Out and about in the Big City
An early start to a long day. Off to catch (sic) the train to the Big City, long before daylight. There was unlimited juice while we quarantined before boarding, and we did get a hot breakfast with free wi-fi; rail travel is much better than back in the age when trains went everywhere.
I didn’t have a conference to attend, so I set off in the brisk November air to visit a little bit of the urban landscape. Chinatown, with nobody around. Steve’s Music, where a lot more money would have eased things – today I was a proverbial window shopper. A sighting of the soon to be gone Occupy tent city.
I did want a new winter coat, and I knew what store had my choice. I just didn’t know where… The laptop found lots of free wi-fi, with no connection to the outside world. Over and over again. I finally found a phone booth with a still in the shrinkwrap book of numbers, and reset my internal compass. The store had what I wanted, at a price I was willing to pay, so this winter will see me making a new fashion statement.
And then the trek back to the hotel before lunch. I almost gave in and took the Metro, but my second wind kicked in and the hotel was just ahead. Bliss for tired feet. This is a larger concrete jungle than I’m used to.
After a food court supper, we opted for something that doesn’t occur in Quebec City. Movies in VOA (real English). The choice was still limited, but we caught an early screening of the new Eastwood production on the life and times of J. Edgar. Long, grey, politically accurate.
The decision to backtrack via the subway system took longer than expected, due to a Code 99 that shut things down on a large part of “our line”. Tempers were fragile by the end of the trail.
