Toronto and Ajax, Ontario

Hello! After a lovely few days checking out Banff National Park, we moved on to Ajax, a small suburban town about half hour away from downtown Toronto on the intelligently named GO train! The place was probably quite comparable to Rochester in terms of location to the big city and had some nice parks and retail outlets without having a main shopping hub like classy Chatham High Street!
If Banff had been fairly relaxing, this was due to be even more so, with not too many plans laid out and more a time to recover and a base to head around other parts of Canada we wanted to see!
We navigated the public transport to get from Toronto airport out to Ajax, getting buses, “Riding the Rocket” (that’s their tube name!) and then taking the GO to Ajax. My uncle Trevor, who’s place he had kindly given to us for as long as we needed it, had arranged for his good friend Lil to pick us up from the station. I called her up and she said she was on her way and would be a few minutes! What I forgot to ask was what she looked like or what car she drove?! So, at a very busy time for pick-ups we were looking out for a randomer, and I can only assume that she had the same confusion as to who she was picking up, so the situation was far from ideal! We began discussing what she might look like, and I suggested early 50’s, brown curly hair and thick glasses, and before we knew it that exact lady drove through the pick-up point! I picked up my stuff and began to wander over the car before somebody else walked over and got in!! Here I remembered I’m not psychic and we got back to the task of looking out for somebody looking out for us!
A few other likely candidates came and went, with another one waiting for a while that Louise nearly walked over and said hi, but then along came a sporty Ford Mustang Convertible driving in through the bus entrance, and it was in fact our Auntie Lil! We struggled to put all of our luggage in the car but managed it and we were taken back to my uncle’s house, a large bungalow with a couple of bedrooms, a nice kitchen and dining room and a very nice outhouse that had was apparently the envy of his road! We set our stuff down and were quickly whisked away to the local pub, the Magwyers Pub which was a blend of a lot of British emigrants and some locals, one classic guy named Bill who would just say whatever he wanted and be as offensive as he liked, but in a very funny way! Everybody was very accommodating and really made us feel at home, and we met some more of my uncles friends and Harry told us how he got so confused when he was driving in Canada after being in England that he drove on to the freeway the wrong way and had a lucky escape!! We had a burger which I enjoyed but as soon as I realised the bun was garlic I felt ill all night!! Lil arranged to pick us up the next day for the “chicken wing Tuesday” and we got some rest. Everybody we had met had their own stories and it was so interesting to have so much human interaction as we haven’t had many chances to form friendships so far as we’ve been moving around so much but we looked forward to meeting more of Trevor’s friends in the coming week! Lil was such an angel that she had bought us some provisions for the week! We had milk and eggs, now all we needed was fabric softener!! (Kevin McAllister, Home Alone!)
We woke up with around half hour to get ready for lunch, having slept in til 12! For me that is usual, but for Louise unprecedented!! She must have needed her kip! We devoured our wings, and at 59cents a go I quickly finished 10 of them despite their large size! We bought our shopping and Lil very kindly dropped us home and we spent the day doing what we did a lot of in the coming week or so, watching TV and films, playing cards, and playing poker whilst Louise read her book! It was nice to feel so at home and we made the most of it!
We decided we had to be a little more productive the next day, and headed in to Toronto to see the sights! We paid the rip-off price to take the lift up the CN tower as it’s something you have to do, and until 2009 it would have been the tallest building in the world! We took some reasonable pictures but the mist was at the peak so we couldn’t always have an unobstructed view, though we liked the glass walkway looking down to the bottom. Louise isn’t too sure with heights but she was still brave to step on it, though I had to be on best behaviour and no messing around! We walked down to the harbour which looked very nice from atop the building but was a bit more bland up close and we returned back to the GO station!
Now, I’m not psychic but it appears Louise might be, as just after she said how much she fancied a Sprite, from nowhere a Sprite van pulled over and offered free cans of Sprite!! We took our prize on to the GO train, and despite my intrigue as to the fact the train was double decker, we were too lazy to actually check it out! We had another relaxing evening ,cooked some dinner and got our daily fix of American sitcoms before bed!
I think by now it was September 24th, a date that particularly sticks in my mind as it was the date when Legends of the Guardians came out, a film Louise was dying to see! We again were kindly taken to lunch by Lil, and annoyed that I had paid for the day before (she was kind she just wanted to treat us all the time! :-D) she simply refused to take any more money from me! I had coyly planned to slip her $20 when she wasn’t paying attention before not so coyly leaving it on the chair before leaving! Luckily her brother was still around the table, and despite him saying that “he was sure it was his!” I got it back!! At this lunch we met Scott, her nephew, who had moved over from Scotland a few years before and settled down there with his girlfriend, Shannon. We arranged to meet up with them and headed off to the mall in search of some boots for Louise! We shopped around and spent at least two hours in a pet shop which had the cutest puppies ever in there! I guess due to a lack of space which in itself is very sad, the puppies were put in compartments of two or three, and they were so playful!! The tiny dachshund was amazing and the husky pup was just beautiful! There were also loads of cute kittens, gerbils and birds and it really made us want to get a couple of dogs and other pets! Louise has always said she wants to have loads of cats and be a mad Aunt Lou but now I think maybe she wants to same title but with dogs instead of cats! We finished shopping as we found her boots and were ready to leave but found a cinema and decided to watch the film! We had already eaten something and had bought lots of fudge and Louise devoured a toffee apple with white and dark choc chips, but we couldn’t resist a hot dog after the group in front were eating!! We watched the Legend of the Guardians and Louise was so happy seeing one of her favourite animals on the big screen! I think she may have picked up some tips on how to draw them as well!!
We were picked up by Scott and Shannon and were taken along to their friends, newlyweds who had a lot of interesting stories about their hometown of Newfoundland. Newfoundland is possibly to Canadians as Norwich is to us, they are a bit different and have their own quirks, though at the time they had been hit by a hurricane so we were shown all of the destruction that happened where his family live. There wasn’t a human toll taken on the area but a lot of houses and roads had been crippled by the huge rainfall and winds and we saw some of the pictures his friends had taken on facebook. Then we heard stories about his crazy Grandma who would get drunk and get in all sorts of mischief, get naked or just say embarrassing things! We heard about the Newfoundland tradition of mummering, which takes place between Boxing Day and New Years Eve and involves people dressing up in Halloween costumes, gathering in groups and moving from house to house eating and drinking and gaining in numbers! Imagine seeing somebody wearing a mask knocking on your door around Xmas time, it would be so weird, but it was a tradition there!! We heard about Scott and Shannon’s travelling to Australia and how they were swimming on a beach that had to be evacuated due to sharks! They also met a guy who’s friend has been killed by a shark and they didn’t believe him until they saw a documentary on him back home a few months later!!
We had a few drinks and went back to Trevor’s and got our stuff ready to go with Lil to her trailer the next day!


We packed up some stuff for our short trip to the trailer, and the drive up was surrounded by beautifully coloured trees, with amazing red, gold and brown leaves! I just wrote golf leaves, it must be on the brain!! Anyway, we arrived at her trailer, set back from a very peaceful lake and equipped with everything we could need! We met her nephews and heard the famous Canadian eh? being said for the first time! Lil made us up some lunch snacks and despite it being midday poured us a stiff drink each! Louise had a couple of sips before putting it in a flask to take to the golf course, and off we went to golf, Louise playing on a proper course for the first time! We were both quite excited and got in our buggy, with Louise surely feeling the nerves of her first time! Horribly, the first hole had water about 40 yards from the tee, and that was the theme for most of the course! Using most of the clubs like the driver for the first time was very tricky but Louise was such a quick learner she began hitting good shots in no time! A couple of balls went for a swim but she managed to hit some with enough elevation and distance to clear the streams which made her very happy and me very proud! One shot she kept low and we thought it had rolled in to the water so I drove down to find it! It had stopped just before so I thought I would lend a hand and throw it over for her, but couldn’t manage to clear the ten yards of water!! Needless to say she gave up on that hole! Louise did so well to pick it up so well, and I guess it didn’t help that if she missed it my words of reassurance were “hit the ball baby”...I didn’t mean it in a patronising or mean way and was trying to be supportive, but even reading it back now I realise how off-putting that must have been! It probably speaks volume that her best drive of the day, a really nice shot which cleared the water and went very far was when I was driving around trying to find a ball I had sliced! (My rental clubs were seriously bad and that’s my excuse!!)
Lil had warned us that Harry might try to give a lot of advice and was a bit of a know-it-all at golf but he didn’t say too much to Louise, though he did have a strange method of hitting a chip one-handed which never really seemed to work!! At around hole 7 the heavens opened and we hurried back to the trailer to get away from the rain! Louise really enjoyed herself and was looking forward to playing again, though I’m not sure if she was too keen on playing again the next day which was the plan! We had told Lil that our favourite food was steak for myself and lasagne for Louise, and she bought us both our favourite food! Amazing bits of steak and a huge lasagne, and I became the head steak chef, though I was so ravenously hungry I was eating the first piece whilst the other pieces were cooking! We all ate so much, and the large lasagne was wrapped up for us to take home! We played cards with Lil’s friends in the evening and we learnt a clever new way to play rummy though we both lost as the rules were very confusing at first, and I taught Lil’s friends poker and in the process lost every hand to the beginners and was bluffed off of every pot by Louise!! We didn’t play for money but my pride was bruised, though it was a very fun evening! We slept very well that night, tired from all the eating and golfing!
That was until around 5am when the creaks in the trailer were loud enough to wake me up! They sounded a lot like taps, and I envisioned somebody outside walking around and tapping the outside like in some sort of horror film! I got myself into a nervous frenzy and struggled to sleep that night. I think it might have been an animal pushing up against the trailer, but I was really scared!! Louise wasn’t that bothered, but I woke Lil up just to check out if everything was ok! She was equally relaxed about it all, preferring to go to the window and scream pretending something was there when of course it wasn’t! I think after this I had calmed down and we both had another lay-in!
The next day we had some breakfast, toast and proper back bacon before heading to golf again, and Louise had improved so much! She enjoyed herself a lot more and the weather held out, making it a very fun trip! Now I know what to get her for Christmas!! We had a stroll down to the lake, took some pictures and got back in the car for Ajax, having had a really nice weekend at the trailer! On the drive back we were both so excited when we saw a skunk walking alongside the road! That was until the most putrid smell entered the car and we had been sprayed!! It took a long time to get that smell out of our system, though on arrival back home a skunk had clearly been around as we again smelt the stinky skunk, so we quickly got inside away from the animals!
We spent the next day sorting out our schedule, and after a few days of relaxing had the bug to get travelling again, so booked up a promotional deal at a Niagara Falls Hotel and got ready to go and see the wonderful landmark of the Niagara Falls, which is where Louise will pick up soon! :-)xx