Sunday

[rfmcdonald]

The day went excellently.

Leslie didn't have any trouble finding the hostel--in fact, she got to the hostel at a quarter to 11, before I'd finished my shower. After the requisite intros, we promptly set out down Augusta Avenue towards Chinatown on Dundas; we took that street to Spadina and then veered east on Queen Street West, ultimate destination the CN Tower.

We stopped off by Pages, an excellent bookstore with a wonderful cultural-theory collection. I there bought Foucault's The Uses of Pleasure, volume 2 of his history of sexuality. (Yes, I'm a Foucaldian though a weak one; caustic skepticism works.) Leslie took us into the Eaton Centre; we tried to go see the Thomson art gallery in the Bay, but it was closed so we went over to Yonge Street.

We stopped off at a Tim's there for iced cappuccinos, and then we stopped by the Marché restaurant on Wellington and Yonge in BCE Place. Marché is a sort of a cafeteria-style restaurant, but one specializing in excellent food, prepared on the spot by chefs in a market-style environment. Leslie contented herself with a ham-and-pineapple pizza, whereas I splurged on 11 dollars worth of antipasto (hey, have to determine what I like), some bruschetta, and a sweetbread. While there, Leslie pointed out that part of the first X-Men film was filmed at BCE place--the scene at the beginning, when Professor Xacier and Magneto are walking disgusted outside of the Congressional hearings on mutants, was filmed there in the glass-and-light filled west entrance. And from there, ten minutes to the CN Tower.





The last time I was at the CN Tower, in July of 2002 with James, the circumstances weren't ideal. For starters, the pilgrims who had come to Toronto clogged the place up, to the point that the lineups were painfully long (two and a half hours before we got up to the observation deck, as I recall). This wasn't the case. Quite apart from SARS playing havoc with the tourist trade, Leslie had five free passes left over from her orientation courses given to freshmen. She acquired good karma by giving three away (two to a ytoung married couple, one to a man with his friends), sparing two for us, and up we ascended.

It felt nice to be in the CN Tower again, at the observation deck. The view from the observation deck was wonderful, with the added bonus that it wasn't nearly as crowded. But then, we got to go up to the Skypod; a kind attendant let us go up free on our comp passes. The view of below was spectacular, almost cartographic. Descending to the ground floor was fun.

Yes, Mariève, I did buy you Anne memorabilia. (And Jenn, your Moses Znaimer-as-egomaniac postcard will come tomorrow.) I also bought a CN Tower guidebook and a model in miniature that I'll probably have to declare on boarding in my carry-on. We then went to a simulator ride, this one showing an airplane trying to douse a forest wildfire. I got my picture sketched by an artist in the arcade nearby, image to be digitized later. Then, we left.





It was fun, walking up University Avenue towards the University of Toronto campus, walking and talking and seeing the various landmarks. (And yes, we walked past hospitals, so doubtless I'm going to die or carry the disease to the Island, yarite.) The University of Toronto campus is vast, and architecturally quite attractive, and very leafy and green, and looks like quite a nice place to live. (Leslie pointed out her and Chris' upcoming new house, which does look good.) It was a nice, relaxing way to end the day.

We parted in front of the Bata Shoe Museum; Leslie went north, I went west to Major Street. There was some housecleaning going on, and I salvaged three books: the first was a book by Jacques Vallée about UFO sightings in space, the second was a book by Kamil Siddiqui on radical Islam (partisan but still), and the third a collection fo cartoons by lesbian cartoonist Allison Bechdel. It was fun.

And, of course, Leslie was/is the perfect guide to Toronto. Thanks!

I think I'll stay in tonight, watching TV and reading my new acquisitions. I've pretty much seen everything anyway.





The Bata Shoe Museum is closed Monday, so I'm not going to see that. I do plan on going up to see Casa Loma and perhaps also Spadina House via the Dupont stop, going down to Yorkdale to pick up another copy of that Le Monde world survey that I'd stupidly lost, going down to the Thomson art gallery in the Bay below the Eaton Centre, and then meeting up eventually with James at an undetermined location at 2:30. Things can unfold from there; I won't have any other big-ticket destinations to visit.

Life is good.