Nerja

ah, the mediterranean. we meet again.

balcony of europe.  our hotel faced this lovely little square

cutest little beach hut!  i loved how vibrant the colours are!

thank you, i take wonderful pictures of people

the alhambra...the architectural detail on all of the palaces and random buildings was breathtaking

this is why we have a tripod

beautiful sunset...almost as beautiful as vancouver sunsets

nerja has been great for lying on the beach doing absolutely nothing important.  other than that, i think it's a pretty mediocre beach town.  it is overrun with brits and other english-speaking tourists.  oh, and germans.  while i love that every afternoon from 2pm till approximately 6 or 7, we are lying on the beach with occasional dips in the freezing mediterranean sea, i have to say i haven't been super impressed by the scenery.  

wait, let me back up.  i feel like i have heard the term "warm mediterranean sea" used many times (maybe too poetically) in everyday speech, in books, in prose, in travel brochures, etc. etc.  i'm not sure if those people were here in the middle of july, because now in the beginning of september, i suspect the arctic shelf that recently broke off is hanging out here, about a mile away from the shoreline.  it is absolutely freezing.  i know most oceans and even lakes feel a little cold at first, but this is cold enough that when i dip my feet, my feet actually hurt from the coldness.  if the sun's not beating down my back, even when i'm fully immersed in the water and used to the temperature, it can get a bit too breezy and chilly in the water.  i have to tell alex to prove his manliness in order to get him to jump in - haha.

so, back to the scenery.  there's something about beach towns.  i'm still on the fence about how i feel about them.  anyway, having grown up in vancouver, then transplanted to toronto, i have a deep, profound, obsessive, and biased opinion about how beautiful vancouver is.  i compare many cities to it...and so far south of spain hasn't measured up.  the mountains here are yellow for crying out loud!  it's missing some lushness and some of that really natural, i-am-not-trying-at-all beauty.  for example, north shore in oahu, hawaii is absolutely stunning, but waikiki and honolulu try too hard and are too commercialized.  i feel that so far what i've seen is closer to the waikiki-style than the north-shore-haleiwa-style.  

so i'm picky.  however, have had great fun out here lying on the beach, adding colour to alex's glow-in-the-dark self, and becoming uber-tanned that i am the centre of jealousy in our hotel room (can't compare self to those bronzed people who live out here).  also had an amazing seafood meal in frigiliana thanks to tina's suggestion, and drank quite a bit of sangria.  we move on to barcelona - commercialization, shopping, city fun, here we come!  oh and tapas.  and paella coz i haven't had any yet.

Paris

Specialty florist that only did roses - we saw a couple of them around the city.


One of my favorite pics - Raspail Market as recommended by Barefoot Contessa.


Chopin's grave at Cimetiere Pere Lachaise - finally made it there within "cemetery hours" this time


cafe angelina - best chocolat chaud ever!!!


what's Paris without an image of the Tour Eiffel?

As I get older, I think I become more and more self-conscious. When in Paris, even though I do know some French and used to chat with my teachers in French all the time, I just couldn't do it. I would mumble, I felt embarrassed, and I just could not bring myself to it! Therefore, I found the city slightly hostile due to my imagination, and it just didn't feel totally right to me.

It took a lot of convincing from Alex, but eventually I did warm up to the city. I was all, "I heart New York City" (which I do), because I feel alive and happy in NYC, and there's no language barrier to worry about. However, Paris is very charming, and I think the Parisian lifestyle is one that I'd like to try some day.

For example, the open-air markets were a treat, and the first night, we went down the street to a strip where they had a boulangerie/patisserie, charcuterie, wine store, and cheese store, and basically bought dinner there plus at the downstairs section of Monoprix (which is AMAZING by the way). Our baguette was still warm and fresh when we picked it up, and it was just such a simple luxury, yet so attainable in everyday life.

