Toronto, the falls, and everything in between

horseshoe falls from skylon tower
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Ahh, back in sunny Toronto. Well, not quite sunny. But definately not as humid! Man, I loved Montreal, but honestly, the humidity there! Brrr. And it's even worse when it's cold. Something you can't describe - you just have to experience it to know what I'm talking about. And it's not even winter yet! Good luck Ben!

Anyway, so yes, the end if kino. Man, was that a week to remember! It has so far been the most exciting thing I've been a part of in AGES. I'm soo pumped about the kabaret in Adelaide in March. So all of you - come along to that! Also, on the first Thursday of every month is a kino screening at the Garage from about 7:30pm. Make sure you get along to next months because they will be showing some stuff from the kabaret in Montreal, so you can get a taste of what we were upto. And I guarantee you, some quality stuff there! So yes, Saturday was the final screening, and by far the most enjoyable. The quality of work was outstanding, and then we had a huge night of partying afterwards. We left the venue at around 3 I think (I really can't remember, but it sounds good) and then went back to the kino lab to drink more and dance more and have fun more. Ben and I ended up getting home around 6, but had a decent 6 hour sleep to recouperate. Not too shabby!

Ben then had work at 1, so I lazed around doing physio and the like for a couple of hours and went to breakfast at 4pm with a few of the kino kids. Bagels. So good. With bacon and cream cheese. Yum. After that went back to the lab, fell asleep, then went to a final dinner with everyone. There was about 40 or so, and the poor waitress was on her own for the entire evening. But the food was fantastic, and then we went out again and danced some more until about 2 am, from which I then went home and slept for around 6 hours before getting up having to catch the bus. It was really sad to leave Montreal, I had such a fun time over the last 10 days or so and it really was like leaving home again. Made some great friends that I'll hopefully keep in touch with, even greater if some of them come down to Adelaide for our kabaret like they said that would! But again, due to the crap smokey places, it didn't do too much for my lungs. But surprisingly, I don't feel too much worse than I have been for the last few days.

So yes, caught the subway from Montreal at around 9am, then caught the Greyhound to Ottawa, was there for an hour, during which I was approached by a French hating Haiti man. Was quite funny. Then caught the 5 hour bus ride to Toronto, sleepily bummed around and went to bed.

Next morning - was lucky enough to be picked up from the front door by Susan and Chris (parents of the people I'm staying with in Toronto) to spend the night in St Catharines, which is right near Niagara Falls. Talk about a luxurious house! Man, it was like a 5 star resort! So good. So spent the night taking it easy and not doing too much. This morning we left for the falls, and I have to admit that it was pretty cool, despite the tourismness of it. It was so surreal to actually see it from only a metre or so away. It wasn't as big as I thought, but then again it was. Weird. I got some photos, but I still haven't been able to upload them on a computer. Lucky though Chris took some with his camera so I can share them with youse. One thing though I have to say is that autumn here is really something to be seen. It's weird - back at home, all autumn really means is leaves falling off trees and the weather becoming a bit milder and easier to cope with. But here - the colours are just amazing! So vibrant! The pictures just don't do it justice. It's so annoying. But yes, they are definately something to be said about (if that makes any sense).

So the falls were pretty cool, and then we drove around some more and eventually I caught the train back to Toronto where upon I had a delicious dinner of fish and chips. Thanks guys! Superb! We also went shopping for halloween gear (not for me, but Heather and Paul have a party to go to) but I managed to find a scarfe, which is very useful since I seemed to have lost mine today. Prob near the falls. Oh well. Ooh, halloween - my first night back here I carved pumpkins with Heather and Paul. I'll make sure to take a pic.

Phew! Talk about a long drawn out entry. But a lot has happened so I didn't want to leave you guys out of the loop. Tomorrow I'm meeting up with a very special young lady who does alot of fundraising stuff for cf, and then playing video games all night. Friday is hopefully going to be spent going to that science exhibition where they have real human organs put into this cast stuff to make models out of it. Kinda hard to explain, but should be pretty cool!

Health - I won't say much. Still not that great. Taking the last of the cipro, so hopefully that will hold off any infection. But no real difference from a few days ago. Good because I don't have to write much about it, but bad I guess because I'm not any better...

Rating - 5.5

Slight change of plans...

After being involved with all the kino stuff and making loads of new friends, I couldn't bring myself to leave Montreal on Friday when I was scheduled to go to Ottawa. I just couldn't. So here I am, Friday night at 1:46am writing in this entry to say that I'm staying here until Monday. The last screening is tomorrow night, and with all the action that will be going on with it, I just thought to myself it would be stupid to leave now before it was over and after all the work I've put in (by that I mean alot of watching and going out with people who are doing the actual work). So my plans are to leave Monday for Toronto, then Tuesday hopefully make it down to Niagra Falls for a night, then back to Toronto from where I'll fly out to England on Friday the 28th.

