Day 342 – September 30th

I feel like death warmed up, my whole body aches and whilst I do not feel cold (If anything my body is burning up) my body is shivering yet sweating profusely at the same time.  I do not want to go to work but stagger in anyway, why I’m not sure probably as a result of my illness I am no longer thinking straight.  I arrive to find a number of replies to my squash related email and it appears a few people are disappointed to see me leave club.

 

I think this disappointed is more rooted in there views of me at the Wellington Club as opposed to TAC as in all honest I have played but a handful games at the club, however the comments are welcome non the same.  I also receive an email from Soo the Pilates girl, it is strange how an individuals perception of someone can change over time, just a few short months ago I was completely infatuated with this women and now she is simply someone who whilst remaining attractive has slid back into the pack.  I can’t think of an exact moment when in my opinion she hit the slippery slope, but suspect it was some time around the time she appeared drunk at staff/member mix and mingle.

 

Mood for the day 4 out of 10.

Day 341 – September 29th

I can not believe another Monday is here and I am back at work as I grow older the day’s certainly appear to be going far quicker and the weeks appear to fly by as I hurtle towards middle age.  I fire out an email informing my squash buddies of my demise from the TAC. I feel a cold coming on…………

 

Mood for the day 7 out of 10

Day 340 – September 28th

Today was first formula one race to take place at night and given I have been an avid follower of the sport for years I obviously decided to watch this particular spectacle and spectacular it was………….an 8am start time for me was probably something like a 9pm start time in Singapore and the race did not disappoint.

 

It must be incredibly difficult to drive a formula one care and even more difficult to drive one on a street circuit but is it any more difficult to drive one at night, I would argue not based on the following rationale.  An F1 track will typically have around 14 corners meaning that at certain points you will be looking pretty much straight into the sun only to have the angle of light change completely as you turn the next corner.  In a night race in theory the light will be consistent in terms of glare at all points of the circuit regardless as to the direction you are traveling in because the floodlight is coming pretty much directly from overhead.

 

Having said all of that if I was to take the wheel of an F1 car in perfect light I would literally crawl round the track, in conditions such as this I would probably be so slow that my speed wouldn’t even register as a crawl.  Whilst F1 races are supposed to be decided on the track one could argue this one was decided in the Pits with a couple of horrendous errors by some of the major players and timely safety cars allowing Alonso to come home with the win. 

 

On the positive side Britain’s Hamilton has now taken a decent size lead into the final few races of the championship…………….hopefully he will have learned from the mistakes of last year.

 

In the afternoon I went to see the final Broadway performance of RENT, not actually on Broadway but a taping of the final show that was shown on the big screen in a couple of local movie theatres, each time I see the show I am impressed as to how good it is and it still remains my favorite musical.

 

Mood for the day 8 out of 10.

Day 339 – September 27th

Today was another day with girl who can’t be written about but in related news I watched an outstanding movie on DVD and looking around the condo of someone else it dawned on me that my condo has décor more suited to a student as opposed to an individual rapidly approaching 35 years of age.  I will need to think about some kind of reorganization and display items……….although the problem is I am highly attached to my collection of bobble head dolls and stuffed Simpson’s characters and whilst I accept that I should really have grown out of this stage of life it would heartbreaking to give the characters away.

 

Mood for the day 8 out of 10.

Day 338 – September 26th

Today is my final vacation day and I do actually feel pretty relaxed having accomplished most of the things I wanted to get done, didn’t really get round to cleaning my apartment but everything else was pretty much checked off the list.

 

Whilst I wasn’t in work today I found time to for both breakfast and lunch with a colleague and sandwiched these activities around a workout at the gym, I finally feel as though I am getting back into shape, although have no real idea as to the status of membership at my former club.

 

Following lunch, I saw a great movie “The Visitor” it is a movie that has a relatively small cast, a relatively small budget but is superb none the less.  The story documents how lonely an individual can be even when surrounded by people in a metropolis like New York and how easily one can become intertwined in the lives of others through a series of seemingly unrelated events.  An outstanding movie and one that I would highly recommend.

 

Given that summer is gasping its last breaths as fall (autumn) now approaches I decided to head out to the beaches for possibly the last time this year, the beaches are very different when a) It is a work day and b) It is relatively cool and as a result there were only a handful of people around.

 

As I stood at the edge and watched the swirl being whipped up by the wind I was filled with air of sadness at the thought of not returning to the location for probably a few months.

 

Mood for the day 9 out of 10.

Day 337 – September 25th

I made a pretty major omission in my write up of yesterday’s events as it was my last Baseball game of the season Jays v’s New York and not only was it the last game of the year but it also gave us a little bit extra, one inning extra in fact but sadly the Jays fell to defeat.

