Category: Travel

“Montreal Week 2”

On Monday, our first day sans KKs, we made our way back down to Old Town.  We enjoyed lunch on the Terraces Nelligan – a rooftop restaurant with great views atop the Hotel Nelligan.

I tried to order a medium rare burger and was stymied by a Quebec regulation that says any ground beef not ground on the premises has to be cooked well done.  Not fancying that, I opted for a cauliflower steak – yummy.

While I was enjoying that (munched in before realizing I wanted a picture), someone bungee jumped from the crane on the other side of the river – 100% hard No on that activity.

I’ll have a sip of a refreshing beer and try to wash away the memory of the person bouncing around like a rag doll on the end of that elastic band.

Diana enjoyed a very colourful Niçoise salad.

After lunch, we walked around Old Town and took a spin through Notre Dame cathedral.  Not the very famous one, but still quite impressive – particularly the blue lighting.

I always enjoy checking out church organs and this one seemed serious:

This bronze sculpture caught my attention.  It’s called “The English Pug” and is part of a diptych called “The Two Snobs”, created in 2013 by Canadian artist Marc Andre J. Fortier.

Tommy’s Cafe was close by for our after cathedral coffee stop.  And the chair available for “Miss Champagne” seemed appropriate.

Tuesday began with a repeat visit to Chez Greenberg, down the street from the Airbnb.  This time I had a poutine stuffed knish with my macchiato – I recommend this as a good way to try poutine.  Jake Greenberg, presumably the owner, came by to check on the food and we had a good chat.  We told him we were planning on trying Milos for lunch and got positive feedback.  He also recommended Faros – the place we ate at last week with the KKs.  “Best two Greek restaurants in the city.”

We had chatted with two ladies leaving Milos one evening and they raved about the place.  It’s been in operation for many years and has since expanded globally.  We checked with Nick about the one in Miami Beach and he described it as “an institution.”  Okay – let’s see if we can get a seat at the bar and give it a try for lunch.  I started with the house special martini, which came in a fish container.

Our waiter/bartender had been to Miami Beach and to Carbone – still one of our most amazing dining experiences.

Here’s the prix fixe lunch menu:

I started with the tomato (Greek) salad and then had the Dorade Royal (sea bream.)

Diana had the phenomenal octopus, followed by lamb.

Fortunately the desserts were small.

Don’t miss the baklava ice cream.  Here’s a silly picture on the way out.

What a wonderful lunch all around.  We decided to try and make a reservation for dinner later in the week.  I think I heard something like “It’ll be our way to celebrate our last night in Montreal.”

After lunch, we watched the Spain vs France World Cup game.  I had high hopes for an exciting game but France seemed flat and tired, ultimately losing to Spain.

In the evening, we made a pilgrimage to find Leonard Cohen’s grave.  It was quite an uphill trek at the end of the walk to the entrance of the Mont Royal cemetery.  We came across this church on the walk, not Notre Dame but the location of that picture of the girls with the young men in tuxedos.  Or at least that’s the latest cover story – something about they were putting on their ties and getting all ready for a wedding, and offered to take the picture.  Hmm.

Here I am checking out the family plot.  Leonard is buried in a pine box next to his parents,  Nathan and Marsha, as well as his grandparents and great grandparents.

Diana captured some pictures showing how beautifully the cemetery plots are kept.

We heard thunder rolling on our walk back but did not get any heavy rain or “squall” – there were a few “squall warnings” during our stay that seemed to amount to nothing much.

Wednesday took us over to the Botanical Gardens – some of the largest in the world.  Research showed that we should visit the Japanese garden, the Chinese garden,  and the Alpine area – we set off in search of those.

The Japanese area sported some very old bonsais:

The Chinese garden had interesting buildings and water features:

We came across oodles of lovely flowers on our meander through the gardens.  Hydrangeas:

Balloon flowers (platycodon grandiflorus), native to East Asia:

Pom pom or ball dahlias:

We both agreed that our favourite section, not mentioned in my research, was the Lilly and brook garden.  Amazing colours and very extensive.

The Olympic stadium was next to the Botanical gardens – here’s a picture of the tower attached to it.

Some facts about the tower:

In the evening we tried another of our Uber driver recommendations – the Atwater cocktail club.  This was a speakeasy style place in the downtown area known as Atwater.  I had read that entry was by an alley behind the Foiegwa restaurant.  The one alley that I found looked a bit dodgy but closer inspection of the graffitied door revealed the “ACC” sign – must be the place.

We risked it, opened the door and headed inside to the fancy club.

We perused the detailed cocktail menu – most were less than $20 Canadian and made our choices.

The food menu seemed to have all of our favourites at once:

We started with chicken liver mousse, then beef tartare, and finally black truffle spaghetti.  So rich and decadent and all wonderful.

Our waitress, Ashely, gave us a post card with some of her recommendations on places to try.  We did try at least one of them.

What a nice touch from Ashley.

Diana decided to summit Mont Royal by the stairs on Thursday morning.  This took her a little bit higher than the terrace we reached on our first day in Montreal.

Some details on the stairs.  Good job Diana!

I think all that stairclimbing work was worth it:

We wandered the neighbourhood in search of a lunch spot, and ultimately ended up back at Bishop and Bagg for a burger at the bar.  It was interesting to observe their display of over 100 gins.

The evening brought a highlight of the trip for me – a visit to the Upstairs jazz club. Their logo is upside down because the club is actually downstairs from the street level.

There were only a few tickets left when I bought ours and so I opted for bar seating.  That turned out to be a great option – high stools so that Diana could see well and an amazing view of the stage.

We had wonderful service at the bar with great drinks and food.  I had a drink called Le Vieux something (don’t remember the word).  It was Canadian Club whiskey, Drambuie and ginger beer.  Like a slightly modified Rusty Nail and delicious.  We split a salad and a seafood pasta that was excellent.

And then the band!  A very good tribute to the Buena Vista Social Club.  This was an album from 1997 by Cuban legends with Ry Cooder.

Here’s the Upstairs version:

Friday was a busy day.  We visited the Terrasse William Gray, an Ashley recommendation, for brunch.  This was quite similar to the Nelligan terrace with excellent river front views of the Ferris wheel and Cirque du Soleil.

We shared a salad and you’ll be surprised…another tartare.  Both delicious.  Montreal really is an amazing food town.

The boeuf in the description reminded me of the boys in Paris as youngsters and the kick they got out of the McDonalds ads in the Metro – “100% pur boeuf.”

We wandered through Old Town after lunch, making a stop at Wolf and Workman before heading back to the Airbnb.

We had reservations for dinner at Milos in the evening.  Everything was fine, but not up to the amazing experience that we had at lunch.  Diana had a lobster and I enjoyed halibut.  Both were good but not at the outstanding level we had anticipated.

After dinner, another musical treat awaited.  The “Candlelight” performance of Abba and Queen songs.

This is a concert (apparently they have them in New Orleans sometimes) where a string quartet performs the music of Abba and Queen.  Here’s the order of performance:

I thoroughly enjoyed the arrangements:

A very busy and enjoyable day all around.

We were due to pack up and leave on Saturday.  Around 2pm, just before we ordered an Uber to the airport, we received notice that our flight was canceled.  Oops!

Not able to extend the Airbnb or find a room at any others close by, McD came up with a great idea – let’s stay at that really nice Nelligan hotel where we had lunch.  Booking was easy and we were checking in less than an hour later.  This was an old school luxury hotel – they had thought only I was staying and so stalled a bit at check in to make a “profile” for Diana.  I suspect what they were really doing was updating the welcome card on the petit fours.  We were escorted up to the room so that we could be shown the amenities – I don’t think I’ve had that since the Park Hyatt in Sydney many, many years ago.

