Day One - Gatwick / Toronto

Our flight out of Gatwick was delayed by over an hour. “Not a good start” I thought. We were flying with Air Transat, a Canadian airline that we had never heard of and as far as I was concerned, this didn’t bode well for the rest of our journey with them.

Any kind of delay always costs me money, as I bore easily and we inevitably end up in the shops, buying stuff that I don’t really need. I got off lightly this time with just a £30 bill for a pair of sunglasses that looked remarkably similar to the ones I had purchased only a week earlier in London, and that currently sat in my top pocket!

As it was, the flight was comfortable, and the seven and a half-hour journey passed by reasonably quickly. Toronto airport was a shambles: passport control was interminably slow and the baggage took an age to come through. We passed through the airport - pausing briefly at a cash-point machine, as we had brought no money with us - and out into the cool evening Toronto air. Cool, foggy and wet, evening Toronto air.

A limousine picked us up and took us to our hotel, The Strathcona, in downtown Toronto. The limo was a big black Lincoln, with plush leather seats, and its engine took us along in almost complete silence, as did our capped chauffeur.

We checked ourselves in, sussed out the room and unpacked. Our body clocks told us that it was 1 o’clock in the morning, although the local time was only 8pm. We needed to acclimatise ourselves and as we were still wide awake with the excitement of it all, we decided to go and explore a little. Of course, we ended up in a bar where we ordered some food and a couple of beers. I ordered just a burger and chips, but when it arrived it had to be the biggest - and tastiest - burger and chips I had ever had! “I’m gonna like it here” I thought.

After we had eaten, Jo gave me a thrashing on the pool table before we headed back to the hotel. It was now 10pm Toronto time, but we were still on England time where it was 3 o’clock in the morning. The adrenaline had now worn off and we were knackered. I was asleep as my head hit the pillow.