Better to blog them than to never blog at all. It's March, so I'm due for some updates:
- Made my Jelly Bellies debut. 3 on 3 mixed floor hockey. Got placed on the "first" line with AP. We had some good chemistry, 2 man cycles, crispy passes and shots. My best chance was when I got a pass from AP in front of the net. I faked the lone defender out and in trying to stop me, she dove/slid into the net knocking over their goalie. I gathered the ball and put a high shot into the empty top part of the net. The goalie somehow managed to get his glove up to rob me of a sure goal. All in all, had many great opportunities, but didn't end up scoring. Went -1 on a night after giving up a fluky goal. Lost 1-6. Lots of fun though.
- I still cannot do moguls. :(
- Played the most intense squash game of my life with YW. Both of us were "in the zone", which set up some amazing rallies (one of which must have been 30+ shots). I could feel my heart beating, my heat hurting and my arms and legs aching. I've never had to do this in a squash game before, but between points, I leaned over with my hands on my knees, huffing and buffing.
- Got a chance to go up ScotiaBank tower in downtown. Quite a pretty sight looking down into the business district from high up. Next up is TD Bank tower in a few weeks.
- Last year, everyone in our lab took part in a group photo. They finally released the photo, which set off a massive Find Waldo search. I spent 10 minutes starring at the photo trying to find Tochi. Two coworkers joined the search too, but couldn't spot me. I ended up asking one of the two tall guys I stood beside to pinpoint my coordinates. sigh.
- 農家菜館 - the official "dim sum" go-to place now. Across from Markville Mall. All dim sum @ $1.80, 7-days a week, 9am-4pm. The food, for the most part, is very good. The ones that are only so-so are written off as "It's only $1.80, what can you expect?" The place is always jam packed. And check out these Siu Mai:
Little pieces of abalone!! lol. After you stuff yourself full, the best part is when the bill arrives. About $7-$8 per person including tax and tip. The price and value amaze me every single time. I cannot stop going back, even though it's quite a drive each time. Good food, unbeatable prices!
- Got the HyperDrive case for TochiCam on Europe trip. Still debating which HD to get though.
- Canada recorded another year of federal surplus of $12.6 billion. $10.2B of which will pay down our national debt (currently at approximately $460billion). Some critics have complained that we have better ways to spend the 10.2 billion, but I really don't mind our government paying off some of the debt.
- Daylight savings starts on March 9th?!?!?! ugh.
Tallied up my fuel consumption to date on my RAV4. Total 208 gas station trips, spending just under $4k CDN plus $1k USD. Burned 6030L of fuel over 53788km. 11.21 L/100km (~21MPG) average. On highway, I get about 9L/100km. Both are lower than the advertised statistics, as expected. However, I was hoping for better numbers than what I got.
Will have lots of fun mining this data. Would be interesting to see how my mileage differs between winter and summer months, or what percentage of the kilometres I racked up on long driving trips. Wonder if there's some way to calculate my carbon footprint.
Anyway, the one sure result I concluded is that I need to drive less... too expensive!
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.