Ice Festival 2014 at Yorkville, Toronto

Today, whenever the word Yorkville is mentioned in Toronto,  pictures of  trendy shops and expensive condos appear in one's mind.

 Yorkville is a trendy and desirable address in downtown Toronto around the Bloor Street and Bay Street area.

Yorkville has been transformed and evolved into a beautiful area today.

Ice Fest 2014, Yorkville, Toronto

However, it was not always like that.

An Ice Sculpture with Sunglasses and Beautiful Teeth

 I have been told by my elderly friends that in the 1960's Yorkville used to be a hangout place for hippies who often congregated there and were busy with organizing anti war protests, smoking pot and putting flowers in their hair.

A Warm Sun!

It was a beehive but not always a pleasant place to visit in the 60's.

A Couple of  Icy Bikini Beauties Suntanning Themselves

But today, Yorkville is a very nice place to visit be it in the summer or in the cold Canadian weather.

An Ice Mermaid at the Yorkville  Ice Fest

This weekend, there was the Ice Fest held in the Yorkville area and it drew many Torontonians to the area.

A Pineapple

The Yorkville Ice Fest has been going on for the past few years and this year's theme was anything to do with the tropical scene. 

The weather was just perfect for this event. We have had an usual cold winter with much snow.This past few days, we have a break with milder temperatures hovering in the minus 3-7 degrees C.

Maple Syrup Toffee was Freshly Made on an Natural Ice Table 

People were out taking advantage of the warmer weather, enjoying the music, the food and snapping pictures in front of the ice sculptures.

It was a welcome change from being cooped up indoors.
















Families and kids enjoyed themselves with the ice blocks trying to build an igloo and something out of them and having a lot of fun!

A Child Size Chair for Kids to Sit and Relax!

When the kids got tired, there were even chairs specially built for them to sit on and relax!

A little souvenir ( $2.00 each)  for the little ones to take home was a little toy car, animal or a cute small toy that was encased in a block of ice. 

A Sea Horse

We saw many beautiful ice sculptures related to the theme of water at the Ice Fest.

Putting Finishing Touch on the Ice Sculpture

An interesting part was watching how some ice sculptors putting their finishing touch on some of the ice sculptures.

The weather has been mild for the past few days and we do hope that the sculptures could stay on for a few more days before melting away.  


The Yorkville IceFest - a great community and family event that was enjoyed by many in the midst of the Canadian winter in Toronto!

R.T.
Toronto

To be or Not to Be? Tips on Making Everyday Decisions Easier

Recently, we have been assisting  a young person who has been struggling with his indecision. One thing for sure, North Americans are fortunate to be living in an environment where there are many choices and options in our  life styles,  occupations and  careers.

However when one is faced with too many choices, it can be confusing and overwhelming.  This young person has been tormented by a few options in his life and he is having a hard time falling asleep just going over in his head what career path he should follow and what would his next step be. We could feel his agony over his decision and choices. One week, he posted on Facebook that he would change his career and do this; then next week, he changed his mind and wanted to do something else; another week, he changed his mind again and this went on for quite some time. The uncertainty and pain was evident.

When I was younger, I also faced a few choices and had to make some significant life changing decisions. In fact we all have to make numerous decisions each day. Here are what the expert recommend people to do regarding decision making in our daily lives:

1.  Set a Limit on Trivial Decisions

 Starting first thing in the morning, we have to make decisions, i.e. what to eat for breakfast, what to pack for lunch to what to wear to work. Experts suggests that we set a time limit, such as a 5 minute time limit at the most to allow ourselves to make these trivial decisions as to save time and headaches.

 I, for one, have wasted a lot of time in the morning deciding what I should wear and often make a few changes before I could decide. This is a good suggestion for me personally!

2. Give Yourself Three Options from which to Choose

When facing with a multitude of choices such as choosing which colour , hardware, furniture to purchase for a house redecoration, where to go on vacations, where to rent a place to live or what gifts to buy for your spouse and loved ones etc., experts recommend that you narrow yourselves down to three options only.

In this way, instead of mulling over a thousand possibilities, you can focus your thoughts on the best three possibilities in a more in depth manner.

3. Set a Firm Deadline on Your  Decision

With more important and costly decisions such as which course to take at college, if you should invest in renovating your house or buying a new place, many people could not make that decision therefore they keep postponing it fro years and never get anything done.

 The same thing happened to us - for years we were not sure if we should build a nice deck from our kitchen or build an extension to our house. Because we could not decide what to do, therefore, we have been living in the same house in Toronto for twenty fives years without doing anything. Finally, I told myself that we must make a decision to do something about the kitchen renovation. Since our nephew's wedding was coming up in the fall, we decided we must have our house renovation done before his wedding so that we could host a dinner at our place.

I was glad we gave ourselves this deadline because we renovated our kitchen and the main floor of our house completely and we just love it!!!

Setting a deadline for yourself for doing certain thing you want to do and sticking to it can help you to make that difficult decision and get things accomplished.

