Notes from a bemused canuck
I just realized that I need to have found an apartment for mid April. This will be a challenge. I've sent a gajillion emails in the past 48 hours, but the timing works against me, as does the fact that I don't really know the city itself.
gaaaaaaaaah!
So I sent emails to a bunch of realtors in Cambridge. My goal is to be have a bunch of properties to visit as soon as I set foot there so I can get settled in asap. for my own reference purposes, I have emailed:
http://www.reesassociates.co.uk
http://www.russellres.co.uk
http://www.firstsite.co.uk
http://www.cambridgehousehunt.co.uk
http://www.bidwells.co.uk
http://www.sab.co.uk
I'll see what they come up with.
My head hurts.
Ok, I'm starting to realize that my move overseas will generate an obscene amount of paperwork.
Average costs:
Rent (Cambridge) : 650 monthly (2 bedroom)
Electricity: 20-30 monthly
Gas: 20-30 monthly
Council tax: 90-110 monthly
Groceries: 70-100 weekly
Still need to figure out costs of cell phone, internet connection and cable TV. Need to make proper budget, esp. given that I have things to pay in Canada
Things I need to buy:
– appliances
– couch
– anything electric (lamps, small kitchen appliances, alarm clock, TV/DVD/VCR)
Try and sell off the I have here
Rental offices:
City of Cambridge
South and East of the City are best residential options for travel to Hinxton
http://www.brettward.co.uk/canb/tolet.htm
http://www.brettward.co.uk/canb/search.htm
http://property.cambridge-news.co.uk
http://www.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/WWWnews?grp=ucam.adverts.accommodation
http://www.a1tourism.com/uk/a54545.html
http://www.gwydir.demon.co.uk/cambridgeuk/index.htm
http://www.warnersletting.uksw.com
http://www.homelease.co.uk
http://www.camflats.co.uk
http://www.angliaresidential.co.uk
http://www.admiralresidential.co.uk
http://www.eurolet.co.uk
http://www.sab.co.uk
http://www.reesassociates.co.uk
http://www.letting-centre.co.uk
http://www.hwpm.co.uk
http://www.cpmltd.com
http://www.fdpm.co.uk/properties.html
http://www.ambassador-properties.co.uk
http://www.firstsite.co.uk
General Information
http://www.ebi.ac.uk/~virginie/cambridge.html
http://will.phase.net/map/
Things to do:
– pack all my things
– sell my appliances
– ship my electronics to my folks' place
– get quotes for transatlantic freight shipping
– find an apartment in Cambridge
– settle the financial details for income tax
– get a pet passport for Boris – see : http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/quarantine/PETS/index.htm
– get bank account
– get exemption stamp for passport
– get finalized contract
– intermediary travel insurance
– get medical file from Connoly
– register with canadian consulate in the UK
– redirect mail to parents' house
– get limited power of attorney forms
Announcer: And now for his explanation of the national debt, here's the man who put stuffing in “get stuffed”, Jock McBile.
On monday, Paul Martin brings down a budget that he hopes will reduce our debt. Forget it Paul, the only way we can cover our national debt is for everybody in Canada to die tomorrow and leave their RRSPs to the government. We'll get the government out of the hole even if it'll put us down one. Now how do you get in this state? Well, Jocks's going to tell you.
Our story opens in 1968. We got a bachelor Prime Minister. Draught beer is 25 cents and the national debt is about 17 billion dollars. At that point, if we all chipped in 800$ a head, we could have nipped it in the bud. Now by 1973, it's more than doubled to 40 billion. A few have started to point in out, but Trudeau is not taking that lying down.
[Video clip of Trudeau] “This is what I call the politics of fear. The Conservative politics. We're heading for the hungry 30s. Why say that?”
Well, maybe because it was true! Only we called them the hungry 90s! Now in 5 years the debt has jumped to 60 billion. And then in 1979, a saviour appears. Now lets see what he has in mind.
[Video clip of Joe Clark] “This will be a different kind of deficit. It'll be a 'stimulative deficit'. that will cause people to go out and do things.”
Aye, like go out and vote Trudeau right back into power. Now, when Trudeau comes back, he starts making all the right noises.
[Video clip of Trudeau, with voice over from Jock] “I realize that these news policies must not be financed by increased government spending” Och, great planning lad!
“We shall be proposing reductions in both our expenditures and in our taxes” Och, way to go!
“The role of the government will be 'Deliver more, for less'” FANTASTIC!
