Sassy Circus Sideshow

As we all know from the movies, Halloween is no casual affair in North America. Not when you are walking down the street past tombstones on the lawn of a lovely home, across the street you see a ghost of a bed sheet, and down the road a fine looking set of skeletons are sun baking.

Out here, they grown a special breed of pumpkins that have no other purpose than to serve as decoration for Halloween! Bright orange, perfectly round pumpkins are cultivated and sold by the truckloads in the months leading to Halloween to sit on people doorsteps... apparently they aren't for eating!

Although excited about experiencing a real Halloween, I was less enthused with having to hand out candy every 2 minutes the doorbell rang. So G and I took the cheats way out and decided to go out for dinner and leave the poor kids disappointed on the only non-pumpkin lined doorsteps in the neighborhood. Somehow, our dinner plans ended up at G's parents place, for which they were unusually pleased to see us. Halloween virgins you see, have the privilege of answering the door bell, and G's family were happy to oblige.

Halloween is the day that you don't even flinch when you are sitting on the subway next to Joker, or across the aisle from a poor woman who had been slashed with a machete. The party organizer in the crew threw a house party with a less macabre theme of Sassy Circus Sideshow - we had fortune tellers, lions and lion tamers, magicians, chicks dressed in very little clothing... and then there were ugly Siamese twins who crossed path with Hannibal Lecter. Let me tell you, being bound to someone might be amusing for the first five minutes, but gets a little testy any longer than that. Here's a few pics of the evening...

 

One of those days

I woke up this morning and our lawn was speckled with snow... wet, ugly, unwelcomed snow. I have been in denial of late, even when the mercury dropped, my hats, gloves and thick winter jackets have stayed in storage. It is October after all. In defeat, they all came out today, every last bit of winter.

Yesterday I was literally in tears I was so bored. I sat at my computer in my little cubicle, absent-mindedly refreshing my Google page because I had nothing to type into Google Search... the page refreshes, and nope, no inspiration in the last second that can fill that dang search box.

I went home at 3pm. Couldn't stand it no more. It was Pub Night for the project too, but a beer and nibbles did not warrant staying another two hours. For a contractor, it's like leaving a wad of cash on the table and walking away, but saving my sanity was priceless.

This morning, after my somewhat dissappointing start, I rock up to work at 9.30pm and I have an email. What sh*ts me more than not having work, is to receive an email for a task that takes the originator the same amount of time to complete themselves as it does for them to document the task in an email for me. I got asked to sort a spreadsheet and split it into four separate files and then send them back. It's an insult to any intelligence I have. I'm not sure whether he was feeling sorry for me an decided to throw me a bite, or whether he was being a dick and felt that sorting a spreadsheet was beyond him. Whatever the case, I've thrown work ethics out the door (onto the snow covered lawn) and I'm making Workopolis the homepage on my work PC.

Lost for words... well suitable words anyway...

It's time to revamp my resume again. My contract will unlikely be extended at the end of the year. Regardless, I have been whining about my job for some time to warrant getting off my comfortable butt to find another job.

The thing is, I now have to create room on my already borderline-unacceptably-long resume of three pages, for my latest experience. If finding white paper isn't a challenge in itself, I also have to fill this newly created space with the skills I have used and gained in the nine months.

How do you phrase nicely, that three months out of nine was sitting pretty doing absolutely nothing except web surfing and holiday planning. The most valuable skill gained was standing my ground and being heard amongst a team of overpowering analysts. My strength is my flexibility in working on constantly changing directions, if any was given at all. And the biggest challenge I overcame was throwing my values, standards and work ethics out the window when working with people who "don't give a sh*t" and just want to "get it done".

Yes, I think it is time for a change. Pity that change means filling the gap in my resume!

In search of fall

I've been in and out of Canada frequently in the last five years, and not once have I experienced a Canadian fall. This is my first year here for fall, and I was adamant to see the famous colours and jump in a pile of maple leaves.
Can you believe they have a Colour Report that is issues weekly, reporting on the percentage change in colours for each popular region in the province???

