Oot and Aboot in Canadia (part I)

There's still lots I haven't told you about, so these are going to be a brief selection of some of the other things I've been up to here, starting with my weekend cottaging.

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My first weekend, after having only been here two days, was spent at some guy, called Asmatali, from RBC's cottage in Muskoka (which is about a 2-3 hour drive away). I'd never even talked to the guy before but he was very friendly. On the way we stopped off at what was allegedly the most famous and popular burger place on the way. Admittedly it was very busy (possibly because it was in a good place to stop on the main road) but I thought the burger was decidely average (albert also agreed), but you know, it did, and even though we got there about 11 the queues were getting bigger.

The cottage was situated on a lake (Asmatali had built it himself over a large number of years) which, combined with the gorgeous weather, meant it was going to be a good weekend.









Being on the lake meant that Asmatali owned his own pedal boat and canoe, of which we tried both. The pedal boat was ludicrously slow, whilst we couldn't quite get the hang of the canoe and kept going round in circles, but you know, we can handle these things.




Now, apparently, when you are out on the lake you are supposed to have some standard safetly equipment, a lifejacket, a rope (45ft minimum), a whistle and flares. Also, you aren't supposed to use them under the influence of alcohol. When we went out on the peddleboat, we can't have got more than 100 yards away from the platform where we left from, when we were pulled over by the police in a speedboat (which was the last thing I expected). They pulled up beside us (thankfully not asking us to step out of the vehicle) saying they were spot checking for safetly equipment. Now, we had our lifejackets on, but no rope, whistle or flares. Asmatali had seen them as well, and was a bit worried, as being the owner of the craft meant he was liable to a $120 fine per missing equipment. Luckily they worked out we weren't Canadian (not sure how) and let us off with a warning. Probably a good job they hadn't seen us necking beers all day.

That evening we had curry for dinner. Asmatali had aksed his wife to make it the least amount of spicy she could, which, as you've probably already guessed, was still too spicy for me. Luckily I had had plenty of beers to dull the taste a bit.

Day two was spent most of the same, sitting in the sun, drinking beer, cooking on a barbeque and generally chilling out. It was great. What I hadn't thought about was the fact that I was slowly burning in the sun, and I had ludicrous sun burnt and peeling skin for days after that. My pass to get into the building here has a picture of me sunburnt on it. We didn't have burgers on the way home. The ones I'd cooked on the bbq were miles better.

By the pool

C'est What is Andre's favourite pool place here in Toronto, even though there are others within walking distance, such as Rivoli (which I prefer as the pool tables are more of a challenge, and sometimes they play british music), he does always prefer to go to there.... I think it's mainly for the range of drinks they provide but who knows....

Doesn't matter, here's some pictures of us enjoying it there...




We are playing English rules here, although I have had a few (drunken) games against some Canadian guys. One time I could just about make out the balls, let alone get the rules. I don't think there are many differences.....the big ones I've noticed is that you have to call every shot (although normally only if it isn't obvious), you only ever have one shot and any foul whilst on the black means you lose the game....Anyway, I've won 3 and lost 3 in these games so I must be doing something alright and local knowledge doesn't rule....

Beer Fest - woohoo

Now seems as good a time as any to tell you about the Beer Festival I went to a couple of weeks ago.

Now Chris and I had been up drinking until about 4 o'clock the previous day, so when we woke up (at about 2:30 for me) we weren't exactly in a beer drinking mood, but, having nothing else to do, we thought we would wander down anyway, maybe just stay for an hour or two and generally take it easy.

The first thing that struck me that this was going to be slightly different to the beer festivals back in England was that it was outside, and not in some big hall. Allied to the fact that it was a gorgeous day this meant I was a bit worried I might get suburnt (I probably only didn't because we got therelate afternoon). It cost $25 to get in (which I thought was a tad steep) and we got 5 beer tokens for that (all the beer was purchased with tokens).

The second and third big differences I noticed were that, rather than there being lots of older guys with beards and clipboards, the clientel was rather more young and pretty. Also, there was a stage with bands playing constantly throughout the day. This made it feel more like I was at a music festival, which was great.

