A Journey to King Arthur’s Court

A Journey to King Arthur’s Court

Once again, without much foreplanning the quest was quickly booked. I was of on another grand adventure. This was the first time I travelled to Europe in the end of October. As usual I departed from the Saint John Airport, and connected in Montreal to London Heathrow. The flight itself was rather uneventful and me and my luggage arrived as expected to London. Using Google maps for hotels in the area of Southampton I was looking for the most affordable option that was commutable by train and had settled with the Travelodge in Winchester, Hampshire. I knew absolutely nothing of this place and had procrastinated due to my dislike of making plans and the rail option had jumped to be far greater than taking the bus to Winchester, and the weather was horrid as the tropical storm that devastated my home region was no having the same fun to the folks of the UK especially Scotland and Northern England. Due to this I had decided to go directly to Winchester. From Heathrow Terminal 2 I had never taken the bus before and following the signage was pretty easy to the Bus terminal. Once there it was like any other bus…

September 11th 2001

September 11th 2001

It was sunny, and warm 23C late summer morning. My first year being away from home in Fredericton NB at St. Thomas University at 9:46am I would have been waiting by the door for the class before mine to end. By 10:03am, I was sitting by the door listening to my second morning Introduction to Microeconomics with Dr. Andrew Secord in the first floor class room in Edmund Casey Hall. We really were completely oblivious to the outside world, almost no one had cell phones and the computer labs were in the opposites side of campus. Let’s face it the opposites side of campus is a 1 minute walk across the quad. At 10:37am and 11:03am I would have still been in this class unaware of the world being changed forever. The class let out at 11:20am and prior to going to the cafeteria for lunch I returned to my dorm room on the 2nd floor of Harrington Hall. The room next to mine had two aspiring musicians and movie fanatics, one from Newfoundland the other a foreign student from Maine USA. On their television in the dimly lit room laid the Pentagon in exploded smoke as the plane had…

Day 4 – To Château de Cruix

Day 4 – To Château de Cruix

This was a rough bus ride. We drove a while and ended up at the Chateau de Cruix. There was a great wine tasting here. Though the cheese was great the wine had trouble going down after puking so much the night before. After dinner we had an easy nighty and skipped the party. We also went to the town Napoleon rallied the troops on his final return from exile. Journal entry from 2013 The beads of water are dropping on my head in a nice warm shower as I awaken to hear the alarm sound that it is time to get up a begin the day. I am sitting in a stand up shower stall at the ibis Budget hotel in Paris. As I emerge from the shower to pack up to meet up with the tour group. I see the victim that the room has become. Where my bed was there was the remnants of of the Parisian dinner experience including the 5 bottles of previously consumed red wine on the bed and the bed of the person I was supposed to be sharing a room with. Though in reality he didn’t use the room that night, as…

Day 3 – Paris (a.k.a. the last day I enjoyed wine)

Day 3 – Paris (a.k.a. the last day I enjoyed wine)

Start by going to the Arc de Triumph with the group then ditched them and explored the entire Champs-Élysées. Of special note was the amazing pastry in the back alley. Then from near the Louvre took the Metro to Bonne Nouvelle (Good news). I got out and seen 2 amazing Arches. Then want to the Musée des Arts et Métiers. The place was amazing. I saw a Kilogram and a satellite. After that I walked down to the Hotel de ville and the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris. Caught the Metro again and went to Rodan’s house but ran out of time so walked back to meet the coach. Then went up a lot of steps to the church on the hill. Then the Parisian dinner where thought it was a good idea to polish off 4 bottles are wine. The fish dinner and onion soup was great. Then went to Nouvelle Eve and was very drunk, had a few glasses of Champane. When clapping I spilled a glass on Catherine. When show was over, we went to O’Sullivan’s but I was too drunk to be let in so I went to the hotel. Where I passed out and woke up…

Day 2 – To Paris

Continuation of a series from a Travel Log I found from my 2013 Contiki trip Got up early and started the bus journey. Met the ferry and had breakfast. Finally made it to Paris. We did a city tour by bus, had some snails then spent the night going up the Eiffel Tower. I took the stairs. It was difficult, but easier than the 1st time. I did not want to go to the very top but like what the hell and did it anyways. Then it was 12:30am by the time we got down and took a taxi home.

Europe Trip Travel Log 2013

This morning I was cleaning out some old notebooks and I found a travel journal I started during my 2013 Contiki trip to Europe. This was the trip that I added Monaco and Liechtenstein to my list of travelled countries. Day 1 – London Great flight. Heathrow went quite quickly. I thought that I had food poisoning on the flight as I was very gassy. Then I went to the Royal National dropped off my bags and then explored the city walked across Westminster Bridge seen the London Eye and Parliament. Then went to Canada Water to pick up a few items at the mall. Went back to the hotel & checked into my room. Then I met my roommate Probin from Regina, SK. Went to see Westminster and Buckingham Palace. Then back to the Royal National for the meetup and drinks at London Pub.

Deaf Difficulties (one of two: General Difficulties)

This was written in the early 2000’s this segment was recorded over and I no longer have the video. It originally aired on Rogers Television on a news program called Focus NB. Lead: There are many disabilities faced by New Brunswickers. One of the most noticeable is cultural deafness. Our Reporter Charles Frees-Melvin brings us the difficulties faced by the Deaf in day-to-day life. Stand-up: Deafness is a condition faced by several hundred residents in this province. Many people are unaware of some of the difficulties faced by these people. Gerald Frazee stressed that the biggest concern is the need of interpreters to be present. Gerald: (48:47-48:59) 12 sec “Culturally I am deaf and a lot of what goes on in the world I perceive with my eyes, so probably the biggest concern for me would to make sure interpreters are present” VO: Mr. Frazee can’t stress enough the troubles he would faces trying to cope with day-to-day life without an interpreter. Gerald: (49:08-49:21) 13 sec “Oh, Gosh it’s chaos, the communication breaks down, writing back and forth isn’t adequate enough only having an interpreter there are we able to interpret adequately.” VO: Joanne Burke also agrees with the need…