absolutum dominium

...and already my social calendar for this week is almost full. wahaha.

i went out to the kopitiam near my place to get lunch - bak chor mee, my all-time fave hawker dish. i hadn't been to tt stall since i left for vancouver last year, and yet when i came back, the auntie still remembered tt i only ate my mee kia with meatballs, not fishballs, and i always asked for *a lot* of chilli and vinegar.

and she also said to me (in chinese): "aiyoh so long never see you liao. last time, you black until pai si ren, now you so white." (okay doesn't have the same effect in english, but it's realy quite funny)

people ask me if i miss canada.

truth be told, no. probably not yet. but then again weather aside, singapore isn't tt bad. with the kind of food tt i now get to eat (and after such a length without it, you really appreciate good cheap singaporean fare), and with all the friends tt i can see and go out with and joke with again...

nope. i'm definitely in a place tt i like, very much. :)

walked out the airport doors... and the sudden wave of oppressive, wet, warm and sticky heat tt hit me...

was a very effective alert to inform me tt i am definitely home.

the love-hate relationship with the weather (esp when my ideal temp is 15 degree summers)... fills me with a strangeness, just as the coming home to a place tt is unfamiliar as of a year, and yet achingly familiar in the sense tt it is... well, home...

amazes me.

Your Ideal Pet is a Big Dog

You're both energetic, affectionate, and a bit goofy. And neither of you seem to mind very slobbery kisses!

yep. i def want a big dog. technically speaking... i might have a dog now... onetime named outlawed... vertically much bigger than me... but... well... maybe i can't say much abt the slobbery kisses. wahaha.

it's currently 2.23am, and my last night in vancouver.

i'm typing this long after my parents have hit the sack. we fly tomorrow on the 1400hr plane back thru seoul to singapore.

18 hours. i'm not looking forward to tt.

but singapore... singapore...

how do i describe how i feel now?

it's a mess. on one hand i really want to go home, to go back to the life tt i once lived with the people tt i love and the friends who matter to me. i want to speak the language tt i was raised to learn and eat the food tt my tastebuds were groomed to love and walk in the warm, balmy weather as if i had never experienced ice and snow and hail.

but on the other hand... a part of me feels like i might be leaving something valuable behind. everything strikes a cord. how the mountains look so pretty when they backdrop the buildings of downtown vancouver. how a cup of starbucks coffee tastes exceptionally good when it's raining and the sun has set before 5pm. how snowboarding can be a realistic activity and not just a dream. as can travelling, be it to calgary or toronto or new york or guadalajara. how the long stretch of granville street can seem so familiar as you cruise back in your car; how you know you will never see the pretty roses of the buchart gardens or of stanley park again. how you won't find buses where bus drivers happily help paraplegic people on and off them in a heartbeat, where people seldom honk the horn, where the most often-uttered phrase is "hey! how're you doing?" and you hear tt at least 5 times a day.

i never realised it because i grew too accustomed to it, but somewhere along the way inspite of myself, i fell in love with the country and the culture. and though canada is not perfect, and neither is singapore, the flaws never fail to accentuate the beautiful bits.

the beautiful bits tt make this place, a truly first-world country.

but now it's on home. where i know i belong, most of all.

curiously, in my latest dreams i have been mending the bridges tt were once burnt.

11 hours and 29 min more to take off.

The Baked In Alaska Photolog is now up. Go take a look at the photos! Wahaha.



And yes, I am now back in Vancouver. I'll be leaving for Singapore on Thursday afternoon.

I'll see you guys soon.

And god, but I know I'll miss Vancouver. It feels like home now.

Am currently at the Mt. McKinley Princess Lodge tt oversees Mt. McKinley. Coz I finally found free wireless here, I'll try to upload a couple of photos just so you know how I might be doing.

My bus for Anchorage leaves in half an hour though, so I don't have tt much time... But we'll just make do here.

*muakz*



The view of the mountains tt we can get from the ship - this was at College Fjord with all the glaicers named after the various American colleges and the icebergs on the water surface.



Mt. McKinley in the sunset. BTW by sunset I mean taken at 10.00pm. Coz the sun sets at 11.30pm.



And me and my parents on the train from Whittier to Denali. Yes you can see tt my hair is now black again.

