Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Joe From T.O.: Toronto Mike'd #693

Episode Date: July 26, 2020

Mike talks to Joe and Charo Cini about their year away from home before they kick out the jams.

Welcome to episode 693 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Palma Pasta, enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Garbage Day. Weekly reminders for garbage, recycling, and yard waste pickup. Visit GarbageDay.com slash Toronto Mike to sign up now. StickerU.com. Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos, and decals for your home and your business.

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and joining me this week is a man and woman who have returned from a year abroad. It's Joe from TO and his wife Charo. Hello.

Hi Mike. We have a crowd. I thought I'd hear some applause but apparently no. No cheers from the Monica. We don't work without a crowd, but apparently no. No cheers from the... We don't work without a crowd, and that's usual. No cheers for us. If you'd brought your kids, there'd be a serious attendance today, like a new record, I think. But good to see you both. Where do I begin? Firstly, welcome back to Canada. Thank you.

Thank you. It was nice to come back. I can't tell if that's like a platitude. I need to get the real talk here. Like how long let's get the nuts and bolts out of the way first. Let's let me, and again, let me just let people know, Joe, you were the first episode I recorded in the pandemic. Like you were, you were my first remote episode 598. So I was not, I was second. Elvis was first. And he was yesterday, and I always follow Elvis. Oh, that's funny. I didn't know Elvis. Okay, my apologies to Elvis, who doesn't listen anyways,

but he should listen to this episode. So episode 598 is where we touch base. You were in Laos? Mm-hmm. Vientiane. Okay, hold on. I need to tell the four-year-old to get away from the webcam there. Morgan, you're going to hit my... Yeah, thank you. Okay, there's a lot of activity. This is a Sunday morning.

So we touched base in... It was an exciting episode. We found out where you were at and you were trying to figure out what to do with the pandemic setting in. And that was episode 598. So everybody should pause right now and go listen to 598 and then come back. It'll make a lot more sense. But how long have you been back in Canada? We arrived July 4th, and today's the 26th. So 22 days.

Oh, I can't believe it. It has gone so fast. So you did your 14-day quarantine? Yes. I thought I saw you guys, though, at a local patio. No, that wasn't you? No. Don't even start there.

I'm joking, everybody. I want the authorities to know that was a joke. But it was nice to get greeted with some timbits and muffins that first morning we got home. Oh, who did that? Who's the kind soul? I think it might have been Morgan or Jarvis. They have no such money to afford such things.

But yes, Monica. Thank you, Monica. Yes, after one year without Tim Hortons. The kids were very excited. Did you really miss Tim Hortons? No. I think that would be the best part of leaving the country. No, the kids really enjoyed it, but I didn't miss the coffee.

No, Tim Hortons coffee is very bad, if I may. In my opinion. I drink it black now, so maybe I'm miss the coffee. No. Tim Hortons coffee is very bad, if I may. In my opinion. I drink it black now, so maybe I'm noticing the coffee. I used to, like, when I went double-double, like, it could be just mud water. Like, you're putting cream and sugar in there. But I noticed now if I drink Tim Hortons, it's got a bad aftertaste.

I'm not a fan. I should be careful. They might want to sponsor the program. I know. But we got spoiled. But not really at the beginning it was hard to find good coffee in central america really i would think uh oh central okay so so like what did you do like did you find a place that had like americanos or something like it was like

five days without coffee at the beginning it was crazy we we had these headaches and we couldn't understand wait does joe drink You drink coffee, Joe? Oh, a lot. I didn't. Maybe. Did I know this? I know. Okay. It's iced coffee. It's got to be cold. But you need the caffeine hit. Yes. Yes. Several times a day. You're addicted. Yes.

That was a topic because nobody in Central America could believe that he had iced coffee. And we have to clarify something. There is coffee there, but it was all instant. Like Folgers? What are they doing over there? No, Nescafe. Nescafe, okay.

Yeah, so it was all instant, but we like the grind coffee. Right, of course. You're a civilized human being. That's amazing. You could bring it there, like introduce the people. Look what you're missing out on, and they'll never go back to the instant coffee. So you've been back now.

So when you left, what happened the day you left quarantine? I'm curious. Like, when people come back from a year abroad and they come back, they do the 14 days. Like, what did you do that first day after the 14-day quarantine? Did you just run around the streets? Like, what did you do? No, no. Well, Charles' family invaded.

So our bubble became 10 immediately in like according to i counted it it's about 36 i think no please continue sorry no but everybody came over we had dinner they slept over they you know like the whole deal they just wanted to be part of our family. Well, they missed you. And my nephew didn't leave like for five days. Yeah, he stayed over for a while. Well, a year apart.

So was it, did it end up being exactly a year or a little bit longer? A few days longer. So we left on July 2nd and showed up on July 4th. Okay, let's do a few highlights. And we did a lot of this in, because when we picked it up in 598, I guess you'd been away like nine months or something like that. And then we were wondering, do you come home with COVID-19 pandemic setting in?

You were going to go to Vietnam and they shut the border down, right? You couldn't get to Vietnam. And then you ended up in Thailand. And I'm going to pronounce this right. Otherwise, I have to put an explicit warning on it. Wait, let me try. Ready?

Phuket? Phuket? Phuket. Phuket. You do the P hard. Yeah. I was, okay, I was thinking Phuket. Okay, Phuket.

Okay. So that's where you were for the final few months? Until the last week. The last week. No, we stayed like 10 days in Bangkok at the end. Oh, yeah. They have the big chess tournament in Bangkok, Oriental City, right? This is the chess, the place where the chess game happens.

You know? You know chess? No? Okay. You don't remember Murray Head? No. Murray Head, one night in Bangkok. One night in Bangkok.

We were all about the street food at that point. All right. So tell me. I'll shut up for a bit, and give me some of the highlights before. Like, tell me, like, do you have, like, a top five memories of the year abroad or any, like, maybe, like, even before I get the top five highlights, like, would you, I should point out you have three children.

How old are your children? Charles doesn't remember. No, yes. Marco turned 11 during the trip, and the twins turned nine during the trip. Okay, so fairly young children to be backpacking around the world for a year. What were you thinking?

What were you thinking? But tell me about the highlights, and then at the end I want to know, would you recommend families of five or whatnot, with three younger children like that, would you recommend they do this? Shut it all down and visit the world for a year? I just can't understand how no more people do this.

Because we really were around the world like an anomaly. You didn't see. I'm sure people does it. But everywhere we were were it was like um it was not normal for everybody that we met yeah they were like what would they think you're crazy we were doing um they didn't think they were very receptive to what we were doing and saying you know we we want to do that that was one of our dreams. But they got cold feet. But you did it. We met some people, for example, that traveled, let's say, for eight months or one year.

But they stayed five months in one place. And then they went for another four months somewhere else. Right. No, we did really hard, especially at the beginning. We really did hardcore backpacking. Right. We have a story of a 15-hour chicken bus, five different chicken buses from Honduras

to El Salvador. That was crazy. And that's the early phase, right? The early phase. Because you started in Mexico? Where did you start? We started and landed in Cancun. I think that my fault. I didn't realize when we arrived to that place and they have like landed in Cancun. I think that's my fault. I didn't realize. When we arrived to that place,

and they have a book where they explain the routes, the route we just did, they even say, don't even think about it. It's too hard. And we just have done it with three kids. You did it with Guy. And he probably wasn't 11 yet,

so he was 10, right? Yeah, I'm 10 and two 8-year-olds. Wow. They didn't even cry. They were... Okay, now I've realized I don't want the highlights. I need to walk through this whole damn thing. Okay, so you're in Cancun. Oh, sorry.

No, hey, so you're in Cancun. And where, what do you, like, give me the, obviously we can't spend a whole year going in real time here, but, like, where did you go from Cancun? Like, you... Ohcun? And how? Most Central America... Go to your cheat sheet there. That's okay, Joe. I remember it because I planned it.

Well, you can correct him when he makes a mistake. We flew into Cancun, but we didn't stay in Cancun. We went right to Tulum. And this is all via local buses at the beginning. So we tried to via local buses at the beginning. So we tried to do everything really on the cheap because it was the beginning of our trip.

Right. So Tulum, then we went to Mahahual, then to Bacalar. And all this is in Mexico. This is all Mexico. At that point, we crossed the border. I have to pretend like I knew that. We crossed the border into Belize. And we stayed in Chai Bay bay and then we went to uh chai bay corozal corozal yeah um san ignacio then we went over the border into tical which is

guatemala okay um stayed in guatemala a couple of places in guatemala guatemala like pop tune and rio dolce then we crossed the border again into honduras um we went to le ceiba and then rotan which is exactly one year from today we were in rotan but this is where we would have been right now so from july 2nd to now this is how many countries we've wow hit wow or at places. At this point in the journey, if I can chime in, no regrets, right? Did you realize at this point in the journey that you were going to be okay or did you have

any like, oh, what the hell did I just do? No regrets. The only one place when we go to La Ceiba, we stay close to Rio Canajal and there was a place, the place we chose. It was recommended by the Lonely Planet. And by somebody else, I was writing with people from Central America,

and they recommend that place, like hostels, owners. Besides offering the place, they can give you recommendations. So I make some acquaintances that way. And she recommend that place, but it had completely changed due to a tragedy. And it was not the best place to stay, but the setting, the nature. Okay, but what do you mean not best? Like were there bedbugs? What were there?

What's going on here? We get there. We were just on chicken buses to get there. And it was about a 12 hour journey 10 hour 12 hour should i know what a chicken bus is like chicken chicken bus is basically an old repurposed school bus you know the okay there's no chickens on it there can be okay there can be chickens on it you go in the cages with the chickens no holding them oh oh like in the finale of mash all these are gonna drop all the references and they want to

school buses the yellow school buses here exactly okay but they use for pulling transport gotcha gotcha okay okay and it's called chicken buses but for rainers i guess yeah okay and they're cheaper that's oh they're dirt cheap like i think we got we got that 14 hours cost us $20 as a family. Oh, wow. Right? Country to country. Yeah. But how did Joe's Spanish improve in this journey?

Zero. Well, they didn't. Salta. That's all I know. Okay. And Charo, just for listeners, I forget that I know you guys personally, but listeners like, where's this lovely accent coming from? What country were you born and raised in

i'm from peru peru i'm canadian really but i was born in peru okay but the the accent's not canadian because that's like a more hoser accent eh okay all right pick it up again yeah i came as an adult in my 20s oh okay it's your 20s i actually i know you i can i can reveal the real talk you were worried people wouldn't understand your accent, but I like an authentic, you are a wonderful speaker. You speak fluent English. Like, your accent is, it's legit, man. You're born and raised in Peru. This is how you

sound. I like how it sounds in the headphones. No, but the problem is people don't understand me in Spanish, neither. I speak very fast. Only because I'm a gifted student. I understand you. So you understand me.

But that's why. Yes, Mike, you're a gift. But I have my translator. All right. Then he's there at your side. Okay, pick it up, Joe. I'm sorry. I feel like I have these little questions I'll kind of intersect with.

But okay. Not a problem. So you're on a chicken bus to some place. Okay. They made you do slave labor? Well, we showed up there at about 7 p.m., just after 7 p.m., and it's dark out. We don't know our way around right now. And the kids are hungry, and we say, okay, you know, like we would like to buy something because all these places have a restaurant inside.