We had dinner at Mignon across from the hotel and it was another delicious meal, including oysters of course.

Diana was out early on Sunday morning to explore the Old Town area some more.

We took advantage of brunch on the lovely Nelligan terrace.  The bacon Benny was just what I needed before setting of to try and make it home a day late.

I had checked transit time from the Nelligan to Montreal airport (YUL) in the morning – 20 minutes or so.  Our flight was at 5pm and so we ordered an Uber around 2:30pm.  As we departed the hotel, it showed the better part of an hour to the airport – hopefully we had enough wiggle room.  We did – the traffic entering the airport was ludicrous – 2o minutes to go less than a mile, but they had Global Entry and TSA pre at the airport and you actually cleared US customs in Montreal – who knew?

We did have a tiny snafu at airport security.  The bagel spreader souvenirs were not permitted as carry on items – such dangerous weapons.  Diana decided to go back out and check her back – no problem, she made it to the gate in time for boarding.

Our flights to Chicago and then New Orleans were fine – the usual sitting on the tarmac waiting on a gate routines.  We were home a little after midnight – tired and happily reflecting on a great trip.

My book this week was “Who is Maud Dixon” by Alexandra Andrews.  You may remember that I read her “The Fine Art of Lying” a few weeks ago.  All the reviews said that this was a much better read.  I agree with the reviews for once – much deeper characters and better humour.  Here’s an online summary:

“Florence Darrow has always felt she was destined for greatness, but after a disastrous affair with her married boss, she starts to doubt herself. All that changes when she sets off for Morocco with her new boss, the celebrated but reclusive author Maud Dixon. Amidst the colorful streets of Marrakesh and the wind-swept beaches of the coast, Florence begins to feel she’s leading the sort of interesting, cosmopolitan life she deserves.

But when she wakes up in the hospital after a terrible car accident, with no memory of the previous night—and no sign of Maud—a dangerous idea begins to take form. . .”

I enjoyed this article about attempts to create a Scottish Music Hall of Fame.  I’m all for it.

Scottish Music Hall of Fame article

Something Moroccan related for Maud Dixon:

“Montreal – Week 1”

I enjoyed this online story, celebrating a truly amazing individual:

One of Britain’s biggest mazes is celebrating Sir David Attenborough’s 100th birthday by creating a spectacular design in the shape of a mountain gorilla.

Wistow Maze in Leicestershire, England, came up with the design to pay tribute to the legendary broadcaster who hails from their local county, having grown up near the University of Leicester.

The popular award-winning attraction features a winding labyrinth that stretches for three miles and takes around two hours to walk.

After my posting last Sunday, England beat Mexico 3-2 with Harry Kane scoring 2 goals, all while down to 10 men for much of the game.  It was a very exciting and entertaining match.

We watched the movie “The Choice” on Sunday evening.  This was our third attempt and we were successful in finishing before Diana “fais do do.”

There were more good sporting opportunities on Monday.  The great British hope, Fery, made it through to the Wimbledon quarterfinals in entertaining fashion.  Later in the day, the USMNT was dominated by Belgium from start to finish, ultimately losing 4-1.

I watched “Still of the Night” in the evening – a movie from 1982 with what I thought was a 25 year old Meryl Streep, turns out she was 33, alongside Roy Scheider.  This was very much a noir style mystery with an early eighties feel.  I enjoyed it quite a bit.

We had an early start on Tuesday, 6am in an Uber, to catch the first of our two small (American Eagle) flights to Montreal.  I watched a movie called “The Christophers” on the flight from New Orleans to Chicago.  This starred Ian McKellen and a leonine looking lady (stand by while I look her up..), Michaele Coel, in a story about an aging artist, forgery and the greed of his children.  It was a quiet, “adult” movie that I enjoyed quite a bit.

A long layover in Chicago was eased by the Admirals Club with good coffee, creative food, and excellent WiFi.  We were able to watch Zverev defeat Lehecka, and some of Argentina vs Egypt (Messi missed a penalty.)

Diana had an impressive set up on our next flight (Chicago to Montreal.)

Mimosa, book on iPad, Wimbledon on phone and texting on phone.  Check, check, check, and check.  All taken care of.

All that multi-tasking was stressing me and so I went old school, finishing off my Violent Femmes book from the book store talk several weeks ago.  I enjoyed the read and am looking forward to referring to my marked up sections when I listen to the album next.

It was quite a trek from the arrival gate, through immigration and out to the Uber pickup area in Montreal.  Our Lyft (much shorter wait time than Uber) driver dropped us off in the alley behind our building rather at the front door.  That was pretty disconcerting but he was sure it was the right place and we figured it out after he left, dragging our luggage down the alley, past the famous bagel place, and around to the front door, where we were able to easily gain entrance to the lovely Airbnb.

Next stop – the local stores for some supplies.  There were several small grocery stores very close by and a liquor and wine store right next door.  Easy peasy.

After our pre-dawn start, we opted for a nice early night.

We awoke early on Wednesday morning.  I went back to sleep while Diana explored the neighborhood.  She did report back on a restaurant that she found that ended up being very good (more to come.)

Later in the morning we headed out on an expedition to summit Mont Royal, the mountain/hill that Montreal is named for.  My research showed that Chemin Olmsted was a pleasant and meandering trail with a light gradient, passing Beaver Lake before arriving at the Mount Royal chalet and terrace.  That was all true, however, the weather was not what my research had indicated – hot and humid, and not the cold, crisp respite from the New Orleans swamp that I had hoped for.  Oh well, I took a few breaks to cool off and ultimately summited.

There was an interesting statue as we entered the park.

Diana was not a fan of my “bucket hat” and particularly the orange colour.  I stuck with it all the same, and was delighted to find a tribe of my people on our ascent.

Here we are up on the terrace with a view of downtown Montreal.

Kenny and Kara (henceforth known as the “KKs”) arrived around 5pm and seemed not to much the worse for their day of travel.  We started their first evening with dinner at Molenne, the restaurant that Diana found on her ramble.

This was an excellent dining experience all around – fun and attentive service and wonderful food all around.  Kenny’s raw scallop was a big hit, as was Kara’s clam pasta dish.

I loved my cod in mushroom sauce and McD couldn’t resist the bison tartare.

Kenny found an excellent stop for dessert on the way home.  Some wonderful cakes and after dinner drinks.

The KKs were at it early on Thursday.  They got some bagels from Saint Viateur and then navigated their way down to Old Town and the Riverfront district on foot. We arranged to meet them at Maison  des Eclusiers by the riverfront and enjoyed our first taste of poutine.

What is poutine?  I’m glad you asked – fries, cheese curds, and gravy with various other optional toppings.  I thought it was relatively tasty but didn’t need to order it again on the trip.

Fred texted us that his favourite stop in Montreal was Pub Saint Pierre.  We hoped to camp out there and watch the France vs Morocco World Cup game.  Alas, that was a no go.  They were fully booked with supporters of both teams and so we had to vacate our table before the 4pm kickoff.

There was a decent rain going when we were ejected from the Pub, and so we made our way back to the Airbnb to prepare for dinner.

Dinner was at a lovely Indian place that Kara discovered, Le Taj.  A fancy/cool setting with very good food.  We enjoyed onion bhaji and samosas to start, followed by chicken korma, lamb vindaloo, mixed grill and garlic naan.  Lots of yummy food and plenty of leftovers.  Nice job, Kara!

We headed back downtown on Friday morning.  First stop was the Crew cafe, a coffee shop in a very fancy, old, art deco style Royal Bank of Canada building.  The lines for coffee were too long, but the building was worth the visit.

