Category: Trips

Head down

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From now ’til the 28th of this month I shall be very busy indeed, as I have to write a 40-page paper for the course I’m doing now. The topic is Intellectual Property vs. Public Health. This is not something that will just flow from my fingertips. Fortunately I’m rarely at a loss for (typed) words.

The film festival booklets are released the day after I submit the paper, so I can concentrate on that for an hour or so before I have to get back to the rest of my course work. I should wrap that up the day before the festival actually starts; once it’s over I’m off to the course intensive for a week. I then have thirteen luxurious days to relax (unless the gods are against me and I have to start my next course right away) before we jet off to the Rockies.

So yeah. See you in October.

[tags]intellectual property, public health, toronto international film festival, rockies[/tags]

"And like that…[they're] gone"

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The Brits have been seen off back to London. We dropped them at the airport this afternoon after spending the day enjoying Ontario. We wandered around Elora for a while, checking out the gorge and a few shops (including Stÿll, which I think is worth making the trip back for) before jumping in the car and heading to a nearby lake. It wasn’t as impressive as we’d hoped; we just drove along it until we found a spot where we could walk down to the shore. It wasn’t the nicest lake, so we just jumped back in the car (but not before I snagged a chocolate milkshake from a walk-up snack bar) and made for a town. We passed through a little rain — as it turned out, the only rain we encountered; pretty lucky as the forecast had been calling for storms — before reaching Orangeville. We poked our heads into an art gallery, a chocolate shop and a restaurant for lunch (it used to be a pub, or so my pub guide said, but it had been replaced by a restaurant…which I think may have made me sick…anyhoo) before getting back in the car and heading south. We arrived at Pearson in good time, got our guests checked in and on their way, looking for a pub on which to watch the footie match (which Germany lost after Italy scored very late in extra time).

We jumped back into the car once more (after I searched frantically for my Blackberry, which I — whew! — found on the floor) and I fought back post-lunch nausea long enough to return the car to a downtown Hertz, squish onto a subway and get home in time for some prime-time chilling. By the way, I like Toronto a lot less when I have to drive in it.

TimmyD blogged the whole affair on The Plummet Onions. It was great to have them here, great to show them a little more of Toronto, and great to know that it wouldn’t be too much longer before we see them again.

.:.

Recent tidbits:

.:.

Finally, I’m sad to say that Ash, the tiny-but-fierce cat and companion to our friends CBGB passed away this weekend. She was ancient and storied, like all great legends. I’ll miss her padding around CBGB’s place, I’ll always smile when I think about how she fell asleep on my lap on the way to Collingwood, and I’ll always laugh when I think about poor Ed having to pick her up with hockey gloves. Hopefully the smiles & laughter will come as easily to CBGB as missing her will.

R.I.P., Ash.

[tags]elora, styll, orangeville, indietits, philosopher’s walk. polaris prize, tornado, ash cat[/tags]

Waterfall (and I don't mean Tom)

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It’s surprisingly pleasant sleeping next to rushing water. I had visions of being kept awake by a dull roar and a constant need to urinate, but it was actually really nice. The bed, while comfortable, squealed like a choir of rusty crickets if I so much as moved my head.

Still and all, I managed a decent sleep, and we’re up now, hoping to take advantage of the last day of our vecation before it rains. Wish us luck.

[tags]elora, river gorge[/tags]

I suck at pool

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After an unspectacular (though, in the grand scheme of things, probably pretty good for such a tiny town) meal, we set out to have a drink before returning to our rooms. Being 10:00 the hotel bar was closed (!), but they directed us to a place up the street.

It was a pool hall / sports bar kinda place…cheap beer, free pool and TVs tuned to wrestling. We decided to play some pool; I suck, as it turns out. I’ve just never really played. I managed to win the second game by sinking three in a row, but then lost the last one by scratching on the 8-ball. Ah well. The best part was that the bartender gave us a bunch of free credits on the jukebox, so TimmyD and I went to town. It seems that I play better to Soundgarden.

