February rushes on
In 2008, a record number of Canadians reported UFO sightings. Either the world is coming to a close, or people are getting weirder. I vote for option B.
In other, unrelated news, my reading week/winter break/not-exactly-spring break is drawing to a close. It started off with a bang, with a road trip to Ottawa. I and three friends left Friday night after my opera rehearsal for Cobourg, where one of our road-trippers's parents live, and spent the night there. Saturday morning we continued the trip to Ottawa, with a stop at Flying J in Napanee for a trucker's breakfast. This breakfast had been hugely hyped up to me, and was actually not as amazing as I had hoped for. There was another pause when my debit card wouldn't work for the second time in a row, and I had to call PC Financial to figure out what had gone wrong, and then make a stop to choose a new PIN since my old one was "compromised". Eventually we made it to Ottawa at about noon.
First stop: my sister's house, where we unloaded, made plans, and discovered the canal had just been opened for skating!! As you'll all recall, last week was plauged by torrential rains and extremely high temperatures. All week we'd been mourning the loss of the canal, but brought our skates just in cases. We triumphed!! So our next stop was the Museum of Science and Technology, where we wandered through educational exhibits, took lots of funny pictures, and got ill in the crazy kitchen. Dinner was at Chez Lucien, where we all stared at the walls while waiting for our food, being so tired and hungry.
Next stop: skating on the canal!! We bundled up tightly and trouped off to the canal, which was surprisingly busy for night skating. The ice was surprisingly bad, which makes sense when you think of the lack of zambonis, but we just weren't expecting it. We started at 0.8 km, and skated downtown to 0 km, where there was a Roch Voisine concert. That man is extremely well preserved, considering he was in our ancient French textbooks back in high school!! After a brief rest, we skated back to 0.8 again. Two of the girls wanted to go a bit further, and I decided to go with them, and it turned out to be glorious. The ice was so much less busy in the other direction, and when you could get up speed, the bumps were much less noticeable (not to mention less dangerous). We ended up making it all the way to 2 km, and turned around to head back. We stopped off to order a Beaver Tale, which was pretty exciting to do on skates. Finally we headed back to 0.8, so in total, we skated 4 km. When we originally made plans to go, and one of my friends reeeeally wanted to skate the whole canal, I was totally dismissive. But now I think, with the right weather, little wind, and enough breaks, it would be totally doable!! Also: better socks would help. I, without thinking, had only huge puffy socks and ankle socks, and I knew from experience the ankle socks gave me blisters, so... it was a trial. Especially getting my skates ON, i felt incredibly fat-footed. Not fun.
That night we pretty much just crashed, and slept in the next morning. We once again skated down the canal, which was much less fun, as the weather was sunny and bright. Every child in Ottawa must have been out on that ice, which meant bad ice and crowds, neither which is good. Eventually we made it, and headed off the ice to Cora's for breakfast. We had to wait in line for over half an hour, but it was worth it, although, once again, we stared at the walls while waiting for our food, having gone into hunger-comas. And once we ate, I think we also went into food-comas, until we headed back out. We wandered through Byward Market, and two of us bought rings. I love them, but my Mom conned me out of one of them. Sort of. I told her she could buy it off me, but then changed my mind, and said we could do tradsies for a while, and walked off with 3 of her rings, including the huge amber ring I bought her for her birthday, hahaha....
From the market we got cake at O So Good, and then wandered up the hill and over to Parliament, and then into Parliament, where we learned it was Open House!! That was wonderful, because 3 of the 4 of us were very familiar with parliament tours, so we could go where we wanted without having to be herded along, and could spend a long time in the library, or taking pictures in window sills, and the like. It was also handy because to get through security, they took our skates from us. They were apologetic, but we laughed at not having to hike around the building with them!! Eventually I had to rush everyone out so that we could get home for the dinner my brother-in-law was making for us. It was another fabulous meal, and I surprised myself by actually liking the root vegetables for once (must have been the sugar). After dinner we went to check out the ice sculptures which had melted during the week. Our favourite part was the Rodgers ice castle part, because you could sit on ice benches, go behind the ice bar, and there were cell phones frozen in huge blocks of ice - all to be touched!! The night was capped off with Apples to Apples, and bed.
