Brief update - no photo's - Oct 3, 2004

Just a quick update for all..

We're starting to (after only 4 months ;) settle into a bit of a routine now.

Caren has been working for a couple of weeks, and the pay cheques are starting to come in...we're still dirt poor , as we've dried up our savings and our credit cards , but at least there is now money flowing in both directions instead of one way :)

I've been working part time (about 30 hours a week) as a photographer, although it's not as glamorous as it sounds...

There are 10 teams of 4 people who travel around to the local Toronto schools and take photo's of all the kids for their Student TTC discount cards (Toronto Transit Corp.) .

Basically get up at 6am, rock into town, pick up gear, travel to the school, set up 3 cameras + Laptops, and frantically take photo's of school kids till about 2:30 in the afternoon.

The Pay is terrible, and it's a draining job, but it's better than sitting around the house, that’s for sure :)

LUCKILY for me though, I have just been offered a job at Scotia Bank (a Large Canadian back) as a 2nd/3rd level internal support person (supporting 2300 machines with 6 others team members), which I start on the 12 Oct...its a 6 - 12 month contract and the pay is pretty average, but I gotta tell ya, being unemployed for these last 4 months has REALLY changed my attitude towards employment...I had always assumed it was a given , and that finding jobs is easy....no way...not here it isn't anyway..

The interview was nerve wrecking, but obviously went well, as they offered me the Job the next day.

Anyways, the weather is starting to cool down, and we are getting into Fall (Autumn)...we're going on some sort of tour tomorrow to look at trees or something, so no doubt there’ll be Photo's forthcoming as-well.

Also, Thanksgiving and Halloween are coming up, both a HUGE deal over here, so we'll try to keep you abreast of our versions of each ;) ... now that we can probably afford to splash out and buy a Turkey ;)

Looking forward to both "holidays" though, not in terms of time off work, but in terms of being able to share them with our new travelling buddies Sol and Jen (from Wollongong in NSW, Aus)...

They've been doing almost exactly the same as us, for the same amount of time, and have been through all the same experiences...it's kinda scarey how similar, but it's really nice to not be going through the up's and downs completely alone now :)

Anyways, We still live, and that’s most important I guess ;)

Bye for now.