Saturday 14 August 2010

A tweetluck with my tweetpeeps

Tonight we are hosting the 2nd tweetluck ever. And I'm really excited but completely slacking on my cleaning duties today.

What is a #tweetluck you ask? Well it was an idea born out of a really great person named Wendy. She thought it'd be great to have some of her twitter friends together to eat food and enjoy a few laughs. Initially she thought of hosting in a local park, but there are huge rules against drinking in parks these days so she agreed to host at her house. She spread the word, and soon enough her deck was full of people, food and laughter.

Wendy and her husband Greg are great people and the event was a huge success. The hubby and I agreed that we would host the next one, before the last one was even over. We love hosting events and we figured this was a great way to have a summer event.

The joy of twitter means that you can widen your circle of friends and meet some really interesting people. This also means there will be some really interesting foods. I'm very excited to see what everyone brings tonight.

So you - if you are on twitter, send me a message and I'll send you the link to the event site and come on down. We'd love to see you :)

Sunday 8 August 2010

Tales of Toronto

My husband and I took on a crazy adventure yesterday and it wasn't the adventure we set out for. My husband really wanted to go to The Taste of the Danforth as was mentioned in my post yesterday. However the more I researched it the more it freaked me out. Big crowds are my kind of personal nightmare. I was willing to go for him and so we set off. This is when it went a little insane.

Traffic was a nightmare.

Toronto traffic is pretty well known but it was a little insane to see how bad it actually was yesterday. The planning department is not neccessarily working with a full deck in that they decided with a Blue Jays game, a Toronto FC game and a major food festival going on it was a brilliant idea to shut down the highway that leads to all three locations. This took all the traffic off the highway and onto the side streets. Everywhere we went we were stuck in one traffic jam after another. It was crazy.

Traffic aside, we ended up doing some pretty interesting things and it will definitely be a day for us to remember.

UNEXPECTED ACTIVITY #1 --- Shopping

We very rarely go shopping for shopping sake. And we rarely if ever go to a shopping mall to do it. But we both got the itch when we got stuck in traffic on the 401. After some crazy roundabout ways we ended up at Square One. It had been so long since I was in a mall it was like we were entering a foreign world. I was drawn this way and that looking at gorgeous window displays and interesting patterns. I noticed that a bit of the early 90s is back with a twist in that there was a lot of plaid and Chuck Taylor converse sneakers are back with a vengeance. It's a slightly prettier version of plaid though in that the shapes are better cut to show off your figure. Long gone is the tank top with a plaid shirt over it. Now they are throwing in belts and ties to make the shirt match your shape. I haven't found one in my size yet, but I'm still happy to see plaid back on the shelves.

UNEXPECTED ACTIVITY #2 --- spending time at the beach

I've been itching to go to the beach for about a month now - and never thought that my wish would come true in Toronto of all places. No one was swimming but the beaches along the Lakeshore are gorgeous. There were so many sailboats and even a tall ship out in the water. We not only saw seagulls and Canadian geese, but there were some beautiful white trumpeter swans in the water. The Toronto lakefront has playgrounds, and wading pools. There are picnic areas as well. We got out and took a walk, had some ice cream from an ice cream truck and just reveled in the fact that we weren't still sitting in the incredibly slow moving traffic on the Lakeshore. It was amazing how we were so close to the busy hustle and bustle of all the diverted highway traffic but we felt like we were miles away. I can see why people flock to this area of the city any chance they can get.

UNEXPECTED ACTIVITY #3 --- going to Chinatown

After leaving the beach and getting stuck in the traffic again, we decided to head downtown - namely to the Chinatown area off Spadina. We've driven down there many times and have been amazed by how much it seemed like you were in a completely different city - one in the far east. The signs are in different languages and people are wheeling and dealing in languages we could only imagine. We pulled in and found a parking garage. I was slightly nervous by the area as there were definitely homeless people sleeping in the alleyways and there were so many people around that it was a prime location for me have a panic attack. My rule - keep moving. Luckily the people were mostly on the street but were really respectful of space. They didn't want to bump into me anymore than I wanted to bump into them. We ducked into a few of the little shops where we found many low priced items and some fun little items that we would never find on store shelves around Cambridge. There were toys that were made in Asia and translated into English so that they made us laugh. Loved seeing the "hair solon" and the many places to go and get a food massage or see a herbalist.

UNEXPECTED ACTIVITY #4 --- Eating in an Asian restaurant

I have never really eaten at a truly Asian restaurant so this was a new experience for me. The hubby was drawn in by all the meat hanging in the window from duck and chicken to pork and lord knows what else, we headed in. There were some really tasty looking options on the boards outside so we made our way in. The first thing we noticed was that this restaurant was fairly big but there were a lot of people eating and a lot of people working. The noise was a little overwhelming and I had a hard time hearing the hubby on the other side of the table. Staff yelled at each other across the restaurant and they all were bustling around. They were very helpful to the couple next to us who was completely new to Asian food. However I guess we knew what we were doing because we had a very difficult to understand waitress. My hubby ordered a combo meal that had three kinds of meat and rice and was served very quickly. I had some "Chicken in lemon sauce" that came with an egg roll. But the best thing I had was a Honeydew Melon Milkshake. It was so summery and delicious. I could tell they were making fun of me for using a fork, but I'd rather do that then look more like an idiot by using chop sticks. Go ahead - you can laugh at me too.

All in all it was a really great day. We saw areas of Toronto we may have never seen. Even being stuck in the traffic jams on Queen Street really showed different sides of the city and we loved seeing all the different neighbourhoods.

I still hate traffic, but I'm sure we'll go back to Toronto again.

Saturday 7 August 2010

The taste of the Danforth

My husband really REALLY wants to go to the Taste of the Danforth today. He's mentioned it a few times but never made it happen over the years.

At the start of the warm spring we were talking about things we'd like to do this summer and he brought up how he's always wanted to go to the wonderful Greek Food but every year we've had something come up and it was too late to go. So like the good wife that I am, I told him that I'd write today's date down in the calendar that seems to rule our lives and therefore if someone asks us to do something, we would have to turn them down. The only thing that could trump it would be a wedding or a wedding/baby shower. The showers would only trump it if they were for a) someone we were related to or b) someone we really liked. Lucky for us - neither materialized and so we can actually go.

Personally I knew nothing about it other than it was a Greek Food festival in Toronto on the Danforth. I figured they closed the road and served food. I had no idea how big it was, or what to expect. So this morning I awoke incredibly early with the food festival on the forefront of my mind.

Just what have I signed up for?

Lucky for me, I have a little thing called the interwebs to get me informed. Here are a few things I've learned.

  1. This party is pretty massive. They close the street for blocks and it fills up with thousands upon thousands of people.
  2. They serve more than just souvlaki. In a video on their website www.tasteofthedanforth.com they have grilled corn and other tasty nibblies to tantalize your tastebuds
  3. There will be a flash mob at 4pm. I saw the dance and it looks quite tricky. I'm sure that it's going to be completely awesome though and a real surprise for all those that don't know anything about it.
  4. Parking for this festival is very VERY limited and will be difficult to find - especially later in the day. The subway is being touted as the absolute best option.
  5. Did I mention there is going to be a very LARGE amount of people. I get very anxious in crowds and have panic attacks. I need to be mentally prepared and I must mentally prepare my husband for what might happen.
  6. The festival starts at noon and runs until midnight - it might be smarter the earlier we are getting there.
Overall it sounds like the name of the game is the food. There might be a few other things to see, but it won't be a true carnival like some other festivals we've been to. I'm currently steeling myself from being caught in a wave.

I can do this. The food alone has me drooling. Will we see you there?
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