First day

Well, I thought Thursday was going to be my first day of classes, but as both of the classes I have scheduled for Thursday are lab/tutorial components, I had no classes on Thursday and so I officially started today at 0910h.

Most of my lectures weren't actual lectures today, but rather, going over the syllabus for the course and explaining three time over what labs/tutorials were all about and four times over about academic integrity and yada yada yada not that the stuff isn't important, but I could have gone over all those things on my own, outside of class time.

Anyway, I finished lectures about a half hour earlier than scheduled due to it being the first day of lectures and so instead of finishing at 2030h, I finished at 2000h and my dad picked me up earlier, so we got home earlier.

Tomorrow morning at 0800h we have prayer meeting at church, then I have to sort things out at the bank and then, I have to go clean at 1000h.

Jehovah Jireh

Well, I'm getting settled back into Canadian life.  I've got allergies in full force and sometimes wish I could just pull my sinuses out and never have to worry about them again.  Unfortunately, that wouldn't be too beneficial or easy to do.

On Tuesday, September 2, the public school started the year here in Canada and I went down to Oshawa with my dad to pick up the laptop you have to rent from the university I am attending.  I got the laptop with no problems and then went off to my friend's house so I wasn't wandering aimlessly around the campus all day.

Last week sometime I got informed that there was an elderly lady in my church who was looking for somebody to clean her condo for her, but it turned out that she got someone else before I got my name in.  I thought nothing more of it, but when I got home last night, there was a message for me on the answering machine.  I didn't know who it was, other than the name I had been given.  I called her after consulting another friend who cleans houses on a regular basis to see what rates she would suggest.  I set up a meeting with her for this morning and went to see what the house looked like and what they would expect me to do.  I now have a job cleaning their house on Saturday mornings.  The weirdest thing about it is that the person who recommended me didn't even know I was thinking about cleaning houses to earn money.

God provides in the most mysterious ways.

The Long Trek Home

Well, it's hard to believe that I'm finally home.  On Sunday, the tenth of August, I got a ride to Bielefeld with my employer(Thanks again, George) to catch my coach to London Victoria Coach Station.  It was scheduled to leave at 2355h but we sat and sat and sat and by the time 0200h Monday morning rolled around, George was ready to pack it in and go home.  I don't blame him.  He said he would give it until 0230h and then I would have to decide whether I wanted to stay and wait or whether I would go home with him again and try again that night.  Fortunately, a few moments later the coach pulled in and I was on my way!

We drove through Holland, Belgium, and France to get to Calais where we went on the Channel Train.  We drove to London and it took at least an hour to get from the edge of London into Victoria Coach Station, an hour and a half later than scheduled.  I booked the next coach to Gloucester and let my grandparents know what time I was leaving.  It was really nice to see them again and in their own place.  I met Snowy, their little dog.  She was very sweet.

On Saturday, the 16th of August, I left with my grandparents from their place at 0700h to get to Gloucester for my coach to Heathrow at 0800h.  I was on that coach and on my way quite easily and arrived at Heathrow about 1115h.  Then I had to find the Air Transat desk, which wasn't too complicated.  I put my checked luggage through and then went up and through security and then had to wait to find out what gate to go to.  

My flight was scheduled to be boarded at 1300h and leave at 1400h.  At 1300h, the flight schedule was saying delayed and then, finally at 1430h, people on flight TS545 were called to go to Gate 1 immediately.  The queue was massive.  While in the queue I met two ladies who were also headed for Toronto.  One of them was headed for Caledonia and the other, for Lindsay, the same as myself.

We finally got to the front of the queue and by that time we had guessed that there was some sort of problem because people were walking back the other way.  As it turned out, there was a technical problem with the plane and they were fixing it.  The next information would be given at 1600h and we each received a 20 pound refreshment voucher.  The three of us found a restaurant and sat down for a cup of tea and a chat.  

Just before 1600h the flight information changed to 'Next Info 1800'  and then 'Next Info 1700' and then back to 'Next Info 1800'.  By 1630h we decided we better eat our dinner and so we went back up to the restaurant and spent the other two vouchers.  We were getting along fine with no more information from the airline when suddenly we get told 'Everybody needs to evacuate NOW.'  The restaurant cleared out quickly and we all started moving down to one end of the terminal.  The line kept going for a while but then it stopped and so we stopped.  By that time we had new information on the flight schedule.  'Delayed to 2000' it said.  

We were standing outside of an electronics shop and one of the guys working there started humming a tune which made me laugh.  We kept standing there for a while and then some seats across the walkway became free so we got to sit down.  We still had no more information by 1930h and were beginning to despair yet again when suddenly there was a little cheer.  Everyone looked up at the schedule.  'Go to gate 18' it said.  There was a great cheer, and a mass of movement towards Gate 18.  We were finally getting somewhere.

We all got through the gate and then had to board a coach to get to the plane.  I was on the last coach load to get on the plane and we were settled quickly and began our journey to the runway within 5 minutes.  We were now going to be making a stop in Montreal because the crew were not going to be able to fly all the way to Toronto.

I was just so glad to be on my way.  It seemed to be that this was the longest trip I had ever taken.  The flight was rather uneventful except for the stop in Montreal.  When we arrived in Toronto I went through customs, grabbed my luggage and went to find out who was picking me up.  My brother was there with his flatmate Fraser to take me to their flat for the night.  My parents would come down in the morning to pick me up.

It was 0300h by the time I climbed onto the couch at my brother's flat to go to sleep, and I was awake again before 0700h.  Life as a world traveller is not all that it's cracked up to be.

Gosport and Portsmouth(January 20, 2008)

On Sunday, the MacKays and I went to Gosport and Portsmouth.  They wanted to take me to go on the ferry that takes you from Gosport to Portsmouth, across the Portsmouth harbour which is famous for being the Royal Navy's harbour.  On the Portsmouth side of the harbour, the Spinnaker Tower rises into the air 170 meters -- not even in the competition to be the tallest tower in the world -- easily surpassed by the second tallest, the CN Tower in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at 553.33 meters.  However, the tower is the tallest accessible structure -- outside of London -- in the United Kingdom.

The tower was originally named the Portsmouth Millennium Tower, unfortunately, delays made it five years too late and so it was renamed Spinnaker.

The tower has three viewing decks.  The first deck has a section of that is glass.  It allows you to walk across so you can look down 100 meters straight down to the bottom of the tower.  All three decks look out across the harbour, allowing views of many landmarks on clear days.  The second viewing deck is 105 meters and the Crow's Nest is 110 meters.

This picture is from the first viewing deck of the tower.  The HMS Warrior sits in the harbour permanently as a museum ship.  It is famous as the first iron-hulled, armour-plated warship.  Completed in October 1861, it had a short life as a warship with only 21 years and 6 months of service before being withdrawn in May 1883 because of the fast-moving upgrades in technology. 

Taken from the Crow's nest of the Spinnaker Tower, this picture of the famous warship, HMS Victory, isn't as clear as I would have liked.  This ship is also a permanently docked, museum ship in the Portsmouth harbour.  Sailed by many, the most famous would probably be Lord Nelson in the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805.

After being up the tower, we went back down to the outdoor shopping center at the base of the tower.  There were some entertainers in the walkways of the shopping center, one with a glass ball that he rolled up and down his arms and on his hands where his hands were moving but the ball seemed to stay in one place.  A little further along, we came to a man doing balloon animals and flowers.  We stopped and he made the flower and butterfly that Jess is holding in the picture.