香草滋味

第二天 (2006/07/01)


Canada Day! Oh Canada~~~~ 步出飯店，國會山莊 (Parliament Hill) 在望……


嚇到了！滿街都是人！！！用 Chin-glish 來表達就是 "People Mountain People Sea"，即"人山人海"。以我來加拿大 10 多年的經驗，通常一到假日街上便冷清清的，這麼多人我還是第一次看到。




趁機來抗議的農夫


皇家騎警 RCMP Parade，我只能夠看到前邊的人的頭頂，唉~


在 Parliament Hill 太多人什麼也沒看到，走去旁邊的 Supreme Court of Canada 參觀。






高等法院外的俊男和駿馬，RCMP 的馬兒果然漂亮，香噴噴的。本來要去拿合照，不過騎警說馬兒工作了一早上要回去啦。


Ottawa 都市模型


笨人以為下午開始封路，所以走路去 Canadian Museum of Civilization，好遠。


在河的另一邊看 Parliament Hill




上一次來也是一樣的 First Nation exhibition







走完 Canadian Museum of Civilization，我們還去了 Canadian War Museum 參觀。累趴趴的走回到市區吃晚飯，整條路上全都是人。晚餐沒選擇地吃 buffet，有位子已經要偷笑了，因為人真的多到不行。相片也沒心情照了~

本來說好晚上去下樓去看煙火的，但 4 個人都累到不想動。但是，我們酒店的房間看出去竟然可以看到煙火喔！！！






最後躺在床上看 Brazil vs. France，施丹控球控得很漂亮，巴西則沒大作為。

非常久的照片，快一年了，遊記卻一個字也沒生出來。

2006 年的加拿大國慶 (Canada Day) 長週末假期，跟朋友開車去首都 Ottawa 和 Quebec City 玩。這兩個地方我也去不少次了，不過國慶日去首都玩倒是沒試過，臨行前非常的 looking forward 呢。

第一天 (2006/06/30)


每次去旅行我最關心的就是當天能夠租到什麼車子，因為坐什麼車決定了旅行的舒適度。這是我們租到的 PT Cruiser，外型一流，不過起跑十分緩慢……


離 Toronto 3 小時車程的 Kingston，這是 City Hall。


吃午飯 + 看世界盃。是日比賽：德國 vs. 阿根廷，德國晉級。


我們停在 Kingston 和 Ottawa 中間的小鎮 Smith's Falls 搜羅 Hershey's 巧克力。


到 Ottawa 了！我們正由飯店在走去 Rideau Centre shopping。這是途中有名的 Fairmont Chateau Laurier Hotel。


當天晚上在 Elephant & Castle 吃晚飯，不過我一邊吃飯，一邊喝啤酒，眼裡盯著的卻是世界盃重溫，好一個心不在焉。

星期五 (July 27, 2007)

高中同學從香港回來，因為她吃素的關係，我提議不如去法海素食軒吃晚飯，因為其他中餐館的菜不也是用炒完肉的鑊炒的。這是我第一次吃全素，很好吃。老實說我沒想過什麼素牛肉素鴨會弄得這麼真，而且這家的菜我也不會覺很油膩。在外面買的素雞素鴨我通常覺得很難吃，味精也重。

不過整頓飯下來也沒有跟同學說上兩句，我被一桌子菜吸引了！我家好久沒有煮飯啦！XD



左至右：腰果素蝦仁、羅漢素麵、椒鹽玉子豆腐、齋拼盤、皇子菇扒素肉煲、椰汁芋頭素鴨煲、干扁四季豆 + 兩個湯
中間那個忘了，金菇什麼的，還有一個扒津白和素蟹肉西蘭花未上桌
飯後糖水是西瓜西米露，幾特別。

一個菜不是很大，不過我們十個人幾乎全部清掉所有東西，good job。

飯後跟朋友去了看 Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix。


FYI:
Graceful Vegetarian Restaurant 法海素食軒
4396 Steeles Ave E Unit E8, Market Village (facing Kennedy Rd.)
(905) 479-8381

兩個多月前，香港推出了一個新的益力多廣告：


廣告是香港的朋友 send 給我的，看完後我簡直笑到碌地。唉呀，Suzuki 好慘呀~~~~

因為最搞笑的不是因為 Suzuki 變醜了，所以女主角反面不認人說「唔認得」。而是我認得醜樣的 Suzuki 啊！跟小時候一個樣吧？反而中間回憶那段拍到懶靚仔，又朦又朧，就真係「唔認得」了。

終於把舊文章從無名撈回來。

首先是我關掉了無名的網誌，變成抓不到網誌的備份。後來抓到了，我的 firewall 擋到 pixnet 的匯入程式，要關掉才能匯進來。

現在我連頁面也弄得七七八八，就是 top 圖還可以修一點點。

新居入伙，歡迎光臨。基本此此處上百無禁忌，廣東話中文英文不拘，大家自便吧。

Went to Everest with my sister for dinner before the show. Everest is a trendy restaurant and lounge located at the Queen West area that offers a unique menu of Tibet and Indian tastes. The decor in the lounge is very nice, but it was very hot inside as we got seated. So we moved ourselves out to the patio thinking it would be nice and I ended up freezing. (Blame the weather!)

