Albinos in Tanzania

The job offensive has been in full swing this week, and without a working printer, I found myself staggering through 30mph winds towards the Toronto Public Library to use their facilities to print my newfangled, all Canadian resumé.

And what a library it is! Whilst the Canadian’s haven’t learnt the proper way to do bank accounts, mobile phone networks or VAT, they do have 3D printers in their libraries, so I guess that kind of balances things out.

As well as the opportunity to print all kind of hilarious 3D objects, a free library membership offers rare and out-of-print books, free films, access to online research databases, back-catalogues of newspapers, free subscription to all kinds of publications - including National Geographic - plus a lot more. There’s a pretty good article here that breaks down what a library membership is actually worth, for those who are interested.

Pleased as punch with my new (free!) library card, I printed ten copies of my resumé (just in 2D, for now) and took to the streets to distribute them to cafés, bars, bakeries and any other workplace with or without a HELP WANTED sign.

The cold was hellish, making it all the more difficult to muster the motivation to leave that warm, cosy building full of books and comfortable chairs and try to convince people to hire me - all the more difficult when your mouth is numb, making it bizarrely challenging to speak.

Nonetheless, I did manage to visit a lot of places across some of my favourite districts; namely Kensington Market, Bloor West Village and Little Italy, and have since participated in three interviews; I won’t bore you with the details. Either way, without plastering the city with my resumé, I won’t ever find a job, and without a job, I’ll have to return to foggy old England and continue searching there; not exactly what I have in mind.

With our new apartment comes new responsibilities: we have to visit the laundromat, of which the delectable novelty is yet to wear thin, and we feel much more inclined to cook meals rather than eating out, now that we have a kitchen.

The Cameron House / Danny and Jess Modelling the Salvation Army Spring Collection.

Despite engaging such a dedicated and intense job hunt, we have managed to spend some more time exploring the city and participate in the usual japes.

Last night we managed to catch Harlan Pepper playing the Cameron House again - the last of their string of gigs as the Cameron’s resident Thursday band. They put on just as good a show as the first time; playing, well into the early hours an eclectic selection of rock and or roll; most of which were indistinguishable as being obscure covers, or the band’s original tracks.

Harlan Pepper, filmed from the awkward POV that is my crotch.

We happened to sit down next to a fellow British traveller in the Cameron House; a chap called Harry Freeland, whose film - In The Shadow of The Sun - is being screened this week at TIFF in Toronto. He really sold the film to us, and had we not stayed out so last night, we’d be there enjoying it right now.

He lived with a group of Albinos in Tanzania - a country with a predominantly black population - filming their hardships over the course of six years. He was with a lovely German lady who lived in Toronto, and was part of the film festival’s organisation, and whose name regrettably escapes me.

To end on a high note: Danny became employed today - part time in The Shoe Company in the Scotia Plaza. He’ll be helping bankers select penny loafers between business meetings, the ideal job for a man whose house-slippers are handmade moccasins.

As for me, I remain jobless. Although as an unemployed twenty something once said to his short-fuse mother: Looking for work is a full time job.

I sincerely agree.