So recently, Cam forwarded me this great link about how a guy who gave his 3 year old an iPhone, and how much it’s been a source of entertainment (and relief for the parents) for the child. I was a little skeptical until we went to a party last night.

Last night was the annual Fondue party set up by the Swiss Club of Toronto. It’s a night where we stuff our faces full of unlimited cheese fondue (and for some, booze), and see friends we only see at this event.

Our friends Nicole and Steve were there and they have this beautiful little 3 year old boy named Kyle, who melts our hearts every time w e see him. After a couple hours, Kyle was getting board, so his Dad turns to me and says, “watch this”. He hands Kyle his iPhone. Kyle took the phone, swiped the touch pad, and entered the security code – this kid doesn’t know most of his numbers, but he could enter a numerical code!!

He then flicked through the icons until he found the one he wanted. Then he picked it up and started taking pictures!! He then knew that if he pressed another button, he could colour the picture!!!! This kept him entertained for about 10 mins. Then he started shaking the phone – I jumped thinking I would have to catch it, but his dad reassured me and said, “he figured out that if you shake the phone, it’s like an etcha-sketch – the colours erase!! Un-freakin’-believable!!! I think he took pictures and “coloured” for more then 30 mins. At that point, he had enough, and went back to playing with the other kids. His mom told me that he plays on the computer for about 30 mins every couple of days, and he’s really good at it.

Cam and I both agree that Kyle was a mini-Cam!!! It was super cool to see a child that young be able to figure out something that most adults can’t figure out. It showed me that in small amounts, allowing your child to play with technology is not as bad as I thought it would be. Very cool!

In MId-April we headed down to Port Hope to spend the day with Chuck and Sarah to see some of the various art on exhibit throughout a weekend-long art/open-house. Chuck’s brother René was showing some of his photography along side his mother-in-law’s (Rosemary Freeman) phenomenal water colour paintings.

The day itself was pretty fun and enjoyable, but the best part of the day was when the Freeman’s welcomed us into their home for dinner and great little nature walk. It made me miss home.

I brought along a FlipVideo camera to test out and took some not bad footage that’ I’ve slapped together here… I didn’t do any colour correction work… I probably should have… but enjoy none the less.

To view or download it in Quicktime format here’s a link for you too.

A special thanks to Mr and Mrs Freeman, Gigi and René for welcoming us with open arms. And thanks to Chuck and Sarah for giving us a shout and inviting us to hang out in Port Hope.

When Claire used to work down by the St. Lawrence Market she and her coworkers would visit its Front Street location at least once a month. She was the one that introduced me to their restaurant. Since we both enjoy asian cuisine (thai and japanese are our favourites) Springrolls‘ easily became one of our favourites.

However, now we live uptown, and Springrolls is just out of the way for us. Until recently that is. A new location has opened on Eglinton West, near Yonge street. The location itself has an interesting history; it used to be a Fran’s Diner, a 50’s style 24 hour diner, then it turned into a Hooters and now it’s Springrolls.

Well last night we were reintroduced to an old love, and I missed it. Springrolls, which now have four locations in Toronto, have always had a really cool interior design. This new location is not an exception with its three levels of dark woods, metal highlight and very trendy lighting it was gorgeous. You know how I’m always a sucker for great design… well I was impressed and would easily decorate a space that I would inhabit in the same style at the drop of a hat. (I’ll go back and sneak some pictures at a lter time.)
To make things eve better the attention to detail was apparent, from the menu design, silver ware choices and ambient music, don’t get me started on the bathroom. But I must digress, because I haven’t even mentioned the food, which was everything I remembered it to be.

We ordered a simple menu of favourites, we started with an order of springrolls (who knew they would be on the menu), the menu offered many types, but since Claire is allergic to shrimp we were limited to their traditional or vegetable varieties. We picked their traditional style rolls as they are served warm. They didn’t disappoint.

Claire had noodle and chicken dish that was served with bok-choy, she seemed to enjoy it, but I didn’t taste it as I was quite focused on my own entrée. One of Springrolls’ specials last night was Seafood Pad Thai. I’m a sucker for Pad Thai and I’ve had it from a variety of different restaurants in Toronto. Springrolls own version didn’t disappoint. It contained all the usual ingredients, however instead of a chicken and shrimp combination in had shrimp, scallops and calamari. The dish was delicious, it had a near perfect balance of sauce and noodles (some places drown the dish in the sauce which is essentially fish sauce and tamarind juice) however it had a smidge too much cilantro. It’s not their fault, the recipe does ask for it, but I hate the taste of it.

It was a pretty delicious meal all around. But my favourite part was that it wasn’t all that expensive.

Few little quips though; Claire did notice that the portion sizes were quite a bit smaller, she was hoping to make dinner and lunch out of her entrée which she was used to from the Front Street location. The bathrooms were single, which for a restaurant of that size seemed a little strange. Lastly their waiting area was too small as when we left their were ten people waiting to be seated and we could barely make it out to the door. Oh… and they had no sharks like at the front Street location, I really liked those sharks.