Going away?

[Sandola]

Yeah, great pictures. About the only thing I miss about the Old Country (aside from good Mexican food, of course) is the cold winter weather. One winter in Oklahoma we built a little igloo in the back yard, using plastic boxes to make the snow-ice bricks. Made a vent hole in the top, threw in a small rug, and our son was the star of the neighbourhood! Lasted about a week, too. My favourite winter phenomena, which you'll see a lot of where you are, BD, are the bare trees covered in thick layers of ice, with icicles hanging from them, tinkling like windchimes in the breeze (and falling off, a serious health hazard, in the gales).

It's about 32 here today.

 

[blackdiamond]

What time during the day did you take this photo?

I used to live in Spokane (a few hours east of Seattle) in Washington State and in the middle of winter it used to get real dark like this any time after 3pm

Its 38° today and looking at photos like this certainly bring back some memories.

This was about 7:45pm, we do get dark early but not quite that early or should I say not yet.

 

[blackdiamond]

Yeah, great pictures. About the only thing I miss about the Old Country (aside from good Mexican food, of course) is the cold winter weather. One winter in Oklahoma we built a little igloo in the back yard, using plastic boxes to make the snow-ice bricks. Made a vent hole in the top, threw in a small rug, and our son was the star of the neighbourhood! Lasted about a week, too. My favourite winter phenomena, which you'll see a lot of where you are, BD, are the bare trees covered in thick layers of ice, with icicles hanging from them, tinkling like windchimes in the breeze (and falling off, a serious health hazard, in the gales).

It's about 32 here today.

Now there is an idea, once we make the complete move into our house I will have to see if I can build one of those igloos.

It probably won't be too long before the trees start doing that, all the cars driving along have icicles hanging from them, its quite interesting watching snow and ice fall off of cars as they drive down the big interstate highways.

One thing is you want to be doing your shopping and gas stops as early as possible, its bloody cold out there at night. My wife filled up with gas the other night and had to jump back in the car while it filled up, she was freezing her **** off out there.

 

[BlackDouglas]

This was about 7:45pm, we do get dark early but not quite that early or should I say not yet.

Give it time (well I don’t know what it like in Detroit Michigan) but it used to get dark like a week before Christmas up until late March.

 

[BlackDouglas]

One thing is you want to be doing your shopping and gas stops as early as possible, its bloody cold out there at night. My wife filled up with gas the other night and had to jump back in the car while it filled up, she was freezing her **** off out there.

Yep, used to do the same thing. I used to stop for gas and pay at the pump with my credit card and wait in the car. I would put the hose into the tank set it for ‘full’, to avoid the cold (yes it gets that cold) I would get back into the car and wait.

 

[Count Zero]

Speaking of cold. In Northern Alberta the temperature gets low enough to freeze the anti-freeze so the engine blocks have an electrical element fitted that has to be plugged in every night.
I remember one morning getting in the car and the seat coating cracked into pieces like glass. Sometimes I walked across the bridge that spans the mighty North Saskatchewan river and the fluid in my eyes started to freeze so that I had to walk most of the way with my eyes shut.
The biggest pain imo of a long cold winter is the multiple layers of clothes that have to be donned and doffed every time you go out or come in. On reflection, 40 above in Adelaide is preferable to life 40 below.

 

[blackdiamond]

The biggest pain imo of a long cold winter is the multiple layers of clothes that have to be donned and doffed every time you go out or come in.

I have to agree, major pain walking in and out of shops undressing and dressing all of the time but you soon become very quick at it.

 

[blackdiamond]

Im off to Toronto for a few days late next week, any good suggestions on where to go?

For the most part I will just be walking around so please don't get me to hike too far.

 

[Count Zero]

Im off to Toronto for a few days late next week, any good suggestions on where to go?

For the most part I will just be walking around so please don't get me to hike too far.

