Today was a blah day. In spite of the sunshine I just couldn't get into a groove with my work, hence me finishing up at 9pm tonight. I hate that sometimes I work against myself - if only I had been speedier and on the ball earlier I could have enjoyed the evening instead of going home in the dark! Dagnabit. (Is that how you spell it D?)
Oh well. I guess it happens sometimes. I was also dumped today. Not by anyone of any significance but still it is hard not to take it personally! The girl I work out with who has asked her friend to be her training partner rather than me. Apparently it is nothing personal but I am convinced it is because I can't catch when we have to do these throwing exercises (I ducked a few weeks ago as she threw it really hard (deliberately I am sure) and it went into the smoothie counter!!). Anyway regardless of it apparently not being personal it feels a bit like I've been dumped especially as she gets to keep the time slot and the trainer and I've been given a man in his 50's to work out with. Now I am sure this guy will be much more fun than this miserable girl but still I am a bit put out by it (in case you couldn't tell). Luckily I am not going to be going to work out at the same time slot as her so won't need to see her prancing about with her friend with superior resistant training skills.
Anyway, this blog is designed to make me see the bright and beautiful in every day so enough of the blah. Here's today's B&B:
1. I wore a special necklace used to be Nanny's. It looks really nice with a new blue cardigan. It was reassuring to touch it throughout the day.
2. Cathy received a tres cool pink necklace I sent her as an Easter gift and she reports that she loves it! Yey!
3. Ella was given a surprise baby shower at work and sent me such a happy email about it. I love it when lovely things happen to lovely people.
4. I had sushi with my colleague before coming back to work late. It was nice to get to know him more. And the spicy tuna roll and cherry blossom roll were delicious.
5. I resisted my very strong at times urge to go and buy Cadbury's mini eggs. Feel virtuous.
6. My work is now done! I am going home! David is at hockey so I am going to watch a movie in bed. I rented The Illusionist ages ago so need to watch it before they send the bailifts round to collect it from me.
7. I have a blog and I love posting to it! It's very therapeutic after a day like this.
More tomorrow. I've lost the connector cord to upload the pictures on my camera I will try to find it so I can post more pics.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Sunny and sluggish
It's a gorgeous day today. Here is the view from my office. I just took this a second ago. I love it! I still can't get over this is where I live and work. In the summer I can actually see little sea planes swoop into the harbour to land on the water.
My body is slightly out of sync with the weather today though I feel quite tired and sluggish. I haven't been able to get out of bed in the mornings! David beat me today and yesterday. I think it is because I have had two long runs in quick succession (the half marathon is a month a way!!) and my legs are tired and heavy. Nothing to do with good old fashioned laziness of course.
Anyway, my to-do list is getting longer and longer but I don't have much urgency to do anything about it. Eeek. I keep turning over the page and starting a fresh to do list complete with time allocations in the hope that it will be THE list that I follow and obey. It hasn't worked yet as the documents I am supposed to be reviewing are waiting patiently on the printer while I am writing this post.
But now I have confessed to the world that I am procrastinating I will get to it. Plus I want to be able to leave early to enjoy what promises to be a beautiful spring evening.
Sunday, April 1, 2007
20,000 words a day
I love reading the UK's Sunday Times. Reading the print edition of the Sunday Times is something I really miss. Canadian Sunday papers just don't come close. Getting and reading the sunday papers was a ritual for me. I loved picking it up at the tube station when catching one of the last trains home on a Saturday night. I loved going back to bed with the papers and a mug of coffee. I loved stretching out on the sofa with all the different supplements after a roast dinner. These were my favourite sunday things to do in England. I've tried to replicate it here but it doesn't work. I'm not sure why.
Anyway - to the point of this post - I still read the Sunday Time's online and love it. Here is an interesting article from today's edition. It rings true to me. Especially the part about women using on average 20,000 words a day compared to 7,000 for men!
OTEXT
Anyway - to the point of this post - I still read the Sunday Time's online and love it. Here is an interesting article from today's edition. It rings true to me. Especially the part about women using on average 20,000 words a day compared to 7,000 for men!
