Farewell North Toronto C.I

So it's been a wonderful trip home to Canada for the holidays. Thanks to the generous hospitality of my parents I've been able to make the most of my time at home, enjoying both some much needed rest and relaxation as well as the chance to catch up with all the friends I've missed while I've been away at law school this past year.

One of my first excursions was taking my dog Bailey on a trip to my old high school, North Toronto C.I. When I started high school in 1997 the building was decrepit and falling apart; the clanging, banging noises emanating from the radiators would (sometimes mercifully) drown out the teacher's voice and most of the windows wouldn't open: not ideal for writing June final exams on the third floor of an un-air-conditioned building.

Despite the peeling paint and the crumbling plaster, I loved the history and character of the school's architecture. The location was great too- how many people can say they went to school within walking distance of some of the best restaurants and shopping in the city!



Since the building, located at Yonge and Eglinton, happens to be on the Toronto District School Board's most valuable piece of property, the solution to the building's condemnation was the Board's striking a partnership deal with condo developers. In exchange for building two huge condos in what was the school's baseball field, the developers are footing the bill for a new school building. While I know the students need and deserve a better learning environment, it is still sad to say goodbye: the original building is slated for demolition once the new school opens this summer.

The original North Toronto C.I. was completed in 1912, and the new building is going to incorporate some of the "heritage components" of the original building. Still, I'm sad that I will never again be able to visit my high school and walk down the halls recalling memory after memory of five years spent growing from an awkward, shy teenager to young adult. As tumultuous and full of angst as those years were, I do enjoy being able to go back and think about how far I've come.

So farewell original building, North Toronto C.I. I'll miss getting to include you in my "blast from the past" tours of Toronto.

Happy 100th Birthday Grandad!

[A Beatles cover band busking at dusk; Cambridge, England 2009.]

Phew! We'll it's been a whirlwind trip home so far and I'm so excited to blog about it. I've been saving up all my little adventures to share with my devoted readers (yes all 5 of you.)

First stop after I landed at home in Canada was back to the airport for a family trip to England!

This is my Aunt and Uncle's farmhouse where we stayed for the week. I have so many fond childhood memories of staying here and playing in the haystacks in the barn. It was great to be back!

I finally got to see all of my siblings (first time we've all been in the same room since 2007) and all of my cousins!!! We're missing a few cousins in this picture (6 to be exact) but we were all together the next day for my Grandfather's 100th Birthday Party!

It was so lovely to be able to come together as a whole family to celebrate my Grandfather turning 1 Century old. Don't you think he looks great? I hope his longevity genes run in the family!

My Aunt organized a wonderful birthday party. The location was a gorgeous canal-side restaurant. The view reminded me of our family trip to England when I was 15, where we spent two weeks traveling around on the canals in a narrow boat.

One of the most exciting things about the trip was when the Royal Mail arrived with my Grandfather's birthday card from the Queen. The Queen of England sent her own postie to deliver the card right to the front door! There was a slightly humorous mix-up because, so on the edge of our seats were we waiting for the mail to be delivered, that when we finally saw a man delivering mail we all crowded into the doorway and threw open the door with huge smiles on our faces. The man looked quite shocked and furtively handed us his windows and doors sales pamphlet. Upon realizing that he wasn't the Royal Mailman our joyful expressions deflated an we let out a collective groan of disappointment. Mr. Windows and Doors looked very confused and a bit apologetic until we explained that we were anticipating mail from Her Majesty. Luckily we had no more false alarms and the next guy was it!

No one was more excited to have a card that Her Majesty had physically touched and signed than the Birthday Man himself. When asked if he knew why he got a card from the Queen, my grandfather poignantly replied, "it's because I've been a very good citizen all my life."

I had terrible jet lag due to England being my fourth timezone in eight days (Sydney, San Francisco, Toronto, London) so I kept falling asleep every time I sat down on a lounge or went somewhere in a car. How embarrassing! Finally towards the end of the trip I became acclimatized to the new time. Just in time to go home again.

One of the nice things about visiting my rellies in England is shopping in the quaint nearby town of Cambridge (yes, that Cambridge, with the famous university.) Well-known for the plethora of cyclists, bicycles are so common place that hardly anyone bothers to lock theirs up!

There was also a gay little market. Stalls of gorgeous pottery and artwork and lots of delicious looking British sweets like lemon drops, fresh fudge and strawberry sherbert. Drool.

I'm standing next to the market with my younger cousin. This is right before we tried to meet up with the rest of our group at the end of our shopping trip. We'd arranged to meet at the 'Mac' store. To us that meant the Computer 'Mac' store; to my sisters it meant the Make-up 'Mac' store. What a fiasco! Thank goodness there was a (and by "a" I mean exactly one) cell phone amongst the group of seven of us so finally we were able to rendez-vous but not before there was some serious teeth gnashing!

