Category: Travel

Things I bought on my summer vacation

Because someone has to stimulate the economy.

Destinations: Quebec City, Charlevoix, and points between

  • A British magazine called Classic Rock that counted down the top vocalists of all time. Number one choice of fans, critics, and musicians alike? Freddie [Mercury], natch.
  • Blueberry honey from the Musée de l’abeille. Honey that fresh is so different from the stuff you get at the supermarket, it might as well be a different food altogether.
  • A crazy amount of Québecois cheese. Among them: la Sauvagine (from the source), cèdre de lune, le migneron, and le ciel de Charlevoix (from that source), and the 1608, made from a rare breed of Canadian cow dating from that time. (Hey, did you know you can freeze cheese?)
  • A Medieval-style red and black dress that seems slightly impractical but that I was talked into on assurances that it really suited me.
  • A used copy of Roger Daltrey’s Ride a Rock Horse LP. Not CD—LP. Really, I wanted the cover.
  • Chocolates ranging in flavors from ginger to chai to marshmallow. None of which I’ve actually tried yet, but they look and smell great.
  • A fat British movie magazine called Empire. Because in Britain, apparently, the Internet has not killed the movie magazine business, as it has in North America.
  • Items I won’t detail from La boutique Kama Sutra. Oh, and some batteries.
  • Free-range duck products in many forms—magret, foie gras, paté, confit. (Yes, we travelled with an electric cooler. Otherwise, the smell of cheese might have killed us.)
  • A copy of the Ryerson Review of Journalism. The one magazine I haven’t read yet.
  • An original art work by a young Québecois artist, done in pastels, about 16 by 20, featuring a woman bathing. Quite striking.
  • Sparkling cider products from the cidrerie at l’Ile aux Coudres.
  • An art book featuring the work of Laurent Lafleur, one of whose original paintings we already own, and whom we got to meet on this trip.
  • Two bottles of Rosé from a Prince Edward County winery, meant to distract us from the astounding Chardonnay we tasted but didn’t purchase at another Prince Edward County winery, because that one was $42. Didn’t work—we spent the next half week mooning over that Chardonnay, until our taste buds were cleared by an astounding Cotes du Rhone (with meal).
  • MoneySense magazine, which has advice on how to save money. Which I probably need now.

18 random things about our trip to Provence

This post also lives at https://culturearchive.ca/18-random-things-about-our-trip-to-provence/

Thought I’d post this in advance of the big website extravaganza…

1. Provence has more and better Roman artifacts than Rome

This was a surprise. It shouldn’t have been, as our tour itinerary said we’d be seeing all these Roman artifacts, but we were still surprised. Huge, intact coliseums and theatres. Enormous aqueducts. Huge cenotaphs. Sculptures. Romanesque churches. Enormous Pope’s Palace (yes, the pope lived in Provence rather than Rome for a time). We almost got to be blasé about it; oh, another day, another coliseum!

2. Provence may be the best place in the world in which to eat

Oh my, the food. Every meal was good, everything properly prepared. Duck, salmon, quail, osso bucco, shrimp, lamb—all creatures cooked just to the right point and nicely seasoned. Creative starters—stuffed ravioli, softened goat cheese with sesame, foie gras (and more foie gras, and it didn’t cost any more than anything else), pumpkin soup. Cheese courses with soft and semi-firm choices. And desserts—chocolate caramel mousse, molten chocolate cake, gelato ice cream, tarte tatin. And, for Europe, all at pretty reasonable prices. The consistently good quality was really amazing.

Continue reading “18 random things about our trip to Provence” →

Want to make mother nature laugh? Tell her your plans.

In writing up my Italy trip, I described the “travel part of travel” as the most boring part. Well, for Christmas 2008, the travel part of travel was the big story, front and centre. And we were not immune from the fun.

