Jen in Scotland

2005-08-31T04:50:00.000+01:00

Well well well! I felt a final wrap-up post was necessary here. I don't really know what to say, but I have been randomly thinking about it.

First off, it is great to be home! I know some think of PEI as boring (I have been known to fall into that category) but there is something to be said for being able to go home and fall right back into your groove with minimal effort. Some may insist PEI never changes, but I like to take the positive spin on it and say it is consistant. I wish I had an extra week or so here before heading to Orlando, but it's too late to do anything about that.

People apparently "grow" when they go off the typical life path and do new things, such as moving to a new country. I never really felt I grew much or changed much while I was gone, but since having time to reflect after being home I do think I changed some and perhaps grew as well. For example, when I first left for Scotland I frequently fashioned faux-pas'ed by wearing blue eyeliner. Now I chose to faux-pas by wearing blue mascara.

It's kind of funny because it was never a dream of mine to go to Scotland. I wanted to spend a few months in London at some point but that never really crossed my mind when contemplating what to do post-graduation. In fact, I didn't even really have a huge desire to travel in Europe, I was more interested in exploring North America. As Shannon and my parents can atest to, I was rather hesitant about committing to a move to Edinburgh, a place I have never heard of prior to January 2004. Turns out those three were very wise, and the move was worth my temporary heartwound ten times over! (No offense to the other half of my at-the-time relationship but, despite many good times, it was rather obvious that one wasn't going to be a lifer.)

I never really got too homesick during my stint away. The hardest was seeing other people go home, be it friends for a holiday or saying good-bye to my parents when they visited. I had some bad days, to be sure, but I always knew it was temporary and realised I would get over it.

I made some amazing friends in Edinburgh whom, without, I know I would not have enjoyed my time nearly as much. I do like my alone time, but can handle being by myself in only small doses. (Exhibit A: traveling Europe May 2005.) When you're so far away from home your friends become a second, non-blood family. (See Sundae Sunday [Easter] and Thanksgiving.)

One day at work I made a list of all the different cities/towns/villages I have been in the world and was pretty impressed. I know many could easily top the list, but I realised that if I had stayed in Ch'town for the sixteen months and someone showed me a list of places he/she had been to that was the exact same as my current, actual list I would be pretty jealous. So that is one way I know I made the right choice back in March 2004 - if someone else had did exactly what I had did these past months I would have been jealous. Very, very jealous. And I know it's true because I remember how jealous I used to get when I got emails from Heidi when she was in France during my first year at UPEI.

I really don't think moving overseas is for everyone. Although Scotland is an english-speaking country with a robust, developed economy, the potential for culture shock is still there. I don't think it ever hit me in a culture-shock-everything-is-so-different-and-terrible kind of way, but perhaps because that was one of the things I was looking forward to. Not to say I'm immune to it or anything, toss me in Asia and I'm sure I'd panick! Regardless, when you're homesick or lonely, wandering about in unfamiliar territory (*cough* Switzerland) just reminds you how far away you are from home.

I think a huge factor in living over seas is how one handles a problem. It's easy to make a mountain out of a molehill, but why bother? I lost my wallet tonight. It had a credit card in it and some money. So the money is gone and the credit card is canceled. Really, it could have been worse. (However, I find it retarded that I managed six weeks of almost consecutive travel and did not lose a THING but have lost three sets of keys on PEI since Xmas and my wallet today. What can I say? Canada makes me disorganised ;) )

After talking to some fellow expats I think one of the hardest things people deal with when moving someone is finding accommodation. It's quite a feeling to get off a plane in a city you have never seen before with 20+ kg of your life and realise you do not have a place to live, a job, a bank account, etc. I actually really like the feeling, but I have friends/former flatmates who said the temptation to turn around and leave after a few days of an unsuccessful flat or job hunt can be pretty strong.

I guess I'm rather proud of myself for what I've done over the past sixteenish months and my friends who have done the same thing. If you asked me last year in March, May or even August how long I expected to stay in Scotland I never thought I would be there until almost the end of August this year. Heh - even in May of this year I didn't expect to be in Scotland this summer! However, when you have a good thing going it can be hard to step away, but I think I needed to. I've wanted to work at Disney since I was eleven-years old, and I think by the time my Disney term is up next September I'm going to be a bit ansy to find some form of stability in my life. A flat in which I plan to spend more than twelve months will be pretty desirable by that point!

In conclusion, here are some things I've learned about myself or just learned in general ~

I'm surprisingly good at reading maps!

Beer bellies are called so for a very good reason. Sigh.

A customer who sounds like he is ordering a "twisty and coke" and a "twisty with ice" probably actually wants a whisky and coke and a whisky with ice.

I'm brave enough to go to a social event at which I will know no-one by myself.

Haggis is good.

Chocolate is Suisse is good. Too good.

I prefer palm trees and water to mountains. However, when I woke up during my snooze on my Lugano - Zurich train ride (Switzerland) and saw beautiful snow-capped and green mountains I was pretty darn amazed.

Next time I would do a night less in Lugano and try out Bellinzona.

My Spanish is surprisingly decent! One of my most proud moments in the past year was when I booked two pension rooms in Taragona in Spanish and not a word of English. I also managed to hold a conversation with a bloke in Barcelona and got my point across most places except one dreadful day at the train station.

I know I took French for a reason in jr high/high school for a reason, and that reason is France. I loved France. EVERY place I was in France.

I hate filing. Oh my GOD I HATE FILING.

Canadian guys do rate waaay up there overall. Be it sense of humour, looks, friendless, whatever. Do your husband shopping in Canadia ;)

I can play lacrosse!! Not extremely well, but it was a new sport for me and I had a ball learning it.

Spain is amazing. I want to go back. I MUST go back.

I handle problems well.

I handle irn-bru and extra-classy vodka not so well.

I can't do stilletos on cobblestone.

Apparently, Canadian accents are cool.

ISIC cards are amazing.

I am lucky. Seriously. I met many awesome people in the past sixteen months. I had a pretty good flat for thirteen months. My parents came to Scotland together to visit me, my mum traveled in France with me, my dad made a solo trip to Scotland to see me, and I got to meet up with friends from home in London for a weekend. I never had anything stolen. I forgot my keys only once and someone was home anyway. My phone still works, despite having dropped it on the ground many times. Despite being gone for many months my friends at home still welcome me right back into our circle.

Anyway, I should probably get to bed. This wasn't really the last entry I envisioned, I expected me to sound more wise. But perhaps that's because I'm still not very wise and still have a lot to learn.

See you in Disney World!! >>>>> http://lumberjackjen.blogspot.com

2005-08-23T12:13:00.000+01:00

Whoa!!! Last post from Scotland!!! How fraeking crazy is that?!?!

Oooh, the woes of packing. HATE IT. I *think* I can cram everything in and possibly stay under 20kg, but it's looking pretty sketchy. Also looking sketchy is the fact I haven't finished packing but am wandering about the city wanting to buy stuff for people. Hmm, probably not the wisest idea.

I could dump my boots, as they weigh quite a bit, take up space AND are falling apart, but it feels like I would practically be cutting off my left arm. Ah well.

I really don't like packing. I still just have a few odds and ends and a bunch of stuff to throw out. I'm just running out of space. And, according to the clock, time.

Shannon is being so kind to come to Glasgow with me tonight! :) :) :) I'll be nice to have some company on the bus to Glasgow and in the dodgy Glasgow bus station until I can get on the airport shuttle.

Still feels very surreal... Kind of like I'm just cleaning my room. Which, technically, I AM cleaning my room. Hmm.

I should go now. I have dollars (both American and Canadian! ;) ) to buy. And hills to climb.

I have nine and a half more hours in Edinburgh. Sigh, it's going to be sad to leave such a marvelous city. Of all the places I've been in the past few years, Edinburgh really has it's spot among the best and I'm going to miss it terribly :( It's kind of funny how excited I was to leave Ottawa there when my time was up. This seems so different and sad which is probably a testimet as to the bulks of great people I met and how istantly this place felt like home.

I have to stop typing now or I'll just get really sad. =(

2005-08-15T17:00:00.000+01:00

10.28 – I can’t seem to concentrate very well today. Except for on stupid things, like the elastic ball I made. You know – when you have so many rubber bands that you make a ball out of them?! Well, mine is currently the size of a golf ball and I have MANY more to add. The problem is that I can’t really sit at my desk and work on it because everyone can see me. Although that doesn’t really stop me from randomly popping open a website throughout the day. Of course, at least I’m looking at a computer screen then and can sort of look like I’m working. Wrapping elastic band around a ball of elastic bands is a little harder to justify.

11.04 – You know what? I’ve been here for six and a half weeks and the amount of filing still to do is absolutely insane. I mean STACKS.

And after this week I don’t have to touch any of it!!!! Five o’clock this Friday is going to be the best minute of my life.

Oh, and the desk at which I used to file now has a computer, keyboard and scanner on it. Thus no room for sorting four-kashmillion papers.

11.40 – I’m really glad this is my last week here. Really, really glad. I’m practically a garbage bag! (Clever take on Glad garbage/rubbish bags. This post is brought to you by product placement. Where will you go today?)

2005-08-12T13:01:00.000+01:00

I so often think about blogging throughout the day but don’t do it. Today I am “experimenting” and going to post one blog at lunch time that I cleverly have been randomly updating all morning.

10.18 – Start blog. Yesterday was a weird day as my mood was all over the place. In the end, I decided I would stay up until I cheered up. So I think I went to bed around 1.30 after reading one chapter of Harry Potter. I’m supposed to be saving it for my overnighter at the WeegieLand Airport, but considering the girth of the book I don’t think it will make a significant difference that I already read the first three chapters. I’ve been very careful to avoid spoilers so far and haven’t even read a review of the book. And a complete change of topic, I advise any self-conscious female to avoid the brutally-lit changing rooms at Bay Trading Co. in the Princes Mall. Brutal. According to the mirrors there I am a giant walking barrel of cellulite. My favourite mirrors of recent memories were at the Mexx in Livingston. I want to get clothes elsewhere and try them on there. Also, Mexx is usually pretty pricey and I scored an awesome £3 shirt and a £5 skirt. Ahh, Livingston, such pleasant memories.

10.38 – I have decided my new job title is Information Management Technician.

Mornings are rough. Sometimes I sit here and forget to blink. I know I had breakfast this morning, but I barely remember doing so. I do believe I saw Shan in the livingroom this morning too, but I really can’t remember that either.

10.41 – I can’t believe I’m the only one in the office wearing a bright green shirt today. Obviously these people don’t know the real objective of casual day is to blind co-workers.

12.17 – Oooh! Almost lunch time. I think I dress inappropriately for work. This is the third day this week I wore orange flipflops. Sometimes (not this week though) I wear them with red pants.

“Hi, my name is Jen. In my previous life I was a rainbow.”

I have developed a nasty, deep, flemmy cough in the past couple of weeks. It was a sore throat and a dry cough, but a real smokey night at the Cumberland turned it for the worst. My sore throat has been gone for a bit over a week now, but I’m left with this deep, groggy, gross cough that brings the random comment from co-workers. It’s a bit irritating! On the plus side, my eye twitch that had been irritating the hell out of me since Monday seems to be, for the most part, gone. Woo!

Note to self: quit job over lunch hour. And go on MSN.

12.36 – Brr. I’m cold. In temperature, not personality.

12.38 – Jen’s Stomach: Grrr! Feed me! *grumble grumble*

12.57 – Screw this, I’m taking lunch. Everyone else is.

Today I toasted my PB sandwich for a little extra excitement. Or maybe because the bread is so thin that it just ends up tearing apart when I try to spread pb on it.

12.59 – Just bit into sandwich – totally forgot that I put RAISONS in it. It seemed like such a bright idea when I was in my morning daze. Wow – I wonder if all those RAISONS will fill me up. I may not even have room for my orange because raisons are so filling. As for the toasted bread, not good.

2005-08-11T13:54:00.000+01:00

Weeeee! I think I got my bad mood of two-days past out of my system. That day just sucked. However, all was good after I left my workplace. I went to see Aida and was quite impressed. I can't believe how talented the kids are in the festival are as Guys and Dolls was great as well. During ever play I reminice about my days on stage and wish I hadn't given it up. But that's what being self-conscious in junior high and having any singing confidence shattered does to you. So I blame my music teacher of grade six and the Triple Threats guy who made me sing the low parts of songs with the BOYS.

I will be home in less than two weeks. Oh my God. CRAZY. It boggles the mind! I'm not sure yet about how it will feel to leave here... It feels real, ("I'm going home!") but fake at the same time, ("I'm going home for a two-week holiday!"). I think it will hit me as I dump the mess of my room into a backpack and the room stares back at me empty. It's going to be sad. =( And in case I don't cry, rest assured my Edinburgh friends that I will be BAWLING MY FACE OFF on the inside.

I'm starting to have a few (very, very few) nerves about the whole Florida thing. Can I manage another entire year in a brainless job? As well, I'm really used to living a ten-minute walk from teh centre of town and being surrounded by small cafes, CASTLES, culture, history, etc. Orlando really doesn't offer this. I feel like the in-your-face culture of the States may grind my nerves a wee bit. And I will be sharing a bedroom. I have NEVER done this (save hostels, hotels and sleepovers) and I'm not sure how well it will go over. I am such a slob. It's awful. And what about if I feel the need for some alone time? Ah well. The pros of the whole thing faaaar outweigh these randoms worried thoughts. I can just go to the gym when I want to tone out the world. Or sit under a beautiful palm tree and read a book.

Yaaaaaaay!!!!

2005-08-09T11:14:00.000+01:00

As of 11.15 this morning I have 218,700 seconds of work left here.

I am currently trying to refrain from smashing my head through my desk. Help me. I was quite close to not making it here this morning but managed to show up at only three minutes late.

Oh. My. God.

Uggggggggggggh.

Sometimes I don't hide my bitterness very well, when coming through the doors this morning I said to a co-worker, "Kind of like the doors to hell, eh?" Whoops. Lets just say my mood this morning was not a chipper one. (Still isn't.) It's more like if I could start fires with my eyes the fire department would be VERY busy today.

Hiss.

2005-08-06T10:47:00.000+01:00

Okay - here is a REAL blog post!

Last night Kelly and I went to the Tattoo with Steve, his girlfriend (Natasha), his g'friend's mum, and Natasha's flatmate Anysa. It was REALLY good! I liked it much more than I expected, and I'm actually growing quite fond of bagpipes, especially when played in large bands. For some reason, multiple bagpipes sound better than just one.

First off, Edinburgh is so lucky to have the castle smack in the centre of town! It makes for the perfect, most amazing backdrop for the whole thing. It almost looks fake - it's THAT good. The different militaries come out of the castle and through side entrances under the spectator stands. The floodlights for the Irish marching band painted the Castle green - very nifty. And the Irish reps were kind of humourous - sort of marching to the beat of the music they were playing.

The music played by the Trinidad and Tobago group was AWESOME - a whole bunch of steal drums! They kind if danced as well. It actually made me excited to go to Florida (okay - I'm getting to the point that almost EVERYTHING makes me think of Florida thus makes me excited) as I remember some blokes playing steal drums in Adventureland in the Magic Kingdom.

The Russian military was also represented and there were dancers, singers and musicians to keep us entertained. Their music didn't have quite the pep of the T&T band before them, but there dancers were great! The male ones looked a bit like mounties with red coats and black pants but they looked moreso "winterized".

There were also highland dancers from New Zealand who were entertaining, but must have been FREEZING.

One of the English portions of the show had a renactment of the Battle of Trafalagar, (which I know nothing about,) as it's the 200th anniversary of it this year. They also used the backdrop of the Castle very well and had old painting of the battle scrolling on the front wall.

The Norwegian military was also entertainig and as someone bizarrely obsessed with symmetry (yet I am an absolute slob - no wonder I don't understand myself!) they entertained me with formations that actually, gasp, rival those of the 16 -24 year olds in their cars at the BK parking lot at home. The Norwegians also did some really neat stuff that almost made them look like a human version of a kaleidescope. (Sp?) For example, a bunch with guns would be standing facing outwards in the circle and one would do something such as flip his gun to his back and then the person next to him would do it and so on. Since they did it so quickly and smoothly, it was awesome, especially from our seats as we were quite high up in the bleachers.

The end brought out all the participants, (first the pipes bands then the rest, such as dancers and Trinidad and Tobago,) for a finale of sorts and they played some amazing music, including God Saved the Queen and Auld Lang Syne (the New Year's Eve song - a Scottish creation!). For the second-to-last song the infamous "lone piper" played "Lest We Forget" from the top of the Castle and there was a lone spot light on him and the lights on the bleachers and main stage area were dimmed. It was pretty cool!
I really wanted to take boatloads of pictures, but the venue isn't really right for it, especially since the bulk of the show is after nightfall.

Anyway, that's a quick summary and I know I left out some stuff (apologies to the marines and kids on motorcycles!) but time is always precious at the good ol' Edinburgh library!

This weekend will be a busy one. Well, tomorrow anyway. I'm heading to the gym after this, (I think... the sun and thought of a free Saturday afternoon may win me over,) and work this evening at 5. Tomorrow I'm hitting up a variety of Fringe shows as it's opening weekend for the Fringe and many shows are offering preview prices or two-for-one deals. My itinerary follows.

Sunday
12.00 - Guys and Dolls

19.00 - Anyone but Me

21.45 - David O'Doherty - Grown Up

Monday
17.45 - A Shut Up Comedy from Japan (which I am really excited for!! Saw a preview of it on the Royal Mile and thus bought tickets)

Tuesday
18.15 - Aida

And that's all for next week.

On Wednesday it's Shan's birthday so we are heading out for supper and the like. Thursday night is free and I work on Friday night.

I almost had my first good-bye last Wenesday :( I've been so excited about heading home, then to O-town, then to Florida that I kind of forgot the downside which is the many good-byes I have ahead of me to people that I will probably never see again. Tear. Sad. Luckily I diverted my good-bye to this Tuesday. Phew.

Now, thinking of that, I feel very odd and somewhat not as contente as mere minutes ago. Hmm.

Adios!

2005-08-05T14:02:00.000+01:00

I spent my whole lunch on MSN. So now I don't have time to post anything. Except this.

The end.

2005-07-29T13:28:00.000+01:00

Today it is raining a lot.

Today I remembered that I lost my umbrella a few weeks ago.

Thus, today I arrived at work very wet.

In other news, I go home soon! I have, at this very moment, 15.5 days of filing left. Although I will admit, I haven't done that much filing today. Instead I spent some time putting files in boxes and putting labels on NEW files. In related news, ugggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggh, hate files.

Work at the Cumberland is pretty good, although, bizarrely, I have only one shift next week! I figure I'll get a call at some point to go in though, I've gotten them every week so far. I actually quite enjoy bartending and last night was my first slow shift so I actually got to talk to my co-workers and some of the regulars.

So much to blog.. I swear I narrate my life in my head to myself in blog format and then forgot to actually type it out.

I made a crucial decision the other night: I no longer want to be the CEO of a large corporation. I think I'm more of a head or sescond-to-head of a division kind of girl.

I want to go on the Kelloggs diet. It involves eating lots of cereal and cereal type snacks. Although according to Kelly or Anne (can't remember whom - sorry!) I'm pretty much on that diet anyway. Not really though. I do eat cereal every morning but I eat it for supper only when I'm in a rush and darting from one job to another. Ahh, I heart cereal.

Last Sunday I went to mighty Livingston with Shan and Lindsay to do some shopping. I must say, I think I scored well as I spent only about £25 including groceries and transport which made up almost £10! As expected, I ate too much chocolate from the Cadbury Outlet and am now declaring myself off chocolate. I even passed some up yesterday at work! Although had one of the leftovers this morning when someone came up and offered it to me. But it was only one wee one.

I can't decide what to do tonight. I'm heading to the gym after work for the final day of my seven-day trial (thanks Anne!) and then what...? If it's still raining going out isn't that enticing.

Last Saturday I slept until NOON. That is soooo unheard of for me, but I was completely exhausted and had been working BOATLOADS.

Hmm, lunch is almost over.

Three and a half weeks til I'm home!!!

(Better go fast. Hmph.)

2005-07-18T13:12:00.000+01:00

Oh, I remember this thing! Hee hee... I actually did try blogging last week but the internet was down at work.

So I am still filing. Not content with it, but there is loads to do so the day actually doesn't go by as slowly as one may thing. I've been super busy as of late, and I find the hours/days/weeks have been flying by! Although I wouldn't mind the pace picking up a wee bit and it suddenly being August. However, it still floors me that July is more than half over!

This weekend was quite successful. Successful in what I do not know, but it was a great weekend! I worked a fabulous 9-5 shift filing and then worked 6-12.30 at the Cumberland. Got three compliments on my lime-green, one-euro earrings! I guess giant neon green hoops are somewhat noticeable ;) I also got bought a couple of drinks by customers (although I sneakily got cash for one) so sat around for a bit afterwards with Grand as we sipped (how danty and british of us) our pints. After going to bed at 2.00, 7.45 came far too early. However, Kelly and I were going to ENGLAND for the day and had to be at the bus station by 8.55. We ended up bypassing the £12.95ish bus that would require two hours of travel time each way in favour of the more efficient 45-minute train ride for a couple of quid more. Plus the trains run more frequently and later into the night. So by 10.00 Kelly and I were at Berwick upon Tweed, the most northern town in England. It was REALLY nice and it was def worth the train fare. Anne met up with us a few hours later and we went on a 6-mile wander of the town and the two neighbouring towns. There was a nice golf course and Berwick was surrounded by old walls that had been used as a defense system. THe whole place was really nice and I do recommend it. We also had a short siesta on the beach in Spittal which is across the river from Berwick. The river is appropriately called Tweed, hence Berwick upon Tweek and the first town/village on the other side of the river called Tweedsmouth, or something like that.

Somehow we got the energy to go out that night after getting home around 8.30 and went to the Walkabout. After crashing in bed at 2.00 I had another early morning ahead of me as I set my alarm for about 7.45 (ugh, again) so I could be at Fettes College for 9.00 for a fabulous 9.15 start to an all-day softball tournament. So tired. It turned out our first game wasn't until 10.15 so I half snoozed while waiting with the rest of the team. It was about 5.45 by the time I got home yesterday evening and I spent some of the evening drifting in and out of sleep. And, jut alors, I actually was in bed and asleep before 12.30!! Quite a rare feat. I would say I was even snoozin' before midnight, *maybe* even by 11.30. However, I was soooo tired this morning. I can't even tell you what streets I walked on to get to work. And I was surprisingly sore! Not super sore by any means, but softball isn't exactly a rigurous sport so I was expected a, physically, pain-free morning. (Mentally I always expect pain on any morning. Especially Mondays.) I actually had forgotten that I had been hit with the ball yesterday on the upperthigh/side ass area until I could feel the pain of it. Ugh.

Anyway, another busy week for me! Tonight is a softball game, Tue and Wed night I already have some social plans (i.e., nothing work related) and then I work on Thu allllll day, Fri alllllll day and Sat night.

Each season for softball seems so different. I swear I could hit well the last season I played with CIDA. Now all my hits sort of wobble around the infield. As well, during my CIDA days I sucked at the outfield. Couldn't judge the balls at ALL. And now, suddenly I have developed a ball-judging ability. However, maybe the batting thing had to do with pitching style. I'm playing slow pitch softball and it's getting used to the ball being six feet in the air and it being a strike despite the fact it bounces off the back corner of the plate. I do believe I *may* prefer fast pitch.

And, in a reference no one is going to understand, Grand definately won Best Rocker of the tournament. Totally made my day!

