We are now in the month of November, and the only news still seems to be H1N1 and who is eligible for the flu shot and who isn't.
This last week, announcements were made as to who were in the priority group (pregnant women, children below the age of five, people with respitory problems,health care workers etc) and therefore eligible to get the H1N1 vaccine first. People stood in lines from early morning and finally one van distributing the vaccines made its way to the various centers, delivering one batch only by 11am. One father said he had been waiting there since 5am with his little boy!! They got the 'van' problem sorted out, saying that the company hired to distribute the vaccines used only one van instead of more. Is this a joke??
Then the shortage happens, and many people from the priority group are still waiting for their vaccine. In the mean time, it is announced that star athletes and children in private schools ( and some businesses ) managed to get the vaccine......and no one knows how they cut the line, but they did.
So this week.....they have layed down the law. No matter who you are........you have to wait for the vaccine if you are not in the priority group. Glad they got that sorted out.
Halloween is over..and was fun for the kids as usual. Going house to house dressed up in fun costumes and getting a years supply of candy and chips from strangers?? What could be more fun than that? Christmas!! Yes....Xmas decor is all over the decks, halls and stores..........enticing you to buy your Christmas present NOW before they run out of stock!! Hurry...I think they only have 249,503,394 Wii's left!
Like the Pragati Maidan in New Delhi for huge exhibitions and trade shows, in the GTA area the place to go to is the International Center, Toronto. Tomorrow the Graphics Canada show is starting and should be fun to visit. They also have on going sales there of designer brands, like Locoste, Crocs (did you know that the original Crocs are made in Canada??) and Arrow.
Was a little busy the last couple of weeks and will post more pictures and happenings soon.
Is there anything in particular you would like to know about Canada? Let me know!!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Easy Rasam...made the Canadian way!!
Can you believe I made this in under five minutes?? And yes, it tasted great!
The latest in Canada
Wow...what a week here in Canada. First of all....every channel you turn on or every newspaper you open...has the same thing.....the H1N1 virus and where you can get the shot for it. One school made it compulsory, while others are waiting and watching. I guess no one wants to be a guinea pig, right? No one wants to get the shot and find out one year down the line about some long term affect...like losing hair...or getting some other disease instead. It is just too new..and how much research has really gone into the side effects of the H1N1 vaccine? Most countries looked like they were in some kind of race to be the first ones to produce the vaccine. Just how much testing did they really do??
At the end of the day....it is up to the individual to decide what they want to do. For now, we are waiting for more information before we take the vaccine or give it to our kids.
They caught a young 23 year old guy driving 185 km per hour on one the main highways a couple of night ago...in a 100km zone. Yes, it turned out he was intoxicated.....got caught...and taken to jail. Not worth it people!!
Talking about the road system here in Canada.........my husband and I were just saying how easy it is to find places here because they are SO organized. The entire road system is made like a grid. All roads go West to East or North to South in relatively straight routes. So there is no one way to get somewhere. When saying an address, you say the intersection of the two streets that cross nearest to the place you are giving directions for. This makes things easy, and once you are familiar with the street names, you will know at once which area they are talking about. For instance, there is a huge shopping mall in Brampton called Shoppers World. If I were giving directions to someone, I would just say, 'intersection of Main and Steeles'. In one second you would know where it was.
Leaves, leaves everywhere!! My kids are enjoying the end of the season, jumping in the huge pile of leaves on our lawn and spreading it around even more! We managed to fill two huge bags with the leaves yesterday and put it out for the garbage collection round this morning. Half our tree is gone..and so we will still have a lot of raking of leaves to do!!
Coming Saturday is Halloween! My kids are going as Dracula and a Witch. My son who is in 7th grade, also has a school dance the same day and has to wear his costume to school. The school normally collects $2 for this as they provide snacks and juice.
My son also attended a Leadership Conference yesterday. They were taken to another place from school to hear a speaker and learn about Leadership skills. He enjoyed it and was inspired to do something to help with the 'Food' program in school. They collect canned food to donate to donation centres. This is a huge help for families in need of extra food especially in these times with the recession hitting so many families.
Job oppotunites and sale of homes seems to be on the rise. Last year I noticed plenty of 'For Sale' signs near homes, but this year I am noticing that there are more and more 'Sold' signs. This is a good thing and means that the recession looks like it is ending.
It has been raining here this week.....yesterday I did a marathon session of cooking.......sambar, fish fry, rasam, cauliflower and potato and for the kids some chocolate cake. The rasam recipe I have is basically a five minute one....literally! Using tomato and tamarind paste, it tastes exactly like the rasam made using other recipes. Send me an email if you would like the recipe.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
The Bluff's at Scarborough
I'm trying to get a better map....but if you look at Toronto on the map above, you will find Scarborough on the upper right. (North East).
Keeping up with our weekend day trips before Winter sets in, this Sunday we drove to Scarborough...to a beautiful place called the 'Bluff's. It was a forty five minute drive, and from the City of Toronto it will hardly take you twenty minutes to get there.
There is a huge parking lot when you get there with free parking after September. (They collect parking from June to September) You don't have to pay anything to see the Bluffs.
Lake Ontario is right there, and you can take a walk around the park and make your way to the Bluffs.
The 'Bluff's are huge cliff side structures made up of clay and mud. They look like stone, until you walk right upto it and touch the surface. Amazing!!
Take a look at the pictures....they speak for themselves!
Look carefully.....
You can see people on top of the Bluff on the left side if you look carefully.
It looked pretty dangerous to me!!
View of the Bluff
You can compare the size of the 'mud wall' to the
Gentleman taking a stroll next to the Bluff.
Crack developing....
A huge crack had developed on one side of the Bluff.
It will probably fall over during Winter, with the weight of
snow.
We saw this bird sitting on the very top of the peak of the Bluff's.
What an amazing view this bird must have from up here.
We couldn't tell if it was a Hawk or an Eagle. It was a 'big' sized bird
and it looked so majestic sitting up there.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The Famous German Oktoberfest in Kitchener
Last year we attended the yearly October Festival..called Oktoberfest....in Kitchener. Kitchener is in the Waterloo Region, about 116 km from Toronto. The drive took us about one and a half hours as we took the scenic route and not the main highways.
We saw the newspaper ads for the Festival this year, but could not make it there as we decided to see places that we hadn't seen before. I decided anyway to go back to the posts from last October to see what I had written about it...and guess what? I didn't!! Don't know what I was up to...but I dug out the photos that I had and put them up now. Better late than never right?? And it is still October!
The Festival is basically to showcase the Bavarian heritage. Their music, their food and costumes. There are shows that you can attend to find out about their culture and traditions.
From their website:
" Since 1969, Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest has developed its own traditions, becoming the largest Bavarian festival in North America with the greatest Thanksgiving Day Parade in Canada. Thousands of visitors celebrate annually in our Festhallen, and by attending one or more of our 40 family and cultural events. Through the celebration of this Spirit of Gemuetlichkeit, the local economy is stimulated and over 70 charities and not-for-profit organizations raise funds to support the high quality of life enjoyed in Kitchener-Waterloo."
You can find out all the details of this wonderful festival at this website:
http://www.oktoberfest.ca/index.php
One more event to add to your calendar if you come in to Ontario. Just the Funnel Cake is worth the trip....trust me!
They also had one street dedicated to the showcasing of historic cars and a huge selection of eateries and fun for the kids. Take a look at the pictures below :)
German Funnel Cake
Yes, this tastes as scrumptious as it looks!! Made of a plain vanilla cake that
was warm (almost hot) in the inside, it was topped with ice-cream,
strawberries and chocolate syrup. Yummy!!
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