After our initial hesitancy about coming, we soon got stuck in, sampling beer from Canada, Germany, Brazil and Scotland amongst other places, some of it nice, some of not so. I also had some Mead for the first time. Here I am next to the Kokanee picture



But this festival was not only about beer, there was a human table football set up in the Carlsberg tent (which we never played as we were busy elsewhere), and also an exhibition from the Toronto Argonauts. So, being the sporty type I was, I had a go and throwing and receiving. Throwing I was rubbish at as I couldn't get the spiral and the ball was spinning all over the place (even with the coaching), catching I was pretty good at though.




Apart from the sports, there was also a couple of poker tents in which the games were free to enter, so of course we played a couple of times. The first time the game was over pretty quick as there was a guy who was betting very aggresively and was also very lucky. The second time was much better though. I had trouble starting though and I got down to just 1 chip. This meant if I was to have any chance then I would have to get some good hands and keep doubling up, which I did. There were then three of us left, with Chris and some other guy making up the numbers. The bets were getting higher and so at one point, I was against Chris in a head to head to see who would stay in. We were playing texas hold-em, and when the 'flop' came I was in trouble. I could see that I needed a 4 or an 8 to win, and told everybody so. The 4th card didn't help, but the 5th came out a 4 and I was still in by the skin of my teeth. So it was just me against this guy, who was still ahead of me on chips, and we had a bit of a battle until it came to the last hand. Now I was in an even more precarious position this time, when only a 9 on the 5th card could have given me the win, so again I made everyone aware that was what I needed, and lo and behold, a 9 duly arrived, I was the champion, won a free CD and all was right in the world. It reminded me of Maverick, which, incidentally, was the film that Tina and I saw on our first date.

So we were having a good time, but then the announcement came that the bars would be shutting soon, which I thought was an nour early as it was supposed to be going on until 8 and it was before 7, but what did I know. As we were waiting to leave, we started chatting to some random guys and found they were actually living in Woodford as they had just finished uni at Queen Mary's. They had also just met a couple of guys and were going for more beer and invited us to join.

Now we were supposed to be meeting the other guys to go watch some comedy at Yuk Yuks at 8:30. Seeing as it was only 7:30 then I thought we could fit a quick drink in so we agreed. As we were leaving though, we saw some guy lying in the cycle lane of the road. Obviously we thought he was just drunk, but we thought we should check him out anyway. It turned out he had fallen and smashed his head on the ground and was covered in blood. One of the guys (from Birmingham I think) took it upon himself to try to stem the bleeding and help the guy until an ambulance arrived. I was surprised that everybody else had just left him there. The police and ambulance arrived within 15-20 minutes and we had to explain what had happened. By this point it was about 8 and I figured we would make the meeting so I tried calling Albert and Lindsay but neither were answering their phones, so I texted them both to let them know we weren't coming (which neither of them got until the next day).

Obviously the guy from Birmingham was covered in blood now so we had to wander to find some toilets so he could clean himself up, and it was getting pretty dark by now and we briefly lost two of the guys (only briefly). We went to a pub and ordered some beers, and then one guy asked if the kitchens were still open, but apparently they closed at 10. This surprised me a tad as I thought it was only about 8:30, but it seems my watch had lost about an hour and a half during the day, so the point I was phoning the others was after 9, and it is probably no wonder they didn't answer as they would have been mid comedy.

We were drinking beers, I got told off by a waitress from Nottingham for not tipping her, we then got a hotdog. The stand nearest the pub was $2.50, however, we were hanging around with students, so we actually went to the $1 stand. It was not nice, but at midnight when I had hardly eaten anything else it had to do. We then went to the Horseshoe tavern, and I played some pool against some guys. I won one game, and I don't know how because I could just about see the table, let alone the balls, and also some of the rules were a tad confusing.

It was all over at about 2 (which for a Sunday night probably wasn't the best idea) but a very enjoyable day seeing as I wasn't planning on going at the start.

