~ ANNE! ~

I tried haggis! Well, to be honest it was one forkful, and it also contained neeps and tatties, but hey, it counts. Check one more item off the "Scottish things to try" list.

Speaking of neeps (or turnips, for those not fluent in Scots), there's some kind of weird discrepancy here. There are things called turnips and things called swedes, and the swedes look like turnips to me. To furthur complicate the issue, Martin the chef tells me that what are swedes here are called turnips down south (England) - they're basically reversed. I know I'm once again displaying my pathetic knowledge of the vegetable kingdom, but can someone tell me whether we have swedes or the equivalent in Canada? Or are they all just called turnips? Swedes are giant and darker, turnips are smaller and lighter. (And why the heck are they called swedes anyway? Presumably they didn't come from Sweden...)

Anyway. Questions about vegetables aside (and I have tons, all of which I ask Martin... poor guy is probably sick of me by now) (but I figure I may as well learn something from this crap job) I haven't been up to much. Feeling extremely broke at the moment, though having taken a stern look at my finances it turns out it's not as bad as I thought. Still, it's enough to keep me home a lot doing cheap things, like reading recipe books. The early nights and the coldish weather are making me want to make a lot of soups and other warm things. I've even purchased a swede!

Aussie Scott's visit went pretty well. I didn't do all that much with him (due to work and the aforementioned lack of funds - and the fact that I did all my partying with Paulina on the weekend!) We sat around and talked a lot. Talking being what Aussie Scott excels at. He managed to see a lot of things during the day while I was at work, though, so I think it was a good trip for him. He did manage to leave his mobile charger behind, though, grrrr, so I will have to send that back. (Yes, it's completely hypocritical for me to say this, as I left my battery charger at Julie's when I left her place in Plymouth!)

I'm amazed I haven't gotten sick yet. I think it's a combination of taking all that vitamin B (Steph swears by it) and trying to eat properly. One thing about a kitchen job, at least you're guaranteed one free meal per day! For that alone the job's almost worth it. Speaking of Steph, I talked to her yesterday. She has this amazing motivating effect on me sometimes, such that I actually got my butt out of bed early this morning and went downtown to see about jobs. Didn't do me much good as I forgot the address for the job centre, but I walked around a bit and am starting to learn the layout of the city centre. If I can pull the same thing off tomorrow I may be getting somewhere.

I think I'm starting to pick up the hang of the accent here (though I still have trouble with May, the owner of the restaurant). I'm surprised I haven't started saying "Aye" yet, because it's used roughly twice per sentence here. You can almost have a conversation consisting of the one word.

Anyway, must print off resumes and go do something useful besides spend money in the internet cafe...