Attention Star Deck. Mission De Cloak has been a Success!

She walked briskly up the street and over the hill. There was a stunning vision of architecture all around, but she was blind to it all; her entire focus was on getting to the meeting place. Hurry, hurry! she said to her companion. We musn't be late! He gave her a bemused smile and pointed out that they were well within time, but she waved him away impatiently and skipped along just a little bit quicker.

The thoughts were rushing through her head at lightening speed, always coming back to one nagging thought. What if she doesn't like me?

They got to the pub and she stepped in, tentatively looking around. A slim girl with laughing eyes got up and approached her. Pixy? I'm Wynie!  They hugged, looked at each other, burst out laughing and hugged madly again while their respective companions looked on. Introductions all around - pausing to clarify real names - and more hugging!

And just like that, everything fell into place.

In reality, there was no real need for introductions since they already knew almost everything about each other! It was just one brief evening, but it was filled with fun and laughter in the company of some amazing people.

Later, when said goodnight and turned back for one last hug, she knew it wasn't really that it was going to be goodbye. This was the continuation of a beautiful friendship.

A Love Affair

It was supposed to be 3 weeks of a summer job. Plan activities for the kids; teach them some new skills; take them on walks, trips and excursions; keep them out of trouble; make some friends and hopefully have a good time in the process.

What I did not expect was to become a teacher, mentor, friend, counselor, mother, big sister, vengeance angel, hall monitor, centre administrator and general all round go-to girl.

Over the past two weeks, I have yelled at kids one moment, then comforted another lot the next. Dealt with every type of teenage aggro - smoking, drinking, fist fights, bullying and truancy to name just a few. Just when I want to take the entire lot and drown them in the harbour, they turn around and do something wonderful and caring and so I let them live another day.

There have been water fights, walks to the beach, football tournaments, cross dressing discos, X factor style talent contests, movie nights, moonlit walks, all nighters, heart-to-hearts, stomach aching laughter, some tears, one kiss and more hugs than I can remember.

My contract here has been extended until the end of the month. Perhaps for longer should the need arise. Oh sweet summer, how I am loving thee!

Twelve Days to Holiday Bliss

Do you hear what I hear? The sound of a fast approaching vacation! In just 12 days, I will be landing on the shores of my original hometown. I haven't lived there for ages, but every time I go back I seem to be able to slip right into the rhythm of things. And every time I have gone back, the city - and its people - have welcomed me back with open arms.

So much to see. People to visit. Old stomping gounds to discover all over again. In 12 days, my true love city I will see. And in that city, there will be:

Twelve bottles of home-made rice wine a-drinking
Eleven different kinds of Christmas sweeties
Ten ex-pat friends a-visiting
Nine ladies dancing (and some gentlemen too)
Eight (Christmas) choirs singing
Seven friend's babies a-wailing
Six pints at Toto's (gonna need that after those tots)
Five days laying on a beach! (in Goa)
Four calling birds
Three precious words
Two celebrations of love
And a Grandpa who I just can't wait to see!

Belle of the Ball

Two months of hectic preparations all came to a head last night at the Crowne Plaza hotel here in G Town. 360 guests gathered in the Argyll Suite for a champagne reception that was followed by a scrumptious 3 course meal. There were lavish auctions prizes, a car to be won as part of the main raffle event, an amazing line up the silent auction tables and a host of fun prezzies.


I had worked on this event since September, C even before that. It had meant long hours, sleepless nights and piles of anxious meetings over whether we would meet our targets for the night.

Even with a few hiccups, the evening was a raging success and early estimates show that we made about £27,000 that night. Adding that to the £20,000 already in the bank, it would seem that 3 well deserving charities in Glasgow are going to have a great start to the festive season!

No wonder then, that although we were almost shattered with exhaustion by the end of the night, C and I just had to pose for the cameras and share one gigantic hug as we rejoiced in our shared success.

Things That Make Your Bum Go Shake-Shake

The latest Cadbury Ad that is just so AWESOME! Everytime its on TV my hips start to shake and my bum makes dancy-dancy motions. Of course, this is not so good if I happen to hear it when I'm outside in public. But anyway.... I just had to share with those of you who may not be watching TV recently!

Enjoy!

Honeymoon Days

My first week in Glasgow has passed in a blurry haze. If you're looking for details on the actual journey from the T Dot, see here. Beans and VBF and VBF's husband (VBFh) were all at the airport to greet me. There was a lot of hugging and kissing all around, after they'd finished pointing and laughing at me being wheeled out of course. Its all about priorities.

