Toronto: Music City

Ok, so here I am on the blog again because, damn, I need a break from writing goddamned shareholder agreements, updating contact lists and preparing marketing strategies. I have been at it for two days (ok, well small grey area definition on that one, it has been two days, but not two continuous days….in fact a couple of hours on two consecutive days….but hey, that’s a lot of work for a recovering three-month-on-a-tropical-island-learning-to-be-a-dive-instructor-kind-of-guy…make that Master Scuba Diver Trainer if you must) and feel like I need a nap already!! Man, I hate drafting shareholder agreements….me, the master of procrastination, I am when I hate something….ask the missus.

And to top it off, I am still a big girl’s blouse!! It still feels like I moved back to live in a fridge-freezer. What gives with the damned snow?! I thought it was going yesterday, now it is snowing like nuts outside of the window . Le big sigh. I really need to get going on franchising the travel side of this business, so that I can piss off to the Caribbean on a frequent basis to maintain my tan and body temperature. Ah, so glad to be home, yet missing my daily dose of diving like you wouldn’t believe. Yes, the travel agency has got to become a priority….out of the multitude of ideas and issues that befuddle me and need organizing….

So many ideas and thoughts, it’s a jumble in my pea-sized brain and trust me, there wasn’t a lot of room for much in the first place. I just need to try to get all of my thoughts down and then organize, but hey, this is me we’re talking about and sometimes organization and me go together like dog poop and ice cream (and some other times, amazingly, it all comes together for me like a cunning plan….just not this time and not right now…..right now I am all over the place).

If I could just get this shareholder’s agreement sorted, I think I can start making positive steps…..damn, then I have to deal with squaring away the marketing plan and contacts, making a strategy/formula on how to approach our targets with our concept and then, joy oh joy, start on a website.
Thank God Peter is away for a month….so much to do….and I have a sneaking suspicion that Peter and I are going to struggle a little over the website design…..I’m thinking sleek, conceptual and interactive (i.e. the info you need isn’t glaringly set out in minute detail on the main page, but pops up when you scroll over it sort of thing), whereas Peter basically wants to emulate the Aquarius Dive Shop website, which to me is simply too busy. I think a website that almost looks like a DVD menu and then expands when you want it to and where you want it to go is so much more sophisticated. That way too we can work in some sweet artistry, a little video and funkadelic music. We need to sell hip and sophisticated to our proposed clientele, not info overload on page 1.

Oh, and I may already have our first client….even if it is family!! And even if they are flying me to Texas to teach…..hey, s’cool, it’s going to be a paying gig!! Peter, I think I have our first little taste of income!! Damn, there goes our tax write-off for the year.


So, I had an interesting morning of watching a most officious and overly aggrandized proceeding this morning…..the Committee of Adjustments. We had to appear to get our renovation plans for the kitchen (well the increase of the footprint of the house) approved (Noé, you’ll be so happy to see our AGA when you finally get your skinny Swiss butt over here). Of course, even though I had to be there at 9 a.m., we were 9th on the list and so I had to watch eight other applications go through first. Simply ridiculous amount of people and tape to deal with for extremely simple applications. Sometimes I feel great having taken off my lawyer cap….especially watching a trumped up panel of nobodies acting as though they are the law in deciding whether someone can extend the back of their house by a metre and a half. Sheesh, it’s good to know our taxes go to having six people sit around to hear pointless submissions and decide that yes, Ahmed can build a shed on the side of his house.

Another wee observation I have since getting back….. my weight flip-
Flops like a muthafucker. I weighed myself when I got home last week…..I weighed in at 182lbs (yes, I know, fucked up, ain’t it, a year ago almost to the month, I weighed 226lbs). Well, then I weighed myself on Saturday morning and I came in at a whopping 176lbs. Where the hell did the 6lbs go? Fucked if I know. Now I weighed in today at 182lbs. All over the damn place. As the missus likes to advise me, I sound like an anorexic teenage girl (well, I certainly have the hips of one now….but you should see me in that little black number, I’m a stunner), but wtf (if you don’t know what that abbreviation stands for, face it, you’re old….yep, even older than fossil instructor-boy over here), it’s nuts.

I actually decided on the weekend that I am a little too skinny, so starting Monday I got back into training mode (hey, it is part of my job, people expect their instructor to be a toned, bronzed sexalific hunk, so I need to work it). Went for a run and then did half an hour of weights. Two days later and I am squealing like a pig that knows that Sunday breakfast is fast approaching. Damn…..how much can someone rip their muscle tissue? The amount of discomfort I am currently experiencing feels like my arms are sloughing off!!

Tomorrow, I face off again with pain central!! Thank God the running part is a piece of piss at the moment….I don’t think I’d get out of bed if my legs felt as jello-weak as my bloody arms.

Oh, one awesome piece of fantabulous news at being back (don’t get me wrong, I have already blogged about how nice it is to be back with family, friends and home, but this is a more generalized rant) is that there are some mega-awesome gigs coming up. No more listening to some Neanderthal from Oz trying his best to belt out “Sex is On Fire” in Chopper’s back on Koh Tao, I’m going to see the real deal!! Should be a great gig…..along with trying to get tickets to see the Weakerthans, Franz Ferdinand and the Great Lake Swimmers!! I would have loved to see Travis too, except unfortunately they are playing the same day as Kings. Dammit!! Ahhh it is good to be back in a city of culture. Even if the missus is likely cursing the fact that I want to go to gig after gig.

Oh and for my Kiwi followers….we’re off to see Flight of the Conchords in person too!! Awesomeness keeps on coming and coming.

Ok, gotta get back to a shareholder’s agreement…..I’ll fill you in more on my first paying gig when things firm up a little……