Toronto – Page 2

B265 – WHAT A YEAR

December 25, 2017 joshfspearLeave a comment

Merry Christmas everyone and a happy new year! its literally the perfect day, as well as it being christmas its also my last 100 days of posting. I’ve made it to the final stretch. as its also the end of the year and also my last 100 days I thought I would show you some photos that Ive taken these past 265 days.

Its probably been one of the best years Ive had, not only have I been working pretty much non stop but Ive also been to some places that I never thought I would go to, I’ve spent 2 months in America and now have a working visa of the states, which i’ve wanted for ages, Ive also been to Canada, china and a few places in Europe. so its been pretty exciting. Amy also asked me out at the beginning of the year, and next year she should be moving into my flat, well thats the plan anyway. who would have thought I would been living with a girlfriend. its crazy and I suppose when you do that your kind of becoming an adult and having responsibilities, which in away is quite cool.

this blog has to be one of the best things Ive done, its literally taught me how to write and in given me confidence to try new things and just work harder to get what I want, and also when I write emails now theres a lot less spelling mistakes, its never good when you write emails and its grammatically incorrect or just doesn’t make any sense but because of the sheer amount of writing I do now I learnt a lot of new words and can spell so much better, I think anyway.

I think this blog has been good because a lot of the time its easy to think up ideas and then even easier to think up excuses why you cant do them and this has really made me just forget the excuses and just go with my gut and try to get the job done. thats why next year ive got a few plans lined up for this blog and also things that I want to try and do work wise. im planning on getting a second job i think just to help pay for all the things I need todo and the adventures / holidays im going on. Its time to up my game and smash 2018 out of the park!

Thank you 2017 its been a pleasure!

oh and sorry my blog didn’t have any photos on it yesterday, i literally have no idea how that happened. WordPress was just having a bad day I think.

b081-1-1 — – amy and me exploring the town of Ratio on the Amalfi coast –

b208-1-of-1 — – I also went to my first american high school football game right, this was like 10 minutes away from Harvard University –

b209-1-of-1 — – Flying out of Newark Airport in New York. That is definitly a place Ill be going back to soon! I love New York –

b257-1-3 — – a picture of Soho in London, I quite like this photo. Might have to get it made into a print –

b261-1-4 — – the shot from the Barbican last week, im just happy with this photo and really like the way the man is –

b056-1 — – this guy was definitely a highlight –

B232 – GOOD BYE SHANG HAI!

November 23, 2017November 23, 2017 joshfspearLeave a comment

Today I leave shang hai and head back to london, im looking forward to getting home and looking back at all these photos Ive taken and getting the posts online, I hope you all are still reading these and wont abandon me.

this place is pretty cool and completely different to anywhere Ive been before, its a completely new culture that ive kind of seen, I wish I had more time to see this city. im now on the coach to the airport and looking out the window at the Bullet train tracks. the bullet train is chinas answer to high speed rail way travel. this thing goes like like 200 mph and travels along these futuristic train tracks which use like 1 mile long bends. its literally a thing of the future, I love the idea of the future and people creating inventions to make life easier and more exciting. the next few years I genuinely think china will over take the west and lead the technology race, if you have over 6 billion people in one country how can they not.

this country is a place I still cant work out if I would like to come back and visit on holiday or if I would only come here for work, I just cant decide. china is a massive place and I like to think ill be back to explore but truthfully Im just not sure. I think ill only know a few weeks down the line when I think back to what its been like and what Ive experienced. right now im pretty hungover from an amazing wrap party 87 stories up at the top of the hotel and all I want todo is eat a mcdonalds and fall asleep on the plane home.

for now heres some photos from my past week in this amazing city!

B231-1 — – This guy was just happy to be a live –

B232-1-2 — – the bullet train tracks, I wish I went on this –

B232-1 — – as im posting this in the future, hes a photo from the plane –

B228 – THE HIGHEST BATH IVE EVER HAD

November 23, 2017November 23, 2017 joshfspearLeave a comment

today a bit of an early start, got a lot happening today but looking forward to getting on with every. its the first day of shooting so need to rush over to location, its like 6am now leaving the hotel at 7 to get there for 8.

Breakfast, Having Chinese food for breakfast is actually quite a good idea. nothing better than noodles and some fried rice for breakfast. takes a bit of time to get used to drinking a coffee at the same time but its quite good in a weird way. I will dedicate a whole post to the breakfast here, i think it desevers it. I have never seen noddles and seafood for breakfast before.

The jet lag is still real, its probably some of the worst jet lag I have experienced, I keep waking up at like 4am and cant get back to sleep, normally i do some running or maybe a swim but I can get past the hotel bar, which is proving to be a bit of an issue. One thing to talk about is the fact that the time zone is really confusing and I cant work out what the time is in the UK. I know we are 8 hours ahead but I keep thinking the UK is in front. thats probably the jet lag talking but for some reason my head just cant figure it out. the only good thin about waking up at 4am is the fact that I can have a bath with this view, it is literally the best bath in the world. I don’t think anything will ever compare to it!

