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Richmond Hill, Ontario
It was now time to depart from Suzanne and Bills in Roches Point and head south to Richmond Hill, so we could spend a few last days with my aunt Bessie and Family.
It took 40 minutes to drive to Bessie´s who has a basement apartment in her daughter Susan´s house in Richmond Hill. There was only Susan and Neils Nanny home at the moment.Neil was at the airport, picking up Bessie and Susan who arrive from a Bar Mitsvah in Jerusalem.It was just past noon hour as we unloaded the crate from the truck and positioned it on the driveway so it wasn´t in the way of them parking there cars.It wasn´t long before Neil pulled up with Bessie and Susan.There were hugs all around. It was nice to see them all again.
It was now time to start packing our bike. Bill gave me a hand emptying the gas tank. We then pushed the bike up onto the floor of the crate and tied it with the ratchet tie downs. We then said our goodbyes to Suzanne, Bill and Eric and they drove away. Suzanne would be coming back on Wednesday to pick us up again so we have a bit of time to pack our bags. With everyone out of the way, I began to pack the bike. It did take some time. After 5 hours I was ready to wrap it up with the Tarpaulin.By this time it was 5:30pm and Uncle Omie just drove up in his car. We were to go out for dinner tonight to a Hungarian Restaurant in Richmond Hill. Omie gave me a hand in the final phase of packing. With the tarpaulin in place, we now just had to tie the straps around the crate as a back-up if the tape doesn´t hold it in place. I passed the strap under the crate for Omie to take on the other side. He bent down to reach for the strap and then disappeared. I couldn´t figure out why it took so long for him to take it. We couldn´t help laughing because he bent down to take the strap and almost couldn´t get up again. Yes, believe it or not, Omie is not a spring chicken anymore. By 6:30 pm, the bike was packed and ready for shipping.Unfortunately, there was one thing I forgot to do. The battery had to be disconnected and I´m unable to get to it without opening up the Tarpaulin again. Shiiit man. Why does it always happen to me. The shipping company requires that it be disconnected because they are worried about sparks starting a fire. I myself could not see the danger of that happening so I decided not to worry about it.Luckily, I can´t remember the last time I forgot something.Omie and I were now on our way into the house to greet Km and Bessie.We were waiting for the arrival of Aunt Kelly and then we would go for dinner. With the family gathered once again, we headed out to find the restaurant.We found the restaurant in town and parked out back.It wasn´t a very big restaurant but very quaint indeed.We ordered two large platters which had a little bit of everything on it. Kelly asked for a side order of something, I for the life of me can´t remember what it was called.I just remember that it also tasted very nice. It was kind of a dumpling sort of thing. After dinner, it was in the car again and I as the chauffeur, drove Omie and Kelly home.Omie told us that he would drop by in the morning with bagels and cream cheese.We said goodbye and then headed back to Bessie´s.
Omie showed up the next morning at 8:30 with breakfast. Km was still trying to get out of bed. We had a nice breakfast before Omie was off to work again. In the meantime,Bessie arranged a trip for both herself and Karen M. They were off to the hairdresser. I had the honours of driving them there and they would call me when they were ready to be picked up. I had borrowed Bills telephone so phoning for me was not a problem.It was also free. What a Brother In Law!!! I returned to Bessie´s again and started to think about the battery which was not disconnected from the bike yet. Even though I was convinced that there was very little danger in sending the bike with the battery connected, my conscience got the best of me so I found myself a knife and opened up the tarpaulin so I couldget to the side panel and remove the battery cables. With this done, I closed the crate for the second time with gaffing tape.I actually did feel better that it was done.I´m just glad I was finished before the shipping company came to get the motorcycle.In the meantime, Km and Bessie had phoned to let me know that they were ready to be picked up. It was just around the corner so I hurried as not miss the pick-up of the bike.
At 3pm the truck pulls up in front of the house. As I look at the truck and the equipment he has with him, I´m not too convinced that my bike will be leaving today. We measured the length of the crate and the width of the truck and I was even more convinced that my bike was going nowhere. The truck was 5cm shorter in width than the length of the crate. If we were to get the bike onto the truck, we would have to turn the crate sideways, then push it in, and the crate weighs just over 400 kg. The driver phones his boss to explain the situation. I was a little concerned that if we tried to load the crate onto the truck and it didn´t work, we would be forced to leave the crate on the road due to the fact that we probably couldn´t drag the crate back onto the driveway. The driver says to his boss, "we´ll see what we can do", and hangs up the phone. We talk a bit and I find out that the man is Russian. He was a little curious as to my last name which he says looks Russian but just spelled differently. I told him about my grandfather who fled Ukraine in 1917 just before the revolution.After a long talk, we agreed that because he was Russian and I Canadian with Russian blood in me, what was stopping us from pushing that crate on the truck. We were both Shhtrong like Rrrussian Bull. It wasn´t long before I was waving goodbye to this man, his truck and my motorcycle. GGGRRRRRAAAAWWW!!!!!!