Walking on cobblestone streets with flats that don't have much support on the bottom for three days straight? Not fun at all. I ached so much by the third day I was begging to go home and forfeit shopping. It made me wonder though, how do Parisian women do it in stilettos on those streets!

Funny thing about our Eiffel Tower pics - the lights were on when we were walking from the Metro, and I kept on saying, "I'd be so pissed if it turns off by the time we get there." So at one point I stopped along the way and snapped a quick pic with the little camera we have. What do you know, just when we were approaching Champs-de-Mars, yep, the lights went off. I was sooo annoyed but we set up the tripod and took pictures anyway. After quite a few with different angles and all that, we walked off towards to Arc de Triomphe. About five minutes into the walk, Alex turned around and said, "OMG the lights are back on!!" We looked at each other and just ran!! Set up by the Seine on the Right Bank and just took as many pics as possible, the one here being one of them. Apparently, the light show is every hour on the hour for ten minutes. Now you know.

should i be seeing signs?

as much as i would like to treat each blog entry to a nice picture of something, i just can't do it because it's such a huge production right now. i felt the need to justify that, and now i feel better.

a couple of weeks ago when a spanair flight crashed, i got goosebumps. alex and i are flying from malaga to barcelona on spanair (and earning aeroplan miles while doing it!) so that's slightly concerning. thennn, my second sign came yesterday when alex called me at 12:57pm - hey, zoom (airline) is "days away from ceasing operation"!

we booked our flights to paris on zoom because american express had just signed a merchant deal with them so employees got an additional 15% off. well then. hopefully the airline will remain in business until our trip is over. at 2:38pm alex called again - yeah, they're closed. nobody answers the phone there anymore. there's a statement on the website. looks pretty darn ceased already!!

so i'm thinking, freaking hell, should i just stay home for the week? then i think, but i have all these flights and hotels booked in europe! then i check the prices on airfrance.ca, ba.com, aircanada.com, and i think, holy crap flights are SO expensive! then i call amex (GREAT company btw, not biased) and they said they'd pay me back for the zoom tickets in 6-8 weeks so i think that's ok then, at least i'm getting money back. after a lot of debating, we just bit the bullet and bought tickets encore - full price. my biggest lesson learned in the past year is that all problems, big or small, go away when you throw money at them. indeed we threw our hard-earned cash at aircanada.com and now we're back on track to be in paris on september 6th!

seriously, though - two incidents hinting that perhaps i shouldn't take this vacay. what next? if there's a third sign from now until september 5th, i'm going to be realllllly concerned.

797 kilometres

Saturday 7:42AM of the long weekend:
Phone rings three times
Avi: Hello?
Sandy: (phew, he's awake) Hey, where am I picking you up from? (wow, this makes him sound so slutty)
Avi: Shit, my alarm on my Blackberry didn't go off. Give me twenty minutes. I'm at my place.
Sandy: OK (so I have another thirty minutes or so before I have to leave...)

Saturday 7:43AM of the long weekend:
Phone rings four times, about to go to voicemail
Terence: Hel-lo?
Sandy: (don't tell me same thing happened to you) Dude?
Terence: Shit, my alarm didn't go off. Give me fifteen minutes.
Sandy: Well, Avi needs twenty, so I'll see you in twenty five.

Saturday 8:31AM of the long weekend:
All three are now in the car, blocked by two cars in Terence's round-about. On our way!!

Long drive down, but it was fun! It took us until about 11:30 to get to the border at Sarnia, with a pit stop at McD's for breakfast included. The line at the border was sooo long that by the time we successfully crossed, it was well past noon. After much debate, we decided to go straight to Somerset Collection and skip the outlets. I was quite gung-ho about the outlets initially but I decided to be realistic and join the team. Somerset Collection is huge that it really required the dedicated time.

