To Canada and beyond

So a little later, but as promised here is the view of the underpass. This is westbound Lakeshore Boulevard underneath the Gardiner Expressway . As I mentioned it's neither impressive nor pretty. Fortunately, this is only a short part of my commute. I didn't notice it at the time, but I caught one of those big SUV that are so popular in North America on this shot as well. They are actually fun to drive; not for racing obviously, but similar to driving a truck. However, if you get stuck behind them on the road you can see pretty much nothing of what's lies in front of it. Again just like a truck ;) Anyway, once this traffic light lies behind me I have the view of my second picture.  On the let you can see the Air Canada Center or ACC that hosts ice hockey, basketball and other events. There is actually a fun little video on YouTube about the conversion between an ice hockey and a basketball field ( click here to check it out ).  This building actually used to be...

I think this is my first entry this year, so I'm officially not doing so well with the updates. I did some soul-searching and decided to write a series of articles for topics. It's pretty tough to always come up with the next new thing when you're settled into a place. So I'll be writing about my commute for a bit. And we'll see where this takes the blog. I've decided to abbreviate "My Daily Commute" to MDC in the title, which will leave a bit more space for the subtitle. Anyway, so this morning I went off to my 15 to 20 minute walk to work armed with a camera. Weather as you can see was quite kind, which caused some of the shots to be overexposed. I'm still taking these with my digital compact. So now I'm wondering if it's finally time to get a DSLR . But with a Las Vegas bachelor party (a good friend is getting married soon) coming up this weekend and the Christmas travel being expensive, I think I might hold off for yet another bit.....

I've tried so far to keep tech out of my blog. Despite all of my previous effort, I decided to break with tradition for this entry. Recently, I bought a MacBook Air which is slick, stylish, lightweight, surprisingly fast and definitely on the pricey side. Actually since it matters for this entry, I have to be a little more precise. I bought the laptop mid November. My old one is almost utterly useless since it gets hot as hell when you 'sleep' deprive it for more than 10 min. As I tend to do, I payed up at once and forgot about the expense almost just as quick. Now, for the next part I have to explain something that not everyone may be aware of. Thanksgiving is a much bigger holiday here in North America than it was in Europe. There is turkey dinner and pumpkin carving and costumes and other traditions that Europeans just don't do, even though at least Germany has the holiday ("Erntedankfest") as well. The date when this happens is a different one for the...

South view from my balcony Since I moved a couple of months back, I have increasingly enjoyed the new location. The move brought me into the center of the harbor front downtown. Now every weekend either hockey or baseball games or artists (such as Foo Fighters and Kings of Leon) bring masses of fans and other spectators to the neighborhood. So there is always something happening. This can be annoying at times but it also bring great access to public transport and the PATH. The PATH is a system of underground connections between shops and food courts. Since the shops are overpriced and many of the halls are pretty overfilled with people in the winter I prefer to walk on the pedestrian walkways along the streets. However, if the weather is bad (if it rains it pours) it's a great way to stay dry.

Yes, you are still on the correct page. I just felt like a new design and I didn't discard any of the old entries. However, the previous photos have gone for the moment, but I'll probably find a way to display those again... In the meantime this link will get you to some new photos I took rather recently. Today was probably the last nice day of this summer if one's allowed to call it that middle of October. The weather forecast for the next couple of days is rather gloomy and to some extend reminds me of the rainy days in Ireland. Despite the outlook, I'm rather thrilled at the moment. I recently picked up golf as an new hobby and committed with buying a very affordable set of clubs. I also hit the course a few times already so that I feel I made good use out of the weather. It's so much fun, especially now with leaves turning yellow and red. I should probably mention that golf is not seen an elite sport, or at least not worse than many other sports, over here ...

I made it to Munich for the second wedding in Germany and back. I was only there for less than 5 days again, so the jetlag is really impeding my focus right now. However, I felt like I should keep the blog going nevertheless. So here we are, I'm back in Toronto. The weather is a lot nicer than it was in Germany. Everything is coming together quite nicely. A new bookshelf for the office should be arriving end of next week and the couch hopefully arrives mid August. It'll be nice to get organized and have a place to chill properly. The couch delivery was a long time in the making; 2.5 months to be precise. Which even in hindsight sounds like a crazy long time. But even after extensive search for alternative furniture the decision was easy since there was no equal when it came to quality or style. Okay, I'll keep this entry short since despite all the coffeine I consumed throughout the day I'm about to fall asleep resting my head on the laptop.

Summertime in Toronto is great. Even though it's pretty hot (sometimes even nearly too hot) there is so much to do. From BBQ s at friends last weekend, a kayak course on Monday, some patio visits through out the week to a Thai food festival today. The city of Toronto organizes a lot of festivals during summer, so that todays Thailand festival happened at the same time as one of the Indian festivals (I think there was even a parade). It was pretty good. However, today's highlight was the unexpected discovery of a very nice café . They had excellent homemade lemonade. Tasty! You probably noticed that there are a few more links on this post. I have decided to use the associations to shorten my explainations (I'm lazy afterall) and for personal reference. Alright I'll keep this entry short. Hopefully I'll be back with more shortly after next weeks visit to Germany (the second wedding).