Walking in a winter wonderland is actually quite fun if you are rugged up, have decent boots on and keep your wits about you. Watching people trying to get their cars over the snowbanks also provides endless amusement, and can be a good way to get some community spirit if you help push a car on its slippery way. It really makes me wonder why people living in this city would have a car without the luxury of a garage, it seems far more trouble than it is worth. Sure, I have to walk to the metro station, pretty much strip naked when I venture down as the temperature is so much warmer in there, pay through the nose for the privilege of using public transport (at 26 I am too old to be considered a student) and endure some terrible busking but anything has got to be better than scraping tonnes of ice of your car before trying for ages to bust over the snowbank, only to get stuck in more snow at the next corner.

Prior to clearing the streets of snow here, a vehicle goes down the street with a loud siren to warn people the snow clearing machines are coming and they need to move their cars. Any cars not moved are then towed to the nearest cleared street, so it's like a game of hide and seek when you need to use your car again if you didn't hear the siren. Just hope it's not when you are having to rush to the pharmacy for immodium or something.

Um yes well to use that segue, I have fully recovered from my stomach bug and am back to my full eating prowess and gym regime. Just as well, as the first of many Christmas dinners/lunches is tomorrow night. It's actually at a restaurant famous for its amazing steaks, but luckily they also have a "salmon slab" on the set menu so I won't be stuck eating bread and vegies. I'm curious to see just how large a slab of salmon is. It better not be more 'slice' in nature.

Speaking of food, what a surprise, my pudding seems to be doing just fine. Well, at least I assume it is and Oli hasn't actually eaten it and covered the bowl back up again. I told him in very clear terms what I would do to him if anything untoward were to happen to the pudding, so I think this is unlikely. He told me my language was more becoming of the prostitutes down on St-Catherines than a young lady like myself.

Given the cold weather we've been having lately and the fact our apartment is old and draughty, all our windows are now covered in insulating plastic. I did mine tonight, which basically involves putting double sided tape around the window frame, sticking the plastic to that, and then using a hair dryer to shrink the plastic so it is taut. My bedroom window faces the street, and as I was drying the plastic I wondered what it must look like from down there, watching some crazy girl blow drying her window. We'll see how effective it is when I need to get out of bed tomorrow morning I guess. It is getting a little more difficult now to will myself out of bed and to the gym, but with the power of my morning banana, good tracky dacks and some interesting podcasts, anything is possible.

Before I go, I must give an honourable mention to my fabulous sister for cutting all the "Matthew Pavlich Pre-Season Diary" clippings out of the paper and posting them to me (along with some amazing disappearing chocolates). I can now stick them up on the wall to help launch me out of bed in the morning - with banana, trackies, podcasts and Pav I can achieve anything. Even in minus 25 degrees.

The sun is shining

Oh yes it is, in more ways than one! Not only have the clouds buggered off for at least the next 5 minutes, I also seem to finally be almost over the disgusting stomach bug that has laid me low since Tuesday. I actually ate a grownup size breakfast this morning, and hopefully I can continue this exciting trend throughout the day.

I also seem to have finally finished the next round of edits for my paper and once I find somewhere in town I can scan the copyright form, I'll be able to submit it. The tradition in the lab I'm in at UdeM is to bring in a bottle of wine to share at lunch when you get a paper published (which actually means we drink wine at lunch more often than not) but given my lack of publishing prowess at this stage of my career I may need to bring one in just to celebrate submitting one. I shared one of my precious packets of Tim Tams with the lab last week, educating everyone in the joys of doing a Tim Tam Slam.


My big super expensive to post parcel arrived in Geraldton - MINUS ONE PRESENT!!! Damn quarantine stole Dave's birthday present. He's not very impressed. They let him keep the wrapping though, so he can still pretend he's got something to open :(

Yes well, less than a month to go until Christmas now, it has snuck up on us yet again. I may get around to making the Christmas pudding this weekend, now that I've kinda sorta managed to source all the things I need for it. Finding a pudding basin proved impossible! Apparently puddings just aren't really done in North America. Anas even took me to this crazy restaurant supply shop that is a massive warehouse filled with anything you could possibly think of needing in a restaurant. From the teeny tiniest pan to a gigantic pot you could cook up a few quarantine officers in. So I am making do with a stainless steel mixing bowl for a pudding basin, should do the trick.

He lives!

For all you non-believers out there, prepare to have your world rocked. And rolled.

A few weeks ago Oli contacted Bell as our internet speed was a bit dismal, and so they sent someone around to sort it out. The guy mainly dealt with Oli but after a while they came into my room to get me to test the connection after they'd done some magic with the line.

The Bell guy used my laptop to go to Youtube, found the following clip, and told me to watch it and we would discuss it after he'd returned from his van.



So I watched it, then waited with bated breath for the impending conversation. Apparently the Bell guy's brother in law was in Acapulco years ago, and met a guy that they got to talking to pretty regularly. He started to suspect that this guy was Elvis, and so he sent a photo of him to a facial analysis professional, asking him to draw what he would look like 40 years ago. The facial analysis guy did so, and contacted him back saying "I drew Elvis Presley!" and thus the suspicion was confirmed! Elvis was apparently hanging out in Acapulco with a girlfriend, and so the brother in law also asked the facial analysis guy to draw what the girlfriend would have looked like 40 years ago, and he ended up drawing Elvis' secretary from 40 years ago!

So this guy ended up making a documentary about all of this, which was shown at a film festival in Canada, but then Elvis' estate basically put a stop to it being shown anymore. They got silenced!

The whole time this guy was telling me this story (which I have given you the abridged version of) his stomach was grumbling terribly. Grumbling with injustice perhaps?

Lake Louise lived up to its reputation

Oh yes, it was good. Nay, superb. The lake, the glacier, the chateau, the snow, the conference, the people, all fantastic and energising and positive! And possibly a little cold, but you can't have everything. Days were filled with talks and eating far too many pastries, and nights were filled with drinking and eating and talking and socialising. We soon learned however that there was only one restaurant in the hotel that was even slightly affordable, The Saloon, which apparently has the "best dang burgers in town" but also seemed quite capable of churning out a tasty pizza and beer.

My big day was Thursday, as I had my presentation, and then had to dash up to my room to get changed for the "Clean Lakes Classic" 5km run around the lake (well, up one side and then back again). I'd been training for the run but was a little concerned about slipping over in the snow and tumbling into the lake, but it seems I should have actually been more concerned about being over 1700m above sea level. My lungs were pretty buggered by the end of it, and actually still felt a bit weird the next day. It was a good thing they had hot chocolate and granola waiting for us at the finish line!


We also had a banquet on Thursday night, which was quite good until the Parks Canada theatre group got on stage. Admittedly they came on following the World Champion Hoop Dancer who was incredible and a hard act to follow, but man they were bad. We suspect they were brought on to clear out the room, although it's unclear why they'd need to do that as they weren't actually putting on booze for us. We managed to hang on for a few of their skits but when the puppets came out and Shakespeare was being performed by a stuffed beaver we decided it was time to cut our losses.

