absolutum dominium

greetings oh-my-beloved-readers who check back often but sadly, never leave any comments on my chatterbox (here's a big hint if any! leave comments leh! wahaha. i know, i damn buay paiseh)! the reason for my lack of updates over the past couple of days (what? you were gone???) is not because i was sucked into the parallel universe tt is the dota world (although it isn't such a bad thing to comprehend, really), but because (for those who don't know), i went to tofino!

for the uninformed who wonder where this damn place is, kindly refer to the map below, courtesy of http://tofino-bc.com/.



tofino is on the southern coast of vancouver island, which is like it says, this island south of vancouver. to get to tofino you gotta take the bcferry from horseshoe bay in west vancouver to departure bay in nanaimo, and from there it's an approximately 3 hour drive through to tofino.

so bearing this in mind, ben and i met early sat morning to catch the 8.30am ferry to nanaimo.



ben was feeling a little sick initially (poor thing. *pat pat*), and then we act met 6 of the singaporeans who were also doing the nanaimo/tofino circuit this weekend on tt ferry. we reached nanaimo around 10.15am, and there ben had a car rented from enterprise.

and THAT was where the fun started!

we had to take the highway 19 from nanaimo to port alberni; change to the highway 4 midway between nanaimo and alberni, and then after alberni take the pacific rim highway to tofino. the canadian highways are strange. unlike the US or singapore highways, they are either 2 or 1-laned (and usually 1-laned up through the mountains), and they tend to be long and very winding.

but tt didn't stop ben from driving at a base speed of 120km/h, and at points in time hitting 180km/h. oh, and he spoilt the speedometer after hitting 180 on the freeway. the meter needle could go up but it couldn't come down. totally hilarious. ok lah, can be considered quite dangerous too, but fortunately canadian drivers are safe. they generally keep to their lanes, keep a constant speed, are considerate and never touch their horns. so it's not a particularly stressful or dangerous environment like say, singapore.

oh, and it helps tt you can go fast Fast FAST!!! whoopie! love the speed.

felt like daytona at certain parts of the road, esp when he was pressing down on the accelerator and i could feel the sebring (the car we rented is a chrysler sebring) just surge up. exhilirating! even tho i wasn't the one behind the wheel. gian to learn driving now lah. speed speed speed. wahaha.

anyway some photos of the drive to tofino.



how the road looks like. love the SPACE man! love the space.



and the view. normal road beside water body...



and this. this is to fucking DIE for.

anyway i think the canadians lied to us. tofino wasn't 106 km from the start of highway 4. we'd drive and drive and drive for what seemed like a long time... only to come to a sign tt told us tt we'd only cleared 8 km. like... HUH? and this went on for the entire time we were driving down the long winding stretch of road through the mountains.

anyway tt being said, it was stressful for ben coz he had to watch the turns and all tt, esp at the narrow roads. and the radio went dead at some point in time coz we just couldn't get the vancouver channels anymore - it was THAT FUCKING ULU -. but it was all good for me. loved the scenery man. large gorgeous lakes with the sunlight glinting off the surface of the water; roads lined with tall tall green coniferous trees; mountains enveloping the entire place; portions with streams and creeks with crystal clear waters and little rocks and stones; and the melting snow covering certain places and part of the moutains in this thick fluffy blanket... to DIE for. very very seriously. this is probably one of the things i will miss most about canada when i go back to small concrete jungle singapore. sigh.

anyway we got to tofino close to 2.00pm... enough time to go find accomodation. we settled on this place called schooner's motel. got a room for CAD $79.00 a night... BEFORE tax. tmd.

but it was a dann nice room lah.



tada. nice big room with nice big bathroom. cannot complain lah. wahaha. anyway ben said tt it's high season rates were up to CAD $185.00, so this was pretty sweet, comparatively.

then it was off to lunch...

the thing i have to comment on here, is tt while ben's driving is damn zhai, his parking really cmi. he cannot park straight (not the first time at least), and he likes to take up 2 lots at once. not intentionally too. so yar, the fact tt i made him drive from the car park of our motel... just literally around the corner to the schooner's restaurant 30 s away, just to park his car there, was a matter of much amusement.

