And that's the way the cookie crumbles

Last night, my string of Christmas parties came to an end. We had our company party and it was amazing! The venue was so cool - set up much like a ski lodge. Food was amazing. Great music. And amazing company.

All in all, it was a good way to close out the media Christmas season.

Now I get to start the real party - my trip home!! I can't wait to leave tomorrow - this time tomorrow, my flight will have been in the air for half an hour!!

See you all very very soon. x

I Heard the Bells (whiskey) on Christmas Day

Oh Broadcast. How I have a love-hate relationship with the parties we put on.

I had my 2nd Christmas party on Tuesday - the infamous Broadcast one. It was a very fun night but it got a bit too silly, mostly in part due to shots.

I'll leave you with a few photos. I've got my 3rd and final Christmas party tonight, the Carat company party. Going to take it easy. But on the bright side, I don't have to be at work until noon tomorrow. AND THEN, only ONE sleep until I come home! I'm beyond excited but I still don't think that I've processed the fact that I'm coming home. Still have to pack.... so much procrastination.

Love you and miss you all, and can not WAIT to see you.

Around the World in 6 hours

We're full on into Christmas party season now. I don't know where the time has gone! Firstly, can't believe it's already December. Secondly, can't believe we're almost half way through December. Work has been a whirlwind. Early closedowns, lots of campaigns... just trying to keep my head screwed on.

On Wednesday, I had my first Christmas party of the season. It was our floor party. Lou organised the whole thing. The theme was Around the World and was a costume party. We all dressed up as different citizens of the world. I chose to go as Cleopatra. It was an awesome evening and loads of fun!

Here is a photo of me and the rest of my team. As you can see, everyone put in a lot of effort!

I'm coming home in 8 days! This is what's keeping me going. Next week is going to FLY by. It's very busy, work wise and socially. Tuesday is the big Broadcast Christmas party. Wednesday I have a lunch with the J&J team and one of the contractors. Thursday is the Carat party. Friday is radio drinks. And then Saturday, I leave!

The best part of Friday next week is I get to sleep in! With the floor party, everyone was allowed to come in at noon the next day - apart from TV, mostly because we have early closedowns to deal with. So to be fair, we get to come in late next week. Friday will go by so fast!

I can not wait to come home for a White Christmas!

Love you all x

Alrighty homies, not much to report.

I've been busy doing normal things - work, social outings, etc.

Work has been really good - I've been exceedingly busy but handling it all very well. I feel like I'm starting to get a real handle on it so that makes me happy.

I am, however, really looking forward to Christmas!! It's less than a month until I'll be flying home. 27 days in fact. I can't wait to do some Christmas baking, have my Mom's Christmas dinner and see all of my friends and family. It's going to be amazing.

I think missing Christmas last year truly made me appreciate it. Not that I've never appreciated Christmas, but when you miss out on it - you really realise how important and special it is.

It'll be nice to have Christmas in the new house - I'm sure Mom is happy that I'll be there for the 1st one!

The next few weeks are going to fly by! I've got at least one work related social outing a week until I leave. My Outlook calendar has been filled with lunches and Christmas parties. They're all going to be a lot of fun and will surely only make the time go by faster. This week I have a curry lunch with Sky TV and then SmartClip (tv online) will be taking us out for cocktail making lessons.

Anywho, love you and miss you all. See you all very soon! x

celebrity juice.

This week, I got a last minute invitation to go to the recording of a show on ITV2 (a TV station) called Celebrity Juice. One thing I absolutely love about the UK are the panel chat shows they have on TV - they're hysterical. Basically, they'll get comedians and some celebs together and have trivia and what not. One of them that I love is called 8 out of 10 Cats where they try to guess survey statistics. It's all quite funny.

Anyway, Celebrity Juice is one of said chat shows. This one focuses on celebrity gossip. The one we went to was the Christmas Special (English TV is huge at Christmas - loads of special programming, etc).

It was really funny! Had an absolute nightmare getting there because of the tube strike but in the end it was fun.

Got quite a lot on in the next few weeks as we start to get closer and closer to Christmas. We've got a team lunch next week which should be good. We'll all be going for a nice meal and some drinks, courtesy of my boss.

Lots to do, so little time. Work hard, play hard!

(41 days til I come home!) x

Shenanigan-ing about with work

I've had an eventful few weeks at work - it's been very "play hard, work hard." Very busy but we still manage to find the time to unwind.

