Second Shot

The delights of Toronto were to be had by myself and Dan at the expense of a pump company who have been specified within one of our projects. That, and building a good rapport with them, of course. Instead of me, it was supposed to be John but he had already made other holiday arrangements. Then it should have been Xinyi but visa issues grounded her. So it fell to me to pick up the freebie holiday and I’m glad I did.

I’ve been to Toronto before but this was different than going with the family. Although the idea was to attend a day-and-half of seminars on Thursday and Friday (which we did, of course), we stayed until Sunday (in fact, Monday – you’ll read why later) and made the most of our trip there. Who really wants to travel solely for seminars and bugger off back to miserable UK. Certainly not us, and we met up with some decent people from other departments of the pump company. But boy, was it knackering (in a good way) and all those buffets certainly do my waist line any good. It felt like all we were doing was eating and travelling between places.

Meeting Mitch and Scott from our Toronto office was our extracurricular task whilst away on the jolly – great guys, they were. Although we never managed to have a walk around the office (that is on the water front of Lake Ontario!), seeing the office reception was pretty jaw-dropping in itself (compared to ours – and ours is not that bad!).

A quick(!) visit to CN Tower was had on Friday before we ventured to a local grill and sports bar, played some pool and fussball, and got chatting to a couple of ridiculously good-looking waitresses (who kept distracting me and hence contributing to my poor performance at fussball… honest!). In fact, I won’t even bother to mention the other ridiculous number of fantastic looking ladies out there – I might have to take a secondment.

We got a drenching on Saturday thanks to a visit through the mist of Niagara Falls (I think my camera came out drier than we did), a nauseating view over the restaurant balcony in the Sheraton Hotel, and then a motion-sickness-inducing dinner in the revolving restaurant in the CN Tower. I think the others were fine but for me, looking down to cut food knowing you’re moving (but can’t see it) doesn’t make for the best environment. The night-time view was something else, though.

And come Sunday, our last day there, we each went for a stroll our separate ways. Nothing planned, except Dan phones up to ask if Keith (our pump company representative who had been taking us out) had phoned. Nope. Happens that Keith has another $600 of expenses that need using up. So what does he do? Checks through the leaflets at the concierge desk before asking them “Do you do helicopter tours?”

So, having seen the skyscraper-ridden city from the ground, from ‘mid-level’ at the CN Tower, we’re now viewing down upon the city on a short helicopter tour above (nearly) everything. And – fucking hell! – it was incredibly awesome. I’ve been on a helicopter ride down the Grand Canyon, but seeing a huge, huge city like it was a postcard view is something else. Completely and totally. I know it’s easy for me to say, what with it being an all-expenses paid holiday – but you really have to do something like this. And sunny Sunday Toronto is probably as good as any other city to start.

Unfortunately, it didn’t quite end on this high. Air Canada oversold the number of seats on our plane, we turned up later than we probably should have, and we were left stranded in Toronto without a flight until 12-hours later for a morning departure. Not too happy, knackered from a full five days of events, travelling and fun, we got a compensated hotel room and a decently sized air travel voucher. Lost a whole day but oh well.

Still, I highly recommend that you go visit. It’s a really friendly place although a little quiet at night-time for those of you looking from some after-dark fun. But you can’t beat having five-straight days of sunny 23-degree-Celsius weather; I hope that’s made you jealous.

If you go down to the Thames this weekend, you’ll find an array of fun things to watch and do. The Thames Festival is on and is celebrating all things London and multicultural.

Actually watching people perform Free-Running was pretty impressive although there wasn’t much of it; a few moves were shown but the size of the climbing frame (although big) clearly limited what they could do. Still, watching someone handstand on railings, then pushing up and away into a Kong and backward somersault definitely deserved a round of applause. And so did PeteBox (the human beatbox) and his loop-machine. It’s one thing to watch it on TV but to see them live is great fun; really does put a smile on your face.

And something else that did the same, and to everyone else who was watching, was Ye-Gam Inc.’s martial-arts slapstick comedy ‘JUMP‘. I’ve tried searching for other showings but alas – and a big shame – I cannot; however, the company seem to be doing a number of other productions which could be equally as impressive. Irrelevant, get-your-own-back-on-burglars-plot, breaking-the-fourth-wall-yet-not, Charlie-Chaplin-non-verbal, comical-farce of a show; it’s like a classic slapstick Jackie Chan movie but live on stage, no strings attached. An amazing amount of thought clearly went into the production as it played out and exaggerated so many key things that we come to connect with martial arts. The crowd absolutely loved it with whoops, cheers, gasps and laughter; like queuing up for beer, everyone was jostling for a better view, slipping in to gaps made by people leaving (why were you leaving!?), tip-toeing up over shoulders. My calves are aching today but it was so, so worth it. I implore you to go and see it, however you can.

Tracy Emin and her recycled tree was out on display, with children (and adults) being asked to write wishes and pledges on flags for all to see. Southwark Bridge was closed for a bridge-long dining table arrangement with food stalls dotted on both the north- and south-sides. Tango lessons and shows were on outside the Tate Modern. And so much else is – was, I guess I should say now – on to see. Definitely a good day out and hopefully it’ll be just as good next year.

Blaire says that, for the next three months, I’m going to get female-related mental anguish (read: hell) (paraphrasing, of course).

Oh joy…

Sunday was the day of the second ever Great British Duck Race down at the Molesey Lock by Hampton Court Bridge. Trying to beat their previous record, the sponsored charity event saw 250,000 blue plastic ducks (because they are easier to see than the yellow ones of last year, apparently) being thrown into the lock ready for the 1:30pm start.

Now, imagine, a quarter of a million ducks. Sitting. Waiting, for the gates to open. And then, creakingly, they do! And off they go. Drifting. Really, really slowly.

This and ‘race’ to the end (where the winner was probably 10 metres ahead of its competition) are the visual definitions of the word ‘anticlimax’. The most exciting bit was actually getting right by the riverside (there’s a dedicated a racecourse put down on one side of the River Thames) just after Hampton Court Bridge and getting close enough to the ‘floaters’ to have your peripheral vision completely taken up by the blue ducks. I don’t think you could ever imagine a quarter of a million things until you actually see it.

Find some more photos here.

It was nice to see a whole load of people out there, braving the wind and rain, vaguely cheering and bantering at the ducks. You question as to how you’ve managed to convince yourself that standing around watching blue plastic ducks float down for a kilometer for a couple of hours actually constitutes a good day out. But it did, because other people were thinking the same thing. So, for some reason, it didn’t actually seem all that bad.

The main thing is that I’m enjoying these random days out, and using my camera in a rough-and-ready way. I’ve kind of given up trying to be overly protective of it – it’s not worthwhile and I reckon I’m getting better pictures this way. Hopefully, with my new Canon 70-300mm lens, I’ll be able to show you some even better photographs.