Adios ~

2005-06-30T18:43:00.000+01:00

So I now have two jobs and another job offer on the plate: PT at the Cumberland on evenings and/or weekends, a FT temp job weekdays 9-5, and I got a job offer from a hotel which I guess I'll turn down. However, I am almost tempted to take the hotel job because today I started the worst temp job on the entire planet. Haaaaate. I spent the whole afternoon (and I worked only the afternoon) in a fowl mood. Fowl fowl fowl. Hate hate hate. It's filing, and it doesn't really look like there is any end in sight. The girl who usually does it (poor thing) has been sick for the past two weeks and they kind of think she won't be coming back. Judging by her hand writing on the post-it notes I saw, she is probably young and probably isn't sick, she probably just hates the job. And she should.

I kind of feel jipped. I've been with the same agency since I got back in January and I don't feel like developing any sort of relationship with them really helps secure you a better job. As for temping, I feel like I wasted the last year of my life career-wise. If only I had known last.... No idea what I was going to write now. I started chatting on MSN instead... Oh right, if I had known last June that I would still be here THIS June I probably would have put a little more effort on finding a long-term GOOD job.

Anyway, back to MSN I go.

Happy Canada Day! I'll spend mine fighting back tears of hatefulness at work and then, more happily, spending the evening at our Canada Day party! Yay!

2005-06-29T14:11:00.000+01:00

Wooo! Uploaded some pics! Link to photos. Or use the link on the side menu.

PS: I am, I think, the newest employee at the Cumberland Bar !! =D

2005-06-27T19:12:00.000+01:00

Weeeeee, so much to blog.

But I left it too late and I think the librarian is going to tell me to leave soon.

I will be jobless again come Wednesday. However, I do have an interview on Wednesday morning (at the Cumberland, no less)!

Today I was in a bad mood. Maybe it was a delayed case of sun stroke from the MOST FABULOUS WEEKEND(!!!), maybe it was the fact the weekend was over, or maybe it was because I stayed up too late last night (despite attempting to go to bed at about 11.30 I believe it was closer to 1.00) and could barely bring myself to move this morning thus ended up running the last leg of my journey to work. Lesson learned: sports bras were invented for a reason and gravity can be surprisingly painful. Yeah, I didn't really learn anything about being punctual. I started missing the bus when I was FIVE, I don't think I'm suddenly going to become a morning person.

I was also in a wee bit of a bad mood because a leg of my flight home got canceled and now it looks like I'll be leaving from freaking Glasgow. My whole point of flying from Belfast was so I could fly out of Edinburgh's airport TO Glasgow. Now I'll prob have to spend the night in the Weegie airport, then fly from Glasgow to Belfast in the am. Yaaaaaaay. But, as I told a co-worker, if worse comes to worse, I'll just swim to Northern Ireland.

I also figured the cancelation of my EasyJet flight kind of gave me the opportunity to fiddle around and try to find and earlier flight... Hee hee. Believe me, I looked, but I'll probably be staying til August 24th. I am constantly bouncing back and forth from deciding whether staying the summer in Edinburgh was the best idea as, over a year after leaving the Island, I am starting to get a wee bit homesick. I thin kit's partially the realisation that after I fly south in September it will be at least a year before I see the red soil again. A YEAR. Do you know how long that is?!?! (Metaphorically, forever; literally, 365 days.) And after that it's off to Vancouver to work for the IOC or at least the Olympics in some aspect. Then I'm having babies. Lots and lots of babies! (Not really.)

On Wednesday, providing I'm still jobless, I'm going to put some new pics in Mr. Online Photo Album (I call him Op, eh? for short) from my bopping around Europe. This photos will include amazing things like the shiny red bike I got to ride!! I hear they don't have shiny red bikes anywhere except Zurich so you should all be VERY excited. I bet a few of you may even get clammy hands.

I have BOAT LOADS of reading to do. I borrowed Long Way Round from Emily and have looked at the pictures in it a lot. It's written by Ewan McGregor (heart!) and his buddy Charley something or other and it follows their tales of when the drove around the world on their motorbikes. So far, in the introductory chapters of their pre-trip planning I have learned two things: I know nothing about motorcycles and Ewan McGregor failed to mention me when he was talking about a few previous girlfriends. Funny, eh?

I'm also reading about World War II. I am an intellect now. Just because I read Peter Pan while traveling last month doesn't really mean anything. I didn't want to intimidate my fellow travelers.

Cherry beer is good. That was one of my lessons learned in Belgium.

Extra-classy Vodka is potent. I learned that in Edinburgh over the weekend. (We call it extra-classy vodka because we find it ironic. It's the grocery store's brand of vodka and it just has a giant white label with "VODKA" written on it in big black letters. And "40% proof" or something. See? Very classy.)

I'm going to Talahasee! yes! I may even learn how to spell it before I get there!

Anne (shout out!) arrived back in Scotland from her home in Canada yesterday. Apparently she bought a cowboy hate. Apparently I am jealous. (Substitute the second apparently with OBVIOUSLY.)

The weather here has been very un-Scottish as of late. By un-Scottish I mean ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS! Seriously. It's really weird. I mean, I'm TANNED and Scottish people are getting SUNBURNS. Despite that, I really wished I was in Spain while I was walking home from work. Just randomly thought, "Yeah, I wish I was in Spain right now."

Best chocolate bar ever: Chomp bars. They are 10p (think 23.5 cents) and are basically chewy caramel covered in chocolate. Someday I am going to the cadbury outlet in Livingston again. ... someday....

Anyway, time to leave! I actually got to stay much longer than anticipated and, as a result, got to blog much and reallllly need to run to the toilet.

Signing off and still missing l'Ile de Prince Edouard...

2005-06-19T12:56:00.000+01:00

Oh, me me. I hate job hunting.

I have a part-time job for a few weeks that pays *quite* well, but it's only part time, as mentioned above, and for only a few weeks, also mentioned above. It has the *potential* to become full time, but I'm not really crossing my fingers on it. And I have the wee issue of "Yeah, I'm going to be here for only nine more weeks," in any job interview. So I'm applying for reallllly basic part-time jobs. Like cashiering at a convenience store style place in the mall. But hey, it's only a ten-minute walk away and there is actually a position open for weekends only... Yup, so today I kind of wished that I would have went home for the summer. How lovely a rent-free environment would be. Of course, yesterday afternoon as I was bumming about in the park with Grand, Kelly and Shan, I was quite happy to be in Edinburgh and not on PEI. May have had something to do with the fab company and the abnormally hot weather... ;)

Anyway, I'm off to drop some resumes off and then head off to the gym. My last gym day! I got a five-day pass for £5.00. Turns out I miss the gym.

Adios ~

PS: Happy Fathers' Day to all the dads out there, especially mine =P

2005-06-14T13:25:00.000+01:00

I'm such a hobo.

I have nowhere to live and no job.

I *hate* applying for work - especially when it costs four arms and two legs to print anything around here. ONE copy of my cover letter / CV cost me £.80 to print. Think $1.50CND my friends. I am emailing a bunch of resumes, but I find people are generally difficult to get ahold of in this country and are sometimes rather lazy in returning calls. Although I knew this from before from my secretary days.

In good news, if I do give up completely it costs only £25 to change my flight to something earlier! Plus I would need a new flight to Belfast. Hmm, maybe *not* flying out of Glasgow isn't the way to save money...

Anyway, I've been sitting at the computer for almost three hours job hunting and the like. My legs are cramping up. Although I think that actually has to do with, gasp, exercising last night. I got a phone call from Grand last night as their softball was desperate to find a girl to play for them. Low and behold, I was shockingly available (not having work and no gym membership to my name) thus got to play a game. And now I want to play for the whole season!!! Ah well. And let me introduce you to irony: only the day before I had sent my softball glove home with my dad after doing nothing with it since bringing it over five months earlier.

Anyway, I have to go and use all the credit on my phone now calling people re jobs. Today I am calling "health clubs" (or gyms as I like to say) in effort to secure a job that would provide me with a free gym membership! (Priorities, folks!)

aiof ew oaijeow.

2005-06-03T13:56:00.000+01:00

Yee haw, and here we go...

So I FINALLY got into Edinburgh yesterday morning at about 11:15. Thankfully, by 12:30 I was at the hair dressers waiting to get my hair chopped off. Lesson learned: avoiding a haircut before travelling ("It'll just be so much easier to put it in a ponytail!") isn't a good thing. It leads to wishing the blade on your swiss army knife was three - four inches long instead of one inch. Anyway, so a good few inches of hair is gone, and I actually wish more was gone. Quite a bit more. Ah well, turns out I *can* get it cut again. (Shocking, I know ;) )

After the haircut I did the other essential-upon-returning-to-Britain item on my list: I saw Episode III.

SO GOOD!!!!!!! AHHHHHHH!!!!! I want to see it AGAIN. And, due to the movie and the previews, I know think I should find a super-hero or jedi husband. But that's just between you and me. I don't want people to go thinking I'm all crazy or something ;)

Ah shoot. I wasted my library time again poking around in my inbox, box office numbers, and other non-necessities. May be a wee while before I post again as my DAD (!!!) is coming to Edinburgh tomorrow for the week!

As for the summer, I'm thinking about looking for a live-in job in either Stirling or somewhere in North England. I decided the Lake District is too small-town for me. (Lesson learned from travelling: I don't do so well in small towns where the populations and tourists skew older.)

So quick notes about travelling:

- Staying awake on the trains to watch your bag is IMPOSSIBLE. I think I fell asleep on my first train ride, and probably about 80% of them overall.

- Belgium is GREAT!! One day there I rented a bike for a cheap 6 euro and biked almost 50 km. It was sooo nice! The only hill was a man-made overpass and I got to take pictures of sheep on the bikeride home. (It'll go nicely with the picture of a cow from Suisse.)

- I can sleep through a lot...

- Giant chocolate bars in Suisse are cheaper than a proper meal.

- I heart France! A lot!

- I got to go to Juno Beach, the D-Day beach that the Canadians stormed. It was pretty cool, and I actually remember Wal-Mart selling paper "bricks" for $1.00 to help build the place. It is actually staffed with Canadian students... So if you are looking for an interesting semester-abroad option...!

- I tried to go to Flanders field but ran out of time. However, I did get to go to Iepers which was rather devestated by WWI and saw a couple of cemetaries. Rather sad, as was Juno Beach and Caen. It's sad to think about why so many parts of those towns are relatively new compared to other parts of France/Belgium, basically they had been rebuilt in the past 60 years.

Anyway, am getting the boot... adios!

2005-06-02T16:33:00.000+01:00

And that, my friends, was Europe!

Next stop: sunny Fla ;)

(Not really, it was only some of continental Europe and I'm exploring Britain over the next two and a half months and heading back to PEI before Florida, but it's not as much fun to type that all out ;) )

Anyway, am getting the boot from the library. And today I was soooo lazy. It was GREAT!

Adios!

2005-05-25T18:01:00.000+01:00

Hey all!

I am in glorious Belgium today! I arrived in Bruges this afternoon with, shocking, no placed booked to stay. After eventually figuring out how to use the phone I used my useful Flemish and Dutch skills to get myself a room at the first place I called. And by useful language skills, I mean shouting into the phone in English, "Hi! Do you speak English?"

Bruges is AWESOME! The weather was fabulous today and the city is soooo pretty. I also had my worst eating day EVER (save Sundae Sunday) and now am sitting in the hostel with a slight tummy ache. Whoops!

I may go on a boat tour tonight of the city's canals and grab some BELGIAN beer at the hostel as there is a bar in here.

Tomorrow's plan involves biking. I haven't decided whether I am going to go on a tour or do my own thing. I *think* I may do my own thing as there is a walking tour in the evening (free!) sponsored by the hostel. So far I'm the only one that has signed up though...

The showers at this place are weird. I won't say bad, as the water is warm... But, umm, you have to pull down a chain the ENTIRE time one showers! What's up with that?!

Anyway, time to bum around on MSN/book hostels.

Adios!

2005-05-22T07:49:00.000+01:00

Whoa - been awhile, eh? I haven't been on the net in AGES! Ver important thing to note, according tomy inbox Miss Keri Shields is LEAVING Scotland today to returnto PEI and I am going to miss her boatloads! Saaaaaaad. But I shall see her in August. And surprise to all, but i am acctually here with MY MUM in Paris! And then my dad is coming to Sccotland a few days after I get back. Neat, eh? Anyway, huge thanks for all the emailsinn mmy inbox, but I ddonn't have time to email everyone back. Andd i've been ccarrying postcards for soe ppl for awhile... you'll get them eventually ;)

2005-05-12T10:55:00.000+01:00

Shock, this is going to be a short post as it's almost noon and I haven't even left the hostel yet! So much for making the most of my time.

Today's plans:
° Buying travel insurance as mine *may* have ran out a couple of days ago.
° Going to the Lindt Chocolate Factory to eat free chocolate.
° Booking myself into a party hostel as I am incredibly goddamned bored and lonely. (Although I spoke to the folk at reception of said party hostel yesterday and they are having a "quiet week". Ugh. Three cheers for going to a pub by oneself!)
° Renting a bike for a 20CHF deposit.
° Making sure said bike doesn?t get lost thus I can get my deposit back!

I am in Zurich today. Just thought I would add that in. I am supposed to be in Lugano today, but I changed plans rather last minute. Ironic since when I was in Lugano earlier in the week the weather was crap thus I could not take advantage of the hostel's pool and now the weather is super nice. Lugano is best done with company and good weather! As with Como, where I overnighted in Italy. Basically I have been to too many old people vacation spots and am in extreem desire of young blood/company. However, Nice was a freaking blast and I am sooo tempted to go back... =) (1-euro beers in the hostel - how can one go wrong with that?!?!)

Off I go...!

(PS to Mother, I hope you booked your ticket to Paris! Now that I have mentioned it on my blog there is moer pressure for you to come!! I am sneaky that way.)

üè[äà{öé§°¢ funny keys of the day, and the z and y on this keyboard are in the opposite places...)

2005-05-06T22:14:00.000+01:00

Hey all! (Saying that makes me wonder how may folk actually read this...)

Second hostel with free internet! However, sitting on the internet isn't overly enticing. In monumental news, I HAVE A SUNBURN. Shocking, I know! But that's what I get for putting on sunscreen when in shorts and a tank top and then stripping down to my bathing suit.

I arrived in Nice last night and encountered quite the mess trying to get to the hostel! Literally, as the main road was a mess from the boat loads of construction going on. So I hop off the train in Nice with my directions to the hostel in my hand. First problem: the road I am supposed to catch the bus on is ripped up and traffic is being deterred on one side of the road. After asking for help in a hotel I finally find the bus stop. However, yesterday was a holiday in France so the bus schedule was operating on reduced hours and I had JUST missed the last bus! Zut alors! So I tried to go to a payphone to call the hostel but the phones here don't accept change, one must by a pre-paid phone card. So I used my mobile and every last pence of credit on it since rates are GOD AWFUL. I get new directions from the chick at the front desk and decide to go online to top up my phone before hopping over the bus stop she tells me about. This was necessary as I was to call them after getting off the bus. So I go to the internet cafe and the birgin mobile website is down. So I had to buy a 7.40-euro phone card. Then I go to the bus stop I was told about. Unfortunately, that bus was heading in the wrong direction. Through my powerful reading skills I determined this BEFORE the bus came along. Yay! Anyway, as you can tell, I made it to the hostel and all was well. Met some Canadians (there are looooads of 'em here) and made plans to hit up the beach in Cannes today. And we did! It was great, the city is getting ready for the Cannes Film Festival that starts on the 11th. No celebrities yet though! ;)

After baking in the sun and splashing about in the somwhat-cold water, we all went for a nice walk around Cannes. The BC girl and I said good=bye to the two Quebecois boys and came back to Nice. BC girl went back to the hostel and I wandered around Nice. It was nice. Nice = nice. (Hee hee... I'm such a knob! And for the record, Nice is pronouned neice.)

The buildings here along the coast are so awesome! Actually, everything here is quite great. And breakfast at the hostel? SIX KINDS OF CEREAL. SIX. INCLUDING THE REALLY GOOD MUESLI!!

Anyway, my time is up, people are waiting for the computer!

Adios! (I'm still spanish in mind and often want to say "Hola!" when enterting a shop.)

2005-05-03T21:09:00.000+01:00

¡Hola!

Still in Spain and ABSOLUTELY HEARTING IT!!

Things to love about España:

- The upside down question and exclamation mark ¡¿

- The weather

- Palm trees

- A kilo of strawberries for 90 cents (in euro cents... I can´t find the appropriate sign on this keyboard)

- Spanish! I must say, not as many people here speak English as you would think. I can´t remember if I already mentioned it in my blog but a man at the train statin REFUSED to serve me as he didn´t speak english. Which would be a big deal if I wasn´t speaking Spanish to me. Anyway, I am enjoying trying out my Spanish but it can be rather frustrating by times. I think I´ll have a far easier time in France, but I LOVE the Spanish language and reading signs. (I ·may· be a nerd.)

- Cheap watches! I broke my watch about two days before leaving on my trip. (It fell out of the locker onto the cement floor at the gym. Whoops! Bad timing as usually I have a locker above a bench which would have broken the fall more gently. I know this as I have dropped my watch before.) I put my back-up watch on durning the flight here (a 11:50) and my watch is still at that time as it turns out the battery is dead. Whoops again!

- Efficient metros (in Barcelona anyway).

- Being amused by the fact that the locals wear PANTS and, some of them, LONG SLEEVES in this almost-30C weather.

Anyway, need to run and check for some folk Shan and I are waiting for.

¡Adios!

2005-05-02T14:24:00.000+01:00

Hiya!

Well, I made it to glorious España! And glorious is definately a well-chosen verb as the weather has been fab, the palm trees beautiful, etc. We flew into Valencia and blah blah blah. More importantly are the quirky things about Spain rather than the chronological write-up of events.

Marshmellows - Valenica and Barcelona seem to be loaded with candy stores comparable to the Sweet Factory. Within these stores one occassionally finds very lavish cakes made of what appears to be marshmellow! In the pretty-to-look-at category these marshmellow cakes outdo any pastry OR cake (save a wedding cake) I´ve ever seen.
Beaches - The Mediterranean Sea is well worth the hype! We went there twice, once in Valencia and Shan and I went in Taragona. The water is freakishly clear, the scenery VERY nice (I heart palm trees!) and the sand quite lovely, although it seems to get "rockier" to more east one travels.
Pizza - Shan and I got a giant pizza to share for supper. I had previously spotted said pizzas through the window when wandering about Tarragona earlier in the afternoon. The menu was in catalan, so I could barely read it. (Catalan is similar to spanish and french, but not close enough so that I can easily get by.) We ended up with a giant 8-euro pizza that was on a VERY thin, crispy crust and had four giant pieces of bacon and red pepper, cheese and one fried egg in the middle of it. No sauce. It was actually quite good and I do recommonend experimenting with egg pizzas sometime!

Anyway, I think my time is up...

Adios!

2005-04-25T18:19:00.000+01:00

Ten minutes to write something AMAZING and memorable.

...

Anyway.

This weekend was quite good! In celebration of my last Friday at Russell & Aitken, Kelly and I decided to partake in the Friday night after work drinks event that take place to mark the commencement of the weekend. So we hit the bars pretty much straight after work and were eventually joined by (in order of appearnce) Brandon, Shannon, Anne and Gary. All was good, but by 10.30 Kelly and I were ready to head home. And after many nights of 6 hours sleep, I found myself snoozing on the couch at 11.30. WOW.

Saturday I walked a lot, hit up the library, spent money, etc. Saturday night was my "leaving do" night. (Leaving do = Scottish for going away party.) First we went to the Walkabout where I FINALLY got to eat some kangaroo. Not a traditional Scottish meal, but that was had the weekend before when I had haggis in a Scottish pub. The kangaroo was good, more steak-like than chicken-like. In an effort to be a true Aussie, the kangaroo was washed down with a pint of Fosters. So now I'm officially Australian minus the accent. Then we headed back to Hostel PEI (as one friend has named our flat) for some socialising/drinking/eating and eventually hit up the town. And I definately give my mates props, as instead of giving me a going-away card (a leaving do card?) they had bought a Scottish flag and all signed the white St. Andrews cross on it! Had loads of fun and hit up a couple of Irish pubs. It seemed like everyone I spoke to there was Irish, so I couldn't understand them very well. On the way home blokes from Dundee stopped us and asked us for directions and I realised how infrequently I have tried to converse with Scots who have thick accents. After a year I should have MASTERED Scottish, but I digress. I'm good with the more city-ish accents.

Yesterday was Sunday. I walked lots (again) and saw a really cool museum. I didn't go in (i was waiting outside for the free museum buses that runs about Edinburgh as it turned out I walked VERY far) but the grounds were really neat. Maybe I'll find a photo of it someday and post a link to it. .... Maybe...

In other news, I have come down with a *slight* case of larangytis again. I don't get it in the first 22 years of my life, but get it twice within March and April? Huh? Must have been something I picked up in Glasgow when I went there in February =P

Anyway, time is up. Sad.

The end.

2005-04-21T14:00:00.000+01:00

Ahhhh! I am being indecisive. I have yet to book a flight home from Copenhagen - London - Edinburgh and the price of the flight I want just went up by about £10.00. I basically picked to fly that date because it was the cheapest day to leave... Now leaving Wed Jun 1 is the same price as leaving on Tuesday. Oooh, what to do?

And why do I want to go to Copenhagen so badly anyway? Why couldn't I have picked somewhere cheap to fly home from, like ... I don't know. Somewhere else. HATE THIS. (By times.) Anyway, I don't have a clue what I'm doing. Help me.

(I lie, I actually do have a VERY good clue about what I'm doing most of May. It's still fuzzy after May 21st.)

In other, non-trip news, I'm going to the Pizza Hut buffet for lunch tomorrow with Kelly and Keri. Kelly and I have been counting the days as we sprint up to work every morning. Speaking of work, only 24 hours more of it! Woo! Anyway, my lunch is over. God, I feel like cursing so much. But alas, no complaining about yee ole job yet.

2005-04-15T16:16:00.000+01:00

Ahh, Friday afternoon. Bizarrely, I don't have any work to do right now...

Yesterday I called my temp agency and gave them my notice! I shall be unemployed as of 26 April. Yay! I don't think I've ever been this happy to be unemployed. However, I realised/am worried that perhaps I haven't really been "saving" for this holiday. I don't think I've been spending excessively or anything, but... I don't know.

Anyway, last weekend we went to Livingston! It was grand. Kelly, Keri, Beth and I met up to catch a bus at about 11.00. We decided to spend the extra £0.10 and take the train instead as the journey length would be pretty much halved. However, we had JUST missed the train and had to wait for the next one. That was fine, it was only about a 25 minute wait. So we hopped on the next train, waited for it to move, and it never did as there was an electrical failure. YAY. So we got to wait 30 minutes for the NEXT train. YAY AGAIN. So we eventually made it to Livingston only to learn while the bus drops you off at the mall we wanted to go to, the train station is a good 30 - 40 minute hike away. So we ended up paying cab fare. Ah well. Lesson learned my friends, lesson learned! Anyway, it turns out there ARE deals to be found in Scotland but they are, for the most part, in Livingston. I spent more dinero than anticipated, but that's because I bought new trainers. SUCH A GOOD DECISION. I was kind of hesitant. Is it really wise the buy new sneakers just less than three weeks before travelling? Plus I would have to pay almost £4.00 to get back to the mall if I wanted to return them. In the end, I decided they were amazingly comfortable (it's very rare to put on a pair of trainers and find them fabulously comfortable INSTANTLY) and quite the bargain at only £25.00 (think $60CND). Already I notice the lovely difference between them and my old "I'll buy them cause I really need new sneakers" sneakers.

