A Patchwork of Tales

Looking Back, Looking Forward

2012-01-01T10:00:00.004-05:00

I really can't believe that it's a start to a brand new year. Last year I resolved to do something active, which I didn't do. I resolved to write twelve stories and I wrote / finished 31 stories and what's more since I've been writing online I've written 1,152,264 words which is awesome. I also resolved to edit my finish novels and send them out, which I didn't do. I resolved to read more, which I did do. I read 24 books this year. I resolved to finish my DS games and I hardly touched the machine. I resolved to slow down in 2011 and while the year went by so fast I do feel as though I took time to enjoy myself. My last resolution for 2011 was to take some relationship risks and I did. I entered a relationship and ended it in December and I know that that was the right decision. So all in all I feel like I was successful in 3 of 8.

For the upcoming year I resolve to;

Work out at least once a week
Write 12 new stories (length doesn't matter)
Read 24 books

Short, sweet, simple & attainable I think.

2012 here I come! ^_^

Christmas 2011

2011-12-25T22:39:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas to all! Today was a fantastic day for me. The last two weeks I've been horribly sick. I had a viral eye infection and swollen glands due to mono (I'll spare the icky details) and because of all that I missed my birthday... but that will be celebrated later this week. I was really hoping and crossing my fingers that I wouldn't miss Christmas and luckily a couple days ago I started to feel better (although it was marginal) and today I felt as though I was completely on the mend. ^_^ Which was great because it is Christmas after all. I started my day by waking up at my usual time (5:15am) but rolled back over and went back to sleep for an hour.

Then I actually got up when I heard my sister up and we then opened presents. I was spoilt rotten this year. I got a Doctor Who poster, an exploding TARDIS poster, a Star Wars timeline poster, seasons one through three of Torchwood, Muppets in Space, Muppets take Manhattan, A Great Muppet Caper, A Muppet Christmas Carol and a Very Merry Muppet Christmas, Dolphin Tale, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies 1 -3 & the new one, Tortall & other complete tales and A Lion Among Men as well as some stocking stuffers from my sister & parents. (I don't think I left anything out)

Then I slept for an hour or so before we headed over to my grandparents place. There I received these awesome slipper-socks (2 pairs) a book, the Celtic Thunder "Storm" Cd, a rug for my room and a chair for my desk and a shrug and a picture of the Wales countryside.

We then had lunch which consisted of nibbles and then when we came home we frantically cleaned up as always but things were in pretty good shape this year so I managed to not only get up my three new posters, but I also got up all my old pirates posters from the old room and all my autographs that I have collected over the years including the new one that was shipped from Australia curtesy of a great friend of mine.

In the span of one day my room went from being kind-of-like home, to really feeling like my home. There is so much colour on the walls due to the various posters that I feel as though I really don't need to paint the walls a colour. Painting would not only mean that I've got to take things down, but it also means that the stuff on the walls will have to stand out against the colourful decorations.

Around 5, the grandparents and my cousin (one of them) came over for dinner. We sat and talked, and then had a great turkey dinner prepared by my mother. We had more drinks and ate some dessert before playing games. Chase the Ace, Xmas Bingo, Memory Game and Beetle were the ones that we played tonight and I had some awesome luck this year. ^_^ Five beetles I won (I think) it was a lot of fun. ^_^

So yes, this was a great Christmas and I'd like to say one of the best. The only thing that puts a little bit of a downer on it is the fact that for the first time in ages the Doctor Who Christmas Special was aired today and not tomorrow or next week but I can't watch it 'cause I've got to get up at six am for work tomorrow. Oh well, c'est la vie, especially when you're in retail. I don't really mind though, today was so great and I have been off sick for two weeks and boxing day is always fun even if I am working eight and a half hours, it's going to go by in a flash.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

AND IT ALL CAME TUMBLING DOWN

2011-11-26T13:35:00.001-05:00

And so today the house that I spent 23 and a half years in came tumbling down. My parents, sister and I were at the site from eight thirty in the morning till twelve thirty in the afternoon. My mother got to put the first bite in the house, I took my turn with my sister bringing up the rear before the professionals did their stuff. It was a rather emotional morning all things considered, and yet really strange a the same time. After spending over a month moving our stuff from that house to this new one, I felt as though it would never end, and now it has ended and I know that I'll never walk the halls of my youth again. It doesn't seem real somehow, and yet I know all to well that it is...

END OF AN ERA

2011-10-28T07:15:00.003-04:00

As the clock counts down, I'm taking a couple moments to reflect on what is the end of an era. Over a year ago now my parents started looking for a new home, but there was a part of me which questioned whether or not it would really happen. Back in July, we sold our house to a builder and at the end of August, we found our new perfect house. For all of September and most of October we have been packing furiously. Like, seriously furiously.

Going through all my stuff in my room was an interesting experience, I had purged a lot over the years but I still had a great deal of stuff to go through. Somethings instantly reminded me of my childhood, while others evoked less than pleasant memories for various reasons. All in all though, going through my toys, my books, my journals, photos, stuffies, etc has totally shown me just what a wonderful life I have been blessed to live up until this point.

And even though one era of my life is officially over as I am finally moving out of the house that I came home from the hospital to, I know that the next chapter of my life and the lives of my entire family are going to be richer in a home that isn't too small, isn't too old and isn't too cluttered. House of ours now, you've been good to us, but it's time for us to move on...

Ten Years Ago Today...

2011-09-11T18:27:00.002-04:00

It's hard to imagine, but 10 years ago our world changed. I remember that day rather vividly actually. I was in Grade 9, there was an announcement for the teachers to meet in the Staff Room at lunch time, but other than that I went through the entire day without knowing what had happened. When I was picked up, my Mum told me and when we got home I watched the news coverage on CNN. At first I couldn't believe it, and I remember thinking that the footage that I was watching couldn't be real.

But it was.

So many lives were lost that day, and so many more have been lost in Afghanistan & Iraq since. September 11, 2001 was a day that changed the world and defined a generation really. There's nothing that I can say that hasn't already been said, but I will say this...

May those who have lost their lives never be forgotten and may a tragedy like that never EVER happen again.

Job Hopping

2011-08-29T19:35:00.009-04:00

I am a self-confessed job hopper. I didn't mean to be one, it just sort of happened. I assumed that I'd have one job throughout university till I became a teacher and that would be it... unfortunately that just hasn't been the case.

In March 2006 I got my first job at a movie store. I loved it there. The work was easy, the customers were great and when I got bored I could just sit and watch movies. I got to go to Fan Expo and help run their booth meaning that I got into that event for free, and I had so much fun despite the fact that the people who worked there and I didn't exactly get along. Then came a situation where I was accused of doing something that I did not do. The manager and assistant manager did not follow procedure and check the security tapes before they were taped over and as a result I ended up quitting on the spot after two and a half years working there. [March 2006 - July 2008]

Luckily I had another job already at an engraving place. It was meant to be a second job (after the child's clothing store only had me for a month I just couldn't stand it there) but ended up becoming my sole source of income-- I didn't need a lot at the time considering that I was in University but when the hours dried up I ended up jumping ship again. [July 2008-March 2009]

I worked at a Canadian fashion jewellery place that offered me 15 - 20 hours. A friend of mine from school was manager there and I had a great time. That summer was a lot of fun, despite the fact that it was dead slow sometimes and then I started Teacher's College in the fall and well, I couldn't manage the job anymore so I left. [March 2009- October 2009]

For the next eight months I was jobless, but then came my job at the high end jewellery store in the other mall. It was a good job, kinda. I felt like the baby being in my twenties and just out of school while all the other employees were well established with kids of their own. And after a while I just couldn't stand the whole aggressive selling so I left. [July 2010 - October 2010]

The chocolate store was great even though the manager that hired me left the day I started. I had a lot of fun dipping strawberries, tasting chocolates and for the first time I really, really liked the girls that I was working with. We got a new manager and while we didn't see eye to eye, I was hesitant to leave because I knew that sometime in the nearish future I could be teaching and the chocolate store would be a great part time job... but then the second manager left and the third manager came in with sweeping changes and reduced hours. That along with the rumours that we'd all be fired or the store would close, I began looking for a new job... and found one. [November 2010 - May 2011]

The coffee place seemed to be a dream job. Full time, hours that work with the tutoring that I do in the evenings and tips on the side. However the five-thirty mornings took it's toll and after a while I knew that I wasn't cut out for the job, so I started looking again. [June 2011 - August 2011]

It's practically the beginning of September and I've managed to land an awesome job and had my first day today. The one downside is that it's only contracted to January 9, with a possibility of extension and / or the possibility of being transferred elsewhere. I'm selling eco-friendly products like Brita Filters, Eco-Works cleaning products and Burt's Bee's stuff. I'm making the most that I've ever gotten at a job, well past min. wage and with the tutoring on the side I should be in good shape. ^_^

My fingers are still crossed that I'll be hired by a school board this September... if I am, I'll finally be able to start my career and end this job hopping once and for all.

Scariest Storm in the World.

2011-08-25T13:47:00.005-04:00

When I was a kid, I was afraid of the dark-- and I still am to some extent. I'm also pretty afraid of severe storms that bring with it tornado warnings. Last night was the worst of both scenarios. We had known all day that the storms were going to roll through, bringing with it the potential for severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings, but when the storm actually hit at 9:10ish in the evening, even I wasn't prepared for how bad it was going to be.

It started out with thunder and lightning, and then the power went out. Can you imagine? I had been hearing on the weather network all evening how some of the cells in the storm front were rotating and when I looked at the map I realized that those were the same cells that were going to travel right over my house.

And boy, the storm was scary. Thunder was booming overhead, lightning was flashing every second. The gusts of winds were insane and there were a couple of times where I thought that the house was coming down around me. I tried to marshall our kittens into the basement, but to no avail, they scattered like the wind. And so I just sat down there, practically alone (I did manage to grab my cat) and waited out the storm.

My family finally returned as the storm was passing, though it would have done me a lot more good if they had been with me during the worst of it. I'm not afraid to admit it, but I was more scared then I've ever been before. I mean, I've been through severe thunderstorms up north, once a tornado actually touched down at the marina just about a mile or so away from us but they

were nothing compared to last night.

We were without power for close to 14 hours, and this morning there was evidence of destruction

everywhere. Tree branches were down, other sorts of debris litter the street and one pour soul just around the corner from us lost his truck due to a falling tree that was pulled up by it's roots. It was so bad, that even CityNews took a picture of it;

Scary stuff I'm telling you. And what is amazing to me is that relatively speaking this wasn't all that bad. I've seen stories from the states where massive storms and Tornados have destroyed entire towns. We got off lucky relatively speaking...

...oh well, with summer coming to an end and the weather getting cooler, the chances of such severe thunderstorms and the havoc that they bring are slimmer. The only thing that we have to worry about in winter is the possibility for blizzards and ice storms. Joy. Mother Nature sure is all powerful, and she can put us in our place in a moment.

The Fourteen and a Bit Hour Day

2011-08-23T19:34:00.002-04:00

Today seemed to be the day that never ended, and it's still not over. I had to wake up just after four in the morning for work and then I worked till two o'clock in the afternoon. Work was alright, being in the coffee business isn't my thing and after three months of having crazy long and crazy early shifts I gave in my notice much to my manager's dismay. She wanted me to give her two weeks notice, but I'm still under probation and it's not my fault that my new job wants me to start ASAP, plus I want to work ASAP. If I had given the two weeks notice I would have worked nine, eight hour shifts in a row and that is cruel and unusual punishment to my mind.

After work I was absconded by my parents to go see houses, none of which we all liked. There was one that I thought was good but the rest of the family didn't like it so we kept looking. I then had an hour long interview for a job that I don't want but interviews are good practice and I figured that there was no reason for me not to go seeing how I'm not right for the job in the first place.

After the interview (four in the afternoon) I had just enough time to run home and get changed before I was off tutoring. I love tutoring, it's a scaled down version of teaching and I felt like I really made some progress with the kid that I was working with today. Instead of missing every other word on the page, the student was able to read all but one or two on a page. Good progress with the reading indeed.

After I tutored it was six o'clock in the evening and after driving back home, and having tea at my grandparents house it was time to pick my father up from work--gee I just love being the designated chauffeur sometimes. Then finally at seven pm I'm home to stay.

-_- zzZZ is all I can say to this day that never seemed to end.

RIP JACK LAYTON

2011-08-22T12:09:00.003-04:00

I feel like crying. I really do. I turn on my computer today and go to the msn.ca homepage and what do I see as the leading headline? But Jack Layton, beloved leader of the NDP party in Canada for so many years has lost his battle with cancer. It's just so sad. When I was legally able to vote, I thought that he was the most honest of all the political leaders. I thought that he knew where he wanted to lead his party and Canada and I have always voted NDP.

When he announced his retirement from politics back in July after leading the New Democratic Party to a crushing victory over the Liberals to become the true opposition party of Canada I thought that he'd beat the cancer and return. But that hasn't been the case. A bright light has gone out from this world and he will be sorely missed. I don't know what else to say except that my thoughts and prayers are with his family and his friends during this trying time.

RIP Jack Layton.

My Mac Book Pro

2011-08-19T16:07:00.002-04:00

So, yesterday I bought myself a MacBook Pro. For some people this wouldn't be a big deal. But for me it is. When I first learned about computers, I used a Mac. In school it was the only one that they had, and I remember sitting in Kindergarten at the computer station and playing games with the old nine-inch floppy discs (man I miss those).

My next experience with a mac was in grade three when my elementary school got a computer lab. I learned how to type properly, and I remember not liking it but what struck me was how small the computer was. A tower essentially with a computer screen on top and a slot for a floppy disc at the bottom.

Then in grade six my family got our first PC and I took to it like a fish to water. Mac's seemed clunky and not really suited to me. So I swore up and down that I was a PC person. In High School, I used nothing but PC's. In university I had PC laptops but the one thing I noticed at the brand is that they had issues. Wearing out, breaking, battery life, viruses etc.

My last computer, a netbook was great but two years on the battery only lasted me about ten minutes and it had a virus on it which couldn't be removed except for a complete memory wipe and I really didn't want to do that. To make matters worse my chord had broke not once but twice and I didn't want to buy another one.

I knew that I needed a new computer so I started looking at the MacBooks and realized that it might just be the computer for me. All summer I've been saving up and counting my pennies and now I have it. ^_^

This computer is great. I'm still getting used to the placement of things, but I'm getting there. And I'm super glad that I made this switch. ^_^

The Great White North

2011-07-23T15:15:00.005-04:00

So I've just come back from a blissful week in the great white north, well sort of north. Cottage country is a beautiful part of the Canadian Shield, situated about three hours plus north of Toronto, a collection of lakes provides a beautiful backdrop for relaxing vacations. (Goodness gracious me, I sound like an advert).

The week was great. I slept. I ate. I swam. I got ten books read in eight days which has got to be a new record for me and had a great time despite getting horribly sun burnt which is now peeling >_<

One of my favourite moments was sitting at the dock with the chipmunks. Brave little fellows they came scurrying around and ended up not only eating out of my hand, but climbing up onto my lap looking for treats which was so super cute.

Decision Canada 2011

2011-05-03T14:32:00.003-04:00

Since 2006 we've had a minority Conservative government which has been good because there have been checks and balances, things haven't gotten out of control. That however is about to change. Yesterday, Canadians went to the polls, myself included and I went hoping and praying for a small miracle; that the Conservatives would keep their minority and that the NDP would become the official opposition. Well half of my miracle came true.

The NDP is now the official opposition party of Canada with a record breaking 102 seats. The Liberals have fallen to a mere 34 seats and the Bloc Quebecois was utterly decimated with them only winning 4 seats. Elizabeth May, the leader of the Green party managed to rally her riding into giving her and her party one lone seat leaving the other 167 to go to the Conservatives.

