What a week it’s been. I’ve attended a wedding, hosted two parties, including one where I fed an old lady rancid hamburgers. Yann and I also visited the art gallery, stole all the paintings, and then replaced them with posters of shitty movies. I started a painting of one of my fantasies, but before I could finish it, I was interrupted with a marriage proposal by a nude Yann
Today was low-key though, I made grilled cheese for the cats.
First, British Columbians, I’d like to make something clear:
“Nigel the Interpreter” is not performing.
I miss bouldering. It’s not that Victoria doesn’t have a bouldering gym, it’s just not Bloc Shop. I’ve switched back to climbing. Yes, there’s a difference: one can be good at climbing, but suck at bouldering. This was me until I moved to Montréal and started going to Bloc Shop regularly. Then, I was mediocre at both.
In a seemingly futile attempt to improve, Yann and I would often film each other’s attempts on the trickier problems (bouldering routes are called problems). These videos were usually deleted from my phone shortly afterward; however, many of them ended up being automatically uploaded to my Google account.
What was I supposed to do with them all?
Make a compilation of our fails!*
At the beginning of the month, several people messaged me on Instagram to say they were looking forward to seeing what I’d make for this year’s gingerbread creation.
I was flattered. I was also looking forward to seeing how far my cookie genius would take me.
Last year’s Ambani Gingerhouse involved the brilliance of molds made out of leftover gingerbread dough to create perfectly-sized hard candy windows. It also required working in the presence of two curious cats, and with limited counter space.
It wasn’t enough to woo the judges of the online contest I entered, but when I edited last year’s post to announce my defeat, I also mentioned recruiting a friend for 2019’s project.
Tammy is someone who, like me, is delighted to go overboard on baking projects. She specializes in not being able to decide which cake to bake; instead, she bakes them all to stack atop one another. In 2017, for her boyfriend’s birthday, she served up a cake that was about a foot tall and took her well into the wee hours of the night to make. As one of the attendees at this birthday party, I got to eat this magnificent cake.
Anyway! I asked her what she had in mind for our gingerbread project.
“St. Basil’s Cathedral!”
I’ve given some spectacular gifts.
And some really bad ones which hopefully were so bad, they were good. Like this modified soccer trophy:
squaremeat.com 