Last week, Lou was behind organising our work's charity event for Wear it Pink. It was amazing! A lot of people from work turned up and there was an auction as well. I enjoyed bidding on things with no intention of winning. True class (ha ha).

On Wednesday, I went to Cartoon Network's launch party for the new Scooby Doo. It was a halloween party but I foolishly didn't dress up! It was loads of fun with all my lovely co-workers who I just adore. The venue was brilliant as well - it was a Vinopolis, which is sort of a wine tasting venue. All in all very good night!

RED premiere.

Long overdue post about my experience at the RED premiere. I'll make it really short and sweet. The movie was awesome and the experience was brilliant as ever. We arrived and went straight up the red carpet. Lou even had to point out that we walked directly past Helen Mirren.

The movies then all came out to introduce the film - so we got to see Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren and Mary Louise Parker! Very exciting experience.(not the greatest photo as everybody's flashes were going off - but you get the point!)

RED premiere

Proper post to come... way too tired right now.

belated wishes among other things.

Also - wanna wish everyone a belated Happy Thanksgiving!

It's unfortunate that non-North-Americans don't get this amazing holiday. Luckily for me, Mabel is cooking turkey dinner on Saturday and has graciously invited me to attend. So looking forward to it - despite the fact that it will obviously not be as good as Mom's (things never are).

Work has been busy as ever - it was nice though to have Monday off. It's made this week fly by. Can't believe it's already Thursday! We're starting to get an influx of events in the diary work-wise, so I've got quite a few things to look forward to. Today I've just gotten an invite for an event celebrating the launch of the new Scooby Doo programme (buying kids airtime has its perks). Hilariously though, this event - promoting a child's programme - is being held at Vinopolis. An amazing venue that's known for wine tasting and such.

Other than that, nothing new to report.

Except. 65 days til I'm home!!

x

praha-ha-ha

Time for a proper post about my weekend away to Prague!

We left early (and I mean EARLY - caught a cab to airport at 3am!) and arrived in Prague just before noon. We couldn't check in yet but luckily our friends were already there. So we ditched our luggage in their room and went off to explore. We ended up climbing up to Prague's highest point where the castle and subsequent cathedral were located. It was a beauty. And as was the view.

We then went searching for a pub that Time Out has said was quite good. Once we finally found it, we realised it wasn't that great. Well, the beer was. But the food? Not so much. I ordered dumplings and got a pile of what seemed to be steamed bread. Lou ordered pork crackling and got a bowl of lard. Makes for a good memory but not a very good meal!

That night we went out on the town - mostly just hopping from pub to pub. Mark (one our friends that went along) wanted to catch the first Boston - Phoenix match in a bar but unfortunately, all they were playing was American College Football! Too funny. Lots of Americans loving it though. All in all the evening out was very fun. One of Lou's friends lives in Prague and took us to a more local place and it was by far one of the coolest bars I've been to. She led us into a normal looking pub but then we went to the very back, down some stairs, through a tunnel, more stairs and then finally to the back room which was like an underground cellar. So cool.

You can smoke in bars in Prague and as the bar was underground, very little ventilation = lots of smoke. As demonstrated in this photo.

The next day we spent most of the morning sleeping - pretty tired out from the day before to be honest. We then went on to watch the Boston - Phoenix opener. SO good! I miss watching hockey - so it was great. It made me feel back at home. Though it was funny to hear Europeans trying to say LET'S GO BOSTON. About 12,000 people turned out for the game and the atmosphere was great. And for once, beer and food was appropriately priced at the stadium. That's definitely a first!

Our last day was spent checking out the BEAUTIFUL clock tower (where the video was taken).

We then finished our time in Prague with an amazing traditional Czech meal - which was the total opposite from our first experience!

All in all, Prague was a beautiful city and a great weekend.

czech me out

just a quick video - will do a proper post with pictures later! x

picturesque.

I felt like sharing some more photos...

Me and a few of the girls at Lou's London-themed birthday party (I was Canada Water - a tube station)

Me and one of my best friends at work, Karl, who's leaving this week.

And finally, Lou and I in Cardiff.

I was watching a Christmas episode of Grey's Anatomy this morning and just got really excited and anxious to come home. I can't wait to see you all! x

media's next top model

There was a photo booth at one of the work events I went to a few weeks ago...

