Mr Tango Orlando and a monkey cat waving thing!!

Monday April 2^nd 2012.

Part 2. Here we go again.

19 Months ago today, I left UK on the journey of a lifetime, heading by bus to Australia and eventually taking in about 20 countries including China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Fiji, New Zealand America and Canada.  Now, I am heading off again after a short break in the UK. I am leaving for Canada and wonder what will happen on this journey and how long it will go on for.

After a good last night with Gareth, Mikie and Tracey, I said goodbye to them as they went to work and a couple of hours later I left Northampton, heading south down the M1 towards Heathrow. My first memory of part two of the extra long summer will never leave my mind.....

The story of Mr Tango Orlando.

I found 3CR radio station as I drove south and the first programme was a consumer help programme. The DJ started to talk to a woman about her cat. Mr Tango Orlando, who had died last summer. The woman had sent her dead cat to a taxidermist, who was supposed to be removing the cats fur and mounting it, so that the woman could then hang the fur on her bedroom door and be reminded of ‘The Good Times’. The taxidermist though, still had not finished her cat after 7 months and the last quote from him was ‘Your cat is still doing well and is currently freeze drying; it will be out of the oven in two weeks’. (That is today’s quote of the day.) Sadly, the woman wasn’t pleased and also claimed not to be a mad cat woman. But she was. I may have to try and find out what happens to the late Mr Tango Orlando in a few weeks.

The flight to Canada was good, once I made it onto the plane. Firstly, the underground train that takes you from Terminal 5 to the actual gates broke down about 100 yards short of the station. We ended up waiting for about 10 minutes whilst the engineers came aboard the train and opened a compartment to reset the train and fix it. I don’t know why we have to use these trains anyway – it’s only about 200 metres to walk, it would have been much cheaper to just build a walkway, with rollerblades or go karts for the lazy people!!

A cool italian in the airport..hahaha

Another cool person waiting for her plane....

The train is broken!

Lunch on the plane

When I eventually arrived at the gate I got onto the plane after sorting out the fact that I was somehow double booked – I got a little sleep on the plane, but when I woke up the ‘large’, man in the seat next to me had turned over and was now almost spooning me from behind. I felt slightly dirty and was glad to escape from him when we landed in Toronto.

After a long wait for my bags, I went straight out of the arrivals exit and into the departure entrance, where I booked in for the 200^th flight of my life and for the 1^st time ever I printed off and attached my own baggage tags to by luggage. It’s actually harder than it looks!! I’m now sat in the departure gate with another 2 ½ hour flight ahead of me, but at least I am happy now that I have seen than Man United won 2-0 tonight and lead The Premier league by 5 points!!

Three hours later and after an easy relaxing flight with Westjet, I arrived in Winnipeg and Buffy met me at the airport before we rode the bus home, along with a couple of homeless people! I was ready for bed so not long after we were all tucked up and asleep – that is asleep in-between the bouts of sirens from whatever the fuck was going on outside!  It turned out that there was a house fire somewhere near to us and the noise was all the fire engines.

Tuesday and a little jetlagged, we went out for breakfast and when Buffy had her Mexican omelette, I discovered how close mushy peas look to guacamole. I may try and fool the Buffy’s mates with some mushy peas disguised as it later in the week when she has a party. I also noticed a silver box attached to the lamp posts as we crossed the road. It gives out a beeping noise so deaf people know when to cross, but for no apparent reason, I said something different which led me to today’s quote of the day:-

‘Is that box so that dead people know when to cross the street?’

So later that day we went down to a bar called ‘4play’, this is a sports bar opposite the MTS Centre, where the Winnipeg Jets play their home games and is well known as the place to watch the Ice Hockey games due to its proximity to the stadium and the fact that it has a massive screen and all the fans that can’t get tickets go there.

It’s a great bar with cheap beer ($5 a pint) and we were really happy that the jets came back from

3-0 down to win 5-4 in overtime.

Rolf Harrris!??

In 4play

Nachos for dinner....hmmmm

Buffy and her birthday beer

The next day was Buffy’s birthday, so in the morning she opened her presents, including the Monkey, cat from my mum and dad...hahaha!! She was working the later and so I got myself up and went out for a run. I headed down by the river and was amazed at the size of some of the houses. The word ‘Mansion’, means nothing down there.. They really are massive homes. I wonder how much they cost.

I took a walk in the afternoon to Polo Park, a big shopping centre, where after checking out 4 cash points and finally finding one that gave me money, I got myself a Canadian sim card for my phone, so that I can keep in touch and use the internet on the go while I am here. It’s just as expensive as UK though.

Big

Big

Big houses and cool cars

Another one!

Later in the evening, Buffy was attending the soft opening of the 2^nd store of the company that she works for. It was along bus ride out of the city to get there but was worth the effort as we spent the evening drinking free beer and messing about in the store – Buffy spending most of it being chased by and chasing the young kids who were brought along by their parents. It was also Buffy’s birthday, so she had a few drinks and we both enjoyed ourselves eating the good, bad and indifferent foodstuffs, before grabbing a lift home from one of her friends. It was a fun night!!  

In the store party

All going well at the store