When comes to the very important decisions in your lives such as who to get married with, buying a house, relocating your family or changing from a career to another or considering a job offer,  experts suggest before you make that important decision, you should do the following:

- Get enough sleep/  rest
- In good physical and mental condition
- You are not hungry and have eaten  - ( There were cases reported that judges made wrong decisions when they were hungry! )

I hope that these suggestions will help you in making your decisions a little easier.

R.T.
Toronto
Source - Dr. Oz show, Feb. 2014

2014 Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony, Sochi, Russia

People from around the world have been watching the news about the Olympic games in Sochi, Russia.

One of the rings failed to light up at the Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony

 I am already a news junkie without the Olympic games. With CBC and CTV nightly reporting from Sochi for the past week, I have been watching the evening reports on CBC's National  by Peter Mansbridge every night at 10p.m. and again the reports on CTV's 11p.m. new report by Lisa Laflamme.

Interesting head piece worn by the Russian hosts

Last night I learned that the Americans channel will not be broadcasting the opening ceremony live so immediately, I wanted to find out what CBC was going to do.

Thank goodness, Canadians do our thing and we can watch the opening ceremony live on our own CBC!! Very proud of it. We got something that the Americans don't have. How about that?

Team  Kazakhstan

During the Parade of the Nations, it was fun watching it and learning about some of these interesting fact:

- 88 countries participating in this winter game
- Russian's alphabet has 33 letters so Canada would not appear until the middle of the parade.

- Small countries such as Philippine, Tajikistan, both send only 1 athlete


- Ireland has five athletes, but none of them live in Ireland; they are from Canada

Indian athletes marching in with their IOC falg

- India, its athletes paraded under not its country flag, but the flag of the IOC due to some internal conflict

- San Marino -a tiny country, taking part for the first time in the winter games

Team China

- Jamaica - a tropical country, with few winter training facility , sends 3 athletes to the winter games







China - first time for its Chinese leader attending a major overseas sports event

Colourful uniforms worn by Germany's athletes  

 Germany - I like the colorful uniforms for their athletes. Is this a coincidence or some kind of a statement?

Cheers went up at the Canada House as Team Canada appeared

- Canada has over 200 athletes, the biggest Canada has sent out

Team Canada enters the Sochi Stadium

I was very proud to see the Canadisn team representing our country.

They are full of energy and brimming with confidence! These athletes will represent Canada well in this winter games!

When watching the CBC coverage, I really appreciated the stats that appeared on the bottom of the screen given about the country on population, number of athletes and  number of  medal won in the last Winter Olympics.

Team U.S.A.

The Parade of Nations did not take long at all.
I was glad to find out that students in Canada gathered together to watched the opening ceremony and learned about the countries.

Team Russia

There was a huge roar and applause and lots of enthusiasm when team Russia - the host country and the last team entered the stadium.

The performances were beautiful!
It started with a Russian girl who took the audiences through the history and many changes in Russia.

It depicts the history, culture, arts, music, and technological changes in Russia.

A whale formed by the performers and different structures

It was a quick and remarkable history lesson from the discovery of Russia to the modern building in the 20th century.

The lights, sounds, and atmosphere must be incredible at the Sochi Stadium!













The show was spectacular!

A spectacular dance performance!

I was glued in front of the TV,  reluctant to get up from my seat throughout the performance.















The two hours flew by fast than anything.

Though I do not have the privilege of attending the 2014 Winter Olympic Game opening ceremony in person, The CBC does a darn good job at bringing it to Canadians and the world!

Sochi Stadium with the Olympic flame burning bright

R.T.
Toronto - gluing myself in front of the CBC reporting of the Winter Games
Source: CBC TV

Good Bye to San Francisco!

We had a great trip out west!

We sadly finished our lovely trip out west and leaving S.F.

San Francisco has an excellent public transit system and tourists and residents alike can easily go back and forth between downtown and the airport paying a one way ticket at U.S.$8.50.

But Stan was not feeling well, so we took the shareairport shuttle taxi which is a door to door taxi service but  much cheaper .

As  pensioners, we always look for the best priced and safest way to travel between destinations.

San Francisco at dawn - On our way to the San Francisco Airport

We booked the airport shuttle taxi the day before and it came right on time and picked us up at 7a.m. when the sun had just started to come up on the horizon.

Lat time when I was in San Francisco, I did not use the shared airport shuttle taxi, therefore, I paid over U.S. $ 60.00 for the ride to the airport from my downtown hotel.  This time we found out about the share shuttle service and paid only $ 14.00 per person going to the same place!

The reason for the cheaper rate is that the passengers share the same taxi van with others picked up around the same location.  However, since there were no other passengers on the  morning when we left, the shared shuttle bus did not have to pick up anyone else. It was just like a regular taxi going straight to the airport without stopping at anywhere. It was a comfortable ride from our hotel door to the airport but at a fraction of the cost of a regular taxi!

Wish we had the same share airport shuttle services in Toronto! When we get home, we would have to pay over Can.$ 60.00 to go from the airport to our house and we live quite close by in the city of Toronto.

Praise God!  We had a very enjoyable and safe trip out west! We saw some amazing desert scenery and best of all had some great time with our son and showed him our support!

At the beginning, we were not sure if we should go and I am glad we did!

