Daryl L.D.M

Sunday, August 30, 2009

woohoo!! This blog finally sees purpose to be resurrected! hahaa yeap... too damn lazy to write a diary, so here goes my toronto chronicles!! Its 12hours behind singapore, so that means your AM is my PM and vice versa~ easy eh? its like 6pm over here after taking a long walk around our area! Quite a few things to talk about, but lets start from the top eh?

After 3 days of packing (2 slack + 1 serious) I finished packing my 2x luggage of 23kg limit, which only weighed like 38kg at the airport! (luckily i brought the cell and biochemistry textbooks to make the luggage count more worth it!)~ had my last local dinner at crystal jade restaurant with my godmom's family, my parents and my brother & sis-in-law.. headed over to Changi Airport Terminal 1~ Was really glad to see kiat loong, johan, yong shen, jun kok, huimin, caelan, linmin and phyllis physically sending me off~ though not a big crowd, was really touched and appreciative of them taking time just to speak that few words within that short time span left, but still leaving that nice warm feeling throughout the 30hrs of travel time.. thanks guys! :) As I departed, I felt really worried having to leave my parents especially my dad's health and them getting along~ but also felt comforted to have charlotte around to bring joy to my family in my absence! Stay healthy and happy Mom and Dad!! Good health to bro, sis-in-law and your princess charlotte! =D

We went off in quite a rush as our planned 1hr became 30min so we rushed to our gates, did a rushed check in and boarded our qantas plane bound for london-heathrow.. we were like the only 3 (albeit separated) asians on bound with lots of caucasian.. I got a cramp window seat next to a BIG ang moh, whom in a short conversation asked me "I hope you don't snore"... Friendly eh? Moreover, the angmoh couple next to me were so big that i conceded my armrest to the big fella and dared not ask to go to the toilet except when i was really urgent! Other than that, the 13hrs flight didnt feel so bad since I managed to sleep 2x 4hrs in between movies and meal times.. the cramp conditions of economy class though, did leave a stiff body effect on me..

finally we reached london heathrow airport on time at 5am local time.. so we had 10HOURS to kill.. was quite a bitch especially since there were NO trolleys at all in the transit area.. unfortunately when we were clearing customs at heathrow airport, after the x-ray area, i placed my camera on my laptop at the side as i took my backpack when one of my travelmates accidentally knocked them over.. i was so shocked but without time to shout i tried to use my only free limbs (my legs) to cushion the fall, unfotunately, both my laptop and my 450D+17-40mm f4/L landed with a thud... I was of course distraught and tried to keep my face calm and straight coz it was partly my fault too.. luckily when we finally found a seat, my laptop was working fine except a part of the casing chipped off and there was a small crack on the body at the side.. my camera didnt seem to have any physical damage on either the lens or the body.. though thankful that both are still working, i knew deep down that the lifespan of both my laopos will definitely be shortened.. sigh.. HEART PAIN!!!!

after that we tried to kill time by sleeping and window shopping around the shops.. the ladies didn't wanna spend a cent there except for lunch so refused to change GBP but i went to the travellex to draw like 20pound (at least SGD$55) to buy my lunch and some water.. we finally found a comfy sofa seat the the bagel cafe where we had lunch to chill where i used this 1pound/10min internet service... my most expensive internet usage ever! thats like SGD$5 for 20min internet! well heartpain, but to me it was worth it back then.. ok lar hor?

London from Above~

the bagels cafe~

After gazillion years later, our flight details finally up!

after 100719701809427491048 centuries later, we finally found out our gate number and proceeded to the B gates (which needed a skytrain) within terminal 5 where we boarded our BA flight.. this time we were seated together in a row and quite near the exit~ lucky I asked the qantas lady to check in for us early back at changi, if not later i tio another big fat ang moh~ DOH! the 7hrs flight felt more comfortable, coz it was 1. shorter duration 2. seated next to relatively petite/small asian lady 3.aisle seat~ so i could go to toilet as many times as i like! muahhaa! this time i had access to all my comfort stuff so i took out my air pillow and ear plugs (which i forgot to take in my 1st flight and didnt dare to take them out) and had a nice sleeep~ after another 7hrs, we're finally in Toronto Pearson international airport!

