the many solitudes

11 Comments


Canada, apparently, is a cultural mosaic – unlike the United States which is a melting pot.

(Oh, an aside – fasten your seatbelts, ladies and gentlemen. It’s going to be a long ride today.)

Or so we were always told in public school… and I never really thought this through until the other day when I decided that I should make my dear friend Robert a special mosaic for Canada Day. He, unlike me, is very patriotic and so is having a Canada Day party to mark the official birthday of our country (in 1867 – I know that much at least).

So, I went searching for the provenance of the term “cultural mosaic”. Here’s what I found, courtesy of the ever-insightful Wikipedia:

The first use of the term mosaic to refer to Canadian society was by John Murray Gibbon, in his 1938 book Canadian Mosaic. Gibbon clearly disapproved of the American melting-pot concept. He saw the melting pot as a process by which immigrants and their descendants were encouraged to cut off ties with their countries and cultures of origin so as to assimilate into the American way of life.

Hmm. This, although interesting to me, did not much help me with planning my mosaic. So, I hit the forest for inspiration, like so many Canadians before me:

…and came up with this:

Unfortunately, the only colour of glass that is lacking in my brobdignanian stash (and if you think my yarn stash is over the top, people, you should see my stash of stained glass!) is… you guessed it, green.

So, I had to make do with another colour:

The glass there is actually pink, by the way. I still really don’t know how to operate this camera.

I started by mapping out the leaf shape on a handy dandy glass frame that I scored from the unofficial dumping station behind my apartment building a couple of years ago:

I then – much like the Fathers of Confederation, I suppose –

(If you’ve visited here before today, you may well recognise Sir John Eh?… he’s the one with his head in the middle of the biggest window. I do get a kick out of how painters through the ages have found very similar ways to point out the important guy in the scene..

…but, as ever, I digress.)

Where was I again? Oh yes. Anyway, much like the Fathers of Confederation, I pieced together a symbol of an emerging country, and ended up with this:

(I will pause officially here to note that I actually tried to consult with Sir John Eh? about this but apparently he had started the Canada Day celebrations a bit earrrrly …

…but as JJ reminds me, Sir John Eh was actually from Glesga Scotland.)

So, I decided it was all guid, and progressed apace. In so doing, let me tell you that I injured myself.

This is partly because, when starting the mosaic, I realised that I had left the top of my trusted tile adhesive and when I went to use it, I was faced with a concrete glue pile. So, having no time to spare, I had to whip out the glue gun, and became careless:

Let it be known that I do suffer for my art. I am a proud Canajan in this regard, but our schizophrenic cultural identity as Canajans (that is, half Brit, half Murcan) leads me to adopt the British part and suffer in (virtual) silence. By the way, Robert, eventual recipient of the mosaic, does not use the internet and so will not be reading this post. So, let’s just keep this our little secret (at least, until he sees me tomorrow and says “Hey girl, what’s up with all those cuts and burns on your hands?!?!?!).

Anyway, despite my mortal wounds, I carried on –

(I include this photo, although it’s rather blurry, because I thought that the headline that was inadvertently captured on the underlying newspaper was spookily Canadian. And, by the way, I would welcome any other Canadians, if you feel otherwise, to post a comment or Email me and tell me so – and why. I won’t bore you with my theories at present).

And, eventually, I ended up with a microcosm of what it must have looked like here when they were building all these vast railways and roadways…

Voila!

Now, it’s time for me to confess something. In working on this “cultural mosaic”, I felt for the first time in years a real love for my country. I have been disillusioned of late, really. Champagne socialist angst, perhaps – although I do realise I live in a wonderful country, bit by bit our standard of living is being eroded, and I have seen big changes in my adult lifetime.

