This blog is a gift to my wife, Renee, and my children, Adele, Athan, Audrey, Anne, Amelia, and Andrea.

Monday, January 24, 2011

First Time Latin Dancing

Tonight, Renee and I went to a Latin dancing session.  She was invited by her co-worker to this event held by the Toronto Chinese Business Association.  The first half of the session was a networking session, mainly aimed at helping their members meet people for business purposes.  We obviously weren't there for the networking, but we met some nice people and had some good conversations.  We met a gentleman who helped people invest in real estate (i.e. buying a property, finding a tenant, etc.).

The latter part of the night was a Latin dancing lesson.  It was taught by Renee's co-worker, Josie, who teaches dancing on the side.  She was really good.  So, we learned a little Merengue and a little Salsa.  Honestly, it was more fun that I had expected.  I actually didn't want to go at first...partly because I don't particularly enjoy dancing, and partly because it was a busy week.  So, anyway, this was fun.  It was my first time learning how to dance and I think I wouldn't mind taking up more dancing if time allowed.  Maybe in a few years when my various commitments taper off.

So, if you're a guy and your girlfriend or wife asks you to go dancing, try it out.  It may be more fun that you imagine!
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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Kids Will Grow Up

Last night after dinner, Renee and I spent some time with Adele playing with Playdough.  On most weeknights, we try to spend as much time as we can with her before she goes to sleep.  Because she sleeps at around 8:30 pm, we only get to see her for a couple of hours each day.  We really miss out a lot and it's a shame, but that's the reality of life, I guess.  This is the reason why I think we need to invest aggressively (but safely) to have an early retirement, but that's a totally different discussion (see my other blog).

So, while we were playing with Adele, I walked away for a while, and immediately, she cried out to me, "Baba, play Playdough, play Playdough!"  I then walked back and said, almost not thinking about the words, "Yuet Yuet, one day, you will grow up and not want to play with Baba anymore."  Immediately after those words, a feeling of melancholy came over me.  Those words are probably going to come true at some point in time.  The saddest thing is that there are times now that I wished Adele would not require so much attention from me.  I have different things to do like watch TV, surf the web, write blogs...How ironic!  When Adele grows up to be an adolescent, I can just imagine that we would make a switch.  I'd want her to spend time with me, but she would rather hang out with friends, etc.

That is life...and so, I'm going to consciously maximize the amount of attention I give to her, while she still wants it.  Sometimes that's more easily said than done, but every time I find myself doing something else when I can be spending time with her, I'll be sure to correct myself!
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Thursday, January 6, 2011

First Time in San Francisco

I'm in San Francisco right now, on business.  It's my first time to SF, but I haven't seen much of it.  The 5 of us arrived Wednesday at 12:20 pm.  Got to the hotel by around 2:00 pm.  There was a World Junior Hockey finals at 7:30 pm EST (4:30 PST) and the crew wanted to watch the game.  So, we headed off to a sports bar and had lunch while we waited for the game to start.  Canada lost, by the way, 3-5 to the Russians.  The Russians scored all 5 goals in the 3rd period.  What a disappointment!

We stuck around for a bit after the game and left the bar at around 8:30 pm.  But since we're 3 hours behind, it was really 11:30 pm.  I was dead tired when we got back to the hotel.  Called home and talked to Renee for a bit.  Adele was sleeping, naturally.  Then took a shower and went to bed.

I managed to get up at 6:00 am (but it's really 9:00 am to my body) to prep for the customer meeting.  Went downstairs and had a pretty good breakfast.  We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Alameda.  Hampton Inns are usually pretty consistent.  They have good mattresses and a not-too-bad breakfast selection.  I had some scrambled eggs, sausages, and a waffle.  I'd stay away from the scrambled eggs.  I'm pretty sure they were powdered eggs.

The customer meeting today went quite well.  Hopefully, we get this job as it's a pretty big program, with potentially 3 to 4 lines down the road.  Oh...do you know what I do for a living?  Maybe I should elaborate a little bit.  My company, ATS, designs and builds factory automation for all sorts of manufacturers.  I'm not allowed to disclose customer names, but this particular customer makes medical diagnostic devices.  Our machine would perform the assembly of the components into the final product and put it into its packaging.  Eventually, you'd see these devices being sold at your local pharmacy.

I've been at ATS for almost 7 years now.  I really can't believe that!  It's probably the longest I have stayed anywhere, doing essentially the same thing.  Good thing is I don't feel like it's repetitive.  I guess that says something about the "enjoyability" of my job.  I'm happy with what I'm doing.  It's pretty much what I've envisioned to be doing when I went to school.  However, as with all jobs, I wished the pay was a little better (who wouldn't, right?).

So, I'll be flying back to Toronto tomorrow afternoon (Friday).  I miss Renee and Adele already!  There's a Chinese saying that says, "A temporary absence beats a new marriage (小別勝新婚)".  I guess that's true!  Anyway, this entire post sounds like I'm just thinking out loud.  Maybe it's the beer that I had tonight...
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