Divers/Cité was this weekend, which meant that 90% of Toronto's gay population, including me, was in Montreal. This also marked the first weekend that I truly embraced Facebook Mobile. So, I thought it might be fun to post the weekend's status updates, which also serve as a very sketchy, in-joke-laden record of the trip.
Friday, August 3
Dave is passing the big apple. Next stop: Kingston! (10:36am)
Dave is pretty sure that an average 12 year old has a larger bladder than he and Paul combined. (11:39am)
Dave is at Mado just wanting to have fun. (10:51pm)
Saturday, August 4
Dave is sipping a martini on the 25th floor, looking out over old Montreal. (7:46pm)
Sunday, August 5
Dave is surprised at how much the stairs hurt. (3:53am)
Dave is hoping Deanna will text him at 647-xxx-xxxx, since he forgot to bring her contact info to Montreal. (10:54am)
Monday, August 6
Dave is dancing at Sky Bar. Unity has a $30 cover and a longer line for refunds than to get in. No thanks! (1:45am)
Dave is sad that it's raining and his flight is delayed. (12:29pm)
Dave is enjoying watching red cars. (4:35pm)
Dave is flying home on the gayest flight in the history of aviation. (7:17pm)
Dave is home sweet home! (9:38pm)
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Monday, August 06, 2007
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
A Brief Homecoming
My brief visit to BC is just about to end, as I'm at Vancouver International, waiting at the gate for my plane to board. I flew out here on Thursday and then went with Chris and Theresa to Nanaimo on Friday for Sam and Mike's wedding. I've been back in Vancouver since Sunday evening.
The wedding was fantastic. Mike's parents hosted the ceremony in their yard, overlooking the water. Sam looked fabulous. Mike, unsurprisingly, cried. And Sam gave quite the go-ahead-make-my-day look when we were asked if anyone knew of any reason why they should not be wed.
The reception was great, too. It began with the couple's first dance. This was not just a dance, it was a performance. Clearly, much instruction and choreography had gone into it, and apparently there was a strong desire to get it over with before dinner, which led to its unconventional placement on the program.
Speeches followed dinner, including what was quite possibly one of the best I have ever heard, delivered by Sam's brother Nick. Sam's "ring box", a shiny MacBook, then made an appearance to play the slide show and be the DJ, running an iTunes playlist that was determined by online vote, held in advance. The whole event was a great time.
Otherwise, the visit to Nanaimo was quite uneventful. It's a pretty town, but not all that exciting, and the locals, many of whom fit squarely in the retirement set, didn't prove to be the friendliest. The demographics took a dramatic turn for the better on Sunday morning, as the hotel was overrun by a young rugby team (or several teams?) visiting from England (or Australia?). Whatever the case, yum.
It was really great to get together again with Chris, Karyn, and Gippy and their (apparently very patient) significant others. Much laughter ensued as tired old jokes were resurrected and many new ones emerged.
My time in Vancouver was far too short, but enjoyable. I got together with Jodi and Karen for lunch yesterday, and then got to meet Jodi's pretty new kitties. And, in the evening, a special treat: I met up with Genevieve for a coffee and to catch up. We hadn't talked since high school grad, but had just reconnected through Facebook (thanks Facebook!). As it turned out, we each got to enjoy a free chai (thanks Starbucks!), and Gen was a riot.
She reminded me about how, after her final choir solo (which was self-accompanied on the guitar), I had congratulated her and said, "I didn't know you were talented." A perfectly typical foot-in-mouth moment for me, but fortunately she had taken it as intended.
Anyhow, she just got married, is teaching high school English, and is working on her Master's. Not that any of this was surprising, but it's nice to see that she's doing so well.
So, those are the highlights of my visit. I'll be back in Toronto in about five hours, and I'm already thinking about heading off to Montreal on Friday!
The wedding was fantastic. Mike's parents hosted the ceremony in their yard, overlooking the water. Sam looked fabulous. Mike, unsurprisingly, cried. And Sam gave quite the go-ahead-make-my-day look when we were asked if anyone knew of any reason why they should not be wed.
The reception was great, too. It began with the couple's first dance. This was not just a dance, it was a performance. Clearly, much instruction and choreography had gone into it, and apparently there was a strong desire to get it over with before dinner, which led to its unconventional placement on the program.
Speeches followed dinner, including what was quite possibly one of the best I have ever heard, delivered by Sam's brother Nick. Sam's "ring box", a shiny MacBook, then made an appearance to play the slide show and be the DJ, running an iTunes playlist that was determined by online vote, held in advance. The whole event was a great time.
Otherwise, the visit to Nanaimo was quite uneventful. It's a pretty town, but not all that exciting, and the locals, many of whom fit squarely in the retirement set, didn't prove to be the friendliest. The demographics took a dramatic turn for the better on Sunday morning, as the hotel was overrun by a young rugby team (or several teams?) visiting from England (or Australia?). Whatever the case, yum.
It was really great to get together again with Chris, Karyn, and Gippy and their (apparently very patient) significant others. Much laughter ensued as tired old jokes were resurrected and many new ones emerged.
My time in Vancouver was far too short, but enjoyable. I got together with Jodi and Karen for lunch yesterday, and then got to meet Jodi's pretty new kitties. And, in the evening, a special treat: I met up with Genevieve for a coffee and to catch up. We hadn't talked since high school grad, but had just reconnected through Facebook (thanks Facebook!). As it turned out, we each got to enjoy a free chai (thanks Starbucks!), and Gen was a riot.
She reminded me about how, after her final choir solo (which was self-accompanied on the guitar), I had congratulated her and said, "I didn't know you were talented." A perfectly typical foot-in-mouth moment for me, but fortunately she had taken it as intended.
Anyhow, she just got married, is teaching high school English, and is working on her Master's. Not that any of this was surprising, but it's nice to see that she's doing so well.
So, those are the highlights of my visit. I'll be back in Toronto in about five hours, and I'm already thinking about heading off to Montreal on Friday!
Friday, July 06, 2007
Island Play
Kevin and I left Toronto for PEI last Friday, with both bikes in tow on Kevin's fancy new hitch-attached bike rack. It was a two day drive, with a night in Quebec City.
The first day of driving was complicated by the first nations' national day of protest. An 80 km detour from the 401 slowed us down by two and a half hours, which then put us in Montreal for rush hour. It seems Montreal drivers really are as bad as everyone says: we were caught in no less than five different back-ups, all but one caused by a minor accident. It took two hours to cross the city on Autoroute 40. After twelve and a half hours of driving, we were definitely ready for bed.
The second day's driving went much more smoothly, and we were treated to some very nice scenery. The rolling hills of the Gaspé Peninsula and New Brunswick had me photographing madly. Sadly, these vast landscape scenes, beautiful as they are, just didn't translate well into photos, especially when taken from a speeding car.
