Persian Pickle Club, Sandra Dallas

As I was reading this book, I kept wondering about living back in the 1930's. I sure was not going to like it, or I sure was not going to like the version Dallas painted by chronicling the story of Persian Pickle Club. Quite a peculiar name for a club of ordinary women from all walks of life. There was definitely nothing specifically "Persian" about this club. Interestingly Dallas (in)advertently didn't let on the bond amongst the club members --so the end came as a surprise to me.

Being a part of the Pickles was an honor and attending the gatherings was the thing to look forward to in lives of these women who were otherwise (not so) busy with the chores of a sluggish farming season due to lack of rain --at least this was the case for Queenie Bean the narrator.

So, what happens when a new inductee to the club, not by choice but by association to another member, turns into a reporter and assigned to report on a local crime. Well, solving the crime is more important to Rita Ritter than being accepted to the club --this could be fine so long as the club doesn't have anything to hide.

Interesting read, written in old fashioned, supposedly 30's style language. At times I had doubts about whether Dallas was being true to that era, however I read someone's review on GoodReads who assures this indeed is the case, Jim Butler says: "Trust me, Sandra has done an awesome job of describing the people and the period in the flint hills area outside Topeka. One should read this book to truly understand our mid-American heritage and character. The plot is just a vehicle to get to that knowledge."

Mont-tremblant in April

You can get to Mont-tremblant ski resort by air too, but we decided to take the road.  There are a couple of options for flying there.

1. Fly to Montreal-Trudeau airport and take the shuttle, operated by Autocars Skyport, to Mont-tremblant resort.
2. Fly to Mont-tremblant airport and take the shuttle from the airport to the resort.

But if you decided to take the road, then prepare for six hours of straight, or nine hours of driving with breaks.  Most of the drive is in Ontario and on route 401 East.  Unless there is a an accident, the Ontario portion of the route is pretty straight forward.  If you get in a situation of abrupt halt and backed up traffic due to road construction or accident, it is best to look for the best way to get to, County Road 2 (formerly Highway 2), that runs in parallel and merges with 401 west of Brockville.  As for the Quebec portion of the route, I can only say --stay alert and pay attention to the signs!

We had a rental car, and although most of the route was in Ontario but had to pay $5 extra per day for permit to drive in the province of Quebec.  Tallying all the cost of renting, parking and filling up the tank of the vehicle we save $100 (per couple) over the price of air travel to this destination.

Booking hotel stay, ski lift, ski equipment, and spa in advance saves one up to 30%.

We stayed in Mont-tremblant Westin resort with special advance booking rate for the Starwood Preferred Guest members of $229 a night + $15 daily charge for parking.  I used the hotel gym and utterly enjoyed my indoor walks through the scenic forests of New Zealand and Germany on the treadmill.  The other nice thing about this hotel was the fire place in the room.  There was a well equipped kitchenette in the room which could have made up for the not very healthy and very expensive restaurants if we had taken our food with us.  The local supermarket has limited choices and is expensive.  Having said that dining at Maison De La Crepe provides an opportunity for a healthy start to the day. 

Maison De La Crepe, 113 Kandahar, Mont Tremblant, QC

Miss Vitamines $11.33

The hills were covered with mix of man made and natural snow --which was more wet than powder.  But compared to skiing in Ontario even this was superb!

The South side of Mont Tremblant, the "trembling mountain." The summit is at  875 metres (2,871 ft), which makes it one of the tallest peaks in the Laurentians. [source: Wikipedia]

Visiting Montreal on Jan 1

Montreal Piere Trudeau airport is one building, all domestic and international flights depart and arrive here.  It is very convenient to navigate.

On the ground floor of this building, exit 27 [if you are paying attention to the numbers printed at each], is where the airport - down town bus, 747 AEROPORT P.E.-TRUDEAU / CENTER-VILLE, stops.  There is a ticket machine close by, where you can buy a day pass for $10, and pick up a 747 bus time table which has a map of metro from the information desk close to the exit.  The day pass is valid on the airport-down town bus as well as on metro, and all other buses operated by stm.  Most Montreal sights are accessible by public transit.  [I bought my ticket on the bus, I paid $10, exact change in coins.  But unfortunately, my ticket didn't scan at any of the metro station.  I went to the stm customer care, Service a la Clinetele, at the Berri-Uqam station and got a new day pass issued for me.]

