South Pacific

It’s really hard to concentrate on writing a blog entry while there are two little hairless psycho’s running amok!  Mya and Abby have been play-fighting for the last 10 minutes.  Kids these days – geesh!

Nothing really exciting happened during the previous week.  The most thrilling event was when I was looking at the Compass Traffic Cameras during my break at work.  On one of the Toronto images, this horrific sight caused me to yell “Oh no!’  A few people came running over to my desk to see what was wrong – I feel really bad about that.  Needless to say, I’m not a big fan of spiders:

Yuck!!!!

Fortunately, my weekend was a little less spiderish and more joyous.  Jan and I took the bus from St. Catharines to Toronto on Saturday morning.  We had tickets to see South Pacific at the Four Seasons Performance Centre .  We left a couple hours early so we could hit a few shops in the area before heading to the show.  After visiting Timmy’s, we browsed the Winners store in the same building.  I bought a couple of nice shirts (orange, to match my plane).  We started walking toward the performance hall, and were able to enjoy some live music on Bay Street:

We didn’t catch the name of the band, but they were quite good.

As we continued on our way, we saw a few people with big “Free Hugs” signs.  I’ve seen people do this before (on the news) and have always thought it was such a neat idea.  I gave Jan the camera to take a picture of my hug:

People don’t realize what they were passing by.  It was such a nice thing for them to do and it actually felt a little tension relieved afterwords.

We made our way to the theatre with less than 10 minutes before the show was to start.  I asked Jan if she wanted a wine.  We didn’t realize the time when we arrived.  My mother had her watch snatched while in the Toronto crowds!  I told her she should have a drink to calm her nerves after being mugged.  After the guy poured her glass, he informed us we had 8 minutes before the start of the show.  Poor Jan had to suck it back in a hurry!

Our seats were perfect – front row, about 7 feet from the stage.  The orchestra was feet away in the pit in front of us.  As if the show wasn’t good enough, these perfect seats made it even better.  I would certainly recommend South Pacific to anyone.

Once the show was done, we had less than 5 minutes to get to the bus station to catch the 5:00 bus.  Needless to say, we didn’t make it.  However, we did pass a bra hanging in a tree, so our walk/run was somewhat entertaining.  We wandered around a bit and decided to grab something to eat before catching the bus.  We splurged on bananas and water.  We caught the 6:00pm bus and headed home.  We passed this nasty accident on the way:

I went to visit Jan today, so we could go for a coffee, get some groceries and vacuum out our cars.  I’ve just been doing odd jobs around the apartment since I’ve been back.  Needless to say, it was a great weekend!

Today’s symptoms:  My fatigue was pretty bad today due to my long day yesterday and hardly sleeping last night.  My jaw had been hurting much worse than normal over the last few days.  It’s hurting in a way it’s never hurt before too. 

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 8/29/2010 7:04 PM

Oil Is My Friend

I had a decent weekend.  Despite flying on Thursday and Friday, I headed out again on Saturday.  Chuck and I endured the exceptionally long flight from St. Catharines to Welland.  It took about 10 minutes.  I’m so glad we went though. 

Quite a few of my folks from the Recreational Aircraft Association , including a few directors:  Fred the vice-president, Ray our social guru, Dave our man with the connections and me, the president.  Chuck got a nice big ol’ beef on a bun with a side of beans and I had a muffin and coffee:

While we were eating, they drew names for the door prizes.  All of the pilots who flew in were entered in the draw.  My name was called first.  I walked up to the prize table and was torn between the case of aviation oil ($90) and the beautiful framed biplane picture.  In the end, I took the oil.  Vice-pres Fred was at the table next to me and told me “I had my eye on that oil, Liz!  You took my oil!”  I actually felt really bad, even though he obviously wasn’t mad that I took it.  His name was about the fifth name called.  He walked up to me and said “Look, I got a free oil analysis!”  I said how wonderful that was and asked if he wanted some of my nice, new oil to analyze.

