September round-up

The seasons have changed quickly.  Last time I posted, all the windows were open and I was wearing shorts.  Now I have donned my pjs, the heater is on and it's blustery outside.  Fall has fallen and hard.

I finished sanding and painting my stairs just before the weather turned -- and we're talking hours here.  Husband and child returned from their vacation to find me injured.  Nope, not from working on the stairs, but rather from guilt-inspired house cleaning.  This is proof positive that neither guilt nor cleaning are healthy activities.  I seemed to have aggravated a previously pinched nerve.  I am on the mend now.

It was a good week to be alone, with my thoughts and then with my friends.  Ate some good food.  My friend the poet and I went to La Rocca on the Drive.  We shared a tomato and bocconcini salad and then I had the veggie cannelloni.  Both were good.  The service and atmosphere (including an opera singing server who serenaded a nearby diner with a birthday tune) were very pleasant.  The washrooms were clean and functional.  Everything was surprisingly affordable.  Moreso, because my friend picked up the tab.

I was treated by my sister the following night to a belated birthday dinner at Gotham.  I was really looking forward to this place.  I had been told that I would see celebrities there.  I dunno if union guy, Ken Georgetti counts, because he was the only "famous" person who caught my eye.  The restaurant is huge and has some crazy ass spiral stairs (vertigo anyone ?) if you wish to visit the facilities. 

The service was good.  I want to say excellent, but a couple of the wait staff seemed to lack experience and knowledge.  We had to request a couple of things more than once.  I had been told by my friend the foodie, that this was the best steak in town.  Starting at around $40, I would hope so.  Indeed, the steak was very good.  The idea is that you order a huge steak, which you can share or take home leftovers, and share various family-sized (their term, not mine) side dishes.  We each opted for a New York striploin.  The steaks were cooked to perfection, but basically bland.  I had read somewhere that they could do anything you like to the steak, but that option was neither offered orally or on the menu.  So salt (and a bit too much of that) and pepper it was.

I enjoyed the experience, but was letdown by the lack of "wow' factor.  I don't know what I was expecting, but it was certainly more than what was there.  My sister and I agreed that she made a better steak -- at least a more flavourful one.   And the washrooms were fine, but nothing memorable -- basic, clean and functional; that is, after you made it down two very, steep spiral staircases. 

The next night, some friends had me over for dinner at Chez Pagorgan.  This was indeed a delicious meal with Ahi tuna, accompanied by a wasabi mayonnaise, orzo and spinach.  A half chocolate cake topped off the meal.  What made the meal was that the company and conversation were great.  And their washrooms were very clean!  This was perhaps the best of my dining out experiences during my week of singledom.

Fast forward a couple of weeks, not much dining out.  The husband and child returned and re-entry has been hard.  The child who was well behaved through the whole trip, decided to punish the Mummy for her pseudo-abandonment.  The Mummy, who got quite used to here solitude, struggled with having to answer so many questions from her two loves.  Equilibrium, or some semblance of it, has finally resurfaced.

 

 We went for red meat and Cajun,

We ended up with poultry and Asian.

I can imagine my friend the poet cringing if she reads these words.  I am certainly not a poet, and don't she know it.  Groan, groan, groan!  My dining buddy and I resumed our once weekly dining out experience this week.  She wanted red meat and I suggested a new Cajun Creole restaurant on Cambie called Da-De-Oh!  They were closed, so I shall refrain from offering anymore information about them.  Who the hell closes their restaurant on a Wednesday night!?!

Wanting to support the suffering Cambie businesses, we went to Sate Satu.  I had attempted to go there once before when it was called Sate Express, but they were closed.  Are you detecting a pattern?  The service was good and friendly.  We were told that one of the owners of the former Express at returned to Indonesia and the remaining owner, along with a new partner, decided to chi chi up the place.  It looked a lot nicer than the previous take-away style decor.  We shared the appetizer platter, which had a sampling of everything on their appetizer menu.  It was all very good. 

We also shared some sate.  The menu noted that there would be six sticks per order, our choice of chicken, beef or pork.  I don't really eat pork, so we decided on chicken and beef.  Alas, we were foiled again as they were out of beef.  My friend suggested to me that they could have just run over to Choices across the street, to purchase beef, but unfortunately, they had not done that.  Anyway, we had all chicken.  It was disappointing.  They used thigh meat.  It was pretty bland and did not seem to be marinated in anything at all.  The peanut sauce was good, but there wasn't that much of it.  Frankly, my sate is much better. 

