As The World Turns

Its been slow and I got days off to clear, so I'm spending all week getting tanked up on rental DVDs. I never really looked at it before, but now I'm watching a broader range of genres and this is rather fascinating. Makes Sex and the City look positively PG rated. Ok ok I'll admit it was the chicks on the cover that got me intrigued but if you want to get to know women and relationships better, watch this....:p



From Amazon.com :
"Synopsis:
Follows the lives and loves of a small, close-knit group of lesbians living in Los Angeles as well as the friends and family members that either support or loath them.

'The L Word' is billed as the intimate story about the lives and loves of a group of lesbian friends living in Los Angeles. Mostly centering on Jenny, a recent graduate of the University of Chicago, who moves to Los Angeles to live with her boyfriend Tim and begin a professional writing career. Jenny's life is turned upside down when she attends a party hosted by Tim's next-door neighbors, Bette and Tina, a lesbian couple who are looking to take the step into parenthood after seven years of dating. A brief encounter at the party with Marina, the owner of The Planet, the local coffeehouse that the ladies gather on a daily basis, suddenly has Jenny thrust into the local lesbian community and a whole new world she never understood until she questions her own sexual orientation. Other friends of Bette and Tina include Dana, a rising tennis player looking for love despites having no dating experience; Alice, a magazine writer whom just wants to find the woman of her dreams; Shane is a sexually aggressive slacker/hairstylist whom seeks out her own girl just for her own pleasures. "

It snowed all day today, with blowing snow to boot, like walking around in a sand storm....not fun...

A BIG thanks to everyone who came and left christmas cheer!

The folks here in Calgary and I suspect the rest of Canada have a really nice tradition to Christmas. They really like to light up their houses. Makes the Christmas light up really a sight to behold. Every where you go there are lights, including construction sites and the overhead cranes are all lit up.



So today being Christmas and the North American version of Chinese New Year as far as shop are concerned, i.e. they are all closed. INCLUDING the $%$W*& bus service (not nice to curse today but I'm being jolly here). Eat full nothing better to do, I headed out west towards Bragg Creek Provincial Park for some much needed R&R.


Ahhhh Bliss...I miss this.. the Rockies again!


Definitely the Old West.. would be a great place to hang out in summer



Rustic, nice!



Then I continued further west into Kananaskis Country, they do a lot of movie filming here


I stopped at the well known Elbow River falls, mainly 'cos this is the furthest I could go, the rest of the route was closed for the season, avalanche country...


Elbow Falls canyon, it froze, it thawed...might freeze again, maybe..


Elbow Falls, something rather calming about a waterfall..notice some frozen bits at the side, in the full winter the whole thing is frozen


Some rather fascinating ice figures carved by the flowing river. Amazing what nature can get up to.


The Midday Sun over a frozen Elbow River. Notice the storm clouds brewing at the top of the mountains....looks like the weather forecasters may be right, snow on wednesday...hmm

Tomorrow is BOXING DAY. The best day all year for shopping, loads of places giving discounts. Plenty of door crashers, can't wait.

Today is the shortest day of the year, here in Calgary we will get less than 8 hrs of daylight. Meaning at 4pm the sky is already dark. Today also is the winter equinox which officially marks the start of winter. The good news is that starting tomorrow, the days can only get longer!

The weather channel here is my idea of watching tv... geek speaking here. Its rather fascinating watching all the different weather systems coming in, going here there, but importantly what we will be getting here. Every morning without fail, I will check the day's weather before going out as it will determine what I'll be wearing, something thin and flimsy (which all the girls seem to wear no matter how cold it is, hmmm come to think of it, if I were to wear a skirt out I will also become a girl..no wonder...ahhhh mystery solved) or do I need to pack ice cleats. I've seen all sorts of weather here, however there is one thing I haven't seen yet and that is freezing rain. Apparently it rains, but when the water hits the ground it freezes up, that will be something to see. Another thing that is rather apparent is the Calgary appears to be rather blessed. The Rockies to the west blocks a lot of the low pressure systems coming in from the Pacific. The winds and rain and snow ALWAYS comes from the west.. don't aske me why, havent found out yet, maybe because of the earth's direction of rotation? Vancouver recently has been hammered by tons of snow, rain and winds that up rooted many trees but thanks to the Rockies we've been spared all that. Rather fascinating to see the computer images of a a system move in and cover British Columbia and get stopped dead in its tracks before reaching Calgary by the rockies. It also explains why there are so few trees here and is mostly grassland, its like a North American Serengeti. I was told most of the trees in Calgary are transplanted here...but i like lots of trees... dang...

Gonna be spending my christmas at my old hunting ground of lake louise. Gonna do some snow shoeing, skiing and maybe chase a squirrel or two, kinda miss those beggers buggers...


HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY HOLIDAY EVERYONE!

Since its the season to be merry plus I finally got a wee bit of commissions paid at last after waiting for 5 bloody months (you get the idea) I decided to treat myself a bit. Ever since I first saw 'ole Roger Moore in Live and Let Die when I was all of 9 years old and got scared out of my wits with it's Voodoo theme but at the same time who the heck is this guy who is dashing, apparently invincible and fun. Fast forward to today and I've been a Bond fan ever since.