There is metro station a short walk distance from the 747 bus' first stop, Linonel-Groux.  Taking the metro is faster than staying on the bus, I think, to down town, the Saint-Laurent station.

Now, since it was Jan 1, I had prepared a list of places that are open.

Notre - dame Bascillica - Roman Catholic church, Gothic Architecture, with a beautiful chapel in the back [110 Notre Dame street, metro: Place-D'Armes]  Jan 1 schedule morning mass, open for visitors 12:30-4:00 PM.

Bonsecours Basin Quays of Old Port [Ville Marie, metro: Champ-de-Mars] Skating rink admission: $9.00 Skate rental, $6.50+tax, themed music everyday in winter starting at 6PM, rink maintenance at 2 PM and maybe other times during the day, Jan 1 schedule 10 AM - 10 PM.

St. Joseph Oratory - Roman Catholic church - its dome the third largest in the world, Renaissence Architecture, escalators or taking the steps as a pligrimage to the chapel, overlooks the city of Montreal's Mount Royal Park. [3800 Queen Mary Road, metro: Cote-Des-Neiges]

Universite-de-Montreal, opened in 1878 with less than a hundred students in theology, medicine and law. [metro: Universit-de-Montreal]

I utterly enjoyed visiting all the places above; the city was clean, quiet and ready to welcome its visitors on Jan 1st.

Map of Montreal metro, run by stm.

The Imitation Game

A burglary at Professor Alan Turing's house reported by one of his neighbours prompts the Scotland Yard to dig deeper into his life.  The inspector becomes suspicious of the victim instead of the suspect; he forges a signature to obtain military records of Alan Turing, but to his astonishment there is none, the envelope is empty.  The irony is that the movie about Alan Turing's life is as empty as that envelope appearing in the movie.

The let down of this movie, for me, was its glossing over the Turing the inventor and his invention*.  It lacked knowledge and substance.  Instead of celebrating the life of a man who invented the first machine that can "think", the audience left the theatre feeling sad and sorry for him.  Thank you very much Black Bear and Weinstein company for taking the life of a 20th century inventor and turning it into nothing but a sorrowful story. Now we all feel sorry for Alan Turing; he was chemically castrated to avoid prison and took his own life with cyanide at the age of 41 because he was a homosexual.  

The movie did have a climax, however, and that was when the team realized they can't use the decrypted Enigma code. I could hardly breath at that moment.  These men had just solved the biggest problem of the 20th century, yet they could not use their findings to save lives, because it meant turning the clock back to the beginning; more mathematics and statistics were needed to determine how the information should be used.

The movie benefits immensely from brilliant, talented cast.

Benedict Cumberbatch, Alan Turing

Alex Lawther, Young Alan Turing

Keira Knightly: Joan Clark, Matthew Goode: Hugh Alexander, Allen Leech: John Cairncross, 

1. *A Turing machine is a hypothetical device that manipulates symbols on a strip of tape according to a table of rules. Despite its simplicity, a Turing machine can be adapted to simulate the logic of any computer algorithm, and is particularly useful in explaining the functions of a CPU inside a computer.

Should speaking the official language in public places become law?

These days the streets, trains, malls, shops, grocery stores, coffee shops, banks, in short all public places are so crowded.  Looks like the entire inhabitants of the city are making an attempt to be out and about.  There is so much noise, people in groups speaking loudly on the train, in the street, and pretty much everywhere. In midst of the hustle and bustle it's hard not to notice the variety of languages,other than one of the two official languages, French, or English, spoken.

Perhaps it is the convenience, and/or the peace of mind that prompts the choice of language.  Convenience that the language equips with all that is necessary to impress, express all the details of a narrative, and peace of mind that the words spoken is privy only to the individuals it is intended for.  If English or French are not spoken as widely as one would expect, it is perhaps because they cannot satisfy these needs.

 But what is the implication of such a choice?  On the surface it doesn't seem to have any [implication].  After all a conversation in a public place should be worthy only to its participants, and noise to the rest; the expressionless faces of non-participants is evidence of their indifference.  Even businesses hire people from many different ethnic backgrounds to be able to claim we-speak-your-language to encourage doing business with them.  Another variation of the same topic is the store signage printed in languages other than the two official languages, implicitly employing and serving a select ethnic group.


