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.

Looking for pretty things and a good cup of tea

Ooops, it has been too long, sorry about that.

Turns out I've been living life rather than writing about it ...which has to be a good thing right?

Last time I was massively looking forward to a swing social dance. Unfortunately seven people turned up. Three of the seven were 1. Myself 2. Denis and 3. Denis' dance and teaching partner, Caro. Also I've pretty much decided that I don't like East Coast Swing. It doesn't look nice and isn't that fun to dance. Lindy for life!

So, last Sunday Denis and I drove down to Montreal. He had to go for work and as I had no job at the time nor any interviews scheduled I got to go to. I thought it was going to be like a free mini holiday, turned out a bit more expensive than I'd assumed. I bought a dining table and four chairs from IKEA. Denis is in the process of paying me back, seeing as I'm not likely to be paid for a good four weeks, I'm not really in a position to buy furniture.

I'm somewhat more certain about pay day seeing as while I was in Montreal I was FINALLY* offered a job. It is with a huge national telecommunications company, in their Rimouski call centre as a customer service represent-ant (the French is "Représentant(e), service à la clientèle" and, although I shall not be carrying bits of leaf on my back, I'm pretty sure I will be the human equivalent of a worker ant).

* Five weeks after I arrived, four weeks after I started looking. Not so bad but due to the end of uni and the proximity of school starting to my leaving date I feel like I haven't actually done anything since mid-June.

Montreal was fun. It was good to get out of Rimouski and meet other people. Not that I'm short of people to meet here. I mostly pounded the streets, looking for pretty things and a good cup of tea.

I also got a catch up chat with Jamie, who assistanted in Joliette when I was in RDL. It was fun to talk English with someone who a) speaks exceedingly good English and b) has a very British sense of humour ...In real life. Skype is a great way to keep in touch but it isn't a patch on actually sitting a matter of centimetres from someone. Although, throwing playing cards at someone in real life is slightly less entertaining than it is via Skype.

I found a cafe in which I'm pretty sure the guy in charge is the brother of C.R. Avery and where soup is served in wooden bowls and the large chai latte is only $4 but comes with a cinnamon stick in it. Also, when I bought my lunch the till didn't have change for a twenty so, in a totally laid back way, C.R.'s brother said he'd bring my latte and change over when they were ready. And he did. I was really thinking that I'd just donated a rather large tip (as in more than 100% of the price of the meal) but nope, C.R. clearly has an honest and reliable brother. I shouldn't be surprised, he is Canadian.

Right, first day of work/work training tomorrow. Time to get myself ready. Wish me luck.

Walk the Chewbacca

This post is starting life in Denis' office at 21:20, Tuesday. He has to speak to someone in China at a time convenient to them. I don't have to be here, I mostly came along to make going back to work after 9pm slightly less painful.

Wednesday there will be no working in the evening. There will be dancing! At possibly the worst advertised social. This has been on the cards since last week (when the venue decided to wait until 10 hours before the event to confirm and then moved it to this week) but the one person who is in a position to put the event on Facebook waited until about 8pm this evening. Oh well, probably will mean more space on the dancefloor for me, muahahahaaaa!

So Saturday night we celebrated Hallowe'en by dressing up (as Jessica Rabbit and Chewbacca) and playing Beer Pong with the Queen of Hearts, some kind of Sexy Rabbit Princess With Feathers (??), Fairy, Prisoner, Baseball Player, Harry Potter, and a bunch of people who couldn't be bothered to dress up. Beginners' luck did not help at all and my team lost. My team also mostly refused to drink all the beer we were supposed to; but it was really horrible beer and we lost really badly so I don't feel bad about essentially cheating. 

We then headed to a bar where Chewbacca was a huge hit and I couldn't hear anything anyone said. My lip reading in French is terrible so I mostly just nodded; they could have been saying anything (Denis recently introduced me to How I Met Your Mother - turns out the secret is to start with season 1, episode 1 and get the proper character introductions otherwise it is far less funny).

Sunday I watched Ghostbusters for the first time, except it was actually S.O.S. Fantômes, because I watched it in French. Still good, in a very 80s way. Talking of the 80s, I have been reliving my childhood and listening to songs from NOW 1987 such as the exceedingly dated but no less funky Walk the Dinosaur. 

