Day 9

Why do people, the world over, insist on drilling in the early hours of the morning? I'd probably have done time for the clown next door had Canadian prisons not been located in the arsehole of nowhere that I was bumping my gums about on the drive to and from Ottawa! At least getting up early meant that I could chat to people back home for a bit before I headed downtown to try and get tickets for Wicked. Online the cheapest tickets were $119 so I hoped that the box office would have some more than weren't quite so steep. While I was on the computer, I happened upon a book entitled How To Be A Better Lover, which I thought would be a relatively tame book in the Dear Deirdre field but it was pretty graphic, with a host of illustrations and 'handy' tips like: "When handling your lover's testicles treat them as you would small eggs." Now I truly hope them meant in terms of fragility and not cooking. Wouldn't fancy, fried, boiled or scrambled gonads! Despite it belonging to family members, I wasn't overly freaked out though, my Uncle Eddie and Fe are both adults. Still I'd probably have kept it in a drawer in their own room if I was them.

Once I'd sorted myself—both mentally and physically—I headed downtown and was serenaded by a busker at Islington subway station playing Leaving On A Jet Plane by John Denver—he did as well. Seems to be a popular station for buskers! Headed straight for the Canon Theatre where Wicked was having its run and managed to get two tickets for $65 a pop! Up in the Gods or nosebleeds as they call them over here. A row separates us but hopefully by playing the cousin-on-holiday card we can get a couple of seats together. Quite happy that was sorted so the next thing to sort out was my hunger, easily done with a fantastic chicken schawarma in one of my favourite eateries on Yonge St. Probably shouldn't then have gotten a large popcorn, with melted butter when I went to the cinema at Yonge/Dundas to see the high school take on the Scarlet Letter, which was entitled Easy A (pictured below). We're lucky at home having the Cineworld Unlimited card but even abroad I had to have my cinema fix, even if it was on my lonesome, despite what some folk think, that scenario has never bothered me and never will.


After that, I had a look around some of the stores and saw a couple of things I might pick up: a Maple Leafs varsity jacket and a Boston Celtics tracksuit top. Will definitely get something for my nieces though, even if it was gonna bump me over the luggage allowance. Had a scout around some record stores before getting the subway home, one of which had an old Donkey Kong arcade game, which only cost a quarter to play. I was struggling to get onto the third level in any of the shots I had but it did bring back memories of playing with the only games console I've ever had, a Nintendo Entertainment System or NES (pictured below) for short! Most folk probably haven't even heard of that console, but it was the original and best and I still remember being delighted at completing Mario Bros 1, 2 and 3! It's probably considered kitsch and retro now, I wish I had kept a hold of it.


Back at my Uncle Eddie's place, he asked if I wanted to go and see an old school friend of his named Roger playing an acoustic set for a hour at a nearby coffee shop, to which I acquiesced. The first performer was a portly chap to say the least, in fact I think he might actually have been sitting on two seats and his guitar was so small against his huge frame that it resembled a ukulele. He wasn't a bad singer though to be fair. Roger and his accomplice Steve were somewhat different in styles. The former was a good guitarist but spoke too softly and gruffly during most of his songs, while the latter was a good guitarist but a bit wishy-washy on the lyrical front. Still, just goes to show that not all coffee shop guitarists fit the hellish stereotype of Phoebe from Friends.