My my, so photogenic!
Only 3 days left - that's trois, drei, três, trí, 三, kolm, tiga or III if you're in ancient Rome.
Monday, 12 May 2014
Once More Old Girl... Then Ye Can Rest
Hey team! Here are the pictures I captured of the shockingly gorgeous people who came to the going-away at Lunenburg on Thursday. If you have any others that you'd like to share with me, drop me a line!
My my, so photogenic!
Only 3 days left - that's trois, drei, três, trí, 三, kolm, tiga or III if you're in ancient Rome.
My my, so photogenic!
Only 3 days left - that's trois, drei, três, trí, 三, kolm, tiga or III if you're in ancient Rome.
Sunday, 11 May 2014
Off to the Races
I started writing this post at 10:00 in the morning on Thursday May 8th. By the time
11:00 am rolled around, I had written the following:
"The day of my departure from Ottawa has arrived. At the moment I'm sitting in Artissimo Café waiting for Adorit (the best fair trade, eco-friendly boutique in Ottawa) to open so that I can get in to my soon-to-be-former apartment above the store. I've passed off residence of the place to my good friends Alain and Emily which means that I'm left sans keys. Which wouldn't be an issue except that all of my luggage is in there. And my plane to New Brunswick leaves in just over 3 hours.
I've missed a plane to NB before. The result was that I had to take the greyhound all the way from Ottawa to Fredericton. In a car, that's about a 9-hour drive for most people (or 11 for me - I'm a geriatric). But the greyhound I took did the milk run. A full 16 hours taking the scenic route the lesser-known areas of South-Eastern Québec, passing through the type of villages locals lovingly refer to as "St. Buttfuck-de-Nowhere". All of this to say that I'm fairly determined to be well ahead of time for this flight back home. My bags are packed, I just gotta get to them (and maybe take a quick shower, being semi-nomadic for the past week has been a direct-route ticket to stank city). After that, je vais caller le taxi, give a big hug to Emma (the owner of Adorit and my very good friend), give Java (the store's poodle-y mascot) a good ear scritch and then be on my way."
Which brings us to my Thursday afternoon. 4:19 pm. At this point, I should have been on a plane, just about to get into Montréal. Instead, I was sitting at Gate 23 at the Ottawa
airport. You’re probably thinking “but Mickie, you said your flight was at
2:00, and you just made a big fuss about how you were super prepared and definitely weren't going to miss it this
time.” Yeah. Well.
Sometimes, even if you pack your bags a week and a half in
advance, things don’t go exactly according to plan. Or at least, not to your plan. Granted, part of the problem was my own difficulty in understanding how time
works. I waited till the last minute to get a prescription filled and that
delayed me by a half-hour. But even still, I should have been able to make it
to the airport before the cut-off point to get on the plane. My bags and I were
in a cab, the cabbie was on the ball, we were making some serious tracks and
then... I was thwarted by them gosh-darn protesters. Caught up in my own
preoccupations, I had completely forgotten about the pro-life rally that was
planned for that afternoon. Turns out that the route they had chosen for their
Grand Parade of Indoctrination cut right through my path to the airport. If I was
unsympathetic to that particular cause before, now that it made me miss
my flight home, I would go so far as to say that I am moderately disgruntled by
it.
Never fear though. The whole previous paragraph was written
strictly to make a mountain out of a molehill. It was no trouble whatsoever to
change my flight and I ended up getting into Saint John only about 4 hours
later than expected. And, to be honest, I like hanging out in airports. Once
you’re through security, there’s nothing you can really accomplish before
getting on the plane, so it’s sort of like a forced vacation. You get to poke
around the duty-free shop, grab a bev and a bagel at Timmy Tim Ho Ho’s and read
a trashy magazine or five. And you get to watch planes take off, which is cool
and, I’m fairly certain, attributable only to sorcery.
Alright, enough of my bellyachin'. Now, back to very good friends! I want to use this space to send some good feelings to a few more Ottawa people who weren't included in my Parliament love-sesh in the previous post.