Canada has a Conservative majority government and I predict that this will be the beginning of the downward spiral of human rights and freedoms in this country. This new majority government is probably going to abolish the gun registry, gay marriage and abortion. The environment will be destroyed as will our health care system and when the next election rolls around in 2015 Canada will probably not be a very happy place to be.

Now I could be wrong, things could stay the same after all why fix what isn't broken? Our rights and freedoms may not be infringed upon but only time will tell...

2011 ISU Figure Skating World Championships Ladies and Dance

2011-04-30T22:45:00.000-04:00

So Friday morning not only held the royal wedding, but thousands of miles away in Moscow, the Ladies of the ISU Figure Skating world were also skating. Our two Canadian entries Amelie Lacoste (a replacement for Myrianne Samson who was injured earlier) and Cynthia Phaneuf were well down on the leader board in thirteen and fourteenth position. With the upper digital channels acting up I had to watch the ladies short on cbc streaming and although the quality wasn't all that great I watched as Yu-Na Kim skated into first place with a narrow lead over Japan's Miki Ando who is a former world champion in her own right. Mao Asada, last year's gold medalist at the worlds was not in the top three after the short and after the long program she remained thee. Miki Ando manged to capture the gold with Yu-Na Kim falling to the silver position after a routine that was marred with uncharacteristic mistakes. Caroline Kostner from Italy took home the bronze while Cynthia and Amelie ended up in thirteenth and sixteenth respectively.

The Dance short took place after the ladies short on Friday morning and through the CBC streaming I was able to see Tessa and Scott narrowly make their way into first position over rivals and training mates Davis & White from the States. This has been a miracle year for Tessa and Scott, she was injured and after her surgery Tessa had to miss the entire Grand Prix season. They didn't skate at nationals and had to pull out of the Four Continents forty seconds into their free dance because the injury flared up again briefly. In Moscow however they were able to skate to a new best 107+ but Davis and White skated a Tango routine to 111 surpassing our Canadian Ice Dancers by more than four points. Now to my eyes, Davis & White's routine was not only on the boring side, but it didn't seem to be four points better than Tessa & Scott's.

With the Free Dance, the ISU Figure Skating World Championships were brought to a close and now the skaters will have o go home, do whatever tours hey have promised to do before taking some time off after which they will have to start thinking about next season.

A Royal Wedding

2011-04-29T10:43:00.007-04:00

I've always had a fascination with the Royal family of Britain, I think it stems from the fact that my Grandparents come from England I've always been a fairy-tale girl at heart. I always knew that there was a royal family but the first time they really entered my psyche was when Princess Diana died. I remember coming down around midnight to see my mum and dad watching the television as the news broke and of course my mother watched the funeral days later.

Today however was a much happier occasion and one that I've been looking forward to

o since Prince William--Now the Duke of Cambridge--announced his engagement to Kate Middleton. I had planned to get up at four in the morning EST but ended up awake by three-thirty am EST. I was up to watch all the pre-wedding coverage as people arrived at the abbey and at quarter to five in the morning I left to pick up my grandmother.

By five am (EST) we were back at home, drinking coffee, eating crumpets and scones and watching the festivities unfold. When the Royals began arriving at the abbey I thought that it was wonderful that Prince William and Harry arrived early so that they could greet some of the guests. Of course I was very excited once we got our first glimpse of Kate in her wedding dress. I thought the lace over the shoulders was just wonderful and when she finally exited the car at Westminster Abbey I was totally blown away by the absolute beauty of the dress.

I thought that the wedding ceremony itself was amazing. I loved all the little looks and words that William and Kate exchanged. The vows were well said and even William's difficulty getting the wedding band on didn't detract a thing. The hymns were beautiful, the speeches were wonderful and the carriage ride back to Buckingham Palace was amazing. They both looked so happy, and so in love and I loved how they waved to their adoring fans.

Exactly at eight-forty-five (EST) the newly married couple arrived out on the balcony and we

were greeted to not one but two quite loving kisses. William needed no prompting, and Kate

seemed blown away by the crowds which filled the mall in front of the palace completely. Soon after their kisses the entire Royal Family plus Kate's parents and siblings disappeared to the Queen's Luncheon.

I am utterly exhausted but totally thrilled to have witnessed live, this most wondrous and quite historical moment. My first Royal Wedding, it did not disappoint in the slightest.

*picture of Kate in her wedding dress comes from The Frisky

*the picture of the kissing couple comes from The Guardian

2011 ISU Figure Skating World Championships Men's & Pairs

2011-04-28T14:15:00.005-04:00

This year's world championships were meant to be in Japan. But then the terrible earthquake and ensuing tsunami happened and the championships were put on hold. At first the ISU were thinking that they wanted to hold the Worlds in October in Japan but after listening to the skaters and their coaches they relented and held in Moscow instead. Competition started yesterday with the mens and pairs short which was followed today by the mens and pairs long.

Patrick Chan led the way after the short program with a whopping score of 93 points (which was a new world record) well ahead of the rest of the pack and he clinched his first world title this morning EST breaking the long program world record and the overall total world record. He was followed by Kozuka of Japan and Artur Grasinksi of Russia. Our other Canadians Kevin Reynolds and Joey Russel (a replacement for Shawn Sawyer who decided to do Stars on Ice instead) who finished nineteenth and twenty-fourth respectively.

Pang and Tong from China led the pairs field after the short program but not by much. The German pair of Savchenko and Szolkowy beat their previous seasons best by like eight points and while Pang and Tong beat their previous seasons best as well, their best was just not good enough to stay in first. And then, the Russian team of Volosozhar and Trankov had the skate of the 'night' and ended up jumping from third to second though I had hoped that they would have jumped to first. Our Canadian duos of Duhamel and Radford ended up in seventh while Moore-Towers and Moschovitch ended up in eighth a good showing for two new teams.

With two disciplines down and two more to go I can't wait to see what the rest of the world has in store for us. ^_^

Playing by the Rules

2011-04-12T21:35:00.002-04:00

This blog will have a two-fold purpose: politics and dancing. The two don't really go together in the traditional sense but in this entry they do. First off, in terms of dancing, I was absolutely horrified to see that a certain couple on Dancing with the Stars completely stuffed the rules and did a contemporary interpretation of the Viennese Waltz. Now, I'm all for interesting choreography but that's reserved for the free-style number in the finale and not during the regular show. It appalls me that this specific couple and the pro in particular can get away with such a routine and be rewarded for their behaviour by receiving the highest scores of the night.

Secondly, in terms of politics; tonight was the night of the English televised debate for the Canadian Federal election and I've got to say that it was quite entertaining. Within the first ten minutes Giles Duseppe the Bloc Quebecois leader slammed Harper by congratulating him for answering a citizen's question for the first time on the campaign trail. Of course that was followed by zings against Harper's stance on the environment and his outlook on the G8/G20 fiasco, the corruption of the Senate and so on. When election day comes I hope that Canada makes the right decision and votes for the party that will lead Canada into a bright future and I do not think that that will be Harper .

Disaster in Japan

2011-03-14T21:48:00.000-04:00

My thoughts and prayers go out to those in Japan.

May the earth still beneath your feet and may the seas not reach your doors.

Winners of the 83rd Annual Academy Awards

2011-02-27T23:49:00.001-05:00

Best Achievement in Art Direction: Robert Stromberg, Karen O'Hara (Alice in Wonderland)

Best Achievement in Cinematography: Wally Pfister (Inception)

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo (The Fighter)

Best Short Film, Animated: Shaun Tan, Andrew Ruhemann (The Lost Thing)

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year: Lee Unkrich (Toy Story 3)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network).

Best Original Screenplay: David Seidler (The King's Speech)

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year: In a Better World (Denmark)

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale (The Fighter)

Best Original Score: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross (The Social Network)

Achievements in Sound Mixing: Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo, Ed Novick (Inception)

Achievement in Sound Editing: Richard King (Inception)

Achievement in Makeup: Rick Baker, Dave Elsey (The Wolfman)

Achievement in Costume Design: Collen Atwood (Alice in Wonderland)

Best Documentary, Short: Karen Goodman, Kirk Simon (Strangers No More)

Best Live Action Short: Luke Matheny (God of Love)

Best Documentary Feature: Charles Ferguson, Audrey Marrs (Inside Job)

Achievement in Visual Effects: Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley, Pete Bebb, Paul J. Franklin (Inception)

Achievement in Editing: Kirk Baxter, Angus Wall (Social Network)

Best Original Song: Randy Newman “We Belong Together” (Toy Story 3)

Best Director: Tom Hooper (The King's Speech)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Colin Firth (The King's Speech)

Best Motion Picture of the Year: The King's Speech

Most Winning Movies
The King's Speech (4)
Inception (4)
The Social Network (3)
Alice in Wonderland (2)
Toy Story 3 (2)
The Fighter (2)

Favourite Moments:

I had a lot of favourite moments. First, the movie montage opening was great. James Franco & Anne Hathaway were great hosts and I loved how she changed dresses eight times during the night. There was the red carpet dress, the white dress, the suit (with James Franco in the dress), the grey poofy dress, the fringe dress, the dark red dress, the blue shiny dress and the black sequined dress which she changed into for the very last award.

While I was hoping for Helena Bohem Carter to win for best supporting actress, Melissa Leo's speech was really really touching because she was so awe-struck. What was really, really surprising however was the fact that she swore and that her curse got through the censors. And of course, several presenters made fun of her as the night went on. I also really loved Cate Blanchett's presentation of achievement in makeup and costumes, mainly because it referenced Lord of the Rings which is one of my all time favourite movies (and in fact the whole night paid homage to past movie greatness which was totally awesome).

I thought the 'year of the musicals' parody with Harry Potter, Toy Story 3 and Twilight was amazing. In Memoriam was beautiful as always and I thought that the Best Picture montage was breathtaking, even though with the overlaying narrative being the King's speech with clips from the rest of the movies.

The grand finale was also very touching. The children's choir singing 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' brought tears to my eyes and I loved how they had all the winners on the stage at the end.

2011 Oscar Nominations

2011-01-26T00:45:00.003-05:00

Best Motion Picture of the Year
127 Hours (2010): Christian Colson, Danny Boyle, John Smithson
Black Swan (2010): Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver, Scott Franklin
The Fighter (2010): David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman, Mark Wahlberg
Inception (2010): Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas
The Kids Are All Right (2010): Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, Celine Rattray
The King's Speech (2010): Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin
The Social Network (2010): Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca, Ceán Chaffin
Toy Story 3 (2010): Darla K. Anderson
True Grit (2010): Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Scott Rudin
Winter's Bone (2010): Anne Rosellini, Alix Madigan

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Javier Bardem for Biutiful (2010)
Jeff Bridges for True Grit (2010)
Jesse Eisenberg for The Social Network (2010)
Colin Firth for The King's Speech (2010)
James Franco for 127 Hours (2010)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Annette Bening for The Kids Are All Right (2010)
Nicole Kidman for Rabbit Hole (2010)
Jennifer Lawrence for Winter's Bone (2010)
Natalie Portman for Black Swan (2010)
Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine (2010)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale for The Fighter (2010)
John Hawkes for Winter's Bone (2010)
Jeremy Renner for The Town (2010)
Mark Ruffalo for The Kids Are All Right (2010)
Geoffrey Rush for The King's Speech (2010)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams for The Fighter (2010)
Helena Bonham Carter for The King's Speech (2010)
Melissa Leo for The Fighter (2010)
Hailee Steinfeld for True Grit (2010)
Jacki Weaver for Animal Kingdom (2010)

Best Achievement in Directing
Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan (2010)
Ethan Coen, Joel Coen for True Grit (2010)
David Fincher for The Social Network (2010)
Tom Hooper for The King's Speech (2010)
David O. Russell for The Fighter (2010)

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
Another Year (2010): Mike Leigh
The Fighter (2010): Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, Keith Dorrington
Inception (2010): Christopher Nolan
The Kids Are All Right (2010): Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg
The King's Speech (2010): David Seidler

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
127 Hours (2010): Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy
The Social Network (2010): Aaron Sorkin
Toy Story 3 (2010): Michael Arndt, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich
True Grit (2010): Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Winter's Bone (2010): Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
How to Train Your Dragon (2010): Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders
The Illusionist (2010): Sylvain Chomet
Toy Story 3 (2010): Lee Unkrich

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Biutiful (2010): Alejandro González Iñárritu(Mexico)
Dogtooth (2009): Giorgos Lanthimos(Greece)
Civilization (2010): Susanne Bier(Denmark)
Incendies (2010): Denis Villeneuve(Canada)
Outside the Law (2010): Rachid Bouchareb(Algeria)

Best Achievement in Cinematography
Black Swan (2010): Matthew Libatique
Inception (2010): Wally Pfister
The King's Speech (2010): Danny Cohen
The Social Network (2010): Jeff Cronenweth
True Grit (2010): Roger Deakins

Best Achievement in Editing
127 Hours (2010): Jon Harris
Black Swan (2010): Andrew Weisblum
The Fighter (2010): Pamela Martin
The King's Speech (2010): Tariq Anwar
The Social Network (2010): Kirk Baxter, Angus Wall

Best Achievement in Art Direction
Alice in Wonderland (2010): Robert Stromberg, Karen O'Hara
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010): Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan
Inception (2010): Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias, Douglas A. Mowat
The King's Speech (2010): Eve Stewart, Judy Farr
True Grit (2010): Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh

Best Achievement in Costume Design
Alice in Wonderland (2010): Colleen Atwood
I Am Love (2009): Antonella Cannarozzi
The King's Speech (2010): Jenny Beavan
The Tempest (2010/II): Sandy Powell
True Grit (2010): Mary Zophres

Best Achievement in Makeup
Barney's Version (2010): Adrien Morot
The Way Back (2010): Edouard F. Henriques, Greg Funk, Yolanda Toussieng
The Wolfman (2010): Rick Baker, Dave Elsey

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
127 Hours (2010): A.R. Rahman
How to Train Your Dragon (2010): John Powell
Inception (2010): Hans Zimmer
The King's Speech (2010): Alexandre Desplat
The Social Network (2010): Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song
127 Hours (2010): A.R. Rahman, Rollo Armstrong, Dido("If I Rise")
Country Strong (2010): Tom Douglas, Hillary Lindsey, Troy Verges("Coming Home")
Tangled (2010): Alan Menken, Glenn Slater("I See the Light")
Toy Story 3 (2010): Randy Newman("We Belong Together")

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing
Inception (2010): Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo, Ed Novick
The King's Speech (2010): Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen, John Midgley
Salt (2010): Jeffrey J. Haboush, William Sarokin, Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell
The Social Network (2010): Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Mark Weingarten
True Grit (2010): Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff, Peter F. Kurland

Best Achievement in Sound Editing
Inception (2010): Richard King
Toy Story 3 (2010): Tom Myers, Michael Silvers
TRON: Legacy (2010): Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Addison Teague
True Grit (2010): Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey
Unstoppable (2010): Mark P. Stoeckinger

Best Achievement in Visual Effects
Alice in Wonderland (2010): Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas, Sean Phillips
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010): Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz, Nicolas Aithadi
Hereafter (2010): Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojansky, Joe Farrell
Inception (2010): Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley, Pete Bebb, Paul J. Franklin
Iron Man 2 (2010): Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright, Daniel Sudick

Best Documentary, Features
Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010): Banksy, Jaimie D'Cruz
GasLand (2010): Josh Fox, Trish Adlesic
Inside Job (2010): Charles Ferguson, Audrey Marrs
Restrepo (2010): Tim Hetherington, Sebastian Junger
Waste Land (2010): Lucy Walker, Angus Aynsley

Best Documentary, Short Subjects
Killing in the Name (2010): Nominees TBD
Poster Girl (2010): Nominees TBD
Strangers No More (2010): Karen Goodman, Kirk Simon
Sun Come Up (2010): Jennifer Redfearn, Tim Metzger
The Warriors of Qiugang (2010): Ruby Yang, Thomas Lennon

Best Short Film, Animated
Day & Night (2010): Teddy Newton
The Gruffalo (2009) (TV): Jakob Schuh, Max Lang
Let's Pollute (2009): Geefwee Boedoe
The Lost Thing (2010): Shaun Tan, Andrew Ruhemann
Madagascar, a Journey Diary (2010): Bastien Dubois

Best Short Film, Live Action
The Confession (2010/IV): Tanel Toom
The Crush (2009): Michael Creagh
God of Love (2010): Luke Matheny
Na Wewe (2010): Ivan Goldschmidt
Wish 143 (2009): Ian Barnes, Samantha Waite

So, there are quite a few dissapointments in here. Tangled isn't nominated for best animated feature, or original score and I don't understand it but Toy Story 3 was nominated for best animated feature AND best motion picture... not fair.

