Tuesday's Blog

It is another sunny day here in downtown Toronto, although it is kind of hazy. We might get rain today and that might break the "heat wave". It's so hot, there are times when I still want to put on my jacket. LOL The malls are as cold as meat packing plants! With all the worries here about hydro (ie. electricity) consumption, why doesn't someone just clue into the fact that the malls are so cold you can practically see your breath! If they adjusted their thermostats a few degrees, the province would probably save millions of kilowatt hours in hydro. *sigh*

Anyway, I guess I need to catch you up on what I've been doing although why you are all so interested is beyond me! :) As you know, Heidi and I attended the Santana concert on Friday night. We had a little trouble getting there as the streetcar that usually goes down Bathurst Street and into the Exhibition was off track due to construction. We ended up stranded at the corner of King and Bathurst and finally hailed a cab to take us into the grounds. I don't care what anyone says about our lakeshore, it is simply not very accessible to those of us without vehicles and the parking rates are astronomical!

The concert opened with the Salvador Santana Band. Salvador is Carlos Santana's son! They were pretty good. Next up was Los Lonely Boys. They really got the place jumping! It was a National Public Radio audio report in late 2004 that perhaps best described the sound of Los Lonely Boys : "Take a dollop of Stevie Ray Vaughan, a pinch of Santana and a helping of Ritchie Valens and you might come up with a band that sounds a lot like Los Lonely Boys...". We enjoyed them immensely! (www.loslonelyboys.org) Next up was the man himself, Carlos Santana. At age 57, he's still rocking it pretty good. Although I was never a huge fun in my younger years, I have come to appreciate his great talent. The show was a mix of new and old, the older songs coming much later in the program. When Santana finally decided to talk, he spoke at length about the state of the world, slamming both Bush and CNN. He implored us all to visualize world peace.

After the show, it was a beautiful night so we decided to walk home. It is quite a hike but a stop at the Harbour Castle Hilton for a cold libation (or two) helped! On Saturday, I jumped on the GO, our commuter train, and went east of Toronto to Whitby to see my friends Debbie and Jim. They have a beautiful home with a gorgeous backyard garden. We drank and ate and talked and then, drank and ate some more. I stayed overnight in their newly decorated guest room. Great job hanging the door Jim! :) The next day, Deb drove me to catch the GO train at 4PM and from there, I went straight uptown to Yonge & Bloor to have dinner with Rosa at her house. Unfortunately, it was also the day of the Pride Parade so the subway was jammed. Over a million people came out to see the parade and on Monday, most of them were sporting nasty sunburns.

Monday I spent on my own, wandering the City. I stopped at The Condo Shoppe and talked about the value of my condo with the experts. Looks like I will be hanging on to it for a few more years! :) Then I ended up shopping (again). I thought I would share a contrast between life in Toronto and life in Mexico with respect to shopping for lingerie. Woolworth's in PV actually has a surprisingly good selection of lingerie at really decent prices. However, when you go to try anything on, the change rooms are really dingey, with plastic shower curtains and, for some reason, you are not allowed to try on anything white.

Yesterday, I went into The Bay's newly renovated lingerie department and was directed down a sleekly designed hallway with 12 identical black wooden doors. I went into room number 10 which was big enough to contain a small cocktail party! There was a well lit three way mirror, enough hooks and bars to hang my entire new wardrobe and even a call button for the attendant. I was in lingerie heaven! And guess what? Every single piece I took into the dressing room was white! Hahahaha ...

I'm Tired!

