MERRY CHRISTMAS!

It's Christmas!!  Here's wishing all my friends and their families a Merry Christmas and a happy holidays. 

I can't believe how fast 2010 has passed by.  There were a lot of great moments this year and a lot of fun and laughs were had.  I had 10 weddings this year, but I was able to make only 9 of them.  Each and every one of them was special to me and I had a blast.  We'll see what next year has in store for me.  I already know I'm MC'ing one wedding in October.  That should another great time.  What's on the agenda for 2011?? I'm hoping to go see my good friend in San Jose, we all miss her! and I'm hoping to have a trip to Shanghai for April.  I'm not sure what else next year will have in store, who knows maybe I'll even change jobs.  Speaking of jobs, here's something I did a long time ago that a friend just recently found on YouTube.  Some of you may know already about my Tiger Woods commercial but not many people know about this one as I always thought I was cut out of it.  I've only ever done two commercials so here's my other one that I did back in 2000.

I hope you had a good laugh.  Merry Christmas and all the best in the New Year.  Hopefully I'll be able to post more pictures and more laughs in 2011.

The Holidays

Last weekend I ended up meeting some friends from back in the days at a new Italian restaurant in Richmond Hill called Fraticelli's.  I believe one of the guys from Restaurant Makeover is involved with this place.  The restaurant is very nice inside.  Tall ceilings with nice modern decor.  When you enter the bar is on your right and the seating area was to the left.  The bar is a nice setup with a nice fireplace on the one side.  There's an area near the front that has lounge chairs and looks like a nice place to chill and hang out with friends.  We hung out at the bar for about an hour and half and ended up getting seated eventually around 915pm or 930pm.  However our reservation was for 845pm  Once we were seated they were gracious enough to give us some complimentary pizza's.  They were actually quite good.  The food itself was pretty good, however they ran out of meatballs... who runs out of meatballs?? LOL.  I think because it was a weekend and a busy night the service was a little less then desired.  I'm pretty easy going so I enjoyed the night especially when hanging out with great friends.  I'd be willing to go back there again, but maybe on a weeknight when it's not so busy.

Sat. night I attended another dinner to celebrate some friends birthdays.  We had it at a sushi buffet called Maison Du Japon.  I've probably been here before 7 or 8 times as it's a favourite among some of my friends.  The food here is pretty good.  The nice thing is that they're pretty fast with bringing out the food.  I recommend ordering just a few dishes at a time because you'll soon realize that you've run out of table space. They also have a few sitting room that hold about 8-12 people and you have to take your shoes off as you sit on these neat tables in your own private room.

Today I stopped by Costco and saw that they had the PS3 on sale... I was so temped to buy it.  But to be honest I thought that i wouldn't really play with it much.  I think it might be good if I had a few friends over but then again so many of my friends have one that i could probably go over to their house to play it.  We'll see, maybe one day... but then if I played with the PS3 when would I ever update my blog? I have trouble enough without a PS3 to distract me.

5 more days till Christmas!!!

Friendship

I was recently asked to do a reference letter for someone and at the time another friend asked me to be a reference for a new position he's applying for.  While I was writing the reference letter I found it difficult to quantify what exactly a great friend was. I don't mean I couldn't find anything nice to say, lol, far from that, how do you prove to other people the good we see in each other?  I would think it's subjective and obviously a personal opinion or choice.  However I said before (maybe even posted before) the we surround ourselves with those people who are a direct reflection upon us.  As I think of all the many different friends that I have from different backgrounds, different cultures, and different personalities, I guess the one thing they all have in common is me... seems kinda funny when you write it.  One thing I've always wondered over the years is it better to have a large number of friends or better to have a small number of friends that are very close.  I'm not sure what the answer is. 

I still keep in touch with a few friends from high school and University.  I know it's not as frequent as we'd all like, especially with many of them having kids, I realize time is a luxury for a lot of them.  But then again, the kids give me another reason to go visit them.  They all have such wonderful children.  Hopefully in 2011 I'll make a more concentrated effort to go see more of them.

What is a good friend?? One that will laugh at all our little quirks, make you smile when you're feeling down, lend a hand in a time of need, won't judge us for our faults, share their experiences (good or bad) to help us learn, be happy to hear from you even though it's been over a year since you last spoke, and someone willing to be them self whenever they're with you.  I know there are many more things that make a good friend, I just hope over the length of our friendship I've been able to be, or do, at least one of those above things. 

Fedrick or Fredricks??

Another busy weekend in the books but it's not even over yet. I've got to head out to another gathering of friends and dinner.

I guess the weekend started off okay by me not going into work Friday.  I just felt so tired when I work up so I figured I'd be better off taking the day off, but I felt bad leaving some work for my buddy to clean up for me.  Since I had the day I decided to check out the Under Armour Warehouse sale in Markham.  I had some friends line up at 10am and the place didn't open till noon.  I didn't get there until about 2pm and I waited approx. 1.5hrs to get in.  I've been to the first sale they had 2 years ago and I thought it was pretty decent.  Last year I didn't make it out but a buddy of mine bought me a few shirts.  This year I didn't find it too organized or even that cheap.  I did happen to buy a few things but I mostly bought for other people.  They make good Xmas presents.

