Thankful for Grandma, Family, Typhoons and Olympics!

Its been a whirlwind few weeks... my popo grandma was suddenly hospitalized for pneumonia (she is 89 this year) due to aspiration.  After a big scare, I flew home at last minute to be with her. Thank goodness she slowly recovered and stabilized.  Also it reinforced how important family is - despite being far away.  Even my grandfather is 93 years old and we remain close and enjoy time spent together in person.

Thank you also to Stephen for organizing a surprise birthday dinner for me upon my return!  It was a welcome relief from the family and travel stress, and really great to see good friends over too much buffet in Hong Kong!

The Olympics is pretty awesome going on in London 2012.  The "Queen" dropped in by helicopter / balloon to the opening ceremonies.  Volleyball and diving are totally awesome to watch.  And I realize its really the 'tier 2 & tier 3' sports like track, weightlifting, volleyball, track & field (heptathlon) and swimming that interest me over the 'tier 1' sports like basketball, tennis, etc. Too bad Canadian women lost 4-3 in unfair refereeing to U.S. in soccer :(  

The typhoons have been rampant here in Asia.  Vicente hammered Hong Kong a few weeks ago and the Hurricane signal 10 was raised for the first time in 13 years. 'emergency' flight was delayed a full day! My Recently Taiwan and Philippines were hit, and now Shanghai and Hangzhou may be hammered along with China's East Coast.  Other than that, pollution has been crazy bad, and its been gray, humid and cloudy here in Hong Kong this month.  

Look forward to clearer air in the coming months as the summer fades, so we can enjoy more beach, junk trips, runs and hiking!

Another Yahoo! CEO, heat wave/tanned!

Yahoo has it's fourth CEO in 4 years - 37 year old Marissa Meyer! Best of luck to this silicon valley search icon from google. Kudos to her for landing this great but tough opportunity!

Massive heat waves here and in NA. Taipei hit 40C last week... And HK consistently 34C and humid as well.. Two weeks ago Stephen and I went to Stanley market and St.Stephen's beach for sun and food...then . Last weekend j joined a group for a 8.5km hike and trail run along Dragon's back to Tai Long Wan near Shek O. It was damn hot and a bit hilly but gorgeous views and nice beach. thereafter I met friends and Stephen for a nice dip in the pool near Olympic. Relaxing. Definitely and finally tanned !

The storm last night was sooo loud and sky flashing bright that it woke me up... At least some rain here and there cools things down.

City life mostly these days... but it's nice to know real gorgeous nature is not far away!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Sheung Wan

Half marathon, bye family home, babies growing

It's again been a while since my April blog! Stephen and I just returned from time with family, although I had to be at office.

My parents have sold our 20 year family home. Theyre downsizing to a condo. Tons of good and bad memories, but more notably TONNES of stuff to purge. Content sales, craigslist, donations and more were coordinated by my sisters and we tried to help where possible. Fingers crossed it goes smoothly next week!

The babies are getting bigger: Adam and Kristin almost one, Joven can walk now at 13+ months, Denise/Saima/Subarna due any time now! Traffic has worsened in Toronto. I wonder if transit will ever catch up in this metropolis!?

On the personal front, in late May, Stephen and I completed our first Half marathon in Singapore! Damn it was hot. At least the Sundown Event started at 12:30am ... We survived although it was painful. Good route around the city state major landmarks. Then it thunder down poured right when we finished. Poor guys doing the Full! All about good pacing! I finished in too 15% of ladies so I guess I am happy! Would probably race another half before trying a full.... In somewhere less humid!

Also Stephen got to meet more of my extended family in Singapore; some of them joked that my husband was a mystery and probably didn't exist until he met them personally! Thereafter I went with Mom to Kuala Lumpur for her mini high school reunion. After that we saw more cousins and my grandpa's brother as well. Back ti Singapore where dad met us, had a huge family dinner to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Weeks of work travel then ensued to Taipei, Seattle and Austin (Boston Sloan reunion also).

So so so happy to be back in hk. Already made my first bread loaf... My new hobby since loading up on carbs pre-marathon!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Hong kong

Humidity >30C in April!

