40-Love...

...well, more like 50 or 60-Love.

I just had to do a quick post about tennis last night. I was very pleased – I ended up winning half of my matches, played pretty well, blah, blah, blah…

Anyway (and this is where the real story begins), after tennis was over, 4 of us (me and 3 others) went for a drink. I didn’t really want to at first, but the place we were going to was close to where I live, so it’d be better than taking the bus since I’d be able to get a ride. Anyway, these guys are too funny. I’d say they’re at least in their late 50’s; one of them may be a bit older and a couple of them are retired. Really nice guys, but man…these are some dirty old men! But, I mean that in a funny way, not in the creepy way. Two of them are divorced, although I think one of the two has had at least two divorces. And the third guy is currently married, but on his third wife. So here I am, this 25-year old guy drinking beer and shelling free peanuts (and at this place you actually just throw the shells onto the floor), talking about where the best spots are to pick up older women! Don’t get me wrong – I had a great time! But it was just funny hearing them talk about which places have the 35+ women and which have the 50+ crowd. It started with one of them talking about how some of the past tennis champions still looked really good, like Gabriella Sabatini and Chris Evert, but then the conversation quickly turned to where they can meet women. Anyway, I just had to recount this short little anecdote. I had a good time, shared some laughs, ate some free peanuts, got a ride home – hopefully we can do it again

The Colympics

I must apologize AGAIN for the delay in coloblogging. My excuse: the Olympics. The Olympics were consuming my life. And many of you may know that I have to watch sports live, or else feel that the outcome may not be as favourable. It's kind of psychotic, but I feel that if I watch it as it's happening, my rooting and cheering makes a difference. Anyway…cut to me waking up at 3:30 in the morning to watch Canadians NOT wins medals! But that didn't deter me from watching, which is good cuz we finally started hauling them in by the end. I would come home from rehearsal, or tennis, and by the time I'd get home, it would be morning in Beijing, so it's just when events are about to start. So, of course I got wrapped up in the Michael Phelps run for 8 gold medals, the amazingness of gymnastics, lightning-quick Usain Bolt (pun intended), etc. But because I'd be up late, or wake up in the middle of the night, it totally screwed up my sleeping schedule, so… I'd have to nap right after work and before rehearsal, have a quick dinner, head downtown for rehearsal at 6:30pm and then get home by 10:30/11 o'clock, watch Olympics and then the whole cycles starts again.

So, that explains my delay in blogging. Work, nap, rehearsal/tennis, Olympics. That's pretty much all I've been doing. And somehow, I was able to squeeze in some gym time too =) Yes, I've actually been going to the gym – I'm just as surprised as you are. But things have been going well. Every now and then a group of us would grab a drink (or two) after rehearsal, or we'd go out on the weekend, so I've been able to have somewhat of a social life, despite the Olympics. And work is great too, so can't complain.

Also, I'll be going back to Toronto for Labour Day Weekend. It might actually be the last time I go back to Toronto before I finish go back after I'm done doing my baseline research here at the hospital. I may not even have a chance to go back for Thanksgiving cuz it's the weekend right before the show, so that means it's tech weekend. For you non-theatre people, tech weekend = boringness. That's when you have to go through every single lighting and sound cue for the show. By the way, the run of the show will be Oct 14 – 18, with a matinee on the Friday and Saturday. 7 shows in 5 days, singing 40+ songs, is gonna be tough! Anyway, this weekend should be fun. Not sure what I'll be doing specifically, but I'll just be hangin' with my friends and family. It'll also give me a chance to switch out part of my wardrobe to get some warmer things as we're gonna be getting into fall weather soon.

So, that's pretty much it. If I went into specifics from the last 2 weeks, I'd be writing until finger cramped up. I'll try to update a bit more frequently, which is more plausible now that the Olympics are over. However, the US Open starts today (which I'm watching right now) and in September, we're gonna be up to 4 rehearsals a week. Well…I'll try not to disappoint.

