Long torso

Obviously joining FB was not a good idea, since even my tiniest blogging activity died since then.. but here we go again with new energy!

Recently I've been trying to find a new swim suit for myself. My dear old 2-piece Adidas is more like a see-through-swimsuit, and going to public swim pools is not really an option. (For a hotel swim pool it still worked 2 weeks ago, 'cause there was almost no one else swimming.)

The memory of my previous desperate search for a swim suit 2 years ago wasn't very encouraging, but I was hoping that the swim suit selection in Ottawa would have changed since then. It hasn't. I visited all the possible swim suit shops, sport shops, department stores in Ottawa and tested about 10 different types and shapes, but nothing fits.

My problem is a "long torso" which means a long back.

One piece swim suits end up looking like wrestler's suit - not long enough to cover my boobs - or if they cover boobs they are too wide and probably end up exposing something else. Most two piece swim suits are either meant for sipping Margaritas (bikinis), sipping Margaritas while covering your belly (tankinis) or swim fast and furious wearing as little as possible (competitive two piece swim suits).

Why I can't find the good old Adidas two piece set, which covers boobs and butt and stays in its place when swimming, in any store???

Giving up on a principle

I received a nice surprise email from an old friend whom I haven't seen in the past 4 years and probably not even emailed with in the past 2 years. The email, and my recent visit to Washington to meet Heta after almost 2 years stirred up something in me: I don't know what's going on in my not-in-Ottawa friends' life, but I would really love to know.

Obviously my favourite communication with you, my dear not-in-Ottawa friend, would be face to face, over a cup of tea or a pint of beer. But unfortunately, depending on where you live, this would also mean a 10-25 hours and 500-1700e trip over the Atlantic, and to my knowledge none of us is a millionaire so far. Emailing isn't really an option either, since emailing for work for 7 hours a day takes all the fun out of emailing for fun after work. What is left? The damn Facebook, where everyone seems to be. And what I've heard, it's a great way to stay in touch, if you just ignore all the negative sides of the virtual world.

So, lately I've started to think if I should finally give up on my anti-Facebook attitude and join the damn thing.

I haven't finished my inner battle about it yet, but if the battle comes to an end in the near future and the result is favorable for Facebook, I might be requesting your friendship in the virtual world ... but ONLY if you live outside of Ottawa. With Ottawa friends I want to stay in reality and meet for a real cup of tea or pint of beer.

Washington calling

Summer holiday! Even though it's almost autumn, Ottawa sweats in +35 c. And so does Washington D.C. where we start heading today to visit Heta and Mikko, yay!

Humidity: 100%

Rainy, gray Monday. CBC Weather says that it will stay as a rainy, gray Monday for most of the Monday: Rain. + 17 C. Humidity: 100%. A hot, sunny day with 100% humidity feels mucky and sweaty, but rainy, gray Monday with 100% humidity feels just wet, I guess.

I started to wonder how humid sauna is, something close to 100%? The world wide wonder told me otherwise: "Air humidity varies from 10% to 25%, depending on how much löyly is used."

This mind blowing humidity fact lead me to google humidity, and what did I find? In 100% humidity we don't sweat, we just feel hotter inside! "If the air is at 100-percent relative humidity, sweat will not evaporate into the air. As a result, we feel much hotter than the actual temperature when the relative humidity is high. If the relative humidity is low, we can feel much cooler than the actual temperature because our sweat evaporates easily, cooling ­us off. For example, if the air temperature is 24 degrees Celsius and the relative humidity is zero percent, the air temperature feels like 21 C to our bodies. If the air temperature is 24 C and the relative humidity is 100 percent, we feel like it's 27 C out."

The questions is - what should I wear on my way to work and at work, when it's +17 C rainy and 100% humid outside and AC freezing cold in the office?

