My holiday

Remember in school when the teacher would make everyone write about what they did in the summer holidays?

I remember thinking that I wish I'd been somewhere cool to write about, but all I'd ever done was go out on my bike or play football.

This year I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge , went to Woodstock(the town, not the hippy thing, well, the town does have a lot of hippies so....) and missed the Dalai Lama by 24 hours.

Apparently true. I was buying some earrings and the shop had a flyer in the window announcing an appearance by old 14 himself in the town of Woodstock for the next day.

We stayed at the Marriott and when they found out it was our wedding anniversary we were upgraded to a fab room in the new tower with a great view.

Apart from Coney Island we went to a couple of other beaches too, like this one

and he got to check out the surfing potential on Long Island, a mere 11 hour drive away.

And now it's back to the job hunt and being broke. On that subject I had a rubbish day yesterday. Cold calling practice session at the Employment resource center went ok until she surprised me by springing an extra thing on me that we hadn't talked about.
I then had to listen to myself on tape (does everyone hate that? ) saying 'um' a lot.
Fun.
Then it was off to the Job Fair.
My what a depressing waste of time and money that was.
One bitch tried to tell me off for attempting to take a leaflet from the big table rather than the little table she was at. I didn't want to stand in a line behind 15 people waiting to talk to her, just to get the leaflet that was 4cm away. I looked at her. Then slowly looked at the leaflet, then looked at her again.
She reached for the paper, picked it up and tried to give it to me.
I said 'no thank you'. Those were the words, but believe me it didn't really sound like that.
Anyway, after 3 hours of being told to go to these websites and 3 different people telling me that I probably need to go back to their college I was totally exhausted, so I trudged home.
Later that evening there was a knock on the door.
I got up to answer it slipped on the wooden floor and fell down, cracking my face off the door frame in the process. So now the left side of my face is swollen and red and hurts, a lot.

Just how much character do I need to build? Really, I think I have enough now.

more invisibles and a connection

1.










2.











3.










4.










If you can guess all the films then the connection is easy-peasy.

Coney Island Baby

Maybe it started with Angel Heart or possibly Annie Hall or maybe it's even Lou Reed's fault, but Coney Island has been somewhere I wanted to see for myself for some time.


Every now and then it pops up again in some film or other, like Lord of War,Artificial Intelligence:AI, Requiem for A Dream or Pi. I can't personally vouch for it's apperance in Pi as, being one (and I've seen some dooozies, let me tell you, like this , this and this ) of the most boring films I have ever endured, I fell asleep.





So, on this visit to New York, being as how we were staying in Brooklyn and all, how could I not go to Coney island?
We dutifully walked along the boardwalk, ate ice cream and collected shells on the beach.

It didn't disappoint, right down to the perfect cheezy 80's music.

We didn't have a hot dog at Nathan's as, not being Canada, there was no veggie dog. Anyway I couln't eat 53 and 3/4 veggie dogs.

oh, Canada

Before I get to the holiday, I wanted to comment on the hockey game we went to last week.

$50 for a seat with a not good view(not helped by the constant stream of people going back and forth), so couldn't really see much.

I'm not a big fan of team sports (mentioned before) but at least the CFL game last week was just that, a CFL game.

Hockey doesn't know what it is.

The biggest cheers of the night, when the audience were out of their seats and screaming were reserved for the fights. Supposed professional athletes throw down their hockey sticks, tear off the helmets and start to pound each other.

And the crowd goes wild...

They stop wandering around the stadium, talking on the phone and chatting to each other and turn into a mob. Whooping and screaming encouragement to the fight which is so popular that even the referres stand and watch.

A guy to my side had his son with him, a kid of maybe 6 or 7 and Dad was smiling proudly at junior as he cheered on this display.

No doubt it's usual and the pads the players wear mean they don't hurt each other much.

If I had wanted to see boxing then I would have gone to boxing.

almost out the door

We leave in about half-an-hour and I'm not sure when we will be able to get to t'internet, so post will be even more unreliable than usual for the next few days.
He has posted about last nights hockey match and I might too when we get back.
TTFN

last days of summer

Tomorrow morning we leave for The Big Apple, no that is not a description of me, it's New York.


Every year for the past 10 years we have travelled to another country for our wedding anniversary, this year the 10th, we are driving to New York.

The holiday is always a sure sign that summer is over.


The other signs this year have been eating our crop of potatoes (four spuds counts as a 'crop' right?) and the one remaining apple that the squirrels didn't make off with.


He did get to grow tomatoes outdoors for the first time and the squirrels left them alone, so there were lots, look,
























This summer, being unemployed, I have spent a lot of time reading on the deck in the back garden (and this will come as a surprize to those who know me), I have a tan.
A proper tan, not just a few more freckels.
The job search will begin anew on my return and the plan is to have at least an interview before the tan is completely gone.
All think positive together now....

Well, it was a lovely festival. The best movie won, and Mr. Burns found there are some awards that can't be bought.*

Closing night of the Film Festival tonight, and all the stars will be on their way home.
Sandra got to see JLo and took a picture of her bum.
I'm not believed in my insistance that I saw Matthew Fox in Yorkville the other day, but also in town were Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Jude Law, Christian Bale, Beyonce, Zach Braff and Samuel L. Jackson (I don't think he was here to promote Snakes on a Plane though) and lot of others too.
Christopher Guest was here with his new film along with most of his regulars, Eugene Levy, Harry Shearer (the voices of Ned Flanders, Mr.Burns and Smithers on the Simpsons) and Torontoian Catherine O' Hara.
Sean Penn will also be on his way home, no doubt in a cloud of smoke. He got into some trouble here when he decided to ignore the No Smoking ban in public places.
Hopefully some of the films will get a general release, such as the one that won the People's Choice award 'Bella' which "tells the story of a friendship that develops one afternoon in New York City between a Mexican-American chef, played by Mexican actor Eduardo Verastegui, and a troubled waitress played by American stage actress Tammy Blanchard." according to Lee-Anne Goodman, Canadian Press.

