journal profile tagboard affiliates archives

9-10 october, calgary 3:39 AM

While on the roads over the past weekend, I kept wondering how I'd be able to blog about this entire trip with all the spectacular sights and first-time experiences - yes, I'd uploaded 10 new albums on facebook - imagine the amount of effort I'll have to spend on this! Omg.. haha.

But still, here I am, 1 day after returning from Alberta; the 6-day road trip which entailed a never-ending-on-the-go itinerary. Albeit the tonnes of emails, unfinished assignments and mid-terms ahead, I'm taking time to revisit my travel journal, scribbled with all the little things and beautiful moments I'd like to share with everyone back home. :)

xx

Reunion dinner and Countdown to 10/10
I understand perfectly what Kaykey'd meant when she said she was always excited to meet fellow Singaporeans when travelling in Europe. I guess it was even more so for our case; somehow we really missed Shuwen and Huilin, and the initial euphoria of travelling in Vancouver together. I was super restless the few hours before we departed for Calgary, harping on the fact that we're all meeting up and counting down to my birthday! Haha.

So well, a reunion after 1.5 months! We really screamed when we saw one another, and our Mexican friends (Adriana and Thalia) were kinda amazed/amused at how close-knit we were. We went for a good Japanese dinner at Globefish Sushi, a highly-recommended restaurant - well, it wasn't like we hadn't tasted anything like this before back home (okay, not at least in ages), but it was the reunion and great company that made this dinner so very significant and special. As for our Mexican friends, it was that of tasting proper Japanese food for the first time, as well as learning basic Jap phrases and etiquette, as well as how to use the Asian "deep-welled" spoon and chopsticks etc - I taught them all!

   

  

"Ita-daki-masu!" with the chopsticks resting on the notch between thumb and forefinger - Japs do this before each meal, signifying "Let's eat!" We had a Rocky Mountains sushi platter, which was drowned in mayo to render its snowcapped effect, haha. Absolutely o-ishii!

The 4 of us then chilled and caught up over some drinks at a pub called Bungalow in downtown (no we didn't abandon our friends, they were tired so we sent them home to rest, heh). Anyway, the pub had a 25 year-old age limit and dress code policy sign at its entrance; it was freezing cold that night (-1 deg C) so we tried asking the bouncer if there was anywhere near that'd take us in. But it turned out that the sign was there just to "keep off the bad guys", so in we went, and settled down in a secluded comfortable spot totally in our own world, haha.

 

 

We had a very good time catching up, sharing our lives in Calgary and Winnipeg and just reminiscing about things back home. My martini was on Shuwen and Huilin too, haha. I guess I just felt blessed to have the company of fellow friends in the wee hours of my birthday.. yep. And of course, the smses from friends back home! I'll reveal the winners for most-accurate-timing in a separate post!

    

Then we kinda wanted to play SMU games but realized we couldn't with only 4 people around! :( Took silly pictures of tiu-tiu, bloop and big titty town girls (girl) nevertheless.. and I'm supposed to look/feel xing fu and warm with the 2 of them hugging me, since they were in their winter jackets, heh.

 

We all spent the night at their place - the 3 of us shared Shuwen's bed while Adriana and Thalia took Huilin's, and Js had a makeshift bed out of 4 chairs in the kitchen. To the right is the view from Shuwen's room, the green glass looks like SMU library's!

We bade farewell to our friends early next morning for the 2nd leg of our travel itinerary, although they were going to drive up to Banff that evening with their friends too, where we'd be, and might probably meet up. :)

 

Canada Olympic Park
The ski resort at the Canada Olympic Park was one of the best-known legacies for the XV Olympic Winter Games, which were held in Calgary in 1988. It was the primary venue for this event, hosting ski-jumping, bobsleigh and luge, amongst others. Currently, the Park is used both for high performance athletic training and recreational purposes by the general public, providing facilities for winter sports such as downhill/cross-country skiing and snowboarding. The 25km biking trail in the Park grounds also renders it a favourable site for cycling and other warm-weather sports in summer.

 

 

The difference between being the best of the best and the worst of the best..

   

Left: This is for ski-jumping (I think, haha). So yep, skiers go down the "in-run" and glide through at the take-off ramp, attempting to go as far as possible with style. Right: View of the city from the Park's hilltop.

 

Zooming into one of the ski-jump ramps with the Olympic Rings

 

The pic on the right depicts 10-2, so it kinda symbolizes 10/10 for me. HAHA.

 

Calgary Tower
The Calgary Tower is a 191m free-standing observation tower in downtown Calgary - "Free-standing" apparently means it sways from time to time, up to 16.5cm in any direction in the occurrence of strong winds! No wonder I felt so giddy while I was up there! Haha.. seriously.

   

Calgary Tower from afar, and inside the observation tower. You actually have the whole of Calgary beneath your feet when you're up there!

 

Up up and away, from 0 to 525 feet high!

 

Scene-shots of downtown Calgary as observed from the Tower

xx

Well well, so this pretty much concludes our short stint in Calgary! It's definitely more of a bustling city here compared to Winnipeg, though I feel it offers more of shopping/dining/pubbing than actual sites of interest. Or perhaps I've become accustomed to the Winnipeggers' slower pace of life (..??) Omg, I wonder if I'll feel shocked returning to Singapore and experiencing its hustle-bustle all over again! :(

Reach me!
Wini’s pfingo number: 31501405
Call me at only local (Singapore) phone charges when I’m online!

Mail me!
Winifred Lim
Arthur V Mauro Residence, Box 436B
120 Dafoe Road, Winnipeg, MB R3T 6B3
Canada

About me
You are an enthusiastic innovator, always seeing new possibilities and new ways of doing things. You have a lot of imagination and initiative for starting projects, and a lot of impulsive energy for carrying them out. You are stimulated by difficulties and are most ingenious in solving them. You can get so interested in your newest project that you have time for little else. Your energy comes from a succession of new enthusiasms and your world is full of possible projects. Your enthusiasm gets other people interested too.

Your feeling preference shows in a concern for people. You are skillful in handling people and often have remarkable insight into the possibilities and development of others. You are extremely perceptive about the attitudes of others, aiming to understand rather than judge people. You are much drawn to counseling and can be inspired and inspiring teacher, particularly where you have freedom to innovate. With talent, you can succeed in almost any field that captures your interest.

A difficulty for you is that you hate uninspired routine and find it remarkably hard to apply yourself to sometimes necessary detail unconnected with any major interest. Worse yet, you may get bored with your own projects as soon as the major problems have been solved or the initial challenge has been met. You may need to learn to follow through and finish what you have begun, but are happiest and most effective in jobs that permit one project after another, with somebody else taking over as soon as the situation is well in hand.

8/24/08 - 8/31/08
8/31/08 - 9/7/08
9/7/08 - 9/14/08
9/14/08 - 9/21/08
9/21/08 - 9/28/08
9/28/08 - 10/5/08
10/5/08 - 10/12/08
10/12/08 - 10/19/08
10/19/08 - 10/26/08
10/26/08 - 11/2/08
11/2/08 - 11/9/08
11/9/08 - 11/16/08
11/16/08 - 11/23/08
11/23/08 - 11/30/08
11/30/08 - 12/7/08
12/7/08 - 12/14/08
12/14/08 - 12/21/08
12/21/08 - 12/28/08
12/28/08 - 1/4/09
1/4/09 - 1/11/09



Christine Chen
Gerald Tay
Blogger
Windows Live Writer