We were flying North late this year—December 24, in the afternoon. Mere days after myriad flight cancellations due to massive snowstorms from coast to coast. Considering all that, we did pretty well. Yes, our flight was somewhat delayed, but that was mostly due to the airline needing to catch up first with earlier, very much delayed flights. And though we didn’t know it at first, we were actually at risk of having our flight cancelled, not so much because of weather (just rainy on this day), but because the crew were getting precariously close to their maximum work hours for that day. But boarding was extremely efficient, and they closed the doors five minutes before they would have had to call it a day and we would have been stuck in Toronto.

In the end, we arrived only about an hour later than expected.

Our flight out was scheduled for the afternoon of Sunday, December 28, as we were both due back at work on Monday. Checking the weather forecast didn’t suggest we’d have any problems. Even that morning, the prediction was for just small snowfall in the afternoon—about 5 cm, no biggie for a northern community.

And then… a couple hours before we were due to flight out… Mother Nature got riled. Winds picked up. Snow flew and blew in copious amounts. Roads grew icy, visibility almost nil.

We were actually scheduled for a family brunch right before the airport drive, so we’d set up for Air Canada to text message our cell phone if the flight was delayed. The first message came through announcing a one-hour delay. No surprise there. And the storm was scheduled to end later that day.

But then the second message arrived. “Flight cancelled”. Huh.

Surprisingly, perhaps, we’d never actually had a flight cancelled before, and weren’t entirely sure what to do. It was a bit of a distracted brunch until we could get back to the house and figure that out.

There seemed to be no way to rebook anything online. We had to call Air Canada. But Timmins wasn’t the only affected site this day, so it was a long time on hold with them.

Meantime, we looked at alternatives. There was a bus leaving around 8:00 that night, which would get us to Toronto about 12 hours later. Uggh. And, there was a flight out of North Bay that night, for only $200. But how to get to North Bay?

Finally, we reached Air Canada. They could not rebook us before Tuesday, essentially ensuring we’d miss two days of work. This was not a good situation for DH, whose small office was already understaffed at this time, and whose clients have an ongoing need to breathe. So we decided to go with getting our flight refunded, and finding another way back.

We called the bus line about that night’s bus. Turns out that was unlikely to leave as well; both major highways leading out of Timmins were closed. So that meant car rental was also out. There was just no getting to work for Monday.

We continued research. I recalled that it was actually possible to take the train out of Timmins; that left the next morning at 7:45, and definitely looked like the most appealing option. A long day, still, but train travel is better than bus.

The next day dawned clear and all looked well. From the “train” station, they actually bus us first to Matheson, about an hour away, the closest town that still has rail lines. We got there on time, but were told the train was about 15 minutes late. But 15 minutes came and went and… no train.

The bus driver called us over. “So, this is what has happened. The train has broken down in Val Gagné. So get back on the bus, and we’ll figure out how to get you to Toronto.”

We were soon joined by a busload of people from Val Gagné. The bus we were on didn’t fit everyone, so they had to get a bigger one. They also had to figure out how to pick up every one in the stops between Matheson and North Bay, from where a train would be available.

In the end, we got an “express” bus ride to North Bay, while a separate bus handled the “milk run” of stops in between. And, it wasn’t so bad, since the most annoying part of bus travel is all those stops on the way.

We were in North Bay on time, but the train was not. We had about an hour’s wait there. Then everyone on that train had to get off and find their way onto various buses for the trip to points north. Then we got on, and the train turned around and went back to Toronto.

From here in, there were no further delays. We got to Toronto around 8:45, into a taxi to bring us to the airport parking where our car was, then a drive home that went well.

And we were both able to work on Tuesday. Happy new year to all!

Trip to Italy

We really enjoyed our two-week trip to Italy.

For details, see Planning a trip to Italy in two weeks.

Or for just photos: Italy 2008.

Excuse for me for not blogging, but I’ve been a crazy person

Woke up in a panic
Like somebody fired a gun
I wish I could be dreaming
But the nightmare’s just begun

Ever do that? Wake up from a dead sleep in full panic mode, heart pounding, mind racing?