I also managed to score some decently priced make-up at a Revlon outlet. How I heart outlet stores. Okay, so I bought only nail polish (replacing a colour I have managed to misplace somewhere between my bedroom in Ch'town and, well, my bedroom in Ch'town) and mascara that I love but has been discontinued in Canada. I also bought a pair of capris (my true mission for the day as I wanted them for travelling) for £8.00 AND DISCOUNTED CADBURY CHOCOLATE. Yes folks, Cadbury runs an outlet store. Dieters, stay away from Livingston! There was a kilo of "mishapen" chocolate for £3.00, but I refrained. Basically I have no self control and would probably eat it until I threw it up. (How graphically honest of me to admit that.)

Weekend plans: karaoke at the Au Bar (an Australia bar - although I have yet to tell anyone about this), haggis as a late lunch tomorrow (probably my last plate of it... :( ), the Edinburgh Castle, free internet @the library, and gym time. (Have to make good use of the two weeks of my membership!)

I still haven't bought my interrail pass. I think I'll buy it tomorrow. I also have to get on the ball with some other stuff. I am rather worried about making a couple of train connections in France. And I should book some hostels or something. Or at least write down phone numbers so I can call 'em! Ugh. I need a spreadsheet. A good, nerdy spreadsheet. And again, doesn't anyone want to come with me?! I'll have Shan and Anne in Spain, but does no one out there want to explore Switzerland, France, Belgium or Denmark? Sad. The interrail brochure shows GROUPS OF PEOPLE in the pictures, not lone travellers.

Okay, so I may be making a Ben Nevis out of Brookvale (my clever take on making a mountain out of a molehill) as I realise that I will meet people travelling and at hostels but I'm jealous of the people who make the huge excursion of Europe with close friends and then can talk about it when they get really old even if it's the only thing they still have in common.

On another note, I have eatened so many freaking granola bars in the past couple of weeks. Last time I keep food in my room. "I'm laying in bed reading. I'll eat a granola bar." "I'm 'cleaning' my room, I'll eat a granola bar." It's pathetic, and Kelloggs, I'm looking RIGHT AT YOU FOR MAKING THOSE GOD DAMN SPECIAL K BARS THAT TASTE SOOOOOOO BLOODY GOOD.

At least they aren't on sale anymore so I can now say they are too expensive to buy.

Now there are toffee and while-chocolate chip granola bars on sale instead. Someone at Tesco is testing me, and I am failing. A lot.

I want to text people and make plans for tonight but my phone credit is gone from trying to call the electric bill people yesterday.

I think I figured out my flight home... Wednesday, August 24th: Edinburgh (or perhaps booking from Glasgow would be wiser) - Belfast for £11, then Belfast - Halifax for £173.00. I guess that's pretty decent for a one-way flight during the peak season. That's about $423.00 according to the handy-dandy computer calculator. Sigh. I suck at decisions like this... Especially since I don't know where I will be come August 23rd. It *may* make more sense to book a Glasgow - Belfast flight, I'm not sure.

Or I could just move to Belfast for the summer! Although really, I'm not too keen on that idea, although it would give me the opportunity to see Ireland... at least the Northern part of it.

I wish I had a phone card so I could actually make some long-distance calls. I have £0.08 left on mine, which is enough to call pretty much no where and have enough time to basically say, "Hi how are you?".

I think I would really like to go to bed now.

Yawn.

The end.

2005-04-13T13:48:00.000+01:00

Whoops! Been a wee while, eh? My excuse is that most of my internet time is devoted to scoping out hostels/activities in Europe. Last night I figured out where I will be EVERY NIGHT for the first half of my trip up until I enter Paris. Exciting! I won't post the golden schedule yet though, I have a few things to get through first. Like train schedules and actually booking hostels. I'm slightly worried about the train thing as I have a couple of REALLY tight squeezes to make... Like ten minutes to change trains. Here's hoping the train station in Narbonne isn't too big, otherwise I have a good four-hour or so wait... I also realised that I won't be doing very much sleeping in, and a LOT of my time, so it seems, will be spent on the railway. Hopefully not too much though.

And why was it so important to nail down the first part of my trip? Because the Lindt chocolate factory in Zurich, Suisse is open only Wednesday through Friday and I should get there mid-afternoon Friday. Priorities people! Europe isn't just about old castles and artwork! It's about Suisse chocolate and small towns that manage to have both palm trees AND mountains. (Three cheers Lugano!)

Another reason to leave Edinburgh: our heating bill for the past two and a half months is about £270. Want to hear what's worse? That's about $620. Seriously. And you know what? Despite that I swear I was freezing most of the time I was in the livingroom. SCREW YOU SCOTTISH GAS, SCREW YOU. If it's any conselation, that includes the Canadian equivalent of gas/heat and electricity. It also prooves why I'm so anal/compulsive about turning lights off. So this and about £90 in council tax bills are what I have left to pay in Edinburgh. It's like a £180 fee to leave the city and get somewhere cheap. This is suuuuuch a blow to yee ole bank account, and a REALLY good thing I didn't use my debit card to buy an interrail pass a couple of days ago as I almost did! Turns out STA travel charges a 1.5% surcharge to buy an interrail pass with a credit card. UGH.

Anyway, my lunch is over. Again. And I spent it all just sitting here at my desk writing down the prices of train supplements. I swear I'm going to need a holiday before I actually GO on my holiday. I stay til, like, 1.00am every night reading and/or mapping out train routes. Today I slept through my alarm THREE times this morning. Whoops! Maybe tonight I'll go straight to bed after Desperate Housewives.

Ha ha ha! Ahh, hilarity. So won't happen ;)

I don't want to go back to working... :(

Sigh, here we goooooo...

The end.

2005-04-06T13:43:00.000+01:00

I bought my rail book yesterday!!! For the uninitiated (as I was until recently) it's a book that contains the timetables for all the rail lines in Europe. It's quite the challenge... My goal for tonight is to figure out how long it will take to get from Barcelona to Carcasonne in France. It involves changing trains a couple of times so me thinks a wee bit of planning ahead is necessary.

I swear this is practically my most exciting month ever!! I'm planning a month-long trip about Europe AND spending free non-Europe time thinking about Florida! The only thing I don't like about this is the wind. It's been windy walking to work the past few days.

So, worries about Europe: I'll get lonely and possibly bored. I know I SHOULDN'T be bored travelling about, but I think there are only so many castles, museums and churches one can see before they blur together and look the same. So I'm trying to figure out, what do I enjoy doing on vacation? I think I'll be okay though, although I'm slightly worried about money. Either 1) that I'll spend too much, or 2) I won't spend ENOUGH and will miss out on great things because I'm too busy being stingy and counting euros.

In good news, I found this hostel in Barcelona! Ah, me hearts the sea and the sun.

Okay, I had 20 mins left on my lunch and it started pouring so I decided to not head to the bookshop and read "Rough Guide to Florida". Now I have only NINE minutes left and it's all fabulously sunny again but I don't have enough time. SIGH. Instead, now I have only enough time to go to the grocery store or convenience stores to buy candy and/or chocolate. I would like to get out and stretch the ole legs, but I'm lacking a destination and now have only eight minutes. In my chair I shall remain.

Last night I had cookies and cereal for supper. Feel free to hassle me via email about my bad eating habits and remind me about them when I complain my trousers don't fit properly ;)

Five months from today I'll be in sunny Florida! Yup, I checked the weather forecast this morning and it says, "September 6th: Sunny skies in anticipation of Jennifer's most fabulous fall EVER."

In THREE WEEKS from tomorrow I'll be leaving for Valencia! Yay! I swear, 2005 is one for the books! So far, anyway... Don't screw these next nine months up on me!

And since I don't get to my hotmail very often, huge thanks to all those who emailed me and said congratuations re my Disney job! You'll all be getting cheap "WDW 2005" red t-shirts for Christmas.

So guess what I'm most excited about for the month of May? Sunny skies in Spain, relaxing in Suisse, the Lindt chocolate factory in Zurich, biking in Bruges and Copenhagen, l'Ile St Louis in Paris, the Olympic Stadium area in Barcelona, Disneyland Paris in Paris (not paying to go into the parks but hanging about the grounds getting excited), and buying my train pass. Yes, I am quite excited to spend £285. Call me weird!

Worry of the week: I have a $20 backpack I except to get me around Europe with no problems. I mean, people spend $120 on their packs and have problems! Mental reminder to bring OODLES of duct tape. And I mean oodles!

Lunch ended three minutes ago. Sigh. I refuse to complain about this job while I am here so back to work!

The end.

2005-04-01T13:52:00.000+01:00

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!

By now I think I told the whole world my good news (or at least every single person in my address book), but for those who don't know, come September 6th I shall be down in sunny/hurricaine ravaged Florida working for the mouse! I'll be doing food and beverage which means I may eventually earn tips, but will likely start off selling beavertails or over-priced Canadian beer.

However, more important will be the days off - hello Disney theme parks, Universal Studios, Gatorland, pool, sun, Pleasure Island, etc!

I figure I'll be home sometime late August. Conveniently, Keri will also be home then and Emily the American may come up to PEI for a wee visit! I also declared last night that I am going to Calgary in September or October 2006 to visit the oodles of Albertans that I've met in the past months.

I'll be plenty sad to leave Edinburgh; however, it'll be much easy to leave for Florida than it would be if my visa expired and I was going back to PEI.

So in the excitement of it all, I have already arranged to get rid of the flat at the end of April (which begs the question what I plan to do with all my stuff when I'm travelling) and will be terminating my gym membership mid May. (Too late to do it mid April, which is perfectly fine with me.)

We went out celebrating last night. First stop was the Filling Station where there was karaoke but no tables. Second stop, pretty much two minutes later ;), was Belushi's where we took advantage of 50p shots that could never get anyone drunk and could give, at most, a sugar high. There was also karaoke. I sang. No record deal last night however. Maybe in time.. maybe in time...

I can't wait to karaoke in Florida!!

Anyway, lunch is over. I wasted my lunch and should have left the office but I surfed the net instead. Lesson of the day: one-way tickets from London to Halifax at the end of August are expensive. Shocking, I know ;)

I heart EVERYONE.

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2005-03-29T18:51:00.000+01:00

What a day... I don't think I've ever been so relieved to have only junk in my inbox! Phew.

Basically a bunch of people got emails saying they were either "on stand-by" or didn't get the Disney jobs. I just about hurled my chocolate and cookies breakfast when I read that this morning at work. I wasn't even going to check my email out of fear, but I laugh in the face of fear! Mwa ha ha! Anyway, no emails. I don't think I've ever been so nervous checking my email... Uggh... Christ. I want to curse so much on here. But I'll cuss in my head as Disney girls don't curse in public ;) (Keri tried not swearing while we were in Disneyland Paris... Eventually it turned into "not swearing in front of children" and probably "not swearing loudly in front of children.")

oiwagoi w09u3gw0u-g32-u3a2jpijsefkl;vmamvp'ajspj

I just hit the keyboard randomly instead of cursing. How productive.

Mwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwlkavneoia.

2005-03-28T13:42:00.000+01:00

Okay... today is my last calm day as it is still a holiday at home. And here, sort of. However, come tomorrow evening, all measures of insanity will be off the chart. Here's the schedule - Edinburgh is now six hours ahead of Quebec as we changed to daylight savings time this past weekend. So, the ABSOLUTE earliest I would get a call is, I imagine early Tuesday evening. However, if the Canadian calls follow the pattern of the Brit calls then the calls won't be going out to early evening of the office's local time. Uggh! So that would be in the hours just before and after midnight here. Needless to say my phone will be left on overnight ;) Although, one must wonder, would I remember the call? Sometimes when people tell me stuff when I'm almost asleep I have no recollection of it whatsoever. Although this, I imagine, I will remember because I will probably bounce out of bed, grab a Tennants from the fridge, call home/everyone, and then stay up the rest of the night watching Disney movies. I *would* put in the effort not to wake the flatmates, but no guarantees.

Actually, I'm kind of excited now and want my call to come at an odd hour. Now I'm getting excited! This replaces the sick-to-my-stomach feeling of last night.

Anyway, if I don't get a call by Thursday evening Edinburgh time I am to call Eric at Castaway and ask him if I got the job. I expect if I don't receive a call my then that I 1) did not get the job, or 2) am on the "maybe" list.

So lets try to focus on something else. (HA HA HA HA HA HAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHHA!!! ... right.)

On Thursday, or perhaps Wednesday, I came up with the brilliant idea to host an Easter shingding at our flat. Neither Keri or I felt a dinner was necessary, so I proposed the new Easter egg-stravaganza of Sundae Sunday. Sunday afternoon Keri and I trucked over to the Tesco and bought vanilla ice cream and numerous of toppings and sauces to make sundaes. Four litres of ice cream and numerous sprinkles later, there were ten rather full people lazing around our livingroom watching Old School. Anyway, Sundae Sunday was quite the hit and very economical! It cost about £5.60 for the whole thing so we just divided up the costs between everyone.

I went to the gym yesterday and the bowl that is usually filled with apples was filled with large, Lindt chocolate eggs. The good stuff, as we like to call it. I was told to take one on the way in, but assured the folk at the desk that taking one on the way in would just lead to me sitting in the locker room eating chocolate for an hour. So I took one on the way out, made a comment about being the hero of our Easter fiesta, so Front Desk Guy insisted I take more! Needless to say, the rubberarm had been twisted. In a completely related note, I sinned soooo badly when it came to money and sugar this week. The thought of eating anymore chocolate makes me wince - as with ice cream. (Exception: chocolate coated digestive cookies.)

In terrible news, the trip to Blair Drummond Safari Park (if you put that into google and type safari as sufari you get my blog!) did not happen. The bus did not show up. Ugh. Screw you, First Bus, SCREW YOU. It was probably a blessing in disguise as it was incredibly hazy and foggy and cold and rainy. However, us two canucks, one yank, one aussie and one south african made a brutal mistake Sat morning: we chose to go to Deep Sea World. Absolute waste of money. The only highlights were that corral reef photographs nicely, I saw a stingray eat a funny small fish and I got to touch a snake. And the train trip to the place was also lovely. Yay, train. And the building in which the attracted was located was about the same temp as outside. Brilliant. I love seeing my breath. Ugh!

I spent more money than I meant to on Saturday night because the bartender at Buddy Mulligan's was hot. I don't want to jump the gun here, but I'm pretty sure that out of the 100s of girls he served that night I was the most memorable because I was the only one wearing red hiking boots in the bar. And you know how often bartenders look at customers' footware. (Oh, sarcasm from Jen! How terribly surprising!)

Anyway, lunch time is over despite the fact I still have more I want to type. Maybe if I work fast. Like, super fast. And on the plus side, the non-Disney portion of my blog did help me take my mind off the fact that I am waiting for the most IMPORTANT PHONE CALL OF MY LIFE to occur within the next few days. Breath in, breath out. And re-analyze my interview for the 400th time. I'll be honest, it could have went better, but I was too excited to be overly professional.

Oooh.... now the ole mind is wandering again.. Help!

The end.

2005-03-25T18:27:00.000Z

Wooooo McDonalds!

So I FINALLY had my Cadbury Cream Egg McFlurry. It was good, but not as good as the infamous Munchies McFlurry of London. Ah well.

I don't feel much like blogging - MSN is too distracting... However, I bought a CD yesterday and let me tell you allllll about it. Actually, let me just tell you what surprised me: CDs here don't come shrink-wrapped! I noticed inthe store, so I opened the cover expecting it to be empty but the CD was actually in it! (Good thing really though... I mean, it was in an HMV, they would need a crapload and two halves of counter space to keep CDs stored underneath!) I asked the cashier about it (travellers talk to everyone/anyone) and she said it depends on the company regarding whether there is plastic around the cases or not. We both agreed that's it better for the environment and she pointed out that it means people can return the CDs if they don't like 'em.

The end. Time to converse to other Disney folk (or hopefuls, rather) on MSN. =)

2005-03-23T13:51:00.000Z

Ugggggggh... No phone call.

But that's okay. I decided I am going to find out at 9:30 tonight, which is 4:30 in Quebec.

Last night when I left the gym there was a voice mail on my phone and I couldn't access it right away. Cue panick. On the third try I got into my messages and it was from my temp agency. Sigh!

Note to self: call temp agency.

Planning for trip is coming somewhat well... However, I may need to cut off Norway, sigh! It'll be rather time consuming to get to and I'm not sure if I can make it up to Oslo before my rail pass runs out. I blame Suisse for being overly distracting. However, this could all change. Everytime I read about a different place I get excited about *that* particular place. Last night I was reading about Suisse, so now I am most excited about Suisse. The night before that I was reading about Norway, so was most excited about Norway. (Though slightly frightened because the book kept emphasizing how expensive things are there!)

Anyway, lunch is over. I meant to go outside, but my salad was really big (guess I was a little too ambitous when I made it last night) and I got distracted on the forums that myself and other Disney applicants so devotedly check on the hour to see if anyone got a call.

Did I mention I haven't gotten a call yet?

Wait - let me check my phone one last time.

Nope, no call.

Siiiiigh!

I'm also a wee bit... I don't know... sad perhaps that I'll be doing the bulk of my trip on my own. I enjoy to myself, but it would be awesome to have more travel companions. Maybe I'll figure something out... =D

The end.

2005-03-21T18:32:00.000Z

OH MY GOD.

How am I supposed to make it through the next week and a half??? Seriously, I almost jumped out of my skin when I saw I had missed a call at work AND I had a new voice message. (It was, unfortunately, a hang up.)

What am I going to doooooooooo? Waiting is hard.

Anyway, the ceilidh was fun on Saturday night!

Good news: the Lindt factory (the chocolate company that makes fabulously delicous melt-in-your-mouth chocolate) is in Switzerland and I may make an effort to visit it. We'll see. It rather depends on geography. And I like calling Switzerland "Suisse" because it's faster to write down.

I wish I had a bike. I mean, I *do* have a bike, but I wish I had one here. And in Denmark. Because so many Canadians, you know, have bikes in Denmark.

You know what's confussing? Earning in the UK, but having to file taxes in Canada and claiming your income and, potentially, having to pay taxes to the Feds in Canada. I have been paying tax here, but I should get all of it back.

It's kind of funny that I pay taxes into Canada as I'm not sure if the PEI health care plan even covers me aboard. And really, what other Canadian tax benefits am I using? Subsidized airfare? No, not really. Education? Hmm, nope. I'm not even driving on CANADIAN PAVEMENT. (I consider paved roads and huge plus on living in Canada.)

Guess what? Citizens of the UK pay half as much as Canadians for passports that last twice as long. I learned that last summer.

I didn't get a stamp when returning to Canada a couple of weeks ago. However, the customs lady said I should declare myself a TOURIST and not a resident. That means I should get PST and GST rebates! Right? Right? I mean, I really stretched my wallet for that Pizza Delight meal and those Bulk Barn "meals". ;)

The end, my time is pretty much up and, upon looking at my paper that is supposed to covered in hostel notes, I have been unproductive. Although I did write down that a hostel in Nice costs €18 a night, includes breakfast, and has a kitchen.

The end.

2005-03-19T12:26:00.000Z

Ugggggh... I'm at the library and all the windows I have open are randomly freezing up!

Anyway, three cheers for the Scottish weather! In all honesty, I could *probably* be wearing shorts today. I was sweating outside in my long-sleeved shirt! (Mind you I was walking up a couple of Edinburgh's steeper streets.)

Tonight my lacrosse team is having a ceilidh fundraiser. I've been to two ceilidhs so far and it's actually quite easy to catch onto the dances. Not so easy is developing coordination.

So I'm getting in the groove of planning my trip. This mostly takes place late at night when I should be sleeping or when I'm on hold when calling banks. (My job was a wee bit unexciting this week...) I have realised that I want to see way too much and too little time. On the chopping block thus far is Sweden (which I keep wanting to spell Sweeden) and Cannes. Yup, the whole country of Sweden gets cut off and France loses only Cannes and has gained Vimy as of this morning ;) Tough break, Scandanavia!

Anyone ever buy an HI card? Is it worth the investment? I've heard minimal yes's, but I only pay £7 for the card in Scotland so it *may* be worth it...?

By the way, Shan was kind enough to point out to me that RyanAir is having QUITE the seat sale. I may be flying from Oslo, Norway to Glasgow for a fabulous $42CND. Well, if I have to... ;)

You know what I hate? Not knowing about my wee Disney job. I mean, waiting for the interview was more so exciting because I *KNEW* when I arrived in Halifax I was guaranteed an interview. If I get the job, the wait to go down south won't be as nerve wracking as I'll have an actual start date and I will *know* that is when I'm starting. This is all up in the air! Am I waiting for ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE GUT CHURNING news, or, FABULOUSLY WONDERFUL AMAZING CHERRY-ON-TOP news? UGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHH! I didn't expect to find out this week, but come mid next week I'll be twitchin' in my trousers and running to the internet cafe or library every day after work compulsivly checking my email. Cry! What if I *don't* get it?!?! WHAT WILL I DO?!?!

Maybe I'll work at Universal Studios, that would show them ;)

Anyway, library is closing... Adios!

2005-03-18T17:52:00.000Z

Ugh, my post didn't work.

The end.

2005-03-18T17:35:00.000Z

Hola hola,

I am feeling a *tad* ambitionless. I originally came to the internet cafe to get a phone number out of an email and then head off to the gym. But now..., but NOW... Anyway. Yesterday was St. Patricks Day. Yay. I celebrated by going to lacrosse practice which was fun. I ran most of the way to practice because I was, surprise surprise, running late. Mostly because I decided to take a different route and got blocked in my a river with no bridge and had to backtrack. Very enjoyable! ;)

I've slept through my alarm for the past two days. Whoops!

I feel like an oger today. My clothes feel too tight (curse you, Tennets!) and my shoes too small. Plus I can hardly walk in my heels today for some reason. Maybe I'm just off balanced or something.

No word yet on the job ;) But that's expected... I don't imagine I'll hear anything before mid next week.

Today I work I played with my nose ring, bit my nails and scrawled on paper. I was on hold on the phone a lot today.

Anyway, I'm going to be ambitous and "go" to the gym now.

I originally put go in quotation marks because I was planning on being a sauna rat but realise now that I don't have my bathing suit with me.... So now I actually have to GO to the gym. Bathing suits are tricky like that.

Number of comments on phone about my Canadian accent today: 2

Adios!

2005-03-17T13:56:00.000Z

Chicago was quite the show! The orchestra was actually right on the stage which I, in my limited theatre experience, have never seen before! The first act is a little foggy as I was, whoops, randomly nodding off.

Today it is warm enough that I did not wear a coat on the walk to work nor when I was outside at lunchtime.

If anyone has a Europe travelguide they want to give/lend/sell to me I would really appreciate it... I know it's a necessary investment, but they run almost £20!

So I'm thinking about skipping out of Edinburgh for the summer and doing a live-in job and, gasp, actually saving some money. This kind of depends on whether or not I'll be heading Orlando way come the fall/winter. If I am, I want to save up some money before hand as living in Edinburgh has realllllly taken a toll on yee ole bank account and I'm pretty sure I'll be blowing oodles of cash in Central Florida aka Biggest Tourist Trap Ever. I'm already planning on getting my Universal Studios Annual Pass about two days after I get down there.

Ugggggggggggggh, lunch is over. Huuuuuuge sigh. It's quite possible that my work is a wee bit boring... But on the plus side, I get to doodle notes about my upcoming trip in May while I am on hold on the phone.

2005-03-16T13:51:00.000Z

You know you are cool when you use your lunch hour to go to an internet cafe.

Although, in my own defense, it's only for a few minutes to check my hotmail account. And FYI for you all, the Easy Net in McDonalds is expensive at lunch time :S Makes sense though... I mean, McDonalds is a place people go at lunch time!

Getting up this morning was surprisingly easy! Basically it was bright outside and I didn't have my watch on so I thought I had slept in and wound up bouncing out of bed.