Monday evening started with a "cocktail" (where beer, wine and soft drinks were available for consumption). It was for the Liberal Party of Quebec and I met Michelle Courchesne who was very taken with the story of how I came to be in Rimouski (i.e. Denis). She said we should turn it into a book. Unfortunately, I think the book would be pretty short and probably very chick-lit-y due to subject matter and lack of content. Although, if it looks like I'll never find a job that would give me something to do.

Then we headed off to Denis' wine-tasting class. I was allowed to come for free because it was Denis and Marc who were "teaching" that evening. It was a good job I was there, otherwise a paying customer would have had to hold the map of Lebanon in the style of glamourous assistant. And then there was whisky tasting. Not quite sure how that fits in with a wine class but at least it was something I wanted to hear about (as obviously I'm happy to taste as much free wine and whisky as people are willing to give me). I didn't learn anything new as the focus was very much on Scotch whisky - the one type I know a little about. Unsurprisingly the English girl with Scots blood did know more about it that the bloke from Quebec.

So a "cocktail" where no cocktails were served and "wine tasting" with whisky sampling. Clearly Monday was a night of things not being what they seemed - appropriate for Hallowe'en.

Tuesday afternoon was not only productive but good fun. I met up with Claire as she's not working this week. We drank tea and talked painting and knitting. Plus, in the really cool tea room Claire took me to (that I'd totally walked past not realising what it was) I bumped into Raf, who I'd met at the "cocktail". It's almost like I know people here.

Right, people have arrived, pre-dancing. I should be less un-sociable and get my head out of my computer.

Swing Station

Last night was Swing Station which was totally AWESOME. 

I have tried four different ways to sum it up and it seems I cannot in any kind of cohesive and grammatical sentence. Therefore: bullet points! The order of the ideas has no relation to the importance of the idea in relation to the other ideas.

• dance
• video
• clown/percussionist
• live band
• tap/balboa/lindy/charleston/air steps
• train station
• train
• club
• couple
• gang
• children
• underwater
• mime
• drum solo with smoke
• THOMAS BLACHARZ

I had a ridiculous grin on my face for the rest of the evening, it was so charming and the musicality was fantastic. The choreography and the music are specific to the show but I couldn't work out if the music was written to the movements or the movements were choreographed to the music. There was a really interesting vignette in which three dancers each represented (or were represented by?) a different instrument (piano, double bass, violin). The interplay and choreography was very impressive. 

I so badly need to dance. Unfortunately the social dance I was looking forward to on Wednesday will not happen until next Wednesday due to the venue not confirming until a couple of hours until the social was supposed to take place (seriously, wtf?).

However, it turns out these dances will be every other Wednesday and the university wants a social dance once a month as well. No classes at the moment but there will be dancing!

As for the job front, I've handed out a number of CVs and taken the initial test for one but not heard anything so far. There seem to plenty of offers for shop assistants but having done that (when I was 16) I'm really looking for a post-uni job. Surely someone in this town must want someone who can speak English and not just people with a degree in administration (?!?)

Hello? Promotion? Anyone? Hello?

No, no, it isn't me that needs promoting, it is an event. Quite a large event (for a small town) to which about 3,500 people may attend. It is Super Motocross Intérieur and it is coming to the RDL arena this weekend. However, it isn't hard to miss, seeing how bloody difficult it is to find out the basics: what is going on, when and where I can get tickets.

I now have a ticket thanks to serious Googling and a bit of guess work: I Googled the event, found a fax number, Googled that and came up with the name of a bar, went to the bar and asked if they sold tickets, they do. However, I'm still not really sure of what the format is and what time I ought to be there, whether I can leave for dinner or if I want to see the main event I must starve/eat skanky arena hotdogs (the hotdogs are skanky*, not the arena). 

I really would not be surprised if the venue is mostly empty. Which could really scupper my chances of running off with a hot biker guy. It'll probably just be the dads of the competitors... Maybe a few mums but judging on the limited photos I've found of similar events, the females are generally wearing not very much and holding up boards. We are not signposts damnit! Or umbrella stands! F1 I'm looking at you.