Flights of fancy

OK, So I'm back in Canada after what seems, ooh, at least a week, maybe even 8 days....it's all the same, I'm in Lindsay's old room, directly underneath the one I had before....it's all tidy at the moment though so maybe I'll keep it that way, seeing as

a) I have less stuff and
b) I'm not here so long

Anyway, I thought I'd take this opportunity to talk about my flights to and from here so far (not that there's much to talk about)

So, coming here first time was OK, checked in OK, went through security OK, got here OK but then had to talk to about 3 or 4 different people about why I was here, who I was working for, why I was going to be here so long, where I was staying, where I was working etc. etc. After this I was waiting by the carousel for my luggage to come off when I saw what I thought was my bag, but actually some guy had the same one, in fact he had two, and both of his came off first and then he left. I was so hoping he hadn't taken the wrong bag and I would have ended up with his wife's or something. Now I'm sure I would have looked good in a skirt and high heels (I reckon I did before) but it's not really the look I was going for at my first day here. So I was very happy when a third bag came down and it was mine.

I do actually always get a bit panicky at baggage reclaim, thinking about what I would do if my luggage didn't come down, which was accentuated in Mexico when our luggage didn't come down, for a very long time, when no other luggage had appeared for at least 5 minutes, maybe even 10. We had heard a few horror stories about there so we thought our stuff had been stolen, or lost in Madrid at the changeover, but luckliy it was just on another trolley cart that had been out joyriding or something. On the flip side though, we have been places where our luggage has been first out so I guess it's the luck of the draw.

My flight home last week, however, was a little different (being 5 days or so after the arrests in London). Check in was a little bit exaggerated as I'm guessing people kept asking the same questions, you know, what can I take on, why can't I take this huge bag as hand luggage etc. Luckily I was prepared to check both my bags so that was OK. Not much to do in Toronto departure lounge (although luckily I had my laptop with Football Manager installed). On the plane though, I had a great seat at the front of a row, so I had lots of leg room (because I need it) and also didn't have to worry about the seat in front of me leaning back during dinner, or if I wanted to play with my laptop. However, the service left a bit to be desired, as they kind of forgot to serve me dinner, until after everybody had been served and I had to flag an attendant down. And then when I got the food I didn't have any cutlery (a couple of guys had some spare spoons but I politely declined) so I had to wait a bit longer until I got some. In the meantime they had been to clear everybody else's trays. Then, about half hour before we were due to land, I got covered in water from above. I'm guessing it was condensation or from the air con, but I can tell you I certainly wasn't expecting it. In Heathrow it was OK, although I think the facilities in Toronto are a bit nicer (but then again Heathrow was better than Mexico so, you know).

So coming back today, check in wasn't too bad, getting through security was the harder part. It took about half an hour and I had to take off my trainers as well which was a bit weird, but at least I didn't set the buzzer off this time like I had the first time because I forgot to put my phone in the tray. Flight was OK this time (front row seats again), no major mishaps, and immigration I went straight through without having to deal with the same question again and again. into my taxi, into the hotel and here I am....

I still have to update you all with pictures and descriptions of things that happened during my last trip. I'll get on that as soon as I can. I might have less pictures this time as the charger for the battery is still in England, oh well...

It's just not cricket

Well that ends possibly my most interesting day at cricket, but for all the wrong reasons.

For those that don't know, this afternoon, the umpires thought that the ball was misbehaving and so asked to have a look at it. They decided that it had been artificially tampered with, penalised the Pakistan team 5 runs, changed the ball and continued until an early tea break was forced by bad light. However, after tea, once the umpires had come out, and the English batsmen were ready to come out, there was no sign of the Pakistan team. The umpires then returned inside, as some of the Pakistan team emerged briefly. A few minutes later, the umpires came back onto the pitch, followed by the English batsmen, but still no Pakistan team.



Having waited for the requisite two minutes, the umpires removed the bails and departed. Then, a flurry of activity around the Pakistan dressing room with various suited men going in and out meant that, about 20 minutes later, the Pakistan team finally emerged onto the pitch to a round of boos.

This wasn't the end of it though, as now the umpires were refusing to come out onto the pitch, having ruled that they had given the Pakistan team enough opportunities to continue with the game, and by not doing so they had forfeited the game, and so the Pakistani team returned to their dressing room.

All through this, the only way I could tell what was going on was by listening to the Radio or TV, and they didn't really have that much more information. The information and explanations from the Oval staff was awful to be honest.

