I Love You Victoria

I've always said that I find Victoria to be one of the beautiful places that I've visited. I've gone here once, and I wanted to go back. Last time I was here was 2008. But after two years, finally, I've come back! And the pictures below will just tell you how beautiful this place really is.

Not the best qualities as I only used my iPod Touch, but it's still beautiful. These three spots: Parliament, Empress Hotel and Inner Harbor are all located within the same harbor area. You look at one side, it's the harbor. On the other side it's the Parliament and the Empress Hotel.

Think of the Parliament as our Senate House or probably Sandigan Bayan. Amazing right? They have the Parliament in Victoria because this is the capital of the province of British Columbia. The other Parliament building that I got to visit two years back was the one in Ottawa. That time, I was lucky enough to get into their free tours. This time however, the tours were only open on weekdays.

The Parliament sits directly in front of what they call the inner harbor area. This is a nice place to just hang out and walk around. From the picture I took, you can just see the walk area just by the bottom right of the picture.

Now just perpendicular to the Parliament, and still facing the harbor is the very pricey, old and beautiful Empress Hotel. Apparently it's one of the oldest hotels in British Columbia. The picture doesn't pay enough homage to this beautiful hotel.

But that's not all there is to Victoria.

We also visited Butchart Gardens and Craigdarroch Castle.

Butchart Gardens is one of the premiere tourist spots in Victoria. Unfortunately, the flowers were not yet on full bloom since it was still officially winter when we went there. But if you come around summer time, you will be even more mesmerized by the beauty of the flowers, roses, trees, etc.

The picture below is just a part of the garden. This is what they call the Sunken Garden. If I remember correctly, this used to be an abandoned quarry which Jennie Burchart slowly developed into this beautiful garden. Unfortunately, the picture below doesn't do justice to the beauty and color it would have during the spring and summer season.

Craigdarroch Castle was a castle built by James Dunsmiur to for his wife during the late 1800s. At that time, Dunsmiur was considered the richest man in British Columbia. Unfortunately, he died before the castle was completed. The parked car below killed the picture.

The castle is breathtakingly beautiful. It's wood all over. I'm a sucker for woodsy yet elegant houses. It's a self guided tour, you can go through all floors and rooms of the castle. It's so interesting that just around the castle, you see a regular homey neighborhood. Haha how I wish we'd have one near our place.

There's a lot more reason why I love Victoria. Hopefully, at least for whoever will read this blog, will remember that when they get the chance to visit Canada, they really have to stop by Victoria.

Adjustment Bureau

Harry Mitchell: Free will is a gift that you only use when you have to fight for it

As part of our regular tuesday, we went to Metrotown again and watched a movie. This time, it was the sci-fi/romance movie "Adjustment Bureau" starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt. Nice premise. My friend said it reminded him of this twilight zone episode way back in the 90s. Anyway, it has an interesting synopsis. It's about a group of people of makes these minor adjustments in our daily lives, that we don't know of, that literally alters our future.

This movie reminds me of a question I often ask myself... is everything that's happening right now, part of this bigger plan that's designed for us? Are events that we go through, no matter how big or small they are simply adjustments to a future that's being readied for us? I always wondered about that. Do I accept what I have right now, what I am right now and what I've experienced as part of a great plan that.. in my faith says, that God has destined for me?

Which begs the question, what about the free will? Do we control our destiny?

Too many questions, very few answers. But what I believe in (for now anyway) is that everything happens for a reason. We do still have our free will. We can still make decision on our own, but eventually, we will still get to our destination. If let's say our life starts from point A and ends in point B, even though it's not a straight line towards point B, we will still end up at point B, no matter how many twists and turns we go through first.

Which is why I always try to convince myself that God must've a reason why I'm here in this situation, why I'm like this right now, at this point in time. What his plans are, I probably will never be able to guess. But with faith and trust, I know the destiny He has planned for me is something I will forever be grateful for.

