Nine things I will miss about Ottawa
Firstly, I apologize again for the week off.
But it WAS my birthday week, and I had things to do... donuts to poke, children to amuse and spas to visit!!
Also, my damn laptop crashed (it’s a Christmas thing, it did it last year as well!), so I’m on my iPad, which has limited blog capabilities. So I also apologize for any formatting snafoos!!
This is my last week in the nation's capital, and despite my initial misgivings, I have found some good things here, especially if you ignore all the white men in suits parading around eating overpriced steaks ($125 for a steak?! I could get half the grass-fed free-range cow for that in BC!!).
So here goes, in no particular order:
Things I'll Miss About Ottawa
(no .. really!)
Number 1
Ordering salami (well, anything really) in English.
I know I was only in Quebec for a month before coming here, but I didn't realize how much I missed the pure joy of opening my mouth and being instantly understood !!
Number 2
Making small boys laugh so hard that soup comes out their nose.
Okay, I should explain this. One of our best friends lives here with her twin boys.. who are seven. They are both hilarious, though one is a little more serious than the other. One night at dinner I was, well just being me really. I honestly don’t know WHAT exactly I said/did, but making a kid laugh so hard his dinner comes out his nose is pretty darn cool. I had also "bribed" them with lightsticks from the Canada 150 event that night... which helped make me super popular! And everyone knows popular people are super funny. QED, I am super funny, at least to them.
Future Jedis (pre-soup)
Eventually, in the interest of consuming, rather than inhaling dinner, and so he could regain control of his sinuses and soup, he voluntarily removed himself to the kitchen to finish his food. That’s an audience I just don’t have .. well anywhere else really!!
Number 3
Walking on the Rideau Canal with not a soul in site.
December is a weird time on Ottawa. A lot of “suits” have left for the holidays, and the Rideau Canal isn’t frozen yet. Which means it's all pristine and white, and amazingly devoid of tourists chowing down on beaver tails and faceplanting onto its frozen surface.
You can walk nearly the whole 8km stretch from the Glebe to Parliament, see nary a soul (save a few hardy winter joggers, decked out in head to toe thermal lycra, or whatever you need to run in the negative double digits), and take in the very serene-ness of it all!!
Number 4
Refreshingly non judgmental and inclusive museums.
I was a little shocked and more than slightly perturbed by the exhibition at the Calliere Muesum in Montreal. It referred frequently to the native people of what is now Montreal, the Iroquois, as “stubborn”, “difficult”, and “sly” for defending their ancestral lands, rather than just handing them to the French, and refusing to convert to Catholicism. That was obviously a serious character flaw.
In contrast, at the National Gallery in Ottawa, there is a wonderful effort to include and recognize native art and expression.
There is also a lot of what I like to call “art I don’t understand”.
But each to their own!
"Art" I don't get: I think it wasn't exhibited in the artist's lifetime because he knew it was a waste of paint! There were more sad efforts too , but I wasn't allowed to photograph them, I think because they looked like a not too talented five year old did them, and they were ashamed.. or because they were on loan from another gallery.. one of the two. ;)
Art I get: it took effort and says something! That's "art" to me!
Number 5
I am by now kinda used to "suffering" at festive occasions, being unable to eat and drink whatever I want due to my growing number of dietary restrictions, to keep my innards happy.
But Christmas is officially back on!
Strawberry Blonde is a revelation on par with the amazing Gluten Free Epicurean in Vancouver! In fact, it might be even better due to its 100% vegan nature (eggs, who needs em?!), except that it doesn't have so many savoury options (I do miss my pizza buns!). Though it DOES have wicked apple pie.. along with mince pies, muffins, breakfast cookies and some of the best bread I have eaten since going "wheat free" back in 2010, especially hot out of the oven.
Number 6
Ok, le Nordik isn’t really in Ottawa. It’s in Chelsea (which is a very English sounding name for somewhere in Quebec), only 15 minutes drive from Ottawa. Well, 20 minutes when I white knuckle it and piss off all the locals going under 70km/h on a highway that looks and feels like a sheet of ice!
Really, you can't explain le Nordik. You just have to go. This was my fifth visit. Makes you not even care that all those glorious cookies are self evident on your hips. Steam, soak, scrub, sleep... repeat... then have some charcuterie. Oh, and a chocolate fondue after round two of napping is strongly recommended. All in a fluffy white robe. #heaven
Infinity pool overlooking Ottawa, through all that fog!
Number 7
Big beautiful libraries.
The National Archive is something you should really go and gaze upon, even if you aren't tracking someone's family tree back to before time began. You get an official-looking special access card and everything!
And the Library in the Centre Block of the House of Commons is something else altogether. I'm honestly not sure if you are allowed in normally, but due to our super secret access pass (aka an M.P.) we got the chance to hang out there a bit.
Books. They make you forget all about your damn computer crashing!
Number 8
Free festivals for everything.
Canada 150, Hockey 100, Christmas, Native Food Day, you name it, there is a FREE festival for it here in Ottawa.
Cariboo Stew!
Hockey Mania!! I won a $25 gift certificate to the NHL store by hacking into a wall of ice with a pick, and a $10 ESSO gift card by stopping a pump at exactly $7.77. Oh, and I scored a lollipop, and some gizmo for my phone, and some NHL trading cards (I got Connor McDavid and PK Subban pre trade Montreal. #worsttradeinhistory! Ebay here I come!). None of which I really want, but #freestuff rocks!
Number 9
Gazing over the Ottawa Valley at sunset, eating a gluten free vegan chocolate chip cookie from Stawberry Blonde.
The upshot is, we have been blessed to be able to make use of our friend's apartment here in Ottawa (double bonus, he has a wicked selection of plaid shirts that fit me perfectly!). Right next to the Byward Market, with its own gym, on the 15th floor with panoramic views over that vast flat whiteness. Who cares if it's -20 outside with windchill!? We have unlimited Netflix, a view of Parliament and a treadmill downstairs to work off all the gluten free goodness!
(Sidenote: how can it be a “valley” with no hills ?!?)
Anyway, it sure makes for Hawaii-like red and orange sunsets. Now, if only the temperature was more like that blessed Isle to the west...
Next week it will be post-Christmas and Quebecois style once more.
Wishing you all the very merriest of festive seasons... regardless of which spirit you will be worshipping! (Whiskey inclusive ;))