Run for the Cure

The final numbers are in! We raised $7,343 to find a cure for Breast Cancer. The team was at 147% of the $5,000 goal. As promised, my dad and I shaved our heads because we met our outlined goals to raise $3k and $5k respectively.

Many thanks to all the team members, friends and especially the sponsors who made this possible.

Cancer is a terrible disease and has contributed to alot of pain and suffering. Your support and contributions will make a huge difference.

Papa turns 60!

Yes, our very young looking Dad is actually 60 years old! We shaved his head in preparation for the Run for the Cure run. Read that blog for more information. We celebrated his birthday with his closest friends and family.

Another Ginger 62 nite

Good times at Ginger again. Celebrated Dheeraj's and Monica's birthdays.

Alicia Keys Rocked!

Alicia Keys was awesome! We first saw her in 2002 at GM Place. This time she was at the Orpheum and she rocked the house. As Reshma says "She is cool you know, she is funky, street, I love her". That was by far the best concert this year. Even better than Michael Buble, however, Reshma can't make up her mind.

Janet Jackson concert

Janet Jackson was pretty good. Not comparable to the Velvet Rope concert in 1998 but that's also because she was 10 years younger and really fit back then. But hey, I'll always be a fan of her music!

Leah weds Cory

Congratulations Leah and Cory! What a great wedding and a fantastic way to end off the summer. This was by far the most chill couple we have ever seen when it comes to wedding planning. Both the ceremony and reception were a blast.

Arthur weds Fong-Yee

Arthur and Fong-Yee got married at the UBC Boathouse which was a nice intimate venue overlooking the water. Afterwards we had dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Richmond which had almost 10 courses! We've never seen that much food before!

Cory's Stag

Went zip trekking and whitewater rafting for Cory's stag. We had an awesome time. Probably the most active stag I've ever been to... we were beat by the end of the day!

Pride Parade

Yes, Simran and I checked out the Pride Parade this year. The ladies went to Whistler for Leah's stagette so what else are we going to do?

Vancouver is probably second to San Francisco when it comes to this parade. The parade was colorful, fun, and a good celebration of diversity.

A new saga begins

After three years of selling software at Faronics, I am exchanging my "Senior Account Manager" title for "Product Manager". Sales was an amazing experience but I couldn't resist the opportunity to have more control over what goes into a product. I'll be in charge of two software suites: Power Save and WINSelect.

Chisa Weds Eko

Another SFU couple joins the wedded group... it goes like this:

1. Paul & Anita
2. Us
3. Chisa & Eko
4. Arthur & Fong-Yee - this summer!
5. Leah & Cory - this summer!
6. Simran & Theoni - next year!

Chisa and Eko had their reception at the Brock House which is a beautiful house built in 1912 and is situated right on Jericho Beach. It was a fireworks night so some us walked over to the beach to check them out.

Interesting history: The house exchanged hands three times until it was sold to the Federal Government in 1952 and was occupied by the RCMP, Vancouver Sub-Division Headquarters Staff, until 1971. On May 1, 1975, the property was turned over by the Federal Government to the City of Vancouver as part of the transfer of the Jericho Waterfront Lands.

Simran & Theoni got Engaged!

Simran finally proposed to his beautiful bride-to-be, Theoni :-) They had a nice cozy get together at his parent's house. Don't they make a nice couple? Theoni is Greek so we plan to break plates at their wedding - against her wishes ;-)

Celebrating with the Fam

Had the perfect birthday with the family. I got a bag of rice and a few other gifts. The bag of rice was my favourite.

Two.dot.Eight!

That's right... Hemanshu is gettinh old. We went to Romano's Macaroni Grill followed by Maxine's Hideaway which is the old Balthazar.

Interesting fact: Maxine's hideway used to be a brothel and there used to be a tunnel that connected Rogers Mansion, now Romano’s Macaroni Grill; the Rogers Sugar magnate liked to have his own secret point of access to the brothel.

In the 1930’s, it was used as a hideout for two of America’s most wanted fugitives (one of whom was captured by J. Edgar Hoover himself.) When times got tough, Madame Maxine used the lower floor of the beauty school as a brothel, hence The “Bordello Room Lounge."

Hola Cancun!

We jetted off for a week of sun and fun in Cancun! It has been almost one year since our last vacation, so we were eagerly looking forward to the trip. We had a fantastic time relaxing on the beach and exploring the area. Our resort was awesome! We stayed at H10 resorts - Ocean Turquesa. Our key highlights of the trip were: partying at Coco Bongo & the City (amazing night life!), visiting the ruins in Tulum, and saving baby sea turtles...they were adorable, and Reshma found two little turtles that we returned to the Ocean. We miss Mexico already and want to go back!!!

