Language Barrier Problems in the Workplace

This time with my boss who is from Scotland and frequently repeats himself slower and louder for my benefit. I'd gotten some gear to go snowboarding and wore the jacket to up north this time seeing my parka is no longer very necessary.

This is how this conversation went:

Him: Thats a really nice jacket. Is it Under Armor?
Me: Yeah, half price at Sport Check.
Him: I really like the teal bits on it
Me: Thanks, my pants match it.
Him: I really didn't need to know that
Me: *puzzled look* what does pants mean to you?
Him: Underpants
Me: Ohhhh .... yeah, no, not what I meant.

A Typical Conversation with Britt

The small camp I'm in houses 270 people and several of them are the Emergency Services people (doctors, nurses, EMT's and firefighters).

Brittany moved back last night from the other camp and as we were walking down the main hall to her room to have tea and catch up - I asked her what wing she was in.

Me: Are you in Wing A?
Her: I think so
Me: With the firefighters?
Her: Whhhhaaat?? Realllly?
Me: Yeah, they're all in Wing A. Do you know that one of them used to work with Bree in Strathmore?
Her: You talk to them??
Me / Her: laugh
Her: You mean they're not just pieces of meat?

Shots on the Go II

So here we go again (i'm wearing my glasses, so hopefully less dumb typos)

I shop at he sweetest little store in Inglewood called Espy and I've gotten to know the staff very well (just ask Scotiabank) so when they had a grand opening for their new, improved (though I like the other store better - it was small and intimate and the floors were hardwood and uneven, etc) store, I wanted to capture the moment with my gal Ashley. Britts came with me and didn't quite know how to work the camera of my blackberry.

  Britt: Opps. Its fuzzy.

Me: k. take another one

Britt: Its not taking

Me: its the middle button - just press it. 

Britt: Oh LeeLee - this is terrible, I'll take it again.

 Britt: Opps. I cut off your heads

Me: k. take one more. 

 Britt: its still fuzzy

Me and Ash: forget it.

(the store owner calls us MaryKate and Ashley - lol)

 I'd just gotten my hair cut and dyed a little darker - and wanted to show Heidi. Plus I was going on a date and needed to know if my outfit was acceptable. 

 Wheee! Registered for the Bluenose Half. Though I've lost a month of training due to illness ... *wah*

 Bree Britt and I went floating down the Bow last summer in Brees new boat. It was groovy. Like a luxury liner of blow up boats.

 That same night (pic from a couple of posts ago) in the cab on the way downtown. (me n' Britt)

 Photo op arriving back at Brees after being shut down by our no sense of humor cabbie. Oh - that still makes me laugh; he hated us. But Bree kept saying, 'this isn't the shortest way home' and Britt and I were like 'don't worry about it, etc'. She said, not whispering, 'but they always try to rip you off'.

 Cool hat I saw at Simons in Montreal. Pretty annoying bits in the front though. Looks like I just cut my hair and went out side in the rain ...

 One of my favorites - Mooresy. This is how she told me I'd left my sunnies at her place in Edmonton.

 This is my desk and those are flip chart notes from a meeting that I had to transfer into an email. You know the expression 'too close to the forest to see the trees'? I was too close to the paper to see the words. I could see about 5 letters at a time. And this was promptly at 5:55 when I was about 5 minutes away from freedom and a workout and ... not being at work. Took me over an hour to do this.

 This truck was outside my gym  - its a giant Dodge painted in red, green, black and white camo. I bet he has guns and shoots gophers. And drinks Pilsner beer. And watches Nascar.

 Cruising Cross Iron Mills with Dad, he turns to me with a straight face and says 'you keep shopping, and come back here to get me in an hour'. (only those who know him will find this funny)

 Forgot to add this to the last post: These are the curtain rod ends for my room. They are as spectacular as you think they are. From Urban Outfitters - I was bringing it in to Home Depot to get a curtain rod that fit.

Wha??? People will buy anything.

 I'm going to write a book.

 This is how I count down my days at work. Some say its what prisioners do.

Really? I ask.

Well I can relate.

 I got this awesome bday card from one of the Managers for another division of our team. That and a Fleetwood Mac cd - he knew I loved music and thought this was 'one for all ages'.

The little bear who was wandering around our camp looking for food. This is taken from my managers office.

And the trap she stayed in for half a day before she met her demise. Poor little thing, but she was becoming too familiar with people which is a danger to all involved.

