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A dull day weather-wise: flat grey skies, cooler than it had been for the past several days, a forecast of rain that never materialized. I knew the forecast since I’ve gotten into the habit of bringing a small radio along on these trips, though there’s now wireless access throughout much of the house, so next time I will bring my computer and just look it up online. In the past I have enjoyed listening to Riviera Radio, which is broadcast out of Monaco, aimed squarely at English-speaking tourists and hip expats with money. On previous visits they tended to play a late of 90s-era Britpop, featuring heavy doses of tunes by The Verve, Blur, Oasis and the like. They seem to have altered format, so now they have a sometime odd mix of music, ranging from 70s disco to low-grade American hip-hop, with heavy doses of M.O.R. Elton John, Queen, Rod Stewart etc. I began to understand why my sister-in-law was so down on this station — listening to this stuff during the last harvest would have driven me batty too.

Very much to its credit however, they still play BBC news at the top of the hour, where I heard more about the student protests happening in various French cities against a newly proposed labour law that would make it easier to fire those in their mid-20s and under. My own feeling is that this is a left-ist policy gone too far, and which the latest government, desperately trying to bring back a level of flexibility and productivity in the workforce, and is adamantly trying to change. I don’t doubt that the students realize that this can only be the thin edge of the wedge, and are digging their feet in. It doesn’t strike me as a situation that is likely to end anytime soon.

After breakfast I headed out with the intention of walking the perimeter of the “north” vineyard, which I have never fully explored. Vanessa joined me, and we had a very pleasant walk around the circumference of the property. I took pictures of anything that took my interest, such as the chateau, small signs at the end of a row of plants bearing the name of the type of grape and the row number, and of any interesting local plants that popped up. It being a grey day none of the pictures were spectacular, but it was a nice walk nonetheless.

Syrah sign

Dotted at odd intervals around the outside the grounds, and the small electric fence (designed to keep out the roving sanglier at night), were cork trees. Vanessa and I had a close look at them, and I explained how the tree bark was used in the production of cork stoppers for wine bottles. Even though I knew what it was, I was still surprised at how, upon taking off a piece of the bark, it was recognizably the same soft wooden material more commonly found at the top of wine bottles. On one of the trees I saw, the material was easily 6 or 7 inches thick, and came off easily from the relatively smooth and dark heartwood of the tree. The outside of the bark covering the tree is wonderfully wizened and gnarled. They have this ancient look about them, even if they aren’t actually as old as they might seem. Cork trees have the sort of texture that naturally lends itself to photography, even on leaden days like this.

The Thick Bark of Cork Tree on the Estate (The Darker Stuff is Heartwood, So You Can See How Thick the Actual Cork Bark Is)

By this point Vanessa had taken to collecting wild flowers in order to make a bunch when we got back to the house. Of course the very best wild flowers were on the other side of the electric fence. So every now and then I would lift her over it in order to grab some flowers of interest.

On the final leg of the trip back to the chateau we ran across a roadway which was obviously made from fill derived from a house that had been knocked down and “recycled”. Every now and then a piece of colourful tile would poke up from above the soil. In the end we had a hard look through some of it, and Vanessa was very happy to find a piece of nearly-intact earthen tile that still had the name of the manufacturer clearly stamped upon it. She very happily took that and her flowers back to the chateau, and I had a camera full of more shots that I needed to dump to my 1GB memory stick to look over later.

In the afternoon we took all of the kiddies for a “free-form” version of mini-golf, Cassandra in particular having a blast as she guided the colourful golf balls into their respective holes by any means possible. Annie came up with the “Annie Method”, which basically involved grabbing the golf ball and rolling it from a few inches away so that it almost always went in the whole. Vanessa just tore off and did all of the holes in the shortest available time.

Later we went to a local mini-mart where I picked up a “native” rechargeable battery outlet for the AA batteries my camera requires. The one I had brought with me, along with Erika’s hairdryer, seems to have died a horrible electric death. It’s not enough to have an adapter, but having the proper transformer also seems to be key. We also picked up ice cream for the kids, which went down very, very well of course.

The afternoon was pleasant and sunny. Bright and warmish in the direct sun, but cool almost to the point of chilly in the shade.

