Home in time for Christmas - but only just!

The plan was to arrive in Melbourne on Christmas morning.



I left Vancouver at 9.30am on 23/12/08 and headed for YVR airport. Got there with plenty of time to spare. As I walked to the check-in counter, I saw the queue that started in the domestic terminal and snaked all the way to the international terminal! Virtually all flights within Canada were delayed or cancelled. I'd seen on the news that these people were stranded at airport. I couldn't help but feel sorry for them.





My first flight was delayed as the plane was coming from Chicago, where they were having violent snow storms. The lady at the check-in counter told me that I would still make my connecting flight in Los Angeles even though the plane was delayed. As I waited for my flight, I kept receiving flight notifications that my flight was even more delayed (now 6hrs 46mins delayed). There was no way I would make my connecting flight if my plane was 6 hours delayed.

With some quick thinking, I approached one of the service staff and managed to get myself on an earlier flight to Los Angeles so that I would make my connecting flight with ample time.

On the plane from Vancouver to Los Angeles, I sat next to the trendiest Chinese Grandpa ever. He was wearing a Helly Hansen hoodie, had spiky hair and funky glasses. He was going to Disneyland to see Mickey Mouse for Christmas to get away from the Vancouver winter. Pretty cool huh?

I arrived in Los Angeles with 6 hours to kill until my connecting flight home. I managed to kill the first 3 hours pretty easily. But then, I overheard an Australian say that her flight was cancelled. So I thought that I better check the departure screen for an update. True enough my flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne was CANCELLED. I thought that I had done so well to get out of snowy Vancouver without too much hassle. No!!!!! Would I make it home for Christmas?

So after queueing for a while, I was told that I had been booked onto the same flight on the following day, which would mean that I arrive home on Boxing Day! I wasn't going to have any of that. Myself and other fellow passengers exhausted all alternatives. There was no way that I would spend Christmas Eve in Los Angeles (even if the hotel and food was paid for) and Christmas day on the international date line. I HAD to get myself home in time for Christmas. So after some lengthy discussions with the airline staff, I managed to get on a flight to Sydney on the condition that I had to get myself from Sydney to Melbourne. This route meant that I would arrive home in time for Christmas! Sweet! So I booked a Qantas flight from Sydney to Melbourne and I was on my way...

The long haul flight from LA to Sydney went surprisingly fast considering there were no personal tv screens in economy class. When I got to Sydney airport I was greeted with this sign: 'G'day. Welcome Home.' Sydney is not home, but it was close enough.






The last leg of the journey went smoothly. I had Christmas lunch on the plane, which consisted of a ham and salad sandwich. Met my folks and sis at Melbourne airport which was all good. My plane touched down in Melbourne at 1.30pm which mean that I had been on the road for over 30 hours! But I was home in time for Christmas dinner with the family and that was all that mattered! It was even better that it was Sunny and (kind of) warm in Melbourne. When I left Vancouver it was -10 degrees celcius. I had traded in a white Christmas to be home sweet home. Yay!

Highlights from South Korea & Japan

18 Sep - 12 Oct 2008

Ok, so better late than never. Here were some of the highlights & interesting points of the trip...

South Korea

• DMZ tour
• Drinking Soju - at least I can say I have tried it. It is a sweet potato Vodka which you drink by the shot. It wasn't very pleasant to drink.
• Hiking / walking in the mountains - I now know that Koreans love to hike. Even the middle aged ladies are fully kitted out with the latest gear and walking sticks.
• Kimchi & Korean BBQ = yum!
• free Krispy Kreme donut for every customer
• Korean billiards - how do you play the game on a table with no pockets and only 4 balls?
• Korean men only wear black...how boring.
• not learning a single word of Korean during the whole trip.

Japan

• sushi
• sushi
• did I mention sushi? It's the best in the world! So fresh and tasty!
• Sushi train restaurants rock
• listening to the Japanese slurp their noodles
• Teppanyaki does not exist in Japan. It is made up for foreigners, hence why we got so many blank faces when we asked for teppanyaki
• Shinkansen - Japanese high speed bullet trains which were very punctual
• staying in a Capsule hotel
• seeing big tuna at the Tsukiji fish market
• Disneyland Tokyo
• Onsen (Japanese spa)
• Rollercoaster at Dome City
• Watching the Hawks win the AFL grand final at an Irish pub in Osaka
• Watching little kids being traumatised by wild deer at Nara and Himeji Island.
• Karaoke - very fun
• trying 1 piece of whale sushi - not particularly tasty.
• answering the phone by saying 'moshi moshi' instead of 'hello'

Clips from Japan

Video clip at the sushi train restaurant in Kyoto. See the sushi chef rocking as he made the sushi. The sushi was delicious!

