Canada very dry

‘Can we help you…?’

I am standing glumly unsure about whether to wait for assistance from the BA ground staff (will they make me sit in a bloody wheelchair again) or just take pot luck and stride off in the general direction of customs when I hear this question from the couple in front.
It is apparent they are not going to move or let anyone else off the plane unless I capitulate so I fall in line behind them and grab the woman’s elbow as we hit the terminal.

By one of those marvellously strange twists of coincidence it turns out that they are filmmakers screening a documentary at the Hot Docs festival and that the first film the chap made back in the mid ‘90’s was about an English man with…guess what…. Retinitis Pigmentosa!! In the short walk through to baggage we discussed methods of exposing film to simulate sight loss, colour vision and the red spectrum and the problems of guiding and being guided.

My beautiful friend A met me at the airport and we drove around to her new little gallery on Roncesvalle St. Having not slept for over 30 hours I was beginning to hallucinate so the art on the walls seemed to be 3D and wobbling and I made some complementary noises about the ‘installation’ only to realise it was the storage area. The gallery itself was lovely with sunlight streaming in through the windows and everything painted and primed. The opening do is on Friday and A is a tiny powerhouse of energy, holding down a fulltime job and pulling this business venture together in her ‘spare’ time!

Toronto by the way is blazing hot. I however packed for sleet and snow and am feeling a bit foolish and in need of some sandals. I have yet to see a Mountie and have not had a chance to eat anything with maple syrup in it.