Here's what we order:

Samosas - Crispy Indian pastries filled with potato & vegetables served with chutney sauce. ($5.95)
I like this appetizer. The sauce is a little bit spicy and goes well with the potato and veggie fillings.

Sizzling Tandoori Chicken - Classic aromatic red-marinated chicken served "sizzling" on a hot plate, with a side of basmati rice and naan bread. Great with a squeeze of lemon. ($11.95)
It's my first time having Tandoori Chicken. Should Tandoori Chicken be tasteless??? The aroma sent from the sizzling hot plate is very tempting. The chicken is tender but doesn't have any flavour in it.

The rice and naan bread that comes with the Tandoori Chicken. Too much rice, too little naan. The chicken tastes a lot better with the sweetness in the bread and the grilled onions. I can't really eat plain rice without any sauce.


Sha-Momo - Favorite Tibetan dish of juicy, steamed and lightly grilled dumplings filled with beef and spinach,served with a side of mixed field greens salad. ($9.95)

To be honest, I came here wanting to try their Tibetan food. I want to know how Tibetan dumplings (momo) are different from Chinese dumplings. Just like how Korean dumplings are very different from the Chinese ones. This is a disappointment because it tastes just like ordinary frozen Chinese dumplings. For the price I can get three packages of frozen dumplings at the grocery. Argh, may be I shall try something else next time around.


FYI:
Everest Restaurant & Lounge
232 Queen St. W., Toronto (Queen St. W. & John)
(416) 977-6969

星期天晚上逛了三間 Shoppers 才買到書，星期一開始讀，花了兩個晚上的時候，終於在星期二完成了！！！原來這本書跟上一本已經隔了兩年，我都不覺有這麼久啊！！！

先來重溫一下我對 Book 6 的看法：

Thursday, July 21, 2005 Harry Potter 6: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Finished reading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince early this morning. (Well, yea... I sorta pulled an all-nighter.) It was a bit of a disappointment. The whole 600 pages served more as a prologue to Book 7 than being a story of its own. There weren't many actions but a lot of talk, in fact it was the last 50 pages where all the actions took place. But the plot is intriguing, despite the fact that this book is very wordy. JK Rowling lingered too long at some "unimportant" places, such as the romance between Ron and Lavender, or the boring, long, opening conversation between the Muggle Prime Minister and the now former-Minister of Magic Conelius Fudge. I would like to see some scenes/chapters to be more developed, like Harry wasn't really learning any complex charms or magic in this book. I'm not sure how he's going to face Lord Voldermort in the book coming ahead. I am expecting a lot more from Book 7. It should be full of adventures. ^^

相比起跟青少年一般焦躁的 Order of Phoenix (Book 5) 和冗悶的 Half Blood Prince (Book 6)，Harry Potter 7 真的是非常好看！！！蓋上書的一刻，有種很失落的感覺。每一年，我都殷切期盼新的 Harry Potter 書和電影。這以後，what am I going to pine for and obsess with? The feeling of good and satisfied isn't as sad as saying bye.

令我最佩服的是 Harry Potter 的佈局都非常細緻，不要少看每個一細節和伏線，因為他們有千絲萬縷的關係。尤其在大結局一切的迷團都會解開，一邊看一邊驚喜，有「原來係咁」的驚嘆。因為他的 twist 是絕對令人意想不到，但是又合理得天衣無縫。看完後，我有將全套書重溫一次，找出每個 clue 的慾望。=P

Harry Potter 引人入勝之處，在於 JK Rowling 構造出一個完整的魔法世界，這個世界是人性善美惡和 fantasy 的融會。看 Harry Potter 7 時令我最 uneasy 的，不是有人死掉，而是這個魔幻世界中發生的事情，不就正正是納粹黨對付猶太人的經歷、又或者歷史上其他 unjust 的屠殺或慘劇嗎？

這些慘劇不斷的發生，是不是因為我們每個人或每個種族自身的優越感成為我們去愛、去包容的籬牆？可怕的是籬牆成為根深柢固的恨，而居於上位的一方，利用他們的 power 和武器 (魔法) 去宣揚這份優越感，剷除異己。

Harry Potter 的魔法世界，其實就是我們這個世界已經發生了，或正在發生的事情。

把這些慘劇投射在虛構的世界中，會否令我們多一點希望、少一點罪惡感？