Toronto has changed.
Its gone all green; when we left there were snow piles and bare trees, yet now all the snow has gone and the trees have started to grow leaves again =)
It looks pretty good and can only get better.
I did hear that while we were away, all the snow that was piled up in the area melted and actually raised the level of the lake significantly enough to cause flooding in boatsheds and put some piers underwater.
For those of you worried about me now giving a weather forecast, don't worry. I'm not going to talk about how the temperatures here have been warmer than NZ, or about how when we arrived it suddenly got cold, just like it did when we when we got to Wellington.
My workmates were also kind enough to sell one of my monitors while I was away.
I arrived back to only one 19" LCD and a 19" square of cardboard with an error message written on it, and "Made in NZ" on the back...
Haha, funny guys
Today is May 24th which is Mayday. According to one of my neighbors, after the 24th you can safely plant flowers outside without fear of frosts. Now that's something I didn't know. In any case, flowers are suddenly on sale everywhere, and the shops have gone form advertising snow blowers to gardening supplies and outdoor hammocks.
All the tour operators are running full steam again too, downtown traffic now has large red or yellow tour buses, and of course the hippo. An amphibious tour bus that not only gives you a tour of the city, but also takes you on a tour of lake Ontario.
The beach community sprung up 70 volleyball nets and Toronto is coming alive with festivals.
No wonder people are so depressed in winter, there's so much that happens in summer it's hard to think about anything else.
Right, I'm off to do another lap of the city on my bike, will add to my first sunburn of the year that I got yesterday
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Aimee and Chris back in Canada
So we're back.
We've actually been back a couple of weeks now, things are moving along like we'd never left.
Getting back to NZ was great, thank you to all the people with whom we were able to share dinners, lunches and even a brunch (although our tardiness made it lunch).
As most of you will know, flying around the world is very tiring. On the way back to NZ we had managed to score seats close to the front on all 4 legs of the trip, however coming back to Canada was a different story. Only four rows from the back of the plane meant we felt every flick and waggle of the 777's tail as we bumped our way across a turbulent pacific.
At one air pocket, people even screamed as the whole plane dropped a couple of feet. You could hear the pilots powering up the engines to pull the plane through and it was rather disconcerting.
As usual, American customs agents welcomed us with open arms, fingerprints, iris scans, metal detectors and having to re-check our bags even though we were transiting.
I think part of the problem there is LAX isn't designed for transit passengers. You have to clear customs because there's no link back to the outgoing planes. To get to departures you have to go outside and up a level; perhaps some internal stairs like at Sydney would help?
Whatever the design problems, transiting thru LAX was pretty painless, except for the lack of signage.
After finally arriving back in toronto, we were treated to a most excellent midnight feast and then safely transported back to our beds.
We've actually been back a couple of weeks now, things are moving along like we'd never left.
Getting back to NZ was great, thank you to all the people with whom we were able to share dinners, lunches and even a brunch (although our tardiness made it lunch).
As most of you will know, flying around the world is very tiring. On the way back to NZ we had managed to score seats close to the front on all 4 legs of the trip, however coming back to Canada was a different story. Only four rows from the back of the plane meant we felt every flick and waggle of the 777's tail as we bumped our way across a turbulent pacific.
At one air pocket, people even screamed as the whole plane dropped a couple of feet. You could hear the pilots powering up the engines to pull the plane through and it was rather disconcerting.
As usual, American customs agents welcomed us with open arms, fingerprints, iris scans, metal detectors and having to re-check our bags even though we were transiting.
I think part of the problem there is LAX isn't designed for transit passengers. You have to clear customs because there's no link back to the outgoing planes. To get to departures you have to go outside and up a level; perhaps some internal stairs like at Sydney would help?
Whatever the design problems, transiting thru LAX was pretty painless, except for the lack of signage.
After finally arriving back in toronto, we were treated to a most excellent midnight feast and then safely transported back to our beds.
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