Good morning, London
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I'm a tad slow to write about things these days, I think I'm suffering from writer's block. But I'm finally able to sit down and write about my trip to Norway.

On 20 January, I hailed a cab and asked the driver to take me to Dorval. Instead of the normal ridiculously early flight, I had managed to book one for the evening. This was a welcome change and I was positively cheering going through airport security. I arrived early, so I sat about in the lounge, surfing the Internet, until the sun went down and we boarded the aircraft. I fell asleep immediately. When I woke up, we were just landing in London and I groggily collected my possessions.

I tried to get my bearings and stumbled into a queue. I went through airport security again, because the English don't believe that other countries do proper checks. Then I was spit out into some concourse shopping area. Heathrow is a very busy place, with people scurrying around and looking harried.

I pulled out my cellphone and tried to call Kyle. That's when I felt someone bump into me and I sped up my pace. Then another bump and I turned around to face my assailant. Oh, hi Kyle. We found a spot and waited for video screen to announce our gate to Oslo.

Are you where you are?
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I dropped off again once we boarded the aeroplane and woke up for a snowy landing in Oslo. But it was 10°C warmer when compared to Montreal. I watched the luggage handlers unload our bags as people grabbed things from the overhead compartments. When we got out, I immediately noticed that the airport looked like a giant IKEA. We walked down a hallway with modular units, I ducked into a modular toilet, after passing a modular firehose, modular storage closet, and modular ventilation shaft. It was so modern that even the graffiti emphasized good design.

We found our way to the Flytoget, the airport expresss train, and bought some tickets using the automated teller. Then I tried to go through the turnstile but was defeated by my own stupidity. The security guard, who looked like a Valkyrie, took pity on me and waved me through. We got on the train and had just stowed our luggage when Daniel boarded our car. Hurray for chance meetings! We chatted as the train sped through the countryside and past snowy stations. I stared out the window as the bullet train made streaks out of tunnel lights.

An Ubuntu distribution sprint happens midway through the development cycle of each release. This one, for Oslo, concentrating on some last minute issues. Developers worked together on various features that required co-ordination, showed each other the bits they were working on, and had conversations about things that needed to get done. This was all done in the Scandic KNA, which is in the National Theatre district of Oslo. This was a short walk from the train station and we checked in with a minimum of fuss.

Hotel KNA
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

The next day, we got up bright and early. I spoke with Henrik about his idea for getting more people involved in testing the CD images we use to distribute Ubuntu. For the past couple of releases, we stop all development for a week before we release the distribution. Everyone stops and tries to install Ubuntu on all of their machines. The big problems with this method are that we stall developers for an entire week and we don't test the installer on enough diverse machines. His plan involves working with the Ubuntu Forums. Instructions for how to help out are there in a sticky thread.

The area around the hotel is pretty and relatively new. I think there's some kind of school or university across the street, students were always going in and out at around lunchtime. They had wrapped an entire building in plastic wrap and were doing some form of renovations. Tollef informs me that this area used to be the docks, but those got shut down and now it's full of condos. That's why everything is so convenient and hip and trendy. It reminded me of Canada, specifically Montréal, and alleviated some of the homesickness.

I also talked with Robert about bug triage and how to get more volunteers. Although the BugSquad and Ubuntu QA are growing at a steady pace, we still don't have the critical mass that keeps #ubuntu-bugs busy all the time. One of the suggestions is to create an announcement-only mailing list that tells people how to participate in new QA endeavours. People on the BugSquad should expect to be signed up soon.

Monte Carlo Rally
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

On Thursday, to our surprise, the Monte Carlo Car Rally started just outside the hotel's front door. Car enthusiasts invaded, classic cars were parked in the garage, and we saw them queue up to start racing. Lovely, lovely machines.

We're definitely going to do things that make triaging easier and more exciting. For instance, bughelper is something that Henrik and Daniel have been hacking on. Bughelper is designed to help sift through bugs in the Ubuntu distribution and find what you're looking for. Be they duplicates, crashes, or a particular type of bug, it can help you in your searches. It's almost like a bug-grepper actually. And it's very, very helpful.

That evening, we went to Henrik's house for dinner. Phillip, who's working on his genetics Ph.D. made us all a very lovely meal. It was my first exposure to fishpudding, which appears to be something that Norwegians like serving to foreigners. A practical joke, perhaps? After dinner, we discovered that the neighbourhood football pitch had frozen over. After locating a tennis ball, a group of us went outside and played a variant of hockey. Until we lost the puck in the snow.