Just another random post...

Work has been crazy busy the past few weeks. Our September workloads are quite big so it's been a bit mental. I'm managing though. It's just a matter of learning time management and such. But I'm really enjoying it.

Had another night out on Thursday with WebTV. It was girls only so they took everyone for dinner and drinks. Bobby and Brady (a couple of friends of mine from university) were in London for a few hours so I missed the dinner bit. It was lovely seeing them though! Nice to have familiar faces around. Once they left, I went and met up with the girls for dessert and drinks. We then headed off to one of my coworker's leaving drinks.

All in all it was a lovely evening.

Happy its the weekend - been catching up on some sleep.

I've also booked my flight home! I've cleared everything with work and I'll be back in Saskatoon on 18th December and staying until 8th January. It's gonna be amazing! Although, I have a feeling that the cold is gonna throw me off guard - sort of getting used to English weather!

Can't wait to see all of you - 4 months!!

well welsh.

So an exciting weekend was had. Just got back from Cardiff, Wales last night. Lou and I just went for the weekend. It was a very good trip!

Cardiff was beautiful and much quieter than London. Even today I've found myself getting frustrated with the swarms of people - mostly because the streets were empty in Cardiff! The weather was lovely, which is shocking because Wales is supposed to be much more rainy than London. (So that's two places I've gone - Edinburgh and Cardiff - and had sunshine where there was supposed to be rain!). The nightlife was great and we just went around the Bay on Saturday.

It was nice to get away from London for a bit.

Not sure at the moment if Greece is going to happen or not - more than likely getting postponed. But Prague is still happening in October.

Work is busy as ever - this morning just flew by! I'm hoping to book my flight back to Canada soon, so stay tuned for confirmed dates.

For now, I leave you with a photo of me at Mermaid Quay in Cardiff.

Love and miss you all. x

me and a few colleagues at the sports day.

Wow! It's been a very long time since my last post. I just keep forgetting. I know I don't post as frequently as I used to but if anything this makes each post a little more interesting as I have much more to say!

So since we last spoke, I've been very busy! I've started my new job at work which has been keeping me busy! I'm loving every minute of it though. I'm now working as an assistant buyer for the broadcast team. Basically, clients (ex. Kellogg's) decide to spend a certain amount of money of TV advertising. I then get this budget which is allocated to different stations. Throughout the month, I basically have to monitor how this money is being spent and make sure that it's hitting all of the quality parameters in place. (This was the easiest possible way of explaining!). It's more complicated than that, but I do really love it. I was thrown in the deep end at the beginning of July with my own 2 campaigns. At the moment, I'm buying 2 Kellogg's campaigns as well as 3 Lego campaigns. All in all, it's going really well and I'm quite pleased.

Jen was also here for the duration of July. Well, not in London the whole time, but in the UK nonetheless. She stayed in London for a week and we just hung out which was really nice. It was different having a familiar face here! She then trekked off to Scotland where I met her for a weekend in Edinburgh. It was beautiful. It really is a lovely city and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I will be continuing my discovery of the UK this weekend as Lou and I head off to Cardiff on Friday.

We also had a nice little Broadcast Sports Day a few weeks back which was amazing. One of the stations took us out for a day of random sports (not serious sports, think things like Sack Races and such). All in all had a wicked time. Everyone I work with is amazing and we always have a good time when we all go out.

Speaking of, I'm heading to another station event tomorrow. It's called Media's Next Top Model. Basically, the saleshouse that deals with America's Next Top Model puts on a runway show with different people from agencies across London. One of my close friends is Carat's rep. But I somehow managed to score an invite so myself and a few work friends will be heading to that tomorrow night!

Everything is going well here. I miss you all and am currently trying to sort out when I'll be home at Christmas. Yes, you read that right. I will be coming home for Christmas this year! So excited!

Love you all, miss you more. Take care.

x

Mixing work up with play... it's the Canadian way

Well first of all - changed the layout of the blog again. It's more refreshed and a bit more summery (despite the lack of sun right now).

Over the weekend, a little thing called the World Cup (you may have heard of it!) started and it's been crazy World Cup Fever ever since. The TVs are all on at work on a daily basis whenever a match is on. Anyway, I had my first football/soccer experience over the weekend and it definitely was something else!

