I am Canadian and Canada Day just passed (as well as the 4th of July for my American followers). This year I decided I was going to take part in celebrating Canada, I had great company at the Jays game and fireworks in the evening!
Thanks for reading,
Maeg
This is the first thing I’m writing about for my 2015 list! Yay!
I actually forgot to put this on my list even though I knew about it for about half a year. I was at a reptile expo with my boyfriend when we got a card that told us about it, I was dying to go and begged my boyfriend. My boyfriend really just wanted to go for the reptiles but there wasn’t very much there, he still of course bought a frog.
Lets get started on my experience!
Well we started our morning off right with a shower, and Starbucks then headed our way there. The pet expo was held at the International Centre in Toronto, Ontario, it’s not a far drive from where we live so it was easy drive. We found parking no problem even though the place was packed since so many things were going on.
When we got out of the car there was a huge line up to get in but it was going extremely fast, and the best part is, you’re allowed to bring your own dog so you had so many animals to look at and pet! It was so much fun, there was actually so much going on. There is hundreds of vendors there, it was Canada’s largest cat show, Ultimate Air Dog show were dogs jump into a pool to get Nerf toys, Birds demonstrations and Reptilia was there. There was probably so much more that I missed you can’t even believe how big this was.
I love both cats and dogs (and of course reptiles) but the only thing I didn’t like was the cats. Their owners were old ladies who wouldn’t allow you to touch them and if you did they would walk away from you and lock the cat up in a crate. We didn’t spend a lot of time with the cats because of that and not to mention the cat show seems mean to me. The dogs on the other hand, owners let you pet the dog, some let you give them treats, they talk to you about their pets, they were fun.
The best part for me was petting the big Newfoundland dog that was there. I grew up with a Newfy Dog so I was in love! I didn’t take pictures unfortunatly but you can go online to look at them all at http://www.canadianpetexpo.ca/
Next year my boyfriend and I said we would go for two days instead of the one because we missed out on the pigs and ducks that I wanted to see!
Thanks for reading,
Maeg.
ps. check out my 2015 List here: https://sheaint.wordpress.com/2015/01/02/the-2015-list/
In my other post I wrote about what you need in order to be prepared for Toronto’s Nuit Blanche for this year, in this one I’m going to write about my experience while I was there. Lets get started shall we?
Because I live in a lovely city called Brampton that’s only 30 mins away from Toronto and has the worse public transit to get there, I have an awesome story for you. Okay, I wouldn’t say awesome but it was interesting for us. We caught the bus that goes to Bramalea GO station and when we got there we got our tickets for the GO bus. We were looking at our tickets when we noticed it said that there was no bus going straight from Bramalea GO to Union Bus Terminal. You need to know first that Brampton Bus Terminal is no where near the Bramalea GO station. I have the ticket right in front of me and I’m going to write it the exact way it says.
Suggested Trip:
Bramalea GO to BrampBusTerm
Bus Route Number 34 at 19:00
BrampBusTerm to Union Bus Term
Bus Route Number 31F at 19:30
My mum checked online when the next bus was and she told us it was at 7:45 (19:45), and of course the bus came at 7:45pm. When we got on the bus there was so many people waiting that the bus was full, so full that people were standing. The bus that goes to Union stops at at Malton GO before getting on the highway to Toronto. This damn bus driver didn’t call in that his bus was full so he couldn’t even pick anyone up, he did end up calling it in but he got in trouble for not saying it earlier. He told people that the next bus would be there in 5 mins, everyone that was waiting outside said that they don’t mind standing so he let even more on. My sister and I noticed that there was a guy in a motorized wheelchair and we were sitting in curiosity sitting. I was getting upset because I was not standing on this damn bus even if I was sitting in those chairs. He didn’t come on the bus anyways but it was annoying because this bus driver couldn’t do his job. We were finally on our way but he was driving SOO slow because of these people were standing, I’m telling you he didn’t go over 60 on the highway. It took almost two hours to get to Toronto.
Two hours later when we finally got to Toronto my sister and I started to find our way to the hotel, which would of been easy if there wasn’t so much construction. We found it and checked in and went to our room for me to charge my phone. Once that was done we were on our way out. Now we didn’t check the map that was online to see where things were, I just assumed that they were in the normal places that they’ve always been but I was wrong. We did a lot of art seeing though.
