Happy holidays

I just wanted to wish everyone a wonderful holiday! Have fun, be safe and live up the fact that you're alive!

I'll be heading to Vienna for a couple of days, so I won't be posting for the next little while (my posts have started to become more sporatic anyhow).

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Loner and loving it

I am first to admit that I'm a loner. And I love it!
Sure, I love my quality time with friends and family, but sometimes it's just such a wonderful feeling to be on your own doing whatever you want to be doing, whether it be taking in the world, or just staying warm under a blanket in front of the TV.

This past Sunday night, after the Cirque Eloize, I dined out alone.

I have been waiting for the perfect moment to do this, and it just worked out that it would happen that night.
Some of you may think this is not a big deal, but I was anxious about this. It's the whole, "worrying about what people think of you" thing.
I wanted to conquer this fear. why should I care what people think? I'm enjoying good food and the company of...myself.

Now, when dining alone, you need to be prepared. I had thought the whole meal through, go to a familiar restaurant that I enjoyed, where I knew the menu and the ambiance and bring a bag full of tricks.

My pick, Brasserie du Theatre of course. I love this restaurant for so many reasons. The location, the feel, the food, the staff.
I picked a table sort of in a corner, where I'd have a great view of the rest of the restaurant (I'm a people watcher...plus, I wouldn't have anyone across from me to stare at).
I ordered, felt pretty good about myself, and let my mind wander. I did pretty good until my soup arrived. It was really hot, so I let it sit for a bit, and I started daydreaming again, but I was little bored of daydreaming. I'd already judged everyone in the restaurant (okay, I admit it, I sometimes judge people just by looking at them...what else am I to do? I'm getting a little bored.) so what else could I busy myself with?
Out comes the bag of tricks. I think...do I want the book? The magazine? Ah yes, I'll pick the marking. Marking's actually really fun for me. And you've got to do it sometime, so why not while you're waiting for soup to cool?
The rest of the meal went splendidly. I ate good food (moules were extremely salty for some reason that night...not a good thing) and enjoyed my chocolate Viennois. And I finished some marking, felt very comfortable dining alone.

[Sidebar: Along with moules & frites being my main course which I sample at each restaurant, I've also added chocolate Viennois to my arsenal. Do date, Brasserie du Theatre has the best moules - although, as I've said the cook seems to be making them more salty as of late - and a cafe in Bruges, Belgium that I can't recall the name has the best chocolate Viennois - tasted like they'd taken a piece of chocolate and just melted it in a cup for me.]

It was a lovely experience. One that I would like to have again soon. Therapeutic isn't the right word, but often when I'm doing stuff on my own, a really great feeling washes over me. I can't really describe it.

I've also noticed that many people here in Europe dine out alone. I mean, for some reason I remember ever seen people eating alone in restaurants in Canada, but maybe that's because I never noticed. I just don't think it's as widely accepted that people eat out alone in Canada, but here, it's not that big of a deal.

I've decided that I'm going to find a restaurant or cafe to become a regular at. Brasserie du Theatre and Cafe Floridita are both high on the list right now. I'm going to go there quite often to have a lovely evening where I can have some down time, watching the world and people go by as I enjoy the company of myself. It'll also be a nice place to do my marking (which is often therapeutic as well).

Ocean's Twelve

I saw Ocean's Twelve Tuesday night.
It was my first trip to the cinema here in Europe. First of all, it cost 15CHF. The seats in the theatre were really cushy though, so I guess I can't complain too much. And I think they're around the same price in Toronto at those huge theatres right? Oh, and the price was what is was because I got a ground seat (vs. balcony), I didn't pay enough attention to see how much balcony seats cost. Less I suspect.
Most of ads and previews were in French, a couple were in English with German and French subtitles.
The movie was in English with subtitles (German and French). It was a little bit distracting actually, because I'd start reading the French subtitles and miss out on the action that was going on in the background, or else, I was listening to the track and feel like there was always something blocking the bottom half of the screen (duh...the subtitles?!?). I noticed that anytime Yen talked, there were no subtitles for him. Good thing I understood what he was saying. But I guess that's the point right? They don't have English subtitles for him usually, so why would they have German or French?
Another thing they've got here in Europe is an intermission. It was quite ghetto actually, part way through, not necessarily at a good breaking point, the film went wonky and the curtains closed and lights came on. They literally pressed stop on the film reel. It did the old school flickery picture thing. A short smoke break. It's Europe remember? Afterwards, they just pressed play again. It was a little weird actually. Like you had to remind yourself what happened before the intermission, so for the first 5 minutes, you weren't completely paying attention to the movie but just trying to understand what was going on and get back into zoned out movie-watching mode.
I guess because it was a movie with so many big names and stuff, I was expecting it to be really flashy like the first one, so I was a little surprised that it wasn't. I personally would have liked it to be flashy, but whatever.
Anyway, I'm not here to ruin the movie for you, but I didn't like it that much. I didn't really look at my watch to time it or anything, but I've say that I predicted the whole final third of the movie. I don't always like that. For Hollywood lovey-dovey movies yes, you need a happy ending, but you're not supposed to be able to predict what's going to happen in a heist/thief/whatever-you-want-to-call-it thing. Just my beef.
It was okay though...I guess.
Any thoughts from others who've seen it?

