Archive for the 'Journal of the Travels' Category
The plan - take the GO Train into Union Station, Toronto, and then take to the streets with a vengence!!
10:47am - The GO Train
Well today looks like it’s going to be the first EVER running commentary day! At the moment I have just boarded the GO Train and I’m now sitting upstairs (yes, a two-storey train)!! Crazy Canadian bastards!
Well, to backtrack - this morning, once again I struggled to reclaim my consciousness, eventually managing to do it at around 9am (planned for 8.30am - what’re ya gonna do?), then it was online for Dave and (after MSN freezing and almost taking the whole computer with it - thus wasting around about 5 minutes of my PRECIOUS time (Hmmm… Never realised that precious and previous are the same word, one letter different… The wonders of misspelling on a computer!)) chatting to Mum for the morning!
Finally, around 10am I said goodnight/goodmorning to mum, turned around to have a 30-second shower (getting better) and then RUN to the GO station… BUT, just before doing so the phone rang! You would NOT believe the tension! “Do I answer!? What if it’s just another bloody salesman wasting my time!? Oh wait - it’s Carrie! HI CARRIE!!” Well, moral of the story is that she wanted to know if I wanted to tag along to WalMart - when she found out my plans for the day she refused to let me accept her proposal and told me to have fun in the city! And so I did…
About a 15-minute walk later I arrived at the station, stood behind a woman asking 40-bazillion questions to get a ticket and then RACED to the platform where I promptly waited ten minutes for a train… So for now I’m sitting on the top floor of the GO Train - and that’s it!
12:09pm - St Lawrence Market
This city is absolutely amazing! Coming out of Union Station all I’ve done is walk down Front Street (to the Black Eyed Peas - “Let’s Get Started”… Seemed fitting (Didn’t choose it - just came on the iPod)) The mix of old and new architecture is amazing. Each building is built completely uniquely… The city is FULL of people - tourists, city people, asians trying to sell crappy nick-nacks - there are a lot of homeless people as well. Saw a few sleeping on benches and tables in particular around the market. (Don’t know why - I’d wanna be AWAY from people personally) AND the St Lawrence Market it virtually IDENTICAL to Central Market back home… Strange…
1.20pm - Young and Dundas Square
This is clearly a MAJOR square in Downtown Toronto - reminds me of the little pieces I’ve seen of Time Square! I’m surrounded by MASSIVELY tall buildings all absolutely COVERED in billboards and flashing signs… It was really overwhelming to begin with, nothing like that back home! AND on top of that it was the Toronto Green Festival in the square too!
Well, the square is yet another concrete garden (I was expecting an ACTUAL garden - like Adelaide squares dammit!) filled with litle booths - water saving, animal protection, green energy and, of course, the small groups selling “hand made products made by orphans” stuff (little tote bags seemed to be the in thing today)… and a badge selling stall! I got one that says: “WalMart: Cheap… and NASTY!!” HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Endless hillarity… Also spoke to a woman at one of the booths about the water cathments (they called is something else - don’t remember now but it started with a “d”) and APPARENTLY (I have no way to prove this or anything!) she sees a lot of Australians going through Toronto and for some reason we all stay for a very long time!? Crazy person!! Got a free badge out of it though!
There’s also a stage at the end of the square with various childrens perfomances - “please Mr. Monster come out from under the bed…” - and apparently there’s gonna be a world record attempt for the most bicycle bells being rung to a tune at once, somewhere between 800 and 1000 they’re aiming for apparently… All very intriguing stuff I tells ya!
1:35pm - About 30 metres from where I was before
HA! Someone from the “Much More Music” channel was just harassing someone standing RIGHT next to me to sing a song to go on national television!!! She refused - but funny!
LUNCH TIME!
2:15pm - Nathan Phillips Square
At first this place looks like just another mid-city water feature - a big rectangular pool with huge arches reaching over it and a flower bed in the middle… BUT then there’s a sign saying “SKATE RENTAL” just behind it?? Time for a quick re-think I believe… It’s an ICE RINK!!! How crazy is that… Ah well - I’ll have to come back in the middle of winter!
So had lunch in the Eaton Centre - the place is friggin HUGE! A shopping centre very similar to the Myer Centre back home, but about 4 or 5 times as long! (Same 5 storeys) There was a 30m high water feature in the middle of the damn building people!! (Tiny food court though - had my poutine (wanted it all day!) and got outta there quickly) Just outside - the “peace garden”.
