Currywurst is the Worst

Last Thursday I went to Christkindl Market with the WALES members. Me and Lee-Anne went last year and I did a blog post on it. It's a Christmas-based German celebration that takes place over four days.

I'm going to retread some territory now, because it concerns the completion of a year-long journey. Last time we went, me and Lee-Anne got schnitzel from a German food truck. The menu was hand-written and only posted at the front of the line, so we stuck with a safe choice. But when we were ordering, I noticed that one of the items was something called "currywurst" and touted to be Germany's most eaten street food. This gave us buyer's remorse, as we would have liked to try this thing we've never had, which was supposedly their specialty.

Later that year, this food truck was at the Canada Day celebration in Waterloo Park. It was the only one with decent meal options, all the others being just snacks. So it had a ridiculous line and me and Lee-Anne waited like an hour and a half. But we wanted that currywurst. When we got to the front they didn't have it. Totally not worth the wait.

They were at the Cherry Festival as well and it wasn't on their menu.

I looked up recipes for it online, thinking that I might make it if that were the only option. I wrote it on our whiteboard, on our list of recipes to try. It's basically cut up sausage on fries with sauce. I was a little skeptical, because one of the main ingredients is ketchup and I notoriously dislike it. But I know that it can sometimes be used as an ingredient without ruining the overall impression of a dish. 

Christmas was approaching and I thought I'd hold off to see if maybe this food truck specifically does it for Christkindl Market, as it's the only celebration where people might be enticed to leave their culinary comfort zones for something German. Maybe Oktoberfest too, but we never participate in that.

So this year, when I went during the day with WALES members, I snuck a peak at this food truck's menu. Indeed, they had currywurst.

My brother had been going to make dinner but was feeling sick, leaving me and Lee-Anne without plans. It seemed opportune, so we decided to go that evening.

We also took our time to wander about and look at things. A big part of the festivities were hosted inside Kitchener City Hall. As something separate from the market, this place always has a display for a local artist. It just so happened that this time it featured the person that we bought a painting of citrus fruits from. I believe I posted about that when I talked about the Central Art Walk.

I guess it's okay to share the artist's name since she's a public figure. It's Lee Anngold. When I tried to explain why I was excited to see her work to the WALES members, they said "Lee-Anne made that?!" confusing the artist with my wife, who they know. I wasn't able to clarify effectively.

On the evening trip, Lee-Anne bought a little gnome to put on our Christmas tree. This year, we have a two dimensional display as an attempt to avoid our cats from messing with it. It's working okay, but they still bat at the ornaments.

We bought some flavoured fudge. Last year we tried the eggnog version and something else that I forget. This time we bought lemon meringue and peanutbutter crunch. Pretty good!

There was someone selling small novelty plant pots. I kind of wanted to get one for propagating a succulent. I have a jade plant that I got during my first year at my current job. Someone was giving out cuttings, coincidentally on my birthday and seven years later mine is the only one still alive. I managed to propagate a cutting from it, which I keep at work. 

But we have another succulent now, one that we got from Lee-Anne's late grandmother's house. It's done well over here, to the point of getting a little overgrown for the one small window that the cats can't get to. Randomly, one day we found a piece of it on the floor, looking cleanly severed. Not having a proper plant pot, we filled a jam jar with soil and some small rocks at the bottom for drainage. This has worked out okay, but I would like to transplant it or maybe get a cutting from the main one to propagate at work.

 There was someone selling oldschool games and toys. I noticed that they had yoyos. Back when I was a child, randomly one year yoyos were trending. But they were automatic ones which I thought were stupid. Kids would buy them and watch them do tricks, as if this somehow reflected their skill. I really wanted just a normal one, and I'm pretty sure the ones this vendor had were just wood and string.

Anyway, I was too shy to buy a plant pot or a yoyo. Maybe I just need to keep going for a few years, until I develop enough familiarity to buy things, like at the Art Walks.

