February 20, 2012

Home is Where the Heart Is

If there’s anything I learned while my parents were away on vacation in sunny Vietnam for over a month, it’s how much I’ve missed them. When you’ve been living at home with your parents for a while, it’s easy to get caught up in tense situations or heated arguments from time to time, whether it’s from a clash of values, unfulfilled expectations or generally from being around each other too much. After living on my own for the few weeks, I’ve realized how much work it takes into maintaining a household and how the empty our home was without them around. As an only child growing up, they’ve given me so much of the little that they had, and now, more than ever, I know it’s my turn to give whatever I can to ensure their happiness and comfort, to the best of my ability. Here’s one of my favourite pictures of them from their most recent trip to Vietnam:

As Ontarians, we’re one of the lucky three provinces(Alberta and Saskatchewan are the others, with B.C. to jump on the wagon next year)  that recognize this holiday and it makes me so appreciative that we have a specific holiday reserved to spend time with our families. After picking up my parents at the airport on Thursday, it’s been a relaxing and enjoyable weekend staying at home. We’re now discussing plans to go away on a cruise in September and I couldn’t be more excited! It’s been a really long time since I’ve gone away on a family excursion and with 30+ of us going, you know it’s going to be a fullout Lu family affair. I already feel sorry for the other people on the cruise :P

Here are some of my fave pics of me and my fam:


Sharing an ice cream cone at the Toronto Zoo


Family Day Photoshoot


Can’t have a family-filled blogpost without these two, Muimui & Dai Gow


University Convocation <3

Happy Family Day everyone! How did you spend your long weekend?

xoxo tine

February 15, 2012

Happy VaLINtine’s Day

Happy belated VaLINtine’s day everyone! By now, half of you reading this have already groaned and are facepalming yourselves. But hey, it was my first Raptors game of the season and with an opportunity to join the Asian Sensation crowd at the ACC, why not? Pretty sure half of my schoolmates at UW were there, sure did bump into enough of them and the rest that I didn’t get to see, I caught all their check-ins on Foursquare and FB.

Enjoyed a very fun night out with my lovely date, Victoria :) Thanks for organizing – it was so awesome to see you again and spend some quality time with you!

What a friggin nail-biter game! Down to the last minute, the Knicks finally caught up to Raptor’s 10+ lead throughout the whole game. And what a finish. Jeremy Lin deserves each and every single one of his nicknames!

All the fans going LINsane in the membrane!

And what better way to wrap up the evening than reminiscing our shopping adventures in China, corny jokes from @sallysuen and laughing our butts off at @evayung22 with her “candy-flavoured” Hershey kisses.

Even though there was no bouquet of flowers waiting for me at my desk or a proposal at the Raptors game (who does that?!), all I needed was quality time with some very special ladies! Thanks for the lovely night out!

xoxo tine

How did you spend your Valentine’s?

PS. If you have been living under a rock and still don’t know what Jeremy Lin is all about, here’s an awesome article on Gawker that’s made for non sport fans (like me!): http://gawker.com/5884978/the-non-sports-fans-guide-to-jeremy-lin