Quakes and taking the "Christ" out of Christmas

Strangest thing: I wasn't homesick until another big earthquake hit Christchurch. Seriously. Despite the endless job hunt, the lack of close friends, the unfamiliar city, I have been having a wonderful time. I love it here and I'm having so much fun.

Then I see "6.0" on the NZ Herald site and I suddenly wish I was home. Masochistic? Loyal? Crazy? Not sure, but I bet there are a lot of people in Christchurch who would be happy to swap!

So I spent Christmas with my dad's family, he's here until new year's day so he's playing chauffeur. It was a great Christmas, I talked to Mum and Peggy on Christmas Day NZ time (eve in Canada) and got a couple great gifts. After a mini debate about the whole "Happy Holidays" versus "Merry Christmas" thing it struck me that the only people who care about this debate are people who care too much in either direction. Extremists, one might say. These days Christmas isn't about God any more than it's about celebrating Saturn (the god, not the planet). "In ancient Rome Saturnalia, a celebration honoring [sic] the god Saturn, involved parades, “decking the halls” with greenery, visiting friends and exchanging gifts."

So wait... Half our traditions for December 25 come from the Roman day celebrating their equivalent of Zeus? Next year I'm going to campaign for a return to the true meaning of the date - Saturn's epic awesomeness.

There's my annual rant. Hope you enjoyed it.

At the moment we're relaxing in Ottawa - eating too much food and watching a lot of movies. Saw the new Sherlock Holmes. Two main things: Stephen Fry is my God and that chick from Dragon Tattoo looks a lot better when she's not emaciated. It was really good, lots of little things in it for people who are familiar with the original stories and plenty of action for people who don't care about that. Not sure it was as good as the first one but well worth the $8. I return to Toronto on the 31st and will probably hang with my cousin to celebrate the new year then head to Hamilton to see Mum's family for the holiday season (All Hail Saturn).

Hope y'all had a great Christmas and that Santa was good to you.

Taking a break from not working...

Ouch, ten days. That's the worst one yet. I've been aiming for weekly update but instead seem to be hitting nine or ten days between posts. I shall endeavour to improve - it can be my New Year's resolution.

So since that Christmas party I have applied for two more jobs and have another application underway. Things are definitely slowing down for the holidays so I've read a lot of books (highly recommended: Book of Negroes; The Purity Myth; The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie) and watching some TV (mostly Treme so I have really good music in my head all the time).

My dad arrived in Canada last week and spent four days in Toronto. We made it to the Royal Ontario Museum on Monday for a pretty epic Maya exhibit and to see the dinosaurs. It was great - I've been wanting to go for a while but dragging a parent along meant I got company (and he paid ;)). [Editorial query: what's the end bracket requirement post emoticon?]

So this week's been a bit lazy and doesn't look like that will be changing any time soon. Saturday I head to my dad's family for Christmas then on to Ottawa where I'll catch up with my one close friend in Canada. I've been invited to a gift swap there despite the event specifying "boys" in the title so I'm busting down gender barriers as I go. Of course there are two other girls on the invite list, but hey, Emily Pankhurst didn't work alone!

Now I'm headed out for some music on a Wednesday night. It's almost like I'm a grown up who lives here and has a life.

So how about Wednesday's as official "update day"? I'll try and stick to it and you-all can poke me with a stick if I miss my deadline.

Christmas parties and

So I didn't get that job, but whatever, I'm not sure I wanted it anyway... The most interviews the better so hopefully they'll start adding up.


This week has been slower. Monday I went to bookclub - it was great! We read The Slap and Trainspotting and had really great conversations. I'm hoping to make soem serious friends out of this. As opposed to all the ridiculous friends I left behind ;)

Tuesday was interview madness. I looked awesome, had to take a personality test (hate them) and write a mini-essay for a low-paying job that's really far away. So I'm kind of glad I didn't get it.

Job postings are starting to slow down for Christmas but I'm still hopeful of getting a couple more in. There are some good ones that only just closed so fingers crossed I get more interviews.

Last night was the bookclub Christmas party. It was lovely to meet lots of new people, and I may have made a couple friends, partly thanks to the red wine and brandy alexander (not together). There was a book swap where you could either pick a new present or steal someone else's. It was fun - I was second to last so I got my pick - American Gods by Neil Gaiman and The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by someone I could look up but won't. All in all a successful evening other than taking the subway in the wrong direction to try to get home :)

So tomorrow I will apply for two more jobs and hope that someone somewhere wants me... Until then I'm going to hibernate with my new books :)

Interview Shminterview

I have my first job interview!!! I got the call yesterday as I was in the car with my uncle and other than not being able to find a pen for a while I think I did okay in the initial "Tell me about yourself" piece. I have an interview on Tuesday.

It's based in Mississauga, which is 45 minutes from Toronto - more on public transport - but it looks like a really good job. The role covers a lot of different kinds of tasks, so after a year or so I would have a lot of experience in a range of areas to add to my journalism experience. The location would be a little inconvenient, but I can manage that and still live in Toronto. Especially if I was on the west side, probably further out than what I was thinking but if I can stay close to the east-west subway line it'll still be easy to get around.

Of course I might not even get the job... But I'm planning like I will ;)

I didn't sleep well last night because I kept going over everything in my head... Do I really want this job? What should I wear? Where should I live if I get this job? What if I get an interview for a better job next month? But if I keep worrying myself out of sleep then I'll be shit for the interview and I won't get it anyway...

So that's my good news. Someone in the GTA actually read my resume AND wants to know more.