Goodbye "Blondie!"

It took me about 3 weeks to decide that I wanted to go back to being my normal colour..... as such!

I saw some pics of the last time that I was in England when I was brunette and that is what made me finally do the deed.

So here I am with my new colour. I think it looks better; even without having styled it and with no shave........lol.

Today was prepare to pack day. I wanted to see how much clothing I had and how it would fit into my suitcase.

I bought a small carry-on suitcase that matched the big one that I got. Mum and I folded all of my clothes to look at what we would need room-wise in the suitcase. It looks like I will have all kinds of room to spare or it will fit in just right.

I am heading to my sister's house on Wednesday afternoon. I should get there about 3pm. I am going to hang out with her and the kids and Nuri for the last 3 days that I am here.

Tomorrow, Tyler and his girlfriend, Ulises and his son and maybe a few other people including Wayne and Dave will be at a place called "Players" which is a bar with 4 big screen t.v's. We are going to meet there and watch the Leafs vs Canadiens.

The Leafs really need the win, which will add to the rivalry already in place between these two teams.

Liverpool won on the weekend quite convincingly; 4-0. The rest of the league went as scheduled with very few surprises.

I leave for England this Friday, March 2nd at 8pm from Pearson Airport in Toronto. My sister will be driving Jamie and I there and Dave will meet us at the airport.

I am not sure if Dave's brother is taking him to the airport or his dad who by the way works for "Aboutown Transit." Here is a good pic of Keith in his uniform below.

A Very Busy 4 Days!!!!!

Well, it all started on Tuesday morning after a very late night on the town the night before. Dave and I were feeling pretty bushed after the frivolities of the night before.

I went and picked the van up at Budget at 8am and then picked Dave up at his Mum and Dad's at about 9am. We then headed back to my Mum and Dad's house as I had to take a shower, have a shave and pack a back to head off to Ottawa.

While I was about to embark on doing the above, a mate of mine Wayne (below) knocked on the door of the house. I hadn't seen him in a few years, so it was great to see him. He stayed for a cup of tea and I went about getting ready to leave for Ottawa.

Dave and I agreed to meet up with Wayne once we got back from Ottawa, which would be sometime on Friday. Wayne is from Manchester and a United fan of course. We always give each other stick about our fellow clubs, but it is all in good humour.

Off we went to Ottawa and after about 650kms and 5 and a half hours, we reached downtown Ottawa. We met up with Rob (below) and Clement was also waiting outside Rob's apartment with his girlfriend, Hae Sook who is Korean. She used to be one of Dave's students and that is how Clement met her about 3 years ago in Korea.

Clement (below) is going to Ottawa U and has about 2 years to finish his degree, then he will decide what to do after that.

Hae Sook (below) has been here for about a year and has to go back to Korea to make some money and then she may come back to Canada again.

We all hung out at Rob's house for the night and talked about old times and relived some old stories and stuff that happened to us plus we caught up on each other's lives.

We ended up not leaving Rob's house and stayed there for the duration, going to bed about 3am. Hae Sook and Clement slept on Rob's bed and Rob and I took sides on the pullout couch, Dave slept on a chair.....again!!!!!!!!

The next morning we all woke up and went for breakfast. Hae Sook and Clement (below) decided that they were going to head home and that night we would go to Aylmer, Quebec, where Clement lives. Hae Sook was going to cook a traditional Korean meal for all of us.

Rob, Dave and I decided that we would go and watch the Liverpool vs Barcelona game somewhere.... after a nice hour and a half nap. We decided on this place called "Mingelwoods." It was great as they put the t.v. guide on the satellite and found the game was being played on the Quebec station 'RDS.' That was great as they other Canadian stations were not playing it at all!!!!!! This pic was taken at Wayne's house..... messing around with a top-hat on. I have 3 layers of clothes on, I am not that fat......lol.

The game was great and Liverpool ended up winning 2-1, away from home too. That means they have a great chance of progressing to the final 8 with a win in Liverpool. We will be there for the game although we won't have tickets. We will watch it close to the ground though to feel the atmosphere.

After the lunch and the game at Minglewoods, Rob asked us if we wanted to go to the Parliament Buildings. We said that would be a great idea, so we walked up there. It only took us about 15mins. It was quite mild compared to the last 2 weeks being in Canada.

