An Everyday Life

What happened to 2011?

2012-01-22T00:22:00.003+02:00

As per usual, I faded out on my posts...
A few weeks ago, I was sorting out and rearranging furniture and discovered a box of letters my friends had written to me. Not the notes that you pass in class, but actual letters. It saddened me to realise that we just don't do that anymore. I loved getting letters in the post - even if the news was 2 months old, it was still exciting to open that envelope.
So I sent a message out (on Facebook - where else?!) asking if anyone wanted to receive letters. Honestly, I was surprised at the number of people who agreed, but glad too.
This resulted in my organising all my stationery too (and there is a lot of writing paper there!) and I've set myself a schedule to write my letters - it sounds daft, but I know I need to have some kind of deadline for myself or I'll be worse than I was last year!
It was only 2 days ago that I realised that writing those letters is the equivalent of posting on this blog... [genius...] That was how this blog started - I knew I wasn't going to be able to keep everyone updated.
So maybe, just maybe, I can make myself be more diligent about writing posts - and hopefully not things that I'm continuously complaining about!
I am looking forward to the end of the year when my letter writing schedule is full and knowing that I did something useful this year. I think that's partly what it is - giving myself a hobby of some kind. Plus, with legacies from my grandmother and aunt, I know I have to try to be better at keeping in touch with people!
All being well, I'll be in touch again soon :)

No news... not always good news...

2011-04-18T17:37:00.000+02:00

Well, I just figured out why I lose my motivation to tell people things.
(And this whole post is going to be dangerous and I'm likely to upset *some*one with this, but I actually can't care anymore.)

I've been getting quite a few complaints from family and friends that I'm not keeping them up to date on my life.
Apart from the fact that nothing particularly interesting happens, there have been a few occasions where I actually just never got around to it. And I've just discovered why.

Something kinda interesting happened at work today and I wanted to share it with my father. So I started telling him about it - his reaction totally killed my enthusiasm and now I actually can't be bothered to tell anyone about it because I've lost my joy-of-the-moment.

Obviously there are other reasons as to why I'm not writing emails, but I'm not doing that much damage in one post. Especially as I haven't posted in 2 months and it's two complaining posts in a row!
I'll try to make the next one happier. There are some things I've been meaning to post, but I do occasionally have something else I'd rather be doing!! :)

Because I'm the "only" person to "ever" have this problem...!!

2011-02-25T23:30:00.000+02:00

Ok, basically this is going to be a moaning post, because I really need to tell someone and at least the few people who actually read my blog (!!) will understand this side of things.

Today I had a patient bitch at me - for not doing what she asked me to. It's justified and she's totally within her right to complain (which she will do when my boss phones her...) but it sucks cos now I have to sit and work at not taking it personally. Which is difficult as it *was* my fault - I just didn't get around to dealing with her query. As always, there is a reason, but a reason always sounds like an excuse to an angry person.
It's been a year - almost exactly - since I asked for help here. The solution was to outsource the billing - the queries still go through me. And I'm the common denominator so I have to have *all* my facts ready when I phone either the billing agency or the patient - it's a lot of work when I don't have time for it. Not to mention the time it takes to pull files out and then put them all back again... That's one of my worst.

I am one person, working for two very busy doctors. They have each had problems with billing companies, therefore there are a lot of queries about payments and claims. These are new practices and unfortunately there have to be some hiccups.
I have my notebook that I write down all queries and phonecalls - sometimes I don't write down enough information and my brain is full. So right now it feels like a sieve and I can't remember every conversation - especially when it's identical to 4 others in the same day.
Sometimes things fall through the cracks and there just is not time to get answers to all the questions patients ask. I am the frontline - I field a hang of a lot of queries for my bosses and admittedly, I do screen a fair number of the calls. However, I also get all the complaints. They take it out on me, so by the time they see the doctor, or even if they ever get around to writing to them, they've calmed down. They've vented, they're happy cos they've "told me off" - and I have sit and try not to take it personally when I can see exactly where they're coming from therefore a lot of the time their anger is justified.

I am so sick and tired of having to be patient with people who are not patient with me. It's only two weeks to go (once again, at least two people will be hired to replace me - interesting pattern developing here), but after a week like this, it doesn't feel like it's soon enough. One of the replacements is already threatening to phone me with queries - um no?! Not a chance in hell! I'm just really glad that I keep my phone on silent while I'm at work. Even though my family still haven't figured that out...

I know that part of it is because I feel guilty for not dealing with the query quickly enough. I don't like finding out that I'm not doing a good job - "it's unacceptable not to be perfect" (still trying to figure out where this idea came from...). Now I just have to not think about it - till I go in to work over the weekend to catch up...

Beware the door...

2011-01-13T16:34:00.000+02:00

Who knew that one little incident this morning would lead to my room looking so much better?!
First thing this morning, my bathroom door jumped off its rails and attacked me. Charming way to start the day. All I could think was "thank goodness it's not tomorrow". So instead I get to wake up on my birthday to a much calmer, more serene room. Until I put all the POTC figurines back above the doorframe...

But I have spent the last 45 minutes trying to figure out how to hang my second Canadian fringe curtain without damaging the curtain. The rail above the door is all set for rufflette curtain hooks, so using it as is would have required sewing tape onto the curtain - nuh-uh. So while I was coming up with a plan (somewhat brilliant plan if I say so myself!), I realised something.
I've met a fair number of men who get highly frustrated with their girlfriends/wives who keep trying to "fix" things themselves. And what I realised is that it's not necessarily because they're too independent (I'm sure with some of them, that's exactly the case!) but it's more because they probably had to learn to not rely on the men in their lives. Traditional roles are all very well and good if things are done properly. But when you're left with curtain rods falling off the wall and sliding doors attacking you - you learn to make a plan yourself - within your own capabilities.

Anyway. I'm happy now - more so because I have both curtains up now! And I love my fringe curtains. For all the flak I got when I bought them and lugged them halfway round the world - it was so totally worth it!

Hmmm... okay then...

2010-12-30T19:54:00.000+02:00

Only South Africans would come up with washing instructions that say:
Do not tumble dry.
Dry flat.
Reshape while damp.
Do not leave in a damp state after washing.
... Um, so how exactly am I supposed to dry this again?!

Anyway, bizarre washing instructions aside - I had so much fun shopping with my mum today! And actually managed to find some lovely clothes! Still have no clue what size I am! Oh well. Live and learn.

Not to mention this is the third post in three days - dunno how long I'm going to keep this up! Till the novelty wears off again and it's just easier to read a book than to switch my computer on...?? Plus side is that I have books to read - my mum keeps saying "start reading tomorrow and you'll be finished by Monday." Doesn't help that that is exactly what happened the first time I read the series...

Bad Tammy....

2010-12-28T21:32:00.000+02:00

Wow - I'm faffing about linking stuff and playing with Google and it's kinda depressing that I only started this in July 2008 and managed to have 21 posts that year. In this whole year, I have only had 6 posts... I'm not going to try to top previous years, but something I should probably bear in mind...
Especially as it's not as though things haven't happened. ;P
Mind you, I now have a laptop with wireless... though limited internet usage, but perhaps it could be a resolution - even though I never make resolutions... ;)

'Kill the birds'???

2010-12-28T20:53:00.000+02:00

Think I can claim insanity due to hadedas??
Those damned birds drive me nuts! We have a swarm of them nesting in one of the trees in the back garden and they get freaked out at random times and caw away incessantly...
And are only drowned out by the EXTREMELY loud pinball game going on at the computer... wth?

I wanted to try to update my blog more regularly, but I don't know if I can... I have the utmost respect for regular bloggers because they keep it up to date - even if it's just random stuff, it's recent! I've skipped so much in the past 9 months - kinda important stuff too! And even though I've just said that, I am not about to sit here and update everything. Though I have all this infamous "Free Time" so I could try to start... I'm convinced it's a myth.
(I'm totally discounting the fact that I sat watching POTC 3 today... and Leap Year... *heehee*)

Ok, so I'll be back at another random time. (Hopefully with less ellipses...!)

Kaapstad!!

2010-10-08T19:43:00.000+02:00

At the end of September, a friend and I went to Cape Town for the long weekend. A two-fold trip: one - to see Jeff Dunham live in South Africa :) ; and two - to be a tourist in Cape Town! It was fantastic!

We had amazing weather on the first two days and I even managed to burn my scalp... We did part of the coastline, saw Muizenberg, Simonstown, False Bay, Hout Bay, Chapman's Peak, even Stellenbosch (briefly) and most importantly, Cape Point! It was the one thing we were both determined to do - even in our high heels! (I think people thought we'd managed to get lost on our way to the mall...)
We took nearly 500 photos in those 3 days ;) But we have some of the most amazing photos! And the really cool thing is that we actually have people in some of those photos! Tourists (even local ones) are very helpful to other (obvious) tourists and it was very kind of the people we met to take photos of us.
It was amazing - took me all week to catch up on the sleep, but totally worth it!

And the show was brilliant! You can laugh at the American jokes, but when they go to such effort to make it relevant for SA, it's even better! And I think everyone appreciated it much more. Seats weren't ideal, but good enough and at least we could see!! I kept having visions of a pillar right in front of us!

And my very special godfather made the whole weekend possible :) I'm going to owe him a whole batch of mayonnaise all to himself!! On that note: I'm very proud cos I successfully made mayo the other day and it tastes good! Now I have to successfully make more and dish it out (literally) to certain friends! Busy, busy weekend ahead!

"New" South Africa?