We wandered around for a bit and checked out the planes and the classic cars:

Fred, his wife and his coupon for his free oil analysis were leaving around the same time as us, and also going back to St. Catharines.  I checked out his plane before he left, as I hadn’t seen the inside yet.  He just redid the interior and it looks awesome!  After chatting for a bit, Chuck, I and my big, wonderful case of oil headed over to my plane.  Here’s a shot of Welland while we were taking off:

Chuck was disappointed that during the trip back, there was no meal served during the long flight.  Fortunately, he got over it.  Just as I was approaching the circuit, I watched Fred land.  He called the tower on the radio and let them know where he would be taxiing.  I then called him on the radio and said “Hey Fred, I would have been here sooner but the large case of oil in the back of my plane really slowed us down!”  He radioed back and said “I thought it would!”  Chuck and I had a good laugh and came in for the landing.  It was a really nice day.

Sunday I went to visit my mother.  I hadn’t seen her in a couple weeks since she was on a shopping trip in Chicago.  It was really nice to see her, but I don’t think she would say the same about me!  How rude!

Today’s symptoms: The fatigue isn’t too bad but the pains in the bones of my forearms are as bad as they’ve ever been. If I had to describe it, it’s as if someone is bending my bones to the point where they’re about to break.  I hope to be pain free tomorrow. 

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 8/24/2010 7:18 PM

Elizagolf

I had two great flying days.  I flew a friend out to the Brantford Airport for lunch yesterday.  It was such a nice day, with very little humidity.  Hopefully it’s a sign of days to come!  Today, I left work around noon and climbed aboard my Cessna 150 and flew out to a golf course near Niagara Falls.  We have an annual golf tourney through work to raise money for cancer.  I donate a flight around Niagara at the silent auction.  This is either the second or third year I flew over the course for about 20 minutes after the shotgun start.  Here are a few photos for your viewing pleasure:

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve flown over people and they’ve asked “Did you see me wave?”  Of course, I usually don’t.  I was quite happy to see this picture I snapped during the fly-over:

It will be interesting to see who it is when I go into work on Monday.  I think I recognize who is standing next to him…

I’m planning on taking to the skies again tomorrow.  It will involve an arduous 10 minute flight to the Welland Airport.  I think Chuckles and I will go around noonish.

Looking forward to visiting my petite mother on Sunday.  She just returned from her shopping trip to Chicago.  I’m sure she’s just counting the hours until she sees my smiling, loving face.  (Stop laughing, mom!)

Today’s symptoms:  Felt pretty good.  The fatigue wasn’t bad but I’ve had a headache since around 4:00.  I think I would like it to go away now…

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 8/20/2010 7:19 PM

Port Dover

I had Thursday off as my compressed day, but decided to go in to work and take Friday off instead.  Someone reminded me on Thursday that it was going to be Friday the 13th, which is when all of the bikers flock to Port Dover.  I figured it would be a pretty interesting fly-over.  Mind you, the airspace was restricted to above 3500′, so I was quite thankful for my camera with the good zoomage factor.  The flight there was really nice and smooth.  I headed down toward Highway 3 to see if I could see many bikers heading into Port Dover.  There were quite a few, mostly in groups.  When I made it to Port Dover, I was blown away at the view.  There were TONS of bikers!  Check it out:

I actually flew around for about 20 minutes, snapping pictures:

They were doing helicopter tours as well:

Tons of people were camped out from the day before:

It really was a neat experience!  Perfect weather for it, too.  I’m not too big on crowds, so I was quite happy to be well above everyone.

The flight home was a little more lumpy and bumpy, due to the clouds rolling in.  I flew over the plant in Nanticoke and took a zoomed in shot of the smoke stack:

I had another great day today.  Chuck and I went over to Buffalo to do some shopping.  We were mostly looking for clothes that matched my plane.  It was really hard to find orange tee-shirts!  Most of them were V-necks, which I’m not too struck on.  I don’t like to accentuate my lack of cleavage.

