I guess the reason why I like travelling is for that feeling where you don't know what to expect or what's going to happen next.
That's why I generally try to avoid the more popular destinations because everyone's been there, they've written about it and for some reason seem obliged to devulge every single little detail about a particular place. Just so anyone else who plans to go there will know exactly which bus, tram or train to take in, say [insert famous destination], before they've even gotten on the one back home to head off to the airport.
I find that it somehow dampens the charm and mystery that a place would otherwise provide were it not known by so many people. A bit paradoxical on my part perhaps.
It's for this same reason why I would like to stay longer in the truly great cities of the world - London, Paris, Vienna, just to name a few I've been to in Europe. Because if you stay only for a while, you can only see the things you're meant to see. Not the things you could see if you left your Fodor's or Lonely Planet behind and just walked around.
It's the most mundane things that people do in those cities - their daily commute, lunch at the neighbourhood diner, that give you a sense about what the city is all about. A city's soul is its people and without it there's nothing much except fabricated megaliths of monuments that don't really mean too much on its own.
I would love to go to Athens to see the Acropolis, but I would love more to see the people who built the city that surronds it.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
The beautiful people isn't just a Marilyn Manson song...
I think people who are happy are beautiful although people who are sad can be beautiful too but I'd rather make someone happy so they're beautiful because then it'd make life so beautiful and then I'd feel beautiful since everything and everybody I know everywhere would be beautiful too.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Ovens...
I know it probably sounds weird to most people, but I always fall in love with the ovens I use.
My old oven in Toronto used to be an old electric coil oven. It was roomy and could easily accommodate two loaves at once. It could probably fit three if I had a stone with enough surface area. With time, the bread and baked goods that came out of it got better and better. Once, I took a few loaves of dough to bake at the Alan Scott built wood-fired oven at Dufferin Grove Park, and my friends were teasing me that I was cheating on my 'wife'. Such was my affinity to what other people would treat as just a piece of machinery.
The one I have right now is an old gas-fired one. Lighting it can be a real pain in the ass sometimes because you have to take off the floor of the oven to light the burner underneath. And sometimes the burner doesn't stay on after you lift your hand from the nozzle that controls the strength of the burner. It can take a while sometimes to get it started because of this. Some people on the corridor have already given up lighting it because they can't keep the burner on. But I always manage, so I'm asked to help sometimes.
Despite its shortcomings, it's a really great oven. Yes, there's a hot spot in the left-hand corner, but at least I know it's there and if a loaf of bread is not browning enough I know I can move the paler side towards the hot spot and then it browns nicely. I also always peel the loaf onto that side to get more oven spring and then shift it after a while to prevent it from getting burnt later. After some time, I know the exact routine I have to follow when baking with it.
It's been a really dependable, albeit sometimes flaky, old friend.
My old oven in Toronto used to be an old electric coil oven. It was roomy and could easily accommodate two loaves at once. It could probably fit three if I had a stone with enough surface area. With time, the bread and baked goods that came out of it got better and better. Once, I took a few loaves of dough to bake at the Alan Scott built wood-fired oven at Dufferin Grove Park, and my friends were teasing me that I was cheating on my 'wife'. Such was my affinity to what other people would treat as just a piece of machinery.
The one I have right now is an old gas-fired one. Lighting it can be a real pain in the ass sometimes because you have to take off the floor of the oven to light the burner underneath. And sometimes the burner doesn't stay on after you lift your hand from the nozzle that controls the strength of the burner. It can take a while sometimes to get it started because of this. Some people on the corridor have already given up lighting it because they can't keep the burner on. But I always manage, so I'm asked to help sometimes.
Despite its shortcomings, it's a really great oven. Yes, there's a hot spot in the left-hand corner, but at least I know it's there and if a loaf of bread is not browning enough I know I can move the paler side towards the hot spot and then it browns nicely. I also always peel the loaf onto that side to get more oven spring and then shift it after a while to prevent it from getting burnt later. After some time, I know the exact routine I have to follow when baking with it.
It's been a really dependable, albeit sometimes flaky, old friend.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Yes we can...
I'm not complaining, but merely having one of those "I'm feeling kinda lost" moments.
I'm going to a place I've always thought I'd never end up at in real life. It was always a fantasy of mine working for such an organization. A dream that you knew you'd wake up from knowing it was only a dream. So it wasn't exactly expected.
Yet there is this unsettling feeling that was right beneath the surface of the euphoria I was feeling over the past few days after knowing I would be heading there. And now it's come forward a little bit and has been occupying my thoughts.
