2014

If ever a year deserved a round-up/wrap-up senti look-back type post, it was this one. 

And that's all I can say without falling into maudlin stereotypes that won't begin to do it justice. So I'll stop there, and wish us all a very happy new year. 

May 2015 bring you more luck, more laughs, and more opportunities to throw caution to the wind in the heady pursuit of real happiness :)

Snowday

Tune & I were often unceremoniously kicked out of the ballpit at Pizza Corner, since we were clearly, according to the authorities anyway, too old for it. So I was delighted to drag my husband over to Travelocity Canada's ballpit at Eaton Center this weekend... adults only.

We had 30 seconds to find the gnome in the pile of 'snow,' and I managed to hold on to my title of 'Finder of Lost Things' and get to it first. Winners of each round won an #IdigtheGnome t-shirt. I magnanimously handed mine over to the husband, since I work for the company and get one anyway.

Other players (who don't work for the company that is :)) also got $150 off their next vacation. AND a sweepstakes entry with a chance to win a trip to Aruba and/or Nokia smartphone bundles. Sales patter aside, it was a lot of fun diving into clean 'snow' since the real snow's often been a slushy disappointment by the time it hits the ground.

... Most people are still amused by how pretty I find the snow anyway. I don't much care if it's brown and wet on the ground, it looks so fairy-tale like falling out of the sky! Toronto's not yet cold enough to be cold (though it's getting there), so I'm enjoying it while I still can.

Blurb: Making Books (Even More) Fun

23 October, 2012

I went on an awe-inspiring tour of the art work in the Center for Addiction and Mental Health a couple of weeks ago (full details here). Sadly, I spoke about the experience with 3 different people, and then I couldn't find the motivation to blog about it as well. 

To avoid that same mistake, here's an immediate take on last night's Blurb event at Joe Bidali's (no one's heard about this yet!) The meetup description sounded extremely meh-over-trying-salesy - getting together bloggers, affiliates, web marketers (a spammy group as is) to talk about Blurb's affiliate program is almost as hardcore sales as those resorts which call you out to 'free' events so that you go & stay at them afterwards. But in the interest of blog-fodder & getting to meet some people I hadn't seen in a while, I decided to go anyway - and I'm so glad that I did. 

The event was the most beautifully piece of executed salesmanship I've seen in a while. I first heard of Blurb (which lets you create & publish books) when my husband presented me with this lovely creation on my 25th birthday - it's thrilling to see a whole book full of stuff you wrote, and to have it hardbound and presented that awesomely - well. Definitely one of the best gifts I've received.

Let's face it, I completely judge a book by its cover, and also by how it looks on the inside, quite apart from the content of it. Blurb does a great job acing on those two scores - these books make you want to pick them up, regardless of what the content is. 

They're equally good at making their event feel similarly superlative - the first thing I noticed when I walked into Joe Bidali's was coffee table after coffee table lined with similar beautiful looking books for people to pick up and glance through at their own leisure. Next, the seriously generous spread of food, laid out to facilitate conversation around it. This picture on the right makes no sense at all (note the giant leg occupying most of it!), but it reflects the tone of the evening - it felt the complete opposite of salesy, and yet made you want to buy.

They did a short presentation on a couple of projects they'd worked with (my favorite was the story of 28 food bloggers who compiled a cookbook, the proceeds of which went toward Haiti earthquake relief), and just in case anyone needed more convincing, we all got gift certificates to publish a book for free. I'm definitely going to take them up on that offer, they did a stellar job of getting me re-excited about the product. Kudos to a great marketing team!

Nuit Blanche

30 September, 2012

My school had a drama workshop program for the 11th & 12th graders - it was a two-month emo extravaganza that usually produced far more drama than was ever seen by the audience in the final production. All-nighters were frequent, as is inevitable when scenes were rewritten about seven hundred times each.

I remember staying up one entire night watching the colors of the sky change, and discussing each phase in great detail with a senior. It was awesome, in a we'll-never-do-this-again(-and-thank-God-for-that-maybe) kind of way, and it was the memory I flashed back to when I first heard of Nuit Blanche.

Nuit Blanche, or White Night, is an all-night free-for-all cultural extravaganza which originated in France and made its way to multiple cities around the world. While that's exciting enough in itself (let's not forget I have a degree in art), some of the pieces' descriptions had me even more hooked.

