Indelible Adventures

This week has been a whirlwind!   With lots of activity going on a work, the move into my new house and to top it all off a snowstorm that lasted two days…   It was the kind of storm that dropped about 20 cm’s of wet, heavy snow – almost slush actually on already over ladened streets.   Out front of my old place the icy, hardened drifts are about a meter high which makes it even more difficult to navigate the streets and additionally icy footpaths. Snow bank outside my old place - actually its an "ice" bank   I got my keys to the house late yesterday afternoon and ever since I’ve been ferrying car load after car load the 10 km to my new place over on the Danforth.    The Danforth is an older neighborhood just east of the main city center, which surprisingly has a rich Greek history and often referred to lovingly as “Greek-town” in Toronto parlance.   Interestingly, when I was with my lawyer yesterday revie...

I’ve talked about my mum in a number of my past blogs, but last night as I cooked dinner I was listening to Jazz from the UK – don’t you just love Internet radio (thanks Apple TV!).   Anyway, as I prepared my world famous (okay, in my world only) Tuscan Ragu and sipped on my glass of wine, one minute I was cooking and the next I had been transported back to my childhood in a way only a couple of things in life can.  It took me a few moments to come around and register but it was the song that was playing.... Nat King Cole's Unforgettable album - just like the one we had at home growing up   I guess I’m no different that anyone else but I’ve always been quite sensitive to smells and sounds and the memories that they bring back to me.  Standing there stirring my Ragu I was thinking back some 40 years… Growing up mum had an old fashioned record player (turntable), which to be honest wasn’t that long ago :-), anyway she had a few ...

I just had to escape the grey…I could feel it building all week.  Perhaps its just this time of year, perhaps its my personal psychological state.   Hence, I’m writing this week’s blog from California .   Clearly I must have been an explorer in a former life, because as you know from my former blogs its one of my favorite things to do.    Actually, my real goal is to head up the coast from Los Angeles to a place called Ventura where I'm spending the weekend.  I’m sure you’re thinking why Ventura?   No reason to be honest, I literally drew a circle of about an hours drive around LA and given that I wanted the beach - up came Ventura  (San Buenaventura is the official name) The bigger question is why am I fleeing to the west coast for the weekend? California sun and palms! I’ve been in a somewhat reflective mood this past week and I fear it’s more that just the February blues that have been toying dutifully with my emotions.   No, ...

I just got in from two hours of digging out my laneway during our current snow storm, although I guess over the years since coming to Canada there have been a few.  What makes this one so “special” is that for the last three years we’ve had little to no snow in the city.   Now out of nowhere we have a years worth of snow all in one day – I mean really?  I was in both Philadelphia and Chicago earlier this week for business, and it wasn’t until I was in my hotel in Chicago for my early morning meeting (yes, that would be a 6:30 am meeting - who does that?) that I noticed the storm advisory on the morning news.   Hhhmmm, I made a mental note to keep an eye on that and to see if I could get to the airport as soon as my meetings were over - pronto! Chicago looked like it was in for freezing rain most of the morning, with an additional 2 to 4 inches of snow later in the afternoon just to make it interesting...  If you’ve ever been to Chicago’s O’Hare airport (...

This week I had to renew my Canadian passport .   Its one of those love-hate things where it’s a pain in the ass to have to go get new photos, fill out the paperwork, and in the past find a notary to be your witness (thanks goodness this has finally been changed), but as an ardent traveler I’d be lost without one of my two passports.   I’m fortunate enough to have dual citizenship in both Australia and Canada, which is great for traveling the globe, but a bit of a pain to make sure they’re both safe and sound and up to date.    TW's two passports....sweet deal! Surprisingly the two-passport thing has some great advantages.  When I went to Turkey a couple of years back I got to the passport control in Istanbul and I noticed that because I was Australian I didn’t have to pay for my visa to enter the country, so rather than shell out the $60.00 for a visa I just showed them my aussie passport, smiled my best smile, he in turn stampe...