Belgium, Bruges: My Memoirs

On the third of March, me, Brandi, Liam, Laura, Leigh, and Neil flew to Belgium. Here are my memoirs.

- The 3 Scouse girls on the plane with curlers in their hair and drawn on eyebrows (...a 'fashion' thing). I hoped people in Beligum wouldn't judge England on that.

- Trying to find the big metal thing (later learned the name was the Atomium), but it was raining and horrible, so we gave up and had waffles and Haagendazs crème brulee ice cream.

- Being really, really impressed by how beautiful Bruges looked. Also, the apartment we stayed in is probably the nicest we've had on one of these breaks.

- Spending £67 on alcohol at a corner shop, which barely lasted the night, then trekking far to pick up a Chinese (accidental detour included).

- Got really drunk playing ring of fire. Leigh, for the first time in his life, managed to rhyme something in the rhyme round, even though it was by accident.. "It was very hot...", "it was very what?".

- Egg cup shots (couldn't find the glasses). Leigh, getting the short straw, having to do a shot off the plate.

- Not remembering much about the night, but little flashes. Left the appartment around 3, tried to go to a club though they were all closed, got talking to two guys from Bruges. Went back to their place, sat on the bed, stroking a cat, smoking weed and listening to Belgium rap.

- Everybody hanging hard the next day. I made a full 'English' breakfast at 5pm. It was disgusting. The bacon was weird, the sausage was weird, the beans were weird, and the only thing that shouldn't go wrong was the eggs, but they were weird too. Turns out it was because we used "Raison sugar milk", which was tragic.

- Woke up earlier ghdnext day so we could see the city. Got tandem bikes... Leigh and Neil were terrible on them so swapped.

- Tried to cycle to Damme, which looked like a nice village. Ended going in the very opposite direction. I went into a strange 'local' pub to ask if they could point where we are on the map. The first two men I went over to stared at me like I just pissed in their pint. Eventually two of the other people in the small pub got talking to me and helped me. Turned out we were way off the map to the south. No idea how it went so wrong.

- Cycled in the right direction. The wind was against us. It rained, snowed, and everybody wanted to kill themselves. Eventually, when we couldn't see the village in the distance, we gave up.

- I took the coldest "Vestman picture" so far. Colder than at the top of the mountain in Whistler.

- Took the bikes back as the snow came down more. Went straight into a restaurant and had a nice traditional Belgium meal. Some kind of meat with ale sauce. And tomato soup. The tomato soup was awesome.

- Spent more money on chocolate, waffles and hot chocolate than alcohol all weekend.

- Had a Bicky Burger!! I needed to have one after keep seeing Bicky Crisps! BICKY CRISP!

- Wandered around the city fairly late to get pictures, since we hadn't properly seen places. It was hard not to fall in all the snow.

The rest of the story isn't suitable for bullet form... and from now on will commence in paragraphs.

On the Tuesday morning we woke up early to get to the station in time for the 5:55am train to Brussels. Surprisingly we arrived there on time, after dragging ourselves through the snow. Our first problem (key word being first, not only) was that the machine didn't accept Liam's bank card, and the desks weren't open until 6am. I eventually got someone to help us, but he had computer problems, and it was starting to look like we weren't going to be able to get on the train. We managed to just minutes before it left.

Annoyingly all the trains were running slow and late because of the snow. We were getting slightly nervous as time went on. We arrived at Charleroi train station about an hour before the flight leaves, which we thought could be enough time... until we found out the station was 10km from the airport... and because of the snow there were no buses or shuttles running.

We walked around trying to figure out how to get there. We found a taxi rink that had a load of people waiting, without any sign of a taxi. We walked to hotels to see if they could call one to there, but no luck.

Eventually we stood at the taxi rink, but as it came to be 20 mins before the flight we though we needed to take action. What happened then was the least British thing I have done. We left the queue, and proceeded to walk past everybody. My thoughts were that we could walk down the road, around the corner and get a taxi... but not 10 metres from the front of the queue a taxi pulled up and rolled his window down.