Especially from the man who took the debt from 17 billion to 170 billion!
“What an incredible distance we've traveled together” *smug look* You can say that again!
Now by 1984, the deficit is up to 200 billion, when in arrives, “The White Night”.
[Video clip of Mulroney] “Now we have to exercise an unprecedented degree of prudence and frugality in the use of taxpayers' money.”
Now doesn't that sound good? Now I want you to listen to what Mulroney says about the debt while you watch what he does about it.
[Mulroney talks while graph of debt rises continuously] We have placed on the backs of Canada's youth (250 billion) – your kids and mine – (300 billion) a mortgage so big and overwhelming, that not one of them is young enough (350 billion) to live long enough to begin paying off the interest on the debt (400 billion). I say that's unfair to young canadians (500 billion) and we must assume our share of responsibility (550 billion) by dealing with that deficit burden right now (off the scale!).”
Ah haa! Now in politics, that's called “not letting the left hand know what the right buttock is doing!”. Nevertheless, I'll say this for him. He always had a sympathetic ear for his critics.
[Video clip of Mulroney] “If they have better ideas, they can bloody well tell us what they are!”
Well, we bloody well did and you bloody well didn't listen. Which is why today you're bloody well an outcast!
Now, for the past 18 months, we've had Chretien and the Martin show, and that deficit has now slowed down. It's now 550 billion. That's 18,500 dollars per person. And if you add in provincial and city debt, it is 74,000 dollars per person!
Now you say, “Is there any good news in this, Jock?” and I say “Aye! It's canadian money!”
I love the Air Farce.
Disney To Produce a 'Passion of the Christ' for Kids
Apparently hoping to attract the millions of churchgoers who flocked to The Passion of the Christ — but who rarely go to the movies — the Walt Disney Co. has begun to court church groups to secure their support for their upcoming film version of C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
According to some reports, the studio has hired a PR firm with strong connections among the evangelical movement and has already seen positive results from the move. Jim Burns, head of San Francisco-based HomeWord, which produces a syndicated 30-minute radio program each day, aimed at young people, told the London Sunday Telegraph: “We are very, very optimistic about what Disney is doing with the film. Our people have seen some footage and it is wonderful from the Christian point of view.” The film has also received the endorsement of Douglas Gresham, the stepson of C.S. Lewis, who operates a religious retreat in Dublin, Ireland. “I am a committed Christian and I am very happy with the script,” Gresham said.
From: IMDB news
England's EBay for Sex
By Jason Walsh
Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,66800,00.html
02:00 AM Mar. 07, 2005 PT
Just as myriad swingers sites allow soccer moms to commit adultery and married men to cheat with impunity, a new British website is helping people to become part-time prostitutes.
Across Britain and Ireland plenty of people are willing to pay for sex — and plenty more are willing to provide it, but until now it has largely been the domain of professional sex workers.
Britain's AdultWork website is plugging into the growing niche industry of sex-work dilettantes, people who spend a few hours a week in front of a camera, or in bed with a client, to augment their income — or maybe even just because they like it.
Sex and the internet have a long history. Besides pornography, there are plenty of sites where sex-starved people can hook up. AdultFriendFinder is the world's most popular “no-strings” sex site, with almost 17 million users. Others like Swingers Europe, Naughtynightlife.com and Swinger Zone are far from unpopular. And there are plenty of specialist sites too: Gaydar and Gay.com for gay hookups, URNotAlone for transsexuals and Alt for bondage and sadomasochism enthusiasts.
But while these sites are just dating forums, AdultWork is an online clearinghouse for sex work. At present it has almost 3,000 members offering services, and several times that number buying or browsing. In addition to sex, the services on offer include webcam peep shows, homemade movies, phone sex and sex by cell-phone SMS. The site launched in late 2003 but had little immediate impact. It's taken just under two years to rise to prominence.
Users must create a free account to browse the services offered. Users can rate the services they've tried, or even offer their own services. Like eBay, AdultWork takes a cut of all transactions, which are processed through the web bank Nochex.
Indeed, with its ratings honor system, AdultWork is something like an eBay for sex. And sex isn't the only service available through the site. All the secondary occupations supporting it are also listed — bodyguards, cleaners, receptionists, even web designers.
Paid-for sex is a popular pastime in the United Kingdom. Recently published research in the Lancet medical journal found that one in 23 British men had paid for sex in the past five years, and there are about 80,000 sex workers in the United Kingdom.
