So this evening, after months of protests around the city, ethnic Tamil people living in the GTA took over the Gardiner Expressway in protest at the west's lack of involvement in stopping the war in Sri Lanka. They've taken over the Gardiner, and are blocking all traffic through the city. It seems like almost every single police car and officer in the city were there at some point.All photos as seen from our window.





Still going on as it gets dark, not sure where it will end. The protestors are apparently saying they won't leave until a representative of the government arrives in person to tell them what Canada will do about the war in Sri Lanka.

Again a new toy

Okay, so I haven't posted any Vegas updates, so sue me. Anyway I got to ride in a new toy again last night. Firstly, it's not my toy and secondly I didn't take the photo. Thirdly this isn't the actual plane, but it's the same model. It is a Cessna 172R, a four seater (theoretically) single engine plane. And it's what I'm learning to fly in.

I had a familiarisation lesson last night where I took off, flew round the Scarborough Bluffs a few times, circled downtown and the CN Tower, and then the instructor took over for the first time since taxiing and landed (due to heavy winds.)

So I start Ground School training next week, and am planning on starting proper flight training in the next week or two. Should be interesting, now where is that cheque book...

Guess where we went!

Okay, so I know it's been a long time, a ridiculously long time, since I last updated this thing. I have made a resolution to try and update it more frequently.

Anyway we recently went on a vacation to Venice, as you can see from the below photos. Just a few shots from where we were staying, a great big hotel full of the typical joys of the city.

View from the Grand Walkway
A view of the canal systems from near us.
A typical hallway in the hotel.
And the rooftop fountains and pools.
Okay, so it's not Venice, it's the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, but it's still a nice place. Even if the canals are inside (click on the photo to see) its still a great place to stay. Nice rooms, lots of facilities (over 20 restaurants, and around 100+ shops), and great service. One day we never left the hotel, as quite frankly it's very easy to get lost in there.

Proof there is more to the city than the city

So yesterday we took the streetcar about 20 minutes east to The Beaches area of the city. This is somewhere I'd never been before, but Zoe has been a couple of times with Rob. It's a bit different to the hustle and bustle of downtown, instead it is a different kind of hustle and bustle of people and canines.

The first stop was the very end of the streetcar route. The R. C. Harris Water Filtration Plant. This is an internationally renowned piece of industrial architecture. At the minute it is undergoing a lot of restoration so it's not easy to get photos of all of it, but it is still functional and supplies 45% of all the fresh water to the Toronto region.
Right beside the plant is the Lake Ontario coastline that runs to the Scarborough bluffs, a section of headland with what passes for cliffs in this area.
To the west are the beaches that run back towards downtown.
And I'll leave you with a picture of a beagle that kept trying to get up on the rocks to where I was sitting.

Opti Olympics

Well since I've missed a large period, here are two on one day.

A couple of weekends ago the sailing club that Zoe is part of had a "fun" weekend event called the Opti Olympics. An Opti, apparently, is a bathtub with a sail. It may be more technical than that, but it's what it looks like to me.
Anyway they had this event which was to consist of a series of races in these boats, in between the thunderstorns, four boats at a time. The person who is the club photographer was away on vacation so they asked me to do the photography for the event. I agreed, and as a result ended up going out on a speedboat owned by a member of the club to photo the event.
Things started well, the competitors took their time getting out of the quay area and into the open water, where they all made their way to the buoy that was being used as a marker for the races. Some got there quicker than others, but everyone made it eventually. At that point however things changed dramatically. The wind started gusting and things started to go wrong. Remember how I said bathtubs with sails? Well bathtubs usually have the water on the inside, and the lake had the same thought.
One by one all the competitors took on water and sunk in one fashion or another. We got a couple of more speedboats out from the club to rescue the competitors and at a point I had to stop taking pictures and start pulling people out of the water and trailing semi-sunk boats.

People along the waterfront stopped to take pictures, and one of the large touring boats passed us, and then swung round again so all the tourists could have a better look. Eventually even the police sent out a boat to rescue one of our sailors and their boat.
See, this is what happens to boats, and something always seems to happen when I'm out on one.

Weather

Okay, so I know it's been a little while since my last posting, but I just don't always get around to it. Anyway just to placate the masses, here are some photos that have been taken recently of the weather around Toronto.

This first one was taken by Zoe while I was at work one day. A very strange storm system came over the lake. It was very localised and kept sending down tendrils of cloud from the main storm front. Almost like some strange creature living in the cloud reaching down for food constantly.

This was was just a simple shot of a storm front coming into the city. We've had loads of storms of late to contend with, seems there's been a thunder storm every other day for the last month and a half. Apparently July was the wettest July on record for Toronto. That seems right, we've been here less than a year and already had the most snow in 60 years and the most rain ever.

And finally, this is just a shot of the sunset last night. It was raining and with heavy thunderclouds most of the day, but it just happened to have a clear spot just as the sun was going down which made for some impressive pictures.

