Archive for the Category ◊ Friends ◊

22 Jul 2010 Returning The Favour(s)
Author: Gail |  Category: Friends, Travel  | Leave a Comment

Georges

I got an email this morning from my friend Georges, who was marooned on standby at Frankfurt Airport waiting for a flight back to Toronto, where his son is based as an Air Canada employee. They were planning to drive to Quebec City together (where George lives, but his car is here in Toronto), however, there was a growing backlog of standby passengers at Frankfurt Airport waiting for flights… how much of a backlog? They told him they had people waitlisted for up to 10 days! Georges was pretty desperate, trying to get on any flight arriving in either Montreal or Toronto as there are no direct flights to Quebec City. He wasn’t holding out much hope to get on anything today.

So to my surprise the phone rang around 9pm — it was Georges saying he had arrived at Pearson Airport! I jumped in the car and fetched the weary man from the arrivals curb and made a bed for him. Georges is also really into photography (we had a blast shooting together in Quebec), so I showed him samples of my latest weddings before he started to fade into a jetlagged fog.

Not only am I glad that Georges finally succeeded in getting on a flight today to Toronto — which was a miracle, by all accounts — but that I have a chance to return some hospitality, even though my apartment is still looking like the aftermath of a hurricane… I first stayed at Georges’ place two years ago, then visited this past spring for Easter weekend while he was in Europe. I hadn’t seen him in a couple of years! He pushes off for home tomorrow morning, so this was a quick in-transit rendez-vous.

I’m glad he’s not allergic to cats!

23 May 2010 Long Weekends Are Made For Drinking Out Of Coconuts
Author: Gail |  Category: Food + Drink, Friends  | One Comment

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(After nearly 3,600 post titles and eight years of writing in this blog you’d think I’d be quicker at coming up with titles and writing posts but this is not the case!)

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I’m going to make this a placeholder because I may fall asleep before I click ‘Publish’…

28 Apr 2010 Overdosing On 31-cent Baskin Robbins Ice Cream
Author: Gail |  Category: Food + Drink, Friends, Mobile Blogging, Videoclips  | One Comment

07 Apr 2010 Airborne
Author: Gail |  Category: Canada, Friends, Photography  | 5 Comments

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It’s always great when you can get people to do action shots, especially jumping. Sandy and Neesa discovered a new kind of workout in Quebec City — my photo shoots!

“Jump together!”
“Kick higher!”
“Throw your arms back!”
“I need you to land here!”

Makes me sound like a tyrant, doesn’t it? This is about as bossy as I get.

Doesn’t it look strange to see people wearing t-shirts with snow on the ground? It got up to nearly 30C in Quebec City while we were there, but there were still piles of snow lying around, which looked bizarre because we were melting.

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flying Neesa

jumping Neesa

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20 Mar 2010 Fun With Flash
Author: Gail |  Category: Friends, Photography  | Leave a Comment

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I make no bones about the fact that I’m not a fan of flash. That’s why studio work has never really appealed to me, although the major reason is I prefer being at large than working in a studio. (I already work in an office part-time, the rest of the time I like being mobile.) But I have to live with flash since I shoot in possibly the worst lighting conditions for photography: weddings. Poor lighting, mixed lighting, constantly-changing lighting — you name it, it’s all in a day’s work. There’s no escaping flash since other lighting sources are either unreliable at the venues, or they are completely unflattering in pictures. People love the ambiance of candlelight, but try and take photos of people moving around in it… in focus. Tough! This is where fast glass comes in, and the accompanying sticker shock. (If you think photographers charge a fortune, trying buying the same equipment without spending one.)

Thing is, I can’t hate flash forever, I have to make friends with it. Here’s getting to know you better, flash… no hard feelings!

Friday’s original plans turned into a bit of a gong show, so I dragged my lighting kit over to Natalia and Jan’s to do some creative flash work and put myself in a flashy mood for tomorrow’s wedding. Natalia wasn’t really into it, but once I got her jumping and showed her some of the alley shots on my LCD, she became much more enthusiastic.

