I’ve finally had a chance sit sit down and go through some holiday snaps from the summer.

The Hudson Hotel gave us the best service I’ve had in a long time. Plus, it’s a lovely hotel too. I love spending vacations in bed, even if it seems like a prodigious waste, because sleeping is my favourite hobby.

This is in sharp contrast with my guest room, which has just had its wall torn up to replace a burst pipe.

Library
Uploaded by sfllaw.
Terrace
Uploaded by sfllaw.
Double-vision
Uploaded by sfllaw.

Relaxed
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I am sitting on the couch eating apples, clementines and curd cheese. Delicious, squeaky curd cheese. This is my final push to eat the rest of the food in the fridge.

There are numerous shirts on the drying rack, waving in the artificial breeze of a fan. They're whites that I'm furiously trying to dry out. This is, of course, because they have to be packed for my week-long trip to the States.

I have to catch the 6:55 train to Kingston tomorrow, so I'd better not get distracted too much. There is an absurd amount of packing to get done and quite a few things I must do. For instance, I've discovered that the blacks have not come cleanly out of the wash. They're going through again right now.

The rest of the family is driving up from Toronto, to meet me halfway. They'll be picking me up in an action-packed sequence where they drive alongside the tracks and I leap from the train on to the roof of the car. Then we'll careen down a hill, jump over a cliff, and end up on the highway to the nearest border crossing. Or something like that.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to get the house in some semblance of order. I've stacked the books in piles in the living room, put away most of my tools, and am staring at a pile of dishes. I'll probably get to those after I've eaten. Then it's cleaning out the fridge as best I can and scrubbing the accumulated stains off the stove.

Timin is snoozing on the couch, blissfully unaware of my activity. I think he's gotten pretty used to my crazy late-night packing. The plan for this week is to have cloquewerk and angorian come by every other day and fill the food dish. I have left them little gifts on the table, to make them feel better about trudging through what looks to be bizarre weather. I suppose that cuddling with a cute cat might also be a good reward, but I can never tell how charming Timin is when I'm away.

I never seem to be able to pack light, but by George, I'm going to try this time. I've limited myself to a camera bag, a messenger bag, and a small luggage on wheels. How I'm ever going to get around in style, I have no idea, but we shall see if we can be inventive with the outfits.

As you can plainly see, my mind has started wandering quite a bit. I've had a nap this afternoon, but I can tell that my plan to stay up all night is going to be interesting. scjody is staying over, in the hopes that Aslan can benefit from the same attention as Timin. I have just realized that I've forgotten to tell my wonderful, beautiful, generous volunteers about the extra kitty they'll be feeding. So I hope they don't get too upset upon reading this.

I have been surfing the Internet to find places to eat while we're across the border. Thankfully, the lovely people at …an endless banquet have reviews of New York pizza joints, which I will have to try. But first I have to finish this absurd amount of fruit.

Oh look, that alarm has rung. I'd better go down and fetch the laundry.

I just came back from the most exciting morning.

Friday afternoon was a lot of tame fun. I had phở at Pho Hung with makemyway and springbird. Then we did some shopping, split an amazing veal sandwich from California Sandwiches, and ate a salad for dinner. That was pretty normal.

So was our trip to Lula Lounge. Makemyway and I went there to see jedward play with Samba Elegua. They're an amazing act! The crowd was dancing and laughing, well some of it, which was great for Toronto.

We left relatively early so that I could swing by Makemyway's house to pick up my camera. I had forgotten it there the night before. As I left her place, I realized that I had left my credit card at the lounge. So I tried to remember how to get back, paid my bill, and stepped outside. The band was packing up their gear, so I was able to say goodbye.

I was walking east when I noticed two people huddled in a bus shelter. I poked my head inside and asked where they were going.

You see, they were waiting at a Dundas stop for a streetcar. After hours. Which meant they would be spending a very long night in freezing weather. I surmised they weren't from Toronto.

Rodrigo and Francesca are actually visiting from Brazil. And they hadn't worn enough layers. I walked with them to College where we waited for a while, ducked into a convenience store to warm up, and caught the blue-night streetcar going east. I asked the driver to let them off at Jarvis, which is where there hotel is.

