Birthday Morning!!!!!!!! :o)

Hola bloggies!

Today is  a fun and exciting day!!! My Birthday!!!!!!!! :o)

Yes, I am still getting over H1N1 and I have a horrible cough. But that doesn't matter today. Today is for celebrating! I'm a blessed chicky and I know it - I have my health (almost), friends, family, a new puppy, a Fiance that loves me, a great career, and everything in the world to look forward to!

This morning started off with lots of love courtesy of the Fiance and my parents. Both of them did their part in playing Las Mananitas for me. It's a mariachi song that's traditionally played on the morning of special occasions - like my birthday! :o)

This is the Topo Gigio version - but you get the idea:



When I was last in Toronto (in September) my parents gifted me most of my birthday presents. Their gifts included cookbooks, wine glasses, and kitchen gadgets! PLUS my mom took my sister and I out for a very fancy pants high tea to celebrate. But since my parents are all kinds of awesome they made sure I had something to open today. :o)

They sent a special care package containing challah bread (which you can't get here unless you drive 5 hours away) so that I could make my special birthday French toast. And a wonderful inscribed book in lieu of a card

Have you guys read it? It's a lovely children's book all about how creatures great and small rejoiced on the night you were born.

My favourite part is where it says that the polar bears stayed up dancing all night on the night you were born. And that's why they're sleeping when you visit them at the zoo - they're tired. :o)

It was so sweet and touching I may or may not have shed a few tears! Gracias Mom and Dad - I loved it!!! :o)

The Fiance also gave me a card - the cutest part of which was the signature line! lol

Makes me smile! :o) Gracias Fiance and Daisy!!! After the card the Fiance gave me my present. I believe you may have met her before:

Yup - it's Daisy!!! :o)

When the Fiance asked me back in October what I wanted for my Birthday I didn't miss a beat. I asked for a puppy. We set out looking for the perfect fur baby and found our Daisy. She was ready to come home two weeks ahead of my birthday and I wasn't one to turn down an extra 14 days of puppy cuteness. Daisy is the best birthday present ever!!!!

Once Daisy had shaken off her bow (she really wasn't a fan) we set about making my Birthday brunch, starring the challah bread:

Which turned into this absolutely delicious meal:

Thus far I've had a completely relaxing birthday. I feel loved and special - so thank-you to my parents, my Fiance, and all my friends who have sent me Facebook messages and Tweets! They mean a great deal to me and have made me smile.

Thank-you for the love peeps! Thank-you for the love! :o)

Now I'm off to partake in some birthday yoga before sitting down for my birthday feast (featuring lobster - yum)!

Catch you later friends!!! :o)

Of Sunsets and Walks by the Ocean

Hola bloggies:

I thought for a long time about how to express the beauty of the Ocean on Vancouver Island.

I thought of telling a story.

I thought of sharing a poem.

But words seemed not enough.

Mere words could not explain.

How much I love that place.

So I'll let the pictures tell the tale.

Victoria's Best Sushi - Tamami on Fisgard

Hola bloggies:

I'm feeling loads better tonight!! That makes me a very happy camper given this morning I was at my hacking cough/wheezing best. I finally have some colour back in these cheeks of mine. Woohoo! :o)

I'll get to continuing the tale of my Victoria exploits but let's deal with some business first. Shall we?


Blogger Secret Santa

I still have to catch you up on more of my vacation explorations but first I want to address the subject of the 2009 Blogger Secret Santa organized by the awesome Danielle of Around the World in 340 Days. To participate all you have to do is send her an email at aroundtheworld340@gmail.com with "Bloggie Secret Santa" in the subject and your name and address in the body. She'll be announcing the swaps on November 27th!

I'm definitely participating and have already sent my info! Are you in? :o)


Calling All Canadian Food Bloggers

The wonderful peeps over at Broth Don't Lie have put together a very comprehensive list of Canadian food/health bloggers. Head on over to their site and see if you're included. If you or anyone else is missing feel free to get in touch with the admins!


