two week mark

Today marks the start of my second full week of work and the two week mark of my arriving in Bristol, though it seems like I’ve been here so much longer after so many things have happened both here and at home in the past little while.

My plans to attend the live music festival were rained out by what was my first official caught in a rainstorm moment in Bristol… it had rained once overnight but I hadn’t caught it yet. Since then the weather has been noticeably cooler over the past two days, but it should get a bit warmer this week. The humidity is hard to explain… it was quite hot last week, but not as hot as it was this summer in Toronto and Kingston… but it felt much hotter because it was so humid. I can’t quite get a grasp on the climate here as my instinct tells me it should be colder, but then I realise that it rarely gets colder than zero Celsius in the winter and I see people with palm-like tropical plants growing on their lawns.

Funny note – Mom, remember what I used to call "the smelly tree" which was the tree with really sweet smelling leaves which grew in the backyard until the air-conditioner people installed the a/c right over it? I’ve seen them a few times here, and only recognised them by the shape/purple colour of the leaves as they are a lot bigger than the one we had and also have grown small little flowers on them. But the smell is the same… I was just funny to stumble upon as someone down the street has one growing over the sidewalk, because I remember no one knowing what kind of tree it was.

Anyway, smelly trees aside, I was commenting on the humidity I think. It’s a bit strange – and you don’t really notice it until it gets cooler when it just sort of feels like light rain, but really its not raining there is just lots of water in the air. Hard to explain – not quite like fog – but it makes it feel significantly cooler when its cold and humid.

Instead of sitting out in the rain I stumbled across the reopening of the Arnolfini which is an art centre in Bristol… they had a huge wall of flowers on display designed to stimulate the senses (particularly smell) and tell the story of the various flower growers, sellers, and producers which designed their bits of the wall from all over the world. The exhibit is replaced every five days to replenish flowers and keep it alive. It’s pretty cool – a bit like the cube in that it’s a multi-purpose space but it’s a little more mainstream. They were looking for volunteers so I might try it out a night – it would be good for seeing movies and getting into exhibitions free – my Friend Hannah at work works at the Cube and she is going to take me in there one night to try out volunteering as well so that should be fun too.

The September 11th talk was really neat – they showed a movie made by a local group and there was a talk and question and answer period with the former MI6 agent. Lots of conspiracy theories, and some interesting things to think about regarding terrorism – because the movement which ran the night was started in New York by the family members of victims of 9/11 who were not satisfied with the answers they got from the government reports, it was interesting to see some of the personal stories brought out. I’m not sure how much I buy into the theories, but it was very nice at the very least to watch a talk that was so focused on inquiring into the disaster while also being really respectful of tragedy and the people who died in the events.

We’ve got some big meetings coming up at work, so it should be a fun week. The Canadian lady who works in the same office as me invited me to her house for dinner with her husband and parents – so that is really nice. I think we’ll do it later this week or maybe early next depending on our schedules… I think It will be nice to have a home cooked meal, though I have been fairing pretty well myself with cooking comfort food.

That’s all I’ll post for now. I’ve got to get to work.

- Chris