Just say no to Vegas

Guess who's not going to Vegas after all? Yup, Trevor stays, and mass panic has been averted (for now).

Folding bicycle and other practical travel items

I've been looking for accoutrements for our trip in October (we're finally caving and getting some of those tacky neck pillows) and I came across the travelling section on A+R Store. Thinking that I would find the aforementioned neck pillows (fingers crossed that they might be a notch cooler here), I instead found a few quirky items that have no chance of making it into my single checked piece of luggage, but figured it would be worth showing here.

Mark Sanders Strida 5.0 Folding Bicyle
(Sad note here, it doesn't come in green!)

Citizen Citizen 'Shoplifter' Tote Bag
(Um, I wouldn't want to push that point, especially in a foreign country.)

XXD Folding Picnic Set
(This would be great for packing a nice lunch onboard a plane...if we weren't in economy.)

Seriously, now

I have been trying to figure out plane tickets all week. You would think that we have the most complex schedule, but really, it's only between 5 cities in 4 countries. Not a huge and exotic schedule (I think): Vancouver - Toronto - London - Belfast - London - Barcelona - Vancouver. Just try and book it through any travel site and you'll realize what a mess it is (not that I recommend it because then you'll just fill up the seats I want!).

I think I've finally been able to figure it out, but the connection part always makes me overplan. Is 3.5 hours enough to connect from an international flight to another international flight in different terminals (in Heathrow of all places)? Oy.

At least I'm better at finding accommodations. I've booked the B&B for Northern Ireland and we're staying here. I'm looking at booking this for London. And this one for Barcelona.

The passport office is more efficient than you'd think

I was up early this morning to get to the passport office when it opened around 8am, with the keener idea of avoiding big waits. When I arrived, there was a smattering of people waiting in the seats and everything went smoothly (well, except for questions about what happened to my passport -- it got wet 5 days after it expired last month).

I was back at the house around 8:50am and ready to start on today's tasks (even though I don't feel like doing any of them). Boooooo...

Boxwood Café

I'm compiling places to visit/look at/attempt to see/dream about for our travels in October, and I came across some culinary eye candy courtesy of Gordon Ramsay's Boxwood Café. There's lots more to see on his website, so take a visit over there and admire all of the great photography, layout, colours and wordmarks -- oh, and dream about actually eating at one of those restaurants.

Star sand

If you're ever headed to Okinawa's Yaeyama islands, make sure to stop by Hoshizuna beach, where you can find star sand (cool!).

Hoshizuna is a small quiet beach, where visitors are normally crouched over the sand sorting through the grains. They are looking for miniscule five pointed stars little more than a millimeter across. To a biologist, each star is merely the exoskeleton of foraminifers—marine protozoa that once lived on the ocean floor. To the locals, they are the tiny offspring of the Southern Cross and the North Star. These children of the stars were born in the ocean just off Okinawa, but killed by a giant serpent. Their tiny skeletons are all that remains of the heavenly union. The best time to find the star sand is just after a typhoon, when rough seas have thrown fresh sand onto the beach. Otherwise, it is a slow task and most visitors find no more than a couple of grains, then resort to buying a small vial of pre-found stars.

Time to book a trip!

A Sunday out

After all the baby goodness early in the weekend we took a grown up day (lol) and went to go see the auto show downtown. (Not before blasting through some work earlier in the morning...phew!) We have a tradition of having lunch at a teenie hole-in-the-wall mongolian bbq restaurant on Denman before we set foot in auto show (must be well fueled!). This time was no different, and we scored an awesome parking spot behind the restaurant to boot (sun + Stanley Park + weekend = no parking anywhere). I know a few people who read this blog that will drool over this photo:(ps - it was just as good as it looked!)
We went to the auto show after that at BC Place and hiked through the crowds to sniff some cars. Trevor took some time to drool over the BMW booth (actually, we stopped by there TWICE). This is as close as he'll get to a 7 series BMW. Ah, he can dream!

Happy Holi

I think that this may be the best festival/holiday that I've ever heard of but don't get to celebrate (it started March 22 and ends today). It's called Holi, and is is the festival that carries India and its people into the bright days of summer. (yes, I cut and pasted that part in...I can't describe it better than that)

But the best part is what they do on Holi. Coloured powder (Gulal) is bought and prepared, long syringes called 'pichkaris' are made ready and water balloons are bought and filled. Preparations are made to cook the special food items that are exclusively meant for this festival.