2010-09-08T16:49:00.000+02:00

Ok, at the risk of getting myself in huge trouble here, I'm trying to apply for a new job and I've gone through an employment agency. The latest job offer sounded amazing - in an area I love, great salary and the job description covered everything I want to do.
Below is the "reasoning" behind why I didn't get an interview for the position:
"unfortunately they are only looking at candidates of “colour” at the moment and only if they are not successful then they will look at other candidates. They said that otherwise for now we need to regret the “White” candidates. "

This is a controversial subject - I understand that they're trying to "correct" South Africa's history, but shouldn't employment be about hiring the best person for the job??
The first time I heard about apartheid was in History class at high school! Most of my junior school years were with mixed classmates - that is how I grew up. And this was before 1994...
We're supposed to a free and fair democracy aren't we? It's a fine line between "affirmative action" and discrimination. And given our history, South African companies really should know better.

Epiphany

2010-08-07T21:40:00.000+02:00

I had a minor epiphany while making my bed (mostly in light of my repeated comments on facebook):
I miss Vancouver (that's not the epiphany!) but I have decided that I am going to have a life in SA. And until I get to the "sell my soul" point, I am going to (try to) shut up about how much I miss Vancouver. From now on, it's taken as given. And I will make a concerted effort not to keep harping on about how I'm in the wrong country, miss where I belong, etc, etc.

And I still have to catch up on news from the last 4 months, but now is not really the time.
... ;)

I can see!

2010-05-02T16:41:00.000+02:00

I have contacts!! Still trying to figure out if it's a good idea or not, but trying to adjust to not having glasses is weird!
We stopped off to try to get my broken glasses fixed - not a problem, they fixed them quickly and minimum fuss. Next thing I know I'm having an eye test with a view to getting contacts! Quick lesson on how to put the lenses in and out (yikes!) and trying to get used to them all day. Major headaches ensued, because it's also a new prescription, but I want contacts, so I'm going to make this work!! Just kinda forgot that I now need sunglasses... Had to wear my mother's on the way home - never again! :)

Random update

2010-05-01T20:46:00.000+02:00

Well, it's been aaaaggges since I last wrote anything. I don't really have anything to say right now. My father is watching rugby and yelling at the players, so Lottie has wandered off to hide somewhere safe. My mother is stoically keeping my father company (she's actually concentrating on her embroidery!) and I'm avoiding watching our team lose! (Secretly, I'm actually rooting for the opposition, but don't tell!)

I managed to break my glasses this afternoon - on a public holiday, over a weekend when no stores are open and I can't afford to get my glasses fixed - most genius... On the plus side, I might just end up getting contacts before my brother's wedding in 3 weeks time. (ha-ha. Ha.) And I've just spent my money on getting a new camera. Hmmm, being able to see or having photos?? Tough choice.

Life updates: my brother gets married at the end of May; my mother is out from the UK for 2 months, mostly for the wedding; my aunt is visiting from Spain for the wedding; I'm still working at local doctors' rooms (just trying to plot on how I can move out of home...); Lottie's fine - no more lumps, thank heavens; Loco is old - she keeps getting scared by patterns on carpets and cushions; my best friend's brother had a baby boy last week; and my very special friend at work had a grandson three days earlier! So it's a busy time overall. I have my two weeks' leave coming up and I am finally counting down the days! I cannot wait!

Nothing major has happened - I'm still trying to realise the fact that it's May already. I honestly thought it was still February, which makes me more than a little behind... The more terrifying thing is that next Friday is one year since I left Canada. I can't believe it's a year already. Some days it feels like that year never happened and my life in SA just carried on, but other days it feels like I was *just* there and pleeeeaaasseee can I go back?!!

Um, so now I'm going to see if I can commandeer the tv (now that I have adjusted to my old glasses again and our team lost the rugby...) - bets on how soon my parents will go to bed after I pick the movie?!! ;)

A perfect day

2009-11-14T16:50:00.000+02:00

Last week, we found a lump in Lottie's "armpit". Kinda panicked a little. The last lump we found was a hernia (really!) but I don't think you can get a hernia on your ribcage... So phoned the vet, made an appointment for Monday morning. He was worried - the moment he felt it, he was worried about it. The surgery was booked for Tuesday and boy, did I get betrayed looks as I walked out the door.
Fetched her after work and the vet said that they'd sent it away to have it checked. Now my poor baby has this big shaved area from her shoulder across to her tummy - it looks really weird. And I hadn't realised how fluffy she really is. She was sore that night, obviously, and I think the anaesthetic was still wearing off. Wednesday was a bit better but she was still mad at us! Thursday was a lot better - she even raced off to bark at the neighbour's dog, squeaking every other step as the wound pulled. By Friday she had completely forgotten about the surgery! And I was getting absolutely filthy looks for not taking her for a walk when I got home!

And the vet phoned on Friday night to say she's absolutely fine. It was just an enlarged gland, no cancer, nothing to worry about. Thank heavens. I hadn't realised how worried I was until I felt my body just relax when the vet said she was all clear! I nearly started crying on the phone!

So my perfect day today: lovely rainy weather; a Shakespeare jigsaw puzzle; tea and croissants; and my Lottie-lu who keeps coming to 'ask' why I'm sitting on the floor! Playtime ensues!! :)

TV

2009-09-06T22:16:00.000+02:00

Ironically, this post almost follows-on from the last one: one night I was watching an episode of Stargate – my darling father says “Is this Garstate?” I just said yes and packed up laughing. There is no hope for me…

So while I’m talking about Stargate, I suddenly realised the other day: I’m watching too much Stargate when I start recognising the supporting actors! I guess when you move them between SG1 and Atlantis you can kinda get away with different universes – and Lt Elliot from Proving Ground could have a double who is the soon-to-be-dead leader of a planet of boys (forgotten the episode). But when Major Coburn from Maternal Instinct (I only realised when I saw The First Ones) ends up being Cumulus – I mean, Camulus – in Season 8, I dunno about that…
Of course it takes me ages to figure out who they are! It took me years to realise that the nice stepsister, Jacqueline, in “Ever After” is Charlie’s stalker neighbour, Rose, in “Two and a Half Men”! And it hits me at really strange times – like while I’m making my lunch, or about to go to sleep!

My new favourite thing is to watch the Vancouver-filmed tv shows and see the actors jump from show to show! Every time I look at Todd the Wraith, all I can see is General Zod (though not Alistair, surprisingly enough) – little difficult to give the show your full attention when you get distracted by silly details like that!And I’m bad about ignoring the story to see if I recognise any of the background! So by the end of the episode I’ve completely lost the plot, but I’ve figured out exactly where they filmed the opening scene…

Moonerspisms

2009-09-02T21:57:00.000+02:00

My dad and I have been talking about spoonerisms quite a lot lately. And I’d just like to take a moment and blame any mental illness I might develop, solely on my father…! He’s always done it and unfortunately I picked it up early on – hence the “cavaran” story. It popped up again because my dad keeps talking about “The Leaky Wink” (Weakest Link for the uninitiated). My problem is that I know it’s “?–eakest ?–ink” but I have to stop and work out if it’s Leakest Wink or Weakest Link. If I’m talking without thinking (a common mishap), I could say it correctly but still stop myself because I can’t remember if it’s correct or not! Some words I’ve just given up on and I’ll expect whoever’s listening to figure it out. Most of the time I catch them before I say them, but end up laughing at myself and no one else knows why!

The reason I blame my father is that I grew up watching “GacMyver” and “She Wrote Murder” (not actually a spoonerism but you see the pattern). And honestly, how many people get shopping lists for “neeput butter” and “Koe Klite”? Or even “Joe Ghirt” which completely threw me. So the one Maths lesson my dad had with our Matric class where he was talking about “RW = Rong Won” and “KC = Kommon Cents” – all I could say in response? “Welcome to my world!”

There is an up-side though: we end up having long discussions about words and language. On Sunday, we ‘borrowed’ a bookstore dictionary just to figure out the difference between “defensible” and “defendable” – from a conversation we’d had 2 hours earlier. Needless to say, the point of the conversation was lost as we debated the difference between the two words. And yes, I had used the incorrect word in the sentence. I am totally convinced that my brain is slowly melting... ;)

Small-town life

2009-08-22T18:55:00.001+02:00

I hate it when, just because you’re innocently honest (or naïve, gullible, whatever you want to call it!), you’re punished for it. More and more often, I think we're too honest for our own good. I mean, we're the people who get the wrong take-away order and go back and pay the difference the next day!!

We’re small-town people, my brother and I grew up in Howick, my folks have lived here for years, we’ve all been involved in the high school in one way or another over the last 30 years. And we support the local businesses – if they’re good to us. When our favourite video store closed down years ago, we had to find another one. We settled on the one near our (at the time) favourite supermarket and the excellent (at the time) pizza place. They had a really good range of movies and seemed to be nice people. The business changed hands (maybe more than once, I’m not sure) but we stuck with it, because of the stock of movies.

One day, I thought I’d better check if we had any fines – that’ll teach me, if I’d just kept my mouth shut, it wouldn’t have happened… And I was told that a new release that I had rented 3 weeks before had been returned two days late, so I owed 2 day’s rental on that. Nice person that I am, I paid, even though I was pretty sure we’d returned that one on the due day. I thought about it, discussed it with my mum, who had watched the movie with me – and we distinctly remember the situation, because we had to watch it quickly before we returned it, so the maximum ‘lateness’ was 2 hours, not 2 days.

And I didn’t do anything about it. I’d already paid the money – good luck trying to get it back from them. (And I think maybe the owners should take a closer look at their books.) But I won’t be going back there. I know it won’t make a difference to them, because there are a lot of people who will go back, but I will not be one of them.
Plus, we don’t like the supermarket anymore and the pizza place kept messing up orders and undercooking their pizzas, so we stopped going there ages before they closed down. Just means we can avoid that whole little collection of shops!

I guess at least we can live with ourselves - but only honest people feel that way. Dishonest people couldn't care less and that's why they're dishonest... Life lessons learned the hard way.

'Travel Home' Update...

