Day Three Hundred and Fifty Six - Sectional

Dear all,

Today is a triumphant day: Our sectional has arrived!

Leons had finally got around to delivering our wonderful sectional ( It had been on back order for many weeks *grrrr*) and two strapping lads arrived this afternoon eager to 'attempt' to get the various pieces of the sofa into our house.

Darren immediately questioned them as to their current success rate at getting this particular model into people's homes and they responded by saying that they had to take off both front doors. Despite this initial rather worrying red light, I was convinced they would make it and cheered them on accordingly.

The sectional came in various pieces, the problem arising due to the sizable corner 'chunk' that came in one, giant piece and therefore unable to be broken down into more manageable pieces to facilitate entry. Needless to say, they did it in a thoroughly impressive display of furniture wrangling.

Darren kept a watchful eye over the proceedings and was eyeing up the space in preparation for where the whole sectional would eventually lie.

Once everything was in, the nice man started to assemble the various pieces of the sectional and it all started to come together.

Here is one of the final shots with Darren directing where he wanted the sectional to go.

And it's in! Here is a celebratory video showcasing all the wonderful facets of the sectional: Theatre seats, full lazy boy facility, high end squishy capacity, beautifully rendered nubuck upholstery. This thing is phenomenal!

And here it is! Darren is already enjoying the majestic beauty of our wonderful new sectional. We love it, we love it, we love it!!!!

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

Day Three Hundred and Fifty Five - Earth Hour and The Big W

Dear all,

Today was Easter Friday and with the whole day stretching out in front of me, I sent Karla a quick BBM message ( I am breaching the technology threshold and discovering a whole new world on my black berry) and in the blink of an eye, we are meeting up in Espresso Post (I love technology!).

Karla has been working extremely hard on various projects at work but as we were sipping our cappacinos and discussing the news from the day, she noticed a 'Blue W' sticker on the door.

The fruits of her labor where on display! Karla has been working on the Blue W project for sometime; it's a nationwide project that allows you to fill your water bottle at participating companies. We were obviously extremely excited by this and Jay got to work immediately to get his water bottle filled.

The lovely folks at Espresso Post kindly obliged when Jay asked for his water bottle to be filled.

Here is picture of Jay with is filled full of fresh cool water! Congratulation Karla and the wonderful Blue W! Keep your eyes open for the stickers!

And here is the sticker on display!

And in other news:

1. Darren and I decided to pop into the Huron House for a quick snack and realized on entering the restaurant that the lights were significantly 'dimmed'. We wondered if it was in order to simulate a 'Jazz Club' to enhance the ambiance set by the two musicians already entertaining the punters with soft music in the corner. It turns out, it was a celebration of Earth Hour and we were told it was 'candle light only'. How wonderful! http://www.thehuronclub.ca

I decided to branch out and try a 'Lychee Martini' to celebrate Earth Hour. It was quite fabulous and quite strong.. ( Darren suggested that a couple may have several interesting 'side' affects )

I had one in the end and a glass of Shiraz. It was a wonderful evening. The food was fabulous ( calamari and mussels. D had the Caesar and beef ribs) and the ambiance, candles et al, was blissful.

Day Three Hundred and Fifty Four - Heavenly Sweets

Dear all,

Amidst the paperwork today, I managed to escape and meet up with Linda ad try the new hot spot in town, Heavenly Treats.

It was a grizzly day out and a perfect opportunity to seek refuge in this charming cake shop and I was immediately struck by the gorgeous interior.

http://heavenlysweets.ca/

They had modeled the cafe on a high end sweet shop but also carved out several areas for sitting, lunching and conversing with various enticing menus behind the counter. We were looking for a coffee and snack rather than lunch so went for a ginger latte and cappuccino respectively and Linda insisted we try one of the delectable deserts; we chose the 'apple crumble' as it looked way too scrumptious to resist.

We sat in two lovely armchairs while we sipped our coffees and mulled over the events of the week. It really is a lovely spot and I can see how it would do well in Collingwood and it deserves every success; it's lovely!

So, if you have a sweet tooth or just fancy having a lovely lunch in a fabulously decadent yet homely cafe, I would thoroughly recommend Heavenly Sweets. Let the chocolate eating marathon commence!

Day Three Hundred and Fifty Four - Chicken Vindaloo

Dear all,

Darren has been extremely supportive over the last few days as I have had immigration paperwork flying all over the place so I decided I wanted to make something special for him: Home Made Chicken Vindaloo!

I found a very broad range of recipes online which all seemed to use completely different ingredients and method but I eventually decided on this one, from Epicurious.com just because it used tomato paste ( I had some spare on my shelves). Vindaloo does however call for quite a substantial and specific list of herbs and spices that

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chicken-Vindaloo-107088

3 cups chopped onions

1 1/2 cups chopped seeded tomatoes (about 4 medium)

2 1/2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar

1 large garlic clove, chopped

1 teaspoon minced peeled fresh ginger

1 teaspoon tomato paste

1 teaspoon garam masala*

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon (or more) cayenne pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

6 skinless boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1- to 1 1/2-inch pieces

1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 1/2 cups low-salt chicken broth or water

This particular method called for the first '11' ingredients to be blended together to form a paste which would then be cooked in oil. This was certainly an unusual form of cooking for me and I was intrigued as to how it would work out.

