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Happy New Year! As the native Torontorians were setting out to celebrate New Year's Eve and making their way to LCBO (the state run alcohol distribution centres - honestly) I was making my way down to the Long Branch Library to sit in the carpark and tap into the internet in the vain hope that Internet Banking could actually work. It didn't.
On my 12th attempt to convince my Australian bank that banking does actually exist in Canadia and that it was an entirely reasonable proposition to transfer my own personal, real and actual funds from Australia to Toronto I was rudely interrupted.
The car park at Long Branch library is secluded and I can understand that it may look somewhat unusual for someone to drive in and see a lone person sitting in the passenger seat playing with a laptop. I knew that if it were a policemen I'd have no trouble explaining my situation and that all would be fine. Instead of a police vehicle it was a pick up with a snow plough scraping along the fence line. He backed up and started heading towards my uncle's car and even with my limited understanding of snow plough traffic etiquette I knew that it was time to leave.
I tossed the laptop in the back, jumped into the driver's side, drove out and parked across the road. I tried to continue my banking only to find out that the range of my internet link did not extend beyond the car park. I decided to wait out the car park scraping and was preparing to return to the driver's seat when I was startled by two pairs of enormous headlights burning through the rear windscreen and attached to two prehistoric vehicles. Also attached to these oversized anabolic dump trucks were equally oversized snow ploughs, numerous flashing lights and perhaps a mangled bicycle or two.
Just when I thought they were going to drive over me they swerved and pushed a knee high snow barrier around the car. When they reached the end of the street and began to reverse back, I knew that it was time to move on. With frosted windows reversing wasn't an option so I had to try to make my way past the snow ploughs, avoid hidden kerb sides and avoid eye contact (you never know what types drive these vehicles).
Eventually I made my way back to the library car park. Just as I was about to drive in I noticed another vehicle in my spot. It was the first snow plough! I guess cheap internet access is an issue all around Toronto. I gave up and headed home.
It took me a while to get on the main road for all the snow ploughs seemed to have emerged from the sewers to roam the streets late at night. And to think I thought Sydney cockroaches were unsettling. Happy New Year!
On my 12th attempt to convince my Australian bank that banking does actually exist in Canadia and that it was an entirely reasonable proposition to transfer my own personal, real and actual funds from Australia to Toronto I was rudely interrupted.
The car park at Long Branch library is secluded and I can understand that it may look somewhat unusual for someone to drive in and see a lone person sitting in the passenger seat playing with a laptop. I knew that if it were a policemen I'd have no trouble explaining my situation and that all would be fine. Instead of a police vehicle it was a pick up with a snow plough scraping along the fence line. He backed up and started heading towards my uncle's car and even with my limited understanding of snow plough traffic etiquette I knew that it was time to leave.
I tossed the laptop in the back, jumped into the driver's side, drove out and parked across the road. I tried to continue my banking only to find out that the range of my internet link did not extend beyond the car park. I decided to wait out the car park scraping and was preparing to return to the driver's seat when I was startled by two pairs of enormous headlights burning through the rear windscreen and attached to two prehistoric vehicles. Also attached to these oversized anabolic dump trucks were equally oversized snow ploughs, numerous flashing lights and perhaps a mangled bicycle or two.
Just when I thought they were going to drive over me they swerved and pushed a knee high snow barrier around the car. When they reached the end of the street and began to reverse back, I knew that it was time to move on. With frosted windows reversing wasn't an option so I had to try to make my way past the snow ploughs, avoid hidden kerb sides and avoid eye contact (you never know what types drive these vehicles).
Eventually I made my way back to the library car park. Just as I was about to drive in I noticed another vehicle in my spot. It was the first snow plough! I guess cheap internet access is an issue all around Toronto. I gave up and headed home.
It took me a while to get on the main road for all the snow ploughs seemed to have emerged from the sewers to roam the streets late at night. And to think I thought Sydney cockroaches were unsettling. Happy New Year!
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