2009-08-08T22:01:00.000+02:00

I’ve been putting this off for ages and I decided that it’s been long enough and I need to update my blog!
However, as it’s me and I can ramble on for ages (which some people like and some don’t), I’ll try to sum up as quickly as possible.

The trip from Vancouver to Amsterdam was fine – the lady at the check-in counter was so helpful and really sweet – she completely restored my faith in KLM. I was one of the last people off the plane in Amsterdam – I find it easier to just wait than to brain someone with my laptop or backpack. And as I walked along the terminal, I realized that my mum and I hadn’t worked out where to meet! Luckily at that moment I saw her standing just past the ‘escalator’ I was on.

It was fantastic – my cousin had organised a hotel for us and we checked in then wandered a bit. Eventually we made our way to Amsterdam city where I took lots of photos of buildings and we went to Madame Tussaud’s. It was so much fun wandering around with my mum! We headed back to the hotel and met up with my cousin – that was fantastic – I haven't seen her in ages! We had a lovely dinner at the hotel, catching up and just enjoying each other’s company. I almost didn’t want to sleep because I’d lost time with them.

Flight to Joburg was fine – I’d been given a window seat – amazingly! I divided my time between movies, reading and staring out the window – though you can only stare at the Sahara for so long. I’m just sorry that night fell as we reached the equator – I would’ve loved to have seen that area. It did feel like the flight was taking forever. At one point, I was totally convinced that my watch had stopped! My luggage all arrived safely – all 3 pieces! – and I managed not to leave any of my hand luggage behind… It was kinda cool being at Joburg Arrivals at night because it was almost completely empty. My dad and uncle picked me up from the airport – so good to see them again! And being surrounded by South African’s accents…! It took me a while to adjust and understand everyone again – even now, I’m not fully into the accent again, but I’m better at asking for clarification!

My cousin warned me about reverse culture shock and I’m so glad she did, otherwise I think I would’ve been more of a basketcase. Even though I grew up here, I felt so comfortable and completely ‘at home’ in Vancouver. It’s been great recognising food again, but I find myself craving a Starbucks hot chocolate (naturally!) and Japanese (strangely enough…)! For all that I could never decide what to eat in Canada, I’m missing the variety.

Since I got home, I’ve spent some time visiting and catching up with friends, lots of time just being at home and playing with Lottie. I had a 3-week temp job in June and have finally found a permanent job – in Howick! I’m really excited about it and I’m looking forward to being a ‘responsible adult’!
So all the entries from now on will be the truly boring, everyday events that I feel compelled to share… ;) After all, that is the point of this blog!

Video - hopefully!

2009-07-15T19:10:00.000+02:00

At long, long last, we have the permanent internet connection up and running and I shall now attempt to reload the video of greeting Lottie after a year's absence! ;)

The Welcome Home!

2009-06-21T19:05:00.000+02:00

I'm not posting a full update of the trip back to SA and what's happened since - I'm just going to try to post the video of Lottie seeing me for the first time when I got back. Fairly easy as I was the first thing she saw when my brother opened the door... :)
Hope it plays - enjoy!

The end of the countdown

2009-05-04T05:54:00.000+02:00

Obviously, I haven't been very good about updating my blog... (hmmm...) and now I leave in 4 days. I probably won't update this again until I'm back in SA - and then a successful post will very much depend upon the internet connection (which I am supposed to be sorting out when I get home!!).

The last full update I did was before I finished at work. Easter weekend was fun - the Erasmuses' (not sure of the punctuation!) family came over and it was a good holiday! The last two weeks at work were insane. I didn't get everything finished, which I felt really bad about leaving for the new person (I honestly did). However, she is more than capable and I think she'll fit in very well, so I have no worries about my replacement! The last 4 days of work were filled with lunches - it was very busy!! ;) For various reasons there was something happening each day, so I'm really glad I was semi-prepared for the training, though I'm sure my replacement feels that she was thrown in the deep end!!

I have tied up all my loose ends and closed off accounts, cards, whatever else I had to sort out. I had a brief panic attack over the taxes, because I completely missed the instruction about me having to file taxes before I left! Now I don't know what's going to happen to it - I'm desperately trying not to worry about it! My grey hairs are visible again, so when I actually look at them I'm convinced they are increasing rapidly - and I'm blaming it all on stress!
On a totally vain-thread, I almost can't wait for my hair to go back to its natural colour, though the closer I get to it, the more I think the dark hair just looks better!! If it had just stayed black as I grew up, that would've saved me a lot of hair dye... :P

The Lazer Tag plans went the way of the dodo - including everyone 'dying' one-by-one, so that was a bit of a bust. Oh well, I guess it's something else to be added to that "One Day to-do" list. I've seen a bit more of the area, though not as much as I would've liked - it's my own fault though. I chose to sleep late for a week and it threw everything off! That's one thing that I have missed - something to make sure I get up: I had to let Lottie out every morning, regardless of what my plans for the day were, so I had to get out of bed fairly early. I am so excited to see her again! I'm not sure how to put this, so bear with me as I figure it out: it's as though it's easier missing my parents, because I know that they miss me and because I can talk to them, I know that they're excited about seeing me again. Plus, I can actually talk to them and keep in touch with them! Though, my dad has been very good about making me talk to Lottie when I phone him - I feel a right-idiot sitting in the middle of an empty boardroom going "Hey, Lu, how's my baby?"... yes... well...
But with Lottie, I'm really scared that she thinks I've abandoned her. My folks would write to say that she would follow them to the car or check the car when they came back from somewhere - as though they were hiding me! My dog does do a very good mournful look, so you can't help but feel guilty about leaving her behind! (It's started - I'm rambling on for whole paragraphs about my dog... I'm going to have to rename this site when I get back home!)

Um... what have I done in the last couple of weeks, other than nothing... I went downtown to watch the start and finish of the Sun Run - that was a mammoth undertaking, I'd hate to be the organiser of that!! Yikes. The first batch of runners had finished before half the entrants had started! But it was fun to see and good to see work people - a whole two days after I'd last seen them!! Then I showed up at work on the following Friday... :s And was put to work, I might add!!
I met up with my boss today after she ran the half-marathon in Vancouver, so I'm having fun seeing people outside of work too! Might as well make the most of it, cos I'm not going to see everyone again for a few years... oy... what a depressing thought. The thing about my time in Canada, is that I knew I'd be going back to SA at some point - if the visa/permit thing had worked out, it might only have been to pack up, and then I would've said proper goodbyes. But leaving Canada now - I don't know when I'm coming back and I've made such good friends here. And I'm not the best correspondent, as you all know, so I'm fairly sure that some of them will fall by the wayside. ('ether-side'?? or would it be 'web-side'? That sounds like internet murder "webicide"... huh...) (wow, I bet most of you weren't missing the rambling were you?!!)

As far as packing goes, I have two suitcases packed - both overweight. I have one suitcase left ... I'm just waiting for it to be emptied of other stuff, so hopefully I can pack that tomorrow and do my final packing on Wednesday. I'm going back downtown for a birthday on Tuesday, so that will be my 'old routine' of 5:30am wake-up! Ooh boy!
I think I'm going to be carrying a terrifying amount in my carry-on - I'm going to have to check the carry-on weight, cos I can't just leave stuff behind! Doncha miss the good ol' days when the backpack had 11kg worth of magazines?! Yeah.
I think the packing is leading to very sleepless nights - I haven't felt this tired in ages, but when I should be sleeping, I just can't. It's somewhat frustrating... I wonder if I'll miss the freight trains going past every hour from 10pm onwards... Ooh, there goes one now!

Ok, so, just in case I don't add anything before Thursday:
I leave Canada on Thursday (hopefully with all 3 suitcases and all my 'stuff'!), fly to Amsterdam overnight. There I will meet up with my mother (YAY!) and cousin (YAY!) and overnight in Amsterdam. Saturday morning I leave Schipol airport and fly to Joburg where my dad will pick me up from the airport (YAY!!). I think we're staying overnight in Joburg and back to Howick on Sunday - where I will see my dog (YAY!!) - and possibly my brother, if he's still at the house (so, naturally, YAY!). So... people in SA reading this: I'm probably only going to see you sometime after the 15th, cos there is no way on earth I'm going to be sane for the first week! And from there I will see. I really want to settle down for a bit, but of course, everything "depends"...
My dad's been getting the flatlet ready for me, which is quite exciting, so I'm looking forward to that - I'm trying to figure out if I missed glass shower doors or my puffy queen-sized duvet more... tough call... ;)

Update to follow...

2009-04-24T08:38:00.001+02:00

I know, I know, I need to actually update some news - especially with everything that's been happening re: work, etc. But I just don't feel like doing it right now :( I will try to get something posted - hopefully with photos (that don't make the server crash every time...) - possibly this weekend or early next week.

I am setting myself the mission of getting in touch with everyone I've friended on Facebook and finding out how they are - we'll see how I successful I am!! (wow, weird moment there: I couldn't figure out what to do with the apostrophe in "lets" - is it "lets" or is it "let's"???)
So hopefully most people will hear from me soon - and seeing as I'm going to all that effort, I should write a short general email to update everyone not on Facebook - that would only be fair, wouldn't it?!

And as it's quarter to midnight right now and I'm supposed to catch the 7:45 train tomorrow, I should go to bed and get some sleep!
'Be back soon'!! :)

Final Countdown

2009-04-13T03:23:00.000+02:00

This is it - today is 28 days till I am back home - and get to see Lottie again! 27 days till I see my dad and 25 days till I leave Vancouver... That came really quickly - I keep thinking that it's still 56 days!! I finish work on Friday and then have 2 and a half weeks to wander round trying to see what I can - even that doesn't feel like enough time, because I have my "list" of things to do (it wouldn't be me if there wasn't a list!) and trying to assign days to the 'things to do' is proving to be somewhat problematic!!

