that canadian girl

Latest adventures…

  • Funny Google Searches – Part IV

    Here are the shortlisted amusing comments I’ve found in recent Google searches.

    • “where do totem poles come from” Well it all starts when the daddy totem pole and the mommy totem pole get together and…
    • “toby carvery menu at harlow” For starters: pure crap, for mains: pure crap, for pudding: crap with ice cream
    • “can i own a car in canada and live in the uk” Go right ahead, but it won’t be much use to you, will it?!
    • “live 8 dido out of tune” Couldn’t agree more on that one…
    • “this girl is the most beautiful in ottawa by far” Well darn, that’s very flattering
    • “the most beautiful canadian girl” Geez, you guys are making me blush!
    • “large bosom exam cheat” Does it involve hiding a textbook in her cleavage?

  • As life goes on

    The past few weeks have been rather bumpy for Londoners, but life must go on. A woman working for my old company, Benedetta Ciaccia, was part of the victims. I may not have known her but it still feels oddly close to home that, like most people, I know someone who has been affected by it.

    My thoughts are with those still affected by it… and with those who have a constantly disrupted commute to work… 😦

  • Tube events today

    What kind of idiots are trying to reproduce the events of two weeks ago??

    Three minor explosions, involving no actual explosives and only detonators, and a man who blew up the windows of a bus and ran off. Sounds to me like scaremongering by a bunch of morons… I wish I knew what drives people to do things like that.

    But again, I’m mighty glad I’m not in London today. I was there on Tuesday and would’ve been so frustrated if I’d been delayed getting to the event I was attending or getting home afterwards. *shakes head*

  • Google Maps gets man out of traffic ticket

    In January of this year, I was pulled over by a traffic officer for “disobeying a steady red�?, a.k.a. running a red light. I pleaded “Not Guilty�? to the charge, and today – nearly six months later – I went to court to find out the fate of my ticket violation. Check out how Google Maps saved me some serious cash – and points on my license!

    Check out the story on Gear Live. Now if that’s not good use of Google Maps, I don’t know what is! 😉

  • I should really backup my blog

    This morning, I had a bit of a fright when I found my blog had reverted to a version from Jan 25th 2005! It was the baby pink design with the Warhol-wannabe colour pics of me. Yikes, what a flashback!

    Thankfully, it was only a temporary fluke as the webhost’s DNS servers crashed and the wrong records were restored, meaning my domain pointed to the old machine it used to be hosted on.

    After a moment of panic (at 7am *yawn*) I dragged Andrew out of bed to call the hosting company and ensure things got fixed.

    Let’s just say I’m going to backup my blog more often now, just in case…

  • Traumatising sights

    On the way to work, we take back roads to avoid traffic. Unfortunately, people tend to whizz down these roads at high speed. Back roads, fields and farms mean there are a lot of little wild animals like bunnies and birds. As a result, the roadkill count is horrific.

    I can deal with a flattened roadkill (I know it sounds awful!) because it doesn’t even look like an animal anymore, but this morning I saw a little bird that had clearly been knocked by a car but not quite killed. I still have the heebie jeebies from it.

    I’d say drive slowly and save the animals, but I can already hear the fast aggressive drivers laugh at me… *sigh* CAAAAAAAREFUUUUUL, BUNNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIES!!!!

  • When you gotta go, you gotta go…

    A Canadian teenager caught driving at almost twice the speed limit told police he had overdosed on a protein drink and was looking for a toilet.

    What kind of 19 y/o has a car that can go 195km/h (121mph)? I thought most North American cars topped at like 150km/h! Or maybe my friends just own shitbox cars!

    As they say, when nature calls…

  • Grilled avocados with balsamic vinegar

    I shouldn’t cross post everything from my food blog to here, but this summer favourite is highly recommended! Make sure you choose nice ripe avocados, they’ll be soooo much tastier!

    This is one of the best summer recipes I’ve seen in a long time, posted by Tequila Mockingbird. I’ve “cleaned up” the recipe format but essentially, it’s still her version.

    Grilled avocado with balsamic vinegar

    Ingredients:

    • 4 ripe avocados
    • Extra virgin olive oil
    • Really good balsamic vinegar *
    • Parmesan cheese **

    * If you invest in really good balsamic vinegar, your life will be a much better and happier place. really. really high quality balsamic vinegar is a transformative elixir that makes everything from strawberries to lettuce to chicken to, well, avocados, taste like ambrosia from on high.

    ** Stop using that crap in the plastic jar. it’s not parmesan cheese. it’s crap. buy a hunk of quality cheese and a grater. it’s not quite the elixir that quality balsamic is, but it’s damn near close.

    Method:

    • Peel, pit and halve the avocados
    • Brush them with a little extra-virgin olive oil and some of the balsamic vinegar
    • Preheat the grill to medium heat
    • Put the avocados face down on a hot open grill for about a minute; turn and cook for another minute or so [although i like to cook them a little longer; until they get the dark grill marks on them and the balsamic starts to carmelize just a touch…mmmmm]
    • Remove from the grill and shave parmesan over them while they’re still warm

  • Aaand relax!

    This weekend, we’ve achieved more as far as home improvements than we have since the first weekend we moved in!

    Saturday was the exciting yet dreaded trip to IKEA where we bought:

    • Two tall Billy bookshelves, one for Andrew’s computer room, one for my computer room/lounge
    • A cream sofa for my computer room/lounge with two burgundy cushions
    • A birch dining table and 4 chairs with cream seats
    • A birch (I keep typing bitch, woops!) bed base and two bedside tables
    • A single shelf for the lounge to go above the sofa
    • A mirror for the bathroom (it looks huge now!)
    • And finally, a frame for my two japanese posters

    All in all, it was a total success. We put everything together last night and this morning, putting in a huuuuge effort to get as much done as possible! I’ll be putting photos up this evening before my family starts thinking I’m lying and I haven’t actually moved to a new house!

    For an afternoon lunch, Frank & Jeanne came over to see the new house. They’re so nice, it’s like having another mom and dad around! Their dog Holly had a great time running around the house, sneaking around the rooms. It made me realize how well suited our house and garden is for pets. But we’re still debating whether we really want to take the responsibility that is having pets…

    So we’ve had a fantastic weekend, the house looks great now, but I am shattered! Hmm I might go start reading my copy of Harry Potter…

  • After voicevertising, here's cleanvertising

    A rather unusual type of advertising has popped up in Paris, in a campaign for the Pages Jaunes (Yellow Pages, for the French-impaired).

    Cleanvertising

    We make money not art claims the method of cleaning sidewalks or walls rather than painting on them should be attributed to British artist Moose.

    “Clean tags” are refreshing and less aggressive than the usual painted or postered adverts we see in the streets.