Month: August 2014

Although it will be cheaper than my friend Brian’s estimate of $45, a ride on the new express train between Union Station and Pearson Airport may be set too high. Obviously, to be of use to most of us, the trip must cost significantly less than a trip for two in a limo.
From our place, a limo ride costs around $70. That’s $35 each to have service to our door. If we wrestled our luggage onto the TTC, rode to Union Station ($5 for two, one senior), it would take us at least half an hour to get there. Add the 25 minutes promised to ride to the airport and 15 minutes between each train departure and we’d be at Pearson in one hour and ten minutes. The limo is faster AND easier.
If the train ticket cost, say, $15, we could hump our luggage to the streetcar, then from the street into the train station and reach the airport for $35. For a mere $5.00, though, the two of us can go TTC to Pearson all the way, bypassing the new, “fast” train altogether.
What if we liked the limo front door service and tried to match it by taking a $28 cab ride to Union? If they set the train price as high as $20, our cost would be virtually the same as the limo cost. No point using the train.
So Brian’s expectation that the “The train will be a money losing disaster, methinks.” may well be correct.

On a nice day, this is an ideal location for the Leslieville Flea Market. It moves around, you know. We last visited when it was in the Distillery District. Outside, under good light, it was much easier to see all the old stuff. I liked the tools, Danica the jewels.
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You may notice that I was more interested in the surroundings than in items for sale. Frankly, most of the offerings were pretty typical … old clothes, handmade necklaces and rings, leather belts. There were some old farm implements, which I always like to look at, but nothing I hadn’t seen many times before. I guess that’s the problem. A lot of the stuff looks like things in my basement or stuff I tossed out years ago. For younger customers, maybe there’s an appeal that I can’t feel.

Above is a lovely shot Danica took. It didn’t fit the slide show format and to crop it would have been a shame.

Some major downtown streets were barred to cars and opened up to pedestrians, roller bladers and cyclists today, between 8:00 a.m, and noon. We got to see familiar sites from a new perspective.
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We started at Bloor and St. George, walking east to Yonge Street. In the last shot you see Tiny Perfect former Mayor Crombie talking to Olivia Chow. David Soknacki was out there campaigning, too. No sign of the Ford brothers, of course. They hate this kind of “war on cars” stuff. Some war. Four hours on a Sunday morning.

Not great video, but it gives you a taste … and you can play “Where’s Danica?”. We enjoyed ourselves. The event will be repeated on August 31st.

I meant to post this mural the other day, after a visit to a local railside community garden.

It’s big. Those 3 panels could be 4′ x 8′ panels. The whole thing hangs high on a brick wall, much more faded than I am showing it (thanks, Photoshop) and it overlooks the gardeners as they work below.

It’s signed Steve McCabe 3. A quick internet search led to this, and more.

I could write to Steve McCabe, and maybe I will, but for now I think I’ll just put up this post and see if he finds it.

Rob Ford hates public facilities like this restroom atop Corktown Common. There are 700 trees in the new park. Why can’t people just pee on those like the mayor does? Do we even need 700 trees? There wouldn’t be lineups if we only had 100, so 600 of those trees are pure gravy.
Other gravy in this mound of taxpayer dollars include spongy, springy, rubberized hills and swings for children to play on. That’s a water park in the foreground. A network of winding paths and stairways flank green landscapes and rock-rimmed ponds. I heard a bullfrog croak. How much did HE cost?

Coolish weather made a perfect day for pedalling, so we challenged ourselves to a ride through the downtown construction maze to the Distillery District. It was pleasant getting there, most of the way … lakeside bike paths, greenery and breezes. We had to walk the bikes on Parliament after crossing Lakeshore Boulevard. Two blocks, not bad.

I wanted to show Danica a new park just east of the District but there was NO WAY we could find through the dust and dump trucks. Traffic is a total mess down there. We both agree that it’s going to be an excellent ride when all of the Pan Am Games work is finished next year.

A decommissioned East End factory has, for years, displayed an odd mural to drivers on the Gardiner Expressway. It is too faded and complex to really see from a speeding car, so I am slowing it down for you.
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Mouseover the best view to hold and examine the details. You’ll see that the picture is intended to give you a cutaway view of the interior of the building. A worker gazes at the skyline toward the CN Tower. Except that you are facing away from the CN Tower as you look “through” the cutout. Facing the way you are, and using your x-ray vision, you would be seeing the workman’s face and the room behind him. Heck, you wouldn’t even need x-ray vision … the guy is in a window.
The whole concept is so weird, I wonder, did they make drugs in that factory?

How does Tim Horton’s new dark roast go over with me? I wasn’t a fan of their usual brew.
Surprise! I liked the new stuff. It tasted like an “artisanal” coffee I bought earlier in the day.
Now, if they could just stop the jingoistic flag-waving in their advertising …

Denise and Dennis Lim pose with the “Helen Andersen” gouache they chose for their home in Ottawa. It’s a signed original done in 1982 as part of Helen’s Mt. Newton Series. The series consists of compositions, somewhat abstract, with landscape elements and colours drawn from the district in which Helen lived … Vancouver Island’s Saanich Peninsula.
Denise is Thorne Won’s sister, for any of you who are keeping track. She and Dennis are very pleased with their piece and have given it a prominent place on their walls. We, in turn, are happy to see Helen’s work on display in yet another city, being enjoyed by a charming couple.

Helen Andersen would have been pleased. A signed lithograph of her oil pastel painting The Spirit Moves Him To Dance will hang in the Gathering Place at Selkirk College. It was given as a gift by Helen’s daughter Joni who shares her mother’s respect and appreciation for First Nations culture.