My day off drizzled.

The tough schedule kept getting tougher and with collective nerves being tested, I suspected it might end in tears.

That was yesterday though. I felt the pressure of having to explore the wonders of Toronto without any of the necessary energy. This was frustrating. Nonetheless, I took a ferry over to the Islands – mooched, cogitated…got wet. Then I walked through Kensington Market (colourful, lively, cool, happening) and on along College, East to Cabbagetown, then south through Corktown to the Distillery District, by which time the sun was shining once more.

I can’t say I rested very thoroughly in the doing, but at least I got away from the rice for a few hours, which is sometimes essential if you can sense the rice-blindness creeping o’er you.

HarbourFront Kids weekend co-incides with Victoria Day, the acknowledged start of the Canadian summertime. This means thousand of kids and their parents swarming through the HarbourFront buildings, sampling and participating in cultural activities – live performances, gallery shows and art-making. It makes for a fantastically vibrant sight. For us at the rice show it means having to set aside the weighing and laying down of rice and turn our attentions more to crowd hustling, rubbing out footprints on the paper, brushing up scattered piles and lots of conversations with the public. Outside in the Brig Tent, a rolling rice workshop in which younger folks are encouraged to produce their own statistics in rice and lay them out in a special outdoor display. Any number up to 20,000 can be counted or weighed out onto a 8 & a half  by 11 sheet (the North American equivalent. of our ‘A4’) So we had all the grade 1-2 kids at Kenollie school, the FC Barcelona squad, the most kids playing MarioKart online simultaneously, etc.

This show will beat all known records for attendance – which, I guess, will make for a good statistic.