Alpha

After the first day of snowboarding, walking was quite a challenge. I had a rest day, then another... But on that second day we did go for a walk. The Whistler Chateau overlooks a beautiful vista, which includes Lake Alpha. Cheryl thought I should take this opportunity to walk on a frozen, snow covered lake. It was pretty spectacular!!

There was a Bordie Collie that came out to play too. Awwww.

Riding

The winter days are short here, and the ski lifts only run for a few hours, about 8:30am - 4:00pm. So snowbarding starts fairly promptly in the moring. Plus, all the groomed runs are best in the morning, there can be more ice, or densely packed snow, exposed as the day goes on. There are two main peaks in Whistler itself, Blackcomb and Whistler. Brett and I arrived at Blackcomb at 8:30am, after dropping Cheryl off at work. Brett has been great this trip, and for the snowboarding he kindly loaned me his older snowboarding gear.

A lift ticket was quickly organised and then Brett demonstrated how the bindings work. Ok, straighfoward enough. Before I knew it, we were on a chair lift, up the mountain! We headed up 'Wizard' for my first run, 565m up! There was a fresh breeze during our journey, I needed to keep blowing my nose. This is difficult enough. First the snow gloves have to come off, then the goggles, then unzip the pocket, blow the nose and then put it all back. Fun and games.

On the way up, Brett explained the method of getting off the chair lift. Yeah, what a disaster!! On my arse almost straight away!! You just have to laugh really :). We began with 'leafing' a method of slowly travesing any slope. The first problem was I couldn't get on my feet, when facing down the mountain. So every time I fell over, I had to roll in the snow on to my belly and push off that way. So I spent most of my first day on the toe edge. Brett was very patient in my instruction.

Wizard is between 1 - 2 km long and that first run took over 2 hours!! There was lots of falling over :). Although after a while I did begin to learn some turns. Snowboarding is so different to anything else I've done. The key, (I've been told) is to keep your body mass centred over the board. Steering is achieved by directing the torso in the direction that you want to go. After the first run, my legs were shaking, it takes so much concentration and energy. I took a break while Brett went on a solo run.

Brett returned shortly and then back to the Wizard. This time things went much more smoothly. Leafing is fully under control, and after that last run I can manage turning in both directions. Admittedly I turn much better in the left direction, but that will get better with practice.

We were too distracted to think about photos, but I'm sure we'll get some next time!

A long, long time AGO

The architecture of the new Art Gallery Ontario is very impressive, inside and out. There are some great examples on their website:

http://www.ago.net/

It is also a massive gallery, but from my point of view, all the best stuff is concentrated on the first floor. Which is a problem, because the lighting on the first floor is terrible! I can't recall viewing paintings with worse lighting.

Luckily though, the paintings themselves really really made the trip worthwhile.

Paul Peel was striking, he really captured innocence with 'After the Bath' and 'The Young Biologist'.

Hendrick Terbrugghen had his impressive 'Melancholy' on display too.

Evan Penny produced an amazing statue called Stretch #1:

Henri Eugene Augustin Le Sidaner was absolutely my favourite. His painting 'The Belvedere at Trianon Versailles' was stunning from right across the room. The photo below just doesn't compare:

Queenside

So the first Torontonian day started late, and cold!! I grabbed a map from the hostel desk and surveyed the attractions. Ahh, there we go, waterfront, that will be good. So off I go... into the dark and overcast day.

The alarm bells should have started once I saw that there was virtually no public transport to the waterfront. So I hoofed it, straight down Bay St (aka. the wind tunnel). I arrived at the water to discover.... pretty much nothing! No boardwalk, no boulevard and no shops!! Quite disappointing. After a stroll along the water I did find a tourist mall, Queen's Quay, where I grabbed some lunch. Seriously, the view wasn't even worth a photo. Ahh well. I backtracked a little to a coffee shop, where I spent some time reading my book, 'The Neutronium Alchemist' which I had borrowed from Growie. (It was excellent btw).

Rohan and I had agreed to meet up at a pub later that day, after he went to the airport with Lyndal. I went to the James Joyce, which was on Spadina St (rhymes with diner). It was a standard Irish pub, where I met some of his Canadian mates. Nick is studying theology and is clearly mad. Jeff is studying with the Jesuits and is even more nuts. A short while later Kevin joined us too, and I owed him a beer for his airport performance. No surprise, but they are all very bright boys, despite the loose screws... We had a great night. Shortly before close*, I needed to grab the last subway home, so I bid my goodbyes.