To Sea

Blimey, it's been a while since the last post. Well I've been busy, but enough of that another time. Last night the sailing club went out on a tall ship for several hours, and I got shanghaied into coming along as well. Out to sea (well lake, but it doesn't sound so good) on a boat with lots of sails, ropes and other thingies that I have no idea what they do. I just spent the time getting out of the way while everyone else did their, well, thing.
Still out onto the water, and still was the word to begin. Very little wind so we didn't really get very far. It took about an hour and a half to get the sails all up and running, however it's a training ship so the crew were teaching everyone else how to do everything. Then we did sail out in the lake a little bit.Eventually we had to come back once the thunder and lightning started over the end of the lake. Coming back in we were presented with a fabulous light show from the, rapidly, approaching storm. It unfortunately got to us about five minutes before we got to dock, so it was a slightly damp end to the evening. Actually it was a very damp end, I've not been so wet in a long long time. At least not clothed.

My New Toy

Okay, so not really relevant to the normal run of things on this blog, but I got myself a new toy. After a long long time I now own a bike again.
This was taken over by the docklands of Toronto to the east of where we live. Never been there before but decided to go for a couple of hour cycle yesterday morning.

The bike has 24 gears apparently, but I've only used about 4 of them. Not sure why you need to many gears. I'm currently using it to commute to work. Now I haven't ridden a bike for about 10+ years, yet I can get to work in just over 15 minutes. Using public transit it takes 25+ minutes. So quicker and better for me. Plus it looks like the transit may strike on Monday so it's the best time to buy a bike.

Of course when you buy a bike and you have no car you need to ride it home. When I picked it up on Monday night it was from the store at Yonge and Eglington. About 8km north-east of here. First time on bike in so many years, yes that was a fun cycle home. At least it was mainly downhill.

Bloomin' thieves

Well some people are just brazen about their activities. Some people like to keep their activities secret from the world, while others like to flaunt it and rub it in. Last night thieves and vandals struck in downtown. In the early hours of the morning some hooligans came along and destroyed the CN Tower. They used cutting torches to take it down about halfway up and left a pall of smoke over the area and the now broken stump.
The city is distraught over this. An icon of the city and the country has been cut down in its prime. All that remains now is a bit of a stump looking like a felled tree in the city.

The council says it'll have it repaired soon though. Apparently, and this is the cities best kept secret, the whole thing is just inflatable. Emergency planning had anticipated this may happen sometime so they'd stored a spare in a warehouse in an undisclosed location. Authorities insist that it'll be back to normal in a couple of days, and the world won't notice it was gone. They just need a few people to help inflate it, and foot pumps have been handed out to the populace.

Well better go, the police have just turned up to tell our floor that it is our turn to blow into the nozzles to help in the effort. I'll speak again.

Streetcars and municipal bird

Well, several people have been complaining to me about my complete lack of posts to this here blog thingy. Well to keep them quiet here's a new one. The reason I haven't posted any lately is I haven't managed to find any decent photos, and haven't been taking them lately. Snow is only exciting for so long, but the good weather is coming back, blue skies and temperatures reaching zero. Summer is definitely on the way.

Anyway, as some have heard Toronto has streetcars. Basically trams that crisscross the city along various routes, usually in the downtown area and travelling along an east - west route and letting buses and the subway handle the north - south traffic. I get one to work every day, and they're actually a pretty good service.

This one is running along the dedicated tracks along Queens Quay, the road that runs along the edge of the lake (the lake is about 10 meters behind me in this photo.) Just to the right of the picture, but you can't really see it, the streetcars emerge from an underground tunnel that swings north and goes to Union Station (which is located opposite the building to the left that looks like corrugated iron.) If I am getting the streetcar back from the centre I get it along here from Union. Runs along the lakefront and then swings up Spadina by our complex. Well actually this particular one is going to Bathurst Station and doesn't normally run on this route, but there are track works going on.

And this one is running along King Street. King Street is about five blocks north of Queens Quay. This intersection is King and University, a very popular stop for the streetcar where in the rush hour it tends to empty. The reason? Towards the left of the image you can see a red and white sign that actually reads TTC (Toronto Transit Commission.) Just below that is the entrance to the St Andrew subway station.

One of the reasons it is so busy is that Toronto has an integrated public transport system. People get off the streetcar and into the subway where they may travel somewhere and then get another bus or streetcar. They can do this for the price of one fare (currently a transit token costs $2.75) which covers an entire trip no matter how many changes you need to make. Alternatively you can buy a Metropass for $109 a month which provides unlimited travel on the TTC system.

And just to finish the posting off here is a photo I've taken of Toronto's municipal bird. The crane.

Cranes are all over the city at the moment blocking a lot of the good views. There is so much construction going on. I believe there is more $ worth of construction going on in Toronto at the moment than anywhere else in North America, with the possible exception of Vancouver. However Vancouver's construction is most likely a temporary boom due to the Winter Olympics in 2010.