I bid them farewell as I got off at the Yonge stop. Soon, the bus came north and a group of us boarded. Most of the passengers were a bit unruly because the bars had just let out. When we got to Eglington, a whole bunch of people got on the bus. They had been kicked off the previous bus, which we saw as we drove past. I asked a girl what happened and she explained that a guy got angry at some other guy and punched out a window. There were about four police cars surrounding the abandoned bus.

Since our bus was quite crowded, I did the only thing I could think of: randomly chatting with strangers. This passed the time until my stop came up. A very drunk man said goodbye to his friends and exited with me. I walked with him for a while and we struck up a conversation. It seems that he is doing an anthropology degree at York.

This didn't explain why he had misplaced his hat in one of his friend's pockets. Or why he hit on every girl on our way north. Or why he had difficulty opening his front door, which I passed on the way back home.

Wasn't that an exciting series of adventures? So exciting, in fact, that now I'm wide awake! It's a good thing that I'm good at falling asleep.

I am heading up to Toronto on the train this afternoon.

I have yet to pack. Or get a haircut. Or pay my landlord.

These things must get done.

Still, I will be in Toronto for a week. If you're going to be there too, then perhaps we should do something together?

The possibilities are astounding.

CN Tower
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

My mom came into my room with a printout in hand, showing it to me excitedly. Look, she said, they've got lanterns at Ontario Place. She suggested that I take some photographs there, and recognizing a capital idea when I heard one, I decided to do so.

See, a huge telecommunications company sponsored this lantern exhibition in downtown Toronto. Now, le Jardin Botanique does this every year, but Toronto doesn't have an annual lantern festival, even with its high Chinese population. They originally had it running until the beginning of October, but someone must have informed them about 中秋節, because they extended it until that weekend.

The trip to the harbourfront reminded me of how fun certain parts of the Toronto transit system are. I got on a clean and bright subway car, rode down to Union station, and transferred to a streetcar that brought me to Exhibition Place. After a walk through huge parking lots, I was able to see brightly coloured, Chinese looking, structures.

I crossed the bridge on to the Ontario Place island, where I had the privilege of paying $25 to get in. Once inside, I noticed that the place wasn't very well populated at all. This is unlike Montréal, where the gardens are often packed so full of people that you can't set up your tripod.

Since the lanterns weren't on yet, I spent some time walking around scouting locations. And taking photographs of the sunset. Some kids had congregated on the beach to skip stones, which looked like an awful lot of fun.

Once the sun had actually gone down, they flipped the switch on the lanterns.

Temple
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Phoenix at dusk
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

After a bit of photography, I heard the rhythmic drumming of a dragon dance. Since I found myself conveniently in front of a soundstage, I went over to see what was going on. Oh! A dance by some teenagers.

Dragon dance
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Clawfoot
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

The Moon
Originally uploaded by tracer.ca.

Last Friday was 中秋節, which is one of the two big Chinese festivals. The Mid-autumn festival is a time to get together with family and eat.

I really like holidays that involve eating.

One of the nice things about having holidays land on the lunar calendar is that the moon is full when it ought to be. Boy was it ever full that day. It hung low in the sky and was absolutely massive. It was at about this time that I got camera envy. I certainly wished for a lovely telephoto lens to capture it, but I left that task to other, more capable, photographers. Thanks, Paul.

月餅
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I had some photography to do, so we had quite the late dinner. By the time I returned home, the kitchen was already buzzing with activity. The table was set for a great meal. We had bought roast duck from the Chinese butcher. And then we boiled some fresh lobster and soft-shelled crab.

Delicious!

We were so full afterwards that we forgot to go outside to look at the moon. But as I had discovered earlier, it was getting rather brisk. So it's probably just as well.

Sometimes, life throws you some interesting loops.

Yesterday, I was working from home and slowly packing things up to go to Toronto. It was my birthday, you see, so I wasn't going to stress out about it. And tomorrow is going to be Chinese New Year, which is why I was taking Monday off.

I booked my train for 17:00 and as I was throwing a pair of trousers in my knapsack, I got a telephone call. Hey! I'm needed in Markham. For the next two weeks. Since I'm too eager to help, I agreed after checking that my calendar didn't have any inescapable social obligations.