(I’ll note as an aside that to me it is frustrating (although interesting) that Michael Moore, for example, has decided to sell a message about the United States by painting my city and country as a gun-free paradise where everyone leaves their doors and cars unlocked and can just attend at hospital and get whatever treatment they want, without cost. That may have been the case twenty years ago, but it is not today. Sorry, Michiganer (Michiganite? Michigonian? friends. I know that Mike has done a great power of guid – but I’m an unhappy Canajan with his portrayal of the situation here and I’ve written a strong E-mail or two!)

But then, I’ve had to get off my leftie high horse and think about what being a Canadian actually means to me. And so I had to give some thought to why I ended up a Canadian in the first place… because of people like my mother’s father who came here at 14, shipped off from Greece to send money home to his family, and made a good life and prospered. And my mother’s grandparents, who came here similarly and did well.

And then, on the way to work today I saw this freebie magazine which I usually ignore

And then I had to remember how moved I was to be at Pier 21 in Halifax and see a photo of the boat that my father travelled here on for a new life:

So, it was very, very good to have the reminder that people came here for a better life and had it… as a result of which, I get to be a lawyer here with a decent pay and get to whine and rant on my blog about the state of the politics in my country, without censure. And, by the way, I can also afford to live next to a beautiful forest where I can go and stroll and steal a maple leaf to inform my artistic endeavours, such as they are.

And then I had to think about the “cultural mosaic” bit from the writer I quoted at the outset – and it finally makes sense to me. I get to live here, speak and write and read Greek, cook Greek, live with a scottish guy, have him and everyone else respect my heritage and also my lifestyle choices. And still be considered a “Canadian”. This is truly a gift.

So, I must make a deep dark confession – I am, indeed, a proud Canadian. I think that my mosaic for Robert reflects the shifting contours and the uncertainty of this nation. And I’m very happy that Robert is hosting this party, and was so excited about buying Canada Day decorations, which made me think I should make him a special Canada Day present, etc. etc. etc.)

(JJ, himself a new Canadian who loves Canada more than I do, said that the piece reminded him of the Magic Eye contests in the paper… you know the ones, if you cross your eyes you see the true image? The true image of this piece is the maple leaf).

As it happens, to me the mosaic looks abstract – I had originally thought to make the background a blatant contrast colour, then went against this. And I’m happy with this choice (although JJ is not) – I believe it better represents Canada as a place where change and adaptability… and progress…are always possible. I’m calling it “Many Solitudes”.

Happy Canada Day! Off now to cook the stuff I’m bringing to the party and make sure the beer is chilling…

why there will be no PayDay excursion today…

9 Comments

No, this is not an ad for the upcoming summer knitting chick-flick film blockbuster entitled “How Blue Was My Valley”.  I can only wish.

Instead, this is a photo of only one of the yarns that I forgot… yes, forgot!… that I had in the stash.   It was like Christmas in (almost) July when I finally got around to sorting out the stash room yesterday, let me tell you.

I should mention that I think most of the yarns I will show in this post were purchased within the past year (or so say the vague flickers of my brain when I was struggling to remember whether I had actually bought this stuff, or whether the Yarn Fairy had been overly generous of late.  I know – nay, I hope – that the knitters who visit this board will understand this ongoing problem of moment-specific amnesia that I apparently suffer from.  That is, I buy the stuff, I photograph it, I post yarn pron on my blog and then the yarn actually ceases to exist.  Hmm.

Anyway, first in the roll call of Great Forgotten Yarns: this gorgeous Handmaiden Lace Silk!

Two skeins of it!  I’m racking my brains trying to remember what it was for.

Next, a skein of Sea Silk in a forgotten colourway:

I do recall that I bought this relatively recently… but that’s it.  I don’t know where.

And next?

Ah, yes.  This one, I remember.  Phew.  I acquired this on a trip to Knitomatic – I went there frantically after work one day, having decided that I just had to make a geometric rib-fronted sweater by Norah Gaughan right then.  I could have bought something more pedestrian like Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, but also just had to have some cashmere.  This was at least five months ago.

And this?

