This crazy city

A short post today, as I have to go to bed so I can get up for the dreaded half-marathon. I haven't been jogging in three weeks, so don't expect miracles. In fact, don't expect me to finish! I shall post when I am able, if I live.

Have just got back from seeing The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which was good, but not as good as I hoped. In fact there were a couple of bits where I was fairly bored, although other bits were extremely funny. I should read the book, as it is apparently a lot better. On the way back from Surrey (40 mins away - had to meet Sunshine there) I was somewhat peeved to almost run into a dickhead reversing up the freeway merge lane. They'd obviously taken the westbound merge rather than the eastbound merge, and instead of driving the two miles up the freeway to the next exit and turning round, they decided to try and reverse the 100m or so back up the entry ramp. Causing a big near-pile-up in the process. People really can't drive here. Earlier in the day some bastard tried to take my front left wing off by driving onto the wrong side of the road to turn down a side street as I was coming out of another side street and turning left. And didn't even look over at us when we had a mental fit of horn blowing, swearing and hand gestures. I nearly ran into the side of his car just to give him something to think about, but (luckily I suppose) did the instinctive braking thing instead. I have to say I am surprised that my little car is still in one piece (touch wood).

This morning I watched the Kerrisdale carnival procession go through the streets, and it was pretty tame, except that because it was the start of the little league season all the kids were in the parade in their uniforms. It was scary to see how many teams there were. There must have been at least 15 kids in each team, and there were roughly 20 different teams, covering baseball, softball, curveball, swingball, balls I didn't even know existed. All sponsored by a different business in Kerrisdale, all with a different name, and all in a different uniform. It was quite a sight. Then I sat at the Health and Wellness fair for two hours trying to convince people to volunteer with our Emergency Social Services team, which was actually rather fun. And then Denise and I went to Red Onion and got big fat burgers (veggie). At least my last meal before running death was a good one......

Taxes and brakes

At the moment I am trying to be positive about my little car, since the brakes have been squeaking over the past couple of weeks, and I am hoping that this doesn't mean the pads need to be replaced. My friend has offered to take the wheels off at the weekend and check for dirt in the mechanism, and though I can't help feeling that this is rather beyond the call of duty, it would be nice to know that I will just have to spend $17 on some brake fluid rather than $120 a piece on brake pads. And to add to the trauma, I got a hefty tax bill yesterday, since the government apparently feel that they have the right to screw you over when you come back into the country after having been away for a long time, by taking away nearly all of your personal tax-free allowance. However, I then went and cried on an H&R Block advisor, who looked rather alarmed and recalculated my tax assessment for me, cunningly finding about $450 that hadn't been taken off my net income. And although I think they are meant to charge you for this service, he didn't do this either, probably because he didn't want me to burst into tears again. So today I sent off my reassessment, along with a begging letter asking them to take the new calculation into account, though I don't really have much hope for this.

Yesterday Denise and I went to the Convention Centre downtown to collect my marathon pack, and get some free stuff from the Health & Wellness exhibition. I also bought a water bottle and zipped pocket thing that attaches round your waist, so I can store my inhaler in case I die halfway round the course. After picking up my pack of crap, I came home to discover that the marathon t-shirt you automatically get when you sign up (size guaranteed if you sign up before January 1st, which I did) is in fact not an XS, as I ordered, but an M. Some cheeky bastard has cut out an XS label and glued it over the M label, as I discovered when I peeled it off slightly. Cue a rude e-mail to the organisers, asking what the point is of signing up for a t-shirt if you can't wear the damn thing without looking like a beached whale. Obviously they haven't got back to me yet.....

On the good side, the weather is still continuing to be sunny and hot. Today and tomorrow is the Kerrisdale Carnival, where all the shops bring their wares onto the streets and sell them at half the price (in England the racks would be stolen in seconds), people walk around with balloons, bands play, and there is a big procession through the streets (tomorrow at 10am). It also marks the beginning of the kids' little league baseball season. And tomorrow I have to sit at a desk for the ESS group I'm with and pretend that I know what we do for two hours, so that should be fun!