I went back into the house where I sat down and talked with Bessie and Karen M. They were both so pleased with the result from the hairdresser with the hair, manicure and pedicure that I decided to take a few pictures of them. They were fit for fight from top to toe.
The other day I got Albert (cousin Susan´s son) to find his guitar and I will try and inspire him a little. He was taking guitar lessons from a Russian guy but apparently he hated the man and this resulted in him hating the guitar as well. I did teach him to play Hava na Gila on the guitar. It went surprisingly well so I thought to myself that if he had a guitar tuner, then just maybe it will keep him playing.I took Bessie and Karen M to Cosmo´s Music Store. Made them think it was for Albert's sake not mine. This was a gigantic store with different departments specializing in different instruments. We spent a great deal of time in the guitar department. I haven´t seen my guitar since we left Denmark in May. I almost bought a miniature guitar in Nashville but we hadn´t really room for it on the bike. When I got tired of looking at all the guitars, I found the guitar tuner, paid for it and we returned to Bessie´s on Regent St. Bessie's daughter Susan, was out shopping. She wanted to make a BBQ for the family.Omie and Kelly would also be coming. I gave Neil a hand by dragging the BBQ from the garage, through the house and onto the backyard porch.Well worth the effort. There was both fish and chicken on the menu.It was another enjoyable evening with the family.It was like going to a dinner and show. We were invited to a special entertainment show in the living room by the two dancers, Meryl and Lily. After the performance, Lily showed us how she could make Boobs out of socks. An old trick but she was only 8 and it was new for her and it seemed to work. Before Omie and Kelly left to go home, we arranged to meet with him in the late morning and head down to his Yacht Club for lunch and go for a quick sail. Kelly was not a fan of sailing so she would not be coming.Km was not a sailor either but I assured her it would be a nice calm sail.
Early next morning, I jumped in the car and headed off to Debbie Wyldes and AWF Forwarding to pay her for the return shipment of my bike. I purchased shipping insurance as well which did indeed turn out to be a good investment.It was then back home to pick up Km and then Omie at his home at around 11am. Thought it was only fair that we picked him up. It was after all, his car we were driving.We started our decent into Toronto by driving through some very nice old residential area´s in Toronto.It was then down to Yorkville and park the car so we could go for a walk.Yorkville, years ago, was a hangout for Hippies. It is now a very fashionable place to both live and shop not to mention expensive.With the tour of Yorkville complete, we found the car and headed down to the lakeshore to catch the Ferry to the Island Yacht Club. We parked the car in the underground parking and headed what I thought was where we would catch the boat.Omie had another idea. We would find a restaurant down at the Harbour Front. We found one with a view of the water so we sat us down and waited for the waitress. It was a beautiful day and the sun was shining in the best fashion. Omie started by ordering a martini for himself and Karen M.I chose a Labatts Blue beer. I was unfortunately the designated driver for the day. After lunch, we headed back to find the car. On the way back, we passed by a fine old vintage Ford Fairlane with a custom licence plate that read "Still Running".Time for a few more pics. With these pictures taken, we hop in the car and head over to the next parking lot just across from the Island Yacht Club ferry dock. Okay, we didn´t hop into the Ford Fairlane. It wasn´t ours. We hopped into Omie´s car. We caught the 13:45 Ferry and twenty minutes later, we step off again and head on down the path to Omie´s boat. We decided that we would just sail around the Toronto Islands with the help of the motor instead of the sail. We passed by Center Island which is an amusement park with Restaurants andrides for children. At one point as Km is at the helm, we run aground. There was a bit of panic in her face as she immediately says to both Omie and myself... " Why did you let Meee... steer the boat"??? We really didn´t have an answer for her. We all smiled except for Km, and went to work trying to get us off the sandbank. Ten minutes later, we were moving again and Km went to the front of the boat as far away from the helm as possible. The weather was just perfect for a sail. Even Km thought it was delightful and she is not an enthusiastic sailor. Okay, delightful except for 10 minutes where we got stuck. Before we knew it we were on our way home again. We were meeting the family for Chinese food at 19:30 in Richmond Hill.There is this Chinese buffet where they serve 250 different dishes.We´ve been there before and are looking very much forward to returning again. We drop Omie off at home and return to Bessies once again.
