bone chillin...

Back then, whenever Mike comes to Toronto to visit me in the winter, he would always describe the east coast weather as "bone chillin". I always thought he just doesn't know how real winter really feels like. But now I totally understand what he meant. After spending two months of winter in Vancouver, the cold here is definately different. It's kind of a love hate thing for me. I really enjoy how the air is so crisp, sharp and refreshing. But it is also the same sharpness that can stop my heart from beating. The cold does penatrate to the core - which explains why there are so many more homeless people living in Vancouver than Toronto.

North America adventure

Mike and I will be doing some crazy flying the next two months. En route we will be visiting some friends and some new cities. I am somewhat excited. Even though it's in a week, it still seems kind of far away. Will see once it all starts. I will definately be blogging throughout the adventure.

to be continue....

X'mas at home

After much complication at the airport, I finally managed to be home on X'mas to surprise my parents. They were shocked and ecstatic. I've been hanging out with them since.

I haven't begin to venture out on my own yet. 1) because I have to write up a ton of thank you cards. 2) Because I want to spend more time with the family at least until next week. 3) It's been so cold here the last few days that I really dread to spend an extensive time out in the open air.

But the up side of being home is that I now have 3 doggies to play with. Milo, Madex and Truffle. They're all super cute and they all get along great together. I made a suggestion to my dad to start his own dog-sitting business at home. Might as well since we always end up dog-sitting for other people over the holiday or vacation. And the thing is we love them. I think he really like this idea. Maybe next time i'm home, doggies will be up and running around the house.

Beauty of Craigslist

The last few days i've been busy posting various items up on Craigslist. Since the last clean up from my big move, we have accumulated quite a number of things we would like to get rid of but yet with some value. Most of them are new, and yet not something that people would accept for donation. We've actually made an attempt before enlisting them on Ebay. But we end up loosing money (don't ask).

Now that x'mas is near, we thought it would be a great idea to try our luck again with online posting. With no posting fee like Ebay, Craigslist is like a heaven for our goods. We've sold a few so far and hope see some more go out the door.

I think i finally found my calling. cha-ching!

my parents are smarter than yours :P

It's pretty cool yet funny that I chat with my parents now over msn each day. It's not really a surprise with my mom b/c she has always been quite tech savy. But it's quite interesting now that even my dad is on board with this. Let's just say he didn't get a cell phone until a year ago - yes, the year 2005. A month ago, we helped him signed up his own msn and gmail account and now he's up and running on his own. He's goes online more than my mom! But the genius thing is that my parents has now used msn msgner as their version of an "in-home walkie talkie". My dad would have his msn running on his laptop in the living room watching hockey. While my mom also has her msn running on her laptop in her room watching some chinese tv show. When they need to talk to each other or call the other person to do something, they just sent over a message! I don't ever recall my dad has learn something so fast (technology-wise). It's quite funny to see him adapting to the 20th centry..but i'm definately proud of him!

AHHHhhh!

I woke up this morning and this is what i saw out my window. Who wants to go tabboganing?!?!

Who is D. Coupland?

I was browsing around in Chapters today and came upon this book called Microserfs. I read the jacket (below) which sounds pretty interesting. Something out of the norm.

Microserfs: a hilarious, fanatically detailed, and oddly moving book about a handful of misfit Microsoft employees who realize that they don't have lives and subsequently become determined to get lives inside the lightning-paced world of high-tech 1990s'' American geek culture.

Since i'm currently in the middle of reading this other novel, i made a mental note and continue to mosey on. I headed to the third level and notice another potential interesting read. This one is called jPod. To my surprise, it's also from the same author as Microserfs. So who is this Douglas Coupland i ask.

After I got home, i googled him up and found his official website. All i can say is the next novel i read will definately be one of Couplands.

the breakup..

A close friend of mine just ended a long standing relationship. Given our current geographical distance, I became his (the ex bf) substitute as her daily phone companion. Throughout our friendship, we have always communicate mainly via email. We don't really talk on the phone much as we always lived far apart. But once we do, we would rack up a hefty phone bill. For the last few days, I have talked to her quite a bit. It almost feels like we talk more now than all the years we've known each other combine. Our conversation is everything but boring. We would go on and on psycho-analyzing people that we know (or don't know), but in reality we are the two who have issues. I sometimes wonder why we didn't talk more often on the phone throughout all these years. Maybe because now we have grown and truly understand the importance of the people around us. We've learn to engage and commit ourselves to maintain these connections. Regardless of how or why, i'm glad we are becoming more of a regular in each others lives.