Anyway, we did eventually buy some currywurst. It was bitterly cold, and the person standing at the front seemed almost delirious from exposure to the elements. He seemed to be in an almost frantic state of adrenaline, being extremely jovial and personable despite losing track of orders, prices, and not being able to operate the card machine

Eventually we got our currywurst. It was pretty gross. I kept a brave face and didn't complain until finishing, though, as I knew this was dinner and something highly anticipated. The fries and sausage were fine. The sauce literally seemed to be ketchup with some curry powder sprinkled on.

I haven't had anything so ketchup-heavy since I reconciled my disdain for the condiment. Giving it a good try once more, I won't let those "ketchup is just barbeque sauce" arguers have any leverage anymore. Clearly, there is a vast and significant difference between the two, even in their closer variants.

But I'm still happy I tried it, as it sated the curiosity I'd developed last year when we failed to get "Germany's most popular street food". As it turns out, currywurst is the worst.

Mom's Out of the Hospital

Mom got out of the hospital a week ago today. She had knee surgery the Thursday of that week. They were hoping to get her out by Saturday, but Lee-Anne and I had difficulty finding some of the items needed for her to be discharged.

They wanted us to buy a walker and rent a wheelchair with an elevated left leg rest. Unfortunately, most pharmacies are closed on the weekends and the places that were open didn't have a wheelchair to her specifications. On Sunday, we discussed the situation with the specialist at the hospital, and she agreed that we could bring her home so long as we had a walker and a travel wheelchair, and promised to get her a standard one with an elevated left leg rest the next day. I think they really needed the bed.

If you want to know what a travel wheelchair is, it's one that doesn't have the big wheels in front, so the person can't move themselves and they need someone to push them. We did rent a proper one with an elevated left leg rest the next day, as well as an elevated toilet seat and a grabbing stick. We're fortunate that we already had a shower chair.

I must say, I was surprised that everything was as cheap as it was. At work, I hear members talking about how their accessibility equipment costs thousands of dollars. So I was a little intimidated, and surprised that renting the travel wheelchair for a week was only $40. Buying it would have been $400, which is still cheaper than I expected. The walker cost $60. 

I suppose the people I know that use accessibility tools have had modifications done, and got better quality versions because of the long-term nature of their expected use. That probably pushes the price up, and we got pretty entry-level stuff.

Although we'll be using these things a bit longer than short term. She's projected to need a brace for the next six months or so.

We're lucky that they live as near to us as they do, and that they live on the ground floor of their apartment. Me, Lee-Anne and my brother have alternated going out for walks with her. If this had happened in Guelph and they were still in their basement apartment, that would have been rough.

Of course, then you think that if she had been in Guelph she wouldn't have been hit in the first place. I tend to find ways to blame myself, so I was thinking that maybe the driving in Kitchener is just not what she's used to. But really, this wasn't a situation typical of the city. It could have happened anywhere.

Mom Broke Her Knee

 Last Tuesday evening, I'm sitting at home when I hear someone hammering on our door. "Gryphon! Mom's in the hospital!" my brother's voice shouts.

I run to the door and he briefs me. Fortunately, we live about a five minute walk from the hospital. Unfortunately, this has been convenient for me enough times that I'm versed with what people want when they unexpectedly find themselves there.

I quickly bag some snacks, a bottle of water, and an external battery. We scamper up to the hospital.

She isn't taking visitors right away. When she is, it's one at a time, and I tell my brother to go ahead of me. After he's left, I hear someone call my name. It's somebody that I know. I tell them that it's always odd to run into someone you know under such circumstances. We trade stories about what brought us there.

Eventually, it's my turn. She's on a stretcher in the hallway. I give her the bundle that I'd made for her. She seems okay, except that her knee is unusable. She has retrograde amnesia, with no memory of the event.

But at this time we know some stuff. She had been hit while walking to the grocery store. She had been in the right, proven by the fact that a bus full of witnesses had all seen the driver run a red. It was almost in front of the hospital. I guess if you need to be hit by a car, there's no better place for it.

I take the next day of work off, which proves to be useful as I find myself running between home and the hospital, ferrying things over to her. She has a room now, and we're told that she might be having surgery that day or the next.

We get the police report of what happened. This is where we see a plot twist.

