jolie Anjulie

Anjulie puts on an amazing show for a non-deserving crowd at Viva in Hamilton.

(photo homorazzi.com)

I've never been out in Hamilton to party before, and one night is not a lot to judge a small suburban town on, but I'm unlikely to go partying in Hamilton again. Although Hesse Village is quite quaint, and made me think 'why on earth did urban planners not build this type of High Street feel in Mississauga' the actual party scene, or at least Viva itself, was substandard. Well, maybe ideal for a 19 year old, of which there were many. But considering that Anjulie is a massive gig for a venue so far from Toronto, the club should have done much better with promotion. All of Hamilton should have been at Viva watching the pint sized singer belt out her hits and soon to be hits.

She's got some mad catchy tunes, and a wicked stage presence that boosts her warm yet husky vocals. Two fly girls flanked her with spirited moves while Anjulie nailed songs like 'fucking sexy' (have assumed the song name here:)), 'brand new bitch' and the recently released anthem 'stand behind the music'. Her strong vocals combined with tight rapping reminds me of a combination of Gwen Stefani - though thankfully Anjulie's lyrics have meaning and intelligence - and M.I.A. She is not comparable to most of today's pop starlettes because she actually writes her own music. Hooray for not pandering to the synthetically created 'gems' of today's pop world. She even writes other singer's music, notably this year, 'Don't call me baby' sung by Kreesha Turner.

If you haven't seen Anjulie, check her out. She's performing tomorrow night at Nathan Philips Square for Citytv's New Year's Eve bash, go down or watch it on tv.

I'm definitely looking forward to catching her again, this time in the 416.

Stand Behind the Music video

Ice house

I miss lots of things about London everyday, but today everything else pales in comparison to my longing for being able to control the heating in my apartment. As in turn on the heating when it's -5 outside and you can see your breath in your bedroom.

(photo torontoist.com)

Our heating is controlled by our lovely, friendly downstairs neighbours who are away for the Christmas break. Luckily, by some animalistic foresight, and suggestion from parents, we have a mini space heater that has helped us survive the night. However even with the heater and many blanket, ski clothing, etc I still can't feel 3 of my toes. Our landlord was supposed to be here between 11 and 1. It's now 345. He's not here. He is probably rightfully terrified of the cold and my wrath. A knowledgeable friend did tell me that it is legal for a dwelling that's only 2 separate apartments to share utilities. A law no doubt written by someone who's never been without heat on a -5 winter day.

Jingle Jingle - except in my pocket

My top 5 Christmas songs:

5. I wanna hippopotamus
4. Melekalikimaka
3. Oh Holy Night
2. Carol of the Bells
1. Teresa Brewer's Christmas album - the whole album

(photo popsike.com)

Ah the scents of Christmas are in the air. Fir trees, eggnog, black cake (West Indian xmas dessert delicacy filled with rum), money burning through my wallet and being replaced by small tokens of appreciation for loved ones. 

Christmas is quite different this year. For the last 10, I have raced home as early as I could from uni, hockey or work commitments to enjoy the holidays with my family and friends, and have raced off just as quickly to return to those commitments. It's very nice to be able to have quite a relaxed Christmas where I'm not filling my few days with fitting people in so I see everyone. I can enjoy all the splendour of Christmas, and I do love me a good Christmas, without paying way too much to fly home for far too little a time. I also get the added bonus of being able to say 'yes' when invited to parties and events after New Years. Hooray!  It also means more unusual parties I may not have gone to in the past because it would have been time spent away from a larger group of friends can now be attended, and new friends made. 

I also have close friends and family who are doing the flying in from abroad thing, so the excitement of 'this is Christmas, and it's a big deal because so-and-so came home for it' is definitely in the air, and I've already had a chance to partake. 

Ding dong ding dong! 

Songs of good cheer!

Christmas is here! 

top 5 part 3

My top 5 of Toronto today

1. being able to have a house party with more than ten people comfortably there
2. waking up to a fridge full of food because I have an amazing Aunt who knows her food and is very good at sharing
3. it's sunny today
4. I'm about to eat relatively cheap yet completely delicious sushi with old friends
5. sun chips, always tasty, also have 100% compostable bags.

amazon.ca

The question of the day is:

How, on earth, is it that amazon.co.uk and amazon.com both have everything you could imagine you would ever want and amazon.ca has none of those things? The few items that amazon.ca sells run at about twice the price of amazon.com (the exchange rate is almost 1 at the moment, so we can't blame that).

