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I have written it here before, and I must write it here again. Portugal must be the most Northern country of Africa. This can’t be Europe. With their mentality, the Portuguese will soon become the proud owner of the poorest country in the European Union.

This morning I am having an appointment to see my doctor. The appointment was made about three months ago, as I see her every three months. After every visit, I immediately book a new appointment. Which makes things easy. I was scheduled to see my doctor at 09.30am. I arrived around 09.00am and cued up for about half an hour until it was my turn.

Apparently, a new good looking long legged bitch is now running the administration at the local health center. I told her my name, and told her that I had an appointment at 09.30am. To my big surprise, the bitch told me that she didn’t care at all about pre-booked appointments, and that since she has become in charge of the whole thing, people are being treated the old fashioned way on a “first come, first serve” basis. I also found out that there were about nine people who had come in earlier than I did, and I immediately realised I would be losing at least two to three hours of this beautiful and sunny Monday morning. So I wanted to book a new appointment. The bitch told me that this was not going to be possible, as she didn’t have an agenda. So I accepted the fact that I would be losing the biggest part of this Monday morning, I went to have breakfast on a local terrace in the village, and came home where I am now writing these words. Once this article is published, I will be doing some administration for my company and will go back and see my doctor, which will be around noon.

I realise it is hard to believe, but this is Portugal at the end of July of 2009. A country in which it is still possible that a local health center is run by a customer unfriendly but good looking bitch, who uses medieval tools and a “kiss-my-beautiful-ass-mentality”. As a matter of fact, I just come to think of it. I am glad that I am living alone. Imagine me living together with a woman like her. I think I would go into politics, and become Minister of Foreign Affairs, in order to be able to travel away as much as possible and as far as possible!

But fortunately, the sun is shining today. As it is shining about 330 days a year. And I will enjoy the rest of my day, once I will have seen my doctor. And I will enjoy the rest of my week, while the bitch will still be harassing her customers who need to see their doctor…

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I came back from Canada more than a week ago. Since then, I have been very, very busy with the company over here in Portugal. One should think that during the holiday season business would go down a little bit, but this is not the case. And obviously, you will not hear me complain about that aspect of my life.

Thinking back of my Canadian trip, I must say that the business part of it went very well. I succeeded in doing the things I wanted to do. And as I always do, I took some time for “pleasure” as well. Toronto remains a beautiful city, despite the strike of the city workers that caused all the garbage remaining in the streets. The Niagara Falls were still amazing, as they always have been. And during the last couple of days, I went up north, to stay in the middle of Ontario’s beautiful nature. Despite the many mosquito bites that I still carry as a souvenir, it was a wonderful experience. There are countless beautiful lakes, amazing woods and wonderful national parks in that area.

Thinking back of those last three days, I got this crazy idea… I am thinking of renting a cottage in the neighbourhood of one of those lakes, which must also be close to one or the other airfield. Because I would love to restart my flying lessons. I flew small planes, until I moved to Portugal in 2003. Since then, I haven’t done that anymore. And I must admit, it is one of the most enjoyable things I have ever done in my life. And as flying lessons in Canada are a lot less expensive than in Europe, I might as well take them over there. It is a crazy idea, and I will not do this during this year anymore, but maybe some time in the late spring or early summer of next year. I’ll keep you posted on that.

But one thing is certain: Canada, you will see me back. And probably sooner than you can imagine right now!

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One of the “musts” while in the Toronto area is a visit to the world famous Niagara Falls. It is only a one and a half hour drive from the city center of Toronto to the Falls, and I can tell you, it is worth the trip. Today was the third time in my life I saw them, and I was still as impressed as the very first time 21 years ago. Back in 1678, a French Father Louis Hennepin was looking for a route to the Mississippi River. Along the way, he became the first European to see what is one of the greatest natural wonders in the world. Niagara Falls was first settled by the Seneca Indians hundreds of years before the Frenchman would arrive.

The Falls were formed over 13 thousand years ago when glaciers retreated from this part of Ontario. In their lifetime, the Falls have retreated over 11 kilometers, and one day in the very far off future, this site will be little more than a river’s rapids. Niagara carries over 20% of the world’s fresh water, flowing from four of the Great Lakes. Travelling over 65 kilometers an hour, the water’s speed and huge volume (dropping 154 million liters of water every single minute on their journey downstream to Lake Ontario!) has immense erosive power. The brink of the Falls moved up to three meters every year until twentieth century engineering intervened to slow the rate down to only thirty centimeters every ten years.

