2009 June | Speedtopia

Hello From Toronto – Part 1- A First Little Driving Tour -The City Viewed Through The Eyes Of First-Time Visitors

Posted June 19th, 2009 by admin No Comments »

So my brother is in town, together with his wife and 2 friends from my little home town in Austria. It is everybody’s first time in North America and their initiation to Toronto. Just to give you ideas of dimensions: Austria has a population of about 9 million and the country extends about 900 km from east to west while the Greater Toronto area nowadays probably has about 4 to 5 million people and Lake Ontario alone is over 300 km long. The first thing my visitors noticed was the difference in size: the size of the city, the size of the lake, the size of cars, the size of supermarkets, and even of refrigerators.

On Sunday we started off with a little driving tour of Toronto where I first took my visitors down to the lakefront by the historic Art Deco style R.C. Harris Filtration Plant. All of them love water and to have a lake as big as an ocean so close by fascinated them. After a leisurely drive on Queen Street through the quaint Beaches neighbourhood we parked the car close to the St. Lawrence Market and started our walk around.

Since my brother is a chef and always loves to purchase market-fresh food, I initially took him to the St. Lawrence Market which always has an antique sale on Sunday. The food market is actually closed on Sunday. We checked out the wares from old furniture to cameras to various knick-knacks.

Our exploration continued westwards along Front Street past historic 19th century houses and of course past the famous triangular-shaped Flatiron Building which has a mural on its west side. Approaching Yonge Street we walked past the Hockey Hall of Fame, a historic Beaux-Arts former bank building, the magnificent Royal York Hotel, built in 1929, once the largest hotel in the British Commonwealth.

One of the things that fascinated my visitors most was how old and new can coexist right next to each other: shiny skyscrapers are located right beside historic sandstone churches. Our walking tour continued past Union Station, Toronto’s impressive central railway station, built between 1914 and 1927 as a joint construction project by the Canadian Pacific Railway and Grand Trunk Railway (now the Canadian National Railway). Its monumental scale, classical detail and rational, ordered planning were hallmarks of the style. The station is massive and takes up an entire block on Front Street between York Street and Bay Street. The Great Hall of the Station is 250 ft. long and 84 ft. wide.

Our walk continued further west on Front Street past the Convention Centre to the base of the CN Tower and the entrance to the Skydome, Toronto’s multi-purpose stadium with a retractable roof, now called the Rogers Centre. We then snaked our way up through the Entertainment District to Queen Street where we admired Osgoode Hall, built in the 1830s, and now an oasis of green in the city. An ornate iron fence, built in 1867, renowned for its peculiar “cow gates,” surrounds the property and its beautiful gardens. The cow gates in particular fascinated my visitors.

Our next stop was at New City Hall and Old City Hall, opened in 1899, which racked up construction costs of more than $2.5 million at the time which caused great controversy in those days. Continuing past the Bay Department Store on Queen we passed the Metropolitan United Church, an English style cathedral dating from 1872, whose churchyard was filled with people enjoying the warm day.

Once back in the car we drove through the U of T campus, my Alma Mater and we stopped briefly to check out Hart House and Kings College. Then we headed down to Chinatown at Spadina and Dundas and my visitors marvelled at this exotic, busy market area. Our last stop on the tour was Kensington Market, a lively little neighbourhood full of food and clothing stores and restaurants where we ended up picking up fresh vegetables, dry beans, and a variety of cheeses for some of the scrumptious meals to come. My brother, the chef, marvelled at the variety of food available here, combined with the inexpensive prices a food lover’s dream.

We took our loot home where my husband was waiting for us with a big brunch to strengthen ourselves for attending a birthday party of one of my friends that had the motto of “let out your inner child”. The party was unique in that it involved such time-honoured Toronto traditions as hitting a piñada while a bunch of adults were playing with water guns, chasing one another around the house with buckets of water dropping on the combatants from the second floor.