After yet another marvelous, very rich lunch, we decided to head down to the Mediterranean at the bottom of the estate. This is actually not something undertaken lightly, as the route is a highly circuitous path that winds its way down to the water, via an old, crumbling boat house. The girls love it because there are always shells to collect, and Erika likes it for the substantial exercise it provides when coming back up. I like the photo opportunities it usually provides, so we all went together. Little Cassandra also joined us, and though she was not as fast as the main party, doggedly walked all the way down and a good chunk of the way back as well. The two big Dobermans also accompanied us, despite the fact that both had been mauled and were still recovering from one of the nastier local sanglier that seems to have it in for the dogs on the estate.

The walk down was pleasant, and I took a number of pictures of some of the just-flowering plants, the chateau and the family as the opportunities arose.

The Chateau as Seen from the Terraced Garden

Trees Blooming Alongside the Path

One of the bet things about being here in the south of France this time of year is the fact that it is not too hot, (which would make the eventual trip back up the hillside easier), and that many of the plants and trees were just coming into their own.

We passed a couple of other people trekking in the area, who were looking into the undergrowth for fresh wild asparagus. We stopped briefly to see exactly what they were picking and where they were picking it from, giving us a better sense as to what to look for on the way back.

We eventually made it to the old boathouse, its concrete launch slowly being crumbled away by time and tide, in the water could be seen bits of old railing and the occasional large piece of gearing or other metal, now rusted and covered in algae, resting in the water.

Rusted Boat Launching Machinery by the Seaside

All of the girls settled in to collecting seashells and beach glass. Erika took off her top and caught some sun while the dogs stood watch. I took my camera and took photos, hoping to spot interesting marine life in the tide pools, but in the end not coming up with much.

“Things” in the Tidepool

I did find a shattered – and somehow still living – piece of a sea urchin which had evidently been largely munched by something much bigger and not intimidated by its spikes, of which there were only small nubs left between the still-wriggling small feet. It was tossed back in the water, in the likely vain hope that it might regenerate.

On the way back up we started looking for wild asparagus. Erika and Vanessa ventured into the sometimes spiky undergrowth and came back with several handfuls of the stuff. I went ahead and continued to push Annie, who was in a stroller, and little Cassandra marched on up beside us.

Vanessa Proudly Showing Off the Wild Asparagus She’s Collected

We met Josef on a scooter when we were in easy striking distance of the Chateau. He first gave Cassandra a ride back, and then in turn a thrilled Annie and then Vanessa.

We arrived at Frankfurt without incident, and after discovering that the gate for our flight to Nice had yet to be posted, we all found a convenient waiting area (gate A26) that was little used and basically camped out there for the several hours we had to wait between flights. The dogs were walked, the girls played with their toys, we all got to stretch our legs, and I picked up instant energy by buying a package of Toblerone chocolates from the nearest duty free shop to us. When pedestrian traffic was light I played with the girls on the “people movers” as well as on some nearby escalators. Everybody (save me) managed to get a nap in as well.

About an hour before our flight was to leave our flight to Nice was finally posted, so Jennifer and I roused everyone else up so that we could make our way to the correct gate for our flight.

The second flight of our trip was on a smaller, more comfortable plane that provided significantly more leg-room for the likes of me.

Erika and the girls napped for much of the flight, while I got to see the tops of the snow-covered alps far below. I noticed that further south we went, the less-snowy the countryside, until it was only to be seen on the tops of the higher mountains. The trip to Nice airport was just about an hour long, so it was a short, pleasant flight.

Despite the palm trees that could be seen dotted around the perimeter of Nice airport when we landed, the temperature was not much warmer than what we had left at home: about 13C.

