driving miss crazy.

It goes without saying that I miss my friends and family. But I've just realised something that I genuinely miss. Driving.

It's been almost 4 months since I've driven a vehicle. Not that I mind public transport. It's part of London's charm. But since I've recently acquired new music, I forgot just how much I loved driving, most times alone, while listening to music. It was probably one of my biggest forms of therapy.

This isn't me saying I'm home sick. This is me saying I miss one of the minor things that used to play a vital part of my everyday life. I guess in a way I've swapped listening to music in the car for listening to music on the tube. Lou and I take the tube to work everyday together and sometimes I like when she's running late because then I get to listen to my iPod for the whole journey to work.

I guess this is just a small way of describing things that I've swapped. I have a new method of transport, a new job, new friends.. all in all, a new way of life. And don't get me wrong, I'm loving every minute of it. But sometimes, for as little as 20 minutes, I miss Saskatoon.

Love you all xx

video killed the media star.

Alright - so time for a post since I've started my new job! It's been almost 2 weeks now at Carat and I have been loving it! There's a lot to learn, but I'm embracing it. Basically, I work as an assistant to the broadcast team and mostly just do administrative work. So my days are filled with building spreadsheets, booking tv spots, etc. But the best part has been learning all this new stuff! I sit with some of the TV buyers and they've been really helpful in terms of helping me grasp the industry.

One of the cool things so far was on Monday, it was MTV day at work. They came to work and had different presentations (none of which I could attend - too busy) and then finished the night off with a pub quiz (they're huge over here - basically, you get in teams, go to pub and do trivia questions). The pub quiz was so much fun! I was on a team with Lou and her friend Rachel and it was all music trivia. We didn't do too badly - didn't win, but still - and the winning team (again, not us) get to go on to the finals to compete for MTV Europe Award tickets! All in all, we got to go for a night out on MTV's dime! And in a few weeks, ITV (a TV channel) is taking out all of broadcast for drinks.

The people have been lovely and I'm really enjoying the job. That's about all I can say for now. For the time being, I'm just biding my time until I get paid and then Lindsey arrives! So excited!

Miss you all and love you. xx

gettin the used and abused.

I've had a fantastic week so far - just as predicted! I didn't start work today because the other 2 guys that got hired are starting on Monday, so they thought it was best for us all to start on the same day. Makes sense. So I'm enjoying my last 2 days of freedom.

Yesterday I had a day of supply teaching and it went fairly well. The first half of the day was good and the last half was hell. But I survived. Mostly on the idea that I don't have to do this full time!

But the night was capped off with The Used in concert! It was amazing, but I went in the mosh pit and am paying for it today! But Lou was nice enough to stick around with me so I could try and meet the band. And I met Dan Whitesides (the drummer)! It was awesome.

Going out in Soho tomorrow with Lou and some of her friends. Should be good - then work starts on Monday! Thank God!

a job worth it's weight in 24 carat gold.

This is shaping up to be quite the week. I interviewed at Carat last week and thought I did quite well. Turns out I was right! I was called today by their HR rep and was offered the job! I start on Thursday!!

I finally have a job!!! I'm ecstatic. Hence the exclamation marks. I haven't been able to contain my happiness and smiles all day long.

On top of that, I booked a day of supply work on Wednesday that I'm still gonna do despite the fact that I start at Carat on Thursday. And on Wednesday, I'm also going to see my favorite band alive, The Used.

So let's recap. Work. Concert. WORK. Drinks with friends. Amazing week. Yes? Yes.

(Oh and here is a link to the company website so you can see for yourself where I'll be working - http://www.carat.co.uk/index.php)

I GOT A JOB!!!!

what do you carat bout?

Alrighty, so first and foremost, the lack of blog updates? This is due to a lack of things happening right now. There's only so many posts I can make about going to the cinema or watching TV at home. The job front came to a stand still for the last 2 weeks BUT fortunately came booming back this week. This is ironic because this was the week I was going to start making calls for supply work but now I don't have time!

