I decided to take a break from all the wordpress modifications I’ve been doing today to make a post about my weekend in London with my new Canon S3.
As always it was good to spend some time with Gary’s family. They have made me feel completely at home to the point where I can simply hang out with Gary’s mom and watch a movie while Gary went to a friend’s place to play darts. I’m getting ahead of myself though so I’ll start from the beginning.
First you have to remember that I had just picked up my new camera before we drove down to London so I have a couple of shots that are just for pure camera playing.
We arrived in London around 10:00 and went directly to Gary’s brother’s place. We were all hanging out on the patio at Jay’s new place enjoying the summer air. Jay had the place decked out quite nice with a few candles to provide some “ambiance”.
It was turning out to be a nice, quiet evening. We were planning on just spending time with some of Gary’s friends when we discovered that a group of women, I won’t even pretend to call them girls, came over. I won’t get into how much these women grated on my nerves. They embodied everything I dread in the typical suburbia mom. They were obviously out for the first time in months and wanted to make the most of it. High pitched forced laughter, tight clothing emphasizing all the wrong curves and desperation masked as flirtation to the point where the words “Come on, kiss me, I’m easy” were actually uttered out late in the night. There was one cool girl in the bunch but she ended up leaving early.
So, these women arrive, and don’t quite know what to make of me. I’m cool and poised on the patio drinking with the guys. They come in obviously full of glee at a houseful of “young” guys and then stumble across me. One of them actually poked her head out on the patio giving the guys a predatory grin and then her eyes rested on me. She uttered a little gasp and with a step back and accompanied by a nervous giggle said, “Oh I don’t know you!!” She turned and scampered back into the room.
It was a bit later that we decided to head over to the bar situated right across the street from Jay’s place. Unfortunately it was a western bar…called…Cowboys Ranch.
It’s a shame that I was not able to catch the other characters in the bar on film. Especially the 40+ year old man gyrating with a bar seat on the stage, or the crowd of girls decked out in matching cowgirl hats for a bacherlorette party line dancing. Not to be outdone by the locals Gary and Jay made sure they fit right in with a little hoedown of their own 
Gary and I left soon after last call and headed back over to Jay’s place where I promptly passed out for the evening. I can only imagine that the guys continued drinking into the night because when I woke up Heneiken beer bottles littered most surfaces in the two bedroom apartment. That’s how you know your guests had a good time, lots of beer bottles and no “messes” to be found.
The next day we slept in for a while and since I had gone to bed around 4:00 am, two hours earlier then the 6:00 am the guys decided was a fit time for sleep. I spent some time hanging out on the couch reading and playing with my new camera. Most of the shots were pretty terrible, but I did like this one where I fiddled with the macro settings on the camera. It reminds me of my days in the White Ajah when I used to play muds.
When we finally got all of our asses up and out of bed we headed down to Gary’s parents place for an awesome BBQ. I swear I have never had ribs as good as the Pullin’s make. Gary has promised to make them for me here but he has yet to fulfil that promise. Maybe next month I can tempt him with my womanly wiles. While we were hanging out in their amazing backyard that has a kick ass garden I played with my camera a bit more.
Most of the pictures did not turn out because I am not a photographer but these are the few that I liked. I was rather pleased with the results. I have not touched up these photos at all, I have only resized the images.
I swear if you look closely at the picture below it looks like there was someone with a mask in the bushes. Maybe it was just me.
Pandora had a great time playing fetch.
Gary’s Dad got caught up on the latest Rue Morgue issue.
Random garden pictures
And that was it for the pictures.
Saturday night, Gary went over to his friend’s place to play some darts and I ended up watching Water with Gary’s mom. It is a fabulous movie and I highly recommend it. I plan on watching the other two movies Earth and Fire by Deepa Mehta. I can only assume that they will be as powerful as Water.
We ended up going to bed fairly early on Saturday night and arrived back in Toronto at a decent time on Sunday. We ended up going to a BBQ at Kerri’s on Sunday with a bunch of folks from my work and had a great time there as well. Gary even came in second at poker and won $60. Unfortunately my mad poker skills were hibernating last night beneath several beers and a glass of Sangria.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was my weekend.
