Bad Blogger

Hello loyal readers - did you miss me? I only just realised I missed a week! I don't know what I did with my Friday. Well, yes, I do, and it made for a rather painful Saturday morning.

I've been so busy the last few weeks, but so far next week is blissfully empty (ish) so I plan to read a lot and do mundane but necessary household tasks.

I had quite an exciting week. On Sunday I explored St Lawrence Antique market with friends, which was lovely. So many delightful things, and quite a bit of entertaining rubbish too. I still haven't made it to the Farmer's Market, but I'm sure I'll manage it next weekend. Monday I went to the opera because I am that cultured. My cousins daughters get free tickets through one of their classes but didn't want to go so I saw A Florentine Tragedy, and Gianna Schicchi. Instead of one two hour opera they did two one hour operas (did you follow that or did it need more punctuation) and the second of the two was perfect. The first dragged a bit and one of my cousins may have caught me nodding off, but the second was funny, with lots of slapstick humour and puns so a good antidote to the soporific first half. Tuesday I saw Cabin in the Woods, which was so much fun. I love a good horror movie and I love Joss Whedon, so this was perfection. I was mildly mocked for being so reactive, but I maintain that I have more fun than those staunch people who don't even flinch. What's the point in seeing a horror movie if you don't leave exhilarated? And is it really an admirable character trait to say that you don't react to horrific acts on screen?

I read Happenstance, by Carol Shields, this week. It was good, but I think I'd enjoy it more if I were a middle-aged, disillusioned married person. Now I'm reading Groundswell, which is about how to use social media as a marketing tool. It's very good, but from 2008 so Twitter isn't even really mentioned. There's lots about Digg, Facebook and YouTube, and even a bit about MySpace, but it's interesting to think about how much can change in just four years.

This is short AND doesn't follow my self-imposed rules from last week but I think maybe I'm not self-centred enough to be a blogger.

And runnin' runnin'

Happy Friday! Or weekend for those of you in another time zone ;)

I’m actually starting this early if you can believe it, because I really do intend to keep this up for the long term, which means I should probably make it more consistent and more interesting. So, on that note, I’ve decided to focus this on a few specific areas, rather than the ramble that I’ve been maintaining the last few months:

1. Work. I’ll still be letting you know how work is going, what it’s like to try and adjust to a new role (especially when that role changes frequently), and how I’m settling in.
2. Exploring Toronto. I want to see more of the city and this is a great place to talk about what I find. It’s also good practice to keep up my “colour” writing – I’d hate to lose the ability to describe a place and time in all this business reporting!
3. Books. I’ll let you know what I’ve read that’s good, what’s overrated and what I’d recommend.
4. Opinions. I read a lot of news in a week and I’d like to start analysing what I’m reading and sharing opinions. This can definitely be a back and forth. Tell me why you think I’m wrong in the comments and I’ll tell you why I’m definitely right.

Sufficient? I won’t necessarily include all four every week, and I can’t promise other details won’t sneak in, especially if it’s something especially exciting ( or especially lame) but at least now I have some parameters to stick to.

I started running again this week – just a couple 3km jogs to start with. I haven’t run in a while so I’m easing my way into it. I have some very hot purple Asics and a new folder on my MP3 player called “exercise” (mostly dance music) and I figure I’ll just try a few different directions and see where I end up and what routes I like. Tuesday I ran to Queen’s Quay and over to Bay, which was actually dreadful because there are too many people, too much construction and running under Union Station is like running through a smoke box. So yeah, Friday I ran the other direction – including dropping of a library book, multitasking FTW – but didn’t quite make it to the river. Next time ;)

This week I reread some J.D. Salinger. Last Saturday I hit up Eliot’s Books, which is a three story secondhand bookshop about a half hour walk from where I live. It’s very well organised, which means I found five out of the seven books I wanted easily. Sadly I’m still lacking Catch 22 and Nine Stories, but those will find me eventually. I own them all in NZ, but I miss them.

Work was very productive but I feel like my brain is mush. For one of the magazines, I’m working on 17 300-word profiles (they’re finalists for two categories in the Canadian Mortgage Awards). Because they’re all brokers and I’m asking all of them the same questions, and then when I write it up I have to find a different angle for each it’s way more effort than even writing a 5000 word profile about one person. It’s not hard, just repetitive. It’s not due for another two weeks, but I wanted to make sure I had enough time (no all-nighters for this intrepid reporter) so I’m almost done the interviews and more than half way through writing them up but I’m so over brokers. Except I’ve almost reached “drink the koolaid” stage because they’re all so enthused about their jobs. I’m like “I could be a broker, it sounds awesome!”

So if this blog gets renamed “Going For Broker” (see what I did there?) please call CAMH to make sure I get the help I need.

Happy Easter

Sigh.

Another self-imposed deadline missed.

Don’t judge me too harshly, okay? I was just reading an article about the importance of balancing creativity with focus – that people are always happy to focus on the shiny and new, but lost interest when something requires long-term commitment. It’s quite uncomfortable to read something that so essentially sums up yourself.

Peggy left last week for the last time, which was sad for both of us. I officially have no friend/family visits to look forward to and am now debating whether I want to go to New Zealand for Christmas in 2013 or go to Ethiopia. Family vs. holiday adventure… I’ll let you know what I decide!

I spent my long weekend reading, eating chocolate and exploring my neighbourhood. I live quite close to two of the coolest features of downtown Toronto – St Lawrence Market and The Distillery District. So I explored both of those.

The market is literally across the road. It’s got a weekly farmer’s market and flea market and all week little boutiques and cafes operate. Based out of two big brick buildings from the 1800s, it’s been a marketplace for more than 200 years, which makes it such a pleasure to shop at. I wonder about what was for sale and who was buying it – mothers finding the best deals to feed their  family, servants buying luxuries they couldn’t afford themselves for their bosses. It’s a lovely piece of Toronto history, and it’s so rare to see that kind of consistent use over two centuries.

The historic distillery was, at one time, the biggest distillery in the world. Now it serves as a hotspot for boutique shops, restaurants, breweries and even a sake distillery! It’s like entering another little world. It was actually used as a distillery until 1990, and then was primarily a film set.  It still feels a bit like a film set, especially when there is a couple dressed in full Indian-wedding regalia posing for photos outside all the Victorian buildings. They host a lot of events throughout the year, including the Jazz Festival and a Christmas market, and since it’s only a 20 minute walk from my apartment  I intend to spend a lot of time there.

I also saw the play War Horse on Saturday, which was better than expected. The tech side was pretty spectacular, and the acting was very good (although the accents left something to be desired in some areas) but I did have a few moments where I fell right out of the narrative. It’s essentially a story about a boy who runs away to WWI after his horse is taken by the army. He says things like “Joey [the horse] and I will be together forever!” and I start thinking about how long horses can live for.

Sunday was something of a loss of a day because even the supermarkets close here! What’s with that? I did head to a 24/365 shop called Rabba, and was pleasantly surprised to find the fruit was a better price and quality than the nearest supermarket. Between that and the farmer’s market I should be able to keep my chiller well-stocked.

I’m so happy with where I’ve ended up. You always hope it will work out well, but it’s hard to guess before you get there. My job remains interesting, although some elements are frustrating in that I don’t always get feedback about how I’m doing. It’s a 20 minute walk to work through the financial district, which is quite fun. All the tall glass buildings and people in suits with briefcases – it’s like the opening scene to a “girl makes good” film.

All I need now is my own theme music.