We Saw a Chicken …

Category: o canada

  • no cheers for VIA Rail

    The train journey back from Montreal last night should have taken about four hours, but it took nearer eight. Seems there was a derailment near Belleville, so we were sat on the train for three hours (just metres from Belleville station; had we known, we would have got out and walked somewhere). Then a bus came, and we got into Toronto about 1am.

    I suspect, given that the speed the bus went (187km in under two hours), he’d been told by VIA to get us in before 1:15, the cut-off time that would have given us an 100% refund. As is, I suspect we’ll only get 50%, as that’s the refund for up to four hours. Grr.

  • Zoë says …

    On hearing about the googling for ‘failure’ trick, Zoë asked, “Is he still president?”

  • crossing sonar

    They’ve just installed a new crossing system at Kennedy & Eglinton. The crossing buttons emit a loud ping every second or so. I think this is supposed to help partially-sighted people find the crossing buttons to activate the signal.

    This would be a good idea if the things weren’t so loud. I could hear the things a block south of the crossing, over the traffic noise of Kennedy, and the lunchtime playground at the school.

    I wonder what Spacing would say? Noise pollution makes a huge dent in the amenity of public space.

  • Luxpro Super Tangent iPod Shuffle Clone

    Looks like the 512MW version is on sale in Canada as the Centrios. Wish they had the 1GB version.

  • dvds by mail

    I’m thinking of subscribing to zip.ca, the Canadian DVD-by-mail company. I’ve browsed their catalogue, and they have some good things. But they’re not very clueful with computer security — they just sent my trial password in plain text back to me over e-mail.

  • it’s toast

    It seems that the concept of a toast rack is alien to Canadian kitchen retailers. Y’see, the parents are visiting soon, and last time they were here, there was a minor scene over toast sogginess. I tried two large kitchen shops; neither had heard of the concept.

  • I (still) believe in bugs

    mantis

    We found this praying mantis at the back of the office. Paul picked it up, but it flew off. It didn’t seem to mind having its picture taken.

    This (my second) mantis sighting was much more interactive than my first.

  • timmantra

    about the last thing you’d expect to hear recited at Tim Hortons: om mani padme hum, but that’s what I heard this lunchtime.

  • tim test

    Yesterday’s Tim‘s coffee, black, reheated from cold, is as identically mediocre as when drunk fresh. It’s a whole new meaning for Always Fresh.

  • ididn’tBook

    For a truly soulless evening, take yourself down to the BestBuy at Scarborough Town Centre.

    STC is a mega-mall, with the obligatory huge concrete and asphalt deadzone around it. Its current sales slogan is For what defines you, which must mean that its denizens are in a pretty parlous state, existentially speaking. Its only slightly attractive feature is its derelict KrispyKreme store, which opened as a flagship, then frazzled almost as quickly as a KK’s dextrose rush. Abandoned donut shops are Canada’s ruined abbeys; places of worship gone to seed.

    BestBuy itself is an outcast from the mall, in an especially ped-unfriendly way. Perhaps the only defined route there is through a monster split-level Wal-Mart, but I didn’t have enough hitpoints to make it through that particular slough.

    I’d checked their website, and it said that the store had iBooks in stock, at $50 below retail. Did the store have any on display? No. The Apple section was set behind the customer service desk, which was a scrum of slightly disgruntled shoppers. So I left without seeing one.

    I wandered in a bit of a post big-box haze to McCowan RT, a weird little station at the very end of the rails. At least I was rewarded with a beautiful sunset over the 401 at McCowan; all boiling red and purple. That’s about the best you’ll get near STC, and for free, too.

  • histamine overreaction

    On the deck last night, fitting new Schwalbes to the tourer, I got my usual July mozzie bites.

    Every year since coming to Canada, I get the same two bites; one above and one below my right elbow. The swelling’s usually pretty alarming. The first year it was egg sized. It’s calmed down a little since then, but I fully expect a couple of weeks of redness and oozing (oozing!). All part of the Canadian summer experience, I guess.

