Snippets of a Wanderer

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Purple Shrub

Nothing biggy. I just figured this pretty little thing that I shot deserved a spot in my blog. :)

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Sleepless in Seattle?

So I just came back from my 2 day stint from Seattle. As we all know, it's always raining there. People treat the wet weather like nothing. Needless to say, coming from a nice sunny city such as Toronto and getting rained on, I got myself the flu. It sure didn't make my 2 day training sessions easy. It was bad enough that I passed on the colds and the flu to one of my trainees. Poor gal. Oh well.

In any case, I did enjoy myself. I crammed as much as I could in the last 5 hours of my trip. Yup. Talk about a new world record in touring. I was able to go around downtown and see some sights. I managed to take a few good photos. First and foremost, I had to visit Salty's. I've been told that it's a great place for oysters, beer and the view of the city. Unfortunately for me, I was unable to take a shot of the city. It was misty and the lighting was bad. Not to mention that it was drizzling. I was only able to capture this neat picture of the beer I bought. LOL! Well, Salty's is located across from the bay and I wanted more action...not to mention the fact that I can tell people that "I've been there." heheheh

Next stop, the Seattle Space Park! Here, they have the Space Needle...well...it's not the CN Tower of Toronto but it's a nice view from the top. It's a good thing that the rain finally decided to stop. It'd have killed me since I was already tending to my flu. Hey, for $14, it's still a bargain and it was definitely a good call.

Just 2 minutes away from the base of this tower is the International Park. Oh my...the waterfall in this park is HUGE!! Let's just say that it'd be a skateboarder's dream to go up and down in this "bowl" like fountain on a hot summer day. Actually, there were kids going down there to take a shower. I found it cold.

One of the most magnificent architectures I've seen in my lifetime has got to be this one. Seattle's Public Library...the new one. It's about 8 stories high and takes up a block.

Taking a picture from the outside would've murdered the achitectural beauty and ingenuity. Instead, I decided to take some photos inside.

As you can tell, there are a lot of inter...you know what, just look at the pics and see for yourself. heheheheh

Well in any case, the most interesting and most groovy part of this huge library are the escalators. Lime Green. This was heaven for bookworms and digital arts students...who by the way are armed to the teeth with Apple gadgets.

So anywayz, as the hours were ticking away knowing that I'll only have a few hours to pack my stuff and wake up at 3am for my flight, I suddenly felt the hunger pangs. I figured I'd get a quick fix at the nearby McDonald's but then I realized, "WTF am I thinking!?" I'm in Seattle and my company is paying for my meals. I figured, "OK! Let's try something a little more posh."

Lo and behold, I ended up at this great little place called Dahlia Lounge. That place definitely hit the spot. I went ahead and ordered rotisserie style peking duck and my was it exquisite! While waiting, I went ahead and ordered my favourite drink, 7 of 7...it's a combination of 7up and Seagram's 7 Whiskey. Yum!! Yup...that hit the spot alright. Dahlia Lounge is one of the loveliest dining rooms in Seattle, the sexy Dahlia has deep Chinese red walls, cheery lanterns and plenty of banquettes, perfect for snuggling.

Well...it was time for me to call it a night. It was around 9pm. As I walked towards Starbucks to meet with the limo driver...yes, a limo. WHEEE!! Well...it wasn't a stretched limo, just a nice regular white Lincoln, but it was damn close enough! Anywayz, as I got closer to Starbucks, I noticed some nice waterfalls that I just had to take pictures of. Well...I tried as best as I could, but in the end, most of the pictures turned up blurry and me wet. Even if I had brought my tripod with me, my camera would've been soaked. In any case, I think this shot is just way cool. Slightly blurry, but still cool.

So let's see...next week, New York City. The week after that...Seattle again. Hmm...this time, I better pack my tripod. I'm sure there will be more eye candy to shoot.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

It's Meez!! SweeEEEEeeet!!

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Vegg'ed Out...

Yeah. I know. I should've gone out this weekend and taken some more pictures. I had my reasons. For one, I'm prepping for my class this week. I'll finally be teaching. I've been dying for some action for the past few weeks. All I've been doing is reading and trust me, reading the goddamn manual over and over will kill brain cells. There's only so much you can read. Reason number two is that, I have to wait just a little longer to get a few filters and a tripod for my camera. I'm really itching to take day and night shots of the city.

