Canada - part two

Wednesday 29th July 2009

4.30pm
We’ve just got back from Square One – the main shopping centre in Mississauga. We left here just before 11 this morning and thought we’d only be out a couple of hours or so!!!!!

I got up at 6 as usual and went for my swim, I only did 100 diagonals this morning rather than the 150 I did yesterday and I didn’t feel sick so I think that’s what I need to do, maybe 150 is just too much on an empty stomach.

After breakfast my mum decided to ring Paul at home as it would be around 2pm there and in theory he *should* be up!! I thought the country code was 44 or +44 but she wasn’t getting through on that number. I was chatting to Gemma on msn at the time and asked her opinion / advice and she thought the same as me :-S Pat, who is in America happened to be online at the time so my mum had a brainwave to ask her what does she ring when she rings us at home from hers. What we didn’t know was that you have to put 011 before the 44 to get through – once mum did that she managed to ring Paul fine.

When we got up this morning it was absolutely lashing down rain *rolleyes* We come halfway across the world and end up with the same weather!! We considered not going out until the rain had gone off but we didn’t know how long that would be so we just put our raincoats on and braved the weather! The only problem I had was that I only had sandals or old leaky tatty trainers for my feet so either way I was going to get wet. I figured I’d wear the sandals cos at least that way my feet could dry – they’d just stay wet in trainers.

We got the timings of the bus from the internet so we went out in time for a particular bus but it seems they missed that one off cos the next one came on time *rolleyes* At least we had a shelter to wait in.

The main purpose of today’s trip was to get some traveller’s cheques changed into cash so the first thing we did was to go in hunt of a bank. We found one where she said we could only change $200 each although we wanted to do $300. We did the $200 in that bank and figured we could find another one on our travels to do the other $100

We had a few bits and pieces we wanted to buy and we also wanted to find the 2 dollar stores so we went in hunt of one of them first. And found it surprisingly easy – I like the fact I’ve got a map of the centre :-) When I’ve got a map I’m happy ;-D We found the first dollar store and bought a few bits and pieces then we just went on a random aimless wander.

We went into Sears cos I wanted some new trainers and while we were wandering round the shoes department (and cursing the prices) a lady came up to us and told me to pick a ticket out of a bag. It turned out I picked a ticket for a $100 family portrait for just $10. We were a bit unsure at first whether to accept it or not but eventually we relented and we made a provisional booking cos my mum asked if Auntie Brenda could come with us and they said yes up to 11 people. Once we’d escaped from the lady we got completely lost – inside the store!!!! We couldn’t find the exit to the mall and in the end I said we should just walk round the outside edge of the store and eventually we’d find the right exit – for once my logic worked hehe.

We decided by then it was lunchtime so we headed for the food court again.

5pm
I’m off to the gym now so I’ll carry on when I get back

7.25pm
I went down to the gym at about 5.15 once I’d got changed. When I got there a man was doing floor exercises – situps and stuff, he left after I’d only been there a couple of minutes and he gave me the telly remote. I was glad he did, I bought an mp3 player specifically to bring with me on holiday and it doesn’t work >:-( After about another 5 minutes a lady came into the gym and got on the exercise bike – and she stayed there for AGES. I did 20 minutes on the cross-trainer then 25 minutes on the treadmill and just as I finished on the treadmill she finished on the bike. I was glad cos it meant I could then get on the bike to do my 20 minutes – it was a different order to what I did yesterday but that’s ok.

When I’d finished in the gym I had a quick look in to see what was for tea before going up to tell my mum. It was veggie spring rolls with baked beans and salad. I got changed quickly and we went down for tea around 6.40 – just 20 minutes before the official end of ‘hospitality hour’.

Anyway back to the escapades of earlier today.

I did the same at lunchtime as I did the other day – wandered round all the different food outlets before deciding on what to eat. I’d originally said I didn’t want much but I ended up going to the Chinese place and I got sweet & sour pork with vegetables and fried rice – very tasty it was too. Mum just went to kfc.

After lunch we headed for Wal-Mart and mum and I both bought new trainers – they were on the list for me but mum just decided to get some when she saw them. When we got back here she put them on and said they were comfier even than the trainers she’d been wearing to come here :-o

While we were in Wal-Mart we also wanted some groceries, including cucumber and tomatoes – we wandered all round the shop but couldn’t see them anywhere :-S We mentioned it to the cashier when we were paying and she said they don’t have them – she also said NO shops in Square One have them :-o :-o At that point we terminated our salad quest!

We went looking for the other dollar store and I had my map – we went in exactly the direction it said on the map but there was no sign of Dollarama :-S What confused us even more is that we saw people with Dollarama bags – we can only conclude that they’ve moved the shop since the map was printed :-/ In fact I’ve just checked the website and it HAS moved – what is more annoying is that we were close to it at one point – in fact just above it but we didn’t know at the time *rolleyes*

Once we realised we couldn’t find Dollarama we decided it was time to go ‘home’. We went to the bus station and pre-paid for 10 tickets cos it works out a bit cheaper that way – Auntie Brenda suggested it last night. As we got to the bus stop there was a bus there that we weren’t sure if we could get or not but by the time I’d got my map ot to check it had pulled away. As it turned out we could’ve got it *rolleyes* Luckily there were seats at the bus stop and the weather was ok so the waiting didn’t seem too bad.

We got back here at about 4.30pm and I just got on the computer and started chatting to people and blogging before I went to the gym at 5.