If you are looking to get very, very wet, but you want to come up close and personal with the Falls, there are two ways to do so. You can either jump on a little boat called “Maid of the Mist”, or you can go on the “Journey Behind The Falls”. Over 12 million tourists visit the Falls each and every year, and I was told this afternoon that more film is sold at Niagara Falls than anywhere else in the world.

The Falls consist of two main drops, the American Falls entirely on the U.S. side of the border and the more spectacular Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side. In 1901, 63-year old school teacher Anna Taylor became the first person to go over the falls in a barrel and survive. Not all who have tried this curious feat over the years have been so lucky and obviously, today this stunt is illegal. However, today 49 years ago, the only person who went unintentionally over the Falls and survived was young Roger Woodward. After a boating accident on July 9th of 1960, this seven-year-old boy was swept over the Falls wearing only a life jacket and a swimming suit. The crew of the Maid of the Mist II rescued Roger pulling him unharmed from the churning water. Roger’s seventeen-year-old sister was pulled from the river above the Falls by two onlookers, and the driver of their boat, Jim Honeycut, lost his life in this tragic event.

Somehow, during the settlement and development of Niagara Falls, it became known as the “honeymoon capital of the world” and to this day, tens of thousands of newlyweds still flock to the Falls to celebrate their nuptials.

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This is the third time in my life that I am in the Toronto area. I came here for the first time in the summer of 1986, I was here in January of last year, and I am here now. This beautiful “Great Lake City” is Canada’s largest city and multi-cultural melting pot that stands proudly on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It has changed dramatically since I was here for the first time 21 years ago. It seems like Toronto has been re-inventing and re-designing itself in order to keep pace with the times. It is a financial, industrial, commercial, technological and entertainment point for Canada. Toronto is a modern city, that still has landmarks from a rich past and strives to preserve that history while advancing into the future. Tens of thousands of people live in the downtown core and along the waterfront. Throughout the world, Toronto has a reputation as a clean, friendly and very safe cosmopolitan city.

This afternoon, I went out on a boat trip to the islands at the other side of the harbour. I especially wanted to take some pictures of the beautiful Toronto skyline. Just scroll down, and you will see a couple of these pictures below here.

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Since yesterday, I am in Canada. I arrived some time during the afternoon, and for once, the sun was shining over here. Last time I was in this magnificent country, it was FFC, which stands in my “Gino’s language” for “Fucking Freezing Cold”. I guess being here in the month of January had got a lot to do with it.

I crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the very first time back in July of 1988. Yesterday, it was my 21st Atlantic crossing. 21 years ago, I travelled all over the place, from New York to Florida, to Texas, Nevada, California, Utah, Louisiana, Michigan, and from Detroit I drove a car all the way to Montreal, in order to fly back to Brussels. Although I had been doing business for six years or so (and I already knew my way around), I had learned a lot of things about the “American way of living” during that very first trip. I discovered a lot of “24/7 restaurants” over here (which means that these restaurants are open 24 hours each and every day). I discovered the drive-through restaurants and coffee shops. I learned how to drive with a speed limit of 55 miles per hour, and I learned a lot more things.

But above all, I discovered the use of telephone. Although during that time, back in 1988, I had already a car phone which was a thing with a weight of more than 2 1/2 kilograms. It was fixed in the boot of my car, and cost me a fortune to use. Being in America for the first time back in 1988, I discovered that almost everything was done over the telephone, from booking hotels, rental cars, Las Vegas shows, making reservations in restaurants, to getting all kinds of information… one just picked up the phone and made the call. At that time, my English was good enough to understand everything.

That has changed over the past 21 years. Before leaving Portugal, I had made a reservation in one of the many hotels in the neighbourhood of Toronto International Airport. As a matter of fact, I did that online, in the Lisbon airport while I was waiting for my flight to Munich which connected me to my Toronto flight. This morning, I tried to make another reservation for another hotel in the Toronto area. So I picked up the telephone and called a couple of hotels. I guess my English has become very, very poor, as I couldn’t understand anybody who was working in these hotels. Now, don’t get me wrong, I always stay in Holiday Inns, so these are not poor quality hotels. Apparently, the staff of most of the Toronto hotels has become immigrants who speak very heavily accented English. Fortunately, over the past 21 years, mankind invented the internet, so I went online in my room (free Wifi!), and booked another hotel online.

Robin Williams calls it a linguistic adventure to go out drinking with a Scotsman, because you just can’t fucking understand them. He’s right, I went out drinking with a lot of Scotsmen when I was doing business in the United Kingdom a couple of years ago, and I couldn’t fucking understand them either.

But trying to book a hotel in the Toronto area by phone is yet another linguistic adventure. I just experienced this earlier today.

