Hello Hello!

It’s been a little while since I wrote to you all, so I’ll try to catch you up and fill in the blanks later. I landed at 7am on the 12th of June and got to work right away, moving into the new apartment. The flight was quite good. I flew ‘premium’ class on ZoomAirlines which, while not luxurious, was quite comfortable with more legroom than economy class on AirCanada. The few days following arrival were quite busy, with moving in, getting unpacked, shopping for groceries and familiarizing myself with the new neighbourhood and surroundings. I think I’m allergic to something in the air as I’ve had sensitive eyes and a runny nose for the last few days … Sandra seems to think that it's hayfever, but maybe it’s something in the water…

It takes me about an hour to get into work with one transfer. For those of you who have experienced it, London’s subway line is a labyrinth of corridors, stairwells and escalators meant to confound visitors and locals alike. I’ve slowly been finding the ‘optimal’ route to take, to shave off a few seconds here and a few seconds there. At the very least, it keeps my entertained through the hour long journey.

I work in Barclay’s head office, located in a modern building in Canary Wharf. I’ve been thoroughly impressed by the ‘induction’ process, which began the first day I arrived with 2 hour tour of the building and orientation of the proper procedures and amenities in the building.
My manager has been great in getting my to speed with the various projects on the go and the people on the team.

Back at home, there was a power outage on Wednesday morning, which wouldn’t have been a problem if it wasn’t for the fact that I had a 8:30am meeting with the senior management team! I woke up panicked at 7am, knowing that I should have been leaving the house at 7am! I was fashionably late for the meeting by 5 minutes, with my only saving grace that I wasn’t the last to arrive.

The last week has been great, and the weather, well, has held up ok. I’m coming up to my first weekend, still with a long list of thing ‘to do’ to get the apartment squared away. I have to get a haircut this weekend, as I’ve been fighting with my coiffe these last few days. Gone are the days of the $13 haircut that I enjoyed in TO …

Lunch Reunion at the Clocktower

Met with my long time friends from High School yesterday (Saturday) at the Clocktower Pub on Bank Street to enjoy a few pints, good eats and to catch up on where everyone is at. The whole gang was there - CG, TM, BM, JS, AB & LO and their daughter JB. BM surprised me with a going away gift: a DVD of the movie Strange Brew, a little piece of Canadiana!

Hockey Pool Update - and the winner is ... moi!

Well fight fans, the most unlikely winner of the LeagueSpreck hockey pool * is yours truely (crowd roaring in the background)! Having not watched a SINGLE regular season game, and by a narrow margin of 10.6 points, I held off the hard charging DewsonManorChamp to claim victory in the 2008 installment in the Stanley Cup epic adventure. The final tally was:

need_a_drink 352.5
DewsonManorChamp 341.9
Jenerator 254.9
Prague_Spring 253.6

...and where are the rest of the competitors? Well, that's all there was. 4. A small victory, but a victory none the less! Kudos to DewsonManorChamp for keeping it interesting until the very end. Special mention to the Jenerator for edging out a podium finish from Prague_Spring in the very LAST game of the season to give her a 1.5 point lead ... now that's excitement!

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* LeagueSpreck is a sub-pool in the broader CBC Fantasy Playoff Pool. In the CBC Fantasy Playoff Pool, I was 4,086th out of 35,900 competitors. Not bad for my first time out!

Day 6 to 14 - In Ottawa.

Well, for all of you following my blog, don't expect too much over the next week or so. I'm in Ottawa now, recharging my batteries and hanging out with my family before my flight on the 11th. I've got plans to meet up with some old friends from high school on Saturday. Other than that, my dance card is blank....

SUMMARY - for all you time starved people out there ....

Future dates:

June 16th - first day on the job. Note to self, teach the Brits how to brew REAL coffee ...
June 12th - PM - move into new apartment.
June 12th - AM - arrive in London.
June 11th - fly out of Ottawa for London.

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June 2: Day 5 - This was the day that we've all be waiting for - moving all my junk to Ottawa! I would have been better off just to set fire to it all and start fresh. ONE last trip to Walmart in the morning ... Arrived at the van pick up location at 10am, only to wait for an hour in line. Back home by 11am, and on the road by 2pm after a bit of a panic attack that I wasn't going to get all my stuff into the van. 6 hours, 2 coffees, 20 timbits and 3 rest stops later, arrived in Ottawa. Got some help from my sister's neighbours to unload (the second godsend!). Studying my eyelids by 11pm. Sounds easy? Right.

June 1: Day 4 - Marathon packing day today. My sister came down from Ottawa to help me pack and to keep my company on the drive up to Ottawa (my first godsend!). Made several trips to Walmart for packing materials, each time swearing that it would be my last trip. Ran into my friend MW (who was driving). We stopped to chat for a while, creating a traffic jam, 6 cars long. Back to the Manor for more packing. By this time, there was no sorting - just throwing everything into boxes/bags with the view of sorting it all out later.... finally ran out of gas at 11pm, content that we had most of the packing done and ready for a well earned rest.

