green tea

6 months leave

2016-05-08T22:56:00.000-04:00

This is kind of big news although it has been in the works for two years. I've taken six months of unpaid leave from work to travel. I've given up my apartment and put my stuff into storage. Here's the plan I've come up with after months of overtime work, saving and planning:

Trip 1

May 8: transit

May 9-19: UK (Bristol, Cardiff, London to see Manic Street Preachers two nights)

May 19-22: Istanbul

May 23-31: Uzbekistan

May 31-June 3: Tajikistan

June 3-7: Kazakhstan

June 7-13: Kyrgyzstan

Trip 2

June 29-30: transit

July 1-21: Bhutan (Eastern tour, Thimphu, Haa)

July 21-31: India (Delhi, Jaipur, Agra, Varanasi)

Trip 3

August 8: transit

August 10: Australia (Victoria only)

>>> August 25-Sept 3: Tasmania

Sept 9-23: Japan (Kansai only)

Trip 4

October 7: transit

October 8-23: Myanmar

October 23-25: Hong Kong

November 3: back to work, bankrupt

Right now I'm at my departure gate at the Toronto airport while my first flight of about two dozen this year is delayed for parts replacement. Not a great start as I am very likely to miss my non-refundable bus connection to Bristol and I may end up having to kill several hours at Gatwick for the next available transit. I thought an hour and 40 minutes would have been enough to catch the bus but... I guess not. Thanks AirTransat. I can only hope I'm getting the worst over with at the start.

Hotel Thoughts

2016-03-22T00:04:00.000-04:00

Let's start with this. EVERY HOTEL needs one of these: a digital luggage scale with a chart of the baggage allowances for every airline operating in the region. It could save you an embarrassing check-in counter re-pack. This set-up was at CityInn Hotel Taipei Station.

When I'm planning trips, I always try to cross-reference aggregator site reviews with blogger reviews. And whenever I travel, I intend to write up my hotels when I get back. But, I haven't written anything about my last three or four trips. Instead of agonizing over perfect prose, I just want to get into posting again so here are some very quick, rough thoughts on four hotels I enjoyed on the past three holidays. I tend to choose mid-range, non-chain hotels that have some element of local flavour.

After dusk, there is very little going on in this neighbourhood.

XVA Art Hotel Dubai (2 night stay in Nov 2013)
It's tough to find anyplace in Dubai with much patina. XVA Hotel and Gallery, in the Al Fahidi/Bastakiya, is a restored Persian merchant home. The night before, I'd been in one of the glass skyscrapers more typical of Dubai, an indulgence for sure, but it was nothing less than a delight to walk into the courtyard at XVA to see trees and vines and sleeping cats and art.

All the rooms here lead off one of three courtyards and each is decorated differently. I had a very small but comfortable single room. A fresh, Gulf-style breakfast was included in the room rate. Other than the cafe and the gallery, there aren't any amenities here.

Even if you can't get a booking at the hotel, it is worth visiting the space to see traditional Persian architecture. You can experience how the wind towers work to cool the lower floors. The cafe also serves the absolute best iced lemon-mint.

Dandy Hotel Tianjin, Taipei, Taiwan (3 night stay in November 2014)
I had the worst jetlag of my life in Taipei. I think it was the 12 hour difference from home - I couldn't figure out which side to be on - sleep early or sleep late? Wake early or wake late? I settled for waking early and sleeping through the middle of each day then staying awake 'til late. This means that my experience in the Tianjin neighbourhood was a bit off-kilter, but I did really like it. It reminded me of some parts of Kyoto, with the narrow streets of small cafes and izakayas, convenience stores and cute shops.

Dandy Hotel Tianjin is compact but fresh, clean and efficient. I had a standard room so I didn't get one of those rock star balconies you can see in the photo. The hotel's proximity to Zhongshang Station is convenient. The free breakfast buffet was a combo of Chinese and western items, nicely set-up. The only negative I can give is that the staff were extremely strict about check-in time, meaning I sat in the dining room with a convenience store drink drenched in sweat waiting for 3pm to arrive. Taipei was about 10°C hotter than seasonal when I was there (36°C in November?!) so I made ample use of the free laundry.

Dandy Hotel Daan Park, Taipei, Taiwan (4 night stay in November 2014)
The same hotel group as the Tianjin Dandy Hotel. Many of the same features like a well-designed and spotless room, helpful staff, a really good breakfast buffet and free access to the laundry. I treated myself to a park view room here and it was worth the price difference. I loved sitting by that big window, watching the people pass by. Daan Park Station, which has to be one of the most pleasant subway stations in the world, is just a few metres from the hotel entrance and many bus routes run along that street, too.

Moment Hotels, Malmö, Sweden (2 night stay in June, 2015)
This place had everything I needed and nothing I didn't. My single room was tiny - just a platform bed and a fold-down table - but I started fantasizing about living a serene, minimalist Swedish life with a capsule wardrobe and no clutter whatsoever. Again, I was having a slightly weird time in Malmö with jetlag compounded by Scandinavian mid-summer and it still being light outside at 10:45 pm. So, I spent quite a lot of time resting by looking out that big window onto the Central Station.

Moment Hotels has free bike rental (note: I'm 5'5" and the bikes were too high for me, riding them was scary). There's a dining room with a coffee and tea set-up and a roof-top garden where I ate take-out dinners. There's also a lovely open sandwich buffet for breakfast. Sweden in general was expensive but I felt this hotel was excellent value if you don't mind teeny little rooms.

Fly with Kitty

2015-11-01T13:36:00.000-05:00

From my trip to Taiwan one year ago that I haven't mentioned taking yet: the Hello Kitty departure gate at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. This is a fully functional gate. When I took the photos, a flight had just departed for a Chinese city I'd never heard of.

I have to say that Taiwan gives Japan a serious challenge in the cuteness competition. Stay tuned for pictures of Taipei's Hello Kitty gondola.

On the back wall: Sanrio characters dressed as members of Taiwan's various Aboriginal groups.

A travel-themed Sanrio store, under the watch of Pilot Kitty.

20 years ago today - Canadian Unity Rally in Montréal, 1995

2015-10-27T00:40:00.001-04:00

Autumn of 1995 was an uncertain time to be a Canadian. The Province of Québec was about to hold a referendum on whether to take steps towards independence from Canada.

The referendum question was as follows: "Do you agree that Québec should become sovereign after having made a formal offer to Canada for a new economic and political partnership within the scope of the bill respecting the future of Quebec and of the agreement signed on June 12, 1995?" A vote of OUI/YES would be for sovereignty while NON/NO would be to remain as part of Canada.

The vote was set for October 30th. As the date got closer, the opinion polls found the OUI and NON sides almost even. For many of us outside Québec, fear set in. Everything was uncertain. What happens if our country splits?

So the NON side organized a rally in Montréal to take place three days before the vote. The idea was to show that the rest of Canada supports and needs Québec.

My high school was offered transportation for interested students to join the rally. Immediately after the Halloween dance, a collection of Grade 12 and 13 students climbed into coaches that had been provided by the Liberal Party (which ended up being a bit of an issue...) We travelled through the night, eight hours, then we were disgorged into a chaotic downtown with our flags and banners.

I've scanned some photos and ephemera from my high school scrapbook. In the centre photo above is the prime minister Jean Chrétien at the podium.

I am not certain how it happened but the group from my high school ended up at the very front of the rally, in the first row of the crowd in front of the stage where the politicians gave their speeches. We later found ourselves in Macleans Magazine, on TV, even on the front page of the New York Times.

The exact size of the crowd at the October 27th Unity Rally is unknown. Estimates range from 30,000 people to 150,000 people. Here's the NYT's take on the event: "what had started here as a grass-roots call to show solidarity with Quebecers mushroomed into an emotional national event, drawing people from as far away as the Yukon, many taking advantage of cut-rate "unity fares" offered by train, bus and airline companies. It was the biggest demonstration in recent years in the city that is Quebec's commercial capital".

So tens of thousands of us hit Montréal as a love-bomb, asking Québec to please stay. To be honest, I don't know how many undecided voters would really have been convinced by our presence. The NON crowd completely took over le centre-ville, brandishing placards in mangled French. We were intrusive. There were arguments with OUI supporters and other kinds of disruptions. Still, we were there and we showed that the rest of Canada did care.

In the end, the vote was one of the closest ever. A 93.52% voter turnout resulted in 49.42% for OUI/YES and 50.58% for NON/NO. Canada would remain united in 1995.

As for my experience at the rally, it was a memorable day for me and it's cool to be able to say "I was there". The atmosphere that day is not something I can forget. I am actually not a patriotic person whatsoever but I did and still do care very much about Canada remaining a united country.

As of 2015, the issue of Québec sovereignty is by no means resolved forever. In last week's federal election, the Bloc Québécois won ten seats, up from four in 2011 (in 1995, the party held 54 seats in the Canadian parliament). Party leader Duceppe re-stated the BQ's stance simply: "I think we're better off being a country in the world than a province in Canada".

----

In 2005, the CBC put together a three hour documentary called Breaking Point/Point de Rupture about the 1995 Québec referendum. I found the French version on YouTube, Part 1 and Part 2. The portion specifically about the Unity Rally starts here. I also found... myself! Crushed at the front barrier, I was next to none other than "Hurricane Hazel" McCallion, a well-known Ontario politician. She ended up being plucked from the crowd by the security staff to join the other VIPs, but first we were captured in frame together.