The wine list is small and reasonably priced.  My red wine tasted off and they offered me something else.  I opted for the white wine, since they had no other by-glass-reds.  It was fine.  The also have a small, but decent selection of reasonably priced bottled beer.  The washroom is clean.

We are off to see Loreena McKennitt tonight.  The civic strike has forced a venue change from the Orpheum to GM Place.  That's quite a change.  October starts tomorrow.  Lots of birthdays.  Things are going to be quite busy.

the pseudo-single life

A new template and new day. Actually, I swapped templates last night, but let's just keep that our little secret.

I have been living la vida loca lately. My husband and kid are out of town for eight days. While I should be sleeping, lolly gagging and partying like it's 1999 (for that is likely the last time I partied), I have been doing the the most heinous of chores. I have been prepping my outdoor stairs for repainting. I know, pretty dang exciting, but work that is much easier to do when one doesn't have to mind a very curious three-year-old. By prepping the stairs, I have mainly been sanding them, and sanding them, and sanding them. I still have about an hour's worth of sanding to do before I can actually start to paint.

It all started about two years ago when we had our old stairs replaced. I was assured by the fancy paint place that the latex/acrylic paint would be durable. The fancy paint store went out of business. My paint had already started to chip by then. And so here I am, sans husband and child, doing some pretty awful work. I have invested in a cheap mask and safety goggles, but my lungs still feel fairly sawdusty. And my muscles are just screaming "WTF" at me over and over again.

Okay, so my life is not entirely dreary. I do have my evenings stacked up with various dining excursions. Last night, my friend and I hit Habit (www.habitlounge.ca). The place had a nice vibe and the service was very good. I was kind of playing with the server and she tolerated me very well. The food, on the other hand, was kind of hit and miss. It is served tapas style, intended for sharing. We ordered the tomato and bocconcini salad, which came with pesto. This was delicious and inspired me for future parties. The other two dishes not so much.

We also shared the Moroccan style chicken wings that came with an orange and pomegranate sauce. Sounds yummy right? Well, they were just okay. The wings were lacking any kind of flavour infusion. The sauce was nice, but heavy on the coriander pods and light on the pomegranate seeds. We also ordered the perogies stuffed with yam, which they claimed to be their most popular offering. Here, the problem for us was texture. We both found the stuffing to be a tad too pureed, much like baby food. A little bit of chunkiness would have certainly improved their mouthfeel. The bathrooms had some pretty cool retro wallpaper and were very clean. I will likely check it out again, but -- and you knew this was coming --won't make a "habit" of it. Groan, groan, groan.

Next up, tonight I am not certain, but I am feeling like some seafood. Tomorrow night, we hit Gotham. In the meantime, my stairs await and my body protests.

the kindness of strangers

I was running some errands this afternoon. A young man with a cardboard sign was sitting on the pavement outside Shopper's Drug Mart. His sign read: Student. Hungry & Embarrassed. A camouflaged bucket hat lay before him for donations. As I passed him again, I noticed another man had stopped to ask if he wanted something to eat. He asked the "student" to pack his stuff and come with him. They walked behind us and the would-be benefactor asked the man about himself and what he did. He went to school and was a dishwasher at Denny's. The man took the student to a Subway restaurant (and I use that term loosely) which is where our paths diverged.

Living in the city, I tend to be cynical about panhandling. I also am very skeptical when matters such as poverty or pregnancy are overtly used as a means to solicit money. As a socially conscious person, this creates much dissonance for me. I understand the structural roots and functions of poverty. I know that many of those living in poverty are also working just to maintain their poverty level. This angers me to no end. We are living in one of the wealthiest nations in the world. No one should be without.

Nonetheless, I also know that many folks who panhandle do so because of substance and other abuse issues and do not want to offer money to feed potentially deadly habits. I also have read recently some explanations of the whole gutter punk culture and find it somewhat problematic. I have been aggressively panhandled and known people who have been physically assaulted when they've denied someone some "spare change". Here, I recognize that mental health issues are often significant factors in forcing folks to live on the street. Yet, I still struggle with the whole matter of giving or not giving.

Although I have given money to panhandlers before, I am generally reluctant to do so. I have occasionally purchased some food or water and passed it along, but really no more than that. However, what this man did for the hungry and embarrassed kid was quite remarkable. It was not so much that he was going to buy him something to eat, but the fact that he afforded this kid some dignity. He took the time to learn about this person who was so publicly and abashedly asking for help. It reminded me of a humanity that I like to believe lurks inside all of us. I was humbled by what he did. He is an example to all of us of how we can be and do better. For that, I honour this unknown man and thank him for reminding me that there some very good people in this world.