It has been three and a bit lightning fast months since I last wrote and I can scarcely believe that I’ve now been in Canada for more than five. The trip hasn’t been exactly what I expected but so far I’ve learned quite a lot and despite the gross expenditure it all feels like a worthwhile exercise at this point.
The opening six weeks were a bit of a nightmare. With no place to call my own I accomplished very little and let everything slide. When we finally moved into our flat on March 1st things improved immediately but the job hunt led me into a new set of problems. Bar and serving work was very difficult to come by at that time of year and I was wrestling for a handful of positions of thousands of would-be staff.
I’ve suffered through employment droughts before but being thousands of miles away from home with a big flat to pay for (though I reckon it’s worth every penny) added a lot more pressure. I was feeling desperate midway through April when I embarked on a FOUR interview journey just to get a job in Starbucks. It was a route I didn’t want to take and thankfully I was offered a much better position in the Hard Rock Cafe at the end of April which resulted me binning the coffee shop before I’d even worked a shift.
The training process at the HRC was lengthy and involved a quite ludicrous amount of product knowledge (there are exactly 1.9qt of tortilla chips in the nachos, in case you were wondering) but I got through it without any hassle and began clawing back some of the deficit I had racked up. By the time my Mum came to visit at the end of May I was just about back onside money wise and a trip back to Barrie plus a few lazy days lounging in the sun certainly helped make me feel that the struggle of the past few months had been worth it.
I’m pleased to say that the time without a job wasn’t a complete waste. I spent a lot of time running, playing football and tennis and I’m in the best shape of my life now and contemplating marathon training for a race in October. I’m back playing 11-a-side with a good bunch of Irish lads, we’re second in our league with five wins out of six and it’s been a lot of fun to be back playing competitively after a spell out of the game.
The grey clouds and slush of the first third of the year have given way to a much brighter outlook. Suddenly summer has arrived with a spate of hot, dry days, I’m spending my free time playing a game I love and making a decent wage while still having enough time left over to relax and enjoy myself.
I arrived home from football training tonight to an email from two of my closest pals containing their flight details for their on a whim trip to Toronto. I need to get that barbecue on the deck fired up, things are looking rosy in the garden.
Grin
