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Archive for the ‘life or something like it’ Category

every post needs a title

Posted in life or something like it on October 16, 2009| 4 Comments »

weddingpicture

We’re back to the Casa La CorJ in scenic rainy Esquimalt after a crazy/amazing wedding in Las Vegas.

I just wanted to hop on to say that the trip was spectacular and I’ll have a more proper debriefing on weekend after I get a chance to sit down and write.

We returned home late on Wednesday night, and I had to be up first thing Thursday to jump back into the fray!  Yikes, no rest for the wicked.  Friday will be insane but I am hoping to get a chance to decompress this weekend. New Capital Rock City, a countdown show, interviews with Victoria Rebel’s quarterback Yannick Rickli and Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor.  Then playing some music at the bar in Langford.  Somewhere in there… work on a new TV project and launching a wedding DJ service…

Thank you for all the kind wedding messages on Facebook, twitter, texts, on the Zone phone… and wherever or however you choose to communicate.

I am listening to Down With Webster’s “Rich Girl$”  Is it me, or does the dude sing like Weird Al?

That’s all I got.  I bought rain pants today… that was fun.  Now I won’t get soaked on my scoot into The Zone during the winter months.

Go with yourself.

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Beginning of a Great Adventure

Posted in life or something like it, music, Wedding, tagged , , , , , on October 5, 2009| 6 Comments »

DSC_0164

I punched up some Stooges tonight to sit down and research and discover and explore on the internet.  I had the album ‘Fun House‘ rotating the hardrive and wasn’t feeling it.  Its not bad, but just makes me want to listen to Lou Reed.

Then I noticed I also have their eponymous record that includes “I Wanna Be Your Dog.”  Now I get it… that song completely destroys.  What I wasn’t wholly prepared for was the 10 minute dirges… trippy.

I got on this late 60s, 70s alt rock kick because I have been enjoying the Replacements all weekend.  And well, one the time machines goes back to the 80s, you can’t not let it take you all the way.

The Replacements are always a good go to band for me.  Help me get to a nice relaxed state if I feel some anxiety or whatever.  But their real beauty is they jazz me on classic jangly alternative music of the by-gone era.

Coral and I are getting ready to take off to Las Vegas on Wednesday and September has been a trying month for me financially.  It wasn’t any one thing, but a series of small things that all conspired against me in September, any one of them alone would have been no big deal (and some even a little welcome) but with the steady grind it whacked my bank account right before the trip.  Couple that with the fact that almost every wedding expense seems to be just a little more than my initial budget and it had my heart palpating a bit days before the rip.

Coral and I still have our warchest and we’re good to go… but there was a brief moment in early September where we had some confidence that we’d exceed our own expectations and I guess not reaching a goal that I had worked at kinda hurt me.  Coral is more zen about it, she says we have our initial budget and so we’re good to go and get married.  AND we bought wedding bands!  Ha, we briefly flirted with the idea of dropping that and then last minute (early in the month when projections were good) added wedding bands.  We went to a store called “Old and Gold” by Coral’s work.  They sell pawned or “re purposed” jewelery.  I bought a wedding band that had another date inscribed on it.  I wanted to keep the old date, but Coral and the jeweler said I could (or should) not.  Too bad, I think it would have been neat to keep that old marker on the ring.

So we’re off to Vegas on Wednesday and I managed to get sick over the weekend.  I took a day today to rest and hang out with Madelyn.  I don’t want to get too sick and push myself and stress out for fear of looking like a Swine Flu victim before trying to cross the border into America.

Already it is time to set my eyes toward the future.  I have tried hard to keep my focus on October 11th and not a day ahead.  But sometimes my mind gets away with excitement.  Coral and I have been talking about starting a business as we usually do, but seeing as she’ll be unemployed (barring some sort of miracle) come December, we might as well get serious about it.  Slowly the concept is taking shape.  We’re not going to re-invent the wheel.  Just pick something and be the best at it.

Oh, and on the broadcasting front, we’re working on some things at The Zone which I hope will raise my community profile (and the boss man says *might* lead to some money) so fingers crossed for that project.

That’s all I got for tonight, just brainstorming and I’m hoping sitting in the sun in Vegas around the pool will help me flesh out some new creative ideas and projects and bring some focus.

