Let's go down to the tennis court and talk it up like yah.

Have you ever had one of those weekends that goes by in a blur because it was so busy, but at the same time, seems like it was about two weeks long because you fit in so many things?

On Friday night, I headed over to a pub after school with some colleagues for some drinks, and then came home and had a great nap.  At about 11 pm I headed out to pick up my good buddy AlieMalie from Union station.  She's living in Missouri these days, but was in Detroit for a week for work, so took the VIA train from Windsor to Toronto for the weekend!

Her train was about an hour late.  I like to joke that VIA stands for Very Inconsistent Arrival, and it consistently lives up to its inconsistency.  She arrived an hour late, and I took her to a Golden Griddle (I know, I know) for late night noms and they we stayed up past 3 am catching up.

We started our epic Saturday in Toronto by taking the ferry out to Toronto Island since who doesn't love a boat ride, and it offers great views of the skyline.  While waiting for the ferry, we hammed it up by taking goofy pictures with paintings at the terminal.  I'm just posting this 'cuz I love the outfit I pulled together for the day: my new aubergine Hunters, black leggings, my gray cat-reading-a-book sweater, skull scarf, and black vest.  I LOVE FALL FASHION.  (And yes, I had to yell that.)

Here's a panorama shot I took from the island:

We walked from Centre Island to Ward's Island, and then took the ferry back and headed over to Kensington Market to get grilled cheese sandwiches from The Grilled Cheese, which always live up to the hype that I give them. We wandered around Kensington, and headed to the Eaton Centre for some shopping.  As usual, I ended up splurging.  I got new legging jeans from the Gap (30% coupon) and a new *plum* raincoat from Lululemon.  It was on sale.  :)

We returned to my place to chill for a bit, and then went to my local pub for beer and food before starting out for an epic Nuit Blanche night.  We started at the light installations at the Bata Shoe Museum at about 10 pm and kept going until about 3:30 am.  We met up with one of the Alans from work, and had a great Nuit Blanche.  I tend to do Nuit Blanche every second year, and this one turned out to be my favourite ever, probably because of the company and the fact most of the projects were simply illuminated, and weren't video installations.  (When I went in 2011 it seemed like 2/3 projects were video installations.)

Lights at the Bata Shoe Museum:

This is a shot from "A Quack Cure", which was like a stationary float with lots of trees covered in lights and performers dressed up as extinct animals.  I like this shot I got of a dodo and an extinct frog (?) having a moment in conversation.

Here's the line up for "Shrine" which was a gothic cathedral made from garbage bins.  Below is the inside of the cathedral which let light in an absolutely breath-taking manner.  Awesome.

"Tanks, 2013" was by Roy Thompson Hall, and looked really pretty in the night.

This is Burrman, a performance artist covered in burrs.  He eats organic dark chocolate BTW.  We saw his handlers pass him a square through his mouth hole.

 

Here are a couple views of my favourite project: Ai Wei Wei's "Forever Bicycles, 2013" that was installed in front of City Hall (and will be there for the rest of the month... I def want to pass by in the light).  It's fashioned from 3000+ bicycles by the Chinese bicycled maker Forever.  The bottom picture was taken when it started to rain at about 3 a.m. and the crowds started to thin out.

The last project we sought out was "Plastic Bags, 2013" which is a giant sculpture made from plastic bags.  It definitely spoke to my environmentalist sensibilities.
 

We made it back to my apartment by 4:30 am thanks to the subway running all night for the event.  Next year, I think I'll tag along with my friend Alan for Nuit Blanche since he's pretty hardcore.  (He started before us and kept going after we left.)  I'd like to see if I can survive it from dusk to dawn, or at the very least, enjoy it from 3 am to 7 am when the crowds thin out.

We went to a French restaurant in my neighbourhood for brunch on Sunday morning, and then I drove AlieMalie to the airport in a Zipcar: the Mini Cooper that lives next door to me!  What a great visit!

Today was kind of funny, because I felt that some of the themes from the weekend replayed themselves.  I took my environmental science class on a field study, and I wore my Hunters again, and they came in very handy since it was a wet day.  As did my new raincoat.  Also, I kept getting covered in burrs, and that made me think of Burrman.


Anyway, it was a pretty epic weekend.  Three more days until a long weekend!  Friday is a PD day, so I'll be at work, but slower pace than usual so thankful for that.