Valentine's Day Present

Look what arrived at my door today!


Valentine's Day present from the dons.

don /dɒn; Sp., It. dɔn/
1. A sort of student helper on every floor who is probably paid a few quid by the residence to do paperwork and all sorts of other ad hoc chores. Also organises events and stuff.

I should probably pop my head into one of these get-togethers and see what the other residents are up to. Or at least slip 'em a thank you note or something. But I know I won't mwahahaha!

Japango Sushi 1.1

I was out of ideas for lunch today so I decided to go back to Japango and try some of their cheaper stuff. What a big mistake.

I ordered a soft-shell crab appetiser and some tempura udon.


Soft-shell crab appetiser.

The soft-shell crab was OK, but only just. The tempura udon wasn't good at all. It tasted like the ones that come pre-packaged from supermarkets. I could barely swallow a few spoonfuls of it. And when I called for the bill the lady boss didn't even seem to realise that I'd left almost the whole bowl of udon uneaten. Suffice to say I shan't be going back anytime soon.

Melting Snow No. 2

Remember this scene from some weeks ago?



This is what it looks like now:



And from different angles:



Melted snow that looks like it's been burnt to a crisp.

Here is my timetable for this semester:



As you can see, Tuesdays are long days for me.

So after my Aboriginal Peoples class today I went to watch Slumdog Millionaire at some cheapo cinema. It cost me only $4. However, the cinema didn't smell too good. At least the projector worked. And the show wasn't too bad. I don't think it deserves to win the Oscar though.

And I found out that the Chinese restaurant down the street from my residence closes at 4.30 am! How convenient for obtaining food late at night. I wouldn't order the fried rice from there again though.

Japango Sushi

For lunch, I decided to try this Japanese place located on the street that runs just behind my residence, which I'd heard serves some of the best sushi in Toronto.


The numerous accolades in the window.

I went in at about 3 pm and the staff were just about to sit down for some family lunch sort of thing. I felt a bit bad for interrupting their lunch but the lady boss told me to come in and sit down, and that the waitress would give me a soup.


The view of the counter from where I sat.

The seating area was really small. It probably seats slightly less than twenty people.

Before long the miso soup came. It tasted not bad, but it wasn't anything out of this world. I didn't bother to photograph it because it looked the same as standard miso soup.

I decided to order the "Sushi Dinner" which seemed to be their standard sushi platter type thing. It came with this salad thingy, which was also not bad but wasn't anything out of this world.


The salad thingy. Not sure what vegetables they used. It felt like some really thick and crunchy lettuce.

And finally there was the sushi itself, which I thought was good but also not out of this world.


Sorry about the serviette at the top. I know it's ugly but I can't be bothered to crop it out.

After that I was still hungry so I decided to order this tempura appetiser thing. I quite liked it, although I didn't think it was really fantastic or anything.



The overall verdict? Good, but not fantastic. I might come back here again if I have an immense craving for Japanese food, but probably not very often because it's quite expensive for what you're getting.

Total cost: Cad$30.49 including taxes (excluding tips).

If I remember correctly the sushi dinner was about $18+ and the appetiser was about $8+ (before taxes).

A Present from Home

Look what arrived in the mail today! Well actually it arrived 8 days ago (or somewhere thereabouts). It was too large to fit in my mailbox so the front desk retained it and left a message on my voicemail informing me about it. However I hadn't been able to access my voicemail because since day 1 it had been keyed to the previous resident's password, which by the way was something I'd been complaining about since I first moved in. Finally they managed to catch me while I was in, so I went downstairs and received to my surprise...


... a brown box.

Ah, but what was inside the box? And who would spend S$23.85 to send me a package? Such exciting questions! And the answer was...


... I had absolutely no idea what this was.

I could tell it was some sort of Chinese snack - perhaps some sort of prune or other sweet thing covered in dough. The customs form on the box said "biscuits", but I'd never seen biscuits in the shape of little round things before. I wasn't sure if it had expired already given the lengthy period of time it must have taken to reach me. But there was a note!


Note containing standard form greeting.

Alas, the note didn't tell me what it was either, but it had NAMES! I was thus able to find out that these were pineapple tarts. I've never seen pineapple tarts that look like this before though. Shall eat them when I'm in the mood for slightly mashed up Chinese pastry.

Oh and I finally managed to get my voicemail fixed. So thank you "RACH, JO & CAITS", for making two good things happen today.

Toiletries Sale

Over here I only ever buy toiletries when they are on sale. The Drug Mart has perpetual sales for different items which they rotate, so by the time I finish one thing, it's on sale again! Very convenient.

Today I bought:
2 boxes of tissues - $0.59 each
1 bottle of Pantene Shampoo - $3.99
2 tubes of Colgate toothpaste - $0.99 each
1 tube of Chapstick - $2.00
1 atas-looking Nature’s Gate body wash - $2.99 (usual price $12+!)

ALL ON SALE AND DEEPLY DISCOUNTED!!!

Total: Cad$12.14 before taxes, Cad$13.72 after taxes.

