Kitchen Renovation (5): The Long Wait, and Suddenly…

The dry wall team did not turn up the day after the electricians had left. They did not turn up the next day, nor the following day. I call the supervisor. He told me the dry wall people were finishing a big job, and he was hoping that they could come by and start working in my kitchen soon. He sounded reassuring when he told me that dry wall workers usually carry several jobs at one time, because when the plaster was drying in one place, they could go over to another place to do some work there.

In spite of my optimism,  they never turned up at my place. I had an entire week without any workman in my house. I tried to carry on my life as usual. I went to work, did minimal grocery shopping since I had to plan carefully what to cook in my makeshift kitchen and we ate out more.

The inspector from the city also did not come, but it was a relief to know that he did not need to come because they were over-booked and could only manage one in three of the sites. They apparently knew the work of the electrician and my contractor,  and skipped us. That was good news. According to the schedule given to me by the contractor, they had allowed two weeks for the dry wall work. Ten days had elapsed.

When I returned home from work on the eleventh day, I walked into a dusty hallway and the stinging smell of plaster. I started to sneeze but I was more relieved to see that work had finally resumed. The dry wall team had given me the walls and the new ceiling of my kitchen! These people only spent three days in my house and completed their work. These were dusty and sneezy days, but the job was back on track again.

The tile people followed suit. They first did a good job reinforcing the floor boards by punching nails on it. In came the wire sheets and they did a patient job lining the floor before putting on the ceramic tiles. It was another three-day work because when they got the corners and the side of the room, the tiles had to be measured and precisely cut. It was fun watching them, as they placed the tiles as working on a jig-saw puzzle. Another chapter of my kitchen renovation saga completed.

Sporting Life 10K: Racing with 27,000 Athletes on Yonge Street

About a year ago, I wrote my first blog post with a picture taken by my walking coach Lee Scott at the start line of the Sporting Life 10K race. This year, on May 12, 2013, I was standing behind the same start line with the banner over me. I was among the 27,000 participants getting ready to race down Yonge Street to raise funds for Camp Oochigeas, a camp in Muskoka for children with cancer.

The cold air that snapped back in mid-Spring did not chill the enthusiasm of the participants most of whom were dressed appropriately to come out early in the morning, warm enough to stand around waiting and yet not to get overheated when they were well into the race. There was a mix of short sleeves and long sleeves, plus of course, the cut-out garbage bags, which would be discarded along the way.

Athletes started to arrive around 7 a,m. They either huddled under the  scaffolding of buildings or went into the Sporting Life shop or a Starbucks nearby to stay warm. By 7:45 a.m. everybody lined up at the corral to which each person was assigned based on expected finishing time.  I was a walker and so I waited in the Orange corral. The gun went off at 8 a.m. for the first wave of elite runners and those who intended to finish under 48 minutes (Red and Yellow corrals) to be followed by the Blue, Green, Purple and Orange waves, the last of which waited until 8:40 a.m.

An awesome sight appeared in front of me as I power walked down Yonge Street. It was a sea of people on the busiest and longest street in Toronto.

We started from between Eglinton and Lawrence, headed south and then turned west at Richmond. All the streets were closed to traffic. The sense of ownership of the roads without  cars was unspeakable. At the club district, we turned south along Peters Street, which looked asleep in the morning hours. We went west again on Front Street, then south on Bathhurst and the Finish Line was on Fort York Blvd. just west of Bathurst. We had live bands entertaining us at each kilometre mark.

After crossing the Finish Line, we were gathered at Coronation Park, where volunteers handed us the medal, and where refreshments were waiting. This year, Nike gave each participant a sticker that they could put on the Nike Wall, and Nike would donate $1 for each sticker, up to the amount of $10,000. This year, Sporting Life aimed to raise 2.4 million dollars for the Camp. The Sporting Life 10K now reigns as the second largest running race in Canada and the race with the largest charitable donations.

