Street Art

Walking around the neighborhoods, you come across these little gems of street art adorning the walls of buildings. Some specimens are below. I’ve spotted some others also, but unfortunately didn’t have a camera at hand.

Victoria Day Weekend

This weekend was a long weekend, one of the very few in Canada, for Victoria Day. Victoria Day is in honor of both Queen Victoria’s birthday, and the current reigning monarch’s, that being the Queen of England, birthday. It is celebrated on the last Monday of May on or before the 24th. Canada officially recognizes May 24th as the Queen’s birthday, which began in 1854, on the day of Queen Victoria’s 35th birthday, around 5000 citizens of Canada West gathered in front of the government house to give cheers to the Queen. After Queen Victoria in 1901 May 24th was declared Empire Day throughout the British Empire, imperial decree.

End result is another official holiday and a long weekend. Official holidays don’t really have an exact date, but they usually make the holiday on a Friday or Monday, closest to the actually day. Most people can’t wait for these long weekends to pack up their gear and head up north for their summer cottages.

As part of the celebrations, there was a Circus festival at the Harbourfront in Toronto, plus fireworks show at night.

Acrobats

Acrobats

Balancing Act

Acrobats

Clowns

Stilt Walker

Juggling Stilt Walker

Living Statue

Fireworks

Meet Wenlock and Mandeville

Wenlock (left) and Mandeville (right, and NO, not the kid :D )

These are the new mascots for the 2012 London Olympics, who were officially introduced to the world on 20th May 2010. My initial reaction was WTF? That reaction was not unique to me it seems. The general reaction seems to be the same. It’s difficult to understand what they were aiming for. They look like some one-eyed, alien/monster blob crossbreed. The London Organizing committee is opting for the Futurama look, first with the bizarre looking logo, and now with these guys. The target audience is supposed to be kids, but seriously?

Their names however have some historical background to them. It comes from two villages in England. Wenlock, who is the Mascot for the Olympics is derived from “Much Wenlock” and Mendeville, who represents the Paralympics is derived from “Stoke Mandeville”. Much Wenlock is considered as the birth place of the modern Olympics. It seems that a Doctor in that town had been organizing annual games to promote physical health of the people in the area. These games had given inspiration to Barron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the International Olympics Committee, when he visited in 1890. Stoke Mandeville’s claim to fame is the Spinal Injuries unit where the Paralympics movement began.

One reason given for the design is their flexibility it seems. Blobs can be morphed into anyone. After all, this is the digital age and kids seems to fascinated with all things futuristic.

I guess it finally boils down to the taste of the people. Some may like them, while some will not. I certainly am not a fan. On the other hand I thought the Beijing mascots were quite ok, while some people disagree.

I guess time will only tell if Wenlock and Mandeville can bring in the bacon, 15 million pounds worth in merchandising income that the organizers are banking on.





Beijing 2008 Mascots, The Fuwa


Images thanks to
http://espn.go.com
http://inventorspot.com

Greenery

Made another trip to High Park last weekend and took some pics. Both Saturday and Sunday mornings were raining and still gloomy in the evening when we went. Didn't do the whole round this time since it was getting late. Planning to get more pics some other time.

A Lazy Weekend

This weekend was a lazy weekend. Last week was very busy in office so was tired and didn’t feel like doing anything in the weekend. In any case, out of the 4 of us who usually hang out and two of the guys were working on some office work since they had tight deliveries. I, on the other hand spent most of the time watching TV. Funny enough I can’t even remember what I watched.

Saturday night went to see Clash of the Titans in 3D, and it was super cool. It was the first time that I saw a 3D movie and it makes it much more alive. I’m somewhat of a fan of fantasy adventure stuff, and especially Greek mythology, so I enjoyed it much. Can’t really explain why I’m a fan of Greek Myths though, maybe I was an ancient Greek in a past life or something. Hey, I mean who wouldn’t want to be Zues? And anyway, a fantasy world is much better than the real world IMO.

The film is good but they could have done more with the ending though. It’s like they suddenly realized that they had to end the film and rushed it along. It actually builds a lot of climax but looses it at the end. I'm not going to say what happened, but lets just say I would’ve loved to see more action in the end.

Anywhooo, it’s back to work tomorrow. I have a feeling this one is going to be pretty busy as well. You guys have a super week ahead.

