Weblog Wannabe
Just A Quick Note
Big changes abound around this place. Expect to see some weirdness/funkiness/strangeness/glitches for a couple of days. Brace yourself.
That is all.
Chopsticks Are Evil
The Amateur Gourmet’s Thursday Therendades really made my day. I downloaded all the songs and played them while I was cooking. It made my cooking today felt more interesting. The “Anti-Chopsticks” song has got to be my favourite of all. Why? Because I can’t use chopsticks!
See, when I was in Toronto a couple of weeks ago, I had a (very late) lunch with Troy and a friend of his in a Japanese/Korean restaurant. And guess which one of us was eating using spoon and fork? The only 100% Asian person among us, of course! Yeah, I hear you. I am a disgrace to the Asian community. Still it wasn’t enough to motivate me to learn to use chopsticks. Eating with spoon and fork is just so much easier!
When Mosquitoes Attack
I had my first encounter with Canadian mosquitoes a couple of days ago when we were walking on a trail along the river that was leading to St. Jacobs. Apparently, Canadian mosquitoes are greenish (unless my eyes were playing tricks on me) and they attack you in big groups. They don’t play one-on-one, for sure. Their bites would feel itchy but won’t give you bumps. Now Indonesian mosquitoes are black and they attack individually. Their bites are really itchy and will leave you with tiny bumps that will usually disappear the next day.
Anyway, the mosquito attack (ambush?) forced us to turn direction back to Troy’s car. Instead of walking the trail to St. Jacobs, we went there by car instead, which was fine by me. :) Once we got to St. Jacobs, we took a walk around the town (village?) for a bit and then we had ice-cream. Mmmm, ice-cream! We ate the ice-cream while sitting by the murky river, watching the wild animals doing, uh, whatever they were doing.
None of the mosquitoes that bit us was a carrier of the West Nile virus, thankfully. At least I think so. Hrm. Now I wonder how long the incubation period for the West Nile virus is. Let’s see… Usually 3 to 14 days. I guess we’re not safe yet. Oh well.
Warning: Depressing Post
In less than a week, my evil father is going to get married even though it hasn’t been a year yet since my mother passed away. He brought a woman home in March (he said he’d been selecting the new wife candidates only two months after my mum died) and since then he’s just been making our lives even more miserable than they already are.
Kris Kross Forevah!!!
Does any of you still remember Kris Kross? You know, the kid rapper duo with their hit “Jump, Jump”? Well, apparently, one of the two occupants of this apartment is a big fan of Kris Kross. I’m not going to tell you which one, but that person is such a big fan that they just had to bring up the topic of Kris Kross in every conversation all weekend long. That’s just how much they love this duo. So much that it’s become an obsession. It’s not pretty. Not pretty at all.
(Don’t worry, Troy. Your secret is safe with me. Even if we never see each other again after the end of my visit, we’ll always have Kris Kross. KRIS KROSS NEVAH DIE!!!)
Update: For all it’s worth, Kris Kross Revisited with a link to the “Jump, Jump” video near the bottom of the page.
A Wok in the Clouds
You know what made me happy today? We finally got ourselves a wok. Yes, a wok! Man, living without a wok for 2 weeks was horrible. I had been looking all over for a wok in supermarkets for the past 2 weeks but to no avail. This evening Troy took me for a wok-hunting. Canadians probably don’t use a wok to cook because we didn’t find any wok until we got to the third store. The wok and I must be meant to be together because there was actually a 25% discount for it, which isn’t really that much considering the 15% tax, but still, a discount is a discount and Troy was happy about it so it’s all good. Cookware is so expensive in Canada. That’s probably the reason why the food here sucks (note to Troy: please don’t send me home, yet).
Anyway, we’re going to spend this weekend in Toronto. It should be fun. If anything, it would be a nice change from the small-townish Waterloo. Check back in a couple of days for the Toronto story!
Harry Potter the Third
So Troy and I went to see that Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban movie this evening and I noticed another, um, fascinating (?) thing about Canada. The line for popcorn is actually much longer than the line for movie tickets! In fact, there’s no line at all for movie tickets. It’s always the other way around in Indonesia.