Let's start with the whole Adorit family - You have been the most incredible semi-roomates! In the words of Emma, you are all "Amazing!" :p
And Java - Bark, bark, woof, snifffffff
Emma and Ed, I'm so sad that I won't be able to be at your wedding, but seeing the preparations going into it, I know it's going to represent you guys and your relationship perfectly. Cheerful, loving, free-spirited, adventurous and exactly you. I expect to see lots of pictures from it!
To the staff at the Tea Party and Rasam – even though the crew that I started working with has more or less all gone our separate ways, we shared some lovely, exhausting and delicious times and it was really cool to go from being a customer to your teammate. I will never forget the glory that is scratch-made Butter Chicken Poutine (a.k.a. Butt Chick Pooters).
Since I was a transfer to UOttawa, I didn't get really too involved in campus life (been there, done that at MUN) so I didn't collect too many school friends. But I did have one prof who was a shining star, who became my friend and who was definitely the best prof in all of my (long) university career - Annik, me han gustado mucho tus clases, pero más importante, eres una amiga buenísima (y bellísima). Suerte! You have prepared me to annoy people not only in English and French, but in the local tongue when I'm in Madrid - for that I thank you!
I want to thank everyone who came out to the going-away
party at Lunenburg – what a great turnout! It was a blast and it
meant so much to me to see you all there! I’d also like to thank those who
couldn’t make it to the bar, but who were there in spirit and/or hologram. If I
was kind of quiet at the end of the night, it was partially because I was
getting a teeny tiny bit emotional
about having to leave all of you and partially because I’ve been putting so
much energy into getting myself to yesterday night that when I finally relaxed
to enjoy it, my brain chose to respond by sloooowwwinnngg
doooowwwwnnnn. But I digress. My friends, you all showed me that
Ottawa has become my home, not just a place where I’ve happened to live. I love
that beautiful city, but it wouldn’t have meant a quarter as much to me if I hadn’t
had all of you there to share it with me.
Finally, Simon. You already know a lot of what I have to say
to you – you’re thoughtful, you’re insightful, you’re brilliant, I have some serious respect you
and also you've got a hot bod. Thank you for showing me how to be myself around
you. Thank you for liking me the way I am.
Meow.
One week left.
Wednesday, 7 May 2014
Au Revoir au Parlement
After a four-year run, today I wrapped up my 'career' as a heritage interpreter (i.e. tour guide) in the Parliament of Canada. It was hard. I know that I'm off to adventures and excitement overseas. But this job has been the centre point of my whole life here in Ottawa. It's where I met 95% of my friends. It's what gave me purpose in my tough early days in the city. Without question, it's played a significant part in shaping the person I am today (for better or crazier).
Turning in my security pass stung a little bit - in that moment I transformed from a parliamentarian back into a civilian. No more hanging out in the House of Commons Foyer at midnight, should the mood strike (the mood never struck before, but at least with my pass, I had the option).
I asked my supervisor if I could have the last tour of the day so that I could go out in style and he kindly obliged. What a perfect tour on which to end. An absolute fabulous group of guys. They were in high spirits, they asked intelligent questions and they let me have fun with them. It was a tour that reminded me of the thrill I had when I first started the job. And at the end of the tour, when I told them it was my last one, they gave me a round of applause and then they all came up, shook my hand and wished me luck. Thank you, gentlemen, for helping end on such a high note! You made my day! (Hope you had a good time imbibing at D'Arcy McGee's).
In a few minutes I have to head off to my goodbye soirée - the gang is gathering at my fave pub, Lunenburg, for reminiscing, hugs and tasty, tasty cider. I just want to give a HUGE thank you to every single person who has made my time at Parliament such a joyful chapter of my life.
To the constables, scanners, boutique team, cafeteria squad, maintenance brigade, pages (senate and house), LOP employees, staffers (yes, even the staffers ;p ), senators, MPs, protocol crew, visitors (et visiteurs) and far more wonderful people than I can mention here, thank you for creating the community that makes Parliament such a wonderful place to work.