Another hour and fifteen from the border (due to construction and all that), and we finally arrived at Somerset close to 2pm. We began on the South side where the fancy stores are (the side closes at 7pm), and Avi and Terence devised the walking tour plan to ensure we would not accidentally miss a store. We stopped in most of them for quick peeks and so on, and did the laps around Neiman's and Saks too. Barney's Co-op was slightly disappointing - the sale section was tiny, the actual selections were not that impressive, and I didn't see a lot of names/designs that resonated and made my heart jump. Haha. I got a skirt from Theory's fall collection at Neiman's. Since the economy is so bad, it's already on sale from $230 to $80. The customer service at Saks and in general on this South side, was terrible. Saks had a pathetic denim collection, and the women who worked there reminded me of the snootiest of the bunch at Holts. It's such a huge difference from Dallas where everyone's falling all over themselves to help you and make your experience magical. Clearly in Dallas they understand that magical experience = exponential growth in spending power. We got a few little things at C&B and then proceeded to unload at the car and work on the normal people side - the North side.

Since we had already deposited some of our shopping into the car, really, it was like I was starting with a blank slate. The denim collection at Nordstorm's was fantastic (can you imagine having the same style in every single size? What a concept!) and I got COH jeans :-) Finally! I've been punishing myself with "fat clothes" that are mediocre, so I was excited to finally get back to the fancy denim. Anthropologie was really disappointing there, though. It seemed disorganized and also really uninspiring. I hate it when stores don't have any inspiring pieces on the mannequins...it really sets a negative tone on browsing through the rest of the store. We spent a long time at BR for the boys, and Terence went all out. Avi got this beauuutiful pull-over sweater that I just loved! It is such a nice comfy fall sweater, and his outfit of the day just so happened to go with it very well that I felt compelled to find the same one for Alex. No such luck - these two are not meant to be matchy-matchy, I guess. I then stole the sweater from him while he tried on the rest of his stuff...it was so comfortable to wear too!! Haha. I found flats at BR for $25 (marked down from $100 - genuine leather and everything), and an orange knit shirt for work.

We walked past BCBGMaxAzria and I almost turned in, then decided against it, then they encouraged me to go in anyway...and I headed straight for the 70% off racks. They had all these dresses on for 70% off, and I grabbed a couple that I had seen at the Eaton Centre with Denise in May. While I was trying them on (ridiculous looking), I saw another girl try on a black cocktail dress. I asked if I could try it on so they found me a size...and I almost didn't actually put it on because it's satin and I'm not a huge fan of the corset/satin look (kinda trashy when overdone). For reference, the other two I tried on were more tulle than anything else. So anyway, I put it on, and as soon as it zipped, I had a good feeling. So I called Avi and made him come into the store to check it out and we both loved the dress so much (egged on by other shop assistants) that I had to buy it!! It was marked down to $99 from $340!! Definitely best buy of the day for me.

Dinner was at McCormick Schmicks, which I felt really bad about because they had three items on the menu that Avi would actually eat/like. Oops! PF Chang's had a huge line-up, and there was no cheesecake factory close to the mall!! So sad...

We left for home at about 10:45, and got to the border/paid duties & taxes at midnight. By the time we made it back to Toronto, it was 3AM and we were basically all zombies. Avi fell asleep before we even got on the highway in London (driver-switch), and I fell asleep mid-sentence when trying to talk to Terence to keep both of us awake. I'm not sure what I was about to say...

All in all, it was a realllllly fun day!! We think we might do this at least a couple of times a year...however, Pepper won't be making the drive that much because of the limit on the lease I think.

why do all good things come to an end

(the madge really knew what she was singing about there)

i feel like since canada day, the days went by doubly fast.  i had to drive julia to a volunteering event on canada day, and while she was there, managed to take some ultra-awesome photos that i'm going to blow up and use in our gallery.  also stocked up on purdy's chocolates.  then for the rest of day mom and i just hung around the house and didn't do too much...enjoyed the nice weather and watched a bunch of episodes of her latest asian drama on dvd.

