Category: Events

Milestones

Shekhar posted this on Facebook:

!!! Happy First Anniversary !!!

I’m sure all share my sentiments when I say it was a fantabulous evening. I know this bubbly couple goes all out, but the plan yesterday (September 15, 2007) was way beyond my imagination. Although I’m quite sure that HeaSik will provide a detailed description of the day and their planning process on sikander.org, I’d like to recap it anyway.

Sikander tells us to arrive at 6:45 sharp. Being proactive, I arrived at 6:50 while everyone was waiting. I see papers in hands of everyone, and yes I did guess it was going to be a scavenger hunt. My better half for the evening, Mr. Shirwa, and I were paired up (at Sikander’s behest and my inability to obtain a date). Nonetheless, Ali and I proved to the perfect match as we beat all other couples and pieced together the words scattered around the buildings encircling (or ensquaring) the Quad. We got the task accomplished in 15 mins, and waited at least 10 minutes for the next couple to arrive.

When we arrived back, a very classy suprise was coming up and took the evening to a whole new level. A limo arrived to pick us all up (except Tony and Zainab who couldn’t keep up with the rest… then again this wasn’t their university). Thoroughly impressed, we all went downtown in this Lincoln 8-seater Limousine to Milestones. The dinner was great, with lots of exciting conversation, plus giving me the chance to get to know Jimmy and Song Woo better.

Dinner wasn’t just dinner though. The games didn’t stop there. We were provided a list of items and whoever had the most items won prizes. Since a lot of items did involve girly stuff (lipstick, comb, hairpin etc), and my partner being another male (and going against Jimmy’s collection of photos and mileage cards), it didn’t help us win any prizes here. Regardless, a fun exercise and the only thing missing was TV cameras.

Evening wasn’t over yet. The limo took us back to Mooney’s Bay (Ali and I decide to drive this time giving Zainab and Tony the opportunity to bond with the rest in the comfort of a family room on wheels). What do HeaSik surprise us with there? It was dark, slightly cold, we were right next to the shore. What a perfect place to light up some fireworks, celebrate our freedom and of course Heajoo and Sikander’s anniversary. Some fireworks were really cool, while some were just duds (especially Sikander’s). That was a cool thought, lot of fun, we took some (like 50) photos after that. After all those attempts, I hope Zainab got one good group shot!

We all headed to Tim Hortons after this and after some caffine we split up, and five of us decided not to end the celebrations just yet. Sikander, Heajoo, Ali, Song Woo, and I went down to Eighteen Lounge for some drinks and relaxation. Good music and ambience. After a couple of hours we headed over to Casino, more to cool off…

We dropped Song Woo home, and rest of us spent the night at Ali’s house, where Sikander asked me “if there’s anything else he can do for me”. Ali refrained from making any moves as it’s Ramadan. Night passed, we woke up to a wonderful morning, had breakfast, made flattering (and honest) comments on Ali’s hospitality, and split off… HeaSik are likely on their way to Toronto at this point. It was good to meet up with all of you after so long.

Towards a lifetime of happiness to Heajoo and Sikander… Kudos for pulling off the plan with such excellence.

2007 Buskerfest

Toronto Buskerfest

Toronto Buskerfest on Front Street.

Videos: 1, 2

2007 Food Taste of the Danforth

Taste of the Danforth is an annual event held on Danforth Avenue in Toronto that celebrates Greek culture and food. AM640 had been promoting the event pretty aggressively so we decided to participate.

Danforth avenue was closed down and like I said before, I love it when the streets get shut down and the public is allowed to wander freely on the asphalt.

An expected 1 million people from all over Ontario and even the United States visited the event last year. This year was supposed to be bigger than before. There was a lot of food there and not only Greek food. We visited Demetre for some light ice-cream snacks, had corn-on-the-cob, calamari, and finally gyros. Not bad but not that exciting either. I liked the atmosphere more than the actual event.

Oh and there was a belly dancing show too! That was quite a surprise. By chance lunato and I had front-row seats… well not seats but we were in the first row. I was incredibly confused about where my eyes should be. It is a belly dancing event so presumably the bellies are the main attraction. However, looking at dancing bellies of unknown women for an extended period of time can become uncomfortable very fast. Try it some day if you haven’t had the chance yet.

My solution was to take pictures and make videos of the dance and just stare at the camera screen instead of the actual dancers. I uploaded two videos on youtube: 1, 2.

Good show, will visit again next year.. but wouldn’t buy the calamari again.. ugh!

Update: I was browsing Flickr and found this picture by prof46ca of the belly dance audience. Lunato was on my right so she’s hidden from the view but you can easily spot me in the crowd ~~with a stupid smile on my face~~.