Today I started my 9 week cleanse. Unfortunately I was feeling oh so lazy and didn't prepare myself properly food-wise and so here I am waiting for pizza to arrive for an appreciation day (free pizza!!), alas...not for me.
Well, it has arrived, people are eating and I thought...."I could start on Wednesday"....But no! I am strong. I walked through the room, looked at it all and decided my cleanse is much more important than this one lunch of free pizza. My health is more important. So I am not indulging, back to my desk to eat my veggies and I guess I'll heat up my rice.
Day one is half over!
At the beginning of January I decided to try to figure out what causes my chronic fatigue (not the syndrome.. just the exhaustion). My first step was to eliminate dairy and wheat. Well, I no longer am dealing with the gas and bloating, but still tired.... My next step which I've been trying to avoid (and hoping it's not this) is an overgrowth of yeast. With my history of prednisone and antibiotic use and poor intestines, I think I have to realize that this could very well be the problem.
It's slushing outside. People complained about the snow but I liked it. until I had to get on a ferry or wanted to go to N.Van. Snow's pretty, it brightens the place up makes things crisp. The sound it makes underfoot, the crunch of your shoe on the soft surface of the ground. What does the rain give us? Grey, bland, dark, wet, wet, wet....
It's ok, I will rise above it as I sit here and eat my yummy spiced lunch I made. I now remember I forgot to make dinner for class tonight. I am not eating wheat or dairy for a full year and so this will be a test of wills to go without food tonight when there's a cafeteria and 2 vending machines close to my classroom. Tea, drink tea.
I guess I should get ready for the meeting I have after lunch.
So long for now.
Doogie
Here we are in crazy Vietnam. But before I get to that, I'll catch you up on our trip so far.
We arrived in Hong Kong from Vancouver just over a week ago. The city was as how I remembered it. Busy and dense. I love that city though, it's vibrant and beautiful. The buildings are huge, with most of them being over 20 storeys.
We had a great time. It was Matt's first time there so we did all the tourist things and then some. We traveled up the Mid-Levels escalator to the top where we decided to walk over to the Peak Tram. Along the way we came across the botanical garden and zooilogical center. It was pretty weird coming across this in the middle of such a concrete jungle. We first saw different types of apes, there were hyper swinging apes, cuddle in a group apes, lemirs and big fat mumba jumba apes.
We made our way to the Peak tram which is one vertical climb to the top. We had a nice walk a little bit around the Peak. Unfortunately the view was through a thick layer of smog from the city, but we could see everything.
We were pretty jet lagged this day so we slept from about 6pm - 10pm. When we woke up we thought it would be best to go out for some dinner otherwise we might have woken up at 4am for the day. We ended up going to Lan Quai Fong (sp?) which seems to be the entertainment area of Hong Kong. It's about 3 blocks of bars and a club. We had a quick meal and then back to the hotel for a good nights rest.
The next day mom came into hong kong to visit us. We did a lot this day starting with a trolly ride to the Star Ferry to cross over to Kowloon. We did whirlwind tours of the bird, flower and jade market and then hopped back onto the ferry to Hong Kong. We then took the bus to Stanley Market which was as Matt said "the icing on the cake". We had a nice walk through the market, mom stocked up on some clothes while matt and I purchased some new sunglasses. We finished the evening with a lovely dinner in a restaurant that had a view of the water. After the bus ride home we parted ways with mom returning to Macau and me and matt heading home to our hotel.
The next day matt and I wandered around Hong Kong a bit before hopping the ferry to Macau. We really lucked out on this trip, the weathre was warm and slightly muggy. It was great!!
All in all, Hong Kong was a blast. We walked a lot and saw a lot of great sites. Stay tuned, I'll post some more about our trip. I still have to tell about Macau, Hanoi and by the time I get back to this: Halong Bay.
On my brother's suggestion Matt and I decided to take a trip up just past Cache Creek to do some camping to this little site called Marble Canyon. When we left, it was pouring rain in Vancouver, but as we got out past Hope, the rain stopped and the clouds parted making for a dry weekend for us. Unfortunately the sun shared the sky with a lot of clouds, and Saturday night and Sunday the wind blew strong, but no rain! Thank god. I even got a chance to have a dip in one of the two lakes to wash off the weekend grime and hangover headache. It did the trick, I felt like a million bucks after and was fresh and ready for the drive home through Whistler. Matt's happy to be home but I can't wait to get away again, back into nature and out of the concrete jungle. Maybe this weekend I'll take off after work on Thursday and find a nice little place....