Darren was watching on in the background and ready to step in at a moments notice. My first incident occurred on moving to the stove whereby as soon as I poured in the paste to the oil, it started splattering all over the place and Darren quickly intervened explaining that [1] The oil should have been super-hot when I introduced the paste and [2] I needed to stir continually to stop burning, bubbling, spitting and general kitchen devastation.

The paste bubbled away until it turned a golden brown which was the pint at which we added the pureed Scotch bonnet peppers ( a small addition to the band of spices), the potatoes and the chicken. We let it saute for 5 minutes and then added the chicken broth.

And then all we had to do was wait ( and stir occasionally) and soon enough, we had a large pot of steaming curried goodness waiting for us.

And here is the finished result! It tasted pretty good and the only slight mishap was that I overcooked the Naan.. not where I thought I would go wrong considering the difficulty level of the dish. So now I am inspired to churn out more and more curries!

Day Three Hundred and Fifty Three - New BBQ

Dear all,

We have a new BBQ! Darren had ordered it a week or ago and today, it arrived! Darren managed to get it half way down the pathway *by himself* [it weighed over 160lbs!] which was a major feet in itself. He then passed me the large sheet of instructions and gave me the task of 'getting things started' while he dropped the box back to the office. *Gulp*

As you may have guessed, I don't respond well to recipes and/or instruction manuals so was immediately flummoxed when I opened the guide. I did managed to decipher the initial instructions that called for several items of hard ware that I was able to assemble before D got home.

Darren took control immediately and made incredible head way in a very short space of time. The BBQ needed a complete assembly which, in my eyes, is a pretty extraordinary [flat packed metal in an assortment of random shapes and multiple small bags full of screws make me anxious].

Here you can see D charging ahead with the BBQ while I watched on in awe. I wanted to be useful somehow so went on a mission to Canadian Tire to pick up a chain and lock and a new propane tank ( ours unfortunately 'disappeared' from the garden.. hence the need for the chain and lock *grrrrr* ).

Our new friend is a 'Weber', the king of Barbeques and Darren is glowing with the beauty of his new acquisition. http://www.weberbbq.com

I did manage to get a few screws in which was good for my DIY morale. Darren was amazing in getting it all fixed up and we were done in about an hour. It would have taken me days!

And here is the finished BBQ, I love it! Shame about the weather *rain and snow* but hopefully we will be catching up with the UK soon...

Here is a video of my mini attempt at helping with the BBQ construction!

I can't wait until we can crank it up and get the BBQ season started, bring on the summer!

Day Three Hundred and Fifty Two - New Curtains

Dear all,

Today is the culmination of a weeks of dedicated work on the apartment while Darren was in the States. I wanted to surprise him when he got home with a dramatic 'home- reno'

I managed to get curtains hung in the bedroom but the living area and kitchen were deemed a little more challenging... I found myself sitting amongst a pile of screws and poles until the lovely Rebecca popped over and saved me from DIY despair.

We managed to get the Kitchen Blinds and the multiple drapes hung; it was a superb effort and has transformed the room.

I have been extremely busy sorting out the place; I even organized all my art supplies ( Mutter and my art teacher will be extremely impressed/ surprised) including the cleaning and sorting of all my paint brushes [waaaaay over due].

I started to hang all my paintings and filled up the laundry room with all the pieces I am not sure about [ just so I can study them for a while and decide whether to amend/ paint over them**I love oils ].

And the lights are up! Our beloved blue LEDs. They bring a certain 'Je ne sais cyber space' to the apartment.

It's looking great and [apart from the SNOW] so is the garden. I am extremely excited for Darren to get home!

And in other news:

1. Look what I have found on Netflix: The original BBC TV dramatisation of the amazing Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy! I LOVE it!

Day Three Hundred and Fifty One - Picasso in a Day

Dear all,

I have been in a heightened state of activity over the past week and wanted to surprise Darren with a painting ( or two ). The good weather had broken and I had woken to rain and grey skies.

I thought, what better way to spend the day than to set the Netflix into Marathon-Mode and whip up a Picasso.

I started at 1pm and ( apart from a long run, trips to the supermarket and Blockbuster and the odd snack), I had finished it by around 9:30pm. And I was pretty pleased with it! I decided on Picasso's '3 Women' although one does look very much like a man..

My latest offering from my Art Class are these Tulips; I was thinking of doing a 'Flower' Series in the coming weeks. I will keep everyone posted!

And in other news:

1. I had a brilliant evening with Karla and Jay who came around for a Home Made Pasta feast, this time using Jay's secret Pasta sauce.

The dinner was a great success and the end result was fabulous; we are beginning to master the pasta maker. We finished off the evening with a hilarious game of Kinect.

Here is an amazing video of Jay and Karla in the grand finale of the contest: Boxing! Karla won in the awesome showdown. An brilliant effort and fabulous evening!