The Long Journey

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And this is how it all began , my longest trip ever to the 5th continent that I am going to play ice hockey on . On Friday morning in Toronto we had to wake up at 2 am to get ready to get a taxi to the airport for our 7 am flight to Houston . Of course we ( myself and Kathleen ) went to bed mega early the night before but I couldn’t sleep as I was too excited , it’s been a while since I’ve left home ! These big trips are far from cheap and I was paying for that India trip for a long time after it occurred ☹️ so work had to take a bigger part of my life and then I started looking at this trip which is even more expensive but I came prepared and should be able to do more trips in 2019 ! Anyways back to the story .... we woke up , washed up and headed to Pearson International Airport and checked my bags in with United Airlines who now accept my goalie bag with my sticks as one piece of luggage which is great because I won’t have to pay any extra baggage fees but I’m sure I will run into that wall on my next flight(s) . It’s all part of my life as a travelling goalie . When we cleared customs we ran into one of Kathleen’s friends named Liz and the both of them caught up until the point that Liz almost missed her flight with her husband to Newark . If you guys are reading this I hope your trip is going well ! We got onto our flight soon after hitting up Tim Horton’s for a bagel and a coffee , make mine a double double please . When we got onto that flight I crashed out and when we took off almost immediately hit bad turbulence , not the worst I’ve experienced but it wasn’t great . Kathleen was freaked out a bit and she says she didn’t wake me up but she did lol ! It felt like the back end of the plane was gonna break off but all I kept thinking was that if we had to make an emergency landing it would just cut into our long layover in Houston so it wouldn’t bother me one bit hahaha 🤪

That flight made it to Houston on time and we had to deal with a ten hour layover which we contemplated leaving the airport t o do something and honestly no offence to anyone I know from there but there is absolutely nothing interesting to do in Houston .... I know because I’ve been there before and trust me we did all the research looking for excuses to leave to go into the city to do anything remotely “cool” but instead realized that we were not about to spend upwards of $100 USD to go eat food and drink beer when we could do that in the airport .... let me ask you a question now , what would you have done ? Post it in my comments please ! Houston airport is massive and we got our steps in wandering around checking out stores and menus before deciding on our first meal which was at a place called Ember , we started off with a couple nice local IPA’s if you like IPA’s you should try Saint Arnold Elissa’s IPA we both enjoyed it and then dove into a couple burgers with some nice Idaho potato fries which were yummy but just one small problem .... the restaurant ran out of ketchup ? Yeah isn’t that odd ? Whatever , we got some mayo instead and gobbled our meals then had to walk it off . I felt so bloated , gotta lose weight and the older I get the harder it is ! I feel like I’m gaining weight by breathing these days ☹️ all this walking was making us sore though and Kathleen needs to stretch out and we found a nice quiet area that nobody was sitting in and we stretched out and got to use a low traffic bathroom which is the perfect place to “chill for a minute “ don’t ask I think you should know what I mean :) after all this we had a couple more hours to kill off so we went to use a couple of those massage chairs which are $5 for 30 minutes , honestly ..... so worth it ! Even the guys beside were talking about how awesome it was . So now I’m not feeling bloated and my body is feeling decent so the only thing to do now is eat again ? Wtf is wrong with me ? Ok I blame Kathleen for wanting this sriracha bacon Bloody Mary at this restaurant called Ruby’s Diner which is fashioned like an old school 60’s diner with good old school music and milk shakes on the menu . When we sat down my plan was to only have a Coca Cola but then the bartender showed me the menu so I ordered some chicken fingers for us to share and then added onion rings , no wonder I’m getting fat right ? Jeez! It was a good thing we ate though as you never know what you’re gonna get on a flight and this next flight is from Houston to Sydney ....17.5 hours !!!