Finally, we crossed the Confederation Bridge on Saturday evening.
Impressions of PEI in four words: everything is ridiculously cute. This applies to the landscape, the buildings, the bottled pop, the accents...and especially to Kevin's family.
Oh, one exception to the cuteness rule: the mosquitoes. They're nasty buggers, and I'm covered in bites. There are three particularly awful ones on my neck.
On Sunday, we saw the Canada Day fireworks in Charlottetown, which were billed as the biggest such display in the country. There were probably a couple of thousand people at the waterfront for it, which created some entertaining people watching opportunities. There were many cute grain-fed (potato-fed?) boys, too, but Kevin said they're 16, and have girlfriends and drinking problems.
The fireworks didn't disappoint. Neither did the T-shirt selection at Cows.
On Monday, we went with Kevin's sister Paulette, her husband Charlie, and their son Emery to the beach at Greenwich, in the PEI National Park. We enjoyed a nice long walk along the beach, and even helped Emery climb up the dunes, for which he seemed most grateful. The beach was long and beautiful, with white sand, gracefully curving to a point in the distance.
In the evening, we went back to Charlottetown to see Anne of Green Gables, the musical. It was, unsurprisingly, very cute. And really well performed, though all but a few of the actors seem to be "from away".
Kevin went on a long bike ride on Tuesday morning, and Paulette and I went to collect him at Tea Hill. Along the way, we stopped off at Subway to pick up some lunch (the new lobster sandwich: PEI only, or available everywhere?). Then, we walked along the beach. This one, though not as pretty as the last (which must be why this one was only a provincial park) did feature the famous PEI red sand. In the evening, we met up with Luke and Kevin's friends Amy, Kim, and Louis for dinner in Summerside. Then, we tore up the town. As Luke put it, we climbed two relatively sketchy structures, visited an empty mall, had hair-filled ice cream and examined the local newspaper all in one night!
On Wednesday, we picked up Kevin's parents at their house in St. Hubert and went to Cavendish. We visited the National Park there and Kevin and I went for a short bike ride, while his parents walked down to the beach. Our ride took us along a spectacular shore line and, good news, resulted in no knee pain for me. Next, we got into serious tourist mode and visited Green Gables. Well actually, it's a restoration of what they think the original Green Gables, which inspired L.M. Montgomery's descriptions in Anne, might have looked like. The house was owned by cousins of Montgomery's grandfather at the time, but Parks Canada took a little creative license and labeled the rooms "Matthew's," "Marilla's" and "Anne's." We also walked down Lovers' Lane to the Balsam Hollow Trail, through a woods that apparently provided great inspiration to the author.
Fun facts: Anne of Green Gables and Green Gables are trademarks and official marks of the Anne of Green Gables Licencing authority. L.M. Montgomery is a trademark of the Heirs of L.M. Montgomery.
Kevin spent the night at his parents' place, and then did another bike ride on Thursday. I used the time to get connected to the Interweb, and catch up on e-mail and other online distractions. I had meant to post this blog entry, but didn't quite finish before Kevin called me to come pick him up.
It was a long drive, over 90 minutes, back to his parents place. Actually, considering that this is supposed to be a small province, there have been a surprising number of really long drives on this trip. It seems everything is at least 45 minutes away, and that's traveling at 80 km/h on just about every road. On the upside, the drives provide an opportunity to enjoy the absurdly cute scenery. There are seemingly endless pastures and potato fields everywhere, with pretty woods and rolling hills in the distance. Little barns and houses dot the landscape.
We're spending the day today at the new home of Kevin's other sister, Jeanne. They just moved yesterday into this very cute house. And they have Webbernet access. Yes!
Tomorrow, we'll head to Halifax, and spend the day with Chris. We actually saw him for 10 minutes after the fireworks on Sunday. But it'll be very nice to spend some more time with him, and to see Halifax! Then, it's two more days of driving back to Toronto.
The first day of driving was complicated by the first nations' national day of protest. An 80 km detour from the 401 slowed us down by two and a half hours, which then put us in Montreal for rush hour. It seems Montreal drivers really are as bad as everyone says: we were caught in no less than five different back-ups, all but one caused by a minor accident. It took two hours to cross the city on Autoroute 40. After twelve and a half hours of driving, we were definitely ready for bed.
The second day's driving went much more smoothly, and we were treated to some very nice scenery. The rolling hills of the Gaspé Peninsula and New Brunswick had me photographing madly. Sadly, these vast landscape scenes, beautiful as they are, just didn't translate well into photos, especially when taken from a speeding car.
Finally, we crossed the Confederation Bridge on Saturday evening.
Impressions of PEI in four words: everything is ridiculously cute. This applies to the landscape, the buildings, the bottled pop, the accents...and especially to Kevin's family.
Oh, one exception to the cuteness rule: the mosquitoes. They're nasty buggers, and I'm covered in bites. There are three particularly awful ones on my neck.
On Sunday, we saw the Canada Day fireworks in Charlottetown, which were billed as the biggest such display in the country. There were probably a couple of thousand people at the waterfront for it, which created some entertaining people watching opportunities. There were many cute grain-fed (potato-fed?) boys, too, but Kevin said they're 16, and have girlfriends and drinking problems.
The fireworks didn't disappoint. Neither did the T-shirt selection at Cows.
On Monday, we went with Kevin's sister Paulette, her husband Charlie, and their son Emery to the beach at Greenwich, in the PEI National Park. We enjoyed a nice long walk along the beach, and even helped Emery climb up the dunes, for which he seemed most grateful. The beach was long and beautiful, with white sand, gracefully curving to a point in the distance.
In the evening, we went back to Charlottetown to see Anne of Green Gables, the musical. It was, unsurprisingly, very cute. And really well performed, though all but a few of the actors seem to be "from away".
Kevin went on a long bike ride on Tuesday morning, and Paulette and I went to collect him at Tea Hill. Along the way, we stopped off at Subway to pick up some lunch (the new lobster sandwich: PEI only, or available everywhere?). Then, we walked along the beach. This one, though not as pretty as the last (which must be why this one was only a provincial park) did feature the famous PEI red sand. In the evening, we met up with Luke and Kevin's friends Amy, Kim, and Louis for dinner in Summerside. Then, we tore up the town. As Luke put it, we climbed two relatively sketchy structures, visited an empty mall, had hair-filled ice cream and examined the local newspaper all in one night!
