Went skiing on Saturday at Mt. St. Louis - Moonstone. Departed at 8 am. With lineups and rentals, only got out on the slope at 10:30am. The weather was -10C, clear skies, with fresh snow from the night before on the slopes. The day got off to an awesome start. Halfway down my first intermediate [blue] hill, I somehow lost the edge on my uphill ski and wiped out. Once I got back down the hill to the ski lift line, my left ski got caught on the railing and I promptly fell over again. At least it wasn't as embrassing as last year, when I stumbled while moving into the loading position, and they had to stop the lift for me.
After these two incidents, I got my composure back. During one of the ski lifts rides, I was chatting with an avid snowboarder. She had skied for most of her life, but started snowboarding three years ago, and hasn't looked back since. She mentioned that skiing is easy to pick up, but hard to improve on. Snowboarding is harder to pick up, but once you learn the basics, it's easy to do fun tricks and improve. I should really give snowboarding another try someday.
The morning runs taught me a couple lessons:
- It's impossible to find anyone on a ski hill. Everyone looks the same.
- I wasn't the only one who can't hear a cellphone ring on the slopes. Sorry for the missed calls.
- There were a lot of people carrying walkie-talkies.
- Skiing downhill on cross-country skis looks so weird! Never thought it was possible.
Afternoon session was awesome. We just tackled all the slopes from west to east and then from east to west again. I didn't have the nerves to try the moguls this time. The slope was starting to get a bit icy and I didn't want to take a spill again. I promise to tackle them next time for sure! Tried to focus on my technique some more. Unfortunately, the runs at Moonstone are much too short (the hills aren't mountains here). The Tremblant idea is getting more and more appealing...
Everyone met back at the St. Louis chalet at the end of the day, except for T and his friend H. While the rest of us returned our equipment and lounged around, T&H finally straggled through the door, looking as if they were about to collapse. Apparently, they had missed the last lift from Moonstone base, and so couldn't take the crossover trail back to Mt. St. Louis base. They literally trekked for 20 minutes on the road from one base to the other with their snowboards. I cannot imagine how they survived that ordeal after a day of snowboarding, or why they didn't call us to pick them up.
I've been debating whether to invest into my own pair of skis. I think if I had my own skis, I might go skiing more than two or three times a year. Also, my skiing will hopefully be more consistent, and the boots won't hurt as much! I might dig around the season ending discounts later this year for good deals.
Lower back and shoulders really aching this morning.
Winter has barely started and it's already Groundhog Day! As Kung proudly reported, his PA groundhog today confirmed our very own Wiarton Willie's prediction of an early spring. The Punxsutawney Phil is known to be the original and most accurate groundhog around, but our Wiarton Willie isn't weak - Willie's albino (There's no mistaking Willie for a beaver) and accurate 37% of the time!
CBC wrote up a short article today on Wiarton Willie's history. Quite an amusing read.
How groundhogs got a reputation for predicting weather patterns is a mystery, because they are not the least bit interested in their shadows or the number of winter weeks remaining. The only reason they come out of hibernation is for food and sex.I knew it!!!
The original Wiarton Willie, an albino groundhog died during hibernation during the winter of 1998-99. Willie's death made headlines around the world. On Groundhog Day, they put Wiarton Willie face-up in a small pine casket, bright pennies over his eyes, paws clutching a raw carrot. But it was a fake!All those conspiracy theories confirmed!
Included in the article are some quick groundhog facts submitted from the one and only, Cornell University. Two facts in particular caught my eye:
- Woodchuck and groundhog are common terms for the same animal.
- How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? About 318 kg
This picture was plastered on the front page of Toronto Star today relating to an article on climate-change action/global warming. Really a picture that's worth more than a thousand words.
PICTURE TAKEN BY SPENCER WYNN FOR THE TORONTO STAR
A lone polar bear drifts at the entrance to the Arctic's Northwest Passage. Warming may open it year-round.
