What Makes Christmas?

In the past few weeks, while gearing up for the full force of the Yuletide season, I've been thinking about the things that really "make" the Christmas season for me.

Friends - I was finally able to meet up with my dear friend Marnie for our traditional dinner at Red Lobster. Nothing "traditional" about the date or location (off the QEW in Etobicoke), we just really like seafood, so I call it a tradition. We've both been busy with our shows (mine in Leamington, hers in Port Hope) and it was nice to take a litte time off and catch up on family news and state of theatre in Ontario (there's still hope!) I also caught up with my pals Will and Jenn from Toronto. Will is actually in Niagara Falls right now doing the Disney stage version of Beauty and the Beast. Jenn came to town and we both saw him rock the house with an amazing cast for an auditorium packed with school kids. If you remember the movie at all, Will played the Librarian who gives Belle her fave book in the opening number, the creepy head of the asylum that tries to lock up Belle's father, Gaston's bartender, and a dancing fork!

Seasonal Events - I went out to Niagara-on-the-Lake to check out their Santa Claus Parade with my sister Kat and her boyfriend Colin. I really fun mix of local floats and personalities promenaded down the streets of town, complete with horse-drawn carriages, costumed mascots, marching bands, and classic cars. Speaking of classic cars, my dad's friend Rick - a pleasant eccentric - has been recognized as the most frequent Rolls Royce driver in the world by a car afficionado magazine! Most Rolls owners keep theirs in storage until a big theatre date or a WASPy cotillion, but Rick drives his to the market for milk while keeping it in prisitine condition!

This is the float from my alma mater, Niagara District SS. I'm just glad that their still remains a school to actually have a float; every time I check back, NDSS is fighting for it's very existence, as the board keeps trying to find ways to shut it down and bus the kids elsewhere. Inane, if you ask me, especially when they try to calculate the amount of square footage of school building per student! As if that is a relevant ratio.

Above you can see The Man himself! I still get giddy as a child when Kringle hits the scene. Did you ever notice that different Santas evoke different feelings? Parade Santa differs from Mall Santa differs from Salvation Army Santa.Couldn't resist a phot op with my canine counterpart.

Music - The muzaak in the Days Inn in Leamington is chock full of holiday favourites. I find myself breaking into holiday humming, but I've yet to have a full-blown Carol sing, so I must get on that. Fave carols: Nat King Cole's Chestnuts Roasting, Burl Ives' Holly Jolly Christmas, Vera Lynn's Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (with the slightly poignant alternate lyrics sung during WWII), and TransSiberian Orchestra's Carol of the Bells. I also love a good Gospel choir version of Go Tell it on the Mountain. Pet peeve carols: Most pop covers of Carols done with too much Whitney Houston-style vocal riffing. The worst of this is Little Drummer Boy. "Pa-rum-pa-pum-pum" only works in little children choir voices, simple and clean, NOT with more slides than Six Flags.

Food - I had the Swiss Chalet Festive Special as soon as I landed, so that one's checked off! A candy cane is ONLY a candy cane in peppermint flavour; all the bubblegum and pina colada crap out there is sacrilege.

Family - Spending time at home with mom/dad/sis has been a blessing, a real soul-strengthener. The simplest of activities - shopping, cleaning, reading the paper - mean more when close to the fam.

And finally . . .

Brianne - Every single thing I've mentioned so far comes close, but just doesn't add up to having my wife around for the holiday. Our childishness and deep-seated romanticism really comes out to play this time of year, our favourite time of year. So it's not Christmas yet for me, the spirit just isn't completely there until approximately 4pm on December 23rd when wifey makes it through customs. Counting down the days . . .

Visiting the North

I spent most of last week amongst the stunning cold and marshmallowy beauty of Northern Ontario. I took a trip to visit my Dziadiu (pronounced "JA-joo"; Polish for grandfather) in Kirkland Lake. It had been many years since I'd had to chance to see him, so I jumped at the chance to travel by the Ontario Northlander train with my Uncle Richard to spend time with him. It's a long trip up, but very comfortable with amazing scenery, so it doesn't feel that long.
The train station serving Kirkland Lake is actually in the little nearby village of Swastika. Odd choice for a name, I grant you, but it's lasted for a century as of this year. It was named after the Swastika Gold Mine in 1908, nearly thirty years before it became such a symbol of National Socialism. During WWII the province tried to change the name to "Winston" after Churchill himself, but the town resisted and continues to deflect any criticisms of the name. Essentially, from their point of view, they were here first, which is quite accurate.
My time in Kirkland Lake was filled with chatting and food. Dziadiu is an immense talker, and we spent hours discussing every subject that came to his mind, from fishing to hockey. Very Canadian. His favourite topic, though, is discussing what a bunch of crooks politicians and businessmen are. Also, very Canadian. To add fuel to this fire, he's a big news watcher, and so we had CBC piping in on the Coalition and CNN following the Detroit bailout by the minute. It was pretty intense there for a while! The food was mix of simple Polish fare; soup, cold-cuts, bread and beer on the first night; fish the next; cabbage rolls to round it out. Uncle Richard actually made burgers of ground moose meat, too!

Kirkland Lake is very much the way I remember it from days as a kid. The centre of town is "The Mile of Gold" main street. Like any main street, it has the essential services of the town like banks and a pharmacy, and is strewn with storefronts, some standing the test of time, some empty and vacant. I always stop in to the Esquire Cigar corner store -- I used to but comic books as a boy when the summer got boring -- to poke around. Like a lot of corner stores I find in rural communities, they expand beyond their more urban counterparts stock of just snacks, drinks, and reading materials. It's merchandise is more ecclectic, comprising rabbit snares and antique sewing machines in the mix. The back of the place looks a bit like a mini flea market with it's range of stuff. I chuckled when I noticed they still had the EXACT same poster selection as when I was a kid -- a collection of Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls wall hangings that never sold in 15 years! They also sold these really cool hats:
Kirkland was covered in snow, and added to it several times in the four days I was there. I grinned to see the bulldozers and dump trucks removing the accumulation from the street and dumping it on the outskirts of town -- the outskirts, of course, being clearly in one's line of sight from wherever one is within town. The grin was also because I knew that Toronto would have lost it's collective mind in this kind of weather, but Kirkland doesn't bat an eyelash. I took a few shots that helped remind me of the winter's of my past.
Kirkland also has a Giant Tiger store, and for years as a kid I thought this was unique to Kirkland. I've learned since then, but I still think Kirkland's Tiger is the best anywhere. I had to laugh when I went in this time, because this Giant Tiger actually has a naughty lingerie section. Yikes. I certainly didn't go searching for this, but it is directly adjacent to the grocery aisle, so it's sort of hard to miss -- especially when they feature white-fur trimmed red nighty-and-thong ensembles for the holidays, all XXL! I'm not sure if this is because everyone in town had already taken the smaller sizes, or that the manager felt that these were a better match for their average shopper. Either way . . . yikes.

I made a point of calling Brianne's grandmother Angela while I was in Kirkland Lake, because she had spent some years living there. This I learned from the Tucker family documentary of David's, which I may very well have watched even more than several Tucker's out there!

I had to leave by Thursday of last week so as to be back in Toronto to head off to Leamington for my weekend of shows . . . phew! What the jet-setter I am. I bade a fond farewell to Dziadiu and Richard, as Richard was staying on to visit longer. I would love to come back to Kirkland in the summer -- those fish aren't going to catch themselves.

The show in Leamington continues to be a hit with the crowds that come see it. It's always a little treat living in a hotel room for the weekend to do the show. The rooms are clean and comfortable, and look into the interior of the building where the pool, waterslides, and courtyard is. The water attractions use salene rather than chlorine, much healthier and no burning sensations. I do laps every day, then lounge in the hot-tub and run lines with the cast. The courtyard has arcade games, pool tables, ping-pong, badminton, and air hockey. Every morning there's a complimentary continental breakfast. Before every show we're given a nice chicken caesar salad (no where near as good as Wendy's) and after each show we get a large take-out box of what was on the audience's buffet. What a delicious way to make a living.

I had one rather random occurence after the show weekend finished. I came back to Toronto because my sister Kat was looking at apartments, so I would meet up with her to head home to Niagara. While killing time before our rendezvous, I stopped for a coffee at a Second Cup at Spadina and Bloor. Who should I run into but a girl named Tobi from Dunrobin who Brianne and I had met on our bus trip through Ireland! The world is getting smaller by the minute.

Wandering in Whitby (the first week)

And we're off! Just like that the tour is underway. On Sunday we had one last run through and then onto the road we were, heading towards Whitby for Mondays performance. How to describe where Whitby is in relation to London...well, head towards Scotland and if you reach Scotland YOU'VE GONE TOO FAR! It is a seaside town situated almost entirely on hills. There is an old Abbey lying in ruins on the one side of the village, made even more ruinous by the bombings of WWl. We spent one late afternoon trecking up the 999 steps to see the Abbey and the view of the town from up there. The sights were spectacular and I couldn't help but being very thankful for the day of bluesky and white clouds to make my pictures look even better. Whitby is also famous for a much darker reason: in Bram Stoker's Dracula it is in the bay that the ship Demeter carrying Dracala back home was breached and it was up the stairs to the Abbey and the churchyard that Lucy ran up to see the sun set upon them. Perhaps I stood in the exact same spot that she did. In order to draw upon the tourist aspect of the story there is a little place along the seaside street named The Dracula Experience, a place where one can see 'Dracula rise from the dead' and also take a look at Christopher Lee's cloak from the films. No, I didn't go in - it wasn't open.

After our look at the Abbey we wondered into the main heart of town to look for a bite to eat, or more specifically:tea and scones. We found a place that was offering a full tea and scone experience for only three pounds twenty five - very reasonable. I thought that they were delicious, but a member of our troupe who is a self confessed 'tea and scone snob' was not happy that we were having whipped cream instead of clotted cream (Yikes!) and that the scones were not devonshire. Whatever that means...

The following morning we spent in a cafe just down the path from The Dracula Experience that offered light lunches but also...mmmm...fresh oysters. I have to say that they don't beat the ones from P.E.I, but they were quiet tasty especially with the beet-like sauce that was provided.

With the days performances done with we packed up and headed out to Barnsley. Now, for some odd reason every one that we told that we were going to Barnley made a very distinct face, so I wasn't quiet sure to expect. Admittedly there is nothing much to draw a tourist to the town: no sights or amazing features, but there was the best Bed & Breakfast we have encountered so far. It was as good as a palace. (Cheap joke: that's actually a line from the show.) The house (excuse me: Mansion!) had only been recently finished and included three of the most amazing features for a Pisces Actor 1. A heated indoor swimming pool 2. a Deep and luxurious bathtub and 3. The most amazing shower EVER - this thing had everthing - a large shower head, sauna funtion, side spray and a waterfall setting! (Dear Santa, for Christmas this year I would like...)

Upon arrival we asked if there was anywhere near and cheap to eat and we were given the following directions: Turn left onto the street that the B&B is on, turn left after the fish and chip shop and then turn right onto the main street, it will be right there. The directions seemed simple enough until we reached the turning right onto the main street and kept on walking. And walking. Past fields and woods. Hmm, what she neglected to mention was that 'it will be right there' meant ' it will be right there after 2 miles of walking'. We did however pass one of the best signs I have ever seen Eggs and Coke. Yes, we all had our own interpretations of what that meant, but for those of you with a sick sick mind it actually means Coke as a fire fuel. Could have fueled me...hehehe..I made a pun! What followed our arrival at the pub will for ever more be known as the Tequila Event. All I can say is: I was in whitby - and I apologise. (I know only Andrew will hit the floor laughing at that comment - but it was still worth it.)

A few luxurious baths and we were onto the final leg of this week's journey: Stevenage. What can I say about the B&B in Stevenage? Well, getting there certainly created a mood. We drove through a darkened forrest on a tiny pot-holed path that seemed to wander along for ages before opening onto the turning to get to the farmhouse we thought we were staying at. In actuality we were staying in the Barn. Now, before you start scoffing at that idea this was no regular barn. As we entered the main doors we came into a games room with a Snooker table, a darts board, a foosball table and a jukebox. In the room attached was an indoor pool but certainly not heated. Upstairs was the kitchen for our own use and a bathroom as well as one of the bedrooms and up in the loft was the other bedroom. It all seemed straight out of a b-rate horror film: the troupe of four actors out in the middle of nowehere, a canadian, an australian and two brits, they thought that they were out for a good time in the country barn until...TERROR STRUCK! (Sounds of screaming and shots of people running through the woods and blood being spattered against a barn door.) Coming to theatres this October: The Reaping!

Anyhoo, the shows are going well and I have today off and then it's back on the road tomorrow afternoon. It's crazy, but the kids are amazing (more about them later.)

TTFN!