Nissan X-Trail - Bonavista

Funny Commercial.

Buying a Townhouse!

It looks like we may be buying a townhouse in Santa Clara, CA if all goes well. It all started when we took a course at De Anza College a couple of Saturday's ago titled "Buying your first home in the silicon valley market". It just so happens that the instructor is also a realtor and the other instructor a loan (mortgage) broker. We ended up meeting with Gene, the Realtor and he showed us an amazing townhouse. We looked at a few others in person and many online but the very first one we saw blew the others away. Today we took it a step further and went to see the loan broker Sam and it looks like we will be able to get the funding we need. I don't want to put up any pictures of the place in case the deal falls through and since we have not even made an offer yet. Will keep you posted.

Krav Maga

Krav Maga: "contact combat") is a self-defense and military hand to hand combat system developed in Israel. It came to prominence following its adoption by various Israeli Security Forces and is now used by military and law enforcement personnel, as well as civilians, around the world. The version of Krav Maga taught in civilian martial arts classes is more often a simplified version that emphasizes personal self-defense, and is likely to exclude the killing techniques taught to the military, or the holds and come-alongs taught to police forces; there are legal proscriptions in some countries which govern and constrain the teaching of hazardous or life-threatening techniques to civilians.

click here for more

I am attempting to take my orange belt on November 18th, it is 5 hours long approximately with the first 4 hours simply to exhaust you and the last hour or so for testing. I must be crazy!!!!

I am also picking up escrima now as well which takes a lot of concentration and hand eye coordination.

Eskrima or Escrima refers to a class of Filipino Martial Arts that emphasize stick and sword fighting. Other terms which have entered into common usage include Kali and Arnis de Mano (harness of the hand); occasionally the abbreviation FMA (Filipino Martial Arts) is used. Eskrima and Arnis are among the many names primarily used in the Philippines today to refer to these arts. The name Kali, although primarily used in the United States and Europe, is seldom used in the Philippines and in most cases is an unknown word. But due to the popularity of the term outside of the Philippines and the influence of foreign practitioners, the term Kali is increasingly being recognized and accepted in the Philippines. Kalis, as used in the Philippines, refers to a sword. It is commonly mistaken as synonymous to or a derivative form of kali (note: postfixing of "s" is not used in Filipino languages or dialects to indicate plurality). However, for all intents and purposes, Eskrima, Arnis, Arnis de Mano, Kali and FMA all refer to the same family of Filipino weapons-based martial arts.

Went to a wedding

Went to a wedding in Dublin (not Ireland, but CA) on Saturday here are some pics. Marsha's friend from work, Lisa got married to Ryan.

more pics here

Anderson resevoir

Went to Anderson Reservoir last week. It is just south of San Jose in Morgan Hill. Pretty big lake I did not know even existed. You can have your dog there with you, you can fish and boat and there is a fast moving stream nearby for your dog to swim in. Click here for more pics.

CDT

Finished CDT today, very painful course. To find out more about it click here

Camping for my Birthday

So we decided to get out of the city and go camping for my 30th birthday. As usual Marsha did all the research and I said 'yes' and we ended up going to 127 miles east to Pinecrest, CA to camp on the lake (Pinecrest Lake). It was a nice park in the Stanislaus National Forest not too far from Yosemite National Park. There were about 200 campsites and a lake stocked with 3500 rainbow and brown trout every year (but we did not manage to catch one). Anyway it was great, I turned 30 in a tent listening to neighbor's pet hawk sqawk (who takes a pet hawk camping anyway???). Before coming home today we also checked out Beardsly Resevoir which is a much bigger lake, less people, very quiet but not services and it is 10 miles just to get up to the main road to the lake and another 10- 15 to any services. For more pics of our trip CLICK HERE

What's Up

Going camping tomorrow at Beardsly Resevoir (at least trying to as it may be full- only 26 campsites). If not there then somewhere in the Lake Tahoe area.

