Almost Time To Fly The Coop!

The time to depart from Canada is slowly approaching. I said goodbye physically to Mum and Dad and my son Tyler yesterday evening as well as Katie who has gone to Hamilton until tomorrow evening. Jackie and Nuri will have their goodbyes at the airport tomorrow evening. They are running Jamie and I there tomorrow.

We all went to The Mongolian Grill for dinner courtesy of Mum and Dad and then Tyler and I watched the Leafs lose again, to Buffalo, 6-1!!!!!!!

We had a good talk about life and about his future and it went very well. We just hung out. It has been a very good vacation for me and I am the happiest about rekindling a relationship with him after all the years of grief.

He is a nice boy and very well rounded. He seems to have his head on straight and I am thankful to him mother that she has raised him well without me for all those years.

He is not sure what he wants to do when he goes back to school, but he is sure that he wants to go back to school. He is working to save some money for school, but I made sure that he knows I will help him anyway financially and emotionally, no matter what he decides to do.

I arrived at my sister's yesterday afternoon. Jackie picked me up at Pickering station and then we picked up Nuri from his work. We then headed home and just hung out at the house for the rest of the night. Nuri, Jamie and Dad in the pic below.

Jamie had to work and Katie came home from school about 9.30pm. Jackie and Nuri went to bed about 11pm and my nephew, niece and I stayed up talking for about an hour.

They are both very well grounded and both know somewhat what they want to do. Katie thinks she is going to do an English major starting in year 2 and Jamie wants to do architectural engineering either at Carleton or Waterloo University, but for sure he will be living out of town when he attends university.

I woke up this morning about 10am, didn't sleep too well though. Jamie got up when I came downstairs to use the computer. I slept in his bed and he slept on the couch in the basement, rather nice of him, don't you think?

We went to the bank and I deposited my travellers cheques and Jamie cashed some money in the mall for English pounds. The rate is about 1 pound for 2 dollars and 35 cents.

I bought a few more things that I needed, like after-shave lotion and razors. I also bought a nice pair of thumb-rings, one of which I gave to Jamie. He chose the one he wanted of course while we were looking at them.

I also bought another big suitcase as I needed to as the one was way overloaded. I can now split all the clothes into two suitcases and the one carry-on can be used for the presents that we are taking to England for some of the family and Jamie can use it as one of his two suitcases. You are only allowed two pieces of baggage with each combined to weigh 40kgs.

Jamie and I went for breakfast/lunch at the Golden Griddle. The service was absolute shite and I ended up not giving the waitress a tip. We waited for top-ups of coffee and she gave me the wrong toast and the eggs were well cooked, which I did not ask for. At one point, Jamie asked for more water for his tea, which she never brought and ended up forgetting.

While we were in the mall, the weather ended up turning into a full blown snowstorm. It was so bad that we had to call a taxi as the suitcase that I bought would have gotten soaked and the walk home had to include getting some bread for my sister from Loblaws where Jamie works, by the way.

Got home in a cab and then repacked and unpacked some of the other things that I bought today. I also bought an MP3 disc player as I needed one as my old cd player does not play mp3 files. It is a portable disc player, by the way.

Both suitcases are evenly weighted now, which I am g lad of. There is room to spare and now neither are too heavy.

My sister made dinner, which was great and the weather has stopped being so cold and shitty now.

Jamie is packing his suitcase for tomorrow and I just came back from going with Nuri to fuel up the van for tomorrow.

We fly out at 8pm and we will probably get to the airport at about 6pm. I have to phone tomorrow to make sure the flight is on schedule and other than that, tomorrow I am totally chilling out and doing absolutelty nothing.

I talked to Gus from Ireland today. He called me and we settled for us going there on the Friday night after Jamie leaves, which will be March 9th. He is dead busy and sounds like he needs a little time away from the grind of life. Dave and I shall certainly do that for him.

It has been a great trip and I have accomplished more than what I wanted. My Mum and Dad have been great and so has my sister and her husband as well as most of my friends. A big smile goes out to Wayne and Ulises and Sean and Bob. Pic below is of Dad and Geoff, a mate of my Dad's.

The new adventure begins tomorrow night and I am not sure how much I will be able to blog due to computer restraints in England, but I am sure that I can find a pc somewhere to use for an hour or so even if I have to pay for it.