anyway we had lunch there. and found out tt it was like the motel - expensive.

but tt said, the decor was nice!



and so was the food.



fish and chips!



and seafood chowder with salmon bits.

one thing about vancouver island, is tt it's known for its seafood. its fish, crab and lobster, and more so, its sockeyed salmon. so salmon is always a good choice here.

after lunch, i decided i wanted to learn how to cycle. i hadn't cycled in 11 years, so i figured tt this was as good a time to learn as tofino had bike rentals and tt ben seemed to be a competent enough rider himself to teach me. so we rented 2 bicycles... which had no brakes. and anyway it took me at least 15 min just to get onto the bike and ride in a straight line. 15 or 20 min at least. ben said tt he was damn worried FOR me.

he was even advocating tt we return the bikes, esp as they had no brakes and i didn't know how to stop or turn properly. but i insisted on cycling more. so we cycled out onto the road. and it was all good. i could cycle; i could keep to one lane. at some points i could go fast. early in the ride i accidentally rode my bike into a shallow dry ditch, but i figured it was pretty much about as bad as it could get.

i was wrong.

at some point in time ben called for me to cross the road to the safer bike lane on the other side. so i did... and i realised tt i couldn't turn to the right in time.

i was utterly helpless as i road my bike straight... into this deep ditch.

have you heard the cliche of seeing your life flash before your eyes just as you are about to die? i saw myself flashing before my eyes, flying headfirst into the ditch in slow-motion as the tree came forward to greet me.

i don't know how much impact there was, coz i just ended up literally one with nature; face-first and melded with the uneven soil on the ground and stuffed up against a tree with a rock sticking into my thigh. oh, and my bike flew off (or i flew off my bike) and it landed on top of me, with the handlebars striking my head v squarely. thank god the lady who rented the bikes to us made us wear helmets. ben had then commented tt if we did not wear the helmets, we would die.

i think tt was like a self-fulfilling prophesy at this point in time.

anyway i was quite shocked. but i also found this hilariously amusing for a number of reasons:

1. i was alive. i took a damn fucking scary fall, and i was still alive.
2. i didn't think i was in tt much pain. or at least i thought so then.
3. i was in a DAMN unglam position. it was unglam to the core. yeesh. i felt like the world's biggest klutz.
4. before we'd come to tofino, i'd excitedly discussed with ben the prospect of me learning how to cycle here. he'd been more apprehensive about tt than me doing crazy things snowboarding, so i said: "what's the worst tt could happen?"
well. it happened.

so anyway my reaction to this fall, was to laugh.

very very hysterically.

ben looked damn worried when he was standing above the ditch looking down at me and asking me if i was ok. i was just lying there face-down and one with the tree with the bike pinning me to the ground, and just laughing. i think i must have looked v mad.

anyway he climbed down to get the bike off me and to help me out of the ditch. my left leg hurt, and my right finger hurt even more. and this old female runner who was passing by saw my miraculous descent into the abyss as well, coz by the time i was trying to get off my face she was standing above the both of us asking if i was okay. and she looked so much more scared than i was, so i tried to allay her fears by nodding and saying "yes" in between my uncontrollable laughing fits. it didn't seem to work until i flashed her a wide grin and a thumbs up.

i think she left coz she really thought i was mad. and for tt reason beyond salvation. wahaha.

anyway ben helped me to my feet, then took a nice unglam photo of me in this state of disarray and in shock with my bike still in the ditch before helping me out, just for the sake of all you blog audiences. just to show off how jialat i am.



tada! yes! i am all righty! wahaha. almost lah. helmet askew and all tt aside.

interesting... i was thinking then... it seems tt every adventure tt i embark on with ben just gets stranger and stranger. the first time we explored greater vancouver in a space of 8 hours where the sky train travelled in reverse; and the second time we walked for 4 hours to get from richmond to the go-karting centre. and i told myself then tt we had not yet surpassed ourselves yet.

