A Night at the Mausoleum

Last night, D and I went to Edmonton’s Night at the Mausoleum event. It is an opportunity to discover the history and beauty of Edmonton’s oldest cemetery as well as take a rare peek inside the Cathedral of Memories, Edmonton’s oldest Mausoleum. Hosted by City of Edmonton staff, there were refreshments, including coffee, pop, popcorn and sno-cones to enjoy both before and after the half hour guided tour of the cemetery (there were 2 tours last night). What an interesting history of the cemeteries within the city as well as the evolution of the stone work on gravestones. As you walk through this cemetery, so many names are recognizable as streets, parks and neighborhoods that have been dedicated after the pioneers and influential people of Edmonton. Emily Murphy is interned in the Mausoleum and the Muttarts have a lovely plot along the road inside the cemetery.

I have a tendency to forget history details quite quickly – Social studies was always a struggle for me (give me something that I can logic out or work towards or a really good story – not memorization of dates and events). So to find out (again) that Edmonton has the oldest mosque and one of the oldest Muslim populations in North America was fantastic. It was interesting to hear that the Muslim mosque was built by a Ukrainian builder which is why it has a Ukrainian church feel to it. To confirm that Edmonton has been accepting of multi-cultural and religious beliefs made me feel proud to be from here. (Don’t get me wrong, we also have several misanthropes around who are not accepting of anything different from themselves.) This is especially interesting to me in light of the fact that I felt like Glasgow was just like Edmonton and one of Glasgow’s tenets is the acceptance of different religions.

Anyway, D and I enjoyed the experience quite a lot. There was lots of good information and I think the hour and a half guided tours would be fascinating. To be able to learn more about the cemetery and the people buried within in would a great opportunity. Unfortunately, all the longer tours have ended for the summer, so I think D and I will be going to one next summer. At $5 each, it is a great bargain. And if you aren’t sure if you want to do that long of a tour, keep an eye out for A Night at the Mausoleum event next year. It’s free and quite interesting.

On other notes – very sad things going on right now – The voice of the Count has passed away. I loved the count… this makes me sad. Supposedly Neil Armstrong has died. There goes another icon of history. Lately, it has been quite sad to read that so many people who were influential while I was growing up are passing. I tend not to focus on age (after all I am only 25), but this really makes me start to dwell on mortality. That is very very sad.

And another sad thing, we had this lovely 10 foot high sunflower growing in the front garden – beautiful red and yellow striped leaves. It towered over all the other 8 and 9 foot flowers. When I got home after walking through the downpour, I found the sunflower lying down on the ground, its stem snapped. I am very sad to lose it. I hadn’t even gotten a chance to take a picture of my beautiful sunflowers (half of which I didn’t plant but grew anyway). Sighhhh…

Anyway, I just wanted to share those thoughts in amongst my many loads of laundry and cleaning bouts. D’s parents are coming next weekend. The house needs to be clean… and I have so much to do. And tonight we are going to a friend’s Fringe play River City gets Wet with some friends. So I am hoping that will be a fabulous as I think it will be. The Social Event of the Season has been cancelled, which is also sad. But next weekend our favorite Halloween store opens and then it is the croquet tournament and then D’s parents are coming. So it will be a very full weekend, followed by a busy week and another full weekend. Whew!

Travel Journal Entry June 15 to 18, 2012 Or To part is great sorrow and so we will return someday

Goodbye Scotland.
Goodbye London.
I see you brought the tears again. You cried when we left Scotland while London was happy to see us and now London is sad to see us go too.

What a change two weeks can bring to a city. London’s covered even more in constructions. I pity the people working there. It is so chaotic, trying to get around. This weekend had the colors parade, followed by some March on Sunday. Both left getting around chaotic, delayed and frustrating.

4 more hours and I can start relaxing. By then the plane should have taken off. We are both exhausted. Early to bed, but then we got waken up by the upstairs people, well elephants who were showering and stomping and banging things for an hour. Then D couldn’t fall asleep and it took me a long while. Early to rise and now I am tired, D is cranky, and I just want to sleep. Sighhhh. Have to do Customs & VAT thing, check in, get breakfast, and wait. Joy!

