Toronto 2 Day 2

Awoke at about seven this morning, washed and brushed, I'm on the 18th floor, so I am still a little nervous going near the window! Played on the computer for a bit, going well on Arkie and Snidgets quizzes, and on Triviapalooza, not so well in the others. Also enjoying Farkle which Asrai introduced me to.

Then went down to breakfast, Eggs Benedict on the buffet :-), really very pleasant, much better than yesterdays I really really enjoyed them. Read the paper as I was dining, highlight of the paper for me today was that one of the questions asked of Canadians in reference to their possible next Prime Minister was "does he drink coffee from Timmies?" fantastic question, I cannot think what they would ask that would be the same in the UK. I used to hear Michael Ignatieff quite a bit on the radio in the UK, and he has always struck me as very intelligent, not sure if that is a good thing in politics though.

My new hotel is just around the corner from the city hal, so I ambled round there in the morning, and then to... the Eaton Centre! Purchased a book, and bag from Indigo (not carrying the rocksack today), looked at buying Fade, however as it is only available in hardback, and I have a copy at home I decided against. Then I tried to take some money out, no joy as the system was unavailable!

Then ambled round a little more, and tried to get some money out again, this time I was told that my bank had refused me :-( So I gave them a call to ask for an explanation, apparently it was a fraud risk, they did the same when I was in Rome, but they have never done it apart from those two times. All those months in countries all over Europe and no problems, I think they plan it to refuse the card when I am on holiday! Anyway the card is now working in Canada.

Now that I had a little more cash I went to Baskin Robbins in memory of Pepe, had a nice Rum and Raisin, why is that so rarely available in the UK?

And then caught the tube to Union station, and took the Skythingy to the Rogers stadium, a lot of people heading that way, which reminds me the hotel is supposed to be on the PATH (Underground city in Toronto) however I haven't worked out how it works yet, as I can get lost in a small city like London even with landmarks I suspect that I should only go down in the PATH when I can afford to amble around with nothing particular to do.

Anyway arrived at the Rogers, quite large crowds, but getting in was very easy, purchased a pint of beer, however they only seemed to have Budweiser (I still cannot believe that they were allowed to purchase the original Budweiser brewery so they could still continue to use a name not really their own). As we all know in the UK the reason American beer is served so cold is because it tastes like gnats piss when it warms up. Anyway I chugged it down, which was not actually that pleasing an experience, and went to my seat.

A very good seat, Aisle 117, Row 15, and seat 11. I was actually about eight rows from the field, and nearly level with the pitchers mound (why do pitchers need mounds?) the view was really very good, There were about 20 seats between aisles, so I was in the middle of a row. Before the game there was a skipping rope performance by a group of eight to twelve year old girls, very village fetey, but somehow touching.

Then the national anthems, performed by the leads in "The Sound of Music" here in Toronto. National anthems at non-national sporting events always seem a little strange to me, I guess it is what you grow up with though, although the strangest use of a National Anthem to me is still the fact that they play it before opening Seaworld in Orlando.

And on to the Ball game, Firstly the crown: Toronto won yesterday having lost nine games in a row, and thrown away a convincing lead in their division prior to that, so the crowd were perhaps less het up than they might have been. In fact I have been in libraries that were noisier, I have certainly never been at a sports event with less atmosphere, even Barnet vs Aldershot when Aldershot were in administration and the players couldn't be bothered was more tingling. To be fair the stadium tried to get everyone more excited with strange hammond organ type music, however there was no chanting, no singing, no repartee, it just seemed very restrained to me. Maybe it was where I was sitting, in an expensive area, whilst the real fans were elsewhere? I hope so.

The stadium itself was very impressive, on my level there were concessions all around the ring, inside were selling Blue Jays merchandise outside were all sorts of food and drink concessions, mainly sausages in a bun and panini, although I didn't go all the way round. It was a lovely day in Toronto, so the roof was open, although luckily enough it got a little dark later, so I got to see the roof closing which was most impressive. After the second innings I tracked out and purchased a hot dog with all the trimmings (which were fried peppers), I was surprised there was none of that strange liquid cheese or chilli, however I did manage to find mustard, tomato ketchup, raw onion and cucumber relish to anoint it with, difficult to eat, however I managed!

The game itself, well the Toronto bowler was a little rough at first, he "walked" about three players in the first two innings, it looked as if Toronto were in for a tonking, however after the third innings they took control, and won.

Ambled back to Union station and caught the tube to Bay, I only have three tokens left at the moment, and I want to go and see Runnymede, just because I live at the original. Went to Hemmingways had a poor Margarita, two pints of Rickards weissbier which was nice, and some calamari, when I say some there were actually an awful lot of them however they were most pleasant as well.

Then on to the tube again, and down to Osgoode, sat around a little outside the opera and saw a young chap in white jacket taking girl to opera in one of those stupidly long limousines, I'm really not sure if they were as old as sixteen. She looked most elegant, he really hadn't thought out his wardrobe, however thinking back I'm not sure that many teen boys ever do. A roll of thunder and I walked back to the hotel.

Really looking forward to meeting up with everyone tomorrow, now for a happy night in the arms of Morpheus.