The House of Fielding has been the House of Hectic lately, and today was no exception. I drove two patients to/from Princess Margaret Hospital this morning, went to The Firm, and at 5pm my friend-of-a-friend on a business trip from Paris arrived and met me at my office today. We brought his stuff to my place, and I continued to Midtown to meet the owner of Valencienne (*website music alert!*), a local wedding gown designer who is donating some dresses to The Brides’ Project.

Did the drop-off with Helen, then came home to tidy up the Almighty Paper Explosion that took over my apartment since the weekend when I finished my rather complicated income tax return (being both employed and self-employed).

Olivier hauled food in his luggage from Montreal (hey, I would, too) and was the bearer of a gift in the form of a large format book of black and white photography shot in the City of Lights. I was chuffed!

The top photo looks like a black and white photograph but you’ll notice the strip of red on the book binder that gives it away… this was shot in my bathroom with the black and white tile flooring, which you might recognize since I do a lot of shooting in there — not for the ambience, but for the lighting. It’s the best lighting in my whole place. Heck, the bathroom is usually the brightest-lit spot in most people’s homes!

Possibly related posts:

1. Bathroom Queue I have had a housemate since February, so I always...
2. Deep Freeze (A photo I took while shooting the Toronto Irish Famine...
3. Happy 8th Birthday, Blog! Eight years and 3,642 posts later, what have I learned...

Tonight I got to meet the lovely bride-to-be who bought my wedding dress. How special is that?

I donated the dress to The Brides’ Project on October 1, 2008. It would’ve been my third wedding anniversary, if cancer were a curable disease and hadn’t taken my husband away.

I donated the dress thinking it was a long shot someone would buy it. I have simple yet particular tastes, and I know that lifestyle and genetics conspire against fashion — at least, in this body. My wedding dress was altered down a couple of sizes to fit me, and it’s very low-key for a wedding dress. It wasn’t most people’s cup of tea.

I’ve been volunteering for The Brides’ Project ever since I donated the dress, two and a half years ago. My plan was to volunteer for the very geeky things, like work on the website, but for the first year I volunteered most of the time in the shop. Sometimes brides would try on the dress and I’d wonder if that was the person who would end up buying it. I never admitted to being the original dress owner, I thought it would make things awkward for the bride-to-be. And so it was passed over each time with me not saying a word about it, because I wanted to hear opinions about the dress without undue influence. I wasn’t going to take anything personally. After all, once I’d donated the dress, it was no longer mine. But that didn’t stop me from wanting to like the next buyer, and hope she would read our story online and cherish her wedding even more afterwards.

Back in February, my dress sold and the new buyer and I were put in touch with each other. It turns out she’s getting married on my BIRTHDAY. How special is that??

But that also means I can’t shoot her wedding because I will be making my annual birthday pilgrimage to a new country. (I’ve got two countries in mind, but not both for this trip. Once I book it, I’ll spill the beans.)

Then I suggested we meet, anyway. Fast forward to this evening…

… she bought me flowers! What a pleasant surprise! And, UNsurprisingly, we had a lot to discuss. It’s a good feeling knowing that the dress found its way to such a lovely person who feels much the same way I do about many things, but she had the wherewithal to find our story online (without any direction from me) and take it to heart. It’s all I could have ever hoped for.

Possibly related posts:

1. Yet Another Post About Wedding Dresses I was volunteering at The Brides’ Project most of yesterday,...
2. Toronto: wi-fi saga, lovely views, and lovely people I'm melting here in Toronto. It's Monday and a scorcher:...
3. October 1 Anniversary Today I pulled my wedding dress out of its storage...

I went to a client’s house to drop off a print order, and they gave me a Christmas gift! What a surprise! I would’ve gotten it sooner if hadn’t caught The Plague pneumonia. I had to take a photo of the patchwork bag, I love the bright colours.

She made an educated guess about the coffee based on the hours I keep. Not difficult to imagine, I suppose! The candy cane is handmade, all-natural, and tastes 100x better than regular candy canes. I don’t even like candy canes and I was a little skeptical about whether I’d like an all-natural one, but let me tell you, it tastes completely different! Taking a look at the packaging, it’s made by Hammond’s Candies in Colorado.

Fair trade coffee, a portable ceramic coffee mug, and tasty candy. Everything I need for all the late-night editing!

No related posts.

I arrived from Vancouver late Tuesday, greeted by a package from Iris in Hamburg filled with treats. My love affair with marzipan and chocolate is well-documented at Christmas and throughout the year. Marzipan usually doesn’t last long at the House of Fielding; there is a real lack of self-control when it comes to individually-wrapped chocolate. You would think otherwise, but rationing by tinfoil just doesn’t work!

It’s the last day of 2010, and I have one more roadtrip in the gas tank before ringing in 2011. This is Trip #14 for 2010. As per usual, the details are in the ‘Where’ page and I hope this weekend my photo-mojo comes back!