On Wednesday, we picked up Kevin's parents at their house in St. Hubert and went to Cavendish. We visited the National Park there and Kevin and I went for a short bike ride, while his parents walked down to the beach. Our ride took us along a spectacular shore line and, good news, resulted in no knee pain for me. Next, we got into serious tourist mode and visited Green Gables. Well actually, it's a restoration of what they think the original Green Gables, which inspired L.M. Montgomery's descriptions in Anne, might have looked like. The house was owned by cousins of Montgomery's grandfather at the time, but Parks Canada took a little creative license and labeled the rooms "Matthew's," "Marilla's" and "Anne's." We also walked down Lovers' Lane to the Balsam Hollow Trail, through a woods that apparently provided great inspiration to the author.
Fun facts: Anne of Green Gables and Green Gables are trademarks and official marks of the Anne of Green Gables Licencing authority. L.M. Montgomery is a trademark of the Heirs of L.M. Montgomery.
Kevin spent the night at his parents' place, and then did another bike ride on Thursday. I used the time to get connected to the Interweb, and catch up on e-mail and other online distractions. I had meant to post this blog entry, but didn't quite finish before Kevin called me to come pick him up.
It was a long drive, over 90 minutes, back to his parents place. Actually, considering that this is supposed to be a small province, there have been a surprising number of really long drives on this trip. It seems everything is at least 45 minutes away, and that's traveling at 80 km/h on just about every road. On the upside, the drives provide an opportunity to enjoy the absurdly cute scenery. There are seemingly endless pastures and potato fields everywhere, with pretty woods and rolling hills in the distance. Little barns and houses dot the landscape.
We're spending the day today at the new home of Kevin's other sister, Jeanne. They just moved yesterday into this very cute house. And they have Webbernet access. Yes!
Tomorrow, we'll head to Halifax, and spend the day with Chris. We actually saw him for 10 minutes after the fireworks on Sunday. But it'll be very nice to spend some more time with him, and to see Halifax! Then, it's two more days of driving back to Toronto.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Time Warp
[Quick background note: I'm back home in Vancouver for the holidays.]
This evening, I went with Phi to our old high school's Christmas concert.
It's been 11 years since my grade 12 Christmas concert, so it was a little mind-blowing to be there. Most of the songs were familiar, as they were songs I had done in my last two years of school. Mr. O. and Mrs. Roberts were still leading the band and choir, and Mrs. Mulder was in the audience, as always.
The highlight was the last number, Silent Night. The concert always ends with a really beautiful choral arrangement of Silent Night, performed from the balcony at the back of the church. The program said that all alumni of the concert choir were invited to participate, so we went up to join the group, and stood in the back row. I'm pretty sure we were the oldest ones in the lot.
Just like 11 years ago, we had picked up candles which we would be holding during the performance. I shook slightly as I tried to light mine, once again feeling the slight nerves before singing. Then, the most fantastic thing happened. Mrs. Roberts was looking around to make sure that everyone could see her. She noticed me, and mouthed, "oh my God, it's David." I mouthed back, "oh my God, it's Franny."
We performed the song and, of course, I still knew every note. Phi later confirmed that she did, too. The last note rang across the church, ending an amazingly exciting experience: a brief trip back in time.
This evening, I went with Phi to our old high school's Christmas concert.
It's been 11 years since my grade 12 Christmas concert, so it was a little mind-blowing to be there. Most of the songs were familiar, as they were songs I had done in my last two years of school. Mr. O. and Mrs. Roberts were still leading the band and choir, and Mrs. Mulder was in the audience, as always.
The highlight was the last number, Silent Night. The concert always ends with a really beautiful choral arrangement of Silent Night, performed from the balcony at the back of the church. The program said that all alumni of the concert choir were invited to participate, so we went up to join the group, and stood in the back row. I'm pretty sure we were the oldest ones in the lot.
Just like 11 years ago, we had picked up candles which we would be holding during the performance. I shook slightly as I tried to light mine, once again feeling the slight nerves before singing. Then, the most fantastic thing happened. Mrs. Roberts was looking around to make sure that everyone could see her. She noticed me, and mouthed, "oh my God, it's David." I mouthed back, "oh my God, it's Franny."
We performed the song and, of course, I still knew every note. Phi later confirmed that she did, too. The last note rang across the church, ending an amazingly exciting experience: a brief trip back in time.
Friday, September 15, 2006
Boston (Part 3: A Touch of Silly)
Last Saturday, while exploring Quincy Market in Boston, I saw bakery selling these cookies. And all I could think was, "Go 50 times!"
I do believe I have a new saying!
I do believe I have a new saying!
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Boston (Part 2: Observations on the City)
Since EclipseWorld ended on Friday, I've been exploring, and enjoying, Boston. I'm now at the airport waiting for my typically delayed flight home. Here are a few thoughts about and observations of the city.
[Note: obviously, it wasn't Sunday anymore when I finished this post.]
Jogoholism: Bostonians are afflicted, en masse, by an addiction to jogging. The pathways along the river are packed with joggers. And it shows. There's no shortage of very attractive people here.
Beauty: No, I'm not talking about the joggers anymore. Boston is a really beautiful place. There's an abundance of waterfront, generous public spaces like the Boston Commons, and a striking assortment of interesting architecture. Walking the narrow streets of the North End really takes you back a few centuries, but just beyond them, beautiful new condos line the shore of Boston harbor. And the financial district's towers soar above the historic Old City Hall and State House. To be fair, there's some significant ugly to be found, too. It seems the bulk of it is in and around the T (the public transit system).
Volume: Politically, Massachusetts is about as liberal as the US gets. So, you might think that Bostonians might bear some other resemblance to Canadians. You'd be wrong. If we're quiet and polite, they're unabashedly loud and brassy. Today, I was treated to the spectacle of an traffic cop trying to convince a taxi driver not to stop on a congested street. "I don't care who called, you better move it out of here," he bellowed. "Before I move it for you!"
A Touch of TO: There was one surprisingly familiar sight to be seen in Boston -- the TD logo emblazoned on the hockey/basketball arena formerly known as the FleetCenter.
Apparently, TD made its entrance to the American banking scene in 2004 by purchasing a majority share in Banknorth, a northeastern banking and insurance company formed through a series of mergers and acquisitions over the previous two decades. Also that year, FleetBoston Financial Group merged with Bank of America and in 2005 negotiated a release from Fleet's naming rights agreement. TD Banknorth bought the rights and the arena's name changed to TD Banknorth Garden July 1, 2005.
Walking: I really enjoyed walking around Boston. Really, everything is within easy walking distance, as it's quite a small city. Chris said there's about 600,000 people in Boston and Cambridge, which is about the same number as in Metro Hamilton. After living in Toronto for five years, when I look at a small map, I'm used to mentally inserting 5 or 10 streets between every one on the map. But, the little map I was using here actually showed every street. On Saturday evening, I was able to walk from the south end of downtown back to my hotel in Cambridge (across a river, to the North of downtown) in about 35 minutes!
