Since I had written quite a bit already about last night's lunar eclipse experience, I thought I'd throw everything together for the benefit of Tochi Hut readers.
Lunar Eclipse on February 20th, 2008. Toronto was blessed with crystal clear skies, so I was more than happy to settle with the -12C temperatures. Everyone is posting these beautiful photos of the moon eclipse, so I'm doing the same. This photo was taken around 10pm, almost to the point of complete eclipse - cropped a lot. :)
In the following shot, I noticed two bright stellar objects, Regulus (star) at 12 o'clock and Saturn at 8 o'clock to the moon. I zoomed out a bit to catch them into the frame. Looking through the viewfinder, it seemed like I was staring at some distant planet instead of the moon. It was quite a cool extraterrestrial feeling.
After a while, I was getting a little cold. BlueOrca had linked me to a site showing a very cool super long exposure shot of another lunar eclipse. Since I was going inside anyway, I decided to leave my camera out for an hour to capture the following shot.
The original photo was shot at a pretty wide angle, since I didn't really know the path of the moon. The noise reduction processing on the camera took over 30 minutes. The sky colours came out very redish, almost pink. I didn't really know how to fix it, so I just played around with various settings until I got the sky darkish again. I also cropped the photo to "zoom" in on the trail.
It's quite cool to see the moon streak go from almost all red to all white as the lunar eclipse began to unravel. :)
When I came downstairs this morning, I heard on the radio that 肥姐 (沈殿霞) passed away earlier today in Hong Kong. While I knew that she was battling cancer for the past two years and had been in and out of the hospital and ICU, her passing came as quite a shock to me. The news put me in quite a bummer mood the entire morning.
I can still remember growing up watching her on TV. Her physique, hairstyle, accent and most importantly her laughter really made her one of a kind. She was almost larger than life. If there was one celebrity who embodies pure joy and happiness, 肥姐 definitely takes the honours; no one else would even come close.
From the media coverage of the event, the entire Hong Kong is in a state of grief. I'm quite surprised at my reaction to this news; not really understanding why I feel so much sorrow over a celebrity. It really feels like I lost a close relative. Perhaps part of the reason why the news hit so close to home is that 肥姐was in QMH. Seeing those hallways and elevators in the news coverage tonight sent chills down my bones. 肥姐's laughter will always be in my memories. I guess the flip side of the story is that she will no longer be suffering. Also, as much as I hate to say this at such a time, I'm glad the HK media finally has something else to cover other than the Edison scandal. :-(
Some minor updates from the past week or so...
Shows and whatnots...
Last December, after an unfortunate turn of events, GH and TH invited us to their awesome new condo for a little impromptu party. The ladies couldn't wait to watch this "awesome" show, and everyone ended up sitting through a multi-episode marathon. I haven't watched any drama series in a long while; recent shows coming from HK have been crappy. 換換愛 (Why Why Love) was a breath of fresh air. Took me like two months to finish watching it, but now I understand what this craze that had overtaken Asia and PMall over the past few months is all about.
In slightly related news, given the lull in TV season, AS began force feeding me Battlestar Galactica episodes, in preparation for the upcoming season IV. I've resisted the BSG temptation for many years now, but after watching the mini series, I'm more or less hooked - slowly making my way through season I (episode 4 atm). Action stations, action stations!
Celebrations
After coming back from Whiteface dead tired, the subsequent week was filled with family gatherings for Chinese New Year. Oh yeah, happy year of the rat. To welcome the new year, Toronto got dumped with snow. Normal average snowfall is around 20cm in February. We're at like 60-70cm right now.
So 林峯 was in Toronto to ring in the new year. We wanted to see him live, but with a foot of fresh snow in 5 hours, we decided watching him on TV was just as good. Ended up being a really smart choice, as I had lots of fun getting up my driveway that night.
In one of the activities, we had to come up with a second phrase as a couplet to a given first phrase (對聯). "好手緊" was one of the given phrases. Someone replied with "無得滾". lolol.
Toss in my mom's birthday in the same week. I ended up buying her present on the day of her b-day. Good thing I knew what I wanted to get her. I was praying that the store had the item in stock, otherwise, I would have been screwed big time.
Revisiting childhood memories...
MMM decided to come back to Toronto for a visit. After some scheduling headaches, MMM finally decided he was indeed free on Saturday morning till lunch. Woke up fresh and early to revisit the place where MMM first learned to ski. Later on, I saw this quote on a wall at an urban park, which I thought was quite fitting.
We shall not cease from exploration
and the end of all our exploring
will be to arrive where we started
and know the place for the first time.
"Little Gidding" Four Quartets - T.S. Eliot
I have a craving for quotes lately...
The day after tomorrow...
