Money (That's What I Want)

Just checking up on the old finances and I'm not looking too bad. I think I will have saved enough money up by the time that I get to Canada (which ever damned province ends up stealing my heart) to live the high life - smoking caviar, eating pipes on Dutch bread and throwing Loonies at poor people. However on an actual serious note I think that I am planning well for this. The old Green Card application has been sent and I am planning to rejoice without even having won it (yet!). It would be great and I'd certainly relish the opportunity to work there. What a life I lead.

Furthering on the Alberta/Ontario move, I think I've made the right move. I wasn't entirely confident on Ontario. Sure it would have been closer to England/same time zone as GEORG but, er, I was fairly keen on moving to/near/around Banff. The guest who came in and told me about Banff blew my mind. I wish I was off that day so I could talk, talk, talk to her and her party of friends. They were informed, they was! A definite plus for me is that Alberta lives just above Montana and "those" states i.e. Wyoming, Idaho, North/South Dakota and Nebraska. No one ever talks about "those" states. So that's another positive. Positivenegative?

Does anyone read these all the way through? I applaud you heavily if you do. You should get yourselves a medal of some sort. Perhaps made out of bauxite. That would be great and probably deadly. I wrote dealy then wortte! TWICE. I am stupid. Soon people will get suspicious that I'm not actually going to Canada.

I'm certainly booked in for America this Saint Patrick's Day. Why did I choose that day? I have no idea. It just seemed cheaper than any other time during March. It seems so very long away when in reality it is 19 weeks away. Consider the fact that Christmas is now 7 weeks away. After Christmas/New Year it will only be 12 weeks. I won't be working those entire 12 weeks (1 week off to hopefully see Chelsea in January, 1 week off before I leave to sort out my affairs [certainly not romantic ones, zing!]) so that makes it, conservatively, 10 weeks. That's a walk in the park. I think I'd like to stop working maybe the 6th of March. It's a reflection of what I did in June. It was excellent not to work the Sunday I left. THEN free beers on the Monday. I enjoyed my last day there. I should recount that at a different time.

So that's the time line, old chums. March 17, I fly to Philadelphia to see Georg. I'll be with him for a week and then on 24th I'll be flying to BNA to see Chelsea for, at the moment, an undetermined amount of time. I really do need to figure out how long I'm going to laze there. Not too long but at least being in America I can apply for jobs/scout things about a little easier. There's no point me doing it now. Fallacy. I guess there is perhaps some point investigating but me saying "Oh, I'll be over there in April/May". I may as well say "I'm not coming yet but keep a job open for me". I'm not an idiot. Not as big as you might think at least.

From Nashville I will toddling up to Calgary. The only memory/thoughts I have of Calgary is of Cool Runnings. Not that good but I remember them being black and freezing. I think there was an egg involved too. Seeing as I have no one to pick me up from there I will have to get my grey matter functioning to think of a way to get out toward Banff. It's about an hour away and I won't have a car or a helicopter. Nor any ideas. I'm paddling up a certain body of water without a critical acceleratory device. Not to worry. Most things in my life seem that way! Per ardua ad astra! Something like that at least.

Happy November, Chelsea. I love you.

Stop the Clocks

That's right, people! Cameron, the master of indecision has struck again. It is because people (guests at the Midland) have been talking to me and saying "Cameron, why Ontario?" and I says, I says to them "Well..Neil Young will sing me songs and put me to bed each night". I'd deadpan that to them and they would toddle along quietly not knowing what to do.

However on a rather serious note I think my sights will be refocused back on to Alberta. It was described as stunningly beautiful to me and I want some of that in my life. I want a piece of the world that, to me, is the most beautiful place on Earth. I don't have that at the moment and I want it. Seems to me that everyone has that place. I'm lacking! (a brain)

So to recap: Listen to people who ask you "Where do you come from?", get excited when they mention Canada and attempt to get over to their table as often as you can. Also mention Krispy Kreme donuts. Gross. The name alone gives you diabetes. Horrible.

Help Me to Help Myself

I've got my passport photos so now all I have to do is get a cheque sorted out for payment. Canada, watch out! Oh yes, my dreams (which have sort of become reality in the last 4 months) are getting closer to be achieved. While it's long way to go and also hard road of hope in the mean time I will continue along this cone of reality. It's really quite good actually.

I've also started the application for the Diversity Lottery - the green card. That's not going to badly either. I'm worried my photo won't be the appropriate measurements though and it'll be rejected. A little annoying, I'm sure. I'm assuming it's a passport photo but I don't want to go through it all and realise that in reality, it's not. That would hurt. AND WASTE MY MONEY.

Sort of. Just remember that I'm not coming back to Australia, kids. Sometime after this whole ordeal has blown over. Until then, I'll just stick to the Northern Hemisphere.

Love to you all! Be good.

