winter wonderland

so... our strawbale season is over and the season of home reno's has begun. I'd say the biggest drawback of doing lots of renos at home is : 1.More food 2.Bed is closer than it should be and 3. More food! :)

Anyways, we've had some seriously funky weather... 2/3 days of plus zero weather followed by some awesome snow... and it looks beautiful. And for all those who worry... the snowploughs are actually parked on our sideroad... so they're all clear! :) So, this was the view from our window this morn. :)

some photos...

some more photos... hope ya'll like 'em! :)
http://pocoloco.blogs.friendster.com/photos/randompix/

oooh... scary!

So... I thought I'd write about my first Halloween in Canada since Uni! I did celebrate it in Spain... but thats a whole other story!
This one will be in pix! It ended up being a two day thang and here are some photos from all those great events! :)

The ghouls & funky folks at A's party...

Chillin' with Natalia & friends! :) (see... I posted your name, as requested!)

With R,V & gang... Halloween Part II begins with great vino y tapas!

With the winners of the best costume... the Fallopian Swim Team at N's party!

I felt the exact same was as this unknown person at the last of the five get togethers (over two days).... till next year... and yes, I promise I won't be lazy and dress up as how I do for work (minus the straw hat!)... no more "Straw Bale Construction worker"! :) Promise!

damn I suck!

wow! I can't believe its been over a month since I've updated the blog... I guess not a lot of people are checking this anymore! But fear not! I shall return with more updates... including... my first Halloween celebrations since uni... more straw bale house building... and other stuff that I can't remember right now! :)
ciao!

road trip... once more...

so.. this last week, Dr. F. (a really close friend... actually more like my younger bro) came down from Jolly England to visit... and we had a blast... Our many adventures included an ol' fashioned Canuck road trip... ok.. maybe not so old fashioned but definitely more country than city. We were really lucky with the weather... rainin' while in the car... and sunny while traveling around. Our route was from Hockley to Bayfield (Grand Bend) on Lake Huron to Windsor by the backroads (yes, Windsor to visit his relatives... and boy, did we have a blast!) to Toronto. Here are some of the less "au natural" pix! ;)

These pictures are from when we we went for an afternoon hike in Albion Hills.



And here's one from Bayfield at D&G's place... thanks again! :)

update about when i'll be updatin'! :)

yeah... my posts are becoming as frequent as a blue moon! Must be that work thang gettin' in the way. Actually, its been crazy busy (doesn't EVERYONE say that!). We're currently plastering the new Everdale office. I gotta say that I've definitely become more comfortable with heights and working on the fourth or fifth level of scaffolding while holding a hose filled with a concrete and lime plaster (weighing anywhere from 30-200 lbs!) Anyways... this update is about the update that I'll be updatin' the pix and blog soon!
--------------
so... here's the first part of the update....
this is the new office we've been workin' on.... BEFORE painting it... this is the colour it turns after the cement-lime plaster dries.
--------------

Here's a picture of Anoushka Shankar... just post the Ravi Shankar Concert (which was great! It's hard to believe he was born in 1920 when he's playing... )
I HAD to ask her if she's gonna be playing a fusion concert thang with her half sister... two points for guessing... Norah Jones.... yup!

straw home tours...

so, this past weekend was the Ontario Straw Bale Building Coalition's Tour. It was AWESOME to have 14 or so close folks come and check out a few of these houses! On that note, I think the huff-puff-blo-yer-house-down jokes have stopped after seeing the inbuilt strength of straw bale buildings. It was pretty cool to show everyone the house I've been working on at Everdale, even if it felt like I was goin' to work!

This is from M&C's place... check out the cool undulations (?) in the walls


This photo is from B&C's place (where I first volunteered to build their barn... and thus began my straw bale building thang!)

sunset...

this was the sunset from the balcony a few days ago... fall is in the air & as the season changes, the sunsets become even more spectacular! :)
There's a lot of work to do on this "casa" but its eve's like this that make living here great! :)

new addition to the family...

so THIS past weekend was quite busy (I see a trend here, don't you?)... on Sept 25th at 1205am my cousin's wife gave birth to a healthy baby boy (who's name is still undecided!)... I'll stop yapping for once and let this pic of grandson and grandma say it all! I need to go back to sleep to nurse this nasty flu thang thats goin' on! :(

TIMMMMBBBEEEEERRRRRR!!!

