Busy like a beaver or a bee or some other alliterative animal

I have my first weekend home in four weeks to look forward to, and all I think I want to do is sleep! Not the exciting life you want to hear about, I know, but man… I’ve been out of the apartment every day this week from 8am to 10 or 11pm and that’s not changing tonight.

Tuesday was the amazing double feature of The Princess Bride and Labyrinth at Yonge-Dundas Square. Such a good pairing – I want to marry whoever came up with it. We had a pretty good turn out too, especially for the first movie. And tonight is “The Ex” – junk food, rides and sideshows galore I guess. I’ll eat fried food til I’m sick and try to win a giant stuffed bear ;) Tomorrow I’m hosting a par-tay for a friend’s birthday and Sunday I am sleeping. All day. And not doing anything else (except all those errands I have to do).

This week’s book review is Then We Came to the End, by Joshua Ferris.

It’s a few years old, and well worth reading, especially if you like books written in unusual ways. This one’s gimmick is that it’s all in first person plural – we ate lunch, we asked questions. It would remain just a gimmick if the story wasn’t also fun and compelling. If you’ve ever worked in an office it will probably resonate a little too strongly. How often do you get home and say things like “Our coffee machine broke today so we were all a bit frustrated.” Or “Today was great, we got free pizza!” – Ferris calls it the “corporate we”.

The story revolves around a group of office workers in an ad agency with the threat of layoffs looming over them. With endless gossip (some true, some false), a few tragedies and a bit of farce, Then We Came to the End was a really fun read. There are inept guards, fired staff coming back to steal chairs, a giant totem pole and endless pranks. I wish my office was this funny, but am relieved it’s not this dysfunctional!

On another note, I’ve started watching season 2 of Treme so I have two shows I’m working my way through (The Newsroom is the other) and will soon add the NZ series The Almighty Johnsons to that list, as soon as I buy a DVD player ;) Treme, set in the area of that name in New Orleans, has a lot of the alumni from The Wire and is about musicians finding their feet after Katrina. It’s moving, musical and a really beautiful look at a broken city. It hits a little too close to home sometimes as parallels to Christchurch come up, but I would highly recommend it to any of you.

Another week another long weekend (late!)

[I accidentally posted this in my travel blog so was confused about why it wasn't showing up online... fixed it now! Enjoy this late news.]

Through no specific planning and a series of excellent coincidences I have three long weekends in a row. Count'em! Three! And I've gotten outta the city for all of them because that's what us city dwellers do - escape the concrete canyons for a few days so we can say things like "Yeah it's pretty, but what would you do all day?" (I have said that at least four times in the last two weeks and plan to say it at least once in the next two days...)

So I don't have a lot of Toronto updates - the weather's been rubbish, I've been working hard and leaving lots.

I'm headed to the Niagara region this weekend which is where the wine is made - it can't possibly compare to the Hawke's Bay syrah (can you mail that to me or is that illegal?) but it's always nice to do a wine tour - especially if you're not the driver.

On the books front I've been on a bit of a thriller binge (Tess Gerritson - so good/so creepy) which is fun but bad news for my mental health. The other day I went to hang up my towel and had to pull the shower curtain back to make sure no one was there. Last night there was a thunderstorm and I woke up thinking it was camera flashes and that someone was in my room. So I should find some kind of calm, peaceful, happy books. Boring books, in other words ;)

I would like to highly recommend Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce series as a sort of nostalgic but still gripping murder mystery series set in the 1930s. Featuring 11-year-old Flavia solving murders through her in-depth knowledge of chemistry, ability to disarm even the most suspicious villager, and keen skills of observation. And her unwaivering ability to get kidnapped. The first book is called The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, the second is The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Purse.

Next week is Movie Week (Labyrinth, Princess Bride and Singing in the Rain are all playing in the city - it's like someone was inside my head...), then Party Weekend (a friend's birthday party being hosted on my roof), then "The Ex" (some kind of festival/party/something in Toronto - like Show Weekend I guess). So it's a busy time in and out of the city :)

Peace out.