MIA

I've been terribly busy with work and a bit depressed as well. Will seize the incoming week-end to do some art. I'm also trying to set up a budget in order to save. It's not easy. On Saturday, I went downtown and realised how much I missed the city buzz and the easy access to everything. I'm getting used to Mississauga but nothing can beat living in the city where you can walk to the closest supermarket/shop versus taking the bus for everything.

Readapting to Canada is challenging because of the language barrier. Yes I can say I lived there for 5 years but after 4 years in Mauritius I forgot how the Canadians talk and now I am in a job where I talk to ppl with different accents and bg, well understanding them is not easy and so often I want to give up but I need to make a living so I am crossing fingers, losing hair along the way but I'll keep going and persist even if it takes me more time than others to do the same thing.

I've been working on a soul journal filled with quotes to keep my motivation. It's all I can do for now. Saturday I got a haircut, went to my favourite second hand bookstore (the pic below is of my fave book store) and was surprised to see Yonge St closed due to Live green event in downtown.

Basically there were tents of companies selling "green" products, farmer's market and recycling etc.. The most crowded one was WWF where they were selling shirts and what not for $5. I went to have a look and ppl were more interested in the panda logo items than anything else. There were some interesting groups though but I did not stay long as I was too tired. My trip to downtown took 1.5 hrs instead of the usual 45 mins so no more trip there for me until the Gardiner Expressway is fully repaired! Last time I had to wait for over 2 hours due to congestion and it was really tiring.

I'm so exhausted. I guess mental stress is exhausting me more than the job itself.

random things

my random journal pages (inspired from Dina W classes and Journal Spilling book)

I am employed which is a relief after 4 months of doing nothing. I will use my first salary to spoil myself and then I'll have to get serious by saving and other priorities. It feels good to know that money will be coming in at the end of August and that since I'll be in banking I'll get discounts on many products..Hehehe oh joy! I've one week left to enjoy before training starts and my plan is to use it to complete my swaps. So far I've only one swap for Malin to complete. I also want to participate in the zines swap but I've no clue what to write although I do have an idea what my zine will be about. heh. I've been feeling lethargic lately with the heat and skipping gym classes because it tires me too much to walk under the sun..ok maybe it's just an excuse for my laziness.

Been working on several journal pages although I like to see them as work in progress than complete. Most of my pages are 4x6 inches and I've been wondering if I should not move to something bigger as too often my pages feel crowded and I still want to add stuffs! Today I spotted a woodpecker. This is a nice change from the usual American robins and sparrows. I do wish we had a bird feeder as I am sure there are more birds out there but they're not that active during the day due to the heat. Speaking of birds, I received my fly away chunky book back and here are some lovely sample pages (sorry the first is inverted-will correct it once I've installed Adobe CS5) :

I bought a new Hard Drive today, 1TB since I realized that 640 GB is not enough for me (oh yeah..I've an external 320 GB drive and my Macbook is 320 GB as well I think). I'll store all my downloaded movies and anime there. It'll be easier to organize and less of a hassle as I won't have to burn DVDs for a while. I am not much of a movie person and dislike DVDs because I need to find space to store them. I've realized that I need to cut down on my clutter as "each new possession loads us with new weariness". Sometimes it feels like hell to remember where I've put x or y item although I am usually an organized person. I'm de-stashing some of my craft supplies on ebay too, especially items I've bought for a project, never started the project and now keeping the supplies "just in case".

I'm craving for some moomins mugs..Should I, should I not? I left all my moomin DVDs back home but brought the books with me. At 22 USD each excluding shipping, these mugs are pricey..The limited editions ones are over 50 USD. Phew..The three below are in my wish list, including one with moomin mama and another with moomin/his gf . Here I am hoarding more items when my wish is to de-clutter but who can resist..aren't just they too cute???? Maybe I should buy one each month from ebay since they don't do combined shipping so I'm not losing anything.

do you think

if God is listening...

Originally uploaded by photografeel

somewhere Someone is listening?

Coincidences are strange..