I have started self-teaching Cantonese from a book that SBF and I got at Indigo. I've been wanting to learn Cantonese for years now, so it feels great to finally get the noodle rolling.

The book starts off at a fast pace, with minimal theory and mostly practice in some comical conversations. As I start to make a fool out of myself reading outloud, I can recongnize some of the words from hearing in from my family. Right now I've leard to say that I prefer Japanese cars to American cars because the American cars are expensive! Heh. Already teaching the prejudices of the Chinese :). This will be a great book indeed!

I've gotten past the 7 tones - the lanugange is sung more than it is spoken. So the same word in a different tone means something completely different! I got 2 out of 11 on my tone test. SWEET.

I definitely need lost of practice, and have loaded it on my iPod. WATCHOUT TTC commuters: I will be saying "Jóu-sàhn" and "Neih hou ma?" to you!

Joi-gin,

-RE

It has been a long time since I’ve updated! Days became weeks, weeks to months. I’ve had things I’ve wanted to write but failed to put finger to keyboard before the motivation was gone. And while I may have random things to say, I have stopped myself because it’s been so long and this blog deserves a full update before random messages… So here we go!

The Move

I have moved downtown to an apartment on the Danforth! This is the area in Toronto that I’ve wanted to live the most, ever since I fell for it a few years ago. I live above an office right on the Danforth, near Broadview. This area has it all: Great restaurants (not just Greek), grocery store, natural foods store, fruit stores, old China town, a convenience store across the street, steps from Subway station, pubs, parks, tennis courts, exit to DVP… and not to mention a Cuban singer who performs on the back patio every Fri/Sat night next door. I even have free laundry at the apartment (shared with the upstairs unit).

I’m living with a friend from University who has come back from traveling for the past 3 years. We’ve lived with each other before so we know how we both work – no crazy surprises. I’ve always thought I was the one who was anal about having a clean place, but I’ve found someone more thorough and cleaner than me! It’s GREAT!

Apartment Decorating
Naturally with a new apartment in the summer, I’ve been busy furnishing my place. The living room is based on earth tones – grey/green walls, dark espresso browns, charcoal grey and white.

The kitchen is bright and colourful – this reminds me of home, since my mom has always decorated her kitchens in bright yellows, blues and whites – a country French feel. Our place is like my mother’s kitchen but with more “cost effective” items - we are still in our 20s! I just can’t compete with a stainless steel fridge and solid oak wood tables!

Cottaging

I’ve gone to my cottage a couple times this summer; once with friends and once with family. What a difference between the two trips! The pros of going with friends are obvious, but pros going with parents are great as well – they’re the ones accountable for everyone there, and always do all the cooking! I don’t mind cleaning and building the fire when I’ve got my mom’s famous succulent smoke chicken and fresh fire roasted corn in my belly!

This parent trip was also special because it was the first time the entire family has been up together since Dec 2004. It’s always good to get the fam together every once and awhile. My parents also invited another family that had 2 adopted kids and 2 foster kids with them.

On first notification I was terrified. Oldest kid is 13. Next 11, then 8, and finally a baby at 20 months! The sound of a baby wailing at 4AM and kids whining because there is an outhouse were not on my "Top 5 Reasons To Go Cottaging" list. Luckily the kids weren't brats; It was actually very rewarding to see them have such a great time at a cottage, especially since most of the kids have come from broken homes. Being a professional amateur photographer enthusiast (obsessive photo manic), I took a ton of photos and gave them a mini photo album after the trip. Hopefully they'll like them!

Taste of the Danforth (TOD) – Sars-stock reborn

As a new resident to the Danforth, living on Danforth, I was excited to experience Taste of the Danforth this year. Unfortunately, rather than simply “experiencing” the festival, I was thrown into the burning souvalki sauce against my will for the entire duration of the festival. The feta frenzy and latin migraines pounded for 3 days – Friday night to Sunday night.

The first night wasn’t bad – it was kinda fun seeing all the people come out to enjoy the festival. I went out to get some souvlaki (some over cooked, some good) and caught some great fusion Indian/Latin music as well. It was pretty busy, but manageable. It all went downhill on Saturday. I went out again with another friend, looking to get some yummy pasta at Il Fornello’s just west of Pape. Unbeknownst to us, it would take an HOUR AND HALF just to get there from Broadview!

There was a constant wave of moving people flowing from Broadview station that wouldn’t stop. Even though the street was closed, there wasn’t enough room to accommodate the non-stop visitors. This was due to 3 factors:

1. Pissoff business kiosks smack-dab in the middle of the road – the caused the wave to split into two, colliding with the opposite flowing wave of people.
2. Greedy businesses building makeshift 2 by 4 patios on the sidewalk. This blocked off the sidewalk, leaving 6-feet of room between a middle kiosk and closed sidewalk. Brilliant!
3. SUV Strollers – Being an all ages event, why not bring the entire family, including the $500 SUV stroller? That way you can use the tank as leverage to cut through the crowd like greenery in the rainforest. The kicker: WE ARE THE ASSHOLES if we stop you, since you’re the poor parent with the poor kid getting thrown around!

Thanks to these factors there were huge clogs reminiscent of Sars-stock a few years back. You could not move an inch. If someone got sick or hurt, there was nothing anyone could do about it. All this for a $3 stick of souvlaki?

On a good note the pasta at IL Fornello’s was amazing. We were all worn out and sick of people that we just went back to the apartment afterwards – by subway!

There was no getting off of the TOD ride while living on the Danforth. The apartment smelled like souvlaki and the pumping latio beats kept on strong the entire weekend. Lucklily this is only once a year. Next year I will come better prepared: Only go on Friday and buy a taser gun.

Work – New boss

We have finally hired a new Manager. My last one jumped ship just as the shit hit the fan a few months ago. It has been the worst incentive prize year on my program ever, and half of it was without a Senior manager! Four of the incentives had issues, 2 resulting in a national recall/product advisory. The workload had gotten to my old promotions agency days because of everything that had to get done. Performance appraisals and compensation meetings are coming next month, and I’ll be sure to come armed and ready for action. If that fails I will utilize the TOD taser.

OK those are some of the highlights of the summer. I’ll be sure to put on some more stuff soon.

Take care,

RE

“eat drink and be merry”