that canadian girl

Latest adventures…

  • Lost: Season II pissed me off

    So tonight, we watched last night’s Lost: Season II double-bill finale. I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t seen the finale, instead I’ll just save them a couple of hours and tell them not to bother watching it.

    LostRather than giving people a cliffhanger, it’s just giving me a cliffjumper (that “just give up, jump off the cliff and get it over with, already” feeling). I think I need to find myself a new guilty pleasure, a less-bad series to watch and get into. I think Andrew’s vaguely enjoying the thrill of wondering what’s going to happen next, but I’ve grown somewhat bored of it.

    Now, before people chime in telling me to watch 24 because-it’s-so-much-better, please understand I have an aversion to Kiefer Sutherland and an allergy to made-up bullshit technical terms. The only interest I find in watching 24 is evaluating how much product placement can be crammed into an hour of TV.

    Oh and while I’m at it, I’ll thank the Gods of Sky Plus for allowing me to skip through the adverts while watching Lost. I’d get so aggravated if I had to watch the show when it’s broadcasted, but thankfully I can regain about 15 minutes of my life every time by skipping through the 118 118 adverts and other rubbish.

    So all in all, I’m tempted to give up on TV altogether. Way too much crap and hardly anything worth watching. Gordon Ramsey’s Hell’s Kitchen USA is mildly entertaining, but only because I enjoy seeing Americans get their egos bashed by an angry Brit.

    Anyone got anything less mind-numbing to recommend as slightly-guilty TV pleasure? I’ve had a few recommendations (Prison Break anyone?), but have forgotten most, leaving me with the first season of Dr. Who to catch up with and a lot of time to do more productive things.

  • 25 Signs That, Sadly, You've Grown Up

    Such timing, finding this only days after my 25th birthday. But it ain’t so bad being a grownup.

    • Your house plants are alive, and you can’t smoke any of them.
    • Having sex in a twin bed is out of the question.
    • You keep more food than beer in the fridge.
    • 6:00 AM is when you get up, not when you go to bed.
    • You hear your favorite song on an elevator.
    • Read the rest…

  • Canada trip summary

    Feeling jetlagged and a bit too tired to put together full sentences, I’ll just summarise it and post pictures tomorrow.

    • Saturday: Pre-travel celebrations for Andrew’s birthday at his parents’ place and at Chow’s in Westerham (highly recommended! It’s soooo nice!)
    • Sunday: Suitcases packed from the day before, mild hangover from the previous evening, flight out at 3pm, preceded by too much waiting around and some McDonalds at Gatwick (bad idea). Uneventful flight, and arrival in Montreal that evening. Relaxed evening with my family in Rockland.
    • Monday: Walk in the Ottawa Market around lunchtime, taking loads of pictures and just enjoying being in my old environment – it’s just like finding that old pair of slippers you loved, it just fits. Visit to the Museum of Civilizations in Hull to see Deep Sea (narrated by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet) and visit the museum. Dinner in Rockland and relaxing evening by the fire outside.
    • Tuesday: Family get together at my sister’s place for my birthday in the evening. I know we did something during the day too, but it’s escaping me at the moment…
    • Wednesday: Andrew’s parents head off to Niagara Falls & Toronto for three days on their own. They don’t get lost once! Impressive! Complete blank as to what we did on Wednesday… What’s wrong with my head??
    • Thursday: Day out to Montreal with my parents and Andrew. We meet up with my friend Michelle for lunch, visit the Montreal Biodome and the Fine Arts Museum. Long drive home, gotta love Decarie at rush hour.
    • Friday: Go have a gigantic breakfast with Andrew and Louis at Chez Cora in Orleans. Get told off by my sister for going without her. Nice evening hanging out at Jo & Louis’ place, playing voice-activated Bomberman on three Nintendo DS’s… BOOM!
    • Saturday: Family party – 35ish relatives from both my mom and my dad’s sides of the family. Lots of food, drink and chatting. Got to meet Catou’s boyfriend Joe – he passes the test and gets my seal of approval (I mean, the guy’s gotta be good if he doesn’t get scared by us singing RENT from beginning to end or by family parties…)
    • Sunday: Departure is starting to loom heavily, but still one full day in town. Visit of a few art exhibitions held in my mom & grandma’s artist friends’ houses. Visit of my grandmother’s house for the last time before it’s sold off, it was tough to say goodbye but I’m glad I had the opportunity to see it again.
    • Monday: Changes of plans from hell, but we finally fly out at 7pm.
    • Tuesday: How did Tuesday get here so quickly!? We’re back in the UK, jetlagged up to our very bloodshot eyeballs and dying for some sleep.

    *Scratches head* Talking about sleep, time for some right about now. Cheerios!

    PS – Apologies to everyone I didn’t get the chance to see. A week’s so short for a trip back home!

  • Photo of the day: Birthday celebrations

    Family ties

    Nothing can beat the feeling of spending my 25th birthday with my sisters and family.

  • Photo of the day: Happy pumpkins in the Ottawa Market

    Happy pumpkins

    More pictures to come over the next few days…

  • One day at the time

    At the moment, life seems to be whizzing by frighteningly quickly. Every evening is busy with this or that, and weekends, well… those are booked up until about October 2018!

    But thankfully, we’ll be taking the slow lane shortly, visiting Canada to see family and friends for a week. A week already spent celebrating will be doubly celebratory by being interspersed with both Andrew’s birthday and mine. He’s turning 29 on Saturday, and I’m turning the god-awful quarter-of-a-century on Tuesday.

    I’ll try to take plenty of photos while in Canada, since I’ve fallen in love with Andrew’s 350D camera, and hopefully post them as I go. We all know if I don’t do it on the fly, it’ll just never happen when I get back home. I’ll try to do a series on Ottawa as I remember it, and one on Montreal when we go for the day to see a few friends.

    I’m knackered, I need to go into sleep, eat, relax, no schedule mode for a bit. Oh and I need a beer. Now.

  • A trend…

    I’ve already mentioned Banksy a few times in the past couple of weeks, but here’s another one: Banksy does an art exhibition in LA, which includes an elephant painted from head to toe to match the red and gold wallpaper of the room.

    Too good for words, have a look for yourself.

  • Photo of the day: Pooper scooper


    Pooper scooper

  • Photo of the day: the lone September flower


    Lone September flower

  • Over this way!

    A few days ago, I bought a new domain, thatcanadiangeek.co.uk, for a laugh. The plan, sort of, is to divide my marketing, advertising and techy banter from the personal thoughts, photos and other bits.

    At the moment, I’m using a WordPress template I found in the Themes bin, but that may… or may not… be temporary.

    I’ll most likely cross-post between the two blogs, but at least it means I’ll be able to keep the business rubbish in one place, and the sentimental family guff separate. Now the question is: Will I manage to keep both updated regularly enough or will one of them die? Well, having met a bunch of bloggers, writers and freelancers in the flesh recently, I feel I’ve got a new breath of life and a renewed interest into blogging my ideas.

    So here we go, the birth of thatcanadiangeek, an affirmation of my hopeless geekiness.