I asked him if we could go to the airport, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a hoard of people come running over. We tried to get in, but forgetting people driving on the other side of the road, we were on the wrong side of the doors. Before we could get around people had started trying to pile in. I had almost given up hope... until the taxi driver got out, and started shouting telling people to get out and that he is taking us. I felt relieved, but very guilty as we walked through people, receiving death-stares.

We arrived at the airport 5 minutes before the plane was due to take off. We rushed through the gate, hoping there would still be a chance to get on. At this point it still hadn't clicked how the snow had pretty much taken the country to a standstill. We saw two people that were on our flight here waiting, so I went over and asked if they were flying back to Manchester. He told me that he is, but that he was supposed to be on yesterdays flight, and that it looks like today's flight is also cancelled.

This lead to the worst 24 hours I've had in Belgium, ever.

Ryanair announced the flight was cancelled, without any further details. We stood in a queue to talk to the airport customer services, but the queue was the length of the whole airport. In the hours that we waited one airport woman came over and gave us a print out, and said that our best bet is to go back to our house, fill in the form and post it to Ryanair to try and get another flight. Post. Who the hell would post something, and how long would that take!? We stayed in the queue.

When finally getting to the end (no thanks to some people, who thought that they could demand that a flight would leave later that evening for them), and was told that we can try and book in for the next day, and that we would need to find a hotel, and hopefully Ryanair would give us the money back.

Most hotels were taken by this point, apart from a really expensive, really terrible hotel that I can only imagine is where businessmen go to commit suicide.

We were cold, demoralised, and spent a load of money on burgers just so we could sit somewhere that could fit us all, and had internet. The hotel thought they could charge something like 12 euros for an hour of internet. On the evening we went for Italian food, which was nice, until we passed a man without socks, covered in orange peel, and injecting heroin into his fingers. That pretty much sums up Charleroi.

On Wednesday we woke up early to go back to the airport. I didn't expect we would be leaving the country that day, as the weather was no different to the day before. After a bit of an argument with taxi drivers we arrived at the airport. When we got there it was the same story... one by one flights were being cancelled or delayed by hours. I could picture us spending the rest of the day in the airport, and the night at the hotel... until they called for us to line up and board the plane.

I have never been so happy to get on a plane!

SCH: My Memoirs

Today, on the 11th October 2012, it is my last day at SCH. It is actually my last hour as I write this.

I have learned a lot at this company, after leaving Switch, and my knowledge has grown a lot... but, I have decided to leave to start my own business as a contractor.

Although most of my memoirs come in terms of work I have done here, but that is too boring to write, let alone read, but a lot has changed in the time I started (namely 3 houses, two boxing fights, getting engaged, getting married, and getting a house).

The person I have got on with best here is Dave Jr. We work well together, and have a laugh (such as finding Dave's letter on his desk, printing out a new version, and not telling him. Results here.). He also became my new boxing and grappling partner.

I used my time at SCH well. In the time between the builds of the programs, I learned to solve the Rubiks cube in under 2 mins, to cross it off my list. Also, I came up with the idea of RedditDayOf, and spent time (at dinner, of course) growing and moderating it.

Like leaving anywhere, I am sad as it is another chapter over, but it is a very exciting time at the moment.

This is wrote quick because I need to leave to meet my accountant!

The Wedding: My Memoirs

On the 26th of April 2012 I got married. I always thought I'd get married when I was 23 or 24, but that plan was long abandoned, only for it to happen anyway.

The wedding was amazing, surrounded by two weeks in Mexico with my friends and family. We have finally gotten the pictures back, so I thought it was about time to write about it.

During the holiday I wasn't too nervous about the wedding until a couple of days before. I was fairly laid back about it, and just thought that if anything went wrong, it would still be good because it's a wedding (unless she didn't turn up.. that would suck). 

On the day of the wedding we woke up together (I wasn't about to waste a night we could have spent together, just for tradition). The wedding was at 4pm, so I had to find something to do with my time during the day. Thankfully my friends were there, and we played table tennis, basketball, and watched UFC to pass the time.