Snowing in westcoast..

I was complaining to mike the other day that Vancouver doesn't really have snow in the winter. The holiday season just isn't the same without snow. But low and behold, it started snowing today!! It was great! It started while i was window shopping downtown. Since it was a pretty cold day to start off with, I was already all prepared with my canada goose jacket, fleece mittens, scarf and toque. When the snow started, many people dashed into stores for shelter and running about with their umbrellas. I was walking alone, leisurely, humming x'mas songs under the layers, taking in the beauty of it all. I almost didn't want to leave the streets. The snow feels so warm, so much like home. If the snow only accumulates on the street, i might just lie down and make a snow angel.

..and since there's no place to go,
let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!

In search of floor hockey team...

Now that winter has arrived, it's officially hockey season. As i slowly re-enter all my regurlar recreational activities..but there is still one thing missing. Floor hockey! I am in search of a new floor hockey team. I'm missing the interaction, the random sore muscles, the fun, the nerve and the exercise. I've contacted some places, but no replies yet. So if anyone out there know of any floor hockey team in Van, let me know!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

Just want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dearest mommy. Looooove you! xoxo

Japanese hot dog..

The other day, mike and I had a sudden snack attack while running around town doing errands (actually this happens quite often). So mike suggested we should try Japanese hot dog. I was skeptical at first. Not that i'm not an adventurous eater, but i didn't think Japanese even like hot dog given that i don't recall seeing any hot dog stand in Japan, nor there is any variation of hot dog in any Japanese restaurants that i know of. Thus, the first picture that came to my head when he said Japanese hot dog was Pogo (not the toy that kids bounce around on, but this Pogo). I was thinking since Japanese is famous for their variety of ready-made snack, maybe they somehow fell in love with Pogo when they tried it in north america and decided to name it their own version of hot dog. But that's just my imagination.

Ok, so we got to the stand. i was first surprised to find the hot dog stand guy to be Japanese (i know this may seem logical, but as many of us know, most of the Jap resto in north america are run/own by either Chinese or Korean) and he was wearing this big red chef hat. Then looking at the menu, they are real Japanese style hot dog. I ordered a Terimayo - it consist of an all beef dog, jap mayo, teriyaki sauce, sauteed onions and shredded seaweed. Mike ordered an Oroshi - it consist of a white pork sausage, jap horseradish and green onions. I personally like Oroshi better. Terimayo seems a little heavy for me. Mayo + teriyaki sauce + sauteed onions is a rather rich combination. On the other hand, the Oroshi is much lighter tasting. Simple, not over powering. For those who are not so adventurous, he also offers your regular or "american style" dog. Veggie, all beef, Bavarian, Jalapeno w/cheese, turkey and Bratwurst. I love finding these random food places.

new blog look..

My blog was looking a little dated...thought i would shake things up!

10 lbs lighter....

Ok..so i exaggerated. Maybe one..or maybe even less. This was triggered by Mike a few days ago. He unknowingly reminded me of something i wanted to do after the wedding. It is to get a fresh new cut. Now that I finally found myself a trusted hair-dresser, it is my mission to find myself the "perfect" hair cut. So I called to book an appointment and searched all over the world wide web for the winning cut. I narrowed the gazillion hairstyles down to just 5 after much consultation with various indiviuals. So today, I brought my homework to see my trusted hair guy (let's call him Mr. J). Deep in my heart i wanted a short cut, but due to past bad inexperiences, I aimed to play safe and go for the long-medium cut. But after much assurance from Mr. J that a short cut will be just fine, I closed my eyes and took the leap. I gave him the OK to give me a short cut. After 90 mins of washing, cutting and blow-drying, he is done. And i LOOOvvvee it! I feel alive and much lighter. Now i don't have to dread the thought of washing my crazy long hair after every bikram class. And it sure same me a lot of money from all the shampoo and conditioner i need to use. Ahhhhhh...!

Vancouver winter....

I got my first taste of Vancouver winter last week. For four consecutive days, it rained, rained and rained! Not drizzle..but pouring rain with crazy wind. I know four days of raining doesn't really sound a lot, but given i'm new to the city, it felt like eternity. It was quite depressing. Even though it's not as cold as Toronto, but heck, i rather be freezing my butt off in the snow than being poured on by constant dark clouds. Many people said the winter weather in Vancouver is something everyone just have to get used to. I guess by that time, I will become a true Vancouverites!

Wedding photos are in!!