Work, however, is an entirely other story. Could my eyelids weigh anymore? Jeez. I was put in a different office with people whom I have never met before and I'm sure they think I@m a knob because I yawned 4,209 times and literally had my eyes closed when I was on the phone. The last time I remember being that tired was once at CIDA, and once when I worked at the treasury and I swear my lamp was blinding me, as was the brightness of my laptop machine. It was a rough day, I remember it well. It was a Tuesday.

This evening should be a challenge: we are going to see Chicago! I am quite excited, but worried that the heavy eye lids may attack again. I could go home and sleep for about an hour after work, but I think that would leave me groggy rather than refreshed. So instead I'm going to the gym! I think that is a wiser choice, it'll give me an energy boost, perhaps.

On that note, I have to run across the street back to work now. I'll blog about my interview later... I was going to when I was home but blogger was down a couple of times, a storm scrwed up our internet, and MSN and rail passes got in the way.

2005-03-04T17:48:00.000Z

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am soooooooooooooooooooo excited!!!!

A job interview for a job I really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really want AND a trip to PEI!!!

I decided whoever interviews me on Tuesday is in the position to rip out my soul and stomp all over it.

And yeah, I can speak again.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And thanks for the good luck wishes I have been getting =)

I heart EVERYONE.

Time to go home and get ready for ceildh! (Och aye, that is bad spelling.)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

2005-03-03T13:53:00.000Z

Mmm, I just bought LIMITED EDITION baked apple and cinammon yogurt. I tell you, the folks over at MillerLite are GENIUSES. Well, maybe... I haven't actually tasted it.

I kind of keep forgetting I'm going home... Instead it's all TUESDAY TUESDAY INTERVIEW INTERVIEW. And a wee bit of Lone Star. Mmm.

My voice is mostly back. I tested myself with a few phone calls yesterday (part of yee olde job description) and *most* people could make me out clearly. Today I sound different but my audible levels (new word?) are much higher than the cracked whispers of the previous days.

What if I don't get the job?!?!?!?!?! Saaaaad. I think I would feel very lost.

I am going travelling in May. People should come. Money is no excuse as my Brit bank account is currently topped up with about £120. In related news, I heart my bank account bank home. And don't feel bad for me, I just pulled my rent money from my bank account hence the gulpingly low figure. And tomorrow is pay day! I must say, I do like very much getting paid every Friday - with the provision of me having a job, of course.

Sunday's weather forecast for Halifax is variable clouds. No snow. No thick clouds. Good. Now we check Brit-land's weather... Cloudy. Well, duh. It's cloudy most of the time. I officially declare these forecasts set in stone and they are not aloud to change. The temperature prediction, however, is permitted to change.

I have lacrosse tonight. I am going to be quiet. I hope.

Steam rooms are apparently good for soothing crap throats. I have used this as a good excuse to hang out in the steam room at the gym a couple of times this week. I'm so sad/pathetic... Everytime I'm in the sauna or steam room I think about laying around on my days/hours off in Florida. Jen = desperate/obsessed Also, the steamroom made me think about what it must be like to live in a rain forest. And if I should ever see the rain forests. It would be neat, but I would probably cause more damage than I would solve. I would like to volunteer in South America someday... Or work. Something like that. ("Quiero vivir en America de sud." See? I would do okay with the language barrier.)

THe end. Lunch ended three minutes ago.

2005-02-28T19:11:00.000Z

Today I couldn't send emails OR blog from work. I tell, they are getting tricky!

So... Countdown is eight days! Woo! And I *may* have come down with laryngitis and *may* have to recuperate by next Tuesday. But seriously, starting Sat evening I thought my voice sounded a bit off. It was almost completely shot by the end of the night but I figured a few hours of sleep would cure it.

So wrong. It has actually been getting worse over the past couple of days!

Saturday afternoon Keri, Beth and I went to Frankenstein's to watch the rugby match. Originally we were going to be pure Scottish and head to Rose St but I passed Frankensteins the promise of a free buffet at half-time and a free pint if Scotland won convinced me to convince the others that Frankie's was a good spot to go. The buffet did not materialise due to a shortage/back-up in the kitchen or something, but Scotland DID win so Keri and I got three pints between us as Beth had to leave before the game finished. Tres bien!

Jen's new favourite baked good: Millionaire Shortbread Cake from Cafe Luciano. So. Bloody. Good. I should buy some before I leave so I can take some home. Or you know, eat it on the plane. Man, my sweet tooth has gone freaking mad here in the past week. Maybe I'll wire my mouth shut. Anyway, multi-tasking (blogging/emailing/msning) has left me a wee bit pressed for time. Thus, the end.

2005-02-28T13:16:00.000Z

test...

2005-02-26T12:42:00.000Z

PS: Happy Birthday to Jeffrey!

2005-02-26T12:37:00.000Z

Ahhh! Am very low on time...

News:
- Bought orange coat last week. Is officially winter best coat ever.
- Leaving for Halifax in eight days... very excited!
- Am in library and need to cought a lot so should leave..

2005-02-23T13:20:00.000Z

Ahhh! Trickiness: somehow two small pieces of ONION found their way into my salad. I suspect they were in the strainer I used when I was washing my veggies.

I think I had some weird bout of a 12-hour bug. By about 10:30 last night I could barely keep my eyes open, my head felt like it weighed 400 kilos, the glands on my neck were swollen and I was bitterly cold. In fact, last night I cranked the heat on my heater, wore two pairs of pants, a t-shirt and a fleece to bed. I also wrapped myself in a blanket very tightly (so I basically had to hop to bed) and borrowed myself under the duvet on my bed. Then I proceeded to have very bizarre dreams. I woke up this morning sore and bizarrely nausious (which I cannot spell) and contemplated calling in sick. Then I didn't and settled being fifteen minutes late for work instead. I wouldn't have been so late but once I stepped outside I realised it was rather icey and slushy out and I figured the walk up The Giant Hill (tm) wouldn't go very smoothly. So I took the bus. Which turned out to be the third slowest bus EVER.

So what was with the slush and ice, eh? Well, Scotland, and Britain in general, is having rather weird weather and it's snowing frequently and randomly going from sunny to hail in ten seconds. I didn't realise it had snowed when I left for work this morning and had worn VERY inappropriate footwear. My feet were drenched and I've been wandering about in my sockfeet this morning. I'm heading out shortly to top up for phone, (which has had an entire £0.10 on it for two days! Realised that when I went to call Candace and the phone ring and I had only "one minute remaining". So I hung up. So apologies to the MacDonalds for calling them and hanging up on the second ring a couple of nights back.) and luckily I have my trainers in my bag as my craptacular "boots" are still soaked.

And bizarrely, I started to feel better on the bus. Funny how being in a crowded, confined space does that to you. Huh. Although I'm going to be proactive and invest in some OJ regardless.

The end.

2005-02-22T13:38:00.000Z

MY INTERVIEW IS TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!
!
!
!
!
!

So, what will happen if I don't get this job? I suggest you do the following:

Remove all breakable objects from my bedroom.

Pad the walls.

Remove anything that looks like it could cause damage if thrown.

Give me a skipping rope. (I'll need something to get rid of frustration/built-up energy.)

Cut out a rectangular hole in the bottom of my door so someone can push food and water through to me.

Give me a bedpan, toothbrush, toothpaste and face wash stuff.

Put me in my bedroom.

In two weeks time let me out of my bedroom and send me off to Spain or something.

In super duper healthy eating news, I am going to a restaurant for supper tonight. Well, I think others are going for "coffee", but I will not have eatened supper by the time we meet up thus Jen shall eat supper. And after snooping through the menu online, this is what I want: "Waffle Toffee Crunch Sundae - warm Belgian waffle topped with vanilla ice cream, maple syrup and laced with toffee crunch pieces". Or something else from the dessert menu. In other food related news, my morning gathering will be tough tomorrow morning. Well, the gathering should go fine, but I do need some groceries. I opened the fridge last night with all intentions of making a devine salad but had to settle for a "devine" salad of lettuce and broccoli. Umm, yum? Well, yes, it did taste fine, but it did leave something to be desired. And by something, I mean variety and colour. It was like a giant plate of green. Literally. If they offered salads of lettuce and broccoli in restaurants it would just be listed on the menu as Green.

"Hmm, I would like a streak wrap with a side of green."

I wish I had a steak wrap. Right now. Instead I had yogurt, a mandarin and a granola bar thingie for lunch. And in an inbrilliant gathering move this morning, I grabbed MANDARIN yogurt. If variety is the spice of life I am spice-less.

Yesterday I realised I could fly to Sweeden for the Easter weekend for about £50. Tres cheap! Then Shan pointed out that not much would be open over the weekend due to the holiday. Good point. So I don't think I'll go. Instead, I am going to the BLAIR DRUMMOND SUFARI PARK!!!! It's close to Stirling ("They will never take our freedom!") and is actually decently priced at about £8.00 for the day. And it will have a PETTING ZOO! I miss petting animals. And I really want my picture taken with a highland cow.

I saw a kid's book in a bookstore window yesterday called, "I Want My Pony!" or something like that and it made me think of grocery shopping. I think my parents will be the only ones who see the connection in that one, but allow me to elaborate: I used to write "Pony" on the grocery list and then, down towards the bottom, "Hay for my pony". Wasn't I cute when I was young? And by young I mean 17 or so. Yes, mucho cute.

I want to go to Spain. And Norway. So my tentative plan for May: Glasgow -> Norway -> Denmark -> Belgium -> South France -> Spain -> Universal Studios -> ?? -> ??? - > ???? - > Edinburgh. Or something like that.

La fine. Hasta luego...!

2005-02-17T13:05:00.000Z

I am tired and wish wish wish wish WISH I was in bed right now! All snuggled under the covers in my orange hoodie and sweats.

Ever have low-carb bread? Don't bother. I bought some because it was sitting on the discount "this bread is set to expire in two days!" rack and am quite disapointed. The first problem in the fact that the bread is whole wheat. I have been trying to eat whole wheat bread since Christmas and I'm generally fine if it's toasted. Tesco's cheapie "brown bread" is fine (although I'm not sure if brown bread is the same as whole wheat...), but this big-name, low-carb bread is crap. It tears up when one tries to spread something on it and it taste like hay. Which would be great if I was a cow. But I'm not. (Please refrain from commenting on any all-you-can-eat buffet behaviour you have seen from me when reading the cow comment. And it's really more vulture than cow-like.)

Options for the rest of my lunch hour: try to email (sketchy since the fire wall kicked in yesterday and wouldn't let me), go to the shops on Princes St (jeans for £10! and a FABULOUS orange winter coast for £9 which practically left me drooling despite its impracticalness), find a place that sells the exact same chocolate I had last night, or surf the net. Allow me to describe this wee piece of sugar: --- actually, I'm not going to because that would be sad. But it was really good!

I'm actually going to refrain from shopping because I feel like a knob coming back here after lunch with shopping bags. Plus I just ate and don't like trying on clothes right after I eat. And I don't really need any clothes.... Although, in my own defense, the three items I am contemplating purhcasing COULD very well be needed soon! The orange winter coat could replace my current winter coat that is falling apart. A pair of jeans that fits well would also be nice. And I was looking at a cheapie black sweater since mine is getting worn from excessive washing and the fabric is starting to fit bizarrely also due to excessive washing/wearing. All practical purchases, but shopping seems so... needless. Technically, I already have all of the three items I want, they just aren't up to par with their original form yet are still wearable. So, by buying new stuff, am I taking the proactive approach to searching for these items for when I will desperately need them or am I just spending money because I have it? Oh, the dilema in my feeble mind.

Tonight is lacrosse night... and I have the energy of a dead wild boar to expend. Should be good! ;)

The end. I'm going for a walk.

2005-02-15T13:41:00.000Z

Oh how quick lunch goes. I am super behind on emails and communication of any form with those on the other side of the Atlantic. Huge apologies! My excuse for not catching up yesterday is that I went to the library at lunch time to return two books, one which will get me a late charge. Sigh. Yup, the Edinburgh libraries actually fine you if you return a book late. Even ONE MERE DAY LATE. Yes, this has happened to me. And yes, multiple times. What can I say? My bad.

Today I spent lunch time surfing the net and, duh, eating.

Happy belated Valentine's Day to you all! I had a good evening and enjoyed splendid curry cooked up by Keri, chocolate purchased by Shan (who else? ;) ), and watched Anne/Keri/Shan enjoy white wine provided by Anne. I'm not too big into wine, especially since Candace's Dad tried to poison me with some a few pubcrawls ago. Yes, it was the wine's fault. It had nothing to do with the fact I was in a bitter mood earlier in the day and drank the most bizarre mixture of alcohol ever. In a related note, I miss UPEI pubcrawls.

Glasgow was glorious this weekend! I had initially thought that Glasgow was a bit sketchier of a city, especially by night. And indeed it could be, but I realised I was probably comparing it with the wrong places. I mean, I wouldn't want to be wandering about Cowgate on my own in Edinburgh either. I stayed til about supper time on Sunday and spent a couple of hours in the afternoon wandering about and happened upon the night area of Glasgow! It had a very large park in front of the Glasgow University and there were lots of lovely townhouses similar to those in New Town and Marchmont. The park had a river divided it in half and I eventually found myself at the Museum of Transport. (Free toilets!) I went in for a quick wander through and someone who is big into cars, trains, trams, etc would probably really like it there. When walking about I also came to the conclusion that it is probably easier to be a backpacker in Glasgow versus Edinburgh because Glasgow is much flatter!! As well, it seems more into what I like to call "grid city" mode as most of the streets are parrallel or perpendicular to each other. I'm comparing this to the maze of Old Town - it does have the main streets but its littered with small, teeny-tiny streets/closes.

Big purchases in Glasgow include a POSTCARD (OH MY GOD!!! Went all out on that one...), two burnt CDs from the Barras, and a ripped DVD with four Disney movies on it. I basically chose it because it has the Emperor's New Groove on it. Classic. I also bought an orange hoodie/zip-up thing for an entire £3.00. It's all snuggly and I wish I was wearing it RIGHT NOW. But I'm not because it's probably not very "work appropriate".

In RIP news, I finally lost one of my mittens. I think I lost it in Edinburgh. Maybe it's with my sunglasses, which I left at the bloody zoo when Shan and I went in to bascially rest our feet after a long walk. Actually, I know my mitt isn't at the zoo. But it's somewhere. And I am not surprised at all that I lost it. I should have lost both of them in Paris, where they fell out of my pocket but someone was kind enough to call after me. I also left one in the lu at the Tampere (Finland) airport. And those are just the times I actually REMEMBER almost losing them. Crazy.

Anyway, lunch time is tout finit. Zut alors!

2005-02-12T09:20:00.000Z

Hey all:

Hee hee hee... Can you tell I now have a job that actually keeps me busy while at work?! Hence no blogging in the past week.

So London went over all fine and dandy. I got there at 6:30 in the morning and actually had a pretty decent sleep on the bus on the way down. The investment of the day was a £0.50 map of London from McDonalds. It was really detailed, folded up neatly in the pocket and covered a good bit of area. On the reverse side of the map was a map of the tube system and a couple of coupons for greasy McDonalds food. I bypassed them as I'm not too keen on McDonalds. Despite that, a mere 12 hours or so later I found myself happily leaving a McDonalds at Leicester Square with a Munchies McFlurry which I HIGHLY recommend! However, I believe they are available only in Britain. Tough luck, Canucks!

I think one of my favourite parts of London was wandering around in the morning before the city really "woke up". Not too many people were out, the sun was slightly out, (more than it would be throughout the rest of the day,) and people were busy getting their shops ready for the day.

I enquired about getting cheap tix to The Lion King, but the cheapest was about £33 or so. Not that cheap, plus it would have ate up a good chunk of my afternoon.

In a nutshell, since I'm rather pressed for time and leaving for a weekend getaway in a half hour (!), I walked soooooo much and didn't take the tube or bus once! I hit up Buckingham Palace (it was on the way to something else), St James Palace (chez Prince Charles), Picadilly Circus/Street, Regent St and Oxford St (lots of shopping), the theatre district (which I want to box up and move to Charlottetown because I hearted it!), the theatre museum, the Imperial War Museum (wanted the Brits' perspective on WWI/WWII and needed to learn something), walked along the Thames, saw The Maple Leaf (a bar - but didn't go in because I was trying to make it somewhere for 2:00 and then couldn't find it when I went hunting for it afterwards,) and some other stuff. My feet absolutely ached towards the end of the day. I was standing in a bookstore at about 8:00 (I didn't want to venture too far away from the bus stop at that point and risk getting lost) and it took a lot of pride not to plop myself down on the floor and start reading. So I stood and leaned against the wall. In heavenly news, the bookstore had six floors! However, by that time getting up to the first floor (second floor in Canadian terms) took sooooo much energy so I didn't explore too much. Overall, a very nice day. I pretty much fell asleep on the bus instantly on the way home and had a pretty good sleep! The bus wasn't crowded on either journey and I had my own double seat. Very nice! Also, Shan let me borrow her airplane blow-up pillow and I could tell I was the envy of everyone else ;) I also had my dad's sleeping mask cover eyes thing that he got for free on a plane whic was also very nice.

The following day Shan and I headed to a Chinese New Year show which was quite good! At first it didn't look too promising as there were FOUR decently long speeches made. Then they got to the first dragon dance and it was all entertaining from there. Except tai-chi. I'm sure it's relaxing and stuff to do, but watching it a little bland. Most impressive were the Chinese Acrobats! It kind of reminded me of what a mini, toned-down version of Cirque du Soleil might be like.

So this weekend Anne, Shannon and I are heading west. Unfortunately there is not a gold rush and instead we will be milling about Glasgow and Bothwell Castle =P Anne and I plan on staying the night to take advantage of some of the Weegie nightlife. I think there may also be a rugby game going on today, so I'm sure the drunk weegie men will be out and about in their kilts.

I realise it seems weird to insist that men in skirts are attractive, but they really are! Get a medium-height, somewhat-built, younger Scotsman in some boots, a kilt, and something simple like a rugby shirt and you have your calendar-worthy men for the year.

Three and a half weeks to my interview!!!

In an unrelated note, lacrosse practice was quite good on Thursday night. A lot of the really good people were missing so it seemed like more people got a chance to actually play rather than run around and do nothing. Don't get me wrong, everyone is really nice, but it's a killer-instinct habit - of course you are going to try and get the ball to the better players!

I pulled a muscle last Monday doing something incredibly simple. I believe it was when I was hopping onto the stair master I just kind of twisted my leg or something. It hurt a wee bit, but I pretty much worked through it and it went away. I went running (very very briefly over lunchtime!) on Tuesday and it was fine. Got to spin class on Wednesday and it wasn't overly enjoyable. First my left foot kept cramping up and then my previously pulled muscle started flipping out. I had forgotten about it until that point. It actually wasn't too bad except when we had to "sprint", (go as fast as your legs will flail on minimal resistance,) that it kind of hurt. I almost skipped lacrosse on Thursday but it actually felt rather good to move after sitting down at work all day and basically I couldn't sprint there either and stretched lots before hand. It was sore yesterday morning and still a wee bit tender today, but whatever.

I'm sure that was VERY exciting for you all to read.

In other news, I should hop along here. My bus is leaving for Weegie-land in 25 minutes and I want to stop at a couple of places on the way. (Stop means take pictures of the Edinburgh Castle while the sun is somewhat out.)

Oooh, I can walk to my new job in 23 mins practically. Yay! Yesterday morning I even had time to stop and buy a bottle of water and go to McDonalds for a free bagel.

Buh-bye...

2005-02-04T15:23:00.000Z

La la la... Man, this afternoon is boring.

So I have yet to buy my bus ticket to London. You would think given how much reading I have been doing about what I want to do I would have bought my ticket ages ago but, alas, I was waiting for pay day. So here is hoping that there are actually still tickets left or I am going to one terribly mopey girl tonight, despite the fact it would be my fault.

Thirty-two days til my interview! In the meanwhile, I have to get a nice pic taken of myself as I need to bring it along to the interview. Maybe a nice picture of me in my reindeer antlers. To show I have a sense of humour and don't mind being decked out in an ugly costume.

I think I'm tired. I woke up rather early today, even before my alarm which I set early so I could hit up the train station before work. (Checking out train prices and schedules which turned out to be a waste of time! Ah well, maybe it'll come in handy in the future.)

Hmm, still not time to go home.

Nope not time to go home now either.

What about now? Nope, still another 90 minutes.

Tick tick tick.

Tock tock tock.

!!!!!!!!

Bored.

I will now give you a list of things I'm bringing with me tomorrow, assuming I manage to score a bus ticket.

Book with travel info on London

Sheet of stuff to do with addresses and junk on it

Food

Water

Spoon/knife/fork (ya never know!)

Camera

MP3 Player

900-million batteries

Umbrella

A couple of brochures I have

jkeaeoine

I got bored with my list. So now I am writing my name on a piece of paper over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

The end.

Heart, Jen

2005-02-03T15:24:00.000Z

I'm going to London! I checked the weather and it's not supposed to be awful so that is good enough for me =) I think I'll be able to fill my time quite well, although I'm not sure what I'll do in the evening. I don't think the coach will leave to come back to Edinburgh until 22:00 or so, and that gives me about four hours from when most "attractions" close until departure. Obviously I won't be arriving at the station exactly at ten, but I will have a wee bit of time to wander about some more. I could always, you know, do the sit-and-eat-supper thing I suppose!

I was looking into tickets to see The Lion King as well, but am having trouble finding anything reasonably priced online. I think it would be pretty nifty to see it though so I'll probably take a wander over to the theatre about an hour or so before show time to see if they can help me out. I plan on being in the area anyway! Mind you this will eat up about three hours of the afternoon and the sun will be setting when I get out of the play... but apparently it's a really good show!

Plans for London:
- Walk, walk, walk and walk along the South Bank/Thames River.
- As mentioned above, see if I can get a decently priced ticket to The Lion King.
- Hang about the theatre district (aka Covent Gardens) and go into the Threatre Museum.
- See the British Museum... I don't remember why I wrote this down from the website I was looking at, but there must have been something that interested me there...
- Maybe the Imperial War Museum because there was something close to there that I also wanted to see which I now cannot remember.
- Go to Harrolds (or whatever that old department store is called) and see what the fuss is about =P

In other news.... yup, there isn't any. Countdown to interview: 33 days!

I think there are cupcakes and such by the kettle on my floor but I don't know if we are allowed to take them. Well, I'm pretty sure we are, but I feel like an ass walking by everyone just to get one and then retreating (hee hee... treat) back to my desk out front which I am not really supposed to leave anyway. Yesterday someone actually came out and offered me a cake, maybe the same will happen today. Because, you know, I need a cupcake or whatever they have about as much as I need killer bees chasing me up Dublin Street. (For the record, Dublin Street is just a steap hill close to our flat. It's the one that makes ya sweaty on the way to the main strip. Stupid hill.)

The end.

2005-02-02T15:08:00.000Z

Oh right, I forgot something in my post below despite it being what I was originally intending to write about.

It has been decided that I will probably do a good few weeks (or more) of travelling in May and/or June. I'm looking for company! Seriously, if anyone wants to travel anywhere in Europe, even if for only a few days, let me know! I can help you find some cheap flights to Europe and stuff :)

I was originally thinking of travelling around then anyway (almost summer weather and not-summer crowds) but last night Candace mentioned something about Belgian chocolate and I ended up spending sometime reading about Belgium. I was thinking of going sometime in March, but figured I may as well wait and do more than one country at once and make a mission out of it. So if anyone wants to come to Belgium with me...!! Or anywhere really. But I would really like to hit up Belgium, France, Spain, and/or Italy and, slightly off the usual path, Norway.

