Saturday...
Did all my exercises in time to go for dim sum with Marion and Vicky. We all ate sparingly, and it was delicious - wonderful. Afterwards, we did some shopping at the Chinese grocery next door to the Mandarin Ogilvy, then went to my place to watch and episode of Moonlight (1x03, "Dr Feelgood") and Hawaii Five-O, the 2010 version, 1x01, "Pilot".
Enjoyed both, especially Alex O'Loughlin's roles - and of course, Jason Dohring in Moonlight. Marion tells me a lot of people slash the two leads in Hawaii Five-O,, and I can see it - the dialogue is quite catchy. Sadly, I don't much like Scott Caan, and I don't think he'll grow on me. Still. Never say never. The slash I would like to see would be in Moonlight, where I don't like the girl at all - don't like Sophia Myles - but I'd love to see a Mick/Joseph pairing. (Note to self: search online for such a thing. If anyone knows of any stories with that pairing, do let me know!)
I wouldn't have had time to watch both because I had to be off to a potluck dinner at Lisa's, but Marion helped me chop vegetables for soup while we were watching Hawaii Five-O and the timing worked out perfectly. Lynne drove me to Lisa's and we had a lovely dinner - I brought Asian Mushroom Soup, Lynne made macaroni and cheese with tomatoes, and Lisa made peanut butter cookies. A good time was had by all.
Then we went to see the Christmas music concert by The Hallelujah Gospel Chorus. Not my choice - I really dislike Gospel music, and the alternative was a student production of Twelfth Night which I'd have loved to see. But Lynne loves Gospel music and Lisa chose that too, so I was outvoted.
And though I really still dislike Gospel music, I did enjoy the concert. Some of the new tunes for familial songs were lovely, and I particularly liked their version of Handel's Messiah. There was lots of singing along, and I didn't flinch at the religious angle because... well, just because: I can't say I didn't know it would be there. They encouraged the audience to sing some of the songs too, especially before the concert. I amused myself by singing some of O Come All Ye Faithful in Latin just because I love the Latin words. "Chorus angelorum" in particular.
The concert was at the church where I used to go as a child, and where I was baptized, Kitchissippi United Church, which used to be Kingsway United. I looked around for ghosts of my past, but aside from it being a familiar and standard style for Canadian United churches built in (probably) the 1940s, there was nothing familiar about it, not even the Sunday school room, where I stuck in my head for a peak. I endured some horrible hours there. Not too many, fortunately - my parent's weren't so cruel as to force me to go when I hated it so much.
As a child, I thought that church boxy and ugly, and longed for something with Gothic arches or a traditional spire. It seems nicer to me now; plain, friendly architecture without pretensions. Not the loveliest of buildings, but there are so many much worse.