The truth is, despite the fact that it's supposed to be really exciting to be embarking on yet another new journey to a really cool place, what I'd honestly prefer is to not go anywhere and know exactly where I'm going to be right now. Deep down I know I'd rather choose the same old boring mundaneness over the excitement of moving on towards new and exciting things.
For me, the road ahead hasn't really been paved yet. Well, maybe just the next few hundred meters. But the constant change of scenery makes you yearn for something familiar. Something, somewhere or someone to anchor a part of you to your own existence so that you can let yourself know, "this is where I belong!"
Not having that stability really makes your stomach churn, your head feel kinda dizzy and your knees a bit weak.
Sometimes it feels like you're swimming downstream in a river not knowing how much longer the journey will take. You also keep wondering if you're really swimming by your own will or just being guided by the currents without any say about which direction you're heading.
Hopefully someday soon I will get out of the water and find myself on solid ground that I won't mind walking barefeet on.
Until then, I should at least try to embrace the change that has either been willed upon me or that I have somehow engineered upon myself.
Yes we can. But do we really want to sometimes?
p.s. On a side note, I guess that's why I like baking bread. No matter where I am I can always find flour, water, salt and microbes to make it. And even if the bread may taste a little bit different everywhere I go depending on the local microflora, it will still, well, taste like bread. And making it is always the exact same process with few variations if any. It's also completely simple and uncomplicated once you know how to make it.
Wow, baking bread is what keeps me sane. What a revelation.
A loaf of whole wheat,
A loaf of rye,
Enough to eat,
Until I die.
I'm going to a place I've always thought I'd never end up at in real life. It was always a fantasy of mine working for such an organization. A dream that you knew you'd wake up from knowing it was only a dream. So it wasn't exactly expected.
Yet there is this unsettling feeling that was right beneath the surface of the euphoria I was feeling over the past few days after knowing I would be heading there. And now it's come forward a little bit and has been occupying my thoughts.
The truth is, despite the fact that it's supposed to be really exciting to be embarking on yet another new journey to a really cool place, what I'd honestly prefer is to not go anywhere and know exactly where I'm going to be right now. Deep down I know I'd rather choose the same old boring mundaneness over the excitement of moving on towards new and exciting things.
For me, the road ahead hasn't really been paved yet. Well, maybe just the next few hundred meters. But the constant change of scenery makes you yearn for something familiar. Something, somewhere or someone to anchor a part of you to your own existence so that you can let yourself know, "this is where I belong!"
Not having that stability really makes your stomach churn, your head feel kinda dizzy and your knees a bit weak.
Sometimes it feels like you're swimming downstream in a river not knowing how much longer the journey will take. You also keep wondering if you're really swimming by your own will or just being guided by the currents without any say about which direction you're heading.
Hopefully someday soon I will get out of the water and find myself on solid ground that I won't mind walking barefeet on.
Until then, I should at least try to embrace the change that has either been willed upon me or that I have somehow engineered upon myself.
Yes we can. But do we really want to sometimes?
p.s. On a side note, I guess that's why I like baking bread. No matter where I am I can always find flour, water, salt and microbes to make it. And even if the bread may taste a little bit different everywhere I go depending on the local microflora, it will still, well, taste like bread. And making it is always the exact same process with few variations if any. It's also completely simple and uncomplicated once you know how to make it.
Wow, baking bread is what keeps me sane. What a revelation.
A loaf of whole wheat,
A loaf of rye,
Enough to eat,
Until I die.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
A quote...
"Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery.
Today is a gift. That's why it's called the present."
Today is a gift. That's why it's called the present."
WHO yeah!
My heart is pounding,
I can't get to sleep!
It's simply astounding,
I'm head over feet!
Fell right into place,
I just can't believe it!
A smile on my face,
The sky is the limit!
Often I yearned,
I hoped I'd deserve.
So I'll try best to learn,
to help and to serve!
Whatever comes next,
At least I will know,
I'll be doing my best,
To repay those I owe.
To family and friends,
To those who stood by,
Right until the end,
With nary a sigh!
But the journey's not over,
It's really just begun!
Though I'll try to stay sober,
And have lots of fun!
I can't get to sleep!
It's simply astounding,
I'm head over feet!
Fell right into place,
I just can't believe it!
A smile on my face,
The sky is the limit!
Often I yearned,
I hoped I'd deserve.
So I'll try best to learn,
to help and to serve!
Whatever comes next,
At least I will know,
I'll be doing my best,
To repay those I owe.
To family and friends,
To those who stood by,
Right until the end,
With nary a sigh!
But the journey's not over,
It's really just begun!
Though I'll try to stay sober,
And have lots of fun!
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