It’s happened to me a few times in the past couple weeks, and it’s quite unpleasant. I do not recommend it. And as sleep deprivation accumulates, the brain gets less and less effective. For the first time, I feel I have just a tiny understanding of what parents of babies and young children go through.

Don’t know why I feel so bad
Is it the weather, or am I going mad?
Don’t know why I feel this way
I don’t know whether I’m coming or I’m going
Can’t cover up, ’cause it’s obviously showing

Normally, I’m a fairly calm person, not given to emotional outbursts. So the number of times I’ve heard “You’re stressing me out!” in the past few weeks must be some sort of record.

I didn’t actually know, before, that stress was catching.

“Nice to know you’re human, too,” I also heard. Well that’s over-rated, I say.

Standing on an island
In the middle of the road
Traffic either side of me
Now which way do I go?
I should have stayed at home
I should have never come outside
Now I wish I’d never tried
To cross to the other side

So what’s been bothering me? Well, I’m not going to say. It’s personal, and it’s nothing dire—no cancer, no house burned down. It’s just stuff, that’s led to a lot more introspection than I’m used to, which is clearly bad for me. Frankly, I’m getting quite sick of myself.

Lyin’ awake in a cold, cold sweat
Am I overdrawn, am I going into debt?
It gets worse, the older that you get
No escape from this state of confusion I’m in

The Kinks: State of Confusion

And anyway, it’s gone beyond anything real, and I actually am panicking about going in debt, even though I have no real reason to do so, upcoming trip to Europe or no. And hearing all this bad economic news—not helpful! I’m like a walking Dow Jones average, overreacting to every new bit of information.

I thought, maybe a news break would help, then noticed how much news permeates my life. I wake up to CBC news (business news at 6:45), get up and get the paper (hard to get to the Arts section without passing by Business news with all its downward red arrows), cook dinner to CTV News 1: Your News first! (Business report at 6:30 pm).

So anyway, that’s why I haven’t been writing about politics much. But I suppose I should say something about the federal election results.

Given how bad the Liberal campaign was, it’s fortunate Conservatives managed to lose the majority on their own, scaring the Quebecois with thoughts of arts cuts and 14-year-olds in jail. But they did get a stronger minority, one that will take two parties to bring them down. Stéphane Dion didn’t dither in doing the right thing and stepping down, though this means the Liberals will again be spending all their money on getting a new leader, and not on winning power. There’s been lots of talk of uniting the Left. I’d love to see it, but won’t hold my breath.

Most disappointing for me had to be the local results, losing two excellent Liberal MPs: Andrew Telegdi (by 43 votes!) and Karen Redman. Redman lost to yet another “holy roller”—a social conservative, against gay marriage, pro-life, etc. So the whole region is now “served” by undistinguished Conservative members who will be as muzzled in office as they were running for it.

At least south of border, knock wood and all that, election results are looking to be much more promising. In fact, I was listening to Mr. Obama read from his own Audacity of Hope book today. It was very relaxing. He’s so smart, so well spoken.

It did, indeed, provide me some escape from the state of confusion I’m in.

Canadian election week 3. Sigh.

By the end of the week, I was getting pretty grumpy with all involved.

  • The Liberals, for being organized enough to put together a great platform, but not organized enough to sell it.
  • The NDP, for being on the wrong side of the carbon tax issue, even though they have a leader who should have credibility and integrity on this issue, above all others.
  • The Conservatives, for… well, for a lot of reasons, as you know, but especially for pandering to the worst sides of human nature.
  • Far too many of my fellow Canadians, for responding to that appeal.
  • And the Greens, for… Actually, I didn’t get annoyed with the Greens. But I’ll also not convinced they’re quite ready for prime time.

So took a little break on the weekend, took in a little of that arts and culture ordinary Canadians don’t care about, traveled green (bus, train, feet), and found a few little positives.

