The rain in BC falls mainly on Vancouver

I write this with a stomach ache, which is probably the result of my having eaten two big filo pastries with spinach and cheese in. They always look a lot smaller before baking. However, on the up side, I did write 1,500 words of my research summary today whilst watching the tennis.

I have just seen an ad for the film I was in in January; it's on Monday at 9pm. As for the channels, well it's channel 11 ('chan') and 16 ('king') here, but I have no idea what those channels are elsewhere. Apparently it's on NCB in Boston, so Dan says. It's called Behind The Camera: The Unauthorised Story of Mork and Mindy. Look out for me in hippie dress in the park watching Robin Williams busking (in red cords, bright orange top, orange headband), beating on the side of his telephone box (jeans, leather jacket), and in the left front row of his wedding clapping (damn cold pink and brown strappy dress, pigtails). I will check the details, but I'll probably video it anyway just to see if I can see myself :p how very sad! If it's a bad film, feel free to turn it off - I didn't say it would be good. However, it's worth seeing the busking scene just for the wit of Chris Diamantopoulos, who let me say now, is very cute. Sadly engaged, but cute.

So I e-mailed the guy I mentioned the other day, who was advertising for a kind of house-sitter/housekeeper for his house off the coast of Seattle. He wanted someone to look after the house when he was away doing lawyer-type stuff, and to keep an eye on his younger brother. I told him that I could come and work for him after the summer, but that I really needed to be here in the summer months, because my parents were coming over then. He wrote a very nice e-mail back, telling me that I sounded "very normal, in a good way" and that I should contact him at the end of the summer when I was free, to see what could be done. We then got into exchanging e-mails about the relative merits, or not, of England and America, and it was all very pally. An interesting day!

Yesterday I did a first aid course, although it doesn't qualify me for an actual certification yet, I have to do further training. But it was really interesting, and the guy from St John's Ambulance who taught it was a good instructor. He went through all the basics, along with some legal stuff too. What I found surprising was that in Canada (and in America too, I hear) legally you have to ask if it is ok to treat someone before you do so (as long as they can answer you). And once you start treating someone, you are legally obliged to keep treating them until they die, someone else takes over from you, it is too dangerous for you to continue, or you are physically incapable of continuing. If you give up, you get sued. If you decide that someone else nearby needs your help more than the person you're working on, and you go treat them instead, you get sued. Which kind of makes sense in a way, but if someone suddenly starts going into shock nearby, and you stop working on someone you think is past help to aid the other person, maybe the law should give you a break! Anyway, let's hope I don't have to use my new-found skills very often. I have to build myself a first aid/disaster kit though, because I don't have one.

In other news, the rain just keeps on falling here...............

Applications

Both to my work, and for jobs. One of which has been good, the other lacking. So..... guess which? Well, I have been doing some work, but haven't been that disciplined (the curse of there being tennis on tv and lots of crappy reality tv shows on). And I have been applying for a couple more jobs instead. Today I sent in an application for a research assistant at UBC to work part-time on a project into Tourette's Syndrome, starting in the next couple of weeks. This was after changing my resume so that my marks are no longer on it, since the marks here and in England are so different. Instead I estimated what kind of percentile I was in with regard to the class, and put that down instead. We'll see if it makes a blind bit of difference. And then tonight I replied to a very random posting from someone in a huge house on an island near Seattle, which is too complicated to explain, but if he replies I'll actually blog about it. In addition to this I've been e-mailing people about renting their houses, riding their horses, and doing everything I should have been doing apart from writing this damn research proposal. Tomorrow I have a first aid course in the evening, so that's it postponed for another darn day.....

Easter weekend was filled with some work, some shopping without actual purchases taking place (always good) and a very nice roast ham dinner at my friends' house, where they surprised me with a solid chocolate bunny, which is currently lingering in my fridge and looking tempting. The weather's been pretty pants though, since it's mainly been raining with a few sunny periods thrown in to confuse you. I also bought one of those tooth-brightening kits, as it was on offer somewhere, so I've started basically sticking hydrogen peroxide in my mouth twice a day. I'll update you on whether my teeth get whiter or my gums rot first.

