Canada - part five

Sunday 2nd August 2009

8.40am
we’ve still got no internet :-( At least I know why though. When we got back to the hotel last night there was a notice up in the ‘elevator’ (well they say when I Rome do as the Romans) saying that there is a problem with the head router and as a result there will be no wireless internet access until Monday. Apparently there is a cable for wired internet access but I don’t think I’ll bother with that – we won’t be here enough to worry about it.

Yesterday Doug and Connie picked us from here at about 9.50 and we went back to the apartment to meet AB and Liz, we were all going to St Jacob’s together so we were taking 2 cars. Mum and I were going in Connie and Doug’s car and Liz was taking AB.

St Jacob’s was quite a long drive away really, it was probably about an hour and Liz was following us, I don’t think she knew the way to go.

The first bit we got to was a huge flea Market type thing and I spent FAR too much money!!! I think I spent about $80 :-o I got 2 skirts. 3 t-shirts, 5 pairs of earrings (which were on 5 pairs for $5 plus one free – the free pair was a really gaudy pair that AB had been looking and jokingly saying she MUST have them so I got them for her for a laugh!!). There must be other stuff as well that I can’t remember.

Connie (and we think AB) were hoping we’d all stay together and stroll round at our leisure but Liz wasn’t happy with that – she wanted to wander off and do her own thing *rolleyes* So it ended up Liz and AB walked round together and the ret of the 4 of us stayed together.

As we were on the way there Doug’s phone rang and he was busy telling the person who’d rung which highway he was on and where he was going, Connie was a bit confused cos she couldn’t understand why Liz was ringing and as far as she was concerned Liz was the only other person who needed to know where we were. When Doug got off the phone he revealed that the person he was talking to was his sister who he hadn’t seen for about 10 years :-o He’d rung her earlier in the week and because it was the weekend and she was only 20 minutes outside St Jacobs’s they arranged that they’d meet there :-) It was lovely to meet her and she seems like a really nice person :-) I got her email address to cos she wanted a photo but didn’t have a camera with her so I took on the role of photographer :-)

While we were wandering round we bought fresh lemonade and it was enormous :-o My mum couldn’t have any cos it was quite sugary so Doug and Connie shared one, and Theresa and I shared another – the 2 cups were plenty!!!!

St Jacob’s is a Mennonite Village and quite a few of the Mennonites were working on the stalls at the market. Connie was saying they don’t normally allow you to take their picture but she asked one lady who was on a cider stall and she sweet-talked her by saying I wanted to take the picture back to England, the lady agreed to have her photo taken but she wasn’t going to pose and smile, I just had to take her picture while she was working – we did thank her though!.

Towards the end of our time at the market we had to find Liz and AB, Liz kept ringing Doug’s mobile (which plays “We wish you a merry Christmas” hahaha) and he was getting quite annoyed with her, Connie was also a bit irritated cos we hadn’t all stayed together. Mum and I went to the toilets while Connie and Doug went to find Liz and AB. When we were all back together again there was a definite air of something had gone on. We were heading back to the cars intending to go to the town of St Jacob’s the group spread out a bit and Connie was with us – she said she’d given Liz a piece of her mind wanting everyone to stay together and stuff. Apparently Liz had taken a huff and decided she wasn’t going to the town and AB was going back with her. In a very small way it was a slightly good thing cos AB had had enough of the heat anyway and was happy to go home.

Connie and Doug then took us to the town of St Jacob’s rather than the flea market. The first thing we did was to go for lunch to a restaurant the Theresa had recommended. When we got there there was a 25 minute wait for a seat so I decided I was going to take a photo of the Christmas Shop we’d seen on the way in, for Sandie from Scouse House, and Doug decided he’d come with me. That particular trip was dedicated to taking photos, we also walked a bit further down to the river and I took pictures of the river from both sides of the road. You can take horse and buggy rides round the town and there was a man with a horse and buggy at the side of the road waiting for customers. I took a couple of photos and he said we could pet the horse whose name was Dolly and she was 10 years old :-)

When we got back to the restaurant we didn’t wait very long before our table was ready – in fact it was basically just enough time to show the photos to the women before we were called. When we looked at the menu and we looked at what other people were eating it seemed that the meals were all huge!! We didn’t want to eat too much though cos we’d arranged to get KFC delivered for tea (‘supper’) in the evening. We decided we’d all have burgers cos it looked like the smallest.

While we were waiting for our food we were talking about our placemats cos they were maps of the local area LOL I wanted one to take with me so Doug asked one of the ladies and she just brought us 2 clean ones to take away :-) There were also other people doing the same thing hehe. Our food took quite a long time to come and the waitress kept coming over giving us progress updates lol. One thing I thought was good was that she brought us glasses of water straight away without us having to ask and then later on she came round and topped the glasses up :-)

When our burgers came they were huge – though I reckon we could’ve guessed that!! They were very nice and also came with potato wedges. Mum and I ended up taking half of our burger each home with us hahaha.

After lunch we went for a wander round the town again and went in and out of a few shops – most of the time Doug sat outside while the females went in haha. We didn’t actually buy anything in the shops and once we were done wandering round we went back to AB’s apartment for the evening.

When we got to the apartments Doug and Connie went up their own to sort the dogs out before coming back down to AB’s. We all just flopped when we got in LOL We were all comparing how much sun we’d all caught – I’ve got quite red arms and chest and the bottom part of my face. The top of my face and my ears and neck are ok cos I had a big hat on – even though it did keep wanting to fall off so I had to keep rescuing it – thankfully it did its job though :-) I did wish I’d put my lenses in rather than my glasses though cos I had to keep swapping from normal glasses to sunglasses and it was quite annoying, next time we go out for the day I WILL be wearing my lenses.

We’d decided to get KFC in for tea and over here they actually deliver it :-o We didn’t really do very much, just eat and chat – and flop hehe. Doug brought mum and I back to the hotel at about 9.30 when we just basically got ourselves ready for bed.

In the end I did decide to try the wired internet this morning – though we had to find the socket on the wall where the other end of the cable goes (the cable was already in the closet when we got here). The socket was in the most logical place LOL – by the desk.

Right well we’re going out to church soon then we’re going to AB’s apartment for the rest of the day with a barbecue this evening, so as has been happening I’ll probably do today’s blog this time tomorrow :-)