My World

Happy Canada Day from London, Ontario!


I have one thing to say about all this... "Worst Canada Day celebrations ever!" You see those 3 tiny little shops in the back there? That was it, that was all that was set up. According to the City of London website, this is where the action is at. A whole weekend of fun for the whole family with 3 bands playing, one for each day of the celebrations starting Friday night and carrying on right until Sunday ending off with an amazing fireworks show. This photo was taken at around 5:00pm on Canada Day right down by the Thames River where the fireworks would be going off later that night... can't you just feel the excitement? A cotton candy stand, a pizza stand and a Sammy Souvlaki which for all we know is there all the time since Sammy's is quite popular around town. Where were the crowds of people, the food stands and vendors selling Canada Day paraphernalia? I have no explanation for these questions.

On the upside the fireworks weren't that bad, so I shall leave you on a good note with a couple of lovely shots from the night's "festivities".

Labels: Canada, Canada Day, festival, fireworks

Posted by Compmouse at 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments

It was exactly a year ago today that I flew home from Australia. Back then my week consisted of finishing up my exams, going to Garden City [mall] to do a little shopping and settle my phone bill, and going souvenir shopping with my friend Elena.

Today, this past week consisted of going to work, doing some shopping and planning out what I was going to do on my vacation.

I wonder what I'll be doing this time next year?

Posted by Compmouse at 6:06 AM | Permalink | Comments

After several days of unpacking we're still not completely moved into the new place, however we did manage to buy enough groceries and unpack enough stuff so that I could finally make a decent meal in my nice new kitchen.

Labels: dinner, food, seafood

Posted by Compmouse at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Comments

On Friday night I went to a seafood tasting at the local grocery store and what a worthwhile thing it was too. Firstly it was free, and secondly it was seafood, not the cheapest thing to buy around here. That being said this was the most inexpensive way to try lots of new and different kinds of seafood without breaking the bank as it were.

They had the room that we'd be in setup with tables, each with a stack of little plates, 2 plastic forks and a spoon for each person; there were 4 people set up per table all facing the front of the room. At the front there was a full kitchen, complete with cooktop and refrigerator. Normally this room is used for cooking classes and demonstrations like this one.The store brought in a chef from Newmarket to do the cooking.

The aim of the night was the chef would show us various ways to cook with different types of fish and we would get to try some when he was done. For 2 hours we sat, listened, learned and ate. There was quite a variety of seafood too! Here's a list of the different kinds of seafood we had:

• Shrimp
• Orange Roughy
• Sea Bass
• Salmon
• Catfish
• Scallops
• Mussels
• Monkfish
• Red Snapper
• Arctic Char

Each of the different seafood was cooked up in a different style too, everything from Coconut Thai-Curry Mussels to Sea Bass cooked in a Mediterranean style.

After going to this demo I'd have to say that dinner before going was definitely unnecessary. And at the end of the night, the new second favourite for me was Orange Roughy (I like salmon the best). I had a lot of fun doing it and I'd like to go to another one again sometime. So anyone living in the city that's interested in going to these kinds of things let me know and I'll let you know if I find that there's another one coming up in the future.

Labels: demo, dinner, food, free, Loblaws, seafood

Posted by Compmouse at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments

I've been experimenting with substituting pasta with firm or extra firm tofu, it seems to be working out great, especially in my tuna casserole.

Labels: food

Posted by Compmouse at 6:52 PM | Permalink | Comments

Winter has finally come to Canada! We are finally experiencing normal temperatures for this time of year and it's about time! There isn't too much snow around yet but I suspect we should be getting more tonight. I feel much better now.

Labels: Canada, snow

Posted by Compmouse at 10:32 PM | Permalink | Comments

It's January 7th, 2007 and there is still not a single flake of snow on the ground. Some people are enjoying this type of weather but personally, I miss the snow. We all come to expect certain kinds of weather during the year, especially when the weather is associated with popular past times and holidays. In this case the temperatures are currently right around where they'd be in late April or May, and all the flora and fauna that usually appears at that time is appearing now. The ski season is pretty much a complete bust this year due to both the lack of snow and cold temperatures so they can't even make snow for the hills and the outdoor skating rinks are having problems too.

Aside from the overnight snowstorm we had back in early December you would never have guessed that winter ever came to Canada.

Labels: snow, winter

Posted by Compmouse at 8:47 AM | Permalink | Comments