The Five Part Journey

I spent the past weekend in Toronto. It was lovely, up until precisely 5:39pm on Sunday evening. But I'll get to that in a bit.
Marissa and I wanted to see the Mystical Landscapes Exhibition at the AGO, so we took a trip to Toronto. I also took the opportunity to visit Emily and Alison. We arrived very late on Friday evening, so much so that we just chatted for a bit before heading to bed. On Saturday, Marissa and I went for brunch with her aunt at FRANK, the restaurant at the AGO. (Emily had brunch with her roommates and friends celebrating a belated birthday). The brunch at the AGO was lovely. I started with a pastry platter, which had two mini croissants with butter and jam and two mini chocolate croissants. For the main course we all had eggs benedict: a croissant with smoked trout, poached eggs, and hollandaise sauce with roast potatoes on the side. Marissa's aunt insisted on having dessert, so I had tiramisu gelato with a delicious caramel sauce and 'churro dust'. To top it all off, a lovely cup of tea.
We then met up with the others to see the exhibition. The exhibition had timed entry, so we looked around the rest of the AGO for a little bit before heading to the exhibition. The exhibition was advertised as "Mystical Landscapes: Monet, Van Gogh, and more". I was under the impression that it would be primarily Van Gogh and Monet, with some other artists. To my disappointment, it was the other way around: primarily other artists with a handful of Monets and two Van Goghs. Overall it was still a great exhibition; there were some paintings by Emily Carr and Paul Gauguin, who stayed with Van Gogh at one point. One of my favourite paintings was Crystal Castle in the Sea by Wenzel Hablik.

One of the Van Gogh paintings was Starry Night over the Rhone, which was on load from Musee D'Orsay. Which is where I had seen that painting for the first time. So now I've seen it twice (still just as good the second time around). The Monet paintings were some of his famous Rouen Cathedral paintings, some of which I had also seen before. I enjoyed the exhibition, but had been hoping to see more Van Gogh and Monet. And the audio guide was on the artistic interpretation side of things, whereas I prefer to hear about the facts of the painting.
After we finished the exhibition, we continued to look around the rest of the AGO. It's much bigger than I thought. And as with every gallery, very easy to lose track of where you are. I'm not sure if we actually saw everything or not. We did see most of it though. The last section we walked through was in the basement where they have the miniature boat models. Miniature is a relative term, some of the models were the size of kayaks. But all very impressive; the amount of detail on the models is astounding.
We then went out for dinner where I had chicken wonton nachos (very good) and stopped at Michaels to grab some supplies for a t-shirt making party we are having later this week. Then we headed back to Emily's apartment for a pit stop before Alison, Marissa and I went to see the Toronto Light Festival. It's a collection of light installations in the Distillery District. It was pretty neat and I got some cool pictures of some of them.

