Winter Fun

Winter in Canada is supposed to be depressing. It is cold for 6 months of the year. The only way to get out of the winter blues is to constantly keep active during the evenings. Every region would host a winter wonderland to boost the spirit of its residence. So long as you are dressed for the occasion, the cool air is refreshing and welcoming.

I spent 2 nights in a cabin 2hrs north of Toronto. It was an organized trip as part of the Toronto outdoor club. The cabin was rustic with no running water; obviously no showers with an outhouse with no doors. It was my first time cross country skiing and although I picked it up fairly quickly, I was ill prepared for the 10km 4hr route; my legs and arms were in pain. After a break for food, vodka and beers, out we went again for some tubing. The powder was so fresh that each step would bring you at least knee deep in snow.
The next day, we skied another 3km, unsuccessfully went caving since none of us brought flashlights and drove back into Toronto, followed by a nice hot shower and comfort food.

Work has still been extremely busy so the boss tried to bribe us with centre court front row seat tickets to the NBA. I took the offer because I don't think I can ever justify 240CAD if I were to buy it for myself and the fact that the raptors are having a horrible season.

I have also experienced my first public transport breakdown. When in london, tube delays are expected but when the subway in Toronto breaks down, they don't have enough buses to accommodate the people. I guess all their money was spent on snowplows, dump trucks and salt machines. The mood is dark, people are grumpy and aggressive; I on the other hand stand writing this blog with a stupid grin.

I've also been trying to go snowboarding every weekend to improve my elite skills but I walk away from every session with some kind of injury; whether it be sprained wrists, pulled groin or sore chest. The half pipe was the winner, I caught an edge and smashed myself on the hard ice. No gym for 2 more weeks.

To add to the failure list, I met a girl at a Vietnamese restaurant. We will call her 'Pho Girl'. After communicating with Pho Girl for a bit, she picked me up from my place one Saturday at midnight and we went for a drink. The night ended with me trying to steal a kiss....DENIED!
The next day, we went for a movie then chatted away over a beer. Again, the night ended with me trying again for a kiss....DENIED! A week later, Pho Girl asked if I wanted to go night boarding and I kindly accepted. We boarded from 4pm till 9pm then went for a burger and a pint guinness. She dropped me off around midnight and I figured I'll try my luck one final time and.........you guessed it, DENIED!
I think I am in the friend zone. Persistence is the key so I may consider trying again in a few weeks.
Updated Toronto photos here

Sam

Outside Cabin - 11.5 MB
Inside Cabin - 9.6 MB
Pre Ski - 8.6 MB
Post Ski - 11.5 MB
Tobogganing - 4.8 MB
Caving - 7.7 MB

Arrival at the Cabin

First Night

Fresh Powder

Tobogganing

Drinks 1

Drinks 2

Drinks 3

Drinks 4

On to the caves

Wrong Step

Awesome seats








Damn stats people

Happy 2011!

It has been a month since the last update but a lot has been achieved. Eileen and Noel visited me for 2 weeks over Christmas and New Years. We hired a car and travelled 3500km in 10 days. We engaged in the following activities in each city.

Mont Tremblant - We snowboarded in east Canada's most famous mountain. It was snowing on Christmas day which made the day even more amazing. I however managed to fracture my ribs and till this day, it still hurts.
Quebec City - Another visit to this beautiful and unique city; it was freezing, about -17. That's enough to make anyone hate Canada. Whatever parts of your body that is not covered would freeze and fall off.
Montreal - Although I did live here, there was no way I was going to let them come to Toronto without visiting the most European city in Canada. Eileen kept egging me on to speak French but I kept refusing. So one morning, I decided to speak entirely in French, I walked into a cafe, greeted the waitress and asked for a table for 3. We sat down and she asked if we would like something to drink and gave us the menus, I order drinks and away she went. Eileen turns to me and says "you shouldn’t have spoken French because she gave us French menus". I then embarrassingly asked for English menus. So yeah, speaking French does not always pan out the way you want.
Toronto -We did a lot of tourist activities here; visited the 2nd highest commercial tower in the world, hockey hall of fame museum, the famous St Lawrence markets, celebrated New Years by city hall with about 30,000 people in the freezing cold.
Niagara Falls- Here we actually went behind the falls to see the millions of gallons of water rushing through. The thunderous sound gave you an idea of its strength. Imagine flushing your toilet.........now imagine 1 million toilets flushing at the same time.
Buffalo - We drove to Buffalo, New York to watch the Buffalo Sabres vs. the Boston Bruins. As a gift to Eileen and Noel, I opted for gold rink side seats. At a cost of 180USD per ticket, these are crazy prices for league NHL games and I think national games are cheaper.

Since the departure of Eileen and noel, I've been very busy with work and other activities with my Toronto crew. I watched an NBA game between the Raptors and Pistons, went rock climbing, had dinner parties, went snowboarding at Mt Saint Louis which is 1.5hrs from Toronto and I just got home from snowboarding in western New York. Next week, I will be attending yoga classes, going cross country skiing and spending 2 nights in a cabin with Mother Nature.
Niagara Falls Gallery Here

Till we meet again.

Sam

NHL Buffalo Sabres - 4.8 MB
Snowboard Fail - 3.8 MB
Niagara Falls - 9.5 MB

Noel on Christmas Day

-17 Quebec City

This is a Park

Famous Montreal Smoked Meat

Famous Montreal Poutine

Ready?

Done!

Baller Seats

Face Off

Stanley Cup

Behind the Falls

Its just water

POW!!