P.S. Dan - you looked cute in that photo even though you were scowling ;0)

Happy Easter!

Apologies for not having blogged for the past couple of days. This has nothing to do with anything other than my laziness, so I suck. However, I will now update you on my exciting life.....

On Wednesday I got up early to phone the Student Loans company in England and ask what was going on with my loan deferral, to which they replied - we know nothing. "Phone back on the 4th of April" was the reply, with the colleague not seeming to understand that I was in Canada and didn't want to have to keep spending phone cards on international calls. I then intended to do some work before going to meet Butterscotch, but this didn't happen, so I just had a shower and set off into town. Like her, I was slightly worried that we weren't going to recognise each other, but when she walked into the CTV foyer I knew who she was. Just as pretty in person as she was on her webcam, and funny to boot. Neither of us actually introduced ourselves, but then we didn't really have to. A few minutes before Butterscotch walked in, I had seen her friend Forge go up the stairs to the studio - at least I assumed it was him, since he was wearing a cowboy hat and had a big guitar case with him. I was tempted to accost him and beg that he stick around, but I didn't think the militant-looking woman with him would appreciate that, so I refrained. Luckily, we were able to catch up with him later, and while I warded off the Australian staff member who was desperately trying to keep swooning women away from Forge's dressing room, Butterscotch got to have a chat and a hug. Forge's performance on the show was cool and calm, and his music was very good. I was lusting after all the big prizes that we didn't win, but you can't have everything. It was extremely good to meet Butterscotch, as she is one of those people who you instantly feel like you've known for a while and you don't have to explain anything to. All in all, a very good morning, and one that hopefully will not be the last of the Butterscotch-Jen meetings.

After a short foray round some shops in town, I went home to do some work and watch some tv, going back out in the evening to take a course on Structural Damage and Building Assessment in the event of an earthquake. Sounded interesting, actually turned out to be some old guy who rambled for two and a half hours, and could have fitted the entire evening into an hour with ease. The photos were interesting, but the discussion was inherently flawed, assuming that after the massive quake which Vancouver is preparing itself for, a search committee would magically rise out of each block and start assessing houses for structual damage. Instead, the picture is more likely to be one of panic, with a lot of serious injuries thrown in, and people desperate to find their families. Sod assessing houses and roping them off as unsafe - everything's going to be unsafe if there's a 9.0 earthquake! Anyway, the course was free, and next week I have a first aid one, so I shouldn't complain.

Thursday involved a bit more work, some window shopping, some dossing around and the film The Notebook. Definitely worth watching, if a little predictable right from the beginning, and also rather depressing. Good acting though, and some fantastic scenery. Today involved a bit more work (though not enough by half), a trip to Safeway that started with my buying milk and ended up being a $36 bill, another film (We Don't Live Here Any More - very like the ice storm but without the key parties) and finally, a meeting with Denise's Uni friends to have gelato, which turned into one hour talking inside whilst eating gelato, and nearly the same amount of time standing outside the store being silly instead of doing work. I've eaten crap all evening, not jogged for a week and a half, and really need to get my arse in gear tomorrow. Work has to be fast and accurate, cos I haven't even started cleaning the house or doing my research summary yet!! Does anyone know a cure for slacking?

Fab's not so fab any more

My poor little car, struck down in its prime by some big horrible beast........ ok, it's not that bad. I dropped Denise off at Uni today and stopped off at the supermarket on the way back home. After coming out of the supermarket I was incensed to find that some bastard had managed to gouge large chunks out of my back bumper on the right hand side of the car. Don't ask me how, or even what caused the marks. It looks like a bike pedal end, or a trolley, or perhaps an SUV with a big grill on the front, but whatever it was, it made a right mess of the corner. I ranted in the middle of the car park, much to the amusement of two guys in a truck having their lunch (who come to think of it, could have made the marks themselves). I will post a picture of the damage tomorrow and have a "Guess what caused the damage?" competition. I had a look on the net for bumper filler today but couldn't find much, so if anyone has any bright ideas, comment below!

