Last night in the distant North

My grandmother's party on Sunday was very pleasant. Even if I have too darn many relatives. I'm going to have to get photos and label them with many many labels if I'm to have the chance of remembering anyones' names at all.
Monday, went and looked at a primitive plants theme garden with fake dino bones and real other fossils (a couple even of actual note). In the evening we had a beach party with a bonfire. It was a good night out, though again having too darn many relatives to learn names properly.
Today, my (slightly crazy) Aunt Ellen took my dad and me across to the west coast of Vancouver Island on a day trip. Scenery was good, if very reminiscent of home.
I realised today why I've only been missing one person mostly, and it's not for the creepy reasons I'd assumed. I'm playing a psychological game with myself, missing one person is much easier than missing many.

Tomorrow morning I have to pack up quick as I fly out of here about ten in the morning. On which note, I should sleep.

Whaletown, Cortez Island

After getting back to Campbell River yesterday, this morning I headed to Whaletown on Cortez Island with my father. Met a first cousin on the ferry, and met the only of my father's siblings I had never met this evening.

Unexpectedly spending the night here after accidentally on purpose missing the ferry back. Grandma's party is tomorrow morning, so we will have to get the first ferry in the morning or we'll be in trouble.

This raccoon was in my uncle's yard. I'm easily amused.

Catching crabs the not fun way

This morning, after a hearty breakfast, I was taken to help with crabbing. Standing on the back of a boat getting covered in slimy sea sludge while hefting a cage up from the seabed.
The crabs themselves, not interesting. Nor the meat particularly compatible with my palate - though that could be affected by having watched it being harvested...
The tentacle monster, of which I have photos but am politely not boring you all with them, was more interesting, just.
In the afternoon I had a nose about town, for a place named in Suomi it seriously lacks Norse-ness. Apart from a couple of decrepit wooden rooved boat sheds.
Tomorrow, hopefully without dealing with seafood first (*finger crossed*), I shall head back down to Campbell River - where frightening hoards of my relatives will be assembling.

Photos

Warning: pictures are stupid big, I'm too lazy to Picasa them down to a sensible size

Bad self portrait at the Kalamazoo train station

Torontonian architectural goodnessA ferry in a pond - like a fairy at the bottom of the garden...

I should stop taking advantage of my host's broadband - how i have missed broadband.

Exiled in Sointula

Yesterday I had a quiet one hanging out with my second cousin and doing little to nothing.

This morning I was woken at 3:30am local time, at four we headed off to Victoria. We had to be at the cancer clinic by nine and were being overly cautious. We got there at about quarter to eight. After breakfast in the Royal Jubilee Hospital cafe I abandoned Granma and Norm and walked down through Victoria - taking in the tourist trappings. I looked at the stupidly old buildings and the Chinatown and the waterfront. I talked to a pretty girl with reddy purple hair, who has family from New Zealand and who turned out to work at the local porn shop. Said porn shop frightened me. Maybe Canada is more open minded, or maybe the fact I'm too much of a prude to look in porn shop normally means I've never noticed how open minded things are back home. I ought investigate, but know I never will. Prudishness wins on the day. I made it back to the hospital in surprisingly good time and we loaded up and headed back. Norm having an intense aversion to cities. The whole afternoon was spent getting back up to Campbell River. Not long after getting there, just when I was considering having a nap, I was kidnapped by my cousin(well, first cousin once removed - she's a generation up from me)'s husband and drove the other way up Vancouver Island. Pretty much all the way up. On the way seeing bears (as shown) and seeing a lot of scenery. Much of which was like ours - glacial valleys and craggy mountains formed by head on collisions between continental plates - but with much pointier trees. It was as New Zealand will look when the introduced trees win. I'm now on Sointula - an island north of Vancouver Island. It's a touch colder, but otherwise not dissimilar to Campbell River, just without the people so much.

I should probably think about sleeping at some point, though I'm concerned the early wake up might have pushed me back on to Kalamazoo/Toronto time.

Good news, postcards I thought had inadequate postage appear to be making it through anyway. Hoorah.

