11 hours from here

Going to book some time off for October, we always go away for our wedding anniversary in September but for the first time in 10 years WORK will get in the way.
This was last year in Long Island New York. Due to George and the fact that Canada is on the big side we will be driving North East for a few well earned days off.
It`s the last day of the "Taste of the Danforth" festival, and it will be good to get rid of the hoards, might wander down to see if any of the drinks promo teams are giving stuff away.
David Beckham is alledgedly injured again having managed 19 minutes last week in his debut, there is said to be a meteor shower tonight, so will look for the binoculars.
As the token English person in a workforce of rounders* supporters, I have been solicited to indulge in the football fantasy pool, apparently it`s August already, that means it`s nearly time for the other football and the Eagles, and bt Christmas we should know if Alberto Contador has joined Landis as the two men who may or may not have won the tour de France......
*baseball

Starbucks 171!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From U tube this guy answers the question, How many Starbucks stores are there in Manhattan, and can I visit them all in one day?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwYxuV2dVzw&eurl=

all of the cake

We have a basic cable tv package, which means that we don`t get HBO, CNN , Al jazera, or the first run of almost anything. What we do get is a good insight into US politics, far to much weather, some good Canadian programs that they wont bother with in the US or anywhere else.
HOWEVER, here in the ether I can listen to absolutley anything on the internet, watch a huge amount of stuff on U tube, read all the worlds papers( those published in my first and only language). So why bother with TV, hmm.............

going to hell in a handcart

just like one of the wicked witches I can feel myself melting, its is moving on to 35 and the heat warning is all over the tv again giving the local 24 hour news channel something to talk about bringing in countless weather experts to say , cominng up after the break its still hot.
The city is rapidly running out of answers for the huge amount of debt it is in. They considered taking overtime off the Police, closing one of the four subway lines , and have actually started closing the library on Sundays( UNLESS THERE IS A HEAT WAVE IN WHICH CASE OT WILL HAVE TO BE OPEN TO KEEP THE PENSIONERS ALIVE)..next it will be no more snow removal, but it still remains illegal to shovel your snow onto the pavement or the roadway or your neighbours property, I am not sure if the snow falling on my front "garden" belongs to me or the city as its their land......................

This is a secret bunker I have whittled out of the sandy soil bebneath the house, looking carefully you can see all the tree roots that make the growing of plants in the front garden an impossibility.
There are plans to extend it the five miles to work to enable me to keep cycling in the winter..............

Roof

Apparently this shows the difference between DIY and the pro`s, at the junction between ours and the neighbour`s flat roof. The mistake there is flat roof, but he has dealt with it admirably ane we have a roofing guy coming around in the morning/
Still typing with one finger here but hope to go live with both hands before Christmas, asdf..................

At long last I have my hands on a copy of the typing of the dead, a quick test shows my one fingered skills to be at the dizzy heights of seven words per minute . Yesterday, whilst writing a report a superior ( and lets face it they are all superior to me) was struck dumb, but gathered to hide his embarassment by stating that he wouldn`t take me in his Dept.

Well aside from not really wanting to go there, I am now learning to type as previously wished for on this blog.

Twenty years ago I got to the dizzy height of actually being able to do it, however slow, but stopped practicing for a life , or at least a beer or two.

So If I have the muscles in there somewhere I am going to forget that I can write and spell without spellcheck and join the 1990`s ( my college work was written in a beautiful fountain pen in the mid eighties).

Off to relax my arms...............

The day after Canada Day

Yesterday was my second Canada day, marked by the fact that I had to work 12 hours and got very hungry.





Should we should be thankful to the government that it passed without any of the pesky terrorist trouble currently blighting the motherland?
We should be thankful anyway, and keep on trying to be a moderate multi racial country with great weather and a nice line in keeping our neighbours to the south sane.
The tree outside my house now has 4 baby racoons it, the tour de France starts on le weekend ( they even have a Canadian in it) the tomato`s are comming on nicely life is good.
If only I could eat at a civilized hour...........

Found Vice TV!

Spent an hour wandering around Vice TV, Canadian version, does that make it hipper than its US stock.

http://www.vbs.tv/

George eats things...

George likes to chew, anything at all. I got this back thing from the drug store when a bout of sciatica brought on by too much driving started to become a problem. Now George sleeps with his head on it and my back pain is assuaged by lots of walking with former.
He seems to be popular down at my local park , he stays on the leash as his popularity and general friendly nature mean he is a good candidate for just running off with someone else who will feed him or at least give him something to chew. My last dog once caught a baby sparrow , George harrasses squirrels and has mexican standoffs with some of the bigger neighbourhood cats. At 10.8 Kg he has just got to bulk up to 11 Kg for the vet. to be able to give him the full dose of medicine, consequently he had some pizza yesterday and is no stranger to ice cream...

One month of Apathy, broken by a smog advisory!

Over one month has gone by since the last post, too hot ,to tired to much time at work!
Well today is far too hot, so much so that I am stuck in the cellar ( basement to my Canadian friends) with George, who is acting up in the heat and covered in mud from digging in the garden after insisting on following me out to water the plants. We have no real inclination to get air conditioning (apart from last night when it was bastard hot, It was 28 degrees at three in the morning).
There is a "heat advisory" , paired up with one for smog and one for the humidex number.
We are now officially in summer having had the summer equinox, Canada started spring on May 24th then June 21st is Summer?
I was going to do an equinox blog when I saw the pictures of revellers in the rain at Stonehenge.
Today is either the first or second day of Wimbledon so it will be raining in London, and all is well with the world.
My colleagues at work are mostly on face book, but I am sure that`s just to be in with the in crowd, not my crowd at all, mine is the anonymity of a blog that attracts no attention like 99% of them which is as it should be. Some seriously good writing, eh skookum, goes largely ignored by the Canadian idol crowd .
Saw the bloke who started Vice. TV on " The Hour" last night, that`s the second time it has been mentioned in my prescence, enough to go looking for it..................