Cosmic bowling
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

By now, people were starting to show signs of fatigue. Both Robert and Scott attended linux.conf.au right before they showed up. This meant they were disease vectors, which is what happens when you bring a whole bunch of people from all over the world into one big petri-dish of conference hall. Their particular plague seemed to be brutal, but not very contagious, as only some of us got violently ill. As usual, I happened to catch it.

On Friday night, we walked down to the fjords and stared out at the sea. They really are lovely, but there were a lot of people down by the docks so it was difficult to examine them properly. Tollef had made some reservations for us at a local Indian restaurant and we were treated to a lovely meal. Everything was cooked perfectly and left us happy and satiated.

Then came the bowling. Ben wanted to see just how many of us would lace up in smelly, rented shoes and embarass ourselves. I thought this was a marvellous idea. The first frame I ever threw was sort of a strange disaster. That's because I had never bowled before. So I tossed the bowling ball, which was far too heavy, backwards into my team. I managed to do reasonably well, for a beginner, by the end of the night. We stumbled back to hotel, tired but happy.

Early the next morning, Kyle and I woke up and headed to the airport. We caught the same flight to Heathrow, met Ben at the terminal, and then parted ways. I landed in Montréal feeling very tired and grumpy, but brightened up when I got out. Instead of my usual routine of catching the bus, I was swarmed by a group of friends. They had come, on my birthday, to whisk me away to a surprise party. I love you guys!

I had a very long bath and slept for a very long time.

I was hoping for a small reprieve in December, but I should have known better. Through 2006, things had been progressively getting busier and busier until I felt I was about to burst.

It is now 2007 and I can look back happily at the previous year. Whew. So what was last month like?

Cute pottery
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

First I had to see rubythirtythree at the Salon des métiers d'art. I did a bit of shopping there, which turned out to be a good idea.

Angie Johnson
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Then a vernissage at Headquarters Galerie et Boutique. I met Angie and Tyson, who run the store, and they are awfully nice. They run an exhibition every month or so which I'm going try to see.

On stage
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Followed by seeing a drag show with ispyagirl and Mike, an old classmate from Earl Haig. We went to Cabaret Mado, which had lots of people that looked like they were having fun! It was just too outrageous for anything less.

Two chairs
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I took some photos at jbailey's new place. The entire house was bare, so I got to roam around and take pictures of uncluttered rooms.

Skylight
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Lunch with baprime at Café Santropol. It was the first time she'd ever been there, which is quite a treat. We ate sandwiches and drank milkshakes—they were delicious.

Neat dweeb
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

More shopping at the Souk@SAT. This time, I went with angorian and Damian. I showed them fun things and delicious things and they managed to get a ton of their gift shopping done.

Lesbian haircuts
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Then we made the wonderful discovery of cheap Lesbian haircuts on Amherst. I am tempted to go there and check out their bikes.

Tower
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I had a lazy Sunday brunch with le_maistre_e. We ate at John's, which is a little diner that serves a great meal at 1980s prices. I'm definitely going back! I also discovered that the Lachine canal is a gem, if you look hard enough.

Marble cheesecake
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Dinner with vierge_en_trop, completed by puddings at Café l'Etranger.

Crème brulée
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Followed by dinner at mricon's. He made an excellent borscht.

Dinner
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Leading into the Canonical holiday dinner at Los Tios.

Mark Côté
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Ironically placed next to the Goodbye NITI Montreal dinner.

Samba Elegua
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I needed some exercise after all this eating, so I saw jedward play with Samba Elegua. He stayed with me, while his band did their gig for Noël dans le parc.

Gladstone & Ste-Catherine
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Then it was more dinner at superfink's, with a nightcap of The muppet Christmas carol.

Felix
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Followed by another dinner at tygrbabe's.

Dinner on the train
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

After that, I got on the train to Toronto, where I spent a lot of time not behind the camera. Although digital cameras are now prevalent, I seemed to avoid getting myself not in front of them.

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.

22 June 2006

Paris is such a gorgeous city. Especially at night. I walked every night through the narrow old city, and as the sun would set, lamps would start flickering to life. Now Paris has a lot of streetlights. But unlike Hong Kong, they're rarely tacky. The lights are aimed to light the streets in a warm, orange glow. They light up elegant buildings to show the detailing.

I couldn't help but be happy wandering around. Although I took plenty of photographs, none of them can capture my wide-eyed delight. I walked along rue de Rivoli and sneered at the tourist menus posted outside the little cafés. I crouched down beside the cobblestones at Place Vendôme where cars and bicycles sped but inches beside me. And I marvelled at the sight of Place de la Concorde as it lit up at night.

Oh how I wish I had a better camera. And a flat overlooking the city.