Cameron.

I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself

Just to the curious few silly champions, I want to make it quite explicitly clear that I am not going to return to Australia in the foreseeable future. It's just the way I feel. These feelings only rise up in the sweat and smoke...like mercury. Often my mouth is undone but that is only because I'm young. Heh, I used to be the vicitim but now I'm not the only one.

A public service announcement.

Going Down the Road Feeling Bad

I have progressed since last time you would have read my musings. Oh yes, I'm not just a pretty face. No, far from it actually. Sometimes I shudder when reading the newspaper about the people who have to see me each day. On with it anyway..

I've got my printed application which is a plus! I now require passport photos which is a fairly simple task. If there's one thing that is more prominent over here than underage drinking it's passport photo machines. They're everywhere. I'm actually getting a signal from one now! How about that? Don't believe it. Understandable.

Confidence in my move is starting to slip a little. It's simply the fact that I am going in to a very big unknown. I'm not just talking about wearing your sister's clothes while she is out at the supermarket. No, no. I'm talking about uprooting myself from a country I am reasonably acquainted with and moving to a country I've never been to. Yes, argument slightly valid with England but I have family here and a handful of people I know. In Canada I know no one and I'm only barely intimate with the provinces. I know a little about the history of Canada and famous people from there but other than that...nothing. Woe is me. I'm soooo hard done by.

But fear not faithful reader! As silly as it sounds I do want to fail at some stage during this pulling up of stakes. I want to fail because then I can learn from my mistakes. I am leading a somewhat sheltered life at the moment and I'm not doing anything that is unbecoming of how some people may describe me. Actually I've described myself in the past as 'dull', 'boring' and 'fat'. 100% strike rate with those words. Ouch. I'd like to perhaps get drunk one night and forget how many teeth I have or the name of the first President of the Continental Congress (Peyton Randolph if you please). But I can't. I do like starting sentences with conjunctions. And no one can stop me. Yet just try. The joke there is that I did 3 times. It may have slipped past a couple of people but I'm sure that most of you got it.

So thing are going well. I don't need to rush this process. The Letter of Invitation lasts a year so if anything.. I might want to wait a little bit. I'm sure if it takes a couple of days for the required documents to get to the Colony, then a couple of days to be sent to Canberra, processing time and then the reverse process I'm looking at about a month. That is Camstimate™. It could very well be longer or shorter. I don't care. So long as something comes of it. I remember how nervous I was when my English visa was taking a while. A whole lot of stupidity on my behalf but still - quite nerve wracking!

I am also going to apply for the Electronic Diversity Visa Lottery. That is green card to you and I! Bleedin' foreigners. I'll show the Americans. Me in America would be equivalent to a mouse in a handbag. He'd be happy there but wonder what he's doing. I should steer clear of New York though. People might mistake me for Kiwi and that is sacrilege. I can't have that. I also can't stop thinking that mouse. Cute little thing it is. 2010! That will be America year. If I was issued a green card that would be awesome and I would flirt it everywhere until one day I lost it and people became suspicious of me. By that time I will be Emmanuel del Rayo Cortez. I'm sure I can become more Hispanic looking before I lose anything. Here's to hoping!

I will leave you all to mull over what I've said and perhaps give you time to ferment thoughts about me. Like "Does he shave that often?" or "How can people stand his presence?". In fact I can answer those two now. I shave every two days. It keeps the follicles at bay! Have at thee, hair! As for the presence question: I'm not entirely sure. I think it's because when I'm around people who are feeling down kill themselves or those who lack in self confidence feel better because they have a larger sack of door knobs with them. That's right. I'm a sack of door knobs.

Ce qui sera, sera.

Get What You Need

I think I've finally solved the Ontario/Alberta thing. It mightn't worry anyone reading this but I had a serious dilemma arise over whether to move to Alberta - my original choice - or try my luck in the Big Easy of Canada. Toronto. If I was being quite honest with myself I would say I'd like to try my hand in Alberta. It is, and this is only an assessment based on pictures and having copious amounts of people say "Oh, Alberta is so very pretty, very pretty. Yes, I did that on purpose. My English isn't as poor as the stereotype is.

So I have decided on Ontario. As Chelsea has mentioned to me I can move there and easily transfer my business and doings other places in the country. I am not limited to just one province. Even though many people may say "Cameron, Cameron! You've been at The Midland for a year. How can you possibly expect to travel a country that is, at a conservative estimate, 31905 times larger than England? You've only just got down to London after a year!" I would just ignore them! Why? Because I'd come here to work, obviously. The travelling is the icing on the cake, the head on the beer, the shoe in the sandwich. I am pleased I've done what I've done. Sure, I would like to do a little bit more but in that time I've not gone to Europe I have travelled a sizable portion of America. So jog on, you naysayers. I'm sure I've updated people on what I want them to know in regards to America. If you don't know what I've done/where I've been: please e-mail me! I'd love to talk to you! Even if I don't I am sure I can fake it enough so it appears that way.