wednesday morning i went to wake up julia for our trip to victoria, and she greets me with "i got accepted to u of t."  i decided to do the most annoying adult thing i could possibly do, and told her to make the decision on her own.  meanwhile, we went about getting ready for going away for the day, as planned.  we were driving to the ferry terminal and julia wanted a fourth opinion from alex so we called him at work.  alex gave her some pros and cons, and mom continued to drive towards the ferry.  finally at the very last minute before we went on the ferry terminal road, julia decided she really wanted to go to u of t and not uvic.  so we veered off in the direction of stanley park and the aquarium!  at 10:00am as our ferry was sailing away, we set foot into the aquarium.

i swear, if/when i have kids, i would get annual memberships to this place.  the otters never disappoint.  with the new camera, i went crazy snapping photos of them.  we were also lucky to get in line and see the three-week-old baby beluga.  so cute!  we caught a feeding too!  apparently they only feed for 3-17 seconds at a time - how efficient.  belugas also sleep with one eye open!  they're able to shut off only half of their brain to make sure they can watch out for predators, swim without hitting things, etc.  in the end we caught the dolphin show where continuous shooting mode came in very handy...and i was a happy camper when we left.  i love the aquarium.  had lunch at the teahouse with a gorgeous view - but the sunsets there would be their claim to fame, so i'll have to catch that another time.  on our drive home we stumbled across the lululemon outlet - not that great.

thursday i went with jenn to try on dresses in vancouver.  she had three top contenders but then kicked out my fave because it was too mermaid-y that it was hard to walk in.  i loved that one!  we stopped by ikea on the way home, where jenn picked up a bunch of random things.  then julia and i bummed around the house together setting up her new macbook (which i'm using right now to blog), and read through her u of t stuff together.  i can't believe she's going to be so close!!  i have another victim to drag to stupid things i want to check out.

today i had a meeting at aeroplan, which was reallllly good.  i learned a lot and realized how much we can do with them so i'm pumped to go back to work on monday.  dropped off my present for my flute teacher (loooong overdue) and came home to pick up julia.  went to white rock to have fish and chips on the beach with a booster juice, then checked out the archives.  i got two prints that'll be done later, and one that they had on hand for much cheaper because it was already printed.  

i can't believe my vacation is over!  :(

he's no otter, but...

been bumming around the house lately.

saturday was a huge write-off because i was extremely exhausted and sick for no reason. i had to get up quite early to have dim sum with my uncle and his family because he was leaving town that night, but i just couldn't get out of bed! then i had the weirdest cramp throughout dim sum and was still so tired when we came home that i napped until 1pm. woke up feeling even sicker and couldn't keep food down, so spent the afternoon lying around the house doing nothing. finally at 4pm i gave in and decided there was no way i could make it to kristi's bachelorette because i wouldn't be able to eat much at the restaurant, and had no idea if my stomach would accept any of the food/drinks either. julia bought the nanny diaries and we watched it (second time for both of us) at night.

sunday morning julia had to work, but after she came home, we took a trip out to white rock to have dinner at cosmos. the greek restaurant used to be one of my favourite places, but we haven't been there in the past couple of years, so it was nice to go there again. the roasted potatoes there are fantastic! took a short walk along the boardwalk afterwards, had gelato from dolce gelato (local strawberry and creme caramel in a waffle cone). only when we were driving home did i see that there was a museum/archives-like place right there that i might've found b&w photos at! i think if i have time in the next few days i will stop by there to check it out.

today julia had to work again, but we had the car so mom and i ran a bunch of errands. we had originally planned on going to the aquarium/stanley park, but i just didn't really want to go if julia couldn't go. so we went to richmond and wandered around some of the shops, including daiso where everything is $2! i got a 6-people sushi set with plates and dishes for soy sauce. i was going to get a matching sake set or tea cups but didn't like either sets that much so for now, i will leave it. on our way out of daiso, we walked into my former flute teacher and his wife and his two little kids!!

