Arrived on Thursday on the train. I won because I saw the CN Tower first. There was great excitement in the air as fans were streaming to the stadium to the Blue Jays game. Fun but not cool enough to entice us to get tickets. Our place is in the pent house of this 20 story building, we have a beautiful view of the water and the CN Tower. The only indication that someone else lives here is that his shoes appear and disappear. Like York Street in Ottawa, there are so many windows.
We walked for miles on Friday to attend our first Hot Doc. Walking took almost an hour. There are so many Hot Docs to choose from. Seniors like us get to go for free to any that are showing before 17h00. We attended another one in the afternoon after we had a face time session with Brienne and Claire.
Both docs were about relationships--makes me think that relationships that work are to be treasured. The first on was about a famous photographer, Rose Hartman, who was totally grouchy with everyone but was very capable. She seemed like a the kind of friend no one would want. The second was more about family and couple relationships called LoveTrue.. In my opinion, the people there needed to just talk to each other and be honest with themselves. We attended two more Docs on Saturday. The first was so sad, called "Natural Disorder"--about a young man of 27 who had cerebral palsy which caused him to limp, his left arm didn't function well and his speech was odd, partly because he was speaking Danish. It was set in Copenhagen. There were subtitles. He was Asian and was adopted as an infant. His life felt so hopeless to me at times. He was studying to be a journalist and was writing a play to portray his life and to determine if it was worth living and what normal is. During the film shoot, he was hit by a bus and then had a concussion. Then he had to have part of his colon removed. I began to think that maybe his life was so awful that maybe it wasn't worth living like that. He didn't seem to have a support system or any friends. There was some discussion about deselecting and whether in a few years, children like him would be deselected. People are more likely to choose a perfect embryo but then that is no guarantee that child will not be hit by a bus or something.... Quite moving and thought provoking.
Our food intake yesterday was breakfast at home, Tim Horton's cold lemonade before ft, a hot dog, ice cream from a food truck and cheese and crackers. Doesn't sound like much but we were busy and didn't have any great hunger. There are many food trucks so we will visit them today. Oops, didn't have time for lunch so we had chips and chocolate from "Honest Ed's"--a huge, bargain basement store. We did have a lovely dinner with Frank and Brenda at the Spaghetti Factory on Saturday night. They came to TO from Burlington for dinner. What fun. Frank won a karate competition yesterday and Brenda will tell a story at church for Mother's Day, today. A fine couple.
Sunday's Hot Docs were excellent as well. The first was called "Future Baby" and was about reproductive technology. It discusses IVF, implantation of egg, surrogate mothers and the ethics around gender and traits like eye colour. It made my head swim with thoughts and ideas. It included people from all over the world. One German couple told the story of a doctor telling them that she was too old to become pregnant and they should get a pet because lots of people have them! Another couple got a baby boy with a surrogate mother in Mexico. The technology is available to do so much. I wonder if the world is ready and how much more is happening. The next Doc was depressing. It was called "Trapped" and showcased the terrible situation around Reproductive Rights in the USA--in the South and in Texas. It made me think that they haven't made any progress but are moving backwards with much of their legislation. Quite a contrast. I would recommend both. The third one was called "Peacemaker" about P. O'Malley who believes bringing groups with issues together with others who have had similar concerns is the first step to helping them work together.
One of the ads that were part of the lead up to the Docs was for BMO and they sang "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine". Then changed it to "All around this world, I'm gonna let it shine". It was lovely. We saw seven films in 3 days but there were over 200 Docs available over 11 days. Next time I want to be there for them all and maybe, even, volunteer. There are over 750 volunteers.
Here is an example of me not letting my light shine: on Saturday at Tim's while we were trying to ft with Claire and Brienne in the middle of all the noise. A scruffy, maybe inebriated man approached our table asking for money. For some reason, I was very angry. Well, wait, I know the reason. I have become tired and annoyed with people who ask for money, spare change, extra change and seem so hopeless. In my heart, I understand that they have hard lives and might have mental handicaps but in my head, I want to them to be different and get the help they need and leave me alone. So... back to this man, I gave him a mean look and said No. Now I feel quite guilty and mean. I guess I could have bought him a doughnut or something! Kindness doesn't take much time but them neither does unkindness. Oh my.
Here is a happy Sheryl story. She sent a text to her Dad asking us to find a particular movie that she wants to show in Pretoria at an event. It is in French. We looked for it at a couple of video stores with no luck. So then she was going to order it through Amazon and have it delivered to us overnight. Well, that didn't work because they couldn't deliver it until Tuesday. So she googled "Where to find Lawrence Anyways in Toronto". Turns out it was at a video store two blocks from where George and I were at that time. So we picked it up and will take it to Cape Town when we go tomorrow. They will send it to Pretoria for viewing next week at a Francophone event. A global village after all.
Today is Mother's Day and we chatted with all our children and Brienne, too. What a wonderful, technological world we live in because none of us are in the same city just now. Yay.