The following night we went up (or down or whatever) to Banff to the hot springs, which was actually just like a heated (39 degrees) outside pool. It was kind of strange hanging out with a big pile of people in a hot pool in the middle of the cold cold night.


The next day was another organised excursion involving a tour up to the Columbia Icefields. Our bus driver was a bit of a legend, with many an entertaining tale to tell and he knew the area really well, but he managed to stick Cold Chisel in my head for the whole day as he kept mentioning Bow Lake and Bow River. We made it possibly half way to the icefields before the bus seemed to be having difficulties (the onboard computer said something was wrong) so we had to pull over so the driver could contact the mechanic. We ended up staying there for a couple of hours, waiting for a replacement bus to arrive, but this actually ended up working in our favour as we saw a big horny woolly sheep running on the road, and some beavers swimming around their dam which apparently is quite a rare site. We didn't get to spend enough time at the icefields to go up to the toe of the glacier but got to check it out from afar and not freeze too much.


Oh I also managed to pick up second place for best student presentation of the conference, yay me. Well, to be honest, apparently the prize was won by Connie Mills from UWA which is what my name turns into when a man with glasses is reading the slightly messy handwriting of another man who has also confusingly written "(female)" next to my name to prevent the first man from referring to me as male.

So now I'm back home in Montreal which has been enjoying maximums below zero lately and giving me an incentive to get my act together and buy a decent jacket. It is proving difficult however as I seem to have a preference for ridiculously expensive ones, so the quest continues as does my wearing of many layers of clothing which have to be taken off and put back on multiple times a day. I haven't been homesick yet (apart from one Friday night I found myself alone and got a bit forlorn) but I think that perhaps by the end of the year I'll be ready to head for warmer climes.

In simultaneously great and crap news, I posted the family Christmas presents off today and they should arrive in plenty of time seeing as the only possible posting option (apart from super slow surface yak delivery) for large parcels to Australia is ExpressPost which guarantees it will arrive in one week for the low low price of your first born and your spare kidney.

Coming up next time, you will hear the somewhat startling tale of the crazy internet repairman whose brother in law met Elvis...........in 1991!!!

It has been an action packed couple o' weeks, starting with seeing Madonna last last (22nd) Wednesday night!! That woman is 100% muscle, it's incredible what exercising 20 hours a day and refusing to eat anything tasty can do for you. The show started off very well with our ebay-purchased-tickets actually being proper legitimate tickets, and we were lucky enough to be quite close to the front (row H) although we were quite far around the side. We managed to get a few photos (although I appear to be very very bad at taking decent photos at gigs) despite the fact that we saw a few people getting into strife with security for taking photos (why can't we have strapping security guards at UT?). One of the guys sitting in front of us was dancing his absolute heart out, much to the dismay of his girlfriend who tended to sit down for the slower parts of the show and couldn't see anything when he continued to sway and thrust into her line of vision. I think however that her sadness really stemmed from the fact that she was beginning to realise neither of them could continue to deny the fact he would rather be going home with the guy sitting next to him.

Luckily I got myself back into some sort of Aussie frame of mind with both Ross and Jona visiting Montreal that week, because it was Aussie to the Maxxx on the Friday night at the 'Aussies in Montreal' event. There were flags, framed photos of our beloved historical figures (Bob Hawke, Scott & Charlene) and of course classic Oz rock. They had also organised a choice selection of Australian meals including an Aussie burger (with beetroot and egg and pineapple), fish & chips and even a good old pavlova. Unfortunately the pub seemed to think that noone in their right mind would eat any of this because during the course of the night they ran out of pretty much everything. Firstly the guys sitting at our table were told they had to wait 20 minutes for their burgers because the kitchen had run out of meat, only to be told later that in fact there would be no more burgers at all. Jona and I decided to go for the fish and chips, and after complaining about the stinginess of only getting about 5 chips each with our $14 meals we were told they had run out of chips. Jesus, it was the disappointment of no stuffed spuds at half time at Subi all over again. However we were told not to fear, we would receive some pavlova to make up for the chip shortage. Hurrah we cried! Pavlova! During our wait for dessert we heard that they had also run out of batter for the fish. I'm sure it will come as a surprise to read that in fact we did not enjoy some delicious pavlova, oh no, it had run out. We were however given some "apple dessert" which was some baked apples served with icecream, apparently the only two things left in the kitchen apart from a frazzled chef and a few tumbleweeds. A round of shots was also brought to our table to make up for the palaver (and pavlova). Oh, they also managed somehow to run out of beer glasses, and had to serve it in plastic cups.

Whilst all of this was going on, there was a trivia competition!!! Given my penchant for trivia and the fact I'm a big geek with a competitive streak I found time during the week to brush up on the state emblems and numberplate slogans etc. Of course as it always the case, nothing that I brushed up on came up in the quiz but........ we won!!! Decisively too I might add, despite the fact that the only Aussie know-how at our table were myself, Jona, and a Sydneysider (by the way, did you know the emblems of NSW are the Waratah, Kookaburra, Platypus and Blue Groper?). After divying up the loot I scored some timtams and a plush kangaroo stubby holder (made in China) and Jona got some vegemite and a Chokito (the rest included aeroplane jelly, another stubby holder, Cadbury animal choccies and some other stuff I can't remember). There was also a mighty fine Aussie care pack hamper up for grabs in a raffle, but I think the guy who spent $60 on raffle tickets ended up winning it.

Many beers later we somehow found ourselves eating poutine, before home to get some sleep in preparation for the train trip to Quebec City the next day.

Continuing in the great tradition of Jona and I madly dashing to catch some form of transport, the next day saw us running late for the train due to his phone dying in the arse and the wall clock at his hostel being an hour or two slow. We got there in in time though, and soon enough were on our way to Quebec City. When we arrived it was pissing with rain but we braved it to follow the culinary suggestions of the Lonely Planet and had a wonderful meal for our troubles.

Upon awaking the next day I was very happy to see the rain had stopped, given that we would be doing the tourist thing all day. After getting downstairs we were lucky enough to meet who we could only assume is the mother of the woman who runs the 'hotel' we were staying in. We were stuck talking to her for a while before the hotel woman came out and told her to bugger off (well, she said it in French but some things don't need translating) but the old woman insisted on opening the door for us first. A lovely gesture, if she hadn't closed it immediately after Jona had walked through it, trapping me in the door frame in the process. I think perhaps she was a few croissants short of a picnic.

The next couple of days saw us being very good tourists, seeing the sights recommended by my trusty Lonely Planet (including "one of the most interesting streets in the city" which was a shitty alleyway that used to be the red light district. Sadly these days it is home to some weeds and garages and a particularly fluffy white cat, we were somewhat disappointed by the lack of ladies of the night swinging their feather boas suggestively.

