It's been a while since I've posted on here and summer's finally arrived in the city after months of nonstop liquid sunshine. So I bought a bottle of bubble solution and decided to have fun one day.

Still around. Need to update soon! Will be back! :D

Feel like I'm falling into a depression of some kind... which basically means, time for me to go travel for a little bit. I'll be back soon though!

:)

My favourite photo of the week. He is so cute. He was just "la de da de da" minding his own business and running away from his dad. I was taking photos of kites in the park when he wandered past me.

( More photos, not as cute but still nice )

Today I went on a long walk with my sister's friend Laura and her group to look at cherry blossoms. I didn't realize how much the flu/cold had harmed my body until one and a half hour later, I literally felt weak and we were barely briskly walking. This coming from me who'd be normally fine walking all day - after 4 km, I was coughing and exhausted. We walked from the downtown train station to Coal Harbour to Stanley Park and then I headed home.

Here are a few images I'd taken today. There are many more... but I'll write it up in another entry. I'm surprised at how well my camera did today. I thought Penny was done for but maybe not... :)



( More photos here, not just of cherry blossoms )

Some leftover images of Oahu on Penny... I was going through my pictures today and realized I still had them inside the camera mixed in with some images I took today.



The first time I was originally there with Kris when he was doing a model shoot for a fashion catalog. At the time, members of the Pearl City Band were practicing here for some reason and they were just leaving when we arrived... When I returned in December, I found myself walking there again. I liked the architectural structure - a fusion mix of Asian.

( More photos here... )
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I wonder when I'll return next. It doesn't seem to be anytime soon. In the span of a little over a year, I visited the island 3 times. I wonder if I'm missed or when I return, if things will be very different. Or will I walk down past McCully, over the Ala Wai again and see your smiling face.... and feel the soft sands beneath my feet again.

Taken from local shoreline of Kits...



I want to see the ocean again; it's been too long... and I don't live too far from this one except it's been pretty cold and rainy lately. The sand in this picture mimics a lovely golden because I took it as the sun was setting.

I'm tired; just winding down from the day. I can't seem to design the logo I need for my work. I should know better and go to bed.

The other morning, my sister and I braved the crowds to watch the annual Chinatown parade. It was my first time watching this. Most times, I've either been at work or out of town when it was on. I think the highlight of parades that I've partially attended, would have to be the Miss Chinatown Parade in SF last year. This one was delightful though.



( More parade photos from Chinatown )

I had a difficult time taking the photos. Many of them didn't turn out well. For one thing, I'm short so I had many many photos featuring people's faces and the back of their heads. Another thing is, it was crowded and my camera's shutter speed is slow so when the parade began moving, so did the people and I was left with shots that were blurry or showcased people walking past.

Happy Lunar New Year to all!

(Sunrise at the Palisades)

And back to Oahu in about 3 weeks... which is rather nice considering that it's been snowing and cold (-18C with wind chill) in the past week while where I live. Already planning out where my feet will take me next in 2007...

Sorry for the lack of updates here, I'll try to write more soon. My sister will be getting married in that time period so it's all last minute preparations from here now.

It was hidden amongst the grove of trees.



( A difficult journey but rewarding upon its discovery )

"When the world wearies and society fails to satisfy, there is always the garden." -- Minnie Aumonier

It was a very nice garden.

( More here... some of the highlights of Maui )

C drove about 200 miles that weekend and at the end of the day, we found ourselves at the top of Haleakala watching the skies. It almost felt as if we were in heaven looking down.

From here:



To here end of the month



To here for the summer.



I have such a restless soul, always wandering, always searching, always looking... and loving it. It's been a challenge to say the least.

The view from one of the offices I work from. There's a slight window reflection. It'd been raining though.

As hagi can attest, I haven't been updating here much. Oops! However I have taken recent spring photos; I just haven't categorized them properly. So I'll have to do that later.