Toronto remains a mosaic of many languages. In 2006, forty-seven percent of the population had a mother tongue in a language other than English or French.

If we encourage, or ignore this trend, Toronto will not be one city, instead it will be hundred different cities within one city.  There won't be one Toronto, but a Chinese Toronto, an Italian Toronto, a Portuguese Toronto, a Russian Toronto, in short a Toronto divided amongst many visible minorities.  As a government thrives on having a majority, Toronto will also benefit from having a majority of its residents speaking either English or French fluently.

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, Cheryl Strayed

It's nice to hear someone else tells a story you can so identify with, because of the state of mind you are in, or life experiences you have had. That's how I felt, at times, reading this book; at other times I felt encouraged.
With so little preparation and know-how, her decision to walk the Pacific Crest Trail is as rash, and reckless as her turning to heroine. But this time she is earnest to find a way out of the pain she has been carrying for four years, since she lost her mother. She was 22, and her mother 45 then.
Hiking through wilderness alone is no joke, and Cheryl details the seriousness and intensity of doing such a thing well. Plus, having an untrained body, shoes that don't fit properly, and a huge pack, a.k.a Monster, makes her survival through the journey and arrival at her destination, Oregon, incredulous. From black bears, fox, and humans she has encounters with all species and as significant as it may sound, they are amazingly non-life threatening.
She neither philosophize, nor dramatize; she chronicles her journey the way it happened. This, I appreciated very much.


Awards: Goodreads Choice Aware Memoirs and Autobiography
Published: March 2012
Adaptation: 2014

 

On the Cancer Frontier, One Man, One Disease, and a Medical Revolution

The book is about the author's cancer research, his experiments to understand the miraculous impact of treatments on some  but not all individuals, and his journey to build a prominent centre, The Sloan Kittering Cancer Institute, dedicated to this  cause.

It's humbling to read the admittance that "no two cancers" are the same, even there are many differences amongst the signature of the same clinical types, colon and/or breast.  That identifying these abnormal patterns that kill, from the normal is challenging due to the slim delta in difference between them.

"Developing anticancer drugs is not like shooting at a fixed target;" because in the root of the battle lies an intelligent group of genes which communicate and coordinate their growth activity.

"Consider the successful drug Herceptin," the author remarks. "For years we were not sure why it worked only some cases.  Researchers finally discovered that the drug blocked a specific cellular signalling mechanism, or "receptor", that simulated breast cancer cell growth, but only 35 percent of women with breast cancer have that particular receptor."

There are numerous non-approved and experimental drugs touting the cure. These are often a by product of an unexpected result in a lab experiments which didn't repeat when tried on humans.  One of the more commonly known of such drug is DMSO.  When added to the mice cells which where colourless due to cancer, DMSO turned them red.  The red cells were identified as haemoglobin.  "DMSO had, in effect, switched on a genetic function in the leukimic mice blood cells that the disease had switched off."  This fascinating accident didn't repeat on the malignant blood cells of humans.

Unlike what we make or want to believe, "conquering cancer" is not within reach; we should accept that. Despite some progress, we are far from finding the "cure".  All we have is knowledge based on experiments, surveys, and statistics that perhaps help us to determine the survivor rate.  And potent drugs to alleviate the cancer pain and provide "comfort".

The time keeper, Mitch Albom

The book is a fiction about what has become of us since we learned to measure time; and our desire to do more in less time.

The author develops two vastly different characters, one who wants too little time, and the other who desires eternity. They have been picked to be given the chance to see the consequence of their decision and revert it.

Our time here is not ours to choose, the book concludes. It is neither early nor late, but it is always when "it is is supposed to be". When the time comes, at that very moment, is the time that earth joins heaven...

Sweet book. It ends with hope!

Inside, Alex Ohlin

At first I thought I am reading a collection of short stories.

I met Grace in the first chapter, and became quite intrigued by her pursuit.  I was absorbed with her curiosity, care for, and attention to a total stranger and imagined she could help this total stranger, guy, person, a broken soul utilizing her knowledge of human psychology.  Then I found the author had other plans for them. A love story crafted with pauses at the right moments, to keep the reader hanging and wanting to continue reading.  Pity that Grace, despite having  good intentions, was not able to mend this guy's soul, and her soul broke in the process as well.
 
