The Aftermath

 The last guests have just been ushered out the door and I turn back to survey the disaster zone that is my flat. If there is a direct correlation between how great the party was as compared to the mess left behind, the I'm thinking this was the party of all parties!

The clean up will take a while, especially since I'm feeling rather tender right now. But it was one helluva night. A fitting close to a week of birthday celebrations, and a terrific start to wonderful new decade ahead.

My Weekend or How I Got Screwed by the French

The bags were packed, the plans had been made and it was all systems GO for the mega meeting of summer camp friends in Madrid. Yes, I had planned to take a chance on the "3 months advised" rule hoping that my UK work permit and the fact that I had not one, but TWO jobs to come back to would sway immigration in my favour. Then, the Air Traffic Controllers of France went on strike and my outbound flight was canceled forcing me to put the kibosh on that adventure. That was the first screw-over.

Not wanting to totally miss out on a vaykay, I called my friend Drama in London and asked if I could come crash at his for the weekend. Fortunately, it was simple enough to change my return flight from Barcelona into tickets to London and back. After a delightful dinner catch up with a T Dot pal in Chinatown, it was off to Soho to meet up with Drama at a mutual friend's birthday do.

That night, I must confess I went a little party-mad. It wasn't just the birthday boy who was at the receiving end of complimentary rounds, I was not doing too bad myself. A chance encounter at the bar had lead to some flirty chit chat with a tall and handsome blue eyed stranger. The five minutes at the bar turned into flirty chit chat for the rest of the night once we realised that we were both there for the same birthday party! Huuuum, what are the odds? When we said goodbye at the end of the night, I figured that was it. So it was pleasantly surprising (and quite flattering) when the birthday boy texted me the next morning to ask permission to pass on my phone number to Blue Eyes. 

One text message and phone call later, we were meeting up that evening for dinner, drinks and much more flirty chit chat. And that was the night I got screwed by the French again. Only this time, I didn't mind as much.

Happy to Me!!!

Things had been so very hectic in the run up to the fundraising event that I had been thinking of nothing else other than volunteer lists, prizes for the silent auction and all manner of other prep points that I quite neglected the fact that a momentous occasion was almost upon us.... my birthday!

When I finally set aside the notes and invoices from the ball, and began to think about the birthday, I knew one thing was for sure; no way was I going to spend the day cooped up at the office... or even at home. That would be just too sad, even for someone who has sunk as low as I have!

A quick scan on the interwebulator told me that Stirling Castle was having a bunch of special exhibitions and my handy-dandy yearly subscription to the Scottish Historic Society was not only going to get me into the castle for free, but also into all of the exhibitions at no extra cost! With that sweet a deal on the table, how could I not go???

And off I went. And what a glorious day for a trip to a medieval castle. Not because it was a clear and sunny wintry morning, but rather a cold and clammy day with the mists swirling low down on the hills and all around the castle; perfect for a visit into history.
Things warmed up a great deal later that evening when I met Beans, VBF and her husband for dinner at a Brazilian restaurant in the city centre. Glorious food, great laughs and the company of good friends; all ingredients for a very special birthday celebration.
The evening was particularly enjoyable since earlier on I'd received a phone call from the elusive Boss Man. Apologising profusely for not getting back to me earlier, he explained that although he had indeed dissolved the company and the partnership at Easterhouse, he was starting up a new company under a different banner and that far from being unemployed, my services would be very much needed to get things going and done correctly from the get go. Suffice to say, there was a huge sigh of relief at my end of the line! He was getting things sorted out for a new office location this week and would get back to me with information on starting next Monday. Same arrangement as before, same rates... just different location.

I went off to dinner feeling much MUCH better and ready to celebrate for more reasons than one! The pals did not disappoint and it was a simply lovely evening out. And the celebrations will continue this weekend with drinks at a local hot spot and then next week..... PARIS!

29 has begun well. I pray that it will continue as such. Dammit, I need a good year!

Year End Snippets

Internet access on this trip has been scanty at best. Which hopefully is a good enough explanation/excuse for my appalling lack of blog updates over the last little bit. The only times I can get online to check mail or check FB or dash off a quick post is when I can erm, "borrow" a signal from some hapless neighbour who has forgotten to secure his wireless connection. Like now!

Post surgery, we ALL felt better, not just Papa. There is the little issue of the biopsy results, but for now, we are making like ostriches and have our collective heads firmly buried in the sand and are only focusing on the here and now and the present. The rest, we will deal with as it comes.

Keeping that in mind, I have been doing my very best to catch up on meetings with friends over the past week or so which would explain my being out every single night ever since the 24th. Days are for family, nights are for friends!

