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Busybusybusy... ;)
It's full Christmas season! It's sooo busy! We've put all the christmas lights inside and outside, decorations and everything... Started doing my present shopping... eekeekeek!
We went to 'one of a kind show' at the Exibition place yesterday. I thought I'd get lots of presents done there, but... wrong! Oops... gotta do more! ;)
As for the following... people who visits my page often would notice that... all of a sudden, there's material for a month! ;) Oh leave me alone... I'm lazy! ;) -Aya- 12.05.99

10.09.99 - [Pet Shop Boys Concert!]
Woah! Pet Shop Boys! I've been such a fan of them for... oh, 10 years?! ... and I've never seen them live before! Can you believe it? It was great! Neil and Chris, coming out first in a looong trech coat and the ever so famous yellow wig... to find out that they were wearing a skirt underneath... hehehe... It was lots of fun. Neil's voice? Amazing as ever... That distinct high voice that he has... sounds better live! Too bad some of the crowd just came for the old stuff and had nooo idea about their new material... but their new song 'New York City Boy' got the crowd going!

10.05.99 - [Afro Celts Sound System with Les Nubians & Olu]
This concert did not start very well... I mean, the doors were suppose to open at 7pm (and so it says on the ticket), we had to wait in front to the Phoenix until 9pm!!! We heard 'sound problems and they are still sound-checking inside' from some people... but come on, Phoenix! Don't you make money from the drinks you sell? Let us poor starving, cold people in!!! =b =b =b
Although the conert didn't start as I would have wanted to... the concert itself was great. The opening of an opening band, Olu, was really great sounding, even though they only played 4 songs. I really think that, after we suffered through Hollowphonic the other concert (look at the 9.11.99 entry) really paid off. Their lyrics were really meaningful, they really rawked, and they even gave us a sample cd single. Can't go wrong there! ;)
The next opening band, Les Nubians, were kewl. This band was mainly made up of women. The leads are 2 sisters, and they sing in all sorts of styles, jazz, hiphop, soul, and in French. They're from Paris, and they didn't speak english very well... but even with the language barriers, I thought I understood them very well. They believe in the power of woman (girl power! ;) and at the time, very sexy. They were very down to earth (they came out with burning insense sticks in their hands... which i thought was kinda kewl) and the two's harmony - i guess their chemistry was meant to be. They also stressed a lot on style - they danced together really well, and that added to the impact... I liked them so much i bought their cd. This never happened to me with an opening band!
Afro Celts Sound System Next came the actual band that we went to see. By then, it was Midnight! We were thinking, oh, maybe the band isn't here... but they were! They kept on apologizing for how late it is and the problem they had... and I was really tired (I mean, Les Nubians were playing for atleast an hour! It felt like we seen a concert already) But since we really wanted to see the band...we stuck around. And boy, was it worth it. We would've really regret it if we didn't stick around. The concert was a blast. Afro Celt Sound System had so many people from all over the world, interacting on stage through a language called music... (There was only one female in this tour, though) and... it was so much energy! I loved this string instrument called 'kora'. I think it was a guy from Kenya that was playing it, and it sounded so kewl... it was a cross between a lute and a harp. Many of the instruments they had were African, and yet there were this Celtic touch of James McNally's whistles (which didn't do too well for my ears, by the way... they still had a lot of problems with sound!) and Iarla's vocals... though he made me laugh! He would only show up for his vocals! So he'd show up from nowhere to sing his part, and right after he's done (even in mid-song) he'd disappear! ;) Hehehe... so funny... ^o^ It was so entertaining to see so many instruments (some were almost like a competition, especially with drums) interpreted in such a way... it was one of a kind type of concert. I didn't know the band very well, but I'm sure not to miss any of their concerts, if they ever come again! ^O^

09.17.99 - [CaseWare Party @ The Docks]
Nothing much going on, except it was a day off for me! Even though it was friday.. our company took a whole day off to have a company picnic at the docks. The place is huuuge! There's not much stuff when it comes to rides, but there are spaces for beach volleyball, arcades, CNE type games, mini-putt, driving range, etc. etc... it's big. Other than the fact that we weren't treated very well (they were serving us BBQ food *after* CIBC and IBM, even though we arrived much earlier and scheduled earlier than them >_< ) it was a blast!

