It's been clear skies and sunny the past week! Hurray. On the downside... it's been effing freezing. The official high for the past few days was a meagre 1c, and it goes down to -5 or -6 every night. Sucks that I still have to walk Cadence before I go to work at 8am when there's frost on the ground, and at 10.30pm before he goes to bed. I WANT SUMMER BACK.

On the other hand, it's been kinda fun buying sweaters for Cadence to wear, and it's kind of mind-boggling how many friends I've made since I got him. I now know so many of my neighbours, and it's pretty awesome too know people living in the same apartment complex. Like last night, I was walking Cadence when I saw one of my neighbours "stranded" right outside the lobby... she'd forgotten her key and had to be let in. So she came up to my place for a bit, and then when she found out that I was planning to have instant noodles for dinner, she insisted on cooking dinner for me instead. LOL. After we finally got into her apartment, Cadence got to play with Austin and I got yummy dinner! Soy-sauce minced meat noodles. SO GOOD. I need to start cooking for real again. Been eating too much instant/microwavable food lately. Ugh.

Can you believe that Christmas is almost here again ALREADY? 6 months since I was done school, since my family came over, and 5 months till I turn 24. Holy cow.

Will be heading to Whistler on Friday evening with a whole bunch of friends... 11 of us in total. 3 days, 2 nights, a townhouse, -15c weather, snow, and snowboarding! Oh, and Cadence + Lui Lui will be coming along too. Maggie and I decided to bring our dogs with us, lol. Hopefully they don't tear the place apart while we're away snowboarding.

Wai Mun is FINALLY coming to visit!! After 4 years of me bugging her to do it. She'll be flying in from Toronto a couple of days before Christmas. Will probably make a day trip down to Seattle as well. I'm really hoping that it's not going to rain or snow when she's here because it's just going to make life so damn much HARDER when there's snow. Ugh. I've yet to invest in a pair of good, water-proof boots. Do you know how expensive those things are? Geez.

Good thing I now have so many things to look forward to because it means less time to feel homesick! There was a homeless guy singing Christmas carols on the street while I was heading to work this morning. And it made me smile.... as horrible as his singing was. Best thing about winter... Christmas!!

I can feel it coming again... the PMS-induced depression. Amazing how hormones can make you feel like it's the end of the world. Is it always going to be like this from now on? 3 weeks of feeling all right and then 1 week of hell? Forever? I need to find a cure for this.

Sucks that I'm PMSing now that the blue skies have finally come back with a vengeance! I actually felt HOT while walking outside a while ago. Although it was 6c out there. The blazing sun, I've missed it so much.

Been sick the past week--induced by the lack of sleep, I'm sure. I miss my bumming days. And the ones before I got Cadence. I'd sleep at 5am and wake up at 2pm everyday! Ah, that was the LIFE. But then again, if I do that now, I'd only see daylight for 2 hours and then be plunged back into darkness again.

Do any of you have a cure for PMS? Have you tried anything that works? Please let me know! I'm at my wit's end. It feels awful to be constantly bombarded with thoughts concerning what a failure you've become, and how hard it is to see the good things in life.

It's December. Wow. Mind-boggling. 2009 has come and gone in a flash. I'll put together a photo entry on "what I did in the year 2009"; similar to the ones that I've done every year that has passed since I started this blog. Those posts always amaze me. For some reason, I always feel like I haven't really done anything in any particular year... but when I write those end-of-the-year posts, I suddenly realize exactly how MUCH I really HAVE done.

Finally got around taking photos! Went for a buffet dinner at River Rock last weekend. It was yummy! Much better than most buffets, anyway. So.. without further ado, here are photos!


The Buffet




Maggie + Eric


Hotel lobby






Me, Mag + Ken






@ the dinner table


Jeremy + Jared




The casino. Sorry, bad shot cos I was in a hurry to snap it. We're not allowed to take pictures in there.


Siblings.


Giant X'mas tree.

I don't know why, but as I was commuting to work in the skytrain this morning.. I remembered that three years ago today, it was snowing like crazy. And how it kept on snowing for 4 days and by the time it stopped snowing, we had no power, no phone signals, no cables, and no trolley buses to catch. If you hadn't known me then, or don't remember reading those entries I wrote back when it happened, please click here, and here.

And then I remembered... that three years ago, I would've been going home in two weeks, for about a month. Here's my account of it. My one and only trip home in December, ever. The only trip where I got to spend Christmas and NYE with all my family and friends.. and hang out with the Aussie people.

It has been THREE years. My. God. Really? And once again, I'm left feeling like Peter Pan. I don't wanna grow old! EVER!

That aside, I'm finally not broke anymore. Mom wired me some money, and my paycheque has finally been put through to my account. FINALLY. You don't know how many sleepless nights I've had, wondering how on earth I'm going to survive with not enough dough.

Saw a glimpse of the sun and the blue sky today. And sure enough, my mood has changed dramatically. I feel like my old summer self again. Almost, almost! Went to the mall for a while, and Christmas carols were blaring through the speakers. Another plus. I love Christmas here. Do you think we'll have another white one this year? Fingers crossed, eh? We've had white Christmases twice in a row already!

It's that time of year again... when I start having to think about new year's resolutions. I'll come up with a list (that I'll promptly forget about, no doubt) again. It'll be a change, not having grades as one of my resolutions this year!

It has been a crappy sort of week. The rain hasn't let up in the past two and a half weeks, and it's positively freezing. Haven't been getting enough sleep in forever, for some reason, and I don't know why. Between having to go to work and having so many errands to run... it feels like I don't even have time to sleep anymore.

