Airport Sitting

Back-dated entry. The joke was: matched luggage, like a jet-setter, but jet-setters don't move to the Yukon. Oh really? Since moving to the Yukon, I have never travelled so much in my life. It didn't take me long to realise that people in the Yukon tend to get the Hell out whenever they can, and I'm no different. Maybe it would be easier if I did it on a Government salary, though. That would be nice. Well, next time I move someplace totally remote and off the beaten track, I'll remember that.

Anyway, I'm sitting at YVR, Vancouver International Airport, drinking an unfabulous Starbucks coffee, listening to golden oldies being piped in. Through the glass, across a waiting area, I am being stared at by a large, Cathay Pacific 747. I'm thinking how small the cockpit windows are compared to the whole nose of the plane. It's a bit disconcerting. International travellers are walking back and forth in front of me, all different walks of life, skin colours, shapes and sizes, and yet all of them have that same bewildered expression on their faces that says: I'm in an airport and I think I'm going the right way, but I'm not sure. Even the crew walking by have an element of this in their faces. The same very tall man has walked by twice now, looking no less confused than he did the first time.

I'm wondering now, where the myth of the tiny Asian person comes from, because as I sit here, I am impressed by many tall Asian men and a few tall Asian women, too. Sure, every so often a stereotype walks by, but not as many as I assumed. Also, some of these people are sporting the most amazing outfits, sometimes stylish, sometimes outlandish, frequently layered and heavy on textures. Wow.

I'm going to Los Angeles and I don't know what to expect. I've never been to West Coast USA before in my life, excepting Bellingham, WA this summer to catch the ferry. California, though, that's pretty exciting. I do not anticipate falling in love with it as I did Philadelphia when I first visited it, or Cardiff, Wales. But I am looking forward to fun, sun and smog. Yes, really, the smog too. Is that weird? I'm a big city girl at heart and smog, although gross and bad for you, is part of the city experience. Sometimes I like to know that the reason my eyesight is bad is because of particulate matter.

Some confused people are walking by; I suppose they've missed their gate, or can't find it. And the Cathay Pacific flight attendants - they're so adorable. Does that sound patronising? It might be, except, well, there's no other word for them. I flew Cathay in May when I went back to New York for Alfred's funeral. "Tuuu-buuu-wance, buck-o seat behrts preease !" All of them could have been characters in an anime, looking unbearably cute and pretty in their uniforms and getting all excited and flustered. I really liked Cathay Pacific, too, they still treat their passengers well.

My coffee is nearly finished and I'm contemplating following it up with an Orange Julius, but maybe I'll just use my money to buy a 15 minute massage at the spa down the terminal. Whoever thought to put in spa/massage areas into airports was brilliant and deserves to die a multi-millionaire. Honestly, I recommend it ! Sure, it's probably a bit overpriced and they don't work you like a real massage therapy session would, but if your knapsack, like mine, is really heavy and you slept poorly in an uncomfortable seat on the first leg of your journey, nothing says bliss like 15 minutes of having your flesh kneaded. Awwww ya. Okay, on that note, I'm off for some kneading.

Saving Toronto's Matador Club

I live in Whitehorse now, but for most of my life, Toronto has been my home. I've been amazed that the Matador has made national press on CBC Radio repeatedly. "Q" has covered it, which is probably available as a podcast from cbc.ca, and this morning I woke up to hear a major discussion about the Matador on "The Current".

It's on the radar and the City is looking pretty bad. The Parking Authority, an agent of the City of Toronto, is now talking about EXPROPRIATING the site for its incredibly backward-looking 20-unit parking lot across the street from the College St YMCA. This seems like madness to me, considering that this is an easily accessed intersection (by streetcar and bus) in a highly pedestrian neighbourhood.

Writing to Councilor Adam Giambrone is not the answer. He is ineffectual and hypocritical and you'll just get a form letter. Attached below is the letter you will receive. However, if you want to contact him, visit his website (which does not seem to mention the Matador at all, as if it were a non-issue, although it does link to his role as TTC chair and show a marquee of him sitting in the drivers' seat of a streetcar, no less). Take this higher - to the Mayer - take it to the street. Flood the media - CityTV, Global, CBC, CTV. Visit Speakers' Corner, write letters to the Editor. Rally, blog, do anything, but take this to the next level !

This movement needs organisation. I wish I could be there to help.

The form letter from Giambrone's office, wherein he passes the buck and effectively shrugs his shoulders:

Dear Resident,

Thank you for contacting me about this issue. I can confirm that the Toronto Parking Authority is interested in purchasing 466 Dovercourt Road, known as the Matador, for a new parking facility.

The TPA is an independent agency of the City, the municipal equivalent of a crown corporation. The TPA, not the City, funds its own capital purchases out of its own revenues. They do not come out of the City budget.

