Vagabond, Adventurer, Wanderer

Bloody Hell - A day in London!

2009-02-12T17:55:00.003Z

London ~ home to the queen, great tea, terrible coffee, train delays and more tourist sites than are humanly possible in one day! We rolled into London at 5:50am on the 4th and with no sleep and empty stomachs we were planning on doing one of the largest cities in the world in 13 hours before catching a train back to Glasgow. So we threw our bags in a locker at Euston station, got our tickets sorted for our final leg and set off to find her majesty. There wasn’t much of a crowd at 7am so we got some great shots of Buckingham Palace and of the royal gardens. We found a pub that was open for breakfast and after the second worst cup of coffee of my life (second only to the paste I had in Paris) we found the WWII Airmen Memorial to those who died during the Battle of Britain. This was an amazing moment for me as I was able to find my Great Uncle Jack’s name carved into the wall, as well as his squadron crest. It is an amazing monument complete with an exceptional bronze statue of five airmen running to their planes. After taking a few moments there we made our way back to the palace as we were lucky enough to be in London on one of the days that the changing of the guards occurs. However, there were a few more people gathered at the front gates for this but after fighting our way through the crowd we ended up with a pretty decent view. The highlight of the demonstration was a Chinese woman getting “escorted” off the road by a Bobby. She decided it was a good idea to stand in the middle of the road where the band and guards march in and out and where the cops where very clearly telling everyone not to stand. After being asked once nicely, she was hauled off kicking and screaming by a Bobby that looked like he could have played linebacker for the Steelers. That’s not even the best part. After being placed with the rest of the crowd she started making faces at the cop and then proceeded to push her way through the crowd so that she could get right up to the fence. Her maneuvering included pushing an elderly couple that looked to be in their seventies and pushing over a small girl who could not have been any older than 4. All of this with no apology, but instead a broken “mowve, excuse me, mowve.” Unreal. Following the display we saw Big Ben, Westminster Abby, London Bridge, Tower Bridge (which we climbed), London Tower and the giant Glass Egg. It is a gorgeous city although a little larger than my liking. After learning the underground system we did manage to cover a large portion of it in one day.
To keep up with my “story-a-day” principal, I would like to introduce Tom, a wee British tyke that looks to be about 4 or so. Tom is with his Mother, Father and brother on the London Underground headed for a family outing. Tom is a very hyperactive little guy and is quite literally bouncing off the chairs, walls and poles of this particular train car. His brother, a few years to his elder, is sitting quietly next to their mom and watching Tom’s athletic display. Their Mother has twice told Tom to cut it out and sit still. Tom’s father simply grabs Tom from time to time and plunks him on the opposing seat. This position holds for approximately 11 seconds until Tom is on loose once more. During one of his more rambunctious bursts of energy, Tom stops suddenly. His face drops as he lets out a long sigh and says “Ohhh No” in his very proper English accent. “There is something terribly the matter with me” he proclaims. To which his Father replies, “We are aware of that Tom, but you will have to be more specific.” Toms Mother is trying to fight back her laughter as she tries to find out what Tom is referring to. “I have left my Magic Button at Christopher’s house” he states, while hanging his head and shuffling his feet. “It is only a button” his brother pipes, as the concerned mother explains “Don’t worry, we have plenty of buttons at home.” “Not MAGIC ones” Tom says. “They are all magic, and when we get home I will let you pick your own magic one out of my sowing box, ok?” Mother asks. “Yes thank you!” exclaims Tom as he continues to use the train as his jungle gym. We got off at the next stop and didn’t stop laughing until we were well clear of the station! Bill Cosby was right, “Kids say the darnedest things!”

That was the positive story, now for the other one… After our day of touring we headed back to the train station, looking forward to getting back to Glasgow and being able to relax for a full day and a bit before having to get Lisa on a plane back to Canada. Upon walking into Euston station we noticed there were a few more people than in the morning and nobody seemed to be moving anywhere. It took one glance at the arrivals and departures screen to find my answer to this one. Across all 20 boards was bold red lettering that read CANCELLED next to every single train. This included the 19:20 to Glasgow. I talked with one of the Virgin service reps and he informed me that a light aircraft had crashed next to the main tracks just north of the station. The plane had hit electrical wires on its way down which were now lying on the tracks and thus, all trains in or out of Euston were cancelled. This was a slight dilemma for us as we had nowhere in the city to spend the night and we were working on a fairly tight time frame of getting Lisa to an airport in another country 32 hours later. This brings in our heroes of the story, the Hopkinson kids. The same crew that we had spent Christmas with 2 weeks earlier actually live in London and were now our only hope of not spending a ridiculous amount on a hotel in the downtown of one of the world’s most expensive cities. The only number I had was for Chris who was still at his parent’s house and not to be found in the city. However, he was able to put me in touch with both Lucy and Josie as well as attempted to find any other way for us to get back to Glasgow. With no luck in the form of alternative transportation, I had Lucy on the phone and before I even finished explaining that we were stuck in London she was offering to kick her sister of the other room so we had a place to stay. We opted for a temporary bed in the living room which proved to be one of the most comfortable sleeps since the luxury hotel on New Years. As luck would have it, we were much better off sipping hot Ribina and sharing stories with Josie, Lucy and Joe (Lucy’s significant other) than we ever would have been stuck on a train! (If your reading this we both can’t thank you guys enough!! When you make it to Canada there is always a room for you where I am.)

We got the train the next day with no further difficulties and made it back to Glasgow on the night of the 5th.

Pairs! ~ or as they say in french "Paris"

2009-01-31T02:12:00.005Z

From the 1st through to the night of the 3rd we saw absolutely everything Paris had to offer. With the help of Greg Barker, a family friend who supplied us with a few hidden gems, and a free tour which covered all the big ticket items, we soaked it all in. We saw the Eiffel Tower obviously, and even waited in the two hour line up to get up the thing, the louver, Arc du Triumph, Notre Damn, Sacred Hearts Cathedral, the Latin District and the North end of the city towards Moulin Rouge. We strolled the streets eating crepes and bargaining with street merchants, listened to a harp player on the stairs of the Sacred Heart Cathedral, watched in amazement as figure skaters practiced on Rollerblades and Frisbee pros showed their skills on the lawns of the military museum. Although our hostel room was “compact” in size, the hostel did serve a fantastic breakfast in which I could also make a lunch to take with us.

Story time - The first morning we were there I thought it would be nice to take breakfast back to the room for Lisa who was still catching up on some sleep. So I loaded a tray full of croissants, baguettes, meats, cheese, cereals, milk, coffee and juice. The kitchen is located in the basement and we are staying on the first floor, putting two sets of stairs and two doors between myself with a loaded tray and my end destination... Can you see where this is going? It’s a great morning to be alive, I am traveling, the sun is shinning, breakfast looks great, so I am taking the stairs two at a time with a tune on my lips and jump in my step. Well it might have been that jump in my step or it might have been my over sized feet, but either way on the landing just below the first floor, my flip-flop caught the edge of the stair and ass over teakettle I went. Or in this case, ass of a very full tray of food and drink. Doing everything I could to not knock my teeth out on the stone steps, I let go of the tray which rotated once before coming down in a hurry directly in front of my face, and all over my arms. With one sleeve covered in orange juice and the other in coffee I started to use a whole different version of the French language. I was not a happy person. But none the less the stains came out of the sweatshirt and I was still able to go down and get another breakfast, although that was the last time I attempted breakfast in bed!

Of all the things we saw and did in Paris the most memorable was a naked couple in a box. Nope, no joking. As odd as it sounds, atop one of the museums along the river there was a large glass box. Inside the box was a bedroom completely set as if it where in your very own home. So natural looking in fact, that it included two completely naked people. One man who felt the need to stand against the glass and wave to people on the street below and his female companion who stayed more to the back and took photos. After about 10 minutes these two were accompanied by a few other people who climbed a staircase from the museum roof to the glass bedroom. We didn’t stick around to find out what happened next and we are still not sure exactly what was going on here but we presume it was some sort of art exhibit.

On the 3rd we were headed from Paris to London on the 11:30pm overnight bus due to arrive at 6:45am on the 4th. The reason I give this time so specifically is because it plays into the next 36 hours very carefully. We knew there was going to be a large lineup to check in for the bus so we went a little early. We were checking in around 9:25 and had planned to go and grab something to eat between check-in and departure. Turns out there was a bus leaving at 9:30 and the guy at the ticket booth didn’t even give us the option but instead told us that he had switched us and that we were leaving in 5 minutes from the other end of the bus terminal. Run. I grabbed the luggage, Lisa grabs the carry-ons and off we ran, or sprinted is more accurate. We made the bus, however we did not get anything to eat and were now both tired and hungry. As luck would have it the bus was delayed in departing and we sat in the terminal for nearly three quarters of an hour. Once we were on the road there was nothing but more problems. We made it to Calais, and had to go through UK customs to board the ferry. One of the passengers on our bus was “detained” by authorities which meant our entire bus was detained because he could have stashed something on the bus. So we waited another 35 minutes or so and once we were good to go we sat in the parking lot and watching the ferry leave without us. With all the delays so far, we had missed the ferry. Eventually we did cross the Channel and once we were back in the UK it was smooth sailing. Wait, it was smooth sailing right after we waited for our driver to fix the side door of the bus. The door was stuck open and even after he managed to get it shut, it would not stay shut and as soon as we started rolling forward the door would open again. With the help of some truckers, he tied it shut using a mash of string and wire. By the time we rolled into London, the bus that we were supposed to be on in the first place was parked just ahead of us.

Starting the New Year in France!

2009-01-30T20:32:00.004Z

When we departed on the night of the 30th, Paris was the end destination for the morning of the 31st but we first had to travel North for a few hours to London, spend 90 minutes in London and then head south across the Channel. I was so excited to drive through the Chunnel I have heard so much about. I even talked it up to Lisa. Well when we got to Dover we ended up taking a ferry across the channel and subsequently Lisa now thinks I was trying to make a fool of her by getting her to believe there was such a thing called the Chunnel.

Upon arrival in Paris at 7am, we were lost, exhausted, starving and it was still dark outside. And so, we decided walking was a good idea. It wasn’t. We had no idea where this fancy hotel we booked was, so we took the metro into the heart of the city and loaded with a surplus of luggage and armed with a map, we began walking. I have to admit it was a very interesting experience to watch one of the worlds busiest cities slowly come to life. It is rare that I see sunrise and there was something about watching all these people open their shops, get to work and go about their morning routines that was chaotic yet peaceful. Probably peaceful because I didn’t have to take part. As day broke we worked our way down the Champs-Elysees. After asking at a partner hotel, we found out where we were headed and grabbed the metro into the business district of Paris (La Defense). Our hotel was a 5 star Renaissance Hotel that if we had not got a deal online, there was no way we could have afforded to stay there. To give you an idea, the price of our room, if we had walked in off the street and booked it, would have been 450 sterling pounds. At the current exchange rate, that is around $900 Canadian. To book the presidential suite would have been 5,000 pounds or $10,000 and we were outside of town!! There is a hotel in the heart of the city that is ranked as the most expensive in Europe and to stay there in the standard room is 10,000 pounds a night. To book the presidential suite is 52,000 pounds or $104,000 a night. The winner of the Tour du’ France is given three nights stay there as part of his prize. I am happy with the deal we got, that’s for sure!

Once we checked into our hotel Lisa crashed for a couple hours and I went wandering. With that night being New Years Eve the business district was pretty quite outside of the large amounts of military patrolling the area. However I did find the greatest statue I have ever seen. Just outside of the center square there is a giant thumb sticking out of the ground. Constructed with remarkable detail, at a height of nearly 5 stories, this is the ultimate thumbs up! Once we were ready for the night we headed into town and joined the couple hundred thousand people who had gathered on the Champs-Elysees. It was anarchy. People flooded the streets, everyone was drinking, dancing, laughing and just partying in general. When midnight hit the city went crazy, the Eiffel tower lit up in an explosion of sparkling lights and champagne corks flew everywhere. After a while we decided to head back to our hotel and I warned Lisa that the metro might be a little busy. That was a drastic understatement. I cannot find the words to describe the sea of people that quite honestly swept us away. We got to within a few feet from the metro entrance and still could not get in as we were pushed passed by surge after surge from the crowd. When Lisa and I finally fought our way out of the crowd we were nearly two blocks from our desired subway station. The fun and happy crowd had “Cinderella’ed” at midnight and was now an angry mob. Kids were firing roman candles and lobbing firecrackers into the crowd, the pushing and shoving was fierce and we were happy to get out of there when we did. We ended up walking a couple of blocks to find a metro station that was more reasonable and after it was all said and done it took us around 2.5 hours to make the 15 minute trip back to our hotel. All in all it was a fantastic experience that I look forward to never doing again. Next New Years I might be a hermit or host the party so I don’t have to try and go anywhere.

Cruisin' The Highway of Life -- And the Atlantic Ocean

2009-01-22T20:40:00.003Z

We arrived in Portsmouth around 1.5 hours before we were scheduled to depart only to learn that our ship had been delayed by 4 hours due to rough sees off the coast of France. So we went to the local grocery store and bought some supplies for the trip while wasting as much time as possible. It didn’t occur to me at first but as I had a few hours to think about it I realized that this minor delay was going to be the crack in the dam that brought my plans for the entire rest of our trip to a spiraling demise. I will explain, on our mini-cruise to Bilbao, Spain we were only supposed to have 6 hours in Bilbao before hoping on the return trip. With the 4 hour delay in departure, the cruise line was not exactly going to reduce our time in Spain to 2 hours. So instead they scheduled our return for 4 hours later as well, thus delaying our arrival back in Portsmouth by those same 4 hours. The kicker was that we had a bus scheduled to take us from Portsmouth, England to Paris, France that was set to leave 55 minutes after our ship was originally supposed to be back in Portsmouth. With that bus being the last to leave on the evening of the 30th, our trip would have then been a day off from that point forward. So after stewing about this for a while we decided that there was nothing that could be done at the time and we were going to forget about it and enjoy our cruise.

And enjoy we did! This boat was fitted with 6 restaurants, 3 bars, 2 movie theaters, a theater stage, pool, gym and 8 floors to explore. Although the nights were a little rough on Lisa’s stomach, we both enjoyed relaxing and not have to lug our bags around for a few days. We played bingo and although Lisa came within one or two numbers in every game, we never won a dime. Played a little 3 card poker and lost whatever I had in my pockets, but made up for it on the roulette table. As I was explaining the various rules of all the other games to Lisa, I said “Roulette is two ridiculous to explain, just pick two numbers and I will throw these last two chips down.” Lisa – “8 and 14, yours and Colin’s hockey numbers.” No more bets, round and round the silver ball flies, where will it land, nobody knows… Except Lisa apparently, number 14! So we take our winnings, cash out and walk out. Over the 3 day cruise we took in the evening shows which included Grease, and the Best of Broadway musicals. They were very good and you can’t complain with anything free!

Bilbao was amazing – this incredible little Spanish city nestled right on the northern coast with a mixed backdrop of rolling green hills and rugged ocean side cliffs, and which is further divided by a river through town. We took in a walking tour of the city which highlighted the old town and the new town, Spain’s largest open market, the theater, and some of the cities remarkable history. We even had a Spanish coffee at a little Barista downtown. I can’t do the city justice so you will have to wait for the photos. But I would love to go back and it only heightened my desire to see more of Spain. But for now it was time to get back on board and head back to Portsmouth.

