Wedding at St. Lawrence Market

And with permission of Andrej Acin I am publishing this photo here. Thanks to him I found out that this was not a real wedding. It was promotional campaign for travel agency :)



The building that houses St. Lawrence Market was first built in 1831, but burnt down in 1849, only to be rebuilt in 1850 as St. Lawrence Hall, that stands in its place until today. There is some magic around old buildings. Their walls and floors emit the energy of all the times the building has been living in. If you tune in, you can sense old and new times, you can hear steps of those walking those floors decades ago, or you can smell the smells and hear the sounds of the times long gone by. But yesterday, there was more to St. Lawrence Market than just food. In between two meat counters, beside tables where people were eating their take out breakfast/lunch, there was a beautiful scene, almost like from the movie. The bride in old fashioned bridal gown, with tiara, and bouquet of silk large roses, dark pink colour, the groom with the baloon flower in his taxedo, bride's maid in beautiful pink dress (absolutely beautiful pink). And then, the opera singer appear, with knitted red scarf, singing arias from Carmen and other operas... For a moment time stopped and felt as if we all were on the big cloud surrounded with bubbles.




Yes, bride and groom were giving away tiny bottles to blow bubbles. I will call this picture in my mental photo album: Wedding at St. Lawrence Market. Long live bride and groom. They for sure are creative!

Facebook "friend request"

I received recently the "friend request" from someone that I do not know. Curious to find out why this person wants to be my FB friend, I sent the message asking: "Why do you want to be my FB friend?" and the reply was: "Because I love communism... How old are you?". I was puzzled, so I replied: "I do not see what your love for communism have to do with my age?" I think I added: "I am very old:)". I am still waiting for the reply. The individual who sent me FB request has an octopus as his profile picture. I do not know what to think. Maybe it is one of those young adults in search for identity, looking for a sexy communist girlfiend ( which I am certainly not, and I am not even sure how come they did not see my profile picture where I am standing at the entrance of Universal Studios in Florida - with my son). So it makes me rethink joining FB groups - I thought that they unite people around common interests. It never occured to me that it could be place for someone to look for some kind of romance:)

While looking around the Internet, I stumbled upon this link that has nothing to do with my post, but here it is nevertheless:)

http://www.meaningsoflife.com/

Have you filed your taxes?

Here is a bigger picture. If you ever wondered where your tax dollars go, here it is. As you can see more than 25 percent of the income tax revenue goes back to the citizens. It means that the tax dollars are used to fund programs such as Employment Insurance, Children’s Benefits and Seniors Benefits.

Let's look at federal expenses for the fiscal year of 2008-2009.




The Canadian tax system is based on self-assessment. The United States, Australia, and New Zealand also use the self-assessment system. Self-assessment is considered the most economical and efficient way to collect income tax.

Under the self-assessment system, non-residents with Canadian income and Canadian residents are responsible for making sure they have paid their taxes according to the Income Tax Act. Income and deductions are listed on the return so both the taxpayer and the CRA can calculate the taxes the taxpayer has to pay

Below are some of the milestones in Canadian taxation.

Canada first collected personal income tax in 1917.
The organization that evolved into the CRA was founded in 1927.
Starting in 1966, Canada Pension Plan (CPP) contributions were collected from employers and self-employed Canadians.
In 1972, Revenue Canada Taxation began to collect Unemployment Insurance premiums (now called Employment Insurance or EI).
The federal government began to collect the goods and services tax (GST) in 1991.
The Canada Child Tax Benefit (CCTB) program was introduced in 1993.
The Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) program was introduced in July 2006.
The Working Income tax Benefit (WITB) program was introduced in 2007.

Even though you may not have to file a tax return, you may want to. By filing a tax return, you could qualify for a tax refund, credit, or benefit. For more information, go to Benefits of filing a tax return.

If you pay more tax than you owe during the year you could qualify for a tax refund. The tax refund cheque is sent out with a Notice of Assessment or deposited into your bank account if you have asked for direct deposit.

Whether you get a refund or not, you may qualify for a tax credit or benefit.

So what are you waiting for:)

One day in March

Wake up, do exercises, eat breakfast ( blueberries with cereal, coffee, one vitamin C - chewable and cod fish liver oil - Norwegian ), check if there is any windchill, stop to hear the bird chirping ( no it is not spring yet, but imagine...), decide what to wear, apply makeup, walk bravely to the new day, think positive, do not give up whatever you are doing.