I have also finally managed to get all my shit together to send to the POW/MIA command centre in Hawaii, asking them for an internship. Now I have to hope that my three referees get their shit together in turn, write me references and send them to America. This could be dicey. Even if they do send off their assessments of me (and I am assuming that they will be good, because they all like me) I still have to fight off a load of other people who are American, since the command centre doesn't really like taking people who don't have US citizenship. I also have to fight off graduates of anthropology degrees, whereas I only have a couple of modules of anthropology and a broad psychology background. It's not going to be easy. But it would be cool to get an internship for a year, move down to Hawaii, get paid to do some fab forensic work and go to places like Laos and Vietnam. I think I argued quite convincingly on the application that they should give me a job, but it just depends whether they want the hassle of having to arrange visas, transport documents, accommodation etc. for someone who isn't American :o( - I wouldn't!

Not a lot

Well, what has happened over the past few days? Denise has a stinking cold, so I have been offering possible remedies whilst dosing myself up so as not to get it myself. In fact she is hacking away in her room, in what sounds like a most painful manner :o( The weather has been fantastic, so there has been ice cream eating and moderate sunburn. I have finally bought myself a Nalgene bottle since I have to run 13 miles on Sunday, and whilst coming back from downtown heard on the radio that U2 were filming their music video at GM place and were asking for people to go and be in it. It is testament to my boredom with traffic that I couldn't be bothered to turn the car round and fight my way there, even though I was about a mile away. How sad I have become....

Last night we went to Denise's friend Mel's house, for pot luck dinner (which ended up being a lazy ordering of very good Thai food) and Napoleon Dynamite. Which was good, but not as funny as I hoped it would be. It was very amusing watching one of Mel's cats, however, as it has this huge body and a tiny head. Through no genetic mutation, it's just fat. And rather cute. I woke up this morning slightly annoyed that I'd left my just-bought cookies at Mel's house, so I have had to go and buy a big box of them from Safeway to make up for it. Which is obviously good for the training.

On Monday I went to see a room in a house that completely wasn't worth the money they were asking, so I am no further forward in my house hunt. However, there may be light at the end of the tunnel on the job front, since the cheery and energetic Sunshine has attacked my very non-Canadian resume with gusto, and is currently working to get it Canuckified, so I might actually stand a chance of getting gainful employ.* Apparently English resumes are completely different from Canadian ones. Damn my not knowing this for a long time..... So good luck to her, and let's hope she gets somewhere! She has already introduced me to the best pie ever at Granville Island, so I can feel my debts to her building up.

Also on Monday, the inside of our house finally became an oasis of lino-covered calm, after all the carpet and flooding trauma of the past week. We managed to convince the landlady to lino the kitchen and carpet the living room, rather than carpeting the whole place. And I have to say, it looks damn good. If only the deck wasn't going to block out every trace of sunlight when it finally goes up, I'd think about staying here. But sadly, even though it would be ok during the summer, I'd probably go mental when the winter came again, and everything descended into darkness.

* Here I feel I should point out that Dan also made some helpful resume suggestions a while back, lest he feel left out. My failure to implement them was simply because I am lazy, and he is in Boston, rather than being here and able to track me down if I don't get my arse in gear.....

The Killers

So last night was the longed-for Killers gig!! And a fantastic time was had by all :o) even though Denise and I were stuck on the bus with six teeny-boppers who were all excited about seeing a band that they hadn't heard of until apparently they were on the OC some months ago. Denise and I sat there feeling superior about the fact that we hadn't jumped on the OC bandwagon but had in fact heard of the Killers some time prior to the episode where they made an appearance. Sadly the teeny-boppers decided to get off the bus at the same stop as us and follow us to the venue, twittering about how they didn't know where they were going and how dodgy the area was (this was the main street into downtown). Talk about unworldly.

Anyway, Denise was psyched that Tegan and Sara were the opening act for the Killers, and I have to say they were damn good, even though I'd never heard any of their stuff. Shades of Goo Goo Dolls guitar, Smashing Pumpkin riffs and Verucca Salt voices, all put together. And I was psyched on finding out the fact that Embrace are the opening act for the Snow Patrol gig we're going to in two weeks' time, which would have encouraged me to go even if it wasn't Snow Patrol as the main act. Two bands for the price of one!

