I was having the most wonderful dream about pineapples when this noise started. At first I thought it was my heart beeping to tell me that something was up with the pineapples. Then I was apple to crack my eyes open a bit to the pitch blackness and thought "the alarms is going off ... but i haven't heard that alarm before". Then my wits kicked open the door, "the phone" .. of course! I crawled to the phone hoping this wasn't a 5am "[family member/good friend] has gone into hospital and is probably never coming out again, would you like to [a] send them some flowers, [b] come and see them before they die or [c] help sign the DNR".
But I was surprised by 30+ of my good friends from Australia (including that Wingus Guy, you know who you are) ringing up to say "HAPPY NEW YEAR". My apologies if I sounded cranky from being woken up but i had only been asleep for 3 hours. I really appreciated the call and if Shannon hadn't been in a deep sleep she would have got on the phone as well, as apposed to the waving from the bed which was pretty tired. But thanks guys, it meant alot that you called.
Happy new year Future people, I hope I can return the favour.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
I would love to write a review for this book but that wouldn't be possible. I don't think I would be able to do the book justice. However what I can say is that I loved this book. Unlike other times I couldn't take this book with me on the way to work as its only 15 minutes to work and that's hardly time to read a book as I know, I would be reading and completely miss my stop. The book completely engrossed me and at 1005 pages, I didn't want it to stop. The ending was excellent and even though as I said before I didn't want it to stop, it was a highly satisfying ending.
I started out reading this book as a loan from someone else and ended up purchasing my own copy. I won't give it marks out of 5, 10 or 100. I will say I rate it highly and that it is probably one of the best fantasy novels I have read in years.
Read it, stop reading this blog right now and start reading the book. Seriously! If you've read it and enjoyed it you know what I'm talking about, if you didn't like it, your completely entitled to your opinion.
I started out reading this book as a loan from someone else and ended up purchasing my own copy. I won't give it marks out of 5, 10 or 100. I will say I rate it highly and that it is probably one of the best fantasy novels I have read in years.
Read it, stop reading this blog right now and start reading the book. Seriously! If you've read it and enjoyed it you know what I'm talking about, if you didn't like it, your completely entitled to your opinion.
Christmas
Its been a while since my last post.
Leading up to Christmas I was pretty busy with work but somehow managed to get my Christmas shopping done.
Christmas Eve, we went over to Christine's and had a wonderful roast chicken, potatoes to die for and great stuffing. A friend of Shan's and her mum, Deirdre, was there so we had delightful company. We drank, ate and laughed ourselves silly. It was a great night.
Christmas day came. We prepared our Turkey for dinner and got ready to make breakfast for when Christine came round. Christine showed up with a tonne of presents of which we were not expecting. Some were from Shan, but due to her broken foot could not bring them home so left them with her mum. We opened a few before breakfast. What a haul! Its all a bit of a blur now, so i can't recall in what order we got things, so I'll list them all later. One we did receive before breakfast was a blender which helped us created the nicest pancakes ever for breakfast.
Upon finishing breakfast, we sat by the tree and exchanged gifts. I got shan some mittens and beanie (not a touke, you crazy Canadians) with a pirate skull motif, two books and an Ipod Nano (blue colouring). Shan got me Guitar Hero 2 (joy!) with the extra controller so we can play coop and head to head, BBC production of Pride and Prejudice (of which we have already watched, excellent 6 stars!), and the wifiest gifts you ever did see, socks, underwear and a jumper, all of which i desperately needed and was glad to receive. Christine got us the aforementioned blender, a rice cooker (to alleviate rice debates between shannon and myself) and a poker set (which I've been wanting) with dogs playing poker motif, which got us quoting Simpson's for most of the night.
Rob stopped by for a few hours in the afternoon. We played some guitar hero 2 and a large amount of Texas Hold'em. After a while Rob took his leave to go to another Christmas party, thanks for coming by Rob, shame you missed the Pavlova.
On to the Turkey Dinner. We cooked the Turkey for over 4 hours! It was so juicy. We had cauliflower, roast potatoes, stuffing, the works! The gravy was perfect, the Turkey succulent. The meal, excellent. We stuffed ourselves and the went to the couch. And then proceeded to watch the first half of Pride and Prejudice. As that went along we had Pavlova and were much sated.
Sadly shan's leg started to play up and we had to take her to St. Pauls Hospital. We were quite worried that it was a blood clot in her leg due to her broken foot, but the next day it turned out to be ok. I won't say more as I'm sure Shan will relate it on her blog.