Our final morning in Quebec City was quite leasurely, and included enjoying a lovely four course lunch overlooking the St Lawrence River. Unfortunately, though not surprising, it was a tad too leisurely and we once again found ourselves madly dashing to catch our train. Thank god taxis are more plentiful in Quebec City than in our home town because otherwise we would have been stuck there eating escargot and pheasant legs for another day.

Just a little something I whipped up

Yay for weekends, they generally don't disappoint. Mine started off very nicely catching up with a friend, eating delicious falafel at a new middle eastern restaurant near my apartment and then heading up to the Mile End to be introduced to a bar I hadn't been to before. It was great, really nice decor, excellent music, and we got there just at the right time, getting a table before the hordes descended. I am in love with the service you get here. Generally bars have table service (and they come often to make sure you have enough to drink/have a clean table etc) and they seem to just trust that you'll pay up before you leave.

I wanted a white wine so I asked the barman for a dry white and he suggested a Riesling. I wasn't so sure about this, and I voiced as much, so he said something to me that I didn't quite catch before walking off. My friend didn't catch what he said either, so I just assumed that I'd pissed him off or something. But no, he returned seconds later with three bottles of wine and three glasses to let me taste the white wines they had on offer! Can you imagine this happening in a pub in Perth? I ended up choosing the Australian wine strangely enough, my palate must be biased.

The place soon became packed with people, quite a few interesting looking one that kept us entertained. One guy in particular kept grabbing my attention because he was the spitting image of the driving instructor in Happy Go Lucky, though fortunately did not seem to have his personality.

Saturday was spent in more domestic pursuits, baking for the big birthday party on Sunday. I think I ended up spending 8 hours or so pottering around in the kitchen, more time than really necessary due to the fact that I hadn't baked in my kitchen or using my oven before, plus was using new cake recipes. A recipe for disaster perhaps? Ho ho. The first new cake recipe I used was really not up to scratch and I was unhappy with the results so I busted out another using a different recipe which turned out beautifully! Unfortunately this recipe produced so much batter that I had to make it in a big soup pot as my kitchen is somewhat bowl deficient. The upside of the amount of batter meant that there was enough left over for muffins, much to the joy of my housemate.

The result of Saturday was therefore 3 cakes (one subpar and not to be used), 9 chocolate muffins with Oh Henry!s hidden in the middle (they are kind of like Picnics), 9 vanilla muffins with M&Ms and chocolate covered sultanas hidden in the middle with cinnamon icing, and 15 M&Ms mini vanilla muffins.


And here's a bonus shot of the rainbow mix in the tin because it seems to interest people!


The fun bit came the next day when I got to assemble and decorate the cake. Doing this at my place and then carrying it to party central seemed fraught with danger so I took all the bits and pieces with me to their place and did it there. Walking through the city with a big bag of groceries over each shoulder, bags of cake in each hand and three containers of muffins was a little tiring but given the amount of tasting I did the previous night it was probably for the best.

Here is part of the assembly:


and then I started to stress out a bit because I didn't think I'd get it done in time so I stopped taking photos. So, here's the finished product:


and the most exciting part, revealing the inner secrets:


I had a great time at the party, and got to meet quite a number of Karyne's family, who were all lovely people, and who have insisted that I spend Christmas with them. I think that a good old Aussie trifle will have to be made for the occasion. Mmmm jelly.

Myriam also seemed to enjoy herself which is the main thing, and of course by the end of the day had an impressive pile of gifts. Her favourite seems to be one of those tablet things that you draw on with a stylus and then can erase by sliding the knob across. Like an etch-a-sketch but with a stylus. She might graduate to the etch-a-sketch by next birthday.

(Kelly, don't read this next bit)
In other non-cake news, I seem to have bought tickets to see Madonna tomorrow night!!! So exciting. I've had Madonna songs in my head all week as I've been trawling ebay and craigslist for tickets. I am a walking Madonna megamix at the moment. I can only hope she doesn't let the whole impending divorce thing get in the way, but she doesn't seem like the kind of person to let a little thing like a personal life to get in the way of business.

'tis getting colder still here, and my super-dodgy forecastfox is telling me that tomorrow will bring "a morning rain or snow shower". Perhaps Madonna will bring snow with her, like it is snowing in her heart right now...

Autumn!

We went for a walk up "the mountain" last Sunday and were rewarded for our efforts with this view. We were hoping to be rewarded with pizza but it wasn't to be.

I had another success last night with meeting strangers off the internet. I joined the Meetup group called "Cheap Ethnic Eatz" and was able to look past the z and go to a vietnamese restaurant with them last night. I had a really good time, and it wasn't all due to the absolutely amazing fried ice cream. Goddamn, it was good. Like a big giant icecream wonton, smothered in orange syrup. A wonton suzette. Unfortunately this restaurant is about a 5 minute walk from my apartment so I am hoping the fried icecream won't be calling to me in my vulnerable hours.

I also joined the Aussies in Montreal meetup group and will be enjoying a beverage (possibly Fosters, hopefully Coopers) with them next Saturday. Apparently the night will involve trivia and a raffle, so fingers crossed I can pick myself up a nice meat tray or a jar of Vegemite.

Anyway, speaking of Aussies, I had best document my weekend in Kingston over the Grand Final weekend (coincidentally it was also the Queens University homecoming weekend which apparently is the biggest busiest weekend of the year). It is already a bit of a blurry memory, which is everything to do with the 3 weeks that have passed and nothing to do with the amount of alcohol consumed. The grand final actually started around 12:30am or so Fri night/Sat morn and conveniently was shown on Jona's cable so we didn't have to squint at the little screen with no sound at the Irish pub we frequented before the game started. We tried to get the Festival of the Boot going online but JJJ decided for some reason not to play it live online this year and we were stuck with Bruce and Dennis.

Fosters was drunk, I will admit. Many many anzac biscuits were consumed however (we had a drinking game style thing going for a while where you had to eat a biscuit if your team got a goal but it was an unsustainable endeavour) which I think makes up for the Fosters embarrassment. The cans of Fosters are actually something like 750mL which is ridiculous, it's bad enough drinking 375mL from a can let alone a longneck's worth of beer.

Of course the next day got off to a bit of a seedy start but this was soon sorted out with a massively calorie dense fryup breakfast and a mad run through the city to get down to catch a boat which we missed by 10 minutes. Yes, nothing like a huge feast followed immediately by a crazed run to sort out a hangover. After checking out the nearby ChiliFest we managed to get on the next boat and had a glorious cold, wet journey through Lake Ontario, resisting the urge to get a hotdog just to see how bad they really were (plus we had coupons for a free postmix drink with any hotdog purchase!). Throughout the trip they played a recording telling you about the sights, which involved a woman telling you things and a Scottish man interjecting (he was apparently the ghost of some historically significant man, and judging from his voice was related to Sean Connery). Oh the witty repartee, it was all I could do to stop flinging myself over the rail, grabbing a hotdog on the way.

