ReNe: hanami

For the past two years, we've gone to view the cherry blossoms at High Park. This year was no exception. The sakuras were late this year; for the past two years, they bloomed in late April. It was much easier this time to go down since we've a car, and we've been going down every day for the past three days! On Thursday, they were partially opened and today, they were mostly open. We'd probably go down again on Monday when they're completely open. 

Somei-Yoshino sakura.

Ryan had a lot of fun too. The sakura trees, which were donated by the Japanese government to Toronto in 1959, lines a paved walkway that leads down to Grenadier Pond. There are also more trees on the large grassy patch beside the walkway. Ryan throughly enjoyed himself wandering around, mostly downhill, though he did go off along the beaten dirt paths too. Unfortunately he discovered that going downhill will bring him to the pond, where there's much water and mud and therefore fun to be had! 

He picked up pinecones and twigs and stones, prodded at the acorn caps that had fallen everywhere and dropped odd stuff that he picked up in the cracks of the sakura trees. 

Walking around, gaze focused downwards for the interesting stuff. He wasn't too interested in the sakuras. 

ReNe: ottawa road trip

Ottawa, 16-19 Dec 2010

We've been in Canada for over three years and we even have a Canadian in the family, so we thought it was high time to visit the Canadian capital. I found a really good deal at Minto Suites Hotel: three nights for the price of two, which worked out to only $60 a night! As you can see from the photo below, that's a fantastic rate for a very good room. (This was a winter promotion and the usual rack rate is much higher, closer to $200.)  Even the crib and high chair were free upon request. Even as I type this, I'm once again struck by how good a deal it was and am raving about it to Mike.

The best part of the room was the kitchenette. With a picky eater for a toddler, this was extremely convenient.  Not to mention the amount we save by not having to eat out all the time.

Day 1 (16 Dec, Thursday)

We set off at almost 11am and reached Ottawa around 5pm. The distance wasn't far, about 450km, but we took a couple of longish breaks for Ryan to come down and run around. Those were quite time-consuming. The scenery was initially rather boring -- flat open lands, mostly -- but it got a little rockier and more interesting as we neared Ottawa. It also started snowing just as we left the boundaries of Toronto. In fact, it practically snowed the entire time we were there and only stopped when we re-entered Toronto.

As it was a Thursday, the Canadian Museum of Civilizations had free admission from 4-8pm, so after we checked into the hotel, we brought Ryan there to let out some energy after a day cooped up in a car seat. He loved the children's museum section.

Ryan was really into buses at this point in time and love this brightly decorated bus from Pakistan. 

Day 2 (17 Dec, Friday)

First stop, Parliament Hill. It was very difficult to find a parking spot. Eventually we gave up and drove to Byward market instead, which was beside Parliament Hill and the second stop on our itinerary. After parking at a multi-storey lot at Clarence Street, we realized that it was in fact quite close to Parliament Hill and walked over. The guided tour was 45mins long and we didn't think Ryan would stay quiet for that long, so we simply went up the Peace Tower.

The Canadian Parliament was quite welcoming towards visitors. There were security checks, of course, but the gates and grounds were open and the guards were friendly. The buildings are quite remarkable, and with a coat of glistening snow on the copper-green rooftops, overlooking the Ottawa River, made for a very picturesque scene.

From the Canadian Encyclopedia:

As the seat of Canada's federal government, the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa are a remarkable and visually striking complex of buildings located on a promontory overlooking the Ottawa River. ... the picturesque Gothic Revival style was chosen because it was thought to best represent parliamentary democracy. ... Officially opened on 6 June 1866, the original Centre Block and the two administrative blocks were exceptional examples of highly developed Victorian Gothic revivalism in Canada. ... Each of the Parliament Buildings was designed to incorporate Gothic elements, including pointed arches, lancet windows and tracery, spires with crockets and rubble-course stonework. 

Canadian Parliament Hill, Peace Tower. 

Canadian Parliament, Memorial Chamber.

Then it was onto Byward Market for lunch. It is a very famous tourist destination but I suppose we didn't quite know what to do once we were there. We found it quite touristy (in other words, a bit of a tourist trap like St Lawrence Market in Toronto), though still a pleasant place to wander around for a bit, but not as interesting as, say, Kensington Market (in Toronto).