Again, another must-have from Knitomatic.  It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?  It certainly doesn’t deserve to languish, forgotten and unloved, in my stash pile of stuff on the floor drawer…

Man, my back is starting to get sore what with all the self-flagellation, really.  I had even managed to forget about this:

Schaefer Anne in perhaps the most beautiful colour ever.

And what’s this, then?

Ah, yes – some Berocco suede that I was desperate for longer ago than I care to remember.  I entered a swap with Natalie to get my hot little hands on it. I was going to make the Snapping Turtle Skirt by Norah Gaughan with it…

And, finally this:

More forgotten Lace Silk!  And again, two skeins.  I have no clue when I bought this, where it came from, etc.

And actually, I must confess… that isn’t really the “finally” item.  There are more photos – but I’m starting to get rather embarrassed.  As I was, by the way, when JJ ignored the crime scene tape that I had glued the stash room door shut with while cleaning and came in to see me surrounded by … well, yarn.  I then told him that I had forgotten buying much of it (all right, all right… I then confessed that I must have been in a trance when I bought half of the stuff that he saw surrounding me on the floor).  He just shook his head and, thankfully, left.

You may have noticed that I had taken most of the photos on top of a piece of graph paper with scrawls on it.  That was my attempt to catalogue the stash.  I soon gave up… but the list does document:

– eight skeins of Malabrigo laceweight (each around 500m)

– nine skeins of Fiddlesticks laceweight (each 600m)

– nine skeins of Misti Alpaca regular laceweight (each 400m)

– seven skeins of Misti Alpaca Handpaints laceweight (each 800m)

– eight skeins of Blue Moon Silk Thread (each 1100m)

– two skeins of Claudia lace thread (each 1100m)

And, that’s without the Handmaiden.  And, that’s also only laceweight stuff.  It does not take into account the Super10 stash (which now has its very own container) or other lovely stuff like the milk yarn that Amy had so kindly sent me some time back… or the lovely yarn from Clarabelle (not naming the provenance as it is very, very hard to come by and my UK blog friends are having problems getting enough for their own needs).

Plus, it appears that I now officially have enough laceweight yarn to cover Canada with lace.  And, in case you weren’t aware, Canada is a very, very large country indeed.

So, that’s it.  No more PayDay excursions for a while.  And yes, I know I’ve said this before, but this time I mean it.  Really.

Off now to phone the insurance company to up my household coverage…

Cheers,

Kristina

PS.  And, no, Amy – you can’t have my yarn.  Sorry.

summertime… and the living is (gr)easy!

Leave a comment

Well, summer must finally have arrived in Ontario, as attested to by the new copy of the Bible that I found at the All Hallowed Store of Liquors yesterday:


(ducking to avoid mass chunk of ice which will inevitably fall on my head, resulting from freak late June snowstorm and provoked by tempting the Fates!).

This was perfect timing, as I’m trying to plan my mid-August party. Now, between all the delicious recipes in this mag and those in another book I recently got from the library:

I now have a ridiculous number of new recipes to try. JJ, cringing at my evergrowing scrawled list of “must-makes”, reminded me yesterday that were I actually to make all the food I wanted to make for this party, I could likely feed … oh, the whole building and the two next door besides!

So, what’s the problem! Opa!!

Speaking of “opa”, I had to laugh because the Bible featured a feta and watermelon salad as a “new trendsetting item”. I have been making this for at least two years and Nigella Lawson had a version in one of her books at least five years ago. Try it out – her recipe is at this link, and I’ve had at least 40 rave reviews by now.

But, actually, this discussion is altogether too healthy, given the provisions laid in yesterday for kickoff of Summer in the House of Brouhaha:

Get this! New, scottish-style beer! And it’s one of the “bargain priced” ones. Go figure:

This beer went very well indeed with a very greasy (and very delicious) indian buffet we got to pig out on at a party last night…lamb vindaloo and meat samosas and all the naan you could hide in your purse stomach.