The UK student loan company also sent me a letter today telling me to start paying my loan back, despite my sending my deferment proof back a couple of weeks ago, so the joy of phoning them up and reminding that I'm actually in Canada and can't "Respond to this letter within fourteen days" is to come early tomorrow morning.... joyous!

A busy day

This morning I woke up at about 7am, when there was a strange crashing noise upstairs. For some reason our landlords seem to need no sleep at all, often going to bed after us and getting up at obscene hours every morning. Added to this, they're both slightly deaf, so the morning is a riot of tv, radio, crashing, banging and shouting. As are most evenings. But anyway. So I couldn't be bothered to get up, and went back to sleep again. I was then woken up by a banging on the door at 9am, and stumbled to open it in my pyjamas, being greeted by the Purolator man with my cell phone.

The next hour was filled with trying to work out how to get the damn phone to charge (wobble charger connection into the right place) and talking to my boss at work in England while she sent over lots of work to me. After finally getting the phone to power up, I rang the research woman at UBC to talk to her about getting some possible funding. Half an hour of phone call later, I had somehow roped myself into writing a research summary to send to two other departments in UBC, changing my resume so that it didn't have my marks on it (the difference between English top marks and Canadian top marks is about 25% on paper) and most worrying of all, agreeing to think about doing a PhD. Hmm, strange one. Not sure how I got into that conversation.

This brought me up to about 10:30am, when I logged onto the Internet to allegedly do some work, and instead got sidetracked by job websites and Ebay. I then had a shower and decided to post Shaw's present, so walked down to Kerrisdale and the post office. I also accidentally shoplifted the padded envelope after mishearing the woman at the counter. I thought she said, "Do you have to pay for that?" but it seems she said, "Have you paid for that?" Since I nodded, I guess technically I stole the thing. But it was only 72c, so I didn't feel too bad about it.

Back to the house, where I phoned the film extras company to give them my cellphone number (sighs of relief that I am finally contactable). It seems they have lots of work over the next two weeks, so here's hoping I get some interesting projects. By this time it was lunchtime and I didn't have any work done. So after some lunch, I opened my work file........ and immediately three people started talking to me on messenger. I never learn to log myself off :o) So it was interesting because I got to see Butterscotch on webcam (guys, she's very cute), since we need to recognise each other on Wednesday. Scarily, we both logged off with exactly the same comment. I then got into a text message test conversation with Dan to see if my phone functioned, interspersed with some photos of Sarajevo being sent to me by one of my exes out there doing UN work, before I finally settled down to do some work. This was quickly scuppered by my new phone going unexpectedly - Dan on his way home from work in Boston. Another twenty minutes of phone conversation, and I was still no closer to doing work! However, I resolved to get down to it after that, and did a solid four hours or so without a break, accomplishing a lot more than I thought I would.

The evening has been filled with a bit more work, a couple more texts, quite a bit of tv, some Internet browsing, a very healthy salad closely followed by some unhealthy Galaxy chocolate, and some good news in the form of a woman who wants me to ride her horse for her for free. You were right Butterscotch, such mad people really do exist! The downside is that she's located more than an hour away from Vancouver, but then all the stables are about that far away because that's where all the good rides are. It's nice to know that I can get a bit of relaxation in every now and then anyway, as long as her horse isn't a psycho. Watch this space....

Eating for everyone

To steal the title of Shaw's planned autobiography.

