Busy beaver

I had four events in a row this week! And I have a coffee planned for Saturday which makes for five events in seven days. How's that for building a social life?

I've also applied for five jobs, and emailed a friend's dad who said he'd look over my resume too. So yay for opportunities.

Sunday I had dinner with my cousins, who flew to Cuba this week, Monday was book club (Room, by Emily Donaghue), Tuesday dinner and a movie with Joanna and her colleagues, and yesterday was a Kiwi Expats Abroad event at the NZ themed pub, Hemingway's. That was lots of fun - it's so nice to hear the accents! Also we had a long conversation about why Canadians need to pick up the word "flat" and "flatmates" because it sums up a way of living that most people experience at some point: sharing a house with friends or strangers. Here they say "roommates" which is silly - nobody shares a room! I also had a long conversation about Israel Dagg, who I interviews, with his "cousin", talked about green stone with an amateur carver and about wine with a guy from Hawke's Bay. All in all very nice to relax into that community for a while. I might even have made a connection for some freelance work writing copy for websites. Back to the whole "who you know" thing.

So far 16 of my 40+ books have arrived at the library... Boy am I in trouble there. It's only three week rentals here so I have to read 16 books in 21 days and still apply for jobs and hang out with people. I accept this challenge. It's free, unlimited renewals unless it's reserved so I figure I'll do my research and prioritise what to read first... And how's that for boring blog material. "The reserving, borrowing, and renewing policies of the common Toronto Library (librarium Torontosus)".

I'm meeting a girl from my bookclub for coffee Saturday, very hopeful for the whole "make new friends" potential of this group. There are quite a few young people there so I figure as long as I go every month I'll keep making contacts. The only trouble now is that Waitangi Day is ALSO the first Monday of February, so the big Kiwi night at Hemingway's lines up with my next bookclub. Because I am Socialiser Extraordinaire I intend to attempt both. Take that, common sense! Of course if I'm working by then it gets triple as complicated but whatever, I'm up for the challenge.

Peggy is in Paris - what a brat! I'm jealous. Although not as jealous about that as about her stop in Bruges. I hope she sees people filming midgets and that no one falls/jumps off the tower while she's there. I'm planning my trip to Ethiopia for this time next year...