...Unfortunately, I'm not able to share the full story by this medium. The real thing is a little weirder than I'm able to reveal here.

Remember how I said that I'd run into someone I knew in the ER? I traded stories with them and shared their company until it was my turn to visit with Mom.

It was THEM! They were the one that hit Mom in front of the hospital! They'd heard my story, I noted a strong reaction from them, but I just took it as empathy. They must have known, or at least strongly suspected that they were involved in my mom being there, but they didn't disclose.

Even if you wind up in the same Emergency Room as the person that hit your mom, what are the chances that it will be the one person in a crowd that you know outside the event? This really felt like an example of reality being stranger than fiction.

Art Walks, 2025

Me and Lee-Anne went on the two local Art Walks this year, as we usually do. The one in our neighbourhood was smaller than the one branching from downtown, which is usual. However, it seemed like the disparity was increased this year. The Central Art Walk was only eight locations, and they could be divided into two separate "clusters" with a lot of unused space between them, whereas the Frederick Art Walk was so busy that we weren't even able to complete the whole thing.

It wasn't too long ago that I would go to these things, skirt along the perimeter, snatch glances of artwork and avoid talking to anyone. This year, we were not only involved in every stop we came across, but we spent perhaps an irresponsible amount of money.

The place I got this from generously hosted several contributors, one of whom noted that I was from his neighbourhood. He was enthusiastic to explain the background of the painting to me. While it looked good in the place that I purchased it from, it doesn't quite have the same effect here. I'll find a place to display it where it's appreciated.

The top two images of the sunset and the flower vase are from someone at WALES. The bottom depiction of a cat walking by a rainbow was from someone else. They were both stationed at our office, which was hosting several artists.

We got a bunch of magnets. For some reason, these were a trend this year.

We bought a crochet cactus named Carl Tractor. Each of his line got a story associated with them, which you might see as a thought bubble floating behind him. It says: 

"He once beat an advanced computer at chess, but could never do it again. He takes his sister to the movies every Sunday."

Last year, Lee-Anne ran into someone with Girlguide cookies. She'd run out by the time we got there, but we exchanged phone numbers for when the next batch arrived. That didn't come, but when we were shopping for clay ghosts this year, the seller reminded us that she was the one that had promised cookies. Luckily, she had them in stock this time.

Stickers were also popular. Lee-Anne has been riding her bike more frequently, and she's heard that the best deterrent for theft is stickers, because they're inconvenient to remove and visually distinct. So she got a bunch on the art walks

The same guy that I buy bowls from had charcuterie boards. I wound up getting two, one for us and one for my mother and brother.

Last year I got a homemade calendar, which I was hoping to see again. The house was open, but there were no calendars this year.

Garden Update, October 2025

Weather's shifted to requiring jackets and long pants, so the garden season is mostly over and we've had our most successful year yet! 

We had 27 tomatoes over 4 plants. I usually view getting anything edible as a win. I'm resigned to the fact that this hobby will not yield enough to make a financial gain. However, 27 tomatoes is non-negligible! We've also harvested an additional 6 green ones that might ripen, and the plants are still alive and producing. Even if they don't turn red, we'll get more material for fried green tomatoes.

One of my coworkers has said that each plant should produce 100 tomatoes. Obviously we're shy of that, but I'm not going to be cynical because this is still our best year yet.

No luck with the zucchinis. They made a lot of flowers and a few began to develop but were lost before we could harvest them.

We had three bell peppers on one plant. Not great, but it was our first year trying one, so I'll consider any harvest a win.

The way that snow peas grow, it's almost impossible to count them. We had a reliable crop though. Similarly, it's hard to quantify herbs, but we managed enough mint, parsley and arugula to make several salads. We also grew chamomile and it was healthy, but we really didn't know what to do with it.

Unfortunately, none of the sunflowers that I'd highlighted as interesting survived. The one with the loop in it's stem and the one that survived getting snapped were eaten by critters. Despite that, we've had 27 blossoms, far surpassing our old record of eight.

Of these, seven were Kongs. Not bad, considering we planted ten. It wasn't a flower per plant though. I got to see the first one beheaded by a squirrel from our kitchen window. After the initial assault, some managed to produce more flowers post-beheading.

