luck of the draw

Another exhausting weekend is over. Went to Carol's wedding reception after work on Sat. It was so great to see her - almost 3 years now. Charles barely recognized who I was but then again, he didn't know anyone else and I'm sure I didn't stand out. A lot of people in the restaurant were my parents' ex-co-workers and many kept asking if I was their daughter. Many assumed I was the younger of the two too! That I found quite amusing. Dinner was really good, of course, and I didn't get home and into bed until nearly midnight.

Sunday was another day of work where Carol came with Charles and his mother to do the last tour as I had invited them to come. Then I had to go to another dinner - my aunt and uncle were returning to HK so this was a goodbye dinner...that dragged on for 3 hours. It was good, but really really slow service and I almost fell asleep right at the restaurant because I was so tired. If I had known, I would have seriously re-considered attending. I heard tragic news at work from the first mate that there had been an explosion aboard Norwegian's Norway in Miami Sun. am. 4 crew members had died in the boiler room explosion. Not something you'd expect in today's age of technology but then again, the Norway is about 40 years old. Heard today that the total of deaths is now 6. How sad.

On another note, I had hoped to do another hair show next week and got a call back from the person who's organizing it. Unfortunately, though I took Monday off just as my usual new schedule (every second Monday off to recover from working 13 days straight), they needed to do the prep work on Sunday afternoon, smack during my first tour. There was no way for me to get out of this day of work so I guess I'll have to pass this one up, unfortunately! The next show is in September...who knows how my hair will look by then, and whether I'll be free to do it too....*sigh* I guess things happen for a reason.

30

I have reached the magic number, and no, thank goodness that isn't my age...yet! I spent today out with Albert and we went to finish collecting the last 5 stamps for my passport. I am now DONE. Finished with almost 2 weeks to spare. Great since I wouldn't have had the time to do it had I not done it today. We went and played tourist today, taking the double-decker bus and stopping at the museums and space centre and the Chinese gardens. Since we started so early, we managed to cover a lot of ground. It's the first day off for me in 13 days and it was actually nice to have it off! I did feel like it was a holiday in a way. And the sun was shining too. :)

non-breakfast

I've picked up something...my throat was really sore - and I had this awful taste whenever I swallowed. Took half a day off sick yesterday and went to see the doctor. He suspects it's a viral thing that has been "brewing for 4-10 days". Wonderful. He told me to get some rest. And I hadn't even told him I was working 7 days a week.

Well I'm back at work...I thought about whether I should go in today but I think it's just a matter of not beeing too harried. I did go to sleep relatively early last night - around 10pm. Woke up this morning and had my usual - apple and yogurt. Unfortunately, my body didn't like it and I saw it in partially digested form. Luckily, I was already in the bathroom at the time so I didn't make that much of a mess. I suspect I'll be losing some weight over between this and talking so much when I do the boat tours. (My parents came on one for Mother's day.)

Stampwise - I've got 25 done and 5 attractions left. My dad picked me up from work on Sat. and we went to visit a botanical garden, had dinner, then went to catch Extreme at Imax. Very long and tiring day again. I plan on finishing up the stamps this long weekend. Yes, I'll try not to kill myself doing it.

fading out

Well, it hasn't really quite been a month since my hair was coloured, yet I couldn't help but notice by the end of last week that most of my "flaming copper" has petered out into a duller reddish mahogany. I'm so disappointed!! I was told by someone at the office that red is the first colour to go - something to do with the pigmentation that makes up the colour red. I have a feeling that the colour I've been left with was the original dye job; they had said it wasn't bright enough because my hair is so dark, so they did a magic contrast on it - a couple of minutes of smelly colour and voila, bright red! So this bright red may have been semi-permanent whereas the mahogany I've been left with is more permanent...Anyway, I've had strangers commenting on my hair the first couple of weeks and the comments have pretty much dropped away. Today though, one of the secretaries passed by my desk and asked if I had a new hair cut. I said yes. She said it looked very pretty and that she liked it. I thanked her. I didn't mention that it was coloured too but at least my hairstyle hasn't completed faded into oblivion...yet?

stampeding around town

You could say I'm a little stamp-crazy. Or that I'm on a mission. I picked up my tourism challenge passport on Sunday when I went in to work on the cruise and now I have the rest of the month to visit a boat-load (haha) of tourist atractions and hotels to obtain the stamps for a chance at prizes. I'm guaranteed an all year pass to these very same attractions for myself and a guest if I hit 12 places in the passport. 20 stamps gives me a chance to win bigger prizes, and a whopping 30 is a chance to win big - a trip through the Rocky Mountains.

My goal was originally 12 stamps, but I think I may be able to manage 20 minimum and perhaps if I'm even more ambitious, 30, though 30 is quite difficult to get since some of the attractions are far flung and would require 2 hours to get there. I'm not counting on those attractions, but the rest is a possibility.

I just spent my lunch hour going all the way up Burrard St. and hit 4 hotel restaurants, plus 2 others on a different route back. 6 stamps. :) Not too shabby. I got 6 on Monday too - went up to Grouse Mountain and saw the cute grizzly bears. Beautiful day and memorable for the reason that we had to wait almost an hour to get back down the mountain. Too many people out and about (and this is just barely the beginning of the tourist season!!) They were also doing routine maintenance on their larger gondola; the one we rode only holds 44 people, the regular one holds twice as many for the 8 minute ride up the mountain. Didn't manage to go to the suspension bridge for fear that we might miss the bus back down the mountain. So when we got back to downtown, we went to a few more places and got a couple more stamps. Grand total so far: 13 and counting!