It’s not everyday I get the luxury of forgetting about the current world and immersing myself in a fictional storyline, albeit a little sad one.

I spent the last 7 hours watching 9 straight episodes of this Japanese drama that I had once started long time ago. I’ve been meaning to finish watching but never had the time to do so. With my cold overtaking me this past weekend, and the fact that we’re right in the middle of a big snow storm, I figured, why not?

This particular drama was also made into a movie, which is the one I saw first a little while ago. I wrote about that one here. The movie version featured a young singer/songwriter by the name of YUI. She was quite talented in her vocals, guitar playing, and acting.

Unfortunately for the actress portraying the same disease-struck girl in the drama, Erika Sawajiri wasn’t quite as believable in all respects. Erika’s singing wasn’t up to par to that of YUI’s, nor was her acting quite as convincing. I really didn’t feel her as she struggled to stay alive until she can fulfill her dreams of singing.

In retrospect, I felt the movie producers did an excellent job in shortening this 10 episode drama into a mere 2 hour movie. I give the movie more credit now that I have seen this drama version. Before seeing this drama, however, I saw Erika portray another disease struck girl in the ever so popular 1 Litre of Tears. She’s matured more in that drama, and I felt her acting was better with that series. Perhaps she’s gotten used to acting the role.

This drama takes you through the strugglings of a 20 year old girl who suffers from a rare disease that makes her allergic to the sun’s UV rays. She takes solace by singing songs at night with a guitar that she had found.

Perhaps the most important and significant message in this drama takes place in the final episode, where Kaoru Amane asks, “Is it better to live your life and not be able to fulfill your dream, or to fulfill your dream and then die.” With that question in mind, we all watch as she takes the latter route and sings A Song to the Sun.

This drama was no doubt filled with comic relief from its supporting characters. Almost too much that it overshadowed Kaoru’s struggle to cope with her disease. This compounded with the non-believable acting of Erika just didn’t make me feel like this was such a sad story. The movie did a far superior job in bringing out the actors’ emotions, cutting out any of the comic relief found in this 10 episode drama.

It was entertaining nonetheless, and made me stick through a full 7 hours of this. I suppose this is all I can ask for. In this respect, it was a pretty good drama after all!

I was talking with my coworker this morning on how I had not seen an accident first hand before. As she was explaining the accident that she had seen the other night, I thought to myself, I wonder what I would have done in a situation like that.

Well, now I know. Only a few hours after our conversation, I found myself at a Shell gas station walking back to my car after paying inside. I hear this revving noise of a car coming louder and louder. I didn’t think twice about it at that point, but all of a sudden I hear a big bang. I look to my right and see a white Honda hit the garbage and post of the gas station, barely catching the car stationed at that pump. As soon as she hit that, the car careened its way to the other end finally smashing its way into another parked car at a pump, once again barely missing another car at the pump in front. This all happened very quickly, and honestly I didn’t see all that much of it as I wasn’t paying much attention as I walked out of the area to pay for my gas. I asked the guy next to me if he was OK. He said he was fine and that he immediately moved out of the way as soon as he saw the car coming straight for him.

Everybody seemed to be OK. The passenger of the car – a woman in her early twenties I would imagine – walked out. The driver stayed in her seat. The police were called in and the gas pumps all stopped pumping. I walked back to my car at the very far end of the station and noticed that this was indeed quite a spectacular crash with broken car pieces and garbage cans spewed all over the station grounds. I didn’t know what to do next as I was set to leave. I decided to wash my windshield and went to the brush only to come to a frozen pile of ice. The woman in the car in front of mine yelled out, “they’re all frozen!” I talked to her for a bit while we noticed that the driver of the Honda was still in her car. I looked at her. Her mouth was wide open, both hands still on the steering wheel, and eyes wide open. “She is in a state of shock,” the woman next to me explained. As the door of the Honda opened, I could hear the driver making a crying sound. I could only imagine what she must have seen from the driver’s point of view.

Finally the tow trucks came and a fire truck came. I decided that I would be of no help since I didn’t see the entire accident. Further, there were already about 3 other witnesses on scene who had a much better vantage point than I did. As the fire truck was coming my way, I moved out of my spot and left the station as the woman I was talking to bid me “safe drivings.”

And that’s what happened.

