Rochester

Chuck and I decided to go to Rochester, NY for some Christmas shopping this weekend.  We drove up after work yesterday.  It took a little over two hours to get here.  We’re staying at the same hotel as we always do – the Comfort Suite.  It’s right next to the Marketplace Mall, and its neighbour is a Cracker Barrel.  Yum!

We had a really productive day, making quite a few purchases.  We hit a Burlington Coat Factory before going to the mall this morning.  I don’t know if you remember the post where I mentioned going to that store with my friend and mother back in August.  We found a a hideous dress and my friend Laura decided to model it for us:

Great news!  We found its sibling:

Tee hee!  Too bad they didn’t have my size.  Boo hoo.

After a full day of shopping, we went to the Cracker Barrel for din-dins.  Very good!

Now we’re sitting in the hotel room, trying to recover from the day.  I decided to be a rebel and paint my nails for Halloween.  Check these bad boys out:

Chuck let me do his pinky:

Two stylin’ Canadians!

Today’s symptoms: Still having lots of nerve pain all over the place.  My eye pain and headache are the same.  I actually had a decent amount of energy, though!

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 10/29/2011 6:35 PM

Kitty Break

I’m going to keep today’s blog rather short and I won’t be including the Britain trip. 

To start off, this weekend I gathered up the laundry, closed up the bag and set it by the front door.  I’m really glad I walked by a few minutes later and noticed this:

Whoops!  Sorry Mya!  I opened it up and she stayed there for a couple more hours:

I lost a bet the other week and had to bake a cake.  I mentioned this to a friend at work and she asked what kind of cake.  I said Angel Food Cake.  I quickly burst out laughing when she started talking about how to prepare my egg whites.  Hello!  I open the box and add water – do I look like Betty Crocker to you?  My friend is so cute!  Anyway, good thing I didn’t go any further than making it from a mix.  Look at the mess I made from a simple mix:

My counter isn’t usually such a mess but I had a meeting that night and didn’t get home until 8:30.  I was trying to hurry so I could get in my jammies and go to bed!  The bet I lot had to do with what train station we were stopping at.  He said Burlington and I said Aldershot.  Needless to say, I was wrong.  Check out the final product:

I know, you’re all thinking that I should leave my job with the government and go into cake decorating.  I’ll think about it….

In closing, I decided to eat a mini Snickers bar tonight.  I guess the rattling of the wrapped got Pinky’s attention:

Sorry my furless little friend – no chocolate for you (nom nom nom).

 

Today’s symptoms: I’m still dealing with quite a bit of pain since my infusion on Friday.  It feels like the bones in my fingers and hands are being crushed.  Not fun but hopefully it will be better tomorrow.

 

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 10/24/2011 8:46 PM

Good Ol’ Chester

Continuing with day whatever of our Britain trip…

 I think I mentioned arriving in Manchester in my last blog.  The traffic going into the city looked a little something like this:

Here’s a shot of our hotel room.  Notice my cute new Princess Diana Memorial Tartan kilt:

Our next day included a visit to the Chester Cathedral.  Jan and I were loving visiting the cathedrals on the trip.  Mind you, the spot where our bus was supposed to park and let us out was illegally blocked by a city bus.  The driver wasn’t even on the bus.  It created quite the back up:

Eventually the dude ran out to his bus and moved it, as many middle fingers were flung his way.

Speaking of dudes, check out this little one we passed on the way to the cathedral:

Like all of the other cathedrals we visited, this one was amazing.  Fortunately, we were allowed to take pictures inside.  Try to guess why this was my favourite stained glass window:

I’ll give you a subtle hint – meow.

Some more pics from inside:

The one on the far right kinda looks like little Jan.  Anyway, moving along:

Check out a close-up of the dog at his feet:

To be continued…

I had to go to Burlington for my monthly Tysabri IV infusion.  I had the nurse that did my first few infusions.  She’s so nice and really good at putting in the IV.  Jan went with me.  We were almost an hour early, but since no one else was there, we started the IV right away.  It was nice because after the hour was up, Jan and I headed to the nearby Maple View Mall to shop.  We had a Timmy’s then wandered around.  I bought a few more Christmas pressies and also a couple more hoodies for myself.  I have a serious hoodie addiction, as I’ve mentioned before.  I think I need to enrol in HA.

