what an amazing night

So Kyle and I got up at 530 am to head to Jane and Finch to do a road bike race for innercity kids. It was rainy and foggy and the dampness went right through to my bones, it didnt help that i was sick to start with. It was a great event, with over 100 at risk youth taking part in a race and receiving medals, prizes and having fun. Highlight for me was meeting Farley Flex of Canadian Idol fame - what a nice man - built like a shithouse! But super sweet.

From there Kyle and i headed home to shower and change out of our wet clothes from the road race, even my feet were soaked. We headed down to Track 2000 for the event of the year, the celebration for Timmy DaSilva. We had a live band coming and were worried about the rain. So Kyle and I get dry and head to the track to find everyone there working their butts off (I should have been there at 11am to help but had to do road race), and the guys had rigged up this great tarp so people could eat out of the mist and the band could play without damaging their equipment. The track looked awsome, with balloons and signs and the whole extended DaSilva family there. We got delayed by about 2 hours due to the weather but noone was bugging, they all knew that we were there for a special reason - to celebrate Timmy.

There was something about last night that i cannot put a finger on, something about the atmosphere, the emotion of the night, the feeling of pure peace - there was just something that made me feel so alive inside and so peaceful. It was the most at peace i have felt in 2 years - and other people were saying the same - it was amazing - it was as if Timmy was there with us all.

The band was amazing, if you ever get the chance to see Ronnie and theJets live yo have to see them! I was even dancing! that is why my legs are so sore today!

Had a great chance to chat with Manny, first time we have really talked about Tim heart to heart in about a year - felt good.

So in 5 sleeps I am off to England - i am very excited and prob wont sleep much this week!

Last night was a blur for Deano - he dressed up as a woman, had a shower courtesy of Glenn tiping the tarp full of water over him, and had some heartfelt moments with Manny reminiscing about Timmy. Thank you to everyone for a grat night.

i woke up very sick this morning - coughing and fevering, this cold has been holding on for over a week now - hope i am rid of this by Thursday, cos dont want to be sick for my holiday.

my sister is more excited than me

so, debs calls me at work the other day - she is more freaking wound up than i am! she has painted my 'room', bought me a new comforter, gonna have coffee waiting for me (cos I arrive at 6am) and is gonna cook me english bacon (yummy) and eggs when I get to her house.

She will have to get up at 5am to come and get me from the airport - and i think Hannah is coming too - so looking forward to seeing her! what a great kid she is!

So we have some plans, we are gonna act like stupid tourists for 2 or 3 days in London, and take 100's of photos! there is a pass we can buy for 50 pounds that will let us into a ton of places including Tower Of London, Kew, and the war museum.

I have to work the Friday that I leave, we have a 'staff retreat' supposed to make us feel like a team i guess! It is in Inglewood, so I have to get there for 9, leave at 1230, go back home to pick up Deano, then he is to take me to the airport for 3pm. Cant figure out why I have to be there 3 hours before when I already have my seat selected! Oh well.

We are also going to try and get to the Isle of Wight to see our dad. Debs is gonna come with me - otherwise i wont go! will very likely be last time I will see my dad ever. He is getting older and i feel in my gut that this will be it for us. So I have to do the right thing, and it will also allow me to close the chapter in this book. I feel for him, he does not realize just what he has missed the past 35 years.

I havent even started packing yet - always leave that til last minute, will prob do that on Wednesday - gonna go get a new book too to kill time on the plane -

This weekend is Timmys Race! hopefully will only rain in the AM - we need no rain for the afternoon and evening!

we are also going to Warwickshire Castle, supposed to be haunted! and having curry night, and wine night and probably will laugh more that I have lauged in years! so excited!

my new shoes

so i decided today that i would need a new pair of walking shoes for all the walking around London that i am going to do. So off i go to find a sports store in Georgetown, like a SportsChek or Athletes World - - - well blast me, there are none in Georgetown, didnt feel like driving to Milton or Brampton so ended up at Winners. Who knew you could buy Nike Walking Shoes for under $60 at Winners!

So i am making my poor hubby look at all sorts of pictures on the internet of where i will be going - imagine how he is going to feel when i come back with 2000 or more pictures. Dont even know if my computer could hold them all - hmmmm, may have to buy a new computer to load the photos on!

So tried to cancel Deans ticket today cos he cant go due to work layoff - holy crap the runaround you get - we paid for the insurance, it cost $100, so why can we just not cancel! No, we have to fill out paperwork, get a letter from his work, prove that he is laid off, holy shit, I feel like we are buying a bloody house just to get OUR MONEY BACK.

I have to work the Friday that I am leaving, so hopefully i can get real tired at the staff retreat so that i can sleep on the plane. I am claustraphobic and am only good for about 4 hours on a plane before i get antsy. God forbid the person sitting next to me if i start to get the fidgets. Never mind that I also smoke - gotta find myself some good drugs (legal ones of course) that will let me sleep for 6 hours of the 7 hour flight. Cos I have a hard time sleeping on a plane or in a car - that is why I will never get to Australia, you would have to drug me and keep me under for the whole trip.

So my 2 boys were away all weekend, Brady at Linzis and Kyle in PA at a race. Brady is so great with his littlie cousins that they hate it when he leaves, but i think Linzi is relieved cos she doesnt have to feed him anymore! The boy eats non stop. Kyle came home a bit battered and bruised, and has def torn something in his shoulder, but this was really the last big race of the season and he has lots of time to heal.

So this weekend is very important, it si the Tim DaSilva Celebration of Life Race. Timmy was one awesome kid. He was my bmxson and I loved him like my own, would have done anything for him - and he would have done anything for me as well. We lost him on July 15, 2006 and this is the third annual event. We all come together and celebrate the man he was.

Then I have to start seriously thinking abot packing and what I am going to take to UK with me - it is very expensive over there, so want to make sure i take everything i need with me! Debs has decorated the room for me, and got the vodka in already so will be a good time for sure! lots of vodka, fun, laughing and stories.

The countdown is on . . . . . 11 more sleeps!

Where I want to go . . .

my poor big sis Deb is going to be a taxi for me when i am in the UK. Where do I want to go???

well i arrive at 6am! and those of you that know me, know that I am not a morning person!!!! But Debs will have the coffee on.

I want to go to the haunted Warwick Castle, visit where I lived when I was growing up to see all the changes, visit the parts of London that tourists dont go, go to the National Archives and find my nannys birth certificae for my mum. And all other family history stuff like my grandads war records - things I cannot do easily frmCanada.

I cant wait to see Marg, Barb, Donna, Lisa, Nicola, Jan, Hannah - omg i can just imagine the stories, the chats and the laughing that will be going on - this will be the best tonic I have ever had.

I even went a got another memory card for my camera so now i can take up to 3000, yep three thousand photos - and poor Deano will have to look thru everyone of them when i get home!

Oh, man I wish so badly that he was coming with me, but the automotive industry is up and down like a toilet seat and shutdowns are happening with no wages coming in, so we made achoice for just myself to go - he is so giving and totally unselfish.

I know i have to bring back Turkish Delight, Chocolate Buttons and Galaxy Chocolate for my peeps!

I hope you all enjoy reading my blog - i will try and keep it up to date!

Fulham Gilliatt Secondary School in Fulham, London the place i spent the years from 1977 to 1980.

My dream trip

Well on october 3, 2008 i will be leaving on a jet plane, to a place i have not been in 22 years. This is all thanks to my very very good friend and war partner in a previous life - Suzy Q!

I came to Canada in 1980 and left behind my family and my friends. It was a quick move, my mom met my stepdad in July 1980, went to Canada for a holiday in September and we moved here on November 30 1980.

I was 15.25 years old, the boy of my dreams (yea right! at that age like i knew) had just asked me out the week before, Stephen Ford, and I didnt want to leave England,cos I 'was in love mummy'.

The hardest couple of things i had to face by leaving was leaving the special people in my life: our close knit family, all my cousins, aunts, uncles, my friends at the Church Girls Brigade, my friends at school, but most of all my older sister Debs and my godfather Albie. My heart was breaking at the thought of leaving them behind.

My mum was so much in love with Geoff and Linzi and I were too young to leave in England so off we went on a Wardair Plane to Toronto. I will always remember Albies face at the airport - he loved us all so much, we were his family, he was our dad when our dad left, he was the man that raised us, he created such a wonderful childhood for us and was such a wonderful man to my mum.

So we get on the plane and Linzi had just had a skinhead haircut and was wearing drainpipe jeans - quite the sight - the air hostesses were quite intrigued by her hair cut. And then when my mom told the story about how she had met Geoff and moved her whole life in 3 months of meeting him, they treated us like royalty -even invited us to the cockpit - certainly couldnt do that nowadays.

My mum dressed us all the same, blue jeans and white sweatshirts! how corny was that - i must find out all the old pics and post them here.

We knew nothing on Canada - thought it was full of snow and ice and eskimos - and we arrived to snow on teh ground and parts of my body that i did not know could freeze.

WE were here without the proper paperwork for a while, so we spent our first 6 months cooped up in an apt building at Victoria Park and Finch - talk about Culture Shock! but the apts. had an indoor pool so we were somewhat excited. But if i see one more episode of theLove Boat I will scream, I knew more TV shows in those 6months than I had ever seen in my life. In UK we had 3 channels, we arrived to 60!!!!!

My dad didnt put up a fight when we left, mind you, he never put up a fight for anything. His attitude was 'go ahead, take them, i cant stop you'but not once did he try to stop my mum from taking us away. But no loss, we really had not been important to him for the past 8 years.

So many thanks to my wonderful hubby Deano who has sacrificed so that we can afford for me to go to England. He ismy best friend and my soulmate and is the most unselfish man I have ever met - I love you Deano with all my heart.

so this blog is going to be about my trip, my experiences, my thoughts, who knows i may even carry this on after i come back.