Boom Swagger Swagger Boom

What do you know, a Friday update written on a Friday. Novel.

In the news this week: six flatmates in Utah torture a seventh flatmate in the basement and suddenly my aunt’s concerns about moving in with a psychopath seem more reasonable. So far no signs of psychopathy from The Irish but all that means is that I might never move out for fear of accidentally moving into a horror movie.

So, there’s this other story that you probably don’t want to know about but I can’t unknow it. So here’s what I’ll do for you: a Blind Link. It’s like a test, what wins for you? Fear or curiosity?

Tonight is Slutwalk in Toronto so I’m headed to that shortly. This is where it started, so it will be interesting to see how many people show up and what the general atmosphere is. My friends have already been to the NZ ones so I’m playing catch up. I’m not dressing up, just going straight from work. I dressed up for the NZ ones, and I think it’s a great way for the events to attract attention and try to get the message heard (Although it can do the opposite – “No, it’s not that we want to be able to dress slutty, it’s that you have to stop pointing to what we’re wearing as a reason for people to mistreat us!”). The Wellington event last year was very inclusive so hopefully the TO event will have the same feeling.

I spent last weekend in Ottawa, which was great fun. You might remember my Ode to the Train last blog. That affection was somewhat threatened when my return train was more than an hour late, but really, it’s not like planes and buses are famously punctual.

Busy weekend planned, including Ikea purchases and then assembling Ikea purchases. Livin’ the dream here ;)

On a train bound for nowhere (or Ottawa if you want to call it that)

Look how dedicated I am to you all. Start of my holiday, my long weekend and here I am blogging. That's dedication.

In reality I'm on a train, so what else would I be doing?

I love trains. There's no better way to travel manageable distances. On a plane I'd have no leg room, no wireless and I wouldn't have been able to bring my own beer (more on that later). On a bus I've be feeling ill so no reading or blogging.

Instead I have loads of space, a big window (currently going past some kind of wetland - curious) and free wifi. Viarail for the win.

And I know I'm not usually a beer drinker but this was free from some girl on the side of the road, so you know it's good.

Actually, here's your misleading product description of the day. This is Michelob's "Ultra", which describes itself as just 95 calories per serving. "Huh," I thought "That is pretty low." Look closer, and discover a serving it's 341ml, while a can is 355. Not a huge difference, I know, but still... Was it necessary?

And for your current events update, two guys who are sadly well outside my dating age range but have otherwise proven themselves worthy. First up, the 52 year old columbia university janitor who earned his classics degree after 12 years of part time study. His hollywood worthy story includes escaping the yugoslavian civil war just before he would have finished his law degree twenty years ago.

And next up nine year old Josef Miles who held a one-man (boy) protest against the westboro baptist church with a hand drawn sign saying "god hates no one".

That's all for this week. See you next friday!

Monday is like Friday, only opposite.

Oh my goodness, I know - I'm totally useless. I don't have a good excuse, except that I didn't do much this week so there wasn't a lot to say. My weekend was better so at least this won't just be another rant about money, right? My memory's shot, I think... I don't even know what I did the weekend before. I think I just watched a couple films with a friend.

My work week was really good. After a rather dreadful Friday the week before I was determined to kick some deadline arse, and prove that I deserve the raise I intend to ask for when my probationary period is up. So I got all my stories for next week done and started hunting contacts for the week after. I think I'm finally getting the hang of this, now that it's been consistent for a couple weeks. Other than some editorial changes and a new colleague of course, but if there wasn't at least one fairly big change every fortnight I think I'd faint in shock.

This last weekend was a Meetup to try the best fries in the city. I wore an apparently magical yellow dress, which won me five compliments and a date ;) FYI, best fries in the city were at Chippies, on Queen Street. The best part of the day was that about seven of us just didn't want it to end so we ended up drinking wine on our rooftop terrace, overlooking St James Park. It was lovely to spend time in a group like that, although I did end up a teeny bit sunburned.

This next week is already full so no one is allowed to want to hang out with me. I've got volleyball starting tonight. I thought I'd pretend to be a team player one night a week for the next six weeks and see how it goes. My knee is still buggered from my not-so-funny fall when running so I'll have to be a little bit careful. Then with events on every night except Thursday, and a trip to Ottawa for the long weekend, I'll be exhausted by the time next Tuesday rolls around!

Hope that's sufficient. I'll try to post at least something brief on Friday, but no promises ;)

Money money money...

How come I feel like I have less money and I’m more worried than when I was unemployed?

So I’m two months and four paydays into my new job and somehow it feels like I have less money to play with and am more stressed than when I was unemployed at the start of the year.

Well, actually, it’s probably true. Here’s why.

•               Thanks to the generosity of a family friend, I was living rent free for four months. Now I have more income, absolutely, but my rent has increased, well, an infinite amount…
•                 I’d planned to move after working for two months, so I could save up first and last rent and some cash for furniture etc. Instead, I found a great apartment exactly where I wanted to be living within a couple weeks of starting work, and moved in after just a month of work. It’s great, but I basically sped myself out of $750.
•                    As for the apartment… Well, I worked out how much I could afford a month all inclusive and then I found an apartment that was $50 extra. That amount isn’t a lot, it’s less than $12 a week, and I still think it’s worth it but when every dollar counts $12 a week is four coffees.
•                   Toronto is an expensive city. I read that people who  spend money on events are happier than people who spend on stuff. Well, I’m still sleeping on a mattress on the floor and I haven’t bought anything new except running shoes in months but I’ve been so social lately that it’s added up rapidly.

I’m not broke, but I’m used to having money left over, so if I saw clothes or jewellery or a book I wanted it wasn’t a big deal to say yes. Now it is a big deal, but it makes me think more, anticipate more and enjoy my purchases more. It also motivates me to get the most out of every purchase. I’m very much prioritising people over stuff so I’ve got lots of weekend plans, have joined a volleyball team and plan to attend a music festival in July… now I just have to make sure I can afford all those activities!

P.S. Just tried a “Butterfinger” chocolate bar for the first time… that has to be dentists’ least recommended chocolate bar! Not sure it’ll replace Snickers anytime soon, but I still miss Picnic bars.