Now, I am sure you are wondering what happened with the timing of the ships return and us catching our bus to France. Well as it turns out, cruise ships run at slower speeds in the evening to make it more comfortable for their passengers. Unless of course, that cruise ship is 4 hours behind and is not concerned with the overnight comfort of its passengers. By the time we made it to Bilbao we had made up 3 hours because we had the wind at our backs and other than having a very rocky nights sleep I was feeling pretty pumped. It was not a night that Pops would have done well on and there were a few other green faced passengers the next day but for those of us with buses to catch, it was the best night we could have asked for. However, we lost another 40 minutes or so in Bilbao waiting for vehicles to board the ship and so on route back to Portsmouth had the wind coming at us and had 1 hour 40 minutes to make up. Things were not looking good, but like a Disney movie ending, the captain ran full steam through the night, the wind let up as we rounded the north coast France into the Channel and we floated into port 5 minutes ahead of schedule. “It always works out for the best.” We cruised through customs by avoiding the desks all together and just walked right out to the bus stop. We made such great time we had 35 minutes to spare, which was spent having a beer with an Englishman who was also waiting for the bus. He was plowed but seemed very interested in Canada – nice guy. Onward and upward - To Paris we go!

An English Christmas!

2009-01-22T20:24:00.004Z

In a world dictated by how connected you are, National Express has stepped up their service by offering free wifi on all their East Coast Train services. So I am heading from Dundee down to Salisbury and have 8.5 hours to type my heart out and finally update this blog again. So where we did we leave off,

On the evening of the 23rd we departed Heather’s and Wales via train bound for our Christmas destination of central England. After having to switch trains and wait 2.5 hours in Cheltenham, we finally made it out to Worchester. Little background note: Being around 5000 km from home turf, Lisa and I were to spend Christmas with complete strangers. I had arranged for us to spend the holidays with Bryn and Felicity Hopkinson’s and their family of 5 children plus significant others and grandchildren. The connection – Felicity is my Grandmothers goddaughter and my Aunt Gail is Felicity’s daughters (Susan) godmother. Confused yet? That’s fine, so were we. Lisa had never met any of them and I had only met Bryn for about 30 minutes while up visiting my Aunt Gail a few months back. But none the less Gail vouched for them and said how they had become a second family to her over the years, so we were in for Christmas. As it turns out they were nothing short of incredible! We arrived in Worchester and were greeted by their youngest son Chris. Being only a few months younger than myself and a sport enthusiast we got along great! To Lisa’s enjoyment I am sure, we spent the next hour relating “Footy” to Hockey and sharing war stories about our lives in our respective sports. We spent the night at Bryn and Felicity’s incredible country home which could have been the set of a movie. The originally home was built in the early 1600’s and is perched on a hill with a backyard that opens over the valley below. Surrounded by farm land that has a mix of crop and sheep, the whole place was unreal. Not to mention the mint condition 60’s porch in the barn!

Christmas eve Lisa and I accompanied Chris and his girlfriend Emma into town as Chris had some last minute shopping to do and Lisa and I seized the opportunity to explore another town. We saw the Cathedral were I think I secured my place in Hell and took in the town’s main drag. I didn’t exactly burst into flames at the cathedral but I probably should have. What happened is that as Lisa and I were walking around looking at the architecture and reading up on how it had changed throughout the reformation. I was taking pictures of everything as I regularly do and so I had my camera out of its case and was holding it while the string was around my wrist. As I was looking up at the ceiling and some of the incredible stained glass I took a step back to more of the stained glass into the photo and knocked into this glass display case which held some old holy document (I am still not sure what). Well the display case was on wheels but I did not know that and as I knocked it I felt it moving which I thought was it tipping over. I spun around to catch it and in the process slammed my hand into the corner of the glass case. Consequently I dropped my camera and as I had it around my wrist it dropped about 4 inches and then swung around banked off the leg of this case. The bottom piece that holds the batteries in broke open and the batteries slide out and rolled across the floor, as this is all occurring I may have muttered a few words that I am sure would not have gone over well if the group of nuns setting up for Christmas Mass had overheard me. Lisa proceeded to hit me and ream me out for cursing in a church and nearly breaking the place. Again we felt it was a good time to get out of there. On a plus note, my Camera is still in working order but to take a photo I have to hold the batteries in place.

Following the cathedral we saw town, grabbed a coffee and headed back to join Bryn and Felicity for the annual Christmas Eve town gathering. Were better to hold a town gathering than one of the town pubs? There were about 20+ of the neighbours and friends from the area and we all sat around drinking bitter pints and eating glorious amounts of food. I decided to make it an all English experience and went with the lamb shanks and neeps. Delicious! It was at this pub that I found some of the best named beers I have ever seen. A patron has the option of a pint of “This,” a pint of “That,” or a pint of “The Other.” They were traditional English beers and a little stronger and more bitter than the lagers I am used to but with names like that how could I refuse! Following the pub Chris, Lisa and I drove down to Susy’s where we met the rest of the gang. Susy and Alex live just outside of Oxford with their two little girls in a house that is just as spectacular as Bryn and Felicity’s. Everyone became instant friends as Lucy and Josie took a quick liking to Lisa and she was more than grateful to have girls around again. Well as it turns out there is really only one thing to do in Central England on Christmas Eve when everyone is getting together and in the festive mood. You guessed it – off to the local pub we went! There we met up with Alex’s family who are a special breed, and the big event of the evening was when Lucy was washing her hands and dropped her diamond ring into the sink. Alex and I fished it out without much doing but it was entertainment for a few minutes that’s for sure.

Christmas day was a very full day of food, presents, food, drinks, food and some more food in the evening. I was spoiled with gifts from both home and abroad. Through my parents I had gifts reach me from all over Canada. – I will take an aside here to thank everyone because I have been pretty terrible at getting thank you notes off to anyone as of yet. I have not even thanked my own parents well enough yet and as bad as it is, didn’t acknowledge my older brothers gift until about two days ago. So thanks to all of you! I greatly appreciate the assistance with my travels and for thinking of me while I am wandering the globe. – I was also spoiled on a local note as Bryn and Felicity gave me a pair of Paul Smith dress socks (Greatly Needed!!), Josie and Lucy gave both Lisa and myself fancy body washes and Susy and Alex gave me a book on the abbreviated history of England. So I made out like a criminal! When I made the decision to not be home for the holidays I was a little concerned what Christmas was going to be like and if I was going to be in a hostel eating fast food or something microwaveable. Nick always tells me not to worry so much, because as it turned out I ate and lived like royalty for those few days. With a turkey dinner on both Christmas and Boxing day and left over turkey sandwiches as late night snacks, it made up for all the terrible meals on the road and for eating café food for the past 4 months. On Christmas day, those of us who were not cooking were shooed from the house so as to not disrupt the chef’s. So we went to the pub, home sweet pub.

Originally Lisa and I were scheduled to take off on Boxing day and spend the night in Portsmouth, on England’s south coast, but we were enjoying our time and the company so much that we switched our bus tickets to the 27th and cancelled out hotel for the night of the 26th. With a little sweet talking and a few white lies we avoided paying any cancellation fees for the hotel and only had to pay the difference in price for our bus tickets. So Boxing Day evening the kids left the parents at home and we all went to the pub only to find it was closed. There were varying degrees of shock amongst the crowd, none more astonished than Chris who could not quite understand how or a why a pub would lock its doors. So instead we watched the footy game and lounged at home. On the 27th I watch a pheasant hunt in full march, watched the replay of the Canada Junior hockey game from the night before (Congrats Boys), took a walk with the whole gang through the valley, went to the pub with the boys, and took a ride in an Aston Martin. Ohhhhhhh Baby! 0-60 in 4.2 seconds and cornered like a dream. Alex and I took a rip around the English country roads and I could have sworn we were in a Bond movie. Brilliant, simply Brilliant! If I ever have 100 and something thousand dollars to play with I am going to pick up one of those darlings. We said our goodbyes in the afternoon and made arrangements for me to see Chris, Lucy, and Josie in London in mid-January. With that we were on a bus headed for Portsmouth to catch our cruise ship to Spain!

From Dublin to Cardiff

2009-01-09T19:30:00.004Z

I thought it best to blog these two destinations together as we only spent one day in each and they are relatively short.

Back in Dublin on the 21st, Lisa and I convinced Aussie Lisa to rearrange her flights and spend an extra day touring Dublin with us. After a trek to find our Hostel, it turns out we were upgraded from an eight person dorm to a four person private room which included a loft! However, the loft did not make up for the lack of hot water in the shower. I braved it out by taking an ice water shower while the girls found it more reasonable to shower in the sink. Water was hot but I’d imagine it wasn’t easy getting under the tap. After a very exhausting 3 days around southern Ireland we decided to take the night off by relaxing in our loft. The next day was an action packed speed tour of the sights and sounds of Dublin. We walked the downtown districts, saw Dublin Castle from the outside and viewed St Patrick’s Cathedral, who, by the way, was not actually a saint, nor was his name actually Patrick. And to top it all off, he never drank! The highlight of the day was by far the Guinness St. James Street Brewery. We took the tour, sampled pints, taste tested the beer prior to it being kegged and even learned the art of pouring the perfect pint of black gold. As it turns out neither of the Lisa’s are big beer drinkers either so I was the nominated finisher! The tour ends at the Guinness bar on top of the brewery were they sell two things; Guinness and Guinness Cold. By the end of the few hours we were there I was feeling fantastic! After nearly knocking a bucket of Guinness golf balls over in the gift shop, we felt it was time to move on.

And move on we did, next stop Cardiff, Wales! After arriving late on the 22nd, because we thought we were going to be smart and take the train instead of the bus from the airport, only to have the train be delayed by 40 minutes, we were treated with the most spectacular hotel I have ever stayed in. Being as it was so close to Christmas and there were not many people staying in the hotel, we were upgraded again but this time it had more than a loft. We were put up in the bridal suite which came with an attached living room, office, a bed that could have fit about 8 people, and a bathroom fitted with towel heaters and heated floors. Not to mention we had a fantastic view of the Castle and its grounds from each one of our 5 windows. Being as we were guests of the hotel we had access to the bar 24 hours a day so after a little night cap we called it a day. The following day we took in Cardiff Castle, which was a spectacular display of history, and traveled just out of town to spend the afternoon with my wonderful Great Aunt Heather. She is more than 60 years older than I am and has as much energy as a puppy. She ran around the house fixing us lunch, telling stories, and laughing with us. She even had Christmas presents waiting for us. Having only the afternoon was not enough time and I hope to get back and see her again before I have to head back across the pond.

FAN-FECKIN-TASTIC Shamrocker Adventure!

2009-01-09T17:47:00.002Z

We decided the best way to see Ireland was with a tour and so Lisa and I went on the "Southern Rocker". Just for the record - FECK is an Irish term that is used as a substitute for other 4 letter words that may not be as socially acceptable. As Sean explained, "you can say Feck to your own mott'er about her own mott'er and n'one will bat an eye, but if ya use the other term, you'll have both yer eyes batted!"

After only a few hours of shuteye, we were up and out to join our Shamrocker tour of Southern Ireland! After meeting "Sean" the tour guide, "Dermit" the bus driver, the 9 Aussies and 1 Belgium guy that were to be our traveling cohorts, we were off. Sean turned out to be a hippie historian and was nothing short of brilliant the entire time, while Dermit proved to be a driving ace doing everything from driving up hillsides to avoid oncoming cars, backing down a cliffs edge to get us closer to a beach and taking a 90+ degree turn while at near top speeds. Out of the crew we were traveling with the Belgium guy was a little strange but seemed very nice and drank like a fish, while 3 of the Aussies were awesome and the other 6 were spoiled little brats who were on holidays paid by daddy. It certainly didn’t affect us as Team Canada (Lisa and myself) and the 3 Aussies with a maturity level greater than a 15 year old all took up residency together on the bus as well as in our first hostel. Before I get to the nights accommodation, I will go over what we did/saw in the first day on the road.

After leaving Dublin we drove directly to Lockes Whiskey Distillery the oldest whiskey distillery in the world. What better way to start your day then with a complementary double shot of single mart, 12 year old whiskey? How about with three, double shots of single malt, 12 year old whiskey. Lisa does not drink whiskey so I had hers and a wonderful friend which we met on the trip, (also named Lisa but from this point forward will be known as Aussie Lisa), also did not drink whiskey so I had that one as well. I was informed that it is unlucky to waste even a drop of Irish whiskey, and with all the traveling we had yet to do I felt obliged to make sure we did not bring on any unnecessary bad luck this trip. Now that I was feeling warm all over, back on the bus for a quick trip to the ruins of Clonmacnoise. Clonmacnoise was a cathedral in its day and is now a very elaborate set of ruins with an expansive cemetery and crypt surrounding it. Its significance is that it is one of the oldest cathedrals in Ireland and has some of the first ever stone Christian Crosses or High Crosses on its grounds. It also has an ancient stone circle next to it and the site is thought to have been used for religious ceremonies since between 3000 and 4000 BC. Turns out that archeology class did teach me something. The ruins themselves were spectacular as many of the doorways and walls still have a few original carvings from the middle ages. I took the opportunity of walking an old graveyard to scare the living daylights out of Lisa. Lisa was looking in one of the crypts which had a window at the far end. Through the window was a stone cross that stood around 3 meters high, and Lisa thought it would be a great picture to take as the windows edge provided a nice border around the cross. I seized the opportunity as I went around the back side of the building and popped up in the window as she was taking the picture. Absolute hilarity, you can’t buy that kind of entertainment!
From Clonmacnoise we drove along the shores of the River Shannon to the Castle of Burren. As the story goes the owner of this castle was a red haired woman and one of the first women to own a castle on the island of Ireland. The king got word of this and refused to let a woman to own such a magnificent castle and its surrounding land, so she struck a deal with the king and said she would marry one of his men, so that technically her husband would own the castle and yet she could stay in the home she loved. The king agreed and a knight was chosen to be her husband and the new owner of the castle. On their wedding night the red-haired woman invited her new husband up to the top of the castle walls so that he could look out over all the land he now owned. Story goes that the knight lost his balance and fell off the top of the wall and died. This story repeated itself three times and after her third husband fell to his death no knight would agree to marry her. The King was forced to let her keep her castle and land. Smart lady eh? Nope – Feckin Crazy Lady! Turns out that she had a lust for murder. A few years later she hosted a New Years party for the entire town, but instead for fireworks and Champagne she waited for the entire town to be inside the court yard of her castle and then locked the doors from the outside and burnt her own castle to the ground, with the entire town trapped inside! From that day forward no red-haired women are allowed in the county of Burren on New Years Eve or New Years Day.
Next on the list was an archeology site called Pol-na-Brone which was an Neolithic burial site that had also been tied to some Irish Folklore. However the weather turned on us and we didn’t stay long. We were suppose to head to the famous Cliffs of Mother but due to poor weather we decided to try it tomorrow and just to retire to the hostel for the night. That night we stayed in Doolin and enjoyed a few pints and some grub at one of the local pubs.