So the Killers were preceded by 'Viva Las Vegas' being played, since they're from there, and they then got off to a fantastic start (of course) with 'Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine' and some great lighting. Apparently they were pretty bollocks on Saturday Night Live the other week, so we were expecting the worst, but they were absolutely fantastic. Of course everyone went mental when 'Mr Brightside' was played, and I felt that they should have played it again as the last song, but all their songs were good. The lead singer wore a white suit jacket and a tie, and looked hideously hot the entire time, but he spent the whole evening with a cheeky grin on his face, like he couldn't quite believe that all these people were cheering for him. He narrowly avoided being pulled into the crowd by tens of adoring girlies at a few points, but seemed to be loving every minute of it. And he was kind of cute, in a geeky and rather Michael Stipe crazy way.

Today my ears have stopped ringing, just about, and I have given in to the temptation of pizza, having not got takeout for about a week and a half. I didn't go to the beach with the builder (who I have to point out must be in his forties, and apparently has a wife and kids - he just invited me out because I obviously looked like a sad git with no friends and he's a nice guy) but instead stayed home and finished off my work. However tomorrow promises to be a bit manic; meet Sunshine at 3pm, go to health and beauty day at The Bay from 6-8pm, see mega mansion house with room for rent at 8pm. I can't afford this room, or at least I don't want to have to afford it, but I'm intrigued by what the house is like, since it appears to be obscenely large and only has four bedrooms in it. Apparently it has 8 sun decks, three bathrooms (I would be sharing with 'Annette'), a guest room, a rooftop patio thing, chandeliers (I kid you not) and the room for rent is 22ftx17ft. I have to see it, even if it kills me! After seeing a crappy house the other day, I feel the need to see some opulence, even if it is out of my price range. Someone give me a damn job! I'll let you all know what the house was like when I've seen it.... though I think they might be freaked out if I took pictures. I want them to like me and reduce the rent for me ;o)

I seem to have bad luck with tax offices in whichever country I'm in - I sent my return off here some weeks ago and have heard exactly bugger all since, which worries me slightly. And today my mother sent me a notice from the Inland Revenue in England, asking me to give in my tax return for the year 2004-5. Did I send them my tax return and a notice of emigration when I left the country in October? Yes I did. And did they take any notice? Did they buggery. Have I already paid them the £60 I allegedly owed them? Oh yes I have...... watch out, tax office, I'm pissed*........

*Or for my English readers, 'pissed off'. I keep forgetting that 'pissed' means 'drunk' in England, but 'angry' over here. Denise looked very confused when I said the neighbours were all on their deck getting pissed the other day. I'll learn eventually, just stick with me.....

Building and demolishing

I think there's an Eddie Izzard quote in there somewhere, to do with the Gods of Destruction and Creation. But I wouldn't do it half as well as he does, so I shall refrain.

I spent a blissful day today sitting outside with my laptop and working. Thank goodness for wireless Internet. The landlady very nicely cleaned their garden chairs for me, and brought out a little table so I could rest the computer there, and I stole the extension cord that had been attached to the fan which had previously used to make our carpet dry quicker. I sat there in my T-shirt and jeans, watching the builder attack what used to be a deck and is now a pile of rotten wood, and occasionally distracted his dog. Oh, and I went down to the 7/11 for what Shaw told me was a Chipwich, but I don't know if this is the brand name or the name of the actual thing itself. It's two chocolate chip cookies with ice cream in the middle. And damn, is it good. I had a chipwich craving in the mid afternoon, when the sun was pounding down on me, and just had to go and buy one. So at the end of today, I have quite a lot of work done, I have a slightly suntanned face, and I'm probably a couple of chipwich pounds heavier. But it was a good day :o)

I completely forgot to post that we went to see Sin City at the cinema on Saturday night. It wasn't what I had expected. I had thought it was going to be more comic-booky and less violent, but the first ten minutes soon put those ideas out of my head. All I can say is, thank goodness it is in black and white, because there was a lot of gore. And this may sound strange coming from someone who can go to a post mortem and hold a brain in their hands, but I can't stand gore and violence when it's to do with the living. All in all, however, it was a good film. One of the storylines I thought was a lot more interesting than the other two, but then I guess there will always be bits you like and dislike. I would recommend it, as long as you don't mind people getting hacked to pieces in a slightly comic way, a la Kill Bill.

