Following up the meme theme from Flygirl, here is a list of my 5 favourite places in time to be...
1. Boring perhaps but sometimes the best place to be is the here and now, where you get to savour the trivial and (not always) mundane things in everyday life. For me this would be things like: sunday walks around the neighbourhood, tuning into the breakfasters on RRR every morning on my drive to work, pissing myself silly to the simpsons or futurama, sampling some mighty fine cooking c/o sis, enjoying fierce political debates with work mates complete with everyone's own conspiracy theory & the almost-religious habit of checking the age online website first thing in the morning.
2. Spring 2004, when the calgary flames came within a sliver of a hair's width of winning the NHL's biggest prize, the stanley cup, was a crazy and fun time to be in calgary. A time where most residents (meeself included, i have the t-shirt to prove it) jumped on the bandwagon and claimed to be the biggest flames fans evaah! Fans littered the streets after a win such that one street was named the Red Mile because of the sea of fans in team colours that would congregate there after a win. You had strangers high fiving one another, people yelling 'Go Flames!' like their lives depended on it, merch sales going through the roof, us piking out of work a few times to watch a game, many a frantic (though naturally fruitless) effort to score tickets online, nearly every frickin' car having a flames flag attached to their windows...i tell you those were crazy times, too bad the eventual loss in the final decider brought all that insanity to an anticlimactic end.
3. Goat's Eye Mountain, Sunshine Village Canada, gives you an amazing view of the nearby and formidable Delirium Dive, a vertical drop/run for adventurous alpine pundits (read: lunatics) out there, who don't get to scale the run unless they're equipped with a shovel, pick and headlamp first (avalanches y'see). Goat's Eye rates as one of my favourite places in the world to just sit and relax in and where you can admire a clear vista the world's most insane double black diamond runs. A thermos of irish coffee and a deck chair would just about complete the scene for me.
4. Vic Market is one of my favourite places full stop and I have a firmer appreciation of this place now that i know that not every city is blessed to have a cornucopia of gustatory delights at their disposal. The colour, the food, the fresh fruit & veg (notice the price on those bananas), the aromas, the dwarf bunnies (not to eat of course)? I'm constantly amazed at how lucky Melbourne is to have one of these wonderful places to buy tasty things from!
5. Canada Day 2004 spent with sis was a great day. We started the day by casually walking over to the city to Prince's Island park where a crowd of locals usually congregate on their national day. After treating ourselves to a nice home-packed lunch, and sampling some of the local produce on sale there (luscious Bing cherries, fragrant yellow peaches, kettle corn), we strolled over to Eau Claire Market. The 20-mins-previous sunshine had suddenly switched to the blackest-sky-ever-seen-thunderstorm and sent the crowd scurrying for shelter. Sis and I found ourselves riding out the storm with a crowd of others up on the market's upstairs (sheltered) balcony area. As soon as the storm passed, people filed outside and resumed the festivities. We decided to watch the nearby jazz band play music and had a good chuckle at the antics of a well imbibed (though nattily attired) gentleman attempting to jam with the band using his leg as a guitar. Watching Greece beat the Czech Rep in the Euro Cup semi over dinner added to the surreal nature of the day as we wondered how the heck they managed to qualify for the finals. On a whim we then made our way over to Canada Olympic Park to watch the annual fireworks display. After claiming a primo spot on a hill, we sat down to enjoy the entertainment on offer: a nice bit of country & western music and line dancing. While the fireworks were pretty nice to watch, it was refreshingly quirky to hear the crowd, upon seeing a maple leaf-shaped pyrotechnic thingy shoot into the sky (sounds weird i know), spontaneously start to sing 'O, Canada!' (in fact that sounds kinda weird too). A free shuttle ride that ferried the crowds back home and dropped us off practically right outside our door completed the grand day out for us!
Long winded stories of the you-had-to-be-there kind I'm afraid but if you want to get another dose of this meme make sure you peruse the writings of: Cassiopeia Gegenbauer, Vernoona, Flygirl, Taichi Fox and Sartorial Splendour.
5 comments:
these are ace! as a relative sports luddite, your recollections about the Canada Flames really struck a chord with me. there is indeed something infectious about being in the midst of such a huge sporting event - whether you're normally into sport or not!!
and for that matter, Canada sounds gorgeous ... i like the idea about the deckchair and thermos of irish coffee. are you receiving any kickbacks from the Canada Tourist Commission????
and btw, is your blog post title a play on that Pink Floyd song?
we saw this sort of thing happen just a few months ago with the world cup and you're right about the infectiousness of it all. its funny how many of us jumped on the bandwagon at the time! For starters I don't think i've worn my flames gear since that last game.
And yep it is indeed a reference to that pink floyd song. though, is it just me or they a really blokey band? i've never really dug their music must say.
Hey serenity later> Let's just get this straight, Pink Floyd rock, that whole laser floyd thing the Nick was keen on seeing only to have it turn into a country/western night was brilliant!
I agree with you on the Canada Day.. it was jam-packed with lots of silly and fun things. Do you remember when we went inside the Eau Claire market, there was this couple at the air hockey table and the girl had a hissy fit saying she was there first? That was funny. Did we also have that yummy gelati with the pitstop at the lutheran/unitarian churh on the way into the city? Me forgets!
Great picks and I agree with you kaluds, Serenity is being bribed by the Canada Tourist commision- chaired by the CEO who happens to be a squirrel!
i have to admit i've never really understood Pink Floyd either (sorry m's nemesis and mr andopolis!). i'm not normally one for pigeonholing, but they really are a bloke band, where the bloke is typically upwards of 45-50 years old. the sort of band that would appeal to the general demographic of RocKwiz maybe?? that said though, The Wall and Wish You Were Here are two good tunes.
and golly, i love the idea of Canada's tourism promotions being run by a fluffy squirrel! i can just picture the little guy running around in a zoot suit, tailor-made to accomodate that great big tail!
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