monkeycrap's Diaryland Diary
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Canada Trip - Day 14
Day 14 - Salmon Shenanigans
Made my way to a salmon hatchery in North Van in the morning to learn about salmon sex. Apparently, once these young puerile pisces punks turn all red and hormonal, they'll go all out, all the way, to battle the raging waters of the river, swimming upstream until they find the river source, or some other suitable mating location. Sheesh. Talk about setting the right atmosphere. Some die on the way. Those that don't, mate, and then wait for death. Oh well, some die for their faith, others for political freedom, these guys, well, die for sex. It's a noble cause, I guess.
Didn't spend too long there, for the simple fact that I didn't need to travel 10000 miles to see large numbers of hormone-filled animals in some massive frenetic frenzy, with nothing on their minds but mating and copulation. If I'd wanted to see that, I would've just stayed at home, turn on MTV, and wait for any RnB video to come up.
Went down to Chinatown, this time with dad, where we celebrated and honoured the determination and perseverance displayed in the salmon spawning process by purchasing a pack of sashimi from the supermart. Decided to consume it together with lunch, which was at some chinese choysum bokchoi chowmein eating house. We placed our orders, opened the sashimi, but was interrupted from eating by some pesky buzzing noise coming from the side of our table. Upon closer inspection, realised it was just the waitress trying to tell us something about no outside food being allowed in the premise. We decided that the best way to deal with it was to treat her the same way one would treat any muttering rambling middle-aged chinese lady at say, the void deck or the bus stop. To ignore her with disdain.
So the manager was summoned. Don't scared, very easy one. Say you already ordered food, threaten to cancel order, pretend to stand up and leave. Problem solved. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that we're not at fault for bringing outside food in. I'm saying that we don't really care.
Nothing much in the afternoon, did some grocery shopping, nothing much, just the usual purchases of pickled herring, ginormous avocados and blueberry plummets. Heh. Dad met his friend residing in Canada for coffee, for the second time, at Granville. It dawned on me, the answer to the questions in my mind at the salt city chinese restaurant 2 days ago.
"No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other's worth." - Robert Southey
I was thinking, the regret we get, for not spending enough time with a person, is it not just a measure of how much that person means to us? Cos it's not possible to spend 24/7 with a person, neither is it ever the case where you can say that you've spent just the right amount of time with that person, the time spent usually being inadequate. So yeah, the feeling of regret, it's not a bad thing, the more regret, the more treasured the person is.
Dinner was at a Greek restaurant on Thurlow called Characters. Recommended by the reception guy at our cosy hotel. Have never really tried Greek cuisine before, so nothing to compare it with, but it was good, I feel. Especially the, erm, grilled salmon. And the melon cooler cocktail. Nice. The chef, an Indian gentleman, emerged from his flaming abode and started talking to us, not only about his food and the pride he takes in preparing it, but about travel and his own life, as though we've known him forever. That's something you can't learn at hospitality school.
The dim lighting, the olives, the progressive gulps of melon cooler. I didn't want the trip to end. I really didn't.
10:23 a.m. - 2006-07-12
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