Back to Work

Went back to work today. My colleague N. called it “heroism” to be starting work so soon again. But since my project manager (de facto: boss) was okay with me shifting my work hours today, from 12-8 pm, it wasn’t such a big deal. Or so I thought. In fact, it took me about the whole day to wake up 100%. It wasn’t after dinner (lunch Toronto time?) at 7pm that I started to feel fresh. When it was almost time to go again

But, it was good to be back, and useful to refresh my memory about those things I’d been doing 2 weeks ago. Tried to make a planning for the coming weeks, and am already feeling overwhelmed by all that has to be done. Help…!

For the first time, I was the last one to leave the building, and therefore had to turn on the alarm and lock the door. Before that, I had to make sure no one was still in the building, which of course I double (no triple) checked, but you never know. If someone was hiding under his desk or in the closet with an MP3 player on, so I didn’t see *them*, and *they* didn’t hear *me*, that’s too bad then. I’m sure they will have heard the alarm eventually.

Return to Holland

Below is the story of our trip back from Canada to Holland.

WARNING: this story contains a lot of complaints (and 1 positive thing), so if you don’t like that, stop reading here.

Falco

Song / mood of the day:

Jeanny, quit living on dreams
Jeanny, life is not what it seems
Such a lonely little girl
In a cold cold world
There’s someone who needs you…

(Falco: Jeanny)

P.S. If you’ve never heard the song: Jeanny is pronounced like Genie

Saving Grace

The plan was to have breakfast with my cousins J, D, and his girlfriend L, but since we were all very slow in waking up and leaving the house, the breakfast plan was turned into a brunch. Cousin J drove us to a charming place called “Saving Grace” on 907 Dundas St W. While we were waiting for our orders to arrive, the conversation turned to the trip to Europe that cousin J and her friends had had a few years ago.
Cousin J: “And M’s younger sister got so drunk that she threw up on the street, close to where we had had the dinner.”
Suddenly this cranky woman sitting at table next to us yells: “Would you mind?? I’m eating! In many countries, it’s considered impolite to be talking about such things while other people are eating!”
In fact, she wasn’t even eating anymore, she had just finished her breakfast, and was reading a bulky text book.
Cousin D, never afraid of a confrontation: “Well, we’re in this country”.
Cousin J, a bit more cautious, apologized: “Sorry”
Cousin D, added to his previous comment: “Well, you could eat at home, you know. You don’t have to eat here!”
At this point, the argument was catching the other guests attention:
Woman at table 2: “What were you talking about? I didn’t hear anything!”
2 women at table 3: “Hey, now we are curious! What was all this about?”
This made all of us smile… So basically, none of the other guests were bothered about it, except this cranky woman sitting at the table next to us.

Anyway, despite this incident, we had a DELICIOUS brunch, as you can tell from the pictures above.

Se bastasse

Song / mood of today:

Se bastasse una bella canzone,
a far piovere amore
Si potrebbe cantarla un milione,
un milione di volte
Bastasse già, bastasse già.
Non ci vorrebbe poi tanto a imparare ad amare di più…

(Eros Ramazzotti, from album: In Ogni Senso)

Oma’s 85th Birthday

So today was The Party which was the very reason for this trip to Canada: my Grandmother’s 85th birthday. Although her actual birthday was on January 8, The Powers That Be decided to celebrate it today. Maybe because there were two other family members who did have their birthday today:my cousin Marcel and my cousin John’s wife, Cathy.

Anyway, the venue for the party was the Erin Meadows Community Centre in Mississauga. The main reason for not choosing a hotel or restaurant as the venue, was that they would force you to take their (American / Continental) food, while we we wanted to have Indonesian (Chinese) food, since most of the guests were going to be Indonesians. Afterwards, it turned out that the food was a success; most people I overheard, loved it.

The main highlights of the party were:

Chicago ORDeal

The train ride back from downtown Chicago to O’Hare airport (airport code ORD) was approximately 40 minutes, and I arrived on time around 2:05 pm. Then I still had to find the check in counters, which turned out to be in the farthest terminal (3), and at the very far end of it. I think it was 2:20 by the time I had checked in. One small cause for concern was that the lady asked me for my return ticket… from Toronto to Amsterdam! Oops… well, that was still lying in Toronto, in my Dad’s wallet to be exact. Fortunately having a return ticket (out of Canada) was only a recommendation, not a requirement.

Food Language

You may think you’ve mastered a language, if you can speak it fluently in daily life, can write scientific papers, technical reports, and even a PhD thesis in it. But when you step into a restaurant, you discover a whole new language. A few years ago I already learned that on this continent, an “Entree” does not mean, as it does in France, a dish to enter the meal with (a starter), but it is the main course.

Today I flew from Toronto to Chicago for a 3 day trip, and when I headed out for dinner, I learned something new again: that a Mac ‘n’ Chicken is not a chicken dish, and Mac does not have anything to do with McDonald’s, Big Macs, or with any Scottish person. The last thing would have been plausible, because Rock Bottom, the place where I was, was actually a brewery (that also served food) which had lots of Irish and other types of European sounding beer names. Read the menu description for yourself.

But in this case Mac stands for macaroni, and the dish name is a variant on Mac ‘n’ Cheese. Everyone living on this continent of course knows this. And the chicken, although I did ask if it was grilled, which the waiter confirmed, was not like a big piece of char broiled chicken breast, but only shredded pieces, well hidden in the main ingredient, the macaroni. Oh well. We live, we learn…

In Toronto Again

Arrived in Toronto for the celebration of my Grandmother’s 85th birthday. Although the party won’t be until Saturday April 23, there are still lots of preparations that need to be made, so coming a week early is useful.

The flight, with Air Transat, was pleasant for a number of reasons:
1) The plane was only 30% full (rough estimate), so we could move around, and take 3 seats to lie down on. Yay!
2) They showed no less than 3 movies: National Treasure, Lemony Snicket, and The Incredibles. I only watched the first one, but found it highly entertaining. Especially some dialogs were really funny. And I admire Nicolas Cage for his acting, and Diane Kruger for her looks…
3) We arrived in Toronto early, around noon. (the downside is we had to get up at 5:00, and actually I could only sleep until 3:30. Zzzz)

Arrival was also very pleasant, with a beaaaautifully blue sky, and an amazingly easy Immigration officer. No alcohol or tobacco? OK, go!

OK, more news in the coming entries.

Wang

Recipe for creating a room of 50 disappointed people:

1) Found a club for, say, Chinese Immigrants in Holland, and give it an unpronounceable name, e.g. Hua Yi Xie Shang Hui
2) Invite a famous writer, e.g. Lulu Wang, who is known from TV to be highly entertaining when interviewed live.
3) Announce that she will give an interesting talk, and afterwards sign copies of her latest book.
4) Wait until the last moment, i.e. when 50 people are already sitting a room, staring at a slide projector on one side, and Windows/XP logo through a beamer next to it.
5) Announce that the author is not coming, ‘due to personal reasons’, but that she will come “some other time, soon”.
6) Invite someone to give a talk on, say, Chinese Gardens instead.
Tadah, you now have a room of 50 disappointed people!

The only risk is that the audience, in order to hide their disappointment, instead of quietly listening to the lecture, will try to show off their knowledge on China (Suzhou) or Indonesia, the nice environment where they were brought up (Eastern Borneo), etc., even though they haven’t been back in 50 years.