4 songs

2015-08-23T18:40:00.000-04:00

Apropos of nothing, here are four songs I've been playing a lot recently.

"New music"? What is that?

Up On The Catwalk - Simple Minds
1984

Available on iTunes.

Pictures of You - The Cure
1989
I actually prefer the longer, original version from the Disintegration album but I couldn't find a decent YouTube video to embed.

Available on iTunes.

Dream Dream Dreaming - Glasvegas
2011
Regional pronunciation is such a rare and precious thing in English language pop music. There's more than a hint of Glasgow here.

Available on iTunes.

Everything Fades - Nicky Wire
2006
Nicky Wire is lyric writer and bassist for my beloved Manics. His lo-fi solo album is likely to be "niche interest only" but I have INTENSE FEELINGS about this song.

Too indie for iTunes. Try Amazon or eBay.

Top 5 Photos I Didn't Take

2015-06-22T07:42:00.001-04:00

Thinking recently about missed chances to take photos, I came up with these five highly picturesque moments that will have to be preserved in my memory only.

5. Row of yak heads at Paro market
October 2010, Bhutan: I joined a group hiking to the Tiger's Nest, near Paro. We came from Thimphu on a bus and we made a short stop at the notorious public toilets beside the Paro market. Along the perimeter of the market, someone had placed three severed yak heads in a row. Each massive, wooly head was sitting at a different angle with its tongue drooping out, eyes in various levels of openness. It was grotesque but would have been a great photo. Unfortunately I'd left my camera on the bus for the toilet break and I couldn't make the group wait for me to rush back to take pictures. I am placing this lowest on my list of missed photos because if I get to Paro on market day some other time, there's a good chance I can find more severed yak heads.

4. Mennonite ladies and a wall of roses
Last summer, near my hometown of Waterloo, Ontario: on a country drive with my parents, we passed a Mennonite farm. Two ladies in their calico dresses and prayer caps were standing in front of a wall of climbing roses, cutting flowers. It was a perfect rural tableau. I had my camera with me but taking photos of Mennonites is pretty rude so I didn't.

3. Falcon in a world of ice
December 24th, 2013, Highway 401, Ontario: it was two days after a major ice storm brought gorgeous destruction to the region. This was the first sunny day since the storm: the sunlight glinting through the ice made the whole landscape gleam with silver. I was in the first row of a Greyhound bus, heading to my parents' place for Christmas. In the centre divider of the highway, I spotted an enormous bird of prey (likely a falcon) perched low to the ground on a broken, twisted tangle of iced-over greenery. It looked spectacular with the world of silver ice all around it. Zooming past on a public bus, it was an impossible situation.

2. Three horses at dusk, Iceland
October 2012, somewhere west of Vík, Iceland: the volcanic landscape here is characterized by funny bubbles and bumps. In a van being driven by my hiking guide, we passed three small hills clustered together. There was a horse standing on each hill: one white horse, one dark horse and one dappled horse. Each was standing still facing the road to the south. It was a magical scene but I couldn't find my voice to call out 'stop!' to our guide even though she was very amenable to photo breaks.

1. 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution
January 1st, 2009, somewhere near Matanzas, Cuba: my then-boyfriend and I were on a Christmas break trip to Cuba. We had taken a public bus to Havana for the day. It just so happened that this day marked the 50th anniversary of the overthrow of the Batista government on January 1st, 1959. Other than a lot of flags on display, Havana had been very quiet. On the night trip back to the beach town where we were staying, the bus made a stop at a petrol stand and snack bar. Someone had placed a small TV on a chair in the dining room and there was a large circle of people silently watching the broadcast of Raul Castro making a speech about the anniversary. It would have been a wonderful photo of normal Cuban citizens reacting to the occasion. I have no idea why I did not take photos, I can only guess that I was too interested in people-watching at the time. This is my #1 missed chance because it will never be the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution ever again.

Can you relate to this? Are there moments you wish you'd captured with your camera?

Manic Street Preachers 101: No love songs!

2015-05-18T23:11:00.002-04:00

I wrote and formatted this entire post already then Blogger deleted it for reasons unknown. So, I am feeling completely miserable about starting again from scratch. I will try anyway. I recently became re-enamoured with a favourite band, Manic Street Preachers. In the UK, they are a pretty major act but here in North America, they are not well known with only a cult following. Since the bulk of my legitimate site traffic is from Canada, the US and South Asia, I am going to guess that most readers here will not know the Manics. This is my messy, half-baked attempt to introduce Manic Street Preachers to those who are unfamiliar and list a representative sample of their music, followed by my own experiences as a fan.

top left: Richey Edwards, Nicky Wire, James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore in 1992. top right: 1994. lower left: 2006. lower right: Moore, Bradfield and Wire in 2013.

The Manics story is an extremely interesting one. Here are the basics from NME's artist biography:

Manic Street Preachers are a Welsh rock band. [...] The group originally consisted of James Dean Bradfield (lead vocals and guitar), Nicky Wire (bass guitar, lyrics), Sean Moore (drums) and Richey Edwards (rhythm guitar, lyrics). However, Edwards went missing in February 1995 and the remaining members have continued as a trio since. The band, who are commonly referred to as The Manics, formed in Oakdale Comprehensive School, South Wales in 1986.

...During an interview with NME's Steve Lamacq, Edwards responded to questions about the band's sincerity by carving the phrase '4REAL' into his arm with a razor blade; he was treated in hospital and received 17 stitches. The Manics signed with Columbia Records to release their debut album 'Generation Terrorists': the band themselves claimed that the LP would be the "greatest rock album ever" and sell 16 million copies worldwide. Instead, the album sold an estimated 250,000 copies around the world upon its release and peaked at Number 13 on the UK Albums Chart, but it was given a 10/10 review by NME who declared it "nothing short of a modern miracle". The band's second album, 'Gold Against The Soul', was released in 1993, while their career-defining masterpiece 'The Holy Bible' followed in 1994. NME have described the album, which unflinchingly explores Edwards' emotional and mental struggles at the time, as a "work of genuine genius". The album, however, also reflected on Edwards' continued problems: by early 1994 he had been admitted to The Priory mental health hospital. On February 1, 1995, Edwards disappeared: he checked out of the Embassy Hotel in London at 7am and his car was later found abandoned near the Severn Bridge service station. He has not been since and was declared presumed dead on November 23, 2008, by his family.

After his disappearance the band considered disbanding but later decided to carry on, although they have kept a percentage of their royalties aside should he ever return. The band's fourth album, 'Everything Must Go', is considered one of their most triumphant: recorded in the wake of Edwards' disappearance, it was released in 1996 and became a critical and commercial success, partly due to the popularity of the single 'A Design For Life'. The band continued their success with their next album, 'This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours', which was similarly well-received upon its 1998 release. Since then, the band have released the albums 'Know Your Enemy' (2001), 'Lifeblood' (2004) and 'Send Away The Tigers' (2007). Their 2009 album 'Journal For Plague Lovers', meanwhile, featured lyrics left behind by Edwards before his disappearance, and they released another album, 'Postcards From A Young Man', in 2010. In 2013, Manic Street Preachers released their album 'Rewind The Film': a sparser, more acoustic-based record. Less than a year later they released 'Futurology', a more experimental and expansive record which has been hailed as one of their finest yet...

If that is a little much for you to read, try this two minute clip instead.

The band's music has shifted through so many styles through the years. It is safe to say that they specialize in the 3.5 minute guitar rock song with a straightforward verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus format. The music, written by James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore, often has an unexpected key or melody. Lyrically, the themes are politics, history, art, philosophy, social issues, economics, feminism, despair, and later, more introspective topics. Twisted or grotesque imagery was frequent early on. One detail that is somewhat unusual is that lead vocalist James Dean Bradfield sings lyrics written by other band members. Initially the words (oh so many words) were written mostly by Richey Edwards and Nicky Wire but after Edwards's disappearance, Wire has written almost all of the lyrics. His writing is more sparse which allows Bradfield's voice enough space to stretch out. Bradfield seems to be a good sport about singing the often very personal lyrics (eg. Edwards on self-mutilation and self-starvation, Wire and "I wish I had been born a girl not this mess of a man"). Note: there are essentially no love songs! Well, a couple tracks come close but at least they aren't ballads. Even songs with the word 'love' in the title are not about romantic love. I really like this aspect of the band. Also, they occasionally smash their instruments, which is a delight.

Manic Street Preachers, April 27th 2015, Danforth Music Hall

Lucky Toronto, we were one of only seven North American cities to see the Manics in 2015 (or actually, in the past 5 years). The same week as the Toronto show, the Manics had (hard to believe) their first American TV appearance. They opted to perform their massive comeback single from 19 years ago, but with a bit of a lounge crooner delivery:

________________

I wish I could share these as audio only. With the exception of the first one, I think videos distract/detract from the music. This is a long list but it covers 24 years of music, albeit unevenly. Headphones in!

You Love Us -1991
"We won't die of devotion, understand we can never belong." This is just brazen fun: acting out rock star bravado although they were only on their first album. Pretty, young things Nicky and Richey fashioned themselves into instant icons.