Thats it !

Blank Stares and Silence

Whilst in Vancouver re-aquainting with the friends I haven't seen in recent history, we played a few rounds of the game Catch Phrase.

Rules are: A word or phrase appears on the screen of this funky little gadget and you have to get the other team to guess what it is by explaining it without saying any of the words. Then pass it to the next person before the buzzer goes off. Its quite emotional. And loud.

So my turn came around and the phrase was 'Cool Beans'.

EASY I thought!

So I start .. voice elevating ... accelerating ...

'UM UMMMM ,,, UHHH ,,, CRAP .. OK SO THIS IS FROM THE MOVIE HOT ROD!!!!!!

YOU KNOW - HOT ROD!!!! THE MOVIE WITH THE GUY? THE STUNTS? THE COSTUME????

UMMM ... UMMMM ... OH MANNN!!!

OH!! I SAY THIS ALLL THE TIME, ITS MY FAVORITE EXPRESSION -

BUUUUUZZZZZ - the timer goes off.

They are all staring at me blankly and someone pipes up "We haven't seen you in 15 years, how would we know what you say all the time".

Fair point. Very fair point.

I'm a spaz sometimes.

Kearl Lake Comments ...

Tass and I have started a Quote Book for the crazy things we hear at work. And with the different nationalities and crazy Capers, theres always something to add.

Today my boss says to me:

Can I share something with you?
Me thinking it was going to be something exclusive and deep, I casually said 'sure, go ahead' as I plunk in a seat across the table from him.
He says 'I don't like your shirt. What you had on yesterday was nice, but not this. I don't like it'.

Haha. What a guy.

It is kind of ugly but funny enough ... I don't really care.

Shots on the Go

So I'm going to copy of my little sister Heidi  and post pics from my blackberry.

Funny Facebook status the other day: Under some status updates is says "sent via Blackberry" - isn't that like a cassette?

haha. agreed Jose. agreed. my blackberry is peicea

So here we go:

The Stace and I (old employee, old roommate, and my Calgary little sister)

Her bro Darryl, so my Calgary bro. I heart him alot. He hearts me. Its a lovefest without the you know, love stuff. I also like that he'd beat the crap out of anyone who looked at me the wrong way. He makes me feel safe. Plus, he's funny and thinks I am. (so I really like him)

This pic was for Rachel - I was gushing about my amazeballs new Lulu jacket and she demanded a picture (in the nicest possible way). So here it is. My favorite peice of clothing.

Speaking of balls, um, what?? Seriously hilarious. If you're seven. Like me.

A painting I did with someone at a painting party. His name is Jamie Lo, hence the JLo in the corner. That was a fun night, like funner than you'd think. (The painting) was in Halifax and each trip I make home, I bring a few things back with me (from my storage - Heidis)

My redecorating, or shall I say DECorating. I love the word love and found it on a pillow! I was disturbingly excited. This is indeed a blackberry picture, so its not that easy to spot, but can you see how the teal in the bird matches the teal textured pillow. I know. I'm a whiz bang.

I drive alot. And I love music - all types, christian, country, pop, 80's metal, whatever feels right at the moment. And I found this amazing station on my Sirius called The Spectrum and they nearly always have cool beans running music. Since my memory is so bad, I have to take pictures of the song then go purchase them on iTunes. Pretty slick system I have, right? Think of the ideas you can get from this blog. Mindblowing. 

I know it says somewhere more than once in the Bible that we shouldn't get attached to inanimate objects. And I usually don't. But this - I love this light.

Its from Ikea and I'd been eyeing for a while and finally bought it. It was definitely a team effort to get this put up. Thank goodness I live with an electrician. How cool is the pattern on my wall?? Just don't come to my house if you're on a hallucinogenic, you'll trip out and ruin our visit. I guess its ruined anyway if you're arriving in that condition.

This masterpeice is two paintings ( I use the term lightly, they are $15 plasticesque material that looks like canvas (from afar, not close up at all) at a store call JYSK) and the creative juices were flowing and I got one of each color and put them together. I kinda like it. It goes with the flow of the room, which really is no flow at all.

This is a plaque that sits on my desk at work. I like it and have it in plain sight so I will hopefully continue to practice this is real life. (I still think its weird that this word is the same word used to describe the gross, pasty stuff on teeth - poor people trying to learn english)

One of my favoritest littlest kiddos. Nate playing games on Heidi's iPhone and wearing the battery down. How do you say no to that face though?

