Monolithic Blue-Tinted Building

A view of of the "world's local bank" IT headquarters. Most of the Universal Banking System components are designed and built in this highly secured building which is rather intimidating for a timid city like Vancouver. I have to go through several doors and card scans every morning just to reach my desk (approx 4). The washroom is even a card scan away. They do everything to keep people and perhaps the sun away from the building with its highly reflective blue window tint . On a lighter note, we share the building with EBay's call centre.

Something's Brewing

A lot of brewing transpired the last two weeks. I'm savouring the last few days of freedom (certainly not by drinking) until I shift gears and work the clock. Hopefully new work won't stop me from photo blogging.

Weather's excellent these days in Vancouver. I was out at Granville Island walking by the port. One of the attractions I recently discovered at the location is the Granville Brewery. Nothing comparable to the vibrance of the English bars (in England), but a novelty in a city where coffee-lovers out number the beer drinkers. I still prefer the non-intoxicating peppermint tea.

Peppermint Drink

A warm cup after an exhausting night of snow sports at the resort chalet.

Night Snowboarding

Can't believe snow's back on the Vancouver terrain (in April) when it's dry and sunny on the (Vancouver) mainland. I drove for 30 minutes to reach halfway the mountain and took a cable car to reach the city's peak for some last minute snowboard action.

Too Hot to Cook

I'm in the look out for furnitures that will fit my budget. This Scandinavian designed-IKEA kitchen caught my attention because of the flashy red glaze, modern not to mention sleek design. It's not something you'd take home to meet your parents but simply a 5-minute crush - sexy and eye candy.

It was sunny the other day so I took the seabus across downtown Vancouver. Pictured above is Vancouver's skyline with the revolving harbour tower (similar to Seattle's needle tower) and the five white sails mimicing the Sydney Opera House's structure. I'm standing on a platform somewhere in Lonsdale Quay.

Drizzling in Vancouver

Weather-wise, Vancouver's not the best place to be in this week. As forecast indicates, next week doesn't get any better.

I plan on taking a trip to the Canadian Rockies to avoid another week of rain. It'll still be snowing when I visit Banff. Yes, I miss snow.

Yesterday was spent house-hunting with my mum. I came home drained because I didn't find anything that I like. Houses that I like are outrageously out of my budget. We will be viewing another house tomorrow, I'm excited because this one has an indoor pool.

It's still the same

While I haven't updated my site for awhile, a few things have changed in my life. One thing's not changed, and it's that calm surrounding that embraces whenever I get out of the house.

The best time of the year's almost here. Spring!

Flash Forward

How I wish it's still December two-oh-oh-four. Here I am staring out the window thinking, waiting for a sign from that so-called destiny to help me make up my mind. What I have in front of me are all that I wanted. Some people tell you to follow your heart over your head. In my case, I don't know whether I should be practical or follow where my heart leads.

Jetlagged for a Week

I'm back, teetering between timezones and realities. I woke up this morning, thinking, hoping, it was a decent hour, but no. It was 4am and I was wide awake.

I sat up in bed and read my laptop like a book pressed up against my chest. I imagined what my family might be doing in the Philippines. Dad is eating breakfast. My cousin is preparing to go to school. Grandma is watching tv.

My time spent abroad was filled with so much love and adventure. Some sadness, too. I came home with a renewed sense of gratitude for everything I have.

I just know that part of me misses Manila already and another part of me is so glad to be home.

HK Airport

A glimpse of the vast HK Airport enroute to Vancouver. My four week holiday's over, but I look forward to working in Vancouver after I shake off this week-long jet lag.

Tikoy - Sweet Sticky Rice

Also a New Year's tradition, sweet sticky rice - this one in form of a pair of fish. It is believed that eating Tikoy brings sweetness that "sticks" throughout the year. On the otherhand, "fish" in Chinese symbolizes being able to save/keep a lot of money. As far as tradition goes, it is both important for people who celebrate the New Year festival to eat tikoy & fish.

