I'm Baack!

Some of you (okay, fine, just Theron) may have been wondering where I’ve been for the last week. Well, from Thursday to Sunday I was in Calgary at another motorcycle show. Prior to that, I was going crazy trying to get all my stuff finished in time for the bike show. Three days & three nights of writing Anime, drinking green tea by the pot and eating leftover marshmallows does tend to wear on the soul.

As for the bike show itself, what can I say? It was better than Seattle, since people actually seemed to show up this time. And the weather was surprisingly mild, mostly clear and sunny hovering around zero during the day with only the faintest specks of white dancing in the sky. And the eats in Calgary are surprisingly good. Thursday night we went to this French restaurant called Fleur de Sel that we discovered last year. Brian talked me into getting the ostrich, which was not nearly as gamey as I had feared. Kinda like pork, but with a richer poultry-like flavour. Waiter kept trying to convince me that ostrich was native to Canmore (some sort of freak glacial incident), which led to the on going debate between Brian and myself as to whether the waiter was gay or not. Didn’t manage to settle that one, but I’m confident my gaydar is finer tuned than his is.

Friday night was spent at Mercato, an unusual Italian bistro style place that’s actually inside an upscale Italian supermarket. Again, much better than I suspected, I had the Forest Mushroom Fettucini, which was excellent, and a very nice Pinot Blanc. Dinner conversation was this time preoccupied with cracks about pecorino & risotto balls, not to mention the two foot long pepper mill.

Saturday we went to The Living Room, a very trendy lounge style place where Mike spent the whole time giving the waiter grief, something which Brian & I teased him about for the rest of the trip. Being that I’d managed to grab a sandwich with my aunt & uncle who happened to stop by the show, despite my not calling them (or anyone I knew in Calgary for that matter); I opted for a light dinner of warm spinach & scallop salad and the phyllo wrapped brie (okay, maybe not so light) accompanied by a big buttery Chardonnay. Mike got me to confess that the only reason I do the bike shows is for the Chardonnay & the creme brules. And let me tell you, I have had my fair share of crème brules & this had to have been one of the best. It was tri-flavoured & came in this cool stripy dish that didn’t work so well with the big fat desert spoon I’d been given. Amaretto, chocolate, & a honey rosemary thing that nearly caused me to cream my panties. So good!!

Sunday was a hard slog as it usually is, but it did give me time to get some bike pictures & girl talk with Stephanie from Nakusp. Managed to bluff my way through two bike centric conversations with one of the Ducati salesmen, something I seem to be getting better at. Or maybe he didn’t care either since I’m pretty sure he was trying to flirt with me. Oh well. Then it was time to pack up & rush out to the airport for the flight home. Only one more show to go (Vancouver, in two weeks), then I’m all done with bikes until next year.

Just because everyone keeps telling me how good I look on a scooter.

For more pix of me on a Vespa, go here.