Beans' apartment is right in the city centre, just a 15 minute ride from the airport on the express bus. North American cities, something to think about eh? A hot shower and large serving of good Irish stew later and we were ready to head out to the pub. No, seriously - we had to. It was a friend's birthday and the gang was meeting at the pub for pints. As I sat there and looked around the table at the chatting, laughing, drinking group around me. Except for the change in faces and accents, I could still be back in the T Dot sitting around with the gang at one of our fav spots. A most surreal experience.

Beans had the next day off thanks to a very nice and sympathetic boss who understood that we might just want some time together after being apart for the past 5 months. Apparently she told Beans that he was no good to her if he were at work but his brains were at home. Beans insists she said "brains and balls" but I'm thinking not. In any case, whatever she did say, Beans was home and we did have a lovely time... ahem.... catching up. So many stories to share..............

I finally got down to working on Friday morning after the boy left for work - which is a 10 minute walk away. I could be as lucky when I finally find a job and place of my own! 5 straight hours of typing later, I was jarred to reality by the phone ringing and Beans telling me to come meet him and his colleague at the pub around the corner. Turns out that his company had decided to close shop early that day in honour of the Glasgow Fair weekend and the lads were celebrating with a little dram. Feeling like I truly deserved a break after my morning of hard work, I toodled off. Many hours later we staggered out of the pub, said goodbye to the lads and headed off to grab a bite in an attempt to soak up some of the alcohol coursing through our veins! And then since we were still in a tizzy mood we walked over to the Cineplex to grab the late night showing of Harry Potter 6 before getting home and crashing.

Saturday dawned much too early - but there was loads to be done in preparation for the birthday BBQ for the Short Angry Bastard (SAB). SAB's gf JellyCake showed up early (way early) with all sorts of food and drink goodness and we all got cracking with various preps. The guests started to show up around 2pm - each bringing more food and drinks - and the party reigned supreme until well after the sun had set on the city that night.

After the previous day's excitement, Beans and I had a well deserved lie in on Sunday. Really, we were trying to put off the inevitable cleaning that follows all good parties! Still, between the two of us (and the blessed dishwasher!) we'd gotten everything cleaned, shined and put away before settling down to a nice bottle of vino rouge and a DVD.

On Monday morning, we surveyed the colossal amount of left over food in the fridge and promptly invited SAB and JellyCake over for a post mortem BBQ lunch. Plans were made with VBF and VBFh to meet at the nearby bowling alley for a round or two later in the afternoon. Yours truly disgraced herself with multiple gutter balls in the first round, but improved considerably in round 2. I maintain that the first round was just a warm up..... the others didn't seem to be buying that! Ah, well!

And so, we are at today. Beans is back at work. I'm alone in the apartment with a cup of coffee sitting before the laptop starting on the long long long scan of the interweb in hopes of finding that one job that is out there waiting for me. Its bound to be a tiresome road, but the fact that I'm here, with Beans instead of being an ocean apart makes the prospect of the long days ahead all the more bearable. My toe still isn't healed, but I think I've found my silver lining at last.

The Answer

For anyone who has every wondered why dancing and travelling are my passions, here's why. I couldn't have expressed it better!

Enjoy!

Monster Accomplishments!

It is my privilege to announce that all 3 members of Team Leaping Badgers successfully completed the 73 mile Maggie's Monster Bike and Hike event this past weekend. The boys also raised over 3500 GBPs through online donations, auctions, sweepstakes, quizzes and some outright begging to family and friends.

Honestly, those lads are pleased as punch right now. And rightly so! Not only did they finish a really challenging event - 30 miles of biking, 43 hiking from Fort Williams to Inverness - they also surpassed their fundraising goal by a large margin! They should be very very proud of their accomplishments.

So Damn Proud.
Swollen head proud.
New Daddy proud.
Just nailed a supermodel proud!

Well.... you get the picture!

Much Needed Cheer

My friend Maestro sent me this to cheer me up when he heard that I was at home and suffering from the sniffles and frog-in-the-throat syndrome. I thought I should share the love.

Enjoy!

PS: Can someone tell me how I can upload the video right into the blog post? My tech skills are limited as you all know!

Playing Tour Guide

After a whole month of impatient jiggling (read: anticipation), Jules was finally IN THE T DOT! Her first foray out into the city on Sattyday was to get her hair cut and styled (the girl sure has her priorities down right!) and so I headed over to Yorkville to meet her post coif. Got to the salon only to find that they had temporarily relocated and when I tried to call Jules on her "emerg US cellfone" found that I had copied down the wrong number. So, after hanging up on the very confused lady somewhere in Ohio, I called Trippy who trolled through my email and found me the correct digits. Watson - the game's afoot!