Chinese New Year

Chinatown, Manila. A make-shift sidewalk fruit vendor preparing for the Chinese New Year by selling taros, clementines and pineapples amongst many other fruits. Pineapple when translated into Chinese means abundance (of wealth, prosperity). The rich orange color and the shape of clementines symbolize money (think- gold coins; it's all about money and getting rich, isn't it?). I still dont know what taros symbolize, but I'll find out. These fruits are then displayed in the house while most traditional Chinese families burn incense and pray to the gods for prosperity for the coming (lunar) new year.

Eastwood

Had lunch today at Eastwood City- A restaurant complex near a developing technology park, 40 minutes from central Manila. Food is so expensive. Ordered lots of seafood - paella, grilled squid, seafood soup and crabs for a whopping price of £8 for 3 people.

An Asian Powerhouse District

Makati City, Philippines - The financial district of the country. It's like your typical wealthy city - clean spacious streets, fancy restaurants, 5-star hotels, thousands of brand name shops, loads of flashy cars (and raucous drivers), wealthy shoppers pooled in a small area..it's a mirage.

Warm Treat

I'm visiting Manila for three weeks. Can't be beat the tingling tropic weather matched with delicious and cheap food. Pictured above is the garden of Westin Philippine Plaza in Manila.

Back in the tropics.. Pina colada, seafood - lobsters, oysters, king prawns, lechon (suckling pig) and an all-time summer favourite: sweet juicy watermelon.

History Lessons

A look from outside the Forbidden City in central Beijing. More than 1,000 pavilions grace this walled imperial complex of the Ming and Qing dynasties. China's feudal system only ended sometime in 1911. I gave up walking after 3 hours. Jenny and I decided that we've had enough history lessons in one day.

Imperial Ice Castle

Complete with intricate details, this one of many 30 foot ice/snow carvings awakened my curiosity for large ice structures.

I'm travelling in the northern part of China now. I'll post more when I get a chance.

Snow in Vancouver

We got around 5cm of snow yesterday, maybe even a little less in this picture of the back of our house. In the midst of the snow out pour, I went out of the house fully coated and started a snow ball toss around with Assad. I ended up soaking wet after failing to aim my snow balls properly.. in short, I got snow-clobbered (what's worst, by a rookie).

A Love for Berries: A Mixture for the Perfect Dessert to Usher in 2005

A local produce of Canada, blueberries are popular around the world for muffins. I like raspberries more for its look than its taste. We've been eating a lot of Assad-made blueberry desserts lately.. he calls it Blueberry Supreme. The dessert tastes like blueberry cheesecake with a layer of graham cracker crumbs, several thin layers of cream and blueberries and gelatin on top. Thanks to Assad for the desserts and this picture.

Sunset of 2004

A sunset trip to Granville Island before the new year. Granville Island is an hour away from where I live and is also an hour away from the ski resorts. The pictured bridge (Granville bridge) connects downtown Vancouver to the West side of Vancouver, a suburban residential area.

New Year Tradition: Polar Bear Dip

Not all countries in the world celebrate the new year at the same time, in the same way. Different parts of the world use different calendars and have different traditions.

In British Columbia, Canada, there is a traditional polar bear swim, where people of all ages put on their bathing suits and plunge into the icy water surrounding Vancouver.

China. The Chinese New Year lasts about 15 days, beginning some time between Jan. 17 and Feb. 19, depending on the moon. The Chinese have the Festival of Lanterns, which is a street procession that lights the way for the new year.

Netherlands. In the Netherlands, the Dutch burn their Christmas trees in the street and launch fireworks to purge the old and welcome the new.

Spain. The Spanish eat 12 grapes at midnight on New Year's Eve to ensure 12 months of happiness for the coming year.

Japan. The moment the New Year begins, the Japanese begin to laugh to bring themselves good luck. They also forgive misunderstandings and grudges from the previous year.

