Tues, Jan 30th

Just thought i'd do a quick post for my last day in Toronto. Jan 31st I fly to Vancouver for the next part of my adventure. I had a great time in Toronto but I'm definitely ready to move on now and see some more of Canada, or even more importantly it's time for some skiing. The plan is to stay in Vancouver just for a few nights and then head north to Whistler. It's Super Bowl weekend this weekend so I wouldn't mind to stay in Vancouver for a bit of craic but I really just wanna try to get a job in Whistler asap, so will have to wait and see.

For our last few days we've been saying goodbye to Toronto in style, been on quite a few pub crawls and saying goodbye to a lot of the friends i've made. Also, been stocking up on ski gear so trying to pack everything back into my bag has been a nightmare. It's gonna be a major struggle getting to the airport with all my bags. I'm going with the two lads I live with so hopefully they'll be able to drag me along with them. So that's it for Toronto. I'll do a post in a few days with all the latest news.

My last day working in the call centre. Woo Hoo

The cheap Rainbow cinema I used frequent quite a lot.

Some random pictures of snowy Toronto

Last night on the booze in T.O. with Glen, Jamie, Paul, John and Stevie

Wed, Jan 17th

As you may have guessed, due to the lack of updates, I haven't been up to much for the last few weeks. I've no cash at the mo so am staying in most days. I'm also back at work in the good ol call centre. Yup, same one I was working in when I got here first. After one day working there I was ready to quit. It really is a struggle to force myself in there everyday. And the hours some days are really awkward so it'll take up my whole day and I don't make it home till after midnight on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. But i've gotta stick it out for two more weeks before I head off west. Did I mention I CAN'T WAIT to head over now.

I've absolutely no plans for the next two weeks either. I do hope to go up the CN Tower some day alright before I leave but I'll have to wait till I finish work and I also need it to be a clear day or else it's just a waste. I also intend to buy a lot of ski gear in Toronto as its way cheaper then it will be over west. Whistler has been voted the best ski resort in the whole of North America for the last six years so obviously it's extremely popular and attracts a lot of rich folk so they can afford to charge crazy prices for everything. That's why I gotta get a job that will sort out accommodation and a ski pass for myself. Don't worry, i'm sprucing up the resume as I speak. Throwing in a few new referee's too, Barrett for one.

It has finally started to snow properly here, which is great. It really is still a novelty at the moment so am really enjoying it. It snowed pretty heavily just for one night and it's lasted almost 3 days now. So different to back home when its gone after a couple of hours. Hope to make my first snowman shortly. Will try get some nice pics too if I get the chance. They have the main streets cleared of snow first thing in the morning so I need to get to a park or some place.

So yeah, don't expect much gossip outta me for the next two weeks as I struggle to get through work. But once I head west, I should a few stories to tell.

Another lovely evening at the rink

This is the stadium I went to see the baseball a few months back

Here's my house, looking all wintery

And the street we live on, St Andrews st.

Tues, Jan 2nd

Continuing on from my last post, the Wednesday after Xmas was actually a quiet day for me, after the last few days of partying. Just went to the cinema and went skating. Back to Thursday which was another party night, but we stayed in most of the night to keep the spending down. To be honest, I can't remember what I did for half these days as over the last 2 weeks all the days have just run into each other. Oh well.

Friday, was another big night for us. We had bought tickets a few weeks back for the basketball. The Chicago Bulls were playing the Toronto Raptures. It was another great game, really enjoying the basketball. The atmosphere at the games is great. Unfortunately the Rapture's lost again. I think I may be bad luck for them. If I lived over here i'd definitely follow the basketball and its so cheap to get the tickets too if you get them in advance. After that we went back to the hostel for a few drinks and games of pool with a gang from Brazil. Then we moved onto our favourite club, The Underground. I met a nice Dublin girl in there who's been living here for a few years and is a professional golfer, scratch handicap and everything. I told her I could be her caddie due to my vast experience.

Saturday was Angela's last night in Toronto before she flied off to Banff (another ski resort), so we went out for some drinkin and dancin and then had a full blown party in our place to celebrate. Craziest night ever that i'll just leave to your imaginations. Then multiply it by ten.
I'm glad we had such a good night that night as New Years Eve was a big let down. Mainly because it was lashing rain outside which was unfortunate as it really hasn't rained much since we got here. After some drinks at home we went to City Hall where there was a fire works show on at midnight. The place was jammed but everyone had umbrella's so we couldn't see anything. We just found a dry spot way back, waited for midnight and once the fireworks were done we headed on.

