more here
Showing posts with label toronto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label toronto. Show all posts
2 June 2008
23 May 2008
TWO WEEKS AGO TODAY IN TORONTO
It’s hard to believe it was two weeks ago that I woke up in J’s sunroom to a beautiful day already beginning over the Toronto skyline, ate cake and drank tea for breakfast, and chatted and did some internetting until A arrived (I only just realised there are two people who are called A! Henceforth this cute-as-a-button A will be known as Toft). We had a few things planned out for the day, mostly involving heading toward the Distillery District and the Soma chocolate factory, St Lawrence Market, and (for Toft and I) to begin our great thumbs-up tour of Toronto. The thumbs-up tour has some backstory, mainly involving our online realisation that we are both inclined to stick our thumbs up in front of touristy and other places of interest. It began for me when D and I went around Europe in 2005 (when this blog started, actually). There are several pics of me doing thumbs up. I’m not sure when it started for Toft, but we bonded over this as we were getting to know each other online, and at some point it was decided that we would do a great thumbs-up tour whenever we met, and that if it was in Toronto it would culminate in a picture of us thumbs-upping in front of the giant concrete turkey library. But I am getting ahead of myself.
On this particular Friday, we were walking among the feet of the giant buildings, headed towards city hall, when we heard the dulcet tones of a protest or rally. Being me, I insisted (politely) that we go and see what was going on. It turned out to be a group of workers (I assume part of a union) protesting outside Moors – Moors is a suit company that bills itself as stocking Canadian suits. However they are apparently closing down their factory Quebec and outsourcing the suitmaking to China. Dodgy.
We meandered on towards City Hall, stopping briefly to snap a shot of the famous Eaton Centre and the geese flying inside. The geese are pretty cool, but it’s a shopping centre, so whatever. The other interesting thing about it is the name – it used to be called Eaton’s, but because French doesn’t have the apostrophe-s thing, and Canada is officially bilingual, they changed it. Very close to the Eaton centre is City Hall – all of them, in fact, including Old City Hall in all its faux-gothic glory, open again after years of renovations and reconstructions. We didn’t go in, but rather took pictures of seagulls and New City Hall, which I had seen overrun with zombies and totally destroyed in that fine piece of arthouse cinema, Resident Evil: Apocalypse. They’ve done a good job of repairing it. ;)
Then to the Distillery District for lunch. I had possibly one of the most delicious sandwiches I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting and eating at Brick St Bakery. If you’re ever there, I highly recommend the (vegetarian roast) veg sanga. Om nom nom. We also had a look in some of the gallery spaces as we digested lunch, but that was really just a formality before we headed to the Soma chocolateria. I was introduced to this when J bought some over last year. OM. NOM. NOM. I purchased some hot chocolate mix to bring home with me (but don’t expect to get any if you visit – I will probably consume it all within days). We also had some hot chocolate (So thick! So sweet! So chocolatey! So spicy!) and tried out some of their hand-crafted chocolates. Toft had an olive oil one, which was subtle and lovely, and I had balsamic vinegar, which worked so well – even I was surprised at how well-balanced the flavours were. J bought some blood orange (I think) sorbet, which was a very good idea, as we needed a palate cleanser.
We decided to walk off a bit of lunch, so turned our noses towards the CN Tower and walked to St Lawrence Market, past the site of Canada’s first Parliament, which was attacked by the Americans, prompting the Canadians (or was it actually the English? It matters not to Canadians) to march on the White House and burn it down. Hahaha! GOTCHA!
At St Lawrence Market, we headed to the CHEESE! {Alex’s Cheese place} to be precise. We tried a few cheeses, and I purchased $60 worth for the coming weekend – two from Quebec, being a gooey washed rind (quite light, actually) and a delicious aged cheddar (rich, and they use port in some parts of the process). I also got a Roquefort and a local semi-soft goats cheese. I was tempted by a pre-wrapped wedge of marbled Guinness cheese, which looked pretty amazing, and all the Stilton reminded me to buy some when I got back to Melbourne. We had a few vegies and bread to get, and I saw fiddleheads for sale for the first time. Fiddleheads are the new furled fronds of a particular fern, which I believe are usually eaten steamed (that’s how I made them later, steamed with asparagus and tossed with a little bit of butter).
[OMG OMG! I JUST HEARD THE “HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOO. FRANK WALKER HERE FROM NATIONAL TILES” AD! YAY! I’m so in Melbourne!]
We were having a bit of a chocolate crash by this time, so we decided to have a snack and a drink in the BCE Centre. The BCE Centre is quite stunning, with high arches of light and air, white frames and glass. No wonder it’s won architecture awards. It houses this food court thing where you get a swipey card when you enter, and it gets swiped wherever you buy something, and you pay on the way out. So long as you don’t lose the card, everything is fine! Other things of interest there included a photography exhibition – I’m not sure what the theme was, but it included pictures of civil rights riots and protests, the (blimp that caught fire), world wars, etc. – and a shop called ROOTS. HAHAHAHAHA I’M AN IMMATURE AUSTRALIAN. I liked the woeful bloke sitting in front of it, too.
And then it was back to J’s place to get changed into sexy clothes for SexGeek’s party. I got to see J and A (not Toft) in their leather pants (A in uniform! Glee!), L in a delicious corset, and many hott folks in suits. I felt a little underdressed, but hey, black jeans and black shirt is acceptable in most situations, so it wasn’t too bad. And I got to meet SexGeek! W00T! I tried not to be too much of a fanboy! After a couple of hours, J, A, L, D and I piled into the car and L drove us up to J’s parents’ place in the country. And you know a bit about that already.
[OK, time to finish this delicious, delicious Melbourne coffee and tart little lemon tart. Heh, a tart tart.]