Bought tickets to go see The Who today as well! That should be a good show and it is in San Jose so it is close.

Nico Swimming at Niles Park in Fremont Aug 2006

Fremont (Niles Community Park)

Canada Day Picnic

So I am going to the annual Canada Day picnic today in Woodside, CA. I have been wanting to go to this for 3 years now and this year I was able to get the day off. Also Canada Day, falls on a Saturday this year so it actually is Canada Day on the day of the picnic. Usually, these guys have it on the Saturday closest to the day as it is not a holiday here, obviously.

BFD

Went to BFD yesterday. It was a cool show. It started at noon but we did not make it there until 5pm. It was over at midnight. The strokes were the best part of the show as well as Franz Ferdinand. AFI was the headliner, they are okay but the lead singer screams too damn much or maybe I am getting too old. Echo and the Bunnyman sucked. I am not even sure why they were there. They were apparently pissed that they got moved down from second last to play to second to play on the main stage.

Back Home

Well we made it back home finally. The last day on the island, the 18th we went to CINVAS (Cook Islands National Visual Art Society) and got tattoos by a girl named 'Stormy'. She is the niece of the famous tatoo guy Te on the island and like her uncle who trained her, she specializes in free hand polynesian designs. We went there with no idea what we were getting. Anyway, the end result was pretty cool. You basically tell her your story and she designs something around you and it is yours. You cannot go there and look at her art and say I want that one. Each tattoo belongs to only one person.

After that we headed over to the Blue Note Cafe and I had the Tuna burger and Marsha had the Parrot Fish and chips. Parrot fish is a blue colored lagoon fish by the way. We also had our last two Cooks Lagers and then headed back to our villa for the last time.

For supper we went up to Dougies once more and had a toasty (toasted sandwich) and a thick shake before heading off.

Went to the airport around 9:45 pm and left at 11:15 and 15 hours later we were back in San Francisco wishing we were back in the Cook Islands.

May 17th Cook Islands

Supper at the Tamarind was excellent. The Tamarind is located just 3 minutes from Avarua (the island center) and has an open feel to it. The yard is full of lush coconut trees with a nice breeze off the Pacific Ocean from the north. The atmosphere is great there, there is a piano player there while you are eating and the food is very very good. For appetizers we had sashimi (raw tuna in this case) and then I had shrimp, game fish, New Zealand mussels, and calamari in a coconut cream sauce with rice. Marsha had a thai peanut crusted fish with rice and veggies. For desert we had a cheese board with grapes and crackers and lettuce. We also bought the cook book that the owner wrote. She used to manage the flame tree where we ate last week but came out of retirement by popular demand and started the tamarind. The restaurant is called this because there used to be a tamarind tree growing on the property that all the local kids would eat the tamarind fruit from.

This morning we went on Pa’s cross-island trek. We started at 8 and we were done at 12. Lunch was provided and it was a hard but excellent excursion to do. Pa is a colorful character pushing 70 years old. He has done the walk 3052 times now including today. The walk consists of a straight up hike to the base of the needle (or temple) and this part takes about 30 minutes or so with lots of opportunities for photos. Pa stops and points out all of the medicinal plants along the way as well. One plant of interest was the one from which Cialis is made (Viagra’s competitor). Apparently, you just boil the leaves and drink the tea and it does the trick. We also saw a very rare flower (one of the rarest in the world) that only grows on Rarotonga and nowhere else. When we got to the base he showed us the spot where back in 2003 he took the Dali Lama. Apparently in 1999 before the millennium followers of the Dali Lama went to Tibet and dug up one of their past Dali Lamas from 900 years ago and cremated the remains and divided up into 8 urns. The Dali Lama and his followers then traveled the world looking for places with high energy to bury the urn and they contacted Pa with a special request. He picked them up at 5 am and took the Dali Lama and 22 of his followers to the needle and place of high energy on the island and they held a 1 hr ceremony and buried the urn there at the base. Since then Pa gives a few stones from the temple to newly married couples for good luck and he did the same for us. One couple he gave the stones to just wrote him a letter to tell him they won 3.75 million dollars.