This, unfortunately means that I'll miss the burlesque show, messiahdivine. And I can't attend vierge_en_trop's birthday bash, nor jul3z's. Plus I miss my own birthday party as well!

I shall have to make it up. Tenfold.

At the time, however, it meant that I had very little time to set things right. I called the train station and had them put me on the next train. Then I cleaned the flat, took out the garbage, bribed angorian to water my plants, found my passport (again), packed some real clothes, shut down my laptop, and finished panicking.

The taxi made it down to the station with a minute to spare. Am I good or what?

So I'll be in Toronto until 8 February 2006, working out of NITI's Markham office. I suppose I will be able to hang out with holdenk who seems to be going a little nutty. And then on the 9th, I'll be flying to San Francisco for CodeCon.

My life has turned more dynamic and exciting than I ever thought it would be. The next thing I know, they'll be issuing me an alias and a suave secret-agent tuxedo. I bet I'd look good in a tux.

I am back in Montréal!

There was a little confusion on the train, where I thought I was in first class, but was actually in third. If I weren't too tired to chat with the lady beside me, I would have totally switched tickets with the lady who was supposed to sit with me.

When I got back to my flat, I discovered that all the plants were still alive. Except for basil. I have given it a bath which has worked in the past; it looks a little green so it might pull through.

Now it is time to go through the mail that has accumulated over the holidays and respond to it.

Over 49 hours later, I have had one of the best and worst New Years ever. And I probably slept a sum total of 75 minutes, but not continuously.

I am now so idiotic that I must get some sleep.

"Visa Canada says that over 2.5 million Torontonians will be out shopping today, spending an average of $320 each."

There's an all news radio station in Toronto that gives you this strange snippet of reality every fifteen minutes or so, with breaks for driving conditions and the weather report. I remember drowsily listening to the radio talking about the very traffic jam we were stuck in.

We had decided, foolishly, to drive to Yorkdale. And I was hopped up on anti-histimines, so that I didn't have to carry around a dozen tissue boxes.

Boxing Day is one of those strange Canadian holidays. One where people wake up early after a night of revelry, go to the mall with everyone else, and fight over who gets to spend money. It's a truly bizarre way for merchants to get rid of their year-end inventory.

We dropped off my mother and f_law at the front door and went over to a nearby hardware outlet to pick up some things, when I noticed that their paint section had a display of painted poinsettia. The plants didn't seem too happy with this, because they had gone brittle and droopy. After purchasing a new snow shovel to replace the broken one, we drove to the mall's parking lot.

There were all sorts of cars, many of the SUVs, which seemed to be quite upset at the situation. They'd drive around and around in circles, obviously looking for a free spot. Meanwhile, dad and I decided to relax and wait. Like an island of calm in a sea of road rage. We stopped the car close to an entrance of the mall so we could see if anyone was leaving. Soon enough, some family came out and put their shopping into their car. They pulled out and we pulled in.

After going inside the mall, we called Flora and discovered that they were looking at cosmetics. We found each other and I found that everyone was interested in finding me some new clothes. I think we spent the rest of the afternoon going from store to store until we found things that were (a) not tacky and (b) fit. This was far more difficult than it should be.

But we prevailed. And I think we succeeded.

I tend to get ill during the winter holidays; not every year, but often enough that I'm no longer upset that it happens. I've spent a New Year dreaming feverishly in a guest bed, Christmas ruined by food poisoning, and countless holidays propped upright in bed.

I think that my immune system just gives up at around this time of year. After I got out of university, I started sleeping more and trying to slack off, but this was just not my nature. So I've filled up my schedule again such that is comfortably hectic again. I think my body retaliates by conspiring to get me some proper sleep during the darkest times of the year.

So sitting in bed with a box of tissues is not a novel experience for me. It is somewhat mitigated by my trusty laptop which has provided me with a means of distracting myself. This holiday season, I managed to get ill while at home which means that I'm surrounded by people who will take care of me and that I have access to high-speed Internet. So I've just been wasting time for NITI and getting stuff done reading LiveJournal. No, wait a second, reverse that.

I even found a pair of earbuds lying around, so I've been able to listen to the music on my laptop. This is in addition to the streaming audio that my last.fm account provides me; a feature I have only recently discovered. The nice thing is that since I have paid, you too can listen to the music that I do.

