These days in Uxbridge have been going by fairly slow but I have enjoyed them tremendously. This time has been very family oriented. We did Christmas Eve and Day with my mom's parents here at our place and then traveled to Kingston to be with my dad's family for Boxing Day - as in typical tradition.
Yesterday I got a taste of my friends when I went shopping with Jessica and Krista. We were unsuccessful shoppers but we made it up by going to a very funny movie...Meet the Fockers. I hate paying close to $14 for a movie, but after leaving the theatre last night I didn't care. Barbara Streisand and Dustin Hoffman were cast so well for those parts, they were the highlights for me.
So after these past few relaxing slow days, I am about to enter a busier schedule. Johnny is visiting today and tomorrow we'll join Jessica in celebrating her birthday, followed by shopping in Toronto on Thursday with various people I need to see. I then will make my way to Waterloo for New Years celebrating, and return home via Whitby on January 2. Hopefully leaving me enough time to pack up and depart on January 3.

Here's part of a holiday email I got from one of my fellow van-sitters.

"It is the time to sit and relaxes and share the time with your family and friends, also to focus on what you can work on next year, since you did no get to your goal this year."

Now, I haven't seen this person for 3 years, nor have we communicated with personal emails during that time. On occasion, this person would send mass group emails so I kind of knew what was going in thier life - I however didn't return the favour.
The kicker is that this was part of another mass group email. I just wonder where the heck this person gets off telling us all that we didn't reach our goal(s) this year! I feel as though I have had a very sucessful year!
All this person had to do was change the "since" to an "if" and I would have considered sending a well wishing reply. Happy Holidays everyone!

Whoa. I have been back in Canada for a full week already? Time does fly. It has been great thus far! My first 36 hours were spent in Waterloo, visiting Johnny and fun work people/friends. My old housemate Chris was kind enough to put Johnny and I up at the old house for a night, and he even gave us his bed - which please note we were gentlemen about and did not take advantage of. We left that for when we got to our hotel room in Toronto. I also got to see David and Joel's apartments. They both have landed some sweet apartments, despite the sketchiness of the neighborhoods. Buddies was full of hot boys and many of my favorite friends - including my wife from grade one, although she did bring her boyfriend! And talk about random connections amongst everyone. I did not suffer from jet lag as for the first three nights I managed about 5 hours a night, so I just felt constantly tired.
I eventually made it home to Uxbridge on Sunday and have since been here doing nothing! Oh, but what it is to do nothing and have no worries. I managed to watch the first episode of Survivor that was found randomly on a tape and random other reality tv my parents managed to tape.
So far the food that has tasted the best to me since I have been back is not pizza as I had expected, it was instead mashed potatos. Despite all the variety of ways they cook potatos in Britain, their mash just ain't so hot.

Here's an open invite to any of my blog readers to help celebrate in kicking off my 2 week stint in Canada. Come on out to Buddies if you're in or near Toronto on Saturday night!

Plans are coming along nicely for my first few days in Ontario! Visiting Waterloo and Toronto right off the bat and trying to overdose on friends. Following that I will retreat to my parents and relax. In anticipation of coming home, I am trying to adjust myself to the eastern time zone now. I don't know if this is a smart idea but we shall see. Tonight I plan to stay up until 4am, and the following night I won't sleep until my bus leaves for the airport at 5:30am. Does anyone have better advice for avoiding jet lag coming from UK > Canada?