If you liked the song itself, try this one which is much better. If you seek more Richey and Nicky yaoi frolic regardless of song quality, step this way.

Motorcycle Emptiness - 1992
Everything about it is so early 90s but this anti-consumerism anthem really catches my heart.

Faster - 1994
NME said of The Holy Bible, "Originally their MO had been to subvert from within, sugar-coating disturbing ideas in a radio-friendly glam-rock shell, but by 1994 it was their response to the resultant tectonic shift that set them sonically free. What emerged was an album [The Holy Bible] that seethed. Its labyrinthine lyrical concerns of collapse of the self set against the worst depravities of the 20th century was an equal and unholy marriage of militantly abrasive lyrical content and punishing music."

'Faster' is very much an exemplary track from The Holy Bible album. Some of the band's most quoted slogans are in here.

I love this one even more. So menacing.

Everything Must Go - 1996
And here's the big change.

The disappearance of Richey Edwards in 1995 remains one of the biggest mysteries in rock'n'roll. His absence and the lack of answers must have been beyond devastating for his family and friends. Eventually, the three remaining Manics found a way to write music again and decided to continue as a band. This song expresses that resolve directly: "freed from the memory, escape from our history, and I just hope that you can forgive us, but everything must go".

The big single from this album was 'A Design for Life', the song from the American TV performance posted above. And hey, Sony Music UK have shared the entire 'Everything Must Go' album over on YouTube, right here.

If You Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next - 1998
From XFM: 'The band's first number one single was about the Spanish Civil War that took place between 1936 and 1939. A group of Welsh miners travelled to Spain to join in the fight against General Franco's troops, and the title was taken from a propaganda poster of the time. One line from the song is a genuine quote from a Welshman: "If I can shoot rabbits, then I can shoot fascists." Nicky Wire later claimed that the ideology behind the song was that political issues seemed to have lost their relevance in modern society.'

The 'This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours' album is sometimes wistful and sometimes dispassionate. Elegant, with a meticulous, almost glazed-over sound but so beautiful. I still genuinely love 11 of the 13 tracks on this album, however, I can totally understand why fans of Manics from the punk-pop beginning would hate it. Likewise, I became a fan of the band from this album so it was a shock to discover the earlier heavier, rougher sound.

MANIC STREET PREACHERS if you tolerate this from WIZ on Vimeo.

Ready for Drowning - 1998
I have been playing this song for 16 years and only learned today that it's about Welsh identity and the flooded village Capel Celyn. *shrug* Stunning vocals by James Dean Bradfield and that early unexpected key change is so Manics-y.

The Masses Against The Classes - 2000
Respect forever to them for managing to make this a #1 single. Starts with a quote from Chomsky, morphs through 'Twist and Shout' then a Nirvana-esque verse, but the epic chorus is all Manics. Sorry for the low sound quality.

Found That Soul (Live in Cuba) - 2001
MSP were the first western band to perform in Cuba since the 1959 revolution.

To Repel Ghosts - 2004
I was unaware until very recently that Lifeblood is the most hated album by the band, critics and many fans, too. This is a little hard to take because I adore it. I understand it was recorded in a different way from the other albums, with generous synthesizer and millions of layers. I think it is gorgeous in its own way and some of the better Nicky Wire lyrics are on this album.

In February, I went to a major retrospective on the work of American Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. It was already a captivating experience but when my eyes settled on this piece, I could only say OHHHH. There are so many art references in Manics songs: Basquiat must have inspired this particular favourite of mine.

I also have a lot of love for this one.

Facing Page: Top Left - 2009
Writings left behind by missing Richey Edwards in 1995, set to new music. So, not standard rock lyrics. 'Journal for Plague Lovers' is an amazing album.

Also this one sounds great.

Rewind The Film - 2013
Below, I explain that there were three Manics albums between 2007 and 2013 that did not pique my interest. The main exception is this song which I think is exquisite. A slow burner. The guest vocalist Richard Hawley adds interest and a point of contrast to James Dean Bradfield.

Let's Go To War - 2014
New 'Futurology'. I'm happy to say there's an arch sense of fun here and lots of style too.

From the same album, this song is very simple/repetitive but effective. An ode to the EU.

________________

Here's how being a Manics fan has played out for me:

-In 1995, I was given a mix tape with one Manics song by my friend Meghan (she was very clued into the UK music scene). The song was 'She Is Suffering'. The only line of the lyrics I could really understand was... "she is suffering" but I did appreciate the song's tempo and the way the lead guitar works around the bass structure. Although I liked the song, I didn't investigate further.

- In the summer 1996, aged 18, I visited Meghan in the UK and we went to one of those massive music festivals (Phoenix). Manic Street Preachers performed the day we were there. I clearly remember when they played ‘A Design For Life’, which I liked. But again, I wasn't inspired yet to go out and buy the music.

-Mid-1999, I first heard 'If You Tolerate This...' when MuchMusic played the video. I was immediately taken with the song. I scrambled to write down the artist info and bought the CD at my local HMV right away, then I played it constantly. (It was released, like, a year later in Canada than in the UK.) The ‘This Is My Truth’ album was all over alternative rock radio in Toronto that summer. At the time, all I knew about the band was 1) they were from South Wales 2) they were big on leftist politics. So, I was not aware of the band's backstory or the meanings of most of the songs. I thought it was weird to have only three members in a band, not knowing that it was really (four minus one) members. Of course, in the late 90s, you couldn’t just hit up Google or YouTube to learn everything about a band. In those days, I was lining up for the university library computer terminals to check my e-mail twice a week. I wasn’t spending time on fan listservs to decipher the meanings of lyrics! I didn't have access to the British music press like NME, either. This does represent an uncharacteristic lack of curiosity for me, though, and it took me years to find out the heartbreaking truth of songs like ‘Tsunami’ and ‘Nobody Loved You’. I guess I was used to songs having meaningless lyrics?

-I spent the summer of 1999 on excavation in Pompeii with a large group of British students. I ended up talking music with one guy who told me a lot about the Manics and the Richey story. He also lent me his ‘Everything Must Go’ cassette. To this day, that album always reminds me of summer in the ancient city and the looming atmosphere of death that nobody else seemed to notice (especially ‘Small Black Flowers’).

-In September 1999, Manic Street Preachers came to Toronto and I went to the show (alone, none of my friends were interested). I don’t recall much about the concert to be honest. I do remember that a large proportion of the audience was in Wales rugby tops but I was really caught off guard by the girls up the front wearing light-up devil horns and feather boas. At the time, I was unaware of the Manics’ early 90s glamour-punk era: I had only seen the button-downs and boiler suits Manics!

- I investigated the older Manics stuff several times but none of it stuck with me. The 1996, 1998, 2001 and 2004 albums remained very important to me over the years but my interest slumped after the 2007 ‘Send Away The Tigers’ album revealed a new, bland adult-contemporary sound. With the exception of one or two songs each and a few B-sides, the 2007, 2011 and 2013 albums are not listenable for me. I guess I didn’t read The Guardian the week in 2009 when ‘Journal for Plague Lovers’ was released because that’s new to me and I definitely love it. In 2009, I also somehow missed hearing about another concert in Toronto, 10 years after the one I did see. I still feel completely gutted to have missed this. Heartbroken, really, because I hear it was a fantastic show. Being a Manics fan in Canada is a bit of a solitary situation.

- I’m back in the fold these days, loving much of the 2014 ‘Futurology’ album. Still, I almost managed to miss another Toronto show this April, being alerted by my brother only 10 days before. There were still tickets available despite the venue capacity of 1500. This was The Holy Bible 20th Anniversary tour and they played the whole album in order. After hearing ‘The Holy Bible’ performed in full, I gave the Richey-era Manics stuff another chance and discovered that I genuinely love it now. I would like to wind time back three weeks so that I could appreciate the show more, line up earlier, be more familiar with the older music. Is it weird that it took me until age 37 to embrace pop-punk and overwhelmingly bleak rock?

Are we at 'peak Bhutan' yet?

2015-03-20T07:25:00.001-04:00

I mean, not literally given the mountaineering ban, but Bhutan has been in the western news a whole lot in the past week. Here's a round-up.

Photo by Thinley Namgyel, shared with permission. See the rest of his March 17th match album here.

• The big, big story was football (or soccer, if you insist). Bhutan is officially the lowest ranked national team in FIFA: 209 out of 209. The squad is made up of amateur players except for #7, seen leaping above.

Qualification rounds for the 2018 World Cup have already started for the Asia group and over the past week, Bhutan had a two match series against Sri Lanka (FIFA ranking 174). To the great delight of all Bhutanese and underdog supporters everywhere, the Yellow Dragons won both matches! It must have been marvelous to experience the win at Changlimithang Stadium on Tuesday. The defeat of Sri Lanka means that Bhutan moves forward in the qualification rounds for the first time ever. Check out the press coverage below for more details on the story.

