37. Christmas parties ...

Take one ... it was 1 minute walk from my house ... but the drinks were expensive and there wasn't someone who would drink along

Take two ... free drinks but it was an hour drive back ... so I had only 4 bears

Take three ... in my building and i had to work that day ... the best chance to meet some interesting people and i missed it ... damn ... but when I saw the photos of the party on the notice broad I was glad I didn't go ... average age was +80 ... no wonder its always quite in my building ...

The fish is still thirsty ...

36. Best wishes ...

As I should be far away from keyboard in the next couple of weeks ... I take this chance to wish you all best wishes for 2007 ... enjoy the holidays.

35. Person of the Year 2006

Person of the Year 2006: Me ... Yes, me.

I control the Information Age ... Welcome to my world.

34. Bitter ... Sweet

I had some of my relatives over for couple of nights ...

Due to the time difference, they were awake most of the nights ...

On the first night, I noticed that a through search inside the kitchen cabinets is being conducted ... but I was so tired to get up and instead I hid under the duvet till the search stopped ...The next morning the first question they asked me was: where is your sugar? I told them I never do sugar. They asked: how I take my coffee then? and I replied just with milk. That's bitter they said ...

Anyway they left me a big packet of sugar ... which I hope it doesn't turn into a cube.

PS: Weather has been nice to me ... as there is no snow and its still above zero

33. White blanket ...

And I guess its going to be white from now onwards ... lets see when this white blanket disappears.

32. 8:00am Eastern time 26th November 2006

I do, did, done!

31. Airplane ...

As a result of having this frequent view from my window ... and more serious reasons ... I'm traveling this long distance back home in less than 3 months

30. Peephole ...

When there is a significant height difference between the couples ... and they're both eager to see who is knocking on the door

PS: I live couple of doors away from them

29. Those were the days my friend ...

6 years ago (Living with my parents):
It was raining heavily when I woke up ... and I though it might stop if I sleep more ... another 15 mins, another 1/2 hour, another 3 hours ... the rain didn't stop and eventually I got up and went to work ...

My giant boss was extremely pissed off & running around the office like a maniac when I got in ... he yelled where I have been the whole morning ... I replied I though the rain might stop if Ill sleep more ... My answer was so blunt ... that he shook his head and left the room without saying a single word ...

Now (Living on my own):
Rain, snow, cold, wind ... you name it ...
I wake up, put on loads of layers, and head out to the wilder ...
I call my tiny boss and report on the progress of work when I get to the site ...

Those were the days ...

28. Site work ...

Two socks ...
Four layers under my rain coat ...

And it was still cold ... when is the summer coming back.

27. GYM card ...

I think ... where there is a store/shop on the main stress and there are items on its display ... people should understand that it is selling something ... not in Canada apparently ...

In this country ... you have to tell people what is sold in that store ... and you have a long list of shops called: Business depot, Home depot, Office depot, Fitness depot, Liquor store, Beer store, Super store ... and you can guess that Liquor store would be my favorite.

Couple of months ago ... I lost my gym membership card ... it was one of those days that I had to go to different stores to get different things ... and I thought it has fallen out of my pocket at one of these stores.

On my next visit to the gym ... I put a sad face on and told them I have lost my wallet, which wasn't true as I had only lost their card ... but they still charged me for the replacement.

Last night that I was looking for a Liquor-store bag to take a bottle of wine to a dinner party ... I found the membership card in the bag ... and I bet the retard who is sitting in the gym front desk would not give my money back if I tell him I have found the lost card.

26. Snow ...

Unbelievable ... it didn't stay on the ground but it snowed on the second week of October in TO ... amazingly scary and cold ...

25. The confused Doc ...

As B was working on Saturday and no one else was offering a lift, I had to get a taxi to the airport ...

With my poor speaking and the taxi-center's poor comprehension ... I ended up with a cab in front of my door step an hour earlier ... as I gave up trying to make the guy understand there is a difference between:

"No, I want a cab in an hour time", and
"So, you don't want the cab"

When I heard him speaking on his phone ... I realised he is Russian ... it turned out that he was from Azerbaijan ... he knew good Russian/Turkish (which he preferred to call Azari) and a bit of Persian/English ... that explained why we couldn't communicate.

As our broken conversation carried on ... he simply said "I'm not happy here, I used to be a Dentist back in my country, I have not been able to work in my own field after being here for 11 years" ... I felt sympathetic for him but in the same time I became motivated to pursuit my goals and continue to swim against the current.

24. Who wants to be a Millionaire ...

Many nationalities have moved to North America in various stages of history in search of a better life ... although their life-style may somehow be better here than their homelands ... they have to work very hard and long to pay the expenses of a moderate life-style.