We retrieved our bags, and then had to wait in line for ages for the rental car that had been pre-arranged for at the Hertz counter. For the record I made note of the other car rental services available at Nice airport, and they are: Sixit, ADA, Thrifty, Budget, Europcar and Avis. Avoid Hertz, and aim for one of these other agencies instead, who could apparently deal with their customers in a *much* more efficient manner than the single attendant at the Hertz desk. Good case in point: she called twice to ensure that the child seat that we had ordered was in fact there, and then, when we got there, Erika had to ask for it again and then I had to install it. Ugh — never again. And this was on top of at least one other call regarding the vehicle itself (which, for the record, was a roomy Peugeot mini-van). This also meant another ride, this time to the other terminal by bus, so there was another round of unloading and loading our baggage again. After having waited the better part of an hour waiting and then dealing with the Hertz representative, we finally got everybody, the luggage and the dogs piled into the rental mini-van, and headed off for the last leg of the trip to the estate near Ramatuelle.

Both girls slept again, which meant that for the first time, neither of them had been sick for any part of the long journey.

When we arrived we were greeted warmly by our hosts, and then we lugged ourselves and our baggage upstairs. We were shown rooms in the west wing, with individual rooms for Vanessa and Annie, as well as one for Erika and myself, so we essentially had an entire wing of the building to ourselves.

Since I was the only one of the group who hadn’t had any sleep over the course of the trip, after helping to sort things out I gratefully hit the hay and conked out for the night.

Erika took her mother and Vanessa for some Boxing Week clothes shopping, so I decided to take Annie along to the ROM to see the newly opened galleries there.

We got their early enough to beat the initial crowds, and Annie happily settled in to the kids activities on the second floor. Once she was happy having drawn several pictures, worn some kid-sized armour and gone into the Bat Cave a few times, I managed to persuade her to satisfy her Dad’s curiosity and explore the new galleries on the floor prior to heading out for lunch.

Seeing the light emerge through the stained-glass windows above the old east-facing entrance was impressive, and the replica old oaken doors are more in keeping than the misguidedly too-modern glass doors that formerly graced that entrance.

Could see that the Weston Hall adjacent to the coat check room was still being worked on, but the fact that there was natural light streaming in from previously covered-up windows was already a good sign for future development.

The equivalent space to the north, where the gift shops and the Druxy’s diner used to be is now devoted as a gallery space for the First Peoples. Didn’t get to see much as Annie’s patience was already being stretched, but noted that very few of the displays had anything by way of signage, and also saw a few empty display cases. Clearly things were not completely ready for the re-opening, and that there was still much work to be done.

We then headed over to the Samuel Hall/Currelly Gallery space, which basically sports many, many comfy seats. I realize that the general age of the museum’s patrons is getting older, but I can’t help but wonder how long it will take for somebody to re-convert this space to something more functional than for just sitting around and taking a much-needed pause between exhibits. Annie had fun playing with one of two large touch-screen displays detailing the history of the ROM, and I noted the two newly mounted dino skeletons on the south wall, surely a stop-gap measure for those disappointed at the continued absence of a dinosaur gallery, which is slated to re-open when the Michael Lee-Chin crystal structure is slated to open late next year. It was also nice to see the two murals dating to the mid-1940s on the east walls flanking the entrance arch had been uncovered. They match those that had been uncovered for the past several years on the west side, these newly uncovered ones depicting crusaders on horseback facing an opposing Saracen cavalry.

We then made our way into the first of the Asian galleries. Again, it is obvious that things were a little bit rushed prior to opening, as there were next to no explanatory text accompanying the objects on display, save for the large signs containing the gallery names that thank the people/firms that made the galleries possible in the first place. The new Chinese architecture gallery was impressive, with scatterings of architectural elements, a facsimile of a royal façade, and a tomb flanked by stone camels. The absence of any contextual signs lends itself to free-association as to why particular artifacts are displayed together. A situation not likely to last long, I am sure, so I took a few pics of some of the architectural elements in one of the display cabinets.

Annie’s patience was being sorely tested by this point, but I managed to dash through some of the other Asian galleries quickly, enough to get a sense as to where things are and where to head next visit.

It was a dull, grey day when we got back outside, but I managed to take a couple more shots, once of the old planetarium building, which I posted to the McLaughlin Planetarium page on Wikipedia, and one of the newly uncovered façade for the east entrance, which I also posted to Wikipedia under the page for the ROM under a section detailing its construction.

I had an unexpected kid-free day today, so I took the chance to return to the Science Centre for the second day in a row to see the Body Worlds 2 special exhibit.