Why wouldn't you want to promote your event? Unless you don't want people there. In which case, don't hold it in an arena, hold it in a back garden. It isn't too fantastically difficult, you know a few posters with the key info (date, time, location, price, a telephone number/email that will actually get a response) go a long way towards making people decide to go to something. If it wasn't for the fact that my life is so lacking in motorsport right now, I'm not sure I'd've made all this effort. And now I need to decide what I'm gonna wear...

It will be a good weekend though. After an afternoon/evening of watching blokes on bikes (alliteration y'all. I'll be hoping for some broads on bikes too, of course) fly through the air** we have the Monaco GP on Sunday morning. I'm still missing Kimi pretty desperately. A whole aspect of my race enjoyment (namely shouting at the TV to try and make Kimi win/do okay) has gone. I can still appreciate good racing and a good race but it isn't as fun. Don't you dare suggest I try supporting Lewis. When anything goes wrong for Lewis I get a little bit of the joy I got from watching Kimi do well. Sorry.

*I'm basing this on my general hatred of hotdogs rather than personal experience of any from this venue. I should stop talking about hotdogs. It's making me feel a little nauseous. 

**I really do enjoy flying, be it on a plane, watching planes, watching people on bikes or just being thrown about a bit in swing. Most of my thought processes include swing and this blog should be representative of my thoughts.

I suddenly really want a chicken korma. I don't even like curry. Oh, chicken korma...

Seriously? SERIOUSLY?

Three days of outdoor summer swing dancing in Montreal which I would so love to go to:
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010

For the first I'll be at the qualifying of the Montreal Formula 1 Grand Prix YAAAAAYYY!!!! Which is a good enough reason to miss the dancing, except the racing doesn't go on that late. But the dancing is not so much a "day" as an "afternoon" so that is NO help.

The second I plan to be at the VANCOUVER FOLK FESTIVAL. Oh. Yes. Hopefully. Tickets not a problem but there is a distinct lack of accommodation and as I'll have all my stuff with me camping is not an option. 

The third I plan to be in England for. So I think you'd better start planning me an awesome Welcome Back party, hadn't you?

On a completely unrelated note, I bought some cherry sweets which loudly proclaimed that they contained "real fruit juice". Only when I read the ingredients did I find this to be pear juice. Um, okay.

Pancake Day FAIL.

These crazy people don't know what pancake day is. Only my second favourite holiday-that-you-don't-get-time-off-for after the one where we burn a pretend guy...

It was also my day off and I went SKIING. With MUCH greater success than last time. Much. However, this means the next time I will get to sleep in past 7 am is likely to be 26th February. Ten days! Aaaaarrrrghhhh!

On the plus side this is because of SKIIIIIIING and SWIIIIIIIING. Two things that look very similar when written like that. I will sleep when... ummm... I don't have skiing or swinging to do?

Due to both of these I did not get pancakes today. Booooooo. After skiing I didn't have much time before swing to make myself half respectable. 

On the plus side, I got a ROSE! From a male person! First time EVER. 

Let me give you a brief history of the flowers I've been given:

I've had a single stem pink thing (dunno what it was) from the (retired) female owner of the shop I used to work in. The (now retired) manageress of said shop gave me a huuuuge bunch to say good luck at uni and well done in your A-levels. A colleague, also of the same shop, gave me flowers for my 18th (I will be 23 in May) and for my last birthday Abbs gave me some lilies that she'd been given but found the pollen too much for her nose. Second hand flowers. Not that I was in a position to complain. I was also given a small flowering plant by my responsable in France. Which I managed to not kill (result). My responsable was a sweet French lady a couple of years off retirement. 

Back to the rose. It was for my helping with the swing classes. Which is kinda ridiculous because if I didn't then I wouldn't get to dance. But also pretty awesome. P.S. It's yellow and goes really well with my room.

And the young man watched the snow through the window.

Lison took Eibhlin and I cross country skiing today. We managed six kilometres in the time it took her to do 14... This was mostly because of all the time I spent sitting/lying in the snow and not actually skiing. Eibhlin probably could've managed ten in that time but thankfully she stopped periodically and waited for me to catch up.