FIFA:
Modest Bhutan begin World Cup adventure
Bhutan bewilder as India, Timor-Leste cruise

BBC:
Fifa World Cup: Bhutan face Sri Lanka in Asia qualifying opener
Fifa World Cup qualifying: Bhutan in shock win over Sri Lanka
Fifa World Cup qualifiers: Bhutan step closer to Russia 2018

New York Times:
A Moment Atop the World for Bhutan’s Last-Ranked Team
Last-Ranked Bhutan Stuns Sri Lanka a Second Time

The Guardian:
World’s worst team Bhutan kick off 2018 World Cup qualifying with victory
‘World’s worst team’ Bhutan seal shock World Cup qualifier win over Sri Lanka
Bhutan, Bhutan – football chanted like a prayer as World Cup success grips nation

Deadspin Screamer:
Scenes In Colombo As Bhutan Wins In First Ever World Cup Qualifier
Bhutan Wins Again! A Match Report From A Deadspin Reader In Bhutan

ESPN:
'World's worst team' Bhutan make history in World Cup qualifier
Bhutan hoping to parlay World Cup qualifying success into lasting stability

NPR:
Bhutan, World's Lowest-Ranked Soccer Team, Advances In World Cup Qualifying

• Bhutanese media darling Namgay Zam was interviewed by NPR 'All Things Considered' about the football wins.

• Bhutan's Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay is on a tour of the US at the moment. He was interviewed on PBS's Charlie Rose Show on Tuesday. You should be able to watch the interview here even if you are outside the US.

• Bloomberg talks to the PM about water conservation: Bhutan Wants a Kickstarter Deal From Wall Street to Protect Its Massive Water Supply

• Over on BBC World Service, there's an interesting radio program about Bhutan and linguistics. There are about 18 different languages spoken in the small country.

• Last month, the blog Bhutan Street Fashion was also featured by the BBC. (Check out BSF on FB and Insta)

• From The Atlantic: A Virtual Drive Through Bhutan via Google Street View! Ahhh, #30!

• Something about the NY Explorers Club and a search for the Yeti aka Migoi. *shrug*

• To top it all off, in last week's episode of Archer, there was also a little reference to Bhutan!

Screen cap from Archer S6 E10 "Reignition Sequence", FX Productions

37

2015-02-23T23:59:00.002-05:00

Hi, hello. I'm still here and alive although I've been quiet.

It's my birthday today: 37. Over the years, I've posted a photo of myself on every birthday. This one is the best representation of my life recently. Today was the coldest February 23rd on record here (-21.6 C and -31 C windchill). Considering that I hardly go anywhere besides work, the gym and the grocery store during the winter, you'd think I'd have been spending my free time posting all kinds of words and photos. It didn't work out like that but I plan to get back to it soon. I have lots of good stuff to share about a visit to Taiwan last fall, among other things. Maybe check back in a couple of weeks?

Canada's First MUJI - now open in Toronto!

2014-12-03T23:00:00.000-05:00

On Saturday morning, despite a temperature below freezing and a brisk wind, the line of people on Dundas Street stretched a whole city block. These shoppers were not lined up for a sale, however. We were welcoming a Japanese retail giant to Canada!

Canada's first MUJI is in The Atrium, at 20 Dundas Street West, Toronto. It is across from the Eaton Centre H&M and kitty-corner from Yonge-Dundas Square.

The big question: what is MUJI? This question was anticipated: read the sign above. MUJI could perhaps be described as a minimalist's general store. There is something extremely appealing about the simple design of the products. MUJI has many loyal fans around the world, with branches in 26 countries so far. I admit, however, that the positive aspects of reduced packaging, recycling and reduced production wastage may be neutralized when the goods are shipped around the globe...

I first learned about MUJI just a couple of days after I moved to Japan in 2001. I certainly relied on MUJI stuff to set up my apartment and keep myself organized at work. Even now, I seek out branches of MUJI whenever I travel, to Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan and of course to Japan. I've been wishing for a local MUJI for a decade and as of last weekend, there is now a branch close enough to my work for lunch break errands! It still feels a little surreal, like a corner of Japan displaced.

Womenswear. Opening day was not the time to try on clothes so I cannot confirm if MUJI is sticking to smaller Asian sizing but I expect that they are. The striped and coloured tops above are priced at $20.

Menswear. Again, I can't confirm if sizing runs smaller than North American brands but it's safer to assume it does.

A display of personal care goods, all with minimal packaging and simple design.

MUJI is arguably best loved for pens and stationary. There was a vortex of pen lovers surrounding this display on Saturday and I couldn't get any closer. To be honest, I stocked up on pens and stationary at MUJI in Taipei a couple of weeks ago. The extremely popular gel pens, available in a variety of colours, cost $1.25. The plain covered notebooks can be used with the spines to the left or right.

The line-up to pay for purchases was over 40 minutes on the opening morning. It was not chaos, though, just crowded. I went back to MUJI on my lunch break on Monday and although there was no line to get inside, there was still a considerable wait to pay. I went back again today after work on the fifth day since opening and the line-up to pay was about 15 minutes.

On Saturday, MUJI head office managers, in town for the store opening, were put on bagging duty.

MUJI set up a stamping station so that shoppers could personalize notebooks and cloth bags. I stamped my initials and a sakura blossom onto a mini ringed notebook.

A few points:
-MUJI has a popular line of snacks, drinks and basic grocery items. The North American stores do not have any of the food products at this time but I have heard rumors that they may be bringing the snacks over next year.
-MUJI makes appliances too but the only appliance in the Toronto store was the aroma diffuser.
-The selection of items available at the Toronto store is much larger than I'd expected to see but it doesn't cover the full range of what's in the big box MUJIs in Asia or even in the US e-store.
-Most of the items for sale carry the original Japanese labels which show the price in Yen. As you'd expect considering the cost of shipping, there is a price mark-up to Canadian dollars. This mark-up varies widely. Here are some examples:
80円 pens -> $1.25
150円 stationary items -> $2
450円 bottle of facial cleanser -> $6.50
1900円 travel pillow -> $29
3500円 men's double zip hoodie -> $60
3500円 cotton queen size duvet cover -> $69
The biggest price difference I saw was a set of storage drawers labelled 1500円 but selling for $38 CDN. However, there were cozy flannel slippers with a 1200円 tag for $12 CDN, which is actually a slight mark down.

Voila! The first shoppers through MUJI on Saturday got a souvenir MUJI Toronto bag. It wasn't worth the line-up alone but it was a nice little bonus. After taking this photo, I chatted out on the street with some MUJI staff who had travelled from Japan to set up the new store. They seemed surprised/humbled to see the huge number of people waiting on such a cold morning. According to Twitter, design savvy shoppers were still waiting up to three hours to get in on Sunday afternoon. That's how keen Toronto is for Japanese goods!

Here are all the MUJI locations in North America as of 2014. I'm feeling lucky that we got one in Toronto even before cities like Chicago, Boston, Miami etc. I'm especially shocked that Toronto was the first Canadian launch instead of Vancouver.

Get used to seeing MUJI bags around Toronto! If you've never been inside a MUJI, I do recommend going in for a browse once the line-ups have died down.

More about Muji from the Globe and Mail: Decoding the Cult of Muji, the Japanese minimalist retailer

Ásgeir Trausti in Toronto

2014-10-25T23:01:00.000-04:00

In October of 2012, I took a refreshing trip to Iceland. Six days of this holiday were with a small group hiking tour. From Snæfellsnes to Jökulsárlón, we hiked, overnighted in simple lodges and drove. Our guide Anna brought along a new CD, the debut album of young Icelandic singer-songwriter Ásgeir Trausti. As I mentioned back in March 2013, we must have heard this album 50 times at least. After the tour, I bought a copy of "Dýrð í dauðaþögn" to take home to Toronto.

I guess that album really imprinted on my brain over the six days in that van. I especially remember half dozing, half watching the rainy landscape east of Vík slip past to the strains of 'Heimförin'. Since 2012, it has probably been the most-listened-to album for me. I particularly like to play it while I'm at work. There's a reason: the main part of my job involves reviewing technical reports and scrutinizing maps. Ásgeir Trausti's music soothes me and keeps my spirit buoyed up while the Icelandic lyrics do not interfere with the technical English I'm reading (I prefer anything but English vocals while working). His voice is so lovely that I'm completely fine not to understand a word he sings.

Being entirely out of touch with the music scene, I was caught off guard when a North American tour was announced for Ásgeir, including a show in Toronto! The concert was a couple of weeks ago. I get out of the office tower only about three days a year but by pure luck, I had a work meeting across from the venue on the day of the concert. I could see that a tour bus was parked in front of Lee's Palace so I took a walk past and I spotted the whole Ásgeir Trausti Band out on the street. This was my opportunity to say, 'Hello, welcome to Toronto, very much looking forward to the show!' However, I did not. I stood there in freeze mode. I could not manage so much as 'hi' when the group walked past me and then back again a few minutes later when I was still standing in the same spot on the pavement, trying to work up some courage. Opportunity missed, shyness to blame. I was extremely frustrated with myself.

Since I had found out about the artist more or less at the source, I had no idea how many other people in Toronto knew of Ásgeir and would show up to see him that night. I got there early. Yes, I am the kind of person who goes to a concert alone and stands at the front centre. I think the venue ended up close to capacity (~500). The opening band was Low Roar. I had not heard of them before but their cinematic synth sound was captivating. I've been listening to their album '0' a lot since that night.

Then it was time for Ásgeir and his band to perform. Key words: flawlessly clear vocals, exquisite acoustic guitar, earnestness, dreamy layering, uplifting harmonies. As a crowd, we were enthralled. To my right were several people singing out every word of every song in Icelandic, to my left was a young man who was full-on weeping for the whole show. It was not a long performance, which is to be expected from an artist who has released just one album of songs so far (technically two albums if you count the 2013 version - the same track list but with English lyrics). No question, though: Toronto loves Ásgeir.

