Busy Weekend!

What a fantastic weekend! Just look at how blue and clear the sky was these past few days. Despite the temperatures dipping down to 13 Celsius or so at night, the days have been glorious and warm for the end of November!

This past weekend, Amanda and I had some time to do some xmas shopping as Kaidyn was at a sleepover birthday party Saturday night. There is some good shopping on the strip, but maybe a bit too high end for us! I had the half marathon the next morning, we just relaxed at home and watched 4 episodes of Breaking Bad that afternoon. Finally, after hearing all the hype about the show, we have started to watch it, and I just can't can't help but think that Lois will be busting into the scene to give Hal an earful about something Dewey did! We had a great late dinner at Tuk Tuk before hitting the hay so I could rest up for the race.

The rest was not long as I found myself awake at 2:30 AM, but I managed to get back to sleep and was up at 4:15 AM for the 5:30 starting time. There were 4 of us running this year and we all had personal best times! Kudos to Amanda who was out on the streets in the dark to cheer us all on. Great job to Nicole, Martin and Kirsten for an excellent run. Next up is the January China Coast Marathon in HK.

If running 21.1 km in the morning wasn't enough, we had tickets to Clockenflap, an arts and music festival along he waterfront in HK. What is a Clockenflap? Who knows..........I knew I would be tired, but actually felt better than I thought I would considering the morning exercise. Again, it was an awesome day out in the sun.

Our main reason for attending the concert was to see Tegan And Sara perform, but it just so happens that Amanda's cousin Craig is an engineer for Tegan and Sara. After the fantastic show that they played, we were able to hook up with Craig and catch up on things. The number of miles this guy puts on is just crazy! Anyways, it was great to see the show and catch up with Craig in this part of the world!

International Hockey Flavour

Over the past 3 years, we have been talking about how great it would be to play some other teams, rather than just shuffle our teams every Tuesday night. We have had some rec games against the Macau Nationals, but definitely not frequently enough. This past weekend, we traveled to Shenzhen China to play a group of expats that find themselves in the same hockey bubble as us. Here in Macao, we play 3 vs 3 on a small ice surface. In Shenzhen, this was the first time that many of our players had played on a full sheet ever, or in a few years at least. You could definitely tell that the other team regularly played on this ice 5 v 5, as our team was pretty scrambly and wasn't used to skating the full ice. In the end, we ended up losing 5-2, but a great time was had by all on the ice including drinking many Tsing Taos out front of the nearby 7-11! Our team is in the white jerseys in the photo above. Next up? Possibly a tournament in Shanghai!

Deck the Halls!

The Christmas season is creeping up on us all and things are beginning to get festive here in Macao. The temperature this morning was 13 Celsius and I was freezing! The last couple of days, I've had to wear a long sleeve shirt or carry a light jacket around.....BRUTAL!!!! hahaha.  Anyways, Kaidyn has been busy with the TIS crescendo choir performing at various resorts throughout Macao. Here is a news video of their performance at the Galaxy Macao tree lighting ceremony! Fast forward to 26:30 to catch a glimpse of Kaidyn!
http://portugues.tdm.com.mo/evideo.php?vid=7008

So Long La!

Whoa! I can't believe that we haven't blogged since May. Time just flies and life just keeps us busy, especially this year! Well, let's get you caught up with what has happened since the spring........

As usual, this summer we headed back to Canada for some family time and to get our fill of the western lifestyle. It is always so relaxing being back and having the 2 months off together as a family. We spent a lot of time out at the Bourne cabin out west as well as just relaxing and doing absolutely nothing for days on end!

To celebrate the completion of high school, Amanda treated Kylisha to a quick trip to New York! After all the hard work of finishing school, Kylisha deserved a break before the real work started. They spent a few days watching Wicked, checking out Central Park, the Statue of Liberty and Times Square. I'm sure they may have each gained a few pounds based on what they told me they were eating during the trip! I was so jealous!

We did however, have a small mini vacation planned to Vegas for our good friends' wedding in August. Our friends Scott and Danielle, who have been in Macao for the past 3 years, tied the knot this past summer. Not only were we celebrating their new life as husband and wife, but also their new beginning back in Canada, as they decided to return home and continue their careers in the Edmonton area. Man did we look cute in those slim fit suits Olsie! I was honoured to be the Macao representative in the wedding party!

As summer drew to a close, we were also preparing to say farewell to our precious daughter, as she would be remaining in Canada for college. It was always the plan for her to stay, but yet it wasn't any easier to say goodbye that morning before we left for the airport. Many tears were shed that day on both ends, but Amanda and I are confident that we have raised an honest, ambitious and responsible young woman who will follow the path to a successful career. It was a big summer for Kylisha, as she had to cram in many hours of driver training in order to get her license before school started, she got a job in the cosmetics dept. at Shoppers in Innisfail, and she inherited my beloved 2000 Malibu to cruise Lakeshore Drive on those hot summer afternoons! She is currently attending RDC taking the U of L Bachelor of Education program! Good luck to her and from the sounds of it, she is totally embracing college life (maybe a little too much!).

Upon our return to Macao, I was excited because I had been asked to coach the Sr. Boys volleyball team. My good friend Ed Tse had coached the team the previous 2 years, but this year, they had lost the majority of their players to graduation and only 3 of the players were returning. Once the final roster was selected, I ended up with one G12, two G11s and eight G10s! This was a young team! After a couple of lacklustre tournament performances, we were off to Hangzhou which is just SW of Shanghai for the big ACAMIS tournament. Although our team had improved during the 2 months of practices and tournaments, I was not prepared for the amount skill my boys showed me during ACAMIS! These guys were phenomenal and were fully dedicated to winning our school's first ACAMIS medal. After some nail-biting sets, we triumphed over ISNS and won the bronze medal! Surprisingly, they team was happy, but also very disappointed as they thought we should have at least come home with a silver. It was a great finish to the season and I had a total blast coaching these young men. The other schools will definitely be worried about us next year because we only lose our one G12 student and we have our core for at least a year or two.

For October break this year, we decided to head to Gili Trawangan in Indonesia. It is a small island that is boat-only access and there are not motorized vehicles allowed on the island. All transportation is by foot, bike or chidomo (horse drawn cart). We spent the week with our university friends Jason, Lisa and their boys Jake and Josh. We had a great week, snorkeling, swimming, biking and playing truth or dare every night.

Well, that pretty much catches you up with our adventures since May, but I promise to update more regularly from now on. Volleyball is over so that will give me some extra time. Also we have the Macau half marathon next Sunday then its off to Canada for Xmas!!!!! So long for now!

Torrential Downpour!

Last night was a crazy and stormy night. After hockey it started raining around 11 PM. It continued to rain, thunder and lightning all night until about 8 AM!!!!!! I found this video taken last night on the Macao peninsula.....so much rain!

A Drop in the Bucket

If any of you have been to mainland China, you would have noticed people using the washroom in public place on a regular basis. This would include peeing or pooping anywhere! One time in the Xi'an airport, we were waiting for a delayed flight back to Shenzhen, and this little girl whipped down her pants and took a nice long leak right next to a garbage can. That's fine and dandy, but is that acceptable when there are public washrooms 20 feet away? I suppose if you've ever been in some Chinese washrooms, public may be a better option! As she was relieving herself, Kaidyn was laughing and amazed that she would use the can in front of everyone.

Usually here in Macau, you may see a parent getting their young child to relieve themselves on the street, but most of the time your eyes are on the sidewalk scouting up ahead for any dog crap you may encounter! Most of the time, dog owners are good here as they pick up any pet waste that they are responsible for. They even bring the daily newspaper along and try to place it under the dog to catch the feces as it PLOPS down! Even when the dogs urinate, they bring along a water bottle to wash off the tree, sidewalk, car tire or scooter that the dog may pee on. It's actually quite considerate when you think about it. Can you imagine someone back in Canada walking their dog and rinsing everything their dog leaks on? I had never seen it before, which brings us to today........

