The
weather turned nice for our departure day. First on the agenda
- a hearty and healthy breakfast at our hotel.
After breakfast, we headed away from the harbour to check out
a Lebanese grocery store that I had quizzed Scott and Jennyfer
about. We found the place with no trouble and soon I was wandering
the aisles of Phoenicia Foods Ltd (2594 Agricola St) stocking
up on tins of Harissa sauce (you can find the French stuff in
your local supermarket but it's not quite as good as the Tunisian
'Cap Bon' or 'Nabeul', Monsieur Azar stocks 'Cap Bon'), halvah
and other Mediterranean foods that are hard to find in Washago
(350 decidedly white folks).
Next up, a lightning tour of the Citadel. The Citadel was (is)
an old fortress built by the British to protect Halifax and to
provide a counterbalance to the French fortress of Louisbourg
on Cape Breton Island. The Citadel stands atop the tallest hill
in the city and, even though it was never been fired on, has played
a crucial effort in Canada's war efforts - most notably in WW
I and WW II.
We made our airplane just as they were bolting the door. We'd
run into some trouble getting our rental car returned, the computers
were down (at times like this I find it advisable not to mention
to harried staff that I write software for a living - it can make
them testier). Our dive bag was quite a bit overweight as our
application of the laws of convective heat loss as demonstrated
by our use of a portable fan (all night) to our wet gear had done
little to dry the wet suits. I furiously stuff dive lights and
the like into my carry-on to reduce the bag's weight by the required
5 kg. We had to endure a lecture from the Air Canada rep about
leaving more time at the airport, etc., etc., but politeness pays
as he did get the folks at the gate to hold the plane for us -
my apologies to the other 250 people on the airplane.
Back in Toronto we were relieved to see all of our luggage come
down the carousel. We bid our good byes and Stephen headed off
to find the airport van back to Guelph. I sparked up my cell phone
to call Alexandre, the fifteen year old son of an old buddy from
Montreal. Alexandre was due to arrive at the airport at the same
as me to start close to two weeks of indoctrination into the English
language at the Lusty home. So, a few minutes after arriving in
the Toronto I was switching gears, dropping my rediscovered east
coast accent, warming up my French and giving a guided tour of
my home province to a pleasant young stranger that I hadn't seen
since he was in short pants - life rolls along.
Next up?
At the end of the summer we got in one day of diving in Tobermory,
Ontario after Stephen played his yearly gig at the Crow's Nest
Pub. Next year we hope to be joined by our close mutual friend/mutual
close friend/bum-buddy-in-common - Ian (Onion) Dubelaar. We conned
and cajoled Onion and he is now a certified diver and we are looking
forward to giving him his first neoprene wedgy in some suitably
dark and wet diving locale. Watch yer back, buddy!
Stay tuned. Our next installment will be called 'Fearing and Lusty
and Onion in Deep' or something to that effect.
