yaaarrrrrr!

i really like pirates. the invitations for my kids birthday party were pirates and i love pirate jokes. i don't really know how it all started - truth be told i think it was kathy influenced - so going to see pirates of the caribbean tonight with val was much fun. and you've gotta love a trilogy...cliffhangers are your friend.

my last official day in the office aka school is friday, which is kind of exciting! i have two or potential three weeks off in between jobs all depending on when the school decides to stop paying me. i don't want to be getting paid by two employers at once and end up in tax hell. i've had enough trouble trying to sort my pension out!

running summer school this week also means that i'm having my late afternoons free to do yoga and run errands. it seems the extreme heat may have finally broken today as i arrived home for once not drenched in sweat after my train ride home.

going glasgow

i decided to take a wee trip to the land of kilts and good whisky - not whisk(e)y - this weekend. partly as an exercise to clear my head, but also to celebrate a landmark anniversary.

it was a pretty big one for me now that i think about it. i've made it a whole year living in the uk and to some degree i think i've been successful in actually creating a life for myself. the honeymoon period is definitely over, but i don't think that fact really hit me until this weekend either. it's been over for months without me even realising.

after having shared so many good times in edinburgh it was hard to explore its scottish counterpart of glasgow on my own. glasgow is more of a *city* that's for sure. not being the capital there seems to be less money floating around and more grit. but i should like grit, right? i do after all live in the pool. scouseland.

i spent most of my first afternoon finding my way around after discovering as i was walking to my guest house that i was staying practically right next to the glasgow school of art - i can hear j9 squealing from here - which was really cool and one of the things i wanted to check out. the glasgow museum of modern art is also worth checking out, but it was the newly refurbished kelvingrove museum that renewed by faith in...well...just about everything.

the picture to your right is the installation in the main hallway that was what really drew me into the place. i'd seen a little piece on the news about the reopening of this museum, which is what made me want to check it out. the collection is now curating in such a way that objects are placed next to each other beause of their relationship with each other, not just their historic context. the art discovery space actually plays on the fact that people read text panels in museums and galleries and asks direct questions about the art it *wants* you to look at.

how smart is that? i have new respect for interpretation in museums and it made me even happier that i'm now going to be back in a gallery setting. back in my favorite reality amongst beautiful objects and simply trying to comprehend their provenance and age.

now i'm going to try and do some sewing on the machine i inherited from val. that is if i can figure out how to work it and, well, it still works.

more new beginnings

so i've decided to take that post back at nml. after the gallery education workshop i did at the tate in june, i concluded that i really wanted to be in the learning environment, but in a gallery or museum setting. problem is that those jobs are so competitive! i resigned myself to gaining as much experience in arts education by staying at the school in my current post when this offer came along.

and when the perfect job comes along, at the perfect place, working with a team of people you really get on with...you just can't pass that up.

the resignation today was unfortunately really horrid today, but now that the hard part's over i hope i'll be able to leave everything in good order.

i've also decided to go to glasgow for the weekend on my own. for two reasons really: i need to get away on my own and relax because things have been so hectic since i left canada *and* it's officially my one year anniversary in the uk on friday so what better way to celebrate then visiting yet another city.

...that and it will be at least three degrees cooler in scotland and with this heat wave we've been having that is extraordinarily tempting!

sunny weekend

i think the roller coaster finally slowed down a bit. the awards event i organised on thursday night was a great success, i got my yoga dvd - finally - in the post from the u.s., i was offered a job back at the museum as a learning officer for one of the art galleries, and everyone on this side of the pond seemed to be in good health.

the beginning of the week was a bit stressful. getting ready for the event was just busy and working with staff who've never *seen* the behind the scenes of an event. dipak totalled his car on a lamp post, but thankfully is just fine. lucky boy.

but the weekend has turned out really nice. i went out for a few drinks on friday night, walked to lark lane on saturday afternoon for lunch with sam and dipak, and stopped off for some frisbee in wavertree park with sofian on the way back home.

last night was my first night *out* in liverpool in a long time so i think today will be a quiet one. not because i'm hungover today at all, but because my drinking counterparts just aren't as hardcore as i am ;)

time to be a guitar star

i played my guitar tonight for the first time in too long. i had a mini-session with ron when i was home and was slightly ashamed of myself afterwards. i realised that the only times i really played in the uk was when i visited davoud's house...and that hasn't been very often as of late.

after living on my own for two and some odd years, it's been difficult to adjust to some of those roommate things that you just stop thinking about. things like walking around the house naked, doing the washing up, not stomping up and down the stairs when you're pissed off its monday morning, and practicing on the guitar.

i don't really mind playing for people anymore, although that was a hurdle itself, but i can't seem to just pick it up and practice when sam's at home. she wouldn't mind, i know, but if she thought i was crap i think she might object. we get enough soka beats, r&b, and random england football songs blaring from each of our neighbours to give enough ambiance to this place at times.

so i'll just make a concerted effort at the moment to practice when she's not at home. it will be like when i do my yoga. it just shouldn't be witnessed or heard by others.

i felt it was time for a photo

from way back when...val and i played a riveting game of air hockey at the prater amusement park in vienna...and i won.

val has finally moved down to liverpool aka livalpool for at least a year. it will be great to have some family in town and a fellow canadian to vent to about anything british bugging me. she's moved in - almost, but not quite - to this really swanky flat in the east village. i think liverpool is trying to sound a little bit like nyc on this one, but we'll let them have it.