GAIAM - 99cent Shipping

For a limited time the GAIAM online store is offering 99cent shipping (until December 8th). They have all sorts of cool health and fitness products perfect for Christmas gift giving!


Garmin Forerunner at a Steal!!!!

While shopping at Costco recently I noticed that they were selling the highly coveted Garmin Forerunner for just under $175!!! That's a great price!

Don't have a Costco near you? That's okay you can get it online at the Costco.ca store. For American customers - you should still be able to use your U.S. Costco card to shop on the Canadian site.


Whew! Now that we're done with that - let's get on with the eats!!! :oP


Victoria's Best Sushi - Tamami on Fisgard

When the Fiance and I decided we were heading back to Victoria I knew what one of my first restaurant stops would be. Tamami.

Say it with me "Tamami!" lol :oP Doesn't it just sound the way good sushi should sound?

Victoria has a very small but extremely well preserved China Town. It's the second oldest in North America (right behind that in San Francisco) and is full of cool buildings. For example, the one above is a Chinese school that was apparently built when Chinese students were not really welcome amongst other children.

One of my favourite things in Victoria's Chinatown is it's impressive gates. They're beautiful and create a real focal point for the street. That's right, I said street. Chinatown is fully comprised by one small block of Fisgard Street.

Usually people come to Chinatown juts to partake in their dirt cheap produce. But we were there to visit my favourite sushi restaurant - possibly in the whole world - Tamami.

Tamami is located where Fisgard Street meets Wharf. It's completely unassuming from the outside but once inside you realize it's something special!

 

The staff is always so friendly, the fish is always so fresh, and the selection is rather impressive.

Upon our arrival we were given warm tea towels to clean our hands and faces. This was promptly followed by a lovely tea pot of Japanese Genmaicha tea (a lose leaf green tea with brown rice).

When I lived in Victoria I used to come here all the time. That's how I got to know the owner. Now when we visit he always gives us complimentary food - like the dish above.

The edamame was also complimentary. Did I mention it had been 14 months since I'd last been there?!?! Impressive.

One of my favourite dishes at Tamami is their agedashi tofu. Basically it's deep fried tofu wrapped in a perfectly crispy layer and drowned in an absolutely delicious sauce. It's humble looking but seriously good.

 

There can be no doubt, however, that the star of the show is the sushi! Here we have some ebi cheese (the Fiance's favourite), spicy tuna, and dynamite rolls. YUM!!! :o)

You see these chopsticks? They're mine! :o) That's what happens when you're a regular customer - they give you your own pair of chopsticks. When I realized what the deal was with the wall of chopsticks behind the sushi chef, I became completely determined to get my own pair. Many outings later I got them!!!!

I love knowing that there is a restaurant where I have my own cutlery. I think it's kind of cool. :o)

Tamai didn't disappoint. The sushi was as wonderfully fresh as ever. Plus I was completely impressed that they remember me all this time later. It made me feel special! Awww . . . lol

I think it's pretty safe to say I had an awesome outing at Tamami. In fact it pretty well made my day!

The Trio Heads to the Island

Morning peeps!

Hope you're having a wonderful day. As for me - not so much. The fevers seem to have largely subsided but I've been left with a hacking cough that cuts like a knife. So. Not. Cute.

In fact I'm feeling so yucky I'm inclined to stay home from work tomorrow. That would mean that I took a whole six days off for vacation and then didn't show up the rest of the week 'cause I was sick. Not really the way I like to roll but what is a girl to do. The way I figure it I'm highly contagious and it would do no one any good for me to go around spreading the wealth. Maybe I'll get the Fiance to go in and get my files so I can work in the confines of my home during the weekend.

Anywho - since I'm brutally sick and pretty well bed-ridden I thought I would take some time to blog about my recent trip to Vancouver Island. When we last left off we had barely squeaked by the U.S.A.-Canada border and ended up in a hotel in Washington State.

