Wednesday, July 21, 2004

I will work on updating all of this very soon.. But I wanted to put details about the Madonna/Toronto trip down quickly before I forget what happened. It was the most clear five days of my life, due to all the beer and late nights. But what a blast!

Thursday, July 15th. 2004: Arrived in Toronto at noon, took a $50 cab ride to the Royal York and checked in. Joe and I called people to let them know we'd arrived and had a nap. Went for dinner at Thai Thai on King St. E., and then to Woody's in the gay village to meet up with Bob. Had a few beers there and then went to the Barn/Stables until 3:30am or so.

Friday, July 16th: slept in, worked out in the hotel gym until Joe got up. Went for food, met up with Natasha and went shopping on Queen St., Kensington Market. Natasha went home, we went back to hotel to get ready to go out. Went for food at Zelda's, went to Lub with Erin, Natasha, met up with Jag and partied there until moving to Crews. Girls went home, we dumped Jag off at the Barn before heading back to the hotel.

Saturday, July 17th: slept in. Checked out and went for brunch at Royal York hotel restaurant, which ended up not having breakfast buffet b/c of huge conference. We ordered anyways. Moved our stuff to the girls' place, but had to get keys from Laura who was working at the gym nearby. Cleaned up, (where did we eat?) met up with Jag, Denis, Neal, Bob, Russell at Lub, and then went to Fly for the evening. Crazy time! Stephan Grondin was spinning. Stayed until couldn't keep awake anymore. Headed back to apartment and crashed.

Sunday, July 18th: Everyone slowly got up. We took the girls for brunch at Bumpkin's. Very good. Got some beer and went back to apt after checking out Church St. Street Fair. Not overly exciting. Got ready for the concert and met up with Jag, Neal, Denis at BCE Place Market for food. Headed to Air Canada Centre, bought tour merchandise, settled in. Concert started 45 minutes late, but what a show! Madonna was awesome. Only wish we could've had (or afforded) better seats, but video screens and binoculars did the trick. Two thumbs up. The entire gang headed to 5ive afterwards. We met Bob on the corner of Yonge and St. Joseph. He had managed to get Joe and I on the guest list on Thursday night and tonight he managed to get Jag, Denis and Neal in as well without paying cover. He's awesome. I finally got to meet Bob's brother, who is co-owner of 5ive. The crowd was pretty sparse at the start, but the house was very funky and by the end of the night, the party was in full swing. There were a lot of Madonna concert people there as well, as we could tell since there was a big cheer from the crowd everytime the DJ threw on another Madonna remix. We had a lot of fun, Jag "I'm so glad I'm gay!" Bilkhu found another playdate for the evening and everything was right with the world for a few hours.

Monday, July 19th: I had to get a new bank card in the morning since I lost my last one at Fly on Saturday. Got back to the apt and hung around until Joe was ready. Went to Eggstacy for brunch, went back to apt and chilled. Erin and Natasha gave us a ride to the airport around 8:30, however our 10pm flight was delayed until 11:30 so we had a lot of hanging around to do. Finally got back to Calgary at 1:30 am local time on Tuesday.

Awesome whirlwind $$$ trip!