Niagara Falls, Canada June 2015

When I was challenged to write my Ultimate Bucket List I'd already booked my flight to Canada, but I'd recommend if you don't have it on your list already that you add 'Visit the Niagara Falls.' They are truly amazing.

I'm staying with friends in Hamilton, Ontario and the local tourist office don't offer tours to Niagara from here, you need to catch the train or the bus into Toronto and book with an agent out there.

Arriving in Niagara this was my first glimpse of the falls, the American Falls, I was already impressed, it was all much bigger than I could've imagined. 

The second thing I noticed was a London Bus, i have no idea why I was surprised to one or what it was doing there.

Driving into Niagara via Lundys Lane the big tourist area with theme park rides, casinos and souvenir shops, we turned right at the bottom and drove to the very end where we parked for $20 for the whole day. If you park at a meter it's $5 for every 30 minutes and you'll easily spend the whole day there.

My first view of Niagara Falls in the mist.

On parking up we headed off to the Skylon Tower where we'd booked a buffet lunch. The cost was $27.50 and as we were early we were seated at the window directly overlooking the falls. It's a long walk up the hill to the tower. You need to book in advance and arrive 15 minutes before your allocated time slot. The food was reasonable, but the queuing system for the buffet needs a bit of work as you queue from both sides and there is a bit of a melee when you reach the cooked meat. There is an additional cost for drinks and the waitron collects your dirty plates and brings fresh cutlery.

We arrived an hour early and apart from a coffee shop and several gift shops there was nothing to do and we were hanging around until our time slot.

The price of the buffet includes the trip up the tower and to the viewing platform with a 360 view.

Team Blue, American Tourists

Team Red, Canadian Tourists

Lundy Lane Entertainment 

Up close and very wet over in America

Canadian Tourists :-)

Maid in the Mist

Lundy lane

It would be rude not to stop for a beer

Gorgeous Rainbow over the Falls

Making friends

Plenty of gift shops

That sure is some distance covered from Texas and Florida

Panoramic View

Wildlife in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Animal Tales

There is plenty of wildlife in Canada and I've only seen a very small part of it so far.

I'm visiting Ontario, staying in the suburbs of the City of Hamilton. There are numerous parks, gardens and of course miles and miles of waters edge.

I haven't seen a bear (yet) actually hoping I don't see one, well not up close anyway. I would like to see a moose and I'd love to see a Mountie on horse back, but so far I've only seen the police in a car or on a bicycle. I'm not sure a blue one counts.

The squirrels here are black, not grey or red like I'm used to seeing and they are very active and not at all frightened by humans or traffic.

There is a wide variety of birds including Turkey Buzzards but I've not really focused much on taking bird pictures. I saw this Robin at Cootes Paradise and there were some Red Cardinals in the gardens, but moved too quickly for photo's.

I did get several shots of the Canadian Geese, which usually I ignore as I saw them frequently in South Africa and even out on the lakes in the desert in Dubai, but seeing them in Canada makes them seem a little more interesting.

I've spent most of my time trying to catch a picture of a chipmunk, I've had more failures than successes.

tah dah...got one

I've seen plenty of Butterfly's and of course dragonflies with all this water.

At the Royal Botanical Gardens they provided nets and fact sheets and challenges for children to complete and there was a Malaise trap for collecting flying insects with minimum impact of the environment

There were numerous bug boxes with instructions 'DO NOT TOUCH' and it was nice to see an interactive bug box with larva present, with opening doors and head phones so you could listen to different insect nosies.

The family I'm staying with have two dogs and just before my arrival they changed their dog food. Both dogs were moulting excessively for a week. A google search showed thousands of complaints, so the food was changed back and the dogs stopped shedding within 3 days. Apart from the hair loss there were no other changes in behaviour and they don't seem to be bothered by the change of diet again.

My top 3 tips for managing jet lag after along haul flight.

I've just returned from a 13 hour flight from Canada to Dubai. The moment I stepped on the plane, I wrote off the 8 hour time difference, however the cabin crew on flight EK242 thought differently to me and after serving dinner, dimmed the cabin lights, keeping us all on Canadian time and served breakfast 2 hours before we landed at dinner time in the UAE.

On previous flights to the UK from South Africa via Dubai, the plane that connects you to the UK comes from Australia and they put you into Australian time, serving dinner 2 hours prior to landing in the UK in the morning.

It's not so difficult to manage a flight from South Africa to the UK, where the time difference is either 1-2 hours depending on the time of year, but with a 4 hour lay over in Dubai and the time difference. I asked for a glass of wine with my lunch on the Dubai to UK leg of the flight and only afterwards realised my body clock was still at 8.30am.