And, more guid news – the Laundry Room drought is over!!

Check out the fancy unopened mango bath products gift box!

And, in light of my whine about meetings the other day, this was a particularly welcome find:

Here’s the original poster from Despair, Inc.:

There is some peculiar truth to that. Must be some mathematical equation out there regarding quantum of intellect and how it flies out the window during meetings!

But why am I talking about meetings, anyway?! It’s Sunday. Off to eat some chips make some breakfast, kick JJ’s lazy @$$ out of bed and see what the day holds.

Happy Sunday!

tips on surviving meetings, etc.

12 Comments

Well, the types of meetings I must go to these days, I can’t be seen to be taking knitting/crafts, alas. Some people (not my immediate coworkers, I will hasten to add) have decided that it does not look like I’m paying attention, despite the fact that I’ve told them time and again (and again, and again) that needlecrafts help to focus my attention in meetings. 

So, instead, I take this:

This, people, is one of the most brilliant tools I’ve seen for getting through two and three hour meetings and looking like you are actually doing work.  Meanwhile, you are reading jokes, doodling with suggestions and generally having fun. 

My genius partner JJ bought me this at the airport when leaving for London in December, saying “This wuid be a grrrreat thing for all those meetins ye have to go tae, right?”.  His less genius partner agreed, and even took it back to the office in January – only to lose it in a pile of paperwork until quite recently.  But recently, it emerged, and has provided great hilarity. 

(Now, I really must confess… I wanted to bring my copy of Wreck This Journal to the ubiquitous meetings.  

However, I thought that even in the relatively laid-back work environment I enjoy, people might look askance at my ripping/pouring coffee on/stomping on a book during a meeting – particularly since they are all legal researchers for a living, and consequently love books.  But this begs the question, while on this topic – Holly [who put me onto this book in the first place], what’s up with your own copy??)

Anyway, if you need something to pass the time during work meetings and you can’t knit/crochet/otherwise craft/scheme there, pick up a copy of the Procrastinator Doodle Pad.  You won’t regret it, I promise.  

Now, although I suspect this is not the case for most of my regular readers, I, however luddite, am aware that there is a work-meeting-acceptable device already on the market.  I think it’s called a “Blackberry”.  Anyway, whatever it is called, Brouhaha, the Voice of Wisdom, is here to tell you all: 

Just because you’re diddling with an electronic device under the table, people still know what you’re doing – you are checking your Email, talking with your girl/boyfriend, wife/husband, etc.  Don’t pretend you’re actually doing work. If you were actually doing work, you wouldn’t be in this meeting.  And, by the way, there is no way you are so important that the person who sent you that urgent E-mail can’t wait another hour for a response.

(The following will only apply for those who are over 31 years of age.  Please correct me if I’m wrong about this, by the way.  I’m turning 38 shortly and for some reason this is bothering me.)  Surely you are old enough to remember the days where there wasn’t even any voicemail and people had to take down messages on paper slips.  Forget about the computer age.  Just give yourself some time to focus and relax and hark back to a time where others didn’t expect an immediate response the minute they pressed “send” on their message. Meditate upon a time that there was no “send” button at all. 

I do realise that the above message was rather hypocritical given that I am communicating it to you on… a blog!  However, relative luddite that I am, I still believe that we should use technology rather than technology using us.  I’m also a firm proponent of the idea that, when killing time in boring meetings, it should be kept non-tech.  So, pick up a pen and paper instead and doodle.  And, just in case you thought you were saving the environment by not doodling… it’s possible, for example, to doodle on newspaper.  

When I become dictator, by the way, I will authorize all sorts of activities to be done globally during meetings, including knitting and crafts.   (And, on that topic, I will promise an actual knitting related post on Monday 30 June… really.  I still do knit.  Honestly.)

