Can o' chicken in Can o' da

My predictions were accurate- we went to Ericka's grandparents' on Sunday for the day. It was nice to see them and other members of the Duffy family. First, however, we went for a walk up part of the Niagara escarpment
from which you can get great views of downtown Hamilton on the shore of Lake Ontario. I saw a snake which Ericka wasn't fond of (I think it was a Northern Ribbon Snake (Thamnophis sauritus)).
Back at the Duffy residency, nice weather led us to the backyard porch.
Joe, Ericka's uncle, made beer chicken. Essentially, you place a whole chicken on top of half a can of beer as per the picture. The evaporating beer keeps the chicken tender and gives a little flavour.
Back now at Ericka's parent's place. Hopefully off to see some of the waterfalls in the area (there's a lot of them).
I just weighed myself for the first time this year. I've just converted it and I weigh 276691.3457 carat or, for any Bulgarians reading, 0.429644947 tovars.
Last night was the third night in a row that I dreamt about having to finish writing some essays. I hope this stops soon.

Cop a load of this

I'm not entirely sure how that sentence should used, but it sprung in to my mind as I thought about what I've been doing recently. Yesterday Ericka and I went and saw Hot Fuzz. It was an incredibly average film. But it was part of a very nice day. We went for a walk with Elyse to the (a) park- on the way we went to little toy shop and I got some bouncing balls. It's a good city in which to bounce little rubber balls.

We then went on to St Lawrence Market which is a great place for foodies. We had a bit of lunch (I had a salmon and caper sandwich and Ericka had sushi) in the sun before we went to the park. Then the film. Then Ericka and I caught the bus to Hamilton and am now staying with Alisha (Ericka's sister) and her boyfriend Brent. I think we're off to see Ericka's grandparents today. I know that because Ericka just said we would. So you're learning things about my world as they unfold.

Friday night we went to a party hosted by Kelly-Sue; it was a joint birthday bash for her and I. She made a pretty incredible cake- orange chocolate with beautiful hand-painted icing. She's taking cake making lessons. Then off to Sneaky Dee's for a couple of drinks.

In other news it's the French presidential election (round one) today. Could potentially be interesting.

Tax free

So here I am, in Caledonia, sort of sleepy but very much awake. Jet lag makes you feel very tired but still energetic.
Remind me not to fly with Air Transat again.
I had to check my laptop in as they were really strict on the one piece of hand luggage policy. Fair enough, but I had two small pieces. If they were taped together I'm sure they wouldn't mind.
In addition, when you get into the duty-free area, there's a shop that sells bags. Big bags at that. And these big bags can be taken on as hand luggage, even though you're only meant to have one piece.
The fight from Glasgow was delayed by an hour and someone had a panic attack about 3 hours in ("This is an appeal for a doctor or a nurse, is there a medical practitioner on board?")- she was given Valium and calmed down.
Apart from that the flight was uneventful. I watched a Will Smith film called The Pursuit of Happiness, in which Mr Smith gets happy by becoming a stock broker and making shed loads of money. It was pretty bad in a very watchable way. It was fun to flick between French and English whilst watching- it made the parts where Mr Will was looking in to the distance seem very profound. The second film was Stranger Than Fiction with Will Ferrell. It was partly funny.
When I landed in Toronto and located Ericka we drove into Toronto and went to our favourite Chinese restaurant called Chinese Traditional Buns. The women who runs it recognised me and was very pleased to see me (Ericka had been back there before and I'm sure got the same happy response). When we lived here we went there countless times (something like 9 times in one week was when we hit our peak). We had: hot and spicy tofu soup (this is the best soup I have ever had and costs little over $1); red bean paste filled buns; pork and fennel dumplings; soup-filled dumplings; and pork in a spicy sauce.
We then popped over to see Victor and Elyse (we're going to be staying with Victor for the duration of our stay) which was grand.
Yesterday was mostly lost to napping.
The weather was lovely when we woke this morning. We decided to go to the Native reserve just outside Caledonia as I haven't been there before. Just had a BBQ out in the sun, and am off back to Toronto this evening for a little get together which I'm looking forward to.

