Breaking News
Well, not really, but a little bit of false urgency kind of keeps things rolling every now and then.
It's Friday. I made it through this week. After having been sick all the previous week, it took some clever tactics, but I think I've learned a bit about myself and the world in general in the process, so it wasn't all for naught. More on that later, perhaps.
Last night was St. Patrick's Day.
When talking to a friend, she'd assumed from my remark that people here didn't really get caught up on the wearing green thing that St. Patrick's Day itself is no big deal.
Not so.
It started with a street fair last Saturday. And a parade and more street fair on Sunday. And Irish music concerts throughout the week. And finally culminating in the massive downtown entertainment district party that was last night. I mean, it wasn't quite New Year or Halloween proportions, but could possibly be third in line.
And speaking of lines, yeah. It was Thursday, and only one more day left in a week that proved to be quite the endurance contest, and I decided that I'd earned a quiet dinner out and a beer. Unfortunately quiet and beer do not really go together on St. Patrick's Day, of all days.
I'd been encouraged to find some Irish food, just to get into the spirit of things, but the Irish pub near my building had a waiting line not only out the door, but down the sidewalk to the end of the block. I swear when I walked by again several hours later, the same people were standing on the sidewalk, shivering and beerless. No lie.
Having assumed that the other Irish pub down the street (what I call my Favorite Bar, even though I haven't been there in many weeks) would be just as busy, I figured the next best thing would be the Newfie bar a few blocks south of here, where one may acquire high quality fish and chips and a beer for a very reasonable sum of money. Unfortunately, others drew the same conclusion, because it also had a line out the door, around the corner, and down the street. And, for the most part, so did any other establishment in the neighborhood which has a decent beer selection.
My remaining options, more or less, were Greek food, sushi, and Chinese, none of which really tickled my fancy, so I wandered the neighborhood aimlessly for a while until I remembered the Tex-Mex place at Seymour and Pacific, which I hadn't visited since I first moved here. Sure enough, it wasn't busy, and it definitely met my food + beer requirement, odd conception of Tex-Mex food notwithstanding (I still don't have the heart to tell them that they've got it all wrong, because their food is still tasty, and they try so hard, anyway).
So anyway, as lonely as it may seem, I spent a couple of hours there reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, which, although very long, has proved to be quite an amusing book. I don't think it's for everyone, but it definitely has a special charm to it.
* * *
Tonight I rode the bus home, which is a nice change from the train occasionally, and saw all the various places on Kingsway, including the Uranus Show Lounge, which is so very unfortunately named, and then hopped of at Pender and Granville so I could do some shopping at Pacific Centre.
I'm finally getting a little caught up on my finances, and I decided it was high time to treat myself to a new work shirt or two, especially since I had a $10US credit at Banana Republic to spend before it expired (it turns out this was the first card of the sort this Banana Republic had ever dealt with, since it was issued on the US credit card, and US cards and vouchers have only been good at the Canadian stores for a couple of months, so there was some interesting register-hacking going on as I paid for my shirt).
It's Friday. I made it through this week. After having been sick all the previous week, it took some clever tactics, but I think I've learned a bit about myself and the world in general in the process, so it wasn't all for naught. More on that later, perhaps.
Last night was St. Patrick's Day.
When talking to a friend, she'd assumed from my remark that people here didn't really get caught up on the wearing green thing that St. Patrick's Day itself is no big deal.
Not so.
It started with a street fair last Saturday. And a parade and more street fair on Sunday. And Irish music concerts throughout the week. And finally culminating in the massive downtown entertainment district party that was last night. I mean, it wasn't quite New Year or Halloween proportions, but could possibly be third in line.
And speaking of lines, yeah. It was Thursday, and only one more day left in a week that proved to be quite the endurance contest, and I decided that I'd earned a quiet dinner out and a beer. Unfortunately quiet and beer do not really go together on St. Patrick's Day, of all days.
I'd been encouraged to find some Irish food, just to get into the spirit of things, but the Irish pub near my building had a waiting line not only out the door, but down the sidewalk to the end of the block. I swear when I walked by again several hours later, the same people were standing on the sidewalk, shivering and beerless. No lie.
Having assumed that the other Irish pub down the street (what I call my Favorite Bar, even though I haven't been there in many weeks) would be just as busy, I figured the next best thing would be the Newfie bar a few blocks south of here, where one may acquire high quality fish and chips and a beer for a very reasonable sum of money. Unfortunately, others drew the same conclusion, because it also had a line out the door, around the corner, and down the street. And, for the most part, so did any other establishment in the neighborhood which has a decent beer selection.
My remaining options, more or less, were Greek food, sushi, and Chinese, none of which really tickled my fancy, so I wandered the neighborhood aimlessly for a while until I remembered the Tex-Mex place at Seymour and Pacific, which I hadn't visited since I first moved here. Sure enough, it wasn't busy, and it definitely met my food + beer requirement, odd conception of Tex-Mex food notwithstanding (I still don't have the heart to tell them that they've got it all wrong, because their food is still tasty, and they try so hard, anyway).
So anyway, as lonely as it may seem, I spent a couple of hours there reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, which, although very long, has proved to be quite an amusing book. I don't think it's for everyone, but it definitely has a special charm to it.
* * *
Tonight I rode the bus home, which is a nice change from the train occasionally, and saw all the various places on Kingsway, including the Uranus Show Lounge, which is so very unfortunately named, and then hopped of at Pender and Granville so I could do some shopping at Pacific Centre.
I'm finally getting a little caught up on my finances, and I decided it was high time to treat myself to a new work shirt or two, especially since I had a $10US credit at Banana Republic to spend before it expired (it turns out this was the first card of the sort this Banana Republic had ever dealt with, since it was issued on the US credit card, and US cards and vouchers have only been good at the Canadian stores for a couple of months, so there was some interesting register-hacking going on as I paid for my shirt).