Wednesday, August 30, 2006
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| Adam finished his first Ironman on August 27th in Penticton. He's ecstatic. The big surprise for me was the enthusiasm and high-tolerance level of the entire Penticton community. The volunteers are practically professional: they've been organising this event for over 20 years and they shepherd the athletes with complete confidence. Adam liked the wetsuit peelers best: they wave the finishing swimmers over excitedly calling 'over here! over here!' The loudspeaker goes on at 5 am on Sunday morning and doesn't finish until midnight when the fireworks launch. This year the race director decided to hold the Finish line open after midnight for the runners still on the course. The crowd stays out to cheer home the stragglers and the hollering for the last woman to finish just before midnight trebled the crowd's applause for the winner who came in nine hours before her. No wonder athletes love the Ironman Canada race. |
Friday, August 04, 2006
| Things we will miss / not miss about Toronto | |
| I'm preparing a list of things I'll miss about Toronto - kind of as a benchmark. Down the road I'll reconsider this list as we're deciding whether we want to stay in New Zealand or return to Toronto. | |
| Things (I think) I'll miss: | |
| Concerts - Toronto gets more than its fair share of excellent musicians passing through town. Keb' Mo' probably won't pass through Auckland. | |
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| Neighbourhood Shopping My favourite thing about Toronto is the distinct neighbourhoods: Little Portugal, Greektown, Little India, Korea-town, yum yum yum. I love shopping in Kensington market on my lunch break even if it's sometimes stinky (see things I won't miss below) | |
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| Kick-Ass Friends: Of course this should come first but it's kind of obvious. Gonna miss the local goofballs. | |
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| Autumn is my favourite season. It's nicer just outside of Toronto than in the city but it's still spectacular. I like it when the temperature drops a bit and the leaves pile up. | |
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| Suburban Chinese restaurants - we've observed that the suburban Chinese restaurants around Toronto achieve the near impossible Engineer's triumvirate of Good - Cheap - Fast. Especially the Royal around Kennedy and Shepphard: 8 seafood courses for 7 people in under an hour for $75. Woah. The Magic Wok also defies the engineer's triangle. | |
| More to come... | |
| Things I won't miss | |
| The stench of pharmaceutically-challenged urine samples on hot days around the entrance to my office | |
| My pollution-bred hacking summer cough | |
| Freezing winds at the streetcar stop and waiting .... waiting... waiting as five full streetcars charge by without stopping | |
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