The Freedom Trail: One great place to walk was the Freedom Trail, which winds through all the buildings of historical significance in the North End and downtown. I wonder if there are plans to revoke it, and replace it with the Security Trail.
Covering Up: There's a very odd looking strip of construction running around the eastern side of downtown Boston.
It's the last of the Big Dig: a project to move the elevated Central Artery, Interstate 93, underground, and to extend the Massachusetts Turnpike under Boston Harbor to the airport. Construction of the tunnels was extremely complicated and expensive, taking the last 15 years to complete. Now, work is underway on reclaiming the land vacated by the interstate, to create the Rose Kennedy Greenway, which is to consist of public spaces along with cultural and recreational buildings.
In July, a ceiling section in one of the tunnels collapsed on a passing car, killing its passenger. That section of the tunnel was closed, rerouting traffic above ground and delaying work on the Greenway. The parks now aren't expected to open until mid-2007. Financing problems and other issues have delayed and jeopardized plans for the various buildings. The New Center for Arts and Culture will not open until at least 2011.
The potential for this space is huge, but only time will tell if that potential is realized. Still, the sheer audacity of a project of this magnitude (especially in a relatively small city) is impressive.
The Down-low: On Friday, I went out with Chris and some of his friends to a straight club called Gypsy, and had a fabulous time. The music was as fun as anything you might hear at Buddies, although the ADD-DJ never seemed to want to play more than a minute of any given song. Still, it was great for dancing, and we tore up the floor until the wee hours.
On Saturday, I was on my own, and I thought I'd try to check out the gay scene. There doesn't seem to be a gaybourhood like the Village here. The clubs are spread out a bit more, and some straight places have weekly gay nights. I decided to try a video bar called Club Cafe, which was recommended as the happening spot.
From the street, the place looked like it was just a restaurant and lounge. I actually walked past once, looking for a bar entrance, and then circled back around the block to avoid looking overly lost. But, you actually enter through the restaurant, pass the bouncer, and head to the bar in the back. Once found, it was a bit of a disappointment. The place was packed with people standing around in little groups. The dance floor was full, but no one was dancing. There was nowhere to sit with a drink. So, for someone like me, on my own and shy, it just didn't offer anything. I stayed all of about 10 minutes.
So, score one for the straighties and zero for the gays of Boston.
[Note: obviously, it wasn't Sunday anymore when I finished this post.]
Jogoholism: Bostonians are afflicted, en masse, by an addiction to jogging. The pathways along the river are packed with joggers. And it shows. There's no shortage of very attractive people here.
Beauty: No, I'm not talking about the joggers anymore. Boston is a really beautiful place. There's an abundance of waterfront, generous public spaces like the Boston Commons, and a striking assortment of interesting architecture. Walking the narrow streets of the North End really takes you back a few centuries, but just beyond them, beautiful new condos line the shore of Boston harbor. And the financial district's towers soar above the historic Old City Hall and State House. To be fair, there's some significant ugly to be found, too. It seems the bulk of it is in and around the T (the public transit system).
Volume: Politically, Massachusetts is about as liberal as the US gets. So, you might think that Bostonians might bear some other resemblance to Canadians. You'd be wrong. If we're quiet and polite, they're unabashedly loud and brassy. Today, I was treated to the spectacle of an traffic cop trying to convince a taxi driver not to stop on a congested street. "I don't care who called, you better move it out of here," he bellowed. "Before I move it for you!"
A Touch of TO: There was one surprisingly familiar sight to be seen in Boston -- the TD logo emblazoned on the hockey/basketball arena formerly known as the FleetCenter.
Apparently, TD made its entrance to the American banking scene in 2004 by purchasing a majority share in Banknorth, a northeastern banking and insurance company formed through a series of mergers and acquisitions over the previous two decades. Also that year, FleetBoston Financial Group merged with Bank of America and in 2005 negotiated a release from Fleet's naming rights agreement. TD Banknorth bought the rights and the arena's name changed to TD Banknorth Garden July 1, 2005.
Walking: I really enjoyed walking around Boston. Really, everything is within easy walking distance, as it's quite a small city. Chris said there's about 600,000 people in Boston and Cambridge, which is about the same number as in Metro Hamilton. After living in Toronto for five years, when I look at a small map, I'm used to mentally inserting 5 or 10 streets between every one on the map. But, the little map I was using here actually showed every street. On Saturday evening, I was able to walk from the south end of downtown back to my hotel in Cambridge (across a river, to the North of downtown) in about 35 minutes!
The Freedom Trail: One great place to walk was the Freedom Trail, which winds through all the buildings of historical significance in the North End and downtown. I wonder if there are plans to revoke it, and replace it with the Security Trail.
Covering Up: There's a very odd looking strip of construction running around the eastern side of downtown Boston.
It's the last of the Big Dig: a project to move the elevated Central Artery, Interstate 93, underground, and to extend the Massachusetts Turnpike under Boston Harbor to the airport. Construction of the tunnels was extremely complicated and expensive, taking the last 15 years to complete. Now, work is underway on reclaiming the land vacated by the interstate, to create the Rose Kennedy Greenway, which is to consist of public spaces along with cultural and recreational buildings.
In July, a ceiling section in one of the tunnels collapsed on a passing car, killing its passenger. That section of the tunnel was closed, rerouting traffic above ground and delaying work on the Greenway. The parks now aren't expected to open until mid-2007. Financing problems and other issues have delayed and jeopardized plans for the various buildings. The New Center for Arts and Culture will not open until at least 2011.
The potential for this space is huge, but only time will tell if that potential is realized. Still, the sheer audacity of a project of this magnitude (especially in a relatively small city) is impressive.
The Down-low: On Friday, I went out with Chris and some of his friends to a straight club called Gypsy, and had a fabulous time. The music was as fun as anything you might hear at Buddies, although the ADD-DJ never seemed to want to play more than a minute of any given song. Still, it was great for dancing, and we tore up the floor until the wee hours.
On Saturday, I was on my own, and I thought I'd try to check out the gay scene. There doesn't seem to be a gaybourhood like the Village here. The clubs are spread out a bit more, and some straight places have weekly gay nights. I decided to try a video bar called Club Cafe, which was recommended as the happening spot.
From the street, the place looked like it was just a restaurant and lounge. I actually walked past once, looking for a bar entrance, and then circled back around the block to avoid looking overly lost. But, you actually enter through the restaurant, pass the bouncer, and head to the bar in the back. Once found, it was a bit of a disappointment. The place was packed with people standing around in little groups. The dance floor was full, but no one was dancing. There was nowhere to sit with a drink. So, for someone like me, on my own and shy, it just didn't offer anything. I stayed all of about 10 minutes.
So, score one for the straighties and zero for the gays of Boston.
