Luck

I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I
have of it.
-- Thomas Jefferson

Happy Birthday to me!

AHahahahaha i love my friends! In case you can't make it out, that says HAPPY BIRTHDAY NAT! Thanks to Tish, Eric and my bro Al for that creative collaborative human birthday card effort! ahahahaa

Dom Dom Christmas Party

The annual Dominion Christmas Party, more pics here:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/natalllya/album?.
dir=/a6ba&.src=ph&.tok=phU5gBEBoA9ES63K

Anonymous

For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.
-- Virginia Woolf

ET's Birthday

At Momentos



Me and ET (aka Denise) gettin' our dance on at Suite.

How to live life

The 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud lady, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock, with her hair fashionably coifed and makeup perfectly applied, even though she is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many
hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready. As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of her tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on her window.

"I love it," she stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.
"Mrs.. Jones, you haven't seen the room ... just wait."
"That doesn't have anything to do with it," she replied.
"Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged...it's how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it "It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones
that do?

Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open I'll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I've stored away ... just for this time in my life. Old age is like a bank account: you withdraw from what you've put in? So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories. Thank you for your part in filling my Memory bank. I am still depositing. Remember the
five simple rules to be happy:

1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.

Laughter

Laughter is by definition healthy.
-- Doris Lessing

Halloween 2005

more halloween pics here:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/natalllya/album?.
dir=/a9b8&.src=ph&.tok=phvWX3DBWKYIuHQj

True Friend

A true friend knows your weaknesses but shows you your strengths; feels your fears but fortifies your faith; sees your anxieties but frees your spirit; recognizes your disabilities but emphasizes your possibilities.
-- William Arthur Ward

The way you overcome shyness is to become so wrapped up in something that you forget to be afraid.
-- Lady Bird Johnson

Life in reverse

Miracle and Mystery

We must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind us to the fact
that each moment of life is a miracle and mystery.
-- H. G. Wells

the brave

the brave don't live long, but the cautious don't live at all.
- some dude off survivor guatamala

The Flaw In Women

The Flaw In Women

By the time the Lord made woman, He was into his sixth day of working overtime. An angel appeared and said, Why are you spending so much time on this one?"
And the Lord answered, "Have you seen my spec sheet on her?
She has to be completely washable, but not plastic,
have over 200 movable parts, all replaceable
and able to run on diet coke and leftovers,
have a lap that can hold four children at one time,
have a kiss that can cure anything from a scraped
knee to a broken heart, and she will do everything
with only two hands."

The angel was astounded at the requirements. "Only two hands!? No way! And that's just on the standard model? That's too much work for one day. Wait until tomorrow to finish."

"But I won't," the Lord protested. "I am so close to finishing this creation that is so close to my own heart. She already heals herself when she is sick AND can work 18 hour days."

The angel moved closer and touched the woman. "But you have made her so soft, Lord."
"She is soft," the Lord agreed, "but I have also made her tough. You have no idea what she can endure or accomplish."

"Will she be able to think?", asked the angel.

The Lord replied, "Not only will she be able to think, she will be able to reason and negotiate."

The angel then noticed something,and reaching out, touched the woman's cheek. "Oops, it looks like you have a leak in this model. I told you that you were trying to put too much into this one."

"That's not a leak," the Lord corrected, "that's a tear!"

"What's the tear for?" the angel asked.

The Lord said, "The tear is her way of expressing her joy, her sorrow, her pain, her disappointment, her love, her loneliness, her grief and her pride."

The angel was impressed. "You are a genius, Lord. You thought of everything! Woman is truly amazing."

