Rmac goes Guevara

On Happiness

2010-11-26T07:56:00.000-08:00

By Paul McKenna:

Brain researcher Gregory Berns has demonstrated in a number of recent experiments that it is a feeling of uncertainty that holds the key to satisfaction in life.

People like what's familiar, but are rewarded for what's different. The more things happen the way we expect them to, the less our brains notice. But when we experience something new or unexpected, our brains light up and massive amounts of dopamine (your brain's "motivation chemical") are released. Then, when you achieve your goal, your brain rewards you by releasing serotonin (your brain's "happy chemical"). This in turn increases your motivation to do more things in the future, and physically enhances the molecular structure of your brain, increasing your capacity for even greater feelings of satisfaction.

more l.a. pix...

2008-04-19T11:28:00.000-07:00

becs with her baby bump, ali, sandy, bruce lee, and dancing leprechaun!

L.A. Pix,...more to come!

2008-04-18T17:56:00.000-07:00

Hola kittens,...here's some pictures from Los Angeles, aka the gongshow in between Buenos Aires and Vancouver. What was to be the R and R prior to home was in fact,...well a little R and R (lets face it the Four Seasons ain't hard), and serious party action.

Waiting on my DEAR friends, Rebecca and Ali to send more pics. Come on girls, move it!

L.A.

2008-04-14T09:46:00.000-07:00

Through the haze of Red Bull and Vodka the most recent updates will be attmepted. After changing flights home, several times, and in the process setting an airline record it seems, I'm still in Los Angeles. It truly is the city of stars, oh god that sounds way to fromage. Well its certainly a prozac pill of happiness and cool.

Ali C flew in from London, I from Argentina, Craig from Vancouver,...and just a couple days ago, Adam C from Victoria. It's been a mix of casual times, extended efforts of booze consumption in the evening and wonderful morning walks along Ocean Ave. in Santa Monica.

It's in Santa Monica where we've all come to visit Rebecca and Sandy. Bec's has a bun in the oven named Fred. Fred is a trooper like none other. We've put an iPod up close to mummies belly and Lil Fred kicks away,...perhaps a hiphop in the making or a DJ master?? Fred has also been brought along to Villa, apparently the most happening bar in L.A. right now. A 'juiced' event to get us past the paparazzi cameras and bouncers, organized of course by Craig W. Fred has also been to Goa, another hip bar. All in all,...Rebecca has been a blast and full of energy and always wanting to be a part of the action. This must indeed transfer through to her child. That was kinda a rambled mess there,...please refer to opening line of this blog,...vodka haze.

Oh yes, last night. Vodka, ...lots of. Ok, we met this chick named,...named...Rachel. Yes, and she took us to this bar called Barney's Beanery. Imagine a big sports bar, but not too sporty,...just enough for fun without the yahoo's. Ok,...they had an xbox machine with couch, and an old school Galaga video game,...shuffle board, etc etc. We went haywire on the drinks,...then came home and got dizzy.

So then,...in L.A.,...there were Rodeo Drive moments with the gang,...pink berry ice cream, and of course,...4 nights and 3 days at the Four Seasons. Here Watson and I shared a room,...with Erin B (from New York) across the hall. She is a bundle of energy and a true gong show, all hidden beneath a very innocent looking brunette darling. Deadly! Hit the Thomson for Sushi one night. Oh back to the hotel,..this deserves a little chatter. The Four Seasons is simply the Webster's definition of With The Program. Poolside eggs benny, catch a little sun,...followed by poolside club sandwich. Genius. Oh,...and then there was "Rotisserie." Rotisserie is a guy we nicknamed because of his perfect, ridiculously dark tan. I mean this guy is a professional holiday 'guy.' He was so dark he was almost purple. His moves were slow and sleek,...slicked back hair,...and he sat there just staring at the sun as he puffed on Cuban cigars. Oh,...and his cougar wife just sat beside him,...saying nothing of course,...because her words may create wind,...tarning his smoke patterns created by the cigar,...or who knows, scare away his sun.

In the mornings,...these pool guys at the hotel somehow knew that we had boozed our faces off the night before. They would show up with these ginger, honeysuckle tonics and just say, 'good morning,...these should help.' We'd all look at each other and say did you order that? Nope,...think they get word from the maids when they see empty bottles of vodka and beer in the shower. Anyhow,...its Beverly Hills, and it all works.

Adam just popped in and reminded of the awesome L.A. Dodgers baseball game from yesterday. Sandy, Rebecca, Ali, Lucas (aka Kandahar), Adam and I all hit the baseball game yesterday against the San Diego Padres. Between the beers and booby staring we somehow made it through 9 innings of ball,...caught some wonderful sun in the stands, hooted and hollered and then made it home, all in time for a nap.

So then, Alaska Airlines has heard from me a total of about 5 times to change my flights,...I think a record. Tonight, finally, will be making it home to Vancouver. But define home? This l.a. place,...and that Argentina place are pretty darn cool. Pictures to follow shortly.

Toilet Seat UP!!!!!!!

2008-03-20T16:01:00.000-07:00

Well,...it has been quite some time since the last entry. The most recent posted pictures are from Villa Angostura in Patagonia. Since this time,...I have been in Buenos Aires,...up to San Rafeal for 3 days,...then back to Buenos Aires.

So then,...in BA, I stayed With Joe and Stella. There house in Victoria (region) is outside of the Capital by about 40mins drive. For soccer,...or futbol fans,...they´d be happy to know that their home is also 2 blocks from Tigre Stadium. On a particular nice, warm, summer´s evening, a futbol match was on in full force and the chanting could be heard all the way to the house.

For about 10 days, mas o menos,...I lived out in Victoria. Joe and I spent an afternoon at his Club Nautico playing a round of Golf. It was there that I taught Joe a thing or two about the game of Golf! Jaja... In Argentina,...they don´t use golf carts,...meaning minature cars. They walk. In Argentina,...they don´t stack those minature carts full of beer and attempt to play golf either. They walk the whole course and diligently complete their putts without any gimmes either. Oh,...and mulligans,...nope.

It was actually quite nice to get back on the course. I was tired as hell for some reason,...but did muster enough energy to smack a few good shots. Thankfully, because my first 3 shots went either four feet to my left,...or in the lake. Finally crack a 3 iron about 180 yards Joe reckons. Not bad.

Stella has been busy teaching her Bridge lessons to her various students. After which in the evenings we usually sit together for dinner,...followed by lemon (loaf) cake (which Joe loves) and some futbol on TV. They also have two dogs, Ringo and Colitta. Ringo is the only dog in AR that can burp. Yes, burp. Colitta is famous for darting around the house as she is a wound up whippit. Colitta and I actually bonded quite strongly,...strange considering I discovered I was allergic,....but the other night,....from hearing my footsteps about 1/2 a block away,...Stella noticed she ran up to the window waiting for my arrival.

On another night, we join some of Stella and Joe´s friends at another country (yacht club) in San Isidro. Their clubs our here are quite swank btw. We had a very nice dinner,...and typically Argentinian style,...had dinner til 1am. It´s no wonder Im tired for golf!!

Joe and Stella have been busy setting me up with girls. Joe told one gal at work that I was a Canadian learning Spanish and that it might be a good idea that we practice together. Hehehe....pretty sharp guy hey. Ah,...then Stella last night called another gal: ¨Noel,...this is not a set up,...but you and Ryan should really get together for a movie and dinner.¨ It´s really great in this country!

I have taken a flat in Palermo chico which is within 2 major avenues in BA. It´s a very chic area,...about 20 blocks from the most chic area of Recoleta. There are, like in New York City,-....fancy hotels, clothing shops,...and old ladies with big dark sunglasses, shiny shoes,...and little dogs. The architecture is amazing and rather similar to 5th ave,....park ave. in New York.

Right next door to my flat is a laundry joint-check. Across the street, internet-check. Restaurants everywear-check. Malba and Metropolitan Museams 1.5blocks away,-check. It´s really quite nice. Oh, and parks too.

Spanish classes have gone as follows. (and everyone knows how much i love studying!!) First 3 classes kinda breezed bye. Yesterday,...really suffered, thought of quitting, or at least (politely) firing my teacher,...then today,...had a really great lesson. So spirits are high. Should be able to order dinner by next Wednesday! ha!

15 more days in the big city. This Sunday,...Easter at Joe and Stella´s,...cooking a big lamb on the Asado. Then,...well we´ll see.

Ciao

Oh! almost forgot,...the title of this email: TOILET SEAT UP. Well then,...lets just say the most amazing thing happened today. The gal that is teaching me spanish asked if she could use my washroom. Ok I replied. End of story right??! Nope. But it does get better. When she left at the end of the lesson it was my turn to use the bathroom. What I noticed was the most amazing thing a lady has ever done. She obviously went pee and put the seat down for herself. BUT,...and this is a huge BUT!! She then put the seat back up. That is the first time in the history of people going ¨pee¨that ive seen this occur. Guys,...im talking to us here. I mean we usually have to go back in their,...lift the seat allllllllll the way back up,...then go pee. Not this time,...not with this girl. I´d have married her on the spot,...but that would a). require running down the street to fetch her. b). she married a french 2 weeks ago,...and c). well there´s just too many fish in this Argentine sea that it may be tricky to ever make up ones mind on a chica! Girls,...lift the seat!!!

yeah,...more pics

2008-02-25T11:35:00.000-08:00

this things allows 5 pictures to be posted at a time,...so there we are... some pics... cheers

ah,...more pics

2008-02-25T11:27:00.001-08:00

basically,...below are a ton of pics. then an update at like the fourth insert below...

even more pics to go with below...

2008-02-25T10:33:00.001-08:00

pics

2008-02-25T10:26:00.001-08:00

These are some pictures from all over Argentina,...some to go with the new post below and some from with Joe and family,...or hikes, drives etc through patagonia...
cheers!

hi all

2008-02-25T09:36:00.001-08:00

Well hello! I have heard reports of some sun in Vancouver and so my congratulations to you all. ;)

It is Monday here in Argentina,...and all is well. The various towns or cities in Patagonia have all had there moments of learning, enjoyment etc etc. In the past while I have visited Angostura, then to San Martin De Los Andes,...then back to Bariloche to dump the rental car,...then hitchhike adventures to El Bolson, back to Angostura,...the best place on earth,...well at least quite wonderful.

Speaking to the positive, on the way back from SM de Los Andes,...took a random dirt road into the backcountry. It lasted for about 4 hours or so, and it looked like some of the most beautiful sights from the interior of B.C. combined with at times, landscapes that may be in Arizona or Utah,...kinda.... hmmm. It´s unique.

Along the way there were some seriously solitude moments, pristine rivers to swim in, wonderful pools,....chirping little sparrows ripping around,...and silence,...all under the warmth of the sun. It was simply lucky and awesome!

Oh, almost forgot,...just before all this,...en route to SM de Los Andes,...hopped down the hill from the dirt road to a lake that was like azul blue kinda tourquoise type deal. So amazing to see this in tranquility and jump in and swim.

Ok,...fastforward to dumping the rental car which I ripped backcountry rally styles,...at times doing 80 kms per hour on gravel road,...it just happens??!! Then 140 along the picturesque highways,...back to bariloche,...hold your breathe and block your eyes from the tourism,...then throw out a thumb to go to El Bolson.

So the first guy to pick me up was this bald head guy who wore a couple earings and looked like a real outdoors type,...free spirit! He has lived in Bariloche for 15 years and each year spends 6months in Spain chasing the sun. Cool dude. He guided me to where Id need to begin on the highway and set me straight.

On the highway, a guy named Doug from Utah picked me up,...he was with a gal named Tania,...i think,....and they got me as far as.....well i dont know,...but somewhere along the highway. Out I got and threw a thumb and then these two really cool dudes from San Isidiro picked me up. This guy had a lot to teach me,...he was really chilled,...but in a good way. You could tell he had ambition and goals in life,...but it was his holiday,...and he was content as shiit to drive 40 kms an hour on the highway,...enjoying the scenery along the way. His brother Santiago sat in the passengers seat and was just as chilled. He had long hair and just kinda lay super relaxed and looked out the window without a care in the world. I sat in the back and chilled too. Until they dumped me at a river where they wanted to spend part of their afternoon. So I threw out another thumb, and then this fellow from El Bolson picked me up and drove me into town.

Ah, El Bolson. First instinct was, wow,...the ice cream is good, now what? It has the most beautiful surrounding mountains though it just was,...well who knows. There are lots of hippies there and well... Anyhow, the next day I was jumpy and thought ok, Im outta here! Back to Angostura which i like! Tried hitch hiking for 2hours with zero success. Then to top it off thought i forgot my book at the hostel,...so walked 20 mins back to town to then discover the book was in my bag which i tore apart 3 times. Hmmm. Anyhow.

In town,...there´s a point to this rambling..... In town, met this really cool Scottish chick,...who was really cute to boot. We decided to spend the day together and venture out to Lake or Lago Pueblo. This lake was totally amazing and we went swimming together and then walked by the river and lay on the rocks in the sun and just kinda chilled,...sometimes not talking and then sometimes talking about life etc.

Walking back to the main lake area we met these argie lads as well as two french. We sat down with them to say hello and this turned into about 4 hours until the evening drinking, smoking and just chilling out. Oh,...then it was announced that there was a big party at the lake tonight and did we have a tent etc. Umm no,...but lets party anyhow.

The party was amazing starting with a show of acrobats doing this thing on a little stage,...with a band,...tons of dancing,...booze etc etc. Fast fwd its now 4am and getting real cold in Patagonia. To my luck I have a northface mountaineering jacket,...however im wearing shorts and flip flops! Awesome! haha.

My best bet to sleep somewhere somewhat covered and safe from drunks was just outside the lake at this little shack that sells ice cream during the day,...or helados! So,...I put underwear on my head to act as a toque or beanie,...wrapped a towel the size of two facecloths around my knees (barely) and stuck my feet inside my backpack to try and keep them warm. It was an experience all right. I froze is the summary of this story,...and the dive bombing mosquitos were just so appropriate for this event. The next morning,...I heard the rambling of a diesel engine and thought what the hell is this? It was the bus,...and it represents the first time in my life that ive been really excited to see public transport!! haha. I leaped up,...ran over the bus and thought what the hell is on my head,...oh underwear. Got on the bus,...and people looked at me kinda strange. I was happier than shiit and couldnt wait to just bust out of that moment.

One thing forgot to mention was about this scottish chick. She had the most,...and i mean MOST amazing voice ever. She sang to the guitar during the evening,...two songs,...and it grabbed people the way an amazing song just does. Well,...thats the memory i´ll stick with,...cause she stiffed me 40 pesos, and the promise of hustling a tent together. Haha,...that little trainspotting twat,...but those two songs, and the amazing lake swim and converation with her was well worth the frozen toes.

Ok, back to Angostura, and met up with this mountain bike dude i met a week earlier. There was to be a big big race on Sunday for downhill mountain biking. Went to this event and it was really cool. Became great buddies with these guys as many of them were staying at the hostel. We had an asado together last night, and then went out to a club. The chicks were amazing, and a lesson to be learned about letting loose and culture etc,...these dudes, including the chicks party really hard,...jumping around in an enclosed circle chanting as if they were at a football (soccer match). Then what was really amazing was later in the night in the bar a real strange dude approached me and i couldnt understand what he was saying,...but by evolution standards and human instinct i knew it wasnt good,....he kept getting closer and closer in my face. My new argie friends saw this happening and leaped over and scared the crrap out of this guy, so much so that he left the bar. No words were exchanged,...they just looked at this guy in a certain way as to say,...touch our friend and you will get the dot bigtime! He buggered off like a little twat and then we promptly resumed drinking.

This morning, saw all the lads off as they mounted their mountain bikes onto their cars, and then drove hom to Cordoba and Mendoza. They were great friends and I shall look forward to staying in touch with them.

There could be more but this is getting ridiculously long so Adios!

pictures either with this blog,...or before or after,...however they download. cheers

Patagonia...

2008-02-19T16:46:00.000-08:00

¨There are moments when I think with profound longing of those wonderful areas in our south. Perhaps one day, tired of circling the world, I´ll return to Argentina and settle in the Andean lakes, if not indefinitely then at least for a pause while I shift from one understanding of the world to another.´´ Che Guevara, The Motorcycle Diaries.

Well then,...it was first Hostel Clan in Buenos Aires... A place of fond memories from 2.5 years ago,...or hace dos anyos. A fellow named Natcho and also another dude named Nick were still working there, the only remnants of the Clan. And, as luck had it, it was to be Natcho´s retirement party two days later as he was taking a job with Toyota Corp in B.A. Natcho studied psychology and will be using this in the HR department.

The Clan as always was a gong show. Mixed travellers from all over, mostly europe, couple Canadians etc etc., typically doing the S.American deal. That wednesday was the typical Asado, or Argentine bbq which is very traditional and appreciated. It was also the going away party for Natcho. Just like the old days,...bout 40 souls on the rooftop of the hostel rockin out to tunes, vino and every cut of meat,...followed by a total party. Dinner at around 10pm and then every man for himself till whatever hour your liver holds out.

In Argentina,...the clocks do funny things to you. If you´re say an old fart at the ripe age of 32 and tend to enjoy bed at say 10 or 11pm,...then all of a sudden its 3am, you have a cigarette in your one hand, and a litre of beer in the other. Craig and Colby,...Im back on the train,...well at least for a bit.

B.A. was wonderful to be back into. It´s kinda like New York in that the city can drive you crazy with all the action,...but then theres the benefits. Trendy streets, girls everywhere that you´d marry without asking many questions,...strictly on breeding performance, fabulous restaurants etc etc. Big city walks, in the day...sort of. At any given moment of feeling tired, you can simply flag a cab, hop in and say neuva de julio y alsina, ...the address of the hostel.

B.A. is also a really special place because this is where part of my Spanish heritage lies. Joe Bernard is Franco´s cousin and lives with his wife Stella,...has two sons, Diego and Gaston, two dogs...Ringo and Colitta,...and two grandsons that are super cute. Tommy and Mateo are Diego´s sons and on a couple of occasions it was fun to see how they´ve grown.

Oh right,...forgot to mention that this trip was arranged with months of casual thought and then the pull of a trigger 3 days prior. Jumped on a plane, sent Joe an email,...an the next day Joe came bye the hostel to pick me up. Joe btw is 70. The point of telling you this is because Joe, like many Argentinians drive very very fast. I hopped in his hatchback and the Spanish passion took over from first to fifth gear. I knew I was at home because the roads in B.A. have skilled,...or at least fast crazy drivers, ...which I certainly admire.

Ok,...we did an Asado at Joe´s place and this was fantastic. First you prepare a little fire on the side of the bbq or parilla,...pronounced pah ree jah. Then some carcoal on top,...then 20 mins later you shovel them coals into the bbq. Little Tommy was there helping his grandpa with the fire and coals and there´s an amazing picture to show.

The Clan after 4 days made me think of the Aqua Vita Medical Spa,...because i was about to lose my marbles with noise and action,...it simply is always going. Instead, for im sure all the right reasons,...i booked the ticket to Argentina´s southern region, Patagonia. I left the next day.

Arriving at the Bariloche Airport was amazing,...It felt like one had arrived, at the right place....etc etc. Then I arrived in Bariloche and after about one hour, denial began as I looked and walked around through a 1970´s Swiss tourist nightmare. The rosebud of the story is that its on such an amazing lake,...but even the most powerful Deepak Chopra and Tony Robbins book only lasts so long to be surrounded by tshirt stores and agro. There´s a point to all this complaining...

