by Mr Brown!!
“我知道你和我就像是豆浆油条；要一起吃下去味道才会是最好.”
- 林俊杰 -
13th December 2006
after a day and a night of heart-wrenching, memory evoking and sentimental tear-jerking xinyao and tcs/sbc songs in my brudder's car, we left kingston for toronto after a nice meal of ground meat in hoisin sauce over steamed rice and fresh, delicious cauliflowers. thank you auntie candy.
spent the night of the 12th under my brudder's kind hospitality. her place was really comfy and well-furnished. went gymming at her condo's gym the next morning because she had some work to clear, and when we got back to her apartment her sister was there visiting! with her beautiful and super super cute niece! =D
so cute right? =D so adorable!!
and we went shopping at pacific mall, this huge asian mall that was simply like a little hongkong. it was simply huge, and we spent like half the day there practically walking and buying stuff.
and before heading downtown for the evening, nicki introduced us to
Unionville
a quaint little village that looked so serenely and naturally aged, full of cottage flavour and excellent ambience with christmas lights adorning just about every little house along the streets.
Unionville Arms Pub and Grill
my brudder and i
pardon the blurry image, auntie candy tried very very very hard. 12 times to be exact. before she got this one in which we can see both the words and somewhat that faces.
looks a lot clearer right?
me, candy and nicki in front of Unionville Planing Mill. now a restaurant and gift shop.
dinner was an elaborate affair; in fact it was the event, to quote the lawyer, "of the semester". went downtown and met up with her! finally! =D
shengjie, xiuying, me, auntie candy, delphia and nicki
micnie, you have no idea how delighted i was when i saw you and the whole bunch of lawyers (including jordan, who so kindly took this pic of "friends of jing wen" for us) troop across the street towards us at the four seasons performance centre. i saw you from some distance away and you're right, it is the visit of the semester for me too =)
and so to commemorate the visit we topped it off with dinner at East! (exclamation mark pronounced)
the house pad thai
decidedly better than the one i had yesterday at Kingston's Phnom Penh Restaurant. and rather filling too. great choice for a meal, the restaurant had nice ambience and lighting too.
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“Always forgive your enemies – Nothing annoys them so much.”- -
14th December 2006
the day got off to a cool start with this cool sculpture along the way to chinatown.
and why were we going to chinatown, you wonder. so did we, since we were about to return to singapore in like a week's time. but this time, it was different. the purpose wasn't the location, but the company.
chinatown.
one good soul
at dundas-spadina intersection.
its been a long long time since i saw you. much has changed, yet much hasn't changed. i was just so glad to have you with us for the morning, and hoped the exam went well for you in the evening. =) pity star player couldn't come down from waterloo though...
tribute to chairman "mao"
euphemistic reverence of the great leader in the heart of the chinese district.
amidst his exams, yuehan brought us out to a wonderful meal of korean cuisine. we were grateful to have his place to stash our loots before explorations for the day.
juicy, tender pork ribs brewed in seasoned spicy soup, steamed rice and cold noodles.
and aromatic, mild green tea.
the host and his two imposing irritating guests =)
and of course after some guidance and direction from pee tao he returned to his preparations for his final paper. we ventured into queen street for upscale shopping and rewarded ourselves with a detour to
University of Toronto
the place where micnie's heart (and brains, and time, and money, and sleep) resides, for now.
the university college, if i didn't get it wrong. the original university building.
beautiful structures.
for buildings newer than queen's, they certainly look much more aged. the beauty and classic flavour, though, is unique.
after departing from a short tour of UoT, we made our way downtown to
i can't remember what its called. but there was a live studio show going on, and a crowd grew as people gathered to watch it from outside the building.
we skirted the building to take a pic of the interior of the studio through its glass walls, with the audience and live action
and a nice dinner of polish sausage bun with brudder after she knocked off work. thanks so much for your hospitality, you won't be seeing the last of me just yet haha... =D
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“有人让我明白在乎一个人的感觉
让我明白为在乎一个人努力
是不求回报也会快乐的
我想为我在乎的人继续努力.”
- 王子变青蛙 -
15th December 2006
an overnight bus ride, a racist US immigration officer.
welcome to New York City!
the glitz
the business
the iconic
the historic
the grand
New York City can indeed assume multiple images, because it IS at the same time multiple identities. arriving at Port Authority Bus Terminal at 6am and walking down 42nd St, Times Square itself is a sight to behold. glitz, glamour, excitement together with dirt, grime, congestion and foul-faced dwellers.
having made our way to zhenhong's apartment and settled our bags, we embarked on a trip down the subway to the city hall and down broadway. along its vast length that cuts across manhattan island, we came to
Wall Street
the financial district looks insignificant at first, but going down this street and coming to the end of it, the street opens up into life.
