On the GO again into Toronto. Dangerous and illegal.

The bullet-proof vested train ticket guy, who wore a black cap just like a policeman, said to the young Chinese (ethnically, at least) couple in the seats ahead of me, "Because you didn't touch out after you got off the bus, the card still thinks you're on the bus. The bus is completely different than the train. Technically, you haven't actually paid for being on this train. The fine is £100. You need to touch out after getting off the bus, because the system still thinks you're on the bus.  Do you understand?"

The young man nodded and looked chastened. (At least, his shoulders did, which is the only part of him I can really see, except his hair.)   

The ticket guy spoke slowly.  "The bus is different from this train.  Do you understand?   I'm going to let you off this time, but I need you to go to the ticket counter and get it straightened out, and remember for next time.   Understand?" 

Another bullet-proof vested guy swaggered up and watched them, as if he'd been signalled for back-up. The first ticket guy spoke with the calm authority of someone who's packing heat. 

After they left -- without checking my ticket, but then, I had it lying out on the seat next to me, feeling quite sanctimonious about my following the rules -- a nice-looking lady (no leggings — all taupe) sitting opposite the Chinese couple said, "Isn't it confusing, the way it is now?"  And she told a little story about how she'd also encountered, unhappily, the fact that the bus was a different system than the train. 

"We didn't realise you had to touch out," said the young Chinese man.  He's Canadian or American.  Definitely not Chinese.  

Then the young woman sitting next to the taupe woman chimed in, "My grandma just died."

We all sat wondering, how's this going to connect? 

She continued, "But, if she'd been alive, she wouldn't have known how to touch out and she'd probably owe so much money now."

The Chinese couple went back to being monolinguistic foreigners.  The taupe woman studied her a bit, in a polite, friendly way, then asked, "Are you a student?" 

"No, I'm …"

But that petered out.  Now everyone is back to being strangers. The only person talking is some woman behind me who is carrying on the most boring business call: "I will find out from her and find out what she has discovered about the system. As far as I was concerned, they were using, was it In Touch or Able?  We bought the license for that system, up to the time of conversion. They don't take it away. You just don't get support." 

Yawn.

Now, we're in beautiful Mimico. I wonder how to pronounce that?  Found out Younge Street doesn't rhyme with … well, the way I pronounced it, what could it rhyme with?  Donkey, but pronouncing the k as g. Thankfully Karen persisted in trying to understand what the heck I was saying, until she made it out and corrected me.  It does make the fact that the Schmidts live on Old Yonge street mildly amusing, as far as location names can provide amusement.

"You're looking for a good, strong person, right? Another Janet is what we need there. Do you not think Janet could do the training? Or do you have reservations about that?"

Man, business people are so boring.  "The geography doesn't help, either. She's down to supporting two clinics. Ajax is very keen on going into the competitive…. That will save them HR costs."

OK, the fact she's involved with clinics makes it somewhat interesting, as there could be tropical or sexual diseases involved, but the fact she's on the HR side of things just stomps out that little tendril of hope.

Finally, she's hung up.

"I was looking for Janet. Is she there?"  Oh geez. 

Exhibition is where we're at now. We're in the land of big, cement buildings under construction. At this stage, they could all grow up to be....

"How are you? You've had an eventful week, haven't you?  Ok. Excuse the background sound. The intercom … I wasn't aware this happened already with Evelyn. I don't know if I'm disappointed, as it's already done. But I hear you've already found interesting circumstances…."

Anyway, the buildings could all turn into parking lots. They're like at that stage of a foetus where we could still become fish, or monkeys, or whatever.  Well, the likelihood is not.

"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, we're now approaching Toronto Union Station." They're very good about announcing the platforms and how to get where you want to go here. It's my fault I'm not very good at listening. The bus lady did tell us to use platform 3 for Toronto, and I retained and clung to that bit of info.

"We'd like to remind passengers that crossing the tracks is both dangerous and illegal." He said that in the most cheerful manner, like the fact that it was not only dangerous, but illegal, too, was the greatest of luck.