First Impressions

The best way to describe the weather here is - pleasant. It's warm but not hot and definitely not cold, unless you count the aircons in the malls ;) It's raining today, and apparently from August it gets really humid, so I guess I'll only experience the true Canadian summer in a couple of weeks still. Sigh... saw an advertising poster yesterday - "There are only 58.7 days in a Canadian summer- make the most of it".


The strangest part is the sun setting so late, after 21h30. At least the malls, shops and banks are open till late! Was at the North American institution of Wal-Mart last night... omigod, the variety and choice is mind-numbing. Yes it took me two hours just to buy shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste and shower wash! Just in general, the sheer volume and variety of products available in stores is just incredible... I mean, where do people find money and space for all this STUFF!!
Starting to wonder if I shouldn't just leave everything behind and not bother shipping anything over. I have yet to hit the malls for clothing and household stuff though, so I guess I'll see how it goes.

Went to the bank this morning, to re-activate my dormant bank account that I opened here last here. The teller asked where I was from, 'cos she likes my accent! Must say that's a first for me ;) Hopefully I won't lose it in lieu of the North American twang (and no I still cannot tell the difference between a Canadian and an American accent).

Going to dinner for a friend's birthday tonight, so I will be wandering around (hopefully not getting lost) downtown Toronto before meeting Brendon after work. Hoping to check out some yoga studios and re-orient myself with the city.

Second Leg - London to Toronto

We got to London on schedule (6h30 July 10), but then spent a bit of time in a holding pattern before we could actually land. And... as usual the most tedious part was waiting to clear customs and security. Sigh.

Bit the bullet and bought a return ticket on the Heathrow Express for GBP 27. Met up with my friend Nadia and had a bit of a chat. Dashed back to Heathrow in good time for my flight... and promptly waited. We sat on the plane for a good hour before taking off... apparently there had been some sort of delay earlier, and there was a queue of planes waiting to
take off. I counted 7 planes taking off before us, and saw another 5 behind us. Yup... Heathrow is one busy airport.

Air Canada's planes are older than SAA's ones and there were no personal screens this time. Once again though, I managed to get in some sleep (to make up for the week of 19 hour days spent franctically packing).

Anyway, landed at Pearson International about half an hour late. There had been a hectic storm, delaying many flights.
Luggage took a long while to come out, as they had to switch off the conveyor machines due to the lightning. How rude... you need a $2 coin to get a trolley. Argh. You can of course use a credit card, but for what is essentially R12?! Me with my two 30kg+ bags definitely needed one... and thanks to the kindness of a Canadian gent I met at the conveyor, I managed to "borrow" a "toonie" and get one. Whew.

The Trip Here ... Joburg to London

After what seems like forever, I am finally leaving for Toronto!

My departure gate was damn far from the main departure hall... in fact I'm pretty sure I walked all the way through to the back of the domestic section of Joburg International. The plane took off almost an hour late. We had some "missing" passengers and one who was denied boarding. The airlines are getting so strict in enforcing visa checks - a Malawian gentleman who did not have a visa to transit the UK to Germany was prevented from flying. So due to security policies, we had to wait until they could locate the passengers' luggage and take them off the plane.

The plane was a Boeing 747-400 and my seat was upstairs... somewhere I've never been on a plane before. *Really* great for me, as I had a window seat in the last row and therefore a nice ledge to put my stuff and of course, stretch out my legs fully!! Yes, it's great to be not so tall ;) The only issue was that my personal TV screen wasn't working, but I was so tired that I just ate dinner and passed out till breakfast the next morning.