Writing a blog should not be a chore, but a chore is what it has become for me. So much of my week is devoted to commuting and office work that typing frequent entries has become difficult due to restricted free time post work. While living in Asia, life had a more interesting twist- everyday saw something new happen- a quirky little incident with the language, a funny cultural observation or a new adventure to a different country. These days, my focus has shifted to my career and, as much as I would love to, for the respect of the instuitution I work for and the people I work with I am not able to regale you with the hilarious workplace activites I experience everyday. I could talk at length about Ian and I but that is not something I wish to do via the world web. Instead my blog entries from now on will be limited, ( much like over the last few months) and will be more of a sysnopsis of events for friends and family in Ireland and other parts of the world.

Have a wonderful New Year and here's hoping 2008 will be just as good. Everything appears to be on par for Ian and I as we had our annual New Year's Argument- always a healthy indicator for us.

Enjoy- I will return with a birthday post around February 4th

*Hint Hint*

And the winner is ....

I have found a train service that can out do Iarnrod Eireann for late train excuses. Ireland may have the "leaves on the track" phenomenon, but Ontario has "chain link fence" on the track. I think we have a winner!

Useless Fact # 0001

The surname "Gill" is not exclusive to Ireland and the United Kingdom. It is also a Sikh family name.

Christmas

I watched a girl this morning fill in application forms to join a gym. Filling in the forms was the workout. I have never ever seen so many pages demanding detailed personal information. I am quite sure there was even a question relating to daily excretions.

Anyway, Happy New Year to one and all. I am a mere ten days off target. Hurrah. I hope, too, that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and managed to avoid downing an entire box of Quality Street for the sake of it. Christmas was a wonderful affair here in Canadia.. no typo there. Maebh and I think it is HILARIOUS to say Canadia instead of Canada. There isn't any rational explanation. We just got a kick out of watching Canadians that we knew in Korea very patiently explain the difference between Canada and America, duly ignore them, and continue to reference their home country as Canadia. Fnar Fnar.

Seeing as I am pressed for time I shall revert to the old favourite- bullet points

• Christmas Eve

Not a lot to say here other than I lost Ian and assorted family members to a Christmas Eve jigsaw puzzle. He and his relatives decided to assemble pieces of an aeroplane flying over water. Imagine how many blue pieces there were in teeny tiny ant friendly sized pieces. I was tempted to pull a Homer J. and whip out a scissors to cut pieces to size, but instead I soldiered on and managed to force about ten pieces together before I lost interest and abandoned puzzle for the basement. The Attack of the Nerds continued to keep going and I was ever so impressed with their end result. At four in the morning.

• Christmas Day

Ian's sister made us get up before 9am. Getting up before 9am is exclusively reserved for work days. However her persistent hammering on the door wore us down and forced us down to the living room. To say there were a few gifts under the tree would be an understatement. There were a lot. My disgust with getting up early soon faded what with clearing the contents of my stocking and making my Scooby Doo toy sing Jingle Bells over and over and over again. Present opening took the best part of the morning so I can see Sarah's rational in getting us up early. I got some super gifts with some of the stand out ones being a magnificent special edition of the Kite Runner , my cherished Gap gift card, my very own edition of Cranium and seasons of Sex and the City and Frasier.

• Food

Christmas Day food was excellent- Eggs Benedict, turkey with all the trimmings, including Brussels Sprouts, ( much to the horror of Ian), and Uncle Don's brownies. I would like to make an official apology to the King family for not leaving them any brownies. People, you snooze you loose.

• Games

Three words- Cranium is awesome.

'Nuff said.

And I am done with typing. I am sick and tired of typing and I am very tempted to invest in that speaker Dictaphone thing that can be hooked to your PC and automatically types what you say. Of course I don't think my work colleagues would appreciate me roaring instructions at a computer screen day in day out. Sans my inside voice.

From the mouth of a 17 year old

"I soooo want a salad. I want a Caesar salad. Do you think an Italian restaurant would have that salad? Or was it made by Romans".

Wow. I'm pretty sure Mr J. Caesar took some time out from building his mighty Empire to whip up a salad. With croutons.

Anyway, an extreme cold weather warning has been issued for Toronto. Tomorrow should see -20. Chilly. Today, with the wind chill it was -23...... I learned a lot walking from the subway to the office. Wearing tights and a skirt does NOT stop cold burn. And my ears don't react well to cold. And I think I got brain freeze.

I STILL have to get cracking on my Christmas/New Year recap, but there is just so much to describe that I am having a few problems getting me to sit down, focus and type. Expect it to turn up around this time next year.