And she is! Women have strengths that amaze men. They bear hardships and they carry burdens, but they hold happiness, love and joy. They smile when they want to scream. They sing when they want to cry. They cry when they are happy and laugh when they are nervous. They fight for what they believe in. They stand up to injustice. They don't take "no" for an answer when they believe there is a better solution. They go without so their family can have. They go to the doctor with a frightened friend. They love unconditionally. They cry when their children excel
and cheer when their friends get awards. They are happy when they hear about a birth or a wedding. Their hearts break when a friend dies. They grieve at the loss of a family member, yet they are strong when they think there is no strength left.
They know that a hug and a kiss can heal a broken heart.

Women come in all shapes, sizes and colors. They'll drive, fly, walk, run or e-mail you to show how much they care about you. The heart of a woman is what makes the world keep turning. They bring joy, hope and love. They have compassion and ideals. They give moral support to their family and friends. Women have vital things to say and everything to give.

HOWEVER, IF THERE IS ONE FLAW IN WOMEN,
IT IS THAT THEY FORGET THEIR WORTH.

Incredible

Wow, incredible!

http://www.spikedhumor.com/Article.aspx?id=2435&autoplay=true

My familia

Me, my Mama and my lil' bro Al

Wonderland

Me and ET at wonderland.....




Cousins Paul and Jhosy, ET (aka Denise) and I, my bro Al and Stella

Rose's wedding - Sept. 3, 2005

London - August 2005

more drunken london pics:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/natalllya/album?.
dir=/8267&.src=ph&.tok=phWe8jDB8Jha6SQZ

Another nice photo.....

Just a beautiful photo i wanted to share....

North Korea

Interesting performance:

http://www.hiroiro.com/movie/2004_12_31_kita.wmv

Boston + NYC July 2005

Rest of the NYC and Boston pics here:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/natalllya/album?.dir
=/c1db&.src=ph&.tok=phYkPfDBpMF7DcmO

Which Napolean Dynamite Character are you?

You are Kip Dynamite and you love technology.


Which Napoleon Dynamite character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Deck of Cards

China Impressions

I definetely agree with this guy on his China sentiments:

http://www.escapeartist.com/efam/72/Living_In_China.html

Don Omar in T.O. photos

That's me and ET (aka Denise) crunk as hell at the Don Omar Concert at the Docks.
More Don Omar pics here:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/natalllya/album?.
dir=/d9ac&.src=ph&.tok=phJJmbDBJY1Gm3r9

Da Sasquatchin'

So.......me and Tish were bored and Eric was away on vacation, we had to clean up after his kitties and we ended up sasquatchin' his apartment lol.

The rest of the pics are here:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/natalllya/album?.
dir=/7034&.src=ph&.tok=phXRlaDBi7yIXmpz

difficult takes a day, impossible takes a week.
-- jay-z on "diamonds"

Yep, I was a giant lobster at work. Thats me and my Mama
posted by n@

My Mexico City and Acapulco Photos

La Familia, Mexico City/Distrito Federal, April 29 2005
posted by n@


so you all know i went to mexico with my bro, 2 cousins, aunt and uncle and 7 other people for my cousin's acapulco wedding. first we were in mexico city then we bussed down to acapulco. check the photos out.

Mexico part 1:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/natalllya/album?.
dir=/31ae&.src=ph&.tok=phyuwIDBjdEDppww

Mexico part 2:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/natalllya/album?.dir=90ca

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
-- Dr. Seuss

You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.
-- Evan Esar

Clock is ticking....

This is all true. September 7th. The clock is ticking...."
Written by Matt Lazzara

I don't think a lot of people sit around and contemplate their lives. I mean, people think about their futures and what they're going to do, and what they should have done in order to achieve something, but I don't think anyone contemplates their present. What they're doing right now. Everyone's heard of living in the moment or whatever, but I think very few people act on it. Myself included and that's something that I regret immensely.

Life is a finite thing. Obviously, everyone's life is going to end, but mine has a time limit. No surprises for me, and depressingly enough, that time limit is going to run out rather soon. I've never really told anyone how long I have left, or what exactly (in great detail) is wrong with me, because I would rather my friends viewed
>me as a vital, volaile, rather silly human beings, but at age 21, most people don't understand or know how to contemplate the thought that someone you know will be gone forever, they would abandon me for more secure, lasting relationships.