Those are some pictures I took of the art. My favourite one that we went to see was a tank that had a person in it, would fill up with water and they would go on about doing whatever they were doing. A girl did house work, this guy played guitar. It was amazing.
You can see the water go all the way up and then it starting to come down. The night was a pretty good night, there was some funny parts. I was taking a picture of some art when this lovely girl decided to shove her face into my camera as it took the picture…..
I went to one of the food trucks because we were hungry, my food was pretty damn good but there’s a funny story to it. Like I said the food was amazing but it was very filling, my sister wanted to try some of it without the meat on it so I took it off and she had a few bites. When we were done with it I had it in my hand about to throw it out when a young girl with her friend (they did not look homeless at all) came up to me and grabbed it. She picked up my half eaten chicken and started to eat it, I was trying to pull it away because I was honestly saying “what the fuck?” to myself but she wouldn’t let go. Finally I got fed up, dropped it and walked away. Needless to say I was a little freaked out but that’s what Toronto is like.
All in all I had a good time and I’m ready for next years.
Thanks for reading!
Hey Everyone!
Because tomorrow night I am going to Nuit Blanche for the 6th year I want to write to you about what goes down and what you should plan for!
What is Nuit Blanche? A free all-night contemporary art event.
Where is Nuit Blanche? Streets of Toronto, Ont, Canada.
When is Nuit Blanche? This year it’s Oct 4th, 2014 from 6:53pm to sunrise.
First of all you would want to know more about it so you can check out their website http://www.scotiabanknuitblanche.ca
Prep! You need to know that there are some options for you when you come to this awesome event. For those of you who are out of town or who just want a nice place to stay, they have hotel options for you. I’ve been going to this for awhile so I’ve learnt from my mistakes. The first couple of times I went with friends who lives in Toronto so it wasn’t bad at all, ever since then I’ve went with people from Brampton. Even though Brampton is only 30 mins away it’s hard to get around with transit since no one really comes and goes from Brampton to Toronto. My sister and I for last year and this year got a hotel, it helps a lot of they lower the prices of the REALLY nice hotels. You can find the hotel specials on their website.
What to bring! It’s fall in Toronto and I know global warming is making it all messed up but for this weekend it’s suppose to cold, and wet. Before you head out make sure you 100% check the weather and be prepared for anything!
Dress warm – last year I wore jeans, riding boots (but changed to Toms), Roots sweater and a fake leather Billabong jacket with a toque (I’m just Canadian like that).
Rain, rain, go away – because it says it’s going to rain I plan on bringing a mini umbrella (Shoppers Drug Mart sells them) they fit into a purse and my rain boots just in case.
Bag – DO NOT bring your most expensive purse the you have to carry, bring a cross shoulder bag. I know you I have a big, expensive bag but don’t do it. I usually bring my Coach cross shoulder bag that EVERYONE has. Guys or girls you can also bring a backpack!
Camera/Cell Phone – Take all the pictures you want, I took lots! Use your cell phone camera! Nuit Blanche has their own hash tag, #snbTO Make a fun night of it!
How to get around! YOU WALK! Yup, you need to wear comfortable shoes because you will be walking a shit load! The TTC and Go Train have extended service because you do have to travel to different zones. Nuit Blanche also makes a Speical Event Day Pass, it’s 1 price ($11), unlimited travel! It’s a pretty sweet deal and you should get it because I’ve gotten it and used it every year.
Even Guide/Map! If you check out the website they have it already on there and you can print it out. If not you can find one of their Info Centres they have set up around Toronto to grab one. I really suggest you do this because it has all the zones, where all the art is and it tells you what it is, who made it and a little info on every piece of art.
Where to eat! FOOD TRUCKS! The website has a list of all the food trucks, check them out right away because if you wait you won’t get the really good stuff!
I do suggest going out later because right away it will be crazy busy! I do hope this helps you but can find most of this info and more on their websites. If you have any questions you can ask me as well!
Thanks for reading!
Maeghan.
ps. I will be posting pictures later on!
Fall is quickly coming upon us so I wanted to write a little something about that! Now remember I live in Toronto/Brampton so these things will most likely be things we do around here!
There you have it! Hopefully you liked this post and this gave you some ideas.
Thanks for reading!
FanExpo is a place where you can let your inner geek out. It’s not all “nerdy” stuff, you can meet the normal actors that all the ladies think is good looking. It’s just a great big room of fun and awesome things.
