I have moved on....

I don't even know if anyone even checks this blog anymore....but here's update anyway:

- still blissfully married to my amazing husband Tim
- I've become a homeowner - we bought this awesome condo in the city and have fallen in love with it and with our neighbourhood too!
- no babies yet
- Tim and I are now wedding photographers!

Don't worry, I am still slogging away at my day job as an engineer, however Tim has seen the light and left his job at an architecture firm and days of endless cadding. Check out our work at http://www.timchin.com and more importantly, keep us with our photographic exploits and latest work on http://timchin.wordpress.com!

Ciao ciao!

Clueless...so clueless.

We had a joint English-Chinese service today at church and Pastor Chan announced it (again) that Tim and I got engaged. He had us stand up in front of all 400 or so people while they clapped, and I blushed furiously and Tim sheepishly waved at everyone.

So I was telling a friend of mine the other day the whole proposal story in all its detail (as any girl is apt to do) and she simply couldn't believe I didn't see it coming, even up to minute before it happened. "How could you not have known?" she exclaimed after every other sentence I completed. "I-I don't know," I shrugged my shoulders and just grinned. In retrospect though, I suppose there were many clues, subtle and glaringly obvious, that just went over my head.

Clue #1, Thursday:
I was at church with Tim and some of the worship team who were prepping for the weekend. I was telling Kelsey to make the set a little shorter because we were supposed to have communion that Sunday, when Tim interrupted. "Uh, there's no communion this Sunday."
"What? How would you know?" I asked over my shoulder.
There was just the slightest bit of hesitation (during which Tim was thinking to himself "Oh CRAP" as he told me afterward), and then he said "Oh, because Pastor Dave told me."
OK. That wasn't really adding up. I mean, we talk to our pastor, but it's not like he'll randomly call one of us to give us the insider information for Sunday. I narrowed my eyes as I turned around to look at him. "What, you just happened to ask him?"
"Oh, well its because Jon wants to sing a song on Sunday. And uh, he asked to ask Pastor Dave...so, yeah."
It made sense, so my curiousity was sufficient satisfied.

Clue #2 Friday:
Joe, Tim and I were hanging out at their place when Joe asked Tim out of the blue, "Hey, so when are you and Jon practicing the song?"
My back was turned to them both at the time, so I missed the whole drama played out in facial expressions. Joe had no idea about the conversation that had taken place on Thursday, so he thought he had made a huge blunder. Tim stared him down with a mixed expression of shock and fury. Joe responded with a look of wide-eyed fear and apology. And in the meantime, I was spreading some double-cream brie on a slice of baguette and thinking, "Mmmm. Cheeese."
Anyway, I guess that counted as a clue, too. Why would Joe care if Jon and Tim were going to do a song? I was too wrapped in my piece of cheese to notice.

Clue #3, Saturday:
"So, my parents are coming down for the day tomorrow," Tim told me as were hanging out at his place again.
"Really? What's the occasion?" I asked.
"Oh, well uh, they wanted to see that loft we were interested in" he stated simply.
"Say what?", I exclaimed. "We just told them that we liked it, we're not ready to buy it or anything!" Tim and I have been doing some condo and loft shopping in the last few weeks, realizing that it was actually kind of fun. We weren't ready to put down the cash and sign up for a mortgage anytime soon, though.
"Well, you know that's how they are, kinda spontaneous when it comes to visiting...and they're going to be here for church service tomorrow too" he added with some trepidation as he backed away from me a little as I had a mini spazz-out.
"Well now I have to tell my parents!" I wailed. "Because they're so going to run into each at church tomorrow and my parents are going to find out why your parents are here! And now I have to tell them that we're looking at condos and they're totally start getting all opinionated on me and I really don't want to deal that right now."
I should add that we were not the only people in the room, a few friends were over and they sat there in awkward silence, while concentrating a little too hard on the TV screen during our whole exchange.

Clue #4: Saturday night
Well, I ended telling my mom about Tim's parents upcoming visit, our clandestine condo shopping, and she took it all with a breezy, "Oh really? That's nice! Let's all have lunch together tomorrow. Dad and I will go the early service instead." No lecture on why we were already looking at condos. Nothing. I was too relieved to think anything more of it.

Clue #5: Sunday morning
I greeted Tim's parents at door at 9:30. I saw that Tim's dad had a video camera bag slung over his shoulder and still, no flags went in my mind. I mean, it was about as surprising to me as seeing my own shadow on the wall. Which is to say, not surprising at all.