And I'd like to end it by saying, although I didn't want to be sent back to Canada again last year, now I'm truly grateful that I am here right now. There must really be a reason for everything. I don't know the details yet, but I'm just... happy right now.

Battle LA

Watched Battle LA last Tuesday with the gang here.

Battle LA has a simple premise. Aliens invade earth, and humans fight back! The story revolves around a group of marines who attempt to save LA from aliens. Simple story. Reminds me of Independence Day. It was action packed from start to end. Definitely entertaining.

However...

The one thing though that I didn't like at all was that the director opted for a "realistic" approach to the movie. His main goal was probably to make you feel that you're with them in battle. Unfortunately, that was a terrible decision because just by the first 10 minutes of the film, you'd realize this because the camera kept on moving, zooming. In other words, if you know Cloverfield, it's something similar. But for some reason, this one got me totally dizzy.

If you want to watch this, either wait for DVD release so that you can just watch it at home, or if you still want to watch in the movie house, make sure you sit way at the back para hindi mahilo. My friend didn't even finish the movie. She couldn't bare it and an hour into the movie, she just left. As for me, halfway through the movie, ang sakit na ng ulo ko na nasusuka na ako.

I still think it's entertaining enough. I'm a sucker for end of the world type movies anyway.

By the way, I just have to note that I wasn't surprised at all when Michelle Rodriguez showed up as one of the soldiers there. She definitely kicks ass. Bagay talaga siya sa mga ganitong roles.

Anyway, just watch this at the comforts of your home. If you have an LCD TV, the better :)

Work Productivity

I've been very busy at work that I got to thinking that maybe, it's not really just about me having a ton of work, but maybe, I'm just not managing the tasks well enough to still be productive? Is it really too much work? Or is it my approach to work that's driving me mad?

I've been thinking about this for a couple of nights already. Am I over allocated? Or am I just slow when it comes to work? Many "negative" reasons that's causing the dive into my productivity. But as I ponder more, I realized that perhaps it's my approach to work that's really something that needs to be re assessed.

For instance, I pondered on what was recently a crazy Monday. I had a total of a half day spent just juggling back to back meetings (I hate meetings!). What happened was, I worked on this one thing, and then another request comes along and then I go look at it instead. And then while this isn't even finished yet, another discussion needs to be addressed and by then, it's the end of the day and I didn't have anything finished.

In light of this, I've decided to do something different - focus on one task at a time. Let the others wait for a bit until you finish a certain task. I started this last Tuesday night (after another jam packed day). I worked during the wee hours of the morning to finish a couple of things just to catch up on work. How I did it was to just open up one of the task at a time. Finish it off (mind you, I didn't even open gtalk!) and then close those apps, then move to the next. I actually got a lot done in a span of 2 hours. Maybe it was because there were no distractions but nonetheless, at least I finished something!

For example yesterday, I got pretty much the whole afternoon yesterday to code! Finally!

I will observe in the next few days, or even weeks, as to how this approach allows me to get more things done. Maybe multi tasking is not something for me. Trying to do too many things at once won't get you to the finish line. It might just even slow you down further.

Vancouver Aquarium

I went to the Vancouver Aquarium yesterday with some of my officemates. I'm really not into animals that much but I haven't been here yet, and my friends wanted to go so I thought, ok, might as well join them! The Aquarium wasn't as big as I thought it would be, but I did love the Dolphin show! We were able to catch the Beluga show as well but it was pretty boring. All in all, I think I still liked the fishes that were available in HK's Ocean Park, but the Vanc Aquarium was just much more cleaner. I didn't bring my camera as usual, but I did bring my Ipod Touch which produced a couple of pictures of poor quality though. Haha

Here's a picture of the group, stolen from my friend's camera. Leda, do you see my coat? That's my coat!

And here's the one I like best. Sting ray ba tawag dito? But look at the skin, totally different from what we usually see. It's spotted!

Here's another one... red colored fish.

