a very chicken day
Sikander and I woke up at 6 in the morning (i know it's crazy) and had chicken kebab before we left his parents' Mississauga house.
Later, at home, we got hungry again so we had a home-made chicken sandwich.
We had to move a few more things from missisauaga house to our apartment so we went to Mississauga house again and started loading boxes. On the way home, sikander wanted to have Wendy's spicy chicken; he has to have Wendy's spicy chicken whenever he feels exhausted or frustrated.. so here we go.. our third chicken treat.
Oh, talking about Wendy's, about two weeks ago, when we were fixing the pickering house, we went to Wendy's to have spicy chicken. Later in the evening, when we were still fixing things in the pickering house, sikander's mom called to say that Wendy's called asking for "sikander". After we hung up the phone, we thought:
"hmmm Wendy's called... why?"
"oh did we win something?"
"oh my god.. we won something, what is it, what is it"
"i have never won anything in my life.. but it's happening right now!"
"but how did they get the Mississauga phone numnber?"
"maybe through my credit card. i haven't updated all the addresses and phone numbers"
Later, sikander asked me for something and I told him:
"it's in my purse"
"where is your purse?"
"somewhere overthere"
"no, i can't find it"
"oh no, i think i left my purse in Wendy's"
Thankfully we found it at Wendy's. The restaurant manager was keeping it safe and she told us that after waiting for an hour she went through the purse contents to find a phone number.
We unloaded the boxes at our apartment and headed back to Mississauga to return the van. At Mississauga, we went out on an errand and also visited the Halal meat place to buy some meat. When we came out of the store, there was an indian/pakistani restaurant nearby called "Tandoori Bazzar". the smell comming out of the place was so nice so that you can't just pass by. So we went inside even though we were full :) and ordered "Chicken Katakat" which is sikander's favourite. I love Tandoori and wanted to try the tandoori chicken here. The last time I had tandoori was at the Indian restaurant in Luzern, Switzerland back in October 2005. So, we had two more chicken meals... omg, we were so so so full...
We came home by GO bus and counted how much chicken we had today: Chicken kebab, chicken sandwich, Wendy's spicy chicken burger, Chicken katakat, and chicken tandoori... nothing but chicken. No wonder everything tastes like chicken.
pigeons
The pigeon's scientific name is Columba livia, given it by Johann Friedrich Gmelin, a German naturalist, botanist, and entomologist in 1789. Pigeons have been domesticated for several thousand years and have been used for numerous puproses by man. There are almost 300 breeds of pigeons and all of them are thought to descend from Columba livia.
One such breed is the homing pigeon, capable of findings its way home over extremely long distances. Because of this trait, they had been used to deliver messages tied to their legs as early as 1150. In fact, Paul Reuter, founder of the Reuters press agency, had a fleet of pigeons that delivered news and stock prices between Belgium and Germany. They were also used extensively during World War I and World War II. The United Kingdom used about 250,000 pigeons as messengers during World War II and even considered using them to deliver biological weapons.
Pigeons were actually introduced in North America in 1606 through Nova Scotia, Canada. Their natural residence is Europe, North Africa, and south west Asia. Nowadays, pigeons are found in almost every city in North America.. especially in front of the strip-mall near our apartment in Toronto. Their life span is 3-5 years in the wild and up to 15 years in captivity. Numerous people, lunato and I included, give these pigeons food occassionally. Any and sort of bread left-overs are more than welcomed by these birds. They are so well trained that as soon as they see you reach in your pocket or shopping bag, they start flying frantically towards you. It's pretty scary.. the way they swarm around you in seconds (see Video).