Tim, his parents, and I headed down the side of the sanctuary to find an empty row and I was to sit down. I sat down first and turned to say something to Tim and then nearly head-butted his mom by accident, who had settled down next to me. I was a little confused as Tim had seated himself on the other side of his parents even though seconds before he was walking right behind me. I decided I was giving this more attention than it deserved (uh, yeah right) and brushed it off.

Finally with 10 minutes left in the service, Pastor Dave introduced Jon to go up to the stage to sing his song. Although, something didn't seem right. Jon was sitting with his guitar, far away from any microphone and Tim was standing right in front of one, holding only a little piece of paper in his hand. "That's funny, I thought Tim was going to play the guitar," I whispered to his mom, who replied back, "I've never heard Tim sing before!"

And would you believe that at this point, I still had no inkling of what was to come? I mean, Tim sings, but he's not a singer. It's not really his thing. Drumming is his thing. Quoting C.S. Lewis is his thing. Taking pictures is definitely his thing. But singing? Not really. Despite the oddness of the situation, I thought to myself that maybe has was singing some backup vocal for Jon.

So the guitar intro began, and Tim began to sing...and it was off-key. Now, a lot of you know that I am really picky about music. And you know how you can feel really embarrassed for someone? Well, I felt so mortified for him, that I couldn't look at him. Two thoughts entered my mind simultaneously at the point: "WHAT on earth is he doing?" and "Why the heck is he singing Amanda Marshall?!"

And then it hit me. I realized it at the third line of the song. I suddenly understood what was going on - I was being proposed to, at church, with Tim's own version of Amanda Marshall's "Marry Me", and OH MY GOODNESS HE'S PROPOSING TO ME. Instantaneously, the tears came bursting of my tear ducts, I clasped a shaking hand over my slack-jawed mouth, and used all the willpower I could muster to avoid breaking into loud, rasping sobs. Which probably would have been a little awkward for everyone.

Now, I understood what was going on by the third line, but almost everyone else was probably confused all the way until the end of the first verse, which ended on the words, "...that you'll marry me". At that point, a collective gasp went up around the sanctuary, heads whipped around from every direction to look at me, and people started to clap.

Tim, at this point, had given up at trying to sing the song since he was getting pretty choked up (although many friends told me that he had nailed it a couple of times practicing the night before) so he just spoke the lyrics instead, while the music continued to play in the background. Everything was so well-planned that he had the lyrics up on the screen in Macromedia Flash. Finally at the end of the song, he beckoned me up to come to the front of the sanctuary, and as I approached, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Although everything at that point onward is a bit of a blur, I did say "Yes", or some form of it, and he put the ring on my finger, flashbulbs went off and we were surrounded by a crowd of well-wishers. "Tim, I was thinking, 'I'll marry you!'" shouted one of our friends.

Well there you have it. I was completely caught off-guard despite the pretty obvious (in retrospect) signs that were more or less thrown in my face. I like my surpises, though.

For all of you who weren't there and want to know what was in the lyrics of the song Tim sang/spoke (he changed quite a few of the lines from the original song), read on:

I wanna laugh, until I cry
Wake up with you each day till the day I die
We've been to New Orleans, we've been to Gaspe
Took funny pictures, ate jambalaya and cafe au lait
But when the day is over, and I stumble home
I dream and sleep
that you'll marry me

I wanna drive until we get lost
Stand in field lookin up at the sky
while we worship the Holy cross
Somehow I know without asking why
That you love me more in a minute
Than anyone could in a lifetime
All the joy that you've brought
completes my whole world inside
Swept me off my feet
Baby, marry me

We'll need a preacher man
Reading from the good book
And you'll want a classy dress
Ain't no ceremony for the vows that I took
From the moment I met you
I have been blessed

So let's make a toast
And drink up the wine
Here's to you lying here next to me
Until the end of time
Whereever you are, I wanna be
And everything that means anything to you
Means everything to me
Singing in this church hall
In front of all of these eyes
And they'll talk for weeks
But we're all we need
So baby, if you're free
Marry me...

We're engaged!

I suppose I could recap the whole event but most of you who read this blog were there anyway. Although there are a few details here and there that complete the whole story even more. For those of you who weren't there, no, it did NOT happen on Valentine's day. That would have been way too cliche and if he did, I probably would have asked him to propose again the next day. OK, well maybe not. Details to come. Stay tuned!

