Monday, August 30, 2010

LD and I made our way to the big city to see Ray Lamontagne and David Gray recently and they were fabulous!!! I'm jumping ahead though......on our way there I was the passenger singing along to songs, looking around you know the usual. All of a sudden I see people running around near the side of the highway kinda like people do at red lights, get out and run around the car. A split second later LD slams on her brakes as traffic comes to an abrupt halt! We both look towards the people running around on the highway and there is a car flipped over, windows smashed out and a woman kneeling on all fours inside on the roof of her car which is now on the road! It must have happened like 30 seconds before we approached as people were still pulling over and jumping out of their cars to help and the rubberneckers had not stopped traffic yet. Yes yes I realize we WERE the rubberneckers but how could you not look it was so shocking. I started to call 911 but there were so many people helping that someone surely had called. The two of us were silent for quite some time after that, it was one of those moments where you're just speechless. I felt so helpless as we drove by! On one hand you want to help but on the other there were so many people already trying to help that you would just be in the way unless you had some type of first aid training. I can give you CPR and the Heimlich manoeuvre but that's about it. I tried to look in the paper and online to see if everyone was okay when I got home but I could not find any articles about the accident. I just kept wondering if there were kids in the car or anyone else trapped, I really do hope that everyone made it through!

So after the drive we went to get dinner at this yummy cheap place. I'm in love with their pad thai and hummus and of course Sangria but didn't have any this particular evening, just a fruit shake. Anyway this guy comes in with suitcases, orders a pitcher of beer for himself and proceeds to pull this mass out of the inside of his jacket pocket. It was a bag with elastics wound tight around and a wad of money in the middle. The whole things was the size of a large book, how odd! I felt like giving him my wallet!

We finally made it to the concert and figured this would be more of a sit down type show as the artists are more melo so we were prepared for that. We were not however prepared for chatty Cathy and her friend one row behind us. They literally talked throughout the WHOLE show!!!! I've never wanted to throttle someone so badly in my entire life! All she did was talk about how this guy was in LOVE with her after one date, how her friend was sooo amazing, how "this song is going to put me to sleep, I fall asleep when I watch TV" I thought please dear lord if there is a God she WILL fall asleep right now!!!! I desperately wanted to take a picture of her and when she asked why I would tell her that she was going to be the subject of my blog post "The most obnoxious people I've come across"!!! I didn't have the guts, but I did take this video of David Gray singing and you can hear her in the background a bit, giggling, calling her friend "amazing"!



Here's a video of Ray Lamontagne as well! Everyone within earshot kept saying he sounded like Rod Stewart UGH! He looks a bit like a pioneer if I'm being honest, but Rod Stewart?? Come on now!




At one point during David Gray I felt a head close to mine and heard a voice "those last two pictures you took were great!" Apparently the guy beside chatty Cathy's friend was looking at my photos while I was taking pictures. Kinda creepy but he seemed kinda cool at the same time, a bit of a free spirit, up and dancing for most of the show, he was loving life so it was all good!


LD and I also loved this woman. She was sooooo enamoured with both Ray and David, like she was spell bound by them! Jumping up and clapping, clasping her hands together and staring like she was in another world, very entertaining for us but in a cute kind of way! I love when people get excited about things!

Thursday, August 26, 2010


I always know that summer is coming to an end when the stalks of corn are at their peak. The taller they are, the less time we have to enjoy the wonderful weather and it makes me kinda sad. I've also noticed quite a change in the temperature lately, it's much cooler in the morning as well as the evening. I've even taken to wearing a sweater to work in the AM and not I repeat not putting on my air conditioner. Seriously my office is usually like an oven people and the past few days it's been just right without the air. It seems that *sigh* the seasons are already starting to shift. Don't get me wrong, I quite enjoy the fall, the crisp cool air, the colourful leaves and of course Halloween........but somehow it seems my heart belongs to summer. I love the heat and being able to enjoy nature! The colourful flowers, the smell of fresh cut grass, watching the squirrels dance around and come on, what is better than sitting outside in a lounger reading a book while the sun beats down on you??? Having a pint on a patio might trump that but really in my heart of hearts I would say it's a tie!!!
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I am going to embrace the next few weeks and take advantage of what I hope is fabulous weather. The forecast tells me next week will be in the 29 range so all is not lost! Oh please please please be right for once Mr. errrr Ms. weather person!!!!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

I tried to go to lululemon the other day as I was in need of some new workout shirts. I was in a bit of a time crunch as I had somewhere to be soon after, figured a quick detour to the store and I'd be on my way. Instead I approached a "road closed" sign and a million people milling about, apparently there was a Jazz Festival on the very street I wanted to be. Needless to say parking was a bitch, trying to cross the street was a bitch and to top it off the store did not have anything that I wanted. Boo! I did however enjoy the music as I walked along, that was really nice to listen to!


