Another house party this evening. I swear to God, Canadians are just trying to bleed me dry. I did get a cheap grocery shop today though, so I think that makes up for it? Bye!
Crawford Street, yeah? It's a long weekend here so I get Monday off. They're celebrating Queen Victoria's birthday of all things. Utterly bizarre. The weekend has been roughly divided in to walking, eating (Caplanksy's deli? Yes please), drinking (it turns out moustaches and Englishmen are intriguing to yer average Canadian), and listening to ambient music. Man Forever is playing a show with Noveller mid-June and for only $10. So that'll give me a good reason to stroke my face and pretend I know what's going on. As mentioned previously drinking happened and on Saturday it was a house party. Basically I got drunk and regular party things happened. Sunday I was dragged out of bed by the sound of drums coming from College Street and it turns out this was going on. Good job, Toronto. Nice to know there's nothing insane at all happening on your fair streets. I can sleep at night knowing that all is well. It turns out that this was a march promoting a particular spiritual lifestyle called Falun Dafa or Falun Gong, apparently depending on which sign you read. I got given a leaflet and was smiled at and encouraged by a number of waving yellow-clad people to read it which I promptly did. As it happens, these guys are all for love and stuff unless it's the Chinese Communist Party who they hate on with a major passion. They actually give love to any Chinese folk who left the country, which is novel. But the one thing they had going for them was the clarity of their message.Yep, that'll do it
Hello again, just a short one today, whilst on lunch today (yes, it's the only time I have my camera with me) I saw this sweet boat. Pretty much nothing right? Look closer, fool! Pow! RUUUDE BOOOY! Never let it be said that Canadians aren't street tough. So I spent today in the gallery again, getting all hyped up and editing some art texts, except this time I was tasked with writing one from scratch. Dang, I thought, I have no idea where to start. Fortunately the work was well good, and followed some pretty familiar themes. Rad. Hanna Liden, I am excited to see your work get to Toronto.
So just a few things today. I had another day spent at the gallery, and lunchtime bought more joy. I was basically surrounded by gulls within seconds of sitting down and they were making a heck of a racket. Well awkward. The best bit was this little bird though, a House Sparrow (found after 15 minutes on wikipedia and the Toronto Ornithological Club website). There's one up there. This little fella was super tame. Most of the other birds would get to a few feet away and stand about looking sad, but this guy just hopped up til he was no more than 10 inches away. I figured he deserved something so I got a bit of Bar-B-Q crisp and held it out and Bam! Right out my hand, the little blighter. Well good, I thought, until later on he came back and got even closer. I figured he'd had his fill and no way he was getting anymore. So he was just really close, and in the act of pulling a crisp out of the pack and sticking it in my mouth, he was flapping up trying to grab it. Right at my face! Twice! Obviously I shooed him off and went on about my day, but it was definitely worth sharing. Also worth sharing: http://www.11points.com/Books/11_Amazing_Fake_%27Harry_Potter%27_Books_Written_In_China
This is hilarious stuff. Also: http://www.coudal.com/regrets.php
And then finally, as a present from another friend to you:
What an interesting situation it's been. Always something new every day, like a little, rubbish new-born child, thrashing about in a land of very big bags of crisps and strange soft drinks. It's pretty cool though all told, but a word of warning, if a young woman with red hair called Robin tells you to go a place called 'Dance Cave' do not go. For rizzles. In fact, ignore her. Not just that one statement, her entire existence. For at least 10 minutes, it's the only way she'll learn. She's a delightful room-mate, just terrible at deciding where to go on a Saturday night. 0 out of 1 bud!
Big news for today was my first day of interning, so I'll talk about that first. It was pretty good. A nice smooth ride down in the morning (more on that later) and a pretty good day hanging out on a computer and doing arty stuff (Big words, fact-checking and trying to get funding. Well standard). But it was cool because I got to have a hand in the real workings of the gallery. You never know, there may well be a semi-colon I very pedantically placed in one of the gallery texts. Rad. I had an hour for lunch and figured I'd take a few photos so here they are.