So everyday, every minute is vital to me, the most mundane things are breaths of fresh air. The things that most people take for granted but shouldn't - a kiss, a pudding fight, a good long walk or an intriguing conversation - are now intensely important to me, and I think they should be important to everyone. The fact that I know I won't be able to experience these things makes them achingly more important to me, and they make me desparate to achieve them one more time.

I want to close my eyes and kiss a girl one more time; the kind of kiss that makes you feel like you're floating, the kind where you forget to do something with your hands because it's so good. I want to go camping, and lay in the grass and think how naively beautiful the day is. I want to shoot off fireworks and run away when the cops pull up. I want someone to hold my hand and tell me something nice
>about myself. I want to be able to read the paper and deride George W. to someone, and have them hate that asshole with me. I want to sit on a stoop late into the night, drinking shitty beer and telling stories. I want to feel alive, and not dead or dying, and think that those things - the most trivial and passing connections to the world and people in it - are violently important.

So this is my contribution to you. I'm desperately telling you - all of you- to take advantage of your youth and vitality. I hear too many people talking about college and getting shitty jobs afterward. I hear too many people talking about work and how this and that sucks. Fuck, we're all wasting our lives doing things that disconnect us from everyone else! You don't need a four or five year
>plan, and you sure as hell don't need to worry about feeling innocent and immature again. Worry about making everyday something to talk about, and not just another blank page in your life.

I used to act like you. I had a plan. I had a future, and all that blew away, but right now, I barely have a present, and that's how I've realized the error of our ways. Please, please, don't get old and die, and die of cancer, and realize you did nothing with your life but make plans that never happened. Don't miss opportunities
>anymore. If you like someone, tell them, if you think the time is right to kiss someone, do it. If you feel like you're in a rut, do something stupid and silly and fun. If you feel the world is ugly, make something beautiful. Stop being so cautious, some movie line said : if you take life too seriously, you'll never get out alive.

Trust me, as much as life sucks sometimes, and wow, do I know it sucks, it is still the only thing we know. It is the only thing that matters, and it's wonderful. Life is a beautiful, ridiculous, tragic disaster, but it's the only thing we have. So don't let it lie by the wayside in pursuit of crap that's barely important. People are the most important resource, and so are the relationships we build with them. I feel the pinch of that more than ever now. If we could spend 400 billion dollars to cure cancer instead of building and maintaining weapons, I wouldn't have to write this. So this is, essentially, a plea. This is the most personal thing I've ever written, and I hope it reaches more people than I ever could.

Don't forget this is the only life you have, make something worthwhile out of it, and no one who you've laughed, cried, kissed, and bled with will ever forget you.

Matthew D, Lazzara
April 2, 1982 - February 15, 2004

Impossible

Act as if it were impossible to fail.
-- Dorothea Brande

Be Alive

"Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs are
people who have come alive.”

-- Harold Whitman

Rest in Peace....niech Pan Bog bogoslawi Jana Pawla II....God Bless you John Paul II
posted by n@

Picante Sauce!
posted by n@

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do"
- Mark Twain

st. patrick's day

gettin' crunk on st. patrick's day
posted by n@

the rest of the pics are here:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/natalllya/slideshow?.dir=/bce7&.src=ph

Change

Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.
-- Carol Burnett

Camrost Re-union

Camrost re-union March 2, 2005
posted by n@

Yep, that's a real tiger

Yes that's a real tiger....me in Thailand in Feb. 2005
posted by n@

Supern@

SuperN@....Thailand, Feb. 2005
posted by n@

I finally found my name on something.......in Hong Kong!!!
posted by n@

focus
posted by n@

The main difference between Europe and USA

'nuff said
posted by n@

Women

A man's got to do what a man's got to do. A woman must do what he can't.
-Rhonda Hansome-


Whatever women must do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.

