Sunday, September 18, 2005

cK's Pals Visit Toronto!

Can you decode the secret message?

It all started out with a phone call at 11am Saturday that went something like this:
"Hey Kelvin! It's Rebecca! You never met me but I'm Alex's (my roomate back in Cali) sister. I'm driving to Canada today and I hope to see you!"

So a little while later, she did arrive with 2 friends - Dawn and Nick. They actually got lost upon arriving in Canada and finally called me to figure out where to go. Once we located each other, they freshened up and got dressed to go out that night. As they had nothing to eat their entire journey, I took them to my cousin, Tricia's restaurant to eat some nice Guyanese-Chinese food.

At the restaurant, we met up with Tricia and Sabrina. The bunch of them ate so fast.. and the food was great! Once their bellies were filled, we were all ready to roll. Tricia and Sabrina came with us. The first destination was to go to my friend, Anita's apartment in downtown Toronto where she was having a party. After that, if people wanted to, was to head to Afterlife Niteclub where Anita put us on guest list. So we arrived at the party just after 11. Everyone at her party apparently was clearing out and leaving to make the 11:30pm guestlist. Anita was going to a place called Therapy Lounge, where admission was free - so we said we'd meet her there.

We all pile up in the ride and head down to Toronto's Club District - on Richmond St. I find a parking lot on King Street -- $20! No time to bargain, just park the car and get the night started. As we are walking towards Therapy Lounge, Nick, Dawn and Rebecca's eyes were all looking at how packed with people the streets were. Every corner there was a lineup for entry to some random night club, everyone dressed up. Almost every few steps, there is another person handing us reduced admission tickets to some nightclub. I collected about 20 of them filling my pockets for "just in case".

We arrived at Therapy Lounge which had a nice bouncer at the door and no lineup whatsoever. There was no admission charge just like Anita said. We walked into the dimly lit lounge that had a cozy feel to it reminding me of some Long Island nitespots I used to venture to. It wasn't crowded at all - well at least not yet. The whole group of us wanted to explore it more, so we ventured to the back patio, then went up a whole set of stairs, then found at the top a bookroom with a whole bunch of books and neat tables and leather couches. The books you could actually read. It seemed like a study room that you would drink your martini in. Anyways, it was nice. We then ventured back out and told Anita we were going to try and get into Afterlife.

The whole group of us (Tricia, Sabrina, Rebecca, Dawn and Nick + myself) headed to Afterlife. On our way we meet a guy who gives us 6 reduced admission tickets to a place called Dream Lounge. The deal was $5 before 1am and $3 drinks -- that is an unbeatable deal. So I keep the tickets for "just in case". We approach Afterlife and see that the lineup is a whole block. Forget that! We just changed plans and now we are going to Dream Lounge. The lineup was a breeze, we didn't have to wait long and the bouncer was a complete gentleman. Once we get inside the club, there was a lot of people dancing having a good time. The place had a good amount of space, low light and bed like couches. I guess that's where the name "Dream Lounge" comes from.

Rebecca just started jammin, having a great time. Dawn was feeling out the vibes checking it out and slowly working to a groove. Nick was almost like a fish out of water, but slowly adjusted to the whole vibe and experience. Tricia and Sabrina went straight for the bar! We danced the night away, having a blast. Rebecca totally showed me some dance moves that reminded me of her great bro, Alex. Dawn held the dancefloor down like she owned it. Nick surprised me and got right into the groove.

Everyone had a great time. We danced until we had enough - which was around 2:30am. The bunch of us had a nice touring walk of the club district as everyone was back emptying out into the streets. As we were walking towards Afterlife, it was now ridiculously crowded in front spilling into the streets. Apparently there was a fight going on and everyone was crowding around like it was a school yard. We were on the other side of the street, still a good distance away. Mounted police on horses were there trying to do crowd control. There was a gentlemen beside me onlooking who appeared to have been there for a while. He told me earlier that the whole crowd was peppersprayed for getting out of control. Tricia and Sabrina said they knew someone who was at the club that night and walked into the crowd. The guy beside me spoke out loud to them, "I wouldn't go in there, I wouldn't go ---", his voice trailed off as he saw that his advice was pointless.

Just as the 2 girls went into the crowd, another fight broke out right near the outside of the crowd where a guy totally grabbed one guy and hit him in the head with something. Then punched him down. The other guy did not look like an agressor at all and looked to be at the wrong place at the wrong time or something. Just as I was about to take the group and go back to the car before gun violence erupted, Tricia and Sabrina then rejoin us and we continue our walk to King Street.

I had to let Rebecca, Dawn and Nick have a taste of Toronto's world famous street sausages. Nowhere else are they this good. Dawn passed on the sausage while Rebecca and Nick had an Italian Spicy Sausage. Always a treat! We chilled in a park taking pics, eating the sausages while police cars flew by on King Street.

After having those scrumptious late night eats, I took our out-of-towners for a quick walk to the base of the CN Tower and SkyDome, er... Rogers Center. The night was a little chilly at 4am...but the sky was clear. Looking up at the CN Tower at night was trippy. We went to the Skydome area and hung out there taking weird pics of ourselves. See if you can decode the words we made in the photos..

This is the word, "UGLY."	"Hi"	cK , Sabrina and Tricia

After doing that set of madness, we were really tired... and then went home. Here are the remaining pics for the night.

Dawn and Rebecca	Dawn, Rebecca and Nick	Tricia and Sabrina
Outside of Afterlife	More crowds	Scene on King Street

Dawn at Penelope's Greek Cuisine	Another pic of Dawn

Everyone in the park	Tricia and Sabrina