Our plan was to take the Anacortes Ferry from Anacortes Washington to Sidney, Vancouver Island. This is by no means the short way back to Van Isle but it is very scenic! You see the ferry winds its way through the beautiful San Juan Islands before ending up in Canada. As an added bonus you avoid the hassle of the potentially long land border crossing south of Vancouver.

I had never gone this particular way so I was kind of excited!!! Mind you I was worried that they wouldn't let us bring Daisy on board. Turns out I had no reason to fret - they took one look at her cuddly little face and decided to make an exception. lol

Yaaaay for small cute dogs! :oP

Daisy spent most of her voyage lying on the Fiance's jacket and chewing on her bully stick (a dehydrated bull penis - which apparently puppies love).

Meanwhile the Fiance and I enjoyed the sights of the San Juan Islands. I have to say I was quite impressed. They looked completely adorable and likely a perfect place for a Country Inn or B&B Getaway!!!

In fact I think once we move back to the Coast ('cause let's face it - I miss it something fierce) we'll have to take a trip to the San Juan Islands. For no reason at all except to relax in their absolutely beautiful surroundings! :o)

Now I have to confess the closer we got to Vancouver Island the more excited I became!!! It had been over a year since I'd been to the Island or even seen the familiar Coastal sights of quaint fishing villages, summer homes on beautiful islands, or even smelled the salty sea air. I was one happy camper on this ferry voyage. It was absolute perfection.

Call me a geek but once my iPhone picked up the Canadian signal I knew we were right around the corner! lol Sad. I know. But I am a blogger after all! :oP

Thankfully the process of getting back into Canada was super easy. Not like getting into the U.S.A. the last go around. Once we were back on the Island all three of us were delighted. The Fiance was back on the little slice of Canada where he was born and bred. I was back in the city that has always been so good for my soul. And Daisy . . . well I don't think she could believe that the grass was green or that the air was relatively warm. When we first got her, several days before leaving for Victoria, she'd never even had a collar on. You can imagine that this resulted in a bit of a comedy of errors when we first tried taking her for a walk.

But in Victoria, surrounded by the warm air, the beautiful sights, and the sounds of the Ocean Daisy found her walking legs:

Le sigh. :o)

See you soon bloggies!!

In Flander's Fields the Poppies Grow

Today is Veteran's Day in the States and Remembrance Day here in Canada. I didn't want to let this day past without posting my annual tribute to men and women everywhere that serve their country. To them we owe a debt of gratitude.

Several years ago, while studying in Paris, I had the opportunity to visit Flander's Fields in Belgium. That day will forever lay etched in my memory. It forever changed the way I think of Remembrance Day.

In honour of the occasion I would like to re-post the blog entry I wrote at the time. It's long but I do hope you will take the time to read it . . . even if Blogger completely decided to mangle my spacing.

Dear Faithful Readers:

In the last week I have managed to fall behind on my blog writing. That is because so much has been going on around here: including some bouts of illness, lots of school work, Bastille Day celebrations, and a trip to Vaux-le-Vicomte.

I will write about all of those things. But before I do so it is of vital importance to me that I write about my trip to Flanders Fields (the battlefields of World War I). It was at once an incredibly fascinating day and a horrifying one . . . .

I awoke on Sunday morning with the initial idea of going to take an early morning walk around the city. I am very much the shutter bug and Ididn't want to leave without taking more pictures. In the end, however, I decided that I would simply have to come back to Bruges another time -- and I headed down to breakfast. Let me tell you the spread was fantastic! There was coffee, tea, hot chocolate, milk, juice, various cold cuts, various cheeses, a multitude of fresh baked breads . . . it went on and on. Despite my weak stomach I decided to give the meal a go. It was super yummy and managed to tithe me over until my late lunch.

Very promptly I got my things in order and headed towards the check-out desk. Once the business side of things was taken over I walked approx. five minutes for my scheduled bus pick-up. I would be embarking on a Quasimodo tour of Flanders Fields(http://www.quasimodo.be/). This was a trip that came highly recommended by a friend of mine and I was determined not to miss it!