That there be Toronto Island. It's full of pirates and airports, but probably more of one than the other. The Power Plant still has it's smoke stack, which is pretty sweet. On one side it says 'The Power Plant' and t'other reads 'More Than Enough' which is an artist project deal. Pretty awesome stuff. Then there's a big piece of work by this fellow called Olaf Breunning just hanging out on the side of the building, which is again,pretty rad. I apologise in advance about the words and pictures not matching up, but it's a pretty arsey program to be honest, but there are still a couple of photos you should probably see. The first one is of a sign thanking Canada. Thanada! The other is a license plate I saw in the car park, which is just nicely indicative of how lovely everyone is here. And that leads me nicely onto cycling. I was told everyone was well rude to cyclists, proper turds. Turns out it's not EVERYONE that's like that. Just taxi drivers and people in SUV's, same as everywhere. so on my ride home I was having these lovely thoughts and I saw a dead bird on the side of the road which I figured was noteworthy (no photo, I was on my bike. Give me a break), when suddenly I started getting pushed over by a guy in a big black Lincoln Towncar. Ridiculous I thought. Not as ridiculous as the fact that his trunk was wide open, though, and when he drove off one of his bags fell out right into the middle of the crossroads. Being the do-gooder I am I grabbed it, mostly because I figured it should be out of the way. A little bit because I figured I may have got a bag out of this deal. But just as I was struggling to the pavement to get it all sorted out, a freaking limo pulls up, no joke, and the guy's all in my face about the bag. Well rude. I figured what the hell and threw it into the passenger window and there was barely a thank you, jerk. So I continue on my way home and see the first car stopped right in the middle of the road with the driver at the back trying to shut it, and it still wouldn't. So he just left it and off he went. Honestly, some people. Anyways, I got home and ate some leftover meatballs, and now I'm off to get a Popsicle, maybe a slushy, before deciding whether to go to karaoke this evening. Big city life, eh?
Right, hello then. this is just a quick lil' update to let everyone know how I'm doing. I'm still alive, which is almost definitely a good thing, and I have landed like a cat with a sweet-ass place pretty much right in the middle of Toronto. There was a bit of a foofarraw with my housing when I first got here, because I figured the two house viewings I'd got set-up would be good. Well the first one was good, but a out in space, and the second was in the heart of it all, but utterly rancid. This is a wonderful balance. It's only until the end of the summer, but that should be more than enough for now. The first image is my building. Pretty sweet, right? The second is the common room we have. It's one room that serves as the living room, kitchen and dining room with four bedrooms off it. It's small, but also kind of cosy, so it's ok. We haven't got much furniture at the moment. We're on the lookout for a table to go with the four chairs that were found on a walk back from karaoke on Monday night. No I didn't sing. We grabbed a sofa the same night as well, but in the cold light of dawn, it became that it wasn't a keeper in anyway shape or form, so out it went. Next is a pretty dreadful shot of my room, but is only there to show the quilt that my mum made for me. Thanks Mum! Well good. So things are good. I'm applying for jobs and killing time waiting for my internship to start. I continue to annoy the hell out of every single person I've met by comparing everything to how it was in England. I'm boring myself with these constant comparisons and I think it's about bloody time they stopped. Please. I'm also newly mobile as I bought a bike today, which is completely sweet, even if the back brake is a bit sketchy. More of a suggestion than any actual stopping force, but still, it beats walking. Now to get used to these fools on the wrong side of the road. So I reckon that'll be all for now. I'm sure updates will be sporadic and disappointing, but tough. I'll try to take as many photos as possible, but I'm terrible at taking my camera with me. I already missed a gang of four cruiser bicyclists riding past, the lead one of which was pulling a trailer shaped like a coffin that was pumping rock and/or roll. It was completely legit.
We went to a ball game! Well good, cheap as hell to get in ($11), pricey as shit once they trap you inside ($9.75 for a beer, all prices exclude tax). I swerved some of this by bringing my own peanuts, $1.50 for more peanuts that I could possibly hope to finish on my own from the Mexican store. Better than $6 in the park. On to the photos:
The CN Tower is right next to the Skydome, and the roof was open cause it was a nice day. Ace.
Playin' Ball! Here you can see that the Blue Jays (in white) have a man on second and a fella about to bat. The Orioles (in black, because they're the baddies) are going to fail horribly and the batter will score on an inside the park home run on a fielding error at third. Two run shot, Jays were up three at the end of the first (Yes this does mean something. Just about)
Glory years. The Jays won back to back World Series in 92 and 93. They've pretty much sucked ever since. Hence the $11 admission fee.
My companions on this trip, David and Alex. David lives with me and is closest to the camera, Alex is a smirking buffoon (in this photo) and lives across the hall with...
Travis, who is everyone's token ginger friend. Thanks Travis!
Excited. Possibly about the tie-dye in the background, I'm not sure.
Alex bought an $8 hot dog that was biblical in proportion. He heroically battled through and came out a man. I tell you though, this thing was ridiculous. And he had bbq sauce on it so it smelt amazing. Sitting here writing about it is making me hungry. Genuinely.
The aforementioned peanuts which, thanks to my Mum, are an integral part of the ball game to me. Thanks Mum!
Everyone is pretty pleased that the Jays won. Alex is just gonna go die in a corner though. That hot dog was a brute. But the Jays won 5-0 following a couple of homers in the 6th and a strong pitching performance from the Jays. Good stuff.
The CN Tower is a trippier proposition at night time. What a fun day though! I heartily recommend going with some buddies to a ball game and eating well. You might want to turn up drunk though. Or smuggle in booze. Your call, you'll be on holiday so you can do what you want. 
