Adventures: Iceland and Glasgow

Well after a week away and thousands of kilometres travelled, I’m safely back in my apartment. While it’s 6 PM, my body is telling me it’s 11 PM (thanks jet lag); however, I have so much to share I want to get started!

If you didn’t know, I was in Scotland for the wedding of my dearest friend Stephanie to my other dear friend Mike. I was the “Dude of Honour” (aka Maid of Honour) in the wedding. But all the wedding details? That’s another post.

A week ago today, I was at Pearson Airport awaiting to board the first part of our journey to Glasgow – a flight to Rekyajvik, Iceland.

IcelandAir is a wonderful airline. Great staff and a comfortable plane made the five hour journey across the ocean to Iceland very easy. It also helped that one of the other bridesmaids had brought a heaping bag of homemade biscotti, which was delicious.

When we checked in to our flight, we found out that our connecting flight from Reykjavik to Glasgow was delayed. What was to be a one hour stop became four and so, we made the best of it.

See? We made the best of it!

The Icelandic airport is very small. With unreliable wi-fi, there was not a lot to do. We chatted, surfed the internet when we could, looked at the Duty Free Shop and enjoyed seeing the many different types of schnapps for sale and saw the fanciest washrooms ever. The hand dryers? Made by Dyson.

Fancy snyrtingar

We also bought coffee in Iceland. And we were excited when Mike came back with his receipt, saying he had spent 1.255 krone on his coffee and sandwich. It wasn’t until a few minutes later when we realized that the decimal was actually a comma and that his meal had cost over 1200 krone. The running joke was that he’d check his credit card bill to find he’d spent $12,000 CDN on a measly breakfast. In reality, it was just over $12.

Onwards, to Glasgow!

After the delay, we got our connecting flight and took just under two hours to get from Iceland to Glasgow. While only spending one night in Glasgow, we certainly enjoyed it. Steph, Mike, my friend Chelsea and myself visited Cocktail & Burger, which is perhaps the location where I had the best burger ever. We enjoyed a few bevvies (they have AMAZING tequila mojitos) before heading back to Hotel Indigo (which was also lovely).

Gin Fizz, in Glasgow

So, the first part of the journey came to an end. Look for my next post, where I will share my lovely train trip on ScotRail’s West Highland line, as we headed to Argyll and the most amazing country manor hotel ever.

 

 

Making a G & “Tea”

I don’t know if I actually read this recipe, or if my mind just conjured it up in hopes of it actually existing; regardless, I made a G & “Tea” this evening. While I live-tweeted the process with photos, I thought I’d post them all here. Feel free to take this recipe (as I said – I don’t know if I made it up or if I actually saw it somewhere), tweak it and give it a try.

Ingredients

One pot of Pink Flamingo Tea (steeped to taste)

Gin (please, please don’t use cheap gin. C’mon…)

Ice

Sugar (to taste)

Making Of

First things first, you obviously need to boil the kettle and make the tea. As I said, I used David’s Tea “Pink Flamingo,” as it has a citrusy, summery flavour to it but you can really use any tea that you fancy.

After you brew the tea, refrigerate it until it’s chilled. I put my pot in the freezer in addition to brewing it over ice in order to speed up the chilling process.

Once the tea is chilled, you’re ready to make your drink!

Obviously, there’s an important ingredient needed…

Gin! I used two ounces. You can use more (yum!) or less (who does that?!)

If you’re using a shaker (you should) this is when we’re going to add everything together. I used a glass and shook it by holding a smaller glass over top. First, add sugar (not a lot), then ice, then the gin and lastly the tea. Shake until the sugar is dissolved.

Once it’s shaken, pour the drink into a fancy class (I mean, c’mon! It’s gin and tea… have some class!) If you’d like the drink to be colder, feel free to add ice to the glass. I’m not here to tell you what to do…

And voila! The finished product. All that’s left to do now is enjoy (and you can make a ridiculous face if you want…)

Congratulations! You’ve made a “G & Tea”. You can officially add “classy” to your resumé. If you try this or make a variation, let me know how it turned out!

100 Things: Volume Two

In case you missed my first post, I’ve been sharing a list of the “100 Things About Me” that perhaps you didn’t know. This is the second (and final) installment of that list, and I hope you enjoy it.

100 Things About Josh: #50 – 1

50. I would live off of baked potatoes, so long as cheese, bacon, green onion and sour cream were provided.

49. I despise being sick; I whine about it a lot when it happens.

48. On the plus side, though, when I am sick, my voice becomes a rich baritone.

47. Wolf Blitzer drives me crazy.

46. I still watched CNN for US Election coverage, despite that fact.

45. I’m terrible at video games – I generally bring people down when I play NHL ’13.

44. I do, however, love The Sims.

43. That said, I use the money cheat every single time I play that game.

42. If somebody asked me to choose who my best friend in the whole world was, I don’t think I could choose. So many people mean so much to me.

