Samomatic

My second visit to the New England Aquarium. This time it was pretty empty, probably due to the snowstorm from the previous day, I wanted to take my time and just read about the different species. I love aquariums with its dark and mysterious atmosphere, but it also makes taking pictures really difficult.

Interesting event this week:
I had rounded up about 10 people to go to the circus but about 10minutes before we were leaving from work someone brought up that the circus performs till the 21st and it was the 22nd…apparently when I moved an hour forward at 11:30pm in Bermuda, my watch had not advanced to the next day and so I have been 1 calendar day behind for the past 2 weeks! I haven’t felt that stupid in a long time…and Paul called me a ‘muppet’. LOL.

Sam: “Alright guys I have just bought the tickets…where is Bermuda?”
Randy: “No idea”
Paul: “Not a clue…isn’t it Bristish?”

That was how our weekend trip to Bermuda began. We had no idea where this country is or what to do there….all we know is that it sounded warm. Planning for the trip wasn’t easy since Paul were away for many of the weeks in between and Randy always had to run off right after work.

We took off from Logan Airport on friday morning, the left is Cape Cod; the other is the reefs near Bermuda.

My dream finally came true, to escape from North America! Bermuda has a very distinct culture and unique architecture. At first we were planning to rent scooter but after seeing the very narrow road with no sidewalks we decided we didn’t want to spend the weekend in the hospital.
This is the guesthouse that we stayed at, it is very well equipped and right near the city. We had a BBQ so Paul decided to show us some ‘proper British’ sausages.

I found this little bird that fell from its nest on a rock wall and chased it to the side of the road.


The Royal Naval Dockyard
I couldn’t stop laughing after reading about this weather stone!
It was raining sideways in the afternoon but that did not deter us, only after we got back to our room did we realize that we were experiencing gale force winds…

We found out that it was Fight Night, a once a year fund raiser for the rugby club. All the fighters were amatures so it was fun to see them swinging wildly while an entire section of their friends are cheering them on.
I was able to get to the ring-side and shoot a few.
And the upper level reserved for the offical videographer.

Bermuda has many forts yet it has never fired a round for military purpose. They are beautiful though.

By their famous beach, this is during the off-season so almost all the tourist attractions are desserted.

The weather was perfect, hovering around 19C – blue sky, sunshine, a little breeze.
View from the highest point of the island, Gibb’s lighthouse.

It was an amazing trip, we squeezed in pretty much everything we wanted to do. The people on the island are the friendliest people I have ever met, people go down the street nodding to each other and saying hi. However, I don’t think I will be going back anytime soon – try another country! :)

So a few post back I mentioned Macaroni & Cheese and it brought back some memories related to this food item.

The time was April of 2005 and I was just finished my first co-op term. Throughout the term I was planning a hiking trip with Ian, Ludwik, John Fong, Tim Moon, and Eric Tang and often drove around town after work to pick up supplies or scout out equipment.
We arrived at Algonquin Park and the park attendent informed us that the river has flooded the entrance and we would have to decide whether to go ahead or not. Ludwik was our first scout (left picture) and we tried to use garbage bags to keep his feet dry but the branches soon ripped them to pieces. We asked the intoxicated Moon and he just said “I’ll do it” so we all put on our packs and brave the freezing water. The left image is Ludwik manning the stove, I recall we were cold and tired from the first day trek and was looking forward to a warm filling dinner. I had bought Easy-Mac by accident so in the end we each got about 2 spoonful of food and had to go to bed hungary. Due to the rainy conditions and soggy ground we often have to toast our shoes, socks, shirts at night.Wet logs, icy, and wet ground meant that we sometimes lose out footings. Here John Fong totally wiped out and Eric with his daily fall into some sort of rivine that completely soaks him. The best part is Moon’s reactions!Tim Moon was King of Ghetto with his Acura seatbelt, cut off Khakis, and never working fishing rods. The picture on the right shows the various techniques we tried to keep our feet dry…
To this day we are sill amazed that Ian managed to fall asleep on top of that tree root, it must have deformed his lungs permanently. In the evening, after everything is setup and settled it is so peaceful to just sit by the fire, chat, and enjoy the beautiful scenery.This is a picture right after we finished the trail!THE bear stalking Tim, that was a close call.The Skyline Lookout Point where we ate our trail mix, threw sticks off the cliff….
Tim ‘owned’ a tree so we had a big bonfire and also nice benches to sit on.Fog moving in over the lake Sushi!! As you can see we were famished and started harrassing the restaurant before it opened. Our whole table had this not-so-fresh and smoke smell but we didn’t care what others think. It was a very satisfying meal.

I have arrived in Boston, the greyhound busride was a bit tiring but everything is going well. The place I am staying has a 50″ TV, 2 cats, and lots of space for me to lounge around.
Today was my first day back and when people see me right away asked “Are we going to do the boat this time? (Chinese sushi buffet)”, “Chicken!” and then hand me a bunch of work. Ohh well that is better than re-reading company policy again.

So one day when my brother and I were walking around downtown we saw this woman who was feeding hundreds of pigeons. A car drove by and all the birds took flight and we thought it would make an interesting picture. Well we had to scare the pigeons manually, several times, in order to get the right settings on our cameras.
The pigeon-woman saw this and told me “don’t scare my pigeons!” and came running after our final attempt (see picture below). She screamed at my brother “YOU KICKED MY PIGEON, YOU F****** A*******…” and then proceeded to chase us for a block or so. haha!

The end result…Success! My brother feels bad about it but I insist that she was the one breaking the law and should be arrested.