The Progressive Accumulation of Stuff

There’s this wonderful little phenomenon that Tim has christened “The Progressive Accumulation of Stuff”. It’s the reason why you may go into the grocery store to pick up some milk and leave with 2 bulging bags filled with cereal (to go with the milk), brownies (because they also go with milk), calcium enriched orange juice (an alternative to milk), cheese (because it was in the same section as the milk) and Triscuits, organic blue corn chips and of course, salsa (all unrelated to milk, but placed conveniently in the aisles on my way to dairy section).

It’s also the reason why I went to “just check out ” some shoes in the mall some ago and ended up buying three pairs.

I bring this all up because this is The Progressive Accumulation of Stuff is really why I now own a laptop. Observe:

1. I started going to the gym last year and realized that trying to read the closed captioning on the television while on the treadmill was only causing me nausea, but I didn’t really like watching Dr. Phil anyway. So I started looking into buying an iPod.

2. I found iPods very expensive, although quite aesthetically appealing. However as I did more research I found out that I needed USB 2.0 ports, and Windows XP to run iTunes. My two ancient desktops at home were (and still are) running on Windows 98. Dang.

3. I decided to shop for a laptop, so that when I did get around to buying an iPod someday, I would be able to upload my songs with ease. And besides, Windows 98 was getting on my nerves with its seeming incompability to run with anything.

4. I bought myself said laptop in the summertime. And then I stopped going to the gym.


It was a tragic how it all turned out at the end of my quest for portable music. However, as fate would have it, Tim got me an iPod Nano for Christmas! Now I can happily plug it into my new computer and upload songs to my hearts desire. I only wish I could use it more since I don’t really take public transit anywhere and having to plug it into my FM transmitter to listen to it in the car for my 15-minute drive to work seems like just a little too much work for the amount of gain.

So…I think it’s time to sign up for the gym again.

'Tis the season to go CRAZY

So between multiple gigs with COR, organizing a big Christmas dinner edition of Unwind, major stress at work and all the various activities in between (Rehearsals! Meetings! Office Christmas events! Dinners!) I am so totally looking forward to my week off between Christmas and New Years. I plan to do nothing but sit in front my fireplace, watch hours upon hours of TV and/or read. I have no intention to do Boxing Day shopping (gasp!). I want to be left alone. Well, at least for two days, anyway.

"Yes, the purpose of my trip is business."

I got to utter that line for the very first time today. On my very first business trip. I don't count the day trips to our Toronto plant, since they didn't include all-expenses paid meals and hotel stays. To be able to order "The Special" at dinner without having to ask how much it cost - that's a luxury I could get used to. Oh, and did I mention that I'm in Florida? Staying in a hotel on the beach? In shorts-and-T-shirt weather?

I would have been more excited it weren't for certain circumstances surrounding this monumental event (or, a significant milestone, if you will). For starters, I've been completely swamped at work. Swamped to the point where I don't answer phone calls, I don't return pages, and when people drop by my desk to talk to me, I will continue to type at my computer for a few minutes as if they were not standing right over me, something that I used to absolutely detest with other people. So the thought of having to leave all this work and unresolved problems behind, was, well, stressful.

Secondly, Hurricane Wilma. It made landfall in Flordia last Monday, the day before I was originally scheduled to leave from Montreal. The city I am visiting wasn't adversely affected, but the hotel I was booked at cancelled my reservation on the weekend because their power was out. So then I pushed my trip out by a day. And then by 5 days. And then extended it by another day. By the end of the week, the people at our internal travel agency knew my extension and pretty much answered my calls with "Yes, Angela. What is it now?"

And finally, our customer almost decided to do their flight testing on Saturday. Which would have meant I would have to miss Unwind, our bi-monthly coffeehouse - which wouldn't have been so bad, except that I was taking the lead with Tim on this particular one.

However, all has turned out well. Despite having to fly out at 7:45 am on a Sunday morning (forcing me to miss church), I got a free upgrade on my car rental - not that it mattered since I'm paying for the car anyway and should be back home for next weekend. Now I just have to worry about whether or not I have time to hit the beach.

Oh, and I'm not gloating. I'm just very enthused.

More important lessons learned

If you need to burn sugar to get that nice crisy shell-like surface on top of creme brulee (sorry about the lack of accents but I couldn't be bothered to switch my keyboard to French), do not, I repeat, DO NOT use a lighter. The result will be a creme brulee that reeks unappetizingly of lighter fluid. Consider yourselves warned.