41. The fact that I’m flying to Scotland next summer is slightly terrifying; a long flight over the ocean?! YIKES.

40. That said, I hope to be able to bring an awesome +1 to said wedding.

39. I don’t celebrate just a birthday; I celebrate birth month.

38. Some people think that previous fact is very self-centred.

37. If somebody else doesn’t like me, I pretend it doesn’t bother me; unless I know why, it does bother me.

36. I will know in the first 30 seconds of meeting someone whether I want anything to do with them.

35. The previous fact has made for some awkward first dates.

34. I am an impulse buyer.

33. This infomercial makes me laugh every time I see it.

32. My spiritual beliefs change by the day.

31. This.

30. All of you clicked on the link above because it was such a vague post.

29. This is the first blog I’ve started and maintained regularly.

28. While I tease my aunt for liking country music, I don’t mind it.

27. I wish Whose Line Is It Anyway was still on TV.

26.

Whenever I’m stressed, I look at this photo (which I took myself).

25. Thanks to an inside joke with a friend, every time a wizard or something magical is on TV, I laugh.

24. I still watch Survivor.

23. The Weather Network drives me almost as crazy as Wolf Blitzer does.

22. I tweet any company that gives me bad customer service, just to try and get free/discounted stuff.

21. It usually works.

20. Sometimes, this song makes me feel better… and I think it’s very lame to admit that. (Just replace the female pronouns with male ones).

19. My parents have been married for nearly 25 years. I admire them for that, and I hope to one day be in a relationship that even lasts half that long.

18. Going to the doctor terrifies me (almost as much as having my wisdom teeth out).

17. Seeing video, pictures or even talk of someone getting a needle makes me want to vomit.

16. I would say I keep in touch with over 50 per cent of my kindergarten class; proof? I live with someone who I met on the first day of school.

15. I don’t dislike babies as much as I pretend to. It’s the toddler years (1-5) that annoy me.

14. Every time I hear teenagers talk to one another, I worry about whether I sounded that stupid.

13. Although I teased my Republican friend in Georgia about Obama easily winning re-election, I secretly though Mitt Romney was going to win. I was wrong.

12. I feel like I know more about Canadian politics than most people.

11. I tend to be very loud and opinionated on that topic.

10. I love the smell of grapefruit.

9. Easiest way to my heart? Butter tarts.

8. Pecan pie also works.

7. I despise doing laundry.

6. My bedroom looks like a bomb went off.

5. If I were to die tomorrow, someone going through my stuff would be shocked by what they read in my private journals.

4. I find writing in those, be it my ups, downs, or whatever, is cathartic.

3. I’m very excited this list is almost over.

2. I want to be a Member of Parliament one day.

and… FINALLY…

1. I love you all for reading this list.

Thank you!

“We’ve Gone From Playing House to Doing Shots:” On Old Friends & Growing Up

It was a saxophone party...

“May the past be the sound of your feet upon the ground.”

-fun.

Yesterday was a bit of a nostalgia day for me. It was funny, strange and comforting all at the same time. I say this with the following thoughts in the back of my mind: I have friends getting married, friends having babies and friends buying houses. There are moments when, despite knowing its the furthest thing from the truth, I feel like I’m lagging behind: I’m single (with no prospect of that changing), just starting a new job again and admittedly, I’m focusing a lot on myself. But hey – I might get a dog, so there’s that…

After work yesterday, I got together with my friend Amy, who I’ve known since our days at Bowmanville Senior Public School. We did a lot together – we were in all the same bands, had a lot of classes together (we spent Grade 7 and Grade 8 together, plus a number of classes in high school) and went on all the same trips. By virtue of being together a lot during those days, we have a lot of the same friends. We went to dinner and it kind of hit me (and her too) that we’re growing up: we talked about my new job, we talked about her finishing up her placement as a student teacher and we talked about all of our friends who were doing what I already mentioned: having babies, getting married, buying houses, etc… We had a few laughs about how we were getting “old” and maturing. I don’t think either of us would have thought, all those years ago when we were in Ms. Bradford’s class, that this is where we would end up.