Jules and I had a joyous meeting on a Yorkville street corner where after I paused to duly admire her new cut, we proceeded to my favourite Vietnamese restaurant at Bloor/Avenue Road and over a nice big bowl of Bun Cha and spring rolls, we chitty chatted to our hearts content.


Our tummys full, we started on the Tour de Toronto; down Avenue Road past the ROM, through Queens Park and onto University Ave. Headed west on Dundas and peeped at the Ontario College of Art & Design and the brand spanking new AGO before settling down for a post lunch pint (for me) and a coke (for Jules) at one of my fav T Dot pubs - the Village Idiot. Continued our Discover TO walk through Spadina and Chinatown and then down to Queen West and back over to Nathan Phillips Sq and City Hall before making our way over to the Rogers Centre to find my brother at the Jays merchandise store and score some free passes to the CN Tower. This is a little bit of what we saw up there - just with less snow!


And finally, we capped off the day with dinner at the Rhino on Queen W where we were joined by Trippy and some other friends for dinner and more drinks. Btw, if you're in the T Dot and partial to good brews, check out the Rhino. They've recently renovated and now have an AMAZING selection of hoppy goodness both on tap as well as in bottles. I'd also recommend the spinach and chicken fettuccine. Yum!


Met up with Jules again on Sunday and headed over to the Distillery District for brunch and a wander around the shops and galleries. So intent on wandering was I that I totally forgot about the planned hockey game at 4pm and thankfully Jules has HER head screwed on tight and reminded me about the same. A mad dash over to the Richo Colosseum followed, but we were well in time to meet up with Beer Baron and Trippy and taken in the excitement of the Toronto Marlies vs. the Syracuse Crunch in some AAA hockey action!




It was only the second time I'd ever been to a Marlie's game and for a relatively cheap price, we managed to get a whole lot of entertainment such as kids on Zambonis.......
......and people running around in bubbles impersonating gerbils in between the game periods........
And of course - the actual hockey game which was terribly exciting as the two teams were evenly matched and both fought hard through out. Yes, there was also an all out gloves-off, face-pounding fight as well so Jules was able to experience ALL aspects of a hockey game!
Afterwards, Jules and I said goodbye to Trippy and Beer Baron and headed back into the city to find a poutine place. It turned out to be closed, so we settled for Japanese food instead. Just as tasty and much less heart-attack inducing as well!

Jules is probably busy at her conference right now - the real reason for her trip to the T Dot and we have plans to meet on Wednesday for a dim-sum lunch in Chinatown!

I also found out over the weekend that Conks, a neighbour/friend from Bombay who now lives in Atlanta is planning to visit me in May. Thanks to Beans and Jules' visits, he's going to get the super duper polished version of the Pixy tour of the T Dot!
Huuum... now there's a career option I could consider for Scotland!

The Colour Purple

July was drawing to a close and I still didn’t have a dress. A feverish desperation had taken over. Every time I passed a store window and saw even a glimmer of purple, I would throw myself against the glass willing it to be something that I could wear. I even tried to make an appointment at a bridal store, but the price tags on the dresses made me abandon that idea in a hurry. Then, just when I thought I was going to walk down that aisle in a purple dyed burlap sac, one of my cousins told me about this amazing (and relatively inexpensive) dressmaker who lived right by my house. Helpful Cousin was nice enough to call said dressmaker (a.k.a The Saviour) to make me an appointment and then was even nicer and agreed to go with me.

Helpful Cousin suggested that I go scout for fabrics before I meet the Dressmaker so that I would have sample swatches to show her. A quick call to friend, Shutterbug confirms that the best place for fabrics is Queen West. Shutterbug even offers to accompany me.

At this point I realize that not one person I know is confident in my ability to pick out a dress, a pattern or even a roll of cloth that will eventually be the dress. They are right of course, but it does sting to know that one is not trusted with fashion decisions. On the other hand, it does feel wonderful to know that my friends all have my back and just don’t want me to embarrass myself with having to wear a purple dyed burlap sac.

Confident that I will be able to just LOOK at fabric myself, I wave away her offer and the following day check out the fabric stores at Queen West. When I get there, I am a little alarmed by how MANY stores there are, all with seemingly never ending rolls of fabric in every hue and colour in the rainbow. Not quite sure of how one actually goes about buying fabric for a bridesmaid dress I stumble into the first store I see (tripping on the golden lab asleep on the steps) and trust the pattern into the hands of the shop assistant. “Help!” I squeak. “Make Dress. Need Fabric.” She wanders around the store for a bit and returns with a purple satinish fabric. I ask her for a sample and march out 10 minutes later marveling at my superior fabric choosing capabilities!

