Nomads update

It's two weeks into the Ontario rugby season and the Nomads are second in the Marshall Premiership having beaten Saracens and Brampton in the first two games. Next week (June 9th) will be tougher as we are away at Balmy Beach. This is a great chance for peeps in Toronto to see top class club rugby without having to flog out to the suburbs. The games are being played at Gage Field which is on the north side of Lakeshore Boulevard just west of Coxwell Avenue. Thirds play at noon, seconds at 1.30pm and the first team game is at 3pm.

The crystal

We went to the ROM today to take advantage of the current freebie because of last night's opening of the new Michael Lee Chin Crystal. Unfortunately so did 70,000 other people. We managed to get timed tickets for 3pm (we showed up around 1230) so we went and ate a rather undistinguished brunch on Bloor Street, browsed the giant BMV second hand bookstore and wandered back to find that the line stretched all the way back down University Avenue to the south entrance. Fortunately it was moving really fast and we probably only had to queue for about 15 minutes.

I really like the Crystal. I like what it does for the streetscape on Bloor and I think the exhibition spaces have tremendous potential. The internal build out of the displays is scheduled for this coming winter and spring so it will be well into next year before one can fully assess the changes.

We also took in the Ancient Peru Unearthed exhibition. It's material excavated from an elite tomb of the Sicán culture of Northern Peru, a people who predated the Incas but have not attracted all that much attention until quite recently. They made very impressive ceramics but the highlight of what was on display was the gold artefacts. They are all made from beaten gold sheets cut, rolled, impressed over forms and engraved with an astonishing degree of precision. The skill and amount of labour in transforming ingots to the very thin sheets used is very impressive in itself. The precision and accuracy of the finishing work is simply staggering. A very worthwhile exhibition!