Also: Southern Comfort is quite flammable, not surprising as it has a quite a bit of alchohol content. It provides a very pretty blue flame that takes some time to go out. This item is somewhat related to the previous one. In the end, I decided that I did not need a hard crispy top on some leftover creme brulee that I wanted to eat cold and contented myself with enjoying it with just brown sugar sprinkled generously on top.

A few snapshots...

I'm adding a few snapshots here to add to the anecdotes in my last post...they are courtesy of Kevin (whom I have yet to ask for permission to post them on my photo site, but then again I don't think he actually reads my blog, so, yeah, whatever. Thanks Kev!)


This is us breaking into the chalet after realizing that we had left our keys inside.



This was taken as we were testing out the newly purchased USB cable in the parking lot on my computer.


And this was taken as we were assaulted with the cold and salty waters of the Atlantic. You can see that I am wincing in pain from the saltwater having found its way into my cornea. The ocean can be so cruel.

Back to life. Back to reality.

The thing that is a real downer about going on vacation is coming back from it. The weeks and days preceding it are filled with anticipation, and a eagerness to step away from the ordinary everyday. And then you come back and before you know it, you're back at work, picking up where you left off; and it might as well be that you never went. The vacation was a but pleasant dream - an interruption of your waking hours.

On that somber note, I had a great time out in the eastern-most tip of La Belle Province. Unlike my previous whirlwind trips (case in point, my last trip to London and Rome back in May), this was a change of pace. We hung out. We chilled. We ate...a lot. We walked on pebble beaches by the ocean and looked for whales. We cruised around the town of Gaspe, looking for a USB cable.

What?you say. It's true. Apparently 1 GB CF cards for my shutter-happy boyfriend and budding photog/paparazzo friend Kev and was not nearly enough space. See, they both recently bought DSLR's (digital versions of those big-lensed cameras that make the REAL clicking shutter noise when it take pictures). So to deny them the freedom to snap away to their hearts' desires would be like denying a birthday child a whack at the pinata...it would be downright cruel. And I had assumed that Tim would bring a cable (he didn't), and he assumed my newly purchased laptop had a built-in CF card reader (it doesn't - it only reads Memory Stick), so it was nearly an utter tragedy. So on our first full day in the town of Perce, we searched every store we thought might sell a card-reader - to no avail. (Of course we were looking in all the touristy gift shops, but still!) The next day we made our way to (the slightly larger) town of Gaspe and 4 stores and 2 strip malls later, we managed to find an
electronics store. What a relief. We started to download the pictures mere minutes after the purchase was sealed and completed in the parking lot.

Other highlights from the trip included:

- Breaking back into our own rented chalet through a window shortly after discovering that no one remembered to take the key on our way out.

- Elatedly enjoying a choppy but exciting ride on a boat out in the ocean and then being pelted unexpectedly and repeatedly with cold salty seawater while tossed violently about the deck. Kev lost his footing at one point and managed to put a crack in the window of the captain's compartment when he slammed into it. We screamed and crawled our way back to the safety of the covered lower deck. It was rather embarrassing. (Of course, the fact that the seats were wet on the upper deck should have given it away.)

- Discovering the Gaspe night life. All one and a half blocks of it.

- Waiting more than an hour at a pebble beach for low tide so we could cross over to the Perce Rock only to realize we had been given wrong information about the time - it was not for an additional TWO hours. We didn't stick around.

- Realizing that burning a treated 2X4 plank of wood probably wasn't such a great idea.

I've put up quite a few pretty scenic photos on my smugmug website: http://angemala.smugmug.com. Check them out (you'll find the picture of us breaking into the chalet too).

Shut up, Eva Longoria

So I was reading the newspaper yesterday morning as I was having my breakfast,and I flipped to the Arts and Entertainment section when I spied a small article on the 2005 MTV music awards (VMAs). It was mostly covering the fashion of course, because who are we kidding, MTV isn't about actual musical artistry anyway. So there was this line about Eva Longoria, the starlet of Desperate Housewives fame, showing up to the event in nothing more than a one-piece bathing suit and simpering to the audience "I wasn't going to let a little thing like a hurricane keep me from wearing my bathing suit."

Well, I just about choked on my cereal and felt a little sickened. A little thing like a hurricane? That's nice, Eva. Trivialize a disaster that has killed possibly hundreds so you can play up your sexpot image. That's right - this "little" hurricane sure didn't keep you from exposing as much of your flesh as possible but its only caused hundreds of thousands - of not millions of people to lose their homes. Of course, we probably can't expect these Hollywood starlets to possibly understand the implications of such horrendous events unless it hits them in their surgically enhanced faces.

