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Friday, 09 October 2009

Tuesday, 06 October 2009

  • Toronto Daycare - A Guide on How to....

    I should have placed our little monkey on a daycare wait list before he was born. However, daycare was the last thing I was thinking about while I was pregnant.

    I suggest all pregnant mothers START THIS PROCESS at around the 6-8 month mark of their pregnancy.
    1. You can go here: http://www.toronto.ca/children/childcare.htm.
    2. Check out the day cares in your area: http://www.toronto.ca/children/gcmapx.htm.
    3. These day cares also have a rating system.
    4. You can find this by locating the daycare http://www.toronto.ca/children/dmc/webreg/atoz.html.
    5. Once you click on the "daycare name" it will bring you to more information of the daycare.
    6. You then click on "Quality Ratings". 
    7. I would pick approximately 5-7 daycares close to your work or home location.
    8. Call each one, let them know you are looking for a subsidy say care space for an infant or toddler (check    to see which one yours will be by the time you return to work) and get yourself on the wait list as soon as you can. This will assure that you get a space.
    9. I would also call each of the daycares every 3-4 months during this process to ensure they have not bumped you of the list.
    10. After you have placed yourself on several daycare wait lists -  get yourself on the subsidy wait list. There is a variety of things you will need to get yourself on this list which you can find here: http://www.toronto.ca/children/subsidy.htm. IMPORTANT: Make sure you respond to each and every letter you get from subsidy as soon as you get them.
    11. Lastly once you are all approved (subsidy and daycare space) and a space is available I would then go take your child there for an hour or two to get a feel for the space/daycare workers. I would, personally, not bother wasting your time checking out a bazillion places if there is no guarantee you will get a space.
    REMEMBER: The most important thing is not to stress because you can place your children in "approved home care" until your daycare space is available. I wish I had know all of this....


    My Story:
    In January of this year. I phoned a ton of daycares and placed myself on wait lists for 8 daycares. This was a process and took a good week of calling and working. In order to get subsidy you have to show that you have placed yourself on wait lists. Subsidy asks for your top 5 picks. Without subsidy there would be no point for my husband to work and daycare would not be necessary. We would also be in the same position we have been in for a couple of years now - barely making ends meet.

    Over the next several months I would receive a series of subsidy (government) letters (I think it was 4) where I had to call in to confirm that I still required daycare and that my information had not changed. I was suppose to start Oct 1 and return to work Nov 2/09. However, I later learned that you can only place your child in subsidized daycare up to 2 weeks to your return work date. During this time I should have been calling all my wait list day cares to confirm my space. I didn't know or do this but luckily didn't have to worry about it.

    I received approval at the end of September and made an appointment with the subsidy office. Both my husband and I needed to be there and a bunch of paperwork was required. They will provide or you with or you will have to ask for all the information required for this meeting. DO NOT bother to go to the subsidy meeting without that information or your spouse or you will have to return. During our waiting period we saw several people turned away for not having the proper documentation or their spouse. You should also note: the subsidy office does not confirm a time for your appointment but will they will confirm the day you are to go to have the meeting. Make sure you go on that day. NOTE: It is possible that you will have to wait a couple of hours and if you do not get there prior to 3 pm you may not get in at all. We were fortunate enough that our lady at the subsidy office was great. We hadn't confirmed a daycare space  - she gave us a few phone numbers to call for temporary home care until a daycare space opened up.

    The day after the subsidy appointment I called all the day cares for which I was on the waiting list. Out of the 8: one day care was closed, two gave a possibility of opening in December, four of them had no spaces available and the last I left a message for. I then called the home care and was given a couple homes/people to check out.

    I checked out one of the places and the area/building is not so lovely. However, the child care worker was nice. I also found out that there are three others in the same apartment complex - they all work together. The other home care place has not yet returned my call.

    Thank God, yesterday I received a call from one of the day cares and it turns out they have a space available for Nov 2/09 (my expected work return date). However, because of the way subsidy works I have to place him in home care for two weeks prior to this in order to maintain my subsidy. I am heading to the daycare on Friday to check it out. It has a good rating and I am sure it will be all good.

    This all came together but was quite the process and a little nerve racking to say the least. There was a ton of stuff I left out (not really necessary to share) and I hope I was able to someone with the above noted information.



Monday, 05 October 2009

  • Nuit Blanche




    Nuit Blanche is a free all night contemporary art thing. Exhibits are spread out  over the city indoor/outdoor.

    We packaged up the little monkey and headed out around 9:45 pm on Saturday evening. He basically fell alseep right away and was asleep the entire evening.

    It was full moon and the streets were full of people...


    Our first exhibit was at Massey Hall entitled "Space Becomes the Instrument" (Gordon Monahan: Meaford, Canada)  where we waited an hour and half to get into the building. "Performers playing 30 meter long piano wires stretched across the interior of Massey Hall. Their vibrations will be transmitted by microphone and amplified through a surround-sound speaker system positioned throughout the hall. At regular intervals of rising crescendo, performers in the upper balconies will swing illuminated loudspeakers, creating a hypnotic light and audio phenomenon of changing pitches and whirling shadows." After this performance/exhibit was completed we left the space feeling intensely relaxed. All of us felt that. It was as if someone had given my body/mind a complete massage. Never felt that before. Quite moving!
     


