first off, i started this blog shortly after travelling to the People's Republic of China (PRC Consulate of Vancouver). we spent the majority of our time at a university in Tianjin located about three hours outside of Beijing and finished off our time in Hong Kong. it was a great trip and of course we saw the usual sights including the Great Wall, Forbidden Palace, Summer Palace, and numerous Hong Kong sights, but our primary reason for the trip was to study international business. to accomplish that goal we visited many factories to study the operations of the differing corporations. some highlights include LG, Yamaha, & a Toyota joint venture.
it was on this trip that Trish & i got to meet each other again for the first time. we were able to see each other for what we really were and concluded that we were actually quite fond of each other. needless to say, time would prove that theory...
at the end of the summer i was rewarded for completing my stint at university, albeit a tad prematurely, with a father/son african safari. lifelong dreams of both my father and i, we visited kenya and tanzania spending time at numerous game parks including the famous Serengeti. another signicant stop of interest was our stay on the island of Zanzibar which makes up the 'zan' in tan-zan-ia. Zanzibar is an ancient spice island with a very unique melding of arabic, african, & english cultures.
later that fall i completed the bulk of my education at TWU.
on the employment front i wasn't really able to find a job for quite some time and my unwillingness to move to Toronto severely limited my options. fortunately my stubborn nature resisting eastern canada forced me to look for other options and in the late fall of 01 i decided to pursue an attempt at trading equities with a friend i had met while in China. i wrote my series 7 examination and sold my truck in order to fund my account at Bright Trading and almost three years ago, to the date, i started trading. it was a good move and although a constant challenge, i have been very happy with my decision to trade.
about the same time i started trading i was greeted by 'misguided' vehicle that decided to join me in my lane, in spite of his travelling the opposite direction. needless to say i was very thankful i had just sold my truck and was borrowing my fathers vehicle.
in 04.02 i officially completed my tenure at twu with the re-doing of an economics class from my first year that i didn't pay enough attention to. ;)
in 09.02 i finally had my problem wrist dealt with. this is the wrist that was broken, or so i thought, approx. 2 years earlier. unfortunately, the dr. didn't think it was busted, but after i still had some lingering pain more than a year later i decided it was pertinent to get it checked out further. well, what da ya know, broken! so more than a year after breaking it and another year after seeing the specialist i had the privaledge of experience a bone graft via my hip being split open... YIKES! anyways... i'm not perfect, but better than i was.
since then Trish and i have also gotten married. we had our cermony at West Vancouver Baptist Church on 19.6.2004 and held a casual reception overlooking Vancouver at the Capilano Golf and Country Club immediately following. after the wedding we jetted off to a resort in friendly Jamaica. we had an amazing honeymoon and the resort no doubt help us to enjoy ourselves, especially in light of Air Canada's antics, losing my luggage both on the trip south and the trip back home.
when we got back we settled in to our rented condo at C-side in Coal Harbour.
since moving in our primary focus has simply been to navigate our way through our first year of marriage, unscathed if possible. we are both working downtown so we're able to walk to work which has been great and allowed us to eliminate one of our cars.
at the end of 09.04 we were able to take a weekend off and headed up to visit rockridge canyon a yl camp near princeton, bc. dave and i got the privaledge of workin' the pits while our lovely wives were able to bring a little sunshine to the campaigner camp particpants by acting as servers. the camp is very different than club malibu where i was first introduced to yl, but it has a great feel and will no doubt gain as much or more nostalgia as the 'bu for the campers who experience it.
we were fortunate enough to pick up a last-minute special at the end of hurricane season and spent a week in the Dominican Replublic at the Bahia Principe San Juan in Puerto Plata.
over Christmas we spent time with both of our families bouncing from North Vancouver ---> White Rock ---> Vancouver ---> White Rock ---> Vancouver before ending up at Silverstar for a few days of snowboarding over Christmas.
since then we have tried to make it through the nasty part of living in a British Columbia rain forest, difficult at times, but on a sunny day any question as to why one lives here quickly fades to a distant memory.