Anniversary

Yesterday, Nov.29.03 was the second anniversary of my immigration to Canada. 2 years ago I was dropped in Calgary International Airport by Air Canada and went to Super 8 Motel and stayed 2 nights there and the Persian-Canadian version of life began.

Also George Harrison, a member of the most famous rock 'n roll band of all time, The Beatles passed aways 2 years ago in such a day. There are songs of them that are still fresh and lovely and I sometimes listen to them. One of them is: Love me do. The song was recorded in Sep.11.62 and was number 1 on the all the USA charts for 1 week and was in the list of 100 top songs for 14 weeks. I believe that only Pink Floyd, the other British music band is the one which can be compared to The Beatles. Will write about Pink Floyd and The Beatles later.

As yesterday was a special day for me(!!) I thought better to give me a special gift 'cause there's nobody to give me such a thing(!!) So what I did is I stayed overtime for 8 hours(!!) Yesterdays speciality is summarized here: Woke up at 05:35 AM, drove to Anderson LRT station, took the bus, worked from 07:00 AM to 04:00 PM like a horse, had a break for half an hour, started work at 04:30 PM again and worked till 01:15 AM of today while had two ordinary break in between.

So you see that it was a real special day. Ahmad, my Kurdish friend drove me to the station and I drove back home from there. It was 03:00 AM, I guess, by the time I was home. When I checked my mobile voice mail box, noticed have two new messages. The first one was only a Beep-Beep and guessed it's my Mom. The second one was from Renay, the beautifully, young, Indian girl from Edmonton. The message says her mom is passed away. I was very sad. I have to call her today, although she left me without a word. She's very sweet.

(Photo: George Harrison, the former member of The Beatles who died in Nov.29.03)

M. J. in Trouble

Michael Jackson is in trouble for the second time in the last 10 years. He was arrested last week and is accused of child molestation. Police raided his ranch in Santa Barbara, CA and searched there for hours, while he was away. Jackson has built that place like a small Disneyland. Shorty after they arrested him and took him to court, handcuffed. He is freed now on a $3 million bail. We should wait and see what happens to this freaky boy!
I strongly believe that he's a loony! Does a normal person do what he has done to himself? Does he look like a human? Last year he dangled his kid, the youngest one, from a fourth floor balcony of a hotel in Germany. Just an insane man does that! After all, I also believe that he is a great pop star. His works like Thriller and The Ghost are astonishing. If it's approved that he's guilty, he will face 8 year in jail. That would be the end for the 45-year-old singer.
This happened to him exactly 10 years ago, in 1993 but the case settled privately. No one is aware of the detail. But seems he can't save his ass this time! Who knows?
(Photo: A handcuffed Michael Jackson is escorted to the court)

That's good Paul...Keep goin' !

Paul Martin, the next Prime Minister of Canada and the current Liberal Party leader critized Americans today, over Arar's case. Arar is a Syrian-Canadian who was arrested by Americans in New York's Kennedy Airport on his way to Canada and was sent to Syria, where he was born!!! The US alleges him of terrorist activities and link to Al-Qaeda network. He has been released by Syrians recently and said that he was tortured there in jail. Syrians accused him of memebrship in a banned group called Muslim Brotherhood!!!
We have to wait and c Americans' reaction to this angry criticism.
(Photo: Arar in press conference after he's back to Canada)

The Best in the Trip

The best part of my short trip or better to say the best reason for my short travel was visiting my relatives. I met my cousin and her family after almost 3 years. I was very happy to be with them. All of them were so nice and kind to me and I appreciated. It was Ray's 11th birthday in Sun. evening and there was a small party for that. His friends have been invited and they had fun. Koreans, Filipino, Canadian and Chinese boys.

Vancouver (2)

I didn't have enough time to see the city but what I say about my short trip to Greater Vancouver is it's a very nice city but expensive. There is two kind of taxes: Federal and Provincial which added to 14.5%. It's just 5% in Alberta, which is Provincial, I guess and t it's 15% in Ontario.

B. C. never gets as cold as Alberta, except it's north. When I was there the coldest was -1 C and one day after that (Sun.) It was warm and started raining. There's lots of raining there. It's a very beautiful place. esp. in summer but it's fall is nice too. The other problem is unemployment. There is not many jobs there. So if you wanna really go there, think, plan and then make your mind.

Vancouver (1)

I flew to Vancouver Fri. morning. When I left Calgary it was -17° C and was snowing. I went there by Wes Jet. It's less expensive than Air Canada. But it could be cheaper if I would use an Air Mile Card. I don't have one yet. The flight just took about 01:10. I was beside the left wing and enjoyed the beautiful scene of outside and took some photos.

Vancouver or better to say Greater Vancouver is comprised of downtown Vancouver, Richmond, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Surrey, Burnaby and Port Moody (And May be more! But they are the majors, I guess) My destination was Coquitlam so I had to take the bus from the airport to Sky Train station. Air bus is a very beautiful, nice and fast train that its track is above the city! I mean above streets, homes, everything. You can see all over when travelling around. I had to change the Sky Train at a station and take the other one and at the end take another route again to get to A. J.'s project site.

The weather was mild and the city is very beautiful. The interesting thing is people were very kind and friendly. When I was in the bus to Air bus Station, a very pretty girl with blue eyes asked if I need a help and when I was getting in to the Air bus a young man helped me to change my route and when I get the final bus the driver started talking to me and said that he knew the north of Iran is pretty much like Vancouver! and all of them were Canadian. You rarely meet such people in Calgary. I think because Vancouver is an older city compare to Calgary and foreigners went there and settled there years ago, Canadians are more comfortable with them. Like I know the first Iranian families settled down in Vancouver almost 40 year ago.