Example: thought balloon, an installation where people typed out their thoughts which were projected real-time for everyone else to see. It's a reflection of how we share information in the age of social networks. I made a detailed map of all the things I wanted to see, but on the actual night, found it far more fascinating to just wander around looking at everything and everyone.

Many of the exhibits had an interactive element and as I walked through downtown checking out Nuit Blanche, I thought the audience defined the art as much as the piece itself. Though we walked fast and didn't stay longer than 10 minutes at any exhibit, it was an evening which gave me a lot to think about. I'm far too diplomatic to pick favorites, but my husband and a friend who came along agreed that their pick of the night was the Convenience Store exhibit.

It was written about in every single newspaper promoting Nuit Blanche as one of the highlights, and it took us 1.5 hours to view it, but it was worth it for the sheer effort the artists had put in and the overall effect of the convenience store. Can you believe each of those boxes in that picture is a mock item, with a tealight inside? We were each allowed to pick an item to take home - I chose the light bulb, that way I was the only one who got the product that the box said it carried!

My favorite take-away from the night was this Xerox copy that my husband and I created. As juvenile a concept as Xeroxing your body parts is, and as much as I resented the waste of paper (most people just threw their copies on the ground), this one was an unexpected keeper.

Opera Briefs

26 September, 2012

I'm not sure how I feel about opera, and I'm not sure I'd pay full ticket-price of $60 a head to find out. In fact, opera's just not something I thought about very much - India has it's own classical dance + music + drama forms.

So I volunteered for Tapestry's shows over last weekend to find out more. It's always a great idea volunteering my way into things which I don't have previous exposure to - it gives me a chance to talk with the people involved & learn more than I would as an audience member.

Opera Briefs, the show I helped out with, was a good place to start, though it wasn't traditional opera. In fact, Tapestry New Opera helps develop, as the name suggests, new pieces. Big advantage: they're in English, and have contemporary-ish themes, so I know what's going on rather than trying to frantically Google my way through the classics.

Tapestry had a program called LibLab where writers & composers were paired off in different combinations and they wrote short sketches that could be developed into full-length pieces based on audience feedback.

The sketches were funny, poignant, and much much more intriguing than any short story I've read. I think it was a combination of the writers being fantastic (I felt pangs of envy throughout) and the performance artists being nothing short of brilliant. The music was appropriate too, but I've to say, it was hard to isolate it given the force of the writer + artist brilliance.

I'm hoping to catch a full length, more classic opera piece tomorrow, to contrast... if I manage to leave office early enough to get door-tickets. Fingers crossed.

City Cider Festival

26 September, 2012

You'd think I'd notice when temperatures dropped from 33 to 14 and the sun stopped setting at 9 so it got dark out by 6:45. But honestly, the first time I noticed that summer had given way to fall was when I saw that *I* was the most scantily dressed person on the road and everyone else already had on their jackets and pants (I did a double-take when I saw pants on the road, I haven't seen anything full length for the last 3 months).

It gave me a jolt of pride really, given that I'm person who turns off the fan every now & then in Chennai. I'm assured that I'll feel the cold come winter, particularly when my nostril hairs freeze. That's an exact quote, not a witticism. Apparently it's a well documented physical phenomenon, one that I'm quite looking forward to after hearing the stories.

Anyway, long leadup to the fact that fall's here! And that means it's time for cider, soup, garlic (each of which have a festival dedicated to them!) and all the glory of comfort food. Bring. It. On.

Not Far From the Tree organized Toronto's 2nd City Cider Festival at the lovely Spadina Museum orchard a couple of Saturdays ago*. I love NFFT & anything they do (and I'm not alone in this - their founder Laura Reinsborough is one of the speakers at TEDx Toronto this year), so I offered to help. Awesome decision, as always.

Can you imagine anything more idyllic than picking apples from the orchard, then letting people press their own cider on the orchard grounds, while jesters and dancers wander around, and musicians play in the background? Oh yes, you can see the castle of Casa Loma in the background too. Talk about picture-postcard perfect. It really made me feel like I was getting the full Toronto fall experience.

More than 600 people came to the event, we churned out 200 liters of cider, and a fantastic time was had by all. I loved the turnout from families with kids, it's just such a great event to expose them to. Check out pictures here.

*Yes, I'm way behind schedule, as acknowledged and compensated for over the last 2 days.

