There was also some other good news, the bride was with child, so it was a fairly large celebration. After everybody had eaten it was time for the presents to be opened and speeches and all that. I was quite pleased that I even got a mention, they said thanks for coming all the way from England. Once everybody had left the clean up began. It was quite a quick job, taking the chairs back to the neighbours and putting the furniture back in its original place. After the cleaning was all done, or mostly done, we resumed our season on FIFA.

People started coming in, I got introduced to most of them, some of them introduced themselves. The caterers arrived and started setting up there food and cooking equipment. I was quite peckish now, all I had eaten was a bowl of cereal in the morning and a little bit of salad for lunch. Most people had arrived but the guests of honour, the people the party is for, the happily married couple were still to arrive. When they did everybody cheered, they all said there congratulations and gave their gifts. We were all sitting around, standing around and chatting. There were a few separate groups like in all parties but they were constantly changing position and members. I was talking to the groom, he was interested in my travels so I told some stories, some good, some bad. Due to recent circumstances most were a little worse than the events probably were. The caterers were taking there time. A lot of alcohol was being consumed and no food being eaten to help soak it all up. I was pretty hungry and I'm sure everybody else was too. About two hours late the food was finally ready for us to help ourselves to. I took my time, I didn't want to intrude or anything, everybody was family but me, the boy from England. The food was good, nothing much to shout about but it hit the spot.

I was greeted by Kevin when I arrived back in Toronto. I was glad to be back, all I had for them was bad news though. I was tired but was in no mood to sleep so I stayed up watching the food network and so on, back on with the usual routine. I pretty much got back to my previous routine the next days. I had been told that Mike's uncle had got married during the summer and nobody had been around to celebrate the wedding. Jim and Bev had planned to have the wedding party at their house, they were going to get a caterer in and all sorts. Most of their cousins would be coming, I would get to meet them all. I don't think I have ever seen any of them before, I have seen Bev's mother once or twice before but she was the only one. Jim had been buying some beer for the party and set up a mini fridge by the back door. I was given the task of helping set up the chairs, I gave Jim a hand picking them up from a neighbours house and helped him set it up in the back garden. I took it upon myself to hoover up the basement, I don't know when it was last done. It hadn't been done the whole time I was there and that was over a week now. It didn't take too long and was nice and clean now. I rearranged the furniture making it as neat as possible. The house was looking ready for a party now. Everything was pretty much sorted now, we were all just adding the finishing touches and blowing up balloons. Mike and myself had a few games of FIFA before people arrived. We had been playing a season with Aston Villa, we had already played one, won it and had started a second and were just under half way through. I had been drinking quite a bit of beer since arriving here. The main beer I had was Sleeman's Cream Ale, then I discovered Mill St's Coffee Porter and bought a twelve of that. There was this beer called Moosehead that I have just started drinking, its a lighter pilsner beer. Mike was drinking this beer called Mickeys, its a very watery beer with barely any flavour but quite high in alcohol. The best thing about Mickeys is the riddles they have in the bottle top. Its quite fun trying to figure out what they mean. I had a shower, shave and got dressed. Everybody was ready now, just waiting for the guests to arrive.