On this particular Friday, we were walking among the feet of the giant buildings, headed towards city hall, when we heard the dulcet tones of a protest or rally. Being me, I insisted (politely) that we go and see what was going on. It turned out to be a group of workers (I assume part of a union) protesting outside Moors – Moors is a suit company that bills itself as stocking Canadian suits. However they are apparently closing down their factory Quebec and outsourcing the suitmaking to China. Dodgy.
We meandered on towards City Hall, stopping briefly to snap a shot of the famous Eaton Centre and the geese flying inside. The geese are pretty cool, but it’s a shopping centre, so whatever. The other interesting thing about it is the name – it used to be called Eaton’s, but because French doesn’t have the apostrophe-s thing, and Canada is officially bilingual, they changed it. Very close to the Eaton centre is City Hall – all of them, in fact, including Old City Hall in all its faux-gothic glory, open again after years of renovations and reconstructions. We didn’t go in, but rather took pictures of seagulls and New City Hall, which I had seen overrun with zombies and totally destroyed in that fine piece of arthouse cinema, Resident Evil: Apocalypse. They’ve done a good job of repairing it. ;)
Then to the Distillery District for lunch. I had possibly one of the most delicious sandwiches I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting and eating at Brick St Bakery. If you’re ever there, I highly recommend the (vegetarian roast) veg sanga. Om nom nom. We also had a look in some of the gallery spaces as we digested lunch, but that was really just a formality before we headed to the Soma chocolateria. I was introduced to this when J bought some over last year. OM. NOM. NOM. I purchased some hot chocolate mix to bring home with me (but don’t expect to get any if you visit – I will probably consume it all within days). We also had some hot chocolate (So thick! So sweet! So chocolatey! So spicy!) and tried out some of their hand-crafted chocolates. Toft had an olive oil one, which was subtle and lovely, and I had balsamic vinegar, which worked so well – even I was surprised at how well-balanced the flavours were. J bought some blood orange (I think) sorbet, which was a very good idea, as we needed a palate cleanser.
We decided to walk off a bit of lunch, so turned our noses towards the CN Tower and walked to St Lawrence Market, past the site of Canada’s first Parliament, which was attacked by the Americans, prompting the Canadians (or was it actually the English? It matters not to Canadians) to march on the White House and burn it down. Hahaha! GOTCHA!
At St Lawrence Market, we headed to the CHEESE! {Alex’s Cheese place} to be precise. We tried a few cheeses, and I purchased $60 worth for the coming weekend – two from Quebec, being a gooey washed rind (quite light, actually) and a delicious aged cheddar (rich, and they use port in some parts of the process). I also got a Roquefort and a local semi-soft goats cheese. I was tempted by a pre-wrapped wedge of marbled Guinness cheese, which looked pretty amazing, and all the Stilton reminded me to buy some when I got back to Melbourne. We had a few vegies and bread to get, and I saw fiddleheads for sale for the first time. Fiddleheads are the new furled fronds of a particular fern, which I believe are usually eaten steamed (that’s how I made them later, steamed with asparagus and tossed with a little bit of butter).
[OMG OMG! I JUST HEARD THE “HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOO. FRANK WALKER HERE FROM NATIONAL TILES” AD! YAY! I’m so in Melbourne!]
We were having a bit of a chocolate crash by this time, so we decided to have a snack and a drink in the BCE Centre. The BCE Centre is quite stunning, with high arches of light and air, white frames and glass. No wonder it’s won architecture awards. It houses this food court thing where you get a swipey card when you enter, and it gets swiped wherever you buy something, and you pay on the way out. So long as you don’t lose the card, everything is fine! Other things of interest there included a photography exhibition – I’m not sure what the theme was, but it included pictures of civil rights riots and protests, the (blimp that caught fire), world wars, etc. – and a shop called ROOTS. HAHAHAHAHA I’M AN IMMATURE AUSTRALIAN. I liked the woeful bloke sitting in front of it, too.
And then it was back to J’s place to get changed into sexy clothes for SexGeek’s party. I got to see J and A (not Toft) in their leather pants (A in uniform! Glee!), L in a delicious corset, and many hott folks in suits. I felt a little underdressed, but hey, black jeans and black shirt is acceptable in most situations, so it wasn’t too bad. And I got to meet SexGeek! W00T! I tried not to be too much of a fanboy! After a couple of hours, J, A, L, D and I piled into the car and L drove us up to J’s parents’ place in the country. And you know a bit about that already.
[OK, time to finish this delicious, delicious Melbourne coffee and tart little lemon tart. Heh, a tart tart.]
20 May 2008
THURSDAY 8TH MAY
I woke up to Alex the gorgeous cat poking his head around the curtain to check whether I was awake. I noticed during my stay that he is one of the most polite cats in the world in this way – if he doesn’t see you open your eyes he doesn’t jump up on the bed. If he sees you’re awake, though, he will come and stand on your chest and purr mightily at you, or jump up on the bed, walk all over you, then curl up and snooze beside you. Js was already awake, just, so we got up, did some internetting, had showers and planned our day – rather, J told me all the awesome things we could do and I was gleeful about doing them aaaallllll!
We started off by visiting Northbound Leather, where I was to become something of a regular over the next week – not buying anything (too expensive, mostly), but perusing with various friends. J showed me ‘the Matrix coat’, which looked amazing on her. I encourage everyone to send her money so she can buy it!
From there, we walked out the front of the shop and wandered for a while along Yonge St, visiting a great queer bookstore where I drooled over the trans section, and was very interested to hear the conversation the guy behind the counter was trying to start up about a news story in the local queer paper – a trans person who was told to pick a changeroom at the baths and stick to it. I want to talk more about this encounter in my trans blog, so I won’t say too much here, but it was a really interesting situation where on the surface I agreed with the sales assistant, who was saying that all the changerooms should have cubicles and be unisex . . . but there were other interesting things going on, too.