On Sunday we slept in and spent the afternoon at a board game cafe. We discovered a game called Codenames, which we all really enjoyed. I'd like to play it again in the future. At 4:30 we decided to head back to Emily's apartment so that Marissa and I could get ready to catch our train.
And this is where the weekend derails (no pun intended).
Our train back to Stratford leaves at 5:40pm. We leave Emily's apartment at 5:20. It's cutting it close, but Google says it's a 15min walk so I'm not too worried. But despite walking quickly the whole way there we arrive at the station at 5:38. Our train isn't listed on any of the screens around the station. Panicking, we ask the info desk where train 87 is leaving from.
Info Desk Attendant: Train 87? I don't know about a train 87! Where does that go??
She was less than helpful and was wasting valuable time. I go to a different desk and ask if they know where train 87 is boarding.
Info Desk Attendant #2: Oh, that's probably left already. *checks with someone on the walkie talkie* Yeah that train just left.
I know you're all thinking we should have given ourselves more time to get to the train station. That's probably true. But I would also like to state that the train left 2mins early. And Union station is a nightmare.
That was the last train to Stratford for the day, so we were not going back to Stratford by train Sunday evening. There were a few options:
1. Stay at Emily's another night and take the Monday morning train to Stratford and be late for class.
2. Somehow get to Waterloo and sleep at Marissa's parent's house and get a ride with a carpool to Stratford Monday morning.
3. Somehow get to Waterloo or London and get our parents to drive us to Stratford.
We decided to try #3 via Waterloo. Marissa called her mom to make sure this was a plan that could happen and we quickly got on the 6:00 GO bus to Mississauga, where we would switch GO buses at Square One and go to Waterloo from there. Neither of us are sure whether our presto cards have enough money on them to pay for the ticket. Mine had just enough; Marissa's did not. We think that we'll have to get off but turns out you can pay with cash (who knew?). I lend Marissa some cash and we're through. We get on the bus, and while still shaken, I'm glad we've figured out a way to get back to Stratford fairly quickly. Although, I had the issue of not having enough money on my presto card to pay for the second bus ticket.
Around 6:45, Marissa is not sure we're on the right bus because she doesn't recognize the route we're on. I check the map on my phone and sure enough, we are nowhere near Square One. We are on the edge of Mississauga and about to go to Milton. I suggest we get off, because Milton definitely is not where we want to be. At this point, we're both tired, cold, and desperately want to get home in one piece.
So I decide to call up Sheila, whom with which I stayed with over the summer. I asked if she would be willing to come pick us up and drive us to Square One, so that we could get on the next bus. Thankfully she wasn't doing anything and was willing to come rescue us. The drive from the edge of Mississauga to Square One was explaining to Sheila the night Marissa and I had had. When we arrive at Square One, we see the bus that we are supposed to be getting on to. Marissa and I decide that instead of rushing and potentially missing it, we'll wait for the next bus which comes in just under an hour. We grab dinner at the nearby Starbucks and buy tickets for the bus at a kiosk there.
Finally the bus arrives and we get on, this time sure that it is the right bus. It take just over an hour to us to get to Waterloo. The bus stops at the university; it was strange being back there. I haven't been there since second year. Entire buildings have gone up in the time I've been gone.
Marissa's mom met us there and drove us to Stratford. I have never before been so glad to see this apartment. I had intended on doing some school work Sunday evening because the train would've arrived in Stratford around 8pm. When we finally pulled up in front of our apartment, it was 10:30. I was going to bed.
That, my friends, was our five part journey. It will surely become something to laugh at in the future, but for now we're simply calling it a comedy of errors.

The Real Ending

To minimal surprise but some disappointment, there was no new Sherlock episode last night. On Saturday I was starting to have my doubts. But here we are a week later and there's nothing to show for all the hope we (the fandom) had. There are still some who are clinging to their last shreds of hope that it will actually air next week. Their reasoning for this is because the date will be 1/29, which is a time that Sherlock stopped a bomb going off in a previous episode. But that's too much of a stretch for me. Season 4 is over. The producer of the show even tweeted that there's no fourth episode. I'm going to watch TFP again to watch it with less expectations than I did the first time around. A number of people who originally didn't like it have come around to it. All I can hope is for them to make another season. But enough about Sherlock.
I went home this weekend and managed to finish the top of my t-shirt quilt. I won't be able to quilt it until reading week, but I'm very happy with how it's going so far. I'm really excited to show it to people, because I know camp means a lot to so many people. Tomorrow I get free lunch at Crabby Joe's because I'm helping with some UX testing. They're even providing transportation so I literally am losing nothing out of this.
I've decided to start eating based on Canada's food guide. I know that I don't eat enough fruits and vegetables and I also eat too much meat. I think I might have to increase my grain consumption though, which was not something I was expecting. It will take some adjusting, but hopefully in the long un will lead to healthier eating habits. The plan is to make a tracker that I can use to keep track. Im surprised that no apps exist for this type of thing. I'm also going to start going for walks every other day as a form of exercise. It would appear that if you're not just strolling along and are actually going at a quick pace, walking can be just as effective exercise as going to the gym. And I'm not a fan of the gym, so this is the compromise.