Katie (Lou's roommate) was also celebrating her birthday, so we all headed down to our local to help her celebrate as well as catch the England-USA match. It was insanely busy at the pub! We got there at 4pm (4 hours early) and managed to snag the last table. But the atmosphere was something I've never seen before and it was definitely a cool experience.

It wasn't fun getting mistaken for an American - but this was something that I was fully expecting before hand! Most people were completely fine once I corrected them.

All in all it was a good experience and I look forward to catching some more football before the tournament's end. Work has even booked out a bar close by for the England - Slovenia match next week so we can all have some drinks, food and watch the footie (check me out with my new lingo).

Hope you're all enjoying the newfound sun I heard about - hopefully it's still around!

Love you and miss you all x

enjoying the beautiful weather!

Some travel plans are in the pipeline! My friend Jen is coming here in July for a month and she's doing a tour of the UK. She's going to be staying with me for a week and then heading off to adventure all that Great Britain has to offer. I've planned to meet her Edinburgh for a weekend and everything is now booked! So soon I can add Scotland to my list. Plus, I'm really excited as Scottish accents are way cooler than English ones (in my opinion anyway)!

Also - Lou and I are steadily planning a holiday in September. Hopefully Greece. But something that's definitely happening is a trip to Prague in October! We've booked some NHL tickets with friends. Yeah, you read that right. NHL. In Prague! Apparently two years ago the NHL decided to start opening their seasons in Europe. So this year, myself, Lou, our friend Rachel and her boyfriend Mark (who is an avid hockey fan despite being English) are going to a Boston - Phoenix game!!! Words can not describe how excited I am for this. It'll be cool because not only will I get to see a hockey game BUT I will also get to see the Czech Republic.

Oh and did I mention Lou and I are also going to Wales in August and Paris (again) in November! Exciting - I'm hoping that we also get away to either Italy or Amsterdam before the summer's over ... only time will tell!

Anyway, I'm gonna head back to work and then thoroughly enjoy the lovely +24 weather at the pub afterwards!!

Love and miss you all x

Oh yeah! I also forgot to mention that last week Lou and I went to see Macbeth at the Globe Theatre. It was amazing! The performance was good and the atmosphere was even better.

Meeting John Hannah at the Spartacus launch.

heidi and audrina eat your hearts out.

I've had a good couple of weeks since I last posted - been really busy with loads of different things. The movie premiere I attended was quite cool and the film itself wasn't too bad - it was basically Bring it On meets Save the Last Dance (pretty much right up Lindsey's alley). It was definitely cool to walk down the red carpet. Hoping I get a chance to do that again!

This week I've gone to a couple different events - on Wednesday, I went to a launch party for the new TV series Spartacus with work. It was amazing! There were people dressed as spartans everywhere, a pig roast and other cool "Sparta" stuff. I even met one of the actors from the show, John Hannah, who you'd probably recognize as Johnathan from The Mummy franchise. All in all it was a very good night!

On Thursday, me and some friends went out to a little event in promotion of Sex and the City 2. It was a very girly evening with cocktail making lessons, makeovers and highly amusing dance lessons.

This weekend has had beautiful weather but Lou and I are spending it indoors catching up on the entire last season of Lost. They're airing the series finale simultaneously with the US premiere so we're getting up before work (at 5am!) on Monday to watch it. It's all very exciting!

The only last bit of news is work related. Last week, I went through the grad day recruitment process for a promotion at work. I've been working as an administrative assistant but I've come to a point where I need to be a bit more challenged. I found out that they were recruiting for broadcast assistants and threw my name in the hat. The grad day went really well and I've just heard yesterday that I officially made it through! Now they just have to figure out which team to put me on and find my replacement and I'll be movin' on up! I'm really excited - I'll actually start buying campaigns and overall have a lot more responsibility at work - not to mention, a pay rise!

That's my news for now. Hope you all are enjoying the long weekend - hopefully your weather is as good as ours right now! Love you all and miss you more!

x

north of america, hard to ignore

I've been back for almost a month now and I haven't posted! The jetlag was horrendous coming back, made that much worse by the simple fact that I worked the following day! About 2 days after I got back I caught a really bad cold (which I think is due to a combination of jetlag and weather change) which was not fun.

Work has been incredibly busy - but that's always a good thing! I'm going to be interviewing for a job within my company - basically a step above what I do at the moment. I really hope it goes well because I'm craving something a bit more challenging than admin at the moment. So wish me luck with that!