As always, after every hectic schedule, the first moment when I can relax, I get sick. I've been bogged down with a cold right now. The cold came at a most inopportune time, as it totally ruined my scheduled Jelly Belly's debut. I was so looking forward to showing my hockey prowess. I guess it will have to wait till next week.
Spent the past weekend skiing at Whiteface resort, near Lake Placid, NY, the site of the 1932 and 1980 Olympic Games. TL convinced YW, AR and me to join along, as the Chinese skiing group that she's really active in was planning the trip. Plans called for a drive out Friday evening, skiing for two days, followed by the return drive on Sunday night.
The forecast for Friday was in one word, horrible. The biggest storm of the year so far was expected to dump 20-25cm of snow in GTA. The system was coming from Tennessee, travelling on a course due east, which essentially covered our entire driving route.
Some people cancelled the trip due to weather, but we were determined to go. After all, what can beat skiing in the fresh snow after a storm? Given the CO experience, I made sure I brought water, flashlight, blankets, sleeping bag and a pillow, just in case if we get stranded. lol.
AR and YW picked up our rental car from the airport, as that was the only location that can provide ski racks. As YW was driving back on 401, he heard a large thump on the roof of the car. Looking out of the side window, he noticed a dislodged hook from the front ski rack! He quickly got off the highway at the next exit. When he came to a stop at the traffic lights, the entire ski rack slid down the front of the car. Good thing it didn't come off on the highway. >_<. He went to the nearby rental car dealer and promptly got an upgrade to a minivan. The minivan ended up being more comfortable than the original car.
We left Toronto in the late afternoon. The conditions were quite poor, but since it was a Friday and schools were cancelled, many people just stayed home. The roads were not too packed. We were quite happy to be travelling at 60km/h (which also means our drive will take 10+ hours).
Ran into other carpools at various service stations along the way. TL manage to toss one of our walkie-talkies into the garbage and had to rummage through the garbage to find the walkie-talkie.
Cross the border at Prescott. We were joking that AR (the only white guy) would have a much easier time crossing the border if he wasn't travelling with three Chinese dudes. The DHS agent asked YW and TL a couple questions, like where they were born, etc. Then he went on to grill AR. Asked him when was the last time he was in the USA, where he went, what he did, how long he was there for, etc. WTF. Ironically, the agent didn't ask me a single question. After a few minutes of questioning, we were allowed into the USA.
Since the snow had stopped, we had a nice drive through the Adirondacks. We saw 5 deers along the way and at one point, stopped the car to shine a BFL at a deer. The other cars following us were quite puzzled at what we were up to. lol.
Got to our cottage at around 1am. We were the second car out of 7 to arrive from Toronto. The cottage was a little wooden hut with 2 bedrooms plus a living room and a nice fireplace. We quickly hit the sack to save up energy for the next day.
Got to Whiteface at 9am the next morning. The day was cloudy with a couple breaks of sunshine. While we were getting our group tickets, I snuck out to take some photos of the Ausable River.
The gondola was not running today, so we took the Facelift chair up to middle of the mountain. The top of Facelift connects to another chair to the summit. We decided to hold off and do a quick run down the mountain as warm-up. As we started heading down, YW took an awful tumble. I arrived a little late to the scene and all I saw was (in order from closest to furthest) a ski, a ski pole, a hat, a pair of goggles, a pair of glasses and a spawned out YW. This portion of the trail was quite flat, almost like a green slope. The fall was so bad that YW cracked the inner lens of his goggles. YW had no idea what happened.
YW took a break at the mid-lodge, while TL, AR and I decided to head down the mountain and take the summit express to the top of Big Whiteface. When we returned on Facelift, we found, to our dismay, that the Summit Express was shut down due to high winds. >_<.
The winds today was very strong, though not as bad as Vail. It was 35mph at the base and much stronger at the top. The slightly warmer temperature and no blowing snow made the difference. The winds were strong enough though to make skiing a lot more difficult. With Summit Express closed, we were stuck on little Whiteface (the other peak at the resort), which consisted of a couple black diamonds.
The black diamonds were quite icy, probably because of a combination of the wind and all the skiers being forced onto the same handful of trails. I had such a hard time handling these blacks. To make things worse, there were clumps of sticky snow at the bottom of the hill. During one of the runs, I came out of a black with a lot of speed and promptly hit one of these clumps. It felt like someone just took my feet out and my body continued flying forward. I lost one of my skis and during the fall, as my body was turning around, I saw out of the corner of my eye that my face was landing right onto of the edge of my detached ski. The left side of my face was throbbing in pain after the fall. I earned scrapes on my cheekbone and near my temple. >_<.
We went to attack some of the other blue trails, where I could practice some of my techniques. TL had brought a bunch of skiing training videos that we watched during the drive to Lake Placid. I tried a couple of the pole planting techniques.
