A Lot About Nothing

It’s that time of year again. The Canadian National Exhibition opened last Friday, and I finally made my way down there yesterday. Great crowd (esp. because of the Canada vs. Jamaica soccer/football game at BMO Field). Of course my first stop was the Food Building, since I was starving. Had a potato roti (no, I couldn’t afford the one with meat… lol), shared some fries & gravy with my friend and then we rolled out of there after we overate.

It’s a good thing the Olympic Exhibits are right outside the food building. After seeing some awesome trampoline work by some athletes, my friend and I tried wheelchair basketball which was a cool experience (check out my form ).

Then it was off to shop in the warehouse outlets housed in the Direct Energy Centre… got myself some nice deals at Stitches (can’t go wrong with $2.50 for a graphic T-shirt).

We missed a part of the Grand Illusion & Escape Artist show (featuring Kevin Ridgeway and Kristen Johnson), but we did manage to see her get submerged into a tank of water and escape from locked chains which was cool.

As the sun went down, we managed to sneak in a bit of the game by watching the giant screen just outside BMO Field (ended up in a tie game). Then it was time to call it a day.

I’ll probably be going again next week to get more Tiny Tom donuts.

I guess I’m glad that I slept through it, because waking up and looking outside my window to see a massive fireball illuminate the sky would have been quite the head trip. Even as I watch the different videos on YouTube documenting the blast, I’m still shocked that something like this happened so close to home.

In the wee hours of the morning, just before 4am a serious of explosions happened near Keele St. and Wilson Ave. Residents in the immediate area recall feeling the shockwaves of the multiple blasts and having the windows of their home blowing out. There are some amazing photos that display the magnitude of the blast. Check out this Flickr photo stream. Here’s a detailed video showing some of the explosion:

As of this moment though, firefighters are close to completely extinguishing the burning tanks at the propane facility in the Keele and Wilson area, and I believe that the city is very lucky that this situation wasn’t more serious. Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes in the area and blocks of the city (between the 401, Sheppard, Jane and Wilson) has been sectioned off.

Here’s the complete news story from TheStar.com, and I’m sure there are a lot of other media outlets carrying the news.

Update: One Toronto Firefighter has passed away battling the blaze. My condolences to his family and friends, and I commend all those firefighters who do such a dangerous job and risk their lives to save others.

Yesterday was Toronto’s popular Caribana parade, the highlight of the two-week celebration that brings a huge amount of tourism and Caribbean flavour to the city.

It was a gorgeous day on Saturday (after the morning rain let up at least), so I decided to make a last minute trip and head down to see the parade. I think I spent more time on transit than I actually did at the parade itself! Getting from any of the subways stations down to the Exhibition grounds was crazy. My friend and I were lucky enough to get a seat on the way down there and on the way back (makes a huge different walking to the previous stop). The bus was packed and there was a lot of traffic on the road heading down to to the parade.

Once along the Lakeshore, we were greated by wonderful sounds of steel pans, soca music and the smell of delicious Caribbean food. There were so many people, many of which were adorned in in a flag from their retrospective Caribbean nation, in costume (I guess they got all tired out from playing mas), or wearing as little as possible/dressed to impress. What sucked though that all the ‘real’ Caribbean food was on the lake-side of the parade, and there were fences sectioning off the parade from the other side that we were on: I couldn’t find a way to get the roti I was craving! Plus my friend had to head to work, so we walked around for a bit, took some photos, grabbed the most DELIOUS, sweet-tasting corn-on-the-cob ever (which was the most ‘Caribbean’ option available over hamburgers, fries, hot dogs and cotton candy) and headed home.

All in all, it was a fun day (especially the people-watching… if only we were fashion police). I was planning to go to Olympic Island today for the Island Festival, but I think I’m too late to buy tickets. Next year I’ll make better plans though, and make sure I get there early!

When I orignally heard about this news about the IKEA having a store at the corner of King and Church I was wondering how they were going to establish an IKEA store in the middle of Toronto’s design district.  I mean, treking to any IKEA location in the GTA, such as the one in Vaughan or on Leslie Street is a circus in itself… finding a good parking spot and manouvering through the aisles can be quite the experience.

Turns out it’s not going to be a full IKEA store, but only a showroom that will feature a selection of new products from their 2009 catalogue.

In celebration of the launch of the 2009 Catalogue we are opening a showroom at 143 King Street East. The showroom will feature a selection of our new products that will be found in the new Catalogue. The showroom will be open July 31 – August 3, 2008.

That seems like an awful lot of work for only four days.  Then again, it IS IKEA.  Oh, well… looks like $2 breakfasts and $1 pasta will have to stay in the boonies.

I loooove kitchen gadgets.  That’s why I make it a mission to visit Kitchen Stuff Plus’ sidewalk sales at least once a year.  If you’re looking for new dinnerware, glassware, bathroom accessories, kitchen utensils, candles, photo frames, or any other houseware, make sure to stop by the Orfus Rd. outlet location of Kitchen Stuff Plus.  You’re guaranteed to get a great deal on something (even if you don’t need it ).  The sale starts today at 10am and finishes at 3pm.  Here’s the link with more info.