I don't normally criticize people by name on this blog, and I don't like to - but I was really just too annoyed.

Worth a thousand words...

So I figured the other day that with all the pictures I take, I should really post them up and share with the world. And so here we are: http://angemala.smugmug.com. It's still a work in progress - I've got a lot of photos I want to put up from various events and trips I've taken in the past year. You can download the pictures as you wish in full resolution! And you don't have to sign up for anything - just click away and enjoy.

Speaking of my camera - it was one of those last-minute purchases I made prior to my trip to the Rockies last summer when my dad told me quite plainly that I could not borrow his digital camera. In a panic, and not wanting to bring my old point-and-shoot embarassing clunker of a film camera - I did some intensive research (which actually consisted of asking three people their opinion on which camera to buy) and bought my camera the night before I left. It was the best investment I've ever made - there's nothing quite like being able to capture a moment in an image, which can sometimes express more than words ever could.

I think I write stupider

So I was re-reading some old posts tonight (come on, admit it, we ALL do it!) and it dawned on me that my writing is nowhere as sharp as it used to be. It's a considerable backslide if you compare posts from 2003 and the last few I've posted. Back in the day there were more syllables, more variety in the vocabulary and more run-on sentences - a sign of pseudo-writing genius and saavy. My newer posts are peppered with the monosyllabic expression "heh" and I keep referring to "people" as in, "Picking underwear off the floor isn't kosher, people". What's happened?

I think I can take some solace in the fact that many people out in the blogging world write like idiots who didn't make it past the third grade. I made the mistake of browsing some random blogs and xangas one night to see if there was anything interesting out there (because there are a few literary gems sometimes) and my eyes were assaulted with people writing words like "krayzee" and "wit" (as opposed to "with") and punctuating every third sentence with "DAYUM!" and "thazz hawtz!". And I man every second word was mutilated. I actually felt my brain cells dying in the shock of it all. For the love of all things sacred, what in the world is going on? Do these people actually think they sound cool? Is sounding like a simpering fool supposed to be "hawtz"? Has "blubbering illiterate chic" taken the cyberworld by storm? So fine - even the lousiest writers have a right to broadcast their...um...thoughts. The internet, after all, is public domain and its not like I'm forced to read these atrocities trying to pass themselves off as comprehenible thought - but they should come with a viewer's discretion advisory. "May be disturbing to readers who know how to READ".

And if any of you ever catch me writing anything like that, please slap me upside the head next time you see me in person.

Climb every mountain...

I went on a short day hike in New Hampshire this past weekend. It was a steep uphill climb to the top and although I was dizzy that I felt like throwing up afterwards, it was worth every ache I now have in my legs.

Dang! Has it really been...

...6 months? What happened?! I didn't even realize that my last post was in November.

Well first of all, work happened. A real job means real responsibility, people! No more time to surf the internet on while on the clock! And in the meantime, my life got incredibly busy. I joined the gym, recorded an album with my gospel choir and was just basically tied up with lots of various weekly commitments that left me with little time to blog. I meant to, though! I started to draft something a while back and found it just tonight on my blog account.

_____

Dear Mr. President of the Fox Television Network,

I was so very sad that I did not get a chance to watch the last reality special you offered to the viewing public, "Who's Your Daddy?".

The show inspired me - if a father who gave up his daughter at birth could be reunited with her with the promise of winning a substantial sum of money, why stop there? I say we continue to raise the bar even higher and exploit every single poor, desperate sucker out there who wants their 15 minutes of fame and instant cash! Bleed them all dry!

How about a show where you line up a dozen couples who are on the brink of divorce and have their respective children battle it out to keep their families together! Every week, the children from each family should go through a series of "challenges" to determine which family will be eliminated for the week. You could have the child contestants undergo challenges like spelling bees, dodgeball matches and difficult household chores like floor waxing and roof gutter cleaning (with no ladder provided!). Wouldn't that be such a hoot? The eliminated families will head straight to divorce court and the winning family at the end of the season gets 4 free months of marital counselling and an all-expenses paid trip to Disney World!
_____

I didn't finish it and I don't feel like finishing it. So there.

Here's a very quick re-cap of my life happenings since December, in no particular order:

- I moved to a new house! Oh wait...that was in September. Never mind.

- I put up Christmas lights. With Tim. At around Christmas time.

- Went to NYC in February with Tim, Joe, Jason P and Andrea, Tim's roomie and spent most of the weekend either running around looking for people (the ones mentioned above) or places (because we -being Tim and I- had to meet up with them and we were always late or lost). I also spent too much money.

