Saturday Routine

As Saturdays go, this really could not have been better. We awoke with a bounce this morning (having for a change reined in the customary permissive habits of a Friday night last evening) and at once determined we'd go out for breakfast. At first we settled upon the Antrim Truck Stop (which oddly is no longer in Antrim - a move necessitated by the building of a new four-lane highway between Ottawa and Arnprior - but is now on the edge of Arnprior). However, upon further reflection, and knowing that we intended to visit my parents in Ottawa afterwards, we switched horses and decided instead to go to the more proximate Golf Club in the Village of Appleton. Besides, the venue of the Club, located as it is adjacent the meandering Mississippi River, is always a panoramic treat; and the breakfast is very much to our liking.

After breakfast and en route to my parents' (knowing that my mother was hosting a luncheon that very day), we stopped at a florist's shop in Kanata and purchased two dozen red roses (in an enormous cylindrical glass vase) and two hardy Mums in rustic clay pots. Upon arriving at my parents', my father (who was sitting in his old red car in the driveway as usual, listening to the news) wondered aloud whether there was a funeral for which we had brought the flowers and plants. As I had quipped earlier, better she has the flowers now than when she's dead!

We didn't linger long at their house, because I knew my mother was preoccupied with readying herself for the arrival of her guests. Anyway, we wanted to keep moving on such a glorious day. Our next stop was a health food store on Richmond Road. While in that tiny mall, we dipped into the Rogers Video store next door and bought two used videos. Then we headed deeper into Westboro where we lunched peremptorily at a Jewish deli.

We were back home around 2:00 p.m. By then I was for some reason feeling rather sleepy, so I dozed in the sunshine on the chaise longue on the deck for about half an hour, until I found it too hot. Afterwards I changed into my cycling gear and pedalled to and from the Village of Appleton, my customary one-hour tour.

Back home, after showering, we watched a couple of video sketches of the Two Fat Ladies, which instantly put us in mind of our two favourite indulgences - food and booze. So before long we abandoned the videos and began to prepare the martinis and hors d'oeuvres. The rest is history!