One of the saleshouses is coming in today and giving us a few of us broadcast lot free massages and manicures. So in 1/2 an hour, I'll be getting my nails done all pretty! Right after work I'm heading over to Leicester Square where I will be attending my first premiere! It's for a British film called Street Dance - so I'm sure you probably won't ever see it, but I'm really excited!

To polish off this week, one of the girls from work is leaving so her leaving drinks are on Thursday. And then on Sunday, Lou and I are heading over to the Globe to see MacBeth! So busy busy busy!

Hope you all are well. Miss and love you. x

lou got herself a ticket to the remember me (new robert pattinson film) premiere tonight. she was only able to get one (despite her best efforts to get two!) so i went to keep her company before she had to walk the red carpet in.

it was insane! there were crazy twilight fans just about everywhere. i stuck around long enough to catch a glimpse of robert pattinson (couldn't manage to get a photo though...boo) and thought that was enough to go home. he was beautiful.

first time i've seen a premiere in the flesh though - despite living here for 9 months! it was very cool. i'm thinking that sometime soon (i'm thinking the sex and the city premiere in may) i'll take a half day and go be one of the crazies waiting for the stars to arrive.

just another cool thing about living in london. premieres just round the corner from work. amazing.

(i'm home in a week!!! can not wait!)

time won't let me go..home

Wow, it's been a while since I've last posted! Probably been the longest break in between posts. I've been a busy girl with work which has been nice. But there's good news attached to that - my contract has been renewed! So I'm excited, not gonna have to look for a new job. This also solidifies my trip home! My flights have been booked for a couple weeks now, but just to say it out loud, I'm coming home March 24th! I'll be staying until April 12th, so it'll be a nice visit. Gonna be home for Easter, which I'm also happy about.

There hasn't been much to report in terms of what I've been up to. Work, cinema, etc. Not a whole lot. One cool thing that I got to do though was attend a BAFTA (the British Academy of Film and Television) event! Lou won tickets to their Silent Picture House event. The BAFTAs are the British equivalent of the Oscars and the awards ceremony was a couple weeks ago. Two days before the awards they held this event where they played all the films nominated for Best Picture. You got a headset, picked a screen, and watched the film of your choice. It was amazing and the hospitality was phenomenal. We basically got to go in, have a bunch of hors d'oeuvres and champagne. Good times.

Anyway, I should get back to work. But I can't wait to come home! Tim Horton's, dim sum, perogies, family and friends. Just a few things I'm excited to have in my life again!

Miss you all and see you in a few short weeks!

another day, another year older.

Yesterday was my 23rd birthday! And as I'm a bit cynical about birthdays and the singing in general, it all went really well! I hadn't told anybody at work about it mostly because I didn't want people to make a big deal out of it. But Lou went ahead and informed my boss and my friend Karl. And go figure, round 4:00pm there was cake and singing. I'll admit now that it was nice. I was more interested in the card to be honest!

Then Lou was gracious (and awesome) enough to take me out for dinner. Katie came and met us here and we all headed off to T.G.I.Fridays (yes, TGIFridays, the same as in the states - they serve "American" food). We had a great meal and loads of cocktails.

Finished off the night with a quick stop at our local pub in Tooting. We mostly just wanted to reassure the landlord (Lindsey met him while she was here!) that we were alive. Had a couple birthday shots and headed home.

All in all it was a great birthday. Just like Christmas, it wasn't the same as back home. But it's a new year, I live in a new country and have some wonderful new friends. At the end of the day, you just want to be with people you love on your birthday and I got just that - so I'm not complaining. (Don't think that means I didn't miss you all!)

ringing in the new year.

me and lou at carat's christmas party.

hello 2010! i hope everyone had a great new year's, because i surely did! me, lou and some friends went out for a nice dinner in covent garden. we then did a bit of dancing and then round 11:00 headed off to waterloo to catch the fireworks. unfortunately, we didn't really get to see the fireworks because the bridge was far too full with people! nevertheless, we brought bottles of champagne and were surrounded by people and patiently waited for big ben to strike 12!

i frantically called everyone back home to wish them a happy new year's! it was a great time. the journey home was ridiculous but was well worth it. it was by far one of the best new year's eves i've ever had. lots of fun.

here's to hoping that 2010 is as good as 2009.