Tag Archives: apartment

12.09.30 [Sunday]
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library, sports

relaxing thoughts of baseball

I’ve been getting settled in Campbell River the last week. It seems pretty good so far. I love the view from my apartment even when it’s cloudy. I’ve talked more with my neighbour in the last five days than I have with any neighbour I’ve ever had before.
morning
My internet is installed and I’m glad to have it as the MLB postseason looms. This year I won’t have to watch playoff games the day after to fit in with my sleep schedule. Though I guess being out in Pacific Time means most games’ll start when I’m at work. That’s too bad. I guess the Giants games’ll be at a more suitable time, and those are the ones I have a more vested interest in. It’s only been a few years since I adopted the Giants as my NL team, and I’m very obviously not a lifelong fan as I’m kind of cheering for the Dodgers to get into the postseason too. I like the sparks that would fly if they met for the NLCS. I really want an all black and orange World Series.

Last night I met a bunch of the library community at the retirement party for my predecessor and it was pretty fun. I was introduced to a storytime puppet and there was food I could eat, and we talked about how you can date novels by the technology inside. Library people are people I can get along with. The assorted librarians’ husbands were also very welcoming. One guy makes really detailed sculptures of fish!

And tomorrow I start work. Which is weird. But I’ll be at an information desk, which is where I do well so it should be fine. I’m sure there’ll be a few “Ack! It’s my first Baby Time!” posts as the month progresses. And Halloween. Oh man, I’ve got to figure out a costume.

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12.09.25 [Tuesday]
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travel, vancouver, winnipeg

leaving the city for the town (that’s technically a small city)

Last night I hung out with library school friends drinking beers and generally talking about how much we like each other and should see each other more often. And today I leave for Campbell River.

I was out on the island over the weekend, moving my crap in, and I think I’ll like CR. There’s a pier where people fish from, and it has communal fishgutting tubs. There’s a bookstore and a toyshop with reasonable amounts of Lego. My apartment is the big “standard of living” jump this job’ll give me. Two bedrooms and a view of Discovery Passage and a 5 minute walk to work.

I looked at an apartment that was right on the water, and that I could also have afforded. My bedroom in that one would have had a view of the Quadra Island lighthouse. But the place was too big, too nice. I would never have felt really comfortable there, like it was really mine. The place I got is smaller and a bit shabbier, but I feel like I fit it, even better than my old condo back in Winnipeg (and none of the condo corp responsibilities/aggravations).

So yes, I’m on my way out there now. So long Vancouver; I still like you. Vancouver friends, you’re pretty great, and I’ll be back to visit before Xmas I’m pretty sure.

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12.03.24 [Saturday]
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books, library, school, vancouver

disposition in the sun

One of the quirks of the building I live in is how the lock on the front door is like a magic-eye poster. For the key to turn and grant you access to the wondrous 3D interior you have to insert it and then enter a zen trance enabling you to pull the key out just the very tiniest amount and apply the precise amount of delicate pressure. It’s a good way of measuring my state of mind when I return home on foot (when I bike I use a different door to the building which is much less finicky). How easy has it been to slough off the day’s events and enter that way of thinking?

It was sunny today, not warm exactly, but it felt spring-like. So I went out to the water to read and look at the mountains. I’ve written a draft of my last paper for the term and it’s turned from something I was ready to abandon into a piece of writing that actually has some interesting combinations of ideas (about irreverence towards books and how China Mieville should influence a youth services librarian). It must have been a very excellent day because for the first time ever I opened the front door on the first try.

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12.01.06 [Friday]
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australia, school, vancouver, whining

surrounded by boxes

My first week back at school is done. I still have to have my first Management class on Monday night, and a bunch of meetings that’ll determine how my term’ll go, but it’s been pretty okay.

I got my rental bond refund from the Sydney apartment today so that was nice. There’d been a lot of back and forth with our landlord’s rental agent that had been giving me worries. I know that his parasitic trying to worm an extra hundred dollars out of me while telling me he’d my friend is just his job, but man, does that kind of stuff get me angry. I needed him to sign a form so I could get the bond money back, but he said he couldn’t do it so he’d get the landlord to do it that afternoon and fax it in. A week later I had to call him again to find out why it hadn’t been done and then there were stories of papers getting lost and blah blah blah. I really didn’t want to get mad about the money, but it’s a big enough sum to cover two months of my Vancouver rent.

I hate getting mad about things like that. I mean, I knew I was in the right, and the agent wasn’t doing his job well (or was trying to pull something). But just being right doesn’t mean much at all. I used to be better at dealing with that kind of thing. I think. The condo broke me, made me so unhappy and paranoid when it comes to those kinds of matters. I can still feel it here, like something’s going to happen and I’m going to have to move all my stuff out of this apartment (which I quite like).

