Let's face it we've all been frustrated in an Exam!!!

I just got this email the other day entitled "We've all been frustrated in Exams" and thought it was hilarious. Enjoy:

The Secret

I watched this film today, it was interesting and I do believe in the content to an extent, however I found the "mind heals the body" aspect to be a bit of a long shot. The film uses the Law of Attraction (You get what you put your energy and focus on, whether wanted or unwanted. You are attracting the people, situations, jobs and such into your life) Basically our dominent thoughts will manifest.

It's an interesting concept, and I do believe in the power of the mind and our thoughts. My friends mother is a very spiritual woman. A few years ago she guided me in making a blueprint for my life. Absolutely anything that I wanted to have was put on the board......no wish was too grandiose. It is interesting now, years later to look at the board and see how many things have actually come into my life. A few things that were truly miracles and a few others that one could say I decided to do on my own and therefore were not necessarily the makings of a greater power. For example i had a picture of Africa on there as a place I wanted to visit and had the opportunity to go there last year. I suppose that could be seen as more of a goal that I was able to achieve rather than the power of my thoughts working in my favour. In any event I find this whole concept rather interesting and have decided to make a conscious decision to be more aware of my thoughts, and what i'm putting out there into the universe.

I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this topic. Do you think our dominent thoughts become our reality? If so, do we then have the power to change our lives using visualizations and positive thinking?

WTF @#$*&^^

So i'm driving to work on the highway yesterday (in the fast lane of course cause i'm cool like that :P) when i look to my right and notice a man driving very slowly, with of all things a magazine propped up on his steering wheel. He was reading a freaking magazine while driving!!!! My mouth drops to the ground and i give him cut eye, all the while yapping on my cellphone ( I know i get it, i was no better than him) only I was making a 10 second call, he was probably on page 15. The photos are of course reinactments. It would be dangerous to take pictures of oneself whilst driving haha.

Jlee tagged people to do this i figured what the heck. Have a great weekend!! For any curious parties i shall be at the Elmo on Saturday evening for some pre birthday fun (The Eat Your Greens night)!! Come on down and buy me a drink :P

1. Where is your cell phone? You will find my phone in my purse or attached to my ear

2. Boyfriend/girlfriend? I have neither

3. Hair? Blonde and curly, sometimes straight

4. Your mother? She likes to talk .... A LOT

5. Your father? He's the more reasonable one

6. Your favorite item? My new cuddle heating blanket. It's a smaller version of the one made for a bed

7. Your dream last night? It involved this PO that i despise, only i liked him in my dream. Why is work creeping into my dreams dammit!!

8. Your favorite drink? Iced Tea or Water, so bizzare but i love water

9. Your dream guy/girl? He would be tall, genuine, intelligent, funny, great sense of humour, dashing to me and of course have a job.....a good one :)

10. The room you are in? Basement, it's chilly. Where's my new cuddle blanket? haha

11. Your fear? Aging, it truly scares me. I don't want kids, but then who will look after me....what about my health, dementia etc

12. What do you want to be in 10 years? Healthy, jeeze my answers are boring

13. Who did you hang out with last night? My sister, there was a snow storm I had no choice

14. What are you not? Warm right now :P

15. Are you in love? Nope, never have been and at this point am too cynical to even believe in it. I think love is a bunch of hoopla

16. One of your wish list items? To see more of the world, travel to remote places, Eradicate HIV/AIDS and poverty. Oh wait that's more than one, whatever it's my list :)

17. What time is it? 12:40pm

18. The last thing you did? I ran errands, the Bank, Shoppers, Mailed some letters

19. What are you wearing? Black pants and a blouse

20. Your favorite book? Hmmm, i like The Alchemist, Tuesdays with Morrie and The Way of the Peaceful Warrior, i'm working on the Kite Runner currently oh and the Wealthy Barber

21. The last thing you ate? An egg and a piece of toast

22. Your life? Is a work in progress

23. Your mood? Hopeful

24. Your friends? Are amazing!!

25. What are you thinking about right now? The drive into work bleh!!

26. Your car? My snowtires need hubcaps. I find it embarassing however my male friend said i should leave them as they are and be proud of my snow tires haha. My summer tires are the shit though :)

27. What are you doing at this moment? Leaving for work

28. Your summer? Oh man, am i ever looking forward to summer. It will be wonderful as per usual. I'm a summer type of gal.

