Blogs from Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, North America - page 7

So said a xenophobic old Englishman in a forty-year-old movie about an international airplane race from London to Paris. I could paraphrase the old gaffer by saying “the trouble with 40th high school reunions is that they attract too many old people”. So it was at my reunion, held last weekend in Surrey (a city very near Vancouver). The only trouble is, I was one of them! “Vancouver” sounds so much nicer in Chinese—“Weng Ge Wa”. I don’t know pinyin very well, never having formally studied Mandarin, so there you have it. The relationship between classmates is very different in Canada from the way it is in Taiwan. Over there, in my “other home”, classmates usually remain friends for life—except I suppose for the ones you don’t like. In Canada, it is more common for people ... read more

Hey There! So... I'm off to Ottawa tomorrow. I'm super excited, but so not ready. Still have TONS of packing to do. Tomorrow I have to get up at 4:30 AM. How fun?? Awww... Mya (my kitty) is here with me right now. I'm going to miss her so so so much. Hard to believe in less than 24 hours I'll be just about landing into Ottawa. Feels like just yesterday I was counting down from 30 days. The weather is supposed to be amazing down there. This weekend I'm heading to the cottage for 4 days and when we get back I'll hang out with all my old friends. Can't wait! Well better go pack and next time I write... I'll be in Ottawa! xoxo... read more

Geo: 49.1052, -122.83... read more

English is my second language. I'd rather put it out in the open and encourage readers to constructively crititize my writing. No problem, bring it on. We sold our single family home in February 2007. This home we bought only over 3 years ago brand new. It was a huge relief because this is what we want. We bought a not brand new condo the size of which is half the space we enjoyed in our recently sold home. Home, btw, is Surrey, BC, a suburb of Vancouver, BC, Canada. We made sure to arrange to 'close' and move in to the condo 10 days before we did the 'closing' on our sold single family home on April 30. It was a wild, hectic, stressful 10 days. Moving is difficult. Moving from a big house to ... read more

After a couple very brief days in the Netherlands it was back to Edinburgh for a one night stay then on to Glasgow by train the following morning, Saturday. It seemed that the rain from the Netherlands may have migrated a little bit and as we left Edinburgh the skies were pretty dark to the West and there was the occaisional light shower beginning. Before we left Edinburgh we had a chance to have one final coffee with Jesse at the fair trade organic coffee shop. It was one of the few places where we could actually get a cup of good coffe. We also met Jesse's friends Chad and Jeff from Surrey who had been in Iceland and were on their way back to Canada. We arrived in Glasgow just after noon and were lucky ... read more