Today I am participating in a long conference call and so I camp out in a vacant office so I can close the door and put the phone on speaker. The office overlooks Adelaide Street and one of my favourite downtown buildings, the Canada Permanent Trust building. I get watching the office workers on several floors and it strikes me that each floor is a separate world of its own, each person oblivious to the others moving about above and below. That gets me to thinking about the thousands and thousands of office workers moving about the the windows of all the office buildings downtown, like worker ants. The thought of being a worker ant makes me a little depressed so I turn my attention back to the meeting and get on with my job.
Saturday brunch on a patio. What does one do when thinking about the quickly diminishing summer and wondering how many more outdoor meals there are in a year?
Look up!
Coffee in bed. Meeting up with Cathy and Stan for brunch. Rain not happening. Bike ride. Jazz fest.
Coming home this evening, I see a girl who looks strikingly like I did 35 years ago. It's like seeing a ghost.
Pleasantly tired is how Ceri describes himself at the end of today. I concur.
Sometimes a window's reflection can give you all the clarity you need. As in the most logical reason to take an afternoon off.
Today we loaf the morning away reading and drinking coffee, and then Ceri goes in to the office and I go to the gym. After showering there, I walk up Victoria then Yonge Streets to meet him in Yorkville on the roof at the Pilot Tavern.
I'm a little cranky when I get there; navigating Yonge Street is not exactly a blast for a fast walker like me, particularly on hot Saturday afternoon. A cool glass of white wine cures my cranky quick, and we have a really delicious snack of ginger beef, pita and foccacia with hummous, tzatziki and roasted red pepper dip and carrots and celery sticks. It's breezy on the roof. We remark at the sheer ugliness of the architecture in the Bloor/Yonge area (I'd say most of it is circa 1970s) yech.
We walk home via Philosopher's Walk / University of Toronto and I can't stop taking pictures. I love this walk. We recall the last time we walked through here and what a cold winter's day it was. Selma, the gargoyles are for you.
Later we get home and share a bottle of Chardonnay on my building's roof, looking over the lake and city airport in my new camp chairs. I congratulate myself (again) on my portable outdoor furniture investment. I make little pizzas on whole wheat pita with onions, peppers, salsa and romano cheese.
Summer, I'm so glad to see you.
We're getting summer weather. 25°C today. In March. City people everywhere are flocking to patios to enjoy it while it lasts. It's not a stretch to think that we could still get a snowstorm. Because it's March. Ceri and I decide we want to take advantage before the temps dip down at the weekend and see if we can get on a patio too. We decide on some options and I will meet him after work. He, on his bike, scopes out the first two and texts me, "no go." He's going to ride up to King Street and I'm almost to the option we decided on there. I walk into the crowded patio and there is Kelsey. She and Carly were going to do the same thing. She has a table and so we join. A really fun, unexpected hook up!
A Sunday turned out free for Cathy and Stan and Carly so we planned brunch in the city. Carly hooked up with Cathy and Stan at Union Station and then they all met Ceri and me at our favourite brunch place near Sugar Beach.
It's gorgeous and sunny – the first real spring day. A stroke of luck for our family-hanging-about-date, and damn we're all in need of some warm sunshine. It hasn't been a bad winter, but a dreary one. We need sun. I needed some sun bad.
I'm sure we were the only ones in the restaurant who were so taken with the sight of the ship being towed by a tug (and followed by another) across our southerly view as we ate. Might be because we're partial to a coupla' sailors. As we left the restaurant, we see the tugs maneuvering the ship into the slip at the sugar factory.
We take a walk through the Distillery District. Cathy buys Elaine some macaroons at the bakery there. I take pictures of [more] windows. There is a lineup at the Mill St. Brew Pub, so we wander back toward the Market neighbourhood and find a table at the Jason George. We enjoy beers and sunshine and each others' company, laughing a lot. The sun might have had something to do with that, but mostly it was the company.
After a late breakfast, Ceri went to the office for awhile and I puttered around, cleaning the kitchen, doing laundry and other Saturday stuff. Later I walked down to meet him at the Market where we picked up a few things. Out for fajitas for dinner, then back to his place where we sat in the window looking over the city and chatted. Movie later, then SNL.
I admire this beautiful building every day, particularly that yellow light in the windows, the arches inside, and the detail in its exterior. I need to get here with my real camera to get some better, closer shots. I will.
Just a window I liked, walking home tonight, Friday night.