I took a walk yesterday, into the sprawl. An exercise in clearing my head. A chance to relish autumn’s fleeting colours, and feel the crunch of leaves under my shoes. A recent assessment of what I like to do when I travel left me realizing that I don’t take enough day hikes when I’m at home, and it’s something I’m trying to change. A few years ago in Montreal, I hung out a bit with the Montreal Psychogeographic Society and had a lot of fun.
Chasing after sea lions won't get you very far
Since it took me way longer then I thought it would to write even a few sentences about Iceland, I thought I’d put together a special treat. Two postings in the same day, plus a new layout! Continue reading
On August 1, I officially became a “resident” of Ontario. This simply means that my good old Carte d’assurances maladie from Québec was no longer a valid thing, and I received a very ugly OHIP card in the mail. (Man. I look like crap on my Ontario ID. I had such a good photo on my old driver’s license and health card, but that’s a whole other story.) Continue reading
Just a quick note: my new camera has arrived, and I have started playing with it. I got a very simple Olympus dSLR – the E-420 http://www.photographyblog.com/news/olympus_e_420/ to replace my beloved advanced zoom Olympus SP-550UZ that was severely damaged a year ago. Most of the photos I’m posting so far have been taken with my Olympus SP-550UZ, but the display screen is completely cracked and useless. It is a fantastic camera, with an 18x optical zoom and a wide 28 mm lens, but the cost of fixing the display ($200) was just not worth it to me, considering the price of new cameras. My new dSLR cost $350 CAN and my telephoto lens cost another $100, so it was a worth while upgrade.
I also got a little point-and-shoot Olympus X-560WP that goes underwater, but that thing is going back. It takes really grainy photos, which is a shame, since I really wanted a pocket-size camera for moments when a dSLR is a pain in the butt. I’ll keep an eye on the sales.
Next post, I promise to tell you folks a tad about me. I’m not sure who knows me out there, and who has randomly stumbled upon me, so I’ll take a bit of time in the next few days.
A couple of years ago I flew from Montreal to Tel Aviv with what should have been a 14-hour stop over in Athens. Bad weather shortened it to 10 hours, but that was ample time to get from the airport to the Acropolis and back. I failed to take one thing into account: Christmas. Silly me. I’m Jewish, so I forget about minor little holidays like the birth of Christ. This incidentally would explain why I was able to get a fairly decent price with only a few weeks notice for a round trip ticket from Montreal to Tel Aviv without having to stop in New York or Toronto. Continue reading
If you get enough travelers together in one location, a few inevitable topics of conversation inevitably come up. The usually revolve around a few basic subjects:
