nuit blanche: a night of "i don't get it"

kenny, jen, and i ventured out for nuit blanche. i'd never really heard of it, so i didn't know what to expect.

this is where art completely fails me, well.. this is where modern/contemporary art fails me. one-dimensional art i get - it is what it is. however, when there's alternative meanings and motives behind a piece, making it multi-dimensional, i'm lost. i honestly just don't get it!

walking towards an exhibit:

me: it looks like two chicken heads..
kenny: what, where?
jen: over there.. *points at exhibit*
kenny: i don't see it.
*we get to the exhibit..*
me: oh.. it's a light stand that lights up the exhibit :S

we watched a silent video of a wolf and a deer in a confined white space. the wolf and deer randomly move around the room, sizing each other up. we sat there for.. perhaps five minutes? and nothing! i, a vegetarian, expected blood to be shed! *sigh* i was certainly disappointed. then someone suggests that maybe the fact nothing happened is the point, that you expect something because you assume it to always occur no matter what the environment. then someone else related it back to "life of pi" where a predator wouldn't strike in a confined environment unless they're starving.

there was a street with small flags lined above and brazilian beats playing as you walk through. kenny said if shea were with us, they could have started to battle (liquid) in the middle of the street and people would have stopped and circled them.. taking pictures of them.. thinking they were part of the exhibit :) hahaha, now that i would have loved to see!

i was able to get a bit of dancing in at the dance party outside the rom. the dj was decent, however, i failed to notice that the visual performance had something to do with psycho-pharmacological culture in the us. i just enjoyed the music.

one exhibit had three LONG vertical banners of paintings of men and sort of their insides, and whatnot. on all three banners there were these cuts going through out them. kenny went up to the artist to ask the reason for the holes.. kenny's theory: representing the inadequacies of humanity (or something like that..). the real reason: so the wind doesn't blow the banners around. hahahahahahaha :)

jen said that in the distillery district there was supposed to be a group performing thriller. unfortunately we couldn't get there on time, so we missed it :(

if i decide to do this again next year, i'll definitely have to look at the website and pick out the things that sound interesting.. maybe i'd appreciate it more :S

WANTED: spelling champ

yesterday or yesturday? what is the correct spelling?

how to get big pants into a brown jam

so far we have three ideas:

1. i put the big pants in a big purse.. however i don't own a big purse.

2. i wear the big pants under a dress then take them off once in the club. what are the chances they'd reject a girl from entering for wearing big pants..?

3. wear the big pants as a turban. but that requires a full beard. err..

back to the drawing board..

an unwanted movie moment

sunday sarah had a craving for chai but my fridge had yet to be filled since i came back from england.. so off we went to the grocery store on a mission for food! while sarah was perusing the fruit and veggies for her train trip back, i was trying to find the perfect spanish onion.

pick one up, check, not acceptable, put back down. pick another one up, not acceptable, put back down. pick another one up, not acceptable, put back down. but when i put it down, another onion fell down to the packages of potatoes below.. then rolled off.. down the aisle it went.. (all the while i was thinking "please stop.. please stop.. please stop..") barely missing a basket sitting on the ground.. and hits a guy on the foot. the guy looks down, looks at me, smiles, and picks up the onion. i said "sorry!" and walked away, very quickly.

*slaps forehead*

a bit of ottawa was here!

sarah b. came down to visit this past weekend! extremely exciting indeed! i haven't seen her since.. before i moved to toronto now that i think about it..

we met up at union station, so from there we headed to the vegetarian food festival. so much to eat! and a lot of it on our clothes :S haha. it all started with the sauce from the tofu and oil from the (freshly deep fried) spring rolls on my skirt and it all went downhill from there. after we were done at the festival, we headed to yorkdale since i parked there. being yorkdale, one can't help but wander.. and considering we looked very sassy in our food stained clothing, who wouldn't consider us serious shoppers?

got home for a quick nap and off we went to shefali & mike's house party all dolled up because when sarah and i go out, it's required that dancing be involved. even more food at the party.. i felt like i was going to burst! once fauzia got to the party, out we went for a night of dancing!

now here's the problem. sarah couldn't find her id the morning she left ottawa. agh, problem. timing wise, it was close to 12pm when we left, so we headed to a suburban club in mississauga rather than taking a chance downtown. one option was to give her my id with the old address, my foundation as well as a quick stop at a tanning salon to make her less white :) since we were already in mississauga, it was recommended that we head to a club there because we'd probably have an easier time. so off we went to dirty martini. we stood within eye sight of the club for a few minutes and fauzia gets an idea. she walks up to the bouncer and chats with him for a minute then comes back to us. she did the dumb blonde act, "is this a club? wow! my friend wasn't up to going out tonight, but we dragged her out anyway. the only thing is she didn't bring her wallet with her, so she has no id.." the bouncer told her that anything will do.. so the group of us go to the bouncers, id in hand (including sarah). when sarah gave hers..

