Happy Second Anniversary to Us!!!

September 27th was our second year anniversary, and we had a lovely day of celebrating. Conrad, our musical supervisor as well as a beloved friend, brought in a giant chocolate chip cookie "pizza" decorated with our names (thoughtfully purchased, of course, by his lovely wife Penny, from Mrs. Field's Cookies). We shared the cookie with the cast, and they were fantastically warm and enthusiastic about celebrating our anniversary. It was a sweet day at work.

(Toasting champagne with oysters and caviar at Susur -- this was only the beginning of a fabulous culinary evening...)

That night, David and I had a gorgeous dinner at Susur. We have come to conclusion that there is no other restaurant like it in the world (as we've seen thus far). We ate beautiful dishes and thoroughly enjoyed our wine. It was a perfect evening at one of the top restaurants in Toronto, if not in North America.
Many of our friends have remarked that it seems our two years of marriage have gone by so quickly, that our wedding seems not too long ago. I'd like to think this perception is due to our "keeping it fresh," as it were. But a lot has also happened in those two years. David was a dance captain in the Australian production of Dirty Dancing when we married -- now he is an Associate Choreographer of the show in North America. Two years ago we still lived apart, on two separate continents; now, although we still travel in a restless manner with the show, we are based in New York and have worked together putting the show up in 3 different countries. It's been ride, and a very interesting journey to our second anniversary, learning to be partners in life.

We look forward to more exciting adventures together.

Niagara-On-The-Lake Weekend!

(David hugging our rented Mustang V8 convertible... needless to say, he loved the car.)

Long time, no blog.

We have been quite busy between work and trying to eat and sleep and have a breather as well as a bit of fun when not at work... and there hasn't been much internet action time. Hohum. But we have engaged in a few fun activities whilst we have been "away" from blogging!

Last weekend, we had two days off instead of our usual one-day-off-per-week scheme of things. David and I took this opportunity to travel to Niagara-on-the-lake, where we spent one night in a lovely hotel, the Harbor House. Niagara-on-the-lake is about a one and a half hour drive outside of Toronto, situated alongside Lake Ontario. The area is known for its wineries as well as for the theater festival that takes place each year, called the Shaw Festival. We have a friend who is a musical supervisor for the Shaw Repertory, who also composed music for one of the plays. The proper weekend seemed the perfect time to take a trip to Niagara-on-the-lake for a bit of wine touring, seeing a show other than our own, and, perhaps more importantly, for a peaceful, relaxing time just the two of us outside of Toronto.

The weekend turned out to be a glorious one. Weather, relaxation, fun and all.

(By the Ontario Lake...)

As our anniversary present, we rented a Mustang GT V8 convertible for David to drive for the weekend. This made David very happy indeed, and even I, who knows very little about cars and even littler about driving (i.e. not at all -- I don't drive), appreciated the "muscle car-i-ness." We had an easy drive into Niagara-on-the-lake, dropped off our stuff at the hotel and hopped onto a half-day wine tour caravan. The tour was perfect, as David did not have to drive and we had an excellent guide as well as group. We tasted numerous Canadian wines, learned a lot, and purchased wines selectively yet abundantly. In the evening, we went to see our friend's show and had a lovely, mellow evening.


We did some more wine touring the next day, and even took a short seminar on wine and food pairings. We had a fantastic lunch at Hildebrand Winery, too -- fresh, beautiful local produce and Canadian flavors (maple syrup and ice wines being utilized). As we started to head back to Toronto, we decided to take advantage of the car and go for a detour drive... this detour took us to the Niagara Falls! The falls turned out to be fairly close to Niagara-on-the-lake. We had a quick look at the falls at dusk (we are going to do a proper tour of the falls on a different tour)... it was a magical experience. Afterwards, drove back to Toronto. It was a warm night, so we drove with the top down. Although my hair was quite tangled at the end of the drive, we had a terrific time and a lovely weekend.



Here are a few more snapshots of our Niagara-on-the-lake weekend:

(At Jackson-Triggs Winery... we loved the Chardonnay here...)