Then I read Annie's story.  A tall, slender, beautiful young girl, independent, strong, ambitious actress.  This girl will go places, I thought.  She'd be a sensational success in theater and becomes an overnight success, I thought.  Annie encounters and accommodates a run away kid in her house with no curiosity to know who she is, why she is in New York, where she is from...  The unexpected turn of events  leads the two girls share the stories of their lives, not entirely with honesty.  Annie, however doesn't let the humanity of this connection overpower her.  She disconnects from the bond she has established with the girl and her boyfriend, shortly after the girl's uncle, his father finds them and comes to take them back to the family farm.  As soon as they are gone, and before the void get to her she leaves for an audition in Los Angeles.  Where she encounters her second opportunity to feel in a Lesbian relationship.  This one also doesn't sustain the turn of the events.

Then comes Mitch, like Grace a psychologist, but with a very different approach towards his subjects.  He is reluctant to get involved outside of the framework and mandate of the profession.  He encounters pain, fear, despair, and anger in his patients and knows he needs to reach out to them but falls short in doing so.  It's not hard to see why he thinks he is failure.

The author reveals Grace, Annie and Mitch in present time, then reveals their connection through stories of their past.

It is truly sad to see how in author's point of view both indifference, and care in another person's well being has the same ending.  That either we fail to connect or we fail to sustain the connection.

Depressing!

Note this book is:
Amazon.ca Editors' Pick: Best Books of 2012
Shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, and selected as an Oprah's Book Club Summer Reading Pick

Health care system: present and future

In present tense country officials, knowledgeable doctors, common people believe the system we call Health Care requires change.  The officials' concern is the burden of cost this system imposes on the national treasury.  The common peoples' concern is treatments are not effective.  And the knowledgeable doctors, well their role is somewhat questionable, at the moment they don't seem to play any significant role other than what it may seem to be "doing their job or not."

I am one of the common people.  I don't necessarily have an opinion on this or any topic unless I am interested.  I am interested in this topic now because a life event exposed me to the health care system.  A year ago if you asked me what I thought of the health care system, I would have admitted "oblivious is bliss".  Today, I no longer have the luxury to claim this.

Today, I have roughly 280 hours of self training from books, and material on the internet about human body and its content.  Today I know more about our organs purpose, their function and what they need to continue functioning properly --consequently keeping us healthy.  I also have come to find out about other elements that make our body.  It is also these elements that need to be present in balanced amount in order for our body to function properly --consequently keeping us healthy.

Before this nominal hours of training, I relied on my GP to administer the tests, read the results and provide me with the necessary feedback to keep the organs healthy and the elements balanced.

Today, I say that I learned the hard way that I must not rely on my GP to do what I stated above.  Most GPs, statement doesn't apply to all, administer the tests but fail to read the results and provide feedback.

There is tons of information available on the Internet and a lot of books.  Each of these resources empower us, the common people, with knowledge about our body in non-medical terms.  With a bit of common sense,  and time lots can be gained.  I boldly claim that the knowledge claimed this way could make the vision of "personalized medicine" a reality.

We all are built of the same organs, but the elements in each of us is different.  It is essential for each of us to know what elements we have and/or we lack.  Claim each blood or urine test result, don't take it for granted that all is fine because you didn't receive a call.  Understand your body content and customize a diet, and activity that is good for your body type.

At present the Health Care system is only a waste of our national treasury, and million of  dollars of "donations".  It is an illusion that continuing down this route is going to mean a good "Health Care" system in the future.  We are going to become sicker, given our current thinking.  Therefore we will rely on the Health Care system more to get better.  It is a vicious circle.  The GPs meanwhile, most, neither proactively nor re-actively diagnose and cure, they just administer tests.

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared

You don't reach 100 without having seen a thing or two exciting things in the world.  For some it is the World Wars, for others is landing on the moon, for Allan it is being the center of discovery and building of the atomic bomb.  For the protagonist of "The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared" book by Jonas Jonasson, the list of exciting things is long enough to fill a book of 400 pages.

