When I remember that line from the song (which not-so-incidentally this blog is named after) I really have to ask myself, 'Will I ever be happy being in one place for too long?' The plain answer is, 'Not at all.' The polite one being, 'Maybe not..' I have never blogged about anything before this, and being new to the experience I will draw upon the observations I made from the many blogs that I do follow. It has been quite a bit of time since I wrote anything apart from course or work assignments, which have always been either essays and/or reports. Life gets boring when you do that.....and you begin to want to 'free'-write. But then again I wonder, will I ever be able to 'free'-write if all I've been doing for the past year and a half is formal writing? Eh...why not give it a shot? After all, this is more to break the monotony of work and keep my creativity alive than anything else. If I do make mistakes along the way, I'll correct myself, remember not repeat them and move on.
Now to get to the main point of this piddly write-up, I do love to wander. Just this past Thursday, when it was my Chacha-Chachi's 28th anniversary, I was in office during my lunch hour wondering what to get them, or how to make their evening special. I Googled a few restaurants in the area, because initially I thought I might gift them a dinner at a good restaurant. Then financial restraints reined in my opulent thoughts and brought me back down to feet on firm ground.... My problem was as yet unsolved, suddenly my supervisor walked in to my cubicle and asked if I would like a brownie because someone had brought some to office that day. I was delighted to have something sweet to sink my teeth in to when it struck me. Chachi loves coffee and baking and Chacha loves sweet foods, the best thing to get them would be cake! (Yes, of course, there were some very selfish reasons behind that too....but rationale aside.) I thought I would go down Queen Street as it was reputed for some good cafes and delis. I asked my supervisor if I could leave a little earlier and told her my plans for the day....she called me crazy (owing to the fact that I would walk down the street find a good cafe.bakery, buy cakes, walk all the way back to the bus terminal and carry the cakes home in a bus....so you get it now, I'm crazy.), but told me to tell her how it all worked out when I came in the next day. I promised her I would and rushed off. Now when you walk right by the same shops day in and day out going to work, you tend not to notice them so much. But when you do take the time to peer in some windows, you come to realize how much you have been missing. The hobby shop I pass by daily has some of the most weird contraptions (and some of the most beautiful stamps I have seen). The laundry and dyers place is an old but really quaint-looking building and makes me want to go in and have a look as to how they do their laundry. There is a memorial building along the street to which admission will be free on Canada Day.
Right at the end of the road, is this bakery/cafe/deli called Nougat.....it's an old two-storey building, with it's walls hidden by the ivy that's crept up them and it has this really out in the Italian countryside kind of look. You walk in to a little supermarket like space on the lower level where there is a lot of exotic food (packaged of course!) and the upper level has a small bistro-like setting in one half where you can sit down and enjoy the delicious delights they have to offer. The other half is a regular bakery shop counter and separate counter for deli meats. Their cakelets look good enough to keep! Cakelets being little cakes, one mocha and one raspberry mousse that I bought for my Chacha-Chachi. I did look for a pastry I had once, the name of which I still cannot remember, it was a crisp dough sheet wrapped in to a roll shape and filled with the most amazing cream. I have no idea what they are called and would so loved to have had them again. But I didn't see them on display, though I did see a few others that looked a hell of a lot like them. Well, long story short, I just paid for the cakes and got out to run down the road to the bus terminal or I would be very late.
Needless to say the bus ride was dreaded because I was thinking of all the different ways in which I could mess my precious purchase up. Fortunately, I stood at the front placed the boxes next to the newspaper box on the bus and held on tight until I got home. The cakes were safe and undamaged during the bus ride. Chachi however frowned when she saw the boxes and I told her she would see what they contianed shortly. I wished her (she presumed I had forgotten) and showed her what I had got for them....she was happy, I could see it in her eyes. But she reprimanded me on getting two cakes instead of one, but I wasn't listening because I was busy hugging her to death. At dinner, Chacha said that I had forgotten that it was their anniversary that day....I said yeah, I had forgotten until Chachi piped up and told him that I had bought something for them. When she brought out the dessert he said the same thing she had....'why did you spend on two?' But he was happy too....they don't show it so much, but they are happy about how I'm going around discovering things for myself (like that little bakery..) and taking my own decisions. What they forget is that I learn from them, to be happy, to be open-minded....and to go a-wandering
And the tune played in my head as I finally went to sleep......'Ob-la-diii....Ob-la-daaa....Ob-la-ha ha ha ha ha ha........my knapsack on my back.'