After my little nap I had to get some water. I was desperately thirsty and getting really dehydrated in the heat but had no idea where the way back up was. I was walking round the fort but it seemed to be going nowhere so I retraced my steps and went back up the way I had come down. Found a shop, had a drink, the whole bottle went down in one gulp. It was now early afternoon, now that I had quenched my thirst I think it was beer time. The main area was pretty cool, lots of fancy boutiques, little cafés and restaurants and the occasional pub. Which pub to choose though, I had a list on some flyer and went for the one that was probably the most expensive but had the biggest selection on beer. I sat at the bar, had a look at the selection and made my choice. The beer was a local beer from Quebec somewhere and was pretty good. I was quite pleased with the Canadian beers I have had so far, most of them have actually been really tasty. The pint went down a little quicker than I would have liked so I had another choice, it was even better than the first one. Sitting next to me at the bar was some American guy who had driven up form the states, stopped off in Montreal for a night and had come to Quebec for a few days, then planned to return to the states. He was into beer so we had a little chat about beer, I told him about my misfortune with the visa situation, he wished me luck. He told me about this place down the road that is a fast food restaurant that is supposed to have tasty poutine, tasty, cheap poutine. As I haven't tried any yet, even when I was in Montreal where poutine is famous, I thought I had better try some finally. After the pint, I said bye and went off to get my fill of poutine. The restaurant was just like a Burger King or something, except the main dish was poutine and its variants. I choose the bad boy of all poutines, the one with lots of cheese, sausages, and plenty of gravy poured all over. To be honest it wasn't great, the gravy was very salty, the cheese didn't taste of cheese, apparently it is the cheese you use though. The sausage was just a frankfurter cut up and chips aren't my favourite type of food. It was okay but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, I don't even know what the place was called. After I had stuffed my face it was time to go to the airport, I was early but had nothing else to do. Time to fork out another $20 or so on a taxi. Altogether this trip had cost me around about £500 and it wasn't even a success, one bit let down. One big expensive let down, in fact this had been the most expensive and stressful day trip in my entire life.

The rest of my time in Quebec city was filled with great depression, I had just been denied a visa, this left me with pretty much no options. If I couldn't sort this problem out, I wouldn't be able to meet up with a friend in Seattle in three weeks, I wouldn't even be able to continue travelling and would once again have to cut my trip short, much shorter than originally planned. I went from being very optimistic to about as pessimistic as one can get. Why have I got so much bad luck?

At least the sun had come out when I got out of the consulate. I got my phones back and continued with the day. My flight back to Toronto wasn't until the evening and it was only about 10.20am now so I had all day to kill. Where to go and what to do in Quebec, I had no guides and no idea what I should be doing. All I knew was that I really, really needed a drink. Too early for that though. I walked around once again, had a bottle of ice tea and sat and watched people go by. I went for a long walk around and around, not having any clue where I was going or why, just simply wondering. My mind was elsewhere, after all, I had just been denied. I went to the top of a hill which gave me an awe inspiring view of the whole city and surrounding areas. The French grandeur definitely shows in this city, much more than Montreal. Montreal is a very modern city with some older bits, this city looks to be mainly old with some newer bits. I walked off all the way along one of the giant fortified walls, these walls had huge canons scattered along them, I would image this was a pretty well defended fort in its time. By the time I got to the bottom out of the fort and into the old town, it was nearly lunch time. I had some snacks in my bag, some things that I got on the plane, some pretzel sticks. I ate all my food and was left with nothing but a rumbling belly. There was some weird procession thing going on, everybody seemed to be dressed as either pirates, peasants or what looked like guards of some kind. It was some re-enactment thing, I have no idea what for, I don't know anything about Quebec city. Right at the bottom on the river front was a medieval styled market, I soon noticed you had to pay to get in. Not for me then, I'm not even in the mood to worry about this crap now. I stuck around for a little bit just to see what was going on, really crap touristy things like this are not what I'm into. It was so busy that it took me about twenty minutes to clear the crowd and get out onto the open street. Now the sun was right up in sky and had cleared away all the mornings fog, it was bloody baking. It was good though, sitting in the heat letting the sun beat down on my face and warm my cockles. I had run out of water and juice and couldn't see a shop or anything anywhere in sight. I ended up sitting on a bench on the water front and fell asleep for about an hour. What was at first a little sit down, ended up being an afternoon nap.