Sleepiness is weakness of character, ask anyone

After a day being shown around town by one of dad's many, many cousins here I decided it was time to force myself in to BC time and out of Michigan/Toronto (I was sick of waking at 5am - which was useless here and even useless for catching people from home online).
The result was getting nowhere near enough sleep and waking at 6am, which I guess is a victory of sorts....
At least the manic levels of sleep deprivation are still a long way off (or possibly Kalamazoo specific - the town had vile water, there must have been something in it...).
My tour of town yesterday proved the attractions to be industry and lots of pointy trees. So very many. This seems to be dedicated forestry country - I had previously assumed they'd hidden farms away behind it, but it seems that isn't so much the case. Just pointy trees. I should upload some more of my photos, being that they are more than a week, and 3000+ km, behind where I am now. It may happen later - currently I'm too darn lazy.

Starting to meet the relatives

Yesterday I went out and met my great Aunt Mary and her husband. It was nice, though did draw attention to how long I'd been here and how little family I had met. Today, we (yet, again) failed to go visiting. Instead I had a short walk about town. At dinner one of dad's cousins and his kid popped around to visit.
My second cousin, Mike, is about my age and has a job I'm jealous of. For reasons unknown, being I'm very much not the computer geek, I am always jealous of sys-admin-ish sorts with cool companies. My second cousin does something network related with IBM. I want to work for IBM - shame I have absolutely no applicable skills or aptitudes.
But then I have no skills or aptitudes for what I do either. I do get irrationally peeved at "Word of the Day" things that don't give etymologies though, so maybe philology isn't entirely out of my reach.
While in Campbell River, I have been slowly churning my way through the book I bought to read on planes. Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion and I think it has proved the contrariness of my nature. The more I read, the more my atheistic leanings are abandoning me. I'll have to avoid similarly aimed books or I may soon find myself making the weekly trek to church.

CN Tower

Me in the lower observation decks glass floor in the CN Tower.

The upper deck lacked such a floor, so the pictures from up there are less impressive

Advance Canadia Fair

It is Saturday morning here, I've just had breakfast. Disturbingly it is already about four o'clock tomorrow morning at home.
Things are pretty good. Hanging out with ym grandma and not really achieving much.
After the previous entry I had an attack of homesickness and ended up fighting with webmsn to takl to someone back home. Fortunately (and I say fortunately as I'd forgotten about daylight savings in the calculation of time difference) I managed to catch one of my friends online.
Yesterday I went up to Elk Falls and Deer Falls (note the theme) with my Aunt Ellen. It was like tramping at home, except with pointier trees. Actually, the trees up here are pretty much universally pointy. I guess it is something to do with snow.
Today I woke on Toronto time, thursday I woke on NZ time. One of these days I'll catch up with the time zone I'm actually in.

Sleep is good.

At my grandmother's, I've finally started to catch up on sleep.

Had a quiet day, just talking to Granma and Uncle Norm - otherwise didn't do anything of note. Did have a look around a Canadian supermarket though, and was amused by the lack of recognisable brand names.

I'm on dialup here, so should waste too much time on line. I should get back to enjoying the quiet of Campbell River, British Columbia.

Niagara

A nice middle aged French tourist took a picture for me

Stuff again

My luggage was delivered to my grandmother's in Campbell River today. Hooray for stuff. After walking my Aunt Ellen, I got to my grandmother's and have been blobbing talking to her and Uncle Norm all day.

The massive blisters I got from pavement pounding Toronto are unpleasant, otherwise all is good.

BCer - or, at least, the islanders - are very nice.

Sans Luggage

Kalamazoo proper was almost entirely closed. It took abut an hour to even find somewhere with postcards - and even then the range was not exciting. I ended up going to a bar and grill for dinner as I couldn't find anything else open. I generously tipped after feel bad about asking my waiter to explain how it worked. It wlso mean I had no paper money left when a beggar came at me with a hurricane Katrina sob story - to which she got angry about (this after I'd given her a couple of bucks in shrapnel). Made me feel less charitable.

The bus ride was fine, but long and I didn't manage to sleep on it. Did sleep Toronto-Niagara though, both ways. Niagara was like an even eviler Queenstown.

Got back to Toronto later than expect, host was very forgiving. Toronto is awesome. I went out in the evening and didn't feel scared walking at night in an utterly alien city. Yay Canada.
In the morning I walked to the CN Tower from where I was staying but got a bit lost on the way and thus by the time I got down the town I had less than two hours before my flight left. There was much running and subwaying. I got to the station with negative minutes to spare, but the nice Canadian let me on my plane anyway.