For example, the blank that I wanted to order my Blank for Christmas for $21 on amazon.com runs at $80 on amazon.ca - from only one seller. The other blank that I wanted to buy for the same Blank at $2.99 on amazon.com (from a zillion sellers) is $19.99 from one seller on amazon.ca. Let me tell you, that blank is a really common item that can be found quite easily everywhere, in the real and virtual world, apart from amazon.ca of course, because amazon.ca essentially sells nothing. A whole little of nothing for a whole lot of bucks.  It's like those stores that you walk into that sell so few items that you think 'this must be a drug front'. But a virtual drugfront? Is that possible?
That little amazon.ca logo is smiling because he has nothing to do today or any day, and also he is high on all his drugs. 

top 5 London part 2

things I miss about London today

1. having a job I loved going to everyday
2. being able to buy liquor at any corner store
3. that you can basically always get free delivery ordering on amazon
4. that it doesn't matter what bank you bank with, another bank's atm won't charge you $5 just to use it
5. that all prices include tax. if it says it costs a pound, it will cost a pound.

you know why Toronto's cool?

house parties.

House parties are the greatest form of nightlife. A whole bunch of people who sort of know each other, like one guy in that group knows one guy in the other group, etc, lots of booze that is not ridiculously expensive a la bar, you don't have to wear shoes, you are much less likely to have a complete fool following you around and not getting your f-off hints, and generally everyone is there for merriment so fights are more or less completely avoided (i'm writing about 28-year-old house parties, not 16-year-old-my-parents-are-out-of-town house parties), they are also often themed. Tonight i'm going to an apres-ski party. oh yes.

(photo blue-sunshine.com)

I will be dressed like the man in the red sweater, not the woman in the purple boots. god her costume is booring. 

La Neige

Today is the first snowfall in Toronto. It is beautiful. I have always thought that the seasons in Ontario make it one of the best places to live. You get the crisp, cool, colourful days of fall, then the sunny yet frightfully cold winters that leave you to appreciate the dawning of  bright spring and the hot hot heat of summer.
Yes, the winters aren't all fun and games making snow angels, tobogganing and skiing. There's also the freeze-your-eyelids-shut wait for the streetcar, the necessity for toques, mitts and gigantic coats. But still a subzero winter is something that's only experienced by a handful of countries residents.

Even in England, when it snows, which is an exceptionally rare occurrence, the parks are packed with people trying to toboggan. Which makes you wonder where all these Brits got their wooden sleighs (and how they store them in tiny London flats?) - but it turns out it used to snow lots more in London ten years ago. And, when I think about wearing a snowsuit under my Halloween costume as a little kid, I realize that is true in Toronto as well. The minus 20 everyday winters of the past have been reduced to much milder temperatures, with a few crazy storms thrown in for good measure.

Culprit? You guessed it, global warming. But no, I'm not all doom and gloom today. Right now the Durban climate talks need some people power to get leaders to think (I was going to continue that sentence but 'think' sums it up nicely). So, please go onto avaaz and sign the petition to get global leaders to use their brains. 

top 5 London

today, the top 5 things I miss about the London lifestyle are:

1. very chilled out pints at the friendly local
2. cobblestone streets
3. easy access to lots of large and easy-to-run-in parks
4. the range of British accents
5. Bam, of Bim and Bam

Montreal favourites

Old Montreal

English area building

typical Montreal fire escapes

typical Montreal style staircases (watch out for the winter ice Grannys)

some of the amazing street art across the city

Peter Kent - you suck

(photo cbc.ca)

This is Peter Kent. You probably don't recognize him, because he's the worst. The Canadian Environment Minister doesn't care about the environment. It's sad and dangerous.

Two days ago when pressured about whether Canada would be pulling out of the Kyoto agreement, Kent mutter something undecipherable then went on to say that Kyoto is the past and 'Copenhagen and Cancun are the future'. This was in reference to the climate summits that happened last year and the previous year, when we needed the world leaders to come to an agreement on what would be done to save the planet and stop climate change before it's too late. They did not come to a binding agreement, so when this fool says that 'the future' is 2 summits that
a) happened in the past, and
b) amounted to very little in terms of what countries must do to save the planet

I really wonder what future he's talking about. It is not one that I as a Canadian am willing to wait to see unfold. It's a terrifying future.

Get the conservatives and their money grubbing, Albertan tar sands out of here. Bring on Elizabeth May and her green party (read her take on the distortions Kent is spewing on the Kyoto agreement here). Bring on renewable energy, environment related jobs, and forcing people, companies and gov'ts to actually DO something about climate change right now.

Yes, China, India and Brazil need to do it too, but Canada be a leader for once. 

lament o to do list

Not having a job is a strange predicament. While working, even at a job that I loved every minute of, I dreamt of months of vacation time to do everything that everyone wants to do: travel the world, write a book, sell a screenplay, become a really good photographer, learn to speak Spanish and French well, learn to salsa, samba and crump, learn to play the guitar, learn most of the world's history, volunteer my time wisely and with a lot to show for it.

(photo whoisbolaji.com)

So far, in my free time I have spent a lot of time applying for jobs, surfing the net and watching movies (I'm currently watching HP6 and Dumbledore has just met Draco on the top of the clock tower. uhoh). 