I went through security, even stricter than that of airports. I was scanned and all sorts. I sat at a seat in the waiting area, looking around it wasn't what I expected at all. I thought that the interviews would all be carried out in individual rooms closed off for privacy. It looked like the waiting room of a post office, seats in a row, then cashiers/clerks at booths. Behind bullet proof glass obviously, after all, it was the US consulate. My name was called. I went up to the booth, said hello and all that. They asked what I was doing and why, I explained what was going on. I handed over my documents, they checked it all over. It all checked out, I was feeling quite optimistic about it. Then she asked if I had any way of proving I had enough money for the stay, it didn't mention this on any of the forms or anything. All I had on my person was a couple of credit cards and about $500 US in cash. She then proceeded to read something to me. I thought, that was it, I had blown my chance. It was like she was reading me my rights as I was being arrested. She gave me a letter explaining the situation, that I had been denied and can resend off the same application with extra information. There was a list on the back saying things you need for the complete visa application. She said all I needed to do was get those things, then fax off the whole lot to the office that she left me a fax number for. I needed a letter of employment, which might be a little difficult to get as I am no longer employed. I needed some recent pay slips, that would be easy as I kept all of them, they were just sitting in a draw at my home in England. I also needed an up to date bank statement, I was sure that the credit card statement wouldn't hurt either so I got that too. I had about a week and a half to get this sorted as I was planning to be in the states in about two and a bit weeks.

Quebec city is a beautiful city, it is a walled city with an old wall surrounding most of the old city from when the French occupied it. There are canons all over the walls and a big châteaux looking building in the middle at the top, overlooking a river. The whole city was engulfed in this thick fog, it was hard to see far distances but it gave the whole place an air of mysticism. I still had a couple of hours before my interview so walked around the city for a bit. I hadn't slept now for over twenty four hours and was feeling it. Plus it was bloody freezing as the sun hadn't come out and shone through the dense fog yet. The time came for me to wait outside the consulate. A queue had started to form, as time went by the queue got bigger and bigger. Thankfully I was quite early so was third place in the queue, otherwise I could have been there waiting for hours. The guard was coming around checking we had all the correct documentation, if we didn't he would send us off. I was sure I had all mine, when he checked he confirmed, it was all there. He said that you are not allowed bags or mobile phones in there. I had a bag and two phones, worse still I had nobody to give them to. I was allowed to take the bag in once it had gone through an x-ray scan, the phones had to be taken away though. I managed to give my phone to the receptionist of the hotel next door to look after. He taped them together and wrote my name on it to make sure. I was called in.

I had something really important to sort out, I had put it off for a few days but really needed to get it sorted as soon as I could. I needed to apply for a Non Immigrant US visa. I would be staying in the country over the date of my country visa's expiration and would need a proper visa for the remainder of the time. I went to the US consulate to ask and they said I couldn't do it. I checked online and I could but there were no interviews until a months time. I needed one asap so had to look around at all the US consulates across Canada. The only place I could find was in Quebec City. I filled in the form to apply for an interview. I got given the application form and needed to pay for the interview at a bank at the other end of town. I haven't said yet but the only available interview slot was tomorrow. I booked it as I had no other option. I read what I needed and needed to do and got it done that afternoon. I had to book a flight that evening as the interview was first thing in the morning and there weren't any flights that would get me there early enough. I booked my flight, it cost me over £350 for a return flight for one day. I quickly ran to town, got some passport photographs taken, paid for the interview and got the receipt I needed. I told Mike who forwarded the information onto his mother and father. We had a quick dinner then I was driven to the airport to get on my way. Jim wrote me a letter stating who I was, what my purpose was etc... I the hope that it might help with the visa application process. I got to my plane early and just waited for the time. I was so nervous, I knew if this went wrong I would be completely screwed. In fact it would actually fuck up the whole of the remainder of my trip. I arrived in Quebec City in a couple of hours, it was now 12.30am and I had nine hours to my interview but had nothing to do to kill the time. I sat in the twenty four hour Tim Horton's in the airport lounge, had some Timbits, doughnut holes, and a cup of milkshake. I read a the rest of my book, and started a new one. At about 4.00am the airport started to fill up a little more, until about 6.00am when the whole of Tim Horton's was pretty much full. It was getting time for me to leave to get into town for my interview. Some guy started chatting to me about George Orwell as he noticed I was reading 1984. He seemed like a cool guy, knew a lot about books and life and travel, all sorts, he was an all round cool guy. He was from Costa Rica and was on his way back home, he had been on a fishing holiday somewhere in the Quebec province. We spoke for about half an hour when his flight was called. He wished me luck and gave me $20 to help me out. It may sound weird but I had explained my situation, about Barbados and all sorts, and about my money coming to an end. He went off and I decided it was time to go into town. Things just got worse, there was no bus service into town, the only way to get there was by taxi which would cost me over $20. Things are going from bad to worse and I'm really nervous about the interview.

