Lower Back Pain

This morning at work, my back started to hurt. I'm not entirely sure what started it since it wasn't bad in the start. It got progressively worse during the day. It hurts when I bend and do some other movements at the waist. It hurts for the first few seconds walking then subsides. It also hurts a bit when I go up or down stairs. I was thinking of delaying going to the doctor until tomorrow since it all seemed bearable. Until a few minutes ago, that is. I was having dinner and was sitting for a while. I also was pretty full. When I was done, it was very hard to stand up. It also hurt a lot more when taking steps. It was then I decided that maybe I should go to the doctor or hospital tonight. Mean tried calling the number of Health Links Manitoba since she saw their ad on TV. They could probably advise us on what to do since the waits at hospitals are extremely long unless it's a huge emergency (our doctor was gone for the day and the waits are pretty long there too). Lee, the nurse, asked me a bunch of the usual questions when trying to see what's wrong. She advised me to see how it if it subsides in the next 2-3 days and go to the doctor if it doesn't subside. Of course she said I should see a doctor soon if it gets much worse. In any case, I'm going tomorrow. By now, the pain decreased and it wasn't so hard to walk but it was still worse than the rest of the day. I would imagine it's pretty hard to diagnose lower back pain since there are a lot of probable causes and a lot of the symptoms are the same. I just hope this isn't anything serious. I'd be pretty depressed if Mean had to do even the heavy lifting here.

Welcome Back to the Philippines

Today we went to the park for a Couples for Christ fellowship. Weather reports said that it would be 38 C (feels like 44 - due to humidity maybe?). It sure did feel like the Philippines. The sun was out and, since we played a little badminton, I was sweating just like back home. The park seemed like a very nice place to walk around but I wasn't tempted to leave the shade. Weather reports also say that there are going to be more days like this coming up. So in case people wonder why I'm getting darker while I'm in North America, there you go.

On another note, here's a little pic of a view from our apartment

Yup, someone wants Flor.

I'm a driver!!!

I took my road test today. Before that though, I had a 1 hour practice session with my driving instructor (I also get to use the training car in the road test). It's a good thing we had that practice session since most of my mistakes come out at the beginning. It's better to be in driving mode by the time of the test rather than adjust while doing it. Finally, it was time for the test. I had a little trouble starting the car. I was never taught to do that. :) The examiner gave a short briefing and off we went. Basically, he just tells you where to go and hopefully you don't screw up somewhere. We went through the usual stop signs, intersections and left turns. The grand finale was the dreaded parallel parking. Here, you have to get in 1 go. It feels like cheating though since the I already had the necessary markings memorized. (ex. honda symbol on steering wheel should be on the lane divider) After parallel parking, we were done. The examiner instructed me to enter the parking lot and park anywhere. I was taught that you should pick a spot where there aren't any other cars to maneuver around to prevent last-minute screw-ups. And that was that. The examiner informed me that I had passed and advised on me on my mistakes. After that they updated my license and records and I was good to go. I was also happy that my driving instructor went straight for the driver's side. I was kinda sick of driving for this day. The next time I'm in the driver's seat, there'll be no more pressure.


That there was a huge relief. I had been worrying about this day ever since I knew my scheduled date. That's one big thorn off my side. Actually buying a car is now a real possibility.

Of course I recommend Ed Batalla as a driving instructor. Just don't be sensitive about being corrected a lot for all the bad driving habits acquired in the Philippines.

Ed Batalla Driving School:
955-3182

Go back to your own country

A few days ago, we were waiting for a bus downtown. As is usual, someone approached us asking for change to ride the bus. I rarely have change with me thanks to Interac so I said my usual "Sorry, no change" and so did Mean. Usually, people just walk away and sometimes even say stuff like "Ok, have a nice day". But this guy stared at us for 5-10 seconds, then said something to the effect of "I just need to ask you something. Why is it that I don't believe you?", then while walking away said: "Go back to your own country". I've gotten used to people begging in the streets since we have a lot of that back in the Philippines. I'm annoyed at those who do it while drunk since you know where the money would go. I'm even amused at others who ask for exact amounts like, for example, 57 cents. But the worst are those who get angry when you don't give them anything. Do these people actually think they're entitled to other people's hard earned money? Maybe I would've given him change if I had some. I mean, for all we know, he had valid reasons for not having money for the bus. Unfortunately, it's a tough sell since a lot of people use riding the bus as a reason for begging. In any case, I'm glad he acted out since he sure doesn't deserve any help. I'd rather help someone get drunk.