Hopefully, the toilets at te airport are free. So weird to pay 20 to 30 pence to use one.

So it’s about an hour until land time. I should catch up with all of the last few days. While I love the book and I wanted to keep up, I just got caught in living the experience and then I got a head cold the last few days. I took a reactine this morning and the fact that I am still sniffling and coughing lets you know how bad it could have been. I didn’t want to be that sick on the plane.

So the 15th was a Friday and our last full day in Scotland. We got to meet up with Robbie. We first hit the National Museum and did the Scotland side, then met with Robbie who had just had his tooth pulled. He wasn’t doing so well – as was to be expected. We met at Café Nero and he recommended an Iced lemonade – Num! We talked for about an hour and then went our separate ways. After all, he had to recover. The next day was the start of the next country roads of Scotland tour.

Because it was a rainy day, we ended up back to the National Museum and did the other side. Rob had suggested an Italian place near the Museum for supper and it was delicious! I started with soup and D with garlic bread. Then we shared a Milano pizza, followed by dessert, where D had the chocolate cake and I had the Dulca dish. The fun part was watching them isolate a mouse who had made it into the restaurant (not unexpected since the front door was wide open) without freaking out the customers. They were very good, though their methods would end up with the mouse suffocating under the raised eating section… so not sure how that will work.

Saturday the 16th was another rainy day. We were up and out for train travel. It was a nice ride, though sad. We ended up in London Victoria around 2 and by 3 we were out the door for shopping. It was sunny in London, supposedly had rained most of the two weeks we had been gone. There was a Colors parade that day, which we missed, but we got stuck in the traffic, so we didn’t do the Goth shopping. We did Madam Toussard’s instead. It was interesting – not worth the cost (and we had gotten a discount) – the crowds we terrible, but it was still cool. We did not do the “scream” section. We did talk a bit with one of the artists, which was fascinating and cool.

Then the long bus tour back, which would have been great except the sound wasn’t working so we couldn’t get the info about what we were seeing. We ate at the last restaurant Prezzo in Victoria Shopping Centre (i.e. not McDs, KFC or the buffet place) which was Italian. I had soup and D had garlic cheese bread. Then I had 2 different pastas, both of which were good; D had lobster and crab tortellini. We didn’t do dessert as we were both getting ill. D drank the Peroni.

Sunday the 17th we were out and about for Goth shopping. We headed out to Regent Park by the hop on the bus and then a good walk to Camden market. What a place! Too many people. We couldn’t find the place and no one seemed to know them (not even other ‘Goth’ type stores.) We walked back to Regent and got off on Oxford Street to visit Hamley’s. That was fun and huge! Wow!

Then it was a maze to get on the next bus because there was a March of some sort going on and lots of roads were being closed. I pity people who live there. As I previously mentioned, the construction had increased by the time we returned.

It was an early evening – to pack and go to bed early. Dinner was at a local pub – I had the Sunday chicken roast with Yorkshire pudding. D had fish and chips (which wasn’t as good as we had had.) Dessert for me was apple crumble with ice cream and D had chocolate cake.

We went to bed at an early hour, but the people above us were loud from 11pm to midnight. Ick! Ugh! Hard to fall back to sleep.

It was up at 4:30 am this morning, followed by a rapid walk to the train and trying to find things in Gatwick. We couldn’t get the extra VAT back – no one was working. Sighhhh.

Travel Journal Entry June 14, 2012 Or More shopping, more kilt stuff

Thursday morning and it is another beautiful day in Edinburgh. Today is shopping day! We have plans for hitting Romanes and Paterson, some jewelry stores, and maybe the Writer’s museum and the National Museum. We’ll see how it goes. We’ll see if Rob responded regarding getting together tonight; there was talk of a literary pub crawl.