Rehearsical Cats, Tenniscourtical Cats, Pilatical Cats, Haircutical Cats

I must apologize for the delay in coloblogging – it’s been a busy week and the Olympics being on in the middle of the night doesn’t help either :) So, I’ll give a short update cuz I did a lot of stuff, but I don’t feel like writing ALL of it down.

Any way, when I last left off, I had just played in the men’s indoor tennis league. Since then, I’ve had 4 rehearsals for BoB2 (aka Best of Broadway 2 Concert). The rehearsals have been going very well. We’ve already started blocking a bunch of the songs that we’ve had a vocal rehearsal on already. The most grueling vocal rehearsal thus far was for “Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats” from, you guessed it, Cats. Andrew Lloyd Webber is a PSYCHO! The music itself isn’t very difficult. We were able to get the harmonies rather quickly and it sounds amazing. But…it’s the words that we’re supposed to remember. There are TOO MANY CATS! And it goes pretty fast, so you have to make sure to enunciate (thank God for Gilbert & Sullivan, or I’d flub this up for sure!) For those of you who do not know the song that well, here’s a section of the song that I’m dreading to remember:
Practical cats, dramatical cats

Pragmatical cats, fanatical cats

Oratorical cats, delphioracle cats

Skeptical cats, dispeptical cats

Romantical cats, pedantical cats

Critical cats, parasitical cats

Allegorical cats, metaphorical cats

Statistical cats and mystical cats

Political cats, hypocritical cats

Clerical cats, hysterical cats

Cynical cats, rabbinical cats
Luckily, this is all in unison, so I don’t have to worry about harmony here. Theatre Cambrian actually did Cats a couple of years ago, so some of them know it (or at least used to know it). Today we’ll be doing “Supercalifragilistic” where we have to spell it, quickly, I might add, and in song – I’ll let you know how that goes.

Theatre Cambrian has also made its way into of my Sudbury social life – yes, I may actually have a social life here! A bunch of us met up on Saturday night for some drinks and some dancin’, so that was a lot of fun. We had to do some bar hopping cuz the first place we went to was busy and the patio was basically flooded due to a big rainstorm. I actually had been there previously with N and I think I saw one of her friends there, so it’s kinda neat that I’m actually starting to recognize people in town. And I also met a friend of hers that night, and I didn’t even know it until N and I realized it later. So, yeah, it was good times. What made it even better was that I was able to get a ride home too! I think I had the equivalent of at least a pitcher of beer and ended up passing out in front of the TV watching the Olympics when I got back home, where C had already fallen asleep.

Yesterday I went back to the tennis league and met some more people – yay! For some reason, we had a rehearsal last night, instead of Thursday, but I was able to leave early to catch the league at 8pm. And I actually won a match!!!! AMAZING!!! There’s a time limit to each match (half an hour) and my partner for the third session (we constantly switch partners too) won 5-2. The awesome thing is that the team we beat was totally expecting to cream us. For me, I’m still trying to get back to my form from a few years ago and so, yes, I’ve been a bit shaky. And my partner is not the youngest, nor is he the slimmest guy out on the court. He’s a really nice guy, likes to talk after points, which I like and he’s very congratulatory, but I thought I sweat a lot! He was a wearing a grey t-shirt (you gotta know that’s not a good colour for you if you sweat – I mean c’mon!) and it was already soaked, and his face was all red, huffing and puffing. And so the two young dudes who are really good (i.e. serve uber fast and all that jazz) decided to pair up together instead each of them pairing up with either me or Sweaty McPufferson. But, to all of our surprise, he’s REALLY GOOD! He serves really well, and has great groundstrokes and volleys. I guess the only area he lacks in is his mobility. But, I held up my end of the bargain, running balls down, I had a bunch of return winners, some great volley exchanges at the net that warranted some high fives, so I was playing pretty well too. And to put the icing on the cake, I was serving great as well. I had a bunch of unreturnable serves and even an ace, up Tin the ad court, causing the receiver to say, “Are you kidding me?” to his partner. So, all in all, I’m feeling a lot better about my game, even though I still need to play a lot more tennis to feel totally comfortable again.

