that canadian girl

Latest adventures…

  • Back home…

    We came home yesterday after a wonderful Christmas spent with Andrew’s family, but I didn’t have the energy to post yet.

    Today, I’m going through the photos we took while we were there and playing with my PocketPC, the ultimate geek gift from Andrew! He’s got a fantastically cute blue iPod mini from me. We’ve both known what we were getting each other since September or October, and I’ve been itching to blog about them since. Now that we have them, expect a storm of PocketPC and iPod related posts!

    For now, we need to refill our fridge, as we’ve been gone a few days, so off to the shop we go! Expect more in-depth accounts of the holidays once I’ve had food!

  • Best holiday wishes!

    Posting is on hold for the Christmas days, as I may not be able to post over the next few days. So wishing you all a wonderful and warm Christmas, spent with your loved ones, and I’ll see you all next week!

    MERRY CHRISTMAS!

    Noel

  • Two days till Xmas

    Weeee!!! I can’t wait to be done work today, since it’ll be the end of work for 2004!

    There’s still mountains of work to be done in January prior to our Sales Conference, but I’ll have to turn my brain off and stop worrying about it since there’s nothing I can do. (Ok fine I could come in to work next week, but that’s *not* going to happen! I love my job but not that much!)

    So time to get as much done as possible today, while still being distracted by the holiday mood… Most of the holiday mood’s gone with the masses of people. There’s only a few hard working people left in the office…

  • Hate to admit it but…

    I’m really enjoying listening to Natasha Bedingfield’s album. Normally, I wouldn’t admit to liking pop stuff, but this album’s such a good mood album!

    The two main radio singles so far, “These Words” and “Unwritten” are really catchy and promote the think-for-yourself say-what-you-have-to-say attitude. Then there’s the rockin’ Pink-style songs “If you’re gonna…” and “I’m A Bomb” are fun tunes for getting ready to go out, bouncing around the apartment…

    So yep, a good fresh fun album, not something I’d mull over for a long time because the quality of lyrics and music are kind of spread thin, but they’re spread pretty evenly at least!

    Cause I’m looking for a guard dog, not buyin’ a chihuahua!

  • Kamloops goes WiFi

    An interesting tidbit of Canadian news, found through Rob and Darren:

    Kamloops in British Columbia (that’s in the Western part of Canada for the geographically-impaired) is going to become the first Canadian town to offer city-wide WiFi access! I wouldn’t have imagined it to be a technology hub where this kind of hi-tech experiment takes place, but it’s good to see someone is taking the risk! Who’s picking up the tab? The city? The users? Or the companies developing the network?

    Either way, it’s an exciting experiment and I’m looking forward to seeing whether the Canadian government uses it as a way to minimize the ever-growing digital divide between those with Internet access and those who live in the middle of nowhere and have little to no way to access the net. It’s a fantastic opportunity, but it will all depend on how well the project is managed. Let’s hope for the best!

  • Flash mobs & other oddities

    Some links of interest for those who are still stuck in the office, yet don’t feel like working anymore:

  • The Pillow Fight Club – flash mobbing pillow fights in London
  • Who’s up for a bit of a Speedy Santa competition?
  • The 6th Harry Potter book is coming out in July 05, what a nice Christmas present for the fans!
  • Bend It Like Beckham star is Elvis reincarnated: According to the executive producer of the latest film about the King, anyways. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers looks like Elvis? I don’t think so!
  • Trillian v3.0 is out: Ok fine it’s been out for a while, but I just realized how good the Basic 3.0 is! I was still using 0.74 till someone pointed out I was a bit of a moron for not downloading 3.0! Give it a go!

    • Let me know your score on the Santa game! Addictive game!!!

  • RENT as a movie?!

    Ok, I got to grips with the idea that someone was going to make a movie interpretation of the Phantom of the Opera, probably causing irreparable emotional damage to anyone who loved the original musical. But that someone, however talented, imagined making a movie version of RENT makes my skin crawl! It’s blasphemy!

    Rent, my amigos is due!Granted, it’ll be directed by Chris Colombus, of Harry Potter fame, but he also created the horrors known as the Home Alone movies. Hopefully, he has repented for his sins and will stay on the right path with RENT. Interestingly enough, the original RENT cast started doing the show in 1996, and now, nearly 10 years later and 10 years older, they’re getting ready to jump on stage to make a movie version. They must be, well, getting on a bit, no? They probably are the best people to play the roles as far as depth of character, and as we all know, Hollywood makeup can make anyone look as young or old as we like.

    Anyways, no need to get my knickers in a bunch over whether it’ll be good or bad, it’s only just gone into production and might not even make it to the screens. In the meantime, I’ll be keeping a close eye on the situation. What’s everyone else’s gut feeling on this?

  • Fire alarms at 9:30am every monday

    I’ll never get used to fire alarm tests on Monday mornings 15 minutes after I walked into the office. That sound makes my skin crawl and drives me nuts! I almost always happen to be in the area near the lifts or in a staircase where it’s particularly loud! It’s still ringing in my ears!

    But then is there ever a good time to test a fire alarm system?!

  • Friends reunited

    Today was a rather entertaining day for me, and a trip down Memory Lane for Andrew! Thanks to one of his old school friend who found my blog through Google and left a message telling Andrew to email him, a bunch of them met up at a pub near their old school to catch up!

    What I gathered of the event was that they were very very naughty kids back then! And that they’re all absolutely lovely people now!

    Meeting up with old school friends seems to be a growing trend since the Internet became popular among people beyond technogeeks. My mom’s meeting her elementary school friends every few months, my mother in law goes for lunch with her school friends often and now Andrew’s in touch with a growing group of old friends. Some used Friends Reunited, some used email contacts and some simply used trusty ol’ Google!

    It’s good to see the net being put to such good social use!

  • What a fantastic show!

    I’ve been itching to blog about the show from the minute I got out of it! Miss Saigon was AMAZING!

    To answer my sisters’ first question: All singers had great voices!

    Chris had the most effortless smooth voice, making anyone else I’ve ever heard performing that song pale in comparison. Kim had a slightly too edgy voice, but overall, the emotions in her voice gave me shivers the whole way through. The scene where she finds Ellen in the hotel room where she expects to find Chris was amazing, I was bordering on tears!

    The one role that surprised me was the Engineer – I somehow didn’t realize how big and colourful the role was! The tiny man (Jon Jon Briones – Original London Cast) made a big impression. The American Dream was a bit of a weird number, with a highly unnecessary animation on a screen in the background of the Statue of Liberty becoming a hot woman, followed by the engineer unclassily humping a dollar sign. But I guess it is meant to be overblown, showing how he conceives America.

    Kim & Tam So, fantastic show, I recommend it to absolutely everyone. It’s dramatic, not tacky or cheesy, with a touch of history. Mmmm still gives me shivers just to think of it!

    Unfortunately, this photo isn’t from our show. It wasn’t really possible to take photos during the show… So this is Lea Salonga, Goddess of dramatic broadway roles, in an earlier tour of Miss Saigon.

    On a side note, I *will* murder anyone who shows up at a show with a box of individually wrapped chocolates! I wanted to punch the people behind me who were uuuuunwrraaaaappping them sloooooowly making more noise than anything! Argh, will people never learn!?

    Here are the only three decent photos of last night… One of Andrew wearing the silly moustache we got in a Christmas cracker at Beefeater where we ate before the show, one of me laughing after I lost the same moustache (my nose isn’t big enough!) and finally… a sneaked photo of Kim with another girl before Dju Vui Vai, her wedding ceremony. Unfortunately it’s the only one that came out semi-well…

    Andrew Vero Miss Saigon