It’s not until I get home and compare the sample to the online pictures of the kilts do I realize that I have chosen an entirely WRONG shade of purple!

After banging my head repeatedly against a handy wall, I call Shutterbug and in a very small (and VERY humble) voice ask her to please accompany me to the fabric stores as I am obviously not capable of this task. So, accordingly, Shutterbug and I headed over to Queen West the following Saturday. She has come prepared with a colour palate for comparison that has the correct shade of purple, and then a scale of shades darker and lighter. When we get to the first store, Shutterbug sits me down at the counter and proceeds to explain to girl-behind-the-counter what we’re looking for using phrases like “overlay of chiffon” and “muted tones for best effect”. I am suitably impressed. Shutterbug is just as picky over the fabric as Shopaholic is with the finished product. The shop girl pulls out yards and yards of all kinds of fabrics in all hues of purple. Shutterbug expertly sifts through them all and finally selects some and asks for samples. We then go to 3 more shops and do the same thing all over again. In each shop, it is implied that I sit quietly in the corner and not touch anything. Finally, Shutterbug determines that we have enough sample and we leave.

Two days later, accompanied by Helpful Cousin I go to meet with the Dressmaker - who turns out to be the Dressmaker of my dreams! She patiently listens to my garbled descriptions of what I want and somehow pieces together a pattern that will be good for me. I leave with a renewed lease on life. In two short weeks, I will be dressless no more!

Validation

As my gentle readers know, I've been dancing for some years now. Started out with exploring Salsa back in 2003, then moved on to a bit of Lindy and 20s Charleston before settling down with Latin/Ballroom in fall of last year. Still, it wasn't until I began with West Coast Swing that I truly found my "groove". After a hiatus from the dance for about a year, I went back to it in May when my teacher had a weekend of WCS dances, workshops and events in celebration of her 50th birthday. After 3 days straight on the dance floor - I was back in love with the dance style.

Then, a few weeks ago at one of the regular Friday night dances, one of my "Westie" friends persuaded me to sign up for the Toronto Swing Dancing Championships that were taking place in the city for the very first time. Before I quite knew what was happening I found that I had forked over $$ for the entire weekend's registration AND signed myself up to compete in the newcomer Jack & Jill* competitions! I figured, there were so many people in the newcomer category that no one would have the time to stare at just me during the competition. Later I found out who my "competition" was and seeing that there were some folk who had been dancing for way longer than I had (but had never before competed), I was even more reassured knowing that there was no pressure at all!


I was lucky enough to draw a good partner, and we went out on the Saturday afternoon and had a good time during the competition. When people asked me how I thought I'd done, honestly, I considered not nervously hurling all over the dance floor an accomplishment in itself! Even during the award ceremonies on the Saturday night, I was so sure that nothing would come of the competition that at one point I even considered skipping it and going to dance in the Salsa room next door!


It's time for the Newcomer category and they call out the 3rd place winners. And we know the guy! Cheers and clapping and hooting......
.....they call out the 2nd place winners. Another couple from our dance group!!!! But wait, everyone thought that she would win first place FOR SURE. I turn to the person next to me and indignantly vent about how I feel that S and L should TOTALLY have won, and how she's so good... yada yada. I'm so busy being indignant that I totally miss the fact that 
MY name is being called - as FIRST PLACE WINNER!!!!! Many hands yank me out of my chair and push me towards the podium where I stagger (in a very UN dance-like manner) to collect my plaque. My partner is giving me a huge hug (huum, he smells good) and everyone is shouting and cheering and all I can manage is a generally goofy smile and a "thank you" before I stumble back to my seat. As the realization of actually placing, let alone WINNING sinks in, I find myself literally trembling with happiness and OMG, I think I'm now actually going to barf!!!!

Yes, I forced the judges to stare at my ass!!! Brilliant move I thought!

Other than my frequent urges to barf on the dance floor, the weekend was absolutely filled with fun times whether it was trying out some new moves during the workshops, or dancing till 5am each night (morning?) or just hanging out with the "Westies" who I might add are some of the nicest people in the dancing circuit. I must have learned about a hundred new moves on the dance floor from people from all over Canada and the US; many of who I hope to see at subsequent events.


