I'm out of Jail

No, I wasn’t doing time for a crime.  I was doing time on a movie that  takes place in a prison. A five week sentence, to be precise.   So while Sandy has been bear spotting on pastoral back roads at her cottage, I’ve been wandering cellblocks like these:

 

So much for the glamour of the film business, huh? This is a deserted old jail a few hours outside of Toronto and a number of films have been shot here, including the recent release, Blindness.

 

Although it feels a little strange when you first wander the empty corridors alone (especially at night), I got used to it surprisingly quickly.  The only area of the jail that I found to be creepy was “the hole” -- the place in the basement of the building where they sent prisoners for solitary confinement.   Of course, it didn’t help that the basement no longer has functioning electricity, so pushing our equipment through pitch black corridors and first seeing the cellblock by flashlight, added to the effect.

But even with our movie lights burning, the hole is a depressing place.  The tiny cells resemble cages in which there is just enough room for a small cot and not much else.  There is no natural light down there and no toilets or sinks in the cells.  Instead, there is just one community toilet at the end of the hall, which is right out in the open.  If that isn’t reason enough to stay on the straight and narrow, I don’t know what is!  

Okay, there is one other thing about prison life that scares me straight....the meals.  As a passionate foodie, I can’t imagine existing on the gruel they serve in those places. Unfortunately, the catering on our film wasn’t much better.  It was so bad, in fact, that I opted out of the lunches altogether and brought my own meals instead.  But a girl can only get so creative when she’s living without a kitchen (hello sandwiches, yogurt and cold soy burgers). I thought I was going to get scurvy from lack of fresh fruits and veggies.   And now that the movie is wrapped, all I can think about is great food.

To that end, my husband and I went out for a great dinner with my parents.  Since it was a rare warm night and the summer is almost over, we opted to dine on the backyard patio, but as it turns out, I wasn’t the only foodie there who was obsessed with thoughts of a good meal...

Normally, I’d find scavenging raccoons quite cute, but on this occasion, nothing was coming between me and my beet salad...and my bruschetta....and my garlic shrimp.  The owners of the restaurant managed to scare off the intruders quite effectively with a flashlight, though they nearly scared my mother off too, when four fat raccoons wobbled off across a cable that was a mere six feet over her head.

Despite the urban wildlife, it’s great to be home.  And now I’m off to enjoy my freedom in the kitchen, where I’ll be cooking up a storm!