Allan Karlson a centenarian climbs out of the window of his room in a senior home on the day of his 100th birthday in his casual clothes and pee slippers, hours before his birthday party.  When he arrives at the bus station he has no idea where he is heading.  All he knows is that he doesn't want to stay in that city and at that home any longer.  When he is given the task to chaperon a black suitcase, of a man with long, greasy blond hair, a scraggly beard and a denim jacket with the words Never Again on the back, while the man visits the washroom, he acts on his instincts, and drags the suitcase with him to the bus leaving the station while the man with long, greasy blond hair, a scraggly beard and a denim jacket with the words Never Again on the back, is still in the washroom.  It is May 2nd 2005!

This is how the book starts.  As Allan's adventure in present unfolds.  He shares his life since he was a little boy.  Both of Allan's life, present and past, are filled with zest and adventure.  His expertise with explosives brings him a life of convenience, adventure, hardship, extensive travel on foot, meeting the many important political figures.  No matter how convenient or how hard the situation is, how important or common the person is, Allan's attitude towards it all remains the same, "Things are what they are, and whatever will be will be."

This book is a great read!

Quiet, The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking

What a roller coaster of a read this book was for me. I honestly think two completely different people wrote this book. There are parts of the book that the research is thorough, the examples relevant and writing flows smoothly, example: "Part One When Collaboration Kills Creativity". There are other parts that the content becomes theatrical and without substance, example: "Part Two Is Temperament Destiny? Nature, nurture and the orchid hypothesis". The book is organized in an indecisive way, and lacks cohesion. There are parts that in one paragraph the words "introvert" and "extrovert" have been repeated more than what a brain can contain the context.

No doubt she has spent time researching the topic. But, putting every single research, the conversation, and the stories collected, verbatim, in the book left my brain gagging for some "quiet" time.

She maybe an introverted person, but she definitely is an extrovert author. She just keeps going on and on, from many different angles: business, childhood, psychology, communication, and etc. to describe the differences between an introvert and an extrovert.

Mesopotamia, in between two rivers, at ROM, Royal Ontario Museum

Statue of Ashurnasirpal II

Smacked between Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the land currently Iraq and parts of Turkey, was the birthplace of the Mesopotamian culture more than 5000 years ago.

The area housed four empires, Sumarians, Akaadians, Assyrians, and Babylonians.  Telling the social, economical, and political story of this ancient time through the study of artifacts excavated in this area is an intricate task; disrupted many times by change of political power and point of view.

Through showcasing 170 artifacts of Sumerian, Assyrians and Babylonians, on loan from British Museum, "Mesopotamia: Inventing our World" at Royal Ontario Museum attempts to establish a parallel between the past and present.

Escape Across River, Nimrud 875-860 BCE

The exhibit opens with two glass boxes placed next to each other.  In one there is a clay tablet with cuneiform carved into them and in the other there is an electronic tablet.  Although the exhibit is organized by rise and fall of empires, Sumer, Assyria and Babylon (and some references to Akaad), but the subliminal message is to showcase the rich and advanced culture of the past and its influence on the present time.

There are keywords such as Justice, Globalization, Innovation, and etc. projected on the walls through out the exhibit. The script written on the wall describes topics such as irrigation, city building and architecture, law, agriculture, animal domestication, priests, gods, and kings.  In addition there are animation to bring the story written on the clays to life, like the one here showing the escape across the river; as well as the fact that they knew how to swim. There are clasped-hands posed men, and women statues; looking at these made one feel so calm.

We are lucky to have exhibits like this to show us the richness of the civilized world.  Sadly, however, the present day quality of life shows discontinuity between then and now.  There is regression in the quality of life 5000 years ago and today.

The Cambridge History of Medicine

I have never been interested in the history of medical sciences. I have indirectly and in ad hoc heard of its advancements and set backs, but I have never had the curousity or interest to pursue a more in depth knowledge of it. My view has been: human being is her best physician and pharmacist. No two people are alike, therefore no two people's health strengths and weaknesses can be put in the same category despite similar symptoms. My quick and superficial readings of medical advancements or lack of it, left me suspicious of its benefit. When a life event put me in an uncomfortable proximity of medicine, one that I had no choice but to surrender to the risk of its flaws, and inaccuracies in the hope, it will help, I became really interested in reading about it.

