Mystery dessert

Let's discuss the importance of knowing what you're eating, then sink a spork into the dessert placed in front of you. The dish above concluded a jovial dinner at a vinyard near Niagara. The chef was a bit of an envelope-pushing deviant, and nothing that emerged from that kitchen and brought to our tables was what it appeared at first sight. That triangle of thin milk chocolate is actually thin chocolate-flavoured toasted bread. The rice mound? Some kind of dry custard with sandgrain-sized flecks of vanilla bean mixed throughout.

The strawberries and the wine were authentic. And really good.

Making tracks

"It's enough to make you go crazy /

And I'm amazed I haven't yet"

Music & running go together like milk & cookies. Sometimes I leave my player home and let the route mix me up a random soundtrack. Barking dogs, lovesick couples intergiggling, mothers instructing their kids on how to eat melting ice cream cones ("lick fast! faster!") on the canal paths. Rustling leaves, squawking seagulls and cyclists switching gears on the River paths. Car radios and open windows on the street sections of my routes. When I catch a whiff of a song with a good beat my tempo rises like a gas flame and I can almost feel the tune burrowing deeply into my ears. I have begun and ended runs with one song endlessly on repeat.

Smoke signals

“When you go, know you are perfect /
Please let me know if I was worth it”

"I don’t want to mess with your free spirit qualities. They are who you are, and I found them attractive; I felt completely at home with them. I was surprised that you would agree to my requests (as well as the length of our call that night) and relieved that you rejected them.

If you really want to do things like learn your language and live with your people, why don’t you do that? They are not impossible desires, are they? And put into action, they’d benefit you and your people, wouldn’t they? Nothing holds you back except yourself. You have a forest of possibility growing inside of you. You know that, so what’s stopping you?

You underline your free spirit quality in heavy ink. It can trap you just like a profession or a religion or anything else we cling to for our identity. A desire for freedom and caring for others are not mutually exclusive, any moron can see that. I am half wild myself, but only half, so maybe I don’t know what it’s like for you. Still, I think I get some stuff about you. Yeah, not everything, but for sure I get more about you than you do about me."