Treetop trekking

Today we went for treetop trekking in Brampton... in the rain.

The experience was great. The nice thing is that once you are up there, you cannot give up until you reach the last platform, where there is a stair for you to get down. So you are pushed to the limit, you will have to overcome he obstacles, your fear to get to the finish line.

At one point, one person in my group was stuck on a difficult section, unable to move forward. She was shaking, mostly from the cold and from standing there for too long. But, she had to figure out the way to walk across, and she did it. 

So the activity push you forward, no looking back. The reward is great.

The view is great on the trees, once you walk through the connecting lines. Or if you are up to it, stop while you are walking, the view is incredible.

And then, at the end, you can proudly say, "I've done it".

I have done it and I love it. I would have loved to rewalk to Kingfisher line many times.

P/S while the week was nice. It has to rained on the weekend when we planned this. But the rain barely touched us under all the foliage. The air was cold and fresh. It was great regardless of the weather

Brampton was one of the smaller place. I heard Barrie facility is bigger and more challeging. I want to go there next.

Learning French: Système de numéro

So last week I finally get to count in French on my Doulingo account, not just one, two, three, but up to 100. And I met a bizarre counting system.

Counting in French is not similar to counting in English, Vietnamese, or Chinese language (the three that I have at least some knowledge of). That is enough to make this an odd ball I have never seen before.

4*20 + 19

How different?

English number system is this: twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty…. , and then add one to nine for 21, 22,....(which is what I expected counting in French would be like, silly me).

French count their seventy as soixante-dix (sixty and ten) and eighty as quatre-vingts (four-twenties) and ninety as quatre-vingt-dix (four-twenties and ten). (See more below).

So it is a weird system. Make sense (mathematically) but, still, weird. So I did some digging into this type of counting system.

It is called Vigesimal numeral system, base 20 (the one used in English is decimal, base 10).

Why twenty? 
One source says it is because we human have total of 20 fingers and toes.

And French is not alone. Many European country have the same or similar system, also Maya and Aztec and some Asia region. 

Danish word for 55 femoghalvtreds "five more than half the third twenty-block" [1] – a mouthful and a lot of mental calculation. (I wonder if the word come naturally as children learn the language or would they grow up to be a little bit more efficient with simple math.)

For more interesting and in-depth information of numeral system, consult The Number Concept: Its origin andDevelopment by Levi L.Conant, free on Guntenbert.

A glimpse of French numbers:

Number	In French	literal
20	vingt	20
21	vingt-et-un	20 and 1
30	trente	30
40	quarante	40
50	cinquante	50
60	soixante	60
70	soixante-dix	60 + 10
71	soixante-et-onze	60 and 11
72	soixante-douze	60 + 12
73	soixante-treize	60 + 13
74	soixante-quatorze	60 + 14
75	soixante-quinze	60 + 15
76	soixante-seize	60 + 16
77	soixante-dix-sept	60 + 17
78	soixante-dix-huit	60 + 18
79	soixante-dix-neuf	60 + 19
80	quatre-vingts	4 × 20s
81	quatre-vingt-un	4 × 20 + 1
82	quatre-vingt-deux	4 × 20 + 2
90	quatre-vingt-dix	4 × 20 + 10
91	quatre-vingt-onze	4 × 20 + 11
92	quatre-vingt-douze	4 × 20 + 12

Pre-Jane's Walk Bicycling

So in spirit of Jane's walk (coming up this weekend), I took out my bike for a test ride along the waterfront trail in the neighborhood. #LoveTOwalk

It took way longer than 5 min, because I was stopping, taking pictures and doubling back on a hidden trail.

Here are some pictures I took on the road.

Some stretch is nice, winding road with red branches

While others are dark, gloomy, like the forest in SnowWhite

 The perks of this year weather (despite being out of quack) is that it is warm and sunny, yet no leaves to hinder the view yet. The lake is blue, the sky is blue, and the trail is sunny. And the mood changes at the whim of the clouds.

Waterfront - bright and blue

River going out to the lake

The hidden trail that I am going to come back for