Jumping for joy

Finished my essays finally.
The sun is shining, and I have a cold.
Yesterday I saw a nun paddling her way (with oars, not her hands) down the Edinburgh canal toward Glasgow. I know I haven't, but I feel like I've seen it all.
Toronto tomorrow, when I'm certain this blog will get interesting.

Lost youth

One of the things I noticed when I got back to the UK from Canada last year, apart from endemic racism, cynicism and general despair across the country*, was how it had suddenly become acceptable to play music through mobile phones in enclosed public spaces. How we laugh!
Now don’t get me wrong, if people changed their tastes from below-par techno and hip-hop I’d have no problem. Noise pollution is only noise pollution when you don’t like the, er, noise. Anyway, the point is, it’s incredible how people don’t challenge this (though I don’t doubt that there may have been a period whilst I was away when stories appeared in the Daily Mail about The Degeneration of Our Youth TM).
Take Friday for example.
I went to the library, as you do, and, whilst I was writing an essay on this here laptop, I thought it’d be nice to listen to some music, as you tend not to in libraries. So I plugged in my headphones and typed away in my own little bubble.
Fast-forward 20 minutes. Imagine my horror (come on, try) when I realised – by turning my head that popped a headphone out of my ear (the left one, detail fans) – that I had been playing the music through the speakers, not my headphones. I’d absent-mindedly put the headphone jack in the wrong hole. Even worse, I’d kept turning up the music as I’d thought that it sounded muffled. Because it was.
Even even worse was the fact that no one in the library said a thing. Not one psst, not one stare, not one elbow.
I’m pretty sure not all the twenty or so people surrounding me enjoyed listening to Captain Beefheart. While trying to revise for their final exams. In a library. Of course I was embarrassed, but I was more annoyed that no one bothered to get even a little annoyed with me. You can forget people asking a bunch of 15 year olds on the back of a bus to turn their music down, preferably off all together, if no one will confront me in a public space that is pretty well known for having strict policy on this kind of thing. The rules are on your side people, not mine.
Friday evening I went to the Blue Blazer with David, Andy, their Spanish flatmate (technically my flatmate at the moment) Jesus, Ruairi, and Andy’s friend Lisa. David has gone to San Francisco for a conference so I won't see him for a good while. I tried a Highland Park whiskey which is apparently the best whiskey in the world, though I'm not sure how this is decided upon. Still, it was nice.






*Don’t worry about responding to these comments.

213 words of heartbreak, then joy

So it’s the day after what I would pretty much call The Worst Day So Far. Emptying and cleaning a flat is by no means a fun thing to do, especially when you get up at 7am to start and eventually finish at 11.30pm (when you know that your attention should be focused on two looming essay deadlines), before having to lug some of your stuff to the other end of Edinburgh because no buses are heading your way, having to walk, and thus missing last orders at the local public house by five minutes. Why did it take me so long? Answers on a postcard are encouraged.
I’m now staying with my friends David and Andy in the west of the city overlooking the canal route (which apparently runs all the way to Glasgow), and I feel better, having properly cracked on with the essays; I’ve written a decent 1000 words so far today and I’ve got plenty of wind left in me.
As an aside, the Collins Concise Dictionary and Thesaurus I’m using has this remarkable selling point advertised on the back cover:

• A-Z arrangement means you can go straight to the word you want – and the many alternatives

Unique, huh? Wait till The Oxford Dictionary gets wind of this.

When in Rome

My brother's visit went off with a bang, not a whimper, last night.
We went to Sandy Bell's for, what I presumed at least, a quiet one.
But the best nights are the unplanned nights.
We bumped into Andy and a group of others and wound up a few hours later in the Royal Oak- the pub that never sleeps TM (or at least, I sleep before it does).
Needless to say we both fell asleep sitting up on my couch while 9 or so episodes of Arrested Development ran for no one but our subconsciouses.
I awoke in the same pose, with my arms still crossed, at 5am.
Chris' train was at 1pm from platform 7, which is mysteriously hidden on platform 11 at Edinburgh Waverley.
I needed something to wake me up so I headed to the Fruitmarket gallery and saw something that, well, couldn't fail to wake me.
As the poster above informs you, yes you dear reader, the current exhibition is of Trenton Doyle Hancock's pretty awesome art. He makes paintings based upon a story he's written in which an evil race called the Vegans have lost the ability to see colour, whilst the Mounds (part human, part flower meadow) are a peace-loving race that produce a pink substance called moundmeat.
Each of his exhibitions are based upon different sections of the story which makes more sense here.
Eyes positively spinning with joy I went for a little walk that culminated in my front door.
I knew what awaited me so I bit the bullet and had a pretty successful time with the Baudrillard essay, while I listened to Busdriver and Throbbing Gristle.
Till the next instalment, happy Easter.