Sat. I played in a volleyball tournament down at Monarch CI (East York area).  We didn't do too bad but our +/- wasn't great so we didn't make it into the playoffs, even though we only lost one game in the round robin.  But I still had a great time with my friends and saw a whole bunch of familiar faces and even met a few new ones.  After the tournament I ended going over to my friends place for dinner.  We had heard a new Hakka restaurant opened up by the Costco in Markham.  Fedrick's is a chinese hakka place whose original location is at Bellamy and Ellesemere.  I think it's been there for at least 20 years.  It's a popular place in Scarborough, even though it's tucked away in a little plaza and the decor looks like it's from the 70's.  Any given day around dinner time you can find scores of people lining up to order take out or to pickup food to go.  So I guess with the success of the Scarborough location they decided to open up another location in Markham.  It's funny, if you google the restuarant you'll get two different spellings. Fredricks or Fedricks.  For the longest time I thought it was Fredricks, but I was wrong.  Like most Hakka places I go to I usually order the Chilli Chicken, Spicy green beans, Chicken Pakora's, and the odd time Hakka noodles.  At Fedrick's I also like to order the crispy beef, tender pieces of beef coated with batter and I'm assuming deep fried... excellent with their homemade sauce.  The chilli chicken isn't the hottest out there but it's very tasty and good for all types of pallets.  The green beans and pakora's are excellent as always.  The pakora's aren't as indian tasting like Lin Garden, and it's hard to explain but I like Fedricks Parkora's the best.  So if you like a little spice in your chinese food, give Fedrick's a try, I don't think you'll regret it.

Some like it hot!

Thanks for all your suggestions regarding the Christmas tree.  As much as I know some people think I should get one, I've decided to start small and decorate my fireplace and a few other things here and there.  A friend is making a wreath for me and when she finishes I'll post a picture up here of it.

I went out tonight with my buddy to a place called Restoran Malaysia. I've been here a number of times.  It's a great place if you like Malaysian food.  It's hard for me to expalin exactly what Malaysian food is but I think it' a mix between thai, indian and chinese food.  They always have these nice spicey sauces.  The roti canai and curry is very tasteful. The only problem is that there's never enough of it.  You need to order two orders of it if you have 4 people.  Tonight we didn't have the roti and curry (I know, crazy talk!) but we decided to get the Medan Fried Chicken, Singapore Chicken Rice, a flat noodle that I can't remember and Green Beans with Shrimp cooked in Malay Belachan sauce.  For two people it was a lot of food to consume but I like so many things there that we wanted a bit of everything.  The fried chicken is boneless pieces of chicken that are deep friend with a spicey batter.  I really enjoy these pieces of chicken and there are also deep friend shrimp chips included.  The Singapore chicken is a boiled chicken with some seasoning and is accompanied by seasoned white rice, a broth type soup, and a sweet chilli sauce.  This was the first time I've tried this dish and I liked it.  But I could see this dish not as share friendly as the other dishes.  The noodles were good.  I can't remember exactly what was in it.  I know they were flat noodles, bean sprouts, beef, and some chilli's.  Again another very good dish and great to share.  Lastly I felt that we needed some vegetables so we go the green beans.  Another favourite dish for me.  Spicey beans always taste so good. Whether it be Hakka, Malay, or Chinese style, they're all good. If you're ever craving good tasting and spicey (not all their dishes are spicey), check this place out.  Highly recommended by many friends and me!

The same owners actually own another restaurant called Villla Malaysia located in Richmond Hill.  I know this place is a little higher end and more expensive then Restoran Malaysia, but I hear the food is very good as well.  On Sat night they have an all you eat feast which I hear is quite amazing.  All you can roti and curry?? Sounds too good to be true!  I think I need to go investigate!

My buddy said he could actually cook the Singapore Chicken Rice as it's a pretty simple dish to make.  so he said he'd make it for me the next time we got together.  I think we're going to actually try to meet up once a week or twice a month and cook dinner for each other... yes, it's a BRO-mance. Haa haa.  With his wife working out of the country someone needs to take care of him and his needs!! lol.  I'm going to have to dip into the cook book to see what I can impress him with.  I think it's going to be fun and I'm sure there will be a few others that will want in on the bromance date night!

P.S. I know it would be that much better if I had some pictures to show... my bad, still looking for a new cell phone with a good camera.

To Tree or not to Tree

First of all I'm happy to report that both my friends are out of the hospital.  They're not 100% but it's a big step in the right direction. 

It's December and Christmas will soon be upon us.  It looks like December is going to be another busy month.  Right now I don't think I have a free Sat in December.  But I like it that way.  It's always fun to see your friends and share a good laugh.  I know it's difficult to get together with all your friends but hopefully I'll get to see a bunch of them this year.

So I've been contemplating buying a Christmas tree for my place.  This will be my first Christmas in my new place and I don't have a single Xmas decoration.  I was at Costco today and they don't have anymore Christmas tree's... what's up with that? Had there been one there I probably would have bought it.  If I get a tree then I'll have to get decorations, the lights, and then I might as well decorate my fireplace and hang stockings off the mantle, and then do I put Xmas lights outside??  It seems like a lot of work... and money.  But I guess if you buy it once then you don't need to buy it again.  And then each year I guess you add something new to the mix.  We'll see if I do it, I'm still leaning towards doing it, but we'll see how much time I've got to do it.

I went to the mall yesterday to look for a gift but to be honest the whole time I was there I was just looking to leave.  I guess I'm not a mall person anymore.  I mean, I like to people watch but I guess if I have no one to share my funny observations with, then it can get a little boring.  I never did get what I was supposed to get, but I did buy a bunch of Xmas cards and bought one gift.  So one down and many more to go!!!