Can tt last you till I come back? =)

I've got an internet connection again!

But this time I am typing this from a public terminal in this mountain lodge in what is known as the Denali National Park in Alaska. It's north of Anchorage and it's apparently the size of Massachussetts (how the hell do you spell this state?), and it took us 11 hours by train to get from the port of Whittier, where we disembarked from our ship, to here.

The cruise was one fantastic 7 days of pure luxury; great food, great service, and absolutely unimaginable scenery. But tt's over and done with. On the 11 hour train journey, we got to see meese - oops, I mean moose (damn. the plural of moose is moose, not meese, isn't it?) -, caribou, and more bald eagles! (Thank god for the wildlife. The 11 hour journey was KILLING me. SO am not looking forward to the forever in the plane back. Bah.)

I've seen so much wildlife I wanna run away to Alaska and live in the wild! Yippee! Even though I'll probably get eaten by a bear before day 2 is over.

And I got to taste reindeer meat. Alaskan reindeer chilli... tastes like beef. And yes I am such a carnivore. And no I don't care. Wahaha. I took so many photos tt I cannot believe it myself. But you have to see the scenery here... Alaska has so many mountains it makes the Rockies look like playland. And all the stuff you can do here... hike, trek, climb (Jane will have a field day with all the mountains. They're not all tall, but there are so many of them. Wahaha), raft, canoe, bike... etc etc etc. And dog-sled, if you so insist.

LOVE ALASKA.

But tt said, I still want to go back to Singapore. You know why.

1 week more.

Actually, to be honest, I'm off the coast of Alaska. i've just ended Day #3 of this cruise and we're travelling up North towards Whittier and the capital, Anchorage. Today we visited the port of Ketchikan, the so-called salmon capital of the world, and tomorrow we shall be stopping at Juneau. I can't wait! We'll be seeing the glaciers tomorrow.

Anyway the cruise has been a blast. When I say luxury, I really *mean* luxury. This lifestyle is a manifestation of opulence, pure opulence. Where we sleep, what facilities we have, what we eat. The comfort, the service, my god.

But due to the sheer expense of surfing the net here (satellite internet wireless access is US $035 a minute), I can't give you guys the complete break-down of my trip thus far. However, I have taken photos and I will put up the photolog at the end of the trip when I return to Singapore - yes, these 2 weeks are the final leg). So stay tuned for tt.

And yes, I miss you.

- by robbie williams

I sit and wait
does an angel contemplate my fate
and do they know
the places where we go
when we´re grey and old
´cos I´ve been told
that salvation lets their wings unfold
so when I’m lying in my bed
thoughts running through my head
and I feel that love is dead
I’m loving angels instead

and through it all she offers me protection
a lot of love and affection
whether I’m right or wrong
and down the waterfall
wherever it may take me
I know that life wont break me
when I come to call she wont forsake me
I’m loving angels instead

when I’m feeling weak
and my pain walks down a one way street
I look above
and I know ill always be blessed with love
and as the feeling grows
she breathes flesh to my bones
and when love is dead
I’m loving angels instead

and through it all she offers me protection
a lot of love and affection
whether I’m right or wrong
and down the waterfall
wherever it may take me
I know that life wont break me
when I come to call she wont forsake me
I’m loving angels instead.

"I bring love to give you solace
In the darkness of the night,
In the Heart's eternal light.
You need only trust your feelings;
Only love can steer you right.
I bring laughter, I bring music,
I bring joy and I bring tears.
I will soothe your primal fears.
Throw off those chains of reason
And your prison disappears."

The cities were abandoned,
And the forests echoed song.
They danced and lived as brothers;
They knew love could not be wrong.
But the winter fell upon them
And it caught them unprepared,
Bringing wolves and cold starvation,
And the hearts of men despaired.

Hey guys. The few who have access to this blog at least. Just to let you know, my parents and I will be taking a cruise up North to Alaska from tomorrow onwards. We'll be calling in at different ports each day, and we'll round up our cruise with a 3-day overland tour from the port of Whittier to Anchorage, the capital of Alaska.

