Early in 2013, in a spirit of optimism, Commando had booked a holiday in the Canary Islands, a place neither of us had visited. Now the time had come my world was crashing around my ears at home, with my job crawling slowly to an end and the future looking very shaky. A holiday was the last thing I thought I needed but probably exactly the right thing to stop me falling into a deep dark pit of depression. Continue reading Goodbye England hello Costa Teguise – First published 16 October 2013
The cat burglar hadn’t quite finished with us back in October 2013. We were just about to go on holiday and she was at it again. This time she went a step too far. Continue reading cat burglar part three – first published 15 October 2013
When I heard someone moving about the house in the middle of the night in October 2013 it was one of two things. Either the cat burglar was back, or there was a real burglar in the house. Of course CJ could have suddenly developed insomnia. Whatever it was I couldn’t just go back to sleep and, as Commando was at work, I had to get up and find out… Continue reading A cat burglar and a rhino reprise – first published 12 October 2013
For a child Christmas is a magical time filled with tinkling sleigh bells, elves and anticipation. One of my most vivid Christmas memories is being allowed to help decorate the huge pine tree that had mysteriously appeared in the front room. Normally our time was spent in the back room where large French Windows looked out into the garden and the front room was kept for best, the door firmly closed. Continue reading Memories of the early 1960’s – Christmas
25 December 2015
Our Christmas Day began with a Park Run, at least Commando’s did. Originally I’d planned to get up early with him and go along but, in the end, I chickened out and stayed in bed. There was a great deal of work to be done in the kitchen after all. He came back wearing his Santa hat, just in time for breakfast. He was freezing cold and I was glad I hadn’t gone although I’d have liked some photos of all the runners in Santa hats. In the end I had to settle for one runner in a Santa hat. Continue reading Ho, Ho, Ho
After I left America I wrote about the differences I noticed between the States and England. In Canada, I expected to find something a little more like home, Canada is a commonwealth country after all, so you’d think it would be a lot more like England, right? They have our Queen as their head of state and her head on their money, even if they do drive on the wrong side of the road and measure everything in kilometres and centimetres. As it turns out, not so much but it isn’t like America either. So what were the differences I noticed between Canada and England? Continue reading Canada, different but mostly in a good way
20 and 21 October 2015
We got back to Toronto just as darkness was falling. It would be our last evening in the city and, once we’d packed as much as we could, we set off out into the night. We’d been either walking or driving more or less all day so we decided to take a short wander to Nathan Phillips Square to see the Toronto sign lit up and grab a snack in the process. When I’d been waiting for Commando to finish the marathon I’d noticed a Hero Burger place in the square. Hopefully it would be open. If not we’d have to think again. Continue reading Goodbye Canada
20 October 2015
“Let’s just go a little further,” I said to Commando. “I’d like to have a look from the river above the falls if we can get that far, to see what would have possessed someone to stand there with a barrel and think about going over the side.”
Looking down into the churning waters was like looking into a boiling saucepan. It seemed unbelievable that anyone would consider jumping in but many people have and some have even survived. Why did they do it though? Walking across on a tightrope is madness enough but a vertical drop of over one hundred and sixty five feet hardly screams ‘jumping in would be a pretty good idea,’ even without eighty five thousand cubic feet of water falling every second.
20 October 2015
Commamdo was, understandably, a little nervous about driving seventy two miles on Canadian roads. After all, that’s like driving from our house to London, which in England would be counted as a pretty long drive. Of course, in Canada it’s considered just down the road and we couldn’t come all this way without seeing one of the wonders of the natural world. Not wishing to get caught up in the morning rush hour, we had a leisurely breakfast and then took a slow wander down to the car park. The worst part turned out to be getting out of the city. Once we got onto the Gardiner Expressway the traffic eased a little. Now all we had to do was follow the sat nav, keep looking at the road signs and try to be in the right lane at the right time. Simple? Probably not but Commando managed it. Continue reading Niagara, where America and Canada collide
19 October 2015
After a three course lunch at the top of the CN Tower there was a need to walk some of it off so we set off along Front Street trying to decide where to go. Commando fancied having a look at the local football stadium in Liberty Village while I thought it would be nice to check out Garrison Common and Fort York. In the end we decided to split up at the smelly bridge and meet later by the exhibition centre where’d we’d picked up Commando’s race pack on our first day in Toronto. As it turned out, neither of our missions was particularly successful. Continue reading Down by the lake