Leaving in a couple hours for the airport, so time to put away WS and make sure everything still fits in my bag! I don't know when exactly I'll be online again, but either I or looking_spiffy will post to let y'all know that I made it to London. Yay for grabbing the new FHT songs and getting them loaded onto my Nano so I can listen obsessively on the plane (at least until the battery dies, anyway). Ciao!

So, gathering all of the supporting documentation that I needed to provide along with my Ancestry visa application took me a while, particularly as being government Web sites, there was a lot of pointing here and there and unclear information and prevaricating answers to my email enquiries, and it seemed that every time I got done with a specific step, there was something else I needed that I didn't already have. And I wanted every last thing in my hands before I actually submitted the application (and committed a large wad of non-refundable cash, oy). So with some last minute scrambling for yet another piece of paper - thank you, stargazerdavid! - I had submitted my application and ridiculous wad of supporting docs, got fingerprinted on Tuesday, and received a confirmation email yesterday that they had received all of my stuff in Ottawa (I overnighted it).

Today, I got a second email stating that my entry clearance has been issued and to expect my documents returned with the visa in the next few business days. It took about 24 hours for the British High Commission to approve me. O_O I have spent the last few days in a knot of anxiety, the same kind you get when you've just finished a final exam that's worth most or all of your grade and you keep second-guessing your answers, and now I know that I passed. I fucking passed. And I'm really, truly doing this. *squeaks*

I won't actually book my flights until I have the paperwork back in hand, but I do know what I plan to book, so those of you who are directly involved, I'll email you later on today. Right now I'm going to go have lunch or dinner or whatever the hell it's called when you eat in the middle of the afternoon (besides 'after-school snack' :P). Oh - tea! ;-) Except I think that in this case, I'm going to have a drink. 'Cause I kind of think I've earned one. :DDD

So I've been investigating public transportation potential, which I already know is a massive PITA from dropping people off at the bus terminal where they can catch an earlier connector bus since the one that actually goes by work, goes by at five to the hour. *eyeroll* That's getting home, though, which I'm less concerned about as there's no specific time I have to be here. For getting *there*, the actual bus ride would take about 45 minutes, but that includes a measly two minute window to change buses at the afore-mentioned terminal. Which, if I miss that, I have to wait another hour for the next one. And that's on top of the probably 45 minutes it would take to walk to the bus stop - which is at the bottom of an omg!steep hill, so I'd be walking UP it coming home! So it'd be a travel time of an hour and a half with either arriving an hour before work (because I would assume that I'd miss the connection, being a freaking two minutes and all), or waiting that hour at the terminal for the bus because I missed the first connection.

Did I mention that it's a 15 minute drive? *headdesk*

I do have a rental car right now ("loss of use" clause), which is currently authorized until Friday, and with the dollar amount cap on it might stretch to another week or two, and then that'll be it. I will require alternate transportation. I'll be able to borrow the mother's car some days with some schedule-fudging on her end; she works part-time with building permits so she's obviously going into her slow season now, and her arrangement is that she goes in if there's work and if there's nothing, she doesn't go. So timing-wise, this works not too badly if that's what we have to do. And in all honesty the mandatory exercise would be healthy for me.

Here's the interesting thing about this: I'm not jazzed about the possibility of buying a new car. Now, a big part of that is because Autumn was the first thing ever that was MINE, wholly and completely. From start to finish, apparently, lol. But, my intentions had been to sell her for the money to get the hell out of here. And I find that my interest is piqued a lot more for that possibility than for any new wheels. I just need to be sure that everything is kosher health-wise, which makes for a mighty flexible and not-soon-enough timeline, unfortunately.

The Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants are playing a regular season NFL game today...in Wembley Stadium. O_O The mother tells me that they made special arrangements to play a game in London because they had over 500,000 requests. Of course, only 90,000 could actually get tickets and attend but there they are, in the rain! Wow. That is so weird, to think of a football game being played in London that's actually got an oblong pigskin and big guys in tight pants, shoulder pads and helmets instead of a black and white ball being kicked around by guys in shorts and knee-highs!

And in case anyone else was curious, the Bridge School Benefit concerts are this weekend, and Metallica's set last night was composed largely of a fascinatingly diverse collection of covers. For just the setlist, go here. For the setlist with a review, go here. I can't wait to listen to this! Makes me wish I actually had Green Day's appearance there. I've heard bits of it but don't have it; all I remember is that Hitchin' a Ride sounded peculiar done acoustically. :D

ETA: I do believe that's the first time I've ever seen a team-specific ad for the World Series on TV, too. Hee! Yay Red Sox!