With my to do list, this is where I've gotten:

• travel the world - well I'm in Montreal at the moment, so that's pretty much done. can't be everywhere at once can you?
• write a book - I'm writing this blog, essentially the same
• sell a screenplay - i've decided the screenplay I wrote 6 years ago sucks massively and needs to go back to the drawing board. on hold.
• become a really good photographer - some dirty thief thieved my camera after being back 3 weeks, having already taken some really wicked photos of Toronto but not putting them on my computer. boo to thievery. 
• learn to speak Spanish and French well - I found my high school spanish text books and read the first 4 chapters of one. boligrapho, lapiz, cuaderno, escuela. doing well. as for French, i'm in Montreal, so pretty much solved.
• learn to salsa, samba and crump - my mom has a pilates, fitness combo video that's basically doing level 1 ballet. did it yesterday. i would write what we did, but i can't spell any of those french ballet words. all dancing starts with ballet, i'm sure of it.
• learn most of the world's history - this is pretty difficult, but i'm reading about recent american history in my book (well current affairs will soon be recent history), and i've got the history of Hogwarts downpat.
• volunteer my time - i haven't heard back from the charity i offered my volunteer services to. hmm. and have also been helping write the strategy for a social enterprise a friend is starting.

so ya, tick tick tick on those, and yet not having a job does make me feel quite contributionless. my main goal for this time off was to some how find half a million bucks to put an artificial turf down in Georgetown, Guyana. If anyone has any ideas on that, please please let me know. 

In the meantime, I know that once I start a job I'm not going to have much time to do all of these things, so I really need to get cracking. This video has inspired me to know that now me is the only me (ie stop procrastinating).

Alright, gotta bounce! Lots to do, time to figure out what's on tv now that Dumbledore is dead. :( still heartbreaking

dURBAN fashion

(photo polyvore.com)

I'm sorry world. I really should know better. But they were $30 (which is about 20 quid), fit perfectly and I can't be expected to never buy clothes right? Yes, I know what you're thinking: buy good clothing that will last so I don't need to buy them again. That's the way to reduce your personal carbon footprint. Fine. You win. That's exactly right, and I fell culprit to the cheap form fitting blackest black of jeans. Then I put them on and my hands turned black. Hmm. I guessed there was some excess die on these jeans. No wait, after washing them in the white bathtub (of a rented apartment) for half an hour and turning the bathtub blue, in turns out the jeans were entirely dye. I've never seen so much dye come out of anything. When they get out of the dryer (they continue to soak in the kitchen sink 12 hours later) I'm sure my blackest black jeans will be blue defeating the purpose of buying them and adding not only the energy used in creating them, but also the sick amount of water and energy used to get the dye off of them, the white bathtub and my hands. Well screw you Latitude, and screw you button that says 'LA premium wax jeans' (wax jeans? i really should read labels) and screw you inside label that says 'seductions FD' you have certainly seduced me into buying your rubbish, waste of energy, time and money jeans. I am making a vow here and now to read labels, and not be seduced by stretchy, goodness-my-ass-looks-great-in-these garments ever again.

What makes it even worse is I've done this on the eve of the Durban climate talks, where I want a binding, fair (not bullying the little countries into letting the big dogs off easy) agreement to reduce emissions drastically. If you don't know what's happening with the climate talks, here's a quick 5 things to know about Durban Climate Talks to get you in the know.


Also, if you're of the mind that the climate needs to be saved after the global economy is saved, you haven't -and MUST - read this by George Monbiot who is very clever yet easy to read. Actually, it doesn't matter who you are, read that article right this moment. And then, leave me a comment. 


Feel free to make fun of me constantly if you ever see me in black jeans to really make it sink in. I can handle it. 

to all yall suckers that don't know

check it out: in Montreal for the week. Who ever said that quick travel to another culture was for Europe only?
Ha!
I laugh in the face of those people. Hon hon hon!
Montreal may look like Toronto to outsiders (sans la Tour CN) but it has an entirely different feel. The language, the food, the people, the nightlife, the art, everything has a twist of European culture, and it seems to me generally the best of both worlds.
The last two days here has made me very happy that
Canada has such a rich mix of cultures within it's
gigantic borders. Sensacionelle! It also makes me sad that schooling in French was so poor in Ontario.
(photo terrafolia.ca)

If you don't understand the Occupy movement

or don't agree with it (or even if you do) read this book.
It was given to me by my amazing old boss, thank you Ben! I'm not even a quarter of the way through and I'm angry. It is really deepening my understanding of why everyone, a la Occupy around the world, is and should be so very angry; because a few people run EVERYTHING and those people do not want what is best for the rest of us (or not primarily at least), they want to fill their giant mansions with loot and jump into an Olympic sized swimming pool of money. Do not be mistaken, these people are not stupid, they're clever. But they're evil.

Read this book then comment.

Here's a quick excerpt.

