My working holiday - T the place

For my regular readers, you know I went last week for 5 days to Toronto for a conference. For those who are willing to sacrifice sleep for the experience, there was ample time to explore the city outside of work time. I wasn't sure how to tackle the wealth of experiences I had for this blog so I am chunking it up, to the pleasure of some and the dismay of others I am sure :-)


I had never been to Toronto before so it was definitely a different experience for me. For a girl from the prairies, it was a head tilting, eye raising experience. Now bear in mind I am not in the extreme south prairies where it IS flat with zero trees. In the midland prairies there are rolling hills...there are trees, lovely ones in fact. One of my favourite views is the canola fields as they are so rich in colour. Sadly we were about 2 - 3 weeks too late for the maximum effect from the sky. We have few (no) tall building in the prairie towns save for the required grain elevators :-)

Now in the city, IT goes on for miles, and miles. I am sure that much of what I saw from the air was extending into the outlying suburbs as the city grows and expands. It still was pretty overwhelming. And beautiful in it's own way. There was a whole lot of gawking as we drove from the airport to downtown to our hotel. I can see how it takes preplanning and early departures in order to get from one place to another. I could just see the fuel/transportation costs going up in my 'if I lived in the city' imaginary budget. I am so used to it taking fewer than 15 minutes to get to the farthest place I'd want to be around here LOL

The buildings were pretty impressive. A myriad of old stone mixed with new sleeker stone or glass buildings. It was hard to imagine that many people inhabiting so many office buildings and condos. What got me was that those lights stay on alllll day and alll night, even weekends. What a horrid waste of power. I've seen several studies including Mythbusters, which show that for longer periods of time it is NOT cost efficient to leave them on. Still it gave me a voyeur peek into several different buildings from my hotel.

The pace of life and number of people was quite a shock too. It was hard to 'stroll' and see what you were walking by without being caught up in the flow of those who were walking with a mission and timeline.

I have to say that despite the fact that the garbage strike was over there, the amounts of trash bags outside of buildings was amazing. It certainly didn't enhance the smells, which were far from fresh. As you walked you caught whiffs of the trash bags, or the aroma coming up from the vents in the sidewalks, or from some of the people themselves.

I was overwhelmed by the humidity. Having it at 42C with the humidex and 100% humidity with no rain was staggering for this dry heat prairie girl. My clothes stuck to me in most unpleasant ways and I was sure everyone passing by could see it LOL. I was frequently wiping my forehead off or defogging the insides of my sunglasses.

It was definitely a fun place to visit and see and I am so glad I went.

~~ coming soon: T - the people~~

A rainy Saturday

We're running today between rounds of hockey but this pouring rain has really inspired me. Bread machine is going, banana and carrot muffins just came out of the oven and homemade beef stew is simmering on the stove. Such good smells! Just something about rain that inspires that in me. Too bad I only get inspirational a couple times a month. I would be a terrible stay at home mom and not use my time properly.

One of my nieces is heading off for year 3 of university and finally moving off campus to her own apartment. Each of the aunties is getting her a wee something to start off her apartment. I drew 'basket of cleaners' so I'm putting together my list of things like laundry basket, laundry detergent, dish soap etc. It's amazing how many things are 'in my house' that we take for granted. It's nice to have a bit of $ to be able to do this.

Happy Day All!

Where the money stands

ok ok I know this is late. July may have been slow but August is FLYING by.

As of August 1, 2009

Debts

Mortgage - $38,905.79
Consolidated Loan - $8913.82
Vehicle Loan - $28,837.13
Total Debt - $76,656.74

Savings
Christmas Fund - $1000
Emergency Fund - $1000
RRSP - $250

Total Savings - $2250

Home From Toronto

Well after a whirlwind 5 days I am home from my conference. What a great experience and what a completely different way of life there than my little town on the prairie. I plan to write about it as soon as I blink more sleep from my eyes after a long day of travel.

One thing I realized while I was there, was that my budget was not aligned properly to reflect what I truly want to do and experience. I am stressed to the pin about goals I have artificially placed on myself. Too much too fast methinks.

To that end, the first step I will do is reduce my RRSP contribution goal from $1500 to $1000. For those who have big RRSP contributions this will seem like such a paltry and sad amount. The fact is though that with the way my money was structured, it was too much to accomplish by the time goal I had in mind. All I did for a week before I left was figure out dozens of different scenarios that might help me achieve this faster.

The second step I will reconsider is my heavy plan of paying off the loan so much earlier and then moving to make double payments on the new vehicle loan.

This summer has cost me more than I wanted and planned. I need to make summer budget lines so that my kids and I can LIVE and ENJOY too. All I kept thinking about while in Toronto was how much my kid would have loved it and how much there is I want to show them and have them experience.

There is a lot to think about.

away for a bit for some adventure

Ok not completely an adventure. It's work related. A conference. But it's with a group of colleagues and we do have down time in the evenings. We're headed to Toronto tomorrow. Aside from one flight in there 17 years ago and getting picked up and straight out of the city, I have not been there. It's going to be a wonderful adventure. We get to stay downtown I believe and the city is ours to explore at night.

I know we're taking in a Jays game. I'm not a baseball fan (hockey girl) but it will still be exciting to see a MLB game. I know we're going to toodle about Younge street and take in the sights and food there. I'm not sure what else is on the list.

Funny it feels like I've been waiting for this trip forever, and now that it is here, I'm not as excited as I thought I'd be. Perhaps that is because I'm barely awake right now :-)

I'll let you know about the trip when I get back.

Have a great week! Jolie