Though a convoluted sequence of events, I got a second chance to meet Ásgeir after the concert. Once again, I was short of words. I should have told him about how I was introduced to his music, or even mentioned that Nirvana had played Lee's Palace back in 1990 (Ásgeir and his band had performed a Nirvana cover that night). I could manage only to introduce myself and pay him a forgettable compliment. He was exceedingly low key and I suspect he might be a shy person, too. Anyway, I got a quick photo (the back alley lighting was not ideal) and then I ran away before I could become too star-struck again. I was really happy to have this quick moment, though!

If you have not heard Ásgeir Trausti, here are three tracks from his YouTube page to give you a flavour. These English versions are still strange and new to me but I am getting used to them! Enjoy.

Some of Ásgeir Trausti's music is available from iTunes as 'Ásgeir'.

Souq Waqif, Doha, Qatar

2014-10-19T23:48:00.001-04:00

Confession: these photos are all from my trip to Qatar last November. I only just edited and uploaded them. I hope that does not make them any less interesting.

Souq Waqif in downtown Doha was built on the site of a historical market but everything now seen is a recent fabrication. A lot of effort has been taken to create the faux heritage feel of the place.

Unlike many of the places I visited in Doha, the souq is well attended by many different kinds of people: locals, expat residents and tourists. There is a good atmosphere. I ended up at the souq three times during my week in Qatar.

1: Make-up, henna and perfumes for sale. I am mad at myself for not buying one of these tubes of Gulf-style kohl. I am the very worst at applying eye make-up but I have never tried this kind.
2: Plenty of black abaya and shayla, each with a unique motif.

1: For all your Qatar pride needs.
2: A selection of agal, the fringed cord men wear over their ghutrah headdress.

I could hardly believe the display at this taxidermy shop. The shop keeper said I was welcome to take a photo, then he insisted on taking mine too. This is my "everyone is dead" face.

A side alley behind a shiha lounge

My cousin and her family took me to Damasca Restaurant in the souq for a Syrian-fusion meal. The restaurant has an appealing vintage Damascus theme, with this enormous lantern hanging at the centre of a curved staircase.

One thing I really wanted to get for myself in Qatar was a silver necklace with my name in Arabic. I had heard that these could be made to order within a couple of days at the Gold Souq. Next to Souq Waqif, I saw a large building with the lettering 'New Gold Souq'. Inside was this fresh, modern collection of jewelry stores. There was almost nobody in there. This was not at all what I had expected from the Gold Souq. I did not find a jeweler who could make the necklace I wanted.

It turned out that the New Gold Souq is a completely different place from the actual Gold Souq. There were plenty of shoppers here - it seems that South Asian workers like to take home their earnings in the form of extremely elabourate gold jewelry and there is a whole district to serve that need. The New Gold Souq is gleaming and immaculate, just for tourists, while the Gold Souq is several blocks away in an area of collapsed sidewalks and decidedly less polish. It was still a lot of fun to walk around with my cousin and look at the golden creations. This was on my last night in Qatar, unfortunately, so it was too late to custom order a nameplate necklace.

One final thing I would like to mention about Souq Waqif:
When I was out for the day on my own, I was desperately searching the market for a public phone so that I could call my cousin to let her know where I was.
I decided to try the Souq Waqif Information and Tourism Centre, thinking there would be a visitor courtesy phone or I could be given directions to a pay phone. This is a very reasonable assumption to make from a tourism district information office.
Me to staff: "Hello, could you tell me if there is a public phone in the Souq?"
Staff: "You don't have a local SIM?"
"No, I'm just a tourist."
"You need to buy a local SIM."
"I only need to make one quick local call. Is there anyplace in the market with a public phone, or anyone that would let me make one call?"
"No. You need to buy a local SIM."
Conversation over.
Meanwhile, there were three telephones sitting idle on the desk between us as we spoke.
There was no flicker of understanding from the staff that not all tourists buy a SIM card while on a short holiday. The lack of public pay phones anywhere in the market is maybe more related to the fact that no Qatari would ever use one. I know Qatar is on a push to become a tourist destination but this kind of encounter shows that there's still a way to go to understand the needs of short-term visitors.

Coming soon: pics and report from my visit to the Falcon Souq.

Only Lovers Left Alive: dark and delightful

2014-09-14T00:40:00.002-04:00

Have you seen the film 'Only Loves Left Alive'? It screened in early 2014 and is now out on DVD, iTunes and so on (Update! On Nexflix now too, at least in Canada). I wanted to write a little something about 'Only Lovers Left Alive' because it is so rare for me to find a film that I've enjoyed as much as this one.

This is a vampire movie (the trailer oversells that fact). I expected the film to be a generic horror melodrama. Surprise! OLLA turned out to be a sweet romance with many oddly funny moments, too. The vampire stuff was secondary.

Tilda Swinton combines her regal alien beauty with rock chick swagger - so perfect for a vampire. Tom Hiddletson became a very big name as a scene-stealer in comic book movies but I'm old school so I remember him as tactless, snarky Martinsson on Wallander. They were both excellent in this film: I have officially bought into the Hiddleston hype.

Adam and Eve are an adoring vampire couple who have been married for centuries. The 2,500 year age difference is not important: their chemistry is obvious. They are a true ying and yang pair. Eve is vibrant, a literary connoisseur who lives in Tangier. She is fascinated by everything and everyone she observes around her. Adam is a heavy-hearted musician living in an abandoned part of Detroit, hidden away from the 'zombies' (ie. humans like us). He is finding his immortality to be a little too much to bear. Who says vampires can't be clinically depressed? It's up to Eve to keep him going.

This is a film about the mundane moments in the lives of extraordinary beings. It asks, what keeps you interested in life if you're immortal? Art? Science? Love?

It struck me that 'Only Lovers Left Alive' has a lot of elements in common with another of my favourite films, Wong Kar-Wai's 'In The Mood For Love'. For example:
-rich atmosphere
-extremely slow and deliberate pace, very sparse on action
-focus on characters, story is made up of small moments
-so much texture
-more is left unsaid than is actually said
-impeccable soundtrack (I've had the OLLA soundtrack on repeat, listen here)
-nuanced, believable performances by the two leads

'Only Lovers Left Alive' is definitely not for everyone, as the reviews calling it dragging, pretentious and indulgent will show. However, I loved drifting through this charming, gorgeous, strange story and dwelling in the mood for a long time afterwards.

Filmwell posted a thoughtful and detailed review of OLLA here.

Note: if you're considering watching OLLA solely for that famous Hiddles smile, be warned that there is but one in the entire film and it was relegated to a deleted scene. I'll save you some time: here it is. Not a spoiler.

Bonus Tom Hiddleston details! A film called Crimson Peak was filmed this past spring in Toronto and at various heritage properties around southern Ontario. Hiddles stars in this one too and there were reports of sightings coming from all over. Two of my professional associates gave me their accounts of seeing him:

Informant #1: "I didn't actually meet him! I was so starstruck and intimidated I couldn't even make eye contact. All I could do was gaze! To be fair to myself, I was also trying really hard to be professional, since I was technically there as a consultant - I had to crush my inner fan girl. He seemed pleasant and laid back and gorgeous. He was much taller than expected. He was very tall, looked kind of Edgar Allen Poe-ish with black hair, a Victorian suit and the little round Victorian sunglasses. You can see why I was a little intimidated....but he didn't act snobby or anything he was smiling and chatting with people and very professional."

Informant #2: "I tried very hard to get his autograph in Hamilton and stood in line for hours but to no avail. He was actually so polite: he was taking 10 minutes with each person and posing for photos with babies and dogs etc. But he drove past us leaving the park and I honked and he looked at us and waved! Sadly for me, I realized on account of bridge construction when he was filming in Hamilton that he was likely passing my house every day. My front yard was covered in bathroom reno stuff and looked super low rent. The thought of him seeing my ghetto front yard on a daily basis really irks me. He is a very huggy person - very physical - even with complete strangers. He was not in costume. They'd finished filming and I guess it was a meet-and-greet thing that they had organized on account of so many people wanting to see him. I think he stood there for hours and hours and hours. He had been there for hours already before I even knew he was down there and we were there for at least two. Very patient, lovely, very genuine and open - never seemed grumpy about the fact that he was standing next to a washroom in a public park for like five hours."

Sounds like a good sport.

FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Toronto: North Korea vs. USA!

2014-08-18T21:45:00.000-04:00

The FIFA Under 20 Women's World Cup is being played here in Canada this summer. The rules of this tournament are just the same as the "big boys'" World Cup, except that the players are women aged 17 to 19. Sixteen teams qualified for the U20WWC.

I have always wanted to attend a World Cup match and this one was played on a Saturday afternoon just a transit ride from my apartment. Perfect. It was a quarterfinal match so when I bought the tickets last month, we didn't know which teams we'd be seeing. In the end, the opponents were USA versus the team variously referred to as North Korea/Korea DPR/PR Korea/PRK. It was a well-balanced pairing!

I brought my good zoom camera to the match, wrapped in a plastic bag against the rain. I think this is the first time I've used the 'sports' mode for photographing actual sports.