From there we started out 90-minute descent. We ate lunch at the river and continued on and ended at Wigmore falls for a quick dip. Then our bus picked us up and we were home by 12:30 pm. I highly recommend this walk. It is slippery and hard but well worth it.

May 16th Cook Islands

May 16^th Cook Islands

5pm

Rented (‘hired’) a car today. Tried to get a convertible but ended up with a Toyota Echo and it is much smaller than the North American version but a nice little car for getting around the island. It is hard to stay on the left hand side of the road as well but they have a big reminder sticker on the dashboard for you…”Keep Left!”

Drove around the entire island today, went to the hospital and took some pictures and then went to the prison to see if they had an ukuleles for sell. They will have one tomorrow for us. After that we went to town and did a bit of souvenir shopping and talked about how much we don’t want to leave. I really do not want to have to work on Sunday, but I have to. Sunday the real world comes back to bite me in the ass. I will probably be working in the trauma room or something and we will probably get some guy that was shot, stabbed or beaten up or whatever and I will think…man people in North America do not know how to treat each other. If the whole world was like the Cook Islands, it would be a much more peaceful place.

Anyway, we are going out for supper tonight at a place called Tamarind that is supposed to be awesome.

May 15th Cook Islands

May 15^th 2006 Cook Islands

Did not do too much yesterday. Went up by the church to record the singing then biked up to the botanical gardens and took a bunch of photos. It was closed but you could still go in to see it they had an honor box there with a $3 charge. Then we brought our bikes back and went for a 4 km kayak around the islands and saw an octopus.

Later in the night, the irish couple we met dropped over for a bit to see our wedding photos and they were heading out today to New Zealand for a 11 days and then off to Sydney before heading back to Ireland.

Today we got up bright and early to catch our bus to the airport. We took Air Rarotonga to Aitutaki. Apparently, it was the English version of survivor that was filmed there (it is called ‘Shipwrecked’) and it is currently running over in the UK now.

When we got to Aitutaki our guide (who was also a dancer in the Island night we went to on Saturday – people do a little bit of everything here) took us around the town on the bus and then we went to our boat and began the lagoon cruise. We went to Shark Island, one of the islands the Brits are currently watching if they are a fan of Shipwreck, the other show was named Tiger. It was cool; we got to see their tribal council area, etc. Apparently they were all pretty much useless. The could not figure out how to open a coconut (which every island is full of). They also stocked the islands with chickens and pigs and they could not bring themselves to kill any of them. Pretty lame survivors.

From here we went snorkeling and saw loads of fish and some giant clams. By the way if you are dumb enough to touch a big clam and get an extremity stuck in it when it closes up quickly, you will not be able to free yourself and you will probably drown.

After snorkeling came the barbecued fish meal and then we were off to one-foot island where there is a little post office that opens up only with the tour boat. Here for $2.50 they will stamp your passport as well.

Finally we headed home and bet on some crab races along the way and stopped in the bar for a beer before going to the airport and heading back to Rarotonga. It was a great day. Aitutaki is a must see if visiting the Cook Islands. It is much quieter and slower than Rarotonga with population of just 1700.

May 13th Cook Islands

May 13^th, 2006 Cook Islands

Well we have settled into married life (ha ha). Actually, there was no adjustment to be made as we were pretty much married anyway, now it is legal that’s all. Yesterday we went to town, got a Cook Islands driver’s license ($10 and a cool souvenir) so that we can rent a car and a copy of the marriage entry certificate (doesn’t hurt to have a copy-not like we can just get one quickly once we are back if we need it for any reason).