Blackberry sighting

On Friday, December 17th, I spotted my first Blackberry in Europe. It was across the bus from me on my way downtown. Dark blue in colour.

Cirque Eloize

Last night, I went to Lausanne to see Nomade by Cirque Eloize.
You can visit their website yourself to find out more info, but in a nutshell, it's a performing company founded in Quebec that's quite similar in style to the more famous company, Cirque du Soleil.
Since I'd heard such rave review about the show and it's similarity to Cirque du Soleil, I was expecting something fabulous. I guess it was. Now don't get me wrong, it was wonderful, but I'm the type who'll get my expectations up SO high and then be overly critical about something. I think that since I'd also seen all of the Cirque du Soleil shows on TV, I'd seen all of the acts that were performed (or at least one that were very similar). The venue was also quite small, and our seats didn't bode well for the acts that were in the air, so that put a damper on some of it.
Honestly though, it was amazing. A little less theatrical and colourful than what I imagine Cirque du Soleil is like live, but I think that went with it's theme. Lots of muted colours and somber tones. A little bit "modern" in style, that some people I was with didn't really get it. It was still very impressive, and next time I know that I'm going to dish out the big bucks for better seats.
Speaking of big bucks, it wasn't too pricey at all. I mean, that's the thing with this company. I guess because they're not too huge (yet), their tickets are quite reasonably priced. So if you like to see Cirque du Soleil type shows without dishing out the cash, I would highly recommend Cirque Eloize. I'd recommend it either way, because it was a good show and it's Canadian.

In a strange way, watching the show made me miss cheerleading. At least the stunting part. (You know the acrobatic stuff that is often in those shows.) It's a LOT of fun being tossed in the air and standing on top of people who are holding you in mid air.
I also enjoyed the little comedic interludes to give the performers (14 members in the troupe + 4 musicians) a little bit of a break and to set up for the next act. At first they were a little distracting, but I really grew to appreciate their humour.

Anyway, message that you should get out of this post, become interested in Cirque Eloize.

Reference letters

A BIG thank-you goes out to all those who have written reference letters for me in the past (or for anyone for that matter). You've put in a serious amount of time trying to make someone else's life better.

I have now joined your ranks. I finished writing my first reference letter today. It was quite the experience.

Memorizing music and the holidays

I have often mentioned that I am enamored by holiday lights and sparkly things. This phenomenon has actually led to my ability to memorize pieces of music during my youth.
Let me explain.
The room in my house that I practice the piano in is also where we put our Christmas tree. December/January was prime time for when I was to be memorizing pieces for competitions or other events and so, what I'd do was, play my pieces while my head was turned to the left so that I could stare at the shining tree. Obviously if I had my head turned to the left and looking at the tree, I wasn't able to look at the score so I ended up being forced to memorize my pieces.
True story.

A musical evening

Last night, I went to a violin recital held by teacher at the local Conservatoire to let his students have some extra practice. It was VERY small scale, but 3 hours well spent. I'm SO glad that I'd heard about it.

All of the students were at a very high level of musicianship, so it wasn't completely like a recital that had all levels ranging from beginners to advanced players. All students played one movement from a concerto, and a few played two.
Most of the students must have learned their pieces rather recently because there were quite a few memory lapses. It's actually a phobia of mine that I will forget what I'm playing, and not know how to restart again. Some of the students covered up their mistakes quite well, others had to point out a bar to their accompanist to restart at and some needed to bring out their music. It was tough to watch at times because when you're on stage with spotlights on you and the room is completely silent, it's one of the worst feeling in the world. My heart went out to them.

