Canada - part one!

Sunday 26th July 2009
15.55 (UK time)
Well I’m sat here however far above the land, we’ve been flying for nearly 4 hours – only another 3 to go!

I got up at 6.30 and did my normal morning routine – breakfast / wash / dress etc and found I still had plenty of time to spare so I decided to put away the clean clothes I’d dumped from the bed to the chair last night.

We were sorted and ready to leave just before 8am – when the taxi booked for. I went into the front room to watch for the taxi and also watched the miserable weather. The taxi came down the road but went past and turned round before coming back to our house. Mother had got Paul up so he helped carry the cases out to the car.

The journey to the airport was fine and uneventful and it took just under an hour. Once we’d found the right queue for our flight there was a couple of staff putting security stickers on passports. When we got to check-in both of our bags were overweight but we’d already resigned ourselves to this and the fact we’d have to pay excess baggage. The check-in man said we were 8kg over and it was £10 per kg but he was very nice to us and only charged us £40.

We then went through security and found that the bags we had our liquids in didn’t conform so we had to get different ones – they were in capsules in machines dotted round the check-in area. I went in hunt of a bag machine but what I hadn’t spotted was that there were vending machines with these capsules in right in the area where we were – duh!!

Once we’d gone through security we still had over an hour to wait before our gate even opened so we found ourselves a comfy seat and parked ourselves down. I don’t know if we looked particularly comfy or if we’d have trouble walking cos a staff member came up to us and said “do you realise how far you’ve got to walk yet?” He said there was about a 10 minute walk so we toddled off. We looked round a couple of shops on the way through and bought 2 little books.

We found an area where you had to go in different directions depending on which gate you were going to so we stayed there until we were given a gate number. At about 11am the boards showed our flight would be leaving from gate 22so we headed off in that direction and it was only a short walk from there to where we needed to be. Once we’d got to the gate area it was only a short time before they started boarding people and then it was a pretty quick process until we eventually got onto the plane.

The seats are all in sets of 3 and as there’s only me and my mum travelling there is another lady on the end of the row with us - she’s nice enough, we’ve chatted a couple of times.

I took my shoes off as soon as the seatbelt light went off so I’ve been sitting here in just socks on my feet, apart from when I got up to go to the toilet.

Not long after take-off they came round with a bar service but we didn’t bother with anything from that cos you had to pay extra. After we’d been flying about 2 hours the meals came round. The children’s and vegetarians meals were given out first and we thought mum might’ve been in the first set as well cos she’d ordered a diabetic meal. When the normal meals got to us there was no sign of a diabetic meal so my mum asked one of the cabin crew and they said “oh we wondered where that was going” ;-D My meal was Beef Provencale – at least that’s what they called it, and the box at the side had cream cheese, crackers, a bread roll, an sticky treacle cake and a chocolate orange segment. Mother’s meal was chicken & leek in sauce and her box had a banana, an apple, cheddar cheese and crackers – perfect for diabetic :-)

We’ve decided that (at least so far) we approve of Thomas Cook airways – they got the meal right and there’s more space in the seats than the Air Transat plane we were on last time.

The in-flight movies were Marley & Me and Madagascar 2, unfortunately we haven’t been able to watch them cos the aircraft adapters we bought from Asda don’t work and we begrudge paying again!!

The customs declarations cards were brought round just before and because my mother is so fussy we’ve got to go through ‘Goods to Declare” – she has brought her own butter with her – in my case!!!

At one point earlier on the pilot came on the tannoy and part of his announcement was that we’d be landing in Canada at about 7.15 UK time or 4.15 Canada time. At this information there were quite a few puzzled looks – Canada is 5 hours behind us! That makes it 2.15 Canada time!!! We said we just hoped his flying abilities were better than his maths!!!!!




Tuesday 28th July 2009
1.30pm (Canada Time)

Well although we’ve been here 2 days we’ve been pretty busy and I haven’t been able to do much blogging!! The only thing is we haven’t got much to show for how busy we’ve been *rolleyes*

I’ll go back to the beginning of since we arrived on Sunday afternoon.

We landed on time which was 7.15pm English time or 2.15pm Canadian time. Because we’d had to declare we were bringing butter into the country I thought we’d end up having to get our cases searched and they may say we aren’t allowed to keep my case – I brought over my own painkillers and hayfever tablets but put them in the suitcase cos I figured even if the case did go missing they were items I could easily replace while I was here. Thankfully all that happened was that the person on customs / immigration asked us specifically what we were declaring and he then put a green tag on our customs form.