now, he's no otter, but i was pretty darn excited to have run into him. i have a lot of respect for this man because he was able to sustain my attention in musical development for more than six months. in fact, i took lessons with him from summer 1997 to summer 2002! he was a wonderful teacher who always managed to challenge me just enough so i wouldn't be bored or disappointed with myself. he was also a great master of tonality that whenever i had a chance to play for a different audience, i would get a lot of comments on how great my "sound" was - that it was so clean and full, etc. even strangers in quebec made comments. i never really knew to appreciate the work we did on tonality but i do have a pretty critical ear when i listen to other people play.

since i moved away, i haven't seen my teacher at all. i had called him once shortly after i moved away, when i was auditioning for the orchestra at western. i needed some advice on the audition pieces and he talked me through them to make sure i was comfortable with what i was doing.
sadly, i also haven't played much since i stopped playing in the western orchestral band or whatever it was called.

anyway, it was just so nice to see my teacher again. i had picked up a gift for him in italy when we travelled through europe in 2004, but just couldn't work up the courage to stop by and say nothing except admit that i haven't opened my flute case for a long time. i really had a great time learning from this man, and he was such a huge inspiration and part of my life throughout high school that i don't think i'll ever forget all the great things he helped me achieve. now that i've seen him, and know that he has two babies now, i will definitely have to stop by and drop off the present some time this week.

where phallic cakes come from

Jenn and I had a super exhausting day that began at 10:30 and ended twelve hours later. We took the Skytrain downtown in hopes of finding penis paraphernalia for Kristi's bachelorette party. Not knowing exactly where all the sex shops are in Vancouver, we knew it was going to be an interesting day...

Minutes before Jenn picked me up, I had left Tommy a FB msg asking him which Starbucks he worked at downtown. I recall him mentioning it to me before, but couldn't find it in my emails or on my FB wall. So I left him a msg with minutes to go, knowing that I probably wouldn't find out in time to visit him anyway.

So Jenn and I took the bus (!) to the Skytrain, got on, sat down, and saw Tommy standing in front of us. It was pretty crazy. We got to catching up and chatting and he pointed us down Commercial Drive for this super-comprehensive sex shop that I had heard about a long time ago. We were supposed to head up Commercial for a "10-15 minute walk", but roughly 25 minutes later, I had to call Alex to find the directions because we still weren't there!! Finally when we got there, we realized that "Womyn's Wear" is what one might imagine as an "upscale" sex shop. You know, the type of store that has "empowerment" written all over it, and you can see that every toy/empowerment tool was carefully chosen for their store to maintain that image. Loosely translated, there was no way we were going to find penis straws, penis ice cube makers, etc. etc. at this lovely store.

However, the nice lady there got out a tourist map (!) and showed us Davie Street, at which point I recalled I saw a couple of "Love Nest"-y stores there the last time I went there for lunch with Allie P. So off we went running for the one bus that went down Commercial Drive that just happened to pass us then, and back on the Skytrain with literally a minute to spare before our passes expired. We got to Burrard, decided that we were ravenous then, and went into Kamei for some sushi. I had been craving Kamei since the previous day when I was downtown with Julia looking at laptops, so I was thrilled when they said there was no line! I had a delicious fancy roll and a nice cold beer, and Jenn had a huge Bento box before we were on our way again.

At last, when we approached Davie Street and saw the rainbow signs there, we breathed a sigh of relief. The first shop we went into, we were so happy to see all the sex toys and plastic lingerie hanging there that we gladly scooped up the penis straws in all five available colours. The straws, btw, are a new thing to me and I cannot imagine any drink that passes through those straws are allowed to taste good. There was also a wind-up penis that would jump around the table. After leaving the shop (they had a small selection because it's wedding season), we decided to check out another just in case. This one was much better stocked, so Jenn also picked up multi-coloured penis candles and something else. Then we were finally done.