An upcoming band performing in the park in Harajuku. The clips & photos of Harajuku just don't do it justice!

Another band playing in harajuku.

Yet another band in Harajuku. The guy in the pink shirt with cute bunny ears is so funny.

Some traditional Japanese music and dance in Shinjuku that I found randomly.

Head banging fans in Harajuku

And last but not least...the humping dog gadget at Tokyo airport (powered by USB)!

East Coast Junket

23 Aug - 1 Sep 2008


First Stop - Toron'o


Well....this week I learned that Toronto is considered central Canada, and not east coast! But to me, anything 5 hours east of Vancouver (by plane) is east coast in my books! Toronto was a nice city and the trams reminded of home in Melbourne. The buskers festival was on that weekend. There was an Aussie street entertainer from Sydney. He was able to fit is whole body through a squash racquet - what a freak!


Aussie street entertainer 'Alikazam' fitting through a squash racquet, tennis racquent and toilet seat!

Mel outside the (Ice) Hockey hall of Fame in Toronto.

Second Stop - Niagara on the Lake


The main purpose of the trip was to attend a training course. It was a soft skills course where we learnt how to lead a team. It was a national training course where colleagues flew in from all parts of the country. The course was taught in both English and French. There was a very distinct divide between the english speakers and the french speakers. One of our tasks was to make a video. 3 groups did the video in english and 1 group did the video in french. All the english speakers had no idea what they were saying in the French video.



One night after dinner we went to see Niagara Falls. The view from the Canadian side is definitely much more spectacular than the US side.

American falls at night


Last Stop - New Jersey & New York

My last stop was New Jersey to visit the 'relos'. A solid 8 hours was spent shopping at the Woodbury Common outlet in New York State. The credit card got a good bashing that day. We witnessed the 'Coach' phenomena where you had to queue to go into the store and not a soul came out empty handed!

We also spent a day in Manhattan, NYC. Being a Sunday on a long weekend, NYC was a ghost town with only tourists wandering the streets. We went to ground zero and I was surprised to see that it was still a construction site! No visit to NYC is complete with a visit to Chinatown. We went to the BIG WONG restaurant (which has not changed one bit since my last visit 5 years ago!) for a cheap but good feed. Then washed it all down by eating dou fu fa in a nearby park while JJ played in the playground.






Mel & Cousin JJ in New Jersey

A taste of Home @ Mooses

Thurs 7 Aug 2007

Shazza, Jo & I went for some pub grub at Mooses Down Under. It's an Aussie pub that serves some traditional Aussie tucker and occasionally shows the footy.

It has been 9 months since my last Chicken Parma, so I had to order it. It was pretty good, but don't know how well it would rate on superparma.com. I washed it down with a Coopers Pale Ale. The strange thing was the Parma was served on a bed of Spaghetti Napolitana...very strange indeed!

Square Watermelons

We all know the Japanese are crazy...however the Canadians are even crazier! Why?

On the weekend, I saw some square watermelons being sold at Urban Fare (supermarket). Yes, they are real watermelons which have been grown into a cubic shape. The catch is that each watermelon sells for CDN$100! Clearly, there are some crazy Japs out there to grow these things, and then there are crazy Canadians out there who are willing to buy a square watermelon! haha...

A day at the office

8 Jul 2008.

If only every work day was like this! What could be better than golfing on a nice sunny day during work hours?

We're going on a bear hunt

27 June - 1 July 2008.

Summer is finally here! I've just spent the long weekend in Alberta, and the weather has been sunny and warm (i.e. 30oC).

I volunteered to do an inventory count in Edmonton, which just happened to fall just before the super long weekend. It was a perfect opportunity to see the Canadian Rockies.

I travelled through Jasper & Banff National Parks and saw mountains, lakes and even a glacier. Of all the places I visited, the Moraine Lake wins the gold medal for scenery. It beats Lake Louise by a mile!

The views were exactly like the postcards, if not better. However the highlight of the trip was seeing Canadian wildlife by the side of the road...

