Back in the U.S.S.A.

Oh! Boy is Knots Tied In Strings long overdue for a proper blog. And this isn’t really going to be it, because I’m in New York using a friend’s laptop in his Harlem apartment.

But more on that in another post.

First things first. You may have heard some rumours circulating in the variety section of your local newspaper, and I’d like to put them to rest: yes, as of February, James and myself will no longer be living in Toronto. He and Lauren are going back to Grass Valley, California, and I’m going back to New Zealand.

Pistons at Raptors national anthems. Air Canada Center. Toronto, Ontario.

This has been a hard decision to make, and only confirmed recently. We’ve had a blast over the last six months, but a combination of factors means that the current cons of staying in Toronto outweight the pros.

For James and Lauren it’s pretty simple. Lauren was unexpetedly granted only a two-month visa upon her arrival in Canada (forget the nicities of the C.E.R. that New Zealand has with Australia, Americans and Canadians don’t share the neighbourly love). And for me, staying on comes with the hassles of finding more work, another apartment and a revival in the interest of the working holiday that has started to lose its regalement.

Pistons at Raptors pre-game. Air Canada Center. Toronto, Ontario.

So I finished up work last week and am spending five days in New York City with hospitable New Zealand icon Ben Steele (check out his better written blog here). Then we’re renting a minivan with some others and driving to Boston, Montreal and Quebec city before I’m deposited back in Toronto.

Once back this will give me a week or so to say my goodbyes to the city.

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And in other news, on the Friday before last I managed to tick off an important life goal by attending an NBA basketball game in Toronto. My longtime favourite team the Detroit Pistons were in town, riding a ten game winning streak and hottest-team-in-the-league status.

They won.

 

Pistons at Raptors tip-off. Air Canada Center. Toronto, Ontario.

I forked out US$90 for a reasonable seat and felt an array of unexpected emotions, not unlike the fanatic awe of when I first saw my favourite band The Offpsring at the North Shore Events Centre, a 15 year-old at his first rock concert.

The basketball stadium has an eerie Roman Coliseum-type atmosphere; ten people on stage, surrounded by 20,000 watching their every move from stacked seating. But in basketball the boundaries between the entertainment and the audience are invisible; the aisle stairs leading straight onto the court, the team benches unseparated form the spectators.

Peculiarly, watching the teams warm-up in the glow of the Air Canada Center’s artificial lighting also gave me the same knots-in-stomach apprehension that I’d get in the shootaround prior to each game I played in high school. It was reassuring (in a sort of cheesy grassroots way) that when removed from all of the televisual glamour, a professional basketball game in the world’s premier league sounds, smells and feels not dissimilar to one in a 1990s Taupo gymnasium.

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Horseshoe Falls and American Falls. Niagara Falls, Ontario.

I also managed to get down to Niagara Falls the weekend before last, courtesy of my friendly Toronto relatives Dorothy and Terry. (Terry is my late grandmother’s cousin.) We drove down on a comparably warm winter’s day (it was about 3˚C), but the falls are far from grand in the grey and barren landscape of this season.

It wasn’t quite the serenity of the Superman II setting that I was hoping for. Huka Falls for life.

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Well, I’ve got to run. Ben got us tickets to the Wu-Tang Clan and there are Knicks-Pistons highlights on television. It’s a New York state of mind.

Posted by Jonathan

Tags: Basketball, Detroit Pistons, NBA, Niagara Falls, Toronto Raptors