We went into the House Of Commons, which was very cool. You can't take pictures or even a camera in there and we had to be searched and go through a detector twice before we got in there.

After the visit to Parliament Hill, we went back to Rob's and then grabbed the van and drove to Aylmer, Quebec to Clement's house. It only took about 20 mins. We ate there and Clement showed us around his house and some of his woodworking jobs and we ate dinner there.

We decided to leave as I could not drink and we also wanted to go out in Ottawa, as we didn't the night before. We said our goodbyes to Hae Sook and Clement and his family and headed back to Ottawa. Once we got back, we parked the van and headed into town to find a place to drink. It wasn't very busy at most places, but at least we were out and about and amongst people.

The night turned out to be quite regretful. Rob was really annoying Dave and I most of the night with his 'potty mouth,' which is how I referred to it as. He kept going on and on and I asked him on several occassions to stop it as he was annoying both of us. He really was not making any sense at all and was ruining our time for going out. We ended up having a falling out and Dave and I left his house at 2.30am!!!!!!

I just wanted to get out of his place and his company and chill out. Dave and I had not drank a lot and so we decided to head back to Oshawa, where we were going to visit my sister and her family later that day.

We left at about 2.40am and got into Oshawa at about 6.15am. We rented a room at Hotel 6 and checked out about 1pm. We then headed to my sister's house as Katie, my niece, was home.

We waited for my sister to come home with her husband as well as Jamie, my nephew, from school. My sister then cooked us a nice chicken meal and we sat around and chatted until about 7pm.

Dave had told a friend's sister in Korea that he would visit her in Mississauga, so we headed there, but unfortunatly, she was very busy at work and Dave just said hello to her and then we left to carry on back to London. We arrived back in London at about 10pm. I dropped off Dave at home and then headed back to my house.

I dropped the van off the next morning at 8am and then my Dad came and picked me up. I got home and went back to bed until about 12.30pm. I called Wayne up and he came over and picked me up and we hung out for the rest of the afternoon.

We went to his place and then later that evening decided to go see some indoor football and meet a few people that I hadn't seen in years. Later, Trina (below,) his girlfriend, met up with us there and we headed to "Robinson Hall," which is a pub/bar. We ended up staying there for a while and eventually Dave and I took seperate cabs home to our respective houses.

We are all up to date now. A lot of stuff accomplished, things gone awry, but a good time had. Travelled about 15oo kms in total and saw lots of 'barren' land.................so big and so few people, here in Canada. Amazes me why there are not more people here.

Our Jamie Playin' Rock 'n' Roll Man.......

Saturday Night Fever!

Figured that I am in Canada, so a pic of Pierre Trudeau was relevant. His son is now into politics and was in London the other day giving a speech. I don't know if a lot of young people know the history about his wife; she actually had an affair with Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones!!!!!

Woke up at Mark and Jackie's and had a nice breakfast; beans, eggs, sausages, bacon and toast. I have had more breakfasts in the last week and a half than in the last 2 and a half years combined.......lol. This is Trudy(below), our Jackie's dog.



My sister Jackie came and picked me up at Mark's and then we decided to go to Home Depot to look at the mirror that I had wanted to buy her for Valentine's. My Mum had told me about this sun-mirror and that Jackie had liked the look of it when she saw it in Oshawa. Mum and Dad and I had checked in London and they had about a dozen of them. When I arrived in Oshawa, I went to the Home Depot in Whitby, but they had none. So Jackie and I went to the one on Taunton Rd and they had 2 left. It is now on the wall in the living room and I must say looks great.

After Home Depot, we went to Winner's and I bought our Jamie a nice t-shirt that Jackie picked out for him and I bought a belt, an AC/DC cap and a really nice long wool dress-coat. It is really nice and looks very smart. It was only 55 dollars as well. I have seen the same ones for 200 or more!!!!!!!! Our Jackie had spotted it of course........ My fashion designers came through again; Jackie and my Mum.

A pic below of our Jackie and Nuri looking at kitchen cupboars at IKEA in Scarborough. They are about to rip out the kitchen cupboards and totally renovate the whole thing. Nuri of course will be doing it all himself; a very talented man when it comes to anything that has to be built or fixed.

After the shops we came home and I sat with Nuri and watched the turkish football, or was that before we went to Home Depot? Can't remember to tell you the truth. Anyway, we watched two games on split screens on the t.v. Man U drew with Reading in the F.A. Cup, which was great.

