totoro-n-to part iii

well, we're on the train back, 3G service is terrible and our train car's wifi is even less reliable, so here i am on a six+ hour trip with my netbook rendered inferior to my kindle and typing this on my phone. joy. at least i'm finally getting around to this post :P

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wednesday night (17th):

salt and vinegar lays are intensely delicious. i ate most of the large bag - boy, the jokes about the amount of air in them aren't exaggerated - while going through the bombardier career site updating my resume. i must be an expert job hunter now, because i now see why they kept sending me irrelevant listings and weren't interested in me otherwise. oh, twenty-twenty hindsight, you suck.

we got the packing done and hit the hay, worrying because we had absolutely no idea what kind of gift to take with and we didn't want to arrive empty-handed.

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thursday (18th):

after a hurried start and quick travel, we arrived with time to spare. my blood pressure was up because transferring from the metro involved exiting through a luggage turnstile. the button was badly labelled, and once a fellow passenger had shown me how to operate it (good heavens, you'd think the metro official would have noticed) we could only get it to operate intermittently, and decidedly rude people kept coming through the other way (without luggage, and they could see me!) kept me stuck there with my temperature rising until eventually i just went through a normal gate with my 20kg luggage over my head.

assholes.

we sat at a dodgy diner for toast and orange juice, then slipped my iphone under the qr scanner and boarded the train. via's ticket system is awesome, and everyone should use it. fact.

trains are comfy, far better than aeroplanes, they have power sockets and sometimes even wifi. we took four seats, and were joined later by a sweet woman with her super-cute infant that was super-well-behaved until the train ride went into overtime (about half an hour).

i finished off the previous day's lays early on in the ride, searing my tongue with its flavor and having that burned sensation coloring the rest of my day. that didn't stop me from enjoying my swiss mousse-flavored chocolate:
on the jewish festival of simchat torah, tradition demanded that the kids in our synagogue would be handed giant slabs of chocolate because, well, all the adults were getting stupidly merry with whiskey and the little ones deserved to party too. it was after the handout that my lactose-intolerant self went missing one year, and my concerned aunt found herself running around crazily looking everywhere for me. she eventually found me: i had crawled into a secret space beneath a flight of stairs with TWO giant slabs, and was greedily wolfing them down like there was no tomorrow. my aunt, already flustered, flew back to my mother to inform her that trouble was afoot.

"eh, let him be. so he'll be sick!"

my aunt recounted this story to us a few nights ago, which i'd forgotten, and to tell you the truth i've never ceased to be that child under the stairs. pg was horrified when she looked up at me and the slab had disappeared.

i switched books to david wong - this book is full of spiders: seriously, dude, don't touch it, because i'm finding anna karenina boring.

after an email back-and-forth with the immigration lawyers, i had a pleasant chat with one who then sent me good tidings and some useful info along with a quote. the good news? i qualify for the simplified process. the bad news? approximately $2500 in legal fees.

i slept a bit and read some comics, hung on facebook (what an insufferable timesink!) and then we arrived in toronto. an hour late and with half an hour to go before our baggage was unloaded...

rush hour in the toronto subway system is madness, and my belly was unhappy. it took ages to find a food court with coffee and restrooms, but once we did we were ready to... shop for a gift. pg had a flash of inspiration and we wrapped up a pretty candle in a glass vase. [we discovered last night that they have a vast collection of similar vases stored in the basement. oh, well.]

getting on the right train was easy but we'd have to wait for my cousin who was stuck in a crazy traffic jam that had gridlocked the whole of north toronto. we'd spend another half an hour or so trying to go around it before eventually arriving at the house to pick up his wife and go out for dinner.

when we came home he taught me to use his professional coffee machine and then the ins and outs of canadian construction as i made holes in their wall looking for the source of the rainwater that was leaking into their kitchen. he's an engineer with some very cool toys, that man.

after all that studying, i cut my ridiculous beard down to size and passed out on the very different bed in our plush, elegant guest rooms.

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friday (19th):

after a late sleep with dreams out of ready player one, we enjoyed a good breakfast followed by a discussion about who should pay the legal fees. i decided to consult with my aunt, and i'm very glad i did that before hinting to the boss that it would be on them. lawyers are an optional extra and the person who's choosing that path is me.

pg and i wanted to head into town, so we stopped for a pretty good lunch at mr. sub - apparently the worst, but not in our experience - and then caught the loooong bus to finch station. there we organized a day pass which is good value for money.

we landed up in eaton center, for clothing and book stores. we headed outside to discover that toronto's downtown can be really pretty (though either my camera was misbehaving or i was on the phone with my mother so i can't prove it). we wanted a snack and drinks but after waiting five minutes in a nice-looking place while some old guy flirted with the guy behind the counter we lost patience and headed back home.

it took two hours to get back home. it always takes at least that, and it's expensive because my cousins live in vaughan, which is kinda the next city over...

we were just in time for a vegan friday night dinner, and i was asked to say kiddush which made me so nervous that i couldn't pour the wine afterwards because my hands were shaking so badly.

i restored my sense of security by constructing a small fortress wall using whiskey, wine, beer and coffee.

we went to bed early, me with sore legs and a midnight pizza dream sensation with distinct acid-like awareness of my mortality.