that canadian girl

Latest adventures…

  • Slow week for news

    Not a huge amount to say this week… I’ve booked driving lessons with a qualified instructor (not that Andrew’s bad, he’s just teaching me bad habits so I need an instructor to say “don’t do this on your test, wait till after to do it!”

    Otherwise, I’m preparing mentally for our work Xmas party on Friday night and Saturday’s family get-together! It’s the beginning of a long line of parties and mince pies!

    I’ve actually got some more to say but it’s cold and I feel like snuggling up in bed… I promise, I’ll pour my heart out for you all in a few days!

  • Is the month flying by or what!?

    My chocolate calendar to Christmas has just reminded me how fast this month is going by! With busy days, I don’t see the time go by… Work is madness, learning to drive is madness, and well, we all know Christmas is never much of a haven of sanity either.

    Since the Christmas parties are on the way, I thought I’d treat myself to a nice fresh haircut even though I’m trying to let my hair grow. I’m really happy with the results even though the hairdresser at Eden wasn’t exactly thrilling to talk to.

    New haircut!

    What do you think of the new cut?

  • Phew, I survived…

    Just got back from my first driving lesson with Andrew, and all is well! Start, stop, start, stop, start, woops stalled… Start again, bunny hops… Ah well, gotta start somewhere right?

    If we go often enough in the evening, I figure I’ll be unleashed onto the roads within a couple of weeks.

    Get off the roads, Vero’s in town!

  • MSN Messenger 7 beta

    OooOOooh Who’s tried it so far?

    Some interesting new things you can do, like handwriting, nudging (notifying the other person you’re there), winking (sending a cute animation that appears over your MSN window), etc… What sticks out most for me is how easy it will be to get sucked into paying for content, such as extra sets of emoticons, animations, backgrounds.

    The biggest users of “fancy” extras on Messenger are young users, and in the UK, payments can be made by mobile phone or debit/credit card. Kids from the age of 10 have their own mobile phones (though parents are footing the bill, they don’t necessarily know where the money goes) and from the age of 12, they can have a Solo card (a debit card widely accepted in stores and for online shopping).

    It’ll be interesting to find out how much interest there will be in the pay-to-download content. I personally couldn’t justify paying for MSN backgrounds, but then, I’m not 12 and I know how to create them or find them for free. If I was 12, I’m hoping I’d be spending my money on better things still!

    If you’ve used it, let me know how you find it, and give me a nudge! 🙂

  • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

    Last night, I watched the movie “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and what can I say? What a weird movie!

    How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d.

    The “Being John Malkovich” mood throughout the movie was just creepy. I’d say the plot makes from little to no sense until halfway through the story. I might watch it again simply to understand the timeline of events.

    Readers on IMDB gave it an 8.2/10 rating, which is very high in comparison to the average ratings on there. Overall though, I think I would recommend seeing it, but only when in the mood for something a bit bizarre.

  • New York Changing

    A photographic gem I found on A Journey Through Time, New York Changing is a re-photographing project where shots of the city are taken some 60 years after the original photo.

    Zito Bakery

    Some streets are so similar to how they were in the late 1930’s, it’s unreal! Others, as expected, have changed a lot and appear to be much more commercial.

  • Night photo

    Just thought I’d share a really interesting photo Andrew took recently. It’s the most colourful nightshot I have ever seen, and it wasn’t photoshopped or anything!

    Night photo

    I really need to get to know our little camera to take some shots as fascinating as that…

  • Well, believe it or not…

    It just snowed a bit this morning! I mean, A BIT, only a few snowflakes for about 5 minutes, but this is England, it ISN’T supposed to snow at all! Or only once or twice in the whole winter!

    Somehow, I think the BBC article reporting how this is meant to be the coldest winter in recorded history is starting to worry me!

    *sigh* I don’t like winter :S

  • Whatever happened to class?

    No, this isn’t the beginning of a rant! Don’t run away!

    It’s the end of the series for Musicality and Dog only knows why I haven’t blogged about it instead of ranting about the 1970s Office, which was bound to fail.

    ChicagoMusicality has a bit of a Pop Idol (or any other * Idol) flavour to it at the beginning. It developed into a serious boot camp for amateur Broadway babies later on.

    Towards the end, the five lucky spring chickens were in London’s West End, rehearsing to take over the top roles in Chicago for a single night.

    Now, I know I’m a day late, but thanks to Sky Plus, I recorded last night’s final, and I watched it tonight. And I’ll watch it again. And again. And again.

    Me. West End. Ticket to see Chicago soon? Yeah I think so. Mass email to my coworkers to find another musical addict? Yeah I think so!

    I’m speechless (which is a bit crap when trying to blog, isn’t it??) about how good Rebecca turned out as a Roxie. Caroline was simply fantastic as Velma, a role that involves a lot of dancing. I WISH I was even 5% as good as they are dance-wise. As far as the voice goes, I’ve got an inkling any of us four Séguin girls could play the girls’ roles. But then, dance-wise, we’d crash and burn. Or I would, anyways. Maybe my sisters have some incredible dance skills I’m not aware of!

    The boys were fantastic, and even though sweet boy Matthew’s voice weakened at one or two points during the show, he succeeded impressively well in the role of Billy Flynn. He went from shy to slick in a few weeks. I’m a bit of a shy one as well on stage, and having had to step into the shoes of toreador Escamillo when I was 18, I found taking over a big-attitude role a real challenge. Warren reminds me of my old old friend Emmanuelle, Broadway running in their veins, looking as natural as ever on stage.

    I think Musicality should definitely come back for a second stronger series. They deserve more budget to produce a more polished series, but if they pick another recent and somewhat-commercial musical, it could be a very popular second child!

    Give ’em the old razzle dazzle…

  • Now, THAT's a superhero movie!

    Second post from the comfort of the bed…

    We just walked in from going to see the Incredibles, the latest Pixar animation movie. For those who’ve seen it, was it GOOD or what!? For those who haven’t, get off your bum NOW and GO see it!

    It was refreshing to see a bloodless movie, no gore, no guts, and no truly evil violence. It was like hitting someone with a sponge baseball bat, it’s supposed to be violent but you know it ain’t going to hurt.

    The Incredibles

    I can only praise the more grownup wit of the movie. I’m not sure I’d enjoy it quite as much if I was six, but I’m sure the elastic mommy, the superfast running little boy and the evil Incrediboy with too much Dippity Doo in his hair? They’d entertain anyone!

    One of my favourite moments had to be the speech on why superheros shouldn’t wear capes. The voice of Edna, the quirky designer, is such a laugh. I bet Brad Bird, writer and producer of the film – and producer of The Simpsons -, had a real blast recording Edna’s speeches. Yep, ladies and gentlemen, Edna sounded like Nadia from Big Brother for a reason!

    Overall, great film. It was a really good laugh to end a really stressful day at the office. I’m sure I’ll be watching it again as soon as it’s out on DVD!