with this incident, it was obvious tt we REALLY had not yet surpassed ourselves. this def beat the first 2 adventures already.

and you know the scary thing? i still DON'T think tt we HAVE surpassed ourselves yet.

yar. so anyway after fishing my bike out from the ditch, we found tt it was damn goyak. the spokes were completely goyak. they were bent out of shape and position and you couldn't ride without this screeching sound at all. and the back wheel was dented and the tail light was missing. and this rubbery thing from my helmet had also fallen out. anyway we also decided tt i had 2 massive orh che on my leg, and oh. tt i'd sprained my finger.

it is quite a bad sprain actually. it's swelled up to twice the size of my other finger, it's all swollen and a bit blue, and in addition to the open cuts, my finger is in a natural state of half-bent and it looks like it belongs to the marshmellow man. had to buy something called ibuprofrene to get the swelling down somewhat today.

so yar. after surveying all the physical damage (to bike and to person), the best thing tt ben could do at this point in time, was shake his head and say: "i need a smoke."

and so we sat down by the side of the road with him smoking (to calm himself down, although he didn't say so) and me sitting beside him laughing at everything. including my marshmellowish finger. wahaha.

we cycled back. he said tt i needed to cycle back to conquer the fear. i think i cycled not so much coz i agreed, but because it would take too fucking long to walk the bikes back. fortunately the ride back was so much more uneventful compared to the first ride.

so we returned the bikes and decided to do safer stuff. and ben bought me spiderman band-aids to appease the child in me too! wahaha. but yeah. safer stuff generally. like get back into the car and explore tofino's world-famous nature trails and beaches.

first stop was radar hill, where we could walk up this 100m slope for this mountain view.



and then it was on to long beach, this 10km long beach where the storms usually take place in winter.



it was really flat, and oh-so-beautiful. the coastline was amazingly flat, yet you could see the waves coming in to shore on after the other, deceptively calm but inherently dangeous. you could walk on the sand and it would be wet and you could see water, yet it was solid. it looked almost like walking on water itself.



on water...?



incidentally, the trails of water also left interesting patterns in the sand.



and there was this black dog tt bounded up to us, and i think it was a shetland terrier. it pressed itself next to my legs and just let me rub its neck. made me v v happy. i love dogs, and the ones here really look like they could love you back.

we also climbed up a rock to look at the view.



ben on the rock...

it was pretty. the sun set over the water. the power of the sea.



sunset over long beach.



and me on top of some giant log. heh.

and then it was on to wickaninnish beach, where we got out of the car to also explore another section of beautiful beach.



sunset over the beach.



and the trees and logs tt have been battered by the infamous tofino storms tt come every winter. it's amazing how much damage they can take, and be bent so backwards, and yet still stay so alive and so green. their resilience is just amazing.

oh! and ben let me drive. for the first time in my life. and unlicenced driver who hasn't even taken her basic theory... got to touch a real car. it was REALLY fun. i got to drive him around the car park, do a couple of turns, learn how to brake and accelerate, and then drive him down the long road from the carpark to the main road! it was a trip! damn short, but now i feel DAMN GIAN to learn how to drive! damn exhilirating! it's like go-karting, only tt you have more control and you can go faster and further! NICE!

after tt, we drove to ucluelet just to see what was around. there was after all, this bookstore tt sold new, old, and used books, and knowing how much ben loved books, we thought it would be nice to check it out. unfortunately ucluelet was even more ulu than tofino, so it was back tt 40 km to tofino to dinner. where the musicless ride was so boring tt inspite of my best efforts i still could not stay awake. wahaha.

because all the coffee places were closed (ghost town! ghost town!), we ended up at this sushi bar for coffee, hot chocolate.. and dinner.



me...



and ben...

we ordered miso soup (to beat the wet and cold) and sockeyed salmon sashimi. the salmon was DAMN good... but expensive. argh.

then we bought a whole pint of haagen daz strawberry cheesecake ice cream back to the motel, and finished the tub while watching "silence of the lambs" on cable.

