- Further to my anti-fur posting a couple of weeks ago, I was still feeling increasingly frustrated at the number of people with fur trim on their winter coats, especially those awful Canada Goose coats, involving terrible cruelty to geese and coyotes (the trim is made from coyote - with dog fur used on knock-off versions). On Monday, I was in the Army & Navy's shoe department (still on the hunt for Lightning McQueen slippers for my nephew) when I heard a girl talk her friend out of trying on boots with fur trim. "No you can't do that," she said. "Do you have any idea of the torture those poor animals go through?" I wanted to hug her right then and there. "Finally" I thought, "someone else gets it. Amen!" I felt a wave of pride accompanied by the chorus "Haaaal-le-lujah! Hallelujah!" I was also pleasantly surprised to see she was young too, maybe 18-24 years old, I'd seriously begun to despair that young people even give a damn about this sort of thing.
- On Tuesday a couple of women at work sent out an email that they were doing a bake sale and collecting donations for VOKRA, the same wonderful cat rescue charity responsible for bringing Mel, Louis and Ella into our lives. I'm not much of a baker (too tempting to eat what I bake) but I was happy to test a bag of delicious scones and donate supplies of old towels, litter scoops, paper plates and garbage bags. So nice to see people doing something to help animals, I can't believe I haven't done a similar fundraiser myself, other than selling a pile of my cards for United Way. Note to self for next year!
- On Wednesday night I popped into the local Salvation Army store, looking for a cheesy Christmas sweater. While I was in there, a poor old guy of about 80 or so hobbled in with his Zimmer frame/walker and awkwardly made his way around the store, handing out a small, gift-wrapped package of chocolates to each individual staff member, wishing them a Happy Christmas. Even though he struggled, he gave out each little gift personally, it was such a lovely, heart-felt gesture. He made everyone in that store smile. I love these small but priceless moments.
- Also on Wednesday I won a treat from the massive Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory gift basket that had been delivered to our department. It was so full of fabulous goodies that, rather than put the stuff out with all the other treats that have been in abundance all week, we did a daily company-wide trivia quiz to 'raffle' off the contents. I was amazed that my name was selected so I picked out a massive solid chocolate Santa. Why is this even worth mentioning? Because I almost never win ANYTHING!
- Ok, I say almost never because, as it turns out - much to my further amazement - my name was picked from the ballot box to win the Door Prize at Lorne's company Christmas party on Thursday night. What the....???? :-) I never win anything then I get two prizes in two days! Wohooo! I don't yet know what I actually won, since it wasn't marked on the ballot box and Lorne simply got a text last night saying my name had been picked and the gift is on his desk*. Cool! Needless to say, not to look a Christmas gift horse in the mouth or anything, but I'm hoping these things come in 3's since I've got a Max Millions lottery ticket that's just itching to claim the $50 million jackpot that's been sitting there for weeks. Or else I'd be happy with one of the $1 million bonus prizes! Heck, I'd be happy with just $100, even though a few extra zeros is always a good thing. The more the merrier, right? :-)
- I noticed that my anti-fur posting from Nov. 29th has now been viewed 25 times! I have no idea who even looks at this blog or whether anyone visits more than once but I truly hope at least some of those 25 people took the time to read the whole post and learn a little more. Better still would be if even 1 person out of those 25 has a change of heart and never wears fur again and even tells other people about just how disgusting that whole business is. Those poor, poor animals.
- They've renewed my consulting contract at work for a further two months - even approving the (10%) increase I asked for on my hourly rate as of January 1st! Excellent. And not bad considering I was only supposed to be working there for a couple of months - 13 months ago! In the grand scheme of things they're not paying me a huge amount (it's still 30% less than I earned freelancing 10 years ago, translating movies and documentaries - I wish there was more of that work around), but it's a decent rate and I'm actually enjoying the work too, so I have no complaints.
- And talking of work, it's been a real pleasure being there this week. Everyone's been in such good 'festive' spirits, hanging out around the kitchen area, scoffing the piles of endless treats and chocolates and just chatting, laughing etc. Of the four Christmasses I've worked there (2009, 2010, 2012 and this one) I have to say this has been the best. Previously it definitely felt more grinch-like, very little social interaction and awkwardly fake at best. This time has been much merrier and I've enjoyed being there.
- For once I have my Christmas shopping all wrapped up (get it?) nice and early this year. With the last arrival from Amazon a few days ago, I've literally got just a couple of things left to pick up with still a few days to spare AND I finished work yesterday until New Year. Nice! I can't deny there's always been something about Christmas shopping here in Canada that makes it so much easier and more pleasant than anything I remember of my previous life across the Pond. When I think of the same time of year in England it was NUTS! I mean swarms of people everywhere you looked. Crowded streets, queues 20-30 deep at every checkout, grouchy cashiers and equally grouchy customers, all seemingly wanting to just get the whole thing the hell over with. My experience here has generally been quite the opposite, especially with sales staff who - despite the rush - are helpful, pleasant, maintain their good humour and always have a smile but not even in an over-fake 'I'm on comission' way. I don't know what it is that makes the difference but I find Christmas shopping over here is actually quite enjoyable. It probably also helps that I love getting gifts for people. We don't go all crazy and super-extravagant with gift-shopping, there's no need to and I doubt it'd feel the same anyway. But I am happily amazed it all felt so easy this year, thanks in large part to the wonderful elves at Amazon!
- We had our first snow yesterday - all of about 2 inches but plenty to cause snowmageddon traffic mayhem and dodgem cars around the city, even my 15-minute bus commute took nearer 55 this morning, 30 of which was spent just waiting for a bus to even turn up. But everything looks so pretty (once you're off the sloppy, slushy main streets anyway), especially with the Christmas lights and such.
So all-in-all not a bad week to kick off into the Christmas holidays :-) and here are a couple of pics to add to the feel-good sparkle.
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| The snowy view from our bedroom window this morning. |
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| Looks like a Christmas card. This fabulously decorated house & garden are just down the street from us. I'm tempted to bite the steps to see if it's made of gingerbread. |
* Sadly my lottery ticket didn't pay out....again... but Lorne brought my prize home this afternoon; a nice bottle of Okanagan red wine, "Moon Curser" (which I merrily drank a fair bit of during the party), a $50 gift card to The Parlour Restaurant in hoity-toity Yaletown, whose tasty pizza they also served at the party, and a company logo'd touque. All a lot better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, even if I do say so myself!
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