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  • The Virgin Islands, or Where They Used to Be

    The Virgin Islands, or Where They Used to Be

    This morning, I was pumped and excited, I work up stupid early so that I could emerge for breakfast and grab some amazing, red sky in morning, photos of the island as the sun peaked over the horizon.

    For this morning, I wanted to be ready to go early and quickly plate loaded from the buffet. I then returned to my cabin to shower and prepare the day bag with everything I needed, camera, phone, tripod, sunscreen, sunglasses, hat, and wallet. I really had no plans at all what to do and I had no US cash on me so the vague plan was to get off the ship, find wifi and catch-up, post some pictures to make those at home jealous, and find a bank. Today I arrived at the port of Tortola, one of the British Virgin Islands.

    I got off the ship and it was a nice close walk to the Tortola cruise village. It was actually quite obvious that the cruise village was a fake example of stereotypical island life and all the usual shopping. I sat on a bench in front of Diamonds International and got on the wifi there. It was pretty good wifi, all my Facebook feed was filled with people talking about a major blizzard. I felt bad of course so I posted this picture.

    Sunrise over Tortola BVI
    Sunrise over Tortola BVI

    Then I left the cruise terminal area and came across the CIBC First Caribbean Bank and took out $40USD. I then went to a local shop and picked up a tiny ornament. One of the first things I noticed was that the island was filled with random chickens everywhere.

    As I returned to the terminal, I negotiated to take a safari type truck tour of the Island. It was beautiful, although it was mainly a lot of what life was like on the island, and “This is where X used to be”. One of the memorable moments was when we were approaching the wall with the mural of the island’s history, one van going in the other direction got caught on our truck and we were wedged for a while as the only place for the other van to go was over the cliff.

    One attraction that is still around on the island is on the far end of the island where there were an amazing rum distillery and a huge and popular beach.

    After the tour, I was exhausted and went back to the ship and found a sun chair on Deck 18.


  • Posts from SunTrip 2018

    Posts from SunTrip 2018

    This is a collection of posts from my cruise on December 14-22nd originally posted to Facebook.

    14 December 2018 – 19:04

    So there is an episode of mayday where the prop flies off the wing and takes out a seat. I’m in that seat. ?

    14 December 2018 – 22:11

    Thought it was going to be checked the whole way but $12.50 is not bad for luggage storage for the night.

    15 December 2018 – 03:29

    There’s a guy in the way of the stairwell smoking and cooking his crack pipe.

    15 December 2018 – 04:04

    Two very drunk men can barely stand on the standing room only night bus. Toronto should follow Vienna and London’s night tube on weekends.

    15 December 2018 – 07:08

    Overheard Air Canada Rep: Just follow the signs with the American flag. Passenger: Is that the one with Stripes and Stars? ?‍♂️

    15 December 2018 – 08:49

    “Don’t line up until your Zone number is called” works as good as looking for volunteers to check their bags.

    19 December 2018 – 14:31

    Life’s a struggle right now. Apparently, there is a snowstorm home right now.

    19 December 2018 – 14:35

    There is a very bad storm and we are skipping Great Sturrup Cay. Apparently, Friday afternoon and evening could be fun. But we now have a full day at St. Thomas.

    21 December 2018 – 23:55

    Back home tomorrow, I love travel days.

    22 December 2018 – 12:36

    Flight is delayed for about an hour. Apparently, there were tons of flights cancelled yesterday.

    22 December 2018 – 19:08

    Every time I look at this board I ask myself not where am I going but, where would I rather be going?

    Pearson Flight Board

  • The Irish Finale

    I departed the Enterprise starving, and in pain a bit from the ridiculous amount of walking in Belfast. I went down the stairs to the tram station and the Google Transit app said there were no more trains but there was a dot-matrix display showing next tram in 7 minutes with a group of at least fifteen people waiting for the tram. Then a local said to the group no more trams tonight and the screen was for the next station down the line.

    A vocal man with an American accent convinced the group of people that the local was wrong. I looked at the sign and noticed it said “Busáras” and the blank one said “Connolly”. Since I can also read perfect Gaelic, I recognized that Busáras means Bus Station and Connolly was the name of the train station. I decided the local was right and since I didn’t know where the Bus Station stop was, I just followed the track, and it was not even a block away.

    My plan for the night was to go to an Irish Pub and grab dinner there, but once I got off the Luas (what Dublin calls trams/streetcars) near my hotel most I just had a craving to go back to the Burrito place and have a large Fajita. It was so good.

    Then I went back to drop off my stuff at the hostel locker and ended up at the bar in the hostel. I was breaking my rule of local beer and ordered a Tuborg. That is some of the best cheap beer money can buy in Europe, especially the draft version. I had an enjoyable conversation with the bartender and the conversation led to making TV shows and then he reviled that he worked on Vikings and Game of Thrones. I will refer to him as Viking Bartender.

    As I was coming to the end of using up my cash this guy started talking like a beer snob on the intricacies of Guinness and what it is the greatest beer in the world. To which I countered that Guinness is only to its best potential when paired with a fine Irish Whiskey, and then explodes with flavour. That leads to a round or Guinness and Jameson’s Caskmates Stout for the group in that part of the bar.

