I arrived back to Toronto about 24 hours ago. It was quite a change to see green grass everywhere and no snow in sight.
I just finished packing this morning so now it’s back to normal life and work again. Last night I set up a gallery of pictures from the Christmas break and my trip back to Toronto.
Another Christmas has come and gone. We were up at 7:30am this morning to open our presents, which is actually late for our family. Back in the day our average Christmas mornings started between 4:00-5:00am.
I received a Sony DSC-P52 digital camera as my big present this year. I’ve been playing around with it for most of the day so I present several of the better pictures that I took. They have all been scaled down quite a bit. I’ll be setting up a no-scaled-down gallery on my desktop in Toronto when I return. Until then, enjoy:
Best beverage ever!
Johnny Cash
Sparky
Christmas village
The tree
I haven’t posted since I left the T-dot, so here’s a short rundown of what’s happened in the past 4 days.
Friday: Sean and I left for the airport shortly after 1:30, however the buses were running off schedule. We eventually made it to Pearson at 4:00 where we promptly checked in and then went on the search for supper. We were planning on dining at the Swiss Chalet but there was a lineup so we stopped at the burger place which was really delicious. We cleared security which was no problem and then started to wait for our respective flights to leave. I boarded my 6:15 flight shortly after 6:00 and noticed that it had started to snow. This led to a 30 minute delay where they had to de-ice the wings and then taxi, what seemed to be like 5 miles, out to the runway. Eventually, I arrived into Moncton at 9:45pm and was greeted by several feet of snow, which Toronto is lacking.
Saturday: Went to a friend’s baby shower out in Petitcodiac in the afternoon and then went to the mall with another friend in the evening to do some Christmas shopping.
Sunday: Church in the morning. Football and napping in the afternoon.
Monday: Headed into Halifax to see Andrew and watch the finished Gary DVD which was truly awesome! However, a few people were missing from Halifax since they decided to stay in Yarmouth. Atleast now I know who my true friends are. 
I arrived back in Moncton shortly before 9:00 and just finished watching the Packers plow over the Raiders! Go Green Bay!
Tomorrow I will attempt to finish my Christmas shopping and try to watch some more football, if it’s on.
After exactly 4 months + 1 day I will be heading back to the motherland of New Brunswick tomorrow evening. It will be nice to breath in the clean, fresh air and see the old sites again, even if it’s only for 10 days.
Our power just came back on after a 3 hour outage where our block was in a total blackout. The power was on across the street though which was kind of strange.
Anyways, you really discover how much you need electricity when you don’t have it. It was a pretty fun time even without tv, computers, or lights. The three of us roomates gathered in the living room with a couple flashlights and discussed everything from scary movies to what we should name our kids.
I took a trip across the street to the market at 8:30 to get some juice but upon arrival there was a sign saying they had closed a couple hours early. In my desperate attempt to not come home empty-handed, I stopped at the convenience store to pick up a litre of Coke. Several of the condos around our building started to get their power back but I noticed that our building was still pitch black.
Once back in the apartment and after drinking the litre of Coke, we convened in the living room again where Gump attempted to teach Sean and I how to count from 1 to 10 in Cantonese and Mandarin. Let’s just say that it didn’t go over very well. More laughs were had as Sean and I stumbled through the numbers. I did worse though while trying to say “tchut” which was some number, I forget now. I would like to know a little bit of Mandarin or Cantonese before I leave here. So far I know that “thank you” sounds alot like “westside” and asking for the bill at a restaurant sounds like “give me Madonna.” Maybe I should just stick to English, although I find myself stumbling over it quite often as well.
They finally captured Saddam Hussein today. He was found in a mud hole with several guns and $750,000 US in cash. I thought it would been funny if his capture was shown in the usual COPS-style:
The cops are responding to a domestic dispute at Saddam’s mud hole. Upon arriving they find Saddam standing outside without a shirt on and his hair and beard all shaggy.
Cop: “So, can you tell me what happened here tonight?”
Saddam: “Uhh, nothing officer. I mean, I was just settling down for the night and my neighbours came over and just started screaming at me.”
Cop: “Ok, I see. Do you mind if we do a search of your mud hole?”
Saddam: “Yeah, umm, sure. But you aren’t going to find anything there anyways.”
(Cops search the mud hole and find $750,000 in $100 bills along with several high-powered guns)
Cop: “Can you explain where you got all of this money?”
Saddam: “Yeah, umm, I just sold my DVD player and stereo to another guy earlier today. I didn’t have time to deposit it into the bank yet.”
Cop: “You sold those for $750,000? That’s alot of money for a few electronics, don’t you think?”
Saddam: “Well, I guess so. I mean, it was a good stereo system. And my brother also gave me a few thousand that he owed me.”
Cop: “How much did your brother give you?”
Saddam: “Umm, yeah, my sister gave me about $10,000″
Cop: “I thought your brother gave you the money?”
Saddam: “Umm, no, it was my sister actually. Yeah, my sister gave me a few thousand.”
Cop: “And what about these high-powered guns?”
Saddam: “I have no idea where those came from!”
Cop: “But this is your mud hole, right? You must know how they got there.”
Saddam: “I was robbed last week. The robbers must have left their guns behind.”
Cop: “Ok, I see. Well frankly I don’t believe your story, seeing how your name is engraved in the barrel of each gun.”
Saddam: “Oh yeah, those are my guns. Umm, I’m a member of the rifle range here in Tikrit. That’s why I have the guns.”
Cop: “Ok then. Well I was just talking with your neighbours and they tell me that you often cause many problems here in the neighbourhood. Therefore, I’m going to put you under arrest for the possession of un-licensed firearms and domestic disturbance.”
(Saddam makes a run for it but is soon tackled to the ground by three cops)
Saddam: “I’m innocent. I didn’t do anything, let me go!”
(Saddam starts to cry)
Saddam: “My mother is going to be so mad at me. Please, let me go. I don’t wanna go to jail.”
(Saddam is put into handcuffs and led to the backseat of the cop’s cruiser)
Cop: “Watch your head.”
I ventured back downtown this afternoon to attempt some more Christmas shopping. I looked around quite a few small stores on Yonge St, mostly just to warm up from the chilly weather. The Eaton Centre was packed with tons of shoppers making it almost impossible to walk. However, I did have somewhat of a celebrity encounter. I was walking out of a toy store and saw Knowlton Nash, former anchorman of The National, walk by me and into the store. I know it’s not much but it was pretty cool seeing how I used to watch him on the news when I was younger.
Anyways, we just got back from the Pho 88 Vietnamese restaurant across the street. Now it’s time for HNIC.
When I was younger my Christmas list used to be quite long. There would be so many toys and games that I wanted which used to fill sheets of paper. I remember back when I was around 8 years old, about 99% of my presents dealt with Ghostbusters, ranging from action figures, bottles of slime, and the Ecto car. Since then, my list has significantly decreased every with each passing Christmas.
This year it was actually my mom who had the idea of getting a digital camera as my big gift. Even though it won’t be a surprise, I’m looking forward to getting it so that I can take some pictures of Toronto and show them to y’all. I never really owned a camera before, except for a small Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles camera back when I was 6 that used to superimpose an image of one of the turtles on the bottom-right of each picture. So I’m looking forward to finally being able to take pictures and capture some memories while I’m up here in the T-dot and then again back at Acadia. I wish that I had a camera during the past 3 years since there were alot of things I’d like to have pictures of. Oh well.
In conclusion, here is my monstrous Christmas list for 2003, consisting of only two items:
