Day 8

No such hangover today. I think they go away after a couple of days of consecutive drinking! It's a good excuse for doing so if nothing else. So I said goodbye to Ottawa with mixed feelings. I felt it was bit less lively than Toronto—strippers aside—but it did have a bit of a European feel to it, mostly in terms of old-style architecture. Overall I prefer Toronto but it was nice to be able to see a new city! The journey back was as tedious as it was coming. Four hours of fields and trees again, was pretty mind-numbing. One thing that did make me chuckle on the way back though was a place called Loyalist Village. Would actually be a good place to dump some of Ireland's least desirables! The music on route though was great: The Beatles, The Platters and The Bee Gees. It was great just rediscovering all those bands, especially The Beatles and especially George Harrison's songs, he (pictured below) was vastly underrated! Made a couple of stops at service stations, where I got my first Tim Horton's donut of the holiday, a vanilla frosted, strawberry jam number. Ace! Also managed to sneak in another Cadbury's Pep bar too.


By the time we arrived 'home,' I was pretty shattered but I had to make some phone calls, first to the folks: my Da and I digested the Celtic vs Rangers game but my Ma seemed a bit subdued and ill, I hope she's ok. I also had to phone my Da's cousin Margaret Rose too, to try and get a suitable time to go for dinner at her place out in Mississauga, as well as trying to hook up with my childhood friend April and my cousin Patti, who said she would go and see the musical Wicked with me during its short run in Toronto. I had originally meant to go and see this show with an ex-girlfriend of mine before we split up, so I'm happy that I finally get the chance to see it, it will erase a pretty horrible memory for me. After making these calls, I fannied around on the guitar for a bit with some of the songs I had chosen for the upcoming gig. The definitely needed honed to ensure that everything would be alright on the night!

My Uncle Eddie took me out to a bookmaker's bar called Adam's Rib where we bet on the harness racing at Woodbine, a nearby racetrack that I've been to loads of times. Never had one winner all night though, seconditis as my Da calls it! It was funny though, watching all the histrionics and amateur dramatics of some of the punters. It reminded me of some of the dossers that gamble the day away back home, spending their entire lives in the bookies. I, on the other hand was only betting $2 a race, so $20 in total, no big deal. The best thing about the place was the steak sandwich I had—absolutely fantastic!—and also the fact that the place had been the victim of an armed robbery in past, so it now boasted a security guard on the door who looked a bit like the character Navid (pictured below) from the Scottish comedy Still Game. He'd have been hard pushed to knock the skin off a rice pudding! Ah gambling and gangsters, echoes of home!