It's my birthday. So there.

Things have been so up in the air around here that I just haven't really felt like posting, not that there's much to post about. Randal and I moved into our townhouse on October 30, and since then, there has a been a flurry of shopping and unpacking and organizing and going to Toronto and coming back and more unpacking and more shopping. I think Randal and I have done more shopping in the past few weeks than we've done in our entire relationship to date!

I'm working on taking photos of our place and will start posting them, bit by bit. Still no employment for me, so I really have no excuse other than my usual procrastination and laziness. I just put up the entire Roadtrip to Winnipeg, so please feel free to amuse yourselves with viewing those in the meantime.

In other news, after two tiny snowfalls in the last two days, we are now having our first real snowfall/storm of the year. It's beautiful, but what I really dig about the whole thing is the current feed from the CBC-Ottawa webcam:



God, I love Canada.*

* In other news, rumour has it that Elliott (he of the no-I'm-never-updating-this-again blog is thrilled.

Back to The Cap

Randal and I moved back to The Cap today. Well, half-moved. We drove up to Ottawa, picked up the keys to our new townhouse and dropped a few boxes off there, and went to my aunt's place for the night. The actual capital-M move is tomorrow.

It will be weird, having our own place again and seeing all our stuff after all this time. We're not quite sure what's actually in that storage locker - we just have a vague memory of there being a LOT of it. This time, however, we actually have space for things - we're moving to a 3-bedroom townhouse. In the, uh, suburbs. Yes, pixxiefish is becoming a suburbanite. We're moving to Orleans, which is about 20-25 minutes east of Ottawa by public transit. It's actually a quite nice neighbourhood, and a 5-minute walk to the large nearby mall where the bus to downtown goes. I'm looking forward to it. Every time I see the new place, I remember how much I like it. We're going to have so much space! And the dog will have a yard (our whole reason for getting a townhouse). And there's a garden! It's too cool.

I plan on taking photos of the place hopefully before it's all full up with stuff, and then again once it's all unpacked, and will post those before too long. More to come, I'm sure, though it may be a week or (god forbid) two before we get Internet, etc., at home. Now here's hoping it doesn't rain.

Ohayo gozaimasu!

The hotel in Tokyo, Keio Plaza, is apparently where they filmed Lost in Translation. Some of it certainly seems slightly familiar. And it is, indeed, tres tres swank. Not that we've had much time to explore - too tired!

It's 1:30 a.m. here (Monday morning), so not much of a post here. Suffice it to say, it's been a long week. Moving on Thursday was nutso. Cleaning the apartment and then packing for Japan took all of Friday afternoon and night. We barely had a chance to enjoy our nice Novotel in Ottawa (how long ago that seems!). Our flight to Detroit on Saturday afternoon was delayed because of mechanical problems. At first we were going to stay an extra night in Ottawa (how anticlimactic that would have been), and then they told us we were going to Detroit and hopefully would catch our connecting flight, and if not, we would be put up in a hotel in Detroit for the night. Not ideal, as you can imagine. Finally somebody said, "Get on the plane now! They're waiting for you in Detroit!" Tiny tiny 40-seater plane - I'm still amazed we made it to Detroit alive - but that's another story for another day. The 33 Ottawa JETs caused some 2 or 300 other people to have their flight to Tokyo delayed by an hour and a half - whee! the power!

Long flight but I slept lots. Upon arrival, some of our bags were missing (including one of mine); apparently still in Detroit but now on their way to the Far East. There were screwups at customs, and never-ending lineups. We landed in Tokyo around 5:45 p.m. local time but did not make it to the hotel till 11:00. We have since eaten some yummy sushi and noodles (finding a little restaurant that is open till 3:00 a.m. every night), and now, dear reader, your Beloved Narrator shall lay her head down on the nice pillow on the comfy-looking queen-sized bed in her room, and she won't awake again until, uh, 7:00 or 7:30. (Breakfast is only till 8:45.) I can hear Randal having fallen asleep already, and I'm quite anxious, as you can probably imagine, to join him.