Tonight was the first night of the Jazz Fest. Amon Tobin played at the commodore, and Patrick Watson opened for him.
Patrick Watson was awesome!! 4 piece band: piano, guitar, bass, drums, all probably about as old as me and pretty cute. They're kind of experimental, but really neat. I bought their album. One of the first times I've liked a band so much that I bought the album, i figured since I got in free and I don't drink I was saving myself a whole lot of $$ so I could afford a $15 cd. The drummer was so much fun to watch, his mouth moved a lot to the beat and his style of drumming was unique. very cool. All of them moved in a really bizarre fashion. Near the end of their set they tried an accoustic thing which they wanted the crowd to join in on. The problem is that they didn't tell us what to say. They just grabbed their instruments and came into the crowd signing at the top of their lungs (which was a competition with the many people talking). It didn't work out well at all, good idea and a shame it didnt' work. I'm listening to their cd as I write this. Andrew, I'm deffinitely going to get a copy to you somehow.
Amon Tobin was great. just him up on stage with his turn tables and the smoke machine. His style of dj-ing is pretty slow and laid back. By the time he came on I had been standing all night and I was beat (way past my bedtime). I tried to tough it out but when the beat's slow it makes it tough. I really enjoyed what I heard from him, definitely want to get one of his newer cds. I had to bail out early though. I'm sure I didn't miss too much.
So I have to say, there's a strip of seymour street (out front of the Penthouse) where it's hooker central. I drove past them all tonight in their thigh high vinyl boots with heels a mile high, their itsy bitsy elastic "skirts" tiny shirts with clevage galore. They make me shake my head every time I see them. Have they no respect for themselves? They stand there on the street waiting for some sick guy to come along. The whole thing disgusts me really. I really don't understand any of it, I really don't.
Anyway, back to the jazz fest. Every night until July 2 I will be seeing some band and I'll keep you posted. Every year I think this, but I really wish my bro were here to enjoy it with me.
Tomorrow is Holly Cole or Antibalis Afrobeat. I can't decide.
All the pictures would be showing tree's, lots of tree's years ago. Now because a stinking rich, heartless, selfish, disrespectful (and a lot more) family has gotten together with Sechelt's mayor and council to destroy the whole town! Yesterday a ten minute drive into Sechelt, or even out of Sechelt, took an hour or two. I kept thinking how if any emergency vehicle was needed, it wouldn't get to the scene till it was too late.
All of this for money. This isn't the only spot, this is the worst spot, but not the only one. If you want to live somewhere that's nice, here is not the place!
If you never try anything new, you never learn anything about yourself. On the other hand if you don't settle down on something for a while you become indecisive and impatient with life. Find a healthy, happy medium.
Live in the now but don't be afraid to step out of the norm.
If you stay the same person in the same job with the same friends doing the same things, you become boring.
To Summarize:
Keep trying new things/but hold onto and stick with what works for you and makes you happy. Never run away from your problems because: wherever you go, there you are.
Many, many years ago, when I was about 4 or 5 our family lived in a nice house in Calgary, Alberta. I have many fond memories from that house. I also have many scarry memories from that house. I once had a nightmare that I wanted to go to the basement but our cat Scratch wouldn't let me down the stairs, she just stood there hair raised, teeth bared, hissing and growling. I also woke up one Easter night, looked at my bedroom door which was open and from behind, in the dark shadow of the door were two red glowing eyes (rabbits have red eyes, don't they?).
Right around that time was the scarest thing of all. My brother was at that age where he was getting into music and Michael Jackson's Thriller was huge. He would play that song over and over on our living room stereo (or maybe it was once and my brain has exagerated the memory). The end of the song would come and that laughter. Oh that laughter, scarred me shitless. I remember him laughing along to the song looking at me in that big brother 'I'm picking on my scared little sister' sort of way. Ooooohhh it terrified me.
Well I have a little Thriller of my own. Much more scarry than the original.
This one goes out to my big bro:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbvP7dT3Dx0