2011 BMO Canadian Figure Skating Championships

2011-01-23T20:55:00.004-05:00

It's always strange having a national championships where three of four disciplines were going to have a new champion. Last years champions in ladies, pairs and dance were not at the competition this year for one reason or another and therefore it was anyone's chance to step up and take the title. My opinions of the four competitions is as follows

Ladies: rather lackluster if you ask me. The short programs were marred by problems and there was no one program that stood out. The long's were equally as uninspiring in my opinion but Cynthia Phaneuf managed to repeat the win that she so unexpectedly got seven years ago to become Canada's new Ladies Champion. I like her skating style and I'm quite pleased that she was able to skate so well.

Pairs: The long programs of the top three teams were what really impressed me here. All three teams who medaled had what I thought were the skates of their lives. Duhamel and Radford skated an inspiring long program which held up until the final two couples. Lawrence and Swiegers had some minor problems in their routine but it was no less passionate and energetic and they came behind Duhamel & Radford. Finally there was Moore-Towers and Moschovitch (M&M) who skated a jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring, breath-takingly aweseome routine to clinche the gold medal.

Dance: Without Tessa & Scott the reigning Canadian, Olympic and World Champions I wasn't all that excited for this segment of the nationals. The change to the original dance didn't really help matters, however I was quite surprised to see that even though the skaters here had to do the same steps for a segment of their short dance, the music choices were so varied that I didn't get bored at all. At the end of the free dance I was quite upset that Weaver and Poje were in second while Crone & Poirier won. In my opinion the Moulin Rouge routine of Weaver & Poje far exceeded the Eleanor Rigby routine of Crone & Poirier but the judges did not agree.

Men: I had no real expectations here. I knew that Patrick Chan was going to win which he did. Patrick is an amazing skater but I do sometimes feel like his marks were inflated and that was especially the case in the short when he was miles ahead of the competition even though he did a double axel instead of a triple. When it came to the long, I was furious when Kevin Reynolds managed to get ahead of Liam Frutis even though Kevin all but fell apart. However, I was so proud of Joey Russell who managed to win the bronze and I was so extremely proud of Shawn Sawyer as well who had the skate of his life tonight to a wonderfully entertaining routine to the Alice in Wonderland soundtrack.

And so, the competition is over. The National teams are set and I'm left to wonder how our skaters will stack up against the world's best at the Four Continents and World competitions.

Welcome to 2011!

2011-01-01T11:13:00.003-05:00

Two-thousand and eleven, wow. I can't believe it's a brand new year and I'm hoping that this year is as good as last year. Last year was hard, don't get me wrong, things didn't go quite according to plan but I'd still say that it was a good year and I'm happy with the way things have turned out.

But anyways, here are my resolutions for 2011

2011 Resolution 1: Do something active. I know that this was one of my resolutions last year, and it's one of those that hardly ever gets done 'cause of whatever reason, but I'm really serious about it this year. I want to get into shape and to do that I need to find a physical activity that I like and pair that with eating a whole lot better.

2011 Resolution 2: Write 12 more stories, length doesn't matter. I'm a writer and I was rather surprised at the eigtheen stories that I wrote last year. Sure, most of them were short and were for fanfiction, but I'm till proud of what I wrote and I hope to write just as much or more new stuff this year.

2011 Resolution 3: Edit my finished novels and query them out--I want to get published some day and the only way that I'm going to do that is if I put my stuff out there. PEN'S DREAMSCAPE hasn't gotten much reaction so I'm going to have to polish up what I've already written and try my hand at the publishing world again.

2011 Resolution 5: Read more. I love reading, and with my e-reader I have 100 new books that I want to read and aside from the books that I have to read on that, these are the other titles that I want to get through this year; Inkspell, Kingdom Keeprs, Guardians of the Tall Stones, Redwall, Chantel and the Quest for the Golden Sword, Thief Lord, Tanglewrek, The Rose Labryinth, The Taking of Chelsea 426, The Slithereen Excursion, Judgement of the Judoon, Ghosts of India...

2011 Resolution 6: Finish DS games. I went from having two DS games in 2009 to having seven now. I have Harry Potter 1-4 Lego, Indianna Jones Lego, Alice in Wonderland, Broken Sword and Clash of Heroes all that need to be finished before I get another game (or rather them plus whatever I exchange my xmas Alice for)

2011 Resolution 7: Slow down. 2010 went by far too fast and I want to slow down and enjoy each moment. I'm not quite sure HOW I'm going to do this, but it'll be interesting to see at the end of 2011 whether or not I was able to complete this goal.

2011 Resolution 8: Take some risks. I'm not going to take any risks in a dangerous sense, but I'm going to put myself out there to date this year and who knows what will come of that.

And that's it, those are my new years resolutions for 2011. I'm so excited for this new year!

Looking back on 2010

2010-12-31T20:10:00.001-05:00

So as one year comes to a close, I looked back and evaluated where I was on my resolution from last year.

2010 Resolution 1: Work out every day— nope. No where close.
2010 Resolution 2: Finish 12 stories— yes. I finished 18 stories and 65 poems.
2010 Resolution 3: Send out queries— yes and nothing came of them
2010 Resolution 4: Read more— I read Jane Bites, Back, Inkheart, Son of a Witch, Savvy, Witch Way to Murder, Dead before Dark as well as Mansfield Park, Firebrand, Apollo 23, The Many Hands and the Forgotton Army.
2010 Resolution 5: Keep in touch with people better— yeah, I'd say I did that
2010 Resolution 6: Get a job— yeah. I got a job @ People's and at Godiva.
2010 Resolution 7: Blog everyday— er, no, but close enough.

Five of seven completed. Not bad.

End of another Christmas

2010-12-25T22:08:00.004-05:00

So another Christmas comes to a close and I had a truely fantastic day! It started at sixish when the household awoke. I opened my first gift in my room as per tradition and recieved Harry Potter 1-4 Lego from "Santa"

Once downstairs we opened our stockings which consisted of stationary supplies and other such needed items. My gifts from my parents consisted of Coraline (special edition), Avatar (special edition), note paper w/ kittens & Alice in Wonderland for my DS (which I have already so I'll exchange it for something else later this week). Then I opened my present from my little sister and I got Relic Hunter season 2.

After my parents opened their gifts from my sister and I and each other, my mother said that there was one large gift for my Dad and when he opened it, my sister and I were utterly shocked, surprised and delighted to see a Wii! The red on with Wii Sports & Super Mario Brothers. Then we opened a gift bag which had NHL Hockey, Alice in Wonderland, Avatar & Donkey Kong Country Returns.

Now, Donkey Kong Country has a bit of a history with my family & I. When I was 6, after playing the first Super NES game at my friend's place, my parents got me the system and the game which I adored. When two and three came out I got them from them or 'Santa' gave me DK2 & DK3. The Christmas after DK for the 64 system came out we recieved it and it has been a running joke that as soon as Nintendo put Donkey Kong out on the Wii we'd get it. Well sure enough, they released the game this Novemeber and we got the game this Christmas.

This morning we (my father, sister and I) managed to get through the first world and a half. We took turns either when one of us beat a level or died, which happened quite a lot this morning 'cause there's a whole new learning curve to this game which takes the bet bits from the SuperNES system.

We played until 2pm when we went over to my Grandparents house where we opened their gifts to us and they opened their gifts from us. From my grandparents I recieved a new pair of comfy slippers, a science encyclopedia, the complete works of william shakespeare, a sweater and a radio alarm clock.

Once presents were opened, we had pre-dinner drinks with our cousin who arrived around 3:15 and then we ate dinner, played games (chase the ace, christmas bingo, memory & Beetle) before cleaning up and coming home.

All in all, it was a truely fantastic Christmas.

DON'T ASK....

2010-12-22T18:53:00.002-05:00

...don't tell was the way the American military dealt with it's people who were gay. If it came out then the Military would have court marshaled and dismissed the soldier no matter the circumstances. However, that has all changed now with President Barak Obama signing a repeal of the don't ask, don't tell law. There had been rumours that he was trying to get it passed, but I never really thought that it would ever get to this point. I'm so glad to be proven wrong. ^_^

TWENTY THREE

2010-12-19T21:30:00.002-05:00

So today is my twenty-third birthday and I have had a great day. After sleeping in, I watched the last two discs of THE WEST WING which is a show that I've been watching on an off for the past couple weeks. Then I went to my grandparents house for my annual birthday dinner. I had shrimp and chips for appetizers, ham with cheese sauce, veggies, pineapples and cornfritters and cheescake for dessert.

For presents, I received;
the first season of Relic Hunter from my little sister,
a laptop tray, leather gloves and a blouse from my grandparents
a key chain and a kobo reader from my parents.

^_^ I love all my gifts and I can't wait to dig into the books that came preloaded on my e-reader.

It has been a totally fantastic b-day.

In Thirty Days...

2010-11-30T22:18:00.004-05:00

...thirty days ago I set sail on a novelling adventure with nothing more than a handful of characters and some vague idea of where I was going. The goal was to reach 50,000 words and hopefully the end of the novel. Well, I have to say that while my novel isn't finished, I have crossed that elusive 50k barrier and I couldn't be happier! ^_^

XXI

2010-11-07T20:52:00.003-05:00

The Simpson's Halloween episode is something that I always look forward too. Sometimes the things that they parody are really funny, sometimes they aren't (like last year). This year I'm am so pleased to say that it was so freaking hilarious! From the opening, to 'war and pieces' (which was all about Jumanji) to 'master and cadaver' and finally 'tweenlight' (obvious) all were amazing, hilarious and great! I laughed so much that I cried... ^_^

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T18:36:00.006-04:00

"This is Halloween...this is Halloween...Halloween, Halloween..."

Halloween...next to Christmas it's my favourite time of the year. Nature is at the tipping point...autumn is quickly descending into winter; the leaves are falling from the trees to be collected at the roadside and there's still a sense of wonder, mystery and magic.

Halloween is a time of ancient beliefs, All Hallow's Eve is ancient and our traditions today have roots in ancient Pagan societies. Witches, Goblins and Ghouls still excite our imagination at this time and it's the one day of the year where it's alright to let your inner child out.

Happy Halloween all!

Vroom....

2010-10-22T21:08:00.004-04:00

Yes that is me and yes that is my baby and by baby I mean car!

It's so exciting but I am now a car owner! As one can see it's a 2010 Nissan Sentra in a Kohna Bean colour.

It's beautiful and I love it and I'm so psyched that I have my own car!

Beyond Australia

2010-10-15T11:21:00.003-04:00

Left is a picture of me reading a 'ABC' book on Canada to the Year Four class in Australia and CSU Ontario has done an article on my experience and the experience of my travelling buddy on their website which you can visit here. It's so strange to think that we in Canada are just starting to go into Winter now and a mere six months ago I was in Australia where they too were going into Winter...strange, but wonderful really. ^_^

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-10-11T14:58:00.003-04:00

Happy Thanksgiving Canada!

There's a lot for us to be thankful for and there's a lot that I'm thankful for too. I'm thankful for my family and my friends, for my health and the health of those I love. I'm thankful that I live in a good house and have three good jobs. I'm thankful for the opportunities that I've been given and have yet to get...and so much more.

What are you thankful for?

Picture Perfect

2010-10-06T12:18:00.002-04:00

This is my favourite image from the trip out to New Brunswick last week. It was such a serene place. Being in the middle of the woods was so rejuvenating despite the fact that they had dial-up internet. We ate good food with good wine and had great conversations interspersed with hikes in the woods. So perfect.

New Directions (aka Glee)

2010-09-23T00:10:00.005-04:00

So the phenomenon from last year has returned and I've got to say that the premiere for Glee was just fantastic. I mean, there was some parts that had me going 'wha?' like Sue & Will working together, not to mention the fact that the back half dragged a bit.

But all in all I really did like it and there was a nice Fynn / Rachel moment which totally appealed to the hopeless romantic in me. ^_^

Castle Returns

2010-09-20T23:43:00.001-04:00

So the premiere of Castle season 3 was freaking fantastic. I had seen previews where Castle and Beckett raise guns at each other and I thought that it was a red herring, but low and behold the episode opens with that particular scene. The entire episode was one big puzzle with Castle and Beckett at odds with each other.

My favourite part was when Castle saves Beckett's life...again.

^_^ I love Castle!

Survivor 21

2010-09-15T23:00:00.000-04:00

And another Survivor season is upon us. This one is taking place in Nicaragua and it is one where the tribes have been split up into the young tribe and the old tribe. Now I have read rumours that the younger tribe is victorious and quite dominant but I'm still holding out hope.

As always this season started out great with a twist. The tribes thought that they were divided but they really weren't. Then there was this medallion which gives an advantage in challenges but the younger tribe traded it for flint and other supplies.

There was the usual drama at camp, including one contestant coming out about her disability--she has a prosthetic leg. But what was surprising is that one of the older gals managed to create fire from eye-glasses. Totally awesome.

The immunity idol is amazing--a brass looking conquistador! And yeah, next week looks like there's going to be a lot more drama. ^_^ So exciting!

The only thing I don't like is the fact that it's on Wednesday nights. I'll miss my Survivor Thursdays. *sigh*

America’s Got No Talent For Picking Talent

2010-09-15T22:30:00.000-04:00

So I’ve already blogged about how the final four wasn’t the final four that I would have picked for America’s Got Talent…and now the television voting public has done it again and they have picked an act which isn’t all that great. He’s a singer…and not a fantastic singer like ten-year-old opera singer Jackie Evancho. Hell, he wasn’t even as entertaining as Prince Poppycock was/is. So I have no idea how he won… and what makes me even madder is that Eli Mattson who was on the third season LOST out to an opera singer who wasn’t very good. If anyone aside from Jackie had to win, I would have wanted Fighting Gravity—a black light dance group—to win. But they didn’t. So yeah, my initial statement stands— America’s got no talent for picking talent. *sigh*

Master Disappointment

2010-09-15T22:00:00.000-04:00

I first came across this show in Australia and absolutely loved it. The whole concept of taking amateur cooks and turning them into chefs was very intriguing. Unfortunately I left before the conclusion. A couple months later, I was thrilled to find out that the US was putting out their own version of the show and I watched with rapt attention. There were some arrogant cooks who I really didn’t like, and some —meh— cooks who had no real personality but had talent in the kitchen. Now, there was one chef Shetal who I really liked and she made it to the final four—but she didn’t win. And so the ending of Master Chef was a master disappointment. *sigh*

9/11 Remembered

2010-09-11T19:36:00.003-04:00

It’s strange how some things stick with you—even years later. Nine years ago today I was in grade nine. It was a Tuesday and I was in the Shop. I was sitting at my desk working on—something—thumbnail drawings or some sort of test and at quarter to nine I looked at the clock feeling as though something was off. Minutes later, there was an announcement saying that there would be a teacher’s meeting at lunch which struck me as odd because teachers had meeting before or after school. Not during.