We took a road trip up north which was a nice break away from the city. I must admit, I was a little disappointed with the colours, they weren't as concentrated and magnificent as I had imagined, but that's just me with high expectations and high likelihood of disappointment. We did see some fantastic colours of scarlett red, burnt orange and bright yellow, but we found it more breathtaking seeing it from the road, rather than being in the Provincial Parks or lookouts themselves. Maybe it was just because I couldn't find a nice pile of leaves to jump in. I'll get over it.

We had a lovely drive nevertheless, I tasted elk for the first time in pot pie, passed a pumpkin patch (it looked really cool, all the Halloween pumpkins scattered over the field - wish I had a photo!), met a chipmunk and got to enjoy the last weekend of decent weather (yesterday was the first day of snow, north of the city!)

Below are some of my fave photos from the weekend:

 


 

Thanksgiving

With one American Thanksgiving up my sleeve (where I gave thanks to great sales, and great friends who were dragged around the outlet mall when sane people are in bed), my very first Canadian Thanksgiving was another sort of mad rush.

My mission was to roast a turkey, plus a three-course dinner. To add to the stress of never having cooked turkey, we invited Gord's parents over to taste my potentially screwed up Thanksgiving dinner.

I thought the hard part was cleaning and stuffing the bird, but boy was a I wrong. My turkey was baking without a hitch at 450F for half an hour before I bring it down to 350F. An ofcourse, the oven starts playing up. It won't let me press "3", "4" or "5" buttons to set the temperature! Thank god we have a second oven upstairs in our second kitchen (as you do), so we carry the bird upstairs, whacked it in the spare oven, and voila, the oven door doesn't close. The bird gets run downstairs again, we play with buttons a bit more, and finally we resort to cooking at 299F because the "2" and the "9" button was working fine (go figure). It took a bit longer to cook, and it didn't help that the bird was laid to rest breast down and needed to be flipped halfway through roasting, but it got there in the end.

Infact, it was branded the "best turkey of the season". Roasting the turkey on slow cook actually did the turkey favours… it's common for turkeys to get overcooked and dry, which is why some people brine it, or inject butter. My little Butterball overcame all that and came out nice a juicy! Although it was ready just after the main, the four of us did a good job digging into our second dinner, there weren't as much leftovers as anticipated. I once thought using the drippings to make gravy was gross, but my god it is tasty!

So here are a few pics of the star of the show...

... I mean the one hanging by the wings...


... fresh out of the dysfunctional oven


... did I say this was our second dinner?


.. and to top it off, a traditional pumpkin pie, which was surprisingly good.

Nuit Blanche

One thing about T.O. is that they love festivals. They'll close major streets down for a good party.

A much anticipated festival that I have been hearing about all year is Nuit Blanche. Dubbed as a "free all night contemporary art thing", downtown T.O. is transformed into an open air art gallery from 6pm until sunrise. Walks of all sorts come out and roam the streets, some get all dressed up like it's halloween, and others grow beards in honour of the event(namely, G and co). I had little success with my beard.

We saw a few installions, but Nuit Blanche really ended up being Nuit Bar. After each installation, we'd hop into a bar for a quick drink. It added to the charm of the art pieces. The installations were unique, but would have been more enjoyable if we had read up on the inspirations, and not have to fight a throng of enthusiasts at 2am in the morning. We ended up seeing four or five installations - out of 155, didn't even scratch the surface, but a good taster nevertheless.

Cafe de Millwood

If you haven't heard me say it a million times before, then let it be known, the coffee in North America sucks.

To prove my point, on Saturday night when I was waiting for a friend outside a Starbucks that had a line-up out the door. A girl in the line contemplated taking a gamble for a shorter wait at Second Cup across the road (which may be likened to Gloria Jeans) but was quickly discouraged by her friend with the explanation that Second Cup "lacked the prestige of Starbucks". I refrained from tapping them on the shoulder and telling them what Starbucks lacks.

In a city overladen with American franchises, G and I have been trying to hunt down a decent flat white and latte. So far, we have only found one cafe that can rival the coffees we've had recently in Sweden and Sydney. So we've decided to make a stop to this with a new purchase:



We haven't perfected it, but we're getting there. Our amateur coffees aren't too bad, but we're working on the perfect microfoam. The new purchase has also inspired me to transform an unused corner of the house into a coffee room where we can curl up with a book, and keep our travel books and photos.

