Occasional musings from a Left-coast Canadian ExPat in Oxford.
It’s November. Which means NaBloPoMo. Let’s see what happens when I force myself to blog every day for a month, shall we? ———————————————————————————– My grandfather’s workshop has always been fascinating. He was trained as a tool and die maker before immigrating to Canada, and spent the majority of his years as a machinist. He was also … Continue reading Preparation, Inspiration
It’s November. Which means NaBloPoMo. Let’s see what happens when I force myself to blog every day for a month, shall we? ———————————————————————————– Now that I’ve been back at work full time for about six months (time flies!), we’re really feeling the pressure at home when it comes to managing the rest of life. Weekends end … Continue reading Care & Feeding
It’s the first of November. Which means NaBloPoMo. Let’s see what happens when I force myself to blog every day for a month, shall we? ———————————————————————————– So here’s a thing I don’t think I would’ve learned had I not moved to the UK: Swans are AWFUL. Not having any practical experience with swans, all I … Continue reading Swanning About
In all the ways people can be a competent business grownup (h/t Darren), I think the most abused are communication channels. It’s like we haven’t gotten over the fact that there are Magic! Machines! that we communicate through, and we let our amazement at technology take up the parts of our brain we would otherwise … Continue reading How to be a Business Grownup: Rules for Autoresponders
I really hope that whole ‘soul stealing’ aspect of photography isn’t true. Because if it is, I am running awfully thin on spare soul. I don’t know whether to blame UK bureaucracy (I originally typed ‘bureaucrazy’ there, which seems apt), the general process of moving internationally, or something else entirely, but I am fully and … Continue reading Daguerreotype
England is a really buggy place. I was surprised at first, but considering the humidity, it’s not really all that shocking. There’s an amazing assortment of creepy crawlies here, 98.5% of which I am totally OK with. Except all of them seem to want to be in my house. In everyone’s house, really. And who … Continue reading Can we talk about the SPIDERS!?
Did you know Anti-social means something entirely different here? I much prefer the UK definition. Here, anti-social behaviour is something that actively goes against society. Something that disturbs the peace, and negatively affects the neighbourhood. Noise complaints, public drunkenness, vandalism – anything that blights the quality of individual and community life. I’ve been trying hard … Continue reading Anti-Social
A year ago. A whole year. We landed with a lot of luggage, a lot of excitement, a few nerves, and some semblance of a plan. In some ways it feels like we still arrived here yesterday. In others, it feels like it’s always been like this. So, a year in, what have I learned? … Continue reading The First ExPat-iversary
As of July 12th, we’ve been in the UK a year – a whole year! It has really flown by. I have so many more words to say about it, but between a crazy quick trip to Vancouver earlier this month (a surprise for my dad’s 60th birthday) and moving house (argh!), time to extract … Continue reading Happy ExPativersary to Us!
Rocking my Maple Leaves Note to self: stock up on some patriotic summer gear for 2014. Those Vancouver2010 mittens don’t work so well for July in the Northern Hemisphere. Continue reading Happy Canada Day from Away
I am really quite excited to see the resurgence of feminism in the mass consciousness. I’ve actually been meaning to write more about my nebulous thoughts and experiences around it, but this other thing has been eating at me a bit, so I thought I’d throw it out there and see if I can drum … Continue reading Uneven Footing
Over the weekend, Neil and I headed to the Summertown Farmer’s Market. Partly to check out what was on offer, and partly to partake in a (delicious!) pulled pork sandwich from Shredded Meat Co. who are setting up shop there each weekend this summer. The market was lovely, and most businesses along the strip where … Continue reading A funny thing happened on the way from the Farmer’s Market
It’s been slow-going, including some active avoidance of all driving on my part, but I think I am finally confident enough to cross “Learn to drive a manual transmission car” off the life list! I am not currently going to win any races, but with Neil out of town for a few days (leaving the … Continue reading Life List: Learn to drive a manual transmission – Check!
I don’t know if I ever really note the age of my blog, or how long I’ve been wasting pixels on random blather. If you’d asked me, lo those many moons ago, if I thought I’d still be blogging now, I’d have had no damn clue (though I probably would’ve said ‘yes’ because I was … Continue reading #wp10
With all the griping I did about our move, you would think I do not like change. This is not true. I like it a lot. Perhaps too much. I am rarely content to leave well enough alone. I just prefer when I’m the one initiating it, rather than having it imposed upon me. So … Continue reading Winds of Change