Going very slowly or "shuffling" isn't too hard until you get to a downhill but every time I got up a bit of speed - even on flat bits - I lost my balance. Although from the start where I had fear and dreaded the downhills by the end I loved them even if I knew I was more likely to end up on my bum than my feet.  Oddly, I fell quite a bit at the start then got into it a bit, then got more into it and fell over even more.

This winter I have learnt that I don't need to be good at something to enjoy it.

My knees are still bruised from my ice skating fall (I was trying to go backwards and I can only just about go forwards) last Sunday and they ache after exertion however, despite ski du fond this morning and skating this afternoon it is infinitely more comfortable to stand than sit on my poor bruised behind. I really enjoy skating and I very much want to do ski du fond again - it was so beautiful, moving amongst snow dusted fir trees with flakes falling gently from the sky. At least I was good at skidooing, small mercies. 

Hopefully I will remain upright somewhat better when I try snow-shoeing tomorrow. I'm also trying ski alpin for the FIRST TIME on THURSDAY. (Get me and my getting out there). I'm supposed to go to Quebec City on Friday. I might be dead. And then I won't get to go skidooing again. Better not die. 

Also. ALSO! Swing is back on Tuesday. Hurrah! And in two weeks I will be at a Swing weekender in the big QC. Awe. Som. U. Lar. Marie-Josée came skating today and we were talking and I'm really hoping she's gonna come to the swing thing. It would be so much more awesome if she did. And Marco. People! I know people!

2 days, 200km, less than $200, 3 hot chocolates.

There are two Allo-Stop stops in RdL. One is at the McDonald's I can see on the other side of the centre commercial on my way to school and is maybe 20 minutes walk from the house, if that. The other is at St Hubert (fast chicken but classier than KFC or Maccy D's. Just about.) which is at least a 50 minute walk away. Unfortunately it was the latter I was headed for on Friday.

It was a chilly walk so I got myself a petrol station hot chocolate to keep warm while I waited for the man. It worked but it wasn't the best way to introduce myself to Canadian hot chocolate. I was to find out they do it pretty well here.

My driver was Jean-Michel. He wore a bandana on his head like a pirate and had small shifty eyes but was neither a pirate or shifty and we had a good chat so I practiced my French. He'd not been to England but knows some of Europe as he has a Swedish girlfriend. We talked about the environment and public transport and travel and drinking cultures. The two hour journey passed quickly enough and it was wonderful to see forests all different autumn colours.

I caught the bus into town from Ste-Foy (a suburb of Quebec City that is about 7 minutes drive from the towncentre in a car, several hours' walk or half an hour by bus. I don't understand it either) picked up a box o'beer and headed to Andy's place. Or should I say André's as Andy was in Germany and my host was André. And a very good host he was too.

We were just discussing what would happen if magicians worked for armies when Stephanie and Salima turned up and we went flyering for an Palestinian hiphop group. I say "flyering" there was a little bit of sticking paper to old posters with sellotape, quite a lot of holding the end of the tape so the roll unwound and rolled off, a bit of making André wear the ruined tape but mostly it was wandering about and looking in shops. We even went to a lovely chocolaterie called Erico for hot chocolate. Much better than the first one I had! Not as thick as the French ones that are pretty much just melted chocolate but not that sweet and so SO good. I was also shown a very sweet épicerie which has all sorts of fancy and expensive and interesting wares dedans.

We then went to get ingredients for dinner, at which point André realised that cuillère à thé de canelle doesn't mean "a spoon of cinnamon tea" (because why would you put cinnamon tea in apple crumble?) but rather "a teaspoon of cinnamon". This story was to be recounted at every possible opportunity.

Dinner was quiche, presided over by Salima and pudding was apple crumble, presided over byAndré for his very first solo baking experience. It was yummy and there was plenty of random yet entertaining conversation with people I'd only met that afternoon.

Saturday I met Laura and Nick in Second Cup for a hot chocolate with whipped cream and chocolate curls. We spent most of the rest of the day in Simons and a couple of other shops out in Ste-Foy but it was my formal introduction to Simons and couldn't been rushed. I bought furry white earmuffs that I'm certain are not vegetarian and a fluffy white beret.

