New Year/ New Decade

Indeed, if the start of 2011 was not something that I could get worked up about it was because of today. 30 years old. I’m actually completely ok with it, I don’t ever remember setting any 30 by 30 lists or the like, so I don’t think I have failed any ambitions I may once have had.

I’m really very happy with my life, true I grumble about my apartment, but it is in a great neighbourhood and a lot cheaper than many of my friends and colleagues are paying so I can save money. I have awesome friends (so good they even come and paint my apartment for me on a Saturday afternoon!) a wonderful SO, a great new job and lovely family who I keep in close touch with. My health has been really good for the last year or so.

Last year I decided to try and make sure I turned 30 feeling good about myself and for the most part I have managed that, I challenged myself to overcome my fear of dentists and managed it. The only thing I think could have been better is my fitness, but I know that I am never at my fittest in the depths of winter, so I am willing to overlook this!

All in all I am quite happy to have reached this milestone, and I did very well with the haul of birthday presents! Some beautiful black pearls from my family, something I have wanted for years; they are such a treat and I confess I have been wearing them daily for the last two weeks since they arrived in the post!! I also got the beautiful item below from my SO, again something I have been wanting for many years; and something I think will get a lot of use as I enjoy baking so much.

Tomorrow we leave with some friends for a return visit to Whitehorse and another dog-sledding adventure! I’m so excited to be going again, it’s an added birthday treat. Especially since I took my birthday off work (always!) this will be a 6 day weekend!

 

2011 goals

I always have quite a slow start to the New Year, I never seem to convince myself it has begun until I am back at work (tomorrow), or it is my birthday (only 3 short days away). So here I am on day 3 of 2011 still trying to sort out my goals for the year.

I did spend the last few days of 2010 clearing out every room in the apartment, going through the kitchen and bathroom cupboards, the large hall storage cupboard and my craft supplies; tossing, recycling and sorting out into charity bags and stuff for my friends. I also planned my savings goals for the year, which are quite intense so we shall see if I am able to meet them.

My plans for the year include:

Enthusiasm:

This is a bit of a “fake it till I make it” goal, I find that I often turn down invites because I am a homebody, even when I know that I usually enjoy myself when I am out with my friends. So I will say “yes” more often in 2011, I will give myself a pass to expensive events but most times I am invited to someone else’s house, or maybe a dinner out at an inexpensive restaurant. The second part to this is regarding work, I really do enjoy my new job but I find myself dragging myself in on Mondays (and sometimes other days). I’m very lucky to have this position, it is interesting, useful to my future career and actually is doing good for people, now I just need to act like this is the case; no more moaning. Obviously, if I actually am having a bad or stressful time at work I will allow myself a little venting but not about mundane things, like having to go in everyday!

Creativity:

Continuing from 2010′s 2 nights a week of hobbies I will continue to spend time on my various crafts; and pick up some new ones perhaps; I’m considering a pottery course- currently I just need to decide which community centre is most convenient for me, I will also put this off until spring when I will be able to walk to class. Unluckily for my friends and family perhaps, I will be trying even harder to make as many birthday and Christmas gifts as I can, certainly I will aim to make all my cards again; I managed it in 2010.

Working the little grey cells:

I will be signing up for Spanish beginner’s level 2 this week at work and hoping that my learning companion from level one will also return so that we can continue to meet each week between classes for further practice. I am also going to make sure I read more; towards the end of my last job I pretty much stopped reading for pleasure, and I really have only got back into it over Christmas, so I am hoping to keep it up. I will be participating in FT’s Classics Book Group, as well as reading my little stack of books at home, I’m also hoping to tackle a few non-fiction pieces in different fields, I’ve just ordered “The Trouble with Physics” from the library! Finally I am also considering giving in to SO and learning some “techy” things, perhaps I will learn html code for a website, or finally spend some time on Linux, this is as yet undecided.

Working the little muscle cells:

I must find a new dance class, and possibly even a gym membership somewhere, on top of this I will reinstate my morning work out routine. This summer I hope we will get back in the habit of our long weekend walks and I need to be sure that I can manage them.

