Getting ready for the 3 1/2 day, 4500km bus ride across Canada!

Yep, the title of this entry says it all! We're about to embark on a crazy bus ride across from the East Coast of Canada to the West Coast...to sexy Vancouver! Its the beginning of a new chapter in the JT Show...a life for one year (or just under) in a stunning, mountain surrounded city by the Pacific Ocean. We can't wait. It turned out that Toronto was too much of a city for us and that we need to be in the open, fresh air again. If anything, hopefully it'll be NZ-like! lol.

We decided this pretty much as soon as we'd arrived but decided to attend the National Job Fair in Toronto to see what kinds of opportunities were out there. Unfortunately, it amounted to nothing, but nonetheless, we'd already made our mind up.

So we decided to hire a car in Toronto and to drive across the border into Michigan to see Jen's family, Sar, Brad, Bella and Aidan. Armed with a Taco Bell (LOVE that place!!), the journey was pretty pain free...just 4 1/2 hours of pretty similar scenery in a pretty sweet hire car only aided by handwritten directions! Surprisingly, we made it without glitch! The only dodgy part was driving through Detroit!!

We've now spent 3 days with the Alt's, where we got to eat the incredible Little Caesar's pizza ($5 each!!), we took the kids to a rollerskating class, had an awesome (and cheap-ass) mexican meal and generally chilled with their 57 inch TV!

Its always such a nice time with the Alt's as they live in a great neighbourhood, have good lives, good kids and are basically living the American dream. They're also always so nice and welcoming to me which is brill as it makes me feel like part of the family.

Tomorrow, we leave very early to head back over the border to Toronto! It'll take us around 5 hours we think, where we'll stay with our cool-ass friends, Jimbo and Janie for a night and then....and then....get on a bus at 01:00 on Weds, heading for Vancouver!!! Its not just any old journey though...its 4500kms across the whole of one of the largest countries in the world for over 3 days on one bus with semi-reclining seats!!! Nightmare or what!! Lol. Its all part of the fun!!

Its going to be epic...so for now, we're signing off....Take a look at the pics relating to this blog entry (as the blog is being a bit weird with pic uploads at the mo) on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=158031&id=507383110

Some commentary for those pics!

Hey guys!

You're probably thinking we're blogging like mad at the mo! Which would be true actually. So this is another entry to update the hundreds of readers of this blog (lol) as to how we're getting on here in Toronto. However, you'll see that we put up some pics in our last entry and blogspot has gone all weird with its pic uploads so we cant add text to that entry (odd!). The pics, as you'll see are a bit of a variety.

Firstly....theres some pics of our MARMITE COMPETITION WIN!!!! Yep, thats right. As you know, Jen recently became a senior Ambassador for the Marmarati (www.marmarati.org) whereby we submitted a great pic and story of our love for the gorgeous marmite to get through to the second round. We then made an awesome video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0vmx22X5IE) and we won 20 years free marmite!!!!! Do you have any idea how amazing that is for such marmite freaks as us!!! ITS FRIGGING AMAZING!! Those pics are of our first years supply. Sweet eh?!

Secondly, there's a few pics of us leaving the UK (again!). Katie, in particular looks hilarious with Annabelle's baby's sick dribbling down her chin, hahaha.

And thirdly, after arriving in Toronto, we stayed with our cool-ass friend Jimbo (as previously mentioned in another blog entry). Hes that funky looking dude in the pic.

So Jimbo lives in Milton, which is pretty far out of central Toronto. This is pretty unfortunate as we needed to get into the city today to go and meet our couchsurfer host. Couchsurfing is a great concept if you haven't heard about it. Its basically a way to meet new people by staying on their couch (or spare bed) in many, many cities across the world, for free. Such a cool idea as you tend to meet like minded people.

Today we met Liz, who is an ultra cool, 60 year old chick with two cats. Shes hosted many people from all across the world over the last 5 years. In fact, she even has a current lodger whom she met whilst couchsurfing. In order to get to Liz this morning from Milton, we had to get a 15min bus to the train station, followed by an hour train journey to the subway in outer Toronto and then a subway for 30mins to Liz's street, Dunforth on the East Side of Toronto. After meeting and chilling with Liz we were off again, ready to hit some prospective places to stay.

Another 20 min subway into Toronto, followed by a 15min street car and we were in the Kensington area of Toronto. This part is seriously funky but the place we viewed also smelt seriously funky...not cool. A second viewing in an apartment a mere 40min walk away from this one and by this point we were seriously knackered after taking pretty much every form of transport (plus walking) before midday!!!

The second viewing on Havelock Street had more potential, but Jen didn't get a good vibe...so its 'Carry On Surfing' (as in Couch surfing) for now.

Lets just hope if we choose to couch surf some more that the next host is as awesome as Liz! Such a cool chick. Peace out for now!

  

Marmite pensioners and overcast Toronto pics

 

Calamity in Toronto...it never ends with the JT Show!

Howdy fellow cyberspace dwellers (either partially or fully), this is your captain speaking. Captain of this particular blog existence! Ok, ok, its not...as if any of you know 'JT' (aka Jen and Terry) you'll know that Jen is the Captain and me the First Officer. So in Star Trek, Next Generation terms that would make Jen 'Jean Luke Picard' and me 'William Riker'. Both pretty cool characters! And both part of a crew who are navigating their way through the unknown.....lol. Very fitting!