-Charlotte Whitton-

Chroo dat.....no wonder i'm happy all the time...

If we really love ourselves, everything in our life works.
-- Louise L. Hay

Mirror

Life is just a mirror, and what you see out there, you must first see inside of you.
-- Wally 'Famous' Amos

My Asia Photos

Alrighty!
So you all know that I went to Asia for a month. I got to see Hong Kong, Mainland China, Macau and Thailand. Big thanks go to all my Hong Kong friends (Lucy Mom, Lucy Mom Mom + family, Fanny + Panda and Angela) for making my trip so awesome. Anyways, here are my photos from the trip. Enjoy!
=)


Hong Kong Week 1:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/natalllya/album?.dir
=b3ad&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%a//pg.photos.
yahoo.com/ph/natalllya/my_photos

Mainland China:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/natalllya/album?.dir
=507a&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%a//pg.photos.
yahoo.com/ph/natalllya/my_photos

Hong Kong Week 3 and Macau:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/natalllya/album?.dir
=fe88&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%a//pg.photos.
yahoo.com/ph/natalllya/my_photos

Thailand Part 1:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/natalllya/album?.dir
=7c9e&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%a//pg.photos.
yahoo.com/ph/natalllya/my_photos

Thailand Part 2:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/natalllya/album?.dir
=1e79&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%a//pg.photos.
yahoo.com/ph/natalllya/my_photos

Live Life

When we are motivated by goals that have deep meaning, by dreams that need completion, by pure love that needs expressing, then we truly live life.
-- Greg Anderson

Back in Canada

Now that I am back in Canada from my Asia trip, everyone has been asking me about my impressions of China, Hong Kong etc. I could go on for hours but its hard to sum up ones impressions of these places in a few paragraphs, I'll be lucky if I ever get to find the right words for it. Anyways, I was checking out escapeartist.com and I came across an article written by a dude who has recently made a trip to China, his artivle sums it all up:

http://www.escapeartist.com/efam/67/Visiting_China.html

THE POSITIVE SIDE OF LIFE

Living on Earth is expensive, but it does include a free trip around the sun every year.

Birthdays are good for you; the more you have, the longer you live.

Happiness comes through doors you didn't even know you left open.

Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened.

A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

"If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished?"
-- Mevlana Rumi

Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.
-- Will Rogers

"Sooner or later those who win are those who think they can."
-- Richard Bach

"The difficulties and struggles of today are but the price we must pay for the accomplishments and victories of tomorrow."
-- William Boetcker

The Sea

"We cannot cross the sea merely by staring at the water."
- Rabindranath Tagore

Photos from Beijing, China

The Great Wall of China

posted by n@


Here are my photos from Beijing:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/natalllya/slideshow?.dir=/507a&.src=ph

I forgot to mention, as I was climbing down the Great Wall, a bunch of non-Chinese Asian people started to frantically wave at me. I waved back and said Hi. In broken english they asked me to pose for a photo with their kids. I did just that, then the video camera came out. After that about 5-6 other peopple asked me to pose for pictures with them and their kids. So here I am at the Great Wall and peopple are taking pictures of the white kid not the world wonder that the wall is lol. I think it was the first time that my whiteness was a good thing in Mainland China.