Um, ok, wow - I have to catch up on everything in the last month!! I've been posting random little comments and nothing newsworthy! Sorry about that! :(
(now I just have try to remember what I've done in the last month...)
Work-wise, we had a conference at the beginning of April, so the last couple of weeks of March were spent trying to get everything ready. We were ready and did an admirable job, if I say so myself! It was fun - things didn't happen seamlessly, but we made it look seamless and that's the point! There were some insanely late nights trying to get things ready for the next day and I ended up putting in quite a bit of overtime at work, but it's done! Funnily enough though, the first day I missed the train was this past week - I reached the station about a minute after the train had left - that was the only time it was unintentional! Now, my replacement starts this week and everything is hectic trying to make sure I'm not leaving anything unfinished! I'm kinda glad that I'm still around for another couple of weeks, so if there are any questions, at least I can be reached - thereafter, I'm on a different continent, so good luck with trying to get hold of me... I keep thinking of that lovely advert that used to be on tv and the tourist was on safari, demonstrating a camera and the guide takes him inside to show him the fax machine "Push button and it faxes - easy, huh?"!!

In general, I haven't really been up to much. We were allowed a sneak peek at the new convention centre (it's HUGE!) a couple of weeks before the grand opening. It's an amazing building, with stunning views and it would be an incredible venue for anything. I did manage to see a ballet (my first!) - a performance of "Peter Pan" - it was great, though I was so exhausted, I must admit that I think I fell asleep at one point! Then it was the interval and the second half was much shorter. I'm glad I saw it though! And I definitely learned the value of knowing the story before watching the ballet! If it had been anything I didn't know, I would have been soooo lost...
The other day we went to the place where they film the street shots for "Smallville" - seriously, that this place's claim-to-fame - it's the home of "The Talon"... The bus I take to work every morning drives past this really cool building and the one day I was sitting staring out the window at the door - it's fantastic - the engravings and colourings, the design is incredible. I decided then and there that I love that building! Two days later, I was catching up on an old season of "Smallville" - there's the building!!! As the Daily Planet!! I hadn't even registered when I saw the building. So when the episode is based in Metropolis, I sit there trying to work out where in Vancouver they are!! And my knowledge of downtown is better than it was (though not nearly enough) so I can kinda work out where they are - it's so much fun! :)

I feel like I'm mentally preparing myself to go back to SA - the other day I had a moment where it felt like I was in SA again. It was really strange. I used to have a lot of moments like that in SA, where it felt like I was in Canada, but until now, I haven't had many in reverse. I keep thinking of everything I have to get done when I get back home, but so much of it can only be done when-I-get-home... So I'm trying not to stress about it, but I don't think that's working because I am not sleeping very well at the moment!! Oh well. I'm taking a week to just do my own thing and then I have to start packing - I might start that next week, after the fuss-and-nonsense Mum and I went through trying to pack my cases for my trip here. I could've kicked myself: we had to leave for the airport at 2 and at 9am I was still packing... I cannot do that again!! (we shall see...)

Lottie swishing...

2009-04-09T06:24:00.001+02:00

I don't know if this is going to work - if the file is too huge, I'll just take it out!
:)
The point of this is to show you how much my darling dog 'swishes' when she walks! It's almost halfway when she's walking down the passage. I'm sorry it's so long - this is me! You might want to turn the sound down, else you just hear me talking to her and my dad on the phone in the background! Once she's finished following me up and down the passage, you can stop watching if you'd like! I certainly don't expect you to watch the whole thing!! :)

Home - is where my brain is...

2009-03-24T06:18:00.000+02:00

I have news from the weekend, but don't really have time to write it up at the moment! I will try to get it done this week, but no promises!
I just had a very weird moment - my black scarf was lying on the bed and for a brief moment, I thought it moved and I assumed it was my cat - giving myself a huge fright because there are no animals in this house!
Lately, I've been having quite a few moments like this - the other day I was walking home and one lawn had just been mowed - I stopped and just stood there breathing in the smell. Then I realised that it's going to be another 7 months till I smell that again - the fresh spring grass...
It would appear that my brain has decided that it's time to go back to SA.

Moments on a bus

2009-03-18T05:45:00.001+02:00

Something that continually surprises me about life here, is that people happily have conversations on buses and trains - I heard some guy trying to organise for his mum and his girlfriend's mum to meet. And it's not like I had to really concentrate to hear him or anything - he was sitting right behind me. Then there are the people on the train who get on the train, pull out their cellphone and spend the next 45 minutes chatting to someone - who is this person on the other end who has 45 minutes to spend on a phonecall at 8 o'clock in the morning?!

I seem to be doing quite well at updating this, but I don't think it's going to last very long - especially as I actually managed to send out a general email!!
I think this is going to be another veeerryyy long week - I get disheartened each time I realise that it's only Tuesday - it feels like it should be Thursday, at least! I haven't slept well the past two nights, so I am hoping to fix that tonight - definitely hoping. Especially as tomorrow's going to be quite busy. As are the next 3 weeks... Today is one calendar month till my last day at work - I couldn't believe it. It's gone so quickly.

Changing layout

2009-03-16T01:42:00.001+02:00

I'm playing around with the templates and it's messing up the photos a bit, so I hope you can still make sense of the older posts if you look back to them! :)
(I can't rearrange furniture so I'll change my blog... aren't I daring?!!)

A chilly day...

2009-03-16T01:14:00.001+02:00

Twice in one month - I'm not doing too badly, am I?

I've just been for a walk - it is such a fantastic day: a little chilly, windy - gloriously windy, sunshine, blue sky and heavy clouds. Sounds a bit contradictory, but almost my ideal day! (and it's not even April 25th! ;) )

There isn't much news to tell since last weekend - I don't know if it's psychological or truly the result of Daylight Savings, but the whole week has been one long exhaustion. I was running on about 4 hours sleep (and you know that for me that's not enough!) most days. Maybe I was thinking too much, but I was trying desperately to not-think before I went to sleep - didn't help. I did, however, catch up on a substantial amount of sleep on the train. I seem to have adjusted very quickly: "I don't like sleeping on the train" becomes "oh thank heavens, I can sleep on the train"!! Didn't take long...

Although it's been busy, I have been having so much fun at work! I'm sure that half the time I sound as though I don't know what I'm talking about - and I probably don't - but I'm trying to enjoy everything! Plus, I think once you've screwed up as badly as I did when I was 20, you look at things a little more - rationally? realistically? reasonably? (obviously the word I'm looking for begins with an 'r'!!)

So... it feels like everyone around me is counting the days until I leave (for different reasons obviously!) - I'm still not too sure how many days it is. I know it's less than 2 months. It was exactly 8 weeks on Thursday until I leave - this time, two months' time, I'll be back home - with my baby!! Oh my! I can't wait!! Dad's been fantastic at sending me updates on Lottie, but I have missed her so much. I'm nervous about seeing her again, in case she's forgotten me, but I'm trying not to worry about it! The other day I was imagining getting to Joburg and seeing Dad - it was the first time I was actually picturing it - I'm sure I'm going to be in floods of tears! And I'm not even thinking about saying goodbye to everyone here! It's weird, I feel that I can almost handle the goodbyes, because I had to go through them when I left SA, but the returning? That's going to be something else...

2 months and counting...

2009-03-09T00:09:00.000+02:00

I know I've been really bad about updating - sorry about that!
I found out once and for all that I can't extend the work permit that I'm on at the moment, so now it's all steam ahead to get my Schengen visa and get ready to go back to SA. Once there, I'll find a job (hopefully!) and save to immigrate to Canada. Though who knows how long that will take...

February was a quiet month overall - work felt hectic, though I don't think there was anything out of the ordinary!! But it was a fun month - it's fun in general! I like being there - I know I keep saying this, but it's true. It's going to be difficult to say goodbye to everyone.

This first week of March has been busy though! I have to wonder if it's going to last the rest of the month... I've been snowshoeing, curling and barely had any sleep this week - I was thinking of going to a play, but finances are all important now and as I hadn't really made up my mind about it, when I woke up and didn't feel like going, I didn't go!! Very clever... But I have my foreign exchange ready for my visa - I'm just a little unsure of the employment letter that I'm supposed to have. How on earth can I prove that I'm definitely going home?! Like I really want to be stuck in the Netherlands indefinitely...

There are so many things to sort out when I get back home - I'm trying to make a list of it all, but not think about it at the same time. Lovely little conundrum I've stuck myself in... A lot of it has to just wait till I get home but some of it I can only deal with closer to May. In the meantime, I just have to keep saving and hope and pray I can squish all my stuff into 3 suitcases without going over the weight limit. Yikes.

And we are at 2 calendar months until I leave... 8 and a half weeks in actual time! I can't believe I'm at this time already. Wow.

Thought bubble

2009-02-18T07:48:00.000+02:00

Ok, I know I have to update this and I will - one day soon!!
This is just a short little comment on something I found today: I've only just discovered Time's top 25 blogs (and only cos it was on another website!) and having looked through them all, my little blog is woefully unimpressive... So I am very appreciative of anyone who is taking the time to read this and hear all my news!! (Especially on the generalised template I'm using...)
:>

Very delayed update!

2009-01-22T04:15:00.000+02:00

Right, the last time I tried to post an update, everything went haywire and it's not showing on some computers - I guess the ones with slower internet connections. So this post won't have any photos (because I went a little nuts with the photo-posting!) and will probably take me a couple of days to finish it. (I tried writing it in Word and copying across and that was only the beginning of my problems!)

New Year's was lots of fun!! I didn't really feel like going anywhere and I think everyone else's plans kinda fell through at the last minute, so we ended up having a Harry Potter festival with "excellent nosh" - I enjoyed it!! (yes, I'm very boring, I know...) I had the Friday off work as well, so it was a brilliant looooong weekend, but the following week was a little painful - it was the first full week of work I'd had in a month!

