Andy's Walkabout Tour of Oshawa

TUESDAY: It snowed in the morning, but I was fast asleep and it disappeared after Dawn and I woke up. As a result of the cold and snowy-ish day, I thought it was just going to be a bumming day. And it kinda was, except for the 90 minute walk I went on. In my case, that is lazy. But any exercise is better than n0thing. Slept in and watched the Remembrance Day ceremony in Ottawa (from the tube!). It was a public holiday for most people and we sat and watched the Parade and all the comemmorations that go with it. Afterwards I went out with Dawn to the Oshawa Centre (the mall) and I wanted to walk, so while she got the car to go home, I walked it. Went to Memorial Park and saw all the wreaths that were laid down on the monuments. I counted them all: there were 83. I'm sure the number will increase.

TODAY: Woke up early and went for a walk for 90 minutes with Dawn's mum. We met up with Dawn at Oshawa Centre and had lunch. Went to Pizza Hut - it was the only thing we could think of. We arrived in time for the lunch buffet and it was pretty good. The best I've had so far when it comes to dining out in restaurants (and that's not saying much - the pizza was alright). The only thing here: whenever you order a hot chocolate ANYWHERE, they always add whipped cream over the top. EWWW! That ruins it for me and that continues to confirm what I've been saying about the issue of obesity here. They even had dessert pizzas (again, more confirmation, but I never say no to dessert!): half apple half blueberry. I tried it for the novelty factor. The apple was nice, the blueberry was too sweet. I still ate it! And when we left they had one that was half cherry half apple. DAMN!

At Oshawa Centre they were giving away free coffee. Not to pass up on an opportunity like that, I went and took advantage of it. They had no tea or hot chocolate so I could only have coffee. I ordered the weakest one I could think of but it was still strong. Bare in mind that the last time I had coffee I was 16 years old, so anything would be strong for my tastes. I had a latte 10 years ago and it was a strong fucker. It took me a while to get back to 'normal'. I got heart pulpitations from it and thought, "I'm never having coffee again". Fast forward to today: I'm older, wiser, the body is at the stage where it can try something new, so I tried again and failed at it. Coffee isn't for me, tea is! And after less than 2 minutes, I crashed. HARD! I just wanted to go to sleep. The body, especially the legs, were stuffed. I had to sit down with Dawn for around half an hour before I decided that going for a long walk would help to get the caffeine out of my system. So I did just that. I walked from Oshawa Centre to Memorial Park to see the wreaths again, then walked towards Dawn's house, passed it and went to the gym that I am now a pseudo member of, got my membership card and walked back home. In total, it was 2 and a half hours (plus 1 and a half from this morning: 4 hours in total. No wonder my legs are tired!) As soon as I got home I went for the water. Was still full from Pizza Hut, so I had fruit for dinner (and a block of chocolate later on when I got hungry. Nice to know I can balance things out!) And now I'm here typing this. Time is flying over here. It's hard to believe that it's almost 2 weeks since my arrival. I've done lots of things and am booked up until I leave.

I'm currently looking for better deals to Wisconsin. Dawn's travel agent is investigating for me.

Well, after my colossal lunch and walk, it's time for Andy to go to bed. Sweet dreams!