A Bright Sunny Day

It’s a bright sunny day and temperatures are at minus sixteen. Real feel index is well below minus twenty. When you step out, it feels like a really nice weather for a first few minutes. It almost feels unreal. Then, cold starts to bite in. Icy, crisp air begins to gnaw on your lungs. Stay longer outside, without proper protection and serious damage might occur due to frostbite. However, I must admit that overall exposure to cold weather here in Toronto is less than that of the winters in Attock or Islamabad. This may seem paradoxical but temperature control in buildings and transport makes this little magic possible. What started with the mastery of fire in human evolution and progress has certainly come a long way since. Human ingenuity is always pushing the boundaries to new levels. And there will be other wonders in the times to come. Weather manipulation on a global scale and then terraforming of other planets might follow in the coming centuries. Future looks bright.

Niagara

Horseshoe portion of the falls 

Niagara falls are not the highest or the widest in the world, but these are the most accessible from Toronto and are utterly breathtaking. The thunder of the falls is so alluring that these have to be visited time and again.

American Falls and the Rainbow bridge

Skylon Tower

Before the Canadian portion of falls, there is the old majestic building of Toronto Power Generating Station. This power station was built by the investor and visionary Sir Henry Pellatt (of Casa Loma) in 1906. It was later appropriated by the Government, on the grounds that electricity should be free to all like air and water. That never happened but it caused a major dent to Sir Henry business empire.

Entrance to the Power Station building

It was a cold, cloudy and windy day. The real feel index was around minus ten. After spending an hour in the open, my fingers started to hurt from the cold and I was experiencing some difficulty in speaking. Then the sun came out behind the clouds and there was a mist rainbow hanging over the falls. It was worth it.