Rob was a no-go, but we should see him tomorrow afternoon. We did lots of shopping. D ended up spending almost as much at R&P and didn’t get a kilt. Oy! Then we got everyone back home presents and picked up some jewelry for me. Lunch was at The Filling Station – American food that was pretty decent. We each had a milkshake which was good. D had the pulled pork and fries and I had a spicy chicken wrap (not at all spicy). Supper was at the Advocate – food was cheap but tasty! D had scampi and chips for dinner and I had a Mexican chili salad. Dessert was a Banoffee Bash which tasted like a banana cream pie with toffee sponge cake and toffee sauce on top instead of whipped cream. It was tasty! D drank a pint of Golden Amber.

We spent far too much, which is rather annoying. And so much on D, which is also annoying! It should be all about me! Teehee.
Bed time!

Travel Journal Entry June 13, 2012 Or the buying of the kilt

Today, we are checking to see if Robbie responded and if not, then we are off to Old town again to do the pay required stops (after we get our Edinburgh pass). Then tomorrow, we’ll head over to New town and talk to the Kilt guy Robbie knows, check out Alstir jewelry on Rose street and not sure after that. We thought we’d hit the kilt tomorrow so we still have Friday available to do as we please. By doing Arthur’s Seat yesterday, we have freed up a day. No word from Robbie yet, which may mean we won’t see him. Something could have happened. Hopefully he is alright and nothing drastic happened with his tooth or because of his tooth.

Robbie finally got ahold of us. We agreed to meet him at 3 at the Roxburghe. Before that, we took the bus to Princes Street and bought a day pass for Edinburgh and then we spent the next few hours shopping and visiting the paid sites along the Royal Mile. (Editor’s note: we started at the Queen’s Gallery at the Palace of Holyroodhouse and worked our back up.) We saved a bit of cash. If I had remember that we saved in the gift shop, it would have been better. Sighhhh.

By 2:30, we were back on Princes Street and on our way to meet Robbie. He took us to HMV to go over the movies he had suggested - a recent Red Dwarf, then to the book store to see a book he think we should read (Word War Z). Then to the kilt guy – who was in the pub when we arrived. After a drink, we went to the kilt maker’s business and in about 2 hours or so, we bought a hand sewn kilt. Howie has done kilts for Vin Diesel, Alan Cummings, and Brian Cox. We got to hear some interesting stories, D drank some celebratory whisky and such is business. (Note: I made them squirm/laugh a couple of times, especially when I mentioned that paisley looks like sperm. Teehee! Neither Robbie nor Howie had considered that.) Then it was pack to the pub, where the kilt guy bought D a beer and Rob a coffee. We met some pals of his as well as his family. While Howie and his family were off to see the torch come through Edinburgh, D and I went to Iris for supper (Rob recommended it). Nummy! D had the swordfish; I had the rib eye streak – both were divine. We shared minted new potatoes and mixed veggies (carrots and pea pods).

Then back to the hotel to organize and such. Kilt should arrive around September.

Travel Journal Entry June 12, 2012 Or Deep thinking on a train

When it was mentioned in passing that someone was their maiden name, Robbie gave this look. It’s been bothering me since. It’s not that I don’t think people identify with being their married names, but they are also their maiden name and sometimes they have been their maiden name longer. I was thinking about the males (of course) of the Scottish clans whose heralds are half their father’s and half their mother’s. Can’t that be something that happens when you get married? I am not a believer or fan of giving over your identity when you get married. I will never be a Mrs. Something. I am a Ms. and I will always be. People can be individuals within a couple. So a person would be both their maiden life and their married life. Both are a component of who they are.

Maybe that is the difference when one gets married later in life. One doesn’t give up an identity or one has time to develop an identity before being part of a couple.

