st. john's weekend - part 2 (saturday)

We arrived downtown around 11:30 but could not find a parking spot to save our lives. After about 25 minutes of driving around the heavens opened up and finally bestowed one upon us. And in the process of discovering said spot, we noticed a mass of people making their way towards the waterfront. We, being our curious selves, decided to ignore our breakfast/brunch seeking bodies to find out what the fuss was all about.

 We quickly realized that it was the rally to save and keep the Search and Rescue program here in Newfoundland. It kind of has a place in our hearts not only since our father is a retired fisherman, but also because a Michael Petten, from our home community and older brother to one of Catherine's best friends, is only still here with us today because of this program's existence in our province.

If he had to wait for them to arrive from Nova Scotia, where Harper's government wants to relocate it, he surely would have perished in that frigid Atlantic; he was waiting over 2 hours for assistance as it was from our shores! That place does over 500 rescues a year, and in the matter of lives, that's no small number. We heard his mom give her few words on the matter in front of the huge crowd and we were so proud of her.

From there we walked to the Duke to get some brunch, once again, the place was packed and we got the only table left in the house. Our "weekend brunch" hit the spot. We even saw good ole "Tinny" again. Catherine decided to tweet "Newf celeb sighting: Tinny from Republic of Doyle at the Duke! Where's Des?" just for fun. We abandoned the idea to go to the pottery craft place only for the fact that it was all the way at the opposite end of Duckworth and we ultimately wanted to head in the opposite direction. 

So we went back to the Newman Wine Vaults to take a sensible look around the place, without the chairs. We continued on and browsed a couple of little stores we'd never noticed before along the way. Lots of people were out walking and it shaped up to be a beautiful day, considering the dreariness we've been living in for the last three weeks. Not only did it not rain like the forcast foretold, but the sun actually showed up!

This is the face of an ecstatic girl. It was about this point when she discovered that Allan Hawco of Republic of Doyle retweeted what she'd said earlier. We had a good laugh at that!

We walked by the ole train too. We decided to end our train adventure when some cute newlyweds showed up to take pictures; we figured we'd share. We went back to Water Street, stopped to rest our feet and drink something hot from Coffee and Company (the wind still made it a little chilly), and picked out bridal shower presents for our cousin.

Since it was such a nice day we went up to Signal Hill to check out the view, learn about Marconi and radiowaves, and people watch a little (as always). Lovely.

(the two photos above are from Evannah)

From there we got some things to bring to the birthday bonfire in Middle Cove Beach. It was Janessa's birthday and it was a perfect way to spend a Saturday evening. We chilled from 8 til 11ish eating the mandatory hotdogs and marshmallows, doritos, and cupcakes that Evannah made; playing with light up toys, catch phrase and enjoying the fireworks show that a nearby group were shooting off. The beach was really lit up that night, fireworks and at least a dozen other fires.

We really enjoyed ourselves!

st. john's weekend - part 1

(proud parking moment)

Catherine and I spent this past weekend in St. John's for the occasion of the St. John's Days as I mentioned in a previous post. We didn't get to do all that we had originally hoped to do, but we definitely didn't feel like we missed out. Some things were switched, skipped, or replaced and it was just what we needed!

Friday we were a little later getting into town than we had planned as we were held back by police directing traffic around a nasty accident along the highway. I sincerely hope they are okay whoever they are. A bit of a sad start to a trip, but we took more caution with our own driving.

Since we arrived late we were a little late getting to the Newman Wine Vaults for the Shakespeare by the Sea skits, late enough that they had the doors locked. There happened to be another visitor trying to get in and we conspired ways to try and get someone's attention. We were about to give up and were around the corner when the fellow reject ran to tell us the door was open (because he had practically kicked it down). It was an interesting experience to say the least. I think I mostly enjoyed the atmosphere, that it was glowy in the candle light and just plain old and rustic. I like old things.

Afterwards we decided to walk around and figure out where we wanted to eat supper. As we did, we came across some of the cast and crew from The Republic of Doyle doing some filming on Duckworth. Pretty cool to stumble upon. The only person we recognized in the crowd was Marthe Bernard, who plays Tinny. We then settled on the Yellow Belly. It was blocked, upstairs and down with only one little table left meant for us. I had pizza and she had a burger & fries which sounds kinda boring but it was so delicious. Not your typical greasy feed; this was the good stuff. Catherine kept making funny faces the whole time, and I can't recall why haha.

