A walk in the woods.
The woods smelled of strawberries, but maybe that was just wishful thinking as the season was too late. Maybe it was the ones Daniella had brought with her, we ate some for breakfast, but not poor Mounia as she is allergic. Somehow we had managed to stay up until midnight and didn’t drag ourselves out of our tents until 11am. I had a cold night despite my down sleeping bag and crappy sleeping mat. Perhaps another couple of pairs of socks would have stopped my feet feeling like ice blocks.
Tags: camping, cards, beers, chipmunks, maps, waterfalls, tent, sandals, map, photosSnoring Bears in the wood
The 2 polish girls Andres and I had stayed awake until 4.30am didn’t turn up until the next morning, seems like they had a long night and they crashed right away. I spent an hour rearranging my backpack for the camping trip I had arranged through couchsurfing. We (well it wasn’t just me) were a bit dissorganised though and we didn’t leave montreal until gone noon and we still needed to go food shopping for the trip. The attendees were myself, Renae from Perth Australia, Mouina from Morrocco and Daniella from Mexico. The last two are studying in Montreal and saw it as a good chance to see some of the local flora and fauna near their new home cities. We stopped off on the Interstate and stocked up on Tortillas, fruit and Beer.
Tags: chipmunks, girls, locals, highways, cars, tent, camping, beers, Travel, mexico, fauna, backpack, daniellaRussian food and dancing
Friday night was the fourth irregular couchsurfing Montreal Food Discovery Tour meeting at La Caverne. I was downtown for most of the afternoon wandering around looking for interesting things, I made a 2 minute trip into Payless Shoes to replace my Converse all stars which were literally killing my feet. See shoes, try shoes, buy shoes… bliss. Good thing too as the restaurant was miles away. I found the street but soon discovered it was all the way over the hill which montreal is built around. I eventually gave up, got the bus and found I was 200m away…. bleh.
Tags: pints, daniella, girls, photos, fridays, photo, Travel, wanderings, locals, campingIm all stiff!!
Not in the erotic sense of course, I went rockclimbing last night for the first time. Ok I did it in Thailand up a mountain, but that felt more like the guy pulling me up. Was where the Tsunami hit, I wonder if he is ok…Im in Montreal, everything is in French, sexy girls keep walking past, it really could be in France except Im on the wrong continent. I came over on Sunday afternoon with a couple of guys from Venezuala who live here. I met them on Thursday night in the Cadillac lounge and then went dancing.
Tags: girls, dishes, desire, taxi, mountains, rope, wanderings, mexicoDinner with the Guys
I took a walk over to the camera store Mikhael had told me about which was a good few kms, was pretty good. I even had a play with the new Canon 40D which is very nice, but Im still happy with my 30D, I have to take a few more shots. Still can’t find the daypack I want though, but they had some nice ones in there. Prices are the same as the UK though so it would be best to wait until I get to the states.
In the evening I was invited to dinner at Yorvis and Loius’ new apartment and drove over with Mikhael and Andres. Andres’ girl was also there along with Ben, a canadian guy who speaks excellent Mexican spanish. Its really nice that I get to meet people other than other backpackers and see some kind of normal life. They put on a DVD they got with a board game and Im ashamed to say I kicked all their asses. How half of them can go through life and not see half of the best movies of all time I will never know, but then I do have several years on most of them 
Playing tour guide
I woke up at around noon when Bonnie came downstairs, but was still tired. I made myself useful and filled the dishwasher, 4 guys living together and a working dishwasher that was empty :p Bonnie helped to tidy up too, it was the least we could do. Marks house is in Greek Town and actually just around the corner from where I had my first brunch in the Only Cafe, but we walked the wrong way and ended up at some organic supermarket vegetarian cafe which was nice. Bonnie is really great, she works as a graphic designer for a travel magazine and has been lots of cool places. My kind of traveller, someone who cares more about the trip and having random adventures than actually getting to the final destination. She ended up in Mozambique trying to get to Tanzania and had a blast not doing what she wanted to.
We wandered into town down the main street and got the subway further in to get out of the sun. It has been really nice this last week, not a drop of rain, clear skies, just warm enough… the perfect english summer we had missed. Its nice just to walk and talk, and Bonnie was an interesting girl too, so far better than exploring on my own. We had a look in the Ontario Musuem but at $15 was too much to go in, and had a look in at the library which was prety good too. Mark needed to borrow Bonnies car to take his empty kegs back so we headed home before we had a chance to get down to see Lake Ontario, I guess she’ll have to go see that herself on next week.
I had another night to kill and decided to spend it at the local salsa club instead of with Mark, his boys and Bonnie but got trapped into sitting around chatting and drinking beer. They have a sweet set up, Matt and Mark (a third mark!) have some decks and are really into their music and are always mixing stuff and working on tracks. Shame they can’t get it together properly but I wish they would, really cool guys.
I was late for salsa and bouced from pub to club twice before I saw Neil who I had met at the Brunch meeting on Sunday outside and he showed me where everyone was sitting. Jeanne, Andreas, Yorvis were also there, along with a couple of other girls who weren’t coming dancing. I was looking for Maria, who was not there yet, so didn’t see the. Its fun to seemingly hook up with mostly random people you meet through a website. Much better than talking to the drunk in the corner of the bar
Salsa wasn’t that great though I have to say. Too fast, and then they stopped playing salsa for ages, $10 to get in and expensive beer. I only had one. Andeas and yorvis were great dancers though, although they made Jeanne do all the work. Made it look so easy, but I think Im getting my head around it a bit more, I think the beer might have helped I better get more practise in before I hit Latin America.
