African Lion Safari

Monkey hitching a ride

Haven't been here since high school when i was still in photography class and taking pictures for a project through the heavily tinted windows. Stupid idea.

This time around was mush better. It was quite the long drive, nearly 2 hours. Saw a lot of farms and cows.

We did the drive in safari where we saw a lot of cool animals. The monkey's were cool, loved the red bummed monkeys, they were climbing onto the car in front of us and just sitting there while it drove away. Too bad none climbed on our car, that would have been fun.

Giraffes were bored

Most of the animals were just sleeping or lying there. I was really excited to see the giraffe but they were so far away lying there or just standing there looking the other way.

Lions just lying there

I love how we can get so up close and personal with these beautiful creatures, but it's one of those "go at your own risks" kinda of things, who knows if they will suddenly get angry at scratch your car or break your windows or use you as a snack or something. We aren't supposed to have the windows down, but i see a lot of people doing it anyways. I really wanted to pet some of them but unfortunately we aren't allowed to get out of the car. I think the In car part of the safari, last about 30-40 minutes, it was quite a big area. The best part was we could always go back, and i wanted to just for the monkey's but they closed off that part at 4pm so i'd have to wait until next time fore the monkey's.

Tire inspection?

Deer crossing

The elephant show

Showing off

Blocking the road again

I think the best part of the day was the ostrich's. They were so big and fuzzy and awesome? They are the most noisy and curious creatures ever. They like to block the road, inspect every inch at your car and peck at everything, and they like to stand in front of your side window and stare at you. They do this with every car that was passing by too, as if they are collecting toll fee. They were soooo cute. That little part itself lasted  a while because they refuse to move out of your way. Once they decide that you are boring and move onto the next car, that's when they would make a little room for you (just enough to squeeze through without touching them) to drive away. Love these things, i want to ride on one! I think that would be awesome haha!

After that was over we went inside the non drive through part to do other stuff. We went to the Elephant show, starring 3 big elephants (not that big by age but still pretty big) and i thought they were so adorable. They are such funny creatures and so talented too. They could play soccer, roll over and sleep on a pillow and even paint on a t-shirt. They had elephant rides for $5 a person, but we didn't have time for so much activities that day. I like it when they hold each other's tails and walk, it's so adorable! Also they proved that elephants are not afraid of tiny mice because they let one climb all over the lazy elephant who wanted to sleep on a pillow.

Next up was the parrot show. Saw a lot of cool birds of many kinds and a lot of cute ones too. Very talented creatures, i especially liked the talking green parrot that makes cat calls to pretty girls and sings O Canada and other cute little things. They are so smart as well. Ooo there was also a fruit bat that they showed us up close. They are sooooo cute, i love how the animals are so clingy to the trainers.

Too bad we went too late, we were only able to catch two shows, After the shows we went to the petting farm. One one side was deers and on another side were i think goats? Not quite sure what they were but they were grey, sadly, the battery on my camera had already died so i wasn't able to take a picture of my cute encounter with these animals. I'll call it a goat, since i don't know what they are...

There was a machine that lets you buy food to feed the goats and i bought some and had some in my hand and went in, one of them immediately lept at me and practically climbed on me with it's two hind legs on the floor and the two front legs on my shoulders, its face practically level to mine starring at me eager for me to feed it. That was scary, but it was so awwww at the same time. Then another one came and did the same thing, so now i had two on me and they are heavy! But it's a good thing they didn't have teeth, that was what i was afraid of, they just sort of licked the food off my hands. Then they wouldn't get off me even when i held my hands out saying i have no more food (i assumed they understood human language). It was so cute, i wanted to go get more food but my jacket was already full of dirt from their feet and my stocking already had a hole from their aggressiveness. Definitely want to go back to the petting farm.

Lastly we went on the short fiery ride. Didn't have time for the short train ride so we opted for this option. Short 6 minute ride while talking about certain animals that live near the waters. There was a monkey home and a seagull was stealing its food.

Fun day :)

Guu

Finally went to Guu. We got there at 4:50ish and there was already a line up outside, thankfully we didn't get to wait a long time before we were seated. We got seated at the bar area, which was awesome because i defiantly like it more than the 2 people table which is so cramped and small. I like how i was able to watch the kitchen cook too, the only thing i didn't like were the chairs, they were so heavy!

I love how they greet you with such enthusiasm, and i love how they say goodbye the same ways, i felt so welcome, and i will defiantly go back to order what i didn't get to try. We ordered around 6 dishes for the two of us which is just enough because by the end, we were stuffed!

Line up wasn't too bad when we got there

"KABOCHA KOROKKE" Deep fried kabocha pumpkin croquette with a boiled egg inside

I kinda really liked this one, i think the egg in the center fit really well too.

"ABURI SALMON" Lightly seared atlantic salmon sashimi with ponzu sauce and wasabi mayo

This was yums, next time gonna try the beef sashimi. A little bit too salty for me though.

"TAKOYAKI" Deep fried puffed octopus balls served with TONKATSU sauce and mustard mayo

Way better than the asia market ones LOL

"KINOKO CHEESE BIBIMBAP" Rice, garlic sauteed mushrooms and cheese with seaweed sauce

This was really good, an easy favorite

"OKONOMIYAKI" Deep fried Japanese style pancake with TONKATSU sauce and mustard mayo

Very filling, a little bit on the heavy side though

Yogurt Cheesecake

A very interesting and yummy cheesecake. Only complaint is TOO SMALL!

Frozen grapes with the bill instead of candy mints

Fantastic!

Seriously...

What the Fuck...

Surprise in the mail!

Postman rang the doorbell today, which i thought strange because i didn't order anything online recently.
But then i remembered Jacky saying to me "expect something in the mail next week".

My Package

Abe's of maine? What's that??

What is it? What is it???

Darn the suspense is killing me!!!

Get out of my way, bubble wrap!

Digging through paper and ads

AHH! OMG!

It's My beloved Samsung dual screen camera!!!!

And it's purple!!! AHHH!!

Awwwwww thanks hunnieeeeeee!!! <3 <3 <3

Now i got a new toy to play with =)

MVA's with beer

Went to Superstar wings with the TD people on Saturday night mainly to celebrate cece finding a new job, it ended up being a nice gathering as well.

[Still so mad at you!!!!!! You know who you are!!!!!]

Esther brought her son, he was such a cutie pie, i so wanted to take him home and pinch his cheeks and spoil him senseless! It was a fun night, we ended up having a lot more people for dinner than originally planned, and we had to split up into two long tables, each ordering 100 wings and a bunch of other appetizers. Our table ordered poutine wings (my pick lol), pink lady (raspberry-ish flavor...way too sweet), spicy thai (wasn't that spicy), and honey garlic (can't go wrong with that).

We stayed for quite a while, chatting. Everyone was coupled up except me, so i sort of stuck with the Chan sisters. (GRR...)

Linda, our branch manager was supposed to join us for dinner but she got here last minute and ended up paying for the bill. So generous! But she did go karaoke at Focus with us later on. Ben booked a large 25 people room, but we didn't even have that much people going in the end because people were flopping last minute. We ended up haveing 15ish people and near the end, numbers were dropping one by one.

Linda and cc wong were getting so bored, they were like "you guys want to take a cab down and go clubbing instead?) I would have been a go if i were better dressed for it. I didn't even get to sing one song, all i did was play dice and drink. I had a shot as well, it tasted like mint and chocolate mudslide (forgot the name) but it was disgusting! i hate hate hate shots with cream in it, makes me sick. Good thing i only had one of those. Then the rest were beer and soho. We ordered way too much beer, and they were just forcing it down our throats at the end because we didn't want to waste nearly 9 bottles.

So many police came in and searched our rooms at random times, just checking if people are smoking. People were smoking in our room but the cops came afterwards. LUCKYYYYY. Got pretty boring and tired at around 2 and since people were leaving one by one, the room was only left with like 6 people. So we left before time was up. Next time they said we'd go clubbing for Marian's promotion party. No more focus! Me no like focus!

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So i watched the MTV video awards today after work, and like every year, it's AMAZINGGGGG! Especially Lady Gaga, she won the most awards and her outfits were out of this world! I loved her first outfit from the last collection of Alexander McQueen. She looked like a queen! And her shoes! OMG her freaking shoes!

Her second outfit looked really good too but it looked HEAVY! She needed 3 of her military dudes help carry her dress while she walked up to the stage. Her speeches are always so inspirational and she started crying when she accepted her first and third award. It was so awwwww, i really want to go to one of her concerts.

Currently i am spying on my basement rents out the window, the teenage boy is playing with his one year old brother. He is SOOOOO cute!

Ottawa Rafting Trip

A 3 day getaway for the Labour Day weekend really isn't enough, i still have that itching need to go somewhere. Is there a way to get rich quick and retire quick? That way i can spend my life travelling, eating and going to the gym.

Anyways, our trip was great. It was just, Daniel, Jacky, Mandy and me. Thank you Daniel for being such a good sport and being the driver. He is so good at not falling asleep behind the wheel and being very energetic throughout the ride. Mandy went to school in Ottawa for some years so she knows the place around by heart. Awesome guide for us three.

Day 1:

Daniel picked us up from our homes early in the morning with snacks and goodies already stuffed in the back seat for us to pig out on. Without nearly no pit stops, we were halfway to Ottawa and we decided to check out some vineyards and winery. The first one we went to was called Closson Chase Vineyard at the Grange of Prince Edward "Prince Edward County". We did wine tasting there, trying three different types of wines. Mandy is such a wine addict, she is so good at making sense of wine and identifying the taste! She prefer's "wine enthusiast" rather than addict lol!

Next one we went to is called Lacey Estates vineyards & winery. We also did wine tasting there, trying three different types of wines again. I didn't quite like these ones, i found they were a bit too heavy on taste...(does that make sense?)...maybe it's because i'm not a huge fan of red wine.

Last stop we went to was the Prince Edward County Lavender. It's a big big field of where they grow Lavender, it smelled so wonderful, and the owners had a store and they sold many many things which are made with/and or from Lavender. In the end, we tried Lavender biscuits, not the best cookie I've ever tried, but it sure made it smell delicate.

We had lunch at East and Main Bistro at Wellington, Ontario. It's a very nice place with lovely food. The highlight dish of our lunch was the poutine with rabbit meat. I never thought i'd eat rabbit meat, but there. I tried it for the first time.

After lunch we drove all the way to Ottawa. We checked into Sheraton's Four Points hotel which was located on the Quebec side. After we settled in, Mandy took the initiative to drive since she's more familiar with the place....we crossed the bridge and walked around downtown Ottawa. We reached a nice and cozy Gelato place which Mandy recommended to us call Piccolo Grande, and had some gelato. It was yums. We then walked around for hours looking for a nice restaurant to eat dinner in, and we asked about 4-5 really nice ones but they were all full. Mind you it was a Saturday night and it's a tourist place. So we opted for a nice Viet place which Mandy also recommended, a 10 minute drive away. I had good pho. Ottawa's yummie pho...really helped warmed me up, it was so cold!

We knew we had to get up extremely early the next day but we still ended up staying up really late at night playing UNO cards and drinking wine that Daniel bought at a nearby convenience store.

Day 2:

This morning we woke up at 4am to get ready to go rafting. The sky was still dark and we were dead tired. It's an hour and a half drive to OWL rafting, that's why we had to wake up so early. I have been car sick so much lately on this trip that i can barley sit on a moving vehicle for more than 5 minutes. I blame myself for going on vacation when i didn't recover from my cold before. When we got to OWL rafting, we were still early. It was freezing there, and it was also a terrible day to go rafting. It was only a high of 17 degrees with no sun and it was so cold that i could see my own breath. We sat at the fireplace and waited for people to start showing up, when they did, they started serving breakfast, and we had out breakfast there. Afterwards was the rafting presentation and then we had to go sign our waivers and get changed. A bus drove our group up 15 minutes toward the Ottawa stream and that's when we got into our rafts. We had a 12 people raft and i sat in the back because i couldn't swim, and apparently it's safer at the back.