'A more accurate term for a system that erases the boundaries between Big Government and Big Business is not liberal, conservative or capitalist but corporatist. Its main characteristics are huge transfers of public wealth to private hands, often accompanied by exploding debt, an ever-widening chasm between the dazzling rich and the disposable poor and an aggressive nationalist that justifies bottomless spending on security. For those inside the bubble of extreme wealth created by such an arrangement, there can be no more profitable a way to organize a society.'

Get the book. 

things I didn't know I didn't know 1

there's a rasta llama relative called a Vicuna, chilling in Peru
(photo delargy.com)

Drive

Wowee. Mr. Gosling, you've certainly come along way since Breaker High and I like it. A lot. Except when you're violently smashing someone's face in. In all Drive is an excellent movie, but not for the softies among us. It's fiercely violent, and not the kind of violence that's not shown or so exaggerated but the kind of violence that is exactly real and all the more terrifying for it.
Drive is beautifully shot, and both the soundtrack and sound recording are amazing. The whole film is extremely well acted by the main characters; both Gosling and Carey Mulligan are fantastic, especially considering how few lines are spoken. The only change I would wish for would be a bit more background to Gosling's character. There are lots of clues to Mulligan's, but I just couldn't get a feel of how this guy ends up being where he is - I get the whole nothing to live for makes you fearless in the driving bit, but still felt there was something missing.
Drive is definitely worth watching, but would warn the pure of heart to shut eyes and ears during the violent scenes. Oh, I also love his jacket. Somehow it really makes it for me.

top 5 begins.

My inner nerd came creeping out today when I started reading this blog, which is actually a blog I want to read (unlike my own blog, cripes, how did that happen?), and I read the tips on blogging the blogette (please let that not be sexist. i would like to be a blogette) was giving out.

So, with her tips in mind, I'm going to start a bimonthly top 5 things I like in Toronto or things I miss in London, depending on my mood. Starting positively, top 5 things I like in Toronto today are: 

5. The glorious blazing sun

4. Deli cinq juice (aka five alive)

3. halloween candy in late November

2. one block away someone has a giant white elephant covering their entire front lawn

1. i completed 5 errands today without spending a cent. booyah

wedDINGs

One of my closest friends got married yesterday. It was a beautiful, fun, glorious wedding and made me think about all the weddings I've been to in the UK and how Canadian weddings are different. Here goes:

1. hats - women typically cover their heads with something at more traditional English weddings. small hats, fascinators, whatever. I love me a good fascinator. Last night the mother of the bride wore a fascinator and everyone else's heads were hair exclusively.
2. timing - Generally Canadian weddings start in the late afternoon. typically British weddings start very early in the day, essentially right after lunch (have also been to a few 11am starts). considering the other thing we know to be true about Brits, this pretty much means everyone's pissed by early afternoon, ravenous during the meal and not really listening to the speeches.
3. mc - the last 2 weddings I went to in the UK had the groom as the MC. speeches seem to be of the same general material wherever you are. razing the groom, telling the bride she's awesome and thanking everyone. the grooms speech last night was especially heart warming.
4. booze - i have yet to be at a canadian wedding that runs dry, seems to happen fairly often in british weddings. for an explanation, refer back to point 2.

Everything else seems to be generally the same or unique to a particular wedding. I love weddings. I love the partying, wearing fancy clothes, meeting new people and witnessing love that's shared. all of the weddings i've been to this year have been for perfectly matched people, and it's a great feeling to see that kind of love. One of the speakers last night said 'love the other person more than you love yourself'. Quite different from my uncle's advice about marriage which was 'make sure the other person loves you more'. HA.

time travel gone wrong

You're right, it was a bizarre choice, but the tickets were free. Medieval Times. We're 28 not 8, but fun was had.

Medieval Times is quite an unusual evening. Mostly unusual because even though you know the outcome of the knights fighting is set (and you know it both intellectually and visually. some of the fakes are laughably terrible) you still have this strange sense of 'green or dieeeeee' when your knight bounds out. Green knight was the badass backstabber knight. Embarrassing. But not as embarrassing as my friend missing the rose thrown to her by the green knight because her hands were covered in delicious chicken juice. 

Verdict:

atmosphere - fun. you're expected to yell, which is liberating in itself. most people were our age. there were probably 20 kids in total. there's a lot of stuff (read crap) to buy. we also had the advantage of a really good heckler in the audience. good hecklers are hard to find.

performance - the story line and knights fighting is obviously for kids, but it is pretty strange. the horses dancing was incredible (although we did all feel sorry for the horse. mild animal abuse? i'm not sure), and i'm certain they were doing a complicated cha cha cha. 

venue - every seat is close. the performers are right in front of you and the set up works perfectly for what's happening

food - LOADS of it. chicken was delicious. tomato soup was also decent. the rest of it not great. drinks were overpriced but considering the rest of TO beer prices, fairly reasonable for an event like this.

overall - pretty hilarious but won't be going again. 

yesterday my knee was living

Yesterday was 12 degrees celsius. today is 1. i went for an 8k run this afternoon. my tendonitis riddled knee is normally not crippling. running in the cold makes it spread it's effects up to my hip and down to my calf. I should have turned back at the track at Earlscourt Park, but no, that's where I turned back last time. I had to beat my previous self of course. So I went into Prospect Cemetery. A very large and spread out cemetery indeed. My knee calf and hip are all in pretty bad shape.
I blame the abrupt weather changes in Toronto. Sunday is supposed to be 13 again. How can I get used to the pain of the winter if I keep feeling the spring?
I'm not all complaint today though. I spent a good part of the morning basking in the heat of the sun through my living room windows. It was glorious.
Now... time for free tickets to Medieval Times. ONWARD!