If you went to Toronto and didn't go up the tower, you would probably be the first (sits back and waits for flood of posts from people who went to Toronto and didn't even notice that big tall pointy building).
http://www.cntower.ca/portal/SmartDefault.aspx?ac=417
http://www.torontoontario.ca/best_toronto_attractions.html
http://www.rogerscentre.com/about/tours/index.html

 

[Sandola]

If you went to Toronto and didn't go up the tower, you would probably be the first (sits back and waits for flood of posts from people who went to Toronto and didn't even notice that big tall pointy building).
http://www.cntower.ca/portal/SmartDefault.aspx?ac=417
http://www.torontoontario.ca/best_toronto_attractions.html
http://www.rogerscentre.com/about/tours/index.html

Is that the one that looks like a ski slope? (Are you allowed to slide down it?)

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Im off to Toronto for a few days late next week, any good suggestions on where to go?

For the most part I will just be walking around so please don't get me to hike too far.

All this stuff is in downtown Toronto. It will be bloody cold but the trams (trolley car) system is extensive like Melbourne. There are two North South train lines and 2 East West lines that go thru down town Toronto. Down town is a lot like Sdyney rather than Melbourne, ie a rectangle rather than square with water, Lake Ontario, at one end.

From a sports point of view check out the new Maple Leaf Gardens centre I think it's called the Air Canada Centre. The Ice Hockey Hall of Fame is near this building and worth checking out.

Take a tour of the Skydome which is now called the Rogers Centre and is in Sandy's 3rd link. That's the movable roofed 50,000+ stadium that cost $570mil CAN (1989$) and was sold in 2004 for $25mil to Rogers Communication group. Actually all 3 of Sandy's links are worth going to see.

Honest Ed's department store was always a good laugh. I found Milo there when I lived in TO. Ed is dead I think but this place is an institution.

The night clubs down Queens Street West are pretty good. And pubs and restaurants around Yonge and Bloor streets are pretty good as well. A bit up market but pretty good. Yonge St is like King William St in that it cuts the downtown into East and West and usually streets are named East or West either side eg Queens Steet is Queens St East or Queens St West. Yonge St is supposedly the longest st in the world, 1,100kms. Sam the Record Man has to be one of the biggest record stores in the world and the Eaton Centre (shopping) is somewhere to stay warm. Both are on Yonge St in about the middle of the CBD.

The Madison hotel is a Uni pub and about 500m north of Uni of Toronto Stadium. I've always had a good time there.

Not sure if there is a port supporters group in TO but one of my best mates I went to uni with and played footy with is a Port supporter and he reckons a school mate and uni mate also live there and who support Port.

Early March you should still be able ice skate in the pond in front of the City Hall.

Ontario Place is a great place on the water in summer with concerts, amusement theme park stuff and other public activities taking place. Not sure if much happens in winter.

There are a lot of neighbourhoods downtown, ie little Italy, little Greek, little Portugual, Chinatown, a Jewish sector and the Caribean sector down Queens St West way. It has the look and feel of Melbourne I reckon. Partly because of the trams, partly the gray skys and partly the Euro cafe culture. And like Melbourne you will find plenty of live theatre, there is a theatre district, a fashion district and plenty of live music.

Hope that helps.

 

[blackdiamond]

Thanks for all the info on Toronto, here is a bit of a report on my stay.

We stayed at the Metropolitan Hotel which is basically right next to City Hall for those of you who know the area. Im not big on public transport at the best of times so I just walked everywhere I could, this is not always the best strategy because you just don't get enough time in each of the places but Im sure I will be visiting again.

The cold weather didn't bother me, infact it was probably warmer than Detroit although we did get one hell of a snow storm. We started to get snow at 2pm on Friday and it didn't stop until the very early hours of Sunday morning, it was pelting down constantly during this period but that didn't bother me.

What I liked most about the place was the ease at getting around, either by foot or rail. The streets are so well named you almost think you are in Adelaide, I mean they have Adelaide Street for one. I would recommend this place to anyone, infact I could easily see myself living there.

I found quite a few places that were mentioned above by REH, so here are some photos.

This is the Old Maple Leaf Gardens, not sure if this is used for anything these days as it looks very vacant (probably just kept for a historical means but to an outsider its a bit of an eye sore).

