Great news pending...

I can't tell you yet, because I need to see it all happen before I believe it, but stay tuned for a reason to P-A-R-T-Y!!!


(As if we ever really need one.)

G20 aftermath

This was Queen Street West in downtown Toronto early Sunday afternoon.

Mostly empty streets, about a dozen boarded up storefronts, and police on every corner, usually rifling through the backpacks of pedestrians and cyclists.
This follows yesterday's protests during which dozens of black-clad 'anarchists' (more accurately, 'idiots') smashed storefronts, set police cars on fire, and threatened people who tried to stop them. Meanwhile, the police were performing illegal searches of people, strong-arming non-violent protesters, and shooting people with rubber bullets.

Today, while police massed outside the Eaton Centre (recent busloads pictured above), neighbouring Nathan Phillips Square wasn't giving in. The Toronto Jazz Festival is on, and a sizable crowd gathered to enjoy awesome tunes, and basically give the disruptive protesters a communal, figurative middle-finger.

Following the groovy tunes, I cycled around the downtown for a couple of hours. I was not questioned by police, even when I was standing opposite the fencing that surrounds the G20 security zone (below), but that could also be due to my genial demeanour, ready smile for police, and Aussie accent. 

The only time I was stopped was while I was being a good samaritan, trying to find out for a couple of tourists if airport shuttles were running (they were, but no idea where the usual pick-up points were behind wire fences). The police were largely friendly, and the only officer who was being brusque brightened considerably when I explained I was doing a favour for random strangers. He still wouldn't let me cycle north on Bay Street though, despite the fact people were still coming south. I had to go over to Yonge, head north for a number of blocks, then go west and back south on Bay. Make sense of that, eh?

As the hapless tourists headed to the subway, I went back to Yonge Street, where I then somehow got involved in a bicycle protest. I was happy enough to go along with it for a bit, as it seemed they were protesting the G20 goons as much as they were protesting any worldly wrongs. But then some of them started mouthing off at attending media, and I got out of there. I'm all for peaceful rebukes of violent protest. I'm dead against blatant idiocy and the lambasting of the people whose attention such protests are meant to attract.

Idiots.

As I waited for the straggling cyclists to go past, I overheard a police scanner message mentioning rubber bullets being fired. Sounded like a good time to get out of dodge. Turning homewards, I was overtaken by a flurry of unmarked police vans, a busload of more cops, and the rolling out of the horsey squad.

 

Once out of the downtown, the town was pretty much back to normal. Soccer fans cheered, brunchers munched, and sparse but cheerful crowds browsed through shops. In my neighbourhood, children laughed and played on the virtually derelict streets.

It's a beautiful Sunday in Toronto. If only the G20 delegates had been able to see it.

One Year Wonderful

When people ask me what it's like to be married -- it happens on fairly regular occasion -- I tell them the secret no-one told me: It's amazing. The deepening love and happiness that greets T. and I each day is a true wonder, and something I hoped for but never really expected.
We celebrated our first anniversary on Sunday, a week after our 'earlyversary' weekend escape to Collingwood, Ont. It was beautiful and simple and good and true, like our love has proven to be. 
It must seem sickeningly sweet, or naively optimistic, but being married has changed our lives. I would still love T. just as much if we were not married, our life would be as lovely and joyous, but there is something special about making this bond with another human. My heart is safely in his care, and his in mine, and we can meet each day holding hands and gazing at the beautiful horizon.
Blessed, we are.
I hope you are too.

In the treetops during our eco-earlyversary adventure

PS: We created an anniversary tradition! Each year, we're going to choose a celebratory scotch or whiskey, to savour on the day (and however many other days it lasts... ;)
This years is The Balvenie. There's something impressive about a scotch that insists on a definite article. The Balvenie 12yo Signature. Delicious!

