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)