After the trip we walked through ChiliFest again, thinking it was some magical festival where you walk around getting free food. We lined up and were given some corn chips and asked for our cups, only to realise that you are given the cups for the chilli when you pay at the front gate. We showed them though - we didn't pay and we kept the free corn chips! Ate them all! It was actually a charity event though so the only people that suffered from our stinginess is the war orphans or whoever it was.

The hours to come involved drinking giant coffees, eating our weight in delicious Greek food, and then getting stuck into the crazy party night of Queens Homecoming Saturday night.

I'm quite fond of this photo, what with the "No man, seriously, I love you!" guy and the brainsucking hand of the guy to the right. Actually, both of these guys are dressed the same...maybe they are the same guy?!?!!!

In a nutshell, it was a mad mad night of thousands of drunk hooligans roaming the streets. I have never seen so many police in my life, it was nuts. My shoes were filthy by the end of the night, I'm not sure why though, possibly it was just the filth of youth. Fun was had into the wee hours, then sleep called as I was all too aware of the train trip home I had to make the next day.

So all in all it was a most enjoyable weekend and I am very grateful to my gracious host, thanks Jona, the boat trip wasn't all that bad ;)

I'm partying it up BIG TIME this weekend with Myriam's 2nd birthday party, man it's going to be wild! As many artificial colours as the eye can see, enough tea to knock you out. Actually I'm in charge of making the birthday cake and I'm quite looking forward to my first foray into cake decorating. If all goes according to plan I will be posting photos of an amazing cake and a very happy 2 year old in a few days. If not then there are lots of good boulangeries/pattiseries around these parts so I could always cheat (oh but you know I won't).

Oh, and one last thing, Australia was in the news here today as there was such a pissweak turnout in the federal election here on Tuesday that there are talks of bringing in compulsory voting. John Howard was in the news lately too as apparently Harper (the PM here) ripped off some of one of his speeches, nice taste there Harper. Anyway Harper is still the PM but I'm glad the election is finally over so I'm not constantly having to avoid eye-height cable ties holding election signs to poles. Some of the graffiti on the signs was funny though. Oh, speaking of graffiti, here's a nice picture to bid you adieu

Comments

Just to let you know I've changed the settings so anyone can post comments as I need to store them up for the cold winter ahead. Hopefully this won't attract unsavoury types (actually, that's an odd saying...surely an unsavoury person is sweet?)

Cor blimey it's cold!

Right then, autumn is here. And it's colder than a Perth winter. Not all that surprising really, but still a bit of a shock to the system. I am conscious of keeping warm whilst not being too ridiculously rugged up in comparison to everyone else. I don't think I'm embarrassing myself too much. I haven't had to bring out the big guns, my thermal pants, I'm trying to keep them in reserve for when the actual real proper winter comes.

As someone who for the past few years has consistently gotten sick multiple times every autumn I am super happy to have two autumns and no spring this year! Of course being aware of this phenomenon I have stocked up on vitamins and minerals and echinacea and all the good stuff but keep forgetting to take them. Actually, excuse me while I go squirt some echinacea under my tongue...

Things seem to be on the up now though, and today I finally felt well enough to go join a gym. There is one just around the corner from my apartment, so I went and signed up and had my first proper training session for MONTHS. It is going to take a bit of work to get myself back to where I was before I left Perth! The machines are a little bit confusing because I am used to working with kilometres, not miles, so I fired up the treadmill to what I would normally run in km/hr but I quickly realised that it was miles/hr.

So yes, my new apartment, I'm finally here! I moved last Wednesday, and was lucky enough to scam a lift so I didn't have to traverse the plateau with my suitcases in the rain. The guy whose room I am in actually left me all his bedding and manchester stuff so I don't have to borrow/buy any of that stuff which is great. Also left all his books in his bookcase and CDs on his shelf, but while he has a decent taste in music he is also well and truly a francophone so the books aren't all that useful. Other strange things in the room include an old typewriter, a light table (good if I need to bring some plankton home for counting?), an old school sewing machine, a scary mask and some precision electronic scales. So it seems I am living in the bedroom of an author with a penchant for photography who moonlights as a masked drug dealer (complete with home made costume).

So far I am really enjoying living here, and getting on really well with my new housemate. He even made me soup the other night in my sickened state, so that has to be a good sign. The place is a bit cold and old but with all the busted arse rental houses I've lived in over the years I will certainly manage. The area is just so good. In less than a minute I can be at my local dépanneur (like a corner store/deli, but it sells alcohol too), and in five minutes walk I can pretty much buy anything, including very famous smoked meat.

I fought through my manky cold the other night and went to see Hot Chip at Metropolis, which is a pretty cool venue in a slighty dodgy part of town. Even in the slightly dodgy parts of town though you still feel safe as there always seems to be enough not-so-dodgy looking people around to counteract the dodgy vibe. It was actually my very first time at going to a gig solo, as a miscommunication between myself and the friend I was meant to be going with meant she ended up in Quebec City that night (just to clarify, the miscommunication didn't involve me telling her to meet me in Quebec City). I had already bought my ticket and really wanted to see them so I went on my lonesome and it was actually still a good night. Going to a gig alone means that you don't have to worry about where anyone else wants to stand, and it's much easier to find room to dance down the front amongst the crowds when you only have to find enough room for one person.


The following night my friend who ended up in Quebec City took me out for tapas and flamenco (watching, not doing) at a really nice little tapas place. This place has flamenco on Thursday nights, unlike the Spanish Club down the road which has it on Wednesdays, so they don't compete against each other. We dined on rich chorizo, huge baked sardines, and fried goats cheese balls served with honey and caramelised onions, yummm. The flamenco and band were great, and by the end of the night I had convinced myself I was going to take up flamenco dancing. It seems like something I could do, or at least have fun getting dressed up for. When we got back to my friend's car there was a smallish rubbish bag sitting on the windscreen. We gingerly picked it off and threw it on the footpath, but curiosity got the better of us and we spent the next five minutes trying to open it without really touching it, and giggling. Could it be cash? A human hand? After finally busting through the bag, we could spy the contents.... another rubbish bag. After playing this rubbish pass the parcel for another layer we were very disappointed to discover the next bag held some old newspaper.

Walking home from the gym tonight I realised that I am now living very close to a big sports bar (the one I was going to watch the footy GF if I didn't end up going to Kingston) so I will have to go suss out the cricket watching possibilities at some stage. Ah yes, Kingston, I have yet to discuss this weekend of boozing and cops and thousands of drunk hooligans and Greek food and snoring and chilifest and stupid girls on trains and of course the footy. Perhaps I will elaborate next time..

Meh it was bound to happen..