    At some point, a gorgeous Irish lass comes up to the bar to order a round of beers for her friends listening to the acoustic singer-songwriter in the other side of the bar. She orders a couple of Coronas. I didn’t know she was Irish at this point. I said, “I would make fun of you for drinking Mexican beer in Ireland, but I just had a burrito for dinner.” She smiles and in a strong Irish accent smiling “While I guess you can’t then, can you.” This is the point that I kick myself for not having anything further to say. Then she left.

    Then later the other bartender started making drinks and as he cleaned the glasses kept spraying me with a little water. The second time I joked that he got me again. After the third time, he joked that if I stayed there, I would just have to accept that I would keep getting “a little wet”. The bartender then began making a pair of Jäger-bombs and as he dropped the shot glasses into the larger glass, he shattered one of the glasses and the liquor soaked my shirt, shorts, arm, and leg. He also got some glass lodged in the skin of my arm. I then said, “This is a little wet?”. He then half horrified, and half laughing was like “No I’m so sorry, you know the next drink is on me.”

    By this point in the night, I’ve had a good 3 times more drinks than I planned on. I was just going to order another beer, but the Viking Bartender came over and said: “I know you been drinking the cheap beer and whiskey all night but since this one is on us let’s go for a special whiskey.”

    I ended up with a special edition two hundred bottle run Jameson’s that was the most amazingly smooth flavour I’ve ever had. After finishing, I called it a night as the next morning was a travel day back home to Canada.

    For a country I was not excited about before going, I was one that I was sad to leave.

    The next morning, I got up and shaved, washed, and packed up my stuff and left the hostel. The morning did not start well as I crushed my headphones in the locker door. As I had some time to kill, I went to Costa and had my morning coffee and a breakfast sandwich. I caught up on some news, Reddit, and updated my phone to try to use up my remaining data. At this point, I went a block away and got the shuttle bus to the airport. Since I was trying to use up data, I live streamed the video to YouTube from the bus.

    Until which point, I needed to conserve battery life since my boarding pass was on the phone. Once I arrived at the airport the Departures section looks amazing, modern, and so not the back hallway looks of the Arrivals area. I checked my bag and placed everything in it so I could easily get through security and enter the duty-free shopping area.

    I made the first stop at the Guinness store and bought an Irish Flute kit with sheet music, and a hard Guinness Wallet for holding cards. The second shop was an electronics store, there was no way I was going to use cheap headphones for a 7.5-hour transatlantic flight, so I bought a good duty-free pair.

    On the flight back, the meal was surprisingly good. There was this cool pickled cucumber salad side, a bottle of wine, I picked the Chicken and pasta dinner. After the meal I listened to music and podcasts as we flew, I liked to keep the entertainment system on the navigation channel to see where we were.

    As we flew over Quebec, I had some land data and Facebook Live posted a bit, then took some long time-lapse videos. Coming back to Toronto there was a lengthy line, so I didn’t the “cripple limp” and the navigator pointed me to the fast line for disabled and airline staff. Score! After you go through customs, you end up on the outside and there is an out of the way door that most people don’t notice because the signs point them the other way. It is to the far-left wall on the Departures floor.

    I quickly cleared customs, went to my gate, and waited around for about an hour as my flight was running a bit late. The flight was a success, unlike the Titanic, and I arrived home at the Saint John airport to my mother and stepfather waiting for me. It was the first time ever I arrived with people waiting for me.

    That concludes my 5th Euro Trip.


  • If at First You Don’t Succeed… Build a Museum

    Shall we continue where we left off, attempting to sleep—

    Update at 2:24am #1 stopped snoring and #4 and #6 are sharing #6 and double “bean flicking” #FML

    Facebook Post

    After the above comment to the Facebook post in my last post, I passed out with exhaustion regardless of the hostel situation.

    Buzz!!! Buzz!!! Buzz!!!… it’s 5:45am!

    That meant it was time to get up. For once I was prepared with my go bag and clothes for what I needed for the day. Went to the shared washroom, brushed my teeth, and ran (hobbled quickly with only one ankle) to the tram stop a few blocks down. It was a brisk and crispy morning as the sun was already rising over the buildings in the square. I arrived several (23) minutes before the first train. (or so I thought) to the train.

    After determining that I had time, I went to Costa to get coffee. (Sorry, Closed) The coffee shop across the street.  (Sorry, Closed) The 15ish coffee shops in this college/young urban district of town. (Sorry, Closed) Needless to say, I was going to get on this tram without a morning coffee.

    The tram arrived, I got on several stops, and I was at the train station. Up the escalator and I was in the hall. The station is not the fanciest in Europe but the crowds flow efficiently and you get to get on trains. Although, I ran out of time to get coffee.

    It is now time to seek out new life and new civilizations aboard the Starship Enterprise. (err… Seek out new adventures and an old civilization on the train service “Enterprise”.)

    Okay, let’s level with you all. The only reason I’m on this train going to this particular city over Waterford, Limerick or Cork is the train was the “Enterprise”.

