PERFOMING WITH AMICI CHAMBER ENSEMBLE

Wow.. what a great concert ! This weekend I finally was able to perform with the Amici Chamber Ensemble. We performed the Dvorak Serenade for Winds at the Glenn Gould Studio. All of the performers were from the Toronto Symphony Orchestra plus myself, and Kathy Halvorson ! wow.. it was so great ! life is wonderful !!

CHRISTMAS WINDOWS AT ' THE BAY'

Finally the Bay has gone back to the old fashion way of displaying their Christmas Windows!

Click here to see a slide show of the windows and opening of the exhibit.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEL

Tonight Mel, Maya and I went to Jack Astors to celebrate Melinda's birthday... wow.. time flies!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

This year I decided to join in and dress up for Halloween, I sat at our front door in the lobby of my appartment and shelled out halloween candy!

BEAUTIFUL FALL COLOURS IN ONTARIO

Fall is here.. Ontario is at its prettiest!

THE SQUIRRELS ARE VERY CRAFTY

Stealing my fries!.. squirrels are very sneeky and fearless here!

FALL IN TORONTO

pumpkin time is here! halloween is around the corner!

these pumpkins are for sale at my local supermarket....

they work as good chairs too!

LIESBETH COMES TO TORONTO

Liebeth, my dear cousin came to Toronto to visit for 10 days! we had a great time together !

TORONTO THE GOOD

some pictures of Toronto as seen through the eyes of my cousin Liesbeth...

Caroline at Starbucks

This picture was taken at Carolines new job, at Starbucks on King Street

FIRST DAY OF AUTUMN= FIRST GIG OF THE SEASON

On Sunday I played in the Mooredale concert series, with members of the Toronto Symphony. In this picture taken just before the concert I am posing with Gabe Radford, 3rd horn of the Toronto Symphony. It was alot of fun, and nice to play chamber music with such a high level of musicianship ! yaaaaahhhh... I love being a musician!!

AIR SHOW IN TORONTO.. LAST DAY OF THE EX!

Today I went down to a new park I discovered at the lake to watch the airshow.. it was hot hot hot.. not much tree cover.. but a fun vantage point to see the show..

DUTCH BIKES HIT TORONTO!

This morning, I just happen to drive past a new bike store on Bloor street, at Brunswick.. ( right across from Future Bakery)...and noticed that the whole store just mostly sold only DUTCH BIKES ! how ever so cool !!

In ten years.. mark my words, every biker in Toronto will be wanting and owning a dutch bike to get around Toronto.. they are a perfect city Bike !... speaking to the owners, they told me they have been selling these bikes for only 2 months now at their shop here in Toronto, and have sold over 200 of them ! and the bikes start at $700 and up.. !!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MAYA AND ALEX!

Today, is both Maya's and Alex's birthday. Although I can't really reach Alex today, as he is in Vancouver with his dad, I was able to celebrate with Maya. Melinda, Hali ( Maya's best friend) Maya and I went out together for dinner at the Keg Mansion. We had a really nice time.. but cut a bit short as Hali was not feeling quite right, and so I took her with Maya to emergency... hopefully that baby will come out soon.. she really looks like she is going to pop ! This evening , Maya is enjoying her first LEGAL drink !

FEELING ALL WARM AND YELLOW!

Our yellow family !

L-R Me, Melinda, Maya, Nicholas and Caroline.

I went to see the new Simpsons movie with Caroline, Nicholas and Ineke.. it was a hoot ! I haven't laughed so much at a film for years ! YAAAAHH Simpsons ! I can hardly wait for the sequel, and for the film to come out on DVD.. I will be one of the first to purchase it
I found this great website that can simpsonize a live photo.. and I, just for fun, tried it out.. turned out pretty neat.. Simpsons The Movie.. great flick.. I highly recommend all to see it !

CARIBANA IN THE CITY

This weekend Toronto was hopping.. with North America's largest Caribbean Festival ! Caribana... a 40 year tradition in Toronto.. every August Thousand flock to Toronto from all over the world, but mostly the United States to see and take part in this festival. Its full of colours and traditions from the Caribbean.. mostly Trinidad and Tobago.. but now encompasses many other regions of the Caribbean.