Whenever I get tired (which is often when one is ill) I just close my eyes and pass out. Each time I wake up, there is more tasty food to eat. I've tucked into numerous steamed fish, pork ribs braised with bitter melon, mutton belly with bean curd, and other tasty treats.

This is the best holiday ever!

cough, sniffle, cough

I'm leaving for Toronto today!

The office is mostly empty, even now, as most people have gone on vacation or haven't come in yet. It's very serene and peaceful in here, which is something pretty rare but actually quite nice.

My backpack full of clothes is packed and sitting behind me, next to an empty cardboard box. I'll be taking the train down to Toronto at 17:00, whereupon I'll maybe read a paper and sit back listening to music off of my laptop.

I don't expect I'll be able to get Internet this time either.

When I get to Union station, I'll take the subway home. I always like walking back home from the subway station because it's rather bittersweet. The streets are the same as when I went to high school there, but old buildings are torn down and new buildings put up each time I return.

Change is good, but I've always been a little wistful about the past.

I don't have any concrete plans for the holidays, so I figure I'll sit back and do some reading and some hacking. There's likely to be some baking and cooking and eating, which will be nice I should think.

Oh! I am going to show up to Head Office, which I haven't ever seen. It'll be nice to meet up with some people that I only really know over e-mail. And maybe I'll be able to push out another release of WvStreams while I'm there? Who knows?

The Unofficial 2005 NITI Christmas Party seems to have been a resounding success.

And by that, I mean that everyone was well fed, well watered, and well wished. Plus, nobody seemed to do anything horribly embarassing. Of course, I didn't take any photographs, so the evening turned into a blur after a while.

Not only that, I was taught how to pronounce Romados (which I have since forgotten); that washing dishes at 5h00 is not so bad, and that pomegranates are very messy.

Thank you for showing up and being smashing! We shall have to do this again some time.

As I mentioned before, I was organising the office trip to the Rocky Horror Picture Show on Halloween night. People were disappointed that there was no midnight showing, but I am not to blame for these sorts of things. Between picking a showing at midnight and a showing on Halloween, I had to prefer the one that was on the right day.

On Monday, I went around the office reminding people about the show. Some people had agreed to this plan, but forgot, so they scheduled something that overlapped. They tried to weasel out of this, but I kept notes as to who was coming and who I should remind. So our party shrunk a bit, but this wasn't too bad.

Jim showed up with a couple of tickets, one of which he sold to Stephen. So a small contingent of eight left for the theatre. It was held again at the Theatre Corona, where we saw it two years ago. Jim was down at the front of the balcony, dancing along with Jana. I was sitting next to Julie and Avery, on old folding seats.

This year, we arrived to see two lineups. One for "haves" and one for "have-nots". Since Adrian did not have a ticket, I think he waited a while in the "have-nots" line, but we didn't see him again until much later. We waited about, I handed out candy to random passer-bys, and we saw some Canonical people that Jeff had brought out. We saw Jana dressed up to perform as she was in the show this year, one of the compelling reasons that Jim came to town. Once inside, the group of us managed to get seats near the front of the balcony, even though we arrived quite late.

This was not very late, however, since the show took over an hour to start. By then, the crowd was getting rowdy and raucous: with chants of "Rocky" and general stomping resonating through the theatre. Every so often, someone would get on the stage to keep the audience occupied, but this was not particularly useful.

Then Plastik Patrik came on the stage and began the show. As usual, they started off with a little introduction, but this year they did not have a scandalous contest to start. Instead, Plastik launched right into the costume contest. There were the standard entries: an elabourate costume (a salmon), a scary costume (a guy in a mask), a very scary costume (a fat guy in gold underwear), slutty lesbians (who weren't slutty at all), and a BDSM-themed thing (the sub was not).

So it came down to the last man, who introduced himself as Doctor Livingstone. He wasn't even dressed up in a fancy costume or anything, so we all assumed that the salmon was going to win the show. It was a pretty impressive fish costume! But then, Livingstone called out for Jen to come down on stage, the spotlight swung over, and she started making her way down. At this point, I knew this man had to win. Jen went up on stage, hesitanttly; Livingstone got down on one knee and proposed. There was much screaming and cheering! And rice was thrown at the couple as she said "yes". It was really touching. You just can't beat proposing at the Rocky Horror Picture Show when there's an entire audience with bags of rice in hand.