(At Reif, in front of their massive barrels...)

(At the Food & Wine seminar at Pellar's Estate... we took the seminar with a lovely couple, who are shepherds.)

(David by the Niagara-on-the-lake shores of Ontario Lake...)

(Niagara Falls, at dusk... misty and beautiful...)

(David in awe of the majestic Niagara Falls...)

(Driving back to Toronto, top-down...)

Flying by times...!

Lots to blog, lots to post (photo-wise), not enough time! All goes well here in Toronto albeit busily. I hope later to load up some photos and write about less busy times we have managed to have here in TO... Stay tuned.

GOOD TIMES in T.O.

(Tomoko, David and Britta at Thuet Bakery and Bistro for Monica's birthday...)

David arrived in Toronto Sunday and it has already been quite a full week at work, with him having taken over as the associate choreographer of the production. He's doing a terrific job, and "Yes" (the number) already looks better than it has ever looked. I am a very proud colleague and wife indeed.

And we've already had some excellent social occasions since David's joining me here in T.O. Last night, Eleanor took us, along with Britta (who plays Penny) and Craig, our ballroom choreographer, and Monica (who plays Baby) out to dinner to celebrate Monica's 28th birthday. We went to Thuet Bakery and Bistro, which was delicious. David loved the dinner for the food as well as the company of beautiful women. He was quite pleased to take a photo with his wife (ahem) as well as with our gorgeous Penny, Britta. (See photo above.)

Tonight, we hit Toronto's Korea Town for dinner with a group of Dirty Dancers. GOOD TIMES. I truly love this company -- of all the productions I have done, I am having the most fun socializing and feel comfortable with the company. We had a gorgeous dinner and a good laugh, and we look forward to going out on the weekend.

Between then and now we have much work to do, of course, but we march on positively...

Change of Plan

It's been a busy and full week here in Toronto... and there has been a shift in plan. David will now come to Toronto earlier than we'd anticipated. He will be here this SUNDAY. As in, the day after tomorrow. Craziness! I am very happy about seeing him, of course, and working with him again, but as I did not expect him to be here until October, I am still processing it all. Whoa wa wa, I feel.

One never knows what tomorrow will bring in our industry, I tell you... and this means I have got to clean up my "bachelorette" apartment so he has somewhere to put his clothes. Alas.

BUT -- whether the cleaning up will happen by the time he gets here or not, two more sleeps and I shall have my husband in Toronto! Hurrah!

Much Ado...

(Photo taken on my laptop camera for David... a photo of moi in rehearsals...)

Lots going on these days. Rehearsals have kicked off and are going splendidly -- the company is truly gorgeous and I love working with each member of the company. They make me laugh, they make me so proud of the casting work that went into assembling this company. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. The days seem to go quickly... and I am still getting used to life as a "bachelorette" again. I finally managed to use the kitchen for the first time today for a bit of cheese omelet breakfast; I figured out how to use the large television set so I could watch a Law & Order: SVU re-run; the cleaning lady came and did a fantastic job cleaning up the mess that was my apartment, except upon my return I can't seem to find any of my bits and bobs. The days themselves seem to go quickly, but some other parts of life are a slow going process. So it goes.

TM

Gimme hot dog....

(Odd yet engaging sculpture on my street... someone put a hot dog in one of the figure's hands, so it looks like the other figure is saying, "Gimme hot dog.")

My first week in Toronto has passed, and today was my first day off. The day was warm and sunny, a perfect late summer Sunday. I did a bit of shopping but not much else, in no small part because I am exhausted from having been out until 4:30AM. Yes, that's right, 4:30. Ben M. arrived from Sydney Friday (he will be in our Toronto production), so he and a few of the creatives and I went out to dinner at the Ultra Supper Club... which lead to drinks on the rooftop deck of Schmooze... which led to some obscure yet very cool lounge/club/patio on Spadina. Despite his considerable jet-lag and lack of sleep, I cannot keep up with Ben. Yet I tried. And failed.

Tisk, tisk, me.

TM