The evening became even more nostalgic when my roommate (whom I’ve known for nearly 20 years) and our friend reached the pub. Our server was a friend of ours who, again, we’ve known for nearly 20 years (and is technically my ex-wife, due to our playground marriage from years ago). While we spent a lot of time talking about what was new in our lives, there was a natural tendency to reminisce on the “days of yore.” We did a shot together – and that’s where the title from this blog post came from. Because, three of the four of us at the table did start our friendship in the kindergarten classroom: we quite literally went from playing house to doing shots together. While it was a bit of a surreal experience, it was also some bit of a comfort to know that, whatever happens in life, there are those friends in your life who are rocks.

In talking with a new friend regarding this blog post, he said that someone else had mentioned the same kind of feelings to him: about growing “old” and it being strange. For me, as I said to him, it’s a very cyclical thought process. Every so often, the feelings about getting older and moving in to the next phases of my life cross my mind and I get a bit nostalgic. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one that goes through something like this.

I also learned in my conversation with my friend, when telling him about the post I was writing, that there are little things we begin to notice that are signs we’re getting older: one of the funnier ones (but one that is totally true) is noticing that we can’t drink like we used to, yet we try and do it anyways. It’s the little things like that, which we do in an effort to hold on to the past and deny the fact that we’re maturing and entering the next stage of our lives.

My new goal is to embrace and tackle the changes that come with what happens to everybody: growing up. It’s not going to be easy and I can guarantee that I won’t handle it with grace all the time, but that’s just how life is. As that 70’s TV theme goes: “You take the good, you take the bad and there you have the facts of life.”

Sidebar

The video below is the song from which I pulled the quote to lead off this article. I’ve written about fun. before, but you MUST check out their new album.

Gym? What’s a Gym?

I wrote a while ago about my progress at the gym and how I was rather happy with my success so far. While I wasn’t quite as clueless as Homer in the clip above (I can at least pronounce gym properly), I was pretty clueless. I feel a lot more comfortable (I’m 14 weeks in now) and am really seeing significant results.

When I started at the gym on December 1, I weighed a whopping 108 pounds. I weighed in last week and am up to 115.4 pounds. While I still have quite a distance to go to reach my first major goal of 120 pounds (at which point I have promised that I will post a much-maligned mirror photo to show my results), I’m pretty happy that I’ve been able to progress without hitting a proverbial wall.

There’s a lot out there for people who are trying to lose weight. And that’s just fine, but there isn’t a lot out there for people who are trying to do the opposite. People always tell me how lucky I am to eat what ever I want and still be thin. But eating to gain weight isn’t that easy – and while I’m anything but an expert – what I have learned from my trainer is that it’s about eating the right things and eating a lot of it. Like eating the right things to lose weight, the eating to gain weight has been the hardest thing, because I’m eating even when I don’t feel hungry. And, for the record, chocolate weight gain powder is NASTY. I’m glad it’s almost gone.

So, I’ll keep at it. Some times I get a little ornery about specific work outs (I hate “21’s” and I hate these other horrendous push-up type things) but I know at the end of the day it’s what I need to do in order to reach my goal. Onward and upwards, right?

February Photo a Day Challenge

One of my favourite iPhone apps is the photography app Instagram. If you don’t have it and you have an Apple device that has a built-in camera (iPhone, newer iPod Touch or iPad 2), definitely download it from the App Store. It’s free and a lot of fun.

Anyways, I saw a number of people I follow participated in a “Photo a Day” challenge in January and was excited to see that there was a challenge in February. For each of the 29 days in the month, you are required to take a photo of something. Here is the list of shots for the month:

Although I’m posting my shots regularly on my Twitter page and also on my Tumblr, I thought I’d share the first six days of my pictures here with you just so you have something different to look at. Before I do, though, let me warn you that I’m not a professional photographer (or professional iPhoneographer) and nor do I pretend to be. I just like these shots and that’s all that matters.

Day One: My View

This is the view from our balcony. Clearly, I was too lazy to go outside and took this from the glass door (made even more clear by the reflection of one of our lamps).

Day Two: Words

Of the shots I’ve taken this month so far, this is my favourite one. I opened the dictionary to a random page and just took the picture. I was a little embarrassed later on to realize that copulation is the word at the top of the page. Oopsie.

Day Three: Hands

This is one of the more ridiculous photos. Thankfully I got together with my friend Javier or I would have had to expose my hands – which look awful due to nail biting. But that’s for another post…

Day Four: A Stranger

No, the stranger isn’t holding the beer and winking – that’s Javier again. Check the background; that’s not one but two strangers and they are making out like the end of the world is nigh.

Day Five: 10 a.m.

This one was hard – because it was Sunday and who wants to be awake at 10 a.m. to take a photo? Regardless, I like how it turned out; one of my favourites.

Day Six: Dinner

Roast beef was part of tonight’s dinner (obviously the main dish), so here it is in all its beefy goodness.