Never the less, I put the matter out of my mind and went about my business until I was picked up from school by my Mum who told me what had happened. The World Trade Centre had been destroyed, the Pentagon had been hit and a fourth plane had also gone down in some field. It didn’t seem real. Watching the looping news feed at home didn’t seem real. It was so muted, so surreal. But it happened, and as a result the world was forever changed.

My heart goes out to all those that were lost or lost someone due to the attacks. My heart goes out to all those who have lost a loved one to the war on terror since. I have watched the world spin out of control from one single moment in time and my heart goes out to all.

Nothing like that should have ever happened, and hopefully it will never happen again...

Premiere of Hellcats

2010-09-09T18:55:00.007-04:00

So, last week I was watching god knows what and I saw a promo for this new cheerleading which stars Ashley Tisdale and Alyson Michalka who I know from the Disney show Phil of the Future which was quite quirky and all about time travel (which I love)

Well, this show premiered last night and I watched it today. The only thing that I can say about this show is that it's amazing. You have all the fluffy goodness of the Bring it On movies but there's a lot more riding here.

HELLCATS is about a cheerleading team at a college where if the squad doesn't place, their scholarships will be pulled and for Matti (Alyson's character) that's a really bad thing considering she's already lost one scholarship and needs the cheer one in order to stay in school.

There is more drama with the cheer coach and the potential new football coach, and potential angst amongst the members of the Hellcats as well. Ashley Tisdale puts a nice spin on the whole head cheerleader cliche and as Savannah she's an amazingly nice perky girl. I'm so loving this series already and I"m so psyched for next week!

Two of Four

2010-09-08T21:58:00.002-04:00

I haven't been watching AMERICA'S GOT TALENT as religiously as I have in the past, but I have watched it on and off this season and with the finale next week I've got to say that two of four of the acts that I wanted to go through went through. The ten year old opera singer Jackie Evancho and the black-light group called 'Fighting Gravity' also are going through. I wanted the magician Michael Gorasso to be put into the finale and the bike-guy who's name escapes me at the moment.

So yeah, half of the people that I wanted to go through have gone through. I hope that one of the two that I like actually wins.

A Year Ago Today...

2010-09-07T15:04:00.002-04:00

So a year ago today I was meeting my Grade One's for the first time. I was freaked out beyond belief, but totally excited and fully expecting that by the same time this year I would be either a) teaching or b) on the supply list.

Well, the year has come and gone and first let me say that it was a super fast one and I really can't believe how much has changed. But more than the things that I have changed--I am so not in the place where I wanted to be at this time.

On the one hand, I'm still at home and will be at home for the foreseeable future which isn't the worst thing in the world, and I'm quite enjoying my time at home but when you build something up in your mind and it suddenly it doesn't come to fruition--well, it takes some getting used to.

What I'm really distressed about is the fact that I'm working in a dead end job that I really don't enjoy. Jewelery isn't the worst thing that I've done job wise (clothing is the worst) but when I think about how much fun I was having a year ago, and how I'm not having near as much fun now...well to put it mildly, it's beyond disappointing.

But I should take my own advice on this matter, at least in terms of what I always say to my sister; patience is a virtue. So if I am patient, good things will come to me.

The 62nd Prime Time Emmy Awards

2010-08-29T23:34:00.001-04:00

So, before the night started I was super excited. GLEE had something along the lines of nineteen nominations, including best comedy and it only won three. In comparison, Modern Family had seventeen nominations and it seemed to win everything. Now, I admit that I don’t watch a lot of the Modern Family, but what I have seen has left me with a ‘meh’ feeling and thus, I think that it’s far over rated.

Therefore, the only highlights from the awards show were: the GLEE inspired opening number (though I wished that Kate Gosslin wasn’t in it); the three awards that GLEE did win; the musical tribute to the three shows that ended; the fact that the director of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games won and finally the In Memorium which was sung by Jewel and made me tear up as it always does.

Finally, the only good thing about the Emmy’s is that it heralds the start of the new television season (almost). I am super excited for the shows that I watch to return and I’m practically counting down the days till they start up again.

Fan Expo 2010

2010-08-29T19:11:00.003-04:00

And so for another year, Fan Expo is over. This year I went knowing that I was going to spend a bundle and boy did I.... $360 dollars but boy it was worth it. First off I'm going to do my complaining, for the last couple of years the Expo has been in the south building of the convention centre which was *sooo* much better seeing how it was a bigger space and this year they were back to the north building and it was packed. On Saturday the building was on lock down which sucked for anyone who went out to get food....

...but now that the complaining is out of the way let's go through the weekend. On Friday I saw Dean Stockwell speak and his autograph. During his talk he gave some great insights into his character Al on Quantum Leap, like how his wardrobe was made specially for him by a big name designer and how he ad-libbed a bunch of stuff like the cigar and the hitting of the handheld controller thingy. I also bought eight Doctor Who books for $80.00 that night which is a steal!

On Saturday I got James Marster's autograph and even though he didn't personalize it, he was a sweetie and his talk was fantastic. He sang, he talked about how he loves "Once More with Feeling" and how he believes that John Barrowman (Jack Harkness from Doctor Who & Torchwood) is a hero. I also saw Summer Glau speak and she explained how she was a dancer before she got into acting and how Joss Wheadon is her mentor and how she's not cursed even though all her shows get cancelled really quickly and yeah. It was a good day. I bought myself the Doctor Who sonic screwdriver & psychic paper and a different $5 Doctor Who book.

Today was by far and away the best. I got Summer's autograph and when I said that I loved her characterization of River on Firefly she seemed so surprised! ^_^ I loved it. Then I managed to see the William Shatner speak and let me say; that man is fan-freaking-tastic. He was funny, he was smart, he was hilarious! He told all sorts of stories for the first twenty minutes of his talk and when he was asked a question he would repeat it into the microphone. I also got his autograph which cost a whopping $80 but in between being shuffled away I did manage to say "It's an honour to meet you" and William Shatner said "Thank you" which made me really happy. ^_^

So yeah, that's the low-down on Fan Expo 2010. Here's to a great weekend! ^_^

Being Ungrateful

2010-08-26T21:01:00.004-04:00

It's a he-said, she-said situation but apparently it has been Yu-Na Kim's choice to leave her coach of four years, Brian Orser. In my humble opinion, Yu-Na's being terribly ungrateful seeing how Orser coached her to the gold medal that she won six months ago. He gives so much into his skaters and her leaving him now is just disgraceful.

Seventeen of Twenty-Two

2010-08-22T22:29:00.003-04:00

Now, I'm actually a huge fan of the SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE genre of show ever since its first season, but I'm starting to think that I've had enough with it. On the Canadian version this season there were some questionable decisions in regards to who made the show. To start with some of the most memorable dancers didn't make the show--the twin sister of one of the dancers from last season, a hip-hop female dancer and lots of ballroom experts who were brilliant in their styles and others.

But all of that doesn't *really* bother me. What makes me furious is the fact that there are seventeen contemporary-esque dancers out of the top twenty two. There is one visible hip-hop dancer and five ballroom-eque dancers. Such an uneven spread. The show is supposed to be about diversity and a variety of dance styles and if that was the case then they should have had tappers, and more hip-hoppers, more ballroom women (because most of the ballroom dancers are men) and yeah... the whole thing sucks and I'm questioning whether or not I'll even watch this season.

Youth Olympic Games

2010-08-15T23:58:00.006-04:00

Yes. I'm the first one to admit, I'm an Olympic junkie and while I had heard about the youth Olympics in Singapore, I had totally forgotten that it was happening now. Thanks to TSN2 I'm able to watch the highlights and I gotta say that I'm loving it.

Yes the age limits seem a little arbitrary, 14 to 18 when 13 year olds can compete in swimming in the Olympics, but I look at it as a chance to compete on the world stage and get used to the pressure. Besides, for those disciplines where the body may not hold out till they are sixteen, this gives them a chance to compete on the world stage.

So yeah, Canada has gotten a couple fourth place finishes so far but my fingers are crossed for a medal sometime soon.

Go Canada Go!

Seventh

2010-08-12T22:05:00.003-04:00

So there was something about Lauren right from the very start. She stood out during auditions and towards the end when it was apparent that Alex wasn't going to win (due to injury) and Robert wasn't going to win (he was second-runner up) I really wanted Lauren to win over Kent. Kent from Wappakeneta (sp?) had the tween vote from the very beginning and yet he was the runner up. *Yay*

So now the Canadian airwaves will be dance free until Sunday when So You Think You Can Dance: Canada, Season 3 begins.

I for one, can't wait.

(Oh, and I'm so psyched that Lauren won!)

In Service of Bast

2010-08-09T15:23:00.000-04:00

If there's one thing that people know about the ancient Egyptians aside from the pharaohs, pyramids, mummies and the like...it's that they worshipped and revered the Cat as a mighty god. In all my schooling, they were the only civilization which stood out to me as one to keep and protect and pamper the agile critter that has so captured my heart.

My first experience with a cat came at quite a young age. My best friend had a long-haired tabby cat named Ginger and I remember aching to pet her even though she wasn't the most friendly of things back then. I also remember with vivid clarity when my same best friend got her second cat--a grey tabby named Hallie. For the first time in my life I was exposed to the wonders and the craziness of a kitten and I knew that one day I would own a cat.

For years I kept and looked after hamsters. Chester (a teddy bear hamster) was my first followed by Fluffy and Chippy. My only experience with cats during this time was the computer game CATZ and I began to think that that would be the extent of my interaction with cats.

Then came 1999 and the wicked snow storm that brought the greater Toronto area to a practical standstill. I had seen a large tabby cat in the area months before but the day leading up to the storm he began to hang around our house. I remember coming home from an early Saturday morning skating rehersal and petting him. Then, I remember picking him up and then putting him back down.

The cat followed us to the door and because of the storm my mother relented and brought him into the house on the condition that he was just a guest, and was not to stay. The moment he was through the door my sister and I were on the floor petting Tigger, for he was instantly named. We gathered up what we could to take care of him and the snow storm came and went (as did my thirteenth sleep-over birthday party) and after a couple of weeks with no leads on who the cat belonged to, Tigger officially became a part of our family.

Fast-forward now to 2006, one day my mother was trolling the sites when she came across Pride Rescue in Hamilton and there was a cute little grey and white kitten that my mother's heart just went out to. Tigger was slowing down and she figured that getting a kitten at this time would not only be a good idea for the future, but it would ensure a smooth transition for the aging patriarch of our house.

And thus, Loki became a part of our family. Then in 2007 around the same time my mother was once again trolling the Pride Rescue site when she came across another little darling. A tortise-shell cat with and almost phantom mask colouring on her face and the moment I laid eyes on her I knew that that kitten was to be mine. And thus, Taffy became a part of our family. She was skitterish and not nearly as loveable to humans as Loki was but considering the fact that she was abandoned on King Street I knew that it would just be a matter of time before my kitten came around (something that I am still waiting for).

Then came 2008. My cousin had brought home a cat from the beach who instantly gave birth to kittens. My sister went over hoping to adopt one and sure enough one kitten took to my sister like a duck takes to water. Ten weeks later that kitten (named Suki) came into our home.

In 2009 my sister and mother took Suki to a local groomers to get some mats out of her long black hair when they fell in love with a little grey furball named Winnie. She too had been rescued and after some insessnet pleading, the new kitten came home and we were up to five.

May 2010 brought the death of our beloved papa Tigger. He was old, his body wearing down and in the end it was more humane to put him to sleep then to try and fix what was wrong with him. It was a heartbreaking blow to our entire family because we loved our papa Tigger so much. He was an integral part of our family and he will be sorely missed.

The months rolled by and at the beginning of August 2010 my mother and sister took some food to donate to the groomers and who should they see? A little black and white kitten, adorable and loveable. My mother came home and told me what she had found and even though every time she brought up cute kittens before I would say no, something told me that I should go and see this particular kitten.

I went. I saw. I adopted. The newest member of our family came home only a couple days ago and I have to say that I'm so glad. She's an absolute joy and crazy to boot. She's nameless thus far, nothing seems to stick. The girls at the groomers called her Kiwi and while Kiwi fits her, I'm looking for a name that really embodies the energy that she's got.

But what does all this mean? It means that despite the fact that we fell into owning cats, we have become a cat loving family that will always remain in the service of Bast (the cat goddess of Egypt) and her children.

Musings on a Musical

2010-08-08T23:51:00.001-04:00

It's amazing how some things stay with us. They stand out in our memory clear as day, though we don't always know why. For example, I can remember the first time that I saw SWEENY TODD: Demon Barber of Fleet Street (the musical). I was in high school, grade twelve and our drama class went to Oakville to see the show performed. I remember that we had balcony seats and I remember the staging--minimal to the eye with a great structure which housed the barber shop on top and the bakery down below. I remember being completely entranced from the opening strains of the overture and that feeling of amazement continued right through to the curtain call.

It's not the cheeriest musical that you'll ever see. It's all about the vengeance of Benjamin Barker (now Sweeny Todd) who has returned to London after fifteen years away. He expects to find his wife and child but instead he learns that his child is the ward of the man (Judge Turpin) who sent him into exile and his wife is dead. The rest of the story is all about his quest for revenge against the Judge. In the end he gets his wish and kills Turpin but in the process he also kills his wife who isn't dead after all (in fact she is the beggar woman seen sporadically throughout the entire musical. And at the very end, he himself ends up dead...by his own shaving knife.

Not a happy end for Sweeny, but I remember how psyched I was to hear that Tim Burton and Johnny Depp had teamed up to bring the macabre musical to life. That was back in 2007. It came out during the winter holidays, I was in my third year of university and everything was...simple I guess. I remember trekking through the snow to the movie theatre expecting to be as entranced as I had been with the stage production years earlier. I remember that I wasn't so enthralled the second time around. The music was well done, but it was the fake blood that turned me off. But still, I liked the movie.

Three years later, I've finally gotten around to watching it again and this time I have to say that it has to be one of my favourite movie musicals of all time. Yes the blood is rather gory, but I've watched so many CSI / mystery drama's lately that I can tell the difference between television attempting to be real, and Tim Burton's quite obvious fake blood.

So what does that mean? It means that I adore Sweeny Todd (the movie musical) and I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it. Oh, and to those who HAVE seen it I say... see it again. ^_^

ARG Ye Maties....

2010-07-31T20:45:00.002-04:00

Eclipse

2010-07-09T00:06:00.004-04:00

Earlier in the week I saw ECLIPSE and may I say that it was a pretty good movie. It wasn't an on-the-edge-of-your-seat-movie like NEW MOON was, but all in all I was quite impressed. I hated certain parts of the book, like when Bella begs Jacob for a kiss but I thought that when played out on the screen it worked brilliantly. I thought that Charlie had some great character moments and I thought that the moments between Bella and Edward were especially touching. I didn't like how massive the ring was, I was expecting something a little more vintage then that but still no big deal I suppose.

All in all it was a really good movie and it gets 4/5.

Trailers of Note:

Zac Efron's movie: A story about two brothers and the bond that they share. It looks like a really good movie and I'm really glad to see Zac breaking out of the teeny-bopper role into something more meaningful.

Step Up 3D: Only of note 'cause I thought I saw Twitch from SYTYCD on it.

Bye, Bye, Alex

2010-07-09T00:04:00.003-04:00

*Ugh* Life sometimes throws you real curve balls. Last week I commented on how BRILLIANT Alex Wong was on SYTYCD and this week, what happens? He gets injured and due to the nature of the injury (achilles tendon) he's out of the competition. Oh sure, he has a standing invitation to be at Vegas Week next season but still, it's heartbreaking. Really heartbreaking.