The next few days followed exactly the same routine, the only difference being me going to help pick some vegetables at Jim and Bev's allotment plot. They had all sorts, beans, peppers, onions, plenty of beets, and some squashes. We picked some fresh veg and made dinner out of it. We made most of the dinner out of the veg for the whole time I had been there and had more than enough to do it for the rest of the time.

We left the apartment in the morning, Mike had to get to work, the other end of town, the old part of town where all the factories used to be. We got some food for the day, I was going to spend the day with him at his work or just around the general area. For lunch we had some of those pizza buns, the thin buns covered in cheese, these ones had tomato sauce which was a great bonus. With the some muffins and some drink. The job Mike has to do on Sunday is to look after a Sports Gallery/shop aptly named thesportgallery.com. Also sort out some posters and covers from old sports magazines for clients. The day is mostly spent behind a desk on a computer, with, I would imagine the odd customer or two. When I was in there, all we did was play zoikz and tried to watch Raging Bull but I couldn't get into it. Whilst I was about, I only saw about five customers, but a couple were interested in photos and covers worth quite a large sum of money. To be honest, it was quite boring just sitting there all day long. Mike was telling me about this micro brewery around the corner, it was quite famous and had a very good reputation. I went on a mission to get some beer. I really wanted to try as many Canadian beers as I could. I had a bad time, beer wise in the states, most of the beers were really bad. Only a few would make the list for me. So far I didn't mind the Canadian beers I'd had. The Mill Street Brewery had a wide variety of different beers, from light ales to dark coffee porters. I had already had one of their lightest, the Organic ale. It was okay, possibly a little bland but would make a great session beer. I wanted to have some tasters, unfortunately they only came in set samples, I didn't want all of the samples, I only wanted to try a select few. I asked one of the waiters, he came over and said he couldn't give me a mixed selection but I could have a free tasting sample of all the ones I wanted to try any way. That was great, not only was I getting to try most of the beer, I could do it for free. I liked a couple and bought a pint, then tasted some more, and bought another pint or two. Annoyingly I ran out of money and they wouldn't take my card. Luckily I had the exact amount in change. I settled the bill and went back to the gallery to meet up with Mike before we had to go home. After Mike finished work, we got the bus back to Markham. I was rather drunk now, I had been drinking at the brewery for a couple of hours and found one of my favourite Canadian beers so far, 'Mill St brewery Coffee Porter'. It is a fantastic beer, has so much depth and flavour, has great balance and after one you want more and more. It does everything a good beer should do, or at least what I would expect to do. When we got back, we ate dinner and then did the usual bit of TV watching. I had got into a proper routine now. Watching the some music show until 12.30am when 'King of the Hill' starts on another channel, watching that, then putting it on the food network to watch 'Diners, Drive ins and Dives'. DDD has now become my favourite programme on TV, it is so good, it always makes me hungry. Kevin even joined me in this routine, to take some time out of his music work. Then I would go to sleep pretty later and wake up around 10/11am.

the sport gallery http://www.thesportgallery.com/

the mill st brewery http://www.millstreetbrewery.com/

The band are called, 'The Artful Vandelays'. When I asked what they sound like, I got 'loud' from Bev and Keving himself didn't divulge too much information on them. All he said was that they have a similar sound to the Muse. I was sort of excited to see them, the Muse aren't my cup of tea but I don't mind them, I could sit there, or stand and listen to them. We got some more beers, alcohol had been building in my system throughout the course of the day. The bar was really scuzzy but looked like the perfect place for a band to perform. They came on, played their set. I really didn't expect that sort of sound from them, they were quite loud. The drummer was all over the place, not musically but in his performance, occasionally standing, flipping his sticks in the air, punching his fists into the air, all sorts. Kevin remained relatively active for the duration, some times rocking back and forth and having a little wonder. The Guitarist was pretty much still the whole time, I don't even think his feet moved from the spot they were on. The singer was the strangest, his speaking voice was completely different to that of his singing voice. He had a very powerful voice that filled the room and got right into your ears. It was not what I was expecting at all. I had heard some days before, a way that somebody had described something, it was a double negative and made no sense but sounded funny. The kind of quote that will stick with me the rest of my life. It is a good way to describe the band. 'If you went there expecting the band to be shit, you would be very disappointed!' after the band Jen, Mike and myself went back to get some sleep.