United States. Probably the most famous tradition in the United States is the dropping of the New Year's Eve Ball in Times Square in New York City at midnight. Thousands gather to watch the ball make its minute-long descent, while millions more watch on television all around the world.

Another popular American tradition is the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day in Pasadena, Calif. It includes a parade of elaborate and inventive floats, later followed by a football game.

There are some widely observed New Year's symbols and traditions, such as resolutions, fireworks and noisemaking. It's believed that the Babylonians were the first to make New Year's resolutions.

People all over the world have been making and breaking them ever since. Noisemaking and launching fireworks on New Year's Eve is believed to have originated in ancient times, when noise and fire were thought to dispel evil spirits and bring good luck.

Around the globe, colorful celebrations will mark the beginning of yet another year.

Happy New Year to all!

Good bye 2004

2004 in many ways has been a good year.

I thank all my friends and family for making this year yet another memorable one.

Here are some of the highlights of 2004 on my end (in no particular order of importance), all of which I'm grateful for:

1. Discovering the joys of blogging and being able to find new things to talk about.
2. Seeing old projects flourish
3. Finding new tech opportunities
4. Meeting new friends
5. Connecting with old friends (mostly through friendster or email)
6. Finishing Oxford

Canada Place

One can never miss visiting Canada Place when coming to Vancouver. The five white sails roof mimics the Sydney Opera House. Directly under the sails are the Vancouver Convention Centre, the Pan Pacific Hotel and the CN IMAX, for movie enthusiasts.

From Canada Place's angle, one can see the northern mountains, Stanley Park on the opposite end and the whole Vancouver harbour.

Festival of Lights

Supposedly an Indian tradition, I went with my family and Assad to the Festival of Lights park in downtown Vancouver. The park features several pavilions, miniature lakes with water fountains highlighted with different lights dancing in sync with Christmas music.

The most popular spots in the park were the lamp post heaters as it was drizzling and chilly.

Coal Harbour in Downtown

Coal Harbour is a community set in front of the sea with the northern mountains posterizing the whole scenery. It's a relaxing and serene environment even if it's right in downtown Vancouver.

Vancouver Sea Wall

A picture taken by Assad while walking by the sea wall at Stanley Park.

Touchdown in Vancouver

Second Day* - Disregarding the obvious presence of jet lag in our fragile frames, we drove to downtown Vancouver for our second day. First stop was at Stanley Park. We had lunch in front of the Pacific Ocean coast line, trying oh-so hard to wash away the morsels of stress from the 30hr travel time. Assad, the ever-so hungry fella had to have food again as it's 3 hours since we had lunch. We went to MetroTown (a mall), where we had Tim Horton's donuts (Canadian Krispy Kreme).

First Day -We might not have completely succeeded (from shaking off the jet lag), but we wanted to eat a lot and be merry. Our first meal was in a Japanese restaurant near the Vancouver airport. We had a huge meal with california maki, tempura shrimps, chicken teriyaki, soft-shelled crabs, spicy tuna sushi among others. It's nearly 11pm and we look forward to our second day in Vancouver. *-Our first day at Vancouver commenced 20:30, so I start talking about the second day in this blog entry.

Transiting for 12 hours in Amsterdam

I'm in amsterdam now at an internet cafe. I just have one minute left.

I walked around duty free shops and it's quite nice. I haven't bought anything.
We spent 10 minutes walking around and ended up not getting to a proper restaurant. We just bought sardines and pringles chips from a small store because all the restaurants have closed when we discovered it was nearly 10pm.

Will post later when I arrive in Vancouver.

X'mas Bear

A number of Limited Edition Oxonian Bear key chains will be on its way to Vancouver this X'mas.

Last Trip to London

These red double deckers that roam around central London will be taken out of commission the next few months. Taking my last snap of it. We do however still have a handful of red open-air double deckers in Oxford.