To the IOs - thank you for being the best supervisors, mentors and friends that I could ask for.
And finally, to you crazy, crazy guides - you made me this way. It's all your fault.
...and I wouldn't give up the time I've spent with you for all the world.
Thank you for making me laugh, being weird, picking me up when I've been down and most importantly, for putting up with me. Vous allez me manquez. Je vous aime à la folie (literally, it would seem).
In this bitter-sweet moment, I sign off for now.
Love,
Mickie
8 days
Turning in my security pass stung a little bit - in that moment I transformed from a parliamentarian back into a civilian. No more hanging out in the House of Commons Foyer at midnight, should the mood strike (the mood never struck before, but at least with my pass, I had the option).
I asked my supervisor if I could have the last tour of the day so that I could go out in style and he kindly obliged. What a perfect tour on which to end. An absolute fabulous group of guys. They were in high spirits, they asked intelligent questions and they let me have fun with them. It was a tour that reminded me of the thrill I had when I first started the job. And at the end of the tour, when I told them it was my last one, they gave me a round of applause and then they all came up, shook my hand and wished me luck. Thank you, gentlemen, for helping end on such a high note! You made my day! (Hope you had a good time imbibing at D'Arcy McGee's).
In a few minutes I have to head off to my goodbye soirée - the gang is gathering at my fave pub, Lunenburg, for reminiscing, hugs and tasty, tasty cider. I just want to give a HUGE thank you to every single person who has made my time at Parliament such a joyful chapter of my life.
To the constables, scanners, boutique team, cafeteria squad, maintenance brigade, pages (senate and house), LOP employees, staffers (yes, even the staffers ;p ), senators, MPs, protocol crew, visitors (et visiteurs) and far more wonderful people than I can mention here, thank you for creating the community that makes Parliament such a wonderful place to work.
To the IOs - thank you for being the best supervisors, mentors and friends that I could ask for.
And finally, to you crazy, crazy guides - you made me this way. It's all your fault.
...and I wouldn't give up the time I've spent with you for all the world.
Thank you for making me laugh, being weird, picking me up when I've been down and most importantly, for putting up with me. Vous allez me manquez. Je vous aime à la folie (literally, it would seem).
In this bitter-sweet moment, I sign off for now.
Love,
Mickie
8 days
Tuesday, 6 May 2014
A Stroll Across the Bonnie Isle
In doing a little armchair adventuring the other day (via my good friend google) a chain of links led me to a goal for my time in Scotland: to walk ACROSS THE WHOLE COUNTRY by means of the newly minted John Muir Way.
For those disinclined (read: too lazy) to check out the site, the John Muir Way is a collection of trails, bike roads and canal tow paths that reaches 215 km (that's 134 miles for you metric resisters) from Helensburgh on the West Coast to Dunbar, a little ways past Edinburgh on the East Coast. It's designed to be completed in 10 stages. The length of each stage ranges from 4.5 to 7 hours walking. That's anywhere from 14 km to 29.5 km depending on the stage. And I'mma gonna do it.
I might take more than just 10 days - if I'm going to walk all the way across a country, I'm darn well going to take my time to explore and enjoy it. I'm thinking that maybe 2 weeks would give a sufficient amount of time for walking, vista-looking, history-learning and village-visiting. I'll suss out the word on the street when I get to Edinburgh to see what's what.
I mentioned this plan to my good ol', wander-lovin' buddy Ethain and he jumped right on it. So when he finishes up with his Jasper-ing, park interpreting and wilderness-ing, we'll try to get a trans-Atlantic wind to blow him over my way so that we can gear up and hit the trail together.