So what's been going on here? Well, mainly kino stuff. It's weird - it's almost as if time doesn't exist when the kabaret is happening. Days turn into nights and all you are thinking about is making films. It's pretty cool stuff. But that also means that there have been numerous screenings in pubs where it is smokey as anything. Pretty disgusting and hard to handle. So each screening has ended up with me having to pike out on all the fun to go back home to do physio and nebs. But that's alright - I couldn't physically stay out anyway because the smoke just hurt my throat too much anyway. But due to that I'm still quite sick and haven't improved a great deal. I'm really scarting to consider my options actually - about what I should do when I get to London. I'll definately go to the hospital there and maybe try and get another course of oral antibiotics. I just don't want things to get too out of control before I take some action...

But yeah, apart from that not a great deal has been happening sorry to say. Made quite a few new friends, which is always good, and have a few more places of accomodation in various parts of the globe, so I'm laughing there. But for now it's trying to stay as healthy as possible so I can actually enjoy what's going on around me.

Rating - 5.2

Kino, poutine and sore throats galore

the adelaide crew (kate, ben, dave, cj, me)
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Hi all. The last few days have been so manic, but so cool as well. The Kino Cabaret has started, which is a week long film festival where everyone has to make a film and screen it in 2 days. Pretty cool. And what makes it even better is that there are 5 people here from Adelaide. Just for this. Now that's dedication! So yeah, I've attended the first screening, and the quality of the films are really something. It's even stirred up the film maker in me. So that's kinda cool. There's a Kino group in Adelaide, so that's definately something I'll have to be a part of when I get back. And while I'm on the subject, the Kino Cabaret in Adelaide is during the Fringe next year, so you all make sure you come along to that!

Also I've managed to get a picture of some great poutine on my pics page. Now you have your crappy 3am poutine, but the one I took a picture of is the best. This place has every type of poutine you can think of. Meat, vegge, mexican, everything! And it's damn tasty. So good!

But one bad thing is that I have managed to get quite a sore throat and it's affecting me healthwise. The first Kino screening was in a pub place, which was really nice, but it was so smokey in there. That's one thing that sucks about here - the rest of Canada is smoke free everywhere, but Montreal isn't, so its smoke galore. Usually I don't get too affected by smoke, well, I do, but not a great deal. But that night I could feel my throat getting so raw and by the next day I couldn't really talk. So bad. Now the throat is slowly getting a bit better, but the lungs have caught up and I'm now really phlegmy and quite short of breath. It's really annoying. And what sucks even more is that I want to do physio to clear it all up, but because my throat is still sucky it hurts like buggery to do. So hopefully once that clears up I'll be able to get back on top of things.

So that's about all that's been happening. Got more filming to do today, so looking forward to that. But another Kino screening tonight. Let's hope that it's not as smokey...

Raiting - 5.6

Montreal is getting cold!

me dressed up country style
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

It's been another week I think so I guess it's time again to let you all know how little Jaanie is getting along in frenchy town. Well, last week the unseasonal warm weather followed me to Montreal so I tried to make the most of it by getting around the city and trying to see all I could be bothered seeing. I went for a ride up the mountain (well, it's a hill, but apparantly you can't call it a hill around here) and it has a great view of the city. But it also lets you see just how smoggy it is here, so its not that pretty. But nevertheless, a good view.

So other than that, I have done various walking around with Ben and Claude, letting them show me just what's around here. I went to a 8mm screening night, which was alright, but nothing too special. Also went to a Kino screening, which was pretty cool, except the host was speaking French so I had to make up what was being said in my head. Was quite entertaining.

I've also been sampling some of the food here. If you didn't know, one of Montreal's attractions is it's food (well, for me anyway). I've had some poutine (chips, gravy and cheese curds) here, which is just to die for. There is also a little place where you get the BEST meat sandwhiches. You can chose your meat - fatty, not so fatty and hardly fatty. So good.

Friday night we went for a couple hour drive to Claudes parents' house in the country to spend the weekend there. Was soo nice. Except that on Friday the weather took a turn for the worse and it's true Autumn weather now. About 12 during the day and the nights are quite chilly. But it doesn't matter, we still went for a walk in the country and I kept imagining how cool it would look in winter when there's snow everywhere. Unfortunately I won't get to see that this time...

So now being back in Montreal I'm taking it easy today. Ben's computer cacked it on the weekend so I had to find a net cafe to write to you all, so you better feel privalleged! Another thing I wanted to tell you all is that I've managed to put up all the pics from the last few weeks. So make sure you go to the web page that they're on to check em all out. There's quite a few, and it's a bit jumbled up because I only realised about my other memory stick after I posted the recent ones on there. Anywho, so it jumps from Winnipeg, to Toronto, to Montreal and then back to Toronto. It's all good. Don't fret.

Health wise - well, the weekend wasn't the best regarding my physio. I was a bad boy and didn't really do too much. However, I did some walking around so a bit of exercise is better than nothing. But because of that I am a bit worse for wear today. A bit more short of breath, quite productive and don't really have too much energy to do anything. I did a good dose of physio last night and that seemed to have helped a bit, so I promise to make up for it this week with lots of good stuffs. Alright? Good!

So yeah, I think that's all to report. Tomorrow I'm going to the cf clinic here to meet up with a doctor and a nurse, so that should be pretty cool for some interviews. Then next week I'm meeting with a cf who has had a transplant, as well as a cf who is on the waiting list.

