I need a break from the stress, anxiety and tears that have plagued my moving plans to Vancouver. What better way than making up a list (in no particular order) of things that have given be joy in Toronto for the last decade and things I'd have to and like to squeeze into my last month here but probably will not be able to!


10 Best things in Toronto that I'll miss

1. The subway and streetcars: I love them. They are such wonderful alternatives to the horrid buses. I'm going to miss them a lot in Vancouver.
2. Eaton Centre : My favourite shopping destination. Its huge and follows one straight line and it has EVERYTHING! 1 hour and I'm happy as a clam, provided I've bought something (eg. pink razors)
3. University of Toronto campus: Its pretty and every corner has a memory- there were reading Bengali books at Roberts Library, extended lunch discussions at the Med Sci cafeteria and the UofT bookstore with beautiful high ceilings and my discovery of Anita Rao Badami's Tamarind Mem.
4. FOOD: All my favourite sushi joints, Spring Rolls, the new Crepe place we discovered on Queen street, roasted marshmallow icecream at Greg's on Spadina/Bloor, Ferraro Rocher gelato at Hollywood Gelato, hot chocolate at this tiny cafe on Wellington, Brunch at Hot House Cafe
5. Learning how to Skate at Harbourfront centre
6. Theatre: Fringe festival, Second City, Elgin Winter Garden theatre (its gorgeous inside), Shakespeare in the Park
7. Toronto International Film festival: There's going to be a Bangledeshi fim on this year and I'm going to miss it.
9. All the old churches and buildings of Toronto: We have a castle and I didn't even know it until a year ago!
&
10. My tiny apartment where I had my first taste of freedom. I will miss it terribly and all the lovely friends who frequented it with unabashed good humour.


5 things I should be doing before I leave Toronto in a month:

1. Find place to live in Vancouver by checking online listings by the hour
2. Find a place to live in Vancouver that will allow Tusch to come with me
3. Sell all my furniture from the apartment or find a good moving company to move it
4. Sort through all my books and divide them into piles that
a) I must take to vancouver with me at any cost
b) can be packed and shipped at a later date should I stay longer than a year
c) possible impulse buys and tattered copies of murder mystries that I can donate to the library
5. Spend time with family


10 things I'd like to do instead, before I leave Toronto in a month:

1. Go for Masala Dosa at Udupi Palace at Gerrard India Bazaar
2. Buy a colourful (pink) sun umbrella at Spadina
3. Have afternoon High-tea at Red Tea Box on Queen street
4. Go on a Lonely Planet guided walking tour of downtown Toronto with Simica
5. Watch "Spamalot" at Canon(vertigo) Theatre
6. Sip some cosmo with friends on the rooftop patio at 'Smooze'
7. Replace the pink earring I lost from the weekend vendors at Dundas Square
8. Visit the Bata Shoe Museum
9. Find a vendor that sells snow cones and have two of them
10. Rent a bike and bike around Centre-Island

Time and money will probably object to my achieving all of the above.
But so long as I get snow cones, I might be ok :)




I discovered recently that when you google my first name, this blog shows up with the title "A Sunshine two brief" . I mean I know googling my name points you to my blog, but I never noticed the typo. TWO brief?!! Hello? TWO brief?
I briefly went into a silent panic, as Simica kept up a friendly snickering, that maybe it IS a typo on my part. Went investigating all over my template and dashboard and found that nowhere do I type it as 'TWO brief'. Does someone in the blogger boardroom have a fetish for 'briefs' and wants to see girls layering two of them like the t-shirts?
Ugh.
Bad mental image.

On my walk to work today I was formulating a very clever, so I thought, post about the whole crisis in Middle-east thing and how it looks like the beginning of something nasty and that it just might have completely pushed me over to the fundamentalist-agnostic-borderline atheist position. The title was going to be- "God is dead, we killed him". But apparently the ghost of god has a nasty mind and still wields a finger from the other world.
I just lost the place I was planning to rent in Vancouver. The inconsiderate woman gave it way to someone!

