basketball

Christmas 2008

Unfortunately, I have been here for the last 30 mins trying to upload pictures from the last month yet there has been no success. I can't figure it out but I figured there at least 2 people who have asked for my blog to be updated (my dad and his brother, Uncle Bill). Therefore, I'll simply write...boring I know.

I arrived home on the 15th to an abundance of snow, good Canadian weather and a long awaited urge to see winter climate. I was not disappointed. It was fantastic to be in cold weather after being in Singapore for the last 2 years. I didn't come home last Christmas and let me say, Christmas without snow is an odd feeling. However, it is my decision to live overseas (as Mark always points out) so let me just say the weather was perfect.

The first week flew by with a visit down to Lethbridge for a night as well as catching up with old friends and family. Was great to see everyone. I even got to go Christmas tree hunting! We found one for our family friends, the Tanners, and cut down a small one for our house. Quite fun to play in the snow again, and even eat it!

As most people know by know, the rest of my holidays (at least after Christmas until now) has had to do with May. I proposed to May on the 27th, surprising her with a quick outing that meant something to us followed by me coordinating (with the help of both her and mine parents) a family dinner at a Greek restaurant. Although it was too loud for the elders in the group, it was quite a fun evening with dancing, laughter, and most of all, sharing the experience of our engagement with the families. The Diaz's were all to great for help organise the dinner and keep the secret from the 30 other relatives around at the time. Not even her brothers knew why they had a special dinner with the Turners on the 27th! But we had been planning since October so they had a lot to do with it. And to my family - for driving up for the evening as well as Mark and Daniel joining May and I, her two brothers Mark and John (eery names to have as brother in laws heh?) and John's girlfriend Vanessa for swimming at the WATERPARK in West Ed!!! A great 2 hours of fun but we definitely showed our age - only being able to go on each slide once and being spent after such a short time!! All in all, the engagement plans worked out wonderfully, she did show a lot of emotion (even after the famliy dinner when we went back to her Aunt's house where the other dozens of relatives were waiting in anticipation!) Can't wait for the 3 pigs and 2 water buffalo to be sacrificed as promised by her grandma!!


Also, I had the chance to see my first Oiler's hockey game with May and her family - was great fun and even ran into some old acquaintances from our University of Lethbridge days.

We followed up the weekend by coming back to Airdrie for a few days, then heading back to Edm for New Year's with May's friends (and of course it was May's bday...) and again back to Airdrie until Sat morning. It was great to get some Turner family time in as even John and Leah came up from Lethbridge for the days after New Years. Good fun and Mark didn't make May do the dishes too much. (luckily my father and mother are all too kind to let me use their cars!)

I had the chance to see my parent's house that they are building on the land several times throughout the holidays. It is truly remarkable. You must see it if you have the chance - mom and dad love having guests!!! But it is stunning and pictures do not do it justice how unique it really is. There have been some hiccups but I'm sure everytime they do get up there and realize how close to actually being able to stay up there, makes it all worthwhile.

As for me, I leave tomorrow (Jan 8) back to Singapore. It has been a wonderful break. Back to Singapore which I do look forward to. School keeps me busy, as well as coaching the high school boys basketball team. We have a few tournaments to get ready for as well as coaching the SE Asia games school team. Should be fun! Also keeping busy with ultimate frisbee on the weekends (and soon to be on the weekdays)...have a tournament in Bali on the Easter weekend that I will go to (and hopefully May) but we have just found of a great chance to go to Japan in April. We will definitely go very soon (either Easter or summer) as it has been too long since we've seen our lovely samurai parent in laws. And I hear Anna is quite the character now! Other than that, waiting until the summer when May's parents and brothers will be coming down for a few weeks and we will join them in the Philippines. Good fun to be had!

Sorry again about the pics - if you know of people on facebook, simply go to my profile and check those photos there of Christmas 2008 #1,2,3. Lots of good memories...

Summer of house building and pinoy weddings

Of course, being home was excellent to see family. Matt and Yuko were home from Japan with their little baby Anna. As well, Luke and Dalia came up with Haley from Singapore for a few weeks. And, Leah and John came up from Lethbridge every once in a while to make it the whole Turner get together.










The major part of time at home consisted of going to the land 4-5 times a week and working with Daniel, Mark, Pops and Mom. It was great working all day with them, the traveling and sleeping, listening to music everytime we pulled into Airdrie, and reading books. And our daily drafts. What a sight seeing the house being built.




Another great part of the summer was the wedding the Philippines. One of May's cousins, Mone, who we stay with her and her family every time in Manila, was married a great guy Clark. It was a great wedding - what a weekend. My good friend Kelly Jo was visiting from Canada so she was along for the ride, as well as we met with my good buddy Scott, an old University mate who is now living in Manila teaching. The family was kind enough to allow both of them to come to the wedding and it was a great time. We had some dance offs, Scott made some new friends and was with May's awesome family. Good times



As some may know, I've been playing ultimate frisbee on a team here for the last 2 years. Made of mostly Singaporeans, we have traveled to a few tournaments in Manila, Kuala Lumpur and even Bali (which they won - I wasn't there. Go figure). It is a great bunch of people, love playing the game and you meet heaps of people from around Asia in the tournaments. At the end of August, we were in the Singapore Open. We finished 5th, but we hoped we could have done better. Looking for some more tournaments though and hopefully do better.



