#263 - Espresso and Oxtail

We were up at the at seven to get ready to make our way into Toronto for a mandatory in studio workday.

I initially woke at 5 am and was happy to go straight back to bed. This seems to be a new thing where I wake up feeling refreshed two hours before my alarm is supposed to go off. I attribute this to the sleep aids I’ve taking.

The ride was fine, the only issue was the air conditioning seemed to not be working at its full capacity. We managed to get seats close together on the upper level. Robyn read and my earlier energy from 5 am seemed to have forsaken me, so I napped instead. I was also well aware that today was going to be a bit hectic.

The train arrived in Toronto in good time but only opened the doors on one side of the train. This happens occasionally. Today it meant it took twice as long to exit the platform down a narrow staircase. Luckily, we weren’t in any kind of a hurry today.

We’d decided to skip getting a breakfast sandwich to save a bit of money, but Robyn still needed her Tim Hortons steeped tea. It took over twenty minutes to get our order. This articular Tims is not setup well to handle the morning rush.

We ordered two of their strawberry muffins as well. Cheaper than two sandwiches!

We walked to the studio, and I realized I’d forgotten my key fob and so had Robyn. A eork colleague arrived just in time to let us in. I plopped my self down at my desk and ate my muffin while starting up my PC. The studio lights were off, and we kept it that way the rest of the day. We digital painters prefer the darkness. It stops light reflecting off our monitors and lets us see the colours better.

I made a vanilla earl grey and ate two boiled eggs I had brought from home to complete my breakfast. People started arriving and the energy of the place began to increase. Wveryne chatted for a bit and then got down to work.

I began going through my approvals, knowing there was some work my supervisor needed to do before I could really sink my teeth into things. I tried to pick out items that wouldn’t be affected by whatever she decided to do today.

When she arrived, she gave me enough information for me to do some work without fear of major changes. I received a few requests from two of my painters to have cursory look over their work before they went too far with it.

One of my painters English isn’t as strong in the written language. So, after some frustrating back and forths we finally got on the same page and she was able to keep working. Making pictures with notes on them is often the best way to communicate to a visual artist regardless of their grasp of the language.

Just before lunch a former work colleague stopped by the studio to have lunch with some of the other staff. I had to decline to offer to join them. Although I would have liked to but we’d brought leftover Chicken Ruby for lunch, and we are still trying to keep unnecessary expenses down.

None-the-less, we had a great lunch with some other work friends and got to enjoy our Chicken Ruby with great relish and good conversation. We ate and talked for most of the hour. Robyn left the studio to get a walk in with our supervisor who was making a beeline for Starbucks.

I got back to approvals.

We had a meeting at two to discuss a future episode that takes place at night, but the characters use flashlights. This often means painting the background with a normal colour and night colour. Our comp teams then mask between to the two to get a light beam effect.

Another way to do it to provide a colour gel that can be masked out. The painting is created using daytime colours and the gel makes it look like nighttime. There are benefits and costs to each approach and we need to make sure we choose the one that will work best but also not over tax our teams with excessive extra work.

The rest of the day seemed to zoom by. Time is like that when you are deeply focused on a task.

We left work and outside the clouds looked crazy, like we were about to have a colossal storm. There was no rush to get anywhere so we took our sweet time getting to the station. I’d wanted to replenish my favourite espresso pod from Nespresso and there happened to be one at the station. This Nespresso store had fancy checkout kiosks that could add up whatever was in your bag and do the check out and payment right there. Even getting the pods was an automated wall that advanced the next box after you took one.

It was a neat customer experience ruined only by the signs telling you not to restock a box and even more disturbingly to not stick your hand into the orifice the boxes came out of. Because you know more than one person tried to do it if they had to make a sign.

I bought three sleeves of my preferred pod, and we bought a sleeve of ice coffee pods for kiddo #1.

After our purchases I suggested we take supper here at the station. There are plenty of good spots to eat there. One of our favourites was just a few hundred meters away. Roywood’s at Union is a great spot to get some Carribean food. Robyn loves oxtail with rice and beans and I happen to love their BBQ chicken sandwich and their jerk chicken sandwich with all the fixings.

My only regret was that I ordered a coke zero instead of a Ting as my beverage. Live and learn. We both enjoyed our meals immensely and it was nice to sit and enjoy ourselves before rejoining the commuting world.

They announced our train could be boarded from platform seven and eight so we rushed up the stairs and jumped on the front car of the train surprised that there were so many seats available.

An announcement came on over the speakers saying the train in this track wasn’t going our way and we had to jump off before the doors closed on us. Apparently, this train had been delayed and was departing fifteen minutes late.

Quite a few of us nearly got caught on the wrong train.

Ten minutes later our train came rolling down the tracks and the number of people on the platforms had grown exponentially. And the train rolling in was nearly full already. Hardly anyone got off, so we boarded a very busy train. I headed upstairs where we were able to get seats together.

The passengers were extremely rowdy and clearly heading out to a good time. I put on my noise cancelling earbuds to drown out the chaos. Someone pushed the emergency alarm strip, and it went off in ear-piercing intervals for the length of an entire station.

The first stop along the way was Exhibition Stadium and most of the train got off there. That’s where the FIFA games were being played and I guess that might have been what caused it to be so busy.

From that point on the train quieted and I opened my laptop to start writing. Robyn managed to read all through the chaos of the rowdy passsengers. I could barely hear myself think.

We made it home without incident and I was ready to relax, but the lawn was looking well overdue for a cut. I changed into my work shoes and proceeded to trim the grass, happier afterwards that I had taken the time to make our house look nicer.

I took a few moments to admire the garden and inspected the new rose blooms that had appeared since yesterday. Everything in the garden seems to be doing well this year. It should be really nice by July.

We invited some friends over for drinks on Friday that we haven’t seen in far too long. It will be great to sit outside and sip some adult beverages while having a chat and catching up.

We also received a thank you note from our Mother-in-law for our work last weekend at their cottage. It’s always nice to be noticed and appreciated.

With the grass cut and our bellies still full from an early dinner, I joined Robyn upstairs to relax and watch some television to wind down from the day.

We started a new series out of Germany called, “Mindful Murders.”

It’s about a lawyer for a criminal organization who studies mindfulness and how it changes how he approaches his unusual life. It’s great fun and not too serious. The writing keeps you guessing what will happen next and of course, as he fixes one thing another bit of chaos erupts all around him.

The voices are dubbed into English and it’s not too distracting. They did a good job on getting decent voice actors for the roles.

My stocks had another stellar day in the markets. I am really in sell territory at this point and will be keeping a closer eye on things tomorrow and for the next few weeks to come.

I’ve been in the stock market since I was in my early twenties and if I’ve learned one thing, it is never a bad idea to take profits. Of course, the markets are fickle, because humans are fickle.

All in all, it’s been a good day.

I am looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow and have friends over for a chat.

But I am all out of energy for today. It’s coming up on midnight, and I’ve had my magnesium glycinate, but no cherry juice yet. I’m all out of sleep-inducing kiwis, so the one-two punch of pills and juice will have to do the trick.

But to be honest, I don’t think I need much help to get to sleep tonight.

Anyway….

Until tomorrow.