The snow was fun and made everything really pretty, but it messed up so much! People couldn't get to work cos they couldn't get out of their driveways, the transport system was still running, but they battled too. A couple of the train doors didn't close properly and were running a bit slower cos they were being run manually in case of obstacles on the tracks. Naturally, my trains and buses were all running normally which meant I still went to work!! I've just been wearing old jeans to and from the office cos I've had to climb through snow and over all sorts to get the buses! Plus, I've slipped a few times and would rather slip and end up with soaked jeans than soaked work-clothes. Most of the snow has gone now, but some of it is still melting, so the ice is a bit of an issue. Though there are rumours of more snow in the next few weeks - at this stage everyone's trying to deal with the fog! The last week has been pure fog - well, there were the odd "Wow! Blue sky!" moments, but not many. It felt like I was back in Hilton!! Yet, it's been sunny and postively warm up in the mountains... go figure. I'm a little relieved that I'm coming back to SA in time for winter, cos I'd die of heat in summer, but it's going to feel like the longest winter of my life!! :)

Work's going well - I actually have a pretty good idea of what I'm doing and that always helps! I like working there and I wish there was some way I could stay - I'm waiting to hear from the embassies on that... We shall see.

I can't think of what else to update on, so I'll write more another time!! Till then...

A White Christmas!!

2008-12-29T02:06:00.000+02:00

Wow! Lots to catch up on...

Ok. So… the day after I last updated, Sam’s parents and I drove round looking at Christmas lights in the area – I know there are always people who go overboard, in any country, but it’s just different here! When it’s cold and rainy and you’re all bundled up, holding hot chocolate (from Starbucks!) – it feels different! And of course, the snow…!

Saturday the 13^th was my office Christmas party and it was a restaurant in Vancouver, on Granville Island, so I stayed over at the hotel, cos no way on earth did I want to travel all the way back home after the party – and thank goodness! Cos it started snowing that night! We’re sitting, enjoying dinner, look out the window and lo-and-behold, flurries! We ended up walking back to the hotel which was an interesting experience all on its own!

These two pics are from that night – me in the beginning of the snow

(in my nice outfit, made for SA weather!) and my footprints on the way back to the hotel (yes, high-heels!!):

And if you look back to my 7 November post, you’ll see a photo of an avenue of trees with a bike rack in front – here’s that same spot after the first snowfall!!

Getting home was fun – took 3 hours with all the buses, etc, but I didn’t have to wait anywhere – the connections were immediate – it was great! I’m always amazed at how exhausted I get just sitting on a bus! I got home and discovered that it hadn’t snowed here – only Vancouver and Coquitlam – I think maybe Burnaby too, but a lot of it had melted by the time I went past.

Then back to work the next day and after that I had two days off!! Christmas shopping on Tuesday and Wednesday it snowed out here too!! So that was well-planned – I got to stay home on Wednesday and sort out presents and get laundry done etc. (!!)

Thursday and Friday back to work – it was a weird week for me! I got my days all confused, understandably, but it did make the week easier. Friday was our work gift-exchange and that was fun! I like the department I’m in – and I’m not just saying that in case they happen to be reading this!! :)

Ooohhhh – one thing I forgot to mention, the first weekend in December, Ray and Helena came over and Ray helped put the outside lights up and Helena put up the tree – I assisted! So the tree’s been up since the beginning of December! Sorry! :(

Back to last weekend… I don’t remember what happened – oh! Sam and I finished off some shopping and then met up with a friend of hers at a restaurant in Coquitlam to watch the hockey game (Canucks lost – again). It’s been snowing on-and-off for the last 2 weeks and luckily we got home before it got too bad that night. That Sunday was pretty much a family day – Ray and Helena and Sam’s aunt and uncle – it was great! We played “Taboo” which was hysterical!! Naturally, the A-team won!!

Three-day work-week for me again, but it snowed so badly on Tuesday night that I didn’t go to work on Wednesday. And thank goodness – Sam and I went out about midday: “to play in the snow” and we got soaked!! The snow on the way to the bus stop was knee-height – I’m so glad I didn’t have to wade through it that morning! I’d woken up at 5:30 to check the news and they’d closed roads downtown and it was snowing so heavily – I’ll be surprised if anyone went to work!

Anyway, so here are some pics of Sam and I in the snow – Sam made a snow angel!!

Left: in the distance behind me is my afternoon bus stop!! The 'cleared road' is now a full lane away from the curb!!

Right: all this snow on the right side of the photo? We trudged through that - it was cold...

Then it was off to friends for Christmas Eve dinner – we only got home in the early morning and up early to go over to Ray and Helena’s.

And the snow there – yikes!!

This is Ray and Sam outside – and this is after the snow’s been cleared a bit!!

(Bear in mind: Ray's about 6' 8"!!!)

Then off to family (well, Sam’s family, but they’ve all made me feel at home, I might as well call them family!) for Christmas dinner – and more “Taboo”, again the “A-team” won! (not my team this time… :) !)

Christmas was fun! I had a fantastic time! I was really spoilt by everyone and it was stuff that’s perfect for me!! I’m not going to post a long list, cos you really don’t need to know! But it’s been amazing. And much busier than any Christmas I’ve had before! Even the one I spent here 8 years ago didn’t feel as busy. Maybe cos I’ve been working this time and there’s had to be more organization! Whatever it is, I don’t mind! I’ve loved being here for this!

My family sounds like they’re all doing well – Dad’s been sending the most hysterical stories from home – making me cringe with embarrassment over my dog! I am missing my family so much. I know this has been good for me – especially as this is the longest I’ve ever been away from them all – but it’s still difficult. And always will be, I guess.

Ok, and now a few randomies – which I will hopefully be permitted to put up and not have them censored… :>

This was the "decorating weekend" - I love this photo of Ray and Helena!!

Yes, I admit to a certain fascination with trains... I wonder whose fault that was...!!

And me and my 'adopted' brother!!

Santa Parade!

2008-12-12T07:31:00.000+02:00

So... the week after the 22 November post, I got sick - typical me. It hit me again on the Thursday, so by Friday I was feeling awful (y'know, it worries me that this looks like a pattern!!) and I left work early. I did nothing all weekend and stayed home on Monday - I don't think I've slept that much since I was recovering from the jetlag!! I was feeling much better by the time I went back to work on Tuesday, but it did mean that I missed our department Christmas lunch :( But I couldn't face dragging myself out of bed - plus I hardly ate that weekend, so not the smartest thing to reintroduce my stomach to food with a big "eventful" lunch!! Anyway, it's taken a while for the sinus part to finally disappear and so far, no coughing, but I suspect it's on its way. My throat's been rather scratchy, but that's really only a problem on the bus and the train!!
Oh! Quick insert - look at this sunset I managed to get a photo of from my room! (and you know me and sunsets!!)

I had my hair re-coloured (yes, hide the grey!!) so I've made that the new profile picture on here - hope you can actually see it!! :)
Work was busy trying to catch up after being off sick and a couple of in-depth requests came through. I bought Julie Andrews' autobiography - finished it the other day (cos I only ever read it on the train!) and am kinda annoyed that it stops halfway through her life!! I know it's entitled "My Early Years", but c'mon!! So now I have to find something else to read - the last few days I've just been dozing off on the train - like everyone else!! I was really battling to sleep, so I tried sleeping with my head at the end of the bed - it must have worked because ever since I moved the pillows back to the top of the bed, I haven't been sleeping so well - I woke up at 4:40 the other day - and my alarm was going off at 5:30!!! aaarrrrrgggghhh...

Friday night we went to Coquitlam and I spent money, Saturday morning I went up to the local shops and spent money, Sunday I went downtown and spent more money - nasty trend developing here!! But, unfortunately, I now have all I need, so I have no more reasons to go shopping :( Except for Christmas presents!! heehee
And the point of going downtown on Sunday (apart from trying to find Gareth's elusive shoes) was to see the Santa Claus parade - wow - the effort that goes into that is unbelievable!! And as I went snap happy (hmmmmm) I've tried to only choose a few photos (yeah, well, I've never been too good at 'minimising'!) and here they are:

The Vancouver police had a skills display, I guess - the guys got to ride up and down the street on their motorcycles!!
Don't you love the red antlers on the front of the bike!!

And the very distinct pattern here would be...?

And suddenly I realise that I've chosen pictures of mostly vehicles!! Think I'm missing my car much?!! There were hundreds of people in the parade! Marching band upon marching band upon marching band. It was fun to see and they put a lot of effort into making sure everyone looked good and was well-rehearsed - I saw the drummers carrying their 3-set drums (don't ask me what they're called!!) and I felt so sorry for them by the end of the parade!! The one guy looked like he was literally bending over backwards!
I loved that some of them even decorated their instruments with tinsel and Christmas decorations!! It's great for kids because there are the 'hangers-on' (I'm sure they have some official title!) who hand out chocolates and stickers and whatever else they can to promote their business/company/etc.

I would love to know how much that poor person in the costume got paid - yes, it was freezing cold (I was convinced I was going to have frostbite on my camera hand!!) but that outfit can't have been too comfortable!!
They had everyone there - the Grinch, Shrek, some poor guy as an ice-cream cone, a beluga whale (though not promoting the Aquarium - odd), Beauty and the Beast from the play which is showing at the moment, gorgeous horses from the equestrian centres - even one group dressed up as the Templars - well, they had one guy in front as the 'king' and a bunch of women following with masks on, so not quite the Templars, but not Arthur and his knights. I don't actually have a clue who they were!! Which was the case for most of the parade...!

And, of course, I had to take a photo of the Purdy's hedgehog!! (Hedgehogs are their most popular chocolate, I think) Their truck was really cool! And the driver was a purple Santa, which I thought was fantastic!