So anyway, it appears that the Pakistani stance was that they wanted to register a protest at being called cheats (when they adamantly believed they had done nothing wrong) by delaying the start of the final session for a few minutes. This all seems to have been miscommunicated and mishandled leading to this situation. I personally think their stance is entirely justified if they truly do feel wronged (Although maybe there were better ways to handle the situation). One time I was running the line for the Sunday league football team I ran when the referee refused to acknowledge my flag and accused me of cheating which I would never do, even to the annoyance of my own team. Anyway, I wasn't going to have any of that so I walked over to him, threw his flag at him and walked off (I guess I'm lucky I didn't get reported, but there was no way I was continuing in that situation).

Anyway, this was an exciting end to four varied days at the cricket, with rain intervals, batting collapses, long wicketless periods, more rain delays, Pietersen crashing the ball to all corners and much more.

I do think the best bit might have been the packed lunches we got from Tina every day though, all nicely labelled in case there was any confusion as to what was included: -




Also we met footballer Dion Dublin, who was sat a couple of rows behind us on Friday. In the brief chat we had, I found out that he will be playing for a team this season, just not decided who yet. Also, the Celtic fans were mental, but the Man U fans often subdued, and playing in an Old Firm derby was incredible and he was surprised he didn't get sent off. Top bloke, spent time chatting to everybody who recognised him.

I HATE SHAVING!

That was the best thing about the long weekend we had last week, not having to shave, as obviously I'm doing a bit more here as I have to look my smartest for our customers.....a few people back home have been a bit surprised when they've seen pictures of me wearing a tie and clean shaven....see, I can scrub up a bit better when I try

Parklife

So on Monday (I think) we (Albert, Lindsay, Chris and me) nipped over on the ferry to Centre Island (which is like a big park). Caribana was still going on (very loudly) on one of the other islands but we decided that we'd had our fill and we just wanted to relax. I didn't really know what we were going to do, as with most of my life, I had a girl organising me.

Anwway, it seems the plan was to go canoeing in the morning. I'm obviously an expert now as I have been twice. This one was a bit more interesting as there were more things in the lake, we could row almost into the main lake, and also there were more other people.


I had Chris in my canoe and Lindsay took Albert. In a change from before, I was steering whereas Albert had steered in our previous attempt. I actually preferred steering as I think I was putting too much effort in before which meant we went round in circles a lot. So we canoed around for 2 hours,under bridges, around boats and trees (although one time we got beached, we managed to get ourselves out). It went really quickly as well, the only problem was that I noticed I had a horrible blister on my thumb (which is still there): -



We also had a good view of Toronto: -



After canoeing we had lunch. I thought I would try poutine, which I was led to believe was very nice (basically chips, cheese and gravy I think). However, this one was not very nice at all. The gravy was thick, the cheese curds were not nice and the chips weren't great either. I ate a lot of it because I was hungry but I don't think I will have it again.


After lunch we hired some bikes and rode around the island for about an hour and a half. The island is allegedly 6km long, so seeing as we went from one end to the other and back, that suggests we cycled about 12k (shocking). There is a clothing optional beach on the island but we didn't go there, although we did see some oldish guy, not fully naked, but wearing a thong which sat low on his front as well so he had a lot of ginger hair showing....not pleasant. The bikes were weird as they didn't have brakes, you had to back peddle to stop, and also they had no bell to warn pedestrians, of which there were many. I got used to it but it was weird.

So three and a half hours of exercise later (which is an awful lot for me) we decided to call it a day. Albert suggested frisbee, but I was far too tired for that (in fact, my muscles ached for days after that). We did stop on the grass for a bit before we went home though, which was nice. The weather was pretty perfect for the day we had, sunny, bit of wind, not too hot...and no sunburn for me, woohoo

A taste of the Caribbean

I haven't posted on here for over a week now and have been nagged several times by Tina for updates so here you go....

Last Saturday I got up sooooo early to go to Caribana. We left the hotel at about 8:30 as Lindsay had been informed that we needed to be there about 9 to get the best spots (duff information if you ask me). So, we hopped on a streetcar




and got to where it was all happening, well, I say that, except nothing was really happening...maybe a few floats, a few people dressed up but not much else. We did finally work out we were in the right place, but I suppose I should have guessed that a Caribbean festival was never going to start on time.

