Apologies for the terrible grammar in this post. I am nursing a severe hangover.
We had our first house party last night. It went very well.
The red uber-American style party cups that we bought way back in October were finally cracked out. Spurred on by week-long forecasts of glorious 'not a cloud in the sky' 27 degree weather, we bought a BBQ, made burgers and invited a shitload of people to come sample the delights of our wonderful deck.
I worked from 10 am til 4pm, looking in a forlorn manner at the baking weather outside with quivering anticipation. At 5pm, the sky went black, and a thunderstorm started.
Undeterred, we simply moved the party inside.
The result: 20 or so people in our tiny flat, getting drunk and having a fucking brilliant time. Tunes provided by the incomparable Mr Tom Anderson, spectacular ANZAC biscuits provided by real-life Aussies Lou and Bec, drinks brought by everyone; it was delightful. The rain decided to bugger off after a few hours, meaning that we (or more precisely, our friend Aidan) even managed to have the BBQ after all.
Everyone ended up pretty trashed, and at 4.30 I collapsed sideways into bed with only half my body actually on the matress. I can't wait for the next one.
I think the house party is the modern-day version of that loaves and fishes fable from the Bible: everyone brings a little, and yet there is more than enough for everyone. It's very socialist, the whole 'bring what you can and spread the wealth equally' vibe, yet it actually works!
It also proved to me that going vegetarian last weekend wasn't a bad decision. You'd think a BBQ would make you really miss the smoky deliciousness of a well-cooked burger, but the three of us (Tom, Lou and myself) just had spicy bean burgers, chips, dip and loads of salad instead. Not only did we not feel deprived, we also avoided that gross "I had to eat one of everything" stomach ache that you normally get from devouring all available meat at a BBQ. In fact, ever since we kicked the corpse food we've been struck by how little of a change it's been. We all accidentally ate fish once or twice, but that's just teething problems (and me misunderstanding the rules a little). Having said that, I do miss tuna and shrimp.
Damn shrimp.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Every silver lining has a cloud...
I am not a fan of being negative so I wasn't going to post this, but then to pretend that travelling is all rosy would just be plain wrong, so here goes.
A few weeks ago we hit the mid-way point on our Canada trip. It's strange, because before that I felt that I was still settling in; now I feel like I'm counting down the days until I have to go. Where was that pleasant inbetweeny phase where I have loads of money and loads of time?
It has also forced us to face the realities of our situations. My flatmates are having to make some big life decisions right now, and I'm trying to make some significant changes.
I decided a few months ago (on the strength of Louise's love for Australia and an unwillingness to go back to the UK) that Australia would be my next home. A few of my friends will be heading there next year, one of my best buddies is about to go with his girlfriend and I've got two Australian advice gurus living with me right now, so it seems rude not to go there. Living near Byron Bay and surfing all day, every day doesn't sound too bad either.
The problem is that this decision has shaken me out of my self-deception about my job. I am constantly poor, and though I can live with this most of the time I can't save up for a flight when I have about $300 to live on after rent. It looks like it's time for a bar job, but getting one is easier said than done in this crazy city, especially in the middle of a recession.
It also sucks major ass that I'm going to have to leave behind all the amazing friends I've made and the people I've met. The promise of a wicked leaving party doesn't really make me feel any better about the fact that I have to go, and even though I'll be mega excited to open a new chapter of my life there'll be a distinct niggling sadness that I might not ever see some of these people again. It's different from when I left home, as I was always certain I'd be going back. I might never live in Toronto after this.
There's the issue of home, too. I've never been a homebody and was desperate to leave the country as soon as I could, but ripping yourself out of your family and your circle of friends is consistently shitty. The birth of my nephew has been hard, as I saw him three times when I was home and now won't see him until he's 8 months old, and then I'll be off again until he's almost 2. How can you be a positive influence on someone's life when you're never there? As for my friends, we may slip into the same old perfect dynamic as soon as we're together again but I'm still missing out on their lives. They're buying houses, graduating and setting up their futures, and I'm not there to help. I miss them.
