~ ANNE! ~

Gah, I stand corrected. Rob says:

The "adventures in substitutions" in your latest journal sound
entertaining. I'm especially impressed that Lysianne decided to attempt a pie without *any* of the ingredients! Heh.

Your last comment doesn't sit right, though -- chemists could take out a
building or two, maybe even a couple of city blocks, but it takes a
*physicist* to blow up the world. ;) For example

Hmph. It's been kind of nice living a physicist-free life for the last few months... I have been able to make whatever grandiose claims I want and no one corrects me!

While I'm pasting links in, if someone feels like giving me a Diaryland Gold membership for Christmas (so I can stick some pictures in this thing!), here's how ya do it.

One more sleep till I get to go to Holland! Very pleased. As of today I've been working for 20 days straight (right through since the beginning of December, though granted only five hours a day). I'm feeling very ground down and can't seem to summon up my usual joie de vivre. I just want a real job and can't seem to get one no matter how hard I try. And I am trying! Interviews last week were a bit of a shambles. Interview 1: They kept asking me questions about what the job would be like, completely confusing me (how should I know??) So I just guessed. Then, at the very end of the interview, it came out that someone was supposed to have sent me a job description before the interview. And didn't. Argh. They did forward me one afterwards, but it was a bit late to make a good impression by reading and quoting it!

Interview 2: They gave me a slightly bizarre task ("Print off three address labels and write a mock email to a Nigerian student"), which was easy enough. But during the actual interview, they mentioned the fact that I'm extremely overqualified for the job at least four times. I'm wondering if they had someone else in mind for it and wanted to explain to me in advance why they didn't give it to me. This is not encouraging...

On the plus side, in work-related news, I got a wee bonus from the golf course - coincidentally, exactly enough to go speed-dating with Shannon in January. So that should be entertaining (or excruciating, not quite sure which) at the very least. She really wants to try it and I must say I'm curious.

I also got some weatherstripping in the mail today! Perfect timing, as it's just gotten colder again. In fact, I had to break out my birthday toque to go out last night. (Bright yellow with stripes, from Steph of course). I tried to go skating down in Princes Street Gardens, but sadly got there just as they were closing. I hope I can go next week. I miss skating like you wouldn't believe.

Went to see Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera, the movie, this weekend. It was an interesting experience, since I was obsessed with the musical for YEARS when I was a kid. I listened to the soundtrack over and over, and pored over books about the show. Getting tickets from my parents to actually go see Phantom was one of the best Christmas presents I ever received. My brothers and I even made little "Phantom of the Opera" puppets. I remember making Christine (blue lace dress) and Carlotta (black silk) and Tim did the Phantom himself, complete with miniature tuxedo.

As it turns out, well over ten years on, I still have the entire script and all the songs memorized. It was actually pretty funny. As soon as the auctioneer at the beginning opened his mouth I could recite the whole speech along with him. (Though I refrained as much as possible so I didn't get murdered by the people sitting around me!) "Lot 666 then, a chandelier in pieces. Some of you may recall the strange affair of the Phantom of the Opera, a mystery never fully explained..." It's weird how it's stuck with me. Probably taking up brain space I should be using for something more relevant...

Anyway, I rather enjoyed the movie even though it's been getting less-than-amazing reviews. (I have somewhat lowbrow taste in entertainment). I really didn't like the girl who played Christine, though. Not impressed at all. Rather than actually acting, she just stood around with her mouth open 90% of the time she was on the screen! She just looked sort of stunned all the time. I know Christine is not meant to be the brightest of characters (hmmmm, let's see: is this man WHO I'VE ALREADY MET an angel, my dead father, or a ghost?) It also annoyed me that everyone seemed to have a different accent, for no reason at all.

Minnie Driver was pretty great as Carlotta, though. (Did you know her voice was done by a Scottish lady? The papers up here got pretty snippy when the lady who sang Carlotta's voice didn't get invited to the film premiere!) Anyway, the whole thing's a bit ridiculous, but I liked it anyway. Possibly for that very reason. All that overblown Gothy drama! Too bad this didn't come out when I was 12. I would have been over the moon.