Photojourney: Fort Edmonton Park with Keerti

This isn't how I meant to start off this post, but HOW HILARIOUS IS THIS PICTURE??? This child would stop at nothing, even if it meant climbing over a pile of cow pies, to get this chicken. And the chicken was so blah about it; it didn't squawk or peck or anything. Funniest thing I've seen in weeks. Her mother was laughing so hard she couldn't do anything about it. Then her cousin joined in and all hell broke loose.
These kids from the YMCA camp were harassing some turkeys in the street. I knew their counsellor, so I went over and gave them a hard time about it. The turkeys could have cared less. They're so stupid, it's almost sad.
Okay, now that I've thoroughly confused you, I went to Fort Edmonton Park with my friend Keerti Takhar today. She's from Punjab in India, and even though she's been living in Edmonton for 11 months now, she hadn't been to the Fort yet. We had an amazing time, and these pictures are photographic evidence of said good times.

Keerti on an accidental bridge we found outside of the park.
Me on the accidental bridge.
Deer antlers over the doorway in the 1846 Fort.
Kegs of Jamaican rum. Those settlers really knew how to throw a party.
Keerti touching some gorgeous Clydesdale horses with much trepidation.

Good times.

-Laur

Photojourney: Erica Kay Bell

Festival City

Last Wednesday we were lucky enough to receive a phone call from my mom's cousin Linda Adam and her husband Bill. Linda is from the Kidd family, my Grampa's sister's lot. She's a riot and so is Bill, so it was nice to have them come and see everyone while they were here. They were visiting from Calgary, kind of roaming around the Edmonton-Mayerthorpe area and chilling with friends and such. When I go to Calgary on the 30th, hopefully I'll get to see them again. They have a 12-year-old daughter named C/Katherine who was at camp when they came to visit, and I would like to see her again.

On Friday night we headed down to Churchill Square for the Taste of Edmonton festival. Restaurants from all over the city set up booths and serve 2 selections from their restaurant for a set number of tickets. Among the deliciousness we sampled: bacon-wrapped scallops, seafood paella, beef curry, salmon teryaki, garlic dry ribs, lobster and crab rotini, Vietnamese spring rolls, chocoloate peanut butter chunk, and the MacDonald Hotel's scones with saskatoon berry compote, shown above.

We also had a bit to drink, illustrated above.

On Sunday we had Dale, Syrell, Carson, Amanda and Erica over for brunch. Erica is getting big so fast and she's TOO CUTE.

-Laur

Just another Saturday

Mom asked me to update my blog because she was getting sick of the Peter Pan reference. Sorry for the delay! Here are some pictures from my adventure of last Saturday. I can't believe it's almost Thursday already! Bryna reminded me on the phone yesterday that I'll be home really soon. Pretty amazing.
The picture above is of Edmonton's University LRT station. I was SO EXCITED to take Edmonton's subway! It's way cleaner than the TTC, but lacks the certain "je ne sais quoi" (AKA character) of the Yonge/University line.

On Saturday morning I jumped on the 30 bus and took it to Southgate, transferred onto the 6 and took it to the U of A campus, then got on the LRT at University station and rode to Churchill Station. The above picture is basically the sight that met me when I came up the stairs from underground. I was at the annual Edmonton Street Performer's Festival, 10 days of fabulous performances, great food, games and fun in the heart of Edmonton's downtown. There's no admission; in true "pass the hat" tradition, you donate what you can to the performers you like. I came armed with a bunch on toonies, and wound up giving them all away.

Two words: YUMM and O! Contortionists and strongmen. GOOD GOD!

These guys were the bomb. They practice a form of performance art, kind of setting up tableaux scenes wherever the mood strikes them, and that day they decided to go fishing in the wading pool/fountain. All the kids in the pool thought they were a riot. So did I.

After the festival I wandered around downtown, got myself fantastically lost in the basement of a mall, and then found my way to the biggest, most gorgeous library I've ever seen besides the Toronto Reference Library. Then I hopped back on the LRT and went to the University again to wander around their campus. All I can say is in terms of gorgeous buildings, green spaces and student community centres, York's got NOTHING on U of A. Neither does U of T or Rye High for that matter. Amazing.

Upon returning to Southgate Terminal I kind of flipped a mental coin and decided to wander down Whyte Ave instead of going home; there was an art walk on, and I wanted to see it. I wound up powering past everyone instead, and walked from 109th street to 99th street before turning back and catching the bus back to Southgate. I mosied in the door at around 7 pm, and using Google Pedometer figured that I'd walked about 11 km, give or take.

My calf muscles screamed for the next 2 days. Totally worth it.

-Laur

Peter Pan and 2 Months

I'm sorry, faithful readers, that I haven't posted in quite a while. Things have not been so good here in E-town lately and I haven't had the heart to write anything.
After the La Senza debacle I fell into a slump that I'm still having trouble pulling out of. I've been here 2 months officially and you know what? I really miss you guys. I miss you so much. If I was living on my own, answering to no one but myself and keeping the hours and pastimes that I wish to keep, I think I would be going out with new friends a lot more than I am. As it is, I have a few friends and only one that I socialize with outside of work (NICOLE, I ADORE YOU, nearest and dearest to my heart <3 ) and the isolation I'm experiencing as a result is not something I'm used to.
I've been getting a lot more hours at the flower shop, and while I'm tired at the end of the day, my bank account likes the attention and I'll continue to work hard as to keep it fat and happy. 40 hours a week is a stability that I enjoy some aspects of, and I'll keep doing it right up until I leave for BC (more on that as details emerge).
I had a scare a few days ago, though, when I got home from work and my Gran told me she had fallen off her bed onto her left hip. She was walking, but I wanted to take her to the hospital immediately. She didn't, and I don't think does yet, have any idea how horrible last October was when we got that fateful email from her neighbour telling us she had fallen in her condo park and shattered her right elbow, and was in the hospital awaiting major orthopedic surgery. I took her to the doctor the next morning and x-rays showed that her hip wasn't broken, but she's in quite a bit of pain and is using a cane her neighbour gave to her to get around the house.
Now that the situation has leveled out a bit, I've come to two realizations: one is that my gramma won't be able to live by herself for much longer. I give it 2, maybe 3 years tops. Driving is uncomfortable for her because of her newly repaired elbow, and her arthritis bothers her a lot too. Soon the two levels of her house will be too much for her. That makes me sad, because unless she comes to Toronto, I don't know where she'd go.
The second realization is that I never want to get old. I'm Peter Pan. I never want to grow up.

It's raining right now, a blessed relief from the pressing dry heat we've been having for almost a week now. I'm going to bed. Tomorrow, hopefully, will be a better day. I might even be persuaded to review the movie Wall-E, which I saw a few days ago.

-Laur