So on to Cape Town, and Sheryl and Neil. We will take a new express train to the airport soon but just now, we will relax and get organized. And so it goes.
Sunday, 15 May 2016
Saturday, 7 May 2016
Ottawa and taxes, March 28 to May 5, 2015.
We sent off for Canada on March 26. The green and the roadside daffodils and blooming trees were all gone by the time we hit New York state. We saw a bit of snow after passing through the border. We stopped for a Tim's coffee and cookies and a break. After three days of driving, we arrived at Linda and Larry's. We haven't been in Canada for 7 months. We are in our usual transition phase when we change locations. It is lovely to see them and have a visit for a few days. We went to the International Restaurant with them and had a lovely meal. Our waitress was very bubbly and fun and offered to make Banana Flambe for us as it was available but hadn't been on the menu. A few shakes of cinnamon in the flaming rum made lovely sparks. We had many walks, played cards and just enjoyed being together.
Our first Canadian adventure happened this morning. We had plans to meet Grant for lunch and then take the car to have the tires checked. Well, the left rear tire was a tad low so George filled it before we left. On the way, we stopped at the tire place and the tire was low again. So we decided to leave the car there and take a cab downtown to Grant's. When we arrived, we discovered we didn't have enough Canadian cash to pay the driver. We had scrounged up $17 but needed $21. So we added an American $5 bill to make up the difference. We had a great lunch and then went to the bank for some Canadian dollars. The Shoppers we visited had no O Henry eggs left so alas, we will not likely get any more until next year. Except later in the week at another Shoppers, I was able to buy 10 O Henry eggs. Yum.
We are settled into our next place--it is in the Market and right in our old stumping grounds. It has 14 large windows on two sides so we have a great view towards our old apartment building and the windows of the condo to the south. The wall windows also let in a lot of sunshine, so we usually extend our sleep by wearing sleeping masks. Grant joined us for dinner and we got takeaway from Shawarma Palace. Yum! Always great to spend time with Grant. He is off to Seattle and San Fran for some days. We drove him to the airport at 6:00.
We are in our transition period between endings and beginnings. Great to reconnect with people here. Went to church. Spent a relaxing afternoon--watched a couple of movies and began to begin to paint. I have a few projects and there is a good place to set up here. Thanks to Noah and the Apple TV he gave us, we can connect my computer to the TV and watch "Murdoch Mysteries.". Yay. We had a snow storm on April 6--yuck--I can't say that I missed snow at all. It is lovely to be in the downtown. Karen came for a Shawarma dinner and we looked at the photos from Portugal and had fun reminiscing about our trip together. Today, Sunday 10, was sunny and we went to the Travel show and then walked in the Market. Bought a olive baguette for dinner.
We have many appointments. Today we went to Question Period. There is quite a change in the atmosphere--the Speaker chastised the members and spoke about appropriate behaviour. The Minister of Defense stopped a member from the opposite side in her tracks when there was an attempt to suggest that the Liberals hated the military. M of D. said, "Let's not play that sort of game" and sited a discussion that was held on the very topic of the questioner's question and the other member knew the answer. I felt proud and delighted to be in the House and view our government in process. Seemed to me their is a feeling of cooperation in the House. Yay Liberals. The next day there was a photo in the news of a Liberal MP who was sitting behind the questioner and his eyes were nearly rolled into his head.!
George had lunch with Paul today and I had lunch with Karen. It was lovely and we had a nice walk through the Market. Then I painted and painted and feel pretty good about the results. I am working on a project to paint shorebirds that we see in OKI and Karen G. sees in Florida.
The Writer's Fest in on. We enjoyed an evening listening to Hugh Segal. It was held at the back of a restaurant on Sussex. I was impressed with his ideas around solving problems using his thinking about freedom from want and need. Must read that book! Then I attended a session with Karen called "BlogOutLoud". Interesting group. The highlight so far is the GovGen's session about letters he wrote to Canadians. He expressed Canadian views around caring and peacekeeping. And his grandchildren call his wife "Granny". Yay.
Yesterday, we were on the Hill and encountered 4/20 which is a pot smoke-up which happens in many cities in North America on that day. It was a great place to people watch and have our first Spring hotdog. Some were wearing flags with a marijuana plants which resemble the Canadian flag but have a marijuana plant instead of the maple leaf in the center. There was a haze of smoke above the heads of the participants.
Another week of appointments and fun. Frank and Brenda arrived by train for the weekend. We had a busy and fun time. George and Frank went to the Aviation museum, while Brenda went to a storytelling event and I stayed home and painted. Sunday was a day to wander and wonder--lovely sunshine.
Had many face time sessions with Claire and Brienne and with Sheryl. Technology at its finest. While visiting with M & W, we wanted to show them how it works, so we called Claire. When Brienne saw the screen, it was me and M & W, two people she didn't know. She was somewhat fearful and whimpered until George took over. He is her new favourite and she happily smiled at him. George made a photo book of Brienne during our time there in February and March which is wonderful.
