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I don't remember mentioning this before, but I'll be going on a short trip to Victoria in April. Yay! Normally, I don't take time off from work in spring, because it's one of the busiest times of year at my office, but there's a ballet production of Giselle that I would love to see, so... I just didn't want to pass that up!

It's too bad that things like that don't come to my city, but it'll be nice to get out of this place for a few days. I've never been to Victoria in spring, but I'm sure it'll be lovely, because Victoria is always lovely. Over here, there's typically still a lot of snow and ice around that time, and it's just awful.

I've also started considering what to do next year.

It's been a while since I've gone on a really big trip, and I've wanted to go to Norway for quite a while now. Considering all that, well... Norway in 2020? Why not.

I do know for sure that I want to go to Oslo and Bergen. Also, I have a friend in Stavanger, and it'd be nice to visit her, though she's so busy and I'm not sure how we'd coordinate that. Unsure if I want to go to other cities (mmmaybe Trondheim?). And there's also the question of do I want to see things like stave churches (yes) and if so how to get there (uhh...).

Travelling to unfamiliar places, even when I'm in my own country, is always a bit of a challenge because anxiety makes things difficult for me. Major cities where I can just walk wherever I want to go are not a problem, but anything that requires any kind of additional transport can be very stressful (I am the idiot who walked from downtown Ottawa to Gatineau, spent hours walking around the history museum, and then walked back to Ottawa, because the idea of taking the bus stressed me out too much). And things like trains and ferries are extra-stressful - I'm not used to them because we don't have them here.

But I'm not going to let anxiety kick my ass. :V I took a train from Amsterdam to Brussels when I was doing that trip a few years back, and I did not die or get lost or miss my stop, so clearly I can manage inter-city travel in some capacity. xD

Doing this next year rather than this year seems best, because that way I have a ton of time to decide exactly where I want to go, and what I want to do there, and precisely how to get to those places, and when. Detailed planning at my own pace will help a lot, I think. And it's also good that unlike the Netherlands-Belgium trip, which I took with an acquaintance, in this case I won't need to coordinate with anyone else in any way, except possibly if I go to Stavanger. Travelling with other people can be fun, but compromise can be frustrating, and asking friends to accommodate my needs or even just my tastes/preferences is embarrassing.

And planning for next year means it'll give me a whole year to cram Norwegian, which is fine since I've been meaning to work on that more anyway. I keep saying "I'll do it later, when I feel like it" but really, there's no reason not to work on it now, especially considering I have a set of audiolessons that are actually pretty good, and I can knit while I listen to them.

Anyway! Yes. Looks like I have a lot of things to think about. ;)

Arrived in Victoria a couple of days ago. I can't believe how warm it is! I packed my autumn coat just in case, but honestly, I haven't needed it at all... I've been wearing a heavy sweater everywhere, and it's perfectly fine (in fact, a bit too warm at times).

I didn't have any plans yesterday, so I decided to see about catching the Remembrance Day goings-on. Ended up scratching that, for the most part, because it was wayyyy too busy down in that area, holy shit. So, I headed down to where the cannons were being prepared for the 21-gun salute. Good decision, I think; it was pretty cool to see those go off. :D Hella' loud even with ear plugs, though!

Aside from that... mostly for the past couple of days I've been bumming around, enjoying the good weather, doing a bit of shopping, completely failing at avoiding the used bookstore, you know how it is. (And fic writing. Lots of that. :D )

But! Tonight, I went to see Moscow Ballet's performance of Swan Lake.

I don't have much experience with ballet; I've only seen two performances in the past. One was Amadeus - I think that was performed by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, but I'm not sure - and the other was Ballet Jorgen's Anastasia. I'm not terribly familiar with Swan Lake, but I did know the general story through pop culture osmosis.

This one uses the alternate "happy ever after" ending, which seems to be typical of Russian Swan Lake performances.

Anyway... Man, what a performance! I decided to spring for a good seat, and I'm so glad I did, because it was totally worth it. I think my brain is a bit overwhelmed from taking in so much grace at once, ahaha. Honestly, I would have watched two more hours of this.

Planning a trip specifically to see it was a Good Decision. :D

I just realized that I haven't posted a single thing about my vacation to Ottawa. Whoops! Then again, I was rather busy. ;p Let's see....

+ The flight there was an overnight, which is unpleasant because I hate trying to sleep on planes, but... gotta' say, it's a pretty good way to maximize one's time.