Other news: I went to see a room in a house on Wednesday, and it was a lot worse than it promised to be. Not in the sense of dirty or rat infested, but just one of those ones where they word the advert so it's not quite a lie, but it's a definite distortion of the truth. Which was sad really, because the house was a once-lovely 1912 character building, with a shit load of oak panelling and nice creaky staircases. But it was obvious that no-one had done work on it for about 40 years, it was definitely the worse for wear, and they had tried to cram as many people as possible into it without updating it. Five people, plus a not-quite-specified random in the basement, and only one shower/bath. I knew I was in trouble when I saw the shower schedule on the door. I kid you not, people had booked the shower for the week ahead, specifying when they were getting in and out (15 minute max). The garden was lovely, but I had to run away quickly. I told the guy I would ring him today and let him know whether I wanted the room, and luckily I got his answer phone. In my first year of Uni I probably would have thought the whole thing was a bit of an adventure, but at 26, I'm just too darn old.

For the first time since being here, I actually have a hectic social schedule over the next week. And I'm not lying! Tomorrow I am meant to be meeting my friend Catherine for iced coffee/hot choc, as well as doing some more work, and then of course we see The Killers in the evening! Sunday I am provisionally going to wander the sands by Spanish Banks, if it doesn't rain, since the builder obviously took pity on me yesterday (poor friendless English girl) and invited me to the beach with him and his dog. And more work. Then on Monday I am meant to meet a girl who I came across at the filming of the marathon commercial the other weekend, whose name (honestly) is Sunshine. We have arranged to meet in "A grungy vegetarian cafe," as yet unspecified. Then next Friday it is the Kerrisdale Carnival, on Saturday I am sitting at an info table for the Emergency Social Services in the community fair, and on Sunday...............I die in the half marathon. I can't actually remember the last time I went jogging, so that can't be good. But hey, even if I walk the entire thing, it's good exercise :o)

The good news is that our landlady reduced the rent to half for the month of May, because of all the carpet hassle and general crap that has gone on over the past week. I think we've convinced her to put tile/lino down in the kitchen this time, instead of carpet. The fitter came today and we plugged the idea of something easier to deal with than carpet, resulting in much choosing of colours and measuring up. What with this and the deck being built outside, I feel as though I'm in a home design show. If only this wasn't a basement and it actually had some light, I wouldn't mind staying. But then life is full of 'what ifs' and I'm sure this is a minor one in the grand scheme of things.....

I'm knackered, so I'm going to bed. We went to see the band that Denise's friend Pat is in last night, Bedouin Soundclash. I can safely say that I have never been to see a band who plays their brand of music. I didn't dislike it, as they were very good at what they did, but I'm not really a reggae girl. They did, however, get a little rocky at the end of the set, and if I wasn't so tired I would have been dancing. And if some tosser hadn't practically stood on my Achilles tendon when they were fighting with someone who was telling them (quite rightly) that they were indeed a tosser. Anyway, the singer in the band has a fantastic voice, the bassist was very funky, and Pat played the drums like a maniac, so I can see why they're doing well. Check them out, people!

Update on sogginess

So the carpet is less soggy now, but the bad side is - it stinks. It has that horrible musty smell that you get when you get something wet and then it doesn't dry for a good few days. It's stopped getting wetter, because we've had a bloody great industrial dryer going since Saturday morning, which is cunningly blowing the nasty smell around the house, meaning that our once smell-free bedrooms are now threatened by the invasion of mould as well. We need a dehumidifyer, since the house is horribly humid. However, there was some relief in the form of 1) the plumber and 2) the carpet restorer, who made appearances one afer the other this afternoon. The plumber replaced a faulty washer (it's always the little things that cause big mishaps) and the carpet man promised to come by tomorrow and chemically nuke the mildew, meaning that for a couple of hours we'll have a chemical smell, but then after that it should be no more mustiness. And then comes the carpet shampoo, to make everything smell wonderful again - or at least less skanky.

