Sunday, Oct 29th

First things first, started my new job on Thursday and I'm delighted to say that I HATE it already. Just had 2 days of training so far and it sucks. They're “training” me in at the mo but I don't think they even know the meaning of the word. Its crazy the amount of stuff they're throwing at me. My days so far have basically entailed me sitting behind a Chinese lady as she just works away as normal and i'm supposed to just pick up on everything she does. Its a complete joke. The only thing keeping me there is just that its so damn convenient for me. I'll see how the next week goes and if it doesn't get any better i'll have to get back onto the recruitment agencies. Woo hoo.

Well after my two days of sucky work I was def ready to make the most of my weekend. Its Halloween on tuesday so everybody is dressing up already. They really make the most out of it over here, its great. On Friday night I went out with Glen, Jamie and a few other Irish folk. Ended up in a pub called the Underground, which we've been to a few times. There were a lot of people dressed up in there and we managed to get a few American football helmets for ourselves, which you can check out below. Another great night had by all.
On Sat I decided that I wanted to get a costume for myself. The first idea to come into my head was to dress up as Ronaldinho, the soccer player. There's loads of fancy dress places around so I spent the day going from store to store picking up all the pieces I needed. You can see the results below. It was such a laugh. I got some great reaction from people. Half the people didn't know who I was but the ones that did, loved it. I convinced Glen and Jamie to get costumes when I came back with mine. Glen dressed up as Slash from Guns and Roses and Jamie dressed up as William Wallace from Braveheart. When we left the apartment all dressed up I had a laughing fit for about 5 minutes and just couldn't stop laughing. You should have seen the state of us, well I guess you can below. Firstly we went to join a fancy dress tour that was going from club to club. It was $30 which was a bit too much for us so we just snuck into the first club they went to and when they were leaving we just decided to go to the hostel instead as there was a party there too. Nobody in there recognized me in my outfit. There were a load of cool costumes around. We bumped into a guy dressed up as Borat at one stage and he was hilarious. He was in full character and everything. Jagshemash.

We went to a few other places and ended up back in the hostel again later. It was a brilliant night all round and I might use the costume again on Halloween night as there's a load of stuff on around the city. They're closing a street off for a mass zombie march, which sounds pretty cool. I'm off to an amusement park now for the night so i'll report back on that during the week.

We join an American Football team on the Fri night

Some rock chicks we met

And some hot chicks

Saturday night and the guys start to doll themselves up

Ronaldinho, William Wallace and Slash make an appearance

Borat meets Slash, and I wet myself with laughter

Ronaldinho uses his ball skills to impress the ladies

Slash gets wasted

Wed, Oct 5th

Ok quick mid-week update as I've got some news. On my way to work yesterday, I got a call from one of the recruitment agencies about a new job. Its working for the Royal Bank of Canada, which I believe is the biggest bank in Canada. The more I heard about the job, the more excited I started to get. The money's better, its a walkable distance from my house, its downtown in the financial sector, it's Mon-Fri and its 9-5. Pretty much exactly what I wanted. I'm not 100% about what i'll actually be doing but I reckon it'll prob be something pretty mundane like data entry or something. But fup it, it's definitely too good to pass on.

So after hearing all this I found out that i'd have to start work in 2 days(thurs), which isn't much notice. I told her i'd ring back in an hour with my decision. At this stage I was in no mood to go to work in the call centre but didn't want to give them the shaft as they'd all been so good to me and I didn't want to leave them hanging like that. So in I went, almost an hour late coincidently, and I told one of my bosses, Isaac, straight away. He was completely cool about it and kept bringing it up all day in front of everyone, which was pretty embarrassing. So I rang back the recruitment agency straight away and told them i'd take the job.

As it was my last day I wanted to try and sponsor as many children as I could that day. My 3 bosses were super nice to me all day and really appreciative of the work I had done. At the end of each day we always have a very short group meeting just to talk about how we're all getting on. That day we had sponsored more kids then ever before so that was quite a big deal. After mentioning that, then Isaac mentioned in front of the group that I was leaving and completely embarrassed me with all his compliments. Apparently I had sponsored more children then any of the other 20 that had started recently. Good to here that i've done some good since I got to Canada, besides getting smashed every second night. So everyone came round to say their goodbyes and again were all very nice. People seem to really like me over here for some reason. May have to stay here forever. Anyway my boss told me that I could come back anytime if I needed extra hours, which was really nice of him and I may actually take him up on it, as when i'm heading west I may need some extra cash. So I left them all, but I may be back at some stage.