Also all of these sound good.

Maybe there is still time to see John Travolta or Christopher Walken as they film this here.


*pretty lame connection between title and post, film festival-Simpsons... sorry

A is for ...

The brother and girlfriend have gone back home now, to where they have less squirrels and racoons.


I'm feeling a lot better, thanks for asking, not fully recovered but almost.


I was well enough to go to the Interview at Your Best workshop at the employment resource office yesterday. Naturally it started late and I was not holding out much hope for the whole two hours when the first thing Jane* did was pick up an apple from the table and ask us to - "describe yourself as an apple"


Right, let's have a little competition:

Did I think


1. hmm, what an interesting concept, maybe to get people thinking creatively.


or


2. ah ferfecksake. that's it, I'm out of here.





*that's not her real name, it was Michelle

Wild-life

The other day , when the sun was actually shining here in unsettled Toronto, we went to Toronto Zoo, one of the largest in the world. A bit too big really, so we had to decide which of the Geographic areas not to visit.
The Canadian Domain was as far from the entrance as it was possible to be, nevertheless, it had to be seen.
The Canadian Lynx and Artic Wolves were all a bit standoff-ish and not eager to come out and chat.
The Grizzly bears did indeed look very grizzly and a bit pissed off.
The racoons, being noctural were very difficult to spot.

Can you see him, in there in the log?












In other areas of the Zoo, seeing the animals was a lot easier.

The elephants were much more sociable.















Later in the evening (much later by the time we got the Barbecue going)two racoons went for a stroll across the garage roof. Impossible to tell if it was Ronnie but if it was he has a friend now, so good for him.
And so long as we don't get other Canadian wildlife, like Moose or bears on the garage roof, everyone is happy.

Oh Canada

Yesterday, despite the illness, we all went off to the Rogers Centre for the CFL game between the Toronto Argonauts and the Hamilton Tiger Cats.
The Argos were hoping to continue the run of 4 wins and it was an extra special occasion as Damon Allen was being awarded for leading the All-Time Pro football passing chart with 70,596 passing yards; he surpassed Warren Moon's total of 70,553 yards (in both the CFL and NFL combined) in the annual Labour Day Classic. This season is Allen's 22nd season in the CFL and at 43 he is pretty much ancient for a professional sportsman of any type.
It wasn't a great game, low scoring and not a single touchdown, but entertaining still.
Once we eventually found our seats.
We were up in 'the 500's' which as you can see from the pic is fairly high up! But great seats, looking directly down at the centre line, the CN Tower off to one side




and, hey, for $10 how can you complain? Especially when you get free pom poms.

The national anthem, sung before the game, brought a tear to my eye.

Oh Canada indeed.

feeling bleegh

The other day I accompanied (well, sort of frog-marched, as she was not too keen) Tracey to the Doctor's office. She had been ill for a couple of days and was fairly certain she had a chest infection.
We were not sure how it would work with her being a visitor here, in we went and they agreed to see her but she'd have to wait and whilst waiting would have to wear a face mask. They made me were one too. So despite my protests of feeling fine I had to sit there in the corner of the waiting room, seemingly reserved for those with face masks. Because I was fine I could smell the nasty surgical/chemical stink of the mask. Nice.
Then yesterday I started to fell awful.
Head feels like someone drilled a hole in it and filled it up with jelly and throat is coated with broken glass(maybe too much graphic detail there?).

















Thanks universe, that's some sense of humour you've got there.

D for effort

SORRY FOR THE LACK OF POSTS.

Normal rubbish will be restored soon.

other falls

Another film quiz, this time all shots of people falling.
get it, falling, falls?
smooth link I think
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Doing the tourist thing

It's said that Toronto is a great place to live but not so great to visit, because there are not so many 'must see' tourist attractions.
The first 'must see' is Niagara falls. Technicially, not actually in Toronto, at all.
I saw the falls 6 years ago and on this second visit was not surprised to find the full WOW factor still there.
It's not easy to see that those are people standing there along the ridge.
Niagara-on-the-Lake has as many flowers lining it's streets, now as then.

We wondered how much erosion there had been in the 6 years.
Niagara Falls has eroded 11.4 kilometers (7.1 miles) during the last 12,300 years.
According to Wikipedia "Until the modern era, the Falls were receding southward owing to erosion from two to ten feet (0.6 to 3.0 m) per year. This process was slowed initially by diversion of increasing amounts of flow from the Niagara River into hydroelectric plants in both the United States and Canada"
It seemed to be pretty much in the same place that we left it, as far as I could see.

Labour Day: the holiday Canada gave the world

Driving to the airport to pick up our visitors, we were so busy chatting and listening to the radio we forgot to turn off for the airport and were somewhere else that wasn't even on the map.
One of the adverts in particular got my attention. It was for beer and listed, increasingly fast, all the things to do this Labour Day weekend, which can't be done after Labour Day. I can't remember most of it, but the list included "wear white, go fishing at the cottage, work on your tan, tip a cow, buy cheap beer...."
I don't know if the 'no white after Labour Day' rule has any fact to it, I only know about it from the movies.
So do scientists have other colour coats to wear after Labour Day?


We made it to the airport, by the way, with about 5 minutes to spare.

0101010110

This is post 102.
I was liking the symmetry of 101, but it's time to move on....