When In Rome...

Day 4

7:23 is officially the latest I have ever gotten out of bed. And everyone else is still down for the count. I feel like I'm doing something wrong here.. 

Stepped out on the balcony for my usual lungful of "crisp" Canadian air, then my stomach whispers to me that it might be time to turn on the kettle for a cup of Lipton.

Let me just add here that my mental clock has been thrown WAAYYY off since I've been here. When it's 10:00 am my mind still convinces me that it's somewhere around 6:00. See how I would lose my job?

11:35 and NSE is stirring out there somewhere. Rob still refuses to move. Old age, the poor lad. Gonna watch some CSI and Criminal Minds till he moves. Wanna head over to Yorkdale Mall today.

11:45 and the driver is still down. Maybe this is what I was doing wrong? Time to take a page out of the Canadian booklet. Back to bed!

Didn't get back out of bed until 2:00 and by then it was too late to do anything. Hey, even Jesus took a rest, right? Today has been officially declared "Sabbath". 

Breakfast #2 time! Yes, at 2:30 in the afternoon. Omelet with bacon, tomato and thousand island dressing on sesame seed toast. Yes, it's as good as it sounds. This was about as good as the day was gonna get. Hit the couch to catch the Celtic vs. Barcelona game and chilled it out for the rest of the day. Definitely gonna hit the road tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Let's Go A Little Further Today...

Day 3

Up at 5:00 and everyone is pretty much comatose lol. Perfect time to start a blog, right? Open up the patio door and look outside to see it's been raining overnight into the early morning and still had a slight drizzle. Know what goes well with cold, rainy mornings? 

Tea. Bless your heart, Lipton. 8:38 am and everyone is still asleep. Good thing too cause it's gonna be a long day today.

9:30 and people now start to wake up.. Better late than never, right? Domino's in the microwave and time to make plans. Let's check the weather channel. Rain. Dammit. Ok, so no zoo or safari. maybe Orfus Road. We'll stick to indoor shopping today.

Lemme just say, I should have taken the term "Orfus Road" more literally. It is an entire road of stores. A fairly long road. Didn't even make it halfway. Another day for sure, though. Took a couple stores, but I found what I wanted. Time for the next stop on the adventure. Downtown!

Dufferin Mall. 2 malls in 2 days. The variety is to the level I would expect. I found a couple things to buy here, nothing major. 

It's like Super Centre.. on steroids. Know that feeling when you wanna grow another 8 pairs of hands just to grab everything and rush to the checkout? Yeah... Focus! There's a priority list. MAYBE one or two random items, but gotta get what I came for and bounce. 

Ok, maybe there's room for a couple unnecessary things. That's what vacation is all about, right? This "list" thing is getting a bit tedious. Nevertheless, it was progressing quite well. Can't seem to find a pair of slippers though, Aeropostale is all stocked up for winter so flip flops are a no-no. Enough of this. Know what's next?

A hard choice, having to leave McDonald's fries, but in the name of variety we took a little drive. This should be fun, right? 

Everything looks so nice! Browsed the menu for 5 minutes and settled on the Bacon Deluxe. "Single or double?", the guy asks. Oh right, this is a regular thing here. Double, my good man! And upsize the fries and drink for that $0.69 while you're at it, sir. 

God bless Canada! This was superb! Cheese perfectly slightly melted, bacon not crispy but well cooked, 100% beef, fresh bread! The fries were great as well, but McDonald's still holds the title belt for "Best Fries EVER". Grab a refill (just because I could) and it was time to head home for the day. 

Out And About!

Out And About!

Day 2

- Bro was gonna get in from work around 2:30 so the plan was to wait up till he got in. Didn't work out. Woke up shortly after he came in though. Caught up a bit, told him about the flight in. We headed down to the convenience store (at 3:00 am) and picked up some toiletries. Came back in and chatted some more straight into daylight hours. A couple others woke up and joined us till eventually the entire gang was here. Got up and had some tea and a muffin (was "chastized" for bringing my own tea bags - among other things - and I learned my lesson). You'd think we'd make the plan for the day? Nah. Everyone went back to sleep. Everyone.

          Fast forward a couple hours later and we decide we're gonna go to Upper Canada Mall and look around and do some shopping. By this time I'm down to 1 jacket! The drive was long but it was fun. We stopped and picked up one more to take along for the ride, then headed for a food stop.

AWWWWWWWWWWWW YEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHH!

This is what I came to Canada for. To eat. Have fun, get cold and eat. Keep in mind, I was making a mental note of the places we passed on the way down. So many to choose from. Wendy's. McDonalds. Harvey's. Popeyes. I really wasn't picky where we went first. I have 2 weeks to cover them all. Multiple times. (Don't worry, Femi. I won't overdo, I promise.) Decision made. We're going to McDonalds - I'm lovin' it!

