Trivia! Trivia!

For those thinking about or are close to moving to Canada, I have some interesting trivia for you that will help speed up that decision. It has been on the radio for a couple of weeks now that two of Canada's biggest cities are on the World's Top Ten Best Places to live in.

Vancouver, BC has been voted as the Best City to live in while Toronto, ON is number five on that list. I am not completely sure of the source of this poll and also who was responsible for the votes, however, I am very pleased to know these facts. Interestingly, the city where I live in, which is Brampton, is also one of the Top 10 Safest Places to live in the world.

In other bits of trivia, the CN Tower, pride of Toronto is no longer the tallest building in the world. The tower standing at 553 meters will be beaten by the currently under construction 800 meter Burj Dubai building. It is a pity that CN tower loses its places at the tallest building, however, in terms of beauty and architecture, it is still be the most beautiful tallest building in the world.

Korean Food!

If you are a regular reader of my blog, then you will have realised by now that I enjoy my food. This weekend, it was experimentation time again and the cuisine was Korean. The speciality of the place that we visited was All You Can Eat - Korean BBQ. Hmmn... If you love your food and have any extremely large appetite, this is surely one of the must dos.

The restaurant is set up with tables that have a large circular BBQ pit right at your table. When you are ready to eat, they fire up your BBQ and get you your meat. There is a wide choice of Beef, Chicken, Pork and Fish that is placed at your table with a lot of sides like sticky rice, khimchi, salads, tofu, stewed meat balls and sauces. As you enjoy your BBQ, they will get you more of whatever you wants whether it is meat or sides.

Apart from the BBQ buffet, there is other stuff that you can order too. These are authentic dishes that are pre cooked and the final seasoning and spices are done right at your table. The entire meal is prepared in front of you and served pipping hot. The waiters and waitresses here are extremely polite and do deserve a good tip for their efforts.

So if you in Downtown Toronto then this place on Yonge Street is a good place to try a new cuisine. Since I'm no food expert or have no Korean friends, I cannot comment about the authenticity of the food served.

A bit of Geography!

Some geography lessons for those interested in place to settle in and around Toronto. We live in Brampton, which is to the West of Toronto. Brampton is a city and so is neighboring Mississauga which is to the south of Brampton. Both cities are extremely self sufficient and are great places to live for the Asian immigrant population (Indians included). Today, we traveled to the east of Toronto to a place called Scarborough.

This place is the home of some great names Mike Meyers (Austin Powers), Jim Carrey (Rubber faced Pet Dick) and Eric McCormack (Will from Will and Grace) to name a few. Scarborough is part of the GTA (Greater Toronto Area - includes the municipalities of York, Halton, Peel and Durham) and is one of the very populous parts of Toronto. At around 610,000 and growing, it is expected to soon become one of the most populated parts.

Since Scarborough is far east, it does take a lot of time to get there from Brampton, if you are dependent on public transit as we are. Even the driving distance is a fair bit, however, Scarborough is a greater attraction to most new immigrants on account of its proximity to Downtown Toronto as it is well connected by the subway and TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) buses.

Bandra Picnic!

There are several picnics held by the expatriate community here and the Bandra Picnic is one of them. In its 15th year, the Bandra picnic attracts former residents from Bandra and their friends from other parts of Bombay and India in a day full of fun, laughter, games, food, drink (yes! though it is illegal to drink in public places!) and lots of socialising and reminiscence.

The picnic is a great place for new residents to catch up with old friends, make new ones and even talk to the ones that they never noticed back in India. It is a great community gathering where everyone helps in some form or the other whether it is setting up the canopy, finding suitable places in the shade, carrying picnic tables across the park, serving the snacks, heating up the food, ensuring that all the glasses are full or just ensuring that everyone is having a good time.



The picnic spot was a place called Kelso Park which is privately owned and is just across a lake. A very scenic spot with lots of places to play, have fun or just relax. While, the picnic is predominantly a Catholic gathering, it is open to everyone. It was a fascinating experience, though I didn't really catch up with any old mates from Bandra.