This is a view from CN Tower of the Air Canada Centre, home of the Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors and the Toronto Football Club (Soccer).

I did go to the Centre on Thursday Night but didn't get much of a chance to check it out, the Raptors were playing that night and it didn't quite meet with my schedule. From what I could see though it did appear quite good and I liked how it is combined with Union Station (from an Adelaide perspective its like having a stadium combined with the railway station in the city, just remove the Casino).

Hockey Hall of Fame, only problem was getting in the door, maybe next time.

I was planning to do a tour of this but another time perhaps, not bad for $13.50 (CAN) though. Who is the Rogers person? I know its telecommunications but with all the advertising you would think that was the Countries name.

Honest Ed's - they still have Milo and we took some home with us ($9.99 for a kilo). Its a bloody long walk from City Hall but I did it twice, second time with my wife and do you think she was cursing me for it!

Here is the ice skating rink near City Hall.

 

[blackdiamond]

CN Tower at night with a bit of snow effect. For those that don't know, CN Tower is the tallest building in the world. However I was more impressed with view from Empire States Building when I was there in 2006/07.

This is a view from the top of CN Tower looking back on the lake, you can see how the water has just frozen locking the boats in at dock.

We did manage to attend one Ice Hockey game, this was between the Toronto Marlies v Manitoba Moose at Ricoh Colliseum. The Marlies are basically the junior/feeder club for the Maple Leafs. We could have gone to see the Maple Leafs that night at the Air Canada Centre but there were no decent tickets left at a good price. Although on second thought we should have just gone to ACC as the subway system out to there almost made it unaccessible.

Overall though I give Toronto the BIG !

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Good to hear you had a good time in Toronto bd. But spring and summer, even early fall it is a lot more fun as there are more outdoor things to do in the warmer weather.

Why didn't you catch a tram to Honest Eds the second time? Did you notice all the photo's of him with famous actors and celebrities hang all round his department shop? I think he owned a couple of theatres in Toronto as well as restaruants in the theatre district. Does he still have all his cheesy slogans up. He did a couple of good stunts when I lived there. IIRC the Milo is made in Jamacia under licence. Is that what your tin says?

Did you get to Sam the Record Man store? I spent 2 or 3 hours there a few times, found some fantastic stuff there.

Rogers was Rogers Communications until a few years ago. It started of as radio manufacturer in the 1920's was a cable TVcompany in the late 1970's and the end of the 80's when I was there then ended up doing just about everthing in the telecommunications game as well as owning a few sports teams.

 

[blackdiamond]

Why didn't you catch a tram to Honest Eds the second time?

That was an option I guess, also could've driven our car which was completely surrounded by snow from Church Street up there as well. However I thought it would be nice to walk up that way (via University Street) and show my wife the University Grounds which have some nice buildings. This didn't work very well though as the footpaths on the University side of the Parliament building weren't cleared of snow, it was a struggle to get through this and by the end of it the University Buildings had basically passed us by.

Did you notice all the photo's of him with famous actors and celebrities hang all round his department shop? I think he owned a couple of theatres in Toronto as well as restaruants in the theatre district. Does he still have all his cheesy slogans up. He did a couple of good stunts when I lived there. IIRC the Milo is made in Jamacia under licence. Is that what your tin says?

Yes all the photos and the cheesy slogans were still up. The place kind of reminded me of a bottom basement Harris Scarfes store, in a good way that is. I will have to check the tin tonight.

Did you get to Sam the Record Man store? I spent 2 or 3 hours there a few times, found some fantastic stuff there.

I missed that one.

REH, how long were you living in Toronto for? Can you give me a bit of background as to why you were there and why you went back to Australia?

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

REH, how long were you living in Toronto for? Can you give me a bit of background as to why you were there and why you went back to Australia?

I arrived in Canada in May 1988, spent a couple of weeks out in western Canada visiting friends and then was in Toronto until March 1989, working from September and using it as a base to travel around Canada and the USA. Spent a couple of weeks in California and got home just after the footy season started in 1989.