Below is a picture of a Turkish restaurant that we went to in Scarborough. Great food!!!!!!!!

Jackie and I went and picked up our Katie at the library where she works. We then came home and our Jackie cooked a nice meatball, spaghetti dinner for all of us and Mark and Jackie. They only stayed about an hour or so. Mark's asthma was acting up and I think he was still hurting from the booze the night before. I was a little hungover, but comparing Mark and I size-wise, I should be able to handle my booze a little better.

Once they left, we watched a bit of the Leafs who won against the Oilers on the 40th anniversary of the last time they won the Stanley Cup!!!!!!!

Watched a bit of t.v. and our Katie and Jamie went out with their friends and our Jackie and Nuri went to bed about 11pm. I followed them a little later and read a little bit of a book that Jamie had in his room. I slept in Jamie's room as he usually goes on the computer downstairs and ends up sleeping on the couch down there most of the time.



I slept fairly well and enjoyed the heat in the bedroom...... Mum and Dad's upstairs has no heat and I am a penguin when I go up there. It doesn't really faze me to tell you the truth as I enjoy sleeping much more when I am cool than when I am hot. Don't end up with your tongue stuck to your throat with the artificial heat. There were a few days however that it was mighty mighty cold upstairs in the 'refrigerator!'

Down In The 'Shwa' (Nickname For Oshawa!)

After a lovely breakfast courtesy of my Mum, I got on the bus and took it downtown to Dundas and Wellington. I decided that I had not seen The Covent Garden Market since its restoration.

As I was taking a few pics of the downtown, which are included above and below, I decided that I would go and get some money out of the TD Canada Trust Machine at the entrance to Covent Garden Market.

As I was waiting, a fella walked in the door and said, "Paul!" It was Dave's brother, Fred(below)!!!! Again what a freaky small world it is.

I asked him if he wanted to go for a coffee and he said that he ran the coffee shop right opposite where we were and to go there and have a coffee. So that is what we did. We sat down for about 15 minutes and shot the breeze about his coffee shop and how life was in Korea for Dave and I.

I had to cut the meeting short as I had to go and walk to the VIA train station to catch the bus at 11.45am. I left Fred's shop at about 11.15.

I got on the VIA train at 11.45 and off it set to Oshawa. I got to Union Station in Toronto at about 2pm and then had to wait an hour and a bit to catch a connecting train to Oshawa.

I went to Harvey's restaurant and had a grilled chicken burger sandwich. I went back to the waiting area and sat on a bench for about 25 mins until I got on the train to Oshawa.

The train only took about 25 mins and I arrived at Oshawa station. I waited there about 15 mins and my brother-in-law Nuri and my sister Jackie, came and picked me up.

We headed to their house via Tim Horton's coffee shop once again. (The drive-thru of course.) We got there, I dropped off my bag, we returned to the Oshawa station and picked up Katie who had just got back from school.

She goes to UFT (University of Toronto) and commutes back and forth almost everyday. It is much cheaper than living on campus and better for her as she wouldn't miss home so much.

Then we went off to Swiss Chalet and I had a Santa Fe Chicken Sandwich.....I guess you have figured out that I like chicken by now........ Jackie(my sister below) and Katie(my niece below) had these spring rolls and bbq'd chicken wings. Nuri(our Jackie's husband below) had the quarter-chicken.

After the meal, we went back home. We sat around and then our Jackie decided to call and see if Mark Burke was home. She called and he wasn't, but he called back about an hour later and said that he and his wife Jackie were arriving home in about an hour.

We decided to go and visit them once they got home. While we were visiting them, Frank(below) and Mary-Lou(below,), friends of Mark and Jackie Burke's showed up. We sat around and talked and had a good laugh and I had a gin and tonic and then drank a few more beers.

As the time went on, Jackie Burke(below) and Mary-Lou(above) went out to the garage to smoke a cigarette and we all joined them and had some beers in the cold garage..... it was cold.

Mark and I decided that we would go to Rumour's, which is a bar just down the street and I would stay at his house and our Jackie would pick me up in the morning.

We got to Rumour's about 1.30am and stayed for one drink and then walked home again in the freezing cold. Mark had not brought his keys as he had decided to enter the house through the garage with the code on the electric opener. We had invited Terry, a fella that Mark knew to come and have a beer in the garage.

