In which I mention films more than usual

Right, you know what, I've decided I'm going rogue. No more of this attempting to stick to some sort of schedule, oh no, I'm going for the total anarchy, perhaps it'll be more frequent perhaps less so, who knows? And you know what no-one can stop me, I mean what's going to happen, I am going to have my licence to blog revoked. No, of course not, and you know why? Because I never even bothered getting one in the first place, am I one of those dangerous radical types or what?

Ok so now that has happened, I feel I should explain my recent experiences. Last week I finally managed to get round to seeing Django, I mean this had been quite a challenge. Plans were made and changed, remade and discarded so after many false dawns the sun finally rose and I made my way down the road to the local cinema. I have to say it is a fairly brilliant film, some cracking dialogue and totally ridiculous violence. Certainly it was worth all the effort I had gone to, to actually get there and see it.

After managing this feat I returned home for around 5 hours of sleep before jumping on a coach to Montreal. I realise now that over the past month and a half or so I have been in Montreal ever other weekend or so, it's beginning to feel like a second home. This trip was for the track meet at McGill, it's pretty big people come from all over the east of Canada, and a few brave souls travel from further west. The first event I did was pole vault, now I didn't really know what to expect here, the last time I had vaulted was before I left England, and the prospect of turning upside down and landing back on the track was one I was more concerned about than usual. Fortunately these fears proved unfounded and I vaulted far better than expected, going out trying to equal my pb. The next day I did my first pentathlon and to be honest it went fairly horrendously. However I am going to say some unusual for a combined eventer here, the best bit was definitely the 1k, I think this was because all the teams were lining the inside of the track and were in the lanes from about 3 outwards, so there was an absolutely brilliant atmosphere. Also it meant I had no idea how long I had been running as I couldn't hear a thing or see the clock, I ended up with a pb. Anyhow after I had regained my ability to stand I walked back towards the hotel, by this time the feeling of "I'm about to throw up" had also subsided, but I quickly brought it back by absolutely destroying a double cheeseburger. Anyhow we then coached back and I slept fairly well, discovering Avatar is much improved by sleeping through ther middle hour and a half or so.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what has happened to me recently.

A Visitor

Right so I'm back in Halifax and started with the whole learning thing again. It's going ok, taking an arts based class it's interesting but I doubt the way it's assessed is going to play to my strengths, so the chemistry class and physics one are going to be far nicer I feel.
Anyhow the main thing that has happened since I got back was that James came and visited me. This was pretty awesome of him, even if it did ruin my chances of doing much work at the start. Naturally his visit involved a fair bit of drinking, discovered a nice bar with plenty of choice of drinks, also visited a Scottish pub, it was ok just dead because it was a Monday. The nicest bit was running up a $100 on cocktails, very very tasty and very handy for falling asleep afterwards. Of course we had to go to a hockey match, and it just happened to be the best one I've seen. A 4-3 win for the Mooseheads, behind for most of the match then got the winner with 5 mins remaining off an absolute beauty of a pass to set up the one-on-one. Even better as the teams were more evenly matched they were a little bit more fighty which definitely does increase the spectacle. Had a nice wander around a very icy Point Pleasant, which made it look fairly amazing, if a little difficult to wander around. Also Air Canada left his bags in Heathrow, so you know well done guys.
Starting to get used to the Halifax winter. Essentially it snows, stays cold for a few days then gets up to around 10C all the snow melts, before it plummets by around 20C and gets covered in ice and then snow, and the cycle repeats. This whole cycle takes around a week to happen, so yeah there's some pretty indecisive weather.
Also the NHL started yesterday after being on strike for months, everyone has gone just a little crazy it's great.

The USA is colder than Canada, who'd have though

Even the cement mixers get festive

Right so I left Canada for a bit... and went to about the most Canadian bit of America possible, Vermont. So first thanks to Lauren for putting up with me for a week, quite an impressive effort. It was a pretty cool time, although started badly, protest on the tracks meant I didn't arrive at Montreal until around 3.45 in the morning, unfortunately at this time I couldn't find a bed not that would've been much point anyhow. This meant I went to a 24 hour McDonalds for a couple of hours, had a bit to eat and read A Feast For Crows, so not all bad, then I waited at the station for a few hours before I got myself driven over the border. Getting into America was as fun as normal, I wonder if my prints have changed since the last time they took them?