Adam bbm'd me, he was bored in a meeting. I told him to draw me a sailboat (his speciality) so he drew a dog too. Its fun to have friends who do silly things when asked.

I was having a really sad day and Adam sent me a pic of him smiling, then sent a pic of Ellie, who was also smiling for me. Day didn't stay sad :-)

Storme photobombing with bacon. She was allowed to get whatever she wanted at Costco and she got bacon. My kinda girl!

Me being a nerd and photojournalling my trip to Vancouver. Just in case I died on the highway and they found my phone, at least they could say I was happy. Just kidding, but kinda makes sense as I type it.

Our first day of work (this is the foxy little Asian who went to Mexico with me and Tassie, or should I say I went with them) You'd never know seeing shes in an XL safety vest. We giggled hard when this was passed to us. Look at my silly gloves with fingertips.

Me, Britt and Bree. I hosted a night out with a $150! gift certificate to a fancy restaurant I received my the partners my heinous job I had before this one. And Bree had just graduated from Paramedicine and had had a birthday, so we got dressed in our finest (looked like we were attending a wedding, but anyhow) and hit the town. It was a barrel of laughs. Truly. Our cab driver literally hated us and told us to shut up. Which, of course, made us giggle louder, and longer.

Breaky in Montreal with one of my faves - SanHam. This was at a place called Eggstacular, and who can argue with a Caesar with Saturday breakfast??

This car is in my neighbourhood and my bb camera is crap so you can't read the stickers on it. Let me tell you:

The black and white one on top says "Singles for Christ"

The yellow and black one says "Baby on Board"

and along the drivers side there are bullet hole decals.

HaHa. I love people who make me look normal.

Appy at Sandras - That weird Mozza cheese cut and placed on top of cherry tomatoes, a touch of fresh ground pepper, a dash of salt, and with balsamic glaze. So good my mouth just watered a bit.

A painting my multi-talented friend Anne Marie did and she didn't like it and was about to paint over it I saved it from certain death. I'm a hero like that. Its one of my favorite possessions (there I go again, lamps, paintings - but lets get real - its pretty much all I own) It hangs in |Heidi's house until I can manage to get it out west.

I love this picture - taken from the plane at the Edmonton Executive Flight Centre. Our stopover there is for refueling (why its not done in Calgary is an unanswered question I have) and to pick up passengers. I'm rarely awake at this point but glad I was this time. I may have daydreamed about using that jet and not the clunker old 727 I was currently sitting on.

This poster is on my way just so everyone knows I run as if I don't talk about it enough. Bossman saw it, found a Post it note and pen on my desk and I wasn't paying attention to him when he reaches over me and puts this over the work "kicking". We all laughed heartily.

This is what we were doing until 9:15 one night getting ready for a meeting the next day.

This is what we do to unwind. By we, I mean Tassie and not me.

This hat is my mothers and its so gorgeous I wanted to take it and go someone fancy. Like Moxies or something.

Well, I was in Fort McMurray after all.

Turns out, she made this! Shes got more talent than anyone I know.

Thats it folks. I'm not wearing my glasses, so there's probably alot of typos. I apologize.

Cheers yo

LLMac

2,234 Kilometers Later .... Calgary to Vancouver and Back in a Week - Part 2

To continue my excellent adventure:

On Sunday, I went to church with the gang and saw a few people who I used to hang out with and that was pretty fun. With Facebook now, there were no real surprises, but was very nice to see them all just the same. One (non fb-er) of them came up and introduced themselves. haha. Another one came up, pointed at me and said "I know you. I know your face. I just don't know your name".

But the funniest thing of all was Duncan Beckett (family friend) was there on his honeymoon. So strange and random.

Here we are! I made him get someone to take a pic with his blackberry and email it to me on the spot! Cuz really - what are the chances?

I met up with Steve B. (Teebie Guy) and went for lunch at Dennys (we're a classy bunch) and drank great quantities of coffee and didn't stop talking for probably 2 hrs. Then I treated him (since he paid for lunch) to crazy lattes at Starbucks. So now we're even.  We had such a super visit, he's a very special cousin!

He's my buddy.

This is us! Nice angles, hey?

Then I made my way to Aubrey and Heathers (family friends, I hadn't seen in many years) and met their 3 lovely children as well. We laughed and told stories and got caught up on each others lives and laughed some more.

