Toronto :: Canada
Brrrr, it's cold in here.
Places: Toronto.
Coolest thing I did: Went for my agency Christmas drinks on top of the Manulife Centre. Pity about the view.
(un)Coolest thing I didn´t know: Canadian elections are even more boring that Australian ones.
After a blink-and-you'd-miss-it autumn, winter has arrived in it's most pleasant form. While the nastier winds I was promised have been intermittent over the last month or so the snow has been falling in great big, slow falling flakes and it's quite spectacular. After wading through grey slush and having wet ice fall on me in the UK I was a little skeptical that snow was anything like it was on TV, but I've had my faith renewed by the last few weeks. Last night was the heaviest single fall we've had and I walked through the softly falling flakes from the subway and was surprised at just how pleasant it was. Add to this the novelty of the snow capped houses and skeletal trees and I'm really enjoying this.
The Canadians appear to take some perverse pleasure in telling me how much worse it's going to get. When I say I'm enjoying the winter they boldly laugh and go on to tell me about the time so much snow fell the army had to come and plow the streets. Or how it's going to get to -20, -30 or even -45 at some point soon, which to someone where the winter gets down to +10 sounds pretty close to the point where atoms stop moving. The Ontarians are not the worst though, anyone who comes from the flat cold middle bit of the country love to tell stories about digging out meters of snow from their doorway before going to work on their snowmobiles.
I'm starting to doubt the authenticity of some of these claims. It's kind of like when Australians tell people we all surf and wrestle crocodiles for fun.
I had my work Christmas party and the band was Kool and the Gang (yes, THE Kool and the Gang), which meant I did lots of not knowing what any of the songs they were singing were expect for Jungle Boogie. I'm assuming they all get together with John Travolta, Uma Thurman and Sam L Jackson every Christmas and give thanks to Tarantino for rescuing their careers. There would be no black Jedi without him.
I had my agency party last night, which was a far more noteworthy affair. They hired out the restaurant at the top of the Manulife Center on Bloor Street, from where I'm told the view usually competes with that from the CN tower. It also coincided with the biggest snow storm we've had thus far and I thought that they had pulled the blinds down when I first got up there. No, that was the wall of snow limiting the visibility to about 10 cms outside the window. Anyway, there was an open bar which more than made up for the lack of view and the fact I didn't really know anyone there. My agent spent a bit of time introducing me to lots of other contractors and man, was there some money in that room. I was starting to wonder why I don't own a Porsche and go skiing in Switzerland but then I remembered I'm not a tosser. It was an interesting bunch but I have to say I'm kind of glad I don't hang out with rich people very often. The walk home from the subway station through the park in the snow was very nice, but I have a feeling it was made more pleasant by the fact I was drunk.
Christmas, as you are probably aware, is approaching with some speed. I decided to take the whole week off in between Christmas and New Years and there isn't going to be much sitting still done. As it common with all the working holiday ex-pattery, we're having an Orphans Christmas Party here and it's a mostly Antipodean affair. Some girls I know have organised an appartment at the Blue Mountain ski resort a couple of hours north of the city so I've decided to go up for Christmas Eve and come back on Christmas Day. I'd already planned a trip up to the resort at Mt Tremblant in Quebec over my week off so I'm fitting all that in. Blue Mountain is supposed to be more of a hill than a mountain so I'd rather go to the best place I can within striking distance of here and try and get some more snowboarding under my belt. My goal this winter is to go from shakey and crap to steady and crap on a snowboard and I think it will be helped by actual snow and long runs rather than hills you can walk up and long queues for the ski lifts. I have been warned Tremblant is very friggin cold so I'm going to go buy thermals and a balacalva this weekend. I'm a little concerned at how on earth you figure out what size thermal underwear you are supposed to buy as I doubt you can try it on.
Problems we just don't have at home, eh?
I'll end up on the note that the Canadians have decided to have yet another election, only 18 months after the last one. If you thought politics was dull at home you should see it here. Not only are half the debates in French, but the leaders have zero charisma and all the policies are so damn sensible. I guess this is the price you pay for good government, dull politicians.