Well, some of you know, one of my poles got bent at Vail. I haven't replaced them yet. During the run, I had forgotten that about the defect and held the pole bent inwards. One of my skis ended up going over the basket of my pole. As I tried to pull my pole out, I ended up in a big tangle and promptly wiped out again. Sigh. I need new poles.
After lunch, YW and I decided that we shouldn't risk our lives on the blacks. YW had brought his dSLR on the trip as well (so nice to have another photographer on the trip!), and he suggested we bring the cameras up to the mountain for some photos. I was a little hesitant at first, but I knew I could handle the blue trails quite fine. So that afternoon, TochiCam rode its first chairlift and skied its first mountain. :-)
Not being photographers, AR and TL split off to attack the other trails by themselves. It was quite fun shooting skiers with TochiCam.
Being cloudy and foggy, a lot of the landscape photos didn't turn out too well. The snow was white, the sky was white.
The scenery was quite beautiful though, as all the coniferous were covered in snow.
At one point, as I was photographing some snow making gear, this girl came up to me to ask if I had lost a lens. I was like, WTFBBQ? I'm holding my lens. Apparently, she had found a lens cap and thought it might be mine. I verified that I still had my lens cap. For some reason, my brain didn't register that the lens cap could have been YW's. The girl continued on the trail and when YW caught up to me, I found out that the len cap was indeed his. He never got it back. >_<.
It ended up being quite a relaxing and enjoyable afternoon. My body got a much needed respite from the ordeals of the morning.
Had dinner in Lake Placid. Had fun listening to all the other stories from fellow skiers / snowboarders. Went around exploring Lake Placid for a bit afterwards, visiting some of the Olympic venues and the shops along the main street. Took a quiet hike on the ice covered Lake Placid. Retired back at the cottage later that night.
The next morning, we returned to Whiteface. The day was even cloudier, but the wind had calmed down. The gondola was finally running! During one of our rides up, we met a ski patrol guy named Chris. He told us one time the Summit lift was stopped with a full load of people due to high winds. The cable had came off a pulley at one of the towers, which tripped some sensors. As a result, they couldn't restart the lift. They were forced to use ropes strung from the cable and belay people down in harnesses. TL and my first reaction was "OMG! We want to try!!!" lol.
Today, the snow was so much better. The trails were groomed, so it wasn't as icy as yesterday. All of a sudden, I could handle all the black trails without any problems. :-) We just went trail after trail until lunch. During one of the runs, TL wiped out. YW thought he saw her walkie-talkie fly out. YW and I searched around in the snow, until TL called us from her walkie-talkie further down the hill asking what we were up to. lol.
Had a Clam Chowder in Bread Boulle for lunch. Best lunch I've ever had at a ski resort. I had a humourous disagreement with the server lady on how exactly to pronounce "Boulle". She kept on saying it's pronouced like BOWL. In the end, I conceded... just give me my food, damnit.
In the afternoon session, one member of our group wanted to take videos of us skiing. We ended up doing a quick run from the summit of Big Whiteface and took some videos at a blue section of the trail. This is the first time I've seen myself ski in a video. I, along wiht everyone else, was paranoid about falling during the run. lol.
I had no idea that the videos were going to be distributed and our techniques critiqued later. I would have tried harder if I knew. Anyway, it was cool that I got some advice from experts on what to improve on next time. Can't wait to tackle the ski hills again to try them out.
Our last run of the day, we went back up to Big Whiteface summit. It was getting a lot colder and icier. There was only one more black diamond trial that we haven't tried. The visibility dropped to ~10m and at this point in the day, I was not sure if I could tackle another black diamond. YW started going down and soon decided that it wasn't worth it. So TL, YW and I went off to take the blue trail down. AR, the best of our group, bravely took on that black diamond.
Near the bottom of the mountain, we saw that a group of ski patrol had sealed off a portion of the trail. Seeing the toboggans out, we knew there was a serious accident. As I skied past the scene, I saw a chubby guy laying face first in the snow. He wasn't moving. As I moved passed, I heard on the walkie-talkie that the guy was from our group! A bunch of us gathered around just down the hill. Apparently, he was nailed from behind by a snowboarder and injured his back. The dude was taken to hospital, but soon released. He's going to be okay. We were quite unnerved by the accident.
One of the coolest stop is in Saranac Lake, where they had built a giant ice castle with a maze. There was a little tunnel that little kids can crawl through. It was quite a sight.
We continued our way to Canada and stopped briefly at the duty free shop. We got out our government issued ID's in preparation for the border crossing. It was now that TL noticed her wallet was missing. She checked her bags and pockets, but couldn't find it. Then she started freaking out wondering whether the thing YW thought was a walkie-talkie during her fall earlier was really her wallet. Fortunately, after a few minutes of searching, we located her wallet in her laptop bag. Whew.