First off: missalee!!! I got it!!! :D :D I'll check it on the weekend and let you know if I need any help. Thank you! ♥

Er, so, they did not start painting last night after all; they started tonight. An hour *before* we got off work. Which means I'm now a little dizzy, nauseated, my skull is throbbing, and I'm sporting the abused junkie look despite full eye makeup. (Too bad that last doesn't also come with automatic weight loss. :P) I am also, however, an idiot. It seems that at no time did I actually mention to my new-ish manager that I'm allergic. *facepalm* I popped off an email to her with a formal complaint because they had assured me and some others a good two years ago when the small training room was being painted that painting would not happen during working hours again. Except, clearly, it did tonight. Which L knew was going to happen but didn't know I had problems with it. *rueful smile* Anyway, so she came over to my desk all concerned and said that she'll find me somewhere else to sit tomorrow if necessary. There are 3 new offices scattered throughout our area of the building so getting truly away from it is damn near impossible, but it will definitely, definitely help, maybe even enough so I can stay the whole day.

The hilariously stupid thing about all this is, I thought I *had* told her, and I guess that I didn't ultimately because I find her kind of intimidating. Or unapproachable might be a better description. She's very nice, and she seems to loosen up and laugh more in team meetings, but she's generally fairly earnest and focused, a little bit formal, and mostly hands-off i.e., expecting us to decide amongst ourselves what needs to be done like adults (which we mostly do), and away from her desk a lot too, and I don't really feel comfortable approaching her. And the more I tried to pinpoint exactly why I don't feel wholly comfortable with her, the more I realised that hey, that's MY management style. It suddenly makes SENSE to me in a way it never did before why I can be perceived as intimidating. This kind of amuses the hell out of me. Her immediate concern tonight really only cemented the impression because it's totally what I would do. Which makes me feel strangely better about the whole situation, and makes her less intimidating as well, which is a good thing.

To change the subject completely, wtf is a Superking bed??? Does the UK not do queen size beds? 'Cause the duvets seem to go single - double - king - superking. And I am now confused as to what the hell those sizes are and how they correspond to North American sizing. I understand the paper thing (and think the rest of the world has the better idea with the A4 to tell the truth) but I don't know this one, lol. *wonders if she should even bother trying to bring her rainbow cover*

Apologies for all the cryptic - I'd started to type an actual explanation and then noticed the time and left y'all a one-liner instead. *notes, however, that she posted considerably later than Miss looking_spiffy and is now offering an explanation whilst certain photos have yet to appear of the OMG!AWESOME thing* Clearly I'm the Ralph Macchio to her Pat Morita in the teasing department. :D ♥

Anyway, it's not all that earth-shattering; I just applied for a job. Yeah, after all my whining about needing to stay where I was. But this was kind of weird: my dad had left the community paper open to some article or other he thought I'd be interested in reading, and I read it whilst eating breakfast on Saturday and then flipped through the rest, seeing as I read a hell of a lot faster than I eat, especially in the morning. :P So I saw an ad for an admin and the stated qualifications are an eerie match for what's actually on my resume. The address looked naggingly familiar so when I was out running errands later in the day, I drove around where I thought it'd be and lo and behold, it's in the same damn building as my family doctor's office. *laughs* Which would be a great location to work; it's about the same driving time in the opposite direction as I do now, and there's a Starbucks with a drive-thru across the street. (Okay, that part is a good *and* bad thing, lol.) So I fiddled with my resume to bring it completely up to date, but then sorta hemmed and hawed about it on Sunday and didn't do a cover letter. But then yesterday was...it wasn't any kind of particularly horrible day but it just cemented my wanting to get the hell out of there. And I already had a routine doctor's appointment scheduled for this morning so I did up the letter and that last night and got up earlier than usual to prettify (normally if I have an early appointment, I'll pretty much roll out of bed and go, and then actually get ready for work when I come back home after) and handed it in at the accountant's office. (Yeah, it's a CA firm. Not my favourite kind of subject but I know how to navigate that world reasonably well.)

