London calling

To London, Ontario (pop. 350,000) for two nights at Easter. Take the VIA Rail train on Saturday afternoon from Toronto via Oakville and Brantford. A pleasant ride in the sunshine in an old-style stainless-steel rail car - an experience not dissimilar to UK inter-city. This is a good time to travel as most of the week-end travellers have already reached their destination. The snow has nearly all gone too but lingers still in shady spots.
The train travels slowly past Bayview with southerly views across the water to the city of Hamilton. We swing away westward leaving Lake Ontario behind, past Dundas spread out below us, and we pull into the magnificently-restored Brantford station. It was in this town that Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.
In a little over two hours we reach London and its new VIA Rail Station. We ask for directions to our hotel - the Comfort Hotel on Dundas Street - and a lady assures us it is too far to walk. We set off anyway and are there in a few minutes. The hotel has few guests at Easter and hence is very quiet - at $75 per night including breakfast it is a bargain.
After checking-in we retrace our steps to the Greyhound Station to check for a bus to St Thomas on Sunday - we draw a blank as the next bus is on Tuesday. We are panhandled by three young n'er-do-wells outside the bus station so we beat a hasty retreat.
After a wander round the centre - mostly closed for the holiday week-end - we stop off at Mexicali Rosa's restaurant on Dundas Street. Pleasant casual dining - we enjoyed it and so returned the next night.
The following morning we are determined to visit St Thomas and Port Stanley to look for a railway museum and ride on the Port Stanley Terminal railroad. A quick call to Thrifty Car Rental and we are on our way in a Kia Rio, a compact car with so many blemishes on the bodywork that the condition report is peppered with spots.
On arrival in St Thomas we stop at tourist information which is housed in an old caboose - being a holiday it is closed. Next to it is a giant statue of Jumbo, the elephant. A plaque says "On September 15 1885, Jumbo the giant African Elephant, star of the Barnum and Bailey Circus, met an untimely death when struck in St Thomas by a Grand Trunk Locomotive."
We drive on and spot the old Canada Southern Railway Station. This large two-story, brick station was built between 1871 and 1873. The style is Italianate and the buiding is some 350ft long. The station has lost its chimneys and the canopy for the passengers but the old girl is remarkably intact. This is a Canadian national treasure crying out for restoration.
Nearby we spot the Elgin County Railroad Museum, across the railyards, which is also closed and looks neglected with many broken windows.
We head south to Port Stanley on Lake Erie and purchase our tickets at the railroad station for the 13:30 departure - we have time for cod and chips at the "The Bridge Dining Lounge." We join the Easter Bunny Express which takes us across Kettle Creek and out to an old flag stop in the sticks close to the road to St Thomas. This stretch of track was an early electrified railway but is now diesel-hauled. The railway can apparently connect with St Thomas and the railroad museum in due course, following further negotiations. St Thomas could use every visitor that they can get having many empty storefronts in the town centre.
Back to London we search for a shop specialising in British goods but as far as we can tell it is no more - we do see the old C.P.R. London station which was closed in 1989 and is now "The Keg" steakhouse and bar. We also ride down by the Thames river.
Next morning we are killing time in London waiting for the train and go in search of coffee - we look in the city-centre shopping mall, which is in dire straits with some two-thirds of the shops empty and the rest are 'dollar stores' and other C-list emporia. Eventually we find a Tim Horton's and head back to the station. The train is crowded and nineteen minutes late departing turns into half-an-hour late arriving at Toronto Union Station. We take the streetcar home.
London may not be the most obvious choice for a week-end away but we made the best of it.

