Finding new ways to spend money

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 find their way to visit me.

Comments

Black Friday

I've tried so far to keep tech out of my blog. Despite all of my previous effort, I decided to break with tradition for this entry. Recently, I bought a MacBook Air which is slick, stylish, lightweight, surprisingly fast and definitely on the pricey side. Actually since it matters for this entry, I have to be a little more precise. I bought the laptop mid November. My old one is almost utterly useless since it gets hot as hell when you 'sleep' deprive it for more than 10 min. As I tend to do, I payed up at once and forgot about the expense almost just as quick. Now, for the next part I have to explain something that not everyone may be aware of. Thanksgiving is a much bigger holiday here in North America than it was in Europe. There is turkey dinner and pumpkin carving and costumes and other traditions that Europeans just don't do, even though at least Germany has the holiday ("Erntedankfest") as well. The date when this happens is a different one for the...

French Canada

After the first night sleep, the first day was mainly retracing steps of my previous visits in Montreal. As it so happened, there was actually a parade on for the winter Olympia teams this very day. BTW, for all those who didn't watch any of the last games, Canada is crazy about winter sports... and excels in it too. So there were a lot of heroes to be cheered for and the streets were packed. Having had a wonderful day in Montreal, my trip brought me to Trois-Rivieres on Saturday. In this the (very small) city I did my internship in 2005. So it had been a while since I was there last. And I was quite happy to see that so many things were pretty much as I remembered. The main reason to come to this 150,000 francophone citizen strong town was to meet with two of my colleagues/friends from my already mentioned internship. We enjoyed Moroccan food and caught up on ... well, just sooooo many things. Now I'm already looking forward to meeting you guys again. And I promise we can ma...

The last leg, or is it?

Due to a volcano in Island I had a couple of very exciting days. At this stage I'm hopeful that I will be on a flight to Canada on Thursday. However, anything is still quite possible. Currently, no flights are allowed in the Irish airspace; much like the rest of Europe. But that might change on Tuesday or Wednesday. If that's the case, maybe I can be on my flight Thursday as planned. I would not want to complain though, since I know other travelers have way more serious issues due to being stranded without visa, medicine or money. For myself the clouds of ash are more or less "just" an inconvenience. If my flight on Thursday does not take off, I will have to cancel or rebook my hotels, my health insurance, my car rental and obviously my flight. I suppose I will also have to let everyone I'm planning to meet during my first week know as well. Anyway, there is little I can do now but wait once more. By the way, the photo shows locally produced ash. Long liv...

To Canada and beyond

Search This Blog