A Time to Remember

Today is a special day to remember all those who paid the ultimate sacrifice so we could live freely and enjoy the safe life. These are men, women, fathers, mothers and children. 

I have nephews who served in Canadian and US military. I am embarrassed that I have just taken for granted what sacrifice they gave so we can be free. The one time I was involved was when one nephew who was a medic in the U.S. Navy was missing in Iraq. We had to pray so he will be found safely. Fortunately for him he was found safe and is now retired. Krishna, I salute and admire your courage to serve.

A friend of mine in my building was engaged to be married to a guy who served in the Canadian Army. I even saw him when he left for his mission. One day I was reading a magazine article about guys who did not make it back. Only when they mentioned the name of the fiancee did I realize he did not make it back.

Today, there is a U.S. Army Staff Sergeant serving in Afghanistan who I know. I have always told him how much I admire his service. I'm happy to hear he would be returning back home before Christmas and he will retire after. So to Staff Sergeant Frank....we thank you and pray you will be safely home soon.

To all who gave the ultimate sacrifice, I thank and admire all of you. 

Cafe Amore Bistro

My friend Carole took me to dinner for my birthday at this restaurant on Saturday. I didn't know where she was taking me until I got into her vehicle.

I read about this place from Avenue Magazine. So I came in knowing it would be good food and hoping the service will be as well.

We got there a bit behind our reservation time and was seated right away and greeted by the owner. Carole has been here before for lunch and it's my first time. We ordered bruschetta for appetizer and they were good. I had Amore Spritzer cocktail for my drink and it was good. 

For the main I ordered the special which was bone marrow with mushroom. It came and I started to eat and found it too salty. I tried to eat more but I just could not handle how salty it was. When the server asked how was it, I had to be honest and told her. She took it and asked the chef of they c.f. would make it a little less salty. In the end I just ordered a different pasta. They were really nice about it. They took it off our bill. I was ok with just another order but I admire them for handling it differently.

I still would go back just because of the service. They even said I put too much cheese but I know it was really salty in the first place. I'm not used to salty food because of my hypertension. I would rather that diners be able to add salt to the food.

Overall, very excellent service and the pasta I ordered later was very good. I would recommend it to my friends.

The journey continues....

And so I go on and it does not stop me from experiencing new things. Sometimes it takes a bump for me to realize that life goes on. I was even surprised that once I have decided to move forward and an incident happened that you may want to look back, I felt that it is better just to move on.

It is one of those cliches that you do not realize what you have until you lose it.  So true.

And sometimes things start to happen and I'm just going to enjoy it being careful not to lose myself in the process. 

And I hope to post more once I'm comfortable writing a few personal stuff. 

This will be short. Thanks for stopping by.

Moving forward.....

Well, my life journey has been riddled with little bumps so the only thing to do is move forward and try not to look back. There are still a lot of interesting stuff happening and when there is exciting news to post, I will do it.

As I have posted, I'm working with a different company. I just got our Christmas party invitation and our company is flying us to our head office in Vancouver. Now, my problem is who to take as my guest.

I have an idea who and just waiting if the guest can come. I was told I should put the two names I'm thinking and pick like in a raffle. I have 3 weeks to RSVP. Will post who will be my guest....pictures at the party.

Thanks for stopping by.

Long distance relationship

Does it work? It takes a lot more work than a normal relationship. It also depends a great deal on the commitment of the individuals involved. I really don't know if there is a difference on how far the distance is.

I believe that trust and loyalty are the two values each person needs. I know 2 people who were on long distance relationship and it worked for both of them. They are both happily married.

I on the other hand was involved in long distance relationship for 6 years and thought it would work but sadly didn't. I can say that I'm the loyal one and the other individual could not commit or be loyal. But we learn from it and we move on.

It is part of life's experiences. I was once asked what I got out of it and my reply was....lots of Aeroplan points. That is the truth!!!!

Would I do it again? It would depend a lot on what type of a person I'm getting involved with. I would be careful and maybe be more observant. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Lousy service....

Last Thursday, Janet and I decided we were going out for lunch and went to Central. We got there at 12:12pm and ordered the special.....steak sandwich. 

We have gone a lot of times when I used to work in the building. Always got good service except a few times which we complained.

Well this time, the food was ready at 12 minutes to 1:00pm. We have an hour lunch or an appointment. We did not eat the lunch. We had it packed and went back to work without lunch.

We complained and the chef said it's because one of us ordered medium well. The server told us there's a few big groups. It was not really acceptable. I have recommended this place before but not anymore. I don't think I will go back there. 