I really want a pizza sub from subway, like really badly.

Go with yourself.

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I know you hate me but I’ll ask anyways

Posted in life or something like it, music on September 23, 2009| 3 Comments »

stag

Holy Fuck, my house is cooking tonight.  This late summer has been fantastic, but I’m not used ot my apartment being so hot at 12:30 AM.

So I was off the internets at home for awhile and as Madelyn would say.  Where did it go?

A bunch things transpired to send me off the laptop at home (you could still find me on the radio, facebook, twitter right?).

You might remember this post from the 16th?  here I was minding my own business jamming out some Silverchair (don’t ask) when all of a sudden iTunes exploded and died a horrible and tragic death on my Toshiba.  And I cursed and I used some words I’m not proud of.

Turns out the Toshiba was right fucked with viruses and the like and iTunes did not like.  No iTunes while writing meant no want to write.  No blog.

Mother Computers fixed it (but then brought me new problems!  bah computers!  The man that can make a computer that the average college educated professional can use without help desks or smart friends or $68 bills at the laptop shop will be a trillionaire!) .  Right, computer works, iTunes works, Coral can get online to read her gossips and blogs, my touchpad is now fucked; but I bought a mouse so its all good… Medieval Total War works and my conquest of France will be complete by weeks end.

I also went and got completely destroyed not once, but twice last week.  Old friends from my MySpace blogging days might not think that too odd, but lately getting drunk is less of a mainstream story line for me, so gettin’er done twice in a week (Zone Party Bus, Stag with the Boys) was a shock to the system and made me twice as lazy.

Sunday I did manage to somehow put it together to take the family and Alix up Island to the Feast of Fields Festival.  Amazing is the best word to describe.  Feast of Fields is an event designed to connect urban hipsters such as yours truly to the food production complex of Vancouver Island.  I arrive at a picturesque farm outside of Victoria on a spectacular late summer day.  A woman at the gate gives me a wine glass and a napkin and a giddy up then sets me free in a world of gourmet, local, organic wonder… with a glass full of wine and or beer and or cider (or teas and water).

The event reminded me a bit of Beerfest, but not as stupid… and with food.  You go from booth to booth, jocked by a who’s who of Victoria and Island(s) food makers and suppliers and eat their best stuff!  Between every food stall is a beer or wine purveyor from right here on Vancouver Island.  Unlike Beerfest, once you have your ticket, you pay for nothing else and the lines are far more manageable.  The asshole factor was zero and you’re doing all this in an expansive park like setting.

Feast of Fields next year?  Yes please.  And really, we ALL need to go.  They also do it in Vancouver and in the interior… so all my friends on that side of the water, look it up and get your tickets (or in Vancityrockgirl’s case, a booth!).

All end with a quick list of what I’m listening to lately for those that care then I should go to bed.  Mads gets up and there is no sleep in no matter how bad I want it.  She is now old enough that our days must be filled with joy and wonder and finding stuff a one and half year-old tyrant wants to do with out involving any children’s ministries is a challenge.  Lately I dig the library because its free or just good old fashioned grocery shopping.

Aside from the Silverchair (which seriously I’ve been listening to) I downloaded some new stuff that is mighty hipster, so I get, some I like and some… not so much.

Yeasayer Justin turned me on to this band at the Station House a couple weeks ago. When it pops on I go,”hey I like that.” They are from Brooklyn.  He also turned me on to;
The xx an interesting style, they are all the rage right now on Pitchfork.
Final Fantasy The Polaris music prize came out the other day and Fucked Up won!  Rad… the article I read mademention of last year’s winner Final Fantasy .  I had never taken the time to download anything so I grabbed a well rated ep.  Its neat I guess.  The BEST of last year?  no, not to me… but who am I right?  That dude is $20,000 richer than I’ll ever be.  I do like it, pleasant indie hipster goodness I guess.  Final Fantasy will be at Rifflandia this weekend.
Wild Beasts Pitchfork said it would be fun and they’re right, its pretty histerical (in a good way).  Like the Darkness meets a graphic tee and Zooey Daschanel movie.
The Dead Weather colour me new, but I am just getting into the Dead Weather now… why didn’t they become the biggest thing since Queens of the Stone Age on The Zone?  Oh right, people keep requesting Owl City.  Its a modern rock mystery… and despite popular misconception, we don’t tell anybody what to like, they tell us.  Too bad, I would have liked if someone had told me to like The Dead Weather.
The Antlers lots of hype about these cats.  Fans of a darker, moodier indie pop will dig.  Bon Iver anyone.  I wasn’t feeling it tonight so I just downloaded one song, “Kettering,” but what a good song it is.