Do want to know the best way to wake up? Not at 6:35am to Kings of Leon’s “Sex is On Fire” at full blast, that’s for damn sure! This was courtesy of the 6 princesses on our tour. None the less, we were up and ready for another day. We headed down the coast for our second attempt at the famous Cliffs of Mother. However due to extreme fog you couldn’t even tell the cliffs where there. Instead I took a photo of me standing in front of a wall mural of the cliffs that was located in the gift shop. Looks spectacular! We continued our drive up the coast of Clare hearing some horrific and some hilarious Irish tales. Sean did a fantastic job of mixing the history of the island with the folklore and fairy tales. The trip up the coast also included many short stops for some amazing photography opportunities. As the day progressed the fog lifted and we were left with some of the incredible beauty of the Atlantic coast of Southern Ireland. I played on a beach and lost my soul for 40 years. Legend has it that on this particular beach anyone who lets the Atlantic waters cover the tops of their feet will loose a part of their soul for 40 years and can only reclaim it by returning in 40 years and again allowing the Atlantic waters to run over the tops of their feet again. So looks like I will be Ireland bound in 4 decades if anyone cares to join me. And I don’t want to hear that anyone already has plans! The rest of the day consisted of enjoying the Irish countryside, a ferry to Kerry across the river Shannon, a lunch stop in the town of Dingle – Home of “Fungi” the Dingle Dolphin – a trip around the Dingle Peninsula (where the beach was located), and a gorgeous drive through the Kerry Mountains. This day was filled with some of the most magnificent scenery I have ever had the privilege of seeing with my own two eyes. Everything so was lush and rugged, it really is the Emerald Isle. I would rank it right up there with the Rockies for how mesmerizing they are. Also, on another note, we were fortunate enough to see a family of dolphins playing in the swells off the coast. One of the Aussies we were traveling with informed us the waves were around 3 meters high and would make for some incredible surfing. The winds were so strong I don't know how anyone could stay on a board in that weather! We spent the night in Killarney and took in a truly one of a kind experience. Myself and the two Lisa’s, along with Sean, went to Pub Theater. To explain, Pub Theater is a one man show where “Pa” (actual name is Patrick, but has not been called that since before his mother died – note, his mother is still alive) acts out every character in a 1.5 hour production based on life in the pub. Pub Theater is actually held in pub, O’Connor’s to be exact, which is located above another pub. I still can’t figure out where is got its name. Pa was hilarious and the show was spectacular! Not only was the play good, but he included some poetry, a few songs, and drank 5 pints of Guinness and 4 shots of Irish Whiskey inside of that time frame. It’s no wonder he only does one show a night! Because there were so few of us, after the show we all sat around with Pa drinking, laughing, singing and playing songs. With Pa on the Bodhran (handheld drum played with a double ended drumstick), Sean playing guitar and Aussie Lisa playing piano, it was quite the show. If only Lisa had her Fiddle!! As I am not so musically inclined, I kept to the drinking part with a little singing here and there. At the end of the night Pa pulled me aside and told me he would give me advice I could use for the rest of my life. His advice “Kiss every girl you meet – but only kiss her hand.” I could have sworn I had heard that advice before, but whoever told it to me must have skipped the second line.
On our third and final day of this world wind tour of southern Ireland we learned more about the recent history of Ireland (from the famine through to the civil war) and traveled to the only part of the country that doesn't have Guinness coursing through its veins. The city of Cork is a rival of Dublin (where Guinness is brewed) and so the people there don’t drink it. (Or should I say don’t drink as much of it.) Instead they have an even darker stout called Murphy’s. It is not bad but it is not Guinness. After Cork we went to kiss the Blarney Stone and see Blarney Castle. As legend is told, those who kiss the Blarney Stone while hanging upside down from the castle wall will be rewarded with the gift of the gab, and apparently be able to BS their way into or out of any situation. I will let you know how it works when the time comes. The castle itself was very well intact and was a maze of stairwells and similar shaped rooms. I found a cave that once was a dungeon and I almost got stuck in it. Isn’t strange how it is so much easier to squeeze into small spaces than it is to squeeze out? However, after this tiny cave, we made our way to the largest series of caves in the UK and one of the largest in Europe. The Mitchelstown Caves span 3 km underground through a series of tunnels and lakes and were formed some 10 to 12 thousand years ago by a network of underground rivers and streams. I am happy to say that in order to test the acoustics of the caves we sang “Oh Canada” loud and proud! Our last stop on the tour was the Rock of Cashel fortress, which was both a monastery and a fortress and is the only one like it in the world. Goes to show you how tough those Irish really are, even their monks are kicking ass! On route back to Dublin we drove through the quaint town of Tipperary, home of Gaelic Football (kind of like Aussie Rules with an Irish twist) and finally by the Kildare stud farms which, throughout history has laid claim to some of the fastest horses in world.

Long one I know, but it was an action packed few days! We made some great friends and had a "Great Craich" along the way. Highly recommended tour to anyone who wants to experience the island of Ireland!

Return of the Blog

2009-01-09T17:32:00.004Z

As it turns out, the Internet is a luxury and one that is not often found while on the road. However, I have been doing my best to keep a blog going in Word so I can update without having the issue of trying to recall memories. Now, I have been gone a few weeks and in that time I have traveled to 5 different countries, finished school in Glasgow and had countless random adventures. Also, for the record, these were written on a combinations of boats, buses, trains, hostels and anywhere else I found I have a free few minutes, so the timing might be off because they were written long before they were posted. Here we go --

First chance I have had to sit and reflect on the last couple weeks, I am currently chilling on a cruise ship enjoying a relaxing ride back to Portsmouth from our short hop to Spain. But this will all come up in a minute. Lets go back to the beginning. And for the benefit of my devoted readers I will break up this journey by destination, just in case you don’t have a few hours of free time to sit and read it all at once. Now lets roll back to December 16th.

Trying to prep for my Law exam and show Lisa the wonderful city of Glasgow became a bit of a balancing act in which I favored the books and left Lisa to entertain herself for a few hours a day. However, we did get her to both the Kelvingrove and Huntarian Museums, took her on a brief trip into town, and took in a show in the east end. The morning of the 18th I wrote my final in-school examination of this degree and wrapped up my education at Glasgow. I say my last “in-school” exam because I only have 2 classes left and I will be able to take them online once I get back to Canada. So I will not be returning to Dalhousie or any other institution until I do my MBA or another degree!! As for the Law exam, well it is over and that’s all that matters, not looking for a noble prize, just looking for a pass at this point. And besides, I had other things on my mind, like the fact that I was lacing up my wandering boots and hitting the road that evening.

The night of the 18th we departed Glasgow for Dublin Ireland and we experienced the odd sensation of being the only two people in the departures check in. Not just the only people checking in for our flight, but actually the only two people in the entire departures section of the airport. Very strange. We did have a few other people on our flight but all in all it was about ¼ full. We arrived in Dublin late but you could not have told by the number of people bouncing in the streets. A very kind, very drunk, Irish man helped us with the directions to our hostel and off we walked. Time for a little side story (these will pop up from time to time) – After checking into our 8 person dorm room at Abigail's Hostel, we realized that everyone would be fast asleep as it was around 1am. The room was set up with 4 sets of bunk beds along the walls with the door and a bathroom at one end. So upon entering our room in the pitch black, I proceeded to have to feel the pillows of the beds to find two that did not already contain a head. There I am blindly reaching out in the dark, patting the tops of pillows, pleading that I do not smack someone in the face!

I will end this blog here as the next one is a doosie which includes our entire tour of the island of Ireland! (actually just the south, but it is fun to say "Island of Ireland" and we had a guide that said it a lot.)

Guests! MOTM! and Finishing Exams

2008-12-17T10:55:00.003Z

It has been an eventful end of the semester around here with people getting into the Christmas spirit and then subsequently heading home. I, on the hand, and welcoming arrivals rather than saying goodbyes. Lisa has finally made it from Canada and although she had a few changes in flights and flight cancellations and her luggage had a slight delay in London, she made it safe and sound and it is great to have her over here. With the original flight plan being Halifax-Ottawa-London-Glasgow and the snow storm rolling over Ottawa in the middle of last week, she ended up catching a flight out of Glasgow a while later to Toronto. No problem except for the 40 gate dash she had to make in a matter of a few minutes at Pearson, but again she made it. And after a gentle ride across the Atlantic, a terminal change at Hethrow and short hop to Glasgow, she actually made it 3 minutes before her original scheduled time of arrival. I have done my best to show introduce her to the Glasgow Gang including having a few drinks with my Football coaches, joining in on our hallways secret Santa and accompanying me to my final varsity field hockey game. Amidst all this I am trying desperately to study for my final Law Exam but can't thinking of all the other things I would rather be doing.

As for the other big events of the week, first lets start with the positive. I wrapped up my field hockey career capping off a perfect 9-0 record with a 3 Nil win over the weekend. The opposing team was very good but very aggressive. It was an all Pakistani team and much of what they yelled was not in English which made the regular banter of the game a little more difficult. It was a "highly spirited" game in which a few of these men became disgruntled by the fact that they could not score. We had shots being taken at our players, we had their captain taking charges at us and we even had a few sticks being wielded in a malicious manner. Our coach/captain switched up the positions a little and I was granted the role of 'offensive defensmen.' It is a gentleman's sport and I played as much like a gentleman as I know how. All is all one of their players injured themselves by taking a swing at me and missing only to have swung so hard his stick came around to hit him in the knee, and as we shook hands after the game their captain told me "You very good player, very hard to play against." (That sentence is not missing any words, he just had a very very thick accent.) I was awarded Man of The Match by my team and given an open invitation to play for them anytime I was back in Glasgow.

The next positive event would be our hallway Christmas party. We did a secret Santa in which I was given a book on how to make paper airplanes from dollar bills and a ring that is also a bottle opener! It was great to see everyone all at once, the Christmas "cheer" was flowing and we all had a great night.

The small negative of the week is based on my future travel plans. Little recap to set this story up - My mom has sent me advent gifts for the days before Christmas that I will not be at home, one of those gifts was a map of Europe. Upon opening this gift Lisa and I spread the map out on my desk and I pointed out all the places we are going in the next three weeks. One portion of our trip involves us getting off a boat in Portsmouth England and later that day catching a bus from Dover England to Paris France. I had looked it up online to ensure this was possible based on the time we had and the time we had to check in for the bus and according to google we could catch the Route 2 Local bus from Portsmouth to Dover and it would take approximately 35 minutes. It leaves every 40 minutes which was perfect because we have 4.5 hours from when we get off the boat until the bus from Dover leaves. So no problem.... There was no problem until I looked at this map of Europe I now had and noticed that the distance from Portsmouth to Dover was approximately the width of Scotland or twice the distance from Glasgow to Edinburgh. Knowing how long Glasgow to Edinburgh takes I thought, "That can't be write, we must be leaving from a different Dover." After looking around online and checking out a few things it has come to my attention that the Local Route 2 Bus does travel from Portsmouth to Dover in 35 minutes, unfortunately that is from Portsmouth, New Hampshire to Dover, New Hampshire USA. So with a little bit worry and a whole lot of frustration I started desperately trying to find a way to get to Dover in time to catch our bus. No such luck folks! I could either grab the 5 hour and 20 minute bus ride that goes through London first, or I could pay a small fortune to grab a 4 hour and 5 minute train that still did not get me right to the bus station and also has no guarantee I would make it or be allowed on the bus checking in that late. So, I started cursing a lot at myself and then I started making phone calls. Through some fancy talking a few white lies I managed to rearrange my bus tickets to leave from Portsmouth to Paris rather than from Dover, and instead of holding 25% of my original ticket as a cancellation fee the wonderful people at National Express have offered to refund me 90%. It always works out for the best, but let me tell you, if I had received a map of Europe this week it would not have been working out for the best when I started looking for the Local Route 2 bus in Portsmouth!

My final exam is tomorrow and I have to get back to the books, but tomorrow night we leave for Ireland and the start of our adventure! I will try to update regularly when I have Internet access, however that might be few and far between so until next time!

Studying and Football

2008-12-08T20:29:00.003Z

I will have to keep this one short as I have a small mountain of work to get through before the night is out, however I thought it necessary to update on the weekends events.

Last week included very little outside of studying and sleeping. I have been under the weather so sleep is of the essence and with finals this week and next, studying is a pretty close second. However, the weekend is meant for taking breaks and with that in mind I was geared up to play Hockey on Saturday and Football Sunday.

Saturday's fun ended before it started as our game got cancelled because "the pitch was frozen." This was the same reason our practise last Monday was cancelled as was out football practise on Tuesday. I was really looking forward to the game because I really did not want to be studying and I haven't played in 2 weeks now! I am getting that competitive itch that needs to be scratched. Instead I spent the majority of the day ensconced in International Financial Management which is only slightly more interesting than watching grass grow. Alright I admit it is not that bad, it is more like watching grass grow on the discovery channel where they speed it up for you and there is always a lady bug that climbs to the top of the middle blade.

Sunday almost started the same way with the Garsqube (our home pitch) staff trying to cancel our football game because, again, the pitch was frozen. By the way, it was -3 in Glasgow on Sunday. None the less this guy was convinced that we would injure each other if we played on a tough surface. I had to explain to him that a large part of the game was full grown men running full tilt into each other with their heads and shoulders. He admitted to not knowing a lot about the game and decided to wait till the refs showed to make a decision. It just so happens that in Scottish American Football the refs get paid just for showing up and they don't actually have to ref the game at all. So they jumped at the chance to go to the pub early and also said the pitch was cancelled. Our coaches made a few calls and rounded up another set of referees while we continued to work on the guy who ran the place. After about 2 hours of negotiations and the promise of booze he agreed to let us play. Once the ambulance showed up and everything was sorted out with the new refs, after a total of 4 hours we kicked off. And let me tell you, it was the start of something beautiful. This being my last game of 'professional' football I decided to go all out. Playing offense I recorded 18 blocks and a countless unknown total of hits. I took pride in the fact that two kids bounced off me on the opening kick off and in the second drive I hit a guy so hard he was sent backwards and knocked over another one of his players on his way down. In the 4th quarter I was changed to slot and was marked by a giant of man who didn't like me much and it wasn't even because of me talking to him. He was upset by the score and with the fact that I made him look like a clown so he decided to knee me in my left quad. It was not comfortable and they got a penalty on the play which eventually led to us scoring but I decided I would even the playing field anyway. - Before I get on with this story I will explain a key rule in the game of football. When playing offense or defense any player can block any other player provided they do not hold their opponent, block them in the back or touch them if the ball is being thrown in their direction. With that being said, it is not only 100% legal but also highly encouraged to hit anyone and everyone in the front as often as possible. The difference between this kind of hit and the hitting in almost any other sport I can think of is that you are allowed to leave your feet to hit someone. - Now then, on with the story. After being kneed by this oaf I was a little sore and not feeling overly friendly. I lined up with him again and give him a little smile that said "I know something you don't know and this is going to be fun." He started talking about how he had played high school football for a tier one school in Canada and how much of a joke I was. The ball was snapped, I stepped wide, planted one foot, dropped my outside shoulder and cut blocked that SOB as hard as I could. A cut block is when you drive low cutting the players legs from under them and sending them over your shoulder and onto their face. He was obviously upset by this got up and started grabbing and shoving and was consequently penalized another 15 yards. We lined up again and this time he didn't have nearly as much to say. So when the ball was snapped and I again stepped wide and planted a foot he ducked down expecting me to cut him again, so I launched myself into the air like a bugs bunny cartoon human rocket. It so happens that this giant of a man had lowered himself to the perfect height. I drove my shoulder and head right through him and made him think long and hard about ever kneeing anyone ever again. After this little spectacle which had got much attention from both benches, my coach asked if I wanted to play Defense. So I went in to play strong side linebacker and in 3 plays I sacked the QB twice and then had two O-linemen cover me and our other linebackers mobbed him anyway. On the second sack the QB actually shook my hand and told me it was a great hit. I should also mention that made my receiver coach pour an entire drink all over himself when he jumped with excitement over the sack. We won 30-6 against the undefeated Edinburgh team and I can't think of a better way to end my football career. And on a huge plus note, I played university football and never had to go to the hospital!