This is gonna sound weird, but... the rain and the sun setting at 4 isn't making me feel sleepy for some reason. You know how people usually get tired and sleepy when it rains? I don't. The fact that the sun sets so early now means that I can't really take afternoon naps anymore because it just feels too damn weird sleeping in the day and waking up at night. And the rain--the clouds just makes it feel like the sun is setting even EARLIER. So a combination of the two just equals... not much sleep.

Winter really makes me feel like I'm going into hibernation mode. I don't have to mood to do anything anymore these days. I've even stopped baking and cooking! Everyday I just eat fast food or instant noodles of some sort. Ugh. Even buying groceries has become so tedious since I have to haul so much stuff to and from the skytrain... in the rain and cold. I wish I had a car!

On a side note, my cousin got married this weekend in Malacca (his wife's hometown). He's 30 this year, I think. 29 or 30. Next week they'll be having part 2 of the wedding back in Alor Setar (my Dad's hometown), and pretty much everyone will be attending. Except for me... and my brother. He'll be arriving home a mere day after the dinner! Too bad.

We haven't had a wedding in the family in a long time. Oh, wait, we have. I just have never been home to attend. Sigh. The last family wedding I attended was when my oldest cousin got married back in 2002. He's divorced now. Then his sister got married twice... and divorced.. twice as well, and still I was never there. I have no idea how either of my cousin's husbands look like.

I miss attending weddings. I actually kind of like going to weddings. I know, weird eh, coming from me? But it's nice to see families/friends in a gathering and watching videos/slideshows of the bride and groom. Actually it's just nice to have a huge family together in one place.

Watched 2012 with my friends last night... and it got me thinking. Would you want to know when you're dying? I mean, it would give you time to do whatever it is that you wanna do before you go. But then again, if you know when you're dying, it might make everything you're doing right now completely pointless. There was this conversation Carmen and I had while we were vacationing at Gold Coast last year... about the afterlife. She was talking about how if there's really NOTHING after death, then what's the point of living? We might as well just die now; not live at all. But on the other hand, doesn't it also make your life all the more meaningful? Since you'll only have one chance and one chance alone to make it right with everyone you care about. Like telling your family that you love them because you won't be seeing them in the afterlife after all.

Makes sense?

I'm at work. Feeling bored... finished the projects that my boss assigned to me last week before he went on his business trip. So I'm just here, stoning. Will find something to do after I update, though.

It's still raining. The days are still getting progressively shorter. I found some really cheap tickets to go home in February (for Chinese New Year). About $1200 after taxes and stuff... I can pick between EVA Air, JAL, and Air Canada. Kinda leaning towards EVA for now, just because the layovers are shorter.. hence less of a waste of time. Even with the shorter layovers, the flight is still considerably longer than Cathay, though. 21-22 hours vs. Cathay's 18-19 hours.

Ugh, I wish that planes would fly faster! Someone needs to bring the Concorde back.

Should I get tickets to go home? Everything is just so uncertain right now... I don't know if I'll have a full-time job by then, or if I'll be going home for good instead. The thought of going home to celebrate CNY is completely awesome, though. I've missed CNY so much!! I miss the long drive back to my Dad's hometown... and bumming around with my cousins all day, eating all the CNY goodies that relatives bring over to my grandma's house.

Every year on CNY eve (Sah Chap Meh {30th night}), we start the yearly ritual: dinner with EVERYONE! Well, most of the time everyone comes back... the MIA people are usually my oldest cousins who work around the world... and.. me, I guess. -_- My aunt cooks the SAME dishes every year (lobak, kiam chai th'ng, bangkuang, and lots more) which I LOVE. We don't really eat any of those things except during CNY. We need 2-3 round tables usually, to accommodate everyone! My Dad has 9 siblings, 6 brothers and 3 sisters... and there're 18 grandchildren in total, so you can imagine how cramped it gets every year. I love it, though. It's so lau juak.

Then we stay up late just talking/watching tv/playing with fireworks and fire crackers. The next day, I usually get woken up by the sound of cymbals and drums that the lion dancers use. Then everyone takes turns showering (which usually takes FOREVER. 4 washrooms for 30 people is not very efficient). All the kids (us) then go downstairs to collect angpows from the adults! HEH HEH HEH! Then we hide in a corner and open them up to see how much money is inside, hahaha.

After that someone usually pays the lion dancers to come and "drive the evil spirits away" from the house and (LOL) the CARS. I don't know how ghosts live in cars, but you never know. I remember there was one year when one of my cousins made the guy in the lion suit CHOP up a watermelon with his bare hands! (HAHAHA!) Well the guy obviously pulled out a knife and used that instead. To which we all yelled "CHEATERRRRRR!!!!"

After the lion dance and breakfast, we all head out to the temple to pray. Well, some people pray anyway. My brother and I mostly sit around and talk to everyone. Then we head off to Sin Quah Chuah, this Chinese association to which my late grandfather belonged (his photo still hangs on the walls). I don't really know why we go there. I think it's because my grandfather's memorial stone or whatever it's called is there. More joss sticks and burning paper later, we head off to this old folks' home in the middle of no where... to give them angpows and foodstuff.

Then we get to go and visit relatives and collect more angpows (red packets filled with money of any amount)! The rest of the time, we're just mostly EATING. Oh, and getting more free money! Man, I miss getting angpows. When else will I get money from relatives because I'm unmarried? Granted, some of my relatives have changed this "unmarried" rule to "unemployed".

Oh, and not to forget the gambling!! Blackjack, chor dai di (Chinese version of poker), poker, mahjong etc... it's all good.

Just thinking about CNY is making me excited! I've been missing CNY for way too many years. Anyway... since this blog has been photoless for so long.. I thought I'd just upload some recent photos of Cadence, since my friends and I hardly ever take photos of ourselves anymore (guess we're maybe growing old?)