  • My local candidates debate, where nobody seemed awful. And yes, I even mean the Conservative guy, who can’t be completely hopeless, since they actually let him talk to the media and all that. (Thanks be I’m not in Harold Albrecht’s riding!)
  • Some Facebook vote trading group has been started, in an “anyone but the Conservatives” bid. Say you want to vote NDP but live in a riding where they don’t have a chance, you trade your vote with someone in a more NDP-friendly riding, and you vote their choice for them.
  • All of our parties are still better than the Republicans and their leaders. There’s always that.
  • And, our media, at least some of it some of the time, providing the analysis and details that politicians won’t discuss.

And on that last point… A few favourites from last week.

On carbon taxes

It doesn’t matter how often proponents pledge to recycle carbon tax money into lower taxes on incomes and companies. It doesn’t matter how many economists argue in favour of pricing carbon through a tax.

The Conservatives have distorted the carbon tax idea and scared people. The economy would be “wrecked,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper says. Funny then that Demark, with a carbon tax for a while now, had higher per capita growth than Canada from 1990 to 2006: 36 to 32 per cent.

What, therefore, remains? Policy incoherence across Canada, and Conservative and NDP plans that won’t get the job done. Mr. Harper has not spoken in the election about his “plan,” except to say he has one. What is it?

So in May, the government published the latest iteration of an incredibly complicated regulatory plan, many of the details of which are still unknown. Normally, Conservatives consider complicated regulations as to be viewed with great suspicion. But their “plan” offers the mother of all regulatory schemes.

The plan contains lots of little programs for conservation and renewables. They’re mostly inoffensive, but they won’t bring many emissions reductions.

The silliest is the public transit tax credit, introduced in the 2006 budget as an emissions reducer. The vast majority of people receiving the credit were already riding public transit. By the government’s own numbers, the credit will lower emissions this year by a risible 30,000 tonnes at a cost of $220-million – a staggeringly high per tonne cost.

Jeffrey Simpson, Globe and Mail

That $773 dollar of your taxes per ton, folks. That’s so much better than the $10 a ton the Liberals are proposing! Those fiscal conservatives — they are so smart! I totally see why they vote for the party that is so wise about its spending.

On crime

The party’s obsession with crime-and-punishment policies repugnant to urban voters suggests one of two things: Either it is secretly worried about collapsing support on the Prairies – as if! – or else it actually believes that voters lust for vengeance against children (now known as “denunciation” among politically correct Martians – denunciation for life).

How is it that representatives who hail largely from Canada’s most badly policed, violent cities and towns presume so easily to lecture the leaders of Canada’s best-policed, safest city?

Torontonians both pay significantly more on policing per capita than other Canadians, according to Statistics Canada, and they enjoy significantly safer streets than the residents of virtually every town in the country – outside Quebec, which is both the safest and the most liberal-minded province.

Thus the fruits of being “soft on crime.” Crime rates have dropped an amazing 30 per cent since 1991.

John Barber, Globe and Mail

On leadership

Stéphane Dion is an odd case. He keeps yapping about his green plan even as party hotshots tell him the story line has changed, we’re off that stuff. Could he think it isn’t a show – that the planet really is in danger? Would that count as real leadership rather than the acted kind? Poor Stéphane. Could he ever play a leader? Doubtful, although if he got elected somehow, and everyone onstage – journalists, MPs – treated him as a leader, he might start feeling, and acting it. Ah, the magic of theatre.

Why hasn’t Harper the Strong pulled away from the field? Why is the Layton NDP stuck? How has the weak, frail Dion hung in – as if voters are seeking something outside the strong leadership box? Such as – weak leadership. Isn’t that what real democracy would be about? It would disperse leadership among its citizens. In ancient Athens, they chose most leaders by lot, after policies were established in public debate. They made an exception only for leaders chosen in wartime.