Once we went through to the baggage claim hall mum sat on a seat with everything we’d been carrying and I went to wait for the cases to come off the carousel. Once the cases began coming through mine came out quite quickly but I think my mum’s was one of the last to come out cos by then there was only a few people still waiting for bags.

When we had both cases we went through to arrivals and I think it was Doug that saw us first before we saw them. It was such a nice way to enter the country – be greeted with open arms and hugs :-) One of the first things auntie Brenda said was to comment on how much weight I’d lost :-D Last time we saw her I’d lost some weight but not all of it.

Doug then drove us to our hotel and then once we’d checked in we all went in to find our room – we’re on the top floor again, room 601 :-) I like being up so high :-) We had to ring down to reception cos we’d ordered a rollaway bed but there wasn’t one in the room.

During the conversation we were talking about our cats and I realised I had photos on the computer so I got it out to show everyone – Doug, Connie and Auntie Brenda are all animal lovers and were all really happy to see the photos :-)

We brought loads of chocolate over for Auntie Brenda so we got it out of the cases while they were here. I started getting the chocolate out of my case first and Auntie Brenda got quite excited – more chocolate then came out of Mother’s case so she got even more excited ;-D Doug and Connie didn’t quite understand what all the fuss was about but Auntie Brenda gave them some chocolate and Doug started eating his straight away ;-D

Somehow we got back to the subject of my weight loss and I knew I had before and after photos on facebook so I went down to reception to get a login identity so I could get online in the room. While I was on facebook I realised my laptop’s battery life was almost nil so I asked my mum for the adapter plugs – only to discover she’d brought the European ones instead of the Canadian / American ones *rolleyes* We rang reception to see if there was any available in the hotel and they said they did have some but they were all in use at the time :-( They did say we could buy them at staples which was not far from the hotel. Doug offered to drive me to staples but when we got there we’d missed opening hours by 15 minutes!!! We figured that part of the next day’s plans needed to include getting some adapter plugs – an expense we didn’t need *rolleyes

Anyway, our guests left at about 6pm I think and mum and I decided to have tea – Auntie Brenda had bought us a few bits and pieces, essentials for sandwiches – which was what we had for tea.

We were extremely tired cos we’d gained 5 hours so it was much earlier than our bodies thought it was! We found Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory on telly although we’d missed the beginning of it. My mum actually fell asleep during the film but I managed to watch it to the end. After the film we decided it was getting really silly fighting the urge to sleep so we went to bed – at 8pm :-o :-o

Because we were in bed so early we also woke up really early – I woke up at 5am and mum said she’d already been awake about an hour :-o

I had planned to go swimming when I got up but the pool didn’t open till 6am so I had an hour before I could go down. I decided I was too hungry to go swimming before having anything to eat so we both had some toast – before we even went to breakfast ;-D

I went down for my swim just after 6am and must’ve looked really silly walking through the hotel in what appears to be nothing more than a dressing gown type thing ;-D I can’t even say I was lucky enough to not meet anyone cos a man got in the lift with me a couple of floors down. I was carrying my goggles and swimming cap so I guess it was obvious where I was going. I knew the pool was small so I measured the size of it by the amount of strokes it took me to complete a length. That was Helen’s suggestion – I’d already worked out that Crosby pool takes me about 30 strokes to do one length and this one I measured at 10 strokes for one length or 14 strokes to do a diagonal so I’m doing diagonals for as long as I’ve got the pool to myself. Last time we were here I went for a swim every morning and over 10 days I think there was only one morning where there was anyone else in with me.

In total I did 100 lengths / diagonals mixed plus a bit of messing about and also had about 10 minutes in the Jacuzzi pool. After my swim I went back up to the room for a shower before we went down for breakfast. Breakfast is a buffet and theres always plenty to choose from – scrambled eggs, sausages, toast, waffles, fruit, cereal, yoghurt, muffins, danish pastries and probably other stuff that I can’t remember including a variety of fruit juices and hot drinks.

On the way back to the room after breakfast we got a security box from reception to put our valuables in – passports, American money, traveller’s cheques, my driving license and other bits and pieces.

More or less as soon as we’d had breakfast we made our way out to the big shopping mall in Mississauga which is called Square One. When we’d got off the bus and come through the bus station we came across Zeller’s which is a big department store so we looked for our adapter plugs to see how much they cost – we also priced battery chargers cos my clever mother had brought the European version of that as well *rolleyes* We decided to just price the items in Zeller’s and then compare how much they were in Wal-Mart.

It turned out that the battery chargers were cheaper in Wal-Mart and the adapters were cheaper in Zeller’s. We didn’t really do much other than wander round the mall – sometimes aimlessly and sometimes with a purpose. We went to the food court for lunch and actually stayed there for over an hour – chilling, eating, chatting and people-watching.