Kaidyn and I were in Taipa getting him a haircut and then we stopped for some pizza at Le Cesar, which has excellent Italian fare. We were sitting upstairs along the windows people watching when I noticed this particular dog owner. He definitely had some sort of  husky cross and he was carrying a medium sized bag and a plastic bucket. He caught my eye, so I was curiously watching his every action and wondered what the heck the bucket was for. Eventually, his dog began to urinate and he quickly placed the empty bucket under the dog to catch all the pee. It was like the dog was peeing liquid gold the way he was chasing the mutt around, anticipating every move. I continued to watch in amusement as I told Kaidyn to look at the guy catching the dog's pee (it may have been the longest pee in K-9 urination history). We both laughed and laughed, but I wasn't quick enough with the camera to catch the mutt in action, but did get a pic of them walking away.

After the dog was done, the man hastily took out some newspaper, anticipating a triple coiler to emerge, but alas, the dog was finished. The man did take the 1/4 full bucket to the storm drain on the street, dumped it out, and rinsed it with his water bottle a couple of times, before leaving the scene.

It's little things like this that make living here in Macao so enjoyable and amusing!

Lantau 15 and My First Race

Yesterday, March 16, Amanda and I ran the Lantau 15 in Hong Kong. The Lantau 15 is a 15 km trail run up and down the trails of Lantau Island. Spectacular views surrounded us throughout the race and the scenery was just beautiful!

We signed up for the race a couple of months ago and figured this would be a good warm up for the Singapore half marathon in May. We ran the trails of Coloane for a couple weeks which is a 6 km loop, but has nowhere the gradient of the trails we encountered yesterday.

In the previous 3 weeks, we only trained 2 times (1 trail and 1 treadmill) so I wasn't too sure how this would turn out. The night before the Lantau I munched on some poutine and chicken wings, then just before the race started, I powered down an Egg McMuffin to fill the tank. Please note that I opted against the Sausage McMuffin because I thought I was too greasy to eat before a run. The furthest I had ever run before was about 7-8 km so finishing 15 was exciting for me, and honestly it was easier than I thought it would be. Amanda felt that despite the shorter distance, it was harder than a half marathon. She finished good and strong, but had some pain in her one leg. It was definitely nice to sit down in the ferry ride home and relax!

The Lantau 15 is the baby race! There are the Lantau 50 and the Lantau 100 as well on the same day. Our friend Nicole ran the 15 with us, but our other friends/coworkers Ed, Martin and Nick ran the 50! They started at 9am and finished at 8:25 pm! Craziness, but congrats to them for accomplishing such a great feat!

Next up is the Sundowner half marathon in Singapore on May 31 and we also found out that our friends Lisa and Jason and their boys Jake and Josh are moving there earlier in the month! So not only will we get to run, but we'll get to visit with good friends too!

Warm Up Race

On May 31, Amanda and I are heading to Singapore for the Sundowner Half Marathon. This race starts at 1145 pm when it's only 30 degrees and not 35!

Next weekend, we are participating in the Lantau 15 which is a 15 km trail race up the hills and down the beaches of Lantau Island. I haven't run since before CNY so I'd better get going. If I die in Lantau, I'm in trouble for Singapore!

Christmas in Canada and Chinese New Year in Palawan

Let me first apologize for the crazy amount of blog posts I've been posting. I just can't control myself! For real, sorry for the boringness of posting once every year.

This past Christmas was the first Xmas we had gone back to Canada. Our first Christmas was spent in Thailand and second with Dane and Kirsten in Perth so we figured it was time for a white Christmas. We had a fabulous 18 days back in the snow surrounded by our families and friends. We managed to squeeze in all of our quadding, tobogganing, visiting, eating and collarbone breaking and returned to Macao super jetlegged and working the next morning. The long travel and no sleep was definitely worth it.

We ended up working for 5 weeks and then it was Chinese New Year! We once again headed off for the Philippines and decided to try out the island of Palawan. Amanda and I decided that we now declare the Philippines as our CNY vacation destination. We have had such awesome times there and the people are just some of the best people you'll ever meet. My Tagalog is improving each and every time we go! Our coworkers Jaclyn and Connie joined us and all we did was eat, sleep and read. It was the most relaxing vacation I've ever been on! We only had electricity from 6 pm till midnight! Anyways, here is a slideshow of our latest holidays and I promise to post more frequently!