Sunshine and lollipops

Big news! It's with much excitement and some trepidation that I can now report my residency application is in its final stages. My passport is en route to Sydney as I type, in order to get my papers. Eleven months after this stupid life-shock began, we are almost at the end of the road.
I have no idea what to make of it! It feels like the past year has barely existed -- all that frustration, dashed hope, endless budgeting and angst-ridden analysis of my place in this beautiful, beautiful world has simply disappeared. 
Looking at T. and thinking of all we've been through, I couldn't help but tear up and be so thankful for everything we have, and everything we've built during this crazy, wonderful, maddening year. Yes, I've learned that the government is stupid, feckless and intrinsically non-sensical, but what bureaucracy took away shortly after our wedding, the world has returned ten-fold for our first anniversary.


Expect one heck of a celebration once I get my Permanent Resident card!!!
Yeehaa!!!

This is how I'm feeling!!

An explosive morning

The house on the corner exploded this morning. Literally.
There was a huge boom about 3 a.m. and our apartment shook. I know this because T. told me. I slept through it, drowsily waking when T. went to the window and came back reporting massive flames. Bleary-eyed, he called 911 while I tried to work out if I needed to start gathering up our wedding pics. In the end, we donned our shoes and ran onto the street to see if anyone needed help.
If they did, there was nothing we could do. The place was an utter fireball, the inferno reaching high into the sky and sending embers floating over the neighbouring homes. 

The remaining wall, several hours later

Windows blasted out of their frames lay on the street, glass littered the road, and one car parked nearby had a shattered window from the blast. Within about 20 minutes, the roof collapsed and the whole thing disintegrated.

T. was on his blackberry, filing a short hit for the newspaper's website. I momentarily wondered if I should get my camera, then decided against it. It just seemed so voyeuristic, especially as we didn't yet know if anyone was inside. (The house was empty, thankfully.) Of course, now I wish I had taken pics because it was just so damned strange and freaky an occurrence. Oh well.
Here's a photo of the smouldering debris, taken about 10 a.m. today. What had been a handsome 100+ year old home is now ruins, the immediate neighbours likely thanking their very lucky stars.

Firefighters hose the smoldering ruins of the house five-doors down, its window blown onto the footpath.

No word as yet on what caused the explosion, but a few people in the neighbourhood did smell gas yesterday morning. All we know for sure is that even the seemingly indestructible can disappear before your eyes.

Gimme a G! Gimme a 20!

Toronto is in the midst of a peculiarly Torontonian melt-down. This city is to host the G20 meeting at the end of June. After spouting off for months about how this proves we are a 'world standard city', the place is now hitting panic mode and getting set to flee for the hills.
Hundreds of politicians, aides, reporters, lackeys and other various hangers-on are set to descend on the downtown core on the weekend - yes, weekend - of June 26 and 27. 
So what's everyone doing? FREAKING OUT!!!! The national trains have announced they will skip town, the fancy art gallery is closing its doors, theatre productions are canceled, massive fences are being erected around a great chunk of the city core, and there was discussion of removing thousands of bicycle locks from downtown streets lest they be uprooted from the concrete and used as weapons (or, heaven forbid, have bicycles locked to them). Meanwhile, the 'official protest site' keeps getting moved about, and at this rate will end up somewhere just shy of the Arctic circle. 
As a non-native Torontonian, I am greatly amused by all of it. Toronto swaggers about, one thumb draped oh-so-casually from its belt loop, peering out from its mirrored shades to see what the rest of the world makes of its studied nonchalance and perfectly unperfect coif. But after telling the world about its massive June house party, the threat of gate crashers has everyone running for cover. 
So much will be barricaded, closed or crippled by the city-wide klaxon instructing residents to avoid the downtown that our guests will likely step outside their hotels, see a few tumbleweeds bounce by, and wonder how anyone can possibly live in such a wasteland of civilization.


To anyone who's coming to the big G20 gab-and-pic-fest, I assure you this is a cool town. It's just got a massive confidence problem, and desperate need to be liked. Give it a little encouragement, and it'll open right up.
To the people who'll actually be here throughout, bloody toughen up already! Yes, a few glasses might get broken at the mega nerd house party, but that doesn't mean you should cancel the whole shindig. Just find a bloody dustpan, keep it handy and party on!