Christmas Season

It's been a busy Christmas season for me. Mostly with work and related activities. Traffic has been slowed with an early season snowfall a couple of weeks ago and the Christmas shoppers driving from mall to mall. It's made long days even longer. Thankfully I'll have a few days off work to rest up and relax.

We had our family Christmas dinner at my parents' place early this year. Bern took the kids down to Florida to see his sister and parents (who had gone down earlier). It was a surprise visit that they were very happy about.

For me Christmas was also about hellos and, this year, some good-byes. At our annual Christmas Eve dinner and service at church I had a chance to meet with some former CPCers who were back in town for the holidays. That's always cool. A chance to see familiar faces from the past.

As for the good-byes, Rachel is leaving for home after completing her studies here. She'll be traveling to Yellowknife and the Rockies before that. And Tom is taking a much deserved 5-month sabbatical after around 30 years of preaching without a break. We'll be in good hands with Hilkka who is taking over for him in the interim.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

The Search for Christmas... Lights

On Sunday after church and lunch I went on a search for Christmas lights. The night before they had the opening for Cavalcade of Lights at Nathan Philips Square. I was actually down in the area, but skipped it because it was drizzly.

After seeing my friend Gabe's shots I got the idea of going to Brookfield Place to take photos as well as at Nathan Philips Square and the Eaton Centre.

Brookfield Place had a snowflake theme going on. There was one large snowflake on the floor in the middle of the atrium as well smaller different coloured ones hanging from the ceiling in the surrounding buildings. In front of Marché they had this large, white tree sculpture hanging from the roof.

Next I went to the Eaton Centre. I was saving Nathan Philips Square for last because when I walked through earlier they were still dismantling the Cavalcade of Lights stage and things from the night before.

Except for the Christmas tree at the north end, the decorations at the Eaton Centre don't change much. I guess it's expensive to make new ones all the time. For the past few years they've had these large metallic deer set up around the mall.

This year the Christmas tree was an enormous one that sat on the lowest level (in the basement) and rose almost all the way up to the very top of the glass ceiling. You could barely see the green through the red and white lights that covered almost every single inch of it.

I walked the top level of the mall taking shots as well as some of the catwalks above and up the stairs to the parking garage in the middle of the mall. That gave me a few unusual vantage points to shoot from.

Lastly I went to Nathan Philips Square. For the opening of the Cavalcade of Lights they opened the skating rink at City Hall too. Unfortunately the upper level surrounding the square was blocked off. They offer you the best view of the whole square for shots. That was really annoying. I had to make do walking around at ground level.

I think I managed to get some okay shots there with the skaters and Christmas lights and Christmas tree. If I had a tripod it would have been better though.

Potluck at Mike and Carol's

My friends, Mike and Carol, invited me over to their house for Christmas potluck dinner on Saturday. I used to work with them at Trader for many years (many years ago). I last saw them two or three years ago when they last had another get-together.

After I went to the dentist I bought a pie and a dozen croissants from the Superstore at Don Mills and Eglinton. I have to buy food for potluck dinners since I can't cook. Don't want to inadvertently poison anyone trying, you know.

There was a lot of food at the party. A lot. My croissants were put on a side table and sat there lonely and ignored for most of the night. After eating some other things I thought I'd start on them to get the ball rolling. I ate one first, then a second when I dropped it on the floor while moving the box trying to fit more food on the table.

My pie sat untouched amongst a sea of other delicious desserts too. By the time people were digging into them I was pretty full and needed a break. I had to leave a bit early to meet up with Gabe and Justin to watch UFC 194 Aldo vs. McGregor. So I don't actually know if anyone had any of the pie either. I sure hope they did.

It was great seeing a few old faces again. Besides Mike and the Taylor clan (mom, dad and the sisters), I saw Iuliana and Alex and their kids and Sue and Robin and their son, Christian, too. So that was really good.

Barnabas Sings at St. Paul's L'Amoreaux Centre

A few of my friends from Barnabas Fellowship at RHCCC (Richmond Hill Christian Community Church) and I got together to sing Christmas carols at St. Paul's L'Amoreaux Centre at Finch and Warden last Friday.

St. Paul's L'Amoreaux Centre is a not-for-profit organization that provides programs and services for older adults. For more than 35 years they’ve provided affordable housing and have been actively involved in supporting their independence.

A week before we went we were given the list of songs we were going to sing. The day before, we went to RHCCC to run through them. Our program was to include 10 songs performed by everyone, plus one performed by Glen alone (that he wrote) and another by Rebecca alone. In the middle we'd take a break to chat with the residents.

Here's the list of what we sang - Imagine (re-worded by Rebecca), Feliz Navidad/Stand By Me, Silent Night, Jingle Bells, Little Drummer Boy, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Good Christians All Rejoice, Away in a Manger, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Hope has Come (by Glen, solo), and Joy to the World.

We met at St. Paul's at 7:00 p.m.. I was a bit late due to the rush hour traffic and the fact that there was absolutely no parking at the place. Along with a number of the others I parked across the street at Bridlewood Mall.

Besides Rob (who came in from Mississauga or Milton and was really late), Sandra and I were the last two to arrive at around quarter after. Linda was waiting for us at the main entrance to show us where to go. After putting our coats away in a back room we gathered in front of the audience of about three dozen.

One of the staff members killed some time with games as we waited for Rob, the guitarist, to show up. When we couldn't wait any longer we began without him.

I have to admit I was feeling a bit nervous at the beginning. Though, I thought to myself, I really shouldn't worry. I doubt anyone in the audience would be very critical of us.

Still, I think we started off tentatively. I think everyone felt how I did at first, a little overwhelmed. Our slightly shaky practice hadn't given us so much confindense.