Well, so far this city has my approval!
3:05pm - Canada Life, Simcoe St
Some more city wandering and such. Now headed in the opposite direcction from when I started - found a nice quiet little pedestrian street and thought I’d take a break… I deserve it dammit! Decided I’d hang around until around 6pm, after rush hour - don’t particularly want to be standing up all the way to Whitby, or crushed for that matter… That’d put me at home at around 7:30pm - doesn’t sound too bad! I think the trains go at around quarter past the hour… I’ll figure it out!
Taking plenty of photos and such - none special, getting good at the self portrait shots though! Never been able to do that before…
Ah well - China Town’s next on the list and then I head North!
3:53pm - Queen’s Park
I am not at all a happy camper - my camera just died! JUST as I was coming up to Queen’s freakin Park! Got in a few quick shots but nothign to write home about (all those at home please ignore that statement)… Ah well, as Leeann said (thought I’d take the opportunity to give her a call and fill her in on the plan) I’ll be back reasonably soon! And naturally, as I say this I have the PERFECT view of a Canadian Flag through a friggin maple tree, don’t I!? Dammit!
So the plan without a camera is to relax for a while until 6:15pm where I board a train and head home! Only two hours away… BUT without a camera I don’t have to worry about a crazed tourist!
OH - I walked through China Town (I think… There were a few Chinese symbols round and plenty of Asians to boot - so I assumed) Biggest dero suburb EVER! Delapidated houses, hippies in tie-die-tees on their front porches, a homeless man sleeping on a park bench just next to the swing set - you name it! AH well - MAP TIME!!! (Aww… the Dora the Explorer trick doesnt bloody work! And yes, I bought a $2 map from an info kiosk/vending machine)
Well the great map has been consulted - quick trip behind the honkin-huge building to my 6 (a.k.a. behind me) and then on head on back to Toronto’s waterfront!
Ready……. BREAK!
5:24pm - The Toronto Waterfront
I made it.
6:41pm - The GO Train
All I can say is ow… ch (finish your words! Damn Uncle Robin…) my legs are killing me at the moment - the calves, my hip joints, my feet - the full trifecta! Althought, I guess that’s what happens when I (not so much for most others) walk for at least 5 + 1/2 hours out of 6 + 1/2…
Well even though it’s past 6:30pm and rush hour is TECHNICALLY over the train is still reasonably loaded - nothing dramatic but I don’t have my 4-seats to myself! (Apparently the 5:33 train broke down…?) Just past Eglinton - no where near Whitby, but hey… I’ll live!
Another astute observation on my part - the signage at Union Station SUCKS!! Once you get to the right general area (down the stairs (the LEFT stairs… not the right, that goes somewhere COMPLETELY different) and around a few corners) you’re fine - but until then good luck buddy! 99.9978% of the signage there is for Via Rail and there’s maybe ONE GO Train sign in the whole upper level… AND the damn platform you need to go to isn’t displayed until maybe 5-8 minutes before the train leaeves… These people are nuts man!
Ah well - what is one lonely Australian complaining gonna do?
Oh yeah - to backtrack again - after I last left it (excluding the waterfront thing - that was just pointless) I was planning to head South (I think it’s South) towards the waterfront and towards the CN Tower - so just look for the tower and walk, can see it almost anywhere! Naturally, once again I ended up walking through a damn university (I wandered through one before lunch and didn’t realise it just in case I didn’t mention it - it’s all in the photos) campus without having the slightest clue - a lot of churchy buildings and very green, well kept gardens gave it away in the end.
Another quick trip through dero-country and a few rounds of the “Sunscreen Song” later and I made it to the Rogers Centre (baseball stadium…) and the CN Tower - couldn’t really be bothered exploring them right now so I’ll come back another day. Besides, people are headed to the Rogers Centre for a Jays game at the moment so we’ll leave them in peace (saw three scalpers out the front - got offered tickets too!) THEN I got distracted by the waterfront… IT could ONLY be like 2 blocks away and I have heaps of time to kill!!! 6 blocks later, I arrived at the waterfront! Unfortunately, being the paranoid person I am I decided I didn’t have time to dilly-dally (knowing that I would get lost at Union - see, I’m psychic!) so I made a quick round of a little warfy-thing and headed back North to the station… And of course I’ve already written about the rest! (Yes, that means that I am NOT going to write it again!)
At Pickering now - can’t be too much longer!
