Wednesday, June 09, 2004
Harry Potter and the Badly Stubbed Toe
Last night I went with HARRY POTTER HIMSELF (sorry Lar) to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The new director, while leaving a lot of details out, did an excellent job, and I felt like it was a much more complete film. The first two felt pre-packaged, the music was quickly stale, and the script seemed lifted from the book, almost to the point where you could mouth the words along with the characters. It didn't make for entertaining cinema... This one seemed to fix all that. Accuracy, (and continuity from the last two) were sacrificed in favour of a more artistic, darker vision of Rowling's world, and it was all in all much more interesting as a film. I think we were laughing a lot. We laughed at the sad parts, the parts where Harry gets angry (and it's really pathetic), the lovvie dubbie parts with Hermione and Ron, etc.
Then we went out to Dairy Queen. I was wearing open-toed shoes and got kicked, just enough to flip my big toenail right up so that it was sitting at a 45 degree angle from my foot. Imagine lots of blood and everyone wincing. Owchie. Not knowing what to do, and being unable to move the nail without excrutiating pain, we went to the hospital, where we waited for 3 hours (until 1 am) for them to freeze it (a needle to the top of the toe is surprisingly painful - especially the freezing goo that they're injecting... ohh the burning...) The nurses in the hospital didn't want to look at it when they first came in - I think it's one of those painful but not-so-serious injuries that most people can picture themselves having, so they wince a lot.
Anyway - the doctor had forgotten about me. No, for real, she did - she said so herself (she was about to go home from her shift and remembered) - so she came back and pulled it off. Then they bandaged it up and I went home, feeling ok.
This morning, not so good. Very tender in that area, and hard to walk... So I'm home from work for the day... I can't really walk, so it makes things interesting. I'm using a cane to hobble around.
Then we went out to Dairy Queen. I was wearing open-toed shoes and got kicked, just enough to flip my big toenail right up so that it was sitting at a 45 degree angle from my foot. Imagine lots of blood and everyone wincing. Owchie. Not knowing what to do, and being unable to move the nail without excrutiating pain, we went to the hospital, where we waited for 3 hours (until 1 am) for them to freeze it (a needle to the top of the toe is surprisingly painful - especially the freezing goo that they're injecting... ohh the burning...) The nurses in the hospital didn't want to look at it when they first came in - I think it's one of those painful but not-so-serious injuries that most people can picture themselves having, so they wince a lot.
Anyway - the doctor had forgotten about me. No, for real, she did - she said so herself (she was about to go home from her shift and remembered) - so she came back and pulled it off. Then they bandaged it up and I went home, feeling ok.
This morning, not so good. Very tender in that area, and hard to walk... So I'm home from work for the day... I can't really walk, so it makes things interesting. I'm using a cane to hobble around.
Sunday, June 06, 2004
Weekend at Gregory's!
Yes, like Weekend at Bernie's but without the dancing dead dude.
I drove down to Toronto to visit Gregory on Friday night with a bunch of pals - Jus (our actual driver), his buddy Joey and the ever-present Pip-squeak. Gregory stays with his aunt and uncle in super-posh Richmond Hill: I actually yelled in terror when I saw their house, and felt like some odd guest of the Osborne's (first rich fam I can think of) as I approached the dwelling. I felt very odd (and somehow horribly dirty) going up to ring the doorbell, and Greg said I looked much like a deer in headlights. His family are lovely and I didn't really spend enough time with them this weekend but they were very kind to offer me a place to stay and very sweet all the while.
Well I suppose you'll all want to know what I did. You know, details and such...
We woke up early on Saturday and headed out for a walk around the neighbourhood to admire the new mansions that are going up in their area. I expressed my preference for small cottages, but I couldn't help feeling overwhelmed at the vast wealth of some of those people.
We then caught the subway to go downtown...
I've been on other town's subways before, so it was sort of a novelty to be on Toronto's. It's not bad, very reliable and comes very often. Sometimes it's a long walk to the closest station though.
We went first to the ROM - since it was the last weekend that they were running the Eternal Egypt exhibit - and it's on loan from the British museum. Some very lovely artifacts - and I learned how the artistic style of the Egyptians evolved from one dynasty to the next.
Greg had been to the exhibit before and expressed a strange fondness for the bald head likenesses. ...very odd indeed. I rather liked seeing the pages from the Book of the Dead. I was impressed with myself for recognizing so many hieroglyphic symbols.
The other highlight of the trip to the ROM was the under-hyped glass cases, 3 of them on the second floor (in the HALL), housing some of the more important Burgess Shale arthropod-like fossils. Finally!! Opabinia!! Sidneyia!! and ANOMALOCARIS!! In person!! I was so excited!! These represented evidence for now-extinct entire PHYLA! Their significance was so downplayed by their shabby corner location. How COULD they??!
Greg.. um.. was... excited... like me.... yes... (poor boy)...
Anyhoo - after than excitement at the ROM, we walked through Queen's Park and went out for Chinese food (for a late lunch) - then walked the rest of the way to the CN Tower, and walked around it, but didn't go up. I went up there as a kid and I remember it being a bit of a tourist trap. An expensive elevator ride, with a nice view.
And all in all, it's really not THAT big, eh??
After hours of walking in the bright sunshine (but not too hot!) we decided to go for a beer at this neat tropical-like patio/pub out of downtown for a while. Afterwards, we met up with Pip and the ever-so-lovely Scandal (Stef) for some awesome (and surprisingly inexpensive) SUSHI at one of the top ones on Queen Street. While we were waiting, (on the corner of Speaker's Corner), Greg tried to teach me about appreciating nice, posh cars. I still don't really know much more than colours and decorative things. He also fancied that this woman standing beside us was some famous actress. I had no idea who she was. Apparently was in "Paycheck"... I remember the movie, but not her face. What I learned from the experience: celebrities drink coffee at Starbucks in quirky downtown locales. Something I suppose I have in common with the flaky ones. Anyway, the sushi place was packed but it was definitely worth the ten-minute wait.
mmmmmm bento box... drool...
After stuffing ourselves, we headed to Stef's to watch the big game. We had planned to go riot in the streets of North York if Calgary won (which, for you non-hockey people, would mean that the Stanley Cup of the NHL would finally FINALLY return to CANADA, the rightful home of it!) Since they LOST in overtime (still weeping), they go on to game seven, which will decide the victor. Egad! I can't handle all this stress...
All in all a fantastic weekend. Toronto's always a fun and delightfully multicultural city to visit, but so crowded and smoggy that it would be awful to live there.
After a full, tiring day of walking, I was wondering how I was going to do this for THREE WEEKS in Europe!
*fear*
I drove down to Toronto to visit Gregory on Friday night with a bunch of pals - Jus (our actual driver), his buddy Joey and the ever-present Pip-squeak. Gregory stays with his aunt and uncle in super-posh Richmond Hill: I actually yelled in terror when I saw their house, and felt like some odd guest of the Osborne's (first rich fam I can think of) as I approached the dwelling. I felt very odd (and somehow horribly dirty) going up to ring the doorbell, and Greg said I looked much like a deer in headlights. His family are lovely and I didn't really spend enough time with them this weekend but they were very kind to offer me a place to stay and very sweet all the while.
Well I suppose you'll all want to know what I did. You know, details and such...
We woke up early on Saturday and headed out for a walk around the neighbourhood to admire the new mansions that are going up in their area. I expressed my preference for small cottages, but I couldn't help feeling overwhelmed at the vast wealth of some of those people.
We then caught the subway to go downtown...
I've been on other town's subways before, so it was sort of a novelty to be on Toronto's. It's not bad, very reliable and comes very often. Sometimes it's a long walk to the closest station though.
We went first to the ROM - since it was the last weekend that they were running the Eternal Egypt exhibit - and it's on loan from the British museum. Some very lovely artifacts - and I learned how the artistic style of the Egyptians evolved from one dynasty to the next.
Greg had been to the exhibit before and expressed a strange fondness for the bald head likenesses. ...very odd indeed. I rather liked seeing the pages from the Book of the Dead. I was impressed with myself for recognizing so many hieroglyphic symbols.
The other highlight of the trip to the ROM was the under-hyped glass cases, 3 of them on the second floor (in the HALL), housing some of the more important Burgess Shale arthropod-like fossils. Finally!! Opabinia!! Sidneyia!! and ANOMALOCARIS!! In person!! I was so excited!! These represented evidence for now-extinct entire PHYLA! Their significance was so downplayed by their shabby corner location. How COULD they??!
Greg.. um.. was... excited... like me.... yes... (poor boy)...
Anyhoo - after than excitement at the ROM, we walked through Queen's Park and went out for Chinese food (for a late lunch) - then walked the rest of the way to the CN Tower, and walked around it, but didn't go up. I went up there as a kid and I remember it being a bit of a tourist trap. An expensive elevator ride, with a nice view.
And all in all, it's really not THAT big, eh??
After hours of walking in the bright sunshine (but not too hot!) we decided to go for a beer at this neat tropical-like patio/pub out of downtown for a while. Afterwards, we met up with Pip and the ever-so-lovely Scandal (Stef) for some awesome (and surprisingly inexpensive) SUSHI at one of the top ones on Queen Street. While we were waiting, (on the corner of Speaker's Corner), Greg tried to teach me about appreciating nice, posh cars. I still don't really know much more than colours and decorative things. He also fancied that this woman standing beside us was some famous actress. I had no idea who she was. Apparently was in "Paycheck"... I remember the movie, but not her face. What I learned from the experience: celebrities drink coffee at Starbucks in quirky downtown locales. Something I suppose I have in common with the flaky ones. Anyway, the sushi place was packed but it was definitely worth the ten-minute wait.
mmmmmm bento box... drool...
After stuffing ourselves, we headed to Stef's to watch the big game. We had planned to go riot in the streets of North York if Calgary won (which, for you non-hockey people, would mean that the Stanley Cup of the NHL would finally FINALLY return to CANADA, the rightful home of it!) Since they LOST in overtime (still weeping), they go on to game seven, which will decide the victor. Egad! I can't handle all this stress...
All in all a fantastic weekend. Toronto's always a fun and delightfully multicultural city to visit, but so crowded and smoggy that it would be awful to live there.
After a full, tiring day of walking, I was wondering how I was going to do this for THREE WEEKS in Europe!
*fear*