  • Ontario Wind Resource Atlas

    Better late than never, the Wind Resource Atlas – Ontario was released today. Whoopee, or something.

  • feed that spacing!

    Yay! Spacing has an RSS feed.

  • Rick Mercer’s Blog

    Stupid and talking, my favorite combination in a politician.

    — from Rick Mercer’s Blog.

  • Goslings making the most of any water at Kennedy Commons

    Goslings making the most of any water at Kennedy Commons

  • Lego, ergo sum

    … he returns to his building blocks in preparation for the exhibition, rummaging through a bag of Lego. “Hear that sound? They feel so great. You know that feeling, when your fingers are chafed because you’ve been sticking so much Lego together? And that sound!”

    Coupland continues to move his hand in a rhythmic, circular motion, making the hundreds of Lego bricks rattle up against each other. “I love Lego! I just love it!”
     — from Douglas Coupland has a plan: Let’s live in Legoland, The Globe & Mail, 4 June 02005.

    I have always loved Lego. Not in a grown-­man-­builds-­working-­model-­of-­Pickering-­A-­out-­of-­Lego-­Technic kind of way, which would be weird (and would be more than nuclear engineers could do with the real Pickering A). Lego was such an integral part of my childhood that there was seldom a seat cushion that didn’t have a brick or too under them. And by Lego, I mean the real stuff; hundreds of little regular blocks (mostly red), not the modern stuff that you can make a B’Zurqar Battle Cruiser out of just two simple pieces. Things made from Lego were abstract. You had to use as much imagination to believe they represented the object you set out to make, as to make the object itself.

    I predate Technic, though I had some of the proto-Technic gears and blocks. I used to make absurdly high ratio gearboxes out of the plastic spur gears and shafts, and crash them with satisfying gronks. We even made it to Legoland (for all of about 25 minutes), as we raced to catch the Esbjerg ferry in 1977.

    The article about Coupland set me off on a serious Lego tactile jones yesterday. The Eaton Centre was about to be a site of great disappointment when I saw stacks of Lego buckets by the door of Toys Toys Toys. And not just any Lego; this was a classic 4028 Creator set, with hundreds of simple blocks. And it was reduced to $13!

    So, yes, Lego still hurts to make — the sharp corners make a satisfying impression on the fingers. Prying them apart is still hard. And that sound!

    Lego Owl

  • lone go

    Again, I was the sole passenger to get on at Kennedy Go station. A few folks got off, which makes a change.

    Since it’s bike to work week, I felt very subversive taking my Brompton on board. GO Transit doesn’t like bikes on weekday trains, so basically you’re SOL if you have intermodal commuting needs.

  • Kennedy Go Station works

    The second train ever to pull into Kennedy Go Station

    It finally opened, with a big free breakfast bash (which I didn’t know about) and much Transport Minister appearances/festive atmosphere. Amidst all of the party, the GO staff at the station were a bit surprised that a) I wanted to get on the train, and b) that I actually had a valid ticket.

    So the train arrived a couple of minutes early, and I got on — the only person to do so. We grumbled off down the line (the Stouffville regulars saying hi, in a friendly way) and got into Union with just enough time for me to pick up a coffee and make the Burlington train. There was actually very little time or money saved, but there’s virtually no hassle.

    And just to prove I really did get that train:
    yep, that is the ticket

  • a bit bitey

    Did some weeding tonight (with a propane torch, of course). Got bit by my first mosquito of the year, a droning monstrosity resembling nothing less than a single-prop bush plane. Haven’t these mozzies heard that I’m not allowed to give blood because the wussy canadian donation system can’t handle gude scottish blude European blood might have brain-melting cooties?

  • canadians++

    Mailed off my citizenship application form today, since I’ve now lived here for more than 1095 days.