Spring is here. After nonstop rain for a record of I don't know how many days - I'm glad it's finally starting to clear up. :)

One of my more favourite photos... This naval ship was just docked at Pier 39. I don't know the name of it or anything though. You can see the Golden Gate Bridge peeking through in the background.

( More photos +7 )

Just a few photos of Downtown SF for now; financial district.



I took this from the car on my 2nd day in SF. Kinda neat to look at buildings in a different manner.

( More here +3 )

I was really lucky that the skies were clear and beautiful when I was there. My uncle mentioned to me later that the weather got colder after I left. I do remember it was quite windy when I visited Tracey so maybe that's why. Anyhow, more photos of SF Bay Area to come soon. It's been a long day; I just finished evening classes and I'm tired.

So... we celebrated Andrew's birthday at his apartment a few weeks back and I meant to put up some photos but didn't ...oops. :)



The three of us made dinner together and we opted for wonton for dinner. I put together the filling but we all helped fold - er.. okay Lia was a bit busy with her Spanish homework but Andrew and I folded the wontons.



The filling: we went shopping earlier in the day at an Asian supermarket so the ingredients were fresh. This is just a simple recipe though. Normally you can add shitake mushrooms/chives/veggies etc into the mix but we decided on just the plain pork and shrimp with seasoning. We also just bought the wraps. Again with time constraints, you don't make your own wraps unless you have many helpers or have a lot of time on your hands because they need to be really thin. Admittedly though, I wouldn't make dumplings from premade wraps - just doesn't taste the same. Wonton wraps are a bit different. Potstickers are similar.



We sat there and folded wontons for a little while. Fill, fold and put aside.

Normally I'd make broth out of scratch but since we didn't have enough time and we didn't want to end up eating dinner at midnight, we just went with regular already-made soupy canned goods.

We added noodles to the wonton so it became wonton mein because it was Andrew's birthday after all and tradition goes, you eat "mein". The photo isn't too impressive but everything tasted well so it was good. :)

Kelowna in December and early January. I probably took less photos of the town this time compared to last visit. I was expecting snow but there wasn't much. Winter was a warm spell this year. This is the waterfront at Lake Okanagan. This is where we paddled for dragonboat in the summer. It's peaceful. I liked how the small lump of cloud settled itself in the mountains like that.

Not quite a picture by any means but I liked it.
Thanks to gabriel_vii for this.


tail -f out &
set cry = 0
set pout = 0
echo $why
mv /etc/northpole/santaclaus ~/town
cat /etc/passwd >list
ncheck list
ncheck list
cat list | grep naughty >nogiftlist
cat list | grep nice >giftlist
mv /etc/northpole/santaclaus ~/town
who | grep sleeping
who | grep awake
who | egrep 'bad|good'
su good -c goodness

I ended up walking home today after meeting some friends from dragonboat for a birthday lunch. I got off the bus after two blocks and walked the rest of the two miles home. It was such a lovely sunny day. I had my music, I had the world to me and though I was alone, it was fine. I hadn't felt so free for a while. But it comes with a price. Everything does.

I'm not afraid of the cold. Not afraid to walk on my own. Just that sometimes, I wish I could share the view. That's where the camera comes in handy. I'm going to miss the country-like roads paved in ice and snow. The large oak trees spanning the skyline and the pine firs coated with a feather dust of white frost. I remember years back when I walked to school, I'd be slipping on black ice at 6:30am, falling flat on my bum and then turning beet red from the sheer silliness of it all.

I slipped earlier. Guess I haven't grown up too much after all.


Swing the heartache
Feel it inside out
When the wind cries
I'll say goodbye
Tried to learn, tried to find
To reach out for eternity
Where's the answer...
Is this forever?

This tree probably holds more memories than people care to recall...




I wonder where these people are now. Are they still in love? Do they even remember that once upon a time, they carved their names on the leaves on this tree? Sadly, the durability of the leaves may have lasted longer than those relationships... Time is fleeting.