Thursday, July 28, 2011

Stratford

Holla y'all. I'm not quite hungry yet, so while I'm contemplating dinner options, I thought I'd blog. I came back today from a LOVELY 24 hours in Stratford, and I'd love to tell you about it.

My girlfriend and I went to Stratford to celebrate our 2-year anniversary (yay!). The day started at the Festival Theatre where we went to see the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's production of The Merry Wives of Windsor. I love Shakespeare, so I was really happy to be seeing one of his plays, but when I see a Shakespeare play performed, it often takes me a scene or two to get into it. The language, the characters' names... sometimes it takes a little time to adjust. However, when I did, I got so into it. The acting was fantastic (I especially loved the actor who played Falstaff), the story is just too funny, and it was a well-done production as far as I was concerned. A lot of fun!

Sugar & Gravy Travel Tip: One of my favourite parts of this 24-hour trip to Stratford was seeing the play as a matinee. This meant that the rest of our stay in Stratford was completely stress-free... no rush to go anywhere. Total relaxation. S&G planning = complete win!

Moving on...

After the wonderful performance, GF & I headed to our hotel: The Queen's Inn. The historic Queen's Inn has been in Stratford for over 150 years. I love the charm of a historical building, so I was drawn to its history and its very reasonable price for 1 night's stay. Definitely a cute building, and the room was very cute and clean, with a HUGE bed. Not my fave hotel that I've ever stayed in, but it was cute, and the hotel wasn't supposed to be the highlight of the visit anyway. The staff was fine... nobody went really above and beyond service, but it was just fine!

After checking in and relaxing for a few, we wandered Stratford for a half hour or so. It's really such a pretty town... lots of cute little cafes, antique stores, used book stores, and whatever the store is, it always fits into the historic little town well. Thankfully the rain held off and we were able to enjoy a nice little walk. We stopped at Balzac Cafe for a quick (and delicious!) cappuccino, too. My GF spent about 6 weeks in Sulmona, Italy recently, and as a result has become a cappuccino snob (I say that with lots of love). Even she agreed that it was a delicious cappuccino! While at the Balzac, a woman told me I smelled really nice. Sweet.

After we wandered, we were getting really hungry and so we got to our restaurant about 30 minutes before our reservation. The kind people at Raja Restaurant found us a table and we spent the next 2.5 hours there. Thanks to the brilliant decision to see a matinee, we were able to stretch that delicious meal out for as long as we wanted. Raja (if you didn't figure this out) serves Indian food, and they do it well. We had pakoras, garlic naan, GF had a mixed vegetable korma (I think), I had the most incredible Bengal Duck (mmmmm!!!), and we finished things off with coconut (for me!) and apple (for her!) sorbets. The dinner was amazing, the service was quite good, and I would go back and eat there again in a second!!!

After that we were stuffed, and went back to the hotel and slept well!

This morning we woke up, got ourselves packed and checked out, and then before we hit the road we grabbed some breakfast at Foster's Inn. GF had been to this place before, but couldn't remember the name of it. While wandering around Wednesday night, we spotted the place, double-checked the menu for her fave dish there, and promised them we'd be back. We went there this morning and it was DELICIOUS - absolutely worth the hunt around for it. I had the Huevos Rancheros (delicious, but too big for me to finish) and GF had Foster's take on french toast. Yum yum!!!

After Foster's, we hopped back on the 7/8, and headed home. Parfait!

Monday, July 25, 2011

Holiday... Celebrate!!!

Just finished watching the first ep of season 8 (the final season) of "Entourage". Seeing a new episode of the show was a total delight after nearly a year of drought, but I'm not sure I'd say that the episode was a total EXPLOSION into the new - and last - season. However, it had some great moments, and it seemed to set up the next - and last - 7 episodes for some interesting story lines. The first ep of season 7 was also not a total hit, but the rest of the season was great, and I feel optimistic about season 8 as well. I can't wait for next Sunday - ahhhh!!!

The reason I didn't watch the episode until today - beyond the fact that I don't have HBO, which is sort of stupid - is that I was in Muskoka at a cottage my parents rented for a few weeks. I was there for 3 nights with my girlfriend, sister, and my sister's BF, and it was such a great time. It was the kick-off to a 10-day holiday from work that I'm currently on, and it started things off perfectly. I spent the 4 days sleeping, eating delicious cottage-y meals (read: lots of burgers), reading (more on that in a sec), swimming, went for a kayak, a few short boat rides, lying in the sun, and playing a really fun card game (a sort of re-working of my fave - "war") that the GF taught me (I believe the end tally was 20-16 for the GF).