But wait, we haven't even gotten to the best part - the cake!

We took the Skytrain back, got off in New Westminster to pick up an inebriated Brian amongst a couple dozen construction dudes at the bar (and his car) and drove home. Had to make a pit stop at T&T to pick up a jelly roll cake (chocolate with cream filling) for the, er, shaft, and Zellers for some more bachelorette party stuff.

After dinner, we got to work. We had to cut out the balls from loaf pans because we couldn't find little round cakes that were the perfect size. Then we compared the balls to the jelly roll and realized the proportions weren't working, so had to trim the jelly roll down. Then came the biggest debate of all - the head. How, what size, circumcision/not, etc. were all factored in, with our resident expert Brian at our aid. He had to draw us a couple of diagrams, too, to ensure that we really understood what he meant.

During this time, we also perfected the flesh colour with food colouring - 2 parts yellow and 1 part red should do the trick, with perhaps a bit more yellow if the red is too strong.

Finally, icing the cake took forever, because the jelly roll is a fairly moist cake in order to be rolled up without breaking. Also, the icing liked to slip off the cake because it was such a hot day. Once iced, we completed the look with chocolate shavings as the hairs, and a silver dragee at the tip. Sorry, I hope I haven't ruined chocolate shavings and fancy dragees for everyone reading this.

And that, took us until 10:30pm at night!

Mini-Trips

Now that I've been in Vancouver for a few days, I've successfully managed to drag my sister out of bed before 9 everyday so we can go out and do stuff.

Saturday my mom and sister both had to work, so it wasn't super exciting for us. Sunday my sister worked while my mom and I cooked and cleaned so my uncle's family could come over for a visit. Needless to say, a lot of wine was drunk, although I think not quite enough. We could've been much more obnoxious.

Mini-Trip #1 - Steveston (Monday):
- One of my favourite places to just sit and eat ice cream. It's usually fairly quiet because it's so out of the way and I suspect not a lot of people know about it since it's not an "obvious" attraction. I love Timothy's (not the chain) there, where they have freshly made waffle cones for a huge selection of ice cream and sorbets. The flavours aren't fantastic and won't move you to tears, but the waffle cones themselves feel like such a simple luxury. When I got mine filled with white chocolate raspberry ice cream, the cone was still warm from being just off the iron. That's what I love about everything Steveston.

Mini-Trip #2 - Bellis Fair (Tuesday):
- Crappy American Mall that's literally 15 minutes away once we cross the border. Considering we live about 15 minutes away from the border, and the wait during the day is about 10 minutes or less, this mall ends up being closer than going downtown sometimes. I'm surprised that it hasn't attracted more American stores, because the parking lot there is full of BC license plates. Anyway, I was pleased to find that they had cleaned up Target (or is it because I've come to appreciate Target more as I've aged?) that it was fun to wander through there. Target has also stepped up in big ways in terms of products that it is fun to shop for stationery, gourmet foods, and makeup there amongst other random things.

Mini-Trip #3 - Granville Island (Wednesday):
- One of my favourite places. It feels tucked away from the world as it is under the Granville Bridge which connects Vancouver to Downtown Vancouver, and that area is generally pretty old-looking with quite a few auto-body shops etc. I love to wander into all the shops on the Island because for some reason, no matter how obscure the shops' services/products may be, they'll manage to survive. They'll make you smile when you walk in becuase you would never have believed that a shop selling only postcards, or only funky hats, or only paper, or only beads, would be there time and time again for your perusal. I love the paper store. The market is a plus because it's the only market in Vancouver that I know of that resembles St. Lawrence, but without some of the steep prices because hey, the produce selection in BC is actually better(!) and cheaper!!

I feel like I've built up a track record now to keep up. However, as I'm knocking off items on the to-go list, I'm also conscious of the things I need to do at home! We will be heading to Victoria for a day trip next week, as well as the Aquarium (another dearly beloved place o' mine). Since my mom works five days a week, I'm not sure where else we may end up!