My plan for these post while im away is to write some bullet points each day and then when I get back to the UK fill in all the gaps. I think thats probably the best thing for me todo, I will probably regret doing it that way, but I think while I’m here i need to get as much sleep as I can because my days are going to be filled with running around trying to get everything done.

B228-1-2 — – A Breakfast of champions? –

B228-1 — – sorry for the bad light, I didnt want to turn the lights on at 5:30am, this was a bath to remember –

B228-1-3 — – looking up inside the hotel –

B214 – IM GOING HOME!!

November 4, 2017November 3, 2017 joshfspearLeave a comment

Right now its 14:44 on Friday, Im sat a Bradley international airport in Massachusetts about to board a plane to Boston, Ive got an hour till we take off and from Boston I have a flight that will take me to London Heathrow. its now the complete end of my time in America and after two months on the road going from Hotel to Hotel its time to head home and finally do some washing and get on my DIY skills on, I’ve got a hall way to paint and some more blinds to put up! so get ready for some DIY posts, they will be coming thick and fast.

right now though Im scrolling through the photos Ive taken on my phone and think its only right to post some photos that I have taken on my phone before they disappear into the hard drive of my computer forever.

If I had to choose one city that has left a mark on me it has to be New York, that place is probably one of my favourite cities Ive visited in a long time, it just doesn’t sleep and every corner has something happening and thats what I like. Nothing stops in New York, its just on the move constantly. I will 100 percent be coming back to New York in the near future.

On the other hand, the state that surprised me the most and rank up there of cool places is New England. thats the area Im in now, apparently its were the english first landed when they discovered America, thats where it gets its name from. If I could get hold of a mountain bike and had a few days off I would loved to of just cycle round the forests and explored this area, it just looks like a cool place to have an adventure. that sounds like a pretty cool idea now Ive just said that. Amy? Can you cycle?

Ive really enjoyed this trip and feel like Ive managed to see a fair bit of america is a short period of time. but now I just need to come back and really get to know it when Im working. Heres list of the places Ive been in the last few months. New York, New Jersey, Massachussets, Flordia, Illinois, North Carolina, St.louis, Toronto and Vancover. Looking at that im really suprised that I haven’t missed a day of this blog yet and not really sure where Ive found the hour or so it takes to write these each day.

Tomorrow I land back in the UK and have to rush home for a hair cut, pack a bag and get ready for a few days get away in Paris. Amy and Me are going there because theres some fashion show that she wants to check out and I owe her a birthday present. so get ready for me to put my best Zoolander outfit on and explore the city of Paris!

Heres some of the photos from my phone of these past few months.

B214 (1 of 1)-2 — – Ive never seen an exhaust like this, is it legal in the UK? –

B214 (1 of 1)-3 — – a view from New England –

B212 – MARTIE THE MOOSE

November 2, 2017November 1, 2017 joshfspearLeave a comment

Now that we are on our last leg of this little tour of america, we are in New England, it really reminds me of the British country side but just with a touch of america, it seems to have the British winter weather and is just cold. a bit different to last weeks 30 degrees Florida.

As we are filming today this is going to be me talking about a local restaurant, and I have to say this is a proper good one. this place is called Burgundy Brooks Cafe and it serves all the good stuff. I had the Burgundy Burger and some Beef soup. the soup was just to get my body temperature back to normal and the burger just because I wanted a burger. out here it kind of feels like america’s version of the country side, there’s trees and green fields for miles and miles and even though I live in a city I still miss the country side and the fresh air, so coming here is kind of refreshing and reminds me of home.

Back to Burgundy Brooks Cafe, its kind of got that family feel and a place to get some good food at a good price, I think all my food came to like $13 dollars, which is pretty decent. What was nice about this place was how friendly they were, one guy that worked there was keith, he came over to me and handed me an on the house espresso, which after a pack morning was just what I needed before lunch. he basically then just talked me through the local area and all the things I should do while Im here, which is always perfect when you get to a places you’ve never been to before. and the one place that got my attention was the Tree house brewery its been voted on of the best Breweries in the States and also the world!! what more reason do I need to go give it a visit.

what you always need when you come to new places, is a local to give you some good advise and make sure you do all the right things. and if your ever in Ludlow, Springfeild, Palma or just near that area in New England make sure you take the trip to Burgundy Brook Cafe, find Keith, get some good food and all the advise you need about this area. he can also point you in the direction of some world class beer.