As it approached 2:30 I was getting more nervous. I wasn't so nervous about the ceremony, but more so trying to give a speech after. Neil seemed pretty nervous about giving his too, and spent a lot of the time on the balcony, reading and looking over his speech.

A wedding photographer came to our room, and one to Brandi's room. I had to have photo wearing the vest on the wedding (top picture). While I was getting ready, Calvin (Brandi's brother, and one of my groomsmen) came over with a letter and present from Brandi. The letter was really nice (I won't say what it said...) and the gift was a pair of socks, with a label she had made that said "for if you get cold feet". I was touched, but made sure to stay looking manly in front of my friends!

In our room, Leigh (another of my groomsmen) ironed my shirt (I'm terrible at ironing), and he was also nice enough to lend me his belt - I didn't even think to wear one. With that we set out.

It felt like I was standing under the gazebo for hours. It was really, really hot, and I could feel myself start to sweat. The minister was asking me a few questions, and I couldn't figure out if they were for official purposes or out of conversation, so I didn't want to get them wrong. At one point he asked how long we had been together, to which my answer was something like "erm... erm... a few months, 2 months, no, 6, no... a year... I dunno".  I was close enough.

Then the music started. He told me to turn and look at him, so I couldn't see Brandi until the last second. It was torture. One by one I saw the bridesmaids stand at the front. He asked if I had seen her that day, I panicked, thinking he might void the wedding, and said "no". Eventually he said I could turn around.

She looked beautiful. I loved her dress. It is exactly what I would have picked if I was a bride. The troll minster then started his trolling. He said "Andy... are you not going to tell her how you think she looks?". I told her how beautiful she looked. "Andy... are you not going to thank her father?". I quickly said thanks. "Andy... are you not going to shake her father hand?". This was my first time getting married... a heads up before would have been better!

The minister said some nice words. I eagerly listened as well as I could, mainly so I could make sure I understood what he was saying, for when I had to repeat after him. I thought I did, until he said "repeat after me". I was already nervous, but the next moment was pretty cringe-worthy. I don't remember the exact wording, but it was along these lines...

Minister: I Andrew, take Brandi to be my P!"£*&
Me: ... Pardon?
Minister:  I Andrew, take Brandi to be my P!"*£*&
Me: ... Sorry, what?
Minister:  I Andrew, take Brandi to be my P!"£*&
Me: .... .... ....

It was horribly awkward. Everybody was looking at me, and I had no idea what he was saying. In a normal situation I would just smile, give a light amused laugh which covers most things, and turn around. I had hit the three repeat barrier, and even that is painful to reach, but I was about to have to do the ungodly fourth, or have to run away from the wedding. I thought intensely, and decided I was in too deep, and was thinking of a socially acceptable way to ask again. But just at that moment, Brandi, proving why I should marry her, stepped in and said "Partner...". Suddenly everything was clear. To be my partner.

I'd like to say everything went smoothly from then on, but that wouldn't be strictly true. Troll Minister handed me the microphone and said "Do you have any words for your bride?". In front of friends and family, at a time that I'm hardly able to think straight anyway, since not falling over is taking most of my effort, he expects me to freestyle a nice message.

I tried my best to muster some words. More sweat. I thought I did quite well, though I literally had no idea what I was saying and still don't. All I remember is Brandi saying "like? not love?". I got revenge though, because she had to right after, but I think hers was nice.

And then we kissed and it was done. Success! I breathed a sigh of relief, but Neil brought me back to reality by telling me to cover my shirt, which was covered in sweat by this point.

While standing around Neil laughed about how the vows "were like a minefield" for me. I cannot say "R's" very well, and had to say "Brandi", "bride", and "ring" all in one sentence. I managed 2 out of 3. At one point, I fully said "wing", worse than I ever would normally. I wanted to go back and correct it, but I thought it could confuse the minister, who I was scared might take any chance to void the wedding.