I didn't read the "Illustrated" version, but that's the only version available in Goodreads. The Cambridge History of Medicine, is a collection of ten articles written by various medical historians or medical physicians. The titles explore the history and rise of medicine and its evolution through years as well as the care system, the hospitals and the pharmacology.

As we settled down in one place and started changing and manipulating our evironment to sustain us, we became "magnets for disease." Farming and domesticizing exposed the human body to pathogens. These pathogens invaded the human body and killed mercilessly. Those who survived the disease became immune to it. This way, human body developed a sophisticated immune system. [Para-phrasing Chapter 1 - The History of Disease, by Kenneth f. Kiple]

So, I guess we can call disease an inadvertent invention of civilization.

The last two chapters, "Looking to the Future (1996)" and "Looking to the Future (2006)" by Geoff Watts is thought provoking. Despite the enthusiasm and ingenious ideas, such as personalized medicine, and gene-therapy, medical system is bound by funding, often providied by the government and/or private sources. There is --no-- effective world body to orchestrate the effort, guide and direct it in the direction per the defined necessity and priority and make it easily available to everyone --from all walks of life, to poor and rich alike.

Zipcar's insurance policy

It has been three years since I first looked into car sharing, and subsequently joining zipcar.  I thought "ziping" would replace "renting" completely, however, over these years my needs of becoming a motorist has been met by a mixture of "renting" and "ziping".  Despite the administrative overhead,  renting makes more economical sense, especially long term.  The cost of a day of ziping comes close to $80, while renting could be $10-$30 cheaper.  The downside to that are: I have to pick up the car before the rental office closes, return after it opens, and fill up the amount of gas the car consumes.

Back in 2010, when I was researching zipcar, I couldn't quite understand how zipcar's insurance  works.  Here is a section from that blog:

***Yes, the price does include insurance, but they charge you $750 damage fee, unless you sign up for a waiver which costs $5 per month.

I don't quite understand the logic behind this rule; if insurance is included in the price then what's the $750 damage fee? Let me know if you have this figured out, will you?

Recently, I was in my first accident while zipping.  I backed up into a concrete and damaged the rear bumper of the driver side.  I don't have a damage fee waiver, so I am responsible to pay the cost of repair up to $750.00.  If the repair costs more than that Zipcar pays the difference.

The short of it is that Zipcar transfers the co-pay of their insurance policy to the driver.

I don't like this at all, simply because zipcar advertises, rental fees include insurance; then orthogonal advertises the damage fee waiver.  A naive mind regards the damage fee waiver as an optional fee.

I asked the zipcar representative working on my case about this.
Question:
How is zipcar's insurance different than the rental car's? 
Upon purchase of the rental car's insurance the renter doesn't pay for any damages. The insurance covers it. Is the damage fee the insurance co-pay? If yes, shouldn't zipcar pay because the pay hour fee, per zipcar, includes insurance?

Here is his answer.
"Should a Zipcar member be involved in an accident with their reserved Zipcar, they would be responsible for a damage fee.  The damage fee works much in the same way a personal insurance policy deductible would work. For those members who are interested in reducing their current damage fee, Zipcar does damage fee waivers for an extra cost.  Eligible members can purchase one of four different waiver plans available.  Please find below a breakdown of the different waiver options currently offered:

Complete Waiver:  Reduces damage fee from $750 to $0 per incident
-    Annual: $79 one-time charge
-    Month-to-Month: $9/month

Partial Waiver: Reduces damage fee from $750 to $375 per incident
-    Annual: $50 one-time charge
-    Month-to-Month: $5/month

The Month-to-Month waiver options will auto-renew each month for a 12 month period and can be opted out of at any time.  Both the monthly damage fee waivers and the annual waivers will auto-renew at the end of the 12 month period so long as the Zipcar member remains eligible for the damage fee waiver program."

What doesn't kill you make you stronger

Dr. Rod Lim at the London Health Sciences Centre suggests the labels may be useful to prevent accidental overdoses in specific instances. For example, people who take two pills every four hours could easily overdose on Extra Strength Tylenol.

"The problem is they're used to taking two pills every four hours but they'll exceed the maximum daily dose within 16 hours," he tells CBC.

