Changing Lives » Party

ICBC 2010 at Queen's University – 5 Years Later

Ian Selvarajah — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:22:07 +0000

This post is coming to you exactly 5 years (and 2 days) after I competed waaay back in the day at ICBC 2005. I’m so amazed at how quickly time flies, but really happy to be able to look back on events from so long ago!!

I’ve told several people I have a really good feeling about 2010 and the year got off to an amazing start! I had the privilege of joining the JMSB team at Queen’s University for this year’s ICBC case competition. Being surrounded by so much energy, enthusiasm and fun was exactly what I needed to kick start the year!

I’m going to cheat and copy/paste some of what I wrote to the students, but it’s a good summary of how I felt about them:

Now for the cheesy (hopefully, inspirational) stuff: You guys are truly the best of the best that JMSB has to offer. I was so proud watching all of you present, network (and party!) this weekend. I was especially impressed with how young some of you are and I’m really looking forward to when you’re all business leaders! JMSB’s reputation continues to excel and improve because of individuals like you. You make us proud!!

I truly hope we’ll have a chance to work together in “the real world” one day!

I just went back and read the entry from 5 years ago! Here are 2 things that stood out to me that are still very relevant today:

2010: Our MIS team, despite an amazing performance, didn’t podium. I’m sure they were a little disappointed and that’s perfectly normal.

2005: I was quite disappointed that my team didn’t podium and Mark (the head coach) said: “If you always want to win, stay home.” Blunt, but very true.

2010: On the “Board Game” theme night, after walking around for a few minutes, I said to Val: “I’ve looked around quite carefully and there is no doubt that you guys are the best looking delegation here. No question.”

2005: Our team ambassador said the following to me: “Hey man, no matter what anyone says, the one thing that can’t be disputed is that you guys are still the best looking group here. And that’s what really matters!” Hilarious.

Here are some pictures that summarize the fun pretty well:

ICBC 2010 slideshow – click the little bubble to see the captions.

Thanks to everyone for a really fun weekend and congratulations to all the teams!!

Here’s a link to the official press release: JMSB Returns from ICBC with 2 Podiums

My First Lesbian Wedding Experience

Ian Selvarajah — Tue, 06 May 2008 23:28:00 +0000

Wedding pic from RocksDesign Flickr

I was invited to attend a wedding with a friend a few months ago. She told me it was going to be very small and informal with only a few (~30) people invited. I was honored that they wanted to include me, so I went to Toronto last weekend to attend. The wedding was scheduled to be on the rooftop of The Drake hotel, but unfortunately it was raining so they had it in another room.

The ceremony was very nice and they did something different where they asked people to select rocks from a table. We were then supposed to transfer happy thoughts/energy to the rocks and put them all in a basket. I guess this was a creative anchor whereby the rocks will now be associated with energy/happiness from the wedding!

There were 2 things that stood out to me:

1) The couple didn’t have the whole “You may now kiss the bride” bit, but instead, they high-fived each other! I wonder if my future wife would be OK with us yelling: “Hhhhigh fiiiiive!” (Borat-style) at our wedding. Probably not…

2) During a speech, they mentioned how when heterosexual couples have trouble everyone is rooting for them to stay together whereas this isn’t the case with gay couples. It was something I had never really considered before…

The reception and after-party continued at The Drake. The venue was very trendy and I met several great people. I introduced some of them to Liquid Cocaine (not really cocaine!!) once they started doing shots. Liquid Cocaine was T and I’s drink of choice back in the day (like 7 years ago!). Turns out it was one of the girls’ favourite drinks! Her partner also asked me if I would consider being a sperm donor, but I’m pretty sure they were kidding (or drunk)! Ha ha!

Overall it was a great time and everyone had a lot of fun, apparently some older people still know how to party!

Glitters Club @ Royal DeCameron

Ian Selvarajah — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 22:34:00 +0000

Glitters was the resort club at our hotel. Most people know that the resort clubs are crap, unless of course…you bring the party! We managed to convince a whole bunch of people to come right after Manju’s boat party. That was the only day of the week the club was packed!

Sadly, this is what Eason spent most of his time doing. After dinner, he would say he was going to “shower and change” and then would disappear for the night. This time, however, I ran into the room with a bunch of other people yelling and screaming, which obviously woke him up pretty quickly! The second pic is of some nice girls we met who are from the West Island in MTL. In the last pic we have Manju, myself, Daniel, Eason and then some random woman who jumped into the pic. I think she said she was from New York.

A few more group pictures. In the second picture are 2 sisters we met who were from some remote place in Ontario.

Want to see more pictures? Check out my Picture Gallery!

