July 5, 2012

• Report # 897

  Hey everyone, I hope that you've all been having an awesome week. Summer has finally arrived here and from what I've seen it's going to be warm and sunny for the next two weeks..... it's about time ! It's basically going to super sunny and in the 20's for the next few weeks, with a few even warmer days. This will be great swimming and tanning weather so hopefully people will be ready. Monday was not such a nice day as it was rainy and cool, but the rain stopped as I arrived at Surrey Central to meet my friend Danny.

  Danny will be returning to Mexico in a couple of weeks so it will be nice that the weather will be perfect the last two weeks she's here. We took the Skytrain to Commercial Drive, which is a street in Vancouver with restaurants from all over the world..... though I have to say it's predominantly Italian ! I told Danny there must have been a flood on that street on Saturday as the tears from all of the Italians after watching Spain defeat Italy to win the Euro cup would have created a little river.

  There is no question right now, Spain is the king of the soccer world. They won the Euro Cup this year as well as in 2008, and winning the World Cup in 2010..... they have to be considered one of the best soccer teams in world history now. This was actually my first time ever walking down Commercial Drive before... I think Danny knew more about it than I did. I have seen a lot of places around here in my life, but I certainly haven't seen everything.

  We walked around for a while and eventually went to a very nice Italian restaurant for dinner. I ordered a chicken dish with spaghetti, but apparently I accidentally ordered it with vegetables so I didn't get my spaghetti.... that was disappointing. The chicken was delicious though ! And the restaurant we were in was actually very Italian. The owner was actually from Italy and there were people in the restaurant speaking Italian, so we definitely picked an authentic place to eat.

  After dinner we walked to a Gelato (Italian ice cream) place and I ordered a cone with two flavours thinking it would be small, but I was wrong. It ended up being way too much ice cream and I didn't feel too great after that. Danny and I headed back to the skytrain and headed back to Surrey where we each took separate buses. I told her we will definitely have to get together one more time before she goes back to Mexico.

  The month end week has gone really well at my work, though tomorrow will not be too much fun. I'll have to enter in credit notes for a totally different department since they are just swamped. I've never done any before and I'm not sure how it will go, but I certainly had hoped to pass my last month here avoiding thee Fence credit notes, but so much for that. I will have a bunch of issues to work out on Monday, but aside from that it's been a pretty good week, I just hope everything goes ok during the closing days for the month of June work.

  A few years ago I became aware of something called "Eurovision." Basically Eurovision is a song contest that happens every May in a European city with contestants representing almost every European country. I'm not sure how the votes work, but basically the country with the winning song is voted and that determines in which country the next year's Eurovision song contest will be.

  Usually the songs are sung in English as I suppose it's seen as the universal language and a language that the contestants from all of the countries know.... usually at least some what. Sometimes English is mixed with a contestant's native language, and there are some times they sing their songs completely in their own languages. This year a girl from Sweden was chosen as the winner, so next year's competition will be in Sweden. For those interested they can have a look:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwVsNxNOUm0

  Now I have heard a number of songs from singers from tons of different countries who have performed in the last few Eurovision song contests. A lot of the songs are very well done and usually the people can really sing. (Though of course everyone will have their own opinion) I am definitely amazed at how well almost everyone speaks English, and when they sing people would have no idea they are from a far off country where a language most people in North America would know almost nothing about.

  I was thinking it would be great to have a competition like that over here. Now people will say there is always shows like American Idol and the X Factor which is true, but these aren't shows that bring people from many countries together to share music in a huge way together. And in all honestly I think shows like American Idol and the X Factor have over stayed their usefulness.

  I mean when it gets to the point that Britney Spears gets paid more money than the majority of people make in a lifetime to be a judge on a singing competition show...... something is seriously wrong. It's kind of ironic that they hire someone who can't even sing themselves to judge others ! Just another example of why the economy in so many countries is messed up though..... just a bad waste of money in the wrong places.

  Anyways back to my point, I think it would be awesome to have a Eurovision style contest for this side of the world featuring all of the countries of North and South America. I really think it could have an appeal among people over in this side of the world, and it would be a great way to connect countries and cultures in a much better way like has happened in Europe. While I don't ever see this happening, I really do think it would be totally awesome. And one can always dreams ! For the next question:

  Are you familiar with Eurovision ? Do you think a contest very similar to Eurovision would work on this side of the world.... why or why not ?

  That's all I have for today. I'll leave you all with some pictures that I took from my trip to the Vancouver Aquarium in April. Take care and I'll talk to you all on Sunday, bye for now.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  • 9:30 pm
  • 3 Comments