Boston (Part 1: EclipseWorld)
If you've been reading my blog from the beginning and remembering every word (and who hasn't been?), you may recall that I went to EclipseWorld in New York last summer to give a presentation on EMF. For some reason, they asked me back to this year's conference in Boston (well, technically Cambridge, right across the river).
The conference ran this week from Wednesday to Friday, and now I'm spending the weekend here playing tourist in the city. I'll share my impressions of the city in another entry, but today I'll talk a bit about the conference.
My presentation went over really well. The room was packed, and people asked a lot of good questions that suggested they were paying attention. They even laughed at my lame jokes. Unfortunately, the questions slowed down the talk, so I really had to compress the demo portion. Still, it was easy to see that people were impressed.
Last year, it seemed that everyone wanted to know how they could use a database to store their EMF-modeled data, and I was only able to make mention of a couple of projects that had recently been started to work on this. This year, those two technologies (Teneo and CDO) have moved into the EMF Technology project at Eclipse.org, and have improved and developed significantly. I took the time to get familiar with them, and so I was able to include a Relational Persistence section in my talk. I showed a simple demo of an EMF-generated editor for an ordinary model that used a Hibernate resource to transparently persist to an HSQLDB database. Pretty slick!
A number of people came to me with more questions and comments over the rest of the conference. One person said that my presentation and our conversation were the only highlights of the conference for him (poor guy!), and another was talking about abandoning the application his team had been working on for about a year, replacing it with a GMF/EMF/Teneo-based solution.
I attended some pretty interesting sessions, too. Notably, Chris did a good job live demoing eRCP (embedded rich client platform), and I also enjoyed learning about Java Server Faces and dynamic help.
Oh, and I'm proud to say that, of the three days' free lunches, the one provided by IBM was the tastiest.
The conference ran this week from Wednesday to Friday, and now I'm spending the weekend here playing tourist in the city. I'll share my impressions of the city in another entry, but today I'll talk a bit about the conference.
My presentation went over really well. The room was packed, and people asked a lot of good questions that suggested they were paying attention. They even laughed at my lame jokes. Unfortunately, the questions slowed down the talk, so I really had to compress the demo portion. Still, it was easy to see that people were impressed.
Last year, it seemed that everyone wanted to know how they could use a database to store their EMF-modeled data, and I was only able to make mention of a couple of projects that had recently been started to work on this. This year, those two technologies (Teneo and CDO) have moved into the EMF Technology project at Eclipse.org, and have improved and developed significantly. I took the time to get familiar with them, and so I was able to include a Relational Persistence section in my talk. I showed a simple demo of an EMF-generated editor for an ordinary model that used a Hibernate resource to transparently persist to an HSQLDB database. Pretty slick!
A number of people came to me with more questions and comments over the rest of the conference. One person said that my presentation and our conversation were the only highlights of the conference for him (poor guy!), and another was talking about abandoning the application his team had been working on for about a year, replacing it with a GMF/EMF/Teneo-based solution.
I attended some pretty interesting sessions, too. Notably, Chris did a good job live demoing eRCP (embedded rich client platform), and I also enjoyed learning about Java Server Faces and dynamic help.
Oh, and I'm proud to say that, of the three days' free lunches, the one provided by IBM was the tastiest.
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Goodbye, Las Vegas!
My trip ended today, as I said farewell to the fabulously tacky world of Las Vegas and returned to good old Toronto.
I had a great time there with mum, but I've got to admit, it'll never become a favourite destination for me. It's just too big, too loud, too fake. And I don't think I'll ever get the appeal of gambling. I took another crack at slots, and I got so bored that I just wanted it to end.
Some of the sights were definitely impressive, like the fountains at the Bellagio the view from the mini Eiffel Tower at Paris Las Vegas, and the inside of the Luxor. And I was pretty excited to get a cute new swim suit at the Fashion Show Mall (I had forgotten to bring one). Okay, not too cute -- I was with my mother, after all!
We saw the main attraction, Celine's A New Day... last night and it was just amazing. Apparently, it was the anniversary of the show's launch three years ago, so it was clearly a big deal for her and for the rest of the performers. She was so "on", I couldn't believe it. I've never heard such a flawless live vocal performance before. The dancing, staging and effects, as promised, were quite spectacular. "I'm Alive," "At Last," "I've Got the World on a String," "I Surrender," an Italian song that I didn't know, "I Wish," and "My Heart Will Go On" were especially effective. "The Power of Love" was just bizarre, with its strutting peacocks and weird technicolor wormhole background.
Well, that's the way Vegas went. Now it's back to the old grind.
I had a great time there with mum, but I've got to admit, it'll never become a favourite destination for me. It's just too big, too loud, too fake. And I don't think I'll ever get the appeal of gambling. I took another crack at slots, and I got so bored that I just wanted it to end.
Some of the sights were definitely impressive, like the fountains at the Bellagio the view from the mini Eiffel Tower at Paris Las Vegas, and the inside of the Luxor. And I was pretty excited to get a cute new swim suit at the Fashion Show Mall (I had forgotten to bring one). Okay, not too cute -- I was with my mother, after all!
We saw the main attraction, Celine's A New Day... last night and it was just amazing. Apparently, it was the anniversary of the show's launch three years ago, so it was clearly a big deal for her and for the rest of the performers. She was so "on", I couldn't believe it. I've never heard such a flawless live vocal performance before. The dancing, staging and effects, as promised, were quite spectacular. "I'm Alive," "At Last," "I've Got the World on a String," "I Surrender," an Italian song that I didn't know, "I Wish," and "My Heart Will Go On" were especially effective. "The Power of Love" was just bizarre, with its strutting peacocks and weird technicolor wormhole background.
Well, that's the way Vegas went. Now it's back to the old grind.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
EclipseCon Wraps
EclipseCon is winding down. This morning's keynote was by Ted Neilson, the CEO of Borland. He's an ex-Microsoftie, and somehow I just didn't find him totally convincing explaining how Borland "gets it" with regard to open source. Well, if nothing else, it's pretty clear that Microsoft stands alone against open source. Right now, a consultant with both Visual Studio and Eclipse experience is comparing the two environments, and coming down quite squarely on our side.
Tuesday and Wednesday were excellent. Joel Spolsky's keynote was entertaining, if not overly insightful. There was something about emotional appeal and polishing and misattribution. But, most notable were the numerous pictures of pretty men. Hey, I'm not saying! I'm just saying...
Greg Stein, from the Apache Software Foundation (and Google) gave the keynote yesterday, and made several good points about software, licenses, and communities. His key point was that Apache is about building communities first, and creating code second. He seemed a little anti-copyleft for my taste, though. I'm of the opinion that licenses mostly get chosen in a sensible way. Whoever starts the project tends to choose a license that meets their needs and desires. Usually in an open source project, those align quite well with the needs and desires of the users, or the project will fail spectacularly. Obviously, for a project like Eclipse, started by IBM to enable itself and other companies to build proprietary products on it, the chosen license will allow that. For Linux, the GPL is a an excellent choice: it keeps it free, encourages its rapid development, and does nothing to interfere with the abilities of individuals and companies to make use of it. Linux is thriving, in part, because of the GPL -- certainly not in spite of it.
