Reminiscing of snow

Too much writing, not enough pictures! I hear your silent cries and I'm here to sort it out. Also, because after three days of up to 20ºC pretty much all the snow is gone and we're left with the various browns of mud and grass that hasn't seen sunlight in four months. I miss the snow, let's reminisce...

Pointe-au-Père, January

  

Lucky the dog, in snow and looking bashful (for good reason) in front of the snowy balcony window

Walking on the frozen St-Lawrence river, checking out the ice fishing and admiring the town from a perspective I never expected.

And finally, my favourite thing to do on sunny days when I was fed up with unemployment: walking along the riverside and taking photos of the frozen waters.

Making myself at home

The intervals between posts are getting shorter. Honest. And I've not written recently because life has been a little bit manic.

A week ago I was propping my eyes open, trying to be polite as our housemate had friends over. Friends who are also good friends of Denis. Also because I was waiting for Denis to get back from teaching a Rockabilly Jive class. And all because our Winter Wonderland/early St Patrick's Day event had been a hectic success. 

Decorating started at 9:30 a.m.. Although it felt like 8:30 a.m. as the clocks chose the night before our big day to jump forward and "save daylight". And I got home that evening at 6:45 p.m.. Between these times there was, as I said, decorating, there was also: dancing, hot chocolate, live music, homemade maple marshmallows, 400 guests, lots of talking, a small girl who played with my twirly owl skirt, people other than myself snowshoeing, face painting, networking and trying to raise as much awareness as possible of the organisations involved in the event.

The event was brilliant but totally draining. So then most of this week was spent feeling like I needed a weekend. It was also a bit odd because there was hardly anyone in the office. For several days we were just two. Still, had plenty to be getting on with.

I'm quite desperately looking for a car. The problem is that it will be by far the most I've ever spent on anything so I don't want a pile of poo nor something I dislike *cough*Hyundai*cough* but trying to find something fitting, within my budget and no further away than Quebec City is something of a challenge. This is where the small surface area/large population of England makes car buying more convenient. Clearly my parents are taunting me as last week they bought a very specific make and model of second hand car without having to drive six hours. Or maybe it is the universe that is taunting me because one of my friends rocked up in the exact car that I've been looking for. 

This weekend has been pretty relaxed. Friday night was a night of grand vins (if names mean anything to you, they were apparently: Châteauneuf-du-pape Domaine de Nalys, Châteauneuf-du-pape Clos des papes, Cayus, Modus and le Clos St.-Thomas). All I know is that there were different levels of yum. Everyone brought a wine and something to eat. Denis brought the Modus, I brought Brie and Walnut Scones, Crab Choux and Chocolate Melting Moments (a chocolate biscuit base with chocolate ganache topping). Saturday involved brunch with Denis, his mother and brother, looking for secondhand teacups, trying out the new café in town, running into people I actually kind of know and a family dinner. And today has been quiet. Denis had a political brunch followed by a drive to Montreal and is now on a plane to Vancouver. I watched the Australian Grand Prix and very much enjoyed all the action. I was even not too disappointed with the result. 

Denis should be back late Thursday night. It just sucks that for the next four days all the people I'm emotionally closest to are the geographically furthest away. At least I have plenty to be getting on with - yay I have a job!

The cunning use of video games

My housemate has stolen my boyfriend. With the cunning use of retro video games. It might look like a playstation remote plugged into a Wii-mote but really it is the highly pixelated Punch-Out! 

I'm leaving them to it for several reasons: 

1) Housemate only has two remotes

2) I'm rubbish at video games (except dancing ones, Plants v Zombies and Peggle)

3) I think they need a little bonding time. I don't know if it was since I arrived but I have rarely seen them behave like friends (which I'm led to believe they were before they moved in together)

Also, since I got a job, I've fallen behind on my fashion blog reading - shameful, I know. Although, given the choice (which I essentially do have) I would choose my new job over fashion blogs. It makes the waiting for the next post go so much quicker!

Things I need to do: find a flat (with Denis, don't worry, things are still good), buy a car (I'm hoping they'll accept cake in payment) and sort out the legality of me staying here past October. Otherwise, I'm sticking Denis with a seven-month contract on a flat, and that would be unfair. Also, if my new job continues as I hope, and believe, it will, I won't want to be going anywhere.

In other news, I went to dinner with my new boss last night. We had sushi and wine and talked about swing dancing and looked at pretty dresses. Could I ask for more? While it is friendly at work, there was definitely a different feeling - a feeling of two anglophones, who have both been through the British school system and who wound up in some dark corner of a desolate land. I joke because I love - I walked 30 minutes to work today in temperatures that with windchill were getting on for -20 and involved large amounts of snow blowing in my face. I didn't mind but I could really do with a car... if only to be able to get where I need to be going for job-stuff.

I'm looking forward to this weekend (my first event with the new company) - a Winter Wonderland with face-painting, ice sculptures, free hot chocolate, a live band and dancefloor. Will let you know how it goes.

I'll stop now. The elaborate québécois swearing directed at Super Mario is far too distracting.

Surprise!

I'm back! (Not sure for how long, probably only very sporadically) 

So I got that job I posted about all those months ago. And it was really not for me and I spent my evenings and weekends tired and in a bad mood and definitely did not fancy writing about it. I didn't move thousands of kilometres away from my family and friends to be miserable. So I quit.

That was scary. After five years of being officially a student I couldn't cope with being a call-centre robot for a billion dollar company that considered 7 minutes per day adequate for "personal" time (but would then pull you up if you used all of this allocated time).  We were given "positioning statements" for almost any situation so that we could promote the company's position. I didn't necessarily feel that this was in the customers' best interests but the company assured us it was. I think the moment that really did it for me was the lecture on tones of voice and how to use different tones for different call types to make the customers trust us. 

I quit because I wasn't happy and the search for a job more suited to me had ground to a halt since money started being deposited in my bank account. Now, after several weeks of writing letters to companies that interested me (whether or not they were advertising a position), meeting people, demonstrating enthusiasm and independent thinking and as many skills as I could come up with, I may just have found something very interesting and well suited to me.

I'm supposed to start tomorrow and I don't want to jinx it. I'm being a bit cautious because during these weeks of unemployment this is the third job I thought I was getting and the other two haven't come up with any work yet. I'm also feeling uncharacteristically superstitious as the way this job came about seems very much to have been some sort of fate. Just as I was starting to think I might have to give up on trying to start a career and seriously look for another just-a-job (funds running low) I got a call, for a job I applied to in November. I met with the executive director (ED) yesterday. This morning I bumped into an employee who said she was looking forward to working with me (my mind is going "I don't remember being offered or officially accepting a job offer"), I met the ED again today and she bought cake to celebrate my joining the team.  She also felt like it was fate (her words) as she very suddenly needed someone just about exactly like me and I just happened to be available. From the news I'd had leading up to this week, I had been expecting to have other work at this point but the people promising the mythical work didn't come through. 

The job is all sorts of things that interest me and is for a non-profit organisation (unlike the billion dollar telecoms company of before). This means the pay is less but the guilt is non-existent. The ED is also a Lindy Hopper. This makes everything more awesome.