Only the 2nd full day but its been interesting so far!
Left Sheffield on the 11:27 train with 1st Class rail tickets though to Heathrow Terminal 3. Sounds brilliant and the ride down to London was great but what no one told us is that leg two of the journey involved a one hour ride on a packed London Underground to get to the airport. Not a great experience when you're lugging a suitcase!
Anyway - got to check in and we were told the flight to Toronto had a 2-hour delay so we'd fly at 8 pm not 6pm. Terrific! So we bummed around the Duty Free area and grabbed a sandwich. The Duchess was keeping me updated with the score from Belper's away fixture at Rainworth (Belper won 2-0 incidentally.)
Eventually boarded the plane and away we went.The flight was pretty good - packed but they served reasonable food and only 7 hours 50 minutes to Toronto!
Arrived in Toronto at around 11:20 pm (4:20 a.m. Sunday morning UK time) and by the time we'd cleared immigration and got the bags, it was close to 11:45 pm. Called the hotel to ask for the shuttle bus to pick us up. "Certainly sir. He's actually just left the airport but if you stand at bus stop S5 outside, we'll send him straight back to collect you."
Now, bear in mind the temperature was around 28 or 29 C when we left the UK but only around 6 or 7 with wind chill making it feel about 2 or 3 C outside the airport here. Anyway - when we'd been standing outside the airport for 40 minutes, freezing our wotsits off, I called the hotel again. "He's just left sir. Be with you any minute!" By now we'd been joined by 4 other people who said they'd been given the "He's just left the airport. When he gets to the hotel, we'll send him to collect you" story too.
I should tell you at this point that the bus ride to the hotel is no longer than 5 to 10 minutes depending on traffic and the 3 traffic lights that have to be negotiated. I reckon the desk clerk had forgotten to send him to collect us. So - by the time we'd checked in, I'd set up the laptop and sorted myself out, it was gone 1:30 a.m. Canadian time.
Slept well enough but woke early. A 5-hour time difference doen't half mess with your head and the body clock! Caught up with the football results and reports from Saturday and also the Fans Forum after the Belper win at Rainworth. Also had a good look at Snapper Harrison's album from the game before breakfast. They're here if you wanna look too. (It's worth the effort - good pics as ever!)
The Duchess skyped me at around 8:30, then shower, breakfast and you're totally up to date.
Check out is at noon and it's back to the airport for a short flight to Sudbury Ontario and dinner with our client there. The customer is actually a bloke from Sheffield who moved out here about 15 or 16 years ago. He's never lost his Sheffield accent and it's a nice relaxed visit and a good way to start a tour.
At the moment, the telly is on and would you believe - they're showing Coronation Street! Its apparently from about a year and a half ago but its just cool to listen to the English accents - and unusually for telly over here, there isn't an ad break every 5 minutes!
Right - gonna see if I can download a podcast of the Archers Omnibus (can't access BBC iPlayer here) so I can keep up to date with the every day story of country folk.
So - see yer later. Oh - and I've brought the Duchess Ixus camera and will post pics at the first opportunity.
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