Tidbits
Sleepover at Ikea - Maybe this is the only way to get to the $1 early enough…
A ramen bath - Japanese spa with special baths resembling instant noodles. I wanna play!
Old age homes for dogs - 1) Old dogs don’t like to be abandoned at strange places. 2) Playing with young puppies will probably cause the older dogs to die faster due to exhaustion.
A remote-controlled pigeon - Oh the poor thing…
An article on a brilliant method of teaching grade schoolers about bats and rabies. I smell a lawsuit.
Will trade beer for Crumpler bags. Tempted by the beanbag and messenger bags…
Photos
2008 in Review
January 11, 2009, 4:23 pm
So somebody is complaining that I don’t blog enough. Ha, should I make that a NY resolution? I think it’s because I have a backlog of stuff to take down, and ended up not writing anything at all. At least I’ve kept sort of up to date with FB photos. So giving the time of year, might as well do a year in review, really for my own records to look back on later.
January
Went to my first work-related conference, Web Directions North, in Vancouver. So made a trip out of it, by visiting Seattle, Vancouver, and skiing in Whistler. The conference this year was moved to Denver, Colorado, Feb 2-7. Which, ironically, is around the same time and place I am planning our next major ski trip to. But no, I am not going to ask to attend the conference again, since I haven’t had to time write up a summary from the last one. Sensing a trend here?
February and March
Back to Hong Kong for a week at the end of Feb, early March to attend first Taoist funeral. Only one grandparent left.
Attended first classical concert at the Perimeter Institute. Need to go back again sometime…
April
Finally got a chance to take the Waterloo tourist train, to the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival. One of the last remaining items on my list of things to do in Waterloo has been fulfilled.
May
Spend the whole month in China to study Chinese and sightsee. It was great to live like a local (close enough!) for four weeks and be able to do whatever we want, whenever we want. Official tours are mostly annoying, without having any control over how long to stay somewhere, where to go, where to eat, and when to go to avoid the crowds. Concluded that we are both up to living and working in China if we wanted to. Less likelihood of that now though, as Mike’s company’s newly opened Shanghai office got shut down.
June
Probably spent the whole month missing China and complaining about the cost of everything. And recovering from my crazy cough.
July
Another Waterloo first, saw Canada Day’s fireworks at Columbia Lake. I have never seen that many people in Waterloo in my life.
August
Attended first wedding of a peer. Glad they are not rolling in. I think there’s another one this summer, but that’s it. Phew.
Went on my first company-related business trip. Left and returned on the same day. It did not feel like an international trip at all.
Played at two company golf events. Still sucking.
September
Rachelle moved out of Waterloo (sigh, nobody left, pretty much). Reminds me that I still need to upload those pictures of us trying to hitch up the trailer sometime…
A surprisingly fun “rafting” company social event down the Grand River. They took the exact route that we did on a canoe a few years back, but we were on those white water rafts so did not have to worry about tipping. Still got way soaked though, cause of water fights. Hmm, something else to upload…
October
October marks the last time I blogged, heh. First free Amex sponsored event. First time going pumpkin picking. First trip to Elora Gorge for hiking vs tubing purposes. First crazy Oktoberfest event.
November
November was the bad dog month. Whole family went to Hong Kong for my cousin’s wedding, and then Taiwan to sightsee. I had minus vacation days left after China, so stayed behind to babysit Tobey. Tobey is not really a people dog, doesn’t like to be touched, so it was fun integrating him with the roommates. I don’t think he stopped backing at them the entire four weeks he was here. At least he stopped barking at Mike. Before, he would always bark at him whenever he’s over in Brampton, regardless of how many times they see each other. After staying with us though, Tobey doesn’t bark at him any more. But he doesn’t exactly greet him with excitement and wagging tail. It’s more a sniff and then he turns away. Oh, and he pooped all over the house.
The pigeon was over too, living in our dinky .5 washroom. Didn’t like it much, got another infection. At least I caught it early this time, so the healing was quick. Boy he was glad to be back home too.
My company did something different for Christmas this year. With the help of our investors, they invited Penn & Teller to come up to perform for us in Kitchener. That was very cool. So what if most of their stuff I’ve already seen at their Vegas show, it’s different when some of the volunteers they call up, you actually sort of know/recognize.
December
And finally, in December, I attended my first TSO concert. Also realized that I’ve actually never been inside Roy Thomson Hall before.
Jay Chou came to Toronto, and it seems like every single one of my Chinese friends went (well the ones who actually know who he IS). I so missed out, but I had a ski trip to go to that night.
Yes, we had our annual ski trip to Tremblant with DC events again. This year, the turnout was sort of sad, as everyone was busy or jobless. It was really cold, and we didn’t get the snow dump that Toronto got in the same weekend. At least the last day was powder day.
Christmas involved a lot of eating out with people. Didn’t do much shopping either, didn’t even feel like looking through online sales. Finally received my birthday present (ahem).
2009
So what’s next for 2009? Definitely more traveling, but there’s always not enough vacation days! I think in the summer, Mike’s family is going to Hong Kong, and I have to decide if I want to go with them. Then around Christmas time, my family wants to go to Australia/New Zealand. Planning the ski trip to Utah in Feb right now, ah decisions.
Didn’t do much hiking or camping last summer (at least locally, did hike around two mountains in China), should try and do more of that this year.
Otherwise, I think it’s just going to be the same old stuff.
Tagged: Personal
Comments (2)
Wow, that’s 3 months since your last post.
Soon another year will pass by, same old same old, except we are all getting older and older
:D you never know, one day your wedding will be blog’ed.
2008 was definitely a year to remember, I barely remember 2007 now..
Wow what a busy year - no wonder you haven’t posted later!!
© Maggie Tam 2007-2009 www.onechopstick.ca
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