I told them in the call centre that I had to start work in the new job on the following day, which was a lie, so I got to have a day off in between jobs. Brilliant decision on my part. I spent my day off finding where my new work would be and wondering around the city, again. Walked as much as my little legs could take me and then headed back to the hostel to avail of their free internet, yet again. And that pretty much brings me right up to this second. So I start my new job in the morn and will update ye folks at some stage over the weekend. It's Halloween weekend this weekend so should be good fun. Stay tuned......

Architecture varies massively downtown

There's lots of markets around for cheap, fresh food too, not that I avail of it.

Sun, Oct 23rd

Things are really starting to calm down now and i'm slowly coming back to reality. Most of my week is pretty quiet now with work. The days when i'm working are pretty much dominated with work as it takes me so long to get there and back again. So of course I wanna make the most of my days off. Unfortunately I spent my Monday in recruitment agencies doing crappy tests and interviews. They rang me once during the week with some office work but it was only for 3 weeks so I refused it. HMV also offered me a job but the money was too crap to take it.
Work hasn't been too bad for the week. The work itself is monotonous but everyone I work with are really nice so it makes it a lot easier. If the hours were more regular and it wasn't so far away i'd prob be able to stick it out.

On Friday night I headed on another pub crawl with Glen and Jamie. Similar to last week. We'd just wander the streets and anyone that gave us a flyer we try their pub. Most places are still pretty crap but its good to get to go into all of them just to try them out anyway. And most of the women working in these places are phenomenal. We were chatting with this one girl who look exactly like Beyonce's character in Austin Powers. Foxy Cleopatra we were calling her, apparently she gets it all the time. I would have married her on the spot given the chance. Apparently she was half Irish too which was hilarious. Everybody over here is half Irish. For such a small population we sure seem to haven't gotten around. Anywho, we had another great night that night and all stumbled home at some crazy hour.

I had to be up for work again at 9 the following morning so needless to say I was in pieces. That turned out to be a looooooooooooong day. Was falling asleep at one stage and everything. My boss is sound out though so he knew the situation. After just about making it through the day in one piece I headed straight out again with Glen, Jamie and Angela, back to the Mod Club where we had went last week. It's absolutely brilliant, one of the best clubs i've ever been in. We had another brilliant in there. Jamie was chatting with the lead singer of the band and hopefully we'll be on the guest list for next week. After the club we ended up going into a Vietnamese restaurant on the way home. While we were waiting for our food I went over to some guys and asked if I could taste some of their food. Seemed like a good idea at the time. They let me taste it but you should have seen the look they gave me. Hilarious. We've been laughing about it ever since.

Had a pretty relaxing day on Sat. Went to the cinema with Angela and Fiona (nice Scottish gal). We went to an CG animated movie called Open Season. Movie was only alright but we went to see it in a super fancy Imax cinema here. The movie was completely in 3d (first one ever) on a MASSIVE screen, so on the way in they gave us these fancy glasses, just like sunglasses really. The 3d was really cool . For about the first 10 min I wasn't really paying attention to the movie and was just looking at all the things in the foreground/background. Some big directors are pushing all movies to be like this in the future, so it was pretty cool to see the first one ever.

And that just about sums up my week. It'll prob sound the same as my next few weeks. Hoping to get to some more gigs soon and a hockey game too. So check back soon....

Rocking out in The Mod Club

Don't think I have any sober pictures of Glen and Jamie
Toronto City Hall

Fancy church across from City Hall.

Righto, firstly as you may have noticed, if anyone is still reading my blog, that i've had to cut down a lot on the updates. Since i've moved into my new place we don't have any internet so I have to go back to the hostel to use the free wireless connection there. I'm actually only living about 10 min from the hostel now but when i'm working it pretty much takes up all my day. So yeah, basically there's prob just gonna be updates once, maybe twice a week.

