Translate this page

Friday, February 25, 2011

Brief winter visit to Ottawa, Canada

Welcome news was received that I will be attending a training session in Ottawa for a few days. This will be my first time making my way to this part of the world and I look forward to it. The journey will take more than 24 hours including transits in Hong Kong and Toronto.
With a time difference of 13 hours between Kuala Lumpur and Ottawa, it is literally the other side of the world, morning over there and night here. It played havoc with my biological clock and the weather difference was a big challenge and I never did aclimatised to the Canadian winter, developing a persistent cough in no time which went away on returning home. The excessive use of heaters indoors while there I believe also caused some of the problems I had, the humidy was too low and my body was not accustomed to these drastic fluctuations.
Yes, it was really cold outside with temperature of -14⁰C at times and when you include wind chill factor it was almost unbearable for me. But never the less, I intend not to miss touring Ottawa when I get the opportunity.
This opportunity presented itself on my last day in Canada, cocooned in my brand new winter gears I brave the outdoors and step out of my warm and comfortable Hotel to join a walking tour booked in advance, as it turned out, I was the sole visitor taking this organised tour on this day. As implied the walking tour will proceed rain or shine regardless of the number of people and true enough this was honoured by my guide Craig MacDonald of
www.ottawawalkingtours.com, I highly recommend this guided tour if you have limited time and do not want to splurge on expenses. Craig is a very knowlegeble and capable guide and I am convinced he has a geniune interest in doing this part time job of his.

Parliament Hill home of the Parliament of Canada.


Rideau Canal


Opened in 1832 initially as a precaution in case of war with the United States and is still in use today as a recreational waterway. Ironically, no further military engagements took place between Canada and the United States after it was built.

Terry Fox Statue the meeting point for the walking tour.


Spark street one of Ottawa’s heritage streets.


Ottawa River

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Tiger Moth

A Tiger Moth, also called the Day-Flying Moth as they are active during the day, has about 11,000 species found all over the world belonging to the Arctiidae family of moths.



The specimen shown is one of the many species of Tiger moth.
They usually have bright colours as warning to predators that they are toxic.