7.5 hours...

We just got back from visiting our swanky hotel room at the Novotel in the Market. We had a nasty run-in with a nasty taxi cab driver who wanted to charge us $10 for one extra bag (according to their regulations, they can charge up to $10 for any bags over 4, and we had 5 - the key term here being "up to"), then a much nicer cabbie (after I sent the first one away) who put the extra bag in his front passenger seat without us even having to ask. The Novotel is SWANK - did I mention? Because of our late check-in (10:00 p.m.), we were upgraded - for our entire 3-night stay - to a fancier room with a king-sized bed (we had booked just a standard king-sized room). We took quick showers then met our friend Rob who lives near there for a quick drink and bite to eat in the hotel lounge.

The bathroom door is like a double french door with frosted panes. It's gorgeous.

If only we were there instead of here. We're confident this won't be an all-nighter (we have about 2 hours' work left), but favour has, sadly, not been on our side the past few days.

I hear the hotel in Tokyo, where we spend 2 or 3 nights, is also tres chic. If only one could afford to live like this all the time :)

And now, for something completely different...

2 days!* Yikes!

* Technically, it is 2 days 23 hours plus 20-some minutes, but that doesn't have the same ring of impending doom to it.

One more night, gimme just one more night...

Soooo, it's T-plus-3h50. Basically, after a full afternoon's and night's packing and more packing and then packing again, we gave up at 7:45 this morning and called our mover to reschedule to tomorrow. We're just waiting to hear back if he is coming in the morning (our preference) or the afternoon (he had another job in the a.m. but was going to see if he could round up a second "crew" - a.k.a. two strong men).

Anyway, upon rescheduling, we took about 4 hours shut-eye and now we are getting back into it. The sunroom is virtually packed up in its entirety, so the plan is to flip the spare mattress (upon which we slept this morning, since, again, the other bed is not useable at the mo') and then stack as many of the boxes as we can in there, in order to make room elsewhere in the apartment.

And there's a bright light at the end of this (long, dark, horrid tunnel): checking in to our hotel tonight, having nice warm showers or oooh, even perhaps a bath, and then heading for drinks with a few friends. Good incentive to finish.

The low point last night should have been the moment when I tore a 4-cm gash across my upper thigh (filing cabinets have super-pointy corners!) and then found that band-aids just aren't made long enough to cover such injuries. Or perhaps it was when we discovered the colony of silverfish living in an old plant pot. Then again, maybe it was when both Randal and I took some Tylenol in a (failed) attempt to ease the dull pain we both had in our feet from standing for so long.

But none of those make the cut. Yes, the highlight of the night can only be the moment just after 11:00 p.m. (remember my comment about unforeseen items?) when I opened the bottom cupboard door in the kitchen, which is rather deep and has "back country" that we haven't explored in a while, started pulling items out, and discovered a minefield of little black droppings. So it turns out our dog was not crazy after all. There are pipes that run from the floor to the sink in that cupboard, and between where the pipe comes out and the back of the cupboard, it is completely open to whatever is below! The mouse had helped itself to generous helpings from our bag of skim milk powder (which we haven't used in a few months). Anyway, in addition to the food, we threw out all the plastic dishes (containers, etc.) in that cupboard, washed all the pots and pans thoroughly, and cleaned out the cupboard. I just checked now and there are no signs of life - Randal had fashioned a sort of cover over the hole using sandwich container covers, and they look undisturbed. Blech.

On that note, back to packing!

12 hours...

...and oh, still so much to pack.

Who knew one little apartment could hold so much STUFF???

Still, I count my blessings (whatever they may be), as we're still probably better off than our friend Elliott, also Japan-bound on Saturday, who called earlier this evening to tell us all about the emergency dental surgery he has to undergo on Thursday morning. Nothing like some good painkillers to make an 18-hour flight go faster, I guess...

