Stress when driving.......

(image from here)

Had to go downtown Toronto to take dh for his checkup on his eyes.  Pleased to say everything was good, and he was in and out in 15 minutes.  Only took two hours again to get there {{SIGH}}

I am one of these people when I have been somewhere once, I am pretty good at remembering where to go.  However I do tend to get a little stressed driving to new places especially in a major city.  Wednesday was no exception, as after we left the hospital we headed to dd house, as it was "sort of" in the vicinity.  

Unless you know Toronto this won't mean much, but we were at the Toronto Western Hospital on Bathurst and then we headed along Dundas East to pick up the 404/Don Valley Parkway, then the 401.

There are street cars/trams down there, I am terrified of those.  I have no idea why, but I hate driving along the same road as those.  Also we went through China Town and the hustle and bustle in that area is crazy.  So suffice to say I wasn't a happy camper.  However as soon as I got on the 404 and then onto Highway 401 I was a happy camper.  Highway 401 is one of the busiest in Canada, but I don't have a problem driving on it in the Toronto area as I know it well enough.  Same with Highway 400, no problem, I put my foot down and Betsy and me do 130 km and all is well.  Stick me in the middle of the city where I haven't been and I am not happy.

Are you a confident driver?   Also do you ask for directions or do you behave like a man and be too manly to ask someone?  I of course will stop and ask for directions, dh won't!!!!

By the way is anyone having the same problem as me with Blogger.  A lot of SPAM posts are coming through on my regular comments and not in the spam file?  Luckily I moderate all comments otherwise you'd have to plow through tons of spam to read any comments...........it's bloody well annoying.

Tuesday - A day away from the Acreage....

I had the honour of being invited to my neighbour "R's" swearing in ceremony for becoming a Canadian citizen on Tuesday morning. It was in Mississauga, which is where I used to work and is a pretty big city of around 700,000 people. It was held at the busiest citizenship court in the country. 107 people were sworn in from 24 countries, including the States, which I thought was very strange, an American becoming a Canadian?

R's dh sat with me and I sat next to a lovely man from Nepal, his wife was being sworn in. R's co-workers had given her a "I'm Proud to be a Canadian" red t-shirt, which she wore. I am sure the judge probably commented on it. Must say it was a long ceremony, it took an hour and a half just to get everyone processed and seated. We became Canadian citizens back in 1993. I had a little chuckle though, as you could have your photo taken with the judge and the police officer at the end. So R and her dh went up and insisted I go with them. So that confused the heck out of the judge as he thought we were two families, as R and her dh are Indian and I am white. Funny thing is, when we are together I totally forget we are from different backgrounds. I don't even notice the strange looks that people give us anymore, as R and I are so close, like a mother and daughter relationship, so we are talking up a storm whenever we are together.

We had to be there for 8:30am so I had to set off around 7am to get there, and had to travel through rush hour. I have to say I don't miss travelling in the rush hour, as its stop and go the whole way. I saw so many police cars also. Will admit I don't miss it, all the traffic and the people. It made me realize how lucky we are to have the Acreage, even with all its problems.

Although I did go to Chapters to pick up the June issue of the Prima magazine, as that is the only place I know where I can buy it. I also picked up the OK! magazine, the June 9th issue. I like to catch up with the celebrity gossip! I also had a pedicure while I was down in the area, as I still have a couple of coupons for free pedicures, from the Herbal Essences promotion last year.

I got home just before 4pm, and will say I was pooped, but it made a lovely change, and gave my car a good run out, which it hasn't had in a long time. So now back to normal!!