8:29pm - Back Home…
Well it seems that now it’s time to upload all the photos to the computer - then to the internet - then write home to EVERYONE who cares - so about 3 people!!
Well that was my day off in Downtown Toronto. Now I am very lazy and tired and I have to work tomorrow so I am not gonna bother adding anymore to this! There are new photos up in the gallery (if they ever finish uploading) so check em out!
Well my working life over in Canada has been a whirlwind of excitement, I tell you what! At the moment I have had my orientation shift at Canadian Tire AS WELL AS my e-learning shift (4 hours of sitting in front of a computer doing training modules that have no relevance what-so-ever, except that they train me in things I need to know - meh!) and now I am waiting for a call to tell me to come in for my checkout training shift. I was told last Thursday that I should receive a call this week at the latest - and low and behold, no phone call yet!!
Wait, that’s not entirely true… I have gotten ONE interesting phone call, but not from Canadian Tire.
Ok, so I was standing in the kitchen chatting to Leeann about random stuff when the phone rang. NAturally, not my house so I ignore it! But, out of curiosity I looked on the caller ID screen to see who was calling: “Toronto Blue Ja”(ys). I naturally assumed that they were doing telemarketing asking people to buy their season passes (Especially since no one would BUY them at the moment because the Jays have only won ONE game) so I paid no attention… UNTIL, “David? Yeah hang on a second…”
What reason could the Jays POSSIBLY have to call ME!?
Little did I know that it was someone from the Rogers Centre (the big baseball stadium in downtown Toronto) calling to ask if I would be interested in doing a phone interview for the position of part-time Tour Guide in the stadium (yes, I did apply for it - it wasn’t just a random phone call) I thought to myself, “I already HAVE a job!” so my initial thought was to say no… But then I thought: “Canadian Tire hasn’t called me back…” and, “This job would be WAY better…” and then, “They PAY better too…” so I decided to go ahead with the interview!
Basic questions: “why did you apply at the rogers centre?” “why do you want the job?” “whats your customer service experience?” “whats your public speaking experience?”
So that was all and the interview was DONE! They are very neutral in this country in interviews (they’re not allowed to say one way or another how you went) so apparently if I got the job I can expect a call in the next week or two - if not, no call! So here’s hoping!
I personally dont expect to get the job - especially since I am a foreigner (”Hi, my names David. I’ve only been in the country three weeks but let me show you the stadium you’ve grown up with!”) - but I wouldnt mind it! Although this raises the question, “Do I quit Canadian Tire if I get the job, or work both!?” I am personally leaning toward the former - I dont wanna work too much!
But hey, that’s all if I get the job!!
To all my avid readers out there (I have no idea what that word means and I have no readers… completely USELESS sentence) I have added in a photo album for people to see… There will be a few photos from my trip over to Canada uploaded there - at the moment there’s a couple of our trip back from Florida - but not many so don’t hold your breath!
Also, don’t expect there to be many photos of me! Not gonna happen people!! So if you would like to visit the gallery:
Please note this all happened on the 21st of April, not the day that I posted it - I’m lazy…
Well, as you may have assumed from the title, today I got my new Canadian Job! And where else would I do such a thing than Canadian Tire!? I am now officially a cashier again - whoot!
Went for my job interview today (at 2pm - Jennifer, the manager, called the night before asking to get out of our 11am appointment and change it to 2pm… It was already 2pm anyway…) and I was pretty much immediately given the choice of three available positions:
- Full-time shipping and recieving associate
Approximately 40 to 50 hours a week
- Part-time cashier
Approximately 15 to 25 hours a week
- Part-time floor associate
Approximately 15 to 20 hours a week
So NATURALLY I went for the cashier job (HATED working on the floor at Big W and everyone knoews it!). At this stage, I’ve come here to do the touristy thing and not primarily to work, so I aint gonna work 40+ hours a week, now, am I? Especially as a back-dock-bitch, partly due to the fact that my back is already bad (family trait, go the Mason’s!) and then I would have to be at work by 6am, finishing around 2-4pm and then coming home to die each night! Not so much fun… So that was turned down. So all in all - IT’S CASHIER DAVE TO THE RESCUE! (Apparently Philip, the only other male cashier, will be very happy…)
^^ A Canadian Tire Store ^^
So now for the nitty-gritty details of the HORID interview process in which my entire life was dragged across hot coals while having bricks of clay thrown at it by mormon midgets in too-too’s (a little much maybe?)… I went in to the customer service desk as instructed at precisely 2pm (almost late…), nervous as hell as usual - partly due to the fact that I have never been to a one-on-one interview before, only ONE group interview - and asked for Jennifer (no idea what her last name was, coulda been embarassing if they asked, “Jennifer Who?”, but apparently she’s the store manager so everyone knows EXACTLY who she is) and little did I know that she was standing right behind the person I was asking… And for the cherry on top, the cashier introduced me as Davien Manson (my name is NOT Manson people, get it right!! (Or Nathan!)) After 5 minutes wait while Jennifer went running throughout the store we were off kicking people out of offices that we needed!!
