Sun, Nov 26th

Righto, had a hectic week this week so i'll get straight into it. On Wednesday night, myself, Glen, Angela and Kelly went to the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). Its free on a Wednesday night so we're back enjoying the cheap student life. We managed to have a great laugh, which i'm not sure you're supposed to do in a gallery. We even had a go at origami in there. That was a disaster. There's a few more gallery's and museums that have free nights too so i'll try get to them too, in between the boozing of course.

Thursday night was the big night I had been waiting for, for a few weeks. Myself and Kelly went to see Billy Connolly. Needless to say he was absolutely brilliant. He was on for two and a half hours non-stop, no break. Couldn't believe it. Only felt like an hour. We were nice and close to the front too which was great. Luckily Kelly recommended we get there for the opening time as he started straight away, no warm up or anything. If it had been up to me, we would have had more drinks and would've missed half the show. Finally saw the king of comedy so am quite happy with myself now.

Friday night myself and Kelly headed out to one of the local pubs, Shoeless Joe's. She's been having a crap time trying to get out of a lease, so needed to go out for a few drinks, or really watch me get drunk. Works for me. It was karaoke night in there too so that was our entertainment for the night sorted. And no, I didn't get quite that drunk to take that step. Bumped into one of the other lads from my house too who was major smashed so we had a good laugh off him.

On Saturday I wanted to get the ferry on Lake Ontario (which is just a few minutes walk from the hostel) over to the islands. I didn't quite make it up as early as planned in the morning, no idea why, so I just decided to walk all round the harbour front. It's a really nice area and it was a nice day too so got some nice pics. The weather here is still really nice, it should be snowing by now but its actually still quite warm. Around 13 degrees these days, which isn't really cold. Seems I picked a good year to come over. Anyway on my trek I stumbled across a great ice rink, which I thought was class so decided i'd drag the rest of the gang to that some day. See Sunday, below, for more on that.

On Saturday night, there was a big deal for the turning on of the Christmas lights at City Hall. It was a pretty cool night as there was a concert, ice skating, light shows and fire works. The fire works and light show were very impressive. They projected images onto a building to make it look completely different. It was very well done. Myself and Kelly went to that for a couple of hours and then headed back to mine to meet up with Glen and do some boozing before we headed out. It was another one of the Irish lads birthday that night so we went and met him in a pub call The Velvet Underground. Myself and Glen spent most of the night on a pool table trying to beat these two Canadians, but they had the advantage of single vision, so we hadn't a chance. After that place closed we ended up back in the Hostel for a bit of late night wrestling and general arseing about. I almost got myself and Glen kicked out after I decided to rugby tackle him while he was standing on a couch and we both went flying over the couch and ended up lying on the floor. It just seemed like a good idea at the time. Well we somehow managed to make it home in one piece that night.

Sunday was a day I found a new hobby for myself. I dragged Angela, Glen and Kelly down to the ice rink and we spent most of the day down there. It really is so cool as it's on the lake and they have music playing and the ice is proper ice, not like the artificial crap back home. Its actually free to use the rink if you have your own skates, but obviously we didn't so it cost us $7 to rent skates for as long as you want. I'm looking into trying to buy a cheap pair though as i'd be down there the whole time if I could. I really enjoy skating and am getting quite good at it. Kelly's good too as she used get lessons when she was young. I'm afraid Glen and Angela were struggling a bit but they provided us with quite a few laughs as they flew into the air and landed on their asses. I was skating for a good 3 hours straight and would have stayed longer only the others dragged me away. As soon as I got off the ice my energy faded super quick. I could barely make it home without falling asleep. I've 2 months left in Toronto so really hope to try get some skates this week and head down there every second day. Good way to keep fit too. My goal for the next two months is to try and be able to skate backwards. Apparently its quite tough, but i'll give it a shot. No major plans for the week, but hopefully i'll have something to talk about by this time next week. I'll try not to make them all skating stories either.

Billy, still doing jigs at the age of 64

My day down the harbour front.

The wonders of the self timer option.

My new favourite place

At the light show they did a great job of painting and animating the old city hall with projectors.

The almost bring down the new City Hall with the amount of fireworks they use.
Some randomer crashes our drunken photos.

Glen and Dave re-invent pool

I get the gang to go for a bit of hungover skating.

And we're off.....

2010 winter olympics here I come

Glen realises, its easier to go around on all fours.

Myself and Kelly, still going strong after a couple of hours of skating.
Earlier on in the week, I was at a games expo and got to play the new PS3 and Nintendo Wii. The PS3 was very underwhelming but at least the Wii was a bit original, if tiring, as its all motion sensitive.