The crazy humidity of Hong Kong supposedly started 'late' this year.  Interspersed with near-typhoon black clouds and heavy rain, it has been consistently well above 30C in late April already. Yikes!  Very good excuse to defer our outdoor running/training :-(

While Stephen luckily dodged the food poisoning after Yunnan trip, he does continue to encounter questionable food when on biz travel in mainland... scary stuff. I think our next trip will be somewhere cleaner and safer, maybe Thailand.
On the 'what's happening in the news' front, we enjoyed The Lady (Michelle Yeoh plays Burmese pro-democratic elect Aung San Suu Kyi superbly. In real life Aung was finally sworn in this week as an official lawmaker/opposition!).  Also the blind lawyer/activist Chen Guangcheng escaped from China and the world is awaiting Obama/US to protect his family from further China government persecution.  Also Facebook is due to IPO very soon; Zuckerberg will probably yield $1B himself although most goes into taxes (piddly amount relative to his wealth). Microsoft bought huge stack in Barnes & Noble Nook tablets.  Samsung released its Galaxy III S today to rival the iPhone. 

And...more Asian migrations... yet another good friend from grad school has landed in HK (Li).  Look forward to spending more quality time with her and her family!  And we work in the same building :-)  And Stephen has a good friend now living in Beijing...

Tiger Leaping Gorge = fun hike, risky food

We had a fun trip hiking up the largest gorge in Asia, staying overnight, eating (oily) local spicy foods, hanging out in Lijiang Old Town, etc. On the downside, Connecting in the Kunming (ghetto) airport was disgusting, and forced us to eat KFC twice (not bad tasting but still pretty unhealthy!), and too much yak or bad chicken or goat caused us serious tummy aches!


I still highly recommend Yunnan province which consists of lots of China minority groups, some similar to Tibetans. In Lijiang there are lots of Naxi people who comprise one of the world's few matriarchal societies (marriage = optional, tons of male partners ok, lineage/ancestry/home passed through youngest daughters from mothers, etc).


In North America for a whirlwind visit to see family friends and of course, to work.  Need to get over my silly food poisoning and stomach aches so I can start training again for our half marathon!! Yikes!

People in HK always talk Money

I had heard this before, but its more true than ever.  Every conversation (well, almost every) I overhear in and around this metropolis is about money. From work colleagues to the sushi chefs preparing lunch behind the bar.  Most recently, my colleagues seems to know the price of everything. If I ask their interest in a particular activity, say BBQ at a park, the response is not a "Yes, interested" or "No, thanks", rather it is a "$53HKD per hour".  I'm typically dumbfounded as that doesn't clarify whether they want to do it or not. 


Similarly today I was picking up dessert bar food overhearing the sushi chefs chat about charging customers "extra $12 for type X of food", or "why would I go to that noodle restaurant since the fishball soup went up by $2".


I hate to stereotype, but if you take time to listen to conversations (mostly in Chinese, unfortunately) on the MTR Subway, its the same....


So Asians are good with money.  I would argue though, a bit obsessed with nickels and dimes.

Lost my voice, HK "elections", 13k Trail Run, Singapore

I have lost my voice.  Probably a combination of the bad cold I caught from Singapore's 35C then Air Conditioning last week + karaoke + gin tonics + volleyball?!  Anyway its the first time I ever remember this happening, so I took today as a sick day!


Hong Kong "elected" their new Chief Executive yesterday, CY Leung.  Apparently its a select group of 1200 pro-establishment and pro-business people who get to 'vote'. Lots of protests around. Both Leung and Tang are backed by Beijing.  And the Democratic Party guy didn't get many votes.  On the one hand, this is not a democracy at all. On the other hand, its not clear to me that HK was ever a democracy even under the British?! And whoever has been in charge thus far seemed to fully back 'free business' (best place in world for corporations, low tax etc), at the extreme expense of quality of life for average citizens.  Apparently only 20% of Hong Kongers pay income tax (and its pretty damn low tax rate to begin) because their incomes are so low. And the air and housing quality leave much to be improved.  I'm going to keep my eye on this.  Hardly patting myself on the back for being politically involved, but I'm becoming more "aware" than other Expats who just "use" this city temporarily and don't care for it.


On the work front, I spent a few days in Beijing where the weather was pleasant. However my hotel experience horrifying (dirty water from 5 star hotel tap).  Also caught up with Hong Kong colleagues some of whom thought I was not even based here!  Other than that, nothing particularly interesting, yawn.