Extremely Long Post Purely About Sherlock Season 4

I know I haven't 'fangirled' in a while, as I've tried to put that behind me and provide you with content that you might actually be interested in reading instead of me going "omg sherlock is the best show eva you defs need to watch it!" However, there are certain theories going around regarding Sherlock season 4 and I have to write about it. Here we go (hardly any but some minor spoilers, for those of you who haven't seen it yet).
Episode one of season 4 was The Six Thatchers (TST). A bit of an odd episode; a much different style compared to the rest of the show. And generally had some fishy stuff. The second episode, The Lying Detective (TLD), was amazing. It was back to the traditional Sherlock we know and have come to love. And left us on a big cliff hanger, as the writers are fond of doing. And then this past Sunday was the season finale: The Final Problem (TFP). There have been some rumours that this season would be the last season*, and the episode title seemed to echo that.
Going into this episode, I was expecting a lot. There were a lot of loose ends that needed to be tied up, and they only had 90mins to do it in. The people on tumblr have created countless theories explaining what we've seen so far, why TST was so wacky, and what they predicted would happen in TFP. It's amazing what these people come up with, but it's also an identifying factor of the fans, and the writers know that. One theory stood out from all the rest, and proposed that TFP would tell us something along the lines that TST and TLD never happened, they were a dream/result of drugged/other altered mind state/unreliable narrator.
I go to turn the TV on at 8:55pm, ready for the 9pm airing of TFP, only to find that for this episode, the show got a 'special time slot' and had actually aired at 7pm. I was crushed. I had so many questions that needed answers and now I wouldn't get them. Luckily, after some hunting I discovered that PBS had already posted the episode online. So I was still able to watch the episode (thank goodness).
The episode starts, and immediately we're off. I was sitting on the edge of my seat the entire time. I didn't know I could hold my breath for 90mins, but apparently I can. TFP is go-go-go throughout the entire episode. We're racing through this mystery that seems to never end and suddenly I think to myself, "they're running out of time. There's so much they need to go over still and they only have so much time left." I hardly give it a second thought, lest I miss something important. (You literally need to give Sherlock your undivided attention because it's definitely a blink-and-you'll-miss-one-line-that-the-rest-of-the-episode-rides-on situation).
The mystery ends, we're given a montage of life after the mystery, and the credits role. Immediately I'm furious. Absolutely none of my questions were answered. None of the theories the fans came up with were true (there have been some disturbingly accurate theories created before, so I've learned to take them just a bit seriously). The episode didn't even mention half the things we (the fans) were expecting it to. I'd even go so far as to say that TFP contradicts some of the previous episodes. And above all else, TFP was the most atypical episode of Sherlock that has ever been created. We thought TST was off; TFP was never 'on' to begin with. Not that I've seen these movies, but people are comparing it to Saw and James Bond.
I immediately go to tumblr to see what the fans are thinking. As expected, there is outrage, disappointment, even hate for the writers for ruining the show. But what I did not expect was a split: half the fans were against the episode and the other half loved it. They couldn't stop singing its praises! (There was also a small number of people, myself included, who wondered what this would do to the fandom, if we were so split over this episode). After some time went by, I began to see where the other side was coming from. It was a good episode: never before had I been so captivated by a single episode before; it was exciting and got my pulse racing; I felt the pain of the characters. The actors did a lovely job. But it still didn't feel right. It completely disregarded everything we had been shown up until this point. One fan put it beautifully:

Great story, wrong place and time.

Wow, I've rambled on and haven't even got to the main point yet. But what good story doesn't have a backstory? Here's my main point:

fans think there's another episode.

Wild, right? I thought, you're off your rocker. You just want to try and justify this mess of an episode by thinking there will magically be another episode to explain everything. There can't possibly be another episode. But over the past two days (TWO DAYS - Sherlock fans never cease to amaze me in how fast they can come up with things), the fans on tumblr have gathered enough tidbits and facts to make me think, there might actually be a secret episode! Now I'm not one to get my hopes up easily regarding things I'm invested in so much, but they have a compelling case:

To start, before any of season 4 aired, the writers said "If we pull this off, we'll make television history." "It's kind of groundbreaking, they've done something that's never been done before." "Love conquers all." And, if you happened to skip everything I've written up until this point, TFP was certainly not groundbreaking and it was most definitely not something that's never been done before. And in some people's opinions, love decidedly did not conquer all. This is their jumping point: all of these quotes make a lot more sense with a secret episode than with what we watched on Sunday.