Manju's Boat Birthday Party

Ian Selvarajah — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 22:20:00 +0000

Given how sociable we all are, by the second day most of the people at the resort knew who we were. We met a doctor from the UK named Manju who asked us to come party with him on a boat. It was a lot of fun. We had a good time until it got dark, then it got a little boring!

Our boat left from Pier 1. The last picture is the Royal DeCameron hotel where we stayed.

Manju is the guy standing in the second picture. Lastly, we’ve got the people who were at the back of the boat. The cruise lasted about 3 hours. Sadly, about halfway through the trip I noticed some people getting sea sick! Poor them…

Want to see more pictures? Check out my Picture Gallery!

2 Weeks of Intense Training (and Partying!)

Ian Selvarajah — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 03:43:00 +0000

The Jamaica pics are coming…I promise! Here’s a quick interruption of what I’ve been doing for the past 2 weeks:

I spent last week in Dallas, Texas and the week before that in Toronto on training. I started work on July 31st, which is why I haven’t blogged since the 30th!

The training brought together over 600 people from all over North America. They had this really cool Mission Impossible theme going throughout the event. I got to meet a lot of cool people and we got to party quite a bit! Unfortunately, I think my tolerance for alcohol has now increased so much that I think I better stop drinking for a while!!

The training was essentially a case simulation of a business situation and we had to conduct interviews, research and finally solve the problem. I didn’t learn much in way of research or project management, but I learned a lot about Storyboarding and coming up with a nice flow for PowerPoint presentations. I also learned a little more about soft skills and team dynamics. I did, however, learn a very valuable life lesson which I will save for it’s own entry at some point.

We were working from 08:00 until about 19:00, we had an hour break and then we had to go for evening events which lasted till 23:00ish. The open bar tab was usually on until about 01:00AM and then the party would move over to our room until about 03:00 or so.

The major highlight for me was the networking I got to do at this event. I met people from all over the country and I even met someone who said he might need people in Europe! Let’s hope that comes through!

It was a really energizing experience and in fact, felt a lot like the business competitions I’ve done in the past. You’re basically surrounded by a bunch of fantastic, intelligent people who work hard and play harder…good times. I’m gonna’ miss everyone I met! Here are a couple of pictures:

This was our last fancy dinner where Cirque du Soleil performed!

Here are a few people that were in our group (aka: Team Canada). Going clockwise, the 2 girls next to me are from Montreal. Out of the 600+ people there were only 4 of us from Montreal!

Garden Reception @ The Eddlestons'

Ian Selvarajah — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 16:06:00 +0000

The garden party this weekend (June 24th) was our chance to meet Michael’s family and this was the reason for us coming to Edinburgh. It was nice to meet M’s family, they’re all fantastic people! The only downside was that the crowd was slightly older… Besides my sisters (and some of the caterers) I don’t believe there was anyone within a 10 year radius of my age! Here are the pics:

We started off with a nice cocktail in the front. The third picture is Heshani, Gerry (who lives across the street from M and Hesh in Edinburgh) and my mom.

More pictures from the cocktail: Joanna, Hesh, Liza and mom. My aunt Niri came in from London for the party. She missed the previous picture so here she is with the girls.

The first picture is M’s niece Catherine and her mom Fiona. The next 2 pictures are M’s other niece Grace who was the most adorable thing there!!

Hesh and I, another random cocktail pic and then the last one is a pic of the garden in the back where we would be having lunch.

This is the patio before it got filled with people! In the last picture, the third lady from the left in purple is M’s mom.

Gerry and Frances (his wife) were eating inside with some of the others. Last pic is Hesh and M [traditionally] cutting the cake! I guess people’s tongues stick out when they’re highly concentrated!

Here’s a pic of M and his brother-in-law Bryan (Fiona’s husband). Finally, pics of the speeches and a toast to M and Hesh! In the last picture, the gentleman on the left in the blue shirt is M’s dad. It’s too bad I didn’t get a proper pic of M’s parents! Ah well…next time, I guess!

Want to see more pictures? Check out my Picture Gallery! >

24th Birthday Party @ Orchid

Ian Selvarajah — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 03:30:00 +0000

I decided to go to Orchid with some of my friends for my birthday last night. I’ve always had a good time whenever I went to Orchid and last night was no exception! I was quite pleased with the turn out. This was the first time I mixed my old school neighbourhood/elementary, high school, college, workplace and university friends. A lot has changed since I left; I hadn’t seen some of these people in more than 2 years. It was great to catch up with everyone and I’m sure I’ll be meeting most of you to catch up in a more quiet setting. Unfortunately (or fortunately perhaps), I found out that a few of my friends who were in long term relationships are now single. Looks like this could be a fun summer! Thanks for comin’ out!