I got to Vancouver to be summoned to the baggage officers desk over the PA. My luggage was in Toronto. So I headed to the ferry with much less luggage than expected. Fortunately my Aunt Ellen was at the ferry terminal in Nanaimo to meet me, or I'd have been in trouble.

Now, I am Matthew the Stinky until my luggage finds me.

Over

Last night, I met up with Kirk (the only American I in any way befriended) and went for some open bar goodness just after having written the last entry. Then off to the dance. There is something very troublesome about watching aging academics get their funk on.
The one piece of advice Greg gave me for my trip, was to not drink too much. Well, I didn't exactly follow it. I remember having a great time, but the specifics aren't so hot. It seems I was a bit too open about having a little bit of a crush on one of the group of Canadians that I'd been hanging out with. It seems I danced like a spaz. It seems my sense of humour didn't entirely go over well (I think the word 'atrocious' was used).
Good night all around.

This morning, though feeling a touch worse for wear, I made it to the 8:30am session after a very luxuriously slow lunch of inedible crud. Cafeteria food badness has taken its toll.

Time I go pack up my stuff. The conference is over and people have mostly already left. I have to go be a tourist in Kalamazoo itself rather than just on the Western Michigan campus of doom. Tonight I'll doze in a greyhound and tomorrow I'll be in the big T.O.

Medieval Brewers

I went to a medieval ale and mead tasting. I drank a lot of a high alcohol wormwood ale, and a fair amount of a lot of other things. I think the wormwood was the mistake - I'm being quirky enough to be bugging myself.

It was delicious though. I never knew mead could taste good, the stuff I'd tried on many occasions before had never convinced me.

Just had a long chat to a Russian-born-Israel-raised-Canadian about how much America blows goats. Was great, but lead to missing the comedy session (though what I could hear through the door sounded lamer than Little Britain).

Academic fraudness confirmed

After writing the last entry, I went got my first American donut, with icing and sprinkles. Basically, since they were free, I picked the one that most looked like part of a caricature of American culture. I was vile, I ate about a third of it wishing that I hadn't. I put it in the rubbish bin where I'd met the chipmunk.

My presentation appeared to go very well. Mostly people were smiling and nodding - except the girl presenting after me, she had an evil gleam. I sat down, she gave her presentation, covering some of the same material but much better and disproving a chunk of my argument. What I thought was wrong and my wrongness made very obvious to all there.
Needless to say, I didn't benefit from the question section. No-one felt the need to ask me anything much after Kimberly had already taken me down.

Then, a very rushed lunch. At which was everyone I'd been checking out that had led to my "disturbing realisation about personal skankiness". Turns out after having slept the being manic off, it was gone. I'm not turning in to a creepy old lech after all, I just have limits on my tolerance of sleep deprivation. Little yay.

Then it was off to the business meeting of the Pearl-Poet Society. It was implied I sort of had to go, so I did. My being there didn't exactly achieve anything for anyone, but afterward I had a chat with Kimberly who said my presentation wasn't bad and if she'd not been there that I "would have got away with it". Quite a polite way to mock my being wrong and her being right.

Then I went to a session on Performance and Play in Gawain. Game theory can be entertaining. I wasn't keeping up though. My brain is fried. So I'm currently wagging the last session of the day. There were several things that looked like they could have been interesting - but nothing I was sure could wake up my brain. Presenting is oddly exhausting.

And after seven hours, the chipmunk hasn't touched the donut. I guess even chipmunks have standards about what garbage they will eat. As usual, my desire to give pleasure to the small and furry has ended in failure.

It still bother me that mid-afternoon where is 8am tomorrow morning at home.

I present in an hour

I hate taking photos of myself. I feel like a complete tool, but thought that since Alana had dressed me so well, I should show it off a little.

I've finally managed a single night of mostly proper sleep, so hopefully I'll not nod off in my own presentation the way I have in too many others.


Attempts to fix my powerpoint have failed, it will just have to not be in Junicode, and thus feature a very ugly yogh.

This place has tornado warning posters everywhere. I was entertained.

Music

I went along to a concert of 14th century Italian music, pretty much only because someone I am finding disturbingly attractive (mostly due to being entirely unobtainable) asked me. It was interesting, but mostly a waste of US$20.
I think it is the lack of sleep, but I am being a much friendlier sober-person than is usual for me.

Tonight I've avoiding the open bars, I have to give my presentation in the morning. Somehow I forgot to embed my fonts into my powerpoint, so it is going to be less aesthetically pleasing than intended. Which is a touch frustrating, and means there will be more attention paid to me - it was supposed to be so pretty it would keep the audience distracted.