This being on vacation is a very tiring adventure. I just got back from spending 2 days in Kitchener-Waterloo. I took a bus on Wednesday morning at 10AM and then my Dad drove me back this morning. During that time I saw my parents and my friends: Anna, Winne, Janice, Marcie, Mary Ann and Ellen. I shopped a little bit and ate out a little bit and also sat in other people's backyards a bit. The weather here has been stupendous! Warm and sunny with a breeze. Of course everyone here is complaining that it is SO HOT but I just don't feel that way. There wasn't much humidity before today and I'm actually having some trouble with dry skin and flyaway hair. I could actually use a bit of rain or something to add curl to my coif! LOL

BTW, I decided to go The Passport Office in Kitchener and that turned out to be a fabulous idea because it only took me 5 minutes to hand over my application with $87. My new document will be sent by registered mail in two weeks. I also saw my accountant this morning and he e-filed my income tax return for $30. I am getting back a lot of the taxes I paid last summer while working here. Tonight, Heidi and I are going to the Santana concert at Molson Ampitheatre on Lake Ontario. It should be a good show since Los Lonely Boys are playing with them. Tomorrow, I'm off to Whitby (just east of Toronto) for the weekend to visit with good friends. So as you can tell, I'm not sitting still very much but I'm still having a wonderful time! I hate to say it but I don't miss Vallarta AT ALL but I've only been here for one week. Four more to go!!!

Consumerism At Its Best!

I haven't actually made a tally of all my purchases in the last four days but if the sound of my VISA card whimpering in my wallet is any indication, I believe I have single-handedly increased the profit margin of several North American clothing stores in the last few days. I am still under budget but I will have to stop soon ... my suitcase only expands so far! Boy oh boy, has it been fun. I've made some incredible buys and found some amazing bargains but I am tired. I am so out of shape. I haven't shopped like this in years! I'm having so much fun ... LOL

My efforts to renew my passport are failing miserably. On Monday morning, I stopped by The Passport Office to get the forms and then I got my photographs done in accordance with the specifications set out in the application. I arrived at my former employer's office before noon so that Robert (my former boss) could sign my application. Unfortunately, I did not have my birth certificate or health care card with me so he couldn't sign as my guarantor. Later, I found both cards in my luggage but not after a few nervous minutes when I thought I had left them in PV!

This morning, I stopped by The Passport Office around 11AM and it was relatively quiet. Only a half a million people there waiting as opposed to the million that were there on Monday morning. Sheesh! What a racket! I went back to the office again, this time meeting with Lisa (my other former boss) and had her sign as my guarantor. I was back at The Passport Office by 11:30AM, third in line in the "pre-screening" line with all my documentation in order. Or so I thought until I read item 2 under "Helpful Tips for Completing Your Passport Application: Complete and sign all three pages."

THREE PAGES!?!?! I flipped the application over and found a whole other page which I had neglected to complete. I needed two references -- names, addresses and phone numbers -- which information was not with me. Apparently an original un-expired passport, an original birth certificate, an original signed Provincial Health Care Card and the guarantee of a lawyer registered with Canadian Bar Association are not enough. I suspect they might want to draw blood tomorrow in addition to charging me $87 CDN for the privilege of having my passport renewed. *sigh*

I had to put my visit to my parents off by one day. Now I am wondering if I should chance spending the day at The Passport Office in Toronto or get on a bus and spend half the day at The Passport Office in Kitchener. I figure there are less people in Kitchener so maybe it would be easier to file there. What to do, what to do ... Passports are taking approximately two weeks to be issued so I still have a lot of time. I don't have to be back at work in PV until July 26th and I am sure that if I called and told them I don't have a passport, they would understand.

The weather has been grand! A little bit cool on the weekend but it has warmed up nicely the last two days and the sun has been shining constantly. I thought we might get a bit of rain tonight but it looks like there will be a beautiful sunset instead. The first day of summer has finally arrived! Heidi and I took Rose out last night for her birthday dinner. The three of us do this three times a year, for each birthday. My birthday in October was celebrated here in September before I left and Heidi's birthday in May was celebrated in April while we were all in PV for GCIV.