Here's what I ticked off the list:

• Coyote
• Black bears...one even crossed the road! thank goodness we were inside the car as I'm told bears can sprint pretty damn fast!
• Bull elk & female elk
• Deer including a little bambi! and a random deer in downtown Banff!
• Mountain goat on a steep rocky mountain
• Big horn sheep
• Squirrels

Unfortunately, I didn't see any moose or grizzly bears. They must have been on vacation!

Tomorrow, I head back to Calgary to catch my flight back to Vancouver....Sadly it is back to work.

Dragonboat Festival

21-22 June 2008.

The annual Dragon Boat Festival is the biggest dragon boat regatta in North America. Teams from all walks of life came from all over North America.

We almost got disqualified in the 2nd heat as our steersperson went AWOL. Thankfully, a bloke called Stephen Wong from the Gung Haggis Fat Choy team came to the rescue and steered for us.

The team pulled together when it mattered. In our final race, we came in with a bronze medal at 2 minutes 26.12 seconds.

Great effort team!

The first Dragonboat regatta

Sat 7 June 2008.

Imagine this is us...except about 30 seconds slower!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G11WpOXDpe4&fmt=6

The race is 500m = 3 minutes of intense paddling. Our muscles were certainly burning by the time we crossed the finish line!

I like to be in America

12-19 May 2008.

First stop: San Diego.
The original plan was to meet Shaz in San Diego. However both of our flights were delayed/diverted. My plane was diverted to a place called Ontario (in California! not Canada) where we had to sit on the plane on the tarmac for 1 hour. Shaz & I ended up meeting at Las Vegas airport where we took our connecting flight to San Diego and finally arrived at our destination at 3am!

We decided to take a day trip and cross the border to Tijuana, Mexico. After talking to some of the San Diego locals, we quickly got up to speed with the lingo - Tijuana is known as 'TJ'. Going to TJ is similar to crossing the border from Singapore to Malaysia or crossing the border from Hong Kong to Shen Zhen. TJ was touristy as expected - all the Mexican locals spoke English, all the prices were in US dollars instead of Mexican Pesos and we were heckled at virtually every store. Shaz & I had a great feed of Tacos accompanied with a Pina Colada.

I've been in Canada for 6 months now and this was my first real holiday after busy season. I decided to embrace Canadian culture by reading a book called 'How to be a Canadian'.

A pic of me reading my book in the San Deigo airport

2nd stop: Las Vegas.
Vegas was the highlight of the trip. It exceeded our expectations on so many levels. We stayed in the MGM Grand hotel, where our room was upgraded to a suite. On our first night in Vegas, we went to Studio 54 for a bit of dancing, played a few hands of black jack on the way home before retiring at 4am...only to get up 2 hours later for our day tour to the Grand Canyon.

On the way to the Grand Canyon, we saw a drive thru wedding chapel, stopped at the Hoover Dam and drove along the historic route 66. The Canyon itself was quite spectacular and greener than I expected, considering it was in the desert. Strangely enough, we also saw snow in the desert!

At the South Rim of the Grand Canyon

The partying continued when we returned to Las Vegas after a day at the Canyon. After a relaxing cocktail in our suite, we headed for the Coyote Ugly Bar (in the New York New York hotel). It was to be expected...a seedy bar with girls dancing on the bar. Later on that night, we went to the Wynn (a really nice hotel on the Las Vegas Strip) and had a few drinks at the Blush lounge. The cover charge at Blush was high enough to keep the bogans/chavs out.

3rd Stop: San Francisco.

For our final leg of the trip, it was back to Sunny California. We started our day with clam chowder served in a massive sourdough bread roll, then visited Lombard St (known as Crooked St) and took a cable car ride to Union Square, Downtown. Shaz & I met up with Devika (another Brit) where we did what girls do best...shopping! We discovered Nordstroms and all of us gave the credit card a bashing. On our second day in SF, we met up with Marion (another Brit) for lunch at Pier 39. After a few happy snaps of the sea lions, we all rented bicycles and biked across the Golden Gate Bridge and into the quaint little town of Sausalito. When we started biking, it was nice and sunny, but by the time we got to the bridge, the fog had rolled in and we could hardly even see the bridge.

Where the bloody hell is the Golden Gate bridge?