It could go absolutely nowhere - hell, they might have hired someone since Thursday, although I doubt it as the potentially cute guy who took my resume seemed hella clueless (I say potentially b/c he was wearing an eye-blinding orange polo shirt, for reals. Eek!). It's just kind of funny how I even found out about it, and the really strange thing is, it's almost exactly what I was looking for three years ago when I was temping and ended up at Staples. And the thing is, while all my arguments for staying are the same, to look at it realistically... I'm not even going to *begin* to get any medical answers for over a month from now, and I'm honestly not expecting it to be figured out or resolved tout de suite, y'know? I've sort of resigned myself to the fact that there's little chance I'll be able to move to the UK in January as planned - it's almost certainly going to have to be pushed back some, hopefully just a couple of months. Which is okay, if not ideal, but what's not okay is how increasingly suffocated I feel where I'm working now, and that's going to get progressively worse in the very near future because there's some shit happening that I haven't even talked about. Let's just say that I'll basically be the one left holding the bag, and I don't fucking want it, thank you very much. I am not paid nearly enough for that shit.

So, I'll see what happens with this, and go from there. Even if I don't get called for an interview the fact that I actually applied means something to me, and also means that I'm frustrated enough with the status quo to go about doing something about it finally. And though I'll feel guilty about getting somewhere new only to leave after a few months, well, the difficulty I had in finding this kind of job in the first place says that there's no shortage of people who are also looking for it.

That's my preferred poison, as it is for both my parents, my godparents, my cousins, several friends... lol. Actually, I also prefer Pepsi because as angela_o educated me, Pepsi > Coke because vanilla > cinnamon for my personal tastes. But if I order it at a bar, I just ask for a rye and coke because whatever sort of cola they have on tap is what I'll get.

Anyway, the parents drink a specific kind of rye, aka Canadian whiskey, and they buy a specific bottle size - a 40, aka 40 oz or 1.17L. Since they moved here seven years ago, this size bottle has always come with a mini of a different type of the same brand whiskey, i.e., special old or a different blend or whatever, and neither of them really likes the other stuff, so they've been collecting it. This is usually what I drink, lol. But I don't drink all that often and I couldn't for the first six months or so that I lived here, so it's an impressive little collection taking up most of the bottom drawer of the hutch by this time. Hee. Which actually has little to do with what I was thinking about, really; it's just highly amusing. I feel like a failed lush when I have to get envelopes from that drawer. *grins*

So - back to ordering at the bar. If I'm in Canada, 'rye and coke' is just fine, and I'll get what I want. In the USA, it's iffy. I've gotten anything from Bushmills (yay! Irish is also v. good), to Jack Daniels (nearly spit it back at the bartender, omg!yuck), to blank stares. I've learned to ask for either Canadian whiskey, which can also be iffy because frequently they stock the shit brands, or for Crown and coke, which is usually intelligible but also more expensive as it's a premium brand (and I generally drink Wiser's Deluxe; Crown Royal occasionally sparks off an allergic reaction for some reason so I avoid it though I like it well enough).

But for some reason I was thinking about people drinking in the UK tonight and it occurred to me to wonder, wtf would I get in a British bar if I ordered a rye and coke? Anyone ever asked for one there? *is all curious now* If not, anyone willing to field test it for me? :D

So far, my extendo-weekend has been...uh, not very productive. *sheepish smile* Yesterday and today have been beautiful September days, though - sunny, warm sun, cool breeze, cool at night. Me likes. But I've spent the bulk of my time reading, sleeping, or watching stuff. Though I did do a buttload of laundry. And I consider the time spent flailing and squeeing last night about Matchbox Twenty's interview and new video to be important, if not precisely productive. ;-D It's...wow, I still feel giddy that it *exists* and they actually did NOT break up, in fact they're more of a cohesive band than they have been in forever. And then there's the fact that they fully acknowledged the political potential of the song and used it, overtly, to make a statement that is pointed but not blunt-instrument-to-the-head, which would never work for them. Billie Joe can get away with bitchslapping the audience but Rob needs to seduce and he DOES and oh, God, I love it.

Semi-relatedly, Rob's wife Marisol guest-designed a couple of adorable T-shirts for this site, Presents for Purpose. It's a very cool concept - portions of the price of every item sold on the site go towards a charity (which depends on the collection and/or the buyer's choice, depending on the item). Though the apparel is weirdly sized and only for teeny people. :-/ But, I did fall in love with this Golden Buddha necklace. Eeeeee so pretty.