+ As a refresher, the reason I decided to go to Ottawa in the first place is because the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau had a special exhibition about the Franklin expedition. WELL... the Franklin exhibit was a bit underwhelming, probably because most of the information was familiar to me, even if I hadn't seen any of the artifacts in person. But I'm still glad that I went, because otherwise, I would have always wondered. However! There was also a special exhibit on medieval Europe. Tons of neat things, including some really cool tapestries, and one of the Lewis chessmen. That was really neat to see. So, I don't mind at all that it was a bit of a long walk to Gatineau from downtown Ottawa. ;)

+ Speaking of the history museum though, holy shit, is it ever huge. I only saw half of it. Would have gone back again to see the rest, but never got around to it. It's just - seriously enormous. (If you are going to walk down there from Ottawa... make sure you eat. Um. Not that I made the decision of walking there and back on a warm day and with an empty stomach or anything. I'm not terribly smart. ;p )

+ The National Gallery was also very impressive. They had a nice variety in there - tons of Canadian works, of course, but lots of European stuff too, which I didn't expect. Unfortunately, I missed the impressionists exhibit by a couple of weeks (how disappointing) but I did manage to catch the exhibit on Venetian portraiture. Very glad I was able to see Alessandro Vittoria's sculpture in person - the bust of Giulio Contarini was quite an amazing sight.

+ I met up with my dear friend icelilly! We've known each other for years, and it was so nice to finally talk face to face. Spent hours chatting about literally everything, and it was very, very nice. :) And now that I've told her some of my pending fic ideas, it means I'll have to write them! (Yay, accountability! ;p )

+ Also met up with my aunt and uncle. The last time I saw them, it was about 10 years ago. They were still living in Halifax at the time. It was nice to see them again. We ended up going out for supper, and it was really nice. (Mm, delicious Mexican food. Can't get that in Fort Mac.) Now, on account of this and my meeting with Lilly, I think I have fulfilled my sociability quota for the next two years. ;p

+ Did a little bit of Christmas shopping. Not as much success as I might have had in other locations, but I did find something really good for my mom, and she's the hardest one to buy for. So. I'm satisfied.

+ I went to a NAC orchestra performance! Beethoven's 7th and 8th symphonies. Absolutely lovely. It's been a while since I was last able to go to something like that, so I'm really glad that they had this concert series going on. Would have liked to attend more than one performance, but ah, well. I was in the city on the day they were doing the Pastoral Symphony, but by the time I knew about it, the only seats left for that particular performance were seventy bucks. I like Beethoven, but I don't like him that much. ;p

+ I also got a lot of writing done! Not as much as I had hoped, but still, a good amount. I finished the handwritten draft for one of the FTH fics, completed the revs for a longish SSSS thing I was working on, finished drafting a longish aRTD x SSSS crossover, cleaned up an old VME draft and posted it for shipping month, and slapped together a short Hetalia draft too. (It's Sve/Nor, so I think I'll sit on it until the prompts for their shipping week are posted.)

In all... a pretty good time. Oh, and people have been asking me about this, but - yes, I was there when the tornado hit; but it didn't touch down in the part of the city where I was staying, so I was fine.

I still have a bit of vacation time left, so I'll probably be going to Victoria in a couple of months. There is a ballet performance in November that I would love to see, but I'm unsure about the scheduling - I'll have to check a few things before I can commit to it. (But oh, if I could commit to it...!)

(And then in February, La Traviata - it's been ages since I've seen any opera in person, I would love to go - but it's a bit early to be planning for next year. But if I made that one a short trip, it would probably be easy to schedule it? I hope? HMM.)

Ahh, well! I've booked my vacation for September. Yay, Ottawa! And now I remember precisely why I don't like going down east - those cross-country flights eat up so much time. I gave up and booked an overnight just so I won't have to spend my entire first day in the air. Ah, well, I'm sure that once I get there, it'll be nice. :D

Maybe I'll even get a chance to meet up with Icelilly... That would be great. I'll have to see if she's up for it.

It's been drizzly and cold on and off all weekend. Not so great from a "spending time outside" perspective, but we sure do need some rain...!

Aboxthecolourofheartache has given me carte blanche to do poetry based on scenes in "Inference"*. 8) I am of course ridiculously pleased. So... we'll see where this goes. I already have one drafted, and have some vague ideas for two others.

(Whatever happened to that plan to finish the things I've already written? Out the window, maybe. ;p )

I did nothing useful this weekend, and you know, that's perfectly fine. ;p

So, I'm reading a book on the subject of soft tissue fossilization in dinosaurs, and while it has been a good refresher of some basic stuff that I've forgotten, and given me some neat information about soft tissue in palaeontological and archaeological finds, it has also brought to my attention something that I vaguely knew about but rarely gave any thought.

Basically: amateurs can volunteer for digs. Experience is welcome but not necessarily required.

