Toronto

The next day I wake up, have my normal shower, get dressed, wake up my sister who is sleeping on the couch as she normally uses my room (remember the room- mate I mentioned earlier? She has taken over Karin's old room. Karin is looking forward to having her own room so we are working on moving my office into the basement, with the cat litter, so she can use my office space). She is not all that happy in the morning, neither am I. We are both short with each other as I drive to the airport. Neither of us are morning people. It is raining as we drive to the airport, neither of us know when it started, Karin said that it must have started after she got home at 4:30 so it can't have been raining for long. I give her a hug before she leaves and I proceed into the terminal.

It is nice that the flight leaves on time today after yesterday's problems. I have noticed, not entirely with surprise, that the meals they give you on a trip to Toronto are a lot different than the cold, boxed, meals they give you going to Saskatoon. Funny, the same number of people are on both flights, but I suppose they have to have priorities. I was hoping to get a few letters written on the plane on the way to Toronto but I feel that using a computer on a plane is a bit ostentatious. Nothing irritates me more than someone sitting there, as if they did not have anything better to do, than type away on the little technological demon on their lap. I prefer, instead, to partake of the somewhat meagre rations and read a few magazines that I inevitably bring with me on all such trips.

At this point, I start to wonder about how I will find a hotel for today in Toronto, I decide that it has to be near-ish to the airport, as I will be leaving tomorrow afternoon and I don't want to be hit with a huge taxi bill, it has to be near to a subway line so I can just jump on the subway to go downtown as often as I wish and it has to be cheap. Cheap is the big one. I don't want to load my credit cards (or my bank) with a lot of charges before I am actually in England. I have made sure that the two credit cards they have in England are very close to being entirely paid off. I decide to call the auto club and have them worry about it. I pick up my luggage from the carousel and talk with a CAA agent for about 15 minutes on the phone before it is determined that they have a place just a short distance from the airport and five minutes from the subway so I get them to send me their complimentary shuttle service and let them ferry me to the hotel. The hotel is much like any other hotel I have been in over the past few years, basic, colour tv, coffee maker, big bed, not enough towels, cold as heck since they always turn the air conditioning on full blast. I don't really blame them though, in Toronto it is 27 degrees Celsius when I arrive and humid as only southern Ontario can be.

Shortly after throwing my bags in my room, I head off to downtown. I have to get money exchanged for the trip so I will have to get to my bank before it closes and it is already noon. I catch a bus outside the hotel which quickly gets me to the subways station and I catch a subway to downtown (mind you, there is not much choice, I am at the last station on the line, there is only one direction you can go!). The neat thing about the whole process is that, in all, I paid only once and never had to show a transfer to any transit operator, I just walked to my connecting subways/buses without any problems whatsoever. They have done a good job on the subway, it is unfortunate that that accident occurred only a week before. It has not seemed to effect the number of riders though, the subway is as busy as it normally is.

After some confusion as to what 200 pounds actually is (she gave me 400) I head off to the CNE, again, using the transit system, I quickly get to Union Station, downtown and hop onto a bus that travels along the lake directly to the CNE (actually, to Ontario Place, which is across the “street”, ok, “highway”). The CNE is expensive this year, but perhaps that is my imagination, $9 is a lot of money to me for something like this. But then, who can say? There are a LOT of kids at the Ex this year, at the ticket booth they run around with their parents just trying to stay cool in shade, unmoving, except for the occasional shuffle forward as the line progresses into the grounds.

I hadn't really planned what I would do at the CNE so I decide to work my way from the far east side, near the Princess Gate, where the Multi-Cultural fair has been set up, basically, stores from all around the world in little booths, to the far west side, or at least, as far as the various buildings progress. The midway seems a little smaller this year, though there is a good lucking roller coaster, one that goes upside down with the nylon wheels holding it to the track, that did look interesting. But, I figured with the show starting at 8:00 I needed to leave the Ex at 5:00 to ensure that I made it back to the hotel to change (into “evening wear”) and pick up my ticket (VERY important for things like this!) so I left the roller coaster. The multi-cultural stuff was quite interesting and I noticed some people playing with “packet radio” which was quite interesting to me (they use CB and short- wave technology to connect computers together) though it seemed quite odd that they would be located in such a building.

Next, I made my way through the midway to the “Shoppers Market” and the horse show, though, with my allergies I knew that would be a short stop. I stopped for a few minutes and watched the final minutes of one event at the horse show, to rest my legs other than to watch the show – I was not alone in this feeling. It has always struck me that those people at the horse show at the Ex basically are there to sit down and turn off their brains, not saying that many brains are required to watch a horse show it is just that it seems to be shame that people do not listen and watch carefully, there has to be something to learn here.

I next proceed to the crass Shoppers Market, which succeeds in my pre-assessed disappointment. It looks they had all of K-Tel's old stock as well as some new garbage…er…stuff to sell. That was over quickly enough and I proceeded to my favourite pavilion there, the food building. This is amazing in that you can try different food from many different cultures for such a low price. I ate my way through Africa and Germany and washed it down with Texas. I also picked up some honey for my sister, I still feel guilty about last night and she has been so good and helpful to me in the past eight months. It is good to know that my house is being taken care of and that she is enjoying it well enough. I will have to get her something more substantial in England for her efforts. I don't mind spending money on her as she is very grateful and never asks for anything. She is a nice person, it is easy to spend money on her. She is off to Toronto at the end of the month, I mentioned that I would pay her way if she stuck around Winnipeg so I got her a ticket last week. I don't really think she should visit “home” in Ontario as Winnipeg is MUCH better for her. The small city atmosphere of Owen Sound is so limiting for her, she is so young, her horizons need to be expanded.

A number of smaller buildings I quickly go through, lingering briefly at a computer shop in the Better Living building before passing through. I am pretty much beat and I see that the National Film Board is showing it's animation festival across the street, so I step into their air-conditioned theatre and watch old favourites for an hour. After this, of course, I need to hurry if I want to make it to the theatre in time, not having exact change at the entrance to the buses does not help matters, and I refuse to give them $5 when the fare is only $2. I make it back to the hotel in time to whip on my “nice” clothes, forgetting about my white socks until I am just about at the bus stop whereupon I run back and change those too. I make it to the show about 5 minutes before it starts (I am, of course, panting from over-exertion).

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was quite good with Donny Osmond. Though, I did expect it to follow the vocalizations and child-like nature of the album. This was the first time I had been in the O'Keefe Centre. It is not too bad and reminded be a lot of the Centennial Concert Hall in Winnipeg, perhaps it is even a bit smaller! The musical is over early, 10:00 pm, so I grab the subway home, very conscious that I am wearing slacks and a dress shirt on a train full of people wearing clothing that is MUCH more comfortable in the 25 degree heat.

At night, as promised, I connect to the FreeNet and deal with the day's emergencies as well as my mail. The president is not using the system, which is odd since we normally talk to each other on the system at about midnight. I get to bed at about 1:30, early for me compared to the last few weeks.

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