Yeah. The restaurant closed at 7. We just took 10,12 hours to get here We really need time It could be anything So they get us a tortilla with some cheese on it And that's it Good enough right

So the next day We get a small breakfast And then we go white water rafting For the day With them their tour We come back at about five and we're hungry we haven't eaten lunch they they responded with it doesn't open till seven the restaurant doesn't open till seven i was like excuse me yesterday you didn't open you closed at seven like the same

seven are you open for one minute during the day? It only opens at seven to seven to one. Yeah. We were the only people there. And the owner had a terrible accident. And the people that were running the place were really not, you know, they were not really running the place. We felt like intruders. It was a tragedy, really.

Like, it changed. The place completely changed. But it's not, I mean, in that early part of the journey, if that was the one, that's not bad, average. Like, most of it was okay. Well, honestly, like, I look back at it, and that was the one-off, really. But if you see, besides that, if you see the view from our room in that place. Yeah, beautiful.

Fantastic. And we faced, how do you explain this kind of place? It's just a rocky landscape. It had the river going right by it. It was beautiful. Yeah, it was the most amazing. And it's like a hidden gem because a lot of people that go to Honduras don't know about Rio Cangrejal.

And it's beautiful. So I don't really regret it. It's just I feel, you know, that place has run down. You were intruding. Yes. You were intruding. Okay, so tell me where you go from there. We go to Roatan.

We take a boat over to the island of Roatan where we stayed seven days. The owner of the hostel, hostel? seven days. The owner of the hostel. Hostel? No. It was kind of a hostel. It's a hostel. But not hostile. No.

Is a Canadian from Alberta. Oh. Yeah. Then from there, we go to Copan Ruins in Honduras. Oh, sorry. It's still in Honduras. We're still here in Honduras. Oh, that was amazing. Best place we stayed on the trip by far. Oh, sorry. It's still in Honduras. We're still here in Honduras. Oh, that was amazing.

Best place we stayed on the trip by far. Wow. Yeah. You peaked too early. Yeah. I don't know. Casa del Cafe. Yeah.

They have the best coffee. Oh, no, they don't have the best coffee, but the coffee was free and frequent. But it was really good. Yeah, everything was really good there. The owner was amazing. He's from New York or no? Yeah, from New York, expat from New York.

And he decided to open up a bed and breakfast. And he ended up giving us two rooms for the price of one, which was really nice. And anything you wanted, they were there at a snap of a finger. You just ask them, and they're so happy to be of service and to help. And the best thing, the two rooms, all the kids hang out in just a room. Because at that point, we could not just be at that point we even though they were beside each other we could not they will not have a stay

over like in them in one room and we in the other they couldn't handle that so right so I you know I stayed a the whole day one day in the room alone and that was the first time I was alone for, I don't know. A few weeks, three, four weeks then. Yeah. Oh, but that's my life the last four months. It was amazing. It was amazing.

It was the best thing. And just for other parents listening and they have young kids, like, did your kids have, like, tablets or, like, what did they have? or like what did they have? So at the beginning of the trip, we started off with every kid having a tablet, which we made them purchase. We didn't really have to save up all their money for that one. And we had two Chromebooks and two cell phones.

And the Kindles. And four Kindles. Four Kindles to read. Smart. By the end of the trip, we had our four Kindles, one cell phone, and two Chromebooks. And all their tablets. We sent it back home in Chile. Yeah, so.

Okay, so let's get you to Chile. It's okay. So you're still in Central America. Yeah. What's the next spot? So we go to El Salvador, Hayua. This is the 14-hour chicken boss. From Compán Ruinas to Hayua. And then from El Salvador, we go to San Salvador, the capital city.

From San Salvador, we go to León, Nicaragua. Well, Nicaragua. Yeah. And from León, we do a few different things. We go to Las Pinetas which is Mateo's favorite spot oh how come? we did surfing class

well they did Charo didn't do surfing class but we all did surfing class and then the hostel we were staying Mateo is a hostel kid like he loved it he needs to get up in the morning and go talk to somebody who isn't us.

And so he was going and talking to everybody there. The first night we get there, Charo and I are getting our stuff organized. We come outside. He and Daniela are sitting at a table with four other adults telling their stories. It was like oh amazing sounds like my jarvis though yeah social animals so yeah so and they were they were you know um they came over and they're like oh they want to buy us a drink a smoothie right okay whatever buy them a smoothie we're fine they were the owners to clarify yeah were the owners and

they have all these places central america they have foreigners like Americans, Europeans that go, that are traveling for a long time. And they stay like two weeks in a place and work and they stay for free. So it was not just strangers. It was, you know, like the owners of the place and all the people that volunteer. So they were like a group of eight. And they were all listening to their stories and laughing. And they were the center of attention. And they could handle that very well.

Very good. They're twins, not Marco. Marco is a little different. Well, that's it. Every kid's different, right? Yeah, every kid's different. And you kind of learn what they respond to and all that stuff. Yeah, for sure.

Imagine how boring it would be if they were all the same, right? It's kind of fun. Like the four-year-olds having a meltdown over here. I all that stuff. Yeah, for sure. Imagine how boring it would be if they were all the same, right? It's kind of fun. Yeah. Like the four-year-old's having a meltdown over here. I know that Mike is barely picking it up, but Morgan, what are you doing over there? Okay, let's continue to ignore her, but that's a four-year-old. I think the ball went under the...

Oh. Okay. Yeah, well. She wants to spray water and the Mikes don't like that very much, although they have been caught in a couple of rainstorms. Okay, so what's next? We have to get through this trip a little faster. So from there, Costa Rica, we go to Costa Rica, see my brother.

So your brother made a trip to Costa Rica. That's really good. That's nice. Yeah, but we figured it's the... Safe face more. Yeah, he knew about Costa Rica. We're going to make it a Canadian province, right? He said the plan.

But he was... It wasn't our favorite, but it was somewhere he would feel safe going. Right, because he watches movies, he watches Narcos and things. He's going to get stuck in some drug war or something. I know somebody that used to babysit my kids. She was born in Nicaragua,

but she has a hard life there. And she will tell me just before the trip, Charo, please don't she was born in Nicaragua but she has a hard life there and she will tell me just before the trip, Charo please don't take the kids to Nicaragua, don't take them and I just listen and a lot of people will say that before we did the trip, how are you going to go to El Salvador? I just listened

I didn't say anything but I knew I was going to do it and I think everything is attitude if you up with open minds and respectful yeah you know and also with the kids you know everybody most people 95 i say people is good you know there's always one weirdo there but most people is good you're safe're safe. There's weirdos here. Yeah, everywhere. More and more, by the way, since you left. We have more than ever.

Okay, good. So, next. From Costa Rica, we flew into Colombia. That's amazing. We really enjoyed Colombia. That's too fast. Nine cities in Colombia. We're in Colombia. Oh, it's coming I'm sorry I'm so excited

yeah I don't know shout out these names only because I know some listeners are from Colombia I know and they want to hear these names Bogota

oh yeah oh yes the big city yes I also know that one of them's really interested in how I pronounce

something oh probably Lieve Femke because she's married to Juan who I believe is from Colombia. Okay, so we started off in Bogota and then we went to Villa de Leyva.

Then we went to San Gil, Barachara, Abanda, Tirona National Park, Santa Marta, Minca, Cartagena, Medellin, Salento. No, Medellin, then Jardin. Then Jardin. Our favorite place was Jardin. Yeah, yeah. Okay, wow. So Colombia was a big success. Salento and Bogota.

And then back to Bogota. So a big circle. Yeah. Then we went off to Peru. And this is the motherland. Motherland. So how excited were you to return to the motherland? It was good because we were going to meet there with my mom.

And that was the biggest thing for the kids, especially for Marco, to leave my mother. Right. So we knew we were going to see. And I wanted Joe and the kids to see Peru. But for me, it was exciting to see the other countries that I haven't been. Oh, interesting. Okay. Yeah. And I like how you did this with the Frank visit. but for me it was exciting to see the other countries that i haven't been oh interesting because uh okay yeah and i like how you did this with the the frank visit frank your brother frank's visit in costa rica and then you got your the grandmother and remind me uh spanish grandmas

they got a name right abuelita abuelita abuelita abuelita it's abuela but because these kids got they got a lola yeah that's what they got going okay abuelita okay cool say Abuelita. Because these kids got a Lola. Lola, yeah. That's what they got going on. Okay, Abuelita. Okay, cool. So Abuelita met, how long were you guys in Peru? A month and a half. Well, that's a long time for you. Entirely too long in Lima.

Yeah. That's the problem. Lima was Lema? A little Lema? I like it. It was good for a short period of time, but not as long as we spent there. You know, the thing when you're doing this kind of travel and you arrange to meet with family

at specific times, it kind of changes your, how they fluid it, how do you say, fluid it? Fluid it. Fluidity. Yes. Of the trip, you know,

so we felt that in Peru. Okay. Okay, so Peru, quite a long extended stay in Peru. What's after Peru? Yeah, quite a long extended stay in Peru. What's after Peru? Yeah, but we were 15 days in Cusco and my brother came all the way from China for four days just to be with us.

Very nice. Yeah, so more family. And just to go backtrack a bit, in Mexico, her cousins met us on our first week. Oh, that's nice. Second day we were in Mexico. Two sets of cousins with the kids almost the same age as our kids

went there. So two different families. And when we were in Lima, one of the cousins that she lives in Chile came with her son to do Halloween with us. Good. Oh, okay. Halloween?

Yes, we did the Halloween in Lima. That's very funny. Which was funny. Is it different customs? They're really taking the North American custom of going trick-or-treating and stuff, but it was really weird. It was just one small piece of candy.

So all the kids are with a little basket, and our kids wear huge pillowcases. And people look at them and they start laughing so hard at them. That's funny. Only one corner of the pillowcase goes full. Yeah, that's funny. Alright, so how much

left in South America? So only one other place. We went to Santiago, Chile. Where we stayed with Charo's cousin. Beautiful. But we were only there for three years. You built the Stadio Olimpico? No, and we stay only like Chile is in a well-off area of Santiago. And we stay in that area because there were protests at that time.

It was before COVID, but there was a lot of protests that have destroyed a lot of downtown Santiago. Oh, okay. Because they raised the metro, I don't know how much, and they were destroying the city. Oh yeah, so the subway tickets went up?

Went up and it was a big... We should be protesting that more. We don't protest enough in this city. Oh no, not like that. They destroyed... Yes. There was graffiti everywhere. Broken windows everywhere. That's when a protest morphs into a riot. Yes. So we stay in the...

It looks very European, the area where we were. Okay, so Central America. So you start against Mexico. Central America, South America. Where do you go after South America? Auckland, New Zealand. So we flew to Auckland from there. And then we're in New Zealand for 28 days at this point.