THE LAST AIRBENDER

2010-07-01T22:33:00.001-04:00

Okay, so I am huge fan of AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER and I had serious doubts about them transforming the first great season into a hour and forty-minute movie but they did it. I was totally impressed in the way the movie was put together. I thought that the casting was fantastic, I thought that the scenery was fantastic--the pacing was a little rushed like I said but that was the least of the movies problems.

I'm really hoping that this movie does well enough at the box office to warrent a sequel and that the sequel comes out before the actor playing Aang gets to old, mind you they did throw in the whole 'three years till Sozen's Comet' so they do have some leway for the next two movies.

Trailers of note: Guardians of Gahoole the animated story about these owls; Megamind by Dreamworks and animated movie Rango starring Johnny Depp.

Beyond Benji?

2010-07-01T22:13:00.005-04:00

Back during the summer of 2006, I watched the second season of a little show called SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE. Over the course of the summer months I quickly became attached to Benji Schwimmer. He was the King of Swing and he quickly captured the hearts of America (and mine) where dancing was concerned. His incredible connection with his partner Donyelle and his amazing talent propelled him to be crowed the winner on 08-16-06 and I never thought that any other dancer would capture those same feelings in me.

Five seasons passed and while I had my favourites none of them captured my heart. That was until season seven and the introduction (or re-introduction) of Alex Wong. He is a ballet dancer from Vancouver, British Columbia who for the past couple years has been working for the Miami City Ballet. In fact, he tried out a couple seasons ago and would have made it onto the show except he wasn't allowed out of his contract--that all changed this year.

Alex Wong has to be one of the, if not the best dancer that I've ever seen on this show (and it's Canadian counterpart). He's fantastic. He's technical and artistic and can do everything that's thrown at him. His level of commitment and presentation just blows me away and tonight he did a hip-hop routine with former contestent Twitch which was just amazing! My hope that is Alex goes VERY far in this competition...to the finale at the very least... but who knows what the American voting public will think. I hope they agree with me.

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

2010-07-01T00:44:00.005-04:00

Oh, Canada! I aboslutely love this country of mine. Today is Canada Day and I don't have any special plans. Some years I've gone down to the lakefront to partake in booths and music and fireworks but today I'm just heading to the movies with some friends. But yeah, HAPPY 143RD BIRTHDAY CANADA!

With technology...

2010-06-13T01:31:00.001-04:00

...everyone can be a musician.

New Template

2010-06-12T17:55:00.000-04:00

How cool is it that blogspot now allows us to create and use different templates? I love it and as you can see A PATCHWORK OF TALES now has a new design. It should stay like this but I have a sneaking suspicion that I will be changing the colours to match the differing seasons. It's pink for now only because I love pink.

The Four Chords found in all songs.

2010-06-10T00:08:00.003-04:00

This is freaking hilarious. Mucho thanks goes to my little sister for finding this.

2010-06-08T18:14:00.003-04:00

Saw this on the Diary of Jane and you can get to the blog of it's creator by clicking on the picture. It's just totally cute and I love each of those ten things.

You Never Can Tell

2010-06-04T19:53:00.002-04:00

Canadian gold medal-winning figure skaters Jamie Salé and David Pelletier, who won the hearts of audiences at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, are getting a divorce.

According to this article from msn.ca and cbc.ca. I remember adoring the couple when they skated towards the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. I still remember the feeling of anger when they didn't win and the immense relief when I saw them awarded the gold medals which they should have rightfully won. I remember always suspecting that they were in love with each other when they performed their epic routine 'Love Story' and I remember being thrilled when I heard that they had gotten married and later when they had a baby. Now I will remember how completly shocked I am right now. Of all the couples in the media that have gotten together, they were one that I would not have expected this from. I mean, I understand that sometimes it doesn't work out but it's still a huge surprise. I wish them the best in the future and I hope that they find the happiness that they both deserve.

The Last Longest Day

2010-05-27T17:36:00.000-04:00

So I'm back home now, trying to shake off the jet-lag but I will go through the last longest day of my life. Wednesday morning at 4:45 Sydney time I woke up after sleeping on and off all night. I woke up with my alarm, I got dressed, finished packing and was downstairs at the hostel by 5:15. At 5:30 I caught the airport taxi with another Canadian bound for Montreal via Los Angeles and Atlanta and we arrived at 6:15. However, the Air Canada desk didn't open until 7:30 so I had 45 minutes to kill and I ate breakfast at a little Jazz inspired restaurant and I had pancakes and a latte which while being super expensive, were really good.

I checked in third and made my way through security--with no issues--and was at the gate by 8:30am. I tried calling home a bunch of times but my family was out and about doing their Tuesday evening things so I called my Grandparents instead, just to let them know that I was at the airport and ready to board. We boarded the plane around quarter to ten and due to rain we didn't actually take off until eleven.

The flight was quite good for the most part. I decided to orient myself to Toronto time as quickly as possible so I slept on and off for four hours after eating a chicken lunch and about 2000 miles into the trip and from there on in I watched Alice in Wonderland, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and Leap Year. After that I puttered around on my computer for two hours and then played some of my DS and then had breakfast after which we came into the Vancouver.

Going through the Vancouver airport was a trip from hell really. We landed at 8am local time and we had to walk all the way to customs, check through (which I did my self via a computer) and then I had to go collect my bag, put it on the transfer belt and then made my way through security again to the gate. I of course made a detour to see what shops were available and made it back to Gate 50 around 9am local time and I called home.

We soon after boarded the plane and took off by 9:30. I was served a complimentary breakfast on the plane due to the fact that my ticket included it and I ate an egg mcmuffin, a regular muffin while watching How To Train Your Dragon by Dreamworks. After the movie was over I had two and half hours to kill so I slept for two of those hours--after not sleeping very much on the thirteen hour flight before I just crashed.

I woke up about half an hour outside of Toronto and was just itching to come home. The plane landed at 5pm local time and by 5:30 I was walking through the gates to my parents and grandmother. It was so amazing to see them after so long away and after getting home we had pizza and wine and cheesecake which was fantastic. Then we came home where I dozed on and off until my sister came home and then I went to bed.

Overall I've got to say that my vacation / working time in Australia was fantastic. I learned so much and saw so much and I am truly thankful that I went. Looking back on it now, if I hadn't had gone I would have regretted it forever and I am so incredibly thankful that I went. It was an amazing experience and I will cherish the memories.

Day 34

2010-05-25T03:59:00.000-04:00

So today was my last day in Dapto. I woke up before nine, had toast with peanut butter for breakie, packed the remainder of my stuff in and cleaned up the room that I was staying in (left) and then Gemma and I went driving up the coast. We had ice cream in Wollongong, walked along Wollongong harbour and walked along another little beach just south of where she lives. Then we came back to her house and puttered around till 2:00.

At 2:30ish we caught the train to Sydney and we parted ways at Sydney Central YHA. I have spent the last hour or so uploading my pictures from my camera to my computer and I hope to add them all to facebook. I have also added in pictures for all the blog entries this week that haven't had one.

At 6:30 I plan on going down to the lounge to see what Asian Noodle night is like and then I'll come back, finish up my stuff on the computer and pack it in early. Today was a fantastic day, and overall this trip has been amazing but I am ready to go home.

The next time I update this blog I will be in Canada and it'll be all about my trip home so TTFN--ta ta for now!

Day 33

2010-05-24T07:23:00.000-04:00

Today was a very good day. It started out in a really lazy way by both of us sleeping in but we did head out later in the day. Gem had to check to see if her computer could be fixed and luckily the web cam problem was a quick fix. After we went back down to Shell Harbour for some lunch, I had a chicken snitzel burger, she had scallops and chips and rescued Howl's Moving Castle from the bookshelves in the store. Plus, the seagulls were once again clamouring for food and while it started out at about half a dozen, we eaily had twice that by the time we were finished eating.

Once we were done eating we walked along the shoreline, over the volcanic rock with it's tidepools created by ancient air bubbles in the lava and within them I found some of the most amazing shells. We then kept walking until we hit the beach and walked along the tide line. The ocean was determined to get us wet and there were quite a number of waves which took us off guard.

The only downside to the day was that we saw a sea dragon that had been washed ashore. Gem told me that they were engangered and that they didn't wash ashore very often, if ever. But other than that it was another amazing day!

Day 32

2010-05-24T07:20:00.000-04:00

On Sunday, Gem and I went down to Kiama to see if the blow holes were working. Her, Mara, Lauren and I went down to see the big one the first night I was here but she figured that it would be smart to see if I could see it during the day but unfortunatly the wind and the waves were blowing in the wrong direction. We did spend some time clamoring over the rocks however and the view of the ocean was just amazing.

So we headed to the little one instead. Gem told me that the little one almost always worked but wouldn' you know when we got there it wasn't working either. We got a couple of little sprays, nothing major. The scenery was again amazing.

After that we had some ice cream and did a little window shopping before heading back to her place for a nice lazy afternoon. It was a perfect day.

Day 31

2010-05-22T07:46:00.000-04:00

Today started really early. My alarm went off at six am but I didn't get up until seven. Gemma and I were on the train to Sydney by eight am and after switching to a new train at Sutherland, walking from Martin Place to Circular Quay, a ferry ride across the harbour and a bus trip to the entrace we were able to spend from eleven am till three pm at the Taronga Zoo.

There were oso many different animals there. Some of which I had seen before like gorillas, giraffes, elephants excetera but then there were the australian animals like the Kukaburra and the wombat. Both creatures I had never seen before but was very amazed by both. The zoo also had a koala (the one that I could see) and they had a small kangaroo enclosure where you could go right up, pet and feed the creatures. Now, these Kangaroo's aren't really Kangaroo's but Wallabees and pygmy kangaroos, much smaller than an actual Grey or Red Kanga like I saw at the West Plains Dubbo zoo. But let me tell you, despite the fact that they're not technically kangaroo's, it was the best experience to pet and feed them.

Other than the zoo the rest of the day was taken up by travelling home. It was a fantastic day and I am so psyched that I got to feed an Australian animal!

Day 30

2010-05-21T08:55:00.000-04:00

A lazy sorta day today. I slept in, had breakfast, watched some tv, ate lunch, cashed some travellers cheques, picked up some DVD's from Gemma's cousins house, watched some tv, ate supper, watched some tv, called home and now I am going to bed. The last couple of days have been very busy so we decided that today would be a lazy sorta day and it was a great one!

Day 29

2010-05-20T08:29:00.000-04:00

Today began early. Too early. Gemma and I were on the train at eight in the morning and in Sydney by ten. We booked ourselves on the jet boat and then had till eleven-thirty to kill so we ate breakfast / lunch at McDonalds. We still had time so we walked around the opera house. Then eleven-thirty rolled around and it was time.

The jet boating was totally amazing! We had so much fun and got to see the harbour in a way that was so unique and we rode out nearly to the ocean (but really we were well back) and we got completly drenched with salt water in the process.

After drying off we headed to Darling Harbour and the Aquarium which in and of itself was totally amazing! The fishes of every shape and size were there and it was totally amazing! When we were done with the aquarium we went to the chinese gardens which were beautiful and so evokative of China. There we ate dim sum and drank jasmine tea before heading home.

It was a very long and exhausting day, but totally amazing and SO worth it!

Day 28

2010-05-20T07:28:00.000-04:00

Wednesday May 19 was a fantastic day. I managed to sleep in till around 9am and by 10am Gemma and I were heading up to the highlands. We went to the Miranmarra rainforsest and hiked through the trails which were incredibly steep and totally exhausting, the waterfall at the end was totally worth it. Plus hiking back down was a breeze. After that we went to the Carrington falls which were equally as beautiful without the hike. We ate lunch at Robertson and I had a sausage roll before heading back home.

It was a perfect day.

Day 27

2010-05-18T19:23:00.000-04:00

So yesterday was another fantastic day! Gemma and I went driving along the coast, up mountains and down to Shell Harbour for lunch. The views were absolutely fantastic despite the wind and the rain. Shell Harbour was beautiful to see during the day and feeding Gull's french fries out of my hand has got to be a highlight. Because of the rain we headed back early and watched TV which was a perfect way to spend a rainy day.

Day 26

2010-05-17T19:12:00.000-04:00

So yesterday was a fantastic day! I slept like the dead which meant that I got up bright and early ready to start the day. After breakie (and a bit of Vegemite Toast at the insistance of Gem) we watched a couple Doctor Who episodes before heading off to the mall. I picked up some cheap shorts and exchanged my travellers cheques for cash. Then we headed off to Mara's to pick her up and then we headed to the highlands.

The scenery was just so incredibly beautiful! We went up the mountin and came to this little look out point, but we were still only half way up at the time so we kept going to this little town called Robertson where we had some Meat Pies. Then we went off to Fitzroy Falls and hikes along the boardwalks and down the cut steps. Then we went out to Kangaroo Valley and had Malted Milkshakes and then we headed back home.

Back at Mara's place we watched Carl Bogen, an Australian observationalist commedian before heading back to Gem's place for dinner. Rice with chicken and green beans in a peanut butter sauce. It was the most delicious thing! Then we watched some more Doctor Who (until 11:30) before we finally called it a night. I made a quick 20 minute phone call to my family and then I went off to bed.

Once again I slept like the dead. Today's a rainy day so I have no idea what we're going to do. Whatever it is however, I'm sure it's going to be great!

Day 25

2010-05-16T18:23:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was an amazing day. I slept in, chatted with my Mum, had a great breakie before heading out with Gem. We went to Circular Quay and I bought some souvenir’s for Laura (with her money) then we got on the ferry and headed off to Luna Park. Then we headed back into the city and went through Hyde Park and watched some people playing chess with giant pieces and even went in the Catholic Church of St. Mary’s ‘cause it was beautiful and old and had gothic architecture and stain glass windows. Then we ate at Subway (gotta love Subway) before heading back to the centre of the city. We sat in a little park across from the hostel for a bit chatting away and then we met Laura at the hostel, I picked up my stuff, got the cell phone and then we caught the train to Dapto.

In Dapto I met her Mum & Dad who are super nice and her brother who was feeling kinda icky yesterday. Gem and I watched some early episodes of Doctor Who before dinner. For dinner we had chooks (chicken) and gravy (yes I had gravy) mashed potatoes and green beans. Then Gem took me out and she introduced me to her two best friends Mara and Lauren (both of whom I’ve heard tons about) and together we went driving around the coast looking at the ‘blow hole’ which is a spot on the coast where the surf comes through a crack in the rocks and spews up just like the blow hole of a whale, little beaches and we played in a little park before getting ice cream at Maccers (McDonalds). We then headed back to Mara’s flat but we were only there about 20 minutes before heading back to Gem’s place. That’s when I called home to let them know that I had made it safe and sound and then I headed off to bed.

Today we’re heading off to the waterfalls and I’m totally psyched. It’s bound to be a fantastic day.

Day 24

2010-05-15T03:17:00.000-04:00

Today started bitterly early. I was up at about 4:20 and laid in bed until 4:45 when I finally got up, got dressed and dragged my bags to the door. LD was up at 4:45 and together we waited for our taxi which we ordered last night. The guy arrived at 5:10 like he should have but he didn't know where the residence is even though LD told him and I had to run half way across the parking lot to flag him down.

We were at the airport by 5:30 and after checking in and being the first ones to do so, LD read some of her book and I alternated between playing a little bit of my Alice in Wonderland game on my DS which is amazing, and reading Mansfield Park by Jane Austin. Finally it was time to board, I left my hand-luggage at the bottom of the stairs because it was too big to fit on the plane but they didn't make me check it and pay for the extra weight. It's quite an awesome system that Quantas has. Anyways, LD & I found ourselves at the back of the plane and we had a really nice conversation with Tate our flight attendant before taking off.