The genius of Bariloche was the following. Lula,...the chica at the hostel was most helpful at telling me about a wonderful day hike. I asked many times because the word was hard to say and remember. Then I wrote it down. Then I got on a bus to travel 40mins out of town to do this walk. Then I promptly realized I had no idea what she said, and then upon looking for the name she wrote down, realized I couldnt find it! Well then. I got out of the bus,...saw this Holland guy bout 35 years of age and mentioned the scoop to see if he knew where i was etc etc. He just said cool. Cool meant that he´d like to come on this hike that we didnt know how to get to. It took awhile to figure this out but he too mentioned he simply boarded a bus that day for a random day. Well, he spoke some spanish and we figured that la colonia suize was where we needed to go so off we went. The bus turfed us 2kms out of town so we walked in,...talked some life and buz then by random fluke walked right into this really cool chick that was staying at hostel clan in buenos aires. We did the traditional kiss on cheek and before you knew it, her and her friend were both excited to do this hike,...which we kinda knew was ´just ahead´...somewhere. Gosh ok, long story short,...we spent an amazing day together,...hiked up to this cemetary in the mtns, shared some photos together, got to know each other as we walked in two´s always shifting a new partner here and there to talk about each others lives. Bumped into some Auzzies that were going the other way who said they thought they knew where we were going and all they saw were a bunch of bees chasing them around. Quite funny,...we continued on. The boom,...arrived the most interesting resort on a lake. We walked down to the lakeshore,...beach,...had a seat and just chilled with the most amazing view. Took lunch,...then i showed them this really impressive rock tossing game. Goes like this... throw a rock at the bigger rock sticking out of the water. The target is about as big as a baseball so this takes time and skill. Seems boring,...but believe you me,...a group of tired hikers on a random day and random lake got right into it. Ivy,...the girl from england liked this the most and tossed rocks one after another,...like a 13 year old kid playing nintendo video games without stopping. I might marry her.

Ah,...then the going back part,...Ivy from England is quite hot,...she threw out a thumb for the group and we got picked up by a brand new toyota pickup truck for a hitch hike back home. Arriving in Bariloche,...we all sat at a outdoor patio and blasted down some ice cold Quilmes beer.

The next day,...rented a car,...and flew outta Bariloche like Batman from his cave. The future unknown,...with a definite scar on my chest,...the scenery en route to Villa La Angostura was amazing. Things were looking up.

Angostura is amazing and upon arrival went into the poshest hotel,...im still not sure why but i guess just to snoop and it looked like it would have a cool view. Walked into the restaurant which is perched on the hills and the most amazing panoramic view of lake nauel huapi with all its mountains in the background. Amazing!!! I really have to use the banos quite badly so this note is going to end soon. Met some cool dudes in the village,...both mtn bikers and they recognized my whistler jacket and went crazy,...they know all the boys,...dave watson, shandro etc etc., and its their dream to hit b.c. for some riding. There is a race this weekend and i will be their to watch and support as the compete in the S.American downhill cup. Ah yes,...did Cerro Bayo yesterday. This is like their Whistler, about the size of Cypress. Hiked to the top,...saw the most amazing AMAZING views of lakes and mountains,...had some deep thoughts,...and then on the way down met this amazing girl named Nadia who promptly asked if id like some of her Mate drink...traditional Argie tea. We did,...hung out,...then went and did some archery,...like bow and arrows at target practice,...then i took off. Banos calling. Pictures to come soon,...i may have a couple here but just realized my first memory stick is elsewhere.

Ciao!

Cabo and Maui

2008-01-05T15:18:00.000-08:00

Well Maui first,...Cabo in a few days!

So,...first things,...as I type this a Romeo and Juliet cigar burns away on my patio in stormy and cold Vancouver BC. So we're keepin the holiday dream alive, slightly.

Maui consisted of a leg to L.A. first where upon a couple phone calls made by Craig Watson, I was bumped to first class on American Airlines. That's the good news. The bad news is coach will never look so un-great going forward in life. First class on American consisted of a private screen thing to keep my neighbor,...that didnt exist, at bay. I put up the screen anyways. Next, my chair completed reclined into a bed which I did immediately after eating a gourmet meal, followed by a vanilla sundae with whipping cream. Ah, I woke up in Maui. Sorry to the mopes (ah including me) that ride coach who read this while biting their tongue, going mccleery you prick, such a nice story but f_ck you anyways.

K,...so I arrived in Maui and spent the first 4 days at the Banana Bungalow Hoste,...wait, gotta puff that cigar or she'll go out. one sec...

Burn on me, it was out.

Ok,...so the hostel living was reminicent of the Che tour in South America. Bunch of hip hops cruising around in flip flops, smokin cigs and basically chillin. And funny enough, the hostel was loaded with a bunch of chileans and argentinians cause of a recent visa promo to get labour into maui. Apparently all of greenspan and bernankes cheap money has everyone awash in cash and on holiday vs. getting their employment on.

Some very hot argie chicks were there which was divine. Other than this,...I toured Paia,...an old hippy town in Maui a couple times,...once alone,...and then once with some peeps i met at the hostel. Paia is very close also to Hookipa, a renowned area for some of the best surfing and windsurfing on the planet. From a comfy vista a watched some action. Coool.

Next,....Iao Valley which is close to the hostel in Wailuku. This was a random trip where i simply got in the rental car and went driving,....boom, found a neat road, kept driving,...ended up at this really cool national park called IAO. Really tall, slim and pointy mountains, deep valley with an amazing river running though it. Walked about,...then rock hopped my way into the middle of the river where i perched for a few minutes, took in all the beauty.

Back to the hostel. Oh first,...a group of funny Korean chicks totally got shy when i was the only boy in their dorm. They kindly asked that i would leave. 2 of them were delightfully cute and i thought i could play soft ball and charming wiseguy. No, they wanted none of it,...giggled and basically blushed and told me to piss off.

Hmmm,....then came the kitchen. I walked bye a girl who was about to sneeze,...soon as i walked by,....i guess too close for comfort,..her sneeze disappeared. Hahaha!!!!! She called me a sneeze stealer and that was that. The ice that broke and we became immediate frieds. Shit, ok i have to save this and come back later. Watson just called the cell phone and we're gonna go lunch with Colby. Back in a day or two with the rest of story and Maui pics! Stay tuned. Well shiiit, probably time for one photo to get you started. Hold....

Ok,...few days have past and I'm desperately trying to remember where we all went for lunch. Ah, just got it. This was when we went for lunch at 4pm and then continued on to Cascade on main street for dinner with Carrie, Dave Valleau, Sheppard, Jon Bell, and crew. Ok, so we started off at Cactus Club then did our thing.

Maui,...ok. So the sneaze stealer chick was Karli Larson from Seattle. We spent some time together and had great conversations. On one particular night we drove from the hostel, banana bungalow in wailuku down to the beach. It was there we decided we were going to make out and have a kiss. Upon arriving at the beach, we sat down on a bench,...looked at the sky and then it rained immediately. Wow, talk about a sign. And so....the night progressed back to the car, and I said hey,...lets go to Lahaina which is about 45 mins drive away. Ok,...onto laihaina where we'd get some dinner and chill etc. Ended up going to a pizza joint where we continued chatting away. Karli had this knack for realing understanding me and/or talking about things that were going on in my mind as if she were telepathic or something. She even brought up topics that I had just read about in a book that day! After dins, we cruised the lahaina stip a bit and went into a really cool art gallery, then got some ice cream,....and then,...on our way back we stopped at that lookout in between the airport and lahaina to apparently kiss. This was extremely funny! It was so planned and so set up that we both couldnt stop laughing. I opened the window and said hey, you gotta ditch the gum in your mouth which she happily horked out which made a funny sound and made us laugh more. OK,...concentrate! here comes that kiss. Picture this: both windows are open,....as im about to make the big move the guy on the radio says,..."Hey,...this is 'between the sheets fat joe' bringin you your next song"....i lost my mind how funny that was,....just when i'm about to move in for the kill,....a breeze comes through the car,...makes karli's hair blow in the wind like in the movies,....and then a cheesy 80's song comes on that goes something like,...'stuck on you....blah blah....etc etc.' Holy crap, ...i lost it again,...we touched lips,...laughed some more and i said,...you know what,...we're both horny little rabbits,...but we're meant to be friends.

So, back to the hostel,....had some leftover pizza from lahaina which i happily took to some stoners at the hostel,...."Nnnnooooo waaaaayyy mannnn,....you got pizzzza,....awesome dude." yeah they had the munchies and when pizza showed up mysteriously they were happy happy happy.

Ok,...so Watson arrived the next day and I was about to go from the outhouse to the penthouse. Meaning,...i was to leave wailuku,....and move into a house in wailea on the golf course. Met watty at the airport, we rented a car,...silver jeep! and then back to the joint. Beautiful pool,...my own room and bathroom, the works. We were happy and stoked. In summary,...we spent 5 days there and basically suntanned hardcore,...ate, drank,...smoked cigars, listened to music, harassed the golfers that went bye our house, floated in the pool, had hot tubs day and night,...oh, and i put a raft in the hottub for the first time -when water leaks on your raft it aint cold!!!!! We were in bed each night before 10, happily 2 single men who couldnt give a rats asss about sperm wars and picking up brawds in town. cigars, sun, sleep.

I forgot to mention the purpose of this whole trip,...besides sun and vitamin D. As we were there in december you might guess it was christmas. well watty and i share a similar philosophy on christmas. avoid that silver bullet at all costs! lineups,...crazy family parties,...traffic, stories whatever. it was the no christmas christmas and we were pumped. the 25th consisted of coffee on the patio,...the odd golfer crusing bye,...sun,....oh and then the blackberry massive text campaign to basically say merry christmas to a bunch of people,...approximate time: 9mins! Then we were done and back to the tropics.

Cabo!

Ah,....good ol' Cabo. Well Cabo was just dandy. My father mentioned to hop on a plane last minute because he was to be at the Sheraton and I could stay at our timeshare. It'd be great. Privacy and no snoring. Well well well,...to my surprise upon arriving at the front desk. My room had already been checked into. Oh i thought, thats just my dad coming in early to get me a new room,...i better drop my bags, read some note, and make plans to meet up later. In my room i go,...ahhh! hey!!!! iiiitttt's my parents....dad laying on the bed,...big smirk.

Well, it really wasnt that bad. i had a pull out couch and hey,...its Cabo!! So our first week consisted of a massive amount of cigar action. 2 a day and sometimes 3. drinks,...chillin bye the pool, dinners at night,....pay per view movies.....essentially just chillin.

We had a cigar roller come to the hotel who happily showed us his skills, sold and gave us a few cigars,...and a picture should follow.

At night time,...we went into town,...once for a steak and lobster dinner,....the sushi another night. sushi, mexico....say that fast 5 times,...sushi mexico,....sushi mexico....yeah, good times. Ah,....then onto the most wonderful cigar lounge ive been to,...pretty sure. Huuuuuge indoor walkin humidor,...all the action,...then nice leather chairs, etc. We all had a puff and even my mom smoked a vanilla minature. Good times.

Drum roll.... Palmilla.

After one week at the time share,...we mozied to one of the best and most famous resorts in cabo. This place is absolutely perfect. We had this most amazing suite,...with a patio, outdoor bed,...lounges,...little fire thing. Very nice,...and at night i'd lay on the lounge or bed,...spend the night there,....and on two occassions saw shooting stars.

Order in movies, food, sundaes,....butler service whatever. This place was prime. The beach was immaculate with spaced out little palm hut things with lounges to chill,....and then these really cool diving pelicans. The seashore is quite beautiful and the resort really does a good job of balancing nature with development.

Poolside and beachside just immaculate,...few pina coladas, cigars and sun. Spa action was standard good times. Massage, steam with ice cloths and cucumber slices, dah dee dah!

Jumped in a Hummer, drove us to the airport,....back to Vancouver. Two days of depression,....ahhh then i had left for maui. I highly highly recommend the back to back vacations. its great for the spririt and your credit card loves the challenge! Get'r done!!

Some more photos if i can,...or i'll make a new post with just photos.

Rmac's goin to Maui

2007-11-27T23:29:00.000-08:00

It has been one heck of a journey,...as all of our lives are quite frankly. We all have various stories and yours and mine are uniquely challenging and our own. Since being back from New York the stock market has been an intense focus. Opportunity, work, work, work... hustle, find a deal,....do your part, and finally hope (or work) to do your best to earn your position and equity. Now comes the fun part (being sarcastic),...out comes yee old fangs, rip and tear, grab what's yours,...grab some more. Well,...hmmmm. Can we be nice, can we be kind, can we trust, respect and share? It would be so nice.

After jamming cortisol levels to extreme, losing weight, grinding, hustling, trying to stay one step ahead in the brisk gerbil wheel I finally took some time to look around, breathe, and wonder. -Why? What for?? Freedom,...I don't really need nor want anything. A recent movie by Sean Penn called Into the Wild; the lead character Chris says, "I don't really understand why everyone treats each other so bad." Well, as many of you know,...combine the works of Eckhart Tolle and a most famous book called 'Sperm Wars' and you'll have your answer.

It's been exhilerating,...but perhaps brain candy,...and perhaps just trying to get ahead and the feeling or elation of winning or building more pac man credits in ones bank account that feels good, and no doubt it does. Somewhere along the pendulum of the balance of life,...abundance is a good thing.

Ahhh, the experience was needed to reach Freedom (sigh, is this getting cheesy or is this real?). The despair of a boss unwilling to share, close friends willing to pounce, legal firms so quickly to charge, or shall I say gouge! Everyone ripping and tearing,...holding and hording. The swim up stream like salmon continues,...and prisoners taketh along the way,...ummm, no.

Will it be with a health company, or being a server at an Aphrodites Cafe,...to be determined. I think i've learned some lessons. Or,...do I ram on,...persevere,...get tough! Do I be a man!!? Well what is the description of a man, integrity, honor and guts,...without being a hippy or martyr?

Here's what a respected associate of mine wrote to me recently which makes perfectly good sense for one willing to stay in the mining finance world:

--

"Ryan, Not to be too cynical but the public market is all about "greed" and almost everyone who is in the market is focused on two things, money and themselves. Its an ugly reality but if you are going to be in this game you will have to build some tough skin. You will find that money gets between friends, colleagues and family in many cases and it is rare when I am impressed with people wanting to share and be fair when it comes to distribution of shares or money. Get use to it. "

In keeping with my granny applesauce's statement to me on one distant christmas or birthday card she wrote: Ryan, stay as nice as you are.

And from a wonderful movie called, 'A Clear and Present Danger,' Harrison Ford when offered a chance to sell out says, "I'm sorry Mr. President but I don't dance.'

Time to move on. A friend recently said a famous quote which coincidentally I just read or saw on a movie the other night: i'd rather die standing than live on my knees.

So the challenge begins to live a fuller live,...one where prudence is key, along with an ability to share, to give, and to help one another. Screw sperm wars, forget the fear, ignore the greed, come to terms and perhaps resist human nature.

Starting in Maui! December 17th - 21st,...and mmmmaybe longer. Hostel for 3 nights,...then the craig watson mansion program.

Aloha!

Psyche

2007-09-05T22:30:00.000-07:00

Well it appeared that closing ceramonies were in action,...though like many shows,...there's an encore. So New York being New York,...and friends that I have here being...I suppose cool,...magically took over and made these last two days awesome. As I type it's now 1:31AM and I've finally finished packing and cleaning the apartment and driver picking me up at 630am,...time will fly and bags under eyes will show.

Anyhoo....So what's happened in the last couple days.

1). Mr. Watson,...Craig'r was in town for one day only,...then he's back next week for the full week. Way to carbon inprint big guy,...haha. Joke. Actually our first hour was spent in the apartment and it was totally 'Zen.' Craig was on his computer and fancy cell phone couch styles,....and I was laying on my bed,...laptop perched up,...on a conference call,...and we both just did our thing for 60 mins without really saying a word. Quite funny. Later that evening, Craig suggested a little tour through Soho and dinner at the Mercer street grill,...something of that nature. It was great,...and funny enough I remembered the place from a trip to New York about 10 years ago. So we had a great dinner, caught up on good times,...then went to a little cafe where we basically had an evening drink on the patio and blatantly perved really hard at anything walking down the street.

The final day (Sept 5, 2007)

2). Today began with meeting Mr. Mark Chan at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel,...at their casual restaurant called Oscar's. Simple enough place,...a menu,...food,...etc etc. The conversation as we both attested to then and there,...and again afterwards via text msg'ing, was totally worldclass. We caught up,...we discussed life, we discussed family, we discussed safety and terrorism, we talked about all the good moments that have taken place in NY in the last 5 months and so on. We hugged outside,...and Mark, clever as always, remembered something I said in conversation and then repeated it as we departed. He said,....Ryan, leave a little on the table,...and enjoy the trip home.

3). Straight from Oscar's and onto the #7 train to Flushing New York,...home of the 2007 U.S. Open Tennis Championships. Bout a 45min ride and one arrives to a massive arena. Met up with my buddy Roman there along with 4 of his other friends,...one being his cousis Vadim that I met (with Roman) on a Brazilian Island called Morro Sao Pollo. So this was a blast to catch up after about 2 years since S. America. So we entered,...got to our seats,...and then watched the end of a ladies match,...and then next up,...mens semi final match. These guys absolutely pound the ball and have serious skill. Was a pleasure to watch and take in the whole experience.

After this,...we decided to head into Brooklyn,...me, Roman, Vadim,...and Roman's really really best and long time friend "Misch" Russian guys.... we went to a place called "L & B" which is apparently the most well known, traditional Italian joint and the story goes etc etc. Did our dinner thing there,...and honestly it really dawned on me then that this whole day was a classic way to say adios to the big apple.

Almost done-ski. Roman had to work at his bar tonight so we drove in from Brooklyn,...saw the Manhattan city waterfront at night,...and then proceeded to get on the Manhattan Bridge which is apparently quite admired and enjoyed by locals. Parked by his bar,...and then basically summed up having a really great summer together,...couple handshakes, hugs, and I made my last walk back from the lower east side (of stanton and crystie area) back to my home. It all becomes nostalgic now i suppose.

So that's that,....been almost 5 months to a 'T' in New York,...an absolutely incredible experience and matter of personal growth in many ways. Oh,...and who could come to this city, go to cooking school without visiting the world famous Anthony Bourdains "Les Halles" restaurant. I chose the one in Wall Street simply because it would be less crowded at night,...and that Wall Street area at night particularly is mysterious as they get. Chicken pomme frites with reduction sauce,...then profiteroles. And,...perfect!

In summary, New York, as far as cities goes, truly is the best on our planet. It is terrifically rich in culture, sports, restaurants, the arts and so on. It many aspects it is an example to the world, in some regards, of how cities should be run. Though our world today, particularly America faces many new, and at times dires challenges. We shall see how the Apple progresses. In the meantime,...I am thankful for what was able to be achieved while living here.

Here's some pics to make up this final post.

Ciao,
Ryan

additonal photos....

2007-08-31T19:23:00.001-07:00

To go along with previous post....

Closing ceremonies

2007-08-31T18:45:00.000-07:00

Well almost,...

In 5 days the Che tour of NYC concludes and then it's back to Vancouver, B.C.. The last remaining days have been busily spent working on a Uranium deal back home, whilst attempting to reminis a little on the whole New York vibe. That being said, it's actually time to go, like now. Let's see,...well no 5 month trip is complete without a little Craig Watson time, and it was starting to look like he was never coming out here. So the phone rings yesterday, and it's Mr. Watson himself, declaring that he'll be out here late Monday night for meetings on Tuesday. So my response was, so I guess we'll let you rest Monday night then when u arrive for your meetings. To which he says, screw that, rest is for cowards,....we go out Monday evening and then do lunch Tuesday.

