Category Archives: A day in my life

When I woke up this morning, it was raining.  I turned on the TV, and the news said it was snowing in Calgary.  I miss it, seriously.  I prefer snow to rain.

When I cook in the kitchen, I often turn on the TV but don’t pay attention unless it says something interesting.  One day, TV news said “…suspects moved from Nova Scotia to Ontario by vehicle…”  I was not paying attention, and thought “how the hell can it happen?”  While I was not paying attention, “Ontario” sounded like “home”; it has been one year since I moved to Hamilton.  But, what I unconsciously imagine is “home” is located on the east side of the Rocky mountains.  I mistakenly thought “how the hell can they move from Nova Scotia to Alberta in one day by vehicle?”  Although it’s been four years since I left Calgary, similar things often happen in the same situation.  When TV news say “Blue Jays”, I unconsciously imagine players in red uniform bearing a big “C”.

I am planning to apply for Ontario Provincial Nominee Program to apply for permanent resident, which means I intend to live and work in Ontario.  This seems the most feasible option to stay in Canada for me.  Ontario will be my home for the near future.

I do light exercise every morning before breakfast, and have big breakfast (to make my housemates say “wow, that’s a big breakfast”).  I have small dinner with lots of vegetables.  This is how I stay in fit.  Most (almost all) people assume I am naturally slim, but in fact, I gain weight quite easily.  Some people have told me “you don’t do anything but you are always slim. I envy you!”  Do they monitor me 24-7?  What makes them think I don’t do anything???  They should not envy “me”, but should envy the will to keep striving to stay fit.  Many people called me skinny, but they don’t know how much muscle I have between the skin and bones.

I bought a new suit recently, the slimmest suit I’ve ever had.

I will soon start working, and am wondering if I will have enough time to do exercise before breakfast everyday.  If not, I’ll have to find other ways to maintain my fitness; otherwise I will waste this slimmest-ever suit.  This is a new good reason to stay fit.

Today I drove a car outside of Japan for the first time ever.  Driving on highways in the rain without anyone else in the car was not a beginner friendly situation.  Yesterday I wrote about familiarity, without expecting I would experience it on the next day.  In Japan, cars keep the left side, so the driver’s seat is on the right side.  Can you imagine how unfamiliar it is to me to drive a car in Canada?  I often get on my friend’s car, and driving the right side is not very unfamiliar to me.  But the problem was the turn signal.  In Japan, for some unknown reasons, the turn signal lever is on the right side, and the windshield wiper lever is on the left side of the steering wheel.  Fortunately or unfortunately, it was raining this morning, and my right hand quickly learned “I take care of the windshield wipers”.  However, I don’t remember how many times I moved the windshield wipers when I needed to give a turn signal quickly.

Because I was so nervous, I payed attention to everything I did in first some tens of minutes, and found that a driver has to do so many things at the same time to drive a car.  Intuitiveness and familiarity help a lot to let a driver drive a car without hustle.  Turning the turn signal lever upward to give a right-turn signal is about intuitiveness, and having the turn signal lever on the left side of the steering wheel is about familiarity.

Why did I drive a car today?  Because I went to Orillia.  Why did I go to Orillia?  Because I had a job interview there.  Did it go well?  Yes, it did.  Is it good news?  Well, that’s a long story.  I’ll talk about it later.  This is it for today.

Today I missed a phone call from a recruiting agency when I was on a bus.  I forgot to set up voice mail (I forgot that I had forgotten to set it up), so she sent email to me.  I got her email on my blackberry, and it said “please send your resume in Word format immediately”.  What?  Immediately?  I’m away from home!  Luckily, I had saved my resume on my online storage JUST IN CASE.  I accessed the Word file from my blackberry and send it to her.  I wonder what would have happened if I did not have a smartphone or had not saved my resume on the online storage.

One of my favorite songs in the 80s goes “car telephone, spaceship, so many things around you. Do you notice the reality that used to be a dream?”  At that time, people did not use cell phones, and private phone away from home was car telephone!  Who dreamed about today’s technology then?

The landlord of my place invited me to their Thanksgiving dinner last night.  This is the second time to have a Thanksgiving dinner here.  He also invited his cousin and some friends of his.  It’s always good to meet new people.

Oops, some people were moving, including myself.  I prefer taking photos without flash because the color is better in this way.  But you have to stay still.

I don’t know where I will be on Thanksgiving day next year, but hope I will have a nice day like this.

Of course I know the obvious answer.  The fall.  It was cool today, but I remember that last October was hot!  I’m wondering what this October will be like.

My favourite colour is green, but I like seeing trees with their leaves turning yellow or red.  The best timing is when green leaves and yellow and red leaves coexist, but that period does not last long.  Let’s enjoy this for a couple more weeks (or less).