Categories
2007 Ottawa Skiing

how youtube led to skiing at mont cascades and more

i’ve spent more than half a dozen years browsing and commenting on the latest chatty on shacknews. it’s become second nature to open Shacknews whenever i sit in front of the computer. Shacknews and Google News are the two most frequently visited websites on this computer.

friday evening i was skimming through the first page of the comments to see if anything interesting was posted. as usual there were multiple youtube links. click, open, watch, close; an endless repetitive cycle that the internet audience is addicted to. just as i was clicking on a random youtube link, lunato entered the room and asked if i wanted to clean the apartment now or wait until tomorrow.

give an option like that to a man and the answer will always be “later

i replied, “nah, let’s do it tomorrow. it’s friday night, lets relax :)

ok…” she replied, then a short pause during which i finish clicking the youtube link and the youtube video starts loading.

but lets…

but the video had already started and i had already turned to watch it. to be honest, i don’t even remember hearing the “but lets…“. oh. shit.

when the video stopped playing, i turned to look if lunato had been watching it with me but she wasn’t in the room. without having any knowledge of what was to come, i stayed put and continued idle browsing.

zhhoooooooooooooooooo“, the vaccum cleaner came to life. huh? lunato is cleaning? what? vaccuming is always my job and she knows that. sigh, i guess this is a call-to-arms.. or rather a call to get-the-fuck-off-the-computer-and-help-me-clean.

i went out and saw her in the living room. i took the vaccum cleaner from her and told her that i’ll take care of it. i wasn’t exactly happy. i wanted to relax after a busy friday but i guess that will have to wait. you must compromise otherwise your relationship will have many problems.

but shouldn’t she be happy now? or at least smiling? and yet there is a frown on her face.

what’s wrong? is everything ok?

*nod*

seriously, is everything ok? you look upset about something

no, i’m fine” was the reply; a reply full of sarcasm.

hey hey, what’s wrong? we’re cleaning now aren’t we ? i didn’t want to but ok, let’s do it now.

if you don’t want to, then don’t. leave it. i’ll do it

warning klaxons went off. what the heck is going on here?!?

lunato, what’s wrong? i can see you’re upset about something

you cut me off! i was talking and you just looked away at that stupid video

even if it was completely unintentional, small annoyances like this can spiral out of control and proportion very easily. must defuse before it bangs. we talked back and forth and resolved the issue but the overall mood had already soured.. on a friday evening.. just before the weekend. bah.

* ding * i thought of something.

hey, shall we rent a car for the weekend?

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

we can go to the Mazda and Honda showrooms as well

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but sikander, is the place still open?

i called the local AVIS dealer right away and within 30 minutes we were at yonge/sheppard signing the rental agreement for a PT Cruiser. excellent car by the way. i wouldn’t buy it but i would gladly accept it as a gift. the interior design and the indiglo clock are beautiful.

on the way home from AVIS, we stopped at IKEA. lunato loves their self-proclaimed “best coffee in town” and she really believes that it is the best coffee in town. i parked the car in the loading zone near the exit while she went inside.

* ding * i thought of something again.

yesterday, shekhar had IM’d me that he might be visiting toronto over the weekend. if not, then he would go skiing. he had said that he wanted to invite lunato and i to the ski resort but figured that it was too late. maybe it’s not too late now that we have a car.

i called shekhar and asked for details about the ski trip. it was saturday morning at 10 am at Mont Cascades. shekhar was going with some friends so it was group event and the ticket price was only $28 for the ski rental and the lift. sounds like an excellent deal.

when lunato came back, i asked her if she wants to go skiing tomorrow.

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

what about your paino class?

i’ll cancel it!!!

shekhar, we’re coming tomorrow! meet at 9:30 AM at dooh’s place?

it’s 8 PM on friday night and we have to be in Ottawa by 9:30 AM. brilliant. dooh is going to have a fit and will complain about the spontaniety of the whole thing. lunato called dooh and asked if we can stay with him tonight. of course we can. but “what the hell? are you joking?.” no, we’re not. we’re leaving in about 2 hours.

i had to get gloves. my grey wool gloves would freeze my hands because i know i will fall repeatedly. lunato wanted to get ski pants, if possible. we checked SportsChek, then Winners, then Walmart, and finally found some at Sears. by the time we finished this frantic shopping trip, it was already 9:15 PM.

it takes at least 4.5 hours to drive from Toronto to Ottawa so if we leave at 10 PM, it would be around 2:30 to 3:00 AM. friday was almost over and to drive to ottawa towards the end of the day would exhaust both lunato and me. we would definitely get only a few hours of sleep cuz when alidhooh, lunato, and i are together, we end up talking for hours on end about the most random, inane and yet highly interesting topics possible.

so lets sleep in Toronto, wake up early at 3:30 AM and then depart for Ottawa by 4:30 at the latest.

on the way home from the mall, lunato’s phone rang. it was her piano teacher calling to ask if she can cancel saturday morning’s piano class. wow. coincidences.

the universe is re-aligning itself in our favour and it wants us to ski. deal! the weekend is saved. let me just check Google News to make sure the world hasn’t blown up yet. and then i’ll sleep.