We sat down near our gate and watched some Netflix that I have downloaded on my new iPad and waited ..... we met some Australian ladies who were nice but got almost angry when I pronounced Melbourne Mel-born and said it was Mel-bunn ... ok whatever just don’t get your panties in a knot hahaha ! Move along and we get onto the plane and Kathleen has the window and I get the middle and a nice woman named Claudia sits beside me and when I repeat her name I pronounced it Claw-dia and of course she corrects me , no shit eh ? Whatever , so I repeat her name and it sounds more German like .... ok time to pass out , have you ever passed out on a plane ? Jesus it’s fucking horrible ! You wake up and feel like someone hit you in the neck with a hammer .... ugh and then you realize you only have 14 more hours to kill ? Kill me now , please do it ! At that point Kathleen offered me the window and I had something to lean my head against and I guess I slept but in the most uncomfortable positions .... in between sleeps I watched some movies , The Meg and Venom were the two I didn’t sleep during but I have many flights ahead of me to watch others on . I slept during all the meals served except for breakfast which was pretty good to be honest , I had the scrambled eggs which came with potatoes and yogurt and a nice little cake . Good enough to give my fat ass the energy to drag my bag around Sydney airport 😄. Our flight arrived on time and my bags made it , we cleared customs with no issues and then I was on the hunt for a bank machine that I could get some loot out of .... I bank with Tangerine , and the bank machines at the airport don’t comply with my card ? In fact to this moment I have yet to find a machine to draw money out of 😡it’s ok , most places accept credit and thankfully my next stop which was to get my SIM card accepted credit so all is good . We grabbed a taxi to our hostel which is the Sydney Central YHA and of course we arrive around 8:30 am and their check in is 1 pm .... our room was not ready but they let us drop our bags and we were allowed to take a shower , I had some awful stank on me blah !!! I found a Puma store which was about a half hour walk to from our hostel and off we went . We encountered birds laughing at us and it is really hot over here , like 30 c ! So glad I put my shorts on but I desperately need a new pair of shoes as the ones I have are definitely not made for walking . When we got to the Puma Store we found out there is a 50% off sale !!! Damn , that’s good as gold ! I tried out a few pairs of kicks and settled for a nice grey and black pair that cost me $35 🤑 kinda wanted to buy couple pairs but I am almost at my limits already with this goalie equipment . I didn’t even hesitate to put on my new shoes and put those other shoes in the box and as we were making our way back to the hostel with hopes of checking in even a few minutes early I received a message from my buddy Jenny who I work with back home in Toronto . If you work in the same industry as I do then you know Jenny Sisko is one of the best food stylists in Toronto , small blonde gal with a kick ass attitude 😜we always have fun when we work together ! Anyways she’s here in Sydney and wants to meet for a couple beers , ummm yeah I’m down for beer but I gotta get checked in and wash this funk off my body before taking an Uber to her pub of choice . Let’s hope the hostel checks us in when we get back ....

We get back to Sydney Central YHA around 12:30 pm , yes check in is 1 pm but you know we’ve been waiting since 8:30 am and it would be so nice if you cleaned my room out when the people in here earlier checked out at 10 am which is checkout time ? You would think in a super organized service industry driven world that you would have our room ready by 12:30 right , wrong ! You made me wait until 1 pm and only for the reason that this is check in time right because magically my room was cleaned at that moment correct ? Ugh ! We had to get our bags from storage and then finally got into our room which I’m gonna be bold enough to say wasn’t thoroughly cleaned .... the floor in bathroom was sticky and there’s a stain on the blanket on my bed , I’m not gonna complain but I call bullshit on the room not being ready when we asked for it . I know I’m bitching but I’m not pissed off even though I may add there is no fridge or ice buckets in the room so I’m not sure how I’m supposed to keep my booze chilled for NYE . #firstworldproblems lol ! Took my shower and jumped into an Uber and headed to the Nelson Hotel to meet Jenny and Rich who is her really cool bf , when we arrived they were already there drinking beers and the atmosphere was nice . Got a couple nice local IPA’s which I think were Founders Brewery , I could be wrong but they were good and not too strong .... only 6.5% 🤪 . 

The woman pictured above was the local entertainment and I didn’t get her (their) name(s) but they were great ! They were taking requests from the beer garden patrons and even played a David Bowie song for Kathleen but all the requests they took were played with their own spin on the song which was really nice and original sounding but the time was coming where my beer buzz and my jet lag were taking over and as hard as it is for me to admit to this but I even was offered to play hockey last night when I received a message from Justin Harrison and I turned it down , don’t hate me but we just went back to grab some KFC and I passed out by 7pm .... this ice time was 7:45 pm and there was no way I would have made it alive especially after drinking a few beers . Don’t fret though as it looks as though we will be hitting the ice on Friday here and who knows , I might even get another emergency call to fill in between now and then . Looks like Australia 🇦🇺 will be country #39 on my list of countries played in . I should get back to reality now and start getting ready to leave my room , tonight is New Year’s Eve . I hope you all have a happy new year and expect a very hungover post to kick off 2019 . Peace ✌️