Back in the Air
Thursday August 31, 2023
It feels like a long time since I’ve been at the airport - really only five and a half months - but it seemed momentous to be back at Pearson on this sunny Friday morning as we embarked on our flight to Newfoundland.
Summer has been busy. Just the way I like it. There’s been festivals and food and events. There’s been hikes and dinners and visits. There’s been cause for celebration, and moments of grief and reflection. I always tell people how alive the city is during summer and this year is the first year without COVID restrictions, so people were keen to get back into how things were pre-2020.
I’d basically recovered from my back injury by the time Charlotte, my old flatmate, had come to visit me in May. She was here for an academic conference at York University, but had a few days to explore the highlights of Toronto. I took her to all my favourite restaurants; there were too many to go to and she didn’t have enough stomach space for all the ice cream. We took a day trip to Niagara on the Lake and had lunch at a winery specialising in ice wine cocktails, and then did the Whirlpool Cable Car and the boat tour into the Niagara Falls in the afternoon. The next day, we went to the zoo and suffered through 90 minutes on the 401 because they’d closed all but one lane on Collectors for construction. She was really lucky on this trip; she managed to see a raccoon when I took her to High Park Zoo, and a groundhog wandering the zoo grounds, as well as my two favourite neighbourhood cats, Dobby and Lhasa.
Rohit was in from Calgary for a couple of days for work, so I caught up with him for the usual dumplings in Chinatown. I went to the Pride Parade too, which was a really welcoming, jovial atmosphere. We had a hotpot and barbeque picnic out in Milliken Park for Canada Day and stayed to watch the fireworks. I went to watch a couple of drone shows too, one out in Woodbine Beach and the other by Ontario Place.
Perhaps the most significant event in the past few months is that I’ve become a dual New Zealand and Canadian citizen. I drove all the way out to Mississauga to attend my citizenship ceremony with 100 other people, and we were presided over by Judge Albert Wong, who was born in Malaysia and came to Canada and served in the armed forces. His story was fascinating and he was hilarious, and the fact that we were both born in Malaysia made the ceremony so much more poignant. It was a memorable event, and a few weeks later, I got my passport.
This is important because I’ll be travelling the to US next month for a work conference, and since I had to surrender my PR card at the ceremony, the Canadian passport is my only ticket back into the country. I’m looking forward to the event though, the company had planned to do it in Vancouver but Beyoncé’s concert was at the same time and we couldn’t get accommodation, so we shifted it to Los Angeles. I’m hoping there will be visits to Universal and Disneyland!
I mentioned in my last post that in May, Mum's eldest sister passed away. Imagine my horror when, on a Sunday night after badminton in July, I got a text from my sister that another of Mum's sisters passed away, this time the aunt that was closest in age to her. I managed to see her in December, and in my heart I knew it may be the last opportunity I had, but I didn't expect it to be this soon. This one really hurt. On the night that my mother passed away, my aunt was already on her way to Auckland from Kuala Lumpur, unaware that she was too late. She was devastated when she arrived. Because of my citizenship ceremony, I wasn't able to leave the country, but I still tried to watch what I could on Zoom. In her memory, I snuck "Power of Your Love" into the church service the following Sunday. We sang it at Mum's funeral too, its poignant first line "Lord I come to you; let my heart be changed, renewed" so rich in meaning for the occasion.
The week ahead will be a refreshing break from the busyness of summer, as we explore Canada’s easternmost province and all its rugged beauty. Like New Zealand, Newfoundland's scenery is largely unspoiled and untouched by human civilisation, so it's not uncommon for the best views to be hidden behind strenuous four hour hikes; in fact, our trip highlight is the eight hour hike up Gros Morne, the second highest peak on the island. Looking forward to it!
Posted by Jeremy at 3:57am on Thursday August 31, 2023 :: 0 comments :: 
Boosted
Thursday December 23, 2021
I've planned a trip to Europe over Christmas and New Years, but with the surge of omicron cases and the changing travel advisories issued by the Canadian government, it's thrown a lot of plans into disarray. I was originally supposed to go to Amsterdam, since the last time I was there, I got food poisoning, and I wanted to visit some of the things I missed, but the Netherlands went into a full lockdown and so I cancelled that leg of the trip and will instead spend it in Barcelona, where they have a few restrictions, but thankfully nothing too strict. It's been a pain trying to organise travel insurance and rebook flights; it took me four hours on hold with Manulife before I was able to talk to someone about my coverage and to ensure I'd still be covered if I decided to go ahead with this trip.
