so here i am...in the wilderness! to my right a giant god-knows-how-deep lake inhabited by 20 ft long sturgeon fish and to my left a seemingly ever-stretching vista of great canadian woods
i went for a walk yesterday. it was cold - because for some reason - they say it is normally warm here in summer - but since i am here - it is downright chilly here in canada this summer - anyway - so out i went but as it was cold - i put on a....fleece - yes a fleece - also hiking boots.
then phil gave me a knife to carry - just in case of bears, cougars, rapists, delectable cheese - you never know...
anyway - so i walked down the highway for a while - then i wandered into a meadow and as i was admiring the view a deer jumped out of nowhere just a few meters away from me....i was so spooked i went home right away
suffice it to say...for any of you listening out there...
HELP ME - i'm turning canadian!!!

Ah how life lurches around and sometimes forward but seldom in the direction you think. School is out. Travel is in. Leaving Lantana. Leaving London. Moving on. It's time to go. I will miss much about London. Mostly the lovely amazing people I have met here, my life as I know it. But I won't miss English people who treat you like crap and don't know how to act in a restaurant, or the psychos on the bus or the psychos who I constantly live beneath. Those things, I won't miss. It feels like I moved here and made friends with a bunch of people...all of whom are either from Australia or New Zealand, so I bit the bullet and faced the truth for once....and decided, if all I did was hang out with Aussie people here, I might as well just go there once and for all. And that is what I'm doing. La vie d'une dilettante continues, down under. Stay tuned for posts all about acclimatizing to the sunburnt country...it feels like I live there already...but that's what I thought about England...and remember how much we all learned (and then laughed) about that?

moving forward...

it's been a while....but what can i say....things have been a bit jumbled lately and i'm just starting to feel like i can write a cohesive paragraph or two about my life and what's happening and where it's headed....i think that's good news enough to make up for such a crap performance these past few months....
i have numerous blog posts begun but never ended that this blog will sadly probably never see....a lovely little number about my trip to spain that was too dangerous to post in case my mother found out i got a sunburn....not to mention a few rambling pieces lamenting the going-no-where-ness of my job at the cheeseshop which made my whole life take on a similar type of going-no-where-ness feeling...now i work at a lovely little australian cafe where i am finally learning to make proper coffee (apparently i'm a quick learner...duh, i could have told you that, it's emblazoned across the top of all my resumes!) anyway....it's not like i don't know how to make coffee, i do! i just didn't know how to make proper coffee...but now i am beginning to....yay!
ironically....i feel like ever since i left diabolos i've been searching for the grown up equivalent to get that feeling back - that feeling of working at a place you feel at home at - and i think where i am now is pretty damn close - on the downside...it pays a pittance and ironically, in the end, now that i'm here....all i can keep thinking is....what next? especially since i'm not at leisure to do what i was hoping would be next: travel. oh no...the mighty hospitality pound won't afford me that over here unless i sell my soul to evil corporate type restaurants that will only make me angry and sad....so i figure it's time...to go back...yes...you know where...
i only hope it's not a repeat of teaching english school and when i get out i decide....nah...i don't really want to do that with my life - eeks...how terrible would that be!? somehow i have to believe this will be different...yup...
and the pride in making a decent cappuccino this week has been equalled only by my get up and go to contact some people and places and get some information....i'm on my way...i can feel it! (i hope....)
now if i could just stop procrastinating on my taxes and other governmental forms - life would be all tied up....but then i wouldn't really have anything to do...and well...that'd just be no fun, now wouldn't it?

urrhhmmm...yeah...sorry about being posting remiss....
life has been a steady hamster wheel cycle of work and....not work? i guess.

my work schedule has finally settled into something resembling routine which allows my days off a routine of their own. it goes something like this: day 1) sleep in - that means till 9, get up, but by no means change out of pyjamas. drink tea. watch tv on the tv, or computer. drink tea. catch up on emails and stuff like that. drink tea. maybe watch some more tv. drink tea. run out of things to do on the computer...realize i've moved very little since i woke up and that i need to do something or i might not actually be tired enough to go to sleep i've been that sedentary. attempt to create an outfit as different as possible to my standard work uniform (jeans and black shirt) as possible...cause i can - go out. drink coffee. meet up with friends or try to convince friends to have drinks with me. wander around hackney, broadway market and victoria park. end up at a friend's house and decide to stay over there rather than go home.
day 2) wake up wearing same outfit as yesterday in someone else's house. wander around a park or bookstore or museum or shop. go home and prepare myself for back to work the next day.
and there you have it folks. my london life.

highlights of this routine include:
devora and i went to a bar with an animatronic horse head on the wall.
i went dancing in "heaven" and survived....with blisters to boot.
there have been some instances of sun in london, such that i spent an entire day sitting and sunning in the park.
discovering: target women, spinstersquest and how to spot a canadian

cause i am a cheesy girl i will entitle this post - roman holiday -how unoriginal!