I saw many good presentations over the last couple of days, covering topics like VE, the TPTP GUI test recorder, open source business models, GMF, profiling, the Jazz project, BIRT, platform undeveloped operations, Apache Harmony, GCJ and GNU/Linux distribution packaging, and the JET editor. Phew.
There's lots of cool stuff going on in Eclipse. I'm itching to try out some of this for myself. But somehow, I can't help thinking about the next few days...Vegas calls!
Tuesday and Wednesday were excellent. Joel Spolsky's keynote was entertaining, if not overly insightful. There was something about emotional appeal and polishing and misattribution. But, most notable were the numerous pictures of pretty men. Hey, I'm not saying! I'm just saying...
Greg Stein, from the Apache Software Foundation (and Google) gave the keynote yesterday, and made several good points about software, licenses, and communities. His key point was that Apache is about building communities first, and creating code second. He seemed a little anti-copyleft for my taste, though. I'm of the opinion that licenses mostly get chosen in a sensible way. Whoever starts the project tends to choose a license that meets their needs and desires. Usually in an open source project, those align quite well with the needs and desires of the users, or the project will fail spectacularly. Obviously, for a project like Eclipse, started by IBM to enable itself and other companies to build proprietary products on it, the chosen license will allow that. For Linux, the GPL is a an excellent choice: it keeps it free, encourages its rapid development, and does nothing to interfere with the abilities of individuals and companies to make use of it. Linux is thriving, in part, because of the GPL -- certainly not in spite of it.
I saw many good presentations over the last couple of days, covering topics like VE, the TPTP GUI test recorder, open source business models, GMF, profiling, the Jazz project, BIRT, platform undeveloped operations, Apache Harmony, GCJ and GNU/Linux distribution packaging, and the JET editor. Phew.
There's lots of cool stuff going on in Eclipse. I'm itching to try out some of this for myself. But somehow, I can't help thinking about the next few days...Vegas calls!
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
EclipseCon
It's day two at EclipseCon.
We presented our tutorial yesterday, and it went reasonably well. There were some hickups with getting people started on the exercises, as some hadn't downloaded all the stuff they needed and a few were using the Sun 1.4 JDK, with the buggy Cirmson DOM implementation. But, once we got those kinks worked out, I think many people were able to follow the material and do the exercises.
By comparison, I was totally lost in the tutorial I attended in the afternoon. The exercises were ridiculously ambitious. I think the only people who had any success were the ones who had already been working with technology for months.
So now, I'm practically on vacation. Joel Spolsky, from Joel on Software, is going to be giving the keynote this morning. I'm mildly curious what he has to say, but I've never really taken him seriously since he said that Mozilla should have turned the Netscape codebase into something useful by refactoring, instead of rebuilding from the ground up.
(Interestingly, Tracksy tells me that 67% of visitors to my blog use Firefox, a mere 25% use IE.)
Then, there are a whole slew of presentations and demos happening today. Gee, I guess I'd better pick some...
We presented our tutorial yesterday, and it went reasonably well. There were some hickups with getting people started on the exercises, as some hadn't downloaded all the stuff they needed and a few were using the Sun 1.4 JDK, with the buggy Cirmson DOM implementation. But, once we got those kinks worked out, I think many people were able to follow the material and do the exercises.
By comparison, I was totally lost in the tutorial I attended in the afternoon. The exercises were ridiculously ambitious. I think the only people who had any success were the ones who had already been working with technology for months.
So now, I'm practically on vacation. Joel Spolsky, from Joel on Software, is going to be giving the keynote this morning. I'm mildly curious what he has to say, but I've never really taken him seriously since he said that Mozilla should have turned the Netscape codebase into something useful by refactoring, instead of rebuilding from the ground up.
(Interestingly, Tracksy tells me that 67% of visitors to my blog use Firefox, a mere 25% use IE.)
Then, there are a whole slew of presentations and demos happening today. Gee, I guess I'd better pick some...
Sunday, March 19, 2006
I'm Goin' to California
I'm heading off to Santa Clara, California today for EclipseCon 2006. I'll be instructing a tutorial (on EMF, of course) along with Nick. Fortunately, that's tomorrow morning, which means I can just relax and enjoy the rest of the conference after that.
After the conference, I'm meeting Mum in Las Vegas for the weekend. I've never been before, and I don't think I'd really want to...if it wasn't for a certain show.
I shouldn't be so nervous, but I'm kind of afraid my stomach might misbehave...
Fingers crossed.
After the conference, I'm meeting Mum in Las Vegas for the weekend. I've never been before, and I don't think I'd really want to...if it wasn't for a certain show.
I shouldn't be so nervous, but I'm kind of afraid my stomach might misbehave...
Fingers crossed.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
The Morning After
Well, we all survived the party. Mike and Mum had a minor blow-up over lemon slicing, but they made up and moved on after that.
The caterers didn't bring the salmon, but the lamb was good, and everyone was well fed. I'm pretty sure Mum thinks she could have done a better job of the food, and she's probably right.
I think Kevin had a pretty fun night. He sent his last text message at 3:39 AM, his time. I have no idea what he's gonna do with EZ Barnett's number, though.
The caterers didn't bring the salmon, but the lamb was good, and everyone was well fed. I'm pretty sure Mum thinks she could have done a better job of the food, and she's probably right.
I think Kevin had a pretty fun night. He sent his last text message at 3:39 AM, his time. I have no idea what he's gonna do with EZ Barnett's number, though.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Whoever said it would be a vacation?
I've been home for a couple of days now, and it occurs to me, I'm really quite stressed out.
Family get-togethers usually follow a pretty standard script: Mum invests huge amounts of time and effort into putting on the best event possible, with lots of yummy food and meticulous cleaning and setup. However, managing all of this stresses her out, she falls behind schedule, and any bit of resistance or second-guessing from anyone else infuriates her. Dad gets stressed out by the fact that things are running late, and starts expressing some not-so-helpful opinions. Mike and Mum never play especially well together, and some disagreement eventually blows up into a bit of a falling out.
In the end, the heartache subsides, and everyone enjoys the event, is terribly well fed and well entertained.
So, I'm kind of waiting for all that to happen today, while hoping against hope that it doesn't. It's almost 4:00 and all's well so far.
There's a big change to the recipe this time. Mum's party is being catered, so there's been no frantic food preparation. The caterers will show up shortly before the event, food in hand, to set up, they'll serve during the party, and they'll take away the dirty dishes with them.