We were served orange juice, a blueberry muffin and our choice of coffee/tea on the plane and the entire trip took an hour with practically no turbulence which was a lot better compared to last time. We got a shuttle to the main airport door and a taxi from Terminal 2 to Sydney Cetnral Youth Hostel where we checked in. I had a quick MSN conversation with my family before LD & I got our stuff together and headed off to Bondai Beach.

We were at Bondai by 10:30am and let me say it was pretty much a bust. Not only was the beach practically empty but it was bitterly cold with the wind and very cloudy. The only good things were the waves (see above). LD & I sat on the beach for a little while but then we left to have breakfast / lunch at Gabby's cafe. 2 poached eggs with toast and bacon with a latte for me...the same plus a hot chocolate for LD. The meal was delicious!

Then the skies cleared (somewhat) and we headed back to the beach but while the sun was warm the wind was vicious and it was causing some MEGA waves! (again see above) So we headed to higher ground and laid on the grass until 2ish when we went walking along the main strip to do a little shopping. LD bought a fair amount for her kids, I bought a Bondi hoodie and a souviener for my little sister. Then we headed back to the hostel.

Now, it's nearly 5:30 and we're both just puttering around on our computers. The day has been fantastic and we're spitting a bootle of white Arrowfield Estate wine to celebrate our last night here in Sydney. I can't believe that so much time has passed and yet in some cases it feels as though no time has passed at all.

Crazy.

Day 23

2010-05-15T03:13:00.000-04:00

Friday May 14

Today was another great day. It was bitterly cold AGAIN outside and I could see my breath. More than that, it actually FELT like Autumn! You know that feeling when it's really cold and there's a chill in the air and you just KNOW that it's Fall? Well that's what it felt like today.

Once at school LD and I gave the secretary a card for the school (with little notes and messages for specific people inside) along with four books and the Canadian flag. We gave Darryl his keychain and a card yesterday which he really liked and this morning before school he gave both Laura and I a Wellington Public School Pen which says "Search, Discover, Grow" on it which are great words to live by and he wants us to keep in touch (he gave us his business card w/ his e-mail) and we're so going to let him know how our job hunt goes back home.

Then just before the bell rang (or rather just as the bell rang) Darryl gave us some vegemite toast to try and oh, my god, it was horrible and disgusting and *ick* I was so glad to have release first thing (the kids were at science but it was outdoors kinda stuff) so I could drink my tea and get the vegemite taste out of my mouth after about a 1/2 hour the vegemite taste was out of my mouth so I went off to find my class (5/6M) only to find them all scattered about "The Big Green" (aka the field) doing athletic trials. I hung out beside Laura watching our kids practice high jump but you know how sports aren't my thing so I ended up wandering over to Kindy Red (after giving the 5/6M teacher her gift because she was leaving for the day).

The hour that I spent with Kindy Red was great but exhausting. When I got to them they were still going through attendance (or had just finished) and David the IT guy was saying things into his iPhone and putting it through different sound filters like high, low, chipmunk, mouse, backwards, etc. and the Kindy's absolutely loved it. I was sitting on the carpet with them and I had Erica on one knee, Dominique on the other, Annemarie hugging my right shoulder and Alica leaning in as well. Kaeley (the teacher) was in for a bit and she asked if I was alright and I told her honestly that I was. Sure my legs fell asleep after about 15 minutes but the kidlets are so cute and I'm going to miss them so much.

By the time 11 o'clock rolled around the 2-6's were STILL doing their athletic trials so I puttered around waiting. Laura and I wanted to spend our last breaks together and I had told Kaeley that I'd be back later in the day. However, Laura was still at the athletics competition with the kids until well after 11:30 which is when the primary break ends so I met up with her briefly before heading back to the Kindy's. They worked on their B words (cutting out pictures and glueing it into their books) then they painted a picture of someone who helps them stay healthy (parents, doctors, etc) although most of them drew Miss Hartnin (Kaeley) and then they made paper fan butterflies to help them practice their fine motor skills. Whenever I was on the carpet with them while they were getting their instructions I was surrounded by little ones. They were all so cute!

I helped with everything and helped to clean up the paint and just as Kaeley was dismissing them to go to lunch I asked them to freeze and then told them that it was my last day and I was flying back to Canada and I got a lot of hugs (no tears thank heavens, I think I would have broken down if I had seen tears) and my heartstrings were pulled as I walked away and the kids were calling out to me, saying that they'll miss me and they love me etc. *sigh* But after my time with the Kindy's I hadn't eaten since breakfast so I had the left overs from Wednesday night that I didn't eat yesterday due to the fact that I was so full from the cafe, and then puttered around until 2:00pm where I went to 4P and we played half-court basketball with boys on boys and girls on girls. Alena and I were on both teams trying to encourage the kids to pass and you know me Mum, I absolutely hate basketball but I actually had a lot of fun. The girls were cheering for their corresponding team when the boys were playing and when it was time to say good by I got loads of hugs from the 4's which was really sweet and one of the little boys, Jack--he wished me a good flight which was really really sweet of him to do.

I'm really going to miss all the kidlets that I've met especially since today some random kids came up to me and gave me a hug saying that I hope I had a fun time at their school. The kids are so wonderful and it's such a different feeling leaving them. I know that I can visit my one's and four's at home, but I'll probably never have the chance to see these kids again and they're all so great and I'll miss them a lot. I've already told Kaeley and Alena that I'll add them to facebook so at least I'll be able to keep in touch--sorta.

After school LD & I packed before heading off to Milestones again with Matt and Clinton (see above). I had two small Boag's (beers) a glass of VB beer (which was alright, but supposedly is the worst beer in Australia yet served everywhere) followed by a glass of white wine with the steak sandwhich (so good) and then a Bailey's to finish off the night. We were there for about four and a half hours and it was TOTALLY fantastic! I had the best time. The boys were so great.

LD & I were driven back to the residence to finished a Mars bar each and now at 11 I'm heading off to bed.

Day 21

2010-05-15T03:11:00.001-04:00

Wednesday May 12

After heading off to bed last night I found that My body was stuck in the whole sleep for two hours at a time mode but all in all I had a restful night—sorta. Other than that though, today was a good day. I got up at 6am packed my lunch (left overs from last night) replied to some more e-mails and then had a phone conversation with my family before heading off to school. In the first bit of the day I didn’t do much because the five’s were still at their standardize testing and the six’s were learning about how their government worked but from 10:45 to 11:30 I was able to show the students three songs from Canada; read PERFECT SNOW by Barbara Reid, teach them how to make paper snowflakes and hand out the pens and Burlington Pin’s to the twenty-nine students, all of which they loved. The snowflakes also turned out awesome and I put them on the window to make it feel like winter (above see some of the snow flakes)

After little lunch it was math with the other 5/6’s and I worked on the SMART board doing multiplication and division and you know my 4’s at home got really good and their times tables mainly because it was homework to memorize them but these students (who are not the 5/6M enriched kids) had some serious trouble knowing the facts which made my job rather difficult.

During second lunch I went to the local dollar shop to pick up some souvieners (just in case I don’t find them elsewhere) and then after I went to Kindy-Red from week one and spent a glorious forty-five minutes with the little ones. They were so cute and so happy to see me I must have gotten a thousand hugs, resolving me to go back again either tomorrow (Thursday) or Friday.

The principal of Wellington Public got out rather early and we were home by four pm however after several attempts to log onto the internet and a phone call to Kev the IT wizard I discovered that my four dollar credit (which I had no idea I even had) has not only been drained but I now owe about five dollars to the school. Now I haven’t been doing much on the net but posting pictures (downloading them to this blog) and they reckon that between that, the automatic updates that my computer does and the fact that I tried to watch a TV movie and only watched about 20 minutes in about an hour and a half sometime last week (don’t remember the exact day) did me in. Go figure...

Day 22

2010-05-15T03:11:00.000-04:00

Thursday May 13, 2010

So today was a good day (despite having no internet access again). It was hideously cold this morning, around zero degrees and once again I could see my breath as I was walking to the pick up point which was crazy. Once at school I was on the computers while the staff was assembling for their meeting and out of the blue the Principal who has also been giving us our rides to and from Wellington Public these past few weeks gave us a shout out seeing how it was his last chance in a formal setting to acknowledge us.

Then it was off to class and the morning period was a bit dull but the students were working on writing and grammar. Then at 11 o;clock Darryl (the principal) took LD & I out driving. LD did really well she only put on the wipers instead of the signal once where as I (on an empty rural / country road with no one coming in either direction) turned not into the left lane but the right. Calmly from behind me Darryl says “We’re on the other side,” and I scoot over within ten seconds. Above is a picture of me driving.

After our not so harrowing car ride (no matter what anyone says) we went to the Wilson-Brown Café. The three of us had hot chocolate, LD had scones with dates, Darryl had a large portion of Turkish Delight cheesecake where as I had a half portion of Turkish Delight and a single ‘Melting Moment’ which is two sugar cookies with some cream in the middle. So filling, but sooo good!

Back at class by 12:45pm I helped the teacher (not the normal 5/6M teacher) go through some math riddles with the grade sixes (the fives were at their standardized testing) and I even got to use the smart board. Then it was time for Lunch and I wasn’t hungry at all but I did putter around before getting my Art lesson ready. I did making snowflakes with my Grade 4’s and they loved it! They all looked so wonderful in the end and their teacher helped them to put white ribbon on it and they are now hung up. They are totally fantastic.

LD & I got a ride home with one of the teachers (not Darryl) and we spend a little time in downtown Dubbo before coming back to the residence where I first got my travel sticker on my student card so I get the student rates after which I began packing. Around 5:30 Kevin (the IT guy) took us to the Milestone pup where I tried a Cooper beer. It was pretty good for a beer, I didn’t finish the scooner though (just smaller than a pint) but I did finish the little cup of Bailey’s on ice that I had afterwards

Upon arriving back once again on campus at about 6:45, LD and I ordered pizza and garlic bread from Pizza hut, played some Euchre (but didn’t finish the game) and then settled down to watch Master Chef: Australia with our Pizza which had arrived. After Master Chef it was the ‘Beautiful’ episode of Glee and I loved how Kristen Chenoworth sang ‘Home’ at the end of it! It made me think of MY home and how much I’m missing it...

I’m still having a blast though, don’t you worry about that.

Day 20

2010-05-15T03:09:00.000-04:00

Tuesday May 11th

For today there’s nothing much really to report. I woke up dead tired and didn’t go into school. Instead I slept for another two hours till ten am, got up, had breakie, read the rest of Gregory Maguire’s book before going back to sleep for another two hours. I then woke up, nuked what was left of the pasta from Monday night for lunch, ate it, replied to some e-mails and then crashed again around three pm before waking up at five. I stayed up, did all the chopping for dinner, ate rice with curry and vegetables while watching some television (including Survivor which was amazing) and now I’m heading off to bed. The only bothersome thing for the day is that my bug bits (see left) are STILL driving me crazy! I don't scratch them during the day, but I know at night that I'm scratching them 'cause I'll be half asleep and then wake up scratching them. *UGH* I was so not prepared for mosquitos!

Day 19

2010-05-10T05:02:00.000-04:00

So today began early once again, 6am I was up. After getting ready and eating breakfast I had a quick phone conversation with my family (wishing my mum a happy mothers day of course) and then it was off to school to start a new day. Class 5/6M was a pretty good class (the building that they are in is left).

They had a spelling test in the morning (the 5's are doing grade 6 words and the 6's are doing grade 7 words) then we had an hour Q & A session about Canada during which I brought up images like the CN Tower and our money on the smartboard (what a great tool that is). Around 11am it was time for Maths and some other 5's and 6's came into the room and I was told that they were at the lower end of the scale math wise whereas 5/6M was the enriched class.

After little lunch the group had library and then I showed them an interactive map of Canada before they set about working on their TEAMWORK posters for Health. Then came lunch and I was all set to show them some real Canadian songs (and give out the souviners) but I found out that they had choir so that idea had to be shelved for another day.

LD & I did some grocery shopping, I bought some anti-bite medication for the 11 mosquito bites on my ankles which is driving me batty and some bandaids to cover the ones that were scratched too much (which is all of them--silly me). We came back to the residence, I put some more laundry in and it's now drying on the line. We defrosted pizza for dinner and are anxiously awaiting MASTER CHEF AUSTRALIA and because the prinicpal wants to pick us up at 7:30am tomorrow morning it's going to be a really early night unfortunatly.

So aside from having to get up REALLY early and having to go to bed REALLY early today has been a really good day and I'm excited for tomorrow. Plus it's T-Minus 16 days and counting till I go home. I've really been enjoying my time here and I'm so psyched for the rest of my vacation but I'm glad to know that I'm more than half-way through now and that I'll be going home soon-ish. ^_^

Till tomorrow.

Day 18

2010-05-09T06:51:00.000-04:00

The day started off in Wellington. I woke up around 8am had a quick chat online with my mother and sister, ate another fabulous breakie of poached eggs on toast and then packed my bags to head back to Dubbo (left is the room at Heather's that I was staying in).

It's strange but coming back to the residence felt like coming home. I was so excited to get back and to enjoy a whole day of doing nothing or rather almost nothing. LD & I did get two loads of laundry done, I got 3/4 of Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire read, I had a little lie down between 12 and 2, we made pasta with carrots, cucumbers and celary in the sauce and we watched an episode of MERLIN and MASTER CHEF: AUSTRALIA.

It was a perfectly fantastic and lazy day. Tomorrow I'll be in a new class and it will be the start of my final week of teaching here in Australia (which is insane) but I'm totally excited.

Day 17

2010-05-08T09:17:00.000-04:00

Today was an utterly fantastic day. I was able to sleep in till 8am and then I enjoyed a morning tea on the porch and in the sun while watching the fog rise. Then a quick and I mean super quick msn conversation with my family before having breakfast (poached eggs on toast). After breakfast LD & I along with Heather and Dennis (our hosts) went off to the Wellington Caves and mines and my god were they beautiful. The mine was amazing but rather oppresive in feel and we went in that one first while the caves were just utterly amazing. Thirty plus metres underground and beautifuly formed with flow rock and a great altar in the cathedral cave, a well that had some water in it and the thunder cave which reverberated like crazy.

After the caves around 2pm we took a drive out to the local dam and while it is only at about 12% water levels it was still a beautiful sight and we saw LOTS of kanga's on the way. They seemed to be everywhere and there was a whole bunch on the golf course. After that we went to the local pub here in Wellington that was first built in 1842. I had a small Bailey's on the rocks and then we came back and puttered around until dinner (a roast with all the trimmings).

After dinner we had pavlova again and then we played two card games. Euchre and a game like hearts which I am SO bringing back to Canada with me. Now it's almost 11:30 at night and we ladies (Heather, LD and I) are just chilling in front of the television.

All in all today was utterly fantastic and I can't wait for tomorrow.

Day 16

2010-05-07T07:57:00.000-04:00

So the sun is starting to rise later, today I really noticed it and I hate how for the next week I"m going to have to get up in the dark. Other than that today was an absolutely fantastic day! The morning was split up into various different sections. The class did 'sport' which was basically their version of cross-country, then they came back into the room had their fruit and a question/answer period about Canada. Then it was the literacy block and I gave the students in that class (ten of thirteen) the last couple Canadian Flags and the loved them! Then it was little lunch.

After little lunch I gave my class their pencils and took a picture. LD & I then set up the A-Block Hall, getting the pancakes and the maple syrup ready and the stuff that we wanted to go over quickly about Canada. By 1pm the students were there and listening and by 1:20 they were out having lunch. After lunch I took half the group to play some drama games (squirrel in the tree, the yes game and follow the leader) while the other group wrote grateful cards and then we switched..

