Guitar Licks and Tips

As I’ve said before on this blog, you never know what a gem of an article is hidden in your local bi-weekly news letter that you would have otherwise not been privy to! We’re all aware of these things taking up space in our recycling bins outside the house. They can draw your attention to a local event or some kind of one of a kind establishment in your hood!

Today I was waiting around for a store to open and I had roughly 35 minutes to kill. So what was I going to do to pass the time I said to myself? Ah, what about that Coffee Bar that opened up in the old XXX video store that went under ages ago?! Even some local critics had nothing bad at all to say about the place, so sure, let’s check it out!

Trying to recall where this place was, after walking down the street and around the corner, sure enough it was there! The place is called Broadview Espresso. The outside was nicely refinished, back to it’s original period look. Gone were the signs that covered up the front windows, blocking the hidden beauty inside this vintage old store.

As I strolled in, the inside great! It has a small, intimate feel to it. The ceiling was wood, the lights hanging from the ceiling were a nice art deco design and they all fit in well together for a charming atmosphere. The owners used particle board (that was shellacked really thick, I might just do this for a future home project, if it presents itself to us) for a stretched out table that wrapped all the way around the windows so you could look outside onto the street to view the sidewalk traffic. The high barstool like seats are simple, just the way I like it. Overhead, there was relaxing jazz music, people reading, talking in a low voice or simply using their notebooks.

Upon ordering a coffee, I made small talk with the young lady behind the counter. I asked her if they had anyone playing music in there and she had a neat answer to my question. She said that musicians just show up from time to time and play when they like. The Barista added that this one guy even came back every Saturday night for a month and played for nothing! Now this is the kind of place that you want to see up and coming new indie talent! Nice, I’ll be back for sure!

So when you see that old bi-weekly newspaper, that you normally just chuck into the recycling bin, leaf through it and you never know what you’ll find!

Keep on Jammin’

Well this 2008/9’s holiday season was full of both work and lots of fun for all of us here! We worked hard but played harder.

At work, we had less OR rooms open, so natural we had less staff working! This doesn’t mean that the work load on each of us there was any less. Just like any other work place during slow times, there were times when we had nothing to do (just waiting for the OR patients to arrive) and at other times it was fast paced and chaotic (when we were inundated with patients)! Then after all the craziness, came the fun!

We eventually got up and drove to my home town of Brantford early that Christmas morning to celebrate with my family. We ate a lot of GREAT food, had a few eggnog based beverages (NOT too many) and then hours later we headed back off to T.O. We brought back with us my brother and his son, with all his new hockey equipment in tow from his cache of this year’s Christmas gifts from the family!

The weather was great, around -3 (C) with light flurries. It was about 9:00 PM, we had a quick drink, got our gear ready and then headed off to the local out door rink at Dieppe Park! Once we arrived, we put on our equipment and headed off to the pleasure skating rink, to get our ice legs ready, before hitting the hockey ice pad.

The hockey rink had around 8 guys on it once we arrived. Once we skated onto it, the guys asked us if we wanted to join them on their teams for a game? After they said this, my nephew’s eye’s just opened wide with excitement! The look in his eyes said, finally playing some REAL hockey, on a traditional out door Canadian ice pad!!!

These guys were around 17-20 years old. My brother and myself being of, shall we say developed years, were a little worried about how our performance would be, in front of the little guy. As it turned out, we did great. We still had some decent rushes in us and had some nice tape to tape passes (really we did, ask the little guy!) that night. After 12:30 AM, 3 hours later, we decided to call it quits.

The next morning my joints didn’t feel all that bad, to my wife’s surprise, and we then proceeded on back 2 more times that day! The following day we also managed to get back out there 2 more times, but now the aches and pains were starting to set in.

While my they were here in Toronto, we also met up with more family and friends. We even talked my cousin and his son into heading out onto the ice for a laugh!

After a couple of days here, our guests headed back to their home in Chicago. Now it was time for some ice … not the one at the rink or the ones in a drink … if you know what I mean!?

Hopefully you all had a blast! Happy Holidays everyone.

calling this guy a one man band is an understatement. This fine young musician is either a musical genius or a little bit more then mis-understood? You be the judge.
This guy is just so neat to watch him … do his thing! Enjoy.

Keep on Jammin’

I hope that everyone out there has a great, a safe and happy Christmas holidays!

Remember, do something nice to a complete stranger today!

Kids say the damnest things now don’t they? I wonder if we were like this when we were kidz, ha!

Keep on Jammin’