R.T.
Feb. 2014

Sharing New Year Red Envelop Tradition at Pier 39

E. came first thing in the morning and had breakfast with us at the hotel dining room. S. rested a little bit more after breakfast in the lovely hotel room until 2p.m. Since was still not 100% recovered from his illness, we could not do a lot of sightseeing. But there was one place I felt it he should not miss visiting - Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf

From the dock of Pier 39 we could see the Island of Alcatraz clearly and it was interesting to learn about American's once most infamous prison.  Pier 39 is a popular place for tourists.

Interesting Info about Alcatraz

Sea Lions at Pier 39

It has nice boardwalk, a multitude of shops, eatery, games and free entertainment for kids, musicians playing on the sidewalk and its most famous inhabitants - sea lions.

Since my husband tired easily from his condition, we sat down and relaxed rather than walking around too much.

Birds roamed about freely in the restaurant

We rested at this restaurant with an outdoor patio and waiting for Er. and his room mate to join us for dinner.

Sipping on our hot beverages, we watched the world go by and the birds strutting on the ground of the restaurant.

Delicious seafood chowder

How could one visit San Francisco without sampling the seafood they have to offer?

We ordered the seafood chowder and it was delicious with chunks of fresh fish, scallops, shrimps and all the yummy stuffs in it!






E. and his friend, H. came and joined us for dinner at around 6p.m. and it was nice seeing them again. Er. has forewarned us before our arrival that he would not be able to spend a lot of time with us sightseeing due to his work situation.So we were really glad to see him for the third time on this trip!

A Red Lucky Pocket

Since we saw them on the first day of the Lunar New Year, the Year of the Horse, I took the opportunity and gave Holly a red lucky pocket according to tradition. ( Chinese tradition has it that only married people can give out this red lucky envelop to unmarried people during the new year. If one is given one of these red envelops, unlike western tradition when your are given a gift, you open it before the giver, you should not open the red envelop because it contains money and you don't want to embarrasse the giver if the amount is very small.)

I had to explain this tradition to H. since she asked me if she could open hers. Chinese calendar runs on a twelve year cycle and each year is represented by an animal. If you are born say in the Year of Horse, Chinese myths say that something really good would happen to you when  the Year of Horse comes around again which is twelve year later. H. and Er. were very interested when I shared some of the stories of what happened to me in my career during the previous Years of the Horse.

 I also shared with them  what I would like to receive as gifts in this my supposed to be lucky Year of the Horse. We all burst into laughter and chuckled at my wish as I quoted what Herb said to Sarah regarding his strong desire of having grandchildren - " I want grandchildren from you soon and I don't care how to get them, married or not!"

It was a fun dinner and evening! To think that I was nervous before the dinner worrying about what to say to Er's roommate. But that was not a problem at all and we all had a great time!  Praise God again for His faithfulness!

R.T.
San Francisco, California

A Great Dinner with Our Son

Bay Bridge at Night, San Francisco

After our visit to the Golden Gate Park, we texted E. and arranged to have dinner with him around his place. We took the number 5 bus at the corner of Great Highway and Fulton Street. When we looked at our map, we thought the closest way to walk to his place would be from 6th Street. 

We got off at the 6th street and started looking for his street. We were wrong! The place where we got off looked pretty seedy with a lot of people milling around and asking for change.

I really did not think E. would pay such high rent living in an area that seemed so dark and seedy.

When we got to First Ave and the waterfront, we located a restaurant and by that time we were hungry and exhausted and ready to wolf down anything.

Delicious & excellent priced meal at Delancey Restaurant

We text Er, and he came at 8pm to meet us at the Delancey Street Restaurant. With a new haircut and a bike helmet in his hand, Er looked better than I thought.

 Considering all the changes he has to made since July, starting a new job, uprooting himself and leaving all his friends behind in NY,then traveling to Asia for training and all the politics and difficulty he has to deal with recently, Er. was pleasant and positive.  In a mood to talk, Er. shared us about what has been happening with his life. Though Er has left home many years ago for school and work, we remain close by seeing us as often as possible when we are able to do so. 

 


Today was the last day of the Year of Snake in the lunar calendar. We have not had the opportunity to.celebrate the lunar new year with our son since he has left home for school and later for work in the U.S. So we took this opportunity and presented him with the red new year envelope and both Stan and I shared a word of wisdom with him while giving him the red pocket. 
\

 

Er does enjoy and respect our old family traditions; therefore he listened attentively and carefully to our sharing.


We had a really good sharing time together over some great appetizers and good food at the Delancey Street Restaurant. The restaurant is close to the Bay Bridge, a prime tourist attraction yet the price is half of what other good restaurants' prices.

 No wonder the place is packed. Good food, great prices and attentive service. We've found a great place to eat in this tourist town!

 
 After dinner, we stopped by Er.'s condo and met his roommate. Er and his roommate did a great job decorating their place. Glad that all his furniture fits and looks very nice in his S,F. apartment!

R.T.
p.s.Stan did not feel too well after the long hike this aft. Er walked us to buy some over the counter drug  for his discomfort.We took a cab back to the hotel and Stan rest for the night.