    So, I am on the train and my name is on the LCD display above the seat, this is so unlike the paper slips I am used to on Via Rail and Amtrak trains. The train is on its way and I am off to country thirty-four, Northern Ireland to see the city of Belfast. I slept most of the way there.

    Now you are asking why Belfast, there must be other cool things in Northern Ireland. Which is true the original plan after taking the Enterprise was that Belfast would be boring and I love the catchy song “Daytrip to Bangor” so I would connect to the train that goes to Bangor for the day and get a picture. As I looked at the train map, I saw the second stop was named Titanic Quarter. Then looking at the map there was a Titanic Museum and that was the death of Bangor.

    At the train station, there are signs that it is free to get on a city bus to transfer to City Hall square in downtown where the bus hub, main tourist bureau, and coffee shops are. At the square, the bus stopped in front of the coffee shop so that was stop number one. Then I picked up a day bus pass and got on the bus to the Titanic Museum.

    The museum is a huge and beautiful building on the waterfront with lots of crowds like you would expect to see at any tourist area/trap. One highlight was the Contiki Bus driving by, there is a picture from my 2016 tour on the side of the bus.

    The museum is quite pricey but there is a lot to see, and it is a very interactive experience. It starts with the history of Ireland, then the history of Belfast, the history of shipbuilding, then the Harland & Wolff company, about Ocean-liners, then the White Star Line.

    After that multimedia exhibit then it goes into the design and construction of the ships, and more specifically the Titanic. It then leads up to a big window that overlooks the slipway where the Titanic and Olympia where built. Then you enter a room with a virtual experience on all walls flying through the ship. Then a history on how Marconi operated the telegraph system on ships, filled by the Titanic’s sea trials.

    After this, it was about how people, interacted and stayed on board the ocean liners and the whole class system. Then it was followed by the maiden voyage where for the first time you learn, the ship doesn’t make it and sinks after hitting the iceberg.

    Then it goes into more exhibits on the rescue, and how the Titanic is misunderstood by popular culture. The final exhibit is about the underwater drones that found the wreckage of the Titanic. At this point, it was getting later in the afternoon and was disappointed by the gift shop. After I exited, there was a perfect moment, there was a young musician whose parents were recording her playing the Titanic Song on the Theremin in front of the Titanic sign.

    Upon going back to city centre, I just walked around in pain and exhaustion taking as many pictures as possible of things in the Tourist map that I could before running out of time and getting a bus and barely making it back to the train station.

    On the way back, I admired the beautiful views and wrote the first post in this series of post on this trip.

    As we now end this I have just arrived back to Dublin for the most memorable night of the trip.


  • Europe 2018 #33 – Part 3

    After a well rested night, it is now my birthday. I slept a bit late and left the hostel to wander around Dublin. The most important first stop was the local Costa Coffee shop across the plaza, and to pump up some energy for the day, and to Facebook creep what was going on in the world.

    After coffee, I went to the waterfront (river the passed through the city) and walked towards the area that the hostel said was where all the tour tickets could be brought about a 25-minute walk away. I took a lot longer taking photos and resting due to my limitations every couple of blocks.

    It was at this point that it hit me that, I was near no one I knew, in a place I knew nothing really about. This got me really sad. The first bridge I came across I thought was the famous (according to my map) Ha’penny Bridge. I Facebook Live posted a video going across it. (Which had no viewers.)

    Then as I continued on to the next bridge it had a sign that it was the Ha’penny Bridge. It looked cooler but yet less impressive and had about a half dozen homeless sleeping on it. I decided not to cross it. I then noticed a little shop that sold souvenirs and I dropped in and picked up a little Leprechaun and a t-shirt. This shop also sold passes to the hop on buses so I picked one up here.

    Outside the shop, I was waiting for the bus with two guys who were waiting for their wives to finish shopping and picking up tickets to a dinner show. The guy warned his wife that they were going to miss their bus. (Which they did.)

    Although I wanted to see the ladies reaction when they got back, I got on the bus. It only went one stop and then we were told we had to get off and could get on the bus waiting in front. Now that first bus had a recorded audio tour, the second bus had a live audio tour and the guy was hilarious.

    I spent the next 3 hours going around Dublin on that bus not wanting to hop off because I loved that driver. My plan was to get off at the Guinness Brewery but opted not to, to stay on the bus. I would also point out that the brewery has the strong burnt popcorn smell. As I approached the hostel, I got off the bus and recharged my phone and rested for a half hour.

    After the rest , I went next door to the Jameson’s Distillery. This is one of the best alcohol attractions I have ever seen, on Heineken in Amsterdam was better. It does the typical, here’s the history, here’s how it’s made, here’s how each ingredient and process matters, here’s why we’re best, here’s the gift shop and finally the grand finale, here’s the bar. I still considered going to Guinness but met so cool Belgians and wanted to try more whiskey.

    Closing in now on the late afternoon, I was stumbling out of the distillery. (Let’s pretend it was because of my bad ankle.) I then walked across the bridge and towards the Viking castle area and then was intending to make it to the Temple bar area. However, I needed to drain from the distillery and came across a restaurant/pub with an “Authentic Irish” menu and decided it was a fitting place for my birthday dinner.