 Day 3 (18 Dec, Sat)

A lazy morning. Also a wasted one. Ryan, for some unknown reason, woke up in a bad mood and was crying and crying. We finally left past 11am and reached the Canada Science and Technology Museum about half an hour later. By the time we parked (11:40pm), Ryan was fast asleep, and he remained asleep until 1:40pm. The museum was all right, a little small, though that makes it easy to navigate. When Ryan woke up, his eyes just popped open when he saw that he was in an interesting place and he demanded to let down to go play immediately.

A side note: Ryan kissed us for the first time today! We've been trying to teach him how to kiss and till now, all he's been doing is pressing wet open lips against our cheeks, but today, he managed a proper kiss!

Playing with the model cars at the Canadian Car exhibition.

Day 4 (19 Dec, Sun)

A quick visit to the Canada Agriculture Museum in the morning before we headed back to Toronto. I thought Ryan would love it since he's crazy about cows. He liked it well enough but he wasn't that impressed. I guess cows are more interesting in books and on screen? Or perhaps because they smell in real-life. Unfortunately the cows and other farm animals were all indoors so the smell was rather concentrated. Fortunately it was winter and the cool temperatures helped. 

In summary, an interesting, informative and easy trip. Not too expensive as it was low season and the only attraction we paid admission for was the science museum. Ottawa is, as someone put it, a 'government city'. Lots of important buildings, grand and meaningful, a little stuffy. Lots of traffic and workers during the day and quite quiet at night. We also got a taste of winter driving; the roads were very snowy and slushly and the ABS activated quite frequently.

ReNe: philadelphia 2010

Philadelphia, March 20-25

It was such a long time since I took a trip! Well, I did go Montreal with Mike and Dez last March but because it was local (4 hr drive, it's like driving to KL), it didn't feel like a huge deal. Though it was a lovely trip, the last I had as a free woman...

This year, Mike was attending the NARST conference in Philadelphia and of course I (and Ryan) must go! I was also eager to see how Ryan takes to traveling, and if we can handle traveling with him. This trip is really a practice run for summer. For example, we could have chosen a direct (more expensive) flight to Philly but we thought to try a stopover. Total flight time including stopover was about 4 hrs each way, not too bad right? After all, we'd be flying 24 hrs to S'pore....

It's Ryan's first trip!

Ryan is a restless flyer. On the first leg there (Toronto to Newark), he passed out because he was woken up too early (6am, for a 9am flight). Then he was awake and curious for the next flight from Newark to Philadelphia. On the way back, he was awake for both flights and very active, often cranky. (Turned out he had a Cheerio stuck on the waistband of his diaper the entire time!) He's an energetic, inquisitive kid and that's great; it's just very tiring for us too.

One problem I didn't foresee was with the hotel room; it's not very baby-proof and it's rather boring. The lack of a high-chair meant chasing him down, literally, during meals. One mistake I made was to take a day off on the third day to decompress in the hotel room. If I was by myself, great. But with a bored baby crawling about, it was anything but relaxing. We were both crawling the walls in frustration by the time Mike got back in the late afternoon. The next day, I brought down to the 'Love Park' a few blocks from the hotel and he loved it.

Ryan looks awfully cute in this outfit.

Yelling in the park.

In front of the famous LOVE statue in JFK Plaza (or Love Park, as it's more commonly called). A requisite tourist shot. We walk through here almost every day since it's so near our hotel (Sheraton) and it's on the way to the Marriott (where Mike's conference is held).

Sitting in Love park, Philadelphia City Hall in the background.

"Arrgh! Stop taking photos already!" Yes, Ryan's had enough.

Philadelphia City Hall. An imposing, majestic structure. Mike says it's ostentatious, vulgar and ginormous.

We didn't know that Philadelphia was the seat of the American Revolution but we do now. There's a lot of America's history in Philadelphia. We joined the tour of Independence Hall (it was free). Though it's short (30mins, plus an additional 10mins to screen your bags), Ryan was bored by the time the tour started. We liked the way the teacherish park ranger who was giving the talk emphasized the important dates and people. "And in seventeen-thirty-two," she'd paused and looked intently while the kids wrote in their Junior Ranger Workbooks. I don't think I learned anything though, with Ryan fussing in my lap.

Independence Hall at the Independence National Historic Park. Here's the room where the Declaration of Independence was signed.

The Liberty Bell with its crack. (Another place where our bags were checked. And between Ryan's stroller and Mike's camera bag, it was rather troublesome.)