34 hours...

just about 2 hours ago, I realized that I had exactly 36 hours to finish packing the apartment before the movers show up to help us load up our rental truck (9 a.m., Wednesday morning). I have packed about 15 boxes. 7 of those are books. (In my defence, I used to regularly have 10-12 boxes of books when I'd move!) One is the contents of my filing cabinet. Other boxes' contents include: miscellaneous stationery, photo albums, sewing materials and a sewing machine, pictures, vases, items picked up while traveling (masks, statuettes, etc.), a jewelry box, bed linens, etc.

Left still to pack:
- clothing and shoes which I am not bringing to Japan
- computer items (minus laptop, which I am of course bringing with me)
- all bathroom items
- all my dishes (and anyone who's been to my kitchen knows that, for a gal who doesn't really cook, that's a LOT of dishes)
- tools
- small lamps and other decorative items
- pillows, cushions, etc.
- all those small annoying things that you forgot to itemize at the time but that will, invariably, rear their ugly heads at the last possible second (estimated time of occurrence: Tuesday, 11:30 p.m., until Wednesday, 2:37 a.m.)

Which perhaps begs the question, dear reader: Why am I posting rather than packing?

I feel bad about not having posted about the Vancouver-Winnipeg-Toronto cross-country tour. I have all Randal's pics on CD and mine will be ready to pick up from Black's, having been scanned (by them, not me!) to CD as well, tomorrow. However, I doubt that chapter will be forthcoming anytime soon. In a nutshell: It was a good trip - I love Vancouver! - Rion is settling down (entirely too) well in his new quarters with his new doggy pals - the rumours that Winnipeg does get very hot in the summer are true - and the most dangerous thing about Toronto, I have discovered, is Mountain Equipment Coop.

Internet will be shut down Wednesday morning - I will try to blog again before then. Otherwise, perhaps our hotel here in Ottawa (we're staying at the Novotel in the Market for our last three nights) will have access - otherwise you will have to wait until I hit an Internet cafe, either here or in Japan! Whee!!!

The Great Escape

Update: pixxiefish and freemount fly the coop at 12:38 p.m., July 29, flying from Ottawa to Detroit then on to Tokyo. I have updated the Countdown Clock accordingly :)

13 days!!!

holy c**p.

and I've spent the last 8 previous days on the road, with 4 1/2 to go. Leaving us with exactly 9 1/2 days to pack, clear out our apartment, have a final orientation session, etc. Crazy - that's all I can say.

It's been a busy week but it is 2:11 a.m. and I must go to bed. I will update soon!

That must be a mistake!

There are 31 days until we leave for Japan. 31 days! That's a month, folks. A month!

*****
please stand by. this blog will return once its author stops having a nervous breakdown.
*****

Someday perhaps, for all your amusement, I will post the entire list of absolutely everything I have to do between now and July 29. It boils down like this: I'm moving 1/4 of my life to Japan, 1/3 is going into storage, and whatever else is left (any math majors in the crowd?) is being given away. Somewhere in there I am going to Toronto (twice), Vancouver and Winnipeg. The spare room looks like a tornado hit it, the kitchen hasn't a clean dish left in sight, and we're almost out of toilet paper in the washroom. Life is good. :)

The weekend that almost was...

What a weird weekend. A good time was had by all (OK, by me) in Montreal, but it was a string of almosts and not-quites.

Saturday morning I took the train up to Montreal. Directly behind me was seated an insufferable bore. And he was British, to boot. It was like being in a bad movie. I wanted to spend my train trip staring out the window listening to the moody atmospheric tones of Sigur Ros, but quickly found out that the only thing that would drown out the droning voice behind me was a mix CD (I need a new mp3 player) with the likes of David Bowie, Blink 182 and Pink. At a very loud volume. Seriously, the guy behind me stopped talking for about 20 minutes of the 2-hour train ride.