The TPA is pursuing this property because it has made a business case showing that it believes there is sufficent demand for parking in the area and it will be profitable for them to operate there. The owner of the Matador is willing to sell, and the TPA wants to buy.

The reason the TPA has come to the City is for the authority to expropriate if necessary. The expropriation process requires both a 'hearing of necessity' and third-party arbitration to determine the price if there is a discrepancy between the City's assessment and the seller's.

If the TPA does end up acquiring this lot, I want to use this opportunity to to make some real innovative changes to our community. How can we make it contribute to the pedestrian and cycling environment? How do we reduce its environmental impact? Are there opportunities for the inclusion of public art? Can some sort of memorial to the Matador be included?

I would like to invite community members interested in this issue to work with me and explote creative opportunities. Let's start sharing our ideas on how we can re-imagine and re-invent this space so that, if this purchase does happen, it ends up being a very different kind of parking lot than what this city is used to---one that contributes more to the neighbourhood than just space for cars.

You may also want to contact the TPA about this issue. Their website is www.greenp.com, their email is tpamail@toronto.ca, and their phone number is 416-393-7275.

Yours truly,

Adam Giambrone

Stardust

Stardust might very well be the lovechild of The Princess Bride and Gormenghast and as such, 20 years since the release of The Princess Bride, it might just be the heir to the fantasy-romance throne. As a fairytale, it is quite predictable, almost from start to finish, but it's not really about how it all shakes out in the end, but the journey it takes to get there. And it's about love, unfettered and unconditional, dreams and being all that we can be. It's also about goats and gay pirates - go figure.

Three years ago, I would have loved this movie but thought it just that, a fairytale. And then I met Gareth. I hope he sees Stardust and, just as I thought of him throughout, I hope it makes him think of me. I hope he and I have a future, but if we don't, at least, in that possible bittersweet ending, at least I will have had my star, for a little while, here on Earth.

Autumn

It's here, the fall, that is. The leaves have turned their yellows and oranges, have browned and curled, and in most places they've fallen from their branches. Tomorrow, the last of the 2007 cruise ships docks at Skagway, then the stores will be shuttered to wait out another winter. The days are shortening at a pace - the harsh price of those blissfully long summer days. The nights are frosty and the flowers in their planters are starting to wither. My strawberries, on the other hand, seem to be doing really well. I shall let them go dormant for a time once the cold really sets in, then I'll bring them inside and give them a start so that they may fruit earlier in the season.

The rain has been falling for the last several days, and at higher altitudes, the rain is replaced by wet snow that seems surprised that it can last more than a few seconds on the cold ground. There is a thin blanket of snow on the mountain tops already. The feel of the days reminds me of early November in Toronto, the drab days before winter decides to set in. The difference being that in Toronto, sometimes the winter never makes the decision. Here, on the other hand, snow will be a permanent feature come Hallowe'en.

My longing for the Cottage has passed with the ending of summer. I have to hope that next year I will visit. Two years away is too long. My longing for Christmas holiday at my mother's has not started yet and when it does, I shall be disappointed. I will make do with a short visit home in that drabbest of times, late November, and will enjoy it to the fullest. For now, all I really want to do is sleep, tucked up tightly with my cats, and wait for spring once more.

Summer's over

"Hot town, summer in the city, back of my neck gettin' dirty and gritty..."

That Lovin' Spoonful song is like an anthem (it's on the radio right now, forgive me) and there was a time I knew summer was come when it would get semi-regular playtime. It makes me a bit sad that I didn't get any real "hot town" weather this summer. I enjoy it for about a week every year, and then I want it to die. Well, although it reached the mid-20s here on several marvellous occasions, summer in the southern Yukon is a mild and fairly pleasant affair.

However, it's over now. We're probably dead centre in the glories of autumn now. The trees have been turning since the end of August and some trees are starting to look kind of bare. Within a week there might not be any leaves left at all. I've taken advantage of the fine weather a few times to go get some photography done. I can look forward to real frost, soon, too. We've had some patchy frost a couple of times, but later this week, it looks like the nighttime low will dip below 0.

As there will be no trips home for Christmas or to Wales (ever again?), I jumped at a seat sale and bought myself a plane ticket to visit LA over the Thanksgiving weekend. Now my Godmother, Liz, cannot complain that I don't visit. I know she'd kick my ass if I moved off somewhere else before visiting her. Her son, Orson, is apparently looking forward to seeing me again, too. They haven't seen me since 1996, when he was something like 8 or 9 years old. At the time I was quite fit from working with horses and at the stable and I picked him up and tossed him around like he weighed nothing. I hope he realises I can't do that to him any more ! Anyway, I'm looking forward to that trip.

Maybe in LA I'll get a delayed 'hot town' gritty summer. That would be nice.