And we started with, I don't know. Do you know about couch surfing? Only what you guys told me. You guys told me a little bit about it. So tell us about couch surfing. Okay, so basically told me you guys told me a little bit about it so tell us about couch surfing okay so who's got the there you go joe basically uh you've couch surfing is you open up your house to uh strangers from across the world and you give them a place to stay it could be a couch it could be a bed it could be whatever you're willing to give and to how how many people

you're willing to give right you kind of have to fill out, not an application, but you talk about yourself and what you're doing and who you are and all that. And you ask, can I please stay at your house? But how it works is every time you host or you stay somebody, you give a review. Okay. Sort of like an Uber driver. driver yeah but it's a little more detailed more detail and that's how you know so we before we left the kids were so afraid like

because we have been talking about the year around the world for from day one from four years five years five years before and they were scared you know they didn't want to go. And so what we started is hosting people from abroad. So we brought the word to our home. But I was like, I read this book, How to Travel the World for $50 a Day. Okay. Something like that about this blogger or something. Sure. I don't remember his math or something, but he talked about couchsurfing.

So that's when I researched about that. I became a member. We became a member. And we started hosting people. So is it free? It's free. It's free. So it's basically the exchange of ideas.

Usually what happens is you invite people over and they'll give you something back. Like they might cook you a meal or bring you a bottle of wine. But we gave them room. Food is, you know, like we... Because then you get the good reviews and then people will let you... Also that, but also it was to, the kids to bring,

we were, I was very choosy. Like, you know, it has to have reviews and they want to, it's not like a hotel. They want to spend time with us as well. Right. You know, but it was... Almost like, a little similar to in milan when we state of the old italian couple uh although they wanted to spend a little more

time with us than i was comfortable with but then yeah we spent we have like seven different families before we went on a trip in our place one of them came with a little girl which made it more comfortable for the kids too because they saw other kids doing it right yeah oh i like this okay it was i don't know now might be in risk you know well i don't know about covid time different story yeah but this whole thing doesn't go that but before that right okay so let's point out at this point in auckland uh have you ever heard anything about a coronavirus still november we're still in October, November here. Okay, so at this point, it's all going according to plan. Yes.

Although, Joe, you did... Well, the office changed. What were the changes? Okay, so, yeah. So... Well, we were there. The North Island went pretty well. So we went to a bunch of places in the North Island.

Of New Zealand? Yes, New Zealand. Did you see the Flight of the Conchords guys? Were they there? All my references are falling flat today. What about Lord of the Rings? Did you see any of the sites? Oh yes. Probably flat with me because

I don't know. Because Flight of the Conchords, Joe, you would like it. I know you probably don't have you probably cut cable I guess. But if you could find it on some bay some pirate bay somewhere uh flight of the concords you would love it i'm just gonna throw it out there and there are new zealanders but they end up there are new zealanders who end up in new york and i highly recommend it it made me laugh very hard go ahead okay so we get to auckland we uh hot water we do hot water beach which is really really cool you have you it's a beach but you basically dig a hole in

the sand and it's hot water that comes up and it's you're surrounded by other people and everybody's digging holes and trying wow that's really neat yeah it's um that was really cool then the next thing we went to is uh what time oh and we saw the glow worms so you go into some caves and go see oh morgan would love she has a glow worm. That's amazing. Yeah it was it was an experience it was a really neat

experience. But I think if you ask the kids whatever they don't remember that. No the best experience was the first place we were in the couch surfing.

Yeah. We stayed with a family like he's a ex rugby player. Ex what? Rugby player. Yeah. At first I ex-rugby player. Ex-what? Rugby player. At first, I thought you said Raptor player. Did you stay on Doug Christie's

couch or something? Don't touch any cords. Not like that, but he was not the blacks. What's the name of the all-blacks? He was one level below. But he was amazing. He's a big guy. Big guy.

Really nice. Really down to earth. Oh, I bet you all New Zealanders are nice. We didn't run into anybody we could say that wasn't. Yeah, they are very down to earth. They're very Canadian-esque. You know, what I noticed, everybody in New Zealand walks the street without shoes. Really?

Yeah. And I say, they all think they're hobbits. So no one breaks glass or... Oh's very clean okay it's very clean there because i actually monica will tell you i would walk the streets without in fact i do i always am without shoes monica i wish i had a mic for her she wants to tell you the only time i put on shoes is because uh i'm sometimes i'm in parts of this city especially lakeshhore, where I think, you know, broken glass and such. Well, Charo was always on the kids for that as well before the trip. Now she's really easy on them.

Okay, go outside without shoes. It's the best support to me. You were meant to walk and run with no shoes on. Then my sister was talking to me about herding. And you're supposed to walk without shoes to feel the earth. And I was wondering if that's what the people from New Zealand are doing, because it's something in their, it's so common. Their culture. In the Maori culture, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Walk about. Is that Australian? I get my Aussie confused, you know. I'm sure they think it's like them confusing the Canadians with the Americans. Yes. Okay, so speaking of Aussie. Yeah, go ahead.

Go ahead. No, I was going to say, is that the next stop, Australia? Well, you asked about Hobbiton, so we go to Hobbiton and then we go, eventually we make it to the South Island and that's where things

start going a little crazy for us, but not because of COVID. The day we're going, there's this huge storm and I actually referenced, I saw a tweet about Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister there, and they referenced the storm as one of the things

that she had to go through during her first three years as Prime Minister. And they called it like a 40-year storm. It was huge. Like a perfect storm? I got that one. Charo didn't.

No. But once we get through your A to Z, I'm going to have some fun. I don't get much of the... Well, I know, because later I'm going to kick out a few jams for Joe. And I do have some questions for you, Charo, about these jams. I find a certain fun fact about you fascinating but i'm going to save that for later okay okay um so we're crossing the boat and it's during the storm so the boat is getting tossed about people are throwing up left right and center uh i'm proud

to say daniella and i made it through in the cabin watching tv the whole time so you got your ceilings yeah me daniela and i cast iron stomachs we're good to go okay um but that really messed up that storm messed us up for the for the trip so we had to put on a lot more kilometers than we were used to because we were planning on going down one of the West Coast and they had something called a slip. What a slip is, is when the road basically gets washed away. So there is no road. It's gone. But then we were lucky because we were planning to go to the Fox Glacier

and the people, it got, what do you say, how do you call it? Broken both ways. Yeah, there were two slips, one on each side. So people had to get helicoptered out of there. Okay. So if we were there a few days before, we would have got caught there. Ah, excitement. And it was quite a few days.

Well, you need some excitement like this so you have something to talk about on the podcast and stuff. Because I know you've made rounds. Yeah, lots of stuff. What about the fires? What about the fires? That's Australia. Australia had the fire. I knew that. Yeah, so

we had to do a whole runabout route and then when we were coming back on our way to Christchurch because that's where we're flying out of a few weeks, about a week and a half later, there's a huge flood. Floods over the one highway we have, or two highways that we could possibly get to the other side,

to Christchurch. So we just had to wait that one out. No, but we just changed our plans as we went, and we went to different places. You're like jazz musicians. You just go with the flow. At the end, before, like when we started the trip, like I have by the day plan and book the first month of the flow. You can just sort of, yeah. At the end, before, like when we started a trip, like I have, by the day,

plan and book the first month of the place. But then you, when you do this kind of trip, you cannot, like I have an idea

of the geography, the cities, where I want to go, what I will be interested. And like I didn't go to the most, when we were in Central America, it was not the most

common places. People, you know, but I read a lot. I did a lot of research. Right. But at the end, you have to just go with the flow. You know already your geography, which places,

and then you just decide. Call an audible in the line of scrimmage. And we did. One day before. Is that reference lost on Charo too? Yes. You call an audible in the line of scrimmage. No, I don't get this.

We did call a lot of audibles. Like we ended up, especially it started mostly in New Zealand where we were talking to other people. There was a beach called Hahe Beach where our first couch surfing experience, there was another couple of couch surfers there. And they said, you know what, you guys should go to Hahe Beach. It was really nice. And we said, okay, we're going gonna go and check it out let's do it

and then michael our host for couch surfing said you know what i just bought a place in fangamata with ocean view with an ocean view rated the best beach the best beach it's not it was it was a house it was a shelter. But the property was wonderful. And he said, you guys go up there for a few days and check it out. And we had never heard of it, never wanted to go. Like, didn't think about it. We ended up staying there for a few days. And he actually, we were the first people to stay in his place in this beach.

And he actually, because he has a restaurant in that town, he cleaned the he cleaned the place for us they bought like in something like value village they bought sheets like he went out of his way to make us comfortable like it was very nice yeah it was and this is from somebody like you know like just out of the goodness of his well he met you guys and he's decided you're good people he said i want to give back to these people, make their experience special. And his name was Mike, of course. Mike, yeah.

We keep in touch. But I hope they can come one day. Yeah. But it's not to that extent, but the story of giving people, it's all over the world. We could have stories from almost every country where you find somebody who's willing to go out of their way to help you out and it really helped with our trip um so from new zealand we go to over to australia the sydney sydney we noticed the fires there like we didn't see the fires because there were a couple of hundred kilometers out but the

smoke in the sky was unbelievable this uh you'd look at this december this is december december we make a point to arrive for christmas for christmas to cine because my brother lives there oh and her mom came and visit us there too so you have you do as i hear it it sounds like you have certain pillars like you need to be in peru at this time because of you know and you need to be in costa rica at this time but there's a lot of room for like uh changing up but you do need to be in uh sydney at this time like yeah when we went to costa rica like benchmarks we really have to rush nicaragua yeah we missed a couple of things because we want to meet with his brother but at the end those are for the kids and for us too.

It's very special. So you had a nice Christmas with some family in Sydney, Australia. And then we went off to Melbourne. And we met with your friend as well. Oh, yeah. We met my friend Marsha for the second time. Marsha, Marsha, Marsha. Yeah, you met Marsha.

You get that one. I'd like to see it. No, I thought you were saying because you know her. Oh, no. That's a Brady Bunch reference. So the first time we see Marsha is in New Zealand. We saw Marsha in New Zealand. Then we saw her in Australia.

And we saw her again in Thailand. She sounds like a stalker. Sort of. She's a teacher as well, but she didn't do 12 months away. She did three months. Oh, Joe, later I have a question for you as a teacher. Oh, yeah, lots of questions. And Charo, you're a nurse tomorrow my first day tomorrow i was gonna ask uh okay so tomorrow is your first day every year wow yes wow okay and it's my first day alone in over a year oh we sold them you sold the children yes? Yes. I left you my mom.

Oh, that's a loan. Oh, okay. Abelita? Abelita is in my place. Okay, yes, right. I have met her. Actually, I don't think we've ever talked, but I've met her many times. Yes, we nod at each other.

Yes, that's what I do a lot too. Okay, so would you say Melbourne? So we go to Melbourne and we stay with my cousin who I haven't seen in 40 years. I was five or six years old on a trip to Malta. Saw her there and haven't seen her since. Oh my God, amazing. Yeah, amazing. Did she look like Joe?

No. No, she looks really sweet. Oh! I just kidding. 300. I get it. 300 plus days of that, folks. Ouch. Okay. So, any more highlights in Australia?

I know it's all kind of a highlight. Well, the thing is, Australia, we only did Sydney and Melbourne because New Zealand and Australia is expensive compared. Like we try to do. There's no chicken buses. No chicken buses. We rented a car in both places. Although it was a good deal because we stayed with my brothers in Sydney.

