We did not attend the Occupy Victoria/Public Assembly of Victoria rally today but by all accounts it was peaceful and reasonable. Mat Wright took some great photos; here’s some more photos from R. A. Paterson (user rpaterso on Flickr). Mid-day, the group marched from Centennial Square to the Legislature which actually took the group through what passes for Victoria’s “financial district” along Douglas St. It disrupted traffic enough that we encountered transit buses being re-routed up toward Blanshard St. Here’s the group at Douglas & Fort Streets (photo by R. A. Paterson):
Pretty good turnout. I know a number of people who attended; not sure how many are planning to camp out overnight (a few people at least). There was frost on the ground this morning and I would expect a similar dip in temperature tonight; hope they brought layers.
Sidebar — related news: I got pretty worked up this evening though after a video went viral that claimed 24 people had been locked in a CitiBank branch and then arrested for trying to close their accounts (in NYC, not Victoria). CitiBank later issued a statement saying that the Police were called after a large number of protesters were disruptive. One question remains though, there’s a woman outside the bank (at about the 1:35 mark in the video), someone says to her, “You were inside,” she replies, “I am a customer.” This exchange is repeated several times until she is then physically dragged into the bank by the police/security — what the hell happened there? I’ll be watching for more follow-up.
While we were unoccupied, I went out this morning and got fresh eggs, stopped in at the garden store to get some spring bulbs (tulips and daffodils) and on to Michaels where I had hoped to find beeswax sheets but I was denied. Apparently they lost their supplier a couple of years ago (global decline in honeybees to blame?) so I entered the chaos that is WalMart because if anyone was likely to have a bunker in North Korea filled with honeybees just to make cheap beeswax, it was WalMart. No luck there either. Yes, I do recognize the irony of going to WalMart as people just a few miles away were complaining about corporate greed.
I returned home to find Mike on the cusp of abandoning his Halloween costume — to be fair, it was a very ambitious undertaking. Within an hour, his mind was made up: Not This Year. I’m not spoiling it — if you want to know, ask him — but I don’t guarantee he’ll tell you either 😉
Our next task was to go out and gather seaweed — three large buckets/bins full — that should rot nicely over the next few months before being worked into our garden beds. That was followed by lunch and the recording of two episodes of our podcast (to be posted the next two Tuesdays) — just in case next weekend is too busy with FreelanceCamp!
Oh, and because I’m sure you care, now that I have finally finished Talk Talk, I have moved on to a book that has long been on my to read list: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
That book was all the rage around here a while back. I remember Star and all of her friends reading it. I think Glenn did too. It was on my radar but I never started it. It is probably near the bottom of the bedside pile(s). I believe Star said it was a hard read but worth it. Let me know what you think.