We went to pick up our wedding photos from the photographer yesterday, and they look GREAT!! We will upload some of those pictures shortly since we have most of them on digital file. Now we just have to pick the winner to use for our Thank You card.

A day at the auto race track...

I went with mike and a few of his friends to a track on Sunday. This is the first for most of us. I wasn't planning to go at first since only the boys signed up for it, but after much convincing from Mike, I went. And I'm glad I did. Even though I didn't get drive and experience the fun and adrenalain like the boys, but being a co-pilot like the ones in rally racing was really fun too. I learned a lot from the course instructors. Ways to drive efficiently on the race track and ways they apply to daily driving. I will be uploading some of the pictures of the day. Next things we need to do now is to get a daily stick shift car!

one more thing to add to the To-Accomplish list:
*learn track driving

To-accomplish list...

During our trip to Portugal, Mike and I came up with a list of things we would like to accomplish together when we return to Vancouver. Here's a few things from the list.

* learn to speak Japanese
* learn to speak Spanish
* take dancing lessons and when we are good enough - enter competitions
* go swimming on a regular basis
* take bikram lessons together
.....

Life is short, we should seize the day and do something that we really enjoy.

Back to reality

Mike and I are back in vancouver. It was no easy flight back. Even though we fly business class for both ways, it's still quite exhausting. Our itinerary is to depart Lisboa at 12:30pm to Newark NYC. Have a 2 hours lay over there, and then to Toronto, and have a 3 hours lay over there, THEN finally head to Vancouver. But that only happens in a perfect world.

But in reality, when we got to Newark NYC, we realized our original flight to Toronto got cancelled. So we have to re-schedule to a later flight, which now become a 3 hr lay over in Newark, and we have to connect to the flight to vancouver right away. During the original 3 hrs lay over in toronto, I was hoping to meet up with my parents at the airport to see them before i got back, and give them the tarts and gifts we got them in portugal. But we have to text message them to cancel.

We finally boarded the flight in Newark to Toronto, and it welcome us with one delay after another. We didn't take off until an hr after the scheduled time. When we arrived to toronto, we rushed through custom and baggage. And on the way to catch the shuttle to the next terminal for the connecting flight, the staff told us not to bother as it will depart in 5 minutes. There's no way we can make it there on time. So we have to re-schedule once again. Now we are to fly out the next morning at 9am. I was actually glad we missed it since I really want to see my family. I miss everyone and milo. And I know they want to see me just the same. I called my parents to pick us up at the airport. At home, we showed them all the pictures we took during the trip. We chatted a little before we head to bed.

We got on the flight this morning and finally arrived in Vancouver. It took us literally an entire day to get back. All i can say is we are totally exhausted.

Last 3 days in Lisboa

I'm back in Vancouver! I know I haven't update all of you regarding our last 3 days in Lisboa. Reason being is that our hotel in lisboa is charging us $22 euro per day for internet!! I would imagine internet access would be more rare and expensive in small towns in Portugal. But apparently Lisboa is the most expensive. The other 2 towns we were at prior to this only cost $10 euro/day and $5 euro/day. Go figure. Thus, i'll do the update of the last 3 days in this post.

We drove into Lisboa from evora. We returned the car in the city since Lisboa is afterall the capital city of Portugal, which mean they do have subway and transit systems. But overall, I can probably sum up our stay in the city in two words. Walking and Tourist. Maybe we have been spoiled by the ruralness (not sure if there's such a word) and the rawness of the portugese culture the other 2 small towns had offered. It's like we were the only ones there exploring the country. Whereas lisboa is a whole other story. It is just like another european big city to us. Tons of tourist, urban, cars, subway and locals that speaks english. It was a little dissapointing. We didn't really feel so inspire to explore the city. B/c all we really have to do is follow where the crowd of tourists goes. We have also retired our portugese phrase book as most locals speaks english to us automatically.