My sister, boyfriend and I went to FanExpo yesterday. You can get a weekend pass or day passes (Thurs-Sun) in case you only wanted to go to one day, which is what we did.
We woke up nice a early and made our way there. The best part is we missed the first bus to get to Toronto, I live 30 mins away so it’s not that big of a deal so we just waited for the next one. When we got there it was crazy, the location was the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, which is located right beside the Sky Dome, the CN Tower and the Air Canada Centre! There was a million things going on at once but it made it fun.
We found where you go in if you bought tickets online and went on with our day. We got our green wrist bands for Saturday and waited in line for them to open the doors. When you walk in you are overwhelmed with everything, every where you look there is something to buy, do or see. My boyfriend’s A.D.D was for sure going off like crazy. We started by walking around and just seeing everything, we looked to see where the photos were being taken just so we knew where we were going, then went to go adventure.
There was two buildings out of this place that took us all up, the first building was called the North Building which had all the places where you meet everyone. We went over to the South Building which has all the free stuff and most of the things you would want to buy. At this point my sister and I split up because she needed to leave in order to go get her picture done with the guy who plays in Arrow, Stephen Amell. My boyfriend and I had lots of time before we met the person who picked which I will tell you later.
When we were walking around we found the Doctor Who society which is what my boyfriend and I love (hint, hint). We found the Daleks, the guy who does their voices and the Tardis!
I didn’t take very many pictures but it was mostly Doctor Who stuff I took. But lets get to the most exciting part of FanExpo, you can meet anyone who comes to this expo, you can look online before hand to see who’s going and get tickets to meet them, get autographs, and take a picture with them of course. As I said before my boyfriend and I love Doctor Who, best show going on. Matt Smith, the 11th doctor, was there and we got tickets to get a picture with him.
You only get about 7 seconds with him because the line was massive to take the picture but it’s worth it. My boyfriend and I were so happy to meet him, he is such an awesome guy. Next year or even look in your city to see if they’re coming to you. It’s a little bit on the expensive side but once again, worth it.
We each got our own little gifts for ourselves and other people but I’m not going to post that. Check it out!
Once again thank you for reading and don’t forget to follow!
Hello everyone! I just came home from a Toronto Blue Jays game and I thought I haven’t written a post in a long time. Since I just came home from the game I though of the idea of what to bring to a Jays game or any game for that matter. So here it goes, lets get started.
1. Tickets. Obviously this is an important one. You cannot get into the game without this. I don’t know about other teams but I think that almost every team does this, now and days teams are so popular even if people don’t like the sport. Baseball is a game that you can go to just to enjoy a nice day at the park, drinking beer with friends; more or so a social event. I would recommend purchasing your tickets online at the teams website and printing them off at home.
2. A bag. Bags can’t be bigger then a backpack or a large purse, well that’s how it is at the Rogers Centre. When I’m at the game my bag is one of my essentials. I’m always throwing things into it or hanging hats off of it. As you’re going in they will check your bag but all they do is look into it and feel the bottom on the outside. The easiest bag to bring is a backpack or a cross body purse, but normal purses work just as well but you just leave it on the floor at your feet.
3. Camera or Cell Phone. Pictures, pictures, pictures! Cell phones work well for selfies and group photos but if you want to get pictures of the players from across the field a digital camera works best. It doesn’t have to be a big super awesome expensive camera, a simply small canon is what I use and pictures come out great.
4. Jersey. This is obvious but if you don’t have a team jersey most stores sell cheap t-shirts with the teams name now. For example, Victoria’s Secret Pink sells Toronto Blue Jays shirts.
5. Hat. It doesn’t have to be a team hat but most people wear them. If you want one and don’t want to spend a lot of money look at the teams website, they may have a promotions section and they have days where they give away hats, jersey, bobble heads and much more.
6. Sunscreen or Umbrella. Everyone who knows baseball knows the the Blue Jays play in a dome but the dome opens. On hot days if you’re not in the parts that are in the shade sunscreen will be a must. I’ve gone to a game in the sun and fried like a piece of chicken, trust me on this one. If it rains in Toronto the dome will just close but most places are outside, so when they delay the game to save the field you are left just chilling in the rain, umbrella will save you!
7. Sweater or Cardigan. I know this sounds stupid especially after I said to bring sunscreen but I freeze sometimes. The season starts early and in Toronto, Canada it’s still winter when it starts, I went to a game and didn’t take off my jacket because it was cold. In the summer on a cold, rainy day when the dome is closed they turn on the A/C full blast to make sure everyone stays cool, I get cold easily but it could help. Also a jackets for the teams that start early and don’t play in a dome this is a must if you’re crazy enough to go see them.