During this time, I might not have a ready wireless connection, so I may not be updating this blog. So don't miss me too much. I'll take as much photos as I possibly can and come up with a detailed travelog so tt you can see for yourselves how amazing Alaska might possibly be.

I miss you too much, already.

Fortunately, after Alaska, it's down to 2 days.

"Maybe you’re the same as me.
We see things they’ll never see.
You and I are gonna live forever."

and finally, my hair is back to black.

This is for you.

UBC as summer approaches.

A marked change from the bareness of winter.



Walking through the lanes.



The fountain at the Graduates House.



The Rose Garden, and the view beyond to sea and mountain.



The flowering plants tt line the Chan Centre.



Red.



And white.



The constant.



How the walkway to Law Faculty suddenly seems more welcoming.



As the bus leaves.



The Boardroom at Burrard. ;)

after 2 days in scenic whistler, it was back to the city of vancouver. we had brunch at this place called auntie em's kitchen, which was a small coffee joint tt served organic coffee and scrambled eggs with sauteed hash browns and multigrain toast. at least, tt was what i ordered.

following which, it was back to the route 99 "sea to sky" highway. and why is it called the "sea to sky" highway, you ask?

well first of all there is "sky" - being in the mountains brings you... as my dad would put it... "closer to god".



this is the starting view as we head back down. love the drive! and the empty road.



you def get to see a lot of sky. the mountains are all around you as your drive round the whistler mountain range.

i suppose you could draw comparisons with the rockies, but still... a mountain is a mountain... and it is still goddamn beautiful.

after the town of squamish, we proceeded to stop by the shannon falls provincial park.

for this.



the shannon falls.



and up close. witness the majesty. the water gushing over the rock at immeasurable speed. over time - think years and years - the water will eventually corrode the rock.

brings to mind all those analogies... of how no matter how gentle water might seem, especially in contrast to the hard unforgiving rock... it may still be more powerful than the latter.



me with the falls. i pale in comparison, no pun intended.



and me and my parents with the falls. i love this photo. i think it's a very happy one. :)



and from the sky, we get to the sea. below shannon falls the road becomes such, tt you drive by the sea with mountains framing the reflective body of water. this was taken near brittanica beach, i believe.



and finally, how can we say tt we have been to vancouver, if we don't include a photo of the lion's gate bridge?

;)

anyway the rest of the day was less eventful. we moved our stuff from holiday inn to howard johnson, returned the car after a nice detour round stanley park coz of the stupid "no turning" traffic rules, and walked around robson st a bit. we had thai food for tea, and i took my parents to davie st. i think this is their first encounter with the pink zone. wahaha. after tt, we went back to the hotel for a bit and we had roast duck and steamed rock cod for dinner.

also warned my dad tt granville st isn't tt safe.

and thus it was back. and damn screwy wireless. thank god for the handphone.

bye bye for now.

melissa pei looked at my photos and said:

1) i don't look like either of my parents at all.

and tt

2) i look like mahjong paper.

SIGH.

i wanna come back and see you too babe!!!

for starters: i covet a chrysler dodge dakota.

but for reasons tt include the word "extermination". like dune harvesters. wahaha.

anyway i didn't snow board today after all. tmd. woke up too fucking late. had problems sleeping last night. woke up at the ungodly hour of 5am when the sun rose, and couldn't get back to sleep. so in the end i could only wake up at noon, which made it too late to get my day's worth of snowboarding.

so my parents and i decided to go for lunch. we went to this japanese restaurant at the marketplace called sushi-ya. i finally found out tt the nabeyaki udon hasn't got anything to do with motherfucking, but is rather a noodle soup dish including tempura prawns, fishcakes (the white flowery-cut one with pink whirls), diced chicken and egg in a miso soup base.

oh. and my dad wanted to save $$$ by paying $0.50 to park for half an hour @ a 1-hour pay parking lot. we ended up spending $14.50 more coz he got fined $15 for exceeding the time limit stated on the receipt.

after tt, we drove around some more, then we came back coz my mom wanted to buy more chocolate-covered espresso beans from the rocky mountain chocolate factory.

while she was there, i got myself a scoop of turkish butter chocolate chip ice-cream in a cone. see below. i'm with the rocky mountain bear. who incidentally has the same tummy as my dad.