Why, you may ask, will I not just ban meetings altogether when I become dictator? Well, I’ve thought about it… and the fact is that I believe as humans, we need to meet.  And talk.  And be bored. It’s part of the human condition and partly, I’m sure, what has led you to this blog. 

Thus spake Brouhaha. 

Wishing you all a great Friday and weekend.  And, to those who may have other reasons to celebrate this particular weekend, happy Pride!

Oh, and a PS – I do hope Spain wins the Eurocup.  The Greeks and Turks having been eliminated, this is the last dark and swarthy team I can cheer for (I would say “root for” but my Australian friends would snigger and tee-hee, and JJ would then get upset). 


Viva Espana!

 

 

 

no soup for you!

8 Comments

It might seem paradoxical to write about soup at this time of year, when the temperatures (at long, long last) are climbing.

Well, welcome to my tortured world. For some reason, I suffer intense cravings for soup once the temperature climbs past 25C/77F/40million with the humidex.  These cravings continue all summer and finally wind down around – oh, October or so.

So, what is a girl to do when she works in an increasingly chi-chi foo-foo part of town where the average bowl of soup sets you back – oh, $10 or so? Which, by the way, she has no intention of shelling out at any point, let alone where such things as “apricot” and “lentil” are included in the ingredient list for one fancy dan soup?

Why, make up her own fancy award-winning recipes, of course!

And, I lied in the subject line.  That’s just what I told JJ yesterday when he called me a right weirdie for attempting to make soup out of the leftover curry from dinner.

Never without a witty riposte (don’t you hate that?!) he said “Ye know ah can’t stand that Seinfart wanker.”  Well, if he hates Seinfeld so much, why the hell does he know who the Soup Nazi is, I ask you?!

But I digress.  There will, however, be soup for you – that is, if you’re crazy enough to try this recipe.  Drumroll, please…

Mulligastrone a la brouhaha

What, you ask, is “mulligastrone”?  Well, obviously it is a combo of mulligatawny and minestrone.  (Oh, and you don’t think I saw you rolling your eyes?!?  Well, if Rachael “too chipper by half TV chef” Rae can make even more millions by adding water to spaghetti and meatballs and call it “stoup” (“thicker than soup, thinner than stew, hee hee, old family recipe, tee-hee!”), then why the hell can’t I take some liberties?  Eh?

Now, because I’m Greek and we don’t believe in written recipes, there is no actual recipe for this.  But that makes it more fun, doesn’t it?

First off, take some stock which you have slaved over a hot stove preparing or have pulled out from your freezer, having slaved over a hot stove preparing it some time back:

Now, so as not to lose my future multimillion dollar TV chef credentials, I assure you that prepackaged stock never actually gets used in my house.  However, so as not to intimidate those less culinarily gifted than me, I always put my “product of slaving over hot stove for several hours” stock into recycled tetrapaks which I … oh, never mind.

Put your stock in a saucepan and heat until it is at a low boil (or, as us TV chefs are wont to say, a rrrrrrrrolling boil!).

Oh, I almost forgot.  If you like super-spicy food or, like me, your tastebuds have been almost completely destroyed by chainsmoking, you might want first to heat a small amount of canola or other plain oil in said saucepan then add a heaping spoon of this stuff:

Turn down to low and cook about 2 minutes or until it starts to break down and smell fabulous.  Then add your stock.

Second, put in some small soup-sized pasta:

How much? you ask?  Hell, I don’t know.  As much as you want.  Somewhere between a handful and the whole package will do… probably closer to the former, though.

Simmer (at the same low rrrrrrrrolling boil) for 10 minutes or so.

Third, add in your leftover curry.

(This, by the way, was beef vindaloo that I bought pre-made because it was on sale.  I also added half a can of chickpeas to it.  Chickpeas or some other kind of beans will be essential for the “strone” component of the mulligastrone.)

Put as much in as you want.  If you want a thicker soup, put in some of the curry sauce too.  If, like me, you like thinner broth, shake most of the curry sauce off before putting in the saucepan.  Cook for 5 minutes or so.

