Friday, February 27, 2026

One of the first things in the year was hanging out with Haidan and Roland. Haidan, the same person who recommended the plumber, is a colleague of Onion's, and as the two Asian ladies who handle the bulk of the actual work in their jobs, gotten to know each other better, enough to the point that she invited Onion (and by extension, me) to an icewine tour in Niagara. I've already gone to several wine tours during the summers, but never during the winter. We agreed and Roland, Haidan's husband drove. We had a good, long chat in the car before reaching our first stop, Redstone Winery. Had a friendly chat with the guy serving us about the machine in the back. We had no idea what it was, and he explained that it was a pouring machine, that would keep wines fresh using some sort of inert gas to keep it from oxidizing. But it was a fickle machine that required a very specialized technician to fix, and he retired, so now it's on display as a talking point, and he said he could pour faster than the machine, lol. We tried their icewine (red, interestingly) paired with a meaty beef chili. Very nice. We made a quick stop to the Upper Canada Cheese Company to try some cheese and honey, before going to Creekside Estate. Here we had their icewine paired with peri-peri chicken. A very interesting mix. Then our last stop was Shiny Apple Cider, where we had their icewine paired with a mini Yorkshire pudding. And there was a Golden Retriever who kept coming over to us, lol.

We drove back and got takeout dinner from Woodside Square before eating back at their place, where we proceeded to chat for another 3 hours. From their in-laws, Haidan's trips, Roland leading a single men's group for his church and community, and eventually we had a tour of their place. Roland's wood workshop, and their basement, which was furnished from the previous owner and had a crazy cozy feeling with brick and a fireplace, as well as a bar where he stored a lot of wine. After remarking that we preferred white over reds most of the time, he gave us a bottle of red wine he thought was sweet enough for our tastes. At this point it was getting late and Haidan had been entertaining their daughter Antonia for a while and we all thought to rest.

Not too long after Onion and I attended Distant Worlds 2026. My first ever! Now, we have watched the two Final Fantasy 7 concerts, for Remake and Rebirth. But to hear the other Final Fantasy's being featured would be nice. We've already listened to the Spotify recordings of Distant Worlds before, but I was looking forward to hearing them live. There was a bigger focus on FF14 and FF16 for this one, with both getting like 4 or so songs, compared to other entries getting 1 (or none). As usual, Arnie Roth conducted, Masayoshi Soken (composer of FF14 and FF16) was a guest in the audience, and Amanda Achen-Keenan showed up to sing a few songs she was featured in. The screen showed scenes from the relevant FF games as usual. During the opening, one of them was showing the 4 characters in FF1 KOed, lmao. Overall, I enjoyed it. Hearing To Zanarkand live was amazing, as it was our wedding recessional music. Having just finished FF16 a month prior, I would appreciate the tracks there as well, although they didn't play anything I really wanted. For FF14, I've never played it and have only listened to a few tracks, so I went in blind. But two (obnoxious, talkative) girls behind us said they'd cry if they played "Flow", which they did, with the Amanda Achen-Keenan singing. The guy next to me also sobbed for maybe half the songs, constantly wiping his tears away and sniffling. The waifu and I checked her prior attendance for all the previous Distant Worlds during the intermission, lol. Her bragging rights. All in all, really enjoyed it.

Also, the Eglinton Crosstown is finally operational! Onion and I wanted to take a ride on the infamous LRT, having taken 15 years to build. And since the opening day was free, we decided to hop on after Chinese New Year lunch with my grandma, also to celebrate her early 90th birthday. We wait 40 minutes in -22˚C weather. Yeah, what the shit. The Wynford Station stop was the nearest one to us. We got to the platform and it showed the timings for the next 2 trains, 8 and 10 minutes respectively. That clock never changed, and when it did, it would revert back to 8 and 10 minutes. Some other people waiting there decided to take an Uber to wherever they were going to after waiting too long. Two TTC staff were waiting there, and they had no clue what was going on as well. One really needed to pee and the other staff was very frustrated with the lack of updates from the TTC. They even thought it might be ending operations early for the first day. The waifu was freezing and very angry, and we were like, do we want to keep waiting for nothing? Or walk off and have the train arrive right after we go? Well, obviously we waited, and the train ride was fast and comfortable, making us wonder what the hell made it take 40 minutes instead of 8. It was sleek, clean and gave us some hope that this was a decent alternative for us. Still, no shelter in the open-air stations was BS.

For Valentine's the waifu and I went to Myth, a Greek restaurant downtown. It was definitely meant for a younger, influencer type of crowd based on all the patrons there. Very energetic and bustling. We ate the Winterlicious set, which was very nice. Portions were small but it filled us up nicely. Ambience was nice and there were even bellydancers who gave some performances, and later offered us paper to write negative things, and they'd have us toss it into a small flame they carried around to burn away all the negativity.

We also watched 2 sports events recently. We caught the Harlem Globetrotters in Oshawa with my colleague Angel, and her partner Allen, who provided the tickets. He got some and since no one could claim the spare tickets, we took it. I've never watched the Globetrotters before, but have heard of them as very famous basketball performers. They were entertaining, and hilarious. All around antics and jokes throughout the basketball game. Now I know that it's all scripted and they always win, but it was well-paced with the breaks and comedy in between. One thing though, they are extremely skilled. Dunks, 3 pointers and some very impressive moves on the court; it's a testament to their skills, even as they're acting things out, and with whoever is on the main mic talking while playing. 

A few weeks later we got free tickets to a Toronto Marlies game at the Coca Cola Coliseum. We got free tickets from the Toronto Cat Rescue. I've not seen a hockey game in decades. The last time I watched the NHL, Felix Potvin was still the goalie for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Anyway, Toronto Marlies vs Chicago Wolves. We we seated right behind one of the nets. Pretty cool watching them pass and play with the puck, taking multiple shots. It was pretty obvious in the first third that the Wolves had better co-ordination, with the Marlies playing catchup most of the time. Only in the 2nd third did the Marlies start to play better. Onion and I watched how a hockey game plays on YouTube a few days earlier because she had no clue, and I had forgotten pretty much everything, lol. We had to leave early and drive north to watch Eddie Izzard's Hamlet. The last we saw of Eddie Izzard was Force Majeure pre-COVID, before Eddie decided to change pronouns. We got fantastic seats on the balcony. It was a one person show with Izzard acting out and speaking all the roles. Very unique and not what we expected watching Eddie Izzard, since we've only known her for her comedy. It was a proper play with all the roles acted out. Now Shakespeare can be hard to follow sometimes, with the archaic English, and even more so when it's one person performing it, and requiring context and cues to see who is being represented. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were represented by Izzard's hands talking as if puppets, and the gravedigger part was probably the most funny and most Eddie Izzard-ish.