So apart from that, Christmas was perfect.
Leading up to Christmas I was pretty busy with work but somehow managed to get my Christmas shopping done.
Christmas Eve, we went over to Christine's and had a wonderful roast chicken, potatoes to die for and great stuffing. A friend of Shan's and her mum, Deirdre, was there so we had delightful company. We drank, ate and laughed ourselves silly. It was a great night.
Christmas day came. We prepared our Turkey for dinner and got ready to make breakfast for when Christine came round. Christine showed up with a tonne of presents of which we were not expecting. Some were from Shan, but due to her broken foot could not bring them home so left them with her mum. We opened a few before breakfast. What a haul! Its all a bit of a blur now, so i can't recall in what order we got things, so I'll list them all later. One we did receive before breakfast was a blender which helped us created the nicest pancakes ever for breakfast.
Upon finishing breakfast, we sat by the tree and exchanged gifts. I got shan some mittens and beanie (not a touke, you crazy Canadians) with a pirate skull motif, two books and an Ipod Nano (blue colouring). Shan got me Guitar Hero 2 (joy!) with the extra controller so we can play coop and head to head, BBC production of Pride and Prejudice (of which we have already watched, excellent 6 stars!), and the wifiest gifts you ever did see, socks, underwear and a jumper, all of which i desperately needed and was glad to receive. Christine got us the aforementioned blender, a rice cooker (to alleviate rice debates between shannon and myself) and a poker set (which I've been wanting) with dogs playing poker motif, which got us quoting Simpson's for most of the night.
Rob stopped by for a few hours in the afternoon. We played some guitar hero 2 and a large amount of Texas Hold'em. After a while Rob took his leave to go to another Christmas party, thanks for coming by Rob, shame you missed the Pavlova.
On to the Turkey Dinner. We cooked the Turkey for over 4 hours! It was so juicy. We had cauliflower, roast potatoes, stuffing, the works! The gravy was perfect, the Turkey succulent. The meal, excellent. We stuffed ourselves and the went to the couch. And then proceeded to watch the first half of Pride and Prejudice. As that went along we had Pavlova and were much sated.
Sadly shan's leg started to play up and we had to take her to St. Pauls Hospital. We were quite worried that it was a blood clot in her leg due to her broken foot, but the next day it turned out to be ok. I won't say more as I'm sure Shan will relate it on her blog.
So apart from that, Christmas was perfect.
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Vistors from the 4th Dimension!
So I was halfway through Ziggy Stardust (on hard) when I started hearing this noise coming from outside. I looked outside and saw a police box suddenly turn into a taxi. Out jumped the doctor and his lovely assistant. It was a new doctor. I don't think i've ever seen the doctor with mutton chops. I went down to greet them and let these strange people into my home. The doctor said his name was "Bez" but i knew it was the doctor. His assistant was "Shoshe" but I haven't heard of her, probably a new to be released series.
After settling in we went to meet Shannon at the nearby restaurant Las Margaritas. We had a lovely dinner. After which, a little tipsy, wandered back to our place and ate Oreos while we conquered Guitar Hero 2. We went through on Easy and then did some challenges against each other. Heaps of fun. I especially loved the moving between tiers on the map. Reminded me a bit of this. A bit lacking on the track side I thought at first. This would change the following night.
The next day, we went to the Vancouver Aquarium. We hadn't been in a while and we weren't overly sure of what crowds would be like. However since it was slightly rainy we were able to get in and hardly had anyone to contend with. We got to see otter feeding, Beluga Whale show and the Dolphin show. When went to the other exhibits we were delighted to find that they had finished the previous construction and had extended the areas. The new area had spots where you could stick your head into a dome and see the whole tank around you. Those were pretty awesome and allowed for some very silly pictures to be taken. Also for the first time we we actually saw the sloth in the amazon exhibit. The Doc... i mean Bez pointed it out. And then started to tell us about how slothes with different toes can be really nasty. All I have heard in the past was that slothes occasionally killed people by dying and then eventually falling out of trees when sufficiently rotted and killed people by landing on their heads. But I suppose "Bez" was talking about mystical future slothes. I wonder if they ever tussle with the Daleks.