The problem now is trying to remember what i've done in the last week. I was talking with Angela (my new housemate) about how crazy it is that i've only been here 3 weeks. Feels like about 3 months with all I've done. So last Monday I had my first Thanksgiving and yes, it is a different date to Thanksgiving in the States. The Hostel were doing a big dinner for anyone who signed up for it. $5. I actually didn't sign up in time and it was sold out but I'm buddies with the chef so he sorted me out. It was good to have a home cooked meal for a change since I've been eating out every night since I got here. I even went back for seconds.

Can't say I got up to much for the rest of the week as I worked Tues to Sat. This was my first proper week of work as I just had training last week. Well i'm glad to say that work pretty much sucks. Looks like i'm back to regular life again. I'm used to liking my job so i'm not too happy about it. My day consists of ringing up people all day who are currently sponsoring children in third world countries and asking them if they can afford to sponsor a second child. Its not so bad as generally all the people I ring are really nice and they already know what i'm "selling". I just don't like talking on the phone all day and annoying people at inopportune times. Everyone I work with is really nice and friendly too. The worst thing about the job though is the hours and the length of time it takes me to get there. Takes about an hour and a quarter to get there and get back. For each journey I have to take a streetcar, a subway and then a bus. My hours are usually 1-9 but sometimes its 3-11 so I don't get home till after midnight. So anytime I haven't been working this week i've been out looking for a new job. I'm hoping to find some crappy office job downtown that's 9-5 Mon-Fri. I've two interviews on Mon morn with recruitment agencies so hopefully they'll be able to help me out.

By Friday night I was dying for some booze so had to go out even though I had to be up at 9 on Sat morn for work. I headed out with Glen and Jamie on a bit of a pub crawl. We hadn't been to too many pubs so we wanted to try find one we really like. Must of the pubs over here are pretty crap. So we just wandered a few streets and anytime we were given fliers or concessions we'd try that place. We weren't having much luck finding a good place so we decided to join Martin and Des (2 more Irish lads) in a pub called The Underground. This place was great. A real dark and dingy place but good crowd and great music. Bit like The Oak in Dublin for ye in the know. Met a real nice American girl there too by the name of Shana. Later on is a bit hazy as I had quite a bit of drink in me at this stage. I ended up heading back to some Asian dudes apartment with the American girls and Martin. Had a great night there but didn't get home till 6 so needless to say work the next day was torture. Unfortunately Shana was only in Canada for a holiday so had to head back to the States. Just my luck.

After a painful day in work I decided to head out to go see Badly Drawn Boy with Angela in a nice small club called the Mod Club. Absolutely brilliant gig. I was struggling with the standing initially, but after a few pints I was back in action. After the gig ended the club started which was excellent too. I'll def be heading back there again. Another late night so I enjoyed a nice lie in on Sun morn. I really deserved it as hadn't slept much over the last week or so. Well that's about all I remember of my week but I think it's prob enough for ye to be reading now anyway. Stayed tuned for my next update. Same bat time, same bat channel.....

My new place

Nice Toronto Sunset
Some cool street "performers". Gravity defying balancing.
Shana and Alison
View from fancy Asian apartment.

Badly Drawn Boy, with some bald dude.

Day 19, Oct 9th

The weather has been really great over here for the last few days (in the mid 20's) so myself, Jamie and Glen decided to go to the beaches for the day. There's two man made beaches on the edge of Lake Ontario. The size of the lake is crazy. It feels like you're looking at the ocean it's so massive. It was really nice down there and very busy as it was a bank holiday weekend. There was loads of people roller blading, cycling and playing volley ball. I really hadn't expected the weather to be so nice here at this time of year. I thought it would be freezing by now.

That night I had planned to just sit in the hostel for the night and not do any boozing. That plan went out the window at around 8. Christiana finished work today so was in the mood for some drink so who was I spoil the party. Had yet another great night and met some more cool people. Work starts on Tuesday and i'm really not ready for it. Everything is going too well at the moment and I don't want it to stop. Damn this real world living.