Why did I go to Canada? A few reasons. I meet all these Canadians on a tour from Cairns to Sydney around Easter 1987. Got on well with a few guys from British Columbia and Alberta. I knew a fair bit about Canada and they in many but not all ways were like Aussies. Fell for a Canadian girl on the tour who lived in Toronto but was born and raised and went to uni in Southern Ontario. I continued a long distance relationship but didn't really think it would go anywhere.

However during 1987 work changed. I was working for one of the then big 8 accounting firms Touche Ross. After 12 months work, I started working without a senior or a manager surpervising me and I was working direct for a couple of partners. This was an unusual situation for someone with 12 months experience and none of my mates from uni were in this situation. I couldn't have done this if I was in the audit section, I was in business services. I was putting in big hours and keeping the partners happy but ignored my professional year studies and failed my second unit of four after stuffing up a big question in the exams. The order of the course changed and it meant that I had to wait 15 months before I could re sit the exam. I figured nothing was gonna change work wise, my girlfriend had sent me all this stuff on getting a 1 year work visa for young Australians in Canada, not having an Anglo background I never had the calling to the UK but always wanted to go to the USA and I was still living at home and decided it was time to see the world. I only expected to maybe last a few months with my girlfriend, given another friend did the same things as me with an American girl he met in Europe. But things went well and I got myself a job with the Canadian subsidiary of a large desktop publishing company who had gone thru 3 years in a row of about 50% compound growth. It was a contract job but because they were in a mess and I did a god job they decide to employed me full time. I worked hard and was making about $1,000 a week, not bad for a 24 year old, 20 years ago. I left Canada with more money than I took over. It allowed me, when I had free time to see and do a lot of things in TO and North America.

But I knew that in the long run it was better and easier for me to go back home and get my chartered accounting qualifications. The winter also got to me after the initial fun of skiing and ice skating for the first time. A white Christmas was a great experience. I found it strange walking around the apartment in light clothes and then spending 10 minutes to dress up just to go and get the paper and some bread and milk. Between June and early October, apart from the crazy humidity of some days, I thought TO was fantastic. A billion things to do and learn in TO and Ontario as well as the rest of the continent.

Carried on the relationship with my girlfriend for about 20 months after I left. She come to Oz again and I went back in1991, but in the end her parents didn't support her coming to Oz and I didn't want to live in Canada, not for the first few years we were together and if we were going to start a family I thought it would have been easier in Adelaide. But I did contemplate if we did have kids looking at 5 to 10 years down the track moving to Canada with work. But that didn't eventuate. Interestingly when I was there my girlfriend's best friend was going out with a guy called Norm who she didn't really like and I didn't spend a lot of time with. However since we broke up he has become one of my best mates. I've gone back to TO in 97 and 99 basically to catch up with him and he has been to Oz 3 times. He now lives in Dallas so I haven't had the urge to go back. But I still speak to him on the phone for a couple of hours at a time solving the world problems and we talk a lot about what happens in the US, Oz and Canada. If my technology project ever gets off the ground he will be working with me in Oz and SE Asia.

Funnily enough his next girl friend ended up immigrating to Oz and marrying my best mate, whom Norm spent some time with when he visited Oz. I introduced them, he didn't like her initially but things changed. They now have split up, she moved back to Southern Ontario, took their son with her and my mate spends half of August every year in TO. 2 or 3 years ago a friend that went to Uni with and played footy with myself and my best mate moved to TO to be the world wide exploration geologist for Barrick Gold. So I still have a reasonable amount of contact with the city even though I haven't been there for a decade. Who knows if things had been a little different in 1991 I could be living there or a lot closer than what Sydney is. San Francisco or the west coast was a compromise in between place my girlfriend and I always talked about.

What about you bd, what is the story about you immigrating? I assume your wife is from the USA. Is this correct?

 

[blackdiamond]

What about you bd, what is the story about you immigrating? I assume your wife is from the USA. Is this correct?

My wife is an Aussie girl (Adelaide born and a Port Supporter), we started going out together on the 7th of December 1996.

She completed her PhD in Embriology at the QEH (part of the University of Adelaide) in 2004 and at the end of that year we got engaged at Semaphore.

