Well, I have recovered from my busy weekend selling pottery at the Fairview Studios Christmas sale. This sale only runs from 9am-noon on Saturday, but they are the busiest and best 3 hours of the year. I went home afterwards and had a snooze, as I was dog tired and needed to rest up before I went out for beer. My dear mother has the most impeccable timing. I think she has some kind of sick 6th sense that tells her she should call me just as my brain enters the delta wave phase of sleep ( 1/2 step above coma). So I am pretty sure she thinks I don’t like talking to her, but really it is that my brain can’t string 3 words together, let alone carry on a coherent conversation.
Anyway, I revived myself, ate some cereal for dinner, and then headed off to the pub (AKA the Ship and Anchor). It is only about 8 blocks away as the crow flies, but it was super cold on Saturday night (at least -17 celcius), so I drove. Don’t freak out, I only drank Guinness (4% alc. by volume) and I only had 3, and I was there for several hours, and I had a humongous bowl of poutine (french fries, gravy, cheese curds) to soak it up. Anyway, the purpose of this story is that somebody there that night had the worst case of gas EVER. We were sitting at the bar chatting, and then our eyes would start to water and our noses would burn as this toxic fog would waft over. We couldn’t figure out where it was coming from, but man was it powerful, and it never stopped. It would go away for a bit, but then there it was again. It was so bad that Max (the bartender) was lighting matches and wafting the acrid smell of burnt match heads around to try and “cleanse” the air. Smoking is not allowed in public areas in Calgary, so I am pretty sure that the only reason they keep the matches on hand is to combat foul body odors. Never thought I would miss the smell of stale cigarettes in a bar, but at least you never had to smell that smell.
On a side note, If you have never had poutine, and are curious, it is essentially a heart attack in a bowl. I would not recommend having it more than 1 or 2 times a year, but on a cold winter night, when you have only had cold cereal for dinner, it sure hits the spot. Invented by the Quebecois, not sure when, it slowly moved westward in popularity in the late 90’s and 2000’s. Make yourself some French fries, put them in a bowl, top with gravy and cheese curds (squeaky cheese). People call it squeaky cheese because they kind of squeak when you eat them. Anyway, the cheese curds melt all over the fries and into the gravy, and it is pretty yummy. Poutine is very salty, so take your rings off now, and don’t expect to be able to fit back into your shoes the next day. Drink lots of water afterwards.
If you are in Calgary, you should check out the Ship and Anchor as well…here is their website www.shipandanchor.com
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