Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Bluejays V Redsocks
Went to Toronto for the weekend to have a look around. Lucky to be given free tickets to see a major league baseball game at the Rogers Centre. The Toronto Bluejays were playing the Boston Redsocks at the Rogers Stadium. This stadium is right next to the CN Tower and i
s very impressive. Unfortunately the weather was poor so they did not open the roof. Once inside the building you can get a true indication of its enormous size. Baseball players were 'skying' hits into the dome and went know where near the top. Our seats were directly behind home plate in what is the best viewing point besides the dugout so we were most excited. The Jays took the game out comfortably but lost the 3 game series in the end. We emersed ourselves in the atmosphere of baseball and found it not dissimilar to the State of Origin RL game we saw live last year except for the fact that it was a round game. The merchandise shops (in the stadium) and the food stalls and the hotdog stalls were very Amarican. You can get a hot dog with a trillion different condiments added if you wish. Plain old tomato sauce (ketchup over here thankyou) is pretty boring.
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Maple Syrup Run
As the last of the snow melts and the sun takes a tentative warming peak out of the
e clouds, Canadians head to the bush to collect maple syrup. We had been invited to check out a small family concern just out of town to experience what it took to harvest maple syrup. Thinking that the process was a very delicate, intricate affair we were surprised to find that the only difficulty was ensuring that the beer supplies were cold enough. This year Canada had an unseasonal warm 
winter and the snow that is usually lying around the Syrup Shack was almost all gone and so a mad chase to collect snow to keep the beer cool was had. Mind you there was someone out there running around on an ag bike towing a milk va
t collecting syrup from the trees. Meanwhile back in the shack the boiling process continued. It took a vigilant team of experts to sit or stand around the vat and occasionally skim the scum off the top whilst waiting for the reduced
syrup to reach 107 C. At this point the water in the syrup is boiled off reducing the final brew by 40:1 and is bottled. This whole process takes hours. So you have to be prepared for a long wait and come with a good yarn or three to share. And don't forget to bring your boots. Alex ended up plonking around in my 
gum boots and I wore my hiking boots. It was very muddy because the frozen ground had started to thaw. This is probably the reason for the syrup run happening at this time. Apparently you tap and start the run just as the temperatures get above freezing during the day and go below freezing at night. The run usually only lasts a week or two as the syrup changes and is not very tasty after this time.