Never get a full physical. It doesn't bring to good news. Never read up at webmd either.

Did you know that watching a thunderstorm approach from a 16 floor patio is not nearly as pretty as watching it from the beach? Its kind of scary actually. Esp when the sky is all hellish red.

Perfectly happy weekends can bring a tear to the eye too and it is possible to miss someone for the future.

Edinburgh is pretty!

My work badge and key contraption has eloped with my USB key that has been MIA for two months now. I'm keeping an eye on the pen-on-a-string now.

One way trip to New Zealand will cost me my entire savings right now. Damn.

I want to run through a beautiful green meadow, then jump off a cliff into a raging ocean and in the last minute turn into a bird to fly off somewhere far.









My poor neglected blog must think I hate its new look too much to scribble anything on it.
Well I don't hate it really......even though one person called it 'ugly'....but I'm not a big fan of it either. It lacks a certain warmth and the text is too small for my liking. I'm going to let it grow on me.
Actually, I've been too caught up with ...stuff...(i.e. lazy) to write anything.
On the plus side, I've started dreaming again. In Bollywood movie style. Can't remember the details but it featured colours, courtesans, vanishing acts, voice alarms, old buildings and Shah Rukh Khan...oh and Rani Mukharjee with some Bengali aunty I don't like. Yeah. I know. It was weird, even for me.
Moving on....
I've finished two books and two more movies since the last time.
The movies were really good- Constant Gardener(5 *s) and Match Point(4*s). Still have to see Pirates.
Books I'll review soon...when I'm feeling more articulate.
I also, if you must know, almost decided I want to give up being single and stuff and have kids as cute as Irfan. Did I mention he's practicing walking? We spent a beautiful sunday morning together with him holding my finger and showing me around their yard, picking up golf balls, pointing at flowers, flashing me cutesy wrinkly nose smiles.
Yep I contemplated having my own kid for 3 whole hours!
Then I remembered how he threw up all over his mom's beautiful saree the night before and slammed on the fertility brakes just in time. On my sister's part- she didn't even blink. Some people are born mothers and others as cool aunties who love to spoil the nephews with chocolates since they are 2 months old.
Evidence of his cuteness:

I also watched an entire game of football sunday and didn't fall asleep thinking how easy it would be to end the torture by handing out 22 footballs to the teams and be done with it.
I have some interesting developments as well.
I do!
I'm getting married.
And moving in with scary in-laws.


Just Kidding


I'm moving though.
To rainy-but-near-the-ocean - Vancouver!!
Apparently emailing and asking to work with a prof for a year, works...even if you have to needle them weekly to remind them to send stuff...which, I'm still doing.
Nyway, I'm 95% sure that I'm moving somewhere near Universtiy of British Columbia, Vancouver, possibly by end of August or early September- depending on how the house hunting goes. The plan is to share a house with strangers, who will no doubt become friends. *insert silent non-religious prayers "Please god, don't turn my future roomies into psychos just to torture me for leaving my family"*
Actually I thought the announcement went over okay with the parents.
Only three days of guilt with cries of "But I have two guys lined up for you and one liked your biodata" followed by "Why not go to Ottawa? so and so went there" and teary "you must hate us".
Yep. I think they are handling it pretty good.

So looks like at least one of my resolutions for 2006 is coming true and unfortunately nullifying all other ones, where I was going to take up dancing and language classes and save money.
Well there's still time.
I might befriend a french, gay dancer in Vancouver by the end of the year!
Saving money will never happen apparently in my case. I blame Sadiya's fiance for reading my palm and pointing out that fact. Now I won't even attempt to save large chunks of money. Only enough to help in the move.
Till then, I have a request. Please keep your fingers crossed for Tusch. I'm hoping I won't have to give him up.


Stay tuned for Fringe Festival updates later today.