I did detour on the way home to 'Pizza Pizza', with which I developed an unhealthy obsession! Definitely the best pizza bases I ever had the privilege of eating :)

Then back to base, the hostel:

Although the photos look dark and dingy, it really is nowhere near as bad as it looks. They were meticulous about keeping the place clean, regularly interrupting my over-sleeping. Sharing a room with 10 others though, was quite a challenge. Even my deaf ears heard the snoring. I've heard aeroplanes that are more quiet!! Luckily I had some earplugs!!

*In Ontario, the liquor licences and sales are regulated by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), all bars close at 2:00am.

Toronto Snow

My trip to Toronto started very early, Brett and I left for the airport at 6:00am. It was a long and uneventful flight. Although, Air Canada does seem like the least competent airline I've ever flown with. It was just the little things really.

I arrived to a brisk Toronto afternoon. Rohan had kindly travelled out to the airport to collect me. We met at the terminal gate. One of his close Canadian friends, Kevin, had actually offered to bring him out to collect me from the airport. How very thoughtful! Kevin and Rohan happily made it to the airport in good time. It was also at that time that the car they brought finally packed it in. My diagnosis, either the battery or the alternator.

Now Kevin is studying to be a Jesuit priest and grabbed the car from the car pool. It seemed that the Jesuit order is fairly thrifty, too thrifty for roadside assistance. Kevin insisted that we leave him at the airport and catch the bus/subway into town. Reluctantly we agreed, it was pretty cold and I needed to check into my hostel. I heard later that it took 3 hours for Kevin's friend to come and help fix the car. Still, it was a massively kind gesture and highly appreciated.

So Rohan and I caught the subway system into town. It is a fairly simple system, with two main branches, one east/west line and one line that runs north/south. I checked in without hassle and then it was off to the pub. Rohan walked me through downtown Toronto, which is similar to many other cities I've visited. It was a little cold though.

We headed to Elm Street and dropped in to the Wolf and Firkin. It is weird to have table service at a bar, and also running a tab was very common. Lyndal came along on her last night to say hello and goodbye. She is now back in Australia. We had a few pints and caught up. It started snowing outside, which still fascinates me.

Just towards close, Rohan nad Lyndal bid goodbye, so they could catch the subway home. I stayed on to meet some of the locals, and failed. Instead, I met Sarah, a physiotherapist from Traralgon. At least the walk home was a new experience :)

ps., I managed to upload some photos and updated earlier posts. Enjoy!

Rodents

So after the hockey, it would be fair to say that I was a little delicate. Lois is not dissimilar to Pauline in some ways, and the heating was up quite high. So I resorted to my Canberra trick of leaving the door shut and the window wide open. Hangovers are unbearable in a heated house. A couple of glasses of water were required for breakfast.

Cheryl had an appointment in the morning, so Brett and I went for a walk around the suburban enclave, 'Eden Shaw'. The crunch of snow underfoot is still a triviality that I enjoy. The brisk Canadian air did not entirely rid me of my state, but that would be a lot to ask. When we got back, Glen recommended a Ham Dog. A hamburger and hot dog combined. If that didn't work, nothing would. It was hard going at first, but the magic happened in the end.

It is quite a shift to go from Aussie daylight savings to the short days of Vancouver. We headed out to utilise what was left of the day. Today, we headed to Stanley Park:

http://city.vancouver.bc.ca/parks/parks/stanley/

The mission I set: to see a squirrel. Well, that was accomplished pretty easily. Very, very cute little things. But they sort of look like rats. I asked Brett, he confirmed that they are actually rodents. Still, very cute. Further around the path we got to see some raccoons up close and personal. Brett warned me that raccoons are not always friendly, but this collective was photogenic enough.

By the end of this nature trip, I was getting pretty cold and it was getting pretty dark. The previous night, Michelle had mentioned that they went along to the Granville Island Markets. It sounded like a great idea. So that was our next destination. It was a pretty typical market with many European style antipasti. There were some highlights though, of course. I was amazed at the size of the crab legs. Each leg was about a metre long! Apparently they are from King crabs that are trapped up north. Very impressive.

http://www.westcanadatours.com/seafood.html

We also tried some 'Indian Candy'. Now I know this sounds weird, but it was actually very tasty. What they do is take a lovely fresh fillet of Atlantic salmon. It is cut into strips and smoked. Then it is marinated in maple syrup and cured further. It was a strange flavour combination, but it worked really well.

The last highlight of the markets was the cello busker. He was quite talented and had a very suitable repertoire for solo cello. Then I heard one of my favourite pieces, 'Cello Suite #1 in G' by J.S. Bach. Just magic, really.

After that, we headed to the Backstage Bar to sample some of the local beer. It was just a quiet pint (which I concede is very rare). Then home for some salmon for dinner and an early night. We all had stuff to do on Tuesday.