Eating for Charity

I try to live by the famous quote from Ben Parker of "with great power, comes great responsibility". Humans have such great capacity to do amazing things (or horrible horrible things) that it makes sense to be responsible. All of our choices even on a mundane granular level such as where to go for lunch will impact the greater picture.

During the day, I work for a large, for profit organization but in my off time, the things I enjoy doing usually surround the not-for-profit sector or those that are not nearly as lucrative. Why? Because I believe that there are causes out there that warrant attention and devotion. I'd say I'm like most people where what I do during the day is something that pays the bills--we all gotta eat. The causes I provide my time and money to are those which are (not surprisingly) in aid of animals. Perhaps I've met just one too many poor examples of human beings to care about a cause specific to people's well-being, but I have yet to meet an animal that I perceive that way. The reality is that people can do something about their situation and change it--animals, not so much. As well, much of the poor animal situations are caused by poor choices of people.

In addition to the fictional Ben Parker's sentiment, another personal value that strongly resonates with me is "participation is appreciation". I got this one from an unlikely source when I worked with a dragon boat coach whom I could not stand, on a good day. His difficult personality and our regular clashing (and occasional bouts of my murderous rage induced by his entire being) taught me a lot about patience, tolerance and devotion. It was a life changing lesson for me, to understand and realize what it means to volunteer your time for something: those who participate and take advantage of your time will generally have no idea the amount of work and effort that goes in, for mere seconds or minutes of "fun".

Over the weekend of the 23rd, I wanted to show my support of one of the girls at the stable, of her work with the cat rescue that we adopted little Stanley C. Panther from. She helped organize a charity all-you-can-eat spaghetti dinner. These types of grass roots fund raising events always brings a good feeling for me because you see how sincerely dedicated people are, to the event and cause... before all the commercialism and lame stuff starts to take over. One of the grandmas made all the meatballs (amaze-balls!) and the cooking was done by the actual volunteers and they had cat grass centre pieces. The various dessert items were also donated by volunteers' families or themselves!

Meow!

In case anyone is curious (or looking to help out or even adopting), the rescue we were supporting is the NCWL Cat Rescue (of the west GTA area).

Surround Sound

Would you believe it if I told you I've never seen West Side Story? Well, that's only half true; I saw it last night at the TSO. But until then, I hadn't seen it before. Despite this disadvantage and the advantage of pop culture and the media, I had already seen all the best pieces of West Side story stitched together from various sources like Family Guy and the Simpsons.

Tony & Maria in love <3

For those of you who are like me, the story is in essence your modern day Romeo & Juliet. Set in the 1950s, two rival gangs duke it out while two of their respective members fall passionately in love. It's an unlikely story but one that is romanticized beautifully so; to the point that I too am drawn in and believe their instant love for one another.

Now, I got the opportunity to finally get to know one of the greatest classical American love stories through the big screen in a live orchestral audience! That's right folks, not only did I get to watch the movie on a huge screen, I got to listen to an incredible live orchestra (the Toronto Symphony Orchestra) play the entire (including the trailer and credits) soundtrack. It was an incredible experience.

The Roy Thompson Hall is acoustically incredible as it is so you can only guess how amazing the sound was, for the movie! Sometimes when I go to the TSO, I get a little bored watching the orchestra and really, it's not terribly exciting all the time. It's really neat to watch the group play together and each section be responsible for their piece that alone, makes no sense but once put together, the whole thing just transforms into something wonderful. But, sometimes... that's not that interesting. So, it was a welcome change to watch the screen and just be pulled into the story with the incredible soundtrack enveloping you.

There was a great rendition of America on Glee!

The neatest thing was how the conductor was conducting! First, this movie is ~2.5 hours and standing isn't going to happen. Next, how did he know when he was supposed to play? It's not like he and the singers could coordinate by communicating with one another. He was at the mercy of the video as it was. He was seated at the podium with a small screen which simultaneously played the movie but when there was musical score, there were these flashes and bars that would travel across the screen--as if prompting him about where they were, in the score!

Needless to say, not only was the opportunity to watch an American classic while being bathed in music but seeing the coordination of the conductor with the movie and the players was truly an inspiring feat!