The rest of Sunday and all day today I have spent back in the books trying desperately to have something stick before Thursdays exam. The next update should include guest arrival, the completion of one exam and any shenanigans between now and then.

Celtic, Football, and school work - The end is near

2008-12-02T23:45:00.005Z

After a week of struggling to finish one of my two final papers I took the majority of the weekend off. Friday was uneventful as I tried to get a start on my second paper and instead ended up finding 501 ways to procrastinate. (onemorelevel.com for those of you looking for something to do for the next umpteen hours)

Saturday was slightly more eventful as John and I took in our first 'football' experience. Now I am talking about European football known to those of North Americans as Soccer. John and I decided to go to a Celtic home game and watch them take on Inverness. We bought a couple Celtic scarfs and made our way out to Celtic Park in the East end of town. No joke, we must have been warned about the fans and about getting jumped after the game about 20 times before we ever actually made it there. A nice gentleman on the bus explained that we should go home the long way and walk around the area we came in through because if we were to walk back that way after the game there is a strong likely hood of not making it. We took note of that one and decided to find an alternate route home. The game itself was pretty good, not being an overly large soccer fan I don't think I got as into it as some of the people there. There were a lot of chants that I did not understand but I did manage to make out the few expletives that were thrown into everyone. I think the group of 4 twelve year olds sitting in front of us summed it up best when they began their "F*$% the rangers F*$% 'em all" chant at the end of the first half. Best part is the opposing team was not the rangers at all, but that doesn't change the crowds opinion of them. I worried mostly for the ref, or umpire, because after a few dodgy calls the crowd was not so kind to him. A Few death threats and the odd thrown object were all in good fun I am sure! All in all it was a great experience, one that nobody under the age of 18 should attend but great none the less. Celtic pulled off a 1-0 win so the crowd was in good spirits on the way home (Thankfully).
After the game John and I thought after making the trek back from the east end that we would get a bite to eat at one of the pubs in town. I might add that we had a few people yelling from cars but no confrontations on the way home, none until we got to the bar that it is. John and I were refused service and asked to leave because of the scarves we were wearing. My guess is she did not want a fight breaking out in her place between some North Americans who didn't know better and a couple die hard ranger fans, but either way we were tossed. So we stuffed the scarves into the sleeves of our coats and went to the next bar.

Sunday was football day, proper American football that is. We traveled back out to Paisley to play Caledonia University which is actually another school here in Glasgow. Not really sure why both teams had to travel to a pitch neither team call home, but either way we had a game to play. It was the second coldest day yet but mostly due to the moisture in the air and not the actual temperature. The moisture also helped make the pitch into a lovely mud swamp during pregame warm ups. I won't discuss the game much as I am not overly happy about the whole ordeal. The long and the short of it is that we lost 12-8, I had a few catches for a first down and some positive yardage, but I had a few more penalties and 2 missed tackles that pretty much cost us the game. The guys are more inclined to blame our running backs who dropped the ball 11 times and recovered it once, but either way the game was an utter disaster. We play our last game before Christmas break this Sunday and it is at home against Edinburgh. Not going to be an easy game but win or lose I hope we play better then we have been.

Both Hockey on Monday and Football practise today have been cancelled because the pitch is frozen and signs of winter are finally starting to show themselves here in Glasgow. I wrapped up my last essay of the year yesterday and now only have exam studying and essay revision before the end of another term. I have finally finished booking all the flights, buses, trains and hotels for Lisa's and my trip and am pumped and ready to get my wandering shoes back on. Until then I have to get back to studying and try to make it through these last finals.

I want to make note that the advent presents have begun and the first two both fall into the dorm room decorations category! The Christmas spirit is building!!

I will end on a quote I heard the other day that pertains to us flat broke students and it gave me something to think about and I hope it does the same for you.
"It doesn't cost anything to smile and you don't have to pay to laugh" - Author Unknown

Highlands, Work and Hockey

2008-11-24T21:31:00.004Z

I did it! After being in Scotland for nearly three months I finally made it to the highlands! Adam, Jess, Ana and myself spent all day Friday driving from Glasgow to Loch Ness and back again. We saw Loch Lomond, Glencoe, Fort William, Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle all in one day and all for the low, low price of gas split four ways. Although the weather was not superb it only seemed to rain when we were actually in the car. Every time we got out or were stopping to take photos, it was slightly overcast but fairly dry. As we progressed North it dropped a few degrees and we did get a little snow but it reminded me of home and it was a nice reminder of how much I don't miss trudging through the snow drifts to get to class. The Lochs were spectacular and I can't do them justice to write about them so you will have to wait until you see the photos. Glencoe was very interesting and now that I am a member of Historic Scotland I was able to wander through the museum for free. Although gruesome, the stories of the clan massacre in the 1700's were fascinating.
On route to Fort William we stopped at a lookout for a photo op and ended up coming face to face with a stag. Although smaller than the deer we have in Canada the antlers on this guy brought him closer to my size. A few people were out of their cars taking photos and against better judgement I decided to do the same. I was low to the ground and probably about 15 feet away when the stag decided to investigate what I was doing. It slowly walked towards me and closed the gap to just under 10 feet. I stood up and with my arms out in front of me I started to shuffle towards him while quietly reminding him that I was not going to hurt him. He continued to approach as I shuffled along and soon enough his face was about 6 inches off my hand. I had a couple photos taken at this distance before I decided to get the hell out of there before my luck ran out. After I had backed away and was walking back towards the car he decided to wander over again. This time he walked up and stood next to me. I slowly reached over and rubbed his head before patting his back and rubbing his chin. He seemed happy with this and then sauntered off. Absolutely unreal! If I didn't have the photos I am positive that nobody would ever believe me!
Fort William was a great little town right on the water and at the base of Ben Nevis (the highest point in Scotland). We spent around an hour browsing the shops and wandering the downtown before continuing on to our final destination. We arrived in Loch Ness around 2:30pm, after leaving at 9:30am, and spent the duration of the after noon exploring Urquhart Castle. Other than a tower, old prison, a kitchen and some walls, the castle is mostly in ruins. But the layout is still the same and Historic Scotland has taken great time and care to layout plaques that explain everything and how it would have looked back in its hay day. It is perched on the shores of Loch Ness and from the tower, gives an unparalleled view of the area. I went Nessie spotting for a while but the closest thing I saw where some swans and few boats in the distance. After the castle we had an amazing picnic dinner in the car complete with brie cheese, two different kinds of sandwich meats, fresh bakery bread, hummus, pita, fresh fruit, and twix bars for dessert. All in all the day was a massive success and I am glad to have finally visited the Highlands!

Saturday was spent working in an attempt to make some cash prior to the end of the year. My boss offered me a more full time job if I would be willing to stay in Glasgow and play Football for him next semester. I am not sure how the visa people feel about that but it is another option. Work was good, and people were a little nicer then they usually are mid week. Myself and Ritchie were handing out computer mice as a promo for the shop but I think some people thought we had stolen them. To be fair, we did look a little shady pulling all these things out of duffel bags in downtown Glasgow. I think it might be better if we had a work shirt or something of the sort. But we had a laugh and did really well giving out over 1500 mice in 4 hours.

Sunday was a day filled with sports, more sports and sports related drinking activities. I started the day with a 2.5 hour football practise. I have nothing against a good run around on a Sunday morning, however it makes it a bit difficult to catch the ball when we are playing in hurricane style winds and rains that rivalled the day Noah launched his ark. Needless to say it was a less than productive practise. Following football I had a quick bite to eat so I could get back over to the pitch for our afternoon hockey match. Thankfully the rain had quit by this time and the third 11's continued their win streak as we pushed our record to 7-0. We came out strong with two quick goals but let off late in the first half and allowed them to get one back. There was no fooling around in the second half as we buried another three to cap a 5-1 victory. Yours truly was named Man of the Match with 2 assists and 16 tackles. I have started playing Left Back to help with our forwards while still remaining a defensive player. I would compare it to an offensive-defensman in ice hockey. Also, now that my shot is starting to improve I take the short corner shots when we are attacking. I am told that if I am going to score as a defenseman this is how it is going to happen. My accuracy is a little off but hopefully I should be able to get that under control in the next week or two.

One last note before I sign off - it is official that Momma Taylor is the coolest mom in the world. My x-mas package arrived today and in it, 24 individually wrapped advent presents. This is a tradition that has been going on since I was young but once I moved away from home mom has always sent a little gift for each day myself and my brothers were not going to be at home during December. Each gift is individually wrapped and includes a small clue as to what is beneath the wrapping. Never have I been quite this far and never have I been away for the entire month, but none the less, Mom has done it again. And with an added twist, this year many of the treats seem to be travel oriented. And like every year, my hallway is jealous and have been phoning their respective mothers in an attempt to make them feel guilty! Ha Ha!! I assure them, no mom is like my mom!

This week promises to be full of essay writing, hockey/football practises and hopefully a Celtic soccer game on the weekend. Always something to look forward to!

Old stones, Older Rocks and Scottish American Football

2008-11-18T01:08:00.007Z

Be prepared, this one might be lengthy! It was a whirlwind weekend that must be expressed in detail in order to have the full effect.

I will start at the end of last week which was remarkably quite. And for that, I am grateful. I slept, finished a law paper, slept, wrote the majority of an archaeology paper, slept, watched an abundance of TV and films and slept some more. It was superb!

Saturday morning marked the abrupt end of my glorious sleep routine with a 7:30 wake-up (I realize that is not early for some of you but keep in mind I am rounding out my 6th year as a professional student). However, the early rise was rewarded with an educational tour of Central Scotland. More specifically, five sites between Glasgow and Edinburgh that included: The Glasgow Cathedral, The Antonine Wall and Rough Castle Roman Fort, Linlithgow Palace and Cairnpapple Hill. Without going into too much depth, I have to admit that this archaeology trip blew the last one out of the water. With the exception of Cairnpapple Hill, this trip was based on more recent structures and artifacts. I found it more interesting because it was easier to picture them as they were used rather than having to wonder who lived there or what certain objects might have been used for.

The Cathedral was magnificent and is in remarkable condition considering it was built in 1114. Not only did we tour the Cathedral but we also took a look at its underlying crypt. The tomb of St Mungo lies below the Church floors and is equally impressive.

For the record, The Antonine Wall is not a wall at all, it is a ditch. Non the less it is an impressive ditch that actually spans the whole of Scotland and for some time divided the Roman Empire from the Natives. Along part of the wall we studied, what was at one time, a Roman fort. However, for the last couple centuries it has been nothing more that a glorified field with sporadic holes and bumps on the earths surface. Still very interesting to imagine how it all worked but I was misled with the promises of Great Walls and Roman Forts!

Linlithgow Palace, on the other hand, was the highlight of the trip! Having been rebuilt and added onto countless times since its construction in the mid 12th century, this place was AMAZING! Although it had no roof and many of the floors had fallen through over the centuries, it was incredible to stand in the middle of the great hall or out in the court yard and see it as it would have been. It helps to have as wild an imagination as an 8 year old! The fireplaces were all intacted as were all 4 staircases and the wine cellar. The 4 level fountain that stands in the middle of the courtyard has been perfectly preserved since King James the 5th had it installed in the early 16th Century. This palace was the birth place of Mary Queen of Scots and was home to the majority of Scottish Royalty from 1300 to 1660. We were given time to roam through the building and I took full advantage by wandering through every doorway and down every passageway I could find. I got lost twice but both times ended up in the kitchen where I always feel at home!

The finally site was another Neolithic Cairn similar to those of our first field trip. However, this site was on one of the highest points in Central Scotland so the view was spectacular and we were actually able to go down into this Cairn and see the tombs. There was still a lot of speculation as to who the people buried there were, why they were buried there and in that fashion and so on, but because the site has not been affected by modern infrastructure, it was interesting to see tomb exactly as it was in 4000BC.

Sunday Sunday SUNDAY!! Having never lived in the US or been a large NFL fan I was never really hyped up about the weekly tradition of crappy beer, tailback BBQ's, Cheerleaders and a pig skin being thrown about. But I made up for years of missing it this Sunday! It was the Season Opener for the Glasgow University Tigers American Football Team as we took on the Paisley Pyros in Paisley. I was given a starting role as wide receiver on the left side with the warning that I "would be used as necessary" as the game progressed. Normally the home team has an advantage because of the deafening roar from the fans, but when a game averages 11 spectators, 2 of which happen to work at the field and are just waiting to cut the grass, the home vs away thing doesn't matter so much. I contemplated writing a play by play analysis of the game but to spare the agony I will skip to the final few minutes and just brief you on the first three and half quarters. One might say that our team had a slightly delayed learning curve after we went 3 quarters without a single positive yard. We did however manage approximately -165 yards in penalties and somewhere close to -60 yards rushing. I blame this on a combination weaker running backs, a rookie offensive line and their dominate defensive line. Our QB tried to throw the ball twice in those three quarters and once the receiver blew it and the other time the ball was rifled well over his head. So we back to the running game, the highlight of which was a 3rd down with 35 yards to go, and still he made the decision to run the ball. Pause - I apologise to anyone who has no idea what I am talking about and may or may not have ever seen a football game. Please bear with me. At the start of the 4th quarter Paisley had an 18-0 lead and I voiced my concern over our running game and convinced our offensive coordinator to air it out for us a few times. Worse case scenario they get the ball but that seemed to be happening already. So with 7 minutes remaining the decision is made to scrap the play book all together and just mess about for a while. We put up 16 points in 6 minutes completing 11 passes with 0 incompletions. I am happy to say that I counted for 3 of those but my highlight reel did not involve any catching on Sunday. No, instead it involved something that is relatively new to me, hitting while running at full tilt! I have hit and been hit while on skates since I was about 15 but never running like this. I played football once when I was small and never really had the size or power to do any damage. A few things have changed since then and it was a whole new world. I was put in as a gunner (man on the extreme outside) on kickoff due to an injury and took advantage of the opportunity. As my coach quickly pointed out "you hit like a hockey player." I broke 4 blocks, and left two kids wondering if the ringing in their ears was the ice cream truck, while on route down field and let me tell you, it felt Fantastic! The last thing I will mention about the game before I wrap this up is my TSN moment of the week. I play on the far left side of the field and run a pattern that had me ending in the middle of the field about 15 yards ahead of the line. The ball was ditched to the receiver on the far right side of the field just off the line of scrimmage. As John (receiver) tried to stay on his feet and worked his way up field, I decided to try and make it over and help out. This rarely happens as the play is normally dead by the time I get over there but John stayed standing just long enough to let me help out. I came sprinting across the field as their left tackle (a lineman who on the roster weighs in at 320lbs) was coming back to hit John. I drove my shoulder, head, and body through him as hard as I knew how to and watched in amazement as this ogre sized man stood up straight and fell backwards as stiff as a 2x8. I have only ever seen it on TV but this man was knocked clean out cold! John eventually got tackled and this guy rolled over and was helped off after about 20 or 30 seconds in his happy place. He was not injured and came back a few plays later so it all ended all right but boy did that ever feel good. In the end we lost 18-16 after they picked off the ball in the dying seconds but it was a great end to the game and for the first time we had played together I think we did alright. I had a blast!

Otherwise, the start of another week has come and gone and the end of term is closing in fast. I have started trying to finish off papers and get things in order to start studying for exams. Plans for this weekend are to try and take in Loch Ness or Loch Lomand, work and play Hockey. Bye week this week in Football so no more of those adventures for a while. Something interesting always occurs so I will do my best to update when it does.

