You may have boticed I added some links. Keri Shields & Shannon Courtney (university friends, Keri was also my Irish partner in crime) have just moved to Edinborough (how the hell do you spell that?), Scotland and are up to wild and crazy things. So when you long on and realize I haven't been bother to write in a month, instead of getting angry/worried/excited, click on their links and see how good people keep in touch and write of their adventures.

Yeah whatever, you girls will fade too. No one's that dedicated. Not unless they're a big dork. Right Chadine?

I have 15 minutes.

Not that I've been writing a lot, but when I have, this new blogger format has been losing my words of genius. Any others having this problem?

I guess that's my form of an apology. But it's not even sincere. And I'm okay with that. No, I'm not going to write any emails today either.

The past week I've been so busy with going away parties... (farewells) Greg & Scott left on Wednesday (finally, after a week of festivities!) so Saturday we went for a movie and obligatory pint (Troy, it was total fromage but entertaining), Sunday we cooked a HUGE roast dinner for 10 (I was banned to dish duty) that was spectacular! It was food that could bring a boy home from Kosovo (maybe even Yerevan). Monday a late "pudding" (dessert, which was pie & custard but they call the whole event pudding. Talk about let's confuse the Canuck!) and a few drinks and round of pool. Tuesday (their real last night!) we (appropriately) went to see Bon Voyage at the Arts Centre (French flick, highly entertaining) and for a drink. This was the best part of my whole week - I found Bulmers, my absolute favourite cider! Life is good.

By Wednesday I could hardly function i was so tired, so last night we got take away curry and a few bottles of wine and celebrated Posh's last night (a frequent Foley Tower-er). I still don't know his real name, but all were entertained by the idea of having dinner with Posh and Becks (read the British tabloids for further explanation).

But today the real excitement - I drove to work! I feeling like I'm living in Upside down bizzaro world. And realized that I have yet to use my rear view mirror (it's to the left!). Changing gears with my left hand is also a challenge (I give the clutch a month) but overall it's good. I made Cat parallel park it when we were downtown tonight because I just can't guage where the car is yet, but it's getting more normal by the mile. All is good.

1 minute to go...

I wrote that last post yesterday but it wouldn't publish, in case any of you are confused by the date. Sorry I haven't been writing much but without regular access to the internet, it just doesn't become a priority most days. Therefore I am trying to add Keri & Shannon's links so you can have steady reading! These are 2 university friends (Keri was also my partner in crime in Ireland) who have just moved to Edinburough, Scotland for the next undetermined amount of time.

Last night we decided to give our livers a break and went to see Troy. Brad is beautiful but that is the biggest bit of blockbuster cheese! It's entertaining yes, but so many parts that people we laughing out loud at the cheesiness. Anyway, the weirdest part of it all was that the theatre had assigned seats! What? It was only 2/3 full so Greg & I snuck over to the other side so we were in the middle. Of course, as luck would have it, people came in and those were their seats so they made us move! There were loads of other places but I guess everyone follows this rule closely here. So bizarre. We snuck to different seats then and almost got chucked out of them too! Again I was with a bunch of Brits and they found the assigned seating completely normal. I was not prepared. I didn't enjoy. Picking your seat is a big part of the movie-going experience. Don't take that away from me.

Of course we had to stop off and visit Gemma at the Irish pub she works at on the way home (it would be rude not to) but it was an early-ish night (finally!). Tonight we're making a roast dinner for about 10 people which will be sooooooo nice. Thankfully Pete & Kathy were taking me in and giving me a nice home cooked meal for a few weeks, but we all were absolutely drooling at the thought of doing a nice roast. I think I'm on choppong/wash up duty and will be kept away from the actual responsibilities of cooking (sweet!). I'm already hungry at the thought and it's hours away yet.

Good news this week - learned I can stay at Doorways for the next month! Yeah for employment! Yeah for challenging work! Yeah for fun co-workers! Yeah for a paycheck!

Aren't weekends supposed to be for resting? I'm exhausted and it's only Saturday afternoon!

Another action packed week in the life of me. Not really, but on Wednesday Scott, Pam & Beck landed back in Chch for a few days. We headed down to the "local" (the pub nearest the hostel that is really only visited by locals and away from the "strip") Harringtons. They brew their own really good beer there (no preservatives supposedly means no hangover) so we decided to sample. Made friends with the bartender who used to live in Alberta and was wary of a table full of Islanders! Also ate the most incredible nachos ever. Unreal.

Thursday night Scott & Greg (the Scotsmen) made us (Roz, Gemma & I - last of the long termers) a lovely dinner, which we decided to supplement with some Harringtons brew. Beck, Pam & Scott arrived after dinner as did Anne & Sol, friends of Gemma's and we had a such a pleasant evening just sitting around gabbing. Lots of laughs! Last night one of the customer service reps celebrated his last day by having us all to a pub for a few drinks. I knew I was becoming a local at Haringtons when the bartender, checking id's at the door knew me. He was confused by the fact that I was not just a travller and of all places, worked at J&G. (I'm still at the door place). Turns out he's a builder and knows the whole lot of them really well. Small town, feeling more like home every day!

So after a mere 5 hours there, I headed back to the hostel to meet up with the rest of our gang to enjoy Scott & Greg's last night out. It was a fab night that easily turned into a great morning. (Insert nod of understanding as to the incoherence of this post here). A few (and I only mean few) hours sleep and Gemma, Anne & I wandered the city this afternoon, shopping, eating and just Saturday-ing. Tonight will be quiet... I hope.

Really no exciting adventure stories, but, as I hope you're all coming to see, this is just normal life but in a different place. Well living in a hostel isn't exactly normal, but you get what I mean. I'm learning and experiencing new things every day, but most of that is about either doors and the building trade at work or people and new friends at home. I know about as much about Chch now as I did when I got here 6 weeks ago (6 weeks!!!) and that's totally cool. Some of you have said about how you find the whole idea of coming here scary. No way man. Once you're far enough away from home that you couldn't just pick up and visit on a whim, it doesn't matter how far away you are. Obviously (with effort) it's easy enough to keep in touch. In my eyes, I don't see much of a difference between living here or in Toronto distance-wise.

Okay there's a guy coughing and gagging at the computer next to me and I'm going to vomit if he does it one more time. I have to go.