Anyway – Duart castle from yesterday. They have done some excellent work on the renovation to the castle. It’s interesting that the clan had to buy back the castle from the Campbells. We could not confirm Robbie’s story, but we learned that Sean Connery’s mother is the same clan. And that the director wanted to tear down a tree in the courtyard during the Entrapment movie, but the chief said absolutely no. The tree had been planted for the chief’s father’s 100th birthday. It was both heartening and amusing to watch D. For someone who tosses possessions, it was like D needed something to connect with (like maybe a rock from the millennium woods of the castle – nope, wasn’t me!) D loved the castle. We stayed almost 4 hours. We had soup and soda bread for lunch and shared a lemon drop (a 2 layer cake with icing on top and in the middle.) (Editor’s note: as we were coming back from lunch, there was the sound of bagpipes coming from the courtyard. D went up to investigate and found a German biker who had requested permission to play his bagpipes there. He was good. )

We waked some of the grounds, spent a heck of a lot at the gift store, had a good conversation with a few of the staff and then back to Oban. Hindsight – we could have grabbed the train at 6 and been back in Glasgow or even Edinburgh by evening.

We did have some excitement. When buying a second stash from the gift shop, our cards were declined. We were not amused. When back at Oban, trying to make a call was impossible. We had to find a payphone and then the number on the card wasn’t working. We were trying to track down some more info when the guy at the hotel bar offered to let us try paying the hotel bill – which went through. OMG!!! My theory is their machine is not set to do anything under 10 pounds on credit.

It peeves me off that D can be such an arse/hypocrite. D tells me it does no good to get mad and then proceeds to get mad. When I pressed on this, D said it is because when I get mad, I cry and that doesn’t help. Like getting mad at me and the iPod touch does any good. I don’t know how one just accepts this trait in someone. Or how to respond differently to it. It’s a resentment builder.

Anyway, we are on the train to Glasgow and then Edinburgh now. We sent Robbie a message, but haven’t heard back yet. We have some ideas of what we want to do still, so we’ll see how it goes.
(Editor’s note: I did a bit of a future entry, which I will expand on later. It was a looooong ride.)

Dinner was at Deacon Brodie’s Tavern. D had boar and chorizo burger. I had half Scholthrope chicken (roasted chicken). For drinks, I had a mango and passion fruit and D had the Caledonan red ale. Dessert for me was Banoffee – OMG – this was delish. Utterly delish!

After arriving, we took a taxi to our hotel and then the bus back to Old Town – well, that was our goal. We had asked the bus driver to let off as close to Arthur’s Seat as possible and he forgot. Oops! So we got a tour of northwest Edinburgh and got to chat with the bus driver. He says we should walk along the banks of the Fife as it is beautiful. We made it back to Old Town and walked to Arthur’s Seat. After stopping for an ice cream and pop (me and D respectively), we started the walk. I made it two-thirds up before my fears halted me. Pretty good, I think. D went all the way up. I’m disappointed that I didn’t make it to the top, but still proud of how high I had gotten. Between a lack of faith in myself and my backpack, I just didn’t feel comfortable. But I sat at the nearest embankment and took pictures of the view – which considering my fear of heights, that’s pretty good.

Travel Journal Entry June 11, 2012 Or Some of the people who made our trip fantastic

Early start this morning, but we are on the train to Oban now. We asked a nice gentleman how the train worked and he was impressed that we were early (we were really early, we hit mostly walk signs), so when the train arrived, he ensured we got on the right train and that we got a seat with a table.

To ask the chief – Entrapment movie –We were told that during the Entrapment movie, the chief stopped production because the name of the family was the Campbells. Since the Campbells had taken the clan castle from our clan and we just recently got it back, the chief supposedly said no Campbell will own this castle again; they couldn’t even rent it for a week. Supposedly it was proposed to change the name to MacDonald and the chief allowed them to continue shooting, saying the MacDonalds could never take the castle anyway.

As we ride the train, here it the rundown on some of the people we toured with so I don’t forget them.

John and Bronwyn from Australia – John worked for 30 years as a conservation person and Bron was a teacher, specializing in assessing special needs kids. They now own 23 hectares, much of which they are letting go wild. They recently installed solar panels and are now getting money back. John loves to take movies and he is on YouTube. His movies include some kids singing and kangaroos on his property. They are great people. They have been married about 10-11 years as well, but have been friends for 20-30 years. John’s wife died and within a year they were engaged and married. He found out after his wife died that she had told their kids that she hoped he and Bron got together. How utterly sweet and romantic!