And we stayed at. And my cousins in Melbourne. And they both families, they are amazing cooks. Yes. My sister-in-law, like she's from, was born in Vietnam, but she grew up in Australia. Did you ever have a moment in this trip where you did the math and thought you might be over budget? Because it's tough to budget for a year.

Charo had no idea how much money we were spending. No, we are both very relaxed. You weren't worried. we are both very relaxed. You know, you weren't worried. You weren't going to have to call Abelita to, to wire you some money. I have a line of credit. Yeah.

And your credit cards work over there. And Joseph was having the income because we, we, we have his, you know, you're in the four over five and he was being paid monthly. Right. Yes.

Right. Yeah. So, and we will stay most of the time in countries that are cheaper than Canada and we rented our house. So we were living with that and at the beginning the kids were not buying. We chose our activities wise.

But we were also not choosing to go in like five star, four star places. Like we really kept the budget low with the places right yeah we were backpacking and because you want to experience the local culture and stuff you don't want to go to the uh the hilton or whatever yeah no no like our kids now want to go for street food anytime they can so i was not we were not worried we didn't keep like a we write a ledger because we've never done that in our life and again again

i was looking at the bank account though but again because uh just we don't lose this back uh joe you had a deal at work where uh you take your i'll get it right the way you take four years of your salary and they spread it out over five years correct so you were getting your salary every like you said by twice a month or whatever as if as if you were teaching yeah but you yeah on that note uh did you have to educate your kids like not that you know we're educating our kids so it's like we we just followed your lead but uh like did you did you try to stick to a curriculum of this year away from school for the kids not on the like when we were really moving not so much like we made them read and stuff.

Not really. No math. Like they read because they wanted. Well, math is hard. But there was a lot of math on the road too, right? Like we, the kids would, we'd want the kids to do something. So we'd kind of say, okay, you know, I'll, you know how you do the, I'll give you a dollar if you do this. Right.

Sure. So like in Peru, we said, okay, I'll give you one solus if you do this. And they're like, all right, I'm going to get one solus, blah, blah, blah. They go do it. They come back. How much is that Canadian? 30 cents, right? So we were tricking them a lot.

Like not tricking them, but, you know. And then the next time we were in another country, we'd give them, say the same thing. They'd come back. All right. And they'd come back, all right. And they'd go off to do it. And then they'd run back and say, wait, how much is that Canadian? And then by, like, further down the trip,

they'd be saying, like, we do the same thing. And they'd be like, that's only like 20 cents. I'm not going to do that for 20 cents. Like, they were doing the math by themselves. At the beginning of the trip, like, we did Central America in two months like in under two months under two months it was fast paced you couldn't do like a curriculum at all but for example we went to coffee we see we saw how

they produce the coffee like in a real coffee farm you know cacao like from the tree and open the fruit and we try the cacao fruit so they did a lot of experiences that are it's just to me yeah this is invaluable absolutely and then when we were in salvador for example um after that 15 hour chicken bus route the next day they didn't want to move from the hostel. They were exhausted. And the cleaner, she took her son there, and they were playing like Monopoly. And that cleaner, she made $1 an hour. And she didn't have running water or electricity in her house. So the kids learned that. So I think those lessons to see how other people live.

And they were playing Monopoly like they are all the same. We are all the same. But the experience of how other people live. And they were playing Monopoly like, you know, they are all the same. We are all the same. But the experience of knowing how people live and sometimes they said, $1 is nothing. You know, I say, she had to work $1, one hour to make $1. Well, that's why you have the Big Mac

Index, right? Because you can understand how much is a Big Mac? How many hours you got to work to earn a Big Mac in each country? For them to have that understanding. Right. And when we were in Central America also, like they are in this town Copanruina that is very, you know,

colonial, kind of rock stones in the street. And it's beautiful. But Daniela is walking there and then we go to Villa de Leyva in Colombia. And then she's saying, oh, you know, this reminds me of Copanruinas. And I'm thinking, what a nine-year-old is going to compare this to kind of colonial cities, you know, like how many people can do that? I still can't do that. Yeah, absolutely. No, good points.

So, yeah, less like conformed, you know, anyways, it sounds like real education, like a year abroad. Okay, so where do you go after Australia? We fly over to Indonesia. So we fly over to Australia. Okay, oh yeah, and again, COVID. And I remember this from the last time we talked on Toronto Mic, Mr. Joe. When you're this big, they call you Mr.

So it's in Australia that you start seeing some news items. Maybe you heard about Wuhan, China having an outbreak of a coronavirus. Yeah, and I remember discussing it with my cousin when we were there in Melbourne specifically about the virus and so forth. And you were thinking, oh, this probably won't be anything, but it was a potential curveball headed your way. We were not even thinking about it much, no? No.

Maybe not in Australia. I was not. Okay. But you're heading to Asia now? No, where are you going next? Indonesia. Indonesia, right. Okay.

But that's where we really start seeing the effects of COVID. In tourism. In tourism. Because I know we were talking about this on the last episode about travel and stuff. And there was a lot of Chinese tourists going through Southeast Asia. And we were in Bali. We went from Bali to an island called Jili Air or Jili Menu. an island called uh jilly air or uh jilly menu um one of the two we start seeing no more like very like from from what it was which was a lot of tourists to very few tourists right and that was

because the lockdown happened uh in muhen at that point and there was uh not as many chinese tourists coming through right yeah we went to four little islands that with no cars most of them like outside bali we went to four little islands before we went back to bali sounds uh it sounds uh like it would be a beautiful place to be i think bali right i hear it it's very nice i i wouldn't put it up like our favorites i've been there i don't think i need to go again the thing we realize we are more about um small towns it's more like we're not necessarily the beach towns are the one the most culture right and we are more like about like a small towns with more history and you know more culture and i'm with you i'm with you yeah i'm with you yeah we

get tired i like small towns like paris and rome and dublin i like these tiny little little towns again please continue okay so then from uh so we did a tour of uh bali uh with all those little islands and uh from there we went to sing Singapore. From Singapore, we went into Malaysia. And Malaysia is probably the one. Big surprise. Was the surprise. Because we didn't expect much out of it. We didn't know much about Malaysia.

And my brother, for example, that he was involved. My brother lives in China, involved a lot in our trip. He said, oh, Malaysia, you know. But I learned that his taste is very different from us so i'm glad i didn't follow his advice because he was he's the more the let's go to the four-star hotel oh yeah the best of the best food and stuff and we're okay we need street food right now right so we love malaysia especially because we made friends yeah and how long were you in malaysia i don't know if i don't think that long three days three more no because we went to first we

went to new sujaya where you really see the effects of covid we went to lego land and we were one of four families there or five families there so we had the whole place to ourselves that was for the twins birthday we promised them joe's going off like popcorn over there yeah sorry um then we go to uh where do we go to uh from nusa jaya we go to malacca from malacca we go to kuala lumpur from kuala lumpur we go Penang. So it's not 10 days because we spend at least 3 days or 4 days in each of them. Yeah. Okay, very nice. Malaysia. But the thing that I like the most about Malaysia

is in the last one, in Penang, you go to the parks and they have, like with the playgrounds, they have so much atmosphere and the kids are playing until midnight. Because it's so hot, I guess they go go out the parents at 9 p.m okay and then it's during the week on the weekends

our kids you know not all the time they get to play with kids so there they are in this playground with all these kids and then right away we met a marco made friends with uh and they speak English very well in Malaysia not everybody but I think you know they and we made friends with his family we saw each other three days in a row like the three days we were there we saw them so that was

that for example is what I remember the most about Malaysia the people you meet right beautiful and then what's after Malaysia? After Malaysia is our first go around in Thailand. So we went to Chiang Mai, which is, we see Marsha again. Now Marsha has a whole story in Chiang Mai. She actually ran into a bit of bad luck.

She got something called a DVT, deep vein thrombosis. So she was not allowed to fly out of there and oh she was supposed to go to a couple of stops before going home so she got stuck in chiang mai um which turned out to be a great thing because the place uh she stayed we she was staying uh was amazing. The owner. The owner, Dow, treated her like family and made sure she was fine. Yeah, like it was. We became friends with her as well. We're still in contact.

She's a crazy mama. Yeah, she's amazing. Before we left there, she was like trying to load us up with hand sanitizer and anything we could carry with us to make sure the kids were safe. Even when we were in Phuket, she was asking if we needed something. She would send it to us. So is it Thailand and Laos? Yes.

And that's where we talked. Yeah, so we go to Laos and we take a boat down the Mekong River where we stay in a couple of places. We stay in Luang Prabang and then we end off in Vang Vien. And then we talked in Vientiane. Okay, so this is when everything was coming apart here at the seams. The March break that never ended. Okay, so we talked.

Yeah, it was something like, I don't know, that next week. So the 16th or something we talked of March 2020. And you were talking about you were supposed to go to Vietnam next, but they were closing the border. They closed the border at that point, right? Well, it was not close, close. It was closed like here. We couldn't get a tourist visa.

No, the thing is before you could get the, you can get to the airport and get a visa there when you arrive. And then they suddenly change it to you have to get a visa beforehand. So at that point we didn't have time. No, no, no, no, no, no. Because when we went at the end, you couldn't go over even with a visa. They were suspending all visas. And then shortly after, they changed it to no more.

Bottom line is you had a big decision to make. This is where we left you on this cliffhanger. What would you do? Would you come home? So, Charo, do you ever have a thought that we should go home to Toronto? Never. Never. Not once.

I wanted to, yeah, it's a little responsible, but I was not ready to stop the dream you know like i really wanted to see the anchor what in cambodia but okay so but you never got because you basically am i right that you just stayed in thailand till the end of the trip right yeah but we couldn't go anywhere but i wanted to go instead of thailand i wanted to go to cambodia right right but then now phuket was a safer decision and i mean a lot of people i mean it sounds like if you're going to be stuck somewhere for a few months that's a good place to be stuck nowhere better it's more infrastructure yeah great infrastructure great food okay great people and then at some point you had to go home because tomorrow Charo has to start work.

So you had to plan this out. You had to get back in the city so you can do your 14-day quarantine before you go back to work. So you timed it kind of like that, I guess. And if you were talking to another Toronto parents who had three kids all under the age of 12, let's say, would you recommend that they shut it down for a year and backpack around the world? Yeah. I don't know when they will be able to do that.

Well, let's pretend. Let's pretend. If nothing... COVID, we get vaccines and COVID. Let's pretend there's no pandemic. Okay. That's a good point. Pandemic messes up all these plans.

Messes up. Yeah. Okay, in no pandemic times... I will. You would recommend that people do this. But you, yes.

You have to be flexible though. But it has to, it's not, I don't think it's for everybody though. Like, the kind of trip we did, you have to have a certain personality

to be able to do it. We have to be okay with like chicken buses and things like that. Like even, with each buses and things like that. With each other. Did you ever want to run away from Joe? You're more in love with him today than ever.

