Monday, November 29, 2010

Events Continued!

Over the weekend, it came to my attention that there was something else that I have been meaning to get back into for a long time. SKATING! I absolutely intend on buying my first pair of ice skates since I was a child and making skating plans! This is a great alternative to the regular indoor winter dates that I may gravitate to like going to the movies plus its active. Perhaps boxing day sales will consist of a good inexpensive pair of skates, if I do not run into a good deal before that!

Here are a couple pictures from Friday's "Lighting of the Lights" in Victoria park. They are a bit dark because they are from my Blackberry...

Aleksy in front of the new (to this year?) little snowman family sculptures. The City of London appears to love to spend thousands of dollars on pieces of art such as this and the trees all over London. This one is actually pretty neat with the individual pieces of sheet metal welded to form the little skating men!





Some of the lit trees in the park. It was actually the first night London had a snowfall  this winter as well!

Friday, November 26, 2010

Aspirations and Events this Winter

I am already noticing with the cold weather here that I have started to hibernate to the indoors. I want to make an extra effort this winter season to enjoy some of the events and sports of the season. Here are some of my plans for this winter:

Shopping Season – With all the shopping that needs to be done for Christmas, I like to change it up a little bit with my shopping destinations so that I am not always shopping at the same mall in the same city. Before Christmas, I plan to make a trip out to the states. I have been to Port Huron, Michigan and its surrounding area several times, so I think this year I’d like to take the other route out of the country to Buffalo, New York. This is a close drive from where I am currently living in Hamilton and I heard they have a good mall in the city centre: the Galleria.  

I was talking to Nikki at school on Wednesday about getting together to do some Christmas shopping during our Christmas break from school (2 more weeks!). We decided that we would take the GO train to Toronto to do some shopping at the Eaton Centre and in around the downtown area. I always enjoy going to downtown Toronto around the holiday season because it’s always nicely spruced up in holiday decorations! 



These are pictures from last weekends trip to Stratford for some Christmas shopping. Stratford is a really cute town, with a body of water in the middle of the town and is known for theatre. We went to the Christmas store (pictured above) and took a stroll down the downtown to the shops (pictured above). We bought some really yummy cheese, chocolate, and I bought a gift for each of my neices.


Skiing – This is one of the sports I want to make a regular part of the winter season. Eventually, when money allows for it, I plan to purchase my own equipment and make a hobby out of trying out new ski hills with Aleksy (who would snowboard of course) through the winters. This year, I plan to start with the purchase of some small, very small gear (I have goggles, I’m thinking of purchasing poles). I figure if I buy my gear in small increments than it won’t be such a financial burden than if I purchased it in one shot. Hopefully we can make it out to at least a couple ski hills this winter. It would be nice to try something different than Blue Mountain or Horseshoe, but I’m not sure what other good ski hills there are in Ontario?

                                  picture from New Years 2007 - 2008: Skiing at Horseshoe


I also plan on trying snowboarding for the very first time this winter season. I’ll have Aleksy as my coach! I feel like it’ll probably be a lot of time on my butt! I’ll probably start it off at a smaller hill like Boler mountain.

Snowshoeing – Aleksy made it clear that Snowshoeing would be a boring pastime, because it’s walking in the snow with big shoes, which he can do anytime. I disagree, and I really want to try out snowshoeing for the first time since girl guides this year. I want to find a scenic destination somewhere in Northern Ontario (but not too North, my car is not meant for Northern winters and I can’t afford to replace my tires this year!) and rent snowshoes and make a day of it! Nikki said that this is something that she has wanted to do too, so we’re going to make a date of it! It will probably be sometime in the New Year. I’m really excited to try it out!

A Fantastic New Years – In the past month I have been trying to coordinate a cottage for the New Years weekend with friends. I ended up getting all New Years weekend off of work (I usually sign up to work New Years day instead of Christmas day) at the cost of working Christmas day at 8pm (I was going in for the sleep shift at midnight anyways so I figured why not if it meant having a Christmas AND a New Years) so I really want to take advantage of New Years! The BEST New Years EVER was the year Aleksy, Andz, Chels, Warren and I went up to the cottage in Kawartha Lakes (skiing picture is from that excursion). I really want to do something similar this year, and perhaps do some snowmobiling (as long as I don’t have to drive), and maybe skiing. I am trying my hardest to get my friends on board!