My friends and I spent a good day in London capping it with a dinner at Leicester Square and a short walk around Picadilly Circus (supposedly the Times Square of London). What I will miss is the bustling environment of this city when I go home to a laid-back Vancouver.

A picture taken on my way to Kensington to attend a social function. This sculpture known as the Fountain of Life graces Hyde Park in Central London.

Delayed

My flight back to Vancouver is delayed as I still need to complete a few more things before I leave Oxford. My friend Assad will be spending X'mas with me in Vancouver. We will be flying to Seattle, USA sometime next week and will be taking a 3-hour bus ride to Vancouver, Canada.

Oxford Dining Hall

One of the things I will miss when I leave Oxford for Christmas would be the dining halls which is always a delightful place to be served, to enjoy the food and meet friends. Picture courtesy of Mickey (Worcester)

Students of Worcester College waiting for the Fellows to arrive before sitting down. Picture courtesy of Mickey who apparently is standing on the High Table platform where the College Fellows dine (it's not illegal, but can be frowned upon by some butlers).

Walking Back Home

A hazy picture of Broad street where half of it is only accessible by foot or bike. Most of the major streets in central Oxford are all decked up with Christmas lights. Right in front of Balliol College is a huge 30 foot tree all spruced up with lights and ready to be one of the Christmas centerpieces of Oxford.

For Those Who are Bored

I answered yet another internet quiz, thanks to my sister:

You Are the Achiever

3 You're confident and competent - with a lot of energy. Eager to reach your goals, you are ambitious and competitive. You are good at movtivating yourself and motivating others. You're also a charmer, with a great sense of humor.

What number are you?


Now, I like that last bit, 'charmer' part ;).

College Guest Dinner

One of Lincoln's most popular traditions is its guest dinners. They are held throughout the year and are sumptuously well catered and wined; a four course meal and some of Kevin the Butler's choice selections from the cellar.

The event is formal (all stiff & polite) and everyone is asked to arrive 40 minutes early for pre-dinner sherry at the MCR.

The College butler pristinely dressed as usual, served us fried fish w/ tartar sauce (Goujons de sole frit) for starters. We then had roasted duck basted in a magnificent citrus brown sauce (Canton Braise) and a good serving of vegetables (Legumes de marche) for main course. We had profiteroles for dessert and coffee. For our night cap we were served several glasses of Port. I met one of my housemates, Julia (left) who's doing her DPhil in Chemistry. I went with Jenny (right). I wasn't sure if cameras were allowed as the whole atmosphere was kind of stiff and formal. I just thought it would be an excellent opportunity to create a lasting memory of the wonderful dinner, the ambiance, the good food and fantastic company.

Clifford Meets Blogger Founder

I didn't get to meet any of the UK CEOs or Directors except for one. However, I got to meet and talk to Evan Williams (right), the founder of Blogger at the Oxford Business School reception. This more than made my week.

Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford

I've been praying to get one of the 25 coveted tickets to join the panel discussion at the Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford Event (last Monday, 22nd Nov 2004), and I got one!

I didn't know what to expect from it, but I was surprised that there were more than 100 high powered CEOs/Directors/Presidents of UK companies or subsidiaries (like MS, Oracle, HSBC, IBM to name a few) in attendance.

I arrived at the venue quite early just to make sure I get inside the theatre. At around 7:15pm, the host then introduced the 7 Silicon Valley panelists. I started to become excited and took out my trusty camera. Each panelists were asked to give a brief bio to acquaint the audience. Evan Williams (first on left), founder of Blogger who later sold his company to Google exudes humbleness. He introduced himself as a man from the midwest (Nebraska) who found it difficult talking to people about his software, let alone get people to understand its use. Mr Williams then moved to California where he experienced the highs and lows of the dot-com era, where he had money and to a point where he had to fire people and learn how to maintain the java servers all alone.