It's sad but I guess that's restaurant business. I'll find other spots. Just venting.

Happy Thanksgiving

To everyone, friends and relatives, I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving.

This year is especially important for me to give thanks to all the blessings I have received and also for surviving a serious illness. I'm thankful for all the support and encouragement and help.

To sister for coming and visiting to help and support and encourage me.
To Carole for checking up on me and always so encouraging.
To my niece Lou for listening and just being there when I have to vent.
To Nene for making sure I can always call.
To Fanny for calling and always checking up on how I was doing.
To Marissa for all the long talks and prayers and always being there even when you yourself is going through a lot as well.
To Marie for making sure I'm looking after myself.
To Rogelio for all the suggestions.
To the ladies of Laidley for caring.
To Sandra for all the wonderful suggestions and encouragement from far away.
To Ped for always listening. 

Without all your support, it would have been a more difficult recovery.
And now to RBR for understanding all the insecurities. Thank you for the laughter and some needed disagreement. Hang in there. The journey has not been all easy. The bumps have been small, thank God.

So far an exceptional year. 

Away from home

A while back, a few friends and I were talking about friends or partners who work away from home for a few days, weeks or months. We wanted to find out how the person who is left behind handles the situation.

Each has his/her way of dealing with it. One says it gives her a break if it is only for a few days. One whose kids are younger misses the help and extra hand. I really have no experience with this except one time when my ex husband had to go out of town. It was hard as our kids were still young. It was he who had a more difficult time being away.

My sister did this in her former job but she was on a long distance relationship so it was not a big deal.

 My next door neighbour is away 3 weeks at a time but he is not in a relationship. I guess you get used to it and have trust but no matter what it is not an easy situation.

I have asked a friend to guest blog about this topic. 

These photos courtesy of RBR who works in gas pipeline and works away from home most of the time. Currently, he is in Limassol, Cyprus. That's him. 

               

Sloppy Hoggs

Last Friday, my friend Carole and I went to try Sloppy Hoggs restaurant. I know about this restaurant because my youngest son works here. They were featured on Food Network's You Gotta Eat Here. I saw that episode as well.

As Carole told me before getting inside the restaurant, we are here to pig out. As soon as we were seated, they realized I am the mother of one of the cooks. I was warned ahead of time that no matter what I order, I would not finish it. So we sat and decided what to order. Carole wanted ribs so we ordered one entree and shared. It came with smashed potatoes, spicy beans, corn bread. We ordered fries and coleslaw as additional sides and hush puppies for appetizers. It was generous servings.

Everything was good and service was excellent.  We would be coming back.



. 

Mother and her baby

Last Wednesday a very good friend and I met in downtown and had appetizers and drink at at a restaurant close to work. So we did our usual chit-chat and we were catching up on what had gone on in our lives. After we went to the hotel where her husband was working and stayed in the lobby to talk.

While there, a mother and her baby got into the lobby and the kid kept coming to where we were sitting. The baby who we found out was only 11 months old was walking quite well and starting to talk but sounds like mumbling. So we were playing with him and we kept talking about them. They were in the hotel as they had just moved to Edmonton because of job transfer


We found out the baby's name is Shaurya which means brave in India. The mother's name is Amrit which means wisdom. We had talked about a lot of stuff and it was like we had known them a while. So I took their picture and told her I would put them in my blog.

So Amrit and Shaurya, welcome to Edmonton. It was a pleasure meeting you. Hope to see you again.

RBR Guest blogger from Limassol, Cyprus

Hello from Limassol, Cyprus. A journey of a milestone, one starting on the very first day I met this wonderful lady. This isn't a walk with you, it's a life being United in love with you. I'm happy you have chosen me to bring to life this new chapter.

Love can make you heartless, love can make you hate who you used to love and sometimes bitter. My dear friends, it ain't easy to find true love in today's world. ....but should God help you find one, appreciate it, hold it with delicacy, and count value in it. Invest in it, make it colourful and admirable, protect it, sacrifice for it, fight for it. Don't let it easily go over minor things that can be addressed as adults who were interested with each other at first.

Thanks for stopping by.

First bumps

Like any other journey, I had now encountered few bumps on the way. But I am determined to succeed. I have to go back a bit and restart. Ok, without help and understanding from a selected few, I probably would have done a bit of a damage.

With this personal journey, I am not alone so it helps. I need all the support I can get to achieve my goal. And I'm going to try real hard.

When given a chance, I would really like to grab and take my chances. I know the risks but that is what life is all about. I had been told I'm persistent. I think that's a good quality....not giving up right away. 

