that canadian girl

I was about to leave a comment on Robert Scoble’s blog when he posted that he was celebrating seven years of blogging, and looking back at what had happened in that time. Having blogged for about the same length of time, I’m also amazed at how much things have changed. Thought I’d write my own entry.

In 2000, I was graduating from High School, starting Uni in Communication. I think that at that stage, I was hoping to be a news researcher for the CBC, or work in media somewhere. I had a severe addiction to the Internet - as confirmed by my parents, who could never receive a phone call due to my hogging of their phone line for dial-up access.

Having created my first website in 1994 during a “Discover the internet” summer course, over the years, writing online came in different incarnations, most too vague in memory and now lost in the ether somewhere on the web.

In the spirit of year-end retrospect life reviews, here’s what’s happened in the past 7 years or so…

In those years, I survived…

1. Started University in Comm, with no career clearly defined in my mind.
2. Met a Brit who stole my heart.
3. Took a year off Uni to go live in England. Loved it and vowed to return.
4. Finished University, graduating with flying colours and a conviction that I’d work in that wild world of the web, working in marketing, PR, communication or something along those lines.
5. Moved to the UK permanently, bought a house.
6. Got married.
7. Learned to drive and bought my first car.
8. A dozen jobs of varying level of responsibility, in creating teaching resources, youth care research, publishing (x5 jobs in editorial and marketing), marketing & biz dev in the hotel industry, email marketing, blogging & community evangelism in mobile tech, and thrown somewhere in there, I started my own web dev/marketing agency. Damn, not bad unh?
9. Joined far too many social networks too.
10. Tried a dozen GTD apps (yet I’m still as disorganised as I ever was)
11. Saw my little sister Jo get engaged to her high school sweetheart, to be married a few days from now.
12. Bought a new house and organised an imminent house move (didn’t know about that one yet, did ya? More on that later!)

There’s probably a lot more stuff I could add, but in this early morning jetlagged haze, I’m realising quite how nice the thought of croissants and jam, sitting at the dining table with my parents for the first time in a year and a half sounds.

I’ll have a drink (of eggnog or coffee) to the next seven years, at the end of which I’ll still be blogging - or publishing my thoughts online in one shape or form, whatever the terminology is then!

After a few quiet no-blogging days, I thought it was time for a light-hearted post, while I’m sitting in this hotel lobby in Helsinki. I’ve been tagged by Whatleydude, a fellow mobile industry colleague and iPhone addict.

But first - here are the rules:

• We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
• Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
• People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Right well… here goes nothing…

1. I’m addicted to trying new, weird and wonderful food. Put one of my favourite meals side-by-side with something I’ve never tried, and odds are I’ll go for the unfamiliar dish. Give me weird new types of sushi, dishes with names I can’t pronounce and I’ll go with them. Unless I need comfort food or I’m PMS’ing, then only familiar food will do. I guess this isn’t news to anyone who’s ever been out to a restaurant with me!
2. I studied vocal music for 5 years at De La Salle High School in Ottawa. In fact, I played the toreador in our school production of Carmen (yeah, the opera). We were pretty much an all-girls class so we found ourselves playing both female and male roles. Being an alto (or, as I like to think, a lazy mezzosoprano), I got male roles too often for my liking. My dad was a music teacher, so doing music in high school was a natural decision. This also makes me a total Broadway/musicals addict.
3. The only running thread between all the jobs I’ve had since ~2001 is that I’ve geekified every single one of them far beyond the original job description. They say you mold the job by your personality, abilities and interests. So I guess that makes me a geek.
4. French is my first language and at the core of my upbringing and childhood culture. Yet I’ve never had a French-speaking boyfriend as a teenager, and married a Brit.
5. I was born to be a bartender. I absolutely love making cocktails, either to someone else’s recipe or making up my own. I don’t understand how anyone can think it’s complicated/difficult to shake a few ingredients that go well together with ice and pour them in a martini glass!
6. I’m not a big fan of TV. In fact, I would happily live without. But I do love the Apple TV and would replace traditional with more fun, relevant video podcasts, free from traditional advertising. I don’t mind Diggnation being sponsored by beer people half as much as I mind loud, aggressive ad breaks.
7. I don’t hold a grudge. I’ve never had something so serious that I haven’t resolved it or agreed to discuss it before bedtime, whether business or personal. My grandfather told me never to go to sleep on an argument, and I think he’s right. The damage can be undone if it’s talked through early on, but go to bed on it and you might do permanent damage.
8. I didn’t travel by plane until I was 18, at which point I went to Vancouver with a high school choir. Until that point, all holidays were land-based trips with the family. Since then, I’ve been flying for all sorts of work and holiday reasons.