 Then some more.

They took out for dinner to White Rock, poor little G sitting on my lap the whole way - not entirely comfortable for her, I'm sure.

It was so wonderful to be amongst people I've known most of my life, its actually something I took for granted living in Nova Scotia. And don't realize I am missing out on until it happens.

(Aubrey's new business venture. Its really taking off.)

jk - innovative though, I must say. Imagine what this person has saved on signage.

The next day dawned with Mrs Kelly at the house to take the older two to school and the youngest to go spend time with his Grandpa at their condo. So while we waited for school to begin, I sat at the table with a hot cup of coffee hearing stories about their crazy uncle, with details coming from the mom, neice and nephew. Very entertaining. They are such wonderful children - so polite, and funny. It was completely enjoyable and relaxing to be there.

Then - off to see Mr Kelly! Following Mrs in her sporty red car was quite the adventure, I could hardly keep up. So I spent a couple of hours there, again, chatting and laughing and relishing in the company of people who knew me when I was in diapers. I was sad to leave, but was meeting Carmen for lunch and it was an hour drive away.

We spent a great afternoon together, and a regular school night at their place with a nice, homecooked dinner with Mark D again. Then homework and crafts and floor hockey and other-domestic-stuff-completely-foreign-to-me.

On Tuesday, after a leisurely get up, Carmen and I went to lunch with her mother and shopped a bit.  I was sick (as I've mentioned), but we had a super visit. It was so nice to be back because all that I know of Vancouver is positive. It was my foray into the world as an adult, leaving the safe confines of Cape Breton, and I made such great friends and had really wonderful adventures.

After hugs goodbye, 'thanks for having me"'s, with promises of a return visit in the summer, I made my way across the city again to see another family I'd known when I lived there. But its an extra special situation because I got to combine two sets of people who mean so much to me.

While living in Van, there was a family from church who lived a few streets away; this family consisted of 4 boys, ages 8 -16, all super sweet and fun, athletic, etc.

 I often locked myself out of the house and on a couple (or more) occassions, I'd make my way over, sheepishly knock on the Wilsons door, ask for Cam, and with a silly grin, he'd put his shoes on, walk over with me through the shortcut I'd never attempt on my own, and climb in a window, and rescue my keys which were almost always in full view.

 Their mom was quite sick and still trying to run a busy household with busy boys,

so I'd go over to visit her, help her fold laundry, etc and thus became quite close to them. She eventually lost the battle to her illness but her boys were lucky enough to, a few years later, have their dad re-marry a truly wonderful woman. Who just happens to be a good friend of my sisters, and whom I'd gotten to know well via this relationship.

Sooo ... I spent my last evening there, with her, her husband of course, and their two young daughters, and two of the boys and their wives. I feel like a broken record when I say how much I laughed and reminised and just purely enjoyed myself. The boys told crazy stories, skyped their brother that lives in Nicaruga (he didn't remember me), and played guitar and the tuba and did the splits and other tricks. The girls were so cute and fun and lo-ved by all! 

Then Suzannie Bobannie, who now goes by Sue, and I sat up until almost midnight chatting. Safe to say we covered alot of ground :-).

And with that, I started my journey back East the next morning through equally dangerous roads as the first time.

Thankful I live in Alberta where fuel is $1.08 at the most...

I didn't stop in Kamloops. Not even to pee.

If my fuel gauge read like this, like it did on my way out of that place on the way west, I'd have had to ...

I spent the night in Revelstoke - not cheaping out this time! at the coolest place ever. I'll write on that at another time.

 I am not a snob.

Well, sometimes.

About some things.

But overall, I'm not.

Except when it comes to coffee.

Revelstoke has no Starbucks and I was forced to down this swill on my way out of town. The only thing that made it remotely better was the shockingly hot man who struck up a conversation with me in the line up.

I made it home safe and sound that afternoon after a much more relaxed and snow-free drive! It was nice to sleep in my own bed again and I didn't have to worry about ickies on the top of my comforter.

This concludes the story of my spur of the moment trip to Vancouver - its the best thing I've done in a very long time. You should try it sometime.

Its a really amazing feeling to know that after all this time, even though we've kept in touch on a very minimal basis, I can pop back into their lives and I'm welcomed with open arms.

I'm a lucky girl. This much I know is true.