Yes. Because you've never felt closer to this man. No, we always have a strong marriage. Spatially, we've always been next to each other for the last year. I've seen you guys touching each other and everything. Well, the thing is, before people were complaining about the pandemic. You know, they have been together,

but we were together from the beginning of the trip, 24-7. At the beginning, we were just renting one room. At the end, we have a villa in Phuket, more space. But at the beginning, it was just one room. Also, at the time, the five of us of us yeah so we have to deal with that and it really make our family stronger like it it was good but it it it may not be like that for everybody like you have to have a strong marriage and like it to be you have to like it all the time you can't just love each other you gotta like you have to like each other and um to be able to do this

I don't think it's for every personality you know what the big thing is to trust I didn't really care about where we went there was one place I really wanted to go and we never ended up going there because it cost too much is that Malta?

no it's Easter Island how come Malta never made the plan? Easter Island I really wanted to go there No, actually, it's Easter Island. How come Malta never made the plan? Which one? Easter Island. Easter Island, yeah, the statues. Yeah, I really wanted to go there, but it's $800 to $1,000 a person to fly there, and then it's really expensive while you're there, and it's like, okay, this is really out of budget

for what we want to do. You only live once, Joe. Well, we're going to go. Eventually, we'll get there, and Malta came in, so... Because you went to Peru for a long time. It feels like you should also have gone to Malta. Because we were not doing Europe. Because when we say we're going to do this,

we're going to go to the cheap countries. But then we decided New Zealand, Australia. Right, right, right. That's your only westernized. Yes, because then it's another budget. So when China shut down yeah in january february we started talking like okay well we got a lot more time on this trip we had a few different options and one of them was why not go to malta um so we we taught we it was in serious consideration and then when

we finally made the decision yeah let's go to malta it got shut down right i was thinking more we're already south asia let's do myanmar like i was thinking let's explore more this area and we say maybe and i say okay you know we can do malta too but and now that you're back and life is going to return to i mean whatever the new normal is it's not the normal you left it's like the new uh normal, but you're going back to work and healthcare. Uh, you know, we've been saluting our frontline healthcare workers in your absence because we needed you all. So we realized you're actually really important to members of our society and we were, and the teachers now, ah, this is the big question for Joe, actually.

So, because, you know, we have children of school age, and we really don't even know what it looks like in September. Like, Joe, do you have a clue, like, what September looks like when you go back to the classrooms? No idea. Like, so don't you think we should, I know this is a, you know, a provincial matter, provincial government matter, but we're almost in August here.

Like, we're close to august and school typically starts the uh tuesday after labor day which is pretty early september and yeah so i mean i feel like uh we need a plan here like what's the plan is it safe is it i mean you know i was just i sent a new york times article to monica last night because they're they don't have any good study but they have a pretty good study i think going on south korea with regards to to children because there's some sense that kids don't transfer the disease okay kids aren't transmitting covet 19 and there's a very strong possibility that is not true like that they have less symptoms but like so if kids can give it to you as well as adults, you know, I feel like, and I know you don't have these, these are the big questions, but are you concerned?

Of course I'm concerned. Like who wouldn't be concerned? But I, it, it's really hard because I look at it and go back to March And everything changed in an instant. So a lot of our politicians, our people, our higher-ups, honestly don't know what's going to happen from moment to moment. So I think, honestly, I think there's a lot of hope going on right now that things are going to calm down. In a month?

In a month. Well, it changed in a week, right? Like March, at the beginning of March 13th or whenever it was, was, oh, you guys could go to March break, and then by the end of the week is don't go anywhere. Right. You know, and countries closing down. Right.

So I think there is what they're hoping, they're relying on hope that things are going to settle, which isn't realistic. It sounds to me like the definition of crazy is relying on some, it's like when Donald Trump said it's going to miraculously go away. I think that it's just prepare to do things online. Prepare for the worst. Like the rest of the year.

That's my belief. Yeah. So, okay. So, you know because my boy is supposed to start university right and they're talking

remote they're done they're remote they've already announced that last year they're not going to be right remote learning

and yeah on zoom or whatever they choose but you're suggesting because I know the daycare that Morgan goes to opens up

in August but does she have a spot? Because I heard they could only go one third of capacity. Oh, no, we actually, we were asked, yeah, we opted out. So we're not sending Morgan in August because we're in a lucky situation where we don't have to. And, yeah, I don't need to have that. For the listeners.

In Toronto, my daycare is opening up in a couple of weeks. It's a risk. It's not worth it. That's for Monica. All right. Interesting times. Isn't it interesting times? Now, I'm going to...

Do we still have time to kick out a few jams? I don't know what rush you're in. We have no keys in the house right now. Okay. And now I noticed the sun has left your... The sun's not in your eyes anymore, it looks like. And you're good. If you need anything, like water or anything,

Monica can... I'm going to keep my hat on because of the reflection off my head. Oh, well, on a somber note, so you're wearing the Maple Leaf hat, your big leaf vent. Side note, I'm going to just open up with a little jam here, not one you chose,

but we need to talk about this because it's breaking news at this hour. Here we go. Wow. But our boy Eddie's no clown He couldn't be made any plainer It's great to have Eddie in town So hear the track Here comes Shaq He knocks him down and he goes back I almost feel like this is nostalgia for somebody, maybe.

Big nostalgia for someone maybe 15 to 20 years older than us. But Eddie Shaq passed away this morning. You know, we... 15 to 20 years older than us. Yes. But Eddie Shaq passed away this morning. You know, we don't have very much memories of Eddie Shaq, but what I can tell you is that we used to go skiing with my school. Yes. And we'd go up Highway 10, and there's Eddie Shaq donuts. Right, right. He was like a figure in the pop culture,

and we all knew the track Here Comes Shaq, and we knew Eddie Sha Eddie Shaq the entertainer I can't say I ever saw the man play like I don't have any I can't even I've never seen him on the ice because of uh you know when I started you know when we were I should I didn't preface this episode by saying Joe and I went to kindergarten together but uh we lost Eddie Shaq so rest in peace Eddie uh the entertainer a lot of people very sad today uh the great Maple Leaf Eddie Shaq uh Char rest in peace, Eddie, the entertainer. A lot of people very sad today. The great Maple Leaf, Eddie Shaq. Charo,

I know you don't know Eddie Shaq, but did you see the kindergarten picture that Joe found? You guys are so cute. A number of people. And Monica, did you think we were cute? You saw the kindergarten picture that, did you think we were cute?

She's nodding her head. She has to, has to say we're cute. We were four years old, I think. She didn't want to offend the guests. A lot of people remarked that, I think, Anthony from Palma Pasta. By the way, you're leaving here with a, make sure you don't leave until I go to the freezer

and get you your large meat lasagna. Oh, wow. Thank you. All five of you will be fed. Six. With abuelita. Oh, right. With Abuelita. All right. Yes, my apologies.

All of you will be fed with this palm pasta. It does feed six because we feed six with it. We had the same haircut. Did you notice that? Like we had identical haircuts. Yeah. Is that just at the time we had these like... My dad's a barber.

That's all he would cut. At the time, they all had hair. So Joe, your dad was a barber. Yeah, I didn't have. At the time, you had hair. So Joe, your dad was a barber. Yeah, I didn't have any choice. You think he was cutting my hair back then? You would have to ask your mom.

Yeah, because that's a good question, right? Maybe, Ralph? Is that your dad? Yeah. Yeah,

okay. Ralph's Barbershop on Kiel. Yeah, so Dundas and Kiel. Yeah. Heart of the Junction. I remember it very well because across the street

was the Canadian Tire. Yeah, or you could have went to my Uncle Joe's who was on Dundas or my Uncle Fred who was on Runnymede. Because again my wife of Filipino descent you might have heard that a lot of the nurses

Charles you work with some Filipino nurses? So the Filipinos they were big on health care and the Maltese were good at hair styling. Just the one family. Is that right? It's not all the Maltese? It at hair styling. Just the one family. Is that right? It's not all the Maltese. It's just our family. My brother Frank

and I always used to joke that we're the black sheep of the family. You're not going to be a barber. He's just a teacher. He's just a computer science guy. Does that really make a point. Yeah.

The one thing I have to say, my parents and my mom and dad really helped us out along on this journey. And we couldn't have done it. Even though they're not with us today, we couldn't have done it without them, right? Without their guidance and making us who we are. Or who I am, anyways.

I think we should kick out a jam. Let's kick out a jam. Now, Monica, you don't have headphones on. You want headphones? Or no? Well, no. You're going to hear the replay. If you go on Periscope, you can actually...

It's a very slight delay, but you'll get to hear the music. Here we go. You know, folks, I happened to pass one of them good old camp meetings the other day and run into a gang of them good old soul brothers. And them cats all come up on the stage, ran to sing and blow one. And we're getting together now, and I'm going to lead off one. guitar solo Now when the saints When the saints

Go marching in Go marching in When the saints go Marching in Marching in My heart to me In that number three Brother Bailey and Brother Tyree

Clearly gonna get together now Satchmo Louis Armstrong Talk to me, Joe. All right. So I had a very... You're all choked up. I'm all choked up.

Growing up, my father played the trumpet. And he used to take us. He was part of the multi-band club. And my experience of music was walking around, listening to marching band music. And I hated it. I hated every second of it. But, you know, we'd made friends there.

But just going and listening to the music, it's like the same songs over and over and over. When I'm a little older, I'm guessing in an early high school time, my dad gave me a story about Louis Armstrong. So back in the 60s, Louis played at the X. And he, my dad was, had been playing there right before. And Louis asked, is there any jazz trumpeters out there in the crowd? And before he finished that statement, my dad was on the stage. And Louis asked him, what song do you want to play when the Saints go marching in?

What? Your dad played of Louis Armstrong? Well, two songs, I believe. But he played two songs with Louis Armstrong. He always talked about that. Yeah, it was one of his memories. I wouldn't shut up. It's like if Chuck D needed somebody to rap with him and I jumped on stage,

I would never shut up about that. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. But like I said, I didn't know about that till I was early teens, maybe late teens. And tell us, share with us when your dad passed away. It's going to be 10 years ago.

No, eight years ago this year, next month. I remember. So again, I knew you in kindergarten. I remember your dad. And I do think he might have been the guy responsible for that haircut. I do have memories of sitting in that chair at that age it could have been right i what i want to know is where were you living at that time because i i know where you went i know where i was i was on a street called thornhill it was like a jane and annette jane and now okay on a street called thornhill avenue okay yeah so that

wasn't that far and i mean yeah well that's because my cousins lived on the net. Yeah. So that's I think I went to St. Cecilia's because they were kind of like because they were getting me to and from work. That's cool. Not from work. Yeah, because they lived like 10 doors down from St. Cecilia's. They were close. So I was, yeah.

So I just, yeah, a net because we're Jane and Annette and you're like running a little bit east of Runnymede and Annette. And yeah, St. Cecilia's. And you were on, yeah, St. John. Yep. Right, yeah, not far from the Malta Bake Shop. Not far from the Malta Bake Shop. Shout out to the Malta Bake Shop. And Malta Park.

And Malta Park and Little Malta, everything Maltese in that area. Is it true there's more, are there more Maltese in that neck of the woods than in Malta Park. And Malta Park and Little Malta. Everything Maltese in that area. Is it true there's more, are there more Maltese in that neck of the woods than in Malta? Maybe at that time. Maybe at that time, not anymore. Oh, and shout out to your cousin, Daniela, Danny, we have to call him now, you know, Danny. And again, I have always known you as Jocini. And then somebody said you're Joe Cheney, and I've been confused ever since.