Unfortunately the WHOLE thing started with that dreaded question, “So tell me about yourself…?” I absolutely hate this question mainly because I have absolutely no self-confidence so I think I’m sounding like a complete moron… But I managed to babble on about why I’m in Canada and such until she took over the conversation again!
Another manager wandered in (I think she’s teh backdock manager) and w discussed the full-time position. When I turned it down (or rather positioned myself to make it seem as if I were unsuitable for the job) she looked disappointed and said goodbye - ah well, woulda hated the job anyway!
Throughout the whole thing Jennifer was actually really nice. From the phone conversations I’ve had with her it seemed like she was a grumpy such-and-such… And so we chit-chatted about random crap during the whole interview and mainly the differences and similarities between Canadian Tire and Big W… Several interesting points (well, to me at least):
- They have an online training program! It’s really wierd but after my induction I get given a website to go to and then I have 90 days to complete the training program which is expected to take up to 30 hours. Apparently (according to Carrie) it is PAINFULLY easy and wont take nearly that long - but they’re giving me a shift to purely do that! Strange…
- I will eventually be transferred into the auto-service department and be taught how to do service and cashier work in there! This will involve doing service work orders, general sales and all sorts of crap! Other than that I’ll eventually be moved into refunds (if I want) and probably to garden cashier (apparently because I’m an Australian I can take the heat that everyone else complains about…)
- Canadian Tire is a franchise - how random…
- Her (Jennifer’s) son will be extatic that she hired me… Because he loves the Wiggles! And as such he loves everything Australian apparently.
And that’s about it! It all seemed like I’d be walking out of the building with a job no matter what happened (as pointed out by them offering me three positions to CHOOSE from at the very start of the interview (within the first 3 sentences people!)) and I have my 4 hour orientation on Thursday (opposed to Big W’s 6 hour induction!!)
Why am I happy to be working? I think I’m going insane…
Oh, and I decided the old blog look was boring so I got a new one - that’s all for now!
This is part two of a continuous story about my trip to FLORIDA! If you would like to see part one purely because this makes no sense, then stop being lazy and scroll down.
Ok, so after the whole customs thing it was mainly smooth sailing until we hit our destination, and naturally I was sleeping for a lot of this point. I didn’t really wake up until we pulled into our first stop for this particular part of the journey for breakfast.
At around 7am we stopped at what looked like a quiet little country store called the Cracker Barrell for breakfast. A quaint little wood-cabin-like place with a massive wooden porch and a nice big garden out the front. We walked over to the door and the porch was lined with rocking chair after rocking chair. Various designs for various ages from toddler to old person - all for sale for $129 - and Vince is planning to buy some for when Leeann retires as well and they live down in Florida for around about 6 months a year! As we walked in we were surrounded by small-town merchandise. Little tins of homemade cookies, clothes made from American flags, pin-board games (the game where you have 14 pins in 15 holes and you have to jump pins and try to get as little left as possible). The cash register was surrounded in a treated wooden box to blend in with the counter, the walls, and the little town feel and the wall was absolutely coated with the crappy nick-nacks you see in restaurants that are desperate to create an atmosphere or theme - this was no different. There were farming tools, old cake tins, flags, guns, animal heads - all over the wall around the whole place.
The building was separated in two: the store and the restaurant (although naturally you had to go through the store to get to the restaurant). So we headed over to the restaurant (led my a grumpy waitress of course) and we sat down to the menu. Same little-town feel in the restaurant too, by the way. So we looked at our paper menus filled with pictures of old washing apparatuses and crap like that, the waitress filled Vince’s coffee cup (spilling half of it on me) and shuffled off to get me an orange juice. After that we had a new waitress - a nice young woman with an amazingly thick West Virginian accent (similar to tennasee accents, you know what I mean) and we ordered. There were MILLIONS of dishes on the menu but I felt like crap so the good old scrambled eggs and bacon for me! (That was the smallest meal on the menu by the look of it and it was still huge - order a meal here and you get about four on the one plate) So we ate quietly (both tired so we didn’t TALK a lot) and I played the peg-board game with the 14 pegs and 15 holes - I got down to three… (According to the game that makes me smart, but not amaingly smart…) and we were done! So it was back out (buying some peanuts on the way out of course) and back into the car for another god knows how many hours!!