Speaking of Bon Iver, maybe I’ll punch him up before bed.  I wish Coral didn’t have to sleep before work; I’d very much like to get naked and jam out Bon Iver.. TMI folks, I’m out.

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falling down

Posted in life or something like it, tagged , on September 16, 2009| 13 Comments »

Any of you fine folks see the movie “Falling Down?”

Michael Douglas’ character gets stuck in traffic and starts to lose his mind.  At some point he abandons his car and begins the travel home on foot.  Thus setting off a chain of events that ends tragically.

I often feel like Michael Douglas in that film and I sure did today.  The chain of events began late last night.  I was up late enjoying some music on my iTunes when the program prompted me to download the new iTunes 9.

I downloaded the program and the shit hit the fan with my computer.  iTunes 9 corrupted my laptop somehow and now I have no iTunes.  I’ve lost all my playlists, have no way to listen to my music and when/if I ever get back on… I’ll need to reload all my music again which takes time.  And time, I love time and giving it to Steve Jobs is something I don’t want to do.

Holy moly the aggravation.  I shouldn’t let this shit bother me so much, but it makes my heart beat.  I’ll need to take my laptop into a computer store to see what is wrong and that will cost me money and time.  I feel frustrated because there is nothing I can do about it.  I am too far in with Apple now, invested too much much time and money, I MUST try and re install iTunes.  What I want to do is send the bill to Apple and add some sort of compensation for my time.  I am sure that will go over well at Apple Head office, but I think I might do it anyways.  I am racing against the clock too as I need my laptop to be able ot play my music by Saturday when I have a Rebels game.

The worst part, this is not the first time that upgrading my iTunes has wiped my work clean or generally fucked me in some way.

The cult of Apple users tend to blame the victim when the shit storm rains.  They say its my fault because I didn’t spend $2,400 on an iMac.  To make me feel even worse, people with PCs are saying, “works fine for me!”  Why? How?  What did I do to my Toshiba?  This is an example of the phrase, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” There must be some setting that I have tripped on or some malware/spyware/virus or I dunno, something that is making my computer not want to be friendly with iTunes 9.

If/when I can control my anxiety of losing a ton of my music, I might just wash my hands of iTunes and listen to music some other way… like… I don’t even know another way.  I’ll need to google that.  Windows Media Player?  Is that thing any good?  Can I transfer my music over to Windows to play there?  Typing blogs in silence really sucks Steve Jobs.  Or do I just dive right in and save my pennies and join the  cult?  If I’m on the inside then my stupid iTunes will stop crashing saving my heart from dangerous palpitations… so owning a Mac could save my life?  hmmm, since i put it that way…

I just hope I never run into that Mac TV Commercial nerd.  My logical brain knows he’s just an actor… but if I catch him on a “Falling Down” day, we’ll have words.

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It keeps chickens and lovers from wandering

Posted in food, life or something like it, Wedding, tagged , , , , , , on September 14, 2009| 3 Comments »

cake

I can’t believe its less than a month away till Vegas.  I am very excited.  Last weekend Coral, mads and I packed up the Victoria family and journeyed to the wilds of Coquitlam.

My Mom and Dad threw us a most extravagant backyard wedding reception type party.  It was great to reconnect with friends, family and the family of friends.

A highlight for me was watching the gaggle of kids running around in the backyard getting up to no goodness, eating apples off the trees, and general tyke horse play.

Some scotch was drank (thanks ted!) and the bonds of friendship were strengthened.  I really am having troubles with patience as the final count down to Vegas is upon us.

Next party, there will be even more babies as Ted’s wife and my cousin Mo are expecting.  I was thinking that if Tracy had put her newborn son in Vancityrock‘s arms, she’d bee-line home and get baby making herself!