One of the highlights of these nights out was the St. Anne's Choir reunion that my friend Maestro organised. Background: A bunch of us used to sing for the 6pm Sunday evening mass at our parish church. We'd been doing this for around 6 years when I left, and they continued to sing as a group for another 3 years after that until Maestro left to do an MBA in the US of A. 8.5 years later, we were back for a One Night Only "performance". We were older, fatter, taller, wiser(?) and in many cases with little versions running around; but our voices still blended just as well as before and we totally rocked the house church! Said my little cousin as we made our way to church that evening: You haven't MET each other in 8 years, let alone SANG together and the mass is at 7pm and its already 6:27 right now which gives you less than half an hour to practice!!! Can you pull this off??? The same cousin to her mum later that night; They hadn't even MET in 8 years and they didn't even have half an hour of practice and they were AWESOME!

And so have passed these last few days, with celebratory pre dinner drinks and dinners and post dinner coffees and the likes. Took a quick jaunt downtown with Maestro and another visiting friend (M&M) from "the abroad" who is also an ex Xaverite, like myself. Which was good enough reason to pay a visit to our Alma Mater. We even made a quick stop at the Psychology classrooms and labs high up in the rafters of the college where both M&M and I worked and slaved during our final years. OK, so perhaps M&M did just a *leetle* more slaving than I did, but hey, that's besides the point. We did meet a bunch of wannabe psych grads who were in the current process of slavery over journals - pointless copying of notes, observations and inferences into big fat log books that no one really bothered to read - and de-lighted their bogged down little minds with narrations of our past exploits in the very same classrooms eons before. I do believe that they were considerably bolstered by actual evidence that other persons had gone through the same boring mind numbing experience and somehow lived to tell the tale!

Which brings us to today. The last day of 2009. A chance to say goodbye to the year that has been and greet with open arms the year that is to come.

But first, I must go to the airport to pick up Jo who arrived in from Goa today to spend New Year's eve and the next few days with me before heading back home to Japan. Need to greet her before the new year!

Tricking and Treating!

A chance conversation with VBF and Gingersnap made me realise that many of my friends here in G Town had never carved up pumpkins for Hallowe'en! Given that I am only a recent carver myself, I just had to share the experience and so, everyone was invited over to my place yesterday.

A few false starts and slips later, here are the results. Happy Hallowe'en Everyone!

How to Feel Better About Yourself - In 5 Easy Steps!

1. Answer a frantic call from a colleague from the charity where you volunteer.

2. Agree (against your better judgement) to show up and help out at an event that evening where they are desperate for help.

3. Wheedle a friend to go with you with promises of pints and other such treats.

4. Take your spot on the podium as requested by the shoot director.

5. Drop your bathrobe, strike a pose, face the camera and turn on your very best smile.


And voila! A super surge of adrenalin guaranteed to make you forget about horrid life events such as getting dumped, not having a job, your grandmother's death, missing your friends and family and all other such lows. Also guaranteed to keep a smile plastered on your face for the next few days as you revel in pulling off a downright ballsy move!

The calendar comes out in a few weeks time. All proceeds go towards care and support for cancer patients and their families, here in Scotland. Copies are £5 each. Let me know if you'd like one, and keep an eye out for November 2010!

Climbing the Social Ladder

On Friday night, as I settled down to watch a marathon of crappy Friday night TV, I got a very unexpected but very welcome message from a girl I knew back in the T Dot. Turns out that she was now in Edinburgh doing her Masters and heard that I was in G Town. Her message mentioned that the city was having their annual "Doors Open" festival over the weekend and if I didn't have anything else planned, that I should drop by.

All thoughts of hair washing were pushed out the window and so I set off the next morning for a day of sightseeing and happy wanderings through churches, graveyards, libraries, castles and random old buildings. (More about that on the travel blog later). Later that evening, I met up with E and we settled down to dinner and pints at lots and lots of chitty chat.

The next day, when I woke up tired and a bit hungover from the night before, Rain Man bounced into the kitchen reminding me that I had promised to cook biryani over the weekend. He'd scooted off to the stores early on and bought all of the ingredients and so there was no backing out. (Crafty Devil!)

And so, we made biryani. Rain Man nominated himself Official Lamb Chopper-Upper Person and went at with a gusto that was just a tad worrying and had me considering if I needed to get myself a lock and bolt for my bedroom door!

I took all the meat (and it was a lot!) that we got off the leg and after adding a little bit of this, that, the other and some more of the first stuff it became:

We had a bit of a challenge with the rice as the recipe called for 1 kg of rice but we didn't have a utensil large enough to cook that. So we had 3 little pots going all at once and desperately tried to monitor all of 'em so that we wouldn't screw up the main part of the biryani. We didn't do too badly (only one dish burnt), but kids, don't try this at home.