Acetaminophen can be found in other products such as Nyquil, Excedrin, and Sudafed.

The following details appears on the box of the Tylenol Extra Strength "Do not take more than the maximum daily does. Overdose may result in severe or possibly fatal liver damage."

The pain doesn't kill, so putting up with it trumps the side effects of the soothing pain medication.

What was Lost

Kate Meaney I will remember your character forever.  I loved it if the pages in the book was filled with your story.  In fact, when I reached chapter 12, I have already developed what would happen to you and how would you change the lives of Teresa Stanton, and Adrian.  Instead I had to read roughly 150 pages of irrelevancy until I get to your story in the final two chapters.

Reading about Crawford, Dan, Scott, the vignettes, and mindless jibber jabber of Gavin was brutally boring.  Needless to say a little more thought in developing Gavin's story in relation to Lisa and Kurt's would have made this section of the book far more interesting.

I have to admit, I liked how the book ended.  It made total sense!  I also got the author's sense of humor.

The Falls, GO Transit's summer service

Niagara Falls is a fun destination and a popular get away destination during the summer for Torontonians.  I have been to the Falls a few times, via QEW, driving past Oakville, Burlington, and St. Catherines.  Each trip took a bit longer than the suggested two hours due to high volume of traffic.

 When GO transit Tweet appeared in my feed telling about a direct service, naturally I became very interested to use it.

Only a few more wknds left to ride our #GOseasonal #NiagaraFalls and #Barrie weekend trains http://t.co/E2mYme3RQW & http://t.co/puuyMhDQOa

— GO Transit (@GOtransit) August 13, 2013

We missed the outbound train on Saturday August 24. On weekends there are three outbound direct trains; connecting Toronto's Union St. to Niagara Falls' Via St. The departure times are at 9:00 am, 16:15 pm, and 20:10 pm. We took the train to the Burlington GO station and transferred to the bus to Niagara Falls. The trip took close to three hours! But coming back we took the 7:20 PM direct train to Toronto Union station. The trip took 2:30 hours. The inbound direct trains are at 8:00 am, 11:30 am, 19:20 pm, and 22:30 pm. The train stops at Exhibition, Port Credit, Oakville, Burlington, St. Catherines, and Niagara Falls. There are designated compartments with bike storage.
A few good points: it beats the weekend traffic, and it is direct (eliminates the transfer to the bus at Burlington)
One not so good point:  it is limited to a few times a day on weekends between June 28-Sept. 2.
I understand that the service makes sense when there is demand for it.
In fact the Niagara Falls bus service offered by Niagara Parks also runs full service during June 28-Sept. 2. providing convenient transport to attractions around the Falls, adult $7; child $4 for 24-hour pass.  This makes June-Sept the best time of the year to travel to Niagara Falls.

nach Deutschland

The Best of Berlin

No matter how much a city undergoes change, there is no way it can escape its history.  Berlin is a city that has embraced its past, shows no remorse of it and flaunts it extensively.
The events prior to the first World War that lead to the Nazism, followed by defeat of Germany in the War by the allies; and the country's 50 years separation to East and West, are no happy memories.  Yet, in every tourist area there is a building, a poster, a sight that hints to these events.  It is hard to expect to see reminiscence of Prussian kingdom in Berlin, since this city was nearly flattened in the consecutive world wars. 

How to get here:
The train ride Frankfurt - Berlin takes only four hours, and the city main train station, Hauptbahnhof is central and connected to almost anywhere.  The DB Bahn web site, has an option of translation to English.  It offers discount of advance purchase, and offers deeper discounts on non-refundable tickets.  The first class section of the train offers more leg room, individual tables, and 1-hour free Wifi.