So reading... I don't think I've posted about the reading challenge for a while. That's because after I hit the half-way point I fell into a bit of a slump. I tried a few books, fiction and non-fiction, but couldn't get into anything. One day I was chatting with my boss and asked him if he was much of a reader. Turns out he is and we have similar taste in books (one of his favourite authors is John Irving, so I knew we were onto something). I asked him if he had any recommendations and he suggested No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod. If you didn't know already, my goal is to try not to buy any new books and instead get through the ones on my bookshelf that I haven't read (which is about 60%... more like a bookstore than a personal library). It just so happens that I already own No Great Mischief so I pulled it off the shelf and started to read it. I finished it this morning before I left the cottage and absolutely loved it!!! A great read for Canadians with a Scottish family history... especially those who are still very connected to that history. I'd say I both am and am not... the book definitely makes me want to reconnect more.

Anyway, as I said, I'm off to a great start on this holiday. Toronto for the next few days, then a secret adventure (more on that later this week), a trip to Waterloo for a wedding, and then some more chill time in TO before back to PH on the holiday Monday. It will be glorious... now for some serious chillage in front of the TV.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Legit Jams 4.0

The golden age...



I love old school hip-hop. I'm going to be saying "let me clear my throat" for my entire holiday. Speaking of which, at EOD today I'm off work for 10 days.

TEN. GLORIOUS. DAYS. Muskoka, a few day trips... it's gon' be unreeeeeaaaalll.

Let me clear my throat.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Legit Jams 2.0

They keep playing this jam on MTV (sometimes they play music) and I can't get it out of my head... and now I'm not mad about that. Very fun, cute song and the percussionist chickita is vair cute.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Legit Jams

With a week-long vacay coming up starting this Friday, I have a serious case of the Mondays. As a result, I need some legit jams to keep me going today.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Discovering TO #2

Remember how I've decided that I need to discover more areas of Toronto? Well, I didn't want that to stop with my first (and only so far) segment of "Discovering TO", so ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: "Discovering TO #2".

I had an appointment on the Danforth this morning, near Coxwell station, and since there was no rush to go home after, I thought, why not walk around the area? I had looked online in the morning to see if there was a nice cafe in that neighbourhood and decided on The One in the Only Cafe. I'm glad I did. It was an extremely relaxed atmosphere, I had a great cappuccino and scone, and sat and read for an hour, with the sun shining in through the huge front window, and a nice breeze coming in through the door. I think it says something when you realize that the owner of an establishment knows a lot of the people coming into the place. If other people frequent this place, then you know it must be pretty good!!! I had a great time, a nice walk from Coxwell to Donlands, and a leisurely morning in a new 'hood. The Danforth: thumbs up!

Monday, July 11, 2011

Ode to Waterloo

I drove to Waterloo for the first time this Saturday. It wasn't my first time in Waterloo, and it wasn't my first time being in a car en route to Waterloo, but it was my first time driving to Waterloo.

I felt like muscle memory was leading me there, as if every turn was anticipated ahead of time and there was no thought involved. I've gone from Toronto to Waterloo so many times that I knew the drive like the back of my hand, even though I'd never been the one behind the wheel.

It was surreal. It was like an experience I've never had before. Like coming back as an adult to a place I'd grown up as a kid. But I wasn't a child in Waterloo. I lived there from 18-23, decidedly not a child, but I did grow up there, and the memories flooded back like it had been years since I'd been there, even though I was there in March.

I guess a lot of it had to do with the fact that I was driving. As any even casual readers of this blog probably know by now, driving was a big obstacle for me, and I guess now that I've done it I feel like a totally new person in some ways... more in control of my own life, more independent, more grown-up... and there were many times while living in Waterloo where I felt none of those things... in fact, I felt the opposite. I felt out of control, helpless, hopeless, and totally incapable of real, true independence. That sounds totally dramatic, but I think many people that age (18-23), and maybe especially students, feel that way... like their life isn't theirs, or as if independence will never come... I'm not sure. I only know what I've felt and now feel.

As I drove down University Avenue I just smiled, looking at all the places along the way that had a story/memory attached to them from the 5 glorious years I spent in the city. It was so great to be there. I miss it a lot!!!

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Naomily: Ultimate Satisfaction


Well, I promised I'd follow up when I was done watching the season, so here goes:

I was careful to preface my last post - in which I sang my praises of "Naomily", the perfect on-screen lesbian union - with the fact that I hadn't seen the full season, and so I couldn't be sure I'd always feel the way I expressed in that post. In saying that, I also hoped with my whole heart (yes, I'm being intentionally dramatic) that my feelings for this perfect couple would always remain the same. Once again, if you're planning on seeing this series, then things may be spoiled for you with this post, though I'm really not going to go into specifics.