Cyclist
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Obélisque de Luxor
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Bridge
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

In Montréal, there is a métro station that has wrought-iron railings and a huge sign that looks so old-world. So imagine my shock when I saw identical copies everywhere in Paris!

Arc de Triomphe
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Tour Eiffel
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Under repair
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

One time, as I was riding home on the train, I noticed that my car was getting emptier and emptier. Eventually, I was sitting behind five youths. Two girls, three boys. They were speaking in rapid-fire french and smoking on the non-smoking train. They noticed me and asked me where I'm from.

—Je suis Canadien.

They were quite happy to hear this and started burbling amongst themselves. I apologised for my terrible french and we have a broken conversation where they discovered that I was going to Terminal 2. That's when they asked me to help them out. Their plan was for me to get off at Terminal 1 and help them book a hotel room. Because they weren't old enough to do so themselves. They looked about sixteen or seventeen.

I pondered this situation and realized that, although I do like adventures, this one would happen way past my bedtime. So I figured that I'd just sit on the train and continue to my stop. As we got closer and closer to Terminal 1, the youths pleaded their case. Sometimes in French. Sometimes in very broken English. In the end, I lied:

—Desolé, desolé. Je ne comprends pas.

They left rather dejected. But they seemed resourceful. I'm sure they had an interesting night.

Yesterday, I met ioerror at the train station. I love waiting for people at the train station, it's far more civilized than waiting at the aeroport. I was watching for him to come up the escalator, from the Toronto platform, when he tapped me on the shoulder. He took the stairs.

We navigated the métro together and dropped off his stuff in my apartment. Once he had wireless Internet, we were golden. I sat about doing work for the rest of the work day, and he tried using voice-over-IP to call people.

We spent lots time chatting over IRC. Which is exactly what we did when he was sitting on the train.

After my delivery of patio furniture arrived from Canadian Tire, we set off for dinner at Aux Vivres. There, I discovered that all these people who wanted to meet him, already knew me. It really is a small world. We had a lovely meal and then I had to skip out on the evening's activities. Because I had some Fringing to do.

More on that later.

I'm off to Toronto now.

I'll be back Sunday!

Love,
Simon

I am back from Waterloo, with significantly more storage space at home. However, I'm not at home, I'm at the office.

The train was delayed by about, two and a half hours, which means that everything was closed. Seeing as it feels like a bitter -27°C outside, I walked briskly to the office and let myself in.

I've found the emergency blanket and look forward to using it.

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.

I have to tell you that my favourite thing about travelling is meeting interesting people. I've met a crazy stamp collector, an FDA inspector, and several fairly normal people.

This time, on the trip to Toronto, I met Monique who I discovered was a kindly grandmother travelling to visit two of her two grandchildren. At first, things were quite awkward because she talked to the conductor in very rapid French and I in my considered English. It looked like she was examining me, so I apologied for not talking to her: "Je m'excuse, mais mon français est très mauvais."

I got the impression that she brushed it off as nonsense, and then she launched into a conversation about glasses for a while. I struggled to keep up and make small talk through a mixture of pidgin French and much handwaving.

At some point in this exercise, she got sick of my dear but useless attempts at understanding and switched to English. We continued at a much more rapid pace after that. I discovered that she was a lawyer in Montréal who has since retired and had taken up with reading about politics and finance.

We talked for over four hours, spent time complaining about the train arriving late, and laughed about life. It was beautiful and very civilised. I did some eavesdropping on the conversations around us: there were two women who spent time gossiping, a businessman talking about exploiting third-world workers, and a teenager being generally flakey with her friends.

As we got off the train, I helped her with her luggage and we walked into the station together. After that, I strapped on my backpack and strode into the subway with a smile on my face.

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?

Here I am sitting on the VIA train, trying to use the Internet. This is failing.

Not because there isn't any wireless access here. Oh no, there's plenty of it, my card reports 90% signal strength. It's just that the signup form for the paid service won't actually let me give them any money.

So it's not working. Man, life used to be better when Internet access on board the train was bundled with the ticket. I can live with physical reality intruding on my life, like bad weather dropping out the satellite link; but not when I'm stymied by arbitrary limitations like a broken authentication system.

I picked up some train tickets today.

One pair of those tickets are for going to Waterloo next week. I'll be arriving on late Thursday night and will be staying until Sunday afternoon.

I'm a little tired from this heady lifestyle of mine, so I figure I'll throw a potluck party on Friday night. My plan is to take over someone's house, put on some good music, invest in some drinks, and make something simple to eat. Then anyone who shows up with refreshments and munchies and a good sense of humour gets let in the door.

