The Beast Hath Returned

Hi folks! Thanks for sticking with me through my weeks of not blogging. I have been pretty busy with work and the theatre (show is going great by the way), so blogging, or even just taking pictures has pretty much completely fallen by the wayside. But now I’m here with a whole bunch of pictures and updates for you all. Without any further ado, Parliament.

My folks were up to visit me the second last weekend of November, and on a day that my father had meetings and I was off from work, mom and I decided to go on a tour of the Parliament’s Centre Block. The building is so old, and beautiful, with amazing Gothic Architecture. The carvings are ornate, the marble is worn with years of politicians climbing and descending the stairs, it’s just beautiful. While we were there, a choir was singing in one of the lobbies. The sound reverberated throughout the entire room with such vehemence that I was awestruck. I’ve played in many locations, some amazing, others not so much, so I’ve heard good sound as well as bad, but this was amazing. After our tour we took the elevator up the Peace Tower. I unfortunately don’t have a picture of the building to point out how high up we were, but if you know the building, we were right under the clock. Unfortunately the view wasn’t the best, it was overcast and a touch foggy that day. On a side note, Ottawa doesn’t know real fog. They thought the fog that day was extremely thick. As a girl from the East coast, I know thick fog, and this wasn’t it.

First, let’s look down. Waaaaaaaay down. That’s the front lawn of Parliament, with the Eternal Flame out at the end of the walkway. Those little dots though, those are people. Like I said, we were pretty high up.

Looking straight out (South) you can see Downtown or Centretown as it’s also called. Lots of office buildings, nothing too spectacular.

Look Southeast and you can see the East Block, as well as the National Arts Centre. The Canal, another government type of building, and a DND (Department of National Defence) building. The National War Memorial is also in the view.

South West isn’t much, just the West Block.

If you return your view East, you can see the Chateau Laurier. A big hotel. An expensive hotel.

Let’s go North now. The big spire is the Library. There was a fire in the mid 1800’s that left all of parliament in ruins, except for the Library. It is the only original part of parliament. We went inside, but weren’t allowed to take pictures unfortunately. Just imagine all the wood work with delicate features as well as walls and walls of books from every era and generation you could ever want.

Look West and you can see “fog”. Or at least what passes for fog in Ottawa. Back in Halifax that would just be called “overcast”.

Have I ever mentioned that my father and I are like 7 year old kids when we’re together. Mom shakes her head and has to tell us to stop doing things most times, but an impromptu pillow fight (me with a pillow, father with nothing) was a perfect opportunity for a photo.

In knitting news, I have been knitting. Not very much, but some none the less. My Lizard Ridge blanket is nearing completion. I’ve got about half the circumference left to do the last row of a crochet edging, and then all the ends need to be woven in, but that’s about it. I have also cast on a pair of socks. A big pair of socks that will take me a while to finish, but will be so worth it.

These are my Tom Baker, Fourth Doctor socks. I’m using the numbers from his season 12 scarf to make the stripes on this sock, in pretty much the same colors. They will probably end up being over the knee socks, which I am totally fine with. One good thing is that I’m doing them with DK yarn on 3mm needles, so they are just flying by, but they are going to be huge, so it will take a while.

In other news, I got a tube and a new tire for my bike. But alas, problems.

The tire wont fit. That is with one bead in the rim on the bottom and some of the sides, but then I get to the top and that happens! There is no way possible to get that tire on. There is one of two things that could have happened: My old tire lied to me about it’s size (in which case the rim which has the size printed on it, lied to me too), or the new tire lied to me. I don’t know which one, but in any case, I am not a happy camper.

Old tire on top of new tire. The top left is all lined up, but look at the bottom right! WHAT IS GOING ON? I do not understand, I just want it to work. And it wont. Grrr Argh.

Well that’s been my life the last couple weeks. I promise to try to update weekly at least, especially now with the show being on, I’ve got more time on my hands now than before. I should be able to do weekly. Keep your eyes peeled!

-Cheers folks.