Yep, all of a sudden it was Autumn. And just as suddenly I found myself sick with a cold. Coincidence? Perhaps. Actually I think I know the moment when the cold infiltrated my cell walls. I was on a late night walk around the streets of Montreal last Wednesday, and it was quite a cold night. We walked into a jazz bar to check it out (it was really cool, I think I've found my local jazz hangout of choice) and it was about 20 degrees warmer inside. The sudden change of temperature coupled with the distraction of the music tricked my immune system just long enough to let the virus inside, and the next morning all was confirmed.

Luckily I didn't have to go through the same experience here as I did when I first got sick in Sweden, and had to ride my bike through the icy autumn wind to the hospital as it had the only pharmacy open on a Sunday, only to find that their arsenal of cold & flu medication consisted of some lame herbal tablets. Getting the good stuff is easy here and I was soon filled with pseudoephedrine and painkillers and some echinacea for good measure.

I have started ausifying everyone at uni by making anzac biccies (with macadamia nuts) for them last week. Finding golden syrup in the supermarket took me a while - it wasn't in the same place as the honey, it was in the syrup section! I'm glad I at least figured that out eventually without having to ask someone. I've also sussed out the ingredients for vanilla slice so I'll be busting some of those out soon too. I didn't go poking through the cupboards of my soon-to-be-apartment when I checked it out, so I'm curious (and a little apprehensive) about the kitchen supplies. I did at least notice that it had an oven and fridge so that's a start I guess.

Oh I forgot to talk about the Tam Tams last time. They are held in the Parc du Mont-Royal (at the mountain that gives Montreal it's name) every Sunday during summer, and beyond, if the weather is good. It's not actually organised by anyone in particular, everyone just rocks up and has a good time. Tam-tams is the word for hand drums like djembes, and basically it's just lots of people playing drums and dancing and relaxing. We need something like this in Perth.

Wanted: Star proposal writer

Actually instead of getting someone to write my proposal for me, which would actually be completely useless, I really just want that ability that Kim Basinger's character had in "My Stepmother is an Alien" and be able to read things super fast.

I've found an apartment! It wasn't the one that I had pinned my hopes on in my last post, but I think it's actually better than that one. I'll be subletting it from a guy who is going to Vancouver for a few months, and he'll be leaving all his furniture for me to use. The timing works out almost perfectly, and the fact that it is fully furnished saves me a lot of messing around with getting dodgy secondhand stuff. The room is gigantic, plus I get an office. The place has a few typical rental property weird things going on with it, for instance there is no basin in the bathroom. Very strange. But it's on "Avenue de l'Hotel-de-Ville". That's way cooler than Osborne Street.

I forgot to mention in my previous posts that I have driven on the wrong side of the road!! I did quite a lot of driving in Ontario actually. It took a bit of getting used to, particularly as I was driving a massive van, but I got the hang of it pretty quickly. Always had to keep alert though, not like at home when I find myself suddenly at work or at home with no real recollection of having driven there.

Another girl from UWA is in Montreal at the moment, working in the same lab as me at the university, and it's been great having her here and imparting all my knowledge about Montreal, ho ho. I think in the 4 days she's been here she's seen twice as much of the place as I have. I must make sure I get off my arse and do the tourist things before I suddenly have no time left. Plus I haven't managed to hunt down a cheesy tourist shop to get some postcards, so forgive me if you've been eagerly waiting for a RCMP postcard from me, it may well be coming some time in the next 4 months..

I've started turning my thoughts to Halloween. Yes, already. It's not my fault, they've been selling Halloween crap in the shops for ages now! I just can't decide on who to dress up as though, it's a tough decision! And quite important. I mean, who knows how many more years I'll have to wait to celebrate it properly again? I've narrowed my choice down to either Carmen Sandiego, Birdgirl from Harvey Birdman or Superted. Do I want to wear a hat, a mask or a cape?

I registered for the Lake Louise conference and bought my flights for it yesterday. Over $1000 later (with accommodation still to be paid) and I'm set to go. I also signed up for the "Clean Lakes Classic 5km Run/Walk/Snowshoe Shuffle" which is held during the conference, but think my esteemed SESE colleagues may not be joining me on this. Wimps. Though I am slightly concerned about running a route that can also be snowshoed. Perhaps I will need some cleats. Or chains.

Things I'm learning about Canada

Entrees here are called appetisers ("appies", if you will, ugh) or starters, and mains are called entrees. The first menu I looked at caused me great confusion... where were the mains?

The 10 cent piece is smaller than the 5 cent piece. This is just silly.

Sultanas are called raisins. Sultana is a brand of raisin here apparently.

You can turn right when you have a red light, except when you are in the city of Montreal.

A biscuit is a cookie and scone is a biscuit.

If you say "seeya later" here apparently people take you literally.

Before you get too excited about the price of food on any menu, add on tax and a tip.

They are behind us with the Doctor! Sucked in Canada.

There is lots of awesome food here, much to my joy and dismay. Self control, where are you?

You can't escape Aussies anywhere. They have spread the length and breadth of the globe.

Three weeks of madness

My field work in Ontario is over and I am now beginning to feel human and awake again after a few days of recovery back in Montreal. It was a crazy few weeks, consisting primarily of either preparing for, doing, or recovering from the field. It all came to a head during the 24 hour sampling period, which began at 8:15am last Wednesday, and finished at 8:00am Thursday. We were lucky enough to have quite mild weather for the whole period, but I still managed to wear 7 layers of clothing at night (singlet, two shirts, three jackets and a rain coat). I wasn't cold :)

To give you an idea of what we were doing, here's a movie showing what needed to be done every 15 minutes (actually it's just a bit of what needed to be done, but a movie showing the whole process would be even less exciting):


The mosquitoes were out in force for a couple of hours in the evening but amazingly I didn't get bitten. I suspect it was due to the thick layer of sunscreen and dirt covering my exposed skin. Bats also made an appearance later in the night, but I only managed to catch a glimpse of one. I also managed to catch a glimpse of this strange monster (I have to mention this was at something like hour 20 of 24).

We were well looked after in the food department, with a huge cooler bag of sandwiches/fruit/cookies/muesli bars etc packed by yours truly. The highlight however was getting pizza and a thermos of hot coffee delivered by Jen during the night. The thermos was new, and has a little compartment where you can put milk in case one person wants milk and the other doesn't. The compartment seemed a bit dodgy however, and the milk spilt out a little if you weren't careful at keeping the thermos upright (hard to do in a a crowded boat). I eventually got sick of this so decided to just drink some coffee and use up the milk, but when I opened up the compartment there was no milk left, it had all spilt out. Typical.

So now the field work is over and I am back in Montreal, searching for somewhere to live and trying to finish writing my proposal. I'm not sure which is the more difficult or annoying task. Have looked at a few apartments now. The first one was really nice but too expensive, the second was a bit of a dive and the guy kept talking to my chest, the third was a dump but in a cool area (and Leonard Cohen would be my neighbour!!) but the fourth actually was great and the people seem really nice and I'm crossing my fingers and hoping to hear from them.