    After dinner, I was looking for the bus stop that was on the map and only after it was too late that I was on the wrong parallel street. So I walked along the river, crossed at the Ha’penny bridge, and then retired to the hostel, had another Guinness at the bar, and then “called it a night.”

    The quotes on that last part are because it was an interesting night. I had an early morning to catch the train to Belfast. I posted this to Facebook at about 12:30 am:

    Picture this situation, 4 bunk bed sets, two on each wall, numbered 1-8. I’m in #8 and the world record holder for loudest snorer is in #1 (90% sure it is a she). #3 and #5 are taking up the sofas in the lobby. #7 is about to lose his anger management chip.


  • My Messed Up Canada Day Roadtrip

    My Messed Up Canada Day Roadtrip

    I was off the Friday before Canada Day and had Physio and a call for the pre-op to fix my pinky finger. I came up with a plan to take a spontaneous road trip to Ottawa. My surgery is concerning the possible side effects. I was pretty devastated after the call with my anxiety.

    Since I was less than 500km from my oil change mileage I went to Kia and booked the appoint for this past week.

    I went home and cleared out everything from my car I didn’t need, grabbed my passport and wad of US cash and took off down the Hwy 1 towards the border. At the border I got through pretty quickly and had no issues. Having all the signs in a weird foreign system of measurement increased my anxiety. In Calais, I fueled up and headed down Route 9 to Bangor.

    I stopped for dinner at Dysart’s. It was a pretty good meatloaf. I then proceeded down Route 2 to Skowhegan where I needed to pee bad so I stopped at a gas station and it was there my fate turned. My GPS lost my route and I was lost. I kind of remember Route 201 so I turned on it and kept questioning that I was not on the right road.

    It turned out I wasn’t, I really wanted 201A in the next town. Around midnight I ended up at the border on the highway headed towards Quebec City. By this point, it started to rain really hard. I was not able to even drive the speed limit it was that hard. I made it to an Esso in Ascot Corner in Quebec and refuelled again at 1 am. I then kept driving but got too tired and stopped at a mall and slept for an hour.

    My sleep was interrupted by the lights of a cop that woke me to see if I was alright. He started talking in French and I was trying to translate it and I didn’t recognize enough words. He then spoke English and I responded I was okay and he moved on.

    I then determined I needed to move on. I then crossed the bridge to Montreal as the break of the day was happening. I was having such bad anxiety Siri was giving instructions that made no sense and there were so many construction signs that made no sense either. I stopped on a side street for a while and decided I wasn’t making it to Ottawa and it was time for starting a return back to see fireworks.

    After a few hours back on the Highway, I needed so sleep so I pulled into a gas station and slept for an hour in the back corner of a Petro Canada parking lot in my car. I continued on the journey down the highway. As I was passing the town of Levis I seen the sign to cross the bridge to Quebec City. Since I had never been there before, I made the decision I needed to see it.

    I took a drive through the packed old town and it was very reminiscent of the old parts of Paris. (Montreal is more reminiscent of the rest of Paris.) After leaving Quebec, the next stop was a gas and Tim’s break in Rivière de Loup. (a place Siri can’t pronounce close to right.) When ordering I asked if she spoke English and it was a fast nope. So I tried to order a coffee and a Dutchie and I was certain that I can pronounce Hollandaise properly but she had no clue.

    Armed with my coffee and gas it was off to New Brunswick and lots more highway with spots of rain along the way. The next stop was Florencevile and I grabbed a donair sub that was really good. The interesting part was a guy in line ahead of me was Amish and had his horses and carriage waiting outside.

    As I passed through Fredericton, the rain had stopped and was starting to clear. The people from home were messaging on Facebook that the weather in Saint John was bad and there were no fireworks to hurry back for. So I headed home anyway.

    The next day I slept in until noon and then wasted most of the day away. I had seen that Hampton was having fireworks and decided to go see them but then heard that Cambridge-Narrows was having some so I went there instead. They were pretty impressive and amazing.


  • Arrivederci Roma, and The Life That Was
    ,

    Arrivederci Roma, and The Life That Was

    This post also has a soundtrack. The André Rieu version of Arrivederci Roma.

    It is September 24th, as we left for the sightseeing of Rome. I was a bit worried to go out on the street. There was a long protest going down the street for the freedom and recognition of a people in a region near Georgia. (The country) The parade ended just before go time and my feet were really sore. My last pairs of socks had holes in them and combined with the bleeding heels walking was getting harder. Rome is also not known for the flattest and smoothest sidewalks/streets either.


    We hopped on the bus and went to the area near the Italian government buildings. For there we walked around Rome to the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain and various other buildings. We also ran into a group of protestors that were fighting for the right of deaf people to have interpreters at churches. They made a lot of noise.


    Then we went for a fancy supper and my feet were killing me. At supper, I had noticed my feet were still hurting even when not standing on them, and my butt and hip were getting a sensation of falling asleep. I stood up and walked outside a few times to relieve the cramps and asleep feeling but it was getting worse. By the end of the night , my feet were going from sore to numb.


    After dinner, we went back to the hostel for drinks as for a chunk of us it was the big goodbye night. The rest of the travellers would be heading to London again over the next week. The place was small and cramped but I didn’t want to miss out as this was the last big night with everyone so I stayed until about midnight. The group then decided to go to a club but I really wasn’t feeling it.


