14 days of Peru

Posted on Sunday 29 June 2008

Today I am home from my 14 days journey of Peru - “Quest of the Gods, Lares Trek” organized by G.A.P. Adventures tour. That has been far of my most physically demanded trip that I’ve done, yet I won’t say that is my last. I am fascinated by the Inka’s architecture and their wisdom. The Amazon jungle is filled with surprises. The body experience of feeling the air pressure from 0m above sea level to 3700m above sea level in a day is like the sickening feeling of after drinking. 3 days hiking (650m elevation @ highest 4400m above sea level & 30km distance) plus camping in the mountain below 0c is a personal achievement. Meeting new friends is always an interesting part of a back pack tour, and this trip is no exception. Food is a big part on traveling. I continue to amuse people on my ability finishing my own plate of food given my size, and size of my backpack, which seems bigger than me.

We will see how fast/slow this time for me to upload my pictures, and hopefully, I will write a little more about the trip. It all seems very doable before I get back to my regular grind. I must face my work, which will start tomorrow, and it is not something I look forward to. Now, I should go back to finish my unpacking, cleaning, and lots of lotion to save my sun damaged skin (mostly my face).

Kathryn @ 7:52 pm
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HK Disney Land

Posted on Thursday 6 December 2007

I didn’t know what to expect when my sister requested this trip as one of her birthday present. Of course I loved the idea that we are going to spend the time together and knowing that she will be happy, but I wondered how much I am going to enjoyed myself there. I used to love amusement parks with all their rides, but I later didn’t find them excited me anymore. One thing that turn me off about amusement park was the line up. Fortunately (or unfortunately for Disney..), today was pretty quiet. Most things took us very little time to get there. It could also be that I haven’t been to an amusement park for a long time. It was refreshing to get on a ride, to see all the new themes & ideas, especially with characters that I grew up with =)

The time we had there was short, but there were few things that make the trip special, especially for the birthday girl. The start wasn’t that great as we got turned down by trying to bring a birthday cake in hoping that we could have it at the restaurant there after dinner inside Disneyland. The staffs couldn’t make an exception, but they took us to their admin office’s room and let us enjoy our cake in private before we started our day there. The room was small, but decorated in Victorian style. They had a group sang a birthday & a christmas songs in a capella when we finished the cake. We were impressed and that really made the day better when we thought our day was ruined at the entrance.

The next unexpected surprise, which was my favorite, was a visit to “Stitch”. It was a 30 mins show that we thought it was for kids. The “journey” was about us in the “Space control centre”… (my sister is an air traffic controller), which made the show a bit interesting already for my sister. We were impressed that the show interacted with the audience in real time. I don’t know how they could do that so seamlessly with the animation, which I think technically has its limitation, or I would give lots of credits to the person who did the voice. That person (or Stitch) for sure could see us in order to pick his “target” and interact with him/her. My sister was the last picked. Stitch described my sister outfit to direct the host to give the mic to her. The best part was Stitch asked if he could date my sister by giving the “new” planet that he just “found”. My sister denied the requested as she has a boyfriend, who sat right next to her. He then asked if the boyfriend would take the planet and give my sister to him. The answer was obvious. Stitch then sang a love song (sounded bad but funny) to my sister saying that he loves her and would like to marry her, and challenged the boyfriend if he could sing better than him. It was no match and Stitch told my sister that she could say good bye to her “ex” and he “took” their “last” picture together, which then showed on the big screen. His comments was hilarious. By ending the journey, his villain showed up and chased him away to escape to a spaceship & take off. At the end he said his good bye to everyone and the last was “I love you, Belinda”. My sister found it was embarrassing, but I was sure that she was happy =)

My mom’s favorite was the 3D show. It was not only the surrounding sound and the 3d visual illusion were well done. Adding the wind, splash of water, and smell of champaign to give the 4 senses made the animation like they are really jumping out from the screen.

Last, we couldn’t missed the fire works at the end with the light show at castle and the music. With my mom standing next to me, I was like being a kid again. I am really glad that my sister picked this for her birthday as I had lots of fun too!

Kathryn @ 11:38 am
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Grouse Grind

Posted on Friday 13 July 2007

Two weeks ago, my friend invited me to do the Grouse Grind. Either of us did that before. We both felt that we should as this is a Vancovuer thing. The end result wasn’t too bad although I am the last one finished within the group - 1hr 22mins. The weather that day wasn’t warm, but I was down to my tank top, yet I sweated so much. It was a good work out, and luckily I didn’t get sored muscles as I thought I would for sure!

Two weeks after the first one, we are going to do that again. We are bringing a newbie with us. We will see how we do this time. We all look forward to our meal right after the grind. Food motivates us.

Kathryn @ 11:39 am
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Is that a joke? I just don’t find it funny.

Posted on Tuesday 5 June 2007

Maybe that’s the whole point, and I am sure whoever did that would find it amusing, especially seeing me going around asking who did it.

So here is what happened … I stepped out for 30 mins for a meeting. I came back and found my new mouse has gone and replaced with a broken old mouse. If this isn’t a joke, and in fact that person wants a function new mouse. I wish he/she would have asked first. I can’t give the person credit of courtesy for leaving me a broken one and call it fair.

I am just having a not so prefect day getting attitude from my consultant because she isn’t listening, inhauling unnecessary smelly carpet glue in our office that caused half the people in the office left feeling sick, getting client’s complaints because the trades aren’t doing what they supposed to, and 2 hours meeting with the high level people giving us the politician’s speech without answering any of our questions. Maybe afterall, I am just grumpy.

Kathryn @ 5:30 pm
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It is 9.40pm, and I am still at work.