Writer's Circle: Lillian H Smith Library

24 September, 2011

I'd just gotten back from Panama (read about it here) with a duty-free souvenir that was more painful than Customs, even. The husband and I got home at 1am (hello, 16 degrees in Toronto, happy to see you after 30-degree Panama weather), devoured a packet of banana chips because the airline's idea of a vegetarian meal was three slices of uncooked brinjal and a crusty piece of bread, and then, for some reason, decided to stay awake a while more.

My favorite notebook 

So I finally woke up jet-lagged and bleary-eyed, did three rounds of laundry (the downside to long vacations) and just as I was sitting down with a relieved sigh, my phone insistently reminded me that I'd foolishly committed to attending a mid-day writer's circle the day I got back. I groaned & deliberated but finally decided I'd go, because I was starting work soon and couldn't take a rain-check.


It was a memoir writing group, and while I don't plan to write memoirs just yet, it must be said I have a remarkable way of committing every single tiny detail to memory and being able to wax eloquent about each (just ask my husband about one of our early fights :D) I figured it was as good a writing exercise as any. The rest of the group consisted of seniors, and we essentially picked topics from a box, then wrote about whatever the topic inspired for 15 minutes before reading out what we'd written.


I took along my favorite notebook for inspiration, and soon had two pages of crossed-out scribblings while everyone else had written out three pages of solid text. Never in my life have I felt so tempted to copy :P I managed to string a couple of paragraphs together while the group read out their pieces, and the gasp of appreciation and the chorus of 'aaah's made. my. day. I should totally do this more often.

Mid-week Treats

August 31, 2012


We stay in Downtown Toronto, and it's summer. It seems almost sacrilegous to take a metro pass when everything is within walking distance (walking distance being 6km given the lovely weather... and the fact that I feel guilty about not hitting the gym as often as I could. Read: ever).

But. When you travel the metro pass way, you suddenly see all these ads about fun events you may otherwise never have heard of. Like the Old Town Toronto re-enactment of the 1812 Battle of York. History fascinates me, and I've been trying to read/watch more about Canada's, so I was really looking forward to this.


Unfortunately, when I got to Berzy park at noon yesterday, all I saw was this:

Not a soldier in sight! I was extremely disappointed, especially having double-checked their Twitter account for updates on the 1812 show before I left the house.

Serious decadence

The husband kindly improved my mood though, by whisking me off for a surprise lunch. Everyone keeps saying summer's over, (though it's still 25 degrees out) so to make the most of the remaining sunshine, we ate a giant fudge brownie sundae on the park-benches lining Yonge Street as part of the Celebrate Yonge summer event (and, because my mum's reading this, I should clarify that's not all we ate for lunch =))

Social Media & The Global Poverty Project

August 28, 2012

Despite all my best intentions, I never seem to write about the panel discussions and informational meetups I go to. Maybe it's because it's hard to condense one hours' worth of debate on digital media into one blog post... especially when there are no hard and fast conclusions that come out of it. Still, meetups with the Social Media Ref were thought provoking, and I really enjoyed the Non-Profit Technology Network's latest workshop on using social media for social justice (details over here)

d'Arcy Lunn, the Canadian Campaign manager for The Global Poverty Project's Polio campaign, led the group, with a quick overview of global poverty and the things that the Global Poverty Group had been doing in the digital space to get the word out etc. 

One of the biggest problems with digital campaigns is that they're short-lived and superficial - peoples' interest shifts to the next thing that comes along etc. So I was hooked by the fact that for an upcoming concert in New York, tickets are free, but people earn their way in by reading articles, sharing them, signing online petitions etc - and these people are kept  on a database which ensures they get follow-ups about other projects which need similar action. It'll be interesting to see how that works.

Another aspect that had me hooked was d'Arcy's emphasis on Google+ being a great medium for projects like this - the GPG's making better use of G+ than most for-profit organizations I've seen, and it's definitely working fantastically for them. I've worked with Google.org to build out search & display campaigns for non-profits, and also used Google Pages to build simple sites for some projects, but I think adding social to the mix definitely broadens any project's scope.

... There are so many ideas that came up while I was talking to the group, but like I said at the beginning, it's hard to figure out which ones to put down, and they rarely make sense out of context. That said, I thought this particular meetup was worth writing about, just to get the word out about GPG (their website's here). 

Busker Fest 2012

25 August 2012

When I landed in Toronto, I was all touristy-eyed about attending the city's most talked-about festivals... in most cases (as with Luminato which I wrote about here) I had no clue what the festival was actually about, but I thought the name sounded promising. Similarly so with the Busker Fest (I started wildly thinking about snow sleds and dogs, which, actually, isn't too far fetched, if all that people tell me about Canadian winters is true).

