Christmas – whiskybaker

My parents are enablers….and spoil me rotten

So my mother calls me a month or so ago:

Mom: I want you to look this up: master of malt
Me: I know exactly what that is.
Mom: you would. Anyway, go buy the advent calendar for me. I want to give it to your father.
Me: Okay (typing in the background)
Me: They don’t ship to Canada
Mom: Then why are they advertising here?

hmmmm I dunno about that one. BUT conveniently enough my father was going to be in Malta shortly. Master of Malt ships to Malta. So the rest is history:

it's the most wonderful time of year.... — it’s the most wonderful time of year….

My mom actually bought us both one. And how I knew about it? No less than four friends shared a link on facebook with me. Clearly, my friends know what I like!

Day 1 = Glenfarclas 25 year old. Man, talk about starting on a high note. One of my new favourite whiskies ever. Tangy but clean. Nutty with a bit of ginger. Consumed neat 😉 And in a price comparison the Master of Malt wins (£90 vs. £108 at the Whisky Exchange. And a whopping $237 at the LCBO 🙁 – which is about £114 so I suppose not so bad if you factor in shipping etc.) Of course finding one here might be a whole other story.

I seem to be returning to the year of my birth a lot lately. From the Glenfarclas website: “Glenfarclas was one of the first distilleries in Scotland to open a dedicated visitor centre in 1973.” It’s a Speyside whisky – both mine and my dad’s favourite whiskies are Speysides (Glenlivet and Glenfiddich respectively) Of course, those are also – according to Wikipedia at least – the two best selling single malts in the world!

I’m sure I won’t post every day for every dram but the origin story needed to be told. Day 2 is a Japanese whisky: Miyagikyo

No age statement on this one but I’m not overly concerned with that. On opening – definitely strong sandalwood. Left open for a bit – far more fruity. Definitely raisins. And my sense of smell sucks. Lots of spice on the tongue right away. A bit of a warming punch as it goes down. A clean finish with some lingering spicey notes.

Holly Jolly Fun Run – November 17, 2013

Just to be clear, there is no race distance I hate as much as the 5k.

But I noticed a ad a few weeks ago for the Holly Jolly Fun Run – a brand new race that’s a fundraiser for The Toronto Santa Clause Parade. I had no idea that the parade was a not-for-profit that doesn’t receive any public money at all. I kinda knew it started from Eaton’s or something like that but I thought surely by now it’s funding was secure – this year is it’s 109th year after all! But it doesn’t. It runs on volunteers and sponsorships. So this year it decided to introduce a run to raise money. I signed up; I mean, how often do you get to run in the first year of something? And with people lining the whole route!

And then it hit me. Well, it hit me at about 3 am a couple of days ago.

ALL THOSE PEOPLE LINING THE ROUTE

Do you know HOW many people line the route at the Toronto Santa Clause Parade? It was bad enough when I thought it was 1000s. Then I checked. 500,000.

FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND

There are only 2000 spots in the race. I am not fast. I hate 5 ks. But I was lured by the promise of exclusive hat and mitts.

So I concluded, at about 3:45 am, that if I was gonna do it then I was gonna do it big.

I posted the following on facebook:

“Comment below if you commit to donate at least $5 to the Santa Claus Parade (link in comments) – it’s a not for profit organization that runs on volunteers and sponsors. The more people who donate, the more I will dress up. So if I raise $100 I’ll wear my running tights AND my green sparkly skirt (with the rest being my normal running stuff). If I raise $250 I’ll add jingle bells to my water belt and face paint. $500 and I’ll find light up reindeer antlers, you get the idea. All I ask is that (a) you honour your commitment to make the donation and (b) _consider_ doubling the commitment if I run a PR (run my fastest 5k ever) – if I don’t run a PR I’ll match donations (up to a max of $250.)”

Here’s the link to donate: donate here.

Let me know (here or on facebook) if you’re going to contribute. I’ll add you to the total. And I promise loads and loads of pictures. Taken before and after the race ’cause I really want you guys to have to really think about whether you can double your donation 🙂