Gillian's Kitchen

Calling all Foodies - and active Vancouverites too.  Want to eat in fine restaurants with great discounts off your bill? Want to rent a jet-ski or skidoo for half the usual cost?

On Monday, July 12th, Vancouver based GoodNews.com launches its website at www.GoodNews.com. GoodNews is a voucher deal site with a difference. Actually several differences.

Vancouver based, it not only promotes local businesses but also supports local causes by donating part of the voucher price to a cause that is their featured charity for a minimum of two weeks at a time.

 Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver is their launch cause partner, and 10% of every sale as well as  $1 for every new sign-up  to their site until July 23rd, will go to this cause.

Until the launch on Monday. you can access the daily deal at the pre-launch website. On Monday the link changes to GoodNews.com. The company has been running a pre-launch test of their process. And I was lucky enough to be able to try it out.

I just could not resist posting this picture for all of you who love the beauty of our city, Vancouver.

The view is south-east from my apartment, at dusk.

City Hall resembles a red-eyed alien creature, scouting out the glowing gold structure adjacent.

 To paraphrase  Bart Howard - just fly me to the moon and let me dance among the stars

Attracted by the music, on the way home from lunch at Oru, we wandered up Granville Street towards West Georgia. 

As I described in Granville Street Foodie Tour,  the city has set up a pedestrian mall along Granville Street from Hastings to Smithe, along the lines of Broadway in New York - just ten times less crowded!

Walking further  south along Granville, we noticed that as promised they have set up scattered seating sections between Georgia and Robson. A few intrepid souls actually were taking advantage of the chairs.

At last, 23 days from the date post-marked on the envelope, my registered letter has been delivered and signed for in New York.

The Canada Post tracking form still shows neither its arrival in the US nor the fact that it has just been delivered. Despite the information on the screenshot from the Canada Post tracking form. Updated daily. Hmmm...  wanna buy the Brooklyn Bridge?

But no more sniggering from those of you who have followed this sad saga of slow, sloppy, snail-like service from my first plaintive posting "Does Canada Post use Ox-Wagons" through sucessive  reports of non-arrival.

The funniest point of all was made by the recipient who called me to announce its arrival. The letter proudly bears a stamp that says "Canada Post: From anyone... to anywhere."  But as he said - it does not say how long.

I have learned a valuable lesson. My motto with respect to anything of importance regarding this postal service is "Not From Me...Not Anywhere...Not Anytime."

A few days ago a friend and I joined a large roomful of Bard on the Beach supporters at the Pan Pacific Hotel. The occasion was a breakfast fundraiser for the company's educational programs. While we enjoyed  fresh fruit salad, Eggs Benedict, pastries and coffee, Artistic Director Christopher Gaze invited the four set and costume designers for the 2010 season to tell us about their concepts for the Mainstage and Studio Stage productions.

On the Mainstage, comedy (Much Ado about Nothing) will alternate with tragedy (Antony and Cleopatra). Set designer Drew Facey described some of the challenges of creating a stage setting that must be switched from  Much Ado director Dean Paul Gibson's concept of Messina in 1910 Italy, Scott Bellis's locations of Rome and Egypt a millennium earlier for Antony and Cleopatra. Costume designer Mara Gottler showed some of her costume designs and gave us some interesting insight into how various techniques are required to create as an example, a light diaphanous look for Cleopatra's clothes.

The Douglas Campbell Studio Stage will be home to two of the plays in Bard's ambitious program to produce eight of the History plays. Last year we saw Richard II, and this year will feature Henry V and Falstaff, a conflation of Henry IV parts I and II, created by Errol Durbach. See  Christopher Gaze: Presenting Shakespeare's Kings History Cycle Plays.

It must have been post-Olympic nationalistic lunacy that made me walk into a Canada Post Office to send a letter by registered mail to the US. Why else would I utilize the "services" of a Corporation who expend more effort on advertising their politically correctness than they do on providing service?

I handed in a letter to go by registered mail to New York on April 3rd. The 4th was Easter Monday- that's a holiday in Canada so the 5th would be the first working day.  According to the Tracking System two days later, on the 7th, my little registered envelope "left Canada".