Sun, Nov 20th

Had a good week this week. 4 day week in work due to a bank holiday on Monday. The less I have to work in that bank the better. No sign of a new job yet but i'll keep an eye out.

On Tuesday Glen gave me a ring to say he noticed there were still some cheap tickets available to go see Guns n' Roses on Wednesday night and he was wondering if I'd go with himself and Jamie. Why the fup not, I said. So on Wednesday we wandered down to the gig. It was on in the ACC, the basketball stadium. The doors opened at 8 so we thought we'd go down at 9 and they'd be on shortly afterwards. We couldn't have been more wrong. When we got in there were a massive bunch of strippers on stage called The Suicide Girls. Pretty impressive. All gigs should start with a strip show. After them then there was a guy called Sebastian Bach, he's a big rock star over here. Pretty good but didn't know any of his stuff. We kept moving around the stadium and sitting in better seats then our own for a while until we'd get moved on again. So by the time GNR came on it was 11.30. I was already ready for bed at that stage. They played for almost 2 and a half hours with no break and they ROCKED. It really was great and a complete steal for $35. They played all the old classics and they place went nuts for them. For those who know them, the Trailer Park boys came on stage to sing a song too. They sang Country Road. Bubbles was hilarious. We didn't get out of there till 2 so needless to say we were all shattered and work the next day was a struggle. Well worth it though.

I had a quieter weekend then most and only went out boozing one night. Went to see the new Bond on Friday night with the gang, very good by the way. I watched footie for most of the day on Saturday with Jamie. They show 3 live Premiership games every Saturday, which is great. Myself and Jamie decided to start drinking at 1, which may not have been our best idea ever. But to be honest I lasted very well for the night. And managed to spend less drink that way too as I had most of my drink at home. Another great night had anyways.

On Sunday I headed out to pick up a few things and go see the Santa March. Yeah, I said Santa March. Its basically like our Paddy's day parade but instead of everything being green, its red. Not really a big fan of parades anyway so can't say it did much for me. There was thousands of kids lined up the streets that seemed to enjoy it though. Well that was all I got up to in the last week. Think i'll have my last month in Toronto in January so i'll head West to Whistler at the start of February. I've got Billy Connolly on Thursday so will report back on that next week.

The gig before, it kicks off

The lighting at the gig was amazing, not really demostrated here.

Axel rocks out on the piano, don't try this at home kids.

We sneak to a better, closer spot.

The Santa March

Mon, Nov 13th

It's a bank holiday today so am off work, woo hoo. Spent the morning in a recruitment agencies again though. Sick of doing all their tests. Hope i'll hear from them soon though so I can get out of the crappy bank.

Well I mentioned on my last post that i'd be having a quiet weekend the weekend just gone as Glen and Jamie would be working. Well that didn't quite go to plan. On the Friday I went to see Borat after work with them, very funny by the way. Afterwards I persuaded the lads to go for just the one drink. Well you can probably guess the rest. 1 turned into twelve and we all crawled home. Glen had to be up for work at 6 so got less then 5 hours sleep, the poor fupper.
They were adamant then that they wouldn't be going out on Sat night as they both had work on Sunday morning but turns out work was canceled on Sunday for them so Saturday was another night of carnage. We started drinking at home again first and then headed down to Kelly in the hostel. The place was packed, as always and we were in great form so had a hilarious night. After seeing Borat the night before I thought it would be a great idea going around high-fiving everyone. Think I managed to high-five every girl in the city. Also managed to break a snooker cue off a guy, which sounds a lot less then it actually was. We also ended up playing baseball with ice late on. Needless to say I ended up with a lot of cuts and bruises after that night. Lost my camera case too but was lucky enough to find it in the hostel the following day. Another blast of a weekend so, but still no money saved. Maybe next week eh.

Myself and Kelly also got tickets to Billy Connolly for the end of the month which i'm delighted about as I thought it was sold out. We got the last pair of tickets going. Can't wait, been wanting to see him for years. Been trying for Hockey tickets but they're proving almost impossible to get, unless you wanna spend $200. Well that's all for now. Jagsermash.

Myself, Kelly and Dave, perfectly sober on the Friday night.

Gary's still able to play pool even after I break the cue off him. Those Liverpudlians are hard as nails.

I do my best with what's left of the cue. It doesn't help when you see two of every ball too.