29. Your relationship status? Single

30. What is on your TV screen? I'm not watching tv...shocking i know :P

31. When is the last time you laughed? At work yesterday, my coworkers are ridiculous but in a funny way, they make me howl

32. Last time you cried? Probably a few nights ago

33. School? I went

Bleh!!

I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and i'm going to be happy in it.
-Groucho Marx-

I've been in a bit of a funk this past week. My 29th Birthday is fast approaching which I am certainly less than thrilled about, however i'm not sure that's the problem. It's more of an uncertainty with my future that is gnawing at my soul.

My usual demeanor and the way i present myself is staggering at best. I hadn't noticed it myself until the woman who works in the cafeteria across the street mentioned it to me. It was a place I had not even been to in well over a month. On this particular day i wandered over for some breakfast, placed my order and she stared at me "What's wrong Hun?" "Nothing" I replied "Why?" She commented that i was not my usual chipper self and continued to stare at me with concern in her eyes. I shrugged it off to the early hour, smiled and wished her a good day. Crap, even virtual strangers are noticing. So I decided to write down some of the things that I enjoy, if nothing else, they will put a smile on my face.

*I am truly captivated by long summer days. I adore the feel of the bright warm sun shining down upon me, the smell of fresh cut grass and blooming flowers. My Aunt loved to garden and when such days appear, I am thankful to be alive and a witness to such beauty, one she can no longer see and I appreciate my life.

*Underwater is where i feel most at ease and free. The silence is almost deafening. A certain peacefulness envelops me and i haven't a care in the world.

*I love to sit in my backyard with a cup of tea, great book in my hand and watch the sun set. There is nothing more delightful.

*I live for warm summer nights, the soft grass on my back, gazing up at the stars as the crickets sing. The realization that the world is so much bigger than each and every one of us. We seem so small and inconsequential in these moments.

Life can be overwhelming and painful at times, but it's these simple moments that bring a smile to my face and I appreciate one more day. Groucho had a point...tomorrow has not yet arrived, I might as well enjoy today.

Marty finally won!!!

Woo Hoo!!! Big shout out to Martin Scorsese. I've been waiting years for this moment (much like i'm sure he has). I'm a bit of an Oscar nerd, i've been faithfully watching the show for years and years and years.

Highlights for me this year included:

The two winners who put their Oscar on the floor in order to read their acceptance speech. Who does that???? It's the highest honour an actor is given and bam, they place it on the dirty floor.

There was Milena Canonero's speech in which she pats the Oscar, her ring dings off of it and she says "In one way i wanted this doll and in another i was frightened." This doll????

Davis Gussenheim won for An Inconvenient Truth and would not let go of Al Gore's arm. He also kept staring at Al in a creepy way and thanking him. Bizzare....

And lastly, Ennio Morricone was awarded an honorary Oscar.....he looked less than thrilled, almost bored when they were showing film clips, though when Clint Eastwood tried to hand him his Oscar he kept bowing down as if he was soooo thankful. His speech was in Italian, and it was priceless to see the looks on the actors faces as he was speaking......lots of furrowed brows and WTF is he saying looks. Hilarious.

There were a few films i had not heard of that i am now interested in seeing. Mainly Documentaries:

Recycled Life

The dramatic and touching story of thousands of adults, children, and generations of families who have been living and working in the largest and most toxic landfill in Central America, the Guatemala City Garbage Dump, over the last sixty years.

The Blood of Yingzhou District
A year in the life of children in the Province of Anhui in China, who have lost their parents to AIDS. Traditional obligations to family and village collide with terror of the disease.

On a completely unrelated note, i found this cartoon the other day, it made me giggle, but sadly it is how i have been feeling as of late. A lot of thinking, where am i going, what am i doing, what have I done ........

Enough Already!!

Quel Surprise......it snowed......AGAIN!!!!

Has anyone decided to give up anything for Lent?? If so do tell. I was looking through my closets last night, and i know that i wear A LOT of black....but it's almost ridiculous when you actually step back and take a look. I see about ten items that are not black. Jeez!!!

