Canadian War Museum

Being a local in Ottawa can allow you to get into all the national museums for cheap if you're selective about when you go. Each major museum has a unique day of the week where the admission fees are super cheap, so it's a good excuse to get outside in the evenings.

On Sunday we went to check out the brand-spanking new Canadian War Museum. It's an architecturally magnificent building, and from what I could see of the future plans, is intended to take on a super-size bunker look, with a park on the roof. The crowds for the museum were pretty intense at the beginning, so we decided to do the museum in reverse, and essentially go backwards in time. This meant that we started in the gallery of recent conflicts, the cold war and peacekeeping.

One of the displays showed a control headquarters, possibly like NORAD, which is running a continuous visual simulation on the sequences of WWIII. I couldn't make out who was against who, but it was dark nonetheless. Another section of the gallery was dedicated to the history, and the current dynamics, of nuclear warfare. I found myself mentally drained after that exhibit, not finding much hope for humanity. On a lighter note, the LeBreton Gallery was essentially a huge hanger full of all the military tanks, motorcycles, jeeps, and artillery used in historical battles. Many of the tanks were crude, simple, and rugged in their design, yet housed some rather complicated mechanics inside. Can you imagine what it would have been like for one of these things to break down in the field, and essentially have a bunch of 18 year olds trying to figure it out? Talk about stress.

There was also a temporary show running called "Propaganda". It highlighted the mediums of communication between the government and the citizens throughout WWI and WWII. The methods of swaying public opinion came mostly through clever artwork on posters, but there were also board games, bone china sets decorated with military regalia, and ash trays where you could butt your cigarette out in "Hitler's Hearth" (it contained a piece of marble from his actual fireplace) Definitely kitsh, but the enemy was well known, and I guess it served to unite the homefront.

The one problem I'm finding with these museums (and it's not a bad thing), is that there is no fathomable way to cover them in one visit. We didn't even get halfway through the war museum in close to 4 hours. Good thing we can easily go back for round two.

Cauterize show

We didn't have a single thing planned last week, and mostly just enjoyed the ability to lounge around in the evenings and deconstruct the holidays. The end of 2005 seemed particularly crazy with my everchanging schedule in Perth, then almost missing Christmas and having to make hurried last-minute connections into Winnipeg, a plethora of gatherings, followed by the busy week with Lynds and Dave here in Ottawa. It all worked out in the end, however, my energy stores completely wore out and I spent last week fighting a head cold. I was talking to a lifelong business traveller on this last trip, and he also emphasized the uncanny ability of his body to always take time for itself once all the stress subsided. It's as if the immune system says "heh crazy man...time for me now". I recall that post-exams used to have the same effect in University.

The canal opened up Saturday morning at 9am, so Sophie and I dug out the rusted Bauer Internationals and hit the ice. The ice was absolutely deadly - soft spots hidden by off-white patches that would suck your foot in, or these long cracks that would stop your skates on a dime. We never got pitched, but witnessed some nasty falls. Methinks the Ottawa Tourism board put a little too much pressure on the canal too open under these conditions. It was a good workout though, doing the loop at Dow's lake, and then crossing back to Downtown, where we put our shoes back on and went for coffee in the market.

In the evening, we went to check out a band called Cauterize playing at Barrymore's Music Hall. (if you're one of those rare people who follow links, make sure you check their video for "choke" under the media link - fully rocking out)

This band is the definitive EMO band, with 90% of the songs dealing with breaking up with your girlfriend...aahh...teen angst. Strange thing is that, far as I can tell these guys are all in there mid to late 20's. You'd think these issues wouldn't be such tragedies anymore. The band is tight though, and they sound like a Yellowcard meets Def Leppard. yup...loads of gang vocals.

After 4 hours of opening bands...the real deal. Still not as torturous as the last marathon Weakerthans show though. (i.e. Don't you just love it when the main act hits the stage at 1 am, and your ears are blown out from 80 opening acts...I love that) One band = great, two bands = maybe, three = this blows, four bands (Weakerthans show) = My ears are feeling violated.

Barrymore's is one of these turn of the century music halls, full of character and history. It's got multiple levels, all sitting on these terraces which overlook the stage.

Invisible man buys Soph a drink.

Fear Itself

One of my stockings this Christmas yielded a fiery little bottle of Iguana Gold hot sauce that Sophie picked out for me at a great store here in Ottawa called Chilly Chile's. I've been adding the liquid fire to soups and casseroles already, and it has a fantastic taste. According to the website, the heat factor is only a 4 /10, but the flavour definitely makes up for the mild kick, and at least Soph can partake as well.

I got to wondering if there was a standard for rating these sauces, as it seems completely relative. I mean...the name just doesn't cut it anymore - they've used everything..."Ass in Space", "Colon Cleaner Sauce", "Fear Itself", and my favorite "No Shit - This is Hot". Turns out there is this thing called the Scoville rating, which basically measure how much of a sugar solution is needed to add to a dish to remove the heat. It was developed in 1912, and is apparently much more scientific now, but the basic unit of measure still holds.

So then I get to wondering who holds the record for hottest sauce in the world. I noticed in the Ottawa store that some of the products had legal waivers to sign, and that you had to be at least 21 years of age. Then I found this site...some guy named Blair has been racking up the Scoville units into the 16 million range (Tabasco comes in at a measly 2000 units!). His latest invention isn't really a sauce, but a vial filled with pure capsaicun crystal. Wild.

The big shmoke

On the 31st of January, we drove with Lynds and Dave to Toronto. I (Soph) drove for the first 3 hours, and then Greg took over for the rest. Of course it started snowing and got really slippery once Greg started driving! We made it safely to the Westin Harbour Castle in downtown TO, hungry and needing a little rest, so pizza was in order. We didn't have to eat for several hours after that salty snack! It gave us the fuel we needed to walk all over downtown, and discover what makes people stay here and/or keeps them coming back.

We walked up Yonge, and then over to City Hall where the big concert / New Year's celebration was going to be held. The skating rink was packed, and it was a big family venue. The stage was all set up and they were doing mic checks, and the hostesses were practicing their lines. Greg was very excited about seeing Sean Desmond live (ha), but we were there so early that we would have had to wait in the minus 200 great outdoors for another 6 hours, so we decided to head down Queen Street instead. Maybe we could get in the background of Electric Circus!

We did end up at a nice restaurant where Lyndsay, David and I enjoyed some fine New Year's Eve dessert, and Greg sipped some 100000 year-old, oak-aged scotch (ha ha). Our evening then led us to the CN tower, where we decided that when in Rome... even though it was quite foggy!

We opted out of the Sky Pod option due to low visibility, but got our kicks on the glass floor. My wee brain was a might confused by that, I must say! It took a bit to get me onto the glass floor, and even then, I didn't want to move around too much. The other three might as well have been doing cartwheels on the glass... although there were some other tourist-types who were also hesitant (mostly women, interestingly; has any research been done in this area?!!).

We ended up back at the hotel by 11pm, and I was fast asleep shortly thereafter (no surprise there!). Lynds, Dave and Greg watched the City Hall events on the TV, and then saw the reflection of the fireworks in the windows of the buildings across the way! Wowee! Apparently it was all good fun (zzz...).

Sunday morning gave us a quiet day in TO, easy driving, and we ate at the most popular breakie place in the city; Over Easy. Tasty!

We drove Lyndsay and David to the church to meet up with their gang, and after our adieu's, Greg and I drove off to Marc's place at Deep River. Having Lynds and Dave as house guests was super, and proved to us that we can in fact fit more than two people into our place!

Super Contact

Wednesday was a much deserved day of rest. We slept in late, had a huge breakfast, and then walked it off by checking out all the cool shops in the Glebe. The weather's been frigid here all week, and it actually dawned on me that I haven't seen the sun since I arrived in Canada on the 18th. True...it's only been around freezing, but the dampness here gets inside your bones, and singes your face. I remember days on the praries where it would go below -30, yet if there was no wind, it was completely tolerable. (...what a menno thing to talk about the weather)

Marc and Lori had us four over for supper later that night. Lori's an outstanding cook, and got us warmed up with a fiery bowl of mexican bean soup. For the main course, there was a sweet/savoury lentil dish prepared using balsamic vinaigrette and cream, pan-fried sweet potatoes in maple syrup, and a killer rocket salad. Dave and I were more than happy to feel like beached whales for the remainder of the evening.

Our plans for Thursday were to do Montreal in a day. The best way to experience Montreal is to dump the car in the suburbs, and then use the underground to get to the sites. We first hooked up with our good friends Kathryn and Meghan at Kathryn's apartment, with her graciously offering to show us the sights.

First stop was the Biodome, a bizarre grouping of 4 climate-controlled ecosystems under one roof. Apparently, the building is an adaptation of the unused velodrome constructed for the '76 olympics. Then back over towards downtown and old Montreal, where all of the Christmas lights gave the cobble-stoned European streets an added ambience. Being 20 min. late for the last tour of the Notre-Dame Basilica, we decide to walk up toward Sainte Catherine street for supper. Of course, it wouldn't be Montreal without strolling past Club Super-Contact, Le Chateau-du-Sexe, and Club Super-Sexe. My favorite part was standing across the street, watching the guys who get paid to stand out front and haggle people to come in (like you got nothing else going on that evening). All the while, Celine is pouring her heart out from the speaker of Simon's Dept. store behind me. The eccentricity of Montreallers definetely make this a city unlike any other in Canada...and good on them. It's post-Christmas, middle of the week and cold outside, yet the sidewalks downtown are so packed you ain't walkin' no where fast.

Exhausted, we head back to Kathryn's place to say our goodbyes, pick up the car, and make one last stop on top of Mont-Royal. It was snowing really heavilly by the time we got to the lookout, but the effect on the city lights was spectacular. Hard to believe it was almost a year ago that Sophie and I got engaged up here.