Now who's going to set the conservative's straight????

It's certain that Canada's fate can't be left to the hands of the Conservatives. 

Jack Layton's death is a sad loss for Canada's future: a future that certainly needs more emphasis on equality among Canadians! Jack Layton was a down to earth person with a passion for equality and he was not one to throw out promises that were unreachable.

In what I like to think of as a progressive world, how do conservative's keep getting voted in?? Are taxes the guiding factor in voting for Conservative? We need taxes for our social service programs! We need social service programs so that we can assist with social devastation (poverty, and disasters like the tornado in Goderich). I certainly hope NDP continues to rise in popularity. No doubt that it was Jack Layton's leadership that brought the votes up to such a close election this year, and I hope that with this, Jack Layton's message can be heard by more and the rise continues...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/08/22/layton-obituary.html 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGu682FUDsQ

Our Mid Week Get-Away!

We bought tickets to the Blink 182 concert on August 17th way back (so long ago I don't remember!). Aleksy and I decided that because the concert was in T.O. at the Amphitheatre, that it would be really late when we arrived home back in London afterward, so we should book a hotel in Toronto. So we booked the cheapest hotel that we could find that had good reviews.. it took some time using tripadvisor for that. We ended up staying at the Holiday Inn express for $170. Yup. That was a cheap price (I miss Australian hostel pricing).

We left work a bit early on the Wednesday so that we could get into Toronto at a decent time. We ended up getting to our hotel around 7pm (the concert started at 7pm), so we quickly had a few drinks and got a cab to the amphitheatre. Our tickets were nosebleed seats as you can see from the pictures, but it was still an AWESOME concert from the nosebleeds! We've been to quite a few concerts and I think this was the best so far!

This was our hotel. It was a bit far from the amphitheatre, but after the concert we thought it was a good idea to walk back to the hotel. It took a total of about 1.5 hours to walk back to the hotel (factor in a necessary stop for some good ol' T.O. street meat!).

We took Thursday off so that we could say overnight in Toronto and make a mini vacay out of it, so the next day we toured around Toronto like tourists!

We did some shopping in the morning (actually throughout the entire day really) where we both bought a few things (I got a new pair of shoes and a new shirt... Can't wait for Forever 21 to come to Masonville!) then for lunch we found 'Tasty Thursdays' in a park DT. There was our choice of many different ethnic foods... thai, indian, italian, malaysian = amazing! Aleksy and I LOVE to try all sort of new foods, so we went for the Malaysian - the one we haven't tried before (although Indian is always tempting).

If you get an opportunity to try Malaysian, DO IT!! It was amazingly good.. kind of like a burrito but the stuff that was inside was so much better. It was chicken with what seemed like beans, rice, veggies, spices (among other things I could never guess).

After some more shopping after lunch, we headed over to the Distillery district. In all the times we have been to Toronto, we have never been to the distillery district before! This picture is just entering through the gate to the distillery district.

We had a tour of the Mill St. brewery while there. The brewer told us a bit about what makes beer have their tastes (ale vs. stout vs. lager) and what ingredients they use to make their beer delicious. In the picture, you can see the fermenting tanks in the background. We got to try an ale straight from the tank! It was so fresh... the freshest beer I've had! I'm not a big fan of pale ale's, but the freshness made it much nicer...

After our brew tour, we had to stop and have a full beer... I got the Organic, my favorite. And Aleksy tried the stock ale, which he said is hard to come by in the lcbo.

We went back to work for Friday then weekend! Love mid-week vacations!

I LOVE weekends!!

So I'm still getting used to this whole having weekends to do whatever thing. And I LOVE it. I have worked 2 jobs and gone to school for my entire university career and it feels great to be on a "big people" schedule!

This past weekend wasn't jam packed with plans that we made with other people, so Aleksy and I spent hanging out and doing whatever. I'm not going to blog about the laundry I did, or when I scrubbed the bathtub, but we did make it out to the Fanshawe Conservation area to see what their hikes are like.

We did 2 out of the 4 trails. There were a couple parts of the hikes that were nice, but mostly it was like walking through a forest with a pathway created by a lawnmower. After hiking in the Australian blue mountains, Algonquin, and Tobermory, I wasn't too impressed by the scenery but nonetheless, it is nice and close being in London and its nice to walk around outside. Aleksy has suggested that the longer trail (22km) that he bikes at is nicer, so we'll likely try that one out before the summer ends! The water is definitely nice at the Conservation area though...

I also took my second stab at making Indian last weekend! I never have the energy to cook fancy meals durig the week after work, so I took advantage of having the weekend. The first time I made Indian, I used honey so it was a sweeter dish. This time I made it with chicken broth, crushed chilies and curry: DELIC. I was very impressed with how it turned out! Hopefully this will save us some money on take out when we're craving Indian food (which is a slight addiction because its SO flavourful).