Wow, my first rant in a while. Hope I don't have too many of those.

FINALLY!!!

... we have internet. I'd like to thank the friendly MTS guy for setting us up. No thanks though to the folks who told us we would have our kit in 2-3 business days 10 days ago. Anyway, we have MTS internet now, and it seems fast enough.

Anyway, we moved on July 7 (Saturday, 07-07-07 - cool). I was really surprised that we were able to collect so much stuff in 6 months. I think we had 9 big boxes and a bunch of smaller boxes and bags. Then I had to disassemble the computer table. It's a good thing we brought the couch and dining table straight to the apartment.

Mean had to go ahead to the apartment since the bed was being delivered in the morning. I carried as many boxes as I could upstairs but was soon pretty spent. *insert have to go to gym comment here* Thankfully, Tito Bilog soon arrived, and lifted a lot of the boxes like nothing. Later on, Mean's friends ("kinakapatid" to be more specific), Rupert and JR arrived to help. Thankfully the mini-van and SUV was enough for everything, so we needed just 1 trip. After another slightly less tiring bout of carrying boxes, everything was finally in the apartment. Tito Bilog, Rupert and JR felt like assembling the dining table, chairs and bathroom shelf. I just helped out. I might have even slowed them down.

View full photo album

It's been several days since we moved, so we've added some stuff here and there.

New Apartment Stuff

We've also shampooed the carpet. Unfortunately(or not), no pictures of that. There's still a lot of stuff to buy. We don't have tools yet, so our window in the living room has no curtains. We also haven't attached the legs of our sofa. I have to embrace the DIY culture.

One good thing about living downtown is that we're pretty much in the center of Winnipeg. Most buses pass through Portage and Graham so we can easily go anywhere. A car is no longer so necessary (but I feel it is when we go grocery shopping). We'll get one before winter though.

It's nice to be on our own. But I'm still grateful to everyone, especially Mean's relatives, who made our transition here in Winnipeg easy in comparison to others. I know I didn't really get to know them too well, but I hope one day, we can repay them for everything.

Not So Bare Apartment

Yesterday we picked up a sofa and dining table we bought the other day. Our friends from CFC graciously helped us out since we didn't have a van or pickup (the delivery fee was high). First we picked up the sofa from United Furniture Warehouse. With my limited knowledge on furniture shopping, it seems they have relatively low prices. We had some problems getting the table from JYSK. To make a long story short, we got the table from one branch, and the chairs at another.

Bringing the sofa to the unit was a bit of a problem. I now wonder how people get anything big at all into their homes. Doors seem pretty small in Winnipeg. Anyway, eventually our apartment isn't so empty anymore.

Not So Bare Apartment

Seeing the place for the first time, I'm pretty happy with it. It has everything a young (walang tututol) couple needs. Of course, the price/rent is also a big selling point too. Anyway, tomorrow's moving day so I probably have to get off the PC. I'll probably won't have net access for a bit too since we haven't taken care of getting a net subscription yet. And I'll probably be dead tired.

Canada Day - The Forks

After Lower Fort Garry, we headed to Mike & Elaine's place to rest since the fireworks show was at 11pm. It also started to rain hard (poor folks at the Forks). At around 8:30 we headed out. There was a lot of people and quite a bit going on. There were music shows, magic shows. Rogers booths scattered about with varied promos. There was a bigger stage with bands playing. Stores and restaurants were very busy as well.


But what most of the people were waiting for were the fireworks. We picked a spot around 30 minutes before 11. I was pretty tired at this point and the crowd was growing as the show got closer. Finally it started.

Not bad at all. Ending could have been better though. In other fireworks shows I've seen, they unleash a barrage at the end. This one just stopped.

You may notice the pictures with all the Canadian flags and Maple leafs. I'm feeling a little guilty since I never really did stuff like that in the Philippines. I guess I was always tired back then and didn't really like big crowds and hated difficult parking. Then there's the traffic of course. Well at least I wouldn't cheer as hard for Canadian boxers when watching fights on TV. That's the new immigrant's situation I guess.

View Full Photo Album

Canada Day - Lower Fort Garry

Yesterday was Canada Day. For this day, we joined Elaine & Mike again and Eugene (who coincidentally, I met at Success Skills) and went for a picnic and tour at Lower Fort Garry. This would be my first time out of Winnipeg (I think we were outside Winnipeg during the Great West Life boat ride, but I didn't actually step on non-Winnipeg land :) ).


