Week Eight

Toronto!!!

Hi all, just had a lovely walk last night up the street from our place and this is two of the views we saw... weather cooling a little and really pleasant.

Week Eight? Eek this means the time is going really fast and my dream days here are finite. I did find myself telling someone that I could live here.. but I've yet to survive a Winter... so I shouldn't speak too soon. I asked Peter if he could live anywhere in the world where would it be... he said "Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne" so it doesn't sound like Peter will want me to live here!

Peter is very down on his city and gets very frustrated about the way it is being run... does seem to be a lot of unending roadwork and disruption to life ... we rarely go out without having to detour to go around a road block at night because police have closed roads due to crime. If you watch CP24 which has 24 hour Toronto news, weather and traffic updates you would think the city is riddled with crime...

This got me curious so I've checked comparative crime rates between Brisbane and Toronto... can only find between Australia and Canada and they reveal usually that we're pretty close on most things... though Australia higher usually. I can't vouch for this stats website, NationMaster.com but it seems to claim it has stats on all these things... click on each to get the stats link.

Murders per capita
Robberies per capita (Australia tops this one fairly significantly)

Rapes per capita (both countries very high comparatively sadly)

Total crimes per capita (this one is just interesting because it puts NZ at number two... Australia doesn't rate but that's most likely an error of omission)
Unpaid diplomatic parking fees (just for something curious... )

Significant event this week of course the death of Senator Ted Kennedy. CNN covering it wall to wall and it is interesting to watch places in and around Boston that Lainey and I will visit in a few weeks. TV is pretty much only via cable here and we get more many many US channels. Number of possible channels would have to be in the hundreds but I still miss old Aunty ABC.

Big event for us was buying a DSLR camera (Nikon D90 Rick and anyone interested in details). I have only the most basic knowledge so far of how to make her work. Nevertheless, over the weeks you should see the quality of the images improve as I practice and start my course in September. Peter delighted in hunting down the best deal and has gotten into the excitement... here some shots of him opening the boxes, setting up the camera and reminding me of my sister Wendy when we were kids opening my presents on Christmas morning saying "Lindy wake up! Look what Santa brought you!!".

More festivals on... this one a couple of blocks east of where we are living. I went with Liz (we joke about going on dates) to the East Asia Festival, though I haven't worked out how to capture them yet... there was lots of colour here... which I seemed to miss! Liz and I having a Curry. She's a lovely woman and I really appreciate her generosity of spirit ...

Being arty with new camera... shot from outside ICI...

Public hearing for the liquor licence for Ici, the restaurant, is now likely late September. While the partners are getting frustrated... there's another wedding to cater this weekend so I'll be on the job again with my slicing peeling threading and deep frying!! I'm enjoying the days before the restaurant opens as I know it will be crazy once it does and it is nice to have Peter to myself for parts of most days. Here are the partners... JP, Jennifer and Peter... JP and Co.

Oh and finally the week wouldn't be complete without a visit to China Town. Enjoyed these images (you might have to look closely at the labels to get the humour) in our favourite shop yesterday. We did buy an old chicken and he's cooking away right now... for a long time I suspect!

Love the Half old Chicken!

Bye for now

Love

Lindy

WEEK Seven

Hi all, I'm getting requests for updates... it is only a week but apparently because I edited last weeks it appeared that I had updated ... sorry for those who are now used to a weekly Canadian fix... hope I can keep doing interesting things for you!!!

Took this photo yesterday of the place we're living in... nice morning... so captures it really well I think. See the tiny windows up in the top floor... that's where I'm looking out of now.

I've spoken to Luke, Peter's son, who is in Asia (based in Singapore but just been travelling in Nepal and China) on the phone a couple of times and he always asks me what I do 'to fill my days'. I can't really explain it but the days seem busy.... is it doing an occasional help out at the restaurant? Is it going to walk the dogs most days? Is is getting around on public transport... don't think so as it is pretty efficient and I can link up between street car, subway and bus without long delays ... I think I have it worked out. It is sitting on the internet doing just about everything we used to do by foot, car or on the phone. It includes a list something like this...

Finding accommodation at view.ca
Booking tickets for concerts (exciting!)
Do banking in Australia
Skyping (though most of you are not awake when I want to talk!)
Checking email to hear from you
Sorting out things like car selling, insurance, managing my rental for Glenrosa Rd
Keeping up with Facebook ... read some interesting stuff on my Obama page yesterday... did you see this interesting interchange on TV outside of Nth America? I enjoyed this so much... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYlZiWK2Iy8
Planning the accommodation, flights, car hire for trip to the US in October when my sister Lainey comes over (lucky us!)
Keeping up with Australian news on ABC website
Getting online advice from my barista teacher in Brisbane (thank you Anne Cooper!) and more on that next week
Looking for a digital SLR camera for my camera course that I found and booked of course online... oh and
Writing this blog!
Now this is nothing new to anyone... but despite the fact that I now don't have a job that requires me to use my computer... here I am on it nearly all day.... oh yes I need to use it to...
Find a gym before I develop into a BlogBlob!!

This is in front of Peter's house (with Liz his expartner) where the dogs live... (I get more questions about the dogs than anything in the blog of course)and it is a pretty little garden. No we don't live here! Next is a corney photo of me in my new sun frock... that I got Peter to take because of the colour in the dress and the flower match... and don't I remind me of my mother in this photo (actually wearing her pearls which probably helps that feeling).

Out looking at cameras yesterday we went to an entire shopping centre filled with Chinese shops... it could really have been in China but an occasional Canadian maple leaf flag reminded me where we are... Peter (I told him you'll all think he's a cheapskate) found this restaurant that sold these huge mango juices... and if you spent $5 per person... a full meal for .99c!!! See photo below to prove it. Peter very generous actually but he dearly loves a bargain..

Finally the weather is still crazily hot and humid here... and last night while at a catering function for a local plant nursery's 120th anniversary (I forgot to get a photo of my chef's gear... requested by you Lainey I think!) there was an almighty storm with thunder and lightening, huge rain that filled the kitchen floor with water, water pouring down the walls and in through the ceiling and had the guests hiding inside between rain and wind gusts (interestingly though they stayed for hours to keep eating the food). We managed to shift the kitchen to a drier room. Little did we know that there were tornado like winds nearby and a young boy was killed and many many houses lost roofs etc. See: http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/684478

We are also watching the likely arrival on the East Coast of Tornado Bill. Seems like Nth Qld again...

Little did I know when I was so taken with Peter's beautiful smile the first time I saw him that I'd be dragging around the catering world pretending to know what I was doing a few years later! Anyway promise a photo next time.

Bye for now
love
Lindy