Shooting fireworks from the hip sometimes works

I was there for New Years, so went to this thing called First Night in Vermont. It was this mixture of music, comedy and drama, not exactly the best quality ever, but still not the worst thing I've ever done either. This band called Frenchy and the Punk weren't exactly my kind of thing musically but they were at least pretty good entertainers. The best part was the midnight firework show, on a lake, in the snow.

The mountain before my camera froze

I also went and enjoyed the fact the place was covered in snow. Did some sledding (strange word to spell, I want to write sledging but it definitely wasn't cricket), this was pretty awesome, steering was challenging and going from the top of the hill was a lot of fun. Or at least it would have been if I wasn't following someone down, which meant I was essentially in an icy blizzard and totally blind and, of course, half way down I realised I was heading straight at a small child, so had to bail and roll down the hill. I also went snowboarding for the first time in a few years, it was great fun. The fact I had forgotten how to turn didn't put me at too much of a disadvantage, picked it up fairly quickly and perfected the fall and roll back onto my board fairly quickly. The main point was that it was below -30°C, which isvery cold for those of you that don't know, my scarf froze and I could feel ice forming in my nose. Still at least I won't be complaining about it being cold in the UK any time soon. The slopes were pretty empty and the runs were fun so it was a pretty amazing day, although I couldn't get many pictures as the batteries in my camera froze.

I spent some more time around the ice as well. I saw a girls high school game, it was nice to be right next to the ice even if it wasn't the most engrossing game ever. I also went and spent a little more time skating, going in a straight line is getting easier, although I feel my turns need a little more practice. Also I should point out that Ben and Jerry's is from Vermont and I went on the factory tour and got free samples, for this reason alone I think Vermont is a pretty amazing place.

Fixing trains canadian style

And now for the train rant, I have complained about trains a fair bit in my recent blogs and this time I just want to say that they also go ridiculously slowly and it's just depressing a journey should not take longer by train than it does by car and yet somehow they manage it. Also the carriage leaked so we got to fix it with bin bags a duct tape which was kind of cool at least.

This may contain some atrocious puns...

The people of Toronto are notoriously blurry

So I went to Toronto, and I feel I should first say thanks to Dave for giving me somewhere to stay. I went skating for the first time in many years, and certainly the first time outside ever, on a rink situated in the centre of Toronto. It was pretty awesome, although slightly tainted by the chap who slipped and hit his head and we then had to wait for the paramedics. Anyhow we decided after this that perhaps we would rather eat than skate and so I had some Thai food.

Later that same night I got my first experience of playing hockey, not exactly sure that I was brilliant but then considering that my main issues were with the skating I think it went fairly well. It was made more interesting by the fact that it was snowing while we were skating, so this meant getting to shovel snow while skating which I feel I had begun to get the hang of by the end. Still in the time it took to get the whole thing clear, where we'd started had a fresh centimetre on it. Also got to skate through ankle deep snow which was a fairly cool experience.

The old town hall, nothing more

Other than this I did lots of hanging out and just generally relaxed, which was marvellous. I also got to go out to a farm a couple of hours outside the city. It was a really nice one storey wood and marble place. I spent most of the time in an oak panelled room with an open fire reading Sherlock Holmes or watching movies. It was a lovely room, also one of the shorts makes mention of Horsham, The Five Orange Pips I believe, so that was a nice reminder of home.

How it looked from the window at the farm

Also there was a protest on the train tracks when I tried to leave, causing me to be delayed by three and a half hours, I wasn't particularly amused by this, but oh well. It seems the Prime Minister should have been talking to some Natives and hadn't so they decided I wouldn't want to be able to get Montreal, just a tad annoying if I'm honest.

Christmas at the Falls

The falls have a effective cloaking device

So I went and saw Niagara, really quite a strange place. The falls and the gorge they have cut out of the lanscape are really beautiful but then the place doesn't quite have the same kind of class. The casinos are quite cool, but it does seem to be a big mess of neon lights, discount souvenir shops and attractions of the sort you'd expect on a pier.

Yeah I played golf with Dinosaurs

Anyhow the key thing was that Stuart was also present so this gave us plenty of opportunities for entertainment. On Christmas Eve we did the exploring but the best bit was Dinosaur Adventure Golf. We played a couple of 18 hole courses in among some the odd T-Rex, Velociraptor, Stegosaurus, Diplodocus and well I'm sure you all know some dinosaur names. It was a pretty good course a few sand traps and a lot of ice traps, very hard to pick a good line over the rather uneven surface.