It's like my whole world has been wronged. It's my alter ego. Is Cheney the proper pronunciation? Cheney is the proper pronunciation. I go by either. Okay, because back in the day, did your parents want to Canadianize it or something? I think so.

Yeah, that was the move back then. But it's also, you know, teachers end up Canadianize it or something? I think so. Yeah, that was the move back then. But it's also, you know, teachers end up Canadianizing it too. They can't pronounce it. Back in the day, they wouldn't ask you how to say it. They would just say it. It's like cinema.

It's like, yeah, right, right, right. Okay. So does Danny go by Sini or Chini? Sini. Sini. So she's a Sini too. Okay. Well, shout out to Danny Sini

who I knew she used to work at Great Lakes Brewery. And I know it's been out now for an hour, but that did come straight from my fridge. I'm looking at you, Charo. And are they still cold? It's now noon. Do you want to crack one? Is it still cold? So I can always swap it out.

It was fresh from the fridge. I was laundering. Yeah, well, it's yours. Like, all that's yours. Thank you. Great Lakes beer. So you're not going to crack one now. And my dreams are being crushed here.

Okay. It is very close to noon. And, okay, so that's an IPA. That's actually one of my favorites. That's the octopus wants to fight. So on the mic, though. On the mic. On the mic.

So lift that up. Here you go. Oh, that sounds good. Okay, yeah. I picked that up last week. It's really fresh uh yeah uh enjoy we have uh our neighbor so we we've been really lucky once we got home and our neighbors one went to costco one's uh bringing stuff over for us and the kids and one

of them has been bringing uh great lakes for char. What is your favorite beer from Great Lakes so far? I don't know the name. Sunnyside. Oh, yeah. I think they just did the last batch. That's what he was telling me because we told him we were coming here. And she said... Get the Sunnyside.

Get the Sunnyside. I don't have Sunnyside. But he told me he's not going to have it because they did the last batch. They did the last batch. Although I do know friends in high places. But what I ended up picking up was Canuck Pale Ale, Octopus Wants to Fight, and a couple of the lagers there. There's a Vienna lager in there,

and there's another one from their Tank 10 series that they do, the barrel series. But very tasty, local, fresh craft beer. I know you guys have been to. Yes. TMLX events. My brother went to school with Peter Bullitt. Oh my God. Yeah.

Okay. Because, right. And because your brother, your brother went to Runnymede High School, right? Because then they all

went to Humberside. Yeah. For a brief period. And then where did he go? First he went to De La Salle and then he went to Runnymede. Oh,

because I remember him at Runnymede. Well, we'll talk about your brother with some of these jams coming up, Frank, who used to play wall ball

with a cigarette dangling out of the side of his mouth. Don't tell that to his kids. How old are his kids? Gabriel would be 12 and Adriana just turned 11 or 10. Don't tell them about the motorcycle either. All right, let's get into another jam. I can't wait to talk about this one. You got me on

the run I'm driving in my car now Anticipating fun I'm driving in my car now Anticipating fun I'm driving right up to you Hey I guess that you couldn't see Yeah, yeah But you were under my wheels, honey

Why don't you let me be Cause when you call me on the telephone Say take me to a show It's actually a short jam, actually. I'm going to bring it down, but this, of course, Under My Wheels by Alice Cooper. And why am I playing this song, Joe? Oh, back in the day when we re-met in high school, this was our thing.

Right. Okay. So we're buddies. I changed schools. That's what happens. At some point, I leave St. Cecilia's. In grade two? One.

Grade one. Well, grade one, I was at St. Cecilia's. I had Mrs. Dunlop. Okay. So we're in a different class at that point. Because I had Mrs. Oost, Mrs. Teed, and Mrs. Dunlop. We're in first two class. I cannot remember.

Oh, I have a good memory, that's why I do a podcast okay so we were in the same school but different classes in grade 1 why did they separate us? I feel like that's a cruel and unusual punishment then I moved to St. Pius so I leave St. Cicero, we lose touch with each other

you know, we didn't have we couldn't text each other, there was no such technology, we could send smoke signals right and then uh in grade nine and i think it was jim jim mr mills class we we sat next to each other and uh and you said hold on hold on you tell the story i'll never forget this because we're sitting next to each other. So what are the odds that we're sitting next to each other? And then he calls out your name. And I looked over at you. Which is a B. Yeah.

And then he called out my name, which is a C. And you looked over at me and were like, hey. Yeah, and I remember that day. And I remember you saying something like, remember me? And I'm like, of course. And it's weird. We had a long gap where we didn't know each other. And then we picked up right where we left off.

And one of the things we would do is we'd go to your place at St. John's there, St. John's Road near the junction. And your brother, Frank, was older than us. Three years older, yeah. And I was at the time trying to remember what I was listening to at the time. But, uh, you introduced me to a whole bunch of like stuff that I hadn't been listening to.

And I fell in love with a lot of it. And one of the, uh, discs we would play here was Alice Cooper's greatest hits. Yes. And I still have, like, I mean,

I still know what the cover looked like and it had that, it had a lot of jams, like, uh, eight, I'm 18 and no more mr nice guy and school's out and elected yeah and so many just in that song there under my wheels and uh i'm telling you just straight up like i didn't hear a lot of alice cooper before you introduced me to

the greatest hits i still listen to a lot of alice cooper and love it. Yes. And I love it. Yeah, it's aged well. Wow. Right? I know, it's wild hearing that. Well, fast forward to our trip. You met Alice Cooper on the golf course. I did not meet Alice Cooper on the golf course. We didn't go to any golf course.

We did go to an elephant park where we got to interact with elephants, watch them do their daily thing cool um and not ride elephants there yeah we we strictly didn't ride elephants uh but that's another story uh so we ended up uh tagging along with two other couples so we met them in the van ride on the way there uh stayed overnight interacted with you know, had a great time. We're still in contact. One of them is a music lawyer. And he ended up throwing a COVID party. Not a COVID party, sorry.

That's the wrong word. Because that's the wrong connotation. He did a music session, a live music session with all these different artists to raise money for frontline workers and personal protection and stuff like that. Yeah, PPE. And Alice Cooper was the headliner. Wow. Wow.

Okay. So, yeah, Vincent Feuillier, don't you know? Firstly, this is the time I want to introduce something about Charo. Charo, you're on the spot here. My understanding is you don't, I don't know how to, you tell me if I'm using the wrong phrase, but you don't love music. It's not I don't love music. It's that I usually don't listen to music since ever it's

like when you were in high school because you were in high school in peru you didn't like there wasn't a local band or a song i never really have a favorite besides um but like i have i never been to musicians or actors or actress like i, I never been like a fan. Okay, but did you have a Sony Walkman? No, I never listened to music. Really, like, you know. My Sony Walkman was there. It's still to this day.

It's turn it down. Turn it down. And now with the kids, sometimes I like the quiet. Like, I'm a social person. No, once in a while I put music, but I say to the, like an old-fashioned Latin music. Okay. And then sometimes I put it, Google play this, you know, Ricardo Montaner or something like that. It's really my old-fashioned for people now.

I don't even know the names of the new musicians, Latin music, Latin musicians. Okay. names of the new musicians, Latin musicians. Okay. You put on some Carlos Santana, Black Magic Woman, writer died yesterday, by the way. No, no, no. Very old-fashioned, you know. Not bad.

I just find it interesting because most people really have an affection for at least some type of music. You know this. I love Amaze. I drive you crazy. Amaze? Like Paul McCartney? No, Amaze.

Lonely Star. What was the name? Lone Star. Lone Star. I know this jam. Yeah, there's two versions of this. Because that's the first song we danced to in our wedding.

So once in a while, I make him put it on. Can you sing a little bit of... No way. There's also an R&B version of this song. Oh, really? Once in a while, I make him put it on. And we start dancing.

And then all the kids come around. Once in a while, but keep the emotion. There's no shame in your game. I find it curious because you know you're hearing like I mean Joe we would

I remember that stereo Frank had or whatever in the Z24 and just yeah that's right like we would blast the music

and I still have memories of like we were listening to like Girls by Beastie Boys and I still remember you and I do you remember this Joe

and we'll get back to you Charles but do you remember going to Sam? And we'll get back to you, Charles. But do you remember going to Sam's? I think it was Sam's, but downtown at Young and Dundas. And I went to buy Up to Here by Tragically Hip. And you bought Billion Dollar Babies by Alice Cooper. Do you have any memories of this?

Oh, I do not have any memories of that. Because I heard Blow It High Dough on QN07 and I went to buy that album. And the rest is history there. But here, I'm just... So I'm going to find a song for Chara. Chara is a hockey player for the Boston Bruins. Yeah, and it's funny how many, even of my family,

call her Chara instead of Charo. Well, that's Zdeno's fault. Hold on, I'm typing in a bad angle here. So, yeah, there is a big R&B version of this song here, but let's just get a taste here of the one song that you'll put on. I just answered. Overplayed. Every time our eyes meet

This feeling inside me There's almost more than I can take Baby, when you touch me I can feel how much you love me All right, sorry, Charo. I've got to bring this down. It's awful. My apologies to you. Please, thank you. I got to bring this down. It's awful.

My apologies to you. Please, thank you. Notice it was not part of my list? Just a case. Let's kick out another Joe jam here. Okay. at about a minute 10 there's an important solo well do you want to talk up to it and then just point at me when we should shut up and I should turn it up? Okay. So we, back in high school, I was part of the, well, I took music. And as a son of a trumpet player, I had to play the trumpet.

And so Mr. H, my teacher at the time, had a great idea of, you know, for your final exam this year, you're going to draw out of the hat and you play whatever you draw. And it could be like Old MacDonald had a farm or whatever. And at about a minute 10, this is what I draw. Okay, here it comes. And this high school you're speaking of, what was the name of this high school? music knows it is and always will and this high school you're speaking of

what was the name of this high school Michael Power St. Joe's I feel bad for the St. Joe's part because we chopped it off all the time

I always referred to it as Power or Michael Power like I never ever called it Michael Power St. Joe's well it's funny because as we're going through all our

coming back we're going through all our... Coming back, we're going through all our stuff again and getting rid of things or putting things out. And I found this thing from Michael Power on how to write. And as a teacher, you keep everything. Oh, effective writing. Yeah. I feel like I have something similar going. But I saw on the...

It's not Michael Power St. Joseph's. It's Michael Power High School and St. Joseph's High School. And that's in the 80s, right? Or 80s, early 90s. Yeah. We would have got that. Yeah, yeah. So it was still, we said, it was still to them two separate high schools.

No way. In the 80s? It must have been. Maybe that was like an old thing. I feel like, okay, so we started off there in like 89. And at that point, it was definitely one high school. Like definitely. It was, but I think it might have been.

I think it emerged in the 70s maybe. I don't know. Okay. But official name, as I remember, was Michael Power slash St. Joseph's High School. I don't know. Because it did have that delineation in that paperwork. slash St. Joseph's High School. I don't know. Because it did have that delineation in that paperwork. Oh, I just think the St. Joe's got the raw end of that deal.

Yeah, because we just shortened it to power. But to all the power grads, I know Bill Brio is listening for sure. So shout out to Bill Brio. Hey, Bill. Have you talked to Bill since you got back? I have not. Because he interviewed for the Toronto Star. That is correct. We talked to Bill. Do you want to run since you got back? I have not. Because he interviewed for the Toronto Star. That is correct. We talked to Bill.