Then, on Saturday, I can go about hanging out with people that don't like big parties. There are a few of you I really do want to see, so let's make sure to get together. I figure on maybe cooking something for dinner at someone's house. Because I always go to Waterloo with a huge knife.

Sunday will probably involve some early dim sum so that we can beat the rush. I wonder what Cameron's would think if a big block of us took over their dining room? Good things, I hope. Then it will be away to Montréal again, before I miss my train.

If you would be happy to show up to any or all of these events, please leave a comment below.

P.S. Some of you are expatriates of Montréal. I'm planning on bringing some Schwartz's smoked meat and some tortillion down. I can be bribed, at very reasonable rates, into bringing other rare and exotic comestibles. Let me know.

Last night, I arrived in Toronto after a train ride with angorian. We left work together, packed sandwiches, and stood in line for the train. Once on-board, I really couldn't resist my train snack so I unwrapped it quite early.

It consisted of a large roasted-chicken sandwich with East-Indian relish. I can't express how good it was. Sadly, we were unable to gloat at how good our train food was, because I felt very sad when the businessman sitting across from us opened up a McPoulet sandwich. After I finished chowing down on my sandwich, Angorian pulled out some chocolate-cookie sandwiches with lemon icing. They were delightful!

We chatted back and forth for the four-hour ride, and although I was quite tired by the end of it, the conversation was very pleasant. It seems that I always feel drained and dirty after travel, even if I've only sat around for several hours. At the train station, we trudged towards the exit where we found Damian. There was a joyous reunion before we set out to find some dinner.

We went to 園林酒家, which they have raved about often. We ordered two dishes and dug into them hungrily. Sadly, it appears that their "spicy pan-fried shrimp" has gone downhill, but now I know what it is so I hope to duplicate it at home. It should not be too difficult as I have no fear of deep frying.

After dinner, we were groggy and tired. They went west and I went east. I lugged my huge backpack down the stairs while grappling with a large bag of clothes. I pushed through the turnstiles at Dundas station and got on the southbound train by accident. After getting on the proper train, I rode it all the way to North York Centre. The shops have changed and developers are tearing up the neighbourhood.

But I'm back again. And I'm home.

Adam Zey
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

On Friday, I discovered that elliptic_curve was heading down here by train. I knew she was coming for a month, but the day had never really firmed up, until a couple hours before she was due to leave. She told me that she'd be arriving around midnight, so there was plenty of time to take Adam out for a celebratory meal.

He's off to Concordia, you see. Out into the wide world of higher education, and frustrating bureaucracy. He had gone to an orientation session earlier in the afternoon, where they stuffed him with bad free beer. I was going to clean his palate with excellent free beer.

I took him to Brasserie Reservoir, which is not only a very nice microbrewery near my place, but it also has a splendid kitchen that turns out very nice meals. We both tucked into plates of salmon tartare, and enjoyed them very much.

After saying goodnight to Adam, I realised that there were a couple of hours left to while away before Julie showed up. I planned to take a nap, so I head home. There, I found six messages waiting for me on the answering machine, so I called Julie's telephone and was informed that she had managed to catch the 17:00 train.

I went down to the station as quickly as possible, where I found a slight impatient, but mostly gleeful, Julie. We tried to find some dinner, which involved getting sandwiches at Schwartz's. Then it was back to my place, where we pulled out the guest bed (for me), and set up the bedroom for Julie. This was so she could close the door to keep Timin out. Poor kitty, his mistress is now allergic to him.

I took the train back home for to see my father this weekend. The family was sort of surprised to see me, because they had forgotten that I promised to do so. And didn't check their e-mail until yesterday.

So I took the train. Unlike my normal preference, I was sitting in an aisle seat this time. To the left, and across the aisle, sat a large man who spent the entire trip watching rented videos on a portable DVD player. To my right sat a very nice woman who were incredibly polite and pleasant the whole trip. For the first little bit, she was studying some documents about the insurance business. Then she just stared out the window for several hours. Very nice and pleasant company.

What was strange and sort of grating was the couple that sat behind us. A wife and her husband, I presume. The woman would constantly nag the man:

"Eat your chicken, you don't eat enough protein, too many vegetables and carbohydrates."

"The train isn't late any more, it's supposed to take four hours and fifteen minutes."

"Stop reading that book, reading rots the eyes."

What was most bizzare about her strange comments was that she would repeat phrases over and over again. So actually, her comments sounded like this:

"The train isn't late any more. Late any more. Late any more. Late any more. Late and more. It's supposed to take four hours and fifteen minutes. Not four hours. Not four hours. Not four hours. It isn't late any more. Isn't late. Isn't late."