Most of our touring were done on foot. As our hotel was located in part of downtown, we walked to all the tourist spots aournd and also to get ourself oriented on the first day we got there. The second day we did a walking tour following our Lonely Planet Guide book. Despite it's a WALKING tour and they have given us a map and written directions of where to go and what to see, we still managed to constantly get ourselve lost! We never ended up finishing the suggested 2 hours walking tour. It took us that amount of time half way. Then we got totally lost and end up taking a short cut to the final point of the walking tour. Roads in Portugal are not tourist friendly. But we did make a detour to this thing call Theives Market. They only have it on saturday. It's like a big garage sale in this square. There are both new and old things at the stands. But I'm not surprise if some of them are actually theives. Some of those people looks like the type that you would find on Hasting Street in Vancouver. The last day, we got ourselve a one day transit pass. Took the tram to yet another tourist spot, where they are famous for the Portugese custard tart. We bought 1.5 dozens. Mike ate 8 of them. I had 2. The rest were for my family. After that, we took the tram + subway to Oriente where this famous stadium (equivelent to ACC for toronto) and this big shopping mall located. Then we hop onto the subway again to Baixa Chaido. This cool, hip area to with small boutique shops and interesting restuarants equivelent to Queen Street west in toronto). Since it starting pouring out, couldn't really do much walking. So we went back to the hotel and chillax until dinner time. Then we went back to Baixa Chaido to find a cool dinner spot for our last night there. Ended up going to the Brazilian restuarant. Mike had duck meat and I had fillet mignon brazilian style. For dessert, I had a creme w/ passion fruit/ginger/peach, and mike had a pear sorbet with vodka. The food is pretty awesome. We didn't really buy anything in portugal. Our expenses were only for 3 things. Transportation, accomadation and FOOD!!! We spent $3 euro for sight-seeing. It's the entrance fee to the bone chapel in Evora. All the other stuff is either free There's really nothing much there is to buy. Their stuff is not exactly cheaper nor nicer. Nothing that i can't get in North america. Plus we're not really a shopping travellers.

Overall, i really like portugal. Food, people and culture. I would definately go back again. This time to the northern cities.

In Portugal (day 7)

Quite an advanture we have today. As we are done with Evora, we decided to visit the cities around evora. We visited Viana do Alentejo, Portel, Reguengos de Monsaraz, Sao Pedro do Corval and Estremoz. The drive was super fun during the day, but once it got dark, it was quite intense. The roads were dark (i say 80% of the highway has no street light), whindy and the sky was spitting on and off. Given that we have no cell phone, some unprecise street mapping from our GPS system as most of those are country farm area, we thought we were a little crazy. But it was definately worth it!

Highlight of the day, we only spent 11 euro all day (no including gas, i estimate 1/2 a tan)! We got into Estremoz at 9pm and found out that we only have 15 euro in our name (left the rest in the hotel), and we haven't ate since we left Evora in the morning. So we went to what seems to be a local resto hang out, thought we would just order an appetizer to hold our hunger until we get back to evora. We ordered 2 special of the day, chicken w/fries (btw, everything in portugal comes with potato on the side, either be fries, potato chips or steam potatos) and bacalhau (fish). We didn't get any drink since we were afraid we can't afford it. When the waiter came to us with the bill, it was only 7,89 euro!!! That's the cheapest dinner we have since we got to portugal. Our avg dinner cost 40 euro each night. And this is the first night we didn't have wine with our meal. We actually had a little wine withdrawal. Since we got here, we avg about half a bottle of wine a day. So back to the story, you ask how is it 11 euro that we spent? On the way back to evora, we realized we have to pay toll for the motorway. We were ready to pull out our canadian bills that we still kept in our wallet. Lucky us it only cost us 2,20 euro. The day worked out to be perfect!

Tomorrow we will be leaving Evora and heading into Lisbao. We will be returning our rental as Lisboa has a pretty good subway system. Can't wait to take the subway!

Before I go, there's a few things we noticed in Portugal.
- Portugal has the best tasting fries we ever had! It's reallly good everywhere, not just isolated restaurant.
- There's a lot of stray dogs and cats
- There is bound to have a Chinese person open a store or restaurant any where. No matter how remote or small the city is.
- hmmm..there's more..can't remember right now..will update..

In Portugual (day 6)

Today we live a life of a local portugese. We heading out in the afternoon into town. Parked our car in one of the few free parking lot in the city (thanks to the tips of our hotel front desk person). Did i tell you guys that we got a parking ticket yesterday?! We parked at a resident parking. Apparently we were lucky since they only gave us a ticket for 6,55 euro, while a parking ticket usually cost 30 euro. Since we no access of paying our ticket over ATM and have no euro cheque to mail, we have to go directly to Sitee (transportation office) to pay for our ticket. Once that's done, we walked to a local sandwich shop for a bite. Once we got out, we saw this street stand of roasted chestnuts which we can't pass for. So we got a cone of chestnuts for 1.50 euro. While we eating our hot roasted chestnuts, heading toward to a local supermarket for grocery, guess what we saw. A pastry store with portugese egg custer tarts. We just had to go in. We ordered an egg custer tart, an almond tart and mike got a cup of expresso. Within one block, we made three food stop, can't do any better than that. Finally we got our grocery, it started raining, so we head to the car and back to the hotel. Once we got back to the hotel, we notice the parking is FULL, and we see people other than the ones that works there. I swear, for the last 2 days we were there, i'm pretty certain that mike and i are the only couple that lives there. B/c other than hotel staff, we haven't seen one single guest. All of a sudden, we see guests walking in and out, in the lounge, in the bar, in the restaurant, packed out the parking lot. So weird.