This is the only one I could find that showed me actually doing something...they just like me for this reason - to catch the discs up high. Guess it helps to be a tall white guy

My niece, little AT

It is amazing what you can do when Matthew gives you advice on how to put a video on a blog.

Australia and diving

As some of you know, I recently spent 3 weeks in Australia visiting a certain someone while I was on holidays. Yes, I know I go down there far too often but I hope by next year that certain someone will be in Singapore working

Anyways, our main thing to do this visit was to get our diving certificate. May planned it all (I know, shocking since I am usually the one planning our trips so this was a nice change. Quite funny to have the constant emails to double check if it was ok!!)

Best part about our travels was that we got to drive again. I never drive in Singapore so it was nice to hit the roads again and travel for hours through the countryside. It was a gorgeous drive up the Eastern Coast from Sydney to just south of Brisbane to a small town called Coffs Harbour. It is here that we did our diving certificate. We stayed for 4 days, over the Easter holidays and it was packed with backpackers. But the diving was great and awesome to do.

A gorgous town right on the ocean, with a huge bay and a classic wooden pier stretching out into the bay. Gorgeous to climb up the hill and view back into the sunset and cloudy hills in the distant.

And yes, we managed a few pics on the ocean. We spent a few evenings just sitting on the beach, eating food and having some beverages. Really nice people there. May thinks you should buy your house there Daniel!!

We left Coffs on Monday and headed up to north of Brisbane to a place called Redcliffe. May had organised that we go on a dolphin diving expedition. So we loaded onto a big boat and drove out an hour to a small sandy island with a huge dive wreck around it that we snorkled through. Kind of cool.

Best part was the monstrous sand hill that we climbed only for me to race down against a 10 year old gal. I won, letting gravity take its course against my large, rolling frame. We ended up playing with the little girl in the ocean and doing some photo ops. Also, we managed to have her hooked to hang out with us for the hour long boat ride back, doing tough maths questions that stumped May! She finally had a dose of my life and what it is like to converse with the young ones.

This picture is for my father since we stopped at a koala sanctuary on the way back. They had the cute bears (who don't do much) as well as part of the marsupial family (those are kangaroos and wallabees Matthew, in case you didn't know..but I won't tell anyone). But, here is an Emu who vaguely resembles my father.. same feathers as you have Dad??

Here are our diving shots. Finally May made it in and looked like a pro..awesome to see. Too funny of a story that I'm sure some of you will hear about. If we don't bring it up, make sure to ask me and I will tell you of her adventures.

I do happen to look thinner in water, with the tight suit favouring the contours of my body. I know, I know..

On one of our dives, we managed to go into an area with there are commonly Grey Nurse Sharks. It is said that these were almost hunted to extinction because the Auzzies didn't know the difference between them and the Great Whites so they hunted all of them. They are slowly growing back in Marine Sanctuaries like Coffs Harbour. But an eery and amazing feeling to descend on them and see about 12 of them, slowly moving around with flow of the ocean. Incredible

Other than that, not much else here. 2 more months of school until it is time to go and fulfil my calling of completing the house on the land. I know, it won't be done without one of the originals so I will spend my holidays there. I look forward to it

Vietnam

In case you are wondering, yes it has been 3 months since my last entry. Many things have happenend and it has blown by. May has been here since Christmas and it has been fantastic. Many great times as we spent a lot of time with Luke and family. May was luckier than me since she got to be a babysitter for 4 hours every Tuesday. Spending lots of time with Little Haley. What a smiley kid. Awesome to see

Our trip to Vietnam was over 4 days. Chinese New Year is probably one of the biggest holidays in Asia. Prices shoot up and everything is incredibly booked up. We managed a flight to Ho Chi Minh City, which is formerly Saigon. It is the southern part of Vietnam, near Cambodia. May and I went, Luke, Dalia and Haley (on her first family trip in SE Asia), Craig and Lou as well as meeting 3 of Dalia's friends there. Above is a picture of May and I on a little boat on the Mekong River, a major river that enters into Vietnam and continues throughout Cambodia, Laos and Thailand and the rest of Asia.


Since it was Chinese New Year, or TET as it was called in Vietnam, we were invited by our hotel to a TET gala dinner where there was traditional Vietnamese games, customs and many other "touristy" things. It was quite fun actually. May studied this game for about 30 minutes while the rest of us toured around. Basically the people holding the sticks and raise and lower them at a rhythmic beat, spreading them and keeping them narrow at different times. May and I tried it and almost succeeded except for May stumbling at the end. She blamed my big feet of course but as it is when we dance, I am Babaganoosh with smooth feet and she hops around, stepping and pouncing away on people's toes. I'll let you decide who's fault it might have been.