Some like it hot

Our neighbours are great. Probably perfect neighbours in fact: Very friendly, casual, not super loud (but not so quiet that we feel bad when we're loud), take out the recycling compost and trash regularly, leave plenty of parking space in the garage, it goes on, and we've only been here 2 weeks.
In London we spoke to exactly one of our neighbours and I'm pretty sure she was actually hitting on my bf most of the time. We've already chatted with lots of our neighbours here, and the friendliness of Canadians typology appears to be true (including the foreign born Canadians). There is a pronounced and lovely neighbourhood feel where we are.
The only tiny difference - that I don't think would ever happen in London - is that we don't have control of our own heating. Shock, horror. We live upstairs, our landlord owns the whole house and our neighbours downstairs control the heating of the whole house. Which means when they aren't home (for example are in Montreal for 4 days) we are left in the cold.
I'm sure once we speak to our neighbours about it (that lovely Cdn friendliness comes back to bite us in the ass. we don't want to be too demanding too early), we will figure out some kind of system that hopefully isn't too energy wasting but also doesn't leave us lighting fires in metal rubbish bins in our own living room in the winter.
Luckily, for now (other than that long weekend stint), they like it HAUTE. And we got an electric heater just in case.

Le Select Bistro

snapshot restaurant review

Name - Le Select Bistro
Cuisine - French
Location - King West (on Wellington)
Atmosphere - warm, bustling (even on Sunday eve), mid to upper scale.
Price - higher end
Clientele - everyone from families to dates to business parties
Service - efficient, courteous, well timed
Food - excellent: delicious, gorgeous and authentically French. the bavette steak and frites were perfect.

Overview - well worth it. great treat for a special occasion. will return in summer for a patio table

Noah and the Whale at the Pheonix

WBrit indie folk band Noah and the Whale played at the Pheonix Concert Theatre last night, showcasing their 2011 album Last Night on Earth.

The Pheonix is more or less in Cabbagetown and a surprising location for a venue as it seems to be in the bottom of an apartment building, surrounded by apartment buildings. Inside the Pheonix is good, not too big, not to small and with lots of bars. I haven't been to an all ages concert in Toronto, and the gate that split the drinking section in the back with the underagers in the front was a bit strange but we drank a few beers pre show (and during a funny country performance by two Southern girls with big melancholic voices. never did find out what they were called. anyone know?).

Noah and the Whale took a couple of songs to really engage with the audience, but once they did, the show was fantastic. I think in large part due to the amazing lighting. It seriously made the mood. The front man, Charlie Fink, was very engaging and I quite liked his sharp little arm movements, like his arm was trying to dance and his body wouldn't quite let it. Also, his attempt at sexiness was pretty hilarious, especially as a lot of these front men take themselves a little seriously.

They could have turned up the volume on the violin as it gives them quite a distinct feel that you couldn't really hear last night. Their set list was described as a 3 course meal with 'romance' as the main and 'good times' for pudding. I wasn't sure what the appetizer was, but the crowd seemed to quite like the analogy. All their musicians were excellent, though the bassist is obviously new to long hair and could do with a fringe.

All in all a good showing and I'll be listening to more Noah and the Whale because of it. Great lyrics and fun melodies. Also, would definitely go back to the Pheonix for a concert, venue and crowd were both a-ok. 

Fantastique Fiesta Farms

Like probably everyone, I wouldn't really classify myself as a person who gets excited by supermarkets. But our local grocery store is out-of-this-world fantastic. It is called Fiesta Farms and is like no other. It's an independent store and the people who run it clearly care about food. It's a foodie's dream. I have had several friends comment on how lucky I am to live a block away.
You walk into the store (well I go in through the little kids entrance) and it's like being in an indoor European market. The fresh stuff is locally sourced from Ontario farms, so it doesn't break the bank to buy produce and from the deli cause it's from a stone's throw away.

