Charlotte Makes Photos

Last Saturday was a modified traditional adventure. Kathleen, with her valuable blood had a donation booked at the Canada Blood Services office on Carling Avenue, so that’s how we began the day. Of course, OC Transpo being OC Transpo meant that the bus we were to take came about 8 minutes early and we had to quickly hail a cab to make it to her appointment on time.

Since I don’t donate blood¹, I just sat in the reception area while Kathleen was quickly whisked into the back to one of the donation spots. It was somewhat interesting to see people arrive — many for the first time ever — and check in. The procedure seems to me like it was pretty clear, but there were all sorts of special pleadings, of which the most common seemed to be not showing identification.

After about 40 minutes, Kathleen popped out of another door all bundled back up, appropriately snacked, and ready to head out on our way.

We didn’t really have any solid plans, but it was the grand opening of the new Spaniel’s Tale location in Hintonburg, so we used that event as our north star.

Walking up Churchill toward Richmond (where we would take a bus to Hintonburg), I made photos of fall colours and whatever caught my eye. It was positively frigid in the shade and the bus was running late, so we stopped into a combination coffee shop and alpaca wool goods shop for a coffee and stood in the sunshine until the bus came close.

By then it was time for lunch, so we decided to stop in at BanhMiYes, who have excellent vegan options. I had a vegan “pork” floss banh mi, and Kathleen, who has never been able to turn down a good noodle, had a vegan “chicken” vermicelli bowl.

Spaniel’s Tale’s new location is just up the block from their old one and is significantly larger than the old one. When we visited, it was very busy, with all sorts of customers packed inside, browsing the shelves, and enjoying the free coffee (with $75 purchase) from a cart inside.

While we didn’t have a real plan, we ended up coming out with two books each, which was reasonable and not something we can say every time we walk out of a bookstore.

1. Not because I wouldn’t want to, but because I’m a guaranteed pass-out. I do not do well with my blood. The lovely people at CBS don’t need donations from someone with such basic blood who passes out every time. Like, I can’t even look when I get my blood drawn ahead of hormone followups. ↩︎