1 million attended today parade on Lakeshore.. shutting down the downtown core. The weather was perfect for today's festivities !

ESCAPING THE CITY

I had to escape the city this week.. I rented myself with my sisters, Ineke and Melinda a cottage up north in Muskoka. The most beautiful part of Ontario very close to Huntsville, where I hold many great memories of summer band camps, and playing in the Huntsville Festival for over 10 years with Anne marie Monaco. It took 2 ½ hours to get to the cottage located on a small lake, Ril Lake. The cottage was quite large and fit the 8 of us quite comfortably. We did lots of swimming, boating, fishing, game playing, cooking and Potter reading during the week. Perfect weather was the real plus for us as well, but the bugs were pesky ! I will defiantly do this again next summer, it’s a real treat to enjoy cottage life in Ontario.. I love it !

click here to see more pictures of our week up north !

A VERY PROUD AUNT INDEED !

Today, I was a very proud " stage aunt" .. Caroline performed at City Hall infront of a crowd of hundreds, and did an amazing job. She was selected after an audition to perform at this event, Youth Day 2007 at Toronto's City Hall. We all came out to support her, and in the pictures below you see her close friends, and Maya, Joe and Hali as well as of course her very proud mom, Ineke !

I have also included a video of her performance.
( click on any of the images to enlarge the picture view) ...*click on this links below part 1 or 2 which will take you to YouTube to see a live video of the performance, its in two parts.. Part 1 Part 2

YOUTH DAY IN TORONTO

Today, Caroline will be performing on the main stage at City hall for Toronto's first Youth Day Festival . She auditioned about 1 month ago, and is a finalist, and therefor has been given the opportunity to perform at City Hall on the main stage. She played her song for me last night, to practise and prepare , giving her performance tips that would be helpfull to her and her overall performance.

I'm sure she'll be great ! such a talented family we are !

GREAT FAMILY MEMORIES

This morning I woke up to a great surprise email from my cousin Rutger in Hamburg. He had sent me this great photo that was recently found by his brother Steven, when he was rummaging through some old photos. Taken in the 30's its a picture of my Grandfather sitting outside on the car, and inside the car , sitting on my Grandmothers lap, is my Uncle Bob, at the window my Aunt Hilda, and in the background is my mom ! What a great photo ! very cool!

THOSE SILLY DUTCH!

Today I drove up to Barrie with Ineke to attend the Holland Pavillion, that that Jeff Van Niekerk organized. Jeff is the son of John, the owner of Niemeyers Dutch import store in New Market. He did a great job ! I"m very impressed.. it was like walking into the Amsterdam Pavillion that mom organized for Caravan back in 1977 ! It even made me a bit teary eyed when I walked into the pavillion !

click here to see more pictures of the day

videos from the day:

Dutch pavillion in Barrie

Dutch Carnival Band performs

More of the Dutch Band

Making fresh Stroopwafels

HARRY POTTER HAS ARRIVED IN TORONTO

Tonight was the premier of the newest installment of the Harry Potter films. And of course the kids were all excited and went to see it tonight, including Maya, who as you can see in the this picture even got a great picture with one of the main characters and stars of the film Rupert Grint ( Harry's best friend aka, Ronald Weasley)

( maya with Rupert Grint tonights premier of Harry Potter at the Toronto Scotia Theatre, downtown at Richmond and John)

I too am looking forward to seeing the film! and this weekend.. more excitment as the last Potter books in hitting the shelves... all computers, cell phones and ipod's will be abandoned for about 5 days, as all of Toronto kids and teenages will be silently reading in every corner of the city !

NEW SUMMER LIGHTS HIGH IN THE TORONTO SKY

Toronto main tourist attraction the CN tower has a new look ! LED lights have recently been added to the tower to make it really look spectacular and really stand out. The summer heat, today a balmy 43 degrees adds to the heated colours the tower is able to produce !

here are some CN tower facts and trivia...