If you add me to facebook you can see the photos Megan too when she turned up. Im in as travel trousers
1/2 a Mile high
Thursday was the the day I had to move out my hostel, so I woke up on time and sorted out my stuff a bit better. I also really needed to finish up the tourist things as I was still hoping to get a ride the next day to Montreal, although I hadn’t heard back from Dave. I sent him another message and then went for a good walk back into Kennsington Market and China town. I had bought a ticket for the CN tower for $20 which wasn’t cheap, but i figured I had to check it out.
I got my camera out too and took some photos, not saying they were any good, but I have been a bit lazy with the photography so far and needed to become more concientious about my new hobby. Lunch was at a vegetarian chinese place that gave me a massive portion, easily enough for 3 people so I had to get a carry out (which I then left in the hostel). I wandered down to the CN, swiped my ticket and headed up to the top. It was quite good fun, the glass floor was good, but not really that scary. Its so tall it doesn’t seem real. Would love to bungee from it.
Mark had finally agreed to let me stay and also had another surfer, Bonnie from LA, who was due in too. We all swapped messages and I was angling for a lift from the hostel which didn’t really work, but I was just too lazy to get the subway. I left it too late too, and by the time I staggered out with my stuff I realised my knees were kind of sore so just go a cab. Bonnie is great, and a true travel writer, as it she works for a travel magazine. They dont do editorial content anymore which is a shame, but Im sure she has plenty of good advice for that field.
Mark, Bonnie and I had to get to a big bookstore before closing at 9pm as the New York Times had an article about couchsurfing and Mark was quoted! Nice! So we got the subway in and the wandered through town in the evening before heading to the reverb club to watch a band that Megan knew. Where are all the melodies these days? I dont think its because Im old, I think its because I knew what a good band sounds like but I can’t really see them making it. The band after called ‘After Party’ were much better, had a hot singer too which is nice.
Maria also came so when that was over she drove us to the Cadallic Lounge to meet the other CRs. Dave was also there and apparently got told off for not getting back to me about the lift the next day. It was all good though as a couple of guys that live in Montreal were going there on Sunday and I was welcome to join them. Another couple of days in Toronto and a chance to dance salsa on friday night! Winner!
Dead day
I got up late, which was half because I was so tired, and half because I spent all night with the terrrible snoring. I had a short wander around town, joined the Mountain Equipment Coop, which is an awsome store and tried to find a day safe backpack. No luck there.
The afternoon was spent trying to do my laundry, mostly unsuccessfully,the kiktchen area was closed and then the dryers broke so I hung around waiting for them to become free, which they didn’t as people kept refilling them. Waste of a day really. I eventually got my clothes clean and then just messed around on my laptop until the social evening event of meeting at Sneaky Dees, but that was quite late. Met up with some more CS guys and talked about skiing. I really wanted to go after that conversation!
Tags: Travel, wanderings, mountains, backpack, clothes, laptop, laptopsNoodles, Drums and bad vibes
We managed to get out the Bates Motel for just after 11am, which was good, I just hope I get my $300 deposit back on my card sooner rather than later, ie not getting it when Im in Montreal. We cruised up to the backpackers but I couldn’t get in until 1pm so we headed up to Kensington Market to get some coffee and chinese food. Might have to go back and buy some clothes, they have lots of pimping gear up there. The backpacker look is so last year, vintage 70s gear might be the way forward.
Tried a couple of ATMs with my card but they all wanted to charge me a couple of bucks per transation. That was ok for me at the airport but not in the city, I found the RBC didn’t charge me later on so I will be sticking to them. I was broke though so I couldn’t treat Britni to the lovely mangosten they had in the chinese fresh food stalls. Im sure I can find some in Chicago, although at nearly three pounds a pound they were very expensive. Thailand has spoiled me
I got dropped off and we said our sad goodbyes. Really great girl, I hope she gets back to doing what she loves, photography, as soon as she can, I could do with some lessons Was gonna be a long ass drive back to Chicago and she drives like a maniac so I hope she made it ok! She taught me a trick or two, and Im not talking about her singy-songy southern accent! More importantly I hope she doesn;t get sacked, first time she has had a sicky but it was Niagara Falls dammit with some great company, she had to come.
I moved into the Canadania backpackers which is downtown and then went for a walk around. I’m getting my bearings now after driving around the city for a couple of days looking for random things, I spotted the Toronto branch of the Mountain Equipment Company and made a mental note for the next day. Not that I can carry much more, I only really bought a sleeping mat and now it seems like I have no room and the damn thing fit on the outside! The beastie boys are playing this weekend too, but looks like I will miss it as hopefully I will be in Montreal by then.
Kaydi had invited me to the last drum circle event of the year so I got cleaned up and we rode the street car west to the park. Its nice she can take some time out of her last years study to show me a few things. The park has a big bowl in it and it was packed with hundreds of people playing the drums and maybe a thousand in total. Fire jugglers, people with glow sticks, people dancing… We met a couple of Kaydis friends from saturday and sat dinking wine and laughing at the girls in front of us grinding away at each other. Too dark for photos despite my camera, I really needed my flash but I wont make that mistake again.