I slept funny on my shoulder or something on Thursday night and the muscles over my right shoulderblade have been spazzing since; it's very annoying. It'd gotten a lot better by last night but it was really sore upon waking again so I must've ended up in the same position. *scowls* I might sleep on the couch tonight instead.

I also woke up to a rather disorienting dream involving my ex. I was at a work function, but apparently also at work, i.e., went over to the party or w/e during my breaks, and just as my lunch was about to end, he called and was asking something about when we could get together because we'd agreed to be friends and I basically brushed him off saying I'd call him later as I was going back to work. And then when my work day was over and I went back to the party, he was there, hanging with some people I knew (in the dream; I don't recognise a soul other than him from RL), and at first I was all resentful and avoidy, pretty much stewing about it but staying away from him, and then he finally cornered me and brought up the same thing, that we were supposed to be trying to be friends. And I...let him have it, actually. I was very calm and very angry and I can't remember what-all I said but I know it ended with me telling him that I can't be friends with anyone I can't trust and don't fucking talk to me again. It more or less dissolved there, being as I woke up, but it was interesting to say the least. (We did, btw, attempt to be friends. It was short-lived and reaaaaallllly not a good idea in the first place. That dinner party remains the most bloody surrealistic moment of my entire life.)

Anyway, I sort of know where the base for that dream came from, b/c my bf here, C, had been getting closer to her ex-boyfriend and she swore up and down that she wasn't getting emotionally involved (yeah right) even though they were tentatively discussing trying dating again. And then she found out a couple of days ago that he's acquired a new girlfriend and she obviously was upset about it, since he wasn't even talking to her in good faith about all of that. So she's been texting me today about various *other* stuff and I know she's doing that instead of calling b/c if she calls, she'll end up talking about him and probably crying again and she doesn't want to. And the thing is, there really isn't anything I can say that I haven't already said a million times, and it's just not that comforting anymore, y'know? It isn't even that I think being friends with your ex is automatically a bad idea - my first love and my ex-husband were the only ones I *wasn't* friends with after the romance ended, but for the same reason: because I still had feelings for them. And in that situation, it IS a very, very bad idea, because it makes it horribly difficult to move on. *sigh*

On a brighter note, Doctor Who won a Hugo award! Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form): “Girl in the Fireplace” (Doctor Who) Whee, that excites me that it's getting that kind of high level recognition for good writing. :D

Speaking of DW, is it entirely insane that I really would like to buy a ticket for the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Hamlet next summer, starring both David Tennant and Patrick Stewart? Because...damn. Can you IMAGINE??? The tickets go on sale the end of this month, though - and to members first, so they might even sell out before the general public gets a crack - and I really can't afford to spend the money now anyway as the cheapest ones run approx. $50CDN but...daaaaaaaamn. Dude. I'd go just for Patrick; between those two voices, I'd be a puddle of utter goo. *wants to goooo*

Of course, that's also predicated on the idea that Stratford-upon-Avon will be a train ride away from wherever the hell I'm living next summer, and that is, in turn, predicated on there not being anything seriously wrong with me. Because if it turns out that it is serious, that it requires ongoing care or something, I'm not going to be able to leave the country obviously; not to move, anyway. The not-knowing has been somewhat paralytic in terms of achieving the motivation to get anything done, this weekend's distinct lack of sorted and emptied boxes included. Not long now until my specialist appt. finally, though, so hopefully I'll soon have at least the beginnings of an answer. And if it turns out that I need to remain in Canada, then I'll start investigating Montreal as my next option.

Well, that was a helluva lot longer update than I was planning, but I haven't said much of anything lately, so there you go! That's what's up with me. And now I need more tea. *grins*

The Bouncing Souls are playing on Thursday. Here. Apparently they're one of the, oh, maybe 2% of bands who consider a cross-Canada tour to extend farther east than Montreal. :P I wonder if there's anyone I can convince to go with me?? Doubt it, but so what. *glee*

Also, along with Earth Day, April 22, 2006 was apparently blog against heteronormativity day. Cool. There's a good, lit-heavy post here on glass_cats on the subject. Interesting reading, even if it was a while ago. :-)

ETA: OMG, you have to see this fairytale cottage for sale in the UK. If only I had a few hundred thousand pounds... *covets*