What was most special for me was that I finally felt that I "belonged" to the dance community; that I wasn't just a stranger who showed up for a dance every now and then. People knew who I was (not only because of the win) and knew my name and best of all, I knew who THEY were and was able to smile and nod and greet them back.

I've enjoyed dancing for as long as I can remember. This weekend just made me realize why I love it so much.





*For the non dance savvy readers - a Jack & Jill is a popular form of competition where participants sign up as individual competitors and partners are determined through random selection or a draw. The couple is judged as a unit with points for leading, following, music syncopation etc.

A Walk in the Park - NYC Day 2

My second day in the Big Apple was spent in the relative bliss in the bustling city that is known as Central Park. Other than the quick peek in on my last trip, I'd never really taken time to fully appreciate the wonder that is this Oasis of Calm smack dab in the middle of this crazy busy city. Armed with my camera, my mp3 player and my thoughts - I walked into Central Park West at 81st street just opposite from the Museum of Natural History. Four hours later, I emerged at the intersection of 59th and Broadway, tired, hot and rather dirty..... but also very happy with how my afternoon had been spent.

Along the way, I saw:

The Bethseda Fountain

Hundreds of signs - pointing every which way!

Constant reminders that I was in the U S of A

Couples enjoying a leisurely row on the Lake

Amazing photo opps

A 50 year old Carousel that played old old show tunes

Beautiful, funny, devoted and always touching memorials

Kids enjoying the simple joys of a glorious summer afternoon

Budding photographers everywhere!

Some local residents

Fun pass times

Beauty everywhere; You just have to be still and enjoy it

NYC - Day 1

Caught the morning flight out to Newark, NJ early on Sunday morning from the Island airport in downtown T Dot. Judging by the heavy clouds hanging over the city, there was a bunch of rain in store and I was please to be heading out.

NJ Daddy and NJ Baby met me at the airport train station, and we headed right over to Shea Stadium - home of the NY Mets. Well until the end of this season anyway!
The last time I saw NJ Baby was when the family was over during Christmas and he's grown so big! Almost 9 months old now, he's full of life with a charming personality and easy smile (like his Mummy) and the tendency to doze off at the drop off a hat (like his Daddy).Our tickets were at the very top of the stadium, and though at first that proved to be a challenge seeing as both NJ Daddy and I are terrified of heights, as the game went on, we discovered that we actually had some of the best seats in the house! We had the wind in our backs (and boy was it a hot hot day) and when it began to rain mid way though the game - we had the overhang to protect us! Perfect!Of course, when you're at the ballpark 3 things are a must - beer, hot dogs and peanuts. As I cooled off on with a chilled bottle,And NJ Baby followed my example with one - er, make that two - of his own!
Very refreshed by his chilled drinks, NJ Baby sat up and began to take note of his surroundings. After all, this was his very first Major League Baseball game!

He saw the plane take off from La Guardia airport just behind the stadium.

He saw the Flushing Meadows tennis stadiums where the US Open Championships are held.

And he did the 7th inning stretch with Mr. Met the mascot.

Basically, NJ Baby decided that hanging out with Daddy and Auntie Pixy at the ball game was a great way to spend an afternoon!
 
After the game (which the Mets won) we had to battle our way through a hoard of people back to Highland Park, NJ

NJ Baby decided that he's going to be a good baseball fan (and only ever cheer for the Mets - NEVER the Yankees). After all, he wants to be just like his Daddy!

I'm Bringing Sexy Back

I've been so caught up with Ballroom dancing over the past 6 months, that I'd almost forgotten the joys of West Coast Swing. Thanks to JulieFest this past weekend - I'm back in love with that dance all over again!

To celebrate her 50th birthday, dancing diva Julie Epplett decided create an entire weekend dedicated to her love for the dance! She brought in Mike Topel - a diva in his own right - to lead a series of WCS workshops and styling sessions and invites were sent out to all and sundry. And since it was a Madonna themed weekend, why not invite the grand dame herself? Well, that's just what Julie did! Lady M was a no show, but perhaps that was all for the better as it would have taken the spotlight off the rest of us party guys and gals!

JulieFest offered an entire weekend of WCS and at first I thought that I'd only sample a few bites here and there. On Friday night I went to the class on combining Cha Cha Cha with WCS patterns and wow was it a revelation! Who'd have thunk that you can alternate between two styles of dancing in the SAME song! After the workshops, I stuck around for the dance even though I wasn't quite sure if I remembered everything I had learned a year ago. Apparently my trepidation was showing in my steps coz one of my partners leaned in during a dance and said, "Look, I can tell that you've got it - somewhere in you. You have the feel of a dancer - now just own the idea! I KNOW you can give me something more."

I could only gape back at him (while trying not to miss time) and wonder if he was still taking about my dance moves! I tried to keep what he said in mind as I went through the rest of the workshops and dance sessions for the rest of the weekend. Obviously something went right because on Sunday night as I danced with the same partner, he gave me a big beaming smile and (much to my general embarrassment) shouted out, "Alleluia!!! She's got her SEXY back!"

Springtime in Shakespeareville

Thanks to an amazing deal with tickets and train fare, and then finding a most wonderful (and VERY affordable) little B&B, my friend Shutterbug and myself found ourselves heading to the idyllic town of Stratford, Ontario last weekend. A mere hour and half away from Toronto, Stratford is a heaven of the arts smack dab in the middle of farming country. Most noted for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival from April to October and the Stratford Summer Music Festival in July/August, the town is aptly called the "Heart of Perth County".

Although it was the first weekend in May, Spring was taking a vacation as the rain poured down the entire train journey from Toronto there. Still, it was a great occasion for me to break out the funky rain boots that I'd bought in Montreal.

Thankfully we were able to amuse ourselves indoors for all of Saturday afternoon. By the time we walked over to the main street for dinner and then to the Festival Theatre for the evening show of Hamlet, the rain clouds had moved on and a feeble but determined sun was shining through. By the next morning, the rain clouds had all been blown away and although a keen wind still lingered, the weather was much more Spring-like and far more conducive to walking around and exploring the town. Shutterbug was delighted at the prospect of being able to fully try out her new camera and all of the photographs in this post are thanks to her good eye and amazing new toy. For most of the morning we wandered in and around the main street of Stratford taking in the quiet of the river and the bright tulips and other spring flowers. Even the town jail looked inviting enough - and not just for the criminally minded! Of course my joy knew no bounds when I discovered all sorts of wonderful book stores and even more wonderful - they were all having sidewalk sales! Yes, my bags were several books heavier on the return trip home. In keeping with our theme of "Discovery and Relaxation", we found this nice little restaurant just off the main path and spent a few hours sipping wines and sharing tales. And then spent the remainder of the afternoon stretched out by the river as I read and Shutterbug took pictures! Our weekend in Stratford was capped off with a drop in to the town's first ever documentary festival for a screening of one of the shorts that coincided perfectly with the amount of time we had to kill before we caught our evening train back to the city and to the real world!

Culture Curry

Hosted a bunch of friends over at my place yesterday for a night of all things Bollywood. The "plan" was to have 3 or 4 people over. It ended up being 8 or 9! Thankfully the Mater was around to help with the cooking as gourmet chef I am NOT!

The menu:
Coconut shrimp curry
Beef kebabs
Masoor Daal
Green peppers and potatoes with Indian spices
AND
Mango chutney

We watched the 2006 remake of “Don” and were alternately thrilled by the spectacular action sequences and then seconds later were reduced to hapless laughter by the very BAD sub titles!

It really is quite difficult to keep a straight face when the arch villain is sneering “Don’t think you are so cleaver. I have my vision on you.”
Or when in a moment of tender passion, the hardy hero says to his lady love, “I cannot idolly sit by and watch this injustice take place.”

Bollywood movies have come a long way. Subtitling obviously hasn’t.


And yes, if you were keeping track; I did manage to go 2 hours back and forth across the city to get my hair cut AND cook dinner for 9 of my friends - all in one afternoon!

And we raise our glasses to......

One year ago I met some of the nicest people who through their words and ways had inspired my trip to Japan. 

Cheers to Blog buddies!

The Best Cure for "Itchy Feet Syndrome"

It had been almost 3 whole months since my last travel episode, and I was ready to go on another mission of exploration and see new sights and experience new places and people. My gypsy genes were ready for another adventure and just in time, the Montreal trip materialized!

My friend The Lady Killer and his gf Ms. Perfect in Pink have been making an annual pilgrimage to Montreal's tiny brew pubs for some years now. Back in January he discovered that Via Rail Canada was advertising for fares to Montreal for as low as $59 each way and after a few mass emails out to the gang, voila, 3 days later we had a posse signed up for a trip over the Easter long weekend.

Deciding to make the very most of my foray into new territory (i:e Quebec), I pitched the idea of meeting some Montreal based clients at the same time. Boss Lady jumped at it and thanks to the hard work and efforts of my eager beaver intern, I had a bunch of meetings set up for the Thursday before. Equally nice was the fact that my organization agreed to pay for my travel costs there and back as well – hurrah!