Vocation wise? Well I'm going to leave that until later on next year. I don't care what I've got to do so long as a job opportunity comes up. There's a couple (literally two!) of things I am good at so I guess I will pursue that. The two things? Eating and talking. That is it. I could eat food whilst giving a speech? Give a speech whilst eating the food and then eat some? Deadly cycle, that. I am sure I am enough of an adult to be able to sort out "adult" style problems. If not I am in for a bit of an ass/arse kicking and I will learn from those mistakes pretty quickly. If there's a chance I could lose money then I'm usually all over the problem like a rash.

In other news: I need to buy food.

Thank you for your time! Enjoy your everything.

Beaucoups of Blues

I have just read a prophetic page in my little memo book which I thought was quite amusing. I had a similar attitude before I left Australia for England. It reads:

"My move to Canada will either
be my making or my undoing"

Chilling visions of the future for Cameron Cuming. It's not even 2009 and I'm predicting my down fall. It's absolutely not a case that I don't trust myself. No. It has more to do with the fact that I am going in to a completely foreign country. Whilst I'm quite aware that the Canadians are formal with their English, my limited time in America (3 months-ish, 7 days) indicates to me that it will be an incredible transition for me to make. Just think about this. For 21 years I lived in a reasonably large city - in Australian terms at least. Wikipedia says 85,000 people as of 2006 census but I'm sure it was 95,000 people when I left last year. 10,000 in a year? Probably untrue but regardless it was just under 100,000 people. I stayed there for twenty-one years. Sure we moved but you are actually talking about no more than 2kms away from my childhood house.

Mum and dad liked the area and I can't blame them. I like it too but now I understand there is more out there. Australia almost promotes a sentiment of celebrating isolationism. "We're Australia and because we're cut off from the rest of the world, we'll act like that's part of the draw of us!". Don't get me wrong, please. It is certainly a comforting feeling while you live there but once you take off from Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide (should not have it's own international airport for 2 reasons), Brisbane or Hobart International Airports, you begin to realise that we have sort of doomed ourselves. We are like the Boo Radley of the world. If you don't understand that then I'm not going to explain it to you. Read a damned book. Specifically "To Kill A Mockingbird". Everyone else should be rolling around in the aisles in stitches due to my talent in comparing my nation to a character in a book.

Enough of my "Un-Australianness". I'm sure if anyone bothers to read this it will come up somewhere along the line. Believe you me, I am Australian. I like being Australia. I enjoy being Australian. I hate the Poms and Kiwis as much as everyone else but I refuse to be blinkered to the world and what it has to offer. I am not a horse for a start. I just want to see what there is! As much as I hate it one day I will probably return to the sun and the sea. That's right. One day I will go back to Brighton and thumb my nose in the direction of Australia.

My initial idea for this post was to tell you that I will be leaving the United Kingdom on the 17th of March, 2009. I will be leaving from Manchester Airport and I'll be landing and Philadelphia International Airport. I'll be staying there for a week with a friend and then on the 24th I will scoot down to Nashville, Tennessee to visit Chelsea. I'd like to think I will be able to be there for my birthday (23rd, April). I would have liked to have been there for this year when Elvis Costello played at the Ryman Auditorium but it just wasn't to be. That's a shame but really it was only a 22nd. Even the 21st wouldn't have been that important! 23rd on the 23rd of April. Nice one, Cameron. Just a couple of drinks and some food at McCreary's. I love that place even though at the moment I live half an hour away from the actual Ireland. It doesn't matter one bit.

Then, with a little luck, I will be flying up to Toronto on the 28th of April. Keeping in line with my neuroticism I hope to have some sort of of accommodation lined up and even a couple of job interviews if not an actual job. Seeing as I'm not that skilled at anything other than talking (and then barely that!) I fear a little bit how difficult it may be. As careless and fancy free as I am I quite obviously don't want to turn up to Canada and be living off savings from England. I hope to have enough to allow myself a crutch to stand on for, if need be, a couple of weeks. I'm going to check out if there is anything like the website I went through in Australia for England. Except for Canada in England. I'm a wily one. If not overly cautious then perhaps just a little bit mentally diminished. That is to say that I should not operate a car or perhaps even a razor.

So there you go. You all sort of know what is going on. If not pay closer attention.

Love to all two of you who read this (Mum and dad! Thanks!)

Cameron.

First Year Blues

I am immigrating to Canada after emigrating my own. Why you ask? No, I won't reveal that just yet.

Plus I want to see how this looks. Chelsea has chelaska and I have camnada. I thought that was quite humourous on my behalf.

I will get around to answering things that no one has answered. Cheers.