The World Trade Center building was next door and we gave that a quick visit.  Long enough for Kenny to purchase some cool new shoes, and for me to snap some pictures of a part of the Berlin wall.

We then made a decent hike over to Rue Crescent, a “super cute street with bars and flower boxes.”  The street also sported the first of two Leonard Cohen murals.  I think it’s a very well done representation of the Canadian gentleman.

I first discovered him in my mid teens via the “Greatest Hits” album.

Look at that list of songs!  “The Partisan” and “Suzanne” were my youthful favourites.

We made our way from the mural over to the Boulevard Saint Laurent, which we believed would ultimately take us close to home.  There we found mural number two:

Do you think he might be a bit of a big deal in Montreal?

We stopped at a cafe for a lunch snack of Breton style galettes, sitting outside on the street.

Kara wanted to try the world famous smoked meat sandwich from Schwartz’s deli down the street from Cafe Breizh.  This wasn’t overly appealing to me but tasted good – somewhere between pastrami and corned beef.  This place is very popular – seems to have a constant line out the door.

After that sustenance, we hiked onwards to the Avenue Mont Royal, a pedestrian street (mostly.)  Kara browsed a used record store and we ordered up macchiatos from a coffee window.  We stopped into a little Chilean place to try and watch the World Cup game.  They had it on but didn’t serve any wine or beer.  I ordered an empanada – very good with a delicious sauce.  When I complimented the sauce, the owners told me they brought the recipe from Chile and gave me a little sample to take home.

After a quick freshen up, the girls walked around to the Sparrow, a restaurant/bar with an amazing oyster happy hour – $1 Canadian/oyster – that’s $0.70 US.  Granted, these are the smaller, PEI oysters, but those are usually even more expensive than our local gulf varieties.  I prefer the small, briny ones, but most others like the gulf ones.

I think you can tell from these pictures what the girls thought of the experience:

There was a small music club across from the Airbnb and the girls alerted us to the band playing that evening – Kataklysm.  I listened to a few seconds of a track – do so at your own risk.  There was an interesting Nordic/French band playing later in our stay.

Kenny and I joined the ladies at Sparrow and gave them an excuse to order some more oysters.  The place did make a very good gimlet.

The oysters weren’t enough to sate everyone and an Uber driver had recommended Fugazi pizza – handily just across the street from Sparrow.

That place made a tasty pizza.

I was amazed at the number of pizza, bagel and coffee shops in our neighbourhood.  It was a younger area from a demographic perspective, but still – how much pizza can one eat in a week?

The KKs were excited to try the local ice cream before leaving.  The line wasn’t too long.

Some down memory lane ice cream pictures:

The KKs went off early to summit Mont Royal – successfully completed.  Diana went out for a wander and I walked down the street to Chez Greenberg for breakfast.

Something about Montreal – everybody knows how to make a macchiato.   The special thing at this place was the latke with schmear, smoked salmon, chives, onions and crunchy things.  Different and delicious.

I rendezvoused with my spouse and we went to Bishop and Bagg to watch the Wimbledon ladies final.

It looked like it would be over before the KKs could join us.  Fortunately the match became competitive and needed a third set to decide.

The ladies went out for an extensive walk prior to another Sparrow happy hour, while Kenny and I watched the World Cup game at the apartment.

You’ll have to ask them about the background on this picture.  The one I got seemed quite fishy.

And then back to Sparrow to discuss the cover story.

We tried a well recommended and reviewed neighbourhood Greek place for dinner – Faros.  Again – great service and delicious food.  I tried something new – squid stuffed with cheese and veggies.

Diana had a grilled octopus, Kara lamb, and Kenny steak.

There was an interesting option where you could select a very fresh fish.

The bus boy was helping us with coffee and desert and recommended the yogurt plate.  Great recommendation – we all enjoyed it a lot.

And we were not done at that.  A fruit plate appeared.  We asked questions about one of the melon looking fruits and the owner/chef (for 30 years) came out with an explanation and then reappeared with another exotic melon that he wanted us to try.  What a great experience!

Somehow, on returning to the Airbnb, we got on a favourite show from our childhoods kick.  We watched Lancelot Link and the episode about the “Hong Kong Sneeze” – one of Kenny’s favourites.  Then I shared some Magic Roundabout, The Herbs, and then we finished with the Pink Panther for Kenny and my Dad.

The KKs left us on Sunday.  We sadly moped around and watched some Wimbledon.  In the evening, we couldn’t resist revisiting Molenne for a reprise of that ridiculous raw scallop, bison tartare, and spaghetti clams trifecta.  Just as tasty.

I finished up John of John by Douglas Stuart this week.  Not one of my top reads of the year, but as I said last week, some interesting things about life on the islands.

“Happy Retirement, Tim”

The New York Knicks had a 2-0 lead over the San Antonio Spurs going into game three of the NBA finals on Monday evening.  I loved watching the Spurs come rallying back for a win.

They are a very young team and have the potential to be contenders for many years to come.

Before I was even out of bed on Tuesday, American Airlines had let me know that my flight to visit Tim and Deirdre in Philadelphia was delayed by two and a half hours.  They’re trying to get better about giving reasons for the delays – this one seemed a bit light:

I watched a movie on the plane that I would describe as a psychological thriller – “The Housemaid.”  I was telling Denny about it yesterday and he teased me relentlessly that the movie’s target audience was ladies in the 18 – 25 year old demographic.  Not sure I believe him – but he is now cut off from my movie recommendations.  His loss.

Tim had planned to pick us up at the airport, and we let him off the hook as our flight would now be arriving in rush hour.  We took an Uber and arrived around 7pm for some delicious Tim cooked ribs.  Diana said they were the best she had tasted.  I wonder what’s Tim’s secret?

Tim loves to decorate for all holidays – Christmas, July 4th, Halloween, Autumn, St. Patrick’s Day, and any number of others.  Deirdre keeps him restricted in how soon and late his decorations can stay.  He is in full July 4th mode right now – particularly down in his new basement bar.  There have been many improvements since I visited 15+ years ago – a new deck, a completely refinished basement with bar (beautifully stocked with whiskies and snacks), TV room and gym, and a downstairs patio.

Buddy the Beagle likes to go out early in the morning – around 5am.  He came to visit me and make sure all was good when he came back inside.  It’s been a while since I woke up to a dog in my face.  We took advantage of the early start to go out for a walk on the very well maintained trails through the woods.  It’s already starting to get warm in Pennsylvania early in the morning.

Our main activity for Tuesday was a visit to Peddler’s Village – about a 30 minute drive.  What is that place all about?  Here’s the advertising scoop:

We started with lunch on the patio at the Buttonwood Grill.  The food was good and we did hear something very entertaining as we were deciding on our orders.  “I’m allergic to mushrooms,” said Tim.  “No you’re not,” was the quick rebuttal from Dee.  The theme was revisited many times throughout the day, with Dee ultimately admitting that she had seen Tim eat things that contained mushrooms that he didn’t know about, and he had survived just fine.  “Who are you?  Sneaking mushrooms into my food.”

Walking around the artisanal shops with a drink is encouraged.  There is a local distillery and brewery to choose from.  I get a moonshine margarita slushy – not sweet at all due to the moonshine bite.

Each season seems to bring a different set of exhibits to the village – scarecrows, Christmas trees, and for our visit, sand sculptures.  Titled “Sights in Sand – an American Road Trip,” these very large sculptures were quite impressive.

The big question we all had was, “What holds the sculptures together?”  Apparently they are periodically sprayed with a blend of water and wood glue.  Each sculpture took around 125 hours to complete, and they will be on display through the end of August.