Since Neil laughed at my inability to say "R's", I will share an amusing anecdote. As we walked down the aisle, the bridesmaids and groomsmen were to walk behind, linked arms. Neil and Michelle (Brandi's bridesmaid and cousin) got a bit confused in the situation, and the linked arms got lower and lower, until they walked off holding hands. They were very embarrassed about it afterwards.

And then the photos started! Many, many photos, but I am really pleased with how they all turned out. With the above photo, the photographers asked everybody to pull a funny face. Leigh really pushed the boat out, and maintained almost his entirely same pose, with the exception of slightly sticking his tongue out. I assumed a Vestman pose.

The area where we had the photo's was beautiful. The almost cloudless blue sky, clear sea and white sand made it seem like paradise.

After the photos of friends and family were done we went off to take a few of just us. I was feeling quite self-conscious, and thought I looked a mess. My hair was all over the place with the ones by the sea, and it was hard not to squint in the sunlight. I was still on top of the world though, Brandi looked beautiful.

As we walked to different areas for photos, Brandi had many looks. Young girls loved her, because of her big dress. Lots of parents quickly called them to come and look at her. It was cute. We also had a lot of really nice people give their congratulations and say how nice she looked.

I was quite thankful by the end of the photos. I don't like properly posing for photos anymore, and get bad flashbacks to the photo shoot days and get self-conscious. We went to our designated meeting point which would take us to the reception area for the meal.

When we got there nobody was there. It turns out that the shuttle left early, without the bride and groom. We found this out after already waiting too long, so we were late for the reception. We had the choice of either trying to book another, or get the hotel bus that was right there. So yes, we ended up taking the bus to the reception.  

The area was decorated really nicely. Brandi made a lot of the smaller features herself. We had a 'thumb tree' as a guest book, where people would leave a thumb print on a picture of a leafless tree I made. Brandi made everybody name cards which said what table they were on, and they were hung up by pegs she made, on a washing line.

By this point me and Neil were extremely nervous. We couldn't even enjoy the meal (which I cry when I think about now... lobster tail and fillet Mignon, with an amazing half-baked brownie as dessert. The moment had finally came for the speeches.

Brandi's mom and dad, and best friend all gave really, really nice, touching speeches. When I finally got up to do mine I had already decided I didn't really like the one I wrote, and partly free-styled. I think its difficult to write before the event, as you don't know what the vibe will be. I think it all went well though, and I even tried to speak clearly.

Neil's speech was amazing. It was so funny. I was nervous for him during it, and ended up drinking 3 cocktails really quickly. I moved onto a glass of wine that was the only thing in arms reach, but thankfully it was just water. Everybody said how good his speech was.

And with that, the night was started. We left all guests maracas, which went down really, really well, especially with Craig who always had one in each hand. I ordered round of shots to my friends table, to get revenge on Craig for the amount of tequila he ordered a few nights before.

After that shots went around everybody. There was so much tequila, with a Mariachi band playing away as we danced. We started doing a limbo, and at one point Liam lifted Mike high above his head in a dirty-dancing style pose.  

We had our first dance, and everything was perfect. It is right when they say that getting married is the happiest day of your life. Brandi looked stunning, and at that point it is clear to see how lucky I am to spend the rest of my life with her.

Throughout the night I found opportunities to tell my friends how much it meant that they were there, and their friendship throughout the years. It may sound gay, but I think it is important to show every so often.

We cut the cake, and I managed to cake-face-slam her... and the dancing continued into the night, and then on to Jaguars!

Anyone who is a regular reader may wonder "what about the birth whisky?"... well, since getting married we haven't been able to be together, so the real life change will be when she arrives in England on Saturday. That is when the whisky will come out.