There were 11 performers in total. I was only expecting six. Turned out that the first six that I'd seen the programme for was just the first half and during the break someone mentionned that there were still five more to go. Now, I'd actually had other plans for the rest of the evening, but these plans were maliable. I also noticed that a movement from a Tchaikovsky piece was to be played.

[Sidebar: On the programme, the piece being performed was listed only by its composer, the composer's life span and the tempo of the movement being performed. I thought it was a little odd that it wasn't mentionned which concerto by the composer it was and perhaps in which key it was.]

I must admit that I'm not terribly knowledgeable in violin works. I can only hum in my head one concerto by Tchaikovsky (No. 1 in D+), which happens to be my favorite violin concerto to date and the music I (finally, after months of listenning and narrowing down the choices) selected for my last skating program. I was keeping my fingers crossed that it would be that very concerto that would be played in the second half as I decided that I would throw my other plans out the door and stay for some more music.

As my perfect life would have it, it was the very same concerto that I was hoping for. And the violinist was wonderful. She had the score in front of her as a safety blanket, but didn't use it very often. I've only heard this concerto with a full orchestra behind it, so that was a little bit odd, and even worse was the fact that the accompanist was quite subpar. At one of the most dramatic parts (leading into a whole section for the "orchestra"), he completely stopped. I've never seen the score myself, so I don't know how difficult it was, but still, it was so bad that the soloist finished her big build up (with no accompaniment), there was an awkward pause of silence and then the accompanist came in again to bang away for a bit. It was so obvious and well, annoying, that the audience (though small in number, was mostly well educated musically) started laughing (I must admit that I couldn't help myself either). Some friends who didn't know the piece and I think little ins and outs of classical music later said that at the time, they couldn't figure out what the big deal was. One of the performers actually confided that all the musicians had some slight problems with this specific accompanist and didn't quite enjoy, umm, him. The soloist herself was incredible, especially given the challenge of having to play with an accompanist who well, you know.

The last piece of the evening was Bela Bartok. I don't know if the right people are reading this, so know what I'm about to say, but I've got a love-hate relationship with this composer. Or this era of composer should I say. The piece itself seemed quite demanding and the soloist seemed to be quite good, but it was just nothing to me. I couldn't get into it. It was just sound. Slightly annoying sound at that. "List E" pieces as I prefer to call them just...yuck. Even after four years of being told to play a couple pieces of weird music in University, I still can't appreciate their *cough cough* beauty *cough cough*. I'll play them, and quite decently, but I don't get what I'm playing. It's the only time that I ever feel like I'm just playing a bunch of notes.

After speaking to one of the performers, I must say that I'm even more impressed with how musical Neuchatel is (classically, at least). For such a small town, it has quite an impressive Conservatoire and a vast number of performance groups and concerts.

Anyway, it was a wonderful evening. I really enjoyed the music, and am looking forward to going to the next concert.

Another thing I love about the Swiss

I love that the Swiss are as obsessed with stars as I am...at least during the holidays.

Swiss greetings and pleasantries

For your etiquette pleasure:

When there's a lady/ladies involved - 3 kisses on cheeks, starting on the right cheek.

Between two gentlemen - a handshake.

You may think that this all sounds pretty normal (except in France and Italy I think it's only 2 kisses), but people of all ages have this etiquette. School aged folk (ranging from middle to high school) even greet each other this way. I'm just not used to seeing two thuggy looking guys swaggering up to each other, and then shake hands in a very uppity manner. It's kind of neat actually.

Christmas trees

Christmas is a really big holiday here in Switzerland. Perhaps the biggest of the year, and boy do they go nutso with the decorations. Since I adore sparkly and shiny lights, I love it.
Along all the streets there are lights strung up...you know how on lamp posts on major streets in Canada they have tinsel candy canes, wreaths, trees outlines with lights? Well up that 10x and you've got Switzerland. There's decorations everywhere. It's so happy.
They also have huge trees lit up at every open area possible. I pass by a whole bunch of stars lit up and a big tree on my walk home from the bus stop, and downtown there's a crazy huge one as well. Like, CRAZY huge. They also have a countdown to the New Year that's lit up in lights downtown as well.
I've never really been into Christmas, but I just love looking at decorations. Everything just looks so happy.
Even the skating rink has a big decorated tree in the bleachers...super fun!