after tt we went to dad a jacket coz all he'd brought was a windbreaker and a sweater and he was finding nights at whistler too cold. the columbia was pretty worth it for $54.95, but it was thin and made only of fleece. now tt i realise tt anchorage may be around 3 degrees, i really don't think it's enough.

we were thinking of catching a movie, but in pure canadian fashion the cinema was closed then. so it was back to the hotel room where my dad started on an early wine-drinking spree, my mom took a long catnap, and i rekindled my addiction with my laptop, as my mom would call it. addictions and conversations, i would prefer to put it.

my dad also took the time to engage me in conversation about life in the legal stratosphere about the gossip tt permeates tt sphere. i also believe he had had a bit too much to drink.

we went for dinner around 8pm. the keg steakhouse.



that's three of us at our table by the window. i look unglam i know. and omg my face is so white tt it is a travesty.



and me and my mom. :) we now have the same skin colour. :( NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! must tan must tan must tan. *sigh*

but for starters, we shared a plate of escargots and scallops wrapped in strips of streaky bacon.



this is what i ordered: a medium (i wanted medium rare or rare, but this is a half portion of the keg sized order me and my dad were sharing, and he doesn't like his food raw, so i had to stick to medium) slab of prime rib steak, served with sauteed mashed potato and deep fried sweet onion. the meat was really good, although i would have preferred it more raw. my dad on the other hand, found it too raw. haha.

and for the dessert, this is known as 'chocolate heaven'.



it comprises of 3 chocolate desserts: the chocolate pyramid which is a chocolate mousse with a liquid white chocolate centre; a chocolate tartufo ball resting on a bed of sticky chocolate fudge, and a chewy chocolate pecan brownie.

it completely lives up to its name.

and after dinner: it was onto a staple of tv diet. csi, law and order: suv, and episodes of the daily show with jon stewart and the colbert report. good stuff, this. i cannot believe tt i have to rely on tv to partially remind me of my reason for the choices i make, but tv does help. and it's interesting tt the so-called fourth estate in the american media can still exhibit subtle or explicit biases towards the people in their positions of power... in parallel to you-know-what.

but in contrast, people like stewart and colbert can expose the media and those people in power for who and what they really are.

in singapore however, the only result includes either the word "defamation", or lately, "criminal intimidation".

we drove up from vancouver to whistler mountain today. we started out with breakfast at denny's - a lumberjack slam and a french toast platter shared among 3 people -, and then a nice scenic drive (one half because we took the long and winding marine drive towards horseshoe bay instead of the more straightforward highway 1 west; the other half for the same reason as why highway 99 is better know as the 'sea to sky highway') up north. we stopped at squamish for a while.

we booked into best western listel whistler hotel. put down our bags, then decided to walk around. my parents decided to take the whistler gondola up to the peak for some sight seeing. the whistler gondola is the same thing tt i use to go up to board, and since it was spring and as there was absolutely no snow at the base of the mountain, i decided tt this would give me an opportunity to access spring boarding conditions for myself.

anyway while at least a good third of the mountain was almost snow-less, the top still had a fair bit of snow. runs closer to the base had demarcations and boundaries where the snow had melted to the extent tt rocks and open creeks could be seen even in the middle of the runs, and at midway station the ice was very thin... but it was not impossible.

anyway here is a view from the top:



canadian pride!



and guess what? there's tt bear again!



we had lunch at the peak. i ordered beef chilli; my parents ordered fish and chips and italian pasta tomato soup. and this is me with the view from the food court. yeah i know. my face is fatter. SIGH.

it flurried a little while we were eating. my mom who hadn't seen snow in years, was ecstatic.



this is the view from the peak of whistler. you can see the lakes from here. it really is breathaking.



and the whistler man. :)



after the gondola ride, i took my parents through the village. the rocky mountain chocolate factory mint and strawberry ice-cream tt my dad and i bought respectively was delicious, but my dad couldn't take the cold. we walked through whistler village from the green to the marketplace, but even with the cup of coffee i bought for him my dad didn't seem to be holding up too good.

nonetheless we walked to the marketplace, and the village park area was very quaint. like this fountain pond thingy.



and i found this extremely cute. 2 penguins. from all the weight i've put on, i def qualify as 1 of them. i wonder who's the other... hmm?



