Parting with a Piece of My Canadian Identity

I have been very frustrated with everything to do with learning how to drive a manual car and getting a United Kingdom driver's license. I feel like I have been trying very hard to learn how to drive and figure out how to get a license. The trouble is that I keep getting misinformation. First the driving instructors told me that I first needed to get a provisional license (like a learner's permit) and then take my written/theory test and then take my road test.

Working on that assumption, I have been taking driving lessons knowing that it would still be awhile before I would be able to take my test. The driving lessons have varied from feeling mildly successful to overwhelmingly nervous and a new found hatred of driving. Its a very strange feeling because for the last nine years, I have been fortunate enough to own my own car and drive myself anywhere that I needed to go. Selling my car before I moved to England was a much more emotional experience then I had anticipated. My car was the last physical item that connected me to my life in Canada.

There's a chance that I under-estimated how difficult it would be to drive a manual car on the opposite side of the road. Before I moved I was overly-optimistic about all aspects of the new life awaiting me. I was confident that I would be able to find a job, learn to drive and build a brand new life here. If I had not maintained that optimism, I think I would have been paralyzed by fear and would never have gotten on the plane.

I have managed to find work. Its a slow process since I've been hired by a government organization and I finally received my new employee package in the mail. I'm also doing some work for my former manager at the debt collections agency which allows me to work from home. The main reason behind trying to get my driver's license sorted out more quickly is because my new job requires me to have a current license and access to a car.

The trouble is that although I am legally allowed to drive in the United Kingdom on my Canadian driver's license for one year of living here, Matt's insurance company will not insure me on that license. So I can't drive his car - the car that I told the new job I had access to...

The new plan is that I was able to exchange my Canadian license for a Great Britain license but that license will show that I am only able to drive an automatic car. Once I have that license I can just book my practical test and then get my license changed to show that I can drive a manual car. I went to exchange my license on Friday and now have to wait three weeks for my new new license to arrive. I also just learned that I can't book my practical test until that new license arrives!

I so wish that I had known about this license exchange when I first arrived here. I could have exchanged it months ago! When I was first told about this option, I was resistant to the idea of having to hand over my Canadian license in order to obtain a U.K. one. I didn't like the idea of having to give my license away. Of course this is silly, its a small, laminated piece of i.d. but to me (again) it is something that connects me to my life in Canada.

When I first moved from Calgary to Vancouver, I went through a similar process of maintaining my life in Calgary even though I was living in Vancouver. My doctor, dentist, hair dresser, everything were in Calgary for the first year that I lived away. I think that it made the move easier because I still felt connected to my old life. Eventually, trying to maintain a life in two cities became too difficult and I had to make a decision. If I was going to live in Vancouver, then I had to really live there. Of course, by the time I had managed to sort out and build a life in Vancouver I was preparing to move to England.

Now I am facing the same scenario where I live in England but most of my life still feels like its in Canada. Initially, I wasn't really ready to give over my Canadian license because my move here did not ( and still doesn't) feel permanent. I'm occasionally resistant to decorating our flat for the same reason. How much of a life do I want to build here when I really have no idea how long I will be living here?

In the midst of all of this driver's license drama, Matt has made an extremely generous offer. He proposed that perhaps he could sell his car and buy an automatic car for both of us to use. When he first suggested this to me last week my answer was firmly no. I thought that I had moved here and made the decision to go after a job that required me to drive. I felt that it was my responsibility to learn how to do this. As usual, placing unrealistic expectations on myself and then berating myself for not meeting them.

After much thought and a very long conversation with my mom, I began to see that it was not unfair of me to accept Matt's potential offer of getting an automatic car. It would help me SO much and it wouldn't have to be forever. I could keep taking lessons and eventually conquer manual driving. Why did I think that it was so unreasonable to get a car, even for just a year, that would help me feel more confident driving here?