Unless it goes to the North Pole for Santa's elves to sort,  it should have reached New York at least by the next day. I mean a passenger plane takes less than 5 hours direct from YVR to any of the New York city airports. So being charitable let's say it landed somewhere in the US by the 8th of April.

Well it is now the 15th April - seven, yes SEVEN days later, and it still is not even showing that it has been scanned in at a US mail destination, never-mind having been sent out for delivery. Unbelievable.

I checked two other shipping companies - you can guess which -  and their standard delivery times are around 5 business days.

A phone call to the "Customer Service" line after half an hour on hold got me the response that if it has not arrived by May 3rd - yes ONE MONTH after I handed it in, they will investigate.

So I pose the question. Does Canada Post send their mail by ox-wagon across North America?

Can anyone answer me?
 

New York, New York 2009 – Seven Days of Theatre, Food and Dance:  PART  I

New York, New York 2009 – Seven Days of Theatre, Food and Dance:  PART  II

Friday September 11th

Last night I saw Yasmin Reza's play, God of Carnage, with Jeff  Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfino and Marcia Gay Harden.

Tomorrow I am seeing the Keith Huff' play, with Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman, called A Steady Rain. And how appropriate. This morning I woke to see a heavy rain pelting against the window. Up till now the weather has been wonderful but I guess New York has finally realized that it's not summer any  more.

I had originally planned to wander around among the stores in SOHO but without any rain gear and boots I did not feel like venturing out into the wet.  I don't really have to go out until 2 to get uptown for my dance class. The weather forecast predicts light rain tomorrow morning , clearing for Sunday and nice on Monday- but  on Monday I will be on my way home to Vancouver.  

Although Mike had given me an umbrella, I really did not have suitable rain gear with me and by the time I got to the studio for my 3 pm lesson I was soaked. I changed out of my damp jeans into a dance dress and put on my shoes. I was delighted to find that my feet had finally shrunk back to size 4.5.

 I had arranged to meet Mike later at the studio for his regular lesson and then we were going out for supper. But after my lesson it was still raining so hard that rather than venture out to window shop I just settled down with my notebooks and my lap top and caught up with my writing.

When Mike arrived, his teacher, Oleksandra was running a few minutes late so we had time to chat. We decided we would have a lesson together so we worked on some chacha, and leads and follows. it was almost half past eight  by the time the class was over and I changed back into my damp jeans and other shoes. I thanked Yuriy for the lessons - I really enjoyed them - and said goodbye to both of them.

It was still raining when Mike and I left the studio so we decided  to get a cab down to the East Village.

For dinner that evening, Mike had planned to take me to one of the typical new restaurants that have opened up in the re-gentrified East Village.  The area attracts a lot of young people, and the bars and restaurants are humming, high energy places.

But when we made our reservation for Perbacco, the hot new Italian restaurant on E 4th Street, between Aves. A and B,  Mike and I failed to take a few factors into account.

Firstly eating dinner at 9 would mean eating three hours later than my usual dinner time, so I was really hungry and quite tired from 3 hours of dance.  Secondly what in  Mike's view is vibrant and high energy, to me as  loud and crowded.

       After waiting quite a few minutes for a table we were seated at a rather small table against the wall. There were  tables of four on either side of us and little space between us. I felt crowded and uncomfortable. The lighting was very low - ambiance I suppose -but I simply could not read the menu in the poor lighting. So I felt distinctly grumpy - not my usual state at all

But worse was to come. Mike decided we needed a good bottle of red wine and we got a nice 2006 Montepulciano.  After the waiter had just filled my glass, in an attempt to move my purse to make more room, I managed to knock my glass of red wine onto the floor. Glass shattered, expensive wine on the floor, and I was feeling like an clumsy idiot. I actually can't remember when I ever spilled a glass of wine in a restaurant before. Not in the last thirty years!

What to do? I wanted to have a nice relaxed dinner with Mike so we could both unwind, and discuss all the theater I had seen and my restaurant experiences. And here I was instead feeling irritable  and edgy.

There was only one solution.First  I rapidly drained the wine that the waiter had poured into the replacement glass. Then as a warm glow began to radiate through my body I chowed down on bread dipped in olive oil, sat back and relaxed and got Mike to read me the menu items..

Gradually the alcohol soothed my jangled neurons, and I settled down to enjoy the meal. We ended up having a very pleasant meal.

