more about the soonger |
july 2002 |
Independence DayThursday, July 4.It's been a couple of weeks since I did an entry -- I have been crazy-busy the last little bit. Mondo hours in hospital compounded by the fact I'm doing extra hours in retail. What to do? I'm providing my community a high- demand service but at the same time, I'm helping my cause to pay for the upcoming trip to Australia this fall... (don't worry, I'm not that altruistic a person) A couple weekends ago, I did a day trip up to Toronto to pick up a body kit for my car. A person I met on an Internet forum gave me a referral to this one Acura dealership and got me a great deal on a factory kit. Won't say how much, but it was about C$1000 less than what another dealership was going to charge me. Mind you, I did the installation myself (with the help of my handy friend, Mike) so I saved about C$400 right there. My car looks great -- I am so happy with how it turned out. Still have a couple more things to do to it this summer: painted brake calipers (my friend Marianne picked it up for me... still owe her a few bucks for the paint!), springs (to give the car a more aggressive stance) and some sway bars (to stiffen ride & improve cornering). |
As of late, I've been trying to teach Dorothy how to swim properly. I guess I'm trying the best I can, since I'm rather tired by day's end to show her what things I've picked up, from formal teaching and on my own. Daylight has not been there, so I can't really see what I should be looking out for. But I guess with time, she'll 'get it'... only so much you can point out and then you'll have to learn on your own. What else ... oh yeah -- planning on going up to Toronto / Niagara this Saturday for a mini-Acura TL meet. Weather should be good so I'll drive up in style. Hope the temp drops a bit -- the high humidity and high temps make going out and about rather unbearable. I hate that sticky feeling you get when it's so muggy. Is that a sign of being too pampered? I think it's that I don't like hot weather... (and I've lived in southwestern Ontario all my life ... this is typical summer weather here!) I suppose I have to have positive cool thoughts to get me through this warm spell. |
Tuesday, July 8.What a weekend it has been -- went to Niagara on Saturday to go to the mini-meet hosted by Room112 and BlackShadow, members to an Internet forum to whom, I belong. It was not such a great drive up -- I almost got busted by the cops going a little faster than I should. Luckily for me, I was in the right lane and there was a silver Jetta driving fast in the left lane (supposedly to catch up to me) which caught the OPP officer's attention. At the time, I thought I was busted -- going well-over the speed limit and nowhere to hide! My friend Mike, a passenger, told me not to hit the brakes -- that is a tell-tale sign that you are intentionally speeding. Don't know if that helped or not, but I escaped without any demerit points! Got to Niagara around 2:30 -- took us a while to figure out where the other guys were, but eventually got there. We were really close to the falls and no one was really there to bother us. Met the people on the board, face to face, and that was really cool. Too bad only BlackShadow had some serious mods (slammed, DVD stuff in the back, wood trim interior, nice rims). Tawataki had some unique mods, but I don't think he made quite the investment Binh has put into the car. Check out the pics: picture 1 and picture 2. (Aside: I'm nowhere near either of those guys ... but the body kit did rack up quite a few $$$) Sadly, I didn't stay very long but I did get a chance to see a guy walk a tight rope from the Hard Rock Cafe to the Niagara Casino. That was something you don't see every day! The sun was really heating the place up so Mike and I were really hot. Plus, we said we'd catch up with Imran (in London) for supper. |
The drive back was pretty much watching out for police. I had been humbled by the drive up so I kept the speeds much lower. The highway was littered with cops all over the place. They were out in full-force to keep speeds down (it was US long holiday w/e, after all.) Got to London around 6 -- picked up Imran for supper (I had no idea he had shaved off his hair!) My first thought was that he's given up hiding the widow's peak... Anyway, we first went to buffet supper but they were floored by the cost. We ended up going to Outback Steakhouse (way cheaper, right?) but we came out with some nice steaks. The drive back home was just as slow. Mike made a comment saying that if I ever hit below 100km/h during his watch, he'd make me pull over and he would drive home (and risk the ticket). I can honestly say that the trip home was the longest I've ever been in the car from London to Windsor (during good visibility / driving conditions) Embarrassing, but I was humbled earlier. So far this week, I've been working away -- putting in many an hour in both hospital and retail pharmacy. The reason why I didn't stay for the Acura mini-meet was that I was working at 7am on Sunday. The day was good -- no real problems and was quiet. Did get a chance wash off all the bug guts off of my car (it was covered from the drive home on Saturday) and cooled off with a swim over at Dorothy's. I also heard some shocking details of all the shuffling going on in the world of retail pharmacy in Windsor. A big store will be in severe short- supply of pharmacists in the near future. I heard that 3 full-timers will be leaving for other stores / the States. Goes to show you that the brain-drain is for real. Movement from store-to-store is expected but for people to leave in such short-notice may be a sign that the management at that place may be suspect. But to me ... it may be an opportunity for me to cash in -- I could ask for high wages to cover for people during the huge shortage. It's near my house and it would be a chance to subsidize the loss of the Belle River job... |