Mark(below) could not remember the access code and we tried all kinds of numbers. We ended up banging on the door, ringing the bell and pounding the window to try and wake Mark's wife, Jackie up. She didn't hear a thing. She was out for the night!!!!!!

We were getting cold waiting outside and soft shit Mark only had a thin coat on. We decided to ask Terry if he could go home and call Jackie on the phone to see if she would wake up. So off went Terry muttering the number he was trying to remember.

Between the time that Terry left, which was about 15 more mins, Mark finally remembered the code and in we went. We were frozen and we got in finally at 3.15am. We stayed up had one more beer and then went to bed.

An end to a very eventful and eventually very cold evening. I think it was -2000 or something last night.........lol.

Un Melange D'Histoires.

Some days seem like I am doing nothing and other days it seems like I am mad mad busy. I guess the good thing about being on vacation is exactly that! I am on vacation!!!!!

Here is Dad modelling his new turtle-neck sweater...... haha.

Yesterday morning I went to breakfast with my Dad and met some of his friends that I know and some that I didn't know. It is a nice breakfast, but the only drawback is that it was at 7.30am......I don't mind getting up that early once in a while though.

There are some pics of his friends below. The fella in the first picture is Bent who is originally from Denmark.

The next pic is of all of the fellas that we were sitting with. My Dad is closest on the left and next to him is a fella called Steve, I think!!! Opposite him at the other end of the table is Geoff who by the way reads my blog regularly. My Dad gave him my blog address a while back and he told me that he finds it very interesting.......either that or just thinks I am mental.......lol.

Next to him is John and then Bent again. We all just talked about the weather and they asked me lots of things about Korea, which I gladly informed them of. Bent told me about his daughter doing her Masters in nursing and we talked about education and kids and other life related stuff.

After breakfast it was off to Tim Horton's to meet the R.O.M.E.O's as mentioned in one of my earlier pictures. Below is a good picture of all of them.

After that it was so cold outside that I didn't want to do anything. Well, that soon changed when I shovelled the HUGE horseshoe driveway that my Mum and Dad live at.

It took me just on an hour to do it and I was nackered after it. It was a good workout though and I felt good to sweat. It was so cold though that for the rest of the day, I did not want to move.

Well, Mum, Dad and I watched the Arsenal vs Bolton F.A.Cup match, which turned into a thriller despite the fact that Arsenal missed a penalty in regulation time, missed 2 absolute sitters and then Bolton scored to equalize in the 92nd minute.

Arsenal went on to extra time to score a goal and then miss another penalty and right at the end scored an open goal to make it 3-1. By all rights Arsenal should have won about 6-1.

The original plan at night was to go to Old Chicago's as they have a salsa, merengue night. Ulises had the original plan, so that was where we were headed for the night.

Dave got in late on Tuesday night, so I called him on Wednesday. He was lucky to get in as the airport was shut down the next morning due to the snowstorm. This is a funny pic of Dave wearing one of his old pair of sunglasses that Bob had brought from their old house wayback when he moved.

I told him about the plan, but also we had agreed to meet Bob and Sean and hang out with them for while and then head to Old Chicago's together. I took over a 26er of vodka and Bob had some beers. Here's a pic of Sean's tattoo, which is of the "Clash." He is very proud of it and wanted to show us.......lol.

Below is a picture of Sean with long hair and then with shorter hair. He took it upon himself to cut his hair once he had been drinking. He was sick of the long hair and decided enough was enough.

The next pic is after he cut his hair.... He looks like a madman!!!!!

We had a good chat together and Bob's friend Erica showed up too. We all just sat around and talked and laughed.

Ulises called and said that he had been out plowing for the City, the place where he works.

He didn't finish until 11.45 and called me to say so. I told him that he should go home and get some sleep and we could hang out or go to Old Chicago's another time.

A little later we all decided to go to Scot's Corner. We headed there and it was quite dead. Dave and I had a few more drinks and then at closing time we headed to Mac's Milk and then got a taxi to our opposite ways home.

It ended a good night, but it is still weird how everywhere shuts down. We are not used to that, as in Korea, nothing ever shuts down that early. By their standards, 3 or 4am is normal shutdown time except on the weekends when you can stay out until 8 or 9am drinking.