One can't visit Philadelphia without trying their famous cheesesteaks. We dropped by Campo's Deli (located in the Old City) after visiting the Independence Park. The cheesesteaks here were great; we're fans now. The soft pretzels (something else Philly is famous for), not so much.

Traveling with a baby was quite a huge change for us (especially me, since Mike would be at a conference most of the time). This time, we traveled with a suitcase (!), we had way more stuff than we normally would pack, and I had to scale back on the sightseeing. I normally love to pack the days and see/do something unusual, if possible, but this time, I had to plan around his nap times and attention span. Transporting him was also a problem. I wasn't too sure if the subways and buses were stroller-friendly (some were, some weren't), but the stroller was a great way for him to nap and extend our trip out. Oh, and for the first time ever, I looked up (and went to) kid-friendly places to see (something I used to actively avoid).

Here we are at the Please Touch Museum (a kids' museum, great place, I highly recommend). Mike was at the conference and I didn't like the thought of wrestling the stroller up the bus so I used the carrier. Not the best idea in hindsight, and I was pretty tired by the end of the day. Ryan was initially a little quiet and hesitant when we got there but warmed up soon enough.

Of all the stuff on this activity wall for babies and toddlers, he liked the button that produces a cricket sound the most. You can't see it but his right hand is continually pressing it. The speaker is just in front of his face.


Most of the stuff at Please Touch is geared towards older kids though, such as the water feature below. Oh well. We'd definitely visit Please Touch if we're ever in Philly again.

All tuckered out after we came back.

Helping us to pack. Somehow he looks chunkier here.

Detroit airport, our stopover on the way back. It's surprisingly impressive. (Yes, for the cheapest flight, we ended up with two different airlines and hence stopovers each way.)

Photos galore!

I'm guessing that followers of this blog, if there are any left—you stalkers (I kid! I kid!)—will probably have noticed these pictures in the photostream page applet on top. Still, the object of this blog is not just to show pictures, that's what the flickr page is for. This blog is for telling stories, and while there is no neatly packaged story to tell here today, I suppose this can count as the latest instalment of the stories of our lives.

First bit of news is that we have been feeding him solids quite regularly already, as mentioned earlier. He has tasted apple, pear, carrot, rice, oats, banana, sweet potato, and now, his favourite: avocado. We mash the food portions up in a marble mortar and pestle, and sometimes we add a bit of pear nectar to sweeten and water the paste. Mealtimes are his favourite—he gets to sit up on his high chair, and get to taste all sorts of interesting foods. He'd start out all clean and enthused, arms outstretched and sitting up, like this:

And after a few mouthfuls, he gets animated, tries to tell us how much he likes the food and about the time when he went out and had a lot of fun, his hands will wave about:

As the meal progresses, he gets messier and messier, with food all over his mouth as he mumbles, and plays with his food, blows bubbles, and starts leaning forward and generally making it hard for food to enter and remain in his mouth. Eventually, he winds up like this:

And then we get the pleasure of cleaning up after him. While the plastic bib works very well in catching food and preventing him from folding it up to taste the drippings, he is also very adept at spewing food away from the bib. So we have to clean the high chair, the floor, and of course, his mouth, chin, and neck. Not surprisingly, this whole process takes the better part of twenty or so minutes, which is amazing given the amount he consumes.

You'd probably notice in the pictures that his cheeks are still badly rashed. It's been months already, and we're not exactly sure what to do. We've gotten steroids, topical antibiotics, moisturiser, and now hydrogen peroxide (to clean the open wounds), but they don't seem to get rid of the condition. It gets a small reduction, but it seems like his skin adapts to the help and gets worse before stabilising at a bad level. We'll be seeing his paediatrician next week for his scheduled vaccinations, and we'd ask if he can do something about it, but we're not enthusiastic. Seems like Western medicine is not too good at treating chronic conditions, so we'll see what happens.

---

This last weekend, the confluence of conditions finally made it that we could go to the park to take pictures. Unfortunately, we were a little late, the peak autumn colours had faded and mostly fallen off. Still, we did what we could, and here are some of the results.

This first picture we took looking along a wooded path, the kind where it is all shaded, forming something resembling a tunnel, with light at the end of it. We walked past it, and realised we had to take a picture there:

Another picture, this one you can see that the leaves in the background are quite brown by now. They are supposed to turn red, yellow and that's the time when it is ideal for viewing. Ah well, there will be next year...