Thank you to my folks and sister and brother CJ for helping to create this wonderful party and to everyone that took a few moments in their life to spend a sunny late summer evening with Coral and I.

***

Today I woke up with a mad lust for tacos.  Lately I can’t seem to eat enough cilantro/Mexican or stop dreaming about Mediterranean food.  Weird.

The tacos were a force this morning that I had to indulge in.  I have a recipe burning a whole through the memory of my Blackberry that I had to cook (the Blackberry Food Network App is mighty).

The main issue I was facing, no cumin, no car, baby.  I put Madelyn on my shoulders and grabbed my shopping bag and huffed it overland to Fairways.

The advantage to this peregrination is that it kept Mads excited and engaged.  The disadvantage is that cooking with a toddler under foot is both dangerous and trying.

I quickly crafted her a tapas dish of tomatoes and bananas.  Weird but I guess the two go together well for Madelyn as she was content to munch on that salad while I prepared my tacos.

Pork Tacos with a Tomato Salsa and Creamed Avocados

You’ll be needing:

a package of ground pork
some shrimp
a bunch of chopped cilantro stems
2 TBSPN cumin
2 tspn paprika
1 chopped hot chili
1 clove garlic chopped
1 shallot chopped
the juice of half a lime
a pinch of sugar
a pinch of salt

tomato salsa

3 tomatoes diced
2 green onions chopped
a bunch of cilantro diced
the juice of half or maybe one lime
some salt
a pinch of sugar

for the creamed avocado

2 avocados roughly chopped
1/4 cup of sour cream
1  green onion chopped
juice of a lime
pinch of sugar
pinch of salt

Here we go:

Brown the pork in a frying pan.  When it is golden and cooked, add the shallots, garlic and chopped chili pepper and cook for another minute or two.  Then add the cumin and paprika and stir.  At this point, your house will smell fantastic.

Add the shrimp and cook till it turns pink.

Let it cook for another minute or two and then add the lime juice, cilantro stems and a pinch of sugar, stir and remove from heat.

While the pork is browning you make the salsa by chopping the tomatoes, green onion and cilantro.  Fire that into a bowl and toss it in lime juice.  That’s done.

To make the creamed avocado, peel and take the nut out of a couple avocados.  Chop them roughly and put into a bowl.  Add the chopped green onion, a quatre cup of sour cream and some lime juice and mash.  You might want to add a pinch of salt and sugar.

The recipe called for the juice of 2 and half limes… I only had two left and I used two and it was still WAY to tart.  I’d almost use no limes or maybe half a lime next time.  Or just make guacamole.

Get your hands on your favourite taco shells, or tortillas and pile a scoop of the pork/shrimp mixture on your tortilla with a nice big spoon full of tomato salsa and a dollop of creamed avocado.  Garnish with a little cilantro and yum it up.

***
That’s all I got right now.  Still dreaming about those tacos.  wow.  Cumin is not the most authentic Mexican seasoning but I don’t care, its just plain good.

My buddy Alex sent me a link to some rare Canadian history… apperently during World War 2 the German’s set up a weather station in Canada? That’s a CBC movie that needs to be made!

Go with yourself.

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triumph or tragedy?

Posted in life or something like it, tagged , , on September 10, 2009| Leave a Comment »

One of the old branding phrases I had for the Morning After Show back in the olden days was… “that time in the morning where you take stock of last night.  Triumph or tragedy?”

Yesterday was a real triumph, thinking about grocery shopping and the system of staying to the outside in the giant box store.  If you only buy the goods that are generally found on the edges of a grocery store, you save money and eat better.

For me, that means the Save-On Foods in Vic West.  I walk in and hit the fruits and veggies, then the bakery, meats at the back, dairy on the far side.  Basket full, total cost $20!

***

Dave Sawchuk is battling Global Climate Change one bike ride at a time and you can read his daily campaign by clicking the hyper link.

David Eleanor vs Global Warming

This blog will only end poorly for pollution as whenever Dave does something, he does it hardcore.  People need to stop leaving their David Suzuki books on the seats of BC ferries, the man reads a chapter or two and he makes life changing decisions about how he will operate in life.