Heres a link to their website, and also check out my photos below.

http://www.burgundybrook.com/

B212 (1 of 1)-3 — – Burgundy Brook Cafe, New England –

B212 (1 of 1)-2 — – this is Marti, you cant see it but on the other side of his head is a phone, hes just calling a mate –

B212 (1 of 1) — – this is just out the front of the cafe, looks kinda cool –

B196 – I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD END UP HERE!

October 17, 2017October 17, 2017 joshfspearLeave a comment

Firstly I have something I need to admit, for the past month or so my camera has only really been on auto everything, auto focus, auto exposure, auto shutter. this started off as a way for me not to miss a shot, always guarantee I get the photo I want. but its kind of doing the opposite, its nice knowing that everything will also be ok but I don’t think about the lighting or movement anymore I just snap away. When I first started this project my camera was always manual so it would always mean I would constantly be adjusting everything quickly to get the photo. Ive just got lazy I suppose, well from today onward every photo I take with my Canon 5d will be manual. Im not going to use auto for the rest of this challenge unless Ive been drinking, then I cant make any promises, it will probably be auto.

Anyway yesterday I was talking about how big the houses were and today I actually managed to take a snap of one, this is my no means the biggest house around here but for some reason its probably my favourite. Big houses just mean longer walks to the fridge for the sofa and thats not what I want in a house. I feel like this one has space but at the same time could fit me just right. I quite like this whole area to be honest, today on the drive to the local supermarket for some lunch and even that was a pretty cool experience. In the UK going to pick up food normally means finding the closest Sainsburys or Tescos, where as here you go to this massive farmers supermarket and get a whole bunch of cool treats. it even has an old clock on the top.

One thing that has surprised me about this part of the world is how much they love Halloween, everyone goes mad for it and buys all these cool skeletons for the houses and loads of pumkins, every wall seems to have some sort of pumpkin on it. I didnt take any photos of houses with pumpkins on them but I did get some shots from out side the front of the Supermarket with pumpkins. thats my goal for tomorrow, find a house with Pumpkins out the front. Ill see what over the top Halloween houses I can find.

Heres my photos from today below. and remember from now on NO auto settings, I promise!

B196 (1 of 1) — – just your average house round here –

B196 (1 of 1)-3 — – going halloween crazy at the local supermarket –

B196 (1 of 1)-2 — – this is the local supermarket, not a tescos cubcard poster in sight –

B178 – PHONE SNAPS- AIRPORT AFTER AIRPORT.

September 28, 2017September 28, 2017 joshfspearLeave a comment

first off, yesterdays post was a bit cringly and maybe I should of wrote it before I ended up at the pub.

I was sat on the plane from Victoria to Toronto thinking of fun things I can do on days like today where its just airports and waiting around or im at home watching TV with out any plan to leave the sofa, I decided that it would be cool to come up with a kind of fun project for those days. at first I was thinking of do like a travel tip thing or give my advise on something, but then I realised im a terrible traveller and even worst with advise. Ill always do the wrong thing when it comes to packing and organising, that basically means I shouldnt give my travel tips out, it wont help anyone.

Thats when I came up with the idea to create some sort of genre for joshfspear.com and on those days, I post photos from the depth of my phone and show some photos that didn’t make the cut but are still pretty good. I want to think of some cool name for these posts but maybe simple is better so Phone Snaps it is.

The photos you see below are from the past few days in Victoria, one of the coolest places I’ve ever been to, its somewhere I really want to go back and explore. one of the crazy / cool things that happened was when a paragon falcon, flew down and landed in the middle of the road in front of me before taking off to attack some black birds that were just minding their own business. it was like see something from a David Attenborough documentary.

I think everyone needs to come and see this place and visit downtown harbour. Victoria is also home to the oldest china town in Canada, that fact was told to me by a taxi driver who wasn’t to sure of his way round the city, so sorry if its not true. I didnt get a photo of the china town but there is a photo of the street a block over.

Another cool fact about this places is that they seem to paint all their street lights and cable boxes that you see around the city, so instead of seeing some horrible gray box or a ugly pole that sticks out the ground you basically see some cool art painted on the side or even a photo. I have a cool shot of this on my hard drive, but thats not with me at the moment so you’ll have to see it in a throwback photo or something.

anyway enjoy the snaps and sorry again if you couldn’t understand yesterdays post. Oh and I think I’ve set this to post at 10am GMT, but I have no idea when it will go up. I don’t really know what time zone my laptop is in at the moment, its got jet lag I think.

– look at what theyve done to the pole, it looks pretty cool. Ive got some better snaps, ill show you them some other time –

– the street near to canada’s first china town –

B175 – ONE CRAZY DAY

September 25, 2017September 25, 2017 joshfspearLeave a comment

Today has been on of those filming days where you are literally jus running around none stop of 14 hours trying to make everything work. sorry to sound like a work-a-holic but sometimes I have nothing else to say. Im now laying in bed, looking at the photos from the day thinking about what has happened today, its all a bit of a blur, but I have to say Victoria is an amazing place and surrounded by water, which helps to make for a better climate that Southern America which has been crazy hot.