Despite blossoming, the Kongs never got to a height that distinguished them from regular sunflowers. Of them, the tallest was 4'5", just one inch larger than the biggest of the traditional batch.

And of those two that were competing for tallest, both lost their flowers, and both produced multiple additional ones in retaliation. It appears that when they lose their initial blossom, it triggers an instinct to grow multiples at once. Most of the ones that didn't get attacked were content with a single flower.

That's seven blossoms on one plant! The replacement flowers are more crinkly than the originals, and grew from darker buds. I've only managed to harvest one seed so far, and some should be well ready for harvest. I don't know why they didn't really mature properly. Still, there are more that can still produce, and they're attracting pollinators, so they are functioning to an extent.

Lee-Anne also grew some decorative flowers.

At one time, there was a variety in this pot. It really got dominated by the one plant, though I don't remember it's name.

A neighbour gave us some hostas for the front yard. We just got to know her this year from an interaction regarding her community sidewalk chalk set. She kept it in a plant pot, and one day me and Lee-Anne noticed that it was broken. We replaced it, and I guess she has a camera or something, because she saw the random act of kindness and went out of her way to thank us and introduce herself. This led to a discussion about plants and we wound up with some hostas.

They aren't really impressive at the moment but they appear to have survived. Apparently they'll come into their own next year.

Old Guelph Neighbourhood

 Last weekend, me and Lee-Anne visited Guelph and toured some of the old places that I knew growing up.

First thing I noticed was that Riverside Park appears to have been rebranded as Royal City Park. For some reason, Guelph is known as The Royal City. It doesn't make much intuitive sense as I think our original function was as a farming community meant to feed Toronto. There's a reason for the nickname, and I've looked it up, but I always forget.

I don't mind the rebranding. Cambridge has a Riverside Park, and it was slightly awkward that the two cities had the same name for their main parks.

We checked out the house that burned a year ago.

 It appears to be occupied now, and there's a second door at the front of the house. The top portion was always sectioned into two, but one part was only accessible via the side door.

We went all the way back to the apartment that I lived in between ages 3-16.

We lived in the one second to the top. Unfortunately, a tree that I felt a connection with as a child, that I named Spikey is no longer there. He was a young tree that I saw planted, so he must not have reached his natural lifespan.

We went to the plaza across the street.

Not much changed to be honest. Then we visited my old elementary school.

In this pic, we're standing at the top of a hill. This was the spot for sledding during winters. My old school is the small, low structure at the bottom.

Then I showed Lee-Anne an area off the side of the hill. It connected to the child author Robert Munsch's old neighbourhood. He would visit our classes on Pyjama Days and read us stories and he used to give out miniature versions of his books to Trick or Treaters on Halloween. Recently it's been made public that he has requested Medical Assistance in Dying. I think he's been unwell for awhile.

There's a patch of forest around this area that my classes would sometimes take trips to. I remember being told that one of the trees was the oldest in Guelph. I don't know how closely they're keeping track of that, but I did find the one that this claim was put to.

Then we walked to my old middle school. Everything was so familiar, like I'd been there yesterday. It almost seemed like I was in the wrong body.

We visited the old forest that I used to walk in with my friends after school. This was the main draw of the trip. Most of it had been cut down. This wasn't news to me, it happened shortly before I graduated. But when I left, the land hadn't yet been developed. Now, the area where I used to walk in the woods was covered in houses.

I knew that some of my old forest was protected wetlands, and indeed, I found a significantly sized patch.

Apparently it's known as Ellis Creek Wetland. I never knew it to have a name before. It now has a maintained path through it. The sign says that it's a "sensitive", "Provincially Significant" silver maple swamp and has guidelines for how homeowners can protect the land. It feels funny that some respect has been put on it after most of it was cut.

Sometimes I reflect on my childhood and think how there used to be lots of ladybugs, but I don't see them anymore. Since extinction of flying insects is considered one of this planets most impending threats, I thought that maybe this was due to climate change. But there were ladybugs in the forest. Also, lots of burs, which caused me some grief when I got them tangled in my then-long hair. I guess these were just staples of the wetland microclimate.