What's been going on as of late. Well,...about a week ago went to a restaurant called Hearth. This is a fine establishment and a place where I interned for one night. So upon my arrival, I was greeted by the chef de cuisine and he said should i just make dinner for you. Okie doke. Long story short,...and this is no joke,...he prepared so much,...of the nicest food, and in quantity that i just about burst. Gnocci with lobster,...and I mean big lumps of lobster,...towers, duck, sea bass, oysters....and it just kept coming like a convayer belt. Then dessert, two of them. I limped home, and the next day only ate at 4pm.

Let's see,...Oh,...the famous Peter Lugar's steakhouse was in order. My pal Roman and I went there with my 150 dollar gift cert. which was couriered to my shcool via my parents for my Bday. This place is in Brooklyn and about as old school as old school gets. Major steaks, big desserts,...and again, I limped home, ...really. We decided to walk home, over the Williamsburg Bridge to work off some dinner. Big event. Went through little Italy for the first time actually then lay on my bed like a retired Shamu for the San Diego Aquarium.

Next week, attending the U.S. open for a game,...then the following day the journey home begins.

Ah,...I suppose for the golden years a little tidbit on New York. I came to explore chefdom and I leave knowing a few tricks,...possessing a continued hobby, acknowledging a deep respect for the people that make up the kitchen and so on... The amount of wonderful moments had in this city have been astounding. From NY Rangers game, to Yankees games, to the Beastie Boys in Central Park,...to a random walk through Washington Sqr one summer evening to see a group of people chillin out and singing. Many walks through the city,...along the water, Batter Park,...and Wall St just as the sun goes down and the mystical darkness begins to bless the skyscrapers and tight streets. Dinners.....ahh,..well then. Mangiami,...the hip,...totally funky italian joint on lower east side near Roman's bar, Babbo- Mario Batali's flagship joint that makes absolutely perfect food, Katz's deli which has been around before the movie, 'Gangs of New York'.....oh, and who could forget the insanely upper class, upper eastside,....totally park ave set Bergdorf Goodmans' cafe. I've been I think 4 times now to eat these perfectly symetrical and skinny sandwiches that the richest ladies in the big apple manage to chew on whilst maintaining their makeup/botox. It's actually a cultural experience down in the basement of Bergdorf's chowing down. What else,...the subway rides- that heat underground and the smell of subway air will stay with anyone for life,...not exactly bad nor good,....just unique! Then there was the getting caught in the rain with thunder,....letting go of being caught and just enjoying the rain and getting totally soaked. This was fun. Trips to central park etc etc etc. Oh,...and then the purpose of all this, school! All in all,...and part of the whole ny thing,...and overall growth experience. There have been many boiyant moments, trying moments etc etc. And now, its time to come home. As a fellow traveller said in Brazil once: define home. Hah! Definitely ready to hit it though. Like 100%.

Bunch of pics,....including,....my Russian guy across the street kiddy corner who amused me with his boozing antics, cussing,...and the odd time,....just very rarely just a tad of human kindness. Another photo most amusing is the 'Chinese school for kids' poster advertised in Soho. Notice that every single tab has been torn off. China will be the next Super Power,...it is coming so do what the famous Jim Rogers is doing,...get a chinese nanny (no joke) and get them started as infants! Then a photo,...actually my favorite the day I recently toured the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The "Peno's" are here,...the Peno's are here!!!!

2007-08-23T09:50:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes,....Peno Sr., Mrs., and Jr., came to NYC bout 2.5 weeks ago. Wedding schtick. T-Do also did a little business for his new fund and so in between that hectic schedule I managed to meet up with them for a Soho tour, and for a bite to eat. For dinner we all went over to Mark and Emily's place,...had some chinese food, wine and actually an extraordinary night. So good to stay in once and awhile and chill with friends. After piling on the chinese we were all full. Then I pulled out the Ben' n Jerry's Ice cream and we were no longer full. Two massive scoops each of vanilla and cookie dough dynamo and it was on.

Ok...what else...well there's always central park and for I think the third time since being here Mark Em, the kids and I went for a little tour on a casual Sunday afternoon. There's some great pictures of Mom and Aggie looking on at the Merry-Go-Round at the park. And actually a great story goes along with this little version of playland. Goes like this: months and months went by as people organized then re-organized how to a). clear some land, b). buy some really big moving toys, and c). open the amusment park. Thennnn even more time went by and nothing was done. ENTER DONALD TRUMP. He walks in, says you guys are a bunch of mopes,...you give me 90 days and i'll have this all drafted up, approved and done! In return for,....Innnn rrrreeeeturnnnn for,....my tower across the street on 5th ave,....yes Trump Tower,....I want additional air space,...meaning another 10 floors. City says, "alright wiseguy,...you think you can do all this then you're on." Trump tower is 10 floors higher. The American dream prevails,...ooohrah!

Ok,...Master Chan was up for another Yanks game and so....we went. You ever want to see this guy get nervous,...just watch the expression on his face when I have to hit the street and corner off with some scalper guy to buy tickets. I think Mark thought we time-warped back about 10 years ago to the streets of Medellin or something. Nerrrrvous. Awesome! K, after thinking we were gonna get stiffed,...we all entered the yanks game to the bleacher section. This is where all the roudy Brooklyn hoodlums and drunks go. $6 tickets and actuallly best seats in the house.

Next,...in the west village where I live they have this fence dedicated to the victims of 9/11. Tiles for America its called and there's all kinds of wonderful messages from many kind people. So I walked up, very quickly (trying not to look like a tourist) and snapped a random picture. How coincidental that of all the tiles,...I capture one with a Canadian flag! Kinda neat.

2007-08-12T08:39:00.000-07:00

Ah,...Coach is coming to Greenich Village,....this is for Patrick and Naoko. Their location is sweet, and as always their marketing and branding is top notch....have a look.

Ok,...and just one more shot. This is a ground view,...or ant's eye view from a lecture room at my cooking school. Every now and then I would retreat to this place,...often accompanied by one of the Mexican dishwashers (it seemed we both shared a philosophy of peace and quiet) to chill. The room was for the most part totally silent and a good battery recharge when class got hectic with 16 kids chasing the same spatula or just a room piled full of estrogen driving me nucking futs! So this was the view,....this is what I looked at to meditate: An exterior,...vertical view,....of our neighbours building. It was interesting and relaxing to stare at the bricks,...the little window ridges, and sometimes cracks,....and think. Sometimes wondering how old the building was,...or how many times it has endured really cold or harsh winters,....blah bee blah.....oops its been 20 minutes, probably best to get back to class.

Beastie Boys,...other randoms

2007-08-12T08:14:00.000-07:00

Facebook moment part deux.... Little Peno Dowle (Ainsley) was in town for a few days with Mom,...suggested we go to the Beastie Boys concert. Ok. After a brief (but what seemed long) scalper 'back and forth' we picked up two tickets. The concert was boutique in style and set outdoors in Central Park, at 69th and 5th Ave. After we whacked back a couple of beers,...boom, it was on. A few pics are provided.

Hmm, what else,...basically a couple random ny shots. And,...a couple from a previous story of hoodlums: Sharon and Gargee that visited in late July. The pics of Sharon are what I called, 'The Versace Heroine Model Shoot' ....although in retrospect this seems kinda harsh or inappropriate,...but they do look like fashion from like 3 years ago where burnt out hot babe sold clothing to the Sunset Blvd crowd.

Ahh, then yesterday the famous Balthazar Restaurant was in order. This is where famous people like Jerry Seinfeld and the like have been spotted. Oh my Gahhhhd. Ennnghh, I suppose it was good! Eggs florentine, Panna water, and the Balthazar salad. Oh yeah,....but the point of writing all this is for the photo included,.... on the way to the restaurant there was this little wound-up and ambitious dog hangin his body outside of a taxi cab. It's the funniest thing.

K, what else....oh a couple shots cruising along Houston Street. You'll see the basketball court and open space. This is, like so many things NY, 'famous.' Bourdaine mentions it in his cooking books about how pros sometimes come down and play here, and overall it host tournaments for some of ny's finest leagues.

photos....some may follow in additional post.

Ciao

stars

2007-08-04T22:19:00.000-07:00

So what's new,.... Well, we had Mrs. Sharon Pike and Gargee (her friend) in New York last week. They crashed at 45 Carmine,...and crash is a light word seeing their unruly behavior! By the time I got off work,...met these two gals for a couple drinks,...Sharon had already managed to ditch her underwear and tuck them neatly in Gargee's purse. Something about lines showing in the skirt. Either way,...big points for gong show. They were hilarious and clearly loving life. So we all had a nice chat,...shared a bottle of vino,...and then it was escort time,...first to 'Famous Joe's Pizza' at Carmine and 6th Ave,...then back to the apartment where my living space got hit by their hurricane antics.

Last night,...It was Miss Ali Cunningham's turn to visit the city,...one week later. What a treat,...(gosh this sounds dorky now,...like i'm a grandfather telling a story),...but it was fun. Very good to catch up,...and I love hugging this girl. Good connection I suppose. Hmm, so we met in the meatpacking disrict, with Brenner and her friend Molly. We lasted at this one bar for about 15seconds,...and then moved on to Fredericks,...a local hip restaurant on Hudson street for a couple more bevies,...and then we headed home. Really short and sweet.

Last night of course is another reason to celebrate,...it was our graduating 'Friday Night Dinner' at school. This was a really big deal for most of the students, especially a fellow classmate Molly who had the biggest outburst of joy for having reached her dream of attending culinary school and of course making it through this final night. Basically we did about 90 covers,...4 course meal. The starter was an antipasti plate consisting of a couple purees,...sauteed mushrooms and crisp crackers made of quinoa and millet,...with rosemary. Then came the salad. This was what me and my partner Rachel were responsible for. Seems like a non event but I'll tell you,...matchsticking carrots and beets for 100 guests is a major thing. We then perfected the dressing which was a thyme, garlic, lemon, olive oil program. All served on a bed of baby arugala with pea shoots,...and ontop,...insanely thin sliced Shitake mushrooms that get lightly oiled then dried in the oven for like 20 minutes....hint they taste like bacon a bit. Following this was our main which was a Ratatouillie. Totally random too considering their is a major motion picture out right now called 'Ratatoullie" Anyhooo,....it was done with a zucchini and pasta mix with a tomatoe sauce,..with onion garlic herbs etc. Dessert was a chocolate cake with berries and flambayed peaches. Crowd loved it.

I mentioned my salad partner earlier named Rachel. The next part of the blog is a series of people or events,...that have recently really reminded me of what life is all about. So starting with Rachel,....just a story about peaking with a wicked good,...and emotionally high encounter in new york. Again,...I guess these stories are all here for when i'm old,...or have my next Memento moment and forget. Anyhoo,...Rachel is a gal that is in the same class. An extraordinary gal in many ways and here's the kicker. Basically for the longest time I figured this girl totally hated me. Not disliked,...but hated me. Turns out I was partially right cause I asked a few of my 'Sperm Wars' type questions early in our semester and she thought I was wierd and robot like. Annnnyyyyyhoo,...the point of all of this is that after class on thursday we shared a drink and had really interesting conversation, shared laughs and stories dah dee dahhhh. Oh yeah, my point to all of this. How interesting to have the guts to leave Vancouver,...leave a lame'o life/career and pursue something you've been thinking about for a long time. Think of all the cool people you meet, the experiences, the bonds made etc. Oh yeah when the conversation got interesting or just deep (emotionally perhaps) she shivers. Really. Quite hilarious, actually i know the feeling.

Ok, ...next: my pal Roman. About a month ago I we had dinner at Mangiami,...the place we've been to many times,...Crystie and Stanton Streets,..right near his bar called 212,...which I get into easy all the time cause he's the bartender n'shit. awesome. Anyhow,...this one particular night,...we had dinner,....great conversation about life, career, travel....and at the end of it all,...we did one of those hugs between bros....kinda like bouncers do,...half hug with a 'what up brother' hand shake,...basically its when two guys wanna say, 'hey man...wicked to see you,...and i love you and all but,...lets just not look wierd in the process of saying goodbye' Anyhow, that joke and explanation aside,...it dawned on me as i walked away,...on a wonderful new york evening that 'this is the rub.' that's it. that's what so much of life is all about. Good people,...those moments,...friendship, trust,...all that.

Ok,....there was definitely a 'rub' moment last night when in the middle of our school Friday Night Dinner,...I looked around the kitchen as everything was hectic and thought,...here i am man,...new york city, getting it done. And then...tonight,...working at Mas (where i'm interning) I had another one of these. The kitchen crew at Mas is just as good, and perhaps better at times than some of the Anthony Bourdain stories of Kitchen Confidential. The language,....the jokes,...the grind,.....the wit,....the toil,...the everything. Like take for example,...the bartender walks into the kitchen,...kinda like friendly of course,....but kindof a dork trying to be hip. This is dynamite, bait,...or an excuse or whatever one calls it for a highly wittly sous chef and kitchen alpha male to tear into.

I still don't know if this is all for me,...but one thing i can say is that the moments, particularly like tonight at Mas will always be remembered. Class new york tales of fast hot kitchens,...oh yeah,...hot fcuking servers,...the best cuisine,...and the leadership coming from our head chef named Galen Zamarra- a guy who won the James Beard award for best chef. Basically this means he's the fcuking shhit. The kicker here is that Galen is 'yes' committed to a-1 product and presentation, though he pulls it off with a mellow demeanor complimented once and awhile with wit,...laughter amongst the group, jokes,... He's a classic serious, but funny, mellow guy who has some dale carnegie intelligence about him. Like at the end of the night for example,...he hollars to the bar to come bring us all some beers. So looking around this small kitchen you see a whole slew of characers,...guys, and a couple gals from all walks of life,...wound up, but tired at the same time, sweaty, hot,....proud but also tired and ready to fcuk off back home so they can sleep. The closest thing I can imagine is this is what people in the army feel out on duty. These people become your family and your side,....the people you all must work with and rely on during the intensity. Orders are hollered out,...food is timed,...pans are hot,...the whole thing. So oh yeah, back to the point of all of this,.....this is the rub. Looking around the kitchen,...I just thought to myself,...here we are in life,...doing this thing,...it was pretty cool. I think if more people could taste this that maybe we'd be happier. Oh god, now we're pushing things and getting a little hippy and esoteric etc. You know why? I just though about the hard work i did tonight- romance or toil,...or both? Hey, one last tidbit,...and something that Anthony Bourdain spoke of to a Tee! On mexican and ecuadorian workers- Yes, truly the best. Best work ethic,...content. Fast,...yeah i'll say again, fast mothers and they gett'r done bigtime. Pictures to follow soon...

few more random photos...

2007-07-26T16:35:00.000-07:00

one of a blackberry crisp done with a fellow student named Alexis Blake. Alexis is totally hilarious and the sweetest girl. We had to do an improv class with a bunch of random ingredients,...and we decided to tackle dessert. There you have a naturally sweetened blackberry peach crisp,...with a peach reduction sauce lining the plate. We were quite thrilled, so much so that we took the rest of the week off.

The other photos....oh just some memory lane for when i'm old. A couple of the subway hall that I walk every morning so that one day I can remember,...one of a superman (who's been a bit of a metaphor lately,....just ask my colombian princess Any for details),...and a couple other random shots. Oh,...and can you spot the "American, I mean...Canadian Psycho?"

Ciao

Brad-dog!

2007-07-26T16:06:00.000-07:00

The visitors keep piling on to NYC. Just last week, Brad and his lovely fiance Laura decided to do a week in New York,...and, New York they did. Upon arrival they dropped their bags at their hotel and proceeded straight to Saks Fifth Avenue and from the damage I saw, and the smoke coming out of his back pocket (where he keeps his wallet) it appears they are now 'preferred customers' on fifth avenue.

School proceeded as usual during the days, and then a couple times during the week we hooked up for dinners. Then came the grand finale,...breakfast at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. I guess I made an impression on Brad during the Canaccord days, because he sure treated me well in my own city. The Ritz is now on the top 5 moments of all of New York because it simply is a happy zone. Everything works,...and its when you're there that you realize, everything could quite possibly end at any moment,...and you might actually not care, but more precisely you might actually be happy. Kind of like leaving Wimbledon with an Ace. Let's talk french toast. Actually lets not,...but rather assume with great accuracy that this average, no big deal of a meal our whole lives was made extraordinary at the Ritz. Then the eggs benny. Artwork is divine,...and Jose brewed the most insane tea that they make away from the table and then just pour for you. Ok, enough.

After our Ritz action,...we subwayed up to the Bronx for an afternoon Yankees game! This is pretty insane because this most famous stadium is about to be demolished to make way for a brand new stadium which is being erected across the street. I suppose, lucky to taste a little history before she's caput! Typical of all games,...we hit the Nathan's Famous foot long hotdogs,...and beers. Standard action that just has to be done. After 6 innings, we decided we had our fill and hit the trail. Funny enough, ...the Yanks then went on to score another 19 runs,....yes,...19 runs. Wow.

From our discussions, it appears Brad and Laura had an amazing time and now rate NYC as one of their faves. From Central Park bike rides (umm, the kind where u sit in the back and some dude pedals you around), to the meals, to the shopping it appears they are hooked.

What else is new?? School is wrapped up in about 2 weeks! Phew,...this will be nice. There is a lot of estrogen at my school, so lets just say it will be a much needed break when she's all done. I've been interning at a couple really nice restaurants here in NYC and so far so good. Oh,...Sharon Janzen arrives in a few days for a visit,...promptly followed by Ali Cunningham from London. Good to have the company.

A few photos to accompany this post,...and a few photos that show a 'big walk' done last weekend,...around 7pm I suppose,...the sun is shining on the buildings of Tribeca and Battery Park, and it was amazing...

Thanks everyone

2007-07-16T21:23:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody,...thanks for the birthday wishes and good vibes... Gordon Gekko once took a birthday card from an aspiring Bud Fox, and said surrrrrprize me its my birthday,....then promptly shredded the card. There was always something satisfying about this in a 'vacant' sort of way,...perhaps a shield to protect your heart,...and feel tough in the event that nobody likes you,...or that for some reason,...you wake up one day,...look like Mr. Burns from the Simpson's,....actually have no friends,....and resort to kicks and good times from the ZZZZZssssssiiiiisssszzzzztttTTT sound of a Home Depot Shredder.

Well,...facebook was overwhelmed as was an email inbox of all yall saying what's up and happy bday,...so thanks for the messages. New York at 32 has been quite fun. A few gals took me to a Cuban bar for some mohjitos after school and then back to their place for more drinks "etc." Got pretty looped and then went to meet my pal Roman for dinner. Apres that,...met Mickayla and this other dude for some drinks at Daddy'O which is our neighborhood pub. All in all, a surprizingly and much appreciated birthday,...it all worked out and was good times. If anything, it was a learning experience of how fun bday's are,...and to share some high fives and hoorahs to everyone else when its their bday time. attention central,...and it feels good!

here's a couple pixs from the day.

ciao

Adopt the pace of nature

2007-07-15T17:12:00.000-07:00

Mas farmhouse went well. www dot masfarmhouse dot com. The atmosphere was fun, professional, tight...and family like...a great kitchen. I did my best to work hard, be of service, STAY outta the way as the new comer, and basically to show respect. It appears things went swell because I've been invited back. So, we'll see,...this great restaurant is one block from Carmine St. where I live.

Today was random day. Long walk down through an area that is between Hudson Street and Battery Park, quasi financial district. There was actually an area that had a street so empty and so quiet that it was rather peaceful, so much so that i did a complete "U" turn, ...walked back, stared....then took a picture. In fact, it may be the area where Al Pacino drove the Ferrari in Scent of a Woman.

The walk continued to a grassy area,...beginning of batter park, with views across the water to Statue of Liberty. Then after a couple hours of reading a new book, compliments of Mark Chan,....the venture continued along the water and it resembled Yaletown in Vancouver,....the marina area.

