Chilly Chase 5K and 10K run

My first race for the year was today in Langley called Chilly Chase. It sure was chilly this morning but no icy conditions on the road which made the running a whole lot better. I did the same race last year which was the 5K. Ray went on and did the 10K today instead of the 5K. He wanted to get sub-40mins for the 10K so he can be qualified for the Sun Run elite category. Let's just say he is now officially in the sub-40's elite category because he succeeded in this morning's race. Raceheadquarters did the timing and had already posted up the results. Let's see how we did. The result placed Ray 7th/154 overall, 7th/56 for males and 2nd/16 in his age group with an incredible time of 39:06 mins. As for me on the 5K result, my finished time of 28:05 mins placed me at 33rd/124 overall, 14th/79 for females and 4th/25 in my age group. Below is a picture of Ray accepting his award for coming in 2nd in his age group. Congrats!!

Michael Buble Concert at GM Place

What a great concert to start off the year 2008!! Michael Buble is truly a great singer. Both him and Josh Groban were first discovered by David Foster and that was how their stardom started. I went to two Michael Buble concerts before; the first one at QE theatre and the other one was an outdoor concert at Deer Lake Park in Burnaby. He started off with small venues and slowly got more popular, eventually performing at GM Place. It was a sold-out show tonight. He has a magnificent and powerful voice, just like Josh Groban. Michael Buble (MB) is a little bit more playful than Josh Groban and likes to joke and goof a lot on stage. His band was amazing. He really gave them the credit for making him successful and he called them his brothers and family....awwww. What a sentimental guy. The opening act for MB was Naturally 7. 7 people on stage with no music instruments sang acapella and they were amazing. Kudos to them! Please check out a video clip on my facebook, only my contacts on facebook can view this video. In this video, MB was performing one of his hit songs from his new album called "Lost". I just love that song. He also sang his old hit song called "Home" and that song earned him his popularity. Since then, everyone knows who Michael Buble is.

New Year's Day Special Service

My family and I celebrated New Year's Day in church. There was a special service on Jan 1, 2008 and it was sure fun to see everyone all dressed up. Each family had their picture taken so that the photos can be posted up in the basement of the church for everyone to see. Of course, my family took this opportunity to have the picture taken to send it to my sister back home in Brunei. As you can see from the above picture, we have an addition to the family; my baby nephew, Matthias (on the right) and this addition to the family prompted us to take this picture.

New Year's Day Countdown Gathering

Aahh...another year has swiftly passed by. Ray and I celebrated the New Year at my friend's house and did the countdown there with 2 other friends. It was fun. 2007 had been an interesting and whirlwind year for me. Though Ray and I had been trying to look for a house to buy but we discovered that with the expensive real estate now, we probably would want to wait till the market cools down. I also did lots of running races and made a lot of friends in 2007. I think I am addicted to the races so this year, I am going to try to do the same races again to see how much I have improved in 2008. I also had been to a few concerts in 2007 but there was only one that really inspired me to pursue my singing interest. That was Josh Groban. He really has a powerful operatic voice. Currently, I am taking lessons with an Italian Maestro and it has been a couple months now. I'm just loving it! Hopefully, I can do mini performances sometime in the New Year. Will keep you all posted on that. Last but not least, Ray and I made a last minute vacation to Honolulu, Hawaii and this was sure the highlight of 2007. We decided to escape to somewhere warm from the cold. It was my second time to Hawaii and first time for Ray as an adult(he was there when he was a kid). I loved Hawaii and seriously thinking about retiring there in Hawaii when that day comes :) Weather was awesome and people are very easy-going and friendly. I think we should learn this from the Hawaiian's. Alright...I have shared my reflections of the past year 2007 and let's hope that 2008 will be filled with joy, peace and prosperity. Happy New Year to everyone!!!