customs as usual like to question us asians alot more than their own counterparts~ even felicia got called in for secondary questioning! rofl! moreover we had to pay CAD$2 just to use a trolley... now i know why Changi Airport can be one of the top airports in the world man.. even in developed countries, their airports SUCK! no competition.. seriously... thankfuly our luggage came out pretty fast then cleared declaration with no worries, called dominique and took a van that could fit our 3 person luggage and went straight to our apartment at 38 kensington place.. found out the 2 other tenants still staying were guys from china with half a dozen houseflies flying around in the kitchen.. the ladies shared the queens bedroom next to the kitchen while i settled in a smaller room upstairs without a closet.. internets pretty smooth thats how i can be here aye? =D we then took a night walk looking for a convenience store but found none in our area except losta chinese restaurants.. tired from the flight, we retired and I slept at about 1am local time...

In Van to our apartment!

woke up at 9am today and took a walk around the kensington market.. pretty liked the market feeling but griped about the lack of a convenience store.. after that when the ladies were ready, we had our first meal in canada: PHO! haha its actually pretty nice vietnames food! mine beef noodles was $5.50 but was pretty nice and tasty! after that we went down spadina to find TD Canada Trust to set up our bank accounts.. unfortunately the bank draft takes 22 business days to be processed, meaning my cash will only come in Oct 2! omg.. money rationing time! we were attended to by pretty good looking hong kong guys which left the ladies smitten and their usual girls talk "Wow that guy was cute"... damn i need guy's company!!! somebody come to toronto NOW!!! oh if i was to talk about guys talk, i'm actually really surprised that the ladies in toronto are both daring and not scared of the cold.. at 21 degrees, they wear such low cut blouses that LINES (dedicated to greenies) are ALL OVER the town... ahh come on! I'm a guy! come over to toronto and you'll realise that too! Don't really fancy english women but Oh they have some really cute asian girls too! ;)

1st meal in Toronto: PHO!

after that we headed down dundas road past Chinatown, the Art Gallery of Ontario and finally at Dundas square where we went into Eaton Center which is a humongous shopping center! we got our Fido prepaid cards there and I was thirsting for more shopping~ the ladies were pretty price-conscious so I thought i'll come by to look for guys stuff again next time on my own ba~ (hopefully got some male company by then!) tired we returned back to our apartment and chill~~ its now about 7pm and I aint really hungry~ maybe I should skip dinner.. gotta say the cost of living is higher than i thought even without considering the currency difference.. much less about splurging, I'm actually pretty worried I may run low on cash! zzz lets hope this diary lives on till day 131 aye?

deming out!

dEminG
Chilllll~~

My mind's unweaving/ 6:20 AM

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

I really think i'm ageing faster than I am supposed to be since I'm tempted to say 'time flies' yet again for this post.. lots of things happened since my last post.. including my work for OCR for the NUS commencement ceremonies.. was quite enjoyable since we did VIP management and also get to enjoy a wee bit of their pleasuries as well.. then i went off for reservist for 2 weeks.. was less taxing on the administrative side but was definintely very taxing on the training and tempo of activities as compared to a low key ICT...

out of camp, sure feels strange to be a civilian again after that 2 weeks of ICT that felt even more intense than my active days.. the illusion that reservist was slack must have gotten to the higher echerlons somehow and incidentally resulted in our misery and suffering.. 8 more cycles to my units' standown.. Redcon 2A, first coy to outpro, cougar company has done it again! cheers!

time was not wasted when i was done with reservist.. had a talk with the UofT students who came over to Suntec NUSS guild house for a informal chat session and managed to link up with singaporeans who study there full time and finally gotten hold of accomodation.. on the same day also cerebrated my niece - Charlotte's full month cerebration! Then I also took a 2D1N trip with my jc pals to Desaru yet again for an enjoyable getaway and escapade on open roads and coastal winds~ Back home, I also catched a musical with the greenies to watch "Sing Dollar" at the esplanade (my first!).. Also took time off to coach fabby's gf on photography since she first got her D5000..

with 21 days left to my flight to toronto, I'm set to meet up with the canoes for GI Joe and dinner, my classmates for ECP BBQ food and chill, greenies for NDP and sentosa and also my reservist company for chill out~ of course I've finally taken more serious note on planning for my trip now that 3 weeks has come close.. money, luggage, paperwork and more... sure look forward to settling all these necessary planning and enjoying a great 4 months in Toronto!

dEming
21 days to Toronto

My mind's unweaving/ 11:07 PM