Toronto

B179 – THAT SCANDI TOUCH

September 29, 2017September 29, 2017 joshfspearLeave a comment

Its 3:53am on Friday morning and I basically cant sleep so Ive decided I should just get up and have a productive Friday. this morning Ive got a bit of running around todo, i basically need to get a second passport for a visa I need and only have today to really get that done, so thats my first job of the day. after that its getting my life back on track before sailing into the weekend of some good old chin wags with my mates that I haven’t seen in a pretty long time.

But before then I want to talk about Air Canada Rouge, Im not sure if any of you have flown with this airline. If you have, then you know what im talking about, its pretty crazy. Ive just sat on a 8 hour flight, without a TV or ipad to keep my company. they ran out of Ipads. they idea is basically give out ipads of $10, which come with films and games, which in theory is a great idea, but the execution failed. I know they’re a budget long haul airline, which is perfect for saving a few bucks but so is Norwegian Air and they have smashed it. Norwegian Air are like the same price as Air Canada but they’re planes are clean, smooth and they have that scandi touch, which just makes it one of the best airlines I’ve flown on.

What they do, is give you cheap seats and a TV but you pay for your food and drink, that might sound like a bad idea but if you pay and order on your TV in front of you, if comes straight away, the air stewards are just all over it. where as Air Canada, they do the classic food trolley, I went for the chicken and only found out after the flight that it came with mash.

One thing I can say with pride was my idea to tape my phone to the seat in front of me which basically meant I had a TV, genius. so my top tip for Air Canada, take some duck tape with you on the fight just incase you need to tape your phone up to give you a TV or even if something falls off the plane you can duck tape it back together again. both are strong possibilities.

Norwegian Air have changed up the game and are the best cheap airline out there! hands down!

anyway thats just me forcing my opinion on you. heres my snaps from the journey home, it wouldn’t be complete without a snap from the plane window looking down on Toronto.

B179-1 — – back in london and on Oxford cirucs –

B179-1-2 — – the upgraded TV on Air Canada –

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 –

B157 – I got the shot though.

September 6, 2017September 9, 2017 joshfspear2 Comments

Today has been the first day of filming and so far so good, everything seems to be coming together. Its going to be an exciting four weeks I think. Im writing this post just after lunch time on Tuesday, Its been a bit of quite time and thought it would be productive of me to get this done sooner rather than at 11 O’clock tonight. Tomrrow I hit theroad for a 7 and a half our drive, from Toronto to Kingston and back to Toronto, all while filming, so it will take a fair bit of time. I think this is going to be a bit of a baptism of fire, which should be good for every one, I’ve just got to remembered to put everything on charge tonight and then just lock everything down tomorrow.

I’m sat here writing this and Im not going to lie I have only got two photos in the bag, I’m still trying to think of a third photo, I’ve seen a few of these black squirrels bopping around, they are literally jet black Squirrels… if I see one again I’m going to snap it and post it one here, but now I’ve said this I probably will never see one again.

It feels a bit weird writing this post with only two photos in the bag and not at the end of the day, but it’s the better option rather than me missing a day or doing it late tonight and having to wake up really early in the morning.

One thing I have noticed about Canada and if anyone knows more about it let me know, but the sun seems to be a lot lower, the light in the morning is so much nicer and lasts a lot longer than in the UK its doesn’t seem to be golden hour, but more like a golden two hours, which helped me to get that shot of the suburbs today.

This also wouldn’t be any sort of daily blog if there wasn’t a picture of the Kenworth truck, these things are massive and rule the roads, I remember the first time I saw one in the UK and it made those English lorries feel like some sort of go-cart, I cant imagine how hard they are to drive, but I wouldn’t mind giving it a ago. They are sell from anywhere from $30k all the way upto $100k+, and weigh an average of 68,000lbs which is 30.8 tonnes. If you were to look at something like the Volvo FH Lorries, which are pretty common on the roads in the Uk they weigh 14,572Lb, which is 6.6 tonnes. So these American Kenworth Semi trucks are just over 4 times heavier than a common lorry in the UK.

An even better fact is the Kenworth on average gets 8 MPG out of their trucks, in the UK the Volvo FH is getting 9.8MPG to 13.5 MPG with Germany Light (what ever that is, anyone know?), so I guess we are a little bit more efficient… but they definitely get more marks for the overall look, these things are like 30 tonne beasts.

Moving on, hopefully by the time you’ve read this Ive got some cool photo of a black squirrel, if not I’m sorry but I hope you like which ever one, future me has decided to upload. Sorry for rambling on about trucks and lorries, I kind of got a bit carried away with all the facts.