- Went on a whirwind trip to London and Rome in the span of a week with Sana at the end of May. It was great and I really should post some pictures up soon!

- Worked really really hard on recording an album with my gospel choir, the Choir of Reconcilation. We had two recording concerts in April that ROCKED. Those of you who could have come and missed it should be ashamed. Just kidding! But not really.

- Changed departments (temporary) at work. I was pretty much kidnapped out of my old department into another department and given a role that has a lot more responsibility. It's pretty much like a promotion. For someone who had no intentions of climbing the corporate ladder, this is pretty darn good. At the time of the offer I was rather flattered and humbled at the same time. Now that I work longer hours, I'm just tired. But it's all good.

- Attended Lynn and Lat's nuptials in March! Their wedding vows made me cry. The song I sang with Ivanna and Lil made Lynn cry. Hee!

- Survived a fire in my house. I can almost hear the choruses of "WHA-?" Yeah I know, but it's true. Thankfully it wasn't too bad - the bulk of the damage was in the basement where the fire started but the rest of house sustained a bit of smoke damage. So the whole house had to be re-painted and re-wallpapered. Our basement has to be redone completely. If there's a lesson to be learned boys and girls - make sure your smoke detectors are in working order because that seriously saved our lives. Well, God saved our lived but you know what I mean. We could have slept right through it and I don't know what would have happened. Well, I mean I could definitely hazard a guess but it's too much morbid to write out. We lived in a hotel for more than a month, which, quite frankly, sucked. But I really shouldn't complain because things could be much worse. Overall, I am thankful.

- Moved in AGAIN last tuesday (post-fire). There are boxes. Big boxes. EVERYWHERE. It's no picnic everyone, having to look for clean underwear in cardboard boxes because not all your furniture has been delivered yet and all you have for storage facilites are boxes and/or the floor itself. Check your smoke detectors, ok?

I'm sure a lot more happened but I don't remember very much and now I am tired. I am now reminded how much energy and time it takes to blog. Hope it won't be another six months until I blog again.

Mon-daze

I was abruptly awoken this morning at 4am by the sound of my mom yelling at my brother for still being awake at that hour and doing schoolwork, that according to her, should have been finished considering how much time he had been spending at his desk in the past week. YES, it was so loud that I heard every single word.

Then I couldn't drag myself out of bed for the longest time, even after having violently smacked the snooze button numerous times. Tim, who sweetly offered to give me a wake-up call at 6:30, didn't come through. I ended up getting up at the time I had originally planned to be in the office by.

Later on I spent a frantic 10 minutes looking for my car keys only. I was completely bewildered - I knew I had put them on the hook next to the door. Finally when I retraced my steps from the day before, I ended up looking down on the floor directly beneath the hook - and found them.

At the office, I wrestled in frustration with my laptop for a good couple of minutes, not comprehending why it wouldn't click into the docking station. I eventually realized I was trying to put it from the wrong side.

Mondays. Hate 'em.

How we stumbled into a New Orleans ghetto...

...without meaning to. All we wanted to do was to visit the local cemetary. It's really not as strange as it sounds - but having seen enough ads for cemetary tours to last us a lifetime, we decided that maybe New Orleans cemetaries were worth a visit.

Stepping out of the French Quarter one afternoon to head over to the nearest cemetary that we had found of our map, the scene changed drastically. While the French quarter had narrow streets and balconies crowded with chairs and quaint store signs hanging over every window, the area surrounding the cemetary looked bleak and abandoned. We crossed the street that divided the French Quarter from the neighbouring district rather timidly and approached the gate to the cemetary only to find it locked. I was a little dissapointed and relieved all at the same time.

We saw what seemed like a grocery store off in distance so we headed over to pick up hot sauce for Erx to bring back to Singapore, and where I found a Coke machine selling all sorts of brand name soft drinks for a 25 cents. And as we left the grocery store I pointed out a path cutting through a group of houses that we could take- it seemed less dubious than the rather abandoned looking street.

As we made our way down the path and through the rows of houses, I began to notice that there were many toys of sad-looking condition strewn about in the grass. Taking a harder look at the houses, I realized that most of the windows were boarded up. Groups of people that were gathered off the path looked at us intently as we passed. In the meantime Erx cheerily said "hello!" to every person we passed on the path.
When we finally near the end of the ghetto, I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hey look!" Pikka said, pointing across the street. "There's our hotel!"

A house in the Garden district (read: non-ghetto part) of New Orleans.  