Fourth, turn off the heat and stir in some leftover rice from the same curry dinner:

Again, how much is up to you.  Not this much, though.

That’s it!  And now, for little effort, you have a lovely soup that looks like this:

Add some of this, if you’d like:

… and chow down.

Now, the mulligastrone, like most highly spiced dishes, will benefit from sitting overnight.  At least, I think it will.  You see, I have a confession to make – I haven’t actually yet sampled it.  I’m bringing it to work for lunch today and it is the first time I’ve made this recipe.

However, I’m very confident that it will be guid.  Why?  Well, I am Brouhaha, after all.  And don’t you think I look better than Rachael Ray?!?

I’m sure the Food Network will be calling any day now.  Really.  Please wish me luck in my new and exciting career…

And, in the meantime, a very happy Thursday to you all!

stream of consciousness (oh no not again!)

8 Comments

Well, last evening there was a marvellous sunset for a change… partly, doubtless, because yet another thunderstorm looms.  But hey.

Isn’t it good and spooky-looking?  It actually made me covet (even more) one of these masks which I had seen on the Globe and Mail web photo page yesterday

Now, how’s THAT for a craft project?!?  They’re called “devil masks”.  The photo above is of dancers about to do a Spanish folk performance in Barcelona.

Ah, Barcelona.  Home of Gaudi mosaics!

I wish I could be 1/10 this talented… but at the very least I will definetely visit Barcelona as soon as humanly possible (although with the fuel prices where they’re at and the response of the airlines, I will likely need divine intervention to afford an overseas ticket before long.  Sigh.)

But something else is nagging me about Barcelona.  What the hell is it?!

Ah, yes.

I do hope you’ve all seen Fawlty Towers at some point. If so, you must remember Manuel – don’t you?! “I am from Barthelona” Manuel”, who has even been known to talk to Canadians from time to time!

And, there’s even a pinko poster starring Manuel, much to my general amusement!

I was still laughing at this by the time I came home yesterday.  So much so that the new balcony decoration escaped my normally keen eye until I went out to take the sunset photos:

Now, I do have a black thumb and all, but even stunned little me managed to pick up that these are actually fake flowers, not real ones.  I couldn’t figure out what they were doing in a planter with real dirt. So I asked J “His Master’s Voice” J, who is responsible for the landscaping at the House of Brouhaha (and who, I might add, has fallen down severely on the task this year).

JJ: Ah was waiting to see how long it wuid tek ye to notice… (consulting the ever present watch)…only 3 and a half hours.  No’ bad, hen.

KB: What?!?!?  What do you mean?!?  Are you testing me?  Where the hell did you get those anyway?!?

JJ: Ah’m surprised ye don’t recognise them – we’ve both bin trippin over them on the balcony floor this past month or so.

KB: Hey, there are two adults in this house.  If you noticed them a month ago, why didn’t you pick them up then????

JJ:  Ah was waitin to see how long it wuid tek ye to notice…

You see what I put up with?!?  Lucky for me, despite the global warming, the smog, etc., the sunsets in Toronto can still be lovely.

May I say it’s been pleasant chatting with you all?  But now I must away to get the first coffee of the morning…

Happy Wednesday!

some objets d’art

5 Comments

I know, I know… I’ve been rather slack on posting project photos. This is partly because my work on Seascape is going rather slowly, and partly because I’ve taken up work on a rather large-scale mosaic project which I don’t wish to reveal until finished.

(Oh – I’ve also taken up practicing the piano – or in my case, the electric piano-style keyboard, which was until two weeks ago the largest and most expensive dust-collector in my apartment.

However, just to remind my faithful readers (and myself!) that this is primarily a crafts-based blog, here are some photos of the recent balcony work in the House of Brouhaha.

