Tim's hat is the black cowboy one!
My head blocking the handshake
Walking down to the stage
With The Band Perry
With Luke Bryan
Saturday, 9 July 2011
A fun night!
Last Monday night I went out with my friend Niki. We went out for supper to have Indian cuisine - shcwarma. It was SO yummy. I will definitely have that again! :) Then we walked to Copps Colliseum to see Tim McGraw in concert. We had so much fun! We saw two bands that opened the concert - The Band Perry and Luke Bryan. I would have been content to just sit back and enjoy the evening and that would have been enough. But, what made the evening even better, was that Tim McGraw actually walked down the aisle three seats from where I was sitting and I actually got to shake his hand as he was coming down the aisle. Unfortunately, Niki didn't get a great picture because her neighbour bullied her way through and spilled beer all over so I've got the best pics I could find.
Sunday, 3 July 2011
First item off my bucket list
As promised, here is the awaited blog about Saturday's goings-on. After the fun visit to Port Dalhousie, Mandy and I drove to Hamilton to pick up Niki and then head to Toronto. We were going to experience dinner in the dark at O. Noir. I highly recommend this! When we arrived, we went down some steps and entered a dimly lit hallway which led to a still dim lounge area. It was at time time that we were given menus and order our meals. Niki was brave in trying octopus and I wanted to try the surprise options for both the appetizer and main course. I was a little apprehensive about what might arrive on my plate, but I was definitely up for the challenge. Once our orders had been placed, we were introduced to our waiter, who, like all the other waiters and waitresses there, was blind. Victor instructed the first person to place their left hand on his left shoulder and everyone was to form a chain in following the same action with the person in front of them. Line created, we followed Victor into a small passageway. We could not enter the actual dining room until the door behind us had completely closed. One by one, we were shown where we would be sitting and our place setting was explained to us. We had our napkins directly in front of us, with a small plate to the right which held a small butter container. The bread basket was directly to my left and in the centre of the table. I immediately went about trying to ascertain my surroundings by using the sense of touch. Where was the end of the table? Oh - I'm actually at 2 tables put together. How close was Mandy beside me? About half an arm's length. How far away is Niki across and to the left of me? (I ended up poking her in the face when I tried that one!) What does my chair look like? Wooden with minute scrolling details where the seat and back intersect. All these things would normally be deduced from a quick visual perusal of the area. Not so easy when you are blind.
Taking a seemingly innocuous task like buttering a roll turned into quite the escapade. Not only did I end up ripping the bread more than cutting it, but the butter that I had supposed to be on my knife had actually slid down on to my plate unbeknownst to me. I took a bit bite of bread anticipating the buttery flavour to enhance my taste buds, but they were met with a disappointing doughy flavour. I felt my bread to see where I might have mis-spread the butter and I couldn't feel anything resembling the pale yellow spread on my bread. I felt for the container - nothing there! That was probably the first time that night that I started to understand how vulnerable someone is who is blind. I ended up finding the butter on my plate and using my fingers to ensure that my bread was evenly covered.
When my surprise starter first arrived, I avoided the temptation of touching my food with my hands. I wanted to use my sense of taste to determine what it was that I was eating. I picked up something sort of slimy and warm and I was SO nervous that I, too, had received the octopus. But once I put it in my mouth, I realized that the flavouring was closer to that of a vegetable of sorts. I had fresh lettuce, tomatoes, and then varying textures of these warm vegetables on top. The eating of this salad was really humourous as I must have brought at least a dozen empty forkfuls to my mouth thinking that it was actually laden with salad. Upon completion of the salad, I was getting ready to put my utensils on the plate and give it to Victor. However, when I went to pick up my plate, I noticed that there was a LOT of salad and other salad items that covered the circumference of my dish. Oops! Victor came to pick up our plates and I had to give very explicit instructions. For example, I couldn't say, "Oh hey, Victor! I've got the plates right here." Way too vague. Instead, I said, "Hey Victor, it's Kim. I'm passing all three plates over my left shoulder."
When supper came, a similar pattern happened. Victor informed me that the plate was hot and that it was coming over my right shoulder. The food was fantastic. I had roasted chicken with a mushroom sauce as well as steamed green beans and a baked potato. Yum! The beans were probably the trickiest to eat because I was never sure how long they were and I didn't want to eat with my hands. I speared my cheek a couple times with the beans, but other than that, I think I did pretty well!
After we had all finished our meals, we left the same way we came in - single file, a hand on the shoulder of the person in front of us and back into the dimly lit lounge area. Even though it was so dim, it was a huge shock to our eyes as we had been in complete darkness for about an hour and a half.
We drove down to the waterfront (paying exorbitant parking fees) and strolled along the waterfront. We saw some some guy doing a balancing act, part of a French portion of the Jazz festival and had quite a blast with a random boat on shore. Enjoy the pictures! :)
Taking a seemingly innocuous task like buttering a roll turned into quite the escapade. Not only did I end up ripping the bread more than cutting it, but the butter that I had supposed to be on my knife had actually slid down on to my plate unbeknownst to me. I took a bit bite of bread anticipating the buttery flavour to enhance my taste buds, but they were met with a disappointing doughy flavour. I felt my bread to see where I might have mis-spread the butter and I couldn't feel anything resembling the pale yellow spread on my bread. I felt for the container - nothing there! That was probably the first time that night that I started to understand how vulnerable someone is who is blind. I ended up finding the butter on my plate and using my fingers to ensure that my bread was evenly covered.