Today I've scoffed gelato and a cookie, after trying to be really healthy this morning and eating bananas. I've also done some work, and.......well that's about it really. I run the half marathon in less than two weeks, and I've done bugger all towards it. I don't think I've been running for about a week and a half. This is slightly disconcerting, but my laziness doesn't allow me to get too het up about it. I mean hey, I can always walk half the damn thing, and it will still be good exercise. The good news is that I think I heard the landlords saying they were going away for a period of about two weeks, coinciding with my run. So I may be able to sneak upstairs and use their bath to have a good soak in :o) not having a shower sucks!

In other news, Denise has started constructing a "Things to do in May before leaving BC" list. I dread to think how many things are on it - I think we'll be busy every day! I look forward to doing some crazy stuff though, including this.......

Stumbling towards sogginess

The rain refuses to stop here at the moment, though I have hopes that when Denise has finished her exams there will suddenly be a blast of sunshine, bringing her a lottery win and me a job/house. Or just the sun would be great. The landlords have been having their old deck demolished, so that a brand spanking new one can be put up. This has suddenly allowed light into our hitherto dingy basement suite, and we can actually see stuff without turning lamps on for once. I was in the shower this morning, in wonderment that I could see all the aspects of the bathroom without squinting. About time too, since I think my eyes are suffering from the lack of Vitamin whatever it is, and the constant staring at my laptop.

However, since we're both moving out soon and another deck is going to get built in the same place, this is only a momentary respite from the gloom. And today a slightly worrying problem materialised, which I put down to the concrete path outside being broken up - patches of water have started appearing on our carpet. I think the rain has somehow got under the house (we apparently live on the site of an old river bed, so the builder tells me) and near the door it looks as though someone has dropped a big jug of water in various places. I think I'm removing anything that I have on the floor in my room to higher ground tonight, since my bedroom is the next in line from the entrance. Of course the landlords have gone out tonight, so I left a phone message, trying to sound calm whilst at the same time implying that if they didn't investigate this problem there might be a bigger one soon if it keeps raining.......

On a completely different note, I was cajoled into signing up for bellydancing classes the other day, dropping an ill-afforded $130 in the process. Ouch - I'd better get a damn good stomach for that amount of money. Ok, so it is 16 weeks of classes, and it is worth it, but not having a job makes you worry about your spending. But as Denise rightly pointed out, it will be something to do over the summer when she's not here. My parents will probably insist on coming to the classes when they're here, just to see what it's like. I can see my mother doing it now. God help us all.

Madness

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that the last entry in this stupid table, made up by the Thames Valley Police, is totally unacceptable when compared to the other categories???

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/oxfordshire/4437459.stm

Exhaustion

I got up at 5:40am yesterday to go to the commercial shoot, and we wrapped at 9:05pm. I ache from running (we had to be marathon runners, and boy did they work us hard) but I guess it's good practice for the Vancouver Marathon. I couldn't get out of bed to go to the Horror Film casting today, but I hadn't learnt the script anyway, so I wasn't that bothered. Hopefully I will actually get paid for yesterday, since I left my SIN card at home so couldn't give them my social insurance number, which you need to get work. Slight problem. But I guess it was an experience anyway.

I also made the acquaintance of a girl called Sunshine (no, really). An interesting day.......

Facts of the day

- Money left from last Friday's $25 after vowing to be frugal: $18.01
- Items purchased with the missing $7 over the last week: one doughnut, two litres of milk, one cookie, one lottery ticket, one packet of chewing gum
- Checking-in time on set for tomorrow: 7am :o(
- Number of items of clothing in bag for tomorrow: 11
- Cost of the house across the road that went on the market yesterday: $1,050,000
- People looking round said house now, 24 hours later: three
- Car driven by real estate agent showing these people around: convertible BMW
- Distance I deliberately parked from the car that's been sitting outside our house for the past week in my parking spot: 2 inches
- Albums I just promised to buy when my friend becomes famous: all of them
- E-mails I haven't replied to cos I'm crap: too many to count............

Stop, start, stop, start.........

That seems to be my life at the moment.....

The beginning of the week was extremely slow - no work on either Monday or Tuesday, rain, nothing to do, quite a lot of boredom. On Tuesday night I went to bed at 11pm to get some much-needed sleep, then woke up at 1:30am to realise that Denise still wasn't home, despite her saying that she would be back at about 5:30pm. Panicking, I rang the hospital to make sure she hadn't been involved in any hideous car accidents, then rang my mother in England (thank god for the time difference). As she was advising me to phone the police, enter Denise. Back to bed, little sleep, late rising on Wednesday to find..... e-mail from work with a stupid number of forms to check by Friday morning. Hence Wednesday and Thursday were spent doing nothing else other than working, with the occasional break for the sake of sanity. At least I managed to get the work done though. And today of course, back to no work at all. I spent a good two hours sitting on the doorstep talking to the builder and playing with his dog. Nice, but not that productive. He did give me the name of a woman to ask for a gardening job over the summer, but she doesn't have a website, and I am scared to ring up and leave a message on her answering machine - "Hi, you don't know me, my name's Jenny, John the builder said to ring you.... I'm desperate for a job, wouldn't mind being on your gardening crew, no experience whatsoever, but ring me, ok? Bye......."

I was cheered by the fact that I have some extras work this weekend, some commercial or other for which $150 will wing its way to me. However, this good cheer is tempered by the fact that the commercial is scheduled for tomorrow, which is the only day for the next few weeks where I actually had something else to do. I've had this course booked since January, an all day thing which is related to my Emergency Social Services volunteering, and it only comes round every so often. The sensible thing to do would have been to turn down the extras work and go to the course, but my bank balance drove me to accept the potential $150. I can only hope that it rains tomorrow, in which case they would move the filming to Sunday. The hectic past two days have meant that I haven't learnt my lines for the bunny-boiling casting session on Sunday, so if I was to have to miss that, I wouldn't mind so much. But then it never rains when you want it to.

The job hunt goes on, as ever, and so does the hunt for somewhere to live when Denise moves out at the end of May. I was hoping to have one sorted out before the other, since trying to do both at once with no success coming from either is rather dispiriting. I kind of want to move to Victoria after the summer, and chance my hand at jobs there, which means that I would need a place to live in Vancouver for June, July, August and September only. At minimum I need a month to month lease, so that if I find a job in Victoria I can give notice and immediately move. However, this is all rather sketchy and scarily indistinct, and I just wish that someone would offer me a damn job in one city or the other so I could make some decent plans. I could stay in this house, but I'd have to have another housemate since I couldn't afford to pay both rents, and the chances of them being as nice/nicer than Denise are low. Plus I want a darn bathtub, and I'm fed up of having to schedule times to do our laundry! On that note; I am going to go and buy a lottery ticket, and see if I have better luck with that. Cross fingers.......

PS My friend's website is now up and running (and rather nice) so if you like Jazz, or you're just curious, check out Romain - coming through your radio in the near future, I hope :o)

My brief moment of fame

So we watched the film I was in today, and it was hilariously entertaining to see me beating on the side of a telephone box, silly hat on my head, as the girl playing Valerie Valardi tried to get past me and rescue Robin Williams. Denise and I had a good laugh at it. In the other two scenes I was only visible for fleeting seconds, though was sporting fetching hippie get-up in both.

To complete the random day, a casting slot on Sunday for an independent horror film, playing the main girl character. I got the sample script today that I have to read at the casting, and the girl's a psycho bitch, let me tell you. Without giving too much away, I have to chop the head off a bunny. Oh yes. I shall go along with no expectations, and see what happens.

I have also received an e-mail this evening from a guy with a proposition. Oooer, I hear you whistle. A week or so ago, I posted on the housing forum that I check for apartments every day, saying that I was looking for somewhere to rent over the summer or longer, and that I was willing to do some DIY on someone's house if it was a bit of a mess. Someone e-mailed me today telling me that their mother had left them a three bedroom house in Kitsilano (nice beachy area in Vancouver) which was fully furnished, and that if I agreed to paint the place and make it presentable, I could rent the whole house for the maximum rent that I'd said I could pay. I wrote back and asked to see the house, and I'm hoping that if I agree to do some flooring/carpeting as well he might reduce the rent a bit more. We shall see..... let's hope it doesn't sound too good to be true!!