check them out http://www.last.fm/music/The+Artful+Vandelays

The next few days were pretty relaxing. I spent the day catching up with some reading, writing and playing this game on miniclip.com called 'Zoikz'. The game is really crap but for some reason I got really addicted to it and couldn't stop playing it. Then I found out the Michael is addicted to it as well. I couldn't complete it, I always got stuck on the last level. It got to a point when I would waste hours playing it, what a waste of time when the weather is beautiful outside. It didn't take long before I got into a routine of waking up midday, having breakfast, playing Zoikz until lunch. Then watching the food network until dinner. I would occasionally help cook and with the cleaning. In the evening, Michael would get home, we would play some FIFA, drink some beers then watch some more TV. This pretty much went on every day. Kevin was in a band and they had an upcoming gig downtown on Saturday, so me and Michael went. We stayed round at Jen's apartment after it finished, it was a bit too late to get a bus or train home. Plus Michael (Mike as I will now refer to him as) had work in the morning. I got a lift up with Kevin and one of his friends, they were going to the drummers studio to practise before the gig. We had some lunch, I got to try Popeye's chicken for the first time. I was in New Orleans where every other fast food chain is a Popeye's and never had any then. Don't know why I left it until now but I did. It was okay, nothing special though, quite similar to KFC, but with slight differences. A little bit before Mike finished work, I left Kevin and the boys to rehearse and went off looking for where Mike was. I met him on the equivalent street to London's Oxford St. From there we went to a bar, there was a new complex with cool bars overlooking some busy streets. A place where you can go and watch people and the day go by. It was rather expensive though, that was the only downside to it, great view, nice drinks but not at pleasant prices. We had some beers, then realised that the cocktails weren't much more expensive but contained much higher volumes of alcohol. It made more sense to get some cocktails. We stayed for a few drinks. I had introduced Mike to this game called 'Farmyard Challenge'. Its a very simple game, one person draws a penis, the other person tires to turn that penis into an animal without it resembling a penis. If they are successful, they get to draw the penis and so on. I have been playing this game on and off for years, I doubt its anything to be proud of but its a good way to pass the time. I knew Mike would like it as he is very into potty humour. We were playing it for a few goes each when a couple sitting on a table opposite noticed. They couldn't see what we were drawing but could see us getting really into it and laughing a lot. One of them, a quite attractive young woman came over to have a look and ask us what we were doing. We explained the game, exchanged compliments, then we left as we were finished our drinks and game. We had to go to Jen's apartment to drop our things off. On the way, we stopped off at a Liquor store to get a few beers. I saw some English beer, Fullers ESB to be precise. I had to get it, I knew exactly what I was going to get and really fancied a nice beer. Jen had quite a nice place, in an apartment block near enough to the city centre, not a far walk from all the major sights. The time had come to go to the bar and watch Kevin's band.

I got settled, put my things in the spare room that I was going to be sleeping in. I didn't have a specific period of time that I was going to stay, I was made as welcome as possible and they said I could stay how ever long I wanted. After dinner we all cleared the table and helped do the washing up. They still have a rota for doing the washing up, I remembered from the last time I was here, they had the same system. Its fair I suppose and makes me think why we didn't do a similar sort of thing instead of making my mother do it all. That evening, we watched a bit of TV, the TV in Canada is very similar to the states. Most of the programmes on it were the same. We decided to stop watching TV and Michael wanted to show me his local pub. We left immediately and went to the pub. Like me, Michael doesn't drive. We would have walked any ways so that he could have a drink or two. We walked through some pathway that seemed like a small creek, I don't think there was a river though. The pub was made out to look like an old fashioned English pub, it was called The Duchess in Markham. We had a pitcher of some dark beer, I think it was from Toronto. It was okay, already a million times better than most of the beers in the states. The pub was pretty busy, they were showing a baseball game on TV. Since I had been in North America, I had really got into baseball. Actually, since the Caribbean. The team I support are the Toronto Blue Jays, I have seen them before and I have links to Toronto. I have always like them since Michael lived in England many moons ago. I found out that the drinking age in Canada is nineteen with the exception of the province of Quebec where it is a more reasonable eighteen. After the pitcher was empty, we went back home, watched some more TV then Michael retired to bed, I stayed in the basement watching some TV whilst Kevin sat in the other room working on some songs.