Back in HK from Beijing

To all of you in Canada all I have to say is HAH HAH for your -20 C weather, its 17 C here right now at 8.30 pm.
So last Sunday ( a week ago) I went to Chinese Church, it was interesting, totally different then Polish or Canadian Church. Lucy’s family is constantly taking me out for lunches and dinners and no one will ever let me pay. All I eat is breakfast at home and go to mad restaurants for the rest of the day. Lucy’s family belongs to every country club in Hong Kong so I get to live the HK high life here. Checked out some more markets in HK, they are insane! You can get so much for so little (speaking from a CDN $ point of view) but you can’t be a bit claustrophobic, these markets are jam packed with goods and people and you usually have a narrow corridor to squeeze yourself into between the masses of people and goods. Anyways, my flight to Beijing, Mainland China was leaving at the break of dawn on Monday and nothing was running that early on Hong Kong Island (where I am living for the duration of my trip) so Lucy’s brother offered for me to stay at his vacant 2nd house at Lantau Island (where the airport is) at Discovery Bay so that I could catch my flight on time. There are no cars on that island and only public transportation so it’s a breath of fresh air from the crazy busy HK Island. Anyways, I stopped by the supermarket to grab some tea and found all sorts of interesting things: curry flavoured chips, chicken wing flavoured chips (Q I know you’d be all over that one), ready to go EVERYTHING and strawberry shots of alcohol in toothpaste like tubes for on the road convenience lol.
Anyways, I booked the Beijing trip with a Hong Kong travel group, I was the only white kid there. I told the guide not to worry about me and just tell me when and where to show up in English so I don’t get lost. She spoke a bit of English but it was so broken she might as well be speaking Cantonese. I just read body language and that got me through. Beijing (or Peking in Cantonese) reminds me of Communist era Poland. It was very gray, military like and drab. Mind you its full blown winter there and no city looks pretty mid January but I found Beijing to be really dirty. It looked nice at night cause it was all lit up and you couldn’t see the garbage in the streets. I am used to the cleanliness of Hong Kong so Beijing was mad dirty to me. In HK they drive fast but not unsafe, in Mainland China they drive like maniacs, and there are 100s of bicycles on the road just making the situation so much worse. Everyone has the mentality of “they will stop for me if I go” including all buses and pedestrians. Stop signs and Red lights are a joke, and so are police officers. Crossing the road there is taking a chance with your life. The cops are dressed in Russian style military gear and stand around like Buckingham Palace guards. They literally just stand in public places and don’t move. Bathrooms in China are horrid, you don’t have to ask where they are cause you can smell them way ahead of time. They are completely unsanitary and most of the time they are literally holes in the ground, if you plan to go there, hope you got good balance ( jenn – thank god for open eye festivals and your cottage lol, prepared me for Beijing). I would not drink anything all day til 8 pm (when I came back to my hotel room) in hopes of avoiding the bathrooms at all costs. I think I must have gone through a litre of hand sanitizer when I was there. There are next to no foreigners in Beijing ( saw a total of 5 white people and 2 black guys the whole time) so I was pointed at a lot. People aren’t as nice there as they are in HK. They don’t seem to like to take care of themselves or their surroundings and liked to walk into