Travel to Belgium is quite cheap on Ryan Air (from Glasgow midday which means you pay only, like, £4 to get to Glasgow and then £15 to get to Belgium) but the airport shuttle from Brussels Charleroi (or whatever it is called) is a hefty 35 euro - about $55CND.

Travel with me!*

*unless you are hard to get along with, like blowing lots of money on accommodations or hate walking.

2005-02-02T14:19:00.000Z

Mmmm, yoghurt. I must say, British yoghurt is much better than Canadian yoghurt, if only for the vast amount of flavours. For example, Canucks, when was the last time YOU had Peach & Maracuya yoghurt? Heh - I bet you have never even had a maracuya. Or, if you are like me, even heard of it =) But it has to be a food, because there a picture of a peach and another fruit, which I will cleverly assume to be the maracuya, on the label. Also in existance is "lemon cheesecake flavour yoghurt with pieces of cake". And it's actually just as healthy as, say peach and maracuya yoghurt. Muller Light, I heart you.

And yes, I may have just finished eating some yoghurt.

Last night I read some of The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World in the bookstore. In a related note, I am going to work there =D Yes, I realise there is a huuuuuuge if regarding the interview quality on my part, but I'm being an optimist here! And I may lower myself to begging at the end of the day if I feel the interview didn't go well. But it will go well, so there =P

Today I am going to be adventurous and try bike-ercise (or whatever it's called) class today, provided that the class hasn't already filled up. Hopefully it'll go better than the step class. I figure it'll be harder on the legs, but easier to follow along with as, well, really, there is only one thing you can do with your legs - pedal.

I just realised that it is Wonderful Wednesday today!! I was thinking it was still Terrific Tuesday. Exciting! Two more days and two hours of this job. For the most part, I don't mind it except when I get calls and the person on the other end of the line is really hard to make out. I must admit, working so close to home has been VERY nice! One of my temp agencies put my resume forward today for a job that is also decently close to home. I figure it would take about a half-hour to walk there. Not too shabby, but even BETTER: this place would be about a hop, skip and a jump - - GOOD NEWS! Okay, in the midst of typing this I answered the phone a bunch (it's weird - it randomly gets really busy) and I got a call saying I got the job! Woo! And, perfectly, the job is expected to go 4 - 6 weeks. Four weeks would bring me exactly to my leaving date! And I checked the location exactly on my map and it's pretty much EXACTLY where I thought it would be so I am, literally, mere moments away from my gym. Very good!

Tonight Desperate Housewives is on. Watching this will be good for me because it's an ABC-network show and ABC is owned by Disney =P

In the meanwhile, I have to go and google "maracuya" now.

Cheers/ta/adios!

2005-02-01T14:55:00.000Z

Hmmm.

Not too much going on... The phones were busy, but note the use of past tense.

I got a free flapjack or some sort of square today at work. It was okay. Despite its imperfections I managed to eat it all anyway ;)

Last night I attempted a step class at the gym. Not cool. We kept doing the same exercise over and over and I think by the end of it I was still managing to muck it up. Uggggh. I think have great difficulty listening to instructions. I usually write stuff down. So when I get to a fitness class or am running about during drills on the lacrosse pitch I have to stand back and watch people do it first. Maybe I am a visual learner, I used to think I learned better by listening.

I'm slightly up in the air about heading to London on Saturday as someone is apparently having a leaving do on Saturday night.

I think I am getting to a point where I get bored easily, especially around our flat. Maybe it's a sign of something. Maybe I am getting to be "done" with Edinburgh or am just anticipating something. However, whatever it is, I will miss Edinburgh when I leave it. It's pretty neat to be around such a historical city. Should be a wee bit of a visual shock when (okay... if) I get down to Orlando. Or maybe it all boils down to the fact it's January, (although it's not cold here,) my diet, sleeping pattern, two left feet, etc. Or the moon or tides, they affect many things.

Edinburgh's winter has left me somewhat surprised. I was told to expect oodles of rain and horrendous winds. The wind has its days, but the rain has been lacking since I have return post-Christmas. (During Christmas there were floods, but I wasn't around for them.) The weather has actually been quite nice and my umbrella has actually seen minimal use the past couple of weeks.

By the way, welcome to Fabulous February! I believe it is Groundhog Day today at home, is it not? I voted on The Weather Network and guessed the groundhog would see his shadow and winter would continue.

We watched Love Actually last night. It showed lots of happy, in-love people at the London Heathrow Airport. I will be at Heathrow in less than five weeks! I have a couple-hour wait too; I imagine I too will find love in the airport. Cue me hugging a stuffed Paddington Bear in one of the 92,307,380 gift shops! I actually haven't been in Heathrow since we switched flights there on the way to Athens way back when in grade 11. That was a fun trip. I don't think I fully appreciated it though, half the time I didn't know the cultural significance of what we were looking at. ("Look, old stuff! HEEEEEYYY!!! A DOOOOOG!") That's why I like having a guidebook with me when I travel here.

In an related note, (I will get to why it is related in a moment,) I want to see a Will Ferrel movie soon. Why this was related: Will Ferrel talks about seeing a dog to his half-brother in the movie Elf. Cue hilarity and the best snowball fight EVER. Interesting fact: the English pronounce "alf" (like the alien) and "elf" the exact same way, or seemingly the same to this Canadian. On that note, I am now going to go read "memorable quotes" from Elf. I love Internet Movie Database.

2005-01-29T11:14:00.000Z

Hey hey:

Mmmm, haggis, neeps and tatties!! I must say, the meal was quite good and I do recommend it!

Odd that the first time I drink Crown Royal (Canadian whisky) and Budweiser (American beer) is at a Scottish celebration. Anyway, I don't have much time but let it be known that is was a good night and I wish I could bring everyone some haggis back in March, but alas, I doubt the gun-toting man at customs would like that. Just a hunch. As well, the shortbreak was delicious and I ate way too much of it.

This morning I woke up at 8:00 and couldn't fall back asleep because I was excited it was Saturday.

I want my Disney World interview to be now. Well, not *RIGHT* now, but soon. Although this gives me much time to glam up my resume, get a pretty picture of me, and to spruce up the interview skills. Although I won't be publishing my practiced answers online, someone may steal them ;)

Adios!

2005-01-28T11:21:00.000Z

Ahhh, Australia Day. I got sidetracked by my Oscar post yesterday and then by a website and wrote nothing about it. Poor Grand (shout out!) was very distraught as he wanted to read about Australia Day while "working".

So, The Walkabout was absolutely packed with a VERY long queue outside. Keri and I were fortunate enough to know someone at almost the front of the queue and were able to get in with minimal waiting. I felt the Aussies really didn't bring it all to the table. Some people were dressed up patriotically, but more were not. I was a bit disapointed. I mean, I was wearing more yellow and green then many! In good news, I managed to snag myself a good souvenir as I won a "beer mit" at the bar. You know those insulated cup-shaped things that you can put a can of beer in? Well, it's one of those, except sized for a pint glass, and it attached to an insulated glove. Technically you don't even need to hold onto the glass, just hold your hand up. Brilliant, eh? It's blue and says "Fosters Beer - Happy Australia Day" on it or something like that. As I already said, a good souvenir. I like the quirky things. Other than The Walkabout, the bars weren't really too happening. The Grassmarket was a bore, and the other Aussie Bar we went to was a snore. Insert rhyming poem.

Website distraction of the day: Television Without Pity.

Last night we did a rather bizarre drill during warm-up at lacrosse. The basics were something we were all quite familiar with (forminga star and passing/running to the person opposite you), but the person running the practice threw in the twist of having to yell the names of the person to your right and the person to your left. Sounds simple, I know, but there were a few new people around whose names I did not know so I would catch the ball, start running, stop, look to the sides, get confused, mumble some names, and eventually pass the ball. Other than that, last night was a good time, as per usual, and tonight is "Edinburgh Capital Does Burns Night" night. That is the unofficial name given to the event by me this morning. No one else knows about it, but I imagine they would all approve.

In a genious idea, I wore my trainers during the walk to work this morning. Two-and-a-half-inch-heals tend to slow me down when walking. Other than that, new shoes are working out great ;)

Five and a half weeks until I go home! Weird... It feels like I was just there! Oh right, because I was just there. More appropriate countdown, five and a half weeks to work on acing my interview. ACING. PERFECTING. NAILING. By the way, if I get into this programme I would have to share a BEDROOM with someone. Other than the odd sleepover and nights at hostels, I have never really done that. I'm sure it'll be fine though, because if I want to leave and have "alone time" I tend to actually leave whatever living dwelling I'm in and go for a wander or to the gym or something. And good news: there is a gym onsite there! Phew, good forbid I be social and actually hang out with people ;)

It is actually sunny out right now. In Scotland. I suggest you check the sky for flying pigs.

Gas/electrical bill over estimation: £100. Again, Scot Energy (or whatever it is called) decides random shot in the dark is an acceptable proceeding for estimating something. So the bill was overestimated by 50%, or about $235. Good job, guys.

I'm hungry. Countdown to lunch: 17 minutes.

Plans for the afternoon: answer phone, write emails, look pretty, surf the web, drink water.

Plans for the evening: haggis, neeps, tatties, shortbread, whisky (without an 'e'... that would be the Irish spelling of whisky).

The end.

2005-01-27T10:13:00.000Z

Oscar nominations were released a couple of days ago! Lets discuss:

Jamie Foxx got nominated for Best Supporting Actor for... Collateral?! I will admit he was the highlight of the film, but it's surprising as it's not really the type of picture the Academy buys into seeing it was a "big summer blockbuster". Maybe his work in Ray influenced voters to pay more attention to his other work.

The Passion of Christ was overlooked in the "Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published" (I had to copy and paste the long category name) despite being being adapted from the best selling book of all time. While I was definately not a fan of the movie, I was surprised to see it rather shut-out of pretty much any nominations save a few of the more "minor" awards. Would it be the result of the Academy trying to avoid any controversy?

Best Pictures Nominees: The Aviator, Finding Neverland, Million-Dollar Baby, Ray, and Sideways. I don't think there are any surprises here, although it's funny how one boxing movie featuring a chick (Million Dollar Baby) can fare so much better than another (the one with Meg Ryan, although the name escapes me at the moment. Something about Ropes..). I have actually seen two of the best pic nominees and don't think either of them are really deserving of winning. But hey, it seems the Academy loves nominating stuff by/starring Martin Scorsese and Johnny Depp but not so much rewarding them. Sideways is apparently quite good - both EW critics actually put it as their favourite film of the year!

Despite the fact that I was not a huge fan of either The Aviator or Finding Neverland, I do think Leonardo Dicaprio and Johnny Depp did a good job of potraying the leads and do deserves acting noms. However, I would say Leo deserves it over Depp. I haven't seen the other films so I can't comment. I also haven't seen any of the films featuring the nominees for Best Actress. Whoops. I need to go to the movies more... ALthough, in my own defense, it seems the best actresses are usually chosen from smaller films and the best actors are usually from more widely released films.

I usually find it ironic when really long films are nominated (or win) Best Achievement in Editing.

John Williams is nominated this year. Shocking. ;) (He's basically the go-to-movie-music man. Think Star Wars, Jaws, ET, Indianna Jones, Harry Potter, etc.)

Death to Hand-Drawn Animation: all three films in the Best Animated Film category are computer animated films. Kind of sad, but that's evolution, I guess. I've actually seen all the films in this category and I think they all had the potential to be better then they were. However, order of preference is The Incredibles, Shrek 2, and then Shark Tales.

Farenheit 911 (which I can't be bother to look up the spelling on) isn't nominated for anything. Another effort to avoid controversy, or because it wasn't actually that good? It's hard to get past the hype/media circus surrounding it and actually appreciate any sort of quality. But, whatever. It's actually being shown on TV tonight. If I watch it, I'll have to take notes this time to try and keep all the people straight ;)

The Day After Tomorrow wasn't nominated for ANYTHING. While the movie jumped the shark early on, the special effects were good.

The End.

I seem like a bit of a hard-ass, eh? Maybe I just need to see a really good movie soon. Or I could go back and rent some of my favourites again.

2005-01-25T15:53:00.000Z

I wasn't going to blog today, but I decided to a do a public service as I realise I need to keep people who have nothing to do at work and read my blog instead entertained ;)

(I'm not making fun of anyone - seriously. I myself do not have too much to do at work.)

Today I went home for lunch! It was a good thing as when I walked into my room I realised that I had left my heater on -- whoops!

Gasp, I just met another Canadian! There are three of us in the office. I swear, we are slowly taking over the world. Watch out, French Guiana - we are heading that way next!

I have chewed so much gum in the past two days. My jaw is probably going to fall off. Wouldn't that be disgusting, me walking around without a jaw? I could wear a mask to try and cover it, like the Phantom of the Opear. And I could sing about my misery. Wait - I bet I *couldn't* sing about my misery because I wouldn't have a jaw. Wow.

Plans for the weekend: Friday - lacrosse fiesta w/ haggis, neeps, tatties, etc.

Saturday Night - ceilidh (sp?) on George Street. Come one, come all!

Sunday - ??

More importantly, I think I will go to London on the following weekend on Saturday for some good walkin' along the Thames. Three cheers for the overnight bus! Then on Sunday is the Chinese New Year.

I feel as though I will probably get the urge for some greasy, NA-style chinese food sometime soon.

Ten more minutes...

Website to keep you occupied: Urban Legends

2005-01-24T10:43:00.000Z

Wooo!

I can blog from my new workplace! I can also get into my UPEI email account so if anyone wants to drop me a line you can do so at jenmacphail@upei.ca. As per usual, I can't access my hotmail account from the workplace, which is perfectly fine and understandable.

So I am working reception. It's quite easy, although this office is MUCH busier than the last one I worked reception at. That position was with Balfour Beatty at the Forth Rail Bridge. The phone rang, like, twice a day there.

I have an hour for lunch here. Whatever I am going to do for an hour is beyond me. Actually, I may walk home and fetch my gym stuff so I can head up there right after work.

Bield's version of Internet Explorer is, at least on this computer, quite old and does not display many websites properly.

Is it wrong that I surf the net at work? I know that *technically* I am not supposed to, but I don't really have anything else to do! A couple of people have mentioned bringing reading material, (which I did due to a comment on Friday,) which is similar to surfing the net, right? It's not like I'm goofing off and am avoiding work - the phone is still within arm's reach for when it rings!

This morning I sat right beside my heater for about 20 minutes and ate breakfast beside it. The office here is quite warm, despite that I sit by the door. There is a radiator or something right above it. The receptionist (for whom I am filling in while she is on holiday) even has a desk fan for when the heater works too well!

So yeah, this weekend was pretty uneventful. On Saturday night I watch three episodes of Desperate Housewives. The series is just starting here and I guess they were having a mini-marathon to promote the show. I have never seen it before and it's actually pretty good! So many genres incorporated: drama, comedy, suspense, etc. The next episode is supposed to air on Wednesday night at 10.00. Unfortunately, I will probably be unable to watch it as I am heading out to The Walkabout to celebrate Australia Day! I wish I could go in a Crocidile Dundee costume but alas, I do not have one and will be forced to wear green and gold. Apparently there is more emphasis on the gold. Last night I realised I don't own any yellow pants. Sad, eh? However, after much though I remembered that I have a pair of green trousers here that I can wear along one of the multiple yellow shirts I own. (I just realised I own three yellow shirts... but that's normal, right?) So yeah, Australia Day. Basically it means lots of drunk Aussies (a drunk Aussie? Heh - not an everyday occurrence what so ever ;) ) and drinks for £1.00. So, in an effort to stabilise global tension and make the world a safer place I will suck it up and celebrate the evening with the Aussies. Really, I should represent the UN with all this do-gooder work.

Apparently at the Disney interviews they have some Disney trivia questions. I feel as though I should brush up in order to make a good impression. Problem: all my Disney-related books (remember: Jen = nerd) are currently on the other side of the Ocean. So yes, having net access here is a good thing!

Jurassic Park was on TV Saturday evening. I do believe that film will go down in the books as my scariest film experience EVER. Well, that and Witches, by Roald Dalh. (Flashback to me asking my mum if we can leave the film and look at the toys at Towers instead.) Given the film is over a decade old (random guess it came out in summer 1993) the special effects are still quite good and very impressive for the time. You can, however, notice some older techniques being used compared with the overly CG films of today. See exhibit A: The Day after Tomorrow where even wolves escaping from the zoo were computer animated. Ugh.

I'm going to work at Diseny World =D =D =D (Okay: job has not been confirmed yet, but I am keeping an optimistic outlook on this as I really, really, really want it. Another thing I want: to eat at the Lone Star in Halifax after my interview. I didn't realise there was a Lone Star in Halifax until Lynda told me and, alas, it was too late to go.)

Anyway, I have reading to do. "Research", some may call it.

2005-01-24T10:40:00.000Z

testing...

2005-01-22T20:22:00.000Z

Well, I decided to skip out on tonight's Burn's Night Event. Ah well, I get haggis on Friday when my lacrosse team gets together for a Burn's Night Celebration. Instead I will go stop at the grocery store and buy cookies (mmmm...), go home and eat supper, and then watch the telie or do something productive. I am mostly looking forward to the cookies. It was a long decision process about what junk I was going to eat tonight, but I finally made my decision.

This morning when we played lacrosse the pitch's ground was frozen and covered in frost, just like PEI in the fall! Or like The Guardian... covering PEI like the dew, eh? After lacrosse the opposing team invited us for "tea", aka "biscuits"(cookies), sandwiches, tea, coffee, etc. Hence me continuing with the cookie-thing tonight.

So... I HAVE BIG NEWS!! I was going to hold back and not tell too many people, but Shan wisely said, "Jen, don't you think people will wonder why you are going home for only a week already?" So here is the news:

I bought a plane ticket on Wednesday night (with the gracious help of my parents).
This return plane ticket will take me from Edinburgh to London, then London to Halifax on March 6th.
In Halifax on March 8th I will participate in a job interview.
This job interview will take all day as the employer is giving a presentation and blah blah blah.
The employer is The Disney Company, specifically the theme park division, and even more specifically, Walt Disney World in Florida.

So here is what would happen if I got the job: I would sign a one-year contract and head south. I would do some measly Micky Mouse job (no pun intended), or McJob according to Mr. T in economics in grade twelve, such as merchandise work in an area in the Ecpot theme park appropriately called "The Canada Pavilion". I would be put in Disney housing and living with 3 - 7 other people that work in the other pavilions. They would be from the UK, Italy, France, Japan, China, Germany, etc.

Anywa, low time warning. Adios!

2005-01-20T13:48:00.000Z

My sight-seeing efforts didn't go very well.

Okay, ever hear me say something to the effect of, "Iwish something exciting would happen like a random pony walking by,"? Well, today TWO HORSES walked by. And boy, was I prepared! Last time something like this happened was when a dog ran through the Kelley Building when Jeff, Darcy, Jon and I were in there late Friday night working on one of those "great" spend-every-moment-of-your-weekend-working-on-it cases. Anyway, I whip my camera out of my purse to snap a photo but my batteries were dead. I expected this, so whipped out spare set number one. No luck. Still feeling all Boyscott prepared, I triumphantly take out my second set of spare batteries and shoved them (carefully and properly!) into my camera and await the flashing green light... which never appeared. The batteries weren't even good enough to get the your-batteries-suck blinking red light. Then I cursed a bunch. These batteries were fully charged upon leaving Canada, but now, nothing. Zilch. Crap. No power. What gives??? I adore my camera but it eats through batteries like bloody mad. I put batteries in it that have been charging for, like, 36 hours and they still aren't strong enough for any decent time! The low battery symbol still shows up. Anyway, end rant. I have decided I will now draw all the pretty things I see. So when I get back to Ch'town at some point in 2005, I will have lots of drawings to show you. This would be a good time to add that drawing is not my forte (everyone who knows me well realises that I am MUCH better at pottery and drawing ;) ) and the only drawing tool I usually carry is a pen I swiped from the hotel Keri and I stayed in at Disneyland Paris.

Last night I had a near Bridget Jones-style dilema when I briefly thought about the "Am I supposed to meet someone I actually want to be with forever?" sort of dilema that randomly haunts the singles. Shannon reassured me through the use of a Myers-Briggs book she stole/bought from the library that I would. See, I didn't really care for sitting down and talking to someone for fourish minutes speed dating, but apparently it's because I seek a mate with whom I can do fun stuff, rather than sit down and have deep soulful conversations. So I may be looking for a really fabulous friend to whom I am attracted. Or something like that. I dunno.

Today I learned that there is a Chinese New Year Celebration on Feb 6th for £4! I want to go - something new to do that I, clever hunch, probably will never do in Charlottetown. Also, in April, there is some kind of workshop about set design, lighting and other backstage stuff that one of the theatres is giving. It's only an hour, so I imagine it's moreso a backstage tour, but I would really like to go. And score, it is free!

I have no idea what I am going to do this Saturday night. It seems like everyone is going to a Burn's Night Celebration that, gulp, costs £25. Yes, you do get a four-course meal and a ceilidh afterwards, but geez... £25?!?! That could probably feed me for two weeks! I am going to one the following weekend with my lacrosse team anyway. But the big dilema: me, sitting at home moi-meme on Saturday night. I'll probably go mad. An hour alone fully awake in our flat drives me to boredom. But... a whole evening?? Anyway, I may see if I can buy a ticket to just the ceilidh part (which I can't spell) as I'm not concerned about missing the food. And, bizarrely, the event calls for formal wear?! Okay, the other ceildh we went to was practically an aerobic workout - sweaty sweaty SWEATY. I wish that I had worn a tank top, shorts and sneakers. But prancing about in a dress/skirt and nice top and freaking HEALS?! Heh, I guess drycleaners will be happy. And I imagine out-patients will have an influx of girls with twisted ankles. Sigh, who knows, maybe I'll end up buying a ticket. Sigh. But the last time I did an expensive social thing I didn't really want to do (*cough* speed dating) it *did* turn out to be an over-priced waste of money. Oh, the dilemas...

Anyway, I think my net time is up for the day. I have lacrosse tonight and I suspect it's going to be rather difficult because the wind has still not let up! The temp will probably be fine on it's own (maybe 0 - 3 degrees?) but the wind is brutal. I decided I am being punished for not getting sunburns by instead being a sufferer of windburn. Of course, I take the proper precaution against the sun (bonjour, sunscreen) unlike my pale-faced flatmates ;) And, surprisingly enough, sunscreen is also supposed to be used to protect against windburn because of its greasy texture. So I lathered my face in sunscreen before heading out today. Odd, but the smell of sunscreen gives me happy family-in-Florida memories to boost my day.

Adios ~

2005-01-19T16:06:00.000Z

Today is a nice day. And by nice, I mean windy! But regardless of the wind, it is decent outside. However, note to self, look up ways to prevent windburn because my face is getting to the point that is feels tight and sore even when I am inside.

Today I took a wee detor on the way to the library and wandered about the appropriately named "Castle Hill". This in the hill on which the Edinburgh Castle is located. There are some nice walkways and it gives a nice view of the northern part of the city.

For the first time ever I attended an aerobic class! I will admit to being slightly uncoordinated, but I think I kept up better than come of the regulars. Mind you I am a wee bit competitive and would not fancy looking tired and would rather pass out later than admit I couldn't keep up ;)

In good news, I came across this website today: Alien Rock Indoor Climbing. If anyone reading this fancies coming along, let me know! The £25 for a two-hour intro class would be, in my own opinion, a far better investment than the £20 I dropped of freaking speed dating last night. Och aye. Speed dating was actually fine, but not worth the investment what so ever. Yes, there were some nice people... but I felt rather young. Next time I follow the gut instinct and turn down speed dating. However, on the positive side, it did give me an opportunity to practice my people skills and job interview skills! As well, it is an experience. If I didn't go, I would have been left wondering what might have been... Oh, and I got a free pen. A good thing since one of my few pens ran out of ink a couple of nights ago. (It was also a free pen that some company sent my parents. It says "Royal Photography" on it. And has our address, in case I ever forget where I live.) Anyway, I am very excited about the rock climbing potential!!!