We made a quick stop on the way home to pick up sandwiches for our outing on Wednesday.  Then a quick visit to Wormwood farms brewery before heading home for Tim to grill a tri-tip.  It’s a while since I had this cut of meat – always popular at sporting events in California, and rarely seen in New Orleans.  Grill master Tim did another excellent job – finishing just before the “meat” of a rainstorm arrived.

Caitlin, Tim and Dee’s oldest daughter, visited for dinner – still in scrubs from her occupational therapy job – I believe related to patients suffering with brain trauma.  I would guess that it’s 15 years since I last saw Caitlin.

After dinner, Tim and I watched game 4 of the Spurs and Knicks basketball finals in the basement.  The Spurs had a 29 point lead and so I retired to bed at half time.  The big news in the morning – the Knicks were the first team in history to overcome a 29 point lead, and now lead the series 3-1.  Ugh!

We took our sandwiches to Bishop Estate winery for lunch on Thursday.  We each tried a flight of wines and then voted on which bottle to get for lunch – the Chardonnay won.

Diana picked up a couple of red white and blue wine glasses to go with Tim’s decor.

After the “allergic to mushrooms” theme died down a bit, the complaints about Tim’s birthday falling on father’s day ratcheted up.  So…he got one glass for his birthday and one for father’s day.  Here they are in the bar:

Tim got a night off from cooking, and we enjoyed dinner on the patio at 59 Almshouse.

In the evening Tim opened the retirement gift that Dee had hidden away for us when we had it shipped there.  More “Who are you, sneaking around and hiding things?”

It’s a line art sculpture of a Beagle, and was well received.

Friday was a smooth travel day back to New Orleans.

Kenny, Kara, Nina, Denny, and Anne met us at Merry Lee and Jeff’s pool on Saturday afternoon.  Diana had organized a cabana and so we were able to have a fridge and soccer on TV, and a place to shelter during a brief but heavy rain shower.

I had to oscillate between two sporting events on Saturday evening – Scotland vs Haiti in the World Cup, and Spurs vs Knicks basketball.

Scotland did win but played unimpressively and gave what I would describe as a flat effort.  They did lead their group for a while:

And the Spurs lost, giving the Knicks their first NBA Championship in over 50 years.

My book this week was “The Fine Art of Lying” by Alexandra Andrews.  Denny would probably say that I’m not in the target demographic for this book,  and I don’t care as I enjoyed the read.

Here’s an online summary of the plot:

“From the critically acclaimed author of Who is Maud Dixon? comes a riveting new novel about a young wife and mother thrust into a world of wealth and privilege, whose rash mistake sets off a domino effect of murder and betrayal.

In the beginning, there was art.

It was Clare Bast’s love of art that saved her from a bleak, predictable life in upstate New York, and drew her to the cultured world of Manhattan’s Upper East Side where she met Jed, her doting, affluent husband.

Despite her best efforts—including a half-finished PhD, abandoned when her daughter Sadie was born—Clare secretly can’t help but feel like an imposter in Jed’s one-percent, Park-Avenue life.

When the well-connected wife of Jed’s new boss introduces her to influential friends—a curator here, a gallerist there, an aficionado abroad—Clare feels an essential part of herself coming alive again. And when she discovers that an important work painted by the subject of her unfinished dissertation is hanging in the brownstone of a seductively attractive dealer, she believes fate is leading her where she belongs . . . until she finds herself at the scene of a gruesome murder and a stolen masterpiece. Caught in the perfectly wrong place at the perfectly wrong time, every clue the investigation uncovers points back to her.

Suddenly, Clare is trapped inside a dark and treacherous art world filled with unscrupulous dealers and international criminals. What, exactly, has she gotten herself into . . . and how is she going to get herself, and her family, out?”

This paragraph made me smile – we have the same anniversary and will celebrate later this week.

“She brought it to the living room and sat on the couch. Noodle lifted up his head to look at her before settling back down in his cage. Clare tapped in Jed’s password—0617, their anniversary—and the display opened onto a picture of Sadie and her in the pool in East Hampton. She swiped down and searched”

Have you heard of Erma Franklin?  I had not.  She is the older sister of Aretha and recorded the original version of this song, nominated for a Grammy.

The famous version was recorded by Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company a year later.

The first Rush shows of their much anticipated tour happened in LA this week.  The reviews rave about Anika Niles, the new female drummer, replacing the late Neal Peart.  I watched a video of them performing the entire 2112 suite for the first time in 29 years.

“A Relaxing Week – for the most part”

The week began with the usual early alarms so that Diana could make her 8am pickleball session.  Yeah!

Tuesday began with me joining a retirement financial meeting with Paul and Diana heading off to her pickleball tournament.  I followed that with a swim, steam and sauna at the New Orleans Athletic Club (NOAC) in an attempt to stretch out my back.  Trivia in the evening worked out well for me for the first time in a while.  Here’s Kenny’s scoring and notes sheet.

My contributions:  William the Conqueror, correct first names for Lamborghini and Prada, infra-red waveband, and “Francis” as the F in F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Denny wore his new “Dude” t-shirt that we got for his birthday in San Sebastian.  The design is by the same illustrator who did my Miles Davis cutout wall hanging.

The typical run and yoga in Audubon park sessions kicked off Wednesday for Diana.  Then she spent some time packing up for her trip to California.

She left for the trip to attend Ashley’s wedding on Thursday morning.  There were delays in Dallas due to weather in San Francisco, but nothing too extreme, arriving on Gypsy Hill in the early evening.

I watched the “Accidental Tourist” movie on Thursday night.  This is the 1988 adaptation of Anne Tyler’s wonderful book and stars William Hurt, Geena Davis and Kathleen Turner.  Geena Davis won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance.

This is my kind of movie – quiet, understated with deep themes and humour.

I found a recipe for the perfect “Vesper” – the James Bond drink and would have enjoyed one with the movie, but did not have the ingredients.  I’m adding it here so that I know where to find the recipe:

Friday, my first “unsupervised” day, was a busy one.  I spent the morning and early afternoon at Kenny’s rental houses.  We were trying to use my pressure washer to spray “Wet it and forget it” on the bricks and siding of the houses.  A series of unfortunate events prevented us from doing that and I’ve now ordered up what I think will be a much easier approach to accomplishing our goal.

After that frustration, Kenny took me on a tour of the Lakeview area of New Orleans (very nice and upscale) and then we shared a burger at Desi Vegas Burger house – one of the better burgers that I’ve had in a while.

In the evening, we gathered at the Bon Temps dive bar to support our friends who were running in the Barathon – a run of around 3.5 miles that visits 5 bars, where participants have to finish a beer before continuing to the next stops.  There were a surprising number of participants:

Our team:

Katherine, Fred and Brennen did a good job – coming in the top 25% in my estimation – very impressive.  How did the winners complete all of that in around 30 minutes?  Crazy.

While all of that was underway, Diana was making the trip from Pacifica to Gardnerville, Nevada.  Julie was almost on time for the departure and they made reasonable time on the 4+ hour drive.

I met Chris Peet at Casimiro for breakfast on Saturday.  This is a new brunch place from the ladies that operate Acamaya (one of my top 5 New Orleans restaurants.)  Mexican breakfast dishes are one of my favourite food groups.  We started with the Tetela de Hongos al Ajillo (triangles of corn masa stuffed with mushrooms and served with salsa verde and crema – I will be back just for these.  Then I had the chilaquiles with chicken – ridiculously good and enough to eat all day long.

We both tried the Cafe de Olla – coffee with cinnamon, spices and a slight sweetness – I had two and it was not Chris’ thing.