This feeling was motivated by my struggle between independent Sarah and couple Sarah. I'm not really good at making decisions as a couple. I'm very good at making decisions that benefit Matt and benefit me but more individually. Getting a car that would help me but would mean Matt driving a car he didn't really like for a period of time seemed like way too much to ask for. I now see that I am very lucky to be with someone who is willing to even consider trading in his much loved car to make my life a little easier.

As I had to tell myself when I sold my car (and all my other possessions), its only a car and its just stuff.

Birthday in Paris!

In July, Matt and I were in Santorini, Greece discussing my decision to move to England. One of my stipulations for moving was that I wanted to spend my birthday in Paris. This was motivated, in small part, by Sex and the City but also because I didn't get the chance to visit Paris during my summer Europe trip.

We booked a deal with Eurostar trains which turned out to be a much more affordable way to go. We were scheduled to take the 9:30 a.m. train to Paris from London St. Pancreas. In theory, this should have been a straightforward journey from the train station near our house. The trains were all closed on Sunday because of engineering works and there was a replacement bus service that would not have gotten us there in time. Matt's parents really came through for us and picked us up at 7:00 a.m. and drove us all the way to the train station in London so we made our train in plenty of time.

I have the worst knowledge of geography. I argued with someone for a good 10 minutes in high school when they told me that Egypt was part of Africa. I was adamant that it was not in Africa but rather in the fictional country of 'the middle east'. It had escaped my attention that taking the train to Paris meant going underwater in said train. The only indication that we were underwater was that my ears popped but it was still weird.

We arrived in Paris and decided to take the Metro to the hotel instead of a taxi. After paying 1 euro to use the toilets we were on our way. We got off at our stop which happened to be inside a shopping mall adjacent to The Louvre. The hotel was around the corner from the shopping centre but thanks to my complete lack of internal compass we walked in the opposite direction. Luckily a friendly man cooking chestnuts on a stove in a shopping cart was able to point in the right direction.

Our hotel was beautiful even if our room was a little bit on the small side but with an enormous bathroom. There was a king size bed that was so comfortable. I've been pushing for us to get a bigger bed/new mattress but it won't really fit in our room.

After putting our stuff away in the room we needed food. We walked across the street to the Cafe Ruc. The menus are all in French so it was a real test of my French skills being able to translate and order. I followed the advice of trying to speak in French even though they always respond back in English. I was pleasantly surprised to find a veggie burger on the menu. This turned out to be the best veggie burger meal I have ever had. I won't go into elaborate detail since not everyone is as obsessed with food as I am but it was incredible! An excellent start to our first day in Paris.

I wanted to go exploring. The sun was shining and we were in Paris! Within a few blocks we found the tourism centre and got a much better map then the one in the back of my guidebook. While walking by L'Opera, the national academy of music, there was a band playing on the front steps. I stopped to listen and Matt reluctantly stopped too. I'm sure he was embarrassed by my dancing in the street but I didn't care. While we were stopped, a race or marathon or something of rollerbladers came by but were too fast for me to get a picture.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Sephora!! Only the best make-up store on the planet that doesn't exist in London. We also explored another shopping centre that was full of the most expensive, brand names clothes, shoes and bags that I have ever seen. And then the best discovery of all...Macaroons!! These are not the typical macaroons that I have eaten before (the chunks of coconut ones) these were amazing little bites of caramel and lemon heaven.

Our walked continued and I saw a sign pointing for Montmarte which I had read about and really wanted to see. To get there involves walking straight uphill and up numerous flights of stairs but it was well worth it (especially after the macaroons). The path that we took was through typical Paris neighbourhoods (and about a thousand bakeries) and some of the stereotypes of French people wearing berets, smoking, drinking and walking their small dogs were surprisingly accurate. We got to the top and walked through what felt like the French version of London's Covent Garden - a combination tourist, artist, bohemian area.