Turns out what actually happens at busker fests is almost as awesome - buskers are essentially street performers - everyone from jesters, to jugglers, to magicians, tightrope walkers, fire-eaters, what have you. Entertainment medieval style. Nothing I say is going to do it justice anyway, so I'm just going to let the pictures do the talking.

 

 

I pretty much wandered through with my mouth agape and eyes wide open for the most part, so all the pictures above aren't mine, they're from Busker Fest Toronto's Facebook page. The full collection's here.

Now here's what I found truly amazing: all of this stuff was available for free. The audience didn't have to pay to watch, the performers weren't paid to perform. Some of them came from other countries, just for the joy of performing. Any money they made was from tips. And not one person who watched any show walked away without leaving a tip. I think that's what made the whole thing completely phenomenal for me. 

All proceeds from the theater in the area, as well as donations made from those attending the event, went towards supporting Epilepsy Toronto. I'm definitely going to volunteer as well as attend next year, it's a great event that ensures people who attend willingly donate what they can.

Of this, that, and the nothing

August 11, 2012

Scary immortal flowers

These are undoubtedly mutant flowers. It's been three weeks since I put them in a no-sunlight no-water air-conditioned environment, and they're still surviving. If only plants that were still attached to their roots behaved like that, I'd totally grow my own herbs.

I'm torn between awe at the flowers' resilience and worry about any produce I buy being similarly mutated. Either way, it's a good thing to bear in mind as I go into this week's TEDx salon on where our food comes from (I wrote about my last TEDx experience here).

In the meanwhile, the weather's like something out of a Bollywood movie. It's glorious sunshine one minute, and then it rains long enough for you to have a song-and-dance sequence (if you're so inclined) before being sunny again. The husband has tickets to the Roger's Cup semifinals, and it strikes me as being less tennis, more gambling - if Djokovic and Tipsarevic play for 40 minutes before it rains, there are no refunds. Time will tell.

To tide me over the weekend

As you can see, this post has no real point - it's more of a guilty update because I realize I've been ignoring this space of late. What can I say? I discovered the Toronto Public Library, and I'm completely devoted to it.

They do have wifi though, so I should make it a point to take my laptop along more often and just blog from there.

Art Attack: Exploring Queen West

August 2, 2012

On the first Thursday of every month, the W. Queen West Business Improvement Area organizes an art + design + food walk through the area. I repeat: Art. Design. Food. My own idea of heaven, really; particularly given a string quartet was playing at St James on the same day as the August walk, and so music could be thrown into the mix too.

The walk took a group of about 30 people into three warehouse style galleries along Tecumseth Street - Birch Libralto, Georgia Scherman, and Susan Hobbs. The art work ranged in style from beaded ideograms to wood sculptures, from abstract paintings to digitally generated colour-field paintings (where the colours are determined by algorithms rather than the artist - imagine the science fiction possibilities!).

Like I said, I'd been super excited about the walk, and think it's a great idea in theory -  but I actually didn't enjoy it very much. I tend to think of art as a personal experience absorbed by different people at different speeds and in different ways. The guide's style of asking leading questions to elicit responses from the crowd didn't sit well with me, and, in fact, took away from the artwork for me personally. 

At one point, three people in the group decided to just break away and explore the galleries on our own. We even managed to fit in a walk down the graffiti-filled alleys, all the way up to Bathurst. Street art always puts me in a great mood, it reminds me of San Francisco and the Mission area in the best possible way. So the purpose of the evening was definitely achieved!

We rounded off the evening with organic handmade fair-trade ice-cream from Delight (805 QSW if you're interested in checking it out), sponsored for those on the walk by Royal LePage realtor Suzanne Manvell. Classic case of all's well that ends deliciously :)

Utter Butter Showdown at the Drake Hotel

July 31, 2012

One of the best things about my marriage is that we're both struck with healthy doses of wanderlust. Combine that with my usual love for food, and you have me getting moon-eyed about trying out local delicacies wherever we go.

Picture from FiestaFarms.ca

In Toronto, it's kind of hard to determine what a 'local' delicacy is, because there's so much diversity, and food from all over the world is represented fairly authentically. I've asked people what I should be trying, and the answers are varied - maple syrup, poutine, steak. Nearly everyone makes a mention of desserts, and there's one dessert in particular that people in Ontario fondly turn to - the butter tart. 