Once we’d bought everything we needed or wanted we made our way back to the hotel. We knew where to get the bus but when we got back we actually got off the bus a stop too early so had to walk further than we intended.

When we got back I got the computer plugged in and we put all our purchases away. We found that we had a message waiting for us on the phone in the room and when we listened to it we found it was Doug offering to take me out for a ride and let me practise driving. We’ve decided I’m not actually hiring a car cos Doug has said I can drive his car – apparently over here they don’t need any extra insurance for extra drivers, as long as the driver is over 18. We haven’t quite worked out exactly when I’m driving yet but I will be driving at some point :-) *scared*

We’d only been back about half an hour when our room phone rang – it was Doug again checking we were in cos him and Connie were in the hotel lobby. What he didn’t tell us was that they had the 2 dogs with them :-D :-D I’m so glad we’re in a pet-friendly hotel :-D :-D The 2 dogs are little yappy ones – Duke is a black Pomeranian and we’re not sure exactly what Star is but we think she’s a poodle / Pekinese mix and she’s absolutely crazy ;-D ;-D She is totally hyperactive – and that’s with only one eye!! She had to have one removed cos it was damaged and they hoped it would slow her down a bit – no such luck ;-D ;-D

Auntie Brenda arrived at about 6pm and the dogs went crazy again ;-D They’d only just really calmed down. She stayed a couple of hours before they all went home – they all live in the same apartment block so Doug took them all home. Once they’d gone mum and I had our tea – sandwiches again, we’d missed the hospitality hour in the hotel.

We managed to stay up till nearly 10pm last night, we’re trying to get our bodies into Canadian time but it’s not completely successful yet.

I set my alarm for 6am this morning and sort of stayed asleep till then and I did go straight down for a swim today. I did 150 diagonals of the pool today but I’m not sure it’s the best idea I’ve ever had – because I’d had no breakfast I felt a bit sick by the time I’d finished. I think I’ll probably aim for about 100 diagonals every morning – that’s almost the equivalent of 50 lengths of my normal pool :-)

We’ve been out to Central Parkway Mall today, it’s the mall near to where Auntie Brenda used to live a long time ago. My mum thought it was bigger than it actually is and we weren’t very impressed with it – in fact we left here at about 10.45 and were back by 1pm – and that includes waiting for 4 buses *rolleyes* We bought a few bits and pieces but not very much. Since we’ve been back all we’ve done is watch telly, I’ve done this blog and we’ve both had a nap. Hospitality (tea) ‘hour’ is 5-7pm so we’ll go down later and Auntie Brenda is meant to be coming at about 5.30-6pm straight from work. Right now I’m off to the gym :-)

7.20pm
I did go down to the gym, there was one other lady in there doing weights when I got there but she didn’t stay very long. There are 3 machines in the gym – a cross trainer, bike and treadmill so I decided to do 20 minutes on each. I started on the cross-trainer which had an aerobics programme so I put that on and it had a few different instructions – focus on pulling with your arms, focus on pushing with your arms, pedal at your own pace using lower body only, maintain 2-3mph, maintain 5mph and the one that felt strangest was resume in the opposite direction – I had to pedal backwards. It made you do each instruction fir a certain length of time before going onto the next one – I went through the cycle of all the instructions twice and that was round about 20 minutes. I next went on the bike for 20 minutes – while I was pedalling it looked like I was going to get to 100 calories in about 20 minutes so I decided they were my targets whichever one came second. As it happened I hit 100 calories first so by the time I got to 20 minutes it was about 104 calories. My last one was the treadmill – I did 25 minutes on that but changed one element every 5 minutes – the speed or the incline. I spent the last 5 minutes as a warm down just walking although in the 5 minutes walking I did 3 minutes quite brisk and then 2 minutes stroll.

I came out of the gym at about 5.25pm and according to the folder in the room hospitality hour is 5-7pm but when I went into the food area I heard one of the staff telling someone else that the food wasn’t starting till 6pm *rolleyes* I went back to our room and got changed out of my sweaty clothes into yesterday’s clothes – I wasn’t having a shower so I wasn’t putting clean clothes on. Only a few minutes after I was changed Auntie Brenda turned up.

At about 6.20pm I went down for food and brought it back up to our room – tonight’s menu was hot dogs and corn on the cob. It’s ages since I’ve had corn on the cob and this had been grilled / barbecued, it was really nice.

Auntie Brenda left about 7pm at which point mum put her tea in the oven – she’d bought a ready-meal while we were out today. Now we’re watching Little House on the Prairie and waiting for mum’s tea to cook.