My plan today was to show you some of the best parts about this island in Canada called Victoria but all I have done is work. so lets just share some fact with you, in 1871 british columbia became the sixth province and proclaimed capital of canada. basically putting it in charge. in 1778 Jame cook, that guy who discovered America became the first european to set foot on Canada and proclaimed it to be a discovery.

What I like about this part of the world is that everyone is friendly, Amanda and myself were at the bar tonight when suddenly two local drinks called a shaft were given to us by this nice local who just wanted to chat. A shaft is basically this mix of a few sprites which make something that taste like baileys. thats what I like about this place, everyone is ready to make freinds and be drinking friends.

sorry for all this mistakes in todays post, im just a bit tired and ready to go to sleep but wasnt prepared to miss todays post and fail at my job of posting each day for the whole year. Ive had a great time travelling america and canada and soon to be heading back to the uk for a few weeks before going out on my next adventure. thank you for following my post and hope you enjoy these snaps.

B175 (1 of 1) — – this car today was amazing, makes me want get this car –

B175 (1 of 1)-2 — – even the industrial parts of vancover look amazing –

B175 (1 of 1)-3 — – i want to buy a skateboard and join this guys

B174 – AIR CANADA LOST OUR CAMERA GEAR

September 24, 2017September 24, 2017 joshfspearLeave a comment

I’m sat on the plane from Chicago to Vancouver, the TV’s don’t work and that’s something I hadn’t planed for, so now I’m trying to think of cool ideas instead of just looking at the head in front of me and listening to the only album I have on my phone.
One idea I came up with for today post, is to create an instagram story @joshfspear of some cool photos of my journey from Chicago airport to my hotel in Victoria, British Columbia. As today is literally just a travel day and nothing else, its hard to find cool stories and develop a meaning or idea behind the post, so I thought I would take you on the travel day with me and show you some of the cool things Ive seen along the way.

Air Canada have also lost some of our camera gear so its now looking like im going to be staying awake until it arrives sometime tonight. Apart from that, today has been a pretty good day and ended with us taking a small plane across the sailors sea from Vancouver to Sidney at golden hour which was unbelievable. I was speaking to a guy on the plane and he was talking about the food and wild life in this part of town so now im pretty excited to see what this place has to offer. that plane journey was one of those where I will look back in 10 years time and think how cool it was, from see where salt water meets fresh water to the barges pulling logs along the rivers to paper factories. it was all just like another world.

– the best flight I’ve been on in a long time –

We are only here for a few days but I will make those few days worth it. But we are now off to a flying start with a beer and pancakes from Dennys.

If you’ve got some time go and check out @joshfspear on instagram and have a look at my story of the trip, its got some pretty cool photos. I think I’m going to do more stuff like this and now I’ve done one the ideas are coming to me.

Im not sure if any of this makes any sense, Ive been awake for way to long and all over the place, but I hope you get the gist. I’ve been writing this as the days gone on.

B158 – Im in a STATE OF EMERGENCY / Hurricane Irma!!

September 8, 2017September 8, 2017 joshfspear5 Comments

So good news is I’ve landed in the USA, bad news is I’ve landed in North Carolina, where they are currently in a state of Emergency for Hurricane Irma. Everywhere has sold out of water and the military are on stand by. Its re assuring to know that the hotel I’m staying in also doesn’t have any bottled water. We are just following the Hurricane at the moment and waiting to see what it does with Florida, if it travels north up the coast, it could be an issue with us or does it travel in land, either way its looking like our flight out of Raleigh on Monday is going to be delayed as that’s when they are excepting the weather to hit us. The waitress in the bar next door said they are expecting to get hit with possibly a category 3 Hurricane, I have no idea what that means but im sure its nothing compared to a category 5.

The worst thing about this whole saga, is that when there’s a state of Emergency, the sale of alcohol is stopped. Meaning I cant even have a beer and ignore this whole situation.

For now the plan is to stock up on water, food and anything else and then carry on as normal till we have more news and then depending on how it goes drive somewhere safer or try and get on a flight. What ever happens, I will try and capture as many photos as I can. Im sure the whole thing will be fine, over the next few days we will have a better idea of what is happening and worst case I just end up getting my socks a bit wet.

In other news I met a nice guy called reverend Jones from South Carolina, he was up this way to preach and sing at a funeral and was staying at the same hotel as him. I managed to grab a photo of Reverend Jones, what a guy he was. Top man.

Heres my photos from today, started off in Toronto Canada now in Goldsboro, North Carolina.

158 (1 of 1)-2 — – Reverend Jones, South Carolina, USA –

158 (1 of 1) — – Toronto yesterday morning –