We went into the gorgeously retro Toronto Public Library and checked out the ‘Hanga to Manga’ exhibition, which was interesting, though a kind of strange size and compilation. It was bigger than I’d usually expect a public exhibition in a library to be, but I kind of felt as though it lacked some cohesion, and that the contemporary manga bit had just been tacked on to pull a crowd. The work, however, was gorgeous, and I had a great time learning about various bits of Japanese culture and literature. After this, we were clearly in need of sustenance, so we grabbed some deliciously creamy icecream from Greg’s Icecream (unfortunately, the chocolate fudge sauce wasn’t ready, and J was rather disappointed) and headed along Bloor St to . . . HONEST ED’S, a cheapo discount store of massive proportions, where I encountered the scariest cuckoo clock I’ve ever seen – the crazy moose head on top will give me nightmares, I know it!
One of our main destinations for the day, however, was High Park, which we got to fairly quickly on PT after J showed me some of the underground path system in Toronto. It seems that everyone does indeed live in sub-terrainian caverns, just like they say in the song. High Park was lovely. We took pictures of the cherry and apple blossoms that were out, we saw squirrels, J told me about some of the plants, we walked past the community gardens, discovered some of the most awesome play equipment ever (they asked kids to write or draw what their ideal playground would be like, then they designed it based on the responses. Awesome!), and I spotted my first red winged blackbird. We walked in the park for . . . well, it felt like an hour and a half, two hours . . . I’m not sure. We then caught a bus the wrong way and got kind of stuck between the lake (beautiful) and the freeway (not so beautiful) and ended up flagging down a taxi to take us to Queen West, where we jumped on a streetcar and made our way to the office and paper warehouse where J and A both work.
OMG, THE PAPER. It was gorgeous. I will say no more, but will post pics eventually, so you can drool, too. They gave me a cute little tea tin to take home with me!
By this stage we were quite hungry, and had we made it more quickly to the Rhino we would have been eating a 4 o’clock mystery meal. As it was, we ended up eating an early dinner at about 5. And what a dinner. We ordered a veg curry and the Portobello mushroom salad. The curry was OK, a bit bland, but the mushroom salad was HOLY SMOKES AWESOME. Roast/grilled Portobello mushrooms with raddicio and other salad leaves, a nicely acidic vinaigrette (probably the weakest link, as it tasted a little too much like dressing from a bottle, and I suspect it was), and topped with delicious goats cheese. Om nom nom. I also decided to try some Canadian beer, since I was in the country, and I got a Hockley Valley Stout. It was quite delicious (for beer!), light (for a stout) with a rich caramel malt flavour.
After that, we headed back to J’s apartment and got ready for watching Supernatural - the second last episode of Season 3 – with a bunch of other people. It was fun, people were awesome, cake was consumed with delight! It was a fabbo day!
We started off by visiting Northbound Leather, where I was to become something of a regular over the next week – not buying anything (too expensive, mostly), but perusing with various friends. J showed me ‘the Matrix coat’, which looked amazing on her. I encourage everyone to send her money so she can buy it!
From there, we walked out the front of the shop and wandered for a while along Yonge St, visiting a great queer bookstore where I drooled over the trans section, and was very interested to hear the conversation the guy behind the counter was trying to start up about a news story in the local queer paper – a trans person who was told to pick a changeroom at the baths and stick to it. I want to talk more about this encounter in my trans blog, so I won’t say too much here, but it was a really interesting situation where on the surface I agreed with the sales assistant, who was saying that all the changerooms should have cubicles and be unisex . . . but there were other interesting things going on, too.
We went into the gorgeously retro Toronto Public Library and checked out the ‘Hanga to Manga’ exhibition, which was interesting, though a kind of strange size and compilation. It was bigger than I’d usually expect a public exhibition in a library to be, but I kind of felt as though it lacked some cohesion, and that the contemporary manga bit had just been tacked on to pull a crowd. The work, however, was gorgeous, and I had a great time learning about various bits of Japanese culture and literature. After this, we were clearly in need of sustenance, so we grabbed some deliciously creamy icecream from Greg’s Icecream (unfortunately, the chocolate fudge sauce wasn’t ready, and J was rather disappointed) and headed along Bloor St to . . . HONEST ED’S, a cheapo discount store of massive proportions, where I encountered the scariest cuckoo clock I’ve ever seen – the crazy moose head on top will give me nightmares, I know it!
One of our main destinations for the day, however, was High Park, which we got to fairly quickly on PT after J showed me some of the underground path system in Toronto. It seems that everyone does indeed live in sub-terrainian caverns, just like they say in the song. High Park was lovely. We took pictures of the cherry and apple blossoms that were out, we saw squirrels, J told me about some of the plants, we walked past the community gardens, discovered some of the most awesome play equipment ever (they asked kids to write or draw what their ideal playground would be like, then they designed it based on the responses. Awesome!), and I spotted my first red winged blackbird. We walked in the park for . . . well, it felt like an hour and a half, two hours . . . I’m not sure. We then caught a bus the wrong way and got kind of stuck between the lake (beautiful) and the freeway (not so beautiful) and ended up flagging down a taxi to take us to Queen West, where we jumped on a streetcar and made our way to the office and paper warehouse where J and A both work.
OMG, THE PAPER. It was gorgeous. I will say no more, but will post pics eventually, so you can drool, too. They gave me a cute little tea tin to take home with me!