The Scare Coeur kind of looks like the Taj Mahal and gives a fantastic view of the whole city. I wanted to stay up there until after the sunset but it was getting kind of chilly and I didn't really want to be searching for our hotel after dark. Walking back, we took a completely different route and even with a map got very lost. After about an hour and unable to locate ourselves on the map, the consensus was that taking a taxi was the way to go. Turns out we were not really on the right track at all!

We were both very tired and decided that the hotel restaurant was the best choice. While the earlier meal I had was one of the best of my life, the dinner that followed was one of the worst! The menu was very French - full of game meat and cream sauces. Matt's stomach had been iffy all day so he wasn't quite sure what to order and went with Steak Frites and asked for it to be cooked well done (not the French way). There were two vegetarian options: a pasta one and a steamed vegetable one that I wrongly translated and thought came in a puff pastry shell.

Our food arrived...Matt's steak was not well done but instead was purple in the middle. My imagined puff pastry vegetable dish was actually carrots, zucchini and what may or may not have been potatoes in a plastic bag to show they were steamed. I filled up on bread and ate my vegetables cursing my menu selection. Matt could not eat any of his steak and only picked at a few fries. The waiter and manager were not really concerned that he had not eaten of it even though I tried to complain in broken French. When the bill came, I said that we were not going to be paying for it. The manager took it off the bill but then added in some other fictitious charge. I couldn't keep fighting so we paid the bill and left vowing to never return to the hotel restaurant.

The next day we slept in and went for a late breakfast. I had planned for us to go on a free walking tour. The same company runs tours all over Europe and I'd been on the ones in Dublin, Edinburgh and Tel Aviv. The tour guide works for tips alone and takes you through the central city and provides random facts. Our tour guide - Gabi- was from New Zealand but loved Paris and was actually a really great guide. It was a 3.5 hour tour so we covered quite a bit of the city. We walked along the river, through gardens, The Louvre (only the outside), and saw the Eiffel Tower and Le Arc de Triumphe but not up close.

When the tour was up we were right by the Champs Elysees. I can now admit that in my ignorance, I for some reason thought that the Champs Elysees was near the water rather than a street with expensive shops. Its quite a posh area where you have to pay a euro fifty to use the toilets. We stopped for snack/drink before heading to le arc de triumphe. This cafe was the location of Matt's giant beer! I had a smoothie. We spent the next hour resting our feet and watching people go by.

We walked up the street, checked out a few shops and got to the end of the road - Arc de Triumphe! It looked amazing and huge up close. I had heard about the round about that went around the monument but it was unbelievable to see in person. Round abouts scare me to begin with but this one is twelve lanes with no markings and an accident every 30 minutes. We stood and watched for awhile but thankfully didn't see anything happen other than crazy driving and loads of honking.

That evening we walked about 10 minutes from our hotel and found at leas 15 restaurants. We chose a small one that turned out to be an excellent choice. The waiters were so nice and offered to translate any part of the menu that we didn't understand. This offer had not been made anywhere else that we eat. Over dinner I pointed out that many tourists come to London or other English speaking countries and don't expect the menus, signs to be in their language so why do we, as English speakers, want other countries to have English everything? I also wondered how English got to be the universal language and that most countries learn English? I was glad that I at least have a basic understanding of French and was able to read and translate signs and menus. I also enjoyed that the French couldn't understand Matt's accent for once!

The next morning I woke up very excited to celebrate my birthday! Although Matt told me that I woke him up in the middle of the night by punching him in the ribs and then accused him of waking me up. I have no recollection of this happening...

We went out for my birthday breakfast. Normally, I would be going to Denny's to cash in on my free birthday breakfast but this year a few changes to my typical birthday traditions had to be made. I did order a crepe at breakfast but the waiter forgot to bring it out but did try to charge us for it. I wanted to get going so I decided there would be another crepe opportunity later in the the day. After a quick stop to buy some new sunglasses, we walked towards the Eiffel Tower. It was 16 degrees out, sun in the sky and it was my birthday in Paris - I was smiling all day. I also started jumping up and down when we actually got in line to walk up the Eiffel Tower. There is an elevator but the line up for it was at least 3 times as long. I decided the stairs were a good option since my love affair with bread while in Paris had been fairly intense.

