Doors Open

Last weekend I went to a few Doors Open Toronto locations.  Saturday I went with Maria and Sergey.  First we went to the Japan Foundation at its new place just east of Yonge & Bloor.

Then we went to Osgoode Hall, where Maria wanted to show us the fancy restaurant, but it turned out they'd closed it after the onset of Covid-19.  Then we went to the Textile Museum, where they had an exhibit of stuff by Iran-born Padina Bondar. (Maria is into crocheting herself, and loves to see weaving...) Sergey would have liked to see the University of Toronto's Physics Department, but we ran out of time.

As it is, we were lucky to go to Osgoode Hall first, since it closed a bit early at 4:30:  if we'd gone to the Textile Museum first, we wouldn't have had the chance to go there too.  And when we passed through Osgoode Hall station I happened to run into Gennivier, who I knew from twenty years ago when we were taking ballroom dancing lessons at the Arthur Murray studio!

Later we ordered from a food truck selling Indian, Nepalese and Tibetan food and ate on the steps outside the Student Learning Centre.

Sunday I just went to two places:  the Polish Combatants Hall for Polish-Canadian war veterans, and the Toronto Islamic Centre.  Looking at the displays of Polish World War II uniforms and such, I thought of my aunt Alma, who could never watch war movies because it was all too grim for her.  I could have found more places to go to, but the walking around was the important thing for me.  If I walk two miles three times a week, that'll bring me close to my aspiration of walking a mile a day!

I found the text online of Charlie Chaplin's speech at the end of The Great Dictator, and I've started translating it into Chinese!

My nephew Katie graduated from McMaster University and her convocation was this past week.

Busy week

"Why did they fire you?"
"Because they're idiots!"

--Blackberry

I don't eat out with people much, but this last week I did it four times!  On Tuesday I had lunch with Debbie at Thai Noodles, which was quite good. (Tuesday was also Moira's birthday, and we had the whole family over for Indian food!)

I'm now reading A Short History of the Phoenicians.

We got the garden planted, but when I planted the potatoes I got into the area where Moira had planted kale! (We'll have to plant some more of that.)

We just saw the Italian series Made in Italy on topic.com .  (It was a priority because they're taking it off at the end of the month.) It's about a young woman in 1970s Milan who gets a job at a fashion magazine.  A cute, handsome show, but oddly predictable:  even when I didn't guess what would happen next, I felt like I should have guessed it!

Friday Moira and I had lunch with Puitak and Gordon at the City Hall cafe.  We walked all the way downtown, which got me a bit closer to my daily mile ambition. (Some days I get to a full mile or even more, but on other days I barely get out of the house...)

Saturday I had dinner with Maria and Sergey.  We were going to eat at the Black Tulip Hungarian restaurant around the corner, but it turned out we needed a reservation! (It must be getting popular...) So we went to the Raahi Indian restaurant instead.  Afterward we came back to my house and we played Quiddler, that Scrabble-like card game.

Yesterday I saw Blackberry with John P. at the Varsity, the true story of the meteoric cellphone company. (First we went into the wrong theatre and saw the first minute of The Starling Girl!) It's an excellent movie, intelligent and witty with some particularly Canadian touches.  The executive played by Michael Ironside kept making me think of Burl Ives!  Now I want to see Cat on a Hot Tin Roof again... 

Open window weather!

Last Friday I met Maria and Sergey for lunch, for the first time since Before Covid!

We've been watching Arctic Circle on topic.com .  It's about a policewoman in northern Finland dealing with cases that require working with the nearby Russians. (She has a daughter with Down's Syndrome.) The first season was a multiple murder case involving a dangerous virus with a potential for a worldwide Covid-type pandemic.  The second season, involving a Russian vigilante cult, is rather hard to swallow.

Nobody came to my History Meetup about Cuba.  But I'll try again with Phoenician history next month.

Wednesday I went to North York Central library to borrow A Short History of the Phoenicians, and there's a shop there where you can buy library discharge books cheap, so I picked up Korean children's books about Lincoln and Gauguin. (I've already started translating the Lincoln book!)

I also went to see my shrink, whom I almost missed:  I remembered his new address, but forgot which floor he was on!  I ended up walking up and down the stairs between eight floors, before finally finding him.  Oh well, I have a new ambition to start walking a mile a day.

I'm now rehearsing Die Fledermaus with the Toronto City Opera.  We did it about fifteen years ago at a time when I was playing the computer game Farmville, so this music reminds me a bit of that game.

Yesterday I bought the seeds and plants for our back yard garden.  Today I finally mowed the lawn, after a bee-friendly delay while the dandelions are blooming. (We're planting borage again, which the bees also like.)

Now that I've caught up with One Piece, I've started watching Dragonball Z again, this time dubbed.