Happy Holidays! (and a huge turkey)

This is usually my favorite time of year. It can be stressful, I admit that, with all the shopping and food preparing and making everything clean and nice and entertaining people.

But somehow this time of year, that has a special spirit and despite all the work, it's worth it.

This whole week was actually exiting - in both good and bad ways. It started bad with my visa complications, resulting in not sleeping for two days and a great depression.

Luckily, I've managed to solve the issue on Wednesday, so I had good day and a half to actually relax and do those last things before Christmas. Like last minute shopping and figuring what the hell are we going to eat.

With a little help aside, we decided it's going to be a turkey on Christmas eve - and don't judge - nobody eats fish around here, and even if we do, I wouldn't know how to make it.

Also, a friend of mine was working on Christmas day, so we decided to go with Christmas rituals day before, on Christmas eve.

So, while I was working for half a day and running around to get wine and other necessities, Ana came with a 10 lb turkey. She said she took the smallest one available.

It barely fit into the oven. I don't even have a proper size dish for that kind of animal.
It took it 5.5 hours to get it done.
We were starving.

In the meantime, we made mulled wine and enjoyed that for the whole afternoon. It was delicious.

So, six hours later, we had the dinner!

By that time, one of the guys ended up being on another party and another one went to bed. So Ana and I ate alone.

After we were so hungry and had a huge meal, the turkey still looked as if we just took it out of the oven.
You can't even tell someone already ate it. We're gonna be eating it til New Year's eve probably.


We opened the presents that evening too, and spend huge amount of time to get her fitness tracker working.

I got a kitchen scale, which I've been really missing, considering that I've been using my sixth sense and a feeling to measure stuff till now :)

Christmas day was quiet and relaxing, and we ended it in the theater watching the new Star Wars movie. BP8 was cute.

So all in all we had nice and relaxing Christmas. With plenty of food. And cookies I've made :)

I hope you did too! So have nice rest of the holidays and a killer New Year!

Xoxo!

Canada Day..... And the glorious ribs!

1st of July - a national holiday that celebrates the birthday of Canada! And instead of going for the cake, I went for some meat.

Three colonies - New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and the Province of Canada - united in 1867 and formed a single country named Canada, today being 148 years old.

Conveniently enough, there are parties all over the city (and country, of course).

Being hungry as a wolf, I decided to visit the one that promised some good food. I don't really care for fireworks and whatnot, but I do care for meat. So I thought Toronto Rib Festival was a good choice - not exactly Canada Day related. I wasn't looking for that. I was just looking for some food. Some pork ribs seemed like a very good idea.

That is, until I came closer. Rivers of people and streams of cars flooded the place, leaving no empty spots nowhere near to park.

Dark clouds were marching all over the skies, threatening with rain, so I kind of wanted to park close to the area.

Me and another 10 000 people.

Soon enough, I found a spot on the grass and I left the car there, hoping that towing company won't be able to take it away because of all the commotion and crowd.

As soon as I reached the entrance, I've realized that this might have been a huge mistake.

I was convinced I'll stay hungry. The queues of people waiting for food were enormous.
Because of bad weather, the Rib Fest was closed this weekend, so today, being half-sunny, and a holiday, the place was ridiculously crowded.

But I was hungry for ribs.

So I chose a line to stand in and bravely claimed my place in it.

I was going for Kentucky Smokehouse.

Apparently, their ribs were more tender than my mama's love. I fell for that.

Also, the huge "Hillbilly Heaven" sign reassured me I'm at the right spot. They had a lots of piggy awards too.



So, I'm waiting in line and looking around. All people in Canada-wear.

All red and white.
Hats, tees, flags.

All proud to be Canadians.
I loved the sight and wished I can wear that kind of tees too, today.
It would be nice to feel like you're in your own country. Of course, my mama's love would have to be around, and not just tender ribs.

But anyway, I got my hot stuff and I left the place in a hurry to devour those sweet, tasty ribs. They were heavenly indeed.
It's just that I'm craving for a cake now. I need to get some.

And yes, Happy Canada Day!

Finally a farmers' market!

I was having a problem finding a farmers market in my area. I've been searching for a long time now, and yes, it was winter and all, but I had to find something that works all year round and has fresh stuff.

Until now, I haven't found anything in that sense, except for a few very yummy shops (but that's another thing).

Here's the deal: they're either closed now (open only during the summer), they operate when it's impossible for me to get there, or they're very far away.