Well the unknown has begun. We left our budget Thomson flight and headed for customs on a mission! Of course, we're always on a mission I hear you say....you'd be right! This time, we had to get through quick sharp, layered to the hilt with 6 jumpers on each, 15kgs of undisclosed (oops) hand luggage and a few pieces of paper through customs and then immigration to see if our good friend Jim whom we met in Thailand was there to meet us! Stupidly of course, we'd ('cough'...Jen) not given him our flight number or arrival location and so it was a bit of hit or miss! On top of this, we'd also not brought ANY money with us....not a good start!!

Eventually, we were processed by a quite averagely friendly immigration guy, we'd ('cough'...I'd) collected our bags and were heading for arrivals. Due to the crazy amount of luggage we had, I opted to carry my 22kg bag and Jen's 18.5kg bag! Yep, it was a struggle with a huge backpack on my back AND front! lol.

Now, this is where it got interesting. Firstly, our friend Jim wasn't there! Bummer! Not his fault though as we didn't provide him with much useful information, lol. Secondly, we couldn't get any money! It was touch and go for 30mins whilst trying a number of ATM's in the airport. In the end we had to buy US $ from a Travelex, and then exchange them to Canadian $...losing $20 in the process!!! I HATE LOSING MONEY!!! Gggrrrr!

So, armed with a small amount of cash, we left the terminal for the local bus to Toronto city centre! Just as we saw the 'Rocket 192' (the airport bus to the city centre), guess who drives by....yep, Jim!!! Complete fluke and totally lucky as we were 2seconds away from boarding the bus, our friend does his 'last loop' of the airport and stumbles across us! Brilliant. Couldn't write this stuff. Like a comedy show. It turns out that Jim had been at the airport for over an hour doing loops whilst trying to find us. Soz Jimbo, and thanks man! You saved our bacon!

Some great catch up chats, a wash, quick Facebook sesh at his gorgeous house in Milton, Toronto and we were round his brothers house in a near by neighbourhood with 2-4-1 massive pizza in another stunning house. And we were knackered as the UK is 4hrs ahead at present.

The head hit the pillow and we were immediately hitting some z's last night! Monday 22nd March 2010 is 'mission day'. The first part of the mission is somewhere to stay....second part...a job...nothing too major then eh?! (told you it was the land of 'eh')

Another voyage into the 'unknown'...(well, unknown ish as we have been to Toron-o before)

Seven hours into the flight and I can begin to see land.....land 'Canada style'. We were over Newfoundland and it was stunning. Large sections of ice mixed with green patchy land appeared below through the partial cloud covered sky. The aching of my legs and back was a pain I thought I wouldn't feel again after leaving Argentina from my 2 years of travelling and countless flights around the globe; but the draw of putting the backpack on again was too compelling. Two awful movies and semi good plane food for a cheap airline and we were 30 minutes from starting a new adventure in the land of mountees, bears and the expression 'eh'!

It was less than 24hours since we'd been playing games with a roomful of UK friends. Looking around at each face, I found myself wondering why we are so different, why we were desired to seek adventure; why we feel the need to move and why can't just be happy with what we could easily achieve in the UK.

I was listening to the ipod whilst Terry slept and snow patrol 'Run' shuffled its way into my ears. This is my dad's favourite song and is a reminder of what we left behind in England. My dad, alone in the family home, drowning his sorrows for the wife he lost. My mum, brave and in her own way adventurous, beginning a new life that she hopes will bring her happiness. And my UK based siblings also doing their own thing; my sweet sister with her gorgeous kids, putting on a brave smile in the face of so much family uncertainty and my brother enjoying his earnings fully living life for what it is.

The male cabin crew member is coming around now shouting rubbish as I enter back into reality. We are soon to exit a plane, without a clue where we will end up to tonight and I love it!! So many people would absolutely hate what we are about to do but for us our lives thrive on this excitement. I sit and ponder, where will our lives be in one year, in one week or even in 1 day? Who will we meet this time? How will we feel? Who knows if what we are doing is the right thing for us, nobody knows but something somewhere made us click apply on the work canada visa website and drove us to Gatwick. Life is definately a journey and here goes another story to add to it.

Canada is nearly upon us!

Hi guys! Its been quite a while since we blogged! Sorry about that. Not even sure who Im talking to as we probably don't have any followers, lol. So Jen and I have been back from South America for three months and will soon be going to sexy Toronto to (potentially) start a new life!!

We're going armed with work permits for a year and will pretty much be winging it! The idea at the moment is to couch surf. And for all you peeps who haven't heard about couch surfing...its awesome! You basically hook up with like minded cool-ass people and stay on their couch/spare bed for free! Its such a good idea and is a new social networking phenomenon (probs dodgy spelling there, lol).

So after we're settled in (as in, after a day or two...we dont hang about you know!)...we'll be getting a sweet job and pad to enjoy the great life in Toronto. Its such a cool-vibed place Toronto. We went in 2008 and loved it. Jen often remarks that she 'left her heart in Toronto'...so fingers crossed it'll work out that way this time round. To be honest, we simply went underprepared as we didn't go with a work visa! So we left and headed for Kiwi shores!

This time round we'll be going a bit more experienced and certainly a bit more in love with Canada. And Canadians are wicked eh!? They rock! Can't wait.

So, wish us luck everyone. Jen and I are very excited about this new venture. We don't do things by half do we....It'll be 3months to the day that I arrived in the UK and we're off again!! LOL.

LIVE LIFE PEOPLE...Don't just survive each day...as you might not have too many of them to waste!

Peace out