Truth be told I wasn't really sure what to expect. When the bus came to get us, we discovered that in our small group of about 30 there were only 3 Brits and 2 Kiwis. Everyone else was either Australian or Canadian. I should stop at this point and say that I have never had any relatives who have fought in any wars. Indeed, I call myself  "A Canadian in Paris" but my blood isn't Canadian. My heart however is. And even so I wonder if I could ever come close to experiencing the feelings of some of my trip-mates.

Our group was guided by this lovely woman named Sharon. She proved to be very informative and seemed genuinely interested about what she was discussing. A true asset to my experience.

We began the trip with an approximately 30 min. drive from Bruges through the Flemish country side. There was to be no narration during that portion. This of course gave me the opportunity to admire the tranquility of the Flemish countryside. A notable observation given what we would learn later on in the day.

Soon thenarration started and my admiration for the Belgian people began. We were told
by our tour guide that as a result of the war not a single tree was left standing on the Flemish country-side. And most of the people fled. In fact, the majority of Belgians spent the war in refugee camps just outside of Paris. It wasn't until the mid-20s that they came back to their homes. At first there was nowhere for them to live. Their homes had been destroyed. There was nothing. Sothey lived in the only structures that were left standing -- the wartime bunkers. Eventually though, the determined Belgian people began to rebuild. And what was the first thing they reconstructed? The village church. The Belgians were a very religious people and the church was at the heart of their community. I can only imagine how they must have felt, living in a war-torn land and making clay bricks out of the local soil and rebuilding the Church brick by brick -- on the foundations of the original one. Even the non-religious had to admit that in and of itself that one act was a tremendous stand for hope and faith forbrighter days ahead.

Armed with this new information we continued on with our tour. It was at this point that at the side of the road I saw my first WWI cemetery. It is one thing to see it on television and quite another to see it in person. Nothing could have prepared me for the devastating site of those white-washed tomb stones, row upon row, appearing out of nowhere. It was a small cemetery at that but the impact was nonetheless tremendous. I will fully confess that I had to fight back tears. There in the midst of that small country, lies a permanent reminder of the ravages war and the countless lives that it destroys.

Whilst I was absorbing the shock of seeing the cemetery, Sharon continued to tell us stories of Passiondale Ridge. The area near where we were driving. She explained that it was 56metres above sea level and thus was of vital strategic importance in flat Belgium. As such, the Germans and the British Commonwealth forces fought for control over it for much of the war. It was important not only as higher ground but because whoever controlled Passiondale Ridge could easily control the city of Ypres. And if Ypres fell the Germans could easily reach Calais (in France) from where the White Cliffs of Dover where only 35km away. The importance of the entire area of Flanders was evident. So the two sides fought for four long years. And they died. So many of them died. Of those dead only 1/3rd of the bodies were ever identified. Even today 1/4 million bodies lay buried under the tranquil farm fields of Flanders.

Relations in between the two-sides were not always so strained though. Whilst Sharon was describing the area filled with trenches she told us of the events of Christmas morning 1914. On that day the British and the German troops met on "no man's land" (the area between the trenches) and shared Christmas together. They sang Christmas carols and exchanged holiday wishes. That was obviously the last time anything of that nature took place. Soon both sides realized that soldiers were more likely to desert if they knew the face of their enemy. Moreover, the next year the war had become so horrible that both sides grew to hate each other.

It was this melancholic tale that brought us to our first memorial -- fittingly a Canadian one. It was a single long column, made of what appeared to be granite. It stands alone in the middle of Flanders. On the top is a sculpture of a bust of a Canadian soldier. He is bowing his head and facing west -- towards Canada. The column is there because it marks the spot where 18,000 Canadians withstood the first German gas attacks on 22-24th of April, 1915. Of those men, 2,000 fell and lay buried nearby. It was a single solitary tribute -- standing in stark reminders of the events of the previous century -- in the midst of the otherwise peaceful landscape.

