… were spent in Vancouver, obviously. I’m back in Hinterlandia, after a long drive yesterday. Temperatures peaked at 33 degrees in the desert-like middle of the province, only for me to arrive home—to FALL!

Truly: the trees in the back alley have begun changing and shedding leaves. !!!!!!!

I’m actually coping with that just fine. I spent all day in the office, the first half just talking to people and the second half organising things that I had organised through my brain of mush and muddle in June, but which made no sense anymore.

And I was 150% in a funk. I don’t love this place. I DEFINITELY don’t love my life here, and I had a little pity party / anger fest about it, because I miss having a social life and know that I won’t for another 10 months… and friends just rock, you know? It’s partly the loneliness of being in Hinterlandia, where I have lots of acquaintances but no *real* friends, that made me turn to sugar last year in self-medication. We’ll see how it goes this year…

Tonight, there was a knock on my door. My neighbour Zoë wondered if something was wrong with her computer—she couldn’t stream any more of my blog. Yeah… because there hadn’t been anything new in days. When I got bummed about having to leave delightful Vancouver with my wonderful friends and their fun kids (how CUTE is Charlie over there?!), I just… had nothing to say. But I am suitably shamed for my lameness. Thanks, Zoë!!

So I’m on the road to accepting that I have one year in my contract and I’ll absolutely rock it… or at the very least, I won’t let my job KILL me this year. And to focus on the lighter side of life, I’m listening to Caroline Keating and making guacamole and black bean dip for tomorrow’s tequila Friday with my colleague, who is now on leave but is coming in to the office for a welcome back drink, nonetheless. I haven’t told her yet that it’ll be only 1 single drink a week for me for the next 6 weeks… and maybe longer… it might hurt the buzz.

Black Bean Dip

Ingredients

• 1 x 540ml can of black beans (or 2 cups, cooked)
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, pressed
• 3 tbsp onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh lime juice
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp cayenne
• pepper to taste
• OPTIONAL: 1 tbsp fresh cilantro
• 2 tbsp sour cream or plain yogurt

How to

• put all ingredients (except sour cream / yogurt) into a blender. Or, drop them into a medium-sized bowl and pull out your hand mixer (like I did)
• blitz until smooth
• stir in sour cream / yogurt
• enjoy with crudité!