There are numerous lists online with farmers markets around Toronto and Etobicoke, but somehow nothing worked for me.
So in order to find out where am I going to buy apples and stuff, I talked to some Canadians about it and they all said the same thing: "There are some farmers markets around you could go to, but there's nothing there. It's winter!".

So?

Don't cows make milk during the winter? And I mean the real cows. Aren't there foods that are the best in late fall and winter and early spring? Maybe Canada, with the winter so cold, doesn't have seasonal stuff? Maybe the cows are so cold that they strike during the winter. So that felt weird.

But, I found one. Since the summer is getting closer, I guess there will be more of them closer to me, and I'll check them out.

The one that is fairly close to my area just opened the season yesterday - and that's Sorauren Farmers' Market in Parkdale. And I couldn't wait to go and see it for myself.

You see, back home, in Croatia, there are farmers markets everywhere. Of course, it's not like I used them every day. Who does, when there are supermarkets around? But still, I used to go once a week to get some fresh stuff, healthier food and meat that was not fed by the other same kind meat.

I was hoping to find the same thing here. The Sorauren farmers' market looks like something similar, with a few differences.

Back home, we have all kinds of food at the markets. Whether is summer of winter, you'll always find fresh seasonal food, bakeries with fresh baked bread and dairy booths with butter, milk, yogurts and cheese, home made spreads, salads, legumes, spices, eggs, everything from small, independent farmers. In a Croatian farmers market, you'll find Croatian food.

Here, I've seen a lot less products, but also, you could find multicultural food and flavors from different countries. There's Canadian foods and then there's foods from the rest of the world.

However, it was kind of small and I expected it to be bigger. But, I did find some neat stuff, like home made cosmetics, all kinds of honey, awesome chocolates, some real looking potatoes (I'm a sucker for potatoes) and a fresh basil in a pot. I just hope the basil won't die on me like the rest of the plants I've had this year. I'm not much of a plant person.

Must say, it's a bit pricey. I paid 6$ for a half of chocolate bar. But, you get what you pay for. When I'm spending money in Croatian farmers market, I know I'm getting the good stuff. Only there, often the good stuff is cheaper than stuff from supermarket. That's one of the advantages of a economically screwed up country.

I hope that here's the same deal (regarding the food quality), as it should be. I'll know soon enough, when I get those potatoes from the oven later and spice everything up with that sweet basil scent.

For Croatians and Canadians: two lands in a nutshell

Don't go to Canada, they said.
It's cold there, they said.

Well, they were right.
I'm freezing my ass here instead of spending some quality time on a beach, wearing only flip flops and a bathing suit.

Home Sweet Home

I come from Croatia - a small Mediterranean country where we have mild winters, long and beautiful springs and falls and hot summers. For over four years I lived on the coastline - in a small place where you go everywhere by foot and the sea is right underneath your apartment - so you can smell the salt while standing on a balcony, as well as glorious scents of rosemary, lavender and pines.

Here, I can mostly smell McDonald's and fuel (mainly because I eat a lot of MCD and I worked at the motorcycle shop.

HOWEVER (and this is a big "however"), Toronto is awesome.

First of all, it's big. Toronto itself has about the same amount of people as my home country.
And those people are great - they're good-hearted, honest and hardworking. They're kind.
Sometimes, too kind.
Here's an example: I'm at my workplace, middle of spring, I got a crowded showroom and zillion of customers waiting to be served (by me), and the phone doesn't stop ringing (for me). And every time it's like:

Guy: "Good morning, how are you today?"
ME: "I'm good today, thank you, how are you?"  (to be polite, of course)
Guy: "I'm very good, thank you for asking."

------PAUSE----- (my blood pressure is rising)

ME: "How can I help you, sir?"  Just cut to the chase! And my nerves are so thin sometimes....

But then again, how can you blame him? It's nice after all. It's how people SHOULD talk. It's my fault I'm not used to it, because I come from a country where yelling at customers is a sales strategy.

Park in winter & Lake Ontario

The second, and let me be clear on this one: the winter in Toronto is not as tough as people think.  It's just long, and that can be frustrating sometimes. It's a lot colder than back home, but it's also a lot more beautiful. Because of the low temperatures, snow doesn't melt right away and stays white and crisp, therefore there's no mess on the streets. The lake gets frozen and there's plenty of places worth photographing during the cold months. The only thing that bothered me was the dry air during that period - I can't sleep or breathe without my humidifier, few wet towels hanging from the wall and huge amount of water on my heating thing, so my bedroom looks like a circus tent.

