Sunday, October 12, 2014
Violin practice
Finally our violin teacher allow the boys to use the bow to play the violin! The boys are very excited to hold the bow.
Wednesday, October 08, 2014
HT's first project assignment from class!
He will have to present to the who class too! We have until 22 Oct to do this.
Tuesday, October 07, 2014
Monday, October 06, 2014
Sunday, October 05, 2014
HT's regular private off ice lesson
Today we went to HT's regular private off ice training with Galina. but today i took HV along and let him draw while we wait.
After 1/2 hour HT was done. He did not even break a sweat. He when on demonstrating to us his rope skipping skills.
Adventure in getting SIM cards
K and A promised to get us a SIM card from Vodacom and Airtel each. Before then Marge wanted to go see some Tanzanite but the store was closed. it is not a good idea to stroll around on Sundays as many stores are not available due to holiday.
I ate 2 plates to bulk up for the trek haha
We got to the main local shopping area and met the agent. He said it was not ready ao we kept waiting, for a loooooong time. Meanwhile we learned a few things from K which was interesting about Tanzania. Apparently they all love chubby women and do not prefer 'chopsticks' haha!
Finally the agent came back (must be at least 45 min) and our other tough task were to cut the SIM down to micro and nano respectively. I should have bought a punch and brought along with me to save time! Coz I think we spent at least another hour trying to get it right! The agent was not that experienced and got Marge's SIM cut wrong (the contacts should be off center but he had them centered which did not work for her. They ended up having to cut it even smaller but good thing it worked at the end.
For my iphone 5S nano card, I doubt they have seen it befpre and since it was Sunday, it was difficult to find the tools. A was smart and went to get a Gilette razor and the guys all helped to trim the card down to size
In the end both of the card worked and i think we must have spent 2 hours doing this omg! We needed to wait for the SIM cards to be activated fully before we can get the bundle and we would leave it till next morning to do so.
By the time we got back to the hotel it was 7:30pm already! The hotel gate opened very smoothly and Marge thought it was automatic but in fact there was a guy opening manually for us haha. We had a good laugh.
Our other group members were dining already and we joined them after we got back. We did pay our assistant guide a good tip thanking them for half day assisting us.
Souvenir Shopping @ Arusha
We were a bit nervous as Lema said he would come at 2pm and our mains came at 1:50pm. But in any case we were able to get back to our room at 2:15ish and some hotel lady came to tell us our driver came at 2:20. Lema sent Kappange amd Aga to helped driving us to town. It really is impossible to walk to town without any guides. We are happy that we are in good hands!
The ride to town was like 15 min and when you see the clock tower which divides south and north Africa, you know you are in Arusha.
We got to the Mt Meru curios and shops, which is also known as the Maasai market. I think the shops all sell similar stuff and it depends how good your bargaining skill is coz you definitely meed to bargain.
I ended up with a tinga tinga for $20, and a wax painting plus a soap bowl for $20. I think it is bot too bad a deal. I did not get the wooden chair I wanted though. Asked for $30 (orig price was $75) and their last price was $40. Good that I didnt get it or else i would have a headache how to bring it back lol
Notice the purple tree in the background? Quite cool!
It stared to rain and it was time to go. Our next stop was to get SIM cards for our phones.
First briefing with Serengeti Pride Safari
The hotel we stayed in, Planet Lodge in Arusha, was a surprise to me. It was very spotlessly clean! It was nice and clean and no bugs! Even cleaner than the 6-star hotel we stayed in Costa Rica can you believe that! If I ever come back to Tanzania i would stay here for sure again.
Our Room #25, Margaret in front
Hotel grounds. Very tranquil
Do I have a big appetite haha? My breakfast from the buffet at the hotel. The food selection was minimal but edible. Cannot complain too much!
Before the briefing, we laid down our fear on the bed for gear check.
At 10:30am, we had a briefing with our tour leader, Lema Peter, who is also the co-owner of Serengeti Pride Safari. He brought along three assistant guides: Kappange, Aga and Tumani. It was a long meeting but the guides explained some history of Tanzania, and also briefly how the route is going up the mountain, what a typical day is like, and Q&A. I found that they are very organized and have some good information.
Before the gear check in each of our room, we settled with the rental items: Margaret rented a sleeping bag plus thermarest, and me the same plus a pair of trekking poles. The sleeping bag looks very warm so I am a bit more relieved after seeing how thick it is.
Then the whole crew went into our room to check carefully what we brought for each item. They also wanted to make sure we do not bring unnecessary things on the trail as they are a member for KPAP to support fair treatment to the porters. I wanted to use my overbag as a liner so they suggest to take the fleece liner away from my rented sleeping bag (I am not gonna use that liner anyway) as it would save some weight for the porters.
By the time they are done its almost 1pm! We better do lunch before heading out. We wanted to do some souvenir shopping plus getting SIM cards. Lema said he would come back to get us at around 2pm to the town of Arusha.
Saturday, October 04, 2014
Arrival in AMS and continuing flight to JRO
Very uneventful. Arrived a bit late past 07:00 and got out pf D2. Figured out my next gate was D6 which was super close. I had 3 hours to spare so I went to the nearby store to see if there is anything interesting. Unfortunately it was a super boring store.
