Sunday, November 5, 2017

Weather and weird movies

Winter is coming??
Just a few short weeks ago the following article appeared in the local Winnipeg news rag -
October heat record Winnipeg.

It tells the amazing story of how this winter city has just had the hottest October day ever - a lovely balmy 31celsius. I remember that day - I was out working and stopped for a slush, to cool my poor overheating body parts. It was a lush slush.

No just one calendar month later and as predicted for the last 6 years or so in 'Game of Thrones', Winter has arrived

Take a look through the superheated, transparent, silica and limestone walls I have decided to call windywoos, and you will see a 10 centimetre layer of white stuff. This white stuff is made from water vapour that has frozen around specks of dirt in the air and formed into a substance known as Coldysnow. Its taken just a few short weeks for the entire environment to change from a beautiful warm autumnal landscape into a beautiful winter landscape and to be honest, at the moment, I really like it. It is the first time since the Canadian government lowered the standard of immigration so far as to let me into the country that somehow, the world looks,well, right.

Living over here in Winter is different to living in Europe in Winter. In Europe, you get some show here and there and might have to put on another layer of clothing for a day or three. But over here, after 4 winters previously, I have finally got everything I need to successfully get through winter without too much hassle.

You see, here, we have a cupboard upstairs which acts like the 'seasonal' aisle in a supermarket. A couple of weeks ago, this cupboard held winter boots, hats, scarves, big winter coats and the attachments for my trainers so when I go running on the ice I don't fall and break a finger again. This seasonal cupboard is now full of flip flops, this Summer jackets and sun tan lotion. I have twice as many clothes as I ever had before because the change from one season to another can be so dramatic. But its cool, literally. Actually at the moment its only about minus 6, but over the next few weeks and into the new year it will get really chilly. I will let you know when it gets really cold and will try to grow a beard for a week or two in the new year just so that I can go out and get it frozen and take some cool photos.

White stuff.

Langside Grocery.
In between studying for my Grade 2 chemistry exam (This explains my detailed knowledge of Snow and windows above) and installing telephones into dentists and Realtors, I still try to keep fit by running when I can and walking when i cant. Over the last few weeks my old shoulder injury flared up again which made it painful to run, so I have been tabbing around the local area when I can and taking the opportunity to wander down some streets I haven't visited in a while.

One of these streets was Langside St, just a few blocks over from home. There used to be a grocery store there on a corner which was like the old grocery stores I remember as a kid back in Manchester in the 70's. But the store closed a few years ago and the windows have been boarded up since. Until a few weeks ago, when the windows were uncovered to reveal a small but perfectly formed bar/cocktail place/pub lovingly built to look like its been transported here from the 1940's. Without all the TV's and blaring music you get in some places. Now, I love to go out and watch a bit of sport in the pub, but when me and Buff went around to Langside Grocery and spent a wonderful couple of hours trying the cocktails, whilst sitting at the bar under the intimate lighting and watching the word go by through the traditional windows we knew we had found a new favourite place to waste a few hours after a long week. If you are in Winnipeg, don't tell anyone that this place exists because we want it all to ourselves.....

Small and unassuming - It doesn't even have a sign

Before it opens for the evening..
 Movies
Every now and then we get together with friends and watch bad movies. Sometimes these tale a theme and last night Joel and Alena came around to watch some old musicals. Now, I am not sure whether these were meant to be bad movies or even if they actually were that bad, but I just felt the need to explain a little about them and the fact that they were both, just a bit........odd....

An American in Paris.
An American GI who settled in Paris works as an artist. He gets sponsored by a lonely woman to create his own art show, but the woman also wants him for herself. At the same time he falls in love with his friends fiance who he meets by accident in a bar.
A few months later the secret comes out and the woman he fell in love with leaves Paris with her fiance, but as she gets into the car to leave the movie goes through a 17 minute dream dance sequence in the GI;s head. At the end of the sequence we see the girl get back out of her car kiss her fiance goodbye and return to our hero. The fiance actually smiles and waves her goodbye before leaving. There is never any explanation why this happens.

Swingtime
Lucky, is a man who dances and gambles with equal verve and is engaged to be married but misses his wedding because of his gambling. His fiances father tells him he can have another chance i he can earn $25000. He goes away to do this but falls in love with a dance teacher. The dance teacher is engaged to another man (again) They have an on/off romance until the dance teacher decides she cannot trust him and she goes to get married to her fiance. However, (and I shit you not, this is actually what happens in the movie) while the fiance is getting ready for the wedding, our hero bursts into laughter steals his wedding suit trousers. The fiance still turns up to the wedding, but wearing trousers lent to him by his man servant which are far too big. The dance teacher who is waiting to marry him, sees this and bursts into laughter with everyone else, and then calls off the wedding leaving her fiance for Lucky. The spurned fiance then smiles and says 'So you going to marry him then?' before breaking into song. It is the weirdest end to a movie ever. If you don't believe it, then take a look at the clip here.....

 
     

Finally, Buffy has been working for ages on creating a gallery of photos on the stairs. We finally got all the photos together, she finished spraying the frames and we mounted them all this week. I think it looks amazing.


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