The remaining points can be summed up as such:
- they raved about some music written for the show and we haven't heard it yet
- a mysterious deleted tweet from writer of said music
- the DVD isn't being released until the end of January (why wait unless there was something else coming?)
- TFP took twice as long to shoot as other episodes
- numerous scenes that were shot and we haven't seen yet
- they talk about 'the lost special' offhand sometimes
- a promo picture was leaked prematurely and was very quietly and seriously taken care of, but the ENTIRE EPISODE of TFP is leaked early and they tweet and write news articles about it and make no action to take them down
And perhaps my favourite point of all, in TLD Sherlock says, and I quote, "Must be something comforting about the number three. People always give up after three..."
The writers have been known to lie in order to keep Sherlock secrets, so I'm not even going to mention them denying another episode.

Now up until this point I was still skeptical. Yes, there's lots of things that could point to a fourth episode. But I've found that if you're grasping at straws, you'll tell yourself you've found what you are looking for. But then this happened:

There are reportedly 3 separate TV provider websites that have a fourth episode listed (I say reportedly because I only actually looked at one to check). 'Why not check the cable listings then?', you may be thinking, 'Surely that will give you your answer'. As always, the fans have thought of this. And this is what they found:

In Sherlock's supposed time slot, there is a new series called Apple Tree Yard (ATY) airing. Most people would have stopped there and said, 'ah well that settles it. No secret episode'. But Sherlock fans are not most people. I did a little digging myself even, and this is what I found. There is a trailer on youtube (only posted a couple of weeks ago...) for ATY with legitimate actors and storyline. It has an imdb page. It doesn't have a ton of information on it, but there's a list of cast and crew. It has a storyline, as all imdb entries do, but this one was written by BBC Media, whereas most summaries on imdb are written by users. Thus begins the fake show cover up theory.
It seems a little extravagant to make up an entire TV series to keep a secret. But as I said before, the writers are known for lying to keep Sherlock secrets. I was getting a little skeptical due to the amount of information I was finding about ATY. However, I bring you my biggest supporting point: if you google the actors in ATY, nothing pops up about them being in ATY, or even being in a new TV show. And it's not like these are nobody actors. Emily Watson is one of them, who is a well known actor, having been in The Theory of Everything and War Horse, among many others. Wouldn't news sites be writing about a new project staring such a big actress? Surely there would be at least one google result that talked about the upcoming ATY show airing in less than a week. (Some people have also gone so far as to mention that a apple tree wall decal shown in TST indicates that ATY is fake, because the writers love those kinds of connections).

One last point (I promise). TFP didn't end on a cliff hanger. Every single season finale of Sherlock ends on a cliffhanger. Some say this supports the idea that there won't be any more Sherlock. I'm adding it to the list of things that makes TFP abnormal.

I don't know what to think. I know what I want to think. I also don't want to be crushed come Sunday evening. If there is another episode, that would truly be groundbreaking and television history, as they've been saying.

I'll get back to you on Monday. Regardless of what happens, I will surely have lots of feelings to tell you about.

*This may or may not be true. As you may or may not know, Sherlock has a sporadic production schedule and is infamous for its notoriously long waits between seasons. This is primarily due to the fact that Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman have hit the big screen and just don't have the time to film Sherlock anymore. However, the entire cast and crew enjoys the show, enjoys making the show, and wants it to continue. It is just a tad difficult to make it happen. The writers have said nothing about season 5, other than the fact that they'd like for it to happen.