We started in The Library Bar at the Royal York Hotel for before dinner drinks. Six martinis later (we had 2 each), we headed out to Spoon (www.spoonrestaurant.com) on King West. Dinner was incredible! Rose had lamb, Heidi had duck and I had chicken. The wine was particularly fabulous. It was a 2001 Hollick, Cabernet-Merlot from Coonwarra, South Australia. I must remember to look for that in my local LCBO (www.lcbo.com). We gave Rose her gifts, had the wait staff take photos and we were on our way by 11PM. My two fellow Goddesses had to work this morning and were a little bit groggy. Being on vacation, I did not feel the effects of the night before as strongly ... ;)

I'm In Canada!

Well, as most of you know, I am back in Canada for a vacation. Used to be, I would live here and vacation in Vallarta. Now I live in Vallarta and vacation here. Go figure! I must say it is good to be home. I was gone 9 months to the day. Kind of like having a baby I guess ... LOL Speaking of babies, the flight home was HORRIBLE! I think that 1/3 of the passengers were under age 10. I sat beside a couple with a two year old and a four month old. When one wasn't screaming, the other one was! Not to mention the two kids behind me crying and kicking the back of my chair. *sigh* I think living in Mexico has taught be tolerance because I didn't lose it ... just smiled a lot and helped distract the two year old.

My flight arrived at midnight and I didn't get my luggage for about an hour. It gave me some time to study the other adult passengers. There was quite a mixed group of people with many different ethnicites represented. It's good to home! :) I met a really cute Chinese couple in line at the airport in PV and when they saw me at the luggage station, they offered me a ride home. Canadians are so nice. Unfortunately, when he called the Park'n'Fly automated service to order a pick up, they weren't recognizing his number. So I jumped in a limo and was home 20 minutes later. By the way, there was quite a contrast in my rides to and from the airport. It cost 60 pesos to the airport in PV in a yellow cab with no shocks and a Mexican driver. It cost $47CDN to my place in Toronto in a limo with leather seats and a Punjabi driver. Both spoke excellent English! :)

I had called Heidi from the airport so she was ready for me with a big hug and a bottle of red wine. We stayed up until 4:30AM talking and getting caught up. Funny how we can never run out of things to talk about even though I just called her on Friday and she only left PV two months ago! We finally passed out and then woke up a scant four hours later by the sound of many, many sports cars. Apparently there was a MG convention at the Distillery District and they were revving their engines at 8:30 in the morning! After a lazy morning, we finally made it out of the condo around 1PM and walked along The Esplanade to the market. I love this area of downtown Toronto on Saturday mornings! The colour (yellow flowers, fresh red strawberries), the noise (live busker music, many conversations in different languages), the people (Canadians, American tourists, Somalian woman wearing long, traditional robes), the diversity of the goods offered for sale (food, jewellery, maple syrup) ... it's good to be home again!

After a delicous breakfast (which included a well-deserved Bloody Caesar), Heidi and I headed off to The Bay at The Eaton Centre for some serious shopping. After nine months of being deprived of one of my favourite past-times, I had reached Mecca -- makeup counters, exotic shoes, fabulous handbags, clothes in my size!!! Our first major purchase was made at Sephora (www.sephora.com), a cosmetic/skin care store which carries major brands from all over the world. I found a product here, recommended by my dermatologist in PV, for only $70CDN (I paid 820 pesos ... DRAT!!!). In the end, given all of our choices, I ended up buying some Cargo makeup which, of course, is made in Canada. :)

I found some terrific bargains. I bought 5 summer tshirts (2 for $15; 3 for $25), two lightweight cotton tops ($25 each less 10%) and another pair of sports sandals since the thick sole on one of mine cracked in PV (I think it was a cobblestone-related incident). We hit the mall at 2PM and left after 6PM. Talk about "shop until you drop"! We were both exhausted. We agreed on dinner at The Hot House Cafe, a local favourite, and after more wine and some seriously garlicky pasta, we headed home with a rental movie. I slept extremely well last night. The last thing I saw before closing my eyes were the lights of the city twinkling outside my window.