26-08-06, Saturday

Hmm.. Today was a super interesting day! We had lunch at home and packed sandwiches to eat in Butchart Gardens. However, our landlord, Tom, suggested us to go at around 6 as the sky will be still bright. Yes. The day sets really late. And we chose to go on Saturday as there will be fireworks every Saturday from July till 2nd of September. Something we do not want to miss. However, we went downtown to wild away our times.

In Canada, there is a minimum wage which is like $8.50 per hour. This is super good, I think I should really start looking for work in campus, if I can find a job. Stop at 7-11 for an ice-cream. Hot day should have yummy cold ice-cream. And I think I have turn darker here due to the horrible uv rays. arrgh.. Didn't bring any sun block as I never thought the sun here will be the same in Singapore. In S'pore, most of the times I will be sheltered, in air-conditioned shopping malls. Here, there are plenty of shop houses which has pretty good stuff compared to the mall. And we went for more shopping. I really love the summer sale. But we need to find the good ones. It feels great to walk into a classy shophouse and head to the 50% off the last ticketed price area. Hehehe.. Got a jacket which cost 59 at first, and then there is a $29 tag pasted over the $59. And I paid half of $29, which is like $14.50 at the point of sale. This is so cool right! Rebecca spent a long time than me in the store. And during this time, I couldn't decide what colour jacket I should get. The blue one in the 5th photo looks good too. But I choose a brown one. Earth, neutral colours seem to suit me. But like what Rebecca and mum said, we are still young, should look more colourful. Sigh... But since I paid for it, I cannot have regrets. Oh the things here are before tax. Tend to spend more. Not like S'pore, the GST is included in the price.

Had to find the darn bus stop in downtown to take the 1 and only bus 75 to Butchart Garden. Then we realised the bus comes only every 1 hour in the evening. So we waited from 5.40 to 6.06pm. Finally arrived at Butchart Garden and paid for the 1st attraction I came. $23 bucks and it is really worth it. The fireworks were great, better than S'pore one. I bet all girls will love this place. Which girl doesn't love flowers? The flowers are super beautiful. We went to the Sunken Garden, which is just a garden at the bottom of the quarry. The whole place used to be a quarry, then the Butchart Family converted it to a garden after the quarry was abandoned. More flowers, more fountains.

Then we went to the rose garden. So many different kinds and some smelled really nice. There's also an outdoor concert, and many people will sitting down to listen. I guessed they came really early to sightsee and are waiting for the fireworks. That was like around 7+.

After the roses, we went to Butchart Cove. It overlooked the sea and the sun set was beautiful. After that, we went to the Japanese Garden. No flowers, lots of plants. Very tranquil. Oh, the air is super super fresh. Then we went to the Italian Garden which was a small garden. And then we headed to the place that has fireworks.

The fireworks was super beautiful! It is the most spectacular one I ever seen in my whole life. It lasted half an hour, 30 mins!!!! And we didn't expect to be so long. I took video of it as the camera can't capture the beauty of it. Maybe I shall post on you-tube if I can combine them into one. Actually took a segment of video which was super good but the stupid camera hanged. Arrgh.. So that segment was gone. But the nicest fireworks is on the 15th photo. It is actually a waterfall fireworks. the fireworks falls down as if like water flowing down a waterfall.

After the show, we had a hard time getting out. There were so many people! Finally got a bus to get out of the place but we needed to change to another bus to go back home. There wasn't any bus at all!!! We have been cheated by the bus guide. Which meant the schedule on the bus stop was correct. The last bus on the schedule was 10.17pm. And the one on our guide was 11.29pm. So we waited and waited and waited. Still no bus came. End up talking to two people who were also waiting for bus 6 and we were all heading to Sannich Centre. Brad was a Canadian from another state and Hiyuki(I hope I got his name correctly) was a Japanese. Brad was so cold as she was wearing shorts. Anyway, we talked a bit and it was so cute talking to the japanese as his english was super bad. And I realised that I forgot my japanese too. Arrgh..

In the end we shared a cab and Rebecca and I walked back home. Arrived at around 12.15. First time, home so late.