People who work at Chapters are magical. I asked a fellow where to find "The Alchemist" and he said upstairs on the right. When I got to the top of the stairs there was another fellow who said, "you are looking for "The Alchemist" and here it is". My look said how did you know. He showed me earbuds. What great service.
We are at the end of our time in Ottawa. Had dinner with Grant and a couple of his friends who will house our car while we are away. A few more dinners and appointments and we are off to Toronto for a couple of days. Grant drove us to the train station and we are off. (Grant won the competition for Procedural Clerk, YAY.
Our first Canadian adventure happened this morning. We had plans to meet Grant for lunch and then take the car to have the tires checked. Well, the left rear tire was a tad low so George filled it before we left. On the way, we stopped at the tire place and the tire was low again. So we decided to leave the car there and take a cab downtown to Grant's. When we arrived, we discovered we didn't have enough Canadian cash to pay the driver. We had scrounged up $17 but needed $21. So we added an American $5 bill to make up the difference. We had a great lunch and then went to the bank for some Canadian dollars. The Shoppers we visited had no O Henry eggs left so alas, we will not likely get any more until next year. Except later in the week at another Shoppers, I was able to buy 10 O Henry eggs. Yum.
We are settled into our next place--it is in the Market and right in our old stumping grounds. It has 14 large windows on two sides so we have a great view towards our old apartment building and the windows of the condo to the south. The wall windows also let in a lot of sunshine, so we usually extend our sleep by wearing sleeping masks. Grant joined us for dinner and we got takeaway from Shawarma Palace. Yum! Always great to spend time with Grant. He is off to Seattle and San Fran for some days. We drove him to the airport at 6:00.
We are in our transition period between endings and beginnings. Great to reconnect with people here. Went to church. Spent a relaxing afternoon--watched a couple of movies and began to begin to paint. I have a few projects and there is a good place to set up here. Thanks to Noah and the Apple TV he gave us, we can connect my computer to the TV and watch "Murdoch Mysteries.". Yay. We had a snow storm on April 6--yuck--I can't say that I missed snow at all. It is lovely to be in the downtown. Karen came for a Shawarma dinner and we looked at the photos from Portugal and had fun reminiscing about our trip together. Today, Sunday 10, was sunny and we went to the Travel show and then walked in the Market. Bought a olive baguette for dinner.
We have many appointments. Today we went to Question Period. There is quite a change in the atmosphere--the Speaker chastised the members and spoke about appropriate behaviour. The Minister of Defense stopped a member from the opposite side in her tracks when there was an attempt to suggest that the Liberals hated the military. M of D. said, "Let's not play that sort of game" and sited a discussion that was held on the very topic of the questioner's question and the other member knew the answer. I felt proud and delighted to be in the House and view our government in process. Seemed to me their is a feeling of cooperation in the House. Yay Liberals. The next day there was a photo in the news of a Liberal MP who was sitting behind the questioner and his eyes were nearly rolled into his head.!
George had lunch with Paul today and I had lunch with Karen. It was lovely and we had a nice walk through the Market. Then I painted and painted and feel pretty good about the results. I am working on a project to paint shorebirds that we see in OKI and Karen G. sees in Florida.
The Writer's Fest in on. We enjoyed an evening listening to Hugh Segal. It was held at the back of a restaurant on Sussex. I was impressed with his ideas around solving problems using his thinking about freedom from want and need. Must read that book! Then I attended a session with Karen called "BlogOutLoud". Interesting group. The highlight so far is the GovGen's session about letters he wrote to Canadians. He expressed Canadian views around caring and peacekeeping. And his grandchildren call his wife "Granny". Yay.
Yesterday, we were on the Hill and encountered 4/20 which is a pot smoke-up which happens in many cities in North America on that day. It was a great place to people watch and have our first Spring hotdog. Some were wearing flags with a marijuana plants which resemble the Canadian flag but have a marijuana plant instead of the maple leaf in the center. There was a haze of smoke above the heads of the participants.
Another week of appointments and fun. Frank and Brenda arrived by train for the weekend. We had a busy and fun time. George and Frank went to the Aviation museum, while Brenda went to a storytelling event and I stayed home and painted. Sunday was a day to wander and wonder--lovely sunshine.
Had many face time sessions with Claire and Brienne and with Sheryl. Technology at its finest. While visiting with M & W, we wanted to show them how it works, so we called Claire. When Brienne saw the screen, it was me and M & W, two people she didn't know. She was somewhat fearful and whimpered until George took over. He is her new favourite and she happily smiled at him. George made a photo book of Brienne during our time there in February and March which is wonderful.
People who work at Chapters are magical. I asked a fellow where to find "The Alchemist" and he said upstairs on the right. When I got to the top of the stairs there was another fellow who said, "you are looking for "The Alchemist" and here it is". My look said how did you know. He showed me earbuds. What great service.
We are at the end of our time in Ottawa. Had dinner with Grant and a couple of his friends who will house our car while we are away. A few more dinners and appointments and we are off to Toronto for a couple of days. Grant drove us to the train station and we are off. (Grant won the competition for Procedural Clerk, YAY.
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