Merry Christmas!
Here we are, December 12 and the snow hasn't really come! I thought I could let you in on the joys of snowmen and snowball fights but there hasn't been enough to make a shop of popsicles. I am sure there will be plenty soon, a white Christmas is the idyllic scene we think of for a North American Christmas, here's hoping...
As you probably know I consider myself quite observant, by no means the most but I enjoy a little deduction or summation here and there. So here are some things you should know about Canada.
1. There are signs everywhere. At the entrance to our street on one corner there are eight. Only bikes can turn and some parking information, the street sign and 5 others. There are so many signs here that when you try and park a car in the city you spend a good five minutes each time deciphering the myriad of potentially conflicting signs on your side of the road and then have to ascertain which is the most important sign to obey. This still may not guarantee you leave the park ticket free but you have to try. The highway has 100's of signs competing for your attention, most advertise the same fast food restaurants over and over...
2. The banking system seems to be quite 1990's. No internet transfers or automatic payments? Long queues at the bank to deposit and withdraw money? Many, many stores without 'interac' or 'chip n pin'.
3. The phone companies are in cahoots. You pay for incoming calls to your cell phone!? Contracts are 3 years long?! You pay for caller ID and for a message service. Bah humbug. At least the company I chose has a cute dog as a mascot. I would have chosen the mexican wrestler mascot company if I didn't already have a sim for the other one though.
4. Everybody else looks quite cool (no pun intended) in the bad weather. I look like a giant three year old including the very pink cheeks. Groan!
5. Christmas has definitely become 'happy holidays'. No mention of where this magical happiness comes from and no little manger scenes about the place either. The decorations this year seem to be blue and silver, more a winter theme than a Christmas theme. The lit up polar bears look quite cool and maybe a glowing baby Jesus might look a but alien but 'the reason for the season' is no where to be seen in the mall or streets with decorations that I have seen. You can count on the carols being decidedly religious and 'Oh Holy Night' seems to be everyone's favourite. I really love that hymn, the thrill of hope that causes a weary world to rejoice and the soul knowing its worth are reasons to celebrate!
Pictures to come!
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
it is a good idea to carry tissues for such an emergency
Hello friends,
So I have full time employment! this does mean I have less time to ruminate and compose scintillating posts based on my thought life. While working 9 hour days I must not be distracted from the task at hand...
One of my reasons behind the title of this blog is the ever increasing list of things that I thought I would know by now but don't. I imagined myself to be a quite well put together, wise, interesting and focussed woman at 30. Where did I get this idea from? I will continue to blame TV. I still forget to look if there is toilet paper in the stall before I am 'indisposed'. I have required life experience to be my teacher over and over again. It can be a depressing thought, the older we get we realise the more we have to learn. Personality must effect whether you agree with this point of view, what do you think? I have a poll started on the right hand side of the screen. Vote!
Being here in Canada a second time, starting from scratch has been more of a stretch than I expected. I have been surprised at the number of things I seem to be learning still. How to spend time by myself, how to make a good first impression, how to prioritise what to spend money on, I could go on. In particular I've been learning about patience and humility. I'm keen to learn this quickly and without it being too obvious to the people around me. Something tells me I may be learning these for a while yet!
Here in Toronto I am not furthering my career, I'm spending savings on experiences, meeting new people and I don't quite know what is going to happen next. It isn't always comfortable and it has taken longer than I wanted for me to get used to being a bit uncomfortable. I am getting there slowly, I feel like I am growing up, again. I do always want to trust God more and it has been a while since I needed to trust him for such everyday things like having enough money, having a place to live, what to do with my life. The more I think about it the more philosophical I feel and the more I see God making use of this time and I'm thankful for that.
Maybe I have been thinking just as much even while putting in the hours at the mall. It isn't hilarious there so perhaps that is why this post is not a 10 on the funny scale. I do plan to write more on my observations on Canadian 'culture' soon. As a follow up to the fracas with the quotation marks last time, this website is funny. This wee gem is too and it complements the sentiments of the first link too.
xx
So I have full time employment! this does mean I have less time to ruminate and compose scintillating posts based on my thought life. While working 9 hour days I must not be distracted from the task at hand...
Being here in Canada a second time, starting from scratch has been more of a stretch than I expected. I have been surprised at the number of things I seem to be learning still. How to spend time by myself, how to make a good first impression, how to prioritise what to spend money on, I could go on. In particular I've been learning about patience and humility. I'm keen to learn this quickly and without it being too obvious to the people around me. Something tells me I may be learning these for a while yet!
