Oh no I don't...

Hi all - hope things are good with you! Well just when you thought the oddities of canadian recruitment practice had been overcome and I had a job... they changed their minds and then I didn't! This all led to quite a stressed out Clare yesterday, since in the 18 hours when I thought I did have a job I had turned down a much better paying and longer term opportunity - I was NOT HAPPY (just ask my parents!). The good news is that I went back to the better job and grovelled a bit and this morning they rung back to say yes, I have the job and can I start tomorrow so hurrah!

To celebrate getting (the first) job I arranged to go on a tour to Niagara Falls today, taking in a winery and various sites along the way. The falls really are beautiful and quite massive and all they are cracked up to be. Unfortunately the weather has been really bad today so the rain and cold and the general tackiness of Niagara town took away from the experience a bit but still really stoked to have seen it. We did the Maid of the Mist boat tour where you are on a sort of ferry and go up really close to the falls and look up at them and generally feel rather insignificant... you also traditionally get a soaking from all the spray that the falls throw up but to be honest we were already pretty wet so some of that effect may have been lost on us!

Well I haven't been up to much else so will sign off now and let you all know how the job is going soon. I hope you are all well.
Clare

Got me a job!

Hi all - well you will be excited to hear that I have finally got a bit of work and can now rejoin the world of people that can afford to do stuff! As you all know, I have secretly been harbouring a desire to enter the world of running around after property managers and doing their filing for quite some time now and I am delighted that I will now be given the opportunity to do this, even if it is only for a couple of weeks!

A big thanks to all of you who sent me "keep smiley" messages - I know that it is normal to have to wait a couple of weeks to get work sorted and all and I was being unreasonable expecting it all magically to fall into place BUT I can't help being a control freak and wanting to know what will be happening! Anyway - I have four weeks work lined up starting on Friday so heading off for a day trip to Niagara Falls before then as a bit of a reward.

Due to some budgetary constraints there isn't much else to report on but I did check out the Steam Whistle Brewery tour on Saturday before heading to the Sky Dome to watch the Toronto Argos take on the Calgary Stampeders. Now Calgary did have shinier helmets and a better name so I was inclined to support them but in the end opted for Toronto who managed to take out a win after the insanely long game came to an end (5 15 minute quarters takes about 3 hours)... hey Z - the ref guy actually did a "number 4 on the offense... FOUL" bit too! Was fab and wish you had been here to see it!

I have also done a bit of random wandering about the city trying to get to know more neighbourhoods, and last night went to see Little Miss Sunshine at the movies - its a real laugh so if you get the chance I fully recommend it.

Anyway - better get back to it (that' s sitting around for those of you not in the backpacker know). Hope you are good!
C

The post of no name...

How are we world? I have been trying pretty hard to not spend too much money since I got back from Ottawa so it has been a reasonably quiet week but I have managed to fit in a few things...

I have been taking advantage of the hostel's free entertainment programme this week - hitting a comedy night on Wednesday night for starters. The comedy was pretty average (it seems to be where established comics go to practice their new material!) but it was a fun night out with the gang from the hostel. I called it a day about 11 because of my job interview the next day so missed out on the super 6 nacho experience but I will be sure to partake next week if my unemployment still reigns!

Thursday morning I set off for the mission trip to my job interview. The jobs this agency handle are largely down town but for some reason their office is two subways and a bus ride away from downtown! It took about an hour and a half to get there so for once I was grateful for my pathological need to arrive places early cos I needed every minute I had allowed to get there! The interview went pretty well and I am now offically an advanced user of word, outlook and my typing speed is 'A' grade... I am also a proficient user of excel and powerpoint and got nearly 90% on the grammer test. Off course all this means squat when it comes to getting a job in this place but at least it filled in a few hours doing all the testing! The agency is doing reference checking as we speak and I need to get in touch next week to see if they have anything for me - it was pretty frustrating to go through all that only to be told they didn't really have anything appropriate for me at the moment but I guess eventually a job has to turn up - otherwise see you all in a couple of weeks!!!

Anyway - after the mission job interview and subsequently being told by my other recruitment joint that I was not experienced enough to get a job working reception I was kinda scratchy and grumpy! A couple of vodkas and a grizzle with a couple of others in the hostel going through the same thing was very helpful though so I decided to join the gang for the Thursday night pub crawl in Little Italy. My name this week was 'lemon drop' though so maybe my sour mood was not as well hidden as I thought?!?!?! Anyway - had a good night out and embraced the life of unemployment totally by sleeping until lunchtime yesterday!

When I finally did get up yesterday I did a bit of a mission around the underground pedestrian pathway, just to see where it leads. It is totally possible that if you work downtown and use the subway to get to work you could just about avoid going outside at all which is a nice thought with winter just around the corner! The weather has started to turn for sure and it is time to start thinking about buying winter coats and shoes - I knew the jandals (flip-flops, thongs, whatever you call them) would not last forever but I will be sad to put them away!

The other thing I tried yesterday was a local delicacy called poutine. Poutine is basically french fries covered in that crazy plastic cheese they have in this part of the world, as well as gravy... it was odd and way too fatty to be totally enjoyable but good to tick off another one of those local dishes!!!

Anyway - better go and start rugging up for the game of Canadian football we are going to this afternoon - go the Argonauts (!?!?!)!

Miss you all - be good,
Clare