Toronto

As I had previously arranged with my friend Michael, I was going to get off at the Scarborough stop, not go all the way to Toronto. They live nearer to Scarborough, it is the rush hour so makes more sense to be nearer his house and avoiding all, or most of the city traffic. I was met by Michael and his dad Jim, I hadn't seen them for what seemed to be such a long time. Since the last time I was in Canada, about five maybe seven years before, I can't remember exactly how long it was, just that it was a long time. The traffic wasn't too bad, we arrived at their house in no time at all. They pointed out where they used to live and all the old memories of last time came flooding back. I remember skateboarding outside of their old house, and a little further down the road. Their new house wasn't far from their old one, it was literally down the road. You come out of the old road, turn left and go on about fifty metres and there you are. The new house was quite a bit smaller than the last one but it sort of made sense. Jen the eldest had moved out, Joey the second eldest had also moved out. The only ones living there now were Kevin, Michael, Bev and Jim of course. They didn't have a swimming pool any more which I will miss and I think they do too. Bev was out when I arrived, Kevin was about and was cooking up some Mac'n'cheese. Jim had arranged a bbq for me when I arrived so he got that all sorted, made a salad and within minutes it was time to sit at the table and eat dinner. It felt really good to be in their company again. Michael was one of my best friends at school and we have remained great friends for about eighteen years now, even though he now lives on the other side of the world. Michael works during the week at some company that buys films to get them into mass production. He is actually interning there for free and has the job of actually screening the films. It seems like quite an important job for somebody to do unpaid. Oh well, that's how it is. Kevin is doing odd jobs in music production. Jim is the editor of the Toronto Catholic Register, a local newspaper. Bev if I understood correctly did something during the week and volunteered at the hospital on Wednesdays.

I was really looking forward to seeing my friend again, I hadn't seem him and his family since the last time I was in Canada. It was only a matter of hours before I saw them all again. The bus journey wasn't too long but it was long enough for me to watch a film and listen to some music, even have a little nap if I felt it necessary.

I was leaving this afternoon, I had a shower, packed all my things up and checked out. I chilled out in the common room for a bit, then the time came for me to leave and head to the bus station. I couldn't find the bloody thing. I knew where it was and should be but still couldn't seem to find it. I think I must have walked past it two or three times now. I finally consulted a map, it was right behind me. I went in, sat on a seat and waited for my bus to be called. There was still a little while before my bus came so I read some of my book and listened to some music. The bus was called so I got up and into the queue for it. I was leaving Montreal, it made me sad as it is such a cool city and I really didn't do enough there. I have the intention to return one day though. Out of all the cities I have been to, it seems to me to be the most habitable. For me any ways, I could easily live there but it isn't somewhere that I want to live right now, its just that I could.

When I got to the hostel I was pooped. I sat in front of the TV and started to drink the rest of my PBR. One of the guys who works at the hostel wondered if I wanted to go to this big fan thing later. Its one of those massive fans you lay on top of and it blows you up into the air, like a sort of zero gravity experience. It sounded amazing but came at a cost of over $50, out of the question on my budget. If the Barbados thing hadn't happened then I may have reconsidered but it did, and I was near broke. I still had some of the fish left over and offered it around, I couldn't handle and more of the saltiness. A few people tried it, and a few people spat it straight back out. I wasn't hurt, I had enough of it already and was going to throw it away anyway. I had some food left over from the day before so I cooked myself some pasta. I ate, drank, watched TV and then went to sleep.