Anyways, we headed back out for dinner. Went to this place every book say it's the pick of the town. (i know i know, we are suppose to go venture, but we'll just try this one first). Despite the reputation of the resturant, we find the food ok. Maybe it's just not our kind of food. Oh well.

Tomorrow we will drive to the cities around Evora since we already know evora like the back of our hands. Hopefully we'll find some jem around here.

In Portugual (day 5)

Today is another tiring day. We drove into Evora (it's a mile away from our hotel) and we pretty much walked around all day. We walked for at least 6 hrs straight and I think we hit all the scenic point there is in town. OH, we finally saw asian tourist! A bunch of them. We saw this japanese tour at one scenic point. It's a bunch of old japanese men and women. There was also a young asian couple. We also saw quite a number of other tourists that are like us. Each holding their own copy of a map of Evora and a copy of the lonely planet guide book. That made me feel some what at ease. Just knowing that we are not the only tourist in town. We hit up another local restaurant today. Food was great as usual. We decided that tomorrow, we will detach our dinner decision from the guide book or other's suggestions but to try our own luck. We figuere that since this is such a small town, we can't really go wrong at any one of the local food joints. Whereas in a big city, there are bigger range between good and bad food joints.

Tomorrow we will walk around some more. Go to the local market, and do some more city search.

In Portugal (day 4)

We are in Evora! So tired. today is our travel day. Woke up early at 9am (we call this early now), and Budget dropped off the rental car for us at the hotel. It's a manual 4 door Ford Fiesta, which is a fordfocus in canada. We set up our gps on mike's laptop and began our journey. First stop, into the town of albufeira. Today has been a little cloudy and windy. Glad we had all the sunshine during the time we were at the resort. Did some site seeing and pictures taking then head to our next stop Beja, which is a town we thought we passed by before hitting Evora. During the drive on the motorway, we notice they put up signs along the way as we pass by scenic spots. After seeing several of them, we couldn't help but stop at one call Castro
Verde (as we understand it's a castle of some sort). We made our little detour into the little town hoping to see the castro. But after many turns around those european streets, we saw a castle looking like building, but not so sure it that is really the scenic point that we intent to see. Oh well. Off to the motorway again.

After an hour or so on the motorway we got to Evora! The gps mapping pretty much useless as they don't have the name for most of the street. They are just called "local street" on the computer. But since it's a small town and we have a book on portugal, plus our hotel is apparently a scenic site in the city, we manage to find it with some looking. After much driving all day, we were exhausted. But given the expansive and lack of dinner choice in the hotel, we ask the reception at the hotel for a good local joint to eat, then drove into town for some good old local dinner. It was SOOOO good. It's a small family own restaurant. No one that goes there order from the menu, they just tell the son or dad of the place to bring them whatever is good for the day. We had this thing call "black pork" which is famous in this
town. It's pig which they grow that they do not trap in pens. They are allow to run freely in the farm, thus "black". After the meal, we went back to the hotel and here i am.

We'll be doing sight seeing in town the next few days. Evora is a really old city, with many historic sites. Hope we wont' get lost!

p.s. i'm starting to think people in portugal has never seen chinese people. We seems to get alot of looks from local and even tourists! what the heck. I guess not alot of asian goes to portugal. So far, i think we saw like 3 asian, NOT chinese, asian of some sort.

btw..we loaded our pix on flickr, check back to see as we will load pix on it daily.
Photos

In Portugal (day 3)

Today will be our last day in this town. At the restaurant where we had dinner last night, we met this holland couple. They have a cottage here and been coming to portugal for 23 years. We chatted alot with them and the family that runs the restaurant. According to the couple, that restaurant has to best Chicken Piri Piri (bar-b-q chicken with hot sauce) in town. They are a close friends with the family too since they eat there whenever they are in town from holland. The chicken was
awesome. We also tried the town special drink Almond Liqure. It's a strong liquor they serve after the meal. It taste like concentrated almond tofu. A little FYI, all the restaurant here serve free Port wine at the end of the meal. And drinking wine seems like mandatory in portuagal since they are also a wine country. So since we got here, we drink everyday. Mike was saying last night that he seen me drink more wine then he ever seen me dink in 4 years. hahaha..but they are really good. We still need to try one of the specialty Green Wine.