Here in Toronto I am not furthering my career, I'm spending savings on experiences, meeting new people and I don't quite know what is going to happen next. It isn't always comfortable and it has taken longer than I wanted for me to get used to being a bit uncomfortable. I am getting there slowly, I feel like I am growing up, again. I do always want to trust God more and it has been a while since I needed to trust him for such everyday things like having enough money, having a place to live, what to do with my life. The more I think about it the more philosophical I feel and the more I see God making use of this time and I'm thankful for that.
Maybe I have been thinking just as much even while putting in the hours at the mall. It isn't hilarious there so perhaps that is why this post is not a 10 on the funny scale. I do plan to write more on my observations on Canadian 'culture' soon. As a follow up to the fracas with the quotation marks last time, this website is funny. This wee gem is too and it complements the sentiments of the first link too.
xx
Friday, October 29, 2010
coffee is a religion to some people
Hello again!
Thanks to those of you who gave some initial feedback. After a bit of reflection I have come to the conclusion a 'travel blog' is probably the most appropriate, a window into my life in Toronto per se. So my 'readers' will be those of you who want to keep up with what I am up to and don't mind my 'observations' along the way. I hope I haven't lost anyone by using so many quotation marks, just imagine my forefingers in the air punctuating everything I say, I find this 'amusing' and I'm unlikely to be able to stop (some of you will know by now my love of overusing certain types of punctuation).
Something you may not know is that coffee culture is thriving in Toronto. So much so that I almost don't feel the need to add the qualifier "for an North American city". Honestly I have found as many cafes serving delicious flat whites and americanos here as I have had any place, Wellington included. I am a fussy coffee drinker, apparently most of us from 'down under' are. When I go out for coffee I check the rims of the empty coffee cups on the tables as I walk in for a good crema stain and typically will not order a flat white unless I have seen a good looking fresh one in the cafe somewhere. I sadly will continue my 'research' as the coffees come out and the mood does dampen intermittently if your coffee comes out better than mine, based on a visual assessment of crema and milk consistency.
Upon arriving here in Toronto we promptly went downtown to look about and see what we could see. We noticed a flyer for an Indie Coffee Passport and later did some research. It boils down to this: $25 for a card that allows you one coffee, to the value of $5, in 24 participating coffee shops. I was so exited I bought two, do the Math people! So now I have been to roughly 20 different places for coffee all over the city, most of which are on my happy lil' blue coffee passport.
For anyone who visits Toronto my favourite two so far are te aro on Queen East and Rooster Coffee House on Broadview. te aro has really friendly staff, a big space out the front that feels like you are hanging out on your friends deck and is situated amongst all sorts of interesting shops, many of which sell fancy things for babies and dogs. Rooster Coffee House also has a nice space out the front, opposite a park in their case, but has a more comfy and quirky decor, here you need to ask for a cortado to get a flat white (this means 'cut short' and I first tried one in Barcelona, it was a high point on the European coffee tour). An honourable mention goes to Jet Fuel on Parliament for being the location where I wrote this, accompanied by country music (ah thanks) plus they have the cheapest americano so far! Yay! Value for money, my favourite!
The fun thing is there are loads more coffee shops to go and see, plus brunch places are different to coffee shops here, so there all of those to visit as well. I started my 'Toronto brunch journey' this weekend just been, it was a delicious time.
I just may have a job by the end of the week so if coffee is boring I may be talking about working in high heels in the 'finance industry' soon. Yay! Something to look forward to? Lastly, I will use less quotation marks next time, I promise.
Thanks to those of you who gave some initial feedback. After a bit of reflection I have come to the conclusion a 'travel blog' is probably the most appropriate, a window into my life in Toronto per se. So my 'readers' will be those of you who want to keep up with what I am up to and don't mind my 'observations' along the way. I hope I haven't lost anyone by using so many quotation marks, just imagine my forefingers in the air punctuating everything I say, I find this 'amusing' and I'm unlikely to be able to stop (some of you will know by now my love of overusing certain types of punctuation).