Posted on Monday 14 May 2007

This is my new job as a project manager. I am a bit overwhelmed with all the new things that I have to learn, and project issues that I need to resolve. 2.5 months has been gone. The experience so far has been great. Love all the new things that I have learnt and people who I’ve met. I can’t wait until I have better handle on things, which required at least 6 months to a year as I was told. This is not my first time working this late at my new job. Hoping this is not my new working hour that I need to do every two weeks or more.

Kathryn @ 8:47 pm
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August 24, 2007

Posted on Sunday 13 May 2007

My ballroom teachers sent out an invitation to their students to do a demo at Robson Square. If you are reading this .. here is my invitation to you to come see me dance on that day with my green dress, hair done and make up.

Leave me a comment if you are coming … even not, I would love a little support here =)

Kathryn @ 3:15 am
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You

Posted on Sunday 13 May 2007

Loved everything about you
Hated everything about you
All the promises you gave
All that you took
Like you didn’t do anything wrong
You were being you
I just didn’t know you

Kathryn @ 2:59 am
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NZ8 - Here I jumped

Posted on Thursday 1 March 2007


Queenstown is a well known town for adventures. Taxi, our handsome tour guide, gave us a binder filled with adventure companies’ brochure, so we could book our tours for our staying in Queenstown. We were all excited about our next destination.After the last few days of sightseeings, we started our day with adventures before getting to Queenstown. First stop, we had two options - jump off a plane or wander in Puzzling World. Debbie and I chose the Puzzling World to challenge ourselves in a big maze finding our ways to four towers, had fun and got dizzy in the optical illusion section. There was a room that showed us a technique that Lord of the Ring used. For few dollars, we had fun for close to 2 hours time. After the Puzzling World, we got picked up and met up with the other group that chose sky diving. We were in time to see some of them did their landing. Sky diving is on my want-to-do list, but maybe I will do that in Vancouver.We had our little stop in a famers’ market with lots of fresh veggies & fruits. The market had fresh made fruit ice-cream shop as well. It was highly recommended by Taxi. I had two kinds of berries and hoky poky ice-cream mixed. It was yummy.



One last stop before Queenstown was the high light of my day. I did my first bungy jump - the first commerical bungy jump in the world, Kawarau. It was not my first choice of bungy jump location as I wish to jump the highest at Nevis, but it would take my entire next day from doing other activities. It was an easy choice to make that I went jumped at Kawarau with the people in the tour cheered for me. I was scared before I jumped and while I jumped. I closed my eyes, but soon realized that I had to see to experience this jump that I would probably not going to do again in this life time. I was shocked as I dipped into the water, since I was asked to have my hands touched the water but not my head. Almost half of my body went in. There was a mixed of emotion when I got pulled up from the water, but mainly confused as “I didn’t ask to have my head gone into the water”, “oh, do I still have my top?” and “what did exactly just happen?”. It was an expensive experience for about 5 minutes from strapping up the legs, jumping, unstrapping the legs and to walking on the ground again. Of course, they did make good money off from me buying the DVD and the pictures. I heard that the jump is free if you will jump naked. Tempting … but no thank you.


Finally, we got to Queenstown while it was still bright out. Debbie & I walked around town from the lake shore to a mountain top to enjoy the view. Making dinner at the hostel was like in a war zone. It wasn’t a single person task as you needed a person to guard the stove and clean pot & pan we found, and while the other one could prep other things and guard the clean dishes. Our dinner for that night was fresh pasta with tomato sauce and pan fried veggie with garlic. As usual, we finished our night with our lady earl tea. We headed to bed early for our canyoning day and ensure that we would have a good big breakfast.
Kathryn @ 11:50 pm
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NZ7 - Heli-Jet boating

Posted on Friday 29 December 2006


After two nights at Franz Josef, we hopped to Taxi’s bus and continued travelling south on the West coast to our next check in town - Makarora.



The weather wasn’t so great at the beginning. Our first stop was Arnott Point to see a seal resting area in a distance, and there was an empty beach. I wasn’t sure if the rain was so heavy that it was better for the seals to stay under the water, or if it was me couldn’t spot them under the rain. The weather eventually got better as we got further into the national park. Taxi took us to many places to see the beautiful nature - waterfall, rivers, mountains and even some stone skipping challenge; before we got to our check in point Makarora.


The sky was bright and clear, and we still had few hours of free time before dinner. There was nothing else to do but took Taxi’s recommendations to do either the Heli-Jet boating or just Jet boating. For the cost, Debbie and I decided to go for the latter one. The fun was the speed, drifting, spinning, splashing water to the sheeps, and enjoying the sceneries. At the end of the jet boating trip, we were all wet.


Debbie and I had a room/hut by ourselves with 4 beds. We ended up sharing a big bed that had the best support. The washroom was another building that at night was impossible to get there without a torch. It was another cold night, and I couldn’t wait to get to Queenstown.
Kathryn @ 3:02 am
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Who am I?

Posted on Thursday 28 December 2006

I am not sure about my name anymore. In HK, I used my chinese name. After I moved here, I added my english name as my first name, and it is in my citizenship card. Later, my english was denied because one Health-care admin. staff said my english name isn’t on my birth cert. Since then, especially my life in UK, my identity was changed to chinese name only. My english name was almost like a nick name. Now, I am back to Canada, and I thought I have both names on, if not, it should have my english name for the least. Of course, it is not the case. Today I realised that I have 8 versions/combinations of my legal name, plus one mistake from my profession that somehow registered my middle name with Richmond.

What a pain!

Kathryn @ 9:10 pm
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