Michael is an interesting gentleman. Quiet, behind the scenes kind of guy, he had recently retired after 42 years as a props master. His first job was in Bedknobs and Broomsticks. He also did some “fill in” animation for the Aristocrats, but decided it wasn’t for him. For TV, he worked on shows such as Jake and the Fatman, Starsky & Hutch, the Hulk, and more recently True Blood. We were the first people he told where he worked and of course, I am a fan of True Blood. He is a a really funny guy, who doesn’t look like he is in his 60s. He told me I was funny and then whispered in my ear that I was beautiful.

Helen and Rob from South Africa – Helen was a sweetie, very much like a grandmother. They were celebrating their 50th anniversary. She was a nurse and he worked… I want to say Finance. Both very nice and interesting people. Helen had a dislike of the ferries as well. So we bonded over shared Gravol pills (she liked the taste of the ginger.)

Julie and Sue are sisters, though the one who looked older wasn’t the oldest. Sue seemed quieter (the oldest) and Julie was outgoing. They stayed extra in Glasgow as well. They were very nice people.

Mark and Larissa were the more ‘annoying’ couple – both loud and heavily accented – they came across as rather pompous and demanding. They are both very intelligent and can be quite funny. They were also the ones most often late and wanting this their way.

Marlene and Reg are from Moosejaw and are also very nice people. They would be cool to hang out with, very down to earth.

And then there is Robbie. He singled us out at the outset with the last name. He was our tour guide. He has great stories and was quite willing to help D find roots. He recommended books and places. You know when you meet someone and you just are drawn to them; that’s Robbie. We spent several evening talking with him near the end, once we knew we could. He plied D with beer and whisky. He told us stories. It was interesting how some of the personal stories changed though. He started with having a girlfriend and last time he told us he was married. Still haven’t asked if the girlfriend is the same as his wife, who is getting her Phd. The last conversation we had, he admitted he was a geek, which got us into talking about games and such. I think it came about because he mentioned Vin Diesel and I say he was hot and had his d&d character tattooed across his stomach. So it was really cool to find out we have so much in common.

We are supposed to meet him in Edinburgh and speak to a friend of his for a kilt in the Ancient clan tartan. Then maybe do dinner or a pub tour.

We bought him drinks at the last evening. It’s only fair. He said it was interesting that the others only interacted with him when the drinks were free.

Dinner waswas at the Waterfront Bar and Restaurant where D had the shellfish pasta and I had the haddock. Very delicious and well deserved after a long day. D drank Fosters and I had an appletiser. Goodness, I love those appletisers. Teehee

Travel Journal Entry June 10, 2012 Or The morning after the tearful goodbye to the tour

Officially last night was the final big get together. So we got to sleep in and there weren’t a lot of people around for breakfast. We got to do a few tearful goodbyes and hopes of travelling again together. About 8 of the group were staying in Glasgow, but it seemed we were all doing out own thing. We had breakfast and made some plans for the next few days.

We went to St Mungo’s Museum of Religious Art and life, then to the People’s Palace and then shopping. (Editor’s note: The museum is fascinating. As someone who was brought up being taught about different religions so I could choose from a place of knowledge, I found the collection interesting and enlightening. The Golden Veil is a fascinating piece; there is a presentation on the second floor showing different people’s reactions to it and even when showing the picture to people, each person reacts differently. The other interesting there was a declaration signed by representatives of different religions in Glasgow saying they would accept each other and exist together. It was done in response to September 11. Glasgow is known for being very open to various religions. The story is the Scots were too busy fighting each other to worry about the other religions. Teehee. The People’s Palace was quite interesting as well – the tiles in the bathroom were of Shakespeare’s plays, the fascinating story of Glasgow and the Tenements, and the detailed presentations of the different classes along the years.) Compass Gallery wasn’t too exciting and it was closed (Editor’s note: I really wanted to pick up art from Scotland and this gallery was promoted as a great place to get economical art.) We went to Sauchiehall street and then down Buchanan street. D found a comic book shop and then we found a cool market where we bought some jewelry (Editor’s note: it was kind of a scary area, but the first vendor we came too had some excellent pieces and we bought some really funky pieces as we talked with them about their visits to the Calgary Stampede.)