Hello madness

I am currently in hour 23 of a 24 hour study period on the lake, and unless I am hallucinating the internet I seem to have found an unsecured wireless network in the middle of the lake. Weird.

Will write more once I am on solid ground and have showered and slept. Ahh sweet sleep, I will be yours soon.

Water, water everywhere

Before the field work begins in earnest and I am even more tired than I currently am, Anas had the brilliant idea to go to Niagara Falls for the weekend. A hearty breakfast is of course required before any road trip, and there is none heartier than that offered at "Fresh Kutz". I was told that I had to try Peameal Bacon, so try it I did. I ordered two poached eggs with peameal bacon, which came with two pieces of bacon. This may indeed seem stingy, until you realise the size of these pieces. Imagine the main piece of a rasher of bacon, and then imagine it being two centimetres thick. Like a steak. A bacony steak.

We then went to the Bracebridge Farmer's Market and picked up a supply of Austrian cakes and pastries for the journey, and we were off! The drive to Niagara took quite a while as the traffic was bad, but we handled this difficulty with Linzer Torte, cinnamon buns and a poppyseed roll. We had booked ourselves into the Travelodge in St Catharine's, a town not too far from Niagara Falls, earlier that morning. After finally finding the motel (we were mistakenly looking for "Comfort Inn" instead of "Travelodge"), we checked in and discovered that the card keys to Anas' room did not work. After telling this to the person working the front desk, she came and tried them too before agreeing that they did not work. Apparently the machine to make new cards had died in the arse so she decided to give Anas her card to use to get into his room. I will return to this saga shortly..

Anyway, we dumped our things and drove to Niagara Falls, marvelling at the hordes and hordes of cars and tourists and paying $20 for parking. We then went exploring for a couple of hours, checking out the falls themselves (which Anas has seen countless times but which I was blown away by) and people watching.



We then enjoyed a buffet dinner at the top of the Skylon tower, overlooking the falls which by this stage had been illuminated by lights. As is expected at a buffet we ate possibly twice as much as necessary and so then went walking to explore the more cheesy parts of Niagara Falls, the main streets and shopping areas. Filled with flashing lights, haunted houses, fudge shops, souvenir shops, Cuban cigar shops, more haunted houses, Starbucks everywhere, it was both mesmerising and horrifying. It was like being on Pleasure Island from Pinnochio (I'm sure I saw a few asses).

Once we'd had our fill of neon and sugar we made our way back to the hotel to rest up for another big day. Or so we thought (dun dun dun!). After arriving in Anas' room, where I had left my things as my room hadn't been cleaned yet when we checked in (at 5pm), we saw that he had a message on his phone. It was instructions to contact reception immediately. So off we went, to be told by the new person working the front desk that Anas should never have been given the other person's key, as it was a master key. We had assumed that this was the case but held ourselves back from ransacking everyone else's rooms. We were then told that Anas would have to come and ask to be let back into his room whenever he wanted to get into it, or he could just leave the door ajar. Despite being told how ridiculous this was, the woman refused to come to any other sort of arrangement and kept going on about how there was nothing else she could do, and how it was going to be quite inconvenient for her to keep opening his room for him.

The saga actually continues further but I can't be bothered going into it any further. One thing I will mention however is that breakfast was served using entirely disposable "crockery" and cutlery, which resulted in my bagel melting into my styrofoam plate.

Not letting the motel experience sour our moods, we headed into Niagara-on-the-Lake for a day of wine tasting and architecture perving. This is the area that is famous for ice wine, and I tried quite a few!! I am not usually a fan of sweet wines, but I really did enjoy some of these. It was a really lovely little town as well, filled with tourists but they were a bit more of your up market tourists when compared to the hordes in Niagara Falls. High
tea eaters and wine tasters. We found a few shops absolutely packed with jams and tapenades and dips and jellies, all with open jars and cut up bread or pretzels so you could taste everything. So we tasted everything. There was also some free entertainment, as there was one very hot chilli cheese spread that kept causing people to choke in shock.

After getting our fill of culture and wine and fudge we got back in the van and headed home to Bracebridge, spying this on the way..

Mister Peanut!

Welcome to Harp Lake, mind the plankton

I'm falling behind in my writing and have so much to write about but will start back with my day on the 14th, last week. I had my first introduction to Harp Lake where I will be doing my field work, and am pretty happy with it! Puzzlingly, there is an old sign on the road to the lake with "Aussies - Free Beer" written in fading writing, which I may have to further investigate when I have more time.

The main task for the day was installing the met. station buoy. The Canadian pronunciation of "buoy", booee, is invading my brain and I have started occasionally saying it like that in my head when I read it or think of it. I am turning into a Canadian and I've only been here two weeks. I think it is all the Tim Hortons coffee I've been drinking, and the wild blueberries I've been eating.

Anyway, installing the buoy involved going out to the deepest point in the lake, attaching ropes to four cinder blocks, throwing them over the side of the boat and attaching the other ends to the four corners of the buoy. It is very important however that the buoy is as stationary as something in the middle of a lake can be, which means that the ropes attaching the buoy to the cinder blocks have to be as taut as possible. This is turn means that someone needs to be in the water, making sure the ropes are located well and nice and tight. Given that this is my study, this person was me. For your enjoyment, here is a very fetching shot of me trying to figure out the tangled ropes.

I'm so juvenile

Here is the promised funny picture. After enjoying a very tasty (and huge) seafood meal, Anas and I decided to share some dessert, ordering the gelato crepe. We couldn't help but laugh and take some photos when it came out..

Ontario, no moose yet

We have spent the past couple of days in Ontario, getting very excited about the field work we will hopefully be starting next week. The lab facilities here at the Dorset Environmental Science Centre are fantastic, and everyone has been very friendly and accommodating for us. I just finished building the lab circulator component of our LOPC and we can start conditioning the water tomorrow, ready to put some animals through and see what we can detect! Yay! Will probably head out tomorrow to set up the met stations on the lake too, so fingers crossed the nice weather we have had all day will hold out for us. It's a little suspicious actually that the weather is so nice today, as we are doing inside work for most of this week, and hopefully field work for the next two weeks, so I am sure it will be pissing down while we're out there. We are planning to do one or two 24 hour sampling periods in our sampling plan, so I hope we can get our hands on a thermos and maybe learn some local folk songs to keep our spirits up :s

Anyway, enough about the science... though to be honest, that is mostly what my brain has been full of ever since I arrived in Canada. I am staying in a town called Bracebridge at the moment, and the lab is a ~40 minute drive away in the middle of nowhere, near a town called Dorset. Driving anywhere here is pretty impressive, with the giant trees and rocks and rivers and lakes to look at, and the variety of roadkill is a bit different to home. Smelt my first dead skunk last night, though luckily only caught a little whiff. Haven't seen any deer/moose despite the road signs warning of them, given the size of moose I'm kinda glad we haven't come across any while driving yet.