They finished up at about 10.30 which Im sure the local residents appreciated as a hundred drummers tended to make a lot of noise. It was kind of strange to listen to it too as it was completely organic, Im not sure anyone was in charge and it slowly changed into different rythms as you sat there. You could hear melodies in the pattern too somehow. Very strange. Very cool. I walked west with the Kaydis friends back to their place which was over the Pizza Pizza as I was meeting some couchsurfer friends in a local bar although I was very late and I got my first sense of bad vibes on the way.
Some well built white guy with a mohican was walking towards us, minding his own buisness and it seemed like when he was 5 meters away he saw my camera on my shoulder so he looked at me, touched my arm as he passed and started saying ‘Hey buddy, can I get…’. I felt like I was about to be mugged, but I ignored him and just kept walking as he ran out of ideas of things to ask me for. I had no cigarettes and I wasn’t going to give him any money so why should I stop? So he could find an excuse to smack me?
We got to the bar a while later and I met up with Mark and Megan again, sadly I had missed most of the other people as it was a bit late but there was quite a good group still there and we even had a couchsurfing barmaid working the bar. A bit later she was very glad we were there. I also met Dave Smaller who said he was going to Montreal on friday so looks like I can get a cheap ride share there. The guy in my dorm room said it cost him $90 which seems a bit expensive.
Eventually there were just three of us left and we went out for a cigarette with Dani the CS barmaid and during the constant stream of panhandlers one of the other guys in the bar came out and started telling us his story which was kind of bizzarre. He said he had been back in Toronto 4 hours as he had been deported from the the UK for asking his clients in the defense industry where the WMDs were. His cousin had recently been killed by friendly fire and he had had enough. Seemed like a bizarre story, but the guy was very drunk and kind of emotional. I mostly believed him, but then he said he didn’t have any money for his bar tab, insulted Dani and lied to her about lending Mark $50 and lost any respect he might have just gained.
I guess if we see him on the news in a few days killed by the CIA there might be something in it. He was writing it in a blue binder about the general and the dutch protistutues it was his job to buy for them with his platinum mastercard. Very strange story.
These couchsurfers area lot mroe hardcore than the Birmingham lot as there are meetings planned for Wednesday and Thursday too. I can hardly keep up! Im not getting much sleep as it is, and despite being in a dorm in a comfy bed I had the usual dubious pleasure of beeing woken up by some noisy German who wouldn’t stop snoring. He would stop when I would kick the underneath of his bed but soon started again. At least I wasn’t up since 5am like the english guy in my room. I need to organise my pack and dig out my ear plugs….
Tags: girls, photo, backpack, money, atm, cousins, fridays, dorms, photos, Travel, cars, circles, localsAh, the romance of getting drenched.
At the hostel I had left a note seeing if anyone wanted to come to the falls on monday morning, but there were no takers! Stupid fools were paying $40 a pop to take the bus down and I only wanted a bit for gas. The fools. I managed to persuade Britni to come along though so I wasn’t going to be lonely. We hit the road with the usual confusion with Marta the tomtom girl sending us all over the place and had a good sing song on the way down, now I know what Styx sound like! Proper highway driving in the day is much more intense, but its only 1 1/2 hours away.
I was slightly confused about the whole thing, as you are when you have never been anywhere, but Im glad I saw it in Canada, they have a nicer view I reckon. We also had the wind coming to us so got all the spray as well which was fun Its a real tourist trap, unsuprisingly, but was nice to be there and check it out. We had another lovely day, sunny and clear, rainbows from the falls. Was a nice place to spend a couple of hoursShame I can’t post any cliched photos yet, but they will come!
We headed back and went for Pizza Pizza, no rats this time but was nice to be by the lake near the harbour as the sun set, I gave a pathetic salsa lesson on the stage, I really need to get drunk and go dancing. Seemed like a really short day somehow, but it took a lot of driving. We drove back up to the airport to drop off my car and wished the striking workers luck in their struggle against the man! I wonder what to do about the 2 parking tickets I got…? :p
Now we had a dilema as Britni should have been back at work the next day but couldn’t get back in time and we didn’t want to impose on Judy again so we started looking for a place to stay. The guidebook gave us some clues but we were still out of luck after a dozen phone calls, we didn;t really want to pay $320 for the honeymoon suite at some posh hotel.so we headed back to the scary place we had done a u-turn earlier.
No needles under the bed, no blood, just a big spider on the ceiling and a reasonable price. The guy at the reception was kinda scary, but it was late, we were tired and I doubt we would find anything else better. For me it had to beat the car and Judy’d floor by a considerable margin!
Tags: tourists, highways, girls, photo, photos, hostels, salsa
The Brunch Bunch
I got up at 7am (my parking expired) and drove north for a while until I found an empty street to crash in and then got a couple more hours sleep. The camping mat was a god send! :p Then I thought I better find some breakfast but all my GPS could find was a closed Jamacian Cafe. Pity, looked pretty interesting to eat in. I sat around a lot in the nearby car park, tried to get my GPS track off my little logger (unsuccessfully) and then went wifi hunting which was better. I had a bit of mail and some ebay related task for my folks.e so good to me
Even though my requests to couch surf on with someone in Toronto had been mostly regected (thanks anyway Dan, shame you had your move this weekend) there was a sunday brunch organised so I thought I would check it out and make some friends. I was kinda late, nearly had a head on crash while looking for the place but 8 people were already there, most hosts but a couple of guests. We went to Murphys Law and sat outside under the trees. Was nice, despite the bird shitting in my hair Everyone was cool and pleased to see me even though I didn;t say I was going. Maria, Mark, Carlos, Judy, Britni, Megan, Ian and Ians host…. I can’t find her name !! :p
We sat arround chatting, had a bit of food before heading over to the circus festival in the nearby park Was quite a nice day, I even caught some sun, we watched some slightly annoying australian entertainer torture small children for our amusement while Britni and Megan beat up Carlos (that damn Brazilian Machismo!). Britni also described how to kill a man by popping his testicles, which she wouldn;t demonstrate :p Judy had to run off to a wake of all things, Megan dissapeared to her vegan pot luck dinner and Maria was busy too but we were joined by Barnado, a gay model from Uragua, who was an interesting guy.
