(no subject)
Well it's taken me a week to summon up the willpower to post again, the last few days having passed in a welter of post-holiday blues compounded by acute jetlag. We flew with Zoom, a budget airline, and the plane we came back over the Atlantic in was tiny - like the little planes you use to go over to France. I was terrified.
I don't know if I'd want to live in Ontario, but I liked it a lot. Everyone is so amazingly friendly over there, it is just bizarre. At first I thought people were a bit mental when they kept asking me in shops and cafes how I was doing or how my day was going - but they were really genuine! It's great. I am infuriated by these miserable bastards like Thom Yorke who complains that he doesn't want to be told what kind of day to have. I love it! In England everyone who works in a shop or restaurant is unremittingly indifferent to you and often nurtures a deep loathing of the general public. The service industry in general here is shite, compared with North America where people seem to regard these jobs as perfectly worthwhile. I can't stress enough how weird it was for me to sit down in a bar, and get table service - and have them come over when my pint was finished and ask if I wanted any more. It's no wonder everyone tips so much over there.
I was a bit bewildered by how prevalent the whole sports bar concept was. Literally every bar I went into had a few TVs up showing football or baseball, even posh cocktail bars. Very strange. The Canadians certainly love their sports. In fact when we were in Toronto (a city I didn't love that much), we went to see the Blue Jays have their asses handed to them by the Baltimore Orioles. It was a genius afternoon, and by the ninth innings I had even managed to work out most of the rules. Essentially it's like cricket, only more American - i.e. faster and with commercial breaks every ten minutes. In actual fact, the ball game is secondary - people only go because it's a socially-acceptable excuse to snack. The stadium was filled with every kind of fast food you could imagine, it was awesome. I spent the whole game eating hotdogs and drinking draught beer, while the guys behind me yelled insults at Lyle Overbay.
We have basically got no money now, having had two overseas trips this year already. Looks like we'll be staying in England and not going out much for the forseeable future.
I don't know if I'd want to live in Ontario, but I liked it a lot. Everyone is so amazingly friendly over there, it is just bizarre. At first I thought people were a bit mental when they kept asking me in shops and cafes how I was doing or how my day was going - but they were really genuine! It's great. I am infuriated by these miserable bastards like Thom Yorke who complains that he doesn't want to be told what kind of day to have. I love it! In England everyone who works in a shop or restaurant is unremittingly indifferent to you and often nurtures a deep loathing of the general public. The service industry in general here is shite, compared with North America where people seem to regard these jobs as perfectly worthwhile. I can't stress enough how weird it was for me to sit down in a bar, and get table service - and have them come over when my pint was finished and ask if I wanted any more. It's no wonder everyone tips so much over there.
I was a bit bewildered by how prevalent the whole sports bar concept was. Literally every bar I went into had a few TVs up showing football or baseball, even posh cocktail bars. Very strange. The Canadians certainly love their sports. In fact when we were in Toronto (a city I didn't love that much), we went to see the Blue Jays have their asses handed to them by the Baltimore Orioles. It was a genius afternoon, and by the ninth innings I had even managed to work out most of the rules. Essentially it's like cricket, only more American - i.e. faster and with commercial breaks every ten minutes. In actual fact, the ball game is secondary - people only go because it's a socially-acceptable excuse to snack. The stadium was filled with every kind of fast food you could imagine, it was awesome. I spent the whole game eating hotdogs and drinking draught beer, while the guys behind me yelled insults at Lyle Overbay.
We have basically got no money now, having had two overseas trips this year already. Looks like we'll be staying in England and not going out much for the forseeable future.