So maybe the leadership axiom isn’t so axiomatic. An Ipsos Reid poll this week found 62 per cent of Canadians say they’re most “swayed” by party stances on key issues versus 21 per cent by leaders. Pollster Darrell Bricker was so stunned, and so committed to official theology, that he insulted voters by saying he didn’t know if they meant it or were just trying to give “the right answer.” To gain what, his approval? Maybe someone should poll the pollsters on whether they think Canadian voters have any brains.

Rick Salutin, Globe and Mail

On quality of Conservative candidates

Among Conservatives, there is a lot of grassroots support for Chris Reid’s brand of conservatism. He wants to close the CBC and scrap the Indian Act and seems to have deep-seated rage issues – but Team Harper dumped him anyway. Word is that Stephen Harper draws the line at homosexuals with guns; and really, considering his record on that file, I can’t say I blame him.

As for the pro-drug, pro-prostitution Mr. Warawa, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office now says that, as of three days ago, he has changed his views and no longer believes anything he ever said on any issue whatsoever.

Rumour is that he has been run through a Conservative re-education camp. A few pistol whips from a flak-jacket-clad Peter McKay (“Who’s the bitch now, Warawa?”) topped off with a chemical lobotomy, and the boy is as good as new, a virtual Bev Oda – happy to be seen and not heard from ever again. He will make one hell of a cabinet minister some day.

By the sounds of it, when it comes to dealing with party dissidents, the Chinese government could learn a thing or two from our sweater-wearing Prime Minister.

Rick Mercer, Globe and Mail

Canada Day in Ottawa

Cross-posted at https://culturearchive.ca/ottawa-on-canada-day-2008/

Our planned trip to Ottawa for Canada Day did not start off auspiciously, what with 60% chance of rain predicted for every day we were there.

Fortunately, as has often been the case this weird summer, they were wrong about that. We had mostly sun for our entire visit, and the predicted probability of rain declined each day, til it was down to a 0% chance that day—a prediction that turned out to be right on.

And it’s cool to be there in advance and see the preparations—the stage being built and so on. On the Monday there was music from the stage on Parliament Hill, so we went closer to investigate. The name “Suzie McNeil” flashed on the big screen there. That might not excite most people, but I was a big fan of Rock Star INXS, and have kind of followed Suzie’s career since, through her stint on the We Will Rock You stage musical, her album, her song “Believe” being picked as an Olympic fundraiser. Anyway, we got to get up close to the Parliament Hill stage and watch her and her band rehearse that.

On Canada Day itself, when we back to Parliament Hill first thing after breakfast, it wasn’t nearly so easy to get close to anything. People. People everywhere. Seas of red and white. Of course, we knew there would be people, but this was really a lot of people. We managed to sort of peak at the Mountie musical ride performing—kind of seeing their little hats bob up and down—when we decided that was enough of that atmosphere and headed to the big Information Centre (much easier said than done, actually).

Continue reading “Canada Day in Ottawa” →

Commuter challenged

Last week I attempted, for the first time, to participate in the Commuter Challenge. More people than I expected haven’t heard of this before, but the idea is that, for a week, you try to get to work by some way other than by driving yourself there. As part of the company “Green Team”, I felt I should try to participate, even though I really like the convenience of driving myself to work and back.

I don’t live far from work—Google Maps reports that it’s 3.7 km, one way. Cycling would be the most logical alternative mode of transport, likely not taking much longer than the drive in rush hour.

The problem is, I’m not much of a cyclist. I don’t feel in shape for the activity, I do not like driving on the sides of city streets, I don’t want to feel sweaty at work all day, I don’t want to feel obliged to have to bike home again if it’s raining by then.

Next up: the bus. Grand River Transit has developed a new EasyGo system that is pretty cool. You enter your start and end locations and times; it gives you the full bus route to take. Unfortunately, that also revealed a slightly absurd, 30-40 minute itinerary, with one or two transfers.