Hiking in Bronte in the Spring

After my recent icy and treacherous Spring hike, I decided to join an easier hike closer to the city by the Lake Ontario. We met at Corontation Park in Oakville and hike east towards Bronte.

Our path followed the shore of Lake Ontario, passed through a quiet residential street and we went along Bronte Harbourfront. There are always interesting sightings on our hike, and for this morning,  two waterbirds have built their nest within the docking area.

After hiking along Lakeshore Road westbound, we turned north into Shell Park. It was still early spring and the flower beds were still bare. However, we saw a gorgeous sea of blue and it turned out the psilias were already in bloom!

We got excited again when we spotted budding trilliums.

The meandering trails in Shell Park took us through some plots leased out by the City to residents who wanted to grow their own vegetable gardens, and we saw some people already out to prepare the ground. There was an unusual object that we did not know what it was used for except that it had something to do with the pipeline for the gas to be sent to the Petro Canada Plant further down. We were essentially walking over the pipeline.

We made a turn towards Bronte Creek. The water level was high. When the Bronte Harbour came in sight again, it was almost close to returning to Coroation Park.  After all, It was an easy hike of 14 Km over flat terrain.

Weekly Photo Challenge: PATTERNS

This is that pattern of a carpet that I have taken a photograph of on a visit to a carpet factory in Kusadasi, a seaport in Turkey. All the carpets were handmade and I was told that the young women employed by the company not only made the carpets during the day, they also had to make a carpet which would be part of their dowry when they got married in their spare time. Needless to say, the bigger the carpet and the more intricate the pattern are coveted by future in-laws.

Here are a few more of my favourites:

Jakes’s Sunday Post: ATTRACTION

Jake is back and for his Sunday Post Challenge, and he asks for a tourist attraction that draws people there. I have selected Uluru (formerly known the Ayers Rock), not only because it is an icon in the Australian landscape, but also it is such an attraction that many a tourist has to go out of the way in the travel itinerary in order to see it, and this means spending an extra three days in the region to make the trip worthwhile. Getting to Uluru requires flying and travelling by bus if one departs from any major city in Australia. Although you are watching the same rock, the price of the tour varies depending on whether you want a glass of champagne in hand with a selection of canapes, or a cup of coffee or tea with nuts and chips.

I am presenting here Uluru at dawn, early morning, midday and at sunset.

Book Club Review: Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card

The youngest member of our book club has chosen this book for us, because she wants to challenge us to read a book that is not in our usual genre, and yet this book is a classic, and has won both the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award, both coveted awards in science fiction. Furthermore, The Ender’s Game has been made into a movie and will be shown later in the year. What’s better than bringing a group of women who are the age of her aunts and mother up-to-date by reading The Ender’s Game? 

We all read the edition with an Introduction by the author written in 1991, six years after the book was published, and we all like it. Our only reservation is how difficult it is to visualize the games that Ender and his school mates are playing.  We remember the time back in the 70′s and early 80′s when computer games only meant Pong (although other games were developed but not widely distributed) and a little later Atari’s Space Invaders. Obviously Orson Scott Card is describing much more sophisticated “games” than those of his time and they are more like the games people are playing today.

We are more familiar with Peter and Val asking their father for his account number to post online using pseudonyms and pretending to be adults. Isn’t it amazing that the author has written about chatroom and blogging when the did not exist forty years ago?

The plot of the book is straightforward. Ender Wiggins, a young boy of six, is selected to join Battle School and later promoted to Command School to be trained to fight the Buggers, some insectoid enemies from space. He leaves his parents, his older brother and sister, who are also gifted but considered unsuitable for the purpose and he is mentored by the person who won the last war against the Buggers to win the ultimate battle.