Some improvement

I'm now thinking that it's all the walking up and down hills that's just making my legs stronger, and thereby making my jumps easier without me having to actively do anything to improve them.
I finally hauled myself into the air again after landing on a thin piece of steel for a split second. The first 2T2T was completed on one foot. A little curly on the ending, but nonetheless, complete. It was a shock even to myself.
A couple more good attempts, and one basically there, just usual me, not having fast enough reflexes to stay on my foot.
I must have fallen pretty hard on my right wrist at some point on the session, because it hurts SO much right now. Ack, I'll have to apply heat to it (you know me and my anti-icing!) at some point. Mmm...heat...maybe I'll have some soup for dinner. Maybe some courge soup. Yum.

It's about that time of the year

Today, I officially came to terms that it's winter. I have donned my winter coat. It is complete with many Delilah hairs on it. I miss my kitty.
I also switched from my star bag to one of my Milano felt bags just to be different for awhile. It's puke green and orange and wonderful.

Transferring

All of my posts have been transferred over from livejournal (which I must say, that I really did enjoy), and I THINK I've managed to salvage some comments, but for some reason, I'm not allowed to post comments on some of the earlier posts.
If you look back to the first couple of days/posts you'll notice that in September I actually made an attempt to switch over to blogger, but didn't feel like putting in the time to try to transfer things over. So there's some weirdness in terms of order of posts at the beginning. I'm going to leave it like that for the time being, because I really don't think many people will care enough to go back that far to read posts that they've probably already read before on my previous site.

Third page

After an hour or so of transferring posts (I'm a pack rat, so I want to somehow keep all the posts from my old pages), I think I might have found my new - and hopefully permanent home.
We'll see if blogger really is as good as people say...

Must be something in the water...

I chickened out of doing 2T2Ts tonight.
Instead I "settled" for three 2Tf2Ts.

Fill in the blanks...

To the few people that read this, I'm wondering if any of you are willing to help me out. I just saw that Canada has new fifty-dollar bills, so it reminds me that stuff is happening there and I don't know about (remember, I'm not good at keeping up to date in world happenings).
What going on "over there" in terms of fluffy fashion trends, music, hollywood buzz, movies...feel free to throw in more "important" information like, news items...quirky stuff.
Any developments in Scarborough or Toronto itself? I'll go out on a limb here...Kingston?

Italian purchase?!?

I've already decided that I'm going back to Milan for a weekend in January.
Anyone have thoughts for what will be a perfect Italian purchase? Anyone know of any brands that haven't hit it big yet, but will in the near future, or any closet fab items that will make me truly Euro-chic?
As much as I'd love a fab Fendi bag, or that smashing Gucci coat with the Versace glasses and Armani pantsuit, I'm not sure I want to go in that direction.

Impromptu to Milano

This past weekend, I took an impromptu trip to Milan. It was the first time since being here in Europe, that I just took off at the last minute.
Although everything's so close, you don't actually get much time in the destination after all the time spent travelling. I guess I can't really complain though.
It was any shopper's dream come true. Too many stores to list here.

Some things I noticed:
- contrary to popular belief, I gotta say that not ALL Italians are stylish (although the non-stylish ones could have been tourists), but I will admit that there's a greater percentage of well dressed folk compared to Toronto, for example.
- older women love their fur coats.
- stilletos on cobblestones...I still think these ladies have super strong ankles.
- Italian men dress well. I do have some stylish men friends, but I have met many who have trouble in this area. The one truly Italian gentleman-friend I have is one fashion-savvy individual, and I'm sure that's just because he's uberfunktastic, but I'm starting to think it could also be genetic.
- men wearing headbands is a Thing.
- coats with poofy collars is a Thing. (I considered getting one...)
- THE Via Montenapoleone has Courtesy Cars that strangely look like golf carts. Fine, if you want to pamper those spending the big bucks in your fancy stores by saving them from having to walk themselves, that's all fine and good, but by putting them on golf carts?!? Where they look dorky and freeze their bums?
- sequined belts are great.
- European women love their yappy dogs, and Italians are no exception. In Italy however, I noticed that hot dog dogs are more the norm.
- I'm not sure how Italians stay slim. I'm always so full after the 1st pasta course. Or maybe it's just that it's so rich. The portion isn't necessarily big.

P.S. I have added two more bags to my arsenal.

