New Toy

My 3 year contract was up with Bell and so I was entitled to a new phone...thank goodness! when I got my first phone after coming back to Canada I just picked a Samsung that wasn't a hideous color and didn't look too complicated because that was what I had in Korea and it worked fine. However, that phone's sound was crap. I constantly had to wander around the apartment to find a place where I could hear whoever was talking to me. So last Tuesday I went down to the Bell store and explained my problem to the Customer Service Rep. who then proceeded to explain to me the intricacies of the volume button on my phone....



I didn't yell or hit I just carefully explained to her that I was familiar with the volume button and that really did not affect the understandability of the caller. What I want is a phone that is reliable and has good sound. Of course CSR can't just tell you which is the best phone (They are all wonderful phones, Bell wouldn't possibly sell any piece of Crap) Right. So I was on my own after I pried from her to stick to Samsung or LG as previous customers brought fewer of them back for repairs as opposed to the other brands. I prefer a flip phone to a slider so that eliminated a pile and I had no desire for a texting phone (way too many tiny buttons) Of those that were left I want for aesthetic appeal and ended up with a stainless steel cased LG Shine which has a camera, video functions, MP3 player and I'm certain a few other tricks that I haven't figured out yet. I spent about 100 dollars on top of my credit but it was worth it. When I talked to Mom last week I could hear her perfectly instead of sounding like she was at the far end of a tunnel over which transport trucks were rumbling. I spent 3 hours Tuesday afternoon trying to get it to talk to the computer and by Friday I figured out how to operate it and get it to play nice with the computer. The phone companies have figured out that they can charge ridiculous amounts of money for ring tones if the supplied tones are horrific. So I spent another 10 dollars downloading rings so that my ears won't bleed each time my phone rings.



I also has last Friday off and decided to take advantage of a day when most kids will be in Halloween mode and went to the ROM. It was delightfully empty and quiet. They have opened 2 new galleries on either side of the original front doors for Canadiana. One is dedicated to Native Americans and currently on display are a headdress and coat that belonged to Sitting Bull. The other focuses on furniture and paintings of Canada from the 1600's to present. In the paintings I found an original painting of Tiger Dunlop.



Then upstairs in the textiles gallery they had a dress that belonged Marie Antoinette and is being returned to France this month. I took some pictures but I don't think they do justice to the quality of embroidery. The textiles Gallery has documentaries about conservation and display that are very interesting and there was a short piece about the woman for whom the gallery is named. She has been a volunteer for over 40 years and when they were working on the new gallery her husband secretly sold a Group of Seven painting that he had inherited and gave to 500,000 to the ROM in her name. I thought it was a sweet story because although I'm sure they are not poor he gave something up to give this gift to her.



Then after going back to the dinosaurs in the Crystal, which are much nicer to look at when the room is not teeming with people, I headed to the basement to see the diamonds exhibit. At this temporary exhibit there are the third largest cut diamond in the world- the Incomparable diamond that is over 407 carats, a rose shaped corsage that is composed of over 2,600 individual diamonds, the Oppenheimer Diamond that weighs 254 carats and many other unbelievable pieces. This part of the museum was busy but not too crowded. After 2 hours I was tired and went outside to discover that summer had returned so I walked home and and had lunch and then went out again to go shopping and start thinking about Christmas. I know its too early for Christmas.

We are having another nice day here today and I have the day off today (Miracles!) and so I'm going to get out the apartment for the afternoon.