The match in photos from the third row:

Opening formalities.

North Korean anthem time. Their uniforms seem to include a team haircut. Very practical, ladies.

Star Spangled Banner time.

Here are the refs.

Pre-match handshake.

US team huddle.

North Korean team huddle.

Game on! Lots of excellent footwork on display for both sides. The North Koreans seemed to have more cohesive teamwork, though.

It was raining throughout the first half.

The stands look a little empty but attendance was 7,200. More people were sitting on our side of the stadium.

USA celebrates Mackenzey Doniak's goal at the six minute mark.

The famous Brazuca ball.

FIFA flag over Toronto.

USA was up 1:0 at half time.

Jon Yo-Son scored with a penalty kick at 54 minutes. The ball is in the bottom right corner of the net. The score stayed at 1:1 through to 90 minutes and 30 minutes of overtime.

Lindsey Horan had a chance with this free kick but couldn't break the tie in overtime.

A very close match: possession was 51% North Korea and 49% USA. Now it was down to penalty kicks.

USA substitutes watch the tie-breaking penalty kicks.

Waiting for penalty kicks to begin.

Some North Korean flags emerge from the crowd! To be honest, I think many of the Canadian spectators were cheering for North Korea... I confess I was favouring the reds, too, just because I suspect those ladies have had extremely tough lives training as athletes to represent North Korea.

Kim Chol-Ok stopped three of four penalty kicks. Apparently she just loves penalties! (The ball is in front of the S in Emirates.)

Katelyn Rowland allowed three out of the four penalty kicks she faced. (The ball is in front of the T in Emirates.)

The winning moment for North Korea!

Kim Chol-Ok shakes hands with the US coach. The keeper was voted Player of the Match.

Some long faces on the American players who were now eliminated from the tournament.

And a few tears of relief for the North Korean players, particularly the girl with the taped knee who had been taken off injured.

Thanking the crowd for their support.

We were undeniably damp but it was a good evening out with co-workers.

It's all over at BMO Field. No more U20WWC matches in Toronto and sadly, none of the 2015 Women's World Cup matches will be played here, either.

Official FIFA video recap here. Match report here.

Four teams now remain in the tournament: North Korea, Germany, Nigeria and France. Follow the rest of the U20WWC here.

Dubai Food Tour with Frying Pan Adventures!

2014-08-08T19:19:00.000-04:00

When I visit someplace for a short amount of time, I hesitate to write about it in that authoritative travel blogger tone. I'm not an expert on the destination and I feel like a fraud pretending that I am. Here's the exception: I spent only three days in Dubai but I feel confident in writing that you've absolutely got to take a Frying Pan Adventures food tour if you visit the city.

Frying Pan Adventures was founded by Arva who writes about the Dubai food scene on her highly regarded blog "I Live in a Frying Pan". I have to respect anyone who takes their blog to a higher level and Arva has done that brilliantly by establishing Frying Pan Adventures. Although this is a relatively new venture, Arva's tours are already ranked as the #1 Activity in Dubai on TripAdvisor, with 234 five star reviews so far.

The Tour

This is a review of the Middle Eastern Food Pilgrimage. Frying Pan Adventures is more than an eating event. At each stop, Arva teaches about the culture, heritage, customs, ingredients and even etiquette of the different Middle Eastern regions. She also offers insight into the migration of people from around the world into the Emirates, the reason for the high density of good eats in the Diera neighbourhood of Dubai.

My cousin and I meet Arva at Al Rigga Metro station at 6pm sharp. Soon, we are joined by seven other foodies and the tasting marathon begins...

At our first stop of the tour, we are served specialty dishes from next door restaurants Sultan Dubai Falafel and Qwaider Al Nabulsi. The starter course includes appetizers like green falafel and chickpeas blended with herbs and olive oil. This was also the moment when I discovered that I love Palestinian-style sweets! I tried kanafeh for the first time: the dish combines soft, sweet, stretchy cheese topped with crispy threads of pastry, all saturated with sugar syrup. How did I not know about this delectable stuff before? (Note! I found tasty kanafeh at Patisserie Royale in Scarborough! Baklava too.)
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Next stop: the show that is the Egyptian pizza shop! This dish is called feteer: the baker tosses around the dough to make it as thin as possible, then he stretches it out on a marble counter, smears on some cheese, folds the thing over itself a few times, adds more cheese, folds it again then he slides it into the oven. Fast, fast. And tasty, too.
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The proprietor of Al Samadi Sweets offers me a cup of Arabic coffee.

At Al Samadi Sweets, Arva teaches about the complex and contentious origins of baklava over a cup of traditional Arabic coffee (I assume it's an acquired taste...). The famous baklava from Al Samadi is made with 18 layers of filo! Arva also trains us to recognize the different types of ma'amoul biscuits based on their decorative motifs. We taste delicate pastries rolled with sweet cheese and rosewater, biscuits with various nut fillings and a whipped meringue made from the root of the soapwart tree. Half of us like the meringue and half of us do not. Of course, I liked it!
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It is at a Syrian sweets shop called Asail Al Sham that I have my favourite bite of the night. Asail Al Sham is a beautiful shop, ornate with black and white marble and geometric patterns, not to mention the many trays of artful pastries. It's the Syrian-style ice cream, booza, that I get excited about. We watch ice cream being pounded into shape in a chilled cauldron and then rolled in pistachios. We are each served a small slice. The booza is dense and bordering on chewy, almost a hybrid of ice cream and marshmallow, with a perfume-y essence. I am still thinking about booza months later, upset that my search for Syrian ice cream in Ontario has come up empty.
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Moving on: our group takes over the the Bedouin tent room at Yemeni restaurant Al Tawasol. Kneeling over the large platters, we help ourselves to mandi - rice and meat which was slow-cooked in the ground. The lamb is exceptionally tender and the rice has absorbed so much flavour while slow cooking.

Cousins, comfy on the majilis.
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There are two more quick stops along the way: we check out a spice shop where Arva tells us how to choose the best quality ingredients like saffron (hint: don't buy the dusty, sun-exposed stuff from the tourist souqs). We also sneak into an Iraqi restaurant, Kabab Erbil on Al Rigga Road, to see the unique method of cooking Iraq's national dish, masqouf (Tigris River carp). The large fish is cut open into a flat butterfly which is propped upright beside a fire to smoke and then placed directly on coals to cook and caramelize for up to three hours.
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Our final stop, Abshar Restaurant, is the most refined of the night with its white tablecloths and fine china. This is an Iranian restaurant. Arva tells us that the place is usually very lively with music and singing but tonight it is quiet and nearly empty because the Persian community is in mourning for a recently passed notable person. After a restless four hours up and down the sidewalks of Diera, I don't mind a calm moment.

We get a close look at loaves of long, holey bread (sangak) being baked in an oven filled with hot pebbles then hung up on nails to cool off. Arva talks about the complexity of Persian cuisine which prizes sour flavours and perfectly cooked rice. We try some of that sangak with a delicate roasted eggplant dish. I could go for more if my stomach were not on the verge of bursting. We finish off the night with Persian mint tea (chai) and hey, more desserts!

At the end of the night, my brain is just as full as my belly. Arva managed to teach us so much about history, culture and politics of the region while we were munching our way around Diera. She has left me with a lot to think about as well as a mandate to seek out my newly discovered Arabic favourites when I return home to Toronto.

The Details

The Middle Eastern Food Pilgrimage walking tour costs 415 AED per person and includes more food than the average human can deal with. Several other tours are offered, see more info here. I suggest booking early.

Bhutan's Tiger's Nest Monastery built from LEGO!

2014-06-25T23:14:00.000-04:00

Wow. Add another one to the list of non-Bhutanese people inspired by Bhutanese culture!

Lego is one of the most popular toys in the world but it may not be familiar to everyone: Lego is a type of construction toy that primarily consists of interlocking plastic bricks. From Wikipedia: "Lego bricks can be assembled and connected in many ways, to construct such objects as vehicles, buildings, and even working robots. Anything constructed can then be taken apart again, and the pieces used to make other models."

For Anuradha Pehrson, Lego is more than just a hobby or a children's toy. Anuradha is originally from Pune, Maharashtra, India. She says that Lego wasn’t well known in India when she was growing up. She was lucky enough to have been given a small house building Lego set when she was around seven - she loved inventing different ways to assemble her small set of bricks. Over 20 years later, Anuradha moved to Seattle, USA and rediscovered Lego. She also found a community of other creative people who share her interest in architecture and model building.

Last year, Anuradha built a very large and detailed Lego model of Bhutan’s iconic Tiger’s Nest monastery (also known as Paro Taktsang). She did not simply go to a toy store and buy a Lego set for the Tiger’s Nest. Anuradha spent eight months creating the model with approximately 150,000 Lego parts. She clearly has a lot of ingenuity to be able to construct a replica of this unique and scared place using only standardized parts.

Above: photo BrickCon 2013 by michaelbradford1, shared with permission

Anuradha was kind enough to talk to GreenTea about her Bhutan-themed Lego masterpiece.