I’ll be breaking these larger goals down, either monthly or quarterly and hopefully that will help me keep on top of them…

 

End of Year update

Oh dear, the blog has got away from me again! I have been quite busy though, not the best excuse but there it is. I’ve been busy settling in to my new job, still early days but I am really enjoying it; the projects are all interesting and some are quite good fun, I’m especially enjoying the one which involves interviewing children and I was dreading it the most! My supervisor is lovely, not there every day but most days and always checks up on me during the week, just the right amount. I’m in an office with two really nice people; I have a lot of fun with them which is always good.

Other than that the department is not quite as social as my old department, so I still return there for lunch a couple of days a week. In the spring we will be moving to a brand new building about a block away, unfortunately, as with most new build offices, we are moving to a large open plan cubicle farm! My understanding is that there will be about 60 of us on one floor! Supposedly they are sound dampening cubicles, but I imagine there is only so much that can be done. I’m not looking forward to this change very much but at the same time the building will be much better designed for the research needs of the department which will be a nice change.

Anyway here is a summary of my 2010 goals:

1. No clothes purchases January-March, and again November

I did mostly manage this; there was a little slip with Olympic mittens, I think I didn’t make any clothes purchases in November although I certainly did again in December. However I am now well stocked with smart cardigans for work (all on average 50% off) so I am re-instigating this clothing ban for the first three months of 2011.

2. Update blog twice a month

hahahaha, not so much; I started well then it slid away… I feel like the last few months I was busy finishing my old job and settling into the new one, on top of that I had some manic crafting in late November right through to Boxing Day making gifts and cards for people! Hopefully now that most of that is behind me, at least until the January and February family birthdays are on top of me (oh, wait) I will be able to get back to more frequent blogging.

3. Spend 2 nights a week on hobbies

I think I managed this pretty consistently, more recently it has been every day, but for most of the year I maintained a good balance with hobby time. I’m not sure if any of my skills have improved at all but I have continued with jewellery making, card making, and knitting and even broke out the cross stitch for the first time in years for 4 Christmas gifts. I need to get better at documenting everything I make though, often it is quite last minute and in an envelope and out the door before I remember to get my camera out!

4. Move

again, no. We have discovered that having been locked in at minimal rental increases for five years there is nowhere comparably priced that is close to either as large, as conveniently situated, nor as nice (and that is saying something) as our current apartment. I think if we moved out now the next occupants would have to pay between $150 and $200 more each month. We are sitting put for now and weighing our options, we did get new carpet in the living room, dining area and hall, and repainted all those areas so the place looks much better.

5. Find a new job

Yes! Just the day after I found out for sure we had run out of funding, my office mate spotted a job ad that suited me, I applied and got it! I am so lucky that the job ad was spotted, I hadn’t started looking as I had 3 months notice but there has been very little else advertised in recent months that I could happily do so I am very pleased to get the position. Now I have to make sure that I can impress them enough to keep it!

6. Pay attention to my diet

Yes! I am still staying away from bread and pasta, a side effect is a few pounds of weight lost (according to my wii!). My medical issues seem to be doing quite well under this regime so I will continue it. My only exception is naan and roti if I am at an Indian or Malaysian restaurant, but the spicy food isn’t great for me anyway so I figure I may as well go the whole hog and enjoy my food!

7. Get fitter

Hmmm, I was walking to and from work and to dance classes from March to August, at which point we got the car and now I get a lift to and from work both days. I have also stopped my dance class, I’m hoping to find a new, more energetic one in January though. On the plus side, my new department encourages moving around, most staff wear pedometers every day, the printer is on another floor and in another (connected) building. I also climb the stairs a lot now, so I think I am moving a fair bit, I have also re-instigated my morning workout, and am actually considering joining a gym.

All in all I don’t think I did too badly with my goals, I also achieved my financial goals for the year so I am pleased with that. I have been working on my list for 2011 and will post it soon.