me a lot (whether it was for pick pocketing purposes or discriminatory purposes is beyond me). They also think that horking, drinking and smoking is acceptable everywhere, even in museums. Men liked to point and sometimes follow me, the women just asked for money or for me to buy stuff. If I kept my hood on my head and didn’t look up then people left me alone, if my hood fell off or my blond hair poked out it was instant pointing and staring. I was fine in touristy areas, but on the streets, I would not survive 20 minutes on my own. No one speaks English there, some speak Cantonese (Mandarin is spoken in Mainland China and Cantonese in Hong Kong, the languages aren’t even close to each other), so if I got lost (and thank God I didn’t) I would have a lot of trouble finding my way anywhere. And as you all know, I always tend to wonder off on my own. I know now why Hong Kong people distinguish themselves from Mainland China people, its 2 very completely different people and societies. Anyways, the weather was cold! It was – 7 C most of the time and I know that’s not that bad but spending 10 hours outside a day made it cold. The people in my group were nice to me, although spoke Cantonese to me 90% of the time. I would guess what they were saying by their body language and answer back in English. It wasn’t til the last day that they realized that I actually wasn’t from Honk Kong and apologized for not speaking English more. I have no clue what I have been eating for the last week as no one could tell me the names of anything in English, all I know is that I ain’t sick yet so whatever sea creatures I been eating can’t be all that bad. I got to see a lot of things when I was in Beijing: Temple of Heaven, Tian’an men square, Summer Palace, Forbidden City, Bai Hai Park, Ming Tombs, The Great Wall, Chairman Mao’s Mausoleum etc. I also got to go to a few Chinese markets (some funky crazy food on sale on the streets), got to go to 2 traditional Chinese medicine shops, a jade shop, silk museum, a Chinese “changing of the faces” show and a tea house. I also took a rickshaw ride through Beijing streets but I nearly had a heart attack, I never want to set foot on a Beijing Road ever again. Since the year of the rooster is coming up, there were roosters EVERYWHERE I looked. All in all, the trip was good, scary at times, but despite all my HK Friends’ premonitions I survived China lol. I am very very glad to be back in safe and warm Hong Kong!
Yesterday I went to MOng Kok with Angela, it’s a crazy shopping area with seas of people on the streets. Its soooo easy to get lost there and you have to watch your stuff like a hawk. I went for dinner with Angela’s family. Hong Kong people gather before the Chinese New Year so there was about 16 people around the table. They were trying to make me eat some funky stuff but my “ I will try anything once” attitude went out the window when they tried to make me eat fried fish skin and chicken feet lol. Afterwards we hit the bar district on Hong Kong Island ( 10 -15 minute walk from Lucy’s house). Its crazy, tons of people and light and music. It looks like a festival but its like that every weekend. The streets are shut down and no cars are allowed within the district. It felt more like Canada since I saw people of all nationalities and cultures as well as bars and clubs catering to all sorts of western and asian tastes. Today I went to Stanley Bay (on the south side of HK Island, I am on the North) with Angela, her bf and friends. Its mad humid out (at 95% right now, Toronto is about 60% in the summer) so it drizzles a lot. Tomorrow I am off to Ocean Park (amusement park), should be good.
Anyways, that’s the end of my weekly essay. I should be sending some Beijing photos soon.

