Sleeping in my own bed was lovely except for waking up in a panic last night because I did't know where I was. It took a few bleary eyed looks around before it registered that I was in my own room. That's a first.

I set my alarm a bit early for this morning to give myself lots of time. My alarm went off at 6:35am and I proceeded to hit the snooze button without realising it until 8:13am. Nearly 2 hours of snooze, I think that's a new record for me. Thankfully I was able to shake a leg enough to not be too late for work.

Once at work though, I forgot that I need to buy my lunch for the sandwich van and missed both of them. I think it's going to take a few days to get back into the swing of things.

Still to come though - more words and pictures about my explorations in New York City and Ontario.

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We took a number 1 train from 14th Street and 6th Avenue to Columbus Circle (I keep wanting to call it 'circus').  Well, we started at 14th and 6th but to get to the 1 platforms we had to walk to 7th Avenue. It was a bit like Bank for the tourist confusion factor. Along the journey there were several trash cans, some of them overflowing. Something you never see on the Underground for various reasons.

Once at platform level the ambiance didn't improve much. The thing we really noticed was how filthy the tracks are. Sure it's a bit sooty and mucky along the tracks but these look like they are never cleaned and are used as make shift garbage bins. The platforms in some cases can be quite narrow. I found the whole experience a bit claustrophobic.

Our silver train approached and we hopped on. The trains themselves are a bit like those airstream caravans on the outside. But with more American flags. Inside is quite minimalistic but at least was pretty well clean. As we made our way North you could see that there are stations in much better nick then the one we started at but they still all basically look the same. I'm keen to check out more stations to get a better feel for it all. For all the dingyness it still has a certainly quality to it. Not everything can be the same as London I suppose

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The Surrey Street entrance and exit.

Interior of the original 1907 lift, the only one left on the network.

Lift exterior.

Booking hall found behind some temporary hoardings.

Phone booths, also behind the hoardings.

There's a few more photos to see over at Flickr.

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Lord tunderin', the Tim Horton's tent at the Trafalgar Square Canada Day do had doughnuts this year. And a massive queue. And no Ice Capps. Melted or sold out, who knows? After standing in the queue for what must have been around 30 minutes I got to the counter and asked if there was a limit on how many doughnuts you could buy. As there was a limit on the number they had, and everyone was buying one, I was worried there was. Thankfully the lady at the counter said 'heavens no!'. So I got myself a chocolate dip and a Boston cream.

The Boston cream was especially cold, so I figured they must have been shipped in a cooler. I reckon that's the only way they could do it. Even if they were just shipped from one of the few Horton's locations in the UK.

The next culinary delight was a heap of curly fries. They were a bit dear at £5 a servering. The stall was a bit tricksy and didn't post the price for them, just that cheese was £1 extra. The donoughts were crazy cheap at just £1 each.

The best part of the whole thing was this. While standing eating my curly fries there was group next to me doing the same. One of the guys in the group dropped his empty styrofoam container and a girl in the group shouted 'you can't litter, it's Canada Day!'. Fantastic.

Oh and I was the only person in ear shot that cheered when the MCs asked if there was anyone from P.E.I. there. No cheers for any of the territories, shame.

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1. A guy driving around East London in a crappy lil' hatchback blasting out Rick Astley's 'Never Gonna Give You Up'. Rickrollin' the neighbourhood.

2. A mint 1970's (possibly 60's) Mercedes parked in a street off Oxford Street with a top hat and umbrella in the back window.

3. Guy behind me on the train to Cambridge blaming the lack of seats first on the Tories, then on bankers. The sombre bloke beside him responding with 'it's got nothing to do with bankers' a few times before giving up.

4. A guy on the train to King's Cross who looked exactly like Toby from the US version of The Office, right down to the facial expressions.

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We will be calling at Shelford, Whittlesford, Great Chesterford, Audley End, Newport, Elsenham, Stanstead Mountfitchet, Bishops Stortford, Sawbridgeworth, Harlow Mill, Harlow Town, Roydon, Broxbourne, Cheshunt, Tottenham Hale and London Liverpool Street.

I remember the first time Pat and I heard that announcement at Cambridge Station and were baffled by the long list of fantastically named stops. Mounfitchet!

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It wasn't until I think the 90s that at least P.E.I. had plastic milk jugs. What a novelty. Now I have milk packaging novelty in reverse. Yesterday my housemate and I went off to Sainsburys to pick up some food. Near the dairy section I saw something that literally made me clap and jump up and down. It was milk... in bags!  And fancy pitchers!  Into the cart they went. I was so excited that some lady even approached me to give me a business card for her eco-packaging business. Oh dear.

Anyhoo, let's have a look at milk bags, UK 21st century style...
Milk bag - check. Fancy pitcher - check. This one not only holds the milk bag, but also punctures it and has a lid. I'm much more used to these sort of old school pitchers. We had a yellow one at our house and my grandparents had an orange one. The bag was left exposed and you had to either cut the bag with scissors or with one of these clip snipper things.

Moving right along with the photo exposé.
The bag is secured into zee jug.

Let the good times pour.

JUGIT!

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Monument to volunteer fire fighters during the Second World War.

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These ones looked like bacon fries but mark my words did not taste like bacon fries. At first they were a bit salty and then a fishy aftertaste. The mascots sort of look like Earthworm Jim. Over-excited squids who look like Earthworm Jim.

Moving along...

How perfect, I had a hankering for something cuttlefish flavoured. If the flavour is authentic then they're more interesting looking than tasting. They're shaped sort of like a cuttlefish but more like a generic squid shape. These ones had a hint of scampi after taste. Certainly not as good as eating scampi proper. (For those not in the know, I discovered scampi last week, and it's sort of been my thing since then).

Needless to say, we have lots of these things left.

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A lot of the rooms are tiny lil' coal holds. One area had a few grave stones that according to staff members, nobody knows the origin of. Neat stuff. The lights were all low and the sounds of the river were at times piercing and at other times shaking your innards. I took some photos but also a video to try to give a feel of the installation.

Lots more photos are over on Flickr

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