I think our visitors had a full day, from getting a first taste of Toronto, to participating in a rather eventful birthday party, their first impressions were very positive and they were looking forward to exploring more of this exciting city.

Susanne Pacher
http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-articles/hello-from-toronto-part-1-a-first-little-driving-tour-the-city-viewed-through-the-eyes-of-firsttime-visitors-98532.html

Posted in exotic cars

Secured Loans: Bank Upon your Best Asset to Raise Required Funds

Posted June 18th, 2009 by admin No Comments »

You would certainly not mind to bank upon your best asset (read your home) if you get the chance to raise required funds at low interest rate and flexible repayment terms. The option that will allow you to do so is secured loan. In order to take this loan you have to offer your home as collateral. This means that the home will work as security for the money borrowed through the loan. The security motivates the lender to offer the loan at competitive rate and with terms that favour the borrower.

Taking out a secured loan against your home, you can give shape to any of your dream and desire. There is a plethora of personal needs for which this loan can be used. A secured personal loan can be used to get over with needs like car purchasing, home improvement, holidaying etc. Since a large sum of money is sanctioned through this loan, many people prefer to go for it to carry out costly cosmetic surgery, vacationing in exotic locations and buying flashy cars.

Debt-ridden people prefer to use their home to take secured loans thereby to consolidate multiple debts into one loan. Secured debt consolidation loan enables one to wrap up his entire debts into one package and leave behind the stress and hassles of unmanageable debts. Consolidating your debts in this manner, you can make your debts easily manageable and pay off it in course of time.

People with bad credit record get easy access to secured loans. Because of the security attached to this type of loan, lenders do not take the bad credit history of the borrower seriously. That is why bad credit loans of secured type gets approval rather easily. Yet, experts recommend research and comparison for getting the right loan deal.

Very often people think that they may not get approval for a loan due to their credit adversity and accept the first loan offer they get. There is no guarantee that the loan deal they accept will be best suitable to them. Therefore, exploring the market and comparing various deals to find out the secured loan that matches with oneâs repayment capability.

Bryaan Fred
http://www.articlesbase.com/loans-articles/secured-loans-bank-upon-your-best-asset-to-raise-required-funds-133881.html

Posted in exotic cars

Smell Your Way to a Better Mood

Posted June 14th, 2009 by admin No Comments »

You can change your mood by changing what you smell. Quick: Which of our five senses more than any other influences our behavior? Triggers our memories? Controls our cravings? Enhances our moods? Ignites our sexuality?

If you replied, “It’s our sense of smell,” then you’re smarter than most. We live in a culture that overwhelms us with stimulation delivered through sight and sound. Even taste and touch are highly valued and utilized to expand our experience of pleasure and sensuality. But our sense of smell has been relegated to the bottom of the sensory pile. It’s an unfortunate place to be for a sense that’s primarily responsible for our quality of life.

Unlike the other senses, our sense of smell is always on duty. Each day, without any thought, we breathe in over 23,040 times and inhale over 238 cubic feet of air. Each breath floods our smell receptors with information about the environment we live in. Smells of pleasure. Awareness. Danger. Sexual attraction. We are capable of recognizing approximately 10,000 different odors, with each odor having the power to influence our moods and behavior. However, most people would be hard pressed to identify more than a couple of dozen. Such is the mystery of this enigmatic sense.

Smell has a powerful effect on behavior. Certain smells can brighten our moods and lift our spirits, like the smell of a good cup of coffee and warm cinnamon buns straight from the oven. An exotic perfume or the smell of your lover’s skin can lead to intimacy and romance while other scents bring a sense of calm and make us feel at home.

Some smells we find repulsive and alert us to danger. Just think of your reaction to the stink of a dead skunk on the side of the road or the smell of burning toast. Such strong smells usually trigger an instant reaction and alert us to take corrective action.

