Chil’s Point of View….

It’s wedding season :-)

Over the weekend, I went to South Carolina for George’s wedding.
I had the oportunity to roast him, after knowing him for the last 11 years - I met him the 1st evening I arrived in America (Asheville, NC).

Congratulations George and LaTonya!

Wedding pictures are located here.

A post appeared in the Zambian papers suggesting that the old passports are no longer valid. But let me try to translate what they are saying -

• If you live in Zambia, you need a new passport to exit
• If you live outside Zamia, you have until August 31st to enter the country.
   But you will need the new passport to exit
• If you live outside Zambia, past August 31st, you will not be allowed to enter the country.

Wait - you will not be allowed to enter? Wow.

Below is the post that appeared in the Zambian media -

State phases out old passports
By ZANGOSE CHAMBWA,
Wednesday, June 03, 2009GOVERNMENT has directed immigration officers at all exit border points not to allow Zambians to travel abroad today using the old passports.

Ministry of Home Affairs permanent secretary, Ndiyoyi Mutiti issued the directive during an interview in Lusaka yesterday.

She however said those coming into the country with the old passports should be allowed entry.

Ms Mutiti said it will be against the law for anyone to attempt to use an old passport when travelling abroad because it will no longer be valid.

She said the old passport was not computerised and it will be unfortunate for anybody to use it when leaving the country because it will not respond to the computer system.

Ms Mutiti said the Ministry of Home Affairs did its best to sensitise Zambians about the change of passports.

“No one will be excused to use the old passport when leaving the country because the information has been clear from the time the new passports were introduced last year,” she said.

And Ms Mutiti has urged all Zambians who had travelled abroad with the old passport not to panic because they will be allowed entry into the country.
She said Zambians living abroad are the only ones whose deadline has been extended up to August 31, 2009.

“Zambians living abroad are still having difficulties obtaining the new computersied passports, and the Ministry of Home affairs is doing everything possible to ensure that they obtain passports before the deadline of August 31, 2009,” Ms Mutiti said.

She said Government has no intentions of extending the deadline for the use of old passports because everything has been put in place.

Ms Mutiti said extending the deadline for the use of old passports will further derail the process of phasing out the old passports.

A 32 page passport is pegged at K300, 000 while that with 48 pages is costing K500, 000.
[Zambia Daily Mail]

Source: http://www.zamnet.zm/newsys/news/viewnews.cgi?category=30&id=1244024770

I must have some weird luck when dealing with my passport renewal process.
Last year, I was back-and-forth with the embassy trying to get my passport renewed (see the last passport troubles post).

Well, this time, my parents were able to get my renewal issued. But guess what - FedEx lost the damn document.

It is pretty weird.
My parents sent the document early in April. They had not told me because they wanted to suprise me, since I had given up with the speed the things would be issued. So they sent this special package. For a couple of weeks, they were suprised that I had not mentioned anything about the passport - until my mum asked.

I tracked it online, and the package reached Seattle. But it still shows that it is at the sort facility in Seattle. FedEx finally called me, and suggested that they have been looking and they have not found it. I already filled a police report, and I am just trying to figure out what the hell happened.

My parents are obviously pissed-off, since their suprise turned into a nightmare.

The passport has been missing for three weeks now. It looks like I have to start with the renewal process - but this time to list it as lost :(.

I just have bad luck with this renewal process.

OLE OLE OLE OLE, WE ARE THE CHAMPS WE ARE THE CHAMPS.

OLE OLE OLE OLE, WE ARE THE CHAMPS WE ARE THE CHAMPS!

Just like last year, Man-U have not disappointed. Again, we showed Liverpool and Arsenal how football should be played.
Perhaps next week, we can show all European Soccer clubs that we can become Champions League title holders - make history.

OLE OLE OLE OLE, WE ARE THE CHAMPS WE ARE THE CHAMPS!

The last few weeks have been pretty close, but tough luck to Liverpool - so close, yet so far

OLE OLE OLE OLE, WE ARE THE CHAMPS WE ARE THE CHAMPS!

April 25 - Saturday morning -

Nelly and I attended the 2009 Jesuit MBA Service Day, where we did some garden work at Ranier Beach High School. This is part of the Seattle School District, and one of the schools that does not have enough people to take care of all the grounds work. There was a good turnout from the Seattle University MBA Students (<- this should really be Seattle University Business School Students, since Nelly is in the Master of Finance Program). I was on the mulch truck fill-up duty. Nelly was in another group which was putting the mulch onto the ground.
It was a fun day.