I also met a dude there – and he's Asian…what?!?!? – who also just moved to Sudbury from Toronto – craziness! I think he’s about my age, and he’s an engineer. doing work here for a bit and then going back like me. He too goes back to Toronto all the time, but I think he has actually gone back every weekend since he’s been here. And the really nice thing is when he saw me walking to the bus station he pulled over to give me ride. Isn’t that the best, when you unexpectedly get a ride? Without sounding like too much of a desperate loser, there’s another friend possibility there :) Also, there’s another Asian dude at the club who introduced himself to me at the end of the night, as we didn’t get a chance to play with/against each other.

I took my first class at Goodlife last week. I took “Body Flow”, which is a mix of Tai Chi, Yoga and Pilates. I’ve never done any of that stuff before and it was pretty good I guess. It was a little too, how do I put this?...floofy and froo-froo for me. There was a bit much “take your ball of energy”, “look up at the moon” and “find your centre” crap that I didn’t really get into. But, other than that, I liked it. I especially liked how the last 8 minutes were left for meditation, or as I like to call it, break time! Tomorrow I meet with my personal trainer for the first time. Sorta nervous, I gotta admit. I just don’t wanna be yelled at! I know he PROBABLY won’t do that, but I guess I’m just psyching myself out. I do a lot better with encouragement with some constructive criticism.

I also got my haircut on Saturday. I went to apparently the best salon in Sudbury. The guy who owns it is apparently really famous and has won all these awards and competitions. So, it turned out well, although…she was new-ish. She’s really nice and we chatted the whole time, but she kinda cut out a chunk of hair at the back of my head! Well, it was more like she accidentally cut an area shorter than the rest, after just talking about how if you go to the $10-places, they’ll make all these mistakes cuz they rush. She was able to fix it, but still! Anyway, with that being said, I’ll most likely go back, and I wouldn’t even mind getting her again. She did the rest of my hair great and since the mishap was at the back of my head, I can’t really see it, so, meh…who cares. I do think she felt bad though, cuz she ended up giving me the student rate. She said, “You said you were a student, right?” I replied, “No.” But she gave me a student rate anyway. So, with tax and tip, it was only 30 bucks, and I got a shampoo and styling too. (FYI: at Aveda, you get a massage, shampoo, cut and style for less!)

So, that’s been my week since you all last heard from me. I’m sure I missed some stuff, but oh well. Off to rehearsal again tonight, the gym tomorrow, and who knows what for the weekend.

P.S. Canada better start kicking Olympic ass soon! I woke up at 2:30 in the morning today to watch Canada not win a medal.

Back in the Swing of Things

When I last left off, I had a busy weekend with my Pontiac G5. On Tuesday, I had to return it by 9am, but I wanted to get a few things done before that. As I mentioned in my last post, I had played tennis with my cousin in order to prepare for my big debut at the men's league in the Sudbury Indoor Tennis Centre. When i played with my cousin, it went okay....just okay. It took a LONG time to warm up my forehand! And when I practiced serving at the end, that was definitely not okay. I couldn't get a serve in. not good. So, I decided to wake up uber-early and get some serving practice in at the tennis courts down just up the street.

I get to the courts at about 7:50am. I woke up much early, but it took a lot of time for my motivation to kick in to get up. I finally decided to do so, got my stuff ready and went to the public courts. Since it was pretty early on a workday, no one was around. The courts, by the way, were of high quality. Better than the public courts that I've been to in both Vancouver and Toronto. No cracks, with weeds growing through them, and I think it was actual hardcourt, not just cement. Anyway, i serve for about 15 minutes. It goes alright - not serving very fast (not that I ever did), but at least I was getting them in this time.