sarah: are you ready for this?
bouncer takes her id
bouncer: wow, what a pretty girl!

you see.. sarah handed the bouncer fauzia's younger brother's id. yes that's right.. younger BROTHER. hahaha. hey it worked, we got in. once in though, oh dear. while the girls were getting their drinks, i was watching the horror that was the dance floor. it was a mix of people from their late 20s to early 50s, the music, the dancing.. it all felt like i was at a wedding reception or a gathering of corny dancers anonymous. oh dear is right. now i understood why the bouncer told us to go straight to the patio.

today i found out that this place was the classier joint compared to their neighbour squeeze. i can only imagine the horridness that is squeeze..

one of my loves has left me..

today for lunch one of my co-workers and i headed to lick's for our biweekly fix.. we pulled into the parking lot and sat there shocked.  there were "for lease" signs on the windows!!  my co-worker was sitting there gobsmacked.. i felt like i was going to cry :'(  there's a lick's not far from where i live, but since i moved i haven't ordered take-out a single time.  plus it wouldn't be the same.  *sigh*  we're going to have to find a new outing now.

we're also shocked because we went two weeks ago and everything seemed okay.  we both were on holiday last week.. then we go to lick's today and BAM!  closed.  obviously the whole world falls apart when we take our vacation at the same time.

england 2007, part 5 of 5: i'm coming home

it's monday and i'm on a plane home :) i'm surrounded by babies! not always a bad thing but, the kid behind me is making a habit of screaming at a high pitch.. OUCH! at least the kid beside me is amusing. he can't talk yet, but i'm sure he will be starting soon. while i'm lookimg through my magazines, he'll bend over and touch the pictures and smile (one was a mac magazine by the way, i'm starting the influence early). if you look at him and smile, he'll smile back :) and a couple of times while trying to sleep he'd lean over and put his head on my shoulder - must have thought my hoodie was soft. so cute!

england 2007, part 4 of 5: bowling ball heads

the night after the wedding, september 2nd, some of my cousins from my mum's side picked me up for an evening of bowling. so much fun! as we started to bowl, we realised the gutter rails were still up. so as my brother-in-law went to find out how to get them down, i went up to bowl.. i walked up, swung my arm, tried to release the ball.. and my fingers got stuck. so in mid-air the ball released, flew, hit the left railing (knocking part of it down), the ball rolled down the rest of the aisle, and hit a single pin.. which landed me one point. HAHAHAHA :) that was TOO FUNNY!! classic reena moment.

half way through our game, the following conversation followed about the people in the aisle next to us:

pj: they finished their game pretty quick..
me: that's becauese there's only three of them compared to five of us..
five minutes later..
pants: they finished their game pretty quickly..
brother-in-law: that's because there's only three of them..
total déjà-vu moment :)

later that game I actually found my groove for the first time EVER while bowling.. i got five strikes (three of which were in a row) and one spare. i ended with a 132 game. that never happens!! i've never been over 100.. now i've given everyone the impression that my social life consists of regular visits to my local bowling alley :P

during the second game, my pants' son didn't throw his ball hard enough, making the ball come to a complete stop in the gutter near the pins. he bowled again but his ball went in the other gutter. my turn being next i threw my ball , it rolled, went into the gutter, knocked the other ball out of the gutter and into the lane hitting several pins :) hahaha :) nice!

such a fun night! an excellent way to end my 'holiday' :)

england 2007, part 3 of 5: wedding day = crazy day

september 1st - my brother's wedding, this is a long one:

a totally crazy day today!! being england, coaches aren't capable of parking in certain areas, especially residential. so instead of boarding from my uncle's house, we had to walk past the local gas station to get to it. now imagine about 100 or so indians in traditional garb walking down the streets of a london suburb at 9am on a saturday.. hehe people actually honked their horns! one guy shouted out his window "sasriakal" and we shouted back "wrong religion!" hahaha :) (that was a sikh greeting, we're hindu :) )

when we got closer to leicester the cousin sisters all moved into a 16 seater suv limo (which suv, I can't quite remember) with my brother and my brother-in-law. the limo itself was entertaiment.. think of cheesy egypt paraphenalia in a limo.. we took a few tourist style shots (to follow) plus our normal silly shots :)

once in leicester is where the trouble hit. there were road closures (apparently leicester is infamous for this).. so imagine two coaches and a sixteen seater limo having to do a three point turn and a u-turn in traffic on a busy saturday morning. after we made the u-turn in the limo, we basically got separated from the buses. so off we went, because we called dad and got confirmation that it was okay to keep going and not wait for them.