 As soon as we get inside my memory is bombarded with the constant ravings I've heard about the fries. Alright, so whatever I get, get fries with it. As if that'd be a problem lol. Got my first Big Mac and waited for the others. The fries definitely are fantastic though. I need to have more of them in my life before this week ends. *adds to priority list*. Chatted a bit and briefly discussed the possible veto by Pres. Obama, some school protests and who would drive if Robert fell off his chair and had to be rushed to the hospital. Picked up a free refill (just because I could) and we were on the move again. Next stop, Upper Canada Mall.

Did I fail to mention before that AT LEAST 83% of the population has some NICE rides? Corvettes, R8s, a couple Camaros, a Jag and a Mustang all in the same small area in the car park. Slowly walked past and headed for the mall. 

        Sheraton who? Nah, this was the real deal. H-U-G-E. Took me a couple seconds to readjust my scope and then we started to explore. I couldn't even decide where I wanted to go. Brushed through H&M and looped through Forever21. Know what would have been brilliant? To get a map. Luckily the stand was close by, so we started looking for specifics. Headed to Old Navy for some tees and vests. Got to the cashier and she was asking me about subscription emails and some other random stuff so I told her I wasn't from here, and that I was here on vacation from Barbados. The look on her face quickly changed from "Hi! Welcome to Old Navy!" to "Can you kindly fit me into one of your bags?" She seemed so fascinated by my tale of year-round heat, I almost pitied her. No time to stay, however. We had to finish our adventure!

Rob went back to the car to sleep, leaving me in the capable hands of NSE, O, T and C. Picked up my copy of FIFA 14, decided that maybe I'm not cut out to play GTA V and we were off again. 

Spencer's.

Can I just say that I would blow my entire budget in Spencer's? They had Batman shorts on sale for $10 CDN. I would have bought both pairs if they weren't XXL. The amount of Batman and Adventure Time paraphernalia was incredible. I had a handful of stuff and then had to remind myself that these were not priority items and if we could pass back and funds were still available, then we'd come back for this stuff.

Time to head back to Toronto. Definitely a fantastic experience. Heading home for a game of Monopoly with the clan. Know what Monopoly needs? Domino's pizza. 3 medium pizzas and 20 wings, my good man. God bless Canada! Came home and browsed through my haul for today and tucked it away. Time for food and money.

Let me just take this opportunity to say that Monopoly teaches us valuable lessons. Spend your money wisely!

Time for the part timers to leave. Was great having them over and next weekend is gonna be even better. Watched some Sherlock and made myself a bit too comfortable in the process, and that was how my day ended.

BGI to YYZ

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO..... I decided to do a blog. For, you know, anyone who's interested. Since it's the first time I'm in Canada and the first time I'm travelling alone, I figured it'd be fun to share with you guys. The first couple posts are gonna be mainly text, but more and more pics to come shortly, I promise! Enjoy!

Day 1

The flight was fairly long. To me, anyway. 6 hours. Longest I ever sat still. Had a window seat, so the view was amazing. Got a couple pictures of some views until it got really dark.

The nice air hostess only offered me the free stuff but then offered the sandwiches to the guys ahead of me. No sweat though cause I probably would have told her no. About halfway through the flight, Asha's (my phone) battery was at 19% and Tiffany's (my laptop) had 35 mins to go. Womp. I clearly didn't plan this as well as I thought I did. In flight TV, then? I guess. Occasionally peering out of my window to make sure we were still suspended in mid air in a big, loud metal bird.
Landed safely! Around 9:55, so about 10 mins late. Batteries were flat dead by now, so I couldn't get any pictures. Took me 10 mins to get from the plane to Customs.Couldn't pass up the opportunity to get on the moving sidewalk! Made it to the counter and the guy there had some weird questions but I guess he more interested in my reactions than the answers themselves. Took another 10 mins for my bag to come around the carousel. Snatched it and headed straight for outside and spotted Pablo and NSE immediately. Get to cross "afraid of being stranded in a foreign airport for hours" off of my list, thankfully. Just before I stepped through the door I asked myself, "what if inside is WARMER than outside?" Guess I didn't have to ask that for much longer. Outside was fairly chilly. My ears started to burn immediately. Ended up wearing 2 jackets. And a long sleeved shirt. And a vest. Just to make it from the airport to the car. Heading home and couldn't help but to stare at the buildings. The apartments, town houses, condos, offices, mega stores. All fascinating.
Got to the house and met the part time residents. Cool folks. Watched some telly while mother messaged me to death as soon as I turned on my wifi. Messaged a couple other folks to let them know I was safe and then retired to the living room to watch TV with the others.