When my surprise starter first arrived, I avoided the temptation of touching my food with my hands. I wanted to use my sense of taste to determine what it was that I was eating. I picked up something sort of slimy and warm and I was SO nervous that I, too, had received the octopus. But once I put it in my mouth, I realized that the flavouring was closer to that of a vegetable of sorts. I had fresh lettuce, tomatoes, and then varying textures of these warm vegetables on top. The eating of this salad was really humourous as I must have brought at least a dozen empty forkfuls to my mouth thinking that it was actually laden with salad. Upon completion of the salad, I was getting ready to put my utensils on the plate and give it to Victor. However, when I went to pick up my plate, I noticed that there was a LOT of salad and other salad items that covered the circumference of my dish. Oops! Victor came to pick up our plates and I had to give very explicit instructions. For example, I couldn't say, "Oh hey, Victor! I've got the plates right here." Way too vague. Instead, I said, "Hey Victor, it's Kim. I'm passing all three plates over my left shoulder."
When supper came, a similar pattern happened. Victor informed me that the plate was hot and that it was coming over my right shoulder. The food was fantastic. I had roasted chicken with a mushroom sauce as well as steamed green beans and a baked potato. Yum! The beans were probably the trickiest to eat because I was never sure how long they were and I didn't want to eat with my hands. I speared my cheek a couple times with the beans, but other than that, I think I did pretty well!
After we had all finished our meals, we left the same way we came in - single file, a hand on the shoulder of the person in front of us and back into the dimly lit lounge area. Even though it was so dim, it was a huge shock to our eyes as we had been in complete darkness for about an hour and a half.
We drove down to the waterfront (paying exorbitant parking fees) and strolled along the waterfront. We saw some some guy doing a balancing act, part of a French portion of the Jazz festival and had quite a blast with a random boat on shore. Enjoy the pictures! :)
Last weekend
Last weekend, I probably had the best celebration of being finished school. My friend Mandy slept over from Friday to Sunday. On Friday we just chilled playing a fun game called Killer Bunnies. Any interested persons in learning this game, one word of advice: beware of Mandy - she will kill all your bunnies in an effort to win the Magic Carrot. I know what you're thinking - the Magic Carrot? Bunnies being killed? What kind of a game IS this? All I have to say is don't knock it till you've tried it! :)
On Saturday we made our way to Port Dalhousie where we had a picnic at the end of the pier and then spent some time on the carousel.
Saturday night will be my next blog ... enjoy the pics! :)
On Saturday we made our way to Port Dalhousie where we had a picnic at the end of the pier and then spent some time on the carousel.
Saturday night will be my next blog ... enjoy the pics! :)
My backyard oasis
Last fall, with the help of a friend from school, I built a pond in my backyard. I love the sound of water falling gently over rocks so I decided to be ambitious and design one for a chunk of my yard. Aside from the fish, it is all done and I'm very happy with the results.
Catching up ...
Well, I'm a little behind in blogs, so I'll write a bunch to catch up on what's been going on over the last month.
The first item of note is that school is officially over! I love summer holidays. I've been busy cleaning up the gardens and preparing the pond for when the nieces and nephew come over tomorrow to stock it with fish. This is going to be grand! I have yet to plant my vegetable garden, but maybe I can finish that up tomorrow morning.
Although school is out, I have had a good many things to keep my time filled and it looks like it will stay that way for most of the summer which is okay by me. I'd rather be busy than idle - and it's a completely different kind of busy. Here's what I've got planned:
July 11-23 - Road trip out east with Emily and Marsha
July 24-30 - Teen 1 at Campfire!
July 30? - Aug 6? - Kentucky - SWAP (Serving with Appalachian people)
Aug 7-13 - Wilderness Week at Campfire!
Aug 14-20 - Stay at home (so far ... we'll see what happens then!) :)
Aug 21 - 27 - Teen 2 at Campfire!
Aug 29 - Be back at school for orientation and extreme redecorating/redistributing of office supplies and so on.
To explain that last one ... our office is being moved to the library, the library to the loft and my classroom is becoming a dry lab so I'm moving to the classroom next door. However, because of all the internal renos, nothing can be done right now in terms of setting up my room. I'm so excited for being moved to a room that has natural light and that my classroom gets to stay on the forested side of the school - no view of the ashphalt courtyard for me! :)
The first item of note is that school is officially over! I love summer holidays. I've been busy cleaning up the gardens and preparing the pond for when the nieces and nephew come over tomorrow to stock it with fish. This is going to be grand! I have yet to plant my vegetable garden, but maybe I can finish that up tomorrow morning.
Although school is out, I have had a good many things to keep my time filled and it looks like it will stay that way for most of the summer which is okay by me. I'd rather be busy than idle - and it's a completely different kind of busy. Here's what I've got planned:
July 11-23 - Road trip out east with Emily and Marsha
July 24-30 - Teen 1 at Campfire!
July 30? - Aug 6? - Kentucky - SWAP (Serving with Appalachian people)
Aug 7-13 - Wilderness Week at Campfire!
Aug 14-20 - Stay at home (so far ... we'll see what happens then!) :)
Aug 21 - 27 - Teen 2 at Campfire!
Aug 29 - Be back at school for orientation and extreme redecorating/redistributing of office supplies and so on.
To explain that last one ... our office is being moved to the library, the library to the loft and my classroom is becoming a dry lab so I'm moving to the classroom next door. However, because of all the internal renos, nothing can be done right now in terms of setting up my room. I'm so excited for being moved to a room that has natural light and that my classroom gets to stay on the forested side of the school - no view of the ashphalt courtyard for me! :)
Saturday, 11 June 2011
The results are in ...
So tonight I tried tofu. Although I liked the teriyaki marinade, I didn't like the texture. I don't know what I was anticipating, but the compressed bean curds just didn't cut it. The stir-fry that accompanied the failed protein supplement was very tasty - onions, peppers, broccoli slaw and snow peas. Yum!
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