Monday morning we got up leisurely, except for me, who got up early with a huge cold, drank 4 cups of chamomile tea, and snuggled with a box of kleenexes. We headed out of Ottawa and headed for the Dennys in Kingston for another good breakfast. Our next destination: Yorkdale Mall to buy me a recital dress!!! We were so excited, making plans, talking about our favourite stores... we got inside... and... the stores were all closed for Family Day. CLOSED. FOR FAMILY DAY. What is that all about?!?!?!?! We were so bummed we could barely talk, and glumly headed back to London. We decided to finish off the trip with dinner in London, and hit up a Boston Pizza. Big mistake. Our waiter was a total jerk, who forgot Erin's appetizer and managed to avoid us as much as possible. Also, I ordered a lemonade because I SWORE the menu said free refill. Well, no, the bill came, and I was charged for 2 lemonades. Which were THREE DOLLARS EACH. So I paid SIX DOLLARS FOR LEMONADE. I was so angry, and when I asked the waiter about it, he totally brushed me off with a brusque "no". So I didn't tip him. My first time not tipping, but it was a good sense of justice. Seriously, worst service I've had in AGES.
Anyways, that was the Ottawa road trip. Tuesday morning I headed out to Woodstock, where I hibernated for 3 days, watching movies, reading incessantly, and making appointments. I got my car rust-proof-ed (and got charged for it, apparently the family discount doesn't apply to me either), and the oil changed, and ordered a credit card through RBC. Fingers crossed that I get it, b/c there's no chance for me after I'm done being a student!! And now I'm back in London, and finally practiced a bit today. With the cold I didn't practice at all, but it was also nice to just totally take a break from music and memorizing and audition stress. Mmmm. I twas lovely.
Now there is a pot of hyacinths on the coffee table, and I think they're messing with my allergies, but we'll see.
Happy February is nearing the end Day everyone.
In other, unrelated news, my reading week/winter break/not-exactly-spring break is drawing to a close. It started off with a bang, with a road trip to Ottawa. I and three friends left Friday night after my opera rehearsal for Cobourg, where one of our road-trippers's parents live, and spent the night there. Saturday morning we continued the trip to Ottawa, with a stop at Flying J in Napanee for a trucker's breakfast. This breakfast had been hugely hyped up to me, and was actually not as amazing as I had hoped for. There was another pause when my debit card wouldn't work for the second time in a row, and I had to call PC Financial to figure out what had gone wrong, and then make a stop to choose a new PIN since my old one was "compromised". Eventually we made it to Ottawa at about noon.
First stop: my sister's house, where we unloaded, made plans, and discovered the canal had just been opened for skating!! As you'll all recall, last week was plauged by torrential rains and extremely high temperatures. All week we'd been mourning the loss of the canal, but brought our skates just in cases. We triumphed!! So our next stop was the Museum of Science and Technology, where we wandered through educational exhibits, took lots of funny pictures, and got ill in the crazy kitchen. Dinner was at Chez Lucien, where we all stared at the walls while waiting for our food, being so tired and hungry.
Next stop: skating on the canal!! We bundled up tightly and trouped off to the canal, which was surprisingly busy for night skating. The ice was surprisingly bad, which makes sense when you think of the lack of zambonis, but we just weren't expecting it. We started at 0.8 km, and skated downtown to 0 km, where there was a Roch Voisine concert. That man is extremely well preserved, considering he was in our ancient French textbooks back in high school!! After a brief rest, we skated back to 0.8 again. Two of the girls wanted to go a bit further, and I decided to go with them, and it turned out to be glorious. The ice was so much less busy in the other direction, and when you could get up speed, the bumps were much less noticeable (not to mention less dangerous). We ended up making it all the way to 2 km, and turned around to head back. We stopped off to order a Beaver Tale, which was pretty exciting to do on skates. Finally we headed back to 0.8, so in total, we skated 4 km. When we originally made plans to go, and one of my friends reeeeally wanted to skate the whole canal, I was totally dismissive. But now I think, with the right weather, little wind, and enough breaks, it would be totally doable!! Also: better socks would help. I, without thinking, had only huge puffy socks and ankle socks, and I knew from experience the ankle socks gave me blisters, so... it was a trial. Especially getting my skates ON, i felt incredibly fat-footed. Not fun.