After leaving the Aquarium I left Bez and Shoshe in Shan's capable hands and went to my works Christmas Dinner. It was good to finally meet some of my colleagues from up North and from the Island. We ate and drank a little and then had a raffle, which was setup since they weren't allowed to pay for our drinks due to UBC policy. And guess what, I won something! I won a $50 gift voucher to Earls, which must have been fate since thats where I was going to meet Shan, her Mum and the time travelers after leaving the Christmas party. Upon arrival I had a lovely desert and a couple of girly drinks (which contained enough alcohol to floor a rhino) and then went back to our place to take the medium challenge of Guitar Hero 2.
And what a challenge. Firstly, I thought I was special when I got an encore at the end of the first tier. I thought I had was the bees knees, the cats pajama's and the elephants instep. And then Shoshe got an encore and then Bez got an encore. Now I don't want to discount their efforts as both of them were very good players but then we realised it was the bonus song going from one tier to the next. We played until almost 2am. At the end. Freebird. We were really sure we wanted to play it. So Bez did. It gave him several chances to back out, but he slugged on. And thus he finished it. 9mins long with 83% success. We were very proud and rewarded him with a robotic hand as his old one was completely used up. Solo Q to S really did him in. Then growing tired we crashed.
The next day we went for Brunch at Sophie's Cosmic Cafe. We ate a hearty brunch and then soon it was time for our time travelers to leave to go back to the future ... ok ok .. "Australia". We said our goodbyes as the taxi took them away from us into the future. I asked for horse races and lotto numbers, but "Bez" said that would change history and was not "allowed". Lucky for me he left Gray's Sports Almanac 2000 - 2050. And now I shall rule Vancouver forever!
Thanks for dropping by Bez and Shoshe, it was great to see you.
After settling in we went to meet Shannon at the nearby restaurant Las Margaritas. We had a lovely dinner. After which, a little tipsy, wandered back to our place and ate Oreos while we conquered Guitar Hero 2. We went through on Easy and then did some challenges against each other. Heaps of fun. I especially loved the moving between tiers on the map. Reminded me a bit of this. A bit lacking on the track side I thought at first. This would change the following night.
The next day, we went to the Vancouver Aquarium. We hadn't been in a while and we weren't overly sure of what crowds would be like. However since it was slightly rainy we were able to get in and hardly had anyone to contend with. We got to see otter feeding, Beluga Whale show and the Dolphin show. When went to the other exhibits we were delighted to find that they had finished the previous construction and had extended the areas. The new area had spots where you could stick your head into a dome and see the whole tank around you. Those were pretty awesome and allowed for some very silly pictures to be taken. Also for the first time we we actually saw the sloth in the amazon exhibit. The Doc... i mean Bez pointed it out. And then started to tell us about how slothes with different toes can be really nasty. All I have heard in the past was that slothes occasionally killed people by dying and then eventually falling out of trees when sufficiently rotted and killed people by landing on their heads. But I suppose "Bez" was talking about mystical future slothes. I wonder if they ever tussle with the Daleks.
After leaving the Aquarium I left Bez and Shoshe in Shan's capable hands and went to my works Christmas Dinner. It was good to finally meet some of my colleagues from up North and from the Island. We ate and drank a little and then had a raffle, which was setup since they weren't allowed to pay for our drinks due to UBC policy. And guess what, I won something! I won a $50 gift voucher to Earls, which must have been fate since thats where I was going to meet Shan, her Mum and the time travelers after leaving the Christmas party. Upon arrival I had a lovely desert and a couple of girly drinks (which contained enough alcohol to floor a rhino) and then went back to our place to take the medium challenge of Guitar Hero 2.
And what a challenge. Firstly, I thought I was special when I got an encore at the end of the first tier. I thought I had was the bees knees, the cats pajama's and the elephants instep. And then Shoshe got an encore and then Bez got an encore. Now I don't want to discount their efforts as both of them were very good players but then we realised it was the bonus song going from one tier to the next. We played until almost 2am. At the end. Freebird. We were really sure we wanted to play it. So Bez did. It gave him several chances to back out, but he slugged on. And thus he finished it. 9mins long with 83% success. We were very proud and rewarded him with a robotic hand as his old one was completely used up. Solo Q to S really did him in. Then growing tired we crashed.
The next day we went for Brunch at Sophie's Cosmic Cafe. We ate a hearty brunch and then soon it was time for our time travelers to leave to go back to the future ... ok ok .. "Australia". We said our goodbyes as the taxi took them away from us into the future. I asked for horse races and lotto numbers, but "Bez" said that would change history and was not "allowed". Lucky for me he left Gray's Sports Almanac 2000 - 2050. And now I shall rule Vancouver forever!
Thanks for dropping by Bez and Shoshe, it was great to see you.
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