and this is me with the completely wooden playground. amazing stuff. damn, sometimes i wish i were 15 years younger, so tt i could play on it too! haha.

whistler village is quaint and pretty, the way banff is pretty. whistler is so much smaller than the rockies, and probably less breathtaking, but the upside is tt the ski/boarding area is almost at our hotel's doorstep. no need to drive or find our way around, even though there are some people tt i don't mind driving with at all.

it isn't tt cold, if you're used to a vancouver winter, but it reminds me of you, or the lack thereof. i pass by a multitude of bike rental shops with new well-maintained mountain bikes, and cyclists riding down the roads, or people walking by with their pretty pretty dogs, or those small little birds with small yellow beaks and long tails tt chirp and hop from place to place... and somehow it doesn't feel enough tt i can't share tt wonder with you. you would love whistler. you'd love the drive, you'd love the view, and you'd love the prettiness of it all.

and tomorrow i'm going snowboarding. for the first time, it's going to be without you. and i just know tt it's not going to be as fun. i'd always wanted to do a whistler run with you. the fun of attempting to race down runs together (although you always beat me at speed), kacheowing each other or you throwing snowballs at me mid-runs, or me attempting to take as many unglam photos of you as i possibly can when we hit the base. or whenever i fall, or am run into by other people, tt i can count on you to somehow be there to ask if i am alright, to check if my injuries are serious, or to run into the people who ran into me on purpose. :P

tomorrow you won't be there. and a part of me does worry. when i fall, i can't allow it to be bad. you won't be there. not waiting for me, not laughing at me - but secretly watching out for me so tt you can make sure tt i am ok. not poking fun at me and letting me poke fun at you in return. not returning back to vancouver with so tt we can have dinner at nikko's, again.

i miss you.

anyway i digress. after the walk we came back for a rest coz my dad wasn't feeling well. we left at 8pm for dinner at ric's grill, this upmarket steakhouse. we ordered a plate of calamari, a bowl of new england clam chowder, a caesar salad, and a new york rib steak with rice pilaf, a rack of baby back ribs marinated with espresso bbq sauce and the signature stuffed potato with bacon and melted cheese...

and the dessert.

4-layer chocolate cake with whipped cream and raspberry puree. how big is 4-layers, you might ask?

well, see below.



and yes...



after dinner, we were *completely stuffed*.

so now it's back to the hotel. and the photos have been uploaded, and i should go to bed soon because i'm waking up to board tomorrow.

if you are reading this post, either i must have given you the new blog address, or you must have entered from one of my photologs. all the same, the point has been made. i told myself i might never do this again, but i have.

1 year down, and i have moved.

i succumbed to the fear of reprisal, no matter how baseless it might possibly be. out of unthinking fear i did what i once swore i would never do, and i deleted previous posts tt reflected my honest opinion about the unhappy state of affairs.

and once deleted they can never be reclaimed.

i don't want to have to delete another post again. i don't want to have to self-censor again. the acting on unthinking fear, disgusts me. it means i am little better than the sheep - nay, cows - who knowingly acted on this same kind of fear and chose the chains tt will bind us for the next 5 years.

and so i have decided tt i should move to a place where i have more privacy. where my dominion is more my sanctuary than a book for the world to peruse and to comment on at their own anonymous pleasure.

if you are here, you are privy to my sanctuary. and for this reason, i don't want this blog publicised. if you had previously linked me in any way, remove all links. i prefer to forgo the risks.

thought control? i do not subscribe to the concept. here i refuse to let my thoughts or convictions be fettered by the heavy manacles tt those who cruelly abuse the law. and for this reason, this space must be sacrosanct.

please respect my opinion.

as for my day:

the day was... okay. we went for mass in the morning downtown @ richards st, my parents and i. we had dimsum for lunch, but my dad and i had another nasty quarrel at the table about his unhappiness with my spendthrift and fuckcare attitude, among the other usual detestable qualities.

following tt, we adjourned to richmond for my mom to do more heavy-duty shopping at richmond centre, while my dad still required my opinion on shoe-shopping. early evening saw us re-gather for me and my mom to do laundry, and then we went for dinner at the same chinese restaurant.