So, I go to the Shell across the street to fill up the gas tank with 5 bucks worth - I had to fill the tank til 3/4 like how I first got it, and was just under that. Then, it was off to grocery shopping. I figures that I should do a big grocery run while I have a car. I didn't get there 'til about ten after eight. I speedily get all my stuff (like I was on Supermarket Sweepstakes!). I made sure to get my whole wheat tortilla wraps, assortment of vegetables, different meats, some yogurt, and a bunch of other stuff that I can't remember. I did slightly indulge and get some more diet lychee soft drink - yum! After all was said and done, I put away my groceries at home and went down to the rental place to drop off my car by 8:50am.

There were no problems at enterprise and I got outta there pretty quickly. They drove me back home aat about 5 or 10 past 9. Then I had to rush and get ready for work. Luckily I didn't have to be there until 9. I showered, got dressed, packed some instant noodles for lunch (didn't have time to make anything) and walked to work.

At the end of the work day, I got home and took a quick nap. Well...it was supposed to be aquick nap, like half an hour, but it ended up being about an hour and 45. I realized that I didn't have time to make rice and some pork chop thing, so I made pasta instead (pasta...that's what else i got in the morning - whole wheat pasta and calorie wise pasta sauce...tastes better than it sounds). I made it quickly and scarfed it down in literally 3 minutes. I didn't even warm the sauce. I just spooned it over the freshly cooked spaghetti, mixed it up and munched away.

I got to the bus stop in time to catch my bus (that's why I was pressed for time, cuz if you miss one bus, you have to wait pretty much another half hour or longer for the next time once it's after peak hours). I stopped off at the dollar store to get a couple bottles of water and then walked down the street to the tennis centre, which is actually very close to Theatre Cambrian.

Anyway, I get there, and couldn't find the entrance at first. I walked around and finally saw some signs directing me to the entrance and followed them. i walked in and told the young dude working there that I'm here for the league. I explained that I was new and didn't know how things worked around here. He showed me where the change room was, and informed that I can go down to the courts a few minutes before 8pm, which was the start time. He also informed to make sure that the first door is completely closed before opening the second door. He didn't explain why, but I suspect that the bubble dome might collapse or something :)

After I get change, a couple of the players introduce themselves and I do the same. Once on the court, one of the guys tells me not to worry after I explained my apprehensiveness. He asked my how long I've been playing. I respond that I've been playing since I was a kid, but only recreationally - I never took lessons or anything. He assures me that they're all recreational, but there are some people that are of a higher caliber, but not too often.

So, I start to rally/warm up with a couple of young guys and an older gentlemen. My back hand is okay, but my forehand is horrendous! I know it takes a while for that shot of mine to warm up, but I was not happy about it. Every couple of minutes, you'd hear a "sorry" coming from my mouth. I could tell that the others were better then me, especially the younger guys (man! they serve fast!), but I think I was able to hold my own. In the first game, I made some bad errors, but made a couple good plays at net. I didn't hold my serve at all and my partner was double faulting a lot. We end up losing, but I though that this is going okay so far.

We rotate every half an hour for the two hours. At 8:30pm, we go to the next game. I'm playing doubles again and get paired up with the old guy that I just played against. Right away, he seemed very frustrated with me. Yeah, I missed a few forehand ground strokes, but I made a couple good plays at net. And it's not like he's a superstar either. He was making errors too. I think he got really frustrated with me when I forgot to cover the line when he was serving and I was at net. That was understandable, but that just made me more and more nervous. So, there were a few balls that I could've hit, and didn't because i was a bit cautious and full of self-doubt. And he didn't really acknowledge me when I made a good shot. The opponents did, commenting on my effort as I ran down a bunch of balls when It seemed like they were unreachable. So, we got hammered by them too. Well, c'est la vie.