Adam weds Amy

Our wedding season begins with the wedding of our beautiful friends Adam and Amy. We had a great time at Sutton Place... Awww... they are so cute together!

Stanley Park with Vaze's

We decided to meet the Vazes at Stanley Park. Reshma was eager to ride her brand new bike. Summer this year seemed a little late but well worth the wait!

Reshma Turns 27

Another year has passed and Reshma was in the mood to celebrate. Thanks everyone for coming out to celebrate Reshma's birthday.. everyone had a great time at Chill Winston.

New Jersey Trip

Hemanshu decided to visit New Jersey at the last minute in March. Our niece, Deeya, is a year old now and walking around!

Vancouver Food Bank

On behalf of the Marathi Socierty of BC, we helped seperate boxes and boxes of food. When we were done, we beat the record of the folks before us! 12+ palates of foods were sorted into various catagories such as Snacks, Cereals, Starch, Drinks, and Toiletries. For every 10 palates sorted, you help over 800 people!

The Vancouver Food Bank is an excellent organization that provides food to those who are need. They have food depots across the lower mainland where they distribute all the donated foods - no questions are asked. Learn more about volunteering there.

New Year's 2008

We ended off 2007 with some special friends at the new Joey's down the street followed by Ginger 62. One of the highlights was the cabaret show around midnight. Happy New Year everyone! Wishing you all the best for 2008.

Family Hampers

It was refreshing to volunteer during the hustle and bustle of Xmas consumerism. Reshma coordinated the opportunity to help build Christmas hampers on behalf of the Marathi Society. The Union Gospel Mission had a list of families and some generous donors so we could help to make it a merrier xmas for all. We hope to coordinate more opportunities like this moving forward.

Faronics Holiday Party

This year was extra special because I had the chance to help coordinate our Xmas party. Everything went off without a hitch and everyone had a great time.. I would love to become a party coordinator some day :)

I convinced one of our employees who had a strong resemblance to jolly Old Nick to become our Santa Claus! The Winter Wonderland decor came out great as well... thanks to Radke Designs. We had a magician and a torot card reader to add to the entertainment.

We are off to Victoria soon thanks to Faronics recognizing our (Braden and I) efforts in coordinating the party!

Our Home

Three months after moving into our new place.. we finally finished painting the pasty white walls everywhere! Here is a small collection of some pictures taken over the past couple of months including pics of a recent snow fall in early December and the Rogers Santa Parade that happened down the street from us - we have an awesome clear view from our balcony.

Laser Tag for Shilpi

Good times.. nothing more needs to be said.. Happy Birthday Shilpi!

Paul & Anita Xmas Party

This year's annual Cyr Party was hosted at Chisa and Echo's home.. another great party as usual. Thanks for keeping the tradition alive! Cheers and Happy Holidays!

Accenture Xmas Party 2007

Deja vu! Another year has already passed and the Christmas party season started off with Reshma's. Did you know there are over 2,000 employees just in Vancouver? Like last year, we had a good time at the after-party at Ginger... the best part was living walking distance so I didn't have to play the designated driver.

Cancks vs. Blackhawks

Sweet seats baby. I am used to nose bleeds but it's a whole new world when you sit at row 3 - you can see the zits on the hockey players' face ;) - the highlight was when a fight broke out right in front of us and one of the players got bashed into the glass!

10 Year High School Reunion

Can't believe it's already been ten years since I graduated high school. We had an informal gathering at Shark Club where I got to catch with many of my friends. Unfortunately many folks didn't show up... out of 500 graduates, maybe 50 people were there. I would definitely recommend attending these reunions... it’s a refreshing blast from the past!

Garba & Happy Diwali

Happy Diwali everyone! The festive season already kicked off for us with Nav Ratri and Diwali celebrations. We danced garba, and ate lots of sweets the past few weeks. One highlight included papa winning the prize for best senior garba performer :)

Booo!

Scary Movie Night 2 was.. well, SCARY.. Neil was trying to spook people by pretending to be Hemanshu - unfortunately it didn't work as he was charming everyone in the room ;)..

We watched American Psycho (not so scary) and Hostel (pure gore)... Reshma was up for an hour cause she was really disturbed.. next year we'll watch Saw IV!

