Wednesday was quiet restful day – I have a lot of tickets
and vouchers to print off for my next trip and so I spent a while doing that
and then watched the Euro 2012 Semi final over the internet, which was
disappointing as I wanted Portugal to win.
Later that evening me and Buffy got a house guest – She is a
Canadian girl doing some travelling and is staying with us using the ‘Couch
surfing’ website – where people give space on their couches or spare rooms for
free to other people who are travelling – It’s a good way to travel cheaply and
also to meet new people. The new girl arrived, unpacked some stuff and headed
out for a wander around leaving me in on my own, as Buffy was at choir
practice. That’s fine though as I enjoyed a lazy evening. She (The surfer) came
back later and couldn’t get the internet to work on her laptop and didn’t seem
to want me to help out to get it working. It’s a shame though as I’m sure it
just needed a tweak. It’s nice to have someone else in the apartment though.
Thursday - a scorcher – so an hour down by the fountain
again, was followed by a couple of hours watching the second semi final from
Euro 2012 in The Elephant. I met a few other people watching too – Jase – a
Canadian from Edmonton was ok. Russ, a Brit from Sheffield, was with his
Canadian cousins, and to be honest – he bored me to death about Sheffield
Wednesday and just wouldn’t shut up. I know I can talk a lot, but this guy just
went on and on for 90 minutes and even missed two of the three goals because of
it. His cousins looked like they couldn’t wait for him to go home to England.
The 3rd person’s name I never got – but he was drugged or pissed up Hippy who was talking to
himself or the wall for most of the afternoon, until without warning he
disappeared – literally here one second and gone the next – I couldn’t believe
it – I think he vanished in a puff of smoke from whatever drug he last took!!
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| Weird disappearing Hippie bloke |
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| Another nice day! |
Friday – Lazy day- I ironed a shirt, went to the shop and
watched TV. End of. Cinema in the evening though to see ‘Ted’. A stupid but
hilarious movie, about a bloke who grows up with his childhood teddy bear, who likes to smoke pot and pay for hookers even though he is a teddy bear....cool!
Two of Buffy’s closest friends Wayne and Leanne, were getting married on
Saturday and we were invited, so we got all dressed up and got the bus over to
Niakra Golf club where the event was to take place. The ceremony was outside
and was pretty cool – even the golfers who were still playing were quite careful
not to disturb things – although at one point a ball did hit the tree just to the
left of the altar.
The evening was good fun – a good meal and a bit of chat and
a lot of drinks – free! I went outside at one point for fresh air and
discovered that the golfers were now celebrating Canada day weekend with a game
in the dark. They all had luminous golf balls and flags and were playing in
pitch darkness. It was actually quite cool watching the colourful balls in the
dark and it’s easier than watching a game during the day. The only problem is
that the golfers were quite drunk and kept losing their clubs.
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| Us at the wedding |
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| Wayne and Leanne |
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| Spot the golfer!! |
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| Our table from the evening do |
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| Storytelling!! |
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| Nighttime golf.. |
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| ..in the dark |
After the wedding we headed home and slept in on Sunday morning,
before going out to celebrate Canada day itself. There was a big ‘do’ on in
Osborne village with stalls and bands and stuff, but on the way we tried out a
bit of ‘Geo Caching. We heard about it from Wayne, who got married
yesterday. Basically, people leave small
‘caches’, hidden around and you have to find them. You are find coordinates on the
internet and using a GPS or phone, you then track down the cache, find it and
log it as found before replacing it for the next geo cacher to find. Some of
them also have little gems inside that you can take and swap for something else
that you are carrying. It’s basically a treasure hunt!! I was surprised that
there are about 1000 of these caches just in Winnipeg alone and millions around
the world. Its good fun too – you find the rough area of the cache and then hunt high and
low trying to see the hidden box. We found one under a ledge, another in a
natural hole in a tree branch and one even disguised as an outside light. It’s
a great way to get out and about and I think we will be doing it a lot more
when we have spare time.
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| Our first cache found... |
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| What is inside? |
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| Yep, theres one in the tree... |
We finally reached Osborne and the Canada day celebrations,
but the weather was just too hot. The temperature was about 33degrees, but in
the hot sun, with the humidity it felt like 43 and was horrible. We ended up at
Alena and Adams place sitting in their air conditioned apartment relaxing away
from the stifling heat. After a while we headed out again but it was still too
hot and we were so lethargic we ended up jumping into a fountain in the gardens
of the Legislature building to cool down. It was a horribly hot day. We did venture out again later at night to see
the 11pmfirework show with the rest of Manitoba. I have never seen Winnipeg so
busy! All in all a good weekend with weddings, fountains and heat!
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| A little cache |
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| Cold lemonade on a hot day and only 50c! |
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| Cooling down in the fountain.. |
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| She looks slightly better than me! |
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| A sly but fun cache disguised as a lamp |
Monday is a Bank Holiday for Canada day and my last day here
for a couple of weeks, so it’s time to get packed up again and ready to go
away. This trip is a little different as you will see from the upcoming blogs
over the next week or so –I am taking a tent for part of it and travelling
south with the Choir who are going on tour for 10 days. Its good as normally it’s
Hostel to Hostel and greyhounds most of the way, but I’m allowing myself the luxury
of a car for a week and a bit of camping. There is also no sharing of hostel
dorm rooms for the first week, when I arrive in Minneapolis. I’m really looking
forward to it. For toady though, after I packed my stuff, we went back to the
fountain from yesterday with Michael – one of Buffy’s many friends and spent a
couple of hours there soaking ourselves before drying in the warm air. A lovely
end to a pretty good weekend.
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| All the boats on the river waiting for...... |
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| ...the fireworks to celebrate.... |
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| .. Canada day! |
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