Driving from Montreal out to here is said to take around 6 hours but it took us much longer as we stayed multiple times for leg stretching and eating and drinking. First we stopped for bagels to bring out to Norm and Sandy (our gracious hosts), then we stopped for a second breakfast (I had a delicious crepe with fresh fruit and maple syrup), then later we stopped for coffee and timbits, then we stopped for lunch at a schnitzel haus, then finally we made it there and went out for Chinese dinner.

Speaking of Chinese, I really haven't had a chance to watch any of the Olympics but I guess there is always 2012 for that... At any rate the broadcast here unsurprisingly focuses primarily on the Canadian team, who apparently suck, and there is no Bruce McAvaney so what's the point? I've also totally forgot to put my footy tips in the last two rounds, and consequently ended up with 1 point last round, so I'm probably now a lost cause for the remainder of the H&A matches.

I am happy to report that my sleeping patterns have completely sorted themselves out, and I managed to get through it all without becoming hopelessly addicted to temazepam.

The food here has been so good so far, and my jeans have become mysteriously snug. It's just too hard to have any self control when you are eating out as often as we have been, though now we are based at the lab for the next few weeks we have bought a pile of bread/meats/cheeses/salads to make lunches here which should help matters. I also sussed out a nice jogging route this morning along Muskoka River, so hopefully the weather holds out for me. Anyway, I will be hauling around 30 kilos of equipment up and down the water column of Harp Lake using a pedal powered winch for the next two weeks so I should be safe to enjoy another timbit or two.

(I have a funny photo of our dessert from last night but don't have my camera cable handy so you'll have to wait for the hilarity)

Canadia, I made it

Ugh I shouldn't have waited this long to write my next post as the past few days are a total blur, but I just didn't have the strength to write earlier. Dealing with a 12 hour change in time is somewhat difficult, and I am trying not to rely on temazepam too much to see me through (largely due to my finite supply). I am hoping my stinginess is going to be of assistance tonight, as I went for a huge walk after dinner to find a NovaScotia bank ATM so I didn't have to pay a withdrawal fee, so hopefully the exercise will have tired me out a bit (although perhaps the cake I had on the way back counteracted this). I decided to take out a somewhat hefty sum to see me through for at least some of the time while I'm out doing my field work, not realising that ATMs here give you cash in 20s and now my wallet won't close.

I've been in at uni since Tuesday trying to get my head around the LOPC (laser optical plankton counter) that we'll be using for the rest of the month in Ontario and it's been a real struggle. I won't go into the details as I'm trying not to think about it again until I'm back in there tomorrow, but I have to ask - why do people developing these new technologies insist on fitting them out with serial cables?! This wouldn't normally be too much of an issue but Montreal seems to be going through a PCMCIA serial port card drought. Got my machine talking to the LOPC today though so should be ready for business by the time we leave for Ontario on Sunday.

Today was actually quite a cultural success in many ways, as I sussed out Canada Post, signed up for a Canadian mobile plan, drank some Canadian mojitos (well, they were made by a Canadian), saw someone getting arrested by the Canadian police, and learnt where the local soup kitchen bus works their magic. Oh and I found out today that my abstract has been accepted for oral presentation at the NALMS conference in Lake Louise in November!

Right well I'm going to try and battle the sandman now, good thing I'm still reading my Neil Gaiman book.

Stupid Gaijin - Part 2 (3/8/08)

OK so I'm fairly confident I was just a regular stupid gaijin today. Took me ages to wake up this morning, which makes sense as it took me ages to fall asleep last night. Thank goodness for drugs to assist with such things. I was starting to nod off last night when I heard a rustling sound that didn't stop. I turned on the light to find a massive black cockroach perched on one of my bags! Tried to squash it but the book I used was too stiff and didn't quite make sufficient contact with the intruder. It scurried off and after waiting for it to reemerge for a while I gave up and went back to bed (with my sheet up to my ears).

After a tasty breakfast down at a nearby cafe (super thick toast, egg, bacon, salad with dressing, coffee) I ventured into the Tokyo subway network to get to Harajuku. The information lady at my hotel told me everything I needed to know so it was quite easy really to buy the ticket and find the right train. After walking around for half an hour or so I decided to go and get some old school culture before checking out the new school punks, and set off into the Meiji Temple grounds. It was also a nice respite from the hot hot sun being surrounded by all the trees. I eventually came across the temple gardens, and thought paying 500Y to check them out wasn't too exorbitant. The gardens however weren't exactly mindblowing so perhaps it was. There were fellow tourists everywhere, and I ended up making friends with a Korean mother and son at the well. We took photos for each other, and then it seemed like the mother was trying to set me up with the son. We walked around together for a while, exchanging pleasantries before parting ways once we left the garden.

Oh and while I was in the garden I also made friends with a little butterfly who seemed quite fond of me.


By this stage I was ready to check out what Harajuku is now known for, and followed my ears. Bands were set up at regular intervals along a fairly long stretch of footpath, with Japanese punk the order of the day.

I'm not sure how they organise themselves, as it wouldn't really work if two bands are playing too close to each other. There were also blankets set up with people selling random crap, old clothes/toys/books etc. Nothing particularly cool, just normal old flea markety stuff. Also lots of street vendors selling food, all versions of the same stuff - octopus balls (just like in cooking mama!), noodles with cabbage, some sort of meat on a stick. I had the noodles with cabbage, was quite tasty. Wish I'd tried the octopus balls though, but no regrets about steering clear of the meat on a stick.


Here was a big stadium I walked past, and there were heaps of people hanging around a big yard out the front, with photos on blankets. I think that a singer was performing at the stadium in the afternoon, and the people were comparing/selling/showing off photos of the singer? I don't know, it was a bit weird. I also walked past these people obviously doing something for a tv show which seemed to add weight to my idea that there was some sort of popular singer performing there.

Went back into the main shop area after this, battling the oppressive heat and hordes of people. Was determined to find a cool shirt for my sister, which strangely enough proved to be a bit of a difficult task. Found lots of cool shirts in one big shopping centre before realising it was the Harajuku equivalent to The Colonnade or something and couldn't afford anything. Ended up have a win though, in one last shop I checked out before heading back on the train.


The must eat thing in Harajuku is apparently the Harajuku Crepe, which is a big crepe filled with cream and other tasty stuff. There's a pretty big selection to choose from, and every stall had a line of people waiting to get one. It was so hot though that eating a big pile of cream was the last thing I wanted to do so I just bought another bottle of water and continued on my way.

After heading back to the hotel and having a bit of a rest from the long hot day I ventured out again for dinner and discovered my meat identification skills were even worse than the previous day. I have no idea what I ate for dinner, but it was tasty so who cares? Well, actually I guess I do care but I doubt it was whale or cat or anything.