My husband had returned from the US a few days before I flew to Canada and his method to avoid jet lag is to adapt to local time with immediate effect. This saw him falling asleep on the sofa in the afternoons, waking at 3am and generally taking a week to recover. I however have my own tips on managing jet lag and they are as follows:

1. Arrange you travel so your flight arrives in the evening, by the time you've cleared customs, collected your bags etc and made it to the hotel you are actually ready for bed, whether you slept or not during the flight.
2. Eat what you want, when you want until you adjust. I find sugary foods and drinks actually help and eat plenty of fruit. Half the problem with recovery time is your internal body clock and the sooner you manage to have a bowel movement the sooner you'll start to adjust to local time.
3. Don't worry about waking up at 4am for the first few mornings, just alter your daily activities for a couple of days and don't feel guilty if you do have an afternoon nap, don't battle/fight it.

Of course I don't have a job to go to and I don't have children living at home, but it works for me.

Do you have any tips on managing jet lag you'd like to share. I have 2 more international flights booked this year, so will get chance to use them.

Where I Live

Having joined in with several linkys over the past few months I'm starting to meet some lovely and interesting bloggers. This week I discovered Tara Cain's Blog Sticky Fingers. I can't guarantee I'll join in every week and I'm really not in the mood for adding the badge at this moment as I'm not technically minded and last time I added a badge I messed up my whole blog.

I've been feeling rather restless the past few months, since moving to Dubai in December 2014 from South Africa. I loved South Africa, despite the safety issues where we lived in Pretoria, I loved the wide open spaces, the dog walks, the close proximity of the malls and I made the most amazing friends, travelled far and wide and worked full time as a volunteer with some amazing organisations.

I haven't settled in Dubai. We live 1km from the beach, there is a beautiful park near by, we take the dog for walks in the desert early mornings on the weekends and enjoy all the experiences Dubai has to offer.

But I don't feel settled, I don't feel like it's my home. It's too hot to go out now, to the beach, the parks, the desert. Life is lived inside most of the year due to the heat. I also know we'll have to move again and after leaving South Africa and knowing that it will never be home again, I'm frightened to settle in here, knowing that one day we'll have to give it up also.

Despite living in our house, making it a home and personalising it to our needs and individual style, this home does not house a family any more, the kids have left and I'm on my own most days.

This is our home in the UK, Malvern. It's rented out at the moment, we'll probably never live there again, it's not my home anymore, but it was 'our' home. Our family home, where we raised 5 kids.

Week 28 - My Sunday Photo. Fed up with Ramadan

I didn't plan it this way but I left Dubai for Canada the day before Ramadan and have been away for 3 weeks.

I returned on Thursday evening and needed a coffee and a smoke after a 13 hour flight. But it was still day light and the coffee shop at the airport was closed and it is illegal to eat/drink/smoke in public during daylight hours.

However there were people smoking, hubby was happy to wait for the sun to set (within the next 15 minutes) and while I then had a cigarette he queued for coffee when the Costa opened up.

Yesterday we went to the Mall, not only was every coffee store closed for business but the chairs and tables in the food hall had been put to one side. The supermarket was open, we shopped, I bought fresh bread, as I paid and in a moment of weakness, I automatically tore off a piece of the bread and popped it in my mouth, the very second I did it, I took it out and was mortified I'd broken the law.

Today we went to the Mall of Emirates. Most coffee shops were closed, however several were open for take aways and I've been told a lot of non muslims take their work breaks in the bathrooms so they can eat.

I find it very strange that there are screens around the food counters in the coffee shops that are open for takeaways, yet no screening at all from the supermarkets and as usual they were busy as you'd suspect on a Saturday in a major city.

The food hall at Ski Dubai end was open, this photo is one of the many screens covering the entrance.   Hubby had some lunch and I wanted a coffee, but they don't sell coffee in the food hall.

You'll see on the sign that it does say 'legal action will be taken and fines issued'

I've chosen to live in Dubai, a Muslim country and I am more than happy to live by the laws of the country I live in. To be out in a city centre on a weekend where there are no gangs of youths, no one swigging alcohol from brown paper bags, no fear of any danger or risk is truly wonderful.

My first thought about this was New Years Eve on the beach in Dubai. There were 17,000 people on the beach watching the fireworks at the Atlantis. Can you imagine that number? Now realise that not one single person had consumed alcohol and understand why I'm happy to obey the laws of the country I live in. No worries about something kicking off, no worries about getting caught up in any violence, no drunken youths spoiling our night.