its been a while that I've looked forward for the weekend to be over as going back to my construction job.... being high on scaffolding while tied to a truss on the roof... is easy compared to what we were doing (last) weekend!
I'd say this has been one of the busier, crazier, hard-workin' and yes... fun weekends! I think now I can be officially be called BUBBA-Jup! :) All I need is a pair of dem overalls! The weekend started with J,M & family comin' over to help move some of their things from the garage to the shed... which was in quite the state... so the weekend started with cleanin' and fixin' up of the shed... friday-- clean and re-insulate, saturday-board up busted sections (damn these country mice must have a tooth-sharpening contract with the local dentist or something!) and loading up the place. Lets not forget diversion day (http://www.simcoe.com/sc/alliston/lifestyles/story/3024605p-3506612c.html ) and that was followed by some serious tree cutting on sat & sun. Yes, I'm not big on cutting down trees but tall wobbley Poplars and electrical poles aren't a good match in the country! Now that Ontario Hydro is privatised... dealing with these high-tension & voltage wires is considered our fun time activity (as its on whats considered a "private" road). It was some serious hard work and it was awesome to have our neighbours involved (and M's awesome portugese food after)... Here's a pic of "L" climbing up one of the trees that was threating the electrical pole.See if you can spot him in the tree.S & J looking on in awe! Man that was a crazy fun time! :)

in Muskok at A's folks place

so here are my happy toes... and man... was that a beautiful sunset. :) I'm not sure if I need to say much else! :)
It's funny how perspectives change with experiences... now the lil' mosquitoes of Hockley Valley don't bug me at all.. after the steroid-filled mossies up in Muskoka! :) The hockley one's are almost cute!
Enjoy this pic... 'cuz till I figure out how to reduce these in size... it takes too long to upload! I waited more than twenty minutes to upload a single pic! (must start multi-tasking again while on comp!) :)


dailup... oh yeah!!

so... I FINALLY got my 'net connection hooked up in the country... so now I'm sittin' here... having gone from a VDSL connection (100 megabytes/second) to a dialup connection (possibly MINUS 10 bytes/second)! Time's goin' backwards now... It's funny how quickly we get used to technology and how we feel we're "suffering" if things are going "backwards".. and I still remember the days when a 14.4 baud modem was the FASTEST (and hippest for geeky folk like me). I wonder if someday a functioning 2400 baud modem will be considered an antique!
So... now my goal is to find a program to reduce my photo sizes to somethng more reasonable so that I can post 'em on here without taking two hours per photo!! :)
ciao all!

workin' away!

well... there hasn't been a post for a while... mainly 'cuz I've been busy working near Guelph... in Hillsburgh at the Everdale Environmental Learning Centre... building their new office.
I'll try and post pics of the house... and the progress being made! And I thought my body would be better at handling the physical aspect of house building... but am still quite the city slicker!My fingers are still sore! But gettin' better... poco a poco! :)
well as soon as I get my photos uploaded... will have another update for ya (whoever is still checkin' the site!) :)
buenos noches all! :)

a toilet with a view

ok... so I was debating if I should take this down a level but I figure I've posted stuff about toilets before... so why should this be any different! :) But before I get to the toilet... this is the house that I'm helping construct. I'm (sofar) a part of the "straw" crew (i.e. crew to work on the insultating and prepping of the superbly insulated walls for the plastering crew... which is the next stage of straw bale insulated houses)


So... I think I mentioned that there are elements of this job that are hardier than what I (as spoilt city guy) am used to. Mainly, thinking and prepping a weeks' supply of food in a cooler, tent sleeping (albeit more recently tent inside the house we're building with a friendly nightly visit from a racoon who is convinced there is food near me and has easy access as there are no doors, so I have to growl loudly to scare him away before going back to sleep again), showering in a lake or now the campsite not far from the jobsite and the best for last... going to the loo in the woods.

This is the side-view from this airy "facility". I have to say it is awe-inspiring and the only draw back is looking to make sure there's no bears in the vicinity! :)
Here is the cool throne. Thanks S. for makin' it! :) Many a contemplative moment to be had here. :)

balin' away...

so... here's the latest update... I'm working now (yay!) in the Muskoka's (cottage country about two hours north of Toronto) on house constuction projects by Harvest Homes. Its definintely the most physical work I've done in a LONG time and sofar my body is quite angry with me! It's definitely "roughing it" by our Toronto city standards.
The crew I'm with is awesome... I'll post pix up soon. Building these Straw-bale insulated houses is definitely hard work but the area we are in is beautiful (except towards the evening when the BIG mosquitoes want to feed on us!).

Sofar, I've learnt a few things:
- a shower in a lake in the evening is great as the water is the warmest (don't try it first thing in the morning!)
- a "water-proof" tent isn't necessarily water-proof
- If you want it to rain, leave your shoes OUTSIDE the tent! It will DEFINITELY rain that night!
- Get a tent where you can zip up all the open-mesh "windows"! It WILL be colder than you think at night and that ventilation WILL NOT be appreciated!
- a TWO-person tent is for two midgets!I recommend a 3-person tent for a person and her/his gear!
- Don't drink tea/coffee before going to bed!