Now I'm not in the worst shape ever, but it's certainly going to take a little practice to build up to it (I'm no bearded, burly, run-loving Islander. Sorry, Eth). That's why I'm planning on joining the Edinburgh Young Walkers, a division of the Lothian and Borders Ramblers. Essentially, the Ramblers are groups of people who enjoy walking and hiking, so they do it together. Sounds reasonable. Plus, I won't have too many friends in Edinburgh when I first arrive, so any group that is willing to let me tag along to their social activities is up my alley. Aaand they host pub nights. So, ya know. Drankz.
For the time being, I'm left dreaming of rocky crags, rugged coastlines and all that other cool biz that Scotland has. And applying for jobs (upon which plans to do anything fun whatsoever are naturally contingent). So until next time, keep your boots laced tight, your matches dry and may your GORP be full of chocolatey candies.
9 days till the adventure begins...
For those disinclined (read: too lazy) to check out the site, the John Muir Way is a collection of trails, bike roads and canal tow paths that reaches 215 km (that's 134 miles for you metric resisters) from Helensburgh on the West Coast to Dunbar, a little ways past Edinburgh on the East Coast. It's designed to be completed in 10 stages. The length of each stage ranges from 4.5 to 7 hours walking. That's anywhere from 14 km to 29.5 km depending on the stage. And I'mma gonna do it.
The 10 stages of the John Muir Way
I might take more than just 10 days - if I'm going to walk all the way across a country, I'm darn well going to take my time to explore and enjoy it. I'm thinking that maybe 2 weeks would give a sufficient amount of time for walking, vista-looking, history-learning and village-visiting. I'll suss out the word on the street when I get to Edinburgh to see what's what.
I mentioned this plan to my good ol', wander-lovin' buddy Ethain and he jumped right on it. So when he finishes up with his Jasper-ing, park interpreting and wilderness-ing, we'll try to get a trans-Atlantic wind to blow him over my way so that we can gear up and hit the trail together.
Now I'm not in the worst shape ever, but it's certainly going to take a little practice to build up to it (I'm no bearded, burly, run-loving Islander. Sorry, Eth). That's why I'm planning on joining the Edinburgh Young Walkers, a division of the Lothian and Borders Ramblers. Essentially, the Ramblers are groups of people who enjoy walking and hiking, so they do it together. Sounds reasonable. Plus, I won't have too many friends in Edinburgh when I first arrive, so any group that is willing to let me tag along to their social activities is up my alley. Aaand they host pub nights. So, ya know. Drankz.
For the time being, I'm left dreaming of rocky crags, rugged coastlines and all that other cool biz that Scotland has. And applying for jobs (upon which plans to do anything fun whatsoever are naturally contingent). So until next time, keep your boots laced tight, your matches dry and may your GORP be full of chocolatey candies.
9 days till the adventure begins...
Monday, 5 May 2014
The Great Ottawa Bingo Card
Hey team!
Only 3 days left till I leave Ottawa for my pre-Europe New Brunswick visit! Lately, I've been doing a lot of thinking about how wonderful Ottawa is and all of the things I'll miss about it.
Aside from the obvious (friends, job, favourite café, blah, blah, etc. etc.) there's also the fact that, being the nation's capital, Ottawa is chock-full of interesting and entertaining things to see and do. Of course, like most people, it never really occurred to me to be a tourist in my own town. At least, not until about 3 months ago when my move to Scotland transformed from an idea into a sure thing. Suddenly, I realized that there was so much left to do in Ottawa that I had wanted to do, but had just never made a point of actually going out and doing.
Being a person who loves to check things off lists, I decided to organize these activities into the OTTAWA BINGO CARD (patent pending).
Here it is, y'all:
The dates and times I've included on the card were for the winter season, but a lot of places stay open longer during the summer so keep that in mind when exploring.
Only 3 days left till I leave Ottawa for my pre-Europe New Brunswick visit! Lately, I've been doing a lot of thinking about how wonderful Ottawa is and all of the things I'll miss about it.
Aside from the obvious (friends, job, favourite café, blah, blah, etc. etc.) there's also the fact that, being the nation's capital, Ottawa is chock-full of interesting and entertaining things to see and do. Of course, like most people, it never really occurred to me to be a tourist in my own town. At least, not until about 3 months ago when my move to Scotland transformed from an idea into a sure thing. Suddenly, I realized that there was so much left to do in Ottawa that I had wanted to do, but had just never made a point of actually going out and doing.