The last hurdle is the PCR test which I'll take tomorrow morning. I've been so anxious about everything lately and I miss the days where travel wasn't so complicated.
I did however manage to get my third COVID shot yesterday, but I really had to work for it. I biked 30 minutes to Jane and Lawrence and sat in line for over four hours in zero degree temperatures, and then waited an additional hour inside the community hub, but ultimately I think it's worth it, especially since I'm travelling. I was so cold I ordered a hot bubble tea to be delivered to me while I was in the queue, and that helped push me through to the end of the wait. Apparently two of the vaccinators were off sick, so they were understaffed and could only process 20 people per hour. But I knew with certainty that they had enough vaccines to give me one, so I toughed it out. Today I felt tired and lethargic, with a minor headache just setting in, but nothing else too severe in terms of side effects.
The last few months have been okay, and we're finally over the hump of winter solstice so things should start getting brighter, slowly. Before omicron hit, life felt pretty normal, and I've been able to catch up with friends and eat delicious things. A bunch of the gameplay programmers from my Watch Dogs team at Ubisoft Toronto got together at Elephant and Castle; I did an escape room with three ex-colleagues (and we nailed that!); I went to Dragon Legend in Markham for All You Can Eat Peking Duck; I caught the partial lunar eclipse on November 19th; we hiked the Niagara Whirlpool Trail and saw the beautiful fall colours; I caught the salmon run at the Humber River, and that's always an exciting time of year. We had so much hope that things would continue to be okay before this variant hit, and that's jeopardised a bunch of travel plans for next year.
I was hoping to go back to Malaysia to see family in June, but there's no telling what changes will happen between now and then. At least New Zealand will be opening up their border next year, and I'll very likely be back for Christmas. We're coming into our third year of this pandemic and it's just tiring. Hopefully there will be some improvements in 2022.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:42am on Thursday December 23, 2021 :: 0 comments ::
Kia Kaha
Monday March 18, 2019
It's hard to articulate what I've been thinking about over the weekend. Much has happened in New Zealand; three days later, the country still grieves for the 50 lives lost in a senseless shooting at two mosques in Christchurch. My heart aches for the loss of these innocent lives in my homeland, especially since the city is still suffering 8 years after a devastating earthquake. I'm angry, I'm shocked and I'm full of sadness, despite being 14,000kms away. Whatever belief there was of safety is gone; we are no longer innocent to violence of this magnitude. The history of the country has changed forever. The road to recovery will take a long time; mental scars may never heal.
Our prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, spoke powerful words.
We were not a target because we are a safe harbour for those who hate. We were not chosen for this act of violence because we condone racism, because we're an enclave for extremism, we were chosen for the very fact that we are none of these things, because we represent diversity, kindness, compassion, a home for those that share our values, a refuge for those who need it. And those values, I can assure you, will not and cannot be shaken by this attack.
We are a proud nation of more than 200 ethnicities, 160 languages, and amongst that diversity we share common values. And the one that we place currency on right now is our compassion and the support for the community of those directly affected by this tragedy and secondly, the strongest possible condemnation of the ideology of the people that did this.
From this darkness, we can see the true spirit of New Zealand. The outpouring of solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters after the attack, the vigils held in the major city centers, the fundraising pages, the hakas, the placards saying "aroha" and "kia kaha" - it is these images that make me proud to call myself a Kiwi.
I spent the weekend in my friend's cottage in Muskoka. It was good to get out of the city and see the beautiful white landscapes; it's still very much winter up there, despite the temperatures in Toronto rising above 0 degrees. It was a time of self-reflection and a wake-up call on what I should be doing with my life, yet I wonder if I came away with more questions than I went in with.
The past few months have gone by faster than I expected. I felt more alone in last year's winter, but this year I had lots to look forward to and I was more equipped to handle the cold. Instead of fully hibernating for three months, there's been many things to do: I went to the Toronto Light Fest in the Distillery District, we walked around Tommy Thompson Park and learned about the wildlife (and even saw two coyotes!), we chased after some frozen waterfalls in Hamilton and Niagara, and toured a maple syrup farm. I watched the super total lunar eclipse of January 2019, despite it being negative temperatures. There was karaoke and badminton and piano as well.