Chicken curry meal. Not bad
Caramel ice cream as snack yum!
Some pizza stick as dinner
The airport parking lot with Iulia and Vlad in the background. They also came from Toronto.
Me with the safari vehicle
The JRO airport terminal
On route to the planet lodge which is 45 min away
At planet lodge gate
Arrive! They served some mango juice and cookies to welcome us :). The hotel is bery nice and clean
I saw some charging station so I sat at one of them. Turns out I need the British 2 prong style to be able to plug in. Duh! I only brought the 3 prong adapter! Wish me luck that is what I need in Arusha!!
Failing to charge my phone, I did went on their free internet a few times (45 min then you need to renew again). People back home were sleeping so nobody to talk to at that hour. I saw some bodies lying on the sofa benches and i decided to follow them :)
Around 9:05, I saw tons of people lining up at the gate. Oh yeah my flight leaves at 10:05! Almost forgot! So I joined the line up and had to go through security.
The flight i got off earlier today
AMS airport, disappointing
Arriving finally! The line to the customs were long but i was the first one out of the flight since I did not have check in bags :).
What better to do going across Atlantic Ocean?
就係睇使徒行者大結局啦！我係超級FANS嚟㗎嘛！
一早就有先見之名DL咗落屋企部腦，再scp到部iphone度。 好彩部機JB咗啫！
First time on KLM flight
This is my first time flying KLM and i have ti say it is WAAAAY BEEETTTTTEEEERR than Air Canada! OMG so much better!
1. Air hostesses were way more pro and very engaged in their job of serving people. They are Dutch though and there really is a difference with Europeans.
2. Food and drinks were much better. Lots of drinks opportunity. You can get beer (Heineken), white/red wine even cognac in Econ class! My dinner was plentiful too (beef or pasta, i picked beef):
It has the following:
Beef stirfry with veg and rice
Bread with cream cheese and butter
Potato salad
Tonic Water (can someone tell me why airlines always serve tonic water?)
Brownie cake (decent size)
3. The captain always kept in touch with us to let us know about weather, time etc. We actually only left at 18:20ish which was almost one hour behind schedule and he would explain what was going on (8 flights waiting to take off at the same time plus raining hard).
You can tell I really like KLM now :). Too bad it was econ. I really missed my First Class treatments sigh....
They also serve hot towel before a meal, and here is the light breakfast:
Just a muffin, yogurt and juice. Not too bad!
Feels like Amazing Race
So today I had to leave work to take the GO bus to the airport. The reason I chose this was because my work is only 20 minutes away from the airport and I can park at work overnight securely as I have paid for parking.
My goal was to leave work and get on the 15:20 bus which would then arrive at the airport by 15:40. My flight was leaving at 17:35 and was at Terminal 3. Since I checked in online and has Nexus, i think that should be plenty of time.
Since I have never went on the bus before, at lunch time I went out and purposely waited to see when the bus would pass by (which is every hour at :20). It did come but was a little late at :25. At least that gave me a bit of idea (and confidence) about the stop and the bus.
I was frantically trying to finish up some work and left at 15:10. Got to the car to take my luggages and arrived at the stop by 15:15. The weather was just awesome: windy and raining. Since it was the start of the rush hour, I was a bit nervous. After seeing two GO buses passed by and mine did not come yet, I got more and more ancious. There was another guy there asking if I was waiting for the bus to Brampton (same bus). He said historically that bus is always late bu 5-10 minutes (errrrrrr). My heart just sank and was already thinking may be i could email my coworker who leaves at 16;00 to give me a ride to the airport....
Luckily, I did not have to do that. The bus finally came, 15 minutes late omg! At 15:35, it finally came and we went head on with rush hour traffic. Isnt that nice! (NOT!)
16:04 was when the bus arrived at Terminal 1. I got off the bus and walked directly into the terminal. I know I had to find that air link train thing to take me to Terminal 3. I was stalled inside the terminal for about 30 seconds before I could figure out where to go. They really need to improve on the signage man!!! I went on the elevator, went straight to the parking garage area. One lady was with me going up on the escalator to the air link platform and we saw a train closing its doors. She asked: is this the train to Terminal 3? I was like, I dunno. It was my first time too! I know this train thing comes every 8 minutes so I was a bit disappointed that i missed this train.
Suddenly, the door got opened again. In that mere 3 seconds I shouted to the people inside: is this to terminal 3? They paused but said yes. I jumped right in before the door closed. I dont think the other lady made it lol!! 邊有我咁好身手吖哈哈！
The ride took like 2-3 minutes. I got out and inmediately went into T3. From then on was pretty smooth. I put some more liquid stuff into my toiletries bag before heading through security and it was just a breeze going through. No search no beeps. I got through security at 16:20! Not bad eh :)
Of course I found out that my gate was the furthest corner from where I was. How come this is always the case sigh.... but then i took my time, bought an apple juice, croissant, marble cake ($9!!!! Airport price) and ate. I had a small lunch and was running low in battery already haha.
I settled in one of the ipad stations (tons in T3... it was quite nice and convenient). HT and me facetimed before i head onto the plane 
I will miss my boys!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)