Today’s symptoms: I’m in quite a bit of pain after my infusion.  It consists of sharp aches and pains all over my body.  Some of them are very intense.  Hopefully I’ll still be able to sleep well tonight!

 

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 10/21/2011 8:24 PM

Gone With The Wind

Before carrying on with the trip, I’ll share my day with y’all.  I had to go to Barrie (north of Toronto) for my follow-up Doppler ultrasound for the CCSVI surgery I had in April.  I hate driving through Toronto, as most people do, so I decided to fly there.  Despite the insane winds, my mother and I clambered aboard Vyctor just before 9:00 this morning and headed on our way.  We were so glad we decided to fly, as the traffic on the major highways was not moving too well.  Blah!  It was actually smoother than I thought it would be, until going through Toronto airspace and having to descend below 2000 feet.  Despite the bumps, we were able to take a few pictures of the CN Tower, which I was just dangling off of last week:

 

We were cleared to fly right over the Downsview Airport:

Jan snapped this pic of one of the highways we would have been driving on, had we not flown:

It took about an hour and ten minutes to arrive at the tiny Springwater airport, just to the west of Barrie.  We called a cab, hit the Timmy’s drive-thru and headed over to the Barrie Diagnostics Imaging clinic for my scan.  I don’t think we waited for more than ten minutes before I was called in, about fifteen minutes early.  The test took about fifteen minutes, after which time we called another cab and headed back to the airport.  The flight home was just slightly shorter than the flight there, due to the wind.

Back to the trip!  After our joyous boat ride, we climbed back on the bus and headed towards the England border.  We were going to miss Scotland!

I actually got excited when I noticed this sign, hoping that Tim Hortons had managed to make it’s way to England:

After screaming at the bus driver to pull over, “I need a Timmy’s!” I realized that this was in fact NOT a Tim Hortons.  Bummer.

We stopped in Grasmere, where the

poet William Wordsworth lived.  We visited his grave site:

A stream ran along side of the grave yard, which contained a few little ducklettes:

Jan and I decided to have some noms, as we were both hungry and wanted to get out of the drizzly weather.  Our tour guide recommended a cafe that had killer meat pies.  For some reason, I can’t eat meat and pastry together (it makes me sick) so my mother had the pie and I ate a sandwich:

Before getting back on the bus, we passed this little fella who was singing the prettiest song:

I asked him if he took requests but he just flipped me the bird.

Heading out of Grasmere and over to our next overnight stop in Manchester, we passed some Canadian icons:

Check out the narrow road we barreled down:

Manchester wasn’t quite my favourite city/town on the tour, as it lacked the picturesque-ness of the other locations.  Still, it was nice to arrive at our hotel there that evening, after another busy day.

 

Today’s symptoms:  I felt fine until arriving home after my flight.  Flying always poops me out.  Just dealing with a bad headache and some pain tonight.

 

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 10/17/2011 7:56 PM

Amazing Experience!

Before continuing with my Britain trip, I would like to share the experience I had yesterday.  I took the day off work and a friend of mine and one of his friends travelled to Toronto.  Since the three of us are a tad adventurous (and whack-o), we decided to do the CN Tower Edgewalk!  We were a little nervous that our session at 11:00 might be cancelled due to the yucky weather, but conditions were good enough for the walk.  After a breathalyzer, explosives and drug scan and removing everything except our clothes, we suited up and donned our sassy yellow harnesses.  We met with our walk guide and headed up to the roof of the tower.  The walk itself was about 30 minutes, but it felt closer to an hour.  What a blast!  The two guys I was with were totally calm (at least on the outside), as we joined two equally calm participants out on the roof.  We stopped the walk quite a few times to discuss the joyous scenery and to either lean forward or backwards.  Leaning back looked like this:

 

Notice how short my pants are – I guess they mistook me for my mother.  Anyway, we all had a blast!  My friend who said that he would probably end up crawling around the platform due to fear, seemed to have no fear at all!  We’re considering going next year, too.  We were given some videos of the walk, so I’ll try to get them posted on my website soon.