Now, if only I can wake up early enough to put make-up on, let alone make a latte!

Back and bored

So after a whirlwind trip back to Sydney, I'm back at work and almost survived a whole week.

I'm meant to be changing roles and moving to a new function… that was meant to have happened during my month's absence so I can return and slide into a new and exciting job (well not so exciting, but something different nevertheless).

In the last month, not only hasn't my role changed, but the bad management and planning on this project hasn't either.

Not sure how ethical it is to use my paid contractor hours to search for a new job, but once I wake up from my post-holiday-blues, I should really start. I need something that stimulates me, rather than just execute on things that don't add value or don't make sense, and get frustrated that no-one cares except the contractors that know what their doing but don't get a say.

For the last week, I have done a maximum of 3 hours worth of work, but accomplished a great deal of other things such as:
- replied all my emails (dating back a year)
- sorted my photos
- compared turkey recipes for my first Canadian Thanksgiving
- sorted my banking
- shopped for an espresso machine
- studied for my drivers license test
- caught up with world news
- researched my next holiday (this was started the day after I got back!)
- researched and download my PR application kit (no I haven't decided to stay 'for good', I've downloaded it to win an argument with a friend, but if I am kept as bored as I am now, I will probably fill it out next week!)

I've gotten to the stage that I have ran out of things to surf for on the web! Not even shopping amuses me since I have nothing to shop for!
Hmm... perhaps a missed episode of Greys Anatomy in my little cubicle...

Potatoes and Meatballs

It's true, Stockholm really is the most beautiful city in the world. As G puts it - "One in four girls are 'smokin' hot", and the guys are quite pretty too. I must agree with him... it was like we were surrounded by Ralph Lauren models all day!

Besides going to Sweden to people watch, we were there for Steph & Karls wedding which was held in tradition Swedish style - everything was so simple, yet very charming and thoughtful.

The wedding was in a small town and towards the end of our trip. We went from Stockholm, to Gothenberg and then the Boras... to tourists like us, these places where miniatures of the place before, so by the time we got to Boras, our expectations were that we spend half day around the town, and just chill in the hotel the rest until the wedding the next day. Not only was G surprised that Boras was a valid town (I mustn't have set very high expectations), he realized his childhood fave band was playing live the night we arrived! The sleepy town was crazy and buzzing with people, all coming in to see the Jamaican group Bony M - I bit before my time, but that didn't stop me partying in the square where they were playing live.

The rest of Sweden was nice, but I have to admit, the excitement and beauty of Stockholm was dampened by the weather (literally!). It rained every_single_day. Although we didn't do as much outdoors activities and take as many photos as planned, we still had a great time. Canada isn't very big on cafe culture, so we took advantage of the cosy cafes, and divine coffee that Sweden had to offer.



During sales time, Sweden is a shoppers heaven. Sales signs with 50-70% off were very common. Unfortunately I was traveling with the world's worse shopper - although we hunted around for nifty Scandinavian design stores, the temptation of clothes shopping was definitely a test on my will power. The one store that did catch G's eyes was one called Design Torget. We went into everyone single Design Torget we came across in both Stockholm and Gothenberg, 6 times on last count. We hardly even went into 6 clothes stores the whole time!

Speaking of clothes, Sweden appears to have a very strong street culture - with current trend being the bush-ranger neck scarf, long cardi and skinny jeans - for both men and women. Not only are the boys as pretty as the girls, dress sense for the two sexes seem pretty aligned also.

We're back home now, and I have two more weeks before Sydney! I'm making a list of things I want to eat. So get your stomachs prepared!

Btw, photos uploaded - see side link.

Words in writing

When you are writing a bitchy email about a colleague at work (you guessed it, the PM!), to another colleague in the next cubicle that you share bitchy stories with - never, and I repeat never think about the subject so much that you accidentally put their name in the "To" field.

You can feel bad when they reply the guilty email, but let's be clear, you only feel bad because you were caught, not because writing snarky emails is terrible school girly thing.

The worse is making nice after the fact.
Thank god for cubicles with high walls.