So as we headed through West Virginia and into North Carolina, there wasn’t a whole lot too look at, all the same really with one exception - the further South we headed the greener everything got. From being absolutely dead stick trees in Canada and Virginia, to being trees with a few blossoms on them, to full blown summer trees covered in leaves - quite amazing to watch the transition. All the way down the highways there were massive forests on either side (by the looks of it) all the way to Orlando - except in Georgia they fenced off the highway… But ah well! Other than that we headed through a series of mountain ranges through the Virginia’s and saw a reasonably good view - of trees mainly - and through a few tunnels and that’s about it!
Other than that we stopped at a rest stop in North Carolina - we ate sandwhiches. Whoot! Well actually it was really nice there. Naturally I went into the US with the common perception that rest areas were a seedy den of filth and depravity in which the bathrooms are NEVER cleaned. I was very wrong. The place was unbelievably clean, they had vending machines… with all proceeds going to the BLIND. Outside it was immaculate with picnic tables, public BBQ’s, recycling facilities, the softest grass known to man… These people are crazy! I mean, just chuck a porta-potty there and be done with it! So yeah, the place was nice - lunch was fairly average… Joking! We sat around and watched some woman take pictures of the trees new buds of life and all as she wrestled to hold her dog and that was about all!
The rest of the trip I don’t remember much, because I watched movies. During the trip from lunch I watched Blood Diamond and Wild Hogs and I was happy!
BUT finally at around 9pm we arrived in Orlando, Florida! We started heading through the city just as Wild Hogs ended (perfect timing) so I sat there looking around randomly thinking, maybe I should take a photo? But then realising that my camera battery charger doesn’t work in this country (even with an adapter) so I have to buy NEW batteries!! By this point I was sitting there desperately waiting to get to the house, mainly because I was feeling like crap! Generally with long travel (such as from Whitby, Ontario, CA to Kissimmee, Florida, US for example) I start feeling sick (as in stomach churning, etc) and I just want to go to sleep (always feel better after sleep)! But little did I remember that we had to go to the Supermarket to get essentials AND we were going to get pizza for tea - PIZZA, in MY STATE!? Gotta be joking!
But, from this point on TWO things (yes, TWO) of notice happened:
- When we were at the supermarket (getting eggs, milk, etc) the cashier was the nicest person on the face of the planet. Even there at 9.30pm in the middle of this crappy supermarket she said a lot like, “Bless you and have a wonderful night” and “thank you for shopping with us!” I realise this could just be a ploy to get me to come back (it worked by the way - got my batteries the next day) but this woman was so amazingly nice it was just wierd!
- We went into Ceasers Pizza (a place where they have a whole lotta premade pizzas - similar to McDonald’s philosophy - so you just take one as soon as you walk in) I was sitting by the door feeling sorry for myself (on account of the sick thing) and the cashier kept looking at me. I thought this was strange and looked up at her to be met with, “I’m sorry but you know you are just too cute!” Naturally I was shocked and, most of all, sceptical… But she said again, “You know most guys are just like egh *drawn out face - I understood* but you are just unbelievably cute.” LIAR! Immediately I thought this was a ploy of Candid Camera on location in Florida or something - but I feebly said thanks and wandered out the door, wandering what had just happened.
After that off to the house and TIME TO SLEEP - not quite. Vince and I sat down to pizza, I had about 3/4 of one piece (to Vince’s utter shock - no matter, there is always cold pizza tomorrow) and Vince’s friend Richie came over for a slice and to say hi. Now I have had many people describe this Richie too me - he was a limo driver, a mobster, a NY resident and more - but he looked nothing like I pictured. Naturally I pictured the big Italian mafia stereotype, but he was a much older looking man - balding and thick glasses… But who am I to describe people!?
Anyway, moral of the story - I ate nothing and went to bed to sleep until 11am the next morning - a happy ending.
Now that I have finished writing that I have a confession to make - I am now actually back in Canada. Yes, I know I skipped all that, but I was just trying to get this DONE! And Jess, to answer your question - Famon hit part two, the famon of me not having time to finish… SORRY!!