Onwards into Wall Street, the NYSE...and then finally on the way home I walked by an apartment bldg, where they kept their garbage outside and saw a framed picture that said the following: "Adopt the pace of nature, her secret, patience." -Ralph Waldo Emerson. I walked back, crouched down,...took a look....went hummm, interesting,...then moved along. I suppose in general and on that particular day this quote was needed. I was lost a little at the time, and about to lose my mind a bit, so I guess the quote came in handy. So here's the cool part,...walking past that sign about 1.5 blocks I came out of the residential area, and back onto 7th ave and sitting inside a Starbucks,....right in a windom seat was a guy that tatooed on his arm read, "Patientia."

I know,.....whhhoooooooooo

Ok, back to the apartment,...get some food and then we'll see. Here's a few photos on the day: NYSE, the Bull, Scent of a Woman Ave.,...a park with some strict rules to enforce the quality of the grass,...you'll see the sign... oh and one more: Cloe The Deal,...by Tiffany & Co. I've been thinking about some missed,...or better said, untaken opportunities which was plaguing my mind minutes before walking bye this sign with a friendly reminder!

As Good As It Gets

2007-07-12T21:00:00.000-07:00

Ok,....so tonight Mark's little girl counted to 10 in english, chinese and spanish. I'd say there's another genius brewing in the Chan Finklestein household. Very cool. We had a wonderful chinese dinner, followed by fresh sweet mango and then ice cream.

Updates: if you desire, google: Mas farmhouse New York, and Hearth New York,....both of these kind and generous restaurants have offered 'trail' sessions so I can go being the intern portion of the culinary program. Both are really hip, quasi upscale places in nyc so very lucky.

That's my barber in the final picture....Just today I noticed the name at the top of the awning,..."Little Tony & Igor Be Good." Inside is Salvatore,...or Sal. He's my guy,...cuts my hair,...we chat a little,...he has a stack of Playboys,...and the place is so Italy meets New York its just awesome.

Couple random photos for spud's pleasure and other people's leisure. Ciao!!

Sunset Hudson River

2007-07-08T20:18:00.000-07:00

Out front door, right on Bedford, one block, across 7th ave., about 3, maybe 4 blocks,...aqua. Nice boardwalk, couple grassy areas,...the ol' school piers from yesteryear,...and a long pier, look left statue of liberty. Ben n' Jerry's chocolate brownie ice cream, chhhhhhiiiiiiillllllll. Few pics,...back home, lil sushi at Tomoe,...some lovely facebook action. Bbbbllllllog. Ciao.

Coney Island and the Ditch Dog

2007-07-05T19:42:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

Quick entry here. In New York, they have this thing each and every year called the hotdog eating contest. It's a really big deal, so big infact there's a massive digital billboard at Coney Island with the countdown. So my pal Roman and his sis took me there last weekend for a little tour of the beach and the infamous Coney Island theme park. Oh, and almost forgot,...we hit the traditionally famous "Nathan's" for a hotdog. It was my first time hearing about this joint and people were like,...."Ahhhhh" like in a panick way that I was missing an element of life,....so,.....I put the whole natural cooking school on hold and downed a Nathans hotdog! And, you know what, it was lovely.

Burp.

The boardwalk is right along the beach and its quite a trip to be out of the big city and walking along the beach. Actually it feels like being in California.

Ah, the night before Independance Day... Dan (Nick Sheppards cousin), Monique (Dans GF) and I had a wonderful dinner at their place. This thing called a 'skirt steak' which as Dan joked because of its sheer size and demeanour looks like we attacked some poor fellow in a lane and voila, dinner is served. K, that was gross but you get the point. Despite all the hoopla the dinner was actually delicious,...and then game the gongshow. One bottle of vino turned into a few,...and then at around 2a.m. I was told about the "Ditch Dog." The DD is something that locals know about only. So much so, that when you order it in the restaurant, the waiter will usually take a shot at you and be like,...one ditch dog per person? To which you say, we're sharing, and then he knows that you're not a mooch. Ok, the reason is this: A Ditch Dog is massive and consists of two hotdogs,...sitting on a bed of french fries,...and then covered in Mac 'n Cheese. In Vancouver we hit late night pizza, Soo-hang Chinese, or maybe poutine,...in the West Village of New York, people hit the Ditch Dog and its a hammering to the hangover devils in your gut like no other.

Enjoy the pics and chat soon. Oh, Sharon J in nyc in 2.5 weeks, as well as Ali Cunningham....should have some more stories to tell by then. Ciao!

Earthquake

2007-06-30T18:07:00.000-07:00

Hola,

A few photos and the stories behind them. The dark and stormy picture is what's been titled "The Dark and Stormy." This was taken last Wednesday evening from the patio of La Zie Restaurant. Shortly after it poured rain, let loose some thunder and blew up a storm. Made for a refreshing dinner outside!

Ah, and then today (Saturday) Scotty Earthy was in the big apple with Carolyn. She's here for a wedding shower, and Scott's here to see Rmac, why else. So we spent part of the afternoon going for a quick walk to Whole Foods at Columbus Circle, and then back to their apartment which in hindsight I wish I took a few photos! Amazing, and wonderful views of all of New York. Anyhoo, a couple shots of Chan and Scott from 57th and 6th Ave.

Scott and I then called Travis in Vancouver and basically harassed him. I wish I had pictures!

Other than that, school is status quo,...just getting ready with my group for our graduation 'Friday Nt. Dinner' plans. Doing the city as usual with plans up and coming for 4th of July,...perhaps a rooftop party, fireworks etc,...or a Brooklyn backyard BBQ with my friend Roman and peeps. Other news,...July 31st Sharon Janzen and Gargee will be staying chez Rmac in the west Village for a couple nights. Something about an FDA surprize vitamin inpection of my apartment.

Cheers all

Desserts!

2007-06-25T12:55:00.000-07:00

Here's a few pics of a dessert I had to do in class today. If you're just seeing this blog in a long time,...make sure you scroll down to see Sharon's wedding pic in the park and Mark Chan's first pedicure.

oh hey, while we're goin here,...just recently come across some new photos,...some from class, some of the New York Rangers Stanley Cup playoffs game at Madison Sq. Garden (which we won 2nd overtime!),...one of a guy on the street carrying beer in his child stroller,...and well,...you know.

Cheers!

weddings and pedicures

2007-06-24T21:46:00.000-07:00

Hi Folks,

Well a couple updates are in order. Mr. and Mrs. Sharon Janzen finally tied the not! OohRah! Haha,...I gave her a bone there cause she's decided to keep her last name- Ballbreaker to the alter,...keeping with Shar styles, nice. Ok, ok....so onto the wedding. Despite all the weather forecasts calling for rain,...rain and more rain,...the respectfully quaint and peaceful ceramony was under a dry sky at jericho! The ducks made a few complimentary quacks in the background while Pike-ah most gracefully showed his true feelings to Sharon while saying 'i do.' Translation,...he shed a couple tears,...kinda Coldplay, "The Scientist" styles. Sharon lapped it up,...and knew for certain, now 100% that it was on like donkey kong.

Oh yeah,...just a quickie to our boy CT upstairs,...I knew his wonderfully skilled hands, and eye coordination would assist in keeping the clouds at bay at the raindrops on hold just until the ceremony was done,...and the groom, bride and whole crew had enough time to get in the Trolley bus and head over to Main St. for the reception. I, on the other hand had driven in a wonderfully powered S-Class Mercedes Benz and trolleyed myself,...equally fun,...because newly employed New York City cab driving skills were employed to bust German steel rage on Vancouver drivers caught in the Twilight zone of: I think i'm still from the old school driving in 1952, or wait,...is this 2007 and time to haul ass. Ah, bravado in Daddy's car,...yer f'in rights!

The wedding ceremony was superb,...nick monohan and gargee gave exceptional speeches respectively to the groom and bride,...and Jeff mccracken and i (wellllll lets face it, Jeff M) kept the MC clean and we managed to make it through the evening without making Sharon cry. I've done enought Psyche in my life,...not the class at Uvic i skipped relentlessly,...but in my own readings in the last decade,....and one thing i've learned is that people secretly bring drama into their lives,....why? because they want the action dodo,...why else? So in true form,....after travelling to buck-ah luck,...and living in somalia and sudan,...sharon hires Jeff McCracken,...and her secretly admired Republican advocate, McCleery to MC her wedding. Hahahahaha.....yes, she rides the edge,...because she can,...and with skill. Cracko, much more so than me,...pulled off a decent MC performance and kept the show clean.

Oh yeah,...back to the ceremony,...I have one picture taken from my cell phone which i anticipate will show well on the interenet,....here goes!

And now, for another topic,....today was gay pride parade, day in NYC. No big thing, unless of course your peno and piller. haha, kidding,....ahhhh bout kidding. Ok,...no big thing,...but how funny that today mark chan says to me today (after doing the Modern Museum of Art no doubt),....hey Ryan,....have you ever had a pedicure before? I gotta say,...this is kinda my earlier wiseguy life,....but keeping to honesty i said,...yeah mark,...of course,....and massage and facials and manicures etc. Whoa, he said,....just one thing at a time,....but Ryan,,...i think i want to get a pedicure today. Dont ask,...what will be will be. So we walk one block from his house and i'm warming mark up to the experience. Like for instance,...you'll have some mags to read while sitting in massive lazy boy chairs that have built in massagers. Not like some radioshak stiff brand either,...but i mean massagers. The kind so strong with rolling balls that you thing they have a little person inside using the balls of their feet for real!

We round the corner and true to form we see a salon with exactly the picture i just implanted in chan's mind. And ladies and gents,...pictures to prove it. Here all, here all,....witness mark chan getting his firts pedicure. An awesome man to man experience,....all done with our masculenity in check on gay pride day in Nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu Yawwwwwwwk city. Oh,...he's goin back next week. loves it.

Me,...im a chef now,...that shyte is for pusssies.

Hmmm, on the cooking front,.....i wont bore you, .....i'll dial it up when in person,....lets just say for starters that i made an apple galette and gluten free chocolate cake last week that made the instructors feel a little nervous. then i was like eh! ...you know the trick about using a cold bowl and cold blender blades for making whipped cream! sort of like a really obvious statement just to bust their balls. The give me a look of like,....damn you are a funny son of a bittch slash,....im desperately going to fail your next assignment you snooty prick. All in fun,...Love is the name of the game. Wow, now that sounded a little pedicure'ish.

ciao all

Vegas

2007-06-13T16:55:00.000-07:00

So first off,...hoorah to Scotty Earthy for having a stag! Yeehaw!!!!! And a second hats off to Mark Chan for getting his action together very last minute to make Scott's stag. I mean it's Deeeeek,...and what else you gonna do. So Mark and I borded Delta Airlines flight 95 on a foggy New York afternoon. Yup, tarmack for 2 hours prior to departure,...so we sat patiently,...acted pretty wierd,...whacked back a couple beers and then boom,...Vegas!

Vegas was to be sweet, cause it was gonna have everyone from Travis, aka Peno. A few people asked on the trip,....eh! why's his name Peno. Well lets' begin. Playboy Club 1st night. Chan (ironically enough,...the first guy to ask why he's called Peno) comes up to me,...actually quite pissed off with a bleeding hand and says,....what the Faaaaaa,...Travis is such an idiot. he just shoved me into that wall. So i looked at Peno and saw a guy with his hair standing straight up,...a huge grin,...bouncing off his beer glass and Earthy's shoulder looking like,....well looking like I dunno,....but i'm pretty sure he didnt remember Mark and the wall,...but it was all from good intentions and love. Mark meet Peno, Peno meet mark.

Ok, back to vegas,...so who else was there,....for starters, our organizer craig watson. Craig was the first to greet me there starting with a call to my cell phone while i was in a cab from the airport to the Hard Rock Hotel where we were staying....something along the lines of, "Rmac,...hey,....ok, where the fcuk are you,...idiot. We joke this way (really)...its a saints thing, quasi lord of the flies. Anyhoo,....McCleery where are you, hurry up we got a limo waiting out front with everyone in it. But I gotta shower Craig,.... "no, screw that,...upstairs,....Irish Shower, brush your teeth and pants,....go hurry." Ok. Done. Waddy and I meet in the lobby, hug,....whats up etc then make our way to the limo.

It's bout as long as a winnebago with a guy named 'Truck' standing out front who Craig intros to me immediately. Truck is an ex U.S. Armed forces soldier,....now Nick LeShay's main man for security slash straightening out whatever you need from bar hosting,....to walking us through clubs and ensuring a good time,....meaning a good booth for bottle service,....and then broads. Yes, really. Things looking a little empty,...no sweat, Truck gets on the go, and finds anything blonde, hot brunette or just overall bubbly and high heeled that enjoys a booth full of Veuve and 900 dollar grey goose, ....meaning, chicks. Boom.

Ah, ok....so Playboy Club. Long story short we overall just have a boozy time. i bumped into laylands friend,...the tall blonde guy that plays on the l.a. lakers starting team that we met at new years. fluke. I should have told him that i'm in love with his friends girlfriend,...the dancer for the hollywood fame and perhaps he could hook that up. money.

Peno and I nailed the dancefloor and had 3 african american chicks rockin. After about a half a song and being exposed to peno and the rmac tornado they took a moment to talk to one another. Peno looks at me and says,....okay, any minute now and they're like totally all over us. I totally agreed and was like,...yyyeahhh. We both shoulder check and without hesitation all 3 of these booty-licious brawds scurried away off the dance floor. We RRRRRRR so hip.

Ah, i'm trying to remember the rest right now. Bed at 6am and that was that. ZZZZzzzzz,...ready for day one,...poolside hardrock cafe hotel.

I'm rambling so here comes the speedy. Ok, day at the pool, cabana etc. Peno was peno. Colby was colby and quasi peno after dumping water and beer on me twice. I filled the champagne bucked with water and ice and nailed colby superbowl celebration styles. It looked like the incredible hulk getting angry, dying, laughing all at the same time. Colby wasnt sure if he should kill me,...slip into one of his nerd rages or laugh and be nice. He was mostly nice, but i saw the green eyese and was wary.

Ok....that night we rock the Wynn Hotel. Steakhouse first and then on to Tryst, the most hip bar right now in Vegas. Ok,...at dinner we saw Steve Wynn himself sitting 2 tables away from us. Very cool. I always found it interesting to look at him and wonder his thoughts. Like,....hey,...im sitting in this joint,....eating a steak dinner,...and all this shhiit around here i helped create. Cool.

Then a table away from there the lady who plays the wife of harrison ford in Patriot Games was dining,....she's also the wife to micheal douglas in Fatal Attraction. She's very cool. I dont know her,....she's just cool.

Ah,....on to Tryst. K, the quick name drop to get in over with and satisfy the "Us Magazine" in all of us. Keyshaun Johnshon,...football player,....and then a bunch of basketball players,....oh,...and then me. Ok,....this place is action central and like all the top bars there everyone wants to get in and theres huge lines. Watson had us dialed all the way,....and Truck was there for the intel and muscle. We walked in easier than,...than,....well i dont know. Just no,....i mean zero agro. Those little red ropes and vip lines to bust everyones balls were like dental floss and we were twin diesel hummvies blasting through. Escorted straight to our vip booth and bottle service which included a blonde girl,...doing quite well up front,....pouring us drinks etc. Truck stands at the opening of the booth to scurry away any rif-raf that's like,.....oh,....i was just looking for..... Beat it says truck,.....they smiling and shaking his head,....all the while being so friendly,....but just kinda being our guy making sure,....our booze is our booze,....and all those blonde chicas that just entered, are OUR blonde girls bilking our booze for entertainment. haha. anyhoo.

Oops, forgot something. back to night one. Chan After enduring 2 hours on the tarmack at jfk and then a 6 hour flight partied with us for 5 hours then rushing back to the airport to get home to his wife and kids. Quote un-quote: I only have the weekends to be with the kids so i gotta get home. Mark, print this out and save for some dark and strormy get out of jail free pass. That being said, Em is the nicest gal i've ever met,....really. Mark doesnt need no get outta jail cards. Well hang on,...yes he does,...ive seen it first hand, but Mark deserved the shame. Ok kids,...we're at Bergdorf Goodmans in new york. Fanciest mall in the world. We all have brunch and then are leaving. Chan gets the elevator. Elevator arrives. Mark gets in and little Aggie,...his daughter stares kinda interested and then the doors start to close. Mark kinda goes,....Doh! panick,...doors almost take off little aggies fingers,...i mean little Aggie! I saw a different Em! haha,....still nice, but kinda like,....mark.......if you pull one of those again.....haha

Hmmm, ok.....last day of Vegas,...the boys all did Rehab at hard rock. For those who need a filling in,....Rehab is the most desired thing in all of nevada, and perhaps the US of A to do on a Sunday. Imagine a poolside where every square inch of space is rocking,....I MEAN rocking! with boom boom boom,....and chicks,...and booze,....and dental floss, and cabanas full of champagne. You get the drill.

While it was a tough decision,....i let the boys have this victory to themselves,...and after partying straight through the night went to the airport for my 730am flight home to nyc. i had cooking class the next day! You know when u go to the airport and there's and the waiting area at the gate is pure,....clean,....and empty and you're like,.....ahhh,...im just gonna lay down here on the ground and wait for my flight. Well i did this. Fell asleep,....and then boom,....flight 96 to jfk is about to board blah blah,.....then u have a spud moment from trainspotting where you go,.....Uhhh! Wake up, look around,...and you got middle america with kids, hats, decks of cards with holes in them,....and slot machines nearby going,...."WWWWheel Offf Fortune!" Scrape yourself off the floor, stay calm like no big thing, which it really wasnt,....in that shape who really cares right. Then put on your shades and sorta walk up to the gate. Burp.

New York! Arrived,....took in the subway and ended up chatting to this really cute black gal at the subway station. She was married but james bond prefers this so me too. Anyhoo,....i just wrote this so i'd remember that. She kinda woke me up because she had a nice smile,...and my thoughts, well my thoughts...... Well the subway arrived. Ended up chatting now with this guy who was killing some time before his flight to Jordan. I have to admit,....i was totally like Bauer from 24 all,....whaever. Anyhoo,....he was a really cool dude, and lives in Austin Texas doing his ph d in neurology. We talked about mri's and i explained chiari malformations to him. yeah! Ok, now im' rambling.

Ah back home,....slept for 13 hours.

Next day, got my midterm back,....84 percent written, 94 pecent practical,....where i made a carrot soup, poaced pear with reduction and a salad. My soup btw was totally money and was the creamiest of them all. Now, some credit here to my mother cause she taught me how to do this a year or two ago. Basically what you do is....... not. you're on your own with Campbells. Hehehehehe.

Um, been hitting the gym here in nyc,....4 times now in a week. Cool. Erin Brenner stiffed me for a cocktail last night,...and i'm just writing this here to break her balls. Ha! So went to one of my favorite joints,....and in fact the first meal i had in new york upon arrival back on april 10 to a place called Daddy'o. It's like a corner pub, but nicer. Think pub playing jimi hendrix etc,....but with the program service,....and casual with a touch of wedgewood hotel. Guisness beer, in bed by 9pm. How's that.

I'm sure you're all rubbing your eyes now, going what the.....and so goodbye.

oh,...maybe some pics to come of Veeeeegas.

late

Little Siena McCleery (unnnncle Rmac! rockets,...this kid's playing halo for sure)

2007-05-31T21:38:00.000-07:00

more,....phew....

2007-05-31T21:29:00.001-07:00

btw,....forgive any sideways shots,...i mean,....i save them properly and then at 'go' time they do their own thing. i love computers,....paul allen has two choppers, like 11 boston whalers on a yacht in bermuda (from the computer rackett) and i got a computer that doesnt do sideways pictures. its really cool.... haha

ok, here goes,....and that's my cuz Robin with Grandmother Buddy! Notice the dark hair at 92!!!! She used to dye it so all the other old bags in kerrisdale wouldnt be jealous (good genetic code),....anyhoo, now at old age she's rockin the dark doo. Ok, back to nyc,...

yes, and more....