    An amazing person that was also leaving in Rome decided not to go out and since I have feelings for her and we are in Rome, we went for a stroll around the block and I tried to hit on her nervously. She explained what was important to her, and I respected her and we continued to walk back to the hotel and called it a night.

    The next morning I woke up and the scariest thing happened. My feet were still numb and three fingers on both hands were numb. This had me really scared and the hotel had terrible internet so I had breakfast and checked out of The Yellow Hostel. I knew my next hotel the check in was not until 2 pm but I wanted to drop off my heavy bag to baggage storage there, as I was planning to travel light for 3 days and had the necessities in my side bag.


    To my luck the hotel lets me check in early and I started to Google what could be going wrong with me. The main hits were Diabetic Nerve Pain or MS. (In my head better than diabetic as I love good food.) The internet was bad so I decided to go out and went to Termini station to get online. From there I started iMessaging / Facebook messaging and emailing everyone I could back home to get advice.

    Since it was just after 6 am back home only a few answered. None suggested coming back and several suggested it could be something even worse and that I should go to the hospital. My sister was one of the few that answered but wasn’t happy I woke her on a Sunday morning. I ate lunch at McDonald’s in the station then went to find Michelangelo’s Keyhole that I missed by a few metres in 2013. Once you miss doing something it really sticks with you.


    As I climbed the hill and passed the rose garden, I crested the top of the hill and saw a long line of people. This is the universal sign of you found the attraction.

    I waited about 45 minutes in line and then made it to the front and looked in the hole. It was cool but had bigger hype and expectations than I was hoping for. On the way back down there is a park with an overlooking view of the Vatican.

    Considering how much my feet hurt, I had to rest. I started to question myself on what I should do. It was at that point that I thought I heard a voice say “Go Home” in the wind. As I was walking down the hill, I need to go to the bathroom suddenly and had little control and didn’t quite make it to the pay toilet, that also was dirty and had little paper left. It was not good and I was so conscious of my smell. I went back to the hostel to look at my insurance papers and get my numbers in line to go to Ospedale Santo Spirito near the Vatican. However , when reading my travel insurance papers, I read it in detail and noticed an Early Return clause and called them up via Skype and asked about it.

    The lady explained that it would cover any economy class ticket on a reimbursement basis. I then was worried about trying to contact my travel agent on a Sunday and jumped on the Air Canada app and looked up flights. I didn’t want to miss the Coliseum tour I had booked later that day so flying out that night wasn’t on my radar. (That would have been the smartest option.)

    The fastest and cheapest flight back the next morning was to fly Rome to Philadelphia to Toronto to Saint John. I almost booked it but then I noticed that if I went Rome to Munich to Toronto to Saint John I could leave Rome early rather than stupid early, I would avoid the US TSA, get a Munich passport stamp, and fly in a Dreamliner! (Since I wasn’t paying it what is an extra $40 for more sleep and a wish list airplane.) I booked the trip and coordinated with a friend to pick me up at the airport the next afternoon and bring me to the hospital. The internet then crapped out and I left for my tour.

    As I went through Termini, my mother got back to me and I told her I was coming home. I then headed off to the tour. I had already done this tour in 2010 so it looked the same as before and I was not really into it. All I was thinking about was leaving the next day. I took a bunch of photos to prove I was there but I was so weak and sore that I was glad it was over. I said no more goodbyes and slipped away and back to the hostel. I ordered a chicken burger and fries at the hostel restaurant and thought my sore throat was coming back, but it turned out probably the muscles were going numb and I was losing my swallowing abilities. I then got my bag from storage and went to bed. I was going to shower in the morning. As it turns out I won’t get to shower again until December.


    The next morning I woke up at 5:30 am and am really numb. It is terribly bad, I can barely stand from kneeling without the ladder, and I had the top bunk bed. I didn’t pack the night before and I put all my liquids in my main suitcase and started throwing away clothes that I didn’t want to get at the weight. After three attempts I make it to the exact most I can check in. (Wine bottles are heavy.) I grab my side bag and suitcase and am off. It is only a few blocks to the train station but it is a slight uphill slope and my legs can barely make it. Rome at night is also a very scary place in those parts.

    I am starving and I pick up a few things at the convenience store style place in Termini and go to the kiosk to get my train ticket to the airport. I decide on the Leonardo Express train over the local train as I don’t know how much effort I have left. The train arrives and I get on barely enough grip to lift my excessive bag.

    I then arrive at the Leonardo da Vinci airport and walk a long hall to the Lufthansa check-in for my first flight to Munich. She checks everything for me takes the bag and then I proceed through security. This is a really simple process as I have gotten good at this. I then find my gate and have a seat. Once it comes birding time I have great difficulty standing. I do manage and get on the flight. Scared to death, I start to be even more scared thinking about my mother’s prediction something bad was going to happen.

