Books are better than stones

Today, I checked out the exhibit at the ROM on Mesopotamia, where civilization all began. While objects are important, i just can't get into that "small" stuff.  I prefer a good book. 

 (Overheard outside the museum:
Dude 1: it's, like, cool stuff that Indiana Jones collects.
Dude 2: Indiana Jones? You mean, like, artefacts?
Dude 1: yeah man, artefacts.
Dude 2: cool.
They didn't go in. Guess I'm not alone.)

A few years ago, shortly  before the Arab uprisings, I travelled with a small group to Jordan and Egypt. Try as I might, I could not get into the books on the temples and such we were going to see, but I loved the books on Nasser and the revolution, the Belle Epoque that preceeded it, the recent kings of Jordan. While there, I enjoyed Cairo, the Nile cruise, the people, but enough with the temples already! 

Now I'm going to Turkey --  with roughly the same group -- and I'm pretty sure this trip will better meet my tastes. A week in Istanbul with lots of time to see the modern city as well as the tourist musts -- but no ruins! And I can't imagine a better time to go, with the pushback against islamicism going on now. (An offshoot of the group has added a few days in Epheseus at the end, but I've seen all the roman ruins I care to see in my lifetime so I'm skipping it. )

By luck, the good folks of TIFF are presenting a week long series of contemporary Turkish films directed by women.  I'll manage to see 3 or 4, and I'm very excited of the opportunity to see contemporary works just before I go. It feels like I'll have a 'language' in common with some of the people we'll meet there.

I guess I finally understand the type of travel that interests me. History, yes. Ruins, no.

Team building with the Jays

I admit it: I'm not a team player. Not if it means playing stupid charades, writing poems about what I love about my job (I kid you not) and other such juvenile activities. In fact, I find these demeaning more than anything.

But (of course there's a but!) I do love an afternoon at the ballpark. I love baseball. Not the distractions -- the rock music, the jumbotron, the games --  but the game itself.  I am always transported back in time at the ballpark. Everything becomes simple again.

I like the pace. It's not slow, it's thoughtful. You got 2 on base, 2 outs, and a clean up hitter coming up. What do you do? I love trying to guess, even if I always guess wrong.  I have time to think before the pitch, and time to second guess after, a luxury you certainly won't find in hockey. Plus baseball has inspired such beautiful writing.

But does going to the park help build your team? Not on your life. Those of us who love the game watched the game. A few hung out in the back eating, drinking and chatting.  Too many were glued to their Blackberries. No team stuff there.

But as a team, we agreed on this: a sunny afternoon at the ballpark never hurts, even if the Jays lose.

Craft Beer Festival

I could not have hoped for a better weekend to sample craft beer. Sunny, warm but not hot, with a light   breeze...it was perfect. 

The Craft Beer Fest is an annual event, but this was my first time. They're competing for attention with the Taste of the Danforth, that behemoth of street festivals, but they seemed to have a good turnout.

The fest is in Roundhouse Park, minutes away from the Rogers Centre. We got there around 1 p.m., and good thing too. By 2:30, the line ups were getting quite long, but by then, we were on our way out.

 We bought our sampling glass ($15 for a sample size) and sample tokens ($1 each, sold in pack of 5 or 10), and headed for the food trucks.   My friend Deb got a Wild mushroom 'za I got a chicken Schnitzel sandwich, and off to the beer stands we went.  

First stop was Flying Monkeys, where we discovered their orange creamsicle beer. Imagine a beer Mimosa; surprising, really tasty and refreshing, but missing the bitter tang that I expect in a beer. (Yes, I'm an ale fan.)

A few more tastings of great IPAs and amber ales at Lake of Bays and Left Field breweries, and we were ready for a break -- the beer and sun combo always knocks me out and there were only a very few places to sit, all in the sun. Too bad, I would happily sampled more, but I needed some shade. 

The Fest continues until 7 p.m tonight.

Drinking with my goddaughter

Calm down, she's 29.  I am not corrupting a minor or a naive young girl who's just moved to the big city. Kate is quite capable of drinking on her own if she pleases!

What made this one fun is that we tried one of the cool new places in her part of town, one of the latest up and coming 'hoods of Toronto. 

In other words, a place that takes its cocktails seriously. Oh what a treat! We each had 3 different drinks. She started off with the daily offering -- dark rum and a lot of other stuff -- ice cold, sweet but not too,  quite delish. I think that was the best of the evening. I had an Old Fashioned with a spicy bourbon. I'm trying to 'mature' my palate and this fit the bill perfectly. A grown up drink, smoky, but with enough fruity notes from the muddled orange peel, that I wasn't totally out of my comfort zone.

Then I tried the other daily drink, a sweet, summery, fruity concoction. The total opposite of my first drink. Heaven knows what Katie had (a sign that I should have stopped there?) Our last round was a "surprise me" round. Mine was a Bloody Caesar inspiration with bacon infused bourbon. I can only describe it as 'meaty,' which sounds weird, but it was quite tasty.  Kate had a sour, which was okay, but not the highlight of the evening.

A very successful cocktail evening if I say so myself. In a few weeks, we're going to a ladies' only scotch tasting. I can't wait!