I volunteered my transport so we could go over to Church street whch is the gay center for a look arround, we sat in a bar out the back and missed the drag show but I think the conversation was much more fun. Anything an everything was up for discussion, which is always fun. Its nice to have a conversation where you can just talk and listen and everyone is cool. Barnardo had to run off but we went back downtown to meet Megan for Karaoke. That was bound to be fun, I murdered the Doors LA woman, Bohemian Rhapsody and then we all got up to do Love Shack. I wan’t even tipsy :p
I drove Britni back to Judys who was hosting her and when we eventually got there she pleaded my case and I got to sleep on the floor. Yay, no car jacking potential and my couch surfing cherry was popped!
Tags: karaoke, birds, sun, mail, camping, hunting, Travel, sleep, carsLiving the dream, stealing bandwidth and sleeping in my car.
Its going to be 6 degrees tonight apparently, not the best time to be homeless in Toronto, although the forcast is mid twenties for next week so things are looking up for the time I move into the hostel. After brunch my mission was to get a sim card and a sleeping mat, I typed camp into my tomtom and drove the 8 miles it told me to. Luckily it wasn’t a gay store, but what I hoped, along with a lot more shops in a plaza. I spent about 4 hours there going in all the shops. First I tried a news agents and the woman who was working looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language when I asked for a pay as you go sim card. I also found who to call to replace the ancient canadian sales tax refund I still had. $193 will come in handy, pity I dont have the intrest from 7 years on it.
I found a electronics type store and yes they did sim cards. My eperience in the UK on tueday spoiled me as it took about 45 minutes (with the assistant on the phone to the company) just to get me sorted out. They wanted loads of details and the stupid thing cost me 30 quid! With only $10 credit. Simply insane! Still I now have a local phone number although Im not convinced it wouldn’t be cheaper to continue using my o2 sim since I will only be here for a month or so. I will have the same nightmare in the US too no doubt.
I bought a power inverter too so I could charge my laptop in the mini van. I also spent some time discovering I could put all the seats into the floor so I can really stretch out, should be handy for the freeze fest tonight.
I got my sleep mat, tried to use the internet in a coffee shop but failed and then went for a sponge wash in the supermarket :p Loving life on the road, but I was staring to stink. I drove back into town and by chance parked up near an open wifi spot so I could send a quick mail and update my blog. I can see this being a perenial problem as I move about but Im sure I’ll get by.
I also got the address of a hostel and went down to book myself in for when my mobile room goes back to the rental company. The girl on the desk was shocked when I said I was sleeping in my car and said I could take a shower, which was very nice Compared to my week in the Gobi Desert I was doing fine, but she looked at me like I was scum
I’m just chatting to Tim at home and Kaydi who I met in Ireland last year. Shes a torontonian and I’ll be meeting up in a while for a drink. I’ve paid my parking all night and need to move at 7am so better not get too wasted. I think I better stash my stuff in a locker at the hostel too, getting robbed will not be a good move.
Tags: sleep, hostels, hostel, Travel, mail, stupidity, seat, sponge, laptops, laptop, girls, blog, camping, nightmare, supermarket, drinksHomeless in Toronto
Woke up at 8.30am quite cold but alive, and no knocking security guards kicking me off the car park. Figured I would get breakfast by Lake Ontario and drove where ever my tomtom told me until I got to a nice beach with plenty of people playing volleyball. No showers though so I’m kinda stinky. The plan for today is to buy a camping mat so Im not cold on the floor and get a Canadian Sim for my phone. I need to call Kaydi and see what happening tonight, hopefully a party, but not before I have a shower.
So I just finished my breakfast in ‘The Only Cafe’ which is pretty nice, I could tell when I drove past and saw the pictures of random rock & movie stars on the billboards outside. It was so good I went and put another hour on the parking meter, if only to charge my laptop battery….
Rat Pizza?
I found somewhere to park up all night and came to the Canadiana Backpackers to sort myself out for when my car had to go back. I stole their wifi, took a shower (the girl on the desk took pity on me, she looked disgusted when she learnt I was kipping in my car) and got some overnight parking. I arranged to meet up with Kaydi, the girl I met in Ireland last year, and her boyfriend in a local bar before heading over to celebrate her friends birthday. They took me to a cool bar called the Underground, lots of guys, i thought it was a gay bar! :p
We got caught up and introduced to Jeff, whos a nice guy, I hope I didn’t insult him too much when I made a face about him being in advertising :p Actually a really hope I didn’t, the guy was huge! We jumped in a taxi and went over to meet Kaydi’s friends, who were a bunch of crazy punks and nice people. We caught the tail end of the band at the pub and sat out freezing in the unseasonally cold Torontonian weather. I wasn’t feeling it too much but it felt wuite warm to me Tiffany was also there but I didn’t get to chat to her too much which was a shame, shes very quiet, I need to get her drunk again and then she goes wild
After a few more drinks we headed to pizza pizza for a slice and everyone dissapeared, we went around the corner and up some half missing stairs, climbed over old bicycles and carpets, into a flat worse than where the young ones lived Through the kitchen filled with dirty pots, past other dark rooms into the living room where everyone was watching that short gay curl hairy aerobics trainer do his thing on a 14″ TV for some reason. This was a hardcore student flat, empty beer cans, old pizza, stack of old hifi gear, PS2 and a few big cages.
