May 20th 2006- I went with a bunch of dragonboat people to whitewater raft at Red River, Ottawa.
Two weeks after, I can still painfully recall the cold and how I was continuously shivering and chattering my teeth to produce more heat energy. I was shivering so much that I wondered if I was scared of the rapids or the cold. The rapids were afterall a "grade 5" rapid. Not to mention that it had been raining for the past few days and that very day, the rain had definitely "helped" to build up the water level.
So, with nine of us to make up a raft and our garang female instructor to lead us, we began our peddling slowly...until..
we came across this first rapid area-the canyon. the waves were so high that it too brought us up high. HT and I who were sitting right at the back had such luck to experience the first thrown-out from the raft! No doubt that the rescue was pretty fast, but at that brief instant it just seemed like an impossible 90 secs!
There were two other major rapids after this and everyone in the raft (excluding the instructor) actually got thrown out into the river! The rescue job for that actually took up quite some time for us and the other rafts ahead of us actually had to help out too!
We went on for a second run on the same route and this time round with a bit more experience, we managed to steer our way through the big rapids and remain safe in the raft!
6am in the morning. Third day in Singapore. Finally showing signs of jetlagging. Never had I to force myself to lie on the bed when I just can't sleep but I'm supposed to because the time (3am) is just not the wake up time for a 'normal' person.
Funny how my world has literally turned 180 degrees ... From across the Pacific Ocean to the other side of the globe... From 12hours lagging to 12 hours ahead...
Well, at least I finally get to make myself wake up early ever since the holiday has begun...
Something which I have always wanted to do is to explore the whole of montreal island. I started with Old Montreal since the development of Montreal did began from here. The other reason for my walking around in Montreal obviously had to do with my thesis. I still remember how my advisor was telling me during my final crit that I need to have a good understanding of my site and its political context if my thesis subject was on public spaces.
For the first time in Montreal, I never felt any more like a tourist than this day when I was holding on to my camera snapping pictures while reading about the places of interest with a guide book on the other hand. Since it is pretty much a tourist site, I had no problem passing off as a tourist. I did not mind the occasional "Arigato" or " 你好!" as it made me feel like I was really holidaying in another place.
There were a couple of places that I got to discover about their history and their significance in Montreal at one point in time. Then I began to think that maybe I should also walk around Singapore when I return. There are just places that we properly know it by heart since we arrive but somehow never really get to learnt about its history since we were never a tourist in the place and we never really have to do so.
Pierre-du-Calvet House. I was enticed by the S shaped bars which I later realised were anchors for the floor beams inside the house.
Glimpse of the Bonsecour Market ahead
Central Fire Station/Centre d'histoire de Montreal. I did not even know about this building before.
Pointe-a-Calliere Museum of Archaelogy and History. I got the chance to visit this museum during my first year when we had to design an interpretation centre. It was an interesting building though I remembered that I enjoyed walking through the building much more than the exhibits itself. I was also pretty amazed by the underground pass which allows you to exit at the other side of the street.
Place d'Youville
Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours Chapel. Had I not read about it, I will probably not have bothered to find out about its name.
Rasco Hotel. This hotel was, I learnt, quite a venerable hotel in its beginnings.It was once as described " the largest and most splendid hotel ever errected in British North America". Obviously, the current state has been stipped from its former grandeour.
Customs House
The Grain Elevator NO. 5. The only silo remaining other than the ruins of grain elevator NO. 2 further east along Old POrt to remind us of the old port's industrial past.
The Habitat by Moshie Safdie.Designed as his thesis project, it was also part of Expo '67.
A couple of these photos were actually taken while I was out looking for a site for my thesis. I have to admit that while I was taking these photos, I was not appreciating that much of the places in winter. In fact, I was still reprimanding winter for causing the abandoned state of them. It is only when I was looking at these pictures again did I realised that beyond every of my cursing and swearing of the winter, there is a little bit of that winter charm that is so subtlely hidden amongst all the ugliness that I first see of the winter. I guess if I had not been able to endure that moment of cold and stand there to take these pictures, I will not be able to look back and appreciate the beauty of winter now?
Phillips Square
Dorchester Square
Place du Canada (next to Dorchester Square)
The week when we had snow storm...
I was just overly-excited over that bit of green remaining in the winter
I have to admit that I had named her after the cockcroaches on the wall. Part of the reasons was because she was such an attitude cat when I first got her. The other reason was that I didn't want to have any of those girlish names. I just couldn't imagine myself calling her kitty or mimi or similar sorts. The name was just the beginning of the story and the rest is more than to be said.
I realised that I had not taken much photos of my school when I was here for my undergraduate. So I just grabbed my camera that day to take pictures everywhere around the school, mainly places where I had pieces of leftover memories of during my undergraduate or possible places that I frequent now.
Roddick Gate
Arts building
Redpath museum
Otto Mass Building- I had to do my U0 Chemistry lab classes here wearing the big goggles and long labcoat.
FDA - One of my most frequently accessed entrance in Mcgill
I can vaguely recall our prof. in one of our compulsory engineering classes (was it structures and timbers?) bringing us to this structure to explain about different members in a construction.
Mcdonald Harrington - our architecture building. As much as I had hated to stay working in the studios, I did missed it for a while when I left montreal.
My current M1 studio..the place where people lunch in for gossips.
My working area with my partner for the fall semester project
I took this pic while waiting to do my urban planning exam. The weather was so good that I could not help feeling that I should be out there enjoying the sun like the kids and not inside the examination room.
Leacock - perhaps those who had taken the U0 chemistry class will share the same memories as me... I remembered how I always had to pull myself through the lectures trying hard not to fall asleep..pencils dropping while our heads fall...and how one of the prof will actually have 5 mins of movie playtime before the lecture as a way of making us go to his classes ( I believe)
We had to draw this during one of our rare outdoor freehand drawing classes.