and then it was back to the apartment.

tomorrow morning we will be travelling to whistler. am not sure for how long i might be uncontactable.

james gomez has been arrested and his passport and boarding pass to switzerland confiscated, in what appears to me to be the pettiest most cruel form of revenge i have ever seen. i feel sickened to my stomach. this is what we chose, after all. this is what fear, stupidity and ignorance chose, and it makes me sick tt we as singaporeans have no fucking balls or principles.

but anger aside, the mica's threats upon the bloggers are soon to be manifest. so i had to take caution, explaining this move.

i need you now. i really do.

greetings.

forced by circumstances, i am privatising this space and moving to a new location. but for now, this will do.

absolute sovereignity.

i am so fucking mad and incensed tt i can barely express it in words.

but now it seems the time has come for the masking tape to be put over my mouth.

ah, you silly individuals. if you only thought beyond what you were fed, if you only looked to other countries and realised tt no matter what they tell you, life isn't meant to be what you think it is meant to be.

but i guess it's too bad. a swallow does not a spring herald. and i foresee a cold bitter winter as long as the thinking perpetuates and is perpetuated.

life will not get any easier. but it is no surprise.

we do after all, get what we deserve.

heaven help us all.

i'm not going to give some long lengthy logical response to this year's elections. if you want to read the usual propoganda you can refer to the msm. if you want to read the other side of the story you can refer to elsewhere. me? i'm just going to post some thoughts to get a load off my chest.

not really going to talk about the sda/sdp grcs, or about low's and chiam's victories or about the great job done by the 'suicide six' at amk. i, and many many others, have already said what we can and have about the matter.

what i want to comment on is aljunied. 56% of the people in aljunied, i dismissed as stupid. now, according to certain people this might be an unfair statement coz there might be extenuating circumstances tt led to such actions.

so i will therefore divide this camp of 56% into 3 groups:

1) the group tt truly *loves* the ruling party;

2) the group tt is "kiasee, kiasu and kiaboh" (translated to scared to die, scared to lose, and scared of having nothing);

and

3) the really pathetically stupid.

in the first group, we have people who really *believe* everything tt the ruling party says. their only source of info is probably sph and mediacorp news, which everyone knows enough about to understand where i am coming from. they truly believe tt they owe their lives and livelihood to the good done by the ruling party, and continue to believe tt ideas from 1965 tt have no changed since will still work in 2006 and beyond. they want the political stability offered by the ruling party and the economic growth once delivered, and they much prefer this to the great unknown and liberalism offered by the opposition.

simply put, they are the conservatives still stuck in the 1960s who are unprepared for change.

in the second group, we have people who are in 1 word: SCARED. they fear the pap. fear tt they will be sued for defamation, fear tt they will be jailed or investigated by the isd, fear the simple machinery of the ruling party. there is no love lost, mind you. it's just tt they fear the repercussions of disobedience, and have thus been cowed by years of legal subversion into submission. they think tt speaking up against or doing anything like joining the opposition is literal career suicide (and i suppose in tt respect they are not tt fair from the truth). and because voting slips have serial numbers on the back and may be traced, they therefore assume tt the ruling party is tracking each and everyone of them down, and if they do something like vote for the opposition, bad things might happen. they might lose their jobs, lose their homes, or worse. they do not understand tt the very fact tt they should be afraid of such scenarios is highly unnatural for a government tt touts itself as first world, let alone democratic.

and for the last group, this consist of well... the stupid. i'm sorry but there is no other apt name for this group. they are probably apolitical, do not give a damn beyond their own petty lives, have little common knowledge and will not know a damn thing about who their own prime minister or parliamentary representative is, yet alone what the opposition party is or what both parties seek to offer or what issues are being discussed. they rarely ever tune in to the news, if ever, and even if they do, it is only to the usual msm. probably the only things that have swayed their vote is a) the fact tt they know the name of the ruling party (only); and b) the fact tt they received electorial bri... i mean progress packages just before.

with voters such as these... isn't it any surprise tt you got what you deserved???

wahaha.