Anyway, I bet you thought I was going to give you a review of the movie. Well, sorry to disappoint you. I’m no good at reviewing movies. All I can say is I really enjoyed it because the scenes were great, the musical score was done by one of my favourite modern composers of all time, the kids were, well, a little different than before (still the same kids but — I don’t know — they just seem different) but still fun to watch, and the popcorn was plentiful. Good stuff. We actually stayed until the end of the end credits.
If you have no time to see the movie, you can always read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in Fifteen Minutes and you’ll feel like you’ve seen it already. Well, sort of.
By the way, after the previous post, I guess you all know now that I’m just a human simulation machine instead of a real human. Don’t bother looking forward to the next release of Firda™ because their team of engineers is actually too busy working on other projects that aren’t as hopeless as the project that is yours truly. *sniff* So sad.
Technical Notes
There is a couple of bugs in Firda™ v.1.31’s ultra-sophisticated system that still have yet to be fixed by our team of engineers. When Firda™ v.1.31 is placed among a lot of people, Firda™’s v.1.31 ultra-sophisticated system will automatically start running in mute mode. When someone chats Firda™ v.1.31 up, Firda™ v.1.31’s ultra-sophisticated system will temporarily run in talk mode until Firda™ v.1.31 bores the other party, which usually doesn’t take very long due to yet another bug in the system that is affecting the Engaging Conversation feature in a major way. We apologize for any inconvenience it may cause. We promise that these bugs will be fixed with our next release.
It’s A Canadian Thing
These are things about Canada (or more specifically, Waterloo) I didn’t know about until I got here (and some of them came as quite a shock, coming from a country like Indonesia):
- People say ‘hey, how are you doing?’ to each other, even strangers they pass on the street (like yours truly);
- People have their car headlights on, even on bright, sunny days;
- If you’re an eavesdropper and English is the only language you know, you’d be frustrated because a lot of people here talk to each other in languages other than English;
- You don’t get seat number with your movie ticket;
- If you go for a walk, cars actually stop to let you cross the street (that always makes me feel important, heh);
- Parking lots are huge;
- Canadian squirrels are less shy than their British cousins;
- Contrary to popular belief, Canadians don’t say ‘eh’ a lot (at least Troy doesn’t; I still have yet to hear him say ‘eh’);
- Gas stations (and supposedly parking lots) are the place where drivers go wild and abandon all driving rules;
- You can’t commit suicide on railway tracks in Waterloo because no train will ever pass;
- Sunny days don’t necessarily mean warm days;
- I could pass for Canadian, if only I didn’t wear a thick sweatshirt all the time (because real Canadians are cold-proof).
Well, that’s all I can think of for now. There’ll be more as I continue my Canadian adventure. Today is my one-week anniversary (if there is such thing) of my stay in the Great White North, and I’m loving it so far!
Isn’t Life Exciting?
I’m in the middle of setting up a photolog to post pictures from and stories about my adventure in England right now, but knowing how short my attention span is, it may take a while before it’s up and running so standard disclaimer applies: don’t hold your breath.
Anyway, ever since I got to Canada, I always wake up at six in the morning, and Troy won’t wake up until at least ten on weekends (what can I say, he loves to sleep) so I always have hours to keep myself entertained in the morning. Thank goodness for broadband internet. Troy has showed me how to use his stereo set and DVD player but so far, only the computer, TV, and the kitchen have peaked my interest. And no, I haven’t cooked anything from scratch since I arrived. I’ve just been having some ready-to-cook stuff from the supermarket. Yes, I’ve been bad.
Oh, if you’ve been wondering what Firda Approved™ food products are, it’s just things that I usually have back home in Indonesia. (Anyone know any supermarket chains in Canada that actually have jasmine tea?) And dude, it’s so cold here but Troy actually finds 14°C warm. Brrrrr. But at least the air here is not as dry as it was in England. And woo, there’ll be a thunderstorm on Monday! I’m so glad the weather was fine when my plane landed. I would hate to fly in bad weather.
I think we’re supposed to be going to the zoo to see some llamas (among others) today but we’ll see. Troy still has yet to wake up. Sleepyhead. And I just had a big yawn. Should I go back to sleep?
