Back Again

I've been having a series of headaches, and then lower back pain again. Went to the physio and she tied the two together; the tension in my lower back is travelling all the way up the tissue around the spine and giving me headaches. Gives me an excuse to walk in the snow to the Aquatics Centre and do stretching exercises in the hot tub. Think positive. :)

Skiers

Two guys on skis just went past my place. Obviously the slush is thick enough and cold enough.

Snowfall

I had my first extended experience with snow recently. I decided to go on a short trip and was thrown into -30C weather. I would've made a snowman except it was too bloody cold. I return to warmer Vancouver, only to find that it was snowing here as well. I've uploaded photos of Winter in Canada. Be sure to check out the awesome double-rainbow ; makes you believe in the pot-of-gold legend. :)

Winter Jackets

One thing I don't like about large winter jackets, is when you've just had spicy Mexican beans. :(

Wiiiiii

Got up at 6am this morning, got dressed, cleaned teeth, and walked on up to Futureshop. I got there at 7am and stood in light rain and wind for 3 hours. I was number 71 in a queue of 100 people. All for a Wii console.

Was kind of fun though, chatting about old games and gaming systems with the others in the line. Though I still need to buy a television if I intend to play the thing. The plan for now is to take it to work and try to convince people to hook it up to the projector, and/or loan it out to people with kids who want to show them.

Chicken Something-or-other

Finally had a relaxed Saturday and was be able to cook one of my favourite dishes. It's a favourite because it's so simple:

• Flatten some chicken breast
• Layer some ham on top
• Layer some salsa on top
• Layer some mozarella cheese on top
• Bake at a bit over 200c until cooked

Came out perfectly: ham cripsy, cheese brown, salsa tasty. I would call it by name, but I have no idea what it is.

N.B. if you don't have a tenderiser, stick the chicken in a plastic bag, place a pizza tray (or equivalent) on top and start applying compressions. It'll look like you're resuscitating it. Works well, though chicken remains dead.

Water water everywhere

But a landslide into our reservoir means that we cannot use the water from our taps. I did try, but it taste gritty and muddy. From the news:

Health officials said tap water is unsafe for drinking, brushing teeth or washing fruits and vegetables after the mudslides increased the risk of bacteria and viruses infecting the water supply. The risks can't be minimized by disinfectants such as chlorine — hospitals, seniors homes and schools have been told to use only bottled or boiled water.

I didn't need another excuse to start drinking Coke again.

Rainfall Warning

Seems like every day now we get a "rainfall warning". Here, a rainfall warning seems to mean "more than 50mm of rain in 24 hours". Can some Australians fill me in, but doesn't it take a lot more rain before we get any kind of warning? Mind you, Vancouver has big mountains and matching valleys, amplifying the effects of any rain.

Oh, and check out that 14 day forecast. :)

Thesis Progress!

Finally managed to implement a corrected version of my thesis algorithm tonight. No idea if the implementation is correct, but it's there, it runs, it solves problems, it's a huge step forward for me. Now I need to debug and test and tune and debug some more. I had felt like I was catapulted into the sky, was expecting a hard landing, but somehow landed without too many broken bones.

Priceless

One thing I have done recently is get myself a Canadian MasterCard. It's from HSBC, simply because it has no annual fees and puts most of my banking with the one bank. It feels easier to set up pre-authorised debits within the one bank, and doing so ensures I'll never miss a bill payment.

The only real pain was needing to leave a deposit of "twice what your limit will be". If you want a $1000 credit card, you have to leave a deposit of $2000 for two years. On the bright side, they do give the 3% per annum interest back to you at the end. Lovely.

Too Long

It's been too long since I blogged, but very little has happened. The rain falls. Life continues to be stressful, though I'm forcing more breaks nowadays. I bought a new coffee table and rearranged my living area to provide a clear divide between "office" and "living". Quite a challenge in roughly 400sqft of space (that's the whole apartment), but I now have a more organised apartment.

A Brunch To Remember

Some friends from work invited me to brunch today. They always set an amazing good table, but this topped all of them:

• Fruit juice.
• Baked potato pieces.
• Warm fresh breads with butter.
• Poached eggs cooked in a tomato/ham/mushroom/who-knows-what-else sauce.
• Hot chocolate.

It was the the sauce that made it so good, covering the eggs and perfect for the potato. When I feel like cooking my own breakfasts I will have to get my hands on the recipe.