Departure & Arrival

Well, here I am in Canada!
Yes, everyone can heave a sigh of relief – the old git has actually gone! The talking is over and action time is here.

Departure was rather emotionally eventful. I dropped the loan car back to my good mate Bruce and had a last look at Southend and Rayleigh as I made my way back to Mother’s. Had a “last supper” with Mother and then made my way to Bow to stay with my daughter Christy and her fiancé Lee. They very kindly put me up for the night so that I could start my journey to Heathrow from London by use of Underground and not have the hassle of getting to London first. This worked out rather well as Chris was working Wednesday & Thursday (well not for her) and therefore had an early start on Thursday. This allowed us to travel together as far as Holborn before she headed off to Great Ormond Street where she works in Paediatric ITU (cue excuse for Father’s Pride) and I headed for the Piccadilly Line and Heathrow Terminal 4.
The journey was uneventful; I arrived, checked in, found out my backpack weighs 16.8Kg, and went to spend some time sitting in a departure lounge. This turned out to be longer than expected due to “the delayed arrival of the plane constituting this flight” and hence I left an hour later than planned.

I ate the pre-packed food airlines serve and watched Spider-man 3. The rest of the flight time was spent reading and listening to some of the radio stations they pipe onboard. I was also extremely grateful for my “new toy” Sennheiser noise-reducing headphones. These I kept on (and switched on) even when I wasn’t listening to anything and having a doze. I am not a salesman for anything, but the headphones were superb and reduced the background roar of jet engines to a distant hum which was drowned by anything playing – music or speech – and therefore eliminated the “noise fatigue” one suffers on long haul flights. They also fold up and sit nicely in their own case, which fits nicely in my bum bag (otherwise known as the “Control Centre”) which contains my life in travel form.

Anyway, I landed at Pearson Airport, Toronto (hence I got my YYZ tag - Rush fans need no explanation) in glorious sunshine with a temperature of 26C.
The initial immigration guys gave me what I felt was a hard time as they hauled me aside to ask me several searching questions following the initial one of “are you travelling alone?” The main upshot of it was that they seemed more concerned with how much money I was bringing in to Canada (there is a C$70,000 limit on such) and how long I was staying. It is only now that I am sitting in my hostel that I can amuse myself with the thought that little old me (or anyone with C$70,000 or more – which excludes me by the way) can potentially destabilise the economy of a country as large as Canada! It was also reassuring to know that my rucksack was not the one out of thirty-four items of baggage that BA loses!
Following the rigmarole of clearing customs, which, in my experience, was easier to do in Egypt, I then proceeded to get the Airport Shuttle Bus into downtown Toronto. This gave me a good view of the outskirts (airports are always miles from city centres) and environs of Toronto in rush hour. Due to all the delays along the way my scheduled arrival at the hostel of 20:00 BST turned out to be 0:00 BST – or 19:30 EST. I am very grateful to the multi time zone gadget I added to my gadget bar.
I am trying to stay awake until early tomorrow (local time) so that I can let people know in the UK that I have arrived (at least at some semi-sociable hour for them) but this is proving to be a challenge.

I now have another confession of stupidity which should give some of the readers of this a laugh.
As many of my friends and acquaintances will know; I have no interest or excitement in mobile telephones as they definitely do damage ones brain and turn the majority of their owners into sad bastard onanists. This usually manifests itself in the fact that they have to:
• Constantly have them with them – everywhere
• Must have them switched on at all times – even on airplanes
• Must answer them when they ring – even if in the middle of a conversation with a real person
• Insist that everyone around them will be impressed with their conversation
• Insist on using them even when being served in shops, etc – the height of rudeness (how would one of these idiots feel if a cashier’s mobile rang and they stopped serving the customer to answer it?)
• Believe they can capture good quality images of bands at gigs instead of useless images of the backs of four rows of heads and a few indistinct blobs on a stage seemingly 800 miles away
• Think that people will be impressed if they have a Nokia Fuckwit 86574996512 (or invent your own meaningless model number) which is capable of anything and everything except instilling common sense and manners in its operator.
• Misguidedly believe that because it is the latest model it doesn’t affect their driving ability when used hand-held whilst driving. (Doesn’t apply to white van & BMWank drivers who just tend to be arrogant twats with no concept of operating an indicator stalk. “Well it’s a bit ‘ard when yer on the fone innit mate”.)

