~ ANNE! ~

Oh man, it�s one of those Mondays � one of those Mondays I don�t like. I told Caroline, who sits beside me, that I was going to get some coffee because I couldn�t be bothered with people and their STUPID questions this morning, and I thought caffiene might help. Caroline put her head on one side, looked at me and said, �I think you�re thinking of gin, dear.�

Too bad it�s sort of frowned upon in an office environment or I might take her advice.

(I�m not serious, of course. I hate gin. Tastes like pine needles. Vodka, on the other hand�)

Yep, just one of those Mondays where the computers are all screwed up and the phones won�t stop ringing�

Oh well, had a decent weekend at least although unfortunately I spent the entire thing thinking of all the places I could have been apart from here. Could have joined Brad in his jaunt around the south of England (he made it from John O�Groats to Lands End in six weeks {not directly by any means though!} and I should have been there as well) or could have gone to Budapest to hang out with Kelly and Lindsay. RATS. The reason I didn�t was that I�m still trying to pay off my plane ticket to get home. I�m never ahead money-wise because I spend all my money travelling� trying to decide whether to continue that policy and go somewhere interesting before I leave, or to behave myself, stay in Edinburgh and have money left for Christmas presents. So far I have taken the prudent course and am starting to regret it. I saw a week in Egypt for �200 on Lastminute.com, so everyone might be getting a tin of cheap shortbread for Christmas!

Anyway, did not do much exciting this weekend although I did catch up on my chores. Very productive of me considering I went out both nights � went out but did not drink anything (hardly) due to aforementioned desire to pay my way back to Canada. Small economies are the way to go. Friday I went to Whistle Binkies with Brandon and his friend Johnny. Whistle Binkies has live music of varying quality seven nights a week, so it�s usually a good bet. Friday was a middle-aged cover band, and the cougars were out in force. I convinced Andrew to come out with me and we spent the night cougar-watching, which was hugely amusing. One in particular attempted to pick up every band member in turn and then (when rebuffed) started in on the 20-year-olds. Ah, cougars, always the same the world over� (this one appeared to be Kiwi from the accent).

Saturday night I tagged along with Andrew to a Black Metal Night at the university. I don�t actually like metal of any variety very much (especially black, probably) but I figured it might be entertaining. Andrew kindly lent me some extremely heavy black eyeliner and weird black lipstick with silver sparkles, so I fit right in. Sort of� the vast majority of other people there were overweight guys with a LOT of hair wearing black band t-shirts. I think they were all gamers as well. It was quite entertaining watching them slam each other around on the dance floor and sing all the lyrics - half of which, according to Andrew, were in Norwegian. I wore my earplugs and actually quite enjoyed myself.

The highlight of the evening was when, for some reason, the wee skinny guy behind the bar decided it would be a good idea to mop the dance floor. Concurrently with several dozen large men slamming each other around it. So out he came with his mop and bucket and proceeded to mop around the dancers. Andrew and I were just watching this with our mouths open. The finishing touch was when he came back with one of those yellow �wet floor� signs and stuck it on the dance floor as well. Of course it got drop-kicked into the DJ booth within about two minutes, so the little guy came scampering back out and resolutely set it back up. Someone else grabbed it and threw it at his mate and it ended up in two bits. Finally the skinny guy came back out and very sternly had a word with a completely innocent guy on the edge of the dancefloor. Very amusing.

Did not do much else on the weekend, except insulate my windows (difficult to impossible to get the tape to stick, as there�s condensation all over the window frames that I can�t get rid of) and watched the Oilers-Flames game. Sadly the Oilers got shut out, much to the joy of the Calgarians. And I boiled up the remains of our Thanksgiving chicken to make broth (though in limited quantities due to lack of a big pot).

And that�s it.