At the end of the day LD and I were picked up by the husband of Heather Bell, the teacher who is showing us around the backcounry of Dubbo. We came back to their place, went on a bit of a walk about the 42 acre property before coming back in. We had dinner with the Kindy-Red teacher (my teacher from last week) her fiancee and a mutual friend. It was a fantastic evening and we played Billionaire which was so much fun. It's a trading card game but you don't take turns you just call out how many cards you need to switch and then wait for someone to switch with you. The first person to have a match set wins the round and gets to keep that many dollars (200k for Oil down to 100k for a movie star) and the first one to 500k wins the game.

Then Heather Bell and her husband showed us the shed (which was more of a boys hang out room) and in the process we could see the stars. They are FANTASTIC here up on the hill where these two live and for the first time I really felt like I was a world away from home. On top of that I saw the milky way stretching across the sky and a shooting star! It went by too fast to make a proper wish but I wished anyways.

Now we are just settled in front of the TV watching the last couple minutes of an old NCIS episode and just relaxing. Tomorrow is the caves and I just can't wait!

Day 15

2010-05-06T07:11:00.000-04:00

This morning it was cold. Very cold. Like you could see your breath kinda cold. I managed to sleep in until 6:40 but at 7:35 when I was walking out the door I couldn't believe how utterly freezing it was. Other than that the day went really well. In the morning block the class worked on decimals, had computers (where they picked out the grammar and spelling mistakes in a poem), they had their fruit break then had their scripture lesson (which was all about Hannah and Samuel) and then they worked on their mother's day gifts some more.

After little lunch during the second teaching block the year three literacy block did more of the same, basic work to prepare them for the standardize testing which is next week. After second lunch half the group worked on their Mother's Day cards while I took the other half outside to read Scaredy Squirrel and to play squirrel-in-the-tree which they all really enjoyed. Then the groups switched,

After school LD and I spent an hour and made 100 chocolate chip pancakes (or there about) for tomorrow, enjoyed the sun set for a little while, and then I had a little an hour nap. We watched MASTER CHEF: AUSTRALIA and the Madonna episode of GLEE which had me giggling throughout--though some of the storylines threw me for a loop.

So all in all it was a great day.

Day 14

2010-05-05T06:37:00.000-04:00

Today started off as a very rainy day. There was thunderstorms during the night which woke me up and then it was pouring down in the morning when I woke up (6am) and I didn't really get moving until 6:30. But I managed to get ready, pack my lunch and start breakfast before my family called and after the phone call with them it was off to school. The students were quite settled for the most part today. They did some mental math questions first and then I taught a lesson on mixed fractions (1 1/4, 3 1/2, 2 7/10) and just as I was helping them do the questions in their work book the Wellington Paper came.

LD and I had a short interview afterwhich we took pictures with both our classes who were very exccited that they were going to be in the paper. Those pictures once a copy has been printed off will also be given to us. After that I went back to class and helped the students as they worked on some stationary for a Mother's Day gift and then it was Little Lunch. After little lunch I did the Year 3 literacy block and helped some students to edit their work, but no good copies were then done they just had to draw a picture of their story. Then it was time for Lunch.

After Lunch the students had choir (which my teacher was conducting) but I watched LD's art lesson on the Group of Seven from Canada (her class has been studying famous artists) and it was a good thing that I came because while she was teaching and the supply was helping to keep an eye on the students I was able to help set up the Smart Board for LD. After that I found out that I was going to be teaching Drama tomorrow (that's it) and then LD & I came home.

After lounging around for a while we made ourselves a veggie stirfry with some hummas and lebanese bread, watched Master Chef Australia (which was really good) before finally heading off to bed. So today was a pretty awesome day and I can't wait for tomorrow!

Day 13

2010-05-04T06:14:00.000-04:00

So my day is as follows; I got up at 6:30am, applied to the Halton Board of Education, had breakfast and then got ready for school. We were driven in by M & C the two gents who have driven us twoice before. Class 4P had Science and Technology in the morning and a test on the different kinds of energy. When it came time to go they were a little rowdy and the Science Teacher got rather cross. Back in the classroom their regular Teacher had them eat their fruit and then talked about and had them write down what it meant to be a good student and that made them late for IKI which is a martial arts form that encourages self-discipline and confidence in these young students. When we came back from IKI I read the Canada book and we talked about the different kinds of animals that live in Canada and Australia and they were amazed at some of our creatures (Beaver) just as I told them that it was amazing to see a Kangaroo hopping across the field the other night. After that it was lunch and then the middle literacy block and I worked with two year 3 students on their sounds and letters.

After that it was lunch again and when the year 4's came back I told them that I had souveniers for them all but that the teacher and I decided that they were going to have to show us how well they could work by getting a checkmark in each work block. If they had all their checkmarks by the end of the week THEN they would get a Canada pencil (which they all thought was really cool) and if they DID misbehave then the next teaching block not only would they have to be on their super best behaviour but they would have to do something nice for someone else and have it be seen (not told) by the teacher or I to make up the lost checkmark (to make it fair on everyone and to give the kids a good fighting chance to get a pencil) and surprisingly the kids settled down for Math which was awesome to see. Hopefully tomorrow will be as good as the last 45 minutes were.

..so that's my day. When we got home we saw the most amazing rainbow (above) and beautiful sunset (left). Then at 6:30pm the Dubbo Dormies (as the other students here at the residence are calling themselves) hosted a BBQ for us for which LD & I made super delicious brownies. The only thing left to do is watch this weeks (last Thursday's) Survivor and then be off to bed.

Day 12

2010-05-03T08:20:00.000-04:00

So I was up around 5am and thanks to some coffee I was ready for the day. My new class is VERY different from Kindy Red. There are 22 students in the class and almost all of them are low-level learners with only a couple bright lights (so I've been told). Hopefully I'll be able to do a creative writing / drama thing on Canada sometime this week, but if not (if I'm just teaching the Australian Maths Curriculum) at least my class and Laura's year 5's are going to get together on Friday to have a real Canadian Pancake day. I figured that with her class and mine being so close we could do a combined thing. Tell them all about how maple sugar comes to be and share the chocolate chip pancakes with them (which we are going to pre-cook).

Today was a rather slowish day. There was a 1/2 hour assembly in the morning where the past weeks leaders (kids who were chosen for doing outstanding work) got a little pin in front of the whole school and their parents. Then it was question and answer time with me. They asked me what number house I lived at (I said 2-3-3 instead of two-hundred and thirty three which they found funny), how cold it got in Canada (some of them had been in a freezer on a field trip (excusion) so they sort of knew what I was talking about), how many shops there were in Canada (tons, and tons and tons), what kind of city I lived in (they couldn't believe it when I said around 150 THOUSAND people), how long it took me to get to Australia, etc. T

hen they switched their jobs for the week, worked on some algorithms (addition and subtraction) and then it was fruit break and an hour of Library time where they are doind a unit on Australia and it's history (all years are doing this apparently because it's not sinking in) and then they came back and did 1/2 hour of kilogram work then it was lunch.

After lunch we had a year 3 literacy class and the students ranged from K to year 3 reading level and the class included some year 4's. Quite an eye-opener. That took us till 2nd lunch and then after lunch Laura and I spent 40 minutes doing last minute revisions to our resume's and then waiting for the list to open...which is didn't.

That was my day. We got pancake mix and chocolate chips then came back just in time to enjoy the sunset (and a Kanga hopping across campus) before we went to Ali's for a WONDERFUL homecooked meal of lamb and potatoes and peas and pavlova for dessert. And other than the horrible news that my eldest cat had to be put down today was really exciting. New class. New environment. Good home cooked meal...AND when we were leaving Ali's she pointed out the Southern Cross to us which apparently rises once Orion sets. I can see it tonight (at 10ish PM) which is awesome. It's huge too. Dominates the sky. Crazy.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring...

Day 11

2010-05-02T04:16:00.000-04:00

Another wonderfully lazy day. My family called early this morning to wake me up and I had a great conversation with them before heading back to sleep till 11am. That's when I had breakfast and joined the other three girls outside for a little bit of sun (though I was wearing my kangaroo hat). About an hour later around Noon LD and I decided to go into Dubbo to do some shopping and get groceries. In downtown Dubbo I managed to get two pairs of leather sandals for a grand total of $30.00 and that was an amazing deal I think. Plus both of them are really comfortable another plus.

After grocery shopping LD and I took a taxi back to campus and after putting away the groceries we had lunch (what was leftover from last night) and then we spent the entire afternoon reading outside. It was beautiful. I only have about 1/4 or less of The Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley to finish. I didn't think that I would be able to get much reading done out here, but I'm almost finished a whole book in a matter of one weekend. ^_^ It's totally great.

LD and I then made Sheppard's Pie for dinner and we have plans to watch MASTER CHEF: AUSTRALIA at 7:30pm (which is in about an hour) other than that things have been going great today. I've had a little bit of a headache, although it feels more like my head is stuffed with cotton then anything (and it's been like that all day, just like yesterday) so I guess whatever I had yesterday (sun stroke, vertigo, whatever) I'm still not over it yet.

But tomorrow will be super exciting. I start a new grade and we're going over to Ali's house for some home-cooking! It's going to be a great day tomorrow.

Day 10

2010-05-01T06:42:00.000-04:00

Today was a sleepy kinda day. I got a call first thing in the morning at 7am by my wonderful family, but I was so half asleep that I don't think I said more than a couple words to them. When we hung up I went back to bed, feeling kinda dizzy and was startled awake at 8:45am. I got up fully then and had breakie. Then I worked on my resume & cover letter and updated them to applyt0teach which is the website which will help me find a job. Then I ordered my transcript from McMaster, replied to some e-mails, spent about 20 mintues in the sun and then at 11;30am I crashed.

I went back to bed feeling utterly exhausted and woke up three hours later at 2pm. I was still feeling kinda woozy so I took my book, some water and an orange outside and read till 3pm. LD who went for a bit of a walk came back with some bottled water and a chocolate bar which I ate right away and started to feel a little better. L & W had gone shopping and LD laid down for a little sleep. I read until it was time to make dinner then I helped by chopping whatever needed to be chopped. When dinner was over I updated the first 200 photos of my trip to Facebook and then came to update my blog.

A nice kinda lazy day despite the fact that I was feeling kinda icky. I wonder what tomorrow will bring...

Day 9

2010-04-30T06:58:00.000-04:00

I crashed early last night. Was tossing and turning waiting for the dawn and was up bright-eyed and busy-tailed at 6am. By 7am however I was getting sleepy once again. School itself was great, the Kindy's were a little wild once again (it's a full moon, so the teacher was blaming it on that).

The first bit of the day was taken up with PE outside on the jungle gym with another teacher (David) and then they came back inside to have their fruit break and review their sounds. It's funny in Kindergarten they recognize the letters via their sounds. It's so cute to watch them practice.

After their review it was time for music with yet ANOTHER teacher. The lesson for the day included beats with music and movement, however I managed to teach them the opening stanza of "Land of the Silver Birch" and I threw in some actions to make it a little more interesting for the kids. They absolutly loved it!

After music it was time for little lunch. Then the students came back in to do their writing (See my mum and dad) and just before they were going to move into art the teacher had them run around outside for about 10 minutes to burn off some excess energy but the kindy's still had loads to spare.

They came back in, started cutting out octopus legs before going to lunch. For my lunch I had a chicken and cheese sandwhich with a coffee which REALLY perked me up for the afternoon where they watched a puppet show dispelling the myths about cancer and kids put on by their equivilant to the "Ronald McDonald House"

Then it was time for free time. I read "Scaredy Squirrel" to one little girl who just did not want to play anything. I got a 'three cheers' from the Kindy's at the end and a picture with all 19--the first time I was able to get one because it's the first time all week that all 19 were actually in class.

After waiting around the school till 4pm, we had a leisurely drive home. LD & and I sat outside enjoying the sunset before putting pizza's in to eat. LD, L, W and I then came back outside for a little bit of star gazing (gotta love seeing Orion and the rest of the group) before eating our pizza, watching Master Chef Australia: Master Class and having a great time chatting.

I had plans to check the stars later tonight but I'm rather exhausted. Tomorrow is a day off and I am psyched about that! I can relax and read and finish my resume / cover letter which needs to be uploaded to applytoteach.com so that I can be considered for the 100 occasional teaching spots that the HDSB is opening up on the 3rd. I can't wait for a day of relaxation, this past week with Kindy-Red has been GREAT, but exhausting!

Day 8

2010-04-29T05:01:00.000-04:00

Once again the day started off really early. Alarm went off at 6am, got moving about 6:30 was out the door at 7:40 and at Wellington Public by 8:25am. Today was an amazing day. It started by a giant bear hug by one of the Kindy-Red students. Once inside the studentts did roll call before doing some revision on the letter 'o'. Afterwhich they went to scripture where they began to learn about Abraham. Then it was back to the classroom for fruit break. I read The Very Hungary Catapillar and I had about eight little ones crowed around me as I read. It was amazing. Then the students worked in reading groups and I once again helped them with their fish-word puzzles. During this time I found myself saying words like they were--that is with an Australian accent. It was the strangest thing and it took me a awhile to realize that I was doing it. Then it was time for little lunch.

After lunch LD & I were given the grand tour of the school by Darryl the principal then he gave us a tour around Wellington including the 'Mission Narumbee' which is basically like the reserves back home. It was quite an eye opener to see the socio-economic status that the vast majority of the students come from. Totally world's away from what we have back home. On our tour we saw the heads of some wild Kanga's but we drove by them farily quickly so I couldn't really see them. We ended up getting back to the school just in time for second lunch and then David gave us an overview of the SMART board conference set up. It's totally amazing but every school in Australia has the ability to conference call with any other school (or mulitiple schools) and all share a single SMART notebook presentation. The advancement here is astounding, even in a school like Wellington they will have a SMART board in every classroom within three years---there's nothing like that back at home.

My last little time in the Kindy-Red classroom was spent helping the students complete their 'o' and 'g' worksheets while others greated 'o' octopus art. Then it was the end of the day. Darryl (our ride) had to stick around for an hour so LD & I went to get groceries. When we ended up getting back to the residence there were about a half-dozen kangaroos sitting right by the residence! You can see the videos of them here, here and here. It was the most amazing thing to see them so up close. Kanga's really are amazing creatures.

And that's been today!

Day 7

2010-04-28T07:16:00.000-04:00

Today started again super early. Up at 6am, phone call from home at 7:15 and then ready to teach by 8am only to find that our ride wasn't there and didn't arrive at all. Luckily, the husband of one of the teachers who was at CSU Ontario took us in and LD & I found out that the principal of WPS was supposed to pick us up, but it totally slipped his mind seeing how he only got back from Sydney the day before.

School from that point on was great. The students were really happy to see me and I watched them finish their lesson on the letter 'o' afterwhich they completed their 'o' activity in their books. After that they had their fruit snack break and once again lots of the students gathered round me to hear what I was saying as I read Disney's Tarzan to one of the girls.

After snack they worked on the number '7' some more, putting coloured squares in an outline of the number, tracing it and drawing seven of whatever item they chose. Then it was time for little lunch. When the students came back I ended up reading to them from the ABC's of Canada (left) and gave them each their own Canadian Flag which they adored! It was so cute to see them flying the flags around. After story time the students worked in little guided groups and I took a group that was matching puzzle pieces in the shape of a fish with recognizable sight words on them.

