Alllllll of the things

Hello!

What’s new with you, lovely friend, family member or casual fan (nope) reading this blog post?

Not much over here!

Well.

Except.

Since my last post…

• I’ve done about twelve more standup sets, including one this very eve (it was good)!
• I got my nose pierced!
• I left that part time job at the coffee stand in Selfridges (oh god it was miserable) to go back to full-time at Sally’s!
• In April I went to Toronto (because my tremendous friends Heather and Mark, of Lady Day fame, were getting married) and Ottawa for a visit!
• The coffee shop down the road, which I have loved dearly since it opened and at which I applied a few months ago, gave me a job. So I put in my notice at Sally’s, and now I’m working at a spectacular place five minutes’ walk away from home! Imagine that!!
• I got, you might notice, a new tattoo. That happened on Monday. I love it a ridiculous amount. It’s in the dried out and flaking stage of the healing process. I’m going to put some cream on it.
• I put some cream on it.

I mean, things have even changed since I took that photo up there.

I took off my makeup!

Life never really stops moving, does it?

But I should keep this brief, because we know me and my capacity to ramble. I want to tell you about every little (incredibly major) thing, like how My Hero said the words “we know each other” to justify my request when I was feeling unsure about taking my first silly photo with him in about a year and a half (I did take said photo and it is the best and I love it, but it’s already alarming how many pictures from this blog come up when you Google certain people), or… well. Mainly that. There, I told you.

(I now drop the phrase “we know each other” into conversation as often as I can. I’m an idiot.)

But yes! Standup! Is great! And I love it! I’m seventeen gigs in now, which is still not many but enough for me to feel like I’m actually doing the thing. I don’t really know how to describe it all that much. It’s exhilarating, and I get a lot of laughs, and wonderfully kind people have said things about me being likeable and about how good I am for so few gigs, so that’s all incredibly positive. I don’t know. I love it. I’m going to keep at it.

(I was going to write a paragraph or so for each of the above bullet points, but the next one is about getting my nose pierced. Here goes…!)

It was a March day, and I thought to myself, “oh boy, you know what I’m going to do today? I’m going to get my nose pierced! I’ve been wanting to do that for a while!” So off I headed to Cold Steel in Camden, and after filling out a form I was sent to a room where a very nice woman pierced my nose. I quite like it, although a few times (particularly at the beginning) I forgot it was there and nearly pulled it out of my face while putting powder on my nose or whatever. I would not recommend that sensation. It is not a nice one.

(See, we got through that terrifically!)

Did I tell you about the Selfridges coffee stand? I suppose I could check, but… anyway. It was in the Foodhall, and my actual employer was alright but it was not all that pleasant an environment in which to work. It was about a 4′ by 4′ space, to which I not-so-affectionately referred as The Coffee Cage. Only one of us would be working there at a time. The shifts were short but felt long. I was there for about two months before sending in my resignation because I couldn’t really deal with it. Oh wellllll.

And now we’re onto… Toronto/Ottawa visit. Ahhhh. It was amazing. I flew from Gatwick into Toronto, which was an incredibly weird experience inasmuch as I arrived in Canada and had to find my own way from the airport. Then I had to check into a hostel. I was incredibly tired, particularly as I hadn’t been sleeping nearly enough for the last week or so and I can never, ever sleep on planes, but on my first night in Toronto my absolutely incredible friend Andrea travelled in to see me. We had beers and curry poutine(!!) and excellent conversation. The next day was Heather and Mark’s absolutely wonderful wedding, and the reception which had an open bar so… yeah. Excellent company, excellent dancing, excellent stupid photo booth pictures. My ride back to Ottawa was generously provided by Shawna and Darren, and the car trip with them and their baby Eleanor was lots of fun. Then there was Ottawa, and there were my parents, and then!! A couple of days in!! My brother Chris turned up!! because my Mom is much too good at planning surprises like that. So we had a wonderful little family reunion, and I spent some amazing time with friends (honorable mention will always, always go to my beloved best friend Nidal, but I think you all know that by now), and there was a terrific night with people! and pierogies! and then not pierogies because House of Targ had a gig happening and it cost $12 or something so we all went to another pub… and anyway, it was all about two months ago but it was wonderful. So there.

As now… new job! I’ve been there a few weeks. Everyone is wonderful and the days are long and physically exhausting but my brain feels wide awake and happy at the ends of the days and it’s really great and some exciting people come in and all the people who work there are wonderful and I like it a whole lot.
As for the tattoo, which is two magpies on my chest just below my collarbones, a spot where people often get Sailor Jerry swallow tattoos, I’ve had the idea for a while. Both magpies and those classic swallow tattoos have relevant and significant meaning, and… y’know. I really love magpies. I get excited whenever I see them, and I see them fairly often. So it’s been in my brain for quite a while and I’ve been telling people my idea, and then I woke up last Monday thinking of how I should just go for it. My spectacular tattooist Kirsty has just moved to Guelph, Ontario (yes, really) so I went to Haunted to speak to them and ended up being referred to Curtis. He booked me in for a week later. He is absolutely amazing. He’s an incredibly nice guy, and wonderful at his job. So yeah. That’s that. I really want to name the magpies, but can’t think of good names for them. So, y’know, if you want to suggest anything…!

That’s my life over the last few months. It’s pretty good. (“But Leslie,” you say, “where’s our paragraph about you putting cream on your tattoo?” to which I reply “no” and we leave it at that.)

And! And and and! My Mom is coming to visit me for a few days next month!!! So that’s incredibly exciting and I can’t waaaaait.

It’s an odd thing to figure out how to proceed with a blog that was originally about moving to a different country when I’ve been living in said country for two-and-a-bit years. Pretty good decision, though, right…?