ooh, alvin who was with the other group of singaporeans, who were coincedentally staying at the same place too, came up to visit us. then it was on to lalaland, and i think coz we were damn tired, esp after not sleeping at all the night before, we both slept damn well.

i'd insisted tt we needed to wake up at a specified time, so ben set the alarm for 9 am. in the end, HE was up by 9 am. i stoically refused to move an inch (even though i was already awake) until 9.30am. lazy lah. plus the bed damn comfy. wahaha.

but we got a move on by 10 am. drove back to nanaimo. by this time, ben was an expert at cutting people on the 1-laned winding highway, legal or illegal. we got into situations with him cutting 3 cars in a row or getting horned at (a rarity here) by an oncoming car for being in its lane and things along those lines to keep the drive interesting.

and for the first hour when we had no radio, i attempted to keep him awake by singing songs. but you know me lah. i only know 1 or 2 lines from a lot of songs. so i obviously didn't really sing effectively. but he did say tt he was entertained, albeit with a lot of amusement, so i guess i must have succeeded at SOMETHING.

but the radio was a welcome distraction. buahaha. and they were playing old school. like biggie small's 'hypnotized' and the beastie boys and ace of base... and man i love these songs but they make me positively OLD now! argh no! i don't wanna grow up!!! :(

and we saw a DEER on the side of the road. a real life deer!!! omg omg omg.

after missing the exit a few time, we hit nanaimo (ben also hit 185km/h on the speedometer; he wishes i actually took a photo of tt) in time for a really nice fish and chips lunch @ pirate chips. love the cod; batter's fantastic with tartar sauce, lemon juice and salt. and the fried mars bar. never thought i'd be back here since the last time i came with eileen, but who'd have guessed? wahaha.

also brought ben to the bookstore where he had to forcibly remind himself not to get any books. man, they have homer's 'odyssey' and 'íliad' in hardcover for only $12.00, and even alexander dumas' 'the count of monte cristo' in this first edition really ancient book thingy worth $200.00!

and while walking back to the carpark, we encountered this 14 year-old kid who asked ben for a light so tt he could light his smoke. (!!!) and i thought ben had started off young. *14!!!*

from there, it was back to return the rental car, catch a cab to the ferry (we'd discovered tt the sprain was a lot worse than i'd thought), and then board the 4.00pm ferry for vancouver.

ooh. and ben totally k.oed on the ferry. which was ok, until he did his whole hood thing again.



yes. this blue thing is ben. wahaha.

from the ferry, it was back on the bus from horseshoe bay to downtown vancouver, where we had dinner @ this place called noodle express on thurlow st. i had spicy beef ramen, while he had miso ramen. and deep fried pork ribs. YUM.

and then, our usual dessert @ denny's. a chocolate peanut butter cup pie (i LOVE peanut butter wahahahahaha!!!) and a strawberry milkshake for me...

and the 3rd ben-at-denny's photo.



yar lah. he's not even bothering to look @ the camera. anyway i think he should change his name to benny. then you have benny-@-denny's. i think tt has more of a ring to it.

and finally, back to ubc. back to ben's first starbucks coffee of the day, and a strange discussion with diana which ultimately turned to cannibalism and the talmud. and now it's back to the daily grind of work - a paper to completely rewrite and present on tues, to be exact (because i haven't done fuck yet and i need to get 5, 000 words out... I *DIE!!!*), and um... dota (altho ben's told me not to play until my finger becomes better. SIGH. and i don't know if physical activity is feasible. i have 2 huge orh che on my leg, but the one of my thigh is the size of a small saucer, and it's blue (with purple spots). and it hurts whenever i use my thigh muscle, like when i climb stairs. SIGH.).

oh. but we're also thinking of going to calgary. i mentioned calgary and stu hart's dungeon to ben not too long ago, and now he's thinking tt we should go. unfortunately the dungeon is now closed down, but there is still lance storm's wrestling academy (don't you just *love* being in a place with canadian wrestlers? now, why won't wwe just host a show in vancouver before i leave dammit?!) to visit there... and the rockies on the way... ooh... more snowy mountains and lakes and bears and deer and stuff... :)

love the canadian experience.