Let the planning begin!

Today is the beginning of a long and drawn-out process. Today is the beginning of almost a year of saving all extra money. Today is the day I taped some paper to my bedroom wall. If you go back through my blog archives, you will see exactly what taping some paper on the wall really means. Okay, I'll spill the beans for those of you who are not in the loop. This is my trip planning wall. It's something that I've reserved for only the biggest of trips that require planning. Each 8.5x11" page represents one day of my vacation. This format allows me to meticulously plan each day down to the hour in an analog format. Sure, I can and probably will also plan digitally with Google Calendar, but important information can easily get lost in a cloud within itself. Whereas with a schedule that forms most of my wall, things cannot get lost.

So what am I planning, you ask? Its been almost three years since I had the trip of my life to the English countryside, so why not go again? I'll be attempting to procure the almost impossible to get tickets from Glastonbury Festival for the 2016 edition in October. Then I'll spend eleven nights exploring the capital of the United Kingdom, London. In 2013, I got to see some amazing bands, like The Rolling Stones.

It has been over a year since I last posted here. I hope to keep this blog updated as much as possible leading up to and including the trip.

Another Great Weekend Ahead

As I type this, I prepare to head out to the Marconi Club here in London for the 2014 Ontario Volunteer Service Awards. Each year organizations around Ontario nominate some of their volunteers for years of service awards. I happen to be one of the lucky ones from Rogers TV London that was nominated to receive a five year award. As soon as the ceremony wraps up, I'll be heading to the station to direct and technical produce #LdnOnt. Why? Because television never takes a day off. My first year of college wraps up after my only exam which takes place tomorrow morning. The subject is: Understanding Media. On Saturday evening I head to the big smoke for some bowling and a Jays game on Sunday afternoon. Sunday happens to be R.A. Dickey bobblehead day, I cannot wait! I'll have more blog posts about the weekend hopefully after each day. I leave you now with a picture of my bus ticket for Saturday...

Weekend getaway

The St. Patty's day weekend is generally one of lots of partying and green suds; definitely not the case for me this year. This weekend I was invited to a friend named Ally's place in Toronto to just relax for the weekend. I was humbled to receive the invitation and accepted immediately. The weekend began early Saturday morning. I caught the 7:36am VIA Rail train from London to Toronto set to arrive at 10:04am. After a sleepy ride to Toronto I met up with my sister and Ally, who had just seen Philip Phillips the night before, at the Starbucks at King and Yonge; we discussed what we should do for the weekend and decided on for the most part, relaxing. On our way to Ally's apartment, we stopped at Eglington subway station and got some cupcakes. Upon arriving at the apartment, we began playing games and relaxing. For dinner we ordered a plethora of Chinese take out, which was delicious. We had earlier decided that we'd like to go to a Marlies game at Ricoh Coliseum on the Sunday, so I bought tickets that night. The next morning we trekked outward towards Ricoh via the TTC. After a quick pitstop at an ATM and Starbucks we boarded the 509 replacement bus towards the exhibition. The game in question was the Hamilton Bulldogs at the Toronto Marlies. After sixty slightly boring minutes the Marlies won 4-1. We made our way back to the apartment after a quick pitstop at Dundas station. The lovely thrasher joined us for some big brother then was quickly on his way. After departure of the thrasher, Ally, Sonia and I discussed details of the trip in the summer of 2015. This discussion greatly renewed so of our excitement and anticipation for the trip to England next summer. The next morning (Monday) we packed our bags and were on our way. We departed Union station at 12:15 on VIA Rail train 73, or slated arrival time is 2:26pm. It's slated because I'm writing this from that train. Currently passing through Woodstock, I think it was a very successful relaxation trip and thank Ally very much!

Hamilton Bulldogs @ Toronto Marlies from Ricoh Coliseum