sooooooooooooooo for some reason my boss bullied me into taking holidays and i booked them for the beginning of march...do not know why...just thought...i will book some and something will come up and then i can either move my holidays to a time when i actually need them or plan something cause march is a long way off! well turns out i was wrong, it is a lot closer than you think, in fact it is upon us! and now...really...thinking about dates and all....i really should have tried to somehow manage a trip to rome near the ides of march rather than the whatever the beginning is called part of march...hmm ah well.
sooooooooooooooo - posting from rome! i have been here two days now and yes...it is true world, i am here alone - solo you might say...it is not as much fun as being somewhere with someone but it is not as bad as you might think....in fact there are a lot of good things about travelling alone...what i have discovered about myself travelling alone however is that i can be very unmotivated - especially with my own hotel room at my disposal...if i had more books and stuff i might have tried to spend my entire vacation in my underpants within the confines of my room...just cause...your very own hotel room all to yourself is novelty enough on vacation...fear not however, rome poses enough attractive options to lure me out into the open (clothed of course!)...not to mention i am almost out of books and possess no other forms of entertainment (i already painted my toenails last night) and simply staring at a hotel room wall contrary to popular belief is not actually my idea of fun...however, evenings do indeed pose problems being the paranoid worrywart that i am...i refuse to stray more than 3 blocks from my hotel after dark cause...well...just cause...i could be kidnapped and sold into white slavery or any manner of terrible things which i spent most of the plane journey here imagining...regardless of the fact that i am in a major city just like toronto and london where i freely roam streets far and wide at all manner of ungodly hours...i mean...not that i do that mum...the language barrier plus not knowing anyone here is enough to keep me 3-block-bound while solo. somewhat thankfully, there is a hostel around the corner with a bar where i can go and have a drink and listen to lots of people my age speak english...sadly they all sound kind of like 19 year old windbags who think they know more about the world and politics than most of the world leaders they attempt to discuss - thanks but no thanks...ah well...at least it provides an hours entertainment before repainting my toenails tonight! what about rome tho? you might ask...obviously the star of this blog remains myself and not the city where all roads lead....silly reader....you should have figured that out by now...maybe i will think about dedicating some inches to rome on my next post from home when i can add photos....maybe....

FOOD ASIDE

uhm so like ps i love food.
i've become increasingly besotted with borough market.
am learning so so much about cheese in spite of hating on my job...it really has ended up teaching me a lot more than i ever thought it would.
went to a dinner at the acorn house (a sustainable restaurant in london - basically they do stuff a lot of toronto restaurants try and do anyway cause canadians know the ways to be green yo)
carlo petroni - the head of the slow movement was there and gave a speech and everything - it was pretty exciting really. i arranged cheese plates...but then they let me sit down and eat which was really nice.
am also finally reading michael pollan's book - the omnivore's dilemma - it is so so interesting - a must read if you're at all interested in knowing where the food you put into your body is really coming from....not that it tells you exactly but more like it inspires you to question where your food comes from.
am finding the idea of the democratization of food that JK pioneers really focal at the moment - especially in London which needs to democratize it's food even more so than toronto really...probably one of the key reasons i enjoy pavillion so much.

in other news, i am settling in here finally it feels...don't know what brought about this feeling but here it is and it's nice to feel like i'm in a spot for a while as opposed to constantly feeling like i need to be somewhere where i am not...however, this does shed light on other areas of my life that need to catch up with that feeling. wish me luck with sorting those things out in the coming days and weeks and months...

february begins

well party peoples...as i write this london is covered in a not so thick blanket of white stuff (no not their usual party drug white stuff) we canadians call this snow. transit has come to a grinding halt. no one, well barely anyone, went into work today. i was off anyway - what a waste of a snowday! couldn't mother nature cut me some slack and wait till wednesday or sumthin' - ouch. it all began on sunday when gusts of white flakes began to fall from the sky and walking from work to baker street with moa, rich and jp - it felt a tad on the magical side to be in a slightly snowy london with some good people. until! i ended up at king's cross on a sunday with no forseeable way to liverpool street or home except via bus - so i sucked it up and hopped on, only to be unceremoniously dumped at highbury islington waiting in the ever increasingly heavy snow wearing only my flimsy work shoes for another bus to get me on my way. ended up at devora's for some tasty dinner, too many chocy bickys and a fair amount of red wine finishing the evening off by cabbing it home due to the nast weather and heavy grocery burden caused by impromptu shopping at M&S.
Today I woke up and wandered about in my pyjama pants not realizing the havoc that was ensuing outside of my front door as to a Torontonian, what I saw outside my window was hardly newsworthy. Realized fairly soon after that all the tubes were down, no buses were running and that everyone was out and about marvelling at the snow like it was an alien substance sent by angels or...aliens maybe? Finally sucked up some courage and headed out into the white to meet up with Devora for a drink (mulled wine and snowmen were on the books). Met at the Inn on the Park which was packed and smelled of wet dog (not cause of dogs tho :(. So we decided to stroll thru some of Victoria Park, met up with a snowman friend for some photos and wound up at Garbo's which was serving mulled wine. So all in all, mission accomplished. We then convinced one another that we needed pizza which we whipped up out of corner store ingredients with quite positive results in spite of the unsuitability of some purchases and some doubt on Devora's part. We were hoping to enjoy our dinner over some crap dance movie on demand but it had myseriously disappeared - so we watched Wanted with James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie instead for some well delivered eye candy. Been blessed with some new music recently so am enjoying that while i type - bed soon and another snowy day off tomorrow...serious doubts about my ability to accomplish errands in the whiteout.