Anywayz, I woke up this morning and the first thing that struck me were my window blinds. I just recently noticed how the morning light gradiently touches on each individual blind. I don't know. To you it just might seem like regular blinds but honestly, for me, it gives me that fresh start feeling. That and the fact that the pattern is nice.

Another thing I did today, like what I usually do on weekends is cook something different. Yeah, I seem to have quite a number of hobbies. One of them, which I've been doing for a while now is cooking. I've saved up a few recipies over the last couple of years that I know for sure my Mom would never cook. She's never been the adventurous kind. Luckily for me, I am. Today, I decided to spice things up Thai way. I cooked something called Gai Pad Khing (Ginger Chicken). I think I overdid myself on this one. This has got to be the one of the best dishes I've cooked up so far. In any case, the recipie can be found here.

Well...until the next blog. Bon jour!

Thursday, September 07, 2006

A few samples...

Here are a few pics taken from my camera. I know, for most of you amateur-pro photographers, you've noticed that I've only been taking close up and spot and area focus shots. Right now, I'm just trying to master one thing at a time. I think I'm getting better at it too. My next project is to actually take shots of the street at night and at daytime with a slower shutter speed. I used my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50 to take these pics.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Monday - Labour Day Long Weekend

BBQ - food galore
havin' a great time - 6:30pm
gettin' to know people
6:30am - wake up for work

Worried about hangovers? Not if you're having a Coronita. It's like Corona...but a "mini-me" version. Small, but takes none from quality.

Sunday - Poker Night

When you hear the word "poker", what does it usually mean? Does it mean cowboy hats, gun slingers or six shooters? Does it mean Vegas, gamblers, high rollers and losers? Well, for the most part, it is. Sure I can go into the history of the game itself but why bore myself or you to death? All we know is that it's a card game. One of the more popular ones anyway. For a lot of people, this game is their life. This is how they make a living. It's make or break. For us...

It's about going 160 clicks on the freeway, laughing all the way in a friend's hot car.

It's about enjoying all-you-can-eat wings and chuggin' a cold one.

It's for the love of the game with nothing to lose...well...maybe just a bit.

More importantly...it's with friends...

Monday, September 04, 2006

Lazy, hazy, yet colourful day…

So I finally decided to do something different this weekend. Since my arrival here in Toronto, my weekends have been reduced to buying my weekly metro pass, sitting on the couch and channel surfing. Not that I don’t mind veggin’ out a few times but really now…it’s becoming a routine. It’s ludicrously boring.

This weekend, I took the subway to Toronto and walked around a bit. The first thing that I did was hit the nearest Starbucks Café and indulged myself to a much deserved and much missed Mocha Frap. Maybe it’s me, but quite honestly, I found this particular branch, and for lack of a better word, “groovy”. It had all the qualities of a Starbucks but more. This one actually had “pizzaz”. Not pizzas, "puh-zazz". The atmosphere in this particular Starbucks has a flair that closely resembles that of Friends’ Central Perk. It had a few leather couches, and oh boy were they comfy!! They also had some very interesting paintings. Additionally, have you ever seen a Starbucks with a small library? They have a sizeable amount of good paperbacks sitting on a bookshelf. Not too shabby. Yup! If I lived only a few minutes away from this branch, I’d be here everyday after work and every Saturday/Sunday morning.

So, on to the next scene, Eaton Centre. If you’re in Toronto, you MUST visit the Eaton Centre. It’s one of the biggest malls in Toronto and it’s a hotspot for mallrats, shoppers, photographers, tourists and your average family. It’s great.

So what’s this mall like you ask? Think of it as Greenbelt (Makati, Philippines) the size of Mega Mall (Makati, Philippines). You’ll find all sorts of goodies, trinkets and the latest gadget and fashion here.

As a matter of fact, the latest addition to this mall is an Apple Store. YES!! We now have our own Apple Store!! Wooohooo! Yeah, suffice it to say, I had to wipe the drool off my face and rip myself out of this store before they called security. It was heaven, and yet, it was torture…but what the hell…oooh!! Eye candy!!! TOYS!!! Yeah … I know … I’m a freak.

Ahhh…last but not least, back to the comfy confines of my own home. Trust me, I was out for more than half the day. There’s a lot more to do outside of the Eaton Centre. LOTS more. I figured I’d save the shots for another weekend. I gotta go back for that nice fountain just outside the mall. Unfortunately, it was raining and I didn’t want to ruin the camera. That and the shots would’ve been dreadful.

In any case, it was a great Saturday. I look forward to the next one.