turkish delight.

ok well, not turkish, but turKEY! in a land where thanksgiving is not a celebrated holiday, but remains a day with warm (only after stepping in from the cold) memories and good times, it was going to be an accepted truth that thanksgiving was going to, for lack of a better word, suck this year. However, the opposite was true. I may have said this previously, but one night whilst stumbling about covent garden in and around the maple leaf pub, i noticed a sign for thanksgiving dinner. a traditional thanksgiving dinner with turkey, veggies, potatoes, and most importantly, pumpkin pie. This was definitely on the list of events though that I did not want to attend myself. Through facebook status updates, I noted that my friend Andrew was feeling particularly homesick due to a bath bomb he sells at Lush that smelled like the traditional scents of thanksgiving and pumpkin pie. Naturally this jarred the memory reflex in my brain and reservations were made, and two happy Canadian ex-patriates went to thanksgiving dinner last night.

Here, Andrew is proudly displaying his on-tap pint of Sleeman's. Appropriate for two Guelph alumni to be drinking this as well.

I'm not entirely sure I have ever really truly made advanced reservations for anywhere. Look how official it all was!

A feast, to be sure.

When this is set down in front of you, you can't help but continue to grin like a cheshire cat.

Same thing applies to pie. Especially when it's pumpkin pie!

Note the recipe for the "Crumble" - this was quite likely one of the most delicious, autumnal alcoholic beverages I have ever had. It's a new favourite. I took this picture in order to remember the recipe. Orchard fizz ended up just tasting like a wee bit of fruit and black licorice. Not recommended unless you really really like drambuie or sambuca.

So, that was my thanksgiving. There was a wee club jump later on just to keep the festivities going. However, the clubs were PACKED for a monday night (what's with that?), and in the end my need for my bed overcame my desire to stay out and pretend to dance (which is really just an extended effort to not get crushed in a crowd or fall down).

One thing that I forgot to mention, on Sunday night when I went to put down the deposit for the reservation for last night's feast, I happened upon some interesting things in Covent Garden. First of all, I'll mention that I saw one of the best street performance acts I've seen in a long time. It involved stunts, chainsaws, a really tall unicycle, juggling knives, and a man running around in the freezing cold in bright pink underpants. I laughed. I clapped. I had a good time of it. It was really quite by chance because it was a cold night, and I went into the piazza to grab a quick hot chocolate before the kiosk closed up shop for the night, and I heard a chainsaw going. Naturally this sparked my interest, so I figured I'd go watch whatever street performer was in Covent Garden that night. Needless to say I was not disappointed. I like when little random jolts of entertainment are infused into my day.

Last, as I was walking back towards the tube, I cut through the piazza again and saw THIS

How I missed this the first time through, or any other time that I didn't notice a giant silver inflated bunny rabbit is beyond me.

Anywho, my headphones finally bit the biscuit and it's time to replace them. I'd like to say this is a simple want and not a need, but if anyone who reads this has ever taken public transit as their main form of getting around, you know that a silent ride or one without music can be quite painful.

Off I go!