Anyway, we wandered around the road where the parade was supposed to go for about an hour but we couldn't find a good spot to park ourselves, so eventually we paid the $21 to get into the grandstand, which, it turns out, was well worth the money as, later on, we were able to take pictures from really close up, and also watch the guys and girls shake their booty for the judges. This whole parade was actually 12 'bands' up against each other to see who wins, so the judging part they actually put a lot more effort into.

Here are a selection of pictures I took: -










My experience of parades led me to believe this would be over within a couple of hours, but no way. We eventually left about 5 o'clock and it was all still going strong. A lot of the music that was played for each band (Note each set had their own DJs/Bands/Singers accompanying them) was the same, but I really liked it and was doing an awful lot of dancing (ask Lindsay or Albert). My favourite of the songs I heard was this one - Band of D' Year, although I don't think this was the same version they were playing, it was really catchy.....

Lots of people come to Toronto for this festival, from places in America such as New York and Detroit, and also from the Caribbean and further afield. During the day it was all good, but I did notice at night the atmosphere changed and there was an awful lot of attitude around. There were loads more police on patrol (I believe some people were shot here last year) which is strange for here as there doesn't look like there is ever any danger of any trouble happening. We had booming base speakers pumping from cars, parties all night, lots of bling and plenty of bowls, just like being back in some parts of London really. Tom (obviously led a sheltered life) was amazed at how stereotypical some of the guys looked (he called it the Puff Daddy look, I suggested maybe he keeps his thoughts to himself until we were a safe distance)

It was a very good day though, and I'll try to catch up on the rest of the week soon....

Fat fighters

I've definitely put on weight since I've been here. I washed my jeans theother day, and when I put them on they were a tad tight. This means that I've either shrunk them in the wash (entirely possible seeing as my home skills are pretty poor to say the least) or I've added a few extra pounds. Either way, there's only one solution and that's to shed some.

I hate the gym, I've only been to the hotel swimming pool once and it bored me, but Chris is here for his stint now, so we have a solution, frisbee....

Allegedly they used to play a lot before I came but not once since I got here, but maybe now we can run around like idiots in the heat and I'll get myself fitter again.





I was beginning to worry as even when I have a week or two off football I feel terrible when I start up, so four weeks was going to make it very difficult to get back in the swing.....hopefully this will help...

Blue Jays

Toronto Blue Jays are now my baseball team (I know, after only one game, I sure do put out easy)......

Anyway, to show my commitment I even bought a cap: -



I guess this now means I have to check on their results like, every day (at least I think that's how often they play, feels like it since I've been here), maybe I can find some forum somewhere to join....

Pants...

I really can't be trusted to look after myself.....

I've just noticed that my boxer shorts are both back to front and inside out....

ooops

Small world? I'll Say!!!

Let me caveat this post by stating for the record that I am absolutely rubbish at remembering names and faces of people that I have met. In fact, when I was younger we used to go clubbing every Friday at the same place, and almost every week for about 6 months one of my friends brought his cousin along...

Anyway, we stopped going for a while, and then a few months later we went back and this guy was him, and I had no idea of who he was or what his name was until he told me, which he found a bit strange (as I guess you would)....

Anyway, I've been at a Toronto Blue Jays Baseball match against Chicago White Sox tonight (Chicago won 6-4), and a very strange thing has happened. Sat immediately behind me are two people that I recognised (which seeing as I've only been here two weeks is strange in itself).....But what is weirder is where I remember them from, which was.....

My honeymoon, two years ago, in Sri Lanka. They were also on their honeymoon from Nottingham and we met and chatted for a couple of hours and that was it.....unsurprisingly they didn't recognise me, but obviously something they did has stuck in my mind.....

I'm not a mathematician, but the odds of meeting (and remembering) the same people in two completely different parts of the world must be staggering......

very, very small world this is you know

it's just a knife!!

good god.....

I've just spent another day here, in Toronto, and Andre, one of my colleagues here with me is going camping at weekend. He therefore proceded to spend the whole day talking about tents, cars (for transport), fires, guns, canoes and most of all knives.....

large, small, steel, stainless steel, Finnish, Canadian, South African, 4 inches, 6 inches, 8 inches, machetes, wood carving knives, animal skinning knives...... honestly, I don't give a fuck about knives, and the only time I'm ever likely to use one is in conjunction with a fork at the dinner table