All of that to explain why my room still looks like I’m living out of a suitcase. It’s hard to know how much unpacking and settling to do here. I might be staying a long time, but maybe I won’t. In Sydney I lived out of two carryon bags for eight months (the amount of time I have left in this degree), so all the crap strewn about already seems wasteful, and that’s with only one bookcase taken out of storage. But the more you settle in the crappier the moving on later is.

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11.12.21 [Wednesday]
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books, travel, vancouver

a day till i leave again

Holly made it to Vancouver all right. It was cut a bit close, but everything worked out in Guangzhou. I’m sure she’ll blog about it soon. We’re at my old house now while Brenda is off skiing with her family.

Yesterday I tried to get a SIM card but failed so you still can’t call me in Vancouver. I’m still on Skype though, and really, isn’t that all a person really needs in this day and age? The only thing is that I can’t really receive texts. I might get a cheapo pay-as-you-go number for those rare times I need to communicate out of WiFi range and to spoof as my CallerID number for Skype.

Today we moved a bunch of stuff out of storage and into my room in my new apartment. Holly and I both really like my new roommate Emma. We got keys, drove to the storage locker, did a quick selection of important stuff I’d need (like a bed and a pile of computers and books), got lunch, unloaded the van, almost got a parking ticket, carried the stuff up to the fourth-floor apartment (Emma and Holly did that so I could get the van back in time), and then sat and chatted for hours before heading home on the SkyTrain and stopping for pizza.

Now we’re just drinking tea.

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11.11.29 [Tuesday]
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australia, food, travel

luncheons not truncheons

It is my final week at work and it seems we’ll be having many a lunch. Last Thursday Holly and Edmund and Rob and I went for Thai food around the corner (since Holly was on her way to New Zealand the next day). That was pleasant enough. The food at the Thai place is a lot sweeter and not nearly so spicy as better Thai food, but still. We never did get to go out bushwalking, what with Holly’s schedule at Patisse occupying her so much of her weekend time here.

Then Holly went to Christchurch on Friday. I spent my weekend doing homework, watching movies, eating the last of the food in our cupboards (I didn’t want to buy any groceries this week, but ended up getting some ice cream today), and thinking about buying a pair of shoes.

I also sold Holly’s bike and the rental agent came by to show the apartment to a prospective renter. He’s such a slippery guy. He came in pointing and concern-trolling about how the place looked. There was a bit of mold on one of the walls that is nothing resembling our fault, but he tsk tsked and said when we do the final inspection on Friday he hopes it’ll be cleaned up. He could of course quote a price on getting it cleaned professionally… Fucking guy. Peter is going to move into our rooms and wants our double mattress, the one we found on the street. He’s also going to look after some of our stuff between me leaving on the 2nd and us heading back to the North on the 19th. Hooray for Peter.

Yesterday Edmund and Rob and I went up the Sydney Tower for lunch in the revolving restaurant. It was excellent. The place was filled with old people, and the elevators seemed in poor condition, but we watched the city rotate slowly beneath us for an hour. We could see all the way out to the Blue Mountains and Manly and the airport as well as peer down and marvel at the cranes and window washing apparatus so many tall buildings have as part of their superstructure. The vegetarian options were probably the best I’ve had at a buffet like that. Baba Ganoush and bread, loads of good salads, Indianish and Chinese dishes, all in all pretty decent.

Friday will be my last day at work. I’ve got the apartment inspection in the morning and have to get on a plane at around 6:30pm. And then I’ll be joining Holly in a life of vagabondery for a while. I never feel as much like myself as when I’m on a train or a bus or other conveyance. It’s going to be a good December.

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11.11.19 [Saturday]
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australia, photography, tech, vancouver

like talking in my sleep

So apartment hunting in Vancouver from Sydney was something I was kind of dreading. But since Holly decided she’s staying in Harrisonburg after Xmas, at least I only needed a place for one person. Last weekend I spent a big pile of time going through Vancouver listings using PadMapper and the UBC apartment listings. This is how I met Emma, who has a room in her Coal Harbour apartment (a character building with hardwood floors no less). We exchanged emails and she called one of my references, Marlis.

Now, Marlis is a chatter. An excellent one. Last February when someone stopped in to pick up a wine rack she was selling they talked in the living room for 45 minutes, prompting confusion in the kitchen as to whether this was someone she knew or a stranger. It was a stranger. This served me well, because when Emma called Marlis, they talked for 45 minutes, and Marlis told Emma everything she needed to know about me, so there was practically nothing for us to talk about on Skype the next day. Which, as you may be aware is good, because it’s a lot of work for me to be chatty.