Phone conversations

I noted in my "Signs of being Canadianized" that I've started to answer "Hello" to our phone (which doesn't have name display), like they do here, instead of answering with my name, which is what I learned as a kid. "Hello" might sound like a welcoming and friendly answer, but it often leads to frustrating moments. Like this:

Our landline phone rings.
Me: "Hello"
Caller: "Hello"
Me: "Hello?" (trying to emphasize the question mark in my intonation)
Caller: "Hello"
Me (frustrated, not sure whether it's about the line and the other person can't here me, or if it's just once again the annoying hello-hello-dance): Sorry, but who's calling?
Caller: Oh, sorry, I though you recognized my voice, it's --- (usually one of our friends or Abdallah's relatives - telemarketers are polite, they always introduce themselves). How are you?
Me: I'm good, how are you? Just a little suggestion, next time you could introduce yourself when you call!

Example 2:
Phone rings.
Me: "Hello"
Caller: "Hello"
Me: "Hello?" (trying to emphasize the question mark in my intonation)
Caller: "Hello"
Me: "Hello???" (really trying to emphasize the question marks in my intonation)
Caller: How are you?
Me: I'm good, how are you? (Trying to think who on earth the person on the other end is.)
Caller: Not too bad.
Me: Great. Sorry, but who's calling?
Caller: Oh, sorry, I though you recognized my voice, it's -----.

The last part can also go like this:
...
Me: I'm good, how are you? (Trying to think who on earth the person on the other end is.)
Caller: Not too bad, it was great to hang out with you guys last week.
Me: Oh, it's you ---- (name of our friends)! Sorry, I didn't recognize your voice! You should have introduced yourself! But yes, it was great to see you!

Bad burgers

I always thought that North America is the continent of hamburgers. I'm afraid that I have to add one more word to the sentence - bad.

I have (once again) declared a war against burgers. Or maybe it's more like a boycott. Or both. Why? Because all the burgers I've eaten this year (usually burger craving hits once a month) have been bad, no matter if they were veggie, chicken or meat burgers. Latest bad experience was on Monday at the Toronto Airport - why did I fool myself again to the wishful thinking of a pleasant burger experience???

Traditionally you would think that pubs are good places for good burgers. This has been proven wrong, at least in Ottawa. One pub burger was such a catastrophe that I left the meat on the plate. Reason to be vegetarian for sure, but unfortunately the portobello mushroom burger in another place wasn't much better either. Pub burgers suck. Freshly reminded by Monday's airport burger experience, you shouldn't expect too much from airport burgers either. Sadly though that even the low expectations can be too high. And the fries are another reason to cry - here they tend to serve industrially cut 1 cm thick fries, which are raw from inside and when you bite it, the raw, hot potate paste explodes into your mouth and burns your palate. Sounds ridiculous, but seems like my only good-ish burger this year has been in McDonald's!

So, from now on no burgers in pubs, general restaurants or at the airports, even when the burger craving hits. McDonald's isn't really an answer either. My only hint of hope is Works - a restaurant chain that actually specializes in burgers: last year's visit was quite pleasant, so maybe I can just stick with boycotting all the other places and revoke the declaration of war... unless Works disappoints me too.

Macgyver vs. Jack Bauer

Last week's experience in the elevator and thinking about Macgyver tricks made me think about Macgyver and the "new Macgyver" - Jack Bauer from 24. Sure, 24 is very well done, as it hooks you in no time and the addicted you craves for a new episode immediately after finishing one. Naturally technological development makes a difference too, and the speed of events in general - Macgyver's actions looks like turtle action when compared to the cheetah-like-speeding Bauer. However; Bauer's maneuvers are too harsh to my taste, since he's all about using violence, where as Macgyver had a clever and gentlemanny approach to solving problems and getting away from tricky situations. I'd rather think like Macgyver than act like Jack Bauer! (As if I would be asked to save the world often anyway.)

On another note, when googling Macgyver now I noticed how NICELY Richard Dean Anderson has aged ... I truly wish they would remake Macgyver!