That pink fluffy garment on the right is my comfy housecoat!!!
Oh look, that one still has the tag on it!!!

Maybe i should give up wearing black for Lent!!! Have a great weekend everyone!!

New Year's Resolution #1.....Check

I had a very productive weekend. Tokyo Tintin had an Ethnic Dress-up Party, which sounds rather inappropriate but it was anything but. I wore my Complet i had made in Africa for the 1st time since returning.
On Saturday after celebrating Chinese New Year and stuffing ourselves silly with Dim Sum, Jennifer and I drove a few hours North for some downhill skiing and shenanigans. I was quite surprised at how well i did considering i have not been skiing in 15 years. We started out on the super small bunny hill, then tried a green circle, eventually making our way up to a blue square. I wiped out once, but it was nothing exciting, my body didn't bend in strange directions, nor did i lose my skis. I would have given it a 2 out of 10. (I "borrowed" the below photo from someone's website) We didn't bring my camera out on the slopes for fear it would get lost or crushed. We had a lot of fun and would definately like to go again.

The real fun however began when we tried to drive to our accomodations. You see, i'm not at all familiar with the area and lucky for us there was a blizzard and of course our route took us through rolling, pitch black, dirt roads which were covered in snow. Seriously it looked like we were driving between glaciers at one point the snow was piled so high. The below photo is the view i saw while driving. Needless to say it took an hour longer than it should have as visibility was zero and we arrived at our destination around 2am.

We finally got settled, had some tea and were able to relax. Just before bed we went outside for a moment ; we did not wear jackets, or gloves or anything that would be appropriate for the weather as we were just going to be a minute or two. We turned around to go back inside only to find the door had automatically locked behind us. We joked about dying from vicious animal attacks versus hypothermia and were able to get back into the place about 30 minutes later, but seriously it was extremely scary, very dark and desolate (in the middle of a forest), very cold and of course still snowing.

The comedy of errors continued into the next morning as we were leaving. The driveway had been ploughed however the snow had drifted so much that my car became lodged in the snow. After about 30 minutes of pushing and shovelling, we were finally on our way home.

As we drove off Jennifer pointed out that it's fortunate we each have a really good sense of humour...i definately have to agree with her on that one, there was nothing we could do but laugh about it.

So much snow....

So i called in "exhausted" to work on Monday and stayed home. I should have taken the day off anyway as travelling can be tiring, but whatever i just used sick time rather than a vacation day and it was all good.


Unfortunatley the weather around here has been atrocious at best. We've had quite the snow storm over these past few days and around 40-50cm have fallen. I was an hour late on my first day back to work, only to be sent home 2 hours later because of the shoddy weather. I have yet to go back, so i've had this crazy long vacation. ROCK ON!!!

After almost 2 days of being housebound i braved the storm and went shopping for ski pants and green tea lattes. You see as per my New Years Resolution (to "be a doer") i've decided to go skiing this weekend (if my back cooperates with me) and thought it best to be prepared. They were on sale too $100 off so that was sweet. The storm seems to be slowly fading away, which means back to the grind for me tomorrow. As you can see from the photo below it did leave quite the mess and it's cold as hell minus 30 with the windchill...yikes!!

Home "Sweet" Home

I'm far too exhausted to write anything worthwhile at the moment. I do however take back my laughter at the weather back home. Karma played a trick on me and snow fell in London for the 1st time in like 7 years. It only lasted one day, but it snowed nonetheless, after such lovely sunny weather.

I've put some photos into an album (London & Paris 2007) and have posted a few of my favorites below:
This is Sly in her cute dress from Camden Market


Apparently Parisian's love eggs on everything. This is LD's burger. They also put shredded carrots and a hardboiled egg on my veggie sandwich.

Paris is so incredibly beautiful. Can you imagine passing this building everyday on your way to work? It's gorgeous...

and these stairs, how can a set of stairs look so beautiful?

I'm a huge Van Gogh fan and this is the place in which he grew up, very cool.

I also appreciate sculptures and this was by far my favorite one in the Louvre.

and a statue in Pere Lachaise...