Then it was back to the hotel to rest and do more planning and packing.
We ate at Wetherspoon – delish food and fantastic prices. It cost us 11 pounds for supper, which included a pint of Carlberg for D and lemonade for me; D had the bacon burger and I had the gourmet chicken burger (it was spicy goodness).

On the way to the Wetherspoon, we saw Tyler Hilton, the actor who plays Chris Keller on One Tree Hill. COOL!!! He was staying at our hotel! Whoot! Yes, I am a bit of a fan.

That night we spent some more time with Robbie and D had the Bobear and whisky from the Isles.

Travel Journal Entry June 9, 2012 or Glasgow is like coming home to Edmonton

We did the Glasgow city tour in the morning with the tour and ended up hitting several of our desired places. We then went to the Museum of Transport in the afternoon, which was fascinating. (Editor’s note: The story of the HMS Hood was very interesting. D stayed to listen to the whole presentation, but I just got the highlights. But the presentation was truly amazing in that as you listen to the display, these white lights come on and then 2 green ones, more white, a single green, and more white. You find out the three green lights represent where the 3 survivors were on the ship. Only three survivors out of a crew of 1418 on a ship that took 2 years to build, 2 years to outfit and 2 minutes to sink – a truly heartbreaking tale.)

Supper was at the Corinthian Club. D and I had the tomato lentil soup followed by the penne pasta. D had the strawberry shortcake for dessert and I had the sticky toffee pudding. Yum yum! (Editor’s note: What an elegant place too! I felt underdressed, but then again, I did not pack for fancy events.)

D tried the LowenBrau beer.

Travel Journal Entry June 8, 2012 Or My writing continues to be sketchy

It was a late morning start. We spent a bit of time shopping in Portree. I picked up some lovely jewelry. A funny fact – you shop for your real estate at the same place as you buy your meat – the butcher’s. Hilarious!

We then went over to the MacDonald Clan Museum for scones. Yum - even though I picked out all the raisins.

Then we took the ferry to Mallaig. What a nice ride – very calm, easy, but noisy.
From there, we took the Hogwart’s Express train… whoot! (Editor’s note: We got excellent pictures of the viaduct both coming towards and leaving. Note: do not open the windows when you go through tunnels on this train. It is a coal burning train and hence all the smoke from the burning coal goes into the car and you choke on the fumes. Some idiot in the front did this to us. Sighhhh… We did figure out half way along the ride that they do a short whistle before tunnels to let you know to close the windows. I wish someone had explained this at the start of the ride.)

We had a quick lunch in Fort William where D and I shared haddock and chips. Then it was back on the coach to the Three Sisters and Glencoe. What a sad, sad story.

Then we visited Loch Lomond, where I got a picture with Helen and me.
For supper D had the Belhaven best (Editor’s note: again I have no idea what we had for supper as it is not in my book. I am sure there is a piece of paper with this written down.)

Travel Journal Entry June 7, 2012 Or The days blur together and I forget to write

We drove along the coast – Tongue – coast and hill

Falls of Shin (Editor’s note: this is a beautiful area, but honestly my first thought was that we call these rapids in Canada, not falls. My second thought was these bleepin’ midges better get out of my face. Those are mean suckers – they went straight for my face, which considering I was taking pictures was not exactly appreciated.)

Oykel Bridge in Ross-shire which was made from Hadrian’s Wall. (Editor’s note: This was a fascinating tale about a General who used the material from Hadrian’s Wall to make roads and bridges during the war. What was funny was our guide betting the driver that he could show us Hadrian’s Wall, which the driver was convinced could not happen since we were in northern Scotland and the Wall is in northern England. Then he explained about the general as we paused by this bridge. So we got to check another thing off our list even though technically we weren’t anywhere hear the original wall. Teehee.)


Mountains – old rock to the rick, Thunder thing new rock to the left. Mountains along fault line – Knockan Crag (Editor’s note: A beautiful area showing how Scotland’s landscape was formed. Despite being a science student, I did not do any research on the geography before we left, so I learned tons. I did not realize that Scotland was along 2 tectonic plates and that much of it is formed from lava. Another fascinating reason to visit.)