I set out early in order to try and beat the crowds, but need not have bothered, since by the number of cars parked in the parking lot that there were clearly more people than usual already at the OSC.

I didn’t want to bring the girls along, as I figured that they would be freaked out by all the bones, body parts and whole body plastinates. In the end I was a bit freaked out by it all, though largely in a good way. Despite my reticence at bringing my kids, the same thoughts didn’t seem to stop other parents.

As a member I got a discount to the exhibition, so I only had to pay about $14 or so to get in. I got my timed ticket for the 11:30 entrance, picked up an audio tour stick, and made my way into the exhibit hall.

The show begins the moment you step into what is normally the long upper entrance tunnel to the OSC. I noted with some amusement the black drapery hung over the sides, presumably so that people on the lower section cannot possibly see what’s on display upstairs, and to prevent anybody from dropping something like a ticket to someone waiting below. No cameras allowed.

The initial exhibits are bones: arms, legs and spine. The first hint of something out of the ordinary was the plastinated knee joint, displaying tendons and the patella clearly. Not just a bunch of dry bones. Then the first full-body plastinate, basically a skeleton arranged to look as if he was about to shake your hand. I noted how on the stand von Hagens had left his signature, affixing his stamp (of creation? artwork? authenticity?) on the display. This was the first of the unsettling elements for me about the show.

Near the end of the hallway were other more obvious plastinates of internal organs, starting with the brain. What struck me was how small it is, and couldn’t help but think that some shrinkage was involved, until I saw the example still situated within the skull. There were slices of brain depicting the swirls of white matter structure, and the unfortunate brains that had been afflicted with forms of cancer, the black melanoma lesions particularly striking in one example, the large black blobs obviously not supposed to be where they were.

The process through the hallway was slow, the number of people easily that of other popular exhibitions I’ve been to, like the start of the Feathered Dinosaurs exhibition at the ROM, or even the Tutankhamen exhibit from many years ago. I found the audio tour disappointing, mainly because I was hoping for more information on the nature of the plastinates than on just the anatomy, of which I remembered more than I thought. Given the waits between seeing individual exhibits due to crowds, I could often key in the number for an exhibit well before reaching. (Minor quibble — for that reason it would have been a better idea if the presenter had placed the audio tour number at the top of an exhibit instead of at it base.

At the end of the entrance hall are the first truly impressive posed full-body plastinates. The first shows the nervous system set against skeletal structures. Then there’s the iconic “Thinker” whose most interesting aspect are all of the exposed nerves running down his back. In between the two were more display cases containing internal organs. Most memorable were those of a normal pink lung set against the darkly stained lung of a smoker, set against the entirely black and shriveled lungs of a coal miner, looking solid from coal dust. I’ve never been a smoker but if I was seeing these would give me pause if I were. This of course, is the intention, but the direct comparison along a continuum was new to me. Other smoker’s lungs would be highlighted wherever they appeared throughout the exhibit.

The other full body plastinates at this point featured a skeleton walking just behind all of his musculature, one pace in front of him. Then the upside-down pole-vaulter whose viscera is displayed in a similar upside-down position, offering a novel view of the stomach and intestines. Then there’s the skier in the middle of a jump, cut down the middle to display his innards, followed by the iconic skateboarder as seen on subway posters I’ve seen who is depicted in the middle of a flip, held off only by his hand. By this point I was beginning to be interested in how these plastinates were mounted, and was impressed by what I could only assume to be metal rods running through the skateboarder’s hands that prevented from tumbling off the podium to the floor below. Again, this is not the sort of information that is readily supplied at any point — nothing on the mechanics of it all.

At this point I descended down the staircase into the atrium, where the crowd could at least spread around a little bit, and I felt less like cattle being herded about. The most striking thing from a distance is the adult camel, whose neck has been bisected into three parts. One looks like its feeding on the group, the second is in the middle, the third is looking forward. It’s no wonder why some people think initially it is three camels instead of one.

At the base of the stairs are some other animals (deer and gorilla) as examples of comparative anatomy. There are also some striking examples of only the circulatory system for a duck, rabbit and a human head, all suspended in a cube containing some clear liquid. All fascinating, but sans captions, which was frustrating. They were just there, floating in their cubes without context.