So, there you have it – my first six days of February summed up with a few fun photos. If anybody else out there is participating in the challenge, give me a shout on Twitter or follow me on Instagram (where my username is JTerr8829) so I can be jealous of your awesome photos!

Kitchen Adventures: Making “Fried” Chicken

After looking through the stats for my blog, you all like when I write about food. So, while I assure you that I’ll continue to write about other topics, I’ll throw in regular doses of my cooking adventures as well.

Tonight, I decided to make “fried” chicken. The recipe originally comes out of a cookbook I helped promote in my last job. The recipes are from the Dietitans of Canada and are healthy. Both my roommate and I have enjoyed the Baked Fried Chicken – it’s relatively cheap, it’s filling and it’s delicious.

(I apologize that the photo is upside down – but it doesn’t change anything. This is what it looks like after 25 minutes in the oven)

I don’t use the recipe anymore, I just wing it. I use chicken thighs (with skin on, and with bones – I found it got better results than the boneless, skinless thighs).

Here’s what I use for the batter:

• White flour (about two cups for four chicken thighs)
• Dill (to taste – I use lots)
• Paprika (be very liberal with this)
• Onion powder (just a little bit)
• Seasoning salt
• Pepper

Mix the batter in a large, shallow bowl. Unfold the thighs and coat liberally. I cook the thighs at 350° for 25 minutes, before flipping and cooking for another 15 (or until crispy). I find just lining a baking sheet with foil works for cooking this dish – it doesn’t need to be oiled or anything, as I’ve always found the chicken just slides off.

As for sides? Mashed potatoes go wonderful with this dish – simple, delicious comfort food!

If you try this, let me know what you thought!

Weird Facts: Why My Food Can’t Touch on the Plate

This is a post that has been a long time coming. Not because it’s some deep secret that I’ve held back, but because nobody understands why food on my plate cannot touch. It isn’t a black and white issue; there are many facets to this rule, few exceptions and it is what it is. The photo above is an example of how I could never eat.

I don’t know where this “rule” started or why – but I know that it exists because if two things that shouldn’t touch, do? I won’t eat either thing. Before you ask: yes, I’ll go to buffet restaurants. It just requires many, many, many plates.

Some of the rules within this rule include:

• Hot and cold foods on one plate must not touch one another;
• Foods with different sauces may not touch one another, nor may one sauce touch another sauce – Thanksgiving is a big issue, what with gravy and all…;
• Certain things can touch: for example, carrots can touch corn so long as neither are in a sauce and no carrots end up on the same forkful as corn, or vice-versa; and
• Bread and buns are not devices used to sop up sauce; they are to be buttered and sit on a separate plate from all other food. There is one exception to this, at a restaurant in Oshawa that makes the most delicious salad dressing ever.

That list is by no means exhaustive, there are other stipulations and rules that come into play regularly.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Josh, you’re a big giant freak of nature.” You’re more than welcome to think that, but I’ve talked to quite a few people who have a similar “issue” as me. I’m used to people making fun of me for this. In fact, during Christmas 2010 my Mom bought me divided plates, thinking it was hilarious. I, however, use them regularly and think they are the best gift I’ve ever been given.

So, there you have it: now you can better understand why my food cannot touch on my plate.

Slow Cooking Round Two: Take That, Roast Beef!

No – I still didn’t take pictures because, while it didn’t look as unappealing as the stew I wrote about previously, I still couldn’t make it look pretty enough to warrant pictures. Regardless, I used the slow cooker this evening again and the results were a tender, melt-in-your-mouth roast beef.

As a sidebar, I have to say every time that I make something in the slow cooker, it seems that I’m destined to wake up later than planned. Hectic mornings don’t make for feeling great during the rest of the day. As a result, I was very confused today in regards to what day of the week it was.

Anyways, I was pretty simple with the beef; last night, I spiced it with onion powder, garlic powder and seasoning salt. Nothing particularly fancy, but it made for some fantastic results.

This morning, I threw some water in the pot and let it cook on low for 6 hours.

Now – another sidebar. The plan was to throw some potatoes in with the roast before I left for the gym at 5:30. However, much to my surprise, I opened the potatoes and found they had all sprouted, and not just a little bit: they were growing rather large sprouts. Luckily, I had went to the grocery store yesterday and picked up a delicious V8 Autumn Carrot soup. Dinner was saved!

The results, as I mentioned, were delicious. The beef melted in your mouth and the seasoning added some great flavour but wasn’t too strong. The roast had a little too much fat for my liking, but it was still tender, delicious and I’m craving more as we speak.

I said it once and I’ll say it again: I adore my slow cooker and the magic that it brings to my tastebuds.