Spent all day yesterday working on balcony doors. We have got to get them up because it`s starting to get cold outside and the front room is freezing at night. There are inside doors there but the the outside doors are what Masa has been working on for weeks, stripping, sanding, repairing. We had to take the trim off and replace it (which took most of the day yesterday); today we will actually get the doors up (I hope) and then we have to stain (or paint, we`re still not sure yet), weather treat, replace the broken windows and the seal the hell out of the door jam so that less cold winter air gets in!
A great film festival wrapping up this weekend and I only managed to make it to one film. That kind of sucks because one of the great pleasures of fall is going to see new movies from different countries. Saw a Serbian film last weekend with a friend visiting from TO and another friend who lives here. It was a documentary style film (with dramatic elements) about the Phantom of Belgrade and while it was interesting, one suspects that the film was perhaps more interesting and entertaining than the actual original story.
I have a job interview on Monday. That`s not strange but the part that has me nervous as hell is the fact that it`s a French interview. Never done that before. Been chatting with a couple of friends all week in French, hoping it will help me. My problem in French is that I never use it for work so the French I speak is informal (and of course I make grammar mistakes) and there are many specific kinds of words I don`t know (so I end up talking around them). I`m not super worried about it but I will just be nervous and I don`t generally get nervous about job interviews. It`s a job I want, too, so I feel emotionally invested in it (because of my usual work schedule and life, when I do a job interview, I rarely feel that I want the job and they rarely are able to pay me close to what I make working from home: but this one is different and I am willing to take a pay cut if they offer it to me). More about the job if I get it!
So Sunday morning now. Been waking up at 7.15 every morning which is a nice change from waking up at 5am as I was doing a few weeks ago. Still, I`d much rather be on my usual schedule and get up at 11 every day! But perhaps those days are gone, at least for a while. Even if I don`t get this job that I want (and I do feel like I should at least be a contender for it), I will most likely continue next term teaching in the mornings, so...my days of working only at home all week are gone for the short-term future.
We saw a great concert the other night, Ryuichi Sakamoto, at the Theatre Outremont (which is, incidentally, a beautiful in a lovely neighborhood). I didn`t really know him but since I am surrounded by Japanese people, everyone I know has been talking about it for weeks. Masa couldn`t come because he had to work so I went with some other friends and I saw just about every Japanese person I`ve ever met here. It was packed and if not sold out then close to it, probably 40% of the crowd was Japanese. And it was lovely music, quiet but upbeat, in a beautiful space with good friends. But it was so COLD outside! We even bagged out on having a drink after the show because the bars near the venue were packed after the show and it was too cold to walk very far to find another place.
So though I missed the Cinema du Nouveau Monde, two more starting in the next couple of weeks so plenty more films to add to my list.