When we got home we ran up to the butcher and got a massive tuna steak and barbecued it along with some bananas. We washed it all down with a Steinlager beer. For desert we had some paw paw. Went for a long walk afterwards.

Today we got up early took the bus into town, it was packed. Went to the market and ate some really good food, there was a cruise ship in so it was busy there. Finally got home around 3 and then went kayaking out to the shipwreck off muri beach. We pulled up along the perimeter of the lagoon and walked around perhaps 100 meters from where the open ocean is breaking on the coral reef (wouldn’t go any further than that).

Tonight we are going to an ‘island night’ which involves a feast that they cook the traditional way using hot rocks and leaves and burying it in an underground oven. There will also be a drumming and dancing show.

Too bad our time here is nearing an end. All good things must come to an end I guess. Tomorrow we will probably just relax and perhaps rent a sailboat or take some pictures from the kayaks. Monday we are off to Aitutaki for a day trip, leaving at 8 am and back at 5:30 pm. It is only a 30-minute flight. The lagoon up there is supposed to be one of the nicest in the world. The trip includes a day of snorkeling, a glass bottom boat lagoon cruise and food. On Tuesday, we plan to rent a car and take in any sights, shops we might have missed. Wednesday, we are going to do an organized walk with Pa, well known local character that does the trek 3 times a week for travelers. It takes about 4 hours to go just 2 km. Thursday is our last day here and we check out of Sokala at 6pm and our flight leaves at 11:30 pm (Rarotonga - Papeete, Tahiti – Los Angeles – San Francisco). Two weeks from now this will all seem like a very pleasant dream. Since we so have history here now though, I think we will be back here again from time to time throughout our lives.

Got our professional photos back yesterday, 56 prints, negatives and a73 pics on a cd. They are very nice and we will put them on flickr when we get home.

Wedding Pics (in no particular order)

These are not our official pictures, these are ones that Lawrence the owner/manager of Sokala Villas took with my digital camera and also ones that Marsha and I took ourselves and using our tripod. The catered meal we had afterwards was awesome. For starters we had prawns with aspargus, then a tropical salad followed by a margarita each. Then the main course was a ribeye steak on a bed of garlic mashed potatos, oyster mushrooms and cheese. After than we had a plate of New Zealand Cheeses, dried fruit, nuts and handmade chocolate with a bottle of New Zealand pinot noir wine. Excellent and all of this under the full south pacific moon.





















More pics of course to follow later.

More Pics

Pic 1 is Marsha holding up a traditional meal that we got at the Cultural Village tour
Pic 2 is the dog that visits us everynight. In the pic he is hunting for fish and crabs.
Pic 3 is of a modern day outrigger canoe.
Pic 4 is nice pic I took on an overcast day when we went to the waterfall.
Pic 5 is of another day when it was rainy but I thought this made a nice picture.
Pic 6 is of me standing in front of the Landrover that we took on the 4x4 tour of the island. The Cook Islands flag looks a lot like Australia's and New Zealands except that there are 15 stars one for each island.

Going to get married in one hour from now. Talk to everyone soon!

Jamie

More pics

Marsha and I at the market drinking from a Coconut. This was on May 6th Saturday.

May 11th, Cook Islands, Wedding Day

Well it looks like it will be a nice day but it is too soon to tell. It is hot here today and the sun is out and sky is blue with big puffy clouds so that is a good sign. I know it can turn on a dime however.

Photo above taken a couple of days ago of one of the peaks on the island (the only volcanic island of the Cook Islands, the rest are coral Atolls). Some of the islands of the northern group are so low to the water they highest point is only 5 m and during a cyclone, waves can wash over the entire island. The higest peak in Rarotonga is like 690 m or something.

The other picture on top is a sunset we got from the north side (near the airport) one night when we got stuck up there betwee then period of 4pm to 6pm when the bus is not running.

The Pic of me and Marsha is during the Safari tour when we stopped by Wigmore's falls the only waterfall on the island.