Saturday -
I arrive in Vic. I eat some soup and bread as a reward to myself for having to take so much transit to get there. It helps. Then one of my very best friends, we'll call her Mr. A, and I walk around Hillside for awhile, eventually landing in the Moka House to indulge in some tea and cookies. Can it still be called indulging if you do it all the time? Maybe not.... Later that day, I accompany her and her band to the Cambie, a fairly questionable bar in Esquimalt that they were playing a show at that night. While other people set up equipment and/or socialized with people before the show, I, being the wonderful friends' band cheerleader that I am, sat by myself with a beer and a book. Why make friends when you can come to a bar and hang out by yourself? The best I could manage was to go up to some guy from one of the other bands and call him Yankee Doodle because he had a feather in his hat. And then all the bands played and it was a wonderful show.
Sunday - Mr. A and I decide to go for breakfast! We decide (read: I refuse stubbornly to go anywhere else) to go to Lady Marmalade, a new (to me) restaurant in Victoria that I've been wanting to try for awhile. I insist we must go there because they have a tofu scramble, and I'm "vegan" this week. (I'm doing a bit of a bad job of it). So we go there, quite a bit later, as we decided to make a bunch of home made juice before going. This involves a LOT of apple cutting, sorting out of apples gone bad, drinking cabbage juice of all things, and a broken down juicer. It couldn't take all the pressure. It was a very good restaurant, very tasty foods and drinks. I had a hot lemon ginger honey drink. Not tea, it was some kind of wonderful home made concoction. After breakfast we wandered around town for awhile. Then later my friend (we'll call her Mr. X) and I went for dinner. Mr. A had another bum friend coming to town to sleep on the couch, so she kicked me out, and I stayed at Mr. X's that night. We went to Pagliacci's for dinner, where I failed at veganism again, as there was fontina cheese on top of my pasta...oh well. Mr X and I have this strange tendency, when we go out for dinner, to get matching orders. Right down to the wine. It must be a waitress's dream. Or a cook's dream? I don't know, but I like to think it benefits someone somehow. Pesto pasta, red wine, another gastronomical (awful word I know) success. And then this guy came in and I was SURE it was James Franco. He looked so much like him, but no one made a big deal about it, you know? So that's your first clue right there. Because if it WAS James Franco, they would want to make sure to keep it discreet, right? But I knew. He was just sitting there, acting all casual waiting for his friends. I mean it HAD to be him, he was at Pag's, which famous people go to when they're in town. At least I've somehow convinced myself of this. So I asked the waitress if it was him, and she said she didn't think so, but of course if it was, she wouldn't want to go spreading it around the restaurant, you know? So then a band came in to play, and we had our tables shuffled around, ending up with us sitting RIGHT in front of the band, so we had a pretty good view, and even some conversations with the band, because well, we were right there with them. It was a Klezmer band, and it was just fantastic music! Then at one point James Franco and his entourage decided to leave, and just as they were all getting up to put their coats on and stuff, the lead singer gypsy woman ordered them to sit back down. In no uncertain terms, so they obediently did. It was clear she wasn't ASKING them. She said the trombone guy, "Trombone Nick" had his solo coming up, and they couldn't miss it. You could see the sweat on Nick's brow from all this new pressure. But he delivered, and it was awesome. We stayed till the band took a break, chatted some more with the band, and then left. It was a good night. And for the record, no, it wasn't James Franco. Just some guy.
Monday - I packed up all my stuff from Mr. X's and headed downtown to meet my dad and stepmom for lunch at Pluto's. It was pretty good, I had a salad, withOUT the cheese, because I am a vegan, you see. I went to see my dad's new digs, a nice cute little place in the heart of quietsville, Fairfield, and then it was off to see another best friend! Mr. L, and it would be at her house that I would live out the rest of my trip. A group of us had dinner at Mr L's house that night, which was lovely and it is nights like these that I will miss greatly when I go off to foreign lands....
Tuesday - In the evening I went and saw Peter Newman, an old friend of my dad's talk at Bolen Books. I've known him all my life, and wanted to say hi, and got in about a 30 second visit after the talk, so that was something, at least. Then after that Mr. L and I went to the Mint for drinks and pizza, which was very cozy and nice. Then the next morning when I woke up I realized, wait a minute.... there was CHEESE on that pizza!! And I'm a VEGAN. So, so bad at being vegan. I didn't even remember I was a vegan for a whole bunch of hours at once. Maybe I should write it on my hand...
Wednesday - Mr. L and I have a tofu scramble for breakfast (so far, so good, still vegan, except, wait, I had milk in my tea, DAMNIT). Then we walked around Oak Bay, because I feel it is an area of Victoria that I love but often neglect to visit. We start out at the Oak Bay Marina Cafe, where we have americanos (in which I am also breaking my "no coffee for a while" rule. In my defence, I hadn't had any coffee for multiple days before this). We walked around the water, and saw multiple gangs of birds, which reminded me of the gang scene in Anchorman, in which all the different news teams show up for a rumble. For some reason the pigeons reminded me of Ben Stiller's latin news team. I can't explain how my mind works; I can only report what happens. Then we walked around the boats, and saw some sea lions! At least I'm pretty sure they were sea lions. They were definitely cute. So then we wandered up to the road and walked along Beach Drive. Then a really weird thing happened. Mr L spotted a deer in someone's driveway, and so we looked at it, because it was cute, and then a bus went by, and then the deer was gone! Just like in the movies! So we figure (ok maybe just me) that he got on the bus. Then we saw an eagle, which was pretty cool and majestic looking, and then we walked by a playground of a private school, where some kids ran up to the fence and made fun of us and yelled stuff at us, because kids are jerks. And then, walking further along, we saw a kingfisher, which was really pretty. I'd never seen one before. And then we played on one of those 2-person wooden swings, where you sit across from each other, which was kind of scary and fun. I can sort of see why they would outlaw those things, which they essentially did, except for this one, for some reason. They used to be everywhere. Then we walked through upland park, because why not, and came across a woman in a wheelchair with MS who had stalled her vehicle and needed to use Mr L's phone. We talked to her, and she was a pretty independent lady, but I think she should probably get a cellphone. Her very own. A Cellphone of One's Own, is what it would be called if it were made into a movie. Then later we went downtown and went to Green Cuisine because it's healthy and vegetarian and we were hungry health nuts. And then we went to Habit for another coffee, because if you're going to break your coffee rule, you might as well break it twice! We wandered around the Empress and looked at the Christmas trees from different organizations, some of which were beautiful (Sotheby's) and some of which were weird with trucks and safety gear on them (I don't remember the organization, let's just say I was to distracted by the craziness going on on the tree). Then we popped into The Noodle Box to say hi to my brother, but he wasn't there because he doesn't work there. He works at the one at Uptown. Oh right. Then Mr. L and my dad and stepmom and I went to Rebar for dinner, and it was awesome and I ate too much, which you have to because of portion sizes. I don't make the rules. I just follow them, always. THEN Mr L and I met Mr A at the Hotel Rialto for fancy drinks with too much alcohol in them (so at least you're getting your money's worth). Much drinking ensued. The end.
Thursday - Back to Van.
It all sounds very idyllic and makes me miss Victoria, and you!
ReplyDeleteAnd as for those two person, sit across from each other swings, yes, I can understand why they were outlawed too. I once caught my foot in the bottom part and Jesus, Mary and Joseph, did it hurt, and for a long time after too... But they are terribly charming when you don't get your foot caught. I kind of miss them.