Fight to Entertain

good ol' pun to start us off

This is me eating my words and wishing I had brought my sewing stuff to Stratford. Only a week in and I'm rudely reminded of how boring it can get in Stratford. I have to make a real effort to entertain myself and not just waste my days away on social media. That being said, I did do lots of fun things this week. 
It was Marissa's birthday on Friday, so on Thursday we drove to Kitchener to go trampolining. Mara and I had been to this place before, where they have 6 olympic grade trampolines. It was great fun. I almost did a full front flip (I just can't quite stick the landing and end up on my butt). Michelle however did gymnastics when she was younger and so was doing front flips, back flips, you name it. Definitely got my exercise in that day and felt it for the following two days. I'd like to go back at some point and see if I can't finally land a front flip.
Later that day we had our first SSC event of the term at a local pub. Much to our enjoyment, Thursday is now 25cent wing night. I made a slight misjudgement in how hungry I was and ordered 5 wings and a burger. Way too much food. But the wings were great. And I couldn't get over that it cost $1.25 for 5 wings! I'm no wing fanatic but even I know that's got to be a great deal. I might start making regular trips to the pub for 5 wings every Thursday night.
Friday morning started off great listening to Ed Sheeran's two new singles. I've come to realize that I almost always don't like a song when I first hear it if it's a song I'm expecting to like (i.e. from an artist I'm familiar with). So I didn't form any opinions until later. And as expected, I really like both of them. I'm not sure which one I like better; it might have to be Castle On The Hill.

Last night I had some friends over to play Catan (I won). I also made my new meal of the week: spinach salad with dried cranberries, chicken, avocado, and poppyseed dressing. To be honest I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It might just make it on to my rotation of meals. I haven't decided what this week's recipe is going to be; it will depend on when I get to a grocery store next.

I also made rice krispie squares but they didn't turn out great. I think the marshmallows were past their prime.
Didn't do much today. Watched a sermon from The Meeting House online. I've started doing a daily doodle where I practice my lettering/doodling. It's not much but I'm trying out the concept that doing something everyday will help you get better at it. I'm patiently waiting for 9pm to roll around to watch the next Sherlock episode. I've had to stay off social media since this afternoon to avoid any spoilers, since Britain has already seen it and there are already things being posted about what happens.

Am I a Baking Blogger?

Yes, but I don't have a baking blog (officially). I do talk about baking whenever I do it though. And I did lots of baking last month. It was great. I made mini churros, chai-spiced tea cakes, peppermint bark, sugar cookies with royal icing, and the capstone dessert: the gingerbread train. All of you who read this blog have already seen these, but, you have to do it for the blog so here we are.

I'm particularly pleased with how the gingerbread train turned out. I was skeptical about the support system and how the cars would stand on the wheels. It was a struggle to get the engine standing but I eventually got it with some extra hidden support (made of gingerbread of course). Unfortunately, the wheels started collapsing after two days, I imagine because of the humidity and heat in the house with all the people. I took it as a sign to start eating the gingerbread ;) The train had minimal candy on it compared to my previous gingerbread houses. This was because I was trying to go for a cleaner appearance overall. But I missed the candy, so I think next year's creation will feature more candy.

Christmas was great, if busy. We had 13 people at our house for Christmas dinner! Lots of good gifts, two of which are card games that I really like: Sushi Go and The Struggle for Catan.
The other thing I occupied my time with was a t-shirt quilt for a friend, which I got finished in time(!). She really likes it, which I'm glad of.
Having been inspired by finishing that t-shirt quilt, I decided I would start working on my own t-shirt quilt with my Forest Cliff Camp shirts (of which I have many). I started working on it just before New Years Eve, and almost completely finished the top of the quilt before I came back to Stratford yesterday. I've never moved through a quilt so quickly before. The main reason for that is because a lot of supplies I need to make quilts are at the church sewing group, so I was limited to 3hrs of sewing a week. But I recently received a cutting board and ruler which are the big things I needed. So now I can sew to my heart's desire at home! Now the only thing stopping me is not understanding a quilt pattern. Margaret often helps me a lot in guiding me through the steps of making a quilt.

I made up the pattern for the t-shirt quilts since you can't really fit the t-shirts to an existing pattern. I had been planning on bringing my sewing stuff to Stratford so that I could keep working on my quilt while at school but I ended up getting so much of it done that I didn't bother. I'll be able to finish the top within a couple hours the next time I go home. Then the first quilt of 2017 will be done!
The creativity continues in Stratford with a card for a friend's birthday later this week. We're hoping to go trampolining to celebrate :)
My new year's resolution is to make a new recipe each week. The hope is that I'll become more confident in trying new recipes, increase the number of go-to meals I can make, and learn how to pair foods better. This week is a chicken and spinach salad.