Anglican cathedral

Here are some pics I took of the inside of the Anglican cathedral under which my parish has our church in the basement:

Sambuca stretching

Just a cute pic I took of Sambuca with my camera phone yesterday:

Homemade conversation hearts

I need some of these! lolll

I miss snow

I grew up in the country where a proper winter consisted of LOTS of snow. Now that I'm living in the city I don't get to see scenes like this as often.

Instead I get to look out the window at work and see this:



There's way too much green in this picture!

Andromeda unpainted by ~PaintedKelpie on deviantART

Rainbow pancakes!!

Lol I just love these. I have to make these next time I go to my parents place after Lent!

Ramen

This looks like so much fun, and delicious. I really want to go on a ramen tour of Tokyo now!!!

I guess I'll have to settle on a tour of restaurants in Chinatown :P

Nature sounds & pizza

Last night I bought a bunch of nice nature sound tracks here. Three that I really liked were forest birds in summer, spring owls and frogs and crickets calming. I love the frogs singing, where my parents used to live there were marshes near the house and we'd hear them all the time in the spring. I miss living in the country even more now lol.

And I found yet another delicious-looking recipe that I want to make, for homemade square pizza. I won't have time to try it before Lent though I think... we'll see.

Craving silence

On Sunday night, after Mat left, there was a profound silence. At first it was unsettling, but then I busied myself doing things on the internet and forgot about it. Then after a while I turned off the noisy fan on my computer to listen to some quiet chanting on Ancient Faith Radio, and for a moment I just sat and enjoyed the stillness between the sound of voices singing softly. It was so beautiful and calming and restorative! I can't describe the feeling.

Then on Monday night Mat was over to pick up the last of his stuff and we listened to music. But last night when I got home, again, silence. It was so nice. I thoroughly enjoyed it after living for 6 months with someone who liked to play MMO'S or on the Playstation all evening right outside my bedroom door (which I can't close because of the cats) when I was home and most of the night. He wore headphones at night though. When my friend Steph asked me how I was yesterday I told him "I'm savoring the silence!" Lol :P

This morning on Plime I found this article. I realized how much I've been craving silence. Or nature sounds. I had thought of buying nature sounds cd's a while back but never got around to it. So I'm gonna do that now.

I've always found working beside a radio playing all day to be annoying, but just now realized it's more than just needing to turn off the radio, I need silence. I work in a calling center and it gets noisy. When I get home after the noise of the traffic to meowing cats, a humming fridge, a dripping tap and nothing else it's so nice. Although it would be nicer to come home to birdsong. Like the guy in the article I grew up in the country too and I'm missing it more and more lately. I've been living in the city for 8 years now.

I remember going on a retreat in the country with the Christian Fellowship at John Abbott in 2003. We drove way, way out into the country to a place with some cabins and a small lake. I remember standing on the balcony of the cabin on a clear night looking over the lake and staring at the stars and just sinking into that beautiful complete silence. That was my favourite moment during the retreat. And when I take a bath I sometimes just lie with my ears under the water for a while to enjoy the silence too.

Yesterday evening I was at home on the phone with my dad and he commented how echo-y it sounded at my place. It's true, I might put up cloth wall hangings or something to make it nice and muffled.

Public Service Announcement

WARNING:rant

Ok people, I'm not generally a chirpy, smiling, happy person when I'm at work, especially if my job is incredibly routine (it is) with calls lasting an average of 30 seconds coming almost non stop, and have to say pretty much the same thing over and over. I go about my business and keep to myself and am generally polite. Add to that my general down-ness because of life being what it is nowadays, being annoyed about last night and the fact that I'm always tired. So I had a couple of rude annoying clients and was in a fine grumpy mood thinking to myself "Like heck I'm gonna be chirpy with any clients after those!". 10 minutes later my supervisor's assistant's assistant shows up with a nice little cutesy colored-in smiley face to tack on my separator wall to replace the neon-yellow smiling sunshine she put up before I moved desks to remind me to smile. I'm the kind of person that if you demand that I smile when I'm not in the mood for it I'll get even grumpier, clients or no. Argh. I'd gladly tear that paper to shreds but she'll put up another one. Can't I just stay in my little funk bubble and be left alone? Phooey.

Lol I was grumpy one day and being my usual polite-but-not-smiling with clients when I had one of those annoying happy-go-lucky chirpy ones that asked me in a pouty voice "No smile today?" to which I replied a curt "No." He didn't know what to say after that if I remember correctly so he left me alone and we continued on with the call :P

Here's Smiley #1, which I promptly "forgot" to put back up when I moved desks:



And here's the one she stuck up just now. Notice the heart-shaped push pin:



That spiky thing underneath is my desk plant. I think it's unconsciously chosen to represent my personality towards clients lol. Here's a better picture of it:



I discovered that there's no way to take a picture with my camera phone without making some sort of click noise, no matter what settings I chose for the volume. I think it must be to discourage the kind of people you read about on the internet that take pictures up women's skirts in grocery stores.

Next job I have I'm going to try to get something that's not in customer service!

Now only half an hour left before the radio nearby get turned off... can't wait...