Toronto

It was a great 5 day get away, but I'm not sure what we would have done if we'd stayed much longer. We're not museum people; I get bored incredibly quickly in a museum. So the many museums were not an option. We thought about going to the zoo, but it seemed incredibly complicated to get there by public transport (we didn't rent a car and the subway train only traveled so far out of town, then we couldn't find bus information and our hotel was going to charge us $5 for 2 minutes of Internet time). There were a couple of restaurants that would have probably been intriguing if our stomachs ever knew what time zone they were in.

I supposed if we'd stayed for the weekend there would have been a festival on the harbourfront which would have been fun.

What we did do in Toronto was enough for a great 5 day break. By Friday we were ready to go home. We hadn't stayed too long, we didn't need more time, it was perfect!

The things we did in Toronto include:
1. Walking all over town.
2. Visiting the harbourfront on a very windy morning (discovering a Canadian pirate ship, and if you don't believe me then check out this close up the ship's flags).
3. Wandering through Chinatown, admiring the many many markets and bakeries.4. Finding a relaxed fairtrade coffee shop.
5. Walking all over town.
6. Walking across town for a beautiful breakfast.7. Attending a show at one of the many theatres. (We saw Doubt by John Patrick Shanley.)
8. Walking across town again in search of Portugal Village.9. Finding Village by the Grange and choosing between so many world cuisines.9. Discovering Kensington Market feels remarkably like home.
10. Walking and walking and walking but still never find Portugal Village.
11. Stopping to eat a DQ strawberry cheesecake blizzard. :-)
12. Wander shopping in the Eaton Centre and admiring the very pretty and expensive table design at Pottery Barn.
13. Eating supper at the suprisingly small and cozy Fisherman's Warf... where the seafood platter is tasty but so very filling!
14. Watching Up in 3D.

When we took refuge from walking in our hotel room I watched the Food Network which was inspiring. (Which reminds me that I want to look up a couple of recipes I saw.)

I am so happy we went and I'm so happy to be home. I like a holiday that encourages me to appreciate the moment.

And this week...

Looks like I'm turning into a weekly blogger. I don't want to be, I've discovered there are usually enough things on my mind to blog every day or two. I have been busy, but I've also been lazy lately and one of the victims of my laziness has been this blog.

Last week I was obsessed with reading "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger. I'm going to blog about that on another day because my mind is still swimming with thoughts about that incredibly original novel.

This past weekend Neil and I did something totally unusual for us; we rented a car and didn't go to either Ikea or a garden centre. LOL! The purpose of renting the car was to go to Clowne, Derbyshire to meet our new niece. She was utterly tiny and utterly gorgeous. Neil was smitten. He only gave up holding her because she had to feed. We got in the car to go home and both wished that we lived closer so we could hold her and spoil her more often. But we'll do our best to love her and spoil her from a distance.

On Sunday we drove to Great Yarmouth, Norfolk for a bit of seaside walking, sunning and sand castle making. Some pictures:
The sun came out late but was most welcome. We ate too much, although it felt like we didn't eat much at all. I tried my first cockle. It was edible, but too gritty to eat again by choice. That was the best seaside treat I've ever had: a pot of prawns, cockles, king prawns and crab sticks. The only shame was that it was served in a polystyrene cup. The cup was most useful for making the top of our castle though, as we didn't come prepared with bucket and spade. Next on my list of seafood to try is the whelk.

Today I'm trying to focus on my studies by taking regular breaks so I can intensely study in between. Not working so far, but I'm trying. The next break will be to collect the ripe tomatoes from the garden for tonight's pizza making, but before that a lot of reading about collection management.

Happy Birthday Neil in a digi layout

If you have good enough eye site to read the schedule on the layout you'll see our plans changed from going to the aquarium. I was too impatient when the aquarium website took ages to book tickets. So when we arrived at the Aquarium and the queue was out the door our adventure changed to viewing the 3D Deep Sea adventure at the IMAX. It was a good alternative plan. Oh, go see Wall.e if you haven't yet... it's fantastic!