Something you may not know is that coffee culture is thriving in Toronto. So much so that I almost don't feel the need to add the qualifier "for an North American city". Honestly I have found as many cafes serving delicious flat whites and americanos here as I have had any place, Wellington included. I am a fussy coffee drinker, apparently most of us from 'down under' are. When I go out for coffee I check the rims of the empty coffee cups on the tables as I walk in for a good crema stain and typically will not order a flat white unless I have seen a good looking fresh one in the cafe somewhere. I sadly will continue my 'research' as the coffees come out and the mood does dampen intermittently if your coffee comes out better than mine, based on a visual assessment of crema and milk consistency.
Upon arriving here in Toronto we promptly went downtown to look about and see what we could see. We noticed a flyer for an Indie Coffee Passport and later did some research. It boils down to this: $25 for a card that allows you one coffee, to the value of $5, in 24 participating coffee shops. I was so exited I bought two, do the Math people! So now I have been to roughly 20 different places for coffee all over the city, most of which are on my happy lil' blue coffee passport.
For anyone who visits Toronto my favourite two so far are te aro on Queen East and Rooster Coffee House on Broadview. te aro has really friendly staff, a big space out the front that feels like you are hanging out on your friends deck and is situated amongst all sorts of interesting shops, many of which sell fancy things for babies and dogs. Rooster Coffee House also has a nice space out the front, opposite a park in their case, but has a more comfy and quirky decor, here you need to ask for a cortado to get a flat white (this means 'cut short' and I first tried one in Barcelona, it was a high point on the European coffee tour). An honourable mention goes to Jet Fuel on Parliament for being the location where I wrote this, accompanied by country music (ah thanks) plus they have the cheapest americano so far! Yay! Value for money, my favourite!
The fun thing is there are loads more coffee shops to go and see, plus brunch places are different to coffee shops here, so there all of those to visit as well. I started my 'Toronto brunch journey' this weekend just been, it was a delicious time.
I just may have a job by the end of the week so if coffee is boring I may be talking about working in high heels in the 'finance industry' soon. Yay! Something to look forward to? Lastly, I will use less quotation marks next time, I promise.
job hunting is lame but you do have time to start a blog
Hmm. Why am I here? Well, I have a lot of free time and a desire to write more. Heck, I even have a desire to be a better typist. That is a good reason to start a blog I'm sure, wpm improvement. I 'm also fairly opinionated and think the world needs more opinions. We all know it doesn't really, but I do like my opinions and it could be interesting to know what you think too. Mostly I have opinions about coffee, if we are friends you should definitely know this by now.
So post number one is more or less an introduction, a sounding out of the theme perhaps. Hello! If you are reading this then either you are my friend and are humouring me by reading this first blog or I have decided I really did have something worth sharing. The second reason seems unlikely at the moment as I am job hunting. In other words I am selling my soul to the corporate world and they are spitting it back at me. This is not a unique situation but I am really not enjoying it, I am also concerned that it is making me boring. I do have a lot of time for the internet however and I am learning a few things, for example, I am an ENTJ on the Myers Briggs personality profile. Once I was an INTP. What has caused this change? Maybe we will find out in the coming weeks. Stay tuned! You should look into your personality profile for yourself, this is another thing you should know, it makes for great party conversation (FYI something INTPs don't like, pft I am so not an INTP, I am pretty sure both ENTP and INTP like abbreves tho because I love them, another thing you should know by now). I did this test here. It was pretty easy.
How long is a blog post supposed to be? Can my random thoughts really become interesting reading? Don't worry friends, I am not going to go on ad infinitum, just see where this leads, feel free to come along.
NZ peeps, I miss you.
So post number one is more or less an introduction, a sounding out of the theme perhaps. Hello! If you are reading this then either you are my friend and are humouring me by reading this first blog or I have decided I really did have something worth sharing. The second reason seems unlikely at the moment as I am job hunting. In other words I am selling my soul to the corporate world and they are spitting it back at me. This is not a unique situation but I am really not enjoying it, I am also concerned that it is making me boring. I do have a lot of time for the internet however and I am learning a few things, for example, I am an ENTJ on the Myers Briggs personality profile. Once I was an INTP. What has caused this change? Maybe we will find out in the coming weeks. Stay tuned! You should look into your personality profile for yourself, this is another thing you should know, it makes for great party conversation (FYI something INTPs don't like, pft I am so not an INTP, I am pretty sure both ENTP and INTP like abbreves tho because I love them, another thing you should know by now). I did this test here. It was pretty easy.
How long is a blog post supposed to be? Can my random thoughts really become interesting reading? Don't worry friends, I am not going to go on ad infinitum, just see where this leads, feel free to come along.
NZ peeps, I miss you.
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