For our last supper in San Fran, we (Maz, Shaz, Dee & I - 3 Brits & 1 Aussie) had a girls dinner to celebrate Devika's birthday. We had a lovely dinner at Fishermans Wharf which was followed by some karaoke and dancing at the 'Dirty Martini' Bar. We managed to pull off a birthday surprise for Devika. When she popped off to the loo, we whipped out 4 cup cakes, lit the candles and had the DJ announce that it was her Birthday. It was brilliant! We finished the night with singing 'Dancing Queen' by ABBA.

It was a fanstastic trip...and I would go back to Vegas in a flash. Would anybody care to join me?

Grizzly Bears at Grouse Mountain

26 Apr 2008.

Teresa was in town this weekend. We went to Grouse Mountain for a bit of touristy stuff. The ski season closed last weekend, but there was still plenty of snow. We were delighted to see some Grizzly Bears (2 real ones and 1 stuffed one). The Grizzly bears had just come out of hibernation.

Mel with a stuffed Grizzly Bear.


Mel & Teresa

Bike the Blossoms

19 Apr 2008.

Now that the ski season is over, it was time to get on our bikes! Alykhan & I went on a 25km bike ride around Vancouver. It was a self guided bike ride to admire the blossoming trees along the way and also to stop at the various food stops. I would have taken more photos but it is slightly dangerous to be riding on the road and taking photos at the same time!

Alykhan & I at the Van Dusen gardens.


Less than 24 hours earlier, it was snowing in Vancouver (quite rare considering is is late April!). Here is a random lump of snow I saw that day.

Girls just wanna have fun

11-13 Apr 2008.

A girls weekend at Whistler - cocktails, hot tub, ski, apres ski cocktail, hot tub, more cocktails, dancing, ski ...oh and of course a pillow fight!

What goes on tour, stays on tour...but here is a sneak peek!


One of the locals we came across on our night on the town. Quality NOT!


What were they thinking? Somebody brought this inflatable man to Buffalo Bills Bar as their date.

Snow in Spring

We've had some strange weather lately. We had a cold spell this week and even had snow downtown!

Also had a 'brutal' (a favourite Canadian word) week at work and did some 'super' long hours (for my standards anyway). Bonny's taxi service and the local sushi joint are now on the speed dial!

Ski Bunnies

Happy Easter!

A few of us went up to Whistler for the Easter long weekend. We had 2 days of fabulous Spring skiing and 22cm of fresh powder on Easter Sunday. We even spotted the Easter Bunny on the ski slopes on Easter Sunday.

Unfortunately, Easter Monday is not a public holiday in Canada, so it's back to work for some!

To be sure, to be sure

The St Patrick's Day Parade was held as part of the Celtic Festival.

Bagpipes. Check out the Bass drummer who seems to be wearing the fur of an animal with the head still attached.

Irish Dancing. Those girls must eat their bread crusts. Their hair is 'super' curly!

Spring Forward

Spring is here... and so is day light savings! Yippee! We've had some warmish weather (for Canadian standards) - maximum temps of 10oC.

I did 2 new things this weekend: Curling and Rockband. Sadly, I suck at both!

Curling is basically lawn bowls on ice, with funny broomsticks! It was a fun experience and some of us managed to come home with bruises. Throwing those rocks is much harder than it looks!

After watching the Vancouver Cannucks win their (Ice) Hockey match at the pub, I went along to Diana's mates place for an x-Box Rockband Jam session. It was my first Rockband experience. I had an awesome time but my skills were only good enough for guitar and bass. All those years of classical music training did not help at all...hehehe

This was a great throw by Ryan. The rock landed right in the centre of the target.

P.S. Since my last post, I went to a wine festival and fell in love with Icewine & Moscato d'Asti. I also saw the U23D concert at the IMAX cinema. Bono rocks! It was my first time to IMAX in about 10 years!

A Big White Weekend

22-24 Feb 2008.

Screw busy season. Weekends are for skiing! Our annual work ski trip was held at Big White, a ski resort in the interior. The bus ride was a long one - 6 hours, and involved the mandatory fast food stop (with fries of course).

Unfortunately we were not blessed with any fresh snow. The runs were quite crunchy and icy. My only stack for the weekend was on a green run. haha

(Ice) Hockey

Sat 9 Feb 2008




Annie & I went along to watch the Vancouver Giants play in the hockey junior league. It was my first hockey game. Luckily we had Scott (a true Canadian!) to explain all the rules to us. The game was quite exciting to watch but unfortunately the Giants lost.

P.S. Phrase of the day: 'Bang Trim' = a fringe trim at the hairdresser.

