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.

Fam damily, games, shoes and shopping

Hello! Sorry about the two week delay. Since no one complained I’m going to assume no one reads this (except Peggy). Not too surprised by that – if only I had a second career as a stripper or a secret life as a super-hero I would be exponentially more interesting.

The reason I missed last Friday is that I thought I wrote it! It started with St Patrick’s day (friends, wine, tequila, dancing) then moved on to the surreal experience of taking an educational walk the day after (whose idea was that?!). The walk was interesting enough, but the highlight was definitely one of the people telling stories. I just wanted to shrink him down and put him on my desk so I could ask him important questions. He was like a stretched version of the main character from Up, but with the added geekiness of extended knowledge about 1920s Toronto.

Peggy’s been in and out of Toronto for the last week, but last weekend we both made it north with our cousins to visit our aunt and uncle and grandparents. It’s always good to see them, and the feast was certainly laid out. We had home-made perogies, plus cake and cream puffs. With the cousins we visited my grandmother, who’s been in a home for more than a year. She’s doing okay physically now, although she is wheelchair bound, but it’s always sad to see her struggle to remember our names and ages. It’s a distant person from the woman who raved about her first stolen kiss from her husband of 60 years, and loved Frank Sinatra. At least I’m getting this time to see her.

We saw the Hunger Games on Monday – it was quite good and fairly true to the book but to keep their violence rating down they used that shaky camera thing in all the fight scenes. I’d have liked to see just one of the scenes be a proper fight where you could follow who was who and really fear for the characters. Also, that shaking makes me feel sick (I’m looking at you: whoever directed Bourne #2).

Wednesday I went to a shoe launch. Yes, I know. It was very strange – all the shop people had to rave about this new line of ugly, plastic, scented shoes while we drank free wine and ate little nibbley things. Fun times had by all ;)

And now this weekend I’m moving! Freedom, finally. Job, apartment, friends, life, yes? I have to do a big shop tomorrow for furniture etc. and then another shop because I don’t have any food and then I’ll have no money again so I’ll live on brown rice and broccoli for two weeks. That’s healthy, right?

New week, new job

So I think I’m officially changing blog update day to Fridays – it seems like that’s when I actually think of it, and put fingers to keyboard. Now when I’m late you’ll know it’s because I’m rushing out to Friday night plans as part of my Awesome Life, whereas missing Wednesday just meant I’m lazy and forgetful.

It was week three of work and my job description changed once again – I’m now focusing on www.hrdaily.ca three days a week with the goal of boosting content and making it more than just an HR focused press release regurgitation site. Until me all content was being produced in Australia, so it’s definitely an improvement to have someone working on our end. It’s nice to have some structure and direction to my work week, too. This way I can really focus on learning about HR, and the mortgage broker and real estate stuff can come more organically as I work on those stories two days a week.

I do have three profiles to write for Canadian Real Estate Wealth (yes, Mum, I’ll send you some copies when they’re out!) so that’s fun to work on. Profiles are a good way to ease my way into the industry stuff, even though one of the people I’ve interviewed is proving a little difficult… Most people don’t really know how publishing works so they have some odd expectations about what we can and can’t do, and what information they should provide.

Tomorrow is St Patrick’s Day and I have plans! I met a woman at a Meetup who’s really interesting and fun and I’m crashing her plans with some other friends (I was invited, so that’s not really crashing, but it sounds more fun.) Thanks to colleague Adrian, originally from Ireland, I have a green, glittery foam tiara should I feel the need to look like the Statue of Liberty. I’ll drink enough to make my ancestors proud, but hopefully not enough to shame my mother ;) It should be fun – I might even hit the parade tomorrow!

Oh! Did I tell you I found an apartment? And got the apartment? The room is tiny, but I’m super close to work and it’s right downtown. I move in two weeks! I do need to stock up on some furniture. Somewhere to sleep and somewhere to keep my stuff, kinda necessary. I can probably borrow a bed for a little while but eventually I’ll need my own!

So yeah. Big week. Catch you on the flip side. (What does that even mean?!) 

Moving on down(town)

Sorry it’s been so long! Not that I have any idea how often people are checking, but I feel bad for not updating on a regular basis. I thought working would add structure to my life so I’d be better but instead it added exhaustion and commuting to my life. Unexpected.