At this point, I was already thinking that I'm not gonna come back next week. The old man made me feel a little unwanted :( And to add insult to injury, my 9pm slot was scheduled as a singles match against the young dude that works at the club. HE WORKS THERE!!! Of course he's gonna be amazing!!! So, I apologize that he's probably gonna get bored playing with me cuz I'm no where near his level. We start playing, and he's just kicking my ass! I can hit maybe one shot back to him, and then hits a winner or I make a forced error. But, after he won , I don't know, 6 or 7 games in a row. I start to hang in the points a little bit more. Making him run more, catching him off guard by returning shots that he thinks is probably gonna be a winner. But don't get me wrong, it takes A LOT of effort for to just get one point. But at least now I'm getting to 30 instead of losing games at love. He started to make a few more unforced errors (I like to think because I keep on surprising him by getting balls back) and every now and then I'd turn defence into offence and make a good shot to win the point. And I actually won a game!!! I held serve, after saving a couple of break points too. And the next game I almost broke him too.

By the end, I was sweating buckets! I mean, I was sweating a bit before that, but I was drenched. But, i felt good. I got a bit more confidence, which carried onto my next doubles game. We almost end up breaking our opponent's serve. I made a good return to which my partner actually acknowledged. He was actually really cool, letting me know when he thinks I made a good shot and I did the same. Unfortunately my partner lost his serve, and our opponents held serve again, but I held me serve - YAY!!! I made so pretty crafty plays at net. A few of times I was able to run down some lobs and balls that no one thought I'd be able to get, and we'd get back into the point. Unfortunately, I messed up the easy put-away shot at the end, but we laughed about it, all acknowledging my super counter-punching abilities. We still lost, but i felt good. I mean, I missed quite a few forehands (ok...almost all), but there were some positives to take away from this. I did have one really good forehand return winner up the line, and I was serving consistently (not hard, but hard enough that the returner made some errors and we got some free points). So, it was 10pm and I was literally dripping sweat, but I was satisfied with how things went overall. It wasn't ideal (I know I can play at their level, it'll just take time to get back into the swing of things since I haven't played really in over a year). And the best news is that I decided to come back for next week.

So, I made my way home. I had to walk to the bus station, but there was hardly anyone on the main street there. I didn't feel that it was unsafe at all, so that was good. I caught my bus, went home, made my lunch for today (a wrap with humus - yum! - and some baby carrots, almonds and a granny smith apple).

I crashed right away because I had rounds this morning at 8:30am and I am TIRED!!! I also have rehearsal tonight, but I gonna try to go to the Goodlife (for the first time!) and catch a class right after work. So more on how all that goes to come.

P.S. This was written this afternoon before my rehearsal, etc. I'm writing the "P.S." right now, and will post again tomorrow about what happened tonight. Confused? So am I! It's sleep time.

Fish & Trips

Last Thursday I made a last minute decision to go to Toronto for the long weekend. I wasn't planning on this as I've already been back to Toronto twice since coming to Sudbury, and another trip back would mean 3 out 4 weekends I've had since coming here have been spent in Toronto. Oh well! But I decided to rent a car this time instead taking the greyhound (this decision had NOTHING to do with the murder that occurred last week - it still immensely disturbs me though). By renting a car, it would give a chance to check out some of the areas around Sudbury that are inaccessible otherwise.

So, I picked up my rental on Saturday morning. They were kind enough to pick me up before they even opened (Enterprise is only open from 9am-12pm on Saturdays). I got a Pontiac G5. It's a pretty good car - drives smoothly - but the only that was lacking was no power locks and no power windows. Oh well - it's better than the bus!

So, I made it to Toronto in pretty good time - about 4 hours including a stop for gas and to use the washroom. So, it only really took me about 3:45 hours to get there. When I get back the the 'borough, I eat some lunch and contemplate going to the Caribana parade. i finally decide against it after mulling it over repeatedly, as it was just too much work to get all the way to downtown and either try t subway/streetcar there or find parking. So, I decided to take a nap, treat my aunt to some pho for dinner and then hung out with my two cousins and one of their friends at Boston Pizza, throwing back schooners!...Rickards White...yum!

The next day. after dropping off my aunt somewhere at 9am and fitting in a much-needed session of tennis with my couz' (more on that later), I rushed back to take a shower and ended up getting my other cousin to drive the rental car (and me, of course) downtown. I met up with my soci crew for brunch/lunch (on time!...go figure) at Brownstones on Yonge St. Had me some Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict (Fish #1), some orange juice, and pleasantly familiar banter with my friends.