B156 (1 of 1)-2 — – this thing is a monster –

B156 (1 of 1) — – a nice quite canadian suburb –

B156 (1 of 1)-3 — – me trying to take a quick photo of the black squirrel but having my settings completely wrong, least I got the shot though –

B156 – street food at its best

September 5, 2017September 9, 2017 joshfspearLeave a comment

first day proper day and we are off to a flying start, after spending about 5 hours in a shopping centre trying to get our phones sorted with american sim cards, we finally have one working phone. apparently having an unlocked iphone doesn’t necessarily mean that it will work with a Canadian sim card.

but who cares because I’ve finally had a hotdog from a man on a street corner. and oh my god, it was perfect. Ive always seen people in movies eating them, and never had the chance till now and all for $3 dollars, he even had Saracha sauce and load of different toppings you could help yourself too. it was all worth the standing inside a shopping centre running between the Apple store and other phone stores, though, because as we left and crossed the road, this old school american car stopped right in front of us, I think its a Chevrolet, but I cant find it on the internet. so please does any one know what it is, I’ve spend like half an hour on good and not having much luck. it was literally a case of right place right time, and made my afternoon. so check out this photo and let me know what car it is and if you know the year that would be even better.

In other news, 4 months ago and properly damaged the ligament in my quad muscle training for an ultra marathon and couldn’t walk for 6 weeks literally had crutches the works and since then I’ve comfort eat Pizza and done nothing, well today I woke up early and got in a 15 mile cycle and a 30 minute swim, the first bit of proper exercise I’ve done in 4 months and my quad muscle didn’t hold me back or hurt, so maybe that little bit of physo I’ve had has helped. So the plan now is to find another over the top and stupid challenge for 2018, I’ve got a few ideas and will start planning when I get back in the UK. Mum and Amy Im sorry.

Im now just sat in my hotel room, doing the last little bits to the camera for tomorrows shoot and then going to head out meeting the guy we are filming and have something to eat, all in all though I think Ive beaten the last of the jet lag and back on top form.

Anyway heres my photos from today, please let me know what car that is.

B155 (1 of 1)-3 — – this was the coolest thing Ive seen in a long time, what car is it? –

B155 (1 of 1)-2 — – the hot dog guy was the second coolest –

B155 (1 of 1) — – it would be rude not to post a photo of the Canadian flag –

B155;I’ve got a Dodge

September 4, 2017September 9, 2017 joshfspearLeave a comment

for most people in the states and canada a Dodge is just a car, but for us brits every dodge is a viper, they even sound cool ” I drive a dodge” and the car Im driving for the next few days is no exception. I have no idea what model this is, I only know it says dodge on the front and is pretty big. Ive only been in Canada for about 5 hours, its now 21:30 at night here in Toronto but thats like 2:30 in London, so its been a pretty long day. My plan is to say awake for as long as possible and then fall asleep for like 7 hours and be completely back to normal, Im refusing to let jet lag get the better of me.

since ive been here Ive literally seen the motorway and in side of the Chinese restaurant, so I can really comment on what its like here, but so far it does look really clean and the people seem really cool. Wish I had time to get out into the forests and stuff maybe see a few bears, but im not confident that will happen. but I have heard a rumour of some cool islands around here which you have to get a boat too, so hopefully if tomorrow isn’t so busy we might be able to get out and explore some.

If any one know of anything fun todo in Toronto, I would definitely like some inside information on this place. I really want to go and see the CN tower, but im not even sure if that is possible. I have 4 days here and will probably have a few hours spare over the four days, so anything quick, easy and not too busy would be ideal.

Anyway heres some photos from my last few hours here.

B154 (1 of 1)-3 — – even the gease stick to the pavements –

B154 (1 of 1)-2 — – there she is, what a beauty –

B154 (1 of 1) — – Sport at the front, soccer mum car at the back –

B154 (1 of 1)-4 — – this was the street I walked down earlier, looking forward to seeing more of Canada –

B154 – see ya later London

September 3, 2017 joshfspearLeave a comment

Just at the airport waiting to get on my flight, so thought I should get this post in now.

First stop on the list is Toronto and then on to the states, I think. Yesterday was my last day in London, so did all those things like breakfast, pack and eat some more. Lucky I managed to get some clothes washed and fresh socks. Not sure if I have enough Clothes for the month but we will just have to see.

A big shout of out to apple for fixing my phone yesterday evening. I really needed an unlocked phone that works, and they basically saved me a load of money. There’s a first for everything.

Looking at my schedule for the next 20 something days it’s going to be hard to keep these post updated at 10am each day, so it could be any time really. I’m determined to to let it slip but we will just have to see.