Hello all,

Sorry I've been away for a few days. I have been reenergizing myself and it's been good. I jogged 5 out of the last 7 days (including this morning before I am leaving for Montreal/Ottawa for the longweekend). The fitness is definitely improving so I've got nothing to complain about at all. Two days ago (the 27th) was my mom's birthday so I was going to have flowers sent to her office but she was taking a half day so they would not have gotten there in time. Instead I had them waiting here for her when she got back. The best thing though was that I baked a lemon cake for her that night. It actually turned out pretty good. I guess you can't go too wrong with a Crocker mix though, eh? It was my first foray into baking though. We'll see when I try something from scratch. Tchao says that Cooking is an Art but Baking is a Science. I think that I tend to agree with him. The other night, I made a really good pasta dish for dinner too. I tried this new white cream sauce with tomatoes using milk, two grated cheeses, garlic, tomatoes and a touch of cinnamon (don't ask me where I got this recipe) - I just come up with it in my head.

So, yesterday I watched another Hindi movie - Kabi Kushee Kabi Ghum. That was a stupid movie. The entire second half was retarded and really really didn't make sense. I guess since my recent conversion into Hindi movies, I am not 2 for 3. We'll see how the next one goes. I will wait a bit though cause I have to get caught up on Western movies.

So, I am going to Montreal/Ottawa this weekend with Tchao, Ketan, Su-Lin, Joel, Linda, Tai and Miranda. It should be a good time. Two things - I have never partied in Montreal (can you believe it?) and I have never been to Ottawa for Canada day. Needless to say, I am very excited about this trip. Full update on Monday.

Have a great long weekend all you Canadians!

MAJOR PRESS RELEASE:

a.diddy is back online.

Well folks, the Red Devils finally lost and the dream is over. I'm glad that the game was fairly played and well refereed though cause I was getting really tired of all this conspiracy theory stuff. I really think that some bad calls were made, espeically in the Spanish game but this whole conspiracy theory stuff is a bit over the top.

Today was a reality check. I had an orientation at for my new job that is starting in just over a month. It was the strangest feeling cause they were talking about all these things that I'll be doing in the future but the whole time, I kept thinking in my head that this was just like another co-op workterm so I wasn't really taking it seriously at first. Then, I had to stop myself and tell myself that this is the rest of my life (for a little while anyway). It's weird to think that this is real now. No more school to hide behind. This is the real deal and I've gotta cope with that. I'm sure that once I get into the swing of it, it'll be fine but until then, I will continue to stress about it I am sure.

Last night was great. I went to the Ehiopian House with Tchao, JLo, Ruth, Tai, Jamie, Mae, Jen So, Cristine, Winnie and Sarah. It was a lot of fun and I think that everyone liked trying something new. The food was pretty good and the service was nice. I really liked the decor of the place and thought it was pretty cozy. Ethiopian food is definitley good to eat in big groups like that because it is so social and there is a lot of sharing. After dinner, JLo, Winnie, Tchao and I grabbed some Movenpick ice cream and had to wait for the slowest ice cream scooper in the entire world. I suppose that's okay though cause the ice cream was REALLY good.

Tomorrow the plan is:

7:30 am Brazil - Turkey match
10:00 am - Jog
afternoon - finalize finances, do some work stuff, start my scrapbook, start my webpage

we'll see how this all goes...

The last few days have been excellent. My unpacking is pretty much all finished and I am really liking the way it is all coming together. My obsessive compulsive self has found a place for everything and a proper way of arranging everything. But, I am still changing it around all the time because that is just the way I am.

Thursday night was Karen's goodbye dinner. Wow...it's weird to think that she has moved away to start her life. That'll be all of us some day...she's just one of the first so it is scary. Friday was really nice. I met a friend for a picnic in the afternoon and then we watched Monsoon Wedding which was a really good Indian movie (mostly in English). That night, went to Aarti's party and man, she has a beautiful house. I had a good time chilling out and I wanted to say thanks a lot to Aarti and her family cause they put so much together - ALL the booze AND food. It was really great. I got home at around 2:00 and watched the Korea - Spanish game. YEAH KOREA! Got up at around 8:00 to watch the conclusion of Senegal - Turkey as well. Saturday, I took Danielle out for her birthday. We went to Yorkdale and had sushi and just hung out for the afternoon so that was cool. I made quesadilla's for the family for dinner last night and they turned out pretty good so I was happy about that. After dinner last night, it was a lot of fun because I went out with the Marathi posse. We went to the Left Bank on Queen street and it was just really nice to hang out with all of them and catch up.