OTEXT
I want to try this!
To follow on my posts about wine, I've just found a recipe on The Sunday Times website that might just be my ultimate wine tasting! I am going to try it over Easter. I'll report back.
Chocolate and wine may sound like a strange combination, but this alcoholic drink, laced with everyone’s favourite ingredient, is surprisingly delicious. We tried out different brands of chocolate for this recipe, and Valrhona really was the best. The others were either too sweet or too bitter, but each to their own taste. Experiment with different types (milk or plain) and see which you prefer. Mas Amiel Maury (£10.99, from Nicolas; 020 7727 5148) is a strongish, sweet red wine that goes beautifully with chocolate.
Serves 4
1 bottle Mas Amiel Maury
75g Valrhona Tanariva (33% cocoa)
185ml skimmed milk
Bring the wine to the boil. Carefully set it alight and allow the flame to burn off. Continue boiling until the liquid becomes syrupy and reduces to about 150ml.
Grate the chocolate or finely chop into small pieces and put to one side in a saucepan. Bring the milk slowly to the boil, pour it over the chocolate and stir.
Add the reduced wine to the chocolate milk, heat and froth using a whisk or hand blender. Serve immediately.
Chocolate and wine may sound like a strange combination, but this alcoholic drink, laced with everyone’s favourite ingredient, is surprisingly delicious. We tried out different brands of chocolate for this recipe, and Valrhona really was the best. The others were either too sweet or too bitter, but each to their own taste. Experiment with different types (milk or plain) and see which you prefer. Mas Amiel Maury (£10.99, from Nicolas; 020 7727 5148) is a strongish, sweet red wine that goes beautifully with chocolate.
Serves 4
1 bottle Mas Amiel Maury
75g Valrhona Tanariva (33% cocoa)
185ml skimmed milk
Bring the wine to the boil. Carefully set it alight and allow the flame to burn off. Continue boiling until the liquid becomes syrupy and reduces to about 150ml.
Grate the chocolate or finely chop into small pieces and put to one side in a saucepan. Bring the milk slowly to the boil, pour it over the chocolate and stir.
Add the reduced wine to the chocolate milk, heat and froth using a whisk or hand blender. Serve immediately.
Finlay's first haircut
Finlay is my godson and also, as you can see, the most adorable little boy in the world. He had his first haircut on Saturday. Thanks Ella for sending pictures. Here he is with his posh new haircut.
Wherever you are, it's your friends that make your world
A big reason compelling me to blog is to share my life in Vancouver with my friends and family in England. I want more than anything to keep close friendships in spite of the distance and incredibly annoying time difference.
When I first moved, I couldn't wait for the weekends because it was my time to catch up with England. That really kept me going for a while. But then I realized that I really had to start making my weekends here about my life here. Somehow I have gone from weekends that I struggled to fill to ones that are bursting the seams with activities and outlets. I LOVE IT. It is a much better place to be but it means that I am rarely home for hour-long phone conversations with my friends at the weekend and when I am at home the chances are they are already out and about enjoying their Saturday night. It's one of the hardest things about living so far from home.
So hopefully this blog will help to fill some of those gaps and give you all a taste of my life here. [Disclaimer - I will promote Vancouver as much as possible to try and lure you to visit me!!] It will help me feel closer to you to know that you know what I am up to. I hope you like peaking into my life! Leave me comments! Start your own blogs!
I feel really really lucky to have some amazing friends. Moving to Vancouver and starting afresh really made me realize how much female friendships completely enrich my life. At first I realized this because of the huge sense of loss I felt. There was a massive void in my life for the first year I was here and I really think it was because I had yet to make new friends and I felt the day-to-day closeness of my friends in England slipping away.
Two years later, I feel incredibly lucky. I have met the most wonderful girls here (you know who you are!). It's interesting making friends as you get older. I think what you don't have in terms of history together, you make up for in terms of being a current 'match' in terms of the qualities, traits, interests I have now. But that doesn't take away or change the relationships I have at home (note I am still calling it home!) there is nothing quite like that relaxed familiarity and comfort of people who know and love you and I have seen you through copious up's and down's. Very happy to have both. You're all the best.