I completely credit Marlis’ talking with getting me this place, because really, I’m some strange guy who’s going to be sharing space with Emma for months. She needs to have some idea that I’m not creepy or disgusting (which I’m not, but it’s much more useful to have third parties confirm that). Thank you Marlis. (If you’re in the market for a photographer, check out Imaging By Marlis, as she’s pretty great at taking pictures as well as talking to people.)

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11.11.03 [Thursday]
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australia, food, travel, vancouver

nigh, the way only ends can be

I’ve realized that our time in Oz is coming to an end. It was the placard-toting vigilantes that finally clued me in.

Right now the plan is that Holly goes travelling in Australia by herself for a while when she quits her job, and then heads over to New Zealand to visit Catherine, a friend we know from China. Because of my incessant and pitiful whining on the subject she’s shifted things around so I can come to NZ the day I finish work and go hiking with them on the Milford Track. I’ll only get a week in Middle Earth (and on the South Island so no trips to Hobbiton) but that’s way better than being down here and not going to visit the Canada of the south Pacific (a phrase which garners curiously few Google hits, and one of them referred to Australia).

One of the great pities of living here has been the lack of oven in our apartment. If you live with a baker, be very sure your dwelling has one. But last week, in order to make us not want to leave (or complain about the extra rooms and people being added to the place), our landlord finally gave us a small convection oven. This is what life with a baker should be. Last night we made pizza, real pizza without having to use the “covered frying pan” technique. Holly’s made biscuits and muffins and buns. She’s possibly baking cookies right now.

It’s good and inspiring, this whole “eating delicious food” thing (our whole time living together, really). It’d be difficult to go back to Vancouver and not cook better for myself, even without the prod of cooking for someone else. I’ve been thinking about that a bit because yeah, with less than a month left before I’m unemployed, my orientation is shifting back towards Vancouver. That’s how I roll, with great inertia. Things to prepare for even if you don’t know what they’ll look like. Amat Victoria Curam. I don’t know who that’d be a victory over.

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11.07.19 [Tuesday]
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australia, food

cookery professional and amateur

Holly has a job working for a pastry chef which means she’s going to learn French now to keep up with everyone in her kitchen. It is going to be kind of embarrassing when her skills are better than mine by the time we leave Sydney.

Her job is going to have her working really hard for long hours (possibly being yelled at by a Chef), so the plan is for me to be the primary cooker of our meals. Happily, she’s a forgiving and appreciative audience for food.

So far I’ve made a couple of stir fries (one involved me making a peanut sauce) and a bunch of curried vegetable kinds of dishes. I doubt I’ll turn into Sean or Steve in terms of taking cooking really seriously, but yeah, it feels good to come home and make something. Except today. Today we had leftovers, which is important when we’ve got 8000 people sharing a fridge. You need to thin out the accumulations.

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11.05.31 [Tuesday]
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australia, travel, 中国

when you find a stranger in the alps

My mother is complaining I haven’t been blogging enough. This is because she doesn’t read Librarianaut. Six posts in the last week. That she doesn’t care about my topics over there is a completely separate issue. (Hi Mom!)

Recently the exciting secrets I’ve been keeping from the blog include how I went to get backup keys to my apartment copied, and the place in the mall told me I had to go to a certified locksmith. I suspect that’s because these keys have “Do Not Copy” stamped on them.

The other day Javier was playing guitar in the common area. It turns out he knows something like three songs and can spend hours trying to play them correctly.

Friday was the last day at work for one of my coworkers. We went to the fish market for lunch. At the fish market there are very few vegetarian options, which wasn’t a problem for me, since I could have a greek salad. But my boss felt bad so he ordered me two salads and potato wedges. It was an amount of salad designed to be ridiculed.

My boss was so happy today when he learned I know a bit about Photoshop. At quarter to five he got me to install it on my computer so I can begin graphics tasks tomorrow.

The last couple of days have been very rainy. I told Holly she should bring a Chinese umbrella since throwing one away there and buying a replacement here that costs ten times as much would be annoying. I think I’m also going to forgo trimming my beard till she can bring along ultracheap clippers. So far that’s the main thing I forgot to bring from Canada that I kind of need. It’s one thing to have a massive hobo beard when I’m off travelling but another when I’m going to work every day.

I do love the small office vibe we’ve got where I don’t have to feel underdressed in jeans and a half-buttoned shirt (over a tshirt – I don’t expose my Hemsworthian pecs to the office just yet). It’s possible I’m being ruined for corporate work, but that’s all right with me.

Okay Mom, there you go, a pile of boring minutiae. This is what happens.

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