By this stage we were quite hungry, and had we made it more quickly to the Rhino we would have been eating a 4 o’clock mystery meal. As it was, we ended up eating an early dinner at about 5. And what a dinner. We ordered a veg curry and the Portobello mushroom salad. The curry was OK, a bit bland, but the mushroom salad was HOLY SMOKES AWESOME. Roast/grilled Portobello mushrooms with raddicio and other salad leaves, a nicely acidic vinaigrette (probably the weakest link, as it tasted a little too much like dressing from a bottle, and I suspect it was), and topped with delicious goats cheese. Om nom nom. I also decided to try some Canadian beer, since I was in the country, and I got a Hockley Valley Stout. It was quite delicious (for beer!), light (for a stout) with a rich caramel malt flavour.
After that, we headed back to J’s apartment and got ready for watching Supernatural - the second last episode of Season 3 – with a bunch of other people. It was fun, people were awesome, cake was consumed with delight! It was a fabbo day!
18 May 2008
HOME, JAMES, AND DON'T SPARE THE HORSES
I'M HERE! My bag, however, is apparently still in L.A. Oh wells. They'll bring it to my house tomorrow, they say. I am here, though! So that is good.
Vancouver was beautiful, although after 5 days there I started to chafe at the bit – I wanted to get out beyond the downtown area and visit up close the landscapes reflected in the towering glass walls of the city. Downtown was clean, and often quiet, and new. Toronto is not as spectacular. The lake is lovely, and looking back at the city skyline from Toronto Island on a sunny spring day makes it equally beautiful as any other city, but the architecture in general is not as amazing, the setting can’t really compete with breathtaking as Vancouver. This is not to say Toronto doesn’t have some wonderful buildings – new and old and new new city halls are all of interest, I love the Crystal, and of course there’s the famous CN tower and the infamous Robart’s Library. It also has its fair share of sheer glass skyscrapers, and mingled in among them low rise neighbourhoods with houses up to a hundred years old, or even more. And this is what I love about Toronto – the lived-in-ness. Its student, hippie and new migrant neighbourhoods, Kensington, Chinatown, the queer neighbourhood along and around Church St, the University campus, cheap eateries, the new trendiness of Queen West (or is it Queer West?) feeding on the remnants of a half-century of poverty and desperation. It feels like a city I could live, almost too easily. Maybe it’s having friends show me around, maybe its living in their houses and going to their parties and gatherings, sharing their favourite restaurants, taking trips to interesting shops or parks on their days off, but I feel as though I stepped into a city that already had a space for me, a place where my life was lived before I physically got there and will continue to be lived after I leave.
I sometimes wonder when I travel these huge distances if there’s not something completely at odds with the human psyche about spending three weeks thousands and thousands of kilometres away from ‘home’. I can’t seem to comprehend that insurmountable distance, that I will wake up in a day or two days or even a week, and I will not be able to go back to the Bulldog café, where I drank my first real coffee in weeks, I won’t be able to email a friend on impulse to have lunch near the Kensington markets. I won’t be able to get that subway token I wanted to take back as a souvenir. I won’t become a regular at the leather shop. I won’t be able to wander through High Park on the weekend. I won’t get back to Toronto Island and hire a bike and take all the photographs I couldn’t snap the other day with my dead batteries. What is it? I can understand mentally but not emotionally and physically that the realities and rhythms of a week and a half of my life will be physically out of reach. I know that I’ll get home and I will map Toronto onto Melbourne like I mapped Melbourne onto Vancouver, I’ll slip up and try to continue conversations with people who’ve never heard the start of them, I’ll catch glimpses of Canadians in my Australian friends, I’ll be surprised that the tram isn’t red and white and looking like a lozenge/Toronto streetcar, I’ll crave TimBits from Tim Hortons.
I’ll update more soon, and put pictures up as well.
Vancouver was beautiful, although after 5 days there I started to chafe at the bit – I wanted to get out beyond the downtown area and visit up close the landscapes reflected in the towering glass walls of the city. Downtown was clean, and often quiet, and new. Toronto is not as spectacular. The lake is lovely, and looking back at the city skyline from Toronto Island on a sunny spring day makes it equally beautiful as any other city, but the architecture in general is not as amazing, the setting can’t really compete with breathtaking as Vancouver. This is not to say Toronto doesn’t have some wonderful buildings – new and old and new new city halls are all of interest, I love the Crystal, and of course there’s the famous CN tower and the infamous Robart’s Library. It also has its fair share of sheer glass skyscrapers, and mingled in among them low rise neighbourhoods with houses up to a hundred years old, or even more. And this is what I love about Toronto – the lived-in-ness. Its student, hippie and new migrant neighbourhoods, Kensington, Chinatown, the queer neighbourhood along and around Church St, the University campus, cheap eateries, the new trendiness of Queen West (or is it Queer West?) feeding on the remnants of a half-century of poverty and desperation. It feels like a city I could live, almost too easily. Maybe it’s having friends show me around, maybe its living in their houses and going to their parties and gatherings, sharing their favourite restaurants, taking trips to interesting shops or parks on their days off, but I feel as though I stepped into a city that already had a space for me, a place where my life was lived before I physically got there and will continue to be lived after I leave.
