Hanging Out

I did exactly what I said what I would do on Friday for this weekend--HANGING OUT.

Had a big all-you-can-sushi late lunch with my friend Brian (who was crazy enough to book a whole week off at work to go to Stampede festival in Calgary). Then went rollerblading at Seawall with Clark. We did it in just under an hour-pretty sweet. Vancouver is SO beautiful!! (hard to let go, but oh well)

Then off to Ginger 62 I went. It wasn't as "sketchy" as I expected. I actually had a great time at the lounge-like club. The crowd was quite mature and tamed. JAGERMEISTER was a killer though. Very much "burned" from it.

Sunday brunch at the Beach House in West Van was great! Great food and great scenary:) So many sailboats out in the water. It was a gorgeous day for sailing. (Thorsten and I were quite temped to steal one of the boats at the dock :) Went down to Spanish Bank to get some tan but it started raining when I was only 3-page into my entire library (urgg) So more food--Gelato here we come. We actually walked all the way from false creek to yale town to check out his "yuppie bachelor apartment yet to be". Very nice indeed. Oh my, I think I can official claim that I have a yuppie friend :)

Thought I was done for my hanging out weekend, then my friend Pia phoned. We went down to Capone for a drink. I finally had a dish I have been craving for a long time-tomato & boccochini with balsamic vinegar. It was SOOO good. LIFE is GOOD.

So here I am, blogging my weekend away listening to Bebo & Cigala's Lagrimas Negras. Very productive hanging out yet unproducive working weekend.

Playing from the Heart

I read this cute yet beautiful story while researching for work.

Here is an excerpt of it:

Playing from the Heart
by Peter Reynolds
….....................
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A few weeks later a delivery truck pulled up to Raj's home.
It was the piano.

The piano from Raj's father's house.
He sat at the keyboard and let his fingers rest upon the keys.
He felt a peace come over him.
He let his fingers press down
while his foot found the sustain pedal.

The notes lifted up and lingered.
Raj closed his eyes and
let all his feelings rush through him.
He let his fingers roam the ivories.

He was connecting very deeply.
His fingers kept exploring,
rediscovering some of what he had learned years before,?
but also going to a place he knew well as a child.
A place that did not have rules.

The longer he played the more he forgot what he had learned.
But while he let some of the rules fall away,
he brought with him wisdom and emotion from the journey.
He was playing from the heart.

http://www.fablevision.com/place/library/HEART/index.html

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As we go through the journey of life, we learn more and more how to play from our hearts as we did when we were children.

Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canaday Day! It's the 138th birthday of the BEST country in the world!!

I didn't join the crowd and paint myself red-and-white this time. I ended up staying home and worked on another application. The only "Canadian" thing I did for the whole weekend was singing our national athem out loud at 11pm at the empty Canada Place. We went down to Canada Place to catch the firework and realized that there were firework EVERYWHERE in the lower mainland, except for VANCOUVER. (My parents just told me that they had firework in White Rock and Cloverdale.) Oh well, no wonder Mr. L. Campbell decided not to run for the next term :)

Since Mr. Namibia went out of his way to get out of the couch, shower, and dress up for this Firework event and we only saw a tip of it; we had to make up for him by buying him some drink. Where did we have the most crowd? My friend P and I both agreed that we should head down Denman but Mr. N hated walking because it was going to make him all sweaty again. So we headed to our regular joint-Two Parrots instead (well, it turned out that it was as much of a walk as if we went to Denman :)

A few bottles of Sleeman and plates of nachos later, we started sharing our ex stories. Can one be friend with his/her ex? I think one can given enough time has passed. I know certainly in my situation that I am not ready to befriend with my ex, let alone hanging out with my ex and his girlfriend. "It's easy to get over it in the head but it takes time to get over it in heart."

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Finally told my folks my going away plan. Surprisingly, they didn't say much. Knowing me well, they understood this is very "sharou", who just couldn't stand still and couldn't stop moving around. As much as I love this beautiful country, I just have to see the rest. The trip hasn't sunk in yet for me, the whole Barcelona thingy. It will eventually though after I finish all the hard conversations.

Quesiton of the day-How many points are there on the Maple Leaf (flag)?

Answer: 11 (my friend P got it right away, why, cuz we freaking sewed a 1x1.5m flag in Florence on the same day two years ago:)