*muakz*

still miss you anyway.

i got a very pleasant morning call this morning. :) pleasantly buoyed by the familiar voice and the bustling excitement as we went through the election results together despite being so many miles apart. and by the finding out tt low reclaimed hougang with a resounding 62% margin, chiam reclaimed hougang with a very nice 55% margin, and the bunch of 'young upstarts' led by glenda han denied the prime minister of his strong mandate by taking 1/3 of the total votes on his home turf.

unfortunately, the loss of aljunied 56% - 43% to the incumbent party more than marred the phone call. it spoilt the entire morning. forgive me if i think tt 56% of aljunied residents are stupid. while it is argued tt they may have exercised their right to vote democratically, it is also my right to call them stupid. the majority had indeed spoken, and spoken for a bunch of people who did nothing and risked nothing, against the unknown, but who were people who had shown tremendous courage and integrity and who had risked all, money, career, and even their own reputations, to fight for singaporeans.

truth is a defence to defamation in canada, where it ought to be rightly so. and in telling the truth, i have the right to say tt the majority of aljunied is stupid. in fact, saying tt this majority is stupid is still better than me saying tt this majority has betrayed the wp.

but nonetheless, we cannot let one defeat get us down. like i said before, this election is a transition election. although many of our hopes had been dashed, it is still apparent tt the pap has only won this election with a 66% majority. and tt is only out of the people who did vote. in 2011, we will see. they will come back, and they will be the stronger for it.

so moving on, after hearing about aljunied my parents and i decided tt we had had enough, turned off the laptop, and went down to A&W for a breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast. we then rented a toyota corolla from avis and drove to explore the township of langley and the domaine de chaberton winery located therein.

as always, my dad was a slow and scary driver. but since you can consider this a given, i shall not dwell anymore on how much stress his driving caused me and other drivers on the road.

but we still managed to find highway 1, and we still managed to get to langley.

the thing about highway 1 by day, is tt it is not very scenic. so even when you drive by night, you don't really miss anything much. except of course, tt it is a lot more stressful coz you can barely see a goddamn thing.

only bridge we pass is the one over the fraser river.



and then it's off highway 1 down 200th street towards 16th avenue. outside of the city the roads are absolutely tree-lined, and spring is a time when it is really green.



unfortunately when we got to domaine de chaberton, because it was still too early in spring, we only got to see bare grape vines.



nothing exciting.



and here are the barrels where they store the wine.

after my dad bought 4 bottles of wine, we decided to go to downtown langley.

until we discovered tt it wasn't a downtown per se. it was kind of dead, actually.

downtown langley's only claim to civilisation is this:



a casino.

so it was on towards fort langley instead, which ben and i had visited by night in february.

so how does it look by day, you ask?



fort langley!



and the little shops by day... there's quite a bit of life actually.



the flowers are blooming and they're oh-so-pretty.



and how is this for cute?



do you remember this antique shop?



how about this community hall?



k i look irritated here. oh well. my parents don't know how to operate digital cameras.

then... how about wendel's???



do you know there is actually a railway between the town and the bridge towards the albion ferry?



and i finally got *tt* view by day. :)



me on tt bridge.



lunch @ the lampliter's cafe with my parents.



my lunch consisted of griddled salmon and baby shrimp with a citrus butter sauce, with rice and broccoli.

and lastly, this pretty mural.



a bout of lethargy beset me and my father on the way back from langley. this resulted in mass yawning competition between me and him, and the threat of his navigator falling asleep on him halfway between grandview highway and renfrew. so we decided to go back to 'rest', and being bored to tears by the drivel released by the MSM, i decided to go take a nap.

woke up at 7.30pm, just in time for dinner. we went back to the korean restaurant on robson, and ordered the ham, sausage and tofu hot pot (which my mom complained was a poor choice because all the items were cheap and preserved, whereas we should have just ordered something fresh like beef or seafood); the BBQ beef ribs, and ginseng chicken to help 'pep' my parents up.

i was reminded of the times when we'd come to eat here, like the last time when we ordered the hot pot. then for some reason i thought back to diana's korean friend, and when she'd come to see us at starbucks while we were taking a study break. i remember tt we completely traumatised her poor friend, mainly because i'd been going on and on about the merits of mass-extermination with regards to stupid human matter. funny stuff, tt.

it feels like another life time ago.

*muakz*