09.11.99 - [Manic Street Preachers Concert]
I went to this concert with my boyfriend because it's one of his favourite bands. I've really haven't heard their music, so I didn't know too much about them...
Ever heard of Hollowphonic? It's a band... and well, they opened for Manic Street Preachers, even though on the ticket, it said some other band was opening up for them. Anywayz, I've never heard of a band that fit the band name soooo well. What do I mean? They SUXED! Really badly. Why do I say that their band name fits them? They were so HOLLOW! ^o~ Yeah, that's right, they were hollow... when they started, I thought, 'hey, their guitar isn't bad... the beat is pretty good... ' and then.. the singer started singing. The vocals had some kind of an effect on the voice to make it sound distorted, like Cher's song... you know what I mean. Anywayz, I was still openminded, thinking 'hey, these guys aren't that bad...' but hearing their songs for about an hour, and every song sounds the same... basically, everybody there thought they suxed. So much for this poor Canadian garage band... ;) So, moral of the story? Don't go to a conert too early, if you see Hollowphonic opening for your favourite band. ;)
The actual concert itself was pretty good... too rawky for my taste, but Manic Street Preachers weren't too bad. The only bad part about the concert (other than Hollowphonic) was the crowd. They were so enthusiastic about the band, and they were waving flags (I think this band is into soccer or something... everybody had a Welsh flag...) and jumping around... now, if you were standing behind one of these guys... you'd be pretty annoyed, since you can't see because of their flags. (I don't think *they* can even see... ;) On top of that, they were jumping up and down... one of them stepped on my foot! Ouch... (that's nothing, compared to the girl that jabbed me with her elbow! ;) All in all, though, I enjoyed the music. I knew a total of 2 songs... haha. ;) It's sometimes good to open up to types of music that you don't generally listen to. Because with that... you might hear something you like... and I really liked one of the songs that they sang, called 'A Design for Life'.

09.04.99 -
All I can say is... wow! Me and my boyfriend went to Cirque du Soleil - Dralion. This was my first time going to any kind of circus, and same with him, though he's seen some of the cirque stuff on tv. I've seen my mom watching those and I thought 'ewwww...' because of all the Chinese acrobats in them are very very *very* flexible to a point of gross...
But it wasn't that bad... when you see them upclose, it's very beautiful, I guess. The circus started off with clowns... and they were funny!

09.03.99 - Yaaay! Karaoke time! Went karaoke with my friends... Dinner @ SushiBistro (too much rice!) and karaoke at ... I can never remember the name of the place... I really needed to go singing, I guess. I got all my stress out by singing! Woohoo!!! (high tension... hehehe...)

8/18/99 - I gotta write something about my Montreal trip recently with my dear friend Carol!!! This will be in parts... read below! This is still rough... pictures still to come!




friday the 13th of August.

We were scheduled to leave with the 3:40PM train. I leave work @ 2:30pm, even though I was planning to leave at 2pm. This is what happens on a lazy friday afternoon at work... suddenly work piles up. Anyways, I go do my errands and end up at the station a little before 3pm. I line up by the gate, waiting for Carol. The boarding time is 3:10pm, where is Carol?! Boarding time comes and goes, it's 3:20pm and there's still no Carol... grr... around a minute past that, Carol comes rushing...hehehe...
We soon get on the train, and we spent the next 5 hours trying to waste our time. ;) It was a lot of fun, actually. We were reading the little magazine that comes with every seat (it says something like 'free, please take it, it is now yours' ;) and taking all the quizzes and such on the magazine. We figured we have no knowledge of Canada... and the magazine has no knowledge of Toronto. (long story... if you wanna know, ask me or Carol). ;) We travelled all over the place (we had noooo idea where we were for the 5 hours... so depending on what we saw, we just made up where we were ;) ...and after a while, we couldn't even see where we were, since it was raining so crazy! (it was like we were *in* the lake... the rain was that bad) After contemplating if we should make a teruteru bozu, we got to Montreal.
First impressions of Montreal? Dark. The station was sooo dark and gloomy! I really think they should do something about that station! It's sooo dark! It's not the greatest place to stop. ;) We were starving, and tired, and we really wanted to get to the hotel then to food... so we took the Metro to the subway station closest to the hotel, then walked to the hotel in the rain.
The hotel was very dorm-like. Small room with 2 beds, bathroom with a shower. It was ok, though... atleast the place kept us dry. ;) We were soooo hungry, so we headed to the old city. We walked 10 minutes, and from very quiet and gloomy, it suddenly became very lively and warm. Lots of lights and lots of places to eat. We wondered around until we found a nice pizzeria to eat. They had the best pizza I've had (well, I'm sure anything tasted good after being hungry for so long). I had seafood pizza (where else would you find it?) and Carol had 4 cheese pizza... it was sooo good, and we even forgot about failing to communicate in French already. ;)
After a good dinner, we wondered around the Old City. We went everywhere in the 2 hours that we had... we even wondered off to the Village! (The gay area of town, with many many rainbow flags... quite a nice decorated place, actually).




saturday the 14th of August.

