Sunday, May 07, 2006
fort langley revisited.
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*
now playing: hotel costes - cafe de flor
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*
# posted by Kitana @ 5/07/2006 08:11:00 AM 
