Quest for the Magic Wifi Stick

            As happens every year when I return to drinking coffee after a month off, I had trouble getting to sleep after midnight on Thursday. I started dozing off for brief periods from 3:00 on but I was wide awake at 4:00 and got up at 4:45.

            I memorized another eight lines of “Le bras méchanique” by Serge Gainsbourg and now I have twenty more to go.

            Around noon I rode out to Spadina and College to find the Virgin Mobile store that Google maps said was there, but it wasn’t. I went all the way to University and looked even harder on the way back but there was no Virgin store that I could see.

            I stopped at Freshco on the way home where there was a line-up outside for the first time. It didn’t take long to get inside where I bought six bags of grapes, onions, ginger, old cheddar, two cartons of soymilk, a box of spoon size shredded wheat, Bavarian sandwich bread, frozen peas and frozen lima beans.

            For lunch I had a salad with soy sauce, olive oil and seasoned salt.

            I looked at the Virgin Mobile website and found out that there is only one store left in Toronto right now. They are now offering their services through selected Bell stores. I called the one at Spadina and Queen and found out that the home internet plan that Virgin is offering is not prepaid after all and that they require a credit check.

            At 15:00 I took a siesta and when I got up I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to track down an internet service provider that offers prepaid plans. I couldn’t seem to find any. They are all over the United States. The reason I have been with Freedom Mobile for so long is that they offer an affordable prepaid phone plan. It seems to me that it would be a simple thing for them to offer a similar home internet plan by selling me a usb internet stick for which I could prepay my wifi every month.

            With eleven days before my exam, all this searching for a way to get wifi so I can write it at home has been eating into my study time.

            I weighed 87.6 kilos after a bowel movement in the afternoon. That’s less than I weighed throughout my whole two week fast.

            I used my last three avocadoes to make guacamole and had it with plantain chips while watching two episodes of Noggin the Nog. The first one was the final part of Noggin and the Ice Dragon. Noggin, Thor and Ronf enter the dragon’s cave to stop Nogbad from stealing the dragon’s treasure but he has already escaped. They discover that there is a lower passageway leading out of the cave at the other side of the mountain where Noggin left his dogsled and the dogs. They see that Nogbad has stolen the sled and is making his way towards Lapland. But Grolliffe the ice dragon flies after him and freezes him with his breath. The treasure is retrieved and Grolliffe is so grateful that he gives Noggin a magic gong for summoning dragons if he ever needs help.

            The second story is part one of “Noggin and the Flying Machine”. Graculas and Olaf have invented a way to turn a boat into a flying machine. On the mast are wings instead of a sail and they are operated by a clockwork machine at the middle of the ship. While they are on board looking at the system they see a large urn floating in the water. They lift it out and take it to the armoury. Later Thor and Olaf are both suspicious of the urn and go to the armoury where they hear voices inside. One voice is of someone inside the urn trying to break out and other is the urn itself asking him not to do that. But the urn is broken and a little man in a turban emerges. He makes his way upstairs to Noggin's throne room and Thor and Olaf follow. The little man is very interested in the crown jewels in a glass case near the throne. He sees Thor's horned helmet sticking up from where he is hiding behind a piece of furniture and he tells him to come out. Noggin arrives and welcomes the stranger. The man tells Noggin that he comes from a kingdom in the south and that he has brought a gift. He unrolls a beautiful carpet on the floor and Noggin finds it beautiful. The little man sits on the carpet and asks if he can examine Noggin’s crown. The ever-trusting Noggin sees no harm in this and tells Thor to open the case and hand the man his crown. The little man then tells them that his master in Arabia has a friend from the north who claims to be the true owner of the crown. I assume that this would be Nogbad the Bad. Realizing that the man plans to steal the crown, Noggin and Thor draw their swords but the man freezes them with a magic spell. Then the carpet lifts him off the floor and flies out the window. When Noggin and Thor are able to move again they and Graculas make ready their flying boat to go after the crown.