In early in 2005 she obtained a job as a researcher at the University of New Orleans after being at a conference I think in Denmark, this would continue her work in embriology but also add stemcell research, the job would not start until August 2005 and I would stay in Adelaide to see if a long distance relationship could work.

About twenty days after she arrived in New Orleans they were struck by Hurricane Katrina. At this time she only had a car and was staying with one of her professors. She made sure she left just in enough time to avoid the Hurricane, moving to Texas for a number of weeks after first thinking it would be okay to go back in a few days. While being in Texas they were also hit with Hurricane Rita, but being in Houston they pretty much avoided any devastation.

She came home to Adelaide for a couple of weeks in 2006 and then later that year I took nine weeks off of work to see if I would like living with her full time and get a feel for what its like living in the USA. A couple of weeks I spent travelling by myself through California, Mexico, Arizona and Nevada on a Contiki Tour, the rest with her in Louisiana and we also travelled to Philadelphia and New York for New Years in Time Square.

I had a really good time so we then planned the marriage which took place at Mt Lofty last May. Before we knew it I had all the paperwork required to get me into the USA.

Money had basically run out at the University of New Orleans mainly due to the Hurricane so the Professors found a new lab to move to, so not long after arriving back in the USA it was off to Detroit.

We have since bought a house up here, got my drivers licence (lucky that I have this as here in Michigan they have stopped giving licences to non US residents - pretty smart thing to do in a Motor City) and finally after about an eight month wait they have approved me to work in the USA.

Thats about it really.

 

[WhyAlwaysMe]

Thought this thread would be worth a bump...

I'm off the Melbourne Tuesday week, going to see some mates I have over there, going to the first ODI at the G and will be going to Crown.

I'm also strongly considering going to the States either end of this year or the year after that. Will have made a decision of that within the next month or so.

 

[Borscht Mat]

I traveled this Christmas from Slovenia to an exotic place where we had warm weather, unlike home, got a good feed of crabs and fish, drank some good beer and watched the cricket.

Gotta love Australia in the summer.

 

[Macca19]

Am off to Lincoln in a few days for a few days for my wedding anniversary. We're going shark diving which will be good fun and will no doubt be chowing down on some coffin bay oysters the size of a gaucho rump steak.

 

[MP_]

i went down to adelaide today to get air conditioner and carpet quotes, btw if anyone on this forum is a concreter boy have i got some work for you

 

[missionpossible]

We are thinking of going up the riverland in May.

2 adults, 2 kids.

Anyone have any recomendations of where to stay. (prefer seperate room for the kids)

 

[Pakeha]

I'm off to Bali for 10 days in March with the bride and the young son.

My son is also off to Melbourne for a week in late January with my daughter and her partner, and then to New Zealand for 2 weeks in April with them as well, so he'll probably be doing more travelling than me this year.

 

[Macca19]

Am planning to go to NZ for a month at the end of the year as well. Plenty of hiking and wine touring to be done!

 

[Pakeha]

Am planning to go to NZ for a month at the end of the year as well. Plenty of hiking and wine touring to be done!

I'm from the Marlborough region of NZ so right in the middle of Sauvignon Blanc paradise. A visit to Cloudy Bay is a must, and there is a winery that makes only sparklings if you're interested, owned by one of the French Dynasties, although they're quite expensive as most get shipped to Europe.

However there is more than that to get in to. Even in the far cold south there are some magnificent wineries (even Sam Neil has his own at Queenstown, you might even find him serving them up to you as he gets into that). Get a few into you to build up the Dutch Courage for the BIG bungee down there . Pinot Noir is another to look out for down south of course.

The Wairarapa just north of Wellington is great for eateries/ wineries.

When you get the need for a cleansing ale you'll find that just about every new area/town you venture in to will have its own local brewer/micro brewery as well.

And if you get nostalgic for an Australian wine, you might find some bargains at the Supermarkets. When I was last there in 2006 I got a case of Penfolds Bin 389 for $29.95 a bottle. A lot cheaper than here!

Hope you have a good time and if you need some pointers don't hesitate to PM me.