Hello there my friends, said I would do a blog seen as I’m still a lady of leisure with no job to keep me occupied! So as you all know, myself and Phil are now in Toronto, a month today actually. And if you didn’t know that, well then you are an
awful friend! I can’t believe its been a month, it’s gone pretty fast despite the fact that I haven’t found a job yet. Phil found a job within a week, similar to Perth, it seems to be easy enough for lads to find construction work, in fact all it took was a mere phone call and he started two days later. Whereas I have been flat out emailing, applying, interviewing and still have nothing! Oh well, at least Phil is working to keep me in the lifestyle which I have become accustomed to! And I actually got a call form a recruitment agency today about work, so I have some admin work from 11 June- 30 June, so at least that’s something! So Toronto seems to be a difficult place to pick up a full-time position if you’re looking for something in marketing (like the rest of the world) or anything office based. But I’m told to hang in there, that it will happen eventually, so hang in I will. So enough talk about work, what’s Toronto like I can hear you all ask excitedly!
Toronto is great. It’s a massive city, or perhaps it feels massive because we were so accustomed to tiny Perth. It’s a very multi-cultural city with every nationality of people living here and this must be the reason for its huge array of restaurants. Toronto is definitely for the “foodie”, it has every type of food that you can imagine, whatever your palate desires – you will find it in Toronto! Unfortunately we haven’t yet tried many of these amazing restaurants as we have been
trying to watch money (to a certain degree) but once we are settled here I have no doubt in my mind that we are going to thoroughly enjoy tasting all the food Toronto has to offer! We’re really enjoying the city so far, there is loads to do and see here and most of it at a reasonable price. Eating out and drinking out is relative to Ireland really, a lot of the time cheaper actually (even after you give your obligatory tip!), buying booze from the off license is really cheap and most of the attractions in the city are priced reasonably well. For instance to go to the top of the CN Tower is $45 or if you pay an extra $10 you get a three course lunch included so that’s pretty good. We have been to the Royal Ontario Museum which, even Phil would agree, as far as museums go was pretty good. It’s huge and has a massive collection. We have also done a brewery tour which was short and sweet but very enjoyable. I went to the Shoe Museum the other day while Phil was at work – I should mention he starts work at 6pm and finishes about 2am so my evenings can be boring (I have a funny story in relation to this that I will tell you in a while) – but the shoe museum was fun and I saw some shoes worn by famous people! We have yet to do the Aquarium, or the CN Tower but they are on our list, our huge huge list, but hey, we’re here for 2 years so plenty of time for sightseeing!!
What are Canadian people like I now hear you ask. Well let me tell you they are what they are portrayed to be all over the world – polite and friendly! They really are very nice people, even the homeless people begging on the side of the street (of which there are many by the way) are so polite in asking you for spare change, it’s hard not to give them something when they are that nice! So the people are nice, the city is great, it’s food heaven and the weather is also pretty great – why have we only just moved here!
Ok so now to my funny (and highly embarrassing) story. So as I mentioned Phil works nights, and he was told he would finish around 2am (although we’ve now learned this isn’t always the case). I think it was his third night at work, and I work up just after 5.30 am and Phil was not in the bed, or in the room. So I tried to call him to see where he was and his phone was off. I got up out of bed and I was a bit worried at this stage so I was pacing the floor trying to call him to no avail. So eventually I decided to go into his Facebook as I knew his bosses number was in there. I tried calling his boss as I was pretty worried about him by now, but the phone just rang out. So for about 20 minutes I sat around wondering what I should do, then at 6am I knew the subway would be running so I decided to get dressed and go to the building he was working in, in the city. I hopped off the subway and walked briskly to the building, all the while keeping an eye out for Phil. I got to the building and had to sneak in behind a woman as you needed a card to get in there and I asked the two security guys if Phil was still working. They told me that he had signed out. At this news I became really worried and started crying. I asked them what time he had left at but they said they couldn’t tell me. I was becoming increasingly upset so eventually they decided to tell me, he signed out at midnight! It was almost 6.30am at this point. These two guys asked me if I had called the police, which gave me a bit of a fright as I hadn’t even considered this. They then told me there was a police station two blocks away and I should go there.
So off I went into the police station, as soon as the cop asked how he could help me I burst into tears while saying “my boyfriend never came home from work last night”. So he took all my info, and Phil’s info and listened to the story. He then told me to relax and calm down, that Phil was probably just gone drinking with his friends, to which I responded through tears “he has no friends, we just moved here”!. At this point I think they felt sorry for me as they realized me and Phil had just come over and had no family here. I was told to wait for a few minutes for the cop on patrol and that he would bring me out in the patrol car to look for Phil. So while waiting I decided I would try calling Phil again and low and behold his phone rang and he answered. “Where are you?” I practically screamed down the phone with happiness, “I’m at home, why? Where are you?” he says. “I’m in the police station reporting you missing Phil” to which he responds “What? Ah fuck!” So I then had to explain to the police that I found Phil, I was MORTIFIED!!! But they were so nice and one of them drove me home. The funniest part was on the way home he was talking into his walkie-talkie and he said “transporting a 27-year-old female home, the missing party has been located”, I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me at that stage haha!!! So basically what had happened was Phil signed out at midnight and was sent to another job, his battery was dead so he had no way of contacting me and that is how Philip Skelly was officially a missing person for 45 minutes in a Toronto police station!!!
Before I go I’ll quickly delve into the strange/weird & wacky things we’ve come across so far in Toronto! No 1 has to be the busker singing into a carrot, I mean come on, a carrot! She was giving it socks! I’ve tried to use our carrots from the fridge as microphones but it doesn’t seem to be working, maybe I’m doing it wrong? I’ll have to ask her.
No 2 is a girl on the subway dressed as a sardine, yes a sardine. There was a little tag on the side of the sardine saying “Sammy the sardine”. and other sign which said #votetransit. I didn’t get it, but I did have a good laugh! No 3 definitely has to be the ordeal that is buying milk in this city. Dear lord, it’s such a task! There’s skimmed milk, low-fat milk, lactose free milk, half skimmed milk, skimmed lactose free milk… the list goes on and on, where is the normal full fat milk????!!! Also by the way, they sell milk in bags, yeah mull that one over!
Ok I have plenty more to say about Toronto but I think I’ve harped on enough for now. I’ll be back with another blog soon.
Until next time 🙂