Children, friends and neighbours gather on the streets and a riot of colour takes over. Coloured powders called 'abeer' or 'gulal' are thrown into the air and smeared on faces and bodies. 'Pichkaris' are filled with coloured water and this is spurted onto people. Water balloons are thrown at friends and neighbours in the spirit of fun. Sometimes, mud baths are prepared and people are 'dunked' into this amidst much laughter and teasing. The visitors carry 'abeer' or 'gulal' to pay their respects to elders by sprinkling some on their feet. The younger crowd is drenched with buckets of coloured water and pummeled with water balloons. 'Dholaks' or Indian drums are heard everywhere and the songs of Holi are carried by the voices of these merry-makers. (More cutting and pasting...hey, I'm no expert on this!)
Women with gulal on them.
I'm sitting here jealous that I don't live in India for the first time in my life. How much fun does that sound? How amazing would all those colours flying all over the place look? I suppose I'll just have to sit here and look at pictures. *sigh*

If you're a keener like I am, read a bit more about it here.

Ferry conversations

While we were in the line up for the ferry over the weekend, Trevor and I had some entertaining conversations. Whenever we go on a road trip (or just a longer car trip) we seem to come up with the strangest ideas. And this time was no different.

On the way over to the island we discussed the brilliant idea of the ferries being subsidized by gambling...on board! Most likely slot machines rather than table games, for sure.
Me: *pulling imaginary slot machine arm* 'ooooohhh Queen of Nanaimo......Queen of Nanaimo......awwwww....Queen of Saanich'
Trevor: *his turn pulling* 'ohhhhhhh....sunshine breakfast.....sunshine breakfast.....white spot burger'

And on the way back, after spotting a 7-11 with an advertisement of cheese smokies stating that they were 'cheesetastic!', we thought about other descriptors that could be added to words to make them more...super.

Here are the descriptors that we came up with:
- '-normous'
- '-tastic'
- '-licious'
- '-rrific'

Example: 'I had a cheesenormous paninitastic sandwichrrific lunchalicious.'

Phew.

Merry Easter!

Tomorrow we get to hop on the ferry over to Victoria (fingers crossed we're not waiting forever either!) to go see the fam...and the NEW EDITION to the fam! We're very excited about that. He might not be home from the hospital yet, but at least we get to see him and say hi. Plus he gets to finally see and or use all the treats we have for him!
Say a who what where?

Have a merry easter! :)

New travels coming!

In our cloud of renovating, we have a silver lining. We've booked two cruises (one this year, one in the spring next year). Talk about something to look forward to. I'm calling our December vacation a re-do of our summer, seeing as we haven't had one.

I have to share. Here's the itineraries that we have for the 7-day Western Caribbean cruise that we got a smokin' deal on:
And here's the itinerary for the 14-day (14 day!?!?! woo hoo!!!) Mediterranean cruise in May:

Can I start the countdown now?

If this is you, you might have a problem...

It's that time of year again, when those big spikey weeds pop out little berries that stain everything from your hands to bird's poop. Yes, it's blackberry season, also the time of year where you will see people who are a few slices short of a loaf throw themselves into these big, thorny clumps of berry-wielding weeds either for sport or for ...? Well, I don't quite know, nor do I understand.

Case in point: We were driving through Abbotsford yesterday afternoon and there on a busy road was a car pulled over to the shoulder (although not a big shoulder, cars had to weave around them a bit), while a man and a woman picked blackberries. And not just standing there taking the ones they could reach either -- the man had thrown an aluminum ladder into the bush and was balancing on it...all for a little berry.*
* Side note here: Trevor gave these people a little 'toot toot!' with the horn while driving by. A sort of 'hello, crazy people!'. It was pretty funny. :)

This just seems to drive me nuts every year. It's not so much the ones that just pick them here and there while on their way to another destination. It's the ones who make these bushes their destination. Are they just cheap? In it for the thrill? Looking for something to do?

Maybe I'm just bitter. LOL

So this is how the other half lives...

We went on a little spur of the moment trip to the Seattle Street of Dreams on Sunday. Nice break from the cave (basement). We got a few ideas on finishing and colours, but were mostly there to ignore the 'do not touch' and 'do not open' signs.
We got to ride on a school bus to the house site. That was fun. Please note the 'Body Fluids Clean-up Kit'.Nice planter! I'm getting ideas for next year already.Trevor on the security camera. When you live the 'life' you must monitor all who pass. lol*sigh* One day these will be my washer and dryer. One day...There was a big environmental theme, and they had these bee boxes set up to encourage the bees in your garden to move in. Those are probably the ritzy bee condos that most bees can't afford. Nice swoopy part of a back yard. Totally ugly. Uh-huh, would NEVER want something like that. And then we went for sushi. The end.