May 31: Day 3 - Not much to say here other than packing, packing and more packing. Took the afternoon to run some errands around town and to pick up a gift for Sandra. Made the typical mistake that ALL guys make when buying gifts for their girlfriends - I bought the wrong one. I thought I was safe in choosing the big one. Lesson to all you guys out there - less is more. That will be my new mantara from now on .... ow! What was that? Oh yeah, it was Sandra's shoe glancing off the back of my head ...

May 30: Day 2 - Booked my one way flight through Zoom Airlines today. Took time out to check out a local restaurant that I had been meaning to try for quite some time. Better do it now - only 2 more days in TO!

May 29: Day 1 - First taste of freedom! In between jobs now and it feels great! The day consisted of packing and more packing. I have been diligent about keeping stuff organized or at least, trying to. I had big designs to sell my junk at a garage sale. No such luck.

May 28: Day 0 - Last day at work. Trying to hold back the tears ...

Day 5 - still alive.

Well, the early morning wake-ups have ceased. I think it's b/c there's less to stress about now that I'm near the end, or so I thought. My sister and I still woke up a bit earlier than we needed to (the truck rental place was expecting us at 10am) so we went out to Boom Restaurant for one of the best breakfasts that TO has to offer. The Boom Power Breakfast did not dissapoint, and my sister's shrimp and spinach fritatta was also a hit. On our way back to the Manor, we hit Walmart one last time for 'two more' storage bins -bringing the total up to 6 new LARGE bins in the last three days. I tell ya, stuff just keeps on coming out of their hiding spaces....

Picking up the moving truck was a bit of an adventure. My roommate was good enought to drive me down to pick it up for 10am. Three groups ahead of me in line + one guy working the counter = 1 hour of wait time. The truck that I rented was a 10foot cube van from U Haul. At first, I was a bit nervous about driving such a large truck, and was constantly afraid that I was rip off the extended side view mirrors. I eventually found the corners and was driving it erratically like a seasoned pro.

Back at the Manor shortly after 11am. I was in for the shock of my life as we started packing the truck, and the van almost packed up full in no time at all (!) ... and there were still plenty of boxes left in the Manor. In the end, everything did make it's way into the van, with just barely enough room for the last remaining boxes and odds and sods. (I'm now (it's Tues as I write this) kicking myself for not taking a picture of the packed truck - me, of all people!!) 2pm - the truck was packed and we were ready to hit the open road. Traffic was light, and the construction road crews were largely absent from the major arteries out of the city. I was doing fine for the first half hour, and then it hit me - the fatigue from heavy lifting of the morning combined with the gentle rocking motion of the van on the highway forced us to make a rest stop just outside of TO to catch a power nap before continuing on to Ottawa. Not knowing whether I was a 'truck' or a 'car', I pulled into the truck rest area, only to be dwarfed by the forest of big 18 wheelers.

We rolled into Ottawa at about 8pm - 6 hours after our departure. All in all, not bad time considering the various rest stops along the way. Unloading was not going to be pleasant, but would you know it, my sister's neighbour used to be in the furniture moving business, and came out to help. What a great guy ... so great in fact, he got his son to come out and help as well! One hour later, and all the boxes were safely tucked away in my sister's place.

Day 4 - I never did like that number.

Sunday was a marathon packing session. I woke up really early and started with the shredding. I had so much stuff, that I almost burnt out the motor on my little shredding machine! Walmart opened at 8am, and I was there waiting patiently. "Just another two bins", I said. Famous last words. I filled those two before noon and there was plenty more stuff to be packed. For those of you who have had the pleasure of moving, you'll know what I mean when I say that there seemed to be an endless parade of 'stuff' that would come out of the cupboards and dark corners of the Manor. In the end, I would have close to 30 BIG boxes. Quite the contrast to my estimate of '12 boxes' that I told my sister that I had when she agreed to allow me to store some stuff in the basement of her place in Ottawa!

On my way back from my afternoon Timmie's run, I ran into my friend MW. He was driving his truck and put it in neutral in the middle of the road while we chatted it up. Traffic in both directions was brought to a crawl as we caught up on news. In our defense, it was a lazy Sunday afternoon, and anyone in a rush should really have been ashamed of themselves....

My sister came down from Ottawa to help me pack and to keep me company on the drive up to Ottawa. I didn't know wha kind of godsend that was until later. Without her help, I think I would have been packing until the wee hours of the night! For dinner, we went out to my favorite sushi restaurant on College. The place was packed but the service was prompt and the food, well, great as always. We rolled home after the meal and started in on the packing again. We finally called it quits at 11pm - a job well done with a few odds and ends left to go for Monday morning. Famous last words.