New

I sold my D-SLR last week and then purchased a new D-SLR to replace it. However, the purchase that was most notable for me was the purchase of medium format camera at a camera show over the weekend.

Following up on my last post where I spoke about my affinity for square images; I purchased a vintage Yashica A. For the price of a moderately expensive meal, I got the Yashica, a vintage leather case and 10 rolls of film.

It will be interesting to see how the first images turn out. I’m excited about the possibilities!

Blackout

Five years ago yesterday, it was a Thursday afternoon. I was at the office and it was just past 4:00p; I was on the phone with my girlfriend [at that time] because we were arranging to go to York University to watch the Canadian Open tennis tournament in the evening. During the conversation, the lights, computer and other electrical appliances in the office went dead. I looked out the window and noticed that the subway train below had stopped in its tracks also – I knew something was not right.

Walking home through the streets of Toronto seemed to be a jovial experience. Everyone was talking; traffic was cooperating and nobody seemed to be complaining. I got a free popsicle from a store that was giving them away. I also got some free iced tea and water from a restaurant that had set up a table for all the people walking home.

I ended up having a party for some friends (that could get to my apartment) to eat my frozen food and drink my beer before it got warm. I didn’t care about the beer, but it was a good reason to have a party.

We celebrated the fifth anniversary last night in Toronto with several groups, including: PS Kensington, Critical Mass and Newmindspace that culminated at Spadina and Bloor streets in a street party.

The night started with a spectacular sunset, which set the mood for the party.

Here is my flickr set from the evening. Click on the larger image to advance to the next one.

Lassi

Someone posted a request on the vegan couchsurfing forum for a vegan mango lassi recipe. I’ve never made one because I don’t like diary nor do I like mango lassi – well, the only one I had was in little India in the east end of Toronto about 10 years ago and I hated it.

On my way home tonight, I picked up a mango; the rest of the ingredients, almonds (already soaking), avocado and cardamon I already had at home. I threw it all into my blender and the result was very tasty. It was thicker than I remember and definitely more palatable than I remember too. A nice little experiment. I wonder if she has any more drink ideas?

Chocolate

Chocolate bars from Food Not Candy – makers of chocolate from 100% cacao, raw and organic. No preservative or additives. Probably the best chocolate I’ve ever tasted.

Warm

Summer is definitely here. I’m not sure the temperature has risen over 30c yet in Toronto this summer but that will come soon enough. Sunday afternoon/evening in Alexandra Park swimming pool.

Heart

I’m more likely, and more willing, to cross the continent or leave the country rather than go to the suburbs – or the ’905′ as Toronto city dwellers call them. When I do go, I always appreciate it when I get back to the city – especially my neighbourhood, the Kensington Market which I think is the most convenient neighbourhood in the city. I tell visitors that the Kensington Market is within a 15 minute walk to almost anything in the city – Chinatown, the university of Toronto, Queen Street, Eaton Centre, Little Italy, The Annex, the financial district, the lake and much more.

I can buy everything I need within the market. I rarely visit grocery stores or buy food from outside of the market. At my doorstep, there are three organic food shops, three health food shops, five vegetarian restaurants, three bakeries, countless cafés, a vegan shoe store and an organic clothing shop. There’s also a ton of vintage clothing and furniture shops as well as great bars and clubs.

The Market is generally crowded with people – so much that there is often not enough room for pedestrians on the sidewalks. This causes people to walk on the streets – a point of contention for drivers. However, on the last Sunday of the month from May to October, there is Pedestrian Sunday or PS Kensington when cars are prohibited and artists, performers and people(!) take to the streets.

Here are my photos from PS Kesnington in May 2008. Click on the larger image to advance to the next one.

Here is a set of images from the Market. Click on the larger image to advance to the next one.

Fêet

This past Canada Day weekend started with some music on Saturday night at the El Mocambo. They were appropriately named, Vive La Fête, a Belgian band. I first heard of this band a few years ago when my neighbour shared one of their CDs with me. I instantly loved the sound of this band which is electropop or techno.

As with almost any band, live music is always better than listening to a CD and Vive La Fête was no disappointment. The lead singer was engaging and definitely had the attention of the audience. One girl standing beside me repeatedly told me how beautiful she thought the lead singer was. I did notice that; however, the thing that I noticed more about the lead singer was that she was dancing without shoes wearing fishnet stockings. I normally find fishnet stockings quite vulgar; however, on her, they seemed to work. Now I understand, I think, why one of my friends likes fishnets so much. It didn’t change my view of fishnets – except maybe on her.

I did a quick search on Flickr to discover that she often, if not always performs without shoes. Next time I’ll invite my friend that is into fishnets; he might enjoy the show more than me.

Here’s some shots of Vive La Fête from Saturday night. The one of her stocking feet is by Bouneweeger on Flickr.

Cornucopia

Some people say you should never go shopping for food on an empty stomach because you might buy things you weren’t expecting to buy. I did just that today; I went for kale, but came home with much more. I picked up my first batch of local strawberries, my first mango of the season as well as some of the most amazing peaches I’ve had in a while.

I skipped the salad tonight and has some fruit instead. Don’t listen to those people – go shopping on an empty stomach!

Ouch!

I’m up early this morning but not because I chose to do so – I needed to ice my sore wrist. My wrist has been sore for a few day due to a repetitive strain injury (I think) and I exacerbated it by playing volleyball on Friday. It hurts more now than before. Ouch!

Icing my wrist.

GO

It’s been a while since I’ve thought about why I became vegetarian – it wasn’t any one particular reason. A thought from the book, Fast Food Nation may have triggered it, however, I think it was a combination of things – factory farming, the environment and health (both mental and physical) were all combinations to keep me vegetarian. What really transformed my life was adopting a mostly raw food diet.

It’s probably the two of the best changes that I’ve made in my life. I wrote about it a few years ago for the Toronto Vegetarian Association, although it was never published. However, a link to the article is here (the link opens a PDF document).