I spoke too soon about the jetlag. Last night, I got to bed about half past one, which is not too bad, but this morning I could not wake up for love nor money. I finally dragged myself out of bed at eleven, but I honestly could have slept all day.
Geth was also worried about his suitcase showing up in time today, because we were out this afternoon so wouldn’t have been around to receive it. Luckily it finally arrived a couple of hours before we were due to leave, so he was able to have a shower and get some laundry done. As this has also happened to Malcolm and Steff a couple of times when connecting through Heathrow, we’ve decided we’re not going that way to Canada anymore.
Hoping that parkrun tomorrow will sort the jetlag issue!
OOTD: it’s still too hot and muggy for the 95% of my wardrobe that was bought to suit the more usual British climate! Duran Duran t-shirt Amplified (2018), skirt H&M (thrifted from my sister-in-law Steff in 2016), trainers Reebok (2017).
Geth had left on the Saturday – he had a conference in Toronto that we had used to schedule a family trip – but I headed off for my holiday the Sunday before last, carrying two very heavy bags that turned out to be a bad idea when I had to lug them up and down a railway bridge near where I live in order to get to the Metro station. After a cumbersome Metro ride, train ride and taxi ride, I arrived at Mum and Dad’s in Edinburgh and managed to get a few hours’ sleep before a 4am wakeup call.
The flight from Edinburgh to Toronto was nice and straightforward – I read my Kindle the whole time – and after collecting our bags and meeting up with Malcolm at the airport, we got a taxi to the Holiday Inn, where Mum and Dad were staying, and I dropped my bag in their room before going to the St. Louis Diner, where Geth was meeting us after his morning conference session.
A couple of ciders later – logged here – I went with Geth to our hotel, the Grand Hotel, where I was really glad to get out of my comfy plane leggings and put on something lighter (Toronto was a bit muggier than Edinburgh had been that morning). The Grand is lovely, and they’d upgraded Geth to a suite, which had an awesome view:
Downtown Toronto, as seen from the Grand Hotel. You can see the very tippity top of the CN Tower, just behind the tallest buildings!
The suite was great – it had a separate bedroom and loads of space for sitting around. After I’d got unpacked, we headed back to the Holiday Inn for a meal to celebrate Mum and Dad’s wedding anniversary:
You’ve already seen this picture in the Now! #100 review, but it’s worth posting again!
The cider they serve at the Holiday Inn is Strongbow, but the bottle looks different in Canada, so I took a picture of it anyway.
Canadian Strongbow bottle.
After some amazing pizza (the pizza at the Holiday Inn is of the perfect texture, and the sauce is insanely yummy), a couple more Strongbows, some cheesecake (see my cheesecake roundup) and a bit of a wait while a heavy thunderstorm was in progress, Geth and I headed back to our hotel, where it turned out the view by night was pretty awesome too:
I love skyscrapers.
Then I got some much-needed sleep. Part two tomorrow!
Back in Newcastle this evening after over a week spent in Canada visiting my brother and sister-in-law. I had a wonderful time! I will be updating lots over the next few days with lots of pictures etc. – just have to get over the jetlag first!
Somehow, despite saying after last summer – which involved a busy work period and four weekends on the bounce in August where we were travelling away somewhere or hosting guests – that I wanted to have a much more chilled summer this year, it’s ended up being similarly hectic.
Fortunately/unfortunately work has been quiet during June and July (so I’ve been able to get on with other things, but I’m also a bit broke now). Fortunately/unfortunately this will not be the case during August as I have two huge projects lined up (more money – yay! More stuff to do – argh). However, the house stuff is still ongoing, the now-finished Now! marathon ended up taking up more time towards the end than I thought it would, and Geth and I ended up booking a lot more trips away than we expected. As such, I find myself doing the whole ‘argh! can’t wait till autumn when I can relax a bit!’ thing yet again – and I shouldn’t wish the summer away, especially when the weather has been so nice this year.
Today is yet another hectic day – I’ll update more fully later this week – so I’ll leave it there.
Oh, and I went swimming again this morning. Eight lengths this time, although I think I’m actually getting worse!
