Val is one of those people that you never forget. Other than the fact that she is a girl that can program she is also a great mate.

Val is a Canadian that came to Australia for a year to complete a Ba of I.T. with her credit from previous education. In the year that she spent here we got to know each other and had a heap of fun.

Val lived in the same unit complex as the afor mentioned Joel along with some other very nice Canadian girls.

Everyone has their little obsessions. With Val it doesnt take long to figure out that Hello Kitty is her little obsession. Don't believe me that it is an obsession, check out the videos of Kitty on holiday and the magic tricks one.

Some of our most memorable moments (as with all good things in my life) have involved food. Our trip to the shorncliffe fair for the start of the Brisbane to Galdstone yacht race was a little bit of a let down but we made up the lost ground by going to paniyiri (the greek festival) and then had fish and chips on Straddie (the day of Andrea and Nee's barefoot bowls party).

On a two of these such outings 'the girls' came along too and on both occassions found trees with rather 'interesting' features. 'The girls' certainly do manage to make life interesting (as most teachers do). They certainly know how to make their presence felt with a bit of noise and those crazy Canadian accents (and a few good looks for good measure).

One thing Val knows better than anyone is that I am by no means a 'web designer'. I can write the code behind a website but cant do the 'pretty' thing to save my life. Val spent a long time trying to teach me the basic rules of prettiness but to no avail. I still suck at it, and I still dont care.

Finally just before she left Val gave me a Toronto shirt and cap. I havent had much reason to wear the cap because most time I go out in the sun I am on my bike. The shirt on the other hand I am wearing right now and have been wearing everytime it comes out of the wash. Everytime I have worn the shirt I have had awesome food. Today I am at Uni so the chances of that are very VERY slim, especially since I don't plan to buy anything.

Msg to Val: Why did you have to leave? I really enjoyed all the times we spent together both in classes (even image processing labs) and out and about. I am in the linux lab listening to Anthony explain to some student how they have moved the home directories off Dwarf dur to server load. Wish you were here to enjoy it with me. I can't wait for the day that I get to come to visit you and hopefully get to go to Canada day celebrations with you.

Avoir l'amusement.