Being a person who loves to check things off lists, I decided to organize these activities into the OTTAWA BINGO CARD (patent pending).
Here it is, y'all:
Canadian
Mint
10h00-17h00
Res. (613) 993-8990
$6 Weekday
$4.50 Weekend
|
National Gallery
10h00-17h00
Closed Monday
$12-Adult
$10-Student
|
Bytown Museum
11h00-16h00
Closed Monday
$6.50-Adult
$4.50-Student
|
Aviation Museum
10h00-17h00
Closed Tuesday
$13-Adult
$10-Student
|
Science Museum
9h00-17h00
Closed Monday
$12-Adult
$10-Student
|
Nature Museum
9h00-17h00
Closed Monday
$12-Adult
$10-Student
|
Civilization
9h30-17h00
$13-Adult
$10-Student
Combo w/ War:
$20-Adult; $15-Student
Imax+1 Mus:
$20-Adult; $15-Student
Imax+2 Mus
$26-Adult; $20 Student
Combos good for 2 extra days
|
War Museum
9h30-17h00
$13-Adult
$10-Student
Combo w/ Civ:
$20-Adult; $15-Student
Imax+1 Mus:
$20-Adult; $15-Student
Imax+2 Mus
$26-Adult; $20 Student
Combos good for 2 extra days
|
Rideau Hall
Res.1-866-842-4422
Res.
2 days ahead
|
Bytowne Theatre
$10.00
|
IMAX
1 Film
$11-Adult; $9-Student
2 Films
$17-Adult; $14 Student
|
Mayfair Theatre
$10.00
|
Little Italy
Wander for an afternoon
|
Chinatown
Wander for an afternoon
|
Monopolatte
Mon-Thur 12h-2h
Fri 12h00-3h00
Sat 11h00-3h00
Sun 11h00-1h00
$5 Cover; No Cover on Mondays
|
NAC Concerts
Live Rush prices Available from 10am the day before
the show
|
Little Theatre
Box Office
11h-20h show night
11h-16h dark night
Shows start 19h30
Closed Monday
Adult-$25
Student-$12
|
Arts Court
Every Day
9h00-23h00
-
|
Ottawa School of Art Gallery
Mon-Thur 9h30-21h
Fri+Sat 8h30-16h30
Sun. 12h30-16h30
|
St. Laurent+Hill Gallery
Tues.-Sat. 10h-18h
Sun. 12h00-17h00
Closed Monday
|
Diefenbunker
Every Day 11h-16h
$14-Adults
$10-Students
|
Supreme Court
Mon.-Fri 9h-17h00
Closed Sat & Sun
|
Notre
Dame
Mon.11h30-18h00
Tues.- Sat.10h-18h
Sun.8h00-20h30
|
U Ottawa Drama
20h00
Academic Hall
$20-Ad; $10-Student
|
The dates and times I've included on the card were for the winter season, but a lot of places stay open longer during the summer so keep that in mind when exploring.
This is just a sample of all that is to be seen and done in O-town, but it's certainly a good start, regardless of whether you're a visitor from away, or simply trying to be a hometown adventurer.
I haven't quite finished it myself yet (and I almost certainly won't before I leave) but it definitely has gotten me out of my routine of work-home-couch-TV-bedtime. In researching the info for the Bingo Card, I also came across a cool website dedicated to helping people in Ottawa break the lazy+sweatpants routine: http://couchassassin.com/ - worth a look if you're bored!
That's all for now chicas y chicos! Happy exploring!
Only 10 days till Marg and I get on that plane to Spain!
P.S. My favourite Ottawa café is Artissimo at the corner of George and Cumberland. The café au lait is perfection, the employees are really friendly, the decor is funky and most importantly, it's really close to my apartment. Convenience!
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