When I agreed to take the two and a half hour flight northwest from Toronto to Winnipeg to meet Ro and then the 5 hour bus ride further north again, I didn’t quite connect that with the reality of having to get back to Toronto. Overland. Circumstance and some planning meant that we split that return journey into 3 parts. But we’d done the shorter legs and were now left with the mammoth 26 hour trip from Thunder Bay to Collingwood, Ontario to meet our next host. Over the course of the last couple of journeys on the Greyhoun [View Full Entry]

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The bus out of Grandview was much fuller than the one we got on the way out there - the perils of travelling straight after Thanksgiving I guess. So Ro and I sat cramped for 5 and a half hours with our hand luggage on the floor under our feet. I’m not entirely sure why the “express” service between Grandview and Winnipeg took longer than our slow service on the way north, but I am learning not to question the Greyhound way... At least the sun was shining and we could stare out of the window at the endless prairie skies, [View Full Entry]

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During her trip, Ro is spending a week at each farm she visits, and about a month in each province. We figured that we could just about fit 2 provinces and 3 farms into my trip, Poplar Glen being the first farm, in Manitoba (Ontario will be next). I guess I was a little apprehensive about this whole WWOOFing thing - you turn up at a lonely bus stop, are picked up by a total stranger and taken to their farm, whereupon you live in their house and eat their food for a week. But I have to say, it’s amazing [View Full Entry]

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Not content with a 17 hour marathon journey yesterday, and clearly missing Winnipeg airport already, Chris, Ro and I headed back there shortly before 9am on Tuesday in search of a Greyhound. A very friendly and helpful man behind the counter relieved Ro and myself of $52 apiece, in exchange for a 5 hour road trip to Grandview, Manitoba. Five hours sounds like a long time, but when you have years of catching up to do, the time passes very quickly! Undoubtedly we entertained/irritated the entire bus for most of the journey with our various stories. But we were happy and [View Full Entry]

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Having arrived from Stockholm on Friday evening I thought I had plenty of time to organise myself for my long-awaited holiday. Not so. I turned up at the Heythorp Street Hotel late on Friday evening, where Sarah had very kindly agreed to put me up at short notice. We spent several hours gossiping before I headed to my own spare room for a kip - a strange feeling but a very comfy bed Saturday was spent rather pleasantly with brunch on the South Bank with Emma, Rosie, Steve, Nat and several thousand children, followed by a desperately needed pampering at the [View Full Entry]

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It was with some sadness that I packed up my few belongings, cleaned and tidied and left my first Stockholm flat for pastures new. It has been my home for about 5 months and I will really miss the view out of the living room window. But I wasn’t prepared to deal with the inconveniences of having the place ready for viewings at 24 hours notice as my landlord is likely to have to sell up, with the consequence that I would need to move out at the end of December anyway. Why does that matter, you ask...? Well, because my [View Full Entry]

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This was supposed to be my last weekend in Stockholm, so the usual suspects were planning to come over for a farewell tour... only it turned out to be farewell to Chris and Shankar rather than me! But no matter, Nat, Steve and John booked their flights anyway, even if John did manage to book his to arrive rather than depart at 10am. Muppet So he turned up at my office around 11.30 at which point I thought it time to go native once again and go for lunch (why do the Swedes eat so early?). Nat arrived at Central Station [View Full Entry]

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Having spent Friday night celebrating submitting my budget to the UK, first at Simon’s place (after another Systembolaget mission, this time involving taking a ticket and waiting my turn before having to give the nice man a code number for what I wanted) and later at Cliff Barnes (where I met one of my staff in the queue, obviously having had the same idea!), Saturday was pretty quiet. By Sunday I needed to escape the flat, so jumped at the invitation to Sunday brunch with Simon and Shankar. After eating an enormous meal, we headed over to Gröna Lund, Stockholm’s amusement [View Full Entry]

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For ages, my friend/colleague Sara and I have been talking about having a night out together. Well, this weekend it finally happened! She got together a bunch of her friends and threw me into the mix... Which all worked beautifully. Pre-drinks at her rather nice apartment in Gärdet in the north east of town (pre-drinks are something of a Swedish custom as it works out rather cheaper than paying bar/club prices all evening), then out to Le Bon Palais, a club near Norra Bantorget. The club wasn’t anything to write home about, although Linda and I nearly got wiped out by [View Full Entry]

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Four o’clock on Friday afternoon saw me sling my backpack over my shoulder and pretty much run out of the office en route to Central Station. The reason for the hasty exit? Our birthday stuga weekend was about to begin and I was keen to get going. To say this trip was well planned would be a lie. It had been a long time in theoretical discussion, but we were still making travel and catering arrangements Friday lunchtime, and possession of the place for the Friday night wasn’t confirmed until that morning! The premise of the weekend was that it was [View Full Entry]

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