On the way home, I came down the street that leads to our little cul-de-sac - wow. It's - bright. For me, it's fantastic, when I come home in the evenings and see everyone's lights on and all the people who go totally overboard - it makes me smile every time. (I don't think my punctuation was right in that sentence, but I don't care right now!!) So this blurry photo is one of the houses in the street above us:
There's an apartment complex where every single window has something in it - the cool thing is that each floor has a semi-circular window and I think everyone put their trees in there, so you see the trees almost in a line down the side of the building! Every day there's just one more house who's done their lights, or added something or changed something. It makes the nights very not-dark!! Last month when I left the house in the mornings, it was sooooo dark - now it's like sunrise!! (Sure, I'm exaggerating, but you know what I mean!!)
And now? Now I go to bed cos I'm really tired and I need to get up on time tomorrow morning!!

Will update soon!

2008-12-10T08:10:00.001+02:00

Hi!! It's been a busy couple of weeks - one way or another, mostly cos I got sick just before the end of November! So much for that flu shot - though it wasn't as bad as it could've been, so the way I see it, the flu shot did its job!!
I've took lots of photos of the Santa parade this past weekend (184....) so I have to choose the absolute best and then I'll put them up with a recap of the last couple of weeks. I'll try to get it done before Friday, but, y'know - it's me! :)

Update on a very quiet month... for me at least!

2008-11-23T09:04:00.000+02:00

Ummm... well, in date order, I think the next thing to happen was that I took Monday the 10th off work - and that was fantastic! A 4-day weekend is a luxury we all deserve once in a while! 11 November is a holiday here and Sam's parents went to IKEA so I tagged along, cos I've never been (lovely excuse to go places don't you think?!). And - I would move here just so that I can go to IKEA!! There are lots of fantastic house and home stores, but I was really impressed with the way IKEA put it all together and showed you how a teeny tiny 10-ft square apartment could be liveable!! And how's this for a self-help section:

It's really well organised - it would have to be, but those shelves are kinda scary the first time you see them!

Bye-bye IKEA!!

So Lovely Lazy Days and back to work on Wednesday - only to discover that there was no power in our building, so another day off work! But it did make it very difficult on Thursday to get back into the working frame of mind! So last week was just a 2-day work-week :)

On Saturday I went to the nursery with Sam's parents and guess what I found there?!!!
I mean, duh! It is me!! She was really cute and was only too happy to be petted - she chased me down the path when I walked away from her! Kinda reminded me of Mr Mistoffoles... So about 40 minutes of the day was spent talking to the cat...

I know it seems like I've skipped lots and lots, but I really haven't - I just haven't done much in the last two weeks!

And I just had to take another photo of Mt Baker all lit up in the sun last weekend! Doesn't it look pretty?

I've had a few meandering walks round the neighbourhood - when it isn't raining and pitch black... And I found the funniest thing the one day:

Ge, this is just for you!

And Garf, this is for you....

(brat)

You know I think I might be getting a little carried away with the photo aspect of this... Ah well, shame, hey?! :)

Jemima

2008-11-08T07:42:00.000+02:00

Last Saturday, Mum told me that they'd had to take Jemima to the vet and they weren't too sure what was wrong with her. I ended up phoning her on Monday night - they had to put Jemima down. I know it's "all for the best" and all that, but it doesn't make it any easier. And it's really hard being so far away. I keep trying to remember if I paid enough attention to her - but she definitely got her fair share of loving from us!! Bertie was the one who kept getting neglected cos Jemma was "new"! It's so funny, she was the 'puppy' till she was about 6, I think!! It was really only when we got another puppy (Lottie) that suddenly I realised how old Jemma was. She definitely didn't behave like it!
I really wanted to put a video up of Jemma but it's a huge file!! (yeah, camera-happy me, I know) Oh well - at least I have them, so I can sit watching them to my heart's content - with Lottie's frantic yapping in the background... oy...

Magic, Halloween and Conferences...

2008-11-08T06:57:00.000+02:00

Wow - it's been such a busy few weeks that (once again) I had to revert to my calendar to work out what I've been up to. Only problem with that is that I haven't updated my calendar!!

Ok - there's a picture of me on Facebook at Fright Night per kind favour of Sam's friend's friend!! It's on the ferris wheel and that jacket I'm wearing is down and I was still cold! :) I am freezing - We get cold days in winter yes, but this is consistently colder than our average temps and it's not even officially winter yet! Yikes! :o

So the week after I last posted something was spent working on getting things ready for the 2-day conference we had through work. I'd been seeing adverts for David Copperfield for a couple of weeks and I thought I'd try my luck on Saturday and see if there were any seats available - there were!!! It was fantastic!! I spent all of 2 minutes trying to figure it out, then I decided to just sit back and enjoy the show. I'm really glad I went and I enjoyed it so much! And... I had a really cool seat! One of the tricks when he magically reappears in the audience - I was sitting next to the box that he reappears on! Way cool! :)
I arrived early at the venue - of course - and turns out it's right opposite the Vancouver Public Library - and I really need to get back there!

The picture on the right is the entrance (well, it's where I went in!) - isn't this just the most amazing building?!! (Whadya think, Jeru?!)

I went in, went up 4 floors to try peer out the windows - couldn't really get too close without seeming a bit weird to everyone actually working in the library! - but I did find the Ancient History section!! hee-hee :>

After the show I went across to Granville Island (it's not really a whole separate island!!) and look at this amazing pic I took: (tough if you don't want to, cos I'm going to make you look!)

I am very much loving autumn!!

I don't think I did anything on the Sunday - most likely just stayed at home. Sam worked and then went to college, so I will have just watched TV or something.
Monday night we stayed at the conference hotel (Four Seasons!) so at work really late - then bright-spark me forgot the blasted attendance lists, so all the way back to the office - eventually getting to bed about 11:30. Up at 6 for Day 1 - at least I didn't have to travel! And I haven't stayed in enough hotels in my life for that to get old - plus... It's the Four Seasons!! :) Weirdly enough, I had a fantastic view of the library from my room! I had an amazing view - it was a great room. I bed-hopped cos there were two giant beds in my room and I didn't sleep well the first night, so the second night I piled up all the pillows and slept on the other bed - felt very decadent!

And look at this cute little house!! It just looked so incongruous between the two taller buildings! (And there's me on the 22nd floor peering down at it!)

Personally, I think the conference went quite well, but I don't know what the official reaction was to it! Plus it was my first one (*gasp*!) so I have no idea if it was better/worse than the last!! The next one's in April, so I'm wondering if I'll still be there in time for it - I'm hoping so, but if not, at least I can help with getting the work done for it!

So I was exhausted for the rest of the week - I overslept horribly on Saturday. Luckily, I managed to chat to my mum on MSN for a bit and eventually emerged from my room at about 5pm!! (See Mum and Dad - some things don't ever change!)

On Sunday I went for a very nice walk round about half of Maple Ridge. It was the last day of decent weather and it made for a fantastic walk. Definitely did me a world of good getting out of the house - especially after Saturday! :)

This week's been busy at work, trying to catch up on everything - OH!! Oops - Halloween - riiiiggghhhht! Ok, I didn't dress up - "too much pressure"! The office had a competition and people really go all out for Halloween! Sam's was amazing!! It wasn't really a costume - just makeup, but really effective!! She said it kept creeping people out!

I walked home from the shops on Friday night, so I saw a fair amount of the "trick-or-treaters" - they're very cute!! And I'm not feeling like I missed out on a significant part of childhood!! I definitely do not wish that I had been dressed up as a zebra, elephant, lion or sheet of paper (which I thought was really clever!) - pretty much all the under-5s were an animal. I would say I felt right at home, except that I don't see those animals all the time...! ;>

The rain has started in earnest - the news reports in the morning has them all trying to judge the rainfall and if it's going to be less or more than normal/last year/ever...
My umbrella broke on Friday - stupid thing - and I bought a new one, but it's a smaller circumference, so I'm probably going to end up getting yet another new one! Typical me. I definitely need to add more warm clothes to my wardrobe! I'm trying desperately not to think of how I'm getting everything home again...

Mid-October

2008-10-20T02:54:00.000+02:00

Ok, I just know I'm going to forget everything if I don't finish updating now!

So after I left Stanley Park, I went across to Science World. I'm not even going to try to explain what it is!! Look it up on the internet if you're desperate to know, but I did get a cool shot of the outside (see left!). I went to the OmniMax show there - "Grand Canyon: River at Risk" - which was amazing!! The screen follows the curve inside the dome - it's incredible to watch!

The photo on the left is from Stanley Park - it turned out really well, so I had to post it! The one on the right is of Waterfront station, where my train arrives every morning! Another fantastic old building, so I just had to get a photo of it!!

Then on Sunday, we had Thanksgiving dinner - for me it's like Christmas dinner gets split up: turkey for Thanksgiving, whatever else for Christmas!! (I'll let you know at Christmas if I'm right!) Monday the 13th was Thanksgiving Day, so we had the day off work! Yay!! It was really nice knowing that there was another day before going back to work!

The week was quiet, work was good, it started raining!! Well, it was 2 days of rain, then clear for the weekend!! Apparently, the non-stop rain starts in November, so for now we're all making sure we enjoy the sunny days!

Friday night, Sam and I went to Fright Night at the PNE - it was fun!! I know that she probably wouldn't think I'd say that, but I did enjoy it! However... we seemed to do everything in reverse! We did the best ride first - which means that I hated it. It freaked me out horrendously, so the only other ride I agreed to go on was the ferris wheel!! :) I forgot my camera - I was a little preoccupied with getting to work on time! - so I have no photos of the evening, but I got a reminder! They have those fairground games, so I tried two of them. The one where you have to throw rings over bottle tops didn't work out so well, but I managed to hit two balloons with darts which meant I could either get two weird-looking snakes or a one little bizarre-looking dog. So I chose one of the red demon-dogs!! It's not, but the fact that it's red and somewhat asymmetrical and the ultraviolet light made its eyes look freaky means that its name is now Jack - as in Jack-Jack from 'The Incredibles'!!

