The days following our return from New York haven’t been all that thrilling. In fact, I seemed to have lacked any real motivation over the past couple of day and replaced much of it with far too much television. Yesterday, I probably spent a good six hours in front of the idiot box. Next week, I think I’ll put the remote controls in Glen’s bag so he can take them to work and I won’t be tempted.
Having said that, it hasn’t been awful. In some ways, it’s been nice to not do much at all, particularly when I’ve been able to silent the nagging voice inside my head saying I’m wasting my time (and more besides) by not ‘doing something’. I did, however, get some things done. I finished off a writing assignment and a few other work-related things. I went grocery shopping. And on Thursday night, Glen and I went to the Art Gallery of Ontario.
On the first Thursday of every month the AGO opens its doors in the evenings, puts on some food and drink, and a couple of djs and encourages people to come in and check out the art. This month it was to give people a sneak peek at some of the Nuit Blanche art pieces (which we’re going to tonight), as well as the Ai Wei Wei exhibition and the rest of the galleries (except the Bowie exhibition).
I had expected more of the pieces from Nuit Blanche to be on display but instead there were only six. We met Anna, another radiology fellow, and Catherine, an anaesthetics fellow from Australia, and wandered through most of the galleries, trying to find the six Nuit Blanche pieces. I think we found five of them and, in the meantime, got to check out some of the other works of art that I hadn’t seen before.
Glen had come home from work with a headache so we didn’t stay long. Anna and Catherine went to see the Ai Wei Wei exhibition, which I’d seen twice, so we decided to head home. Unfortunately, we were hungry so went to a dumpling house in Chinatown, ordered three dishes, and ended up having to take most of it home. We should have only ordered one dish because after about seven baby bok choys, I was full. I didn’t even touch the fried rice.
On Friday, Glen once again took my keys to work, possibly because I may or may not have left them on his desk and they didn’t have the toy beaver keyring attached to them. This meant I was stuck in the apartment all day. I couldn’t even go to the gym. I made the most of it though by getting some work done and watching TV. I’ve now caught up on the Secret of Crickley Hall (BBC) and Blacklist (with James Spader). I’d finished reading The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared the day before and wasn’t yet in the frame of mind to start a new one. If anyone’s keen on a light-hearted, fun read, I highly recommend this book.
After yesterday’s confinement, I wasn’t too keen on spending all day inside, despite the greyness of the sky. Glen went off to a breast symposium downtown and I went to the gym, then went out (yes, I left the house) to get my haircut and buy a few things. I came back briefly before deciding to go to High Park for a walk around.
I always thought it was Hyde Park, which is what the station announcements sound like, but no, it’s High Park. It’s convenient to get to on the train and easy to find from there. Looking at the map of the place, I expected it to be this huge place that would take hours to even get round half of it. Not so. Each time I came across a map with a “You Are Here” sticker on it, I was surprised at how far around I’d actually gotten.
There were quite a few trees with yellow leaves and even a few with red ones too. I saw lots of black or brown squirrels, including one that looked like a baby, or resembling the Indian Palm Squirrels we have at work back home. Perhaps it was a different species from the usual squirrels here because it did have two stripes on its back and was pale in colour.
I walked along the ravine, down a well worn track, along the banks of a lake, and then found myself back at a busy road. I cut through what looked like a worn path but was probably one that people had just made into the undergrowth. I was then surprised to find two men just standing around in the bushes. Freaked the hell out of me, then realised what they were then for, and I kept going. Definitely not the path I was looking for. And then it ended. I didn’t fancy turning back the way I’d come, lest they get the wrong idea, so I scaled the small hill and climbed a barrier and came out on a road. Slightly worried I might have touched poison ivy along the way but so far no rashes.
Outside the museum there was what looked like a chestnut tree because beneath them were all these chestnuts. Or what looked like chestnuts. I’ll have to research it to make sure. If they were, I had no idea chestnuts came encased in these big pods with spikes on them. Really awesome.
After that I took a proper path, saw a woodpecker pecking a tree (amazing!), and then walked past this awesome children’s playground then through a small zoo with pens on either side of the road. They had alpacas, capybaras, emus, wallabies, sheep, bison, highland cows, goats and deer. And soon after that I was back to where I’d started and caught the subway home. All up I’d been out for about two-and-a-half hours.
It was so good to get outdoors, particularly where I was surrounded by nature. I realised that despite living in a city/suburb back home, I wasn’t far from greenery, particularly at work. I miss it. Sure, we have some plants on the balcony, but being surrounded by trees and plants is something else. I feel charged after going, which is good because we’re going out tonight to look at art in the streets with a million other people. Another trip to nature will be in order soon.
Travels with Dan 
What do you say, eh?