i don't have any plans for the weekend, which is kind of nice. i'm just going to take it easy, hopefully catch up with a few people, and watch the world cup final tomorrow night.

back now

enough of all the sentimental tacky crap...back to the day to day life stuff.

i couldn't help but be homesick, no one can fault me with that, but now i'll go back to living life. and right now, life is here. i just have to keep telling myself "lauren, you don't *live* in canada anymore." as soon as people at work stop asking me "so did you want to come back? i bet you didn't want to come back. is it horrible being back?" i'll start to feel more normal.

i went to see "good night, and good luck" tonight. i was actually kind of surprised that i enjoyed it in a weird documentary with george clooney kind of way. it made me never want to turn on the television again unless i was watching the news or sport. when i did live in canada, i didn't really watch all that much television at all, but since i've moved here my habits have changed.

maybe it's because the television is the main focal point in our living room. maybe it's because it's so big you can't help but stare at it. most likely it's because i haven't always had the internet at home to entertain me.

anyway, the movie is worth a view.

we're currently in the middle of a heat wave, which i'm absolutely loving apart from the fact that there are hundreds of sweaty miserable children about everyday. bring on the thunderboomers!

my two lives

it feels like i'm fulfilling my gemini destiny.

i have these two lives. there's one that i've lived all of my life back home in canada. it has its own history, players and storylines, and truth be told it's the one i love most and will return to. then there's the most recent one on this side of the pond that seems to have developed so greatly in the past year. it already has its own history, players and storylines, but its extraordinarily young in comparison. it's hard to reconcile two things with each other that are so completely different, yet that's what i've been trying to do since i got back.

i guess i assumed that i would visit home and everything would be the same; nothing would have changed. on the surface, that is exactly how it was, but everyone i know has had day to day experiences while i've been gone (how dare you go on without me! kidding...), babies have been born, buildings have appeared out of holes in the ground, wood has aged, but at least the scotch hasn't.

it feels like my trip home was a million years ago and that i never really left liverpool at all. but then it also feels like i've just arrived here and i'm still trying to find my feet. i thought that bringing some of home back with me or that bringing some of this life back home was going to be an instant marriage of like minded lives, but on that point i think i was wrong.

a few people have asked me whether i'm happier here in the uk. i'm happier than when i left montreal that's for sure, but there's always going to be this little tiny part of me that just can't quite adjust. that part will always remain in the various places i call home back on the other side of the pond: in montreal, in the backyard in markham, on very straight roads, on the dock at the cottage or sitting at the dining room table after supper, and most importantly in the company of my friends and family.

i know it's all sentimental and soppy, and i love everyone over here i do, but i can't help but feel at least a little homesick right now...i've only been back 3 days!

toronto and driving pics

down at the beaches...the dog was too funny to watch

driving somewhere during the thousands of kilometres we racked up

driving...dipak too enough pictures to animate a short film ;)

dipak at nancy's restaurant local 4 on dundonald just of yonge...check it out next time you're in the city

a break for a few canadian pints...with the grand old cn tower in the background

goderich & kid pics

jamie...too cute for words

brian...slightly stunned, but *such* a ham

jack post painting attempting to clean himself up

the first words out of jack and abby's mouths after we discovered the painting they had done were "i'm sorry daddy"...of course we were all laughing hysterically

two proud painters...abby and jack

montreal pics

totally lost the water gun fight i had with mathieu

asha and i at her place in st. anicet

one of the many pics dipak took while we were driving of one of the only exciting things between goderich and montreal...the BIG apple

me and mathieu being pirates (why couldn't the pirate go see the movie? because it was rated arrrrrrrrrr!)

j9 in heavy contemplation over whether she should have another pint

oka pics

tim, ronnie, me, dipak, jason (taking a picture of kristy), svetla and ezra soaking up the last of the oka sun

peeka! yes, there really was a portapotty. just look at how well j9 models it...

dolly looking over the beautiful view

man, that's a lot of tequila

definitely one of my favorite pictures...dipak and ronnie debating whether the field is soy or corn

cottage pics

i know that my dad is holding the fish, but i actually caught it! it was just too slimey for my delicate hands...AND by the way, my dad wanted me to mention that we didn't keep it. its swimming around the lake so it can get bigger and we can catch him again next year ;)

evening red wine dock drinking - quite the view

some good ol' canadian beer on the dock...and my foot

this is one of those pictures that i take that afterwards makes me think "did i actually take that photo?"

scenes from the boat ride on our first night there. for those of you not privy to much cottage knowledge, it's on blackstone lake just south of Parry Sound, Ontario.

return to the land of windy roads

well i'm back. slightly jet lagged and trying *not* to have a nap in the hopes that i can go to sleep at a decent hour and not feel like a complete zombie when i wake up at 6:30 tomorrow morning to go to work.

the trip was indescribable in many ways. i'm still trying to come to grips with how it felt to be home. events that may have seemed normal had i still been living at home became strangely magnified because of the short time i was able to consume pitchers of beer and drive slowly on straight roads. nevertheless it was awesome. i packed in as much as i possible could, but still didn't have enough time.

it's weird to be back in liverpool and completely alone - sam is in spain - after being surrounded by so much love and laughter over the past couple weeks. maybe i'm not quite as much of a loner as i thought ;)

in any case...i think the pictures illustrate it better than words at this point.

but thanks to everyone who put us up at their homes, shared their time and energy, and made that quote that val sent me ages ago ring true:

home is not where you live but where they understand you - christian morgenstern