Christmas Cheer from the City of Queens and Queers! December 21 2006

MERRY CHRISTMAS,


WELCOME TO A CHRISTMAS SPECIAL

of

TORONTO PIP "THE WEEK THAT WAS" WHICH IS NOW "THE WEEKS THAT WERE".

My latest jejune missive is a whimsical update on Toronto Pip, his trusty side-kick Mississauga Juju and the ever present babe magnet Montreal McGregor. I am a bit tender at present being the time of year so I don't want negative responses questioning the banality of its contents only being surpassed by the egregious form of my writing. [I really must get of the pills, but god bless America and valium sold over the counter].

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas as Bing once said, we'll it would be nice, here I was all set up for skiing on Christmas day and bloody Al Gore goes and does some bloody doco on global warming and f... me if there is no snow in Toronto or greater area. First time in 20 years, and on my bloody watch. [I blame NZ and all the hot air from parliament and of course the sheep & cattle farting]. What a load of s... it has nothing to do with any of that.



So quite frankly I am completely pissed off and am telling everyone who cares to listen. I think a big night on the truth serum is in order.



Not all is lost though as Ju & I have decided to bail from Canada & head to Vermont (Jay Peak) to carve up the mountain as they actually have snow. So we are going to spend 5 days from 26th though 31st. Then we will head to Montreal for New Years and have our dose of the old François? Back to Toronto for some celebrity parties, and a few farewells.

Farwell's I here you say, yes on Jan 15th I set up my New York office, pledge allegiance to the flag & vote republican. No more dealing with conservative Canadians. Ju, Mac & belongings will follow soon after once we find our NY apartment, of course "she who must be obeyed" has requirements, the list is a view of NY skyline, a view of the Hudson river or Central Park, 2 bedrooms (his & hers) a gym & pool. Personally she will be lucky if we don't end up with a no bedroom basement with a view of the local Chinese restaurants dumpster, and the subway going past the window every 1/2 hour. But all good and we are looking forward to the next stage of Toronto Pip, Mississauga Juju & Montreal McGregor’s new adventures in the US of A. Think of the "weeks that were" and stories we will have once there, oh I bet you can't wait. The New York names may be "Jersey Juju", "Manhattan McGregor" "Yonkers Pip" , so stay tuned.



The end of year has been busy with travel etc; I have been doing many day trips to NY which has been quite taxing mentally & physically. Plus the usual Detroit, Salt Lake, Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo etc so a wee break is going to be fantastic.



I am going to leave it there as you are all obviously so busy that you have forgotten to email me with a Merry Christmas.

Remember to sing along to such songs as

I'm dreaming of a nice mistress

Frosty the Snow Man just melted on the lawn

All I want for Christmas is darn good shag

Grandma got run over by a dairy cow

I saw mummy blowing Santa balloons

Rudolf the Brown Nose Reindeer

Winter Wonder-if-it-will Bloody Snow Soon

&

I'll Be Home for Christmas (but not this year)



Be safe, be kind, be good, be healthy, be having a toast in our absence.

We will be thinking of you all.

Much Love

TORONTO PIP, MISSISSAUGA JUJU & MONTREAL McGREGOR.

Old Relics and New Rellies November 23-24 2006 in Quebec

Rellies and Relics in Quebec.

Our trip to Quebec to discover Dad's grandmothers home.

As we drove out of Toronto into the early afternoon traffic, my slightly injured and suffering husband turned to me and asked...remind me just why we are doing this again?... How could I make sense of my desire to discover the grave of one of my fathers great great grandfathers, and to walk on the land my own great grandmother had as a child. So I muttered something about 'just needing to' and 'I'll never get another opportunity to do this' and stuff like that. Eight hours later we pulled off the highway and drove down the charming streets of Old Quebec then stumbled around the streets searching for our Hotel...enroute and of course we came upon the Montmerency falls lit up in all their pale and rushing glory under a starry sky with the lights of Quebec twinkling back along the river. Pip commented that he'd had no idea Qubec was going to be sooo big!!

Finally after a few lovingly heated words we checked into out thankfully dog friendly hotel in Beauport, polished off a small bottle of Baileys and hit the hay.

Evan's home on the Isle

By 9 we were on the road to distant cousin Evan Price's country place on Isle d'Orleans. By some weird and friendly twist of fate Evan , his wife and kids and Evan's mother Muffy Price own one hundred hectares of what would have been in the mid 1800's my great grandmothers family farm....the Plante familystill live all around this property and one Plante cousin Jean-Pierre runs the farm and has been associated with the Price family for 40 years.
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Jean Pierre Plante and Julie Wood (nee Phillips), Plante land on Isle d'Orleans,

It was amazing to finally be were this lady who has lately come to be very real to me as I have tried to piece together part of her life story.

Clara Plante was baptised at St Laurent ville in 1868, the little church has gone now, replace by a shiny new stone edifice but luckily photos of the old church still remain.

Church where Clara Plante was baptised in St Laurent in the Isle.

We drank a little wine after the farm visit with Muffy in her wonderful old stone house that looks down to the river, Mac played with her little dog so was not left out of this adventure.

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Then we headed to town for a trip to Mt Hermon cemetery where after one false start I found the Phillips plot and the graves of William and Henrietta Phillips.

Jancis Robinson at the Barberian Cellar: Friday December 1 2006

:Barberian Steak House at 7 Elm Street Toronto
Red Wine Cellar

Just had boozy evening at gorgeous cellar under Barberians Steak House. The Cookbook store hosted celebrated British wine writer and critic Jancis Robinson at an intimate wine tasting for a select group of lucky imbibers. Aaron Barberian's cellar is stunning, Jancis proclaimed it to be one of the top restaurant cellars she'd ever been in. Being a good Kiwi girl I circulated through the crowd talking up New Zealand wines other than Sav Blanc which I'm not at all fond of...its time the rest of the world noticed our Rieslings and Pinot Gris and gorgeous Pinot Noir's.
Jancis gave us a run down on the vagaries of the weather during these months and briefly commented on climate change and its effect on wines.. Germany, she said, is one area that has benefited from warmer sunnier summers. She touched on the emerging vineyards in Spain, gave us a quick insight into what was happening in China and even mentioned the word fake and wine in same breath. EEk. She didn't want to be drawn into a discussion regarding corks versus screw caps but suggested that somewhere a clever designer must come up something more inspiring. I think I detected a passion for things red and French. Earlier in the day Jancis lunched with an elite group including Alison Fryer of the Cookbook store and they opened a bottle of 1951 Chateau Palmer...Alison declared it to be even better than the 1951 Latour...Jancis commented on national radio just an hour after lunch that it was the last great wine she'd tasted.

I on the other hand, not quite in that league... had a taste of a fab Bulgarian Tokay the day before at Barberians that will appear on the wine list soon. It was delish.


Julie Wood, Alison, Aaron, Jancis and Jennifer Grange of the Cookbook Store