I saw a squirrel out my window, but suspect I ended up just taking a photo of the tree. Later when I didn't have my camera I passed a rubbish bin out of which climbed a couple of the buggers. Quite cute for vermin. As are chipmunks - which I also discovered in a rubbish bin.

Toronto is a bad influence

After dinner, which was fried and tasteless, I went to a queer theory session, and dozed through two of the papers but managed to stay awake through the Sir Gawain one - I'm trying to go to every Sir Gawain session I can.
It was the first time I've asked questions - though it wasn't so much to ask a question as to correct something the girl had said. Theorists have a bit of a habit of only reading things in translation and even then a touch half arsedly.

Then I headed to the Toronto University function, having been invited (it was open to everyone anyway). They had an open bar with spirits. While chatting to various people, I got progressively more and more hammered. Was a very pleasant evening.

The wonders of alcohol, I could ignore my body clock enough to get six or seven hours sleep. If I can sleep that much again tonight I may survive Kalamazoo.

Typing is proving very hard today, I think the general lack of sleep all week is actually hitting me harder now my body remembers what it has been missing out on.

Still a bit manic too. I miss sleep. And beds with actual mattresses.

There are mostly no papers on Gawain today, I went to a lecture on the spread of Islam through Christian Syria this morning, it was awesome. There are sessions on now - the first time I've missed possible papers the whole time I've been here. I might pick one at random and sneak in to it late.

I'm an academic fraud after all.

Just went to two dedicated Pearl-Poet session in a row. A point raised in the question section of one points out a hole in my argument that I'd never noticed (as someone else had the same hole in a wholly different argument.

Sessions were good. I disagreed with almost everything one woman said, but it was mostly interpretation stuff - only a tiny bit was her being plain wrong.

Having trouble staying awake. Weird hours are not such a good thing. I think I'll go to the Brewer open bar for a little while tonight and then try to get me some sleep.

I am also still a little manic, which is bad.

Take care

Realisations

All academics are academic-frauds. The first session I went to featured Tolkien fans talking about Sir Gawain, but basing their knowledge only on Tolkien's essay, not the text.
I feel less dumb now.

Have also realised that sleep deprivation seems to be exacerbating the most embarrassing tendency in what I find attractive. It is quite the worry.

American food continues to be bad. And the service workers slightly unpleasant in demeanor.

8:35 Thursday morning

I just had a full cooked breakfast. The eggs weren't made of eggs. The bacon was bad/wrong. Even the water tastes bad. With food this horrid, I really don't understand how fat Americans exist.
How will I comfort eat when the food is what I need comforting from?..
Conference starts properly in about an hour. Last night's functions were pleasant. A local, Kirk, showed me around and gave me someone to pretend I had friends with at the film, festival and open bar function afterward.
Heavy sleep deprivation combined with an open bar proved a less than ideal combination. The lack of sleep had made me quite manic (which is still proving an issue), so I'm probably making everyone think Kiwi's are insanely cheerful and friendly to everyone ever.
I think a student from Toronto may have been hitting on me, but the whole manicness thing makes such trust in my perception illogical.
American cheese isn't cheese either.
I got to bed, fell asleep and woke at about 4am, which in real time is 8 this evening, and then couldn't get back to sleep. Looks like I'll stay sleep deprived for a while more.
Doh, Couchsurfing.com is down - and I still need to sort accommedation in Toronto.

I should go, before I start complaining about the crapness of my host country any more. I'm starting to hope the terrorists win.

Napping doesn't help

My room here is stuffy and breathless and stupidly warm - and there is nothing to do about it. The concrete box has non-opening windows. I suspect they wouldn't help anyway, as the town is stuffy and unpleasant. Hopefully if the weather turns it'l become more liveable.

The only water availible in the building I am in is from the bathroom taps. Drinking water is by vending machine only. US$1 for about 300mL. I'm not liking this country at all.

At least, after how the US is shaping up, even if things in Canada go horribly wrong they will seem great simply due to not being in the USA.

Upside down

I got my packing sorted, with a couple of hours to spare (also running on basically no sleep, having lain awake half the night). Then my grandparents arrived about two minutes late, by which point I'd convinced myself my ride had fallen through and it would all end in tears.

