J’ai la nationalite Francaise

My deadline to leave the UK by the 1st September 2012 has now been removed.

Oh look, a French Passport

Hmmm… yes. It seems that I now have no limits on the length of time that I live in England, or the rest of Europe, for that matter (disclaimer: there may be some countries in Europe in which I cannot live; I assume that these are countries in which I would not want to live anyway).

Hey, it's ME in a French Passport!

Around the world and into my home.

Last night I pulled, as my bff Melissa terms it, an ‘Eyeore’:

So… we have no hot water, the sound on my notebook is eff’d, and the HP guy told me to remove a device that ended up deleting my internet connection. Awesome.

This morning, however, I woke up to full heat in the shower and last night by 1 am I had my computer issues sorted (thanks to a system recovery back to factory settings). The hot water may have disappeared yet again, but then the mail came.

Sent directly from Decadence

A handmade card, a snowball garland kit, and a package of Nibs!

Glorious Nibs.

Gifties from Grand West Homeopathy

Saltine Crackers! Pull ‘n Peel licorice, some chocolates and my dance shoes.

Today I received two care packages so I am feeling the love. The first is from Brenda, and the second from my Mom. I love Saturdays!

Boots boots baby… (dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun)

Did you recognize that chorus? Ice Ice Baby, yo.

I would like to introduce you to my boots, boots baby. I bought them at the Clarks shoe outlet in Woolwich and trekked them all the way from Woolwich to Tooting – it’s quite the journey with a bag of four pairs of boots.

Why did I buy four pairs at once? Well you see, the outlet store is there to get rid of old styles, so their sale went a little like this…

Buy one pair of boots for 28£, get the second pair for 2£. Yep, 2£. So for 60£, which is only 5£ more than the pair of boots I had that broke (stupid black boots!) I was able to get four pairs.

I’m giving the pair with the button away because I don’t like the cut on me, but the other three are very close to my heart.

Long live clearance sales.

Life as a Social Worker

I’m in my third week of work now, and although I’m still very fresh, I think I am going to like it. It’s a high demand position – I already have six cases, which means that I will always have something to do. Each scenario I’ve run into thus-far has been different. I do like a challenge, and my team seems very supportive whenever I have a question or need some assistance. I’ve been working late to try to stay on top of things – because I’m new to this it is taking me extra time to complete assignments because I want to make sure I’m covering all required areas. I know that once I become more familiar with the process I will feel less overwhelmed, though.

One downfall – because I started on Jan 10, and payday is the 22, I missed the first pay period. We are paid monthly as council staff, so I won’t receive my first pay until Feb 22. For anyone who is planning on coming here, I recommend saving up a lot of money. At least 4000$ Cnd, just in case. I’m still dipping into my savings at this point. I would also recommend applying for jobs prior to arriving here, because they interview stage takes a while, as does the processing of police clearances, etc. Agency staff get paid more, but permanent staff get a lot of perks, so you’ll have to weigh out the benefits of each to decide. Agency staff require a minimum of 2 years child protection or adult services experience (read: assessment experience). I’m happy that I am permanent.

I’m so shattered – morning comes so early nowadays. But it means I treasure weekends, again.

I love Fridays!

Les deux Francaises a Londres

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“I need this,” says my room.

Last night I got a bit lost looking through ‘affordable art’ as suggested by Design*Sponge. My room is still feeling a bit sparse, and I think it would benefit from another splash of colour. As I browsed through the multitude of limited edition prints, I heard a tiny voice calling out:

“I want that.”

 

Alice, by Katie Kirk (30$)

So I checked out the image and agreed with the walls, or whatever part of my room was speaking to me at that time, that it was, in fact, an image that would add to the overall feel of the room. Good choice, Bedroom.

But little did I know that my bedroom was not yet finished speaking. A few moments later, I heard a slight whispering as I clicked through the gallery on Tiny Showcase; they had a series of field guides created by artists and as I pass the ‘Field Guide to the Stamps of the World’, I again was informed that this image was desperately desired for the left-hand wall of my room.

“Put this on my wall.”

"A Field Guide to the Stamps of the World" Gavin Potenza 21.5" x 29" $10.00

I do like them both, so I may just take the suggestions offered by the inner voice of my room. But in the meantime, I’ll covet these images online and dream up ways to add more colour. Next step – to find some spray paint. Anyone know of a hardware store in London?

Gifted

My Mama loves me! And, of course, so do my Chris and my Draker. The day I went to Ikea, I also spent an excessive amount of time on London Transit hipscotching across London to pick up a package that arrived for me in Harrow. To distract myself from the hunger that was occupying my stomach and consequently the remainder of my body, I opened my gift on the Metropolitan line as I headed back home.

A mixture of odds and ends from Canadia

1. A three-strand silver-tone necklace from Reitmans “To wear to the job… it’s silver.”
2. A package of homeopathic ointment for headaches “It works for (my mom)”
3. My highliters!  Because Mom “heard that I missed having colourful highlighters.” She read my blog too – remember when I was studying for my interview?
4. Some type of Parisian sample that she received from her Homeopathic supply company.
5. Can’t remember – I probably ate it.
6. Stationary/mouse pad that she had made for me by Vista Print. I’m using the notepads at work – can’t use the mousepad because we hot desk, but I may keep it in my drawer because there are a few mouses – mice? – that are kind of sticky with no mouse pads.
7. My mom’s favourite mascara “it makes her lashes pop.”
8. The package of Dark Hot Chocolate that Emilia gave me and that I hadn’t finished before moving.
9. Hazelnut Hot Chocolate because “it’s the closest she can come to offering me a nice cup of hot chocolate while we visit.”
10. The CHICAGO playbill. Mom went with Chris and said “it was a really good performance and Christy DeKoko’s dancing was very graceful (she was the best).”
11. A postcard from the CKCreate initiative. “She hopes the arts & culture thing takes off in Chatham.”
12. A keychain with a photo of my family.
13. GLOW Magazine “Mail call – you still like magazines, right?”

Thank you, family! Happy Christmas to you too!

Conveyor Belt Sushi

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Sushi on a conveyor belt; I’ve always wanted to try it. On Sunday I visited Selfridges off Oxford Street with L and indulged in a bit of sushi. Each plate was colour coded according to price, and each held approx. two pieces of sushi roll – it’s more about the experience… and a cool experience it was!

Canadia

Got me a lil gift in the mail a few days ago. It required a trek to the postal depot, but it was worth it. Canadia mittens!

Thanks Kathie!!!!

Graffiti

Everywhere I go in London I see graffiti. Some of it is terrible, some offensive, but some is entertaining, like the following examples: