I stopped by the grocery store on my way home from work today. I did a fair amount of shopping, including some dinner food for the next couple of days. Passing by the aisles I noticed the Hungry Man frozen foods on sale for $2.00. I thought to myself, “oh, this looks like a pretty good deal. For only $2.00 I can have a satisfying dinner.” So I picked one up and put it in my basket. Of course, I wouldn’t have bought this if it wasn’t for sale in the first place.

At the checkout, while I normally see if the cashier is doing her job properly by looking at the screen and the prices she enters, this time I was distracted by assembling all the plastic bags that I had to carry. After coming home, I looked at the receipt to check if the prices were correct. I then noticed that the cashier charged me the full price for the Hungry Man meal! $3.89 for what I was supposed to pay only $2.00 for!

I felt so stupid because it was all my fault for not checking her work. And to think that I only bought this meal because it was $2.00 and that I would have never bought this otherwise, was nagging me at the back of my head.

This meal better be damn good I tell you!

Just be sure to check the prices at the cashier… or go to the self-cashier line.

Grr…

Today marked my first day of volunteering for the Luminato festival. It was both educational and entertaining.

Backtracking a week to last weekend, I volunteered at the Art of Jazz festival held at the Distillery District. It was my fourth year volunteering for this festival and as always, it proved to be a fun time. Despite not being able to see many shows this year, it was still a good time as I manned the Media Centre for the festival. Handing out media passes and tickets to media reps and contest winners, I was able to converse with fellow photographers who do what I do as a hobby, as a living. I got to talking with the house photographer, who happened to be an ex-Toronto Star photographer. He was very kind and even agreed to having me shadow him throughout the event if the publicist okayed the idea. Although I knew she would have said yes, I decided to stay put and work an extra shift on the weekend. I was able to meet some interesting people along the way, which made the shifts go by quickly. That is always part of the fun in volunteering for these kind of things.

Now, one week later, I find myself at my first shift in Luminato, Toronto’s premier festival for Art and Creativity. I helped usher the crowd in and out at the Varsity Arena for the Black Watch performance (which by the way, was a fabulous performance with some great choreography). It was a sold out event with double bookings and even the front of house manager told us that the volunteers this time may not get a chance to sit in. Fortunately seconds before the show began, seats miraculously opened up and we were able to sit in, in a rather prime area.

Third row from the front, right in the middle of the stage, the four of us sat together, the performance that had many people talking afterwards.

After volunteering for just one event in Luminato though, it was evident at the amount of money that went into this event. Nowhere in comparison to the Art of Jazz festival, Luminato has an army of volunteers, an in-your-face marketing strategy, and plenty of money to go around to fund the creation and support of various events throughout the festival.

After talking to one of the other volunteers about this, she mentioned that Luminato, because of political reasons, and the many connections that the founder has, is able to get an enormous amount of funding, even from the provincial government.

In its first year last year, the festival was announced in January and the event held in June, a mere 6 months later. It was able to get as much as $17 million in funding to cover the costs. And it showed. I was told they wanted to make Ontario’s Luminato equivalent to Quebec’s Montreal Jazz Festival, which apparently only received a mere $3 million in funding.

Admittedly, the sheer volume of organization and costs needed to put off an event of such magnitude can cost a bundle. And while the Art of Jazz festival is nowhere near this size, the amount of funding and organization was quite interesting to compare against.

I have two more shifts to complete and I’ll be done with Luminato for this year. It should prove to be exciting as I am set to usher Homelands, another widely talked about performance by none other than Laurie Anderson.

Yeah for volunteering!

It was a gorgeous night with little humidity, brisk wind, and no precipitation at all. So I tested my luck today and tried walking home from downtown Toronto. Starting off from Varsity Arena at St. George and Bloor, I made the trek slowly but surely along Bloor street heading towards the Danforth area. It was interesting as it had been a while since my last walk along Bloor street. Stores had changed, lots of construction disrupted traffic, and the sidewalks were bustling with pedestrians even at 9:30pm.

As I walked along the bridge towards the Danforth, I noticed some shops that caught my attention. Before I knew it, I was sidetracked from going home, and ended up walking along the Danforth admiring the many natural and healthy product related stores that lined the street.

There were an abundance of stores selling “holistic” products, organic foods, health shops, and a trickle gourmet food shops to top the list. I began to enjoy the area for what it was all about. It was really my first time absorbing the shops along the Danforth since moving into the area. At that time, I thought about what a great choice I made.

Eventually making my way home, I admired the homely homes lining the streets, the quiet neighbourhood, and the safe haven that this place seems to be.

All in all, it must have taken me about an hour and a half to walk back. So be it. As long as I enjoyed the walk and found some choice places to dine and shop in, it was worth the time.