Superbowl Sunday

I still don't understand the rules of the game, but went along to the Hammer & Rammer's place in Kits. It was an incredibly low scoring game that seemed to drag on for about 4 hours, but at least there was some tense action in the final minute. The New York Giants upset the New England Patriots.

My first birthday in Van

Sat 2 Feb 2008.

It was a great excuse for a party...at my place! I held some birthday drinks / house warming in my tiny apartment but it was amazing how many people you can actually fit in a small space. It was funny how everyone gravitated towards the kitchen, leaving the perfectly good sofa untouched on the other side of the room! Rach was wonderful and helped me with the catering and decorations. Seeing as Chinese New Year was just around the corner we decided to incorporate that into the celebrations as well!

Happpy Aussie Day!

Happy Australia Day!

On Thursday, Rach, Hettie & I had a girls outing to Costco. Unfortunately our shopping was limited to what we could carry. I came across some Australian Lamb and was quite excited because my local supermarket only sells kiwi lamb.


Sam Kekovich will be proud! Eat Aussie lamb on Australia Day...hehehe

Golf is out of the question

Last weekend, I went past the golf course on my way to UBC. The whole course was covered in snow and then it suddenly occurred to me that golf would be completely out of the question in Vancouver for the winter months. How depressing. Note to Merv, Nick & Richie - take advantage of the sunshine in Oz and get yourselves on the golf course!

On Sunday, Age & I went to Cypress for a day of skiing. The weather was perfect - bright blue skies and no wind. This kinda makes up for no golf!

New balls please

Hope you are enjoying the sunshine back home.

On Monday, I thought that there was something wrong with my tv. But I quickly realised that my telly was working perfectly fine - in fact it was that the Australian Open canned the green Rebound Ace for a cool blue Plexicushion. The tournament doesn't feel the same anymore and feels plain weird!

I've been following the coverage on ESPN. Again it feels weird not to have Bruce McAvaney's commentary...but I'm not complaining. Then tonight, EPSN was showing the scores in Spanish. I don't know why but last time I checked they speak English and French in Canada.

Stanley Park

Sun 13 Jan 2008.

The Stanley Park totem poles are the most visited tourist attraction in British Columbia. Compare this with the most visited tourist attraction in Italy - the leaning tower of Pisa which I visited in 2007. Hmm...I think I'm becoming a travel snob!

Snow Tubing

Thurs 10 Jan 2008.

We had a work Snow Tubing night at Cypress Mountain. I'd never been before so I was looking forward to it. Tubing was quite fun especially when you go in groups of three and spin down the chute like the Mad Hatter's tea party. It snowed the whole time =(. We had pizza with snow (an interesting Canadian pizza topping) at the bottom of the hill.

That's a mug shot of me on the right

Cold pizza with snow! Yum yum.

Taking the tube tow up to the top of the mountain. See the snow flakes!

P.S. I also played tennis last weekend. Thank goodness we played indoors because it was raining outside and also freezing cold! No wonder why Canada doesn't have many tennis players on the circuit...

P.S. At the post match press conference, I learnt that in Canada you can order a 'dry' cappuccino (which means more foam). So an 'extra dry' capp would mean lots of foam. I don't get why one would want to order a 'dry capp'...it makes no sense to me. You are just jibbing yourself!

New Years at Whistler

29 Dec 2007 - 1 Jan 2008.

Happy New Year! I hope everyone back home survived the heat wave on New Years Eve.

I've just spent the last few days at Whistler where the temperatures were below zero! But there are some things that are worth being cold for! The skiing was second to none. We had fresh dry powder on the first day and runs that seemed to go on forever. I skiied down the Dave Murray Downhill (albeit badly), a black run which will be the Men's downhill run during the 2010 Winter Olympics - pretty cool stuff!.

We had 8 Brits and 1 Aussie in our chalet. But that's not all. There were even more Brits on the mountain, either holidaying or working at Whistler. I learnt about salopettes (a pommy word for ski pants) and bacon butties (essentially a BLT sandwich without the lettuce and the tomato).

Apres ski activities included a cooking and washing up roster (brilliant cooking chefs!), people hogging the hot tub, drinking games and almost burning the place down when we accidentally left the mulled wine on the stove all night!

Pic taken on Whistler Mountain with stunning mountains in the background.

For those of you who couldn't join us, I've posted a video to make you jealous...