The guy who did the intro for the snowman
was also a musician it appears

A very Canadian sign

Christmas day started with a nice little snow shower, which seemed very appropriate. The time difference was handy as it meant all the decent TV had already been on, and was therefore available for watching on i-Player, so there was a christmas special binge, obviously. Outnumbered, Friday Night Dinner, QI, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, The Snowman and of course Doctor Who. All of which were nicely broken up with the odd game of pool, on perhaps the most unpredictable table ever, there was an interesting curve to it and the balls can out in a fairly random order. We managed to find ourselves a christmas dinner, in the Hard Rock Cafe, so could see a guitar belonging to David Bowie while eating turkey. After that we popped off to a bar and watched some christmas basketball, all in all it was a pretty good christmas.

It would appear I've been thrown in jail

The entrance to my "room"

Right so I went to Ottawa for a few days, it seemed a pretty cool place although kind of icy and really pretty chilly. There isn't a lot of stuff there but I got the feeling it was a pretty nice city, just had a good atmosphere. I had a nice look at the Canadian Parliament buildings, where you can go on a free tour, pretty sure that wouldn't happen back home. They did confiscate my belt though, as it was studded, I'm not sure what they thought I could do with it but presumably some pretty serious damage. So it's this big symmetrical building with one side being for the Commons and the other the senate, no Queen related stuff is allowed in the Commons. There is also a peace tower, apparently the largest peace monument in the world, so just stereotypical Canada there. The views from it would've been awesome but unfortunately it was a little cloudy and snowing. I should also point out that I stayed in a hostel that had previously been a jail, so I was sleeping in a cell which was different.

The Houses of Parliament, Canada style

I also went and visited some friends in a place called Perth, it's kind of small and spread out if that makes sense. Did manage to have this really nice meal of all local food though which was pretty cool. I also got a proper Canadian experience, driving to the middle of nowhere in the dark during a blizzard to get to a party. This was made all the more interesting by a suicidal deer that decided to jump in front of us, fortunately for both parties concerned we missed it (of course there I have changed my assumption about the deer being suicidal). Anyhow got drunk during a blizzard so that was cool. The next day there was an extra foot of snow or so, it just makes England's attempts look pitiful.

Quebec cunningly chosing cloud cover

Queen Victoria looks at her lovely library

The House of Commons, Canada style

Now for a little rant about trains, because I'm English and that's what we do. Now I wouldn't say the system back home is great but they seem to have decided to make it far worse out here. The main problem I feel is that for some bizarre reason they seem to think it should be like getting a plane, with a queue to board and sometimes checked baggage as well. Now this can lead to a train spending over half an hour waiting at a platform, why can't people just wait on the platforms and get on and off when the train arrives, it's crazy. However the trains are pretty spacious with free wifi so that makes up some of it. But being delayed for an hour so no apparent reason: signalling, train broke down, "someone on the line", etc. is just preposterous.

If Carlsberg did Icicles...

Right so I have been in Montreal and am now on a train to Ottawa. The first couple of days it snowed fairly incessantly which is less fun than we seem to think it would be back home, it is just rain but colder. This may have been because I was wandering around the city and couldn't really enjoy it so much.

Maire-Reine-Du-Monde

Notre Dame

It is quite a different a different place to Halifax, the people are decidely more French and I don't necessarily mean that in a good way. It also seemed the sun had decided to shun the place while I was there which was a shame, couldn't see the tops of the buildings half the time. There were quite a few pretty building though, some slightly older and more European stuff. I went and had a look at a couple of cathedrals, Notre Dame and Marie-Reine-Du-Monde, went into Marie as it was free which I considered a big plus.

SQUIRREL!!!

There were some pretty sights though, found this wall covered in icicles that was awesome kind of like stalactites. Also climbed up Mont Royal which was a bit of a challenge it was fairly deep snow which made it more difficult. Saw a few cross country skiers, unfortunately the views of the city were rather obscured by a collection of grey clouds. The place seemed to be littered with statues as well, one of which was a Mountie so that was stereotypical.

A view of Montreal from Mont Royal

Icicles on a wall

Met some cool other travelers, a guy from England a few Canadians, a Nigerian (who I couldn't understand), a Czech (who I could just understand) and an Aussie who was in the country for one day and got ridiculously drunk. So that meant the evening were fun and fairly long. Also trains seem to like using their horns out here