On the home front, Stephen and I have been more active and social. We completed a very hilly trail run on Mar 18th (Hysan) at Tai Lam Country Park (near Yuan Long). The final 800m was a vertical climb - highly demoralizing and unheroic finish! It was a sudden 27C and hot that day so water was much needed. Thereafter we enjoyed a nice buffet in Mongkok's Langham Hotel with two other friends. We also had nice meals with out of town guests from UK (Sam Cho) and JP Kong from France at Lei Yue Mun seafood (rip-off) market and Korean in Causeway Bay.  Stephen's MBA friend also moved here from Toronto. Also volleyball was enjoyed again finally (its SOO hard to book courts here) followed by a good Thai restaurant in Pok Fu Lam (Kennedy Town).  


I spent a few days in Singapore primarily with Family.  Drama.  Was glad to be back in Hong Kong!


Looking forward to travels to Yunnan province over Easter after my friend Nancy's wedding here in Hong Kong.  And we signed up for our first half  marathon (night run in Singapore)! Yikes!

3-8 International Women's Day

Today is 3/8 (Mar 8) - International Women's Day.  I look back at the last year and reflect on how much more aware I've become of women's issues and progress in the workplace and in society as a whole.  To be honest, out of the 60+ directors and VPs in my department, only 4 are women (including the head SVP, thank gosh) - so 6.7%.  Not great at all. You can excuse it on us being in the 'high tech' industry, but honestly its pretty bad at senior levels in finance or any major industry.  I was even voted to represent the Hong Kong office in our internal women's network.  But most of my colleagues are interested in social activities and not real women's issues (I can't force them, but it is disappointing to see).  Additionally per the APEC Women's Summit back in Sept in San Francisco, women's representation on boards, at senior levels in industry and beyond mid-level is declining in mature countries.  But it starts in the home and from local culture (in my view).  And Hong Kong is far more progressive than other countries - even in North America!

Long story short - we have tons of work to do to progress women to be equal participants in our society and economy.  The question is, do we all care enough to even set this as our goal?

Post CNY good moods; $1.4m rent; rampant corruption!

Its been 25 days since my last blog. Its becoming more a diary than any insightful commentary, so my apologies in advance. Unlike January - full of vacations - the month of February has been mostly "back to work", plus kicking off some good 2012 habits of exercise.

The first week of Feb was spent in Beijing.  First time into "Sanlitun" area for over a year; this is where the Apple store got 'egg'd' when iPhone 4S sales were halted due to crowd unrest. Tried some decent Hunan food.  Weather was pretty cold as Beijing latitude I think is close to Toronto - so down jacket a 'must'.  People in China are generally in a better mood after Lunar New Year break, so my work meetings and dining experiences were far more pleasant ... :)  

Thereafter, I flew to Dallas for work, then drove to/from Austin in the pouring rain (i do NOT miss driving at all) for more meetings, happily crashed with old friends for southern breakfast in Dallas, then to Toronto for two days for family time, then LA dinner with Montreal childhood friends ... then back to HKG. Great.

On a more leisurely note, I've been training for a half marathon (week four so far), which is roughly 5-7 miles running every 2nd or 3rd day.  I feel great.  Treadmills tend to be boring but better on knees. Ran about 60-70 miles so far but no further than 12km at a time.  Even discovered our apartment gym... it has two treadmills  - who knew?! Now... the only problem is the target date is moving since we have yet to register for a half-marathon race itself! Hopefully by April I'll be ready.

Also we bought new tennis racquets and a nice bag, so I've practicing a bit more these days.  Still enjoying the weekends of friends, food, exercise and lazing around Hong Kong with Stephen.  His new job at SHKF means he's more familiar with Causeway Bay which is great :) 

Did you know Forever 21 pays $1.4 million US per month in retail rent (highest in the world for this chain) -- just to capture Chinese shoppers in Causeway Bay???

The most disturbing thing I read recently above governments, corruption and the rise of China is: The richest 70 members of China’s legislature added more to their wealth last year than the combined net worth of all 535 members of the U.S. Congress, the president and his Cabinet, and the nine Supreme Court justices.  

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/china-s-billionaire-lawmakers-make-u-s-peers-look-like-paupers.html

WHAT THE F*@$!  

(YES I even think this 'result' of government work is worse than Hong Kong's $6000 HKD refund to citizens because they can't find good ways to use their surplus! People do need some level of responsible government in my opinion!)

You know its January when gym is packed and barely any work days!

January 2012 has officially closed. But you always know its a new year when the gym is packed and every machine is taken! 