First up, a freeform mosaic (“freeform” meaning nothing is glued down, and so this work can change at a moment’s notice) featuring rocks I collected at the seashore in Inverness, Nova Scotia

Although you probably can’t tell from the photo, this is a water bowl. (Oh, and I should note, the table it’s on was rescued from the back of the apartment building last year but I finally got around to spraypainting it on Saturday). I got the idea from a mosaic book, although that water bowl featured tiles.

Actually, the use of the base bowl (which is a terra cotta thing that is meant to go underneath large planter pots – to this day I don’t know the name) is long overdue as there is a bit of a story behind its acquisition. I had read this idea about a Moroccan style “water bowl” with tiles more than two years ago, and of course needed to find the base right away. I searched up and down the garden centres close to me in Toronto but none of them sold this size (20″) in the clay version, only in plastic.
I had just about given up when JJ and I took a trip down to Kingston to visit my mother. We went for a day journey to Gananoque, about 20 minutes from Kingston, and found a very old-school hardware shop: here’s their blurb on line:

A Tradition in Gananoque, Since 1872
We at Donevan’s Hardware pride ourselves in being a 5th generation family owned and operated business for the past 135 years.
We are an old fashioned down to earth Hardware store. Typically customers come into our store for those hard to find items that no other stores carry.

Well, I am living proof of that statement, really I am. Why? Because I went into this wonderful shop (the type of shop I adore – all sorts of stuff jammed in) and asked if they had such a thing as a 20″ terra cotta dish. Well! I got taken up to the storage attic by one of the proprietors (who was 80 if she was a day) and got a tour of the storage while she looked for this dish, which she “just knew” was there. And so it was. And it cost… gasp!… $35! I had not wanted to spend more than $20 – but just could not refuse. She even insisted on calling up her (80 year old) husband from the cash to come and bring it down for me.

So, sale by sheer embarrassment. Having said that, do check out this shop if it’s still there. You won’t regret it – but just don’t ask for anything you don’t see on the shelf.

But, as ever, I digress.  Anyway, JJ got jealous of my water bowl and rocks so I let him have some of the rocks to put into his special fountain:

Having come across some rather decrepit candles in glasses, I then decided to try a wee experiment – salvaging and chopping up the wax from the dead candles, then putting them back in the pretty glasses with another candle in the middle:

I also put some sea glass in the one at the left as a little experiment.  I’ll let you know how it goes.  So far, so guid.

Oh, and I can’t help but show off another of my Nova Scotia acquisitions: a basalt tea light holder!

Huh?!?  Well, here’s what it looks like at the top:

So, all to say, our balcony is now all ship shape and ready for the party season… day or night!

Happy Tuesday!

my trip to the waterfront

8 Comments

Yesterday, JJ and I headed down to Harbourfront to check out a nautical/maritime festival.  I have not actually been to Harbourfront Centre for some time, and was surprised to see these new motifs all over:

Kinda cute, eh?

I also made some new friends while down there:

The Nautical Festival in itself was a bit of a disappointment.  There were some tall ships, both Canadian…

…and American…

… but we thought there would be more.  Nonetheless, the scenery was quite beautiful for the most part, if rather stormy:

That photo was taken at 2:35 p.m. or so and I was freaked out by the pink sky.

It then started to rain but then the geese came back:

…so we knew it was safe to emerge again

One thing that bothers me about the Toronto waterfront, though, is that it has really been destroyed by development.  For example, turning 90 degrees from the photo above, here is the view:

… and this is a photo I took of one of the ships above from (to me) the wrong angle:

But it’s still not impossible to see what things might have looked like in Toronto before the condomaniacs took over.  JJ talked me into going on a wee boat tout, and I was happy for that – at first.  Here are some of the views we saw of the Toronto Islands:

The water was very still… one day I will become a great photographer and get a true mirror shot in the water, but I was quite happy with this one…

… and here is one of the swans which inhabit some of the Islands:

But, eventually and inevitably, we had to get back to civilisation as we know it

Another thing that saddened me – the second half of the 45 minute boat tour was taken up with describing most of the corporate buildings which line the waterfront coming into Toronto.  Anyone coming to Toronto as a visitor and taking such a tour should really, really know that we have far more to offer than the Bank of Montreal Tower, the Toronto-Dominion Bank towers, etc. etc.