About half way though the lamb cooking, we realised that we were desperately late for the basketball game (a bunch of RM's friends were all going) so Rain Man went off and I stayed back to finish off the curry, layer the rice and the meat. All that was left was to let it cook in the oven for about 20 minutes and we were done.

Post game, we headed out for pints... which was followed by more pints and then then someone suggested pub quiz... and since we were all very susceptible to suggestion at that point that's just where we headed.

And best of all, after we were done at the pub quiz got home we popped the biryani into the oven and 20 minutes later we were chowing down on yummy yummy rice and lamb goodness.

This really isn't the best picture of our 3 hours of hard labour, but we didn't actually think about taking pics until we were more than half way done. Judging by how much Rain Man ate, it was finger lickin good.

And so went the weekend. Turns out, I have a semblance of a social life after all!

Pyjama Party

On a whim, I called up VBF and asked her if she wanted to come over on Saturday night and veg out on DVDs, junk food and a bottle of wine. T'will be just like our school days I told her. Well, minus the vino.

So she did, and we had a night of movies (Bollywood of course) and I made dinner. Yes, there was more flexing of culinary muscles - Grilled salmon cooked with sauteed onions and tomatoes with a side of veggies and mashed taters.
And judging by the broad grin, (and the later clean plate) it wasn't half bad either. Course, we followed that rather healthy dinner with a dessert of loads of ice cream and other things that will generally rot your teeth.


We were up till 3 am or thereabouts. We talked, we remembered. We laughed and cried. Ok, so it was mostly me doing the crying but you know what I mean. And then I felt even worse when I realised that she kinda blamed herself for some of this mess with Beans. She figured that if it hadn't been for her wedding we'd never have met and then I wouldn't be in my current sad state.


And although kinda true in a way, it doesn't mean anything. I could have met someone else just as nice and warm and fuzzy which could have later turned from sunshine and bunnies to heartache and tears. There are points where I do fervently wish that I could go back a year and change things. But that would also mean that I wouldn't have a year of fun, of good times, of being loved and in love. After all, isn't it better to have loved and lost....?
It felt nice to just talk. I hadn't realised just how much I missed my T Dot pals and being able to lean on them when things are crappy. The skype phone calls, although nice just don't have the same effect of going down to one of our fav pubs and hashing things over a couppla pints.

Hanging with VBF that night made me remember that even though she was now married and lived over an hours bus ride away, she was still the friend that I grew up with, the friend who had been there for me through all SORTS of crap over the past and who will be sticking around to see me though this new crap as well.
And to prove it, she made me pancakes the next morning. Which ironically is just what Trippy would have made for me if I was back in the T Dot.
So, here's to my friends here and there and everywhere. The very bestest ones a girl could ever ask for and the perfect ones with whom to share a good ol pancake breakfast.

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.

Stupid Parents = Stupider Children. Help stop this cycle of destruction!!

By most accounts, Queen Victoria was a cranky old bat who lived and reigned far longer than she should have. Still, I cannot help but feeling a surge of love for the old girl every spring when we are graced with a much coveted day off on the 3rd Monday of May in celebration of her birthday.

I was supposed to head over to Shutterbug's place on Saturday for a pot luck + communal viewing of Eurovision 2009. Most ashamed to say that I had never even HEARD of Eurovision until she sent out the invite a few weeks ago and even then, I had to go google it! Who knew this had been going on for almost 50 years??? Beans scoffed at the whole concept, but was also quick to point out that Ireland had apparently won the most times! (funny boy!). Anyway, that's where I had planned to be on Saturday afternoon, thinking that it would a great addition towards my Preparing to Live in Europe series. But, life turned out differently and thanks to some majorly yucky sensations in my tummy I was huddled in bed until late afternoon. Texts back and forth t'ween Beans (who was in Ft. Williams at an Iron Man contest with some mutual friends) and I made me feel heaps better and by that evening.

Sunday morning dawned bright and beautiful and it seemed a pity to waste such a glorious day indoors. A quick bout of calls to Beer Baron, Trippy and Lady Killer had us all heading out to the Toronto Zoo where we spent a de-lightful afternoon animal gazing. Not so de-lightful however was fighting our way through the crowds and crowds of families each with a couple of strollers that were close in size to a mini humvi! Apparently, "I have a kid" is a good enough reason for every parent to abandon all rules of polite social conduct - such as waiting in line - and push and shove ones way to the front. This would make sense in a situation with only ONE person with a kid/stroller such as at a bus stop or subway, but doesn't really work the same when about 20 people around you ALSO have over sized stroller filled offspring. Trippy and I kept hoping that a couple of the parents would get into an all out stroller battle and we would have been so ready with a play by play commentary!