 Seattle U MBA Service Day pictures are here

April 25 - Saturday afternoon-

Since we were already in yard clean-up mode, Nelly and I decided this was the best time to start the spring yard maintenance at our house. This invloved making multiple trips to buy top soil, mulch, and a bunch of other yard related stuff. We were pretty exhausted and sore by the end of the day. Hopefully all the work we did will finally take care of the grass which was dormant during the winter. The crows, moles, snails, and other pests, all had a go at our poor lawn. But we believe we have finally claimed it back.

April 26 - Sunday afternoon

Ola, Grace, Sheila, Chilumba, and Nelly decided to finally attend the Skagit Valley Tullip Festival. It was a really nice warm day, and apparently everyone decided to go this weekend. We were stuck in traffic - it took us over 3 hours to drive to a place which would have taken close to an hour.

Ola posed several times with the Tullips. I should tag the photos as ‘Tough guy vs Tullips’, since i did not expect Master TA to accepts position with pink flowers.

Tullip Festival Pictures are here

It was a fun full weekend.
Spring is definately here

Congratulation Julie and Bryan!

Guess which people were in town: pictures captured this moment

We stopped by to hang out with John – his last night in Seattle. He is moving to the bay area.
We took some silly pictures – alternating between a normal regular picture, and one where you open your mouth while shaking your head furiously. These make great photos, as people look like they were totally hammered. But since everyone was buying John drinks, maybe he was totally hammered.

Bye-bye John

The rest of the funny pictures are here

Debarkation rocked! (In contrast to day 1 where embarkation sucked!!)

Destination: Long Beach California.
On a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is rated high, I give Carnival Cruise lines a one for embarkation, but a ten for the debarkation.

Debarkation was a breeze, and pretty straight-forward. We already had our bags picked up last night, and when our group number was called, we just walked out and we knew exactly where to pick up our bags. Passport control and customs were also easy, and organized. There were no long times to suffer in like how the embarkation process had gone.John Heald, a senior Cruise Director at Carnival, host a blog all about cruising. It might be a good resource for that wanna-go-on-a-cruise person. Check it out at - JohnHealdsBlog.com

Fun day at the Sea. Last fun day at Sea

It was a tough day. We had been having so much fun, and the trip was almost over.
Throughout this trip, we realized that cruising has to be one of the best vacations someone can take. It was the most relaxing one we have been on. There were a string of good-byes the whole evening.

There was also a holiday show where Santa and his crew showed up. The kids on the ship were going crazy as they saw this guy. The Holiday Show was put in place so as to celebrate the festive time of the year. And as usual, the show was well organized, and the kids-guest also put up a cool performance that they have been working on since the cruise started.

Not looking forward to leaving the ship. It was fun. We would do this again in a heart beat.
Well Done Carnival!

Another Cruise Elegant Night theme.

Just before 7AM, we arrived at third port of call – Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
This time, the ship was not supposed to go too close to the shore (not deep enough). So we had to take ‘Tender Boats’ which would get us from the ship to the shore – a 10 minute journey to the pier.

Our excursion – “Land’s End Boat, Beach, and Shopping”
We would jump on the Catamaran on an hour journey to Land’s End; hang out at the beach for sun, food, and drink; and then end up at a Cabo Shopping Mall.

On the Catamaran, we cruised to tip of world’s largest Peninsula. We saw the Land’s End arch – a famous Cabo landmark.

After the Catamaran cruise, we went back to the pier where we jumped on a motor-coach which took us to a Beach Club resort for a Mexican lunch, complete with some drinks. The beach was amazing! Really beautiful!

On the way back to the ship, the motor-coach stopped at a Mall. There wasn’t anything extra ordinary to see there. But I was able to score some shot glasses for my collection; and for Godwell.

After our excursion, we came back on the ship, and decided to stay by the pool side. Nelly started reading ‘The Alchemist’ since I finally finished it. She has been finding it hard to put the book down, as she likes that kind of story – it looks like she wants to finish the book today even though I estimated she would finish it tomorrow.

Elegant nightDressed up again. People this time were less formal as not many of them dressed up.
The wait-staff were all dressed-up too. As usual, there was a performance by them where they danced on tables.

Night entertainment –

 Again, we are amazed by performances every night. The dancers and singers took us on a music trip touching acts such as – Motown classics with Diana Ross, Rock n Roll with Elvis, some Michael Jackson, Disco days (complete with outfits), YMCA with the Village People (crowd sing-along favorite), Yellow Submarine, Right Said Fred – Too Sexy… amazing performances.

The R-Rated comedy show by (JeROME) was pretty funny too. This comedian, just like first comedian we had seen, threw in some cruise ship experiences we are all going through – making things more funny.

Cabo pictures are here