And It Shall Be Forever Known....

...as the Burger Long-Weekend.

This past weekend was Victoria Day long weekend, which I actually had it off from work! Last year I had to work the long weekend so I missed out on all of the festivities that Victoria has to offer our lovely city on the holiday weekend. But then again, last year I pretty much didn't have any friends to enjoy them with, so no big loss there.

Jaime was away for work for a few days so Saturday I had an empty house. I got up early to do a workout because I had plans for the day, so I wanted to get in a quick P90X workout before the start to the day. About 5 minutes into it I heard the garage door open and was like, "What? It's 7:00am! How is Jaime home already?" But it was actually the lady who watches Tank when Jaime is away. She was dropping him off about 9 hours earlier than I was expecting, which kind of threw a wrench in my plans for the day. The plan was to drive downtown to meet up with a friend, hit up a morning farmer's market, buy some delicious food and head to the beach for the day. Now I had to add a high-maintenance and highly demanding dog to the mix. Alright. No worries.

So I packed up Tank and headed to town. Dogs aren't allowed in the interior area of the market so I ended up just perusing the perimeter of the fence and looking at the stalls that lined the outside of the market while my friend went in to buy some delicious food for the picnic. I learned how much I LOVE the Fairfield area of Victoria because the houses are mostly all restored Historian houses and the area has a very "Nelson" feel to it. I was instantly smitten. We headed to the beach (I can't remember the name!) which was an awesome area to bring dogs to. We spent a couple hours there and at no point was not someone walking and/or playing with their dog along the shore. Tank always had someone to play with (aka, someone to bother) which was good for us because we didn't have to entertain him the entire time. Unfortunately what this meant was when we wanted to just lay in the sun and do nothing for longer than 2 minutes, Tank wouldn't allow it. He needed to see and sniff everything and I soon got a bit annoyed. He was physically tired from playing so much but couldn't relax because there was so much going on around us. I couldn't tie him up because he can slip out of his harness (damn Bulldogs not having necks makes things difficult) so after some time, I decided it would be best to drive him home since Jaime would have been home soon anyway.

So I drove him all the way back to the West Shore then headed all the way back to town.

I need to find a place to live downtown.

When I got back to town, we headed to the Inner Harbour to go meet up with some friends at the free concert that was happening down by the water. It was an online RSVP event, which works OK in theory but as soon as we arrived we learned that things didn't work out as expected. They way overbooked the concert so by the time we arrived there, the line-up was a good hour long wait. Luckily it was an outside concert and the weather was awesome, so we just found a grassy knoll nearby and enjoyed the music while sitting in the sunshine. No line-ups, elbow-to-elbow crowds, shouting at your friends or the pressures of feeling the need to cheer and clap after each song. We grabbed a beer at an outside patio pub, which was about 20 feet from the concert, and also enjoyed the show there. Good times!

After the show we headed to another pub to have some late-night dinner with a group of friends, which is where the Burger Long-Weekend all started. Every night last weekend I had a burger for dinner. Each one of them very different than the next, but all were very enjoyable.

Burger #1 - consumed at The Beagle Pub - The Bison Burger. Topped with goat cheese and a whiskey bourbon glaze...yes please! It was a lot tastier than I would have expected and I ate every last crumb of that thing. The actual patty was nothing all that special but the sauces and spreads made it scrumptious.

The next day I volunteered to help my friend Chris paint his new condo. He's been a bit of a stressball about getting all of the renovations done in time for his move-in date (which is today) so I was more than happy to help him out. Plus I truly enjoy painting. I find it very cleansing - like a fresh snowfall that covers up all of the ugly snow buried beneath it. About half way through the work day we had to go to Home Depot to pick up some more paint and painter's tape, so we decided to also take a late lunch break afterwards.

Burger #2 - consumed at the Shine Cafe - The Berkeley Veggie Burger. I heard great stuff about this place and I was not disappointed at all with my choice. The homemade patty was topped with mushrooms, cheddar, onions, pesto mayo and all the trimmings. It was falling apart all over the place and my face and plate was an absolute mess. But honestly, it was the second best veggie burger I have had on this island and dare I say the second best veggie burger I've ever had?? Yup...definitely a possibility. It was pure awesome.

After 12 hours of painting, we called it a night and I went home and crashed in bed. Two busy days in a row, plus one more before the weekend was done.

The final day of the long weekend again started in the early morning. I was feeling guilty about my shitty eating habits the past 2 days so I headed to the gym to get in a quick cardio workout. After a quick shower and change of clothes, my friend Alice and I decided to take advantage of the continuous nice weather and went for a hike up Mt. Finlayson. I've only ever done this hike once before when my parents were in town, and this time I knew what to expect. It's a crazy steep hike with some dodgy areas to get through, but the view from the top is quite lovely. While I enjoy this hike, it's really not my ideal trail because you have to concentrate so hard on where you step or else you'll plummet to your death, so you can't really enjoy the view around you until you reach the top. But it was still a fantastic way to spend some time with Alice and enjoy the early afternoon.

After another shower and another change of clothes, I headed back downtown for a few hours to hang out with friends before the weekend came to an end.

Again, I really need to find a place to live downtown.

Burger #3 - consumed at Bin 4 - The Ginger Soy Tofu Burger. My all-time favourite place to eat in the city. It never lets me down. Considering it was already around 7:30pm and I had to get up at 4am for work the next morning, I didn't want to eat a heavy burger, so I went for this one with the butter lettuce instead of a bun. As much as I absolutely LOVE the buns they have there, I figured eliminating the bun would be easier on the old GI tract since I knew I had to go to bed fairly soon. And as always, even though there was no bun for my burger, I was not let down at all by the flavours and textures of my meal. Such a fantastic place to eat.

PS. Bin 4 has my all-time favourite veggie burger - The Mr. Bean. I dream of this thing.

Honestly though, I was looking forward to getting back to work so that I could actually stop and sit down for longer than 5 minutes! It was definitely a great weekend though. Also I think that Burger Long-Weekend might need to be a new personal tradition for me. Can a person ever get sick of delicious burgers??

Pickers Can Be Choosers

Last week when I was taking Tank for a walk, I came to the realization that the area that I am living in is completely surrounded by blackberry bushes. How I have never noticed this before is beyond me, especially when I had a mild blackberry picking addiction last year. The next day I went down with Tank again and brought a small sandwich bag and filled it up with berries. The berries were still quite tart but I enjoyed them nonetheless. Two days later I went down with an ice cream pail and filled it to the top. I ate some of them but froze the majority of them since some were slightly under-ripe and I figured I could sweeten them up by using them for baking someday down the road.

Nutrition Tip! Blackberries are loaded with beneficial antioxidants which can help fight against cancer, inflammation and the evil aging process. They are low in calories and are packed full of fibre, vitamins and minerals. They are also great for controlling blood sugar levels and even treat symptoms of gout.

Now even though I have plenty of berries stocked away in the freezer, it's as though there is a primal instinct burning away deep down inside of me, screaming to go get more berries. Knowing that there are millions of berries within a 5 minute walk from the house is eating away at my soul. Some of them will be eaten by wildlife (which is good) but the majority will be wasted from no one picking them, and that is haunting me.  So today I went down and picked another bucket.

And I am so glad that I did!

After giving them an extra few days to ripen, they are above and beyond any kind of fruit that I have ever picked in my entire life. And no, I am not exaggerating. They are so incredibly sweet and plump and juicy; better than any blackberry that I have ever bought in a store or picked off of a plant. I nearly died of happiness as I popped berry after berry into my mouth as I picked.

So after my multiple trips down the road and into the blackberry patches (technically they are called "brambles"), I have learned several important life skills and tips for anyone who ever plans to become a blackberry picker.

Pickers can be choosers: I found that the best blackberries fall easily from the bush. When picking a blackberry, if you have to tug on it to get it to detach from the bush, then it's not ripe and you should just leave it be. The most delicious and sweet berries will basically fall into your hand when you touch them.

Wear pants and long sleeved shirts: The first time I went picking, I didn't wander into the brambles and basically stayed on the outskirts. The second time, I went balls to the walls and just went for it. When my bucket was full, I was cut, diced and sliced all over my legs and arms. Most of it I didn't even feel and was shocked to see the damage that was done to my poor body.

You're going to bleed. Picking is not for the faint of heart. Whether it be your hands, legs, arms or face (the thorns will catch you when you least expect it), you're going to bleed.

Thorns can rip clothes. The thorns and branches have a way of hooking onto your clothes and refusing the let go. Today one of the branches had me so strongly that I started laughing because I was pushing quite hard to detach the branch from my shirt. The thorns of a blackberry bush can even tear denim. No joke. Just ask my jeans.

Pick in the early morning or heat of the afternoon. The second time I picked it was later on in the evening because the day was so hot and I didn't want to stand in the heat. However, I quickly learned that this was a terrible idea because I was able to single handedly repopulate the entire Victoria mosquito population for the entire summer in less than 30 minutes. My back, shoulders and arms were so chewed up that I looked like a pin cushion. An itchy...swollen....ugly pin cushion that wants to be scaled by hot water in the shower. Today I picked in the middle of the afternoon and even though it was warm, there was not a mosquito in sight.