It seems as if the next five months will be infused with a panic; an "oh my life, I have to do this before I leave Canada!' panic to be precise. Tom, Lou and I made a big list of 'must-dos' when we moved in, and there are too many unchecked boxes for my liking. Time and money are getting in the way - but that's just life, isn't it?
Hopefully now I've got all that off my chest something miraculous will happen, like a reverse Pangaea that will make all continents one, and solve everyone's problems. In the mean time, Russell Brand always cheers me up - that mad, verbose ball of sexiness.
http://www.russellbrand.tv/
A few weeks ago we hit the mid-way point on our Canada trip. It's strange, because before that I felt that I was still settling in; now I feel like I'm counting down the days until I have to go. Where was that pleasant inbetweeny phase where I have loads of money and loads of time?
It has also forced us to face the realities of our situations. My flatmates are having to make some big life decisions right now, and I'm trying to make some significant changes.
I decided a few months ago (on the strength of Louise's love for Australia and an unwillingness to go back to the UK) that Australia would be my next home. A few of my friends will be heading there next year, one of my best buddies is about to go with his girlfriend and I've got two Australian advice gurus living with me right now, so it seems rude not to go there. Living near Byron Bay and surfing all day, every day doesn't sound too bad either.
The problem is that this decision has shaken me out of my self-deception about my job. I am constantly poor, and though I can live with this most of the time I can't save up for a flight when I have about $300 to live on after rent. It looks like it's time for a bar job, but getting one is easier said than done in this crazy city, especially in the middle of a recession.
It also sucks major ass that I'm going to have to leave behind all the amazing friends I've made and the people I've met. The promise of a wicked leaving party doesn't really make me feel any better about the fact that I have to go, and even though I'll be mega excited to open a new chapter of my life there'll be a distinct niggling sadness that I might not ever see some of these people again. It's different from when I left home, as I was always certain I'd be going back. I might never live in Toronto after this.
There's the issue of home, too. I've never been a homebody and was desperate to leave the country as soon as I could, but ripping yourself out of your family and your circle of friends is consistently shitty. The birth of my nephew has been hard, as I saw him three times when I was home and now won't see him until he's 8 months old, and then I'll be off again until he's almost 2. How can you be a positive influence on someone's life when you're never there? As for my friends, we may slip into the same old perfect dynamic as soon as we're together again but I'm still missing out on their lives. They're buying houses, graduating and setting up their futures, and I'm not there to help. I miss them.
It seems as if the next five months will be infused with a panic; an "oh my life, I have to do this before I leave Canada!' panic to be precise. Tom, Lou and I made a big list of 'must-dos' when we moved in, and there are too many unchecked boxes for my liking. Time and money are getting in the way - but that's just life, isn't it?
Hopefully now I've got all that off my chest something miraculous will happen, like a reverse Pangaea that will make all continents one, and solve everyone's problems. In the mean time, Russell Brand always cheers me up - that mad, verbose ball of sexiness.
http://www.russellbrand.tv/
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Funky TO shiz
I've lived here over 6 months now; it's officially my hood. So here are my favourite places to go in the aforementioned hood.
Tequila Bookworm http://tequilabookworm.blogspot.com/
A funky little coffee shop on Queen West, this place is about unpretentious as you can get. You can get coffee for $1.50, you can hang out there forever, and best of all, they have walls of old books that you can just pick up and read. There's no obligation to buy at all, but you can if you want to. On my first visit there in my first week in Toronto I got Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse for a dollar from the wicked waitress and had the happiest afternoon reading out on their patio in the sun.
Chino Locos
http://www.chinolocos.com/
I think we found this place in one of the freepapers, and I am so glad we did. These three guys run a tiny little take-out place way out east (well, to our downtown minds it's way out east) serving burritos with a twist: they're Asian. Each comes with rice or chow mein noodles, then you choose your own poison to go with it. They're like a taste explosion. The guys are really cool and they also do cupcakes for a dollar, which is well worth the SCar journey to get there!
