Hope?

I didn’t vote for him.

I couldn’t even if I wanted to because my right to vote was taken away.

I have recently and rapidly become ashamed of my country and what it has become.  Especially approaching the election.  I was disheartened, enraged, embarrassed, and even ashamed of my country.  I have been an expat for 14 years, I have often joked and jested about my homeland, but it has always been just that.  I refused to even consider giving up my citizenship, not because the Canadian passport is ‘better’, which is of course a factor.  But because deep down, Canada will always be a part of me and my home, no matter where I go, where I live, where my new home may be.  Canada is part of me, part of who I am, shaped me, and ultimately a huge part of my identity.

In the short time since the election, I have been nervously watching to see what our new Prime Minister would do.  He’s a politician, and … well they can be a shady bunch.  He’s done a number of things that may well, come lets be honest they are, publicity stunts.  But at the same time, he’s doing them.  And let’s consider, all people in the lime light do things to get your attention but what are they doing?  Regardless of why, what are they doing?

He ran a clean and positive campaign.

Meeting people in the morning after the election in the metro to shake hands and say thank you.

He used google hangouts, to reach out and chat with school children across the country about issues and their concerns.

Continually talking about, and making real moves toward, transparency in the government.

He promised a cabinet that was gender equal… and then he actually did it. 0.0

Speaking of the cabinet… I’ve heard some grumbling about how, it should be based on qualifications not getting the job for being a woman.  <- ok holy fuck off.. because all the men in the previous cabinets were the best candidate?  Like there aren’t any freaking qualified women in government?  Really.?  HUFF

When he was asked why he made a gender equal cabinet, his answers was simple “because it’s 2015”.

But seriously look at this..

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/the-trudeau-cabinet-read-the-full-list-ofministers/article27095965/

In case you haven’t seen this floating around

https://www.facebook.com/alanaphillips?pnref=story

These are some of the cabinet members…

We have a Minister of Environment and CLIMATE CHANGE.
We have a Minister of Immigration, Citizenship and REFUGEES.

Our Prime Minister is a sci-fi geek.
Our Minister of Health is an actual Doctor.
Our Minister of Families, Children and Social Development is a poverty economist.
Our Minister of Science is an actual Scientist (oh, and she has a Nobel Prize).
Our Minister of Status of Women is an actual woman!
Our Minister of Veterans Affairs is a quadriplegic because he was shot in a drive-by shooting.
Our Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour is a Professional Geologist.
Our Minister of Democratic Institutions is a Muslim refugee.
Our Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities is a Paralympian Athlete.
Our Minister of Defence is a badass war hero, Afghanistan combat vet, and police officer.
OUR MINISTER OF TRANSPORT IS A GODDAMN ASTRONAUT.

Half of our Ministers are women.
Half of our Ministers are men!
Two of our Ministers are people of First Nations (Kwakwaka’wakw, Inuit)
Three of our Ministers were born outside of Canada (India, Afghanistan)
Two of our Ministers are Sikh.
At least one of our Ministers is Muslim.
At least two of our Ministers are Atheist.
One of our Ministers is battling breast cancer. frown emoticon
One of our Ministers is in a wheelchair.
One of our Ministers is blind.
One of our Ministers is openly gay.
One of our Ministers is openly ginger.
Also, Hon. Navdeep Bains has a perfect twirly moustache.

Justin, if these are signs of what is to come, how you plan to run our country.  I breathe a sigh of relief.  I didn’t vote for you, but you’ve given me my Canada back, or at least have started to.  I am proud of my country again.  And I had a little hitch in my breath, my heart skipped a beat when I read his open letter to the country.  If nothing else, thank you for giving me hope.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s open letter to Canadians

Decisions decisions… and a little bummed out.

Bah, life!  Full of decisions, the hotness for some, personal hell for others. OH OH PICK ME!!   I loathe making a choice, boo what if I pick the wrong one?  What if, even worse, they are equal?  Everyone else seems to have no difficulty with these things meanwhile I agonize over what I want for lunch for Christ’s sake.  Boo

So what is the current crisis?  I guess crisis is a little strong, dilemma I suppose.  What should  I do next?  I love Taipei, I’ve left a few times I’ve even lived elsewhere and I can honestly say I love it there, the climate is lovely and toasty with mild winters, fun easy work, good pay low cost of living.  Sounds great hu?  So what’s the problem!