Amber and I were chatting about it and we hope that the TSO takes their nearly full house as a sign to do more of these types! Can you imagine if they did Star Trek or Rent?

Fateful Dumb Luck

I woke up this morning really excited to head to Greyden for the horsey spa day. You must think I'm completely crazy. A "spa day" at a stable is typically a day set aside for cleaning up the horses by giving them a bath, cleaning and clipping and grooming. Riders also clean-up leather tack to remove  dirt and other unwanted things. It's beneficial for new riders to learn how to take apart a bridle and saddle completely to clean and reassemble. I was really looking forward to this.

Unfortunately for me, my mom wasn't willing to let me have the car to drive up there today (and tomorrow--I'm taking her up for a Mother's Day ride!) so I was left to mull around in my own grumpiness. I did though, decide that it wasn't worth the waste of time and got promptly onto my "house to do list". One of those things was to replant the seedlings that were lost over my weekend away. I made a spot on the deck to get things ready and potted so there I was, mixing the potting mix, filling random containers with dirt and placing a surviving seedling into it or a new seed.

Something about working with your hands with the earth is incredibly satisfying. I was rocking away to Of Monsters and Men and just being one with nature. It was a perfect day too. Nice and overcast with a moderate temperature and my neighbour's daughter taking slap-shots with her dad as goalie. It was my time. I love my neighbourhood.

As I'm working away, I heard this faint mewing. I paused and thought that I might just be imagining things. It's been a long while but I still really miss my two feline siblings. Each one as different as the other but both as close as family could get. Maybe it was the nostalgia getting the better of me today but I slowly removed my head phones and I clearly heard the audible "mew mew mew". Here's the thing though, our neighbourhood is known to have several outdoor cats and a few strays so I wasn't exactly thinking that anything would come out of me getting up to explore--my legs are sore squatting so this could just be a good break.

I make my way down the steps to the car-port and I continue to hear this little mew mew and when I crouch down to take a look, I see 2 bright yellow-green eyes beaming out at me with what look like 2 little white front teeth? Upon closer inspection, I see that he's mostly black with some unusual white facial markings. And, a harness?? At first I thought it was just a collar and in that case, it would have just been my kitty loving self going in for the mega pats and belly rubs. But, I see that the harness has part of what was a leash attached--it looks like someone's lost!

My mom was out to do the weekly grocery shopping so I couldn't reach her to get some cat food for the little guy so there I was, feeding him the pricey, extremely tasty stewed Berkshire pork my mom made. Wow, he sure was hungry! By now, I figured I had to get him out of there since he belonged to someone and was probably just lost, cold, hungry and very scared. I was on a mission.

After several hours of me periodically coaxing him out with treats that ADW brought over (thanks ADW!), he cautiously crawled out to grab the treat and retreat back to his spot and munch away. That's the thing about working with animals... you have to have a lot of patience. Some days things go great, other times, you're wishing you could channel some Dr. Doolittle. Today, I channeled Dr. Doolittle and the second I saw my opening, I went in and grabbed him to pull him out. He panicked and freaked out as any good cat would but lucky me, I looked up and ADW was standing there looking at us in awe "how did you get him out!?".

He's such a pig!

After ADW helped me get the little dude into the carrier we set-up, I took him upstairs and assembled a basic kitty hideout in my bathroom. And, with some patience and time, the little buddy came out of both his shell and the carrier to thank me for "saving him". When in reality, the thing that saved him was that halter that he was wearing. Tonight, he's  got a warm and safe place to sleep and when I last peeked in on him, he was peacefully snoozing away.

Worldly Tastes Close to Home

This weekend we were lucky enough to dine on delicious Korean kalbi beef ribs, try Afghani style spiced fish, and re-connect with the tastes of Peru. The best part? All of this was within comfortable driving distance in our diverse city of Toronto.

To recap...

On Saturday night, we visited our local Korea town. Its a short little strip between the Bathurst and Christie subway stations that has an abundance of authentic Korean establishments. Here you can find restaurants that specialize in soondubu (Korean tofu stew), proper Korean barbeque (and not the unauthentic all-you-can eat style), Korean bar food (I must try the friend chicken!), little dessert houses (bite-sized redbean walnut cakes are our favourite), and even a supermarket specializing in Korean groceries! We often frequent this area when we have a hankering for some spicy Korean food.

