ottawa!

We went to Ottawa this weekend - part mini holiday, part cultural experience. One of Pina Bausch's pieces, one of the most innovative/well respected modern dance choreographers working today, was going to at the NAC, it's only stop in Canada. This was an opportunity not to be missed. So we booked our tickets and took the train to Ottawa.

The show Nefes was amazing, despite the young man from Quebec next to me who fell asleep and queitly snoring throughout the second half. The piece inspired by Istanbul and features 20 dancers, rain, silk dresses and lots of soap bubbles. Aren and I were overwhelmed with the beauty and the amount of content. While there was a vocabulary of movement, choreographic phrases were rarely repeated.

The venue, Southam Hall, was also beautiful. We were trying to figure out how the floor worked and so after the show, we stuck onto the main level (the answer? they travel with their own floor, 6" decks with wood planks as the dance surface). I looked at the house from the apron of the stage and it was beautiful. It must be amazing to perform there to a full house.

We have recently started going to a naturopath. Aren is on an elimination diet for the next month. No wheat, soy, sugar, dried fruit, coffee or dairy for him. Not so bad when we eat at home, but a little challenging on the road. Luckily, we found The Wild Oats Bakery (it's also a cafe). There we found gluten free, sugar free brownies, spelt bread. great chili and macrobiotic japanese rice bowls.


The next day we went to Parliament Hill. It's really lovely inside. We didn't go on the tour but did check out the Peace Tower. We went up to the observation deck and enjoyed the view of the capital region.




Then we walked across the Interprovincial Bridge and visited the Museum of Civilization in Quebec.

leaf carpet

{last week}

Sunday morning 9am. Temperature -1.

Aren leaves the house on his way to the office for some editing. He takes a few steps and stops in his tracks. Phone call to Reva: "Reva, there are leaves everywhere and the light is incredible." Reva abandons her baking and thows on her parka and is off. The results:

30

Recently I turned 30. We had quite a fun day. Here's how it went.

9:30am

Incredibly thoughtful presents.... presented by Reva.




They turned out to be:

A cozy handmade Antler Street scarf (reva)
A great book all about dreaming
A classy compass for everyday use (I've been wanting this for a long time)







10:00

Scrumptious waffles and coffee at Saving Grace, the best breakfast in TO.






11:00

A walk and photo shoot. Reva gives some respect to the lions...





then jumps into a new dress (somehow I've mixed up two days I think.... sorry) and has a headshot taken for the next 'wallstreet ladies' magazine...






1:00

We arrive at Dufflet, where an incredibly delicious treat awaits us.




We eat too much, laugh about it and proceeded to spend the rest of the day at the movie theatre. A great day.

morning date

Aren has been working overtime a lot this week so he took the morning off today in lieu. It was a lovely, cold morning. The first frost of the season was glittering on the grass. We walked through our park to our local french cafe, Claufotis, for un cafe et un croissant. Brown sugar-cinnamon for Aren and chocolate for me, yum. We then headed to the ROM to check out the crystal. We were underwehelmed. Interesting concept, poor execution. The bat cave was good, though.