood, sweat and tools. if you're ever in wenatchee, check out his place - so proud of opey!

priceless

so what can i say about colorado? it was amazing and we were pleased to hear the sounds of amos lee and martin sexton, among other great acts such as blue rodeo, kathleen edwards, kris kristofferson, the waifs, et al...

i can't believe we had the opportunity to do the meet and greet with amos after his show. he and his band sounded superb on stage and looked pretty fine, as well. nic has a thing for his bassist.

we apologized for the obnoxious crowd that was at richards on richards when they came to van. he totally remembered that and said he'd definitely come back again. he asked us about a good venue and nic suggested the commodore. so friends...if he comes back and plays the commodore, it will be a must see for you all. amos and his band have a killer bluesy/chill sound and i just love his music. and amos is not too shabby lookin' on stage! yum scrum.

so here are some additional pictures from the festival and soon to come, i'll add some video clips.

happy bday forbes

only in your dreams...

little miss sunshine

this is a must see movie! a fellow movie goer at sundance this year said that this was the best movie of the festival and that a huge production company had snapped it up immediately. i saw it tonight and it had me in stitches. i loved each of the zany characters in the film and thought it was absolutely brilliant. it's about a dysfunctional family that had so many issues on the forefront but were all brought together in support of miss olivia and her dream to participate in the little miss sunshine competition. though there were some gross exaggerations on some of the characters in the film, it was hysterically well written and it made me leave the theatre with a feeling of elation and bliss. i guess it made me appreciate life more and the importance of supporting and embracing the special people around us. i highly suggest that you check this movie out...

mr mooks

just thought i'd post some pictures that were saved on my parent's computer. i'm up in vancouver for a quick day trip. the weather is absolutely amazing today. just waiting for mom to come home and we'll be heading out for some sushi. i'm starvin marvin....

rock baby

i should have saved the rocks so that you could have witnessed how crazy my little one is. while i was away in maine, i think the little critter got bored laying outside in the backyard and decided to gobble up a few landscaping rocks. much to my dismay, he threw up two rather large irregular rocks (1.5 inches in diameter). i took him to the vet in issaquah, wa and they said if he's in good spirits and his bowel movements were normal that he must of thrown them all up. well...just a few days ago, before being put under anethesia, mr. mooks decided to throw up three more stones out of his belly. after another visit to the vet and $375 dollars later, i was told that he had one more rock lodged in his stomach and that alpine veterinary clinic suggested that i have it surgically removed - at a whopping cost of $1800.

so after giving him some TLC for a night, i decided to get a second opinion and spoke to a very kind vet who happens to own the aerowood animal clinic in bellevue. he gave me a few other alternative options and said that if i brought mooks in on a full tummy that they'd try to induce vomitting again. i was totally stressed out because i had to transport him to and fro (while juggling work) and worried that he'd have to face some invasive surgery.

and voila....after dropping him off at aerowood, i got the amazing call within 10 minutes that he threw up the final stone!

maine 2006

i must say that annie and jeff were so kind in hosting us at their house in cape elizabeth, maine and having us over at their beautiful cabin on the lake (only an hour away from their home). it took us nearly eight hours to get to annie's place from philadelphia and driving through six states (PA, NJ, NY, CN, NH, ME) - but it was well worth it. nic, forbes and i all agreed that it was a perfect little getaway to rejuvenate our spirits with some great R&R and a tonne of giggles. we basically hung out on the lake each day while jeff and annie showed us how to wakeboard in style. forbes mastered wakeboarding without any hesitation and nic got up on the very first day. me, on the other hand - c'est impossible! i attempted every day after that, but i couldn't find the ability to do so until the last day. it was the coolest feeling to finally get up out of the water and ride the wake. kudos to annie and jeff for being such great instructors and being so patient with us.

this trip brought another perm-smile to my face. i thoroughly enjoyed the good times with my girlfriends and just being away in another amazing place on earth - it makes you appreciate the beauty in life.

here's a link to some additional pictures of our maine trip. enjoy!

madonna

so i've been waiting for some "friends" that we made at the concert to send me some pictures ...but to no avail, i guess i have to get some shots off the madonnalicious.com website. forbes and i had a blast at the concert. when we walked into the arena we had no idea that we were so friggen close to the stage - it was unreal. we were on the floor, section 1, row 22 - exactly where she opens the show in the disco ball. it was as if madonna was only one metre away from us. forbes actually touched the stage and swears that she felt madonna's sweat drip on her! she played most of her songs off of her new confessions cd and some of her old tunes. before we cabbed it to the show we hit jim's steak to get a legendary philly cheese steak (where nicole had her first bite of red meat since she cut it out of her vegetarian diet). the cheese steak was ok. kind of overrated if you ask me but then i'm sure we didn't hit the best place.

here are some clips from the show and a link to some of the pictures we took before and after the show.