First pic: Myself, Kuldeep (whom I’ve known since I was 7!), Amit (from the Computer Science crew) and Daniel (my neighbour since I was 7 as well). Second pic we’ve got Daniel, Trevor (who worked with me at IKEA), me, Fab (who went to high school with me) and his friend Mike (I think?). Last picture is my IKEA crowd: me, Isa, T and MJ!

L-E and Natalia (who you might remember from this post) came out! Second pic is Patrick, Otta, Amit and I (some of the computer science boys).

Yes, I was really happy to see MJ and Isa after such a long time. Can you tell? Unfortunatley, I don’t remember the names of the girls in the second picture; I saw them sitting alone, so I spoke to them for a little while and from what I can recall I think they were from France. In the last picture we’ve got Lynne and Erica (some of Daniel’s friends).

I went to get a pic with our cute bartender while she was behind the bar. She told me to wait 5 minutes and that she would come around where we were for some better pictures. I’m glad she did! Look at Vishal’s face (behind me) while he’s getting Adam’s attention in the second picture…priceless! I think that’s Dustin in the back taking a pic from another angle. lol

More birthday love. The middle pic of T and I is kinda’ weird because our arms seem mixed up! The guy with the shaved head in the background is Kuldeep’s bro T, who I’ve also known since I was 7. Apparently this was Daniel’s “WTF?!” face once things started getting a little too crazy…

Want to see more pictures? Check out my Picture Gallery!

Leaving Sweden Goodbye Party

Ian Selvarajah — Thu, 25 May 2006 16:10:00 +0000

I realized it’s been ages since I’ve posted any pictures. I have a few (about 3-4) events to catch up on and I will probably post them once I have some free time back in Montreal. But for now…

Last night my corridor mates organized a small going away party for me. We had a really great time together as we usually do. Tonight is my last night in Sweden and I believe we’re all going to have a nice big dinner together before I leave. Here are the pics from last night:

There was a much higher turnout than we had initially expected. In the last pic we’ve got Emma, Lina, Laurent (I think?), Manuela, ? and Fridolin (who’s coming to Canada at the end of the month!)!

First pic is Emma, Manu and I. Mireille bought me this really nice T-shirt as a going away present. I thought it was really sweet of her. Apparently primary colors suit me. Emma wanted me to make sure everyone knew that not ALL Swedes are blondes who look like Barbie dolls! There you go, now everyone knows. Next, Lina, Neli and Emma. Janna showed up and gave me a small postcard with a nice note on it. I had hung out with her and Manu a few times back in January but didn’t get to see her much after that. Too bad!

Selma and Mireille showing off the earrings I gave them. Savi, do you recognize the ones on Mireille? I bought those in St. Andrew’s (I was picking up jewelry from all over the world)! They knew the earrings were initially meant for someone else but they were happy (see second pic!) to receive some “fringe benefits” of last weekend’s unfortunate events! We see Anna in the last pic. She brought us a bunch of delicious chocolate… treats (I don’t know what else to call them!) for the party! Very sweet girl…

The first pic is of my corridor mates that I’ve been living with for the past 5 months. Front: Jenny, Manu, Ella and Selma. Back: Myself, Stefan and Johan. Last pic is of the people in our corridor and the corridor across from ours. It was a pleasure to get to know all of them because we all had to share one kitchen while ours was being renovated. Great people! In the last pic the people I haven’t introduced are Kathrina (in the pink top) and Gunner in the back on the right.

Ulle and Manuela who are both from Berlin! I have no idea who the two girls on the left are and the guy on the right is “Iceman” (he’s from Iceland and I can never remember his real name!) I’m not entirely sure what’s going on in the last pic. It seems Iceman and I had misbehaved and were bracing ourselves for a spanking!

As u
sual, I brought in my MP3 player and saved the day with some decent hip hop music! That’s Daniel in the last pic. I hadn’t heard many North American accents since I’ve been here, so he surprised me. He’s Swedish, but has lived in California for most of his life. He’s heading back to the states next week.

Here are a few more of our guests that I didn’t know. You can see Fridolin in the back again and I believe the guy on the right in the front is Tim, but I’m not 100% sure. Last pics… ah… the joys of being single again…

To everyone on the 2nd floor in Kungshamra 21: I’d like to thank all of you guys from the bottom of my heart for the great time I had here in Sweden. It was great getting to know each and everyone of you (some more than others). You only realize how close you get to people when it’s time to go. We were seriously like one big family. I’m really gonna’ miss all of you and I sincerely wish you all the very best. Please please keep in touch!!

Want to see more pictures? Check out my Picture Gallery!