 

November goals and beginnings

So I started my new job at the beginning of the month and have had 4 solid days of reading since then. The new position seems good, but a bit intense to begin with. Sadly I still have some work from my old job to finish up this weekend, but after that I should be able to concentrate entirely on my new post.

My new supervisor seems like she will be much more involved in my work, my old supervisor very much left me to it, so this will be a nice change although I imagine it will take a little getting used to, having to report so often to her.

I also am only two floors below my old department so I can visit my friends up there frequently, I am trying to get to know my new work colleagues as well of course!

This new department is a little more dressy than my previous job so I spent the end of September and much of October buying new tops, cardis and smart jeans (note dressy by Vancouver standards is Friday casual in the UK!). I set myself a budget and came in under it, using coupon codes and offers for every item, but now I need to stop shopping. I am able to go for reasonably long periods of time without shopping but once I get in the habit of scouting clothing websites it is hard to stop, and I find I am tempted by one more sale… to that end I am challenging myself to not buy any non-essentials before January. If I shop it will be a gift for someone else, which is just as well considering that Christmas and the majority of my family’s birthdays are approaching….

I do however have almost $300 to spend in a kitchen store as a gift from my old department, so if I feel the need to treat myself I can head there.

My November goals are:

1. No new clothes or craft purchases

2. Wrap up old job stuff

3. Make Christmas cards, and organise card class for my friends

4. Three social outings with my friends

5. Finish Christmas shopping

6. Buy, wrap and mail Christmas gift to China Kidz

 

Last quarter…

I’ve just realised that we are at the final stretch of the year, and I’m not really sure how that happened!

I’ve been incredibly busy at work for the last month or so, with only two weeks left at my current position I am trying to get everything wrapped up but more and more seems to be coming my way. On top of that I am busy with evening classes, trying to fit some Spanish homework in between classes as well.

A church in the one of the mining towns

All of this has combined to mean that I am really behind on my Christmas plans, normally at this point I am half way through my Christmas gift and card creating, this year I have nothing planned. I have started some Christmas cards this weekend but that might be the extent of my Christmas crafting, my friends and relatives may sigh with relief as they are likely to receive purchased gifts this year!

Beautiful BC in the fall

On the plus side I have managed to fit some fun into my schedule; this weekend I went to the annual Apple Festival at UBC and enjoyed the tasting booth as well as splitting a lovely slice of apple pie. I came home with 3lbs of apples and baked a rather tasty (if I say so myself) pie last night. I think I will use some of the others as part of my entry for the baking competition at work for my leaving do.

Last weekend was a long weekend and SO and I treated ourselves to an extra day off work and escaped the city for a couple of nights. We headed north past Whistler then looped east and south through several small towns and villages. We spent the first night in a lovely lodge in Pemberton, with intentions of taking a hike to a glacier lake we instead succumbed to the lure of the outdoor hot tub where we spent the better part of the evening.

Mining truck

On the second day we took a meandering route through some quite desolate little towns including a couple of mining towns; SO was entranced by the size of the mining trucks- see SO standing at the front tyre for scale! We ended up in Merritt where we had hoped to fit in some star gazing but the clouds prevented that, instead we tried our hand at geocaching the next morning which was a lot of fun and I think may feature in some future outings!

This week I am determined to continue to take time for some fun, I refuse to let these last 2 weeks of work exhaust me so totally that I have no energy for starting my new job in November.

 

Random me

So I have been tagged by the lovely FT at Frugal Trenches to come up with a list of 10 random facts about myself. I find these sort of things challenging as I think that when I look at myself from this perspective I seem very dull. So I will try and come up with 10 vaguely interesting facts about me:

1. I love learning, I would take an evening class everyday if I could. I’m not sure it really matters what the class is in, as long as I can leave with new knowledge or new skills I am happy. In the last 3 years I have taken classes in; Bhangra dancing, Salsa, Latin (language and history), silver-smithing, card making and beading. Currently I attend Spanish and Bellydancing, but I am very tempted by some pottery classes I have seen.

