Crochet craft experiment

So what does procrastination combined with dedication, insomnia, stress and a bundle of colourful yarn make?
Well I didn't think I'll be crocheting anytime soon, neither did I think that I have enough patience to make anything wearable.
But here. I started about 5 days ago and spent cumulatively about 16hrs on the project below.

Is started simply with this:

and ended up with a circle scarf and a slouch hat:



Both are based on this youtube tutorial video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-CnU0C2WKw. Slouchy hat is basically a smaller version of the scarf and then tied at the top (so it ended up with a hole up at the top.... but since it's slouchy it's not really going to expose my head)

In time for the fall.... well for these few leaves that are still hanging on the tress.

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facebook

I love how sometimes facebook wall gives these random posts in such an order that it creates either funny images or somehow conveys a hidden message.
Here are a couple of examples:
Left - interesting combination of images that almost creates a full image on its own

Right - interesting combination of status updates: 2 couples followed by an article about being single

Below - maybe it's due to upcoming halloween but it's hillarious: adult witches and a baby witch. hahaha

=)

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comparisons

I like how without even living your own city you can do all these comparisons between the cities. Potentially between your current city and the city you want to be in in the near future.
So yea I compared TO and Mel and well they're not that much different=)

so this is more statistical based and compares living costs which are updated pretty regularly
http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/comparison.jsp

and this one just compares some random facts that seem to be out of date in some points
still a fun read=)
http://www.versus.com/en/toronto-vs-melbourne

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Latte Art

I bumped into this article and somehow got hooked on the idea to check some of these places and see if they can actually make some decent latte art.
I'm failing at my crusade a tiny bit as I am not consistent with taking evidences in forms of photos. but that will be fixed. So far two places have been checked.

my reviews are of course on Yelp but here are few more notes:

1. Bulldog coffee
somehow I expected way more out of this place... it closes at 7pm that's already a minus... but oh well. What I wanted was the bulldog face in my cup! but I guess it only happens to the lucky few who get served by the owner... the two student looking servers who served us didn't look too experienced in latte art so I just got a simple heart (was so sad that didn't even think of taking a photo)

2. Manic coffee

mmm the ice cream

and this place by far exceeded all my
expectations! hipster atmosphere was in the air with tons of people working on their macbooks (ok there was one dell owner...) but what surprised me is stand with a huge variety of ice cream made on the spot... the only few words that need to be said: chai latte ice cream....mmmm.....
also photos! my cappuccino came with a cute art on it and the cups are designed in such a funny way=) I just want this set at home!=)

squirrel!

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Medicine infused week

I'm going in full-speed in preparation for THE trip. This week can get archived under folder - Medical checks.
On Monday I got lucky when called my family doctor in the morning: I got my appointment with her immediately on the same day. I told her about the trip and since she couldn't really provide any consultation regarding vaccinations I might need she directed me to 3 travel clinics and warned me that I have very little time for some vaccinations to take place and it's sometimes hard to get appt with a travel clinic doctor right away.
That got me immediately stressed so I sat down in the lobby of the clinic center and called the first travel clinic on the list right away. I guess it's the name of the doctor that played the charm here - it was Dr. Gamble=) ahaha! He later told me that he is not related to the Gamble of P&G =)
Anyway I got the appointment for the very next day which is today. After the consultation with the above mentioned doctor I was appointed to take booster tetanus/diphtheria/polio shots but no vaccinations.
He told me to use mosquito repellent to make sure I don't get malaria or dengue.... scary

He also made a funny note on my vaccination travel report:

Travel Details/Itinerary: Going to Australia but will also be travelling to Bali while in Australia and that is a good place because there is no malaria in the resort areas - day trips outside of the resort.

I guess Bali is a good place=)

On a side note: I learned that some vaccination shots are extremely expensive. E.g. Japanese encephalitis $230 per shot (series of 2), Rabies - $220 per shot (series of 3), Meningococcal Meningitis - $140 per shot, Yellow Fever - $130 per shot...
man.....

This clinic also has a very good site with vaccinations needs listed per country http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/list

And to end the story of this medical labeled week - on thur I have my dental cleaning and on monday 21st and 28th I have porcelain crown installation on my tooth that was broken a while back in Vancouver.

phew. and after all that is done I'll be ready to go as a new born human with new immunity and new clean teeth=)

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Sometimes I cook

Seeing that I spent most of sunday at home I decided to experiment a bit with few recipes that I was looking into for a while. Here is the result:
Chickpea Flour Socca with zucchini:

I slightly adjusted ingredients mix vs the original recipe from Healthful Pursuit as below:

• 1 cupchickpea flour
• 1 cup lukewarm water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon red pepper powder
• 2 tablespoons cumin
• 1 cup shredded zucchini 
• 4 to 6 tablespoons sunflower oil
• 1 tiny tomato sliced

then I followed the same instructions as on the Healthful pursuit: Mix flour with pepper powder and salt. Add water, and two tablespoons of oil and mix until all lumps are eliminated. Let the batter rest for an hour or so. Preheat oven to 500F. 

Let the skillet warm up in the over while it's preheating. Once the oven is ready, take the skillet out pour about 2-4 tablespoons of oil into it and swirl around so it covers the bottom and the sides. Place oiled skillet back into the oven to warm up the oil. Shred the zucchini and add it to the batter together with the cumin. Mix well and pour into the skillet. 

Let it bake for 10min. then add sliced tomatoes on the top and broil for 5-10min. then take out and YUM it's ready and delicious!

And for the dessert I made raw banana-cashew ice cream cake. Didn't really taste like an ice cream or a cake but it was yummy. 

I took the recipe from Southern in-law but I didn't have 2 ripe bananas ready. and the only one I had was smaller than medium. So my ingredients got adjusted to the following:

1/2cup raw cashews

1/2cup pitted dates

1 small ripe banana

2 tablespoons of applesauce

mixed it all in the food processor (starting with cashews and adding dates, then banana and applesauce)

then freezed for 40min and tada - easy dessert is ready. it was gone in 2min.... yes I counted...

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Nuit Blanche

2013.10.06 Nuit Blance, a set on Flickr.

ok so this NB was really not as great and impressive as the one year ago and two years ago. We started at 2am (perfect timing to avoid insane crowds) and few of us lasted until 5am.
Few of the installations that we visited:
Metro Square:
Tanks

Nathan Philips Square:
Forever Bicycles by Ai Weiwei
The Rose is w/o why

Along University avenue:
(X)Static Clown factory
My virtual dream
A quack cure
Hybrid Globe

Bata Shoe Museum:
Ad Astra
Light Scape
RevitaLight

While in line for Virtual Dream (we didn't have enough energy to stand in the "participants line" that was averaging 2hrs wait time and went into "observers line" instead that was about 30min wait) we chatted with few guys in front of us and they apparently did a very thorough research on the topic of this particular installation and while they didn't believe that actual "brainwave reading" technology is used for the installation they did share interesting for me information about existing toys that read brain waves.
Just watched this video and it's pretty impressive - Mattel's MindFlex toy and it's 2009 video?... man we do live in the science fiction future...

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