England

There it is in the late autumn of 2005. This Is Hadrians wall built on the orders of the emperor Hadrian ( 76-138AD), the Northern frontier of Roman Britain for 250 years.
The left of the photo is Scotland, in it`s treeless splendour.
Weather here in Toronto will hit 30 tomorrow with a smog warning already in place, George is too hot to bite anymore, and another plus the tomatos and lone sunflower are feeling pretty solid.
Toronto FC host the might that was Benfica tonight , and still they wait for Beckham to cross the continnent from home in LA, due here in August!
Might go for a bike ride to see if the Don Valley trail to the waterfront is open yet, its taken over two years to fix about ten feet of path...............

It`s happened again. Last time the local radio station picked me as the winner of a free wine tasting for 15 people. The pimply youth at the radio station had to give the answer to the skill testing question when it became obvious to him that his day had ground to a halt watching me chew his pencil.

This time the prize is not in Niagara but here in town, tickets to the baseball which is just starting up again. It clashes with work for me and nobody else in the house wants to go, however next door are keen, so here we go again with the calculus...........

George arrives from the pound

George, a stray then adopted and returned for being a bit of a handful arrives................

What does the FC stand for, in Toronto FC?

Fantastic news ,as mentioned WAAY back Toronto has a football team, and not the Buffalo Bills getting pushed two hours down the road from sleepy Buffalo to the big city.
Toronto FC , a colleague actually asked me what the FC stood for , and the thought "it was kinda lame"
They`ve sold out 14,000 season tickets, and had a crowd of over 20,000 for yesterdays home debut against the not lamely named Kansas City WIZARDS.
CBC carried the game and had the good sense to have an English commentator to keep a lid on the tendancy of most North American commentators to get over reliant on statistics. I have to say they did a good job, the crowd did a GREAT job! I closed my eyes and it sounded like football, there is no other sound like it, even the weather cool and blustery added to the authentic product, I think we have a winner........................

This is Ninety

That was the aim way back, the first 90 days are the hardest. It has taken close to 290 , with many of them unreadable, still what do I care, it`s just an excuse to publish a picture of a dog which caused a great stir just by walking around town breathing............

grabbed from the ether

The word is there is something to be heard here, must consult the web guru to get it audible...

Typing of the dead

Way back on the 4th day of April, I mentioned the above "learn to type software" based on the living dead zombie film, you type what is in the boxes in lieu of shooting them and it has the same result.

It`s incredibly hard to get hold of though only published in 2001. I am convinced it must be sat in a bin somewhere for $1.99 along with countless other pc games which as well as being antiques of greater than 1 year are also not ps 5 , wii , are other blue toothed trends.

I saw an article entitled are dvd`s going the same way as cd`s? WHERE THE HELL have cd`s gone, the shops are full of them.

Here in Toronto you can buy cassette tapes and especially vinyl everywhere, mind you North America isa bit behind as not all cell phones have cameras.

For now I am still largely on one finger, waiting for easier keyboards or voice activated systems, and I still know several colleagues who were born into a world where owning a watch was just only necessary as fashion jewellry so they never bothered.

Search those bargain bins, the cheapest pc example on e bay is $110! this is at least $100 too much, happy hunting....

Nowhere to put it

Been really slacking off on the posts this year.

For the first three months I was away but there is no excuse for April -now that le Printemps is here.

The weather is glorious for a second day out on the deck , inside it is better for my sunburn!

We are looking for a pet from the local humane society and city animal shelters, the have websites but the accuracy of one is suspect , so every 48 hours I am down en velo for a check.

We have missed two dogs we both liked, both taken by more agressive people putting holds on them, now we know the rules!

Both dogs had poodle in them though were vastly different in size, both had a certain undiscernable factor.

Reading a book sent over by a dog loving friend all about the arctic wilderness, coincidentally I was reading it when I got burnt. Just got to the bit about the huskies. The photo`s confirm that some huskies do not have the piercing blue eyes . In the early days of the search we passed up a beautiful three year old with one blue and one brown eye. We shall keep looking, see a lot of them on the streets (presumably from breeders) strangely they are often wearing boots like 50% of the dogs here in deep winter, or is it just the ones in our yuppie neighbourhood?

We both want one with character, we can train it not to pull (too) much but will probably keep it on a leash all the time we are here in the city. I have seen a lot of people running with their huskies and think I could really go for that as I have to run anyway and the local gym is expensive , I can think of a lot more things to do with $70 a month.

Off to check the web sites.........

Cycling season back!

While it never goes away, even here in Canada, it came back yesterday with my first ride of 2007. I didnt realise how much I missed it whilst being mired in work for three months.
Many years ago a friend cycled from London to Australia , it seems barely credible, but I was there( in green ) to witness the start.
Since then lots of training a few short triathlons and a short stint as a bicycle paramedic, brought me to Canada, a year of grinding to work, the only bit of a tedious job I enjoyed, and NOW it`s back to fun a hopefully a summer of cruising to work in the big city......