Well, I’m not Asian, and sometimes that rocks (like when it comes to rules we just get to ignore because we’re not local) and sometimes it sucks asshole, big hairy asshole.  I hate that I have no rights even though I’ve lived there for  nigh on 8 years, really??  Ridiculous.  They have stupid laws that actually discriminate against us, like this new tax law, we have to pay 3x the tax in the first 6 months of every year, no matter how long you’ve been a resident, you think I’m kidding, I’m so not.  Owning property and businesses is silly complicated for us, plus I live in a nation of tiny, or supposed to be tiny people.  So I am constantly inundated with comments like, you would be pretty if you weren’t so fat, and wow you run marathons and work out, so cool.. but how come you’re so fat?  You look terrible today, did you gain weight… the list goes on.  What it boils down to is no matter how much confidence I have, people still look at me like some HUGE beast.  Even the other foreigners get swept up in it, saying things like well if I ran that much I would be thinner than that.  Fuck off.  Yeah, I’m a little chubby (especially right now.. lazy girl on Vaca!) but Jesus, you all make me feel and it sound like I’m pushing 375.  I think my personal favorite is, it’s not your fault foreign people are just fat.  Even if no one says anything, you can see it in their eyes.  Know what I never see?  Admiration, attraction, appreciation in anyway trust me I’ve been looking.

Whine whine whine, I hate this whole line of discussion because no matter how you go about it, you come off as a

Tourist in the GTA

So I’ve been in Toronto for a few days now, and so far it’s been pretty cool.  The train ride up from London was a riot, Timmy and I were being Captains of silly the whole time.  We arrived in TO where Ken picked us up and took us to his place, where a bunch more people from Taiwan (James, Ariel, Oz and JR) were and we had an evening of sitting about chatting and drinking.  I was very fun, but very weird at the same time.

We went to Carabana, this Caribbean festival with a shiny parade, full of good times! Actually we just jumped the fence and joined the parade.. hoooray but I think I hurt my footsies :(.

I got a little shopping done (ok just MEC) met up with Emma, and went to a BBQ, we tried to go out to party on Sat night but it ended up being a bit of a bust, ah well.  Lunch with Emma was really nice, I really quite miss her, she is a really lovely person with great energy (even when she’s grumpy bumpy).

After lunch I walked all over just checking things out and wandered my way down to the CN tower, I took my time and ended up there are a reasonable hour to catch sunset.  In my usual fashion I made friends with people in line, in the elevator, at the snack machine… tee hee you know me!  I hung out at the tower and got some decent pictures, then a friend picked me up at the tower (side note.. I felt so damn bad, he showed up and i got stuck in a line to get down so he ended up waiting like 20 mins for me at the base of the tower!!! ).  We went for a late dinner and drinks, which was really fun, but I was tired and my feet were killing me so he took me on a little driving tour and then home.

Tuesday I did almost nothing, just resting and chilling out from the day before (god I’m such a pansy!).  Erik called and as I mentioned we went for dinner and drinks, and he drove me to the falls Wed morning.  I got to Niagra around 10:30 11 and just wandered around for a bit, eventually I went

Canada is Rough

Seriously, it must be a horrible place. With all the complaining and dissatisfaction people have.

I met up with a friend the other day and she was very aggravated with out how much people whinge and whine all the time about how hard their lives are.

Seriously is life all that bad here?  Ok the cost of living is a little higher, you might have to work a little harder.  It’s not the neverland that living in Asia can be.  But Really?? There are good and bad things about every place, I’ve lived in a few countries and I’m not claiming to be an expert, but honestly there are things I HATED, and there were  things I just love love loved about each place.

Brazil, was FANTASTIC but I hated the insincerity of the men there, drove me nuts that while they worshiped women.. their ‘you’re so beautiful’s  became rather aggravating (to me anyway).  But I loved the fun social atmosphere, the friendliness etc!

Taiwan, Is great low cost of living, lack of rules is fun, but it’s hella frustrating all the cultural issues that

Island Ho

Sorry I wrote this on the plane and couldn’t get online to verify where I had left off so there is a a little overlap here and there.

I dove down to Seattle and picked Casey up.  The drive back was way better than the way down, having company in the car makes the drive significantly more pleasant.  We Got to the border crossing and I was a little worried about it, just because Casey is American and they can be a little weird at border crossings about things.  But driving across is a lot more mellow than flying, the guy just asked a few questions and off we went.  Although, it was kinda funny that I had no cell reception on my mom’s cell until I reached the border, and then the phone was ringing off the damn hook.  Dude looked a little cranky about it and told me no phones, I was like sorry we’re late and I had no cell reception so my sister is trying to get a hold of me.