A few notable bonuses:

• There is a whole mushroom section! there are mushrooms I've not heard of before, and I love me some mushrooms
• they source loads of different sea salts. this doesn't actually mean much to me in terms of cooking, but is notable in that this is an apparent trend here that I hadn't seen emerging in London.  
• the cheeses are stupendous. to me a good cheese makes or breaks a meal. they bring in beautiful cheeses directly from italy, and you know those Italians don't mess around with their cheese making.
• there is a locked up cupboard full of varying types of truffles. I'm not a big truffle user, but I know food people will eat that right up.
• they have an extensive offering of lettuces (called cultivar groups of lettuce, who knew?) for when you want to make a specific dish and need to push aside the romaine and get to the pak choi or lollo rosso

but really Fiesta Farms is so successful and awesome because it's catering to consumers ongoing need for locally sourced and sustainable products. More on their philosophy can be found on their site, which also has a regular food blog. http://fiestafarms.ca/

Mostly this amazing grocery store makes me quite enjoy the grocery shopping experience and definitely  makes me think that Torontonians care about the world around them (even though Rob Ford does not). The one thing that I haven't quite figured out yet is why a cop stands out front all day on weekends. What are they doing there?? Surely thieving from FF is not on.

Go fiesta farming and get yourself some deliciousness! Christie and Essex St just North of Bloor.

warm socks

This morning, Dupont and Christie, Toronto: wake up, toss a white load of laundry into the washing machine. make and eat breakfast. check emails. realize the washing machine isn't making noise anymore. it's been 30 min since i put it in, so go to check if it's broken. No. the laundry is just finished! Toss it into the dryer. speak to my brother on skype. hear the dryer buzzer go. put on warm socks and laugh at my brother because his morning was like this:

brother's flat, Finsbury Park, North London: wake up, toss a load of laundry into the washing machine. make and eat breakfast. an hour later talk to me on skype, laundry is still washing.
his afternoon will then consist of putting out his laundry to dry on drying racks scattered across his living room.
2 days later, his clothes will be dry.

Ok, no one likes a gloater, but my laundry experience laughs in the face of his. Being back in a land where it gets very cold every year means that having a dryer with your laundry is essential. A dryer that actually dries clothes (as opposed to the 2in1 washer dryers in England that actually don't dry your clothes but do make your wet clothes slightly warmer).

Yes, a dryer does mean that you end up using more energy, which is bad. But (and keep in mind I don't actually know how translate efficiency of energy, so I'm using time) it takes twice as long to just wash clothes in Britain than it does to wash and dry clothes here. That's got to mean that British washers are very inefficient.

Although we will likely put up a line across the balcony to dry clothes once it's warm in Toronto, for now, I'm very happy to have clean dry clothes an hour from dirty ones.

10 points Toronto
1.7 points London

This article fails to mention the large number of people who use laundromats because they have no laundry facilities at home. This is a giant pain in the bottom (I did it for years in Vancouver), and for your pain, I award you 5.6 points. Spend them wisely.

Electric Avenue

Ah Canada, land of unspoilt forests, beautiful fresh water lakes, moose and beavers, and terrifying monopolies on necessary commodities.

Like hydro, which is what electricity is known as in Canada. To me this sounds quite nice, like all our electricity is coming from natural resources like Niagara Falls, and we don't need to feel too badly about it cause fresh water is going to keep on flowing and Ontario citizens can have guilt free hydro power for millenia to come.  However, I just came across a graph of Ontario's electricity sources versus Canada (thank you ecospark.ca). Across Canada, hydro power accounts for 57.6% of total electricity usage, while in Ontario it's a measly 22%. Disappointing and also makes the whole 'hydro' moniker quite misleading.


This is Ontario's power usage: red is nuclear, grey is oil and gas, blue is hydro, black is coal and yellow is wind. I'm not sure where solar is but I'm really hoping solar starts cutting a big strip out of the black and grey.




Anyway, for years and years you could only get your electricity from Ontario hydro. Then in 98 because monopolies on necessary commodities really screws over the people (think Bolivia's hydraulic empire in the 90s where the gov't sold all the rights to water in Bolivia to one company, Aguas del Tunari), Ontario Hydro split up into municipalities to try to put some competition into the marketplace, and the Ontario Energy Board was put in to regulate that.

However, what seems to have happened is that there's essentially still one company in every municipality that people can get their electricity from, for example in Toronto it's Toronto Hydro and in Barrie it's Barrie Hydro, etc and every 6 months the Ontario Energy Board regulates how much each of these companies can raise their tarrifs by - of course always the same amount to keep the competition going. Wait a minute! So everyone raises their rates the same amount to keep the competition going. No that doesn't make sense at all. That, in fact, is still a giant monopoly but just operating under different names. It's almost worse than the old monopoly because now tax payers have to pay for the Ontario Energy Board as well.

I could be very wrong about this (to be honest, my research was pretty minimal and we need electricity for tomorrow, so just called up Toronto Hydro and got the thing started, after happilyyyyyy paying a $30 registration fee for them to switch my name with the landlords name. that sounds like $30 of work to me). So if you know any other companies that are out there keeping competition going (and i don't just mean prices here but types of electricity etc) then please let me know. Oh, I did find Bullfrog Power, but it actually just adds a premium to Toronto Hydro to put money into renewable energy, it's not a competitor in itself.

