Canada part five…
One of the good things (and also one of the bad things) about being a freelancer who works over email is that I can take my work everywhere I go. The negative side of this is that I’m never truly on holiday, but the positive side is that I don’t miss out on work when it arrives, and it’s still important for me to take every work opportunity that comes my way, because of the specific way in which my business is growing.
This is how I found myself sitting at a desk working all day on the Thursday of our Toronto trip. As work spaces go, though, our hotel suite wasn’t bad – the desk was really nicely set up, and that gorgeous view from the window was a lot more interesting than my usual work surroundings!
In the evening, we all met up at Kalendar, a restaurant just down from Geth’s favourite boardgame cafe on College Street, and I had pizza and blueberry cheesecake. Geth informed me that there was a red phone box next to the toilets downstairs, but my excitement was dashed upon finding this not-at-all-a-classic-British-phone-box:
Also, when I was spinning around confused with my phone camera, looking for this phone box, I got a very strange look from a guy finishing his business in the gents’ facilities, which were in full open view of the hallway. Awkward.
Afterwards, we went back to Malcolm and Steff’s place for a couple of drinks and to meet Sushi the cat.
On the Friday morning, I did a bit more work (and finally finished my Now! marathon!) before heading down to the Elephant & Castle pub to meet Geth, who had just delivered his conference paper. On the way, I did the irritating tourist thing of holding up pedestrian traffic at a crossing to get this nice CN Tower picture:
Readers with good memories might remember the Elephant & Castle from this Phone Box Thursday post about their red phone box. The pub is still a good stop with lots of sports on the TV and good cider on the bar, and Geth was finally able to have some decent chicken wings:
I also really like the stained glass windows – the patterns are lovely and retro.
After a couple of pints, we headed outside to make sure the phone box was still present and correct…
…and then went to the Black Bull for some arctic air-con, a very talkative guy sitting next to us at the bar who was telling us about all the gigs he went to in the ’70s (and is apparently friendly with Martin Gore from Depeche Mode!), and Geth’s new favourite pint, a beer called 8th Sin:
In the evening, we met up with Mum and Dad for another meal of delicious pizza and cheesecake in the Holiday Inn.
More from Canada tomorrow!