Now I need to tag people. Well, let’s go for a few friends and a few work people.

• Lisa, the yummy mummy
• Gemma, bloggeresse and fashionista
• Liz at Geek Mum, because I bet her answers will be funny
• Tara at Horsepigcow, my favourite Canadian in the USA, and inspiration in this crazy world2.0
• Stephen Davies, of PR Blogger fame
• Matt at The Watchmaker Project, though I bet he never does this
• And finally, two bloggers who I’d like to get to know better. Lloyd at Perfect Path
• And Raimo, fellow mobilist who I didn’t get the chance to meet in person on Monday.

Only four sleeps left until Christmas. Motivation to do anything is rather low. Distractions are welcome. And then I get tagged by Matt! Well, how could I resist?

Five things you (probably) didn’t know about me:

1. I once went straight from an all-night rave to singing in an early Sunday morning classical concert at the National Gallery in Ottawa. I only just had time to shower and change from oversized jeans and sparkly stuff into white blouse and black pencil skirt. I promptly fell asleep the moment we went off stage.
2. I met my British husband online, on xvi.com to be precise *cringe*
3. I may be Canadian, but I know nothing of English-language Canadian music. I bet my British musicophile colleagues could name more Canadian bands than I can.
4. As a child, I was a very evil older sister. I’d regularly throw things to the floor and ask one of my three younger sisters to pick them up, just to establish my authority!
5. I still own, and wear, cartoon underpants sometimes. My favourite ones have a lion and pink paws on them (and you probably didn’t want to know that!)
6. I can’t count very well…

I’m now tagging Lisa, Mat, Liz, and two writers from the same blog, Steph and Annabel.

A blogger’s guilty pleasure, filling in a meme. I’ve got an immense backlog of things I want to post, as many personal ones as great marketing finds and business ideas. But it’s like having the choice between a double spiced rum and coke or a glass of water, I’ll choose the one that pickles my brain and leave the healthy stuff for later.

I found this meme on Keris Stainton’s blog, she’s another Shiny Media writer who I’ve yet to meet (Hi Keris!).

So here goes nuffin’…
Read the rest of this entry »

If you don’t, I’m not in the mood to explain what it is, so visit the site and figure it out.

But if you do…

This used to be on the About Me page, but I’ve decided to move it and make room for other stuff on there. Just like I can’t bring myself to throw out anything that could potentially be useful when doing a Spring cleaning, I can’t bring myself to delete posts altogether, so I’ve moved it here.

I love…

• People who just ooze good mood for no apparent reason and seem to brighten the room
• Strong coffee - just one a day, thanks, otherwise I’m up in the curtains
• Shiny new gadgets
• Blogging - I’ve got a big gob, I need to tell everyone about everything. By blogging it, at least it’s up to the reader to get to the end of the story. When you’re listening to me, you’re a bit stuck because I’m unlikely to shut up anytime soon…
• Clever marketing and ad campaigns - They don’t always take big bucks, they just take some clever thinking.
• People who challenge my ideas - I used to feel intimidated by them, but now I love a good devil’s advocate to make me look at all aspects of an idea.
• My amazing family - Being this far from home can be tough, especially when your family is as cool and completely wacky as mine is. They don’t seem to hold it against me that I’ve decided to settle down on the wrong side of the Pond, but I’m sorry anyways.