We made it to the second landing and had an amazing view of the city. The whole time I just couldn't believe that I was actually on the Eiffel Tower, in Paris on my birthday. It was very surreal. After taking many photos and attempting self portraits we headed back down the park in search of crepes and ice cream. We found them and hung out on a park bench, enjoying the weather. We knew we needed to make our way back to the hotel since we had to get ready for our Paris by night tour and the Moulin Rouge!!

I wanted to go back to the Cafe with the amazing veggie burger for an early dinner before the tour. It was just as good the second time. We met up with our tour group which was a bus tour of the major Paris attractions which are all lit up at night. I chose to go on this tour because it had discounted tickets for the Moulin Rouge. Unfortunately, I was extremely tired from hiking up the Eiffel Tower earlier in the day that I fell asleep on the bus! I was awake for a few parts and did get to see the Eiffel Tower lit up and a few other monuments. My eyes just would not stay open!

I was thrilled when we pulled up at the Moulin Rouge. It was very clear why our tickets were discounted since we had a table at the very back of the theatre/restaurant. We shared a table with a few other people from the tour bus (an american couple and a woman from Australia). They were really nice and thought that I was hilarious so obviously I liked them.

I'm still not quite sure what I think of the show. There was singing, dancing, bright costumes and a whole of tits and ass. I knew it was a topless show, that's how I lured Matt there in the first place. It sort of felt that the whole show was built on challenging the costume designer to provide the least amount of clothing but most amount of feathers and sparkles. There was also a juggling act, a strongman/woman couple and a ventriloquist. There may have been a story line to the whole show but my French wasn't quite good enough to follow. It was more for the experience that I wanted to go rather than the music/dancing. I'm so glad that I went though.

When we got back to the hotel I checked my e-mails and facebook messages. As much fun as I had had that day, a part of me was still a little homesick spending my birthday so far away from everyone so I called my mom and dad for a quick conversation. Finally I went to sleep knowing we had to be up early-ish to make our train.

Our final breakfast was my favourite one and served to further confirm that Matt eats to live while I live to eat. He just doesn't appreciate things (like the selections of peanut butters and jams on our table) like I do. We shopped for a few souvenirs and then made our way to the train station. We got there just in time to miss the train since I had completely mixed up the train times and thought we left at 12:47 but actually we were supposed to leave at 12:13. They put us on the next train at 13:04 so it turned out alright.

And that was Paris! I really want to go back since there is still so much left to see.

High Maintenance?

I usually pride myself on being a down-to-earth, low maintenance kind of girl. It occurred to me, after an incident that happened last night, that this may not be an accurate representation of myself.

The front desk at the hotel where I've been staying all week keeps a small tea tray of treats on it for guests. Every evening there is some kind of candy, cookie or other food on display. Last night's treat was delicious looking banana bread that was covered in inch thick butter.

We walked by the desk en route to the bar to meet up with Matt's work colleagues. The amount of butter was too much of a deterrent and I walked by without taking any. I was grumpily (and hungrily) sitting in the hotel bar with one Matt's work colleagues while they debated how many more beers to drink before we could get food.

This has been the theme of the week. I'm starving and want to eat around 6:30 and they want to drink and watch the football without giving food a second thought. I cannot survive on an alcohol, liquid diet.

Matt could tell I was hungry. When I'm hungry I lose control of my ability to reign in my inner bitch. My blood sugar drops, I feel nauseous and at that point I'm pretty much ready to eat my own hand. I knew he was trying to move things along and I wasn't upset with him. I was annoyed that because we were in a group (and I was the tag-along girlfriend on a work trip) that unless everyone was prepared to go we would be staying put.