In other words, normal people who do not have any experience in palaeontology can apply to volunteer to go dig up dinosaurs, and sometimes their applications are accepted.

Theoretically, the only thing stopping me from doing this is the issue of transportation. Well, and applying and getting accepted, but like, you know. There's nothing to stop me from applying, at least. But transport-wise, obviously, you need to be able to get there yourself. But aside from that... well. Nothing stopping me from doing it, provided I had the cash saved up for the trip and could get time off from work. Normal people can do this, and this is something I could do. Wow.

It's entirely possible that I wouldn't actually like that sort of thing - you spend long hours doing back-breaking work in the hot sun - but it sure would be an interesting experience.

The thing is, when it comes to neat things like this, I'm so used to the idea of, well - "People like you can't do that, and you shouldn't even bother trying". But I can. I'm capable of doing this! Normal people can do this! Some rando from Fort Mac can do this! Theoretically.

Something to consider in a few years, maybe. I'm not going to do any research into the thing for now, since it isn't a possibility yet, but. Eventually, maybe, if I decide that I want to look into it.

...OR you know, I could just go to Drumheller and do some hiking in the provincial park, that would be nice too. ;p

Only thing is, I need to get that damn license first. WELL, OKAY, FINE.

WELL, here I am in Victoria. It's nice to be off the plane, let me tell you. :V

Popped into Munro's after supper... oh gods, I need to avoid going in there. The amount of books - well, not just books, but books I would actually want to read - is overwhelming. They have an entire set of bookshelves filled with poetry! Like, not just one shelf, but the whole damn rack! So much of it! Huge! Every time I go in there, my brain can't process the amount of it. Far different from back home's "half of one shelf, and half of that selection is made up of Leonard Cohen".

Discovered that Gregory Scofield has a new collection out - Witness, I Am. Had to get it, of course. AND ALSO I discovered that he'll be holding workshops at the Festival of Authors... which I am going to miss by only a handful of days, arrrrgh goddamn. If only I could extend my stay!

See, his writing means a lot to me - when I read Singing Home the Bones, it was the first time I'd come across a 21st-century poet whose work I actually liked. Before that, it was all... [/vague handwave] Epics and medieval stuff. The Harley lyrics, Homer's works, the Kalevala, Beowulf, that sort of thing. But there was something about Scofield's work, I can't put a finger on what.

So, that's a disappointment. But oh, well. Maybe some time another opportunity will present itself.

Regardless, I'm looking forward to doing glorious nothing for an entire week. It'll be nice to just do whatever I please and not have to think about... anything at all.

Also: my room has a proper teakettle. I'm delighted. No sad mediocre microwaved tea this time. Brilliant. <3

You know it's time for bed when you accidentally put the relationships in the characters field... Maybe it's best to just, like, not let me near Ao3 ever. (Or maybe I could get some proper sleep for a change -- nah.)

Today was utterly nasty. Windy and cold and rainy all at once. I took one look outside, and decided to not even bother going out or anything, because it looked seriously unpleasant. (And now I feel like a lump, but, well. That's how it goes.)

Finished my letter* for trickortreatex. You guys should all consider doing this one~ I love this exchange so much! Mmm, that bite-sized minimum wordcount. Delicious. :D

Leaving for vacation this Friday... Aahh! It'll be nice to go somewhere, even if it's somewhere I've been before - well, Victoria is always nice. Haven't decided what to do when I'll get there, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. Though, considering so much of the Pacific coast is on fire, I'm a little worried about smoke. Not physically, but well - ugh, I'll just deal with it somehow if I see/smell it, I guess.

On an unrelated note, I made a crustless quiche thing yesterday, and it turned out really good. ...I had supervision for it, but eh. At least it turned out. ~Learning experience~ and all that. We were going to do another one of my recipes from that book of Fruilian cooking, but we took one look at the time/temperature suggested for baking the frittata, and were like "... this seems off". Sooo... we used one of mom's recipes instead. I might dump it here later - going to have to look for the card first.

( Dziady etc; pagan stuff )

Nice little things: Date cookies, peppermint tea, and days that look cold outside but are actually surprisingly tolerable.

Considering where to go for my vacation this year. Last year, I'd been thinking about Seattle, because one of my friends lives there, and it'd be nice to visit. But, uh, any trips to the USA are on hold until further notice, for obvious reasons. So, now I don't know. Victoria again? Halifax, maybe? I miss Nova Scotia an absolutely ridiculous amount, but it's such a hideously long flight. :V We'll see. It'll have to be somewhere in Canada, at any rate.