In retrospect, I was very lucky. Had this happened just a few seconds later, I would have been walking directly in front of the car’s path. If I wasn’t paying any attention, I could have very well been caught in the middle of things. That wouldn’t be nice.

This accident could have been prevented had the entrance to the gas station been cleared of the snow. I noticed as I came into the station that I would have gotten stuck had I not gone in with a little bit of acceleration. This is more than likely what the driver in the Honda did, as she tried to get over the snowy entrance. She accelerated and somehow the accelerator must have stuck, forcing her to lose control of the car and crash into the station.

This Valentine’s Day proved to be quite the memorable one. Unfortunately not in any good way though. Fortunately nobody was seriously hurt and there were no gas leaks of any kind.

Now that this snow storm is out of our way, let’s hope for some safe driving.

Oh, and a Happy Valentine’s Day to you all!

Whole Foods Market
301 Cornwall Rd., Oakville ON
L6J 7Z5
905-815-0266
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/canada/oakville/index.html

I vaguely remember one of my friends telling me about this supermarket in Oakville. It’s called Whole Foods and carries only the highest in quality ingredients in addition to carrying organic products left, right, and center. It’s large, bright, open, and once you enter the store, you immediately notice the difference in quality from the decor of the store to the products on the shelf.

I browsed around the aisle for a while trying to soak everything in as I looked at what they had. Their ready-made food stands carry so much that it’s definitely a treat to the senses. Seeing as today is Saturday, they had free samples of a lot of items. I tried some pure 100% raspberry and cranberry juices, which where both very strong and sour to the taste; nonetheless leaving a satisfying aftertaste. Then I tried some organic strawberry yogourt which was very creamy yet light tasting. On to some Wave soybean milk products, which I found to be quite enjoyable. This brand apparently packs the soybean milk early in its pasteurization process leaving the product much creamier and healthier than other soybean milks which undergo a longer heating process. It does leave a thicker aftertaste in your mouth but that is something you can easily get used to.

I moved on to the meat counter where they don’t even sell pre-packaged meats. Only selling meats by the chunk, I opted to buy some good looking Rib Eye (at $19.99/lbs) for tonight’s beef katsu and tomorrow’s beef katsu curry that I’ve been craving for for quite some time now.

Their stone-oven baked pizzas are thin crust gourmet style at $3.49 per slice… and they carry a wide selection of artisan bread to tempt anybody’s carb cravings. I tasted a small sample of the garlic herb sourdough: very moist, while at the same time you can taste the prominent flavours of the garlic and herbs. The cheese swirl bread was sitting there calling for my name, so at $3.99 I figure I couldn’t go wrong with a whole loaf.

After coming home and tasting it, it was surely a good purchase. Crunchy on the outside, cheesy all over, and very, very moist on the inside. I don’t think I can eat one whole loaf of this in one sitting, however, as I’m sure someone I know is quite capable of doing. **ahem**

This store was quite the pleasant trip as it gave me a whole new store to start shopping in… albeit the prices are higher than regular grocery stores. This is one place I won’t be going to on a weekly basis, that’s for sure!

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Patisserie d’Or Ltd.
301 Robinson St., Oakville ON
905-815-8999

Another store I should mention is the one that I visited to before coming to Whole Foods. Also in Oakville, just West of Trafalgar Rd. on Robinson Street, is a small, quaint French Bakery called Patisserie d’Or. A little known gem, this carries the fanciest cakes I’ve seen in a while, in addition to serving one of the better tasting croissants I’ve had in my recent memory. I haven’t tried their pastries but judging from their croissants and danish that I had, I can only imagine how delicate and flavourful their pastries can be. This is one bakery that I know I will come back to again and again.

Although the store itself is quite tight, they manage to fit in a sitting area, completely decked out with metal deck/patio furniture and tent that they perched inside their establishment. Making this a little more Parisienne is I’m sure their motivation for all of this.

My family ordered a large cake here once long time ago. The chocolate decorations on top of the cake was even higher than the cake itself. The elaborately decorated piece of art is something they are proud of and makes sure it is seen in almost every cake they make. Everything is baked/made on premises and promises to be fresh. With “voted best places to eat in Canada” several years in a row, Patisserie d’Or is sure to please even the strictest pastry connoisseurs… although of course, I make no guarantees in that!