On a totally separate note, I saw the following quote today:
Stuffed deer heads on walls are bad enough, but it's worse when they are wearing dark glasses and have streamers in their antlers because then you know they were enjoying themselves at a party when they were shot. - Ellen DeGeneresNow you know what those deers at Gringos were doing before they met their fate.
I rarely watch foreign language films (aside from Asian ones). However, the spanish film Pan's Labyrinth (Laberinto del Fauno, El) was nominated for six Oscars and was a big hit at the Toronto Film Festival last year. And man, this was the best film I've seen in a long time.
The movie is essentially a fairy tale interweved with a real-life, down-to-earth plot running in parallel. It's suprising how the two more-or-less unrelated plots work so well together, and how everything comes together in the end. The movie takes the viewer on an emotional roller coaster. For example, it's rare that a film makes a viewer think that an antagonist isn't evil. However, in Pan's Labyrinth, despite some actions that would normally make me really despise a character, I actually felt for the antagonist throughout the movie, and felt super sorry when he got screwed at the end.
Every actor/actress played their role very well. Special honours go to Mercedes, Captain and of course, Ofelia. While there were no memorable music sequences, several times in the movie, I was awed by how perfect the music was in that scene (i.e. when Ofelia was at the portal). I rarely consciously think of the soundtrack while watching a movie. Special-effects were very believable, from the fantasy characters to the weird monsters to the "wounds" of a certain character...
The most potent element of the movie was the ending. I really cannot describe the mixed bag of emotions I was feeling at that time. Last movie that I was that awe-struck was Gladiator. Watch it and you'll see. Simple, elegant, and beautifully woven.
Given the lull movie season right now (no good pickings), there's no excuse for anyone to not watch this masterpiece. :) 6 stars out of 5 on Tochi meter.
Winterlicious 2007 officially began yesterday, and Tochi's first stop was at the Monsoon Resturant on 100 Simcoe St. I had mixed feelings when I first picked this restaurant. Serving portions for fancy joints are renown to be very petite, so their much-acclaimed Japanese inspiration might mean that servings were going to be even smaller. However, it's winterlicious, so what the heck.
The setting and atmosphere at Monsoon's was very trendy. Their choice of colours, textures and lighting gave their restaurant a very warm, yet modern feel. Simply described, not a place to go for a date, but a place for businessmen and big executives to relax and socialize. Pictures are available on their website, if anyone wants to check it out.
For each of the three courses, we were given three options. I ended up selecting:
- Red wine braised octopus, potato sesame seed salad, baby green bundle, lemon pepper vinaigrette
- Grilled shrimp, soba noodles and baby vegetables in shrimp and pork broth
- Ginger infused crème brulee with green tea meringue
As with all Winterlicious/Summerlicious choices, I always reflect whether the meal was worth the $35. In this case, the atmosphere, the food, and especially the company made this meal very much worth it. Monsoon gets 4 stars out of 5 from Tochi.
After Monsoon, a couple of us decided to check out the festivities at Nathan Phillips Square. There was a giant snow globe, with real people acting inside. One guy was tossing a hockey puck, a couple were tasting wine and some girl was sleeping. Personally, I felt sorry for those people. They must have the most boring job of the night.American Express sponsored this ice gallery featuring some abstract paintings in ice entitled "Paintings Below Zero" created by Vancouver artist Gordon Halloran. The ice sculptures were pretty dang cool. Everyone was taking pictures and admiring the work. In particular, at the center of the attraction, there were these two pillars. For some reason, they reminded me of the two giant statues from LOTR movie. At the end of the gallery, AmEx served some hot choco, which "hit right on the spot". :-)
Toronto Water, main sponsor of these festivities had a booth where they were handing out water bottles and 2 packs of hand warmers. These hand warmers are going to be handy for the ski trip. :)
Before we left, we dropped by to check out the Philsopher Kings's concert. I didn't know any of their music, and I thought they weren't really wow'ing the crowd. Hard to blame them though, as the crowd probably had very diverse music interests. The only thing that got people going was when they played some popular theme song sequences. Also, their hands must have been freezing, being left exposed to the brisky -9C weather.