Today’s symptoms: I haven’t had this much energy in months!  It was so great!  I’ll probably pay for it tomorrow, but it was well worth it.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 8/14/2010 7:16 PM

Naughty Children

It was a rather interesting weekend.  I finally started feeling better, and was well enough to go for a flight Sunday morning.  Chuck and I decided to fly to the Tillsonburg Airport for breakfast.  There was a rather strong wind and it took us about an hour and ten minutes to get there.  We had a nice breakfast in their new terminal building.  I was surprised to see they had free Wi-Fi there!  After we gobbled our meals, we fueled up, since Tillsonburg has the cheapest aviation fuel in Southern Ontario.  The flight back was much quicker, as the wind was at our back.  We arrived back at the Niagara District Airport in less than forty minutes!  Even the officer in the tower said my ground speed was about 140 miles/hr.

Chuck and I made a quick trip to Costco on the way home.  Next, I decided to go back to the bookstore on St. Paul St., which will be closing down at the end of the month.  I spent three hours there, as I did during my last visit.  I got around 80 books for $20!  I’m going to visit again at least one more time before the end of August.

When I got home, I was shocked and very proud to see my children on the news.  I took a picture of the TV while they were on:

This was their first time competing at this event, so I’m just ecstatic that they won gold!  Mind you, there was some controversy soon after the event.  The word got out that they were both tested positive for snorting catnip before the competition.  We soon discovered that this rumour was spread by the silver medalist team, obviously out of jealousy.  Once a hair follicle test was performed (which wasn’t easy since they’re hairless cats!), the silver medalists were stripped of their medals, and forbidden to compete again for seven years.  Since they figured they had nothing else to lose, they still attempted to destroy the reputations of my kitties, by posting wanted ads around the region.  Here are pictures of two of them:

I told both Mya and Abby that they have nothing to be ashamed of – many cats would give anything to be as cute and googly as they are.  The support for both of them has been flooding in, via emails, cards and numerous fan clubs that have cropped up.  I’m so proud *wipes away tears*

Today’s symptoms:  Feelings rather fatigued today as I hardly slept two nights ago.  I usually don’t feel it the next day, but typically two days later.  Delayed reaction….

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 8/10/2010 6:47 PM

Visit to Waterloo

I don’t really have anything to write about during this past week, as I haven’t been feeling well and have spent my days in bed.  However, I was feeling good last weekend, so Chuck and I took a little flight.  We decided to check out the Waterloo Airport, as we hadn’t been there before.  It was a rather hazy day, so the view wasn’t too great.  It was quite smooth at least.  Chuck snapped a few photos on our way there, including this one of joyous Hamilton:

I took the most direct route there, which really wasn’t the most enjoyable.  We first had to speak with the Hamilton tower, which was really busy.  Once past the Burlington Skyway, Hamilton asked me to call up Toronto Terminal.  Of course, they were really busy too.  It made it hard for Chuck and I to talk to each other, as we were constantly listening for my next message from the tower.  Oh well, once we were passed off by Toronto, it was a nice, short flight to the Waterloo Airport.

It was quite a long taxiway over to Apron II, which is where the Runway Cafe was located.

The restaurant was quite nice.  We scanned the menu and both notice the goulash, which was listed as a “local favourite.”  We decided to split a bowl, plus Chuck had a burger and fries and I had a salad.  The goulash (which I have never had before) was worth the flight in itself!  Yummaroos!

After lunch, we climbed back into Vyctor and headed back home.  I really wanted to check out the bridges over to the US, since it was a holiday weekend and the traffic would likely be insane.  The night before, the wait time for the Queenston Bridge was 1 hour and 45 minutes!  We headed south of Hamilton, passing through a of couple little rain showers on the way.  Nothing like a free plane wash.  The flight over to Fort Erie was about 55 minutes.  The Peace Bridge wasn’t too bad, and neither was the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls.  They were busier than usual, but nothing like what we saw on the Queenston Bridge:

I don’t think I’ve ever been in a line-up that long to cross the boarder – yuck!

Not too much else to report.  Like I mentioned earlier, I’ve spent most of this week in bed like a weak blob.  Hopefully all of this rest will have paid off and I’ll feel better for the weekend.

Today’s symptoms: Really weak and more fatigued than normal.  Fortunately, I did feel a bit better today than I felt yesterday.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 8/6/2010 7:15 PM