It was a fun day though, despite the freezing temperature. Surprisingly, the water was warm, just that the air is cold. I wasn't stupid enough to jump off the ship like last time, but everyone else did. Then again, they could all swim. I'm so glad that our raft didn't flip over when riding the rapids like many others did, i'd be so scared and i'll panic. But i held on tightly for dear life while watching the people in front of me fall off. The rapids looked mega scary but it was fuuuunnnnn.

Rafting was from 8-3, and around midway, we stopped at a spot where people can go cliff diving, and drink some sugar juice. It looked sooo fun and i'd totally do it, if i know how to swim. Unfortunately i don't but for sure the next time i go rafting again, i will defiantly be well taught! This trip was a lot like Wilderness Tours, but it seems a little bit more on the safer side. A little less "HOLY COW", it was more like "WOW". Our instructor was so tall! He's 6'7 but he's very knowledgeable. Unfortunately he didn't talk a lot or wasn't very funny like the other ones we see, making our video and pictures less exciting, but that's okay, we got a great history lesson from him.

In the end, all the rafts met up with one of the speed boats, where they then tied all the rafts together and attached it to the speedboat where we can just ride back to shore instead of paddling. That was relaxing, we were so tired already. We stopped in the middle of nowhere and hopped on a big ferry where we had lunch and it took us back to the resort. Lunch was decent i have to say. Big chicken legs and salad, hot drinks, soup. Not bad at all. The only thing was there were no tables, only rows of chairs and it was still FREEZING! I couldn't stop shivering, and my clothes weren't drying.

We got back at around 3ish and watched the videos the photographers and filmmakers took of us. It was funny but we didn't purchase it. We spent most of the remainder of the day there, sitting at the camp fire, keeping warm and playing with boardgames and walking around outside where there is a beach, volleyball, sauna, showers. Seems a lot more smaller than Wilderness tours, but still nice. Daniel went kayaking after he got back and Jacky and i was sitting outside in front of the beach enjoying a hot cup of tea, while Mandy was sitting inside where the camp fore was wrapped up in her blanket, listening to her iPod and enjoying a book, like many others were. It was a relaxing day afterwards.

We got back to the hotel and showered and everything before going back to downtown Ottawa for dinner. We made reservations at a nice restaurant the night before because we learned our lesson. We ate dinner at Vittoria Trattoria, it's a very nice fancy restaurant with two floors. Our food was a little salty but it was nice. We had a creme brulee for desert but i didn't get to try it since in the middle of dinner, i started feeling sick again. After dinner, Daniel and Mandy dropped us off at the hotel while those two went out to try to find some ginger ale to make me feel better. They are SOOO sweet! <3>

We played UNO cards again but Mandy and I were tired and fell asleep first. The boys were chatting until 2am in the morning and i remember in the middle of the night i had a dream and i accidentally kicked Mandy really hard when i jolted awake. Oooops Sorryyy! But i think she didn't know what was going on because she fell back asleep right away =) *phew!*

Day 3:

Today's our last day :( We checked out of our hotel at around 10am, and went to Denny's for breakfast while Mandy met up with her Ottawa friends. After Brunch, we drove to Parliament Hill while we walked around and took pictures an went to the Parliament building. After that short tourist moment, it was time to go home and met back up with Mandy. We only made one stop and Daniel was driving really fast on the highway. We got home at around 6ish, just in time to have dinner with the family.

It was a really fun trip, just a tad short and a tad cold. I really wanted to go to The Hot Air Balloon festival, but we didn't have enough time, i was really looking forward to that, it was even planned too! We also planned to go to the sound and light show at the parliament building, but dinner ran a little late that night so we missed it. Our hotel was right beside the museum of civilization but we didn't manage to go wither. Defiantly not enough time in one day, but i defiantly want to go back again.