I also heard that the Bandra picnic is just one of such picnics, tomorrow, there is another picnic at the same venue. This one is the Borivili IC Colony picnic. Wow! a few weeks ago it was the Middle East picnic, there are also other picnics like the Kalina (where I come from) Vakola and Santacruz picnics and so many more. I hope to visit some more next year and catch up with the ones that left India several years ago. I must also add, it is not only the Indians that have such picnics, there are other as well like the Malaysians, Caribbean and several other nations. However, by our sheer size, we out number them all.

Move over Nokia!

After almost ten years of mobile phone usage, I switched brands from the trusty Nokia to my first Sony Ericsson phone. The reason, North America has a terrible choice of phones especially in the Nokia range. While Nokia is clearly the world leader in mobile phones, in North America, their offerings are limited.

Nokia caters a lot to the Eurpoean and Asian markets and the latest phones are often launched there. This is primarily due to the GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) technology. In North America, CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) is the big player. Another big player in the North American market is the Black Berry and these phones are used a lot here. The phones offered here in this range are a lot better and advanced than those available in Europe and Asia.

So to summarise, almost everything, in North America is opposite to what you may be used to in your part of the world.

We're OHIP!

Yes we are! What is OHIP? Well, OHIP is the Ontario Health Insurance Program and heath insurance is a must for all residents
in Canada. In Ontario, it is called OHIP. The OHIP covers all basic medical costs and takes care of your General Practitioner visits as well.

These services are funded by the government of Ontario and is an essential piece of identification while seeking medical care. You need to establish residency in Ontario for three months before you are eligible for coverage, though you may apply for the coverage in advance.

Here again, I must talk about the Canadian efficiency and the ease the system brings to you, if you carry the right pieces of identification. There are three categories of identification that you need to have in order to complete the application process. While the list of items are endless in each category, to summarise, you need two pieces of photo identification with your signature, which can be your Passport and PR card and one piece of residency proof which can be a utility or mobile bill, bank account statement or your permanent or temporary driver's license.

There are very few offices for OHIP and each office covers a large area of residents, the closest office to us, is in Mississauga, so we needed to show up really early. The queues were serpentine, though once the office opens, it takes about 15 minutes to complete the application. The assistants check your ids, ask you for a signature that gets imprinted on the card and take a picture to complete the registration process. The OHIP card arrives in the mail, a few days before actual coverage begins.

So make sure that you apply for coverage a month after you have established resdiency in Ontario so that you have all the ids that you need. This will ensure that you save time at the OHIP office and don't make too many trips there.

First Time on the Road!

Just back from my first driving lesson on the road. Considering that I
didn't drive much back home, the basics are something that I didn't do too well. It is all about staying in your lanes, having the right
hand positions when you turn, watching your mirrors and speed all the time.

I need a lot of practice and I will get better. My instructor is really
good and he has been teaching for the last 35 years. I hope to learn a
lot from him. He is Portuguese and loves the fact that I have Portuguese last name. Melissa will drive very well here as she has done a lot of it back home. I must mention here that if you can drive in India, you can drive anywhere in the world. In India, your reflexes are really tested to the hilt. Here, you can fall asleep at the wheel quite easily.

The difference that most Indians will have to get used to apart from the obvious driving on the other side is the speed. You drive really fast here and also have a tendency to speed due to the wide open spaces, however, you can get into a lot of trouble if you aren't alert and watching you speed regularly.

I will report my progress in the days to come and I hope to be a good defensive driver soon.

Indian Stores!

If you are apprehensive about coming here and that you will miss home and everything that you got back there then please don't worry! The Indian store has everything that you need and more. There are several Indian stores all over and you will get all that you are looking for.

We went to the Indian store to pick up some Shan Biryani masala, something that we don't really get in India as it is Pakistani and I was amazed at the stuff available there. Everything from fried Indian snacks, to Bournvita, Thums Up, Limca and even Parle G is available here. I hope they don't take off from the Welsh and start bottling some of the Indian air as well. That is something I can do without :-)

The Indian sweets look awesome and tempting. I shall visit one regularly as I do miss my Indian sweets a lot. They taste better here too because of the rich milk and pure raw materials.