I loathe…

• People who smell funky at 9am - didn’t it cross your mind that you should have a shower before leaving for work?
• The feeling you get after eating McDonalds or Burger King for the first time in a couple of years, a bit like a brick in your stomach
• Driving - Ok, maybe not “loathe” anymore, but it still creeps the living hell out of me to be in a moving heap of metal at 100mph. The creepiest part is that people trust ME to be in control of it. I don’t mind the 100mph when some other people I trust are driving!
• My shitty memory - How am I supposed to remember all those logins and passwords?
• Ironically, adverts. I get excited about good marketing and advertising campaigns, but I still detest adverts on TV. Especially the ones for loans or claims against your employer. That’s why I watch and listen to the BBC most of the time!
• People who aren’t careful with their stuff - You know, you lend that brand new DVD to a friend and it comes back with the box tatty and the disc scratched? And they don’t explain or apologise, because to them, it’s “normal wear and tear”, because they’re not particular with their own belongings.

It was Lisa’s idea… so I thought I’d improve on it and add another category to make it a 7×7.

I could post something wittier tonight, but it’s simply not possible. The mental power gets used at work these days, which leaves me feeling like a braindead drooling idiot in the evening. Or maybe that’s the drinking. Well, either way, here goes nuttin’.

7 things to do before I die:

• Visit Japan and eat real sushi
• Live or at least travel for an extended period of time in the South of France
• Be my own boss and run my own business for a while (and sell it and get rich…)
• Be in an amateur musical production again (hopefully not TOO amateur…)
• Learn to drive (soon)
• Record and write about my life enough to leave something behind for the future generations
• Know that I’ve achieved the things I’ve always wanted to do and just be happy with life

7 things I cannot do:

• Read a livejournal blog
• Watch an MTV-related channel without muting it more often than not
• Pretend I want babies any time soon
• Make roast potatoes as good as Andrew’s
• Remember ANYTHING. My memory is absolutely horrible.
• Wear high heels and a dressy skirt for more than a few hours, I need my jeans
• Program anything in any language. I’d like to be able to but it’s not currently part of my skillset…

7 things that attracted me to blogging:

• Being able to motormouth and talk complete codshit without anyone telling me to shut up (or if they do, I can delete their comments, hah!)
• The idea of recording life snippets to look back on years later
• Keeping a diary without ever having to handwrite or worry about losing my diary
• The idea of an online presence - Had some sort of personal online space since 1994, not about to give it up! How many 13 year old girls had their own website on 94?
• Being able to show-off that my hubby’s a designer and made me a unique and very cool design
• Knowing that by writing my own, I’ll end up reading some fascinating, interesting or lousy blogs, but at least I’ll keep up with what’s happening in that sphere of technology.
• Being able to tell ONCE what is happening in my life and directing friends and family, especially the ones across the Pond, to ze blog.

7 things I say the most:

• Did I really say/do that? I truly don’t remember saying/doing that! (Andrew will vouch for my complete and utter lack of a memory of what I do)
• Pepperrell, that’s P-E-Double P-E-Double R-E-Double L, yes, double everything.
• Andrew, you get up, it’s your turn to go shower first this morning…
• OMG, I’m SO blogging that!
• American? I’ve known you this long and you think I’m American? You’re SO blacklisted!
• I’m going to jump off a bridge… Where’s the nearest one to the office, guys? (at which point they all gladly point me in the right direction… Are they trying to get rid of me or something?)
• Ooooh, I HAVE to have that gadget!

7 books I love:

• Three Quarters of the Orange, by Joanne Harris
• Any Jamie Oliver cookbooks, for their simplicity, beautiful pictures and for being so inspiring to try new things
• However mainstream the next two may be… Harry Potter collection, particularly the dark dark Triwizard Tournament one.
• DaVinci Code by Dan Brown, for being unusual and interesting
• 1984, because I only read it recently, having skipped Grade 10 English class when they read it.
• Bridget Jones books (not so keen on the movies), because she’s so unpretentious and genuinely trying to figure stuff out, like the rest of us.
• I don’t read enough books!