2. I am a “process crafter”: I love this description, although I can’t remember where I came across it, it sounds almost like a real thing! I love baking and knitting and making cards and jewellery, I don’t, however, use much of anything I make. I can make an entire batch of cookies or cupcakes and only sample 1/2 of one (to check they turned out) before forcing the rest of the batch on my friends and co-workers.

3. I’m a napper, I love afternoon naps; if I don’t get at least one each weekend I feel much more tired during the week. Ideally I would have one most days, but I think that will be a post-retirement treat, not many employers embrace the siesta here.

4. I cannot keep the same hairstyle for any length of time; long/short, blonde/brunette/black, my hairdresser is forever trying to convince me to leave me hair alone for awhile, and in fact I haven’t coloured my hair for almost 2 years (and I think I will try and avoid going down that road again) but my cut is always changing. I like that it is an easy thing to change and have as large or small an effect as you desire.

5. I spent my entire life craving glasses, I would always try and cheat at my eye test when I was little, and had regular eye tests as an adult. I finally got glasses this year, to help with eye strain as I am at a computer 8+ hours a day, but I never seem to remember to put them on until I start to get a headache; my office mate has taken to reminding me that I have a pair of glasses in my bag and I should use them!

6. I’m a huge Harry Potter fan, I watch all the DVDs in order at least 2 or 3 times a year and I listen to the audiobooks repeatedly, luckily my SO has come to love them too and listens to Stephen Fry read the books everyday on his commute. Neither of us seems to have tired of them at all, which I find a little surprising except:

7. I can watch West Wing over and over, I have all the DVDs (thanks to my brother!) and at least twice a year I will work my way through all seven seasons over a couple of weeks. There are a few great movies that I have watched several times, but my fondness for WW and HP seem to go beyond that.

8. I love Alan Rickman and Stephen Fry, they would be my ideal dinner companions if it weren’t for the fact that I think I would be completely star struck and would only be able to mutter incoherently at them. Still in my fantasy world we could be great friends.

9. I would like to be played by Emma Thompson if they made a movie of my life, this might be a bit challenging, given that she is 20+ years older than me, but I am sure she could pull it off.

10. I have a reputation for loving chocolate and tea, but I really only like a limited selection of these, I don’t eat dark chocolate or truffles or chocolate cakes, or puddings or chocolate flavoured things (like ice cream); I really only like Cadbury’s dairymilk, milkybars and galaxy. The same with tea, I really only drink Tetley, and occasionally some nicer darjeeling, but my cupboards are full with gifts of flavoured tea from my friends; because they know I like tea… I can’t bring myself to tell anyone outright that I won’t be eating or drinking their gift but I have tried to drop many hints in the past.

Bonus # 11. I’m not sure how I ended up in my current career, I mostly enjoy it so it’s ok for now but it’s not what I ever wanted to do when I was at university, although it’s tangentially related to that field. However my dream job is completely unrelated to anything I studied for or currently do. I would love to run a small coffee-shop/ general store in a small village; I’m not sure why this appeals to me so much as I am quite shy and wouldn’t have the chatty personality that I envisage most of these people have. I don’t really see an opportunity for this kind of career change presenting itself anytime soon but I still like to picture it (it’d be very much like this store we visit in North Vancouver).

There we have it, 11 not very exciting things about me!

 

September update

Ah blog, how I have abandoned you! A combination of excessive amounts of work, keeping me busy late each evening and a lovely car to take us out of the city to explore at weekends, coupled with a visit from SO’s parents has severely limited my internet time. The work especially has left me with no desire to crack open my laptop when I don’t have to.

Teapot Hill

However, I think the worst of my working stresses are over, temporarily at least so I can give a little update:

First off, I have been lucky enough to find a new position, they are even holding it for me until my current contract ends at the end of October; it’s stressful and scary and exciting all at once. I am looking forward to being part of new projects, although concerned that they might be overwhelming! I will still miss my current co-workers but my new job is in the next door building so I imagine I’ll still see them.