Today I woke up at 11am. Mum and Dad treated me to lunch. I had fish 'n' chips, can't remember what they had. Dad had soup, Mum had ???? Aren't I terrible. Duh, duh, duh is more like it.......

Then we went to Home Depot and Mark's Work Warehouse as Mum and Dad wanted to buy me a 'hoodey.' I ended up buying two long sleeved shirts, 2 turtle-neck sweaters and 3 hoodeys. Mum and Dad bought me a sleevless hoodey and a regular hoodey and I bought the rest. For 2 shirts, 2 turtle-necks and a hoodey it was 51 dollars.... ridiculous prices.

The shirts were 4.99 each as were the turtle-necks. Unbelievable prices this time of year. I told the girl that they were 'giving away' stuff.

A pic of Home Depot. Look at the amount of things that they sell!!!!!!

Another pic of Home Depot. It is the new one that has opened up in London East. It is massive and I just wanted to take a few pics to show the sheer size of the place and the array of items that they sell.

Iknay On The Car, Eh!

There are always unexpected circumstances or surprises that present themselves to us. One of them involved the rental car that I was supposed to pick up today.

I got picked up at the house by the rental car company and it was only a 5 min drive to the depot, which was right around the corner.

Once I got there, I realized that there was an extra charge of 21 dollars a day for insurance, which meant that 140 dollars a week would be for insurance plus the cost of the rental. That meant that the total for 2 weeks would have been 690 odd dollars!!!!!

So, I though better of it and told the company that I was not going to take the car. That means that Dave and I will just rent a car for about 2 days or so next week to go to Ottawa and anywhere else that we want. It means that I am not mobile and won't be for the rest of my stay here in Canada........oh well!!!!!!!!

I am taking the VIA train to my sister's on Friday morning. I get the 11.45am train and get to Union Station about 3pm. I get the GO Train to Oshawa from there and arrive at about 3.45pm. I will spend the weekend with my sister and Nuri and the kids.

I will probably meet up with some other friends while I am there also. I just want to hang out though and relax as I have been doing since I got here minus the few distractions.

Enough for now anyway; carless in London!!!!!!!!!!!!

Check Out This Mechanical Marvel..........Really!!!!!!

Bugatti Veyron On Top Gear - video powered by Metacafe

Look Who's Dating Now!

Last night I went to see Tyler play indoor football and I met his girlfriend Brigitte. She seems to be a very nice girl with a good attitude towards life. She is attending U.W.O. and is interested in sociology and wants to study criminology. Good for her! She is one of the 10 percent of students going to university in Canada; the national average, more or less.

Tyler and her met in grade 11 and have been going out since then. I guess it is about 2 and a half years. They must be serious about each other. I told Tyler not to get married at 21 like I did though..... haha.

Tyler and her seem to be a good couple. It was funny to see my son with a girlfriend, another first for me. They suit each other and they certainly look like a good couple in the picture....... lol.

We talked about a lot of things and of course I joked around a lot, which is different for me, isn't it?

Ulises came along for an hour or so and watched the game, which by the way Tyler's team drew 2-2 after being up 1-0 and 2-1. The last goal was a give-away to the other team. Tyler played in defence and played good. It is funny, he still runs the same way and stoops over like he always used to....... haha.

The pic below is one of Ulises, which I made by messing around with my camera. I still have loads to learn about it, but this was one part of the program that I didn't even know existed.

This is a pic of Tony who I used to play on the same team as, a long time ago. He is English and a good bloke. I met him after the game about 11.30 at Scot's Corner. We just chewed the fat and talked about what we were doing and how things were going.

His team played after Tyler's team. I guess there were 4 players sent off and it was quite a 'testosterone' game!!!!!!

Got a cab home from Scot's and it cost 11.50. Unbelievable when I think about it. It is only about a 10 min drive from downtown to Mum and Dad's house. The same cab in Korea would have cost 3 dollars!!!!!!!! No wonder people don't take taxis here. Supply and demand, I suppose.

I am picking up a rental car today at noon and have booked it for 2 weeks. I will be mobile and be able to get around anywhere I want. Dave and I agreed when we were back in Korea that we would rent a car and split everything down the middle.

That way we can get to and from anywhere without relying on anyone. We also will be heading up to Ottawa to see friends and Toronto also where my sister Jackie lives.

It is just a small compact Hyundae and it comes with unlimited mileage as long as I stay in the province.