I drove from Nanaimo to Victoria and decided to avoid the main highway and pick a route along the coast. In doing so, without any help from a map, I managed to find a country route, with not a trace of ocean, and that bypassed the one stopping off point I had planned to visit. I was partly distracted, though it is no defence, by the local radio 'Pacifica.' The presenter was interviewing a representative from the Green Party. She was articulate and interesting. But being brought up on BBC impartiality I could not believe how fawning and biased the presenter was. He even said that he would vote for her and he fully agreed with her policies. No incisive debate there. He then said, "We have about 5 minutes left, so I am going to open the mic and let you say what you want." She did really well because it sounded like he had just run out of steam and was asking her to bail him out. She concluded, he thanked her and then introduced the next programme. It went quiet, he came back on, almost speaking to himself he said "Oh, there is another 2 minutes. I err....." And for 2 minutes he struggled. It was tortuous but really funny as well. I thought, 'there is a man who has not planned ahead for his job, not had any fillers to hand and will be out of a job shortly.' Then amazingly later on the same station a female presenter did exactly the same. She gave out some information, obviously got a message in her earpiece that the information was incorrect - she then tried to keep talking, while listening to more ear piece instructions and was also noisily typing at her computer to try and find the correct information. This was one lady who could not multi task! I felt that they will both keep their jobs as this must be the station's style and it did have a compelling charm; slick, glossy, professional is what we are use to - but human is rather endearing.
On reaching Victoria I was surprised how busy it was. Heavy traffic, one way systems and lots of people. After the quiet of Nanaimo I was taken aback. And, as I mentioned earlier, I had foregone the luxury of a map so was having to navigate in a city of which I had no knowledge. I pulled off, found 2 hours free parking and set out to explore on foot. I had 4 places identified that I needed to find and now had 2 hours to do it and return to the car. I managed to find the main places - where I was staying that night and where I was dropping the car off later that day.
I then dropped my luggage off, returned the car and set out to find the venue for my meeting the next day. I was so pleased that I did. I had found the street and thought I will just knock on the door and check. It took 45 minutes to find the correct door. I was visiting a Government Official and they have lots of offices along this street, dotted in buildings that have multi occupants. I knocked on other Government doors and they hadn't heard of who I was looking for. Eventually I tracked them down. So much for open government! Had I not planned ahead, then the following morning I would have been in a huge panic, late for my 9:00am meeting and trailing all my luggage up and down the stairs and in and out of buildings.
Relieved, I then went in search of the bus stop that I needed to find - as after my meeting I was getting a bus to the Ferry and leaving the Island to return to Vancouver. I wanted to do my searching now rather than in a rush while dragging 6 weeks worth of laundry and an increasing number of handouts and flow charts.
It took me 4 hours of walking in the heat to eventually achieve my objectives. I then set off in search of food and to have a look at Victoria.
Two minutes into my search there was a commotion. A street busker was shouting "Someone call the cops.." I was approaching him and could see he was distressed. I thought his wrath was directed at a passing motorist and that he was a little worse for drink. He then looked up the street in the direction I was heading and shouted 'They busted my strings, Ass holes." At that, I noticed two scruffy youths, pants situated at thigh level, hoodies. They turned and one charged back towards the busker. He ran past me and threw a punch at the busker who was much older and pretty frail. Without realising, I had turned and got hold of the youth. He appeared totally unaware of me but stopped his attack and ran off. A woman, the only other person who reacted, had screamed and shouted. As the youth ran off she poked me in the back, possibly thinking I was with them. I really must start wearing my pants higher!
Later, having eaten a nice meal at Re-Bar, more healthy veggie fare. I was wearily making my way back to my bed for the night. I was roused from my thoughts by a lady standing in front of me saying, "Have you any change for a Loony?" As I have spent all my adult life working in special education I was torn between correcting her terminology or expressing my concern for her low self worth. She saw my puzzlement and said more slowly, "Can you change this loonie?" indicating a dollar coin. She had to explain that Canadian terminology for a dollar is in fact a loonie. The light half came on and I fumbled for change. With my head down she leaned forward and her chest appeared as she said, "I'll show you these for $2." Whereas I thought that was pretty good value I did in fact say, "What, no thank-you." In my flustered state I also ended up giving her double what she asked and still didn't get the loonie!!
My initial impression of Victoria was slightly skewed, however I was very impressed with the snow capped mountains that appeared on the horizon over the skyline. The next day I had a successful meeting with Odette Dantzer from the Ministry of Social Development. We also had a conference call with two other officials and it was interesting to get the political perspective having spent several days hearing from people at the sharp end how services were being cut through changed and reduced funding. As Odette and I said our goodbyes in the fresh air I commented that I didn't realise this end of the Island had such impressive Mountains. She looked at me and patiently explained that it doesn't. The mountains I was looking at are on the mainland, beyond Victoria there is no more island only Ocean. With my credibility shot I said 'goodbye' and walked away with my huge case in my wake.
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| View from the Ferry from Victoria to Vancouver |
I had been dreading that day as I knew I had to walk my luggage into Victoria, then to a bus stop, get it on the bus, to the Ferry, off at the other end, find another bus that would get me close to my next hotel, then walk the luggage there. In practice it worked out a little less painfully than I had anticipated. I made the connections and found where I needed to go with only the odd period of confusion.
The following day proved more difficult once I reached Toronto airport. I had goggled directions from the airport across Toronto to the East side where I was staying. The first direction - where to find the bus, proved incorrect and I suddenly felt a little lost. It was getting late and everyone except me seemed to know where they were going. I asked for help and was given directions that in no way related to mine.
I got on a bus with no idea of where to get off. I didn't have the correct change, the driver kindly allowed me to make a donation rather than pay my fare. The bus reached a terminus, everyone got off. After a while I realised it was the subway. Going down to the platform there was no map, directions or ticket machines. I let two trains go before I decided I should head East. On the train there was a map and I recognised a station from my Google search - with some luck and another change I arrived and eventually dragged my luggage into the hotel at 10:00pm. With huge relief I closed my hotel room door. Tonight ended a run of 5 nights in 5 different locations. Living out of a suitcase is bad enough but constantly moving on was hard. Running out of clean clothes and in need of an iron before my next round of meetings I relaxed knowing I had all Sunday to catch up with such necessities. Toronto will have to wait for exploration until after my undies have been washed!
I will leave you with Amy - one of the workers I visited in Ladysmith on Vancouver Island. She works at a lovely grocery chain - Parallel 49. She was fantastic and loved by colleagues and the community. I spoke to the Managing Director, Peter Richardson, who is an excellent manager and knew all his staff. He said I was welcome to use him as a reference to tell other employers the business benefits for hiring persons with a disability. Tina Fabbro set this visit up for me and was a brilliant resource, very positive and a great philosophy. She and her husband also accommodated me for a night. Lovely people!
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