Charmaine NORONHA

Real Life Stories
More than two years later, I’m still recovering.
“Are you OK?” asks a friend as blood trickles from my mouth. My trembling lip is rapidly swelling, and my head is spinning.
“I think so?” I say, looking up slowly.
Our Vinyasa-style yoga class had just drawn to a close, and my friend had wanted a photo of herself posing in a headstand between beautifully painted butterfly wings outside of the downtown Toronto yoga studio where we had just attended class. She needed help execut...

As the pressures of the pandemic mount, we look at the police, firefighters and paramedics who help to keep us safe and healthy
The eerie silence that has befallen Canada’s most populous city has become increasingly punctuated by the sound of emergency vehicle sirens. As many hunker down at home, the demands of first responders helping to keep others and the city safe has risen tenfold. And while paramedics, firefighters and police officers signed up for a career that puts their lives at risk...

As police officers, firefighters and paramedics place themselves front and centre, they are becoming increasingly at risk themselves
Earlier this month, Rachel Black, housebound in London, Ont., gathered 25 of her and her spouse’s friends to jump on a Zoom call to wish her husband in Toronto a “Happy Birthday.”
It was a sign-of-the-times quick pivot plan from the in-person surprise party she had initially organized, and a very different birthday for the couple, who normally celebrate in style...

PaySimply app makes payments fast and easy for individuals and small business owners
Times are stressful enough right now without worrying about when your taxes are due — or how much you owe.
Robert Hyde, President of Payment Source, wants Canadians to know there’s a quick and easy way to pay your taxes on time. The PaySimply website and new mobile app let users quickly pay Canadian taxes and bills online with their credit card, PayPal account, and e-transfer; or in-person at any post office ...

Piergiorgio (Peter) Boaretto left his humble life in Italy to start anew in Canada in the 1960s. He married and settled in Woodbridge, Ontario, where the happy couple started their family. He established a successful full-service machine shop in Concord, Ontario — Superior Machining, which still runs today as a family business.
But his real passion was children. Not only his four children and 10 grandchildren, but any and every child he’d meet, recalls his daughter Monica Boaretto.
“Working w...

Taking a historical journey through an island frozen in time.

HAIDA GWAII, B.C.—“Sometimes you feel insignificant, but then you walk on these lands and it lifts you up. You realize everything is connected and that you are as important to the planet as is it to you,” says master basket-weaver April Churchill Davis.
Davis gingerly glides her dainty fingers over a spruce branch as she intertwines the history of basket-weaving with that of Haida Gwaii, a remote archipelago on the north coast of British Columbia. The strength and longevity of the spruce inte...

A gentle breeze wafts through swaying palm trees that dot the glistening ivory sand. In this secluded cove along a private beach in Jamaica’s Oracabessa Bay, the azure ocean is crystal clear. There’s nary a soul for miles. It’s tranquil. Hypnotic. A quantum of solace.
“This is where I would see the commander swimming naked most afternoons,” says an older gentleman, snapping me out of my Caribbean reverie.
The skinny-dipping commander the gentleman is referring to is Ian Fleming, creator of th...

NEAR SAN IGNACIO, BELIZE-“Our Maya ancestors saw caves as a portal to the underworld, often referred to as ‘Xibalba,’ which translates to ‘the place of fear or fright.’ They believed evil spirits, demons and monsters were guarding caves and only elites, priests and their entourage were permitted to access them; commoners were not allowed to go in,” says caving tour guide Gliss Penados.
And yet here I am, a mere commoner, about to descend into the underworld of Actun Tunichil Muknal, also know...

WAILEA, MAUI-“Pick a tail, any tail you’d like,” says Lila Jones, pointing to an oversized bag filled with shiny, colourful mermaid tails lounging on the creamy, butterscotch sand of Makena beach.
I feel like I’ve stepped up to a beach-based game booth where my prize is my being transformed into a sea goddess.
I choose the aqua blue baby and shimmy into the snugly fitting, uh, mermaid tail. “Damn you delicious mai tais,” I think in a post-last-night moment of regret since the tight tail leave...

This article was published more than 5 years ago. Some information in it may no longer be current.
As I careen down a gravelly path encircling Chile’s largest lake, gripping my mountain bike’s handlebars for my dear and sometimes wayward life, I think about whether I’m wearing appropriate underwear should I find myself flung flat out at the bottom of the hill. Funny how your mother’s voice drifts into your head during such moments.
I realize the only thing that might compensate for the impact...

BRANSON, MO.-There are cities that are all about the Christmas holiday season. And then there’s Branson. This southern Missouri city, flanked by the Ozark mountains, amplifies the season to Vegas-style heights.
Five million dazzling lights and light shows, 1,000 decorated trees — including a five-storey special effects Christmas tree — Broadway-style productions of A Christmas Carol and It’s a Wonderful Life, and markets galore.
The 1880s-style theme park Silver Dollar City is home to the Chr...

TORONTO (AP) - Grab your toque (what Canadians call a wool hat) and get your game face on if you’re heading for the NBA All-Star Game in the 6ix -a term coined by rapper Drake, Toronto’s unofficial ambassador, for his hometown.
The 6ix, referring to the city’s six jurisdictions, is just one of several nicknames for Canada’s largest city and financial hub, along with T-dot, Toranna and Toronto the Good. And don’t forget #WeTheNorth, the marketing slogan promoted by Toronto’s basketball team, t...

MARA NORTH CONSERVANCY, Kenya (AP) — It’s not just a safari. It’s a master class in the untamed world, a behind-the-scenes education with experts who are the talking Google gods of wildlife.
That’s what it’s like on safaris that let tourists learn alongside locals who are training to be guides.
The guides, members of Kenya’s Maasai tribe, spend three weeks on a training mission traversing East Africa’s Maasai Mara region under the tutelage of senior guiding experts. And tourists can come alon...

PEMBROKESHIRE, WALES-“Don’t fall, don’t fall, don’t fall,” I repeat in my head. Bone-chilling seawater swirls around me as I scramble over slippery boulders and scale craggy rock faces. Except now I’ve arrived at the section where the whole point is to fall. Well, jump is more accurate I suppose.
While I stand on a cliff above a turquoise ocean, my body trembles as much from fear as from the chill of the brisk spring day. Unless someone pushes me into that ocean, I think, my death by hypother...