Soon they realise that their only asset, time, is limited ... and no matter how much they work their life-style can not go above a certain level ... as a result they count on their chance/luck to win lottery (less than 1 in 1,000,000) and buy lotto tickets daily ... what a sad ending.

23. Up and down ...

She went up and I went down on Monday 17th of September ...

22. Amsterdam ...

I liked many things about Amsterdam ...
Now Ill add to that list ... WIFI ...
There is nothing more entertaining than having (of course you pay for it) a wireless Internet connection to kill 11 hours of time I had to wait for the connection flight ... as I could not exit the terminal ...

21. Shoot ...

This is the second post about old people ... I don't know why? maybe I fancy old birds, maybe I'm getting old, ...

Last night ... I saw an old lady on my floor coming out of her apartment with a small bag ... I gave her a smile and she nodded back ... as I was unlocking my apartment's door ... I noticed that she didn't stop in front of the lift ... I became more curious to see what is she up to ...

The result ... I found out my building has a garbage shoot (after 3 months) and there is no need to take the bags every morning downstairs ...

20. B612 ...

I was trying to meet up with a classmate from 1999, which I knew he was living here.
For almost 3 months, we exchanged emails and phone calls, but always had conflicting plans and were not able to meet up.

Until one evening when I was walking down Yonge street I saw a familiar face with a coffee in his hand and we just walked into each other.

It is an amazing world and sometimes its even smaller than B612 for the Prince.

19. Sensitive or sensible ...

When I first got to Canland I was staying in a guest house ...
After the first couple of weeks the landlord asked me to change my room and go to a basement bachelor, which seemed good, as I would have my own kitchen/service ...

But it turned out to be a nightmare ... the smell of neighbors cooking, the noise of people walking upstairs, as well as the screaming washing machine and central heating was unbearable ...

One day that I was so mad with all these nuisance ... I called the landlord and told him I cant take it any more ... he showed up with an air refreshener and him and his partner tried to convince me that I'm too sensitive and they cant hear any thing.

Sensitive or sensible ... I knew I had to move quickly and I did. I saw one of the other guest in that house in gym couple of nights ago, which made me jot these lines.

18. Laundry room romance scene ...

One of the agents who showed me apartments told me that she actually knew people who put on their best cloth to pickup their laundry as romance blossoms in that confinement.

Yesterday ... I saw a couple setting a date in the laundry room ... so it is true ... but not exciting as the couple were part of the contemporary history.

In their conversation ... that the old lady told the old guy not to come to her apartment after 9:35 as she falls sleep that time.

I felt so bad ... as some nights that I get back from work I sit in front of my TV till I fall sleep too.
I should find a cure of laziness as gym or alcohol have not helped.

17. Caribana ...

I guess the reason that I don't like these type of festivals is that I don't know how to dance myself and worse I don't appreciate a good dance.
My dancing skills ...
before 5 pints = slightly better than a robot
after 5 pints = exactly like a corp

By the way, according to a new study, the top 3 all time best table dancers were:
G from Tuscany ... M from Cornwall ... and T from Finland.

But the Caribbean festival seemed a good excuse to head down to downtown and so I did with B.

16. Niagara ...

I apologize for the quality of the photo as I don't have enough zoom on my camera.
I found this quite funny, the shower has three positions: 1. spray, 2. massage, and 3. ...



The last position is called NIAGARA ... another sign to be sure I'm in Canada when I get out of the bed every morning.

15. The View ...

Many have told me that I am paying more than what the place is worth, because of its location.


When I moved into the apartment ... the first thing that I bought was an armchair to put in the balcony ... and I spent the first couple of nights drinking on the balcony as there was nothing else to do.


Things have changed and that the apartment is less empty now ... but I still spent many nights on the armchair. Why? I simply adore the open view from the window ...

The downside of it is that I keep loosing my socks, which I have left on the drier in the balcony.

14. Toronto or Munich ...

A long list of interconnected parameters made me to go to work the day Germany trashed IKEA. The job was messy that day, forcing us to use masks and gloves.
Of course, the contractors only wanted -but never used- the required protection.

This was my view that day in Toronto ...

Which could have been this instead, if I was in Munich ...

Bad or good, we will face the consequences of the decisions we had made in the past.

13. Tall Iranians ...

Luiz Felipe Scolari:
I liked the Iranian team.
They have very good players.
They are physically very strong and very tall.

There is a difference between being able to jump and being tall:

Iranian player height: 167 cm
Portuguese player height: 184 cm

Unfortunately being tall is not enough to win a match ... I get back to my booze ... its time to let go.

12. The Phoenix Arises ...

No matter what team you support in this world cup ...
No matter who is your favorite fan ...