Some [More] Australian Moments Caught on Video!

This video was taken in Brisbane at the Sanctuary! Its our first encounter with KOALAS!! These little guys were adorable and you can see just how much they scratch and how slow they move!

And of course, we also had to get a video of the kangaroos! You can see how close they got to us, no fear whatsoever, and you an see how they move about! Just chillin with the kangaroos...

This video was taken in Katoomba. We took a day trip out of the Blue Mountains to see the Grand Canyon, which was just a 20 minute bus ride away. It had the most spectacular view at the end of the hike (as noted in the video) and the hike itself was a rain forest walk. Amazing. This is just at the end of our journey of the Grand Canyon.

Some Australian Moments Caught on Video!

This is the busiest place that I have ever been in my life (twice as busy and twice as populated than Toronto). I took this video at the intersection in front of the Flinders Street Station in Melbourne. I was so overwhelmed being one in this crowd that I stopped to take this video. Note that running down the street is just what those Melbourne peeps do... pretty normal...

This video was taken when crossing the Sydney Harbour bridge. The only time that it rained in Australia in the 3 weeks that we were there (aside from the last day) was for the hour that it took to cross the bridge. But we had to do to say that it had been done!

This video was taken after a 14 hour train ride overnight from Sydney to Byron Bay. We had just arrived to the first place that had weather warm enough to wear summer clothes and it was SO exciting! Add that it was one of the most beautiful places I've been. Caught on video!

A much needed evening with my Social Work ladies!

I hadn't seen my social work crew since school!!! BAAHHHH!! That's like 4 months ago. We FINALLY had our get together BBQ on August 8th. Absolutely needed a night with my ladies to catch up and see some beautiful babies!! Now that I'm all done school and moved away from the Ham town... I'm like 200km away from my friendlies. Distance scares me because I don't want to lose touch with such awesome people. I'm hoping I can continue to keep them close with tempting them with our shared love for Swiss Chalet... mmmmm... could use some of that now. Between the 6 of us, we live in 5 different cities: London, Hamilton, Mississauga, Burlington, and Oakville. Good thing I work a little closer to their world... hopefully that'll be a protective factor in keeping close! So jealous that everyone has class together in the fall without moi :(

We need another Date Night ASAP!

 All my ladies!!

And needed a picture of this cute little button with her adorable bow. Every time I see her I am afraid I am going to eat her face. I gave her extra goodies because I can't say no to that face!

The Outrageous Kincardine Small Town PARTY!!!

The weekend was well planned out by Sam: '19 again' weekend (the weekend of August 5-7), where a bunch of girls stayed in Kincardine and pretended that we were young again (because clearly 25 is just old). And 19 again we were!! I drove down on the Friday night after work with the lovely Stef, who I am so glad kept me company one of the ways because it was lonely on the way back home. We got into Kincardine about 10pm and had a couple drinks, all fancily made by Sam! Stayed up til 2am talking/gossiping/having life values conversations (my fav!!).

 19 Again! These are pics from when we were 19 (or as close to 19 as we could find a pic!). 

 Saturday we headed to the beach after some breakfast. There's several gigantic chairs along the beach, which were a perfect spot for a group shot.

 The kincardine water was beautiful! We spent a lot of time in the water, more than I usually do at the beach because it was so nice, and only cold when it first touches your skin. We even played a long game of frisbee in the water (I suck some serious butt at frisbee).

 Demonstrating just how clear and clean the water is! You could see all the way down to your toes! We took hand shots and feet shots.

After beachin it up for the early afternoon, we headed out for some lunch and ice cream. They even had my favorite, Happy Birthday (as discovered in Rondeau). I had a very attractive burn following our day on the beach, and am seriously considering increasing the SPF on my 15 suncreen.

After getting home from the beach, the girls all got ready, had some more drinks then headed to the Bruce tavern, the local bar. This is out back, dancing in the parking lot before going to the Bruce. Some good oldies on (NSync!!). Then we went to the Brice and realized that there was absolutely no one there! And we kinda stood out... so we were informed everyone was at the stag and doe at the community center. So we left and headed to the stag & doe!

 The bride and groom didn't mind at all that us 7 girls crashed their stag & doe!! BFFs as you can see form the group photo!

 This picture does a little justice to the nastiness of the floor because drinks were being spilled all over the place. We had some close encounters with falling on our faces (hence the "surfing" picture). The bride actually took a fall and ended up leaving in an ambulance :( 

 Had one Jager and one Goldshlager (no idea how to spell that!) shot on the ski shot! Pros!

