wittybanter.

Well, well, who do we have here? C´est moi, back from whence I came, blogging to you on this here first of January 2012, resolving to blog more often. It´s going to be an exciting year, what with the end of life as we know it (ask the Mayans), my two year anniversary in Canada, and my immigration now in progress. Exciting times ahead!

I´m currently writing from my father-in-law´s house in Québec City and being amongst family this holiday season has made me more contemplative. This year seems as good a year as any to work on myself and do all those “nice-to´s” that I´ve put off for so long. So far I´ve come up with:

1. Blog more often. We all know my track record on this one. Since I moved to Canada, blogging has been the last thing on my mind. After spending all day on a computer at work, I haven´t felt any motivation to sit on my computer at night to write a blog post. But. This will change, as I need to get my creative juices flowing in order to…
2. Get working on the book. It´s been a life-long dream of mine to write a book. I have the story. But I need to write it. Getting four chapters down this year would be a real accomplishment.
3. Eat healthier. This past little while, we´ve really let ourselves go (hasn´t helped being in Québec with all the terrible food – terribly delicious, that is). I´d like to cut back on sugar, eat more vegetables, and just feel GOOD again.
4. Parler en français. I haven´t spoken or used French in five years, and I´ve pretty much lost it all. I´ve been able to follow bits of conversation with everyone in Québec, but it´s been extremely frustrating to not be able to follow everything or respond. I´m hoping in the next year I can find my French voice again!
5. Take a photography course. I bought a DSLR last year and still don´t know how to use it properly. I´m usually pretty good at reading tutorials and things, but for some reason it´s not working so well in action. Time to remedy this!
6. Buy things when I see them. I have a tendency to “mull things over” and miss out on the deal, then totally regret it. No more!

That´s all I can think of for now. Should keep me busy for a bit! I hope 2012 brings you all joy, good health and prosperity. It´s going to be a good year – I can feel it in my loins!

Okay, scratch that last post. I felt so uninspired about catching up on the lives of others (because, frankly, nothing is really happening in my own life), that I didn’t bother finishing the post, and it looks like autosave posted the entry even though I was writing it in private. Er. Thanks for that, WordPress.

Anyway, so it looks like I never mentioned it, but we got a kitten a few months ago and he’s brought a lot of joy and sleepless nights to us. But two nights ago, he was out on his nightly stroll and we had an uninterrupted night’s sleep. Wait. That’s not right. Sooke always comes to sleep with mama on his blanket with his motorcycle purr, demanding to be pet til he falls asleep. We called for him in the morning but didn’t hear his signature “mew!” in response. I got worried he had been attacked because there’s a lot of wild animals around here, and he’s on the small side, and he doesn’t comprehend danger in any form. Joey said he was probably just on an adventure, so we went to work without too much worry. Got home from work, and he wasn’t around. Odd. He’s usually around to greet whoever comes home. I started to mentally prepare myself that there wasn’t a lot of hope for him coming back, but Joey and I continued to call him and shake the treats to entice him back (instead four other cat heads popped out). Joey’s friend came round and insensitively said “yeah, he’s been stolen, he’s not coming back” so I excused myself to go and study in the next room and started bawling my eyes out. I put a lost kitten notice up on craigslist, and cried myself to sleep that I lost my little guy! He’s so little! He wouldn’t have been able to defend himself!

But. Some time in the night someone text me to say they saw a found kitten poster on our street and it looked just like him. I shot out of bed at 5.30am to look for it, couldn’t find it and lamented that someone probably claimed him. I started to get ready for work but decided no! I want to find my kitten! Went back out to look for the poster on the cross street and found it! Snatch! I ran back home, told my boss I’m working from home, and am now eagerly awaiting a more appropriate time to call the people who took my little man in. Apparently he was playing in the street like a schmuck. Way to make me look like a bad owner, cat. Ominously enough, our landlord said she didn’t like that he ran into the street without a care, and Joey said “we can’t really do anything about it, he doesn’t listen”. A day later, he goes missing. Stupid cat!