This seems to be pretty much all I've done this weekend. On Friday I planned to do work, but was thankfully sidetracked by shopping. On Saturday I did actually do work, but I also sat around the house quite a lot and watched tv. In addition I posted a message on a forum telling people that I would house-sit for them over the summer or beyond, in an effort to get cheap accommodation without too much hassle. So far I've had three replies, two of which might be worth pursuing. So who knows, maybe that one person going on sabbatical for the next 9 months who needs a nice responsible English girl to house-sit will see my post.

And today I was eating for everyone. The plan was to write my research proposal, but this was slightly scuppered by the fact that I opened my A4 pad to find that I had basically done just that some months previously, at least in bullet point form. So being the lazy sod that I am, I just left it 'as is' and decided to eat and watch tv instead. I did however find some fantastic web pages with houses in Vancouver which I will have to keep an eye on, and some riding schools which I e-mailed as I suddenly had a longing to get back to my equestrian past. I nearly let my enthusiasm take over, and entertained the idea of buying a horse for a couple of hours (they're fairly cheap here) but then saw the stabling fees and thought better of it. I think I need to get a decent job first. Sustaining a car and a horse might cripple me for good. So instead I found yet another website and posted yet another message, asking for a loan/lease of a horse instead. I think I'm addicted to web postings.

Now I'm stitting in front of the tv, watching Lleyton Hewitt get his arse whooped by Roger Federer, and contemplating how many more days it's going to rain for. CNN says 6 out of the next 7, the Weather Network says 4. I want to believe the latter, since I'd like to get out of the house for a few hours without having to cart my very holey umbrella around (Primark having finally failed me). Tomorrow my new cell phone should allegedly arrive, which is good, since I'll probably need it to communicate with Butterscotch on Wednesday when we try and find each other for this tv show. And I can finally let the extras company know that they can reach me, since I think they're getting a bit pissed off that I'm never in when they phone. Of course this may mean more days of filming in the bitter cold and pissing rain, but I have great hopes that Spring will come back next week. As for the rest of the week? Who knows......

For Michaela

Who I automatically like because apparently she doesn't think my life is boring, even though she also thinks that it is Bridget Jones-esque with its constant ups and downs. I am trying to keep the Alsatians away from the door, I assure you, but every day they get ever closer....

So now I feel that I should write something really interesting, but in truth I haven't done anything very exciting. I meant to do my work today so that I had the weekend free, but this plan was shattered by the offer of clothes shopping, a curry (tandoori chicken) and gelato (orange, raspberry). My saving grace was that I didn't buy anything during the shop, other than something which Shaw may soon be receiving in the post (for soon, read: once I get my arse in gear and get to the post office). I really have to make a resolution to budget my spending for the month, because everything I earn seems to get spent just as quickly. I keep forgetting that my car insurance payments come out on the 14th of each month as well, so perpetually overestimate how much money my bank holds. A sad state of affairs. So tomorrow will be spent doing the work that I didn't do today. And then on Sunday I really have to try and write this damn research proposal before I meet someone from UBC next week in a desperate attempt to get them to sponsor my application for a pilot research grant. Since I really think that I should have something to propose, rather than just asking them for money (as good as that sounds). Whilst it is going to be interesting delving back into research on MS, writing the proposal is going to be challenging as I've never written one before. But I hope that if I get some ideas down in bullet point form, the UBC prof can rip them apart and tell me where I'm going wrong. Either that or tell me it's a load of bollocks.

In other news, I am going to meet my first Internet blogger...........drum roll...............none other than the wonderful Butterscotch!! Her friend is playing on the Vicky Gabereau show which films in Vancouver, and she has managed to get some tickets for Wednesday. So unless she gets a better offer (i.e. someone male and hot) we are going to meet up in town and go see him. She lives in Langley, which is about an hour from me and is where Denise and I got lost on the way to the Olive Garden for my birthday. So I can pump her for information about the way that the damn roads work in Langley when I see her. It will be strange to meet someone that you only know from blogs, and I'm not entirely sure that we'll be able to pick each other out from the people on the street, but hopefully we'll have a good time, and I'm excited! So after this, I'm gonna have to meet some more bloggers, and get some more internet friendships going. Axe murderers need not apply.