NBA

Boarding with Kayla

Snowy December

It is only December and already snowing. I always thought snow was beautiful but it is actually quite annoying. After walking down the street for 5 minutes, your coat would be covered in snow. If you do not shake off the snow before walking indoors, your coat will be soaked as it is always heated.
Next you have your jeans which obviously aren't waterproof but absorbs water like a sponge. Shoes; they need to be waterproof, full of grip and have protection against salt. Canadians love throwing salt on the pavement to a point when you don’t even know if its snow or salt. Salt will stain and damage your shoes. Also when the snow melts, you will be walking in slush and slipping all over the place. Hair; I like to be well presented and the use of wax is a waste of time because once snow melts, your hair is drenched.
The use of a beanie (or toque here) is required to keep your ears warm as the wind chill are numbing. Some also opt to wear ear muffs but only the ones that goes behind the head because they are the 'In' fashion.

Adapting to life here takes time getting used to because of all the differences:

1) Driving on the right hand side of the road - It will take time getting used to but the hardest part is crossing the roads. Instead of checking your right then your left for traffic, you have to first check your left then your right. There has been countless near misses; especially when trying to cross the road drunk.
2) Spelling – Words like organisation, capitalisation and civilisation are spelt with a z instead of an s. Those are the only words that I can think of right now but there are always time when you spend 5 minutes thinking “Do I spell it with a z or an s?" I don’t want to ask someone because they will think I’m retarded.
3) No level 13 – Every condo you visit in Toronto, you will not find a level 13; it’ll go from 12 to 14 because Canadians are very superstitious about that number.
4) 35 hours a week – Yes people, the work week is only 35 hours! That is on-par with the French. So if you are used to working 8-7, forget about it, try sticking to 8:59am-5:01pm and you see people rushing out of the office.

Eileen and Noel arrives from London tomorrow. They will be spending Christmas and New Years with me. We have hired a car and will be travelling out East to Snowboard in Mont Tremblant then Quebec City, Montreal and back to Toronto. Christmas will be spent on the slopes and we’ll probably have a party for New Years Eve. It’s going to be very busy for the next 6 day. The journey can be viewed here

So I also attended Cineplex’s Christmas work function and the night was great. Good food and all they did was gave away about 40 prizes randomly. The major prize was an LG 60inch LED TV! That would have been awesome to win! Such ballers!
My German and Canadian mate’s got around on Sunday to have our Pre-Christmas dinner. We roasted a chicken, drank beers, ate desserts, built a gingerbread train and watched a movie. Great fun.

Its late and I have just spent 4 hours cleaning up the place to prepare for Eileen’s arrival.

Entrance Camera Tom - 5.7 MB

Ciao
Sam

City Hall from the roof with mulled wine

Snap 1

Snap 2







Snap 3






Snnp 4

Snap 5

Nathan Phillips Square Ice Rink

Lucky Number 13

Meat

Gingerbread Train

FAIL

So good Meat

Meat Meat Meat








Success

Man I am Fat

Halloween and Ottawa

How is it possible for someone living on the other side of the world but yet have no time whatsoever? Well it goes something like this.
Midweek drinks, movies, pub quiz, comedy shows, shopping, dinners, weekend travels, parties, shows, shopping for winter clothes, planning for Eileens arrival over Christmas, visiting other sites of Toronto, more movies, more drinking.

It was my first Canadian Halloween so I had to get a good costume. Initially I wanted to get a squirrel costume as there are squirrels everywhere in Toronto. Unfortunately it was sold out and I had to opt for my second choice; a skunk. Yes a bit lame but also very warm if we ended up going out. In fact, it was so warm in my costume, I had to take the head gear off every 30mins; was definitely a bad choice. The good thing about it is that I actually bought this costume! Never know I may get freaky and do some role playing......

On Sunday, I was relieved to have a peaceful day mainly because the 6 days leading up to Halloween, we had been out for 4 of those.

Monday night came around and it was my German mate Tom Orrow’s birthday and we went for Korean BBQ. BBQ food and beers go hand in hand. Got home at 1am stumbling through the house while passing out fully clothed. This is starting to become a routine.

Weekend of Nov 12, Tom, Kayla and I drove 6 hours to the Capital City of Ottawa. We decided it stay at Hi-Hostel which was an active jail until 1972. The rooms were actual cells so it was a bit creepy. We arrived at 12am and decided to go out for a few beers and make the most of our time in Ottawa. The province of Ontario is very strict when it comes to liquor licenses, all bars and pubs have to stop selling liquor at 2am but most places will remain open until 3am. For some reason, we managed to get absolutely maggoted in the 2 hours we were out, stumbled around the city then ended up eating Poutine at 3am. Poutine is the dish of Quebec but it is also very popular after a night out on the booze.

The next day was spent sightseeing; Parliament Hill, House of Commons, Canadian War Museum, Samuel de Champlain statue, Rideau Canal (which was disappointing since it was drained due to construction work). We even walked around the University of Ottawa for the hell of it.
Then it was back to the hostel for a tour of the jail where we got to see artefacts, death row. It was also the site of Canada’s last public hanging. Airey eh?

Sunday night and it is good to stay in. This is a pretty boring update as I have forgotten all the funny things that have happened.
Although I did buy a pair of winter boots to prepare myself for the snow blizzards. At $160CAD, it has got to be one of the most unsatisfying purchases of all times! Next on the shopping list are long johns and possibly a pair of ice skates.....?

Halloween photos here
Ottawa photos here
 
Sam
 

Welcome Weirdos

Jersey Shore Crew

On the prowl

Meat Galore

Normal Monday Night Boozing

Our Cell

Canal Locks

Parliament

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Hitler's Mercedes Limousine








Hanging Chamber

I've lost 2inchs?








Parliament Hill and Canal Locks