Field Hockey, Ice Hockey and Law

2008-11-12T00:45:00.002Z

Just a brief note as not a lot has been happening around here as we start to crack down on the end of term. Papers write, assignments to create and books to read! However, with all that I still find time for my sports. Saturday morning I traveled with the boys just out of town to battle in a game of field hockey. I could lie and say that it was close or that there was a point when the game's outcome hung on a thread. But the truth is the only time the game was close was during the first 30 seconds after pushback. We manhandled them to a 13-0 victory to increase our perfect record and take home our second straight shut-out. I am pleased to announce that we now sit atop the league with a game in hand. After talking with the coach/captain, turns out he wants to try me out at forwards next week just to see if I can score as effectively as I can stop our opponents from doing so. Looking forward to it, although my shot leaves something to the imagination! I guess the best way to learn is right in the thick of it.
Sat. night I took a crew, that mixed hockey boys, res kids, and campus friends, to their first ever Ice Hockey game. The Paisley Pirates hosted the Fife Flyers in my true love of sport. It was great for everyone to see a game and some of them got really into it, but it was terrible hockey! In 60 minutes of action there was one hit and it stopped the game because of an 'injury.' I made a few comments to the players as well to the refs and it wouldn't have been awkward if anyone else in the entire crowd had been making a sound. We could have been watching a game of golf and other than a slight chill you would have never known the difference. Between the two teams I saw maybe 5 players that would even compete in a junior league back home. Next year I want to run a fundraiser to have the Bighorns come to Scotland for a tournament!
Otherwise, my days have been spent planning holidays for after the studies end and trying desperately to keep up with school. So far the planning is going better than the school work! But I hope to rectify that with a library session tomorrow, a full day of class on Thursday and another assignment writing and study period Friday. Saturday I am off to the second and final Archeology trip and Sunday we have our first Football game of the season. I will make sure I update following the weekend!

Lancaster, Windermere and Why the French cannot be trusted!

2008-11-05T17:06:00.002Z

At least there is good reason for my weeks delay on this post. I have spent 4 of those days wandering outside the country and the other 2 dealing with morons who lack the ability to communicate in English. Lets start with the good, ease into a little bad and then finish with the good again.

The good: Thursday night after a very, very long day of classes and tutorials I was able to escape Glasgow and life in residence for a couple days and head to Lancaster England with one of my hall mates. Jess was going home for Halloween and was kind enough to ask me along for a meal outside of the cafe! Lancaster is in the Northwest part of England and is not terrible far from the Scotland border. It took about 2.5 hours to drive there which was included 29 songs by the Beatles and an argument with a GPS navigation woman. We showed that automated voice! We arrived just after midnight and after some quick hellos and introductions, we crashed. Friday was spent trying to find a Halloween costume and after no luck finding a complete one that was not made for a 7 year old or astronomically priced, I decided to make one. I went as Where's Waldo (or as he is known in the UK, Where's Wally). With a couple red shirts, a roll of white hockey tape to make the stripes, a pair of 1 pound plastic glasses and a Santa hat turned inside out I was rolling! Turns out I got more comments on this Halloween costume than any other I have ever warn. And it did not cause nearly as many arguments as the year I went as a shadow! I had a random guy hug me on the street and tell me how happy he was to find me because he had been looking for years. Halloween over here is not the same as home for a few reason. A) Everyone dresses scary, there is no dressing up just to dress up. At home, girls usually take Halloween as an excuse to go out in to public scantily clad. Not so much over here. Also, I learned that kids only started the tradition of trick or treating around 5 or 6 years ago. Kids my age never did it and honestly thought it was just something on TV or in the movies.

Friday night might have been the most entertainment of the entire weekend and it had nothing at all to do with Halloween. The bathroom on the top floor of the house I was staying at has a large sign on it that reads "To the user, do not close this door as the lock is broken and you will be stuck inside. However, if this happens please sing loudly. If nobody answers, go ahead and take a bath." Well, it turns out that people don't read so well these days and sure enough, three of the girls that were trying to get ready for all halo's eve ended up getting locked in the bathroom. Why three of them where in there at once has yet to be determined. Anyways, myself and Jessica's mom started trying to play with the locks and with no luck where ready to knock down the door. I decided to attempt to save both the solid wood door and my shoulder, I would climb out and around onto the roof and into the bathroom window to see if I could fix it from the inside. If you want to imagine a waldo looking man climbing around on a clay shingled roof, in the dark on Halloween night then you might get the same image as the neighbour did when she came out to ask me who I was and tell me that if nobody was home in that house she was going to call the police. After a brief explanation we got things sorted out. Anyways, with a little fandangling, two screwdrivers, a hammer and a flashlight the door practically opened itself.

Halloween night included a few different bars, some drinking, some dancing, some more drinking and me watching an English Ice Hockey League game on the TV. Stereotypically European hockey, I watch for over 20 minutes and witnessed 2 hits, and one of them looked like an accident where the guy just couldn't stop. The night ended with a trip to the local chip shop where I gorged on Chips'n'Cheese. They are just a gravy spoonful away from a poutine.

Saturday was spent vegging out for the most part. Crew of us went to see the new bond movie and it was alright. I miss Q and his crazy inventions.

Sunday we went down to the lake district, which is about 40 minutes away and saw Windermere. It is a gorgeous little town right on the water that reminded me of a shrunken version of Niagara on the lake. It was such a beautiful day we took a ferry ride around the lake. I found a few pieces of property I would like to buy that have a modest castle on a couple of acres on the water. Nothing to spectacular. And right out a movie, a Rolls Royce cruises by with Mr and Mrs. taking a nice Sunday drive in the country!

Sunday night I was treated to a full dinner of Lamb, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, beans, gravy, Yorkshire pudding and a few things I didn't recognize but tasted great!

As for this week, I have spent all day Monday, Tuesday after class and all day today dealing with these french idiots who I have somehow ended up in a group with and am supposed to write a 'group' paper with. I use the term group paper very loosely as I have had to write the entire thing myself. I will spare the details but the long and the short of it is that of the three frenchies, only 1 of them gave me their work on time and it was about the half the needed length and not referenced at all. I managed to convince one of the others to send me some work today which was a perfect copy and paste from some online article. Not only could we not use it because of the mass plagiarism but it was on the wrong topic! And to top it all off, he also did not cite the work he plagiarised from! As for the third SOB I have yet to hear from him other than a note to ask "How go paper right?" That's the exact words of the email I received.

However, despite all of this I managed to write the entire paper myself, and although it is not my best work it should pass me and I can forget all about this group work business. Tonight I took in the Celtic vs. Manchester United Football match and it was a great showing! The pub was packed with fans from both sides, I won a few bets based on first goal and the game ended in a 1-1 draw. I had a blast and might actually look into getting tickets for the next home game.

Plenty of work this week, long day tomorrow and a few papers and projects to get done this weekend. No trips this weekend although I might try to take in a live ice hockey game at the rink in town. As the days roll on I seem to get busier and busier but I am enjoying every minute of it.

Bryan Adams and a Scottish Celebration!

2008-10-29T19:54:00.002Z

Midweek update! I know it is rare but it has been an exciting couple of days so here we go. Monday I set up camp down at the SECC (Scotland Exhibition and Conference Center) to see Bryan Adams sing his heart out to a crowd for 50,000. I was originally a little worried about this event because I was going down with another Canadian who lives in this building who I am really not a big fan of, and I am not a die hard Bryan Adams fan. But none the less there we where, 4 hours ahead of time, sitting and waiting. We made the best of it and had a pizza delivered to us in line and made some friends with the family in line ahead of us. I was decked out in 100% Canadian garb, including a Team Canada jersey (courtesy of my big bro) and a Canadian bandanna.

Story of the night:
The band that opened for Bryan was called Black Daniels and they were a little rock, a little punk and something else I just can't put my finger on. Anyways, they were alright but really, 50 thousand people were waiting to see Mr. Adams, not these guys. Correction, 49,998 people were waiting for Adam. I made a decision to be the biggest Black Daniels fan that band had ever seen. So every time there was a split second where the crowd started to quite, I would start to yell "WE LOVE BLACK DANIEL!!!!!!!" or "CANADA LOVES YOU GUYS!!!" and the band responded very well. I managed to be so over the top excited I got the guy standing next to me in on it as well. So together we would learn the chorus of these songs and then belt it out at high volumes and/or respond to the lyrics any way we could. The band was happy and I had everyone around either crying from laughter, or jumping around with the band! It was great times, and if anyone has the opportunity to see Black Daniel live, I highly recommend it. As a side note, I also had two "friendly" women (one admitted she was 46 and the other claimed she was 34 - not bloody likely) ask me "How dedicated are you to your girlfriend?" Oh those Bryan Adam's fans, so crazy!

The show was amazing and Bryan put on one of the best live performances I have ever seen. I would throw it up there in my top three along with The Hip and The Stones. No particular order other than the Stones still hold number 1.

Tuesday morning I was awoken by my door getting kicked in and my entire corridor plus a few others from around the building parading into my room singing Happy Birthday and exploding confetti poppers everywhere. They then presented me with an arm load of gifts and showed me what they had done that morning. Which was decorate the hall from top to bottom, end to end with streamers, banners, balloons, confetti strings, and hand drawn pictures. It was incredible! I have no other word for it, absolutely incredible! The previously mentioned gifts included: a "Motor Mechanic Madness" game, "Fishing for Fun" game, "Table Top Air Hockey" game, a case of Glasgow brewed Tennents beer, and t-shirt which they had specially made for me that reads

TRY ME

LOVE ME

GUARANTEED

and on the back it has a peanut butter jar and the words ASDA PEANUT BUTTER. This spawned from a random comment I made about a month ago when I found a half decent jar of peanut butter and laughed at their guarantee. I noted that it would make a great line for a t-shirt. Fantastic neighbours I have!

To top off my b-day I received gifts from Lisa which arrived perfectly on time and have now supplied me with hours upon hours of procrastination material and gifts from family members across the globe. Thank you to all of you, it means a lot to be able to celebrate a birthday an oceans width away from home and still feel as though family and friends are here!

The celebrations continued into the night and although I didn't wind up in Mexico like Colin had hoped, there was talks of headed to Ireland. The booze ran fast and furiously and I even made it to work the next morning.

Which brings me to today and my first day of work. I got a job doing some marketing for a computer company downtown. It is not hard work and it mostly involves increasing foot traffic through the store, but I had a good time doing it and it pays pretty well, so no major complaints just yet. That took the majority of my day and I am going to spend the rest of tonight trying desperately to get some work done that I really want to have finished prior to the weekend.

I am heading to Lancaster England tomorrow and will be returning Sunday sometime. Looking forward to seeing another new part of the world and thinking I might try to make it out to the Isle of Mann on Sat. Always something new!

Another week down and a turkey in the bag!

2008-10-26T13:44:00.002Z

It was a quite but productive week here in Glasgow! As the rain has kept up for the past 18 days it has caused me to crack down and actually do some work. Believe it or not, I managed to read a few articles and get my school life in order. I also managed to get a job doing some marketing for a computer store near the university. Helps to have friends in management positions! My new boss is also my current Football coach so the interview was rather informal. We spent the majority of the time talking about a one handed catch I had made at last practise. None the less I start Wednesday and it pays pretty well, which will be extremely helpful once I am done classes and get to travel some more.

This week in sports I continued my regular routine with both hockey and football. All practises went well this week with no major injuries to report. We had our first away hockey game on Sat. in which we travelled to Ayr to take on the number one team. Although it is early in the season they were undefeated with 3 straight wins and were a dominate team last year. In torrential downpours we managed a 4-1 upset and I didn't even take any penalties. Although when our team was warned of "our aggression" by the officials I took a few looks from the guys.

Friday night I went out with the Canadian coaching staff from football and we celebrated the all Canadian group with a large amount of Canadian Club. The night ended roughly and all I need to write is that I am happy it was raining so that most of the mess washed away.

Saturday night after hockey I caught a ride back from Ayr and after a minor near death experience I went for a fantastic Turkey Dinner with about 15 guys from the Football team. It was first decided by those of us from North America that we were going to have a thanksgiving somewhere between Canadian and American thanksgivings. Once word got out a lot of the other guys wanted to know what Thanksgiving was all about so we made it a team gathering. It was fantastic! One of the best feelings in the world is a home cooked meal when your a few thousand kilometers from home. Craziest thing I have seen in a while was on the way home from Thanksgiving last night. It has been raining here for a couple weeks now but mostly intermittent showers. Yesterday we had a full on downpour for the majority of the day on top of the accumulation of water over the past while. Well it proved to be too much as a good portion of the city flooded. The river has flooded as have many of the streets. Outside of our residence there is a 4 lane major road that runs direct into and out of the city center. It wasn't there last night. Instead it was one large lake, as deep as three feet or so in some parts, that covered all 4 lanes and the median between. Cars had to drive up on the curb in order to not submerge the exhaust or parts of the rad. I saw a guy on a motorcycle pull his feet up on top of his gas tank and roll through and the "puddle." The water was over his exhaust in the middle and the bike was smoking all over. Last night the city had to come and pump out as much of the puddle as possible. In a city where it rains as much as here, I would expect them to have a better drainage system.

Today was spent lounging. I watched a few episodes of 'Heroes', my new addiction of a TV show, and am trying to go over my playbook for football. I am going to get a little work done for this weeks classes and hope to get through some more of my readings tonight.

The week ahead promises to be busy with a Bryan Adams concert tomorrow, my b-day on Tuesday, work starting Wednesday and I am heading to England on Thursday night or Friday morning. The weeks are just flying by and I am looking forward to them all.

Weekend at Bernies. (Not really, but Mom Was here!)

2008-10-20T22:36:00.003+01:00

Having a four day weekend every weekend is spectacular! The only thing to make it better is having visitors. My mom, who is over visiting my aunt, was able to drop in for a few days this weekend and take in the sights with me. To continue from the previous post, I will continue with my day to day activities.

Friday the 17th:
Mom's arrival at Glasgow was at 11:45 and rather than forcing my own mother to take the bus with all her luggage I had arranged for a friend of mine to drive me out to the airport to meet mom as she stepped off the plane. No problem, I was informed that it is about a 2o minute drive from here to the Airport. So I figured we could leave around 11:15 to give us plenty of time. Well it would have been plenty of time providing we had not driven the opposite direction for the first 15 minutes. With no decent map, a satellite navigation that didn't show the Glasgow airport, and a set of hand written directions copied from map quest, one might say we were floating down shit creek with the paddles still on the dock. So after asking for directions, finding the correct highway and some driving which I refer to as "401 style" (this form of driving doesn't) use the brake, so much as just weave through traffic) we did collect mom only a few minutes late. We also then got lost on the way home, but used it as an excuse to show mom the other side of the city. In the afternoon mom and I walked around campus, took in the Kelvingrove Museum, and had a great dinner at Curlers pub on Byers rd.