(ignore my scary eyes...)

From there we took a little walk around then headed over to Nan's house where we were to spend the next two (broken-sleep-filled) nights on her pull out couch. It's a really nice couch but a not so nice bed.

(I apologize to my friends who I did not inform of my visit to St. John's. This was a sisterly bonding trip after all.)

majah's bday

It was Mom's birthday on Wednesday.

We all went out for chinese and had cake at home. Catherine called Mom into the kitchen a little prematurely and Elizabeth nearly burned her fingers off tryin to light the candles in time.

Last night we invited our aunt and uncle over to watch The King's Speech and had quite the laugh munching on chocolate covered almonds and taking turns nudging each other awake 'cause Dad put the heat on cremate again.

I like family times.

adventures in the kitchen

I'm not sure what happened. Perhaps I was inspired after reading Robyn's blog post or I am now (temporarily?) possessed, but somehow over the weekend I became a cooking machine. I've finally remembered that I do in fact like to cook, provided that it's for the enjoyment of more than just myself. Cooking for one always felt like a lot of work with too many leftovers, but now that I'm home again with more ingredients at my disposal and more mouths to fill, I feel like the effort is worth it. Plus, there's no pressure for perfection because Dad will eat it anyway! I've tried some new-to-me recipes in the last few days such as taco chicken chilli, blueberry pancakes from scratch, baked ziti (a definite keeper), but the most life consuming of all was this monster of a dessert: Gimme S'more Cakelettes.
 

 (source)

 Now, I like to think I've been pretty healthy in limiting my sweets intake lately, but I must have been put into a trance when I first saw this dessert. I looked at the picture and thought, "must have...need...drool". Then, before bothering to check out the bazillion steps to the recipe, ingredients were immediately purchased determining that there could be no turning back.

If I had been truly dedicated and skilled, and I didn't do anything else besides breathe and blink, this mother could have been made within a day. Maybe. But let's get real. I have a short attention span with baking and I 'taste-test' a lot of the batter as I go so I shouldn't have too much sweet stuff to work with at once. To keep myself from swinging from the ceiling and from being overwhelmed by the technical stuff, I stretched it all out: step one Friday night, two and three on Saturday, step four and five on Sunday. First time using a food processor, first time making Italian meringue, heck, first time making any of those particular items from scratch (who am I, making such things as 'genoise', 'souffle' or 'ganache'?!). I separated 10 egg whites from yolks and yolks from whites. I chopped 10 oz of chocolate. These kinds of things are just crazy talk. But delicious.

Thankfully, as my patience for sugar-coma-inducing cakelettes (and sanity) was wearing thin, I succeeded. It turned out as it sounded it should--a glorified, gourmet, melt-in-your-mouth s'more--with only miniscule overbaking on the bottom. Oops. Who cares about that part anyway? As satisfying and dare I say 'fun' as it was to complete, I doubt I'll ever make them again. It was like making 4 detailed cakes in one (divided by 7 cause I made 7 of 'em), and luckily I did have some left over 'chocolate souffle' batter to bake on its own--nom nom. Overall, I'd rather make a massive chocolate cake and icing all from scratch, cut myself off a slice and feel just as satisfied.

In future I'd recommend simply making the homemade graham crackers (cause they tasted infinitely better than the cardboardy store bought ones AND you can make cute cookie shapes like the stars I made up top!) and adding your favourite chocolate and marshmallows. Classic.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Sarah for hooking me up with Pinterest, which is where I saw this recipe. It's just like my tumblr and twitter combined into the most useful inspiration organizer. Goodness knows I need another internet distraction, but I'm hooked and so far it's been a good thing.

a sisterly excursion

Yesterday, Catherine and I took a little drive and wandered over to a town called Dildo. Modernly known as such an unfortunately crude word, I wouldn't want to change it and it's not so strange when know the history behind it!

The French had originally named it "d'îles deux," most likely for the two islands that rest just outside the harbour of the quaint little community. "Dildo" probably happened when our lovely accents tried to pronounce it.

Either way, we were excited to meet Captain Dildo, and visit the cute little shop he was in front of. We bought a couple of little things then drove through the town to take it all in. We also explored a couple of spots in the surrounding areas, Old Shop and Markland and found they sounded a lot cuter than they were; great for a drive, which is what we wanted. It was a lovely little day trip and a lot closer to home than I realized. Or maybe it was just that time passed really quickly as we sang along to songs on shuffle and yelled out every sign we passed along the way.