I stopped at the Castle on my walk today. I will need to get in there sometime. I was looking over the side of the hill facing the south part of Edinburgh and the hills which I forget the name of (I will call them the Midlothian Hills because that *may* be what they are called) still had some snow on the peaks and the clouds were barely covering the tops of some hills and it was quite pretty. Again, no camera. I'll have to play tourist tomorrow and take some photos. I also saw a large gold fountain in the west part of the Princes Street Gardens which I always forget exists. Everytime I see it I think, "Wow - what a pretty fountain! I never noticed it before!" I guess it's kind of like a tradition ;)

The second season of The OC starts up here next week. If I had cable I would watch it. But I don't. So instead I will pretend it never existed and will be stuck with the various crap reality shows of the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4.

As per usual, I can't remember what time my free-internet hour started at. Whoops.

Eight Ways to Save on Your Next Flight

My hotmail account is acting up so no emails/MSN conversations from me. Sad. Especially since I have the sudden urge to talk to many people. Ah well.

So yes, tomorrow is tourist day. That means I have to find my other mitt (one *may* have myseteriously vanished in my room) and my winter hat.

Anyway, time is pretty much up.

Adios ~

2005-01-18T13:23:00.000Z

Well well well... What have we here? A random post from wee ol' me.

In good news, I have a two-week position that starts on Monday with two hours of training on Friday afternoon. It's a receptionist position, which is a bit bland but well paying and def worth two weeks of my time! There will be other temps around too, which is pretty cool because at all of my positions thus far I have been the only temp worker.

It actually SNOWED last night in Edinburgh!!! It was quite pretty, and if it wasn't so late at night, I would have detered on the way home from the gym and went up to the Castle or Calton Hill (basically somewhere high) to have a look at the city. But I didn't. Maybe next time.

I would also like to declare my hatred for my winter coat. Despite it being a mere 13 months old, the zipper on it is shite and the sleeves are all ripping. Booooo... I will admit part of the problem with the ripping sleeves may be my fault seeing as I am bigger now than when I got the coat. But come on; the zipper should still work! Bizarrely enough it worked most of the time when I was home for Christmas and once I returned here, *poof!*, the zipper began working only sparatically. It must be one of those magical works-only-in-North-America zippers that have been so trendy this season ;)

Getting places now takes so much more effort compared to the effortless driving I did on PEI. Instead of driving ten - fifteen minutes to the gym, now I get to walk 20 - 25 minutes, depending on what route I take. It also takes long to walk there because it is mostly uphill, whereas the walk home is mostly downhill. Ahh, yes, the hills. Calves, ass, and quads, allow me to re-introduce you to Edinburgh's hills. Enjoy.

Anyway, I think my library time is pretty much up. So now, I haul myself off to the gym to enjoy some quality time with Mr. Crosstrainer. (A machine, not a person!) Most of the stuff I was showed at the AFC I can do at the gym here with a few moderations. However, some of the leg machines are un-necessarily complicated here and it takes me longer to figure out setting them up then actually using them. (Note slight exageration.) Also, I'm now working out in kilos rather than pounds. That can get confusing. Also, some of the equipment at the AFC just had numbers on the weights (1, 2, 3, etc.) rather than pounds. Despite all of this, I have triumphed over the cultural differences and randomly toss around a weight with great ease and confidence ;)

The most recently commenced version of Big Brother here is a star-packed celebrity version featuring no one I recognise. Actually, I do recognise one because they have been re-running "The Surreal Life" on VH1 (which I can watch only at the gym) and the only Brit on the show is currently on Big Brother. Apparently she used to be married to Sly Stallone. So I suspect she basically just does reality shows in an effort to salvage, or perhaps create, her career.

In blog-worthy news, my face is really windburnt and sore. Ow. Partially due to lacrosse on Thursday night and walking about Edinburgh the past couple of days when it has been, unsurprisingly, quite windy. We even had 100 mph winds shortly after getting here! Exciting! Except for the people who died during the storm. Seriously. Sad.

Time is up!

Adios ~

2005-01-12T14:52:00.000Z

Wooo!

Made it to Edinburgh in two very uneventful flights. Highlights of the Monday/Tuesday trip were buying Diet Rootbeer in Halifax (surprisingly hard to find), the mini-Twix bar on the Halifax - New Jersey flight, discounted cheery candy-canes at the Sobeys in Halifax, etc.

So my sleep paterns are rather screwed up, to say the least. The last couple of nights at home I slept for a pleasant six hours or so. So when I stayed the night at Shan's in Halifax, I had a VERY good crash and even slept some on the Hali - NJ flight.

Then came the overnight flight - a joyous twenty minutes of sleep. So I crashed twice last night which I really shouldn't have. So then I didn't get to sleep until 2:00 last night and when I woke it was almost 1:00 of this afternoon. Oops. That means that today I need to absolutely exhaust myself. I'm heading to the gym soon, so maybe if I work "extra hard" (ha ha) I'll be tired and fall asleep before sun rise tomorrow.

The movie on our NJ - Edinburgh flight was First Daughter. You may recognize this film title and try to remember if it stars Mandy Moore or Katie Holmes. Knobs, everyone knows that Mandy Moore was in CHASING LIBERTY, not First Daughter. Duh. Note sarcasm, please. Although I did get it right as I was about 80% sure that Katie Holmes was in First Daughter because I couldn't remember the name of the Mandy Moore-starring vehicle.

So I checked my bank account yesterday: £21.85. On the 15th £35 will be withdrawn from my bank account for my gym membership. Now, I know some people find math difficult, but this equation is obvious and a wee bit worrisome. Luckily I had about £50 cash accumulated in various places. But seriously, I have lots of money I can get at that is in my Canadian bank account, I would just rather not have to use it. So please, if you know someone who is hiring in Edinburgh, make them give me a job. Now ;)

La la la. Well, I'm off to "exhaust" myself at the gym.

2005-01-09T06:25:00.000Z

Whoa... Almost 3:00AM and I haven't finished packing. But I'm almost there. So very close.

So, my good-luck story of the night: I was looking through a drawer trying to find my journal from the second half of my Ottawa days and fourth-year days and found $25 in a card I got for graduation!! Umm, SCORE! And I did eventually find my journal and thus the email address I was looking for as well. Successful all around.

I didn't really bother looking through my journal, although I was surprised to note the very last time I wrote in it was about 24 hours before leaving for Edinburgh! I also realised I didn't write anything in it during second semester of fourth year. I can pretty much sum up my Ottawa writings as well, "It is raining. I hate long-distance relationships. I like my softball team. I hate long-distance relationships. Today it is sunny. I hate long-distance relationships. I went to a museum with Dave today. I hate long-distance relationships. Mum and Dad are visiting. Long-distance relationships are stressful. Lee and Dave know the NES Mario 3 background music very well. Long-distance relationships are frustrating. I like roller blading by the canal. I hate long-distance relationships.

=D

Put that one into the "lessons learned" column ;)

I hate packing. But lets take the optimistic point of view: I have over five hours to finish packing! LOADS OF TIME. And in all seriousness, I have very little more to do. I just kind of forgot that I'm flying out Monday and not Sunday thus will need easy access to my toothbrush and the like.

Oh right, and PJs. Mental note.

And now it's 3:00 on the nose. Last post from PEI! (Oh. My. God.)

2005-01-08T21:43:00.000Z

Hee hee hee... just like in May, I am wasting time online instead of packing. But how hard can packing be? Take the clothes I arrived with and put them in my bag. Take some extra stuff I want and put it in my bag. Take the stuff ordered by my fellow Canadians and put it in my bag. Et voila! C'est tout finit. Tres bien, Jennifer, tu es intelligente, gentile, et tres jolie.

In bad news, I learned the other night that someone my age and my height should weigh, at a max, about 135 lbs.

Whoops.

So yeah, checking out the news of Scotland. Getting myself up to speed, ya know. And holy McFloods there is lots of water! Note to self: pack rubber boots.

And on that note, I'm off to pack. For REAL this time.

Maybe. I'll probably look through CDs instead. Or read a magazine.

2005-01-05T05:18:00.000Z

Wooo, happy 2005 to all! How crazy is that, 2005 already?

I'm heading back to the other side soon. =( As expected, there are mixed emotions brewing in me.

In the past 50 hours or so I have watched 12 episodes of The OC. Some may call me obsessed, I call it "catching up" since I had never seen a SINGLE full episode of it before.

I have now realised the errors of my ways and thank my wiser friends for pointing me in the right direction. Season two is actually going to start airing in late January in the UK - except it's on cable. Sigh, Scotland is tricky like that! I do have some mates with cable... but I highly doubt three blokes care to sit through The OC one a week so their Canadian friend can follow the dramatic lives of the folk of Newport.

Well, I'm going to bed. Zzzzzz.

2004-12-30T03:36:00.000Z

I went to some Boxing Day sales today. As you can see by the pic below, I bought only the essentials.

Like reindeer antlers. You can never have enough reindeer antlers.

You'll be jealous come Hallowe'en, mark my words.

2004-12-28T16:21:00.000Z

Welcome to Winter
Note the super-cool, pink, 1989 mitts.

2004-12-28T16:18:00.000Z

Jen's New Career
I'll be selling autographed t-shirts of myself and Lynda on New Year's Eve. Buy early before they sell out! ;)

2004-12-28T15:53:00.000Z

Well, my Edinburgh-Girl hair is gone. Not really gone as the hair is still on my head, but there is not a straight hair to be found. The dampness of the rain encourage all the little Jen Hairs to frizz back up into their usual state. No worries though!

So yeah, I was a wee bit worried I wouldn't see any snow while home for the holidays. In retrospect and looking at the standards set by previous PEI winters, that worry was hilarious. Like PEI would ever fail in delivering 900 buckets-full of snow during Christmas break! While it is not uncommon to have a green Christmas, there is generally a good chance New Year's Eve will be whiter than a toothpaste-model's teeth.

In good news, I got to go karaoking on Boxing Day night. In bad news... Oh right! There is no bad news! Mwa ha ha...

Is it overly childish of me that everytime we get a storm I feel compelled to go outside and sit in the snow and/or throw snowballs at the windows to scare my cat?

Well, I'm bored.

Lets post pictures!

2004-12-26T06:50:00.000Z

Ho ho ho!

Happy belated Christmas everyone!

I must say, it was very nice to be home for the holidays. Lots of people I haven't seen in awhile, including Mr. Big Brother who managed to hitch a ride home from O-town!

I had a traumatising experience tonight. For the past half-decade or so the MacPhails spend a lot of time playing cards and boardgames on Christmas Eve and Christmas-Day night.

Tonight, I was forced to play Old Maid.

Many of you don't realise how awful this is for me. I can't help it, but I absolutely freak out when I play that game. We even played with Winnie the Pooh playing cards and used a Joker with a big Pooh face on it as the "old maid" to soften the blow for me in case I got the old maid. Sigh, I give my parents credit for trying, but alas, the fear of the old maid, regardless of what the card looks like, is permanently etched into my blood. The card's appearance does not matter, it's what the old maid stands for, which is losing the game. Being the only person remaining with a card. It's okay when I lose other games, but the Old Maid and I don't get along. Case in Point: December 25th, 2004.

The game started innocently enough. I was doing okay until I picked the old maid from my mother's hand. Actually, I was practically shaking and hyperventilating playing the game. When I drew the Old Maid, I didn't flip out! (Very good!) However, the hysterical, panicked laughter, the shaking arm and the sudden posture change did little to hide the fact that I picked the Old Maid. Luckily, Papa eventually drew it from me. I still was incredibly uneasy... then it happened; I drew the card again. In a moment of terror I *may* have flipped out and I *may* have threw my remaining one other card (and the Old Maid) to the table and loudly declared that I wasn't playing anymore.

Very mature, and not at all worthy of some psycho-analysis or something.

Ahh, another Christmas at the MacPhails. Lesson learned: stop making me play Old Maid. Last year I retired from air hockey after I started to get the shakes from playing (sooo. much. pressure. to. WIN.) and I formally wish to announce my retirement from old maid. For health reasons, of course.

Thank you and good night.

2004-12-24T01:10:00.000Z

I just realised I have TWO somewhat sad posts lurking on my blog for the month of December. TWO. Do you know how un-Jenish that is??? Like, T H I S U N J E N I S H. And that's a lot. In retrospect, I likely over reacted Monday night/Tuesday morning. Stuff happens, deal with it. And it has been dealt with. Done. Over. Complete. Tout finit! I just had an oddly delayed reaction in dealing because I basically shipped myself off the continent within hours of breaking up with previously discussed ex-boyfriend. Kind of like the Chronicles of Narnia or Back to the Future II, I was in an alternative world. And then I came back to PEI and, for a few hours, it was almost as though time had stood still... except for the new stores in the mall. Thanks to Le Chateau, now Myrons girls can spend even more on clothes! YAY! Sarcasm!

I didn't go to the gym today. Shocking, I know. So much for bulking up my eleven-inch pythons ;) Instead I stayed home (for the most part) and ate peanut brittle stuff (thanks Lynda!), fudge, the odd chocolate, half an Irn-Bru bar, and more random junk. My teeth should fall out soon. Maybe even tomorrow!

On a pleasant note, Grand saw my random thought about wanting a purple popsicle and then he wanted one. I tell you, it's contagous! Kind of like when you see someone yawn. Maybe I'll buy purple popsicles... You can eat those even if you lack teeth!

Anyway, over and out. I have been on the computer waaaaay too much today and feel like a knob.

2004-12-23T23:51:00.000Z

Sad, I wrote a post and it disapeared. Here we go with try the second!

Today I got my haircut. Eleven months in the making, I tell ya! The hairdresser "styled" it after, meaning it was stick straight and weird. I look like... AN EDINBURGH GIRL! GASP! I will admit, since I haven't had straight hair in seven and a half months I do quite like it, but I'm not willing to fry my hair and spend twenty minutes every morning "doing" it. I also should have got a few extra inches chopped off, but whatever; I own siccors!!

I also used my webcam and took about fifteen pictures of me trying to get a decent shot of me in a Santa hat for my MSN picture. Priorities, people! Lesson learned: there is no such thing as a perfect picture of me in a Santa hat. But there are lots waaaaay less than perfect!

2004-12-23T06:14:00.000Z

In the summer of 1999 (going into grade twelve) I got a black eye. The top left is three days after, the one on the right is a week after, and the one on the bottom is almost two weeks after.

I was so beautiful.

=D

2004-12-23T06:00:00.000Z

Yaaaaaay, it's 1:00 in the morning and I'm waiting for dear Brother to call so I can go and pick him up in Borden. On a good-sister scale of 1 - 10 I deserve a 10.314159. Very good!

I went to the Wave tonight and it was uneventful, but still a nice time. I got to see some people I probably wouldn't see when home otherwise.

Ever suddenly reallllly want a purple popsicle?

You know how when people are together a lot you start to pick-up each other's "catchphrases" or speaking patterns? Lately I have been stealing Keri's "Probably". I apologize. I'll let her steal my.... Actually, I can't think of anything I say a lot. Maybe I'll start saying "zoom" a lot.

Zooooooooooom!

On the short list of things to do over break is to make a nice design for my blog. Right now I'm just using a blogger template and changed a wee bit of the html to slightly personalise it to my preferences. But, after looking at my old webpage that I wrote all the html for a designed most of the graphics (Jen = nerd), I think I can spice this up a wee bit better than it is. Or at least "make it my own". And it doesn't really work like a tree; I can't just urinate on it to "make it my own". ;)

Sigh, where is Jeffrey? I may get tired soon. Actually, I already am tired.

The popcorn at the Wave tonight tasted like crap. Waaaay too much butter salt on it. (For the record, butter salt is a salt-like substance that they put on the kernels in the kettle to give the popcorn a buttery taste. It's good in moderation, but apparently the Wave staff did not know that. Too much leaves the popcorn waaaay too dry and makes it taste like sandpaper. Luckily popcorn with too much butter salt is still throwable.)

Tick tick tick goes the clock.

I saw on someone's blog on which the person wrote 50 things about herself. Here we go to pass the time...

My middle name is Anne.
I have a cat. He used to be vicious, but not so much anymore.
I need a haircut.
The last time I got a haircut was eleven months ago.
I heart my camera. It is practically my child.
Although not obvious whatsoever if you look at me, I am a gym rat.
I like fishnet stockings.
I like wearing skirts.
I can pull off a *very* convincing English accent.
I was born on a Wednesday.
I have lots of moles. We should play connect the dots on me sometime.
I haven't wrapped any Christmas presents yet.
I am an ESTP in Myers-Briggs terms, I think. In Jen terms ESTP stands for excellent, studious, tactful and pretty.
I have lived in six different houses/flats.
I bit my nails. I'm trying to stop though.
I used to really like Wendy's. Not so much now.
I used to really like BK. Again, not so much now.
I like lacrosse.
I really, really suck at lacrosse.
I like beer.
I drink too much beer.
My "biceps" are each eleven inches in circumference. I know because I measured them to see if after four weeks my gym "routine" will have changed them.
Je parle francais.
Hablo espanol.
I wore a red dress to my high school prom.
I wore a black dress to my University "prom".
I just finished eating a piece of fudge.
I like tortilla shells.
I am a slob.
I am a good typist.
My hearing grade is H1, H2, H3, H4. That means I would have to have tests done before they would consider letting me join the British Army.
My eyesight is good. Perhaps VERY good.
I read Shannon's Blog a lot. Just to keep tabs on her ;)
There are 66 people on my msn list. However, some of them I have never talked to.
I haven't actually paid for a CD in 2 1/2 years.
I am a liar - I just remembered I bought a CD about a month ago. But before that it was about 2 1/2 years.
I am sleepy.
Apparently, I was supposed to have had braces when I was younger. However, my teeth straightened out about 98% of the way so braces would have been a huuuuge waste of money.
I lost my first tooth when I was seven.
I finished losing my baby teeth when I was fourteen.
I had to go to some kind of speech thing when I was younger because I couldn't pronounce certain letters.
I had to go to "resource class" in grade two because I couldn't differentiate between vowel sounds. I still compare the starting sounds of "octopus" and "umbrella" when spelling.
Despite that, I am still quite smart =P
I have a life-sized cut out of Michael J. Fox in my room. (What - you DON'T?)
I have spent too much time online since I have been home. I guess I'm just not used to people actually being on MSN at the same time as me and tend to get a wee bit caught up in it!
I need to read more. Although I am part-way through two books, which isn't too bad, I suppose.
I used to be outspoken in class until I started Junior High.
I became self-conscious in Junior High.
I am currently on day 302 of my 30-day Paint Shop Pro Evaluation.
I am happy. Yaaaaay!

2004-12-21T07:41:00.000Z

I want to say it was overall a good night, which it was, but the inability to put my generally logical mind past one minor, practically non-note-worthy event has left me in an unhappy mood. Cheers to Christmas, and the realisation that you are actually replacable to any mere soul. Three cheers to reality's slap in the face that makes you question your own decisions, despite the fact you have been thrilled with them for the past seven months. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay. If you're looking for me, I'm searching for happiness in my new, yet-to-be-found, English boyfriend.

Boo hoo hoo.

And I don't know if it's supposed to be some metaphorical bitch-slap, but what should one make of it when the first time one sees her ex-boyfriend he is wearing her bloody shirt? No, not a shirt she gave him, but her actual shirt. I mean, Dude, talk about rubbing salt in the wound of singledom. Bite my bloody ass and give me back the money you owe me, the things you have of mine, and next time await me entering the arena prepared. I suck. Ship me to bed and buy me a box of tissue.

Please send me back to Edinburgh.

2004-12-17T15:36:00.000Z

2004-12-14T03:50:00.000Z

Heidi and I have ran into a huuuuuge google problem. Hers is the lack of results that refer to her when one googles her name. My problem is the fact this blog doesn't come when one googles "jennifer macphail" or "jen macphail".

Lets see if we can fix that somehow...

Jennifer MacPhail
Jen MacPhail
Heidi Brander

Once I did know somewhat how google actually works, but I can't remember now.

End nerdism.

2004-12-13T05:45:00.000Z

I ripped this off of someone else's blog. I don't know who he is. Oh well.

1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line 4. What does it say? "'It'll be so big,' cried Phronsie, hopping around on one toe, 'that Mamsie won't know what to do, will she, Polly?'"
2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What do you touch first? Air. If my arm was longer I would touch the ironing board.
3. What is the last thing you watched on TV? I can't even tell you that last time I watch TV... but I must have watched it at some point since being home... Right, I saw some of the Apprentice.
4. WITHOUT LOOKING, can you guess what the time is? 1:50AM
5. Now look at the clock, what is the actual time? 1:49AM
6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear? Nothing, it's late and no one is up.
7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing? I got home from the gym shortly after five. This involved walking OUTDOORS from my car into my house.
8. Before you came to this website, what did you look at? Reading about ESTPs in relationships because I'm pitiful and tired.
9. What are you wearing? Jeans, a shirt and slippers.
10. Did you dream last night? Yup, I was explaining to a cashier at Toys R Us and a friend of mine the strategy the TRU manager used when deciding what product to feature at all cash registers.
11. When did you last laugh? Maybe an hour ago on MSN.
12. What is on the walls of the room you are in? Lots of photos.
13. Seen anything weird lately? Yup, a pic of Grand dressed up as Santa Claus.
14. What do you think of this quiz? I felt it did not give me the opportunity to be witty and charming.
15. What is the last film you saw? Christmas Vacation
16. If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy first? Plane tickets to.. somewhere.
17. Can you tell something about you that no one knows? No, actually, I don't think I can.
18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do? I'd let me MC the opening ceremony at the Olympics. Oh, and world peace/clean up the environment/end hunger etc.
19. Do you like to dance? yes.
20. George Bush: is he a power-crazy nut case or some one who is finally doing something that has needed to be done for years? I'd say neither. What he really is is a catalyst for funny late-night TV shows.
21. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her? I don't know.
22. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him? Meh.
23. Would you ever consider living abroad? NEVER. That's why I am currently in the last month of my six-month lease for a flat in Edinburgh ;)

I suck. Send me to bed!

2004-12-13T04:36:00.000Z

I just had a relapse and I feel like I'm back in early May. Uggggh.

But it's all temporary and likely induced by lack of sleep and... I don't know. Meeeeeeeeeeeeeh.

Okay, this is an overexageration. Early May, I was rather a mess and cried more than I would like to admit to. So yeah, maybe I don't have anything to compare this too. In a somewhat related note, I haven't cried since I left the Halifax Airport for London. I am a freak. I'll probably lose it at some point and bawl four oceans worth of tears. Apologies in advance; I recommend you all start building an ark. Call it Noah II.

Maybe I am part robot. A spanish robot, of course.

As a sidenote, I am glad that I am making so much sense. Being vague truly is an art form.

Would someone go out and find me an english boyfriend? Preferably around my age, not married, witty, and willing to relocate to Canada eventually. While I may be a smartass and somewhat annoying at times, I hate confronting conflict thus will not break up with you because I can't handle any serious, intense conversation that comes along with a break-up. Instead, I'll hint at the idea at ending things until you break up with me.

Or I'll leave the country and pretend I got deported. Unless we are in Canada, then I'll just ... uh, oh, I haven't developed this part of the plan yet.

Even I am annoying me. Whenever you all see me next give me a light slap in the face. Just be forewarned I may lunge at you and try to hit you back.