This next pictures is good one. I'm sure you are wondering what the heck it is. They had this at the hotel and a few of the celebrations we went to. It is a "stone-age" version of the piano. They play this at celebrations and it is awesome. Really quite cool. (Side note: I have bet Luke that I will make one in Canada with Canadian stones, typically from the area around our land, and offer it to my father. Much to like hunting deer, this bet is worth a cool grand) Let the searching begin..... if anybody has flat stones that about a foot long, 6 inches wide, stash them away and we can begin our Beethovanish adventure)

With Vietnam still being a communist country, there were red flags abound in the city. Perhaps it was multiplied by the TET celebration, but I still chuckled at it all. (I'm chuckling too at the thought of dad leaning sideways so he can see it...sorry I didn't turn it around for you)

Again, quite the celebration of their country. Honestly a great visit and I want to go back and spend more time touring around to other major cities and even the rural area. Hopefully one of the summers coming up or holidays sessions.

The major streets downtown were shut down to allow people to walk around and one of the streets had this as their major attraction. It is now the Year of the Rat, or Year of the mouse in Vietnam, and May, Lou and Dalia loved these things. Narually, I took into the situation. Funny thing is that to our right is a major roundabout. Now, one thing about Vietnam, that I unfortunately don't have a picture of, is the traffic. Motorcycles probably outnumber cars by at least 5 to 1. Roads don't really have rules, it is essentially give way to bigger cars but then wiggle through with your bike at your will. Naturally since it was a huge holiday, the roads were packed (as you will see on the fireworks picture below). The roundabout was crazy since it was standstill but still somehow moving motorcycle traffic. Anyways, it was a doozy to cross. Lou had her video on her camera rolling and had it at hip level looking into the traffic coming to her. As we crossed the road like Frogger, going up, backing up, side stepping...too funny. Have to travel all together, in one big flat line so that people can still go around you. Such an experience

We stole Haley for a morning as Luke and Dalia were getting together and we played around. This one is cute but the next one is better...

Haley loves her feet and I love mine too. We are just so similar, minus the fact that I can't put my foot in my mouth. (Despite any rumours that go out there...I swear, there isn't a picture of me putting my foot in her mouth and hers in mine...who would do that?)

Best buds for life

Hope you enjoyed the pics and update. Yes, May is gone so I do have a morning of watching tv and doing nothing except catching up on emails, blogs and my ipod. Hope you enjoyed pops and mom. Enjoy - miss you all

And there was no ring giving over the last two months contrary to what people thought...who would want to get engaged and then spends a year or so doing a long distance.....

update...I know, 3 months late

Hello everyone, (or at least my father since he still reads this)

Just to give you a quick update on where I am and at right now. Still in Singapore teaching and the first semester is almost done. It has been a great semester with a fantastic classes with only a few challenges here and there. Definitely more confident dealing with my teaching and planning for the class. I enjoy the liberty to do what I can when I want and to try different things that I see here and there. Such a great profession and I still enjoy it immensely.

I've enjoyed a few travels here and there. This month, I went down to surprise May in Sydney for a weekend and it was a fantastic surprise for both of us. It was a great long weekend for us and I hope that I didn't mess with her exams too much. Also, I went to Manila a few weekends ago for an ultimate frisbee tournament with the team I play for in Singapore. It was a super fun time, incredibly tiring from playing and no sleep, but great to see the Philippines again as I really do think they are some of the kindest people I know. A guy from another team let me and 4 other guys stay with him. Since we chose the red-eye flight out on Friday, didn't arrive until Sat morning @ 5am, drove to his place for breakfast, went straight to disc right after, played all day, came back by 8pm, and then we went out for dinner with out team and out to a party after that. And began to play again at 8am on Sunday. It was an awesome experience and we lost on the semis to the eventual winners. A wicked first overseas tournament for me.

The following photos are of my two beautiful nieces. Anna, older by 3 months, is the one with all of the hair. She is doing fantastically with her and her parents in Tokyo. She has started eating and I can't wait until she is here for Christmas. Matt, Yuko and Anna will be here for 7 days over Christmas and it will be great.

The one in the jolly jumper is little Haley, whom I get to see at least once a week with our weekly dinners and play dates. She is awesome and grows bigger each week. She is getting more animated and playful which is great for me. She leaves next week for her big debut in Canada with her parents. I would be more upset if I didn't have her cousin coming down to visit me and taking her place as my niece in Singapore.

Along with my brother and his family coming down for Christmas, May arrives on the 22nd and will stay until February as she is on her Summer break from Uni. Her first year has come and gone and it has been great to have her so close. (Yes, in long distance relationships, 8hrs by airplane is close as well as only a 3 hour time difference) Also, I met up with an old roommate Scott whom I went to school with in Lethbridge for 3 years and we had some good times. He is in Manila teaching so we will have him here for some time I think. Also, Matt's friends who live in Vietnam are coming through for Christmas before they head to Thailand for New Years. Also, he has another friend from Tokyo coming down with him for a few days and spending it with us. Should be a full house during my first Christmas away.

Also, May and I plan to go to Manila for New Years. It will be a great time with her and her family there as they are such incredible hosts. I can't wait to be done school and begin my holidays knowing that all of these exciting things will begin soon.

Take care all and drop by whenever you are in SE Asia

Adam