I got to the airport, got everything sorted and then had a nice long wait chatting to my grandparents before I fly to Christchurch for just long enough to swap planes. The flight to Auckland was weird. They had a cash food service (I had no cash - and would have been morally opposed anyway). From the air Auckland looked pretty much as expected. My sole experience of the city - walking between the terminals.
In the departure lounge for my flight to San Fran I started chatting up a nice looking stranger. Fortunately, at least when I'm sober, my hitting on people is typically mild enough that no one seems to notice much. There was no comment made about it anyway. Boarding the plane, and we turned out to be across the aisle from each other, which gave me someone to talk to. I had an empty seat beside me, and across that a guy who turned out to know Ackers from my department at home, quite well. The world sometimes seems very small.
The flight was too damn long, and I didn't manage to sleep through enough of it. I did see Pan's Labyrinth, Music and Lyrics, Stranger the Fiction, The Prestige and a few episodes of Extras along the way. After an entirely uneventful trip through customs, where my stuff was entirely ignored, I headed to the BART system to go to San Fran. Here I bumped into someone I'd talked to on my flight, so ended up with a public transport buddy to get me in to town. He even, usefully, knew what was going on and thus could work me through the BART system as if I was a retard. And I've enough sleep deprivation going on, that I sort of was. San Fran was fun for the first wee bit when I was with someone, but after he found his hotel (hidden inside a Betty Boop theme diner), I headed off alone. I rode the cable car to fishermans wharf, got photos of things. That island. That bridge. The windy street. But it rapidly became very not fun. And people were quite unhelpful. I guess they are secure enough in their tourist income to not have to try. Then can be crappy and know people will still come. I got dodgy chinese food at a place using the WWF logo panda - quite shamelessly - and headed back to the airport to work through my conference programme until it was time for my flight to Chicago. I slept through most of that flight, but did notice the main difference between Air New Zealand and United, is that Air New Zealand is cleaner and prettier and tries harder. I seem to be detecting a theme of complacency.
The flight to Kalamazoo, I was sure the air host was taking the Michael. Either that or he was a bit special and a complete fruit. The city it spread out and odd, like it is trying to hide from itself.
The conference accommodation was an unpleasant surprise. After 37 hours travel, when it is sensible hours here by the little hours of the morning at home, I got to the accommodation for a shower. The place is mank. I know dorm rooms are supposed to be simple but I was expected NZ-style hall rooms, not prison cells. And I'm talking Milton Hilton here, I talking concrete boxes with plastic mattresses on chipboard bunk frames and what I'm assuming is supposed to be a blanket (it's a gross brown thing, I assumed was a mattress guard, but then realised it must be intended as a the sole blanket).
I'm not impressed. Which is saying a lot, my standards are pretty low. I just like things to be identifiable.

I am so sleep deprived. Tonight I shall probably sleep well, even though the bed is horrid.
I may also be gibbering like an idiot. It's hard to tell as people can't understand me anyway.

Stupid computer lab doesn't have picasa, or a mail client - and I've never worked out how to make windows auto shrink a picture without a mail client to send it to. So I'll only post a couple, as they'll be huge.

Scariness

This time tomorrow I'll no longer be able to say I've never been further north than Rotorua without it being a lie. This time tomorrow (on my second tomorrow (see on time travelling in Itinerary entry)), I'll be in that dirty other hemisphere already back in the airport after my day touristing in San Fran. To tourist is so a verb.

Tomorrow I'm gone. Boring post about packing.

Today I'm panicking and failing to pack.

I did get my conference paper into multiple forms, including multi-formatting the power point presentation. Not that I'm paranoid....
I also bought myself a copy of The God Delusion to read on the plane. Which now strikes me as a bit of a waste, as I've still not read the copy of The Selfish Gene I got a few years back. I could have saved myself so money. Oh, well.

I have too much luggage. I'm braving going without my sleeping bag, and it is irksomely bulky. I think I will try and fit my also irksomely bulky jacket in somewhere/somehow as I think I may end up needing it. If everything goes to poo, I'll have my visa (which the bank teller assures me should work fine over there).

Anyway, I have panicking to get back to. Panic first, pack later....

As things go

People having been asking to see the stupid hair. So here it is. As you can see, it has a stupid amount of fringe and sticks up funny. Not the haircut I wanted (which was the one I get every time, with varying degrees of success).


