Oh Canada!

Well after almost a year of being away I returned back home to Canada for 2.5 weeks over the Christmas break. Megan flew back the day before me from Stansted and had a much easier time than me. I flew out the following day from Heathrow where they were cancelling about 300 flights a day because of the fog. Luckily I got to Heathrow 3 hours before my flight to find out it had being delayed for 2 hours. Everyone else was aware of this as they received a phone call from Air Canada. Everyone except me that is! No problem though I went to the bar and talked with a few other people to pass the time. One guy I talked to was from New York and said he would buy me my next beer. So he came back a short while later with 2 more beers. I asked him when his flight left and he told me 4:00. I looked at my watch to see the time was currently 3:30. I asked him if that was his boarding time or flight time and he responded that it was his flight time. This is when I pointed out the time to him he took off and said to drink his untouched beer as well. Could I have planned that one any better. Two free pints at Heathrow’s outrageous prices. Anyways by the time I got on the plane I we had to wait another 2 hours before take off so needless to say I got back to Canada a lot later than I expected. I arrived in Canada about 10:30 and I was at the bar by midnight (wow I miss bars that stay open after 11pm) having a few pints with people I had not seen in almost a year. Yes it was great to be home.

I spent the next few days shopping and hanging out with friends and family. We had 2 friends of the family over for the break as well from South Africa (Matt (17) and Jess (19)) which was really good fun. From racing remote control cars, watching movies, playing pool, glow in the dark mini put, bowling and spending the nights at the bar things were going really well. Christmas day was spent at home with the 6 of us and the afternoon was spent down at Lowville park walking down by the river. The only bad part was the lack of snow. Actually it did not snow once while I was there. Apparently it did the day I left though.

Even without the snow in Toronto we did manage to go out riding up at horseshoe on boxing day where we met up with Ann )Dad's cousin) Andy and the kids. They rented a chalet up at the resort and spent most of the Christmas week. While the riding conditions weren’t fantastic by any means I did manage to take a big hit to ribs (I blame the kid in jeans that was out of control and didn't know how to ski for this). Turns out it they are just bruised and should be fine in 4 weeks or so. Great.... After riding we stopped in at my sister’s new house in Newmarket for some food and NHL 2007 on the PS2. Good times even though I lost a few games.

New years eve we all went over to Trevor’s house for a lot of drinks a pool. The night went by quickly and it was almost 4am in no time. It was great to see everyone out and also great not to have to pay for those pricy drinks at the bar.

The last week back in Canada was spent just seeing friends and getting ready to come back to England. My last night was supposed to be just a few drinks with friends but it turned into a lot of shots and a lot of drinks. I have no idea how I made it through the night and managed to get up the next morning for McDonalds breakfast and then off to Toronto lakeshore for some outdoor Ice Skating. On the way back home my parents dropped me off at the airport and I made my way to the executive maple leaf lounge for free drinks, food, internet, and hockey on the big screen. Not a bad way to pass the time while waiting for a flight. Thanks dad for that free guest pass. I know you have a few left so if you need help getting rid of them you know where to send them. The flight itself was delayed for 1.5 hours as they forgot the food and then broke the cargo door on the plane. It was a long journey back to London and it seemed even longer getting down to Bristol. Its good to be back in England but I am really going to miss all the late night bar excursions with everyone back in Milton.