Anyway, it's nice to be home. I feel like I own so much clothing now, good thing I brought hardly any clothing back over here with me. As a sidenote, I am now basically living in my old pubcrawl t-shirts. Pure class.

Canadian Things I Have Done since Coming Home:
- Went to a hockey game
- Drank canadian beer
- Went to trivia and actually knew some answers
- DROVE
- Almost fell on ice
- Wore a scarf, mitts and hat
- Went to Tim Hortons
- Saw an Irving truck
- Used a landline
- Lost my keys
- Took a cab
- Went to Wal-Mart
- Went to the Kelley Building at UPEI
- Went to a bar where no one was from the UK, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, etc.

Scottish Things I Have Done since Coming Home:
- Looked right, then left when crossing roads
- Put corn on my pizza
- Used an umbrella
- Walked somewhere somewhat far
- Wore a skirt to a bar
- Wore heels
- Wore fishnet stockings
- Wrote a few blogs
- Got confused about which lane to turn into

I'm bored. I need to go to bed.

2004-12-12T18:38:00.000Z

Ummm... I feel obliged to write in this.

Last night I took incriminating photos of people. I'm sneaky like that. Actually, there was nothing sneaky about it - it was just random photo snapping that lead to numerous laughs the next morning. Anyway, it was a result of Janielle, Candace, Hannah and Breck coming over and there *may* have been a wee bit of liquor. More importantly, there were peanuts! I credit Grand, the C-Bar and my lacrosse team for reuniting me with peanuts. Anyway, birthday celebration number three was a smashing success!

Oooh, and if any of yas see Candace in the next wee while be sure to ask her how well those anti-hangover pills work... Hee hee hee.... >:D

2004-12-09T05:38:00.000Z

Uh oh... first night out in Edinburgh since arriving home and have made the wee mistake of drinking like a Scot despite being in Canadian territory.

I heart you, The Wave.

Saw me cousin tonight!!! I have decided I am having a par-tay on Saturday night to invite friends, friends of friends, and random MSN strangers over to hosue. Will be fun. Come one, come all. I heart everyone and have missed you all. Especially Chritina Aguilera; I heart Kazaa.

The end.

I heart PEI.

2004-12-03T19:35:00.000Z

Hey All!

Still alive and super excited about coming home on MONDAY!!

Keep tuned for Wednesday night b'day plans. They may include trivia at the Wave followed by the customary wander to Subway at midnight.

Or I'll just set up a keg in the basement ;)

Adios!

2004-11-29T19:44:00.000Z

About twenty more minutes of work. If I hadn't been late this morning I would be getting ready to leave now.

Dilema: I don't know if my boss knows I was late... Ah! My morals! But alas, I will take the late bus and make up my time. I do need every pound I can get my hands on because I have two months rent coming up and four days of work left. And a bank balance I really need to check because me being able to pay those two months of rent is slightly debateable. Dear Santa: I need GBP, stirling. Thank you. Heart Jen.

Yesterday I ran really far. It was weird as I hadn't been running in awhile and apparently at some point in the previous months my endurance has sky-rocketed. Kooky.

I'm hungry. I didn't bring very much food to work today because I stuffed myself at our potluck last night and wasn't really hungry this morning. And, of course, I would NEVER get hungry later on, right? Sigh. Actually, if I look hard I believe there is an apple in my bag. You know the emergency quarter that you can tape in your shoe? I have the emergency apple. Or really, an apple that I didn't eat last Friday. Same thing.

I lost my headphones and big water bottle. Clever hunch says they are together and were left in the changing room at the gym.

In 188 hours from I will probably be in the skies somewhere between New Jersey and Halifax. In 200 hours from now I will be asleep in my OWN BED.

I was going to put pics from my trip online today since my computer at work is equipped to read memory cards but it turns out that I don't have my card with me today. Flashback to Saturday night when I (wisely) took it out of my purse before heading out to the bars. Ah well, I don't really know if people look at 'em much anyway! Mostly for my own amusement for when I get bored at work. (Me? Bored at work? IMPOSSIBLE! O_O)

What's going to happen at my next job? What if there is actually work to be done??? I mean, my work ethic has probably turned to crap.

Tomorrow after work we are going to see the Incredibles. I bet it will be, bad over-used pun alert, incredible. Ha.

Buh-bye.

2004-11-29T19:41:00.000Z

Paris

Keri and I went back to Paris around suppertime on Sunday. She was heading onwards to the "lovely" Paris Beauvais Airport (a rather temporary-looking airport that looks like mobile units pieced together. Three cheers for discount airlines.) and I was heading to the Young and Happy Hostel. First mistake: I had accidentally used BOTH of my metro tickets the previous day and had to buy another one for about €6. Booooo. I eventually made it to my hostel. I say eventually because my map was missing a few key street names so I couldn't figure out which direction was west, the direction in which I needed to head. I found my hostel and went out for a walk with the girl in my room. The hostel was in a great location, it was on Rue Mouffetard which has lots of small eateries, some shops, is close to a metro station, close to some sites, a big park, museums, etc. Very good location and the Notre Dame is only a ten-minute walk away! Anyway, Sunday night was spent mostly just talking to the girls in my room. Two of them were from the States and were doing a semester in a university in Barcelona and were just in Paris for the weekend.

The next morning the remaining roommate and myself wandered about the city for the day. I will admit I don't know what all of the important-looking buildings we saw actually were, but it was enjoyable. We went to Notre Dame and through l'Ile de la Cite (the island on which it is located), up to a couple of museums, through an open market somewhere, Palais Royale, le Petit Palais, the Louvre (didn't see any art as we only went in to use the lu), and then walked through the park that connects the Louvre to Avenue des Champes Elysees, a rather famous street with lots of expensive (and a few inexpensive) shops. Very pretty area with lots of statues and big monuments because, I suspect, the French are very rich ;) Also at this point a junior-high aged French boy decided to take our picture. Probably because we were so pretty ;)

We continued on to l'Arc de Triomphe. It's a large monument in the middle of a roundabout which contains twelve entry points/streets. I haven't seen European Vacation (The Griswalls) in a long time, but I'm quite sure this in the roundabout they got stuck in. You can go up to the top of the l'Arc de Triomphe but I didn't. (Not sure if this link will work, but it's the part of a map that shows the roundabout/Place de Charles de Guille.) However, I will definitely do it when I go back to Paris. We then decided to pick a road off the roundabout and just randomly walk around. Eventually we had to head back to the hostel so my travelling partner du jour could catch her flight to London. I bought a crepe later on in the evening. It was okay, but for some silly reason I got a crepe that had strawberry jam in it. I imagine it would have been better if I got something else.

The following day I headed out with the ambition of eventually getting to the Eiffel Tower. I armed myself with my Paris guidebook courtesy of Shan and the Edinburgh Library and a map. I planned on taking the "long" way to the Tower so I could explore little streets, look at pretty buildings, take pictures of fountains and go in the random shop. It was sooo enjoyable and I highly recommend doing it if you are not too pressed for time. Sure the metro is quick and efficient, but it's all underground so you only see cement walls covered in graffiti.

About three hours after leaving the hostel I made it to the Eiffel Tower. In true Parisian fashion, I had lunch in the lovely Champs de Mars. Except the locals probably won't eating peanut butter sandwiches. Just a hunch. From my bench I contemplated taking the stairs or the elevator up the Tower. Initially, it looked sooo high and I figured the elevator was the way to go in order to save my legs so I wouldn't end up crawling home. However, upon closer inspection, the tower is, obviously, very high, but the viewing decks/floors/whatever aren't that high. As I got closer the decision was clear: definitely the stairs. It would also a thing of pride and to show myself I could do it. I was actually surprised at how quickly the first floor came. I thought it was just a resting area but nope, I had made it! The view was really nice, and there are lots of signs pointing out what you can see and history of the tower. And of course, gift shops. Oooh, and un toilet gratuit! (A free toilet - actually quite exciting ;) ) I went up to the second level as well and decided to skip paying extra to go to the third level. The sky was rather over-cast so I don't think the view would have been *that* much better plus I wanted to head along before it got dark and before everything closed up at 17.00. So I headed back down the stairs and my knee freaked out on me once I got to the bottom. Seriously, it kept shaking and twitching. Rather bizarre.

After the Eiffel Tower I headed across the river with the intentions of going back up to Avenue des Champes Elysees so I could go into some shops. I took at weird route and almost lost my mitts. They had fallen out of my pocket and a nice lady gave 'em back to me. I walked about some more and decided to take the site-seeing way back to a street close to Notre Dame that has lots of cheap (relatively speaking) souvenir shops. On the way I stopped at the Musee d'Orsay (or something like that). I'm not sure if the museum is in an old train station or has simply been designed to look like one. Either way, it's supposed to be really neat on the inside. I did really want to go in, but I completely lost the ambition when I realised I would have to go through a metal detector and have my bag search. I was getting rather tired and did not feel like going through the whole process especially since the knife that was in my bag caused a wee bit of a problem at the Louvre the day prior. (It was a steak knife which I had with me in case I bought food or wanted to make myself a PB sandwich. Or you know, slice up the Mona Lisa, gah.) It was actually kind of funny because they got the bags mixed up in the metal detector at the Louvre and stopped the lady in front of me asking about the knife in her bag. I took that opportunity to scoot away. But yeah, instead of going in the museum I ate some food and listening to a man play music. It was nice. Then I walked along the river to l'Ile de la Cite to hit some tourist shops. I really enjoyed the walk. The 's'-shaped river basically splits Paris into two. The river isn't really that wide but does widen towards the east where two small islands are. I made it to the tourist shops and panicked a la Roy MacPhail and almost bought lots of stuff. But I contained myself. Around this point I realised I still had two things I needed to do: buy a pastry and go to l'Ile Saint Louis, the smaller island in the river to the east of l'Ile de la Cite. Solution: buy a pastry on l'Ile Saint Louis. It's a very small island and has just a few main streets but has lots of little cafes (surprise - cafes in Paris =P ) and shops. You want to pinch the Island on the cheek and tell it how cute it is. So I bought my pastry (or some kind of a dessert - don't know if it's officially a pastry). I thought it was covered in whip cream, but once the worker picked it up by the "whip cream" I realised it was obviously not whip cream. Instead it seemed more like really hard icing but tasted quite good. And again, I failed come off as a sophisticated local. When I had arrived back to my hostel room I realised that I had gotten chocolate on my shirt. Very smooth. Anyway, I spent more time walking around, eventually went back to the hostel, discovered my dirty shirt, talked to the nice roommates for the night, packed and eventually went to bed as I set my alarm for 5.30 AM. Yay.

Overall Impression/Observations
Et ca c'est la fin de Paris pour moi. I loved it sooo much, the buildings were so nice, especially the regular ones that just contained flats. Despite the out-dated impression that the locals are snobs and hate tourists, I had at least three people offer to help me when I was looking at maps on street corners. I also had a couple of people ask me for directions... O_O And one I actually helped because I had just come from the church the lady was looking for =) Also, I am glad I took French immersion. One would have no problem whatsoever getting around the city in only English, but I liked speaking French to people and it really helped when using maps. For example, in Finland I would be looking at maps and would just have to remember the first five or six letters in the street name because I had no idea how to pronounce it or what it meant. I also didn't feel completely dressed down or anything. Maybe it's because it was kind of cold and I wasn't really hanging out in the posh areas of the city or any expensive restaurants. There was lots of dogs around, but I saw hardly any dog crap on the sidewalks which surprised me given it got a special mention in one of my guide books. I didn't find smoking to be overly excessive, but again, I wasn't in any restaurants or anything.

There were sooo many Asian tourists. (I'd be more specific, but I really don't know what country they were from.) Generally they seemed to be in large tour groups.

Paris is big. The chick I explored with on day one said that you could walk around most of Paris in two days. I am inclined to disagree. While I probably didn't make the most of my time in touring efficiency, I really don't think one could cram in everything in two days especially once you start going in museums. Personally, I think I could spend a good five or six more days there walking around.

I never really felt unsafe in Paris! I felt a little ansy the night I went out and bought a crepe, but I really don't feel it was even really justified. I think it was more so, "I am a girl on my own and it is dark. I am supposed to be scared now." But of course, common sense prevails. Sticking to the main streets where there are lots of people, not draping oneself in diamonds, etc. There were lots of signs warning about pickpockets in the Eiffel Tower and I think on the metro, but I wasn't on the metro much and the Eiffel Tower was not crowded at all (advantages of travelling in the off season) but I never felt like my personal space was being invaded. Plus I had my under-the-clothes money belt and I just shortened the strap up on my purse (containing my camera basically and some receipts and a wee bit of money) and kept it in front on me. I also snapped a padlock on my backpack. It was annoying, but worth the extra security I felt since you can't see your backpack when it's on your back. Still carried it on the front of my in crowded places though.

Overall, 9 stars out of 10. Would have received a ten if I was there longer and wasn't so sad about leaving =P

2004-11-24T20:06:00.000Z

Disneyland Paris

(See post below as to why I am writing only about Disneyland. I am doing bascially a section at a time.)

Okay, I know, it's not a real country. But Disneyland Paris is worth separating from Paris because they do not offer the same experience whatsoever.

I was so surprised about the lack of people in the parks! I had two opposing thoughts before we got there: 1) Nov 11 was a holiday so perhaps people would be doing a long weekend thing at the parcs thus make it more crowded; and 2) People don't go on holiday in the middle of November thus parcs will be empty. Also, I think the parcs (yes, parcs with a 'c' because that is how the French spell it!) handle crowd flow well. However, to be able to nab a BENCH fifteen minutes before parade time is pretty unheard of. I think the people were just too silly torealise that although the bench is too low to see from, STANDING on the bench offers a *very* good view!

The Disney Studios was quite small. We arrived there Sat afternoon at 14.00 and saw almost everything we wanted to see by closing at 18.00! Highlights were the Rock 'n Roller Coaster, the Moteurs Stunt show, and Cinemagique. And snapping two-million photos. But seriously, I LOVED Cinemagique. It's advertised as being a tribute to film so I figured it would be lots of clips, like on the Oscars telecast. I absolutely loved it, despite not knowing many of the movies. But it wasn't so much the film that the clip was featuring but the *genre* of film. And I realise the chances of anyone reading this actually seeing the show are immensly slim, but I don't want to give away anything just in case! And the half-French, half-English thing really adds to the show in this case.

Since Disney Studios closes earlier than Disneyland Parc, ticket holders who spent the day at the studios are allowed to go to Disneyland for the rest of the evening after 17.00. Keri and I went over at about 18.30 and walking through the gates was absolutely breath-takingly beautiful! The sun had already set and Main Street and the castle were decked and in lights! I know my pictures will not do it justice, so I recommend you all go to Disneyland Paris to look at the lights before they take them down after Christmas ;) We didn't really have time to do much other than get lost, go on Pirates of the Caribbean, go in a couple of gift shops, snap 900 photos and watch "Fantillusion", the parc's night-time parade. It was fine, but I'm not really too big into parades. I was half tempted to skip off and ride Space Mountain but it would have been too hard to get there since I lacked a map and the obvious route was blocked off for the parade.

The lack of signs in Disneyland is a wee bit of a pain. I had a very general idea of where things should be, but I would have loved a sign or two! Keri and I got lost in Adventureland at night. Since it is Adventureland, there are lots of trees so the area is not overly well lit.

Another highlight included Keri freaking out on Pirates of the Carribean as we headed up an incline in our boat. She figured we would be going down a steep slope. However, I pointed out the since the queue brought us down underground we have to get back up somehow. So her scary huge drop turned out to be a mere 8-ft (absolute max) drop.

As with all Disney theme parks, the over-priced merchandise was out in full force and I somehow restrained myself. Sad. But some of the stuff I really liked was large and/or breakable which made it impractical to lug around France/Finland/Estonia for a week.

In an unrelated note, if I ever start talking about Norway I actually mean Finland. And if I say Ethiopia I really mean Estonia. I get stupid sometimes.

Our hotel and our room were pretty cool. Technically, our room slept three people. There was a queen-sized bed and a single in the room. The single was separated by a circus-inspired curtain and actually had its own TV on a wee bedstand in there. The whole room was circus themed, although not overly obvious or obnoxous.

The next morning we hit up Parc Disneyland again. More beautifulness, and more lack of lines! Priceless moments include Keri reallllly excited to go on the Orbiter and taking Keri on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and witnessing her scream for her life. She kept yelping, "Noooo!" and laughed hysterically when it was done. I started to laugh at her, and the four-year old in front of us turned around and started to laugh at her too. Other highlights were the Legend of the Lion King, which was very good, It's a Small World (I guess I'm becoming mature since I like and appreciate rides like that now), and, well, everything in general :) I actually wish I would have taken more pictures. Oh, and in le Phantom Manor (Parisian version of the Haunted Mansion) one of the ride guys kind of lurked out of the shadows and popped his head into our car and yelled, "BOO!" and Keri yelped again. I, in an effort to console her tremors, laughed uncontrolably. No worries, she laughed too =) The Christmas parade was fine (again, not too into parades) and the highlights were the music, ("Chante, c'est noel!") and the REINDEER!! Also of note, food wasn't as expensive in Disneyland as I thought it would be. Although I didn't buy any since I was too busy eating granola bars and peanut butter sandwiches.

Fantasyland was really cute and pretty here. I don't recall Fantasyland in Orlando so well, but I was more impressed with Paris's version.

All the rollercoasters I went on where basically queue-less. And so much fun!! Sorry, the exception was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, queue was almost an hour long despite a posted time of 20 mins. I believe the problem was we got in line when it was 20 mins just moments before the first fastpasses became valid so suddenly the line increased immensly. We ended up missing our showing on the Lion King, (you have to queue to get tickets in advance since it is so popular) but ended up being able to watch the show later on by hanging out in the restaurant that over hangs it. The view was still really good, too.

Everything is quite close together at Disneyland Paris in general. However, within each parc, there is lots of space though. It is quite convenient having the parcs next door to each other, especially when park hopping! I was telling Keri how in Fla one must travel 20 mins by bus to get from one park to another. Disney Village was also a four-minute walk, our hotel was VERY close by shuttle, and one could walk to the Disney hotels in 15 - 20 mins or take a, like, three-minute shuttle ride. Sadly, we completely ran out of time and did not get to explore the hotels save Disneyland Hotel since it is literally the entance to Disneyland; one must walk under its to get into the park. We popped in and took a wee look around on our way out Saturday night.

Overall, Disneyland was DEFINATELY worth it!! I was surprised, but I was rather sad to leave it come Sunday evening.

2004-11-24T20:04:00.000Z

Unsurprisingly, I am writing from work and will post this later.

I was supposed to have a lot of work to do upon my return, but someone from a different office unexpectidly did it. So I have been here for about three hours and have actually "worked" for about ten minutes photocopying and stapling. Apparently there is work for me to do this afternoon! That's a good thing as the Midlothian Council's firewall is working in full force and even more websites than usual in inaccessable. Instead I am just randomly eating the food I brought that is supposed to get me through to 8.00 today or whenever I get home. Boredom: the ultimate catalyst for over eating. I wish I had some gum with me.

So, my trip is over. The post-travel blues have randomly kicked in. First when I was trying to find the bloody "tourist" bus stop in Helsinki (located, oddly enough, not at the bus station but at the rail station), then on the bus to the Tampere airport and this morning after I missed the early bus to work by about, I kid you not, five seconds. In my own defence, the bus had come early. Of course, the next 29 came late. That was much more typical 29 behavior.

Here is a summary of where I have been:

Nov 13 - Disneyland Paris
Nov 14 - Disneyland Paris, metro'd (my newly invented word) to Paris in early evening
Nov 15 - Paris
Nov 16 - Paris
Nov 17 - Left Paris early in the morning, flew to Glasgow, then to London, and finally to Tampere in Finland. Stayed in Tampere for the night.
Nov 18 - spent the afternoon on the bus going to Mikkeli. Spent an hour in Lahti where I experienced my first Finnish grocery store and figured out which was skim milk by looking at the nutrional info per serving. Spent the night in Mikkeli for free!
Nov 19 - Left with Patrick and headed to Helsinki late afternoon.
Nov 20 - Helsinki
Nov 21 - Left for Tallinn at 10.05. Had a rather challenging hostel search and stayed there for the night.
Nov 22 - Left Tallinn for Helsinki at 13.00, got bloody frustrated at the lack of adequate signage for the airport bus and almost stood in the middle of the road screaming. Because that would have solved all my problems ;) Eventually got the bus to the airport and flew from Tampere to London. Stayed in London for the night.
Nov 23 - Woke up at 4.00 and took a flight at 6.40 to Glasgow-Prestwick, then took a train from Prestwick to the Glasgow city centre. Finally, I took a bus from Glasgow to Edinburgh and was home by 11.30. Yaaaaay!

So lets discuss the London Stanstead Airport. It was like a bloody hotel! Seriously - sooo many people. Background: This airport is not nearly as big as Gatwick and is definatelly miniscul compared to Heathrow. Bascially it is used only by discount airlines. But it still has quite a few shops and quite a lot of seating before one heads through security. I got off my flight, collected by bag and took a wee wander. I noticed one of the bookstores was open so I go in there and read for a wee while. Shortly after midnight, I take a wander through Boots, basically Britain's version of Shoppers Drug Mart. I decide, around 00.30 that I may grab a seat and lay out and rest for awhile. And then I notice the incredible amount of people. There was NO chance of finding two seats together to lay down on. Hell, finding a SINGLE seat was challenging! People were sleeping on the floor curled up against the walls. Some people were well prepared and had small foam things to sleep on. I'm sure some of the people had their sleeping bags with them for hostels and stuff, but some of the people sleeping in them or on the foamy things did not look like your typical backpacker and looked more like business people. Anyway, I found a seat next to the freaking smoking section and read a boring magazine for awhile. It was getting close to 2.00 and the smoking smell was gross, my magazine was bland, and people kept using the doors close by so a draft was coming through. So I decided to move somewhere else and make some calls back to PEI. Sometimes time changes are a good thing. So I chatted on the phone for about an hour. Went on a toilet/seat hunt (not a toilet-seat hunt! =D ) and eventually settled down in a cafeteria-style restaurant and slept there for about forty-five minutes, grade-one style with my head on the table. I woke up kind of cold and decided to have some breakfast. As a sidenote, my stomach growled so much that night. I wonder if it does every night when I am asleep. So I stood in Boots for awhile and debated about buying food. Then I checked in for my flight at 4.45 and decided to try and sleep some more. By then people for earlier flights (starting at 6.00) had started to go through security or lined up to check in so more seats were available so I managed to grab a couple of seats and snoozed for about a half-hour. I think. I was rather spacey. After going through security I went to buy some SUGAR JUBES from duty-free pick and mix. In the last six and a half months, this is the only place I have come across that has them. So, despite the awful mark-up, I bought some. A pleasant addition to breakfast! My flight left on time at 6.40, and I was fell asleep as the planet was roaring down the runway for take off. I woke up at some point when they were selling drinks and then when I had to, you know, get off the plane. Anyway, I had planned to sleep on the train and bus but the train wasn't very comfortable and the bus was too bloody hot. Plus I wasn't very tired and I had found a newspaper so read that instead. I think the previsouly mentioned post-travel blues would have kicked in, but since I didn't have to go to work in the afternoon I had a rather nice, easy-going afternoon. Compared to the weather in Estonia and Finland, Edinburgh's seemed so warm! Not sun screen warm, but not winter coat warm. So I bought groceries, cooked, showers, etc. and then headed off to the mall to do some Christmas gift brainstorming and then hit the gym for a wee while before I got tired. Despite the fact I wish I was still travelling, it was nice to be back in our flat and I had some good catching up with the flatmates to do! Shannon and I easily agreed that this Saturday a voyage to the Walkabout is necessary. I mean, I haven't been there in, like, four or five weeks or something!!