off we went with music blasting getting geared up for the wedding. we pull up to a hall on the main road, turned up the music louder, rolled down the window and screamed! then i looked out the window, noticed the name of the hall.. that doesn't look right, noticed the car parked outside.. that's not my uncle's car, noticed the dhol player.. that's not my cousin! we're at the wrong wedding!! hahaha :) we almost picked up a second wife for my brother! hahaha :) we actually could see the RIGHT hall from where we were but couldn't figure out how to get there because of more road closures! luckily one of my cousins came over, hopped in the front seat and directed the driver.

finally arrived at the hall and started all the rituals and what not. inside the hall before entering the mandap (the wedding area), my sister-in-law's mother has to do some rituals to welcome him, which requires my brother to take off his shoes. so i went down to take them and all of a sudden people are on top of me! one the games to break the ice between the families is to steal the groom's shoes but that traditionally happens when we go back to my sister-in-law's house after the wedding for her to change into an outfit we give her. and it's a game played by my sister-in-law's siblings. the person on top of me was one of her aunt's. since i didn't particularly like the the fact she was on me, i shoulder checked her and she fell on the ground. i passed one shoe to my cousin who accidentally passed it to the wrong cousin without realising. so they had one shoe and we had one shoe. this became a problem because my brother needed his shoe back to step on a clay pot before entering the mandap. luckily the priest stepped in and told their side to return it, which they did. but after stepping on the clay pot, he had to take his shoes off again. yes.. once again i got tackled.. but this time by her uncle. so i hipped checked him which kind of worked but he jumped back again, then my sari got ripped and the flower in my hair fell apart. NOT HAPPY! seeing the chaos, one of my uncles stepped in and told them to stop because traditionally this was neither the time nor the place for it; not to mention the fact it was getting out of hand. one of my cousins helped me fix myself up as i was slightly dishevelled so i'll at least look somewhat decent in the pictures.

other than that the wedding went really well. after the wedding a few of us, not my parents, took my sister-in-law to her parents' house so she can change into one of the saris we gave her. here is where they stole my brother's shoes, which we let them. when leaving, the negotiations began to get the shoes back. my brother-in-law went up to £25.. and out came his master negotiating skills - since they still wanted more, he told them "if you were any kind of family, you'd give him back his shoes so we can get on our way since we don't have much time.." hahahaha :) bring out the guilt trip. oh he's good :)

and the night ended well with me getting piss drunk thanks to my cousins (and inadvertently dad since we used his money for the rounds).

england 2007, part 2 of 5: driving brit style

it's august 27th at 1am and i just drove in england for the first time!! dad stopped not long after we got onto the m42, we switched, then i drove until we were near our exit on the m25. it's an interesting experience. it's obviously easier to drive on the motorway since you don't completely feel like you're driving on the wrong side of the road.. one disappointing part was that i didn't get the roundabout experience. oh well.. maybe next time! i did get freaked out about the speed cameras though. the sat nav kept dinging when i was driving around 70 and there was the possibility of a speed camera. agh! it's useful but i'd rather it ding when i'm actually speeding. i didn't really speed all that much surprisingly - i only went up to 90mph. hopefully next time i can drive a bit in the residential area if there's time (cause there hardly ever is) *cross fingers*

england 2007, part 1 of 5: i'm leaving on a jet plane

i'm HOME! with stories :) no pictures yet.. but i do have stories.

it's august 24th at 10:27am and i'm standing in the customs line at gatwick.. a HUGE line, doing my puzzles, random chit chats in the background.. all of a sudden there's banging on the wall and a woman shouting profanities from behind the secluded area:

"get me the fuck out of here!! i want the fucking american embassy!! i want to go home!!"

holy batman.. i've never heard anything like that before. went on for a good 10 minutes. and now silence.. wonder what happened.

UPDATE: random guy in front of me and i have determined, from the screaming, she has a son who she wanted to see (i guess she was separated from) and there was something about her smoking and being in there for more than 24 hours.. *dun* *dun* *DUN!!* it's like something you expect on tv..

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it's now 11:27am and i'm waiting at gatwick for my cousin to pick us up. i just realised that i never turned off facebook mobile.. let's hope no one posts on my wall, messages me, or adds me as a friend :S oopsies!

UPDATE: my brother reminded me that i wouldn't get charged for receiving texts despite being out of the country.. *slaps forehead*