1201: WE AR GOINGON HOLLYDAY TUMOROW

Well, we are. I'm looking forward to it a lot, even though my innate Britishness prevents me from showing any outward signs of it.

It's the first proper holiday either Andie or I have had for quite a while, and it's the first one I've had for ages where I haven't had to do at least some work in it. (As it happens, depending on when my new gig starts, I may find myself having to do some work while I'm out there, but at present I'm as free as a bird, which is a very pleasant feeling indeed.)

Holidays are ludicrously expensive, aren't they? Well, depending on where you go, obviously. But for the most part, if you want to go somewhere nice and/or abroad, you'll generally find yourself having to pay through the nose just to get there, and then a whole bunch on top of that once you are there, assuming you actually want to, you know, do stuff. Fortunately, we're lucky enough to have some friends where we're going (all right, the primary reason we're going on holiday is to visit them) and as such the expenses while we're actually there will be significantly less than had we had to find a hotel for the time we're out there. So thank you enormously to our gracious hosts for putting up with us!

This will be the second time I've visited Toronto. I really enjoyed my last trip there, as it's an interesting city. Those who live there probably take it all for granted by now, but I was struck by its incredibly multicultural nature. I'm not talking like British multicultural, either, where you have districts that are predominantly Asian, Polish, whatever — no, I'm talking about this strange and wonderful thing Toronto has going on where you'll be walking down one street and it's Chinatown, then you'll walk down another and the architecture is completely and utterly different and the people are likewise completely and utterly different. It's quite chaotic, in a sense, but in a thoroughly pleasant sort of way.

The other reason I'm looking forward to visiting Toronto, of course, is the people we're going to visit. Mark and Lynette are some very dear friends whom I haven't seen face-to-face since 2010 and my trip to PAX East, at which I got to meet a whole bunch of people from the Squadron of Shame for the first time. I've often said that that trip was one of the most genuinely happy times of my life, and I stand by that; the fond memories are made all the more potent by the fact that everything else in my life pretty much fell to pieces shortly after that trip, but fortunately, as long-time followers will know, things are in a much better place for me now.

I'm looking forward to seeing Mark and Lynette (and their friends, too, some of whom I'm already acquainted with) because they are My Kind of People — people with whom I can nerd out about Persona, anime, JRPGs, board games and all manner of other geeky stuff. Don't get me wrong, I very much enjoy spending time with my friends who live near me here in Southampton, but very few of them are "into" the same things to quite such a degree as I am. Sure, a lot of them are gamers to varying degrees, but an unfortunate side-effect of the games industry's diversity these days is that not everyone is into the same things. One of my regular board gaming buddies is massively into Minecraft and Skyrim, for example, whereas I think I'm pretty much "over" both of those games, largely because I have such an astonishingly huge Pile of Shame to play through and thus don't really want to devote any time to two potentially endless experiences. I don't really know many people in this country — certainly not anyone I can just pop over for a coffee with — who would get quite so excited about, say, Ar Tonelico or Trauma Team as me.

Still, I guess in one sense this is a sort of good thing — I'm grasping here, I know — because it makes those rare opportunities to get together with Your Kind of People special occasions to be enjoyed and treasured. I'm hoping the coming two weeks will be memorable and fun not only for me and Andie, but for Mark, Lynette and anyone else who gets involved, too. There will doubtless be plenty of board and video games along the way, plus eating good food with good friends.

Can't wait. So I should probably get to bed so I don't miss our flight in the morning, huh? Catch you on the other side of the Atlantic, then.

#oneaday Day 728: Lag

I've had a somewhat inconsistent experience with jetlag on this particular trip. The other night when I was playing Ascension until 1AM, I was absolutely fine. Yet tonight, it's 9.30PM and I'm knackered. Doubtless I will sleep shortly and awaken at approximately 4AM, when it will be freezing cold. At least it will give me some time to get some work done ahead of visiting the fine Mr Whittington tomorrow.

Part of this evening's tiredness can probably be attributed to a fairly busy day, however. We took a trip into San Francisco, rode the cable cars and walked a whole lot. I discovered what the hell "taffy" is (chewy, and available in a huge variety of flavours) and enjoyed some calamari and fries by the Bay.

As with so many trips away, time is passing far too quickly. There's only so much you can do in a week — particularly if you have a bit of work to do along the way — and it's easy to get to the end wishing you'd done more. Ideally we'd have had the chance to stay over here a bit longer, but that's not really practical at the moment, sadly.

On that note, I feel I'm going to have to bid you all farewell as I can barely keep my eyes open. Time to sleep early, and wake up at stupid o'clock in the morning; an inversion of my usual habits back home!

One A Day, Day 26: One Week To Live

Well, that's that. For now, at least. I've reached the end of my penultimate half-term at the school I'm working at and the deputy head came in to thank me for doing a "great job" with the class I'm lumbered with. She also apologised for me not having the support I should really have as a new primary teacher, and for the "challenging… to say the least" behaviour of the pupils. Jane pointed out to me tonight that however bad it feels to you when you're in the middle of a bad situation, other people inevitably think you're doing a better job than you think you are. She put it better than I did, but it's late and I'm tired. She's probably right – it's just hard to remember that sometimes.

So, what now? I have a week to burn. It will probably go by much too quickly, but here are some of the things I intend to get done:

Do some writing – both on here, on BitMob and possibly a return to Helium, an interesting site for aspiring writers.
Do some music – I have the piano scores for the Persona 3/Trinity Soul and Persona 4 soundtracks, so I may try and record those. They're easy-ish arrangements so shouldn't take too long.
Play some Mass Effect 2 – I love what I've played so far, but have only really had the chance to play in short bursts with distractions recently. I'll hopefully have the opportunity to spend a bit more time in the company of Commander Shepard and company.
Play some Star Trek Online – I reached Lieutenant Commander level last week, which meant I got the chance to pick up a brand new ship. I went for a Science vessel which looks a bit like Voyager and is named the U.S.S. Penetrator, after the Syreen vessels in Star Control II. (My character is a Syreen, thanks to the excellent character editor allowing the production of blue-skinned Amazonian women – albeit ones in Starfleet uniforms – as player characters)
Play through Machinarium for the Squadron of Shame. I know next to nothing about this game, and am looking forward to trying it.
Go fiddle with Gowalla and Foursquare some more – I really dig these apps and find them an interesting idea. They're a good reason to go out and just explore the area around you. Foursquare finally works properly in the UK, but I've been using Gowalla for a while now so have gained a bit of "loyalty" for it. I'm interested to see what – if anything – Foursquare offers over and above Gowalla.
Wander into the forest and take some more photos – I enjoyed my wander around the deserted New Forest landscape the other day. I want to find a more "wooded" bit though – despite being technically "in the forest", the part I went to didn't have much in the way of trees.
Have a coffee and a catch-up with some ex-workmates.
Remind Jane regularly that she has an essay to write. (Yes, it's still there. Get off here and get on with it.)

That's my plan, then. It seems like a sound one to me.