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Letter F

In the spring of 2010 I saw a notification that Brother Ali was to tour through the prairies. Since this was the first chance I had to see the black albino since I got into his music I jumped at the chance to see him perform. Initially I could find no mention of a Winnipeg show, there was however a Saskatoon date. My sister was living in Saskatoon at the time so what better excuse to visit than what I could only assume would be a stellar rap show. The opener for the tour was listed as Fashawn, I had never heard of him before but that wasn't overly surprising. I took it upon myself to check out Fashawn's myspace in the weeks leading up to the show so I would at least be familiar with a few of his songs. Upon first listen of Boy Meets World (his Oct 2009 debut album) I was hooked. The production (from Exile), lyrics, flow.. everything was absolutely top notch, dare I say flawless. Fast forward to April 6, 2010..Brother Ali, BK One and Fashawn blew me away. I was now hooked on Fashawn, I thirsted for more from this young emcee. In the years following the Saskatoon show I kept tabs on Fashawn; there was often mention of The Ecology (what was to be his solo follow up to Boy Meets World) but no singles were coming out, no release date, no Ecology. Fashawn wasn't just sitting on his hands, he released the Ode to Illmatic mixtape and a colab with MURS but The Ecology was still just a word. Finally in 2014 there was a light at the end of the tunnel, he signed to Nas' newly formed Mass Appeal Records and The Ecology was given a late 2014 release date. The Ecology was finally released this past Feb 24, 2015; the wait was over. With majority of the albums production once again being handled by Exile and Fashawn being..well Fashawn, I had very high expectations for this album. Were my high expectations met? Yes. The Ecology is well worth the 5+ year wait. I'm not going to go into details of the album/songs, just go listen for yourself.

In the spring of 2013 my wife and I went on a trip to Europe. I was excited to see what interesting chip flavours I would stumble upon during the trip. Our first stop was in London, it was in that fantastic city that I first saw Walkers Famously Worcester Sauce crisps. As soon as I set my sights on the bag I was transfixed, I love Caesars that are heavy on the worcestershire sauce so by my reasoning those chips were bound to be damn tasty. I promptly grabbed a bag and headed back to the hotel to get my crunch on. My suspicions were correct, Worcester Sauce crisps were fantastic. This is when I found myself in quite a predicament, I had no plans to travel back to Europe. Once back in Brandon I was left with mere memories of those fantastic foreign wonders. For the last few years I longed to taste Walkers Worcester Sauce crisps again. I've looked into getting a case from amazon.co.uk but it seemed a little silly to get a case of chips shipped to me from across the pond. It wasn't until this past week when I was in Calgary that I took it upon myself to find a uk food import store so that I could get me some of those weird UK/EU chips including the Worcester holy grail. It has been years of build up in my mind, would they be able to live up to my high expectations? I honestly don't know, they were pretty good. I cracked a bag tonight and crunch crunch crunch. The first taste sensation is very similar to all dressed flavouring then all of a sudden you get a somewhat tart worcester zing. The actual crisps are your standard Walkers (Lays) light and crispy potato chips. The seasoning is fairly evenly spread accross the chips, it's adequate. Walkers Famously Worcester Sauce crisps aren't my favourite chips but they are a fantastic treat to crush every once in a while. If you get a chance to try them, go get you some.

Stay hydrated,
Marc

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