What's new

Well, its been a while since I posted so here's what I've been upto. The events are in no particular order:

1) Couple of weeks ago, I went to the island just off Queens Quay (or Harborfront, as it is also called), which is where my office is. It was nice -- a good place to spend the weekend alone reading a book, or with someone special and a picnic basket or with family for a fun day out. I, however, went there with Kiran (for none of the above) :-p.

2) I started taking the streetcar to work. Its convenient, and I do not reach office all tired. However, taking the streetcar has meant that I'm losing out on the only exercise I was getting. So, I have decided to walk back home some days of the week, starting today (which I have done too :-D).

3) Jason and Bill took me to Armadillo, a pub on King Street. Thats where I tried Guinness. Now, I don't like beer much, but Guinness was awesome.

4) Jason and I went to watch the New York Yankees play the Toronto Blue Jays in the Rogers Center (previously known as the Skydome). The game was good fun, with the Yankees winning a close game. As a souvenier I bought two baseballs, one with the Yankees logo and another with the Blue Jays logo. But what made my day was the comment from the girl at the beer counter - "I like your t-shirt", she said. :-D

Well, apart from that, its the usual mundane routine. So, excuse me while I kick back with a screwdriver before I hit the sack

Grocery shopping, another iPod and the sights and sounds of China

Left early from work today with Jason. He had brought his car as promised and he took me to Loblaws for grocery shopping. Bought a lot of bread and some meat and lots of tins of Sprite and ginger ale. Also bought some beer and vodka. The fridge is finally full!

After that Jason dropped me off at College Street where the computer shop that I read about in the Apple website was. Walked in and bought an iPod 60GB and a carrying case for it and walked out $630 poorer.

While walking back, I walked through Chinatown. I felt like I was in china! Everywhere I looked, I saw only chinese. And all the shops had typical chinese stuff. And loads and loads of chinese restaurants. The whole experience was surreal. I'm planning to explore more of Chinatown in the weeks to come.

In Toronto!

I finally got my tickets to Toronto on Tuesday, August 30th. Finished packing in a hurry and barely reached the airport on time. As usual, I've forgotten many things in a hurry, but cant help it.

Suman had come to the airport with Kirti (and I found out that what Suman was telling about Kirti was 100% true!!). Vamsi had also come. So had Abu. Vamsi left quickly. I checked in my luggage and got my boarding pass. As per Suman's suggestion, I got a window seat, away from the wing. While we waited, I had coffee and a chocolate fantasy. Suman and sis exchanged numbers and I asked her to go back home cos I didn't want her travelling home late. She didn't cry, brave girl.

After a while, I went through the security check and everyone returned home. Inside, I met Magesh and his wife. They were waiting to board their flight to Chennai for his visa interview. After a short wait, and calling up Suman and my parents, I boarded my flight.

This is the first time I've been on an airplane -- ever!! And it was a heady feeling. Got in and took my seat, which was just behind the wing, but I had a pretty good view outside my window. Finally the plane got started, after the safety demo by the airhostesses, who seemed pretty amused by the whole thing. The aircraft taxied for about 5 minutes before we reached the runway.

What happened next was something that I totally loved. The aircraft blasted forward with an amazing acceleration. I wish I was strapped to the nose of the aircraft to experience that better :-D. Anyway, the plane took off and there was this weird feeling in my stomach -- which I soon got over. The sight outside the window was awesome. I could see and make out some of the airport road, Leela Palace and Manipal Hospital. After a while, the lights got less dense and completely disappeared. The total flight time was 2.5 hrs. They served dinner, which was kinda ok, nothing great. Tried to sleep for a while.

The flight landed at 1:45 am I think, although I'm not too sure. Took my bags and, on the advice of a guy working at the airport, I took a prepaid taxi to the Innternational Terminal. Got there by 2:15 am, and called Suman first and then home and let them know that I was fine. Then waited and waited until the checkin started for the Toronto flight.

The security check wasn't as stringent as I suspected it would be. After the sec check, I went to the customs office and got my camera registered. Then started another long wait for the boarding to start. Again called up Suman and home and spoke to them for a while. Also tried to call up Nitin, but I wasn't able to get through his number.

After a looooooooooong wait, we finally boarded the flight. My seat was just behind the wing. After the take off I fell asleep for a while. Woke up and found that the plane was in Amritsar. A lot of Punjabis got on the plane, and almost every one of them had a British accent. After a long delay there, the plane got going again. After a long while, we reachec Birmingham, where we got off the plane. We were in the terminal for 1.5 hrs. After that, we boarded the flight, but since the firing range over Manchester was active, we did not get the clearance to take off. While we waited, it started to drizzle.

My co-passenger from Birmingham was Muees. I dont know how old he was, but the kid spoke a lot. During the first few hours, I slept, but when I woke up, the guy just kept on talking and talking, asking a lot of questions. He also gave me a lot of info on Toronto :-). Nice kid, but a little too talkative.

My flight reached Toronto at around 9:30 pm and after my interview with immigrations I had to wait another 20 mins to get my luggage (I was
worried that someone had flicked it :-s, cos it took so long to come.) After that, got out and met Jason, and headed for the parking lot. Jason had
brought his "smaller car", it was a Toyota Corolla. It was as big as our Ikon. From the airport we headed over to my condo.

Jason was driving wel over speeds of 120kmph. It was kinda freaky cos I dont acclerate and drive that fast for long time periods in the city. Also, other cars dont overtake at higher speeds than that in Bangalore! After about 20-30 minutes of driving, we reached Camden. Thats where the condo that was rented for me is located. The condo is nice and cozy. Its got a big hall with attached kitchen, a bedroom with a walk-in closet and a bathroom with a bath tub. The condo is fully furnished with a comp table, rack for books/show-pieces, couple of comp chairs, couple of reclining chairs, microwave, grill/electric stove, electric chimney, fridge, tv, x-box, cd player, vcr, dvd player, washing machine+dryer and dishwasher. Hot and cold water available through all the taps 24/7. All these
luxuries come at a price of $1650 per month.

The first thing I wanted to do was get change for one of the $100 bills. But Jason didnt have that much with him, so he gave me a twenty and promised to take me to a bank the next day to break a couple of the hundreds. He also left me a quarter in case I needed to call him up and left. He hadn't carried my mobile with him so he didn't have any means of contacting me. He asked me if I wanted to have anything for dinner and I told him that I wasnt hungry. He then drew me a map of the area between my house and the office and explained how to get there the next day. After a while, he left.

After he left, I changed and slept. I woke up late the next day and it was almost noon by the time I was near office. While I was around a km away, I saw Jason in the crowd, walking towards me. He was concerned because I hadnt showed up so he decided to walk down to my place to find out what was wrong. He took me to the office and introduced me to Bill. We then went to the food court in the building and had lunch. He paid for lunch. We had chinese food which tasted pretty gross. after that we went to the bank and got change for $200 after which I returned his $20.

He had to leave for home at 4:30 and I decided to leave too. Took the laptop home. Had dinner from Quiznos, which is just on the corner of the street where I live. That was pretty much my first day in Toronto.