Do you want to run down the press you did? So in addition to your wonderful Toronto Mike appearance, what other press did you do? Mr. Toronto Mike knocked this one out for us because as soon as we did our episode, everybody wanted us. Everybody. Well, I booked you on Humble and Fred.

That's right. And then what? So I want to say it was first you, then it was Humble and Fred, then it was Bill Brio. Yes. Bill probably listened to the Toronto Mic Tap. He said, hey, this is my buddy Joe. I'm going to write this up for this Toronto Star.

Well, we were actually talking about something the year before when we were playing hockey. Yeah, it's a good story. I like this story. Okay, so you're in the Toronto Star, thanks to Bill. Thanks to Bill. Then we go to, I want to say, Global TV? Global Radio.

Oh, 640? Yeah, and I heard Stafford. Kelly Cotrera? No. Stafford? Stafford. Hey, he broke his neck. I know.

I saw that on the... So FOTM, Mike Stafford, and Supriya Dwivedi. Was she there or was she on that? Yes, she was there. She was there. Then we... That's cool. What else did we do?

I made national, that one. No. I know we went... We were on CTV. Okay, on your return, the first day you got back, I saw you guys... Somebody tweeted at me like hey your buddy joe is on ctv news yeah so that's that's an interesting that's a really

cool story for me anyways uh so ctv news got a hold of me but uh but how did they know that you were coming back like uh is it they found it on Twitter? Followed me on Twitter. Saw the picture because I put a picture of the kids at the YYZ sign in Toronto. Right. And at the Toronto airport. And Carly ended up sending me a message. And it started with, hey, I don't know if you remember me, but you taught you might have taught my brother and my sister. Wow. So I do remember her. She was in grade taught my brother and my sister. Wow. So I do remember her.

She was in grade eight when I started my first year teaching. What's Carly's last name? Carly Conway. So I taught her. I know that name. I think she follows you. You know how I think I know her? I feel like we communicated when my buddy Mark Carey was running around around the city but i might be anyway continue maybe maybe um because she's always looking for stories

right right um she's getting all her stories from toronto mike just what's happening is that what you're saying is that what you taught her well if i i didn't have it i had my hand in it but okay that was the number one story that day yeah on the ctv uh toronto news well apparently it went national so she told she told me it went uh at the six o'clock then it went national and then the next day it was at lunch oh wow yeah so it was picked up people wanted more cini yeah apparently okay um or chini yeah they thought they were getting chini but they got cini and they were disappointed uh so yeah for me that's quite interesting like i And you did something for the region. I did something for the region a few days later.

Okay. So we had an interview, and they were interested in the kids' perspective of what happened with the kids and how did they handle the trip and so forth. Okay, good stuff. And now you're back on Toronto Mic, so we can do it all over again here.

Now, another jam for Joe. From a Joe. Oh. We'll be right back. Charo, if you're waiting for the lyrics, you're going to be waiting a long time. I took it off. She tuned out. What do you think when your ears, Charo, when your ears hear this,

is it just a bunch of noise? This is noise. She tuned out. What do you think when your ears, Charo, when your ears hear this, is it just a bunch of noise? This is noise. Because it's just some guitar. Joe, what are we listening to? We're listening to Joe Satriani's Surfing with the Alien. And as I recall, having gone to your place and blasting lots of music,

there was a lot of stuff, as I recall, was it like Yngwie Malmsteen? Yes. And like a lot of guitar stuff. Yeah. Really hard guitar stuff. I would say this is the first one since listening to my father play

that I realized, you know, music doesn't necessarily need words. You know, like when my dad played, I hated it. I loved him. I loved listening to him, but I hated the music that he was playing. And then I heard this and. I like, I loved him. I loved listening to him, but I hated the music that he was playing. Um,

and then I heard this and I was like, Oh, you know, music could be really cool without words as well. You know, it doesn't always have to have somebody singing a song to you. And music tells a story. And,

uh, ever since I heard this, he, uh, surfing with the alien ended up the whole, the whole CD has no words on it. Right, instrumental. Or album or whatever you have.

Cassette for your Sony Watch. I'm not sure if it made it to eight track. Thanks. Sorry. But it made it in every car I've ever owned since This is my driving music So this accompanied me all the way to Thunder Bay When I did teacher's college in Thunder Bay And it's always been there with me

Wow, okay Because Joe, I did own an album where Joe tried to sing Big Bad Moon, you remember Big Bad Moon? Oh, that's right, yes It was okay I liked it. Yeah. But you're right.

He was a guitar virtuoso. If I'm not mistaken, he did all the instruments on the album. I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure. It wouldn't surprise me. He's a gifted musician. But who's... You introduced me to Cinderella, right?

Yes. Bad Seamstress Blues? Yes. I still dig it. Great album. Great album. You're missing out, Charo. Music's awesome.

You've got to let it into your heart. Yes, maybe. It's like she's being tortured right now. No, no. So Joe Satriani, surfing with the alien. So you would drive that long trip to Thunder Bay to go to Teachers College, and you'd have Joe Satriani on the speakers.

By the way, you sold your car when you went on your one-year adventure. Yes, it's gone. Well, yeah, so it's gone, I guess, over a year now. And I saw you tweeting about this, but have you decided what you're going to get for the family of five? Charles convinced me to get a minivan. Because you need seven seats? Yes.

Six seats for sure. Unless all the time, right? But if we bring somebody along, it'd be nice to be able to... Are there any six-seaters? Like, it's all seven-seaters. It's all seven or eight-seaters. Because the Mazda 5 was a six-seater, but I don't think they make the Mazda 5. You could get a used one, I guess.

But they're all seven-seaters, right? So what are you leaning towards? The last two days, we have gone to see options and he wanted an SUV and I wanted a van. But for seven-seaters, we have compared and all the salespeople and

well, it changed his mind to a van, no? I think, honestly, Joe, I would go with a van. That's the main thing. I would go with a van. One of the FOTMs, Michael Lang. Oh yeah, Michael Lang, he's a good FOTM. Yeah, yeah, he's great. He sent me back, he goes, oh, I'd go with Sienna

if you're willing to accept driving a soul-slacking minivan and that's where I'm at. There goes my soul. Because he was noslacking minivan. And that's where I'm at. There goes my soul. Because he was no way a minivan. More than the type of car, the brand. He was the SUV or van.

He used to drive the IROC. Did you have an IROC? No. What did you have? Chevy Cavalier Z24. Z24, right. So once you've driven one of those, it's tough to go to a minivan. And then I moved up to a station wagon.

Yeah, right. Right. You know what? God honest truth, I'd take it. I remember the station wagon because I moved some things in that. It was very good for moving things. Oh, it was great. We used to put hockey nets in there and everything.

Do you have a minivan? No, no. No, we don't have a minivan. My soul hasn't been sucked out yet. And I actually, I don't want to buy, I'll be honest, I don't want to buy another gas-powered automobile. Like, I'm done with gasoline-powered automobiles. No judgment, because I know the money is a big difference.

There's only one, I mean, what my daughter says, she says, well, there's a Tesla of this or whatever. my what my daughter says there's like a she said well there's a tesla this or whatever uh but of the there's a pacifica it's called uh which is a uh uh electric vehicle that seats seven people like i feel like that would be and i know that they're maybe more expensive than the what you're looking at but anyway just food for thought uh i'm done with gasoline powered automobiles. And I will now judge all of you gasoline-powered, even though I just got rid of my 21-year-old gas-powered Mazda Protege.

Well, that's one of the things, though. We look at what we're going to buy, and I think we're leaning towards used because we have other things to spend our money on. We don't need the newest of the new, and that's what helps fund our trips going forward is saving money in other places. What's the plan before I kick out this next jam?

Cause we're not doing a full 10 jams. I'll just let the listeners know. I'm going to kill one more for Joe. And then there's one that's sort of for Charo and I'll explain more soon, but the it's a plan to do another one of those. Pay me my five years over? Four over five. Four over five, I meant, yes. I would like to say yes.

If I wanted to go in five years, I would have had to sign up for it back in January. So that's not going to happen. I have to wait until January again to do this again. And it puts the kids, like Marco would be in grade 11, 12, and I'm not sure if we're willing to risk a year right before university. No, good point. Yeah, you're right. What we do want to happen, though, is we want them to go.

You can leave them behind at that age. There's the dream. No, it was good. It was a lot of fun taking the kids with us but we do want the kids to go traveling either before or during university and take a year off

and go do the same trip but by themselves or with friends or something like that we don't want them to rush to get a job well they can work but I don't want them to rush to get a job. Well, they can work, but I don't want them to rush to go to university. But I'll be honest. You think you have influence yourself, but I had the same thought with James.

Like, what's the rush or whatever? And he's eager to be at Laurier next September. It's sort of like they just, at that age, it turns out, they are completely independent and do what they think they need to do. I have no sway with James at all. But that's more, I think it's more of, that's what everybody's, like, all his friends are doing the same thing. So he wants to be part of that friend group going through the process, right? Or maybe before they finish high school, they can do, like, an interchange program.

Yeah. Like, we are open to different possibilities. exchange program yeah but like we are open to different possibilities we met a lot of uh young mostly uh most mostly germans uh who did take a year off sometime in university or before university to go and do this actually it's the norm yeah it's but it's like norm there so more than in the north north europe like norway sweden is your wheel if you go straight to university More than in the North Europe, like Norway, Sweden. You're weird if you go straight to university. Yeah. But it's different.

They pay them to go to university too. So it's a different – the kids follow what other kids are doing, right? But that goes for everybody. So if his friends decided to go for a year trip, he probably would want to go on. Yeah. It's about your, your, yeah, your core friend,

what they're doing. You want to be a part of that. My thinking is, for example, I studied five years in a private university in Peru. It was very expensive business. I, I,

I just was doing, you know, I need to go to university, but I never liked it, but I get, I'm very disciplined. We're children of the eighties. Like we were told you had to go to university. We didn't feel like we had a choice. So I studied liked it. I'm very disciplined. We're children of the 80s. We were told you had to go to university.

I only thought. So I stayed five years. And I never liked it. So instead of spending all that money in five years, I prefer them to travel one year and decide when they go to another career, like I went for nursing. You know what you want.

So not necessarily they have to go to university right away. That's what I'm thinking. Right. And yes, but Marco's going to do what Marco wants to do. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He does that. At least he's not like us.

I actually will. I have to say, when I was at Michael Power, I felt like a great, like I was supposed to go to university and get a degree. Like, I never felt like I could do this, this, this, or this. I actually, I don't know, maybe because I'm dumb, I'm the oldest kid or whatever. I really didn't feel I had a choice. Like I ended up at U of T getting a double major honors BA because I felt like that was the next thing you check off this checklist you have or whatever. And I'm trying to make sure my kids know that that's not how it is. Like you don't have to do that trying to make sure my kids know that that's not

how it is like you don't have to do that you have options i mean that's i think that's the 80s right yeah it was university or nothing right and you just get there and do whatever and that's not the truth when we were traveling there were quite a few younger adults uh you know doing volunteering like they remember in peru in cusco there were this kid there's an organization in the states that they go and they work with different projects for a year or so so that would be interesting yeah go i mean go go to africa or something and help build a like a water system or go help build yeah but there's. But there's so many more available options and finding them is a lot easier

now. Before, if you didn't know somebody who went through the process, you really had to research. Right, you didn't know. You're right. Whereas now, everything, you can find what you want to do. I still feel 17, you're too young to know what you want in life. Well, every kid's different, I guess. But yeah, of course, you don't know what you want to be. Right. I still think 17, you're too young to know what you want in life.

