Finally....

the wedding pix.

Hope this link works. I'll add more details later.

A Week in TO-Friday

Bocce! (and a little wine in the park. We're French now).



Here come the boys!


Pete sleeps off the sanguiches










The Mexican wrestling masks come out before the boys take off...


Then we hit the swings!



Dinner at Christy and Steve's

and the bocce continues in their backyard

A Week in TO-Thursday

More memory lane walking.





In true Pho Hung style, our appetizer arrived in time for dessert. It was still delicious though.


Checking out the crystal on the ROM


Mark and Alyssa's rehersal dinner at the Bymark


Roman and Hannah


This meal is going to be awesome!


Entree: lobster with bernaise sauce, served poutine style.


Main course: veal tenderloin on risotto with truffles



Big buildings outside the Bymark


Trying not to look at the camera


It was a great meal!

A Week in TO-Wednesday

Lunch with Nancy and Daryl on Queen West


Drinking pink sparkling wine in their condo


and showing off our Joe purchases


Katie and Ross' house



The Boy Band

Extremes

We're home at last, and as much fun as we had in Toronto, I have to say it's good to be back. Despite the fact that we (Erik) had to carry our two suitcases up our seven flights of stairs and even though it was a frosty 12 degrees when we landed, and rain is forecast for the entire next week, if I can't be in Toronto, there's no other city I'd rather be.

Bring on the baguette!

Fajitas!

Memory Lane

It's good to be back.

Re-entry

It's been two whole days now since we arrived back in Canada, and here are some of my observations so far:

• The customs guy actually looked at both of our passports.
  
• It's strange to speak to strangers in English
• I keep thinking that random people are speaking to me, just because they're speaking English
• Ottawa is really clean, and it smells nice
• Tax is a nasty little surprise when you buy things
• I don't understand how line ups work here.
  
• I can make deposits at the bank machine.
  
• Service at restaurants is REALLY friendly
• my bed is incredibly comfortable
• I wish all my friends lived in Paris.
  

As much as I may have complained in the past about how quiet Ottawa always seemed compared to Toronto, I have to say that I'm really enjoying it right now. It's a beautiful city, with lots great neighbourhoods, and even though everything seems so spread out, so far everything has actually been pretty close.

I've been busy catching up with old friends. I went out for brunch on Saturday with Zoe, Liane, Mark and Trevor. Saturday was Alison and James' wedding, which was so much fun I had a rough time getting going today. It was fun to see all my old friends from high school at the wedding, and Bianca even did a ballroom dancing demonstration, which was fantastic. Their wedding was beautiful, Alison looked amazing, as did James in his RCMP uniform.

That's about it. Tomorrow I head out to Toronto, which Erik tells me is quite fun.
Canada's looking pretty good so far....

Auntie Deb and off we go!

Auntie Deb arrived on Tuesday, and it's been great to see her. Although we haven't been able to spend as much time as we would have liked with her, we had a nice dinner when she got here, then went out for drinks at the Time Machine last night. She and Mom (and dad) have been busy 'touristing' and have so far been through the Marais, up to the top of Sacre Coeur and out to Versailles.

We leave this afternoon for our long awaited trip home. I have to admit it still hasn't really sunk in that we're going to be in Canada tonight. We've been so busy this week, between our visitors, and getting things ready to leave I haven't really had too much time to think about it. To add to the madness, one of my email addresses is no longer working (the torieanderik one), so if you've sent me anything to that address in the past day or so, I probably haven't received it. Luckily my utoronto address is still alive and kicking, so send anything for me to that address for now.

Alright. Still have some errands to run before our flight this afternoon, so I guess I should get in the shower and get going!

See you soon!

10:30 pm

Trying to go to sleep now kind of feels like being sent to bed early as a kid and hearing all your friends outside still playing.

The French Open

Yesterday we went out to the Rolland Garros tennis complex to take in some of the excitement that is the French Open.

After some difficulty finding the place (it's the Porte d'Auteuil, not Porte Maillot metro) we joined the throngs of people making their way to the gates. We had tickets for Court One, one of the smaller venues. The ladies were playing, and we were able to see three games on the clay courts. The big names like Serena Williams and Federer were also playing yesterday, but sadly not on our court. All the big games were showing on a big screen in the courtyard area though, and many people watched them there.


The second match that we watched was between players from Serbia and Spain. The Serbian player was definetly the favorite, although they seemed well matched and it was an exciting game. The Spanish player was a bit hot headed, and there was some raquet throwing and screams of frustration on her part that were fun. She also had a fan who insisted on cheering for her when everyone was quiet, waving two huge Spanish flags. At one point there were three security guards hanging around behind him, and he got a lot quieter after that.


Another highlight were the ballboys and girl. They had quite the routine, from a synchronized entry and exit run, to some fancy hand signals and ball tosses. They even held up umbrellas to shade the players during their break.


All in all, it was a lovely day, with great weather. Dad is hoping to go back for another day to see some more games.