Today we do not plan anything. Weather is cloudy and wet after the remnants of Katrina have passed over Ontario. Hanna made herself comfortable in front of the TV and watches the “Home & Garden Channel” with decoration shows and similar.

Over the weekend we want to go to the cottage again. Helga will not come with us, she will stay in East Caledon. Obviously everything here was a bit much for her and during this week she even prefers to be completely alone during daytime.

Today I worked for half an hour in my holidays and visited someone at the University whom I only new from writing. We discussed our new project, LOCOMOTIVE, which he will support with the organisation of a visit to Ontario next year. Discussion was quite pleasant and I think we will manage to have the meeting in autumn of 2006.

Since yesterday noon we are in Toronto. Before our arriving, Helga tried to find a T-shirt for Oliver in a mall, without success however (Today she found one in Chinatown). We live at Nata’s and Sean’s place which is near Exhibition where they currently have the Canadian National Exhibition. People in the neighbourhood earn some pocket money in letting out their gardens as supplementary parking spaces.

The weather is quite humid here and one of the best places is on the front porch where you can watch people going to and from the exhibition. Helga has decided to leave again after just one day and has returned to Heide’s place in the countryside. We expect to stay here until Friday. Probably another visit to downtown Toronto and Hanna is looking forward to meeting some people here she knows.

We are our worst critics, and we know best what went wrong. Circumstances also were not the best, for example did we get a guitar stand instead of a music stand. But people liked it and we enjoyed it. And some even thought we were professionals… We would do it again, if opportunity comes up.

Today is our big evening and therefore I would like to ask all those, who still should be awake, to cross your fingers. Our performance is at 19:30 h Canadian time or 24:30 h in Britain…

Today we visited the Niagara Falls. Though some horrible hotels have been built in the vicinity, the falls themselves are spectacular. We arrived at around noon, it was not yet that crowded. The walk under the falls we had to skip, as it would have meant waiting for an hour.

After visiting the falls we went further down the river to Whirlpool gorges, which seem nearly more direct and more beautiful than the falls themselves. On to the Whirlpool, a kind of bay in the river where the water turns in a circle in suitable circumstances. We finished the excursion in Niagara-on-the-Lake, a small historic town with some buildings from colonial times.

The two pictures you see here probably everybody visiting the falls has taken in a similar way. Further pictures you may find in the Niagara album.

Near the road there is a vegetable garden of appr. 10 x 30m, which mainly is cultivated by Nadya and Daniel serving as vegetable supply for their restaurant. The lot looks quite large even if it makes up far less than 1 % of Heide’s land. There are lots of tomatoes, potatoes, herbs and more including a plant calling itself “Jerusalem artichoque”, which I need to look up for its German name. This garden really would be something for Manu.

This morning we really made it and left the cottage. After a two-hour drive we arrived in Caledon East around noon at the place of Hanna’s sister Heide. The first pictures I have put into the album Caledon East.

The weather is so wunderful today that we changed our plans and stay on for another night at the cottage. Having this liberty is one of the wonderful things during vacations as you have no appointments or duties. Tomorrow morning hoever we will be really gone as we plan an excursion to the Niagara falls for Friday.

Today is our last day on the cottage. Some relaxing still and enjoying the sun. Later we will leave for Caledon East to Heide’s place. On the way we will pass through Orangeville to inspect the place of our performance on Saturday. Yesterday again we practised for a little more than two hours, some songs are taking shape while others still need a lot of work. Well, there still are three days left until the grand occasion.