GO LEAFS GO!!!

So we made it to a hockey game!

Courtesy of an un-nameable source, we had excellent seats and watched the Toronto Maple Leafs kick the butts of the Detroit Red Wings 7-5 in a pre-season match at the Air Canada centre in Toronto's downtown.

The game is fast and exciting, with a lot of big hits up against the glass (perspex) walls, causing them to sway around and look like they may break at any second.

You can view the rest of our photos of the game here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/aimee.carbonell/Hockey

The game started out pretty badly for Toronto, with the wings scoring inside the first minute, but came back with in equalizer about 5 minutes later. The remaining 14 minutes of the first period went without any more goals, but lots of action, people getting sent off for 'sticking', 'slashing', 'hooking' and 'unsportsmanlike behavior'.

The second period was another 20 minutes of fast skating, 3 more goals for the wings and 4 for the leafs. At most times scores were levelled pretty quickly, with Toronto going into the break 1 up.

The third and final period had lots of action, as the clock counted down and teams got desperate to pull ahead. At one point with Toronto up 6-5, the detroit team decided to pull their goalie off and put a 6th attacker on, leaving their goal wide open. Toronto didn't take advantage of this but did put a nail in the coffin with 2 minutes to go, to make the scores 7-5.

A very enjoyable evening, and during the 20 minute breaks, a crew was using the crowd for filming scenes for a new Mike Myers movie, 'The Love Guru'. I'm not sure how hockey fits into that plot, but when it does come out keep an eye out in the scene "Game 5, Stanley Cup" and you might see me and Aimee standing in the front off to the left of the goal.

autos

I'm so over corvettes. Back home I used to dream about driving one, but they're a dime a dozen here.
well, not quite, but they're still the poor man's sports car. Sure they handle well, and they actually go around corners, but revolutionary spine replacement surgery has been developed especially for corvette drivers. Their handling ability has been achieved by putting them really low on the ground and reducing suspension travel to 1mm.

Anyway, there are a lot of nice cars here. Subaru aren't so popular, Honda is the number one player along with ford.
American cars are cheap, but only cos many of them are assembled here.

I see a lot of exotics too, Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini, Maserati and of course, Hummer.

The roads are wide and flat to accomodate these vehicles out in the 'burbs, but the city is a nightmare to drive in.
Streetcars (trams) and padestrians rule the city, I don't know why anybody bothers to drive.

I have to say; while the bus may be a bit slow, it's better than driving and you get to catch up on reading, or blogging

;)

NZ 2, Canada 8

No, it's not a rugby score, it's the rankings in the world as the most peaceful place to live.
http://www.visionofhumanity.com/rankings/
Good 'ol US is down at number 96 and Iraq is last at 121.

So, the rugby. The internet is our only source of news aboot that little competition. I see the All Blacks trounced Italy last weekend. As the community we're living in at the moment is very Italian, I can't imagine our neighbours are very happy =)


So how's life in Toronto you might ask?
Well we're really enjoying the place. It's a very happening city, with shows, exhibitions, concerts and lots of things to do.
We've been shopping at most of the malls here, went to the Canadian National Exhibition which was a giant fairground and I got to climb inside a tank and army helicopter!

The days are definitely getting shorter though. When we first arrived the sun was still high in the sky at 5pm. Now it's just dipping below the horizon at 7:30. We get to watch the most georgeous sunsets from the bus window as we travel home.

Speaking of which, as with all problems we have now found multiple solutions to our transit problem.
A few weeks ago we started catching the express bus. For an extra 50 cents the bus took us from the nearby mall, down the highway and straight to the subway station. It cut aboot 30 min off our morning commute and we could get up later! This was great until school went back. Now the students are in session and all people are back from their vacations, traffic in the mornings is worse than in Auckland and the trip down the highway takes longer than using the side roads and stopping on every corner. So we're back to plan A.

However the ride home is much better. We catch the Viva bus, which is the same price, but much nicer. It's one of those 'bendy' buses and it only has aboot 6 stops between the end of the subway line, and our connection bus. Much better, more reliable. We feel so much nicer when we arrive home.

Home, where is home? Yesterday we signed the leases to our apartments! I can move in on Saturday September 29th, Aimee still has people living in her place so will be stuck to October 1st.
It's in the affluent area Yonge and St Clair, has an outdoor swimming pool and a fountain, both of which i'm sure will freeze over in the winter.
Living here will ensure that we can be home by 6pm most days =)

So check out our photos - link is at the top - we'll post them of the apartment as they are taken, and as we do other exciting things.

One more thing:
I'm sure Eastbay could use some more NZ talent, so if you have experience with windows servers and a desire to migrate to Canada, check out the WHP (400 places left) and let me know.

Booyacasha!

Pittsburgh

We have been to America. Again.

This time by ourselves, and in our rented car (2007 Ford Fusion. 2.3l inline 4, FWD).
I feel like I should be paying Google some money too, as their maps of this continent are brilliant, especially the directions bit. Simply stunning.

So anyway, Hello to Charles and Sally, Adrienne and Tony and the rest of the crew down in Pittsburgh.

Arriving in Pittsburgh remings me of coming down the Nauranga gorge and having the city open out in front of you. The same is true of here. I gasped as it suddenly appeared, which woke Aimee up and meant we had to go around and do it again. We really did, we took a wrong turn and instead of going to Charles' place, we were going out of the city!

I finally understand now why the football team is called the steelers. The guy was telling me as I dropped off the rental car that Pittsburgh is 'the underarm of the USA' due to it's huge steel industry. I have to say, they certainly know how to use steel too, there are bridges everywhere! there must be 6 bridges crossing the river which divides the city.
It's also very nice. Charles and Sally showed us around the university grounds which are amazing. Very green and well maintained, it must be a great place to study.