The other thing weighing on my mind is Granny Maro, who has been living with my parents since December. Her memory is failing quite seriously, leaving Mum responsible for thinking for two. It's really hard on her, and going through the same situation with her own mother took a huge toll on Granny.
This afternoon we were looking through some photos, and Granny wasn't recognizing Lis (Mike's wife), and kept thinking that Mum was Lena (Granny's sister). It seems like she has the most trouble with most recent memories, and so probably Mum now looks like how she best remembers Lena. I corrected her a few times, but each time she'd forget again after a couple of minutes.
It's really tough to watch. I remember Granny Maro as being really quick, and having little trouble keeping up with her two rambunctious grandkids, in spite of the language barrier.
It's still mostly fun to be around her, though. She responds so well to us; she doesn't say a lot, but you can tell she's practically oozing love.
Family get-togethers usually follow a pretty standard script: Mum invests huge amounts of time and effort into putting on the best event possible, with lots of yummy food and meticulous cleaning and setup. However, managing all of this stresses her out, she falls behind schedule, and any bit of resistance or second-guessing from anyone else infuriates her. Dad gets stressed out by the fact that things are running late, and starts expressing some not-so-helpful opinions. Mike and Mum never play especially well together, and some disagreement eventually blows up into a bit of a falling out.
In the end, the heartache subsides, and everyone enjoys the event, is terribly well fed and well entertained.
So, I'm kind of waiting for all that to happen today, while hoping against hope that it doesn't. It's almost 4:00 and all's well so far.
There's a big change to the recipe this time. Mum's party is being catered, so there's been no frantic food preparation. The caterers will show up shortly before the event, food in hand, to set up, they'll serve during the party, and they'll take away the dirty dishes with them.
The other thing weighing on my mind is Granny Maro, who has been living with my parents since December. Her memory is failing quite seriously, leaving Mum responsible for thinking for two. It's really hard on her, and going through the same situation with her own mother took a huge toll on Granny.
This afternoon we were looking through some photos, and Granny wasn't recognizing Lis (Mike's wife), and kept thinking that Mum was Lena (Granny's sister). It seems like she has the most trouble with most recent memories, and so probably Mum now looks like how she best remembers Lena. I corrected her a few times, but each time she'd forget again after a couple of minutes.
It's really tough to watch. I remember Granny Maro as being really quick, and having little trouble keeping up with her two rambunctious grandkids, in spite of the language barrier.
It's still mostly fun to be around her, though. She responds so well to us; she doesn't say a lot, but you can tell she's practically oozing love.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Homeward Bound
Tomorrow, I'll be heading to Vancouver for a few days, to celebrate my mum's 60th birthday and catch up with friends and family.
It's been eight months since I was last there (for Omi's 90th birthday, in fact), but it seems even longer. Maybe that's because it was also only for a few days.
I'm trying to pack my calendar so I don't miss out on seeing anyone. It's so weird thinking about how rarely I've seen these people, who were once all over my life, in the last half-decade. I'm excited, though. In the past, it's been like no time has passed at all.
I'm also hoping I'll find out if any reunion activities are afoot. Ten years - yegods!
It's been eight months since I was last there (for Omi's 90th birthday, in fact), but it seems even longer. Maybe that's because it was also only for a few days.
I'm trying to pack my calendar so I don't miss out on seeing anyone. It's so weird thinking about how rarely I've seen these people, who were once all over my life, in the last half-decade. I'm excited, though. In the past, it's been like no time has passed at all.
I'm also hoping I'll find out if any reunion activities are afoot. Ten years - yegods!
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Home Time!
EclipseWorld is over, and so it's just about time for me to head home. I'll be flying out tommorrow morning, and I just hope it goes more smoothly than the trip down here.
My presentation seemed to go relatively smoothly. I got through all of my slides with enough time to do my demo, and it didn't feel like I'd forgotten to say anything. I heard lots of feedback about EMF from various attendees, which was very interesting. These people are mostly enterprise application developers, so they want to hear how they can persist their EMF instances in a database. The people want Hibernate, and they want it now!
In all, it was a great, fun-filled trip. That said, I'm ready to wrap it up. I miss Toronto...can you believe it?
My presentation seemed to go relatively smoothly. I got through all of my slides with enough time to do my demo, and it didn't feel like I'd forgotten to say anything. I heard lots of feedback about EMF from various attendees, which was very interesting. These people are mostly enterprise application developers, so they want to hear how they can persist their EMF instances in a database. The people want Hibernate, and they want it now!
In all, it was a great, fun-filled trip. That said, I'm ready to wrap it up. I miss Toronto...can you believe it?
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
EclipseWorld
Well, day two of EclipseWorld is over, and there's been good, bad and ugly. The highlight so far was a presentation on AspectJ. Aspect oriented programming is very cool. Basically, it lets you encapsulate according to common concerns by selecting certain points of execution (pointcuts) and then providing code to be executed at those points (advice). The compiler then weaves the aspects into existing code, resulting in standard bytecode (in the case of Java, anyway) that executes in any JVM. The typical example is logging: you can write an aspect that logs a call trace across any application in just a few lines of code. But, fancier stuff is possible: we saw examples of policy enforcement at compile time and runtime, consitent transaction management, asynchronous execution, and fault injection. It's powerful stuff, and Eclipse's support for AspectJ is really impressive. I think this could easily become an indispensable part of my toolkit.
I just got back from the conference reception, where we were kindly given two free drinks. Fortunately, I left before I could do any damage. On the way back to the hotel, I stopped off at Grand Central Station (it's right next door) for some gelato. Yummy.
I can't be the only one who is more than slightly disturbed by the men in camouflage with big guns, can I?
Okay, I need to lose my buzz and start practicing my presentation for tommorrow. Good times, good times.
I just got back from the conference reception, where we were kindly given two free drinks. Fortunately, I left before I could do any damage. On the way back to the hotel, I stopped off at Grand Central Station (it's right next door) for some gelato. Yummy.
I can't be the only one who is more than slightly disturbed by the men in camouflage with big guns, can I?
Okay, I need to lose my buzz and start practicing my presentation for tommorrow. Good times, good times.
Monday, August 29, 2005
Dirty
Yup, I went out tonight. Just got home. Went to Park and Cock. Lemme tell you, I feel pretty classy right about now.
Rich, you were a fabulous guide!
Rich, you were a fabulous guide!
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Drippy Sundy
Well, it's Sunday afternoon, and it's starting to feel like the party's over.
I slept in today until noon, and then watched some TV and did some blogging. Now, I'm in a cafe doing a bit of work. I need to prepare the demo for my presentation on Wednesday, and practice the whole thing once or twice. I also need to head back to my room and do some ironing, since I was living out of a suitcase while staying with Mike and Lis. Fortunately, the rain has encouraged me to be responsible and get this stuff done now. Since I think I'm caught up on my sleep, I might still go out this evening if I get everything done.