I sometimes wonder when I travel these huge distances if there’s not something completely at odds with the human psyche about spending three weeks thousands and thousands of kilometres away from ‘home’. I can’t seem to comprehend that insurmountable distance, that I will wake up in a day or two days or even a week, and I will not be able to go back to the Bulldog café, where I drank my first real coffee in weeks, I won’t be able to email a friend on impulse to have lunch near the Kensington markets. I won’t be able to get that subway token I wanted to take back as a souvenir. I won’t become a regular at the leather shop. I won’t be able to wander through High Park on the weekend. I won’t get back to Toronto Island and hire a bike and take all the photographs I couldn’t snap the other day with my dead batteries. What is it? I can understand mentally but not emotionally and physically that the realities and rhythms of a week and a half of my life will be physically out of reach. I know that I’ll get home and I will map Toronto onto Melbourne like I mapped Melbourne onto Vancouver, I’ll slip up and try to continue conversations with people who’ve never heard the start of them, I’ll catch glimpses of Canadians in my Australian friends, I’ll be surprised that the tram isn’t red and white and looking like a lozenge/Toronto streetcar, I’ll crave TimBits from Tim Hortons.
I’ll update more soon, and put pictures up as well.
16 May 2008
THE PLACE BETWEEN LEAVING AND ARRIVAL
that's where i'll be soon, eh.
i will be taking the time i get in airports and aeroplanes in the next while to write some entries for this blog. because i have so many things to talk about, and have had so little time to talk about them with you. goddamn having a life, hey?
i am really hoping i make the connection between my toronto - los angeles and los angeles - melbourne flights. i am going to get to toronto airport very early and try to arrange some kind of bag deal with american airlines, see if they can put it somwhere i can claim it immediately, or if they can make sure it's one of the first out so i can grab it and run.
but i've decided if the worst happens and my bag is not ready by the time i need to check in, i will leave it there - it has my address on it - and get them to send it to me later. i mean . . . it's less expensive and less emotionally and physically draining to do that than it would be to miss my flight, right?
i've had such a lovely time in toronto. *sigh* will update in the next few days with lots of words and pics. i promise!
i will be taking the time i get in airports and aeroplanes in the next while to write some entries for this blog. because i have so many things to talk about, and have had so little time to talk about them with you. goddamn having a life, hey?
i am really hoping i make the connection between my toronto - los angeles and los angeles - melbourne flights. i am going to get to toronto airport very early and try to arrange some kind of bag deal with american airlines, see if they can put it somwhere i can claim it immediately, or if they can make sure it's one of the first out so i can grab it and run.
but i've decided if the worst happens and my bag is not ready by the time i need to check in, i will leave it there - it has my address on it - and get them to send it to me later. i mean . . . it's less expensive and less emotionally and physically draining to do that than it would be to miss my flight, right?
i've had such a lovely time in toronto. *sigh* will update in the next few days with lots of words and pics. i promise!
13 May 2008
DOUBLE TIME (TORONTO/THE COUNTRY)
Saturday in the country. . . We went into Creemore via a rather unmaintained road (I thought the car was going to cark it there for a moment!) after a very leisurely morning of breakfast and lazing around. I saw some chipmunks today! CHIPMUNKS! They are so much cuter in real life than in cartoons. Also, red squirrels, which are SMALLER than black squirrels and also cuuuute! In Creemore we wandered along the main street and looked in pretty much every open shop – pottery, homewares, ceramic painting café, bookstore, gallery etc. We also did some shopping. It was strange being back in a country town, but it being halfway across the world. Creemore is home of the Creemore Brewery, but none of us particularly wanted to go on a tour. When we got back, we made soup and ate it with the delicious cheeses I bought yesterday from the market (which I will tell you about soon, I hope). The washed rind was lovely (not too pungent, a slightly fresh salty taste, and great gooey texture), the Roquefort was Roquefort, the port aged Munster was delicious and flaky/crumbly, and the semi-soft goats cheese was melt-in-the-mouth and mild. After lunch, J took L, A and I on a walk down around the ‘big pond’, where I had my first real brush with the Dreaded Canadian Blackfly. GODDAMN! It reminded me of Australia in the summer with the blowflies, only these ones keep milling around – at least blowies settle on your back. We also saw a beaver dam, and all the gnawed down little trees near it. How cool is that?! After the wander through the countryside we came home and realised it was quite late (given that lunch was at 4 – a four o’clock mystery meal!), a few of us napped and a few of us sat around talking about favourite (best and tackiest) books. L and I made dinner at about 8pm – gorgeous little roast potatoes with olive oil, rosemary (home-grown by J’s dad) and salt; warm sweet potato salad with sweet potatoes that turned out to be white (yams?), not orange. Nom nom nom. After dinner I got to try Canadian Ice Wine, which was delicious. It’s very sweet (almost as sweet as a botrytis wine), but a much simpler, more pure flavour. This one smelled and tasted of strawberries, raisins and caramel. We ate gelati and chocolate, and then it was after midnight.
*
On my first day in Toronto I was rather tired – adjusting the three hours between here and Vancouver took a little time. However, after a shower and Skyping with Dan, L and I took PT to Kensington Markets (I got little tokens for the subway! They have trams/streetcars! I am slowly getting into the idea of reading more about public transport systems – I think they’re fascinating). Kensington is a cool little neighbourhood (neighbourhoods = what Australians would call suburbs, although they seem to be smaller – Brunswick St/Smith St would probably be a neighbourhood), with lots of fresh food, over-stocked spice shops, several hippie shops, a cool little place where it looks like the local anarchokids hang out, several cafes, and fearless pedestrians. We ate at (I think) King’s Café, a vegetarian Chinese-style restaurant with lots of fake meat. I had dumplings. Man, I miss dumplings in Melbourne – let’s get some when I get home.
We then visited Good For Her, one of the excellent local sex shops in Toronto, and I began my international collection – I want to buy something from every country I visit! And I had to get something to match the awesome Canadian flag dildo cosy that L made for me! Hilarious! We walked through a nice old neighbourhood called (I think) the Annexe, with big, snow-roofed houses, established trees and tulips bobbing in the front gardens. One thing I notice in Canada is the lack of front fences. Possibly Canadians are less stickybeakish than Australians, as I kept wandering into people’s yards to photograph their flowers (especially in Forest Hill, basically the Toorak of Toronto, with its enormous, tacky mansions).