One of AdultWork's part-time escorts is Melissa from Belfast. Melissa is an attractive, intelligent and well-read 20-year-old. A full-time student of communications, she is internet- and media-savvy — a far cry from the clichcall girl.
“I think what I do is very different to prostitution, well in my head, anyway,” she said. “I guess it depends how you codify things — everyone is a prostitute at some level. We're all willing to whore some aspect of our body or soul for financial or material gains.”
For Melissa, escorting is part-time work that provides good money. She insists it's not sordid. “Prostitution suggests standing on a street corner to feed a drug habit,” she said. “I think of myself as a Holly Golightly, Breakfast at Tiffany's kind of call girl…. It's been a bit of a fantasy for me to have this secret life that only I know about.”
After clients make contact through the site or e-mail, Melissa usually visits them at their home or a hotel. As a full-time student, Melissa has to fit in escorting around her schedule, working mainly on weekends, which allows her to disguise what she does for a living: “I have lots of friends, both male and female, none of whom know what I'm doing, but I find it easy to make and keep good friendships…. I'm not a loner or anything.”
For Melissa — and thousands like her — AdultWork breaks the underworld connections associated with sex work. In Northern Ireland, these connections can include terrorists. “I am completely independent in my work, doing it for myself by myself — I don't pay cuts to any agent,” she said. “I do know girls that work for agencies, which are really just terrorist-run brothels. The girls hand over around half of their money.”
All kinds of people enjoy discreet, extramarital liaisons; now some of them are charging for it. Adultery has gone professional. Katie's one of them. Katie describes herself as a BBW — a “big, beautiful woman.” A 45-year-old homemaker living in London, Katie has been working as a prostitute through AdultWork for three months.
Katie said her husband thinks she works a few hours a week for part-time employment agencies and spends the rest of the time looking after their 10-year-old daughter. Instead she makes daytime visits to clients' homes for sex.
“I have a husband, and sex outside of my marriage is fun,” she said. “He doesn't know what I do, but I'm very careful STD-wise and really only do it once or twice a month. It's not much different from having an affair.”
Katie said treating part-time sex work as though it were an affair is “pretty common.” She said she does it for the money — “I need to earn money so that I can afford to buy things,” she said — but also enjoys the sex.
“OK, if a repellant guy is my client, it's not ideal, but it's not always like that,” she said. “The internet is what makes it possible for me. I would never have joined an escort agency or worked in a brothel. So far as this is a business, which it's not really, I'm my own boss.”
The owners of AdultWork, AW Systems, remain a mystery. Despite being aimed at a British and Irish audience, the site is hosted from the Netherlands. Holland's liberal laws allow sex for money to be openly promoted. Ironically, a similar site for the Dutch is a non-starter: Prostitution has already been normalized.
“The internet provides a means for those engaging in adult work to take control of their own destiny,” said an AW Systems representative calling herself Samantha. “No longer do individuals have to work for a third party such as an escort agency. They are now at liberty to market their own services.”
Samantha added: “As far as we are concerned, the distinctions between amateurs and professionals have been blurred.” A British Home Office spokeswoman said prostitution is not illegal in the United Kingdom, but solicitation and pimping are — and that AdultWork is pimping.
“Action would be a matter for the police,” she said. “But if such a site was indeed U.K.-based, it could be shut down.”
Avedon Carol, a spokeswoman for Feminists Against Censorship, said shutting down the site helps no one. “Anything that gives women more power over their work would help,” she said. “Stigmatizing sex, preventing women from being able to work together and so on, those things just make them more vulnerable…. Taking your clothes off doesn't necessarily make something a bad job.”
“Taking your clothes off doesn't necessarily make something a bad job”
I found this online and had to tweak it a bit to make it LJ-friendly:
They offered, I said yes. They're offering a 3 year contract with 30 days vacation, medical/dental insurance, relocation expenses, UI and pension scheme included and a salary that will let me live comfortably, according to the people I asked. The job seems really interesting and the environment seems agreeable.
So now I'm giddy and scared out of my wits, all at the same time. It's a rush, I tells ya.
Things to do:
– pack all my things
– sell my appliances (anybody want to buy a two year old stainless steel fridge and stove and a year old washer/drier?)
– ship my electronics to my folks' place
– get quotes for transatlantic freight shipping
– find an apartment in Cambridge
– settle the financial details for income tax
– get a pet passport for Boris
…. anything else I'm missing?