Articles filed in 2008 May
Lister Block
There are buildings that you admire for their beauty and their height like the Empire State building. Then there are buildings that have stood the test of time like the Great Pyramids. But there is yet another category or buildings that have their own story to tell: of construction and survival and destruction. As I write, the White House is coming to my mind but I am actually talking about a building with no significant impact on world history, and that most people outside this city of Hamilton don’t even know it exists.
The Lister Block is an eighty four year old, six-storey building that sits on the corner of James St. and King William in downtown Hamilton, Ontario. If you walk by this building, chances are that you will not even notice it and ignore it because it’s windows are boarded-up and there’s graffiti all over. The most you will want to care about is that it is abandoned and is falling apart and that you want to walk faster ! To Hamiltonians however, Lister Block is part of their history and the building’s history holds a sentimental and nostalgic value to them.
Conquering the Escarpment
It was a heartbreakingly beautiful day today, 20°C with a cool breeze and sunny with a few clouds in the sky. Since I wasted the day yesterday staying indoors, away from the rain, I was not going to waste today, and decided to go hiking and exploring the Niagara Escarpment.
Hamilton is known Canada-wide for it’s steel industry and the pollution that comes with it; but that was all in the past. Today, the steel industry is only part of it’s economy, along with health care, education and a growing biotechnology industry. Hamilton has many best kept secrets like and its natural beauty and biodiversity is one of them.
The Niagara Escarpment is the very cliff over which the Niagara river plunges to form the Niagara Falls and it runs through south-western Ontario following the Georgian Bay shore, into Michigan and finishes in Illinois near Chicago. In 1990, it was designated as a UNESCO world biosphere reserve, which means all non-conservation activities along and near the escarpment are prohibited.
Playing hookey
I took a holiday the last week and a half, visiting my friends in Toronto and Mississauga but I guess that holiday also extended to blogging and reading and commenting on your blogs as well !
It was a great to know how the guys are moving on after finishing school. A couple of them are also getting married this summer and there is a possibility of a third wedding but we have yet to find that out.
Usually when the guys gather, we plan a road trip but this year, we had to scrap that plan due to gas prices that are now soaring at $1.25 a liter ($4.73 a gallon). I got around using transit, which thankfully is still affordable and let me point out to car lovers that even if fares for GO Transit have gone up, it’s still the most comfortable way to get around the Greater Toronto Area.
I have to be frank with you that I did have Internet access wherever I visited but it just didn’t feel right updating my blog and reading and commenting on your blogs by taking up their computing time. For me, checking my e-mail and responding only takes under five minutes but my other daily tasks also include twittering, catching up with the news, and reading and commenting on several blogs.
Besides I was tired of explaining every friend of a friend what Netvibes was, who the boyscout in that picture…
I have a couple of posts almost ready to go. Tomorrow many bloggers are campaining for human rights but I wont be participating and instead will write about it later in the year.
Now, it’s time for a lot of catching-up to do…
