Last minutes things to do....

Pack? Done.
Turn power off? Done
Cancel papers? Done
All is done, and i saved the best for last: visit to the vet to say bye to my sick cat, Picasso.

It was hard getting this picture of him. All he wanted to do is climb in my arms and come home.  As soon as he's out of isolation, he'll be joined with his bro Gaston and they'll have the room to themselves to play in, no cages except at night. Hope that's soon!

Now for a nap. 

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!

Canada Day in London.... Ontario.

I just spent a lovely weekend visiting my friend Loryn and her relatively new husband. They live in London, a city I know very little about other than my friend lives there, and this despite the fact that I have visited Loryn at least twice a year since she moved to London 5-6 years ago.

I decided to do something about my ignorance, and found out all kinds of juicy tidbits that I'm happy to share:

- Ryan Gosling is from London. That alone makes it worth visiting doesn't it?
- London is a tree town. Lots and lots of trees. Old trees. It's known as The Forest City
- London is surrounded by farmland, and I've discovered there's even a   lavender farm nearby. If I'd known that...... next time!
- Not surprisingly, it has 3 big farmers markets. So far, I've visited two. The trendy one downtown, and a larger, more authentic one on the outskirts. I prefer the larger one... real farmers, dirt on the potatoes, enormous quantities of beef tripe, pig trotters and other offbeat cuts, and cheap furniture. Now that's a market!
- If you're a hockey fan, Nazeem Kadri is from London. I saw him play there a few years ago.
- The main river is called -- you guessed it! -- the Thames.

The main thing is that I have fun when I go there, and that's what really matters.

Escape to Ottawa

All vacations are good, some are better than others. This was one of the better ones, probably because it was short! Longer and I would have gotten bored.

I left Wednesday and as I was pulling up to my hotel -- Arc, The Hotel, -- I realized that I'd forgotten my iPad charger so, first order of the evening, get to a store before they close. I checked in quickly, and zoomed to the nearest mall where I found a quiet (!!!!) Apple store.

Next stop was a light dinner. I'd had chips on the train, that doesn't really do it for me. But being alone, with no iPad, meant that first, I had to find a bookstore -- and there was one right across the street, just waiting for me. I picked up David Eggers new book, solely on the strength of the book cover. Mind you, I meant to read it, but on my ereader. But this book cover is so awesome, I just had to get the book itself.

Now I had to find a place to eat. Turns out I was minutes away from Byward Market, land of the tourist trap but with some great finds tucked here and there. I found a lovely courtyard with outdoor seating, found a seat with enough light to read by, and I was set for a nice light meal of beet salad with fresh ricotta and glass of chilled rosé. I would have had a dessert but service was slow and by the time they remembered me, I was nodding off. Off to bed!

Thursday morning, I had tickets to the Van Gogh exhibit at the National Gallery of Canada. It's a tighly curated exhibit that focusses on the 4 years Van Gogh lived in France. I didn't realize until now that he'd only painted for 10 years. The exhibit and audio guide are well put together, and there are side exhibits on japanese woodblocks and outdoor photography of the period that influenced him, which ties in nicely with the main event.

I had a nice lunch at the gallery -- including an amazing mint/sorrel/parsley cheesecake! -- and decided to take in more of the gallery while I was there. A friend had recommended the Rideau Chappel within the gallery, and it was a lovely discovery. They were showing/playing (?) Janet Cardiff's 40-part motet, which I'd seen before but hearing it in the chappel was much nicer than hearing it in a plain art gallery.

The rest of the day was spent shopping (yeah!) and I got myself a lovely summer dress at Kaliyana, one of my two favourite clothes stores. By the time I was done, I was thoroughly parched, so I headed up to Luxe for a Gin Collins, as per my inner-doctor's orders! This brutal summer has made me rediscove how quenching gin is on a scorching day.

I had a nice nap before dinner, but rested or not, dinner was a bust! I had great recommendations from friends,but instead chose a restaurant that had made the top 10 from a credible source. A regular that was sitting close to me wondered aloud if they'd changed chefs, because she too was greatly disappointed. So maybe it was a new chef, but it was a really, really, really bad choice. The wine was good, if that counts for something.

Friday I went to the war museum. I mostly wanted to see its architecture, but I checked out most of the museum while I was there and it was well worth it. They currently have an exhibit on the War of 1812, the war that many believe led to the creation of Canada. But its the permanent exhibits that really shine.  I spent a bit more than 4 hours there, and I think I probably really saw about 1/2 of it properly. I zoomed through the rest just to get a sense of it, and I definitely want to go back.

That left me just enough time to go back to my hotel and have a drink (a modified Whisky Sour, yes, I'm on a cocktail kick!) and I was off for my train ride back home.

All in all, a very satisfactory break. Note to self: must do this more often!