Aromas delivered directly to the smell receptors in our brain have a powerful effect on our behavior. Since birth, our smell receptors have been busy cataloguing every smell that passed through our nostrils. As newborn infants snuggled up against our mothers’ breast, the smell of her skin gave us a deep sense of comfort and safety. That first smell, lodged deep within our memory, still has the power to trigger intense feelings.

The environment of our childhood, with its varied smells, fragrances and odors, built the platform of scent memories, which determines how we respond to the hints of those scents today. The smell of a musty basement, Thanksgiving dinner at grammas or the gym locker room after a basketball game are all powerful triggers that transport us back into our world of memories.

The brain processes information delivered through our other senses by cognitive identification first, which in turn triggers an emotional response. But our sense of smell is unique. It does the opposite. Our smell receptors are directly connected to the limbic system, which controls emotional behavior and memory. Incoming odors first trigger an emotional response, which is then followed by cognitive recognition. That’s why, for example, you’ll respond to the relaxing effects of lavender long before you can identify the specific aroma.

Aromas have long been used to influence behavior. Legend has it that Cleopatra perfumed the sails of her ship sent to meet Anthony so the wind would carry a hint of her desire. For centuries, doctors would diagnose various diseases by smell alone and we all know that our shopping experience is influenced by the smells funneled through the air conditioning systems. Smells are being introduced everywhere – in our household products, our homes, our cars and office environments.

If smells are such powerful influencers of moods and behavior doesn’t it make sense that changing the smell can also change the behavior? Research is pointing to that probability. So while the sense of smell is the least known of our senses, it has recently emerged as a new medical frontier. As research identifies how odor is identified and transmitted, we will be able to use a variety of scents to obtain the maximum benefits we desire. It is the scents-ible approach to creating health and well-being.

Luke Vorstermans
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/smell-your-way-to-a-better-mood-342453.html

Posted in exotic cars

Lexus ISF vs BMW M3 Fifth Gear I

Posted June 14th, 2009 by admin 25 Comments »

http://www.motorbeam.com/ Tiff Needell and Jason Plato dogfight in the Lexus ISF and bmw m3.

Duration : 0:3:52

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Technorati Tags: 14, bmw, Fifth, Gear, ISF, jason, lexus, m3, Needell, Plato, season, Tiff, vs

Tags: 14, bmw, Fifth, Gear, ISF, jason, lexus, m3, Needell, Plato, season, Tiff, vs Posted in bmw m

Lotus Elise Review – Everyday Driver

Posted June 14th, 2009 by admin 10 Comments »

The guys fell in love with this car a while ago, here’s the review from an early test episode. More at www.EverydayDriver.com.

Duration : 0:3:47

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Technorati Tags: elise, Everyday Driver, exotic, lotus, Mulholland, Review, sports car, Video

Tags: elise, Everyday Driver, exotic, lotus, Mulholland, Review, sports car, Video Posted in lotus cars

Supercars Part II

Posted June 14th, 2009 by admin 25 Comments »

A continuation I made of the tribute video made by my brother about Supercars.

I finally finished this vid after a lot of work and I’m proud to present the second part, picking up right where my brother’s awesome vid left off. Enjoy!

The Intro Song: The Theme from The Rock
Main Song: Point of Impact (Original Mix) by Pulser

Duration : 0:9:32

supercars/supercars-part-ii#more-4364″ class=”more-link”>Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: Car, carrera, enzo, ferrari, ford, gt, lambo, lamborghini, mclaren, mecedes, murci, porsche, SLR, supercar, Vector, veyron

Tags: Car, carrera, enzo, ferrari, ford, gt, lambo, lamborghini, mclaren, mecedes, murci, porsche, SLR, supercar, Vector, veyron Posted in supercars

Top Gear – Ascari KZ1 – BBC

Posted June 14th, 2009 by admin 25 Comments »

The Top Gear team get their hands on the Ascari KZ1. This super sports car isn’t for the faint of hearts or wallets. More hot automobile programming from BBC Worldwide.