The Real N’Awlins (and the Real Houston too)

So I went away last week on a whirlwind 9 day trip that took me through two cities in two states. You may be thinking, “Ange, vacation again?”. I only took one week off in the summer because I had anticipated attending Debbie and Jamie’s wedding in Houston, and I had figured, hey, if I’m going to spend all that money on the airfare, I might as well make a trip out of it.

(Of course, I hadn’t really considered the fact that stretching my airfare dollar also meant draining money out of my bank account and racking up my credit card bill. Because there were some other little things that needed to be paid for, like, oh I don’t know, accommodations and food. Funny things, those basic needs are.)

But anyway, my financial woes aside, I had a marvelous time.

Congratulations!
A shot I took of the beautiful bride Debbie and her very tall husband Jamie. This was taken in the lobby of the Hilton in Houston where the wedding reception was held, right before the meal started. In fact, by taking this picture, I may have contributed to its delay. Oops! 

Debbie and Jamie each took a few minutes to give really moving speeches during the reception. All in all it was a really beautiful wedding - a two-Kleenex/wear-waterproof-mascara kind of wedding if you know what I mean - and I am glad that I traveled all the way to Houston for it.
 

Having been deprived of amusement parks all summer, Tim and I decided to make the trek to Astroworld while we were in Houston. The two-for-one entry deal we got was pretty sweet and the short and sometime non-existent lines were great. But there?s something eerie about watching unoccupied cars making their way around the roller-coaster track and walking around the nearly empty park felt like we were on the set of a bad B-horror movie. 

And this is where we had dinner at Six Flags. We sat close the windows so we could look outside, in case any tumbleweed would start drifting down the deserted street. 

Mmmm?raw oysters. Heaven in a half-shall. Restaurants serving up fresh seafood were everywhere in New Orleans and together (Tim, Pikka, Erx and I), we consumed as much seafood and Cajun fare (jambalaya, gumbo, po?boys, etc.) as our pocketbooks and appetites allowed. Mmmm?gumbo. 

Speaking of heaven, I sure hope there will be café-au-lait and fresh beignets just like those at Café du Monde. We went there almost every day to get our fill of deep fried dough covered in powdered sugar and our dose of milked-laden caffeine. Mmmm?beignets. 

Did I mention that we liked our gumbo? 

A special dish called ?Praline Bacon.? From the numerous samples of praline I tried while browsing through various stores in the French Quarter, I came to the conclusion that pralines are simply flavoured sugar melted over pecans. (Think fudge but sweeter.) Now imagine that encrusted on bacon strips and you?ve got yourself Praline Bacon, a New Orleans original and the quickest way to a heart attack if I ever saw one. Pikka said her strip of Praline Bacon was good, the second was ok, the third was not so good, and would have vomited if she had had a forth.
 

And what did I have for breakfast that morning? French toast stuffed with cream cheese and strawberries. They don?t call New Orleans the ?Fattest City? for nothing.  

Of course our trip to N?Awlins wasn?t only about the food (contrary to what you may think). Buskers and jazz clubs abounded and we caught a couple of pretty good acts. 

Preservation Hall, French Quarter: For 5 dollars, we got to cram into a small room that looked like it was caught in a time warp circa 1930 and listened to some great music played by some superb musicians.
 

Big band music at Snug Harbour in another area of New Orleans called the Faubourg Marigny. 

The next night we checked out another band called the Jazz Vipers at a place called ?The Spotted Cat?. 

Random picture of me and Tim. Well?check back soon because I?m going to be posting more pictures and more stories (like how we all wandered accidentally into a ghetto) in the next days. Toodaloo! 

Contrivance, thy name is Wicker Park.

Last last friday, I watched "Wicker Park", starring Josh Harnett (who I don't really find all that particularly hot...maybe it's because I find he bears an uncanny resemblance to Tommy Lee Jones.) The trailers made it out to be a lot more suspenseful and thriller-esque than it actually was. What kept the movie afloat was its crazily convoluted plotline, which kept my head spinning and my attention riveted to the ever-changing story.

Which is to say, I enjoyed it.

Tim didn't particularly like it. He explained in great detail to me how every crucial turn in the story was so contrived, how all the twists were so obviously set-up and how the writers must have thought they were so clever, until I hated the movie too.