A street on the way to the beach

Yes, this is really Toronto in October

The beach town
Christiana enjoys her first night of being unemployed

Annick gets some love from Nimo

Day 18, Oct 8th

Was supposed to get up at midday today to go watch the Ireland/Cyprus game in the pub with a few of the lads. After the night we had last night this wasn't gonna happen. I didn't get to bed till after 6 so slept in till around 1. Was still wrecked. When I did finally rise I went up to my new house to sort out the payment and sign the lease. I also bought a metro pass which allows me to use any public transport in the city(bus, subway, street car), they're very handy.

I hate to sound like a broken record but that night was another night of booze. It was the last night of another friend, Viera from Switzerland. There was a good crowd in the hostel again and a few drinking games on the go so it was all good. Glen and Jamie came down later and we decided to head to a pub for a change. Some Irish one called O'Malleys or something. There was a good band on and a good crowd there so we partied all night again. We bumped into a few more Irish in the pub too which was good. I went back to the hostel then afterwards and there was a good crowd still up so another late one. And to finish me off, myself and Tim got a case of the munchies around 5am so headed out to get some donuts. Nice finish to the night.

Starting off in the hostel

The "Irish pub"

The most sober i've been in the last 2 weeks.

Glen acting the maggot

Some lunatic after the pub

The aftermath

Day 17, Oct 7th

Heard back from the games company that I didn't get the job. Didn't mind though as wasn't sure I really wanted it anyway as I would have had to move out of Toronto on my tod. So I decided i'd take the room in the house with Glen and Jamie. Will move in over the weekend at some stage. I spent the rest of the day sorting out some bank details and applying to a few recruitment agencies again. Gonna keep looking for a different job while i'm working in the call centre. I had an interview too in the morn with an electronic store in the Eaton Centre. The guy wanted me but I found out it was minimum wage so not a chance.

That night was another big one as one of the Aussie lads, Luke, was leaving the following morn. He was a good laugh and will be missed. A big gang of us headed to our local pub (Shoeless Joes) where everyone proceeded to get smashed. Had a great laugh playing fussball and pool there for the night. A few even tried their hands with karaoke which was hilarious. Most of us headed back to the hostel then afterwards where there was another night of great craic. I was possibly the drunkest i've been, since I got here, this night. Its hard to keep track these days though. I could do with a camera crew following me around to keep track of my adventures.

Luke braves a bit of karaoke on his last night, with Dave.

Luke, Timmy (Timmmm-ahhh) and camera-shy Cristiana
Luke starts to get cocky (drunker) and goes it alone with the karaoke

Timmm-ahh, Christiana, Luke, Glen and some bird.
Glen, my new room-mate, finishes the night off in style

Day 16, Oct 6th

Third day of training today. Nothing of interest to report. I was chatting to one of my colleagues on the bus on the way home about my thoughts to head east to work in a ski resort for a few months, when a lady over heard me and told me about a hotel she worked in over in Whislter. She was really nice and helpful. I've been looking at the hotels website and it looks pretty amazing. http://www.fairmont.com/whistler/
Will wait and see I guess.

That night there was a bit of a session in the hostel which was good craic. Met some more really nice folk. Had good craic with a girl from Derry, Ann (Jude if you're reading this I asked if she knew you but she didn't). I'm off for the next 4 days so made the most of this night.

Ann pitches to Dave as we get into the local sports.

As there was no baseball bat in sight Ann uses her trusty sword instead.
A bit of dancing ends another night of carnage in the Global Village.

Day 15, Oct 5th

Work started at 12 today but still took me almost an hour and a half to get to work. More training today. Found out today that very few of the people training with me are actually from Canada. They all have been living there for a few years but come from all over the world. This must have been an intentional decision from the employers i'd say. They day was fine again. Found out i'd have one more day of training and then be off for a four day weekend, then start proper on Tues. So the plan is to have found a new job by Tues hopefully.

A few of my new friends have a house together close enough to the hostel and one of the lads staying there has decided to move to Ottawa so his room is gonna be available from next week. The problem is I can't take it until I hear back from the games company as if I get that job i'll have to move out of Toronto. So I emailed the company (Capcom) in hope that they'll tell me if I got the job or not asap.

Lost (tv show) started its 3rd series on tv tonight too which was a massive deal in the States and here. There was a big gang in the hostel tv room to watch it and we all had a good laugh. Its good to have the old gang back again. Prob won't see it again for a while now though. Then again, I guess that's what the Internet is for.