There are other posed plastinates, in largely athletic poses, such as the one of the man about to throw a javelin, or the male/female pair of ice skaters. There’s not a small dose of macabre humour thrown in, such as with the “drawer man”, who is opened up like a set of drawers, his left hand opening his chest wall to show you his heart.

There are a total of three female plastinates in the exhibit. There was one that haunted me: an obviously young woman who had been several months pregnant. The baby was exposed in the womb, and through a mirror you could see a darkened smoker’s lung exposed. An obvious tragedy for some family, stripped of identity and context. I guess for me what was missing from this exhibit in particular was identity – I realize that these were people, and am curious as to how they got to be here. In short, what happened? I realize that this is all done supposedly in the name of science, but the lack of context (both specific and the personal), the signatures which come across as hubris, and the sometime sacrifice of science to spectacle.

On my way out I bought a copy of the catalogue. The other thing I found disturbing was how much of a money-maker this seems to be: my usual OSC discount didn’t apply to any of the items on sale in support of the exhibition. Again, I can understand the reasoning for it -– it must help to pay for transportation costs, the not inconsiderable expense of making the plastinates -– but I would have preferred that von Hagens had been up front about it.

An unforgettable exhibit. I think once was enough though.

I picked up this book from the local Book City bookstore the other weekend, looking for a cheap historical read. When I saw this book in the store I knew I had to get it – I had seriously considered buying it when it originally came out new a couple of years or so ago. Fascinating story as told by a writer for The Economist of the famous late 18th century chess-playing automaton.

I am pretty sure I had originally read about the automaton when I was a kid and originally getting into playing chess, and marveled at the possibility of a chess playing machine. This was back in the 1970s of course, well before the days of the personal computer and real computer chess games, when the idea seemed fantastic and perhaps just plausible.

The story of the turk as told by author Tom Standage is comprehensive, and despite its interesting (and sometimes mythical) history, the book was drier than I expected. Its inventor created it basically as a party trick for the Austrian royal court, and over the years it played the likes of Napolean and Benjamin Franklin, and directly influenced such people as the grand-father of computing Charles Babbage, and writer Edgar Allan Poe. It is well written and well presented — the obvious question as to how it actually worked is wisely left until near the end, and then went into an interesting look at the famous Deep Blue matches against Kasparov

After finishing off the book and picking up Vanessa from Art Garage, we ducked into the local toy shop, and I picked up an Excalibur chess game for myself, which despite my interest in the game over the years, I’ve never actually had a dedicated chess computer (as opposed to a chess game on a computer). It does have a teach mode, so I could also use it to show the game to the girls as well – yeah, that’s it. ;-).

As for the results when we got it home, let’s just say that I’m no Kasparov… 😉

Annie’s cat, which she named “black cat”, has now been absent for several days, and I suspect has found a quiet dark nook to hide herself away in. Given her state when we last saw her, I am pretty sure she must’ve expired.

Despite bouncing back after the initial vet visit last Sunday, she quickly sunk back to the way she was before. Still throwing up, with no substance, just watery green bile. Then a couple of days ago she stopped taking water, even when placed directly in front of her.

Our nanny let her out on Friday afternoon (after throwing up on her coat first) and hasn’t been seen since. I’ve looked in all of the usual places I’ve seen her hide away — under the back and front porches, hiding in the garden, between the houses and a few other places, but no sign.

I was planning on taking her to the vet that evening to have her put down, but she seems to have taken matters into her own hands (or paws, I guess).

The kids have been too excited about Halloween to notice the absence, or at least to talk about it openly, but they know she has been very sick and we have been preparing them both for the worst.

Our other cat, Blackberry, is the happiest I’ve seen him in ages. No longer grumpy, he is the de facto head cat again. Not exactly cuddly, but he is no longer hissing in anticipation of being playfully jumped on by Black Cat when let out the door.

Erika is talking about getting another kitten from the local pound, possibly on the weekend.

She was the dopiest female cat I’ve known, and certainly the most talkative (too much so sometimes), and I’ll miss her.