Oh, how I miss random spontaneous adventures. It's hard to obtain such adventures when you are in the middle of nowhere with no access to a vehicle.
My friend Ashley, from Uxbridge, moved to England last month and came down to the castle on Saturday for a few days visit. I showed her the excitement that is the pub on Saturday night and then we explored the castle at night and both got creeped out pretty quickly. We decided instead that the castle tour would happen in daylight. Once back at residence there was an ambulance, as a student managed to bash his head open. Michael was the lucky SLC who got to ride to the hospital with him. So far, both Jenn and Michael have gone on trips to the hospital, and neither of them are staying on next term.
Today, Ashley and I ventured into the village and saw how trugs are made. Trugs are a basket that is indigenous to this area. We also did the castle tour and a tour of the grounds. Simon was kind enough to treat us to dinner and then take us, along with Michael, on a walk through the forest. This walk happened at midnight and involved some haunted tales. After the walk we decided to jump in Simon's car and travel to neighbouring Pevensey Castle and check out the ruins there. It was also a great place to try and crack each others backs and give piggyback rides.

I have finally aquired a pair of thai fisherman trousers. Way back in the summer of 2002 my friend Catherine came back from Thailand and had me try on a pair and I fell in love with them. Apparently they are like so cheap ($1) in Thailand. However, as you may know I am in Europe, so where did I acquire these trousers? In Amsterdam! I paid a tad more than the $1 I would have paid in Thailand but seeing as I probably won't be visiting anytime soon I grabbed a pair. I blog about it now as I have been wearing them for the last 3 nights now and have realized perhaps I am over doing it.

Do you know those times when you discover a new musical act and listen to them non-stop and that still isn’t enough? As I have just entered that phase with Frou Frou, I thought I would reflect back on past CD’s that just never wanted to leave my CD player. This exercise is to give you insight into my very exciting life.
Weezer (blue CD): Although I didn’t own this CD, I always made my best friend play it in grade nine.
Sarah McLachlan (Fumbling Towards Ecstasy): I think this was grade 10
Alanis Morisette (Jagged Little Pill): Summer of 1996
Chantal Kreviazuk (Colour Moving and Still): Summer of 2000
Sarah Harmer (You Were Here): Fall of 2000 through Winter 2001
Martina Sorbara (Cure for Bad Deeds): Winter of 2002
John Mayer (Room for Squares): Summer of 2002
Kylie Minogue (Fever): Winter 2003
David Gray (White Ladder): Summer of 2003 through Winter 2004
Brand New (Deja Entendu): Spring 2004
Frou Frou (Details): Current

We survived Amsterdam! Nothing too crazy to report. Our hostel was full of the typical hostel experiences of random roommates and dirty bathrooms. We checked out all the touristy things; coffeeshops, a sex museum, the red-light district, canals upon canals, Van Gogh museum, and a walkby of the Anne Frank house and the homomonument.
Van Gogh musuem was awesome and I think I actually have an artist now that I can say I like and try to sound intelligent about. Michael however was not so into Van Gogh as a cake we had eaten earlier made him feel uncomfortable when he was close to the paitings. To see a video that Michael and I sent Jenn from the museum, click here. This video was prior to going inside. It is only saved for 2 months but it appears you can download it if you wish.
Amsterdam was a fun city and I was glad to check it out. I only wished time had allowed me to be less of a tourist and more time exploring the Dutch countryside and learning more about the culture.
I also didn't get a chance to take a picture in giant wooden clogs but I'll survive that.

Tonight I almost had lots of fun with drunk people while I remained sober. It was the "offical closing ceremonies" for the fall term. We had an entire castle photo, then a nice dinner, speeches, and some music presentaitons. It was followed right away by a karakoe party in one of our fancy rooms. The karakoe was quite fun, but I was still not inclinded to sing. Jenn and I danced soberly away on the stairs so everyone could see our awesome dance moves. Then we realized we were sober and most of the students were drunk. We quickly collected Michael and disappeared to watch Harry Potter 3. I enjoyed it much more this time as I didn't just finish reading the book and I knew it was not what I wanted to be (ie identical to the book).

A mere 14 days until I come home for Christmas. The excitement for coming home is currently overdoing the feeling that it's the Christmas season. Although after spending a day shopping in London on Monday, I am still not feeling it yet. None of the stores I was in were playing the cheesy Christmas carols. I think I'll have to hit up some malls back in Canada, even though I am done my shopping, just to get more in the spirit.