Gordon Ramsay Sighting

After breakfast, it was off to the Indigo bookstore at Eaton Centre to catch a glimpse of foul-mouthed celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, who was in town to promote his latest book. I thought there'd be no one there, but boy was I wrong. The place was packed with people! I could barely move inside the bookstore. The queue to get his autograph was endless, there were tons of people standing around with their cameras at the ready (and blocking my way), and there were even people buying whole stacks of his book to be autographed! Who would have thought that he'd actually have so many diehard fans in this place?



Bloody bunch of ne'er-do-wells... don't they have to work??

At 12.30 pm he appeared, making his grand entrance down the staircase to so much fanfare you'd have thought the Queen had just arrived.


Not the best of photo opportunities, unfortunately.

He got to work fairly quickly, opening with a really bad joke about how we'd had terrible weather the week before and how he'd come and made the sun come out.





My first ever paparazzi shots.


Groupies.

I didn't manage to get any better pictures of him because the place was just so packed that it was impossible to even get close to him. And I didn't get his autograph because I didn't want to pay Cad$40 for a book that I would never read. So that's my little celebrity sighting for the day.

Le Petit Dejeuner (No. 2)

I decided to revisit Le Petit Dejeuner today for breakfast. (Click here to read about my first visit.) I had the Croque Madame this time, which was not as good as the eggs Benedict, but still pretty good.



I would like to acknowledge the valued contributor whose photo editing efforts resulted in the very pleasing picture above. If you wish to see the actual thing in all its glory (or lack thereof), click here.

Cost: Cad$10.95 before taxes.

Chinese Restaurants

So lately I've been eating out quite a lot at the Chinese restaurants near my residence. Usually I go to the one just down the street, which is the one that my bank account manager recommended in her email. The food there is edible, although the lighting there (I don't know whether they're trying to create some sort of high-class mood lighting or whether they're just being cheap and trying to skimp on electricity bills) does not commend itself to photography.

Today after coming back from Niagara Falls I decided to try some place different so I walked around until I came upon "Spadina Garden", which is also not too far from my residence. It is not to be confused with "Garden", which is the restaurant I've been frequenting (above).

This place (Spadina Garden) touts itself as a "Szechuan cuisine" restaurant so I ordered some Szechuan thing that turned out to be way too spicy for me, even after I'd told them to make it less spicy. The people there were nice enough, but as for the food, well, you can see for yourself.


Green shit or brown shit... the agony of choice.

The food was definitely worse than that of Garden. At least it was bright enough to take photographs, although what consolation that is is a matter of some debate. Oh and the staff at this restaurant speak some strange alien tongue. I've never heard anything remotely like it before. This place has some rave reviews online (as do all the other Chinese restaurants around here) so I can only surmise that they were written by white people (no racist meaning intended) who've never tried real Chinese food before.

Niagara Falls - Part 7

I'd originally planned to go on the "Journey Behind the Falls", which is this series of tunnels with observation decks and portals that allow you to see the Falls up close and from behind. However the ticket lady was kind enough to tell me that the portals were presently all frozen up so there was nothing to see, which put paid to that idea. Hurray for Canadian niceness. If this had been Singapore I would have paid a lot of money to see some frozen glass.


Local version of the Las Vegas strip.


And what exactly is the point of this sign?


Looks like they're trying to copy the Hollywood Walk of Fame as well.


My big nose train.


It came with a certificate!

Niagara Falls - Part 6

Finally, I made it to the main tourist area.


The obligatory phallic tourist trap. Yes I know the picture's slanted, but while trying to fix it I discovered that it’s less than one degree off, so nothing I can do about it unless you want it to be slanted the other way. In any case it's not my fault because I was standing on a steep incline when I took this picture.




Horseshoe Falls




I thought it'd be bigger.





Some therapeutic waves.




Decided to make a quick detour to the North Pole while I was in the vicinity.


Some sort of frozen outcrop that pirates have to manoeuvre past to get to their hidden stronghold.






American Falls.




Bridal Veil Falls.




By the Niagara Parks Act, R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 829, s. 6(e), it is illegal to try and find the pot of gold at the end of this rainbow.


I wouldn't put it past these people to try though.


Rainbow bridge. Unfortunately I didn't have time to cross over to the US side like I'd originally planned. Didn't matter though; there's not much to see on the other side, especially in winter when everything is closed.


Niagara River channel. It's not my fault this shot is blur. The amount of spray near the Horseshoe Falls is ridiculous. I got completely drenched by the darned thing. But the main thing is that it caused my hair to get messed up so I wasn't as handsome as when I'd started out this morning, which I thought really subtracted from the aesthetic appeal (or lack thereof) of this place.


A tuft of grass.


Unglam Falls.


Looks like the Maid of the Mist has seen better days.


Longkang falls.


The obligatory picture with me in it. It’s not my fault my face is so dark. The sun was behind me so it was either me or the Falls.


Always good to start and end on the same note. Sorry it's a prick.