Online Gaming: My Memoirs

I like to play computer games. This started when my parents had an oldschool game thing that apparently only worked when the TV volume was at a certain level. They then bought a Megadrive when I was 4. I played a few different PC games as I got older, but I didn't start properly playing until I was 10. Here are my memoirs:


Microsoft Ants - 1998 (Aged 10)

First real online gaming. Me and Leigh became a good team (for two 10 year olds that just started playing the game). We made a clan called 'PTDC'. Until this day I don't think I had told anyone what it meant. I didn't quite realise what clan tags were, but knew it had to be initials. All I could think about was (and don't judge me, I was 10) the initials of my 4 main teddy bears, Panda, Ted, Dog, and Cheekaboo. I only remember one other person in our clan, PTDC_OAKER2000 (maybe 3000). Back then I was known simply as PTDC_Andy. I wasn't every imaginative.


Quake 2 Demo - 1998 (Aged 10)
Since Antz was on the Microsoft Zone network, I spent most of my time on that. I noticed another popular free game, which was the multiplayer version of the Quake 2 Demo. Me and Leigh occasionally went on this and it was fun. This was where I first learned how to use console commands (much to my moms amusement), such as sv_gravity -10, followed by sv_gravity 3000.


Worms Armageddon - 1999 (Aged 11)
Looking for other games, me and Leigh started playing Worms Armageddon. We actually got surprisingly good at it, and as PTDC we became one of the better known clans. We had a big rivalry with another clan, known as XMEN. We were generally better than them, and had another guy named 'PTDC_Nameless', real name Omar Sultan, an Egyption.

A memorable time was once, during a clan match with XMEN (I believe it may have been our final ever clan match with them), we were drawing 1 game each, and towards the end of the game one of our own players suicide killed our final worm. In the lobby chat after he laughed, and revealed he was actually the deputy of the XMEN clan. They got the last laugh there.


TFC 1.5 - June 1999 (Aged 11)

While on a caravan club rally I bought an issue of PC Gamer, which had a huge feature about Half-Life in it. After playing the Quake 2 demo, I decided to give it a go. The Half-Life multiplayer wasn't that fun, but I tried 'Team Fortress 1.5', which a shortcut to was sneakily added to to my desktop when installing Half-Life. I loved it, and played it for quite a while. I originally had the name PTDC_Andy (not realising the correct format was [Clan Tag]). I then dropped the clan tag, since I wasn't in a TFC clan.

Later on I met a guy named 'Dazz', who was the leader of a clan and he let me join his. Later on I was in a game and a guy asked me about the clan, and what I thought of the leader. I said he seemed like a really nice guy, he then realved himself to be Dazz, and was testing me. I still speak to him occasionaly on Facebook, 12 years later.
A while later in TFC I decided to make my own clan. While in a public server 2 other guys said they wanted to make one too. One was called Jeff, who suggested we be called Dark Knights From Hell, or [DKFH]. I still have [DKFH]Jeff on Facebook, but I didn't ever get the ICQ name of the other guy, and never saw him again.


Counter-strike Beta 5.2+ - February 2000 - 2004 (aged 12 - 16)
While playing TFC, it was noticable that more and more players were leaving to play Counter-strike. This was a lot more realistic shooting game, so I didn't warm to it right away. After giving in I started to play. My first game was with Dazz, and I think it was either on de_dust or cs_747, andt my score was something along the lines of 0 - 34. I distinctly remember not being able to kill anyone. Eventually I picked it up more and became addicted. This was the first time I would say I became obsessed with a game, playing every day. My first name was Assassin2k, though I went through many.

My friends soon started playing this, and it quickly spread to lots of people in the school. The growth of Counter-strike was phenomenal. Since I'm no longer in school I can't compare it to Call of Duty, but when I look at the games now I think "pah, it will never be like counter-strike was". Everyday after school we all played together. We had many clans, such as RR (Russian Revolution), and a monkey one, where we were all named monkey names. My name was "Funky_Monkey", which it stuck at for a while, my friends had names such as "Lumpy_Monkey", and "Spunky_Monkey". Leigh was called "The Monkey of Chaos", but made it a bit better later with "Chaos Monkey".

During this time we frequented servers such as Shady (where I hated most people), and Mr Kitty's (who had a really nice admin that I used to speak to on MSN). We later got our own clan server, and always abused our powers with 'slap'.

