Racing in the City and Poker!

On Sunday morning I got up around 7:00am and started prepping for the "Race in the City" event that I was participating in that day - Sandra had asked me to be her teammate a while back and even though I had no idea how involved it was I was totally looking forward to it. Kev and Steve were still asleep as I snuck out to meet San. The race turned out to be an absolute blast!! :)

Some of the fun and interesting challenges included:
1. Busking at the Spadina station with the requirement that we get at least one coin of any denomination - San sang "Sesame Street" while I played [possibly very badly] the tune on the flute.
2. Standing on a wooden podium at Nathan Phillips Square and giving a joint 30 second dialogue about what "Race In The City" is all about to passersby [even though what we really wanted to do was score some Indian Food from the Sikh Festival that day].
3. Finding a typo on a plaque at a museum which features an old fashioned printing press.


What I learnt:
1. That E.J. Lennox spelt out his name and the word "Architect" in the corbels under the roof of the Old City Hall building at Bay and Queen... and that if you look closely enough you can actually see the letters mixed in between the other decorative elements.
2. That my little brother knows how to use google image search. :) Thanks to him we got the last flag with the lion on it.
3. That there is a publicly funded film house right across the street from "Paramount Theatres"in downtown Toronto!
4. That people would not give you a single penny, no matter how nicely you ask/explain what it is that you're doing and why you need it. Unbelievable!
5. That people cheat, we could ask others for help but we were supposed to use the TTC to get around, one team had their own personal driver that day, another team which phoned in with the wrong answer, stood at the pay phone and listened to others give their correct answers rather than going back and looking for the answer themselves.

All in all it was a good time, and even though I was totally exhausted by the end of the race and my legs felt like I'd been beaten with a stick... it was still a blast. :)

I spent the rest of the day visiting at Ken and Liv's place chatting and playing Poker. I played badly and was the second person out but it was still a good time. :)