s*t*a*r*s

"Shoot for the moon! Even if you miss you'll land among the stars!"

-- Les Browning

Hong Kong Photos

Me and Fanny at Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour

posted by n@

My photos from my first week in Hong Kong:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/natalllya/slideshow?.dir=/b3ad&.src=ph

I love HK

Hong Kong has been awesome, I’ve been running around doing a tonne of stuff. The weather is amazing as always, at least 17 C everyday. For me its like summer but for HK peeps this is winter and I see some people wearing down jackets and hats while I am prancing around in a t-shirt, no wonder I get odd looks. People here have been extremely nice to me. Everyone is so fashionable here. All the girls walk around in mad stiletto high boots, crazy fashion skirts, perfect makeup and mad styled hair. I think Angela, Fanny and me are the only girls in Hong Kong wearing jeans, running shoes and t-shirts. I’ve been to a few of the malls here, they are incredible! They are massive in size and look more like fashion museums then malls. Everything is mad clean and shiny and you will find only the most upscale names and brands there. Eaton’s centre is a joke compared to these malls. The streets of HK are incredibly clean, there is no graffiti either. Reason is the heavy HK $1500 fine that you can score for littering. HK is always busy and always lit up like Vegas, its crazy busy and its got mad energy. I’ve also gone to a bunch of side street markets, you can find tons of hand made quality stuff and argue the price til its next to nothing in Canadian dollars ( CDN $1 = HK $6). I’ve visited some crazy hip youngen malls and the Philipino mall (tons of maids here are from the Philipines). The supermarket here has all sorts of crazy stuff I’ve never seen before. The price range here is huge. You can spend 1000s on clothes and the crazy malls or next to nothing at the markets, all depends on your style and which part of town you are in. Same goes for food, I can spend HK $10 on lunch or HK$100 for the exact same dish, it all depends on wether you shop and eat local or shop and eat poshy. In the middle of this crazy night and street life right in the middle of downtown you can find large parks. You literally walk into one of these and all noise and lights disappear and you feel like you are in the middle of nowhere. it’s common to find people practicing tai chi in these parks and sometimes you run into monks. I’ve had a chance to eat at restaurants all over the place. Yesterday I had lunch at a traditional dim sum restaurant. You sit at your table and ladies wheel around all sorts of food while screaming out the name of it, you wave them down and they place the order on your plate and keep going, for each dish you have to wave down a different lady. Most of the time they only speak Cantonese so I have no idea what I am eating, all I know that its been all good so far. Lunch in HK is from 1 pm – 2 pm and I avoid being in dining hoods at all costs at that time, the crowds are crazy and its like heards of buffalo stampeding to get their eat on. I’m comftorable with HK now enough that often I venture out on my own. The subway system and ferries are easy to figure out and I more or less know where everything is now. Its really safe here and there’s a ton of cops everywhere I go. Today me and Lucy hiked up to the top of Victoria Peak. It was kinda cloudy so my photos didn’t turn out that good. Took about and hour and half to get up there. We took the tram (crazy ass street car) back down. I took the double decker bus home and sitting on the upper floor made me feel like we were going to slam into every wall and every other bus with the crazy turns the igor driver was making. The maid here rocks, she does all my cleaning, cooking and does my laundry. I don’t even get a chance to do anything cause the minute I get up she makes me food and does my bed, as soon as I finish eating she cleans up after me and as soon as I get home she polishes my shoes. I am getting spoiled rotten. Lucy’s Mom keeps wanting to take me to country clubs, I think I am a novelty item to her and her friends. Tomorrow I am going to Chinese church and the zoological and botanical gardens then I am off to a cottage at Discovery Bay (other side of HK). I leave for Mainland China on Monday morning by myself. I’ll be staying in Beijing and seing the surround areas as well as Northern China and Inner Mongolia. The CDN $400 that I spent on the trip got me the flight there and back, a 5 star hotel, all food and all tours included. What sucks is that the tour is in Cantonese, but its unsafe for me to go on my own and way cheaper this way. I’ve been hearing conflicting things about Mainland China. Some say that they don’t know how I am going to survive China on my own and tell me that I am going to get sold on the black market by the Chinese, others tell me that mainlanders are nice to foreigners as long as you mind your own. Meh, I guess I’ll find out on Monday. I’m there til Friday evening and Saturday morning I leave for Macau (Portuguese-Chinese Country) with Angela and 12 of her friends. Anyways, I’ll be sending this weeks photos along in a bit. Mainland China has heavy government regulations on internet use so you won’t be hearing from me for a while.
Peace out for now,
N.

Hong Kong is crazy!