That night we pretty much just crashed, and slept in the next morning. We once again skated down the canal, which was much less fun, as the weather was sunny and bright. Every child in Ottawa must have been out on that ice, which meant bad ice and crowds, neither which is good. Eventually we made it, and headed off the ice to Cora's for breakfast. We had to wait in line for over half an hour, but it was worth it, although, once again, we stared at the walls while waiting for our food, having gone into hunger-comas. And once we ate, I think we also went into food-comas, until we headed back out. We wandered through Byward Market, and two of us bought rings. I love them, but my Mom conned me out of one of them. Sort of. I told her she could buy it off me, but then changed my mind, and said we could do tradsies for a while, and walked off with 3 of her rings, including the huge amber ring I bought her for her birthday, hahaha....
From the market we got cake at O So Good, and then wandered up the hill and over to Parliament, and then into Parliament, where we learned it was Open House!! That was wonderful, because 3 of the 4 of us were very familiar with parliament tours, so we could go where we wanted without having to be herded along, and could spend a long time in the library, or taking pictures in window sills, and the like. It was also handy because to get through security, they took our skates from us. They were apologetic, but we laughed at not having to hike around the building with them!! Eventually I had to rush everyone out so that we could get home for the dinner my brother-in-law was making for us. It was another fabulous meal, and I surprised myself by actually liking the root vegetables for once (must have been the sugar). After dinner we went to check out the ice sculptures which had melted during the week. Our favourite part was the Rodgers ice castle part, because you could sit on ice benches, go behind the ice bar, and there were cell phones frozen in huge blocks of ice - all to be touched!! The night was capped off with Apples to Apples, and bed.
Monday morning we got up leisurely, except for me, who got up early with a huge cold, drank 4 cups of chamomile tea, and snuggled with a box of kleenexes. We headed out of Ottawa and headed for the Dennys in Kingston for another good breakfast. Our next destination: Yorkdale Mall to buy me a recital dress!!! We were so excited, making plans, talking about our favourite stores... we got inside... and... the stores were all closed for Family Day. CLOSED. FOR FAMILY DAY. What is that all about?!?!?!?! We were so bummed we could barely talk, and glumly headed back to London. We decided to finish off the trip with dinner in London, and hit up a Boston Pizza. Big mistake. Our waiter was a total jerk, who forgot Erin's appetizer and managed to avoid us as much as possible. Also, I ordered a lemonade because I SWORE the menu said free refill. Well, no, the bill came, and I was charged for 2 lemonades. Which were THREE DOLLARS EACH. So I paid SIX DOLLARS FOR LEMONADE. I was so angry, and when I asked the waiter about it, he totally brushed me off with a brusque "no". So I didn't tip him. My first time not tipping, but it was a good sense of justice. Seriously, worst service I've had in AGES.
Anyways, that was the Ottawa road trip. Tuesday morning I headed out to Woodstock, where I hibernated for 3 days, watching movies, reading incessantly, and making appointments. I got my car rust-proof-ed (and got charged for it, apparently the family discount doesn't apply to me either), and the oil changed, and ordered a credit card through RBC. Fingers crossed that I get it, b/c there's no chance for me after I'm done being a student!! And now I'm back in London, and finally practiced a bit today. With the cold I didn't practice at all, but it was also nice to just totally take a break from music and memorizing and audition stress. Mmmm. I twas lovely.
Now there is a pot of hyacinths on the coffee table, and I think they're messing with my allergies, but we'll see.
Happy February is nearing the end Day everyone.