Don't get emotionally attached. You're going to drop fruit while you're picking. Even though it is easy to say, don't get sad when some berries fall from your hand and hit the ground. They're not worth going after. Leave them be. There are more to pick.

You're going to get dirty so be prepared to shower afterwards. When you pick blackberries and disrupt the bush by getting in there and tugging on the branches, there is a horrible...substance...I don't even know the word. Tiny little seeds or dried up skin or something that comes off of the plant and onto your skin. It's itchy and irritating and you'll want to jump into a cold lake or the shower when you're done picking. It gave me the major heebie-jeebies, like my skin was crawling.

Bring lots of bags, buckets or anything to put the fruit in. Even though you think that your bucket is big enough, leaving a patch of blackberries is diffucult to do when the bucket is full. You're going to see tons more just taunting you, pleading to be taken home along with your already heavy load of fruit. Not having enough buckets is hard on your emotional well-being because you're going to want more. More! More!

Have adequate storage. With great fruit comes great need to storage. I already feel guilty enough filling half of the freezer with frozen bags of blackberries, but it's hard to stop when the picking is so good. I already gave some berries to the neighbour, but I still have tons of berries to deal with. You know you have an addiction when you contemplate going out and buying a mini freezer just to accommodate the blackberries.

So if you need some blackberries, give me a call! I can hook you up!

Plus if I give you some then that means that I can go pick some more!

I need help.

Found My Match with Fish Hair Salon

One of the worst parts about moving all of the time, apart from not being able to own anything because packing you junk around is very expensive and bulky, is having to find a new hair stylist in every new city you live in. For most people this is not really a huge deal, but for me this is a fairly big deal because my hair is something that I take kind of seriously. I have thick, coarse and horrible hair that does whatever it wants and doesn't give two shits about what I want it to do. So when I find a stylist that can control the hair and beat it into submission like a masochistic thrill seeker, I do not want to let that person go.

Since living in Victoria, I have had a semi-successful experience in one salon but decided to give my second cut to a business that multiple people recommended to me, which is Fish Hair Salon. Basically when you call to make an appointment, you are given options of what level of stylist you want. They have people employed there who range from brand new and training (Juniors), all the way up to people who teach and train and are hair gods in the salon world (Executives). The price of the cut/colour/service depends on what level of employee you want. I think this is pretty awesome to give customers the choice like this because not only does it give the control freaks the opportunity to chose someone with lots of experience, it gives the staff who are training the chance to pick up customers who are willingly giving them a chance to practice and learn. After I explained my evil hair to the girl on the phone, she recommended me someone who she thought would be a good fit and today I went in to see what would happen.

I have had the same experience with every stylist that I meet for the first time, meaning that they are all hesitant to do something different and generally just copy what I already have. I am always hoping and wishing that one day one of them will say, "I have a great idea!" or, "I have a vision of what would look amazing on you." But it never happened. I guess I kind of thought that because they are the experts that they would be willing to open up about what might look good or what I can improve on. If I walked in with a huge 10 year old mullet, would they just agree to keep going with what I have been doing because I am comfortable with this which makes them comfortable? Always cut off the mullet if I have a mullet!

Unless it's a super sweet mullet, then let me rock it just a little longer.

Finally, today was that day when someone stepped up to the plate that I have been offering for so long. I told her that I am extremely open to suggestions and this huge smile spread across her face. I took this as a good sign. Then she said that she wanted to shave the sides and back of my head super close. To be honest, I had a mild inner panic attack. I didn't react at first as I let the idea process, but then I thought about the celebrities that I have seen that have the cut that she was suggesting and I wondered if perhaps I could pull it off too! I am the first person to push other people to do drastic things with their hair because most people aren't willing to take the risk, so I figured that it was my civil duty to do this to prove that I'm not a sissy and that I am willing to walk-the-walk.

So for the first time ever in my life, I had clippers on my head and a good part of my head got shaved. Wholy crap it was scary to feel my hair falling all down my shoulders and see it piling on my lap and around my feet. My heart was pounding harder than an agorophobic's while shopping in Walmart on Boxing Day. Overall she really did not take that much off but because my hair is so thick, it seemed like a lot of hair falling. She also assured me that she was 98% sure that I would love the cut. I liked those odds. And yes, the cut is pretty cool.

So it looks like I found my hair dresser in Victoria - and in record breaking time! Usually it takes several bad cuts before I put my faith into one person. So thanks Fish! I shall return!