I've been flirting with Victoria
She's been trying to catch my eye
She says I should leave Toronto
And I just might

There's a reason I wrote a song about Victoria - although Victorians and even Vancouverites might have forgotten its charms. Victoria is one of my favourite cities. I love the ferry ride over - I even love the crappy cafeteria food on the ferry - I love the islands - I love the whales which I never see - I love downtown Victoria with its cute little tea shops and its hostels and its sunrises and sunsets and the ferry ride back. And I love every musician I know who's from here - they're all good people.

So can I crash, Victoria
In a hostel in your heart
Sing me songs, Victoria
From your little coffee shops
And lay me down, Victoria
And lash me to your masts
Oh Victoria, you're just like all the rest

I always enjoy singing songs with place names in the actual places so I was looking forward to playing here. I had two shows set up on the island and a bunch of friends to see. And my recent break-up with Vancouver over a break-in to my car only furthered my fondness for the island.

Bright and early I headed down to Tsawwassen, where the ferries leave. Cars are parked inches away from eachother and almost everyone locks their doors and heads into the little mall next door. I hopped on my laptop and talked to Ava from the Home Routes concert circuit. Ava and Mitch are awesome folks - aside from booking me on cool house concert tours, they're also just good people. Good people also come from Winnipeg.

Ava and I go over my numbers (attendance, sales, etc.) and she seemed pretty pleased - apparently I was one of the top sellers - a good sign hopefully in terms of getting booked next year. And next year, they're looking at expanding from 4 circuits (AB, SK, & 2x MB) to 14 CIRCUITS! HOLY! I'm crossing my fingers for an Ontario route where I can occasionally see my wife and cats. Mitch gets on the line and we talk a bit - he seems pretty pleased with my performance out in Alberta, so I'm pretty pleased myself. Suddenly though, over the intercom, an announcement comes on sending us all scurrying back to our cars. As we hang up, Mitch warns me about the ferry food.

I travel on the "Spirit of Vancouver Island" - it's cold out, but I go out to watch the water - waiting for whales to appear, who never do. After a bit, I head back in and eat some pretty bad cafeteria food.

I head over to Adam's place, but with a bit of time beforehand, I stop in a nearby park and shoot pictures of the prettiest sunset on the entire tour.

No one answers the door at Adam's, but I find him downstairs where he's recording in his half recording studio/half bedroom. Adam is the fiddle player for the Gruff - a band of friends who I met at the Brandon Folk Fest. Adam's also in like twenty seven other bands and spends his days recording local Victoria musicians and nights, on the one day when he's not playing with his other bands, throwing house concerts.

Speaking of his bands, in walks two of three Gruff girls, Phaedra and Terri. It's great to see them again - haven't since they crashed with me while touring through Toronto. They've promised to join me on jetpack, so we do about 30 seconds of rehearsing and then head upstairs.

I'm sharing the stage tonight with another musician - who I assumed was local, but turns out to be an Eastern boy like me. Matthew De Zoet is from Hamilton and, like me, has been touring across Canada. After all the music, Adam comments that Matthew and my shows are like polar opposites. Matthew sings beautiful, serious tunes but breaks them up with bizarre non-stop hilarious banter - whereas my banter is pretty normal and my songs are funny. Anyway, we enjoy our music and so does the audience. Adam joins me on fiddle for Victoria and the Gruff join in for Jetpack - totally fun. We wrap up, get invited back for breakfast, and then I head back to Gruffland - Terri & Phaedra's place - where I'm crashing. Phaedra and I hang out a bit talking about cowboy shirts - she makes pretty cool hand-made cowboy shirts - and now that I'm officially a cowboy shirt owner, I want one. But I have to save up a bit and figure out what colour and style and little flowery animals to sew on...

The next morning Terri makes smoothies and then I head back for breakfast with Adam, his folks and Matthew - followed by... shopping. Having lost several things in the Vancouver late night crazy carjacking, I need to find new presents for a certain girl and two cats back in Toronto. Luckily Victoria is a crazy good shopping town. I wander around for a while and then totally lose my car. I wander in circles for a 10 block radius - freak out a little, wondering if WILL ACTUALLY move to Victoria, which I'm suddenly not sure I want to do and definitely DON'T want to without my girl and cats... and then I find it.

I rush off to a show across town at the Cornerstone Cafe set up by James Kaspar, another Victoria music friend. The Cornerstone is in a cute area of town - parking's a bit difficult, but it's worth it for its charm. Unfortunately, it looks like I'm only playing for James and the two cafe barristas.... but what the hell - I'm still happy to be in Victoria, so I play them a bunch of funny tunes. Finally, another couple stops in and get a full on private show. I ask them what we should make up a song about and they tell me "chicken" and then he gives the plot of "Chicken Run" - the movie - and we make up a nice tune called "Poultry in Motion."

A couple other people come in - and even though it's still one of the quietest night on the tour (after Regina of course), it's pretty nice - and great to see James again. I get paid and also score some smoothies and cookies which I bring back to the Gruff girls.

The next morning I leave uber-early to catch the 7am ferry - I have to get back to Vancouver in time to exchange my new blue wheels for my red, alberta car, now all fixed up from the break in. And even though Phaedra tells me that busking on the ferry is cool and can make you all sorts of money, I opt for terrible cafeteria breakfast and dozing in a chair.