We met some people at the stag & doe who invited us to a kegger after party. So Sam, Veronica and I went to party some more! The after party was at some guys house in Kincardine (in which the house hasnt been updated since 1970, it even had carpet on the wall) and he put the Keg in a deep freezer, which he brought outside (genious!). There were tons of people there! Small town people def know how to drink & party. We saw this Windmill in the backyard and decided that it was a great photo spot (random?). We headed home afterward at 3:30am. I'm quite proud of how late I was able to stay up all weekend considering I was up for work all week early! I guess its because I wasn't bored!

Who knew Kincardine would be such a party!?

Civic Holiday Monday: August 1st

After trying on about 4 different occasions to rent a canoe, we finally succeeded on the holiday Monday! Although the Fanshawe conservation area advertises that they have canoes for rent, they actually only have 4 which are always rented out unless you go right when they open at 8am (I don't get up THAT early on weekends!).

Although we lucked out by being able to rent a canoe, we also got a wee bit ripped off because it was a holiday and the park closed early so we only had a few hours to canoe. Because, we were not going to get the full 4 hours that everyone else gets for $20, Aleksy bargained with the nice lady and she gave us free freezies for the inconvenience! We didn't use the full amount of time that we 

 My Aleksy: always in the back steering.

 I know that my steering skills would not be up to snuff so I take the front: less responsibility! And less strength needed (I think?).

 These areas scare me: so shallow I'm afraid we're going to get stuck... and because these areas are usually close to the trees at the edge of the water.. there could be anything there.. bugs, snakes, spiders (which get a mentioning of their own because they're that nasty).

A beautiful spot! We went under that bridge and made it a little further until we couldn't go any further because it was shallow and narrow, but it was really pretty! Aleksy sometimes does the biking trail at the conservation area and apparently this bridge is a part of the trail. 

We got a map for the hiking trails at the conservation area too... since Aleksy has paid the day fee so many times to go biking, we now have a park pass and get in for free so I definitely want to hit up the trails.

Later in the evening, we went out with Warren, Andzelika and Paul and we tried out the new (I think it's new) burger place downtown: The Works.

It was kind of like Relish, the burger place on Wortley. You get to choose the kind of patty, and bun and then there's approximately one million choices of stuff to have on your burger (onion rings, peanut butter, whatever you want!). I had Brie, mushrooms and red peppers! delic! We also had a tower of onion rings before our Burgs and they gave several different dipping sauces for them which were all really tasty. I highly recommend this place!

The Events of August Long Weekend 2011

Following Al and Stephs wedding on Saturday, I wanted to ensure that we spent some good quality time in the great outdoors considering it was a) the long weekend and b) beautiful weather with the exception of the rain that seemed to only occur overnight or in the morning (to our advantage). So Sunday, after scrambling around to 3 different stores to find replacement tubes for my bike, Aleksy fixed my bike (obviously I had no part in that, I made lunch for us instead) and we headed to the Thames trail starting from Spring bank park.

 Aleksy, being a bit more adventurous than myself (mostly because I'm terrified that my cheap little bike would die) and going into the woods to check things out. This is still at the beginning of our journey... not far from the parking lot at Springbank.

 Me riding across the street heading into Harris park area (where the splash pad is!). 

Also Harris Park :) Plus, following this we made it all the way to the university! I definitely prefer doing the trail along the Thames then city bike riding, which terrifies me because of cars. Now that my bike is fixed, I plan to have more of these afternoons (or evenings following work) to bike ride.

Following our daily adventures in bike riding, we headed down to the rib fest downtown in Vic park.

We chose this one for our ribs because they are from Lobo. Very close to London. Much rather support the local business than the American businesses!

The boys like their meat a little more than me, they had full racks and I had a half rack (with the sides of beans and slaw... a real classy meal). It was about $22 for the full and $15 for the half. We found a good place in the beer tent, limited seating but we snatched one just as people were leaving.

 And they were delicious! Fall-off-the-bone goodness.

 Naturally after I ate supper, I wanted something sweet. I was seeking out some delicious funnel cakes or something of the sort, and I came across a place that had deep fried Mars bar. My only previous encounter with the deep fried Mars bar is at the Palasad, so I was exicting something similar. But then I got this pogo looking food item on a stick. Not so delicious either. Like a pogo-battered semi-warm mars bar. I didn't eat it all.

This is what a $7 cold beverage looks like. Those Lemonade stands must make a killing! Lemons, water, plastic (and perhaps sweetener of some kind) and we're looking at closing in on $10.

The rib fest is always worth going: the crowds, food, and beer are good. Music a little loud this year. Hopefully we'll get to go again next year!