I hardly worked in January hence it was a good month. Got back from vacation on Jan 9th, went to Taipei for meetings the week of Jan 16th then to Bali Indonesia from Jan 20-25th.  These kinds of months are good ones.


In Bali, we chose to stay in the 'traditional cultural hills/rice paddy fields' area called Ubud. Its a few hours from the Denpasar airport but definitely beautiful.  The wood work, craft and Balinese architecture is stunning.  They build sharp peak roofs to capture heat, but the design is simple yet tasteful (not as simple as Zen).  I know what our house will look like one day!


Besides the fact that our hotel driver's mobile ringtone was Justin Bieber, Ubud is truly a serene place. We stayed in Villa Sarna, a family run hotel of only 7 villas.  Home cooked breakfast of Nasi Goreng, and prompt service yet reasonable prices.  On the way, we stopped for famous Balinese style crispy pork. YUM but fatty.  We then took a cycling day tour from Mount Bakur down through Ubud's local temples and homes and rice fields.  Also paid 50 rupiah to try Kopi Lowak (coffee beans outputted via cat's poo, then heated and smushed).  Its extremely smooth; apparently costs $30 USD per cup elsewhere!  Ginseng coffee is truly special so we bought some of that after our coffee tasting.  Realised how many different people travel to Bali to 'find themselves' or to go somewhere relatively Westernized... we traveled with some GE European executive stationed in Shanghai.  I'm in awe how global some folks truly are!


So, Ubud has stunning scenery, and we got lucky that it was quite warm but not too hot (25-30C).  Barely any rain despite the forecast.  Then we enjoyed a Balinese dance performance in Ubud town after some fabulous Indonesian curry and satay.


The next day we were planning to go scuba diving but we hummed and hawed about the 3+ hour drive (one way) to Padang Bai or Amed or USS Liberty shipwreck. Ugh we're lazy. If you add two dives, that would be the most exhausting 'vacation' day ever!  We've dived over a dozen times but its becoming more trouble than enjoyment. 


So instead we hired a driver for the day to take us first to Sanur ('snore' is the nickname per Lonely Planet).  Beaches were decent not great, lots of retired Europeans seem to live there (especially Dutch since Indonesia is a former Dutch colony). Had a nice lunch in Sanur town, then drove off to Kuta beach. Intentionally I avoided hotels in Kuta since this is the Aussie party town where previous terrorist bombings occurred.  The beach was downright AWFUL and disgusting.  The town was sooo commercialised, traffic and pollution were terrible.  


We walked and stopped for snacks along the beach from Kuta to Legian to Seminyak (increasingly upmarket and cleaner beach as well).  Its about a 7-8km walk.  The breeze and view in Seminyak was amazing!  We enjoyed a small bite/drink at Ku De Ta (hip lounge for foreigners on the beach), then went nearby to Sate Bali for satay and delicious seafood.  Didn't get a chance to walk around Seminyak town but may be next time we'd stay near there.  Long day after 1.5 hours drive back to Ubud!


The next day we spent in Nusa Dua at the Conrad Hotel.  I was impressed but it looked like any other luxury seaside resort.  Nothing very 'Balinese' about it except maybe some food or the spa decor.  That evening we enjoyed fresh seafood at Jimbarah Beach overlooking the sunset before boarding our flight back to Jakarta.


All in all, a relaxing, relatively longer few day break.  Stephen had just started his new job before Chinese New Year, so had to get back for 2 more days after CNY!


Other recent happenings include family visits for red pocket hand-outs and lunches, taking up tennis again, outstanding Australian Open 2012 Final between Djokovic (winner) taking almost 6 hours to beat Nadal (after almost 5 hours to beat Andy Murray in semi's) and trying to settle back into routine.  I made a resolution to try to minimize business travel. hmm - tough so far.


Now we're trying to train for a half marathon. We'll see how that goes!  Nonetheless, I bought Nike Free runners "barefoot ride".  Concerned its not quite enough support. Have to run 4x per week...so far so good!  Wish us luck!

10 years together, Happy 2012 and Enter the Dragon!

A new year calls for a fresh new font for my blogs.  There ain't much good font choice on blogger.com!


Let's see... Stephen and I had a restful and full non working week in Toronto for Christmas. As usual, all about babies and kids adds more joy than adult only dinners.  No big news except it was unseasonally warm at first then snowed and very cold!  Watched "The Artist" with mom for her birthday. It was black and white. And a SILENT movie. Makes you pay attention.  Apparently it won Directors Guild awards and may even win Grammy's!  It was good but not that good in my view.