Matt offerred to get me a piece of bread from the bar but I explained about the butter and mostly joking said ' I'll eat it if you scrape the butter off'. Some twisted part of me wanted to see if he would do it. And, to his wonderful boyfriend credit, he went and retrieved some bread, scraped all the butter off and gave it to me.

At that moment, I looked across the table at his colleague Dan and said " I swear, I'm not as high maintenance as this makes me seem!" You kind of lose credibility when you've just made your boyfriend scrape butter off of some bread for you.

This week has been a bad example and I have been slightly princess-esque while I've been here. The whole time trying to keep in mind that I came along for the week because I'm doing freelance work so I can work in the hotel and, as it turns out, I'm kind of a wimp when Matt goes away for a week or more for work. I rationalized it by taking driving lessons (that were slightly less expensive up here than in Surrey) every day.

I really do believe that I'm easy-going for the most part. The fact that I spent every night this week in a pub watching football and barely even complaining is a clear demonstration. After last night thought, I think I'm going to try to check myself a little bit more often and continue striving for more independence.

Independent Sarah took quite a blow moving to another country. The consistent thought in many of my blog posts has been my struggle to rely on other people when I'd much rather do everything by myself. I'm not very good at delegating since I most often think that my way of doing something is the best/right way of doing it. Living with someone else, not having as much control over my life is forcing me to let another person in and rely on him.

Driving is coming along slowly. If I could understand roundabouts better, I'd be set. I can drive the car now, changing gears is still strange but doable its the traffic rules that are causing me issues. I still can't get a full U.K. license for a few more months but I almost feel like that license will be even more hard earned than my original driver's license at 17. Also, If I ever have kids, they are learning to drive a standard car first!

Some Thoughts on Relationships (mine included)

I would say that I have always been fairly opinionated on the subject of relationships, marriage and (especially) weddings. I like to think that I am just fascinated by the sociological phenomenon of the above mentioned subjects but, in truth, I think that I have ranted and raved about them as I have tried to sort out my own feelings.

I was not one of those little girls that dreamed of her wedding. I played dress up and had plans for when I got older but there was no white dress and big cake in those plans. I also never really gave much thought to getting married. I sort of assumed it would work itself out at some point or it wouldn't. I spent a considerable amount of time and effort making peace with my previous singleness in the event that it was permanent. I distinctly remember wondering how I would end up as half of a couple since I was used to (and quite enjoying) my former single status. I wondered how I would ever share a bed, a living space, a life with someone else. I won't go so far to say that previous relationships were complete train wrecks since I learned something from them but there was never any future there.

I find myself in quite unfamiliar territory as I'm thinking more about marriage lately. That doesn't mean I have any plans to get married any time soon but it seems to be at the forefront of my mind. I have several theories as to why these thoughts have invaded my previous marriage/wedding free brain.

Living in Calgary and Vancouver, my friends were mostly single or the ones that were couples were the kind of couples that have been together for 5+ years and were quite content the way they were. That was the kind of couple that I envisioned myself being - one who could happily be in a relationship without feeling the need to be married. The only weddings that I've attended have been for my siblings. As I was getting ready to leave Vancouver, the shift was starting amongst my group of friends. One wedding, one engagement but still overall my group of friends were unmarried and childless.

Since moving to England, my social circle has shifted. Matt's friends are married, living together, a few have children. He doesn't seem to have any single friends. We went out for dinner with three other couples one Friday night and I kept thinking 'How did I enter this couple world?' I'm younger than Matt and his friends. Most of them started working when they were younger and so are further along in their career paths which makes me feel even younger. I understand that I chose a different path but in some ways being a grad student seemed to delay real life a little bit (that's why I chose it in the first place!)

For the first time in a relationship, I have people asking me if/when we will get married? Also for the first time, I don't find this question completely repulsive.