We moved on to another site, and took this picture. Somehow, Ryan was in a ticklish mood, and laughed every time Serene patted the mat that he was seated on. Laughter being the contagious thing that it is, she also started laughing as I tried to hold the camera still and quickly fire off the pictures, resulting in this:

Babies. Infuriating sometimes (like right now as I type—he is having difficulty sleeping), but it's times like these that make it all worthwhile.

Happy Halloween!

Savaged vactioners II, originally uploaded by mike.tan.

It's Halloween again, the time where people celebrate the dead by dressing up like them, and when the Great Pumpkin rises out of his patch to deliver toys and goodies to all the kid who have been good for the year.

Or, if you live on or near Church Street, a chance to do a Pride Parade Redux. Annually, Church Street at Wellesley will host a huge street party—road closures, stage, super loud sound system, deejay, open air dance club feel, but fortunately no alcohol/food, though that never stops people from getting... delighted by the substances they bring along.

And of course, the costumes. all sorts of themes, from the usual horror and gore, like the man in the picture above, to celebrities, politicians, sexy outfits, and completely weird, unplaceable genres. There was this one guy who came dressed in only a trenchcoat. How did we know? He showed all standing nearby!

I went to take pictures again this year, and got a few good pictures, the whole lot can be seen here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike-tan/sets/72157622712708134/

Halloween is also the day before the change in time—from Daylight Savings Time to Standard Time, which means the clocks shift one hour behind, and for the first day or so, we feel as if we gained an extra hour. Which feels good. Except that now, the sun sets at about 5pm. It used to be a more decent 6+pm just a week ago. No wonder people get more easily depressed in Winter.

We got out to the park to take a few pictures over the weekend. I'll post those and some other pictures of him eating solids soon.

ReNe: buskerfest 2009

Toronto's Buskerfest (27-30 Aug) was on last weekend, in front of St Lawrence Market. We strolled down the first evening (Thurs), and even though we didn't see anything very much, we liked it enough to go back down the next evening. Actually, it was also because we didn't see anything that we wanted to go back again.

The great thing about street performances is that it's free (of course donations are welcome) and the atmosphere is fun and lively. The not-so-great thing is that unless you're there early to grab a good spot, it's hard to see what's happening...

Festive and quite crowded. Lots of booths in addition to the buskers. I got a free women's razor.


A 'sculptor clown' called Pedro Tochas.


We heard about this Alakazam guy -- he's able to squeeze his body through a tennis racket, squash racket and toilet seat -- but the crowd was so thick we weren't able to see his performance. In this photo below, that's a squash racket around his waist!


We managed to catch a front row performance for the Piano Juggler's performance. It was humorous and well-paced, and Ryan apparently likes it as well. I was quite surprised he watched the entire half hour long performance quietly; then again, he does like watching things being thrown in the air. When we toss his toys in the air, he usually laughs. I suppose this 'like' is cute now but it won't be a year from now when HE starts to toss things into the air...



I've never been a huge fan of street performances but since coming to Toronto, I'm starting to appreciate them more. The piano juggler's performance was the first for which I sat through from start to finish, and actually left a small sum of money at the end. =)

MiKE: At Niagara Falls.

Serene before Horseshoe Falls, originally uploaded by mike.tan.

We went to Niagara Falls yesterday. Yes, in winter. At night. We went with the International Students Centre (ISC). Overall, I'd say that the trip was not only inexpensive, it was also somewhat cheap. Anyway, the full set of pictures can be seen here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike-tan/sets/72157611194638335/show/

ReNe: art gallery ontario

When the Art Gallery Ontario (AGO) opened a month back (14th Nov), admission was free for that weekend. We wanted to go but the queues were too long. Turned out we need not have worried; Wednesday evenings are also free admission and last Wednesday, we finally went down to take a look.

The building where I work is about 5 mins from AGO so I was always very curious to see what's inside, now that the construction's done and cleaned up. The architecture is beautiful, so even though we're not really art aficionados, we enjoyed walking around the gallery. Somehow, the place reminds us of Center Pompidou in Paris (a little), which we also didn't really 'get'. Behind, attached to the gallery, was the restored Grange House. The short tour around the Grange House, which mostly talked about the mystery of the wax (art?) pieces left behind by the third maid of the house, was pretty interesting too.

