  Well yesterday, I was so busy taking care of business that I neglected to blog; I did, however, accomplish all the other things I wanted to do, so it was a good day. Some things I did yesterday: did my laundry forearm day watched a movie with Laura studied Mandarin installed my digital camera One thing I did not do yesterday was go down to the beach with Paddy & mini-Paddy to shoot pellet guns.
Foo also declined because he was too tired; my reason was that it was 2:00 AM and I had promised to do stuff with Laura today. I sort of regret not going, but I can imagine having greater regrets doing it (for example, having the van taken away, or being imposed with a curfew). In this case, my stance is that it's "better the devil I know than the one I don't. " Were I, on the other hand, in 'unique experiences' mode I might have been more interested... also in the last few days before I go to Taiwan, I may be more prone to fun & erratic behaviour. Speaking of which, urlLink Helen Dyck (of urlLink Thomas Cook Travel ) phoned today to say that my airline ticket has been purchased, and my visa will arrive at her office tomorrow. This means that I will definitely be going to Taiwan on August 20th of this year. I'll be leaving from the urlLink Nanaimo-Collishaw Airport , so on the off-chance you want to see me off (or make sure I'm gone), that's the last chance. Afterwards, I will hopefully post a year's worth of exciting blog entries about my stay in Taiwan. Today, I went downtown & had lunch at urlLink Delicado's with Laura. We then browsed various downtown bookstores, though I tried not to spend any money as my breakfast/lunch cost about $6.00. I gave a toonie to some homeless beggar guy though. I saw Laura off at the City Centre bus exchange (see urlLink bus map ) and then went to my Mandarin class.
It was challenging; Swan made us do some pretty hard conversations/dialogue. It worries me that my speaking skills are so weak, but I will keep trying--I can't afford to stop now that I am 100% committed to this upcoming Rotary Exchange. I haven't been to any Rotary meetings recently. Apparently, 'guests of Rotarians' & 'visiting Rotarians' aren't so welcome to their fun meetings. The club has been touring various local businesses, which I would very much like to do, but I am not invited.
Oh well. I bought a new journal at Staples and then went home for a while. Dinner this evening was @ urlLink the old folks' home . The food was excellent as usual: I had chicken noodle soup, breaded veal, and strawberries & cream for dessert. Afterwards I played urlLink Mendelssohn 's " Andante Sostenuto " on their piano but I sucked a lot. Drove to T'ai Chi and then returned home again. My day has ended videogaming with Foo, and eating rice pudding. Total Googlewhacks to date: 46 