Isle of Skye- we drove past on the way to Eilean Donan Castle (Editor’s note: I was not here for this castle, but I did get a fantastic picture of a rather gleeful D taking pictures of this castle.)

Supper was at Tonga Gate (Editor’s note – we were exhausted this day and we had a tour coming up, so sadly I did not write down what we ate or if I did – I am not sure where I wrote it because it is not in my journal.)

After supper we did the Skye tour. (Editor’s note: This was a fascinating tour. The guides here are fantastic with the weaving of fact with story and you are entertained at the same time you are learning. We took the bus on this tour and the driver had to do a hair pin curve. While that wasn’t the scariest moment on the bus, it was rather impressive. I swear we could have put our hand just outside the front window and touched the cliff going up and those at the back were hanging over the cliff going down. Skye is a beautiful place to visit – picturesque and quant.)

A Taste of Edmonton

For last few years, I have been attending A Taste of Edmonton for lunch each work day. Yes, this is one of the perks of working downtown. At the request of a friend, I rated the food I ate on a scale of 1 to Beam Me Up Scotty (i.e. 10). Here were my thoughts:


Day 1 - I highly recommend the Maple Bacon Poutine – wow is that delish! I think the maple is in the gravy. Num, num! Unfortunately, the Mac Scone Sundae has either strawberries or chocolate with it, so I couldn’t try that. So instead I had the white cream horn from Italian Bakery, which is as expected, very yummy! I would say Poutine at 8.5 and cream horn at 7.

I am holding out the beam me up Scottie yet… I think there are some Mexican options out there that might be higher… ;) Oh, and the tikka masala… and the pear pie… so many things to try!

Oh, don’t forget the Kraft truck. The waffle with peanut butter and marshmallow fluff was delicious! And free!

Day 2 - Today I had the burrito norento – that was a 9. It had the perfect spicy bit and the rice was good! Then I had the vegetable tempura, which is also a 9. This is a yearly favorite and you get so much for 4 tickets!

Day 3 - Today was the Rioja Braised Chorizo with Spanish Bean Salad – OMG – that’s a 9.5. So nummy!
I also had the Pear Pie with whip cream and caramel sauce – I would give it an 8. It was very tasty and yet light.

Day 4 - Teehee… too many choices, that is the problem… and so many that look so good… I have 5 items left to try. For sure I want the Roti Canai, the Jerk chicken and the Chicken Tikka. Other possibilities are the Taco al Pastor and the Calzone.

I did have the tandoori chicken samosa – it was good. A solid 8… very tasty, not too spicy.
I also had the smoked turkey gumbo. That was an 8.5. Good spicy, nice thick base, good smoked meat.

Day 5 - Today was a small day. I had leftover hot dogs I had to eat, so I just got one item and I had the chicken tikka with garlic naan. It was very tasty, the garlic naan was fresh, though I found we did not get as much as we did last year, so for that reason I am only giving them a 7.5.

Day 6 - Sorry – was going to send you an email yesterday afternoon, but got pulled in a few different directions and completely forgot until I was closing my computer to go home. Yesterday I had the spicy chicken which was okay – only a 7 – lots of food for the price, it was tasty, but they seemed to rely on red pepper flakes for heat and so it really wasn’t all that hot to me. I also had the Roti Canai which again was okay – it’s just pieces of tortilla/naan/pita type bread with some spicy sauce. I would give it a 5 – it was okay, but not really worth it.

Day 7 - Today is the last day and I have 11 tickets left. Oh the choices…
I had the mango lassi – which was tasty, I’ll give it an 8
And the Chick pea Salad – this was very tasty, though there was a lot of dressing at the bottom and not so much on top, so a bit of an unbalance. Overall, a 7.5
Lastly, I had the Jamaican beef pattie – this was good! Very taste, good spices, decent size. I give this an 8.5.

So unfortunately no beam me up Scotties this year, but some decent food. Thankfully, I had nothing gross. ;)