End of days...

So...my last weekend in Winnipeg, sigh.

Friday, I went out for lunch on Corydon (Winnipeg's answer to Little Italy) for my friend Michelle's farewell lunch. The weather cleared up just in time for us to enjoy a relaxing and laughter-filled patio lunch at Saffron's. I had a delicious veal sandwich with grilled red peppers and zucchini and melted feta cheese, and salad with raspberry vinaigrette. Afterwards we went to Nucci's for gelati. The mango and coconut flavours were both quite delectable...I could feel actual pieces of coconut!

Didn't do much of anything in the evening as my plans fell through and instead enjoyed conversations with Jean and Eddie on MSN.

Saturday, I rollerbladed out to Assiniboine park. Happily, it only took 50 minutes and not the hour and a half that Rob was predicting. This park is really beautiful. Winnipeg's answer to Stanley Park but with smaller and less red trees, more bike paths, a locomotive, a zoo instead of an aquarium, and a duck pond. When I was there a month ago, we saw a deer on the side of the road! Unfortunately, by the time I got there, I was exhausted and the sky had turned an ominous dark grey. So I quickly bladed over to a bus stop and hopped a bus to Mel's house. Once there, we sat around chatting, went to see a little house she was contemplating buying, and watched the Upside of Anger. The movie was slightly interesting...but definitely glad I waited for it to come out on video. In the evening, Mel and I went to dinner at LuxSole, a restaurant located essentially at the end of my street, and voted as the best restaurant in Winnipeg. It was excellent. The menus, glued onto old record covers, had some quite unique entries. I had lamb chops with sweet potato (or was it yam??) and corn mash, and a spinach salad with mandarin oranges, toasted almonds and (you guessed it) raspberry vinaigrette. Afterwards we went back to Mel's for a few drinks and waited for Jenny to join up with us. She was at another party and so couldn't make it to dinner. Then we went to the infamous Palomino bar. The best description I can come up with for this place is saloon turned niteclub (rather unsuccessfully). The sign out front has a rearing (Palomino?) horse on it, there was a set of swinging saloon-type doors (just like in a Western movie), and a half-dozen girls wearing cowboy hats. This bar has the reputation of hosting a lot of cougar on 19-year old boy action...and it didn't disappoint, although it was less rampant then I had expected. Other downsides to this place include: the nearly 2 hour wait to get in, slightly above-average drink prices by Winnipeg standards, and shameful favouritism to firefighters, cops and paramedics who get to go in the backdoor and bypass the line and cover charge. One of the highlights of my night at the "Pal" was dancing with a real-live Mountie who was sadly out of uniform. There were other highlights, but those are unmentionable in this type of forum.

On Sunday, as Mel was experiencing a debilitating hangover (we've all been there...) I took the bus home. In the afternoon, I went and took a photo of my favourite "Bear on Broadway" and the legislature building. I did enough packing to remember how much I hate packing. I'm trying to clean out my food from the cupboards and the fridge so meals are getting less and less exciting. Last night was no exception; I had "gourmet" Chef Boyardee (i.e. a can of Chef mixed with frozen veggies and parmesan cheese).

This is my last half-week of work. This basically means tying up all the loose ends and making sure that I'm not missing anything crucial for my project, and having farewell lunches.

I fly out to Hamilton this Thursday and then to Vancouver the Thursday after that, so this is likely the last you will hear from me in a while. I intend to pull apart my computer tonight and pack up all the pieces...