The Canadian border crossing was rather simple. The border agent didn't even check our passports.
Agent: Hi, are you all Canadians?
Us: Yup.
Agent: What were you doing in the USA?
Us: Skiing for 2 days at Whiteface.
Agent: Are you bringing anything back?
Us: Only two cases of beer from duty-free shop.
Agent: Alrighty, welcome home!
For some reason, it feels so nice when the agent says "Welcome home!". Makes you feel good to be back.
We got back into Toronto around midnight, much later than expected. TL and AR blamed it on our photography stops. lol. We saw that one coming. Overall, it was a really fun trip. My skiing ability definitely improved on this trip. Cannot wait till the next one.
JC defended him M.Sc. thesis last Monday. RY wanted to come up from Virginia to celebrate as well. Given my skiing plans this past weekend, everyone was kind enough to accommodate my schedule. RY flew up a day earlier (a good thing too, given the 25cm of snow we're expecting today) and we celebrated over dinner on Thursday.
Everything came together at the last minute. BW was suppose to take care of our dinner reservations. When I got back home after 10pm on Wednesday night, I found out that he just gave RY (in Virginia) a list of the Winterlicious restaurants. RY picked out 5 choices, but he wasn't going to call from Virginia. I ended up calling the restaurants in RY's shortlist at 11pm, not really expecting to get any reservations. As luck will have it, I managed to make reservations for a late dinner at La Maquette.
After a slight mishap at the Eaton Centre, we took a quick stroll to Nathan Philips. Unfortunately, none of the WinterCity activities were going on today, so we just huddled around the skating rink before proceeding to the restaurant.
To tell the truth, I didn't even bother looking at the Winterlicious menu beforehand. I just heard RY mention that the appetizer has Shrimp Tempura. Tempura in a French restaurant?!?
As you walk into the restaurant, you'll immediately notice the romantic atmosphere - candle lighting, fancy statues, spiral staircase and live piano music. JC was beginning to seriously worry that he wasn't dressed appropriately for the evening. Whatever. :-)
We got a nice table on the second floor, and soon found out that there was a wedding celebration with a party of about 15 people at the next table. So much for the nice quiet "romantic" atmosphere. lol. Although, it's not like we won't have ruined the atmosphere for other guests anyway.
Since it's Winterlicious, I guess I have to talk a bit about the food. I didn't have much choice for appetizer, since I HAD to try the Shrimp Tempura. It was served with Mayo Ginger and Scotch Pea Meal Pepper Sauce served with Belgium Endive. The jumbo shrimps were very good. The batter was very very thin, just adding a nice texture as the crust for the shrimps. It wasn't tempura in the japanese tempura sense - the shrimp was definitely the focal point, not the batter. However, the presentation of the appetizer was rather bland. The greens and yellows kind of just merged together on a big plate.
Main entry, I had Roasted Venison Chops served with Garlic Mashed Potatoes in a Sesame Reduction enhanced with hints of Chocolate and Crème De Menthe and fresh Marjoram. Wow, what a long description. Sesame Reduction. I recognize the terminology, but don't really remember all the details. Anyway, the chops were really tender. I did taste a bit of the mint and chocolate, but the flavours were dominated by the fresh peppers sprinkled over top of the dish.
For dessert, I settled for Banana Liqueur Crème Brule. This was my favourite dish of the entire meal. I just have a sweet spot for Crème Brule's. Served with a mint leaf and a raspberry... mmmm. A definitely A+ on the Brule.
For drinks, we got a bottle of Jackson Triggs Merlot. JC really liked it, but there wasn't much evolution or aftertaste to the wine. I found it didn't do that great of a job to cleanse my mouth of chops flavours. A so-so selection.
BW, RY and I took our hand at trying to photograph the food. The low lighting essentially made things really difficult for BW and me. We don't have 28mm f/1.4 prime lenses. >_<. I was quite a noob as I forgot to reset my exposure settings on the SB-600 flash. I was wondering why the flash output was weaker than I expected. sigh.
As usual whenever we get together, there are the diplomatic discussions on Canon vs Nikon. The waiter, whose service was only so-so during the meal, came through at the end when he mentioned he got a D40x for his nephew for Christmas. He totally redeemed himself and just earned himself a bigger tip from me and RY. lol.
Overall, the meal was probably a 3/5 stars; it was good, but not really spectacular. I might go back again, as long as there's no wedding going on.
P.S. The rest of the gang decided to bake a turkey over the weekend, just for the heck of it. I was going to miss out on all the fun! Apparently, they went, got the bird and all the miscellaneous ingredients, only to find out that BW's oven doesn't work. Chinese people rarely use ovens! lolol. The bird is still sitting in the freezer.