Rateing - 6.8

Merci Montreal

Ah, another day another city. I hate to disappoint you all who were waiting to hear about my midnight vigil in the death row part of the gaol. But nothing really happened. However, I didn't really stay up there long at all. I went out for a drink earlier in the night, and then got back to the hostel around 12:30 or so. I went up there with a couple people from my room and the guy working there was taking some people up and telling a couple of stories about the place. That was pretty cool. But it wasn't really scary with all these people there. Anyway, once they all went to bed I decided to go up with the camera and sit up there for a bit. For some reason, probably because I'm a wimp, I couldn't make myself go into the cell where the famous ghost once stayed in. It's meant to be the most haunted cell in the gaol. I was only up there for not even 10 minutes then decided to leave. I didn't hear or see anything, but I couldn't go into the room, and I was tired, so I just went to bed. But don't worry, when I go back there after Montreal I'll make sure to stay up there for a decent amount of time. I promise!

Anyway, so I got up this morning kinda early to catch the bus to Montreal. Arrived around 12:30 pm and was greeted by the one and only Benny T. Came back to his place and have been hanging around since. I did make it out to the park since the weather is so nice out, and caught some Dungeons and Dragons nerds dressing up and fighting each other in a mock battle. Pretty funny...

I'ts really weird with all the French stuff. I know it's to be expected here, but it's just something I haven't ever encountered. At least they can speak English if they have to, but I'm determined to learn at least something to get me by. So far my vocabulary includes 'bonjour' and 'merci'. Pretty spiffy eh?

Health is a tiny bit worse than last night. I didn't do any physio since then, so I obviously I'm a bit worse for wear. However, there is some lovely Ambrotose waiting for me here, so I'll start taking that tonight and hopefully we'll see some improvement. Yay!

Anywho, I'm off now. Take it easy all and keep those emails a comin'!

Rating - 6.3

Update on death row...

Hey all. Just a quick update. I was interviewing the guy who works here and he said that if I was interested on going up there tonight, he could go with me and tell me a couple stories. Yay! AND, I told him about the big bang I heard, and he said that is one of the most common noises heard up there. So it coulda been something...

Apparantly this building is the most haunted in Canada, and get this everyone, it (as a jail) was closed due to inhumane conditions. And they turned it into a hostel. Classic!

Anywho, I'm off. Oooh, tonight is going to be wick!

Oh Ottawa

Well, Toronto turned out to be a VERY cool place to be. Much better than I anticipated. Lots of time was spent trying to see all of downtown. But failed miserably... it's so friggen big. But the subway system is pretty cool and helps alot when trying to get around town. Went out to some fabulous places for food and bevvies. Tried quite alot of local (Canada) brew and have found some that I like. Can't remember for the life of me what they are, but nonetheless good stuff. I just let whomever I'm with choose for me.

So it was kinda sad to leave the place. But there was another instalment of Jaan's stupidness to come. You see, I had planned to catch the sub and be at the bus depot by around 11 so I could catch the 11:30am bus to Ottawa. But for some reason, and I really don't know why because I was given specific instructions by Heather, I caught the subway north and got off at totally the wrong stop. So I had to back track and by the time I got to the depot it was 12. Bummer. So I had to wait around for 2 hours for the next bus. Excitement plus! Although something cool was that there was a family of Amish people at the depot. I had never seen them before in real life. Very cool. But a huge thanks again to Heather and Paul for making my Toronto visit sooo cool and I can't wait to get back there in a few weeks!

Arriving in Ottawa, all I wanted to do was get to the hostel. The walk would have taken about an hour apparantly, but I could not be bothered with all my stuff since I walked around for AGES in Toronto. So instead of trying to be a smart person and figure out how to get there by bus, I just caught a cab. Only about $12, so not too bad. AND I got dropped off right at the front door.

Man, the hostel here is soooo cool! It's the old gaol. Very wick. Today I discovered the death row block, and I went in there at noon and it was kinda creepy then. I've decided to go back tonight around midnight and do a little vigil there with the camera. And the scary thing was today as I was leaving, I heard this huge bang coming from the death row hall. Now, it was most probably something very easily explainable, but it made me crap myself. So I'm getting quite excited about tonight. Wish me luck!

The weather gods have been smiling on me again as today is a friggen fantastic 20-something day with no clouds and basically no wind. Perfect! Today was spent walking down the main shopping street, the markets, and the parliament buildings. Everyone told me that the buildings here are amazing, but I thought "How good can buildings be?". Boy was I wrong. They are soo cool. Like old castles. It's given me a taste of what England must be like so I can't wait to get there.

Unfortunately the computer here isn't letting me connect my camera up, so I can't upload any picures just yet. But I'll make sure to do so when I get to Montreal tomorrow. I know you're all just DYING to see what I've been seeing.

Health wise I'm still feeling about the same, which is pretty amazing since I'm only doing physio once a day and doing my nebs and that's it. Tomorrow should be wicked as I get to start the Ambrotose again. Woot!

Anyway, that's about it. I can't be bothered typing any more so I'll leave it here.

Peace out eh!

Rating - 6.8