7 Movies I love:

• Lucky if I can find 7 movies, I’m not a big TV/Movies person… But definitely Hackers is up there as part of my collection of classics
• Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain is THE movie to remind me not to take life too too seriously
• L’Auberge espagnole, because it makes me dream of travelling again
• There, I’m already struggling to think of more movies…
• Because I can’t think of any more movies…
• I’ll fill up this space and say…
• La Course Destination Monde, while not a movie, was full of short movies that changed my views of the world and my life wouldn’t have turned out the way it has if it hadn’t been for it.

7 things you hold true at this very moment:

• I need a bare minimum of 7 hours of sleep to function properly, which is an improvement to my previous unbelievable grumpiness if I didn’t get a full 8 hours
• Dooce is one of the coolest bloggers of all time
• Wearing high heels is an art which I haven’t quite mastered at this point in time
• For the first time, I feel I’m learning new stuff in my job, unlike previous jobs where I felt my brain melting. This is exactly the feeling of constant learning and growth I’ve been looking to find since I left University
• Working on Mac in the office is much less frustrating than working on Windoze
• Blogging is fun, but sometimes it’s hard work
• This was fun to fill in, but probably will make very little sense as a whole once I hit Publish.

Tadah! That’s it! Good night!

Something m-c said (in two different posts) has been making me think…

Wanting to be perfect, people just end up doing nothing. There is a balance one must find.

But whatever it is that i feel like doing,
for sure there will always be someone else to do it better than i do.

When I was a teen, there isn’t a doubt, that is what kept me from doing a lot of things I wanted to do. The fear that those who can do better would point and laugh was enough to make me give up before I’d even started.

Things have changed, I’ve grown and I don’t feel like this quite as strongly. It’s still there and sometimes when I get halfway up the little mountain that is the goal I want to reach, I look at what I’ve achieved so far, get a bit of vertigo and want to run back down the hill to safety.

There are millions of people on the planet, there will always be someone who can do things better than me. I can’t let that stop me or I’ll never do anything. Like my driving instructor says, “Mistakes are an important part of the learning process… and those bastards* who are honking at us have all stalled their cars before too… No one’s perfect.”

* Ok, maybe he doesn’t say it in those words…

I sort-of borrowed-and-adapted this from Girl Afraid because I’m a bit too braindead and bored today to write a proper entry, even though I’ve got tons of things I *want* to write about later.

THREE THINGS I AM WEARING RIGHT NOW:
1. Black and grey striped boatneck top that I luuurve
2. Black jeans
3. Peach necklace

THREE THINGS I HAVE BOUGHT RECENTLY:
1. An SD Card for my Pocket PC
2. Pear & Apple Green Tea
3. The Da Vinci Code book by Dan Brown

THREE THINGS ON MY DESK
1. Two beanie babies on top of my monitor (a puppy from Pauline and a piggy from high school friends)
2. A little foamy yellow “chair” for my mobile phone with the company’s logo on it
3. Shedloads of work

THREE THINGS I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT
1. Not a thing, but Andrew!!!
2. Music of some sort
3. My essential oils burner and the tons of nice smells it creates in the living room

THREE THINGS I WANT TO DO BEFORE I DIE:
1. Learn Spanish properly
2. Backpack around Europe
3. Make enough money to be able to travel and go see my family when I want

THREE GOOD WAYS TO DESCRIBE MY CURRENT MOOD
1. Restless
2. Mischievous
3. Wishing I was in the comfort of my own home

THREE MUSIC ALBUMS I LOVE
1. LAL - Warm Belly, High Power
2. Stacey Kent - all her music really, I don’t have it sorted by albums
3. Ani DiFranco - Up, Up, Up, Up, Up, Up…

THREE SMALL THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY
1. Vanilla flavoured tea or coffee
2. A warm comfy bed
3. Will & Grace

THREE THINGS I CAN’T STAND
1. Smelly people in enclosed spaces
2. Unnecessary rudeness
3. Getting the cold shoulder from someone you like

I’ve been having a weird week, a “not feeling like blogging much” week, so here’s a post that didn’t require much thinking…