2007-05-31T21:26:00.001-07:00

mmmyeah, more pics....

Annnnnd more pics....

2007-05-31T21:22:00.000-07:00

Re: earlier post,....some more pics,....

Hi Folks

2007-05-31T21:03:00.000-07:00

Well Ello everyone,

A whackload of photos are ready for you... Some 5th Ave New York shots,...some West Village shots (ahhh home), some David Letterman shots, some very cute pics of Mark and Emily Chan and kids,...and a couple other shots including my niece,....yes patrick and naoko had a jr. She's about this big and has wonderful cobalt blue eyes.

So lets start with what's made laughter and joy run wild. You see the picture with Mark Chan and gang??? That's at a place called Bergdorf Goodman's,... a shopping retreat that makes Holt's look like the Nordstrom Rack (in Bellingham). Ok,...so Mark calls one fine weekend morning,....."Ehhh Rmac,...walk in the park,....lets go" RM: Yyyuuuhh yuhhh, ...sounds great see you in like 20. Well 1.5 hours later,...gnarly hangover I get the call. Uhhhhh Rmac,...park is over, and we're heading to Bergdorf's for brunch. Nice. So here comes the funny part (i think).... Ok ok,...what's so funny, or was so at the time of dead cat bounce seratonin levels that afternoon was the sandwiches at Bergdorf's. Imagine a deck of cards.... yeah thats it. Those are their sandwiches. You know. Just perfect,....no stretching your face to put some big sandwich in your mouth,... oh gosh.

yeah ok,...soooo, Letterman! Our own Cdn Mike Myers was on that night and he did a marvelous job! And Dave as always was a funny dude. They get you ranting and raving and going a thousand miles an hour to keep the 'pump' going. Really fun.

Phew,...Ok this is sad but i gotta bust,...i'm like really tired and need my Z's. So here's the deal.... I'm gonna ramp a bunch of photos here. Annnnnnnd,....in two weeks'ish time the lovely Sharon J and Piker are tying the knot,....(yes, clap....congrats) ok,...so in between beers and champagne we'll catch up on Vancouver happenings, and the odd ny photo/story. Ask about the fluff and trans that tried picking me up at Saks fifth ave,....quite a hoot. NY dude.

K cheers,
ryan

oh yeah, just noticed a kitchen shot. That's in K1, kitchen one downstairs. Notice everyone smiling! there's a hot skater chick in class but a little pouty at times so i guess she's hiding elsewear, boohoo.

see the earthy stag crew ina week, late!

Coming Soon...

2007-05-28T18:45:00.000-07:00

update

2007-05-03T19:17:00.000-07:00

ok, first off,....rmac annual predictions. note: i picked vneck sweaters in grade 4,5 and 6...and they became hot when we were in university and clothing companies still cant get enough. so here goes the next pick. polo,...as in the horse and all, which i predicted 14 months ago would rage back into style (and did btw, holts created a polo section),...will lose luster, soon. dont look for lacoste to take over either. both are getting twat/ 'i'm an american eagle/abercrombie' lameness to them. no offence t prior two companies, its just that vibe has been diluted by 20 something university going students and the polo thing by 30 somethings with the horse. its over, dead for now. it will take 10 plus years to be hardcore in again.

ok, school has been teaching a thing or two. first off,...vegans and veggies alike,...good on ya for being nice to animals. other than this,...'generally' ...note i say generally,...this style of eating leads to malnurishment and deterioration to the body. countless instructers with loads and loads of information on the organic, whole food, naturo'whatever thing (for 20 plus years) continuously mention about the days when they used to be a veg or a vegan and then learned better. don't believe me,...look at your average veg or vegan,...they drop tons of weight and look gaunt. however, ...i will say this. It most likely can be done, being a veg or vegan that is, BUT,...and i say BUT you must be a food genious. You must have the discipline and understanding of enyzmes blah diddy blah out the yinger. Why? because i've only ever seen and witnessed on fellow who seems to thrive on vegan living. his name is brendan brazier and he's a canadian iron man triathalete who was the first ever to compete and place well. he has his own liine of foods, one of which is Vega, available at whole foods etc. I've listened to him speak,...and although i cant reguritate the scientific blah diddy blah, i can say on a macro level, he knows his shiit. Certain foods combine well with others. Certain foods need to be eaten before or after others, or avoided etc etc. Your average veggie or vegan couldnt possiby know this a. because of time money constraints, b. cause like me, humans are typically well,...lazy. anyhow.

so what to do? the issue is not meat or no meat. the issue for any food is "QUALITY" is the beef grain or grass fed? grass is best. does the cow get fed corn or soy isolate? does the cow get pumped with hormones and antibiotics? Dairy,..which we all hear is bad,...well cause it is kinda,...but why? cause our governing bodies are either lovingly just wrong, meaning they want to help but dont know what they are doing,...or because they are juiced by the big foodies. Dairy for example should best be consumed whole and raw, not pasteurized like is done in n.america. why, cause the pasteurization kills all the bad,...but also the good bacteria and enzymes so importantly needed to digest the dairy in your gut!

Soy and tofu the wonder food. yes and well, no. soy whole is fine. When products are broken down and refined no. Why? cause natural enzymes are separated from their whole food state,...and therefore, much needed enzymes are not there to assimilate in the body. So beware of all the tofu you eat

to my surprise and perhaps sense of, 'phew' (cause i was considering becoming veg or vegan) the key is balance. and the other key is quality. summer time,...cooling foods,...winter times hearty warming foods. lots of greens with your meat and make sure your meat is totally organic, from pasteured lands, and grass fed. dairy, go for raw. it will take some time for some folks to get used to, but those enzymes kept intact will surprise most likely a few 'lactose intolerant' folks out there. speaking of quality of meat,...how about the animal. but in terms of ecological footprint. pork for example and veal are totally off my menu of meat. i'll still eat meat to balance life,....but avoid these 2. pigs are an ecological f'ing nightmare in terms of waste, water contamination and veal is completely inhumane. its one thing to sleep at night knowing you killed a lamb to feed your famiy,...but veal is one example of inhumane practices that needs demand curtailed in restuarnts. dont eat it is my call, but its your life. organic, pasteured for humane treatment, and grass fed key.

a note to myself on doing things in life via following your gut. you may read if u wish, and i hope you'd enjoy,...though i must put this here for fear of simple forgettfulness on my part and i'd like to remember the following: prior to coming to new york i simply knew i had to go to victoria bc for a little rmac stealth mission,...spiritual hello and goodbye or connection with a wonderful place prior to heading east. not so much govt street per se, but a few, quiet, secret places that i used to go to while my uvic days. so anyhow,...i was heading back from burnaby 2 days before new york,...from my chiropractor when i decided to take a different route home,...no real plans just random. this led me to the road downtown along the traintracks where the helijet port is. So in i went to see if they had any specials. yup. web savers there and back. score and fluke. i hit the bid and again,...lucky,...on my way 15mins later. the whump-----whump---whump- whump whump of the helicopter got me psyched and then we took off. coolest feeling. In the air,...en route vic. 32 mins later,...land downtown,....roter still moving, heads ducked,....it seemed like vietnam or something and to the front desk. car rental, boom. it was on. drove the beautiful dallas road,...all along the water, through some of oak bay, to the uplands and then a drive through the wondnerful and impressive country/enchanted tree lined road (sorta pre bat cave styles) towards where catherine dorazio used to live on the waterfront. coolest houses ever. apres this,....again by fluke cause its been many years since in vic,....i found my secret and loved 'pauls' road which led down to this little beach cove place i found years ago......exploring high, studying low from 93-95 bachelor of arts uvic. The beach leads to a rocky wall that one climbs to get to the other side. the other side is an embankment of cliffs and bluffs staring straight out to the ocean. totally at peace and almost feeling like discovered land a hundred years ago. peace quite, a seagull, a couple loons,...and water. awesome. a fluke, luck and all meant to be at the same time. i was truly thankful. i did my time there and when ready (and also eye on the clock cause i had 3 hours tops to be back downtown, lunch at pagliachi's ,...then to helijet to come home.) So, it was.....went downtown.....while getting close to pags chariots of fire came on the radio. i drove, i parked,...i had no change for the meter,...so what. the mission continues,...and 35 dollar donation to the city is fine if i get pinched. pags was busy as usual. long story,...again luckky,..one of the best waitresses ever in my life,...fun, fast, kind,...got my food out quick..... 12 dollar sandwich and aqua left her with 20 bucks. she liked the tip,...i liked the service,....the gift to her,....and the quick out. back to the car,...karma appeared good,....helijet. Whump whump whump,....money front seat. boom, vancouver. Amazing what you can do in a total of 3 hours. showered, got ready,...met you guys at abigails party for the much appreciated (thank you) going away party. there, its done. now if i ever forget i can read again.

and this is important for me to remember,...you if u care or choose. in life, when u do what your gut wants (tricky at times cause intellect wants to take over,...and also a dash of fear or lazyness in there too) then things work,...magic happens,...and life rewards you. the helijet victoria day is one of my top days in life,...and the one other that comes to mind was a solo mission in cabo san lucas one year when i did las ventanas alone. perfect day,...all right reasons. boom.

new york. so far so good. content, gut check 'in check'....work involved, not perfect,...still dealing with my overall anxiety i have i life no matter where i am,.....but 90 percent perfect and 100 percent better than my vancouver or anything days. i'm here for a reason and its the right place to be now. Hoo rah.

hope u guys and gals doing just tickety pooh in van. enjoy the greenery with sun, finally!

rmac

oh fcuk,....jsut entered the mind. another perfect moment whatever. rangers game last sunday, madison square gardens. apologies in advance nucks fans but its just a fact,....my best game ever in teh world to watch. truly insane and awesome experience. fastest, closest, most intense game of hockey ever played infront of my eyes,...and live. tough new yorkers belting at the refs. saw the 2 periods of ot down at floor level,....the model evangelista or whatever walked bye,...haagen daaz vanilla milk chocolate bar,...and oh yeah, we won the fcukin game. lucky, awesome, thank you gut/karma gods.

Asselstine ask, you receive

2007-04-20T21:32:00.000-07:00

Ok kids,

There's been a bit of a lull in New York intel and the ever so quiet and polite Ian Asselstine has requested an update Sir (in perfect Bri-ish accent). So to appease Mr. Vancouver I'll let you know the scoop over the past few days.

PacMan,...1984. Oh yeah,...I've been on my cousin's website (Waffo) where he has a Spicoli section designated to old school vids. I was a little run down for a couple of days because upon arrival I hit the scene pretty good, and a couple 4am sesh's that gave my oil of oregano a run for the money.

So hense the lull and my apologies. So being all couped up with PacMan and driving myself nuts I decided to give Youtube and Mr. Bill O'reilly and Glenn Beck some attention. FYI, Nick Monahan's new found hero's. Long story short,...again apologizing for lull in stories,...but I was busy communication,....uh hemmmm, educating the following: Monahan, Colby, JT Dowle & Co Fund Management LLC, Panama, about the ins and outs of National Security. Whereas they would have Mary Poppins giving tootsie rolls and guidemaps,... I'd be with Colonel Nathan Jessup from a Few Good Men standing post. It juuuust took time, that's all.

So! admittedly I spend way to much time,...(hang on,...gotta put my ben and jerry's back in freezer-story to come) k, i'm back. Ok,....being all couped up, i went a little buggy so with Peno's advice I went on a big walk about. Then tonight,...another on. Tonight, Wall Street was in the house,....so went an did a walkabout through Gekko'ville at about 9pm and it was typically great. Ever mysterious,...big, power, tradition....all that stuff. And the graveyard from way back when,...just a block off Wall Street is classic. Anyhoo, the wonder continued,...randomly as always and I hopped on a subway,...then got off bout 4 stops later. Got my walk on some more,....hit a few hoods,....then landed at a place called Katz's Deli. Maybe some of you have heard of this place,....old school, new york, kinda montreal pastrami sandwich joint. decorations from like the 60's and pictures all over with the like of Bill Clinton (i've got laser copies of this coming for my students, Monahan Colby and Dowle Inc.), rap stars, football stars etc. Some hip place. Big sanis.

Long story short , now....made my way back towards the village and popped into my local chinese grocery to get some ben n jerry's vanilla caraamel fudge ice cream. ok, here's where it gets funny. this couple consisting of a black dude and black girl were like,...'hey,...you look with it,' I was like,..'with it?' whuddo you mean? ...like with the program or something?' She's like yeah that's right. Then he's all like, ...yeah i think he'd be with it,...sweet body too. Totally random,...they didnt look th part at all but i think they wanted to get jiggy. Anyhow,...i walked with them for a block just to start a bidding war,...haha,...we were going in the same direciton and anyhow i was like, yo i got my friday night all tied up. See: ben n jerry's. He was really funny.....with his ny accent,.."yeah man,...yyyyyou gotta like lay out your blanket,....in fronna the tuuube,...and like just relax....yeah." i was like yeah man, its on.

Class,...I was gonna show and tell some of my vancouver friends to my class but then i saw the picture of tanner on facebook holding two begging (please dont put me in the 180 degree jacuzzi) lobsters. haha. Ok, class. Class is pretty good. First couple days, i gotta say i was starting to think,....well ive lost 20 g's in the stock mkt before so if i gotta walk i understand the loss. I'll explain. This sheet, that sheet,....fill in the blanks,....quiz in a week on the fill in the blanks. What?! How bout this,...i just gave you 20large,....i dont want to search the manual to figure out how many friday evening dinners i have to do to qualify for graduation. Just tell me and i'll do them. Errrrg, i had a bit of a colby nerd spaz,...not cause of being asked to do a task, but because i am a macro, macro guy,....i mean bigger than big picture,....meaning small details enter my brain and last a nano second before i cant concentrate anymore so bs really agros my scene. Annnnyhoo, today was better. Cutting this and that,...we did some fancy mushrooms,...right now ian,...learning technique vs gnarly recipes. Though for starters,...on carmine st. in greenich they make money late night pizza. K,...a few tips learned today,....when yer doing your mush,...like say chantrels etc. Get your pan fing hot with just a tiny olive oil. Real hot. Then you wanna hit 'em in there and just stir'em around a bit. The idea is to sear them,....not medium to high heat,....but f'ing hot,...to avoid doing it too slow,...having them sweat all their fluid and then heating out your mush scene. Ok, tip two With your red peppers,...once you cleaned em,...cut into quarters say,....and got rid of the seeds and the white cartlidge kinda,....what u wanna do is take your knife flat... and skin out the surface layer of the inside that has kinda that veiny looking stuff. YOull know you did the right thing if once you skin a mm off the inside it looks wet and bright ruby red. that stuff you just skinned is what makes baking the red pepper bitter tasting. Get it.

Good news,....well just fun old grade 8 heart fluttering news. Theres a girl in my class from isreal that is really hot. i think she likes me,...duhhh. Come on. anyway she's smoking and that makes chopping cheffanades of basil that much more exciting. Hhhheyyy look at me,...showing off, cutting fast. Lop.

What else,...there really is a lot but i'm just sorta kinda stumped right now. Know this,....this truly is one of the best cities in the world. Every culture is here,...and they all are part of the vibe, a winning vibe,...a new york vibe,...and as cheesy as it sounds,...the american dream. I've met east indian and somali cab drivers. ChaiKnee laundry peeps. Italian locksmith guy that was such an awesome dude,...he's the one who told me bout clams linguini (done right!),...japanese, russian,...you name it,...everyone is here,...its great. If you still need to make your first trip to ny,...then do it,...soon. coming for seconds or thirds,...get'r done. Man, i'm on carmine street and excuse the bragadochio (speling) (spelling) haha, i'm on carmine street and this is the cats ass.

pacman,

lates

Thanks everybody

2007-04-15T18:25:00.000-07:00

Ahhh how cute. Really, it was great to party with all the boys and some of the ladies at Jimmy Jame's Abigails Party. Thanks to Colby for the Halo invite, and to those that made it, cheers. To the others, thanks for your kind emails.

Many of you have been to New York before and so you have a pretty good idea of how great this place is. People like Peno have made it out here a few times,...and actually managed to live and make it back home to Van. Well so far so good kids,...its been a blast. For those of you that are planning a visit there's a futon in my studio and its all yours. You'll be located on Carmine Street right in Greenich Village. Apparently I had to learn a thing or two before arriving. Carmine as I'm finding out is a really desired and hip street, so there you go another reason to visit NY.

So far I've met up with my pal Roman,...really cool dude I met during the "Che" tour in S.America (Brazil). We hit some hip Japanese joint in the St. Marks area and then the other night went to his bar. It's one of the coolest and most desired joints in NY and he served me brewskis all night long.

Chicks,...tons,...and HOT HOT HOT. Some real stunners out here and hopefully my readings on evolution will bear some fruit and make some hip little rmacs. Brenner and Chan are on the to-do list. We've done some phone tag and made a few appointments, so this is upcoming and should be fun.

The first cup days in ny, like having your first sip of a hot chocolate (loaded with whip cream) were the best. Eyes wide open and absorbing everything like a sponge. Immediately I took Ms. Janzen,...soon to be Pike's advice and did some walking- really does a body good. Major shopping took place to prepare for the hot summer. After this,...had some really cool ny moments. 1) walked bye an old school barber that had a sign on the window saying Sal is back! Had to go in, and the dew was gettin little shag. Sal did infact cut my hair,...and dude is originally from Sicily. I'm not sure about the whole 'being back' story cause he dodged that question pretty good. Great experience and Im pretty sure I saw all kinds of family and pictures of elvis on the wall. Cool.

Next, got an extra set of keys made at locksmith. Another boy from Sicily and this time, this part-time retired fella got all excited when we started talking about food. Apparently little italy aint noah good no more,...cause all the albanians are putting cumin in his tomatoe sauce. Quite a hoot to watch the body language. Then he went on to explain how to do clams linguini. You gotta shuckem live,...and if needbe put the knife in the back to pop em open. Then you gotta strain all that juice through a tea-towel. THEN and only then do you proceed. Ehhhh, the restaurants today,...no way I go he says,...they got the clams linguini all mixed up. This guy was money.

Whole foods! they got whole foods stores here! Talk about volume,...probably a couple hundred people at any given time going through the checkout lines in union square. They have this intricate system of 8 color coded lines that pop a number on the screen (in your particular color,....say blue line pops up a #14, that means you rush your cheeks to checkout 14) It all works just marvelous and those cash registers are chiming large. Cramer on mad money picked this stock a couple years ago and im sure he's been a happy lad.

OH! i bought a computer. I am 31 years old and can finally say i have a computer. neato!

Rmacandche go New York

2007-03-28T17:05:00.000-07:00

Well thank you everybody that considered putting on a go-away party. In a sense, perhaps the jokes on me...you guys get together,...share some drinks and "go away" rmac the F outta Vancouver. No more random sticky grenades getting stuck to your back. Lob, ...whistle,...stick.....Ttssssssss (hot)...Whhhhhhat, we're on the same team Ryan! Iiiiiidddiiiot, Mmmmorrrron! Well, Colby...I still killed one of theirs?? Remember in "Gladiator"... The King of England says, "unleash the arrows!"...pardon me Sir, but won't we hit our own?" and then in perfect Brit,..."Yyyes, but we'll hit theirs too." Colby, I know what Im doing btw, just keep up!!!!!!!

Yes, Colby is quite right. I've traded in my nades for knives and decided to let Gordon Gekko get the dot, while the veggie harvesting, renegade Che pursues the 'natural gourmet' arts. If time persists one may G'search: natural gourmet institute new york- Don't worry, it won't make your computer smell of patch

So! you all have a studio right in Greenich Village. Action galore, shopping, wiseguy steakhouses, fake purses'n shiit, Trump's hair, Yankees, Nucks vs. Rangers etc etc etc. Mi casa su casa.