Secondly, I have been keeping up (until the last week anyway) with regular crafting- I knit some more booties, for my friend T who had a lovely little boy at the beginning of the month, and I’ve been making more jewellery. I have also begun to think about Christmas gifts and will be starting my Christmas cards this weekend.

Thirdly, I have been shopping- I pulled out my long sleeve tshirts at the beginning of the month when we had a couple of colder days and discovered that they really needed replacing, they were all 3 years old, stretched out and a little bobbly, I should probably have replaced them last year actually. So I have been out and replenished my fall/winter wardrobe- I made a list of the items I needed, I bought them all on sale and avoided any unnecessary purchases- I still am looking for a jacket and boots, but can make do for now.

Fourthly, I have been entertaining- SO’s parents were here for almost a week so we have been to touristy places and even managed to see a bear, their first sighting after several visits, so they were very excited. We also went back to Fort Langley, and as well as enjoying a great lunch at the lovely coffee shop and touring the museum I found two beautiful vintage aqua pyrex pieces! They will be getting used for Thanksgiving dinner.

Burn's Bog

Fifthly, I have been back at classes- my belly dance class started again this week and next week I start Spanish. I also went to a curling open house to give it a go, but seem to have injured my thigh in such a manner that suggests that this is not a sport I want to take up.

Sixthly, I have been exploring- new car plus a guidebook of 105 walks in our area has seen us out every weekend to try a new walk in a different area, it’s been a lot of fun and we’re hoping to keep it up throughout the fall and winter.

 

What happened in July…

Now that the holiday updates are finally completed I thought I would share some of the last few weeks.

At the end of June my department let us know that they did not get funding renewed and that we would likely be let go before the winter; this was not necessarily a huge surprise but it was still a bit upsetting. Despite some office politics across the larger department, within the small group I am a part of we get on very well and I really enjoy working with the people I do, in particular my office-mate.

In July I was kept busy with the return of my good friend M who had spent 2 years teaching in Japan, this meant we had several more group gatherings than we normally would, but it was great fun to catch up with everyone. Also July was when SO and I finally got drivers licenses for our province here and so we have commenced car shopping, SO has researched the options so we know what we are looking for, and our money has been saved so no bank loans. Sadly however because we don’t currently have a car, we can only visit one dealership at a time, as they are usually quite a journey with public transit. This means that almost every Saturday since the beginning of July has seen us standing in car dealerships trying to cope with the very in your face car salesmen.

I also signed up for a couple of evening classes, including a weekly belly dancing class that has just come to an end, but I have already signed up for the September session. I have really missed my dance classes this year since my bhangra instructor has been on maternity leave and belly dancing was a lot of fun. Normally I go to most classes by myself but for belly dancing I managed to round up 4 girls from my office and my good friend M from my previous job, I’m not sure if any of them will sign up again but they did enjoy the class.

My other class was a cooking course at the university, it was centered around healthy eating using locally sourced ingredients, I went with another M, from the office (I may need a new naming system for friends, since this is the third M in this post!). This class was 3 hours every evening for one week, Monday to Friday, each night we prepared and ate a 3-4 course meal, by Wednesday I had stopped eating breakfast and lunch because I was still so full from the night before! I really enjoyed the course and will certainly have to try and recreate some of the recipes at home, especially the desserts! Our teacher was a French chef who had a great personality and teaching style, although I think his definition of healthy may differ slightly from mine, having seen how much butter was in some of those desserts! This class was a bit of a bargain since I work for the university they paid 80% of the cost, otherwise I couldn’t have afforded to take it.

As well as work issues (despite the imminent lay offs this has been the busiest couple of months in a very long time) and evening classes, I have been keeping busy with my evening crafts; another friend M (no, really) in Ontario had a beautiful baby at the end of July and I took the opportunity to try some new knitting techniques and produce a little pair of booties for her:

I’m really quite proud of these as they required a few online video tutorials for me to learn the new techniques, although they are really easy once you get the hang of them; they also meant that I was able to create cute labels with my new knitting stamp set; be forewarned of possible knitting gifts this Christmas purely so I can use these stamps again!