On this round, England wins. Lots of different energy providers to keep things competitive and keep development of renewables going for long term business growth and not just because it's nice. Win win.

missing furniture

This you may not know,

but Londoners come and go.

Flats are rented fully complete,

with bed, couch, table and seat.

Toronto dwellers stay a while,

craigslist and yard sales compile

the furnishings of apartments

to help keep low the rent.

Moving day comes too soon,

And back ache how I dread.

heaving heavies from cellar to moon,

helpful friends we'll pay with bread.

Italian bread called pizza of course,

for this we have quite the source.

How did my moving woe,

turn into baked dough? 

bad credit

There's this thing called credit, which apparently is the be all and end all of showing you're a good human who will pay things when you say you will. It's very important when convincing people to lend you things like lump sums of money or a floor of their house.

The system pulls together things like how often you pay your credit card bill, what other bills you're paying, etc, etc. Unfortunately, what it doesn't do is connect your stuff in England with your stuff in Canada. I lived in England for over 4 years, and was never able to get a credit card because I hadn't lived there long enough to prove my credit worth when I first applied (okay, my fault, i assumed 1 year was long enough). Each consecutive time I applied (only twice) they would see my first rejection and reject me again. The bank would also trick me by phoning to tell me I was preapproved, say yes when I questioned that preapproval, then send me a rejection letter a few weeks later in the mail. great customer care Barclays, well done on that one.

Suffice to say, my credit rating in England wouldn't have a credit card attached to it, but it would have the fact that I paid gas and electricity bills, a phone bill, my rent, and had a constant source of cash coming in (oh how I miss those days!). 

So I go to find out my Canadian credit rating and there's essentially nothing on there because I haven't lived in Canada for 5 years, so it looks like I'm not doing a thing worthy of credit, and instead am somehow wheeling and dealing in cash or bars of gold. 

Tomorrow at noon is the moment of truth when our offer on renting an apartment for the next year is accepted hooray to moving downtown where the people are! despite a less than outstanding credit score or denied my parents gym does have once a month free day passes.

All positive thoughts on the landlord accepting our offer welcome.

where to compromise?

First of all, I'm not sure my spatial awareness is actually as bad as my parking would leave people to believe; though I did pull off an amazing concrete-enclosed very tight back-in on Saturday. But I do have trouble seeing how much space a queen sized bed takes up.  What is this? My hand-eye coordination is good, my reflexes are good, I know where and how hard to hit a hockey or soccer ball to get to a moving person. Isn't that spatial awareness? Any thoughts?

Secondly, finding an apartment to rent in Toronto in October isn't skipping-down-the-block easy. It's not damningly difficult like how London can be, when living in a box is tolerable if it's a stone's throw from a decent local pub and walking distance to the tube. But finding ourselves a place in Toronto has had it's challenges, mostly because of our own reluctance to take our friend's advice in getting a realtor (I don't think I've ever used the word realtor before and it's reminding me of the hilarity of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events - if you haven't seen this movie you should see it before doing anything else, but only if you appreciate morbid children's comedy a la Roald Dahl). 

Since we've managed to find great flats within our means in London through gumtree (London's craigslist, even though they also have craigslist), we thought that craigslist was the easiest solution to finding a place to satisfy these criteria:

• city central (between Dupont and King, Spadina and Dufferin)
• not an apartment building or condo but in an Old Toronto neighbourhood
• 1 bd or 1+den or 2bd (trying to be specific to help our search)
• outside space 
• a decently sized kitchen
• storage space for bicycles
• a parking spot  
• enough storage for equipment (sports and sound) and the additional outer layers needed in this city - down jackets, mittens, balaclavas, etc. 

We know what we're looking for, and we're not going to waste time looking at places that we're not truly interested in. However, we did manage to see a few dives early on that gave me lucid dreams of  growing old in our parents' basements, and waking up at 7 every morning either to a dog barking or the pitter patter of tiny feet depending on who's basement we were in. To be fair, we saw a few reasonable places as well but nothing that felt entirely livable. 

Luckily a friend of mine boldly gave my number to a realtor who showed us a few apartments of the more desirable variety today. Hooray! Some progress is being made. Now the decision is mostly bigger, better place that's a bit further North near Dupont, or smaller place that's smack dab in the centre of where we want to be College and Clinton. Hmmmmmm.

Realtor's advice - sleep on it. Also, who knew that people in real estate can be entirely normal and not scummy or fake. Lemony Snicket you really misled me. 

Sleep on it we shall, but hopefully we'll have an apartment by tomorrow for November 1st. A week into looking is feeling pretty good. Let the job search commence!

Sushicity

I love me some sushi. The feeling of a good salmon sashimi drenched in wasabied soy sauce melting in my mouth just gets me every time.