The abundance of species Parentus Stupidus made us realize just why there are so many kids who grow up to be total douchbags; really, they cannot help it after the constant interaction with douchbag parents throughout the formative years of their life. Case in point, at the Artic Wolves paddock, Parentus Stupidus # 1 to her youngins: Oh look at the cute white doggie boys. His name is Wolf.

And a few years from now, we will hear about this same kid being mauled by a grizzly on a camping trip because he went to play with the little brown bear that was just like Teddy.

Thai food and Protests - All in a Days Work

Today was the last day of Jules' work/fun vacation and I travelled down town to meet up with her for one last round of fun 'n frolic. Given that Jules is heading back to a (self described) sandbox with limited options for world cuisine, we headed over to Salad King, one of the most awesome Thai restaurants in the city where we proceeded to chow down on Phud Thai and Satay Chicken and Golden curry with rice................
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
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Sorry... just reminiscing.

Our tummy filled to busting point, we wandered down to Dundas sq where there was a protest in progress. Curious, we went in for a closer look only to find that this was the "One Size fits All" kind of protest since there were banners and placards reading all sorts of messages like Bring the Troops Home - NOW and More Healthcare for All, Avert Economic Mess (a little too late if yer ask me) and even something about Child care that we didn't quite catch. Here's a picture of Jules and the protesters.
And here's one of her just being touristy. Notice, it was a VERY windy day! This was also to prove to certain unbelievers that my blog buddies are NOT just all in my imagination! They really DO exist!

Didn't have much time for anything else other than one last wander through the Eaton Centre where Jules seemed to know her way around that mall much better than me. Guess it was all that time she spent in there dutifully contributing to Canada's economy. Thanks Jules - much appreciated.

She's off home now, but we already have plans for another meet up in August when I'm in her neck of the dessert visiting Israel. I do hope that works out. Meeting my imaginary friends is a whole heap of fun!

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!

Nite of Fun, Friends and Fashion

The ever amazing Trippy hosted her annual "Awards Nite" dinner yesterday. The actual show began at 8:30pm EST, but we were there well in advance for the red carpet extravaganza because let's face it, that's what we were most interested in. Trippy had some delish munchies to keep our tummies full, and exciting and fun filled Oscar trivia games for the commercial breaks and the boring speeches. And prizes too!! At the end of the night, Ms. Trippy was voted "Best Hostess" and richly deserving as well. (WHY is this girl still single??)


And because I cannot resist, here's my two pence:

• Best opening sequence in a long long time. Yes people, the Oscars are about MOVIES and ACTORS - not comedians with their trying-too-hard monologues.
• Best year for acceptance speeches. Personal fav, the Japanese dude winning for best short animation ended his speech with "Domo Arigato, Mister Roboto". Kate Winslet telling Meryl Streep to "suck it up" was also pretty damn funny.
• Best intro to the 4 big acting awards. It must have felt pretty damn good to be celebrated in that fashion - win or no win.
• Best presenter pairing - Steve Martin and Tina Fey. Now that's how you do a comedic presenter piece.
• Worse gown - Beyonce. It looked like someone had vomited gold all over the dress and her too plain hair and make up and utter lack of jewellery wasn't a hit either.
• Worst presenter pairing - Daniel Craig and Sarah Jessica Parker. Thank god for the teleprompter, because it was obvious that they had NOTHING to say to each other.
• Best awkward moment - cameras cutting to Angie as Jennifer Anniston and Jack Black did their thing on stage.
• Worst let down - Hugh Jackman kept his clothes on for the entire show. I want a refund.

Just in case you were under a rock and missed out on what happened with Hollywood's biggest night of the year, here's an excellent article that nicely sums it all up.

Wish this guy did some of the acceptance speeches!!

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!

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!

Last days of 2007

Since Christmas, life has stumbled on at a rather slow and languid pace. And I'm really quite liking that! After the hustle and bustle of the last few months with the planning for the charity event, parties and meetings and finally the SFO trip, it's been quite nice to simply do.... nothing!


There has been a lot of lounging around in my new jammies and lots of watching of DVDs - Ronnie Mars, BFG Wedding, The Sound of Music (40th anniversary edition), Gentlemen Prefer Blonds, The Lady Vanishes...to name just a few)
I've interspersed the DVD watching with book reading - The Secrets of the Vinyl Cafe, The Glass Castle, Around the world in 80 days (re-read), Miracle on 34th Street (yes- the original book!) and am now on Tic Tok of Oz.


Finally left the comfort and warmth of home last night to meet up with the girls for pre New Year's Eve drinks. Found out that the bookstore on Front Street @ Church was having a mega sale and picked up a few books.


Will be going back tomorrow with a list....and more time to browse!