A few weeks later, I'm in a different city with my favorite bakery and one goal in mind. I'm determined to get the best brownies ever! I start to drive towards it when low and behold there's barricades all over the street! This time it was an old car show and a million people milling about. Parking thankfully was easy to come by AND the bakery had my favorite turtle brownies phew! I bought ohhhhh 9 of them (oink oink) and shared a few.....by a few I mean 3 (double oink)! No pictures sorry Berly :)




I also bought the cutest earrings as well (not at the bakery)! The crystals in the middle are from swarovski and they sparkle like crazy in the light, I just love them!
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The one event that I am very much looking forward to is the Vegetarian Food Fair! We stumbled upon it last year (much like the above two events) and I was in total heaven! We were surrounded by amazing food, amazing people and it just had such a great vibe! I'm excited to go again this year and try new foods and restaurants and to meet some fun veggie folk! The other good thing about this fair is that it does not block any streets or inconvenience anyone! Awww those considerate veggies!!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

So I thought my ankle would be much better by now but sadly it's not where I'd like it to be. I apparently tore the tendons and have a bit of a ways to go as far as healing is concerned. I won't be able to play in the last volleyball tournament of the year so that is disappointing as it's such a fun day. On the bright side I won't come home beat up by the rocks nor burnt by the sun so my body is probably very happy!

I've been a bit of a concert whore lately. I saw Kings of Leon, Keane, Flock of Seagulls, Peter Murphy and Tears for Fears all within a few weeks of one another! I also have David Gray/Ray Lamontange coming up so I'm excited for that.








We had general admission on the floor for Kings of Leon which I was kinda meh about as GA is not always the best lest we forget Perfect Circle and the tallest man (no joke) on the face of the earth standing in front of us. I was pleasantly surprised for Kings of Leon though as we could see perfectly and even had the chance to get up nice and close maybe 3 "rows" back from the stage (check out our above photos). They sounded great live (which will be a theme for this email as all of the bands sounded fabulous live) and put on a very energetic show!

I was VERY surprised by the Keane show and the lack of people at the venue. There are four sections plus the lawn and only the first two sections were full with a few people trickling into the 300's. LD and I turned the corner to grab a drink and there was no line up. We were like WTF? Two days earlier we were at the same place and stood in line for a good 3o minutes for a cool beverage, same for the bathroom so this was a huge shock. Keane sounded amazing live and a lot of people really enjoyed the opener as well Robyn.....no idea who she is.....but she did a good job of getting the crowd going!


Flock of Seagulls were meh, it was a free show at a festival so I didn't waste any money on it which was good! Peter Murphy on the other hand was fantastic, loved him! Look at his cute jacket with a pink tuft at the back!!




He changed into this hoodie for the rain! Awww Peter was super entertaining and had this amazing presence AND he sang Bella Lagosi's Dead which made my night!!! He was playing another show that week which I would have loved to go to but I was busy that night, boo! I was super excited we got sooo close to him as well!






The crowd was also super entertaining, this guy put a cigarette out on his tongue, yes his tongue and danced away in his mesh shirt and leather (pleather?) pants! Oh my! He also twirled to the ground several times but I kept missing it on video so instead you get a little hip wiggle!





(This photo is not mine, I got it off of a twitter page but I was at this concert)



This weekend we drove a few hours away up to a trailer, went shopping (I bought some earrings and something else I've been wanting to try oh and brownies can't forget the brownies) and then LD and I made our way to yet another concert. This time it was Tears for Fears woot woot! Again, they sounded phenomenal live and put on a great show but the crowd was full of a bunch of downers. Seriously, barely anyone stood up for most of the show, the two sections beside us had a few rowdy people but that was it. At one point I was like fuck it, let's stand up! I tried to ask the guy behind me if it would bother him but he didn't pay any attention to me so up I went. I don't think I've ever been to a concert where the crowd sat down......even for the encore....people stood up to clap and get them back out on the stage and when they appeared, the people sat back down. HUH???? So while I would have normally danced my ass off for the whole show, it was cut back to about 4 songs so as to not upset the masses. Needless to say, they sounded great, sang a lot of songs I love and rocked out despite the boring crowd!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

I'm sure most of you have read the story about the flight attendant gone AWOL by now! If you have not then please check it out here! It's soooo fucking hilarious I couldn't stop laughing when I read it! This guy is truly my hero, I mean come on now, he did what every single one of us has wanted to do at some time or another! There is only sooooo much rudeness one can take and he snapped with perfect reason! Err allegedly snapped with perfect reason.....