We drove into town, stopped by the liquor store and supermarket to grab some stuff for the BBQ and as soon as we got to the house we were practically attacked by a very excited Dee and Becky.  They were super stoked to finally get to meet Casey, it was cool to finally get to introduce him to some of my people.  I always forget how

Smithers, Not so Bad Actually

<— 1989 (I remember this)

So I thought I’d hammer out a quick post before bed.  (quick pre note.. all the links in here are different, even though they might be on some of the same words)

I’ve been up in Smithers (the town I grew up in) for a few days now, and to be honest I was kinda dreading it.  I was coming to see my mom because I haven’t seen her in2-3 years.  I kinda hold a grudge against my home town (Smithers BC) and everyone from it because there was just so much suck here for me.  And even though it’s been years and years… meh.

Well I guess enough time has passed.  I have to admit (and my opinion might be slightly tainted by the really nice weather we’ve been having) that Smithers is a very beautiful place.  I really must remember to take my camera out and take some photos… hmm Tomorrow.  And a lot of the folks here are really nice.  But honestly it’s mostly my mom’s generation and friends that I like.  My mom cooked up a feast, and I only had one friend (Emily, thanks for coming was great seeing you!) and the rest were some friends of my mom’s.   Which is cool in itself. I really like Janice, and Darren and Tanya are really awesome to my mom, it’s great to know she has such nice friends.

I also went to Mountain Eagle books and Saw my ‘other sister Erica’ s Mom Janet,and while running I stopped by my Aunty Sandy’s new place for a quick chat.  And even funnier, I ran into my grade 5 teacher who recognized me through the

Dear Canada, Bite Me!

Dear Canada,

I know you have been saddened by my absence and that many things have changed while I have been away.  And while I’m sure there are many lovely things I have not had a chance to note or appreciate yet, I have a few complaints.

You realize the size of the cars your residents drive is retarded, right?  Especially as 90% of the time people are pootling about alone or with one person.  Why, then have you not made some nice cheap little 2 seaters that are fuel efficient?  I’m not even going to pretend this has anything to do with the environment (although I suppose it should), it’s just ridiculous!  Everything is so far away you usual must have some form of transport and it’s killa cold in the winter, I can think of 20 solutions off the top of my head.. come come now.  This isn’t the end of the world but it’s more than a little silly.

Let’s discuss the circle of fun that you put me through, shall we?  Let’s see my wallet was stolen/lost about 1 1/2 years ago in Taiwan, now obviously replacing my Canadian Cards wasn’t happening until I made it here.  Now stupid me, did I realize that I should bring my birth certificate  home with me? No, my fault I’m aware, but when the hell did the nation fall into a state of FREAKING panic.  Everyone was like.. but how do I know you are you?  Do you see this Passport????? Issued by our government???? Accepted BY EVERY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD AS DEFINITIVE ID??? DO YOU SEE IT!!!! As I smack you in the god damnity damn head with it?

Costco: can you replace my member card?  Do you have your Drivers license?  Die.

So, clearly all problems are solved with this magical drivers licence, yes?

I went to replace my card, and I have to pay a fee, ok, and oh wait.. can you prove who you are? What do you mean my passport isn’t primary ID???? REALLY?  Ok so my ONLY choice in this awesome situation is to

Canada Ho’

As most people already know I’m going to Canada this summer.  There was a lot of drama and stress involved but I did manage to get it all sorted, tickets bought (mostly.. still waiting on mummsy for the flight to see her) etc.  I was having a really hard time visualizing my options… which actually is really odd, it was probably due to all the stress.

In the end I decided to make a pretty little chart (or several) in order to make things clear… yes I am a dork.. and I don’t care all the pretty colours make me ohhhh so

Fluxuations… my oh my

Dude… what is with the weather lately? And before I get the whole song and dance of.. blah blah blah… you’re Canadian, why you being such a sissy, do you know how cold it is here… I just want to say one thing. Shut up. 😀 I am completely aware I’m being a bit of a hypocrite, and I’m ok with that. Plus I’m going to be all logical and justify why my sniveling makes sense and all the pansies in Canada are wussies :D. And my justification will ever go beyond the usually ‘it’s my blog and I’m the little princess’ logic that I usually employ. (Those of you who were unaware of that tactic please ignore what you just read ;). )

So I mentioned that Sunday was a lovely day, it was 25 to 27 degrees, sunny and lovely.  Quite out of character for the time of year but I sure wasn’t complaining especially given as I had that race. Holy crap did Monday turn around… it was raining and cold as hell.  We’re talking 11 degrees.  Now I know that 11 degrees isn’t all that cold, I’m not retarded but a drop in