LD, Jen & I infront of Notre Dame


Anyway, check out the photo album for a few more pictures. I'll do a proper post in a few days, i'm just a bit tired at the moment.

Bon Soir

Quick little update. This French keyboard is rather hard to type with.

We are having a fantastic time. The weather has been great, London was around 10 degrees and sunny everyday. Currently we are in Paris and its a bit colder here and overcast; but whatever; we're in Paris!!! We went to Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower; The Lourvre; Arc and of course shopping on the Champs Elysee. We also had a great dinner there Ces't Bon!!!!

Tommorrow we are going to the cemetary and perhaps to the catacombs. Thanks to Dawn we are staying near the 'Erotic' area; down the street from the Moulin Rouge and the 'Sexadrome'

Sarah took us to this crazy enormous market in Camden, it was amazing, very unique swag. We also went to this great club that had an 'are you feeling gloomy' night. They played everything we love::::::The Cure; Depheche Mode; Smiths; Joy Division......LOVED IT!!!!

We head back to see Sarah tomorrow. im looking forward to good times and lots more shopping; though i'm positive my feet are ready to fall off from the amount of walking we have done thus far::::no joke :)

Hopefully PX will make it down to London on Friday night for a few pints on our last night in the city. Hope everyone is well!!!!

Much needed Vacation!!

My body is here at work, however my mind is elsewhere. We leave for London tomorrow and i have yet to pack as i am a bit of a procrastinator. For the 1st time in my life i am not looking forward to 5 o'clock as i am well aware of the madness that will follow and the sleepless night ahead.

I am however looking forward to catching up with Sly (she just moved to London) my childhood confidante as we paint the city red and rock harder!! This is my second go around so i will be skipping over ther super touristy sites that i saw years ago (Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, Palace of Westminster). I want to shop, shop and shop some more. I will also be visiting my great uncle which will be lovely as he is 93 and it may be the last opportunity i will have to see him. There are a few walking tours that i would like to go on mainly The Blood and Tears Walk (Explore London's macabre history. Learn of witchcraft, executions, torture, Jack the Ripper and much more - Gruesome, Grisly and lots of fun) and The Jack the Ripper Walk (A walking tour with an expert guide. As the darkness descends on London venture back to London in 1888 when Jack the Ripper terrorised the streets at night. Walk the sites where he butchered his victims and find yourself stumped ...)


Of course it won't all be gruesome. I would also like to go to Cambridge one of Britain's oldest and most picturesque towns to take in the architecture which is supposed to be amazing. There are 31 colleges in Cambridge, representing over 700 years of British architectural excellence. It also houses the Fitzwilliam Museum which is a "mecca for art lovers."


I am most excited about seeing the musical Cabaret!!! I have been dying to see this show for years and years and finally my dream will come true in London. Soooo excited!!! Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome, Im Cabaret, au Cabaret, to Cabaret...ahh i can hardly contain myself!!!!

We will also be taking a train over to Paris for a few days. I fell in love with Paris years ago, it is truly one of the most beautiful places to visit. Walking along the Seine River is so relaxing, surrounded by such magnificence with Notre Dame staring back. I remember spending hours wandering around the Pere-Lachaise cemetary searching for Oscar Wilde and Jimmy of course. This time around i hope to explore the Louvre and perhaps even the catacombs. Here are a few photos i took when i went in gasp 1999. I will be back in a few weeks...be good while i'm gone!!

Ha Ha!!

So Rawbean's latest post has a bit in there about a developmentally delayed person at the movie theatre, which made me think of a few things; laughing when it's really inappropriate to do so was one of them.

I'm ashamed to say that on occassion a guffaw has left these usually appropriate lips at very inappropriate times. Once I was at the doctor's office and i had to leave the waiting room because i was crying i was laughing so hard and everyone was staring at me. I also let out a yelp in the grocery store when this old man (ass in the air bending over) farted really really loudly practically right on me. He was attached to an oxygen tank and i felt horrible for laughing.

