#340 - Last Breakfast Sandwich?

It was an early rise for me today, and it almost didn’t happen.

My alarm was not set, and I woke up at the exact correct time be meer chance. Something got me up, and as has been the case lately, I wasn’t quite sure where or when I was at first.

I took a bit longer getting ready, but somehow, I still managed to leave the house at a good time. The drive to the station was unremarkable, which was remarkable in an of itself. The laek of traffic was mystifying and the drive was smooth. I even managed to snag a premium parking spot with ease. I sauntered upto the track and a train came almost instantly.

If there was a moment of imperfection, it started when the train operated overshot the mark. I was in the correct spot if he had to just walk on the train. But the crowd was small this morning and it didn’t really make much of a difference.

I grabbed seat on the top and settled in to get a bit of rest.

At the next stop a lady sat across from me and proceeded to start a conversation on her phone, holding it up to her mouth like it was prized biscuit she was about to take a giant chuck out of.

I grumbled loudly, asking the air why people kept coming up to the top level to carry on conversations when they knew better. I’m pretty sure she heard me.

I reached into my bag and put on my noise cancelling earbuds. Playing some soothing classical music, I was able to drown her out. I’m not sure if she stopped, I had my eyes shut.

This was just the second of two things that would go wrong today, but I didn’t know that at the time.

Off the train I took the Esplanade route and enjoyed the sunlight dappling through the trees. Up the alley to get my favourite breakfast sandwich in the city at Au Pain Dore. As I ordered, they informed me that today was the last day the sandwich would be in this form. A new and improved version was in the works. The would replace the brioche croissant with a longer bread. The goat cheese was to be replaced with feta, and the eggplant would be switched out for another variety. I asked them why they we trying to fix a problem they didn’t have.

They were changing their Big Mac, introducing New Coke. It was a fool’s choice. Hadn’t they learned from the past. So today might be the second last time I will ever eat there. I only ever went for the breakfast sandwich as it was.

I ate my sandwich and took an extra moment to enjoy. The good things in life never last forever. And it was just a sandwich after all. But these days it seems all the good things are closing or being discontinued. I’ve already lost the Patrician Grill this year. And now the sandwich. Toronto was running out of places for me to grab a good breakfast.

I walked to work with a heavy heart.

Inside the studio, it was quiet. No big conversations were taking place this morning, and I settled into my desk, saying hello to the lone painter that was already there.

I had some work to check, and I did that until my supervisor came in and then we chatted about work for a while.

At ten we had an all-supervisors’ meeting to discuss any issues we had and to catch up where everyone was at compared to the schedule. After the meeting, I worked for a bit longer and then took lunch with some colleagues I don’t usually sit with. Robyn was working from home, and I thought changing it up would be interesting.

We had some laughs and one guy showed us the painted binders he was commissioned to do for a company that has software to catalogue and estimate the value of your Pokémon cards.

The binders were all Pokémon themed, and he told us he gets about $200 per binder. Each binder costs him about fifty dollars. Not bad.

Then I told the story about my college roommate who woke us up on Sunday morning, singing opera at the bottom of the stairs, standing stark naked and wrapping raw strips of bacon around his stiffened member. One of my roomates girlfriends came out the room to see what the noise was all about and he plucked a slice off and flung it at her. It missed her by and inch and splatted agains the bathroom door before sliding down to the floor.

It was about that time that I go curious, a woman’s scream will do that to you on a quiet Sunday morning. I popped my head out and dodged a slice of bacon. I went back into my room where it was relatively safe and listened to see if he was coming up the stairs. Instead, I heard the front door open. I ran down the stairs, slammed the door and threw the deadbolt closed.

I’m not sure how he got back in.

Honestly, with all the kids in our neighborhood at that time, I thought the police would have picked him up. But somehow, he got back in the house.

We all chose not to live with that guy the following year as I am sure you can understand.

With a funny lunch over, we all headed back to the studio area and got back to work. I did more approvals and revisions until about three when we had our Leica meeting. It went longer than expected and we had to reschedule and do a part two for the next day.