As a member of the ROM in addition to getting free admission and notifications of any special events there, we also get a small flyer called ROMLife that lists all of the programs and courses taught there. What caught my eye a while back was a talk that Rick Green – former member of The Frantics, the “Green” of The Red Green Show and head writer for History Bites – was planning to give. I love the show and have managed to catch most of the four seasons currently being shows on History Television, so I arranged to go and see it. And since my Aunt Audrey lives close by and I haven’t seen her for a while, I asked her to join me.

Turns out she hasn’t seen the show, and that’s because it’s on an “upper channel” she doesn’t get, but she was up for an evening out with her nephew.

After catching up on what she’s been up to of late, we headed over to the ROM, getting there with plenty of time to spare in order to get tickets and decent seats in the auditorium. It started at 7-o’clock and after a brief introduction by the directory of the ROMLife program Rick Green took to the stage.

He talked about the show in general and how the show started. He started out by giving us a version of the 2-minute pitch he made of the show to the people at History Television several years ago. The basic premise focused around the idea that television had in fact been around for most of the events in history – that much is known to anybody who has ever watched the show. But as he then went on to say, the show will also designed to be a dark critique of television as a medium itself, showing how the viewpoint and the emphasis shown distorts the overall picture. The end result is something like a mongrel cross between the classic SCTV and just about any other show you might run across on History Television. Interestingly, he has nothing but praise for the execs at History Television, who have apparently given him all of the support he’s needed to start the show and keep it running, now into its 5th season.

He started by showing off a clip from a yet-to-be-seen show from the new season that looks at the antagonism between Mary Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth I. Rick introduced the clip by saying that in fact the two of them never actually met during their lifetimes, and that the writers had to think of something that would bring them both together and be a good forum to display all of the issues each of them had with the other. The result: The Jerome Springer Show featuring a pissed-off Mary Queen of Scots with a strong white-trash/Southern accent bitching away at the way she’s being treated by her cousin. Great stuff! Bracketing this sort of material was extensive commentary from three curators at the ROM, all experts in their field who provided extra details on the history. Sometimes they provided further background for other clips from the show that were then played, other times showing items in the museum collections relevant to that era, or providing an archeological perspective on the events covered in specific History Bites clips. It ended up being a good mix of comedy and history lesson, taught by the best in both fields. There was even a bit of crossover, as the archeologists tried out some very dry comedy, explaining how horrible human tragedies (usually massacres) usually left him to find largely intact pottery from the hiding places where people had hidden them and never returned to collect them. Bad for the original owner, but great news for the archeologist. The condition of any pottery that was found quickly became a running joke throughout the evening.

Fans of the show would have been interested in the back-stories behind some of the clips he played. He mentioned a few of the places used as backdrops for some of the scenes – not too surprisingly, the Medieval Faire that runs in Oakville during the summer cropped up more than once. He prefaced the clip from the new season that featured a scene from All in the Family set during the time of the first American Thanksgiving by saying that the two writers who wrote it had not been born when the show was originally on air. They had to rent some tapes of the show in order for them to understand the format. This happens a lot, ranging from shows just before my time (like The Ed Sullivan Show), to shows I vaguely remember (like Laugh In), to much more recent shows like Survivor, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and so on.

The presentation went on for a couple of hours, and was lots of fun. I think you can measure its success by the fact that my Aunt, who had never seen the show, thought the evening out was a hoot.

Late this morning the whole of the Schengili-Roberts family descended upon Skydome to see the Garden Bros. Circus. Erika was a real trooper — she got back from the film set of Death to Smoochie at around 5am this morning, and was game enough to be woken at 9am in order to head down to the Circus pre-show by 10am. Vanessa, of course, had a blast. Prior to the show she got to see a lot of the animals — tigers, camels, zebras, elephants and mountain goats — and managed to get a ride on an inflatable slide. Then it was time to take our seats, where we got to see the performances. First, a firecracker leaps across the stage, which sets a man on a ladder on fire, who then proceeds to jump into a large pool of water. Vanessa was pretty much goggle-eyed from this point on.