Laura and Nick also found themselves some chic attire.

Hat and earmuffs from Simons Scarf and cardigan from Simons

After the most enjoyable trip to the pretty clothes and accessories we went back to Nick's for tea (Eary Grey) and biscuits. When I saw André later that evening he couldn't get over how British we were being with our tea and biscuits. Fiona always says there is no one more patriotic than an ex-pat and I know I drink a lot more tea here (as I did in France) than I do in England.

Anyway, that evening I took the bus out quite a long way to find the Port-o Swing studio and my whole reason for the weekend in Quebec. You guessed it: Swing dance. It was weird going on my own but I made good dancers dance with me and then other good dancers asked me to dance including ...the Canadian balboa champion (well, the bloke anyway).

Sadly I only got about three hours of dancing in before I had to catch the last bus back (that or a two hour walk after midnight, no thank you). But then I went to Salima's birthday house party where there were cupcakes and dancing and a very old drunk couple who smoked a lot and petticoats and a Newfie (someone from Newfoundland) and discussions over who of the Canadians was the most English.

On Sunday I met Nick and Laura and we (mostly me) cooked brunch for André to say thank you for letting me stay and then I had to run off and get my Allo-Stop so left my fellow Brits to do the washing up. Fortunately I had fed them well and we're all still friends.

In these shoes?

It feels like something that may have happened some months ago but it was only yesterday that I met my Mum and sister and went to the Clothes Show Live.

Talking to Mum today we worked out that so far in 2008 I've seen my parents for less than 3 weeks. That's less than a short uni holiday. We predict that this trend is likely to continue as I grow up more.

With any luck I'll be running off to Quebec some time in August (2009) until sometime in June (2010) - best part of ten months.

Anyway, yes, the Clothes Show was on tv when I was little and I loved it. Mum always wanted to take me and my sister and has been waiting for us to be old enough.

I feel that I was pretty cunning about the shopping element of it: I got two items that I'd seen in town but couldn't justify at that price and managed to get them for considerably less. I got a pair of shoes that fitted a description I had in my head but didn't know existed for less than expected. Also they are Irregular Choice - a brand I've lusted over for some time. I got a handmade prototype one-of-a-kind top that just happened to be my size and my colour (has a bit of Westwood feel about it).

We saw the main show (from afar) introduced by Dave Berry and Alex Pettyfer, featuring the Saturdays (wearing two-tone tights). The models were accompanied by dancers including a bit to a big band version of Wonderwall - it totally worked.

There was another, smaller, show pretty much just with models but you could get a lot closer which was good as the clothes were the main event there. It featured Dolce & Gabbana, Burberry, Gareth Pugh, Giles Deacon and some I've forgotten.

I walked home from the station. It was a really good end to the day - a woman outside Vodka Revolution wearing black with gold hotpants and a gold headband was firespinning - I didn't see a hat for collecting money but didn't get close enough to check. When I got to the Co-op I nipped in for Camomile tea thinking that I wanted it enough to pay 79p for 20 bags and then the label said £1.19! Fortunately when the girl bleeped it it said 79p and then we discussed the 50 pence piece I gave her. It had a soldier carrying another - I already had one like it in my small connection of coins with interesting pictures on.

Pretty darned excited at the prospect of wearing my new shoes tomorrow and SWING DANCE! It has been like nine days since I last did it. I'm gasping for a dance. Err?

Also feeling somewhat more smug about Christmas now that I've spent some money on other people (even if it hasn't been dispatched yet). At least I know what I'm doing. Well, not entirely. Don't know about housemates at all. Previously we did Secret Santa but it is different this year as there are very old and very new friendships within the house - don't know half of them at all well enough. I'll make cards. Soon. Yes.

www.cbcradio.ca/radio2 - Drive with Rich Terfry. Yes. It is keeping me up because I don't want to miss any but I know I need to sleep. Poetry on the radio.

Talking of radio, listened to Peach's show today. Started off very well but did go a bit downhill when they started sorting out their social life. Hello, audience *waves*!

Ten days left to get sorted before I go home for Christmas. It doesn't feel like long but I like the pressure.