After that it was time to consume more delicious things, so L took me to the Tea Emporium, where I squeed over the beautiful homewares and accessories, and sat down for a cup of delicious ‘Sweet Embrace’ Rooibos. Om nom nom. I also met my faggy tea-brother in Toronto – I was so happy.
It’s so strange to see how space and time are organised so differently in places where it snows – different styles of house, garden, road, parks, transport . . . anyway, I was tired, so I had a nap on L’s couch (actually more on L herself) before heading to J’s place to move in and meet the gang. I got to meet J’s gorgeous big black cat Alex – he’s quiet and stately (except with untied shoelaces) and does this cute thing with his front paw, holding it in the air like a showpony. So I got to meet A, yay! And A, J and I chatted and watched Resident Evil: The Apocalypse with the sound off so I could be introduced to Toronto as it looked overrun with zombies. Fun times!
*
On my first day in Toronto I was rather tired – adjusting the three hours between here and Vancouver took a little time. However, after a shower and Skyping with Dan, L and I took PT to Kensington Markets (I got little tokens for the subway! They have trams/streetcars! I am slowly getting into the idea of reading more about public transport systems – I think they’re fascinating). Kensington is a cool little neighbourhood (neighbourhoods = what Australians would call suburbs, although they seem to be smaller – Brunswick St/Smith St would probably be a neighbourhood), with lots of fresh food, over-stocked spice shops, several hippie shops, a cool little place where it looks like the local anarchokids hang out, several cafes, and fearless pedestrians. We ate at (I think) King’s Café, a vegetarian Chinese-style restaurant with lots of fake meat. I had dumplings. Man, I miss dumplings in Melbourne – let’s get some when I get home.
We then visited Good For Her, one of the excellent local sex shops in Toronto, and I began my international collection – I want to buy something from every country I visit! And I had to get something to match the awesome Canadian flag dildo cosy that L made for me! Hilarious! We walked through a nice old neighbourhood called (I think) the Annexe, with big, snow-roofed houses, established trees and tulips bobbing in the front gardens. One thing I notice in Canada is the lack of front fences. Possibly Canadians are less stickybeakish than Australians, as I kept wandering into people’s yards to photograph their flowers (especially in Forest Hill, basically the Toorak of Toronto, with its enormous, tacky mansions).
After that it was time to consume more delicious things, so L took me to the Tea Emporium, where I squeed over the beautiful homewares and accessories, and sat down for a cup of delicious ‘Sweet Embrace’ Rooibos. Om nom nom. I also met my faggy tea-brother in Toronto – I was so happy.
It’s so strange to see how space and time are organised so differently in places where it snows – different styles of house, garden, road, parks, transport . . . anyway, I was tired, so I had a nap on L’s couch (actually more on L herself) before heading to J’s place to move in and meet the gang. I got to meet J’s gorgeous big black cat Alex – he’s quiet and stately (except with untied shoelaces) and does this cute thing with his front paw, holding it in the air like a showpony. So I got to meet A, yay! And A, J and I chatted and watched Resident Evil: The Apocalypse with the sound off so I could be introduced to Toronto as it looked overrun with zombies. Fun times!
12 May 2008
TODAY I SAW A CHIPMUNK AND THOUGHT OF YOU
I am writing this from near Creemore, Ontario, as I sit at J’s parent’s kitchen bench looking out over the front lawn, trees with sparse pale green and bronze growth, a black squirrel noodling across the grass, and four small red (house) finches bobbing and flitting around the feed post. Oh! And there’s a bluejay and a YELLOW finch, too! So bright! Amazing! Can you tell that someone got a birdwatching book down from the shelf for me? I don’t think I mentioned, also, that I saw a HUMMINGBIRD in L.A., which was pretty exciting! Anyway, J, L, A, D and I drove up last night after cutting short our stay at SexGeek’s party, and we arrived a bit after 1am. Waking up to the beautiful views and the warm honey glow of the lovely house was pretty special. There are books EVERYWHERE.
*
But let me go back to Vancouver. On my second non-conference day, I took it fairly easy, starting with a late-ish breakfast at the recommended Templeton diner (near Granville and Helmcken). I ate the Farmer’s Breakfast – two perfectly (for me) poached eggs on an amazing mix of their rosemary potatoes, slices of fresh zucchini and green capsicum, and grated cheddar, seemingly fried together and served with a small bowl of oh so delicious tomato and red onion salsa and yoghurt. Wow. If you are ever in Vancouver, this is a meal I recommend. In fact, this is a must-visit place, IMO.
From there I walked over one of the bridges to the Granville Island Public Market. I actually stopped someone to ask if I could cross the bridges, and she was so friendly and recommended I take the little aquabus at least one way. I didn’t know where it left, though, so I decided to take it on the way back. Walking across the bridge was quite an experience – I didn’t quite know where I was going to get off it (the overpasses confuse me!), it was very high, and there was no barrier between me and the traffic. However, looking back and seeing the Downtown area framed by mountains, and looking down on the boats and construction sites made the walk worth the slight anxiety. When I finally got off the bridge I saw this little play equipment park with a play excavator/digger thing, and I had my first real wave of homesickness of the entire journey – compounded by my instinctual recognition of a bird as a currawong, and realising I wasn’t at home when it turned out to be a crow standing behind a dandelion clock.