New York Stock Exchange
huge christmas tree beside NYSE
George Washington Memorial
site of the American declaration of independence
at the same time, there were numerous other signs of varied and diverse life along wall street. apart from street sausage vendors who feed the financially busy of wall street, there are people like these:
and so many things are happening, its unbelievable. strolling across to city hall, we saw
men carrying reflectors, pockets of workers with name tags and vests, and a small party of people huddled at the foot of one of the greek pillars to the right of the entrance to this building.
yup, they were
shooting a movie!
the taxi is a standby which appeared instantaneously when the female lead flagged for one. traffic cars and human were stopped momentarily by the police for the scene to be filmed. it all took place within less than 25 minutes, and the filming party dispersed soon after.
after buying tickets to a show we travelled north where we met a nice old man who told us the truth behind chinatown. apparently the original chinatown was only 2 alleys, which today had been overtaken in prominence and activity by the entire zone along canal street.
confucius
memorial to chinese for their sacrifice in the building of American freedom and democracy
the man might be lin zexu, although i did not take a close look at his identity.
little italy
cafes and ristorante
from mulberry st to bowery street, little italy is right smack in the middle of chinatown. according to the city tour bus guide, italians living there today are more adept at mandarin than italian. how true this is there is no way to verify.
world trade centre station
the entrance to the subway and train stations that serve the vicinity of ground zero. upon this site two icons of american commercial and economic power used to stand high and proud until laid low by the hands of terrorists on 11th September 2001. that morning we discussed the plane crashes outside the A-level exam hall instead of fleming's right hand rule, newton's 3 laws and quantum theory.
remembering, reconstruction, re-creation
art pieces, paintings and photography works adorn the fences to the site of ground zero
the heroes who fell
those who died and those who sacrificed.
the most touching scene of remembrance. emotions flow free with the beautifully heart-wrenching tune of his silver flute.
i remembered the tune from one of the episodes to band of brothers... not sure about the name of the tune though...
patriotism
american flags surround the site.
times square in the evening is a nightmare to walk through. for those who immerse in the city's heartbeat and didn't get cardiac arrest trying, 8th ave, 42nd st and broadway present the most vibrant of nightlife and commercialism there can ever be on this planet.
planet hollywood at 7th ave
as proclaimed in this poster, it is here we dined for the night.
in the queue for entrance
full of movie props and iconic symbols in the history of entertainment
tv screens with mtvs all night long
live dj and vj too. the iconic theme restaurant indeed.
planet hollywood menu
auntie candy's pasta which tasted not bad at all
my maple-grilled salmon
don't try this. its not spectacular in any way.
the restaurant itself, part of which was detached from the bar and the vj section
great meal, it was filling at least. and the final item for the night,
the show at
Broadway!
yup it is! life-long dream come true. =D
broadway is indeed bustling with theatres and shows that run on years on end, garnering rave reviews after rave reviews, playing to packed audiences night after night. partly attributable to extremely discounted tickets blocked from sale and only released on the day of performance each day.
thanks to TKTS, the discount booth for broadway tickets, we enjoyed the show at Broadhurst Theatre on West 44th Street for 50% discount.
Les Miserables
powerful, exciting, intense and witty. produced by cameron mackintosh in its 40th year, david hersey's award-winning lighting design caps a breath-taking performance.
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“Calvin: ‘I’m a genius, but I’m a misunderstood genius.’
Hobbes: ‘What’s misunderstood about you?’
Calvin: ‘Nobody thinks I’m a genius.’ ”
- Calvin and Hobbes -
16th December 2006
a day devoted to sighseeing rather than experiencing.
a city tour bus ride brings us around downtown manhattan, much of which we had traversed on foot yesterday.
snoopy and woodstock =)
lobby of the empire state building
while waiting in the queue for security checks to enter the 86th storey observatory, we saw a demonstration in the streets against police brutality.
the 86th storey observatory
a sight to behold, but not without much frustration and pity. those going new york and/or wants to know why, you can ask me in private. shall spare everyone my irate tirade against a system found wanting.
anyway, the observatory is open on 4 sides, so there are views of the entire city in all directions. majestic view.
our guide for the bus tour was a gregarious 70 year old brooklynite who has a chinese daughter-in-law and speaks bits of mandarin. he was throughout the ride testing his rudimentary mandarin on the 2 of us, but he was really funny and well travelled and played a harmonica to entertain everyone at various points of time along the trip.
random sights as the day drew to a close and the sky turns dark.
self-explanatory.
the advertisement on the right reads "Please do not touch, lick, stroke or mount the exhibit".
winston churchill garden
greenwich village
home to an entire street of art galleries, exhibitions and fine dining.
south seaport
the original bustling port of new amsterdam
brooklyn bridge
we saw it much closer up yesterday with our walk along the manhattan southern coast, but the fog prevented any photo ops. today, however, we got a clearer pic from further away.
and so ends the escapade to new york city. missed the statue of liberty. really a big waste. but caught broadway, so that more than made up for it even though i wished we hadn't been duped into the empire state building which made us miss the ferry ride to see the old lady.
overnight bus back to toronto and kingston, and resume my mugging in kingston.
for the last time.
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