Losing my life, a second time

Less than two years ago, my handbag was stolen from under my feet. A guy who was sitting back-to-back with me at a busy cafe, reached back back and plucked my bag from where I left it - next to my feet, under the table. Nine people at my table, and no one noticed.

Contrary to belief, losing your wallet is not the biggest hassle. Replacing cards is easy - the banks are used to it. It's not being able to drink on a Friday night, because a Police Report reference isn't sufficient ID to get you in a bar. Losing an iPod wouldn't be as bad if it wasn't a gift, and losing a USB stick is unnerving when it is full of personal and work information. And house keys - biggest hassle ever. Changing all the locks on the house is an expensive exercise, and the whole family needs to adjust to using new keys. Add the fact that you're overseas to the equation, and replacing cards is not so simple after all.

So you'd think that I'd be guarding my handbag with my life.

My favorite handbag was left dangling on the arm of a chair in Chapters where I sought refuge from an unexpected change in weather. Yep, it was left swinging there as I strolled down the block, waited for a seat in a restaurant and was nearly finished my dinner before I realized.

Thank god for honest people. At least an hour later as I ran back to look for my bag, the dude who found it, stuck around to tell me that he had turned it into the front desk. I almost hugged him.

Lessoned learnt. A second time.

Laying low...

... or being lazy, I admit, I'm a terrible blogger and email buddy these days. But you haven't missed much, things are good, but not terribly exciting.

So what has been happening since my last sob story?

I went to NYC again, my second time in 6 months... this time to meet up with long lost friends that decided to all fly in on the same weekend. I still marvel at how small the world is these days - who would have thought 10 years ago as we were hanging out in the Quad on the campus of UNSW, that we'd all end up catching up over dinner and drinks in NYC?

In the one weekend I was in the Big Apple, I managed to meet up with 5 Uni friends Alan, Chris, Jen, Tim and Yin who were scattered over the U.S. and London; Bernie & Ken were also in NYC for their last leg of their on their RTW adventure; Bei, Tax and Dex on a whirlwind visit from London; and of course resident New Yorkers Kev & Bec. Gord was perplexed with the Aussie invasion in North America, and shook his head as I reverted back to the good old twang!

Back in Toronto, things are picking up as the city goes into full swing with Summer festivities. It's so nice to be out soaking in the sun with a beer and live music... beats shoveling snow for sure! But like usual, the weekends fly and before you know it, you're back at work on a Monday morning.

Anyways, here are a few random photos from NYC and T.O.:

PM of all sorts

I have had many great managers in my time, people who I think really shaped me personally and professionally, and who I have immense respect for.

Then there is the other kind. Managers who throw their title around like they are more precious than others, when really it is just a different string of letters on a business card.

Is it because I am contracting these days, that the focus is different? I understand it is more above delivery and less about development, but surely leadership shouldn`t be compromised?

On my current project, I have a Big Boss and a Project Manager.

BB is a fantastic boss. She is a tough European lady, who is blunt and to the point. A great Consultant without the useless Consultant speak. If you raise an issue or express a concern, she gets it right away and helps with a resolution. You never walk away without an answer. She rolls up her sleeves and participates in the grind, and she has become a powerful woman in the industry because she is truly experienced (not just on paper) and what is more important to me in a leader - she leads by example.

PM on the other hand is a typical PM. She is concerned with her project plan, and compromises quality to finish work at 5pm and deliver pretty status reports. Short-sight or just plain lazy - PM does not realize what she compromises this week will come back and bite her next week. Leading by example goes are far as condemning any time spent understanding the work, and encouraging the `just wack it in - it will work itself out` philosophy.

A perfect example of YES people, my friend explains. YES people are usually recruited to the job because they don`t object, they do not reason, they just say YES. These people are only interested in managing upwards and do not give a care in the world if their team kills themselves delivering it. At the end of the job, they walk away dusting their hands while everything crumbles behind them. A little dramatic, but but a crappy week and a few too many martinis does this to you.

Then there is the other extreme - Micro Managers! MMs are control freaks who loves to remind the team who`s boss. Lucky, he manages the other team, one who I feel deeply sorry for. Every request to the team must go through MM, they love to delegate, and they love to monitor. MMs talk only in statistics and percent completed. Never mind that the team does not have the tools to do their work, the big question is `when will it be completed`. MMs hate self-sufficient team members because it makes him feel useless and gives him nothing to manage. Regardless, MMs always find some way of managing, whether it is welcomed or not. They are similar to YES managers but worse.

Oh, oh, there is one more type of manager that I`ve experienced on this big and crazy project... the Ditzy Manager! DM was topic of my frustrations a few blogs back, but let`s not go there. DM has gained the reputation because we have no idea what value she adds to the project. Many suspect DM has no idea what the project is about. What really tops it off is that everyone groans when they get an email meeting request from DM - because you can bet your booties there will be another 20 to follow. As DM does not like to listen to suggestions and learn from others, after four months of averaging 10 requests for every meeting planned, DM still does not know how to use Outlook. DM is overly friendly at times, and is very nasty other times - it baffles us all as to what will hit us next.

Sorry for those out there who are great Project Managers - be proud because your are indeed a rare breed.

Six months

It's been six months, a long journey, and what seemed an unreachable milestone. There are times when you just want to give up, go home. Other times you are determined to fight it and not let it overcome you.

But it feels good when you get there. When you can finally put on your dusty old sunglasses, exercise your flip flops and shake your head at the young girls with incredibly short shorts.

I have survived. Survived 'the worst winter Toronto has seen in 30 years' weather. It's been a journey - I have dug snow at midnight, I have dug snow at 5am in the morning, we have braved the highway during storm alert, and we have even driven the car into the side of the house because of the dang ice.

But now that the sun is out, this city looks brand spanking new. I think I can like this city.

I wore a skirt the other the day. I even wore open toe shoes! There is nothing I want to do but sit on a patio and drink beer - and I'm not even a beer drinker!

Love summer.

Sophisticated Banking

I'm in North America, who considers themselves brain child of internet and computer technology.

So here is how I transfer money from my bank account to another:
- Add recipient name and email address to my account
- Select how much I want to transfer
- Set up a security question and answer to verify recipient
- Physically call the recipient to tell him of my security question and answer
- Recipient checks email, is asked the questions, answers correctly and provides bank account details for the money to be transferred into.

Sending my hard earned money through silly bank processes via gmail and yahoo internet email accounts is not only inefficient and backward, it also costs me me a whooping $1.50 a transaction.

The banking industry here is ridiculous. At least I can transfer funds electronically though, a big improvement from 4 years ago.

Oh, and interest rates for savings accounts are 0.012% (compared to my 6.1% in Sydney), and the interest rates for credit cards are 19% (compared to my 16% in Sydney).

Don't get me started on telcos!

Be warned of rambling

The purpose of this blog is really to keep in touch with friends back at home and around the world. Share my embarrassing moments, and basically let you all know that I am still alive and kicking. I've been lousy, I know...

So just a quick update (as much as I love you guys, I value sleep):

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Despite my last blog entry, I'm really enjoying my contract. At first, I had absolutely nothing to do. Zilch. They paid me by the hour to sit, chit chat, and surf the net. It was brain numbing and I was bored to tears. Literally.

Then they asked me to join a team that was absolutely drowning in work - and now I'm drowning with them. My long hours the last few weeks is nothing compared to what will come. The project plan has each of us scheduled 15 hours/day, every day from April to July, and I suspect it's on the optimistic side (another reason to hate PMs on this project). I've told G to be nice to me now coz I won't be around for a while.

Having said that, I'm enjoying it so far. I thought it was going to be very similar to my last big project, but this is bigger and more ambitious. I love my role, and I love my team which is also a bonus.

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I'm getting used to Winter (note: this does not imply liking it), it's been a brutal one as everyone reminds me... we have only 5cm of snow to go before we break to all time record for snowfall in one season. We have had the biggest snow dumps that T.O. has seen in 30 years. Great timing on my part *humph*

Only good thing is, I tried snow boarding again last weekend, and surprisingly enjoyed it. G was shocked to see me holding my snowboard and grinning simultaneously (and this was even before the Beavertail). I'm still crap, but at least I can link my turns and I'm on my board more than I'm on my bum.

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I've put on weight. A-lot-of-weight. And I'm not sure how it is I'm going to lose it. I think I have a fair idea of how I gained it though.

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I won poker... it was a while ago, but I was proud and I want to boast about it. After many many weeks of contributing to the pot and not reaping any returns (the boys love it when I play), I finally turned the tables and took their money.

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It's sad, but the highlight for me this week is shopping for a laptop so I can work more comfortably from home.

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I think I am delirious now. So much that I am rambling. I think I need sleep.

Lessons not learnt

Experience is gained by learning valuable lessons, and being open to learning more. Time is not the sole measure of experience, a certification does not prove you can apply what you have been taught, and a business title alone is certainly not commands respect.

I don't care if someone has been in an industry for five, fifteen or fifty years. If they are not open to giving someone else with a difference of opinion to speak, not willing to listen to suggestions for improvement (or listen at all for that matter), or allow an intellectual conversation to take place because they already made a decision - and hell no, decisions can't be changed... their experience means nothing as far as I'm concerned.

If they haven't realised in all their grand years (often mistaken as experience, and sometimes more outrageously mistaken as wisdom), that valuable learnings can often be gained from others if only they had an open mind to catch it, then I'm not interested in learning from them.

Winterlude

After all my bitter blogging on the Canadian weather, I went to enjoy the festivities of Winterlude last weekend. Winterlude as the name suggests, is a celebration of Winter (yay… *rolls eyes*) in the nation's capital of Ottawa.

The neat thing about Winterlude is NOT the cold (we'll get back to the cold later), but the fact that the Rideau Canal is frozen over, creating the worlds longest skating rink of over 7.8kms! As the University of Ottawa is situated on the canal, students can literally skate to school in winter. My plan was to skate the canal, but when I saw the masses of people on it, I chickened out. I've only ever skated in a indoor ice rink where there is smooth ice and walls for me to slam-stop. No one was offering to be my wall.

So whilst G skated down the canal, I plodded along by foot which was just as acceptable. To be fair, the weather was actually behaving very well, definitely more tolerable than I had imagined. By the time we finished walking the canal though, it was painful to move my poor little toes. Still not a complaint out of me (much to G's surprise). I only had one thing in mind and that was Beavertails!!! There is something irresistible with fried dough sprinkled with cinnimon and sugar, and drenched in lemon juice. It was sooo good no one heard a peep out of me until I had finished stuffing my face with it. Not sure whether the cold had anything to do with it, but the hot chocolate I had with my Beavertail… it was the best hot chocolate I had ever tasted, and it was only off the back of a truck. Who says I lack passion??

Anyways, pictures are up, you can click on the Ottawa link to check out the frozen canal and ice sculptures that were part of the festivities.

Apple juice no ice please

I'm told this winter has been the worse winter since anyone can remember. Great.
Last big snow storm, we only had 20cm of snow. 30cm topped it yesterday.

5pm - G gets home early to shovel before going to volleyball.
6.30pm - I get home. Shoveled areas are already covered in a deep blanket of snow.
9pm - I come out of hiding and shovel driveway i the dark so G's car can get in.
11pm - G comes home, driveway is covered in snow AGAIN. Car gets stuck in the shared driveway. I get out of PJs. Both shoveling.
11.30pm - Car won't budge. We give up, G finally has dinner.

6.30am next morning - Surprise. More snow. Barely awake. We're shoveling.
Neighbour helped push car out.

The whole city of Toronto is like a gigantic Cola slushie.
For those that know me, I hate slushies. I order drinks with no ice. I hate slushies.

My first shovel

My stance was, if I was to move countries and live in snowy Canada, I refuse to shovel snow. I'm not a princess, I can manage household chores, but I don't do garden... until today.

A day after the snow storm, the snow was so deep I didn't have the heart to refuse. It actually wasn't too bad. It's true, there is always a calm before the storm, and once the storm has passed the weather becomes much more tolerable too.

So this is what happens, I move country for a boy and he puts me to work in the yard.



And the first shovel comes with my first snow angel...


For the record, this was just an exception, I'm not backing down on the deal.