Pictures Update

Skiing at Grand Beach, Manitoba (me and Dad)










One end of a super-cool nidachi (two swords, each sheathed in the other's handle), wielded by my brother








Roselle and Christian (aka German Dude)

























My few remaining friends in Edmonton (Bob, Cassie, Allan, Paul... Chris and Allison left before I remembered my camera)... Allan's in Austria now, Gutentag! or is it Aufweidehrsen... meh















New Year's Eve, got kinda dressed up and partied with some friends (some of which got pretty drunk, judging by the look on his face :P)


Spent some weekends getting together at the apartment before going out...





...and getting into fights at the bar :P



























B'dette threw a Japanese-themed party... I'm a Tokyo street punk, out to rob all the nice little kimonoed people with my sword... luckily the guys had swords too :P



My Christmas cactus finally bloomed, very pretty...






































Night out at Black Dog with some friends (Greg, Tom, Dan, Trevor who just got engaged); me and Trish are wearing T-shirts from Scary-Go-Round, the slightly surreal British webcomic (seriously, bears will eat you... tupping liberty!)










































Living room as it is now (Trish and Lisa moved the furniture around while I was in Winnipeg)... looks more like a lounge now than a lineup :P

















Went to see some bands at the Sidetrack Cafe (they're moving locations, so they're holding a 25-day concert-a-thon); the Left, who couldn't stop talking about how they were from Vancouver and drove to Edmonton in a beater caravan with no running water; Lets Dance, a young local punk band who played a short but awesome 20-minute set (think the Clash crossed with early Green Day); and Bebop Cortez, alias for Curtis Ross who did some seriously cool electronica with funk-rock stylings, and rocked out on his electric guitar while people from his other band the Frosted Tipz played drums, bass and keyboard/vocals (no bathing-in-the-glow-of-a-laptop here). They were all good bands, but I was too busy having fun on the dance floor to take pics of the other two (who were better). I guess that's how you tell which bands were the good ones I guess... :P

So that's the story from pre-Xmas to now I guess. Still plugging away at my degree (go to www.phdcomics.com to see what my life is like :P), and hopefully will be done my thesis by September. If all goes according to plan, I want to move back to Winnipeg, work and save up money until January/February, and then take off to China and backpack around for 3-4 months. I might start from Hong Kong and work my way north, then take the Trans-Siberian express train back to England, where I'll tool around for a couple weeks before heading back to Canada. I was thinking of going to Japan too, but that's really a whole other trip (it'll still be there when I have time and money to do another trip).

Other big news is I get to present my work at a conference in Seattle!! :D It's hosted by the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, pretty much the biggest association for our work. That means I have to do actual work, tupping liberty!

As well, my parents are going to be singing in the gi-normous choir in Ottawa on Canada Day, so I'll be going along to be their paparazzi. We'll be heading to Montreal/Quebec City for the week afterwards too, so I have to make sure my work is pretty much done. I'll have to see if I have enough money for a plane ticket home for Bob's wedding in June, but it shouldn't be a problem (I don't have to pay tuition). Was invited to Trevor's wedding in May 2007, but I may be in China still, so we'll see. So many people getting married! :P

Happy Chinese New Year (IT'S OUR TIME) and Gung Hei Fat Choy!

cheers, Ange