Towards the end of my Counter-Strike times I joined BP, and was known as $kill$hot, later Skillshot, and left BP settled in WA (Whoopass) with a clan leader DaFunk (a Northern Irish guy name Kyle Byrne, also on my Facebook). Other memorable people were Sami and Emmanual. Leigh stayed in BP, and went on to run TheSGL with the leader of BP.

Counter-strike was the first game that we started to go by the name 'omgLAN', later 'omglan', when we went to each others house and set our clan tag as such and played on the same team.


The Specialists - 2003 (aged 15)
I feel like The Specialists should get an honourable mention. I used to play many mods. One that I loved was The Opera, a mostly single player mod where you could shoot while diving, using akimbo guns (also taught me what akimbo meant). Later on I played The Specialists, like The Opera, but multiplayer, slow motion, you could run up wall, stop bullets, etc. It was amazing. Me and Neil played this quite a lot, and I got known as one of the best kung-fu people in the game, being able to top score lists without even using guns. My equal was known as "Bruce lee", not a very original game name.


World of Warcraft Dec 2004  - July 2007 (aged 17 - 20)
In the second year of college, Liam introduced me to World of Warcraft. I've never been into fantasy things, but for some reason I instantly decided I wanted to play. This was either a great idea or a huge mistake. World of Warcraft is the most addictive game ever. My character was called Trionell Blackspeed, named after my computer, though I had to drop the Blackspeed initially since you can't have spaces.

By this time, Leigh, my original gaming partner, was spending most of his time working on TheSGL and not playing games. I had convinced Neil to play, though it was a bit after I had started so we rarely got to work together, since we were different level (similar to Me and Liam, who aside from seeing him once, I had never played with). Some weekends Neil would come over to my house with his laptop and we would play most of the night.

I wasn't very good at the game initially, getting to level 60 and still not really knowing how to play. Still upset that my name didn't have the 'Blackspeed', I started a 'guild' (new word for clan, apparently) called 'Blackspeed', so my name was full. I decided to invite as many people in the server as I could, and Blackspeed instantly became one of the biggest (far from best) clans on the original Burning Legion server (same as the original Nihilum guild). One memorable person from our guild was 'Niffer', infamous for ninja-looting one of the rarest items in the game, the Barons horse.

Later on I started taking the game more seriously, and lost almost every waking hour to it during college. It was pretty much the reason I did badly. I joined a new server, Ahn'Quiraj, created a Gnome mage (also called Trionell), and the top PvP guild and quickly became Grand Marshall on the server (top PVP rank). This is when I would class myself as a hardcore game. The guild started doing PvE (fighting in top instances) and I started leading the raids and organising everything. I had some good friends, such as an Italian couple.

I mostly lost interest after this became I realise I had spent ridiculous amounts of time playing the game over 2 years and didn't have much to show for it. I finally broke myself away from playing it, but often have flashbacks.


Playstation 3 - August 2007 (aged 20+)
This was the point that I stopped really playing games as much. I went to University (I can't really say I had less time...), but always stopped myself playing WoW, because I knew it would mean I would completely fail.  My days being a 'hardcore gamer' stopped, and I became casual.

Vancouver, Canada: My Memoirs

On the 4th of June, 2011 I went to Vancouver, Canada, the home city of my beautiful girlfriend Brandi. I was excited to go, because staying with someone in a country lets you understand a lot more what the country is actually like. Here are my memoirs:

- Waiting nervously in the airport for my bag, knowing that in a few minutes I will see Brandi again, and also possibly set sent to prison for not declaring a gift worth over $80.

- Waking up at 5am on the first morning and putting on music, then lying in bed cuddling for hours.

- Getting to Brandi's appartment and meeting her family. I was nervous but tried to be outgoing to make them like me.

- Walking around Rocky Point holding hands. Brandi being my Suga Mama and buying me ice cream (but making me ask, leading to an awkward moment trying to pronounce 'praline').

