wednesday.september30th.

An Afternoon on Queen Street West

While sitting in the Gladstone Café looking out the window, the weird weather phenomenon of rain while the sun is still shining, adds a surreal quality to my first weekday off in who knows how long.

First up for the afternoon was Index G on Gladstone Avenue to check out the still-running TIFF-curated Christopher Doyle exhibit ‘Picture Start’.

Index G itself is full of great stuff, a great mix of artistic styles and mixed medias. I plan to go back for some mini-prints the next time I’m doing some decorating or looking for something unique. The ceramic rocks and seashells were wicked. And the owner was nice, even though he probably thought I was insane after I came rushing in from the street, expecting that my friends were already waiting for me in a clearly empty space. Apparently I had it in my head that they were hiding in some mysterious invisible nook.

All in all, ‘Picture Start’ was a bit disappointing. The projector that was there for the exhibit during TIFF was gone, so we couldn’t watch the looped video that went with the images on display. The images, while aesthetically pleasing (I loved the technique - layered images and extreme colour saturation) were on the border between abstract and representational – however, I feel it would have been more effective if all were pushed to abstraction because those that were held the most visual interest.

Next stop was the Gladstone Café for some tea in the café…Bless their hearts, because they carry loose leaf tea from my favourite tea store in all the land – Tealish. Flavours sampled included Blueberry Lagoon, Chamomile Flowers, and Rooibos Provence Organic blend.

After our tea break we explored the exhibits on all three floors of the hotel, which were from a variety of artists in mixed media.

Finally we walked (and tried not to freeze) our way east on Queen to the holy tea grail itself (Tealish), where we stuffed our noses into some super-smelling loose leaf tea blends. New favourite flavour: Creamy Cranberry Honeybush. If every there could be a tea that could turn me into some semblance of a morning person, this is it.

After a nap and a break from the fun of Queen West, the evening was a compilation of homemade pad thai and 5-pin bowling with the boyfriend. I recently learned that if I bowl too much I get horizontal vertigo – weirdest feeling ever! The best part of 5-pin is always the ‘opposite handsies’ round where I pathetically tried to throw the ball straight down the lane with my right hand. This world doesn’t have enough lefties if you ask me! Hooray for Bowlerama on Bathurst and their $2 game Wednesday nights.

If every weekday off I have is as fun as this one was, it’s going to be a fantastic year.