I am developing super BS skills. I think I have my lecture on Byzantine intellectual culture, to be delivered before an audience of friendly philhellenes, ready after half an hour of scribbling on a piece of paper and making notes. My main points are there and I am ready to give them all my enthusiasm in the process of delivery. Speaking of delivery I am already dreaming of pizza and comfort food while I sit with friends to see whether mr cardboard, currently repackaged into the Goracle, will get an Oscar, proceed to Oslo for the peace Nobel and then run for president. Still the food is not here yet and it is not clear that one should even wish for Gore to run once again. My only company is a furball on my side and the desire to check the news once more for more insigt in what appears as an inevitable slide towards US war against Iran. So I leave this for more news.

It is odd to find oneself in a situation which makes posting on the venue feel like a novel experience. It has been a while since I have been active here and I still wonder as to the reasons behind my silence. In anycase, on a grey day, sitting at N's dinning table, itself a French-Canadian's family heirloom, I am writing a lecture for Tuesday, while bemoaning the fact that I am not out with N and her friends eating lunch at a fancy restaurant. I have to think that I am saving money and that I actually need to work, in order to justify to myself my domestic status. My home search is still going on, more properties appear every day and more are turned down on account of one or another concern. Work is going well, though I need to be filling forms for a whole spate of bureaucratuc issues, and teaching has improved dramatically after the sluggish begining of this term.

I now feel they are enjoying the lectures as much as I do. I am now looking forward to my trip to Greece, to seeing friends, checking out my new property and just spending time with a bunch of young people, who may or may not have the energy to work after all their partying. Beyond that I feel I need to see friends, but I am too reluctant to pick up the phone and call as it simply is not the same. Hopefully sailing will pan out. On other news, it seems I have an in with the ministry of culture to get free Greek books for the program. I will be submitting quite a budget for that. It makes me happy to even think of the shipping list.

It has been a while. I do not know what makes a medium desirable over one specific period of time and then less so over another one. What is it that led me to not write for all this while. And of course, what is it that got me back on it? Well, I have been doing what Vancouverites are supposed to spend most of their times doing. I have been looking at real estate and have been gaging my options. So much so that I have finally submitted an offer and now I am on the receiving end of an email or phone line which in a few hours could land me my first apartment. Chances are it wont, as there are some issues that are not resolved yet on the money front, yet this process has been enough to divert my attention. It has also been somewhat interesting as you get to know the city better and decide what it is you like and what not of it as you make your choice. Phone rung, I am informed I am on a bidding war with someone. Hopefully it will not become too excessive. This is realtime. I do not foresee that I will be a home owner by tomorrow, but who knows.