After enduring the agonizing Christmas shutdown with no job in sight I was anxious to be able to do something successful so focussed my attention on buying a condo. The sensible option was to get a job first and then buy a place but commuting from my family home to any of my job prospects would be a nightmare by bus or car.I had already gone twice with my agent to see some properties near the lakeshore. While I was away for three years they have built a glut of c...

Having decided to settle back in Toronto for family the priorities were to find a job back in the insurance industry and a condo in Toronto as commuting from my families suburban home would be a nightmare.Late October I called my old head hunter since 2002 just to touch base to see how the industry was as I was still applying to overseas teaching jobs and debating both scenarios depending on what turned up.At first she said I need to decide if I was staying or no...

Having returned back from three years overseas I wanted to spend time with my family and take it easy before looking for another overseas teaching job. In November I started applying expecting positive results with my newly minted Celta certificate I just got in Sept during my 4 wk course in Budapest.I expected timing to be a bit bad with the bulk of Sept hiring already done so was looking for positions in the new term in Jan-Mar. I was also trying more for unive...

The Sunday before Christmas southern Ontario was hit by a major ice storm. The last such storm in 1997 took out power lines leading to blackouts in eastern Ontario and Quebec. This time Toronto was hit hard.While it gave the city a picturesque and Christmassy feel the storm creates more damage than beauty. The accumulating weight of the ice over the period of the storm caused power lines to snap like pieces of string. Many parts of the city were without power for...

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Sci Fi Show Doctor Who the BBC had decided to have a simulcast live screening in movie theatres around the world of the 3D special so that fans could see it at the same time as the UK broadcast with no worries about internet leaks/spoilers before it airs in respective territories.This was an unprecedented first for a live simultaneous worldwide broadcast in movie theatres and proved to be a logistical nightmare managing th...