When I first moved, I couldn't wait for the weekends because it was my time to catch up with England. That really kept me going for a while. But then I realized that I really had to start making my weekends here about my life here. Somehow I have gone from weekends that I struggled to fill to ones that are bursting the seams with activities and outlets. I LOVE IT. It is a much better place to be but it means that I am rarely home for hour-long phone conversations with my friends at the weekend and when I am at home the chances are they are already out and about enjoying their Saturday night. It's one of the hardest things about living so far from home.
So hopefully this blog will help to fill some of those gaps and give you all a taste of my life here. [Disclaimer - I will promote Vancouver as much as possible to try and lure you to visit me!!] It will help me feel closer to you to know that you know what I am up to. I hope you like peaking into my life! Leave me comments! Start your own blogs!
I feel really really lucky to have some amazing friends. Moving to Vancouver and starting afresh really made me realize how much female friendships completely enrich my life. At first I realized this because of the huge sense of loss I felt. There was a massive void in my life for the first year I was here and I really think it was because I had yet to make new friends and I felt the day-to-day closeness of my friends in England slipping away.
Two years later, I feel incredibly lucky. I have met the most wonderful girls here (you know who you are!). It's interesting making friends as you get older. I think what you don't have in terms of history together, you make up for in terms of being a current 'match' in terms of the qualities, traits, interests I have now. But that doesn't take away or change the relationships I have at home (note I am still calling it home!) there is nothing quite like that relaxed familiarity and comfort of people who know and love you and I have seen you through copious up's and down's. Very happy to have both. You're all the best.
Open the doors in your mind
So I was lucky enough to get another set of free tickets to a wine tasting event on Saturday night too (thanks Travis!). This was a good event and smartly marketed – “25 wines under $25”.
After my last blog posting, I felt a bit of a fraud going back for more as I pretty much declared myself a non-believer in Friday's post. So I decided to test my theory as much as the wine…..
So, it isn't a con. It is possible to smell and taste multiple and complex flavours rather than good and bad wine. To do so takes work and some education. You need to know about the types of grapes and soils and characteristics etc and as one winemaker suggested 'open the doors in your mind’. Philippe, the winemaker for Yellow Tail also suggested we buy a bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, which has a strong flavor and work on smelling the asparagus in that wine. Once you get one smell, you brain and your senses start to get into the swing of things and you can pick up more. When I can face wine again I will buy some!
However, I do think that the marketers have gone completely overboard! In an attempt to set them apart and appeal to those with self-proclaimed sophisticated palates wine descriptions have become a creative writing exercise - citrus is now nectarine skins, minerals are crushed rocks. And this is what makes me suspicious about it all. I think a new brand could do really well by going against this and keeping things simple. [But sssh, I am going to save that idea to give to Len, David’s Dad who is planting grapes in the next month.]
Better stop now. David says my last post was a little long!!
After my last blog posting, I felt a bit of a fraud going back for more as I pretty much declared myself a non-believer in Friday's post. So I decided to test my theory as much as the wine…..
So, it isn't a con. It is possible to smell and taste multiple and complex flavours rather than good and bad wine. To do so takes work and some education. You need to know about the types of grapes and soils and characteristics etc and as one winemaker suggested 'open the doors in your mind’. Philippe, the winemaker for Yellow Tail also suggested we buy a bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, which has a strong flavor and work on smelling the asparagus in that wine. Once you get one smell, you brain and your senses start to get into the swing of things and you can pick up more. When I can face wine again I will buy some!
However, I do think that the marketers have gone completely overboard! In an attempt to set them apart and appeal to those with self-proclaimed sophisticated palates wine descriptions have become a creative writing exercise - citrus is now nectarine skins, minerals are crushed rocks. And this is what makes me suspicious about it all. I think a new brand could do really well by going against this and keeping things simple. [But sssh, I am going to save that idea to give to Len, David’s Dad who is planting grapes in the next month.]
Better stop now. David says my last post was a little long!!
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