Over the course of about 3 hours (including a 1/2 hour intermission) along came all of the other acts: various gymnasts, a tiger act, acrobats, dancing/walking dogs, high-divers, trampoline acts, trapeze artists, elephants, a clown and more, all presented within the traditional three large rings. Vanessa had a great time, looking and exclaiming at the various things going on. One of those things was an elephant having an enormous dump — one that would have easily filled Erika’s flower garden — Vanessa was quite impressed by that. 😉 Earlier, during the intermission, she got up the courage to go on an elephant ride with her mother, on a small little Indian elephant named Maria.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been at a circus either for that matter — the last time I was at a traditional circus (excepting a performance of Cique du Soleil’s Quidam which came to Toronto about 5 years ago) was when I was a “tween”, when a traveling circus (quite possibly Garden Bros.) came to Keswick. It was certainly done on a smaller scale back then — it was held in a typical large canvas tent — but I remember being closer to the action that we were at Skydome. And it was definitely a blast!

Afterwards, Vanessa went home with her mother as I went to the Convention Centre, to try and track down the backpack that Erika accidentally left behind from the Canada Blooms show. I’ve called during the week, trying to get a real person who knew something about lost and found, without much luck. So, since I was in the area, I thought I’d check it out in person. I needn’t have bothered. Talked to a couple of security guys, who didn’t know anything about a lost backpack. Crap! Will keep hounding them, but I doubt it’s going to turn up.

The backpack I’ll definitely miss. I’m also annoyed because it contained a couple of items as well: a copy of The Artists’ Way and my Samsung Yepp portable MP3 player. The book was easy to replace, as I stopped at an Indigo store on the way back home, though replacing the Yepp will be more expensive. Not that I plan on getting another Yepp — I was on the verge of taking a hammer to the damn thing at times, it was often so flaky. Brief digression: flakyness of the Yepp I had included simply turning itself off at odd times of its own accord, sometimes freezing in the middle of whatever piece was playing, the display caught in a perpetual loop preventing me from going forward or backwards between files save when being played, etc etc etc. A surprisingly poorly designed piece of hardware, all things considered. And costs way too much for what it is — which ain’t much. Am thinking maybe I’ll splurge and get a CD-R-based MP3 player. On the up side, took my time browsing through the book store, quickly absorbing a book on industrial design by Raymond Loewy, and was on the verge of buying an interesting-looking book on Shakespeare, but simply stuck to getting a replacement copy of the book lost in the backpack.

This day definitely ranks as a good day. Erika came home surprisingly early from her film shoot, coming home at about 4am this morning (was expecting 9am or later). I got up a few hours later, and took Vanessa out to the venerable Royal Ontario Museum. I gave her the choice of either going to the Science Center or to go see Dinosaurs at the ROM — she chose dinosaurs. It’s funny, we visited the place about a month or so ago, and I figured when she said she wanted to see the dinosaurs, she’d want to see the actual dinosaur exhibit, bones and all. Silly me. She actually wanted to see the animated Maiasaur exhibit, where kids get to slap a button on a console and a 10ft high animated Maiasaur appears doing such things as drinking water, running, snorting, etc. While visiting the ROM, I had the strange feeling of time both standing still and moving forward at once. I’d swear that nothing has changed in the old dinosaur exhibit since I was a kid — and that’s a long time ago now. The mannequin of the archaeologist putting a dinosaur bone in a cast has been around since the 60’s I’d swear, and I suspect it may be even older. On the other hand you have things like the Maiasaur exhibit, the “Bat Cave“, and Inco’s “Dynamic Earth” which are relatively new (and both of which Vanessa loves). I remember when the ROM was a real Victorian-style institution, with standardized rows upon rows of stuffed animals, birds, butterflies and bugs of all descriptions in glass cases. The current version of the ROM is much more fun for kids, though it’s lost something its haunted, almost hallowed nature to me. This was the ROM that used to have the outdoor Ancient Chinese Garden which is frozen like a fly in amber in one of the stories from Alice Munro’s “The Moons of Jupiter“. Am really glad that Vanessa enjoys herself there, and will look into getting a family membership next I head there.

Interesting side note: finally read my personal emails from Friday and it turns out that my Frantics Web site has been selected as a Yahoo! Canada site of the week. Neat! 😉