8. Money. Food, beer, souvenirs! Somewhere in the park there will be a store, if you don’t have something of the teams this is a good chance but it will be a little more expensive them what it would be at a store outside the park. Most sports stores have their cities team stuff. Tim Hortons in Canada even sells Jays donuts, you will not have any problems finding what you want.
9. A good mood. You may have to wake up early and bus to the place but if you’re not in the mood to go to the game, you’re gonna have a bad time. Games are fun, be happy, have a drink, take a lot of pictures, sing the songs and do some of the fun things they have there for you.
10. Permanent Marker and Something to get Signed! Before every game you are allowed to go down to the field and one of the team mates will be signing thing. Bring your own marker and get your shirt, hat, ball signed. If you’re lucky your favorite player will be the one signing things, they also let you take their pictures with you!
Hi Everyone!
I know I haven’t being writing lately and it’s because I’ve been busy with work, dinners and going to Toronto Blue Jays games!
Alright I did this a couple years ago with my sister, we were literally 7 rows up from the field. This year I did it with my sister and my boyfriend and we were 36 rows up from the field, which is still pretty close then most people would get.
(This picture was taken about 30 mins before the game, just to show you how close I was!)
Alright so my day started off terrible for this day. The night before I barely slept because my boyfriend and I stayed up late watching a movie then most of the night I was up feeling like I was about to puke. When I woke up I was still feeling so bad but I got ready and went on with the day. My boyfriend bought beer the night before so we could pre-drink on the bus, we only had two beers without eating any breakfast. Yes, I was drinking at 10 am.
We get to Toronto, get breakfast at Union station and continue drinking without getting caught! Yay! I then had to go back to Ripley’s Aquarium to switch out a mug that I got that was broken. It was actually so easy, I thought they would look at my bill and say that I couldn’t because it wasn’t from today. Nope, they let me walk right in, didn’t look at anything, just switched the mug. Anyways, we get to the Rogers centre and find our gate but before we went in my boyfriend smoked like 2 smokes since you can’t inside the building. We went in a found the Jays shop where my sister and I went in, she found herself a nice hat.
We sat down in our seats to find out that there was a tall guy sitting in front of me. Now none of you know me but I’m only five foot three, so this guy was in my way of the game. His daughter hated my boyfriend because he was so loud, she kept giving us dirty looks it was actually so funny. Anyways the Jays lost but it was a fun day.
After the game we met up with my boyfriends and my friends for some lunch. We went to Wayne Gretzky’s but it was an hour wait. We went into Fionn’s and they said they had a table that would sit 8 of us, we walk in to find it was 2 small bar tables. We went to Boston Pizza, it was my sister’s birthday and the guys were great at telling the waitress so they sang to her. I think that made the day complete.
On the way back home these drunk assholes were being so annoying but they said sorry when they left so it was fine. My boyfriend and I dropped my sister off and went home to pass out!
Alright that was another thing crossed off my list of things to do in 2014! Remember if any of you have any other ideas let me know! Here’s the link to list!
https://sheaint.wordpress.com/2014/01/04/2014-list/
Check it out!
It is official, the storm I was talking about my previous post has been hash tagged “ice storm 2013.” The storm got worse over right, literally every parking lot is a sheet of ice, every tree has either fallen over or parts broke off, half the city doesn’t have power and isn’t expected to get power until Christmas day. If you stand by a window you will hear cracking of a tree that is falling over, it’s actually a creepy sound. My boyfriend picked me up at 12:30 PM last night, so everyone was in their houses and there was no cars, all I could hear is the trees by the school I live fall down. I didn’t know what tree it was because they were so loud I thought they were the ones by me. Salt doesn’t do anything for the ice that is everywhere, you literally have to scrap it off if you don’t want to slip. Hydro lines have fallen down because we put the lines along the roads where the trees are so that’s why the power is off.
Early a generator exploded and it made the sky go purple, red and blues in Toronto. It’s honestly really bad here, trees are falling on houses, people and pets. Everyone is still in the Christmas rush so they aren’t following the rule if the stop lights aren’t working, treat it as a four way stop. When I drove by the mall on my way home, the parking lot was still packed. Both my boyfriend and I work in rec centers, he is maintenance and I’m a lifeguard. He had to go into work because even though all the programs are cancelled the recs turn into safe havens, so people with no power can go there to warm up. If they need people to do first aid they could call all the lifeguards to come help out but that would only happen in a really bad situation.