    When the plane arrived, I went to the other terminal to get my flight that involved lots of halls, trains, elevators and, escalators. After getting my Schengen leaving stamp, I go to the gate and wait for boarding. Then boarding gets announced and I cannot stand up. I am really scared and freaking out just like a bathroom in Amsterdam incident. After everyone mostly boards I manage to use my everything to stand and it is not at all good. I get on the plane and have a seat in the second row of economy class. As it happens to turn out the group of people around me work for Air Canada and used their travel perks to go to Oktoberfest (lucky them). The gentleman to my left was leaving the airline to change careers. My hands were not working well to at all at this point so I couldn’t put my seatbelt on and he helped me. I din. Want to keep asking for help so I didn’t get to watch a movie at all for the flight and got to watch as we flew back the map of where we were. Our flight was delayed due to a technical fault, this made me nervous that this was it, the technical fault was how this was going to all end. After they fixed the plane, it took almost another hour to get a new route, and the route took us north until we followed the UK coast then towards Greenland and then direct to Toronto.

    As the meal came I could not eat hardly anything and drank the water and wine and bean salad. (Again the bean salad is always a mistake.) I had the guy next to me open the items I did eat. He could tell something was not right and we talked briefly. He was friends with the crew and I think he told them as I was embarrassed to ask for help. I have a bad anxiety for things like that.

    Since I had 8 hours to Toronto left I decided sleeping it off was the best decision. I , however, started around Greenland noticing if I slept I stopped breathing and this scared the hell out of me but not as bad as telling someone and divert the plane in 2 hours to Newfoundland as we were literally in the middle of nowhere and piss off everyone on the flight. I instead waited it out silently as it got worse and worse. I needed to use the bathroom and got up and waited in line to make it just in time. I then returned to my seat. This is the last time I would get up or use the bathroom on my own.

    We then land in Toronto. My phone still had my UK SIM card and I physically don’t have a tool to open the SIM card door so I turn it on but can’t use it. If I could I could text everyone or post on Twitter that I arrived. As the doors open, I try to get up and can’t with my own power to the guy next to me helps me up and grabs my bag for me.

    I take about 60 steps to get off the plane and the first step is a big one so I roll my ankle and can’t get up and am blocking the door. I am in fear at this point more from blocking everyone behind me, and only have 25 minutes to get through customs and my flight to Saint John. The flight attendant guy was right behind me and I was rolled to the side and covered with a blanket until the rest of the passengers deplaned. Then he took off and the flight crew and airport manager took care of everything asking me lots of questions. The ambulance arrived and I was forced to help due to my weight to get up to a wheelchair and then transfer to the stretcher.

    I asked about my checked bag and the Air Canada manager assured me they would take care of everything. I was taken down the sky ramp steps and placed in the ambulance and off we went.

    Next post I will continue with the hospital portion of this story. This concludes the travel portion.


  • Oh Lucky, I was pooped on…

    Note– This is the second of multiple posts in the series of my coping with GBS.

    This journey can begin in many places, so I will start where things started to change, the trip began, and I was shit on. Before this event every week was just like the week before and there was very little interesting going on. Somewhat crippled by my anxiety.

    I had posted on Facebook that I was going to audition for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” on a whim. I had at this point never really auditioned for anything like this. So as the day came, I was dreading doing the audition, but felt deep inside it was something I had to do. I even took the preparation of actually listening to the audiobook of the play, or just part of the first act actually. To be honest I had never read a work of Shakespeare in its entirety before this. Reading a complete book has rarely ever happened in my life.

    As I entered the room there were several others there that reading the material and debating their take on the characters and knew them all like they were best friends. It was rather intimidating being the first interview but I knew I wanted one of the small roles and was going to try for it anyway. I went upstairs and read the closing part just to read something, which was followed by a short discussion why this piece was so important to the whole play. In reality, I could have cared less about the interpretation and was trembling to just get out of there. I then left to grab a coffee and ran into so friends and we’re standing around talking.

    It was while having this conversation that my fate changed. I was shit on! There was a gull that was flying over-head and right on my head it got me and dripped a bit. Newfoundlanders say that being shit on by a bird is good luck, but for me , it was the beginning of my fate with luck.


  • Let the saga begin…
    ,

    Let the saga begin…

    Over the past few years, I have not posted as much lately here. Let’s face it Facebook is where it is at these days to share things. But the main reason has been that I had been in a slump where almost nothing felt interesting to me let alone share.

    Back in 2009 when I left university for the last time and decided to leave university and start travelling, I was really in a search to try and find meaning. Then in 2010 when I first set foot on British soil and took my first Contiki it was amazing. Then came 2011 and I tried to duplicate the experience and it was more disappointing and less amazing (just a little). Then when my Great Aunt passed away in 2012, I tried again to travel Europe and it just wasn’t quite the same as that first time either. I wasn’t having any luck at finding meaning in anything, or a relationship.

    Then in 2014, I took a cruise and it was impressive. So, I did it again in 2015 and it was very much less so than the first time although it was still special like each of the trips before by the people I meet on the journey.

    Although this has now changed and I’m not sure where this will end or how long it will take to catch up to no but boy do I have a story to share, and I will start to post it here.


  • Hamlet: The Notes

    Last night I went to see this show from Saint John Theatre Company’s Canadian Series at the BMO Theatre.