Also on the to-do list is to visit Vanessa and to bake a phallic cake with Jenn for Kristi's bachelorette party!

Relief

As the plane was landing in Vancouver Int'l Airport, I caught a glimpse of the mountains outside. To my surprise, I felt my eyes well up. And that was when I knew I was finally home.

Home this time means so much to me. It's been six months since I took a break from work, and in the six months, we've launched/have worked towards launching two huge campaigns that involve moving pieces in all the communication channels. I know there are lots of people out there who work longer hours than me, but I think this is the first time I've felt stress from work. More specifically, this is the first time I've experienced this type of stress - the type where I actually do care a lot about the end result, and I'm not just stressed about not getting things done. I stress about not getting things done perfectly, not leveraging all the channels and vehicles available to me, not doing enough testing, and all kinds of "non-perfection" issues. I guess it comes with being so close to your job and actually enjoying the fruits of your labour.

Also, I know I joked about it a lot, but I actually do think there's been truth in my statement that our apartment is like our first-born. I don't have a choice but to love it unconditionally, and make it into the best that I know it can be. Since we've gotten the place, there's been so many kinks that we've had to smooth out along the way. We haven't gotten to the day when it's completely finished, tidy, and perfect, and we can just sit back and marvel and fall in love with it. I work hard to get to that day, but for now, it's been like my first-born that I lose sleep over.

So this time, home is where I want to recuperate. I want to "heal" - eat, relax, read (a lot - I have lots of missed months), and just be.

I can't wait.

Hawai'i

Looking beyond the luggage carousel at the airport, the world is a cacophony of infrastructures. There are no skyscrapers to be seen, only a short row of buildings with petite open car parks. Yet expressways and freeways spread themselves zealously over these buildings, blocking out sunshine and light, as if this were any other heavily industrialized corner of the world. In the car park, families from all over pick up their cars, and the chatters of excitement are all about the beautiful rainbow peeking out from behind the clouds. Putting aside the multiple-lane freeways that would take each family to their respective resorts, the lei's around everyone's neck offer glimmers of hope that this is the utopia presented in the high-gloss brochures.

The North Shore proved to be the countryside - chickens strut alongside the main highway, and luscious fruit trees dot the yards of the houses. The resort itself was older. I've never seen Hawaii Five-O, but I assume that's what the buildings looked like back then, too. The interior may have been renovated more recently, but nobody's here for the view of the buildings, so why bother updating them? Being in the middle of "Winter/Spring", it was always windy and stormy first thing in the morning, and last thing at night. Yet during the day, the weather never failed to encourage the bon-vivre island feel - tropical, lush (from the earlier rainfall), and full of colour. There were shots I couldn't capture because I was too busy driving the Jeep(!), but it's such a constant, gorgeous treat for the eyes because the colours are vibrant, and they always seem to bring out the best of each other. For example, driving downhill towards the North Shore, the sky was pure blue, with a single flaming orange flower tree (not sure what flowers those were because they were so far away) against the backdrop and the ocean in the background - that was beautiful. Also of note - Kailua/Lanikai Beach, the local secret, and possibly the prettiest, smoothest (sand), aquamarine & pristine beach I've ever seen.

Final thoughts - kitsch? Cheese? Yes, in its glory with the lei's, the aloha shirts, the tourist traps and the busloads of Japanese tourists (MIA at Pearl Harbor, no pun intended). Beautiful scenery, relaxed island life, surfer hotties, and the chance to discover a completely natural ecosystem and all kinds of flora and fauna that reminded my mother of her childhood (read: Taiwan pre-everything is made in Taiwan era) made it worth the visit.

