Y'ello!
I have now been working for a week. It is a good one. Now that I know people better and they know me I am enjoying having a laugh with some of them. Some of them don't laugh. Or if they do it's more like nervous laughter. The company I work for is one which buys loads of movies (and books) from the US and ships them to Canada where they get repackaged and then sent back across to the US or around Canada to be sold in big supermarkets.
My main task at the moment is sorting out a customs debacle; I am going over hundreds of custom forms and making sure all are reconciled with purchase orders that went out. Sounds dull but is a bit of a detective game. The other two days a week I spend with the merchandising manager doing replenishment and marketing. This is much more up my alley and I hope that once the customs stuff is done they will keep me on in the merchandising role but I am not holding my breath (because I'd probably suffocate first).
The final work-related point is that I am involved in the office pot luck. Since I am new they have given me the salad to provide. I'm thinking about making a rice/spinach/pine nuts/peppers etc salad. See what they think of that!
last weekend Ceri and I went to Unionville, a lovely little town North of Ronters where Bill and Kath meet their friends now and again. We met three other old-aged couples and had lunch which was lovely. There was a lot of food and a lot of banter. Most of them were Scottish which was a bit strange for Ceri; I don't think she's ever been surrounded by so many at once.
Yesterday, Saturday, Ceri and I went into the city to view some places to move into. It was absolutely exhausting and we walked most of it to the detriment of our feet which were worn down to nubs.
The first place we saw was in China town and absolutely ghastly. I got scared just looking around, imagining anyone having to live there. It was dingy and dirty and smokey and creepy and really, really depressing/sad. Someone was already living there! If you imagine the sort of place that may qualify as a cheap whore's final resting place after a run in with her drug-addled pimp, then you'll be close. Ceri walked around uttering such asides as 'Oh the kitchen's bigger than I thought' (it was basically a burnt out husk of an oven) and 'Oh, the furniture is included, nice' (it was anything but nice) and finally 'oh if it gets hot in the summer we can ask for the windows to be opened? That's handy'. I think I'd take a running jump out of the window if I lived there, whether it opened or not. Needless to say we won't be shortlisting that property.
The second one we saw was lovely. A huge house with a lovely garden and kitchen and living room, really lovely, idiosyncratic rooms completely furnished and in a fabulous location near the subway and downtown. The rent was higher than we were happy with but it was lovely.
The next one we never got to because the idiot landlord gave us mind-boggling directions and we felt like we were in a weird, surreal nightmare, jumping from bus to bus and streetcar to streetcar but never getting there. Eventually I phoned him and told him to stuff it. Prawn.
The last place we saw was out of town a bit, but it wasn't too hard to get to. It was very 'nice' and 'adequate' and 'clean' and 'bright' and well priced but that's the best one can say. We liked it but didn't feel that the price or the whole nice-ness really justified its out of town location. The kitchen didn't even have an oven, save for a little red toaster oven.
We still have a place to see on Tuesday which promises to be nice where we'd be living in a big house with a nice Irish guy who recently bought it and did it up and wants to share it with like-minded people. We are due to meet him on Tuesday but the house we liked yesterday is available now and he wants an answer NOW. He literally just emailed me as I'm writing this and said that he will reduce the rent if we can move in TODAY, or at least pay for it today. It was meant to be taken on May 1st but he let us see it because there were two of us and he'd prefer that over one person, but now he needs a decision. HELP! It's hard because I haven't been paid from work yet (Friday...) so it would totally wipe me out etc. We are debating now and have asked him for a compromise so watch this space.
Other than all of that, nothing much has happened, really. Work takes up my whole day from Monday to Friday but I am enjoying it, and yesterday was entirely spent on our feet walking from house to apartment to whores' den etc and today I am just relaxing.
How is everyone else? Send me an email to let me know how you are all doing, I would love to hear from you. Otherwise I am going to have to write to you personally and that just sounds tedious ; )
I shall keep you all posted regarding the house situation, I know it'll be the talk of GB. Remember: you heard it here first!
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