G20 Experience

In the last few months and more recently in the past weeks the rumblings of the G20 started and then became quite the topic of conversation at work. Our office hadn't really made any plans for closing until recently. So we managed to get a paid day off on Friday. All of last week we were able to dress in casual cloths and were told to take our laptops home each day in case of anything. Other than the obvious police presence and the quiet streets it was business as usual, and kind of boring. I didn't know what all the fuss was about and was convinced that nothing would happen. Wednesday we had a bit of excitement with seeing helicopters and the Earthquake but Thursday was a ghost town. I went to get something to eat for lunch and many of the stores were closed. There were less people than Christmas.
Friday Raju took the day off and we decided to take advantage of the sunny weather and a free vacation day and headed east to Prince Edward County. Raju often talks of the sand dunes at Sandbanks provincial park. We left home shortly after 8:00a.m. and arrived at our destination just before 11:00a.m. (this includes a stop for breakfast at McDonald's). We spent a few hours lounging on the beach and after 1:00 decided to head out to find something for lunch. We ended up in Picton and had a sandwich and salad. We stopped at Camilla's for dinner and then headed home. It was a great relaxing day. Back in the city Raju's friend Ron is in town covering the G20 so he stopped in for a visit. He had seen the 'fake lake' and was not impressed.
Saturday was a rainy day and so my head responded with a steady throbbing. Checked the news briefly but there wasn't much going on. Raju had to play video games and I had laundry and work to do. As the afternoon began we checked the news again, but still fairly quiet. And then around 2:00ish is when everything began. I saw Mel's Facebook status about being locked down and some pictures posted from others who live right in the downtown core. Then it was like a train wreck I couldn't stop watching the news, even though it was a loop of the same thing. I have to admit, part of me wanted them to make it to King and University/King and Wellington to do some damage so we could have Monday off work too (I have so much that I could do with another day at home to complete some of it, but I'm NOT condoning the violence at all).
Raju went out in the evening to meet some friends after they had finished their work. He rode through the city to King West. He had to make a detour but then he said it was fairly quiet and the damage was contained to a pretty small area.
This morning we went out for brunch at Marmalade. On our way over we saw CBC Trucks at Jimmie Simpson Park. I wasn't sure why, but as it turns out by the time we finished breakfast there were cops lined up on the other side of the park, a ton of other media and some protestors. It seems there was going to be a peaceful protest to the detention centre in support of those who had been arrested.
It looked like there were more media than protestors. Back at home, I continued to do some laundry and Raju had the soccer game on. It didn't seem like there would be anything to look at with protests until later this afternoon. Raju has gone upstairs to continue with some games so I thought I would do a check in on the protests. Apparently the one this morning got a bit out of control. Of course it is hard to determine what the real story is. Some people say they were peacefully protesting and the police just started firing rubber bullets and smoke bombs. The police say the are responding in an appropriate manner to what is happening.
It's kind of surreal watching all of this on TV and thinking that this is all going on not too far from where we live.
I guess we'll see what happens as the day goes on.
Stay safe everyone! This will all be over soon.