Today I had to go in and do some testing for the first round of interview for an administrative job at Carat (pronounced Cara - it's French). It's an entry level job where I'd be working on a team of administrators assisting the TV buyers for the company. They're the ones who buy advertising space, etc for TV (obviously). Anyway, I made it through testing and have an assessment day on Thursday. I'm really hoping this works out for 2 reasons. 1) I want the job and 2) this just happens to be the company that Lou works for! And that would be amazing. She's told me nothing but good things about it as a company and the perks are supposed to be pretty great.

While I was at testing, one of my non-teaching agencies called about an interview day tomorrow for a sales role within telecommunications. So tomorrow I have that all morning. And then directly afterwards I have to go and register with yet another teaching agency (keeping my options open). And then Thursday is the assessment centre.

Busy busy week! I also have plans for Friday with my 2 new teacher friends, the Aussie and the Kiwi. I should really just refer to them as Team South Pacific. That's what I call them in real life anyway! They're lovely girls and it's nice to have some other people to chat with and have to call on.

Anyway, that's it for this post. I will keep you all posted on any progress on the job front - keep crossing those fingers! (They probably hurt by now seeing as it's been 2 months of no job). Love you all and miss you! xxx

aboot a trunk.

A boot = a trunk. Just another vocabulary lesson from Paige.

Just thought I'd do a quick update - this weekend was a Bank Holiday, or as we Canadians know as a statutory holiday. It was actually quite eventful.

On Friday, I went to a pub in central London where one of my teaching agencies was having a welcome night for their international teachers. I met 2 girls there - 1 aussie and 1 Kiwi. We got on quite well and decided to go out afterwards. We met up with the Kiwi's flatmates, who were also from New Zealand, at a pub called The Walkabout. It's a franchised type place, basically Australian themed pubs. It was an amazing night! They were really cool people and it's nice to have met others in my shoes. Definitely will be keeping in touch with them.

Then on Saturday, Lou and I went out to Sussex for a barbeque. One of Lou's friends from university has this barbeque every year out at her parents' place in Battle. It was so nice! It felt a lot like going out to the lake because we were out in the countryside. After living in London for 2 months, you forget what space and trees and such look like! We had a wicked time and had loads of fun.

To cap off the weekend, Lou and I spent most of our time watching films and staying in. Despite the beautiful weather, we wanted to just chill out a bit.

Now I'm off to meet Lou for lunch. In terms of the job front, it basically is as follows. No job. But school's back in on Thursday so supply teaching should theoretically start pretty soon. I say theoretically only because it's quite slow for supply teaching at the beginning of the school year. So my plan is to get a retail job for September-October, use my days off to do a few days of supply then move to full time supply come November. I have an interview for a sales assistant job at the shop in Westminster Abbey which doesn't pay too horribly (about the equivalent of 13$CA an hour) and it would be quite cool to work there! I've also applied at Vodafone, which is basically a UK equivalent of Telus. And that would be in Wimbledon which is quite close to me. So fingers crossed that come next week I'll be working. If I get the job at Westminster it starts Monday. NO MORE BOREDOM!

Miss you all and hope you all have a great September Long Weekend!

xxx

brought to you by the letter p.

Well, it's been a few days since I last updated and I've been keeping busy! Nothing job related - I decided to take a few days off seeing as it was Lou's birthday last week and she took time off from work. So mostly I spent my time helping her get set up for her party on Saturday night.

Last Wednesday was Lou's actual birthday and her brother cooked dinner for her and invited me to tag along. It was wicked. Lovely dinner with her brother and his wife. They were amazingly cool and we got on quite well. So that was definitely a highlight of the week.

Let's skip to Saturday. Had loads of people over at Lou's. The party was themed and everybody was to dress as something starting with a P. I went as a Pink Lady. Lou was a pilot. There was a prom queen, Pocahontas and a peacock among other things. We all had a wicked time and I got to meet a lot of new, nice people. One of which was a girl called Becca and she's one of Lou's best friends from university. She's invited me to come along with Lou to her birthday party this upcoming weekend out in Sussex. I'm stoked! I get to see yet another little slice of England.

The only other news I have is that I've been enthralled in True Blood and that my flatmate, Ken, is amazing. He handed me his external hard drive today and let me copy loads of movies over to my computer. So now, I have about 15 new movies to watch. And you all know me well enough to know of my fondness of film and seeing as I only brought 24 of my 200, I'm happy for new ones.

Love you all and miss you. And happy birthday Mom!