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I received the clip below a couple of days ago. I watched it and became speechless. Which doesn’t happen a lot! The clip shows South African Kevin Richardson, a zoologist and animal behaviouralist, who raises and trains some of the most dangerous animals known to man. To do this, he does not use the common methods of breaking the animal’s spirit with sticks and chains. Instead he uses love, understanding and trust.

With this unusual method of training he has developped some exceptionally personal bonds with his “pupils”. He sleeps with lions, cuddles newborn hyenas, swims with lionesses. Kevin can confidently look into their eyes, crouch to their level and even lie down with them - all taboos in the normal world of wild animal handling - yet he has never been mauled or attacked.

Some call him crazy. Others shake their heads, at his unique method of interacting with the animals.

And Kevin’s secret: get to know the particular personality of each animal, what makes them angry, happy, upset, irritated. Just lke a mother with a child.

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Next Saturday, the 2009 Tour de France takes its start in Monaco. Having been a cycle fan all my life, there is no doubt that I will be following this year’s event pretty closely. As has been in the past for the last decades, a lot of words have already been written, a lot of press coverage has been spent even before the first stage takes off. But seldom has it been like this year.

First of all, because the boss himself, seven times winner Lance Armstrong has returned to professional cycling again. Despite him being the outsider, I am personally convinced that he returns to France in order to make a serious attempt to win the event for the 8th time. Armstrong is part of the strongest team in professional cycling as far as the big events are concerned (Giro, Tour & Vuelta), but the Astana team was banned for participating last year for the stupid reason that in 2007, a couple of their riders had been guilty on doping. The French ASO (Amoury Sports Organisation), the organisor of the Tour de France, didn’t even listen to the arguments of Belgian Johan Bruyneel, the new boss of the Astana team. He had changed the whole team, put in place one of the most complete anti-doping controlling systems, new management, new directors, he had changed everything but the sponsor’s name.

ASO, considering themselves as being more catholic than the Pope, decided to ban Astana last year. So watch out for their revenge this year! I honestly believe (and hope) that the Astana team will win this year’s event. I’d even say more: I hope they will get the whole podium with winner (Armstrong or Contador), second (Contador or Armstrong) and third: (Leipheimer or Klöden). We’ll only know for sure about this Sunday July 26th. But it would be another first: never in the rich history of the Tour de France did one team win the whole podium. I only hope nobody of the riders will have serious accidents.

However, the “pre-Tour de France winner of 2009″ is undoubtedly the Belgian Quick-Step team. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Tom Boonen who was caught on cocaine during an out of competition test. You can read my story here. Just like he was caught last year. Last year, ASO banned him from participating of the 2008 Tour de France. Knowing the French a little bit, there was going to be no doubt at all that they were going to take the same decision: banning Tom Boonen from this year’s Tour as well.

Guess what: they took the same decision. A decision that is now being contested by the Belgian Quick-Step team. The day before yesterday, a French court (with French judges, being pretty “chauvinistic”, declared themselves not to be able to come to a verdict. Now the Belgians are going to proceed before the French Olympic Committee in order to get a permission for Tom Boonen to take the start in Monaco next Saturday. Pretty short notice. A couple of the “judges” over there are lawyers working for ASO! I don’t think the  new Belgian champion will participate in this year’s Tour. I can be wrong, but call it a “gut-feeling”.

However, there can be absolutely NO DOUBT at all that the Quick-Step team has gained a lot of advantages and publicity out of Boonen’s mistake.

First of all, they were furious, which is completely normal. But: the whole European sports press was covering this story, giving Quick-Step a lot of publicity.

Secondly: the team suspended Tom Boonen for a couple of weeks of participating in other races. Word goes around that he had to pay a € 250.000 fine to the team. I also have a “gut-feeling” that Tom Boonen will be “convicted” to stay in the Quick-Step team for the rest of his career. Just like ASO, the Belgian Quick-Step manager Patrick Lefevre pretends to be more catholic than the Pope as well. He is a good leader, and has a big impact on his riders’ lives. But… he knows nothing about doping. Although he’s not from Barcelona (Fawlty Towers’ Manuel). And he doesn’t want to know anything about it… And, he can’t afford to lose his champion to another team. So he will have “convinced” Tom Boonen that he’s got no other chance than stay with his team. At a much lower monthly salary than before. Still being overly paid, but then again, he’s a sports star as well! So Quick-Step is spending less money to their star!

And thirdly: the whole European sports press is curious whether or not Tom Boonen will take the start next Saturday. Giving Quick-Step a whole lot of additional press coverage again.

But then again, as soon as this Tour takes the start, ALL riders and ALL their teams will have become no news anymore. As the whole world will be focussing on Lance Armstrong only!

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