The earliest noted recipe for the butter tart dates back to 1900, when it made an appearance in the Women's Auxiliary of the Royal Victoria Hospital Cookbook, published in Ontario. Since then, it's been revised and refined with each chef adding their own touch to the filling and pastry of this otherwise remarkably simple dish. Butter, sugar, pastry. What's not to love.

Tarts being set up

When I heard about a butter tart Blue Ribbon showdown at the Drake Hotel, I knew I had to go. Hosted by Ivy Knight, gastronome and food writer, the event brought together 8 delicious tarts from chefs all over TO - and let the audience judge which was the best in a blind tasting. Not only did this give me a chance to sample tarts from  ACC, Bestellen, the Flaky Tart, the Gabardine, Origin Liberty Village, and even the George Brown Chef School, but also, it gave me a chance to fell all Masterchef-like, which is always fantastic.

The Drake Hotel itself is charming, with an ambiance that instantly has you feeling at home. I particularly loved the boxed-in flatscreen showing old cartoons, and the shelf of books/records behind the DJ. It's a theme that many pubs attempt but very few manage to get quite right. It was definitely the perfect backdrop to the decadence of stuffing your face with 8 tarts loaded with butter and sugar, all within the hour.

Some were drippy, some were caramely, and every single one screamed indulgence. My personal favorite was a not-too-sweet somewhat solid filling held in place by a melt-in-the-mouth tart shell, known, last night, as number 6. 

Heather Mordue from @BestellenTO walked away with the best tart of the night, with a well-deserved second place going to Allison Jones from @AirCanadaCenter. As for me, I walked away with a stomach full of happiness. That should really be the tagline for butter.

Peachy Saturday at the Hot & Spicy Food Festival

July 21, 2012

On the day you're married, people in India say, "Congrats!" They wait till the honeymoon's over before asking where your progeny are. No rush or anything. 

Much as I'm reluctant to have kids of my own at the moment, I love other peoples', particularly for short durations of time. I'd a complete blast volunteering for Not Far From The Tree's Kids Zone at the Harbourfront Centre's Hot & Spicy food festival.

I introduced Not Far From the Tree in this post, but to recap, they're an organization that helps tree owners pick their fruit. Four volunteers had been on a farm pick lately, and ended up with - wait for it - three. thousand. peaches. They decided to put the fruit to good use, and donated a lot of it back to the organization.

Which meant that come Saturday, we'd whole wagon-fulls of peaches waiting to be consumed by the kids who came out to the Hot & Spicy festival. The peaches were neither hot nor spicy, but they were ripe and sweet, a complete delight. We had the kids wash their hands (and the fruit!) in big tubs of water, before carefully cutting them into little pieces with plastic knives, mixing them in sugar & spices, and then sprinkling the whole mixture onto pre-made tartlets. 

The kids were completely absorbed in their work and made my heart melt about forty thousand times per hour.Some of them were really really young, and I was thrilled with how interested they were in cooking & eating. Mini-foodies! They also loved the idea of climbing trees to pick fruit ('Do you get paid too? Is it hot? Are the trees really tall?')

Earlier in the day, there'd been a bike-powered blender which turned the peaches into smoothies as the kids cycled in place. I'll have to get one of those for my kitchen, talk about a productive workout!

And then, of course, there was a side show - both the kids who'd come to cut, and the college kids who were helping out, were fascinated when they heard how old I was. Most flattering.

All in all, a Saturday brilliantly spent, though the food festival itself was a bit of a disappointment. I couldn't track down the Farmer's Market I'd been really keen to check out, and when I asked around, it seemed no one else had either. The kids told me there were plenty of super hot sauces around though, and they were glad for the peachy respite from it all :)

Wild Sound Festival

30 June, 2012

This weekend, I'm trying to see how far I can push myself before starting to feel my age. That's what it feels like in retrospect, at least! Friday evening, we shopped till we dropped, and discussed Ikea's wily plans to make us shop some more. Saturday, during the day, I volunteered at the Pride Festival  and was thrilled to see parents bringing their kids to the event too. What better way to tell a child that they can just be themselves, no judgment? Beautiful. 