And the weekend has been spent doing nothing! I walked up to the bank yesterday and the library - I actually found books to read which was great! But, typical me, planning ahead was not a skill I used that day! My little tiny backpack-type bag was only just big enough for the books!!
And that's my news!!

Thanksgiving weekend

2008-10-20T01:49:00.000+02:00

So the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, Sam wanted to go to the Aquarium to draw the animals. I got a lift there with her and ended up going to the Aquarium again! It was a bit better, cos it wasn't as jam-packed as it had been the last time I went. (I'm still trying to accept the fact that we voluntarily woke up early on a Saturday morning!! hence this picture:)And now for the Aquarium pictures... :>

The sea lions - who were swimming the exact same route each time. The dolphins did that too. They must get so bored there.
I thought that sea lions were like our seals - apparently not!! (yes, I'm a blonde in disguise, we know this already...)
Or... these are seals and ours are sea lions - I don't know! These are not like the ones I saw in Cape Town, I know that! (ooh, I know something!)

And this is the fu-ugly fish that is in the Tropical Zone - so naturally I had to take a photo of it!! It has these really cool scale patterns, but I didn't find the plaque that explained what it was!

And the beluga!!! I don't know which one this was, but obviously not the newborn! I tried to get a photo of her, but it didn't come out so clearly. The photo on the right is the same whale, but I just liked the dappled effect!

Look!! Jellies!! Of course I had to take a photo! :) Hasn't come out so well, but I wanted to post it.

Then I wandered Stanley Park for a bit and found a flock of geese - I have been trying to get a decent shot of them for my dad since my first visit! I think I can say that I've done that now and hopefully won't be taking anymore random photos of these birds...

And I've spent the last half an hour playing with this post, trying to get it looking right, so I'm taking a break for a while and I'll put more news up next weekend - maybe :)!!

CANUCKS!

2008-10-20T00:18:00.000+02:00

I am so far behind with updates that I'm going to do each "occasion" separately. (And all I can think of is hayibo's site saying 'breaking news. Into little pieces'!!)

So... 5 October, Sam and I went to see the last pre-season hockey game: Vancouver Canucks vs Anaheim Ducks. It was fantastic!! I loved it and now I want to see more games!!
This is GM place where (as far as I know!) Canucks home games are held:
I took a whole bunch of photos, but I'm only putting a few up cos they're not particularly enthralling!! But I'm still putting them up!

This was during the warm-up. Sam and I have no clue about ice hockey, so we just watched, trying to figure out how the game worked! So the fact that 3 20-minute periods took 3 hours was a bit of a surprise!! :)

And this? This is the 'gift blimp'!! It floats around the stadium dropping (don't start!) gift certificates to the audience.
But this wasn't nearly as fun to watch as the mini-league hockey game - they were soo little!! It must have been really cool for them, cos when they scored a goal, the whole crowd cheered for them!

These are just two photos from during the game the one on the right was a second before the Canucks scored their second goal. They lost the game - 40 seconds into overtime! Started turning into a trend cos they lost the next Sunday game they played, but I'm not too sure how they're doing at the moment. But I think - after a few more games - I might be a fan!! :)

Wall-E!

2008-10-05T00:13:00.000+02:00

I forgot to add this to the last post!
On the way home, we got stuck behind a truck who had this on the trailer:

Now who does this remind you of? :)

Playing at tourist!

2008-10-01T04:47:00.001+02:00

So on Sunday, I eventually managed to get downtown and be a tourist for a day!
Sam gave me a lift to her college (oops - it's a university now!) in North Van, then I took a bus and the seabus (pic below) across to downtown. I met up with one of Sam's classmates on the bus, who (thankfully) accompanied me on the buses and then to the Harbour Lookout - which is apparently a very expensive elevator ride!!

These are some of the photos from the lookout - not very high up compared to other buildings in Vancouver, but it was really cool seeing everything from there - definitely helped me get a feel of the city! I feel a bit of a twit for having left it so long!!

Above left is the view almost straight down from the lookout - plus it's a really cool building!! (Please don't ask me which one it is! I could probably work it out from a map, but sorry - not gonna do that right now!!) Above right is Canada Place - probably one of the most distinctive images of Vancouver! With one of the (many) cruise ships docked.

Mt Baker (in the waaayyy distance!) on the left and Burnaby on the right (3rd largest city if I remember correctly - please don't quote me on that!!)

I just had to - I love the churches here! And they're a tad more noticeable here - I guess cos they're not hidden behind big fences and walls (or disguised as something else...).

And a shot of part of Stanley Park - which is where I went after the lookout. I went to the Aquarium, honestly, I'd pick uShaka over it any day! But I'm glad I went - I got to see Belugas and Otters which we don't have in SA!

And next time I go to a park, I am soooo finding a map first!! I walked along the seawall, thinking "I'll just get to Lion's Gate bridge and then head into the park and go to the shops downtown for a bit".

Well, 40 minutes later, I was still on the seawall (see left), cos there are no pathways 'inland' until you get all the way round Prospect Point!! But I had fun with my camera! These are a select few that I just had to show you - *suffah* :>

I saw this poor young seagull who seemed to be having a "Mine!" moment - I just had to get a photo!

Ok, I know it's two birds in a row, but this was such an awesome (hmm, guess what the catchword is!!) image! And the only thing I did to the original pic was crop it - the colours are real! Well, as real as my camera can capture!

And this is Lion's Gate Bridge from just past where I was aiming for!! Again just a great image - I probably should have taken it from right under the bridge, but it does get a bit dicey on the walkway, cos you've got cyclists veering off the bike path so that they can take photos of their own! Not to mention the fishermen who don't always check to see who's around when they cast....

And that was pretty much my day! Probably for the best - at least then I can "tour" the shops when I have more money!
After my very long walk (around the top of Stanley Park and then across the upper forest!) I met Sam back at the college (and I even took the right buses this time!), which was perfect timing, cos she had just finished her work.

And back to work today! Lots of work, which means I have to go in early for the next couple of days - ooh, fun! I'm just hoping I wake up on time! I will update again when I have more news - or photos! Whichever comes first! :)

Haircut, flu and life

2008-09-25T06:48:00.000+02:00

Sorry for the silence of the last couple of weeks! It's funny how it felt so busy, yet when I look back, I haven't actually done anything! I think it's the waking up so early and spending all day at work, then getting home late and "winding down"! And to top it off - all the new seasons of TV shows start this month, so we've been having fun trying to watch all the "first" episodes!
Two Fridays ago, I had a haircut and had the colour fixed (finally!) and here's a photo:
(urgh!)
It's such a relief being able to leave it down during the day - I've nearly always tied it back in some way. It's taken me a while to get used to it, but I like this haircut and will definitely be going back to that hairdresser!
Work was kinda quiet for a while, but it's definitely picking up this month! I'm enjoying it and learning lots while I'm there!
And then I, mysteriously, managed to get flu last Thursday - I don't remember ever getting sick that quickly! So I came home early on Friday and spent most of the weekend in bed. Thankfully, it helped and I'm feeling much better, though the cough is still hovering.
And onto the weather... It's cooling down and raining this week - I'm still too scared to voice my opinion about it, cos it's only the first week of autumn, not even winter yet!! And these temps are my "usual" winter temps, so I just know I'm going to freeze!!!
That's all the news from here for now! I heard that it snowed in SA - everyone looks like they're having fun playing in the snow! And a good friend had her second kid the other day, so congrats to them!! That's the part I hate - that I miss all these "events"! Not that I'm willing to give up this year in Canada! :)

The long-promised update...

2008-09-08T04:35:00.001+02:00

I finally got my act together and decided it was time to post an update - so as soon as I remember what I've done in the last 3 weeks...

The week following the PNE weekend: Thursday we went to an art showing at a gallery in Gastown. A friend of Sam's works there and she invited us to the opening night of an artist's exhibition. Then Friday night we went to see "Dark Knight" - Sam had seen it already, so it was just so that I could see it and she wanted to see it again! (Two laaate nights in a row - thank goodness the next day was Saturday!) We stayed with one of Sam's friends on Saturday night and watched videos, then Sam and I went off to Bard on the Beach on Sunday - "Tempest" was first, then "Twelfth Night". If you're ever in Vancouver in Summer, may I recommend going to Bard on the Beach! Nothing beats a live performance and it's fantastic to see people who appreciate Shakespeare and do it justice! :) Just book as far in advance as you can, because it was FULL!! It was incredible. And this is the t-shirt I bought (of course!): If you can't read it, I'll change it for the one that changes the colour to an ugly olive...

(I keep switching across to my Calendar to see what I've been up to!!)
The following weekend was a long weekend - thank goodness! I was exhausted that whole last week of August and made the most of the extended time off work - i.e. I slept and did nothing!! Sam and I rented movies and tidied our level of the house (yay us!), then Sam spent most of Monday getting ready for college, which started on Tuesday. I think she's happy about seeing her classmates every day again - I keep thinking of an email someone sent me ages ago: it's a pic of Scrat from Ice-Age and he's doing his one-eye cringe and the one-liner under it said "I think all my friends are nuts" - Sam won't appreciate it, but it's what comes to mind when I think of her and her "animation buddies"!! (and thus ensues the first argument of our friendship...!!)

Back to work for me - I was starting to make lists of things to tell the new person and go over what I had to show him etc. I was so happy to find out that I was staying there! It's a relief for job-stability, but also cos now I actually know some of what's going on there! It felt like such a waste, to just start getting used to the system and the work and then have to leave. So please hold thumbs for me that it lasts!!