The trials and successes will be posted DAILY on his blog.  DAILY?  you bet.

Go with yourself.

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Sir Jeremy

Posted in life or something like it, tagged on September 10, 2009| 1 Comment »

I have been thinking lots lately of some physical activities I’d like to do to try and be more active.  I really like hockey, but it doesn’t jive with my schedule.  Coral and I have found a dodgeball league that will be firing up on Thursdays right as I finish my show which if good.

Thinking about what I like, what I want to get into…. well, I think I want to do some medieval sword fighting.

Manny moons ago, I was involved with this group called The SCA.  The society for creative anachronisms.  They were/are a funny lot, but basically, every week my buddy Paul and I would head out to a school rec room in Kitsalino and get shit kicked by big metal dudes with clubs for a few hours.  As you can imagine, mucho fun.

Paul and I did this for some time and sadly, that Thursday practise every week in the city ended.  We had to find a new group and I tagged along with some guys doing it in Coquitlam.

A club of grown adults who pretend to live in a fantasy medieval world atracts a certain breed.  The Thursday thing in Vancouver had a special lot, but for the most part, it was bunch of guys in their 20s, that listened to epic metal, had beards, and liked to fight.

But as I got more involved with the club, well… I met some characters and it became less fun and very serious (for some people).  Paul and I stopped going, whatever, life moves on.

Fast forward to now, and I still get the urge to do some fighting.  A few weeks ago I thought maybe I’d try this MMA that is all the rage.  I called some gyms and visited a couple and two horrible truths stood out.

MMA Guys are asshole.  Judge SCAers all day, fine, but MMA guys are generally the d-bags you make fun of in the bar.

The other; MMA is expensive.

Lame, to beat the shit out your fellow man, you have to pay money for the privilege.

And I was a little down… anything fun I thought of costs mucho bux and/or requires tons of  equipment.  But then I remembered SCA.

True, there is and can be some expensive equipment involved but when I first started I fought in hockey gear (basically) and some borrowed stuff.  The helmet needs to be a real deal metal medieval contraption because giant Odin looking fellows are swinging clubs at your head. But the rest can be whatever you got laying around that you feel like taping to yourself.

As I got into SCA more, I pieced my kit together as I had money/time/found a deal and by the end I had some bad ass functional medieval armour!

Part of the fun was putting it together and sourcing it.  And this was back in the infancy of the internet, I bet now I could find what I need easily on Craiglist of eBay.

Heck I might even still have some gear at my folk’s place (though I doubt it, and if its there, its over ten years old, so I can imagine fairly rotten).

The point is, I like history, I like fighting and I love medieval total war, so I think I will fire up some medieval sword fighting again.  If anyone is down, we could form our won club and do fight practice a couple times a week maybe?  Or join up with the SCA?  whatever works.  We’ll find out how to make our own armour on the internet and try to do it ourselves (those rain collection barrels they sell in Vancouver might be the perfect plastic to make a scale mail armour).  I had a helmet, heck I had two… but I left one at the radio station and haven’t seen it since and I don’t know where the other one is, so that I might have to try and buy again.

Anyways, that’s the story… I am going to start up a medieval sword fighting club and if you’re into it, let me know and we’ll try and find a rec hall or space to do it.

Go with yourself.

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another sunny afternoon

Posted in life or something like it, tagged , , , , , , , , , on September 2, 2009| 10 Comments »

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Coral and I just got back from our holiday to Kelowna and the Shuswap.  Waiting for me in my email inbox was this most excellent highlight from the website, Texts From Last Night:

(601): Here’s my recipe for happiness. Go get a pen. 1. smoke a bowl 2. put on explosions in the sky 3. take a bath. Do this for about 1 hour or until all your problems go away.

That is nice… maybe less nice (but I watched the trailer anyways) while trolling TFLN, I came across the website for the movie I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell.  I wonder if a Tucker Max movie is really necessary for modern society?  ahhh, who am I kidding, of course it is.

The big story ’round these parts (aside form Coral’s recent fascination with old Felicity episodes) is that… Coral was laid off at the government. boooo

There is hope that she might get placed in another department before December 1st.  Thou, to be honest we’re not sure what would be better?  Working for the government is a pretty cherry gig.  Coral makes a good wage and the work is well suited for a mother…. however the job contributes to a lull in Coral’s energy to seek what she wants in life.  The layoff might be the necessary to put her on track to go out and get her dreams.