Tuesday September 8th

Back in Manhattan after an awesome dance-filled Labour Day Getaway Cruise, feeling great except for my tired feet. I am ready for another 5 days of dance, theatre and fine food. First thing on the agenda will be to pick up a pair of practice shoes for the next couple of lessons. Somehow on board ship my feet must have grown  from a  dainty size 4½  to something huge. By the end of the voyage I felt like one of Cinderella's sisters,  trying to squeeze my foot into a shoe that was suddenly far too small. Oh well, no prince for me I guess.

I plan to spend the rest of the day catching up on writing, laundry and planning my feasts  for mind and body for my remaining days in the city. 

Wednesday, September 9th  - No Gill,  you're not in a Bruce Willis movie !

I guess it was bad karma for being amused at the lady in the elevator who was scared of heights but my day started out with a bang - literally. I have only two phobias - I shudder at fluttering things like butterflies and moths - and I have a mild degree of claustrophobia. While my ultimate claustrophobic nightmare would be to be in a submarine, being trapped in an elevator would come pretty close.  And guess what happened.

With my day planned out to the minute - subway to Times Square, pick up theatre tickets, visit  Worldtone dance shop, have lunch, go to dance lesson, have supper, see play - I was feeling quite the jaunty travel-writer as I waited for the elevator on the 11th floor of my building. After all I had sort of mastered the routes I needed on the New York subway, only turned in the wrong direction about 5 times, and was comfortable finding my way around the various areas of Manhattan where I needed to go. After all in theory with an intelligently numbered grid system even a directionally challenged person should hardly stray  too far wrong. But back to the elevator.

So the elevator comes, I enter and press the button for the Lobby. Doors close,  the elevators starts to move - and I hear a loud bang. The elevator drops precipitously and then stops. My stomach continues downward. Oh Oh. I look at  the indicator - it still says 11  and it is not moving.  I press the Door Open button - no response.  Something was definitely wrong but an intrepid world traveller does not panic, even a claustrophobic world traveller.

New York is one of my favorite cities – it has a unique buzz, an electric feel, that is unlike anywhere else I have visited. Each time I visit New York I feel like a humming bird, hovering just above the surface of culture and cuisine, dipping down for a taste, but never able to perch long enough to experience more than that brief and tantalizing taste.

So when the opportunity arose to combine a Ballroom Dancing Cruise with a trip to New York to visit my son, I did not think too long and hard before signing up. The dance part of the cruise was arranged by Wendy, of  Dancers at Sea, the group with which I had recently done a seven night  West Coast Dance Cruise from Los Angeles to Vancouver on the Sapphire Princess. I really enjoyed the dancing, and the fellow dancers I met from all over the US were delightful, so I figured that this four night East Coast cruise would be just as much fun. As well, this Labour Day Getaway dance cruise is on the Queen Mary 2, and I have always wanted to see what these elegant Cunard ocean liners are like.

One of the interesting things about on-line reviews is the capacity for rapid rebuttal of comments and discussion.  I encourage people to comment on any aspect of my posts that they like or dislike. Occasionally they do.

One such anonymous reader of my review on Via Beatrice , disagreed with my take on the music aspect and commented accordingly. Unfortunately a technical glitch seems to be affecting the comments but until I get it fixed I thought his/her points were worth a separate post. 

I did confess that my knowledge of music was at a Music 101 level and my friendly commenter had a suggestion for that too!

Read on:

From Anonynous:

"I have to disagree with you regarding the music. I found it neither "dissonant" nor "uncomfortable".  While it wasn't toe-tapping musical theatre, I actually found the music to be incredibly powerful and memorable. It did indeed push the story forward and allowed us into the characters' heads in a way that we perhaps would not have gotten through any other means.

I actually found that this play, more strongly than many I have seen in a while, reminded me of the power of live theatre. This operetta forces one to suspend disbelief as characters change through nothing more than a shift in posture and voice, we do "go" to Rome through an arched platform and a video projection, and, of course, there's the whole breaking into song thing.

I really love reading your reviews and hesitate to contradict what you say (I most often agree with your picks and pans), but I couldn't let this one go by without comment.  If it's not too forward, perhaps you ought to look into music 201? "

I love it - Music 201 here I come