This one is pretty factual, you'll learn a lot

Purchased my flights to Toronto today; I'm flying in on the 17th April, which'll give me time to prepare for my birthday two days later.
Quite how I'll prepare- I'll let you know closer to the day.
Tomorrow brings joy in the shape of my brother visiting for a few days. I really cannot wait to get out of this flat now, which is unenjoyable by myself. I'm sure he'll be able to liven up the place and then I've only two more days before I vacate and stay with some friends for a week.
I'm entering the weird world of self storage tomorrow; essentially renting a big box on the outskirts of Edinburgh. I'm sure that sociologists had a field day when they came into being.
Talking of sociology, my essay on Baudrillard's idea of simulation is a lot of fun. I'm pretty much new to his ideas but am enjoying playing about with his ideas.
In the realms of music, I'm listening to a lot of Caravan and Soft Machine; it's strange that it has taken me this long to get round to them.

History recap over breakfast

I was woken this morning by the door buzzer. It's one of those buzzers that gives you heart palpitations for the rest of the day.
'Delivery' said the guy over the speaker phone.
I knew my passport was being delivered today.
When he got to my door he asked me what my first name was.
'Jonathan'.
This is going well, I thought. I only need his then we'd be on first name terms.
As soon as I'd said that, presumably picking up on my accent, he replied, in a calm and stern voice 'here's your colonial passport'.
I laughed nervously, my head blurry from jumping out of bed twenty seconds previously, while trying to sign the delivery slip.
He continued.
'Your passport is historically colonial, and is more so now than ever. Have a good day'.
I didn't feel it the best time nor the place to give any sort of humourous quip. Especially as he was still holding my new passport.
He gave it to me and walked away.
While I wouldn't normally point out someones accent, he was Scottish (keep in mind that with the high level of migrants to Edinburgh, especially from England, Scottish accents aren't as prolific as you may think).
Considering that he works as a British passport delivery man, I wondered to myself how many times he feels obliged to repeat this. Fair enough. I'd have preferred for him to teach me a bit of algebra on my doorstep instead, but that's just personal taste.

Guess who's back...

Certain members of my adoring public (hi dad) are keen to have a glimpse into my life as I prepare to go back to Canada in a couple of weeks for the summer.
So here is Jon's blog mark 2.
As a way to supple up for this I've decided to kick it off now.
I'm sure it'll be a rollercoaster of unprecedented proportions.
Probably.
So today I got back after a week away from Edinburgh. I spent most of my time in Oxfordshire doing some research for my Masters thesis, which concerns the Radley Lakes proposals. Essentially, the owners of Didcot power station, RWE npower, have gained permission to fill in one of the two remaining lakes (out of an original 12) with waste ash, on the outskirts of the village of Radley. Needless to say, local people are pretty unhappy (and national conservationists too). I went down to do a series of interviews with various members of the Save Radley Lakes campaign group.
I then went and spent the weekend in London town where I saw the family for a meal on Saturday and stayed with the ever-wonderful Alex. We went to Richmond in search of Eel Pie Island but failed to reach it (we knew it was in the area but we didn't ready ourselves for the size of Richmond).
This is beside the point though, as we went for a really nice walk along the Thames (pictured) with an icecream (not pictured). Other weekend highlights included Alex winning 20 of your finest British pounds on a game of poker with friends (while I looked on, confused at the whole thing), and meeting with university friends Paul and Ralph for a drink after not seeing them for about 3 years.
Alex and I met with some of his friends in Shoreditch last night where I've never been before. I can't think of one good reason to return.
Take that, Shoreditch!
Now I'm trying to put off the inevitable packing up of the flat that I need to do...