I do want to write about my trip, but I think a day-bye-day blow down is a bit much. So how about a general commentary on each country? (Yup, all three of 'em, four if you count the UK!)

2004-11-19T10:47:00.000Z

Point form random post about my trip thus far in no particular order:

Paris was hard on the feet and the left knee.

I have been asked if I am spanish three times so far. All occurances were in France.

Ryan Air seems cheap when you book your flights. However, then one must pay €20 to get to and from the city.

The coach buses in Finland are far more comfortable than planes. And given Ryan Air, they are much more expensive. Much more.

I took the stairs up the Eiffel Tower. Once I got down my left knee started twitching terribly and wouldn't stop. Kind of freaky.

I heart my jar of peanut butter.

Pick n Mixes are common all over Europe. In Finland they are the "candy king".

Finnish makes no sense whatsoever.

A really hot guy sat next to on the flight from London to Tampere. When he closed his eyes to sleep I made sure to check him out as to not disapoint my Canadian friends at home.

The hostel in Tampere (conveniently called Hostel Tampere) was freakishly nice. And the shower was bloody fabulous!

There is snow here in Mikkeli (pronounced Mikel-lee). Since the last time I saw a substantial amount of snow was watching the movie Fargo, I feel like I am in Fargo. Except, as far as I know, Steve Buschemi has not killed anyone here.

The metro is SUCH an efficient way to travel. Admitedly, I took it only from the airport shuttle stop to my hostel and Disneyland, but it is incredibly well marked and very easy to figure out.

I miss Paris. I am thinking about looking in to short-term language classes that I could take there. Then I would experience la vie en Paris and my french would improve immensley. Also, I finally feel as though (late) french immersion was worth it. Only time I approached people in English was at Disneyland because all staff must be, at minimum, bilingual in French and English.

I so just flat out ran out of time in Paris.

I was in a McDonalds on the Champes Des Elysees. (Just to go to the lu.) It was classy compared to the one in Charlottetown. They had CD stations were you could listen to CDs.

I want to go skating.

It got dark in Mikkeli last night at, like, 15.30.

I saw Tanya Kennedy today! Seriously, she is going to the same school as Patrick.

Disneyland Paris was soooo worth the the-expensive-weekend-trip-ever investment! Walking into Parc Disneyland after the sun went down on Saturday night was, forgive the cliche, absolutely breath taking. All of Main Street and the castle was lit up in lights and it was soooo pretty.

I am quite sure I am going to Estonia. Some blokes I talked to on the bus highly recommended it. Patrick also made reference to Robin Hood when he was describing it so that pretty much sold me on it.

My mitts suck.

Soooo glad I have my red winter boots, hat and scarf with me.

I bought two magazines to read on this trip. I have barely cracked the cover of one. Instead I read a book by Meg Cabot (a kids book, of course) and am almost odne of the second Bridget Jones' Diary. She is crazy and I hope I don't end up like her.

I was sad when we had to leave Disneyland.

I was sad when I had to leave Paris.

I actually don't mind travelling by myself! Although at times it would be cool to have someone around. And I really haven't been by myself very much at all anyway. My first day in Paris I hung out with a girl from Mozambique who was doig her masters in London.

My water slightly iced over when I was walking around outside this morning.

My teeth were sore last night. Mental note: more dairy/calcium.

I didn't overpack! I have used almost everything I brought with me and the stuff I haven't used I am *glad* i haven't used it, e.g., bandaids.

I haven't bought enough sourvenirs. So far I have a couple of postcards and junk. Uh oh.

Most of my money has been spent on accommodations and transportation. However, I am not keeping track of my money at all because it will cause me only to flip out.

The end.

2004-11-18T09:27:00.000Z

Am in Tampere... Am hungry... Am going to miss bus to Mikkeli if donät hurry up...

=)

In short, I am alive and well. Except the hungry thing but my jar of PB is awaiting me back at the hostel ;)

Funny keys: ÖöÄÄäÅåôÜ§½ ¤ etc.

Am having boatloads of fun and will be sad to go back to work... but only 2 ½ weeks til I am home?! Crazy.

2004-11-15T17:20:00.000Z

Je suis en Paris! La ville est tres belle et mes pieds sentent tres malparce que je marchais trop aujourd'hui.

La fin.

2004-11-12T21:40:00.000Z

Yaaaaaaaaaay!! Five hours until I am on my way to Glasgow!! YAY GLASGOW! Because, GLASGOW WILL LEAD ME TO PARIS.

Mwa ha ha!

Got my hostel shit in Tampere straightened out. Still not sure about Estonia. Still not packed. (Almost there, just some food to throw in my bag. And, now that I think about it, probably a shirt to take out.

I also have legs to shave. Two of 'em, to be precise.

Anyway, no one will be getting any emails from me for a wee while because I'll be busy frolicking about in Notre Dame, the Helsinki Olympic Stadium, etc. You know, every day stuff ;)

Heart yas all,
Jen

2004-11-12T21:38:00.000Z

Written Wednesday, Nov 10

Okay, so panick mode is going to kick in.

Basically it's over this hostel thing in Tampere. It's going to be closed when I get there, I *know* it. I mean, they will NOT stay around for an extra half hour so some Canadian doesn't have to sleep on the streets. (Sidenote for my concerned parents, I will not actually sleep on the street. I'm sure I can at least find a bench ;) But seriously, I would spring for some over-priced, Scandinavian hotel before I'd do something stupid like sleep outside. Plus it would be cold.)

So yes, me needs to calm (cam in Islander terms) down.

Sometimes I miss not having a WalMart or Zellers. It's nice to have a store that has nice, lengthy hours and is one-stop shopping. Last night I tried to buy some stuff for my trip but couldn't because traffic was kind of bad and the stores close at six. So I am giving it a second shot today and wisely going somewhere closer to work instead of heading back into town. Plus WalMart and Zellers are cheap.

Thank god I have nothing to do at work and can do at least a wee bit of travel planning. And have access to a printer! Seriously, you don't realise how great it is to be able to print for free until suddenly you CAN'T. I mean, I have printed stuff at school before and it's kind of annoying, but not too bad if you have only a couple of things to print. In the pricey city of Edinburgh, one generally pays £.20 per sheet. So about 45 cents. FOR ONE MEASLY SHEET.

In un-Jen fashion, i have been doing a lot of planning ahead for this trip. I explained to Shannon that it seems wise, given I can't simply hop in a cab and head home for the night if I can't find a place to stay. So it's a comfort thing. And by planning ahead I can print off confirmations and maps for free at work =D Plus it will save time. Instead of trying to figure out what metro line to use to get to Champes d'Elysees, I can save time by simply hopping on the metro because I already know how to get there! (Transfer from line 7 to 1. Oh, I am GOOD. And I will admit, I chose that street because it's one the only ones I actually know because it's the same line we are taking to Disneyland, only the RER instead of the metro. Blah blah blah.)

I did laundry last night. Hopefully it will be dry by when I go away. Seriously. Wet clothes take for-bloody-ever to dry in our flat. I usually string about my clothes in my bedroom by my heater, but I never leave my heater on when I am not home which is most of the time. (Except once by mistake.)

Ooh, I also saved THREE WHOLE POUNDS by planning ahead and booking a bus online instead of paying the driver. I tell ya, this MacPhail is changing and will soon be planning things MONTHS ahead.

Or maybe she was just excited about saving £3...

In good news, I finally found a web based version of MSN that works at work. Currently, Dad is listed as "idle". And he is in Florida. Hmm, did someone forget to properly sign out?

I'm just rambling away. La la la la.

I'm pulling a Janet and bringing lots of food with me when I leave on Friday. This is actually a very practical thing to do! Food takes up space which means I will have room to buy stuff because I will be eating the food as I travel thus providing myself with more space. It also saves money, so I can buy more stuff!

I have been mentally compiling a Christmas list as of late and have actually come up with THREE things that I can still remember: a one-month gym membership to somewhere in Charlottetown (although timing wise, this would make for a better birthday gift so I could actually *use* it), trainers (mine are *slightly* small as they cause my feet to fall asleep), and work shoes. Not work shoes in the construction boot manner, but shoes I can wear to work. I have two pairs of black shoes here. One pair I got in first year university and are getting VERY worn down and ratty looking. The other pair is practically a child to me (along with my digital camera) and it saddens me that my lace-up, high-heeled, calf-high boots are falling apart. Sort of. The left one is still in decent shape, but the toe on the right is practically gone and the sole and shoe are becoming seperated. Boooo. Honestly, I will admit they were only $40; HOWEVER, they were marked down from about $115. If I had paid that much for them I would be seriously pissed off right about now.

I also have things at home that I want to take back over here with me, such as my cleats. Or boots, as they call 'em here. (I know people sometimes use that at home too though.)

Man, this is boring. It must be bad to read as I am getting bored merely TYPING it. Oooh, I know, I wrote an email to my dad about what I did over the weekend. I shall cleverly copy and paste it into this to make for at least *slightly* more exciting reading. So here we go, with some minor changes.

From Monday
I think my boss may be a wee bit disapointed I didn't apply for the marketing position here and now I'm wondering if maybe I should have and just asked about any ways around the "Yes, it is necessary you can drive in this country!" thing.

I was doing some marketing work for him today (mostly reserach on different types of advertising) and saw a picture of a cow painted advertising Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream. he liked that. I also found these weird hub cabs that one attaches to a vehicle. The hub caps don't rotate with the tires, thus you can put an advert on them and pedestrians/other drivers can still see them! Quirky idea.

My weekend was pretty good. went to the "free" BBQ on Friday night but alas, the advert was misleading and the BBQ was not free. So some of the people we were with left and headed off to a pub. Shannon and her guest for the weekend, her former IRish flatmate, left but Keri and I stayed around for a few minutes to wait for the others we were meeting up with but had not
showed up yet. They arrived very shortly after, and Keri, myself, and the newly-arrived three went to a bar down the road that a friend works at. Cheap night for me as one guy bought a road right off the
bat and then their other flatmate bought a round right afterwards. They were in good shape as the place they work brings in lots of liquor
after work one friday each month ;) And so you don't think I'm cheap, I had bought them a round the night before after lacrosse! After a bit a couple of people from our lacrosse team joined up with us and eventually Shannon and her visitor. Anyway, it was a really good time!

Saturday I played in the lacrosse tournament. It was really weird. We had lots of people so we only played half of the game and had to sit out the other half. And, for some weird "something went wrong with the tournmanet" thing reasons we played ten-minute games. Weird. I find the teams that are good and generally very fast. The teams that lack speed usually end up
playing rougher.

I like playing the rougher teams better because they aren't as good :)

Sat night I didn't really do too much.

Sunday I did some running around buying stuff for my trip! I realised today that I am quite unprepared for Finland, but well prepared for France. Which is good. I'll work on the Finnish stuff this week!

Last night we rented ET! First time I ever saw the same thing and I really liked it!

End Monday stuff. Gah. I'm bored. Time to almost get ready to go home.

2004-11-12T21:36:00.000Z

Written Tuesday, Nov 9th:

Hey all,

Well, my trip planning is nearly complete. Hopefully by the time you read this is will *be* complete because this will likely be my last post until I am either hopping about the lands of continental Europe or am back in the safe walls of Easy Net on Rose Street. (I heart you Rose Street.)

So it was recently brought to my attention by Patrick (Patrick Crossman - my travel amigo for part of my Finnish Adventure) that Estonia is a mere three-hour, 30-euro trip by ferry from Helsinki. I am tempted. And, of course, scared. If I am going to be keen and have a hostel booked before I arrive there then I need to get off my ass and book it within the next few days. However, I am an indecisive girl. I spent far too long trying to decide where to stay in Paris, not so long trying to decide where to stay in Helsinki, and even less time trying to decide where to stay in Tampere because, heh, turns out there is only one place to stay. And even that is going to be a problem! My flight gets in at 21.30, shuttle leaves the airport at 22:10, and somehow I am supposed to make it to the hostel by 22:30 before closing?!?! I emailed the kind folk at the hostel and they insist I will arrive in time. Umm, considering it is a 40-minute shuttle trip I have my doubts. Considerable doubts. So I may have to take a list of cheap hotels or something as back up. And a map. And many euros.

As a sidenote my keyboard at work is not fitted with the euro symbol; what's up with that?!

I am going to see the movie Saved! tonight with Shannon. It premiered here way back when during the film festival. I was tempted to go, mainly to see if I could get a glimpse of Mackauly Culkin. No word of him being here though. He must have been busy poccessing drugs and stuff. (See entertainment news for more details.)

And in more child-stars-gone-wrong news, poor Lindsay Lohan wound up in the hospital. Lots of booze, lots of partying and lots of unsatisfactory acting during the shoot for The Love Bug remake. Lots of lessons learned, my friends. And those lessons include the whole beer before liquor/liquor before beer thing. I'd state the little rhyme that goes with that but I usually get it wrong. I find beer then liquor preferable myself.

On Saturday my lacrosse team as in a tournament. One team we played was kind of rough to make up for their lack of speed and talent.

I liked playing them because I lack speed and talent but the have the ability to be rough thanks to being a younger sister living in fear of her older brother way back in the days of elementary school.

And maybe junior high too.

2004-11-04T13:19:00.000Z

Quiet afternoon at work... I spent most of it surfing the web trying to decide what hostel to stay at in Paris. If anyone out there has any advice, I would much appreciate it. I am leaning towards the Young and Happy hostel with AIJ something or other and BVJ Latin Quarter as second options.

So it turns out lacrosse is just about the funnest sport EVER! I went to practice on Thursday (I blogged about it but the server was down, I ran out of time, blah blah blah, it didn't post.) and then played a game up in Aberdeen on Saturday. Seriously - so. much. fun.! Why did we not play this in gym class? Why can one not even play it at all on PEI? I mean, it *is* our national sport!

I also got my first lacrosse injury on Saturday. Incredibly minor and I didn't even really notice it until the swished my mud/dirt off my leg. Just a few wee scratches from... well, something.

One guy on my team managed to cut both his finger and nose.

Spring ahead, fall back, eh? Well, GREAT. Because now, despite being only 4:00, it's practically dark. Thrilling.

I am totally pumped for France! I've been doing lots of reading up, and I think I somewhat have my two mere days planned. (I'm excited for Disneyland and Finland too, no worries. I have just finished my Disneyland required reading and since Finland is the last leg of my journey I have yet to start reading about it. That will come shortly.)

Want to know what's crazy? I am home in LESS THAN FIVE WEEKS. Bloody freaking insane, I tell ya. Of the remaining 34 days, I will be gone for at least eleven of them. Eight of those days there will be lacrosse (including a tournament on Saturday), one of those days we are having some kind of a Christmas dinner, two of those days Shan's former flatmate will be at our flat, one of those days we will be celebrating Beth's birthday, one of them will be spent packing (probably the last day =P ), a couple will be spent looking for Xmas presents for people, a couple more will be spend buying Xmas presents for people, a maximum sixteen of those days will be spent working (inc today - which is almost over), one day will be spent in Glasgow (I want to go again cause I saw pics of it at Christmas and it looked awfully pretty!), and of these remaining thirty-four days, each day will have six or so hours devoted to freaking SLEEPING. Sleeping?!?! 204 hours sleeping? And that's going at, generally, a minimum. But that sounds like too much. So from now on, no more sleeping. Despite the fact that I am sleepy as I type this.

Okay, so a little bit of sleeping. But no sleeping in on weekends. Or when travelling. That's what airports are for. (I'll give you my review of how London Stansted functions as a hotel in late November. Expect stories of a sore back, boredom, and random comparisons with the film The Terminal. The comparisons may be off though as I have not seen the film.)

Disadvantage of being a girl: harder to find pee spots along the carriageway from Aberdeen to Dundee that provide adequate coverage from the eyes of the oncoming traffic. We pulled over at one point on the way home on Saturday and I thought, "Nope, nothing to hide my bare ass so it's a no go. I can hold." And I did. And I counted the miles to Dundee. And my bladder almost exploded. So I asked to pull over again and, luckily, this spot did have some trees and stuff to block the, heh, view. I was prepared and had some TP in my purse. I would make a good boy scout. ("Be prepared!")

Except for being a girl.

No trick or treaters Sunday night. It was a good thing since a pile of us devoured most of our candy at our wee Hallowe'en fiesta on Saturday night.

I was I could post my blog from work. Instead I'll probably post this, like, 900 days from now.

I am probably sinning, but I am not going to the Louvre when in Paris. I figure I have only two days and the museum is absolutely huge. I would rather walk around outside than look at art, even if it is famous art. Besides, I imagine I will be back at some point when I will have more time. Of course, I have been wanting to go back to London since I returned from there in June and have not went back. But no worries, I doubt London (or Paris) will disapear any time soon. And if they do? Well, wow. That would be weird.

Big election today in the States. They should let foreigners vote as well seeing as the outcome will affect far more than American citizens.

I would vote for Tim Allen. And wouldn't Richard Karn make a good Vice President?

The end. Time to go to the toilet. (Such a brass term.)

2004-10-29T17:27:00.000+01:00

Oh yeah, and a note for y'all:

I can't get into my hotmail account from work so I've been sending some people emails from my UPEI account. They'll likely go in your junk mail.

In other news, I booked another leg of my November adventure today: my flight from Paris to Glasgow. So now I officially have two days in Paris. And I need to find a place to stay. Mental note. It's just hard doing research on hostels because I mostly use the internet at work and most accommodation-related sites are blocked off.

Last night was my first lacrosse adventure and it was soooooo much fun!! Naturally, I wasn't exactly great given it was my first time, but I am going up to Aberdeen with the team tomorrow to, uh, "play". Or so they think. I@m hoping they will let me watch for most of the game because I don't actually know all the rules yet and I have trouble getting the ball into my stick. Apparently it's easier on grass versus, uh, that stuff that is like the bottom of a tennis court. ANd we are playing on grass tomorrow so maybe I'll be a little better.

Or more likely not =)

Hallowe'en fiesta tonight and tomorrow. Woo!

2004-10-29T17:26:00.000+01:00

AAAAAAAAAAAND blog no. 3 I wrote on Wednesday. Also not finished.

Bored bored bored. Heh, by the time I actually get somewhere to post all the blogs I wrote I'll have a thesis of ramblings.

I have done work today. Seriously. But my boss is gone and I finished it. It's okay, they all know I have nothing to do so I don't feel bad wasting time. Today I have read oodles of blogs of people back home. Some people I know, some I don't. It's weird, because they don't know I have read them. I wonder if anyone from home reads this, people who I wouldn't suspect.

Anyway, sounds like nothing has changed in Ch'town. Surprise! =P

I have also been relearning french. Unfortunately, all the webites I have come across so far are very basic and not really as advanced as I would like. That's fine though, it's better than nothing! It also makes me feel smart because I actually do remember quite a bit of it.

A recent trip to the washroom revealed just how badly I need a haircut: quite badly. I won't classify it as very badly yet, but it's heading in that direction. However, the £15 (minimum) could be better spent on other things. Such as a night in a hostel in Paris. Or a flight somewhere.

Uggggggggggggggggggggggggggh. Bored.

Yesterday I waited a half-hour for the bus. Joy. I even called the bus hotline. The guy just said all buses were running late, despite the fact I didn't even tell him what stop I was at or which bus I was waiting for. I guess being an advanced mind reader is in the job description at Lothian Buses. Anyway, the 5:01 bus must have come super early as I was at the stop at no later than 4:55. The 5:21 crawled along at 5:27ish. Good job, guys. My bus this morning was also late.

I know these things happen and traffic and roadworks play a huge factor, but the 5:01 should not be that early! I am practically at the beginning of its line and since I work quite a piece out of town there are few traffic lights that would slow/speed up the bus route. I mean, my bus being five minute late this morning is understandable. Traffic congestion, rider levels, roadworks are much more likely to slow me down in the morning commute.

Anyway. I still managed to buy my mouth guard last night. Since my bus was super, super late I had, no exageration, about three minutes to spare. Then traffic was the pits and it took me awhile to get from the mall into town. Uggggh.

Tonights plans include catching The Princess Diaries 2 at the cinema and molding my mouth guard. Even if I hate lacrosse and wind up never playing again I'll still wear my mouthguard around the flat to make me look tough. It's not really necessary though, I know Keri and Shan fear me anyway. They just try reallllllllllllly hard not to show it.

I impressed Shan with my memory last night. I also decided I need to find a bloke to have a crush on because I'm bored. This would give me something to think about. The requirements shouldn't be too hard to meet:

Must be my soulmate.

Is that really too much to ask? ;) And not being from Cork, Ireland would be helpful. I would like to be able to understand what's coming from your mouth.

I lost one entire kilo. Yaaaaaaaaaay. I don't know how many I put on since moving here, but let me tell you it is much more than one. Looking back to when we first arrived here, maybe the Haribo-candy and beer-guzzling eating regime was not in my best interest. Or maybe it was, because the candy was good and the beer was often cheap or free due to our, now non-existant, connections. Meh, whatever. I enjoyed 'em at the time. And now I actually enjoy going to the gym and stuff so it really doesn't matter.

It's just when I try to fit into some of my clothes... =D

I have just been informed that there *will* be work for me to do this afternoon! I was also somewhat encouraged to check out the new job postings for permanent positions here... Hmm... Scary. Mainly because I have my fingers crossed for my Disney application to go through and I don't want to leave people stuck if I had to adbruptly leave for Florida. Or spelling courses based upon my spelling of adbruptylheahwiogw.

2004-10-29T17:24:00.000+01:00

Blog no. 2 from work, wrote right aftertheone that appears below this one. (The space bar on this keyboard sucks.)

So I am mighty bored at work. Thirty minutes into the day, and nothing to do yet. So I am taking a trip down memory lane. Do join me, although I don't blame you for ditching me and taking an "accidental" wrong turn.

First up, when we lived in Cornwall. I have practically no memories of here, mostly what I know is from watching home videos. I have one memory of my room. The blind was down, but it was sunny outside so the room wasn't completely dark. And I had just woken up. Another memory is flying a blue kite with my neighbour, Brodie, I think, and I was scared I would let go of it because there wasn't anything to hold on to at the end, only the string. We also had a mat thing to put your shoes on when you would come in through the front door. If you turned it upside it was covered in prickly things that hurt when you walked on them. Of course, Jeff and I walked on them.

Eventually we moved. In some year. Lets say... 1986? I remember looking at our house before we moved in, but from a geographical perspective, I could have sworn it was on the other side of the park. Like down on Cottonwood somewhere. I met Amy at the park, and played with her for many years to come! Bizarre memories that don't include normal playing include me and her wearing the same shirt and trying to convince her sister that I was Amy and she was me. We figured if we put the hoods up on our shirts then we would look the exact same. We were also wearing the same colour pants. Needless to say the wiser big sister was not fooled. Also, waaaaay early on in our friendshp (like the first summer) I remember Amy's sister and her sister's older friend not wanting Amy to wear her nice dress shoes to the park. Amy wore them anyway.

Other memories of the early West Royalty years include the park programme, being awful at t-ball, and Jeff putting gum in my hair. Oh, and once I stayed at Sara Allen's house late watching/playing the Ghostbusters and didn't call home. It turned out we had company so I got in a wee bit of trouble. I think I was too shy to ask to use the phone or something.

Also at some point pre 1990 (before we had a pool and big deck) Jeff was grounded in the summer for a day. I felt bad for him so played with him on our red patio and we pretended it was a boat.

1990 saw the brilliant move of having a mullet and a perm at the same time. I should scan a pic of that period. My Aunt called me a poodle. That is the polite way of saying, "Child, your hair is nasty!" Well, looking back it wasn't a winner, but at the time it wasn't *that* out of place.

** then I stopped and did some work or something.