I really enjoyed catching up with Chris – been a while since we got time for a nice chat.

Denny and Anne invited me over for dinner on Saturday evening.  Chef Denny did his usual amazing job – hanger steak, gnocchi with spinach, and carrots on a Greek yogurt base.  It’s nice to have friends that worry about me when Diana is gone.

Here are some pictures from Ashley and Nick’s wedding in Nevada:

It seems that Diana had a good time and is glad she made the effort to attend.

A week after Mother’s Day and Diana’s flowers from Alicia are still going strong.  I’ve been changing out the water and adding ice cubes – apparently the secret to elongated life.

My book this week was “Doxology” by Nell Zink.  The online review says “this novel follows three friends – Pam, Daniel, and Joe – through the 1980s and 90s New York City music scene, exploring their relationships, the impact of 9/11, and the subsequent political landscape through the eyes of their daughter, Flora, as she grows up and becomes an activist. The book is an ambitious, generational saga that contrasts the punk-rock idealism of their youth with the political realities of post-9/11 America, touching on themes of family, fame, and the search for meaning. “

I find this book equally entertaining and clever with the musical references, and at the same time overly New York Times hipsterish and trying too hard.  I’m about 30% complete and will try to stick with it and have more to report next week.

I did find an interesting reference to Jane Birkin and the role she played in creating the Hermes Birkin bag.  This was a trivia clue that I knew because we sold so many of those ridiculously expensive bags in our stores.

Spotify shared some data this week – the first song that I listened to on the platform and how many since:

Let’s see – 31,500 songs over 12 years = 2,625 songs/year.  That’s a little over 200 songs/month and 7 songs/day – sounds about right.

I read an article about the albums that most influenced Tom Waits:

Some very good ones in that list.

“University Reunion”

Diana’s week started out with a long walk and after that she was ready for a nice lunch at the Laird’s table outside Fenwick.  This is the restaurant with views out onto a fly-fishing lake.  We enjoyed a delicious lunch with all three of us trying different seafood dishes.  Here’s a picture Diana took after lunch:

After lunch we made a trip to the Marks and Spencer’s Food store in the Newton Mearns mall.  This is a wonderful store, quite unlike anything we find in the US.  So many pre-packaged meals, cheeses, meats, and everything else you could hope for.  We picked out some lunch and dinner treats.  After that, we made a short side trip to B&Q home store to look for a new magnetic shower door strip.  That was a no-go – only available online.

Diana ventured out into the Scottish countryside again for a long run and walk on Tuesday morning.  Then we drove Mum’s car through to Edinburgh to meet up with my university friends for our 41st graduation anniversary get together.

We walked across to the Beehive pub ahead of our scheduled 7pm meeting time.  I was in line to order a drink when I received a WhatsApp message from Euan.  Thankfully that included a picture and a description of where he was sitting and the colour of shirt he was wearing.  I went across and introduced myself.  Bobby and Kirsty showed up a short while later and then Fiona and Patrick.  We made our way across the street to the restaurant at the Apex hotel.  The hotel is a remodel of the Heriot-Watt Mountbatten building where we studied Electrical Engineering all those 41 years ago.  The ramp that we walked up to enter the building is still there – now the handicapped entrance.  We walked up and noticed the red wall where our results were posted outside Dr. Davidson’s (head of electrical engineering department) office.

Left to right – Fiona, Bobby, and Euan.

Dinner was very enjoyable, the restaurant occupying what was one of two large lecture theaters in the building.

We reminisced about a “presentation skills” class we had taken in that theater all those years ago.  Euan talked about his experiences digging graves as a summer job, I shared how sound wavelengths operate in brass instruments (with live tuba and trombone demonstrations), Bobby discussed a new album that his country dancing band had released, and Fiona talked about gemstones with foils from a local museum.

All of the group are retired now (quite an achievement given we average 62) with Euan doing some occasional consulting with early-stage high tech startups.

This was a lovely evening from start to finish.  We’ll have to get together sooner if it’s going to happen again in these lifetimes.

We had a workout on Wednesday morning, followed by a “healthy” breakfast at a place called Hula in the Grassmarket.  I had a falafel bowl that was huge and delicious and brought a good bit of it home for later.  The drive back to Mum’s was smooth and easy, with a quick stop into Marks and Spencer for some special cookies and other snacks.  We chuckled at the alternatives to easter eggs:

We visited the Dunlops (Jeanette and Robert) on Thursday afternoon.  These are good friends of Mum’s who live one street away.  I babysat their children at least once many years ago.  We had a very enjoyable chat, with an “online shop” showing up during our visit.  This was included:

Prosecco without the alcohol.  Diana was horrified.  It’s also “suitable for vegans” according to the label.

Mum made beef olives for dinner on Thursday.  Ever heard of them?  Care to guess what they look like?

They are a Scottish dish of thin beef steaks wrapped around sausage meat, stuffing or even haggis.

Why the “olive” in the name?  There are no olives in the recipe.  It’s not clear to me – some online postings talk about the stuffed beef wrap looking like an olive – I’m not sure I see that.  Despite all of that, these made for a delicious dinner.

Julie and Robin invited us over to dinner on Friday evening.  We were joined by Lorna and Russell.

Dinner was a team effort – chicken tikka masala and naan bread by Julie, fancy rice with cinnamon sticks from Robin, and a raspberry meringue roulade from Lorna – all wonderful.

Lots of fun stories were shared.  It’s really such a lovely group.  The “Morgan” was mentioned several times during the evening, and Diana was confused about what that might be.  Any car enthusiasts reading that know?  Robin demonstrated as we were getting bundled up to leave – “Oh, It’s a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” said Diana.

Morgans are really unique.  They are still built using ash wood for the frame and are largely built by hand in the Malvern, England factory – the same one has been used for over 100 years.  Only a few hundred are built each year and the wait time can last up to 10 years.

We walked home a little after midnight (brrr!) and apparently missed the “clues” that were left to indicate that we were expecting a visit from Heather, Michael, and Hamish.

Meanwhile, back in New Orleans, Kara and Chris Peet, along with Nina, Ian and Hannah, were all running in the Crescent City Classic 10K.  There were over 20,000 runners involved.

Kara came across Chris and ran with the Love flag for a while.

We enjoyed a visit from Hamish, Heather and Michael on Saturday morning.  Diana was out for a run before major storm “Dave” arrived in the afternoon.  She returned in time to enjoy some Hamish time, including learning a new song about winding up a bobbin and pointing to the ceiling, floor, window and door.

Sunday was a long travel day.  Our regular taxi driver shared the audio of this Tom Jones performance as we were talking to him about Jazzfest experiences.

We were a bit nervous on seeing very limited visibility and sleet/snow from the airport lounge.

As we’ve learned, no reason to get too concerned as the weather will change in a few minutes.  True to form, the sun was out in ten minutes.

I’m always amazed at the quality of the service on the short flight from Glasgow to London.  We were presented with a food and drink menu and some delicious food.  Even a special Easter dessert.  The transatlantic folks could learn a lot from the folks working these flights.

We did not need to go through additional security or change terminals in London.  That meant more time in the lounge, Diana enjoying the selection of champagnes.

The menu on the transatlantic flight included a chicken tikka pie (reprising Julie’s dinner) and a carrot and ginger soup (Mum made this too).  I enjoyed them both.

I was trying to make some progress on Fred’s World War II book on the flight.  I was entertained to read of some characters trying to escape Spain via a ship from Bilbao with a stop at Saint-Jean-de-Luz – neither of which I would have known about prior to our holiday.

Clearing immigration in New Orleans couldn’t have been any easier – probably a much better option than going through Dublin.  After a short Uber ride we were finally home.  All seemed in order with our house.