Fat, lazy, dirty pigeons. They don't have anything else to do now except eat and sleep.
shacknuts
lunato was making some doughnuts the other day when visiting my parents' house. i took some of the extra dough and i made a shacknut!
impulsive falls trip
we were on the way to mom's house and all of sudden sikander asked me "lunato, shall we go to Niagara falls?" "what, Niagara falls? just like that?" you know Niagara falls is world famous sightseeing place and people dream about seeing it in real at least once in their life..
sikander then asked me "lunato, do you have your passport with you?" hahaha very funny sikander. when we were just "good roommates", we, dooh, naraku, sikander, and I, went on a Toronto trip together. we stayed in sikander's house eating sikander's mom's food. (who could have imagined she would be my future mother-in-law). anyhow, during the 2003 toronto trip, we went to Niagara falls. sikander and I planned to visit the American side but we forgot to bring our passports. we were very disappointed and were sitting on the side of a path looking so pissed while dooh and naraku went to get coffee. all of a sudden a lady approached us and started talking to us. "this may sound a bit odd.. I am from States and it’s so nice to be here. but I was looking at you two and I could tell you guys are unhappy about something. is there anyway I can help you at all ? it is just sad to see a couple look like this when they're on a trip"
Hehe, I was very embarrassed that we were displayed like that in public but at the same time happy that we looked like a couple not just roommates :D
On the way, we listened to the song "Eyes on me". I like the lyrics a lot.
Whenever sang my songs
On the stage, on my own
Whenever said my words
Wishing they would be heard
I saw you smiling at me
Was it real or just my fantasy?
You'd always be there in the corner
Of this tiny little barMy last night here for you
Same old songs, just once more
My last night here with you?
Maybe yes, maybe no
I kind of liked it your way
How you shyly placed your eyes on me
Did you ever know
That I had mine on you?
When we got there it was almost midnight and rainy. It was pretty dark and cold as well but we could hear the sound of massive water falling clearly. and hold on, what is that on the American side of the falls ? OMG... Aku.. the core of evil is now at Niagara Falls USA.. where is Samurai Jack??? Help!
Standing by the falls for 5 minutes was long enough to feel the chill on the skin. We drove a bit more along the falls and then headed back to Mississauga at close to 1 in the morning. Talk talk talk, sing sing sing, yawn yawn yawn, coffee, coffee, coffee... by the way, I still think Tim Horton's ice cappuccino is the best ice cappuccino in the world (at least in my world)
"Hello, my name is lunato and I am Ice cappuchinholic."
koreatown
lunato was waiting for me in a pizza pizza restaurant on Bloor street. she had left earlier during the day and had gone to Koreatown after her classes. she just wanted to visit the area and the numerous shops that make up Toronto's Korea town. it is located roughly between Bathurst and Christie along Bloor street west.
after work i took the subway down to Yonge and Bloor and then west to Bloor and Bathurst. i found her drinking chocolate milk in a pizza pizza restaurant. we shared a Chicken Bruschetta pizza slice before getting out of the restaurant. you should try it, it is pretty nice. much better than a standard cheese slice; full of oil, ugh.
lunato's new Nokia cellphone had arrived earlier during the day. she signed up with Fido for a three year plan and recieved the phone for free. it is a nice phone but it's lacking a digital clock display on the front. i had tried to convince her to get a better phone but we'd have to pay extra for it. she had told me, "just like you, i don't care so much about cellphones either. as long as it works, i am happy." match made in heaven, eh :D
she showed me around Koreatown. there are lots of restaurants and many convenience stores as well. we explored the north side of Bloor street and then the south side before finally deciding to visit Ka Chi restaurant for some much needed refreshments. their ddukboki was nice!!
rather than taking the subway back to Don Mills, we decided to walk to downtown. the annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was taking place and we saw a crowd gathered in front of a hotel. there were rumours in the crowd that someone famous is going to come out soon and get in the limo parked in front.. so we waited. we wanted to catch a glimpse of someone famous from Hollywood. but after waiting for 40 minutes, no one famous had exited from the hotel. doh.
the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is currently undergoing expansion and renovation. to be honest, the new design is pretty bad. really, it's horrible. when we first saw it we thought that a nearby building had collapsed and the clean-up crew was on the scene taking care of business. but, unfortunately, they were actually building that horrendous structure.
Queen's park was close-by and lunato hadn't seen it yet so we changed course and went there. it's a very relaxing park and had quite a lot of magnificent trees. there is a giant sculpture of some old, famous, now-deceased, horse-rider in the middle of the park that looked quite impressive.
by this time we were pretty far off the original path so we took a cab to City Hall. i was pretty confused about where we were as well. i had lost my sense of direction.. as in which way was North, South, East, or West so a cab was the obvious and easiest choice.