Toronto Diaries

As I have mentioned earlier, the apartment where my friend and I stay in and the office where we work are some distance apart. Luckily the company has provided with taxi’s for traveling. The usual process is to call the cab company and tell them to send a vehicle. One of the drivers got friendly with us so now we call him all the time. Profitable for him, and easier for us, a win win situation for both parties I’d say.

The guy is a Pakistani who has been in Canada since the nineties. He is a pharmacist / medical salesman by trade, but had been laid off recently, due to the recession. So now he’s taken to driving a cab till he finds another job. One has to take measures to come up with a daily bread I guess. He’s also into photography and takes on weddings and events when he can. Quite a nice guy actually. He has been to Sri Lanka couple times while he was still in Pakistan, and is a fan of Jayasuriya. Driving a cab is not an easy job in itself. This guy works from about 5.30 in the morning and till about 7 in the evening. Friday nights are the most lucrative for cabbies, since all the party people are out there with no way to get home, unless you are sober of course. So he said he likes to work the night shift during Friday and Saturday. Actually he used to do the night shift till recently, but changed it since he wanted to spend time with his family.

Met some Sri Lankans families as well who have been here for about 20 years. All of them are related to one another, either as siblings or through marriage, and they live close by too. Nice guys. Met them for a BBQ at their place on Saturday night. Three of the brothers are all driving cabs and making a nice living out of it. One guy is a good mechanic and maintains all the cars in tip top shape. The thing is repairing things, such as cars, heaters, A/C etc are expensive, so if you get into one of those fields, you can make a good living. And unlike some people in SL, people don’t look down on those jobs either.

The weather of course still can’t seem to make up its mind though. One day it is warm, then the other, its cold again. Oh well… Flowers are beginning to bloom and the trees are getting pretty :)

This is our chariot.

Toronto Skyline in shadows.

Toronto skyline

Lake, trees, houses etc...

Some ship :)

Seagulls

U takes pikture of meee? me pose nicely...

Looking for scraps

Sleeping Goose, right in the middle of the walkway. My road, my rules kind of a fella...

It's Kavum and Kokis time again

...well unfortunately not for me. It's another work day tomorrow. woe is me.

Anyway, i want to wish all you lords and ladies out there a very happy new year!

සුභ අලුත් අවුරුදක් වෙවා ඔබ සෑම දෙනාටම. ළෑබෙන්නාවු අවුරුද්ද කිරියෙන් පෑනියෙන් ඉතිරේවා.

ඔබ සෑමට ජයෙන් ජය!!!

I have always been optimistic about Sri Lanka and her progress, so let's hope that this year the gods shower her with plenty of blessings.

Take care all...

Random Stuff...

Easter weekend came and went. Good Friday was a holiday here, one of the very few they have. Makes you thankful for all the extra holidays we get in SL. Thankfully the weather was beautifully, and enjoyed some walks around the neighborhood. Unfortunately the weather didn’t last, and this week it is raining. It’s supposed to last into this weekend as well, bah...

I guess the good thing about the rain is that it kick starts the new growth in vegetation. Just after a couple of days of rain, lawns are getting greener and some trees are sprouting shoots. The birds chirping away and squirrels have come out of hibernation. These are a bigger species than what we have ins SL. Still haven’t had a chance to get a pic of them.

There is a big park nearby, called High Park, and it’s a wonderful place for nature lovers, who don’t want to go far away from the city. I’m waiting till the trees get some color to get some good pics.




The days are getting longer. There sunshine till around 8pm. The pic above was taken around 7.40pm, but it looks darker, maybe because of the rain. In realty it was much brighter.

Long train running. One of the trains belonging to a service called Go Trains. The compartments are double decker.

A view towards the lake, area known as Lake Shore. This is actually towards the west of downtown. Most of the buildings are condo's and apartments, which I hear are really expensive.

Waiting for their spring collection from Mother Nature.

Part of High Park. These are like nature trails, while there is also a paved road. It's where all the dog owners bring their doggy's to play.

The below pair of Canada Geese have made their nest right outside the front entrance of my office. They have laid their eggs and hatching them, so they are very protective. If anyone comes near the glass they start bitting with their beaks. I think they haven't figured the concept of glass yet. I heard that they have also harassed people coming to the front door of the building as well. Of all the places to build a nest. Who knows, maybe they want the kids to grow into software developers and hopes the close proximity will rub something off on them.

Have a good weekend, cheers!