A note to myself: in spite of other people's schadenfreude ( http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/schadenfreude), be the way you are, continue being happy for other people's successes, as well as your own.

What is your nationality?

I was asked the other day by someone what was my nationality. This is an excerpt from our conversation:

The person: "What is your nationality?"

Me: "Canadian."

The person: "But you have an accent."

Me: "So what?"

The end.

If you ever get the traffic ticket

And you want to fight it in the court. And when you get the court date, you realize that there is no way Hose that you can attend the trial, and you decide to go to postpone the court date here is what happens, and it is not as easy as it sounds, be prepared to spend few hours working on this one:

1. You go to 137 Edward Street where you wait in line to get the number so that you can file the motion to postpone the trial ( the affidavit that you cannot be present at the trial for whatever your reason is ).

2. You wait for about 1 hour before Customer Service rep calls your number

3. You have a lengthy conversation with the rep, who tells you that you have to be present in court to file your motion to postpone the trial, and you explain to the rep that there is no way Hose that you can be in the court on any given day before some time in May, and the rep goes to his supervisor, and comes back after 15 minutes (you have no idea where he went, while your parking is about to expire). Finally he tells you that it is alright, postpones that date, but you are not finished yet.

4. You have to go to the court where your trial was set, to the prosecutor's office and get it stamped ( it is unclear why because they just stamp the paper that you have to bring back to 137 Edward )

5. After you have your paper stamped you go back to 137 Edward and file your papers ( they call it you "serve" papers )

Anyway, I just wanted to share this with you.

I in the mirror

This morning I looked at myself in the mirror. Like I do every morning, I guess. But this morning, I took a closer look, while holding my head with hands, "ironing" some of the deep wrinkles and looking straight in my eyes. Did I see a stranger for a moment? Less than a moment, for a split second. Who is that woman looking at me? What did I discover looking at her? How can I know her better, and accept her for who she is? This was just the beginning, I know now. On the road of letting things go, giving up attempts to control things that cannot be controlled by her ( by me ? ), accepting of reality ( car that is too old - born in 1993, not having enough money to buy two airfares to Europe, at age of 48 not having a stable career, not having any money saved for retirement...and so on - reality is pounding in my head like too loud drum).

Today is sunny day. It is cold, but it is sunny. It is very bright, very revealing. It would be nice day to go to the beach if it was summer. The summer was way too short. I remember the last day of summer, not by calendar, but by me, when I was sunbathing on my very own balcony. It was one day in September. I remember, I was thinking - this must be the last day of summer for me, I was trying to talk to the sun to go down a little bit slower, I was just making myself comfortable, my book was there ( something about Michael Jackson ), I applied sun tanning oil, my hands were oily, I wiped them on the towel, but sun did not listen to me. There is this big tree that was my enemy, because in less than half an hour the sun will reach it's branches. I love that tree for it leaves, but they are in my way now. The sun will soon be behind them leaving me to long for it's heat, it's caress, it's promise of beautiful sounds and smells of the beach ( even on my balcony, weird, isn't it?).

Anyway, worth mentioning is that I typed few times "son" instead "sun". My son gave me an assignment to read about Great Depression in his history book. He says: "You read first, so that you can help me do my assignment." That meant he was good at planning, and delegating work, and understanding the process. I think: he could become a manager right away. I cannot do that, I like to do work myself, I do not like to delegate, and I am not at ease when I give some work to be done for me by other people. I have no confidence that other people will do a good job, and that is not the trait of a leader. I am no leader, but my son is. He is not aware of that though, he just wants to make his life easier. Me to, that's why I do everything by myself. I cannot stand other people doing things that I can do: driving me, cooking for me, doing my hair, my nails, I do not know - I must be weird. However, I do not mind if my, I will call him husband, washes dishes. I love that. He is so detail oriented, the dishes sparkle after he washes them, and the sink is like new. I do not know how he does that. But, he is really good at that. Also he is good at folding laundry. He is actually an expert on that.

So, this is a little bit about me. I am a little bit disappointed that I discovered that some people I respect very much do not have the same set of values as I. But, hey, who says that my values are the best, except me of course. About my values, some other time, maybe. Maybe not?