And then, last evening, though it felt like my feet and hands were falling off in different directions after all the barricade-moving and heavy labor at Pride, I just had to check out Wild Sound Festival. It's a feedback event where the audience gets to watch, discuss, and then vote on a set of short films, handpicked to ensure we're watching movies from different countries, across different genres, with different budgets. Considering it's free-entry, and first-come-first-seated, the hall filled up remarkably fast with people who were soon talking to each other though many had come there alone.

The evening started off rather darkly, with a man tracing the history of dementia in his family (La Calma, Spain), and it got even more rocky with Netherland's entry, Year Zero OFFF, which was kind of a wordless Doomsday prediction. To end the last act on a cheerful note, we witnessed a soldier's interaction with the inevitability of death in the Canadian movie, The Soldier.

A moderated session followed, where the three movies were discussed by the group who'd come in early enough to secure seats in the main theater (and I was so glad I got a seat there, since I had lots to say!) while the ones in the side theater watched the comments through a live stream. We then went on to watch two slightly longer short films, Ireland's Nowhere in Particular, and an American Film Noir style flick, Vodka 7. While these two films also spoke about life and death, they were definitely perceived to be more optimistic than the first set of films. 

In addition to the five short stories we'd watched, I felt like I watched many more short stories as the personalities of the audience members came shining through in the moderated discussions. From the ex-army man who said he related with The Soldier, to the critique in the front row who bemoaned the Mustang's dent in Nowhere in Particular; you felt like you were getting a little bit of insight into the people watching the movies. There are 2-3 more events like this coming up, so let me know if you're interested and I can tell you when they're happening.

The Ukrainian girl I spoke with during a break mentioned another short film event, Short & Sweet, at No One Writes to the Colonel (Little Italy). It's free-entry Mondays, 8-10pm EST. See you there one of these Mondays? Let me know if anyone's going and I'll make my plans. For now, I'm a bit busy shifting houses and then watching the fireworks at Niagara Falls to celebrate Canada Day and then moving all that lovely Ikea stuff into the new flat and putting it together to make a home. Internet-less times ahead. Perfect time to hit Toronto's Public Library, which I've heard so much about!

Fruit of Their Labour: Not Far From the Tree 5th Anniversary

June 27, 2012

The Event

I studied at KFI, a school where there were plenty of trees just waiting to be climbed… so many, in fact, that we were encouraged to ‘adopt’ a tree each, and watch it grow over the year. Our school also had a farm where we used to visit and help out, and I always felt like I knew exactly where the food on my plate was coming from (and that I’d contributed to getting it there, even!)

Given that background, you can probably understand my immediate attraction towards Not Far From the Tree. If you haven’t heard of them yet (and I’m confident you will, in the following years!) they’re a group that makes good use of Toronto’s abundant supply of fruit by helping tree-owners pick and harvest their bounty. I haven’t been able to go on a fruit pick yet because they get filled up so fast, but a friend of mine led a cherry picking one, where she got 1/5^th of 1/3^rd of the harvest (1/3^rd goes to volunteers, there were 5)… I got a portion of her portion and that was enough to keep me knee-deep in cherries for a week!

I was really happy to help out at Not Far From The Tree’s 5^th Anniversary event, where they shared their incredible accomplishments to date with their volunteers.

Me at the Event

I got to 401 Richmond and fell in instant love with the old fashioned brick building and the incredibly green rooftop deck. Apparently that garden used to be open to the public until recently, which is a pity, because it’s gorgeous and I can picture myself whiling a good evening away over there. It was definitely the perfect location for this party though, with the vegan snacks, gelatos and cupcakes fitting right into the décor.

Since there was a big sign at the door of the building saying the garden had been closed to the public (again, wince!), I was on door duty telling volunteers that the garden was still open especially for them and that they could go on up to enjoy the fruits of their labour! It was a fun job, I ran into some people I’d met at The Stop’s Night Market the previous week, and even the talented gentleman who’d designed the NFFTT tee I was wearing. It was definitely a happy crowd that cut that birthday cake with fond memories of their first ever pick, and I’m looking forward to the day when I can blog about my first ever pick too :)

What I loved: Location, location, location. NFFTT’s new office is going to be hosted in the same building where the party happened and it looks idyllic. It fit the group very nicely together, and I got a huge kick out of Steamwhistle’s beer display at the event. They’d also had a fun van at The Stop’s Night Market the previous week, and I love how they seem to be associated with groups that I wholeheartedly support!

