Archive for the ‘Life’ Category

The old saying, Love is a verb.

verb

any member of a class of words that function as the mainelements of predicates,  that typically express action, state, or arelation between two things, and that may be inflected for tense,aspect, voice, mood, and to show agreement with their subject or object.
Love expresses an action, not just saying it or thinking it, but doing.  - The past 5 weeks have been an absolute whirlwind for myself, 4 of which were spent on the road and one which which was spent on medical.
My wife, AYA is love, she is patient, kind, caring and understanding. – I am so thankful to have her by my side, especially this last week when I was at home after my surgery and could not sleep, tossing, turning and even walking around the house throughout the middle of the night – I know many times I woke her up and she did not complain, get angry or was impatient with me at any time – that is Love.
When I came home from the hospital she made me home-made soup which required hand pealing vegetables, boiling, blending and then filtering it (to make it smooth)…that was love being put into that soup for me!
When I was sore, she went out of her way to make ice packs for me and also went out to buy me popsicles and ice-cream to make me feel better. – That was love, making sure I was comfortable.
Let alone the last month while I was on the road and before my surgery.  Not once did I hear her complain, or say mean and nasty things. She was understanding of what I needed to get done, etc. – That was love, understanding
I don’t know what more to say, besides I am everyday grateful for Aya, my wife. She is the reason why my life is so good!  I hope that in my every-day life and actions I demonstrate the same kind of love that she always gives to me!
I LOVE YOU AYA!
Mark

Here is this weeks article which I had written for the Moose Jaw Express about traveling with children!  - Enjoy!


Oh, the places you’ll go
By Mark Ritchie
Moose Jaw Express.com
12 Apr 2012

Travel is always best when shared with others; some prefer to travel with a friend, their loved one or with their kids. I had a good chuckle this week while watching the April fools video ‘Kargokids’ by Westjet. As a frequent flyer, I can definitely…read more…

Sometimes, when you go to a place it is nice to see a familiar face. I almost all my trips to the UK, I make a point to go visit my extended friends in Shepperton, where we usually end up having a night of music, lots of vodka, ciders and ales…I can definitely feel myself this morning! It is always a great time and makes my trip complete! If there is someone you know n a specific country, take time and visit!

Today’s events will include a football match between arsenal and Aston villa, should be super great!

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I had no idea that Stella Artois made Cider!

Here is a video that my brother made of his hungry cat :)

I guess it must have been slow business in Surrey today…Especially officer knob-bob in Surrey, BC. With all due respect, I appreciate police and what they do for our community and society…but sometimes rather than being a knob they need to lighten up and accept that mistakes are more likely to happen to someone who doesn’t regularly visit their city or town, etc.  I am just a little annoyed, so take this post as that – being annoyed!

Today, I got pulled over by an officer in an under cover truck on my drive from Vancouver to Surrey with my wife, on my way to see my Niece and Sister in law.

I was driving down Scott Rd, and then took a right on Old-Yale Road, following my GPS to my sister in laws place, (only the 2nd time going up to their house) so fairly new territory for me. In any case, I was driving behind 2 vehicles. #1. A red truck, #2. A car (not sure what color, but think it was blue). Doesn’t matter really. Well, Driving about 100 Meters behind them , I did not see them stop ahead of me at 124th street nor did I see the stop sign which was at Old Yale Road & 124 Avenue as it was dusk (around 6:10pm) and also because I was paying attention to the intersection lights, as there are light poles, but they are covered up (I guess the lights are not working..?) In fact, I did not at all see the stop sign, as I was more-less focused on the light pulls (not your standard light pulls, but the type that blink for a cross-walk) (See Image, pulled from google maps) – As soon as we did however go through, I said “Oh, Shit, Oops there was a stop sign there, totally didn’t see it). In any case didn’t think much of it after that.

I continued up the road 1km and was following the two other cars in front of me (I noticed that there was a truck behind me). they were going ass slow (about 35KM/hr up the hill – perhaps the first guy should have got a traffic violation for going too slow!). I stopped at the intersection at 128 St & Old Yale and then got pulled over as soon as I went through. I asked what  I did wrong and he told me that I did not stop at the stop sign, referring to 124th street (we are at 128th street where I got pulled over).

Last but not least, he just gave me the ticket, didn’t ask me to sign for it… (not that you have too, but normally you would). The other thing is, his ticket is time for 6:02pm.  The audio recording below is at 6:15 – He is about 10 minutes off on his timings…guess he needs a new clock..

A little annoyed, feeling a little like the officer maybe was being a little bit of a door knob..he even invited me to dispute the ticket – in which I will do, as I rarely ever go to Surrey and am really curious to know why he followed me for 1KM before actually giving me a ticket. He told me I was going 45km/hr…which is good because it was a 50km zone, which means I wasn’t speeding! Whoop whoop! – Further to this, he asked me 3x if I was drunk…Come On, seriously?  Did I look drunk, did I smell drunk, if so why not give me a breathalyzer rather than keep asking me?  - No, I was not drinking today…but I can imagine, I am quite jet-lagged so I probably looked tired as ass… I am assuming it just must have been a slow afternoon for Surrey police today… I am sure they have drug sellers and murderers to catch, rather than some non-local to accidently not see a stop sign.

Picture for you: – Point A, where I failed to stop or see the sign. – Point B, where I got stopped (1km away) – Point C, where I was going.

Just a final note, if you were wondering…yes there was a Tim Hortons near by…just saying…and Yes, I will be disputing this as I have questions and want answers! (I don’t mind paying for my mistake, but I really do want to know why he waited 1KM to pull me over?) – Perhaps it is also not understandable for a Surrey Police officer to understand that someone from Vancouver, may not be familiar with all their roads…we all try to be vigilant, and sometimes can miss a sign..good thing it is basically a “back road”…  (I also have an audio clip of our conversation, but WordPress doesn’t allow me to upload that unless I pay $20…

I’ll admit it, yes I love travel and experiencing new things.  But there are simple things that you start to miss very quickly.  I miss my wife, I love coming home at night and seeing her and of course sleeping in the same bed as her. When your on the road, the bed can be cold…i usually make sure my bed as like 1000000 pillows and end up spooning those all night… maybe that too much info…lol  

I also miss talking to my parents and grandparents, I talk to my parents probably 1 to 2 times per day, just saying hi, bouncing ideas off each other, etc… I am close to them and would consider them best friends over parents and better friends than any other friends that I might have… so that may be weird but i think its cool.

I am an uncle now, so that is super cool…I want to see baby Sayaka so bad, my wife uploads pictures and I get to see them via photo-stream on my iPhone so that is really wonderful!  

Being on the road, is good but there is a lot of “Life” that is missed, I wish there was a simple way to teleport quickly, there isn’t yet, so for now. I am thankful for technologies such as Skype, FaceTime, Photo-Stream and definitely the internet in general.

New life is a cool thing!

Posted: March 8, 2012 by mkritch in Life, Words From My Mouth
Tags: , , , ,

New Life is a cool thing, I have never got to really see it up close and personal…but yesterday my sister in-law gave birth to a beautiful baby girl! I guess that officially makes me an uncle! This uncle here is happy and proud, can’t wait to see her grow up and turn into something great! I am not gonna say just yet that I want kids, but most likely one day. There really is something quite amazing about the whole thing. A couple pictures for you, now time to go catch a flight.