So back to today update..we didnt do much. Went to the supermarket across the street from the hotel to get our breakfast for the next few days, and got some on the road snacks for tomorrow road trip. Took a long walk on the beach and took alot of pic of the place since it's our last day. We'll load them on flickr after dinner. Go check it out!

Tonight we will go have some tapas for dinner. Try their famous grill sardine. We'll let you know how that goes. Then we have to plan out where to go tomorrow. Not sure if i'll have internet tomorrow...we'll see.

adeus!

In Portugal (day 2)

Today we did more tanning and swimming. Tomorrow will be our last day here in Albufeira. Next stop will be Evora. We will be renting a car on monday. We calculated taking bus/taxi would cost us the same or more if we are to rent a car. Plus we get more flexibility if we rent.

First we will drive around the cities/towns around here, then will head to Evora via the motorway (highway). A local here we met yesterday told us a nice scenic route to get there. Can't wait to start some real sight seeing since we are starting to get restless from tanning, eating and swimming the last 2 days.

In Portugual (day 1)

I'm now in portugal!! the hotel is beautiful. We are staying at Sheraton Algarve. Even though it took us a few bus/taxi transfer to get here from the airport, it's all worth it. It's right by the beach and it's more like a resort than a hotel.
The weather is great. We sun tan and swam on the beach/pool today. The only thing is this place is a little away from town. So we either have to eat at the restaurants inside the hotel (expensive), or eat at the local restuarants just outside the hotel. Even though they are less expensive then the hotel, but i'm sure they are also tourist trap comparing to the ones more closer to the town. It's ok, we wanted to relax the first few days anyways. We will leave here on monday and head to Evora, a more rural town. There should be more sightseeing there.

First find in YVR..

It's been exactly a week since i moved to vancouver. Got myself acquainted to the reality that this is now my new home. Have to adjust my daily routine to fit my new life. Other than missing everyone at home, I can say I'm enjoying what the city has to offer so far. Then again, just being able to ride my bike around town as my daily transport is enough to satisfy me.

Yesterday, i was introduced to this new food find in town. It's called Chai at East is East. It's a very cute and cozy place, open yet private. Their roti are delicious and the price is very reasonable. In some ways the food reminds me of Burrito Boys in Toronto. The taste is not 100% authentic to it's origin, but the spirit is there and it's VERY tasty. As I've been to vancouver several times before, and have eaten at a number of places. I didn't think there are many gems hidden in this city, but this place has given me hopes that there could be many more gems out there to be discover.

Next, to find good dessert places!

the search still continues...

I think planning a wedding is like having a new born baby. They both suck the life you once had away from you. After the engagement had settled in, we have been thinking about the wedding every waking moment (or even in my dream). Yet, it's kind of weird. I can't describe it as one big headache, but rather a string of little ones. At first we were worry and anxious to decide on a date, thinking that the rest will be a breeze as long as the date is set. Once the date is set, we realized picking a location is even worst of a task. Competing with god knows how many couples for the same date, and has to find a place that we actually like and fit into our budget. Yet, we think that once the location is picked, everything will be a breeze. I have my fingers cross on that one.

Even though life has been stressful, I do come to a realization that i'm quite lucky (not necessary to others benefits). I think i have already found "the dress" given I've really went looking in total of 1 weekend, now i just have to hackle the price down. As for brides maid dresses, it would of been quite a challenging task since 2 out of 3 of my girls are half way around the world. But luck prevail as they all conveniently are able to meet up with each other to shop for their dresses on my behalf. Next is my wedding venues, due to the distance we are faced with, he is force to take on most of the planning responsibilities. That only means a little less for me. Thanks and sorry everybuddy!!

Location, location, location...

As I look in the big scheme of planning a wedding, there's really nothing much to it. Most importantly is to find the location for the ceremony and dinner reception. The rest is just small details. But right now, we...well..more like just me..is stressing to find the perfect place for both ceremony and dinner reception. How can something so easy, yet can be so hard. Vancouver got the everything nature has to offer..but why can't they have more cool reception venues to choose from. *sigh* so the search continues.....