So far so good (I think) already a pretty little brunette in the city is realing me into the dark side! She is a party animal,...and as of email correspondence today,...she has a party to attend already. When? The evening I arrive. Awesome, yes, yes, ...yyyes.

Note to all nucks fans: If I go to a game against the islanders, rangers etc. I will represent bigtime! What this means is,...I will hit the spa after cooking,...and then go to the game. Kidding, Joe Peschi Rmac will shove a Momesso jersey right in the face of any stiff whining about our shut outs! Money.

Really though,...I'm going to miss a whole bunch of you! Others,...(Borat styles) "NNnnnot sso maaach." He-he. I'm going to miss the steady steam of action at Watty's place, the group dinners,...and then the brunch action. The Legendary Noodle, Pho, or eggs benny debate every frigen Sunday: Mackenzie, you hoodlum.

Wishing you all a good summer in Van, especially those with new-found chicklings in their nest,...and 'whirled peas' to all.

ROCKETS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RmacandChe Do it Again

2006-11-19T15:41:00.000-08:00

Nicholas Monahan, such a dear lad, has recommended that I post some banter on blogger. I think as a hint to keep his email account clean. Therefore, from time to time, the Rmacandche blogspot will rock out again. As always, stories or rants may take place. They will be here for anyone to mock, sham, love OR get agro with at their leisure. Feel free to leave tips, thoughts, opinions, travel stories, rants or absolutely anything else you may desire.

So here goes,...today's little rant and rave. Subject: health, and Vitamin D

We all know about calcium,...that white stuff that keeps us strong. Or is it white?? Anyhoo, this is simply blatent plagerism on my part: in life, "use your eyes, plagerise." Very interesting article today on calcium,...and more importantly vitamin D. Note, I usually dont shoot, but rather blast from the hip and so it may be enjoyable to bounce this action off of rebecca hurd or julie bowman... Newly graduated ND's! Send them a kiss!

Vitamin D is needed to maintain and absorb calcium. Particularly in Canada, where the sunshine eludes us for so many months of the year 2 things happen: 1). we have higher counts of MS, osteoporosis, and other ailments, 2). we don't get much vitamin D at all!! This may be an important consideration for us to consider for our Palm Springs years. If one wishes to skip down Rancho Mirage to their local costco (pain free!!) then vitamin D needs to be supplemented for during at least 6 months of the year, otherwise when we're older,...which is happening now,...we may be hunched over, or feeling gashola.

Also, a neat point from Dr. Matsen,...an Naturopathic Doc like to above-two mentioned ladies...becs and julie. He states that it is important to avoid tropical foods during our winter months. Why? Well because tropical fruits like mangos, pineapples and especially bananas loaded in potassium confuse our bodies into thinking we are in summer months. The potassium for example will trigger the body to slow down its Vitamin D processing labs because it is convinced it is summer time!! And that in fact we are getting plenty of Vitamin D being created because of the hot weather. This could be very concerning for our bodies to be confused about during dark winter months! This is fun to ponder especially when one thinks that its really only been about 100 years that mankind has been rapidly flying or shipping bananas and avocadoes all over the world, even in winter. So,...stick to tropical foods in the summer and in the winter,...this is time for your proteins, sushis, soups etc.

Vitamin D, and calcium. Could keep us feeling strong and avoiding things like sore teeth, aching hips and bones. Note the key being discussed in this newspaper article is having both. The 'D' aborbs the calcium. Calcium on its own really being lost.

The End

2006-04-19T05:15:00.000-07:00

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and comments over the last 4 months through this neat-0 medium called blog. It´s been a fun ride.

So today is the final day of the Guevara tour and it´s time to say farewell. Yesterday, by fluke I suppose I got some photos from the girls at the Hostal in Argentina,...they were playful indeed,...warming up with smiles,...all the way to a little tease kiss,...quite funny. And some other shots,...yeah.

The last week has been spent in Panama city. This place is kinda like miami sans miami girls. There were a couple,...stretching a 7 on a 10 scale. Colombia, Brazil and Argentina is the place for interested people. Speaking of Colombia,...wow! When leaving this wonderful country,...be sure to be a good little boy,...because customs there is over the top!!! German sheppard dog,...military dudes everywhere,...and they go thrrrrrrough everything!! I was totally innocent,...of course,...but even still I was nervous as the guy went through all my vitamins and such,...of which,...of course,...just had to be filled with powders that were guuuessssss what color?? He sniffed and stared and asked questions,...and all I did was said,...for the stomach,...and was kinda reassured that some of them said dr. john matsen on them with a Canadian phone number,...please be at work john!!!! He even cracks vitamin pills open and sniff what was inside. He opened my suntan lotion just to smell. Thought of saying,...Hawaiin Tropics,...good shizzle eh?...naw,... When I was on the plane I was very nervy,...until of course the most amazing thing happened. I looked at my ticket and thought it said seat 18. Back of the bus like a schnook! So there I go,...ahhh near the bathroom,...people near me,...ahhhhh, now what?! Wait! In fact in said 1B. I thought 1B,...what??! Ok,...that´s me style hiphop,...so up I went to front row first class,...blue leather chair and all. Fancy breakfast with a ¨mr. mccleery sir,...would you like orange or apple juice.¨ Sleep in a 7 dollar hostal for 3 of 4 months,...a mud hut in mancora peru,...and you feel like you stole 3rd base when sitting in first. Then finally,...when i realized it was real and legit,...mmmmm.

Saw the Panama canal and wow,...some dudes did some serious serious serious manual labour to make that thing happen. Did they have metrosexuals back then? I was tired just looking at the photos,...and so,...of course I had the girl from the mall,...who has one of those sit-in-chair-leaning forward-with face in folder thing massage chair come to the hotel room and rub back. ´3 massages in total,...lots of room service,...movies, steam bath,....just basically a bit of a random last few days of the Guevara tour.

Who´s that kind soul of a singer who says,...and kinda whines,... Im tired and I wanna go home?? Oh,...Mike Buble or something. Well Im tired now,...and ready for something,...home. We´ll see. As a fellow traveller said to me once,...where´s home?? After awhile the phrase,...wherever u go ,...there u are rings true. What I do know is that I miss the fresh BC air,...the peace of mind knowing I can hide in the trees of Whistler from time to time,...the rivers,...a guy named PENO,...haha

And to top it alllllll off,...I have a job.

So the batcave opens again,...the suit goes on,...and once again its time to ensure the streets of howe and bay are safe for all. So see u at lunch beeeyatches!!

Roughing it in Colombia

2006-04-12T07:48:00.000-07:00

What up hiphops?!

After a good sesh in Rio with Watson,...Colombia turned out to be in the cards. I arrived in Bogota and that night went out to a club/restaurant type deal. It was fantastic with an excellent DJ,...very modern,...and ultra hot girls. There was this really nice driver at the hotel that shuttled me around the city for two days showing me this that and the other. On the last day I figured I could use a massage so he took me to this Turkish bath joint. 3 steam rooms with lemon grass and orange and pineapples over the vents to make everything smell tickety-pooh. Then came the massage. Imagine walking into the therapy room and the girl saying ok take everything off,...well they do this in Vancouver,...but leave the room for a couple minutes. My girl just stood there. Immediately i thought that this was an unsound business and i was shaking for my life :) but after i lay there for a few minutes she THEN decided to cover me in a towel. How wierd. And that was that. All my hopes disappeared like the pineapple steam into the Bogota sunrise (ahhhh a little sharon jansen somalia love poem)

ok,...then onto medellin colombia. oh yeah i suppose i should explain the roughing it in colombia. Basically ive been rocking the sheraton hotel in each city. Hostels can become tiresome with the morning rush consisting of stinky men and a panicked group of women all rushing the bathroom like natron means at superbowl. Furthermore, everyone has a story,...like im so and so from england,...and thus far ive been to guatemala then a busride to timbuktu.....and ryan,...where have u been. With a grain of salt, please...

So,...check this,...in medellin i check in and the guy is like we´ve put you in a suite. 2 bathrooms,...one with a big round jacuzzi,...a living room,...two tvs,...and a minibar that just begged for a good ol fashioned thrashing....which i did happily in my first few minutes.

Sorry, blah blah blah....great ladies here,...and so friendly. ytd the manager at benetton set me up with some lady friends of hers because she felt sad that i was travelling alone. And,...a saleslady at the Boss store is fantastic and today i´ll be back to ask her out...Wow,...i´ve drawn the line in public,...so yes i will inform all of success or a colombian boot to the chops.

Spa time today among checking stocks and random walk abouts on the streets of medellin.

cheerio,
ryan

round one pics

2006-04-09T08:15:00.000-07:00

round 2 pics

2006-04-09T07:54:00.000-07:00

tigers

2006-04-09T07:40:00.000-07:00

You know in Scarface how Tony Montana refers to his girl as a Tiger,...I now officially know why,... Watson and I just rocked Rio in the Ipanema district. This area is kinda upscale and trendy and we knew we hit the super fancy hotel judging by the modern white decorations and the large amount of boys that travelled together in twos. Ok,...so heres the deal,...Rio at this one bar has the most amazing girls on the planet. I should copy paste that about 9 times so that it really hammers home, but that would cause mouse arthritis in hands. The hottest,...and in volume,...and they have this most amazing look,...kinda liiiiiike, tigers. There´s a wild thing about them,...and they were in numbers,...in packs. Boys,...these are ladies that you´d marry like that night. No questions on Home Shopping Network habits,...or whether she files her nails in bed...or anything...these are sight unseen deals that are signable instantly,...actually who needs a pen eh?

While waiting in line,...Watty made it aparent that he doesnt really do lines by showing the 8 foot 2 hiphop door gangster some Ash-k. The response was a hot little dame to stand with us to smooth out the next door monkey that basically allows in hot chicks only,...or a couple sauce,...with a hot tiger on arm. So in we went. On dance floor, Watty and I basically just stood there amazed for several minutes,...and i believe the look we had was kindof like Rainman staring at the toothpicks on the floor. We didnt bother counting how many girls were on the floor,...we just stood there. Slowly I managed to muster some guts to dance. It did take some courage because I was drinking water that night. Prior to that night,...at the exact same club, ...I managed to turn into Squirl McCleery which had me drink way way too much. Too much talent at one time,...blew my mind to pounding vodka,...and then i basically just died. Watson escorted me back to our fancy hotel and i spent the night in a delux suite,...not on the most insane bed known to man,...but on the tile,...right tight and close to the toilet. Ahhhhh, the cool tile on face.

So basically from Florionopolis,...went to Rio,...had my heart broken a million times,...and now im in Colombia. Bogota as of last night,...and thus far,...the place is amazing. Infrastructure in tact,...flowered boulevards,...great restaurants,...today i will go explore more and see what else is up.

Some pics to follow in just a sec,...from morro de sao pollo,...(two weeks back,...went to island 2 hours off coast of brazil)

Take care
Ryan

Watson!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-04-03T09:49:00.000-07:00

Yeah,...thats right,...in about 48 hours,...Mr. Las Vegas himself will be dropping in the Rmac Guevara tour in Rio, Brazil. Hoo rah! This evening,...catching a plane from Florionopolis to Rio and arriving at 330am. Just dandy. Then a 2 day stall until Craigr meets me at the Meridian Hotel. Looking fwd to it,...and shall post photos,...well some anyhow of our adventures.

So congrats to Mr. Berger and Kim who just brought a little stud named Noah Christopher Berger into the world. Boots Jr. is in the house!

So been chillin down southern Brazil for one week now, and liking it quite a bit. In the old fishing village,...more like a surf town that resembles the student area of Santa Barbara California. Super chill with many cool little restaurants,...all kinds of dudes with bleached out hair and Volcom Stone tshirts (rock on) and yes,.....unnnnh huh....hot chicas. Same as any city,...a few girls here and there, BUT when the Donald Trump talent rolls onto the beach you can hear the heart murmers from all the men as they cant tell if they should just cromagnen styles run at these women,...or just play it cool,...or or or....by the time all those thoughts enter brain,...digest,...its just pain. Ahhhh, but the pleasure of seeing the Reef ads from Surfer mag in real life.

Chill beach styles with green water, white sand,...and the coolest terrain up on the hills,...big round boulder type rocks,...with grass and little bushes all around,...quite spectacular. The other day,...a south african guy, italian guy, and a portugese guy,....and I (wow grammar) took a boat to an island. I swear it unfolded like a moment from the movie Beach. As we approached the most crystal blue water and brilliant white sand,...the song Feel the love Generation came on,...the anchor chatch threw overboard with a cool splash,...and then a couple chicks were waving from the sand. A few shivers went up spine and i thought wow,...this is life,...and quite frankly just what i need, YO!!!

So last night, met this honey,...well actually during the day at the hostal.,,, brazilian girl,...and it was on. However, Im pretty sure my super laid back Rmac styles of just chilled out kissing session made her just laugh at me,...I think they are used to guys grabbing them and going full speed ahead right away. So much for Mars and Venus and being a gentlemen,...I suppose being a wuss down here,...haha. Watch out Rio,...Rmac attack is coming with a big Ali-G booyah.

Will send some fotes when disposable cams done in rio. Take care all and laters,...And Craig,...see u soon hiphop,...gonna giver shiznizzle. Translation,...actually jack all,...gonna hit nice sushi restaurant,...order room service,...go to spa,...take taxi rides with locked doors,...and wear Top Gun aviator shades down at beach to perv hard.

Ryan

Brazil!!!!!!!!!!

2006-03-22T08:37:00.000-08:00

Hello peeps,

Well, I can tell you that since being down south, Vancouver gets raves from everyone I meet. So be proud and strong while the rain falls,...dont take it personally because people around the world love you. Or who knows, maybe they just liked Expo 86 and still think Ernie is cool.

Umm, yeah in Brazil now,...umm yeah again,...photos will be slightly delayed as i~ve evolved onto disposable cameras cause my digi found its way into the south american second hand economy via a pickpocket program. Im happy as hell though,...the universe now has another camera out there with pictures of tofino on it,...as well as the bums of three of Argentinas finest. And of course,...what goes around comes around,...oooohhhh the darrrrkside of the force will drop the hammer. Im sick.

Ok, in Brazil. Spent two days in Rio and was scared,...always. Well only when i left the Sheraton hotel to the streets. I tanned some serious nizhuts poolside,...went into the ocean,...ordered room service, had a facial,...and at night went out for sushi. That was fun. Guy at front desk said get in your cab,...and lock the door. Take drivers business card and call him when u want to be picked up.

Next day, to Salvador which is a colonial type city town in northern brazil. Stalled their for the night to catch a boat the next day to morrow sao paolo. Morro is an island about the size of keats island or bowen....no cars, super chill, ...with party vibe down at beach,...sandy paths,...white sandy beaches, green water, chicks everywhere,...booze,...type deal. Rocked out hard ytd on other side of island which was much more mellow,...chilled right at water kinda like they do in those club med ads,...u know where the girls lays in the water. I tried this and it was quite nice,....a little water can get blasted in your nose,...but u look ssssoooo cool. Had those coconut drinks where they punch a hole in the nut with a straw. Oh, and to top it off, some dude pulled his boat up where i was chillen and cranked his stereo....with tunes such as Lady in Red by Chris De Burg.

Can I quickly say a whats up to Chris Turner,...our boy who lived well and still is rockin strong somewhere!! Yesterday was his anniversary and he is one of our best. Cheers bro.

Ok, after the lady in red romance on the beach for one,...these two rugrats aged 7 and 9 offered to tour me through the island jungle/ tropical bushes to a waterfall and then back to town. It was hilarious as they spoke portugese and i just nodded politely. We went to this waterfall and took turns standing under the water,...really fun. Then proceeded through their villiage where they live,...kinda shanty with cats, chickens and donkeys etc. Then back to town.

Night time consists of me at about 8pm saying to my roomates,...ok cool, so tonight we~ll just mellow and maybe couple beers and bed at midnight. Nope, another 4am special,...more booze than Nicholas Cage in leaving las vegas, and then boom. Its morning. Ahhhhh another day.

oh yes, ...prior to all this brazil action i basically went back to buenos aires and rocked out for another 2 weeks. Most local stuff,...spaghetti dinners with a few chicas we met,...movies, and we did manage to play hide and seek at the movie theatre. I also got to spend time with my cousin Joe down here in b.a. for another couple nights. One time we had a great asado (bbq) and another time we went to the county social club. Basically each neighborhood like say dunbar, kits etc would have a social club,...kinda like a small to midsize restaurant,...very simple and plain that makes food. Really only locals only,...it was soo cool. The guys who~ve run the joint havnt changed the tables chairs paint or anything in the last 30 years...so authentic. love it.

the english boys continued to punish me with their partying antics,...and have since invited me to Croatia in June. So Rmac goes Gueverra in Europe too. I can dig it. we/re gonna rock some boat action and practise our spanish and portugese on the croatian girls. now that should be confusing!

Back to the beach,
ryan

oh and yes,...heres a laugh for all. 2 days ago i went swimming. while walking home i was like,...hmmm something hurts kinda funny,...and it was that thingy between my legs called wiener...aka dick,...or peepee or whatever u prefer. Some go with baguette but that would be bragging. Ok,...so i had a freak out the next day. Went to the medical clinic and was thinking the worst. Doctor spoke no english so he brought in his daughter who worked at the tourism office next door, and she was like,...so what do u need to tell my dad. So i told her the deal and she was like well have u been wearing condoms to which i said No. She covered her mouth and said,...ohhh nnnnooooo this is a bad thing. And i was like, no.....because ive been getting no sex. At which point i was like, wonderful i now have a female on this small island knowing that my game has been lacking hard. She laughed and then explained to her dad. Dad checked me out and so heres the punchline,...i got bitten...of alllllll the fcukin places.....right smack `there`by some little jelly fish. Goodbye now,...back to beach for real,...and going to roll the dice with the jellies,....i swear if they try that one more time i will drop some c4 in the drink.

photos for earlier post

2006-03-04T13:36:00.000-08:00

here´s the photos yo.

umm, the girl with the huge smile on her face is in two different shots. One reflects her love and passion for ice cream,...which we all did one night after sushi,...and the other shot reflects her utter joy and lust for life when she received her first ever (well so she says) purple pocket rocket. Hoo Rah!!!!!!!!

what up

2006-03-04T08:34:00.000-08:00

hey hip hops,

been awhile since we´ve chatted. Earthy, kindly do me a favor,...and when you read this,...yell out, ¨whaaa whaaa whhhhaaaaaa¨for me please. Just do it wherever you read this, and somehow I´ll get a sign over hear that you did.

Do you guys still play Halo??? How´s Travis´s improvement coming, and is cotton candy still weapon of choice....hehehehe...Hey Peno,...they have an HSBC Bank right in viewing distance from the patio of my terrace at the Hostal,...get a transfer!

So I did finally make it back to Buenos Aires from the city of Cordoba. The girls in Cordoba and Mendoza were all insanely hot. And many of them as they are university towns. And I went to Uvic! Well, I toured the campus anyhow,...in a jeep yj if i remember correctly at 3am with 9 people in the car.

So basically been at the hostal again and met up with 2 of the english lads i was hanging with. Been a g reat week and certainly really enjoying the new found friendship...these guys are great. Louis is very mellow and highly intelligent,...and also my real-life Trainspotting character, and Charlie is quite similar to me,...yelling random comments in the street all the time,...kinda like a Teretz syndrome thing which gets me laughing multiple times all day long.