Saturday the 18th:
A very early start to the day had Mom and I out and about wandering the shopping district of Glasgow downtown. We had a "Scottish Breakfast" complete with, potato scones, sausage, blood pudding, eggs, toast, and something else but I can't remember. We were able to see George Square just prior to hopping the Clockwork Orange (subway) back to the west end. I had a hockey game in the afternoon which we demoralized the opposition with a score of 5-1. And I am proud to say that the one goal they scored was at the end once I had subbed off. After 18 years of watching countless ice hockey games and telling me to not fight and to be careful, mom has now witnessed a field hockey game. I was hoping that the game would be a little more gentle so mom would not have to worry, I was wrong. Within the first 10 minutes of being on the pitch I had a 45 year old man challenge me to a fight, and crosscheck me in the chest repeatedly. I also had the pleasure of him driving his stick into my gut shortly there after. Just so everyone is clean on this, I did not actually instigate this event. And both my team and the few spectators are witness to that. This guy just didn't like the fact that I was playing man to man defense on him the entire game. So he told me to stop or he would hurt me. I laughed at him and kindly asked if I was just threatened by a grandfather. Understandably, he got upset and started pushing and telling me he was going to hurt me. I responded by smiling, laughing and responding by asking him if men's hockey was his big money maker for the support payments I was sure he was paying. I was then crosschecked in the chest. I laughed again and calmly told him that it was not in his best interest to scrap. Few more crosschecks and some poor language. I told him not to get too worked up cause we didn't have any oxygen tanks on the bench and I didn't want to see him collapse. Stick to the gut. I told him how cute that was and if his daughter had taught him that little trick. He finally gave up and switched positions with some kid who looked about 16. The kid was great, no harmful play for the rest of the game and he was actually able to fill me in on a few more rules. As it turns out the old guy is one of the best strikers in the league and doesn't not take kindly to defense playing that close to him. None the less, I am sure we will meet up later this season.
Sat. night mom and I went out to celebrate my birthday (A little early but while she was here). After walking out on one restaurant, we found a great little place upstairs of one of the pubs on Byers. I have never sat inside a restaurant for so long in my life. I never noticed it at the time, the food was great and it was not as if the service was slow. It was actually better than most places. But just shy of 4 hours later, we left.

Sunday the 19th:
Another early morning to catch the bus south to Ayrshire so we could revisit Culzean Castle. Mom had never been and it is so big and so impressive that I thought it would be nice to return to. I slept for most of the bus ride down, though mom said it was very nice. The castle is great the grounds are amazing but the weather just does not want to co-operate when I am there. Two for two now, the downpour while we visited the castle was horrendous. You couldn't use the umbrella for the speed of the wind, and the raincoat only covers your upper body and where all the water runs off leaves nice sopping circles on your upper legs. So we didn't really wander the grounds much and instead had a Hot Chocolate before making a mad dash for the bus back.

After a night in with Pizza, mom gave me some gifts from the Family to further celebrate my B-day. I received some wonderful cards and gifts that will help me while I am over here and while I am traveling after school is over. I was given an amazing pair of Binoculars, Multi-tool, an Internet phone-kit and financial aid to help get me around.
And to top it all off, Mom gave me a package that holds "a few small items" that are meant for Christmas and that I can't open till then. So temptation now lives in my closet.

Monday the 20th - Today:
After getting mom sent off to the airport at about sunrise, I crashed, lay in bed all day. Worst part was I couldn't sleep for a while so I ended up watching TV on my Computer and then snoozing all afternoon. So I did not get as much work done as I would have liked, but there is always tomorrow. Tonight I had hockey practise and am enjoying them more and more as I pick up a few more of the skills involved. Looking forward to the match this weekend as the team Captain is going to give me a better stick to use which makes a massive difference from the piece of lumber I have now. The reason I need a new one is that I managed to break the handle of the one they gave me (these sticks are solid wood which is then lacquered and wrapped in fiberglass). It was a really old one anyway and was just a practise stick that was owned by the club.

Tomorrow I have a few classes and a lot of readings from Finance and Law to do. Football tomorrow night which should be interesting because I missed the three hour practise on Sunday. So I should also probably know all the plays for tomorrow, which is not going to happen.

As lengthy as that was I think I am all caught up now.

MIA

2008-10-20T21:00:00.002+01:00

When I first started this blog I was determined to update it daily and as a absolute minimum I was thinking every three days would suffice. Well I have neglected it for over a week now and the worst part is that outside of this weekend, I don't have any real reason for it. I will do my best to remember the days and throw together a brief overview.

Monday the 13th:
The sweet serenity of sleep! I am in the habit of taking Mondays for all they are worth and resting off the weekends events. Monday night I had hockey practise and learned that as a kid in Canada small things that are second nature to me, are absolutely mind boggling to others. I will explain. As a defenseman, I take part in what is called a short-corner. If the ball if knocked out, behind the goal, by the defending team the opposing team gets a short corner. The defense (4 players and one Goalie) start in the net and the forwards have 3 men on the attack line (approx. 15 yards out) and one on the goal line half way between the net and the corner. The offender passes the ball out to one of his three men which then turns and wires the ball as hard as he can on net. Two of the defenders jobs is to either rush the line and try to force a shot wide, or get their stick in the way. The other two defenders, (myself included) take a step up and out to protect the sides of the net (acting as other goalies really) and also clearing out the rebounds. About a half second prior to starting all this one of the forwards casually asks, "everyone got their shinnies right?" All the guys respond with an astounding, "of course, yeah, yep yep carry on," I kind of shrug and throw out a "uhh, nope, don't even own a pair." The uproar that followed this was incredible. The guys couldn't figure out if I was crazy, stupid, brave or just foreign. I laughed, told them not to worry about me and to just hit the ball. After years of bruising and battering my shins with road hockey and shinny I have become accustomed to it. In fact, Troy's favorite move to get by was to chip the ball between your legs and run around you, anytime he missed you were ether taking the "oh so soft" frozen orange ball in the legs, or his stick. None the less, after that practise a few of the guys have started bringing spare shin pads for me. And for the record, I was a magnet to stray shots after that point and still managed to finish practise unscathed.

Tuesday the 14th:
Start the day with a nice Law lecture to wake me up in the morning... As it turns out we have switched prof's and now have what is possibly the most characterless, drudging, monotone man I have ever had the misfortune to meet. And to make matters just a little bit worse, he is a repeater. So not only does he make you want to clean your ears with flaming q-tips, but he does it twice for every sentence! So to keep myself my awake I started counting the number of ceiling tiles in the room in an attempt to calculate the square footage of the lecture theater. When my neck became too sore from looking up, I started doing the Sudoku from the morning paper, after I had finished reading the comics and "did you know" section. Speaking of which, did you know that it is against the law in Scotland to splash a pedestrian while driving through a puddle and is punishable with a fine and suspension of license. Interesting law seeing as how the majority of this country is full of puddles the majority of the time. In the afternoon I had a meeting with my Exchange advisor to finalize everything class related and I realized how useless the exchange office at Dalhousie really is. Long story I won't bother with, but it is being worked out. I had football Tuesday night were we have begun learning actual plays and the coach gave me a cell phone for free and two pairs of cleats. One for turf and one for grass.

Wednesday the 15th:
The men's Hockey 1st Elevens had a match against Edinburgh which was well fought but ended in a 3-2 loss for our boys. It is very impressive to watch the guys that are that talented. A few of the guys play for Scotland and/or the UK and their control is impeccable. Otherwise, I got a little work done, caught up with some Law readings and prepped myself for Thursday.

Thursday the 16th:
A full day of classes starting with the wonderful world of Law.. again. Also managed to take care of a lot of errands like adding money to my cell, registering for hockey, finished the work for the law tutorial and then continued to wrap up another week of class. Had my first Law Tutorial which is really a large discussion about cases and how we fell they could be argued for or against. I enjoyed the discussion and some of the points raised, but I am not sure if it will assist in the exam prep or not. We shall wait and see. I had football again which was great but involved a lot of fitness. Then the night started with Chelsea's B-day celebration which saw two bars, loud music (some good, some not so much) the flow of alcohol, and a very very long walk home. Turns out that after 3am the buses do not run as frequently. So we cabbed as far as we could afford and then walked the last 3.5 miles.

I will end this part of the week here and continue on with a full scale report of the weekend to follow. Gives those of you who are reading a bit of a break and it makes me feel better about having two blogs for the week instead of just one.

Ancient Rocks and the Pub of my Dreams

2008-10-13T00:35:00.002+01:00

I have come to the conclusion that Archeology is not a real subject. Instead, it is completely made up and speculated upon so that someone somewhere can write a book and feel important. Saturday was my archeology field trip in which I traveled to Kilmartin Glen on the west coast of Scotland, about 2 hours north of Glasgow. It was an absolutely gorgeous place filled with a thousand shades of green, 5000 year old cairns, standing stones and a village of around 60 people plunked down in the midst of it all. Although it was interesting listening to my prof and TA's talk about what they believe all this was used for in 3000BC, I can't help but continue to think that there is no way of knowing and it could have been just as much of a ancient burial sight as it was a bunch of kids messing about. Over the years I have built some random things and if someone is studying it 5000 years from now, I hope they are not thinking that I was living in that fort that Colin and I built at the cottage. None the less the trip was great, I was able to take some magnificent photos despite the periodic rain, and the women in the cafe made me a spectacular bagged lunch, complete with two roast beef sandwiches, crisps, fruit, yogurt, granola bars, and a couple bottled waters. Sat night I tried to do some reading which I am quickly falling behind in and am madly trying to catch up. I refuse to buy books this late in my educational career so instead I borrowed one from the campus library. Some people might not think this is a big deal but I assure you this is epic! In my 2.5 years of Confederation and the previous 3 years at Dal I have never once taken a book out of the library. I actually only set foot in Confed's library once and it was simply to retrieve a class mate so we could go play hockey. I have studied a few times at Dal's but still have never signed anything out. So for the first time since I was a child, I signed out a book. "Scots Law, A students guide, 2nd edition." I can't see myself reading the 741 pages within, but the chapter summaries have been a great aid! I should be caught up in no time.

Today I continued to read and actually feel like progress is being made! I know it sounds crazy, but this whole reading thing might actually pan out for the best. Otherwise I had football practise, which was the same old stuff, and went to a pub that shows North American sports on half the TV's and European sports on the other half. So I took in a period and a half of the LA vs San Jose hockey game as well as some much needed highlights, and I watched the Packers demoralize the Seahawks before leaving shortly into the 4th. This was the first NHL I have seen since last years Stanly Cup final and, for someone who has spent the last 5 years going to bed every night watching a game or highlights, it was very, very much needed! I am now trying to gather a crew who will go watch a double header with me on a Sat night when I know the Canadian Teams are playing.

The only negative part of the weekend is that a little piece of me died today. I listened to the new "Hockey Night in Canada" theme song, which was unveiled last night, and I almost cried. I am not happy about this and if given the opportunity I would like to crank whoever the SOB that decided 500 bucks a game was too much, right in face. I tried explaining it to a few English/Scots that I grew up listening to the true HNIC theme song and that it meant almost as much as my National Anthem but they just couldn't understand. So I have made a decision, I am going to mute the start of every CBC game I watch, and play the old version on my Ipod instead. They can play their new version, but I don't have to listen to it. The worst part is that it is not terrible, I mean I am glad they put some pipes in there, but that's not the point. The point is that it is not the true one, the real one. On more that one occasion I have started humming the real HNIC anthem and have been joined by countless other people. It unites our country and I am ashamed that one of our own would sell us out like that. Anyways, that's my rant, I wont have to deal with this new song for another few months anyways.

Start of another week, no major plans other than to try to get all caught up, the start of Law tutorials, and I might try to get in a game of golf before the weather drops to much more. Mom is here for next weekend so I hope the weather holds then and we can get in a few day trips. Looking forward to it all, everyday is a good day!

Bloodsports and Catching Zzz's

2008-10-10T21:00:00.002+01:00

After so many weeks of keeping busy and seeing as much as possible, it has been a very quite week. Hockey on Monday night, football on Tuesday and Thursday, a few classes on Tuesday, a few more on Thursday and one tonight. Hockey party was Thursday night which did not disappoint. Everyone knows me and not a single person knows my name. I will forever be known as Mr. Moose, the Canadian that still plays like a Canadian! Overall the week was very relaxing. I was able to catch up on sleep on Wednesday which was a perfect revitalization and otherwise have start to get back into an educational routine. Although, my class choices are still giving me headaches. Currently I am taking 70 credits which is 10 more than the max of 60. So I have to either drop a class or receive a note from Dal allowing me to overload my semester. However, if I drop a class I will be at 55 credits which is below the full credit level of 60 and thus Dal will not give me full credits for the term. To make matters even more entertaining, Dalhousie's student exchange policy states that no student will "overload" a semester while abroad in an attempt to receive additional credits back at Dal. So we are working on it.

The humorous part of my week came at Thursday nights football practise. I understand that I am a little more used to the sight of blood compared to the average person. I also know that over the past years I have developed an immunity to the sight of my own blood until it reaches a point that I may or may not loose consciousness or I have rearranged my face. So when I slid across the turf during practise I did not think twice of the scrap on my elbow. A few of the guys made note of it and said I should go clean it up. Well when I walked into the sports complex the desk worker looked at me as if I had been shot. He went into full Code Blue! He pulled out a first aid kit fit for a Toronto EMS team! I would have taken a ninja turtle band-aid and been back on the field, but instead he decided to go with the triage bandage complete with gauze padding and that stretchy wrap material to hold it all together. If I had had a chainsaw accident I feel as though I would have received equal treatment. During all this the staff assured me "Don't worry, I am certified in emergency first aid!" This really boosted my confidence while he was dealing with my scraped elbow. To top it all off, the poor guy could not rip the tape in order to hold his contraption together. I am glad I could provide the most excitement that guy had seen all year.

Tomorrow I am off on an Archeology Field Trip to a neolithic site in the highlands. So I should have something to write about!

Man of the Match is Edward Norton

2008-10-05T00:07:00.002+01:00

Thursday was a long day with plenty of classes and very little exciting. I had football Thursday after class and found out that I am playing both middle-right line backer while we are on defense and wide receiver while we are on offense. Don't know about special teams but at this rate I may be on there as well.

Friday I had my first Environment to International Business and let me tell you, it was definitely an international environment. Of the 70 plus students taking this course this is 1 English speaking Caucasian - Me! There are 4 Latin Americans a handful of non-English speaking Europeans and the rest are 100% Asian. What makes life even more enjoyable is that 40% of my grade in this class is based on a group paper. Which I just LOVE by the way. However, these are not your stereotypical brilliant Asians who are great at numbers and dominate the class. Example 1: Our professor (who is Indian by the way and has a Scottish/Indian accent which is fantastic to understand) has asked each group to pick a company and two FOREIGN markets, one developed and one developing, which it can enter. The paper will explore the possibilities in these markets and then make recommendations for the company. This group of my students which happens to be 6 Japanese students have picked Honda (shockingly a Japanese company) and the two Foreign markets to develop in - USA and JAPAN. These are two foreign countries in which the product does not exist. I feel that there was a small communication error here folks. Example 2: A student in our class asked if his group would be allowed to submit their paper in Japanese because that was the common language of their group. He wanted to submit his final term paper to an Scottish/Indian professor, at the University of Glasgow, in Japanese. I rest my case. But I can only imagine what the rest of the semester will bring. My group - 5 gentlemen from France 2 of which speak English at an understandable level, and 3 of which passed their English as a Second Language test but have difficulties understanding full sentences at a time and are unable to full translate their writing into written English. So my role in this group is editor.

Friday night I went out with the Football boys and after many, many straw-bombs I stumbled as far as an Indian take-out shop were after ordering a donner (Which is a donair but spelt differently) I ended up with Cajun chicken and some sweet sauce. Great night with the guys!

