Summer in the City!

Earlier this month Toronto had a taste of my homeland. No, it wasn't Will and Kate - they snubbed Toronto on their recent visit to Canada but it was a slice of Yorkshire playing at a specially built theatre across the railway tracks downtown. E. Nesbit's The Railway Children, set in Yorkshire, was staged as a play and I had the pleasure of seeing this very innovative and enjoyable show. I've always loved the story of the three children forced to move 'up North' out of family shame at their father's imprisonment and their subsequent antics along the railway line. I know kids shouldn't play along railway lines but I've always enjoyed the tales of Bobby and her siblings escapades and heroism. This production was very well staged with a real railway track being used to create a moving stage. The highlight, however, was when a real steam train pulled in to theatre!

Toronto's summer festival season kicked off in style this year with the Luminato festival and I was delighted to be able to see my favourite Canadian songstress for free one gorgeous Friday evening. K.D.Lang played an excellent set including many old favourites re-worked with a new twist. However, the show-stopper was her magical performance of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. The guy next to me went to pieces and there was hardly a dry eye to be had around me. That girl sure can sing!

Hallelujah from Becky Smith on Vimeo.

A girl that sure can cook is Wanda Beaver - yes, that is her real name! Somewhat appropriate for a Canadian. Wanda is a pie-maker and runs a Toronto institution, Wanda's Pie in the Sky bakery and cafe. My foodie friend and Guardian.co.uk contributor, Giulia, and I went along one evening to learn Wanda's secrets to the perfect pie. Wanda showed us how to make sour cherry pie and instructed us on the need to have all the ingredients cold, to work quickly but, most importantly, to savour the results. This, we happily did, and my favourite pie of the three we sampled was the pecan and maple syrup pie...truly scrumptious!

Also this month, I had to go on another business trip. This time I jetted across the Pacific to South Korea for a week. This was my fourth visit to the Korean peninsula but the first time I've been beyond the South Korean capital, Seoul. My first few days were spent in Seoul but then I headed south the city of Jeonju in Jelloabuk-do province. My trip included various meetings with staff at the Offices of Education in Seoul and Jeonju, meetings with educational agents, a couple of university visits, presentations to prospective students and meetings with former staff and students of the English Language Program. It was a hectic week but I managed to grab an hour or so in soggy Jeonju (it's rainy season in Korea at present) to explore the traditional Hanok village behind my Korean-style Fawlty Towers hotel. This village has been preserved and houses a very ornately decorated temple as well as traditional craft museums. I enjoyed watching the traditional Hanji paper being made.



Jelloabuk-do is well known for its special food dish, bibimbap. The word means 'mixed meal'. It's basically a metal bowl filled with warm rice and topped with a multitude of vegetable ingredients, seaweed, some meat (usually ground beef), chilli paste and topped off with an egg. Just before eating you mix all the ingredients together and kind of mash it up. My mum always used to tell me off for playing with my food so I think I get a kick out of being able to do this and it being 'the done thing'! I enjoyed the various versions of the dish I sampled during my stay and was also treated to a family-style barbecue night in the countryside. This was very enjoyable apart from the dastardly mosquitoes that decided to attack me. I hate, hate, hate mosquitoes with a passion!

It's been good to escape the evil critters and get back to Toronto which is now dry and very hot. The newly developed man-made beach close to my home is now my favourite local hang-out and I suspect I shall be spending quite a bit of time at Sugar Beach (next to the Redpath sugar refinery) this summer watching the boats go by. I love this time of year in Toronto!