Well, I have to bale (bail)... as I'm late! But I should say that there will be more and more cheesey "bale" jokes...

C and A's Wedding

So... now we are at 10 hours post the Chocolate con churros (see post below) and the REAL reason for me being in Madrid--> C&A's wedding... I thought I'd post some pictures... and mention the fact that we didn't finish again till post 8am. The wedding ceremony was beautiful and it was really cool as the priest summarized his sermon in english. A year of not practicing Spanish left it rustier than I imagined! "A" looked beautiful in her wedding gown and "C" looked funky in his tux and funky tie... (as u can see below)


So, here's the whole family in this beautiful church on Calle Serrano

DA BOYZ!!! There was some "camarero!camarero!" game going on which was remeniscent of Punjabi Boliyaan


This is from the NEXT morning... not long after the two hours of sleep I got after the wedding.Something about the unusual (for Madrid) colour scheme is what was cool (or could have been the lack of sleep!)

101 reasons for Chocolate con Churros

this post is dedicated to all those who have over-indulged in BEvERageS while in Spain and needed to head for the local Churreria to recover. And thanks to Susana who pointed that I hadn't posted anything about this great Spanish tradition (read the comments of the post below this one)!
Let me preface this post by saying that the below experiences are not far removed from the fairly normal practice of "la marcha" in Madrid.

So, C&A's wedding festivities started with an all-u-can-consume (solid & liquid) Argentinian dinner.This is the picture of the gang, just post-dinner with loosened belts and big wine-enhanced smiles!So, while everyone else headed home to prep for the wedding the following eve, I continued (in the grand "la marcha" tradition) to B's birthday...
After hours of dancing, we were too tired to lift the camera off the ground! (just kidding!)

NOW... we went to San Gines which was CLOSED... but we got our fix of chocolate con churros at the bar next door... which was still serving drinks at 8am... it was funny as we were the only ones interested in winding!
So, here we are below... munchin' away long after the sun has risen but well before we are to see our beds!
AND the birthday boy just couldn't WAIT till he made it to bed! Sorry B... I just HAD to post this!

Bales... bales.. and more bales...

so, the weekend before London and Madrid... was at the Everdale Center for a workshop on Straw Bale House building held by Ben Polley of Harvest Homes. An awesome experience... and a highly recommended way to build a house! And no... you can't huff and puff and blow it down (considering it is significantly stronger, more fire-resistant and has a higher insulation value i.e. lower heating and cooling costs).
Ok... enough of horn-tooting... its picture-time! :)


this is the house we built in that weekend... NOT!!! This is HOME ALIVE.. check it out!!! GO VISIT!!! :)


This is the inside of the walls of HOME ALIVE! :)


NOW... THIS is the the crew and the house we were learning to build! :)

Bride 'n Bhangra

So... going back into my memory banks... lets start off with L&G's wedding... an awesome time... and one of the coolest parts was the two dholi's who were later accompanied by a Chinese Lion Dance troupe. The drum fusion was kickin'! This, of course, on top of the dancing, food and consumption of BEvERageS! :)
So, here are some of the pix... (I had some more "normal" ones... but whats the point of showing normal ones...
"G" is TRYING to be the sad and demure bride but quite unsuccessfully as you can see. She's just smilin' away...


The post-wedding siesta in the car after a quick run to Dairy Queen... Sorry guys... I HAD to post this one... I think its really cute... don't kill me for it!


This is one from the reception... "L' lookin' sharp!

crazy dayz...

so.. instead of doing shorter, more readable posts on a regular basis... I have a feeling that one of these days... I'll be posting a MONDO-post...
the short version of the highlights of the last few weeks are as follows:
- L. & G.'s wedding (photos to be posted soon)
- More renos! (no pix to be posted) Some more renos in the country house also! (I figure no one's interested in pictures of how to install ceiling fans... although I have to say that the only energy star rated fan I could find in the major dept. stores was at Home Depot and it was also one of the cheapest!
- The Straw-Bale-house building workshop at Everdale - one of the most fun, hard-working and enriching experiences I've had. More pix and details to come. Many thanks again to Ben of( Harvest Homes), Lynn, Chantal and the whole Everdale crew.

Which brings me to now... I'm in London (NOT Ontario) and catching up with my dear cousin and friend. :) Reminiscing the times and lovely memories with Javed (scroll down a few posts...).

Damn... I'm being summoned for food... I guess adding a few more pounds to the fifteen or so I've put on since leaving Spain can't REALLY hurt! ;)

photo city!

so... instead of doing something useful while out of the house (the agent was showing the apt to a potential client)... I took the following pix from the rooftop of the Pier. Clicking on them will take u to a site where you can see them in full size. :)
Enjoy!