So over the weekend, I got myself the whole ultimate edition release of the 007 series. Yes all 4 volumes. It was a tough decision a camera or this. The camera will still be there later, this will sell out fast. Yup as some of you might discern I'm really a 007 nut. I must say Ursula Andress in Dr No, in her publicity stills is very much a siren to lust after....

This will be a nice addition to my whole collection of all the Bond books by Ian Fleming, including those by John Gardner.



Today was rather interesting, I got to be on my toes and be a bum at the same time.

Went for an interview this morning.
I came away thinking egads, I didn't do a very good job at that. Firstly it didn't last very long, not always a good sign. Secondly it wasn't very interrogative as most interviews seems to be. Thirdly, the interviewer asked me all of 2 questions, formally. I think I asked more questions back. The rest of the time seemed to be on small talk. Being the perfectionist I am, I'm always thinking what else could I have done better? I thought I had done everything (almost) possible to not do well there. I was less than overly enthusiastic, I can't ever remember what was actually said other the gist of things, I wasn't wide awake but somehow I still managed to smoke and muddle my way through. Hmmmm...... Oh well, at least she seemed friendly, was my thoughts after leaving...I got the job done no fanfare. But at the back of my mind was something I was telling a friend about being hired to fit corporate culture...

Then to my surprise later in the afternoon, I got a call from the HR department saying the interview went well and that they would like to move on to the next stage i.e. the paperwork and necessary background checks. My initial reaction was Jaw Dropped wide open, I'm somewhat flabbergasted at the moment. I really went only to test the market.but also the prospect of a raise. But I've grown rather attached to my co-workers and present lifestyle (read simple and no one to look over your shoulder most of the time)

So now I'm stuck, Shall I move on? Shall I stay? Thats me, Libra.....cannot make up my mind.

Oh yeah, the bit about being a bum for the rest of the day, that's what happens when I can't decide......

So as usual eat full nothing to do, I've been ruminating over what to do here career wise.

The story so far...
In the words of Captain Kirk when asked where to go, its been "just go that'a way"
Boldy going where no sane Singaporean has gone so far.... well mostly..

Then recently a seed got planted and is now slowly sprouting. Danged if I'm not actually intrigued. I suffer from ADS... Attention Deficit Syndrome.. I loose interest in things ... fast. But this has been slowly simmering. So it must mean I'm actually interested. Egads! Horrors! this is so not me. I'm supposed to be the laid back ex-beach and now snow bum.

As always with anything here, getting the necessary qualifications and licences is a must.
The good news is that the home study course isnt all that expensive.
The bad news is that it isnt all that simple or so I think.
Its been a while since I went back to school, much less study anything, more horrors!
But you gotta do what you gotta do.
Yee Haw! learning to be a cowboy here....

Ok I got around my wee camera problem by doing what Angel suggested..I got me a card reader! As long as it works!

So this pic was taken a while back mid-Fall when I had a rental car and was browsing the west side of town where you start heading into the Rockies again. As I was approaching Bragg Creek Provincial Park, I was rather awestruck by this scene during sunset. Its about 20 mins from Calgary.



Back to to the present. Now that we are nearing the Winter Equinox, i.e. when the days are at its shortest and the nights are are at the longest, the Sun in all its glory also doesn't really go very high into the sky. This is about as high as it gets and yes, it was -15 that day. After the Winter Equinox, Winter officially starts but the days start to get longer...(yes!)



So why am I still here...*rubbing chin, deep in thought, eyes glazed at the sun*

It's been an interesting last few days. Nearly got swiped by a car, walked just about all over town, again. Went to corners of Calgary I haven't been to yet. Took lots of pics with no way to post..yet. The big bonus is literally the end of year bonus next week yippee...

The boring bit is now is the slowest time of the year for sales, yikes need to hike up the pants and get goin' faster. A nice bit is all the houses all nicely decorated with lights for christmas, sorry again no pics.

Sometimes I wonder why am I here. Last night on the train going up north, passing thru' downtown, right at one of the train platforms in front of everyone, there was these few people loading up a syringe with something and aiming it for a jab. It was obvious this aint no insulin jab as there are special syringes for that. This guy was filling it up from the open end, inserting the plunger and tapping it to clear the bubbles. Shooting it up I believe is the term. Rather fascinating. On the way back had this group of kids at a train station ask me if I wanted Gun's n Roses...huh? Need to find out what that is...

That's the interesting bit of living here. Apparently it's still not so safe to go out late at night. I haven't felt this lower level of safety since the early 80s in SG. You're so used to present SG levels of safety you take things for granted and forget what the good ole' days were like. Makes me want to go back to classes for TKD..or better still weapons arts. I wonder when will the Calgary Police spend more time patrolling the streets and less time on catching people for speeding tickets.

This reminds me, yesterday was the 2nd Anniversary of my blog. Time sure does flies....

Ok been meaning to post some pics here but my damned camera and pc are not talking to each other.
I dont know who pissed each other off first but they aint talking. I've reinstalled the drivers but doesnt work.
I keep getting a found new hardware pop up message but no matter how I try to resinstall the driver or point the find hre hardware browser to the cd it aint working...
I'm scatching my head right now..