(Having said that, I did get a giggle out of the admission by the tour guide that most of our postcard photos have been subject to airbrushing to get rid of three particularly ugly buildings right in front of the CN Tower.  I would show you the true photo but I was laughing too much to take one, actually.)

Anyway, I’d like to leave you with this lovely photo of the Toronto waterfront… do come and visit, and ignore the whining above.

Happy Monday!

Kristina

summer clothing!

6 Comments

Well, today it is officially summer (although you wouldn’t know it from the weather here – 15C or 59F – my part of Canada is not usually this cold at this time.  We’ve all shucked off our outerwear saying “summer is coming” and we are all freezing as a result).

Anyway, I went out shopping for clothes to celebrate!  

This is the outfit I wore today to work… I’m modelling it on Aphrodite because she was jealous and wanting attention and because, in actual fact, the clothes look better on her than on me. 

I love this skirt.  So did half of my coworkers, who tried to tear it off me.  The best part: the skirt cost only $10 and the blouse $5.  And new, at that!  

The funny part is that the blouse has a statement on the label saying “no child labour involved”.  Which, I guess, means that they’re only paying the adults crap wages.  But, being a champagne socialist, I can’t really worry about that. 

There are even little mirrors in the skirt.  I tried to take a photo but after several attempts was defied.  This was the best photo I could get:

So, today I went back on a quest to buy more $10 skirts. Alas, the shop wasn’t open. However, I did score this at Brava vintage shop:

This is my new wizard Merlin coat. Given that the weather gods insist on it being cool here, I will be wearing it tomorrow together with some black leggings.  There may well be some photos as tomorrow there will be a big huge party of the Tenant Advocates… 

Just check out the detail on this, though:

 

Again, my camera doesn’t really do it any justice. It is shiny and fabulous in real life, and at least one of my coworkers tried to seize it out of my hands saying “Those colours look better on me than on you.”

And, she’s right. Having said that, this excuse didn’t work when she tried a grab for my April Showers either:

If you want to see me in my full splendour, you’ll have to come up to Toronto… but in the interval I wish you all a fabulous weekend… and do go shopping for some cheap summer wear. You won’t regret it.

miscellany

11 Comments

I was really happy to see again this morning that the Globe and Mail shares my predilection for the humble rubber duckie. Curiously enough, they had this thumbnail photo leading to a video of real life ducks who got stuck somewhere.

 

Hmm. Perhaps I should send them a photo essay of my little family? They could become famous!

I’m a bit scattered today because I just received some good news. I’m starting a new job on 1 August as a supervisor of the venerable “lawyers of last resort” who provide last minute legal services to tenants facing eviction at the Landlord and Tenant Board. Best part: my office will be in the same building I’m working in now, one floor up – close to Romni, bead shops, etc! So, three guesses where the little pay raise will be spent and the first two don’t count.

I’m so chuffed that I’m thinking about making myself a fabulous Robot Cake:

I mean, I’d really rather be at the beach:

…or starting up my new “goal-oriented sex” exercise plan that I read about this morning in the Globe:

Yes, yes – wishful thinking, I know.  But humour me, please.  I know I will never have the opportunity to engage in daily “exercise” with James Bond… but could someone explain to me just what the hell is “goal-oriented sex”, anyway?  What “goal” can there be (aside, in the heterosexual context, of either pregnancy or avoidance of same)?  Do we have to have “goals” for everything now, for Goddess’ sake?  Can’t some things just be fun?

Sometimes I despair of the 21st century, really I do.

Time to go and shop for some green frosting for my robot cake now.   A bientot!