more about the soonger |
august 2002 |
Back from London...Tuesday, August 13It's been quite a hectic 2 weeks. Working crazy hours between hospital and retail (what else is new?) But my time over at Belle River has come to an official end. Worked my last shift on Friday. It's been quite a long run -- work there was good; hard at times but overall, I thought ther was lots of potential. |
Yesterday it was my day off. What did I do? I ended up driving my bro's car up to London to get it serviced. This was the first time I took Pat's car out anywhere for a fair distance. (I drove it once to a restaurant a couple months ago) Let me tell you -- that car is fast. I tested one stat on the car -- 0 - 100 km/h. When it says 5.1 sec, I believe it!!! That car has so much pulling power, it can easily go over 300 km/h (based upon my analysis) Too bad there is a speed limiter -- that car can work wonders. I am glad I don't own it as well. Imagine knowing you have a car that is this capable and can never tap into its power? I would be tempted to take it out and open it up (once too many times). There's a reason why we all don't have access to such toys. |
Eventful weekend...Monday, August 26A good couple of 2 weeks. Last weekend, Dorothy and I went up to TO for a mini-vacation. On the drive up to Toronto, we stopped in London to test drive the Infiniti G35 -- I drove it the week before (to service Pat's car and meet up with my friend, Farah). Dorothy really likes it was dismayed to see the sticker price and the maintenance cost ($650 / yr just to inspect the brakes! Yikes!) Also picked up a A/V receiver for the house -- the Yamaha RX-V1200. A nice little piece -- dts power, Dolby Digital II, true 6.1 decoding, 6x85watt power, all the inputs you could ever need... WOW! We stayed at the Sutton Place -- nice hotel. Room was okay but a little on the pricey side (as one would expect). I was surprised to see the room did have a balcony (which I used for 2 minutes). Most importantly, it was in a good location -- three friends lived a block away so we were in the centre of things. Visited my friend Marianne first -- haven't seen her in over a year! We all went out for lunch in Yorkville at this place called cafe nervosa. Weird thing is that I read about it in a Toronto magazine not too long ago. You were paying for location, really. Food was not bad but as in all things in Yorkville -- pricey! (Yes, cost is a concern to me!) It was a good day to eat on the veranda but the sun was really strong, so we settled to eat inside by a window (thank goodness for the breeze!) Later in the day, I met up with some of my friends from the Acura-TL board. Cool to see what those guys did to their cars. (I'll talk about my car a little later in this posting...) We met up at Playdium in Mississauga. Too bad none of those guys wanted to go to the Import Nights event at the Convention Centre. I really wanted to go but no one wanted to go with me -- I didn't want to go alone! (Dorothy went out with her friends to Hyde Park for a Shakespeare in the Park event...) What did I end up doing? I went to Chinatown (one of my favourite sanctums) and got something to eat, of course! Watched a little TV in my room before calling up my friend, Charlene. I finally got a chance to see her place. I've been to a similar place (in the same bldg) so I knew what to expect. I like it. (But wouldn't pay the skyrocket rent she pays!) We hung out and watched a little of Sex in the City. Charlene's doing well -- a little disgruntled over grad school but have you ever met anyone who was happy in a science field of grad school??? She had a housewarming party *this* weekend but I couldn't go (explanation later). |
Went to see my aunt on Sunday. Driving in TO is great Sunday morning -- no one is around (relatively speaking, of course) and you can drive really fast! Went to one of my fave restaurants, Congee Wong at Leslie and Finch. I went to Pacific Mall to see what stuff they have there (for cars) but to no avail. Wanted to get something from Metro Square Mall (Taiwanese mall) but the parking was ridiculous so I took off. Got Dorothy at Heidi's place and we were off to Windsor. Got good gas mileage -- still can't explain why gas is cheaper in London than Windsor (to a significant amount!). This weekend, I had to work -- only Saturday, though. I booked this day about a month ago, so I couldn't back out at the last minute. Of course, that meant that I missed the TL / CL meet in Toronto, Charlene's housewarming party, and all sorts of good stuff in Toronto. However, I did manage to have a relaxing w/e -- on Saturday, I worked 9-1 at McGaffey's. Surprised to see I checked over 50 scripts between 9-12 (doctor took off at 12). Wasn't that busy and I did get a chance to play around with Nexxsys (quite rusty at it, really). After work, I went out to eat with the folks -- always go to this Vietnamese restaurant once a week. Food is excellent, portions good and very reasonable. The proprietors know us quite well -- I guess that helps! That evening, we had supper at my Italian neighbour's house (yummy!) and we talked until 10. They are so funny! (Family friends as long as I can remember...) Before retiring for the night, I fixed up my bro's computer -- it was kinda slow so I used Norton Utilities to defrag it and fix up the Windows registry. Sunday -- was my day fixing up my car. Painted the calipers a shiny yellow (from the silver / grey from the factory). It makes a difference to me -- quite happy with the results. Can't believe it took from 9-5 to get all the steps done! And of course I would take pictures of the process! (Look at the thumbnails below...) That night, my mom had company over, so it was my duty to BBQ the food -- satay chicken breast, ribs, sausages. Sadly, I overcooked the chicken (dry) but the ribs turned out great. Dorothy came by around dinnertime. She had a pretty good time at her friend's open house, etc. The guests stayed over until 10 -- enough time for us to clean up the house and go to bed! The week ahead: I work evenings. Keeping my fingers crossed that things will be quiet -- I'm working Labour Day w/e and want to keep problems down to a minimum! Also thinking of requesting a leave of absence from the hospital. It's coming to a point where I am constantly trying to justify why I am there. The pay is pretty good and the hours are reasonable -- however, job satisfaction is quite low. A roller-coaster ride and sometimes I feel it's not enough for me to stay on. I am requesting time off after my vacation from Australia / S'pore. Want to figure out where I am going professionally... I know I talked about this a few months ago but now that there will be a shake- up in the department, I guess this is a great opportunity for the administration to realize how important their newer staff is. |