as if no time had passed

A few weeks ago, I got an email from Helena, a good friend of mine who I went to high school with in Malaysia. The last time I saw her was in 1992.

That July, my dad had received word that our family would be moving back to the U.S. I was really devastated. I had so many plans for my senior year and most of my friends were in their home countries for the summer holidays. Thirty days later, our house was packed up and we were on our way to Louisiana. Uggh.

My only solace was that I was able to say goodbye to a few of my friends. Helena had just returned to Malaysia just a few days before we moved. And that was the last time I saw her...14 years ago.

That is until this past weekend. She and her longtime boyfriend, Fil, were on a roadtrip vacation across Canada and happened to be ending their trip in Vancouver -- which by luck only happens to be a few hours drive from me.

I drove up Thursday morning and met up with the two of them at their hotel. I really haven't spent much time looking around Vancouver, so I was just as much a tourist as they were. We drove up to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. You say you've never been there? No loss. What a scam. $25 Canadian dollars for a walk across a rickity bridge. But we made the best of it and used it as an opportunity to catch up on old times. I'm sure Fil was bored out of his mind listening to the two of us. Having had a coronary over the price of admission at the bridge we opted to skip Grouse Mountain.

Thursday night was great fun. We met up with Justine, another former ISKL-er (our school in Malaysia). I never knew Justine since she had moved away before I got to Malaysia, but she and Helena were good friends from elementary school. We all met up at the hotel and then walked around the corner for some cheap, but good sushi. Yummy. And then on to a non-descript bar for some live music.

My bedtime is usually around 10 pm, so you can imagine how exhausted I was by midnight. Helena and Fil had a pullout couch in their hotel room, and so I crashed there.

Friday was another beautiful Pacific Northwest day. After sleeping in, having a late breakfast, which turned out to really be lunch, we got on our way. Justine had recommended some off-the-beaten path shops in an area of Vancouver called Kitislano. There on 4th Ave are a bunch of odd shops and retail including this random place that had knobs.

Well, Helena and Fil were on a quest to find some interesting knobs for a wardrobe at their house back home, and so we opted to investigate. Walking in almost gave me a heart attack. It was like walking into somebody's overgrown junk drawer. Old doors, brackets, door knobs, screws, hinges...everywhere. No order, no prices and absolutely nothing hygenic about this place. In fact, the proprietor was this slobby, nasty, unkept man who sat in the back eatin his half melted Hagen Daz ice cream.

After about 45 minutes, Helena and Fil took their "finds" to see what they would cost...expecting at most to pay C$20 at most. You can imagine the shock as the man started out by saying, "wow, you guys really know what you are doing." Um, not really, just thought they looked nice. He then started pricing out the pieces one by one. "Well, this one is real crystal, about from the 1890's. I'll give it to you for C$40. And these are worth C$20. I'll give you the whole lot for C$120. And without a beat, we all just walked away. We quickly grew weary of our shopping outting, but Fil was on a quest for the elusive iPod, so we spent the afternoon walking around Robson Street.

It was Helena's birthday, and she wanted to take all of us out for a nice dinner. I know, why is the birthday girl taking us out to dinner. Lovely seafood dinner right near Stanley Park and our after-dinner entertainment was on Cambie St at some bar with live flamenco dancers.

Another exhausting day. We crashed quickly and the next day after a wonderful breakfast at our favorite neighborhood dining spot, we said our goodbyes and they were off to catch their flight back to the UK, and I was on the road heading toward the U.S. and Canadian border.