At Yin’s request, here I am, taken while walking to school for orientation:
My Flip Cam Cameo from Daryl Tay on Vimeo.
In other news: there’s this huge party tonight attended by over 140 students so I don’t expect to be home anytime soon. Don’t wait up!
I got into Kingston yesterday afternoon, and because we can only move into our apartment on Wednesday, I had no choice but to find a temporary place to stay for a couple of days. Enter, the Summer House Inn.
It’s a nice house on King Street with a wonderful owner Joan who has been very hospitable. I’m in a room that isn’t very big, but it’s more than enough for two nights stay.
This morning I got up late and there was remnants of breakfast which Joan calls “nothing much”. Have a look for yourself!
They also have a really cute dog, Simon. He’s so affectionate he actually moves nearer to you when you pet him.
Finally: Check out my room!
My Room At The Summer House Inn, Kingston, Ontario from Daryl Tay on Vimeo.
I’m finally in Kingston, but I spent the weekend in Toronto. It was completely unplanned, but a big thanks to Raphael, my friend from our days in the army, for letting me put up at his place because I could absolutely find nowhere to stay in Kingston. Totally saved my ass.
In any case, this isn’t going to be my usual style of blog posting, but just media generated from the trip in the form of photos and videos. Enjoy!
Toronto: At The University Of Toronto from Daryl Tay on Vimeo.
Toronto: Some Festival from Daryl Tay on Vimeo.
Toronto: A Squirrel! from Daryl Tay on Vimeo.
While on that amazing 14hr train journey on Friday, I was watching endless episodes of How I Met Your Mother:
Barney: The more you learn about a person, the better chance you have of hitting the fatal “oh” moment.
Marshall: The “oh” moment?
Barney: “Yeah. The moment you find out that one detail about the person that’s gonna be a deal breaker. So trust me, you want to postpone knowing anything about each other for as long as possible.”
Ted: “I disagree. If there’s some potential “oh” moment, I wanna know about it right away. I mean what’s the alternative?”
*cutscene to Ted and Robin at the altar where Robin says “I’m a dude”*
I’m probably on Ted’s side on this, but I do see Barney’s point of view. If it’s inevitable (except for once in your life), maybe we would be better off delaying that “Oh” moment so you could be happy for a longer period of time?
I was on my way to Raphael’s house via the train and one stop before his station was the Museum Station. Just had to get out to film this:
Toronto: Museum Train Station from Daryl Tay on Vimeo.
Okay first, I’m actually a person who’s pretty fond of solitude. Of course I enjoy time out too, but as I’ve alluded to previously, a lot of the time I’m my own best company.
The thing about travelling alone is that I guess you have no say about the company at all. It’s just you. Which is fine most of the time because it means I can spend seven hours in the Natural History Museum or sit in Barnes & Noble for two hours even though it sells almost identical stuff as Singapore does, or hang out in a comic store browsing endlessly without buying, and not worrying about someone else getting bored or annoyed.
I guess the downside to that is that there’s no one to really share the experience with. I mean sure, you guys have been enjoying the videos (I hope) and “seeing” New York with me, but it does feel a bit different.
It’s like going to the crazy Apple store. It would’ve been fun alone, but it was insane to go and geek out with the rest of the New York mates. Similarly the day when three of us guys braved the rain, snow and hail to hunt down this Chinese place that had awesome food, I know where it is now, but it just wouldn’t be the same going there alone.
And today, the train I was in travelled over the New York side of the Niagra Falls. It’s quite spectacular without even seeing the actual waterfall and I was totally awed, but I kinda wished the seat beside me wasn’t empty.
Okay enough mopey wopey. Enjoy the video!
14hr Train Ride: New York To Toronto from Daryl Tay on Vimeo.
When I was planning my trip up to Canada from New York, I decided I wanted to take the train instead of flying or the bus. I’m not a fan of the bus because it’s cramped and I need to use the toilet often, and flying is almost six times more expensive.
So here I am right now in Train 63 from New York to Toronto, just about exactly four hours in, and having the time of my life! Check out the view!
Train From New York To Toronto from Daryl Tay on Vimeo.
Also the space in here is absolutely heavenly. It’s much more space than you’d get if you fly, with bigger toilets and most importantly for me, power points! It’s like paying one sixth of an economy ticket to travel first class on the ground. Awesome.
Endless rows of power lines
Where cars go to die
I realise of course that for people on business or in a rush the train isn’t always the most economic option because of the time wasted (this trip takes 12 hours), but if you’re pretty much on vacation like I am, then you should really try taking the train to travel around because it’s a new experience.