Sorry Michaela, that wasn't very interesting. I promise I'll try and do something better in the next few days!

Jazzing it up

While walking home the other day at night, I heard the strains of someone playing the piano in one of the houses. And I was suddenly reminded of my friend Romain, who I blogged about in November, and who used to play jazz in my halls in the first year. He was also the person with possibly the worst timing ever after myself, asking me out the day after someone else had beaten him to the same question. Ouch. Six years later, I still think that I handled that situation pretty badly, so if you ever read this Romain, sorry!!

Anyway, the anonymous piano playing person reminded me to e-mail Romain, which I duly did, asking what he was now up to. And then I decided to Google him, even though these two events should have been the other way around. It seems that he has been starting to make a name for himself in various jazz circles, and has been getting some good reviews. So in true 'plugging my friends' style, check out the latest CD to incorporate his piano/keyboard playing here, and when his website finally gets up and running, go see it here. Randomly, it's also the first site I've seen that has a phone number on it - could be good, could be a weirdo magnet........

If anyone else wants a plug, let me know!

I haven't got anything exciting to say about myself I'm afraid. I've been doing work for the past seven days (which I could have fitted into five days, if I was more organised) and seem to have just been paying bills a lot. I also found a flat I want, only it's a bit out of town and it's unfurnished. But you never know....

Nice as pie

My apologies for not blogging for a few days. I think we all tend to need to blog more when things are going really badly, and since things are good I haven't been updating. That, and I'm just generally lazy....

It was my dad's birthday today, so I phoned him up to sing down the phone to him, only to find out that he was out. So when he phoned me back and sung down the phone to me, happy birthday to himself, it wasn't quite the same! It was good to talk to my parents though, as always. And then of course yesterday (loosely, in the sense that it's only just after midnight on Monday) it was Dan's birthday - happy birthday Dan! I still contend that roses beat a card any day, but if you're determined to keep inflating my ego, who am I to stop you? :o)

Today, for those of you who didn't know (and I was one of them, not many days ago) was National Pi day. Yes, the magical number that starts 3.1415927, or 926 if you want to be pedantic and carry on with all the other decimal places. Why, you may ask? Because over here, where dates are the other way around to the UK, Monday was 3-14. And as Dan pointed out, in ten years' time it will be super Pi day, when the date will be 3-14-15. I can't wait. Anyway, Denise and I celebrated this momentous event by going out and having pie, in our case Lemon Meringue, after a shared dish of so many fried entrees that it would just be obscene to repeat them. That was my cholesterol shot for the next few weeks.

This month seems to be a long line of events, made up or otherwise. Tomorrow is the Ides of March, and then of course St Patricks Day hits us with a bang on Thursday. I also have to remember that I have an Emergency Social Services meeting tomorrow night, and then two weeks of Wednesday night courses on First Aid, body recovery and structural soundness of buildings (don't even ask). Plus Denise and I seem to have decided that since we have no money, we'd better do our best to get into the red, and have booked tickets to see The Killers, Snow Patrol, Keane and Denise's friend's band, all in the space of a couple of months. I am even debating driving down to Portland just to see Def Leppard (no rudeness please, I like their antiquated rockness) but am put off by the fact that they are touring with Bryan Adams and therefore tickets will be obscenely expensive for no good reason. Plus I am not sure that my car would make the trip without giving up what little life it still has in its 1990 body. At the moment I am also trying to juggle sorting out my MS research proposals, doing work for my company in England, trying to find where the cell phone I have ordered has got to, and making sure that I'm around for when the Extras company calls me. It's all getting rather complicated.... and still I seem to not be making any money..... but who gives a toss!! I'm living the high life baby.... :o)

A good week

So my friend Shaw has now gone home :o( after a good week of sunny weather, decent temperatures, lots of eating, and some good friendship. We did some touristy things, and some not-so touristy things, but we managed to fill our days quite effectively. Vancouver did its best to show itself off in all its glory, and I think it did it well. Now I plan to go over to Boston at some point (does anyone else think I really need a proper job to do all this stuff?) and see her in turn. Not now, because the weather is horrible apparently, but when it gets nicer.

