Why I (Heart) New York

Oh New York, how many years have we known each other?  And yet each time we meet, it's different.  But still comfortably familiar!  Like a favourite pair of shoes.

(Ooh, shoes.  I'll talk about that later)

This year, since I had spent a considerable amount at the outset with my great Australian adventure, I decided to postpone my annual NY trip to November.  Not only to partake in some Black Friday deals (or so I thought, back in June), but also because I had never been in the city during the holiday season.  And hey, I had never seen the Macy's Thanksgiving parade, not even on TV.  So, in what I thought was a stroke of genius and insanity, I paid a small fortune to book a hotel room with a guaranteed view of the parade route.  No way was I going to freeze my butt off and huddle with the masses.  Plus I could catch all of the good performances on TV at the same time!  Yup, I had considered everything...

Something I did not consider: the marching bands rehearse on the street at 2:30 in the morning.  I jolted awake in the dark, thinking, "Oh my God, something is exploding!"  Given recent events, it wasn't an unreasonable thought.  But then, it seemed to be exploding rhythmically.  Then I sank back down in the pillows, realizing what was happening.  I took a quick look out the window.  Sure enough, there were girls twirling flags and the drummers were going all out.  I pillow-smothered myself until I was exhausted enough to fall asleep, so I'm not sure exactly how long they were out there rehearsing.

People to whom I've told already told this story have remarked, "Why couldn't they find somewhere else to rehearse?"  My answer is three-fold:

1. I would guess that most, if not all, of the marching bands are from everywhere else in the US, and not from New York.  So really, where could they go to rehearse?

2. If you've ever seen the parade, you'd know that each band consists of dozens, if not hundreds of kids.  Where would you find a place big enough?

3. The streets of the parade route were already closed by Wednesday night, so why not rehearse in a huge, free-of-charge, traffic-free zone, where you're going to be marching down in the morning anyway?

And for that matter, I would assume that they would need to be at the top of the parade route by, I don't know, 6 or 7 in the morning, to be lined up for the 9 o'clock start, right?  So, by rehearsing at 2 in the morning, are they going to get any sleep before the parade, or were they already awake for the day?  And this year it was mercifully warm and dry (actually, abnormally so).  I couldn't imagine if it was freezing cold or pouring rain or blinding snow.  So, okay.  I felt a little bad for them.  But those streets of New York echo like crazy...

Anyway, I woke at 8:30, made some hotel room coffee, turned on the TV and settled in.  The top of the route was at 77th and Central Park West.  Since I was at 35th and 6th (diagonally across the street from Macy's), it was going to take a while for anything to show up outside my window.  Sure enough, around 45 minutes later, I heard some cheering from the crowd down on the street (my room had a window that could open, but only a crack).  I took a look, and was puzzled.  The marching band I had seen on TV at the start of the parade was running full speed down the street, all out of formation.  I was beginning to think that this was the strangest parade I'd ever seen, when I realized something.  This was being broadcast live, and there was a spot set up on the street in front of Macy's where the performances were taking place.  These kids were probably a little slow making their way along the 2.5 mile route, so they had to run in order to be at the right place and keep to the schedule.  As the band passed, I saw a poor soul, carrying a tuba, trailing the rest of the group and obviously trying really hard to keep up.  But, minutes later, the band was on TV, lined up and playing their hearts out.  I forgot to look for the tuba though.

The rest of the parade was pretty typical.  The balloons were terribly impressive, although when they mentioned how much helium they needed to inflate them, I cringed a little.  The world is running out of helium.

But still, when you need this many people to hold Hello Kitty down...

Moving on.  I was less prepared than I normally am on vacations.  The night before, after I bought some breakfast supplies from a nearby grocery/convenience store, I casually Googled "restaurants in New York that are open on Thanksgiving".  I found a site that had a list of restaurants and their set menus.  I cross referenced, checked online reviews, and found David Burke fabrick, which stood out because they had turducken on the menu.  Then I saw that the dessert was "pie-cake-en", which was described as a pumpkin pie-pecan pie-apple upside-down cake in one gigantic slice.  Sold!  Then I considered my strategy.  If Best Buy was going to be open at 5:00pm, and Macy's was going to be open at 6:00pm (remember, this is on Thanksgiving Day), then it would make sense to make a reservation at 4:00pm, fuel up, and then hit the shops and hope for the best.

This is where I had my best New York experience to date, and why I (Heart) NY.  I got to the restaurant, was seated, and ordered.  It was actually quite full of people.  The soup I had ordered arrived, and I had just tasted it when I felt a tap on my left shoulder.  There were two ladies sitting at the next table.  The one who tapped me said, "Excuse me, but are you eating by yourself?" I replied that I was.  Then she said, "Do you want to join us?"  I was almost shocked into speechlessness, but after confirming that they were sure, I slid my table over to the left and joined Kristen (sp?) and Kate ("it's a lot of K's!").  We chatted amiably for the whole meal, and laughing quite a bit I might add.  It was noted by all parties that this really was a lucky call (I could have been a weirdo, they could have been weirdos, etc.).  But they were the nicest people, and they thought I was too.  They shared their bottle of rosé with me and ordered a second bottle (it turns out, in NY, if you don't finish your bottle of wine at a restaurant, you can take it with you!  This is a game-changer!).  I didn't order the pie-cake-en, but Kate wanted to try the chocolate handbag, and got 3 spoons to share.  Unfortunately, it turned out that there was a layer of coconut in it that nobody was aware of, and since none of us were fans of coconut, we ended up leaving it on the plate.  As a final touch to a great experience, the waiter came to us at the end and gave us each a turkey sandwich to take home ("We wanted to make sure you'd still have leftovers!").  Seriously, best restaurant ever.  We said our good-byes, and I stepped out onto the street and started my shopping odyssey.

Best Buy wasn't a total mess.  There was a half-hour line-up on the street, but they kept it civilized with a wristband policy: for example, for TVs, they'd ask what one you wanted and if it was available they'd wristband you on the street so all you'd have to do inside the store was pay.  Then they had Geek Squad trucks lined up on the street filled with TVs, marked with different coloured balloons.  You'd go to your designated balloon, show your receipt, then they'd hand you your TV and off you'd go.  I just bought a couple of things and left for Macy's.

I needed to replace my favourite pair of Italian black leather boots that I'd been wearing for decades.  As it turned out, there was an extra 25% off boots.  I also opened a Macy's card (there was a bit of drama for that, since I didn't realize I needed my social insurance number, but it turned out well in the end), so I got an additional 20% off.  I wandered around the shoe department for a while, and was making a second round when, on top of a pile of Nine West boxes, there was one box that was different.  It contained a pair of black leather Vince Camuto boots.  They were my size.  Cautiously optimistic, I took them over to the side and tried them on.  They fit great.  And they were additionally on sale.  So, when the shopping gods smile and hand you a gift, you say thank you and run!  I got exactly what I was looking for.  Which was great, until I came back the next day and found a pair of Coach boots, also additionally on sale, that were really pretty and mostly different (they were grey suede!), so I ended up buying them too.  Hey, do I need to repeat myself about the shopping gods?

The rest of the NY trip was pretty standard.  As usual, I saw a Broadway show (Fun Home), I took my night photo of Times Square at the same spot as always, and I made sure I tried a touristy thing that I hadn't done before (I went up the Empire State Building).  I also had some more great foodie experiences, like bibimbap at Danji (a restaurant highly recommended by friends), and ramen at Ippudo (a restaurant highly recommended by the internet).

The best part, there were no incidents.  Why?  Because there were cops EVERYWHERE.  Not just the cops that were taking care of the parade, but even walking down 5th Avenue on Friday night, there was one spot where a pen had been constructed out of barricade fences, and officers wearing helmets and body armour that said "Counterterrorism Unit" on the back, as well as carrying automatic machine guns, were standing inside, keeping an eye on the crowds.  Some people might be freaked out by that.  I felt mostly reassured...and maybe a little sad.

Oh New York, until we meet again...take care.

"Hello, it's me, I was wondering if after all these years you'd like to meet"

TIFF Ten

It took me a while to realize that this year marked the tenth year I'd been volunteering at the film festival.  Which explains why they're starting to kind of meld together in my memory...

Hence, the necessity of blogging.

It also explains why each year it's taking a bit longer to recover from the experience.  It was another round of daily excursions downtown, finding the parking spots, navigating around the street closures, and occasionally controlling the minor road rage (why do people not understand that you can't turn left in that lane??).

The films were definitely more varied than in recent years.  Of course, I took in the typical big budget Hollywood fare starring well-known actors and adapted from novels (The Martian, The Danish Girl, Brooklyn), but the rest was a bit more off-beat and weirder (The Lobster, Anomalisa, The Lady in the Van), and as usual a few foreign language ones thrown in (The Whispering Star, A Tale of Three Cities).  In the interest of brevity, this time I'm going to comment on the ones that impacted me:

Jason Reitman's Live Read

When they announced that they were going to be reading "Princess Bride", I knew I just had to be there for it.  It's not like it's the most exciting concept, a bunch of actors sitting on a stage, reading a script with someone narrating the directions, but it was going to be an experience, I was sure of it.  The first challenge was the ticket.  My vouchers were only good for regular screenings or for rushing premium screenings, which of course was what the reading was.  Dedicated fest goers would be lining up for hours.  Second challenge was timing.  I had a volunteer shift right before the reading, luckily at the same theatre, but it meant that I couldn't be one of those people sitting in the line for hours.  Obviously, it would be great if I could have someone else sitting in the line for me, saving me a spot.  But my friend, who wanted to see it with me, was also working and wouldn't be able to get to the theatre any earlier than me.  So my odds were looking pretty slim.  But if all those years of going to the festival has taught me anything, it's to never give up on the rush line (I've only done that once, and it was only because the line was 3 blocks long by the time I got there).  As it turned out, we had the better spot in the line, as we could see the actors entering through the back door.  We were the first to see Patrick Stewart, his baseball-capped head down as he hurried inside.  We saw Cary Elwes, and speculated on his role.  As the line started to move, we also saw a dark haired woman run into the building.  None of us could identify her.  I thought she resembled Sarah Silverman, but it definitely wasn't her.

By some miracle, after a couple of hours waiting in the rain, inching forward when they started selling to the rush line, my friend and I both made it in.  Beyond that miracle, we were somehow able to get 2 seats together.  A sign that we were meant to be there.  Since we got in late we missed the introductions.  Amazingly, we saw that Cary Elwes was reprising his role as Westley.  We also saw the dark haired woman, sitting in the seat marked "Inigo Montoya", which we all knew was for Gael Garcia Bernal, but thanks to Twitter we had already learned that his flight was late.  Who was this mystery woman?  Whoever she was, she was doing a great job, to the point where I thought she must be Hispanic.

Halfway through the performance, Jason was about to read a stage direction when he stopped and said, "Isn't my sister doing a great job?"  And so the mystery was solved, the woman was Catherine Reitman.  Because, when you're in a jam, who else are you going to call to fill in at the last minute other than your family?  As we applauded her, she graciously gave up her seat and Gael came in, sat down, and picked it up immediately (the stage direction ironically said that Inigo was catching his breath).

I've seen the film countless times, and while there was really nothing different from the film, the little things made it the most unique experience.  You had Cary Elwes taking a photo of Patrick Stewart as he said his first line.  You had Georges Laraque, a professional hockey player who sounds EXACTLY like Andre the Giant, giving other seasoned actors a hand ("That's not my line").  You had Gage Munroe, the young Canadian actor playing the Grandson, being the one that sounded the least like he was reading a script.  You had Rachel McAdams, in my opinion playing Valerie a bit better than she was playing Buttercup.  All of these little things added up to a really fun night.

Anomalisa

If I were to recommend a film from the festival, this is the one.  That is, if you appreciate the crazy stylings of Charlie Kaufman ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" still gets me every time).  An existential stop-motion film that, I have to admit, took me a minute or two to understand what was going on.  But then it made sense.  Well, as much sense as his films can make.  All of the moving parts of this film were impressive: it's stop-motion animation (which always impresses me, knowing how painstaking the process is), it was originally an audio play, there are only 3 actors providing the voices (part of what confused me, and then made total sense), and it was crowd funded by a Kickstarter campaign.  It's scheduled for release in December.

The Lobster

Imagine living in a world where everyone had to be paired up (heterosexually or otherwise) by something in common (a personality trait or a physical attribute), but if you aren't able to find a mate in 45 days, you are turned into the animal of your choice and released into the wild.  The main character, David, played by Colin Farrell, has lost his wife (it's a bit ambiguous as to how), and is immediately taken to the hotel where single men and women go to find their mate.  It's a completely controlled environment.  Inhabitants can prolong their stay by going out on the hunt for "loners", using tranquilizer darts to shoot people living in the woods who have chosen not to follow the rules of society.  Each loner captured extends the stay by one day.  Eventually, David realizes that he doesn't want to be part of the system anymore and escapes into the woods to join the loners.  But is life outside of the system any better?  It's a really interesting (and kind of depressing) analysis of society and human nature, and it's one of the most original ideas for a film I've seen in a while.  But it's got one of those ambiguous endings that I was frustrated by.  I'm not sure if it's going to be released in theatres.

The Whispering Star

By far the most artistic film I've seen, almost ever.  And it actually made sense, even when it became incredibly weird.  Shot in black and white, with almost zero soundtrack or background noise, and with everyone speaking in whispered tones, the story is about a future where humans have spread out in the galaxy thanks to teleportation, but they still have the need to send packages to each other by courier. A female robot travels alone through space in a ship that looks like a house, delivering strange packages.  On the way, she tries to learn what she can about humanity.  What fascinated me the most wasn't the story, but where it was made.  All of the exterior shots (i.e., the planets she visited) were filmed around the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.  The towns near the plant had been completely evacuated after the accident, which made some of the scenes extremely eerie.  During the Q&A session, someone asked if the actress (who's also the director's wife) was ever nervous during the shoot.  She said they had geiger counters with them to ensure they weren't exposed to dangerous levels of radiation.  Seriously, hard core.

I could go on about the other films, but there's not much you can't learn from online synopses.  I liked all of them.  Hopefully that helps a little.

Go watch a movie.

"Even if we can't find heaven, I'd walk through hell with you"

Neverending Sunday

It's amazing the things that have happened to me in recent years when it comes to my attempts to travel by plane:

• Schedules have been updated without my knowledge, resulting in a missed flight
• General weather inconveniences (usually involving snow) would cause nuisance delays 
• Planes have skidded off runways (not mine, thankfully), leading to completely closed airports and a night sleeping on a bench in a friend's hotel room

On the other hand, it could be said that since I travel a fair bit more than the average person, it stands to reason that the odds of something happening to me whilst in transit are higher than most.

The Hong Kong-Australia-New Zealand trip contained the most number of flights I've ever taken in a single vacation (which, incidentally, came to a total of seven legs).  For the first six, nothing of significance happened.  My last day in Hong Kong was a Saturday.  I leisurely woke up in my brother's living room, checked the weather, then decided to check on my flight using the airline's app.  My flight was scheduled for 4:30pm, so I didn't expect there to be much information.  When the app first opened, it said it was on time.  Within a few seconds, the graphic changed to "Delayed".  What I saw underneath the graphic made me call wildly for my brother to get on the internet and confirm what I was seeing.

My flight was now scheduled for 2:00am.  Sunday morning.

I had to look at that information a number of times before I could believe it.  I checked the airline website, I checked the airport website, and my brother checked the internet at large.  Despite some discrepancies of an hour or so regarding the departure time, they were all saying that my flight was delayed for roughly 10 hours.

This was disheartening news at first.  As much fun as I'd had with my brother, I was ready to go home.  I'm sure he was ready to be rid of me too, as we had spent 3 solid weeks straight together.  However, unlike the other times I've been stranded somewhere, I didn't have to worry about where I would stay, what I would do, or how much extra I'd have to spend.  All of that was taken care of.  So in this case, I was pretty lucky.  So I took it all in stride.  I had a good nap in the afternoon while my brother went to his ultimate frisbee practice.  I got an extra dinner at a Thai restaurant that my brother had never tried before.  I wasn't able to do any decent airport shopping since the stores closed around 11:00, but that was probably for the best.

While waiting at the airport, I found an article that revealed the reason for the delay.  As you know, flights are based on the same plane flying between two cities.  The plane I was supposed to take was coming from Toronto the day before.  That plane took off on Friday at 10:00am and would have arrived in Hong Kong on Saturday at 2:00pm, which then would have been available for my flight at 4:30.  After takeoff, the plane had to turn around and go back to Toronto.  Why?  The toilets on the plane were backed up.  For the safety of the passengers, they had to turn around.  Back on the ground, the either fixed the problem or got another plane (hopefully the latter!).  That flight didn't leave Toronto until 8:00pm on Friday night, which meant they wouldn't arrive in HK until 12:00am Sunday.  So, again, in the big picture, it could have been a lot worse for me.  I could have been on a plane with backed up toilets.  I'm trying not to think about that too much.

Another piece of good news was that I ended up with an empty seat between me and the lady sitting in the aisle seat.  We wasted no time in claiming our halves of the free seat.  We left mostly on time, and the flight was uneventful.  After 14 hours of flying, I finally landed at home.

It was around 4:00am.  Sunday morning.

I did my best to get myself out of the airport as quickly as possible.  Alas, I was unable to get the kangaroo, emu and crocodile jerky past customs, but I didn't really have the strength of mind to argue at that point.  My other brother came to pick me up.  We stopped for a greasy fast food breakfast, then he drove me home.  I walked into my dark condo, my internal clock utterly confused.  A short while later, the sun started to rise.  I was wide awake, and about to start my Sunday again.

"I walked around the world a hundred times and realized, that freight trains and paper planes are just like you and me"

My Own Dear Photograph

It took a few years and a couple of tries, but I finally got my own Dear Photograph.

Dear Photograph is a website where you submit a photo of a photo from the past in the present.  In other words, you go back to where a photo was taken years ago, hold the photo up so it matches the background, and take a photo of it.  There's usually a story attached to the photo, typically in the form of a letter addressed to the old photograph.  Some of the stories are incredibly awesome.  Some are sad (there are a few that people have taken in New York where the Twin Towers used to be).

For me, my ultimate Dear Photograph was to go back to Ocean Park in Hong Kong and take a photo in the same spot where my dad took a photo of me and my brother in front of the mountain with the seahorse logo cut into the landscape.  I had tried to do it 2 years ago during my last visit, but I didn't get the chance.  As I was planning this trip, I realized the first trip happened just over 30 years ago.  So, this time, I was determined to get the photo.

I don't remember very much about that visit to Ocean Park (nor of Tokyo Disney World, which we also visited during the same trip).  I was pretty sure it was going to have changed a substantial amount.  I mean, Hong Kong changes every 30 days, let alone 30 years.  As I entered the park, I could see the seahorse on the mountain right away.  So my first order of business was to get to the spot and take the photo.  I manoeuvred myself into position, and took the shot:

For context, this is what the spot looks like today:

I don't know if you can tell, but I'm not standing as far away from the mountain as I was during that first photo.  But I was standing as far back as I could.  After some more investigating, I figured out that the spot where my dad had taken the photo was likely outside of the park, which in the present day has been turned into the tour bus parking lot.  So, I guess I technically didn't have to spend the 345HKD to get the photo.  But I made the most of it anyway.

It's actually a really nice amusement park/zoo.  As you can see, the cable cars take you to the other side of the mountain, where there are roller coasters and other rides, along with aquariums with sharks and cages full of monkeys and birds.  It was also really really quiet.  I had purposefully chosen a day when I figured attendance would be somewhat lower, but that day the park was noticeably empty.  Vendors were standing around, looking bored.  There were almost no lines for the rides.  The seats at the shows were half full.  I'm sure during peak season this place would be seriously packed with mainland tourists.

I'm not sure why this was such a big deal for me.  It's nice to know that something from so long ago (okay, "long ago" in comparison to my life so far) is still around.  It amuses me that my brother who lives in Hong Kong now was not born yet when that photo was taken (he was actually in utero, so I always say that, physically, he went to Hong Kong with us that time).  I guess I am and always will be a sucker for nostalgia.

Dear Photograph, it took me 30 years to come back, but here I am.

"So you can keep me inside the pocket of your ripped jeans"

The Most Anti-Social Restaurant

The moment we came back to Hong Kong, my brother had to go to a work function.  For some reason, they decided to hold their Chinese New Year Dinner two weeks after the fact.  So I was left to find dinner on my own.  I was pretty tired after our flight from Melbourne so I decided to go to the interesting ramen restaurant that my brother had taken me to before we left.

This restaurant is utterly fascinating.  It's the most anti-social set-up I have ever experienced.  There are 3 or 4 rows of booths that look like library cubicles.  Every person, regardless of whether you're alone or in a group, has to sit at one of the booths.  Each booth has a call button and a faucet where you can dispense your own water.  The back of the booth has a bamboo screen that partially hides the corridor in between the rows.  You fill out the sheet for your custom bowl of ramen, including how you want your noodles cooked, how oily you want the broth to be, how you like your green onions sliced (thin or thick), how much of the spicy sauce you want to add, how much garlic you like, etc.  Then you press the button on your table and a server shows up at your booth, but you don't get to see their face because of the bamboo screen.  The only way you can tell them apart is that they wear their name tag on their belt.  They take your order, say something in Japanese, bow really low so you can see it, and then walk away.  Minutes later someone else returns with your order, says something Japanese and bows again, then lowers the screen all the way down so you can eat in privacy.  Here's the crazy part: almost everyone orders a noodle refill.  In order to do that, you take the little coloured tray that they give you, place it on top of the button, then press the button so a little music starts to play.  Someone raises the screen, takes your coloured tray, and disappears.  They come back moments later with a bowl of noodles that you then add to your bowl of broth and continue eating.

This is what it looks like:

When you're done eating, you just take the copy of your sheet from the little box on the right side of the table and bring it to the cashier to pay.

For those of us who find ourselves awkwardly eating alone: Best.  Idea.  Ever.

"Now I'm four five seconds from wildin', and we got three more days 'til Friday"

Discoveries

Things I have discovered in Melbourne:

The Great Ocean Road is something that I quite honestly had never heard of before I started planning this trip.  But it's one of the top recommended things to do in Melbourne.  Okay, so it's not technically in Melbourne, but it starts really close to it.  Modelled after the Pacific Coast Highway, it was built by returning WWI veterans.  They were conscientious enough to realize that they should avoid exposing the vets to more explosive situations, so they didn't use dynamite to blast the path through the hills along the coast.  They did it all manually with picks.  Crazy.

The Twelve Apostles are a great example of what happens when you have a lot of time and a lot of water crashing around you for eons:

It was pointed out to us that there were never 12 of these to begin with (it was just a better name than the "sow and piglets", as they were originally called).  But it's also amazing to consider that these will eventually disappear altogether, and that new ones are currently forming.

If things had happened differently, I would not be in Melbourne.  I would be visiting Batmania.  Not kidding.

I had never before had any interest in cricket.  I just didn't get it.  But during these past couple of weeks the occasional lack of TV channel choices in our hotel and in almost every bar has forced me to watch the Cricket World Cup.  I also met one of my brother's friends who, not only knew the rules for cricket, but also really likes cricket.  I have to admit, it's starting to grow on me.  I even kind of understand what's going on most of the time.

"And I will stay up through the night, let's be clear, won't close my eyes"

Not Quite Terminal

I did it!  Okay, so I didn't do it quite the way I had thought I would (i.e., head first or upside down) but I did it.  The Nevis Swing is the biggest swing in the world.  It's a 70 m vertical drop, with an arc of about 300 m.  People can reach a speed of 125 km/h.  So, you don't quite achieve terminal velocity, but it doesn't really matter.  It feels fast enough.  But tell me what you think.

"Hope when the moment comes you'll say, I, I did it all"

Too Much Awesome

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that Air New Zealand has quite frankly the best cabin safety video of all time.  In what they called "the most epic safety video", the entire thing has a Lord of the Rings theme.  There are a few cameos and they were able to use elements from the movies to explain how to buckle your seat belt and use the oxygen mask.  There were elves, dwarves, orcs, everything.  Seriously, very awesome.

Today's drive through Middle Earth was also awesome.  We left Christchurch and headed south to Aoraki/Mount Cook.  It was really overcast to start, but by the time we got to the mountains it was clear and sunny.  Then the awesome scenery started.  Honestly, sometimes there is just too much awesome to take in all at once.  I tried taking photos from the car (because we weren't stopping for anything), but I'm sure they're blurry and don't quite capture just how amazing it was to see it.  The snow capped mountains peaking above the clouds, the lakes that were so blue and smooth they didn't look real.  At the mountain, we hiked the trail that took us up close to one of the glaciers and had a better view of Mount Cook.  As we made our way from Mount Cook to Queenstown, we went through Lindis Pass which was basically driving between 2 mountain ranges.  The awesome kept going even as we were getting into Queenstown, which is situated within the mountains next to a lake with spectacular views all around.  I've already declared it my new favourite place.

It's late and the epic journey continues tomorrow as I dive off a platform using the world's tallest swing.  To be continued (hopefully)...

"Don't believe me, just watch"

Middle Earth is a Fortress

First off, greetings from the far future.  Eighteen hours ahead of home, it's safe to say that whenever you're reading this, I'm already in tomorrow.

If you ever decide to go to New Zealand, be ready.  It's like being in a really intense episode of "Border Security".  I have never been grilled at customs like we were upon entering Christchurch.  Then, after getting through the third degree and picking up our luggage, we were asked again if we had any food on us, then our bags were x-rayed, then the sniffer dog came to check them.  Like, wow.

It's been a bit of a blur since last night.  We got in really late, then had to wake up to fit in as much as we could since we only had one day in Christchurch.  I want to say it's a nice place, and I'm sure it is, but looking around at the empty lots, the crumbling buildings, the steel girders bracing walls, and the abundant amount of scaffolding, it makes me kind of sad, like we're looking at a war zone.  Of course, having to rebuild after a major earthquake is going to take time, just like any place that's recovering from a natural disaster (think Haiti).  And they've come up with some interesting ways of dealing with it for now.  The Re:START Mall is a shopping centre built out of shipping containers.

The main cathedral was seriously damaged.

So they build the Cardboard Cathedral.  Literally.

I'm still glad I made a stop here.  But no time to waste.  Next stops: Aoraki/Mount Cook and Queenstown.

"Pretty soon I'll be getting on my first plane, I'll see the veins of my city like they do in space"

The Things You Learn

They thought it would take them three years and $7 million to build the Sydney Opera House.  It took them sixteen years and $102 million.  But it's pretty much stayed the same since it opened around 40 years ago, so I guess they got their money's worth.

Manly was named after some good looking aboriginal guys.  No, I didn't see any.

Sydney's been interesting.  Not, as my mother claimed, like Canada from the 1970's.  I even understood what most people were saying.  I tried some Vegemite (as I suspected, it's not for me), I ate some kangaroo, I got to lie on one of the most famous beaches in the world, I rode ferries almost daily.

I would write more but I have to find a bank machine to reset my credit card pin, and then we have to head to the airport to start the next part of the adventure.  See you in Christchurch.

"Livin' easy, lovin' free, season ticket on a one way ride"

Woolloomooloo!

Woolloomooloo has become my new favourite place where I wished I lived ONLY so I could say the name on a regular basis. It has replaced the longtime former favourite, Rancho Cucamonga, which still runs a very close second because I once really had a legitimately possible chance to live there. Granted, Woolloomooloo's origins are a bit unsavoury, mostly due to the proximity to the naval base, but it's cleaned up in recent years.

After a couple of long plane rides, we've made it to Sydney. Within hours of arriving, I was able to witness my first funny thing: they take the whole “left-hand side” thing very seriously, and not just in driving. On the escalators at the train stations, you stand on the left hand side and walk on the right. Even on the Sydney Bridge, people were naturally walking/running on the left hand side of the path.  It's weird because everywhere else, even in Hong Kong, it's always been "stand left, walk right" on the escalators.  I guess everything is backwards here.  We have yet to see if the water swirls in the opposite direction, mostly because the toilets here are European designed, which essentially means that they dump water straight down at full force.  As much as that sounds effective, sometimes it's really not.

This is the furthest into the future that I've ever travelled (sixteen hours ahead).  It's also full blown summer temps so I've been a sweaty mess for most of the day, and my head is pretty mixed up right now.  Must sleep and reboot.

"Do you come from a land down under, where women glow and men plunder"

The Hong Kong Life

A long time ago, I went to visit my cousin when she was studying at McGill in Montreal. My cousin and I grew up together and we were pretty much like sisters. I stayed with her and her roommates for a couple of days, and in that time, I remember being very surprised about what my cousin was really like outside of our family environment. It was essentially an eye-opening experience.

At this stage in the game, I don't think there is anything that my brother could do that would surprise me. He's been playing in an Ultimate Frisbee league since he arrived in Hong Kong, and although I did visit him here a couple of years ago, I didn't meet any of his friends until now. I went out to meet a few of them and I'm glad that they are a diverse group of really nice people. Nice people who drink a lot. And I knew that my brother drinks a lot too, but it's been some time since I've gone drinking with him. I also have to admit, it's been a long time since I've been classified as completely drunk. Perhaps my body realized it too and did not appreciate it as much as it used to. I was in pretty poor shape the next day.

My brother's apartment is nice.  Recently renovated, clean, bright, sparsely furnished.  There are some things to get used to, like how you have to go through the kitchen to get to the bathroom, and how you have to turn on the water heater ten minutes before you take a shower. There is a washing machine but no dryer, and in this climate nothing ever really dries properly. All you can do is keep the air conditioner on and hope that it will remove most of the moisture from your clothes. The building itself is a little scary when you first look at it. The hallway is dark and dingy, there are tiles missing on the floor, and the elevator is claustrophobic (although that's not really uncommon here). I guess that's mostly how Hong Kong is – a bit worn out on the outside, shiny and new on the inside.

That's all from HK for now.  Happy New Year!

"Say, we can go where we want to, a place that they will never find, and we can act like we come from out of this world, leave the real one far behind"

Wan Chai

It's amazing how one can leave a place where the thermometer reads -26°C and just several hours later be in a place that's 22°C. But that's what I did, leaving frigid Canada behind and going to Hong Kong as part of this year's epic travel adventure. It was unusually hazy and muggy when I arrived. My brother showed me the alarming pollution index for the day. The humidity was already giving me uncomfortable flashbacks from my last visit, but since my poor dry, cracked hands almost immediately started healing upon arrival, I decided I'd stick it out.  I just wished my hair would stop expanding.  Thank goodness I brought my flat iron with me.

People who know me know that I love British period dramas. So, naturally, I'm a big fan of Downton Abbey. You can't imagine my giddy delight a few weeks ago when they were somehow able to work Wan Chai into one of the storylines. This just happens to be where my brother lives (but in modern times). It doesn't look very different from North Point, where he lived the last time I was here (to be honest, every street in Hong Kong looks the same the me).  Some parts of the area are known for being a district of the red light variety, but it's very close to the downtown shopping areas, so it works for me.

On the first night here, we went out for Korean fried chicken (a slightly different KFC experience) and tried to understand the various K-Pop music videos that were playing on the screens.  It made me realize how little sense most pop music videos make in general.  And yeah, every boy and girl group looked the same.  Seriously.

Back at my brother's apartment we sat around, drinking beer, catching up, and listening to his playlist of classic alternative featuring the likes of Radiohead, Foo Fighters and Smashing Pumpkins, and it completely felt like we were back home, and not on the other side of the world in a different country.  I guess it reinforces the idea that home is wherever you make it.

"And I wonder, when I sing along with you, if everything could ever feel this real forever"

This is Heavy

Another new year.  Except this isn't just any year.  We've officially come Back to the Future.  I'm sure this will be referenced MANY times in the coming months, same as how we were partying like it's 1999, or preparing for the end of the world in 2012.  But it's still staggering to realize that it's been 30 years.  No flying cars or self drying clothes yet (that we know about).  It's pretty fascinating to see what we thought the future was going to look like.

As for my future, it looks like a mixed bag so far.  It's my zodiac year, the Year of the Sheep. Counterintuitively, it's supposed to be a bad year for me.  So I'm mentally gearing up for that, carrying any and all kinds of tokens and charms that my mother gives me.  Coincidentally, the last time it was my year, twelve years ago, I started writing this blog.  I can't remember how that year went.  I guess I'll have to go back and read about it.

I'm not taking this unfortunate news lying down.  In fact, in two weeks, I am jetting off again into The Future (aka Hong Kong).  I will ring in the Chinese New Year in a flurry of fireworks with my brother.  Then we'll be going Down Under and to Middle Earth.  To call me excited would be a serious understatement.  I am determined to do something crazy, which in this case involves jumping into a gorge on a swing with a rope the length of a rugby field.  I've already booked the jump, but thinking about how this is not going to be the best year for me has made me realize that this was perhaps the worst idea ever. Oh well.  Let's tempt fate together.

"Don't need no credit card to ride this train"

Universal Suffrage

It's a weird term, universal suffrage, and I didn't immediately recognize the meaning when my brother used it a while ago.  Sometimes it's hard to remember that there are still places in the world that don't have it - the right for everyone to democratically vote for their governmental representatives.  And my brother was right in the middle of it.

Hong Kong made some front page news a couple of months ago when thousands upon thousands of people clogged the busiest streets in the city to protest the Chinese government's decision to vet the candidates who would run for the first democratic election of the region's chief executive, which will happen in 2016.  Made up of mostly students and pro-democracy activists, the people wanted free elections as well as the immediate resignation of the current chief executive, a deeply unpopular guy.  One of the fascinating points during the course of the sit-in demonstration was that the government's use of pepper spray and riot police had the exact opposite effect on the protest - it actually made it bigger.

So, now, months later, there are still people sitting in the Central, Admiralty, and Mong Kok districts, protesting for their right to universal suffrage.  My parents are over there right now, visiting my brother and other friends and relatives, but back in October my father told me that he didn't agree with the protestors.  Even though he's been living here, in a democratic society, for the majority of his life.  I found it a bit surprising and odd, but then he gave his reason. I think he felt that the students were demanding more than what we in Canada have.  We actually don't get to elect our Prime Minister.  A much smaller group of people decide who the leaders of the parties will be, and then based on the MPs who are successfully elected, the leader of the party with the majority (or largest minority, as the case may be) becomes Prime Minister.  I had to admit that he had a point.  Sometimes I find that I'm torn between the individual I want to represent me and the party I want to have the power in parliament, which would result in the Prime Minister we will have to make decisions for the whole country.  It all gets a bit diluted in the end.

The fact that China agreed for Hong Kong to have elections of any kind was already a huge step up.  The chief executives had been appointed by a committee since the handover in 1997, and prior to that, the Governor of Hong Kong was appointed by the British monarch.  They haven't had any kind of choice for their leader in over a hundred years.  As it is with everything, baby steps are probably the best way to go.  We really have to remember who we're dealing with.  China is still, despite their recent capitalistic tendencies, a Communist country.  China is not going to back down on their decision for Hong Kong's first election.  I will be supremely surprised if they do.

All of these events led me to really consider our own elections last month.  Unfortunately, since I live just outside of Toronto, I wasn't able to vote for the mayor.  I'm not sure if the end result will lead to positive changes or not, but I think just the fact that we had a choice at all was important, and I'm glad that more people showed up to vote than in previous years.  Baby steps.

"Everyone here is ready to go, it's been a hard year with nothing to show"

Soundbites

This year's TIFF experience can only be described as a mixed bag.  Given that it was the busiest one to date (I was downtown every day for 2 weeks straight), the odds are pretty good that it would have been interesting, if not eventful.

So, in between working, volunteering, and sometimes sleeping, I was able to see 12 films this year:

Out of Nature
My Old Lady
Cart
Do I Sound Gay?
Jauja
The Cobbler
Preggoland
This Is Where I Leave You
Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet
Adult Beginners
What We Do In The Shadows*
The Imitation Game*

(* MUST SEE FILMS!)

As a result, there are just too many moments to mention, so I'll try to condense it all into decently sized soundbites (in no particular order):

The Close Encounters

The unavoidable celebrity sightings this year included one that was not my own (my friend, on returning home from San Francisco, saw Jake Gyllenhall waiting at the luggage carousel like a normal person), some that were super close (Robert Pattinson, Patricia Clarkson, and Adam Sandler), and some that were just out of reach (John Cusack!).  For the record, Patricia Clarkson is the loveliest person.  In the span of 2 days, I twice witnessed as she rolled down the tinted window of the car, leaned out and either expressed her hope that we would be successful getting rush tickets to her film or thanked the people waiting after the screening to get her photo or autograph.  For the first instance, I just waved and didn't mention that we were waiting for a different film.

The most ironic scenario occurred as my fellow volunteers and I formed the human barricade to let Roger Waters (of Pink Floyd fame) move from his limo short bus to the waiting throngs of middle aged guys asking him to sign their vinyl albums before heading in through the back door of the theatre.  When he was clear of the sidewalk, the head rep told us to let the pedestrians pass but to close ranks in front of the entrance to make sure nobody rushed in.  As soon as we did it, we all looked at each other and someone said what I think we were all thinking: "I am a brick in the wall.  Literally."

The Q&A's

The best Q&A was the one with Viggo Mortensen.  After watching an "interesting" film called Jauja, we were treated to a rambling story about filmmaking and a mini debate about certain scenes in the film (as for me, I'm still processing it).

The most surreal Q&A had to be the one for My Old Lady, where the TIFF moderator brought the whole thing to an abrupt halt when he fainted on stage.  Kevin Kline was a hero and rushed over to him immediately, and while they waited for medical assistance, the audience quietly exited the theatre.

The funniest Q&A was for What We Do In The Shadows, where the filmmaker and star maintained a complete deadpan and serious discussion about what it was like to make a documentary about vampires living together in a flat in the suburbs of New Zealand.  That is, until someone in the audience asked an actual question about the movie, disappointing him greatly ("You broke it").  However, the moderator salvaged it by spinning the question into something relating to the vampires.

The Power of Persuasion

I found myself extremely susceptible to suggestion this year.  Whilst waiting in the rush line for The Cobbler, the couple ahead of me got take-out from Salad King.  I had already eaten, so it didn't make me hungry.  But the idea got stuck in my head and, lo and behold, the next day I went to Salad King for dinner.

A friend of mine asked for tickets to see Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet.  Since it was showing around 4:00 on a Friday, there were ample tickets available and I was able to get 4 tickets for 1 voucher.  She only needed 3, so at first I thought she could just invite another friend or give the spare ticket away to someone on the street.  But then I read the synopsis and thought about it a bit.  I had taken the day off work to see films and volunteer, and although I would have to run out of one theatre and back in to see it, and it would have been my third film of the day, I was persuaded to hustle my butt over there and see it.  I'm glad I did.

The Karma

Speaking of The Cobbler, it was the only premium screening I chose to rush this year.  It also was the first day of cooler weather during the festival.  I had not chosen my wardrobe wisely, and I had about 3 hours of standing to look forward to.  The Salad King couple were actually the first 2 people in line, and when someone came around asking if there was a single person looking for a ticket, they jumped on it first despite not being alone.  They eventually scored another free ticket so they left the line, propelling me to the front.

As most of the feeling left my feet, one of the front of house staff came up and asked if I was waiting for the film.  When I said yes, she pulled a ticket out and gave it to me.  I willed my feet to start moving and followed her towards the theatre.  Before I reached the ticket holders' line, she told me she could put me in the lobby if I so desired.  I couldn't believe my luck.  Not only was I able to sit down somewhere moderately warm, but she told me that when she started to bring the line inside, I could just casually join it.

The unmentioned perk was that the red carpet was still going on.  Once I was able to feel my lower limbs again, I went up to the velvet rope and got a pretty good look at Adam Sandler as he walked past me.  I felt awkward asking for a selfie, so I just tried to snap photos as he went and consciously took a good look at him in real life.  I'm sad to say that, not only did he dress like a hobo to his own film premiere, but he's also really starting to age a bit.  Gravity is doing a number to his face.  Where did Happy Gilmore go?

The Lowrider

Volunteering at Ryerson all these years has proven that you will always see something unexpected (although it's been years since the Borat episode).  This year, the best had to be the lowrider.  During a break in the torrential downpour, a guy pulled up to the apartment building across the street and proceeded to gas all of us with diesel fumes while he idled the car and waited for his passenger.  He completely fit the image of a guy with that kind of car...until we saw the little fluffy white dog sitting on his lap.

After quite some time, he leaned on the horn.  A woman eventually emerged and got into the car.  A rare pantomime occurred, because we were guessing an argument was happening but we couldn't hear anything.  The woman then got out of the car, slammed the door, and walked back into the building.  The lowrider then took off down the street.

The Odd Sightings

As I said, something weird always happens at the Ryerson.  During one mostly uneventful weekend afternoon, a guy came up to one of the other volunteers and told her he thought he was having a heart attack.  Naturally, she was a bit taken aback, and she asked him if he wanted someone to call 911, but he just walked away.  She was a newbie and didn't know what to do, but I reassured her that if he's able to walk down the street, he's probably not having a heart attack.  This was confirmed when we saw him walking back up the street minutes later.

My favourite volunteer shift was for the premiere for the documentary Do I Sound Gay?  First of all, it was impossible to help anyone without them making a bad joke about it ("No, you don't").  Secondly, there were dozens and dozens of people connected with the film (in addition to the filmmaker having many friends, the film was apparently financed by Kickstarter or some other crowd funding scheme).  But luckily, everyone associated with the film was wearing a t-shirt or a button with the logo of a mouth with a rainbow tongue sticking out, so it was incredibly easy to tell who should be let into the red carpet area.  I wish every production company would do that!  And finally, not to feed into the stereotypes that the film touches on, but there were a lot of people attending the film who exhibited their own unique style, so to speak.  Including the woman with the moustache, who basically confused me for several minutes before I gave up trying to figure it out.

"We don't need no education"

A Room With A View

Two words: never again.

Since I've already been to Florence, I really wanted to go to Pisa.  Thinking that I could navigate the train system, I figured we could do both.  But then a couple more people wanted to come with us, so I said sure.  Then a few more, and their parents.  Okay.  Then a few more.  And their parents.  By the time we head out in the morning, we had a group of 16 people, 6 of whom were a little elderly.  This had disaster written all over it.

We missed the first train so we had to wait an hour for the next train to Pisa.  Once there, we had to walk a little bit until we got to the Field of Miracles, where the tower and the cathedral were situated.  Before everyone scattered, we agreed on a meeting place and time.  I spent most of it using my friend's mobile wifi hotspot to figure out our next move.  I was able to get a selfie with the tower before we moved on.

The train station we needed to reach to catch the train to Florence was a 20 minute walk away.  Everyone wanted to take taxis, so we tried to find one.  There was a 6-person taxi who took the first group.  It took a while to flag down another, but it would only fit 4 people, so we sent off the next group.  After what seemed like forever, the original 6-person taxi showed up again, so we piled in and left.  Unfortunately, we missed the direct train to Florence, but we quickly got tickets and piled onto the next train, which would take a little longer due to the stops.

By the time we got to Florence, we really only had about 30 minutes before we had to catch the train to go back.  After bathroom breaks and buying our return tickets, we walked to the Duomo.  It wasn't hard to spot.  People started scattering again, but it was so crowded and loud, I was afraid we were going to lose someone.  Janet had the good sense to gather the elders and start walking back to the station first.  I stayed back, made sure we had everyone, then did a mad sprint back to the station.  Running through the roundabout was probably the worst idea, but we had a minute to go.  By some miracle, we all made it onto the train as it was about to pull out.

The stress wasn't over yet.  We had to change trains in Pisa, and according to the schedule we had a five-minute window.  If we were late, or the other train left early, we'd be in trouble.  Luckily, the second train was late, so we were able to make it without too much running.

So the room, in my case, was a train car, and the view was mostly of the Italian countryside speeding past the window.  I felt terrible that they didn't get to see much of Florence, but they all said they appreciated my efforts, which was nice.

But still...never again.

"You better know know know that I have conditions, I make the rules and make the decisions"

Grand Prix

One of my coworkers came to Monaco last year to watch the Grand Prix.  I'm sure it would have been pretty thrilling, but given our timeframe, it probably would have made it more difficult to get through the city than it already was with the train strike.  We had to take a taxi to and from Villefranche-sur-Mer, but luckily our group was small and we fit into one.

Not a whole lot to see, except for the evidence of how the 1% of the 1% live their lives.  We paid our respects to Princess Grace and Prince Rainier at the cathedral.  We gaped at the yachts parked in the marina.  We took photos of the extremely fancy (and sometimes ironic) cars.

Funnily enough, the best part came once we had returned to Villefranche-sur-Mer and were shopping in the little stores by the port.  We found foie gras at a decent price in little glass jars.  I knew I was taking a risk of having my clothes smelling like duck liver by the time I got home, but it was totally worth it.

"Standing where I am now, standing up at all, I was used to feeling like I was never gonna see myself at the finish line"

The French Connection

Marseille was by far the most surprising stop of the cruise.  I think it was because I had absolutely no expectations.  I didn't know any famous landmarks, I didn't know what it was known for (other than bouillabaisse).  It was just another stop in the south of France.

The old port is actually really nice.  We took a little tourist train up the hill to the giant cathedral, Basilique Notre-Dame de la Garde, which again was a good call because the uphill was pretty intense.  Another very impressive religious building, another very impressive aerial view of a European port town.  However, a little off shore on a tiny island, you could see the Chateau d'If, which was the inspiration for "The Count of Monte Cristo".  I've never read the book before, but ironically it's been a part of several films I've seen a number of times (The Shawshank Redemption, V for Vendetta).

We didn't get to try the bouillabaisse, but I was able to do some shopping.  It turns out that Marseille is known for olive oil soap.  And, of course, I forgot about the Herbs de Provence.  I know, it's just herbs, but these are actually from Provence!

"I've got my mind made up, man, I can't let go"

Love and Basketball

So, as it turns out, there aren't a lot of well-known films that are set or filmed in Barcelona.  The only other one was "Vicky Cristina Barcelona", which would have been a bit too obvious.  And I haven't actually seen either of these films, but I thought this one made a more interesting blog title.

One of the things I found myself doing during most of this trip was the touristy stuff.  Things that I had, in the past, avoided like the plague.  In the case of Barcelona, I found myself on a Hop-On-Hop-Off double decker bus.  You know, the ones with the open roof.  I see them all the time downtown and I use them as a gauge to determine if it's a busy tourist period or not.  I had never ever considered getting on one of these before.  But, with limited time and a large group, it made the most sense.

The buses I've seen have always had a person on a microphone, talking about what you're looking at on the left or right of the bus.  In the age of technology, it seems that the person has been replaced with an automated recording in about a dozen different languages.  You just plug the provided earphones into the jack by your seat and choose the channel that corresponds to your language.  It makes so much sense.  However, the problem remains that by the time they tell you about the thing you're looking at, there's almost no time to get a decent photo of it.

We were able to see pretty much the majority of the city, if only for a brief moment.  We did stop at the Basilica de la Sagrada Família, the church that will never be completed.  Gaudí was a stickler for details, that's for sure.  We also took the cable car up to the top of the hill to Montjuïc Castle.  Finally we were able to walk around Las Ramblas before heading back to the boat.  Not a lot of shopping to be done, but we did get to eat.  Mmm...paella...

"I had this perfect dream, this dream was me and you"