Thoughts from Toronto's Don River to Seoul's Han River
Today, after a long day at work, I had the pleasure of riding home in a 74-foot long dining car.
The subway stopped at a station near mine. A young lad boarded and promptly scored a seat. No big deal.
To my surprise, this young man came armed with a hamburger in his left hand. He proceeded to eat the burger as if it were “normal” to walk around eating an unwrapped burger. There was no wrapping. No box. No bag. No napkins. Just a young man and his burger.
Ew.
What a game! Saturday night was a traditional one in my household. It reminds me of my very humble beginnings as a Leafs fan when I was eleven years young. I started watching the Toronto Maple Leafs on CBC Television alone in my room on my very first television set. I watched every single Saturday and enjoyed watching Don and Ron on Coach’s Corner.
Today, I am a grown man still watching the Leafs on Saturdays, except instead of watching in my bedroom, I watch in the living room on the big screen TV. I love technology and have a lot of smart home items around my suite.
Just before the singing of the national anthem, I command my Google Home Mini, “Hey Google. Turn the living room lights red.” My living room becomes red and I stand to sing the national anthem. This is perhaps the only time I make noise in my condo. I proudly sing the Canadian anthem from the heart. I sometimes sing while holding a full-sized Canadian flag. If I am out at a bar, I proudly stand and sing in front of everybody.
After the anthems, I command Google Home to change the colours to blue for the Maple Leafs. Somehow this night I forgot to ask for the colour change and watched the entire game under red lighting.
The highlight of the game was Andreas Johnsson’s first NHL goal. What a smile. That guy had the biggest smile I ever saw. It was infectious as Zach Hyman and Connor Carrick rushed to embrace him with huge smiles. The entire team was elated to see the goal. The camera panned to the Leafs bench where we could see the likes of Patrick Marleau and Tyler Bozak smiling in happiness at witnessing this kid’s first NHL goal.
The Toronto Maple Leafs went on to defeat long-time rival Montreal Canadiens 4-0 without star goalie Frederick Andersen and star forward Austin Mathews.
I fell asleep shortly after the game and missed the St Patrick’s Day festivities at the local bars.
This morning I walked through the snow to the subway and headed off to work.
Soon after entering my office building, I checked the time on my smartphone. In the middle of the screen is where the current weather is displayed.
The temperature was 33 degrees Celsius. Wow. Of course that was not the weather in Toronto on a March day. It was Accra, Ghana, West Africa.
I swiped up through my list of cities. Seoul, Busan, Gumi, and Gwangju South Korea each showed between 15 and 17 degrees. The same was true for Tokyo, Osaka, Kumamoto, and Fukuoka Japan.
Lagos, Nigeria (also in West Africa) was displaying 33 degrees like Accra.
Then I arrived at Toronto… A blistering minus-2!
“Why do I still live here?” I asked myself.
Summer in Toronto is fantastic. The weather is nice and there is lots to do. The city really comes alive during the warmer months. Unfortunately, half the year consists of terrible weather and gloomy streets.