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an adventure on the coldest day of the year 7:14 PM

I've had quite an adventure over my final weekend in Winnipeg. Apart from tobogganing, I had my first extreme love-hate relationship with Winnipeg on Sunday, when I got helplessly lost and stranded in an all-time low of -48 degC and 40km/h winds. So here goes, presenting my survival recount..

xx

It was the coldest day of the year, Sunday that is (although for the next 2 weeks every day will probably be a new coldest day, haha). Anyway I was supposed to have met Ron downtown as he'd agreed to go skiing with me - again, it was a crazy idea to have wanted to attempt skiing but I figured there won't be time to do that while travelling! So yes, according to Winnipeg Transit's Navigo system (akin to Singapore's gothere.sg which tells you what bus to take from your origin to destination), I could transfer to another bus downtown and meet Ron on board itself. But bus stops in Winnipeg ain't very obvious (most of the time there's just a pole sticking out to indicate its existence), and coupled with the weather it was horrible to just walk around trying to find my way.

Winds deadlier than temperature, cold that can kill
I didn't know if it was the cold piercing my eyes, or that I was just too upset and miserable that I teared uncontrollably. Really, I don't know how to put it into words cos the cold's just simply unimaginable. Ice crystals were attacking my face, no matter how wrapped up it was with my scarf, and the winds just kept piercing through right to the bones it was intensely painful. At that point in time, there and then, I hated myself for having come to Winnipeg.

I eventually found the right bus-stop, but upon boarding the driver horribly said his bus-route didn't travel to where I wanted to go! Worse still, he'd never heard of the place before, the Windsor Park Nordic Centre. TADANG. I felt seriously battered by everything - a foreigner who was cold, lost (and hungry, like the matchstick girl, haha), and I didn't quite know what to do. The driver called transit headquarters and they deduced that Navigo'd conveyed the wrong info, so yea.. instead of going with the flow and getting even more lost, I decided to return to U of M (but first for a soothing cuppa). The bus driver really empathized with me though, and I was indeed thankful that he was nice and tried to help.

After coffee I headed back to AVM, and to my horror and/or surprise JS exclaimed that Ron'd facebooked him, saying he was coming to AVM soon and was worried about me. Seriously I didn't know what was happening either, but here's a summary - He apparently tried looking for me downtown and looped back on the bus, while doing so he coincidentally bumped into the previous kind bus driver! Haha.. it was quite hilarious cos the driver said "I know who you're looking for, the girl! She went back to U of M!" and Ron tried to take the same bus that I did, only to run after it and see me aboard - go, going, gone. He took the next bus (30 min later) and because I'd chosen to go to Julie's room before coming up to mine, he'd heard from JS that I wasn't home and therefore got uber worried. He even searched the coffee hangouts on-campus to look for me, and said he'd have felt seriously guilty if I were to be lost and missing in my last 4 days in Winnipeg. Haha.. but yea, apparently the bus driver hadn't known of that place cos it's only called "Nordic Centre" in winter, but normally everyone refers to it as Windsor Park Golf Course, wth. Haha.. we had a good laugh over this whole adventure, though it really wasn't funny getting lost downtown at 8.30am in such weather. And I almost got blown away while walking on uneven snow (ice) by the way! :(

Skiing at long last

  

Weather forecast for today, haha.

 

Truly battered from the cold - frost all over and ice on eyes (click to enlarge and you'll see the icicles on my frozen eyelashes..!) One of the worst things I've ever experienced thus far cos you really can't open your eyes nor do anything about them, and rubbing will just cut your lids and worsen the frostbite.

 

I confess that I did fall down once while skiing, but it wasn't cos I'd slipped. In fact I was trying to shift onto the trail and stepped onto my own ski, and momentarily lost balance, hahaha.

 

Taking a break and warming up, using the Singaporean-essential heat packs. I've heard that only Singaporeans bring such stuff to cold countries, heh. I only opened my heat packs recently (yes I am that accustomed to anywhere above -30)! And my local friends are all very fascinated by them, though they really don't seem useful at all under -40 conditions.

 

Below was what I consoled myself with in the morning after getting lost and deciding to head home..

 

Second Cup's mint-chocolate latte and blueberry muffin, your essentials for a cold winter morning (note the ear muffs and gloves behind). I'm just so glad I survived, phew. :)

P/S: Again, you can watch my slightly-unglam skiing video on Facebook, hehe. That was a result of going against very strong winds and getting slightly over-confident with my skills! Judo helps in balance I think.. but I hit against a hard piece of ice or something, bleah. Remember to listen for the howling winds.. :)

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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.

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