I have always been intrigued by people who choose long or complicated commutes to work. When I lived in France I commuted on a packed urban train for what should have been 45 minutes but door to door was more like 90+, including time spent waiting at cold and over-crowed metro platforms. It was a battlefield to force myself onto the train and I am surprised I didn’t lose a limb to the doors, fighting the masses to climb aboard…
I really do not understand why so many people this summer have assumed I am Australian. It’s one thing to be unsure and ask, it’s even ok to guess and get it wrong but why do people insist on making casual references to Australia in conversation, leaving me utterly confused and feeling as though I have to almost apologise to them for the fact that they have jumped to the wrong conclusion? One such offender decided to strike up conversation with me…
Last weekend was Labour day weekend, marking the end of the summer holiday season and the last long weekend before the hard labour really begins. I’ll be cutting back my hotel hours and spending many of my days supply-teaching in the local schools. With the extra day off this weekend my brother and his girlfriend decided to do as the Mainland West-Coast locals do and hop on a ferry across to the island for some family time, although I’m convinced…
A Postal Project For many years I have enjoyed the art of letter writing to keep in touch with friends back home while I am living abroad, or to maintain contact with new friends I have met on my travels. In today’s uber connected world I find the instantaneity of email, text, messenger, snapchat, whatsapp, etc.. overwhelming to say the least. Often I am busy when a message comes through so I skim-read it with intentions of replying later, but…
There is nothing quite like a storm when you live by the ocean. Admittedly our little piece of the ocean is often so calm it could be mistaken for a lake but on days like to day it comes alive. We have had rain non-stop for almost four days straight and I have been anticipating the storm since day one when the ocean turned steely grey, reflecting the clouds above and every now and again the wind picked up, creating…
Shortly after arriving in my new home on Vancouver Island, I was fortunate enough to fall into a job at the local animal shelter, replacing my sister who has returned to university to study veterinary medicine. She has a natural gift for dealing with animals so was in her element. It’s safe to say that I am not quite as comfortable in my new position. It’s not that I don’t like animals. I do. We have quite a menagerie at…
This is my first official blog post on the new site, so welcome. Welcome to anyone just stopping by and especially to any readers who have followed me across from my old Blogger blog. I promise this website is going to be bigger, brighter and better! I have imported many of the old blogposts which is why this doesn’t appear as the first post. I’d like to say it’s for the benefit of anyone joining who might be interested in…
As usual months have passed since the last entry but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been a rollercoaster. First I was going to write something inspiring (at least to me) around Christmas time and the season of ‘good will’ and joy and happiness… then I was of course going to restart blogging on the 1st of January to be symbolic of the new year but naturally I put it off and failed in one of my resolutions on day one;…
Overlooking much of central Winnipeg is the statue of Eternal Youth, holding his beacon of light above the city to remind us that age is just a number and we can remain young at heart. It’s almost a paradox after the harsh Winter we faced in Winnipeg this year, that Eternal Youth is often said to be granted to the inhabitants of Paradise. It does however seem that with the arrival of June, the summer is at last approaching, the…
It has been so long since I last sat down to write. I know I promised great things to anyone that actually reads my blog and failed to deliver on all accounts. It would be wonderful if I could at least say it was because I was busy writing my dissertation but as I said, it has been ages since I last sat down to write anything at all. So here we are already 22 days into another new year…