(Well, I didn't really hate it...it just sounded so much more dramatic than "dislike". Blogwriting is all about the drama.)

life without internet

as my wise friend sandy once said, a computer without internet access is "a box. just a box!!"

here`s an excerpt of an email I wrote to the worship team at church just two minutes ago:

"i have no internet access at home. i have no access to hotmail at work. my computer at work doesn`t have a floppy drive but has a cd-reader. my computer that has the worship team schedule file has a floppy drive, cd reader, but no cd burner. my other computer that has a cd burner is still lying around the new house in its various seperated components. i am now writing from the public library, on which hotmail is for reason not allowed, but i found a way around it. this keyboard is french. I AM LIVING A TECHNOLOGICAL NIGHTMARE!"

for some stupid, stupid reason, we cannot access the internet at home until our phone line has been "upgraded". it sounds like a repeat of our last attempt to get high speed internet.

you can laugh at me all you want and leave your snarky comments in the comment box. i can't check them anyway! HA!

(...sigh.)

check out the rest of the pictures...

here: http://community.webshots.com/user/princessange824
Check the album called "Rockies Trip 2004"

As much as i wanted to tell as many stories as i can remember i do not have the discipline to do it. Email me though, if you are curious about any of the pictures.

Actually, this might be easier...

Anticipated FAQ

Q: Is that a black bear running away in that fuzzy picture?
A: Yes it is. It was a young bear and it had scampered close to our campsite as we were having breakfast one morning in Jasper. In fact, I was so into our very delish breakfast of bacon and eggs that I didn't realize it was there until Alex pointed it out. We were never in harm's way though, because for starters, it was a somewhat young bear and because a parken warden was following it around the campsite. Turned out the bear had been hit by a vehicle earlier and was injured, and the warden had to put it down. Very, very sad.

Q: Are my eyes fooling me, or did you guys make brownies with M&M's while camping?
A: It is indeed brownies you are looking at in that picture. John baked them in a pot over the campfire. They were Wicked Good. Seriously, that was the name printed on the package.

Q: Did you guys go to the hotsprings in Banff?
A: Oh yeah, baby. We did, the day after we returned after our hike. In fact, it was the thought of the hot springs that kept me going for the last few kilometers.

Q: Did you guys go to the North Pole or something?
A: No, just the top of a glacier.

Q: What's the deal with picture of your feet?
A: There's something very exhilarating about feeling the wind between your toes, driving through Banff at 100 km/h.

Q: If a tree falls down in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
A: I don't know.

Feel free to leave any questions in the comment box.

Lower Fish Lake - this was taken near the backcountry campground we stayed at on ou overnight backpacking trip. Mosquitos are plentiful, vicious and behave as a collective entity there. Even as I ran from our tent to the eating area a swarm would find me within minutes. John was convinced that Fish Lakes is where all mosquites are spawned and sent out into the world to prey upon those who would dare to let any patch of skin see the light of day. However, Fish Lakes will always hold a special place in my heart because it was there that I ate ravioli out of a can for dinner for the very first time in my life.  

This is on the way down North Molar Pass. Believe me, it was much steeper than it looks. We hiked between and beyond those mountains that you see in the background. 

Yes, there was snow. No, it wasn't that cold. 

John and the trekking poles. 

The trekking poles I bought prior to leaving for the trip proved to be much more than a source of amusement (see both photos above) but they may have saved my life (or my ankle from being twisted). After we scrambled up a particularly steep mountain pass that left me breathless and close to miserable, we naturally had to descend on the opposite and equally steep side. Small rocks a steady foothold do not make - halfway down I began to slide out of control and nearly pitched forward until I jammed both my poles into the ground and caught myself just in time. My triceps and obliques felt strained for the next half hour but I'll take that over a twisted ankle (or death) anyday. 

This is a more accurate depiction of my physical state during the hike. Right after we finished packing for the trip, the guys helped me put my pack on and I confidentally and excitedly did up all the buckles and tightened the various straps. Then to my dismay (and quite evidentally, theirs as well) I nearly fell over backwards as soon as they let go of the pack. For the next few minutes, I tottered on my feet, cursing gravity and the need to eat food, as the pack was stuffed full of it. Fortunately, I was able to adjust to the weight and we set off - a few hours later however, the guys removed the tent out of my pack and transferred it to Alex.  

John took this as we were taking one of many breaks during our backpacking trip. We were sitting in one of the beautiful alpine meadows I have ever seen (well who am I kidding...the only alpine meadow I've ever seen). Purple, pink, red and yellow flowers colored the grassy plain that went on for miles around (I should know since we hiked through it) and snowcapped mountains surrounded the area. It was like being on the set of "Sound of Music".