Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Weekend Visit to Toronto

This past weekend I attended a big get together in Toronto. It was a function put on by some members of a travel organization I belong to. People flew in from all over the world. We ate & drank & socialized and toured around the city. While there I couldn't find any free Internet access and I refuse to pay a hotel for it. It's a principle thing. So I wasn't able to provide the constant updates like I had hoped to do. Lots of things happened but I have soooooooo much to catch up on that I just can't update much here. But here's a brief overview of the event.
On my flight home I read an hilarious article by Christie Blatchford about how Torontonians have gained a reputation for being so incredibly full of themselves and considering their city the center of the Canadian universe. This afternoon I wrote the following letter to her:

Dear Ms. Blatchford,

I read your hilarious article while flying back home to Vancouver from Toronto on Monday. I must confess that I am historically the West Coast Poster Boy for disliking The Big Smoke. I've visited it many times in the past and rarely had a positive experience. On one business trip I actually asked a fellow in a downtown elevator whether there was a law that forced everyone to be cold & unfriendly after living there for more than 2 weeks.

But this weekend changed all that. I attended this event and had an absolutely wonderful time. I discovered, to great astonishment, that there are some Torontonians with personalities warmer than an icicle!

The only thing that has left me suspicious is that during the parting discussions one of the hosts said, "Robert, can you please tell us what time your plane is departing. We need to know when we can send home the legion of actors from Buffalo." I don't know if she was joking.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

From what I understand, most of the gang at your Toronto meet were not from Toronto. Perhaps that explains your strange encounter with friendliness and warmth in the aforementioned city? Or maybe your visits to Portland are mellowing your Canuckian mindset? I hear they have great looking women there. LOL