[tags]elora, bar, jukebox[/tags]

Elora

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We were up early this morning to pick up our rental car, grabbing some road muffins along the way. We made it out to our aunt + uncle’s place outside of Guelph in really good time, before 10:00. We had a great visit there; our cousin and another of our uncles joined us for lunch (we had strawberry shortcake…droooooool) and I showed everyone the miracle of whipped cream on a gingerbread cookie. We left around 3 to continue our journey.

Only a few minutes north was the town of Elora, where we’d booked a night at the Elora Mill Inn, overlooking a gorge with rushing water. It’s a cute little town; we walked around for a bit, had a drink in the hotel bar overlooking the gorge and had a few minutes to relax in our rooms. Now we’re about to head out for some dinner.

[tags]strawberry, guelph, elora[/tags]

How long can grooming take anyway?

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Today’s IndieTits was very funny. And I heartily agree with Neko Case being #1. Wrong Wainwright at #5, but it was funnier that way.

.:.

Some movies that I/we watched lately, but which weren’t very good:

  • Domino (imdb | rotten tomatoes), because it was an interesting story, but not interesting enough to require the frantic pace and annoying echo chamber of this great big hackey music video.
  • Out Of Order (imdb), because Showtime tried to pull off some kind of scam by cramming an entire season of a show into a 97-minute movie. It did, however, alert me to the fact that Justine Bateman has become rather hot at the age of forty.

.:.

I’ve been slowly working through Saturday’s Star after returning from Montreal, and was particularly interested in this article by James Travers about how the front runners for the Liberal party leadership are flexing a little more IQ muscle than has been seen in Canadian politics for some time. My favourite line: “With Michael Ignatieff and Stéphane Dion opting in yesterday and Belinda Stronach dropping out a day earlier, the collective leadership IQ is soaring.” The other entrants or potentials — Bob Rae, Gerard Kennedy, Ken Dryden, Scott Brison, John Godfrey, David McGuinty, Maurizio Bevilacqua — are no slouches either. Whether or not you dig the Liberal party, it can’t be a bad thing to have smarter people trying to run the country.

.:.

One last thing about our Montreal trip: I have to comment on the travel particulars. We flew Westjet this time, as I used up the Airmiles that find their way into my account without my really knowing. Anyhow, it was my first time with them and I was pretty impressed; the thing I liked the most was that they didn’t take 45 minutes to “groom” the plane like Air Canada does; it landed, they let the passengers off, and they let us on seconds later. Much faster turnaround time than I was used to.

And finally, about the Hotel Gault…I know I’ve already gushed about it, but it bears repeating: stay there if the opportunity presents itself.

Heavy PETting

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Sitting here at P.E. Trudeau airport, in the new section, in a comfy seat, watching a big plasma screen tv, glad to be off our feet and sitting next to our luggage rather than carting it around the airport. 15 minutes from now we should be getting on a plane and heading home. Fingers crossed!

Sore feet. Sore, sore feet.

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We just got back from our hike. Walked all the way back down Mont Royal, through the centre-ville and to our hotel, where they’ve been kind enough to let us invade their lounge and use their wireless connection until we call a cab for the airport. Nellie’s shins were screaming (and her knees were kind of giving out) during the walk back so she’s having a well-deserved rest in the comfy chair next to me, drinking a glass of cold chardonnay. Soon we’ll head to the airport, find something to eat, sit down on a bench, maybe watch the episode of The Sopranos I have on the laptop, and relax as best we can for the rest of the evening.

It’s been a weekend, that’s for sure.

Worth the hike

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We just walked to the top of Mont Royal (partly to work off the smoked meat sandwich I just had — and the turkey sandwich Nellie had — at Schwartz’s), and what a view! You can see the whole city, the suburbs, the river, everything. I wish we had something like this in Toronto.