Don Tai (Canada) Blog

Bicycle riding prohibited in certain parks in Toronto. The bylaw 319-69 was repealed in 1997.

Sometimes finding certain information on the internet is much more difficult than it should be. I was looking for the City of Toronto, Ontario, Canada bylaw that allows bicycles with less than 24″ tires to ride on the sidewalk. I could not find it. I emailed the city clerk about the bylaw but got no response. This bylaw is heavily mentioned but almost never referenced. After about two years of searching the web, I finally found it.

Eating watermelon while in China might cause you diarrhea

Your relatives sit you down on their stools in the doorway of their rural Chinese farmhouse. The doorway is the only large shaded area, and there is the bonus cross draft that, in your mind, seems to lower the 30°C temperature. Watermelon slices comes out and you are thankful for their hospitality, but you know that despite your vigilance against waterborne bacteria, you will get the runs. Do not eat watermelon while traveling in China.

Mayor Kotaku Wamura of Fudai City in Japan built a 15.5M floodgate and seawall in the 1970s. It took 12 years to complete, and with a lot of skepticism. During the recent Mar 11 2011 Sendai earthquake and tsunami the floodgate was closed, saving all 3,000 residents and houses. Without this floodgate the city certainly would have been destroyed. Wamura died in 1987 at the age of 88. Twenty four years after his death he returns to save his town from certain annihilation. His tenacity and foresight should be applauded. Ganbatte.

This post is to remind myself that we actually have reasonable gas prices here in Toronto, Canada, even at $1.40CAD/litre. If we are to encourage people to drive smaller, more efficient cars, I think gas prices need to ride even more. If the tax from gas would only go towards improving public transit, people would not drive as much, resulting in less road traffic. All money converted to CAD where possible.

Tree branches cut by a Mainland Chinese neighbour. These cannot easily fit into my fireplace. Toronto, Canada

Random events pummel our life on a regular basis. This is also true here in Toronto, Canada. My fireplace is used somewhat frequently during the colder months, so I am always on the hunt for firewood. We have many Mainland Chinese people here in Scarborough that throw out burnable wood, mostly from trees on their property. It is an odd experience to me to see cut up tree branches from these Chinese houses, as most of the wood is not able to easily fit in my fireplace. This is markedly different from firewood left curbside of Canadian houses. I postulate that those Mainland Chinese that migrate to Canada are intellectuals and university graduates, and that they have no experience in making a fire or preparing wood to be burned in a fireplace or stove. Canada only welcomes educated and affluent Mainland Chinese to our shores. Maybe wood cutting should also be part of the entry criteria.

Man vs Mother Nature, Mother Nature won: Japanese earthquake and Tsunami, Mar 2011. The Fukushima DaiIchi nuclear incident is a man made disaster.

Having taught English in Japan for a year, I have first hand experience with people from Japan. I was stationed in Kyushu, the largest southern island of Japan, about 100km away from a very large volcano. When you live in close proximity to a volcano that often blows its top, you become pretty nonchalant about tremors. Being Canadian, this never happened to me. The Japanese people love fresh food, especially vegetables. Having some of their food supply deemed unfit to eat is a big psychological blow. We can only hope that this nuclear disaster can be averted. Earthquake, tsunami, and now a nuclear incident: How much can they endure?

Scarborough LRT vs Subway station map, Toronto, Canada

Confusing is the watchword for the Scarborough LRT. Metrolinx, the provincial organization with the mandate for regional transit has put in a plan called “Transit City”, and has allocated funding for a Light Rapid Transit, or LRT on Sheppard Avenue East. Environmental assessments, financial funding, purchase of rolling stock has been completed and construction work on the line has already started. In comes Rob Ford, the new Toronto mayor, who wants to put a subway on Sheppard instead. All the Transit City plans, decades in the making, are put on hold. Major Ford’s vision is to have the Sheppard line funded by the private sector, based on increased densities, namely condominium development, along the Sheppard line. Today I have no clarity on what will or should happen. There is a vacuum of information on the current plans for the Scarborough LRT.

Here in Toronto we get lots of snow in the winter. The City of Toronto has heavy equipment such as snow plows that remove the snow from the road and sidewalk. They do an excellent job. Citizens of Toronto also remove snow from their private driveways and the sidewalk. Unfortunately some citizens think it is Ok to simply dump their snow into the street, which creates a hazard to their neighbours and others that use the street. Not only is it very unfriendly to neighbours, it is also illegal.

It is with great dismay that I have been reading news reports that the recession in Canada has been over for many months, yet I still cannot find work. I consider myself to be an intelligent fellow, very well educated with work experience to match, but somehow I’ve lost my golden touch. Really, that is putting it mildly. Logically speaking if I had not been fortuitous enough to live a frugal and stable life in the past, today I should be in bankruptcy, living off food banks and be a beggar in the street. Smart strategies and a whole lot of luck in the past have saved me this fate. Or was it typical Chinese values. One will never know.

Jamie Kennedy french fries served at the ACC look great. Do not ask if this dish is healthy. It is not. $6.50CAD per serving.

Intriguing, this. If there ever was an oxymoron, haute cuisine french fries is it. Still, I remain open minded. Our family loves home cut french fries, which gives us a warm and friendly feeling in our house. There’s nothing “haute” cuisine about them; maybe “moyennes” but not “haute”. Still, when Jamie Kennedy, whom I now know is a chef, serves his french fries at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre, I wanted to learn more. I think the ACC is where they have sporting events such as baseball, and hockey. The skinny: organically grown yellow potatoes from Ontario fried in sunflower oil, with two types of sea salt and a dash of thyme. Cider or chili mayonnaise sauce on the side. $6.50CAD a serving.