11
great day
Filed under: I'm happy because... | Tags: | May 11th, 2006
Today was a wonderful day. Although the forecast said rain, not a drop fell and it was cool (about 20 degrees) and sunny in the evening. I got my hair cut (always a nice feeling) and bought some food at Akhvan beforehand as a snack. They make the best bakalva there. CBC started (finally?!) podcasting so I listened to my first Quirks and Quarks in ages. The Royal Alberta Museum successfully won over 2/3 of the Albertan Aboriginal items on the block at Sothebys. Also, an experiment worked on the first try this morning. I always worry about making stupid mistakes the first time through a new protocol but it went very well, only one buffer had to be re-made and I’m quite pleased.
Dandroid is at a dress rehersal for the big choir concert tonight – and the big choir concert is tomorrow! It should be good – it’s Motzart’s Mass in C Minor. Tonight I dusted off my Learning Perl book and learned more about substitutions and greedy functions.
I have a big (celebratory?) Japanese meal planned for Friday: Shitake mushrooms, spinach salad, Tokyo style ginger pork and agedashi tofu. It should be good, if I can actually manage to cook it all. I think the kitchen will be a disaster but I can always deal with that Saturday…
If they ever invent ‘feelies’ (think Brave New World) the first show I’d watch would be Iron Chef.
How many days until we move, you ask? The answer is 52.
Today my nice little Korean hairdresser said that the base colour of my hair is green. It sound weird at first, but I took at a close look in the mirror at home, and the brown colour does have a weird green undertone. She said it was a really nice colour (however strange it feels to be complimented on green hair) and I should never try dying it as it won’t take in much of the dye. Funny that, as I’ve always had a feeling dying my hair would be a disaster, no matter how many times I wanted to (I guess it’s not easy being green…). Well now I know.
anik | May 11th, 2006 @ 4:19 am
“Finally”? CBC has been podcasting for ages! Er, or at least since December when I started looking for podcasts
If you want to practice your French, Radio-Canada also has some good ones:
La Première à la carte
Indicatif Présent
Les années lumière
Les bulletins de nouvelles nationaux
(I download these, but I have been spending so much time listening to [english] audiobooks that I am about 8 weeks behind on listening to any of them. Mauvaise étudiante!)
Radio France also has some good ones, I like:
La nouvelle donne Géopolitique
Science culture
Café Bazaar
– although I can’t claim to I understand everything they say, I usually get the jist.
I’m envious that you can arrange a new flat so far ahead of time. Out here things generally come on the market only in the last month before the tenant moves out, so there’s always a scramble to find a place by moving day (unless one wants to pay for an extra month rent on one’s current place and not give notice until a new place is found, but with the rents out here, that’s an expensive luuxury).
karen | May 13th, 2006 @ 8:34 pm
Ah, forgive my ignorance! I should have said that I finally discovered CBC podcasts. Thanks for the list – it looks great!
Funny you should say that, as I am evious that you have the luxury of NOT having year-long leases. In Vancouver (or just about anywhere else in Canada) you can give a month’s notice and move anytime during the year, whereas here if you break your lease and the landlord doesn’t want the apartment empty (ahem, for example, if he might want to do renovations) then you either have to pay the difference or find a subletter. If you live in a central area and have a decent apartment then finding a subletter isn’t too hard, but in a neighbourhood like mine, it’s another story altogether. Especially since you can’t control the price. Oh, and you have to give either 3 or 6 months notice to terminate your lease. Funny, but I don’t always plan my life in 12-month intervals. The system is just stuipd, stuipd stuipd.
Having said that, I know your woes, as on the 1st of each month the apartments for rent are published in the classifieds and snapped up just within hours, leaving precious little for the soon-to-be-homeless tenant in question!