Michelle in a Stranger Land-Part 1

What indeed can I say? What stranger land can you possibly think of than Australia?

Where the sun is hot, the animals are bouncy or poisonous- or a combination of bouncy and poisonous. The beer is watery, the wine is good- the ocean is warm and the vegemite is free flowing.

I'm just back from a three month stint in Sydney, as I am sure most of you know my grand 2010 plan was to move to Australia, and then it wasn't and just as quickly- it was. I was on a three month, let's try this out and see type of situation.

I had many posts written, and abandoned during my time there. Three months perhaps isn't enough time to suffer through the culture shock and get to just enjoying things. I've heard a year is about necessary, but I'm impatient and I wasn't waiting around for a year. Toronto beckoned!

So with a bit of distance between me and the land down under, I think I can post about it finally.

I arrived, sans my luggage (I have bargain shopping mojo at the expense of my travel mojo) in the dead heat of summer. And I mean HEAT. You have not experienced this kind of heat before, the oppressive mugginess of a billion degree heat.

Coming from -25 with wind chill and the dry dry blast of Ontario cold to +30 with at least 85% humidity is shocking to the system. SHOCKING.


On the whole I was ill prepared for the culture shock. I thought, oh well- I've lived in Britain, Australia is always touted as this quasi North American type of place. Well. Not so much. I can only give my eternal thanks to my friends Pili and Deb for trying to deal with me, not throwing me into the ocean and commanding that I leave immediately.

Pili's enfianced told me he was enraged for about a year, because let me tell you- Australia is much different to the world we live in. There are things that are just "different" and it definitely made me realize what a spoiled little first world cookie I am.

Now there is no way I would have made it through the three months without Pili and Deb. I have known these two crazy cats for years. I met Deb during Uni- we both worked at the SUB and we both were doing an undergrad in History in Art. My first real job after graduation I met Pili and we suffered the endless slings and arrows of the self publishing world.

Deb moved to Australia about 7 years ago and Pili followed 2 years later. Since they didn't know each other at the time, I took it upon myself to create more awesome in the world by introducing them to each other.

They have created a little wonderful bundle of ex-patness in Sydney with other Canucks, Americans, Armenians, Brits and who ever else you can find. The one thing about people in Sydney is they aren't very friendly. I'd had this perception of Aussies as being these ridiculously friendly lovable folk- but it's all area dependent I suppose. It is hard to crack into the Sydney crowd (much like it is hard to meet friends in Victoria). But what did I care? I had friends already!

A lot of the trip has been/was a blur. I definitely didn't do as much as I could have done- I will admit to spending a lot of my off time sleeping. It had to be done. I'm too old at this point to work ridiculous hours and have a social life.

That could be the one thing that Sydney taught me- maybe it is time to settle down. Maybe this gallavanting around the world has to stop and I need to focus and pony up a little bit. I'm still unsure of that part- but it was on my mind.

The countdown

Well it is almost the end of the year- will soon be time for another yearly countdown! I'll have to start crunching numbers and working on my stats.

After spending a somewhat mellow weekend, it really is crunch time. I have about 5 lists that need to be accomplished in 3 days. Can I do it? Well I did WRITE the lists- seems shameful not to use them...

Big news, I'm laid off from my job come the new year. This could be good, ok it IS a good thing since I was stagnating there, but also bad in that eeep rent payments... bill payments... food (ha ha who am I kidding like I ever factor in food to my budget)... any type of social life. But what can you do IN THIS ECONOMY?  (shout out to Michael K for that one).

Anyway- things are on the go I guess. In a few days time I'll be back in BC for the SECOND time this year- which surely should illicit some sort of pat on the head from those people out there.

Right- short post since I really ought to get dressed and get into work and finish things off. How I'd like to be the type of person who just walks away.

To the batmobile!

My Ego is writing cheques

Probably because it hadn't snowed until TODAY! Finally finally there is snow and it's like we really live in Canada (well the GOOD parts anyway).

Someone just said I was like a "real Torontonian" not knowing where anything was geographically north of the 401. Could be the proudest moment of my year. Seriously.

Yep, I'm one of those douchebags- Toronto is centre of world, (NYC obviously centre of universe) why leave it? Really-give me a reason, that isn't a bigger and better city and you got yourself an argument. Nature? Pfft. I have High Park. Water? Pfft. I have Lake Ontario. What have you got? I mean really?