Well, every kid's different, I guess. But yeah, of course, you don't know what you want to be when you grow up.

That's, I sure didn't know. What the hell am I doing now? What the hell am I doing now? I didn't need a fucking degree for this. I think any degree, you know,

it just gives you some culture and base because at the end what you do is completely different most of the time. Yes. And I feel like we need to kick out joe's

last jam here uh this is a jam i can't wait to talk about the this artist as well because another artist joe introduced me to that i still listen to uh with fond memories here we go i forgot about this one. We're crazy But that's how it goes Millions of people Living as foes Maybe It's not too late

To learn how to love And forget how to hate Mental wounds not healing Life should be in the deep I'm going off the rails On a crazy train The Oz man coming. Yes.

So I remember high school. My brother, well, my brother sort of introduced him to me, but his friends introduced it to him. And I remember his friend Gabby at Michael Power. Well, sorry, let me rephrase that. He started at De La Salle with my brother and then went over to Power when my brother went over to Run and Meet. So they kind of all went.

Did your brother go to high school with Dwight Drummond? Ask him next time you talk to him. I will. I wonder if it's the same year. It's got to be around the same years. Yeah, well, I know Dwight's got a couple on us. So, yeah. Anyways, so.

Just get that mic in front of you there. I want to capture this gold here. Sorry about that. Yeah. So Gabby introduced me to Aussie and me being me. I'm very when I like something, I end up getting all of it. So I just got all Aussie. You're a completist.

Yeah. Yeah. So that's like even I remember going on a trip to Malta and seeing, it had to have been a bootleg of something or other on cassette, and I was like, oh my God, I don't have that one. Yeah, yeah, grabbing it. Do you know which disc you were into during that period when I guess we'd play wall ball and go to your house and play music really loud?

Do you know which Aussie disc it was? Let's see if you remember, and then I'll tell you if you can't remember and this is steve stevens steve this is uh yes steve stevens who's oh no who's doing the guitar randy rhodes but isn't this the tribute to randy rose like isn't he dead no randy is it crazy train after his death? No, I think Crazy Train got released and then he died on the tour, I believe. For some reason I thought, oh, maybe I'm confusing my like, okay, okay. I think, I think. I'm not 100% sure on that one, but.

Okay, okay, yes, okay, okay. Well, anyway, we'll have to Google that one. No, it's okay. I'm way off anyways. I'm probably thinking, I got confused with my Billy Idol that was blasting out yesterday. But the album, to remind you, is uh i'm gonna guess i was it diary of a madman no no good guess

uh it was um no rest for the wicked no rest of the wicked okay yeah and uh like uh they had that uh charles manson song i learned a lot of charles manson stuff from the you're coming home there's blood on the walls and charlie and his family made house calls yeah yeah anyway and i used to blast that really loud like you you hear this you've got this has got to be at number like 10 11 if you can get it to 11 you don't want to listen to this quietly oh my god so you were a big you're a big aussie completist and that includes includes the Black Sabbath stuff? Mostly Aussie. Mostly Aussie. Can't believe he's still with us, Aussie.

It's amazing, right? I know. I know. You know, he's pickled himself. Sharon, Sharon. That's my Aussie, Sharon. Charo, would you recognize Aussie Osbourne if he walked in this backyard right now?

Not sure. That's a no. Babe, would you recognize Ozzy if he walked in the backyard right now? Yeah, Monica would.

So, there you go. Monica was born in Edmonton. Okay, I have a bonus jam. Can Charo answer? Why? You can't whisper on the microphone you gotta speak it into the microphone

she was just wondering if Sharon was his wife yeah Sharon Osbourne and they became reality stars I think I would recognize him because of that depends yeah none of us would come in like this frail old man we'd be like who the hell is that okay here's a jam, a bonus jam.

And Joe will explain why we're playing it. Oh, maybe Charo will. Oh, maybe Charo will. Hopefully she recognizes it. Oh, this is good. Can you sing along to it? No, I can't.

God is yesterday, but we aren't far away. Lost, but not afraid to say we can make a change. change wait for me baby i just wanna know well our passion will look today since you've gone away trouble's all i know every day We could try real hard this time To read between the lines Maybe we can work together And we could leave the past behind Baby, if we try We can work together It's a nice song.

What are we hearing here? My cousin's band, Gang of Thieves. This is the Gang of Thieves? Gang of Thieves. Work together, yeah. Work together. And you said your cousin's band? Yes.

Your first cousin? First cousin. Okay. They grew up in Vermont, homeschooled by the parents. And they had a band. And this is a big deal. This sounds big. This sounds really good.

Yeah, it did. So like Charo said, they're a Vermont band, but they seem to have traction in Vermont and California. So they do a lot of touring and stuff like that. Gang of Thieves. Gang of Thieves. Gang of Thieves, yes. People need to Google that and become completists. They even have some videos, no?

Yeah, yeah. That's where I got this song. I just found the video. It is a good video on YouTube and I just ripped it. They really did some fundraising. Yeah, they did some fundraising. And the fun thing is for us is you watch the video and you see his dad in there and his mom

are in there and his brother's in there. And you have a big family. Yes, my mom, they are eight siblings. And we're very close. Only my sister and one cousin is here. She's my sister. Who I've met at your house.

Yes, Giovanna. Yeah, you she's my sister. Yeah. Who I've met at your house. Yes, Giovanna. Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, you have met for sure. I think her daughter, we had a conversation once about... Oh, no, that's my sister. That's her. That's my sister. Oh, okay, I'm confusing my relations. My apologies.

But no, besides that, I have a lot of family in the States. Most people is abroad. I'm an immediate family. I have one brother in Australia, one in China, one in California. I'm two of us here. Cool.

So then many people left in Peru, but, you know, we are close together. Very nice. Now, I forgot to mention this. So I've already mentioned your Palma Pasta lasagna I'm going to give you

and you got your beer. And I'm glad you cracked one open. Octopus wants to fight. Great IPA. It's really good. Yeah, it's my favorite of the IPAs at Great Lakes. It's fantastic. I put stickers on there, too.

You each get a Toronto Mike sticker. I see there's room on Joe's laptop. I don't know. Maybe we'll have to make room. I don't want to bump any. This is from all the countries he has been. Not all the countries. A bunch of them. A bunch of them australia so

thank you to sticker you for the quality stickers you need to get some gang of thieves uh stickers to promote the your cousin's uh band i also want to let everybody know especially those who uh own or have a responsibility with these small to medium-sized businesses that it makes sense to outsource your IT department to CDN Technologies. Call Barb today at 905-542-9759. Outsourced IT, there's a million reasons why you should do so. 24-7 excellent service remotely from CDN Technologies. And Joe, you got the minivan coming. You can buy like a carload ticket for all of you

to drive through the Pumpkins After Dark, 2.5 kilometer driving route in Milton. And there's a huge like 7,000 pumpkins and 150 jack-o'-lantern sculptures. And here, there seems to be some bonus audio at the end of that song they're coming in but it's just an amazing event 40 foot towers, there's a big long 50 foot drive-thru

tunnel, all these sculptures Oh! We have a little... Babe, can you grab that bag? I'm putting my assistant to work here, Vanna White, would you mind grabbing that bag there? So, okay, to finish that thought, if you want to save some money on tickets from

Pumpkins After Dark, it's the promo code at pumpkinsafterdark.com is Toronto Mike. That's the promo code. Oh, is this like souvenirs from your travels?

Yeah. This is beautiful. Sorry, Mike, nothing for you. Nothing for you, sorry. This is for me, I can tell.

This is where I would put my loonies and my toonies and my keys. Monica, that's from Laos. Laos. That's for you. We're getting gifts, by the way, here. Thank you so much. It's all handmade. You know, they do amazing work.

Oh, for Morgan, right? This is for Morgan, I'm guessing. And one for Morgan. Oh, I see zipper, okay. Oh, look at this. That's from North zipper. Okay. Oh, look at this. That's from North Thailand. Wow. Oh, my God.

There's so many. Yeah, and one for Podkits. Very nice. Yeah, you can tell it's handmade. Yeah. This isn't that mass-produced crapola. No, it's handmade. This is the real deal.

Beautiful. Thanks so much. There's another one passing into you, Vanna. I just want to let you guys know your homeowners here in toronto and let you know that garbage day.com slash toronto mike if you haven't done so already elvis yesterday was thanking me for introducing me to this he gets his notification once a week and he absolutely loves it takes the guesswork at a curbside collection it's completely free free. Again, GarbageDay.com slash Toronto Mike. And you guys are happy in New Toronto? Are you looking to move?

You're happy? No. We're happy. The only thing I really miss from Toronto was Colonel Samuel Park. Colonel Samuel Smith Park? Yes. See, I speak Charo too. I think I'm good at this. I've understood almost everything you said. No problems at all.

Yeah. I never hesitate almost everything you said. No problems at all. Never hesitate to use that beautiful accent, that authentic voice of yours. So you missed Colonel Samuel Smith Park because you're so close to you, I guess. It's like your bonus backyard. Yeah, it's my favorite place in Toronto. So thankfully, your favorite place in Toronto is just steps away.

That's very convenient for you. And we're glad you're back. I'm glad you're back. I'm glad you're back. Everybody's glad you're back. I hope that we can all get vaccinated and merge our pods one day soon. That's what I'm hoping. I'm very glad you guys made the trip.

Thanks so much for dropping by. It was a long one, but you can send this to loved ones and friends and then you don't have to repeat that story a thousand times. They can just, oh, how was your trip? How was your year? Just listen to this and then get back to me.

Oh, we got a thousand other stories to tell about it. Yeah, it's amazing. You're going to write a book, right? Eventually. Not anytime soon. Well, you got to write it all down while it's fresh in your mind. Hopefully it's not the best experience in our life. And we have,

you have more, many more adventures to come. You know, this is the first of many, many big adventures. Now just focus on the present. I enjoy where we are right now. Enjoy Toronto,

Ontario, Canada. There's worse, there's worse places to be. Oh, that's right. It's amazing. From all the places we've been, Ontario, Canada. There's worse places to be. That's right. It's amazing. From all the places we've been, I don't want to leave anywhere else.

Oh, see, I'm glad we're closing on that. That's beautiful sentiment. And now I feel good that I'm here too. That brings us to the end of our 693rd show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Joe, remind me where the underscore is. Joe from underscore T-O.

Okay, follow Joe from underscore T-O on Twitter. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. The Keitner Group are at the Keitner Group. CDN Technologies are at CDN Technologies. Pumpkins After Dark are at Pumpkins Dark. And Garbage Day, they're at GarbageDay.com slash Toronto Mike.

See you all tomorrow. And my special guest is Larry Fedorek. this podcast has been produced by tmds and accelerated by roam phone roam phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls. Visit RomePhone.ca to get started.