I guess the daily entries will end now, since I'll be engaged with the geeky excitement of EclipseWorld until I head home on Thursday.
I slept in today until noon, and then watched some TV and did some blogging. Now, I'm in a cafe doing a bit of work. I need to prepare the demo for my presentation on Wednesday, and practice the whole thing once or twice. I also need to head back to my room and do some ironing, since I was living out of a suitcase while staying with Mike and Lis. Fortunately, the rain has encouraged me to be responsible and get this stuff done now. Since I think I'm caught up on my sleep, I might still go out this evening if I get everything done.
I guess the daily entries will end now, since I'll be engaged with the geeky excitement of EclipseWorld until I head home on Thursday.
Saturday with Mike
Saturday was the first day since I arrived that Mike actually didn't have to work, so we got to spend the day together! It's typical for him to work the weekends and to get home late at night every day, often past midnight. I really respect him for working so hard, but it just doesn't seem fair to him or to Lis. Nobody should have to keep up that kind of pace all the time. I don't think I could do it, not these days anyway. There's just so much more that I want to be doing.
Anyhow, we decided to use our day together to do some cycling around Manhattan. We took the Path across, and then rode up the shore of the Hudson River. They've built a good path for walking, cycling, and in-line skating along the waterfront. Then, we cut in to Central Park, and had a ride around it. We also went up to Columbia and looked around the campus a little. By the time we got back to the World Trade Center, we were quite exhausted and my groin was pretty unhappy. We'd been riding for several hours and faced some pretty strong head winds on the way back down. And I hadn't been on a bike for years. Amazingly, my legs aren't at all stiff today, although my bum's still a bit sore.
In the evening, we took a taxi back into the city, and I checked into the hotel I'll be staying at for the conference this week. After we got some dinner, we were both wiped. I'd really wanted to go out dancing, but after Friday night and all of the day's activities, I just didn't have the energy. So, I collapsed into bed and dropped off for 10 hours.
Oh, how nice to be sleeping in a big, comfy bed instead of Mike's futon with its lump down the centre!
Anyhow, we decided to use our day together to do some cycling around Manhattan. We took the Path across, and then rode up the shore of the Hudson River. They've built a good path for walking, cycling, and in-line skating along the waterfront. Then, we cut in to Central Park, and had a ride around it. We also went up to Columbia and looked around the campus a little. By the time we got back to the World Trade Center, we were quite exhausted and my groin was pretty unhappy. We'd been riding for several hours and faced some pretty strong head winds on the way back down. And I hadn't been on a bike for years. Amazingly, my legs aren't at all stiff today, although my bum's still a bit sore.
In the evening, we took a taxi back into the city, and I checked into the hotel I'll be staying at for the conference this week. After we got some dinner, we were both wiped. I'd really wanted to go out dancing, but after Friday night and all of the day's activities, I just didn't have the energy. So, I collapsed into bed and dropped off for 10 hours.
Oh, how nice to be sleeping in a big, comfy bed instead of Mike's futon with its lump down the centre!
Friday with Lis
Friday was Lis's last day of work before moving to a new department, in another location. Since her computer was being moved, she decided to play hooky for most of the day and hang out with me.
So, we toodled around the city: we visited Chinatown, Little Italy, the Lower East Side, and the East Village. We visited lots of little shops, buying a few things. In a surprising turn, I got to be the guide at lunch. We happened to be near Yaffa Cafe, so I suggested we go there. We had a delicious meal: a chicken and avacado wrap and a middle-eastern platter with pita, hummus, and baba ganoush. We had a nice chat over lunch. I told Lis about some of my crazy boy antics of late, and she talked about her relationship with Mike. I feel like I know both of them much better as a result.
In the afternoon, we got up to Union Square, and Lis took me to Filene's Basement, the perfect store to satisfy the inner label queen. It's kind of like Winners without the ick. Actually, it's much nicer stuff. I almost bought a really cute pair of Energie jeans at a third of the regular price, but I decided that I really have enough clubby jeans already. Crazy, huh?
Lis had to go home to take care of Lucy, and I continued on to visit Bryant Park and the main branch of the public library. It's beautiful and, like so many things in this city, quite overwhelming. There's this huge reading room, with PCs and empty tables in the middle, whose walls are lined with thousands of volumes of literature. I think you could easily get lost in it for the rest of your life.
Lis had set me up with a colleague, Rich, to show me around in the evening, and he took me to a couple of bars in the East Village: Starlight, which was quite nice, and the Phoenix, a bit more of a dive. It's Rich's favourite nightspot in the city, though, as it's very relaxed and attitude-free. Rich is a really nice guy: very outgoing and funny, and not a hint of pretense. Pity he doesn't like to go dancing, though. Many cocktails were consumed, and we met a bunch of people, some interesting, some not so much.
In all, a fun night. By the end of it, Jersey City seemed a long way away, so I crashed with Rich at his place.
So, we toodled around the city: we visited Chinatown, Little Italy, the Lower East Side, and the East Village. We visited lots of little shops, buying a few things. In a surprising turn, I got to be the guide at lunch. We happened to be near Yaffa Cafe, so I suggested we go there. We had a delicious meal: a chicken and avacado wrap and a middle-eastern platter with pita, hummus, and baba ganoush. We had a nice chat over lunch. I told Lis about some of my crazy boy antics of late, and she talked about her relationship with Mike. I feel like I know both of them much better as a result.
In the afternoon, we got up to Union Square, and Lis took me to Filene's Basement, the perfect store to satisfy the inner label queen. It's kind of like Winners without the ick. Actually, it's much nicer stuff. I almost bought a really cute pair of Energie jeans at a third of the regular price, but I decided that I really have enough clubby jeans already. Crazy, huh?
Lis had to go home to take care of Lucy, and I continued on to visit Bryant Park and the main branch of the public library. It's beautiful and, like so many things in this city, quite overwhelming. There's this huge reading room, with PCs and empty tables in the middle, whose walls are lined with thousands of volumes of literature. I think you could easily get lost in it for the rest of your life.
Lis had set me up with a colleague, Rich, to show me around in the evening, and he took me to a couple of bars in the East Village: Starlight, which was quite nice, and the Phoenix, a bit more of a dive. It's Rich's favourite nightspot in the city, though, as it's very relaxed and attitude-free. Rich is a really nice guy: very outgoing and funny, and not a hint of pretense. Pity he doesn't like to go dancing, though. Many cocktails were consumed, and we met a bunch of people, some interesting, some not so much.
In all, a fun night. By the end of it, Jersey City seemed a long way away, so I crashed with Rich at his place.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)