Happy 10 years and Happy 2012


On Jan 1st, we headed out to Vancouver, had brunch in my old 'hood Yaletown with old friends, then drove up to Whistler. I must say the sea-to-sky highway is far broader and faster now due to the 2010 Olympics (our last trip being in 2009).  Less than 1.5 hours in a shitty low end rental car!  The conditions were shitty on average; very rainy in the village and lots of avalanche blasts at the summit.  Day 1 was clear and we trekked all the way up 5+ lifts and t-bars to Blackcomb Summit.  Usually this back country area has the absolute best powder but it was hard packed. And PAINFUL. Good thing I didn't fall off the T-bar 4x like our last trip (you may laugh, but this is a very very long and steep set of T-bars. not for amateurs :( )  At the end of the day, unfortunately with so many runs closed due to bad conditions, we mistakenly ended up on a double black diamond (very difficult) run.  Stephen tumbled and luckily his board released.  I was slowly going down - then a crazy skiier kid rammed into my leg. I got a serious charley horse and couldn't walk well for the rest of the week!  luckily days 2 and 4 were much better; day 3 was rainy as shit.  Base is ~200cm / 80" by now...that said Tahoe and Salt Lake City got no snow at all (they're golfing in Tahoe) so lots of the other visitors changed last minute to Whistler!  All in all a fun vacation as Denise and Rob also joined us.  


We also celebrated our ten year (dating) anniversary. Since one of our first 'dates' was at Whistler, I suppose we went back for nostalgic reasons. The Village is fun but not that fun. Time for somewhere new next time on the slopes!  Korea? Europe?  All the working folk in Whistler are AUSSIE as well ... they don't recommend OZ for boarding though! 


2012 brings about other news besides charley horses and wet snowboarding conditions.  Stephen started his new job! He's head of institutional research at a very famous company in Hong Kong. So now he has to take MTR subway all the way to Causeway Bay (not walk 12 mins to Central anymore... god forbid, 25 mins door to door!) :)  Wish him luck in his new role!  We also played in a tennis tourney at a friends' club recently to celebrate the Australian Open. And caught up with friends after their travels or holidays. Also made it to Shenzhen for a visit with their government and vice mayor to discuss education, R&D and industry opportunities in South China. Very formal - so glad i wore a suit that day!  There were also monumental elections in Taiwan whereby President Ma (Beijing favorite) won by a narrow margin, something like 51% vs. 46%. I heard its more the business/economic focused campaign win rather than idealists....


Enter the Dragon


The most important holiday season in Greater China is upon us - Spring Holiday (Chinese New Year, Chun Jie). Besides China and Taiwan have massive travel to hometowns and a full week off, there is red decorations abound, jammed airport lounges and more-than-usual number of pregnant ladies hoping for a Dragon baby (my colleague she had her baby two weeks early, doh ! )... also I have to give out red pockets to my team at work, and also received some as well. This is serious money and so are "lucky draw" at company annual dinners.  For instance, I heard a client's dinner had A-mei performing (she is super famous Taiwanese singer).  And another one had grand prize of a BMW car.  Ours included mobile phones, ipads, and again - some serious cash prizes! 


We're off to Bali Indonesia tonight for the holidays since HK only gets 3 days (not a full week. We get Xmas but Taiwan/China do not!). Its 25-30C daily but rain in the forecast. Yikes!  Also we plan some scuba diving. I've dived more than a dozen times and in reading my dive history, saw decent views but always seemed disappointed. Fingers crossed!


Gong Xi Fa Cai!  Xin Nian Kuai Le!

39th blog of the year

I need to add one more blog so 2011 volume is at least equal to my 2010 blog frequency (never mind its 12 months versus 4 month last year)....! 


And why am I still sitting at my work desk at 4pm Friday Dec 23rd?  Oh ya, 3+ months of expense reports piling up at year end.... I. WILL. FINISH. THESE. Or never see the money reimbursed.


Happy Christmas!

Winter Solstice bigger than Chinese New Year?