Our First Hallway Party

Ian Selvarajah — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 16:55:00 +0000

Sorry, this event was actually LAST Friday, but I’ve just been too lazy to post the pics. We organized our first hallway party last week in honor of Plamen’s birthday. There was a “Cowboy Theme” party in the hallway across from ours and they decided to crash our party. The more the merrier!!

We were happily enjoying our regular party and had a toast to Plamen (center in center pic). The the cowboys came barging in…YEEHAW!!!!

The next thing we knew we were having a Cowboy party complete with country music once the new DJ took over the laptop. Good gawd!! Eventually people wanted to hear something different for a little while so I went and got my guitar. Ella played a few songs and then insisted I play “Wish You Were Here”. There were quite a few good singers in the room actually. We then put on the usual hip hop music. I went back to my room, spoke to V for a while and fell asleep…

Commerce Games / ICBC Spirit Weekend 2006

Ian Selvarajah — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 02:27:00 +0000

This weekend was the annual spirit weekend for the 2006 commerce games and ICBC teams. Basically, a bunch of crazy university students go up to a cottage up north and get hammered. I didn’t stay the whole weekend, but I was there for the party on Friday night. Hopefully someone else will have pics if anything crazy happened on Saturday! You’ll have to forgive me for not remembering people’s names…~~I’ll put a (?) for now, but if you see yourself with a (?) tell me who you are and I’ll be happy to fill it in!~~ Thanks to Cat, I’ve got everyone’s names now!

Krystal and Vanessa (who’s from France! ). Second picture-Maria Jose, Diana, Vanessa and Krystal and finally we’ve got our crazy “social team”. Social is the team that’s going to have to do crazy things such as eating dog food at the commerce games! They seem pretty crazy, so I think we’ve got a good bunch!

This year’s game of Thumbmaster didn’t last very long, so within minutes 3 Beer Pong tables were setup. You see my boy Blue (from our IBC team) and Eric (sporting the Longhorns jersey- he did IBC last year) apparenty they were 4-0. Not bad guys! A friendly message from the JMCC (John Molson Competition’s Committee): “If you can read this keep drinking – You’re not drunk enough.”

Some of our commerce games/ICBC ~~veterans~~ legends. Steph and Tania K, Steph and Ro and finally- Adam, Pascal and Ro. Only the middle one was a pose. The others were surprise action shots!

A few group pics – let’s see if I can remember names…Pic 1: Arik, Vanessa, Christina, Rochelle, me, Diana, Blue. Next up we’ve got Vanessa, Ro and Cat and finally, Vanessa, myself, Bento, Pat and Eric!

A few dancing pictures. Here we’ve got Vicki and Shaun doin’ some pole dancing, then you’ve got the MIS clique (plus Adam and Chris) bustin’ out some crazy dance moves and finally…there’s nothing like organizing a line dance to some ~~irish jig~~ hip hop music!

This was at the point when things were starting to get crazy…don’t ask me what’s goin’ on with Adam and Pat in the first pic!! I’m not sure what the pose in the second pic is either but finally you see Patrick (from the social team) got so hungry he lunged onto Bento and Paul like a rabid chihuahua on a porkchop! Look at their faces: “Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Easy there fella’!”

The first pic clearly shows us that JMSB is not just brains, but brawn as well! Eric, Mark and Allison (I’m pretty sure those are their names! LOL). I was worried when I downloaded my pictures and didn’t recall taking the next 2 (that happens every once in a while at these parties). Then I remembered that Krystal had my cam for a little while and she took these. We’ve got Mila and Vicki in the second pic. Mila knew/recognized me from a prior event and I was quite annoyed that she hadn’t introduced herself to me earlier! Lastly, Fadi, Diana and Maria Jose.

It seems I was so thankful to Krystal for taking pics I showed her the MIS love even though we were in different rooms! Meanwhile…Cam was doing his famous cheer: “17…18…19…20!!!!” Lastly, we’ve got Phil continuing to show our alternate the MIS love!

After Cam had done his cheers I finally got a pic with him! Second we’ve got Monique and Cat (who were quite tame throughout the whole thing! ) Lastly, we’ve got- Allison, Jeneviev, Rochelle, Vanessa and yours truly!

Finally, once again, our lovely ladies Cat, Steph and Ro. Here’s Phil a few hours (and many drinks) later. And last, but definitely not least, no JMCC event is complete without a dance off where Cam seems to HAVE to take his shirt off. Quite frankly, the way he jumps around and falls on the ground, I’m surprised he hasn’t broken his back yet!!

That’s all folks, I’m REALLY sorry for those whose names I can’t remember, but I’m sure you wouldn’t know mine either!!