My friend Russell sent me a message a couple of days ago asking if we could talk about Toronto via Skype that evening. “It’s getting close,” he wrote, “It’s only 18 days away.”
!!!!
And here I was thinking I still had 3 weeks! My list of things to get done before we leave suddenly leaped into hyperdrive. I have/had several other people with birthdays to deal with, starting with my daughter, who turns 15 on Sunday, my best and oldest friend Becky who shares the big birthday number with me on the 15th, my nephew Sammy who turns 3 on the 20th, my grandmother who is turning 98 (!) on the 24th, my mom whose birthday is on the 28th, plus Russell’s! Whew!
I’m a little over halfway done with all that. I’ve also got to call the flea-market organizers and see if they can take our donations early since we won’t be here when the annual village flea market is held, arrange the mail-hold, show the housesitter how the lawn mower works, and get the pins out of Martin’s arm!
His arm is healing nicely, at least on the outside. One set of stitches has disappeared entirely, and the area around the pins is clean and free from inflammation or infection. The pins look like guitar tuning keys…the kind that stick out of the sides at the end of the guitar. We go in for new x-rays and consultation next Thursday and I really hope they can tell us the pins can be removed before we leave for Canada, since I don’t want to contemplate dealing with them while there.
Anyway, Russell and I did talk about Toronto and we have a list of things we want to do/see while there and reservations for our big birthday dinner at 360, the revolving restaurant at the top of the CN Tower (entrance to the tower included). Our list includes: the Hockey Hall of Fame, Niagara Falls, the Science Center, Canada’s Wonderland amusement park, Casa Loma, Art Gallery of Ontario and the harborfront (technically harbourfront since it’s British spelling there). If anyone has any don’t-miss recommendations, now’s the time to share!
I’m really glad my mom and sister & co are coming, but both Russell and I are a little bummed that none of our friends will be joining us. It makes me wonder if we would have had more participation if we HAD decided on Ireland, but that would have raised a whole raft of other issues, so we figure it all works out.
We just lost power for a couple of seconds and I thought I had lost this whole post and was ready to gnash my teeth, but lovely Semagic saved it for me. It’s been REALLY hot here (for Sweden), the last couple of days, hitting 30C. The house is stifling, and in the evenings I turn off the lights and open ALL the doors and windows in an attempt to cool it down. It lasts until we close them and immediately feels like they were never opened. Ugh. I like the sunshine, but I could do with a few degrees cooler.
Gotta go wash my kid’s hair and torso and help him loosen the bandage around the pins which is too tight. Toodle-o!