So the closure of tonight means the end of my time here and, as of Monday, my return to the 9-5 grind. I tried to fit as much as I could into the last week, including an eventful trip to Toronto with Paul on Wednesday. He took the Go from Hamilton in and met up with me at Chapters on Richmond for our first Peepermint Mocha of the day and off we went. We hit up Steve’s to play some guitars and look for a microphone to finally initiate the launch of my home studio. Priced out a few things and decided to head to Long & McQuade to compare. The place was packed full of people, odd for a Wednesday afternoon, and Paul found himself captivated by a Les Paul Gold Top while I perused the store. In the end Paul convinced himself not to spend the money, but I dropped $100 on a USB microphone with a 30-day return.
The good news is the microphone doesn’t need to be returned, it’s great for simple recording here in the former office now studio. I rested it on the desk today and played and sang into it from my chair with two computers running beside it and the sound was quite clear and nice. So hopefully this shall launch the possible Blues for Pablo live acoustic EP I know you’ve all been waiting for with baited breath.
After our tour of guitar shops we headed to Volo in hopes of snagging a taste of the late Scotch Irish Santa Claws Christmas Cake Porter, which had sadly sold out in under a day. Thankfully, they somehow still had King PilsBock in stock and I finally tried it, while Paul sampled the Black Oak Nutcracker Porter. Volo, if you haven’t been, resides in the former home of the souvlaki restaurant near Yonge and College that used to put a souvlaki dinner in the front window. It’s a fine Italian restaurant with a severe beer addiction, but had a great atmosphere. Look forward to making it back for some grub.
We then caught up with Rob and Mark (not THAT Mark) for dinner at the Korean Grill House, as recommended by Mike. For those not familiar you sit across from a friend and between you lies an open flamed cone grill. For $13 you get an unlimited selection of beef, short ribs, pork, chicken, white fish, squid, salmon, ox tongue, and ox liver that you place on the grill with tongs and cook to your specifications. $16 will add lamb and shrimp to the meal. Paul and I, who were starved already, went ape-poo and ate like fiends while Rob and Mark behaved in a notably more respectable manner. Still, the food was good, the place looks nice, and it was a good time with friends.
I’m not sure if the mass of meat I ingested was to blame but the night that followed was demonic. I got a headache on the way home and crashed at 10:30, only to awake at 2:00 with one of the worst headaches I’ve ever suffered. This is notable because I’ve suffered some nasty-arse headaches thanks to migraines, going so far on one incident to slam my face repeatedly against a sign in Bermuda to alleviate the ache. This one wracked my brain and made me want to vomit repeatedly to the point we almost went to the hospital for a shot of painkillers. And Rick don’t take painkillers. I woke up sapped of all energy after a somewhat surreal night. I don’t know if the moral is eat meat in moderation, but I’m surely going to try and find out.