So it's the end of the year.

Ok so here's a long awaited update? It seems like I passed over November entirely, and now it's approaching the end of December, the end of 2008! I guess this is my year in review and a summary of what I've been up to since October, if I can remember any of it.

Aaaaaand it's looking doubtful.
Ok so this year was basically a year about me. Me deciding to be all cliche and discovering something outside of NZ, new sights, new sounds, new people, a rediscovery of myself even, if we want to go that far. The end of 2007 found me (finally) rid of my first boyfriend and saving for a trip halfway across the world. Aside from turning 21 in January (adulthood!) and having a great party up at good old Sky Lounge thanks to Clayton, nothing really stood out for the few following months up until June when I left home. My first destination was Memphis where, upon my arrival, I met Joey, an online friend of 2 years. I spent around 3 pretty awesome weeks hanging out with him, cooking fun things, learning a new perspective on pool playing and watching movies among other things. I also used my time there to organise the next steps of my trip. Following that was New Orleans, Seattle and then my first Canadian stop, Edmonton. I spent about 10 days with another friend of mine, trying to organise myself before venturing off on my own to Montreal and staying about 2 weeks there in an interesting hostel. I met quite a few interesting people there, and although the owner was a bit strange, and I didn't quite get the nerve to settle down in Montreal I do feel it was a good thing that I stayed. Not knowing what to do next I head back to Memphis and Joey where I wait things out until Simon arrived in Toronto in the 3rd week of August. Helen and Pete kindly offer the two of us a place to stay for a few nights on the Island as most hostels are booked out, and I stress about what my plan is for the rest of the trip. I did get a late reply to a job in Montreal and was uncertain if I wanted to head back for an interview. I decide to stay in Toronto, found myself a flat with an interesting musical flatmate and a cat with an attitude, and also got offered a job on Queen West at Niche Coffee & Tea straight off the bat, not bad. The months following see my work go through a tonne of new staff (current count is 12 either left or fired) and after 3 months I am no longer the new girl. Aside from work I've been to a number of shows including Okkervil River, Iron & Wine, Karyn Ellis, Brooke Fraser, The Notwist and The Dandy Warhols and attended the ImagineNATIVE film fest. I think in my last post I mentioned Halifax, that was my first trip out of town upon arriving. I think that brings us up to whatever happened to November?!

I'm pretty sure I was working for most of November due to all the staff changes that month. Everyone was cleared out besides Brent and I and a whole bunch of new girls started. One of those girls fired within days for being useless. Another one just recently due to one Ms Loudmouth Annoying Whining Loser practically sabotaging her to get some guy in to work there. I can't stand Ms Loudmouth, and not many others can either. But whatever, I'm gone in 3 weeks.

On to better news! I spent my first xmas holiday away from home which wasn't bad because it didn't seem like it was xmas at all although there were trees and decorations everywhere and people madly shopping. The last few weeks it has been snowing and I have now experienced walking in a blizzard, in a flurry, and in dirty slush, and also a white xmas! It only snowed in the morning but whatever, it still counts. I have yet to cross off my list, tabogganing, snow angels, snowmen and skating. But I will get to it! Hopefully most of those I'll get done for my birthday.

I decided last minute to get into the xmas spirit so the 19th and 20th I spent roasting veges, baking pavlovas (two of them! Both turned out pretty tasty) and making fudge deluxe for 2 parties and more fudge for wrapping up and giving to regulars and workmates, also wrapping up presents for Helen's dice game. Whew. Thank goodness for the dollarstore. I found some capsules of foam animals/insects/vehicles/farm animals/sea animals/dinosaurs that expand into random ones of those when you put them in hot water. So for everyone at work I decided to mix them all up and cut out whatever pitures they could turn into and bundle boxes of those with (indiviudally wrapped) fudge and a note to say that if they match any pictures with their foam friends then I'll buy them a drink as well. So far 2 people have won and thought the idea was pretty neat, hooray.
Helen's party was pretty fun, although I got there later than planned as I didn't get out of work until late. Catching the streetcar that morning with my two bags of loot, my backpack and a pav in hand was no easy task, but I made it! The ferry ride over was pretty neat, the whole of Lake Ontario was frozen over the top so the ferry had to battle with broken chunks of ice in the water, just like Titanic? OGOD.
It was a kiwi themed night with Si's NZ music playlist accompaning my pav which Helen made everyone try to no objection, although everyone had to work off dinner first which we did playing the dice game. I'm pretty sure the majority of us were dice game virgins but we all caught on pretty quickly. Basically, everyone brought with them 5 random small presents each and put them in a pile in the middle. Going clockwise everyone rolls dice and upon rolling a double or a 7 gets to take a present. Then at the end it's the same deal except it's timed and when one gets a double or 7 they can steal other people's presents! I wound up with a mug of chocolates, a mini bottle of champagne, a chocolate bar, a ship in a bottle, a baby bottle candle and a tiny thing of body massage oil! Talk about random. All and all a fun night out, didn't even feel like it was cold and snow outside, like Helen said, we could mistake it for a night back home!
Xmas eve I spent at work from 10-3:30, then went for a drive with K to the mall and around for photos of neighbourhood xmas lights. Afterwards I made my way to Chris and Perla's and stayed over so I could help them the next day with preparing food for the poor downtown. Perla organises the whole thing! This year apparently was not as hectic as they found a chef who offered to do the turkey for them instead of 4 people baking 4 turkeys each, but in the morning there were about 4 people in the house making a lot of salad. Just before 2pm about 3 cars load up and head downtown to a church basement to set up where we meet a whole bunch of other volunteers there to help out. So tables are set with tablecloths and a tree and cutlery, the walls are decorated with tinsel, and the food, peas, corn, potatoes, turkey and salad along with gravy and cranberry sauce is set up for all the volunteers to serve up and bring to the guests. There was singing and plenty of food and dessert (apple pie and icecream and plenty of cookies) and little take away goodies of chocolates and not that much preaching which was a relief. There were cold drinks and hot chocolate too and lots of food left over to be packaged up and given some guy who would give them out to others on the street. Apparently this was the 10th year she's organised it! It ran pretty smoothly. There was a bunch of older Chinese people who got up and started singing a few songs which was fun, there was also this weird guy in a suit who looked like he was out to make some kind of deal with people. I heard some people say they recognised some faces there which is kind of cool.

And that was my xmas.
What's next? Well, I leave for NYC tomorrow night on a BUS and coming back after new years so I guess there's that. Then after that of course is my birthday =O

Let's see what the new year brings in.
See you then!