Hi there. Welcome and thank you for dropping by.
While late autumn and early winter fills most everyone’s schedule with fun celebrations, I consider myself extra lucky to add three personal special dates to my calendar during this time. Those are anniversaries of meeting three people who’ve become very important in my life : One is my dear husband Nick — I met him on a blind date in November 1998, and married him in November 1999. (We went to Halifax for our anniversary, written about here, here and here.)
The other two are celebrations of cherished friendships. Having a relatively small family, most who live a fair distance away, “I’m a friendship kind of person“, (to quote Chelsea Handler in this video where she’s showing Architectural Digest around her stunning home.)
And so, I enjoy commemorating Friendiversaries. Here is the story about the second such occasion I had the pleasure of celebrating in recent weeks, my decade long relationship with Meghan! (The first was with Julie, written about here.)
Meghan and I met at a place we both worked back in 2009, and although neither of us is still there, we continued what began as a work friendship, beyond the work space.
She is a cool, caring and very courageous person, who I always enjoy spending time with. Regular readers will have seen that our times together very frequently involve seeing some kind of art, with our recent friendiversary celebration being no exception.
We began with dinner in Kensington Market. I snapped a few shots on the way to the restaurant …
↑ This is how dark it is in Toronto at 6 pm in the wintertime, in case you’re wondering! ↑
We went to a new (just over a year old) place called Koi Koi Sake Bar — it’s where the longstanding Graffiti’s Bar used to be, on Baldwin Street at Kensington Avenue.
We both thought it was great. The food we tried was delicious, and the house sake we drank warmed us up nicely on that winter evening.
From there, we headed over to The AGO, as we had tickets to hear/see Miho Hatori’s (of former band Cibo Matto which also included Sean Lennon) musical performance piece, Salon Mondialité . Meghan and I had both been fans of Cibo Matto back in the ’90s and were interested in seeing this new show.
↑ We passed through the gallery’s cafe on the way to the theatre and loved the black and white paint job. The wall Meghan is standing in front of is perfectly flat. ↑
The show was very interesting but short, leaving us time to do more.
First we took a quick stop into The AGO’s Main Gift Shop, where Meghan picked up a few Christmas gifts.
If you can’t get to the gallery to shop, they have an online store, as well, with all proceeds supporting the AGO and culture in Canada — Shop AGO.
Then, we walked down to Queen Street West in search of a drink. We decided to drop into The Cameron House.
It ended up being a good choice! We sat in the front room and had a lot of fun listening to Patrick Brealey performing his original songs with a band, and then doing another set of covers of songs by the individual members of The Traveling Wilburys, with some of the same musicians plus a few more. All the music was excellent and the vibe in the place was a happy one, indeed.
When it was time to go our separate ways, Meghan and I hugged one another while stating “Here’s to 10 more years of friendship and beyond”.
xo loulou