Finally: Here’s a video of my seat and its’ awesomeness.
14hr Train Ride: New York To Toronto from Daryl Tay on Vimeo.
(By the way, I think it’s clear that Vimeo has better quality than YouTube, check out the same video from my Flip Cam!)
Breakfast!
So while deciding what to do today I found out that the Lion King has two shows today: one at 2pm and one at 8pm. Shouldn’t be too hard to get tickets, right? Wrong.
(oh my God why is my face the bloody frozen preview screenshot)
Anyway since I was at the comic shop on 40th Street, I decided to cross two blocks over to my fiancee’s favourite place…
Cotton candy flavour with gummy bears. I tried to make the gummy bears more visible but they were too mixed in.
Across the street there was this huge ad for Mythbusters literally taking up the whole building
After that it was down to Union Square where I just walked around for awhile. It’s interesting that it was so crowded with people sitting around, because in winter the whole place is a huge outdoor marketplace. I guess no one wants to sit down outside in winter.
Finally, I ended up at Cosi Cafe (surprise!) and had dinner and caught up on a little bit of blogging.
No I didn’t find Meepok in New York (though I think if I really wanted to I probably could), but this is one of my few attempts at doing a Meepok post (ie a “how my day went/what I did today” post) to amuse everyone and maybe embarrass me.
So my day started at 6:30am because I slept at 6:50pm the previous night in an attempt to get rid of jet lag and I’m pretty sure it worked since it’s almost 11pm and I’m still pretty awake. I got some breakfast (damn forgot to take photo) and started working on some stuff for Canada, nothing exciting. Next came a 10am web appointment, the details of which I shall not disclose here.
Heading out I decided to take this video with my Canon IXUS 860 IS, just as a means of comparison with my Flip Cam which I was determined to get today.
After getting the Flip Cam I walked around for a little bit before I was hit by the need to go to the toilet! So here’s a piece of advice to anyone who may head to New York: Use the bloody toilet before you go, because the odds of you finding a place with a toilet is low. I managed to find one at Borders, where they were also pimping the hell out of the “Twilight” books. Yeahbuwha?
Anyway, I eventually wound up at Cosi Cafe which is my favourite chain of cafes in New York (oh another interesting story on that tomorrow) and after I ate and rested for a bit, it was time to test out the new Flip Cam.
As I headed towards the comic shop, there was this homeless guy on the street, so I stopped and gave him my packet of chips from Cosi (you saw them in the picture earlier). I felt good about myself until I turned around the corner, where there was another dude who could’ve used some help. I kinda felt bad that I didn’t have more food to give and that I couldn’t give something to everyone. I bet this comes from my mom.
Next up: Pinkberry! So here’s the story, I was introduced to Pinkberry by the Kudus sisters when I was in LA last December. The New York branch is no less crowded!
Here’s the yogurt (complete with raspberries and fruity pebbles).
Oh and here’s a busstop poster for Heroes Season 3: Villains. Ando gets his own poster!
I started heading down for the Comic Book Club which is this weekly roundtable or panel discussion that serves as an extension to The Stack Podcast. It cost $5 and was about an hour and a half of pure comic book talk. The inner geek in me was very thrilled, especially considering we have nothing like this back home in Singapore.
That all ended at about 9:30 and I got back to the hostel at about 10pm and here I am with my very nutritious dinner.
Oh and before I go, here is a picture specially for Reuben (though I suppose the impact is less now)
SURPLISE!
Final verdict: After Youtube compression I suppose the difference in quality between the two videos is negligible. Still, for US$150 the Flip Cam is pretty neat and it takes an hour of photos and is really tiny. Great for on-the-go interviews or travel videos as well as capturing impromptu fun. I’d definitely recommend it, especially for us blogger types. I’m no Sheylara or Nadnut who use video a lot on their blogs, so I’m not that comfortable with camwhoring myself to the world (yet), but I foresee I will be posting a lot more videos after this!
I’m finally off the plane and in New York! Gosh it’s amazing to be here in summer! It’s so hot today it practically feels like Singapore. But it’s really surreal to be walking around in jeans and a t-shirt when all my previous visits (all three of them) were in winter with at least three layers of clothing!
I’m back at the Big Apple Hostel. Great place to stay, location-wise. If you’re passing through New York or know anyone who is, let me know!
Pictures soon, for now, lunch!