The market is amazing. It’s quite trendy and bourgie, new and undercover, but it’s nonetheless very fun. I almost wished I hadn’t eaten! I was tempted by the pyramids of strawberries, cherries, and other fruit I didn’t know (looked like those yellow Chinese lantern berries, if anyone knows them), trays of red and orange and yellow tomatoes piled above red, orange, yellow and green capsicums. I drooled over the array of colourful cakes, towers of meringue, and foot-high banana pies, and eventually chose to sample pumpkin tart – something I’m not likely to find much of in Australia. I bought maple syrup from a guy (an old queen, if my gaydar is working), who gave me a snap lesson in Canadian geography, which I really appreciated. After that I found the Granville Island Tea shop, which my coworker C had recommended. I sat down and enjoyed a cup of Monk’s Blend black tea, then chatted for a few minutes and bought a few teas I thought might be able to make it past customs – two rooibos teas and a black tea, and they gave me a sample of mocha rooibos, which I can’t wait to try, too! I eventually dragged myself away from the cheeses (tiny goats cheeses with flowers pressed on top! Delicious looking blue cheeses! Huge wedges of smoked cheddar and rounds of Emmenthal!) and headed down to the aquabus (they look like toy boats, seriously), which ferried me quickly back to the other side.
I dropped a few things at the hotel, then wandered down to W Hastings, having the strange feeling that maybe if I just nipped into the Harbour Centre I’d find the conference still going on. I visited Spartacus Books – the (to my Melbourne eyes) huge radical bookstore, and wished I could buy half the stuff there. I settled on a few smaller items, then consulted my map and made my way to Chinatown to visit the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Park and Classical Chinese Gardens – the only one outside of China, I think. As anticipated, they were beautiful and calming, and I took my time watching the orange and gold fish slide around in the reflective ponds, spotting a few turtles along the way. I sat in one of the rooms drinking complimentary oolong tea and reading my book for well over half an hour.
I got back to my hotel at about 5:30, and I was going to be meeting one of my internet people at 6, but they unfortunately had a crap day, so couldn’t meet up. That meant I could have a wee lie down before heading back to the Templeton for dinner. I had quite a nice burger with Portobello mushroom, and ended up staying to watch Eagle Vs Shark (which seemed to go down quite well with the Canadian audience). It was a relaxing evening, and I headed back to the hotel with a smile on my face.
*
On Tuesday I packed everything up and left a tip for housekeeping (it’s so strange to remember to do this all the time, and sometimes I forget, and sometimes I think I haven’t tipped enough, and argh! The guilt!), and checked out, getting the people downstairs to hold my bag while I gallivanted. And by ‘gallivant’ I mean ‘go back to the Templeton for my third meal in two days’. I lingered over the ‘mangled eggs’ with brie on a croissant with the rosemary potatoes. Not as good as the farmer’s breakfast, though. I also chatted to a fellow diner, who was an English teacher at one of the community centres, and who got her degree in Brisbane. We talked about politics and queer stuff and it was just so awesome. Canadians have totally lived up to their reputation of being friendly, helpful and lovely. I wonder if this – and other treatment I’ve received in various places – has much to do with travelling alone and ‘passing’ as a younger person than I am? I probably talk to more random people when I travel alone, because I’m in a situation conducive to this kind of interaction more frequently.
I then headed back to the hotel via one of the chain coffee stores, where I had a cup of oolong tea – I’ve really been craving it! The cups here are huge – I feel ill having a ‘small’ cup of coffee sometimes, because it’s a medium size back in Melbourne, and I never drink that much. I’ve also noticed that places are much more likely to not have ‘eat in’ crockery, etc: people just eat at the tables using the takeaway packaging. Wasteful. Hm. Anyway, I was paranoid about security etc after my horrid experience at LAX, so I took the Airporter bus (about $14, but worth the extra for the lack of stress involved) and arrived with two hours before takeoff. And I walked through security in 2 minutes, with barely a second glance from anyone. Oh, Vancouver, I love you.
The plane flight was actually quite enjoyable, with amazing views of the mountains, forests and then I guess prairies – vast plains cultivated in stripes, all running north-south, in various shades of yellowbrown. I was sitting next to a woman, Sheila, who was a software developer, who is in the process of selling and installing her software in hospitals across North America and (this week) in Britain. We chatted quite a bit in the second half of the flight (the screens weren’t working) about travel and cultural differences, and she demanded to know what made the Sydney Opera House so special that it is one of the world landmarks along with the pyramids and the Great Wall of China. I couldn’t really do much but give her the smallest bit of architectural history of the place and say that even as a Melbournian I thought it was a pretty cool building. She also wondered what Toronto had, and I said Robarts Library. Heh. Next to her was another woman, Gail Vanstone, who was writing a review for a book on . . . feminist cinema. Cinematic Howling: Women’s Films, Women’s Film Theorists by Hoi F. Cheu Pretty odd, the connections you make, hey?
And then L picked me up at airport. With apples! Nom nom nom. It’s been absolutely awesome meeting so many LJ friends in the flesh for the first time! I’ve been having a lot of fun. I miss home, but at the same time I don’t want to only have 5 days or whatever left!
*
But let me go back to Vancouver. On my second non-conference day, I took it fairly easy, starting with a late-ish breakfast at the recommended Templeton diner (near Granville and Helmcken). I ate the Farmer’s Breakfast – two perfectly (for me) poached eggs on an amazing mix of their rosemary potatoes, slices of fresh zucchini and green capsicum, and grated cheddar, seemingly fried together and served with a small bowl of oh so delicious tomato and red onion salsa and yoghurt. Wow. If you are ever in Vancouver, this is a meal I recommend. In fact, this is a must-visit place, IMO.