So this is like a diary of my journey. After a few posts, I will do a page for this one. I hope to one day be able to read it whether it was successful or not.

My guest blogger should be ready in a day or two.

To RBR, I hope you enjoy the journey. As you have told me, we are going to do it together. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Life journey

As I have posted before I'm doing this life journey posts. After being on med leave for almost 3 months, I am lucky to have recovered but it was a struggle. I had to do a lot of difficult decisions. 

I left my job and a few friends there. I actually enjoyed my job there until the manager from hell got on board. The environment was toxic. I found new job where they care about their staff. No drama here. They just hired an admin assistant and she is a friend of ten years so that would be great.

So my life journey on my professional side is doing well.

Now comes my personal life. I have been on my own for a long time and I have been in relationships but did not work out. This part of my journey is the one I'm concentrating on now. I know it will have its ups and downs. Knowing my history, I'm hoping this will turn out ok. 

When I was visiting my sister, I was a guest blogger for her. So I will have a guest blogger. I don't know how this will work out but I'm hoping it will be interesting. And this is part of my life journey.

So thank you. I know I have a new visitor checking out my blog. To you, thanks a lot.

I'm definitely back.l can't promise I will blog all the time but I will post when I'm in the mood. I'm well and I believe close to full recovery (knock on wood).

I would like to thank again everyone...sister, cousins and nieces, friends and officemates  for all the help, support, kindness and encouragement during my illness.

Now I'm on an exciting new adventure, not the travel kind. Life adventure, it could be a roller coaster ride with its up and downs. I feel, believe and confident it would be a wonderful trip. I'm praying it will be successful in the end. I will probably post part of it but there will be no pictures, maybe in the end part

So RR let's go. You were kind and brave enough to join me. I'm glad for the complete and unending support and encouragement. Wish me luck.

A new job.....

Today is an exciting day for me. I am starting a new job. It is the same type I have been doing for a while but with a different company. I left my previous company because of the unhealthy environment which I believe will not change.

It has become too toxic that while I was on medical leave I made the difficult decision of not going back so I gave my letter of resignation. While my doctor did not want me to be applying for a job, I still tried to just check on line to see what jobs are available. I sent a few resumes and got called in for a few interviews.

Just a week ago, I went for an interview and it felt good while I was there and the Vice President who I will be reporting to offered me the job and I am excited to start. It is close to where I live and I can walk to work although the company offered me free parking which I will take once the weather gets cooler. In the meantime I will walk the 14 blocks and I know I will enjoy it. It will be my daily exercise and it will be good for my diabetes. 

I will miss a few of my coworkers as there were a lot who have left while I was on medical leave so I don't really know or hardly know the remaining staff.

Thank you for stopping by. Enjoy the week.

Friendship.....

While I was on medical leave, I realized who are my true and trusted friends. When I was not really feeling great and needed to talk, I knew the friends who I can depend on and they were the ones who really supported me.

I appreciated the wonderful ways they have found to make sure I was feeling ok. I got text messages and phone calls just asking how I was doing and made sure I was doing what the doctors have told me to do. Even when I did not want to go out, Carole made sure I went out and met her at one of the closest restaurant  close to my place even just to get a drink (virgin drink) and an appetizer.

So to everyone who were concerned and kept me in their thoughts, I thank all of you and I appreciated everything you all have done for me. Also to my sister who came to visit to make sure I was doing better, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You made it easier for me to get well. Thanks for everything and I mean everything.

Back from a long hiatus

Yes, it has been a while. The last time I posted it was April fool's day. And I had not been  feeling well then. I was stressed from my job and other stuff and it took its toll. I had been on medical leave for two and a half months now and finally....thank God! I am on my way to recovery.

I realized that when I started this blog, I was in the midst of changing jobs and so I was going for job interviews. I got the job and that was one of my first postings.

So now that I am coming back from a long break, I am also in the process of changing my professional life so I had been going for interviews and luckily I found a really interesting job. So I resigned from my office where the environment is becoming toxic. I would have wanted to retire from that company but it was not meant to be.

On Monday, I start my job and I am excited about it as I report directly to the Vice President of the company and he is so friendly and down to earth. I also work well with male bosses than female as there is not a lot of drama, sorry gals but that is my experience.

I hope to post more often. I had a wonderful visit from my sister and will post about that later.
Thanks for dropping by. 

I am back.....

I know it had been a while since I posted. I have been busy and was running out of creative juice. Hopefully, I will have some interesting posts.

