To Canada and beyond

The troublemaker (click to enlarge) The weekend trip to Hamilton, Kitchener, Cambridge and Waterloo didn't quite go as planned. For one, I never got as far as Waterloo. The reason for that is the "chewing gum incident". Let me elaborate. As I was cruising through some residential estates in Kitchener, which is about 2h drive from Toronto, I delightfully chewed on one of those new brand gums. Now, in my experience there are no bones or stones or other hard things in chewing gum. I brought the car to an abrupt stop when I noticed something in my mouth that had a lot of resemblance to a little rock. After a closer look I found that the unknown item must be part of a tooth. It only took a moment to realise which of my teeth was actually missing a fair chunk (a tooth in the back of my right, upper denture). Hamilton downtown (click to enlarge) There was no pain, which was good. Nevertheless, it took me a moment to snap out of a little shock. Once back on track, I q...

The new racquet (click to enlarge) I got the new racquet. Woohoo. It took a while to arrive and I actually had to pick it up from a post office near by, but it was well worth the wait. It's super light, well balanced and I can barely wait for my next training. That won't be for another week though, since this weekend is already booked out with other things to do. Last weekend, I had the best Sushi of my life so far. A friend of mine prepared some excellent Sushi. He was a chef in a Sushi restaurant here in Toronto for a couple of years. It was all freshly made from scratch that very same day. It's incredible how much work goes into the preparation for the little creations. But it's so tasty! Toronto skyline from St. Lawrence market For this Sunday, I have a road trip planned to Hamilton, Kitchener, Waterloo and Camebridge. I hope it won't rain for that. The weather has been fantastic so far. However, apparently a bad weather front is closing in on Toronto...

Broke it in a smash (click pic to enlarge) Having found a number of good and inexpensive badminton courts, I still found a way to make it an expensive sport. Last weekend I went to play again and broke my "good" racquet. I was a little upset, because this raqcuet went with me on nearly all my journeys. I bought it in China. I brought it back to Germany. I took it over to Ireland and now to Canada. Anyway, so I had to find a replacement, which didn't come cheap. I ordered it through eBay, so hopefully delivery doesn't take too long. Over the last two weeks, I had my first visitors over. Firstly my godfather came to visit me. He lives 2h north from Toronto, so it was a short enough trip. Secondly, a very good friend stopped by on his Canada travel. He lives in Switzerland, so that was a bit more of a journey. I was delighted to finally meet him once more. Especially, since we hadn't seen each other for 8 years. I keep my fingers crossed that more friends may ...

Canada Day (click to enlarge) I totally forgot about my blog. I meant to post something in here at least every week. And now look how long I haven't published anything. Well, so what happened the last weeks? To be quite honest, I don't remember exactly. There were big celebrations for Canada Day, which is the 1 st of July. It meant fireworks, mini-flags, air-filled jumping castles, mechanical rodeo bulls and loads of sunshine - tons of fun. Also, I had a few BBQs already. The weather here is very inviting. And so far only once I got stung (or is it bitten?) by a mosquito. That was itchy. Worker in the sun (click to enlarge) Apart from that, I learned that there is a huge gap between a badminton club and just playing badminton in a club. Which still doesn't make much sense. The difference between those two is that one costs about 14000$ entry fee, another member has to vouch for you, the yearly fees are around 1000$ and monthly playing fees of 100$ are added on a...

"Blissfully oblivious" would be the most suitable description of my state of mind this week. Canadians were shaken (not stirred) last week by a quake of 5.0 (not 007) and I didn't hear or feel a thing. Well, that was until in the evening my brother in law asked me how I was doing. Then this weekend I was on my way to watch the A-Team in the cinema. Usually it would take maybe 15 min from my place to that cinema. Yesterday it took me about 90 minutes to walk to the screens because protesters had blocked the streetcar paths in downtown. Only after the movie, I learned that police cars were set on fire. I really wonder what these guys are trying to achieve with that. Anyway, so I actually had a nice week whilst the rest of Toronto was taking its first steps towards 2012 (which probably only makes sense if you saw the movie).

Could it have been the least eventful week in Canada yet? I'm not quite sure. I watched the Brazilian match in a Brazilian café/bar and met some very interesting lads. I had another job interview and I have no idea how it went. I think there more looking for a Delphi guy and my Java and C++ skills only kept me in the game, but didn't win them over. So, I'll see what comes back. Until Wednesday my legs had to recover from last weekends 5K run. Therefore I focused my training on my upper body. Accordingly, my arms are quite heavy now.

Oh boy, I cannot believe that the last entry was two weeks ago. And I'm not quite sure what to write this time. A lot has happened, but I keep forgetting as much as well. Anyway, I think I'll just start with more recent events. On Friday evening I took another stroll through downtown and towards 'Little Italy', which was quite nice. Yesterday I booked a car with "Autoshare.com" for the first time. They even have a car inside my building. And when you're member you actually build up your insurance history over here in Canada. It's a neat deal. So with my new found freedom, I drove to "Dimpflmeier" a German Bakery, a home store to get some missing bits and pieces and to Lindt Chocolate Factory Outlet. I have to say I was a bit disappointed with the Lindt Outlet. In Aachen you could buy chocolate for at least half a year and spend less then 30 €. Now for 30 $ I only got a tiny amount of chocolate... but it might actually be for the better, si...