The film was actually not very fun to watch because the Voice kept on interjecting too often and too loudly. But we all got to throw things at other people: I smacked Jim in the face, and he drenched me with water. Good times. After the show was over, Tarun looked a little shocked and I was afraid that we broke him. But we went outside and it seems like most of us had a good, if not strange, time.

Pierre and Susana left to go home, so the rest of us walked back to the co-op house, where Tarun and Stephen Hamer decided to retire. Shrugging this off, Jim, Philip, Will and I went to Dunn's to sup. That was rather tasty, although the "fat" smoked-meat sandwich is always a "medium". After stuffing ourselves, we decided to party ways and go home.

It looks like this year, I'm organising the NITI delegation to the Rocky Horror Picture Show. It's a movie and a show, and is playing at Théatre Corona. Other people are welcome to come, and I understand that a group from Canonical will be joining us.

For those who are unfamiliar with the RHPS, it's not for the prudish. So you might not enjoy this if you are easily upset by innuendo. Or by getting rained upon. You will enjoy this if you enjoy costumes, dancing, and silliness.

Jim will be our special guest that night, flying in from Mountain View, CA. I don't know why he's doing this, but he says he figures that Halloween is a good time to be in this city. (Seeing as San Francisco is so close to Mountain View, I'm not sure what this implies.)

We will be going to the Monday, 31 October 2005 show at 21:00. Yes, yes, I know, it's not midnight. For some strange reason, there is no midnight show on Halloween. I plan to show up, in queue, at around 20:15. Then we get to stand for about an hour with people dressed up in various shocking and amusing outfits. Some of them may give us candy, some of them may demand it.

Tickets cost about $20 at the door, so you may wish to pick them up sooner for cheaper. Cheap Thrills, on Metcalfe, is still selling them.

This weekend was filled with wonderful things. And what a great long weekend it was.

On Friday, I showed up to vierge_en_trop's three-years-in Montréal party. There was plenty of delicious food that she had whipped up, which had me pondering yam-based salsas. Not only was it tasty, it was also most entertaining. As a special bonus, I got to meet some new people: callmepavlov, drkeys, and metawidget.

I have also discovered exactly why I keep on bumping into her on the street. It's because she lives close to the métro station.

But not why I bumped into her at Saturday's event. I went to a piano recital cum birthday party held at the Yellow Door. Interestingly, they claim to have a coffeehouse in the basement, but the coffee is not very good and the cookies were self-described as bad. They were safe, however, since they were hermetically sealed for my protection. I didn't eat any.

I met Shawn, who used to work at Hutchinson Avenue Software and gave him my e-mail address. For some odd reason, we thought the other to be familiar, but couldn't figure out why. Oh, and I met Valerie, a girl with the most amazing hat.

The group eventually filtered out to go to the Old Dublin, but I retired early since I had to go food shopping in the morning. And that I did. By the time I returned, I had filled my backpack with produce and such. Then I cooked for about two days straight, taking little naps in between kitchen tasks, and waking up when the timer went off.

The New Pornographers
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

On Monday night, joenotcharles and vierge_en_trop arrived for dinner. I had a wonderful time, and everyone seemed to be happily stuffed by the end of our repast. Then we left Konstantin behind and went to The New Pornographers concert.

The first opening act, Immaculate Machine from Victoria, was absolutely amazing. But the second band, Destroyer, was not having a very good night. However, the evening was saved because The New Pornographers did an outstanding live show. People were bouncing up and down and dancing for most of it, which is sort of rare in my experience. I had trouble getting a good photograph of them, since La Tulipe didn't light the stage very brightly.

What I found pretty cool was that the performers from the opening acts also played in the New Pornographers. Arguably, the people from the second act did a lot better later on. I have no useful theories as to why this is the case. The lead for Destroyer, called Dan, would sing songs for the New Pornographers; everytime he showed up on stage, he had a new beer in hand and looked more and more tipsy. But anyway, everybody seemed to have a great time, and there were two encores, which the crowd thought was spectacular.

Well, a good time was had by all, except for the fact none of the people on stage got to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner. If only I had the forethought to cook an emergency turkey; then I could have invited them to my place. Alas.