The Queen Mother
http://www.queenmothercafe.ca/
Another rookie-week find, The Queen Mother holds a special place in my heart, and not just because they do the best cakes this side of Paris. After a mean Pad Thai you wander over to the display fridge and try to choose from the vast array of divine cakes, all of which are guaranteed to taste even better than they look. The slices are enormous too; five of us shared 3 pieces and ended up on a rollercoaster of a sugar high that would draw suspicious looks from your parents.
Cafe Taste
http://www.cafetaste.ca/
Wine, cheese, free movies and irreverent humour; who could resist this place? Certainly not us, much to the chagrin of our bank accounts, so finding Cafe Taste has been a double-edged sword! Specialising in amazing wines and the cheeses that love them in an unintimidating setting, this perfect little spot is run by Jeremy Day, a self-confessed "wine geek" and lover of general knowledge. Seriously, ask him anything, and if he doesn't know the answer he will research it there and then. They show interesting movies on a Sunday and have a full menu of great food. I now drink red wine because of Jeremy, so if the anti-cancer properties of red wine are as pronounced as they're said to be, Cafe Taste may well have pre-emptively saved my life.
I'm sure I'll update this list of TO hotspots in the near future, but this'll have to do for now as I have a date with the gym.
Buenos tardes!
Tequila Bookworm http://tequilabookworm.blogspot.com/
A funky little coffee shop on Queen West, this place is about unpretentious as you can get. You can get coffee for $1.50, you can hang out there forever, and best of all, they have walls of old books that you can just pick up and read. There's no obligation to buy at all, but you can if you want to. On my first visit there in my first week in Toronto I got Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse for a dollar from the wicked waitress and had the happiest afternoon reading out on their patio in the sun.
Chino Locos
http://www.chinolocos.com/
I think we found this place in one of the freepapers, and I am so glad we did. These three guys run a tiny little take-out place way out east (well, to our downtown minds it's way out east) serving burritos with a twist: they're Asian. Each comes with rice or chow mein noodles, then you choose your own poison to go with it. They're like a taste explosion. The guys are really cool and they also do cupcakes for a dollar, which is well worth the SCar journey to get there!
The Queen Mother
http://www.queenmothercafe.ca/
Another rookie-week find, The Queen Mother holds a special place in my heart, and not just because they do the best cakes this side of Paris. After a mean Pad Thai you wander over to the display fridge and try to choose from the vast array of divine cakes, all of which are guaranteed to taste even better than they look. The slices are enormous too; five of us shared 3 pieces and ended up on a rollercoaster of a sugar high that would draw suspicious looks from your parents.
Cafe Taste
http://www.cafetaste.ca/
Wine, cheese, free movies and irreverent humour; who could resist this place? Certainly not us, much to the chagrin of our bank accounts, so finding Cafe Taste has been a double-edged sword! Specialising in amazing wines and the cheeses that love them in an unintimidating setting, this perfect little spot is run by Jeremy Day, a self-confessed "wine geek" and lover of general knowledge. Seriously, ask him anything, and if he doesn't know the answer he will research it there and then. They show interesting movies on a Sunday and have a full menu of great food. I now drink red wine because of Jeremy, so if the anti-cancer properties of red wine are as pronounced as they're said to be, Cafe Taste may well have pre-emptively saved my life.
I'm sure I'll update this list of TO hotspots in the near future, but this'll have to do for now as I have a date with the gym.
Buenos tardes!
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Unappreciated joys of life
I think everyone has a mental list of things they have to do in life (I don't like the phrase "before you die", as it sounds much too apocalyptic) and they all contain vaguely similar things; skydive, travel, see exotic animals in their natural habitat, etc, etc. I even have mine written down, just so I can have the geeky pleasure of crossing things off. It makes me feel like I'm getting somewhere.
This is all well and good, but I really think that it's the unexpected, unplanned events that end up being the most pleasurable and significant amidst your usual routine.