The weather has been so good here over the past few days that it has given me new hope for my future. I was driving around yesterday with the radio playing and the windows down, in a T-shirt, thinking how fantastic this all was. I would be stupid to give it all up. I am sure I can hold out for another couple of years until my parents retire out here, and if I want to make the effort to see all my friends in England, then I'll just have to work hard enough to get the money to do so. There is no point my pining for things that will never happen; better to dismiss them as over and move on to the next thing. They're just not worth it! (A note of optimism in an otherwise pessimistic girl) Better to be single and looking for work in a beautiful city than having a fucked-up relationship and in a job I hate whilst living somewhere I dislike. Hoorah for optimism!!

Oh, and my first pay cheque from being a film extra was $20 more than I thought. So here's to nice surprises :o)

The curse of jetlag

My friend Shaw is here! Hoorah for Boston!

I picked her up from the airport on Saturday and we hung around the house in a generally jetlagged manner, finally giving in and retiring to bed at 10pm. Both of us then woke up at 5am and couldn't get back to sleep. And in the inevitable thinking-of-annoying-stuff-you-can't-do-anything-about that comes with insomnia, I spent two hours getting annoyed at people before finally giving in and getting up at 7am.

The subject of my inner annoyance at 5am? Boys and e-mails. Having got back to Canada on Thursday, I received an e-mail on Saturday from someone that I contacted at the beginning of January, when I had told them that I was coming over to England and asked if they wanted to meet up with me. The reply, sent two months later? "Let me know when you're in Leeds and we can meet up for lunch. It would be good to see you." Ok, so not only did it take exactly two months for the guy to reply to the e-mail, but he obviously didn't read my first e-mail properly when I said that I was leaving the country in early February and coming back in March. What is the point of having e-mail if you don't reply to your messages? And it obviously wasn't going to be that good to see me if he waited two months to reply to me.

Second case in point; someone I haven't seen for four years comes on messenger, with the comment, "Where on earth have you been?" On questioning, it transpires that he has been waiting for me to come and see him in London, and has been expecting me to turn up any day now. Did he reply to my e-mail asking whether it was ok for me to come and stay with him for a night? Did he bollocks. Apparently he just thought that somehow I would be able to work out his telephone number or address and just turn up at some point. I ask you.

I one had an e-mail drought from the guy I was in love with (and was kind of seeing in the usual boys-don't-want-commitment type way) for six months, I kid you not. I sent him an email one day and he didn't respond. After a few more days of non-contact, I logically sent him another e-mail, asking if everything was ok. More days went past, and another e-mail got sent out, this time a little more distressed. Eventually I just decided he didn't want to see me any more, and so the last e-mail was in the upset vein. When he finally bothered to get in contact with me, six months later (after he had no doubt been pursuing other avenues of adventure), he had a ready explanation for his lack of communication. "Well, at first I just didn't reply because I had other things to do, and then when you started getting upset, I didn't know what to say." I can't fathom the way men work with regard to e-mails!!! If someone e-mailed me and they were upset, I'd write back, so they didn't get more upset.... am I the illogical one, or is the other sex completely mad?