What I will say though, is that I was fully satisfied by the beginning-to-end portrayal of the relationship of the characters Naomi and Emily. It was thoughtful, realistic, on-point, well-written, well-acted, and every other positive adjective you can think of. The writers nailed it, the actresses nailed it, and even the behind-the-scenes footage nailed it. One of the B-T-S clips in the special features showed the two actresses (Lily Loveless [Naomi] & Kathryn Prescott [Emily]) speaking about their characters, and there was no over-the-top "It was an act of courage for me to play a lesbian character"..."It was weird, but a great learning experience"..."Kissing Lily was funny"... none of that! They didn't even make any references to the fact that their characters were gay, or that they were/weren't in real life. They just said that both of them discussed their characters in real life, were moved by the scripts, and that they did their best to find the humanity in the characters even when they were doing bad things..... Oh, Kathryn & Lily, if only Ilene Chaiken had created a show about lesbian teens in L.A. and cast you two in it..... actually, I take that back. She could've never written a show as good as "Skins" (case in point: need I even say?).

In conclusion: It was perfection. I couldn't be happier about how this relationship played out.


In other news, anyone know whether I should watch "Skins" s.5? I hear it's not great, but then again another friend told me that s.4 wasn't that great and I loved it!!! I guess it's all relative.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Dear Drake...

You know I loved Drake when he came out, and I loved his mix tape and album and pretty much all of his songs. I still enjoy those songs, but I'm waiting for him to blow me away again. If he doesn't blow me away, then everything he did before suddenly loses its value, you know?

I hear he's got a single coming out this month and a new album coming out in October. Drake - your hype has completely died down. Impress me. Impress us all.

That's it.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Some thoughts on "Skins" (Potential Spoilers)


I'd like to speak about the BBC television show "Skins" for a few minutes, if I could. I'd like to preface my comments on "Skins" by saying that I'm 2 episodes into the 4th season, so I haven't seen it all, and perhaps my feelings about the show will change when I have seen it all, but bear with me in the meantime (and I'll try to post again when I do finish this season)...

Okay... so I'm pretty sure I've spoken about the show before. I watched the first season a few summers ago, and then the second season more recently. For those of you who don't know the show, there was a (nearly) brand new cast in 3rd season, with (nearly) all of the characters from the first two seasons no longer on the show. I believe the same thing happens in 5th season, though I don't know if any characters at all stick around from 4th to 5th.

When I started watching 3rd season (very recently), I was reluctant and skeptical. I loved the first cast and didn't know how I would feel about the new cast.

2 episodes into 4th season, I might say that I like this cast even more than the first one. I could go on talking about every character and every storyline, but I'll keep it simpler than that and discuss two characters and a storyline in particular that has tugged my heartstrings very intensely.

Naomi and Emily (pictured above). Naomi Campbell (ha! but seriously...) played by Lily Loveless & Emily Fitch played by Kathryn Prescott are two high school-age girls in Bristol, England. Their sexual orientations aren't discussed at length, but my sense is that they are both lesbians, or maybe bisexual. The two have feelings for one another and the audience sees their relationship played out in a variety of ways -- sometimes on again/off again, sometimes cute and head-over-heels, sometimes dramatic... in many ways, typical of any on-screen romance, whether gay or straight.

What do I like about it?
  • The make-out/sex scenes are incredibly real, and don't seem (to me) at all to be staged for a straight male's viewing. I find them moving and sexual and realistic and hot and everything in between! They aren't overdone, and appear in just the same way as all of the straight sex scenes do.
  • The whole topic of a same-sex relationship isn't dealt with in the typical way. The topic is revealed, there's some conflict, but then it just fades into the show as with every storyline. It doesn't stick out like a sore thumb. It's addressed, and then it just is.
  • I find the writing of this relationship to be better than any girl/girl relationship I've ever seen, including "The L Word". It puts The L Word to shame, to be frank. You could say they're not comparable because it's adolescence vs. adults, but I'd say that's a cop-out. It is just better than I've ever seen.
  • It makes me feel like I'm in high school again. Not that I had the same sort of relationship as Naomi and Emily do, but the way they act, aspects of the things they go through, and just how adolescent it all is (in a good way!) reminds me of what it was like to be a gay teen, what it was like to be a teen in general, and the sort of concepts of relationships you would have... it's just... it's sooooo good.
Now, as I said - I don't know how this season and cast finishes, so my feelings may change, but I've never been so moved by a relationship and show like I have with this one (except maybe Six Feet Under, of course). I strongly recommend the show. You won't regret it!

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