Weekend Recap: Startin’ ta get Cold

This weekend, the nippy weather has finally arrived. Yaa hoo! I hate that disgusting heat and humidity that plagues southern Ontario every summer.

On Saturday, I took a drive out to Burlington to buy some records. But I forget where in Burlington the record store is located. I’d only been to this place once before and I was a passenger in the car, not the driver. Getting out there was going to be a problem. I didn’t know how to get there. I, of course, didn’t realize this until after I left the house. I could have turned around and driven back home and surfed the web to find the name and location of this store, but I didn’t feel like turning around. Instead, I punched in “Burlington” into the navigation system in the dashboard and hoped that the guidance system would eventually lead me to something I found familiar from the previous visit.

The problem with these navigational systems is they don’t know traffic patterns and road re-construction projects. Over by the 401 & 427, construction and lots of it. That never makes the drive a smooth ride, or a quick one. There was also some construction on the QEW. That created a nice parking lot effect on the highway.

Eventually the navigational system tells me “Exit right onto, Brant Street.” Brant Street, that sounds familiar.

Once I got off the highway, everything looked very familiar. That’s pretty incredible seeing as how I’d only been over there once before. What wasn’t familiar was all the construction happening on Brant Street. I guess it was just one of those days where you just can’t avoid road work.

I spent most of Sunday trying to relax. I hurt my back again, not sure how. I hope it doesn’t bother me too much. This afternoon I’ve got to pick up three people from the airport and I will probably have to spend a lot of time with these people in the next two weeks. Generally when I’ve got family from aboard visiting Toronto, they have no idea what they want to do. Italians have no knowledge of Toronto and what it has to offer. The only reason they come to TO is because they have family here, family like me.

Recommended Listening: Electric Funeral by Black Sabbath.

I Still Haven’t Gone On Vacation

For a while I was planning on going to Calgary. But it has been pretty busy at work and I couldn’t break away to go see the Calgary Stampede. Then for a bit I was thinking I would just go anyways and maybe see the Stampede some other year. There’s still the Rocky Mountains to see and Drumheller (sp?) looks interesting. Yes, I’m a nerd who wants to see dinosaur bones.

This morning I was talking to a co-worker about possible destinations. He mentioned how he wanted to go to Finland at least once in his life. (He’s a Thunder Bay Fin.) I thought that was interesting. Maybe Sweden or Norway or Iceland or somewhere ’round there. I could get my nerd on by visiting some sort of Norse museums. My apologies to European communities that were ravaged by the Norsemen a thousand years ago, but from the little I’ve seen of Norse history and art, the Vikings were pretty darn cool.

Of course, I have to throw in the UK for a possible destination. There are so many things I want to see in the UK. Maybe there’s too much to see. (I’ve only got a week or so, tops.) I don’t just want to see London in all of its splendor. Sure, my first trip to the UK has to include #23 Heddon Street. Sure, that would only take an afternoon to find the place then just a couple of minutes there to soak in the magic and have a photo taken of me there. Then spend a couple of nights hitting some random clubs and bars and discovering some local bands. Face it folks, the Brits just have a better handle on music then anybody else (for the most part).

But I can’t stop at just London, I’ve got to go all over. Just off the top of my head I can think of a bunch of places that I would find interesting. I would love to spend a month in the UK seeing all historic sites. Maybe some of those timber Saxon castles (are there any left?), the Royal Gardens at Kew (I’ve heard its close to London), then up Hadrian’s Wall. Of course, I would want to travel to Scotland and all the way up to the Orkneys. Pop in on Skara Brae. I’ve only seen photos but it looks so beautiful.

There’s too much I want to see in the UK. I know if I went for just a week, I would come back with more regrets of things I couldn’t see then pleasures from the things I did see.

Maybe I’ll go the New York City. But with NYC, I wanna go with a couple of friends and pop in on my buddy Columbia. Give him a cheap thrill (you know what I mean). I don’t think I could both convince some friends to come when I’ve got time off. I don’t think they can get the time off to coincide with my time off.

There’s always the cheap Canuck vacation to some all-inclusive resort hotel in Latin America. Hmm… an Italian-Canadian from Vaughan, Yeah, Mexico’s out. I don’t want to come home in a body bag. But that’s not the only deterent, I’m not a fan of hot temperatures. I’d also get bored outta my mind sitting on a beach for a couple of days. Really, what is there to do in a place like Costa Rica or Cuba or [insert Spanish spelling of a saint's name here].

Any of you out there still reading this boring post, how about some suggestions. This is what I like. I like big cities. I like history (medieval and/or WWI/WWII). I like rock ‘n roll. I like speaking English. This is what I don’t like. I don’t like hot and humid temperatures. I don’t like poor conditions. I don’t like warzones. I don’t like Chinese* food.

So, if any of you out there have some ideas of a decent September or October vacation, lemme have it.

* That goes for pretty much all East Asian foods like Japanese, Korean, Thai, etc. Actually, let’s throw in all Asian food. Middle East food and Indian food are no-gos for me and my stomach.

Recommended Listening: I am not, I repeat, NOT recommending Vacation by The Go-Gos. I again am taking suggestions from you, my 3 or 4 regular readers.