Quail Hunting

Ben tries to remember the night that was Whitby, Ontario

CouchSurfing once more, my next stop whilst heading East from Toronto was Whitby, a small(ish) commuter town some forty-five minutes from downtown Toronto where for one night only I would have the pleasure of meeting Laura and some of her most wonderful friends...


...Collectively Laura and her friends were very similar to the friends I'd have back at home in Devon... friendly, outgoing and all in possession of a great, if not somewhat bizarre sense of humour. It was really nice in particular to meet Mark whose humour was equally, if not more "borderline" than mine and again, just like on Wednesday night with Peter it was hard to believe I had only just met these guys and felt in an instant like I had known them all for years.
Collectively Laura and her friends were very similar to the friends I'd have back at home in Devon... friendly, outgoing and all in possession of a great, if not somewhat bizarre sense of humour
So exactly one week on from my surprise leaving party in Coventry the night that followed would turn out to have many similarities starting most obviously with copious amounts of beer. Drinking from late in the afternoon we spent our evening "pre-drinking" both at Laura's and Carolyn's, the latter of which involved plenty of drinking games that helped me rapidly make my way up the T-Scale (I might come to explain this at a later point).

When we finally headed out at some point after eleven I was sure it seemed to be a good D-5 and so naturally the rest of the night is at best a little blurry. All I remember with any certainty was being at the bar with Erick drinking shots before, you guessed it, putting myself to shame on the dance floor.

From that point, my mind goes blank. Apparently though, the night ended abruptly when one or two of the people I was with were thrown out of the bar for reasons I never attained.

Eventually then, we walked back home (by that point a P-3) in the falling snow where I have just a few snapshot memories of being propped up by Carolyn of whom without I fear I'd have probably just slept on the side of the road - so I owe a long lasting thanks to Carolyn!

Albeit earlier in the evening, what I do remember clearly was thinking back to the previous Saturday in Coventry and in particular to how I was then feeling - the nerves, the excitement, the trepidation. It was strange to think that a week had already passed and sat that night with Laura and her friends it was utterly exhillerating to think that "this is it... I'm actually doing it. I'm actually here in Canada and I'm actually having the most incredible time!"

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From left: Danielle, Laura, Carolyn Amanda and myself