Mmm Coconut Bun

Do you spend much time in your city's Asian area? Ottawa is pretty good that way, and the city in it's amazing inability to make the most of a good thing, seems to ignore it. But we've got a good 8 or 10 blocks of Chinese, Vietnamese and Indian businesses in one stretch of town, and within the restaurants and stores are a few places that bake Chinese pastries. My favourite are the coconut buns. Soft, sweet dough with sweet coconut filling inside and sesame sees on the outside. I'm enjoying one now that I picked up yesterday at the Kowloon Market. Another good source is down Booth Street at the St. Honaire Bakery.

Anyways, a nice afternoon snack is good to cheer me up after a bit of project 2 driving. Dropping off some resumes really sucks, as the roles are so disparate. A mailroom guy or security guard assumes the role of chief potentate over the lowly job seeker. It's all subtleties in body language, but it's there. Years of leading edge research and honours are nothing when you're job hunting. You're just another slug on the street.

It reminds me of my house hunting as a poor student - looking for an apartment that isn't a flea-bag, but not opulently expensive. You'd pound the pavement for days, and soon look at passers-by and think, 'all these people have somewhere to live, and I don't'. Funny that perspective comes back. As I make up my mind to switch from contractor to employee, suddenly the world takes on that perspective again. 'All these people have jobs and desks and paycheques'

Oh well, that will soon change. I tend to think back to various accolades received during my career and remind myself that my work has been highly valued and I've stood out in the crowd. Hopefully that occurs again as I make a return foray into the fire.

After the Deluge
We had a lot of rain during the Labour day weekend. Not so much heavy stuff as predicted for the remnants of the hurricane after zipping along the east coast, but a persistent drizzle anyway. The landscaping (P3) is awaiting me, but I thought I'd let everything dry out for a day. Managed to buy a liner and pump over the weekend. A hardware store on the outskirts had a bit more stock remaining than did the other 4 stores in the big orange chain, and so it worked out okay.

Hoping for a hiking/camping trip this week. Would be nice to get away - but I have a lunch planned for Thursday, so I'll either go after that, or go next week. But at least the kids are all back in school, so the demand at the parks during the week should be considerably lower.

This weekend I did make a P9 effort, and baked 6 loaves of whole wheat bread. With whole wheat flower, oats and oat bran, and molasses and olive oil. A nice result. One was a bit deflated, but the others all formed up nicely. Good rising and all look baked to perfection. Should provide many breakfasts and lunches for the coming weeks. Nice to get a bit cooler weather to use the oven again.

Wrap Up Well, it's a pseudo-Monday today but at least the weeks off to a good start. Got a few things done and there are lots of projects in the offing for the week. The Shuttle launch on Wednesday looks promising still, which will be an interesting event in the news to watch for.
And the stock market is pretty hot today, with lots of nice jumps across the board.

Your "drop everything and do this" assignment for this entry (whenever you're reading it) is to think about your day so far, and remember someone who you thanked for helping you in the last 24 hours. Now hunt them down and say "Thanks again for the xyz" whatever the xyz was that they did for you. Why bother? They will feel very positive after that. We rarely have a brief interaction out of the blue that is purely positive and not resulting in more work. You'll go up a notch in their eyes, and they will feel good, if only for a bit. But a bit more happiness is a good thing.