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and thoroughly depressed about it!

I have some big Canada related news but I can't write about it yet as Graham hasn't told his mum yet and she might read this! Frustrating!!

Had such a great holiday. Banff was perfectly beautiful. Kimberley was awfully kitsch. Nelson was a bit of a disappointment. Penticton was quiet and special. Kelowna was busy and a dark horse - it grew on us over the 3 days. Kamloops didn't happen. And Vancouver was brilliant and special as always.

Highlights - being at the top of Sulphur Mountain not wanting to leave, getting chilly at Lake Louise and warming up with a coffee in the Fairmont hotel, eating elk, seeing a coyote, the river and bridge next to the "paint pots" on our way to Kimberley, feeling like a proper expat with all the other Brits2Vancouver folk in Kelowna, English Bay nearly every day in Vancouver, eating poutine, drinking honey lager and watching Canada win the World Cup of Hockey, watching loads of Orca Whales swim by our boat south of the Gulf Islands, and the biggest highlight is the thing I can't write about yet!

Had a tough time leaving this time - it seems to get worse each time I go. I want to go back next year but we have to look at Toronto instead, got to give it a chance at least.

Am so tired at the moment - the jetlag has been particularly awful, and I didn't sleep much on the plane or our first night back. Went straight to work the next day and then couldn't sleep that night - Graham and I were up at 3am drinking milky drinks to try and induce sleep. At 6am Graham had to take my mum and dad to the airport at Bristol, so I just gave up and got up.

Back to work ho hum ho hum. Have applied for that job properly now and the interview is likely to be on October 18th - there are 4 internal applicants including me.

I must be excited

I could hardly sleep last night, thinking about holiday and whether or not I want to apply for the new job in the library.

I rang up Brian this morning, the guy who does the serials job already and who I'd be job-sharing with, and he gave me a quick lowdown on the job. He put my mind at ease that I wouldn't be spending a lot of time on the phone chasing people for deliveries but rather most of the time would be spent problem solving and doing invoice payments - which sounds good to me. At least it would give me something to really get my teeth into - and I would feel that I had accomplished something everytime I sorted out a problem for somebody. Brian reckons he loves his job, and the only downside is that some of the work can be repetitive, but that's true of all library work. I've told the big boss that I am interested in the position, so he has promised not to fill the vacancy whilst I am away. When I get back, Brian has offered to spend some time with me showing me what he does, and then I will fill in an application form and do the dreaded interview if they think I'll be any good.

It's my lunchtime now, and after that I have 2 hours left at work, in which I have to finish my tasks and go through some things with Kerrianne so she can get stuff done during my absence.

Yes, I am excited. I just want to be there though - I hate the fact that I have to spend all that time on a plane getting there! Bring on the teleporters when you've finished inventing them Mr Scientist!

This school hostage situation in Russia has really upset me. How can they do that to kids? I mean whatever their cause you don't take young children hostage. And they expect sympathy for their cause?

2 days to go!

2 days and 7 hours from now I will be in a plane that will be just about to land at Calgary airport. Hopefully I will be sitting next to Graham but I can't guarantee that as we have been cheap and refused to pay the £25 each to pre-book our airplane seats. Then we will be driving straight to Banff for 3 days in the mountains (and probably rain looking at the weather forecast). Graham is looking forward to showing me around the place as he went there 3 years ago (or was that 4).

Got excited yesterday when we were packing. I don't tend to get excited anymore in the run up to holidays as I get nervous about the flying. But we're going to Canada again so I can afford to be ultra happy. If I could just get rid of this damn cold then I'm sure I would be bouncing around like a madwoman.

I finished packing this morning, so am going out for drinks and food with Kerrianne and Sue tonight for a bit of a bon voyage session. Graham is off karting with his workmates and I am praying that he won't crash and break anything.

Had a fairly busy weekend in the end. Went to see Al straight from work on Friday but didn't stay too long as we were tired and had to get up early the next morning. Al looked pretty good for an ill person and it was nice to see him again after so long. Saturday we got up early to join the bank holiday rush down to Devon. The M5 wasn't too awful thankfully and we got to Seaton by 10.30 and spent the whole day with Graham's grandparents - they are such a nice couple and both are real characters- it's always a pleasure to visit them. Sunday we had a lazy day, watched the Grand Prix - yay Kimi! - went to the Asian festival which was pants as there was nothing to buy apart from clothes and jewellery and ready-made hot food, then went to the cinema with Hing-Yu to watch I, Robot which I found very enjoyable if rather silly. Monday we went to the racing day at Castle Coombe and saw lots of nice cars (mostly ferraris) and then went to Winchcombe to see Al again as I felt guilty for leaving him so early on Friday. But that backfired as Graham and I felt really ill by 9.30 so we went to Cheltenham and straight to bed. Tuesday I got my haircut, and we bought some holiday clothes before going back home to boring housework and preparing for the holiday.

Phew.

We have eaten far too much curry recently - nearly everyday in fact. I broke the cycle yesterday but will be back on it again by tonight I know!

There is a job coming up at work for 2 days a week in the Arts library dealing with serials subscriptions and chasing up suppliers and sorting out problems with check-in and stuff. I think I might be quite interested in applying as it would be something different to get my teeth stuck into as I'm really bored here. Maybe I wouldn't be so bored if I only worked in Chemistry 3 days a week and somewhere else for the other 2. I'm trying to get some details of the job description before I go as it's bound to be advertised whilst I'm away.

Lunch time bye.