Is the CN Tower the World’s Tallest Building?Yes, it is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the World’s Tallest Building. The CN Tower has also been recognized as having the World’s Longest Metal Staircase and World’s Highest Wine Cellar.
How tall is the CN Tower?The CN Tower is 553.33 m (1,815ft, 5 inches) tall or the equivalent of 5 ½ football fields stacked end-to-end.
Why was the CN Tower built?In the 1960s, Toronto’s growing skyline created problems for radio and television transmission because the pre-skyscraper transmission towers were simply not high enough to broadcast over the buildings. The prime function of the Tower is a telecommunications hub and several Canadian radio and television channels broadcast from there.
How much did it cost to build the World’s Tallest Building?The CN Tower was built for $63 million (about $300 million in 1998 dollars).
How long did it take to build the CN Tower?It took approximately 40 months to complete the CN Tower. Construction started on February 6, 1973, and wrapped up in June of 1976.
How many people did it take to build the CN Tower?1,537 courageous workers toiled around the clock, five days a week, 24 hours a day, to build the CN Tower.
Who owns the CN Tower?Canadian National (CN) built the tower in 1976, and retained ownership until 1995 when it became a public company. At that point, ownership of the CN Tower was transferred to Canada Lands Company, along with a number of other real estate properties.

CELEBRATING IN LITTLE ITALY

I went out to dinner last night with Ineke and Nicholas, celebrating Nicholas's High School graduation.. Nice going Nic ! We had a lovely dinner in a Toronto Life recommended Italian restaurant, a bit pricey... but alias.. what do you expect from the Toronto Life ! but it was really tasty !

HAPPY HOT PRIDE

Another Pride week and come and gone.. it was great fun this week with the highlight yesterday being the Pride Parade down Toronto's main street, Yonge Street. It was 2 hours long, and 1 million people attended ! The weather was amazing.. and everyone had a great time !















( in this picture, r-l, Me, Maya, and her friend Hali)

Click here to see more pictures

GIRL TIME !.. PRECIOUS !!

Today I had a really nice time meeting my good friend Sheila Goldman ! Girl talk and a wonderful lunch were the highlight of my day ! Good to see ya girlfriend.. in your great house and gorgeous kitchen ! I left after 3 hours of gabbing, got into my van and the skies opened up, I have never seen so much rain fall in such a short time, there where rivers of water flowing down Spadina Avenue ! and a lake of water under the train overpass at Spadina and Dupont Road !
( you can click on the picture to enlarge view)

START THE CAR !!!... START THE CAR !!!.....

You know, I have never owned a new car before, and with my new van, I also felt I should and could get finally my own personized licence plate ! well.. I did.. it speaks for itself... I think it's cool :-)

Toronto's Newest HTO Park

On Saturday, I went down to Harborfront to view Toronto's newest park.. well beach ! It looks great, and will be a great addition to the Toronto's wonderful Style of living and enjoying the outdoors.. as I was walking along the boardwalk, I was serenaded by Live Carribean music, If I didn't look behind me to see the CN Tower, I'd swear I was really in Barbados!

click here to see a video I took at the beach with sound and all to really get what I mean...

NOT THE MESSIAH!

Tonight, Ineke, Caroline and I went the Roy Thompson hall to see the premier performance of Eric Idel's " Not the Messiah" From Eric Idle and John Du Prez, the sardonic duo that unleashed Spamalot on the world, comes Not The Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy), a comic oratorio inspired by Monty Python's Life of Brian and performed by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and members of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, featuring soloists and Eric Idle as both soloist and narrator. Co-commissioned by Luminato and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Not The Messiah will be conducted by Peter Oundjian, who is not only the TSOs Music Director but also Eric Idle's cousin.

( this is a picture of Idle back in the 80's at the end of the film, Life of Brian)

We had a howling time.. haven't laughed this much in a long, long time.. Ineke was crying in Laughter ! we had a great night... and boy is the festival amazing... way to go Luminato organizers !