So anyway, after getting myself totally wound up at 5am and not being able to get back to sleep, Denise, Shaw and I drove down to Seattle for the day. As you do. The weather in Vancouver was ok, but Seattle promised to be sunny, and so we took a day trip there. The drive down took about 3 hours including getting across the border, and we got there at about lunchtime. We parked near the Space Needle and had a wander around, with some lunch, taking in some of the Music Experience Museum, the monorail, the shopping quarter, the dockside market, the arcade (where we reverted back to our youth and went on the Carousel - great fun!) and finally back to the Space Neede again, via some shops. The weather was fantastic, and most of the day was spent in T-shirts (and eating, since everything looked really nice). The plan was to drive back through Langley and go to the Olive Garden (I thought about you, Butterscotch) but we got lost trying to find the right turning, and ended up just coming back to Vancouver and getting food in Kerrisdale. Then we all crashed when we got back as we were so tired. And this morning, I woke up again at 5am and couldn't get back to sleep.....

Back - home?

Well, I have made it through yet another 10 hour flight and have emerged relatively unscathed, if a little tired. I managed to hold out until 10pm last night before crashing, and this morning woke up at 7am, which I can cope with. I have loads of things to do, most of which are fairly mundane, so an early start is good.

It's nice to be back on broadband, although my messenger is giving me cause for concern. A few weeks ago I started getting random people trying to add themselves to my contacts, so I kept blocking them as I didn't know any of them. But now the darn program seems to be deleting people off my contacts and not letting me add them back again. I seem to have lost about four or five people who I actually do know and want on there, and although they are allegedly in my options menu as being in my allow list, they don't appear when messenger is running. (Of course I guess four or five people could suddenly have deleted me, but I would like to think this wasn't the case!). I might have to delete everyone and start again, annoyingly. I can't cope with technology!!

The weather was lovely when I got off the plane yesterday, and all the blossom is out on the trees in our road (see Denise's blog for pictures). I did take some pictures on the flight, but I have to sort through them, so I shall post some later. Spring seems to have come to Vancouver whilst I've been away, and it's good!

Leaving on a jet plane (again)

And so, once more, this is my last day at home before getting on a plane to Vancouver. This time I am slightly more prepared for what comes ahead, and slightly less emotional about going. Luckily my mother has to work tomorrow, so airport scenes will be toned down, though my father insists on taking me there in the car. After jumping on my suitcase it has deigned to close, though any rummaging by customs and it will surely never lock again. Chocolate has been packed and belongings gathered, but the fact that there are two of my tops still drying and waiting to go in the case has just dawned on me, and that could be a problem.

England has been freezing cold, and there was some snow today, but I've enjoyed being here and seeing all my friends again. Not enough time was spent here, but then I would have begun to take advantage of hospitalities if I had been here any longer. I probably did anyway. Things that were in my mind and ready to be said to a few people weren't said - not because I didn't think them any longer, but because peace seemed like the better option. However this isn't all bad, and I have come through the other side unscathed, so I think I can call this trip a success. At least I know that however far my friends and I may scatter, they're still my friends.

My parents were glad to see me, though they were the second lot of people to look slightly worried at the amount of weight I've lost. And they were not that cheered to hear that this was due to stress rather than some effort of mine to shed any excess poundage. Actually I didn't realise how much weight I had lost until Monday, when I went into town and tried on some trousers, only to find that they hung off me. I had to put on the next size down, which I can't remember fitting into since I was about 15. I quite like this state of affairs! Though rest assured that I shall be doing my best to eat lots of doughnuts in order to not lose any more sizes ;o) what a good excuse for indulgence.....

The jogging has gone to pot, and depending on how training goes when I get back to Vancouver I may downgrade to a half-marathon instead of the full one. If I hadn't lost a week and a half to snow, and been here for three weeks, I may have been able to bully my lazy self into a decent attempt at 26 miles, but I think I'm pushing it as things are. I'd rather do half the distance than have a heart attack through over-exertion. Maybe next year.

So soon I shall be back on broadband (thank god!), checking blogs and writing more regularly, watching the new round of reality TV shows that have hit Canada (hoorah!) and trying to find a job. Speak to you all soon... xx

PS Shaw - I have been crap with e-mailing recently. Let me just say that I am really looking forward to you coming over on Saturday, and I can't wait!! Do I have to get broccoli in? ;o)