Hello everyone,
Happy 20/2020, which is just a really fun number to say.
In December, me and Lee-Anne went to Pioneer Village in Toronto, which is a recreation of early 19th century Ontario. It's one of those places where all the employees dress and act like they are living in that time. They had a tinsmith shop, a leather shop, a blacksmith, a print shop, a church, an upper class house, a bakery, a grainery, a fire station, a barrel-making place, a doctor's house, a school, and some farm-like places.
The first place you reach when you enter is the tinsmith shop, and the person there set the bar really high. You could hear her working before you got in, and when you talked to her, she made it clear that she was legitimately apprenticing. She did a demonstration of how tin lanterns were resistant to wind based on how they were grooved, and gave examples of some early fire-prevention mechanisms.
The bakery was legit, and you could buy product. We got a couple of blackberry tarts, which were pretty good. You could also buy stuff at the print shop. As an aside, I decided that if I lived in that era, I would want to be a journalist.
There was a Scottish house. My last name is Scottish, but my father was adopted, so I'm not genetically connected. Still, some people have guessed me to be Scottish before knowing my last name, somehow. When we came to this place, the actor from that house was describing what a "Proper Scotsman" looked like, before the influence of invaders. She wound up describing me pretty much one-to-one, and capping it off by saying things like "This is the Scotsman that would attract many women" "He's the one the girls would want to introduce to their parents" "This is the Scotsman that would protect his woman". I maintain that I have no real Scottish roots, and I wouldn't ever claim to have them, but this woman wound up wing-womaning me in front of my date, to which I am grateful.
They didn't have many of their animals out, except for a smattering of birds, and somehow, some people were getting horse-and-buggy rides. But they did have geese, and the geese had waddles, or whatever those things are that hang from the throats of roosters. Got a picture down below.
There were these cards at each location that showed the journeys of significant people of that time, and they were framed in choose-your-own-adventure format, such as "Should you decide to protest, go to the print shop, Should you decide to maintain the family business, go to the grainery". Near the end of the trip, there is a house where each historical figure's life journey is described. They then had a wall for people (which would mostly be children) to describe how their generation would impact society.
The notes they offered started things off with, "My generation will..."
It was really depressing how many of the notes said something along the lines of "My generation will... be dead due to climate change"
It sucks to see such a pessimistic generation, but hopefully this means that environmentalism will be taken more seriously in the future generation.
Here are some photos I took:
I also got a proper eye check, somewhat inspired by my girlfriend's family having a background in optometry. I remember a few years ago, when I was having an ear/nasal/eye infection because of a recent ailment. I was unable to read to bottom line on one of the eye charts, only in the eye that I perceived to be uninfected. When I couldn't read the final line, the nurse tried to tell me it was okay, but I was like "I CAN SEEEEE ITTTT!!!!"
Me and Lee-Anne also did something called a Paint Night. This was actually a birthday gift from her, since she knows that one of my hobbies is painting. She gave me an "I Owe You One Paint Night" homemade ticket, which she honoured. I had never done something like this, but it turns out that it's pretty common for up-and-coming artists to host sessions like this at local cafes, bars, and eateries, in which there is a painting, and the artist helps teach the audience in a step-by-step format how to recreate the image.
Without giving you guys the reference image, here's how mine and Lee-Anne's paintings turned out.
I'd like to test which you guys think is which, but I have no way of verifying that, so I'll just tell you that I am on the left and she is on the right.
I had a blast. I think everyone taking the session made their foreground forests larger than they intended. I wish I had made my cosmic interruption, or clouds, or white accents, more horizontal and less vertical.
And here are some random cute pics of my cat
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