 

What I didn’t love: It threatened to rain off and on, but that was the only cloud (literally!) on a beautiful evening. It was also a bit sad that some people who got to the party early left before the actual cake cutting, or came after the treats from Magic Oven were all gone.

Overall: So glad there were slots open for a volunteer opportunity! I’m waiting to pounce on the next email that comes in and (hopefully) register myself before anyone else can :)

#TwitterParty She's Connected

June 26, 2012

The Event

Logo from the site

I've mentioned before, in my first post, that the active Blogger community in Toronto is the prime driver behind my starting this blog up. And Social Media Women (@ShesConnected) is one of my favorite groups to web-stalk because of the warmth and energy of the network they've built. I'm working on building this blog into something I can add to their impressive repertoire of networked blogs, but in the meanwhile, I settled for joining the fun ladies at a #TwitterParty, in anticipation of their upcoming She's Connected conference.

Me at the Event
Did you know that it only takes an hour of frantic tweeting for a topic to trend? Seriously, that was the fastest hour of my life, keeping track of the #sccto hashtag and trying to answer all the questions as they sped by! It was also my first Twitter party, and I intend to attend many more.

From this one, I already got the links to some great blogs which look like reading fodder for the next week. I also have a whole new bunch of followers/people to follow, and we all know there's nothing like some Twitter love to get us through the week. Where else will people hang on to gripping narratives of your opinions on everything under the sun? I love Twitter.

What I loved: The speed of it all had to be seen to be believed. There were twenty new tweets every minute! I also loved the enthusiasm with which everyone recalled last year's conference. Ford's Karaoke booth, in particular, seems to be on the top of most people's memories. And you always know an event's successful when sponsors are happy to come back the next year! (Take a bow, @chickenfarmers)

What I didn't love: Many of the questions the host posed were about last year's conference and it emphasized the sad fact that I wasn't around here last year, boo! Hopefully we'll cover more general topics and talk about what we want to see at this year's conference in the upcoming Twitter Parties. I was also so bummed that the free conference passes I'd been eyeing all week went to others, as part of a lucky draw! Oh well, there's always next month. Because, in conclusion, I will definitely be back!

Overall: Read the last line above :)

Socializing at Windsor Arms' #OysterTuesdays

June 26, 2012

The Event

What does a vegetarian do at #OysterTuesdays? Network, of course. 

I'd heard a lot about Oyster Tuesdays via Christine Korda's lively Twitter feed ($1.25 for lovely fresh oysters in the inimitable old-school ambiance of the Windsor Hotel). And, of course, I'd heard a lot about Windsor Arms being a premier high tea destination in Toronto from all and sundry. When Christine tweeted an invite, with the disclaimer that the hotel had a fantastic vegan selection, created by Douglas McNish, author of Eat Raw, Eat Well... well. I had absolutely no reason not to head over. 

To add to the overall enthusiasm of it all, @SkinnyGirlCKTLS and @louise_philp were guaranteed to be there.

Me at the Event

For all the socializing I seem to do, I'm actually a fairly shy person on the inside. You know. Deep deep down. Somewhere. Shy me was out in full force as I crept into the already full room at Windsor Arms, but she was quickly swept to the wings in the friendly company I encountered.

There were women who'd known each other for ten years and more, there were people attending their first Oyster Tuesday, there were samples of Skinny Girl Cocktail thrown into the mix, and there was instant unwinding and long conversations about everything from travel to the future of mobile advertising.

What I loved: I found it interesting that almost every person in the room had been invited over by Christine. That's good PR for you! It also meant that the group had a certain homogeneous nature that I hadn't seen in any Meetup/event so far. It was interesting meeting people from very similar backgrounds, with very similar interests. It was like walking into conversations you were already a part of. Also, the outdoor seating at the patio was incredible, and I could easily have sat there all week!

What I didn't love: It's great that Windsor Arms has a gourmet vegetarian selection, I'd have loved to see one vegan counterpart complementing the oysters, since $1.25 is a great rate :)

Overall: I'm definitely heading back, not just for the networking at Oyster Tuesdays, but also for the kale salad which Christine says is the best she's ever had. Stay tuned to find out!

Summer Solstice Event: The Stop's Night Market

June 20, 2012

The Event

 Having fake-alertedly attended one 'summer solstice' kickoff, I double checked my calendar and confirmed this was the real deal. The Stop is an amazing Community Food Center with a mission to eliminate world hunger. This event, in particular, had a $50 entry to an all-you-can-eat-and-drink Night Market extravaganza in the alley behind Honest Ed's.