These were accompanied by a cute little babygro (store bought) and I made a matching card and wrapping paper; the recipient totally delighted me by her lovely comments on my hand crafted portions of the gift. I’m not always sure how people will receive handmade items, but she was thrilled by the time and effort I had put in to her daughter’s present.

 

Scotland- Part Two

Wow, over a month between posts, so bad of me. Especially since I have actually had things to write about!

After our week in NI we returned to Scotland for another few days; by this time SO’s sister G had come up from London to visit so we all got to spend some time together. SO comes from a large, close-knit family so this part of the visit involved a few evenings with groups of his relatives which is always fun, as sarcastic as that sounded I genuinely enjoy spending time with his family!

We took a day to travel around to some childhood picnic destinations including Leadhills (a sort of “does exactly what it says on the tin” type name) where we had a nice lunch and wandered around for a little bit, it was more atractive than one might expect from a mining village with that name! Afterwards we headed to Sanquhar which boasts the oldest Post Office in the world, operating continuously since 1712.

We also ventured back in Glasgow city centre one day, I met briefly with an old friend from my undergrad; B and then had lunch in one of my favourite tapas restaurants that I used to frequent when I lived in Glasgow, Cafe Andaluz. Thankfully they haven’t changed their menu since 2004(!) and I was able to munch my way through my old favourites including patatas gratinadas and croquetas de pollo which made me very happy.

I then headed to the West End for a whirlwind trip around the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, I used to visit this place at least once a month when I lived in Glasgow but it closed for renovations before I moved to Edinburgh and was still closed when I left for BC. This was my first chance to get back since I moved here, I love it even more now than I did before. The museum has some unusual collections and is not organised like most other museums and galleries, but is instead based around themes. I really want to go back and spend a couple of afternoons exploring the whole place in more detail, but have some nice pictures of Sophie Cave’s floating heads installation to keep me going till then.

After the museum I headed over to the University of Glasgow’s main campus to revisit some memories of where I had my lectures and the stairs leading up to the main quadrangles where we lined up before our exams. Sadly I had barely an hour to run around campus before I had to head back on the clockwork orange to catch the train from Central Station back to SO’s parents house for dinner.

As usual the whole holiday was too short to see everybody and do everything that we would have hoped, but still it was a very fun trip and the weather behaved beautifully the whole time!

 

Norn Iron

We spent a week in my home town in Northern Ireland, and somehow, for the second year in a row, managed to enjoy some of the most glorious weather.

SO and I took the opportunity to do some touristy things, when he was over before we went to the Giant’s Causeway and that was about it, but it was December and not the best weather to tour. Plus some of my favourite tourist destinations in NI are seasonal and weather restricted. This time we took a day trip to the Marble Arch Caves in Fermanagh, as SO is a super geek, he has an interest in geology and really enjoyed the trip around these caves. I love caves with stalagmites and stalactites, and always have to visit them if they are anywhere near any of my holiday destinations.

We also spent a day doing part of the Antrim Coast road, which boasts some of the the most spectacular views (and it’s not just me who thinks so) and visiting the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge. Here in Vancouver we have two rope bridges both of which are higher than Carrick-a-rede, but I think that it is a little scarier because it is on exposed coastline.

On the warmest day of our week we headed to the beach in a slightly circuitous route, via Moville where we stopped for ice cream and SO got to wonder at the parking skills of Donegal drivers!, then to Greencastle to get the ferry across to Magilligan. The ferry provided entertainment in the form of one of the best signs I have ever seen; oh how I long for an afternoon at Doagh now…

From Magilligan we drove to Downhill, one of my favourite beaches- I confess that beaches in the lower mainland in BC are poor quality compared to the long miles of sand you find in NI. On the way home we stopped in Limavady for some delicious fish and chips!

The rest of the week we spent enjoying time with my family, including The Aunt, and her travelling companion, and of course no trip home would be complete without mention of the darling of our family; Lucky!