Possibly related posts:

1. Mmmmm…. Marzipan! I just got these tonight and look how many I...
2. How to Knit Marzipan This looks amazing! Check it out: How to Knit Marzipan...
3. The Marzipan Junkie Scores Mozart is rolling over in his grave right now.  ...

My Fire Island mug, courtesy of Eric’s dad, arrived today safely encased in styrofoam and sitting on my doorstep. It’s a reminder that I really need to do more with my personal photos than just put them online. I have all these ideas to make cards like I’ve done in the past — I even have the materials including the colour printer — but it will take a serious block of time to do it and I barely have enough sleep these days. I think it may be a Christmas project to help me forget that it’s Christmas (I’ve aired my Grinchy feelings about Christmas probably far too many times), and to help me forget that I have no vacation days left *sob*.

Well, Fire Island may signal the end of the vacation days, but every time I have coffee in these mugs I’ll hear the surf — like a conch shell

Possibly related posts:

1. I Was Here Only A Week Ago?? This was a four-day work week for me, and yet...
2. Yonder I’m posting this on the fly (yes, another photo from...
3. Fire Island 2010: The Album What day is it? What time is it? I felt...

I had high hopes for processing a lot more photos and writing out a few stories, but on Day 7 of the Olympics I got completely sucked into CTV’s live streaming coverage on the internet to watch the mens hockey game against Switzerland… then didn’t resurface until after the mens figure skating was finished. There goes Thursday night!

Last Monday afternoon while in Atlanta I ducked into a coffee shop called Danneman’s to warm up after shooting around the neighbourhood where Martin Luther King, Jr. grew up (Old 4th Ward). I sat down with a hot drink and pulled everything out of my bag to rearrange it for the rest of the walk home. Little did I know that my iPod Touch had fallen to the floor, something I would’ve noticed if I reached for it, but I make a point of putting it away for walking at night. I keep the iPod Touch housed in a rubber casing, which muffled the sound of the device hitting the ground. I was oblivious.

About an hour later, I was at the house downloading my thousand photos or so from a big day of shooting when an email arrived in my inbox with a ping!

I found your IPOD touch!

At first I was totally bewildered. Isn’t my iPod Touch in my bag?? Not according to the email:

Hey!
My name is Ryan.
I found your ipod touch at danneman’s coffee shop about 20 min ago.
call me… I’m downtown editing video right now at Georgia State University (I’m a student!)

[phone number]

-Yay!!!

PS I tried to call but you had a canadian # and my phone wouldn’t allow me to

I borrowed Halef’s phone to call Ryan, and thanked him profusely, adding that I was leaving the following day so I would meet him wherever he happened to be. I was fully prepared to take transit to the university, but then he said it would be easier for him to bike to me. Then I suggested the closest Marta station, and he suggested to meet back at the coffee shop. Then Michael offered to drive me to the coffee shop to save me a trek in the cold and dark. It was one act of kindness after another.

Thanks to the Atlantans, all of whom were complete strangers before I arrived, I was reunited with my iPod Touch which has travelled with me to Morocco, Spain, England, Norway, Germany, Austria, Italy, Slovakia, around Canada and the USA… I shouldn’t get attached to an ageing piece of hardware, but it’s served me well since 2007 and I use it every single day. (Incidentally, it was also a gift from a friend — another act of kindness.)

I have other stories from Atlanta, too, conversations I had with random people on the street, people curious about my photographic interest in their city, smiling folk behind cash registers and happy bus drivers alike. I was struck by such widespread politeness and warmth from the people, I had to write about it.

When the US Homeland Security officer asked me at Pearson Airport last Friday the purpose of my visit to Atlanta, he burst out laughing when I exclaimed “FUN!” without hesitation. (Anytime I can make a US border official laugh is a momentous occasion, indeed. Especially when the security queues are as long as they are now, and everyone’s patience has worn thin.) He seemed genuinely surprised that I would fly to a city in the south where I knew no-one, on the basis that it was a points flight with no connections, and because it was Black History Month.

“It was a sign,” he said casually and without a trace of sarcasm or disbelief, ignoring the growing crowd of people behind me waiting for their turn.

I was enthused by his rather unofficial-sounding answer. “It really was!” Then he stamped my passport and sent me on my way.

Video for today: one of the more famous bands from Georgia — REM — are from Athens, and this is their 1991 classic “Shiny Happy People”

Possibly related posts:

1. Goodbye January BRRRRRRRRR!!!!!! January was relatively warm (above freezing), but the past...
2. Hugh in a Marshmallow World (Redux) As of next week this videoclip will be two years...
3. Freedom Parkway I arrived back from Atlanta late tonight and I’m in...

Marzipan and other goodies arrived from Germany today! Yay!

And for the hardcore chocoholic: Smarties inside chocolate.

The Santa didn’t quite make it intact, but no Smarties got away…

And from Vancouver, a very geeky — and thus fitting — item which will get a lot of use at the House of Fielding, where cats knock over mugs which is hazardous to expensive electronics.