Today I awoke with a throbbing head, bloodshot eyes, my stomach eating its self and refusing the chicken all at once and my legs so sore I could barely stand. - Fine shape for a hockey Game! I dragged myself over to the pitch to take part in our last preseason game. I played center defender and although we were beaten again, I think my game is slowly improving. However, I did learn that you cannot raise the ball if a player is with five yards of you. Not even to clear your end. It is for safety as they don't want me clearing the ball into another players face, but it takes some getting used to as I have been taught "if you ever get in trouble, just put it high off the glass and out." However, even with that little mishap, I won Man of the Match which is the same as player of the game. At the end of each match we vote on a Man of the Match and a Donkey of the Match. Donkey of the match is given out to anyone who made the single most regrettable play and the Man of the Match is given out to who ever played their position best. Defense is where I am meant to be apparently. My hope is that the next game is not played in freezing rain and gale force winds. I might have contracted pneumonia this morning.

After the Hockey game I met up with John and we hopped a train to Edinburgh. As the title depicts, Edward Norton won Man of the Match, because as I was sitting on this train to Edinburgh a woman came up to me and asked me if I was American. I replied no and she explained that she thought I might be Edward Norton because I look like him and have the same accent. I regretfully explained that No, Ed was my older brother but I get that a lot. Joking, but it was a compliment and I thanked her and carried on to Edinburgh. Went to see the castle, roamed around town, poked around a few of the shops and otherwise just saw what all the fuss is about. It is a gorgeous city with some unbelievable architecture. I dare say it is more impressive than Glasgow but that could be that fact that it has a giant Castle on a Hill right in the middle of it all. The weather could have cooperated a little more but otherwise it was a good day.

Tomorrow I am headed down to Kelvingrove park with some of the football guys to play a game of "pass-ball" which I pretty sure is the same as flag football. Also need to get some reading done for Monday and otherwise try to get a real nights sleep.

Hockey Game and Feeling Old

2008-10-02T00:32:00.002+01:00

Wednesday's are my day off. The day I sleep, study if necessary, travel if possible, but above all, relax. Unless of course I wake up late, realize I was supposed to play in my first two hockey games this afternoon one of which had already finished and the next was beginning in 20 minutes. However, rushed or not, playing in my first ever field hockey game was spectacular! I tried my best to not play like an ice hockey player and other than a few minor errors I think it went quite well. Although we lost 2-1, the general consensus was that I did not do anything to terrible and in the process made a few plays that will talked about for weeks to come. I learned a few things today: 1) Playing field hockey in front of your own net is not the same as playing ice hockey in front of your own net. In ice hockey there is one rule: Play the body and clear him out of the crease. In field hockey, the opposition does not take kindly to being removed from the front of the net. Although I did not receive a penalty and my team was quite happy with the whole situation, there is a very upset number 12 from the other team that is more than slight upset with me. 2) Field hockey players don't block shots nor do they attempt to block shots with their body or sticks. They were flat out amazed that anyone would dare throw themselves in the way of an offender while they are taking a shot. I still find it entertaining that both my team as well as the other team and the refs would stop to see if I am alright, after every time I slide to make a defensive tackle. All in all I was happy with todays outcome and "Moose" has officially secured a position with the Glasgow University Hockey Club playing with the tier 2 team regularly and tier 1 when they need players as well has a position on the tier 3 team as often as I can play with them.

Tonight I have made the decision that I am far to old to be living in residence and not be an RA. The crew in my corridor is actually quite mature and we get along very well. However, tonight there was a gathering in one of the rooms in the middle hallway (not my corridor) which consisted of a dozen first years and myself. This reminded me of a high school house party when we were still trying to sneak booze and anything that might even have a trace of alcohol in it sufficed. There as a large 60 of vodka being handed out and mixed with random assortments of juice, energy drinks or not mixed at all. I was fine with all this and other than the poor taste in music was feeling alright with the situation. However, it was not until the mother called of the girl who owns room and the room was summoned to silence, the music stopped and everyone practically held their breath. This was quickly followed by an array of snickering, giggling and covered laughter. And in turn, I felt very very old. I thought about if my parents called and I was half sauced with a crew in my room. I would laugh and make jokes and I might start to sing before telling them I would call them tomorrow. But maybe I just have better parents who knows.

Full day tomorrow, plenty of classes, have a little necessity shopping to do, and football tomorrow night. Should be a long day!

Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

2008-09-30T23:21:00.002+01:00

I go on vacation and all that suffers in my blog. Having taken the last few days off I have some catching up to do. Where Tarentino would start now and work to the beginning, I feel that chronologically best suits me. This is a long one, if you need to use the washroom you should do so now.

So back to Thursday where I spent all day in classes one of which was my international financial management which I think I will enjoy, despite it being far more difficult than the others. I then bussed to Buchanan station to grab another bus to get me to the airport where I caught a plane to Birmingham to catch a "Rail-shuttle" to the train station in order to catch a train to Birmingham city center where I hailed a cab to get me to Gail's flat. Yep, that's what I said to. Everything would have been perfect if London airports tower radar had not gone down which then in turn held up air traffic in 90% of the UK for three days. The flight was delayed to the point that I barely caught the final train of the night into Birmingham. However, I did make it and was welcomed by the ever smiling Chez who lives next to Gail and may be one of the happiest and kindest women I have ever met. She made me a lasagna that could have fed a family of 4, Sheppard's pie, soup, Chicken stew (with a whole chicken in it), and all the juice, tea, coffee, bread, eggs and milk I could handle in a weekend. Being a starving student I worked my through all of it and think I put on around 9 pounds this weekend as a result. Above all, the lasagna was unparalleled, and I have had some damn good lasagna care of my own mother. I don't know what was in it, but wow! (Note to self - acquire that recipe.)

After getting settled in I went to visit Gail who was in great spirits despite her present living arrangement. I have to had it to her, by anyone standards she has had more than rough past couple of years, and yet, she is still doing as much as possible on her own and is happy that she is still better off than most of the other people in the Neuro ward. We had a great weekend end of visits which included, some walks around the grounds, me going through all my photos from the past few years, talking about the family as well as life in general, a few visits from some of Gail's friends, a trip into town where we went to a pub and had a true British Sunday lunch (I had the roast lamb with potatoes, veggies and a pint.) and just general chatting, something every Taylor is good at. After each days visit with Gail I would have the cabbie drop me at a pub near the flat and have a pint while watching the afternoon football match with the locals. They don't sell Tennents as it is brewed here in Glasgow so I was forced to expand my horizons. I still can't bring myself to drink warm Guinness and still get enjoyment out of the fact that the bartender asks me if I would like my pint "regular", "cold" of "extra-cold". In Canadian those mean "Piss warm", "chilled beer in a regular glass" or "Chilled beer in a chilled glass."

Monday I was unable to visit with Gail as she had a full day of appt's and I had an early afternoon flight so I took the morning and spent it exploring in the city center. I walked all over the place and saw the majority of downtown. I walked to the "Think-point" which is the science center but decided against spending the day in there. Instead I walked clear across town to the Sea-life discovery center. I refused to pay the 18.50 pounds (that's about $37) they were demanding and instead joined a private school group and walked in with them. I had more fun with them as I helped one group with their scavenger hunt, and although I didn't wait around for the results, I am sure we dominated those other 9 year olds. I saw the entire center for free and then continued my walk back to the train station to do the whole trip in reverse order. In walking back I stumbled across what might be the most ingenious or craziest concept ever. Birmingham, being a land locked city, felt that the citizens would appreciate a beach. So, they created a beach right in the middle of the city! Out front of city hall there are a large set of stairs that end at a large open, cobblestone area, and then the street. So they city trucked in enough white sand to fill the open area at the bottom of the steps, set up lawn chairs and one of the local bars has set up a beach bar that only serves beach drinks. So at 12:30 on a Monday the majority of a Conservative convention was headed to the beach in their suits in downtown Birmingham. Oh those crazy English!

This trip reminded me of three things. One, be happy with what you have while you have it. I take being able to cut my own food for granted, and until I broke my spine I could not have imagined what it would be like to not be able to do certain basic life tasks. That day reformed my life in a major way, and this trip reminded of all those things I had start to forget about and take for granted again. On that note, next time you see anyone who has any form of disability, acknowledge them. After talking with Gail all weekend I only heard her complain of two things and only one of which was to do with her current situation. One was how disgusted she is by people who can't seem to find a trash bin for their rubbish and how people just throw cigarette butts anywhere nowadays. Spoken by a previously long time smoker no less. And the second of her complaints is that when in a wheel chair, people try to pretend she is not there. She understands that they are trying to be polite and not stare but to not acknowledge she exists is down right rude. A simple smile, "cheers," "al'lo" or anything or the sorts will suffice. On the other hand I would like to thank the very kind waitress at the pub Gail and I went to, who went out of her way to grab doors, assist with steering and was overall an excellent host to us both. The third reminder of the trip is that Confidence can do wonderful things! With a little confidence I managed to ride First Class on the train both two and from Birmingham International, I saw the entire Sea-Life Discovery center,walked through the Convention Center and it's gardens which was closed for a Conservative convention of sorts and managed to sit in the seats with more leg room on both the flight there and back again.

Arriving back in Glasgow last night and moving like a bat outta hell to get to hockey practise I found out practise was cancelled for the bank holiday.

In other news, I want to congratulate my pops on landing a great job with a great company where they are as excited to have him as he is to be there. Finally, after dealing with every jack in the box out there, he will get the respect he has earned and so rightly deserves! Congrats Pops! I could not be happier for you!!

Today, I took a field trip with my archeology class to the Kelvingrove museum which I saw last weekend but this time had to go through it and look for answers to lecture questions. The real kicker here was that the museum did not in fact provide any answers and we were "to interpret the knowledge within the museum and create our own answers. I did not learn this until I had been wandering the Kelvingrove for about an hour and fifteen minutes. For those who know me, you can imagine how pleased I was. Tonight was football practise where we started to hit. Turns out enough years of both hitting and getting hit in Hockey taught me how to lower a shoulder. I am now the starting middle right line backer for the Glasgow University Tigers. I can hear my mother right now saying something like "Oh Andrew, I hope your being careful." Don't worry mom, my coach even gave me my own pads today and he gave me a gear bag to boot. He likes me cause I "don't back down" and he is from Winnipeg. And mom, you'll be even happier to know that the actual season does not start until Nov. so I will only play a few games before I am done anyways. It is great fun and I am thoroughly enjoying it thus far. And between Hockey and Football I am in training three times a week and hope to stay in shape while I am here.

Day off tomorrow and other than going for a "work-out" jog I am going to attempt to read the first 110 pages of a 680 page Scots Law textbook. Exciting times! I am sure I have forgotten something but I will try to remember and fit it in during the coming days.

Classes and Fellow Canadians

2008-09-24T23:42:00.002+01:00

As friends at Dalhousie prepare for midterms, I have finally started my Scottish schooling. With business law on Monday and both law and archeology on Tuesday, I have not done a lot of classes, but enough to get my feet wet. I am looking forward to the archeology class as the professors seem to enjoy what they do and the course material should be interesting (hopefully). Law is terribly boring and I fight to stay awake each class. It is just getting started and I like the prof so I have hopes that it will get better. Thursday I start Environment of International Business and Friday I would be starting Intermediate Finance but won't be here for the first class (I will come back to that in a minute).

Monday I had my second tryout for the hockey club and think it went pretty well. I can't say it is comfortable for a broken spine to be hunched over for prolonged periods of time, but I do enjoy learning a new game. I tried out for the tier one team at the suggestion of one of the other players, because even if I don't make tier one, the training is better and I should make tier 2. So we will see. American football is still happening and being one of the few rookies to know the rules, I have been dubbed rookie captain. This position means nothing at all but that I now answer a lot of rookies questions about the game, count cadence and general rules.

"It's a small world after all" is the background tune every time I meet another Canadian and we somehow piece together how we know each other or talk about the places we both know so well. The reason I point this is out is that I have spent the both yesterday and today enjoying the company of my fellow Canadians. Not strangers at all however. Stu Brown who I went to school with and lived in res with in Thunder Bay has been traveling across Europe with a friend of his for the last (almost) three weeks and spent their last two days of holidays here in Glasgow. So yesterday, bearing our Team Canada jerseys, we went to a pub on Ashton Lane (little back alley lined with pubs) and today we took the train out to Stirling to see Stirling castle and the Wallace Monument. I had a pint at the William Wallace pub and thought how much Colin would enjoy this place. Even the floor was the Wallace Clan Tartan. Although I did not get to go up the tower in the monument, it was still very interesting seeing the building and statue and the area where his great battle took place. I was supposed to head back out with Stu and John tonight but have been struck with some sort of food poisoning and have been ill instead. As much as I love getting lost and not knowing a soul, it felt good to reminisce of the times in T-Bay and of all the people we know from there.

Wandering south tomorrow as I head off to Birmingham, England to see my Aunt Gail. It has been a few years and I am looking forward to catching up and also learning where she shops as she has found the most interesting gifts for us over the years. I hope to do a little souvenir shopping over the weekend as well as visiting. I am not sure of the access to the Internet so I may not blog till Monday night when I return.

Mr. Moose

2008-09-21T23:07:00.003+01:00

The weekend was spectacular and absolutely packed full of things to keep me busy. As previously mentioned, it was the sports tasters weekend and I took full advantage.

Friday I started by playing a couple games of volleyball which was followed by an hour of boxing, and two hours of squash. I also played a very small amount of badminton between squash games just to see how the team was and I honestly hope that the players who were there are not their best. I have not played in years and was playing exhausted and it was still a show. After the day at the gym I spent latter part of the afternoon on the pitch in the west end playing hockey. Not my kind of hockey but the closest they have. I experienced the game of field hockey. It is absolutely nothing like the hockey I know and love and yet I still find it entertaining and look forward to playing as much as I can while I am here. I was asked to tryout Monday night for the tier 2 team which plays all across the UK against other universities and other private clubs. I will need to curve my ice hockey tendencies as I was quickly reminded there is no hitting, no contacting another players stick, no using the backside of the stick, no contacting another player with the ball or your stick and no taking a slap shot if there are people in a hazardous area. But they like the way I play D and I am going to tryout anyways. Of 85 guys on the pitch I placed third in kings court and am proud to say that is first among rookies and first out of all the tier 2 players. Alright done bragging.

Friday night I went out with the hockey club for a true welcoming party in which we drank for free and ate for free all night and we played drinking games both at the debate chambers as well as at the bar. From this day forward I am known to the hockey club as only Mr. Moose! This is the name they came up with for me and I have no idea why but after hearing some of the guys names I am pretty happy with this one. The night was a blur but I know it was good!

Sat. I sweat out the booze with a taster session on American Football. Which is an American sport, played in Scotland, coached by Canadians. It was good but the football was terrible. Many of the guys have never seen a football before and had no idea what the rules were. So we spent the day doing the basics. If I have the time I might go out and play with them but I am afraid the schedules for games may overlap with hockey. Sat. night I took in a flick (Tropic Thunder) with John, Jess and Adam and found out you can take entire meals complete with bottles of wine into the theater with you. And the seats and leather lounge chairs with wide arm rests! Sat night I also fell in love with a banana chocolate crepe. (For the record, John is the American from Jersey, Jess is a girl down the hall from Northern England, and Adam is a Scottish guy who also lives down the hall.)

Today I spent wondering the Kelvin Grove Art Gallery which is as much of an art gallery as it is a natural history museum. I enjoyed it and did learn a little more about the country and its roots. I feel that I will return there if I choose to stay in my history class.