Then on Sunday for lunch, we visited a flea market in the suburbs of Mississauga. Here we found a little food court that offered us a wide variety of flavours from around the world. In no particular order...there was*deep breath*... Chinese, Hakka Chinese, Indian, Carribean, Latin American, Fillipino, Middle Eastern cuisines and a bubble tea stand thrown in for good measure!

I ordered the pan seared fish from the Afghani counter since I had never had anything from Afghani cuisine, while Deb ordered some fried corn tortilla chicken wraps from the Latin American counter. The fish was nicely spiced with a nice hot sauce and flavourful chick peas on the side. The rice that came on the Latin America was spiced with Aji chili which was a flavour we had become very familiar with during our Peru trip. And topping all of this off was a nice refreshing...Inca Kola! Very satisfying...

I have always been told that Toronto is a very culturally diverse city, but I never really took time to think about it. While we sat in this little food court surrounded by the tastes and smells from around the world, I began to have a better appreciation of what our city has to offer. We may not have the best transportation system, the most famous arts and culture scene, or even the tallest building in the world anymore, but I can't think of another city in the world where I could sit in a small little food court with that many tastes from around the world.

ADW signing out!

diversity in our street food

When you're at a ball game, nothing hits the hunger spot better than some good old fashioned street meat: a piping hot, hot dog from a street vendor. We all try to eat better and make better choices since adults do that in front of their kids, right? (isn't it difficult to be consistent with your messages?) But the question is more likely, why are there not any other choices available to us?

This is a totally loaded question. One that Toronto Food Trucks answers in their brief summary of what it means for a vendor who wants to vend food out of a truck, in the City of Toronto:
1. public property vending requires a permit which indicates a specific location but there is a moratorium on these permits for downtown Toronto
2. private property owners who are zoned for commercial activity can allow food trucks to sit on their locations but this is still limited
3. food trucks are considered restaurants so are allowed to serve whatever it is that they wish but for some reason, few have changed from hamburgers, hotdogs, french fries, poutine. food carts are different

A few years back, Toronto tried to launch the "a la carte" program only to be met with failure due to the red tape and strict (and expensive) requirements. I"m not sure of what's happened since but there is a lady who comes out when the weather is nice to the south-east corner of Bay and King to serve up her jerk chicken. YUM-O. It sells like hot cakes, I tell you. The times I've gone by, she's already out of roti and it's barely pase 1230pm. But I wonder if she's technically permitted to do so?

So, what's the point to all this? My question is, don't you want to eat something other than hotdogs, hamburgers and french fries? Our city is a vibrant buzzing cultural hub yet our street food diversity is limited to 4 items. Tourists must think the hot dog is our national food or something! If this is important to you, consider voicing your thoughts and opinions. If you want to see some variety in menus and to actually see food trucks roaming the cities, check out the two petitions/letters to
a) increase the diversity of street food
b) petition for food truck vendor permits

Why do I think this is a fantastic idea? Have you ever been to NYC and checked out their food vendor scene? Or in various Asian countries? What about South America? Toronto is utterly embarassing on this front so let's make a change!

An Evening with Two Great Minds

http://suzuki-louv.eventbrite.com/

I almost met David Suzuki in person, last week. I was practically in his breathing space. And then I panicked and turned around to go to work instead.

Apparently Mr. Suzuki was in fact in Toronto and was filming something at the CBC. Just my luck to be too yellow to approach the man for a once in a lifetime opportunity. I did though, get the advantage to be informed about the upcoming event with Mr. Suzuki and award winning author and journalist, Richard Louv.

With being Canadian, we've probably got the household name of Suzuki down pat. We know who he is, what he has done and what he stands for. But, do you know about Richard Louv? I don't.

My brother sent me a link to an article about the "nature deficit disorder" and how it has some substantial scientific research associated with it. Enter, Mr Louv! Who knew that the book my brother was talking about, "Last Child in the Woods" is written by the same man that the DSF was pairing together with Mr Suzuki that evening! I don't know about you but I would be happy to pay the fee to go... it sounds like it could be an exciting evening!