While at Bessie´s, she begins to show us a lot of old pictures from the family both in Canada and back in Russia. I found them quite fascinating and began to skan them on Bessie´s computer and them send them to my USB data plug. Then I could get them made when I got back home. It took some time but it was well worth the effort. I even found one of my grandmother sitting with her girlfriends in Russia, just before her departure to her new country Canada.Pretty cool stuff!!
It was now time to head out for dinner.Km, Bessie and I headed down to Chinese Buffet and met the family there. Susan, Neil and the kids were with as well as my sister Suzanne and Bill. Omie had not arrived yet but he was with Aunt Kelly so he had a good excuse.The Buffet was quite amazing. They say as a rule, if you want good Chinese Food, you have to go where the Chinese people eat and the place was filled with Chinese people. Another lovely evening with family once again.With the evening coming to an end, we said our goodbyes to Uncle Omie and Kelly outside the restaurant and promised to return his car in the morning. Suzanne would come down tomorrow and pick us up around noon.
It was now Wednesday the 26th of August.We wake up to the smell of coffee coming from Bessie´s kitchen.I greet my favourite aunt with a big hug and thank her for everything she did to make our stay here so fantastic. There were actually so many involved in making our stay so wonderful but Bessie was the only one there at the moment. Km met us in the kitchen and Bessie prepared her famous Scrambled eggs and toast.This strange feeling is entering my body again.Tomorrow afternoon, we will be boarding our plane and this trip will be coming to an end. I´m not looking forward to that and either is Km.On Monday,I´ll be back at work and the adventure is over.After breakfast, I start to look at all those old pictures I scanned and funny enough, I couldn´t remember all the names of the family.I had to get Bessie to tell me again and this time I wrote them down. It´s that bloody short term memory acting up again. In twenty years I´ll remember but if someone asks me when I get home I won´t know what to tell them. Albert came downstairs to say goodbye and I used a few minutes to teach him how two cut a banana in slices "before" you peel the banana.For most people, not an easy task but it can be down.Albert was a magician in training and my secret was passed on to him.
Suzanne arrives at 11:00 am and we sit down and have a cup of coffee.We decided to do a little bit of shopping today after we drop off Omie´s car.This took place a Hillcrest Mall.Karen M found a few things and I found my Giant universal Remote Control, just like the one Bessie has. If someone tells me when I get home that they can´t find the remote control, they are full of crap. You can´t write "s***" in a Kilroy Blog because they will censor it.Bessie also picked out a few things she liked.While Suzanne and Bessie were looking around, I decided that this was my chance to pay for these things that Bessie liked, to show our appreciation for all that she has done for us.We are really going to miss this wonderful woman when we get back home. Yeah, we´re going to miss everybody a lot. It did have it´s price buying these things for Bessie.The next 15 minutes or so, we had to listen to her kvetching about why we would do such a thing to her and how we took advantage of the seeing impaired.Gotta love this woman and I do.She can be pretty funny at times and other times scary. I´ve never seen the scary part first hand but have heard from others. We then headed around the back of the shopping mall to the Pickle Barrel restaurant. Here is where we would have lunch today.We sat down and the waitress came right over and we all asked for a cup of coffee while we looked through the menu.That was more or less the last time we saw her.At least until the head waitress came over to see if everything was alright. That´s when Suzanne kind of lost it and as I began to crawl under the table as she informed the waitress as to what was the problem.It didn´t take long before there was coffee on the table and our orders were taken.After that we didn´t have much to complain about. The food was fine and we left the restaurant with full and happy bellies. It was now time to drop Bessie off at home, say our goodbyes and then it was off to Roches Point where Bill was waiting for us. It was getting late and Suzanne wanted to get home.Bill has to eat quite regularly so he doesn´t feel the effects of his diabetes.We dropped our visit to Wal Mart on the way home... YAHOOO!!!!! We took Rexall Drugs instead.I was looking for some silicone ear plugs which I started to use while driving our motorcycle over here.I´ve never seen them in Denmark so I wanted to take some home.At 5pm, we rolled up the driveway at Pine Post Rd and saw that Bill was ready to go out for dinner.We headed out to a little restaurant by the river and enjoyed a fine dinner in the company of fine people.It´s hard to believe that within the next 24hrs, we will be walking around Lester B. Pearson airport.Our luggage will be checked in and our boarding passes will be in our hands.Three months of our lives have disappeared before our eyes but not the memories.We had a cup of coffee out on the terrace before heading off to bed. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.Always is traveling eastbound.
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