- How did you first learn about the Tiger's Nest?
Architecture from around the world is a subject that fascinates me. I'm not an architect but like to design and build interesting buildings and structures. For inspiration I look for pictures of buildings and structures from different parts of the world. I came across a picture of Tiger's Nest on one of these searches. As soon as I saw these pictures I was blown away. The buildings were so beautifully made in harmony with the surrounding nature. I was also impressed by the wood carving work. I read somewhere that in 1998 a fire destroyed some parts of the buildings and they were rebuilt as close to the original with the help of photographs. The thought that people put in so much effort to build something so high up in the mountains, without disturbing the beauty of the place left me speechless, I can't even imagine how they had originally managed this is 1692. I instantly wanted to build a replica in Lego.

- How were you able to build such a detailed replica without ever having visiting the place?
I had pictures from two different angles. I studied them for a long time. The difficult parts were the windows and the big rock section that 'juts' out. The monastery has beautifully carved windows. I built many different versions, until I thought I had achieved a similar design. The big rock was very difficult to see from the photos available. There is a tree right in front of it and from the side, it is covered by a window and roof. Finally I figured it out and built it. There were many iterations to each section and a lot of trial and error.

- Did you build this Tiger's Nest model for a particular occasion or competition?
Yes, I built this for BrickCon 2013. It is a Lego Convention/Exhibition held in October in Seattle. This model won two awards here. 'Best Architectural Style' and 'People's Choice Honorable Mention’. Al Pacino the popular American actor had come to see this show with his son. He liked this model very much. He talked to me about it and also took a picture with me. I also displayed this model at BricksCascde 2014, another Lego exhibition held in March in Portland, Oregon. This model won 'Best in Show' there.

- Do you have any plans to visit Bhutan and the Tiger's Nest yourself?
Yes, absolutely. I hope to do so in the next few years, but don't have any fixed plans.

- What are you working on now, Lego-wise?
Hmm, I think I will just reveal that when it's ready. :-)

- What else you would like people to know?
Two things. First, I am a spiritual person. I understand the concept of 'Guru' and disciple. I think it was always at the back of mind while building this monastery that this is a spiritual place. Gurus have done a lot of meditation and 'sadhana' here. I also know that I was able to build this successfully because of the Grace of my Guru and God.

Second, I think Bhutan is a beautiful country. I love the way that they have stayed true to their culture. I haven't met any people from there but I'm pretty sure they are very nice and friendly and I think their food looks delicious! I do hope to visit very soon.

Above, some of my pics of the real Tiger's Nest and below, Anuradha's interpretation. Take a closer look: the cliff-face setting for the monastery is rendered so perfectly, and she even included the small details like prayer flags and vines.

Above: photo Tiger's Nest Monastery by Sean Edmison, shared with permission

Congratulations, Anuradha, on your amazing project!

All photos are courtesy of Anuradha Pehrson unless otherwise noted. More photos of this model are here.
There's are two short BBC videos about the Tiger's Nest here and here.
Related post: An asthmatic's hike to the Tiger's Nest

Toronto-Dubai round trip on the Emirates A380

2014-05-19T13:43:00.001-04:00

Photo "A380 landing at YYZ, attracting quite the crowd as usual" by mpmark, shared with permission

It was last November that I went to Doha, Qatar to visit my cousin and to check out the Persian Gulf for the first time. From Toronto, there were several flight route options for getting to Doha. I booked with Emirates through Dubai because a) the schedule suited me, b) the price was reasonable c) I wanted to do a stopover in Dubai on the way home d) I prefer long haul to multiple shorter flights e) I've been looking for a chance to travel on an A380 for years.

Leading up to the trip, I was overexcited about the Emirates A380 experience. My brother and I have been airplane geeks since we were small. I still get a thrill when I fly an airline for the first time so naturally, getting to fly on the big plane at last was a big deal for me. How big is the A380? Wikipedia says,

The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine jet airliner manufactured by Airbus. It is the world's largest passenger airliner, and many airports have upgraded their facilities to accommodate it because of its size.

The A380's upper deck extends along the entire length of the fuselage, with a width equivalent to a wide-body aircraft. This gives the A380-800's cabin 478 square metres (5,145.1 sq ft) of floor space, which is 40% more than the next-largest airliner, the Boeing 747-8, and provides seating for 525 people in a typical three-class configuration or up to 853 people in an all-economy class configuration. The A380-800 has a design range of 15,700 kilometres (8,500 nmi; 9,800 mi), sufficient to fly nonstop from Dubai to Los Angeles, and a cruising speed of Mach 0.85 (about 900 km/h, 560 mph or 490 kn at cruising altitude).

Emirates currently flies in and out of Toronto three times a week: Monday, Wednesday and Friday, always an A380.

My seat was in aisle 50 for both flights, which sounds like it should be well back in the plane, but it was in the first section of the lower level. So, although I was in Economy class, I got to turn left when boarding. Giant airplane, small pleasures.

In general, for both flights, I thought the service, meals and entertainment were well above average. The seats were more comfortable than the flights I've taken in recent years (hello, Icelandair!). The five washrooms at the front of the plane were large and very clean. The entertainment system included views from three cameras mounted on the plane (forward, downward and tail). It was intriguing to watch the live video during the daylight hours, and especially the take-off or landing.

Outbound flight YYZ-DXB EK242
-Even with separate gates for First and Business classes, boarding over 500 passengers took an age. Not needing to battle for overhead compartment space, I walked around the terminal until the gigantic gate line-up was nearly gone. With Dubai being such a major hub, it was interesting to try to guess where everyone was travelling.
-Once on board, I thought we were still taxiing when I glanced towards the window and realized that we'd already taken off. The launch was that smooth. I still can't believe that I didn't notice taking off in the world's largest passenger plane during a rain storm.
-The flight route took us right over Iraq - I didn't have a window set but I did get a good look at the Basrah area from the windows in the front services area.
-The flight was scheduled to be 12 hours, 55 minutes but we landed in Dubai 45 minutes early. No idea why.

-Although everything provided by Emirates was great, I didn't enjoy the flight so much and barely slept. There were a lot of disruptive passengers that night. There were people watching movies on iPads without earphones, the man beside me was belly laughing at an in flight comedy show and elbowing me constantly, there were multiple babies left to scream themselves out. I have never been on such a raucous overnight flight.
-At mealtime, at least ten people seated around me stirred up some major outrage because they wanted vegetarian meals despite not having ordered them in advance. The hostesses did their best to locate spare vegetarian meals in other sections of the plane. The Emirates A380 is like any normal flight in that you need to order your meals ahead if you have strict dietary requirements. When I booked my ticket, there were over 20 meal preferences available to choose from.

Inbound flight DXB-YYZ EK241
-I think we left a little late. Once again, the boarding took a long, long time. It was remarkable to see so many other A380s lined up at this dedicated "Emirates A380 Hub".
-Everything available on board was the same as the outbound, but this time I had an empty seat beside me and the other passengers were peaceful so I was able to notice how quiet the A380 engines were.
-The return flight was 13 hours and 50 minutes but it seemed shorter because I could sleep.

-Things turned unpleasant when it was time to collect luggage in Toronto. I waited not quite one hour at the baggage carousel for my suitcase to appear, and this was after going through the customs line. The flight had too much luggage for one carousel. It was so full that there were dangerous suitcase landslides happening. They switched off the carousel and stopped adding cases while we continued to stand there for a good 20 minutes. YYZ is not yet equipped to deal with a 500+ passenger flight (as for A380 service to Toronto, there are only the three weekly Emirates flights and one weekly Korean Air flight at present). I don't know why they couldn't use two baggage carousels for EK241. Even if it was one for First and Business classes and one for Economy, that would have helped. Nobody wants to spend that long on a flight and then another hour jostling for position around the baggage wheel, dodging falling suitcases.

Overall, I liked the trip on the A380 and thought the Emirates Economy class service was above average. Until Pearson International Airport upgrades the way A380 arrivals are dealt with, I would think twice about putting myself through that awful baggage claim experience.

Sakura Fever, Sakura Dreams

2014-04-30T23:18:00.000-04:00

This post has been in my 'drafts' folder for over a month. I don't really know why I didn't hit 'publish' before now. I was feeling nostalgic about the cherry blossom season in Japan when I wrote it. By now, the cherry blossom front has already passed across all of Japan except for Hokkaido, the northern region.

There was an article in today's Toronto Star about our own cherry blossoms being greatly delayed by the long, hard winter. The article focused on High Park, which is a crazy mob scene during peak bloom, but I quite like to admire the blossoms in a quieter setting at Osgoode Hall, also here in Toronto. It's close to my office and the Neoclassical heritage building makes an appealing backdrop. I am looking forward to seeing that soon. Soon-ish...

Cherry blossom season in Japan is so special, it really can't be exaggerated. One of the things I appreciate most about Japanese culture is the way the changes of season are really celebrated with very specific traditions. The short, spectacular sakura bloom represents the impermanence of life, which in turn is a Buddhist notion.

My mother and I went to the Kansai region of Japan last spring with the goal of being there for the peak cherry blossom bloom. We had to book our flights several months before the sakura forecast had been narrowed down so as the trip was approaching, I was making myself miserable checking the daily reports for Kyoto. Somehow we arrived in Kansai right at the crest, a day or two before the week-long peak bloom (calculated to be when 90% of a tree's buds have opened). We were very lucky as last year's timing was well off the average bloom date for many other parts of Japan.

Even though my mum is a garden and flower fanatic and very knowledgeable about all things botanical, she was astonished to see these giant clouds of pink froth all over the landscape. She absolutely did not expect this cherry blossom thing to be so momentous.