The city offers variety of things, and there is hardly anything that you can't find. Toronto is home to so many different nations and cultures, brought up together with no prejudices.

View to the west from the CN Tower

It's different - the things we're used to are different here. That's what it makes it so interesting.

People here eat meatballs on spaghetti. They generally don't like sauerkraut, they drink orange juice only in the morning, and they eat potatoes for breakfast. They eat Peanut Butter & Jelly Ice cream and chicken bacon. They have cooking oil in spray and powder eggs. There's no spice or ingredient you can't buy - the world wide variety of foods is undeniable.

Back home, we have stray cats and dogs on the street (in more than a year that I've been here, I haven't seen a stray once on the streets of Toronto). Here, you can see ducks and geese crossing the highway with the help of the police patrol, and squirrels fighting for a doughnut leftovers in parks. If you have a back yard, consider yourself lucky if you don't have to call wildlife patrol once a year to move the raccoons out of it (you're not allowed to touch them, capture them or god forbid harm or kill them). The sea gulls are the same as ours back home. I must say, it's weird tough, to hear them when there's no sea around. They should be called lake gulls.

Ducks and gees, scared racoons in our garbage containter and a squirrel

As a biker, I was struck with the driving policies - in my home country, it's perfectly normal to ride between the cars, especially while they're stopping for the traffic lights. It's not legal, but it's common. Here, it's very forbidden and nobody does it. But then again, here you're allowed to wear "beanie" helmets, whereas back home we wear full face ones.

Burn'em

It's kind of hard to seize that privilege, knowing that beanie really has no use. Seriously, come on. How can a beanie protect you when you fall off the bike at high speed? The fact that insurance rates (both for the bike and for you) are enormously high, probably has something to do with that.  But we do love a good burn.

Things are cheap, labour is expensive. Girls, you can buy an awesome pair or pumps for $60 and then pay the same amount to someone to put the rubber soles on them, so that you can actually wear them here, in the land of eternal ice. The same amount goes for sewing repairs, hair cutting, spa treatments (not the happy end ones, those are more pricey) and alike.

Ribfest 2014

Liquor can be bought at one place, and one place only: the holy LCBO (except for beer - you can buy it in a Beer Store). It kills me though, to stop in three different stores to get stuff - one for groceries, one for alcohol and one for smokes. Back home, one grocery store - and you got everything you need for a relaxing evening. Smokers: Canada is not the place for you. The only area where you can smoke is your home (if it's yours, and not rented), your car and while walking on the street (walking, not standing).

However, Canadians have all kinds of festivals, one of which is The Ribfest - a whole parade of meat to celebrate the glorious ribs, where you can eat, drink and even smoke (at certain marked points, outside the fence).

I can often hear people complaining about "Canadian administration". If you have never been to Croatia, you have no idea what you're talking about. Back home, our secretaries have secretaries and you'll be asked by clerk to provide the very same document that you're there to get, from another institution, so that this one can issue a new one, from his institution. And it won't be enough, you're ALWAYS one paper short. Our birth certificates are valid for 6 months only, even tho we're only born once. We pay taxes on taxes on taxes, like the usual 25% of original taxes is not already high enough. Buying and selling? Have fun. Public notary will suck life out of you as well as half of your monthly salary to verify a document. Here, you can get an affidavit from a local veterinarian or the neighborhood patrol cop.

Today is going to be great

Canada is simpler, easier and gives you more opportunity to make something, whether that's work, hobby, leisure or life.

Canadians don't bother themselves with stupid and unimportant things. They don't waste time and money to fool somebody or to divert from something. They mostly mind their own business and they work for themselves and their families. Sure, it's not perfect, but it never is. There's no country in the world that doesn't do something wrong. If you're a Canadian and you think I'm wrong about that, you should visit Croatia. It's an amazing country, probably the most beautiful in the world, but economically speaking, it's a country of absurd. Don't get me wrong, not everything is bad - there's plenty of opportunity there. But you have to be tough, lucky and with nerves of steel to succeed.

We should learn from Canada. There are things Canada can learn from my country as well. They can both set good and bad examples for different things. We should strive to get to the level of awareness that Canadians have and be less concerned about neighbor's greener grass, but work on our own lawn.

But who am I to say - I'm just having fun in another man's land. Taking photographs, observing and writing posts. I'll do that for as long as I can, before I decide to escape that badass Canadian winter and move to Hawaii.

My everyday view