It was at this tribute where I took my favourite photo of the trip. At the base of the column was a carefully laid wreath. You could tell it had been there for a while and was slightly the worse for the wear. Nonetheless, its green leaves, red poppies, and red ribbon sash were plainly evident. But what caught my attention was a small pin that had been attached to the red sash. It was a small metallic pin with the flags of Canada and Germany beside each other. This was a moving tribute to forgiveness and the possibility of change for the better.

As we continued on, Sharon showed to us some very obvious examples of left over shells by the side of the road. Apparently, even today there are 4-5 deaths every year, in the area, from unexploded WWI shells going off. This to me was horrifying. For some reason I had always though of the WWI battlefields as something that in the present day was sanitized. But for the people of the area the terrible events of 1914-1918 are still a vivid part of their every day lives. Whilst we were driving through one particular farm, Sharon, recounted the tale of her friend who lived there. She told us of the gentleman that lives there: a couple of years ago he became very suspicious when his crops did very poorly. He began exploring and found a couple of shells. And so, following government instructions, he notified the army. They arrived and found 600 shells in his small farm alone!! The Belgian army, to this day, continues the task of destroying WWI remnants. They have at this moment enough work to last them an entire lifetime. But it is not only shells that are found in the farms. The clay soil of the area acts to preserve very well the bodies of WWI dead. Those are often, also, found and when enough are collected they are given a proper military burial at one of the nearby cemeteries. And that was
where we were headed next . . .

After driving for several minutes our bus stopped in front of Tyne Cot Cemetery -- the largest Commonwealth burial site in all of Belgium. If the site of the initial cemetery had shocked me -- this one was mind-numbing in proportion. We were given half an hour to wander the site. I took off amongst the rows and rows and rows and rows of tomb stones. Lying there are young men -- most around my age at the time they died. They were Canadian, British, Kiwis, Australian . . . they came from all corners of the world, with their youth and idealism and died in a desolate land far from home and those they loved. And those that lie buried there make up only a small percentage of the war dead.

Along the backside of the cemetery there is a wall that has a partial list of names. Those names belong to those whose bodies were never found. Whose families never had the finality of a burial or a tomb stone to visit. I walked and Iwalked and I couldn't help but think of the poem "In Flanders fields the poppies blow, between the crosses row and row." Never had the scale of the impact of the war been as palpable to me as it was in that very moment. There were crosses left at tomb stones with "In Remembrance" written on them. There was one in particular that caught my attention: it was wooden, clearly home-made, and clearly old. On it was etched "In loving Memory of Michael T. Dallimore." There were also the Canadian flags left at the graves of my country's native sons. And lastly, but equally moving the small rocks of remembrance placed on the top of the Jewish tomb stones.

I left the cemetery genuinely moved, fascinated, and torn apart all at once. But because of my particular situation in life what Sharon told us next really brought the point home for me. She said that a lot of young men enlisted in the war effort believing that it would be short lived. They knew if they enrolled they could go over to Flanders -- which was near France. Their hope was that at the end of the war they could visit Paris. Because they all wanted to visit Paris. It is in reference to these young men that the term "backpacker" was created. I am young and of the age of those men at the time they died. I am blessed and I know it. I am now in the midst of my second extended stay in the city of lights. I did not have to enlist in any war effort to come here.

How often we take our lives for granted. How often we overlook the blessings that are given to us . . .

This entry has been difficult to write but I can not end it without sharing with you the tale of one of my tour-mates. It was a family of four Australians who made a special request to visit Bedford House Cemetery. They wanted to visit the tomb of one of their war dead. Our tour guide gladly obliged and took them where they requested. They walked straight to the tomb stone of what turned out to be the grand-father of the mother of the family. Her mother had been only a couple of months old when he died. And they, on the 10th of July 2005, were the first of his descendants to ever visit his grave. They smiled and took pictures. Happy to
have finally visited the tomb of the man of whom they had heard so much about! I asked the tour guide if all visitors to tombs took it as well as this group. She answered "no." And shared that about two weeks earlier a very elderly couple, also Australian, had asked to be taken to the tomb stone of that lady's grand-father. They wept endlessly at his grave. They too were the first to visit his burial place. The elderly lady, however, had brought something special: she had smuggled-in from Australia a piece of eucalyptus and had attached it to a poppy. A symbol of home to stay forever at the tomb of her grand-father.