He’s never going outside again!

I’m here! I’m around! Since we moved into the new place we’ve been busy with ‘life’: just working a lot, snowboarding, BBQs and firepitting, and dealing with family dramas. Joey’s younger brother

What an insanely busy past couple of weeks it’s been! The whole debt thing started a whirlwind chain of events – me calling up my landlord to see if “hypothetically” we could break our lease; him agreeing “with no penalty”; me and Joey going to look at one place, falling in love with it, getting it; only to have landlord flip out and say I’m liable to keep paying rent until he rents it out; us moving out within the week, cleaning the old place furiously; only to have it not rent almost halfway through the month now. I’m really hoping it goes – I’ve noticed he’s dropped the rent after attempting to RAISE the already exorbitant rent and getting no interest… so please, someone just take it, because paying two rents is killing me!

But, anyway. Ignoring that, we are absolutely in love with our new place. Our new landlords are amazing – they live above us, and are so super relaxed about everything. They work in the film industry doing documentaries. They take pride in their properties, and love to renovate and garden. Our suite is really cute – and at $600 less than our old place, I love it all the more. We have space to garden (laughable – my thumb is not green at all, though I’m sprouting some green onions on my windowsill right now and they’re actually alive!) and there’s a fire pit outside and they let us have pets. We’re hoping to stay here for many years to come.

Work is… well, let’s just say I’m rethinking things. I’m not passionate at all with what I do, but I stay in it for the security. But I’m not sure how long I’m going to stay in this career for. I don’t know what else to do, though. I don’t have the money to go back to school (do I want to anyway?). The ‘tug’ I’m feeling is towards writing, but what do I write? I think I need to start writing for the sake of writing – though isn’t that what blogging’s for? And it’s not like there’s a whole lot of people who care what I ramble about, anyway. Hmm.

As for this blog – huge, huge thanks to the lovely Joy for taking over my blog hosting for me. My old host stopped with the support for whatever reason. Annoying. Anyway. More blogging to come.

Argh. Debt. You can leave the country, but it’ll still follow you across the world. One of my credit card companies back home (back in Australia? Where is ‘home’ now?) has finally tracked me down, and it seems I can’t escape it any longer – I’m now in arrears and if I don’t pay it back in a month, it’s off to the debt collectors I go. So I was all in a panic today that I’d be deported, and I tried to work out how I’m going to find any extra cash when all my money goes into the exorbitant rent I pay. The logical choice is to find a cheaper place, right? Well, I’m bound by my rental agreement to stay here until September, but I thought I’d throw the question to my landlord anyways…

And he said he’d let me go, penalty-free! I almost cried with relief. This is the guy all the other tenants complain about, that he’s always tweaking and a money-grabber, etc etc. Well, sure, he’s in real estate. But he’s never given me any grief. If anything he’s always bending over backwards for me, and today’s no exception.

Anyways, I said I’d need to think about it and look into my options over the next couple of days. He wants to list it and show it by this weekend so he can get news tenants for May 1st. Will we even find a new place for May 1st?! It’s so hard! But I think it’s something we need to risk and hope it all works out.

So if we find a cheaper place I should be saving an extra $1000 per month (oy… don’t even start), so I can start sending some money home to very slowly chip away at this debt, and maybe even invest some into my retirement savings plans (do I really need to be thinking about that?! AHHH). All sounds easy in theory, but it’s so daunting when you earn so little and the scary bank people are calling you on a daily basis.

Feel like something momentous should happen today, like getting hitched, getting pregnant, or something. Any breaking news from you?

From me, there’s nothing much. We had a quiet New Year’s Eve (I think we even fell asleep just before midnight, but woke up again for a kiss) in front of the TV, snuggling on the couch. This morning, Frodo (our cat, not the hobbit) defeated Ginger Cat, the neighbourhood bully. I clogged the toilet. We took down the decorations and did a “spring” clean. Nothing is any different to yesterday, last year.