Partying, dinners at cool restaurants, random walks,...like the other night,...just got in the subway and went for a ride to people watch. Got out at a random station and walked around,...was great. Hmmm, hit the spa again for a facial, with this chick named Kate that i met in Mendoza. Funny cause i just read trhough my journal and my description of her was the following,...´great gal,...raspy voice, sexy walk,...all in a non slut way.¨ Righty oh...

Spent some more time with my cousin Joe down here and his wife Stella. Joe got blasted by a motorcycle the other day so was hanging out at his house watching rugby and typing out some old family letters from the 1800´s and early 1900´s. Was great! Everything down here is order in if u wish,...so we ordered in some foood and ice cream.

Become great freinds with some of the employees at the hostal,...Vero is this kinda punk rocker chick that is totally like kelly proudfoot,...friends with everyone in about 1hour...hahaha,...anyhoo, me an d the lads treated her to a g-string that we picked up at the sex shop,...and then there´s nela. She is a great gal that we spend tons of time with,...super cool and her favourite color is purple,...so when we saw the cutest pocket rocket at the sex shop,...in guess what color,...we had to get it for her. We now essentially have king pin status at the hostal,...hehehe...

Met a great gal in Cordoba named Andrea and we´ve become great friends,...pictures enclosed,...and gonna cut straight to the photos now as there´s a lineup of dudes waiting to get on net.

laters

Hi

2006-02-17T07:02:00.000-08:00

Hi all,... glad to hear that you´re starting to get some sunshine! In Cordoba which is like a mini Buenos Aires I suppose,...with many neat little towns, rivers and mtns just outside. Went to a lagoon the other day with (photos enclosed) hot swiss sisters....fantastic! Jokes aside, some of the friendliest, sexiest and well at least one of them was the most flirtatious swiss broad I´ve ever seen. New hostel,...new peeps and good times. Saw the movie Munich ytd which was pretty intense,...left feeling somewhat depressed about the blah blah blah of human nature etc,...and then of course forced a ¨cheer up¨ vibe simply by keeping my eyes open to all the pretty girls,...everywhere!!!! Partying strong, chillin at tennis club...swimming too. Reading books,...some more great Argy bbqs.

Oh, and almost forgot,...check out Val Kilmer,...hilarious,...he´s in town on a movie shoot and our Hostal owner knows the Director etc etc so we had him over for dinner one night. It was cool,...because I got him to say, ¨Maverick...I don´t like it when you fly because you´re dangerous.¨ And I would say, ...Yes Iceman, that´s right,...I am dangerous. And then he´d do that thing where he bites with his teeth out and does the clenching that makes the loud click noise. So cool!

Haahah,...this guy is a german and one of our roomates. He looks exactly like Val and tells me that he get that comment about 10 times a week. He laughs really funny too which keeps everyone in the hostel amused.

Cheerio,
Rmac

ps... I convinced, Denise,...the Swiss girl about the power of smell etc etc and how it is a deciding factor of whether a couple should be together....so that´s me snuggling up and givin some rmac lovin. Actually she did mention that we would make great babies and i thought,...thadda girl,...sperm wars talkin...and......thennnnn,....on the last day, after many wonderful moments of funny flirtation I found a cigar on her bed and was like,...you smoke?? And she was like, no my boyfriend does. It was great in a twisted way! haha

and even some more pics...

2006-02-09T20:35:00.000-08:00

and some more pics

2006-02-09T20:25:00.000-08:00

pics

2006-02-09T19:56:00.000-08:00

working hard

2006-02-09T08:04:00.000-08:00

Hola peeps,

Whats everyone up to?? send rmac some emails on your latest...

In Mendoza and this place is great. The sidewalks where the hostel is located have many great cafes and restaurants/bars. They fill up with many young people and you sit out there and chill. Great vibe. Last night we all had dinner at a Mexican joint like this. Great food and then they had a couple lounge type leather couches to sit on as well. I think they copied James from hells kitchen. The chicks down here are amazing. Boys, dump all in van and get down here. Kidding girls. Well girls with boyfriends anyhoo.

So ytd, went horseback riding out in the country. Feel like a bit of a gongshow because locals keep asking me which mountains we went to etc etc and Im left perplexed. Yes, another hard night of partying etc etc,...one or two hours sleep and then a tour guide comes to the hostel to wake/pick you up...sleeping for one hour as they drive you to the mountains and then whammo,...youre on a horse,...and dude my guide kept whipping its asss so that it would run. Ouch! There were other tourists in the van and when our crew rolled in the windows started popping open and the looks on their faces were priceless. I suppose the vodka seeping from the my friends pores were too much to bear. I did shower however and looked quite respectable,...the english lads however continue to make me laugh out loud on a daily basis. They looked like the cast from Trainspotting. These guys have been great company and I look fwd to meeting them in London. Oh yeah,... Some great moments riding in the Andes,...my horse when finally convinced to move, ran fast once and awhile and it was awesome to feel like that kid from the Black Stallion. I tried horse whispering which was really cool!

So the superbowl was great for Graham Johnstone. Hes been wearing the yellow and black for years now,...always promising this and that,...haha then finally,... BOOM,...they score big. So congrats Gfunk. Was lucky enough to speak with Colby during the game. He had the regular gang over to his house for what I can only assume was a Superbowl disguise Halo 2 session. In Mendoza we set up the tv room for some primo superbowl action. organized the couches and it was quite remarkable to watch the game with frenchies, argies, germans, english blokes... pretty cool and surprised that they enjoyed the game. The euros laugh hard when they see 350 pound guys run for 15 yards and then hobble to the sideline to inhale some oxygen. Go rugby.

Oh, i mentioned working hard. Well ive been chatiing tons about studying spansih and my plans were to do so in b.a. However 3 days ago the hostel lady said Florencia is at the front desk for any takers for some lessons. Cigarette and large Heinekin in hand, sun tan and boardshorts,...i strolled over to see how much i wanted to study. She was hot, and i said heck yeah. So that{s it...thats how i for now on will enroll in school. Shes wonderful in fact,...after the first meeting i made it very easy for her to chill and understand my study patterns. In other words she learned to take no offence to me not doing homework....i just said, i dont do that,...i like you, and respect you{re teaching,...its just i dont do homework,...i prefer to work together so when i hiccup arrives theres no halo nerd spaz. In one day i was allowed to not do my homework so that we would do it together and had her smoking cigarettes during the lessons. Great! Jokes aside, it was great to meet Florencia because she is a wonderful lady and wise,...we had some great dr. phil sessions,...which again was great because it offered a break from studying.
And then to top it off,...this morning at our spanish lesson,...yes only 3 hours sleep so kinda gnarl,...Florencia pulled the coolest move. Her cell phone rang and she was like,...here answer this for me, wait 3 seconds,...and then pass me the phone. How cool is it when your teacher is getting you to cover for her on the phone. Did i mention wonderful brown hair and dark brown eyes.

ytd, met a girl on the street from L.A. Just a random entry and funny because in the first 10 mins we broke into conversations that I have now,...only with girls that i have known for many years. She was telling me about pocket rocket if you guys can figure this out,...and how she got busted earlier on in her travels. Quite a kinky little tart,...and then last night at the dance club she licked both sides of my face. Told ya it was random.

ok, just today i came into an internet cafe and this argy dude speaks pretty good english and knows computers well......so.....i{ve got some pics for yall from my camera,...finally. Just a bunch of random shots showing some bbq action, dinners out with some chicks, my friend zeddy post nipple piercing,...note...this was done after pulling 2.5days straight of partying in b.a. and.....ive got a video game shot in here to show that internationally,...men love their gaming,one,.....and two,...we all collectively have that,...im zoned slash perhaps constipated look on our faces while slaying each other on the screen.

Theres also some shots from christmas in ecuador, shots of the beach in peru, my buddy triathalete dude from la jolla california in lima,...etc etc

tomorrow im audi 5thou and off to Cordoba. Basically i{ve been emailing an argy girl who lives there and then secondly i met this dude last night who told me how great it was. SSsso, thats the dealio,...im goin.

lates all
primo...haha rmac..

quote un quote

2006-02-05T14:47:00.000-08:00

Imagine the thickest Irish accent saying the following to a lady... Hun, you may think that youre substandard but i think yer sexy,...take care of that ass hun. What?? I thought it was a joke and was like,...the balls. We met 3 Irish lads in b.a. and this guy rocked this out at the hostal one night.

So, in Mendoza and with the English blokes I{ve been hanging with. Mendoza is where some of Argentina{s finest wines come from. For all the years I slacked off and stayed at home instead of partying,...while listening to Yanni is coming out to haunt me. These young hoodlums are pushing Rmac to the limit. In fact, Rmac get used only once and awhile down here,...they{ve nicknamed me Primo. The day I came back from the Spa in Buenos Aires I said that the robe and the steam room and the this that and the other was primo and they laughed so hard that somehow I became Primo.

Weve gone out the 2nights that we{ve been in Mendoza so far. Action starts at 2a.m. and goes till 6 or 7am for me and in their case usually until the next next day. This one bar was crazy. Imagine a massive mansion way out in the countryside that{s been converted to a night club. Indo and outdo sections. On are way home one of the guys was so parched and hungry that he went into a vineyard and started picking and eating grapes. I remembered the scene from the movie The Beach when a young lad when picking someone else{s produce. haha

So were here at the hostal and watching the countdown to SuperBowl whatever. To kill some time one of the lads noticed a nintendo machine with Street Fighter II. Quite an experience to watch an excited bunch wimper when the Halo2 hands of Rmac,...i mean Primo converted back to the Street Fighter days to whoop some asss.

Ytd, there was a cute girl on the street with a dog. Everyone knows how much i adore dogs,...From the movie Snatch,...eh, ya like dags?? Anyhoo, i stopped to say hello and ahhhh cute dog. Long story short, ...her boyfirend showed up and i thought oh well i may as well just say hello to everyone know. Paid off cause shortly after 2 chicky friends of hers showed up and we got dialed to go for drinks and danching last night. Me and Zeddy went out and rocked it a bit.

This hostal is awesome,...2 blonde chicks working the front desk...travellers grabbin some money. we crank the tunes and for example today a robbie williams song came on and the whole lot of us were singin Angel. Cool.

Ytd i slaved for about 3 hours to make the most insane spagetti bolognese sauce for 10 people. We dined outside with red vino. Quite funny,...i had to rush back to grocery store to get ground beef cause i forgot originally. The cab the hostal ordered for me (i was nerd spazing hard cause the other portions of sauce was simmering etc) was hilarious. He wouldnt let me open or close the door myself. first class. so here i am rocking board shorts and flip flops and some dude in shirt and tie is booking to the grocery store with me. quite funny.

burn out is approaching. i think in b.a. or whichever city i go to next i will get a room at a nice hotel for say 2nights,...close my door, put on about 19 breakfast in bed signs with the do not disturb after like 5pm and watch movies and stare at the walls.

lates
GO STEELERS !!!!!!!!!!!

photos

2006-02-02T07:45:00.000-08:00

hi peeps,

some pix for yall... hope they come through,...finally!!! eeerrrgh, computers...blood pressure!!

ry

yo ah!

2006-02-01T05:59:00.000-08:00

Hi guys and gals,...hope you´re all doing well.

Well been rockin Buenos Aires pretty good for the past few days. I´ve become good buddies with now 4 English blokes. These guys party really hard,...and then keep going and going. Then when you think its time to take a night off, ...running on 2 hours sleep they decide how great of an idea it would be to hit a rave. It took a few days to realize the age difference. I look their age and of course am 30. That being said, I am a ¨Palm Springs¨30 which means sometimes 85. These dudes are 18 and don´t slow down...crazy.

So, there´s an area of b.a. called Recoleta. This is where all the hip fancy restaurants and stores are. This is also where Aqua Vita Medical Spa is located...a primo joint with robes, steam bath...spa treatments....the whole program. I have been thus far for the half day treatment, which was a facial and a massage. Really cool. When you walk in the front door lookin like a bag a hammers, they have the treatment just for you.

Ahh, so the next day I was randomly cruising around a different area of the city...just kinda wandering,...looking at buildings, people, monitoring the economy, seeing where to put a drill bit type deal. Spotted a English teaching school and thought,...ooh neat maybe i could finally ¨work.¨ Like, you know, work. Walked up to the lady and said this and that,...to which some dude in the lobby then came up to me and said, hey you speak English,...and I said fcuk yeah...kidding. I did say yes though in my most polite Cdn. Apologies, long story short he was like would you like to audition for a commercial...store called Havanna which is like a starbucks chain down here. So later that day i rocked out to other side of town and went to an audition. There was a waiting room full of ¨reallllly, realllly gooood looking people¨and then we took turns going into a room where we had to speak to a camera about who we are etc etc,...and then....they pumped this disco music and in front of 2 chatches had to dance. I focused my best to return to our Vegas dancing nights to pull out some moves. I was quite excited cause i figured if i was selected i´d take these English hoodlums i´ve been hanging out with to some class restaurant down here. Be like taking the trainspotting crew to Il Giardino. Anyway, my days of being a famous actor and commenting on foreign policy have yet to materialize. No return calls. I do wonder if it had to do with my performance. For example when talking to the camera and instructed to say ¨something¨about myself,...i was like, hey i´m ryan mccleery and i like to eat out at restaurants and go to the movies. My dancing was probably like that guy in the movie, ¨Cant by me love.¨

Ok, enough bs,...the best part. Some people snort for it, jab a vein for it, and all you gotta do is jump...haha,...anyone know this quote from a movie. Well its from Point Break, and me nick piller and graham know it well as we attended Uvic ´not´on a rain or shine basis. Therefore, we watched much movies which included bodie and company,...over and over and over again...to the point that hitting banks seemed ok. Alright, so me and the english lads rocked out hard one night, got one hours sleep and then were picked up the next morning to go skydiving. For those of us who went out to abbotsford years ago it was just like that. We ascend to 10,000 ft which seemed to take an eternity,...i asked for a blessing from CT to enjoy the ride,...and then focused. Everything was just tickety pooh and i seemed casual until they open door of plane and the air and noise comes rushing in. It was actually ok.... push off towards the door, ...and then my tandem instructor dude busted us out into the most gnarly barrel roll slash summer salt...how the heck do you spell summer salt,...anyway. Within seconds you reach some seriously terminal velocity and its the coolest feeling ever. Total energy and fun,....and i swear no fear. You fall for 45 seconds and then they pull the shute. Actuallyi found this most scary when looking down at your feet dangling about 3or 4000 feet above the ground. Top 3 moment in life,...going again,...get your shhhit togehter you guys,...were doin it.

End of day, me and the lads were invited by the staff to hang with at their staff party for a traditional,...and massive bbq. Argentinian steak, pork etc etc,...beers. Cool times, and greatful for their kindness...

Congrats huge to katy and craig with a new williams piller addition to planet earth.

next, renting a car with these dudes and driving to mendoza...11 hours...then kinda road trip program which really looking fwd to. Now i just need to cowboy up and focus on these s.american drivers that think they are the bees knees in driving. Good thing i went to race driving school,...haha

cheerio,
ryan

biggy SMALLS

2006-01-26T03:59:00.000-08:00

sup yall,

well in buenos aires, argentina and diggin it bigtime. stayin at a cool hostal, good vibes and tons of friendly people,...and 4 brazilian chicks. this is gonna be a long story short blog cause i´m about to be picked up by my grandfathers second cousin...little city tour action.

hmm, i went to chile after bolivia and for whatever reason i just knew i had to push on. 2 flights in 3 days in and out of chile....good way to blow a g-note. Cabin crew on airplane were the same both times, and they kinda laughed and wondered how i had travelled the country so quick. well,.... oh no big thing,...i just felt the need to push on...

arrived in buenos aires and despite fact that one night had police shake down, this place is brilliant. ytd, i was in shopping mall with the air con going,...and when i walked outside afterwards the gentle warmth of argentina just soothed my bones. okay, one of the brazilian chicks just woke up and walked outta of her room. insane.

last night big bbq at hostal for 20 pesos...divide by 3 for dollar conversion. 20 of us at table, wine the whole program,...really good times...then off to a bar. And then there´s Pancho´s...24 hour hamburger and hotdog joint...beers etc. 2 pesos per burger. great times...

ayeite, laters...

bigggy smalls just cause they were rockin puff and biggy while i was shopping ytd.

hope you chatches r doin well at home.

Xbox

2006-01-19T16:18:00.000-08:00

Ah haaaaaa,

Well, actually apologies for the false advert,...but i did get my vids on today in Cochabamba Bolivia. The Xbox dream is on hold until I get to say,...Chile or Argentina where I figure economic circumstances may permit the people to have. So today there was a crazy little video game joint in town that had one old school game...1942. Remember that one? It worked out to about 7cents per game which was just fantastic. Unfortunately little Bolivians now know a few new terms under the umbrella of ¨colby nerd spaz.¨

Well, yesterday I did infact go check out Bolivia´s top resort in the countryside. Imagine Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club just a tad,...with the luxury of a drug lord´s palace. This was what I arrived to and I thought wow this is really cool. Well my tune changed after about 30mins to an hour when i realized that i was the only person there with just one staff member. one staff member and that´s it! I spend my whole life lookin for a no agro environment. I find it,...birds chirpin,...no bohunks,...and i freak out. Seriously, this silver haired older lady that sat around playing solitaire. I say picture shaughnessy golf club cause it reminded me of going out there early in the morning and seeing nobody. Dinner was like sitting in a massive dining room all alone. The silver haired lady brought me lasagna and then disappeared. The place had ping pong in the most luxurious garden, along with foos ball tables. There is a clay tennis court, basketball, a soccer pitch, an excellent swimming pool,...and nature all around. It was kinda like heaven but with the sketch factor it kinda felt like the twilight zone.

When it came time to pay I was at the front desk trying to get my pitch ready...cause in my travel book it said rooms could go as high as say 2or3hundred a night. I put 70 dollars on the counter as i fiddled with wads of confusing cash. She grabbed the 70 and was like,...¨total.¨ I said total,...and she just looked back at me and said,...¨total.¨ So i figured score,...love the negociation process. Grab it fast and say total. I´m gonna try this at the bar tonight with a few hunnies. - ¨hola senorita,...me yamo Bbbbrrry-yan...i stay at this gorgeous run down hostal down the street.... grab her hand,... total.¨

haha, i´m such a dork. Actually the peru girl i met has nicknamed me dork in the emails she sends. Movin up in S.America,...hoo-rahhh!!

Ok, gonna go for dins now,...then tomorrow on to chile, i think... we´ll see about flights.

ryan

congrats jon bell and valleau bros.