Categories
2006 Niagara Falls

impulsive falls trip

we were on the way to mom’s house and all of sudden sikander asked me “lunato, shall we go to Niagara falls?” “what, Niagara falls? just like that?” you know Niagara falls is world famous sightseeing place and people dream about seeing it in real at least once in their life..

sikander then asked me “lunato, do you have your passport with you?” hahaha very funny sikander. when we were just “good roommates”, we, dooh, naraku, sikander, and I, went on a Toronto trip together. we stayed in sikander’s house eating sikander’s mom’s food. (who could have imagined she would be my future mother-in-law). anyhow, during the 2003 toronto trip, we went to Niagara falls. sikander and I planned to visit the American side but we forgot to bring our passports. we were very disappointed and were sitting on the side of a path looking so pissed while dooh and naraku went to get coffee. all of a sudden a lady approached us and started talking to us. “this may sound a bit odd.. I am from States and it’s so nice to be here. but I was looking at you two and I could tell you guys are unhappy about something. is there anyway I can help you at all ? it is just sad to see a couple look like this when they’re on a trip”

Hehe, I was very embarrassed that we were displayed like that in public but at the same time happy that we looked like a couple not just roommates :D

On the way, we listened to the song “Eyes on me“. I like the lyrics a lot.

Whenever sang my songs
On the stage, on my own
Whenever said my words
Wishing they would be heard
I saw you smiling at me
Was it real or just my fantasy?
You’d always be there in the corner
Of this tiny little bar

My last night here for you
Same old songs, just once more
My last night here with you?
Maybe yes, maybe no
I kind of liked it your way
How you shyly placed your eyes on me
Did you ever know
That I had mine on you?

When we got there it was almost midnight and rainy. It was pretty dark and cold as well but we could hear the sound of massive water falling clearly. and hold on, what is that on the American side of the falls ? OMG… Aku.. the core of evil is now at Niagara Falls USA.. where is Samurai Jack??? Help!



Standing by the falls for 5 minutes was long enough to feel the chill on the skin. We drove a bit more along the falls and then headed back to Mississauga at close to 1 in the morning. Talk talk talk, sing sing sing, yawn yawn yawn, coffee, coffee, coffee… by the way, I still think Tim Horton‘s ice cappuccino is the best ice cappuccino in the world (at least in my world)

“Hello, my name is lunato and I am Ice cappuchinholic.”

Categories
2006 Ottawa

a perfect circle

two years and ten days later, lunato was in Ottawa again. dooh was more than happy to be our gracious host and we stayed with him for three days and two nights. Ottawa didn’t change so much during this time.. all our favourite hang-outs were the same. Shwarma Laguna was exactly like how it was before. the meat-pie place was exactly the same with the same staff even!. Carleton’s campus changed a lot though. new hockey rinks (two of them!! sheesh, my tuition paid for all this and i can’t even use them) and major upgrades to the University centre.

we arrived in Ottawa late at night on the 29th and visited downtown with dooh for some drinks (that’s Pepsi, Sprite, and Ginger Ale.. lol) and then crashed at dooh’s apartment. saturday we spent with shekhar, andrea, diar, tony, and zaynab at T&Z’s nice cosy house in Aylmer, Quebec. actually the very first time lunato and i went somewhere together was when we visited andrea when she participated in the Fleurs de Macadam festival in Aylmer. this was back on May 30th 2003.

tony and zaynab were excellent hosts. they have a lovely house in Aylmer. we were visiting them for the first time and both lunato and i were quite impressed with it. the back deck was especially nice with its own jacuzzi. the pizza, cake, and ice cream were delicious as well.

Ottawa - August 2006 Ottawa - August 2006 Ottawa - August 2006
Ottawa - August 2006 Ottawa - August 2006 Ottawa - August 2006 Ottawa - August 2006

saturday night was memorable. the clubbing scene in Ottawa might be small compared to Toronto but once the music starts and the dance floor gets crowded it is probably just like any other. as always, whenever we (shekhar, dooh, lunato, and i) gather together we reminisce about the “good ol’ days” and wish naraku was with us as well. we drank to his good health though (again, Pepsi, Red Bull, and Coke.. ah such losers :P)

Ottawa - August 2006 Ottawa - August 2006 Ottawa - August 2006
Ottawa - August 2006 Ottawa - August 2006 Ottawa - August 2006

after sleeping late into sunday afternoon, we packed ours bags, said tatahs to everyone, promised to visit again soon, and headed home after a quick stop at Carleton. the last time i had visited the campus, the UniCentre upgrade was still in progress. the extension of the building was complete now and it looked quite nice. the old tortuous staircase is, sadly, gone and is replaced by a much better one; one that does not force you to climb a 45° incline. it was good exercise for all!!

Ottawa - August 2006 Ottawa - August 2006

ah Ottawa… good times.