Happy new year dear readers!

And when I say happy, I mean I did get to see the fireworks at midnight at the Queen Victoria Park in CANADA baby!!!!!!!!!! 

And I spent my first four hours of this lovely new year at the Fallsview CASINO in CANADA baby!!!!!!!!!

Can you believe that? After all that back up planning I did and the long nap I took all afternoon giving up on the idea of the beautiful land that is CANADA. I woke up around 7pm when my mom called. She was thrilled to know that the weather was so bad that I had decided against going to Niagara Falls. Within the next hour, hotel reservations were done, snacks and drinks for the journey and a set of clothes were thrown in the car, and the bloody ice freezing my car was cleared with much effort. By 8:15PM we were on our way. 

By quarter to 12, we had checked into our room, had a quick dinner and a glass of Niagara merlot, and stood in the crazy cold with hundreds of people overlooking the magnificent Niagara Falls. I couldn't feel my toes and my moron self had decided to wear my new pair of leather boots with HEELS!!!! and we had to walk a long way in the snowy muddy path leading to the park. Anyway, so minutes before midnight, I looked around me and said to myself that I would rather be here, in this country, than anywhere else in the world right now. And that was a real good feeling.

So despite my earlier cynicism, I guess this year just might be something special. There is hope, like there ought to be, at the beginning of everything new.

Another reason I say this is because I won a few dollars at the casino. Oh what an experience it was! My first time in a casino. After having seen films like Ocean's Eleven and 21, I was full of excitement. To my surprise I realized that a lot of Chinese people have a lot of money, and that they love to gamble. We Indians were quite lost in the crowd - those big black jack tables, russian roulette, a wheel of fortune with currency bills on them, and a million kinds of slot machines. So that's what we decided to do - the slot machine. And I got real lucky two times - biggest one was when I started with $20, went down to $8, and then won $30. Overall it cost us around $15 for a night full of fun.

In the morning we went to take another look at the falls. It was sunny outside but still really really cold. Oh also, the drive last night was the scariest EVER! It was snowing and the roads were icy and there were the CRAZY HUGE LONG trucks that are so scary and potentially fatal. I would have died just sitting in the back seat with my eyes closed, but unfortunately I was driving! The drive back today was not too bad - just that we got a little lost because my moronic brain put the wrong home address in my GPS - and the new thing I learnt about myself is that I am scared of heights only when I am driving on a bridge over a huge river/waterfall with those CRAZY HUGE LONG trucks trying to overtake my car. That is when I visualize falling off the bridge with my car - and I think subconsciously it is my car I am more worried about. 

Anyway, so this morning we went to the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum. It was awesome. My favorite part was this crazy dark tunnel where there was this cloth all around a small bridge. The cloth had weird colorful patterns or dots on it which were glowing in the dark, and the best part was that it was moving, which made us so dizzy that we couldn't walk straight. I obviously went back, and even tried walking backwards, and with my eyes closed. I wish I had one of my own :-|

I also simply loved driving across the border and also in Canada. Oh and about the Casino - I truly understand how addictive it can be. I just wouldn't stop playing. When you're losing you want to play more to cover up your loses, and when you're winning you never want to stop. It's crazy! I loved it! Perfect sinful beginning to the year :)