Recap in Edmonton

Caught the National Express to Gatwick airport arrived at 4am check in opens at 5:40am still got some time to kill. Checking out all the sights getting a most excellent Chai latte from Nero it was time to check in. Had to find my way to Zone B which was hidden away in the back down a ramp and around the corner. From there I lounged through out the airport hit up the duty free shops and grabbed a sandwich.

Finally time to board the plane, woohoo a 9 hour flight. they served some questionable pasta and really greasy cheese pizza for 'breakfast'. They showed some terrible movies of course but the one I ended up catching was 'We bought a Zoo' for some reason i always end up watching some of the worst movies on flights. (except for on Cathay Pacific where I got to watch Friends)

Of course after standing in a line and making it through immigrations my bag was the last one to come out onto the conveyor belt. Time for my big hug upon arrival. :D

Monday- Got to catch up with Karrie, her mom and my mom over some delicious Pho! Man, did I miss Vietnamese food. Visited Allyn and hung out with Emily before the evening was over.

Tuesday- Went to the bank, ran some errands downtown in city centre it was nice to know that not much has changed besides all the additional construction. Wandered down to the Ave took a look at some guitars (learned that it is cheaper to buy one in Canada and ship it back to the UK with me on the plane than to buy one there) Picked up tickets for Plump Djs. Had a nice home cooked meal with Karrie and Jordan before heading out for a nice large cup of coffee at Tim Hortons. I don't know why I love their coffee so much.

Wednesday- Met up with Kelly at Tim Horton's wandered down Jasper Avenue noticed all the construction being done around the city. Looked at more guitars on the Ave and then made it all the way over to Simon's place to catch up with the old house and the awesome old and new peeps.

Thursday- Headed to the bank, learned some information about purchasing a house maybe in the future years coming. After dinner and a whole lot of muffin making I finally headed out the door to visit with Lily and her kids, I can't believe how much we had to say. Catch up took about 7 hours! It was a nice highlight to see Lily.

Friday- Got ready to head out the door to Allyn's pot luck but first grabbed some coffee with Celeste, it was really nice to catch up and just chat. I even got to meet her mom and work out some kinks at her house. Pot luck commence, socializing before heading out to Level 2 for Plump Djs. it was most excellent to get some dancing on.

Saturday- I was quite tired but it was another excellent day to be outside. Off to Simon's BBQ/Birthday Party x2 with tonnes and tonnes of food (Baked Potatoes, Corn on the cob, Birthday cake, apple crumble, ribs, blood sausages, kubasa, salad, chips, muffins, cookies, etc) Went out to the Red Square to catch up with Lily since it was her birthday party, ended up at Rumours. In the end us ladies headed out to the Y, at least they had drum and bass there! More dancing is good anyways.

Sunday- Mothers day, Dim Sum. Then I had to head down to the Ave to pick up some gifts and things ended up buying some kitchen things for my mom and a yathzee game for us to play later in the evening. Even thought I ended up buying the Mario version. Headed back hom to order some pizza heart shaped no less.

Monday- I was late getting up catching up with people has sure been tiring. I haven't been able to get a full night of rest to the point where I feel really rested. So I slept in a bit, eventually I made it down to the Ave met Tyler at the gazebo, off for some mid afternoon bubble tea. My favourite kind of afternoon drink. Now after some direction less conversation we ended up at tea shop trying to sort out how to play the drawing Cranium game, which lead us to think that we might need some food and more time to sort out how to play that game. So now off to Dadeos for some of their sweet potato fries and a Byou po-boy. It sure has been awhile I still love their Jalapeño jam.

Tuesday- Early in the morning my mother woke me up to get ready for an afternoon bus to Calgary. Lucky for me they have free wifi I love free wifi!Caught a taxi to Niky's got to catch up with her, missed Will's birthday until next time.

Wednesday- Dim Sum in Calgary, followed by shopping around in China town and catching up on the cute little shops and look at some otaku gear.Picked up some baked good, hot pot things and tried our hand at it with a fondue set. Answer too small does not have hotpot capabilities.

Thursday- How quickly Calgary went by, made a slow stop to walk around downtown before heading back on the ebus to Edmonton. It was lovely to catch up with Nicole unless next time.

Friday- What a day this was, caught up on some sleep and headed out to do my part at the bank. Now it was time to head over to Allyn's place hung out for awhile, finally after stopping by Karrie's place then off to Blues for some midnight dancing.

Saturday- A big bowl of beef Pho, what a wonderful day to start a day. Now I am all powered up for a night of dancing, lounged with a guitar by a bonfire at Allyn's then over to Karrie's to eat delicious Vietnamese salad rolls.  My last visit to Blues before heading to Jordan's set at the Bohemia, he is going to play some Drum and Bass. Woohoo. Ran into some old friends, it was really nice to see them still dancing up a storm. When his set was over we stopped on by to Starlight for some Dub step vs. Drum and Bass to only find out that they weren't playing drum and bass. It is a good day to be alive.

Sunday- Met up with Karrie for one last stroll down Whyte ave running some errands to head back to her place for some Friends, Kraft Dinner, Twizzlers,  Root Beer and a Jordan. A great way to finish my time in Canada.

Monday- Oh my, another flight back to England. But first Tyler picked me up and brought me back to his place, what a wonderful house with a new kitty. Jackie prepared some awesome crepes with strawberries, whipcream, icing sugar and best of all maple syrup! A most welcoming good-bye. Hopefully I won't be in transit nearly as long this time, a bus ride downtown then straight into the sky shuttle for another hour and 40 mins. Then I should be able to leech off of the wifi at the Edmonton airport before heading onto a 9 hour flight.

Torquay, The English Rivera

There is so much to say about this place but let me first complain a bit about transport. We wanted to take the train there but in total it was going to cost us 160 Pounds (for two)! Instead we thought if we can cut some costs that we can spend that money on a hostel. In the end we decided to take the National Express Bus, from Derby -> London and then London -> Torquay leaving us with a total of about 10 hours on the bus verses the 4 hours via train. We ended up paying 90 Pounds for the bus tickets for two. The saving did go towards accommodations since we only ended up paying 72 pounds for the two nights at Clifton Grove.

Mental Note: Take the train.

When we arrived trekking past residential areas and tall trees we ended up at the town centre, a lengthy street with all sorts of things. Reminding me very much of Whyte Avenue at home minus the on and off rain spurts.

This place is made of nothing of hills from the most rolling and unnoticeable ones to the steepest of breath catchers. After making it all the way to the hostel which looked very small from the outside we were directed to the top floor to enter the very last room at the end of the hall, of course. Caught more than forty winks and woke up with a rumbling tummy. Off to wander the sea shore to see what was available to eat, too bad we were on a bit of a budget. Luckily like everywhere else in the world Torquay had a 24 hour Subway by the harbour so that took care of that, freeing us up to go back to bed because we were still very drained.

So, a bit of information. We were in the area that is known collectively as both Torbay (because it is indeed a bay) and The English Riviera. It's generally very nice in Summer, but we were there at the wrong time and so sunny spells alternated with cascades of icy rocks from the skies. But there were palm trees! Torbay is made up of the main location Torquay as well as the smaller towns further around the bay, Paignton and Brixham.

I went in here thinking that it was going to be a farmers market of sorts, but when I went in I found out that this building has quite the history. The pavilion.

Oh the beach, how wonderful to hear the sounds of waves once again! Feel so at peace. 

Danny and I walked up to where those trees are, great view.

All in all I didn't write down all the details of Torquay but if all things goes well I will be moving here to teach ESL. So there will be many more posts about Torquay. End note: Lovely city.