From there I walked over one of the bridges to the Granville Island Public Market. I actually stopped someone to ask if I could cross the bridges, and she was so friendly and recommended I take the little aquabus at least one way. I didn’t know where it left, though, so I decided to take it on the way back. Walking across the bridge was quite an experience – I didn’t quite know where I was going to get off it (the overpasses confuse me!), it was very high, and there was no barrier between me and the traffic. However, looking back and seeing the Downtown area framed by mountains, and looking down on the boats and construction sites made the walk worth the slight anxiety. When I finally got off the bridge I saw this little play equipment park with a play excavator/digger thing, and I had my first real wave of homesickness of the entire journey – compounded by my instinctual recognition of a bird as a currawong, and realising I wasn’t at home when it turned out to be a crow standing behind a dandelion clock.
The market is amazing. It’s quite trendy and bourgie, new and undercover, but it’s nonetheless very fun. I almost wished I hadn’t eaten! I was tempted by the pyramids of strawberries, cherries, and other fruit I didn’t know (looked like those yellow Chinese lantern berries, if anyone knows them), trays of red and orange and yellow tomatoes piled above red, orange, yellow and green capsicums. I drooled over the array of colourful cakes, towers of meringue, and foot-high banana pies, and eventually chose to sample pumpkin tart – something I’m not likely to find much of in Australia. I bought maple syrup from a guy (an old queen, if my gaydar is working), who gave me a snap lesson in Canadian geography, which I really appreciated. After that I found the Granville Island Tea shop, which my coworker C had recommended. I sat down and enjoyed a cup of Monk’s Blend black tea, then chatted for a few minutes and bought a few teas I thought might be able to make it past customs – two rooibos teas and a black tea, and they gave me a sample of mocha rooibos, which I can’t wait to try, too! I eventually dragged myself away from the cheeses (tiny goats cheeses with flowers pressed on top! Delicious looking blue cheeses! Huge wedges of smoked cheddar and rounds of Emmenthal!) and headed down to the aquabus (they look like toy boats, seriously), which ferried me quickly back to the other side.
I dropped a few things at the hotel, then wandered down to W Hastings, having the strange feeling that maybe if I just nipped into the Harbour Centre I’d find the conference still going on. I visited Spartacus Books – the (to my Melbourne eyes) huge radical bookstore, and wished I could buy half the stuff there. I settled on a few smaller items, then consulted my map and made my way to Chinatown to visit the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Park and Classical Chinese Gardens – the only one outside of China, I think. As anticipated, they were beautiful and calming, and I took my time watching the orange and gold fish slide around in the reflective ponds, spotting a few turtles along the way. I sat in one of the rooms drinking complimentary oolong tea and reading my book for well over half an hour.
I got back to my hotel at about 5:30, and I was going to be meeting one of my internet people at 6, but they unfortunately had a crap day, so couldn’t meet up. That meant I could have a wee lie down before heading back to the Templeton for dinner. I had quite a nice burger with Portobello mushroom, and ended up staying to watch Eagle Vs Shark (which seemed to go down quite well with the Canadian audience). It was a relaxing evening, and I headed back to the hotel with a smile on my face.
*
On Tuesday I packed everything up and left a tip for housekeeping (it’s so strange to remember to do this all the time, and sometimes I forget, and sometimes I think I haven’t tipped enough, and argh! The guilt!), and checked out, getting the people downstairs to hold my bag while I gallivanted. And by ‘gallivant’ I mean ‘go back to the Templeton for my third meal in two days’. I lingered over the ‘mangled eggs’ with brie on a croissant with the rosemary potatoes. Not as good as the farmer’s breakfast, though. I also chatted to a fellow diner, who was an English teacher at one of the community centres, and who got her degree in Brisbane. We talked about politics and queer stuff and it was just so awesome. Canadians have totally lived up to their reputation of being friendly, helpful and lovely. I wonder if this – and other treatment I’ve received in various places – has much to do with travelling alone and ‘passing’ as a younger person than I am? I probably talk to more random people when I travel alone, because I’m in a situation conducive to this kind of interaction more frequently.
I then headed back to the hotel via one of the chain coffee stores, where I had a cup of oolong tea – I’ve really been craving it! The cups here are huge – I feel ill having a ‘small’ cup of coffee sometimes, because it’s a medium size back in Melbourne, and I never drink that much. I’ve also noticed that places are much more likely to not have ‘eat in’ crockery, etc: people just eat at the tables using the takeaway packaging. Wasteful. Hm. Anyway, I was paranoid about security etc after my horrid experience at LAX, so I took the Airporter bus (about $14, but worth the extra for the lack of stress involved) and arrived with two hours before takeoff. And I walked through security in 2 minutes, with barely a second glance from anyone. Oh, Vancouver, I love you.
The plane flight was actually quite enjoyable, with amazing views of the mountains, forests and then I guess prairies – vast plains cultivated in stripes, all running north-south, in various shades of yellowbrown. I was sitting next to a woman, Sheila, who was a software developer, who is in the process of selling and installing her software in hospitals across North America and (this week) in Britain. We chatted quite a bit in the second half of the flight (the screens weren’t working) about travel and cultural differences, and she demanded to know what made the Sydney Opera House so special that it is one of the world landmarks along with the pyramids and the Great Wall of China. I couldn’t really do much but give her the smallest bit of architectural history of the place and say that even as a Melbournian I thought it was a pretty cool building. She also wondered what Toronto had, and I said Robarts Library. Heh. Next to her was another woman, Gail Vanstone, who was writing a review for a book on . . . feminist cinema. Cinematic Howling: Women’s Films, Women’s Film Theorists by Hoi F. Cheu Pretty odd, the connections you make, hey?
And then L picked me up at airport. With apples! Nom nom nom. It’s been absolutely awesome meeting so many LJ friends in the flesh for the first time! I’ve been having a lot of fun. I miss home, but at the same time I don’t want to only have 5 days or whatever left!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)