I guess the last thing you want when eating your tasty Mexicana Vegetariana is a rat in your face but I soon found out what the cages were for. My sister would have run screaming, but it was kind of fun putting the rat in Jeffs pocket, tossing them to each other, watching them run around. Maybe not very hygenic, but fun to play with.It did kind of put you off your pizza though. I would love to go back and take some pictures, but I think the moment has passed They were fun people to spend the night with, but I couldn’t live there, it was really gross
Longest Friday
What a hectic couple of days, lots to do, things to sort out, post, put up lofts, computers to fix, relatives to see… felt like it would never end. And then I go to sleep at 4am, get up at 9am, run around madly for the last few hours, make it to the Airport 3 hours before my flight, walk through customs in 5 minutes and then sit and wait for my flight. Ane wait. And wait…. still no gate assigned but it says there will be one in 25 minutes. They have been saying that for the last 2 hours.
I checked my insurance I bought this morning and it doesn’t have delay cover. Damn! Im sure there is someting about a flight being delayed by a certain time in the EU travelling outside the EU means you can et something. Maybe I should go and ask because its going to be at least 3 hours delayed. A cancellation and days delay would be good, I can get a last crack at the post office and burn some more DVDs.
My main concern now is somewhere to stay, as couchsurfing turned up nothing, I didn’t bother with Hospitality Club and all the hostels are either very expensive or full. Well, very expensive being £30 for a room, which considering I spent £50 in Dublin isn’t too bad. I need a different mindset now though, I have to cut costs as much as possible to stay on the road for as long as possible. How long I can manage this in the first world will be interesting to see, but camping, sleeping in Walmart car parks and hopefully getting some hosts will help. If Im haerroraging money I will be out of the country quick smart and GW can find some other sucker to prop up his ecomomy.
I cant believe the Euro and US cash machines in the airport have the gall to say they are commision free. The rate is shocking, 1.34 and 1.86 respectively. I will be getting $2 for my pound in the States Im sure, which is a nice 8% better rate. Its a good job too as I have things to buy. I need a laptop which will last me and let me blog, surf, organise my site (as well as a couple more) and post process all the photos Im duty bound to take. That itself is a rather scary idea, nice camera and a itchy finger means I could well be having to deal with hundreds of photos everyday. I will have to get myself organised and work out a good workflow for them otherwise I will be stuck with an impossible task.
That is a good idea for an outsourcing business that I may have to investigate, send your photos off to India and let them label them, crop, rotate, correct the colour, delete the dross and generally tart them up before mailing them back or putting them on your website. Just a place to upload the stuff I take onto my site will be another challenge I will have to overcome. Im sure the US is chock full of free wifi spots but what happens when I get further south? This is why I shouldn’t be so lazy about maintaining my contacts in Sweden where super fast internet connections for *uploading* files are mega cheap.
I will also be pricing up a couple more lens’ which are a bargain in the Stateas compared to the UK. The advantage is though that when my money runs out I will/should be so good I can come back to the UK and earn a mint as a wedding photographer. Nothing like a couple of years taking photographs of anything that moves to get you proficient with a camera. I even have my old SLR which cost me an absolute fortune in Autralia and is now essentially worthless as a backup body. I would rather that gets snatched in the ghetto than my beautiful digital body. I have to pick up a compact camera too, probably one of those groovy Pentax waterproof ones. With my phone and video camera I will be overdoing it a bit! :p
And then there is the issue of a car….
The flight was fairly uneventful, I spent half of it trying, unsuccessfully to get my GPS to reconnect but I think we were going too fast. It seemed to work fine until at least Ireland and then it lost the connection and never got it back. I hardly think its a huge problem, Im not intending to take any flights for a very long time.
So glad I hit the toilets before I got on the plane, after a 3 1/2 hour delay we enventually got under way about 5.30 and the reason was that they had been having problems with the toilets. I sat by the window, occasionally chatting to the middle aged scouse couple who say next to me (she constantly gave me gum, Im sure I brushed that morning… :p), watched Oceans 13, 90% of Shrek The third, the last bit of that ice skating comedy and wild hogs on a terrible TV in the ceiling. Not sure if I slept, it certainly didn;t feel like it. Im not sure if I should write to zoom and complain, I dont really think it was too bad, but by western standards it wasn;t good. If you’ve ever spent any time on Chinese trains your standard tend to slip a bit.
When we eventually got into Toronto 4 1/2 hours late (head wind for an extra hour) I sailed through customs and after a longer than average wait for my bag was in Canada. It was a bit damp but as I sat waiting for it I was imagining it was covered with bits of broken toilet and god knows what else.