Hong Kong is crazy , i love it! the flight was all good, went by pretty fast. the plane was filled at like half its capacity so i had room to stretch out. we all had individual tv's and a choice of 10 movie channels, like 20 radio stations (they had an urban and latin station so i was set) and 15 video games. good thing the kid beside me didn't speak english cause and couldn't complain about me cause i was cussin at the the dang thing every time i lost a game and singing along to the tunes. only slept 4 hrs on the flight but it was all good.
lucys's house is half way up this mountain on hong kong island. below her are all poshy condos which are more like all inclusive hotels, above her house is the famed Victoria Peak. downtown is a 5 minute walk away. its mad busy here but i like the energy of it. i feel like andre the giant here, i get funky looks here and there but nuffin crazy. fanny's boyfriend is chinese-colombian so when we exchanged a few words in spanish people were kind of shocked, lol a chinese guy and a polish girl speaking spanish in hong kong lol. anyways, i woke up this morning and left my room, when i came back a strange woman was making my bed. little did i know that lucy has a live in maid here. anyways, she cooks and cleans and i gotta do nothing all day. tomorrow lucy's sister's maids are coming over to cook me curry chicken, dang right, i got it made, soooooo good to be nat =)
today i had lunch at a traditional chinese restaurant, we were sititng in these crazy long benches chuck e. cheese style. my chopstick skills earned me soup stains all over my jacket. the central district, which is a 5 minute walk from lucy's crib, is packed with a ton of things, a complete shock to the senses. they got international cuisine from all over the place in case i decide to give up the dang chopsticks. the central district has these crazy escalators out in the open. they carry the commuters up and down the moutain through the district. they run down until 10 am and then up for the rest of the day. they stop every here and there so you can access different levels and streets of the district. people don't drive a lot here but when they do its noice cars. all i have seen in polished up black and red bmws and mercedes. they drive on the left side of the road, i keep thinking we're driving into oncoming traffic and i forget that i have to look right not left when crossing the street. checked out some markets today too, had to buy grub for din din and went to check out some chinese silks and tings. went to a couple of buddhist temples, they burn incense there like its going out of style and you can buy origami like offerings to burn for the buddha. public transport system here is mad fast. you buy this octapus card thats accepted on subways, busses, ferries and trams and just swipe as you go in and out of stations. toronto subways are crawling compared to the ones here and you can't get lost cause everything is digitized and tells you where you are at all times and how to get where you are going. we took the ferry across the harbour to the kowloon hood and checked out the avenue of stars (its like the hollywood walk of fame gone chinese). the downtown kowlooon area is so freakin lit up my eyeballs were hurting. it was night time but you couldn't even tell cause it was so damn lit up and bright, the lights and advertisments are nuts and the buildings are like nothing i;ve seen before. they're all massive and high tech and lit up like a christmas tree. the city is disgustingly clean, everything is polished and i have not seen a single piece of garbage on the floor. most people here speak some form of english so language barries are virtually non existent, all signs are posted in cantonese as well as english. there's actually a considerable amount of westerners here, i thought i was gonna be the only white kid on the block. all in all its all good here. its very safe and i can wonder all i want. i think i am off to beijing on saturday for 5 days, went to the travel agency today but like the amensiad dumb ass i am i left my credit card here so i gotta go back tomorrow to book everything.
oh yeah, for all you hectors freezing your asses off right now, its 20 C here =)
aight, imma eat dim sum til i get the itis and pass out.

Dream it

"If you can dream it, you can do it. Your limits are all within yourself."
Brian Tracy

Potential

"The only honest measure of your success is what you are doing compared to your true potential."

Paul J. Meyer

Seven Wonders

A group of students were asked to list what they thought were the present "Seven Wonders of the World." Though there were some disagreements, the following received the most votes:
1. Egypt's Great Pyramids
2. Taj Mahal
3. Grand Canyon
4. Panama Canal
5. Empire State Building
6. St. Peter's Basilica
7. China's Great Wall

While gathering the votes, the teacher noted that one student had not finished her paper yet. So she asked the girl she was having trouble with her list. The girl replied, "Yes, a little. I couldn't quite make up my mind because there were so many." The teacher said, "Well, tell us what you have, and maybe we can help. "The girl hesitated, then read, "I think the 'Seven Wonders of the World' are:

1. To See
2. To Hear
3. To Touch
4. To Taste
5. To Feel
6. To Laugh
7. And to Love."


The room was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop. The things we overlook as simple and ordinary and that we take for granted are truly wondrous!

A gentle reminder --
that the most precious things in life
cannot be built by hand or bought by man.

Losers and Winners

'Losers live in the past. Winners learn from the past and enjoy working in the present toward the future.'
- Denis Waitley

New Years 2004/2005


Borrachito (aka Andres), ET (aka Denise) and Hector (aka Natalia) gettin' their party on at the Fiesta Colombiana at the Silva house. Check the rest of the New Years pics below:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/natalllya/album?.dir
=/mail&.src=ph&.tok=phmeWUCBP7Ax.30F
posted by n@