The weather has been nasty and it is April and it is still cold. I have had a few exciting experiences. I had been called to a medical emergency and was able to help our day porter. He is new in the country and has no relatives. I drove him to the hospital and stayed with him until he was admitted. I still check his blood pressure every day.

On a sad note, a friend of mine who also lived in the building was found dead in her suite by her daughter. I did not learn about it until two weeks later. I am sad that I was not able to attend her funeral. Rest in peace. I will miss you.

On a happy note, I am going on a well deserved vacation with a good friend of mine. I am looking forward to it.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Family Day

Today is Family Day in some parts of Canada. In Alberta, it is celebrated today. I believe British Columbia celebrated it last Monday. And other provinces have some kind of holiday this month.

It is nice to have the long weekend and a break from the cold weather. I am celebrating it starting early my spring cleaning. Saturday I cleaned up my closet and took out clothes I have not worn in a year and donating it to charity as they are in very good condition. Then Sunday, I washed kitchen cupboards and reorganized them so it is easy to find things. I am trying to find my dough hook for weeks now and if I am not mistaken it fell behind the fridge, so tomorrow I will find out for sure. I want to bake bread and don't want to knead dough without my dough hook.

For dinner, we had spring rolls and curried beef. I also made mars bars square for dessert although I can only eat just a little square of it. I am doing paleo diet with a lady from work and it is helping me control my blood sugar which has been in the 5.4 to 5.8 range. This is metric for those who are wondering. 

Ok, I will now try to enjoy this extra day and hopefully find the dough hook so I can have fresh bread. I would also like to try to make Hawaiian buns which I love but can't get here. Enjoy the day with your family.

Happy Valentine's Day

To everyone, Happy Valentine's Day. I, myself am not fond of this so called special day because everything becomes so expensive. Two weeks ago I bought orchids and I paid $9.98 per plant. Over the weekend and just yesterday, they were $29.95. Roses which are usually $10.00/dozen are now $39.00. And why? Just because it is Valentine's Day!!! What a rip off!! I would rather get something a week after today.

I should not complain as I came home yesterday with 3 bottles of champagne, Grand Marnier and Patron tequila. What a Valentine's day haul and I do not even have a boyfriend. LOL! My son asked, no vodka?

It is Friday and I am glad it is a long weekend. Family Day, for those who do not have this holiday. Enjoy the weekend and spend it with the family. Thanks for stopping by.

Good customer service

I work in a building which is owned by our company. So I know the tenants well. We have a restaurant/sports bar on the main floor. We often have lunch there. The food is good and the service has been very good. In the past few days, we have been there and two of our office mates have received bad service. One ordered the special of the day and when it came it was not cooked well and she had to return it as it was still pink or raw and you could get salmonella. It took a while to get the replacement and she wanted to take it back to the office, She was charged the regular price and not the special price. I was told about it and told her I will speak with the chef. After explaining, he was nice enough to give her a gift card for $25.00. I do not expect that, maybe just give her the special price as it was the kitchen's fault that the chicken was not cooked properly.

Today, it was a steak that was ordered medium rare and was rare, and one who ordered a chicken salad but no chicken. So I was there and witnessed it. I emailed the chef and he has not replied. I give credit where credit is due and I am a person who wants good service and in return will give more than standard tips. So I hate witnessing incidents like this. I will wait and see what the explanation would be. I am glad it has not happened to me personally. Or I will be posting and venting here. For now, I will not name the business.

Hello.....I'm back

It has been almost two months since the last time I have posted. I had a short sabbatical from blogging. I also have not been feeling well and going to all kinds of medical appointments and lab tests. I spent Christmas holiday with my sister in San Jose California and had a wonderful time. I enjoyed shopping with her and my brother-in-law. We also had a nice trip to a casino resort with their couple friend G and J. G won at the casino and he treated us to a buffet lunch. They also invited us to a very enjoyable and yummy dinner and while there, I picked apples and grapefruit at night with flashlight so we can see the fruits.

I also had fun with trying to find my favorite fruit cherimoya. It took a while to find them. But now I know exactly which grocery store sells them. On my way home, I got caught in that storm that hit the eastern US and our flight was delayed for more than 6 hours.

Back at work and going for more tests. I might have to reduce my work hours if I continue to feel tired easily. I am also considering moving to one of the condos owned by our company. I looked at it the other day and like it but it will be a longer drive to work which I am not too sure I want to do every day especially in the winter time.

Today, I am just taking it easy and doing a bit of spring cleaning. I hope to post a bit more. Thanks for stopping by.