Earthly Delights

Friday was an early start, but one that got going with another super yummy breakfast of oats, dates, bananas and soymilk.....I just can't get enough.

We went into the city with Dr and Dr, who were kind and cool enough to show me around the university. This little mini-side trip actually afforded me one of the coolest moments in my life: I got to handle a prehistoric (mesolithic) spear. It was incredibly gob stopping to hold something in my 29 year old hand that had been hanging around for tens of thousands of years. I had to have a think on that one.

A quick pit stop into The Eighth Day, where I held off on shopping and just enjoyed a quick boo around. I really, really suggest this cafe and grocery shop for any vegans/veggers that are coming out to Manchester. The selection of dried goods/household items and the cafe downstairs make this place a heaven for anyone who might be in need of a good veg fill up. It is really easily accesible by any one of the many privatized bus services that head out towards the university. It gets my vote FOR SURE.

Continuing our walk on a super beautiful Friday, we ended up in the more commercial part of Manchester, and proceeded to pop in for a quick look at the reconfigured Cotton Exchange, which is now a theatre in the round, and had a quick tea in Starbucks...sorry, I needed some chai with soy milk...Waterstones made quite a hefty amount on us (though nothing compared to Pic's take a couple of days before). I bought a gift-book (How it All Vegan) and a book for my kiddies - Egyptoplogy. K bought a bunch of Physics books and a little treat for his favourite vegan: The Cranks' Bible (more on the new books I discovered...I promise). We also bought each other these wicked geek mugs - I got K: Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep and he picked me out Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. We also stopped for some vegan-friendly deoderant and soap at LUSH. I found myself thinking mostly of my mommy who adores the smells and fizzies of this usually pretty good shop. I also bought the all time shitiest lip blam ever: EGGSNOG. You would be better to snog sans lip jelly, than get it on with this stuff. Any boy who gets a taste of your lips in this gunk is bound to hit the road. Yuck.

I made friends in the BEST vegan restaurant I have eaten in since I left the land of Fresh and Live - Earth Cafe is amazing! Totally amazing - and I ate way too much, but with zero regret - ZERO. The cafe is in the basement of the Buddhist Centre, and I am able to look past the way too hippie-stereotype-vegan-buffet style they have going, in pursuit of being able to praise the buddah out of this place. Here was my meal: 1 Transcendental juice (carrot, apple, ginger and orange), 1 bowl of green pea soup, 1 nut burger (hold the mushroom gravey and bread please), 1 side of roasted potato...and...oh my....1 really really really amazingly good BANANA, DATE and CASHEW CRUMBLE....I am going to work on trying this recipe out in my new kitchen...and will get back to you on it. All you need to know for now is that you MUST go to Manchester JUST to eat this bloody desert....maybe it is my deprevation of vegan deserts, but oh my was it good. The odd couple next to us, who were jointly from Toronto and Brussels, enjoyed their meal as much as we did - so that's four out of four....take the risk.

We totally needed a walk after that festival of food delights, but decided to hop on a bus to Chorlton where I was in search of The Unicorn. Not the mythical creature...the vegetarian grocery store. We did manage to find it, but I was a bit disapointed, and much more impressed with the Eighth Day. Ahhh well.....I did manage to get a really cool pink turnip bag (because I don't have enough bags) a really wicked Fair Trade apron, a cool 100% cotton tea towel and a couple of posters for my kiddlets. I also found Sumac, which is an essential ingredient in Fatoush Salad.....and some flax powder which will allow me to whip up some vegan chocolate chip cookies.

We arrived back at the University in time to meet up with K's parents, where we began our evening adventures that included: a good meal of Chinese food (complete with do-it-yourself lettuce wraps) and a concert put on by the BBC Philharmonic. They were recording for Radio 3 - so if you are interested in hearing a rather good piano concerto, and an amazing symphony (no.5 by Nielsen) then check out BBC Radio 3 on Thursday November 29th. Great Sound.

I feel asleep, like a little girl, in the car to the sounds of the 10 30 news........and only just managed to make it up to bed.