Coral and I were sitting on the deck of her father and future step-mother’s house in Westbank over looking Lake Okanagan and thinking that one day we’d like to live on a lake and have an out door kitchen and I’d cook and grill food for us all day.  I’d have a rack filled with different woods for their smoke properties to infuse into the foods.  And we’d have a boat, Coral wants one of those ski boats with the speakers that shoot overtop where you attach the toe rope and have your wake boards mounted.  As comfortable as our life is now, that fantasy can never happen.  But it COULD happen… it does seem to happen for other people.

The one major wrench it has thrown into our plans is that we were thinking about having another baby and that will have to be shelved for a bit as we decide how we’re going to live.  I am also going to have to find some really steady additional work and/or step up the launch my mobile disco business.

I am confident that we’ll be able to work something out, until then we’ll keep trolling MLS for that perfect ocean/lake front and buying lotto 6/49.

***

I’d like to end this blog post talking about the band Oasis.  I saw on Mike Devlin’s facebook a link to an article that published the results of an international poll asking modern rockers, what the best song of all time is.  The answer, Oasis’ “Live Forever.”

SWA?

Its a good song, but the BEST song ever?  for shame.

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taking a turn

Posted in life or something like it on August 28, 2009| 1 Comment »

Taking a day or two to travel around British Columbia.  Blog returns middle of next week.

if you care, some sporadic updates may or may not be posted to my twitter.

Thank you for reading.

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swirls and foam

Posted in food, life or something like it, tagged , , , , , on August 26, 2009| 8 Comments »

I stayed up way too late last night listening to music, and this morning woke up way too early.  They are finally building sidewalks in my neightbourhood (huzzah) but for a few weeks at the end of the summer, some early wake ups for me.

Getting up early was good, I had an interview with BCIT for the degree program I want into.  Education is a bizarre industry.  I have to apply, jump through hoops and basically beg to write them a cheque.  Maybe not so different than the nightclub business or Apple computers… but still, seems weird.

Needless to say, i rocked that interview so now Coral and I will need to decide if BCIT’s Bachelor of Technology is a better bet than Applied Communications (or whatever they call it now) from Royal Roads… or maybe a third option… or maybe the forth option, Cooking School!

I think I like BCITs the best, because it is a management AND technology degree.  Those two skills are things I could use in broadcasting or else where.  learning how to talk to gooder and writing press releases?  Not so much.

The advantage of Royal Roads might be that I can finish sooner if I work like crazy steroided ant.

What I have been the most excited about lately is thinking about three business ideas that I have.

What I want to do… maybe after the wedding, is brew my own root beer and create a brand and sell my root beer.  back in maybe 2002, while slaving away at Starbucks, I got it in my head to brew root beer.  I bought some books on home brewing, and even some bottles, buckets and general kit to try and brew some… but life threw some curve balls (and I ran out of money), then I moved to Victoria.  I put all the brew equipment in the storage of my apartment in Fernwood… and promptly lost it all.  Except for the books on how to brew and some recipes.

Lately I have had to vision to do it again.  My holy grail would be a very dry, alcoholic root beer… mmm, it should be possible.  But there is all sorts of stuff that I could put in my brew.  The fun would be creating a product that is good, then seeing if I can sell it!

What I might actually do is start a mobile disco business… DJing weddings and parties and the like.

What I have a fantasy of doing, is throwing one off dinning events.  Finding a nice outdoor site and hiring or renting the equipment and having an outdoor dinner.  Finding a kitchen space not being used, a local chef and booking a one off dinner party.  Finding an ingredient and designing a dinner based around it.  Finding a supplier or industrial space, dressing it up and serving dinner n the site.  Fun, unique, delicious dining experiences… I might even get a chance to cook some stuff! or at least learn from the chefs.

My friend works for a local catering company and it sounds like they could really use some energy and more importantly business, so the opportunity might be there.

That is a few things I have been thinking about lately on top of my usual brain swirls of music, babies, wedding plannings, broadcasting and podcasting.

***

Go with yourself.

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