ottawa

(written on Monday afternoon)

I'm typing this in the Tea Store in Byward Market, Ottawa. The opposite wall is covered with shelves of loose teas of every flavour imaginable. Behind me is a wall of teapots and teacups of various descriptions, from overly-cutesy cat-shaped pots to one-cup pots decorated with wild designs to plain coloured porcelain teapots with warming stands. I spent about ten minutes browsing the tea collection before deciding on maple, a flavour I've never tried before. Yummmm...

This morning, I took a tour of the Parliament Buildings, took in the view from the top of the Peace Tower, listened in on part of a House of Commons session. Major security. For access to the Parliament Buildings, I had to remove my various layers of outerwear, empty my pockets, turn on my computer, turn on my cellphone, my Palm. The security guard checked every item in my knapsack, including unscrewing the end of the miniature screwdriver on my keychain.

To get into the observation area of the House of Commons session, I had to check my coat, my knapsack and my camera (no photos allowed). Two things that I noticed about the session right away: (1) Most of the seats were empty, (2) Nobody seemed to be listening to the House representative speaking. The second was the most bizarre. The fellow kept addressing his remarks to the "Mr. Speaker", but not even the Speaker seemed to be paying attention. Everyone seemed to be in his or her own little world, reading through their own notes, writing, or having conversations with a neighbour. The person speaking didn't seem to care, though, but just kept reading aloud from his notes. I assume this was just to get whatever he was saying on record, but surely there has to be some more efficient method.





After visiting the House of Parliament, I had lunch at the Earl Of Sussux. I was crossing the park on Parliament Hill at noon, and as I headed towards the National Gallery (which, I am sad to report, is closed on Mondays and Tuesday), a nearby church tower started ringing its bells. This was not just some ordinary ringing, either. It started as a few repeated dongs on the same bell, but then other bells started chiming in, higher and lower, in what seemed like a carefully choreographed performance (if it was random, then they did a marvellous job at choosing what bells to ring when). I was astounded, delighted, mesmerized, and stopped in the middle of the park, unable to do anything else except listen.

I worked on my laptop during lunch (chicken primavera), then went on a tour of the Canadian National Mint. No pictures allowed, but they let me keep my camera. We saw a rather cheesy 10-minute film at the beginning of the tour. Minimum information, maximum "we're so WONDERFUL we're the BEST you want to buy our COLLECTOR COINS". The half-hour tour around the facility was interesting, though. I hadn't realized that the Canadian Mint produced some foreign currency, for example, for those countries without the facilities to make their own. The Winnipeg plant handles daily use currency, while the Ottawa plant produces collector coins.

Very cool to see huge sheets of gold and silver being flattened, then cut into "blanks" before being rimmed (adding rims to coins apparently extends their life considerably), stamped, cleaned and packaged up. The tour began and ended at the Mint gift shop which, not surprisingly, heavily pushed collector coins of all types.

Going back to my maple tea and my writing now, but I have to say that I'm enjoying wandering about Ottawa more than I expected. Don't think I'll get to the National Library this time; I'm much more of a linger and savour type of tourist than "see a zillion things in as short a time as possible" type. Guess I'll have to come back to Ottawa sometime!





Links/News:

Four years ago, I had lunch with Reid, Luisa and Jeff.

Five years ago, the teacher's strike was imminent.

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Today's Blatherpics:

Were taken in the Parliament Buildings yesterday. More Ottawa visit photos in upcoming Blatherings.