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Jan gets an IDEAR

I’m still adding to the set, but you can view what’s there as [thumbnails] or, better yet, a [slideshow].

07 Mar 2010 Avatar Dinner
Author: Gail |  Category: Food + Drink, Friends  | 2 Comments

"Avatar" Lisa

When Lisa declared at the Erotika Dinner a month ago that she wanted an Avatar-themed dinner, the chefs said — and I quote — “We are not making blue food!”

The saying “I’m going to eat my words” comes to mind, because yes indeed, we ate blue food. Not only that, but the house was decorated like the film’s lush tropical forest called Pandora — I’m just relaying what I heard because I haven’t seen the movie — and there was a point in the evening before the dessert where we sat on the floor around some candles to re-enact a scene… and that’s where they totally lost me.

At any rate, I was there for the food and music. The Oscars? Who cares! Bring on the (blue) food!

The menu:

Blue Cabbage Coleslaw
Blue Cheese on Belgian Endive with Cranberries and Pecans
Paupiette of Ocean Perch and Bok Choy on Black Quinoa
Osso Bucco (Veal Shank) with Blue Potato au Gratin and Purple Carrots
Blueberry Icewine Sorbet with a Raspberry Coulis and Wafer Cookie

Avatar Dinner

our veal was well-garnished

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blue tongue!

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Still uploading, but I’ve started a photoset, which is best viewed as a [slideshow] or [thumbnails] or in the Pictobrowser below:

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09 Feb 2010 Erotika Dinner Photos + Video
Author: Gail |  Category: Food + Drink, Friends, Music, Videoclips  | Leave a Comment

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I feel a bit sheepish posting the title “Erotika Dinner” — twice, even — as it invites the expectation that I’m posting photos reminiscent of the 1989 Peter Greenaway film “The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover”. Sorry to disappoint! (Great movie, by the way, but definitely not for everyone.) It was hardly an art house film night. Nor were there naked people feeding each other strawberries or oysters or anything like that — the only seafood on the menu was scallops. However, figs are supposed to be erotic, says the Vegetarian Society. (The page has a disclaimer: The Vegetarian Society can not be held responsible for the activities resulting from the consumption of these foods.) Figs baked in port were a part of our dessert.

But I wouldn’t be telling the whole story if I said the evening was just about food, though, it was so much more: the night included impromptu ballroom dance lessons and we were also serenaded by musicians on the guitar, violin, and Irish drums. I shot a bit of video, but the backlighting from the kitchen made the video completely dark. It would’ve been fine had it been silhouetted properly, but I uploaded a few clips, anyway… I put in a request for Jewish folk music, and Tatsu obliged me with this number:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

As for naming the dinner “Erotika”, I point my finger squarely at Lisa, who gets these fanciful ideas sometimes for dinner themes. She likes to get costumed and we like to eat, so any excuse will do. In fact, she’s got a hankering now for an “Avatar“-themed dinner party, but she can’t convince the chefs to make blue food. Fancy that.

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I’ve got 57 photos from Sunday night, but only 22 photos and 4 videos are fully public (the rest can only be viewed by my Flickr contacts). The album is best viewed as a [slideshow] or [thumbnails] or in the Pictobrowser below:

25 Jan 2010 Weekend Blur: Part II
Author: Gail |  Category: Friends, Music, Videoclips  | Leave a Comment

Lisa and Clint

It was during the Great Thunderstorm of Summer 2009 that I last saw Lisa and Clint and their merry band of musician friends on the beach for “Moulin Rouge”. The thunderstorm rolled in within a matter of minutes and sent us running for cover. It seemed like an eternity ago (Eric was here then, and now he’s in Melbourne, Australia). In actuality it was August 9, but when I walked in the door of the Ben Navaee Gallery at 1111 Queen Street East, Lisa greeted me like long-lost brethren. Apparently with all the activity in the second half of 2009, I really did disappear! But it was Lisa’s birthday, how could I miss this?