And tonight Aleksy and I are going to the Lighting of the Lights in Victoria Park, London. I LOVE Christmas decorations and sparkles and lights, so it’s right up my alley! I work until 8pm in Hamilton so I will get to London around 9:30, then we will get a Starbucks and take a stroll. It’s always a good date night to take a stroll through downtown with a latte, but especially good with the Lighting of the Lights :)

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Finally, Some Good Movie Choices!

When selecting movies, I am not always the best chooser. I have seen some pretty bad movies, and usually if I see a really good movie, the next one is "just ok" or horrible. I'll use for example, mine and Aleksy's recent choices of movies to see in the theater. We have seen quite a few movies in the past month or two: Life as We Know It (a pretty good movie), Easy A (not so good), Due Date (good movie). This is a pretty fair representation of how I usually choose movies. But. It all changes because of the past three days! I watched 3 movies in the last 3 days: Inception (Sunday), Eat, Love, Pray (Monday), and Shutter Island (Tuesday). All great choices, which I highly recommend!


Inception: I had heard from several people that this was a good choice in movie, so it was easy to choose this one. I did not know what the movie was about when choosing it. It gave me new perspective on reality, and how significant one's subconscious is to their thought process. Since watching this movie, I think about the stuff that's lingering around my subconscious that makes me make the decisions that I do more often. Also, it occurs to me that one's thought process before going to bed is very much connected to one's dreams overnight. If your looking for a movie to give you new perspective, this is a goody!


Eat Pray Love: a movie which I recommend to women! A definite "chick flick", which I was happy to watch in the presence of my dear friend Nikki, who I plan to travel with to Australia in May :) This movie gave me an incredible urge to travel, meet new people and experience new things. I wonder what it would be like traveling internationally independently. In this movie, it occurred to me that the main character "Liz" who traveled to 3 different countries found an individual to befriend in each country who was of a different culture than the country she was in. If you are in Indonesia, why wouldn't you connect with the local people to learn new things (not the man from Texas!). Although there were some bits of the movie that seemed "off" to me, it still was very good and gave me motivation to do things for me, travel, be constantly meeting new people, and not fall into the "rut" of the plain and simple life of keeping to one's self in their hometown, where all their family lives, where their husbands family lives, where they work and went to university, where everything that they know is. I understand that some people choose that, but it's not for me. I have a fear of getting bored of life, of not being challenged enough, and falling into a "rut". I feel like traveling is a good way to keep out of it. This movie really made me look forward to Australia in May! After watching this movie, Nikki and I also wanted to go to Bali, but after researching the additional cost, unfortunately it's too much :( Another time, for sure!


And the last movie, which I watched last night: Shutter Island! There's no other way to explain how this movie makes you think: it fucks with your mind. It made me see just how vulnerable a person's thoughts are, how persuasion (and drugs) can make you think something completely different than what you know. At the end of the movie, I did not know anything about the main character Edward, or Andrew... since that may have been his name. I do not know if he was a patient, or a US Marshall under experiment.

On a completely different note, the representation of the "insane" in this movie was supposed to reflect the views of this population from the 1950's. I know a little bit about the history of individuals with developmental disabilities and mental health issues through school, so I know that there was a very medical view that this population of people can be "treated" and perhaps "fixed". It occurs to me that this movie could have the potential to perpetuate existing stereotypes of people who have disabilities, and while I do not think the movie was completely inappropriate (since it was re-creating the views that people actually had in the 50s), I can't help but think that those stereotypes are still in our subconscious and could be re-ignited with the language and portrayal of the people in the asylum in the movie.

I do still recommend this movie, it was also a goody!

Friday, November 19, 2010

I LOVE CHRISTMAS... but

When November comes, I enjoy putting my Christmas tree up extra early (this year on the 16th!) so I can get myself into the holiday spirit! I love sparkly, pretty trees with lots of decorations, candy canes, the smell of cinnamon scented pinecones, holiday scented candles and room deodorizers, Christmas music while I shop, parks all decorated for the season, and shopping for everyone I love!


While I enjoy all the things associated with Christmas, it seems the actual getting together with family always causes tension. Balance act: Mom's side, Dad's side, significant other's family. My significant other and brother in law want to stay in one place on Christmas. But why not visit everyone if you have the ability to? Oh ya, and this year I work Christmas Day at 8pm... great. We'll see how it plays out, but I look forward to the anticipation of Christmas in the next month. I think I enjoy the anticipation more than the day itself!

                                   My pretty tree all sparkly and decorated red, gold and silver :)