Being Cultured

There is a young chinese pianist named Lang Lang. He performed at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra last year. Check out his YouTube videos, quite amazing.

Morgan

Introduction to "Il Divo"

Oz sent me an email with an "Amazing Grace" rendition which introduced to me a group called "Il Divo".  I learned that it is a Simon Cowell group project.  It''s not a Boy Band but it is a Boy Group.

Matthew, by the way, they have an awesome interpretation of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah as well.

Have a listen ... http://ildivo.com/albums/thepromise.php

Little Chong Bros at the HGCC vs Oak Gables Golf Friendly

Now that the Chong Big Bros are at UoW, it's left up to the Little Bros to carry on the local golf tradition.  Both Nick and Pat were invited to represent the HGCC Caddies to challenge the Oak Gables Junior golfers at Oak Gables.  It's to become an annual compettion with 2009 being the first. 

Carolyn at the 2009 Henleys

Carolyn is competing at the 127th Henley in St. Catherines this week. Although the competition is held dirung the whole August 3-9 week, Carolyn's races will be held August from Thursday 6 to Saturday August 8. Carolyn is in the U17 Women Cox 4+ race and there is no weight limit. Carolyn's boat is made up of 2 Flyweights, 1 Lightweight and a single true Heavyweight and will therefore be at a disadvantage against boats that will have more heavyweights.

This is the link to the start gate at the Henley Regatta.

Carolyn's Ontario Bronze Medallists in U17 Wmns Open Fours

At the recent Ontario Rowing Championships on July 25 in Welland, Carolyn's Leander Womens Fours won Bronze in the Womens Junior Fours. Having to compete in the Open Heavyweight Division, the girls did very well to place third against boats with all or more heavyweights.

Nick Defends His Junior Flamborough Golf Title

On August 1st to the 3rd, Nick defended his Junior Club Title at Flamborough with a 3 round total of 238 (82-77-79) good for a 6 stroke win. Down by 1 stroke after the first round, Nick turned in a sizzling 4 over 2nd round that gave him the lead to keep.

Nick's First GAO Experience

Nick is playing in his first GAO Golf Tounament at the Ontario Bantam Championship held at the Puslinch Lake GC in Cambridge. He survived the qualifier held Monday July 27 with an 81 which put him into the 2 round tournament held Tuesday and Wednesday.

He improved to a 79 on Tuesday for the first round which ties him for 31st, ten strokes back. He is setting goal to finish in the top 25 for the tournament.

Follow his rounds on the GAO Leaderboard site and pics on the MVP site

Carolyn's Olympic Dreams

Just a little bragging here. Carolyn's Silver Medal Crew at the recent North American School Boys Championships at Henley got a little write-up
http://www.dundasstarnews.com/sports

Matt's Grad

Matt graduated from St. Mary's on June 9. He's ready to head off to U of W for Engineering.

Nick's and Matt's Grad

It's been a while since my last post. No real good reason for the absence but we'll try to change that.

Nick graduated on June 19 from Grade 8. I can't believe he's going to high school. Paddy now will be the last remaining at Canadian Martyrs. More pics

Long Lost Memories of Les Miz

If you have been following the Susan Boyle storyline that I started on the my last entry, you will understand why I have been lost in the listening of the wonderful music from the Les Miserables musical on my computer. The music brought back fond memories when Julie and I saw the production live when it first came to Toronto. Now how long ago was that? Pre-kids I suppose. If I recall correctly, we went with Morgan and Francis (thanks!) who, I believe, both bought the tickets for us ... anniversary present?

Now to come think of it, we also saw the Phantom as well ... what happened to that cultured couple?

Listen to This

I heard about this lady named Susan Boyle on the news and decided to Google her. It led me to a You Tube video link and it was quite inspiring to learn and hear about her. Here's the link to her You Tube video ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Yard Work

The weather has been terrific, sunny days but a little on the cool side. Friday was spent dethatching the lawn, fertilizing it and then pumping the water off the tarp and scooping the leaves - what a stink! All I can say is, "My aching back."

This morning, I took Mom to the bank to take care of her banking needs and all is good. I also visited Mom early this week and took care of her cell phone. Apparently her phone wasn't working. She ran out of minutes so it's topped up now until Apr. 2010. 

Hope all is well with everyone. Have a great Easter Sunday.

Morgan

Is Hockey the only thing to talk about?

Oh well, I guess not. Our hockey season is now officially over. This past weekend was spent in Buffalo with Nick's Select Bantam Team. They lost in the Championship game and I posted pictures on Will's picture website Pepsi pictures . Usually, the whole family would go down and spend the weekend watching hockey and do some shopping.

This time, only Nick and Pat went down while Julie stayed back for the other kids's work and rowing. We missed the others. But they had an opportune time to head down to Waterloo to visit Will while watching Greg's and Paul's kids play in one of their tournament which just happened to be in Waterloo. So Will was the beneficiary of a surprise dinner while preparing for his exams.

Rangers Minor Bantam Season

As the Ranger's season is drawing to a close, I think some of the boys are ready to hang them up. All it will take is a couple of warm days. With two of our top players gone with broken bones (thumb and collarbone), we just haven't been the same but it gave other players a chance to step up.

Every season, create a website and post all the photos that I take. I also come up with a gift for the players at Christmas and at the end of the season.

• ATOM - HOCKEY CARD and DVD (slide show for games, practices, player profiles with music)
• MINOR PEEWEE - HOCKEY CARD AND 8 X 10 PHOTO
  
• PEEWEE - BAG TAG and E-Book (900+ pages, almost 2,000 photos detailing all games, practices)

This year no gift at Christmas because of my crazy schedule at work but I will have something for the boys + girl. I've created a team poster this year and will be getting them printed by my printer. Finish size is 20 x 25. Have a peek below.

Weston Last Gasp Tournament

We just got back from his game this morning. We won this AM and David got the winning goal. We are now in the finals. The winner will be determined by total goals for two games. The puck just glanced off the post and went in.

Select Season Coming to an end

Well David's Select season has now officially ended. They are out of the playoffs. They will have 2 more tournament games in Weston and then their season is done.

Have a good week everyone.

David and Frances are Famous

As I was looking for golf-related information for David and I this year, we were curious to see if Richmond Hill's driving range was open and if his golf instructor of 3 years is still there.

Well to our surprise . . . . they are both in the shot. David in the light blue golf shirt and Frances sitting on the bench.

Web Link.

New Users

Hey Gang,

If you want to add more family members. Just give me with their addresses and I will add them to the list.

Hockey Brings Back Fond Memories

On Saturday, I decided to go and watch the paperweight championship game. These boys and girls are 5-6 year old and did I ever have a great time. The parents, grand parents and siblings were all there. The parking lot was jammed and spilled onto the streets, what an event.

As I watched, it brought back so many fond memories of David starting out and how much fun he had (wink, wink Mary and Jim). In fact David wrote an assignment on regrets growing up and one was not playing hockey earlier when his instructor tried to coax him into playing 2 years earlier. Have a look at some of these pics.

  Five year old Ryan - finished with 76 goals in 18 games.

Finalists as you can see, win or lose they all had fun.

Check out his moustache. His mother is also the Asst Coach in the background.

Ryan scoring on a breakaway.

I then watched the Peewees and the winning team scored to 1-0 with 45 seconds left. The losing team were slamming sticks, throwing them into the boards. What an awful sight.

Then it was onto our division, Minor Bantam. Although it was a good game, there was some trash talking and in the final minute of the game, a player was ejected. 

So . . . the moral of my story is that hockey is much more fun at a younger age.

Our Own Stanley Cup

Well yesterday, all of us were at our local arena for Matthew's Midget Championship. The tight game went into OT and with 48 seconds left, our Matthew broke through the opposition went end to end and deked the goalie for the OT sudden death win. Of course we all went wild and I wished I had a picture of it. I am hoping someone got a video of it.

It's Matthew last hockey game of his Coronation hockey career and we are all proud as he ended it in story book fashion. He won it in his first season and now he wins it in his last season.

Of course, he played and scored during the Earth Day Lights Off ... Matthew turned it back on with his amazing goal.

Did we all shut our lights off?

A Busy Saturday in Hamilton

What a beautiful day in Hamilton! Busy day at the Chong Household as usual. Will is back from Waterloo ... with his full laundry basket and empty food basket. Just kidding, he's pretty good about mooching off us.

Early morning for Carolyn and Mom as they hurried off to the boast club at 6 AM for her rowing. Then Matthew, Nick and Paddy off to the Golf Club for an 8:30 start. Matt started w his first day of work and N and P signed up for their caddy positions for this year.

We then took Will up to Limeridge Mall to see how he can fix his cell phone. According to him he is toatally disconnected from the world w/o his phone. You see, they have no land line at his apartment. Just back in time to pick up Carolyn from rowing and drive her to her ballet session for 1 PM.

Julie just left to pick Matt up from his Golf Club job and to pick up Carolyn, then just in time to take Matt to his dishwashing job for 5 PM. At which point we all then drive down to the arena to see the boys at the HouseLeague hickey championships starting at 5:15 PM and ending finally at around 9:30 tonight.

That's all. Thanks Morgan for setting up this blog

New Blogging Site

Hi Everyone,

Please ignore the old blog as it didn't know what I was doing. This is the final one and I hope the site name will be easier to remember.

For this weekend, David has a tournament game and 2 select playoff games, all which he might not be able to play because of a sore knee. A player fell on the side of his leg a few games ago. 

Houseleague is over for him as of Thursday when they lost 2-1 with 45 seconds left. All in all it was a good year for him.

As for Julia, she got a new toy. A brand new spanking camera. She is having a lot of fun with it. I will get her to post some pictures to the blog so that you can all see her creativity.

Morgan signing out.