In response to my homo-marriage plan I received the following advice:
"Yes never get married, to anyone, without checking how to get unmarried and what it will cost you. So speaketh she with the law degree. Although that should in no way be interpreted as legal advice as I don't have a practising certificate or, more importantly, any liability insurance :-)"
I guess I will have to think about homo-annulment, or just come up with a new running gag for this thing.

Roger Hall thinks I'm funny.

I think my conference paper is as ready as it will ever be. I have given it to my supervisor who will email me over the weekend if there is anything major to sort.

Otherwise I'm just stressing and failing to sort accommodation in Toronto. I have now, at least, sort getting from Vancouver to Campbell River.

Oh, yes. I also have clothes sorted for my presentation.
Alana, my Sugar-Mama, took me out and dressed me. She got me a stupidly expensive shirt which makes me look skinnier than I am, and a belt that draws attention to places I'd never feel comfortable drawing attention to but which she was very keen on. She also heavily subsidised a very expensive pair of jeans. They are nice, I look forward to my presentation being over so I can live in them until they die.
Alana is very good to me, I should smuggle her as my second piece of luggage. Asians are tiny and weight nothing.

Itinerary

Okay, I thought I should give people a heads up of when I was going to be where. So they could get out of dodge and avoid me more easily.

Tuesday May 8th. I will be arriving at San Fran in the morning, while at the same time still be packing frantically in Dunedin (where I don't leave till after lunch). The wonders of time travel, thrown in for free with my flights. That evening I fly both from Auckland to San Fran, and frm San Fran to Chicago.

Wednesday May 9th. I leave Chicago not long after arriving, and get to Kalamazoo in time for breakfast. I have a room from noon onward. For the next few days I conference.

Saturday May 12th. I present the yet uncompleted paper on Gawain to a hopefully not too large or mean audience. That night I get trolleyed in front of many academics - whom will hopefully all be too drunk to notice the funny antipodean retard.

Sunday May 13th. Conference ends about lunch. In the evening I board a Greyhound for Toronto. The aim is to sleep on the bus.

Monday May 14th. Arrive in Toronto at 6:30 in the morning and have absolutely nothing sorted, not even accommodation. May go to Niagara for the day. Or homo-marry a random. Will probably Youth Hostel for the night - I should really sort that.

Tuesday May 15th. Leave Toronto mid-afternoon for Vancouver. Will spend about three times as long in the plane as will have passed in the outside world. Again with the time travel. once in Vancouver, will climb on a boat to go stalk Elvis Costello in Nanaimo. Eventually find my family.

No plans for the following two weeks as I'm expecting family will have made plans for me.

Wednesday? May 30th. Get back to Vancouver, climb on a plane for home.

Thursday May 31st. Will not exist, Gods will steal this day from me in some sort of divine punishment for my whole time travelling gig weeks earlier. I shall feel robbed.

1 June. Wellington. Will visit there, staying with ex-fiancée and her current fiancé-wot-she-is-actually-marrying for a few days (I got those the right way around, right? Stupid frog-spelling).
Then head south, visit Christchurch for a day or two depending on if anyone will house me, then return home to see how much everyone has entirely failed to miss me.

Postcards

I'm too lazy to sort out who I have to send postcards to, much less keep track of where they live. So, anyone who wants post cards should send an email to the following address. (I.e. my gmail address with the subject "addresses for postcards").

I make no promises though, as postage doesn't grow on trees. Well, not in a usable form.

It has been pointed out that before I homo-marry a random for the comedy value that I should probably look in to the Canuck's laws on homo-annulment.

In happier news, a point for mankind over ladykind. My conference haircut is indeed stupid. The girls in my office, as spokeswomen for all ladies everywhere where wrong. Victory to man...

Still too many preparations

I sorted making duplicate copies of much of my paperwork today - just in case things so horribly wrong. My aunt's paranoia is rubbing off on me.
I also got a haircut as to not look like a crazy person when I present. I don't like it, I think it looks stupid, but the girls from my office all seem to think it is good. Girls do have infinitely more knowledge of these things.

I still haven't sorted my trip to Niagara, or my accommodation in Toronto - but I'm assuming Youth Hostels oughtn't be too complicated. And who know, I may change plans by then. I could get homo-married on my one day in Toronto and stay at my new husbands place, it would make for an hilarious anecdote to post on this thing - having got homo-married just coz I was in Canada where it is all legal-like.

I also have to finish writing my paper - which I'll probably post on here a day or two after I've presented it. Or when I get the chance.