With summer here, I have been hitting the beach every day since I got home. I am happy to report that I am starting to brown up nicely. At this rate I will be a negro in no time. The time spent at the beach has proven to be an excellent opportunity to get ahead on my reading, so my time at home can be spent writing reviews and other bookish material for my new book blog.
Also, I thought I might offer an update on my TEFL (Teach English as a Foreign Language) course. For those of you who aren't aware, before I met Vedran and made plans to come to Croatia, I had signed up to take a TEFL course in Alexandria, Egypt. After I met Vedran, I pushed the date for it back by six months. When that time ran out they told me I was going to lose my deposit if I didn't take the course. I worked out a compromise with them in which they held my deposit over for another year, providing I agreed to take the course at their main teaching facility in Phuket, Thailand. (That's pronounced poo-ket, not fuck-it for anyone who's not up on these things) I received another email from the TEFL people the other day informing me that my course is scheduled to start next month. Boy time flys!! I somehow don't think I'm going to be hauling my butt over to Thailand next month. I simply have neither the means nor the motivation anymore to go through with the course, so it looks like I am going to have to suck it up and forfeit my deposit ($400 I think it was) Ahhh...the things we do for love!!
I had a really awful experience with a Leonard Cohen book yesterday, you can read all about it on the book blog. I have been publishing stuff all week, so have a boo at some of the archived posts too. http://pinksheepcafe.wordpress.com
And lastly, just a quick note. My friend Andre has started a new movement called Defying Gravity to advocate the rights of person living with disabilities. If anyone you know lives with a physical disability, has difficulty getting out of the house and isn't satisfied with the assistance they are getting from the Canadian Government please pass on this link to them.Check it out yourselves for that matter.
http://remembering-our-potential.blogspot.com/2010/07/defying-gravity.html
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
Hey, it's good to be back home again...
I need to feel at least a little shameful I suppose. It has been a full month since I last posted, but I have excuses though, good ones too, I promise.
I'm sure glad to be out of Yellowknife and back home in Croatia. Yellowknife was fine while I was working for Chris, but as soon as I finished my last day I had an overwhelming urge to get the heck out. I had some fun times while I was there; I went out mudding with Es and Dave in Es's pride and joy, Juliette (yes, she is one of these people who names her cars and yes...I KNOW...I'm enabling her by using the name myself) Mostly by the end of my stay, I was sitting around the flat reading and trying to pass the time until I left. Theoretically this was time that could have been well spent blogging, but, honestly, I was so down after spending nearly three weeks in the north that I didn't have anything positive to say. Last thing I need is people to stop following me because they think I'm just some sad-sack.
Finally, I left Yellowknife on June 27th and headed down to Edmonton to stay with Em and Greg for another two nights before hopping on the plane back to Croatia. I tell ya, I thought the flight TO Canada was bad because the in-flight entertainment system was down, but the flight back was far worse. They loaded us into the plane just in time for a huge thunderstorm to sweep in. We spent over two hours in the plane on the tarmac waiting for the storm to subside. When it did and we finally got in the air, the pilot then felt it was safe to tell us that the in-flight entertainment system was not working on this flight either. I got to London exhausted and then got put through the ringer by the female border guard. The only reason I was passing through immigration was because I needed to change airports, but my gosh, she just kept hammering me with questions. I'm used to the border guards being curious, but this one was really going overboard. I was starting to wonder if she was going to drag me into one of those little rooms in the back and strip search me. That might even have been refreshing after a nine hour flight.
I have been home since the beginning of the month, but we have only just managed to get back online these past few days. We have moved into a new flat for July and August, because Vedran's Grandparents rent the flat we were living at in Podstrana on a day-to-day basis to tourists through the summer. If everything goes according to plan, we should be able to move back in September. Also, I'm sure I told you already, but I will tell you again: we are planning a trip in September to Montenegro, Albania and Kosovo. I'm really excited about this. I love being able to make new additions to my list of countries visited. The beaches in Montenegro and Albania are beautiful and September is the prime time to visit because it is still really hot, but it is outisde of the high season.
Some other big news I have to share, I have started another blog...please...stop laughing. I have been following a great many book blogs this past year and with all the reading I do myself, it only seemed to make sense to start my own. It too is called Pink Sheep Cafe and will focus on book reviews and all things literary. It is being hosted over at Wordpress, which I have discovered is a far superior blogging site. Check it out here.
It feels great to get an update on here and start posting again. I can promise you that posts will be far more frequent now that I am back home. Thanks for checking in.
I'm sure glad to be out of Yellowknife and back home in Croatia. Yellowknife was fine while I was working for Chris, but as soon as I finished my last day I had an overwhelming urge to get the heck out. I had some fun times while I was there; I went out mudding with Es and Dave in Es's pride and joy, Juliette (yes, she is one of these people who names her cars and yes...I KNOW...I'm enabling her by using the name myself) Mostly by the end of my stay, I was sitting around the flat reading and trying to pass the time until I left. Theoretically this was time that could have been well spent blogging, but, honestly, I was so down after spending nearly three weeks in the north that I didn't have anything positive to say. Last thing I need is people to stop following me because they think I'm just some sad-sack.
Finally, I left Yellowknife on June 27th and headed down to Edmonton to stay with Em and Greg for another two nights before hopping on the plane back to Croatia. I tell ya, I thought the flight TO Canada was bad because the in-flight entertainment system was down, but the flight back was far worse. They loaded us into the plane just in time for a huge thunderstorm to sweep in. We spent over two hours in the plane on the tarmac waiting for the storm to subside. When it did and we finally got in the air, the pilot then felt it was safe to tell us that the in-flight entertainment system was not working on this flight either. I got to London exhausted and then got put through the ringer by the female border guard. The only reason I was passing through immigration was because I needed to change airports, but my gosh, she just kept hammering me with questions. I'm used to the border guards being curious, but this one was really going overboard. I was starting to wonder if she was going to drag me into one of those little rooms in the back and strip search me. That might even have been refreshing after a nine hour flight.
I have been home since the beginning of the month, but we have only just managed to get back online these past few days. We have moved into a new flat for July and August, because Vedran's Grandparents rent the flat we were living at in Podstrana on a day-to-day basis to tourists through the summer. If everything goes according to plan, we should be able to move back in September. Also, I'm sure I told you already, but I will tell you again: we are planning a trip in September to Montenegro, Albania and Kosovo. I'm really excited about this. I love being able to make new additions to my list of countries visited. The beaches in Montenegro and Albania are beautiful and September is the prime time to visit because it is still really hot, but it is outisde of the high season.
Some other big news I have to share, I have started another blog...please...stop laughing. I have been following a great many book blogs this past year and with all the reading I do myself, it only seemed to make sense to start my own. It too is called Pink Sheep Cafe and will focus on book reviews and all things literary. It is being hosted over at Wordpress, which I have discovered is a far superior blogging site. Check it out here.
It feels great to get an update on here and start posting again. I can promise you that posts will be far more frequent now that I am back home. Thanks for checking in.
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