Telework was an option. While I couldn’t and wouldn’t want to work at home the whole week, I did have a laptop and a method of connecting to the work network, so that was my method for a couple of the days. For the others? I finally went with “get a ride with husband” in the morning (which he helpfully pointed out just meant that he had to drive a little farther before going to work), combined with walking back home. Which took me 40 minutes.

Happy news was that I did get my exercise in, and on days I probably otherwise would not have. The weather proved to be cooperative—didn’t get rained on, wasn’t ever excessively hot or cold. Except for the one spot with the pond Canada geese and their chicks, and the (live) groundhog I saw one day, the walk route itself was rather uninspiring, even boring. But the iPod proved a helpful tool for dealing with that.

The challenges? Well, it made doing errands pretty tricky. Cats ended up chowing down on yellowfish tuna in olive oil because I wasn’t about to cart home a bunch of can cat food from the store near the office, as I usually do. Telework Monday I drove myself to a medical appointment and back; otherwise I would have missed too much work time. Right after walk-home Tuesday I got into my car for an event in downtown. Though the bus route to there was very good, the bus options home were not. Wine bottles to return to the Beer Store near work? That didn’t happen either.

I also had to really downsize the amount of stuff I normally carry. For the most part, this just proves I normally carry way more than I need. But keeping a bag lunch at proper temperature and weight—tricky. The glass bottled water I used as an alternative to plastic? Too heavy to consider. Carrying my laptop and accessories and papers so I can work effectively at home? Not practical— hence my using the ride option as well.

So, unfortunately, I’m unlikely to stay with regular alternative commuting options. But I will work at home more often, as possible. It’s good to know that walking—and even transit—are actually possible on days the car is in for servicing, or whatever. And walking made it clear that plenty of people deal with the busy city streets by riding their bikes on the sidewalk, so though you’re not supposed to do that, it maybe makes biking an option.

It was good to try it out. If you didn’t participate this year, look out for out next time. Gas ain’t getting any cheaper…

Start spreading the news…

But I’m not leaving today; I’m actually back from New York a week now and finally feel recovered.

I do find the website a more suitable medium than the blog for posting the photos and commentary; you can see that here:

https://jean-cathy.com/wp51/new-york-city-weekend-2008/

The week before going, I put together a playlist of songs about New York—New York State of Mind, First We Take Manhattan, New York City, New York Conversation, America (“Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike”), An American Tune, Last Chance on the Stairway (“45! ‘Tween Fifth and Broadway”), Chinatown, and so on. Course, then my brain was plagued by these songs the whole weekend. Mind you, that probably would have happened anyway.

“The Big Apple” playlist on YouTube Music (this link is a later addition, clearly)

Winter weather, winter tires

I’ve been a convert to winter tires for some time now, but a recent episode of Marketplace comparing the performance of all season and winter tires still really struck me. How much farther the all-season car skidded before stopping, at a mere 60 k/hour. The repeated but failed attempts by the expert driver to swerve and avoid hitting a “pedestrian”, compared with the absolute ease of doing so with the winter tires.

The show also had a few facts I didn’t know. Like all season tires start to lose effectiveness at 5C. (I thought it was a little colder.) That even on bare but cold pavement, they make a big difference. That the 10% of Quebec drives who didn’t use snow tires were responsible for 38% of the accidents.

That, with this week’s weather, is making me a little stunned that only 20-30% of Ontario drivers use winter tires. The logical part of my brain understands why: It’s an initial outlay of about $650, and the fact that your all season tires will last twice as long may not be enough to make up for that. You need some place to store an extra set of tires. And it’s just a bother to have to go and get tires changed each season. (Let alone the fact that all season tires are called “all season tires”, which certainly makes you think they ought to work all year around.)

But then I keep getting distracted by thoughts like, well, what is your life worth? And the lives of other drivers? Driving is the most dangerous thing most of us do. Why are you increasing the risk by driving around on hard slippery rubber?