Went for a few quiet drinks that night with some of the lads and was chatting to a Scottish gal who told me to come over to hers for a party for Thanksgiving on Monday. Think a few of the other lads are going too so will prob go along to that. Looking forward to my 4 day weekend already and I've only been working 2 days now.

Day 14, Oct 3rd

Got up nice and early for my first day of work in the big CA. Work started at 11 so I got up at 8.30. Only just made it in for 11. Took me about 1 hour 20 min to get there. Had to do a bit of walking to the subway, then a 20 min ride on the subway. Then had to get a bus, which was a bit late. I was tired by the time I even got to work. So different to my 20 min cycle I was used to. Not sure i'd last doing this. Especially when it gets real cold during the winter. I'll keep it up for now but can't see me staying with it.

They were all Canadian in the training except for myself and this older Spanish lady. I got stuck with her for lunch and she drove me nuts. She just kept complaining about EVERYTHING. I was stuck walking to the closest canteen with her and she's a big lady who I doubt does much walking. She got about 10 feet every minute and then spent another minute complaining about it. Note to self: avoid her at all costs in future.

The actual training itself was fine, its for a charity agency who gets sponsorship for kids in need in developing countries. It was actually very interesting but i'm just not the sort of person to be ringing up people bugging them all day. Unless they're my friends.

Work finished at 5 so I was back in the hostel for about 6.30. Was in the need for some booze then and luckily there was a bit of a session back in the hostel so had a good laugh with an Ossie bunch for the night. They had some crazy stories so we were all entertained for the night. Didn't drink too much and went to bed early enough again as had more work/training in the mornin. First day of work wasn't too bad.

Day 13, Oct 2nd

So today was the big interview day. It was a beautiful day, like a nice summers day back home. First one was in HMV at 10. Made sure I got there early. And sober. Manager was a nice guy so we chatted away for a while. I felt the interview went well but you never know. Money is quite a bit worse then the call centre job so not sure which job I'd prefer to take between the 2. If money wasn't an option I'd def take the HMV one.

After that interview I decided to head straight to the train station to get the train to Burlington for the games interview as I had no idea how long it would take me to get where I needed to go. 45 min train journey to Burlington and I was at the train station with no idea where to go from there, but again I met this really nice, helpful girl who was going in the same direction so I tagged along with her. She showed me pretty much exactly where to go so I ended up getting there an hour and a half early. That's a first. They were conducting other interviews so they couldn't accommodate me any earlier, but they gave me a desk so I got the laptop out to do some stuff.

When they were all set I had my interview which I think went pretty well but they did mention they were interviewing a lot of people for the position. So afterwards I made my way back to Toronto, which took about 2 hours in total to get back. I was shattered by then so just hung around in the hostel chatting with some of the others for the night trying to decide which job would be best for me.

Got an early night then for my first day of work in the mornin. BOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Day 12, Oct 1st

Had another pretty quiet day today. Didn't get out of bed till around 12.30 after our hijinks from the night before. I went down to the train station to check up on the times for the train I'd be getting to Burlington for the games interview tomorrow. After walking around for a few hours I was really starting to feel it in my legs so decided to head back. Wasn't sure I was gonna make it back to the hostel in one piece. Eventually crawled back. That was enough walking for one day. I reckon I've walked more in the last 10 days then I have in the rest of my entire life put together. I miss my bike:(

Spent the rest of the day just hanging in the hostel, doing some research online for my interview. The wireless Internet in the hostel is a real life saver. A lot of people who haven't been staying in the hostel for months still come back to avail of it.

Went for just a couple of drinks later on in a local pub with some of the Irish gang. Not much else to report and didn't take any pics today. Tak, the guy I met from Japan, did email me now that he's back in Japan thanking me for making his trip so enjoyable. He emailed on some of the pics he took so I've attached them below for your viewing pleasure. It was good to hear how much he enjoyed our company as I had no idea what he thought of us. I guess it is nice to be nice. But it's even nicer to be drunk.

More taking the piss out of Crazy Old Joe

Ride 'em horsey

Bye bye Taku