Because I don’t know you anymore,
I don’t recognize this place.
The picture frames have changed and so has your name.
We don’t talk much anymore,
We keep running from the pain,
But what I wouldn’t give to see your face again…

A friend of mine, who lives in Montréal, posted the below video on her facebook wall. Combined with the fact that it’s summer, all sorts of fun things are happening there right now (like the International Jazz Festival which finishes in two days), and given that I have some really amazing friends there I’m missing the city.

Sometimes I wonder if it’s all just an illusion, a case of “the grass is greener” you know? I mean I appreciate all these things here in Toronto too. It’s just sometimes I feel there’s a different vibe there.

This two minute video, aptly titled “Deux minutes de Montréal” (Two minutes of Montreal), gives somewhat of a glimpse of what I’m alluding to.

Whatever the case my Montreal love affair continues…

Then there’s Toronto, my more-than-temporary home. When I first relocated from Sydney I had planned on living here for one year and then in Montreal for the second year. Almost two and a half years later, I’ve spent all but two months here in Toronto (and a few months in Sydney on various trips).

I had a surfer here last weekend and in the brief interlude that I had with her, my busy schedule did not allow much time to spend with her unfortunately, I pinpointed a few places worth seeing on a map of the city (she had two days and wanted to see as much of the city as possible, which really isn’t much with that tight a timeframe!) and I explained that Toronto is not the type of city that hits you over the head on first impression and proclaims arrogantly “this is why I’m awesome!”

Instead it’s a city of subtleties and from my experience beyond the immediate tourist traps (the CN Tower possibly the most famous of them) there is a sub-cultures, communities, and a charm that one can only glimpse at in a week of being here. I’ve heard several different people say last week that the people here are great, hospitable, welcoming. For a big city that’s pretty good feedback.

I’d be interested in other peoples’ thoughts on their experience and perception of Toronto.

Anyways, below is a fantastic video my friend Sai put together of this city and I’m happy to share my experience and his documentary with you all.

TimeLapse Reel 2007/08 from young elephant on Vimeo.

Some day I’d like to spend some considerable amount of time in the other famous Canadian city on the other side of the country – Vancouver. A week there last summer didn’t really give me much of a feel for what it’s like to live there. My friend Gail lived and worked there for a while and does the occasional trek out to B.C so it’s always interesting to read about her views of the city.

Anyway, back to work! Happy Pride for those who are celebrating amongst the millions out parading in this hot and humid 25-degree day and to those south of the border a Happy Independence Day to you!

For posterity sake I had to quote this from the Twitterverse:

@JulieTyios: How ironic that the Pride Parade should fall on Independence Day – Are you listening, America? #PrideTO

Jackie on my keyboard

Originally uploaded by Infuzion Photography

Just in case you’ve been wondering where I disappeared to or why I haven’t been as responsive as I once was on email or facebook it’s because I’m in production mode.

Here are a few things I’m working on, or am about to work on, right now…

1. Moving my friend’s blog from one domain to another (and experiencing some frustration with continual FTP access issues)
2. Creating a test site for YSEC
3. Promoting, marketing, and creating material and structure for my Presentation Sensation workshop that I’ll be running on July 10th
4. Practise my 5 min Ignite Waterloo 3.0 presentation which I will deliver on July 7th in front of 100+ people
5. Update instructional videos for an upcoming Toronto Bollywood flashmob event at Dundas Square
6. Write a July newsletter for My Positive Change
7. Exploring opportunities to be a contributor for Vidafine and Workshifting websites
8. Developing affiliate programs with synergistic businesses (eg. a local yoga studio here in Toronto)

So whilst everyone in Toronto is celebrating Pride week and catching Cindy Lauper’s free concert in Queen’s Park I choose to stay in and work towards achieving my goals.

The decisions we make today determine our results tomorrow.

I’ll have my celebrations soon enough, and they will be much more rewarding!

Dumpster Diving with Food Not Bombs

Originally uploaded by Infuzion Photography

Food Not Bombs shares free vegan and vegetarian meals with the hungry in over 1,000 cities around the world to protest war, poverty and the destruction of the environment. With over a billion people going hungry each day how can we spend another dollar on war?

Part of the FNB philosophy, at least here in Toronto, is to source good food that would normally go to waste via dumpster diving on a regular basis. For the record we only actually looked into three dumpsters out of the six or so locations we visited last night. Some of the places were the back of fruit market stores.

It was such an eye opener, and rather disturbing, to see the amount of food being wasted. For example there was one store that had three tall stacks of boxes filled with punnets of strawberries all gone bad. I was told that sometimes the divers would go through each individual punnet to pull out still-edible fruit, but that’s a laborious process and last night they felt the effort would outweigh the benefit gained. Cost-benefit analysis applied to dumpster diving – I liked it!

Here are some lessons learnt from my intro to dumpster diving last night…

1. Do not actually dive into dumpsters – you don’t want to risk getting cut by nasty things

2. Discard anything that has torn, ripped, or cut packaging. Also leave any fruit/veg that has browned i.e. rotted.

3. If you detect any bleach/chemical smell stay away! A lot of businesses are now adding bleach to their discarded items to deter dumpster divers due to potential liability (should somebody get food poison from eating something they got from a dumpster and sue the company). Really bad idea from the businesses and not enviro-friendly at all, but I can see why they do it.

4. Be respectful and clean up after yourself. This will ensure that business owners don’t have negative feeling towards you or other divers in general. In fact, the crew I was with had already established relationships with some of the business owners in the Annex so they had no problem with the divers coming back time and time again.

5. Take only what you can use, and leave the rest for someone else.

It was sad to learn that one chain supermarket in particular had hidden all their green bins and set up bright lights (where there once were green bins that the divers would frequent) as a way to prevent any food being taken. The sad thing is we can only assume that all of the produce is being wasted because companies like that tend not to send the fruit and veggies back to their sources. I have some hope that the food is being donated to worthwhile organisations like Les Tablee Des Chefs (“Cooking For Life”) who work to redistribute surplus food.

The last dumpster we went to was a treasure chest of still good baby spinach, apples, super-sized cherry tomatoes, okra, beans, bananas, and a whole bunch of other goodies. I picked up a pack of green beans for myself. Everything else I donated to FNB. Some folks were going to take the food home, prepare and/or freeze it, and then take it to the FNB cooking and serving session on Sunday.

I also got a great food tip from one of the more experienced divers. I asked him what to do when I have more greens than I know what to do with and he suggested… green smoothies! A good Smoothie is 60% fresh fruit mixed with 40% green leafy vegetables.

For those in Toronto interested in helping out at the weekly Food Not Bombs cooking and serving, it’s tomorrow (Sunday June 20) at Soybomb. Cooking starts at 11am, and serving goes until late, and they need volunteers to help clean up afterwards also. More info on facebook.

Check out Toronto Food Not Bombs on Facebook and/or the Food Not Bombs global website which has great info about the movement.

Downtown Toronto

Originally uploaded by Infuzion Photography

View from a cruise boat on the harbour