Love is all around…

(Smiley meal)…

I keep making promises about blogging daily, or even weekly and I keep breaking my promises. I wish I had more time! More time to see friends, to read, to actually sit down and do nothing except enjoy a single malt. But the days of running a software firm are busy, clients demanding (and how much we love them) and projects are calling… so I am left with making the occasional post.

I started my little love experiment over 3 weeks ago. The idea was to let all my friends, enemies, colleagues or perfect strangers feed me for the month of October. I did not buy any food. No shopping, no groceries, no cooking… and it has been a most marvelous month. I ate so much that I now need to go on a diet (or run more)! I initially asked "my love circle" to feed me two square meals a day but I settled for one meal a day as really it was impossible to have the time to have two meals a day with people! From October 6 to October 31 (today) I had twenty five meals and spent time with over fifty friends I have not seen in a long, long time.

I want to tell you all how much I loved seeing you, sharing a meal and enjoying your company. Of course sometimes you got to see an exhausted Leila making it to dinner after a 6-8 hours flight, jetlag, lack of shower and eyes propped open with toothpicks but hey at least I got to see you! Other times you sent me a reminder about dinner, or a play or a drink only to find out that through my poor organization, palm pilot crash or blackberry busyness that I double booked myself or forgot what country I was in. But… all you need to know today is that:

• I loved spending time with you all.
• I loved that you took the time to share your homes, meals and adventures with me.

I unfortunately did not take enough pictures, nor keept track of all meals… but I want to thank you all for feeding me, entertaining me, telling me about your projects and what’s new in your life. I am looking forward to seeing you all again very soon: Adriana, Adrienne, Allison, Amos, Amrik, Anthony, Bob, Ron, Chris, Curtis, David, Dorothy, Doug, Idee (we have an Idee breakfast/lunch weekly!) Imran, Mark, Marie Shophie, Maya, Microsoft, Office 2.0, Paca, Patrick, Paul, Paul, Paul, Reg, Simon, Suzanne, Steve, Stirr, Sutha, Warren and everyone I will still be lunching and dinning with: Jevon, Greg, Trevor, Pete, Hamton, Paul, Lynda, Mark, Marty, Paul (again), Cathy, Julia, oh lord perhaps I can do with cooking for the rest of the year.

I uploaded some photos and you can view a small album here. I will add more images as I get around to it.
Forgive me if you emailed me and I have not responded – so so sorry. Ping me again.

Love is all around.

Some of the meals include:
Dinner at Terroni (Toronto)

Dinner at Asia Republik (Toronto)

   

Lunch at Le Petit Dejeuner (Toronto)

Lunch at Bar Italia (Toronto)

Dinner at Saravanaa (Toronto)
 

   

Dinner at The Claremont (Berkeley)

and many more pictures that I will post a link to tomorrow…

One last thing: you guessed it: I am vegetarian. I eat cheese and eggs… but no meat, no fish, no chicken, no animals…