Hotel:
Holiday Inn chain has two locations in Berlin, City Center, and East City Center.  The rates are very reasonable, 50-100 euro, and some rates include breakfast.  The rooms are clean, with coffee, tea station and small fridge.  The breakfast is generous and there is lots of different options to choose from.  You can get breakfast for 5euro per person anywhere in Berlin and by noon you actually have appetite to eat lunch! :)

Sightseeing:
The first day in Paris, and one goes to visit Eiffel Tower.  The first day in Berlin and one goes to visit the Wall, Berliner Mauer.  There is still such curiosity surrounding where the wall was once --even 24 years after 9 November 1989 that all GDR citizens were told they can visit West Germany without paperwork.  On Friedrichstadt close to Postdamer Platz there are pictures of "then", you turn your head and right where the wall used to be, you see nothing, open space.  Once you look down you see the cobble stones dividing the city right in the middle.  I got goose bumps from happiness.  If you have to see the wall, a part of it has been preserved; it is available for viewing at no charge. [U6 - Kochstrasse]

Imagine 6-acre land.  It is a huge area.  Now imagine it, packed with rectangular, shaped gray concrete at different height and width.  This is the site of the holocaust memorial, dedicated to an estimated six million Jews who were killed.  Keep your eyes peeled to these structures as you walk toward it, and as you approach, change your view and look through them.  It's a maze.

For something more pleasing on the eye and heart-warming head to the area around the "Unter den Linden", Under the Lime Trees.  There is metro construction until 2013, nevertheless the buildings in this area tell the story of the Germany of a different era, pre 1800.

 

The Staatsoper was commissioned by King Frederick II of Prussia in 1741, designed and built by Georg von Knobelsdorff as the first and the oldiest structure on Babelplatz. At that time it was called Hofoper (Court Opera) and was inaugurated with the performance Cesare e Cleopatra in 1742. After the collapse of the German Empire in 1919 the opera was renamed Staatsoper.

Gendarmenmarkt is a beautiful example of an architectural ensemble full of harmony and it includes both the French and the German cathedral as well as the Concert House.

Built in 1688 according to plans by Johann Arnold Nering, the square was originally called Linden-Markt and later on Friedrichstädtischer Markt and then Neuer Markt. However, after being used from 1736 to 1782 by the military for sentry duty and housing their horses, it came to be known as the Gendarmenmarkt. After 1777, the square was developed uniformly according to plans by Georg Christian Unger.
Severely damaged in the war, the square was rebaptised “Platz der Akademie” in 1950 on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the Academy of Science. In 1991, it got its original name back. Numerous restaurants, businesses and hotels are located around the Gendarmenmarkt.

French cathedral

The French Friedrichstadtkirche was built between 1701 and 1705 based on designs by Jean Louis Cayart as a church meant for French Protestants (Huguenots) who had fled to Berlin. In 1786, while the Gendarmenmarkt was being transformed, the impressive tower of the French cathedral designed by Carl von Gontard and Georg Christian Unger was opened. The cathedral was severely damaged in World War II and was rebuilt starting in 1977.

German cathedral

Located across from the French cathedral, the German cathedral was built by Giovanni Si-monetti between 1701 and 1708 according to plans by Martin Gruenberg. From 1780 to 1785, Carl von Gontard completed the building by adding on the domed tower. The cathedral was destroyed in World War II and, after extensive restoration work, it reopened again on 2 October in 1996.

Concert House (formerly Theatre house)

The Concert House was built as a theatre in 1821 by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, who was replacing the National Theatre, which had been constructed between 1800 and 1802 by Karl Gotthard Langhans and which had burned down in 1817. The design of the Concert House, or the Konzerthaus as it is known to Berliners, integrated what remained of the Langhans's rectangular shaped building and added a larger and wider building which was crowned by a pediment. After being destroyed during the war, the building was initially preserved and then the systematic, faithful restoration work began in 1979. After the reopening in 1984 concerts instead of plys were given in the Konzerthaus.

The Elegance of HedgeHog (L'Élégance du hérisson)

It is hard for me to come to terms with the way this book ends. Nevertheless, this doesn't change the way I think about it. It's an excellent read.
A 54 year old, ugly, short concierge of a posh residence in Paris, and a 12 year old highly intelligent daughter of a rich family living in the same residence, each struggle to conform to what society expects of her. Each is unhappy with what it seems her fate.
Through out the book, independently, each ponders the social convention imposed upon them and philosophize on the possibility of change. There is hope for change. Jean Arthen the junkie, son of the prominent Paris food critic, turned his life around.
Their encounter happens half way through the book, and something so tender and sweet blossoms. It is two chapters back to back, "Sisters" and "Profound thought number 15", when the story peaks emotionally and leaves the reader thoroughly satisfied.
But the ending. Ugh the ending is harsh!  I want to believe in the power of "Camellias".