Another contributing factor is the fact that I'm living in England on a two year visa. Sometimes it seems like plenty of time while other days it does not feel like enough time at all. I'm pretty sure getting married for citizenship is on the top 10 list of worst reasons to get married but what if that's what it comes down to? I know, I should be enjoying my time here, experience our relationship and see what happens. I've never been able to embrace the philosophy of 'its about the journey and not the destination'. I'm only able to enjoy the journey if I know more about the destination. I'm not saying this is going to happen but I admit that I certainly think about it.

Another influence in my recent thoughts is my parents who separated just over three years ago. My mom is re-married now and my dad is getting married this summer. I love both my mom and dad fiercely and when they divorced, I was deeply affected by it. It was around that time that my anti-marriage stance became my armour. I wanted to be an independent person who could live a happy and complete life without being married. If you don't get married then you won't get divorced. I didn't want to experience the pain I witnessed my parents experiencing and determined that taking myself out of the game completely was the best course of action.

I think now that my parents have moved on and I see them happy with their new, respective partners, I feel like I can move forward and lead my own life. Perhaps some of the hurt I experienced watching them after they split has been healed by seeing them both so happy (and married/getting married) to new people. At the very least it has forced me to challenge some of my stubborn beliefs and opinions. I did manage to at least figure out that I'm more supportive of marriage than I am of weddings.

As I write this I feel hypocritical and I feel like I am succumbing to the wedding cult/cultural brainwash. I have firmly maintained that weddings are lovely for other people but not for me. I've often wondered if my feelings were based on a very strong self-protection defence mechanism where I so wholly and completely convince myself that I don't want something in an effort to protect myself in case it doesn't work out. If I don't want to get married or have a wedding then I'm perfectly happy if it doesn't happen. My other main feeling about weddings is that its so much planning and money for one day and it was not something I wanted for myself. I'm still not sure where I stand on weddings but my tough exterior on the subject has begun to crack slightly.

This blog feels like a combination confessions/apology. Why do I feel like I need to apologize for contemplating marriage? Its partly because I have gotten up on my soap box so many times and espoused to anyone who would listen on why weddings were all the same and marriage was by no means a requirement for a long term relationship. I've tried in my rants to avoid the use of the word 'never' just in case I had any changes of heart.

I've been trying to get my thoughts in order and write this all week but its hasn't been coming out right at all. I'm still not convinced that what I have written accurately expresses what I was trying to convey. Maybe a summary would help:

I find myself thinking more about my future and would I like to be married and have children in that future. I also alternatively feel traitorous for having housewife-ish fantasies. I know that I worry way too much about what other think and I should just live my life according to my own set of rules as opposed to socially prescribed ones. I guess the concluding thought is that there are no clear answers or right or wrong way to live my life.

Are you still reading? Thanks for bearing with me and my random thoughts that I've been desperately trying to get written down.

Just Past the 3 Month Mark

How did it get to be March?? I've been living in England for 3 months and two weeks now. Its a very strange feeling because in some ways my life in Canada seems so long ago but in other ways I feel like I just got here. I often find myself thinking ' I really live in England?!' So what's been happening?

I gave my notice at the debt collections agency and gently tried to inform my boss that my job was actually not a one-person job. I've been doing the work that an entire department does! A new temp came in on Wednesday for me to train. I'd like to point how ridiculous the situation was that me (also a temp) wrote a training manual and was given the task of training the new person. Because I was showing her everything, not a lot of work was getting done. I could see the look of panic in her eyes for most of the day but tried to be re-assuring. By Thursday morning she was gone and by Thursday afternoon a new temp had arrived and the training had to begin all over again.

I was starting to feel pretty sick by Thursday. I'm very prone to getting sick when I'm extremely stressed out. Its like an unfriendly reminder that I haven't been taking good enough care of myself and my body has decided that if I'm not going to relax then its going to take me down by force.