    It was honestly an hour and half of almost non-stop laughs with well fitting serious moments. I really enjoyed how this is not the typical show that you go to see, but interactive with the audience and slightly fluid.

    There is another performance tonight that you just have to see. You don’t even need to know the Hamlet story to enjoy it, although if you do it is equally enjoyable.

    https://www.facebook.com/events/497438537089005/


  • John Frees (1951-2014)

    It is with sadness the family announces the passing of John Percy Herman Frees, loving husband to the late Barbara (Blount) Frees, which occurred on Wednesday, December 17, 2014, at the Saint John Regional Hospital. Born 1951 in Dalhousie, he was the son of the late Robert and Emma (Donahue) Frees. John had a wonderful sense of humour and enjoyed spending time with his family, especially his precious granddaughter Lexxis. He is survived by his sons Paul Frees, Ryan Frees (Crystal Wright) and Charles Frees-Melvin; daughter Rosa Frees-Melvin; granddaughter Lexxis Wright; brothers Jerry Frees, Elwood Frees, Max Frees, Bobby Frees, Bruce Frees, Perry Frees; sisters Isabelle Hobbs, Tina MacDonald, Holly Saunders, Sally Frees, Judy Dundon, Jill Blount, Kim Frees; several nieces and nephews. In addition to his wife and parents, he was predeceased by his brothers Wilbur Frees, Carl Frees and Aubrey Frees.

    Following cremation, visitation will be held at Fundy Funeral Home, 230 Westmorland Road (646-2424) on Saturday, December 20, 2014, from 3-7 p.m. By request, there will be no funeral service.

    Charitable donations may be made in John’s memory to the following organizations:

    • Canadian Diabetes Association (NB) 
    • The Joshua Group 

  • 2013 the Year of Firsts!

    2013 the Year of Firsts!

    After the mess of a year 2012 was my New Year’s resolution was that 2013 was going to be a year of firsts. This year also seemed to acquire a slogan as well due to my Contiki trip, and that was #noregrets.

    Now I know that I have ignored updating here as often as I should in favour of quick tweets, Facebook posts, and Instagrams. For the year-end post I thought I would take a moment to list my firsts for the year (in no particular order).

    1. Had a real birthday celebration.

    2. First time in Monaco and Liechtenstein (small enough to be a single first).

    3. Went to an adult costume party for Hallowe’en.

    4. Exceeded my custom’s limit.

    5. First major out-of-town music festival. (Osheaga)

    6. My first “snowboard”.

    7. Tried out a few new restaurants. (Decimal 81, Britt’s, Lemongrass)

    8. Volunteered for my first theatre event. (Fundy Fringe Festival)

    I have also included below a gallery of some of this years best moments that I have photos of.


  • 200th Post: A Last Post for Facebook

    200th Post: A Last Post for Facebook

    Good Bye Facebook!
    Good Bye Facebook!

    Although I love reading the messages of some of the people who I have accumulated on Facebook, I just can’t stand by for the envision of privacy. I had joined Facebook back in 2006 when it first opened to the public.

    I was a fan of social media before that, in fact, it was really the terrible designs in MySpace that convinced me to make the move away from there and Yahoo! 360. I have always used Facebook as a private way to connect with my friends and connections I have acquired. However, in recent privacy changes, Facebook has decided to leave full global access to all the advertisers, Facebook connects users, and any of the hundreds of thousand developers, whether you use their app or not by having just one of your friends to use their services.

    If you were one of my contacts then see my contact info page here at this site, or join me on Twitter. So, let’s finish off and let Facebook go off into the sunset as the bagpipes play the “Last Post.”


  • Good Bye, Facebook!

    After being an early adopter of Facebook it is now time to move on. Within 14 days my account will be totally deleated forever. Just like the prior Social Netwoks I used to belong to Yahoo! 360, MySpace, MSN Spaces… The new terms of service that gives Facebook rights to all the content you link to is what I found objectionable.
    Fear not if you are looking to follow me you can always view me here. Or follow @cefm on Twitter, flixster, last.fm. There is a list on the left of many options.


  • Is the was digital revoluton really a revoluton?

    This is a topic I usually don’t get into here on my Blog, nor do I get this deep into a topic ether but I was listening to TWiT 180, and they were discussing a migration from blogs to Twitter.

    This got me thinking of the term revolution that gets applied to new technologies all the time. In a non-physics (my head hurts) interpretation a revolution is when something or a group of people become so outdated and useless that by force and necessity need to be replaced.

    The Internet revolution was not a forced or possibly necessary revolution it is merely a change in preference. It is not like the upper class and the peasants of the 1700’s France. The digital and non digital worlds can and do co-exist. TV and YouTube can coexist. It is all in preferences not a Revolution.

    Therefore, Twitter will not replace the Blog. Then again I do have the capability to re-post all my Twitter tweets here but I tend to see Twitter as like facebook.com but without all the annoying apps. In fact my Facebook front page is all I really use.