I don't usually lose my cool at work but did a little while ago at a very inappropriate time. Nothing like this bloke of course however I had a bright red face, raised voice and a few F-bombs flew out of my mouth but it was only to one person, not a hundred! They just seemed to roll off my tongue, BAM BAM BAM one after the other. There was nothing I could do about my verbal diarrhea at that point so I continued on as if nothing had happened. The other person stared at me for a moment, taken aback in disbelief I presume because I never act like that especially at work......

If I had been on that flight I would have surely clapped and perhaps even started a standing ovation for the clearly stressed out flight attendant! Maybe even a high five as he slid off the aircraft down the emergency chute! Good on him for making his feelings known, why do we have to be so polite to those that are rude because it's not socially acceptable to do so?!? Bullocks I say, yell as loud as you can today and tell everyone exactly how you feel!!!

PS he should charge the man, assault with a weapon I say....it's the States he'd totally win!

Friday, August 06, 2010

Okay so almost a week after I hurt my ankle I still could NOT see my ankle bone aka I still had a cankle and it still hurt. I had been debating about seeing a doctor just in case when ahhhhhhhhhh "such and such walk in clinic" was literally right in front of me. I went to grab a coffee before work on Thursday and as I turned into the parking lot there was a clinic right there in the same plaza! After a few "I'll be late today" calls I walked in. The doctor was an older gent with a lovely demeanor and after examining my bloated appendage he sent me on my way for some x rays. Now I don't live in the city where I work and while I know the roads well enough, there are a lot of one way streets and buildings can be a pain in the ass to try and find. One of the addresses stuck out at me as I used to work across the street from the place, perfect I know where I'm going!


Behind the building there's a parking attendant that requires a $9 deposit and the cost is $2 per half hour (place is right across from the hospital) I ask if this is 304 Victoria to which he replies yes but doesn't think there is an x-ray place in the building. I'm gone for literally 3 minutes, I leave him, walk into the building, find out the x-ray place has in fact been gone since October and I walk back out to him. He hands me $7........WTF??? I'm shocked that I did not say anything, I couldn't believe it! He charged me $2 to park for 3 minutes.........knowing full well the place I needed was gone cause there I was back sooo soon AND ummm hello obviously something must HURT if I'm getting an x-ray!! Ugh I was livid!


I found another place not too far from my work which was convenient as I was in a bit of a timecrunch. I had a volunteer coming in and a bunch of clients to see so wandering around the city in search of a bloody x-ray place was not an option. Of course I had to pay another $2 at a parking meter on the street and guess what......I was in the place for all of 15 minutes. There was no line up, no waiting, the place was like a ghost town which I suppose was good as I really needed to be on my way. I was probably the 1st patient the technician had had in who knows how long! There were no chairs in the waiting room, the equipment was super old and the wall was covered in floral wallpaper! She was also lovely though, quite chatty and sent me on my way in record time.

So a bouquet to the x-ray tech and a brick to the parking attendant!

Tuesday, August 03, 2010


I decided to treat myself on Friday after my ridiculous week! The weather was fabulous as it was quite warm and yet breezy which made it perfect absolutely perfect! I started the day out with a walk down by the beach which was lovely, the path wasn't too busy and the view was quite pretty and thus very relaxing! I sat for a while on the rocks in the water and just took a nice deep breath!




I left the beach and decided to explore the city a bit and ended up at this yummy smoothie place called Bula! I tried the Acai Energizer and damn was it good! It had Acai berries, strawberries, apples, lemons, fat free frozen yogurt and protein powder. It was sooo refreshing after the walk and I will definitely be going back! I'm making it my mission to find these Acai berries frozen in a store somewhere as I hear they are very very good for you!




Now for a treat that's not so good for your thighs but tastes great!! I heard about this yummy cupcake place that funny enough is right down the street from the smoothie place so I figured why not! I went for a walk earlier right pffffff!?!?! So smoothie in hand I went to check out the cupcakes and bought *gasp* three, yes three but I did not eat them all at once! I mean hello when am I going to go back during the day so I just HAD to try a chocolate/peanut butter, red velvet and the best one *drool* lemon with a squishy middle mmmmmm!!!





I went to a concert (will blog about that later), got to see the lovely Sly, went out for late night food and yada yada yada ended up on the floor with several Asian waiters helping me up and thus left the city with a very sore and very swollen ankle. The funny thing, I wasn't drunk just extremely clumsy I guess?? It's the left one, I have a bit of a cankle and my whole foot looks fat. Maybe the cupcakes made their way down there!!!! :)