After the walk, we went up to the observation area and checked out the glass floor:

Our ticket for the walk also included a trip up to the highest accessible point of the tower.  You can see a couple of Edgewalkers close to the centre down below:

It was a wonderful day!

During my last blog, I mentioned how I took someone from work up for a flight over the Forts around Niagara.  He gave me a disc with the pictures he took, which included this amusing pic of Vyctor getting fueled up with a chicken hanging off of his pitot static tube:

Back to Britain…..

Jan and I ended up going on two boat rides that day.  We took a cruise across Loch Lomond with the rest of the group.  Again, Jan and I decided to ride down below, out of the cold and wind.  Here are a few pics I snapped:

Our bus was patiently waiting for us on the other side of the lake:

Check out this beauty next to where our bus was parked:

I took a pic of this little dude while everyone was boarding the bus:

And last but not least, this other boat drifting offshore:

I’ll try to post another blog tomorrow.

 

Today’s symptoms:  I had a really bad headache today and quite a few pains in my hands and left shoulder.  Ouch!  Nerve pain really sucks!!!

 

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 10/15/2011 6:00 PM

Post Thanksgiving Blog

Yes, I was quite the slacker over the long weekend.  Sorry.  Anyway, the Britain Blog continues.

This blog is mostly going to be photos of the amazing views of the Scottish Highlands.  The scenery just blew me away.  I wish we could have spent days traveling around sites like these:

There was quite a bit more heather blanketing the hills:

The views were so awe-inspiring.  My eyes were googly and my mouth was hanging open the entire time.  Needless to say, by the time we made it to our next stop, I was completely exhausted:

Fortunately, someone was kind enough to ignore my mother’s pleas to let me stay there while the bus was pulling away, and ran over to wake me up.  Hearing that my mother tried to leave me on the side of the road made the next hour or so of the trip a little awkward.  Luckily for the little leprechaun, I was quickly cheered up by the scenery:

Jan and I signed up for one of the optional tours – a private boat ride across Lock Lomond.

I think most of the group sat outside, but Jan and I decided to stay indoors.  It look a couple of minutes for me to convince Jan that I had us seated at the front of the boat.  She didn’t believe me that we were simply backing up and turning around.  Anyway, more wonderful pictures to take:

Check out the nicely labeled “cave” that Rob Roy used as a hide out.  Apparently, Robert the Bruce also hid from the English Troops in this cave.

I love this cute sign over a doorway on the boat:

Yet again, I decided it was nappy-time:

Before laying down, Jan and I slugged back a coffee and whiskey.  Perhaps I drank it a little too quickly:

Yes, very lady-like.

One last photo before hitting land:

We were both so glad we signed up for the boat cruise – it was more fun than I thought it would be.

To be continued….

Today’s symptoms:  I was a little tired after going for a flight last night than having our Recreational Aircraft Association meeting.  I’ve had tons of bone-crushing pains in three of my fingers and a thumb throughout the day.  I hope they don’t continue into the night so I can sleep!

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 10/11/2011 8:43 PM

Great Flying Weather

It was my compressed day off today so I took a co-worker up for a flight.  This was his third time flying with me.  He likes to fly over the Forts in Niagara.  It was a perfect day weather-wise so the pics I took turned out pretty clear.  This is Fort Niagara, which is just across the Niagara River from Niagara-On-The-Lake:

 

On the Canadian side is Fort George, which is just south of Niagara-On-The-Lake:

We then flew over to Niagara Falls:

There were quite a few helicopters flying around, taking advantage of the perfectly clear day:

I always try to catch a shot of the rainbow over the Falls:

After a tour around the Falls, we flew over the Old Fort in Fort Erie:

Heading back into St. Catharines, we flew over the downtown on our way to the airport:

I snapped this adorable picture of Vyctor once we were shut down:

On a bright note (or should I say I dark one), I’ll be seeing little Vyctor again today as my mother and I are going up for her first night flight this evening!