2006-01-18T08:56:00.000-08:00

hola peoples,

so two nights ago i arrived late at night in Cochabamba Bolivia. Rmac rule of thumb when travelling,...if arriving late at night and dodge factor seems high, ...then lonely planet search a nice hotel to hide in until the sun shines. So i taxi´d to Portales Hotel. Nice joint,...but the point is i had a tv for the first time in a long time,...and, i watched the Golden Globe Awards. Kate Beckinsale is handsdown the best looking girl ever. Hopefully these were live and not like one month old or something. Anyhoo, did yall notice that Infinity Media, where the above mentioned hoodlums work, was mentioned with Philp Seymour Hoffman winning an award. Bill Vince their fearless leader was also named.

so yes i´m in cochabamba bolivia and so far have been kinda chillin,...touristy stuff perhaps today and then perhaps out to the countryside where there is apparently a wonderful resort spa. i´m gonna go rmac test their steam and jacuzzi jets and maybe get a massage. i´m waiting on sophie (london girl) and a vancouverite named normandy to arrive from la paz and then i´ll do more tourist stuff and check into a hostal. So get this,...sophie met normandy in cusco. normandy is james daniels sister,...as in james that went to same highschool. small world.

ok, updates are as follows. la paz...did a private city tour with this english speaking local named freddy. very ambitious bolivian. we taxid around some of the local sights and a seed was planted about an area of la paz called zone sul...like zone-eh sool. Went there the next day and this was quite an interested culture observation....this area is where the upper middle class to rich bolivians live. reminded me of pacific palisades california slash miami. people wearing modern clothes, girls with upscale handbags, and fancy coffee shops that look better than starbucks. i spent a couple hours walking through the neighborhoods that had some homes as big as you´d see in shaughnessy or beverly hills. Actually this was kinda relaxing as they have these wonderful eucalyptus trees and it was raining,...and just seems relaxing. next,... met a really cool new yorker named rebecca who had the coolest blonde dreads. we hung out quite a bit and as well with her local friend named max. Together we watched max play in his championship soccer game and this was really fun and a great way to immerse into some bolivian culture. the spectators rock some serious loud tunes, while chillin almost NFL tailgate styles,...while lighting mucho firecrackers. while in the stands, there was mucho beers as well a lunch provided by a lady who must have had a son playing who was from the countryside or somthing. she was wearing all the traditional clothing. very cool. Max scored a goal and his team won the championship. as i had a digi camera that everyone was really intrigued by, ...i became the documentary guy,...or in their words, international paparazzi. After the game we all marched...they sang,...to a building where we all drank tons of beers,...they chanted etc,...and i took the photos.

next day i made a cdrom of the photos and gave to max so his team could have for prints etc.

went to a bar in la paz called mongols. long story short,...some good beer drinking,...lots of hot argentina girls and i met a lovely girl named monica. cool name hey.

back to the tour,...take care all.

death road photos...

2006-01-12T14:07:00.000-08:00

thought i had posted them,...i´ll try again...

And The Award Goes To...

2006-01-12T13:22:00.000-08:00

All of you for rocking out 24 straight days of rain in Vancouver. If it helps at all, I´m in La Paz Bolivia where it´s usually quite chilly and it is there rainy season. Today was a mix of sun and rain.

Ok, that aside,...there is a winner,...and the award does go to Colby Fulton. Just recently Colby took control of his life and joined the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel Spa. He went 5 days in a row of some serious steam and hot tub action to keep his weary Vancouver bones from becoming brittle. Nice work Colbs,...and welcome to the team. Wait, my memberships up. Sweet, i´m sneakin in with you.

Ok, Rmac shares have rebounded nicely. Last week I was getting beat up pretty good. The last couple days have been in Bolivia and things are much better. A historian or cultural Shakespear have some answers as to why Bolivians are quite happy and chill. I just know that its been a godsend.

Yesterday I road Bolivia´s famous ¨death road.¨ I´ll enclose some photos as pics are worth thousand words type deal. Super gnarl. Crazy,...and I mean crazy drops to an abyss of I don´t know cause you can´t see that far. Imagine a road cut out of the side of mountains with semi´s, busses and then downhill mountain bikers to throw in a mix. In the last 5 years this road has claimed the lives of 8 cyclists. So ytd we started off with a 60km road ride to the desent. 11,000 ft, thin air, and a dialed out Rocky Mountain bike made for some serious gasping. Once the desent began, ¨squirrel¨ McCleery came alive and I pushed and pushed to gain speed,...its a good thing we had a primo guide cause every time he signaled for me to slow down,...in my head i was thinking with my ego, ¨this guys a pussy, and BC riders are the shizzle.¨ Then of course i´d come flying around a corner and he had saved my life again,...and again. Finally I cooled my jets and hammered the course when he did, and went slow when he signaled...and voila i´m typing here today. Wait till you see the pic of the red van. All the way down on my brand new Rocky Mtn bike I was thinkin to myself, geez i´m so much happier on this bike than inside a van that has inches at times when an oncoming bus or semi approaches. It was only at the end of our day, that i realized i had to be inside that bus and drive back up the ¨death road¨to get home. Seriously, these busses and semis get within inches of the edge when reversing to make room for others.

Ok, enough making myself seem cool. At end of road we rode some singletrack down to the neatest lodge (i just used the word neatest, wow),..positioned perfectly along a river. The vibe was very amazonian if that helps. Cats, dogs, chickens, llamas, monkeys just cruisin around...actually reminded me of the hurd household...haha We had hot showers (currently my hostal in la paz has cold water showers...that´s like skiing all day at whistler and going home to freezing water and pert plus. Not much foamage and everything is well cold and not out bragging or anything like that.) which was a treat and some great food, and beer! Oh yeah, almost forgot, super muddy and grunge,...i stripped down to my board shorts and jumped in the river. Yes, i do wonder if in about 6 months i´ll have some kind of viral story from a buh-luck-ah-luck river bug of some sort. No kidding. the thought did enter and then i go-go gadget got my travel confidence wings. I did then worry about leeches but none were on me.

funny, cause when i signed up at this company that does these rides they gave me one of those cheesy t shirts, ¨i survived the death rode blah blah. Well today i wear it not with crazy pride or anything, but i suppose a little more respect. And, ssshhhhit, my left knee is adios. When i open leg it goes crack.

Today, chillin. Checkin stocks. Mopin around La Paz. Doin a tour tomorrow which i know will stress me out when the chatch starts showing me statues etc. Sometimes i do wonder why i came to travel if so many of the touristy things turn me off. Hmm, maybe i just wanted to meet Mrs. McCleery. Suppose i could have checked into the Ramada in Everett WA and signed onto lava life brazil. Kiddding,...it´s the people. I´m diggin meeting the people. Speaking of that Perhaps meeting up with a girl i met in Peru...she´s from london and travelling. We did have grand plans to travel together to bolivia and then i sent her a note when i was getting buggy in peru that i had to bust and perhaps we would link later. She was moving slower and doing the lonely planet mission i think. Everyone´s got their vibe which is cool...

ake care, and stay warm. Call Colby for a steam, he loves when i do this.

ps. still have yet to find xbox down here...you´ll know when i do. the monkeys in the amazon will start to flip out,...that´s your sign colby, scott, craig, and peno to start practicing.

late

couple photos

2006-01-08T09:17:00.000-08:00

sup yall,...

ok, i´ve got a couple shots here,...the ones i took after learning how to make camera take in email format.

talked with piller today,...he was sitting in back seat of car as sally and emma were driving him around london. i suspect they put up one of those limo window dividers while driving.

so here´s the scoop. i´m audi 5thou peru. had my fill,...and then basically am ready to push off to bolivia. apparently there is some unrest there now because of the most recent vote. nick monahan if you´re out there,...gimme the lowdown.

ok photo 1 is of a street in cusco, peru. very tiny streets here with cobble stones etc. The other photo is of a dude named Rob who is an ex triathalon athlete living in san diego cali. he´s lookin rather chipper which is pretty great considering he´s the guy who was robbed at gunpoint. we had some great drinks in this hotel lobby lounge before heading out to a couple clubs in lima.

hope everyone´s doing ok in van.

late

rmac shares plummet

2006-01-06T16:36:00.000-08:00

recommendation: strong buy

despite a ceviche disastor bomb in my stomach over the last couple days i suspect that a new corner and light will emerge. for the contrarian buyer the time is now. the last 3 days however scared most investors into a bearish sentiment as my mood grew weak and bitter. oh man, a diesel fumed bus ride, with suspension as good as the go-carts in richmond, my head was bouncing around all the time i hoped and wondered if my guts would hold in the ceviche. for the halo players out there,...lets just say bathroom time was like the needler gun.

i arrived in a town called piura to discover that my flight to cusco...where macchu piccu is....had to go through lima. for those who are new to lima, lets just say that prior to my trip i was warned by 4 separate groups to take a pass. whilst on my travels i have then heard from 2 other groups about the mine fields in lima. case numero uno: a young little chatch walked up to a tourist who was sitting down at a cafe and pitched him to buy some of the sticky icky. before the tourist could even say no he just threw the bag onto his lap and then signaled a police officer. long story short,...they took this guy to jail, scared the living ....out of him, and thennnnn took a walk to an atm machine. case numero dos: i hung out with this dude from san diego all day ytd and also last night partying. he was walking the streets of lima in broad daylight and 5 dudes grabbed him and threw into an alley. out came a .44 and his temple had never felt so warm. stripped him, then used his clothes to tie him up...took the cash,...and then demanded the pins on his cards stating that if they were wrong that poncho who stood bye with the .44 would get itchy. super gnarl. lima´s a town where there´s cabs and so called secure cabs...go figure. basically at the bar last night we befriended each bouncer so that as the cabs rolled up he´d look in the window and let us know if we should get in or not. oh, almost forgot,...mancora beach,...the place where we rocked out new years. 6 dudes with machine guns climbed a hostal and through the windows,...kidnapped the mgr and held up the yanks and took everything,...cash, ginch and all...

back to lima...ok, long story short, i decided that if i must be in lima for a day that i´d go in style and go for some cover. it worked! google search miraflores park hotel. i showed up unshaven, beer in hand and walked up to the front desk and even grinded a deal for an ocean view suite. place was like trump tower and after living in unicef for the longest time i just began to half laugh, with perhaps a whisper of a cry...gosh sounding like a feistly little blonde i know with this banter. hehe. seriously though, the rooom was ssssoooo player. huge tub, massive granite shower with one of those rain shower heads...and molten brown everything for soaps, shampoos etc. i threw on a robe dialed room service and just paced the room ... ok ok,...all this aside,...when my food arrived...with those silver dome cover things...cool.. i did think to myself,...dude, there´s people all over this country with just a little bit of food, whilst people with an edge can dial a club sani from egyptian cotten robes. kinda nuts.

my shares did plummet hard because especially with a sick stomach i was bitter as hell about the nature of human beings. i suppose that somewhere deep inside i wondered if travelling down south would have revealed a utopia of ¨content¨people, sharing people... well i guess the answer is yes there are nice people around, but i´ll tell ya,...the game down here is inning 1 of capitalism. they may have some leaders preaching this that or the other, but watching how people dip and dodge and literally give you a story on absolutely everything to hustle a buck...it grows tiring. sharing,...maybe...during church or something. but when you´re on the cobblestones, the gloves are off.

sharon has reminded me about being flexible and so i´m goin with it. i have a strong feeling that when the needler gun subsides i´ll be able to see the sun again. tomorrow i begin a 3 day cusco walk about that includes macchu picchu etc etc.

quite a needless rant so sorry for your eyes. i promise that as soon as i find someone to help me resize my photos that i´ll post them. hope you´re all doin well.

and yes, take all this with a grain of salt,...my guts are still be used as an arena for bull fighting contests.

cheers,
ryan

wow

2006-01-03T10:00:00.000-08:00

the title of this email was going to be Heading Up Coast,...however being that i´m in a surf town yall can imagine that something really wonderful and tanned just walked in,...and,...well my first thought was WOW. hmmm, trying to decide if this was just gobbly gook i just wrote but whatev...

so yes, i´m gonna head up coast so that you guys can get some sunshine vicariously through rmac. as some of you know, ive been living in the city of gods for the last week...super gnarl and now i just cant take it anymore,...random dogs barking, dust, dirt, garbage... The people are sweet and wonderful its just that the time has come for rniz to stretch out my shizzle on a mac daddy lounge,...little room service if you know what i´m sayin and some super untouched beach with pounding surf. Gonna read some of my Ekhardt Tolle book, grab my personal mirror and find myself on the sands of peru.

i hope all your livers have recovered. i´m sure we´re all rockin out a similar scene of constant partying as of late. last night, me, this dude, and 3 chicas hit the beach and crashed as some cabanas that are under construction. lit a fire, littl booze, under the stars. hoo rah.,

chat to you dudes in a bit...next on to cusco, maybe lima...then who knows

laters,
ryan

vancouver boozin

2006-01-02T10:19:00.000-08:00

so i hear all you hoodlums got drunk like crazy on new years....well surprize surprize...haha i was also lucky enough to hear from many of you when rebecca hurd...the always lovely and charged emotionally dear friend of mine....haha,...had to be cheeky, called my cell phone. the first call to get through!! watty, alana, becs, suzanna, wally, sarahcb, tom were all on the phone. i think i will frame my cell phone bill on my wall when i move home. or better yet, i´m sure fido will have me on their wall as customer of the month. 26 min phone call that i´m sure will cost my flight home. and i love it,...its worth it to chat to your peeps no matter the cost. so thanks you guys for dialin me.

well, i´m rockin out in a small surf town in peru. totally awesome and insane at times. in ecuador, we knew (this english bloke named chris who i met in quito) that Mancora has been booked solid for like the last month. we said screw it and came anyways. yes, the universe does work with the whole law of attraction program. on the bus ride in we met this old lady who hooked us up with a husband and wife where we rent a couple rooms. ok, now this is the balls part! no kidding here...this is the most dodge area i´ve ever seen in my life. think tiajuana mexico times 10. i´ve nick named where i live the unicef neighborhood as it looks just like those ads. The english dude i´m with was totally sketched and he calls it the city of god neighborhood from that brazilian movie. the great thing is that (and s.janzen and a.cunningham will be proud) is that everything is just fine,...these people are totally content and happy.

once into town, about 5mins walk, you´re in the coolest old school surf town. piller, you and me (oops, and tdo as well,...cant miss him or he´ll cry) will have to rock this place out ...soon! you´ll love it. it s like maui or california towns 50 or 100 years ago,...and for the surfters out there, this shizzzle peels left to right like glass. i mean minting waves

new years was great and i met some great people. i met a great gal from peru who also has japanese heritage. long story short without all the deets,...two peruvians guys threatened me on new years night for dancing with her. i guess they get jealous when the rmac attack goes hoo rah! when the clock hit midnight a bunch of us ran into the ocean, gave a few high fives, and basically got wet, cause, like...ya know! its the ocean man. sorry sunstoke.

ytd, by fluke...or the fact that my spanish is gashola,...i had the tuc tuc driver take me way outta town. i said i needed to do some laundry and he drove me to chilliwack essentially. it was great though and i ended up spending one of the most wonderful first days of a new year ever. explored the area where there are some mint houses along the water, as well as some super wicked cabanas on the water...and i mean old school action. very little devt.,...untouche beach with pounding waves and views of blue water forever. i blackberried many phone numbers of little cabanas, hotels etc for future stealth missions of chillin in peru.

on my way back into town i had what piller and ct would know as a moab moment. yes, i saw on my right some terrain that looked like grand canyon and sahara dessert. so i ventured in and just said fcuk it,...i´m goin for it. i trekked in for about an hour and twice came to points where there was absolutely no noise at all. i ran down some sand dunes...and basically just was stoked. and then yes, the moab moment came when i thought, shizzle i better get my butt back towards the road. well all my sand tracks had disappeared as the wind had covered them with new sand. sun was coming down and i was like,...here we go again. whatevs, i made it back into town just as the sun was coming down and i was stoked,...and had a grin and kick in my stride that made the chicks go ape. haha.

maybe another 3 weeks mopin peru, then bolivia where i´ll study,...yes actually study spanish for say month while also travelling a bit, and then on to chile, argentina, brazil and then who knows what. i´ve met many dudes down here tellin me how cool panama and colombia are, so i may rock these out on way north.

enjoy all,
ryan

Christmas in jail

2005-12-29T09:15:00.000-08:00

Hey hows everyone doin in Van? Hope yall had a good Christmas season with all your crazy aunts and uncles. haha...

So i spent 3 hours in jail on Christmas. Gnarly! Well the scoop is this...this dude im travelling with wanted to do something worthwhile on Christmas. There are many foreigners in jail here that did stupid thinkgs like drugs etc and they dont mess around with that stufff down here. There is a girl in jail who is doing 8 years for a flap of the disco pow! T here are also many kids in jail too...many of whom were born in the joint be cause of prostituion or they were pregnant when arrested. So we took them magazines, toothbrushes and paste, toilet paper, candy, and toys for the kids. Top this S. Janzen hahahah... Rmac the merciful. All in all a n ice thing to do, and super sketchy. The next day i went and took steam and hot tub to clear the soul.

Christmas night we stayed at thhis super cool colonial hostel,...and celebrated with about 20 travellers...turkey dins and then booze and dancing. Currently im in Cuenca Ecuador and tomorrow will rock out to a surf town in Peru near Tumbes to celebrate new years.

Enjoy your new years all

laters,
ryan

2005-12-21T19:11:00.000-08:00

galapagos islands dudes!!

2005-12-21T18:24:00.000-08:00

hello all, and thanks for your wonderful blog updates. i held the nerd spaz to a minimum because i had the internet cafe dude switch this mofo into english. So i hope you´re all coping well with the frost in Vancouver. A few of you had alluded , spelling...to me and spas. Quite right kee moe sawbees,...you know me well. When i land in quito, i may take a two hour bus ride to the country to a resort with real hot springs. then back to travelling reality which includes camo, an rmac pledge for freedom for all, and xbox for the children. So i just arrived after an 8 day voyage of the galapagos islands. super cool. saw sharks in the morning circling our boat which was just dandy,...to which i did a few good ol´tire kicks to ensure ecuadorian construction of boat was minting,...and it was. these guys down here super casual dudes and top notch. ok, saw massive turtles, snorkled with sharks, manta rays, sting rays and sea turtles, AND! Iguanas were on some of the islands which was really interesting. the female sea lions come rip roaring around you and play in the water. have met all kinds of cool people.
quito is nice and hmmm, a little dodge when the sun goes down. i´ve heard all kinds of horrow stories, so good thing i rocked the sheraton for the first two nights. photo enclosed hip hops. umm, no laughs at my shot in swim trunks, ...i´m down here for a reason to beef up on beans and rice and gain a few jenny craig pounds. So merry christmas to all and chat soon. oh, i´ve met a girl down here...you´ll see in the photo...she´s a little rough around the edges but got great color,...could use a manicure on dem claws though. laters and happy holidays.

rmac

Rmac's goin to S.America yo!!

2005-11-21T19:57:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

In between smoking my ceegars in Bolivia, and spraying oil lotion on da ladies in Brazil, I'll,...from time to time, update a South American blog. I plan on renting a motorbike and doing a "Che/Halo2" venture down south. This blog will share wonderful photos and tales from Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and Chile. Travis tells me now, that y'all can add comments to the blog as well. Scary thought. I am still in Vancouver, and my father has already made grand plans to get me a world phone so that in case I'm in a jam, I can order a llama like a blacktop cab.

Rmac goes Guevara

On Happiness

more l.a. pix...

L.A. Pix,...more to come!

L.A.

Toilet Seat UP!!!!!!!

more pics for post below...

yeah,...more pics

ah,...more pics

even more pics to go with below...

pics

hi all

Patagonia...

Cabo and Maui

Rmac's goin to Maui

Psyche

additonal photos....

Closing ceremonies

The "Peno's" are here,...the Peno's are here!!!!

Beastie Boys,...other randoms

stars

few more random photos...

Brad-dog!

Thanks everyone

Adopt the pace of nature

As Good As It Gets

Sunset Hudson River

Coney Island and the Ditch Dog

Earthquake

more pics for earlier post...

Desserts!

weddings and pedicures

Vegas

Little Siena McCleery (unnnncle Rmac! rockets,...this kid's playing halo for sure)

more,....phew....

yes, and more....

Annnnnd more pics....

Hi Folks

Coming Soon...

update

Asselstine ask, you receive

Thanks everybody

Rmacandche go New York

RmacandChe Do it Again

The End

Roughing it in Colombia

round one pics

round 2 pics

tigers

Watson!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brazil!!!!!!!!!!

photos for earlier post

what up

Hi

and even some more pics...

and some more pics

pics

working hard

quote un quote

photos

yo ah!

biggy SMALLS

Xbox

congrats jon bell and valleau bros.

death road photos...

And The Award Goes To...

couple photos

rmac shares plummet

wow

vancouver boozin

Christmas in jail

galapagos islands dudes!!

Rmac's goin to S.America yo!!