It's great though that these museums have free nights. (AGO's not the only one; the Royal Ontario Museum and Bata Shoe Museum also have free evenings), for it encourages people who might normally not be interested in such places to have a look, especially the local residents. Certainly I would go again. I might not fully appreciate the art collections, but it's a nice way to spend an evening after dinner at Chinatown. Unfortunately for AGO, cameras are not allowed inside (though we have seen people sneak in cameras, and not small point-and-shoot types!), so no pictures (yet?) to put up.

MiKE: Santa Claus Parade

Yesterday was the Santa Claus Parade. Started in 1905 as a means for a retailer to drum up business for Christmas season, it consisted of only one horse float carrying Santa Claus from downtown Union Station (the rail hub) to the Eaton Centre. Now, over a hundred years later, the kid-oriented parade has grown to 25 floats, 24 bands, over 1700 participants, and hundreds of thousands of spectators, including the live telecast. We decided to take a walk, do the touristy thing, and see what the fuss was about. The parade was supposed to start at about 12:30, and take about 2-3 hours for all the floats and contingents to wind its way through almost six kilometres through downtown Toronto. We started out at about noon, and since the parade passed by very close to where we stay, we did not have far to walk to get to see what people were doing as they waited for the parade to start.

Apparently, to get the good views of the parade, many families had arrived early, and set up comfortable places; many of them brought warm blankets, some had foam pads to keep the bums insulated from the cold pavements, and many of them had brought some ladder or constructed an elaborate scaffold set up so that the kids could view from a high enough vantage point. At some places, this was necessary because even though it was supposed to be a kid's parade, the streets were lined with adults, and older kids. Some of the solutions we saw:





The problem with coming early was that the kids had to wait out in the cold for quite a long time. The temperature went as low as about 3-4ºC, and it even snowed at one point. One way to spend the time was to get the kids to paint a poster:


Although I personally have my reservations about this. One day, the kid is going to learn the truth; about how this is a festival celebrating the winter equinox co-opted by a religion to commemorate the apparently miraculous birth of their leader who would be murdered before middle age.

After a long enough wait where we walked along the parade route, the parade started and caught up with us. There were the usual floats, some marching bands, and even cheerleaders. This is the part I don't get--the sexism; ah well, insert the standard feminist critique here:


A few words about this photo: This is actually a frame out of a series of eight shot in continuous mode. All of them turned out good. I am impressed with my camera!

As we walked along the route, we came across the junction of Dundas and University, which is really close to the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). AGO's opening was last Friday, and they were having free admission over the weekend, and extra late hours, till midnighton Friday and Saturday. Interestingly, at the junction, it seemed like there was an exodus of people who were moving toward the AGO:



We went to take a look, and the queue was very long, almost 500m in length, and, according to some, was at least an hour in the cold before admission. Not wanting to wait in line, we moved on, to see a guy in a Santa outfit, skating away from the parade route:



And one last photo; this one of a clown, who, in this photo, looks like he's about to slap the kid. On the face:

ReNe: cemetery walking tour

Last Saturday, we joined a cemetery walking tour organized by the UoT's ISC.

It had rained Friday, so the air was crisp and clean-smelling. (That's something we missed about Singapore - the frequent and heavy rains that clears the air and flushes the streets.) We went to two cemeteries; St. James and Necropolis. We've cycled past the St. James cemetery before (it's beside the Don Valley, a great place to cycle) but hadn't stopped in to see. Plus, it was interesting to hear a bit about Toronto's history and the stories behind some of the graves from our guide, Dermot.

Gorgeous autumn scenery. My favorite are the trees that turn really red and not just yellow. I find autumn too short, but on the other hand, knowing that this season won't last too long really encourages us to go out and enjoy the foliage and weather instead of procrastinating.



Some random and interesting facts we picked up along the way: (1) it's considered bad form to walk over the part of the ground where the coffin is supposed to be under, (2) while cremations are getting more popular in Toronto, a lot of people still get buried, (3) the costs of cremations and burials turn out to about the same, (4) people here don't mind staying next to cemeteries, which are usually peaceful and scenic, and (5) there aren't any specific days (like Qing Ming) where people come down to visit a grave, though All Saints Day (1 Nov) and Easter are popular.



One of the grander tombstones.