I had slept fairly well last night and today was a nice slow day. We went to see the nuns and we ate a bunch of times, but it is hard to know how well I ate because we were out an about for most of the day and returned to the hotel around 9:00pm. This evening I really wanted to have a shawarma or a pizza from this place I used to eat from, but I am not sure if I am going to do that. I bought some crunchy peanut butter to eat within the hotel room, but I am in the mood to order food in. I think that the best choice is not to. I am quite surprised with my energy levels as I managed to work in the day and then go out and about and do some work throughout the day when I had some free time. Xavier’s team tied 1 to 1, and the team was outshot significantly. Xavier let in a goal and when I asked him about it he said he has been off for a month. No excuses for the goal, he thinks he was a bit rusty from not playing for so long and that it was just a weak goal. He made some nice clutch saves throughout the game, but the goal he let in was a shot from the blueline and he should have had it. I thought he did not track the puck properly and he admits that he made a mistake. In order for us to advance in this tournament he is going to need to carry the team unless we start to get a bit more offense.
We grabbed dinner at a ramen restaurant and then decided to go to Ikea afterwards to check out some things. Mel wants to buy some things for the entrance as well as a retractable pergola for the backyard. We need to make a couple of measurements to validate that the space is appropriate. There is the possibility that we take a quick trip down to Toronto to an Ikea if they can not deliver it in time. Mel wants to make sure we have enough shade for when we have our pig roast. I am also going to need to start planning what sides we want to have with that. I think that if we have some smoked beans it would be delicious, some cornbread and probably a couple of salads. I was going to make 3 sauces for it. A regular traditional BBQ, a Caroline style BBQ sauce and a chimichurri. The date is going to be approaching fast so I would like to be prepared for it.
When I first came to Canada something that I remembered was that in kindergarten they had these huge blocks that you could build structures with. I remember playing with it by myself, but I do not remember if I had wanted to play with the others or not. I recall not understanding what the teachers were saying and have memories of just blankly staring at them and then wandering off and doing my own thing. I am not sure how long it took me to learn English or the process involved with it. I always wondered how much leeway I had in this situation and what the teachers told the class. The principal at that time is the father of a friend that I made years later. The deacon that I had coached track and field with married the daughter of my first principal. I should ask him for some stories on what it was like when I first came because I think that he would remember what it was like for me. We had a small apartment on Barrydowne and my aunt had lived with us in the 3 bedroom apartment. I do not remember us having many toys or anything, but I do remember that we had an Atari, and we had TV with a bunch of the special channels. I remember watching Inspector Gadget prior to it being on regular channels. There is a movie that I refuse to watch and when i think about it, I just feel an uncomfortable fear. When I was a child we watched Poltergeist and to this day that is one movie that I refuse to watch again. I just remember being scared of it as a child and it has persisted enough to this day that the title of the movie just sends shivers down my back. It is not logical and if I watch it now I would get over it, but there are too many bad memories associated with it and some of the things in that movie just terrified me.
I think that our sponsors made sure that we had some sort of entertainment and made sure that they could help us out in any way that they could. We had a used red Dodge Omni once my dad finished his first year of learning english. Our sponsors helped cosign and gave us a loan to help us pay for the vehicle. My father tells me that the car broke down frequently and we would just sit patiently on the side of the road and wait for the police to come by and help us. I am not sure if we continued with our trips at the time or if we went back home. I remember us taking road trips to Toronto and my mom would bring a thermos of Ovaltine that was made with sweetened condensed milk. Living in those apartments I was a wild child. As soon as I came home from school I would go to one of my friends that lived close by without telling my parents what I was doing. i remember a couple of times my mother and aunt were waiting for me to come home and then take me shopping. I did not show up and was at a friends and came home eventually. I got into quite a lot of trouble at that time, for good reason. Times were a bit different then as kids were allowed to roam freely. When I think of my kids at that age i can not fathom running off to some friends place without consulting us or asking for permission. My parents did not have my friends numbers, nor did they ever meet their parents. Now, the way things are, you generally meet or have spoken to or text most of the kids parents when they are young and plan out get togethers. I am not sure how I played with some kids without really knowing how to understand English. There was a time where I was biking in the parking lot of a local church and for some reason I collided head on with someone else. I ended up with my face all bloody and I remember going into the church where they helped clean me up and bandaged me up. I am not sure if they called my parents or not as I probably did not know my own phone number. Back in those days safety at the playground was a bit different and at the local playground there was a structure that was 6 foot high balance beam in a triangle. We use to play tag and we would fall off on occasion onto the sand. Things were a bit more carefree and I spent most of my time running around and had others help me out when I hurt myself. The kindness of others is what i remembered the most growing up, as I was just a small Asian boy in a community that had very little minorities in it. I stood out, but I was always welcomed by everyone and treated well.
Dr. Q