random stuff

[quietann]

First observation: Toronto is *clean*. The subways are clean, the sidewalks are clean, the people are clean, etc. (Except, perhaps, for the neighborhood along Queen St. W. that we just walked through... which is about as dirty as an average Boston neighborhood) I think I'd gotten so used to Boston that I had forgotten how *filthy* it is.

Second: deguspice and I went to the Canadian National Exhibition today. It's a standard fair, along the lines of the "big E" in Mass... But I don't enjoy fairs anymore, because they have become more like massive flea markets combined with legalized gambling (i.e. midways). I *hate* being sold to, and midways just squick me. There are not enough animals, and exhibitions of peoples' crafts and flowers and art and food and such.

We wandered through the "Horse Palace", which is a huge building full of stalls and a riding ring, and I could almost feel the ghosts of the horses past, the show horses, the competitors, back in the days when the Horse Palace would be filled with hundreds of horses for a show. The show today ended at 2:30 because there were so few entries, and the Horse Palace was nearly empty of equines.

Thirdly: getting licked on the arm by a cow is... interesting. The cow in question was a one year old heifer who licked me after I scratched her head a bit. And then she mooed, very loudly, right in my ear.

Fourth: we have not done much worldcon stuff yet, though I did wear my new pajamas to a party last night.

Comments

Other kinds of fairs

[spinrabbit.livejournal.com]

You might find more specialized fairs more satisfying. For instance, though there's a whole lotta stuff being sold at Sheep and Wool festivals, there's also a whole lotta animals (mostly sheep, but also alpacas and angora rabbits and angora and cashmere goats and sheepdogs), and exhibits and demonstrations of people's handcrafts. (And a large proportion of the stuff for sale is also people's handcrafts, a lot of it even good.)