Speaking of introspection(oh I WILL BE) I am going out for Jennie's birthday in a week and we're going to Karaoke and I'm so nervous and scared. I can't sing and for as much as I am giant ham, it's all a big act- getting up and being a terrible fat singer in front of everyone makes me really nervous. It takes me back to being 12 and being laughed at by everyone on my softball team at a "team" party. That's right- it's only a team if you can marginalize one person. Bonding- gotta love it. I don't know what to do, I'll deal. I will get up there and submit to the experience, because I love Jennie. But fack! Stress!

So now it is winter (I know this because there is snow on the ground) and it's time for introspection. I've been thinking a lot about this lately, about my path in life and that sort of thing. I know for most of my peers it's been the old, get married, get knocked up (or vice versa) and the answers sort of take care of themselves- so what made me different?

The other day I though wow, at this age my parents had been together for almost 10 years and married for a good schwack of those. And I was 5, no longer the cute and adorable baby that I was (you all know i was!) but a terrifying toddler with some major issues because my parents DARED to have another child. Gods.

Actually today at work one woman mentioned that she had left her daughter in care of a 16 year old for a few hours, my boss was slightly aghast she would do this. But really- I was so much more responsible at 16 than I am now. If 16 year old me had had a baby, it would have a great life. Right now... I'm not sure i can part with the sleep or be that unselfish.

It is almost my 3 year anniversary of moving to Toronto.  I could have not come, I could have just rode it out with the bad boyfriend but comfortable lifestyle who would have given me babies (although i wonder if I could have returned them when they became *gasp* people), but I would have always been yearning for something different.

Nope, I made the choice- I ripped myself out of the velvelt handcuffs and made a run for it. Most of the time it sucks, it's hard, I feel like a loser- and I have nothing but debt to show for my move here. But I'm free.

I. Am. Free.

and that makes it all worth it.

King Tut @ the AGO

Tomorrow morning I have a ticket to get in bright and early and see the King Tut exhibit at the AGO! I've decided to start up an art blog so my first post will be impressions and discussions of the exhibit. Things that are running through my mind already: the ethics of a "funerary exhibit" how do we get around essentially pillaging someone's burial tomb for our enjoyment. This, coupled with the fact that these people whom we are viewing are now esssentially enjoying "immortality".

So- things to think about, plus there will be a bit of background about Tutankahmen (who really wasn't the most interesting of Pharoh's) and what I thought of the layout of the exhibit and my experience as a shmoe walking through it.

I won't be going whole hog and getting the audio tour, I'm too impatient for all that stuff, plus I've studied this so much that a lot will come back with just reading the descriptions.

This will be my 3rd major Egyptian Exhibit in the past few years. The first was the British Museum's Exhibit at the Royal BC Museum. That was a great exhibit because I had just finished a course in Egyptian Art where our main text was the British Museum's Collection, many of the things I had studied all semester/summer were on display for me.

When Dad was here, he and I went and saw the Book of the Dead at the ROM along with the accompanying exhibit. That was great!

And tomorrow King Tut! This is the first time the exhibit has been back in Canada in over 30 years and it's only Canadian Stop so I'm really excited that I'll be able to participate.

Once I have my blog post up I'll link to the new site.

TFIF!!!

Insomnia

It is almost 3.30am, and I am awake. This week I've actually been waking up at 3.30am most nights, tonight I changed it up a little and woke up at 2.30. There isn't any rhyme or reason to it, Monday night I went to bed at 9pm, so that could have been part of it, but the other nights it's been a somewhat "normal" bedtime for me.

Which got me thinking about bed and sleeping, I love sleeping. Getting under the covers is probably the highlight of my day these days. I feel like I'm just killing time until I can get back into bed. This might not be a positive? But it feels pretty good to me. These days I go to bed on the early side, I'm usually in bed and asleep before 11pm. And except on gym days I rarely get out of bed before 8/8.30. I'm trying to put a finger on when this shift occurred and I all of a sudden needed over 9 hours of sleep to feel ok with life.

It could have been after quitting the second job, as I was so deprived of sleeping for over a year that maybe 1.5 years on I'm still playing catch up?

What I'd like is to be able to bounce out of bed in the morning and have time to do things before I have to begin daily drudgery at "job". Although I guess b/c "job" is pretty heinous right now I'm avoiding getting out of bed? The only thing that really EVER makes me bounce out of bed is travel. Which is why I need to be constantly planning a trip somewhere and have that tantalizing brass ring getting me out of bed.

In fact I haven't actually spent a day IN bed lately. Could it be this Sunday is a "duvet day"? I'm pretty sure I don't have anything planned and I know I'll be east end for dinner on Sat. night. This almost always means I have to take the "vomit comet" home to my side of the city. (the subways stop at about 1am on Saturday and those unlucky enough to not make it are subjected to riding the allnight bus that runs across town (in my case) on Bloor St West.) It takes a LONG time, but it's always an entertaining ride.

So, perhaps I will take Sunday and stay in bed and read. The problem with my nook is that there is no window-so I usually take to the couch and read. But this leads to me tidying up.

Anyway- I'm still awake and we are approaching the 4 hour. FUN. Such a weird time to wake up, not late enough in the morning to just get up and go to the gym or something, and not early enough to be up for a bit without feeling like crap the next day.

Sigh.

Falling

Lately things have been happening out here in the greatest city in the worllllld!

It's fall, the leaves changed about a billion different colours and now they are all falling to the ground. I heard tell that it might snow this weekend.

I'm pretty excited about that. I love snow. I think it is just the cat's pyjamas that here! where I live! there are four discernible seasons. FOUR- count em! With all the traits of a traditional season! Not just- warmish and rainy (spring/fall or summer) and coolish and rainy(spring/fall/winter). I'm pulling out my winter gear, haven't pulled out the heavy winter jacket yet, but it's coming soon! I can feel it.

This season hot boots are in style. I'm getting pretty envious of all the awesome bootedness that I see before me. But last week I went out and bought the Ipod Touch in a fit of emotional spending. And let me tell you- nothing feels better than emotional spending. NOTHING.

The touch is pretty amazing, I was deliberating earlier on in the fall as to whether I should get an iphone, since all the kids are getting them and I'm a complete lemming. But I also needed internet in my house so getting that plus the data plan for the iphone (or any fancy pants phone) was too much for me.

And the iTouch fills the gaps, it allows me to connect to any wireless network it can steal so I can now tweet and let the world know on my new and up to the minute goings on. It has a larger capacity for toonage! And there are other nifty applications that are increasing the value in my life immensely. Let's discuss shall we?

Sex Facts: because you just can't ever know enough...
White Noise: becoming increasingly addicted to listening to the ocean while falling asleep
Alarm Clock: (note I actually paid for this app- the rest I download for free) allows me to wake up to a specific song on my ipod. ME LIKEY
Urban Spoon: triangulates your position in the world and then you shake it and it tells you food nearby. Ummm awesome?! Hungover brunches just got easier!
Maps: I could quite possibly never be lost again.
Keyboard: I can practise the piano, well at least one hand of the piano...

So that's that. I mean there is SO MUCH MORE- but that's it for right now. Evenings have been spent playing on the Pod. And I'm really enjoying iTunes "Genius Mixes" I suggest you check it out if you can wait for the download (I have 13 GB of music and it took about 15 minutes) but it's really letting me listen to my music by mood/genre and hearing a great range of what I have.

Since we're entering the wintery time, there will be more time spent indoors and I need some new hobbies- so I put this out there to you people! What should my hobbies be? The only restrictions are that they should be relatively cheap. What do you like to do in your spare time?

Ideally I'd like a variety of hobbies that are both social and not-social. I also don't have cable, which is good- in that I have a lot of time that I don't spend watching TV, but also things like knitting are effing boring if you aren't watching TV.

OH- and I've just recently gotten married- FYI, it was pretty easy and uncomplicated!! I'm not quite sure WHO I'm married to, I suspect my friend Jennie, since her hubby already has a wife. And everyone needs a wife! Or maybe I just married Stu's band (Vedette- check em out on myspace- vedettecanada- they RAWK). But I'm officially a "band-wife" yay me! Pretty sure we celebrated with shots of Jagermeister (seriously, my dream wedding...)

That is all- for now. I'm sure once we have the first snow fall I'll be updating with EXCITMENT and awesomeness.

A Mourrail

As some of you might know, I adore traveling. And living in Toronto affords you so many exciting travel opportunities within a reasonable time and expense. So it's a bit shocking that I haven't yet gone to Montreal.

Well, this past weekend that all changed. My friend Jennie and I decided in the summer to plan a weekend out there- and so we did! I rented a car for the weekend and we booked a VERY cheap hotel. At the last minute my friend Isabel decided to come along so expenses were cut even cheaper!

I rented a car, and I was pretty excited about driving again. It's been since I toodled around Victoria in April. I've never driven in Toronto, but really driving is just driving and one great thing, they drive fast enough here!

Early(ish) Friday I picked up Isabel and headed up to the "nosebleeds" to pick up Jennie. Then we got ourselves caffinated and put our on Thelma and Louise style headscarves and booked it out of the city! BON VOYAGE!

The drive to Montreal is pretty easy- you get on the 401 and head right- that's about it, it's not as exciting as driving through the rockies but not as dull as driving across the prairies. And the leaves were just starting to turn so the colours were great!

We arrived in the city from the South? I think- I am directionally challenged, all I really remember is taking some VERY rickety looking overpasses, nothing like exposed re-bar to make you feel secure as you are driving over and under a river. It took a little bit as our faithful navigator TomTom seemed to have some issue with the language change (could he be from BC?) but we made it to our hotel and got checked in. The hotel was indeed seedy! But you get what you pay for, and when you are paying less than $30/night for a hotel expectations must be kept to a minimum.

From there we drove up Mont Royal to get some scenic Vista shots of the city. I had had thoughts of getting there via transit or foot- but we had a car! Let's not waste this opportunity to be lazy. And I'm sure glad we did! It is kind of high up! After that we had a bit of a mission finding the parking I had sussed out for us. All of the research I had done on Montreal cried, "This city SUCKS for parking!" And yes, it kind of does. However we found our parking garage under Le Bibliotheque Nationale- camera secure, reasonable ($10/24 hours), and about 7 minutes from the hotel.

We all had a bit of freshen up time (and beer!) and then headed out for a wander on the streets- turns out we're all a bit directionally challenged, but Isabel must contain more estrogen as she made us check the map and figure out where we were and where we should head to. I will just go with my being lostness, generally because I don't want to look like "a tourist", although hopelessly lost seems to be just fine.

We finally made our way to Rue St. Denis (I think- really I have no idea where I was all weekend, I kind of said- I am driving us here and back and that's all I can do- lead on!) and we found a nice Indian restaurant to have dinner at. OR SO WE THOUGHT.

By all accounts it SHOULD have been a nice place, it smelled good, it was bustling inside, everyone seemed happy. And it was alright, until the food came. I had ordered a Rogan Josh (lamb) because it's one of the spicier options- I like me some spicy. But I thought, you don't know this place so don't go whole hog and get the Vindaloo- don't want to spend my trip to Montreal strapped to the toilet. However, the food was, in a word- bland. We all found this to be the case. Not spicy and not spiced. As much as I love burning my mouth off with some spiciness, I definitely appreciate a delicately spiced meal. Major fail on both counts. It just tasted like tomatoes, with a side of staples. YES- staples. I found a staple in my food.

The best part of this dinner was calling over the waiter and letting him know there was a staple in my food- he didn't apologize or fall all over himself trying to placate me- but just heaved a giant sigh and shook his head and wandered away in what looked like a- NOT AGAIN- type of mode. It was really hilarious. I have learned that often lamb is stapled together in its preparation, so it wasn't like a random person was coallating over my food. Their naan was quite tasty though- I will say that. And if I could remember the name I'd go and give this place a poor review- good thing I can't remember the name.

After dinner we headed out to a hookah bar. I've never been to one of these before, nor have I ever smoked a hookah. But if the catepillar from Alice in Wonderland can do it- so can I. And all in all it was my favourite part of the evening. Smoking hookah is very interesting, it's relaxing but not intoxicating, and easy on the lungs as it's processed through water. And oh yeah, one other thing- DELICIOUS, there are a variety of "flavours" you can choose- Jennie has done this before so she choose and it was a delicious mix of roses and apples and some other things.

We headed back to the hotel after that because- honestly, I was zonked. I didn't sleep well on Thursday night and all that driving is actually tiring.

Saturday we were up and out by 9.30 or 10am and headed to Beauty's for breakfast. This was up on/near St. Laurent and we arrived just as it really started raining. We managed to sit out most of the rain during breakfast and then walked down St. Laurent, wandering in and out of the neat-o stores they have along the strip. We saw the famous smoked meat place- that I now can't remember the name of. (too much hookah the night before?) There was a massive line up outside of it, and I guess it's like that ALL the time.

After a brief respite of refreshements we headed out to Vieux Montreal (Old Montreal) we arrived and walked up to Notre Dame which is a giant church- (Quebecers are into churches) to find a wedding just finishing up, we stood for a bit and watched the photos being taken. Jennie of course being a newlywed was all giddy and excited, Isabel and I being bitter singletons were a bit more meh about it.

Old Montreal is very european, the streets are cobblestone and narrow and well, just really lovely looking. While we were there it began to POUR with rain and my alert went off that we needed to plug the meter. So we headed back towards "new" montreal, not knowing how we'd get back in there but stumbled upon a very pretty fountain. And being giant nerds we took pictures of each other at the fountain in the rain. And a few of the bride and groom who were also out there for their wedding photos.

That evening we met up with Jennie's friends from Quebec City for dinner at a BYOW restaurant. It was quite nice, but ridiculously busy. And I was very tired and sore. Because of course, I decided to dress up nicely and wear my cream trousers! Which had to be paired with my patent black and cream heels for two reasons: 1) they look hot and 2) they keep the hem of the trousers from dragging on the ground.

This could have been a tactical error as we walked from our hotel to the restaurant which was a good 20 minute walk. These heels are what one calls "limo to lobby" shoes. Not meant for crazy activity, such as leisurely walking. They are there for one purpose- to make me look good. Anyway by the time we were seated and at the table and the wine was uncorked I had slipped off my shoes and was really enjoying myself!

After dinner je refuse to walk back to the hotel and Isabel, having imbibed the better part of a bottle of rose, was in no real state to walk and we cabbed it back. The cab driver had a couple of giggles at my tipsy attempts at french- but hey, when in QUEBEC do as the Quebecers do.

Jennie arrived back at the hotel shortly after we did and we staked out the party across the street, wondering if we should head on over there and rip er up for the rest of the night. After a few shots of vodka and some ridiculous giggling we decided to head out into the streets! We wandered around and watched the post-bar bru-ha-ha. Tried unsucessfully to get into a strip club, only because, as it turns out- it was really a brothel. And there is no way Jennie or I are going to pay $50 just to get into a place to oggle some ladies. I can go to the changeroom at the gym, or just stare into a mirror to oggle should I feel the need.

After some more of a wander, we headed back to the hotel, only to get stopped by the guy at the front desk who was in a word- weird. Jennie was a much better sport about it, I was just starting to fade into drunken oblivion. We were finally able to get back into our room and get to sleep at about 4am.

Sunday morning came FAR too quickly, but we managed to get up and get packed up. If you've ever wondered how much stuff 3 girls bring for 2 days away- I can tell you it's a LOT. And it's all TOTALLY necessary.

Once I fetched the car and loaded it up, we were off to Banquise for some poutine. This was on my must do list for Montreal- La Banquise is pretty much universally named one of the best poutine places in Montreal and the poutine in Quebec is delightful.

I've been a big fan of the poutine since my univsersity years, and to think how disgusting that poutine is compared to the real deal! This poutine, I got mine with bacon, was beyond delicious! Served piping hot and with a side of very strong Americano it hit the spot and cured any left over maliciousness from the night before.

From there we were off to the Jean Talon market- an amazing place, similar in concept to the St. Lawerence Market, but in more of an outdoor setting. I bought some very weird broccoli, cheese curds (for home made poutine), goat cheese of a couple varieties and a locally made wine. I love markets- they are so much nicer than a grocery store. We packed up our goodies and went off to see our final destination- Fairmont Bagels.

(I bought the weirdo brocs to the left of the purple cauliflower)

All out of Everything Bagels I had to make do with some Onion ones instead (ahh people LOVE it when I have those for breakfast) and a few sesame and poppyseed for those who think they are the only suitable bagels.

And thus began the trek home. It seemed long on the way back to Toronto, probably because I wasn't filled with the excitement of visiting a new city and hadn't quite slept much in the past 4 days.

We stopped briefly at a cheese farm where Jennie could buy some curds and we all picked up a little something. I myself bought a little mini bottle of maple syrup. TEENSY. And it will most likely last me years. As they say- a dab will do you...

I think we were near Cornwall, it was all picturesque: green fields, gravel driveways, two lane roads, mail boxes at the end of the drive. Isabel commented on how lovely it all was and how she could see herself out here in the future. My only thought was GADS WHERE IS THE CITY- if I don't see some concrete soon I will FREAK THE HELL OUT.

And thus- confirmed- I am a city girl.

Amen for that. And thanks to Montreal for being such a lovely city. I can't wait to go back and spend more time. Maybe late spring....