Rancho Bernardo, San Diego

Been in San Diego since Monday, with all-day meetings Tuesday, Wednesday, and today. Thank goodness we finish today at 3, or else I'd be missing out on all that sunshine! (It's actually kinda gloomy/cloudy today). Yesterday we held our meeting off site at the Rancho Bernardo Inn, and it was such a beautiful resort!! I tried to book that hotel, actually, but it was all sold out for some event. It is a huge hotel, and each room had its own little balcony overlooking the mountains. The best part about the place though, was that there was an on-site Starbucks cart, and you could pick up your regular Starbucks order and charge it to your room! That, to me, is pure bliss and should be mandatory at all luxury hotels.

Orange and lemon trees were scattered throughout the resort, which just made the place feel that much more Spanish/tropical. Seriously, I am falling in love with this place. I used to think of San Diego as a very urban, and maybe even a bit run-down city. Actually, I don't know what I thought. I just didn't expect that in the more inland places (where I am), it would be so beautiful. The houses are very cute - all one storey, maybe two or three tops.

I went a bit crazy taking pictures around the resort yesterday during our breakout session and lunch time. It was so sunny that we Canadians decided to hang out by the pool during our breakout session. It was so warm on the lounger that I seriously contemplated staying there for the rest of the day. There were opportunities for some cool macro shots, but because the sun was so bright I couldn't really see the screen so not all of them turned out nicely...

Tonight we're heading down very close to the Mexican border to go to an outlet mall for some serious shopping. Las Americas is supposed to house the only Neiman Marcus Last Call in California! I've already made a list of all the must-hit stores in there. Tomorrow before we leave, we still have to go to Target (again), See's Candies, and In-N-Out Burger!! I'm also going to be getting up early and head down to La Jolla in the morning to take some cool beach shots before we leave this pretty place.

Seriously, if you don't see me in Canada this weekend, you'll know I'm still hugging the palm trees.

this bod needs to be bikini-ready

Sooo next week I'm going to be in San Diego for basically the whole week. Although my coworkers don't know it yet, we will be checking out some nice beaches there. Particularly, I heard there is a beach where seals hang out!!! Maybe I'll run into an otter too ;) I also found out that there is a Saks and a Bloomies in San Diego, so I'm all ready to go. Except my wallet doesn't think so, but we're still negotiating.

Anyway, San Diego aside, this bod has been working to be bikini-ready since January, because I'm going to be in Hawaii in a month with my mom and my sister!! We're staying at the Turtle Bay Resort in the North Shore, which is about an hour's drive away from Honolulu and Waikiki. The North Shore is famous for the surf (which I don't really do, considering I can't even swim...shhh that's another can o' worms), and I'm kind of looking forward to being away from the crowds on Waikiki beach.

Oh yes, going back to the bikini-ready bod...so I've run into some obstacles, and it really is a "wagon" of some sort to be on a diet/exercising regime. First, I got incredibly ill for a whole week due to some insane flu that I caught. Seriously, I thought I had the bubonic plague the first night and I was convinced I would have to check myself in to the hospital or something. Then I was good for a week. Then the weekend came, and I didn't eat so well...(there was that free drinks thing on Friday at the Ivey Toronto Campus...) and then Valentine's Day came yesterday...and I made brownies...

...and today I got all excited and showed up at the gym at 7:35pm. The girl at the front desk asked me if I was there for the class. I wasn't. Then she kindly informed me that, oh, in that case, the gym's hours today are actually 6:30am - 8:00pm. Oops. I knew there was a reason why I had meant to go right after work!! So after 10 minutes of trying to pretend that I'm really keen, I gave up and walked home - there, that was my exercise. It is a 1k walk, and it's the thought that counts (and I really needed to pretend that I was burning some of those Haagen-Daazs calories that I had just consumed).

All in all, I've been pretty unmotivated since last Friday night, and I am not impressed with myself. I vow now to get up tomorrow at 6:00am to go to the gym before I go in to work. Because I've made it a public announcement, I will be there!!!

God, it's so hard to be bikini-ready.