Once arrived chez ma grandmaman, I met up with my parents, who were in town for the day, and my uncle. The five of us headed out to the Jardin Botanique, where my grandmother, who is a Friend of the Garden, wanted to see the photography exhibition currently showing onsite, "Family Memories at the Botanical Garden" at the Tree House ("Maison de l'arbre"). This is the 75th anniversary of the Garden. My grandmother worked there for a number of years in the 1940s, and was (I believe) the first directrice of the children's gardens.

When we got to the Garden, we were just in time to climb aboard the little train that takes you on a tour of the complete Garden. We were advised that since it was the last train of the day (at 3:30! - obviously this should have tipped us off), we would have to take it down to the south end then switch to a different train to make it back up to the Maison de l'arbre. No problem. We rode the train halfway down through the grounds, then were advised everyone had to get off since the trains weren't continuing all the way to the other end because of construction. You can't really feel jipped when a FREE train offers less than expected, but we were slightly disappointed. So while my family waited in line for the northbound train, I ran off in search of the nearby Japanese gardens (because lord knows I won't be getting enough of those in 32 days from now), but had barely glimpsed the outer pond of the gardens when I heard the train coming back.

We took the train back up north, grumbling about the aborted trip around the Garden, and got off at the Maison de l'arbre at 4:10, only to find that while normally it closes at 6:00 (which was the sign I had checked before jumping on the train the first time around), it had closed at 4:00 that day because it was St-Jean Baptiste Day! Feeling slightly dejected by this point, we took some goofy family photos (which I might post if my mother ever sends them to me*), then my dad and I took a quick tour of the pond behind the Maison de l'arbre.

We were just debating how to spend a bit more time at the Garden (we had dinner reservations at 5:30 but it was barely 4:30 at this point), when a security guard came up to us and said the Garden was closing early, rather than at sunset like usual, because of - you guessed it, St-Jean Baptiste!

So we left, went to my uncle's house to discuss the trees in his backyard (he wanted to cut one or two down and wanted my mother's opinion), then went to dinner. And dinner was, I am pleased to announce, GREAT! As good as I had been hoping. We went to Le Flambard, a little French bistro on Rachel Street just past the Parc Lafontaine. Sooooo good. I had the rarest, bestest filet mignon steak I have ever had, plus a cream of broccoli soup, a salad with lyonnais sausage, and pear and mango sorbet to top it all off. Expensive, but worth every penny.

Sunday morning, I met my friend Anne-Marie for dim sum in Chinatown. She was late getting to our arranged meeting point, and I had just enough time to start worrying that it was going to turn into another "almost" moment, when she got off a bus at the corner. Turns out she'd had her own share of "almost" moments - she'd barely missed her first bus, started to walk in the direction, and managed to be caught between two bus stops and therefore missed the second bus when it went by, etc. But it was great to see her - the dim sum (which I haven't had in at least ten years) was quite tasty, and we hung out in Chinatown for a while. There was a festival of some sort going on and I took some pictures - however, since I don't (yet) have a digital camera, you're going to have to wait another year for me to finish the roll of film before I can post my pics online. (LOL)

Shopping in Montreal. Aahhhhh, but I do love shopping there. I almost didn't have enough time at Simons, but I managed to spend almost $150 just there alone anyway, so it's probably a good thing I didn't have time to try as much on as I would have liked.** I finished the day with a black suit (my second purchased black suit in as many weeks - now I have to decide which one to keep!), a funky white blouse, brown semi-dressy pants, a grey zip-up sweater, a green T-shirt, and three V-neck sleeveless sweater vests - one grey, one black, one burgundy. All in all, successful shopping.