My meetings were set to begin bright and early on the Thursday, so I caught the evening train in to Montreal on the Wednesday night. 4 hrs and 10 minutes later I was wandering around Montreal’s central station looking for long lost family friend who I was to stay with for the first two nights until my friends got into town. Had not met him in over 10 years so had given him a brief description of self that ended with “look for the brown girl in the bright red winter coat!”

The Boy was nice enough to drive me to my first meeting the next morning as it was an utterly miserable day with spitting rain and a good measure of wet snow as well. As luck would have it I stepped out of the car and into a puddle which of course meant that part of my pant leg and my entire shoe was totally and utterly soaked! Urgh! Thankfully I was carrying my “meeting boots” and was able to mop up most of the mess off my pants in time to meet clients. After the meeting, made my way directly to nearest shoe store and bought a pair of nice, comfy and happy rain boots. (Did I mention that the weather was crap?) Feeling much better after my purchase – party because my feet were nice and dry and partly because I had actually found the store using my rudimentary French and partly because the boots were really quite cute (and cheap) – I proceeded to the rest of the meetings feeling lovely about life.

Caught up with the Boy over dinner that night and traded stories about eccentric uncles, nagging mothers, interesting jobs (he is a Human Rights lawyer) and travel adventures over a rather LARGE jug of Sangria. After dinner (with more Sangria) staggered around looking for the car. Decided that he was too buzzed to drive anyway, so went off for dessert and actually ended up taking the subway home.

The next day dawned bright and sunny, but with butt freezing temperatures, which is of course what you get when you go to Montreal in March. After retrieving the car (and the accompanying parking ticket) Boy drove me to the famous St. Joseph’s Oratory where I spent ages checking out the amazing collection of nativity scenes from over 135 countries.

Then over for a winter walk in the Mount Real Cemetery. Winter walk soon turned into full blown snow fight (more like hard packed ice fight) which resulted in more than one disapproving look from other walkers/visitors. It was a terribly odd feeling scrambling up onto a 6 ft high bank of snow that was packed solid so that you could walk across the top! Most annoying was the fact that boy was able to run lightly across the top while I kept sinking in every few steps. (Gah to people who can run like Sanghai deer across snow banks)

Made my way over to the hotel that afternoon to meet up with the friends. True to form they were sitting in the restaurant drinking beer, waiting for check in time!

And that is pretty much how the rest of the weekend played out as well! Over the next 3 days (and nights), we went a wandering in downtown Montréal, checked out the famous Simon’s department store, drank out of a 4ft beer “pole”, visited several watering holes and sampled a lot of the local fare.

Rambled through the quaint lanes and by lanes of Old Montréal, got lost quite a bit, but always managed to find ourselves again!

We even managed to stumble upon a shoe store that was having a liquidation sale and I found the nicest (and cheapest) pair of brown winter boots! (For those of you at home keeping count – yes, that was the 2nd pair of boots I bought in the span of 3 days)

Other than the boots, the other important purchase that I made was Mackenzie Moose II. The first Mackenzie Moose was purchased before my mega trip in Dec 2006 and he was my constant companion in Scotland and England. Somewhere between London’s Heathrow airport and my grandparents’ house in Bombay he got lost and I dearly missed my furry friend on my travels. On my return to the T Dot, I looked high and low for a replacement Mac, but no such luck. Imagine my delight on finding him again! Look for Mac in my travel pics henceforth.

8 days of 27

Having a birthday is always fun - for me at least. I know that a lot of folk get a bit grouchy around their birthdays coz all they seem to think about is the fact that they are "getting older". I on the other hand completely revel in birthday de-light! Seriously, a day that's all about ME..... people giving you prezzies..... and if not prezzies - lots of love and wishes and kisses..... getting together with your family and friends to celebrate - ME. Honestly, what's NOT to love about this day?

This year's celebrations were especially nice and actually lasted an entire week with various friends and family contributing to the birthday merriment.

It all began last Sunday when I was invited over to Menace's house for dinner and a movie and girlie chitty-chatty. Dinner with Menace is always nice. For that matter, any meal at her place is always nice. Menace is a very very good cook. And excellent hostess. And lots of fun. Yet, Menace is surprisingly single, but until then her friends (like me) benefit (a lot). For example, she makes the bestest "morning after" breakfasts. Her always freshly ground coffee and scrambled eggs and honey toast and fresh fruit are awesome to chomp down after a night of drinking with the gang. If she's not feeling too rough, she'll make you her award winning (amongst friends) pancakes and then you KNOW you're in heaven! Anyway, I digress. Menace invited me over to her place for dinner last Sunday and we watched "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" followed by the 50th Grammy Awards. Both enjoyable to watch and terribly entertaining as well!