We discuss the “power” theme of the book. The book is all about Power: from parents being forced to reproduce to fulfill the purpose of the state, to children being removed from their parents, to the winning of “games” which allowed the young people to move up the ranks. When I read the book, I feel I am reading something like Animal Farm or 1984. Then there is Peter, Ender’s brother, who thirsts for power, his sister Valentine, who knows that power also means being influential and Ender, who although peace-loving, becomes the powerful conqueror in the Battle. We are taken by the irony the Ender somehow has to struggle with his conscience that he has killed his school mates and the Buggers, whereas Peter becomes known as the peace maker on Earth.  We can only take comfort in that although lacking parental love (and we wonder whether his parents are holding back from loving him knowing that one day he will be taken away from them), Ender is nurtured by Val and by General Graff–tough love–in a way.

“He’s not a killer. He just wins…thoroughly.” However, the winning is deceived in the form of a game, unknown to Ender. On the one hand, we question the morality of deception–Ender, who does not want to kill, is deceived into playing a game in which to win means killing. One person mentions that she has come across a report on  Prince Harry commenting on his pilot training, the simulation aspect of which is shooting objects on a computer screen to destroy them. Isn’t that what Ender is doing? On the other hand, we also question whether the innocent killer is really innocent, but we did not have time to delve into a discussion on the philosophy of the act and the intent.

It is brought up that Card is a devout Mormon and this sparks the discussion on the implication of his religious practice on his writing. We are speculating, but does calling the enemies “Buggers” implies homophobia or a disrespectful attitude? Another interesting observation is that some Mormon communities are known to send their young male members away to live in a community very much like Ender and his friends. The people in command are all male. This has got us speculating again.

Then someone observes that in the movie, Viola Davis plays the role of General Alexander. Our conversation drifts to the cast and the anticipation of watching the games that Ender plays on the movie screen.

At the end of the book, Ender travels with Valentine, and he finds the cocoon of the Bugger Queen, which he carries with him until he finds a place for it to hatch. He also writes in the name of Speaker of the Dead. One thing is sure, many of us are going to read the sequels of The Ender’s Game.

A Blast with Burgers at The Works

The Works Gourmet Burger Bistro opened in Burlington, Ontario last November. It has been quite the buzz of town since then. My husband and I arrived there at 6 p.m. and there were already a line-up there with about 20 people inside and outside combined.

Fortunately, it was only a twenty-minute wait and on the positive side, we were more hungry and ready to enjoy our meal.

This was no ordinary burger place. When we finally sat down, we were given a menu which instructed us how to order our burgers in five steps. Step 1 was easy; we had to decided on the pattie. My husband chose beef and since I was in an adventurous mood, I picked elk. The second step appeared overwhelming. There were about 80 toppings grouped under six categories with names such as Born To Be Wild, World Tour, Veg Out, Carnivore’s Corner, etc.  I picked Dead Ringer from Top 10 Burgerhead Faves. The description of the ingredients said brisket, jack cheese, smokey BBQ sauce and onion rings, but I still could not understand the name. My husband chose Jamaica Jerk, which contained fiery Jamican jerk spices, sweet green chilies, Montery jack and ripe tomatoes. I was already tired after reading through the list. My thought: It’s too much brain work to order a burger.

Fortunately, the next step was easy, I chose my whole wheat bun out of three choices. For sides (Step 4), I ordered a salad and my husband ordered fried sweet potatoes to split and share between us. There was Step 5, called Add On, but since we had already decided to have an onion ring tower for starter, we did not bother with more menu reading.

We had time to look around the decor while waiting for our food.  There was an industrial feel to the place, The main wall had an artist impression of the Burlington Lift Bridge, It fit in with my conceptualization and I like this choice to represent the City of Burlington. There  were metal works for decor and pipes for partition. Waiters wore t-shirt with the restaurants logo in front and their motto at the back.

Our water was served in a 16-oz measuring cup. The friend onion tower ushered our burgers served on tin trays.

The fried onion rings came with a spicy mayo dip and a beach house dip. The onion rings were the best I had tasted for a long time. The burgers were tasty although the patties were on the thin side. It was a filling and satisfying burger meal.

The Works Burger Bistro, 443 Brant Street, Burlington, Ontario.