After standing and talking to wedding trade show attendees for more than seven hours non-stop, I was more than happy to sit down, shut up, and listen to music. By the time I arrived at the gallery it was after 10pm, but the musicians were still jamming and Lisa was still the Energizer Bunny:

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There were percussionists and a keyboardist and more guitars in one place than I’ve seen in ages — so much talent in one room. I don’t play any instruments (does the camera count?), and I greatly admire anyone who can. Music is good for the soul. The musicians were local and from all over the world: Russia, Turkey, Sweden, and those are just the ones I know of… I also had the good fortune of bumping into a Turkish guy I hadn’t seen in a year since I carpooled some people up to Horseshoe Valley. I told him about my plan to visit Turkey this year, so now I’ve got the invaluable resource of local information!

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Our gracious host was Ben, owner of the Ben Navaee Gallery, which I’m plugging here because of all the work he does for the community. He hosts benefit art auctions at the gallery, “…fundraising events to help with different issues like poverty, homelessness, disease, devastation of the forces of nature, injustices of the world, or any other problems and challenges facing human beings.” He also hosts the Toronto East Community Arts Program, which is a series of free classes “…to help children, youth and adults develop their visual and performing arts skills and channel their creativity.”

Also from the website:

Ben Navaee… is a painter and a certified yoga instructor specialized in relaxation/meditation. His painting style’s known as Aram art (Aram in Sanskrit means quiet, calm, and taking rest. Aram art is a mellow and non-expressionistic view of life’s phenomena, with immaterial soothing subjects that make the body quiet and peaceful, the mind, calm and relaxed, the spirit, gentle and serene. Aram art promotes positive emotions for an easy and mindful living).

It was a great atmosphere on Saturday night, especially after a full day of wedding-related madness, to be surrounded by art and music and friends and food. I’m posting Lisa’s video, which was shot well before I arrived, to show some of the music:

The photos can be viewed best as a [slideshow] or [thumbnails] or in the Pictobrowser below:

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09 Jan 2010 Winter Fare: Leek Soup + Scrabble
Author: Gail |  Category: Food + Drink, Friends  | 3 Comments

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It was Friday night, wintry and cold, and I was greeted by total darkness outside. But I hurried, not just because I was late leaving the office (again) and five days of that is more than enough to make me hurry out the door, but because Natalia told me what they were cooking up at Marin’s place for dinner: cornbread muffins and leek soup. Suddenly I was really hungry thinking about what’s in the oven and on the stovetop, and I quickened my step to the subway.

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I also brought those Godiva chocolates from the previous post and a huge bottle of white wine given to me back in November.

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Dinner was followed by a rather heated (board) game of “Lord of the Rings” between Neesa and Natalia, while Marin and I played Scrabble.

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Note the two early-game instances of Scrabbles — one of them was mine:

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The rest of the photos can be viewed as [thumbnails] or a [slideshow] or in the Pictobrowser below:

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05 Jan 2010 Motorcycle Camping In Scotland, 1994
Author: Gail |  Category: Ancient History, Europe, Friends, film photography  | 6 Comments

Isle of Arran, Scotland - 1994

It’s after 11pm and I just arrived home from an interesting day. Lots to think about.

But let’s have some photos. These are from the archives, now that I’ve got my scanner on speaking terms with my computer. (I’m reviving my practice of scanning my prints to archive them, it’s been ages!)

Isle of Arran, Scotland - 1994
Isle of Arran, Scotland

While I was living in Scotland, my friend Fedor Alphenaar (whom I met two years before, in Australia) visited from Holland for his birthday in August 1994 so we could go motorcycle camping. I LOVED it, but haven’t gone motorcycle camping since. After looking at these photos, I was reminded of how liberating it felt to bike around the Isle of Arran at leisure and to be in touch with my surroundings. Being a passenger in a car or bus or train is a bit isolating by comparison. The last time I was on a motorcycle was on the back of a Triumph Tiger almost a year ago, in Vancouver, although it seems like longer. I have no intention of buying a motorbike, but I’m going to figure out a way to ride on one this year.

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