I read in the newspaper that Easter Sunday has become a big day in the French Quarter – it certainly seems that way from the pictures.

Being in Edinburgh brough me back to Ian Rankin and his John Rebus books.  I don’t think I ever read the original in the series, “Knots and Crosses.”

Second week in San Sebastian

I took advantage of all the mirrors to capture a silly selfie:

Lunch was yet another gastronomic delight.  We started with truffled egg and mushrooms – amazing.  Do you know how they make a truffled egg?  I just learned on this trip – they sit truffles on top of the eggs for several days and the flavour of the truffle seeps into the eggs.

Missing New Orleans, and particularly the omnipresent live music, I reread “Groove Interrupted – Loss, Renewal, and the Music of New Orleans” by Keith Spera.  He covers music for the local newspaper and I really love his writing.  Here’s an online summary before I dive into some of the quotes from the chapters about how local musicians were impacted by Hurricane Katrina:

“First Week in San Sebastian”

Now that we’ve landed in the Basque region, you might be wondering where that is exactly and what the history of that region involves.  Here’s a map of the region – a small portion of what is now northeastern Spain and southwestern France:

Here’s an online summary of the extensive history of the region that helps one understand why these people have been pushing for recognition and independence for so long:

Monday lunch was at Rekondo.  This was a fancy restaurant (one tier below the very fancy Michelin star places) that was recommended to Denny by a shopkeeper in Old Town on Sunday.  The wine cellar is reported to be the best in Europe.  We had a tour after lunch, and it was extremely impressive.

They did not encourage photos and so I wasn’t able to get the fancy entry part.

The wine list that we were presented was at least an inch thick and very intimidating.  Thankfully, they had a list of about six recommendations on the food menu.  The champagne was $26 which we assumed was for a fancy glass, and were pleased to find was for a bottle.

I had the black pudding ravioli with truffle to start and then the suckling pig with the fancy pineapple crisp.  Both wonderful.

Here we are outside the restaurant and fully sated:

We had heard that the shops and restaurants would be mostly closed on Tuesday for a “protest strike.”  Denny decided to rent a car and drive to Biarritz in France for the day.  This was a short and relatively easy drive, and we arrived at the fancy beach in the late morning.

Biarritz appeared to be a combination of a very fancy, elegant town and a surf destination.  The breaks were very impressive all the way up and down the coast from the town.

There was a travel poster from La Baule in our apartment, and this and discussion of the waves at Biarritz reminded Mum of a day that Dad and I had spent enjoying the waves at the La Baule beach – much to the concern of Mum and Elspeth as we disappeared in the swells.

I had lunch at a cafe on a square in the center of Biarritz – a tasty veggie galette.

This bar window in Biarritz reminded us that we were still in Basque country:

After that snack, Denny drove us down the coast to Saint Jean de Luz.  We had lunch at a small restaurant recommended by AI – we would never have found it (hidden on a back street) without help.

Returning to San Sebastian, we were entertained to find the beach in front of our apartment very busy with folks enjoying the sun.

Diana made her way to a store to purchase a San Sebastian beach towel so that she could join the sun worshippers.  The following days were not quite as hot but she gave it a good try.

Denny and Anne left for the airport on Wednesday morning.  They were flying to London, spending the night, and then on to New Orleans on Thursday.  We were sorry to see them go and the apartment seemed quiet.

A ride on the funicular was highly recommended by Denny before he left.  We gave that a shot on Wednesday afternoon but caught it during siesta nap time.  Lunch seemed like a good alternative plan, and we shared a couple of salads at the nearby Wimbledon tennis club.

We ate at El Bistro Ondaretta on Friday night.  Ondaretta is the area of town where our apartment is located and so this was less than a five-minute walk.  The restaurant is small and is run by a husband-and-wife couple.

Saturday was a busy walking day again, covering more than five miles in the morning.  I had committed to giving hiking up to the statue of Jesus a try.  On the way we noticed a bunch of football pitches (8) on the beach.  What a nice setting for the kids.

Here’s some information on the statue:

The Jesus statue, known as the Sacred Heart of Jesus or Cristo de Urgull,

stands atop Monte Urgull, overlooking San Sebastián and La Concha Bay.

The statue, created in the 1950s, depicts Jesus Christ with his hand on his 

heart and is a prominent landmark in San Sebastián. The sculpture itself 

measures over 12 meters in height, and when combined with its base, which houses a chapel, the entire monument reaches more than 24 meters, making it visible from miles around. It was 

commissioned by the city council in 1943 and has been a symbol of faith and civic pride since its installation in 1950.

I made it and we were able to take some pictures up top to celebrate the accomplishment and capture the views.

It seemed more than 400 feet up there.

My first book this week was “The Future Saints” by Ashley Winstead.  The reviews made this sound quite appealing, but I gave up early on.  It was like a bubblegum pop book and nothing close to what I was hoping for and expecting.  The comparisons to “Daisy Jones and the Six” should have tipped me off – I really didn’t enjoy that book either.

I switched over to “The Rest of Our Lives” by Ben Markovits.  This was much more my speed.  I realized a little into the read that I had previously read “Christmas in Austin” by Markovits and really enjoyed it.

“Touring the Scottish Highlands”

Monday was a day of rest after all the wedding excitement.  It was a typically cold and wet day and, as it turns out, a good example of what to expect for the rest of the week.  I worked on train tickets from Stewarton to Edinburgh, and was pleased to find a route that didn’t involve changing from Central to Queen St stations in Glasgow – not really much fun with luggage for Scotland and Spain.  That pleasure didn’t last long as I saw a news story showing a fire in Central station caused by a neighbouring vape shop.  It did not look like trains would be running from there for a while.  A call to British Rail was no help – they seemed to think it would all be good the next day. I knew it wouldn’t and so arranged a taxi to take us through to Queen St station where we could catch the train directly to Edinburgh.

Arriving in Edinburgh, we caught a taxi to the Apex hotel in the Grassmarket to meet up with the krewe (Denny, Anne, Todd and Lori.)  We enjoyed lunch at the Beehive – directly across the street from what used to be the Heriot Watt university electrical engineering building (last visited by me, via this ramp, in 1985 to view my degree results pinned to the wall.)

Denny had to do some “work” in the afternoon and the rest of the group walked up to the Natural History museum, stopping to pat Greyfriars Bobby on the way.

What a lot of interesting and varied things in the museum.  One attraction weighed you and then told you what animal you were closest to in heft.  Our results – an ostrich, a penguin, an anteater, and a porpoise.  I’m going to let you imagine who has which spirit animal.

I found an interesting creature in a space suit.  Penguin or anteater?

We made our way up to the rooftop and enjoyed some great views of the Edinburgh skyline.  Those white lines are the Hillend dry ski slope where I was able to break an ankle and a wrist during my university years.

Here’s the dome of the Usher Hall – an excellent music and performance venue where I saw  several concerts – Joan Armatrading is the one that sticks with me, and also performed a piece for brass band, choir, and organ with a broken ankle (this one from some hooligans in Glasgow, not the dry ski slope.)

I like this picture of McD with the castle behind, although her face may give a wee hint of being a bit scunnered with the weather.

A pretty view down to the Balmoral hotel and firth.

We decided to walk down to the Balmoral and see if they had a nice lobby bar.  Indeed they did and we enjoyed some fancy cocktails.

After a quick refresh at the hotel, we walked up the stairs to The Witchery for a fancy dinner in the ancient setting next to the castle esplanade.

