The largest hot-air balloon gathering in the world, Chambley, France.

The largest hot-air balloon gathering in the world, Chambley, France. So far today, more then 150.000 views and 5.700 Faves!, originally uploaded by gbatistini.

Wow, what a picture...

RO(o)M

Hello!

It has been a little while, hasn't it? I hope you're all still alive and hungry for news...

Since I am a little bit behind I am going to go day-by-day. Last weekend to start with:

Friday: I got my first (and hopefully only) Canadian cell phone. Ceri and I went to the Eaton Centre downtown which is a massive mall with loads of nice shops. Every phone provider we went to seemed a bit rubbish and it turned out that without a Canadian credit card we had to got pay-as-you-go. We then stumbled upon one called 'Koodo' where the lady was far more helpful and using my Social Insurance Number and (hideous) provisional was able to get a month to month contract. Let me know if any of you can text internationally for free, because I can! We got some dinner and then went home and watched a moovee.

Saturday: I went to get my hair cut at a place called Glam. Daina cut it really well and I was happy to get the best cut for a long time. She was lovely too, telling me about things in Toronto to do, what to watch out for (good and bad) as well just being a bit daft. Afterwards I met Ceri and we went back to the Eaton Centre (Ceri didn't have any ID with her on Friday) and Ceri went for the same deal as I did. We were insulted by the guy in the store while we did (first he slagged off the Welsh and then 'admitted' they weren't as bad as the Scots - he says he was joking but I think he was flirting with Ceri, in a way). After that we went shopping and had some lunch before heading back home to chill out.

Sunday: Bill & Kath (cast your feeble minds back to a few weeks ago - they are the couple we stayed with upon our arrival) have a lovely next door neighbour (everybody needs 'em) who had offered to take us out of a Sunday. So that's what occurred. Her name is Christie (although B&K think it's Krista...) and we met her outside the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum - pictured). She was lovely and managed to get us in for free (normally it's $22 EACH!) and we had a leisurely look around. It was nice but a little odd to see dinosaurs (amazing - T. Rex, Barosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Stegosaurus and a full-sized, not-a-dinosaur-but-still-amazing, suspended-from-the-ceiling Quetzalcoatlus!) and tapestries and cultural artifacts under one roof. (What a clunky sentence, sorry!). The gift shop was rubbash! They had four postcards! Weird. After the museum Christie drove us to the Danforth, the famous Greek area in Toronto where had an amazing (and far-too-filling) meal (I had veggie moussaka, nom). After this we then went to the cinema and had our first Canadian movie experience; we saw Iron Man 2, which, despite the negative reviews, we still enjoyed. What a day!

Monday: Queen Victoria's birthday. This is relevant because for some reason this means everything in Canada (or at least Ontario) shuts down. So we had a long weekend! Ceri and I got up late and walked to the park. I should add at this point that the weekend had been sweltering with Monday clocking in at over 26 degrees and 70% humidity. We sat in the aprk for a bit but it was so hot that I had to leave. Walking back (about a mile) to the house left bits of me dribbled on the sidewalk. It was too hot. And it was going to get worse.

Since then I have done nothing exciting at all. Oh! The airconditioning was on when I got in on Tuesday evening - that was a lovely surprise. It's been on since because it keeps getting hotter - yesterday was over 28 degrees. I have to change before I leave the office (shorts and T-shirt) lest I don't make it to the bus-stop.

I cant believe it's Friday tomorrow already, but that's great news because I want to sleep. Getting up just before 6am every day is losing its (already very limited) appeal and I am constantly looking for work more central. Ceri is still looking too, and is setting up as many interviews as she can.

This weekend I think will involve going to the beach with people from work and relaxing and sunbathing (I have SPF60!).

I hope everyone back home is well and is also getting up to some exciting stuff - I hear the weather is nice back there - am I correct in this assumption?

DOWNLOAD: Sebastian Blanck - Thunder (feat. Caroline Polachek)

DOWNLOAD: Sebastian Blanck - Thunder (feat. Caroline Polachek)