I walked past my hotel after dinner to go and get some snacks for a convenience store and noticed a couple enjoying what seemed to be steak and salad in the hotel restaurant. It confuses me why people would do such a thing. It costs about 5 times as much as a delicious meal at any of the other restaurants in the area, and surely you are going to have a better meal if you eat the local food? Mind you, having said that I was actually tempted to try a pizza for dinner, as there seems to be quite a few places that make them and I was curious to see what a montrosity it would be. Bento won out in the end though. Mmmm tasty selection of things I can't identify..

Stupid Gaijin - Part 1 (2/8/08)

Well, I've survived my first two flights! The flight from Perth to Singapore was uneventful, but annoying as the plane was a bit old and thus didn't have on demand entertainment. By the time I thought to start watching a movie or show, I'd missed the first 20 minutes of everything, plus the selection was miniscule, so I ended up watching Made of Honour as I figured it was the only option that could still make perfect sense even if you'd missed the first seven eighths. Boy and girl are best friends forever, boy realises he loves girl just as she has a whirlwind romance and engagement, boy convinces girl to abandom wedding at the altar. Sorry if I've ruined it for anyone but it's your own damn fault for wanting to watch such rubbish. Don't go there, girlfriend. I did manage to have a spare seat next to me though, and the dessert was a triple choc drumstick, which went a fair ways to making up for the shitty entertainment.

I had a couple of hours to kill at Changi airport before my connecting flight to Tokyo, so I did a lot of wandering around and burnt my tongue drinking a very hot tea. Also bought a Neil Gaiman book to prevent any further temptation to watch terrible terrible films. Not to worry though, because my flight to Tokyo was on a super fancy Airbus A380 (I think it is?) which had huge personal screens and an amazing choice of films and shows. They even included The Mighty Boosh, Summer Heights High, and Kath and Kim! My buttons stopped working after I selected my first show, so I was forced to watch it all, and then had to get the hostess to reset my system. It froze again so I just had a little nap and read my book instead. The food was good and of course I ate it all, so I think I've had about twice the number of meals in the past day than I normally have.

The man sitting next to me on this flight had such bad breath. It was just like the breath of my MATLAB tutor, I wish never to be reminded of his breath again.

So, I'm in Tokyo now and it seems to have turned me into a social retard. I am hoping it is just the fact that I am functioning on possibly two hours of sleep in the last two days. After checking in I got a map and went for a fairly hefty walk down to Ginza to check it out. After a while I figured I should have some lunch, but couldn't decide where to go. Some places had such nice looking food displays but looked a bit scary inside, with lots of old Japanese men. I finally went up to a place that had nice pictures, and sat down to wait for a table. After they brought me an English menu I realised I was in a restaurant that served pork or pork or pork. The pictures still looked nice but after waiting for a while I left, figuring there wasn't much point waiting around for ages for something that I actually am not that fond of eating. So I wander down the road a bit and find some more nice pictures, and point at one to a waitress as I can't possibly figure out what it is called. She promptly points me in the direction of the lift, as I am trying to order something from an upstairs restaurant. Stupid gaijin. So of course I go upstairs, it is very nice and friendly and I order what is in the nice picture and I get it and... it's pork! Clearly I can't tell thinly cut pork from thinly cut chicken in an attractive photo. Anyway it was very tasty and quite cheap so it doesn't matter.

At some stage in my wandering I also heard a bell a few times, and thought it was coming from a souvenir type shop I was walking past. Turns out it was a guy on a bike trying to get past me for ages. Stupid gaijin. I think I need to have a sleep.

I walked through Hibiya Park on the way back and although it looked lovely and peaceful it was actually deafening with the noise of.. something? I assume it is some sort of insect in plague proportions but I couldn't figure out what it was. So so loud, quite similar to a dentist's drill. I then started thinking that maybe they've just set up heaps of speakers playing that sound that only adolescents can hear but clearly I am past adolescenthood, and such a thing doesn't strike me as a very Japanese thing to do, so it must be a natural noise. Noone else seemed to mind it, but I guess I was hardly clutching my ears and crying so it is hard to tell if people were effected by it at all.

Am back in the hotel now having a little lie down and trying to stay awake so I don't wake up at 2am ready for a new day (it is only 4:50pm now). I should probably make a semi early start tomorrow though, as I'm taking Harajuku by storm! If the weather is anything like it is today I feel sorry for the kids, their makeup is going to run terribly. Fingers crossed I can navigate the metro system successfully, I'm hoping my stupidity of today will disappear after a good night's sleep.

Argh!

Holy shit, time is flying by quite quickly and I am starting to feel the edges of a little bit of panic. It's not yet full blown, and maybe it's a good thing that I can feel it to spur me on and get all my shit together. I managed to get some more packing done last weekend, and filled my bin up to the rim this week, so I feel like I'm getting somewhere. Also booked the carpet cleaners yesterday, and got my hair cut today! I was a bit nervous about that actually, as my usual hairdresser very inconveniently left the salon I normally go to and of course they weren't about to tell me where she went. The Vogue online forums came to my rescue though, they're very useful when you need to investigate a new hairdresser or beautician etc. Anyway I'm very happy with my new hairdresser and she's cheaper than my old one, hooray! I can only hope that she's still around when I get back to Perth.

She was also quite efficient, leaving me with plenty of time to get home and make chicken pies for bookclub tonight. I've not tried this recipe before, or indeed made any type of pie before, so we shall see what happens. In any case, I've cut little chicken shapes out of pastry to put on the top so at least they should look impressive. I just hope the shapes don't morph in the oven into raptors or something.

When I got home there was a big parcel in the mail box!!! My excitement was tempered by the fact that the name on the parcel was not mine. Nor was the address. I am "36 B" and it was addressed to "636" which I guess is similar to "36 B" if you are dyslexic. The parcel is now with its rightful owner.

Count down to departure: 16 days

OK - the plans thus far...

Right, well now I've got this baby set up I had best get the first post written to put the creative juices to use before they dry up. My ticket is all paid for and my itinerary sorted - I am off Friday 1 August! It is a mere five weeks away so I am beginning the brick shitting process as I realise just how much I need to achieve in that period of time. Luckily I have a list! One cannot fail when one has a complete and comprehensive list to follow, here's hoping that mine is not actually sketchy and inadequate.

I paid for the hotel for my two day stopover in Tokyo today, and then decided to check TripAdvisor to see if I had made a terrible mistake. Most people seem to think the hotel I have chosen is quite decent, and I really only need the room for sleeping in so things look good in this department. Well, some reports said the bed was too soft for comfort, others said it was hard as a board, one person said it was super lumpy (ew) and the rest said it was fine so I hope that the laws of probability will work in my favour. If I happen to get the lumpy bed I guess I can always request a room change and maybe score an upgrade to the hard as a board one.

Count down to departure: 37 days (eek!)