Went for a jog this morning and it was painful than the others so far. I'm not sure why but I'll just have to go again tomorrow morning and let that sort it self out. Maybe I need new shoes...we'll see about that. I went to Walmart today and bought a CD Tower cause I needed somewhere to put all my CD's. Keeping them all in a box just wasn't working anymore. I watched a Hindi movie tonight - Dil Chaatha Hai. It was really really good. I would reccomend it to anyone. I watched the one with English subtitles cause my Hindi is still not the greatest but I am working on it... The songs in that movie are also really good. That is one of the Hindi movie soundtracks that I bought in India.

Tomorrow night is dinner (Ethiopian food) with the Waterloo posse and Tuesday all day is an orientation/welcome session. I am going to have to do a little research tomorrow night to make sure that I am on the ball with any current industry news. I will also have to act all civilized in a work setting - haven't had to do that in a long time so that should be a treat.

That's all she wrote for now folks...

Hello everyone, It's a new day...bright and cheery outside and very very pleasant. I played golf this morning. First 9 holes of the year and I didn't do THAT bad. I shot a 47. Okay that is quite bad but I thought I would be in the 60's or something cause I haven't even been to the range yet. I hit 7 out of 9 fairways and my putting improved by the end. Needless to say, a good first game and now I'm just itching for more.

Japan sadly lost this morning 1 - 0 to Turkey. I didn't sleep last night and watched the game at 2:00 am. It was raining for the entire game and the Japanese team just didn't look as into it as normal. The Turkish goal was weak. The Japanese hit the crossbar. I guess it just wasn't meant to be. BUT, Korea did upset Italy on a Golden Goal so that was fantastic. What a thrilling game and seeing the sea of red devils in the stands was truely a remarkable site. I really had a good time watching that game...it was awesome.

Now - it's back to sorting out my life. Still got lots of unpacking, scrapbook preparing, computer formatting, real webpage making and shopping to do. I really hope this next month and a half doesn't fly by. I wanna totally enjoy it before the real world starts...

Ladies and Gentleman, Boys and Girls...I am back online.

Did you miss me? Probably not cause you never really became accustomed to me being around but I am going to be better at this whole "webpage" thing now that I am back.

The trip was fantastic. One of those life changing experiences actually. I feel like a new and energized person and I am excited to see how I react and respond to all the new situations ahead of me. The trip overall was well deserved, very much needed and thoroughally enjoyed. If I was to do it again, I would go solo and I would have visited less countries. That being said, since time was of the essense, I still managed to do/see so much and never did I feel completely overwhelmed. When I did, I just rested up and curled up with my book. Speaking of which...Memoirs of a Geisha was FANTASTIC. The Alchemist (I am reading right now) is pretty good too. I don't know if I want to write too much more about the trip right now cause all of my long-winded e-mails over the past 7 weeks pretty much summed it up for me.

What I will talk about is convocation and the great time that I had there and at Summerfest. It's strange cause Convocation felt like complete closure. It was one of those bittersweet times cause it was full of joy and elation coupled with a hint of sadness. I'm sure that that is probably the last time I will see some people...not too sad about that though cause those are probably people that I didn't hang out with that much anyway. What I am sad about though is that some of the people I am close with probably eventually drift away...that always seems to happen. We'll all try our best to avoid it though. Convocation was surprisingly fun and not that boring (although, that first speech was a bit out of place). Globus as the Mace bearer was a great touch....just the perfect way to put our "Sci-Bus" stamp on Convocation Day. I just read Tchao's site and can't help but think about Kapilan as well. I never knew him as well and it's a shame that I didn't get to know him better seeing as he lived so close and we were in the same program. I still remember coming back from India that winter (Jan 98) to find out that some of my friends thought I had been killed (because they didn't know who the "Indian kid from Scarborough that was in Science and Business at UW" was). Scary thought indeed. I don't really know what else to say cause I don't totally know how to deal with death...