My trip to date

[rfmcdonald]

The Air Canada in-flight magazine En Route is pleasant enough; it's certainly a superb enough periodical given that its only purpose is to serve as free advertisement for a corporate megalith that just sought bankruptcy protection to staunch its massive monetary hemorraging. I take a copy; they encourage you to take copies. For all that, it has excellent design and interesting articles.

The Airbus accelerated off the north runway exactly on time; the G-forces felt nice. I looked down to try to see East Royalty; I did manage to see ice floes on the south shore of the Hillsborough River, and more ice on Hillsborough Bay. Within two minutes we'd turned left above the north share (first Tracadie, then Rustico); the ice floes there were concentrated in the more protected eastern halves of the bnays. The fields below were geometrically perfect but barren--the red of exposed earth, the greyed yellow of stubble on fields, the greened black of forests.

O degrees Fahrenheit, 18 500 feet, 408 kilometres per hour at 4:01 pm Atlantic Standard Time

At 4:02, Malpeque Bay (almost entirely ice-covered, the ice red-stained close to shore) and Summerside (densely geometrically settled) were visible. Shortly afterwards, Route 2 was a plainly visible cord, Wellington just southwest ofits bend. When the plane passed Cap-Egmont, West Prince was briefly visible almost as far as Tignish before cloud decks intervened.

Over New Brunswick, I ate a reheated Italian meatball sandwich, drinking a traveller's-size bottle of Vigne Élise (2000 Chardonney Sauvignon, Vignobles Paul Mas; $5) with some "gourmet sesame seeds." It was decent enough.

39 000 feets, 481 miles per hour, 47 minutes left in the flight, at 3:43 Central Standard Time

The flight passed above northern Maine, entirely a wilderness of lake and forest; the contrast with the much more densely settled Eastern Townships was interesting. The cloud deck obscured central Canada, but there wasn't much down there save the wilderness of Algonquin Park (I think) after I read a bit of Good Omens and slept a bit. The plane landed superbly at Toronto, and unlike last time the luggage arrived off the plane in 10 minutes. A brief wait for the shuttle to the Royal York, and by 6:15 Central Standard Time I got to Toronto.

The subway from Union north to Queen's Park went well. The streetcar west on College went less so--I only got on despite having no change because the driver was cool, and I went three streets ahead so I had to walk back to 280 Augusta. Still, there the College Hostel was, and thankfully my VISA works (not expecting it not to, just my own decisive brand of dire predictions).

There were some problems with it: The phone wouldn't work, the balconies promised in the ad look out over ... other balconies, and so on. Still, it's a decent enough base of operations: I was able to get pizza, I bought the new issue of Scientific American (the issue with alternate worlds), and I walked down Augusta for a bit. I went back in, and after watching a bit of the new Dune miniseries on SPACE and catching the tail end of Barb Wire, I phoned people. I phoned home, just to asssure them that I'd made it; I phoned Craig, to talk and get directions; I left a message on Bruce (from BIMOT)'s answering machine re: our dinner on the 22nd, and I managed to talk to Tim (also from BIMOT) to set up dinner (at an Ethiopian place on West Bloor called Lalibela.

Then, at 11 pm Central Standard Time, sleep.





I woke up several times in the night: 3 am, 7:20 am. I finally and decisively got up at 8:40, and went to get showered and otherwise prepared. Unfortunately, I left my razors at home, so right now I look a bit like a hairy northern barbarian (think Xiongnu), but still.

The ROM was my first destination. I passed by the Bata Shoe Museum, but unfortunately it's closed on Mondays else I'd have gone in. The ROM itself was wonderful, although that damned William Thorsell closed the wonderful T.S. Tsui gallery of Chinese decorative and household arts (ROM Renaissance, yeah; they also closed the basement floor of Canadiana). Still, wonderful stuff--the Maiasaur exhibit was great, the bat cave was good, and the wonderful historical exhibitions (Islamic, Roman, Greek, Egyptian, et cetera) on the third floor was good. Perhaps my favourite exhibition, however, was the Korean on the first floor. The ceramics alone ...

Your skin is a cold, icy white,
Though born of fire.
Even a speck of dust on your body
Makes a blemish
The beauty of simplicity
Fashioned out of clay

- Kim Sang'ok (b. 1920),
excerpt from Ode to White Porcelain



From the ROM, the Gardiner (a museum of ceramic arts) was a logical next step. There was a pleasant enough exhibition of tea cups in history (whimsical tea cups, stark modernist tea cups, political teacups) but the second-floor exhibition of porcelain is interesting. Most of the Gardiner's collection of porcelain is 18th century and European. It's fascinating to understand how porcelain in the 18th century was very high tech, as researchers and merchants (state and private alike) across the continent struggled to duplicate the amazing Chinese technologies. They were and they gradually diffused from Saxony--to Austria borne by escaped craftsmen, to Berlin and Prussia by the military occupation of Meissen, to France and Britain and the Netherlands by consumer demand. It's also interesting how porcelain moved from being an item of the elite to being mass-produced, as Europe became wealthier and the technology became cheaper.





I went down to the University of Toronto and then to Queen's Park and the legislature, taking photos. I crossed over to Bay and went up to Yorkville. I bought some magazines--the French Diplomatie and Le Monde's review of the world in 2003--at Yorkville, and I went into the fun Noocean shop to browse. (All cigars, humidors, and fantastic world globes.) And from there, I've descended onto Yonge Street. Right now I'm in an Internet café typing this all in.

And for tonight? I'll be meeting Tim at Lalibela at 7; I'll then head over to Craig's place for 10 o'clock. I'll probably spend some time on Church Street before then, and I also play on visiting the Grey Legion comic store to see if they have any more 2300AD books.

This is all quite fun, of course. :-)





Leslie, would you be interested, after we see U of T and Kensington and Little Italy on the 26th, in going down to the financial district, Fort York, CN Tower, et cetera?