Center Island

I'm dead tired after today's (18th) Center Island outing, but what a great day for some outdoor fun! It was a bit on the cool side in fact, and we decided to leave the water guns behind which is why everyone looks dry in the pics (hey look, Mun's bag is at the center of both pics).

We got there at around 4 and had several hours to enjoy the weather and do some rollerblading. Yes, I finally got myself a pair (pic below). First time rollerblading, I think I didn't do too bad, just a bit (OK more than a bit) on the stiff side. Hopefully that will change with more practice.

Rice Lake Fishing

It was a great day for fishing yesterday, it was bit too sunny and we all got a little sun burnt tho. Still, it was quite a relaxing day. Too bad we didn't get any big fish; I got 12 really small sunfish and perch, no bass :( All fishes were returned to their homes in the lake :)

The really funny thing that happened is our ~$30/person fishing trip turned into a $66/person fishing trip. That's because our boat ran into some rocky waters and we actually broke a pieced of the rudder off! We didn't know at the time of course, all we heard were 2 big thumps and we looked at the propeller and that looked fine. Oh well, things happen that you cannot foresee. Even though it became an expensive fishing trip, we all had fun so that's all that matters in the end.

Wasaga Beach

Went to wasaga beach today for a bit of BBQ and fun in the sun. Today's weather was just perfect; no rain and not too hot. I can't remember when's the last time I went to a beach and actually got in the water. For sure I have not done that in the past 20 years that I've been in Canada. Today, we played some water volleyball, monkey in the middle, running against the waves. Haven't done any good exerciese like this in a while, I'm dead tired!

Thanks to mun for organizing. It was great to hang out with my closest buddies from high school. Even Billy and Eli are back (for their big day next week, congrats). Haven't seen them in over a year!

For pictures of today, click here.

Breaking with tradition

I broke tradition this year by going skiing a second time (though it's a tradition I only started last year, in any case I couldn't call it an annual ski trip anymore :p). We went to Moonstone this time; poor Ed couldn't come even though he had been trying so hard to organize one last ski trip for the season. All his attempts got cancelled due to non-cooperating weather.

This time I would say I spent 60% of time on green hills and 40% on blue hills (well, just one blue hill that I felt comfortable with). Definitely I felt some improvement since the last time and I discovered a few things about my skiing style:

1. My right turns are better than my left turns
2. I don't have too much problems with the turns, it's after the turn when I am cutting perpendicularly across the slope that I have trouble with
3. As a result of 1 and 2, I am actually better at doing small turns going down the hill than doing the big "S" turns.
4. But since I am doing small turns, I'm picking up more speed and it's easy to lose balance and control. I need to work on coping with speed.

I was alternating between experimenting on the green hill and then applying the results on the blue hill to come to these conclusions. I hope I don't forget these insights next year :p

Annual Ski Trip 2k7

Went skiing at Lakeridge on Saturday, it was a blast (my body's still aching though). Last year was my first time skiing in over 10 years so I am still a newbie. This year, I stayed mostly on the green hills and tried out a blue hill a couple of times.

The highlight of the trip has to be going up the ski lift with only one ski! My ski got caught in a pile of snow and it came off, but the operators did not notice to stop the lift so up I went. Luckily when they did notice they handed the ski to another skier to bring up with her, but I still fell when getting off the ski lift at the top of the hill :(

Speaking of snow, I saw something funny at lunch today. See for yourself: