May 6th: Canada, again

Well after a good night's sleep I looked out of my window on the 17th floor of the Crowne Plaza (conference hotel)  and enjoyed the view of the North Saskatchewan River a long way below me.

My View: not sure what the boat is, nor the 4 glass pyramids in the distance

  The weather was clear and bright but when I ventured out after breakfast I found it was quite cool in the breeze and almost chilly in the  shade.

North America means a return to the land of prooer bacon, especially in Canada so it was away downstairs to have a cooked breakfast and read a newspaper. Then  after a bit of sorting out papers and   washing etc I went off to walk the two blocks or so to the  " convention center" where the meetings will be. The walk is partly along the top of the river terrace and is very pleasant.

I found the venue and the registration desk to collect my name badge , satchel and all the usual stuff-then bumped into the only person I know here. My old mate Chuck Edwards who was about to end his year as president of the Canadian Mining Institute.

Those who have been reading the blog for a few years may recall Chuck was with me in Brazil a couple of years ago and is also the owner of that red Ford GT  that figured in my blog from Saskatoon in 2010 (last canadian visit).  We had a chat and then I let him get back to presidenting while I strolled around the City centre until the reception opened at City hall at 1400.

The square in front of City hall is called Winston Churchill square and was full of mining machines as part of the publicity for this very big meeting (1400+ participants).

The city hall has a very modern glass pyramid (like the others across the river) and a very loud, modern carillion bell tower at the side. I did not see a WSC statue so I will have to go back and check.

 A few drinks a nibbles in the very smart lobby then it was time rush of to another reception at the "center" .  We also had a grand opening ceremony with  some excellent "japanese" drummers from Edmonton who were very animated, very athletic and very loud.

  All very tiring after a long flight all this free booze. Still the Canadian do limit you by putting only two free drink tickets in the bag and then you have to buy the rest - I can't see that working well in Australa. The "center" has some terraces you can walk out onto and on one of them I found this really great sculpture of a bison - not as good as the real ones my friends Tim and Wendy are seeing on their drive across the USA ( see http://www.malibutosavannah.blogspot.ca/ ), but pretty good I reckon.

Once the  reception was over it was a twilight walk back to the hotel and  another good sleep. Chuck had chnaged the programme so I will be speaking on Day 1  and not Day 2 - time to prepare...