While we’re on the topic of cute and little, I bought the girls this huge climbing cat-tree thing the other week.  It was 75% off – I’m not sure if I would have paid the full price of $250!  Anyway, they love it, especially Pinky.  Seriously, could she be any more cute, chillin’ in her new digs?

Head tilt:

Play time:

Mya enters the scene:

Today’s symptoms: Feeling quite good today, just the same eye pain and headache.  Still, I have more energy today than I’ve had in a while.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 10/6/2011 2:18 PM

Britain Blogtopia!

We continued our trip through the Highlands after departing Loch Ness. 

 

The scenery was breathtaking.  I could have driven around the countryside for days!

I always thought the locks along the Welland Canal were impressive, but check out these bad boys!

The Caledonian Canal connects the Scottish East coast with the West coast.  I think our tour director said there were 29 locks in the canal:

We passed mountains covered in heather, which was in bloom:

Rolling onward, we passed more picturesque scenery:

 

We made our way through the English Lake District, as we headed toward Grasmere:

Almost makes you want to take a little dip!  Then I would have to be rescued by one of those sassy, fisher-dudes….hmmmm….

I managed to catch a shot of this cute little rainbow:

Our next stop was going to be Grasmere…

I have the day off tomorrow.  I’ll be taking a co-worker for a flight in the morning, then I have to work on my RAA presentation for Monday.  I’m not too sure how many people are going to come out on Thanksgiving, but I sure would be thankful if a slew of them did!

Today’s symptoms:  I’m still dealing with some pain in my eyes and a headache.  I went into overdrive at work and that really helped to keep my mind off of how I was feeling.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 10/5/2011 9:09 PM

 

Britain – Continued…

Fortunately, we weren’t done with Scotland yet.  We traveled to the Culloden Battlefield on day whatever of our trip.  The weather wasn’t perfect, but at least we didn’t experience anything more than a shower:

 

The battle of Culloden is where close to 2000 Jacobites were slaughtered in about an hour!  Brutal!

 

Notice how my mother is able to smile amongst a vision of tragedy and loss of life.

After leaving the battlefield (everyone was depressed except for smiley Jan!), we headed out to Loch Ness.  We passed these picturesque sites along the way:

 

We arrived at Loch Ness – it was really neat to arrive in such a world famous location.  Jan I headed down to the lake.  Someone from our tour was kind enough to take a couple pictures of us:

I tried to attract Nessie over to our location by dipping my insanely white hand in the lake.  I thought the reflection would tick her off enough for her to come over and tell me to bugger off:

Would you believe it worked?!?!  Ol’ Nessiekins troddled on over to slap me upside the head with her tail, when I requested a photo op before the beating.  She obliged:

Fortunately, she took pity on my mother for having such a dork for a daughter, and decided to let me go without being whooped.  I was very grateful.

For some reason, I decided to flash my tattoo while we were down at the lake.  I guess it’s just a sign that I was starting to miss my plane:

We hit the souvenir shop before climbing back on the bus.  I don’t think we bought anything though.

I shall continue with my amazing travels through the Highlands in my next blog.

Not too much to tell about today.  I was supposed to take someone up for a flight at 10:00 this morning, but the weather was horrible.  I searched for about half an hour for his phone number, but couldn’t find it.  He didn’t call so I headed over to the airport for 9:50am in case he showed up.  The Flying Club phoned me at home later to say he was there at 9:45.  Ugh, I was there from 9:50 – 10:00.  Somehow we managed to miss each other!  Hopefully he’ll call soon (hint, hint if you’re reading this) so we can reschedule the flight.

Today’s symptoms:  My eyes are still hurting quite a bit, and my headache is still there.  Fortunately, I went to the eye doctor a few days ago and my vision has not been affected.  He’s going to send the test results and report to my family doctor, and I’ll see if she wants to follow up.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 10/2/2011 8:01 PM