Then it was time for my other main reason to come to Montreal (other than seeing my grandmaman and Anne-Marie): I called my good friend Mark, as planned from the day before, at about 6:30 since we were going to go out for dinner. I of course am leaving for Japan in a month; Mark, however, is beating me out of the country as he and his wife Amynah are moving to France, where Amynah has a post-doctorate fellowship in something relating to pharmaceutical sciences, on Wednesday! Mark and I have known each other for almost 10 years (we even dated for a torrential 9 or 10 months of those...let's just say we make much better friends!), so this was going to be our last hurrah together. Unfortunately, there had been a death in Mark's family and he was leaving that evening with his parents (who had driven in from Halifax) to drive to Guelph to be with the rest of his family. So while I was, understandably, sorry to hear about his family's misfortune, I was (and am) also sorry we wouldn't be getting to see each other. In fact, in true Julie-and-Mark fashion (we often seem to have trouble coordinating our schedules), he is taking the bus back to Montreal from Toronto on Tuesday afternoon, while I am taking the bus TO Toronto on Tuesday night (overnight, actually). So I guess all I can say more on that point is, Bon voyage, Mark & Amynah, and I hope you guys settle in well in Strasbourg!

Well, I think that's enough excitement for one weekend. I passed a nice impromptu evening with my grandmaman last night - she made pain cuit dans le sirop for dessert (literally, bread cooked in maple syrup) and it reminds me that I really ought to see my dentist before leaving for Japan. (Japan is a first-world country but apparently their dentists are something else.)

Train back this morning was fine. Such a short ride. Though I seem to constantly have the bad luck of being stuck in the 4-seater section (where you face your fellow travellers, so everyone's knees are in your way; well, at least for those of us who have any height at all).

Nap this afternoon was nice. Then a walk up to the Japanese embassy, where Randal and I dropped off our visa applications (today was the deadline and our coordinator actually called at 2:00 to make sure we hadn't forgotten! teehee). Early dinner (it was 4:00) at Marché at Rideau Centre, then some laptop (for R) / mp3 (for me) / digital camera (for me) shopping. No purchases (I'm broke now!).

Tomorrow's goals:
DMV to get international driver's license.
Pack for Toronto.
Japanese class 6:30-9:30.
Overnight bus to Toronto - whee!

* Hint hint.
** The grand total for the day was much more than $150 - I love shopping in Montreal, but never said it was cheap.

My whereabouts in about 57 days*

So we got two mysterious letters in the mail today from Japan. And while we have been waiting for this information for a while, we took our time opening them. (In fact, although we only picked them up today, we had in fact received our notices from the post office in our mailbox on Friday and then forgotten to go Saturday to pick them up. What can I say? We're beyond keen.) We picked up our letters, did some groceries, went home, put the groceries away, then I sorted some laundry (which I never ended up doing), then I went to the gym, then Randal made dinner and we ate, then I watched the entire hockey game (grrrr, what a lousy game - the Oilers lost on a terrible hard-luck goal with only 30 seconds left in the game) and he played a videogame. And then, only at about 11:00 p.m. tonight, we decided to open them.

I have been posted to Gifukita SHS (senior high school) as an ALT (assistant language teacher). Only problem is, I don't know what city Gifukita SHS is located in. Now, using my wise powers of deduction, I figure it is probably located somewhere in or around Gifu City itself. I have a web address for the school - there are some lovely photos of the little churdlin - but please, if your Japanese is better than mine, maybe you can tell me exactly where Gifukita is located.

I will make further inquiries with my Japanese contacts (Fumiyo at Algonquin, Rebecca B. and Hiromi at JET, and Kozo in Japan) and report back in due course.

Though just as an addendum, I feel compelled to report that according to the terms of my contract, I will be provided with a fridge and...a washing machine!!! I'm so excited.

* I am expected to report to Gifukita, if I ever figure out where it is, on August 2. No separate Countdown Clock necessary.

Oh, and Randal is in another senior high school - can't remember the name now but it starts with "M" - and his school's page is also in Japanese but it included a link to a map that we assume is showing us the location of the school (though it's entirely not clear) and it seems to be somewhere just outside the main city itself.

90 days

We have 90 days before we leave for Japan.*

* We leave on July 29. I don't have any other details yet (time of day, etc.), only that we leave from Ottawa on that date. And check out the funky Countdown Clock in the sidebar - too cool!

... The Verdict

We're going to Japan.