After the meeting work started flowing into my inbox and I was kept busy with approvals and the next thing I knew it was five o’clock. I was happy to get up and go.

It feels like the team is in a good groove now and we are starting to get shows done faster. Some of these are all the time-saving innovations that were created and the other comes from a conscious reduction of backgrounds needed per episode. That comes from our storyboard department and the director being very aware of the cost of different angles and using more of what is already in our inventory. Every little bit helps make us more efficient.

Storyboard Team, we salute you.

I walked back to the station along the Esplanade the entire way and I must have been stopped at every stoplight I came upon. Luckily, I wasn’t in a hurry, and I managed to get on an earlier than expected train.

It was an all-stops, but they added an extra stop at the Exhibition station due to the fact the CNE was in full swing and it attracts a lot of people. Just extra time to get some writing done as far as I was concerned.

I have to make some makhani sauce tonight and marinate the chicken thighs so they will be ready for the weekend. I also need to peel and poach some pears in a lovely Beaujolais at some point as well. But If I don’t get to the pears, it’s not a big deal. I made pear and parsnip soup last night that we can have as well while at the cottage.

None-the-less, this means I’ll be spending at least two hours cooking tonight. I’d really prefer just to relax tonight, but it will be nice to have a premade meal when we are up there. We just have to pick up some fresh naan bread, and we are all set to have a great meal.

The drive home was a bit frustrating due to the number of cars on the road. The sheer volume just made everything so slow.

Once home I got right to the task of prepping all the ingredients to make a double helping of makhani sauce to bring to the cottage. It was really the last thing I wanted to do right then, but there was no better time to get it done. I thought I might make the marinade tomorrow, but I wanted it to have a full twenty-four hours before cooking the chicken.

After making the sauce I started on the marinade.

It probably took me two and a half hours to do all that and by the time I was done, I was more than ready for some horizontal relaxation. Robyn had her freelance work to do, so I tried to find something I could watch without her.

And the universe delivered the second season of the Gentleman on Netflix. And they dropped all the episodes all at once. I watched two episodes back-to-back and then watched half of a thirty-minute video by the Hacksmith as they started on a quest to build their own Batmobile. They seem to really be having fun with this build. They have expanded into such a big YouTube engineering company that produces its own line of products. Even the garage they built for making the car was completely equipped with tools, lifts and tire machines by a sponsor.

It’s cool to see a Canadian doing so well on the international stage by creating builds and prototypes that capture the viewers imagination. I hope they keep doing this for as long as they can.

Another crazy YouTuber, Colin Furze is continuing his underground garage and a car lift for his Delorean. He’s got some patient neighbors that put up with his shenanigans, since all this is happening in a suburban street. And some of the things he makes often explode, catch fire, or are generally dangerous.

Robyn finished up her work, so I shut off YouTube and we sat and watched the season finale of Silo. This episode had a lot of moving parts and revealed more about the creators of the Silo. I’ve read the books, so I had some idea of what to expect, but I still enjoyed the program. Looking forward to the next season.

We are about the enter into the new TV season and I am really excited to get another season of Slow Horses on Apple TV. I’ve read all the books by Mick Herron and loved them all. It’s great that Apple TV is getting so many good shows by televising books. It seems to be a winning formula for them.

This weekend is a long weekend in Canada, and I am completely stoked to get the Monday off. I hope to do as little as possible. I’d be completely alright with spending the day in bed watching movies and ordering food in or eating leftover Chicken Ruby! Either way, I am ready for a little extra rest. There can never be too much of that.

The refrigerator is acting up again. I think the humidity has caused it to freeze up again and the waterline is frozen solid too. Ideally, I would empty it this weekend and let it defrost completely. I’m not sure if we have freezer space to make that happen, but that is tomorrow’s problem.

My friend john started getting back into writing his own songs and recording them a little while ago and I was pleased to see he’d uploaded another one titled, “Walking,” onto YouTube to share with the world.

You can listen to it here: https://youtu.be/5_bUiSk7-HI?si=dRvrYUAc2xSXHNnQ

It’s been a very long day, and I am excited to sleep in tomorrow.

Until tomorrow.