I went to bed feeling dirty Sunday night. Not even the two handfuls of raisins I crammed into my mouth on the way to bed could help my body readjust....I was a gonner...it was all over. I actually ate the junkiest food of all time last night - And, unlike my very vague memories of Alia and I eating Big Macs that actually tasted good, this 'thing' tasted wretched...maybe, I have gone too far onto the dark side of the lettuce leaf to enjoy the nuances of trash food, either way - blah. It started out as an innocent pre-show-bite-to-eat on the Turkish-restaurant-bloated street that is situated a stone's throw from the most amazing music venue I have ever been to - otherwise known as the Botanique. But, what I thought would bring a tear of Arabesque-memories to my eye, turned into a meal that I would just as soon forget - savouring only the look of horror on K's face when he realized that he had brought me to what was my anti-world.....it was FINE...just funny...really, really funny. I enjoyed the whole experience through a lens of "what the hell is this?"

K ordered me a Falafel Pita, but what I got was a really dodgie flat bread wrapped around a mess of: 1. corn 2. cabbage 3. more cabbage 4. something that might have been a falafel ball 5. (get ready) FRENCH FRIES. I plucked most of them out - but then realized I was being an ass, and just dove in. It wasn't the most satisfying 'almost' middle easternish food I have ever had, nor did I get off the stairmaster after my usual 45 minutes today.....but it was food, and it was funny and it was a great pre-show experience that started an evening that only progressed into something else.

We bought our tickets at the door, and joined about 200 other people on a series of descending steps to take in (NOT watch, listen to, or enjoy, but TAKE IN) Blanche. This wacky (in the most dictionary definition of wacky) fivesome is derviative of nothing and everything all at the same time. There is no stamp that you could throw over this band in a world where we float so easily to labels of comfort like: indie, new country and hip hop. These nuts were having none of it. They were a thrift store collection of different pulp culture iconography, starting with the dark, brooding (really cute) rimmed glasses, uber nerd bango player - who had a mic stand complete with an Edgar Allan Poe raven. Think Toby McGuire from Spider Man with a jet black wig and an undertaker's suit - got that image? You got him. On the opposite side of the stage sat a slide playing gym teacher - seriously, he looked like Mr. McColman from Grade 7 gym wearing Uncle John's tartan suit from Christmas 76. Yikes. But, he did wicked vocals on a 'get the crowd rocking' number called: I Can't Sit Down. The two love birds in the middle were images of the marriage I have always really wanted - a ten foot firey red head and a totally spastic Lyle Lovett impersonator. Hot. The drummer was actually a spitting image of a slimmed down Rosie O'Donnel - complete with the mullet.

The gig included more that your average crowd/band banter - the whole language issue popped up "Merci Buckets...." etc. But it was the bands faux deep south accent that threw me off.....when they kept mentioning their home town of Detroit it was just too hard for me to suspend my imagination. Their lyrics were actually quite well done, and included an array of topics: fall leaves, the shitey labour conditions of Detroit city, and the crumbling walls of a relationship filled with mistrust.

I was really enamoured with the quality of music, and overjoyed with the raw drums and the hivey/jivey bango. John Miller, the husband and poppa, of this little family has a great set of lungs and shakes and shivers like the best evangelical minister you could ever ask for. I wasn't overly impressed with his wife. Her vocals seemed to peeter out and hide behind the bigger voice of her partner and the pounding of Rosie.....I stand behind this musical criticism no matter where Kevin thinks my critical eye is coming from....as if Kevin.

Great band - would totally see them again. I left with a fear though - their music has a really super duper marketable quality to it. I can see the song I'm Sure of It heading the same way as Nick Drake's Pink Moon...a la VW commercials. And that would just blow. They are too weird to be incorporated into that whole muck....but I suppose that is part of what makes it inevietable.

On another note, I just had my last meal in Brussels for the next five days - salad, chick peas and grilled veg. Yum. I am off to Manchester and a family who has never known a vegan. Jesus. I hate stressing people out. Yikes. I hear they have wireless on the island, so I will be sure to keep everyone posted.