Work is picking up. It’s hard being the new kid – you know how I like being the know-it-all – but it’s pretty fun. I’ve picked up some stuff for the HR publication too, which has its pros and cons. Upside is I’m finding my own stories and always have something to keep me busy, downside is one more industry to familiarise myself with. So far I’ve covered changing legislation, the importance of pensions and the difficulties of hiring people with leadership skills. It comes a little easier since I’ve ever been part of an HR process, although on the other side of the desk. At core the issues are people-based, rather than money-based, so it’s a bit more intuitive for me.

The big news this week is that I found an apartment. I wasn’t planning to leave where I’m staying until next month so I was looking for places that were May 1 move in, but sometimes you have to jump when a chance comes up. This place is 15 minutes from work, 15 minutes from the Distillery District (cool drinkies area) and only a couple blocks from the TTC. The room is tiny, but that’s pretty inevitable when you’re looking downtown. It’ll hold a queen bed and hopefully a desk, and I’ve had fun googling storage/decorating solutions for small spaces. I see a trip to Ikea in my future…

Peggy has been away and gets back today, it will be sad when she really leaves for good because I won’t know when I’ll see her again. I spent so long looking forward to my family visiting that I’ll feel quite bereft when they’re all gone! Still, I have a couple friends planning trips in the next year or so and soon I’ll be so social I’ll have no time to be sad. Plus, my library pile is still daunting (must read three more books before Friday!) so any time spent with people is essentially lost reading time.

That said, I did spend Saturday night playing Werewolves with a group of people I met through a friend at book club. It’s essentially like mafia – some people are werewolves and everyone closes their eyes and they kill someone – but there are also players with special skills to help catch the werewolves. It’s fun, and it was interesting to play with a group of people who know each other well.

First payday this week – très exciting – but my list of stuff to buy (mostly wants rather than needs, to be honest) is probably three times my pay. I figure a thing a week will be fun. This week: shoes!

First work week

Gosh – I’m getting really bad at this! When I was unemployed Wednesday seemed like a great day to choose, but now I keep missing it. Blame Peggy – she’s very distracting!

So I’ve now completed my first almost-week (four days) of work. It’s been a slow start because both the magazines I’m working for are almost done this month so my real workload won’t hit until next week or the week after. I’ve written a few news stories, some for the mags and some for the websites (www.mortgagebrokernews.ca and www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca). My direct supervisors are nice, and quite funny, so it’s pretty relaxed so far. The only weird thing is that each magazine has a different style so that’s going to do my head in for a while until I get used to it. It is odd having to get up every morning, and I'm quite tired. I'll have to adjust to being a working person again!

Outside work I’ve had a lovely week. We headed to Hamilton for the weekend – had a family card game Friday night and a family photo shoot on Sunday so hopefully we’ll get a couple nice Nobettes portraits from that. Mum and Peggy and I went to a play on Tuesday night called Penny Plain, that was almost entirely marionettes. It’s this one amazing puppeteer, Ronnie Burkett, who puts together a politically and globally relevant show about once a year that sells out. He’s quite well known here, and deservedly so. The show was stunning, although I was occasionally distracted from the theme and plot by just how skilled he was with the puppets themselves. Some moved so naturally, and they even hugged and nodded and limped… It was very impressive.

Peggy and I went out for dinner last night to a Nepalese restaurant on Bloor that was delicious and I brought home what was left for my lunch today but I forgot it at home, which was quite sad, BUT the advantage of family visiting is that they might love you enough to deliver it to you :). Tomorrow we’re going to a “dub” event where “Youngsta” is performing… As you know this is really my kind of event with the noise and the crowds and the noise. Ha… no, I’m sure it will be fun, and we can leave early if need be. My cousins are going and are quite excited so it will be great to hang out with them, regardless of the rest.

Aaaand that might be it. I’m reading an excellent/odd book at the moment called There But For The, which is really interesting. It’s about a man who locks himself into the guest room of a house when he’s at a dinner party and just stays there for weeks. But really, it’s about the people around him, with this strange event at the centre as a starting point for the story. Don’t remember the author, but I would recommend it.