Suzuki gets smart

The Suzuki Twin was launched in Japan in January and now there are hopes that this low-cost city car will be launched in Britain next year. It could become the United Kingdom's cheapest new car at £4,000 - greatly undercutting the Smart car which it resembles in concept.
The basic version of the Suzuki Twin will go 75 miles on a gallon of gas with a top speed of 78 miles per hour. The car is powered by a three-cylinder 660cc twin-cam gasoline engine featuring four valves-per-cylinder and developing 44bhp.
Suzuki also plans to offer a more expensive hybrid petrol-electric version which will return 100 miles per gallon - on a par with the Smart diesel. Like the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius, the Twin's engine shuts down whenever the car stops but automatically starts when the throttle is pressed. This not only improves fuel economy but reduces pollution. The model also features regenerative braking, recharging the batteries as the car slows.
The car is being evaluated for the UK and Australian markets (with the wheel on the right) - no word on availability elsewhere in Europe or in the USA and Canada.

George Jones shows up

To the Massey Hall in Toronto to see George Jones. Known in the business as "No Show" Jones, we take the precaution of phoning the venue to check that he is in fact there. The tour bus out in snowy Victoria Street has "No-Show" written on the front in recognition of his former alcohol-fuelled lifestyle.
The first performance at the hall took place in 1894 and this triple-deck Victorian theatre is a fitting venue for one of the great survivors of country music. His powers may be ebbing but Jones has a few more bullets left in the gun.
We're sat right next to a coach party from Alliston, Ontario who fittingly have been enjoying a few beers on the bus. They complain that the gig is cutting into their drinking time.
The show is opened by the comic Cowboy Bill Martin from Texas - "We just played a gig in Oklahoma City. I'm not saying they're stupid in Oklahoma but let's just say, as a comedian, I came back with a lot more material than I went with."
Now the Jones band is warming up the audience - a seven piece "proper" country band with fiddle and pedal-steel guitar. They are joined by the husband-and-wife singing team of Barry Smith and Sherri Copeland. The band plays Alan Jackson's "Don't rock the jukebox, I wanna hear George Jones..." and you know that the old possum can't be far away.
Suddenly George is here and he receives a standing ovation. He opens with the recent "High Tech Redneck" - it is an unsteady start with the sound and the back projector playing up but George is unfazed.
After "The Race is on" George complains that country radio won't play drinkin' and cheatin' songs anymore - "Hell I'd be out of a job. They're not fallin' off barstool songs, they're sippin' tunes."
He sums up his remarkable life with "Alcohol is OK if you can handle it - I couldn't."
Band member Jim Buchanan is summoned periodically to play hot fiddle, urged on by George while he sips on a mineral water. When he stumbles he counters with "We've been on the road since '56."
Jones pays homage to Roger Miller with "You oughta be here with me" and follows with "Whose gonna fill their shoes" a powerful tribute to the old-time artists whose images flash up on the screen - Elvis, Hank Williams, Tammy Wynette and all the rest. The man who was allegedly trashing hotel rooms when The Who were still in short trousers has outlasted them all. The most remarkable thing about Jones is that he is still here.
"You won't see any smoke in this show, I'm not gonna swing on a rope or run about the stage."
By the time George reaches his signature song "He stopped loving her today" the group from Alliston are getting restless. It is ironic that this mawkish song, that Jones originally thought a dud, brought him his biggest success.
After plugging his new gospel album he closes the show after a full two hours with "I don't need no rockin' chair." There are no encores.
He's corny, he's lowbrow, he's raucous, he's flawed. Yet somehow George Jones is magnificent.

Smart to debut in Mexico

The Smart City Coupe will be available in Mexico from May according to manufacturer Mercedes-Benz. There is still no official word on a launch in the USA and Canada but an announcement is expected at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September. The two-seat car has had favourable market research in North America and M-B hope it will find a niche in the big cities on the east and west coasts.

Barrichello takes pole in Brazil

Rubens Barrichello of Brazil took the pole position in his Ferrari for the Brazilian Grand Prix to be held on Sunday. Second was David Coulthard in his McLaren-Mercedes.
The sensation of qualifying was Australian Mark Webber in the Jaguar-Cosworth who finished in third place. Webber said "We've had a really good week-end. This is a nice reward for us. I'm really looking forward to it."