Amazing architecture. Sexy looking people. Great food. Figs carpaccio with goat cheese (to die for!).
Yesterday, dynamic tutorial with Larry Constantine.
This morning, force myself to get up about 7 after going to bed at 1am. Power outage. Shower in the dark. Many of us walk down 14 flights of stairs because we don't trust the elevator.
Today, opening session started slow but the keynote speaker was fun. Later sessions I found a bit disappointing although there were tidbits of interest.
Tonight there was an absolute downpour, everyone dressed for summer. We hopped into a cab to Old Montreal. Great place.
Vancouver is going to seem so boring.
I still have to catch up on my work email, so pictures will have to wait. Sorry, Amir.
June has been BUSY. We found a house in Roberts Creek, had a very short closing on it. So that was a few weeks of madness going to the bank, getting appraisals, flipping between "so-excited" to "what-the-hell-are-we-thinking". But it's going to be great. It fits better with the master plan than Gibsons would have.
Now, I've been away from home since Friday. My weekend was like this:
Friday
4:15a.m. Oh shit. The cab's early. Coffee consumed quickly. Hug. Kiss. G'bye.
6:00 a.m. Fly to Toronto.
1:30 pm EST - wait for luggage
1:45 pm - wait for luggage some more
2:00 pm - Hop in Phil's car. He's our one team member working in Toronto. Great to connect with him. Evening consisted of great beers over shop talk, sightseeing, then dinner in the revolving restaurant at the CN tower as the sun goes down. Great view of course. Too windy to go on the outside observation deck but the glass floor was fun.
Saturday
10 am already. Better get up. Dragging my feet...
11 am Breakfast of champions at Tim Hortons. Should have gone to Starbuck's. Love timbits, but the coffee: Blech.
Afternoon: Eaton Centre, looking endlessly for a birthday present for my Grandmother. Tough to find things for a woman who's turning 88, tells you not to bring cake since Grandpa can't have sweets, and whom you don't know very well. I think I did OK. No-sugar chocolates and a shirt that hopefully will fit.
4:08 pm - grab the subway. Transit info told me to be on a subway by 4...
Eglinton station - missed the bus by a few seconds. Crap.
5:00 pm - arrive at G&G's on time. We order Swiss Chalet. Grandma orders cake. I knew I shouldn't have believed her!
They sure are old. Grandpa is 93 but sharp as a whistle. He can't hear for love nor money, but he knows what's what. Grandma can hear but asked me about 6 times when my flight was.
I don't know them very well. I tried to ask them a bunch of questions about things. Difficult when Grandma is asking you the same question she asked you shortly before.
What I found out
Grandpa was orphaned at 14. He had a younger sister. His Dad died of TB when he was 9, his mom of influenza when he was 14. His Aunt took them in. In Britain he had a good career with the Post Office. When they came to Canada he had a hard time finding work. For a while he cleaned a bank after hours and weekends while working days, I forget where. He worked for the Ontario equivelent of the Workers Comp Board as an investigator. After he retired they had to bring him back for a few months so he made double. (You find out lots of little things when you just let them talk...)
Grandma's mom died of cancer, don't know what her dad died of. When she mentions her dad she just goes into her Salvation Army stories. There's so much Army history in her family that she and Grandpa were married in their S.A. uniforms. Her grandparents started the S.A. in Korea (south?). Her dad I think started it in Canada... I could be wrong on that.
They imigrated to Canada to make a better life for the boys - Geoffrey was 12, my dad Malcolm was 6.
9:30 - back at the hotel. Have my fill of HGTV home makeover shows. It's a good thing I don't have cable at home. I would never get anything done.
Sunday
10:20 - Stepbrother Reay meets me for brunch. We walk a while to find a place, end up at a pub, have french toast. More blechy coffee. Better than Tim Horton's, but not by much.
12:00 - look for the Toronto Sculpture Garden. Picturing a half hour meander of interesting creations. Turns out to be one installation that makes you sweat. You pedal lawnchair-bike things, it lights up a sign. Whoopy.
1 pm - checkout and head to the airport. Socially inept cabdriver. He could use that personal organizer I saw on HGTV last night; his dash and visors are thick with stuff.
4:30 - Montreal! Much better cabdriver. Neat and sociable.
5:30 - Check in at the Queen Elizabeth. Everyone in the hotel desk and phones say things twice. As in "Bienvenue... Welcome..." only it's full sentences at a time. Then when they know which language you speak they adapt. I'm so jealous that they can do that!
6:00 - walk around, take pictures, look for dinner. Have dinner and people watch on the patio of "La Newtown" (Le? I don't remember). So far, interesting people and great architecture. I already discovered an art museum, looks like one of the main exhibits is impressionists.
Phew. Does that make up for 3 weeks of nothing to say?
Though it's quite U.S.-centric, this article on the trend to self-serve is interesting. A dark take on the cost of doing things ourselves.