Osoyoos Weekend

We enjoyed a weekend in Wine Country, on beautiful Okanagan lake. Quite an adventure driving there, as we ran out of gas and thought we would get stuck in the middle of nowhere in the dark. Thankfully we made it to the town of Princetown, where we refueled and had a pizza party! Good times and good company, hopefully we'll go back when it's warmer in the summer and the spiders have hidden away in the cottage.

Europe was a blast

We managed to both take three weeks off and backpack across England, Italy, and Spain. We started off with a quick stopover in Calgary, landing in London. We spent three days in Birmingham with Bharat Uncle, Naina Aunty, Kavita, and Vikas. From there we went back to London and stayed with Rajeev and Kajal for another three days. Highlights included Stratford upon Avon, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, and London Eye.

We took Ryan Air (crap) to Rome and had an awesome time exploring the Coliseum, Pantheon, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain and best of all, Vatican City. From Rome we went to Sorrento and Capri where we saw the Blue Grato. We stayed in scary Naples for a night and took a flight to Florence were the gothic church Doumes and David were there highlights. After Florence, we went to Venice where we visited various glass factories in Murano and got rained in at St. Mark's Basilica. Venice was beautiful, however it had a very “touristy” feeling. From Venice, we took a train to Milan, fashion capital, where we checked out D&G, Armani, Juicy Couture.. then off to Madrid, Spain.

Madrid had a good variety of food - great break from all that Italian food. We discovered Fresca which is like Salad Loop except way better and they have plenty of locations. Madrid highlights included Palacio Real de Madrid and clubbing till 5 am - El Junco was a great Jazz Club. We also took a train to Toledo for a day where we visited one of the oldest cathedrals. From Madrid we went to Costa Del Sol (Malaga). We used this as a hub to visit The Alhambra Palace in Granada and Najera Beach. The Alhambra Palace was one of our favourite places in Spain as it had exquisite Islamic architecture.

Our last stop was Barcelona where we stayed less than ten minutes from Las Ramblas. We checked out almost all of Antoni Gaudi’s modernist architecture, including Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, Casa Batilo, and Casa Mila . We spent the last night drinking Sangria and watching a Flamenco dance, ending off clubbing at Las Ramblas. A great story to cap off our last day - we missed our flight out of Barcelona! Ryan Air flies out of rinky dink airports so we spent 130 Euros on an hour long ride by taxi from the main airport only to miss our flight and having to buy brand new tickets. Reshma was not impressed. We took an early morning bus from Luton to Heathrow to catch our flight back home!!

Overall, we had a great time and would be happy to make recommendations to anyone planning a similar itinerary. Hope you Enjoy the pictures…

Off to Europe

Well guys, we are finally off for our much anticipated Europe trip. We are looking forward to visiting England, Italy, and Spain. Over 21 days, we are traveling on 9 flights and 3 trains. I am updating this post from the Calgary airport and we will try to post more whenever we have access to the Internet. Arrivederci or adios.

One Year!

So I was thinking to myself how to top the proposal surprise to Reshma two years ago. She always figures out my surprises so I had to be extra sneaky this time. I got a handful of people involved and asked their help with coordinating this one. I rented a moving truck, packed everything and moved us Downtown!

Reshma came home on Thursday to a brand new home - she was shocked and all she could say was "you moved me!". After letting it sink in for a weekend, she loves our new place at the corner of Burrard and Smithe. We are looking forward to starting a new chapter in our lives. Many thanks to Mum and Dad for their support and help with moving and getting our new kitchen started (Reshma loves to cook). Also a big thanks to Alpesh bhai and Neil for all their help with moving.

On the day of the move, we started unloading the truck, only to be stuck outside because a real fire broke out on the 11th floor of the building! We had to wait outside until the situation was under control after almost two hours!

PatioParty 2007

We had a blast celebrating Patio Party V. We also celebrated Hemanshu's birthday. Thanks for coming out and making this another memorable party.

Reshma gets a year older

We celebrated Resh's birthday the old school way - dinner and clubbing. Granted we are not that old, we haven't done that so much lately. I surprised Reshma with a limo and we went down to Moxie's for dinner followed by AuBar. Thanks to all those who made it out - we had a blast!

I've got Joost invites

Contact me if you are interested in Joost! What is Joost?

More Deeya Pictures

We got some more pictures of Deeya, including ones from our recent visit to New Jersey. Here is the link.

San Fran Shindig

San Fran March '07 019,
originally uploaded by reshmanshu.

More than 2,300 Accenture people and their guests attended a night of “High Stakes & International Intrigue” on March 3rd at San Francisco City Hall. Hemanshu flew down to San Francisco to attend the black tie festivities, and we had a blast being 'high rollers' for a night.