NORTH view going EASTwards to Toronto downtown


WEST view going NORTHwards into North Etobicoke

work brain dammit!!

well.. tomorrow is the agents open house!This is the start of the procedure.We've JUST finished the reno's...ok.. so some stuff is outstanding till tomorrow... but the bulk of it is done! I hardly recognize this as our place anymore... but suprisingly it doesn't feel that bad. A lot less stuff... a lil' airy-er... not so bad! :) I've learnt a lot of funky reno techniques... and some of them surprisingly cool! :) Besides the one electrocution incident (after which I did call an electrician!) it was all good!
ok.. off to bed... gotta be up in 6 hours to finish up and then leave home till the agents have left.
ciao all! :)
And again... thanks to all those who helped out BIG TIME! :)

reno burnout!

So... its almost 7am. I've been up for almost two hours... and got to enjoy the sunrise. Yeah, most of you know, I'd prefer enjoying the sunrise before going to bed and not the other way around.We had a "slight" mishap yesterday while trying to replace taps in TWO of our bathrooms. The damn water-shutoff valves in BOTH decided that they wanted to leak no matter what! So, needless to say, we haven't managed to get the taps repaired and have had to bag up the pipes and keep checking to make sure the water is leaking into the bags and not down to our neighbours!Having experienced a drip gone bad before, I could barely sleep.I think I even had one hand off the bed just to check the floor incase the water came all the way into my room.Ok... a lil' overkill but better safe than sorry.Hopefully I'll manage to stay awake till the plumber comes!I may just pass out after typing this as the adrenalin is wearing thin and the back pain is re-emerging!
On the bright side, I got to see one of the most beautiful sunrises over Lake Ontario.There's something magical about the seeing the sun and the moon share the visible sky together. :)
Hope u like the panorama and the other pic. Cheers!

reno.. reno.. on the wall...

So... the reno's on the apartment continue but atleast one half has shaped up nicely. None of it would have been possible without the AWESOME luv & hard-ass work from SO many great friends! :) (you all know who u r). As for me... I think the stress got to me over the last few days and I've been snapping at everyone like an already angry pitbull who was kicked in the cojones! Yah...I loved being around me too! As for my back... being a pin-cushion under the watchful eye of Dr. Chen has helped SO MUCH! But after about 14 hours of runnin' around... it starts to give way... ah... old age! ;)

So... here are some pics of the updated sections de la casa! :) (special thanx to F. AND E.!) :) This is specially for Jen & Angie... I know you're REALLY curious to see what the apartment is like... so here are some pix to give u an idea! Oh.. for those of you who have been to the Pier... yes... it is the SAME place... except a third of the furniture and new colours! :)
BTW.. if YOU are free and in the T.O. area... I NEED U!!! We still have tons o' stuff to do! :(
Cheers! Oh.. and I promise not to snap! ;) grrrrr!

THE ENTRANCE


THE KITCHEN


THE BOOKSHELF (special thanx to P.R.) :)


THE LIVING ROOM 1

THE LIVING ROOM 2


Sunset from G's room


And from mine

BhangraTime!!!

it's past two am and I've just returned from dropping one of my best friends to his hotel on the eve of his wedding! The whirlwind of activity with cleaning up the house (for the sale), moving & "prepping" his hotel room 4 this night has caught up to me, I think. My back is better... thanks to Dr. Chen & her magical acupuncture needles (I felt like a pin cushion 2 days ago!). I haven't had much experience with acupuncture... but its pretty cool... and surprisingly pain-free, considering the needles. Ok.. back to the wedding... actually, since my camera mysteriously disappeared in Chicago, I'm gonna have to wait till someone gives me their pix to post! The actual ceremony was quite traditional as far as Sikh weddings go (plus the extra large grin on his face as he did during the Lavaan ceremony) . The fun part is the reception as it involves lotsa music... lotsa dancin'... and of course an open bar. Unfortunately, as ya'll know... with the back being outta wack (what is a wack, by the way????)... only a lil' dancin' and listenin' to music. Oh yeah... I forgot about all the eating... butter chicken.... mmmmm.... am still salivating!
Well, back to the packing, cleaning & repairing for tomorrow... let the sweet memories of butter chicken carry me forth!

winded out from the Windy city..

So.. am back... but posting remains short for two reasons...
1. still really busy packing and fixing light fixtures, caulking etc... and
2. I've pulled my back really badly and have no problem standing or lying down but sitting sux!

I'll update more when am mobile enough to sit here! (makes sense in a strange way, no?) :)

Aryan's first birthday...

here's a pic of Aryan... on his b'day (not the party which is comin' up tomorrow!) :) Cute, ain't he?
-----