Storms - Cool or Scary?: Great! Especially when you have big windows or a veranda! *childhood memories*
Favourite alcoholic drink: Sangria, Cosmopolitans and other not-vile-tasting-but-not-too-too-sweet cocktails.
Favourite non-alcoholic drink: Fresh pineapple juice
Finish this statement, “If I had the time, I would…”: have finished all my work by now, and would have gone for a practice drive today. Instead, we went out to finish our Christmas shopping.
If you could dye your hair any colour, what would you choose?: Keep it permanently the gorgeous burgundy colour with purple shades that I had a few weeks ago. It’s now faded to a slightly duller red.
Name the cities/towns you’ve lived in: Rockland, Hull, Ottawa (Canada) and Harlow, Sawbridgeworth (England)
One nice thing about the last person you spoke to: My hubby, the sweetest person ever! What can I say, he’s just great, and rather cute too!
Morning person or night owl?: Neither really, I’m at my best late-afternoon, early evening. I used to be a morning person as a teenager, believe it or not!
Favourite place to relax?: Menorca — on the boat, on the beach, at the villa or at Sa Roca, the restaurant with the most amazing peaceful atmosphere on the face of this earth.
Favourite dessert?: Fudge brownies with vanilla ice cream (made with real vanilla beans)

Books I particularly liked reading over the years…

• The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
• No Logo by Naomi Klein
• About A Boy by Nick Hornby
• La course destination monde 1995-1996
• Chocolat, Three Quarters of the Orange and Blackberry Wine, all by Joanne Harris
• Le Petit Prince by St-Exupéry
• The Night Listener by Armistead Maupin
• The Classic 1000 Cocktails by Robert Cross
• Jamie’s Kitchen by Jamie Oliver
• My Favourite Seafood Recipes by Rick Stein

Books I WANT to read, some of them I’ve already read, some I’ve part-read, but all I want to read or re-read:

• 1984 by George Orwell
• Neuromancer by William Gibson
• Anne Frank’s Diary

…

Feel free to recommend more books I should read, or tell me which of my must-read’s you think are crap!

This is another list that’ll grow as time goes by. Hopefully, I’ll get back into the habit of reading more than I do at the moment!

• Dot.Con: The Real Reason Why The Internet Bubble Burst by John Cassidy
• DK Travel Guide to France
• La carta del fin del mundo by José Manuel Fajardo

I have to admit, this is based on a chain email I got from Jimena… I’m not a fan of chain emails and anything remotely related to junkmail, but it’s still a good laugh to answer it (10 at the time, not all 100 questions or however many are usually in those emails!)

The last movie/tv show I watched on DVD: Red Dwarf Season 4
Current books I’m reading: Principles of Marketing by Kotler, Bourne Supremacy by Ludlum, and I’m taking a peek in Andrew’s Bill Bryson books as well.
Favourite game: Hmm it’s a tie between The Sims 2 on PC and Dancing Stage Fever (Dance mat) on PS2
Favourite magazine: I don’t really read magazines, but Heat, Closer and other such junk helps pass time at the gym
Favourite smell: Vanilla mmmmm
Favourite foods: All Asian foods - Thai, Chinese, Japanese (sushi!), Indian… And anything involving seafood
Favourite sounds: Rain on the canal outside our apartment
Worst feeling in the world: Helplessness, when something stresses you out but there’s nothing you can do!
What’s the first thing you think when you wake up?: “What day are we? Please please let it be Saturday…”
Favourite fast food place: Depends how you define fast food… Marks & Spencer sushi is “fast” food but tasty!

I have an Amazon WishList. Feel free to buy me gifts!

Ten useless facts about me

• I’m only 5′2″ even though I insist on telling everyone I’m 5′2″ 1/2
• I’ve got three lovely younger sisters, who I call my “little” sisters even though they’re all taller than me
• I’m 23, but I still don’t have a driving licence
• I now work in Marketing for a publishing company, but in 3 years, I’ve had four five different jobs within that company.
• I love online shopping even though I don’t trust many sites with my bank details.
• I hate the generic Nokia ringtone even though it reminds me of a funny tv show
• I have a BA with Honours in Communications from Ottawa University
• Someday I want to get further qualifications in Marketing
• I like to eat tortellinis right out the pack before cooking the rest
• On a rainy Friday morning, thinking of useless facts is quite hard!