The local papers, websites, employers, social media and the government issue guidelines for behaviour, eating and drinking and what you can wear and can't wear. They also make it quite clear that this is 'The Law' not a recommendation.

So why am I fed up with Ramadan? Because people are flaunting the rules. I can only assume that the two young men eating and drinking outside Carrefore were tourists and they were approached by security. The many women with strapless tops and cut off shorts must have also been tourists, I mean if they lived here they'd know the law, wouldn't they? Or are they just complacent?

I'm assuming that almost 100% of people who arrive in Dubai, do so by air, yet I didn't see one sign or poster or leaflet letting visitors know it was Ramadan and what to expect and to obey the laws. Nothing was mentioned on the plane prior to landing and when I received my email from Emirates to remind me to check in the day before I flew, there was no additional notification about Ramadan.

Perhaps I missed it all, perhaps it's not deemed necessary as after all what kind of mad tourist comes to Dubai in the summer anyway?

So maybe everyone who I've seen inappropriately dressed, smoking or eating and drinking in public during daylight hours lives in Dubai and thinks they are exempt from the law?

Week 28 - Project 365

I'm home, I'm back in Dubai after 3 weeks of visiting Canada. I started the week with a 3 hour 30 minute canoe in Algonquin. I spent Monday till Wednesday In Toronto in a hotel near the airport and toured the city on foot, a bit of shopping and lots of coffee. 14 hours of Thursday was spent in the air and Friday I was out in the desert with hubby and Bob. Saturday was a bit of a mess, I've lost 8 hours of my day and had little sleep in economy. I had to unpack and put everything away as hubby needed the suitcase to pack in as he's off to the UK on Monday.

‪Day186‬ ‪#‎onedailypositive‬ ‪#‎MeToday‬ ‪#‎fmsphotoaday‬ ‪#‎ImEating‬‪ #‎snaphappybritmums‬ ‪#‎project365‬ 

I've been eating dehydrated food cooking with lake water and dried fruits and nuts. I'm craving sugar and coffee so we've stopped for a @timhorton on route home ‪#‎camping‬‪#‎algonquin‬ ‪#‎canoe‬ ‪#‎lake‬ ‪#‎outback‬ ‪#‎wildlife‬ ‪#‎nature‬ ‪#‎canada‬ ‪#‎tourist‬‪ #‎holiday‬ ‪#‎wilderness‬ ‪#‎countryside‬ ‪#‎ontario‬

Day 187 ‪#‎onedailypositive‬ ‪#‎MyName‬ ‪#‎fmsphotoaday‬ ‪#‎SomethingNew‬‪#‎snaphappybritmums‬ ‪#‎project365‬ 

I've got loads of pieces of paper with my name on related to my travels. Traveling on my own isn't something new, visiting different countries isn't something new, trying new experiences isn't something new but being in Toronto in Canada is something new.

Day 188 #onedailypositive #minimalistic #fmsphotoaday #sun #project.

No lenses, no filters, just a sunrise and point and shoot.#camping #algonquin #canoe #lake #outback #wildlife#nature #canada #tourist #holiday #wilderness#countryside #ontario

Day 189 ‪#‎onedailypositive‬ ‪#‎InMyFridge‬ ‪#‎fmsphotoaday‬ ‪#‎MyTown‬‪ #‎snaphappybritmums‬ ‪#‎project365‬ 

I've been in a hotel for the past 2 nights in My Town of Toronto. I've been at the airport for the past 5 hours this is one of the many fridges I've purchased something from ‪#‎Toronto‬ ‪#‎Ontario‬‪#‎Canada‬ ‪#‎solo‬ ‪#‎travel‬ ‪#‎expat‬ ‪#‎explore‬ ‪#‎tourist‬


Day 190 #onedailypositive #street #fmsphotoaday#sunglasses #snaphappybritmums #project365 

Taken today facing @casaloma with the streets of Toronto behind me. #toronto #Ontario #Canada #solo #travel#expat #explore #tourist

Day 191 #onedailypositive #MyStory #fmsphotoaday #JulySelfie #snaphappybritmums #project365 

My Story is wife of one and mother to 5. 1000's of miles from home, away from my 4 adult children and a 16 yo in boarding school. I need to stop focusing on what I used to be and find a new identity for who I am now and what I can be. It's difficult to keep changing, especially when I know I'll have to change again with the next relocation.



Day 192 ‪#‎onedailypositive‬ ‪#‎late‬ ‪#‎fmsphotoaday‬ ‪#‎sport‬‪#‎snaphappybritmums‬ ‪#‎project365‬ 

I got confused with the time difference thinking it was 4 hours ahead of the UK in Dubai and missed the 1st set of the tennis