There has been plenty to eat too, the UbiTO foodie group went to Filipino Kamayan Feast specialist Tinuno, and the badminton crew had three buffets in the space of two weeks. I went for dinners around Chinese New Year and had hot pot and pot luck.
There's lots to look forward to over the next few months as well. I'll be off to the US for a friend's wedding near Atlanta next month. We're planning to go to Quebec City for Canada Day, and to Peru in August. Bruce Peninsula and Tobermory are also on the cards. But by far the most exciting event will be the E3 reveal of our game, and the subsequent release sometime during the year.
Posted by Jeremy at 2:57am on Monday March 18, 2019 :: 0 comments ::
Winter is Here
Monday November 12, 2018
I've finally got some downtime to do some blogging - I'm sick, presumably from the plague going around the office, and as the temperatures dip below zero this week, I'm expecting sickness to be a lot more common. Winter is definitely here, and although we've had a few flurries of snow, it hasn't quite stuck on the ground. Yet. That will happen very soon.
Three months have gone by since I last blogged. I've done so much... four of us went to Vancouver for a week in August, visiting Stanley Park, doing the Grouse Grind (My time was 1hr 20mins), rocking the suspension bridge at Lynn Valley, checking out Gastown, Chinatown, Granville Island and Kitsilano Beach, as well as the delightful neighbourhood at Hastings and Main. We took a day trip to Whistler and went up the mountain, which had stunning panoramic views, even in summer. We spent a day over in Victoria on Vancouver Island, where we visited the best botanic gardens I've ever seen, the Butchart Gardens, as well as the Craigdarroch Castle. There was a piano at the castle on the top floor, and a group from Hong Kong were fooling around on it... they were trying to play a song called Tong Hua, which happens to be the only Mandarin song I know how to sing, and coincidentally play on the piano. After they vacated the piano, I played the full song, to the amazement of the group, and everyone started to sing along - it was awesome. I managed to catch up with Caleb, Mary, Campbell and Linda, the four New Zealanders who migrated there last year, and it was great seeing what they thought of Canada and their experiences settling in to a new country.
There was the disappointing Toronto Burger Festival out in Vaughan, which was a sad attempt at filling the void that Wellington on a Plate left in my stomach. I had to wash it down with the Filipino Food Festival, where I tried balut for the first time... except, I don't think it was really balut, it just looked like a boiled egg without the duck foetus.
We went camping at the Elora Gorge near Guelph, which is famous for the tubing down the river, and I went for the Dovercourt Baptist Church retreat out in Muskoka, with its picturesque lakeside views. I went hiking around some magnificent parks in Ontario, like the Rockwood Conservation Area, the Devil's Punchbowl Waterfall in Hamilton (except there was no water because it hadn't rained in a while), and Dorset Tower and Algonquin Park with its brilliant fall colours.
I had few visitors; I caught up with Graeme, who was randomly in Toronto, Linh, who I hadn't seen since University, and Delwyn and Graham from my church in Wellington. Matt also visited me on Thanksgiving weekend from Cleveland, OH, which is a short five hour drive from here. We went to Allan Gardens, Scarborough Bluffs and Evergreen Brickworks, we went to a blind dining restaurant near the Village and we went for chimney cake twice.
Last week, we went to Tew's Waterfall, Dundas Peak and Webster's Waterfall in the Spencer Gorge Conservation Area, near Hamilton. It was quite the hike, what I thought was the route to the Webster's Waterfall parking lot was actually just a dead-end, but a magnificent view of the falls up close. Dundas Peak was pretty fantastic though, there's a couple of rocks jutting out over the cliff, making for some epic pictures overlooking the blanket of yellow trees in the gorge. We continued on to Niagara for a buffet dinner at the Fallsview Hotel Casino, where I ate too much, and then down to the Niagara Parkway to watch the fireworks over the falls. We walked to Dufferin Islands to see the light displays, then called it a night. The next day, we went wine tasting at the Konzelmann Estate Winery, where we had a four wine pairing with junk food! We also got to learn about the wine making process and the advantage the winery has from being by the lake, as well as how ice wine is made and why it's so expensive. We spent the afternoon walking around Niagara on the Lake before heading back to Toronto.
There's still lots of things to do around the city, but it's definitely time to bring out my winter jackets, gloves and thermals. I'm looking forward to going home to New Zealand for two weeks (where it's SUMMER) and seeing friends and family after a long absence from the country.
Posted by Jeremy at 9:04pm on Monday November 12, 2018 :: 0 comments ::