    After this exhibit we headed to the "Monopoly With Real Money" (Iain Baxter: Windsor Canada) exhibit. "Money becomes a conceptual and tactile medium as Toronto celebs play the iconic real estate board game through the night at the TSX". We didn't have to wait in line and the concept was kind of fun.



    The next exhibit we went to - we waited in line for another hour and a half. I felt this exhibit was definitely not worth the wait. In fact it was the worst of the exhibits (for me). I only waited and was doing this for a friend. We went to the Sheraton Centre Hotel. On a normal day or evening you can find their Waterfall Garden quite beautiful and picturesque. On this night there was an exhibit called "Skry-Pod" (Fastwurms). "Derived from an Old English word, "skry" is the form of clairvoyance achieved by gazing into reflective, flickering objects such as water, candle flames, and crystal balls." Seeing as I don't want to be a part of anything like this it was a big waste of time. As well as; if you wanted to have a reading you then had to wait in another line. The whole thing was silly considering you could do this at anytime in a million different places in the city (day or night).



    The next exhibit (no line up) was at Toronto City Hall, Nathan Phillips Square "Beautiful Light: 4 Letter Word Machine" (D.A. Therrien: Phoenix, AZ, USA). It was cool to look at.



    Our last exhibit (no line up) was located at the Toronto Eaton Centre "Rabbit Balloon" (Jeff Koons: New York City, USA). Seeing as I don't live in New York and have never seen the Macy's Day parade I, personally, wanted to see a balloon that had been in the parade. Mr. Koons says "It reflects the needs of culture and society and can represent so many different things to the viewer". Well I am not so sure of his interpretation but that is the beautiful thing about art. If it gets you to feel emotion, I believe, it is doing the right thing ;)



    There were so many exhibits. After waiting in line for a combined 3 hours (for just two of the exhibits) it was almost 3 in the morning and we were exhausted. I wished to have seen more. If I do this again I will refuse to wait in line for anything - this way I will be able to see more.



Tuesday, 29 September 2009

  • Beautiful Weekend

    Dar arrived around 1ish to babysit for the night. G. had left her some marinated steaks. I left her some canvas and paints. We knew our little monkey was in great hands after all Dar has three grown boys of her own.




    G. and I arrived at the Pantages around 1:30 pm. We started unpacking and I realized that I had left G.'s suit and dress shirt at home. Him being the gentleman and wanting me to relax headed back home to grab them. In the meanwhile I filled up the jacuzzi tub and had a soak. The room (as pictured above) was stunning and had a relaxing feel to it. I would definitely recommend this hotel to anyone.

    When G. arrived back it was his turn to have a soak. I ironed his shirt and jacket. I finished getting ready and we were off to have a pre-martini at the Hotel bar.


    We arrived at S & A's wedding location. It was absolutely stunning and so was the ceremony. After the ceremony there were drinks and h'orderves served (upstairs). On our way into the reception we met the parents of both sides along with a shot on the way in. During the reception our wine glass was never empty and our plates never without food. The music and dancing finished the night off perfectly.
       

    G. and I hitched a cab back to the hotel after the wedding. Once back at the hotel we decided to have one more martini. We listened to the lovely music of  http://www.johncampbellmusic.ca/home.html . His good friend was sitting at the bar and had a conversation with us. G. kept bugging him to get me up and sing. Anyways he eventually gave in and I jammed "No One" out as John played piano.

    When we made our way into the hotel room I could G. was pretty much done for the night. However, when we got back to our hotel room a surprise for me awaited.  





    Unfortunately, G. was a little too exhausted and fell asleep.


    I stayed up and finished his glass and my glass of champagne.

    and all the chocolate  covered strawberries...
    .
    I woke up the next morning from one of the best night's sleep I have ever had.

    We arrived back home around 1pm and thanked Dar for letting us have this wonderful evening away. When I looked up on the fridge I saw the beautiful painting and just about cried. She used the canvas to paint our little monkey a picture :)

Friday, 25 September 2009

  • Club Cubase



    Last night completely rawked!

    I headed out to Club Cubase. I was sporting my new patchwork style dress and was pretty excited about it. Although, I did not feel the need for Maybelline's colourstay red. The session was awesome and also picked up a copy of Cubase AI4. We talked about EQ - most of which I might add went way over my head. Someday I will get it. Also learned about some new Steinberg products.

    A couple of the fine gentleman schooled me on Bluegrass. It felt as though what I learned came literally off the wiki site. So very informative! "Bluegrass: "Traditional bluegrass is typically based around a small set of acoustic stringed instruments including mandolin, acoustic guitar, banjo, fiddle, resonator guitar and upright bass, with or without vocals." I am currently listening to "Southern Flavour" Bill Munro & The Blue Grass Boys. This music reminds me of growing up. The music is very happy to me....

    The group headed out to one of my favorite pubs after the Cubase session. Got to know a few of the boys better. Little did I realize that a couple of them were Karaoke lovers. This made me very very happy :)....Christina has returned from Columbus and hanging with her for the first time in a very long time rawked!

    All in all such a lovely unexpected evening...

    Song of the day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWr_LAiOhAA