The events of my day in Flanders, and in particular the tale of those dear Australians calls to mind a poem that I have loved for many years. It is called "The Soldier" and was written by Rupert Brooke:

"If should die, think only this of me:

That there's some corner of a foreign field

That is forever England.

There shall be

In that earth a richer dust concealed;

A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,

Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,

A body of England's breathing English air,

Washed by the rivers, blest by the suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,

A pulse in the eternal mind, no less

Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;

Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;

And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,

In hearts of peace, under an English heaven."

In remembrance,

A Canadian in Paris

Get Back on Track Week - a recap

Hola peeps!

Boy have I been one sick puppy since I got back. I figure someone amongst the 100+ people that attended the retirement party had the flu (possibly of the swiney variety) and passed it on to me. Boo!

Good news is my illness coincided with the Fiance's vacation so he's been taking care of me. And Daisy has been doing a good job of cuddling up to me. I'm a relatively lucky girl in that respect.

Now despite being sick I wanted to take some time to update you on how one aspect of my vacation time went - getting back on track!

All of you know I felt as though my priorities had gone a bit out of whack lately. Most of it could be tied to the fact that I had been working insane hours and neglecting other aspects of my life. I was determined to use my time in Victoria to kick-start my wellness journey. And that I did!!




I started off my journey by hitting up the local Lululemon and loading up on some goodies (the purple shirt was an early birthday present from my future in-laws - Gracias again!). I know some people motivate themselves to work out with the promise of food or outings. I use uber cute workout gear to get me going! lol

Once I was all geared up I headed to Bodhi Fitness Studio to workout with my trainer (Nick). During my short time in Victoria we managed to fit in multiple workouts together and man were they painful - in a really awesome way!!! lol

Nick is the man ho introduced me to the torture of walking
lunges (while holding heavy weights) across the length of the gym. Torture!! lol

This time he'd come up with a new way to push me even harder. It involved taking a big punching bag off of it's hook
and laying it down flat on the ground. Then the poor unsuspecting client is asked to push the bag across the length
of the gym while running. Oh. The. Burn.



After my very last workout I asked the Fiance to take a picture of my after-glow! I am not wearing any makeup and its not a particularly cute picture. But I wanted a visual reminder of how awesome I felt in that moment. Out of breath. Arms trembling from weight training. Dripping in sweat. Awesome.

I want to feel that way again. I want to feel that way every day of my life. And I'll do whatever I can to make it happen!

How about you - are you staying on track? What do you do to make sure your priorities are straight?

Hasta pronto amigos!!!

On the Road Again

Hola Bloggies!!!

I've spent the last week on a much needed vacation. :o)

I got to return to Victoria, Vancouver Island - the last place I called home. We spent our time hanging out with family, enjoying my favourite foodie establishments, going for long walks along the ocean, and getting in some killer workouts at my trainer's gym.

I guess you could say it was all kinds of awesome!!! :oP

We spent our last night in Vancouver so i could catch up with my friends. As usual we stayed at our favourite hotel - the Westin Bayshore (I took the above picture from our balcony) It's right on the water and adjacent to Stanley Park. I love the location!!!

Plus as an added bonus they treated Daisy like quite the pampered pooch. They even gave her a Heavenly Dog Bed to use. She loved it! :o)

Unfortunately my vacation has come to an end and we are now driving the eleven hour journey
back to our casa. Once home I'll get to work uploading all the pics from the last week. I made sure to document all of my adventures for you and can't wait to share!

See you soon!!! :o)


-- Posted from my iPhone