Now I faced the dilema that I had force myself into, I had no guide book, no hostel booking, no map and had never been here before. The hotels looked pretty expensive and if I booked in would I even be able to get something cheap the next day? After 20 minutes wandering and looking for a working ATM I asked how much the Hertz rentals were. Well, no compacts but I could get a mustang for $47 a day… hmmm. Would be nice but not great for sleeping in, although would it mean I could go to a bar and pull with a cool car….? Theoretically…
I opted for a mini van, figuring I could just find somewhere quiet and stretch out. Only after I had paid did the guy tell me 90% of the company was on strike and there was a picket line for the cars. Great! but I thought it was simultaniously kinda cool, I would have to break through the rioting workers, getting hit by placards and getting spit on. Not quite as cool, I collected my keys and sat in a queue of cars waiting for the barrier to be lifted. After 20 minutes (which let me get changed in the back, get my GPS working on my phone and find a cool radio station (“the edge” is really good)) I was at the front of the line chatting to the Indian Security guard until my 5 minutes were up.
So now where? Hotel? Camping spot? Jail? I hit the gas and repeated my mantra about driving on the right choosing a random direction by following the majority of the cars. It kinda reminded me of a nighttime xbox driving game in my sleepy state, without the cops or crashes. I drove for 1/2 or so, bought some random groceries and drove a bit more to find a big car park and got my head down. You can see all this on the GPS map! Cool eh??? /zzzzzzzzz :p
Tags: fridays, laptops, queues, camping, map, toilet, money, Travel, insurance, ghetto, hostel, sleep, job40 hours to go
and Im not packed, will be frantic tomorrow no doubt. My drivers licence arrived this morning so thats another piece of the puzzle. There are quite a few other things to do but nothing really major. Nothing I can’t sort out by staying awake all night on Thursday :p
Im sorting Sally out with my old computer so at least I have one regular reader, if only I can find someway to always make her homepage my blog Will go to see my 96 year old nanna for possibly the last time tomorrow, although Im secretly banking on coming back for her 100th birthday. Just as long as I get a return flight I don’t mind.
I really had better sort out a definitive list of stuff to sort out tomorrow, the packing can wait and all I really need is my camera, passport and cards. Everything else is immaterial. I just have to be careful I dont start thinking I can just start blowing my money as soon as I arrive. I need a laptop and also want a couple of lens but I will try to hold out until the el’ cheapo USA. This is all assuming they let me in, but then I can always hop back to Canada and look at my flight options. I also have to assume I will get into Canada with a one way flight, I better print some bank statements eh? One more for the never ending list!
Tags: money, sally, Travel, blog, laptops, laptop, cards, USAEverything is possible
Or at least I hope so. I have 24 hours of time to finish sorting my stuff out and after making a few piles I think I’ll be ok. My parents were freaking out at all the stuff I brought back but some is for posting, some are a few last minute ebay items and a lot is going in my sisters loft. Hmmm, maybe I should talk to her about that :p I was slightly concerned myself when I looked at it all, and I thought I had managed to sell nearly everything. There certainly is money in tat!
Was very sad to leave Mad and Tulasi today, but I’m counting on seeing them next year in Costa Rica. I hope I didn’t annoy them too much by counting down my shifts while they have 10 months to go. I think they did pretty well out of me, Im sending them off to Manchester to see Manu Chao next month and annoyed I’m missing the tour. What a guy, I dont know how I missed him! Hope they video it for me!
Popped in to to Jono, Claire and Milly on the way up. My beautiful 2 year old neice has finally decided she likes me (or remembers me) and is a joy to be with. Anyone who can get my bone idle brother to dance (to the hokey cokey) is ok by me! I love kids when they’re at that funny, talkative age when everything is a mystery and laughing is as natural as breathing to them…. and then they grow up :p Also popped in to see Deb, but she’s MIA, I suspect in New York and then went to see Nichola Twemlow. Always a crisis with her, she was nursing a injured cat with blood and shit everywhere while waiting for the RSPCA. Poor little bugger. And the cat wasn’t happy either.
Tags: brother, money, freak, TravelLast 2 days at work, or what is wrong with the western world.
Karl sent me a text on Wednesday morning to say that he was shocked and my line manager wasn’t happy. Maybe she wans’t happy about the fact that everyone else in the building got the news the same time as her. Other people were placing bets on whether I would come in the next day but I did. I had holidays booked up tight and couldn’t have much more time off, certainly not my last four 12 hour shifts.
I was asked to come to my leaving interview in the morning, which was a barrel of laughs. Lots of questions about the company and scores for various aspects of the place, salary, holidays etc. I had it with my immediate ‘manager’ and the manager who put in the new shift pattern. He always was pro 12 hour shifts but even though he used to be in my dept wasn’t going to have to work them. Even when we talked about the whole concept couldn’t grasp the idea that someone actually didn’t like staying up all day to reset their body clock.
So an interview with the 2 managers who really didn’t like me (which is ok, the feeling was mutual) and who directly lead me to resign was a pretty stupid concept. Or a brilliant one, since I was rather reluctnat to tell them directly that they were both a waste of time (Im sure the feeling was mutual there too :p). They asked me questions and made notes, god knows what they put down as my answers. It would have been infinetly preferable to speak to my direct manager and really tell her the truth, but I guess it was her call.
Still, I was leaving and didn’t really care, my problems with the company were hopefully over. As long as I was getting my last 2 month salary it was all good. Even so, they didn’t even ask me directly *why* I was leaving, it wasn’t on the sheet, so it didn’t seem to matter. It mattered when I said my holidays were just ‘good’ and not ‘very good’. Again, no concept of anyone elses perspective, ask an opinion and then argue with the answer. Last year I had three one month holidays, which I would class as ‘very good’, now it was not so good. Ok, its good if you want to go to Spain for 2 weeks, but where is the fun in that?!?