Different ways to enjoy sakura season:
-Take a stroll along a riverbank or canal.

-Have a picnic with friends (an annual tradition for many clubs and social circles).

-Enjoy a beer and food stall grub at specially set-up tables.

There are plenty of special displays, events and seasonal products to mark the brief sakura moment, too.

We spotted this at Hanshin Department Store in Umeda: they've turned an information kiosk into a blooming tree! The red lettering reads 'Spring Hanshin Festival'.

This poster at a train station shows the best blossom viewing spots accessible from the Hankyu Railway network. Someone had been adding flower stickers to show the progress of the blooms.

At Hotel Nikko Nara, the staff put up a city map highlighting their recommended blossom viewing spots.

Here is a selection of sakura candies at a traditional sweets store in Nishiki Market, Kyoto.

The fast food companies get in on the seasonal fare, too. To my taste, "sakura" is an extra-sweetened artificial cherry flavour. Sometimes, it is enough to simply make something pink, though.

Here are some of the 2014 sakura season items, left to right:
Krispy Kreme - Sakura Tea Latte, Sakura Milk Chiller and Sakura Cream Donut
Haagen Daaz - Sakura Ice Cream
Starbucks - Sakura Chocolate Latte, Sakura Chocolate Frappuccino and Cherry Chiffon Cake, plus sakura themed mugs, tumblers, cups and other merchandise
McDonalds - Sakura Cherry Float and Sakura Cherry Fizz
McDonalds - Sakura Teritama Burger: pork teriyaki patty with an egg and pink radish mayo served on a cherry-flavoured pink bun

Food images via Everything Hapa, Japan-Australia and Akihabara News

Related post: Nara's Cherry Blossom Highlights

Is it over yet?

2014-04-02T23:49:00.000-04:00

Is winter over yet? It's been a bad one. Over 100 days of snow and 35 extreme cold alert days. For a while, it seemed like something might have gone awry with Earth's yearly revolution. Were we 'stuck' on winter?

Now it's April and change is starting. Nothing is growing yet but there are other signs. At the bus stops, the dry old husks of ice are melting to reveal hundreds of cigarette butts, plastic coffee lids and all the other urban detritus. Seasonal headaches have arrived for those of us who are susceptible. The 14 day forecast shows only two more days with the potential for snow and two more days below freezing. Surely we are safe to say it now: spring is here.

Winter wrap-up:
-My photo walk during the great ice storm that trashed Southern Ontario.
-The horrible truth about Toronto winter "fashion"
-I'm usually an 'eat lunch at my desk while I continue to work' person but this winter, I kept my ice skates at the office and made an effort to enjoy skating at the city hall rink a few times a week
-Knitting eye-catching cozy things, including the epic pompom hat below

How to Dress for a Toronto Winter: Reality

2014-02-16T15:17:00.000-05:00

Maybe I've been reading too many style blogs recently but I am sick to death of 'polar vortex fashion looks' consisting of high heeled ankle boots, no socks, skinny jeans, flimsy coats and meticulously arranged scarves. This is complete nonsense and it makes me furious.

When I am about to leave my apartment for work or some unavoidable errand and my weather app shows me this report, you can bet I'm not going to dress to impress. I'm going to dress to survive my 15 minute walk to the subway. I'm going to dress to trudge through unploughed snowy sidewalks and side streets. I'm going to dress to prevent frostbite.

I present to you the awful truth about dressing for winter in Toronto and other similarly cold/even colder places. Maybe if you commute door-to-door by car or you live in a condo connected directly by tunnel to your workplace, you could manage to look elegant. Otherwise, function absolutely trumps fashion around here.

Perhaps I look ridiculous in the photo below if you don't live where the winters are severe. I promise you, I never get any strange looks in this outfit. I blend right in with everyone else who is smushed into crammed subway seats wearing giant coats, clomping along the street in massive salt-stained boots, revealing frizzy, static-y hair the moment our touques come off.

Welcome to Toronto where this is a completely normal look.

UPDATE: It is now February 27th and I have lost the will to layer thermals under my jeans. I now prefer to get cold hives on my legs than make the extra effort for warmth.

UPDATE 2: Even posh British actor Tom Hiddleston adopted the hooded parka when filming in my corner of Toronto, and that was in APRIL for heaven's sake.

Endless Knot Mittens: Russian Style, Inspired by Bhutan

2014-01-19T22:50:00.002-05:00

It's been years since I posted anything here about knitting but I am still an avid knitter. Please allow me to show off my most recent major project.

This is the most fiddly pattern I've taken on so far in my crafting career. It was not the kind of knitting that can be done with one eye on the TV. It required my full attention so it took me several months to complete. I'm happy with the results.

The Buddhist symbol of the Endless Knot appeals to me very much. I wanted to knit something with this motif. The Endless Knot is one of the Eight Auspicious Symbols and it has various meanings, for example, that "all phenomena are conjoined and yoked together as a closed cycle of cause and effect".

I thought I was going to have to attempt to design something myself until I found a pattern that could become what I wanted with only minimal modification. I used a cross-hatched colourwork mitten pattern by Charlene Schurch from an earlier version of her book Mostly Mittens: Ethnic Knitting Designs from Russia (Ravelry.com link).

Certainly, I am very much aware that slapping a Buddhist symbol on an item for daily use can be extremely offensive. Images of the Buddha should really not be used in the casual way they can be seen here in North America (on t-shirts, homewares, greeting cards and much more). However, I believe it was acceptable to have created a garment bearing the Endless Knot. In Bhutan, I saw this symbol used on clothing, bags, upholstery and even on carpets. I hope that it was correct to have surmised that the symbol could be used on humble, non-sacred objects.

My colour choice, rust and deep blue, was inspired partly by the exquisite coral and turquoise necklaces Bhutanese ladies are known to pile on with their traditional fashions and partly by the rich colours that embellish the many historic fortresses.

More of my mittens: birds, trees and Totoro.

my fave pic from 2013

2013-12-31T15:38:00.000-05:00

It is a point of shame that I have posted so little about my trip to Japan in March/April. I am in a dilemma as to whether I should write about my more recent trip to the Arabian Gulf first, as it is fresher in my memories. The Japanese cherry blossom photos and the Qatar desert photos both seem incongruous to me when life here and now is all about fur-hooded parkas, shoveling snow and surviving tomorrow's -23˚C forecast.

This is my favourite photo of the ones I took in 2013. I took it on a sidestreet of Higashiyama, Kyoto on April 5th. These ladies are not geisha. They are domestic tourists who went to a geisha costume service and then hired a rickshaw to go sightseeing around the traditional geisha area. It is common to see in western Kyoto. Fake geisha though they are, this pair posed demurely and stayed in character. Only the digicam held by the rickshaw driver reveals the true context.

I like this photo because Kyoto is my favourite city and I love that is totally acceptable for us tourists to lose ourselves in the culture and tradition of the place. I think the photo represents that.

And a moment later, before the driver had the ladies on the move again.

Happy Holidays!

2013-12-25T11:09:00.000-05:00

Toronto Ice Storm

2013-12-22T23:26:00.001-05:00

This morning, after two days of non-stop freezing rain, Toronto awoke fettered in ice. Even before sunrise, it was being reported as the worst ice storm in decades for this city.

From The Globe and Mail:

Ice storms can arise whenever warm air forms a wedge between two layers of cold air – one high up in the atmosphere and one at the surface. Precipitation that begins as snow quickly turns to rain as it falls through the warm air. Then, as the raindrops re-enter the cold, they become supercooled, dipping below the freezing point even though they remain liquid. In such a state, droplets of water freeze on contact when they touch a surface, forming an icy glaze on roads, sidewalks and everything else.

This morning, all exposed surfaces were glazed over in solid ice up to 3 cm thick. The trees that could not bear the weight of all this ice drooped over or snapped, sometimes ripping down power lines. Roads and sidewalks were completely slick: no traction whatsoever. Dangerous driving and walking.

Danger aside, I woke up early and dressed myself in the same gear I wore to climb glaciers in Iceland last year. I'm a weather watcher: if this was the biggest ice storm in decades, I wanted to take a look and get some photos, too. I was lucky not to slip over or to get hit by any huge ice-laden branches which continued to crash down throughout the day.

The wide angle view of the storm: the city is a wreck today. Branches everywhere. Sidewalks and roads impassable. The macro view: the ice is beautiful.

(Branches shatter when they hit the ground, as they have taken on the properties of ice instead of wood.)

(Broken branches on power lines at Spadina House)

(St. Clair West looking worse for wear.)

(Streetcar services were suspended for all of Toronto due to ice on the overhead cables.)

(Evergreen trees fared better in the conditions than deciduous ones.)

The weather forecast doesn't show us going above freezing for the next two weeks - there may not be much chance for the ice layer to melt off the trees for quite some time.

As of Sunday night, about 350,000 people in Toronto are without electricity, plus tens of thousands more across southern Ontario and Quebec. There have been several power outages in the almost three years that I've lived at this apartment but I have never lost power even when houses directly behind me did. I don't know why this is but I'm glad to be able to share my photos on the day of the experience.

Qatar and Dubai by Instagram

2013-11-20T06:38:00.000-05:00

A peek at my trip to the Gulf. Click any photo for a closer look.