Perhaps I should wear a carnation while I'm doing this

I really want to get these Europe pictures done so I can move on to finishing the blog posts and catching up on my Toronto pictures. Oh god, it's never-ending. Anyway, I pushed to finish my Oxford photos as soon as I'd finished with London. No doubt there are any number of typos.

I loved Oxford. I want to go back and try punting again. I also would like to take a guided tour of the Bodleian Library, one or two of the themed walking tours -- can you believe I didn't make it to Eagle and the Child Pub where Tolkien and Lewis met with the Inklings? And Blenheim Palace isn't far away. I'll be back.

Oxford 2010

On to Bath. Which means I have to re-listen to all the downloaded audio tours so I know what I'm looking at.

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In other news, I finished French Revolutions by Tim Moore, which as you recall I started reading too late for the LGRAB Summer Games. I bring this up because while I didn't win anything in the Games, I guess I was so awesome they featured me again! Hee. They also featured Hyedie of Cupcake Ride fame.


By the way, should you decide to do your own Tour de France bike tour, may I suggest that a) you are nuts and b) you look at Duvine Tours? They're the company I biked through Provence with last year and they are amazing.

School starts in just over a week. I went to a great workshop in Sudbury a few weeks ago that I hope will make this coming year truly amazing. Of course, that means I have to pack a tonne of prepping into next week.

Who needs sleep?

Another mystery solved

I figured out why I seemed to have taken as many pictures in my 2 1/2 days in Athens as I did in my 5 days in London. It's not that I took so many pictures in Athens (although I kinda did); it's more that I took so few in London. I couldn't take photos at four of the places I visited: Westminster Abbey, Tate Britain, St. Paul's, and the National Gallery. And naturally, not during the shows. So that explains the dearth of photos.

This is leading up to my saying that, finally, my London photos are up. I did a hell of a lot during those 5 days. No wonder I was tired Sunday after having done "only three things."

London 2010

Oxford next. Fortunately, I've already finished the punting video.

Look at the baby guitar!

I finally made it out to the Corktown Uke Jam again last night. Manitoba Hal gave a blues workshop and then knocked my socks off with with gems like this. I can now shuffle. Just not like this.


I've been shamefully neglecting my guitar for the ukulele. Due to its portability and the fact that it doesn't seem to matter if I don't sound awesome (and due to the fact that this happened the last time I took my guitar to school), I've been playing uke almost exclusively at "performances": Teacher Talent show, Coffee Haus, Lindystock. At Eric's cottage, I played his mother's ukulele and promptly became dissatisfied with my cheepo green Mahalo. It didn't sound mellow and lovely. I figured the time had finally come to upgrade.

One last task...

The lovely ladies at LGRAB are awarding the prizes for the summer games this week, and today I was one of the featured players! More internet fame awaits! I haven't actually won anything yet, but I'm crossing my fingers that the Po Campo bag will be mine.

I was really hoping to do all the tasks, but at the end of the games I was left with this:

That glaring, non-crossed out item has been bothering me. It's especially awful since I am a great reader* and this should have been the easiest task on my list.

I initially wasn't even going to touch it, since I've sort of vowed not to read or acquire any new books until I'd made a sizable dent on the pile of unread books I already own. However, as more and more items got crossed off, the lure of having them all crossed off was too great. I caved. With only a few days to go before the end of the games, surely I could find a book about cycling. I have a bike-repair manual, but I wanted to read something along the lines of Peter Mayle, Frances Mayes, or MFK Fisher. You know: travel and food, with cycling thrown in.** A quick Google search showed me lots of books about racing, maintenance, and advocacy, but then I ran across French Revolutions by Tim Moore. It's kind of a travelogue about a Brit who decides to ride the Tour de France course. Perfect on several counts!

Naturally, I ran into difficulties. The Toronto Library has only two copies, and there were three holds on it, so no luck there. As it's ten years old, its not in Toronto bookstores, except possibly for used bookstores which don't have their catalogue on the web. Amazon had it, but only through a third-party seller. I decided to order it and hope for the best. It would have been so lovely if the book had arrived in time for me to take it to the beach and blog about it by the end of the games, but that was not to be.

The book was waiting for me when I got home from Sudbury last Friday and I've already read the first few chapters. It's very funny. He embarqued on his journey with rather less training than I did when I had the crazy idea to cycle to Inverhuron two years ago. I wasn't sure how much I could like someone who has never heard of the goodness that is a Fig Newton, but his story-telling and humour have won me over.

So even though I haven't quite finished it, I feel that I can finally cross that last niggling task of the list.

*Although I do take pleasure in many things.

**There is a section in A Year in Provence where they do some cycling, but I didn't really think that would count.

Did someone say baklava?

In the midst of all this biking stuff, the faithful reader, that is to say, Aged P, may be wondering what's been happening with my European photos. The answer was: er, not much, I'm afraid. I kind of let that slide. I know you are shocked.

However! I spent just 8 hours on a bus, not all at once, getting to and from Inverhuron and I used that time to get my Athens and Delphi photos done and started on my London photos! It's very helpful that I actually have a laptop whose battery lasts that long. It's been quite the experience for me.

So the Greek photos are all done, and I am now allowed to have baklava and blood of the pigeon tea from Arabesque*. I had some of the tea last week, but I did not have baklava and so I was not cheating. At all.

I'm still trying to figure out how I took over 500 pictures in Athens in only 2 1/2 days -- it's as many as I took in London, and I was there for twice as long. Let's just say there are lots of pictures of carved rocks.

Athens 2010

The Delphi pictures are dominated by the incredible views. Go to Delphi.

Delphi 2010

Sadly, Arabesque is closed on Mondays, and I'm leaving for Sudbury for a few days, so I won't be able to enjoy the baklava until the end of the week. When I also hope to enjoy the cream tea that will be my reward for finishing the England pictures.

Tally ho!

*I know, I know. It's not a Greek restaurant. But... baklava!

Veni, vidi, Bixi (LGRAB #5)

I was hoping to space out the LGRAB activities a bit more over the two weeks, but it seems that I am maintaining my long-standing tradition of getting everything done at the last second.

The Bixi bike-share program works this way: there are a number of bike stations with bikes and free docks. You pay $5/day (or buy a 3-, 30-day, or yearly subscription) and you can take an unlimited number of trips within that period. The first 30 minutes are free. It gets really expensive after that, but the idea is that you bike someplace within 30 minutes, dock the bike, do whatever you need to do, then take another bike out for 30 minutes, etc., all for only $5. It's quite a bargain.

While I have always thought that it was a great idea, I was originally not going to subscribe. Why should I? I already have a bike. But then, Matt Galloway on CBC's Metro Morning gave some reasons why it would be useful to have a subscription. Say I don't bike in to work in the morning for some reason, but want to bike home in the evening. Or, I want to bike downtown to meet up with friends, who do not have bikes. I don't want to be encumbered by mine, especially if we decide to move around a bit. I was sold. At $95/year, it's a great deal. I'd only need to use it 20 days out of the year to make it worth while. No sweat.

Except that the Bixis have been in Toronto for a few months now, and I haven't used them yet.

Picture of summer & ersatz commuting (LGRAB #4)

For the first* time since I've started teaching, I am not working this summer. This is a good thing; I've really enjoyed the break. However, I'm a little sad because that means I can't check "Commute to work if you don't already" off the LGRAB list, although I suppose I couldn't cross it of anyway since I do almost nothing on my bike but commute but never mind that right now.

The other thing I can't technically do, for this reason, is "Take a picture along your commute that says summer." However, I am not letting that stop me.

This was taken at Trinity-Bellwoods park, which I often bike through on my way to various places. It's not the best shot; I took it on my way to meetup with some people for a tour of the Roundhouse and I only had time for a quick snap and go. It says summer to me because Torontonians will start hanging out in any greenspace the minute the temperature goes above 10°C. During the weekday, the park is quieter, but after work it comes alive. In this picture alone, there are 7 groups of people just... being. There were lots more all over the park. Some of them were still there when I came back later that night. Once October comes, it'll start being too cold to just sit on the grass and the park is given back to the dog-walkers and passers-through. But for now, the park is living.

LGRAB task-wise:

Three to go. The astute and faithful reader will have noticed that I've finally crossed a few extra things off the list; since I'm going away this weekend, I'm not going to be able to do them again before the games are finished this Monday. But I'm so close, I can taste it!

*I should say, this is the first summer I haven't had to be somewhere during the month of July. There have been several summers where I didn't "work," but I took courses or had to travel down to Florida with Aged P right after school ended. This year I just got to sit. And feel guilty about all the stuff I probably should have, and still should be, doing. Sigh.

Begone, rusty chain! (LGRAB #3)

When I read the tasks for the LGRAB Summer Games, it seemed as though some of them were thought up especially for me. Rent a bike? Hey, I was going to try out the Bixi bikes! Group rides? Absolutely! Visit new parts of town/bike paths? All stuff I was going to do anyway this summer. Bike maintenance?

Clearly somebody has seen the state of my bike.

Advocacy (LGRAB #2)

One of the tasks for the LGRAB Summer Games is to write a letter requesting/advocating for bike infrastructure. Given the current climate in this city, this is might be an exercise in futility, but it's still important.

It turns out that in the past week, I've biked to a few places that could really use more bike parking. I went to the bulk food store on Bloor, and the lone post & ring just outside was full, as were the other rings further down the street. I had to walk half a block to find a free spot. The thing is, there is plenty of space for a few more rings right in front of the store, and I'm surprised they don't have more for us crunchy-granola bike-riding pinkos.* Before that, I had gone to the bank at Dundas and Ossington, and again all three, count 'em, three bike rings were full. As was the adjacent tree. This time, there was no other option but to lock my bike to the rail, as several others had done before me. Again, there is room for a number of bike stands.

What to do?

The City of Toronto has a post and ring program -- you can request bike parking and the city will install it, maybe. I'm sure the program is gravy to the mayor and that it will be axed as soon as may be, because heaven knows we've already given cyclists enough space in the city... ahem. Anyway, I figure I should put my requests in while there is still some hope of having them honoured.

By the way, if you want to know how to do bike stuff in Toronto, the Toronto Cyclists Union has a very helpful "How to get stuff done" page.

Back to the city form. You can fill out an old-fashioned paper form, or there is a handy online application. I like the online form more, because there is room to say why an area needs the bike parking. Which I done did.

So that's task #4 of the LGRAB Summer Games completed.

Thus I have completed the minimum required number of activities, but I want to do as many as I can before the end. Which for me is Friday, since I'm off to Eric's cottage.

*It might have something to do with unloading crunchy granola.

Summer fun, past and present

I just entered She Does the City's contest to win a Fuji FinePix XP20, which is essentially a really souped up version of my current camera. It takes videos with sound. Imagine the possibilities!

To enter, all you had to do was send them a picture of "Summer." Since you could send in more than one photo, and I am nothing if not dedicated to overkill, I did, and I thought I'd share my entries with you.

This was taken at The Beach(es). She seemed so peaceful and I thought, what a lovely way to spend the morning. Then I walked by her and realized she'd been yammering on her phone the whole time.

This was taken at the Beaches Jazzfest by the Big Band stage. When the weather gets warmer, we lindy hoppers will take any opportunity to dance in public. This time they provided a dance floor.

The next three photos are of much poorer quality, because they are scans of actual photographs. You see children, back before there were digital cameras, or at least before I had a digital camera (which wasn't that long ago in point of fact), I had several fairly crappy 35-mm cameras and of course, I couldn't tell what the photos looked like until they back from the store. It was always a bit of a crapshoot whether they'd come out, and I didn't want to waste film taking tonnes of pictures like I do now. I think these are not too bad, but I pointed out to the contest people that clearly I need a new camera. Of course, maybe I just need a better scanner...

Anyway.

This was taken the one and only time I've been white water rafting. We were on the Ottawa River. There are some very funny shots of me flying out of the raft into the river. This isn't one of them.

This was taken in Waterloo (or possibly Kitchener) at Chris's birthday picnic. I just love the dedication. You don't. let. the ring. drop.

Eric lives in Seattle, but he always comes back to his cottage on Lake Huron a couple of weeks every year, and he invites his friends to come stay for a few days. The directions to the cottage include "at Amberley, turn left. Stop for ice cream." So we always do.

The variety store/ice cream shop has a bit of a kitschy vibe to it. One year, I ordered a single scoop of ... I think that's mango ... something fruity, anyway ... and Brian and I got a bit distracted by the signs that said "Unattended children will be given an espresso and a puppy" and so forth, so we poked around the store a bit, getting giddier and giddier. After a while, I realized the kid behind the counter was taking a really long time to make my ice cream. I turned and saw why: he had spent about 10 minutes piling ice cream onto that enormous "single" scoop. It was practically the size of my head! Brian and I lost it.

The best part? It only cost $1.75.*

So there are my pictures of summer. Wish me luck!

*Ahem. Yes, it was a rather long time ago. In the last millenium, I believe. I keep thinking of a quote from Angel where the 200-year-old vampire says he can remember when a few bob got you a good meal, a bottle and a tavern wench: "I'm not cheap, I'm just old."