Survivor Mazvikadei - The spoils of victory - ONE MILLION DOLLARS

 

Survivor Mazvikadei - The final two - the non-winner drowning his sorrows

 

Bunji Jumping at Vic Falls

 

Back in Canadia

Well, I'm back in Canada and at the end of my first week of work. My time in Zimbabwe was absolutely awesome - I managed to spend time with my family and friends - something which I was sorely missing in Canada.

Went to Victoria Falls and threw myself off the bridge (I was pushed!!) and then went white water rafting with my dad! Some things I'll never forget - and the entire time in Vic Falls is one of those.

Spent a weekend with my friends at Mazvikadei just hanging out and chatting and catching up - good times!

Had the New Years party at my house, while my folks were still in Vic Falls (yes they knew about it and condoned it!), and it was pretty darned good! I actually managed to stay up until about 7 in the morning - at which point I excused myself from everyone and crashed!

The trip back was pretty bad - cramped in cattle class for more hours than I would like to mention, and then, because it is holiday season, managed to miss my connecting flight, and then missed the rescheduled flight as well (neither was actually my fault - planes arriving late and bad planning for check-in) .

In the Google stand at Heathrow airport

Right - firstly excuse me if this post is a little less than comprehensive and readible... I have just gotten off a plane from Toronto - not slept much - and it is about 4:44 am Winnipeg time... but it is all good as I AM GOING HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS!!! I am so excited!

I was walking by and saw something and thought - deja vu - the google stand at heathrow. I saw pics of it online and yeah - i walked in - sat down and am now creating a post to my blog.

I know I havent posted for a while - and wont even start trying to explain why...

So for everyone who is in Zim or will be there over the christmas holidays - please get in touch - i would love to hear from everyone and catch up if possible...

I will likely be back - coz i have a long wait here and there is not much else for me to do here!!!

Corn Mazes and Diversity Breakfasts...

So I actually had quite an eventful weekend (for me, in Canada... in case anyone has some wise cracks).

On Friday night, on the way out of the client this other guy from work, Mike (who was at that night in Calgary at the Stampede), said we should go for a couple of beers. So we went across the street to a Moxies (which is a restaurant/bar type place - v nice). So anyway one beer turned into a few and yeah went home and slept pretty well :P

Then I was invited to go to a halloween thing at a "corn maze". So I got dressed up as a cowboy (coz I still have the OTT cowboy hat from Stampede) and yeah met up with this group of people. The person organising it works at Air Canada, where I am doing a lot of work at at the moment. The corn maze was pretty kewl actually, its jst a massive field of maize with a maze cut into it; and you have to locate various point in the maze according to a checklist. So it was nice to jst spend some time with other people and chill with them afterwards.

Sunday morning I was picked up with Rick and we met up with Rowena, the other TSRS person in Winnipeg, for a "diversity breakfast". The thing is that the TSRS team in Canada is very multicultural so they often do "diversity" dinners where they will go to a Portuguese or Chinese restaurant. Well the Winnipeg team is all non-Canadian, so we decided to go out to this place called Green Gates for a breakfast, which we assume is a Canadian one. So anyways it is a buffet style and the food is amazing! 4 or 5 star type food. Lets just say I was very satisfied after leaving there! Wow!

"Other" Pics

This is the view out of the boardroom at EY on a particularly gloomy summer day. You can see the local baseball team's (The Goldeyes) diamond in this. The river you see in this picture is the Red River, and further upstream (to the right) is "the Forks" where the Assiniboine and Red rivers meet. It apparently has historical relevance during the fur trading times... Not totally sure bout all tho...
This is me in the CN Tower in Toronto standing on the glass floor. The CN tower is the tallest tower in the world (somewhere around 500m high).
This is me, very tired from not sleeping well, on Canada day (July 1st). Yes, I did end up going out looking like this... But everyone was dressed up all goofy lookin!
This is at the one large tent at the Calgary Stampede. Not sure what time this was, but it looks as though it was after a number of beers. The other guy in the photo is Mike, who works at EY.
This is the municiple building in Winnipeg. Not sure if you can see it clearly but there is a golden statue of a boy on top of the building. Everyone refers to it as the "golden boy", and it looks pretty good on a sunny day (which this wasnt)!

Niagara Falls Pics

This is me on the boat "Maid of the Mist" with the American Niagara Falls behind me. This is right in the beginning. The American falls are just straight falls and really arent as impressive as the Canadian falls. Look below to see me after we have been through the mist of the Canadian Niagara Falls!!!

This a pic of me pointing at the Canadian Niagara Falls after going through the mists at the bottom of the falls on a boat. Absolutely incredible overall experience as the roar of the falls was all around (the Canadian Falls are a horseshoe shape - hence the nickname "the horseshoe falls") , whats like heavy rain coming in sudden rushes, the boat churning up and down in the turbulent water, the sun being obscured at times because of mist.