Stratford in August
一遊 (m-footprint), 生活 (m-life) September 28th, 2007
So many times that I wanted to finish this post, this long overdue travelogue (or simply a recap of my 1 day trip to Stratford). It was my first time there. At first, I didn’t even know where I was going. All know was… it was a trip to a corn maze.
It was a Saturday and it had been raining for 2 days. You can see the clouds on top of the town building…

It’s always great to walk around a town that you’ve never been to. The foreigner has no expectation, which implies there may be surprises. This picture was taken by RL - with the subtle mood of a movie where the main character is lost in the crossroad.

Picture taken from a garden, 山雨欲來…

This is the only Chinese (Canadian-Chinese) restaurant that I saw. Wondering how the food there would taste.

After looking at the phamplet and brochure that we got from the tourist information booth, we decided to come to this “Keystone Alley” - Menu looked pretty decent.

Inside the restaraunt/cafe, there were quite a lot of patrons. Special menu on the whiteboard. Without waiting for too long, we were brought to the outdoor patio. Although it looked better in the picture, the patio was not bad.

Overall the price range was good - below $20 per entree. A lot of us ordered the quiche. I liked it - tasted good, not too heavy, just right.

Walking down the street, we went into one of the stores and smelt something. It was actually the smell of chocolate from this Chocolate BARR’s beside.

So many different types of chocolate to choose from. One of my problems is that when I am given too many choices, I usually don’t make a choice. They got two packages of chocolate/caramel coated nuts/popcorns. They were ok.

After the chocolate, we walked by a store… where a cat was walking and then sleeping inside the display window. Awww… It just looked so comfy and lazy.

I didn’t know that Balzac’s Coffee has opened up a location in Stratford. Since the raining became water pouring, we went in the Balzac’s Coffee to get some coffee and tea. Just chill, you know.

Rain gradually stopped and the question is… should we still check out the corn maze? Sure we should and sure we could.

So we came to the corn maze. The woman there was very friendly. She let us go to the field to check out the maze. But the ground was really muddy and we didn’t go into the maze.

There were some questions on each of these signs. I could see they tried to make this as educational as possible.

It was a very nice trip. Enjoy life while we can, shall we?

FYI: Keystone Alley Cafe & Key’d Inn
34 Brunswick Street, Stratford, ON N5A 6L8
Chocolate BARR’s
136 Ontario Street, Unit 1, Stratford, ON N5A 7Y4
Balzac’s Coffee
149 Ontario Street, Stratford, ON N5A 3H1
港. 隨想
一遊 (m-footprint) September 26th, 2007

沒有電腦的日子,把隨想寫在小本子裡.
***
(某時,某地.)
不是香港人.
從前,覺得那些老外到香港,走路慢三拍,不知道他們在想甚麼.
現在,也許不同了,
旅行者的身份、心態,就是要享受.
感受這一切,不用急,不用跑.
你我其實只不過是到這世上一遊.
半百、一百年後也要歸去.
不要為了金錢而盲目地衝.
因為,
我們都是時間洪流裡的金錢暫存者、看守人.
***
(九月二十日,天水圍至沙田.)
幸福的是無論你到哪裡去,
都知道有人會守候著、支持著你.
他的女友可能看起來對他不太好,
整天鬧著要分手,
但在他人生中最需要支持的時候,
她守在他身邊.
就是那些一點一滴,
就是那一段一起走過的路,
他知道無論往後的日子怎樣,
他會盡力的給她幸福,
不離不棄.
(你就像天使一樣,給我依賴,給我力量…)
不離不棄,多麼有份量的諾言.
現代人,有多少個能實踐到底?
***
(九月二十一日,銀行)
最浪費時間的是去銀行.
銀簿裡沒有很多個零,
換來的是站在三個窗口前呆等.
人龍越排越長,
旁邊的兩個証劵窗口更是繁忙,
一眾師奶們七嘴八舌,
口沫橫飛地討論著新股、國企、窩輪.
隔著iPod耳機,聽起來有點像...
雞鴨之聲.
股票狂升,股民蟻民心雄志壯.
另一邊廂的尊貴用戶區,
了無一人,冷氣狂吹,
在她們所謂的好介紹背後,
我看到狐狸的影子.
***
(九月二十三日,地鐵內.)
地鐵裡的人拿著手機滔滔不絕,
在他們的世界裡看不到旁邊的人.
內容空洞.
有電話,卻沒有真正的聯繫.
空洞的心靈,欲通過無形的網絡訊號找尋一點安慰.
窒息
兩週後…
生活 (m-life) September 24th, 2007
我坐著飛機回到多倫多,比較清新的空氣,比較廣闊的天空.
兩個禮拜很快的過去了.在香港深圳上海見到很多親戚朋友,去年的中國行還歷歷在目,人生過了二十歲之後就尤如坐上磁浮列車一樣,一不留神就快要過了十年.
星期一的七點鐘,我醒了.還好,在飛機上睡了十個小時.時差很快就會調回來.(還是,一直兩個禮拜的時間都是F-ed up?)兩個小時後,要回到辦公室,希望沒有甚麼驚喜.
在旅途中,聽著i-Pod,不知道為甚麼,張敬軒的《悔過詩》很有感覺.不是有甚麼事要悔過,只是單純的喜歡.上載了,喜歡的話就打開我的radio blog吧.
Marz’s update…
一遊 (m-footprint), 生活 (m-life) September 13th, 2007
Here I am in China. Been running errands everyday.
HKG is still as busy and crowded as usual. Haven’t done any shopping yet, and I think I’ll leave that til the end. I feel like a backpacker somehow. Kinda tired, but I’ll try to enjoy my time here.
Will be in Shanghai in a couple of days. It should be fun.
Don’t miss me too much :p
(yah… imagining I’m such a popular person who would be missed.)
Gotta jet. ttul…
From,
Marz, Internet-addict in China
PRC trip 2007
生活 (m-life) September 8th, 2007
Yes… I’ll be arriving HKG in about 24 hours.
It’s gonna be a very rushed trip. HK, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Macau in 2 weeks.
Worked like a dog this week. 9am to 10pm every night. Exhausted and numb. But yah, it’s tough to hand off all the projects (I think there are no less than 10 in total) within a short period of time.
I don’t know if this is a vacation for me, but I’ll try to enjoy and get the most out of it.
Gotta thank my colleagues for their great help when I’m away. AA, DC, LF, AH, GS, RS, VL, KL, KK, etc. Hope it won’t be too stressful for them. I know (guess) they are not reading this, but I really appreciated their help.
It’s been a busy year so far… been on different trips to different places, been doing different things. But what’s different from previous years is that, I found myself not well-prepared at all for any of these trips. Last minute packing… mentally not ready for the trip even I’ve landed on the foreign land. Of course, I’m gonna blame work. When I come back from Asia, I know it’s gonna take a while for me to adjust.
Blink, and blink again, it’s almost the end of the year.



About