Here's to more trips like these!

st. john's days

As I've already said, it's been a few years since I've experienced summer in Newfoundland. I've been making plans to get out there and enjoy as much of it as much as possible. In less than two weeks are the St. John's Day celebrations, you know, to celebrate the birthday of our fair city. They've got lots of things going on to taste, see and do. If all goes well, my sisters and I are going to spend that weekend in town and we've made up a schedule to try and fit as much in as possible.

It's been forever since I've done something like that. In fact, I don't think I've ever sat down and planned my own sight seeing trip. In the past, sister trips downtown usually involved catching the bus with no set plan for the day and we've always enjoyed ourselves. When making plans with friends I'm usually the agreeable one, up for anything, which is great but usually leaves me trusting someone else to deal with the details. This is like a test run. It's in a place I've been to a few dozen times, but we'll be looking at it a little differently. This time around I'm kind of excited to have a plan of action, and to even have a little research already done in preparation.

What are we looking forward to doing, you may ask?

Well, we're hoping to catch a "spooky performance" held in the Newman Wine Vault, which has a pretty cool history. In the late 1600s, on its way to London, a Newman's ship was knocked far off its course by pirates and bad weather. They ended all the way over here in Newfoundland and because of the winter approaching, sought shelter in St. John's until the spring. When they returned to London with their cargo of wine, they discovered that the taste was improved. From then on, they continued to bring over their port to mature in the vaults in Newfoundland, and this wine proved to be very popular with the local pub goer and aristocracy alike. And to think I've walked past this place on numerous occasions without realizing it.

(source)

We want to go by Quidi Vidi Lake where there will be some races by crews from the Royal St. John's Regatta. I've always missed Regatta Day which is a big deal in August, so I'm guessing this will be a little sample of it. There'll be other things going on in the area while we're there too.

The Railway Coastal Museum is a possibility. Trains are cool.

We're definitely going to Cape Spear which, in case you didn't know is the most easterly point of North America. Haven't been there in years so it better be a nice day! It tends to get pretty cold around here. I want to visit the lighthouse and check out what they've got going on for the Whale Festival. Hoping to actually see some whales while we're there too.

I'm pretty excited to attend the free workshops going on at the Craft Council of NL Clay Studio. I've never been, and I haven't sculpted anything since the basket in grade eight art class. Wait, that's a lie. I once made an armless mermaid sculpture at a workshop when I went to Encounters with Canada back in the day. Anyways, it's a lot of fun. I should do it more often.

Again, if the weather's good, one night Janessa is having a bonfire for her birthday festivities. I'm looking forward to hotdogs and marshmallows and warming up by a blazing fire. Beach fires make it feel so much more like summer.

I happen to think this weekend trip will be a lot of fun.  There's a few more things we're hoping to squeeze in too, meals at some places my sisters have never been before, like the Duke or the Yellow Belly and some sort of musical entertainment. We'll include some bonding with Nan and go to church Sunday morning too.

Having something to look forward to makes the daily grind easier to manage. 


Also, bear with me, I'm testing out some new looks for my blog. With it being a new year and all, I want a new look to reflect it. It's a little on the plain side to me right now. I'll get it right eventually.

twenty-four

I turned 24 this week. At this point, every year older feels odd. As in, I don't feel as though I've achieved what I once thought that age should feel like. I've punched another year out of life, and while I've given up a few dreams and learned a lot of unbelievably rough lessons this past year, its as though I'm standing in the same old place wondering what to do next. I feel as though I'm in an epic battle against the backwards pull of desiring the simple, forgivable immaturity of being an adolescent, to face the complicated adult decisions that lay before me to be made. It's good verses evil, and both spectrums are the enemy! 24 sounds grown up, but I don't believe that I fill those shoes yet. But maybe what I'm looking to feel doesn't actually exist for anyone. We keep moving and narrowing down what we want out of life, hoping to get it right. I try to remind myself that I'm not the only one who doesn't have it figured out.

I do know a few things that I want more than anything: To recognize what brings me fulfillment and go for it; I want to be strong and brave; I want to be free to trust again; I want to forgive; I want to be a person of integrity; I want to embrace the passions I laid aside this year. I pray that this will be a year of complete healing. I need it to be a year of growth.

So tell me, is that too much to anticipate within 365 days?