No matter how much you know (or agree with me) about the level of Argentina and Serbia's football ...
Just remember that trashing Serbia 6-0 is a significant achievement ...
The Phoenix might have been already arisen from ashes!

Do you agree Juan?!

11. Where I work ...

I was asked by many how my job is different from my studies.
Sneaking through Dr. Jones's web page, gave me this idea to use this link to answer your question.

The picture above shows my old school ... the below picture is of the place I am working now ... the comparison up to you.

10. Trainspotting ...

Choose life.
Choose a job.
Choose a starter home.
Choose dental insurance, leisure wear and matching luggage.
Choose your future.

But why would anyone want to do a thing like that?

... Trainspotting ... a great movie

9. Football is not a sport, its a religion ...

No matter what race, color, sex, nation or age you are ... If you don't appreciate this greatest sport event ... World cup ... your body suffers from adrenaline deficiency.




Even if you walk off the pitch with your tails between your legs ... you can not ignore the glory of these days.

Irony ... I swallowed my sorrows with 6 packs of Corona.

8. Married furniture ...

I love these lines from Seinfeld ... Elaine lines were exactly mine at many occasions:

... Because I hate being at a table alone, with a married couple.
... Talking about their married friends, and their married furniture.
... They're always trying to make me feel like their life is so much better.
... You know, I have a very exciting life.
... It's very exciting.

7. Vending machines ...

IMPORTANT: this post doesn't mean I spent most of my time in the wash room ... but maybe it means my brain reaches its peak of activity in that confinement ... and honestly I have not taken this photo.

They put these vending machines (or whatever they call them) in rest rooms every where ... you name it ... bars, restaurants, airports, subways(=metro=tube=under ground), train stations ...

But why not in the WC in companies/universities ... as I'm quite sure (at least in my experience), you have a higher chance of getting down to business with some one who you meet on daily bases ... rather than someone you meet in a rush on a platform or a gate ... unless you believe in junk Hollywood movies ... which in that case don't come back to read my scribbles any more.

All rights of this intellectual property are reserved ... unless you used to work in the University of Nottingham.

6. Down town Toronto ...

One of my predictable photo-shots from sky scrapers (Lord: not scarpers) in down town(=city center) TO.

My fingers were locked and couldn't click on the camera shutter ... for couple of weeks ... as I had to change my allowable threshold for an acceptable shot in a new town like TO.

From now on ... Ill try to be more generous when it comes to clicking.

5. 100 days of solitude ...

I celebrated my 100 days of solitude ... by having a TETLEYS ... with my book + camera + mp3 player in down town TO ... as there is nothing as good as a decent ale in a hot sunny day.

Couple of days later ... on a radio station ... they were saying how good it is to have screw caps or tetra packs instead of corks for wine bottles.

As far as I know from my picky wine expert EU friends ... that alcoholic liquid ... can not be called wine any more.

4. The soil profiling TEAM ...

In my youth ... I spent some days with a TEAM of nice people soil profiling in London (not in Ontario) ...

Thanks to Wright Brothers ... the team members now live in 3 different continents ...

The experince of those couple of days has been the most useful knowledge I have used so far in the new job.

3. Why I Log ...

The initial idea of writing a Blog ... if I can keep it up ... was initiated by the Lord.

Although, I spent a good hour exploring it and writing my first post, I lost the reason/need for writing ... and the why question bothered me for a while.

I became even more disappointed when I saw the reasons people have listed for their writing.

After days of wondering, I came up with these answers ...

I write to ... keep in touch with many friends I think I have in various galaxies ...
I write to ... record my strangle of thoughts ...
I write to ... release/share my good/bad/ugly moments ...

Also bare in mind that I don't write ... to impress, make you laugh or to make my voice heard ... as according to 2 honest persons I stopped doing these at 1976.

PS: This photo was taken in Bath by a French photographer ... if you have been to UK but haven't been to Bath ... I am sorry for you ... as you you have missed a beautiful city.

2. More than the last 5 years ...

Last week, in total, I have driven the GOLF around 600km to & back from the office/site ... an hour and 15min each way ... which is more than the driving I had done in the last 5 years.

Although I was stuck in a box like George at my first day at work pretending I know what I am doing ... they made sure to make the best use of me ... by sending me on a drilling rig for 10 hours non-stop job the rest of the week.

The chilly mornings on construction site made me realize ... how lucky I am that I didn't start working back in February.

1. Lazy days R in the Past ...

This is the view of Victoria Park-Eglington from my room.

I have spent many days looking outside this window ... wondering ... what will come next.

It took me around 82 days, but, finally most of the things are sorted ... and now I look forward to start the new job ... it should be interesting.