Thursday, July 18.I'm not very impressed with how my vacation plans is turning out. We got a call from our travel agent today and they said that our 'guaranteed' tour has been cancelled due to a lack of people booking. That really sucks because we bought our plane tickets separate from the tour. What does that mean? Dorothy and I are scrambling through our tour books to see what things can match up with what we previously booked. So far, there is nothing that matches identically and there is a fee to rearrange our flights. We have been in discussions with our travel agent. We tried calling the insurance company that did the underwriting to our trip and they said we are not covered in case. The tour company has a line in the contract that says they can cancel at the last minute. We are trying to figure something out 'cause we're paying quite a bit as it is! Despite of this huge setback, I think it'll work out. I try not to get all emotional or troubled by it. Considering how bad things are in this world, we could, after all, just rent a car and drive along the coast of Australia and play things by ear. |
What else is going on? Well, I had the day off yesterday and relaxed! I was so glad to have a day in the middle of the week off. It was a really bad Tuesday (not so bad day in the hospital but an extremely busy day at Shoppers in the evening! I don't remember working a half-shift where I did not have one minute of down time -- it was go-go-go!) What did I do? Well, I finally installed my 3A racing exhaust tips. The back of my car looks much more finished -- the larger tail pipes make the car look much more aggressive. Then Dorothy and I went out for lunch at Montana's. The food was not bad, the service was much better than average (compared, to say, Moxie's) and the food came out fast. Too bad -- we could have had a free lunch had it come out longer than 15 minutes. Next time... The weekend ahead does not look so good. We just got pounded with rain. It was so bad that the lights went out (for about 6 seconds) in the hospital. I would have gone out of my mind had I been in the O/R -- it would have been pitch black in there! Also ahead -- have a mini-shift at Ziter's but the bad part is that I work at Shoppers this w/e. It's my turn ... hope the script count isn't very high... |
Resolved!Friday, July 26.Well, I'm glad to say that all the vacation planning is pretty much solved. The tour company put us on the same tour, only a week later. There was some airplane rescheduling but luckily, the tour company will pay for the rebooking fees. For a while, it bugged me that things were not set, but it didn't last for long. Always have a feeling that things will work out in the end. (It also helps when you haven't given people thousands of dollars -- they will go out of their way for your business. I was ready on booking a car and driving along the coast of Australia for a couple of weeks!) Because things are virtually resolved, I wrote a letter out to my aunt in S'pore -- don't want to surprise her in Sept at her doorfront asking for a place to stay... I definitely look forward to meeting up with my family in Asia. It's been several years since my last visit. |
On this side of the world, it's been more or less smooth sailing. I had to work evenings at the hospital so I could go out and enjoy much of the good, non-humid weather. Things took a turn for the worse yesterday -- temps went up and it finally rained. The humidity lingers and I do not like going out at all. I'm glad I didn't wash my car yesterday (as I had initially planned). All that hard work would have gone to waste (you can ask my brother about that!) Working at night does have its disadvantages -- I missed a few phone calls from classmates -- one from Kitchener, the other from Stratford. G wanted to find out more about Palm Pilots (I guess he's caving like I did...) and FJ wanted to catch up with me. I worry about her sometimes -- out in the small pharmacy world of Stratford. At least things are picking up now that the Festival (Shakespeare Festival) is in full swing. I went last year to see 'the Merchant of Venice' -- great production. (I know the statement, 'a pound of flesh' because of it!) Upcoming events -- trip to Toronto Aug 17-18. Car meet / meet up with friends. That's the only thing that's going on here. |
Wednesday, July 31.It's the end of the month ... guess it's time for me to reflect upon the things I have accomplished in 30-31 days. So far, the summer has been nothing less than a work-fest. Clocking in 50+ hr/wk isn't such a great thought but who can complain about the $$$ ??? "Make hay while the sun still shines" is probably the motto of the moment... but it will come to an end, let me assure you! Australia is on my mind a lot more these days. After all, I will be going on vacation in a little more than a month from now. When I think about it, I haven't gone on vacation since January (if you consider my trip to St John's, NFLD as a vacation -- I represented U of T...) Better said -- I haven't gone anywhere for leisure in 2 years! That *is* saying something, considering I normally go far, far away at least once a year. |
Also thinking a lot about my car (but what else is new?). I've put on most of the mods that will happen this summer. Still have to visit Toronto to pick up the caliper my friend Marianne got for me while she was in Calgary (her hometown!) I will assure you -- the car will look sweet with that painted yellow (you read correctly, yellow). Not much else in store for the next little bit -- performance upgrades (springs to lower the car; sways to stiffen the car around corners) probably won't happen this year. Will look into that most likely next year, after I've saved up after the vacation. Looking ahead to August -- the schedule does make a drastic change after August 18th. I am no longer going to Belle River to work at the pharmacy there. A change of management (along with other reasons) has helped me decide to change gears and work closer to home. It was a good experience -- working in a different atmosphere and as well, a little more appreciative of what is out there. I don't consider myself a 'veteran' -- on the contrary -- I am quite naive to the pharmacy world of Essex County but at least my name is out and I know what I do (and what I don't) like. |