We did get off the maintained path and scrambled through the wilder area, more familiar to my memory. We saw the knobbly roots of trees accustomed to flooding. I took a rock home with me as a souvenir.

September Whirlwind

This September has been a real rough month. Not bad, just busy. That's why this is the first, and likely only, post for September this year.

Me and my coworkers hosted a wedding shower for someone on our team. They did something similar for me and Lee-Anne two years ago. We even still had one of the decorations from then still on display, although it came down after.

It was also mine and Lee-Anne's second anniversary. I made falafels and she made fattoush. Apparently September is the most popular month for weddings, and the 16th, which was when we did it, statistically has the highest rate of the entire year. 

We got two new students at work, which I'm acting as a supervisor for.

We had the annual EAFy Day event at work. It was time-themed with a bunch of optional activities. I wound up going to a museum and doing a walking tour of historical sites in Waterloo Region.

We also had the March of 1000 Umbrellas hosted by United Way. Two years ago I wound up on the front page of the newspaper. I didn't actually go this year, since we needed a couple of staff to take care of the building, but it still required some planning.

I had my three month check in with my doctor, requiring a day trip to Guelph. Because Mom now has similar issues as me, we organized it so that we could go at the same time and sat in on each other's meetings. This is likely how we'll plan it going forward.

We had the Walk or Wheel event. This is an annual fundraiser that Extend-a-Family holds. People collect pledges, and then branches of the organization are designated stations where they offer an activity for the attendants. Because of its proximity to my birthday, I've never actually attended. But this year, pretty well all the other staff were busy, so I stepped in.

Our activity was a "rock snake". This was something that became popular during the pandemic. People would paint rocks and line them up when they were socially isolated for a feeling of connection and contribution.

Because we are WALES, we made a "rock whale" instead. Doesn't make a ton of sense because it's still shaped like a snake but I thought it was fun. I made a head and tail and used the community contributions to build the body.

The event was four hours. Somehow, I decided we needed 150 rocks. Despite consistent engagement, we only needed 32. If you're the type to count how many are in the pictures you might notice we don't quite have that number. That's because two people wanted to take their rocks home.

The rocks came from our backyard. At some point, one of our neighbours had a surplus of them and offered them to Lee-Anne for free. We tried placing them in an area with a lot of weeds to try and prevent growth, but they came through even stronger. They've just been sitting there since and finally found their use. We still have more.

The WALES members are continuing to paint the leftover rocks and adding to our whalesnake.

I got both of the stuffies from a local thrift shop. I set them out with a whale painting that I did during the pandemic. Between that and the rock snake, it weirdly felt like a reflection of five years ago. 

The painting got a little marked up, but I wasn't too mad about it because it felt like it was made to show up for the event.

When it was over, I put the disrupted whale on display in my office.

It was my 36th birthday the day after. Lee-Anne bought me a couple of books: Is a River Alive, and Finding the Mother Tree. Both are kind of in the genre of "The Hidden Life of Trees". I heard a radio interview of Is a River Alive which piqued my interest, and I found Finding The Mother Tree in a local coffee shop. The latter sounds pretty similar in content to The Hidden Life of Trees, but from an Indigenous perspective. 

My mother and brother bought us an air fryer. This is helpful because it has an oven setting. The one we have now runs a little hot, so if we want to bake anything, we often go to my mother and brother's. Now we can do it at home again. I also have a stated value of not deep frying at home. To me, it's too wasteful, messy, unhealthy and dangerous to justify at a single household level. The air fryer bypasses those barriers. I'll probably learn how to make samosas and spring rolls.

And just this past week I needed to do my trainer recertification for Safe Management. This meant that I did a day trip into Oakville. Everything went smoothly but it was a long day. 

The only somewhat stressful thing left in the month is that I'm hosting a training for students tomorrow and the day after. This is pretty routine, except that we have two new facilitators for which this will be their first session. As the senior trainer, expectations will just be a bit higher for me to keep things running smoothly.