Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Newfoundland

I was in St. John's a couple of weeks ago for a conference. While I was there, we did a few touristy things:

We visited Conception Bay and ate fish and chips - not just any fish, mind you, cod:

Cod and chips and grease

With all due respect to my dear friends in Newfoundland, I think I still prefer haddock. I sincerely doubt the cod had anything to do with what happened later in the evening, but I won't be having cod any time soon. I don't know if it was the all the questionably-refrigerated tartar sauce or all the grease, but I ended up standing in a bathroom stall at the Geo Centre about an hour later with my hand clapped over my mouth staring at the toilet. I was waiting for my sense of dignity to over-ride my nausea. Let me tell you, it took a lot of convincing for my stomach to understand that I could not throw up into a dirty-looking toilet, but I won and held on to my supper.

We went to Signal Hill in the fog:

Signal Hill - Cabot Tower in the fog

Which was, surprisingly, a new thing for me. I've been to St. John's about 7 times and have never seen fog there. Snow yes, fog no. We could still see quite a bit of the city and some of the distant coves.

Henry got this close to George Street:

Henry on George Street, St. John's, NL

...and then I grabbed him and pulled him back. Luckily, the Cotton Club was undergoing renovations. He was carrying a wallet full of Canadian dollar-bills - I don't know where he got them, but the thought of her Majesty's face folded over the edge of a g-string was enough to make me tackle him.

I did go to the yarn shop while I was in town. I even met a knitter at the conference (Hi Catherine!) who wanted to go with me. Catherine was working on a sock when I passed her booth - Knitters always find each other. We don't need a secret handshake! Anyhoo... I said, "Hi, is that Opal 6-ply?"* and she said, "Why yes it is." and the next thing I knew, I was telling her that I was heading to the shop and that she should come with me.

Catherine is from Vancouver and wanted to find herself some Fleece Artist... of her own... I showed her the project I was working on at the time (a Travelling Vines shawl made with a Silk/Camel blend - yes, camel) and I thought she was going to shove it into her bag and make a run for it. And I don't think I could have caught her. She had longer legs than me. Lucky for me they had some nice FA for her. Oh, and while I was there, I introduced her to Ilga Leja's patterns!

So, to sum up:
Tourist attractions, check
Seafood dinner, check
Visit to a yarn shop with a nice knitter, check
Kept Henry safe from George Street, check
No puking, chu-eck.
All in all, a great trip to Newfoundland.**


*Note: I did not say, " Hi, I'm Stephanie, I'm a knitter too. That's a lovely sockyou're working on." Just "Hey, I know that yarn!" Yeesh.

**Except that I intended to buy a really cool knitting poster at Nonia and I totally forgot to go back to the shop on my last day there!

3 comments:

  1. I loved the Geo Centre, but did not have the esperience you had there! sorry to hear you weren't well

    What was the poster at Nonia (I love the "90 year old knitters hands" -- bought several of the cards, put them away for "special people" but can't find where I put them

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow...do I ever miss home now! I really have to go with you next time :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have a clever friend in Halifax area with a business that makes shirts (she's really quite affordable, and does her own design work -- if you wanted to contact her, she might be interested in doing them up for you. I know her through the East Coast Aquarium Society (she does their shirts and also does embroidery on hats, etc. My name over there is "Fishy Swah" (real name is Heather), if she wants to know how you found out about her. The business name is: "Made in Halifax", and her name is Sonia and her website is www.madeinhalifax.com

    I had her make me a knitting t-shirt (one of a kind!) and found her prices very reasonable.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.