Working 9 to 5.doc

My good friend Erin Schachter is fond of singing the Dolly Parton tune at karaoke (among a host of other classics). It's good that Erin has so much vocal training to be able to pull it off. Item number 27 on the list of 100 things I am looking forward to back in Canada: karaoke with friends.

I really am working 9 -5 for the most part with 30 hours this week devoted to River Island. Oddly enough, the longest days on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday seem to fly by quickly while I'm always waiting for my short shifts on Tuesday and Thursday to be over. Yesterday was the FIRST day in the two and a half weeks I've been there where I felt like every job and every task was doable. I think yesterday marked the point where I turned the corner and now know how to complete just about every requirement quickly and efficiently. Admittedly, when I'm the product guy on these long days I don't have to interact with customers much and all and all am the store gopher. It means that I can work independently, and I that I traverse the store's three flights of stairs at least forty times a day. It's not too bad at all.

Sunday was the official submission date for the first draft of everyone's dissertation. After heading off the train in Leamington I joined the group at one of my favourite pubs in Leamington, Benjamin Satchwells. It was great to see everyone (for the most part) jovial and less stressed. It has been a bit of a trying time for most of us in tackling these beasts so it was good to relax and revel in the reality that they will be sign, sealed, and delivered in less than four weeks. We shared a few pints (where else in the world can you get a cold pint of Guinness for 2 pounds 30) and indulged in the Sunday roast. That evening a few of the program mates hit the town hard to celebrate, but I stayed in to gear up for my first 9 - 5.

This next phase of things until the holidays is pretty standard: work weekdays at the store and spending the weekends in full revision mode. Right now I've booked Saturday and Sunday for delving into the document and expanding, cutting, and editing the work I currently have. Thankfully, the demands of me in regards to the dissertation are not insurmountable. There are a lot of small points that need attention, but nothing that keeps me up at night. It means that the next three weeks I will always have something to be doing (and will be working 50 hours a week) but it means that December is flying by.

This doesn't mean to say there isn't time to relax! Courtney and I went to the movies last night to take advantage of the 2-4-1 deal of which we're so fond. We saw 2012. It was a treat to watch things blow up on the big screen. You can't really be bothered by the implausibility of it all with disaster films, but there were a few plot moments that made me roll my eyes. All in all though, I'm a huge "end-of-the-world" film fan. Courtney made a delicious peanut stir fry before the film that reminded me of great food in Amsterdam. After returning home from the film, Tory and I shared a glass of wine and caught up (I feel like I haven't been home much this week). We looked through old MAIPR photos from Warwick and summer school and I couldn't help much feel a first pang of nostalgia for the crazy, zany program and its students which I will be saying goodbye to in four weeks. The reality is starting to set in, and it's going to hard to say goodbye to the sixteen months of brilliant uncertainty that has been my European adventure.

Doc's Prescription of the Day: Congrats to my fellow blogger Miss Emily Hyland Hincks on the 136 chapters of her captivating adventures in France and beyond.