All too soon it was time to say goodbye... three of my siblings flew back to their respective corners of the earth (China, Manitoba, New Brunswick) and the rest of us departed back to Ontario, taking with us only our pictures and memories of a wonderful trip!

I'm Baaaack!

Season's Greetings Everyone!

Apologies for my looong hiatus. I've been jet-setting around the world visiting family and friends and have hardly had a moment to catch my breath! Thankfully, the suitcases have been unpacked, the presents purchased and wrapped (well most of them), the Christmas tree trimmed and the cookies baked so I have a moment to relax and reflect on the year that has past. It's hard to believe that this time last year I was getting ready to embark on my big adventure to law school in australia and now it's all over. It's almost overwhelming to think about the past year, moving to Australia, finding a house, starting university, catching swine flu(!), meeting my incredible boyfriend, graduating first year law, and then my post-semester travels. What a busy year!

After leaving Sydney I flew to California to visit my best friend from elementary school and her hubby in their gorgeous new flat in San Francisco. We had just the best time shopping and enjoying the festive atmosphere of the season! My favourite day was the day we drove to Palo Alto for a tailgate party and a football game. Tossing the old pigskin and tucking into a yummy bbq of burgers and sausages filled the void of North American culture I'd been missing while living in Australia.

Lets not forget the bag of chips that was large enough to fit a medium sized toddler. Gotta love Costco! The weather was a perfect sunny and 10- 15 degrees and aside from this total tool who was sitting in the row ahead of us at the football game, the company was perfect. At least Stanford's spectacular come from behind win deflated his (the moron in front of us') sails. Every time we cheered for Stanford he'd turn around a glare, even when his team was winning! I guess we showed him who got the last laugh! After Stanford won, we all flooded down onto the field in the new, and amazing, state of the art stadium and listened the the (rather eccentric) band's on-field revelry.


What a day to remember!

Season's Greetings Everyone!

Hopefully I'll be back soon to tell y'all about my other trip, this time to jolly 'ol England!

Merry Christmas!

First Year: Done and Done!

That's a wrap folks! First year is in the bag- well I think it's in the bag- apparently marks are released mid-December, however barring any unforeseen disasters I will be starting second year law school next March. Needless to say, as of the invigilator calling "time" on the last exam, it was time to PARTAY!

We made a bee-line to Manning pub and proceeded to enjoy a few cold ones in the warm early afternoon sun... It was a perfect ending to a perf... well interesting year!

There were many ups and downs, but thankfully mostly ups! Just to name a few....

Obviously moving to Australia to go to the University of Sydney to start my dream of going to law school...

Next, finding an awesome house close to uni, and lucking out with some inexpensive second hand furniture (except for a brand new, comfy bed- thanks Mum!) and new friends looking for a willing recipient of some no-longer-needed household items...

Then, finding gainful employment in Sydney and, while I was there, making some great friends whom I'm so glad I met!

Being treated to a fantastic weekend away in the Blue Mountains.

Meeting a group of amazing girls at uni and being able to help, support and learn from each other every step of the way.

And last but not least... meeting my wonderful boyfriend Nicholas! He and his family have been so wonderful to me. We have so much fun together and as Nick will soon be back from Darwin, I am looking forward to us actually living in the same city next year!

Lastly I have to say a BIG Thank You to all of my family and friends who without their love and support, I would not have been able to do any of this. In particular my Mum, Dad and Stepmum who kept me in the loop this year at home with lots of emails and phone calls and a computer to do everything on! And, my best friend's in-laws who, not only believed in and supported my idea of going to law school in Australia, but offered to adopt Bailey (my puppy). If not for being able to feel secure in the fact that my darling baby was in such competent and loving care, I wouldn't have come to Australia. I hear she is doing great and has finally graduated to level 2 of puppy pre-school!

Cheers to one down, two to go!

Half Way There!

2 down... 2 to go! I have an exam tomorrow. Yes on a Saturday... then, one on Monday and then I'm free free free until next year!! Wow- I can't believe I'm almost there. It still seems like a huge mountain to climb but in just three days it will all be over. I can't believe it! Some parts of this year have flown by, others have crawled (hello being sick with swine flu for three months!) but overall it's been an amazing experience! I am so looking forward to my trip home to visit my wonderful friends and family and then to come back and catch the last month of Australian summer. Wah hoo! The weather right now is GORGEOUS so it's going to be quite an adjustment to arrive in Toronto in the middle of winter. There is lots of snowboarding to be done so I am looking forward to that but I will miss the beautiful sunshine, long days and hot weather... not to mention my new friends here in Australia (both human and canine.) Check out Nick's dog, Tiki (above)- he's a little camera shy but so cute!

Gotta keep my eye on the prize until Monday when I can enjoy a little less of this

and a little more of this!

See y'all on the flipside!

Cinema in the Park: Breakfast at Tiffany's!