All you can eat sushi is a staple of the Torontonian's diet. Hells yes to that I say. Sushi in London is generally pretty poor or wildly overpriced. Finding a place that's Japanese and under 30quid a head is tough in the N5. Finding an all you can eat with unlimited sashimi  (unlimited sashimi is a necessary yet impossible feature in The Big Smoke) at $21.95 where the sushi is delicious and quickly served is easy in Toronto. There are lots of options.
We chose Sushi D on College last night and as it was my first sushi experience since moving home, I was excited. Sushi D didn't disappoint, and I even found some new favourites, including the 'D Roll' which is something like crab with tempura flakes, avocado and masago. We were also ordering beer by the pitcher, hooray! Though we were absolutely stuffed to the bone (top button on the jeans undone), we then ventured into a Belgian beer house to knock back some quality brews. The waitress serving us understood my taste in beer and decided to take an extra ten minutes to talk to me about tripels and what you can get at which LCBO in the city. It was remarkable customer service (something else that just doesn't happen in the UK).
In all, Toronto's plentiful and delicious sushi joints make me very happy.  So does spending an evening eating and drinking with new friends.
But now it's back to the reality of being jobless and apartmentless, living with the folks and guzzling gas driving into and out of the city everyday looking for a place to live. It's day 3 and I'm worn down. I try to remember that sweet melty salmon sashimi to keep me sane.

soccer vs football

After spending the first few days of being home at my boyfriend's parents cottage (ask a Brit what cottaging means :)) on Georgian Bay, basking in all the glory that the Canadian wilderness has to offer -  crystal clear, swimmable fresh water, caught that day trout, autumn coloured mixed forests as far as the eye can see, wildlife buzzing, hopping and slithering (yes we saw snakes aplenty), we decided to check out a soccer match.

On Tuesday, the Canadian men's team took on El Salvador in a prelim stage of the World Cup qualification. Canada was already sitting on top of their group, and we came to the game expecting the far superior Canadian side to trounce El Salvador. The crowd was a decent size, probably filling 80% of BMO stadium. Not exactly a roaring Wembley Stadium crowd, but considering where Canada is in the world ranking, pretty decent I thought.

Differences between watching a soccer game in Toronto and a football match in London:

1. Prematch - I have lived beside Arsenal stadium for 4 years and before every match huge throngs of people will be chanting songs all specific to Arsenal. The crowd prior to the match was good natured, but pretty well silent. However, almost everyone was wearing team Canada memorabilia, so fairly decent from that point of view.

2. Beer  - $10 (yowzah) at BMO stadium, but it was sold. You can't get beer to take to your seat during Arsenal matches anymore. people get way too aggressive apparently.

3. Cheering - at football matches in England crowds are constantly cheering and chanting. Chants are given and responded to, and depend on what's happening in the game. The feeble attempts at chants during the Canadian game were a bit embarrassing. 'Ca-na-da' on repeat doesn't really tell a story. 

4. Dickheads - at any football match in England you can expect there to be a few die hard terrifying fans that scream obscenities and potentially turn on their teams when the team isn't doing well. This was one element of the game I was excited about escaping. Unfortunately, after we switched our seats to the north side of the field for the 2nd half (advantage BMO stadium for not checking tickets), we sat behind some miserable gits who not only shouted racist, sexist and homophobic slurs at our own team, but also had no clue about soccer full-stop. Yelling 'run number 9' every time anyone got the ball was almost more painful to hear than their close minded prejudice (almost). In England, everyone understands the game, and of course opinions differ, but the chat on football is educated and entertaining. Also, everyone knows who the players are, so 'number 9' would never, ever be heard.

5. The players - the English generally don't like that a lot of their players are from different backgrounds, you hear grumblings at pubs etc, whereas the Canadians seem to embrace these differences, with players from Scotland, Jamaica, Guyana, the Philippines, Greece and probably more  rounding out the Canadians. 

6. The game itself - The sheer volume of players and money that go into football in England make this comparison entirely unfair. Canada dominated and held possession very well, but just couldn't come up with enough scoring opportunities. I blame lack of taking people on 1v1, and a nature that's too unselfish. We were also unlucky with Iain Hume tearing a muscle part way through the first half. 

In all, if one of the few attempts Canada had on net went it, and we had duct tape to shut up the idiots behind us, it would have been a pretty enjoyable experience, but some decent cheers would go a long way in terms of atmosphere. 

beginnings

After living away from the GTA for 10 years, I'm moving back to Toronto. This blog is about getting to know the city. I grew up in Scarborough and Mississauga, and left the GTA when I was 18, so I feel like I don't really know Toronto at all.

Having lived in Vancouver, Barcelona, Hamburg and more recently London, England I'm excited to be back home (though I also have an underlying fear of 'settling' which I'm ignoring for the time being). Moving home brings a completely different kind of expectation than moving abroad. I am older now, I am in the middle of a career, and a long term relationship; I don't want a basement apartment or a job that will pay the rent. I'm not moving to get a university career, play in a top sports league, or just to see what it's like there. I'm moving home to..... see if I like living at home. 

This blog will attempt to help me figure it out.