Apparently Winter Solstice holiday (shortest daylight of year, Dec 22, 2011) is more important to Chinese people than Spring Festival (Chinese New Year). Not sure I believed this when my Aunt mentioned it. However they do let us out of work by 4pm that day (of course, I left at 6pm:( )


Anyway, Stephen and I were invited to join the Tsang-Ho clan from my dad's cousin's side in Po Lam for Winter Solstice dinner. The food was fabulous, from a roast pig, to all variants of pork chops, veggies, mushrooms and rice options.  All of this only a few short hours after my Office Christmas Lunch at Langham Hotel - The Bostonian (Seafood buffet with amazing salmon, fresh crab, lamb chop, etc).  Damn it was a rough eating day yesterday!


On a more sombre note, my other aunt and my grandma's sister need your prayers as both have health challenges at the moment.


As we look back on 2011, we have been really blessed with countless trips around Asia and  North America, new jobs and good friends, and a conveniently located and comfortable home.  Most recently, we went to Sanya (Yalong Bay) in Hainan Island of South China.  It was a good, warm get-away not too far from Hong Kong.  Look forward to flying to Toronto tomorrow for a week then to heaven-on-earth - Whistler Blackcomb !


Wish you all a very happy and wonderful holidays!

SMOG: To Beijing... and straight back!

Beijing pollution is so bad unless there is strong wind.  Last Tuesday, Dec 6, as CNN reported, hundreds of planes including my own, flew into Beijing airport airspace, but then turned back (mine all the way back to Hong Kong!).  We simply could not land due to severe smog and pollution.  Wow - in all my years of flying, I've never gone there and back (total 10 hours) in one go.  It scares me when the pilot announces he's "going to go for it" despite being warned to turn back to HK mid way...


I made it there on Wednesday eventually, had several meetings then went to Spice Spirit (a Sichuan food chain) with colleagues.  They didn't serve any beer besides Bud Light (I'm serious), so we gave them some cash to go outside to buy Tsingtao :)  On Thursday, again more meetings followed by dinner at Banana Leaf Thai in Zhongguancun. At -10C, my hands almost froze off but thankfully I wore boots and heattech top.  I wandered around aimlessly in circles after eventually making it to the restaurant (it turned out behind a mall with which I am most familiar).  The food was so-so but there was a live filipino band that comes around singing to each table -- in any language too! Impressive.


Back in Hong Kong life, we are thinking about our first year and starting to relax more.  We also may move homes if the right unit comes available in Kowloon - where the food is more plentiful, better tasting and faaar cheaper.  For example, we had (reverse) sticker shock after a hearty dim sum lunch at a pretty nice restaurant in TST for only $108HKD (about $13 USD)!  When you dine with locals once, your standards are higher on taste and much lower on price.  I like that!  In fact we often travel "across the water" to TST and Mongkok for meals and food because the taste is simply better (at least for Asian fare).


This weekend, we're planning to hit Sanya (Hainan Island, China), which is China's Hawaii. The latitude is near tropical and its the southern most point in China. Maybe some golf, swimming, R&R and resort-ing.  I really wanted to do Chengdu but time just isn't enough.


On a personal front, my friend is moving back to NYC from Hong Kong soon so we had a good bye Korean BBQ for her :-(  Also I've been matched with an MBA student from Russia in the Women's Foundation Mentoring Program, and meeting wonderfully accomplished women along the networking journey.  Truly humbled.  Finally, we look forward to seeing some friends and family before flying to Toronto for Christmas on Dec 24 then off to Whistler on Jan 1.  Can't wait!


Have a wonderful mid Dec week everybody!

JETLAG & CHEAP Austin buffets

Hi again everybody... i'm getting old.  My ability to fly overseas and back in one week has declined significantly.  I'm encountering serious jetlag after a week in Austin and Toronto.  Its probably my 7th trip (i lost count) in this year alone. 


On a sad note, my company had layoffs a few weeks ago so it was critical that I fly back to HQ to check-in with friends and colleagues.  


Getting to Austin is a pain, via LAX, where they simply don't welcome foreigners.  And the connections require you to walk outside to another terminal.  But I caught up before U.S. Thanksgiving holiday with colleagues in Austin.  They took me to a much better Vietnamese restaurant near the old office/airport.... with great pho, broken rice and bun.  However we opted out of the all you can eat (stir fried) buffet...which was only $6.99US!  (can you believe how cheap that is??).  Dallas airport was a zoo on the way to Toronto as well.


In Toronto, I stayed with my parents for a few days which was nice.  Had to work the first few days but then caught up with old friends, new babies and attended my nephew Adam's baptism.


Also, there is almost 10ft of snow at Whistler Blackcomb, and the mountains are open!  Can't wait to go there after New Year!