It was all fine until the end of the interview, first they said I had handed in my overtime applications too late. They were from February but I had phoned HR and asked if it was too late, they said no, but the policy had officially changed the week before. Secondly I was told the one days holiday I had left would be docked since I didn’t come in a few weekends before. Actually I had an interview booked the same day for my recent poor attendence, but it seemed a bit silly to discuss it since I was leaving in 3 days. Next the bombshell about the bank holiday monday incident when I did some printing for Martin and the ink ran out. I forgot to cancel the print and the next day there was 2″ of Polish Hare Krishna translations with my name all over them. Busted! 
I had been told off by the facilities manager on the tuesday, I could hardly deny it and you can see who prints what. You dont see what they print, but its pretty traceable. Everyone does it, printers are such a rip off so a nice colour printer at work is a perk of the job. I usually just used it for scanning things but my generosity got the better of me and I told Martin I would do some prints for him and this was potentially disastarous for my plan. What if I was sacked that day, I could lose the cash I needed for my trip.
You could see they both loved this, no overtime, no last holiday pay and we might sack you. Great. The final knife in the back as I walk out the door. Well sue me for saying your shift and stupid new policies are suck so bad Im leaving. They just felt pissed that I had taken the gift of my seven week break and used it to get out quicker. And why shouldn’t I? Did I really want 8 weeks of them maybe screwing with my shift pattern, maybe telling me to do another job and maybe messing me around as my time ticked down? No, one week notice before my holidays was fair and above board, if a little sneaky They were also pissed about the fact that they had things to do before someone leaves and I left them little time to do it.
All this made me wish I had not bothered giving my notice at all and just gone and not come back. They probably would have kept paying me too which is always good. My more dishonest idea was claiming I had been in a car crash and then sending photos of me with plaster casts on my arms and legs, stuck in Mexico and unable to come back, even to recupperate. I was more worried about getting sued for fraud when they eventually found out (as Im sure they would). No, play by the rules, even if you use them to your advantage and keep your karma… the knife in the back sure was itchy.
My line manager hadn’t said anything to me all day, but its not unusual for her to be pissed off about something and it wasn’t nessasarily me. I went over to apologise for the abrupt departure and she was ok, I think a whole day for her to mull it over had mellowed her somewhat. She said she thought I was mad for going on my trip, but thats only because she’s not hardcore like me Shame really, sitting by a hotel pool is fine for a week but hardly life affirming, Im sure she would love a big road trip, but wouldn’t dare.
And this is why I wasn’t doing it, what kind of life is it being tired all the time, having no social life to speak of, earning a good salary and thinking you must spend it on a nice car to show off but you only drive it to work everyday. Fuck that. Adventure. Excitement. Really wild things. Being English in England is truly depressing. When Im abroad Im unusual and interesting, I am a unique snowflake! Pretending to be Swedish in the UK just doesn’t cut it :p
Tags: pool, mexico, stupidity, england, job, photos, krishna, photo, cars, TravelLast day in the park
Still so much to do but I spent all day in the park playing frisbee and juggling. First we went to Big Wok in Birmingham for brunch. I can’t say Im a fan, you can tell if you should eat there from the patrons, and none were Chinese. I cycled up with Martin and Pepe, our new, and for me very temporary, flat mate and on the way back Pepe who had been in the city 2 weeks raced to the park in the most direct route while Martin tried to get me lost in the back streets.
Was a good weekend all things considered, but thats easy when your mind is on the day shift and they give you the weekend off from your last weekend at work. Very decent of them I think. On Friday I nearly didn’t go out, 3 days notice isn’t much to give people when you are leaving, Karl was busy, Jude called in sick…. ! but Pete Sparks was out so I hooked up with him and we went to see another work group who were celebrating Sam and Frans ‘career break’ years off. Very sensible, but since I didn’t have 5 years servitude wasn’t an option for me. We ended up in Oceana dancing until 3am, was kind of weird, 5 theme bars and 2 dance halls, but when the DJ shut up and started playing some good music I started to enjoy myself.
Now I just have to pack up all my stuff here, haul it up to Stoke, sort it all out for storage or charity shops and wait for my flight on Friday. I hope my diving card arrives next week. Come to that Im still waiting on my drivers license! I assure you I know what I’m doing
My letter to O2. It worked :)
Sir
I called late Friday afternoon to complain about the fact that you were planning on changing the terms of my contract and that I wanted to cancel it. During the first call I hadn’t actually got a copy of the contract in front of me to prove why I could legitimately do so and said I would phone back.
On the second call to a ‘marco’ I explained the same thing and that I wanted to cancel, this time referring to the 8.4c clause in my contract. After 10 minutes of attempting to sell me a new contract and point out all the benefits to it and disadvantages of leaving (which I patiently listened to, occasionally repeating I wanted to cancel) he then informed me that I would only be able to do so on the 1st of September. We had the same conversation a few times, me quoting my contract and him saying I could not cancel yet. I then asked for the address I could send my cancellation in writing to which he refused to give me. I asked for a manager and he said everyone was in a meeting. I asked again for the postal address and he refused. Then he rather rudely said ‘we are going around in circles and I will be hanging up very soon’.