Rant over – back to the point!

The upshot of this is that my mobile is the most basic, and cheapest, I could find but is not of the tri-band variety – which means it doesn’t work here (Canada), nor will it in the United States of Paranoia (because they transmit on a different frequency (or band). Oh poo! So to all you people I said I would text on arrival, or who kindly sent me texts wishing me well & a safe journey to which I would have replied – please accept this apology as it was due to my own lack of interest in mobile telephone technology.
I will just have to rely on emails & this blog.

Right, my first day in Toronto. I have just taken it easy adjusting to the time difference. I had breakfast and finished my book whilst sitting out on the patio at the hostel listening to the church clock over the road chiming the passage of time and waiting for my washing to bake dry – which was very easy under clear blue cloudless skies and 24C sunshine. Then I went for a walk in a 10 block square admiring all the really modern interesting looking buildings they have here – some are quite stunning. Mother will be pleased to know I did wear my hat, and a good job too as the sun does have teeth. I did explore a section of the underground shopping mall they have here, which is vast and appears to contain mainly food outlets – of all descriptions. I still haven’t managed to find a chemist/drug store/pharmacy (take your pick) yet in order to procure some shaving foam but I will make it my mission tomorrow. I also had a very interesting chat to Daryl the rock artist – no kidding – who only gave me a brief flick through of his portfolio. I would like to have a proper look at this as I am familiar with his work, and probably quite a few of you are too without knowing it. This guy balances rocks on top of each other to make towers and columns. This is done with no preparation to the rocks only a wonderful sense of balance. I want to try and have a proper talk with the guy before he leaves – he is from Vancouver and has already warned me that I will love the place. This seems to be a universal verdict of everyone who has been there that I have spoken to, especially the gorgeous Welsh lady who made me a cup of coffee whilst I looked after her washing. (Quite amazing really – all I had to do was read my book.)
As I am still adjusting to EST I was in bed by 22:00 (all times local from now on) and asleep by 22:01. I didn’t hear any of the other guys come in and get to bed but they must have done because when I woke up the dorm was full.

Another gentle start to day 2 with shower & breakfast and then in search of shaving foam – which I found quite easily with the help of directions from gorgeous Welsh lady (must ask her name next time). Had shave, to complete the third “S”, and then went and picked up the itinerary for my rail trip to Vancouver. I looked it up on the street map all by myself and navigated there with no problem – the street signs here are so good it is easier to find a place than not.
After picking up said paperwork I then decided to go walkabout and being in Downtown Toronto I strolled into Yonge Street. In fact I walked the length of it (it is rather long – look on a map if you don’t believe me) and then found the Central Station, so I know where I’ll be getting the train from! The rail trip includes pick up from the hotel so I don’t have to worry (worry – what’s that?).
I strolled back up to King Street and then started heading back to the hostel. Now that I know where it is, and in which direction, I thought I would vary my route and explore some more. Glad I did as I found St. Lawrence Market. This was superb as it sells everything food! There are vegetable stalls all round it and inside... everything; meat (raw, dried, cured, smoked, etc.), cheeses (ditto), seafood (my mate Nigel would love it), fruits, vegetables, mustard (there was a whole stand selling loads of varieties), in short everything – the smells as I wandered round were amazing. So much so I had to wander round twice! I ended up buying a whole pineapple, skinned & cored, for $4.99 which I proceeded to eat when I got back to the hostel and borrowed a knife & fork from the kitchen. Yes I did eat it all! It was so nice that once I started I couldn’t stop. My bottom might remind me of my greedy-piggery tomorrow – but at least Mother will be pleased to know I am getting plenty of fruit!
I am just having a little rest now as my feet are very hot before heading out to wander round night-time Toronto. I will take my camera with me and keep it with me so I can start taking lots of pictures (which reminds me; I must sort out some picture posting on this blog).
I will post this now as I want to try to make a daily posting of events – we’ll see how long it lasts shall we?