We ate our breakfast while watching TV (Dragon Ball! ohmigawd! ;) and then headed to the Biodome. What I love about the subway system around here is the way it works. It's so much more efficient than the TTC! The announcement for every stop is much nicer than the TTC... it's more pleasant! The trains themselves are a little smaller, but it arrives fairly quickly, and station to station is shorter. I like it a lot!
Biodome is very interesting looking. Big huge stadium, almost. It is separated into 4 parts: The Tropical Forest (tropics), The Laurentian Forest (forest area, much like around here), The St. Lawrence Ecosystem (close to the ocean), and The Polar World (arctic). Depending on where we are, we see different animals... but you have to really look to find animals. I liked the St. Lawrence Ecosystem area the best. Why? I love seeing fishes and animals close to the ocean! I loved the atmosphere, I guess... I wish I lived closer to the ocean! I think Carol loved the arctic the best, since she loves those penguins!
After the Biodome, we headed to the Insectarium and the Montreal Botanical Garden Insectarium is basically a place to learn about (what else?) bugs, and it was kinda neat, I thought, even though Carol was a little queezy about it. ;) Many beautiful butterflies are displayed here, as well as many different *live* bugs. We were running out of time, so we decided to browse through the Botanical garden. Since the day wasn't such a great day... we just ended up going to the Japanese Garden and Pavilion.
I will update some more, I just haven't had the time...




sunday the 15th of August.

Everything went as planned... we even ate at Ben & Jerry's for ice cream, and ate at a nice Cafe, like we were planning to, even though it took a long time to find a place. The art museum we went to was wonderful, and it made me quite peaceful and calm, even though we weren't able to go around everything, other than the main exhibit. We got to the train station late, but early enough to even buy dinner for the way home, got on the train and got good seats.
What went wrong? Oh, I don't know... we were heading back to Toronto all tired and sleepy, and we were reading magazines and snoozing... all of a sudden, we stop. After about 5 min., we get an announcement saying that we're stopping for maintenance, (or manual check-up or something) and ... well, we basically ended up stopping for about 30 minutes.
We got going for another hour or so, until we stop again! We get the same announcement, except we weren't moving after half an hour! We just waited and waited, wondering what has happened. We were stopping in a station, but we had no idea where we were. Middle of nowhere, nothing to see outside. Many people were getting inpatient, not knowing what was going on... including us. Many were making phone calls (there's a phone that you can use with a credit card located at the back of the train) and people were just generally walking around. Me and Carol were basically splurging on Junk food (that we got the previous night) and trying to keep ourselves upbeat. We soon get an announcement that there was a malfunction on one of the train, and they need to evacuate one of the train (didn't mention which), so for the timebeing, we were switching to emergency lighting. We were scared that it was our train, but after 10 minutes, we still haven't heard which train or what exactly was going on. All of a sudden, the light goes off and switches to emergency lighting, and the train tilts a little to the left! We were sooo scared... but after a while, we figured that this was because we didn't have electricity that it has tilted.
This was suppose to be a 4 hour express train, arriving to Toronto at 9:04pm. It was rounding 9:10pm, and we had no movement. It made me think, gees, we should've took the 6pm train that was suppose to arrive at midnight in Toronto! We ran out of junk food, and we were tired and bored... the girls beside us were having a fight, and one of the girl was making a long distance call that almost lasted 40 minutes on her cell. (crazy... I felt sorry for her mother, who owned the cell... ;) Anywayz, we didn't start moving until well past 10pm... didn't get back to Toronto until Midnight.
Our trip was pretty crazy, I guess... but it was well worth it! I enjoyed taking a little trip with my friend, it was really nice. I hope we can do something like this again...




end.

7/31/99 - KonJA gettogether! I had sooo much fun! Thanks to everybody who came! It didn't matter if it rained, or getting all soaking wet... it didn't matter to me... as long as everybody was there, and having fun. I certainly had a blast. The rain, I guess made it a lot more memorable... for sure! Nobody will forget the day that I scheduled a KonJA alum gettogether on a "rainy, caribana parade, civic holiday weekend" also losing Kendo members as a result of being scheduled on the same day as their party! hehehe... ^o^ Centre island volleyball.. suika wari... Cam's broken umbrella... rain, rain and more rain... everything wet... dinner @ Marche... singing our hearts out with karaoke... that scary man in the song that Takashi sang (was it "fool on a hill"?) ... it was a blast!!! Thanx again for coming! See ya all next year! (I will do it again next year!!!)

7/30/99 - Went to the Blue Jays game. It was sooo much fun. It was the day when Cito Gaston; Toronto Blue Jay's former Manager, and Joe Carter; Blue Jays former player got inducted... their numbers were retired (Joe's was 29... I know that much... ;) and there was sooo much emotion! It was great... by the time the game started, we were saying we got our moneys worth already! (the whole $15 worth! ;) But good thing we stuck around for the game... the game itself was great! 8-2 Jays win over Detroit Tigers... and 4 homers! What a day!

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