I also remember leaving the theatre after seeing "There's Something About Mary" and i kid you not, a man with arm braces was parked right beside us. He was fiddling with his keys and all i could think about was that moment in the movie where Tucker(who was also wearing arm braces) dropped his keys and had difficulty picking them up. I started to snicker at the car and begged my friend to let me in ASAP. I'm horrified with myself now for acting that way, granted it was like 1998 and i wasn't as aware shall i say of other's feelings as i am now.

I just received this clip of a talkshow host acting terribly inappropriate. I was in absolute shock at the way he conducted himself and his actions throughout the interview and yet could not stop laughing. I honestly thought this was real until i found out it was from some dutch comedy show. Still funny nonetheless. (I certainly was not laughing at the poor man's problem, just at the host for not being able to control his laughter). Check it out it's less than 2 mins long. Do any of you my dear bloggers have such stories to share?

Waiting for the weekend....

The above picture pretty much sums up my last few days at work. Rather than bore you all with the details I shall just say that i am more content at this time. Scheduling conflicts were resolved, not exactly as i had hoped, but enough that i can't complain.

As well they are filming a movie in my building which has caused a bit of chaos with the already shoddy parking situation. Tomorrow I may move one of their "film" pylons, park my car and place the pylon on top as someone else did today. I thought that was hilarious!!

So needless to say, i've been bit of a cranky pants and am very much looking forward to the weekend, as well as my upcoming trip to England. I just need to stay sane and have a few good laughs until next week. Speaking of which, this picture makes me giggle. A bunch of us were out last weekend and acting rather juvenille towards our friend (IE: making fun of her for something she did). She was not impressed as you can tell by the photo, I am however in the back smiling away!!! Tee Hee!! Come on it was hilarious.........

God Grew Tired of Us

I was watching a show late one night and came across a trailer for the documentary God Grew Tired of Us. (Here's a little blurb from Wikipedia)

"God Grew Tired of Us chronicles the journey of three young Sudanese men - John, Daniel and Panther - in the strange new world of America and how they strive towards a brighter future. As young boys in the 1980s, John, Daniel, and Panther walked a thousand miles to escape their war-ridden homeland of Sudan. They are among over 25,000 boys, who came to be known as the Lost Boys.

During the five years they walked in search of safety, thousands died from starvation, dehydration, bomb raids and genocidal murder. Eventually the boys moved to the United States. They must now learn to adapt to the shock of being thrust into the economically intense culture of the United States. Learning new customs, adapting to new and strange foods, and coping with the ordeal of getting and keeping a job, or multiple jobs while never forgetting the loved ones they left behind in Africa, they set themselves to do whatever they can to help those they left behind in Kakuma, and to discover the fate of their parents and family."

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I am very interested in seeing this film. Not only does it tell the story of the lost boys, but it also shows what the boys experiences in the US tells us about ourselves. There was an interview i saw with the three men and they spoke about their new struggles and not always being accepted by Americans. One of the men could not understand how people just walk down the street without acknowledging one another. The interviewer asked if he felt people in the US take everything for granted and his response was "yes, they don't see that they have everything." I agree with him that often people take things for granted and we're not always so friendly to one another. I think this documentary will help people to become more self aware about life in general and the way we treat other human beings, as well as to appreciate the struggles and hardships that we will never know. I am truly in awe of these men.

(Has anyone seen this film?)

What If's......

(This is my trunk)
I woke up on Monday morning to find my driveway had turned into a skating rink and my car into an enormous ice cube. The only good to come out of this was a surprise day off due to shoddy weather. Rather then do anything useful, i lounged around in my jammies ALL day long, watched terrible tv and relaxed, it was delightful. (this is my bumper)
So back to work i went and while diligently working (ie chatting on google) a friend and i began to discuss past relationships and "what ifs." In my life there was only one person that came to mind during this conversation. I was very young and naive at the time. I started to live my life with reckless abandon and he was more of a quiet soul. It was actually I who broke it off, he was a very genuine person, too nice if you will. I wasn't ready for the super nice, kinda nerdy guy and at the time i felt he was rather boring. He contacted me a few years later, and I've since seen him once. We caught up, had a few laughs and of course he's now married. I just wish that i knew back then what i know now, nerdy nice guys are the way to go!! I would do back flips if i could find such a person to spend time with now. Have any of you my dear readers ever felt the "what ifs...."?