Next, is was off to Caribana on Olympic Island! It was a bit crowded on the ferry, but at least they were coming every 15 minutes. We got to the island, and to our dismay, there was an admission fee to get into the Caribana section. Not that expensive, but out of blue, plus we already paid for $6.50 for the ferry ride. Anyway, when we got there, it was actually a little disappointing. There was a main stage with performances that was cool. But, I just expected a lot more stuff. Maybe the are was just so big that it made it seem unspectacular, but I was underwhelmed. There were only a few vendors and food options, and I think there were even more sponsor tents than anything else (although....Scotiabank was giving out pens and purified water all day and I got a sweet temporary tattoo and Olympic games schedule from CBC).

Now as, for the food, I HAD to get something. So, I decided to line up for the Fish Shak and get me some Caribbean fried fish (Fish #2). The lineup was a bit long, but I knew it was gonna be worth it....or was it!?!?!

TWO HOURS!!! Two hours we waited in line. After the first half hour we figured that we had already waited this long so we might as well stay. Then an hour had passed, then one and a half. With each passing moment of time, we were clinging to the hope that the line would move just a bit faster. We passed the time by playing charades and some stupid "snaps" game (yes! stupid!!!). Finally, at the 1:50 hour mark, we get close to the front of the line, close enough to see the uselessness and unorganized nature of this business. OMIGOD!!! All the food was there and they were constantly cooking. I don't understand why they didn't have a better system of giving us our food. As my friend pointed out, they needed to learn a lesson from Henry Ford. They would go back on forth, putting lids on top of the other food thereby eliminating the chance for the other server to get food from there. It was awful! I wanted to punch them in the face!

So, I finally got my food - butter fish, deep fried, with an organic salad, plantains, rice with a curry gravy on top and a side of fish cakes - YUM! It was really good (except for the salad that was flavourless). It was definitely worth the 13 bucks. As for the 2 hours though?...I'd say it was worth a 45-minute wait, if that.

By the time I got my food, it was 6pm and we decided to walk back (it took up the whole afternoon basically and it was sort of lame so we left) through Centreville and took the ferry back so I could meet my cousin who finished work at 7 and drive back together. Hung out in Scarborough, we ordered in some pizza and wings (oh god! Goodlife, I need you!).

Then, I left for Sudbury in the morning, at about 9am. I got to Sudbury just before 1pm, picked up N and drove just over an hour to Killarney. One of the first things that people told me to do while in town was go to Killarney for the best fish and chips in the region (Fish #3).

We got to the small town (population 500 i.e. 1/3 of the size of my high school) and decided to walk around first before stuffing our faces with fried fish. We parked at the LCBO, which was open! We decided o make it a real classy afternoon, so we went in, bought a tall boy of Keith's each, emptied out our water bottles and poured beer in to make public drinking more of a possibility. A little spilling later (it's hard getting beer into a Dasani bottle), we walked around and took in the gorgeous view - with the lake, the sun, the trees, it was amazing!

We made our way back to get fish and chips. It was only a 30 minute wait there - it was pretty busy though, but we got a seat and enjoyed our wondrous food! SO GOOD! I'm not an a-FISH-ionado or anything, but it was damn good! Really light batter and great homemade fries - yes!

But that wasn't all. I decided to get some ice cream too! I was gonna get cotton candy (of course - I love it!) and the sugarless maple. N talked me out of it and so I decided to get the maple walnut as my second scoop on a waffle cone. Good decision. After N grabbed some coffee and a cinnamon bun, it was on the road again and back to Sudbury.

All in all, another great weekend, but Caribana was a bit disappointing. I'll make the effort to go to the parade next year, as i think that will meet my expectations. And the weekend was all about fish - so good!

That's all for now. I had a busy, tiring day, but I'm too tired to write about it now. It was my tennis adventure this evening, but you'll have to stay tuned...