I had thought I wouldn't be able to make my writing goal for the month, but thanks to idleleaves and Synchronised Screaming, I managed to break through it. Feels good! Speaking of which, Synchronised Screaming is a weekly flashfic-a-thon type thing for some fandoms that a bunch of us are into - currently it's SSSS, aRTD, and YOI. Details over here.

I ended up writing two Hannu/Anssi fics for that, which isn't a pairing I would have ever thought of, but somebody prompted it and I was interested. That, combined with the Joona/Anssi prompts that someone put up for PBAM, make me feel like aRTD fandom is telling me to write some Anssi fic. xD Which is fine with me. Poor guy, his sister Riikka gets so much fic written about her, and he has... hardly anything. Well, we'll see what happens. And maybe I'll get some ideas for gen plots, who knows. That would be nice. Right now the only possibility I can think of is some vague slice-of-life stuff. And I suppose there's always the SSSS apocalypse crossover too, but eh.

Oh, I just remembered - for those of you who use ssss, I've posted an idea on the discussion post re: opening up a new disco post. So, please let me know if you have any thoughts on that.

☆ Arrived in Victoria. Whoo! It's nice to be here again, even if the weather was shit today - far too windy. Aki arrives on the 23rd... I have no idea what I'm going to do on the 22nd. I've been feeling kind of tired and sore lately (tl;dr: too much walking, also general frustration with the universe) so if the weather is nice, I might just find a sunny spot on that big lawn outside the Legislature to plunk myself down and knit and write and read and do nothing all day.

☆ THAT FEELING when you're trying to wind yarn into a ball from the skein and it just ends up as... yarn spaghetti. Why. Why does this happen. (Shhh I know why it happens, I'm just grumping.)

☆ Writing-wise, managed to slap down some words today. Not much, though. And it was just OC stuff (Suvi's POV, oddly enough... I'm finding it hard to get into her head so far. She's tricky). Hopefully will get some other things done... I really need to give that Rarepair Exchange assignment another read-through; I mean, yes, it's done, but it... needs it. We'll see. Plus, treats, I want to write treats for this one user... argh, we'll see. Not to mention the mountains of unfinished stuff that I have in that wip folder. x_x Ffffu.

WELL. Today was... busy! But nice.

Ran downtown to get my passport photos taken, since I need to send in for a renewal in August. The place that does them is kind of out of the way, so that took up more time than I would've liked. But, it wasn't too bad. At least it's done. :D

While the photos were developing, I poked around online and discovered that there is a geocache in a park near the photo joint. Soooo, for about an hour, I tramped around, peeking into evergreen trees like a weirdo. :D It was good fun, though I didn't find the cache - I unfortunately don't have a GPS-enabled device, and that makes everything a lot harder. Especially when the hint is that it's in an evergreen tree... and the park is full of evergreen trees... xD And it doesn't help that I wasn't dressed for this kind of thing at all. I'll probably try again with this one, but next time, I'm going to wear proper clothing. And bug spray.

Mayyybe I'll buy a handheld GPS eventually, if I decide to stick with this. Hell, it could come in handy when travelling, too! But for now, I think I'll just make do with what I have available to me. No need to go slapping down cash when I'm new to the hobby, after all.

Anyway! I've booked all my stuff for Victoria. So, I'll be going there in late August. Fun! It'll be nice to head down there again; the weather is always so nice. Not to mention... so many bookshops. I'll also be meeting up with Aki from SSSS/Hetalia fandom, and I'm sure that will turn out great. Though we'll be in the same city, we won't be rooming together; I think it'll be nice to hang out with somebody without being glued to them. We haven't decided exactly what we're going to do together, but there's so much cool stuff in Victoria, I'm sure we'll have no problem figuring something out.

Finally managed to get to the library. <3 It feels SO GOOD to be able to go there. I'm so glad that it's open again. And of course, I picked up a few things. Had to grab some things for research... I have some vague ideas for a fic that takes place in the SSSS universe, but rather than being set in the Nordic countries, this will take place in northern Alberta, specifically in Fort Chipewyan. I'm really excited about this idea, but it's going to require a lot of research. Honestly, I'm not quite sure where to start, haa. But anyway, I picked up a couple of books about the Dene people; one is a history, and the other is centred around folklore/oral stories/personal histories. Hopefully I'll at least get an idea of where to go with the worldbuilding from here. Aaand if not... the library has plenty more. :D

Aaaand I also picked up my new Kobo today. orz Really wish I hadn't dropped my old one the way I did... I hate touch-screens, and transferring everything is going to be a pain, blah blah blah bah humbug. Though, I'll confess that I've wanted a new one for a while, because the old one was kind of a pain in the ass in some ways (nonstandard cord made charging inconvenient) but fffffu. Going to have to make double-sure that I don't drop this one, geeze.