L'etole

I wanted to buy something fabulous and European on my trip to Paris. My initial thought was a bag. Bags are a girls best friend...isn't that how the song goes? Or some sort of clothing/footwear that screamed Euro chic!!!
On my shopping adventures of Saturday afternoon, I eagerly went in search of my prize. First stop, not quite Parisian, but we stop at Zara.
One thing that I've noticed in Europe is that stores make me feel a little overwhelmed. For the seasoned shopper that I (thought) am/was, this is a little disconcerting. It does sorta make sense though. Even in Toronto, I don't like shopping in stores that are cluttered. I like organized racks that aren't too full and folded merchandise that isn't strewn about. I tend to have problems at factory outlets where everything's in disarray. As great as I know Winners is for deals and variety, rummaging is necessary, and I'd just rather not. European stores have what seems like the square footage of your average store, but then they pack in the merchandise, and then surprise, your square footage is tripled because a little boutique is actually a three leveled emporium. It's a little extreme.
So basically, what I was getting it was that Zara was huge and little scary. By the way, have you heard that Mango is coming to Canada? I predict it'll catch on like Zara and H&M did. It's a pretty good store. Some nice stuff.
I really wanted to go to La Fayette because I'd heard so much about it. It really was a Holt's on steroids. Going on a saturday afternoon near the start of the Christmas rush probably didn't help matters. I was in bag heaven. But for some reason I wasn't readay to dish out the cash. They all just seemed...there. Nice, but blah at the same time. I couldn't help laughing at the fact that there was a line up at the Louis Vuitton counter. Like, 30 people long. I think it was a whole tour group waiting to purchase their goods. After wandering through clothes, we passed the scarves and hats. I noticed what I like to call a "fling-thing". A wide scarf/shawl object. Something that I thought was sophisticated and somehow European (don't all Europeans fling things over their shoulders and look divine?) It was lambswool. Thick and cozy. A little bit more expensive than I wanted to pay. I hemmed and hawwed, but decided to pass. I could always return, and we were wasting precious shopping time.
Rue de Rivoli was really fun. Sephora's always enjoyable. Lots of crazy cluttered stores to shake me to the core. We stopped at La Samaritaine which was also a department store on drugs. Again, nothing really stuck out to me. More boutiques and other chain stores later (I wonder if Promod will also zoom to Canada at some point?) I haven't found It.
We happen to stroll upon BHV and I'm sort of close to buying a Sequoia bag. Nah, it's actually very similar to the Fushia Rugby North America, er, I mean m0851 bag I thought about buying fall line '03 so not that special. On the way out, we see, yet again, the fling-thing. I guess I left out the fact that ever since leaving La Fayette, I've been discussing the merits of purchasing this item. I hem and haw some more, but in the end, make up excuses why I don't want it. One being that it'd be so much more fabulous if it was cashmire.
The final moments in Paris (seriously, the last 15 minutes), and we're dashing around for the last minute perfect item. I'm now REALLY tempted by some bags in a boutique in the Marais, but decide to pass. I'm not sure why, but I did. I've given up hope, because not only have I not made my special purchase, but the fling-thing won't be happening because there's no time to go back to get it.
Just a couple minutes left before we really have to leave, so we wander a little further. We walk by a poster of the ISU Grand Prix event being held this year in Paris. I stop for a snap and thought how great it was that I got to see the poster up close before leaving. My eyes scan to the right and notice...fling-things in the window! I look up and see that it's the store of the main sponsor of the skating competition, Eric Bompard. It's a sign! Not lambswool, but cashmire. Now I have no excuse. I go in...look at the price...freak out a bit...model...worry when they might not have it in black (sorry, it's a staple item)...they do...worry about the price...so soft and dreamy...hem and haw...look at the price again, put my foot down..."I'm buying it!". The whole time, I'm speaking English with my friend, the saleslady hovers (this is one of those stores that gives you super personal attention) and we chat in French, I see out of the corner of my eye a North American (speaking English without an accent) father waiting for his wife and daughter to make a decision on a cardigan and glancing over at me every so often. As I pay the large sum of money, the saleslady mentions that I have just bought an "etole". Hmmm...I notice that it's only one letter away from "etoile"...how curious. Too many coincidences. I know I've done the right thing. We joke about my journey of the perfect purchase. The father also compliments me on my purchase, and only helps me confirm that it was all meant to be. I won't say how much it cost, but it was quite substantial. More than I'd imagined spending on such an accessory and even on a "splurge item". Yikes. But that's what I'm here for. To enjoy myself, and to treat myself to something special when I want it.
I'm very proud of myself and of my etole.