Author: F C

More photos are here. We wrapped up our attendance of a Hakka Chinese conference at York University. We took my uncle there — he put one kid through there, and has another one presently, so it was kind of a back to school experience for him. That night we went to the Carribean Chinese Association’s New Year’s Eve Ball, which featured a live reggae band. The sight of 400 Carribean-Chinese, many of them middle-aged, dancing to sca and reggae was something amazing. The next day we went to the CN Tower, which was practically empty because of the holiday. Afterwards, we went through the downtown Chinatown, had Vietnamese sandwiches, and then made it back to Eaton Plaza, where we had Carribean ox-tail stew, rice and beans, roti, and whitefish. We quickly ran back to the house for our ride back to the airport. Having a few Canadian bucks left over, we bought some additional duty-free items. After a luggage fiasco (they announced the wrong baggage pickup area) we finally recovered everything and went home. I’m working on my annual recap message now….

Everone in the P– household except for me is recovering from the flu. Apparently, last year’s flu shot that I received provided some protection. After my half-baked attempts to provide tea for everyone, P-‘s mom came over and whipped up dinner, a variety of chinese teas and soups, and steamed the place with vinegar to disinfect the house. P was still sick today, so she skipped out on Christmas dinner with my family, which was just as well.

A 9.0 earthquake near Sumatra, Indonesia (a place Americans only know as some place where Starbucks gets their coffee) set off a massive tsunami that wiped out 9 countries surrounding the Indian Ocean, killing upwards of 15,000 people. Malaysia was one of them, so there was consternation in figuring out if any relatives were involved, and apparently they were not. We had thought that it had hit the eastern coast, but actually it was the western one. It only goes to prove that maybe Americans are not that good at geography, but it’s not our fault if the locals can’t figure it out either. Everyone will be looking at this disaster as a dozen times worse than the summer hurricanes.

We had brunch at Chango on Sunday. OK, but we went crazy with the included mimosas and bloody marys. The mariachi were also good (the title is from a sappy song that they were singing).

It’s the first serious snowstorm in New York, with 1-3 inches expected. I’m headed to Toronto on Tuesday, so I hope that things clear up (the weather and P’s flu) by then. I’m also putting together my annual New Year’s message by tomorrow, in lieu of Christmas cards. I hope to have it done by tomorrow night.

In preparation for my year-end message, I’ve finally got this new photo gallery software installed on the Triscribe site. This solves the problem I had last year with a gazillion crazy pictures with no comments (this year, it’s going to be around 3,000). You’re also welcome to upload photos that you may have also. You do have to create a free account to do so. Also, you can order your own prints through Shutterfly and a few other vendors without bugging me… It’s at http://www.triscribe.com/gallery – check it out.

For all of you who can’t get to the website during working hours, now you can blog anywhere you can send email. Send an email from the email address that is in your profile to fcwp@triscribe.com. If you have a JPEG picture, send it as an attachment to your email and it will automatically post. Remember, it has to come from the email address that is in your profile – that’s how it can figure out who to post it under. If you want to blog from your cell phone, let me know what your phone’s email address is, and I’ll set it up.