Though we were no Mormon Tabernacle Choir I'm sure the seniors enjoyed our performance. Rebecca and Alan lightened the mood with their enthusiastic attitudes.

After we finished we were even invited back for the following year. So, I suppose, we were at least moderately entertaining.

2013 Ice Storm - Toronto Edition

Last Friday and Saturday we received a lot of freezing rain here in Toronto. A lot!

Needless to say many trees were adversely affected. Weighed down mightily, branches, both large and small, snapped. Everywhere.

Streets were blocked, power lines knocked down. People were left without electricity. No lights and, even worse, no heat.

To make matters worse temperatures were slated to drop from a low of a few degrees below zero the first night of the blackout to as low as -15C a couple of nights later.

I have to say, I was lucky. My power never went out. I guess those are the benefits of living in a condo at Yonge and Eglinton. I believe we have back up power here. As well, the area usually is pretty well serviced.

My parents and sister as well as many other friends weren't so lucky. My mother said the power went out at their place at 3:30 a.m. Sunday morning. She was luckier than a lot of others though. By 9:30 p.m. the same day their power was restored. Three days later my sister and many of my friends are still without power.

One odd thing was even though my parents had power their backyard neighbours didn't. I was over at their place on Monday night when someone rang the doorbell. My mother answered and a lady was standing there. She said she was the neighbour who shared the backyard fence with us. She wanted to know if her family could plug an extension cord from their house through the backyard to our outdoor outlet so they could turn on the furnace to heat their home. Of course we said, yes.

As well as dealing with no light and no heat people had to deal with damage to their vehicles and property. Not only did tree limbs fall on power lines and streets blocking access, they fell on cars and homes.

My parents next door neighbour's maple tree lost a number of limbs some of which fell on my parents' small, front deck. I had to go over on Sunday morning to saw the large branches into smaller, more manageable pieces so I could move them.

Making deliveries for work on Monday was pretty crazy. First of all the vans were coated in a thick layer of ice. It took an extraordinary effort to clean the windows well enough so I'd be able to drive. We literally had to use a chisel to get through the thick ice. It was especially hard on the side windows which couldn't be reached by the front window defoggers.

As well the mirrors were a bit of a chore. I did the passenger side mirror. I believe I did a pretty good job. Sid did the driver side mirror. Let's just say there are dozens of small scratches on it now.

Traffic was awful. Numerous traffic lights were out. Drivers had to treat them as all way stops. That made getting around on the roads extra slow.

It was pretty crazy looking at all the fallen tree limbs scattered about the city too. An incredible sight in some cases. Just incredible.

Anyway, power might not be restored to some areas for anywhere up to a week (including our workplace). Unfortunately, not a very good way to spend the Christmas holidays at all.

Dinner at Tom and Florianne's

Renée and Daryl on the left and Helen and Florianne on the right.

Tom and Florianne invited a group of us over to their place for a holiday dinner last night. It's something they've been doing for a little while now.

It was nice to reconnect with a few familiar faces again. Some of them I only see once a year at these annual get togethers.

Tom and Florianne are both great cooks. So the food is always quite lovely. They put a lot of work into their parties which I'm sure everyone appreciates.

I took some photos with Tom and Florianne's Canon 60D. I have an older generation of the camera and was thinking about picking up this, the latest version. It's been out a couple of years now and the price has been consistently dropping. I thought I'd give it a test run to see how I like it.

YPG/Trader Christmas Party

My friend invited a few of us to her work Christmas party on Saturday. Two of us (Taku and myself) actually worked there before. For me, it was about 3-1/2 years ago and Taku, about 5.

The company has seen many changes in the past few years. From being privately owned by the Francis family to being acquired by Yellow Pages Group to half the company being sold by them to a British group.

The party was open to three different YPG companies (I believe) besides Wall2Wall (the new name of my former company). So there were quite a few new faces in attendance.

Still, I saw Jacky Hill, Sue Legge, Miss Dee (Dionne Fraser), Susan Maxwell and Elisa Krovblit from New Homes/Condo Guide. Those were the guys I worked most closely with.

Other familiar faces from production were the two Balas (Gnanapandithan and Menon), Greg Van Sluytman and Curtis King.

Even though we didn't get to sit with most of our friends I still had a really good time. Dinner was decent and I actually got up and danced a little.

Until next time...

Christmastime in Toronto

I had a chance to walk through the Eaton Centre after church on Sunday. Just to kill a bit of time you know. It's only a few more days until Christmas. Of course the mall was packed with last minute shoppers trying to finish off their gift lists. That can't be fun at all.

If I can, I normally try to avoid the crowds. If I'm not shopping (which I wasn't) it's not so bad. It's weird, it doesn't much feel like Christmas to me. All the decorations are up and everywhere you look. But, there's just something missing. Perhaps it's the image I have in my mind of picture perfect winter scene. In it there's an idyllic, country home half buried in snow with a yellowy, candle-lit glow coming from the windows and smoke drifting from the fireplace chimney. That reminds me of Christmas.

There's nary a snowflake to be seen here in Toronto. It's strange I know. After all aren't we "the Great White North"? Especially now, when half the eastern seaboard from Tennessee to the southern New England states (according to CNN) was just slammed by a major snowstorm. Who's "the Great White North" now?

To tell you the truth, I don't miss the snow. Call me a Grinch. I guess I'd just rather not deal with it. Maybe I'll get more in the mood once Christmas dinner with my folks comes around. We'll be having our family dinner next Saturday. Maybe some turkey in my belly will do the trick, who knows?

On an unrelated note - Brittany Murphy passed away this past Sunday from cardiac arrest at age 32. She was an actress who starred in movies I've never seen, save a bit part in Sin City, if I remember correctly. Boy, it's sad... 32 is far too young to die. Rest in Peace my dear.