When we got there, we set up for the picnic. There actually is an entrance fee but it was waived for today. There was a square dance group/club there providing entertainment for Picnickers.


Lower Fort Garry is the oldest stone fur trading post still intact in North America. Attractions here include preserved 19th century buildings, costumed "tour guides" reenacting life back then. The guides mostly stay in character and wait in their own buildings/areas telling the guests things about the building and the people who occupied it.


It as a nice place. It gives you an idea of the way of life back then. The tour guides might have been better able to tell their stories if there weren't that much people there. They seemed to have a bit of a hard time coping with the higher than usual visitor volume. We'll consider coming back in the near future.

View Full Photo Album

Info:
Parks Canada - Lower Fort Garry
Wikipedia- Lower Fort Garry

Got a Bed

As I mentioned in a previous post, we'll be moving to an apartment soon. We already started looking around for beds and today we checked out a few more places. We also to had come up with a decision since most of the promotions and discounts would end today. As mentioned before, we were interested in what Sears had so that was our first stop. We also checked out Nolan's Home Furnishing which was also in the area. I didn't mention this before, but the salespeople always tell us to lie on the bed to get a good feel for it. Some even encourage us to doze off and they would just wake us up if we slept too long. We were initially hesitant to do this probably because in the Philippines, they had all these "do not sit" signs on beds and chairs. Eventually though, we embraced this practice and were "test-lying" all the beds within our budget (and even some that weren't). However, I personally couldn't tell the difference between the soft beds so I let Mean do most of the deciding on what bed to get. My only job was to say "that's too expensive" or "let's not even bother".

Another thing we had to do was find out just how much money would we eventually spend and the payment options available for each bed. This isn't just looking at the price tag since some stores have a bunch of extra charges like taxes, delivery, administration fees, etc. On the other hand, there are also discounts and rebates. So we returned to stores we already visited to clear this up.

We narrowed down our choices to:
A bed in Sears which Mean really liked
An expensive bed at The Brick which had $800 off
A popular bed at Sleep Country

They all were in the same price range. The following became the deciding points:
Sears - no taxes, free bed frame, free delivery. Mean really liked it.
Brick - initially we though it had a free bed frame and no taxes but as it turns out, it didn't. That put it out of the running.
Sleep Country - Free delivery. $300 rebate. We didn't expect the rebate to be that big. This is what we got.

I'm pretty happy with our new bed. I was never really particular about beds so this is probably the best quality one I'll ever sleep on (at least for those I slept on long-ter,m). Mean really liked the Sears one but the rebate made it a no-brainer. The gap in price was so much bigger than the gap in comfort (which was negligible).

So that probably takes care of one of the most, if not the most, important requirement for moving to an apartment. There's still a lot of things to be done though. At least we won't sleep on the floor.

Moving soon

There's this apartment downtown which we've been waiting to have vacancies. We had a chance around a month back to get in but we didn't feel we were ready since it was really short notice. A few days ago we were informed that another unit freed up and we decided to go for it despite the similarly short notice. Earlier today, we got confirmation that we got it and we can move in as early as July 3. We probably won't move that early though.

Due to this, we started shopping around for essential furniture. Namely a bed and a small dining table. So we went to what seems to be the furniture sector of the city at Ellice and St. James area. We actually were at the area to pick-up a microwave on sale at Superstore. However, it seems these were wiped out. While walking around the area we found a JYSK store. Mean spotted a small, cheap dining table and chairs in their flyers the other day. We found the set in the store and decided to buy it. We'll have to find a way to transport it though (delivery is nearly half of the purchase price).

Another thing we looked around for are beds. We checked out a bunch of furniture stores but a lot of these seemed to cater to richer folk and didn't have a lot of beds. The places that seemed to have what we need (and can afford) were The Brick and Sleep Country. They both had good selections and good service though I suppose I'd give an edge in the "sales talk" category to Sleep Country. Not that the guy at The Brick was bad, he was quite helpful. The Sleep Country guy was just really seemed into his job. He even suggested we check out competitors like the Brick and Sears (which we'll check out tomorrow). We haven't fully decided what to buy yet though. Maybe after we check out Sears. Beds are quite expensive though especially for Peso converters. But I guess it's a good investment.

There are a lot of things we need to buy initially. We'll try to take things slow though; gradually put together a decent home. It's a bit scary given the expenses, adjustments and added responsibility. But at the same time, it's exciting with more freedom and a place we can call home. Me and Mean will now have to depend on each other even more. I guess we're gonna find out even more what marriage is all about.