I loved my red deer dinner:

After dinner we paid a visit to Deacon Brodie’s pub.  The krewe had been on a catacombs tour the night before and were well versed in the two personalities, serving as the inspiration for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Wednesday started with a full cooked breakfast at the hotel.   One of our group didn’t like the idea of baked beans on their breakfast plate.  At least they were secured in a bowl rather than spilling around all the other goodies.

It was pouring as we tried to enjoy the view with our breakfast.

No reason to worry – as happened throughout our tour, the weather cleared up and the sun came out a few minutes later.

That allowed Denny to help me go and retrieve our rental van.  We loaded up and I was successful in getting us out of Edinburgh with no major wrong side of the road drama.  We drove past the kelpies at Falkirk:

Then past Stirling castle, before pulling in to Doune castle.  This is where much of Monty Python and the Holy Grail was shot, as well as some of the scenes from Outlander.

We enjoyed the audio tour, although some were disappointed that the ramparts were closed for maintenance.

We had a walk around the castle area, down to the river and along the path.  One of us tried hard to lose their phone on the excursion (not the one in this picture.)

It was a short drive to Callander (gateway to the Highlands) and a stop for lunch at an Indian restaurant that Denny had found.

I know, an interesting choice and Scotland does have some wonderful Indian restaurants.  I enjoyed the murals in the tiny bar in front of the restaurant.  “The Big Yin” (Billy Conolly) and the Irn Bru slogan:

We enjoyed the shopping in Callander for a while – I think everyone made a purchase of some kind – nice shirts for the boys.

The weather deteriorated pretty quickly as we left Callander for Glencoe.  The photo stops in Glencoe were pretty quick affairs:

We navigated through the ever changing weather and ultimately arrived in Fort William.   We tried The Geographer for dinner but alas it was fully booked on a Tuesday, outside of tourist season, in horrible weather – must be as good as the reviews say, or the only game in town.  The Nevis bar across the street accommodated us nicely.  I really liked the haggis nachos and Diana enjoyed some mussels.

The “Heilan Coo” had been the topic of much discussion on the drive and none had been spotted.  Denny used his AI buddy, “Chad”, to find the best place to see some as we departed Fort William on Thursday morning.

Turns out the best place was in the Nevis valley, right around the corner from the hotel.  We found some quickly and jumped out to take some pictures with Ben Nevis (tallest mountain in Scotland) in the misty clouds behind.

Next stop was the West Highland museum located in central Fort William.  A small but interesting place.  The thing I remember most was a video of a Model T Ford being driven up Ben Nevis.

We drove down the coast from Fort William towards Oban, stopping at the second castle featured in the Monty Python movie.  It can’t be reached when the tide is in.

A very nice and casual lunch was had at the Poppy’s garden center outside of Oban.  We decided that driving back to Fort William to spend the night was a bad idea and found the lovely Perle hotel on the waterfront in Oban.

We had planned a tour of the Oban distillery in the afternoon.  Unfortunately, like other places, they were taking advantage of the low tourist season to make some upgrades – adding an elevator and other construction.  This meant no tours.  However, the very pleasant tasting room was open and we availed ourselves of that feature.

We stopped into the Oban Inn on the harbour and Anne got a recommendation for a seafood restaurant – EE-USK (Gaelic for fish?) – just around the corner on the waterfront.    Anne secured us reservations and we had a lovely meal.  I started with the scallop gratin and then had a three fish sampler – sea bass, sole, and hake.  Diana had some briny oysters.

The view from the Oban harbour was something:

We made our way back to Edinburgh airport on Friday morning.  I enjoyed a nice roll with egg and sausage from the cafe around the corner before starting the drive.  We had a reservation at the Loch Fyne Oyster restaurant and got there a bit early.  Denny suggested a walk amongst the tallest trees in Europe that were just around the loch.

We had a short walk and didn’t find the tallest trees – highly suspect to begin with.  Inverary castle was closed for the season and so we couldn’t get in to take a look at that either.

Another excellent meal ensued at Loch Fyne oysters.  Seafood and bacon soup, potato fritters, oysters Rockefeller, and salmon three or four ways.  All delicious.

We drove on down to Loch Lomond, with an initial stop at Firkin point for some pretty views.

A little further down was Luss – a very busy place in the summer, but quiet when we stopped for a coffee.

Denny accompanied me to return the bus – can’t say I was totally sorry to get rid of it.  Worked out well for us, just a bit of a work.  An easy dinner at the Doubletree hotel was next, with great service from Bulgarian Vladimir.  I posed for this picture that Denny enjoys:

We had a relatively early start on Saturday to catch our flight to Amsterdam and then Bilbao.  We just missed the bus to San Sebastian on arrival at Bilbao – the ticket process was not self evident.  We were quite travel weary on arrival at the apartment.

Sunday in San Sebastian began with pastries at an outstanding bakery around the corner from our apartment.  Turns out there were many just as good in a very small radius.

Then we walked along the beach front, around the point, and arrived in Old Town.

We sampled pintxos from three different places – all amazing and different.  Denny had done the usual helpful research to guide us to the best options.

Pintxo stop #1

Here’s a view of the pintxo cases at stop #1 – get in ma belly!

Pintxo stop #2

This was my favourite and we returned several times.  Great hot pintxos and excellent service.

The steak with potato foam and red pepper was a highlight:

Arriving home, we had covered six miles.   Not quite enough for Anne – she was off to check out the tennis place on the other side of the beach.

No time for reading this week.   Hoping to get back to it when things settle down a bit next week.

Some music that was playing on our Highlands tour:

“Struan and Emily’s Wedding”

Our five week European excursion was anchored by Struan and Emily’s wedding the first weekend.  The trip over on Wednesday was completely smooth, even Heathrow seemed easier and friendlier than we remembered.  I ask again, how does British Airways server better food in less than an hour than they do on an eight hour overnight flight?  The service and efficiency on those shuttle flights are excellent.  We had our usual taxi driver who is always very pleasant to chat with.

On Thursday, I drove to Kilmarnock to pick up Hamish’s wee kilt and jacket.  It had already been collected by Michael’s mum and dad.  Oh well, it gave me a chance to ease into my left hand side of the road driving – only one attempt to get on the wrong side of the road and one curb hit.  The kilt was dropped off and I had a nice visit with Jim about the upcoming Rush tour.  He has tickets to see them in Glasgow and told me about taking Christopher (now quite an accomplished drummer in several styles) to see them when he was six – promptly went off to sleep.

Here’s a fun “head” from the kilt shop:

On the way home we had coffee at the nice place on Stewarton Main Street.  Mum had sausage rolls (haven’t had one of those in years) for dinner and a yummy rhubarb cake with custard.

I visited the local book shop, now inside the library, on Friday to buy “The Correspondent” for Mother’s Day.  Other than that it was a quiet day of quiz shows and reading ahead of the wedding excitement.  We drove up to the Red Radisson on the Clyde on Friday afternoon.  We met for a drink and snack at the sky bar.

Diana went for a walk along the river before we had to get ready for dinner.

Dinner was at a wonderful Indian restaurant called Dishoom.  Heather had eaten at the Edinburgh location and really enjoyed it.  She did an amazing job of listening to what everyone thought they might like and then creating an order that made everyone very happy.

Certainly one of the best Indian meals that I’ve had in a while – and very different in great ways.  I think Hamish agreed:

We enjoyed breakfast at the Radisson before making the drive over to the Boclair to get ready for the wedding.

We checked into our gorgeous rooms and got ready for the festivities.  Here are some pre-wedding shots:

Look at that trio of handsome gentlemen.  Robin and Russell are two of the best guys I know.

After a very nice service, we regrouped and prepared for the reception. Here are the new couple entering the reception behind the bagpipes:

David did the usual wonderful job with his speech.