- Meeting a lot of her family at a BBQ just off the beach at White Rock. Playing croquet, then getting so tired I fell asleep on the grass and got sunburned. Later on that day I tried to swim in the pool in her apartment block and the sun burn hurt too much.

- The looks we got from people as we cycled around Stanley Park on a tandem bike. Scaring Brandi as I lead the bike close to posts, then getting so tired I fell asleep on the grass again.

- Walking around Vancouver City, and going into an arcade to show off my Time Crisis 2 skills. Then going to watch a Canucks game at Cactus Club. I am still amazed at how crazy Canadians are for ice hockey.

- Meeting her grandparents at Rivers Edge, then going back to their house and being amazed at how nice their garden is.

- Being a bit nervous about going to meet Brandi's dad, but it all went well. I was trying to meet all her family early on in the week for obvious reasons...

- Hiked up Minnekada with Brandi and Calvin, and saw the beautiful view at the top. Brandi also unintentionally found a geocache on the way down. We were tired on the evening so we made Thai Food and cuddled.

- Going into Gastown, and trying a Japadog. I will never eat seawead on meat again.

- Wandering around Granville island while we wated to go to Theatre Sports, and amazing improvisation comedy club.

- Made snacks to take around Kadie's house, then got a bit too drunk in front of her friends.

- Went to Ucluelet by car and ferry with Brandi, her mom, sister, and brother. We sang in the car and stopped at Coombs Market for huge ice creams, and saw goats on the roof.

- Got to our amazing hotel room, then went out for dinner. I was able to watch UFC at a normal time in a bar with loads of other people watching it. It was a nice change from the 3am, half asleep viewings.

- Went for a hike in the morning while Brandi's mom and sister ran the half marathon  We laughed as we kept seeing people take wrong turns on the badly marked road. Along the way we had a competition of who can hold their arm up the longest. It was embarrassing, and Brandi ended up winning.

- We walk along the West Pacific Trail and through the rainforest, all the time I was secretly looking for the perfect place to propose.

- I proposed(!!!) and Brandi said yes(!!!). Then spent the whole day nervous for when we were going to tell her family. Slowly slipped my water as Brandi told her family I proposed.

- Walked around a really interesting marsh, then went to a beach and played with some kind of sea-plant-whip. Then walking along the beach rocks at night and seeing a deer.

- Going into the scary caves where I felt like I could have fallen and died at any moment.

- Met up with a few of Brandi's friends, then when we were going back we walked into a surprise engagement party. It was very nice. The first surprise party I have had.

- Drove to Whistler. When checking into the hotel we found out we had the room upgraded and a bottle of champagne from Kadie.

- All the different fast foods. The horrible Taco Bell Tacos (they must have changed the recipe...), the not very nice soft bun from Wendy's, the very bad McDonalds.

- Went up the Whistler mountain on the gondola, and across the Peak to Peak, the longest free span ropeway, and 436 meters above the ground.

- Trying a completely disgusting Caesar drink. Clamato juice... wtf. It is actually clam and tomato. And spices. Urgh. I rarely leave drinks, but my god.

- Made awesome risotto again. Was equally awesome as the time we made it in England. Got drunk while eating it.

- Went to Monkido, climbing across trees and showing off my strength and agility.

- Eat an awesome, awesome Beaver Tail. The greatest thing I've had.

- Went to see Shannon Falls, a really beautiful waterfall, then spent the entire drive home holding hands. No, seriously. It was a challenge. Especially for Brandi getting in and out the car. My hand had gone wrinkly after.

- Went 6-pin bowling with Brandi's mom and Calvin. I did terrible. Then went for Chinese food with her family and I met her other cousins.

- Went to the Chinese Night Market with her cousins, and was amazed by all the Final Fantasy action figures. Eat a crazy potato that was peeled into one long chip.

- Woke up sad because I was having to leave on the final morning. Went to Brandi's dad's house to say bye.

- Sat in the airport trying not to be too sad. Had a long kiss goodbye.