Thurs, Nov 9th

Just a quick update on the weekend just gone. I had planned to take it easy on the boozing this weekend as money is super low at the moment after just paying rent and switching jobs. Rent is quite steep as our location is so good. I pay $520 a month for what is basically just a room. Don't think I'd be bothered paying that much if the folks I live with weren't there. It's great having them all next door. Always someone to hang out with. Anyway, back to the boozing. Glen and Jamie finally managed to get jobs on the Thurs, after only 2 months of being unemployed, lucky bastards. So obviously we had to go out and celebrate, which happened to last all weekend again, that seems to happen quite a bit. I am managing to conserve my money a bit better by doing lots of drinking at home before we go out and also looking for places that you don't have to pay in. So yeah, 2 more great nights out on the town. Its the same story after every night out with us, we either end up in the local pizza joint (Pizza Pizza, Canada's biggest pizza franchise) or else going for the healthy option and getting a hotdog from one of the street stalls. Mmmmmm hotdog. I can usually only tell which one I went for the following morning because i'll either have mustard all over my clothes or pizza stains. Money well spent.

On Sunday morning I managed to drag my ass outta bed to go down to the hostel as they were having a little day trip to a basketball game. I went with Angela and Paul from my house and Kelly. Because we were going with a gang from the hostel we got the tickets at a reduced price which was great. I was still pretty worn out from the night before but by the time we got there I woke right up. It was brilliant fun altogether. The Toronto Raptures vs the San Antonia Spurs. The Raptures are in the NBA too so they play all the big American teams. The Spurs are a really good team but the Raptures put up a really good fight. It really was a brilliant atmosphere. The stadium was amazing too. And don't get me started on the cheer leaders. Even the mascot was amazing. Some of the tricks he was pulling off were amazing. Samuel L Jackson was sitting court side. All the players were going up and hugging him and chatting away. I'm starting to think he's stalking me at this stage. That went on for about 2 and a half hours and we all loved. It's action packed the whole way through. If I could afford it i'd go every week. Will def try to get back for another game sometime. I'm really planning a quiet weekend this weekend as both the lads are working, so i'll see how that pans out. Mightn't have much to write about in the next week.

We arrive at the Air Canada Centre (ACC) for the basketball......

....just a tad early. Cool place though.

Game on.
And here come the cheer leaders. Woooo hooooo.
Tha mascot succeeds in a 360 dunk in mid-air. Very impressive. And if you've got your magnifying glass you'll spot Sam Jackson in the top right in yellow
Come on the Raptures
We lose 94-103. Boo. If we had scored 100 points everyone would have got a free slice of pizza. God dang it.

Sat, Nov 4th

Had another super week at work this week. Gave it a shot and have decided I can't stay there. Really do hate it. It's way too serious a job and is extremely complicated. The complete opposite to what i'm looking for. I'm gonna stick with it until I find something new but I have gotten back onto a few recruitment agencies so hopefully I might be able to find something by the end of the week.

Last Sunday I headed to Paramounts Canadian Wonderland with Angela, Kelly and Melissa. Its a massive amusement park in Toronto. Loads of roller coasters and whatnot. For the month of October it closes during the day and opens between 7pm and midnight and they do the whole place up in a horror style for Halloween. They really did an amazing job as its spooky as fook even just walking around there. They pump smoke all around the place so you can barely see where you're going and they have actors walking around dressed up in sick costumes scaring the bejesus out of all the patrons. Some of them are on roller blades so they come flying through the smoke and come at you with cleavers and other sicko stuff. As you're walking around all you hear is people screaming from all around the park. It really was great fun. All the roller coasters, rides and haunted houses were all great fun too. I've attached some pics below but they didn't come out too well as it was very dark. Didn't get home till 2 so needless to say I was pretty tired for work the following morning.

I didn't make it out for Halloween during the week as I picked up a bit of cold. I don't think Ronaldinho would have made it over after his game against Chelsea anyway. Didn't get up to much else for the week. I did find another cinema downtown that is quite cheap so I'll prob be going back there quite a bit. Its a real old school one and is quite nice. It even has a piano in the lobby that people play as they wait for the movie to start. Sis, you'd love it.

The one crappy thing about making so many new friends here is it means that there are constantly people moving on or home. The latest casualty was Megan, a really nice girl from Australia. She's after heading over to Whistler as well so hopefully I might get to see her again when I head over. Really looking forward to heading over there now. Money is a bit of a problem though. Its pretty tough to save any money here. Righto, that's it for now. I'll post again during the week about the weekend just gone.

Fear Fest at Wonderland

Spooky corpses bride

Myself and Kelly brave Top Gun

Tomb Raider

Rollerblading Zombies, the worst kind of Zombies

The Italian Job, the best roller coaster there.

Spooky city

Ronaldinho says farewell to Megan