Music for today: another oldie but goodie, Crowded House’s “Chocolate Cake”

Possibly related posts:

1. Smarties I happened to come by a box of Smarties yesterday....
2. Ganache Is French For ‘Chocolate Cake With Fewer Syllables’ My title for this photo in Flickr: ganache is French...
3. Smarties, eh? Thanks to a very intuitive lady above the 49th, I...

Thursday, October 1 arrived and I wasn’t looking forward to it, except that Natalia offered to make me dinner while I went over some details about the wedding this Saturday that she’ll assist with. I needed something to look forward to on Thursday, to take my mind off the date.

The SMS this afternoon: “… and I baked a cake”

There’s something about home cooking that’s like therapy. Comfort food is exactly that.

(Look away, vegetarians!)

I got a chance to chat for a bit with our friend Rosie who’s in town from England, and later Jan joined us and dug right in…

Not really part of dinner, but I wanted to take pictures nonetheless:

Natalia, thank you for your delicious cooking and for just being you!

Possibly related posts:

1. As Canadian As It Gets President’s Choice now has General Tao Chicken-flavoured potato chips. Or,...
2. Happy Birthday Natalia! I’m so glad Natalia had a birthday party on Saturday...
3. Comfort Food There is one advantage to waking up in the middle...

I was expecting my business cards to arrive today, but I got something better — a package from Germany!

Iris really outdid herself this year, it’s not even the middle of NOVEMBER. She mailed a fabulous care package: a big letter, scads o’ treats, photos, and a fantastic card made out of photos from their wedding. I’ve been WORKING, WORKING, and WORKING lately so this was a very welcome interruption to my day.

I wish I could show you what I’ve been working on, but I’ve got about five projects on the go at the same time and none of them are finished… I’m resurfacing over the weekend for Loy Krathong (Thai Thanksgiving) tomorrow and brunch on Sunday with some errands in-between, but otherwise it’ll be me in front of this computer pushing pixels around until I’m done!

Possibly related posts:

1. Last Night’s Thai At The Friendly Thai on Roncesvalles Avenue: all vegetarian dishes,...
2. Happy Canadian Thanksgiving From the Pumpkin People My manager bought us all one of these gourd folk...
3. Sweet November Here I am, making a reference to a film I...

Fast forward to today: my doorbell rang and I ran down to fetch Martin, a houseguest from the UK, who’d TTC’ed and biked over from his previous host’s place on the other side of town. In my haste, the door closed behind me and I hadn’t put the keys in my pocket like I usually do. I had this sinking feeling…

… and I turned immediately around and tried the door knob. LOCKED!!!

I locked myself out of my suite AGAIN! (Yes, I’m going to get the blimmin’ key copied and stored somewhere in case this happens again.)

Martin was just going to drop his stuff off and head out again, except we were totally stranded. I had an idea: if maybe Martin was crazy brave enough to climb the fire escape and shimmy down the roof, he could push a screen in from one of the two open windows at the front of the house and climb in through the window. Except the roof is STEEP. I mean, really steep, and I’m on the top (third) floor — it’s a helluva long way down if he slipped. All of my other windows aren’t reachable without a fireman’s ladder. Martin made it up the fire escape, got on the roof, assessed the situation, and shook his head.

I didn’t want to entertain any possibility of a Brit splattered all over the driveway or having to explain this to his family or the authorities, so I went next door to the neighbours’ to see if they had any lock-picking implements. There I found only a tradesman who was working on their renovations, and I asked him if he could pick a lock. You know, because it’s completely normal to just walk randomly into people’s homes and make that sort of request.

I don’t even know what sort of tradesman he was — he may have been just a drywaller. But he came up to my door and had a go at the lock, without success. He even declared, after a number of tries, that picking it would be impossible. He eventually returned to work.

Martin had another look at the roof and I was losing confidence in that as a viable plan, so I asked the Albanian tradesman to borrow his phone to call a locksmith, but nobody had a phone book (remember those?) and I didn’t want to phone directory assistance because that would be an additional charge on his phone. At some point he had a bright idea, because he grabbed another set of tools, walked back up to my apartment door, and ——- (let’s just pretend I told you how he did it*) —— got the door open! Brilliant!

I tried to tell him that he saved me a lot of time and money, but he wouldn’t let me pay him, so I had to run over to the neighbour’s house and stick some cash in his pocket while he was protesting with tools in his hand and then run home again.

Martin said I was really lucky, and I sure am! So that’s the story of how an Albanian went out of his way to save my sorry hide and considered it all in a day’s work.

* Because I really don’t want anyone to get ideas about how to break into people’s homes… without appearing to have broken into people’s homes, you know?

Possibly related posts:

1. Fetch, Beano, Fetch! This title will make absolutely no sense for a while,...
2. The Sunday Report: the Good, Bad, and the Ugly OK, let’s get the bad stuff out of the way...
3. Is It Thursday Already?? Man, where does the time go? Yesterday was busy, busy,...