It’s funny, though. Last year, I was all about “next year, I’m doing this and that” but now that we’ve started off the year, I don’t really see it happening this year. Things like going to Hawaii, getting engaged, etc, etc. We’re not going to be earning any more money, so I don’t think it will happen. Bit of a bonus if it does, though

Things that we CAN make happen:

• Quitting smoking (so that maybe we can pay for that trip to Hawaii, after all)
• Moving out of this expensive apartment
• Getting a puppy
• Growing a garden
• Hitting the gym more than the never we’re going right now
• Yoga at least twice a week (would be great to go 4, 5 times a week!… but gotta start small)
• Drinking more water
• Eating more greens – or heck, more fruit and veges full stop
• Trying to cook something new every week

I don’t feel 2011 is going to be any more special than any other year. Except that this year will be mine and Joey’s year of just us, no other relationships to share it with, just the two of us. And for that, I really am excited.

What a fantastic Xmas! Joey and I toddled on over to his auntie’s house on Xmas Eve for a wonderful, traditional dinner with the family. Turkey and stuffing and two kinds of cranberry sauce, of course, but also coconut-buttered green beans, tabbouleh, and scalloped potatoes (our contribution). We were so stuffed, we couldn’t even manage the cookies and pudding for dessert, but I think some icecream sandwiches were conjured up at some point. When we got home later than night, we stayed up and exchanged gifts at midnight – Joey had made me believe he hadn’t got me anything as per my wishes because he paid for my snowboarding lessons (which I failed at) – and it was really lovely and special to share that with each other. I think we’ve got a tradition started now. (Can you imagine when we have kids, making them go to bed, so we can open our presents? Love it!). He got me a couple of pairs of mittens and a pompom toque (YAY!) and a bottle of perfume (YAYAY!), and I got him lots of little crap, but the best part was when he opened his final gift, a pair of denim snowboarding pants that he wanted so bad… the look on his face! He actually shut the box as soon as he opened it, in absolute disbelief. Priceless. I wish I could capture that pure childlike delight.

We went to bed after he tried on his whole snowboarding get-up, happy and squishy from overeating. The next morning, we actually managed to sleep in for once and he rolled over to say he dreamt Santa brought some more gifts – and placed a box on my pillow! I opened it up and it was a necklace – Joey explained that it was a Hercules knot. Weep! Who is this guy, and how did I find him?!

After our morning coffees we went back to his auntie’s place for Xmas leftovers lunch and opened up all our Xmas stockings. Santa was good to us this year. Especially to me. I feel so lucky to have these people as my family now. I’ve finally found my home.

Hey team. How’s it hanging? We’re wrapping up 2010 pretty soon – what happened to this year? It was an absolute whirlwind of happenings: landed my ‘dream job’ of sorts in January, landed my office crush in April, quit said dream job around the same time and jumped on a plane to fulfill my dream of living in Canada! Shortly after, I met a guy who seems to me to be ‘The One’… so much so that I’ve lately become a little less careful with the Pill and kind of want to just throw it away, but that would be completely reckless, don’t you think…

I had a fantastic summer on a nude beach, dabbled in shitty jobs for a couple of months, somehow making ends meet in one of the most expensive cities in the world, before landing a permanent job in my field. Though I’m kinda feeling ‘over’ my corporate life, it will do for now.

I tried snowboarding for the first time (and sucked), I had my first Thanksgiving, my first dinner party and soon, my first Xmas tree.

Life is becoming normal for me here, but every so often I sit back and am amazed at what I went through to get here. I’m in awe of my surroundings and the people I interact with on a daily basis. I feel more at home than I’ve ever felt, and experience more love than I’ve ever experienced before, and I really couldn’t ask for anything more. That would just be spoiling me.