Unfortunately, we missed a couple of shows like the Sea Otter and the 4D. We got there late at around 2 pm already and the aquarium closes at 5 pm. But all in all, I think it's a pretty nice place to go. I probably won't be going back any time soon, but maybe when I have kids, I'll bring them there. But what I want to do is actually be able to go to the Manila Ocean Park. My officemate tells me that that place is pretty much comparable to the Vancouver Aquarium. In fact, he found that the Manila Ocean Park might be even better. That sparked my curiosity. So when I go back this July, maybe I ought to visit that park!

random thoughts

Work's been crazy the past few weeks. But more so this week. My team mate was on leave this week, and she happens to be my lead, and so a lot of the tasks were passed on to me temporarily and it is only these days that I'm really getting the experience of being the true blue team lead. I am getting more and more responsibilities. Before, my team lead roles were simply to administrative tasks such as preparing time sheets, etc. But now, they're slowly involving me with these different tasks such as figuring out resource allocations for the different projects. It's good training, for sure, but it's just taking its toll a bit. I'm doing all these work, and that's on top of the actual work I have to do!

But, I'm not complaining. I think I've learned to love this job even if it's really been a crazy past few weeks. Just means I'm still enjoying, which is very good. I realized that I've always liked my job. Maybe I had that moment when I didn't, but at least I'm getting the jive back.

Anyway, on another note, we are going to visit the Vancouver Aquarium tomorrow. This is already my 5th time here in Vancouver and I haven't even gone there yet. Well, I'm still better off I guess. My team mate, who lived for probably 10+ years already in Vancouver has never even visited the place. I think that's usually how it is. The person who lives in the area, has not even visited the tourist spots at all.

And please, let's pray for the people in Japan. 8.9 magnitude. I cannot imagine how that feels.

Welcome back to Canada

I have been away for too long from my blog.

Anyway, I am back and now in Vancouver. There are so many things I miss back in Manila already, but there are still a lot of things to look forward to here in Vancouver. For instance, when you're about 30 minutes to an hour away from Vancouver, just look at the plane's window and you'll see this:

Beautiful isn't it? Back last November, there was much more snow but I didn't bring any camera with me during in flight so this time around, I made sure that at least my ipod Touch would have enough battery left to capture this beautiful scenery.

The picture below is near the city already, farmlands I suppose. Still looks pretty nice right?

On other news, Canada's always been a place where I gain weight. I gain weight here, I lose it again back in Manila. To prove my point, when I arrived last Saturday, this is what I saw sitting in the kitchen:

Hello there deadliest catch. This is something I look forward to when I'm here, but gaining weight? That's definitely something I'm not looking forward to! But then again, no complaints right? In fact, last Sunday night, I had dinner at a Chinese restaurant with the family, and then this coming Thursday, my team mate Jeff is going to treat us to another Chinese restaurant to satisfy our pecking duck cravings!! Too much food already, all in just a span of a week! Oh did I mention my grandpa is planning to have hotpot/shabu shabu this coming Sunday? Noooooo

Anyways...

What else to look forward to in Canada? Work of course! It's always nice to work here... normal hours, you talk to them face to face instead of over the phone. You get to interact with different people - different culture, different ethnic background, you name it. In fact, tomorrow I'll be meeting some of the QAs I've been working with for the past 2 years. I'm finally meeting them!

I also missed the weather. It's raining so it's a bit colder but my wonderful coat is keeping me warm. Sulit. Kaso lang nasira yung porma ko, kasi yung baunan ko bag na malaki na pang bata. Hahaha I thought it would snow, but seems like it's passed. It's almost spring anyway. But spring time is nice, that's when the flowers bloom. You see a lot of different colors everywhere. I do see the trees here finally getting some color. Winter's almost over! But out of all the seasons, I would say I still like Fall the best. I've been here in Canada during the Fall season only once, but it's my favorite season. Every where I look, it's pink!

I think I'm still in jet lag mode so I will be off sleeping soon. Until next time.