As for today I generally relaxed and went to see the movie Burn after Reading…………….it was a very good movie in my opinion, well written, well acted and for the first 1hr it was excellent sadly the movie appeared to wrap up a little too quickly with numerous plot strands being bundled together in a movie that could have probably benefited from another half hour.

Mood for the day 7 out of 10.

Day 336 – September 24th

There is now less than 1 month to go before my diary is completed and by default there is now only one month left until I turn 35 years of age…………..at 35 years of age I could play in the veterans category of squash but instead will probably be playing less squash and focusing more on other activities.

Maybe one of those activities will be coaching and today I went successfully for an interview at one of Toronto’s premier squash clubs the Royal Canadian Yacht Club……………I will be helping coach the junior program on Saturday and it sounds as though I will get 3 groups of 45mins each……the groups rotate 45 mins squash, badminton, swimming………………Given my 3 squash groups will be back to back the whole exercise should take about 3 hours so will leave the entire Saturday afternoon free, it will be interesting to see how everything goes and I will be starting in about 3 weeks.

Whilst the Yacht Club could be deemed high-end it has a completely different tone to the Toronto Athletic, the difference between corporate and none corporate I guess………it will be good to get back into coaching again on a more formal basis and whilst juniors certainly aren’t my forte I will definitely give it my best.

Moving onto my new club the Wellington, I had my first real workout and felt like I was returning home after a period of time away………..I have no idea how my squash game will go over the next few months/years but certainly hope I can get back into a more consistent and productive pattern of working out.

Mood for the day 8 out of 10.

Day 335 – September 23rd

Today my Raptor season tickets have arrived and this year’s gift was a basketball, I must admit I would have preferred a jersey or t-shirt but can’t really complain.  Given I have ended up with 4 tickets this year I obviously have a number for sale and now the sales can start with earnest……………the tickets cost a total of $4,884 and so far sales have netted me $1500 we will see how well or badly the whole two pairs of tickets experiment works out as the year progresses.

In the afternoon, I went with someone (the girl who can’t be mentioned) to see the Dark Knight and she appears to be first person I have spoken too who did not like the movie, I find out later that she has seen none of the other Batman movies and is not that familiar with the characters development.  Following the movie I attempt to redeem myself by buying her a Tim Hortons “Smiley Cookie”…………and it appeared to work.

Mood for the day 7 out of 10.

Day 334 – September 22nd

There are certain days when just a series of events fall into place and you accomplish everything you want to get done……………..today was one of those days starting with a trip to Services Ontario.  First up was the driving knowledge test, after paying the fee and a brief eye test I am herded into a room with a series of computers and about a half dozen students taking tests. 

I have prepared well I feel having answered probably a 1000 questions in practice, I select a computer next to a pretty Asian girl, I don’t know why I selected that station but I am naturally drawn to it.  The test begins and it appears that I have seen most of the questions before…………….I am off to a flying start and answer the first 10 or 15 questions in a very short period of time and without mistake.

At this point I glance across to my right and the girl is struggling and appears to be making numerous mistakes, I attempt to help but am spotted and warned that anymore more of that and I would be failed myself…………..I return to my own test and proceed to score 48 out of 50, and as a result now have my first level Canadian drivers licence (well a temporary one, the real one should be in the mail soon)………I look back see the girl is still struggling and then leave the room and don’t look back.  I have to wait 10/12 months to get to the next level (a road test) but it is a step in the right direction.

I move back to the counter to mention that I also require a new health card and as I have waited in line once and ushured to the front of the queue…………a photo and application later and I am in receipt of a temporary health card with once again a real one to arrive in the mail soon.

As I leave service Onatrio I look around the room at the variety of people who sit around waiting, they are young, they are old, they are dressed in suits, they are dressed down, they are black, they are white and all races in between…………..but most surprisingly of all they speak a whole varity of languages Spanish, Italian, Hindu, Manderin, Polish to name a few…………..our differences are marked but despite our differences we are all the same we are all Torontonians.

And so to the next stage of the day………a new helath club……………well new in that I wasn’t a member of Wellington for 9 months, I recieve a 25% discount of standard rate, 4 months free and an ipod.  Compared to the uncertainlty I had when I joined TAC I have complete comfort in this decision………..I know that I will not be playing much squash going forward so why pay the premium………we will see how this decision works out.

Mood for the day 9 out of 10.

Day 333 – September 21st

The Ryder Cup is over an the Americans have won it……………as a European I’m crushed but having watched the play I would have to begrudgingly admit that the Americans deserved the spoils. If that wasn’t enough sporting for drama for one day then the last ever game at Yankee stadium probably was and a despite not being a Yankee fan, it was a little bit of a tear jerker………….Sandwiched in-between these two sporting behemoths was Julie…………….but as readers of past blogs already know I won’t be writing about her.

Mood for the day 4 out of 10