We tried an Irish bar that was close by but headed after one drink as the place was dead. Then we decided to just go back to the hostel as it was close and we knew we'd know a lot of people. We had good craic for most of the night with the usual gang and then right at the end of the night I was chatting to one of the girls working there when the barmen came over and dragged myself, Glen and Jamie out and told us we were barred. It was crazy as none of us were too drunk and had done nothing. I always thought that barman was a dick anyway so he really proved himself that night. Outside he was trying to get stuck in me and was saying i'm always in there walking around with a big smile on my face. Couldn't help but laugh when he said that. Wanker. I've no intention of going back there now giving them anymore of my money. I have everyone's numbers in there that I hang around with anyway, so we'll still meet up.

And that about sums up my crazy Christmas. Must say I really enjoyed myself over all and it was good to experience Christmas out of Ireland. I had been mentioning to most of ye that it's still not cold over here. Well it turns out it was the warmest December ever in Toronto. I sure picked a good year to come. It will be a big shock when I head to Whistler though. Finally just at the end of the year I saw my favourite movie of the year. Children of Men. Loved it to pieces. It was actually out in the cinema's back home the weekend I left home, but it just came out over here last week. I've been dying to see it and it surpassed my expectations. Classic.

The gang party at home

The Bulls come to town

Brazilians should stick to the soccer

Ahhh, Glen........ your pants?

More craziness back in the house

Glen and Jack hit the bed together

Very wet New Years celebrations at City Hall

Partying with the ladies on New Years..... just before getting barred.

Bye Bye Angela and her moose hat.

Tues, Dec 26th

Ok, trying to sum up what I got up to over the last 10 days is gonna be a tough one. Hands down the craziest week and a bit of my life. Really should have done a blog posting for each day as so much happened. It was mental oriental. I took about 100 photo's too so will have to try pick a few to sum it all up.

First up was Christmas eve, which I wasn't expecting much from as it's one of the better nights back home, with all my friends, so I didn't think that it could compare over here. We planned to just go out to the small Irish bar that Angela works in for a few drinks and see what happens. It was complete madness as soon as we got there. There were plenty of Irish lads in there all day. There was this one crazy bastard from west Cork who was without doubt the craziest lunatic i've ever met. He kept everyone entertained for the night with his ramblings. We ended up having a lock in the pub till around midnight. Angela even brought me behind the bar to teach me how to pull pints, so I was the barman for quite a while. Funny. Around midnight then we all headed back to a house of a couple of Tipperary lads for a party. Again, absolute madness here. Singing, dancing and lots of drinking. No idea what time we left here it's a Christmas eve i'm not going to forget anytime soon.

You can probably guess that we weren't in the best of conditions on Christmas morning. Not eve sure what time we got up. Think it was around 9, so we were all pretty fuzzy headed. We all had lots of calls to make home so hence the early rising. We did our secret santa first though. Lots of funny presents all round. I got a slinky and instructions for lots of drinking games from Glen (like I need more of a reason to drink more). It was definitely good to have something to open on xmas morning. The others had some gifts from home too, mostly clothes. We all headed to the hostel then to make our calls home. I was on the phone for hours. I had to catch everyone early before they headed out for the day. When we got back from making our calls Angela cooked a big ol Irish breakfast for us, which was just what we all needed. (Note: it's impossible to top a proper Irish breakfast, everything over here tastes different, especially bacon which just plain sucks). We probably all ate too much as we had our xmas dinner booked in a hotel for 6 but none of us were really hungry by then. Turns out it all worked out fine though as the dinner was extremely poor. The servings were shockingly small. When the bill came we still tipped quite well seeing as it was Christmas but I did write on the reset that it was the worst xmas dinner EVER.

After dinner we had an invite to go to a house party for another Irish guy, (Stevie) who actually lives quite close to Glen back home in Tyrone, and who were we to refuse an invite to a party. We had bought our drink well in advance so we picked it up from our house on the way to Stevie's. All the public transport was still running on xmas day so we had no problem getting around. In fact, seeing as we live in Chinatown you wouldn't have guessed it was xmas day at all as all the shops were still open. Was definitely strange. We got to Stevie's around 7ish and the party was well on the way already with a good mix of people from all over. Needless to say we partied till all hours and all crawled home at some ungodly hour.

The day after xmas is called boxing day over here as well and they go mad for their sales. I wanted to try and get a cheap webcam for myself so went round some of the shops. Picked one up for $9 which is crazy cheap, so I was happy with that. We weren't sure what to expect from that night as we weren't sure if it was like home and everyone goes out. Turns out it was nothing like home. Most places were closed. We started drinking at home first to keep the costs down and then headed to lovely sounding pub called Philty McNasties. There was a gang of Irish there again so we had another great night.

Ok this is getting out of hand, i'm gonna stop here and will fill ye in on the rest shortly.

Barman Brian

My first Guinness, not half bad, eh?

Lock-in at the pub and the party's started on xmas eve

The party continues back in the lad's house

Its sing along time

Xmas mornin and it's pressie time

My fab presents

Lookin all civilised at our xmas dinner

Not so civilised later on

Yet more sing alongs

"Boxing Day" provides yet more carnage