The first dance:

The dancing picked up pretty quickly – particularly with the “Proud Mary” Tina Turner impression:

And then the Proclaimers “500 miles:

About an hour into the DJ dancing part of the program, a saxophone player emerged and really picked things up several notches:

And then it all finished up with a rousing “Loch Lomond”:

What a fun and exhausting day.

We had breakfast together at Boclair in the morning.  Hamish decided to entertain us as we packed up to leave:

We drove home, via the Clyde tunnel this time, making a stop at the large mall at Silverburn.  This has a large Marks and Spencers and Mum was able to help Diana pick out a new workout jacket (her uniform from M&S has worn out on the zipper after several years of daily use.)  The food options in this store were ridiculous – we have nothing like that in the US.

Later on Sunday afternoon, we went for a walk.  Diana felt a bird splat by the Millhouse and we ducked in to clean it up.  There was an old firm football match on inside and the atmosphere was quite intense.

What a busy and excellent week!

My book this week was “Mona’s Eyes”  by Thomas Schlesser.  I was about to launch into an explanation of the premise, and then realized that the online review can do that better than me:

“Much Colder in New Orleans”

I know that I’m having some trouble with videos.  The YouTube plugin for my blogging software is causing a problem with mobile rendering and I haven’t found the best workaround yet.  I spent hours on it yesterday just to determine which plugin was causing the problem.

We flew back home on Tuesday – thanks to Caroline for the airport ride – advance party and departure assistance.  All our Thanksgiving travels were completely smooth – not what it was looking like a week or two before with all the government shutdown and other nonsense.

While we were flying, the Bayou Boyz trivia teams in New Orleans and Boulder were plugging away.  The New Orleans version struggled with the final question – particularly how many territories there are in Risk – I would not have been any help as it’s 40 years since I played (at a minimum.)

The guys ended in third place – very respectable.  Meanwhile, in Boulder, CO, the other team came in a lower place – but against many more teams.

It was too cold for yoga and other stuff outside the house on Wednesday morning.  Diana ventured out to get stuff for butternut squash soup in the afternoon – it was a recipe I’d seen in the paper and asked her to consider making – she made the curry version and it is delicious (we have lots of leftovers.)  Those squash were hard to cut through – I had to take on a knife sharpening task after that.  And what do you know – Amazon popped up with an email recommending a Japanese knife sharpener to me – of course they’re not listening to us.

A beautiful calendar from Mum was delivered.  I always love the nature photographs and the clever titles.

I did some chopping for Diana with the newly sharpened knives on Thursday night.  She made a recipe that I had found and that we had shopped for earlier in the day – a Mediterranean style stir-fry featuring mushrooms.  Here’s the recipe – we substituted barley for the rice:

Mediterranean mushroom stir-fry

The Cowboys win streak ended – too good to be true.  The Detroit Lions were way too much for them.  This means they are for all intents and purposes eliminated from the playoffs – nothing to get too excited about for the rest of the year.

I invited Diana to lunch at N7 on Friday to celebrate our stock crossing the $20/share mark.  Not bad from $11 at the beginning of the year – amazing actually.  We sat in the inside dining room for the first time and had a lovely experience.  Great ambience, service, food and company.

We split the charred romaine salad with clever presentation plate.  Then followed that with the N7 burger – check out the squid ink infused bun.

To cap of the celebration we finished with a pavlova.  The meringue and cream were perfect – so unusual to get that chewy center in the U.S..

On the drive to N7 Diana was explaining the World Cup draw process to me – perfectly.  She had all the aspects covered, including the 6 remaining open spots and how that works.  Where is all this sports knowledge coming from?

Scotland has a touch group with Brazil:

When I think about Scotland and the World Cup, I always map to 1978 against Holland and the Kenny Dalglish goal.  I couldn’t tell you the score in the last Cowboys game, but I know Scotland won that match 3-2.

Kenny and Kara invited us to join them to watch a film by a friend that was playing at the Black Film Festival.  The event was headquartered at Cafe Istanbul which is in the community center on St Claude Avenue.

This is a very cool venue that supports a lot of local community events.  It turns out we got the wrong time for the film that we wanted to see.  No worries – we listened to the panel for the prior film and then transitioned over to the St Roch market.

I really like this venue.  It has space for 10 or 12 pop-up style restaurants and a great bar.  I was wandering around looking for some snacks for us while the other 3 settled in at the bar.  When I got there, Diana was in a conversation with the bartender.  He hails from the English Midlands and has an extremely strong accent.  I was amazed at Diana’s ability to carry on a conversation – she’s come a long way since Ian Fanning from Linlithgow.  The bartender was a very nice gentleman, recently a U.S. citizen, and interested to talk to me about what I missed from Scotland as compared to New Orleans and about the process to obtain citizenship.  He shared a single malt Welsh whisky with me – and it was very smooth.

We stopped into the Avenue Pub (one of my favourites) on the way back home.  This was Diana’s first visit and I talked her into trying some of their excellent food – this time the loaded tater tots with pork – they were very good.

I forgot to mention that before all those festivities took place, I was enlisted to help install the latest blow up holiday nonsense – a polar bear with penguins – hanging off the front porch.  Sitting on top of that hedge doesn’t look comfortable to me.

Our neighbour, Thomas, came walking by right as we started – “That’s perfect.”  Of course it is.  Should I expect an Easter bunny next?

Sunday brought the holiday parade, delayed by the weather from Saturday.

This was a fun parade – Diana found Debra in the hundreds of Dolly Partons and we enjoyed the penguin balloon and Santa:

I had asked Diana (new sports commentator) her opinion about whether Alabama would make it to the college playoffs.  She made some notes:

I finished “Flesh” by David Szalay this week.  I can appreciate the sparse writing style that led to this winning the Booker prize.  At the same time, that’s really not my preference.  I felt as if we jumped through things way too quickly without smooth transitions.  Here’s some online review thoughts:

“From Booker Prize-winning author David Szalay, comes a propulsive, hypnotic novel about a man who is unravelled by a series of events beyond his grasp.

Fifteen-year-old István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. New to the town and shy, he is unfamiliar with the social rituals at school and soon becomes isolated, with his neighbour—a married woman close to his mother’s age—as his only companion. These encounters shift into a clandestine relationship that István himself can barely understand, and his life soon spirals out of control.

As the years pass, he is carried gradually upwards on the currents of the twenty-first century’s tides of money and power, moving from the army to the company of London’s super-rich, with his own competing impulses for love, intimacy, status and wealth winning him unimaginable riches, until they threaten to undo him completely.

Spare and penetrating, Flesh is the finest novel yet by a master of realism, asking profound questions about what drives a life: what makes it worth living, and what breaks it.”

Spotify sends out an annual “wrapped” thing.  It tells you what you listened to most, and this year provided a “listening age” based on the release years of the songs you play most.  I listened to a lot of new stuff, and apparently a lot from 1970 and 1971 – giving me a listening age of 69.  Younger than Diana’s 89 – she played a lot of Sinatra for her Mom.  Here were my top albums:

Kenny had an age of 34 and Kara was in her forties.  Hopefully they’re keeping us young at heart.

Steve Cropper died this week.  He was a guitar giant, playing with Booker T and the MGs, on most of the famous Stax records, including Otis Redding’s “Dock of the Bay.”  He was also the guitar player on the Blues Brothers albums and in the movies.  Here are some of the more famous songs:

Steve Cropper songs

As we were driving home from N7, the local radio DJ played some Steve Cropper and gave a recap of his career.  Diana laughed as he said almost all the same things I had told her in the same order.  I told her she had to leave when she didn’t now who Cropper was – kidding as I didn’t expect her to.