27 restaurants & beverage-providers) (including Woodlot, Steamwhistle, and Ursa) generously loaned their chefs' services, and 27 designers worked on creating unique food stalls for them. Toronto sure knows how to put food and art together! (Here's what I'm talking about, if you haven't read it yet). Brockton General's carboard... Pegasus?...was a show-stopper, noone was sure what bird/animal the cart was, but it brought in the hungry and the curious. Cowbell's ice block stall was a literal show stopper, with the heat + the ice combining to create watery chaos.

Me at the Event

I tried to buy tickets for the event, but they were sold out. So I volunteered my way in :)

Pro-tip: It's a great way to get behind the scenes, meet the talented people orchestrating these events, and do your bit towards making them work. Plus, you learn so much about yourself! I for one did not know I knew how to untangle cable wires and make lights actually work. Also, in India, you don't really do part-time restaurant work, the way a lot of college kids here do. It was the chance of a lifetime for me, it's always been my secret dream to work at a restaurant for a bit. What an awesome avenue to do it, we waited on 1000 people who brought in more than $50K that night.

What I loved: I loooooved how many vegetarian options there were. I cannot stress that enough. What I also loved: At one point, the chefs and the beverage providers realized they could swap wares, so they set up beer runs and taco exchanges. It was great fun being in the middle of it all, and bringing smiles on the faces of the chefs who were ensuring everyone else there was smiling too. Additional bonus: vegetarian customization for the helpful volunteer who brought them what they wanted! 

What I didn't love: Sadly, because it was a $50 flat fee, there was quite a bit of wastage. People just kind of took a plate, took one bite, and threw away the rest. There were full glasses of beer (what a sin, seriously!) and entire plates that had just been left behind on tables and strewn around the grounds. Maybe next time it should be a pay $50 and get to eat at any 5 stalls or something.

Overall: I definitely hope this is a recurring event, it's a great way to kick off the summer!

Little Taste of Toronto: Little Italy + MMVA

June 16, 2012

The Event(s)

The Taste of Italy is a recurring annual event in the boisterous and lively neighborhood of… where else?...Little Italy. I’m a big fan of cheese (really, who isn’t?) and it remains my number one reason for not being completely vegan, so, as you can probably guess, I’ll happily line up when someone says ‘Italian.’

Combine lots of authentic Italian food with the robust tones of Italian music and you have an idyllic Sunday evening. After a quick round of the event, a friend and I planned to hit the much talked-about MMVA to check out the vibe. Co-hosted by LMFAO with pop music’s favorite love-to-hate boy Justin Bieber also performing, the event at Queen West definitely attracted Teen Toronto.

Me at the Event(s)

Though it would seem pretty apparent to everyone, I was rudely shocked when the streetcar I was on suddenly said it wouldn’t go any further because of the Taste of Italy festival. Irony of ironies. I ended up walking through the entire festival not once, but two times… once to get to where my friend was waiting, and another time to check it out full force. May I say, it was well worth the detour.

The energy in the area was palpable, and I kind of pitied my husband watching soccer alone at home, when he could be watching it at one of the crowded, noisy, superfriendly patios lining the road. Not all the food items on display were conventional Italian, but we managed to sneak in a couple of very authentic Gelatos. I cheated and got creamy ones which were practically ice creams. I live for sinful pleasures.

Picture courtesy Torontonicity.com

As for the MMVA… my GOD, was that area crowded! It was interesting to note the crowd that gathers when you combine free entrance with Justin Bieber on a Sunday with good weather. I have never seen that side of Toronto (ok, fine, I know I’ve been in the city for less than a month. What can I say?  It’s easy to get used to!) and it was a whole load of fun!

What I loved: The energy everywhere! With Sundays like this, your Monday blues are guaranteed to disappear.

What I didn’t love: The shooting at Little Italy the next day. This is the second shooting in Toronto in the short time that I’ve been here, and though I know the city’s supposed to be super safe and the law enforcement agents are doing all they can… it’s just sad. On a related note, Christine, a woman I briefly met online through Meetup, is organizing a fund to support the 13 year old boy who was caught unawares in the shootout at Eaton Center on June 1^st. Go here to learn more and spread the word.

Overall: I’m thinking of exploring one neighbourhood in Toronto thoroughly each month going forward. Good idea? Suggestions of what I should check out? Want to come with? Leave me a comment!