On Saturday January 28th, we entered a volleyball tournament at Mentor college in Mississauga at the recreation level. Our team, 6-Pack, consisted of Paul, Pascale, Mo, Eric and myself. Our team looked very fluid and played together incredibly well, especially considering we lost a player. Odd as that may sound, one of our players double booked himself that day, and was only able to play two of the non-playoff games, but the five of us pulled through beautifully to win the Championship! Way to go 6-Pack!!!

The tournment included dinner at California’s. Although the food wasn’t fantastic, the brownies were to die for! And after a long day of playing volleyball, there’s nothing like gorging out on desserts and/or beer. One Two Three Beer! Check out the pictures.

On Friday we watched the band Pastime 2000 play at Lousiana’s seafood bar in Brampton. Two members of the band are relatives of mine, Jim on lead guitar and Mike on drums. They put on quite a performance, playing our favourite tunes from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, and played them very well. The music is great, and the performance is a lot of fun as you can tell they really enjoy playing music. They even have a “surprise guest” with swingin’ hips. I really enjoyed the show and would definately go see them again. Pastime 2000’s website is http://www.pastime2000.com if anyone is interested. Go check out the pictures.

The last of the India pictures! Our longest stay was in Jaipur, 7 days and it was well worth it. Jaipur is a city full of forts, palaces, temples and doesn’t have the “big city” feel like Bombay or Delhi. Jaipur is divided into the old and new city, where the old Jaipur was the original planned city before it became too big and had to expand. The old city is surrounded by a large wall, and accessible through several gates throughout the city. All the big bazaars are in the old city, and getting through the wide roads with all the rickshaws, bicycles, people and buses can be hectic. The bazaars can be rewarding, as there are many shops selling gems and beautiful stones for a fraction of what you would pay elsewhere. See the pictures here.

We finally have a chance to put up some pics of our getaway at Niagara on the Lake. The pictures aren’t terribly exciting, as our main goal was to relax after the wedding. It was really quiet, partly because of the time of year and partly because we were up during the week. We spent a lot of time walking up and down the main strip. However, certain sites, such as the apothecary, remain closed during the off season. We also had a chance to dine at several different restaurants, including a cute little pub that specialized in fondue.

The best part was certainly the quiet time at the B&B. It was a very cozy little place with a private entrance. The room included a kitchenette, which was stocked daily, so we could work on our own times as opposed to joining our hosts for breakfast. The food could have been better, but that’s a common complaint Eric and I often share. The weather was quite nice. Although, it was slightly chilly, we didn’t mind, as our room was equipped with a fireplace and jacuzzi. Check out the pictures.

This past Sunday, Eric and I attended a surprise 50th birthday party for his aunt Karen at King’s Buffet in Brantford. The party was thrown by her daughter, Lori. There were about 20 people and it was nice to catch up with the family. Karen’s reaction was certainly priceless. Happy Birthday Karen! Check out the pictures.

What happens when you make blackened fish and chicken in a small kitchen? Smoke. LOTS of smoke. The instant the meat hits the iron skillet, the resulting smoke completely covers the meat and it disappears. After about 15 seconds, you flip the meat and create even more smoke. The windows were open, the fans were going but we were making more smoke than the fans could remove. At least the smoke alarms didn’t go off.

Blackened meats are best made on a superhot iron skillet which we did on our oven. Next time we’ll be using the skillet on the bbq. We’ll get good spices too, we tried making our own cajun seasoning and it didn’t turn out so good.

We flew from Bombay to Delhi to start our mini-vacation in northern India. We took the overnight train to Amritsar after we arrived (which was an experience in itself), spent 3 days in Amritsar and again took the overnight train back to Delhi and stayed one night. From there, we went to Agra, then Jaipur and back to Delhi, again staying overnight before flying home. We only spent two nights in Delhi, but we were able to see several sites during our brief stay. The monuments and temples were impressive, as they are in any other city we visited. We saw the Qutab Minar, the India Gate, Bangla Sahib gurdwara and the Lotus temple. Delhi is what you’d expect for a capital city — very busy, crowded, expensive and a lot of things to see, it definitely had a big city feel to it. See the pictures here.

We were in Bombay at the beginning and end of our trip. We stayed at Bahar’s grandpa’s place in Worli Naka, an area north of downtown Bombay. It’s a 4th floor apartment which had a great view of the traffic and people below. It’s not much of a tourist area, so we got to see how the people live in their everyday lives which was very different from the tourist areas such as the Taj Mahal. While in Bombay, we attended a Hindu wedding, went to Elephanta Island an hour from Bombay Harbour to see the awesome caves, did some shopping at the busy bazaars and spent time with family. See the pictures here.