"Sometimes, you need to be insane enough to believe that your idea is great."
-Evan Williams, 22nd November, Oxford

There were two venture capitalists (third from left and sixth from left) on the panel who talked about the role of VCs in forming Silicon Valley. Raymond Nasr (fourth from left) who works as a Director for Google is perhaps the most unique in terms of looks: sporting his dotted bow tie and round spectacles. He looks geeky, but doesn't talk like one. Raymond talked about how Google received a 100K check from the SUN CEO and how Google slowly grew and broke the myth of 'first-mover' advantage long held by Yahoo!.

Overall, it was a great event giving me a chance to meet interesting people mostly from the Said Business School and of course the panelists. This for me, is a once in a lifetime experience.

Forecast for the Rest of the Month: Bright

I'm in a delightful mood despite the short daylights that we get on this side of the planet. I'm happy because of many reasons:

• I'm drinking loads of peppermint tea
• I got a pass to attend an event called 'Silicon Valley comes to Oxford'
• I will be doing my X'mas shopping
• My thesis supervisor's happy with my work.. and will be continuing to do more work.
• I'm going home in two weeks
• I think I'm well rested to do all the above.

Winter Postcard

Quintessential 'Oxford' view (as Nash aptly described) from Christ Church Meadows. The Oxford Regattas training hard under the chilly afternoon weather. My admiration goes to the swan and ducks that tread the icy river.

Standing in front of Brasenose's picturesque courtyard. Some of the Brasenose crowd claim that the dome (Radcliffe Library) on the left and the tower spire (St Mary's Church) on the right are all part of Brasenose.. or so it shows as a facade from inside the College.

Dreaming Spires Silhouette

Countryside view of Oxford. This picture was taken from my Christ Church Meadows stroll with friends last Saturday. ChCh Meadows is only a five minute walk from the city centre.

Weekly Filipino Social

Nash needing a break from his DNA experiments at Oxford's fabled Bio/Physics lab invited us to savour Saturday brunch at Brasenose with Assad, Alex, Nash and Isabela (left to right). It was one of those opportunities where Nash naturally demonstrated his charm and popularity at Brasenose especially with the continental ladies.

Keble College's Formal Hall

This is a a view of Keble College's majestic dining hall. This is one of the better pictures that I took of their Hall when I was kindly invited by a friend for one of the College's nightly formal dinner.

Autumn View

ChristChurch Meadows still magnificent despite the lack of sunshine and lush green trees.

Multi-Tasking

I'm aiming to finish several tasks before December arrives. My mum recently asked me to work on her flower shop website , while I've been working on a few of my own undisclosed projects.

Jenny and I posing in front of Lincoln's ivy covered courtyard walls after dinner.

Guy Fawkes' Night

The normally conservative Ashmolean Museum turns to 'electrified blue' on Guy Fawkes' night. It's a pretty stunning sight with everyone trying to absorb the neon blue radiation while enjoying the fireworks lighting up the sky. Guy Fawkes is remembered each year on November 5 for his audacious attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament.

We started posing like tourists in front of the blue building.

Coffee Season

Went strolling yesterday at Cornmarket street. It was one of the 'brighter' days of the gloomy winter season which is slowly creeping yet again. With all the complaints about the weather, I still love Oxford for its bustling and lively ambiance. Oxford's coffee shops provide a refreshing break from those (hardly) long study sessions. Any excuse to have a break. I'm still pondering whether I should get this stovetop espresso maker.. I don't drink espresso, but I'm planning to use it as my coffee maker.

Christmas Breeze

I walked into the covermarket at Oxford yesterday and particularly felt the yuletide atmosphere. I can't wait to see my family and friends when I go back to Vancouver this Christmas.

Halloween

Halloween went by this year for me without too much partying except for a quiet dinner. The Worcester crew celebrated the night with a pumpkin carving and spring rolls. Rather odd non-traditional combination, but the jack o' lantern more than enough covers the lack of tradition.