Vietnamese Food!

As part of our many experiences here, food, will play an important
part. I love my food and especially my meat. Though, I am not very
adventurous, Melissa loves to try out different and new cuisines.
Dinner on Monday was Vietnamese.

I must mention here that I was
very apprehensive, as a lot of South East Asian food is something that
I am not very fond off. My experiences with Chinese food in three trips
to Singapore haven't been the best. With any food that gives out strong
flavours or smell, I get green in the gills and that is why I am not a
big sea food fan.

The Vietnamese Restaurant was in the heart of Chinatown in Downtown Toronto on Spadina
Avenue. The place was very busy and you often have to wait to get a
seat. Vietnamese food consists a lot of broth and each dish is a
wholesome meal with all the meat and vegetables put together with
either rice or vermicelli.

At the table you get a menu with a
little notepad to write down your selections and the portion sizes.
Even the small portion size is a lot of food for the average Indian
eater. We started with the 'Pho', a broth with meatballs, rare beef and
vermicelli. You need to add lime, mint leaves, bean sprouts and fish
sauce (which I stayed clear
off). It was awesome! I loved it, the broth had lovely
flavour and the meat balls were cooked with the right amount of spice
(bland - if Indian)
to get the subtle taste of the beef.

This was followed by
several dishes of pork, chicken and beef. All of them were really good
and none of them had the smell that I normally associate with food of
this kind. Also, we didn't order any seafood so that was another plus.
Although, the chicken that I ordered was really bland and we didn't
each much off it.

Now all this was the good stuff. The food was
excellent, however, I cannot really say the same about the service. It
was terrible! Absolutely terrible, the waiters and waitresses work
really hard over there, however, the rank zero when it comes to service
or common courtesy. We were paying customers and were willing to leave
a good tip, however, the way we were treated, we aren't going back
there. Basic requests like a glass of water, a doggy bag or bowls were
treated with utter disregard.

The service was the only thing
that soured an otherwise perfect evening. Great food and I totally
recommend trying such cuisine though I don't recommend the restaurant
we visited. I will not mention the name in the blog, however, will be
happy to let you know when you get in touch with me.

Seasonal Pricing!

Another unique experience about Canada is Seasonal Pricing. I am sure that a lot of you may be puzzled about what I am talking about, however, this is something really different for us. Back home in India, when stuff is in season, prices are normally higher than they are in the off season. In Canada, this is quite the opposite.

For example, since it is summer, the price of steaks are a lot cheaper than they are in the winter. Logic says that this is because there is greater chance of someone barbecuing in summer than in winter. Conversely in India, the prices of mangoes are at its peak at the start of summer, they drop a little lower when the markets flood and drop considerably when the rains set it. This does not happen here.

Therefore, when you come to Canada, to visit or to stay, make sure that you buy things that are in season rather than off season. This way, you will enjoy better pricing, best quality and save more money.

Choosing Driving Schools!

In Canada, it is a must that you attend driving school in order to get a better deal on your insurance. There are many schools and each of them charge you different prices, therefore, shopping around for the best deal is always good. All schools offer the same curriculum - 25 hours in class training and 10 hours of in car training. The difference is in the delivery of instruction and what they teach you.

Defensive driving is the key to good driving in Canada. The schools have a mandate from the MTO to teach defensive driving. By this, it doesn't mean that you drive on the back foot (cricket terminology) or with fear, it means that you drive in order to defend yourself from another rash driver. This is done by keeping safe distances, constantly watching your mirrors, anticipating possible danger, being able to stop at a safe distance, giving right of way to those that deserve it and enjoying the overall experience.

Canada has a lot of drivers, largely due to the wide open spaces and the poor public transit systems. Therefore, defensive driving saves your life as well as those of others. As you spend time in class, you receive valuable tips that prepare you for the road test as well enhances your knowledge on the hazards that may come your way.