Take my trip to Thailand for example. The cooking course, the ladyboy show, the Full Moon Party: these things were all planned beforehand, and they were as awesome as I expected them to be (although I could use many other terms to describe the Full Moon Party, but that's another story). Yet nothing could have prepared me for spending a night watching The Next Karate Kid and sharing Johnnie Walker Red Label in the middle of a monsoon-soaked jungle with a group of young Thai guys, surrounded by the chorus of bullfrogs just beyond our seats, and the spontaneity of this event made it so much more memorable.
It's not just holidays; every day life is the same. We look forward to the weekends when we can have huge blowouts, or events we've had planned for months. We plan so much, in fact, that we forget to let the gloriously random things just happen.
Thankfully life sometimes takes over and forces things to occur.
Last Saturday, we participated in Earth Hour. In case you weren't aware, you were meant to turn off all the lights and electrical appliances in your house in the name of climate change. I found myself home alone for the start of it, and wandered out onto our wicked deck with a cup of tea and a candle. I was struck by how serene it was out there, looking out on to the dimmed skyline with the soft breeze chilling you a little. I stayed there with a book until Tom and Lou got home, and then we all hung out in that softly-lit oasis of calm, chatting about things that normally get lost in the haze of technology inside. It was beautiful.
Another randomly brilliant event that's happily occured twice now is midnight cake and tea. There are approximately a million coffee shops in downtown Toronto, and almost all of them sell cake. However, when you or your friends are peckish and restless on a Sunday evening, the vast majority of them are closed. Java House on Queen West is one of the few that stays open, and they happen to have some of the tastiest cake I've ever stuck a fork in. You wouldn't think it, but chatting and devouring the sugary goodness with a brew in your hand at that time of night is about the most deliciously scrumptious things ever, and feels vaguely like a scene from an indie movie.
The most banal-sounding things can become amazing when you just go with the flow. I recommend it to all.
This is all well and good, but I really think that it's the unexpected, unplanned events that end up being the most pleasurable and significant amidst your usual routine.
Take my trip to Thailand for example. The cooking course, the ladyboy show, the Full Moon Party: these things were all planned beforehand, and they were as awesome as I expected them to be (although I could use many other terms to describe the Full Moon Party, but that's another story). Yet nothing could have prepared me for spending a night watching The Next Karate Kid and sharing Johnnie Walker Red Label in the middle of a monsoon-soaked jungle with a group of young Thai guys, surrounded by the chorus of bullfrogs just beyond our seats, and the spontaneity of this event made it so much more memorable.
It's not just holidays; every day life is the same. We look forward to the weekends when we can have huge blowouts, or events we've had planned for months. We plan so much, in fact, that we forget to let the gloriously random things just happen.
Thankfully life sometimes takes over and forces things to occur.
Last Saturday, we participated in Earth Hour. In case you weren't aware, you were meant to turn off all the lights and electrical appliances in your house in the name of climate change. I found myself home alone for the start of it, and wandered out onto our wicked deck with a cup of tea and a candle. I was struck by how serene it was out there, looking out on to the dimmed skyline with the soft breeze chilling you a little. I stayed there with a book until Tom and Lou got home, and then we all hung out in that softly-lit oasis of calm, chatting about things that normally get lost in the haze of technology inside. It was beautiful.
Another randomly brilliant event that's happily occured twice now is midnight cake and tea. There are approximately a million coffee shops in downtown Toronto, and almost all of them sell cake. However, when you or your friends are peckish and restless on a Sunday evening, the vast majority of them are closed. Java House on Queen West is one of the few that stays open, and they happen to have some of the tastiest cake I've ever stuck a fork in. You wouldn't think it, but chatting and devouring the sugary goodness with a brew in your hand at that time of night is about the most deliciously scrumptious things ever, and feels vaguely like a scene from an indie movie.
The most banal-sounding things can become amazing when you just go with the flow. I recommend it to all.
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