On Tuesday, I met up with Penguin Pal to attend a special event at the Royal Ontario Museum to celebrate 100 Years of Anne. L M Montgomery's "Anne of Green Gables" is by far one of my most favourite stories and I loved the character Anne from the very first time I read about her - so many moons ago. Well think about it....little girl, big imagination, rather dreamy and chatters non stop!! Sounds familiar??
The evening was a wonderful tribute to Montgomery and a wonderful experience for "kindered spirits" to get together and experience the magic of the story from a whole new pespective. Although it was a snowy, windy, wild winter night, the room was still packed with folks who were all there to celebrate the launch of the prequel to the Anne books - Before Green Gables. We got to hear from the author Budge Wilson (who I might add is rather a dear) and from Montgomery's granddaughter and many other, all who have made that evening and this new book possible. And best of all, we were served Raspberry Cordial and Pound Cake! Could it get any more like Green Gables??? I did mention to Penguin Pal that for the high price of the admission ticket, they might have considered serving *ahem* Anne's version of cordial instead! (Insider joke, must read the book to find out.)

What made this a birthday treat you ask? Well at the end of the night as we left with freshly autographed copies of the new book tucked under our arms, I turned to give PP the money for the ticket, she waved me away and declared it to be my birthday treat! Ah the way to my heart truly is via a bookcase!

On Thursday I met up with good friend from Jays for lunch. We got to the restaurant and then realized it was Valentine's day as the trio of giggling girls gushed over themselves trying to seat us. Thankfully we'd chosen a Texan steak grill for lunch and there weren't too many lovey-dovey people around. We did have to put up with the gaggle of gigglers and our waitress (who had the inexplicable name of Whiskey) wasn't all that sharp either. Still, when the meal did arrive it was good and we got some good catching up in between bites!
On Friday, we got let out of work early (yey!) and I dashed over to the salon to indulge in my birthday treat to myself - a full pedicure with all the fixings! Lord, I needed one too judging by the stern look I got from the esthetician! Shutterbug joined me after the pedi and we had a nice saunter through Bloor-Yorkville as we window shopped. I love window shopping. And I especially love it in the Bloor-Yorkville area. The shops are all so expensive that there's simply no way you'll be tempted to buy something you see. And even if by some freak of nature you DO find something in your price range (HIGHLY unlikely), chances are it's not going to fit anyway coz most of the people who shop in that district are all built along the lines of the Olsen twins and Kate Moss. Still, I do love the beautiful window decors and its a great (and cheap) way to kill time! Very soon it got too cold to wander around anymore, so we settled down to a great sushi dinner on Yonge Street and then headed off for a night of ballroom dancing on the Danforth.

And then yey... it was D Day!!!

Right at 12:05 am (just as I was nodding off to sleep) my cell phone rings! I finally get to it after first scrambling around for my alarm clock and sending various items flying off my side table and nearly overturing a full glass of water in the process! After a couple of groggy "hellos?" I finally clue in that its a friend from Australia and that snaps me awake in no time! We then proceed to chat away for the next 2.5 hours all the while totally ignoring what her bill is probably adding up to! We hadn't spoken to each other in YEARS and of course, we had tones of catching up to do. I'm SO looking forward to being at her wedding in Sydney in December this year.

My mum and dad presented me with a beautiful birthday present - jewelery from India. We're not a family that normally trades gifts at birthdays and Christmas and so on, so this was a real surprise for me!

That evening, I met up with a whole lot of my close friends at the home of the Lady Killer and Cosmo Girl. Lady Killer and I share a birthday and it was very nice to him to let me share in his celebrations as well. And in any case, almost everyone who I'd want to be at my birthday was there anyway and I just tacked on a few of my other friends to the guest list. I did also have a very new pair of amazingly beautiful boots to wear that night which added several inches to me and made me feel rather Amazonian!
Cosmo Girl had a cake all ready for me, with thankfully not ALL the candles on it! Everybody contributed to the food and as a result we had a veritable FEAST going!

And a "mini kegger too!

Sadly, I could not partake in the keg being on an alcohol free phase right now. But the one birthday drink I DID have ..... I made sure it was a good one - a pint of Innis & Gunn!

And then finally today, was the round up of my week long celebrations when my family all met at my aunt's place to celebrate my and my cousin's birthdays together. The Kimlette is born just a day before me - but several years apart!

And so ended the 8 days of 27. So far, I'm loving this new year of life!