Classes start tomorrow and although I only have one, it should be interesting to see any similarities/differences in the education system from here to home. Tomorrow I start business law and as Will Durant once said "Education is a discovery of ones own ignorance" so I am off to once again, begin discovering.

Registration, Face-plants and Sports.

2008-09-19T00:32:00.002+01:00

For one of the top schools in the world, Glasgow is hurting on its technology front. Majority of classrooms still use chalkboards, the library has over 1 million physical books rather than just having everything online, and only small select places on campus have Wi-Fi. However, above all else, Glasgow has yet to conform to the online registration process and instead has 16,000 student wonder around campus for the day attempting to register for all their classes! It was nearly as bad as I had originally expected but it not something that I would enjoy doing again. I spent the first 7 hours of my day sorting out my classes and other than currently being registered for too many, I think I am set.

Today also marked the beginning of sport tasters which allow all students to try any of the club sports they wish. Each club has their taster at a specific time and place and today I played some volleyball (which was a joke), did some boxing (which was hilarious and a great workout) played a couple hours of squash, some badminton, and then attempted to go curling but the team never showed and those of us who were waiting got fed up and left. It was an athletic filled day and it was only the first of many.

Thought of the day - How do you stumble?

Between a couple of my registration sessions this morning I was sitting on a bench, near the front drive of the university, people watching. With all the events going on this week there are a lot of electrical cords and power outlets being run from buildings to nearby tents or out to speakers and whatnot. They create a minor obstacle but still one that can be hazardous. After seeing a few people stumble I started thinking about how I stumble. I usually try to walk away and pretend like nothing happened or I make a comment similar to "He's OK" and throw my hands up to prove it. Anyways, a woman was texting and not watching, caught her foot and full out biffed. I started walking over to her to help her out fully expecting she would be standing by the time I got to her. Not a chance, she actually never moved. Lay face down for a good 8-10 seconds before trying to get up. Never hit her head, just lay down. The quote "It doesn't matter how times you fall, it matters how many times you get back up" came to mind. For this lady - 0! So my thought for the day, don't ever stay down, it looks way to similar to giving up.

Catch Up

2008-09-17T21:52:00.002+01:00

Missed a few days. Brief Summary is as follows:

Monday - Registered as a student at the University of Glasgow, received a student card and everything! Effectively the only student currently registered wearing a baseball cap in their student id photo. Go Jets Go! (The guy that took my photo was informed it was not allowed right after I had mine done and was on my way out.) The rest of Monday was spent in a productive manner sorting out timetables and when/where I need to register for classes on Thursday. Also trying to figure out which classes to take and how to fit them all in. Monday night was spent relaxing and organizing my life.

Tuesday - I awoke with grand plans to either go see Edinburgh or to visit Lanarkshire and track down the house my Great Grand Mother was born and raised in. Neither of these trips actually occurred due to the torrential downpours we were receiving. (As was Edinburgh according to The Weather Network) So I thought my day could be best spent indoors and around res. I played some Foosball with some of the new students, watched UK soaps with some of the other students and slept for a good portion of the morning. It was a good day in which I stayed dry!

Today - Very early breakfast at around 7ish and then back to bed for bit. Down to the Sports Fayre - That is not a spelling error, that's how they spell it. - Spoke with reps from nearly every club on campus and have decided to try out the rifle club, American football, cricket, potholing (spelunking), field hockey (Which I don't know if I will actually play, so much as want to try), boxing, badminton and squash. I think I am actually coaching the Badminton Novice and Intermediate teams which should be entertaining. So, if classes don't take up too much time, I should still be able to keep busy. If I have the time I would also like to join the kayak club and rowing novice team.

Had a free "international students" lunch which was terrible and consisted of some poorly cooked rice and weak chili. I think it was mistaken as a parish dinner because I sat next to a 30 year old crack addict who told me all about the times he has been stabbed, when he lit those cars on fire to mess with the cops and of his two children, which, through some strategic questions, I learned that he has not seen in the last 8 years. Very sad state of affairs and very interesting lunch.

The afternoon was spent at the gym which was great but made me realize exactly how out of shape I am. It was good and I found a guy who will play as many sports as I will and who will also frequent the gym so it may make me go as part of a regular routine.

From walking around campus I received boat loads of free stuff and advertising, most of which I turfed except for the 30 or so pens, hooded sweatshirt, multiple cans of rockstar, water bottle, USB memory chip, candy and gift cards.

Spent the night prepping for tomorrow's class registration day, and sending all my info on the Charity Game back to the crew in Halifax. Skipped the Res meeting as I felt I have heard a few of them in the last 6 years. Tomorrow is going to be a long one, taking it all in stride.

A week in and the Rain is still falling.

2008-09-15T13:25:00.002+01:00

I have survived a week. I arrived last Sat so I guess it is a little more than a week now. And this should have been written last night, so I am definitely over a week now. It has been an incredible week and I look forward to the many approaching.

Sunday I decided to head downtown again but this time do it on my own. I enjoy the wandering aspect without the constant need to keep up my end of the conversation. I learned some more about the bus system as well as how the subway works. I was able to find some great Scottish shops where I think I will return to for souvenirs. I saw George Square and Glasgow City Hall. Some incredible monuments around town as well as more remarkable architecture. The highlight of my day and maybe one of the top street performances I have ever seen was a group of buskers. I had seen them separately earlier that day. Two guys (looked around 18/19) one playing the bagpipes and one playing a snare drum. At the other end of the road I saw two Rastafarian men playing djembe drums. On the way back they had grouped together, two guys in full Scottish garb, kilts and high socks included, and two dread haired, rag dressed rasta men. And what makes it the best of all - They were playing "We Will Rock You!" on the pipes and drums. Amazing!

The frosh have all moved in now and I met the crew in my hall way. It is myself and a guy named Adam who is a carrot topped fellow who looks like he might way 90 pounds soaking wet. If he wasn't living here I would have him pegged for 14. Other than the two of us there are 6 girls who all seem very nice. Overall, I am feeling a little old when they are taking part in their freshers week activities but it does allow for some entertainment and it is certainly better than when this place was quieter than a tomb.

Monday is Registration and then a week of sports! Looking forward to it.

Culzean Castle and Ayrshire

2008-09-14T00:10:00.002+01:00

I spent my morning walking through a building that had been built, destroyed and and rebuilt all before my own country even existed. The Culzean Castle was incredible! The building is haunted which added to its character. The architecture is impeccable ensuring the carpets matched the ceilings which matched the fireplace. The system of servant bells and back door stair cases where unbelievable and the view looking out over the coast line and across the way to Ireland was exquisite. Although it was very foggy when we first arrived, by the end of the tour you could start seeing the outline of land across the water.

I took it upon myself to take the more scenic tour and through a mix of scaling and sliding, I wandered down the cliffs to the shoreline. I got lost in the woods for a while and found a cellar in the middle of nowhere. I mean nowhere, I was at least a 25 minute walk from the castle and in the middle of a very large forest which was bordered by coastal cliff on one side and a glorified swamp on another. This cellar was, in its day, either an escape route that tunneled under the castle, an icebox to ensure meats did not spoil, or a disposal sight for bodies/prisoners. It was very interesting and I wish I had been able to investigate more. It was approx. 20 feet deep (below ground level) and maybe 10 feet wide by 15 feet long. It was completely made of stone, including the floor and only seemed to have this one noticeable entrance/exit. It was literally a stone doorway in the middle of the forest that went into the side of a knoll. What I have deemed a glorified swamp is referred to as the Swan Pond, on the castle ground. I also wandered through a walled garden which is similar to that in the movie "The Secret Garden."

Ayrshire is a town near the castle that is right on the water and other than some nice little shops and restaurants, was not really all that exciting. I enjoyed it and also managed to get lost there. However, I am happy I was lost because I found a children's playground where they had an IPLAY. It is an electronic playground toy, forcing kids to run, jump, and play, all the while obeying the commands of the IPLAY. It was more than entertaining and I think if Nick was there with me we might have spent the rest of the day trying to beat the game.

First catered dinner tonight which consisted of a spaghetti with chicken sauce, veggies and an incredible citrus cake. I never would have thought orange and cake could mix so well.

Tomorrow I finally am able to rest for a while and then I am headed into the city center.

Ceilidh and Taste of Scotland!

2008-09-12T22:09:00.002+01:00

To keep this as chronological as possible I will begin with yesterday. It was a full day of lectures from different services around the campus as well as from both student Unions and the international society. I am now the proud new member of the international society (mostly because they go on a different trip every weekend). The two different unions are the Glasgow University Union (GUU) and the Queen Margaret Union (QMU). The GUU was originally a men's club which did not allow women and still remains more of a frat house than a union, while the QMU was started by a bunch of woman activists but is now both for men and women. I will be joining the GUU for their sports and social scene.

The day would have been really quite boring if it had not been for my first ever Ceiledh! This is the Scottish version of a ho-down, full of singing and dancing, a fiddle, an accordion and plenty of booze. Met a good crew and had a blast there.

Today started the same as yesterday with plenty of lectures to fill the morning, however, just prior to lunch we had a great talk with "Ped" from Haggis Adventures who talked about all the ways we can see Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales for cheap and with a guide of sorts. I will be utilizing their service beginning of October to see the highlands and the Isle of Sky.

The afternoon was spent wandering the true downtown of Glasgow which is filled with great pubs, plenty of shops, buskers and more. It was a fantastic afternoon in which I felt that I was able to truly enjoy the city! I also took in a walking tour of campus, followed by "A Taste Of Scotland" put on by the QMU. I was able to try Haggis, Scot's Balls, Smoked Salmon, raisin scones, cheese scones, and potato scones. In the words of the QMU president "This event has no alcohol, just whiskey from the bar downstairs." It's official, I actually enjoy Haggis!

Tomorrow is the Calzean Castle and the Town of Ayr.

Organized Chaos

2008-09-09T22:59:00.003+01:00

Or so I would like to believe that it is organized. I began my international student orientation this morning which also brought upon the start or course registrations. As it turns out this process is not a simple point and click type registration that I have become accustomed to. Instead it is a feeding frenzy of hundreds of students running around in a large room talking to professors and gathering as much info as possible. I thought 'What the hell, I had nothing else planned today anyways, might as well get this out of the way.' After waiting for the better part of nearly two hours to speak with a prof. it turns out that I can not actually register for anything today and that registration, as it were, takes place over the course of the next two weeks. Also in those next two weeks is the rest of my international orientation as "Freshers" week which seems very similar to our Frosh week. The only positive of the morning, I figured out which Bus NOT to take and I did sign up for a Bag piping class. The kicker with that class is it it not directly through the University so I would have to pay extra and although I don't know for certain, it is rumored to be upwards of 400 pounds.

After a somewhat bland morning of lectures and prolonged sitting, I wandered around Campus getting lost in the most incredible places. I wandered the castle, wound up in a cathedral, tried to climb a bell tower, was escorted down by the same man I had met earlier in the accounting office and found both a book store as well as drugstore to buy paper and shampoo. The travel size is running low.

This evening I was able to do some grocery shopping and got my nights entertainment out of laughing at odd names of food and flavours of chips. Had some great steak pies, meat pies and sausage rolls for dinner.

I stumbled into a store called FAT FACE this afternoon and on the roof they have an incredible quote. I hope to go back and take a photo of it so I can remember it all but the key line that I did hang onto reads "... a bad day on the slopes is still better than a good day in the office, life is out there - Go on and get it!"

Tomorrow I am going to attempt to sneak onto a city bus tour and, if the weather co-operates, possibly venture into the true City Center. We shall see

Walking Tour

2008-09-08T21:48:00.002+01:00

Went for a walk this morning. Left around 10 and returned at half past 8. Needless to say it was a lot of walking and am bloody well exhausted. Saw the science center, the tall ships, the river Clyde, the river kelvin, Kelvingrove park, the botanical gardens, my uni. and the majority of the west side of downtown. Although I never actually made it into the city center, it was still a very successful walk in which I began to orient myself with the city.

I have found a few more people who live in the res. Teresa and Ashley. Ashley is a fellow Canuck from Vancouver and Teresa is from Denmark (I think). They seem nice, and are able to help me out when trying to figure out my way around the city.

Orientation tomorrow. Depending on the schedule, might try Edinburgh or Inverness early next week. Just a thought because it does not seem that school starts until two weeks from today. I hope to find out more tomorrow.

Underrated Sleep.

2008-09-08T00:40:00.003+01:00

I spent the day coming to the conclusion that "Sleep" is far to underrated. Everyone knows that you need plenty of "rest" but if you spend the day sleeping then it is widely considered a waste of the day. I went to sleep at 9pm last night and woke up at 8:30 for a true Scottish breakfast. After my eggs, ham, blood pudding, fruit pudding, toast, croissant, yogurt, coffee unfit for a vagrant, potato triangles, and hash browns, I promptly climbed back into bed. I awoke about half past three and spent the majority of the afternoon doing absolutely nothing. To many, I wasted the day. And after the jam packed last few I was in dire need of a good sleep and to me, I capitalized on a morning that presented no interruptions and no necessary prior obligations. I did not waste a moment.

Dinner was a chicken a bacon baguette that I had the fellow at the newsagent warm for me in an industrial sized oven. It was incredible and I foresee a few more trips up the road for such meals.

I met my first res. mate this evening. His name is Mustafa. He is originally from Turkey but has been living in Glasgow for the past nine years. He is living in res because he does not get along with his family. He is, however, a truly giving person and has offered me tea, oranges, beer, tea, a peach, more tea and his cellphone if I need it. He does not seem to comprehend the fact that anyone would not drink tea, but none the less I appreciate his kind nature. Mustafa is a barber in town and has offered to show me around after he gets off work tomorrow. He is taking aeronautical Eng. and wants to become a pilot. He is truly fascinated by my own flying experiences and of Canada in general. For the first person I met, he seems like a pretty good guy. We will see what tomorrow brings.

The End

2008-09-06T16:51:00.004+01:00

Chirchill once wrote "This is not the end, this is not even the beginning of the end. But perhaps the end of the beginning." I thought of that as I was waiting to board my flight last night (although it is all one day to me right now). I felt excited to be leaving on this trip not because it was a new and strange place, not because the education was supposed to be superb or even at the thought of all the new people I will meet, but instead at the concept that there is still so much left to do. I am one very small trip in one small location in the world. I am looking forward to it all.

However, while I am here and I am going to enjoy here. "With no future to aspire too, you are able to live freely in the here and in the now" and I plan to. in the past 14 hours I have said good bye to my parents, watched Harry Potter and What Happens in Vegas, had an incredibly delectable airplane meal (Chicken Curry with Bread, Cranberry Loaf, and Rice), met incredible people on the plane who gave me some insight as to what to see while I was here (I find it interesting that no Scot can seem to agree with another one on what the best part of their country is), I met the mom of the girl who rented me my tux for high school grad (proves the world is pretty damn small) I have been shuttled through Glasgow and spit out on its extreme west end where I was given three keys and polite "Enjoy." I walked around the NW end of Glasgow, was hit on by a drunk hooker (at noon) that may have been a guy and ate at the most incredible little fresh deli around the corner from my res. So, to the say the least, I am taking it all in. I can only hope that everyday is as packed as this one.

Interesting story about that mom of the girl who rented me the tux. As she put it "she is completing her bucket list." Has dual citizenship so quit her job in Canada, packed one suit case and a large purse and moved to Glasgow Scotland. She has booked accommodation for three days and then -- nothing. She says she always wanted to try it so she figured why not now. She is my Hero for the day.