The radio here is nothing but where to go if you don’t have power, how to drive, telling everyone to go slow and don’t rush anywhere, the weather and telling everyone to stay inside. The weather for here is that the ice storm warning is over but it is still raining, it’s getting warm so it’s really foggy now but later tonight the temperature is suppose to drop so everything will be a sheet of ice again. This weather is going to be here for awhile as long as it stays this cold and even if it does get warm it will melt but at night it always drops below freezing.
Cleaning off your car is terrible, the scrapper wasn’t even working on the car windows. My boyfriend just started to beat the window with the brush do it would crack so you can even get the scrapper to get under the ice. It worked but don’t bang too hard. My friend actually was using a blow dryer to get into her car which would work but would take all day long.
My family is just chilling at home and getting ready for Christmas and avoiding the storm. Tomorrow people start coming over so we have to go down to meet them to keep them from falling. My family parks underground and we have a two car parking spot, tomorrow we are going to get my uncle to park there then walk up the long way so we don’t have to walk on ice.
This is just my point of view, I know people will have a worst story to write about since trees are falling on houses and cars. Please be careful out there!
Christmas is only 3 days away, that is absolutely crazy. This year has gone by so fast that it is kind of sad. My year started out really shitty but somehow got great. I work tonight, then I go to my boyfriends then all my Christmas madness starts when I get home. On Monday my uncle is coming over – he’s the uncle I always like so I want to see him and I want to talk a picture with him. Then after that all the other madness happens that I wrote before in a different post.
Welcome to Canada
I don’t know if you guys know this but I live in Toronto, Ont, Canada. If you’ve looked at the weather for us it has been typical winter weather but all of the sudden it decided to half snow and half rain – making it ice pretty much. It rains all day long but as soon as it starts to turn into night the ground freezes making it one big sheet of ice. I went to sushi last night with my friends, when we were done we had to skate our way to the car. It was actually so funny because the driveway is on a hill but at the same time it was very dangerous. I hope when I go to work tonight and walking to my boyfriend’s car I don’t fall on my ass. I don’t have a picture for you guys from myself but I am going to steal one off of Facebook from a friend.
Now you can see what the hell is going in here.
Christmas Traditions
Over the years my family has done Christmas we sort of have a routine that we follow. My parents are divorced and my dad moved away so we just do our Christmas on Christmas eve now. My mum on the other hand there is a whole bunch.
1. Try to wake up Maeghan (aka me) – so when I was younger I was NOT a morning person. Trying to wake me up was a very dangerous thing because if you did it the wrong way you would either get yelled at or I would hit you.
2. Tell my sister to go back to bed at 4 AM – my sister is the one who gets so excited over Christmas is our family. She will wake up at 4 AM and try to get the whole family up. She usually comes into my room and tells me that Santa came or to get up, which I don’t. She then would go to my mum’s room and try to wake me up but they would tell her to go to bed. Now and days my sister just waits in her room until it’s time or she makes coffee for everyone.
3. Croissants – ever since my parents divorced my mum made it a thing that she would make croissants in the morning. That would be our breakfast as we opened up our stockings. Now my whole family is up at this point but myself, they let me sleep as long as possible because I hate waking up early, especially if I’m hungover from the Christmas Eve party.
4. Terrible pictures – every year my mum takes pictures of us as we open up our gifts, but as you know no one looks good right after they just woken up. None of these pictures have every made it to Facebook but this year I will be posting them so I am going to look great before I come down to open gifts.
5. Opening gifts – some of my sister’s gifts and mine are the same or similar so when we open up our gifts they sometimes take forever because we have the open some things at the same time. It’s funny though and makes the whole process fun.
6. After math – after opening all our gifts we all decided to put things together or go through them once again and actually give a good look at things. I think everyone in the world does this.
7. Family comes over – after all of that we have to deal with all of our family come over. This is very interesting because our house is small and we have all these people coming over. Some of the people we don’t like too much so I stay down for about an hour then go up to my room.
What about you?
Alright I want to know what you guys do for Christmas or what weird traditions you have to do each year. Leave them in a comment and maybe I will make a list or something! So leave your name and your weird traditions/things you do on Christmas!
Maeg's View 