Is anyone else one of those people who, when discussing movies is always hearing "oh my goodness, you haven't seen 'X ' ?!?!" (insert classic film everyone has seen). Well as someone who just saw Dirty Dancing and Pretty Woman for the first time last year, I can safely say that I am definitely one of those people. In light of this you can imagine my delight when Nick's Mom and sister invited me to their local town Breast Cancer benefit- an outdoor screening of Breakfast at Tiffany's. Not only was I excited about getting to enjoy their lovely company, and contribute to a very worthy cause, but I got to cross another classic film off my list!

The setting for the evening was a little grassy parkette at the end of the road from the house (a very convenient location!) In terms of the screen, I wasn't sure what to expect, but as a point of reference, after the home-theatre sized screens at the local Newtown cinema in Sydney, something similar in size would not have surprised me; however, lo and behold, the screen was HUGE! The sound and picture quality was excellent and made for a very enjoyable "movie in the park" experience.

Nick's mom and sister were very organized and prepared with picnic mats, pillows, throw blankets and lawn chairs and even a backpack picnic basket with compartments for the plates, cups, cutlery etc.!

After setting up we settled down to scoff our yummy picnic of barbecued chicken, bread rolls, veggies n dip and cookies and brownies for dessert.

After dining at our very civilized and lady like picnic (complete with cups of tea with dessert) we settled in to watch the film. It was most enjoyable! One of those movies where I wonder what took me so long to get around to watching it! Audrey Hepburn was utterly fantastic as the main character and I found the movie very funny and entertaining to watch. What I really liked about it though was how layered the film was with symbolism and poignant lines. One of our favourites was when Holly is referred to as "a phony, but a real phony." Such great script writing! I guess that's why some people say things like "they don't make 'em like they used to..." Well I don't know if I'd necessarily agree with that being a universally negative thing (after all I love a good Jen Aniston chick-flick once in a while,) but I can see what they're saying.

All in all a great evening. The only sad part, (besides having to quash the urge to high tail it to Tiffany's myself) was watching the film made me miss my youngest sister Sophie, who often dresses up as Audrey Hepburn for Halloween and I think, bares a striking resemblance!!

Feelin hot hot hot!

Happy (belated) Halloween everyone. Amidst the days getting longer, the tropical heated breeze and the odd presence of Christmas greenery and carols in the mall, Halloween was a mere blip on the radar. If it wasn't for all the photos of friends' costumes and Halloween parties posted on facebook, I probably would have forgotten about it all together. Such a shame as it's one of my favourite celebrations! Here are a couple of pictures from last year:

A pumpkin I carved at the Crawfords' house. At $20 for a pathetically small carving pumpkin here, I was happy to look at a photo of a jack-o-lantern and call it a day.

This is me being a kind of burlesque cow girl last year. Classy as usual.

Ah well... there's always next year. More importantly, with Halloween out of the way it's now the official start to the Holiday season!

Incidentally November started off with a bang. 37 degrees today!!! I felt like I'd fallen into an oven. I can't remember the last time I experienced that high a temperature. It was unbelievably hot! I arrived at the library at 9am and was already sweltering. When I emerged from the air conditioning at 7pm it was still hot hot hot. I was so happy to have brought my swim suit. I swam at the outdoor pool next to campus until it was dark out and thankfully a tiny bit cooler for the walk home.

Lots more studying to do so that's all for now.

Happy Travels Kristen, Jen and Rachel!!!

Arn't good friends just the best? Last night the stars aligned and two of my bestest bestest friends since high school who are travelling in Egypt, just happened to be in an internet cafe when I was on Skype here in Australia! What are the odds of that happening? Not high, especially since I'm generally not on Skype unless it's a pre-planned appointment, and it was about 1 am...Anyhow, I was so thrilled to get the chance to chat that I didn't even feel tired. One of the things I love about really great, old friends is that no matter how long it's been since the last time you saw each other or even emailed, when you do talk it's like everything is exactly the same and you don't skip a beat. It was so nice to see them (on video) and hear their voices; although I still miss them terribly I think it was just enough to hold me over until we're together in person: December, when I'll get to see Kristen in Toronto, and next February when Jen and her sister Rachel, also a great gal and a good friend, will be making their way down under as part of their 'round-the-world tour.' I'm so looking forward to showing them around Sydney. I'm already devising an itinerary:

-Bondi Beach for some celebrity spotting and budgie smugglers!

-Glebe for brunch in a funky cafe

-Newtown for some Asian food and people watching

-The Rocks Saturday Market

-The City for the Opera House tour (I've heard it's well worth it)

-Coogee to Bondi Coastal walk (Did it once and I'm dying to go again!)

-Oxford Street for a little of the nightlife that I hear so much about but never get to go...

-Walking across the Sydney Harbour Bridge (cause I've always wanted to...)

-Any other suggestions??

Until then, Good Luck Girls and Happy Travels!!