Yesterday I went off and had a shopping spree in Coquitlam - heehee!! I had so much fun! Of course, now I can't buy anything for the next 3 weeks, but still!! ;)
I still keep in touch with people at St Anne's and the Form 4 ball is this coming Friday - I'm so sorry that I'm missing it - it's the first time at school where they look all grown-up and gorgeous. If they read this, I hope you ladies have a wonderful time!

And I do believe that is the end of my news. (don't say 'hallelujah' like that :P)

Buuuttt... just to end off! I want to put up a photo my mum sent me of my baby:

sitting on "my" bed at my folks' house - she's getting big - filling out, I guess. She hasn't really grown height or length-wise, as far as I can tell, thank goodness!! Last thing I need is for her to turn into a St Bernard while I'm away... :)

Soon!!

2008-09-04T05:21:00.000+02:00

Sorry, sorry!! I know I have to update on the last two (or is it three now...) weeks and I will - just not right now! All's good - I'm staying at BCMA!! I'm so happy! :) (see me being happy!!) But at this precise moment in time, I have to finish my laundry and then go to bed, cos I have not had enough sleep in the last 3 days - astonishingly enough. I guess some things never change. "Be back soon"!

Look! Photos!!!

2008-08-21T03:54:00.000+02:00

Ok, now, bear with me... We're starting off with scenery and (I promise!!) there will be people in some of the other shots!! (These photos are from this last weekend, btw!)

So... this is the Meadows Maze - we started at about 8pm, sunset hitting the tops of the "corn stalks"!! (The weird bridge you can vaguely see to the left of the sun was Lions Goat bridge - yup, it had goats on it...)

Above and left were both taken from the little bridge about 5 mins into the maze. I made Sam smile nicely for the camera!! The other people on the bridge (and boy, was it rickety...) were up there yelling for their missing friends - it was kinda handy, except you can't see the bridge from inside the maze - and how the hell are you supposed to get there if you're lost!!

(This picture has been removed at the instruction of my censor. I apologise for any inconvenience.) :P

And this is what happens when I try to navigate... Needless to say, Sam took over from here on. (I'm not being paranoid - every time I directed us, I managed to direct us to a dead end...)

Sorry, but this was "The Bush" - we passed this piece of shrubbery about 4 times... And yes, it really was the same little bush. We even managed to pinpoint it on the map!

This was at Van Dusen Gardens on Saturday - proof that I dared to enter another maze!! (and you all know that story, so we won't re-hash it...)

This is me in the Korean Pavilion - just a random picture that looked cool!!

And this is Downtown Vancouver from Jericho Beach - I just wanted my own city-scape shot. I was trying for panoramic, but my camera batteries all died on me. Very sad... :(

And... did you enjoy the photos?! Aren't you glad to see that I actually managed to get some 'people-pictures'?! And I didn't even subject you to the photo of the squirrel!!!

"Fun, fun, fun..."

2008-08-19T06:03:00.000+02:00

I do start to get a little worried when it's almost a relief to go back to work! This weekend was so busy - I had fun, but definitely did not get enough sleep (for me!).
I'm having a little issue with getting ordinary photos up on here - they will appear in time.

So Friday was the Meadows Maze - it was fun! After 5 min we decided that it would be too easy following the map, so we just wandered and found the first 3 beacons easily - then we got lost... Half an hour later, we'd had enough and Sam directed us to the last 2 beacons and we finally escaped the maze! After much doubling back - and that was only half of the maze!! The shorter half, nogal! But it was fun! And we were good - we didn't cut through any "walls" where there wasn't already a path! (Sophistry, yes I know :P )

On Saturday I went to Van Dusen Gardens in Vancouver with Sam's parents - it was such a good day. I enjoyed it - lots of photos from there too - I'm dying to get them up on this blog... one day soon! After the gardens, we went to Jericho Beach and had supper on the beach - funny how you just miss the proximity to the ocean. Once in a while, I could smell the salt, so it was "close enough"! It's not like I was mad about the beach back home, but I guess it's different knowing that it's there! ;)

Saturday night, we stayed with a friend of Sam's then went to the PNE on Sunday (some of you will be happy to know that I have FINALLY watched "Breakfast at Tiffany's" - despite having my own copy of it...). The closest thing SA'ns can associate the PNE to is the Royal Show, but this is just so much more!! There are entertainment shows all over the place and the Playland section is like a Spanish funfair! (Cos that's all I have to compare it to!)
It was a good day - worth the exhaustion!! The weekend may have been busy - literally, going from one 'event' to the next - but it was so much fun! These are the times that are making this trip worth it!

However... I got photos today of Lulu. She's grown so much! I've been ok watching videos I've taken of her, and looking at other photos, but these ones made me miss her - I think cos I wasn't there. But she's healthy and my folks are playing with her - and BIG THANK YOU to Amy for being Lottie's play friend!! She really couldn't be anywhere better and seeing how things are here for pets - bringing Lulu to Canada is going to be a huge decision.

Another week (almost) gone by...

2008-08-14T06:43:00.000+02:00

Well, the weekend was quiet - I ended up sleeping through most of it, surprise, surprise. Monday was difficult in that I couldn't stay awake - and most people seemed to have the Monday blues. It's been glorious weather here (in case anyone was interested!) and the forecast is for HOT weather for the rest of the week. I'm too scared to say that I'm looking forward to winter, because I haven't had to live through an entire winter, so I'm not going to say that I'm looking forward to winter (even though you all know that I came here to escape SA's heat!).

The weekend is still a little unplanned at this stage. Sam and I are going to do the local Maze on Friday night (!!) - I still can't believe I've come halfway round the world to run around in a mielie field... I'll let you know how that goes! (I must admit that I'm looking forward to it!) On Sunday we're going to the PNE (www.pne.ca) for the day - I'd better remember the sunscreen that day. I'm getting so fed up because I keep getting sunburnt every time I turn around - I mean, when was the last time I was tanned?!!! Thankfully, Sam's still more tanned than me - some things never change, thank heavens.
I'm going to try to get to the Aquarium on Saturday, but depends on how things go that day. If I can get started early, I'll go to the Aquarium and wander round Vancouver too - if I end up over-sleeping again, then it'll be delayed - again!

Work is fine - I'm going to miss it when I leave there. I really like it there and the people have all been so amazing to me (and I'm not just saying that!). That's the one part of temping that I definitely don't like. And they've actually asked to see pictures of Lottie (they have no idea, do they?!) - I shall try to restrain myself and not show them all 846 pictures... (I'm not exaggerating - at least, not by much!! Scary, isn't it?!) I have yet to suggest that someone look into the correlation between blindness in dogs and the number of flashes they've had go off in their faces in their lifetime...

I don't think much else is happening at the moment. I keep making lists and notes with my new pens - they're soooo nice! Amazing to write with! (My first thought was "I must get some for Mum" - funny how some things are so ingrained.) And.... I bought a box of crayons - I think I'm the only 26-year old who still gets excited over crayons... And these are the real thing - proper Crayola!! I'm looking forward to using them! Heeeyyyy, maybe if I ask Sam nicely, she'll print some of her drawing for me to colour in.... My very own colouring-in book! (You should've stopped reading 2 paragraphs ago if you're shaking your head at me!) Anyway, I'm having fun! :)

Almost Friday...

2008-08-08T07:39:00.000+02:00

OMG, I'm tired. And probably won't be able to walk tomorrow! I went for a long "walk in the park" today after work - it was really great - we don't get parks like that in SA... Got home at 9:30pm, so now need to try to get to sleep! Tomorrow is the work picnic and then Sam wants to go out with friends tomorrow night - I think I just might be able to sleep in on Saturday... one can dream!
At this stage, no big news. My contract with this company ends on 9 September, so I'm kinda unhappy about that, but hopefully something exciting will come along instead. I'm just gonna miss these people, because they've been amazing to me and taken such great care of me as the "South African newbie"!
I will post photos - one day! When I have something to post that isn't scenery... :P

Busy weekend!

2008-08-04T08:37:00.000+02:00

Fireworks last night were amazing! It's been so long since I last saw fireworks and this was the best reintroduction! We left after Sam got back from work, met up with a friend of hers and went for dinner at a Greek restaurant - food was excellent (apparently, I'm not allergic to salmon), but I think I burnt the roof of my mouth, cos it's really sore... Downtown was so incredibly packed with people, but the atmosphere was great! Everything was so much fun and I wish I could be here for it every year.
Today we went across the river to Fort Langley - last minute decision and it was great fun! I've got photos of old buildings and odd little shops and plenty of the scenery! (typical 'me' photos - no people!!) It was a really good day and fun spending it with Sam's parents. There were three weddings while we were in Fort Langley, so we spent some time people-watching - my mum would've enjoyed it so much!
Tomorrow's BC Day and I don't think anything's planned - well, not yet! :)

Old and new...

2008-08-02T07:10:00.000+02:00

Ok, I just wanted to put a video of Lottie up!! I'm missing her so much (surprise, surprise). The video is 2 years old, not new - just really cute :) If it doesn't work, I'll take it off and subject you to something else... It's about a minute long, so if that's more than you want to put up with, don't watch it!! It's not very clear, but there's a fence between the two of them and in case you don't know our dogs, Lottie's the little black puppy and Jemima's the big brown and white fluffy one - she's 9 years old now - ooh! She's old! - and they're both corgis - duh!

We're off to the fireworks tomorrow: the grand finale of the Celebration of Light! I'm looking forward to it - if we actually manage to find transport to get there... I'll let you know how it goes! I'm just looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow morning - I can't wait! And Monday's a holiday - hee-hee ;)

Oooooo....looooook...

2008-07-30T06:32:00.000+02:00

And so it starts! To make my life easier (sorry everyone else!) I decided that this would be the best way to keep everyone up to date on what's going on - under strict instructions that Sam censors everything first!! :P

News will follow soon - when I'm actually awake...