I honestly don’t care that he wasted my time trying to sell me things I didn’t want (that is his job) but to refuse to give basic information to a customer is completely unbelievable. I wasn’t asking for anything I couldn’t just get from the Internet anyway but I am sure I will now be told I sent my cancellation letter to the wrong place… I sent it recorded delivery on Friday which was the 24th, so I expect my PAC code to arrive this week and my contract to be terminated on the 24th of September. If this is not done (and if I call to check in a few days that my 30 days notice has not been acknowledged) I will be making a complaint to Ofcom. I will also be cancelling my direct debit to ensure I am not charged.
I also expect you to teach your staff some basic manners.
Mark Towner
Tags: job, fridays, circles, Travel, customsMortgage and pension, the death of hope.
So, earlier in the year they announced we would be abandoning our current shift pattern and moving to 12 hour shifts. It was official, starting 1st June. My immediate thoughts during the presentation were ‘how much money do I have saved’ and ‘how many months do I need to work before I can quit’. Actually the prime consideration was to get anything possible out of the company before taking an extended leave, ie quitting. The new holiday period would start on the 29th of September, so that was my deadline. No holidays abroad while saving every penny; use my holiday at the end to cushion the awfulness of leaving all your work colleagues in the lurch. I booked 3 weeks holiday until the 29th of September, using up all my holiday left for this year bar 5 days I can carry over.
I had managed to build up a considerable amount of time in lieu at the beginning of the year. The company is loath to pay overtime, unless they’re really desperate, but you can work a day and have a days holiday. Its not like I was screwing them over this, I was covering people when they were off and working my shift recovery week and weekends. I was doing them a favour, overtime would have been infinitely preferable but impossible to get. When the new shift started I had 140 hours owed to me, of which my line manager was barely aware. He was barely aware of my second name most of the time, just someone to say hello to and hope I don’t ask him a question in ear shot of his manager so he actually had to do something about it. I swear the filters on his email account diverted all my mail directly to the trashcan because he would not answer any emails. Seriously. You only got a response if you CC’d his boss. It wasn’t just my problem either.
So when I point out all this time I’m owed there is mass panic, ‘we owe you 140 hours??’,'How is this possible?’. First there is the careful checking of the figures, they pull out old outdated lists of what they think I should have worked and it obviously doesn’t match. I’m not stupid, I entered all my time in the rota when I did it, its all backed up and untamperable by me, I filled in my time reported card and another manager approved it, most importantly I actually came to work so if they were really checking they could see logs of me doing stuff on the servers. When the rotas changed I was working my seven day shift, Monday to Sunday, 62 hours of fun. Come the 1st of June my rota had me down as working the very first shift, directly after my night shift. Um, 24 hours…. I don’t think so. And this was the start of the worst week in the new pattern, 6 x 12 hours over 7 days.
If I ever needed proof that the manager who thought up the rota really didn’t like me it was the fact I was expected to work 134 hours over a fortnight. He told one of my colleagues ‘there would be winners and losers’ in the changeover (with a smirk), well I wasn’t going to be his loser and said I would be having the beginning of the week off as my shift recovery week. When we’re going through the 140 hours owed they could only get it to 92, they put my shift recovery down ‘I thought you took that as a holiday’. So I have to book a holiday to get out of working a 24 hour day…
I did all this extra work between Februay and May and after they finally agreed that ‘yes, we owe you all this time’ the discussion turned to when I was supposed to take it. It was now around the beginning of July and both of my colleagues had the majority of July and August booked as holiday. So of course they say ‘you have to take it before September’…. um how? There is no way I can leave one ex-shift leaver and a new starter while I have August off. Besides, it needs to go higher for approval, they can’t just give someone a month off. I point out I have three one month holidays the year before and no one minded and they dont even seem to be aware I had been away.
‘Send me a proposal’ says my manager, so I of course I propose all of October. I get no reply after a few days, must mean he approves right? I mail him again saying my colleagues don’t mind. A few more days we’re on days and he calls me over to say that he has checked and no one else is off that month so I can have it. Sweet, 7 weeks holiday. I start changing the rota and one of my colleagues has a few days booked at the end of the month. What happened to ‘no one is off’. Oh well, I add my annual leave name next to his and say nothing. He’s a manager, he checked, he obviously knows more that me…
I have seven weeks booked, and had to give eight weeks notice. I think you can see the simple sum I needed to do. I was due back on the first of November, healthy, fit, tanned, after some great adventure… to go back to a windowless room working 12 hour shifts with no toaster*. It wasn’t all bad, my salary now was pretty good, I was spending little on rent, my car was a junker but good on fuel. It was easy to save money, the people I worked with were nice enough, lots of character but mostly cynical as hell. You throw enough money at people, get them on a good pension and they start paying a mortgage, you will probably have to wheel them out of the door. Mortgage, pension, pension, mortgage…. That’s the mantra under everyone’s breath when you’re trying to get through a 12 hour night shift on 2 hours sleep and the phones are ringing and servers are down. ‘We know!! (get off the phone so we can fix the bloody thing!)’.
I didn’t want to come back to this, the stage was set, I hadn’t breathed a word to anyone at work about my plan, all I had to do was make the decision and resign….
* Ok, I did set the fire alarm off doing muffins but who the hell puts a smoke detector in a kitchen? You need a heat detector.
Tags: cards, wheels, wheel, sleep, ears, money, Travel, cars, mail, stupidity