I have no idea how the man puts up with it day in and day out. Perhaps he loves her very very much.

DoorS
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Actually, my subway ride up to North York was pretty bizarre too. The subway driver decided to be very chipper. She'd announce stations with the most saccharine voice, as if she hadn't been to this place in decades and was squealing "York Mills!!!!" with joy. This is the complete opposite of the official corporate droning of each station, "bloor station's next, bloor." My fellow passengers looked quizzically at the speakers, but I couldn't help smiling at the cheer.

Sometime during the trip, a man got on to the subway with a box of soda pop in one hand and a bouquet of roses in the other. He asked me if he could sit next to me and I said, "sure." Little did I know that he would go on a five minute rant about how "they" were destorying the country with litter. Just as I was politely smiling and nodding at him, he jumps up and gets off at the next station. I'm unsure if he was crazy, or just too friendly.

Later this morning, I'll be going to the Kawarthas with my dad for a short fishing trip. Dad sure loves going fishing, so that what we're doing this weekend. I'll be back in time to catch the train for Montréal, and then I'll have to squeeze in time to pack for my trip to Ottawa.

I was hoping to talk to call up some old friends in Toronto when I was there this weekend, but didn't get a chance to. I guess I'll have to do that some other time.

I do realise that I absolutely hate the train trip to and from Montréal and Toronto. There is always somebody ill there, so I've caught a cold when I arrive in Toronto, or it happens when I return to Montréal. This impending misery always nags me when I'm travelling, so it puts a damper on my desire to go places. I'll have to do something about this useless immune system of mine.

On Mother's Day, f_law made a reservation for us to eat out at Sushi on Bloor (515 Bloor Street W., Toronto, ON. 416-516-3456) where we ordered their lunch specials. The lunch combinations do not offer much variety, although they are good value. Thankfully, the fish was not frozen and the portions were quite generous.

After sushi, we hurried to Mountain Equipment Co-op where I bought shoes quicker than I've ever seen shoes bought before. We bundled my new purchases into my backpack, took the subway down to Union station, and got me on the train with minutes to spare. The trip back was rather uneventful though I did sleep fitfully. I was glad to get back to my apartment where Timin greeted me joyfully.

He ate some tinned salmon greedily and then nuzzled up to me to show his thanks.

I saw the most depressing thing this weekend.

Sunday evening, I left my parents place and took the subway down to Union station. As I walked up the stairs to go to the train station, I was accosted by various panhandlers.

These people were all depressingly poor. I mean, their bodies were emaciated, their hair was matted, their beards thick and tangled. Their faces were covered in open sores, like people who had taken too many hits of crack and were wasting away. They held out their Tim Hortons cups and begged for help. "Spare some change for the homeless," they'd mumble. Your money can't help them get out of the situation, but where's the compassion? I walked past them with Torontonian blindness.

I went to the ticket counter and claimed my ticket for the overnight train. I had a pleasant, courteous, and efficient conversation with the ticket agent. Everything was all arranged and I picked up my knapsack and headed for the door. I had to be at Jeff's place in fifteen minutes so I had to walk briskly.

I walked towards the east exit of Union station, the one that leads out to Front St. There, on a bench sat a girl. She looked like she was waiting for her train, and had fallen asleep against a wall. She wore a white shirt with a pink t-shirt on top. She had faded jeans and new white sneakers. Her auburn hair was tied up in a neat ponytail. A red backpack sat on the bench beside her.

The only bizarre thing to this scene were the four firefighters, the two policeman, and the stretcher surrounding her. They were all standing around awkwardly, while the policewoman scribbled in a notepad. Someone had strapped a monitor strapped to her arm. They weren't hauling her on to the stretcher and wheeling her out into a waiting ambulance. There wasn't any need. Urgency wouldn't have helped.

She looked so young and so peaceful. As if she was just taking a nap after a long, but fun, weekend with her family. That she was going back to school where she'd pass her finals and then off to a summer job. It didn't look like she was in pain. She just slipped away.

And the only thing I could think was, "somebody's going to have a horrible Easter Monday." And the next thing I could think was, "miracles don't happen very often." And I felt so bad because I knew that when someone dies, there's always this crazy, desperate hope that they'll get up and start walking around again.

But they never do.

I'm heading down to Waterloo again. Sadly, I'm going to be quite busy, so I probably won't be able to make spontaneous dinner arrangements.

I found out that travelling by train isn't too expensive due to a BizPak, which makes things almost as cheap as a student fare. Yay!

Now I don't have to lie to Travel Cuts about still being a full-time student. My WatCard says that I am one until April '06. Isn't that nifty?