Computer hassles

Yesterday was spent fighting with the computer. For some reason it decided to freeze on me whenever I was using the internet, and the usual remedy of ctrl+alt+del didn't even bring the processes box up onto the screen. Much turning off at the power switch and some panicking. But then I discovered that Compaq has a neat little messenger-type chat facility going on their website. And after some discussion with a nice Compaq support technician who was allegedly called 'Jane' (I'm sure they don't use their real names) the problem seems to have fixed itself. There was a minor blip when I found that the scroll facility on the touch pad wasn't working, but one quick e-mail later, and a reply within two minutes, and that's fixed too. So thank goodness for the powers of messenger programs :o)

Of course now that I've got this all fixed, I didn't get sent any work today. This seems to have been a particularly lean week for work, and hence for money. The good news is that I haven't spent anything since I made my vow to be frugal the other day, and I still have the $25 in my wallet. And it's a nice day, so I'm going to go jogging later. Hoorah!

Denise and I got excited last night when Greg told us that the program he was interviewed for would be on in the evening. However, we soon discovered that it was actually only on in America, since the History Channel doesn't deem Canada good enough to give us their programming. So we're still waiting. I have e-mailed them to ask when it's going to be shown here, but they haven't got back to me yet (they need to take a leaf out of Compaq's book I feel). So we are still Greg-less here :o( Although I don't feel that I can match Greg's fame, since his is based on actual knowledge whereas mine is based on boredom, the film I was in in January is on tonight. I was cheered by catching sight of myself (well, my head) in the trailer for it last night, beating on the side of a phone box and nearly losing my very silly woolly hat in the process. I can hear fame calling as I write. Not.

The gardener and the man who's meant to be demolishing the deck have both arrived, since the weather is nice today. The circular saw has just started up. It's going to be one of those days.....

The passing of a great man

Today we watched as the world mourned for Pope John Paul II. Although I have no religion, I appreciate a lot of the things that the Pope has done over the last quarter century, and it was touching to watch the thousands of mourners who came to the Vatican City to pay tribute to his acheivements. This was in stark contrast to the appearance of George Bush, who we swiftly turned off in favour of another channel not showing his halting attempt to say something good about a person who wasn't American. He didn't quite manage to ruin a solumn occasion, thankfully.

Today I made a pledge to only spend the $25 that remains in my wallet during April. After a recent withdrawal of money from the bank machine, during which my balance was revealed to me, I have been shocked into doing something about my current not-well-off situation. Other than paying Denise for concert tickets I still owe her for, and going out with her Uni friends when they finish their comps, I am spending no money this month. I have to pay rent, and I have to pay my car insurance, and I can't afford to spend anything else. So how long can I go for on $25? We shall see, gentle reader, we shall see.

We did however go to the Army and Navy store in town today, where I bought three tops for $10, a good deal I'm sure you'll agree. And a cooler bag for when my parents come over here, for $5. I think these were fair purchases, and they didn't need much guilt feeling to atone for them. I have enough clothes to be quite happy over the summer now. The rest of the day has been some work, some tv, and some searching for apartments. I don't know why I am bothering to do this now, when I don't have to rent somewhere else until the 1st of June, but I always like to start early with searching for accommodation. Here it seems that people only advertise for the next month however, so I am going to have to wait for another few weeks before I can really find somewhere that will rent to me. Let's hope that all the good places haven't gone by then. I did find an extremely nice penthouse share today, right by the bay, with a 2000 square foot deck (I kid you not, the entire roof of the building) and a massive interior, for $750. The downside? This is shared with a guy who is the CEO of a web design/internet consultancy company (I looked him up) and he has 27 years of experience, so he must be about 50. I just don't think I can have a housemate who is a CEO and is approaching my father's age. This may be unfair, but I want to have somewhere that my parents can come to in July, and my friend Liz can come to in September. And a penthouse suite with a 50 year old roommate just doesn't work for me. A pity, cos the place looks fantastic....... And so, I keep searching...... housemates needed!! Apply below.......