Friday was supposed to be my last day. It was fairly obvious by lunch time that my replacement was not ready to be left on her own. I said that she shouldn't worry and I would come in on Monday to help out. Why? Why d I always make these promises and commitments when I should walk away. I'm a temp - I didn't even have to give notice!!

I said good-bye to everyone but it wasn't really good bye since they knew I would be coming back Monday. I left work and headed home. I was at least excited because I had a skype date with my niece Winnie (5) and Ellis (3). It was their first skype experience and I think that it freaked them out a little bit. Ellis, who is normally super chatty, just stared at me and shook his head is disbelief. Winnie liked it better and really liked when I gave them a tour of the flat and showed them the spare room which could be their room when they come for a visit. I think that Matt's skis and all the laundry hanging up in there may not have sold it.

Matt has been working on a new project that required him to work really long hours (leaving by 7 home by 10 or 11) for the first half of the week and then going up to work in Southport near Liverpool for Thursday and Friday. He's also working there all this week. He came back Friday night so that we could go to our friend's Dave and Kim's going away party. Although

they have only moved about an hour and a half away. I'm sad for Matt because he and Dave have been friends and lived in the same area since they were in grade school.

We had a good night other than I was feeling pretty awful. At this point one half of my throat was completely swollen and sore and I was convinced that my brain was trying to escape and push through my skull. I was happy to go home and crawl into bed. We were both looking forward to a lie in Saturday morning.

In the morning, I was still feeling sick and had to make a trip to the pharmacy. I would have spent the whole day in bed but Matt had bought tickets to see a play in London for our anniversary. I'll admit that I pushed a little bit to celebrate an anniversary. I thought that making it to one year together (or since we met) was a big deal considering how much time we spent apart. In some ways I think our relationship is stronger because we had to get to know each other over e-mail and phone calls at the start because we couldn't see each other. I'll save more relationship insights for another post though.

The play we went to see was called Private Lives. The main reason that he bought the tickets was because Kim Cattrall was the lead actress. As it turns out, the play was amazing and hilarious. I was thisclose to Kim Cattrall. She is so firmly entrenched in my mind as Samantha that when the play was over all I could think was wow Samantha did a great job! Kim Cattrall did do a good job and had a very believable accent. I, on the other hand, still can't do an English accent to save my life.

We went out for an early dinner and a quick wander around Covent Garden. We made it an early night because I was still feeling very rough. We came home and went to sleep. Matt usually plays football on Sunday but the game was cancelled which means we go to have another lie in. This is a big deal considering that Matt is usually up and out the house on the weekends to play golf and football.

Sunday was a lazy day. His parents came over to put up some shelves in the kitchen. Matt may not be that handy but his dad sure is! No all of my spices and cooking oils are easily accessible. Our kitchen is really coming along despite the complete lack of storage space.

At Matt's parents insistence we went to the walk-in clinic to make sure that I didn't have tonsillitis or strep throat. It turns out that its just a virus and I need to rest and drink plenty of fluids. I'm also enjoying popsicles or ice lollies as they call them here.

Matt and I watched the Olympic hockey game and he tried to get into it but couldn't really make sense of the game and wondered how anyone could actually see the puck. I was so happy that we won and only slightly sad that I wasn't in Canada to be able to watch it.

Matt left very early this morning and will be gone until Friday. I made an appearance at work today just to tie up a few loose ends and to turn in my key fob. Even though I didn't like the job, it was nice to be in an office with people and being more social. I have a tendency to hermit.

I have to book my intensive driving lessons for next week since the new job requires the ability to drive a manual car on the other side of the road. I'm not completely sure when the new job starts as I'm still waiting for my criminal record check to come back clear (which it will it just takes longer for them to search my Canadian details). I've also gotten an e-mail today about becoming a volunteer community panel member handling youth justice cases and sentencing.

There will probably be more posts in the next few weeks since I'll be home more.