  • My MacBook and Twitter vs. WordPress

    Okay lets start by this stupid article from Wired:

    Steven Levy on the Burden of Twitter

    wired.com — The shame and remorse of not keeping up with Social Networking… I’m digging this story in honor of Steve Levy as he’s never ‘Dugg’ before…

    I think this article is a crock, just because this guy doesn’t update the Blog as often as he used to doesn’t mean that Twitter is to blame. For ages now it had become a popular thing in Windows/MSN/Windows Live Messenger that people would change their name to include a “status”  of what they were doing that it was eventually permanently added as a feature. AIM, IRC, Facebook, Twitter… the short message is usually the perfect size to let others know what you think. I am still certain however that this does not replace the need for the long format that a blog allows to express your full thoughts on a topic. Generally speaking I use Twitter to update something quickly as I’m usually only using me iPhone or Macbook while laying in bed in the morning so I can tell the world quickly my thought or things of interest, and have it auto populate to the sidebar of my blog, Facebook, Friendfeed, MSN and other places quickly.

    Speaking of my MacBook I just lost the hard drive in it. Luckily, there was still ten days left on the warranty. The agent on the phone originally insisted that I would need to go to Fredericton or Halifax to get a new one. However as she was concluding the call and I asked if I was to just purchase a new one what type of connector it would take, already knowing that it would be a SATA. She then to proceed with the, “You mean you would replace it yourself? In that case let me talk to a product adviser to see if we could just mail you out a new one.” After a long wait on hold she returns with the news that it would be no problem and even preferable to mail out a new drive for free. Her explanation/excuse was that “Most people don’t like to replace parts and that is not usually offered.” It is hard to believe that something along the lines or replacing a hardrive is as simple as 3 screws and pulling a tab, why not just save the trouble and offer it first? I could see for a screen or a motherboard but RAM and a hard drive why not just offer to ship it. in 5-10 business days I’ll post a video of the unboxing and replacing the drive in the MacBook.

    Any ways that is all for now.


  • Just some updates

    I’ve worked hard on editing a lot of the content on this site. I’m even just found most of my old university essays, and am going to get around to posting them soon in the writings section. I even have a few pieces of my poetry that I wrote to add here.

    As you noticed there have not been many posts with pictures in them, that is because my site is running a RC version of WordPress and that functionality is not quite working for me yet.

    You can also see now that these posts are cross posted to Twitter and Facebook. I don’t really like the idea of dividing my audiences so I’m working on further deep integration as we speak.


  • I now got my Mac 🙂

    Because I want to make a post but did not have a topic, so I am going to make this post about my new MacBook. I really am now wishing my main computer was a mac but this is really one of the best computers I have used. (Leave comments with your recommendations). I’ve still been looking for places to get free software for it. I’m having issues at the moment networking with my PC but I thing the problem it is because I can’t even network my Windows XP with it ATM.

    I’ve also been working on new patches for WordPress 2.5 that is due to come out March 10th. It wasn’t working in IE7 (back-end) so that was also one of the reasons I never made a post lately, that and starting a Full-time job that I haven’t really done since July 2005. It is really tough getting used to a FT job if you’ve been away from it for a while. Although I am glad that now that I have more experience it seems better suited than the last time I have done call-centre work.

    Finally, since it is getting late (2:12AM), I am working on re-structuring TheRealBurgers.com and going to start doing real full movie reviews since I tend to disagree with most critics, I thought along with Tony Tompkins, to post these reviews of all the movies I have seen as I see them. I may even port the reviews to my Flixster account, which can be seen through Facebook as well like the RSS feeds of this site as well.


  • My IQ

    I just did the IQ test on Facebook and scored a 134. I think that is pretty darned good, and typical to what I get on most of those on-line IQ tests. I only had 3 out of thirty questions wrong. Probably the ones I had to guess on.

    And while we are on the topic of Facebook, I would like to point out how annoying some of those application invites get sometimes. And that vampire one actually sends an IM to you after you have left it and even blocked the application. I usually block many of the applications before I even get invited most of the time. And for my loyal crowd I’m going to give you all a sneak peek (moved to portfolio) at the graphics I have just created for the TV Auction that will air next Sunday @ 1pm on Channel 10. See www.lancasterkiwanis.net for more info on it.


  • A Quickie

    I guess to compensate for this short post I will post a humorous picture for you, my loyal viewers. This I had made and posted to Facebook a few days ago, when someone question whether or not I really had a barcode scanner. In retrospect it could be considered a metaphor for the way many people on the retail sector think during customer disputes.

    And when it comes to disputes I think I have just learned the secret to dealing with a dispute, and thinking back to past experiences I believe this is an actual approach that will always work.

    “Never loose the control in a situation”

    I think it is that split moment when the control is lost that leads to an escalation. By keeping control, it allows for “Personal Accountability,” keeping the situation in the range where you have control. I think that if you gave a little but have the customer, client, co-working believing that it is better for them to beat there head against a brick wall than challenge you for more, you remain very likely to succeed in your delima. Although key factors in this actually working is, you appear to actually know what you are talking about, you don’t leave time for the other person to actually think about it, and they think you are honest.

    Have you ever heard a good reporter that actually get a politician to reveal something, this is really what they do it seems, is keep control. I can confirm this one of the best hosts that I ever had dealt with was Paul Castle from CBC Saint John, when I was running for Mayor. He never for a second gives up control, appears very knowledgeable, and has and honest trusting sound to his voice.