After Big Lunch the students had a different teacher who worked on their fine motor skills by having them colour in little bits of squares and circles, cut them out and then glue them all together to create a picture of a bus. That took till 2:45 and then it was home time. LD and I got our ride home at around 3:20 and after sitting in the sun and checking our mail we made the most delicious meal of pork chops, veggies and rice. L and I ate our dinner outside under the stars and I could see Orion, Sirius, Bootes, Gemini and Leo (I think). The moon seems a lot brighter here and it was amazing to eat in such serene circumstances. After dinner we surfed the four channels that we get and ended up watching Master Chef Australia for an hour and a half before heading off to our respective rooms.

And now this day is done, I wonder what tomorrow will bring. Below is a picture of me and most of the Kindegarten class that I"ll be with till Friday. Aren't they cuties?

Day 6

2010-04-27T05:33:00.000-04:00

Today started at 6am for me, and I was busy running around trying to get ready before I left to start teaching. Today was my first day in the classroom. Wellington Public School is a school of about 600 students in a town of about 5,000. The Kindergarten class that I'm in, known as "Kindy Red" has nineteen children all of which are wonderful.

My day today started by getting a ride with LD and two other teachers who live in Dubbo. (The picture to the left is an example of the scenery that we saw on our ride in and out) 35 minutes later we were at the school, got situated with our teachers and the day started at 9. There was an assembly outside and then school started. The Kindergarten Students were introduced to me and they all thought that I talked funny, but that it was really interesting that I came from a country that was SOOO far away. Many of them couldn't believe that I flew for a whole day and a whole night just to come see them! After my intro the teacher did attendance via the smart board (using fishes) and then they learned all about the letter 'g' and the sound that it makes. They practiced writing and before long it was time for their fruit snack. After snack they did some work with the number 7 and then it was time for recess/ little lunch. 30 minutes later we were back in the classroom and the students started an art lesson where they talked about the primary and secondary colours and learned about the colour red. They then created their own glasses over which red cellophane was taped (by me, the teacher and the fulltime support memeber) and the students then did some more work on the letter 'g' which included cutting out pictures that had corresponding words that started with the letter 'g' like gorilla, girl, gas...etc.

After that it was time for lunch which again was 30 minutes long. When the students came back in they did a little bit of sharing before heading off to science with a different teacher. There they were read a story about doors and they created their own door hanger which said whatever they wanted it to say. There was a lot of 'the princess sleeps here' 'only dogs allowed' and 'stay out' that I wrote out for them.

Then it was 2:45 and time to go home. Short day but a good day. It was so amazing that the Kindy students were so enthralled by my accent. A couple little girls hardly left my side and are so excited that I'm going to be their new teacher all week. Plus I learned a lot of the lingo; jumpers (sweaters), chooks (chickens), mucking about (playing around) and full stop (period). Also, it was really funny to hear the students and the teachers complain about the weather. It had to be about 10 degrees outside today, and all the students and teachers were shivering and wearing long coats. For me, it was a beautiful day with a little nip in the wind but nothing too serious. I actually found it colder inside the classrooms mainly because the heaters hadn't been turned on yet and it went down to about 4-6 degrees last night..

L & I caught a ride home with the same teachers and then we caught a ride into central Dubbo with two of the Australian students who live here on campus. Together the four of us girls did a little grocery shopping before heading back to residence where supper was made. Pasta and garlic bread, so delicious.

Now I'm just trying to stay awake till 9pm. I've been up for 13 hours and it seems like 20. It was a long day but it went by quickly and it was FANTASTIC! I can't wait till tomorrow. I'm reading the ABC's of Canada to Kindy Red and I'm going to teach the the Land of the Silver Birch song.

Things are going great and I can't wait until tomorrow!

Day 5

2010-04-26T04:20:00.000-04:00

And nothing to report really. I think the jet lag finally caught up with me after all I have been go-go-go since landing in Sydney on Wednesday. Basically after getting up once around three and then again around six I finally surfaced at seven-thirty, puttered around the dorm before finally making breakfast and then heading back to bed.

I woke up again at 11:30, talked with some other Dubbo CSU students outside. Ate lunch, finished The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle outside and then came back in for another two hour nap. I woke around 4:30, started to read Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Firebrand, made myself some mint tea, watched some Australian Tv on the four channels that we get and now I'm kinda hungry so I'm thinking about making myself something small for dinner, either that or heading back to sleep.

It's already dark here in Australia and quite chilly, even though I know that it's not really cold, it feels it and the locals thought we were all crazy to be enjoying the sun earlier this morning.

And that's it for today. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day what with starting teaching and all and I can only hope that I'm not near as tired tomorrow as I was today.

Day 4

2010-04-25T05:32:00.000-04:00

So today began bright an early. Despite waking up at 3:20AM and falling back asleep again, I woke up at 4:50AM ready to start the day (and I mean WIDE awake). After making sure that our room was all cleared out, L (who will be LD from now on) and I made our way downstairs to check out around 5:50 and proceeded to wait for the Airport Bus. Now when we left the International Airport to come to Sydney Central it was only about 15 minutes max, yet this airport shuttle costing us just one dollar LESS than the train took a full 50 minutes to go from hostel to hotel picking up passengers. Then to top it all off he dropped us off at Terminal 3 instead of Terminal 2.

Luckily, it was just a short walk through the car park (parking garage, look I'm absorbing the lingo already) and we were checking in. At the gate we met up with the other two CSU students W & LL who told us how they had spent the last three days staying in a hotel at Bondi Beach. By 7:30 the plane was boarding and BOY it was a small plane! W & LL were sitting together but LD and I weren't. I was however sitting beside a nice gentleman, a mathematics teacher who was going home (to Dubbo) for a week before heading back out to China to teach.

On the plane we were served bananna bread, orange juice, dried apricots and our choice of coffee or tea for breakfast and boy it was good. Plus we got to see Sydney from the air before we hit the clouds (and the turbulence which surprisingly was less nauseating then the Boeing 777 that I was on coming over to Australia). About an hour later we were descending into Dubbo, and boy it is farm country out here and surprisingly green. We were told when we landed by our greeters (Kevin & Heather) that due to all the rain Dubbo was quite green and usually nothing but dust.

We got in the cars and headed off the Dubbo campus and unloaded into our rooms. We have the whole dormitory to ourselves and our own private room with a fully working kitchen and a television which showed a trailer for Survivor! which is exciting despite the fact that I'm not going to be watching much TV out here.

After we settled into our rooms we headed to the main street of Dubbo to watch the ANZAC day parade which is the celebration of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and I even managed to snag a bit of video!

After the parade which was quite short, we headed out to the Dubbo Zoo and boy oh boy it was freaking fantastic! There were all sorts of African Animals that you could come right up to and best of all was the Australian part which had Koala's and Kanga's both of which I managed to snag videos of! (Click on the pictures to be taken to You Tube)

After the Zoo we went grocery shopping and saw the old gaol, which is really the old Dubbo Jail just spelt compeltly different. Unfortunatly I don't have a picture of it because my camera battery died.

By this time it was 4pm and we were all exausted. We came back to the residence, unpacked, LD made a wonderful chicken, mango, feta and curry-rice wrap for dinner and we got our laptops all set up. Mine was being a bit cooky and decided not to work right away. However it is working now and I am able to complete this blog.

So today was a good day, long (I'm so exhausted) but good and I can't wait for tomorrow. OH! and out hear you can see the stars. Truth be told the lights at sunset made it a little difficult to see but the main feature is the southern cross which is quite beautiful and not nearly as unnerving as I thought it would be, maybe because it still doesn't seem real that I'm here....

...tomorrow is going to be a relaxing day of doing nothing but Tuesday the "work" begins and I found out from Heather that I'm going to be in a Kindergarten class how exciting is that? When I started at CSU I wanted to be in a Kindergarten class but was in Grade 1 and 4 instead. Both classes were wonderful and I miss them both dearly, yet having a chance to teach what I've always wanted to teach is going to be fantastic! ^_^ I'm so excited I can't wait!

Day 3

2010-04-24T06:07:00.000-04:00

Today after finally getting going at Noon (darn that jet lag) we spend that day at Circular Quay where we saw the Sydney Bridge, Opera house, RBG & Government House. I bought myself a Digger Hat and after eating dinner at the warves we went on our sunset cruise and you could see Luna Park all lit up! Overal today was a great day, and our last in Sydney.

The harbour area of Circular Quay was so amazing! You could walk right up to the Opera House and the Gardens had the most AMAZING plants and animals in it. The Government House was a gothic revival building that was amazing to tour through (for free no less) and the Pizza we had for dinnwer was just amazing as well. The highlight of the day however was the Harbour cruise. Even the cloudy sky couldn't take away from the splendor of Sydney. It's such a shame that we're done today... there's still so much I'd like to see.

Day 2

2010-04-23T05:38:00.000-04:00

Today was our second day in Sydney. L woke up ridiculously early where as I didn't surface until 7am. From 7 to 7:45ish I had a MSN convo with my family back home. L and I then headed down for breakfast where I had the Continental Breakfast for $6.40 AUD and it included milk & cereal, two pieces of toast, orange juice & tea. Now, while yesterday's breakfast was really good, today's just hit the spot.

After breakfast L and I got read to head out. On our way to the trainstation we booked an adventure for tomorrow (suprrise!) and then we headed to Bondi Beach for another glorious day! We got there at 11am and it was warmer today and so I actually went a ways into the water this time. Let me tell you that the waves were INSANE and by about 2:30pm the breeze was perfect and almost a little cold.

We ate fish and chips for dinner at Bodni Beach and after doing a little tourist shopping we headed back to the hostel. We saw the sun set from the rooftop, took a little swim in the pool and tried out the sauna.

I really want to stay up till 9pm and wish the family a good morning but I"m utterly exausted and I might turn in SUPER early...which would be really odd for me. I guess I'm not on Sydney time yet.

Either way, today was a FANTASTIC day!

Day 1

2010-04-23T05:20:00.000-04:00

Morning dawned bright an early for us. I had been waking up periodically throughout the night, and when I noticed that it was light out and that the clock tower outside our window said 6am I finally got up.

L convinced me that we needed to go for a run and so we did. I managed to last a whole 7 minutes before I stopped and I ended up walking / jogging the rest of the way to Darling Harbour. We rested there for a bit and then walked it back.

Once at the hostel again we had breakfast (poached eggs, toast and ham) after which we headed out to Bondi Beach. We managed to buy our tickets, get to platform 24 to Bondi junction before catching the right bus to the beach.

I called home at Noon (which was 10pm the night before) and then we spent a glorious day on the beach heading back at around 4pm.

Once we were back at the hostel we hung around until 7pm when we went with our tour guide and one more backpacker and had Kangaroo Burgers just down the road at another YHA hostel. Let me tell you the Kanga-burger was really good. (And yes that is me eating a Kangaroo Burger)

Then we came back and with an hour to go we managed to stay awake long enough to call home and wish our families a good morning. Then by 10pm we were totally exausted and went to sleep.

So ended Day 1 in Sydney (Thursday April 22nd, 2010)

The Longest Day III

2010-04-23T05:08:00.000-04:00

Once we had landed at Sydney, International Airport we had to wait while a de-bugging thing was sprayed on us and our luggage. Once that was done we disembarked and went through customs (handing in our little claims sheet while we did) and by the time we collected our baggage and got through the gate an hour had past.

Standing on the other side was my dear friend Gemma! She was there to greet us and she took us through the airport to the train station where it cost us $15 to go like three stops. We got off at Sydney Central Train Station and walked across the street to Sydney Central YHA the youth hostel where we were going to be staying

L (my other friend) and I checked in, went up to our room (816) got changed, stowed our gear and then met Gemma back downstairs. All that afternoon we went on a walking tour of Sydney! She took us to Darling Harbour first where we ate Pancakes which were really good. Interesting to note that the entrance way to which was were the MMPR movie was filmed and from there we could see the Centre Point tower which also used in the MMPR movie (yes I am a super geek) Then we walked around China Town before hitting a couple shopping centres.

Along our way I saw an Ibis which was the coolest thing in the world! And finally we headed back to our hostel where Gemma and us parted ways. I called home at that time and it was 3:30 in the morning! Let that be a lesson to time zones.

L and I managed to stay up till 8pm before we went to bed. And so ended the longest day.

The Longest Day II

2010-04-23T05:00:00.000-04:00

The second stage of my journey to Sydeny, Australia began once we re-boarded the plane at 2:30am Vancouver time. Once I got back to my seat and settled down I was so exausted that I was hardly able to keep my eyes open. Luckily my friend and I had a group of three seats to our selves so she said that she would lay down and we would switch at a later time.

The plane started taxing away from the runway and I noticed that it was raining. Then before we were even up in the air I was asleep. I woke up some time later to switch positions with my friend and then went back to sleep. About seven hours into our trip, just past Honolulu we switched back and I was wide awake. It was 1pm, Toronto time and god who knows what time it was locally.

All I knew was that I was awake and I wanted to watch a movie so I watched Avatar and boy was it AMAZING! Just as I started watching the movie, the sky was light (hence the picture in the previous post) and we were served some tea and a sandwhich type thing with chicken which wasn't very good. After watching the movie I did a little writing and playing with my DS and with four hours to go till we got to Sydney I went back to sleep.

When I awoke we were about 2 hours out and they severed us breakfast. I had tea with waffles and fruit salad, yogurt and a roll with jam. It was very good. In that last hour I decided to read some of my Sherlock Holmes book but I only got about a chapter or two in before I conked out again.

I woke up to find us FINALLY descending into Sydney! We flew over the ocean to land. And so ended the second part of my journey to Sydney.

The Longest Day I

2010-04-23T04:46:00.000-04:00

Flying is an adventure. It is even more of an adventure when your flight is delayed for three hours because of 'maintenance'. This is what happened to me on Monday April 19th when I was flying out of Toronto airport on my way to Sydney, Australia.

Luckily, I was flying out with a friend and we had some coffee out front of Terminal 1. After that we went through the gate and security. We ended up in different lines and me, never flying before, had no real idea as to what I was doing. Luckily there was a nice lady behind me who told me that I needed to pull out ALL my electronics and put them in a bin followed by my two carry on items. I did that and then waited in line.

The guy before the security gate (the one that checks for metal) said that I was in the wrong line because my flight ended up in Sydney but I was taking a small rest in Vancouver while the plane refuled and was cleaned up for the overnight flight. Luckily I explained this to him, he went to check with someone and I was allowed to step through the gate.

A security guard then asked me if I minded being scanned by a member of the opposite sex and I said that I didn't mind. He then proceeded to scan me and holy crap it was the most nerve wracking thing in the world. Every little bit of metal from my belt, to the rivets on my jeans to my jewellry to the back hooks of my bra set the thing off and in every instance a female security guard came over to check me.

Finally I was allowed through and my friend and I went to a restaurant and had two glasses of wine and french fries while watching the hockey game that was on. Finally we went back to our gate where we would be boarding the plane and we were told that we would be able to have a $10 voucher for dinner since we were delayed. I had a bagel, some water and some two-bite brownies.

Then at about 10:45 we began boarding and at about 11:20 we took off! The flight to Vancouver was really cool. I had a window seat (picture taken out the window MUCH later into the flight) and I watched half of The Young Victoria before sleeping for three-ish hours then I woke up and watched the last half just as we were coming into Vancvouver airport where it was 1am local time.

That was stage one of my journey.

Where have I been? Where am I going?

2010-04-18T13:08:00.001-04:00

The past sixteen days have been crazy.
I finished up my teaching block (it went fantasticly well)
I did my last presentation for school (also went well).
I found Doctor Who (it's bloody brilliant)
I've finished Heart of Ice, Soul of Fire (finally)
And I'm going to Australia tomorrow! (exciting!)

Cosmic Sense of Humour

2010-04-01T22:07:00.003-04:00

Who knew the comsos had a sense of humour, or that the sense of humor would show up in cultural context? Left is a picture of a moon orbiting Saturn. You can click on the picture for the full article. I think that it is the most amazing thing in the world.