little bitty girl

We woke up to a very light rain in Paris. As we walked towards the nearest Metro, we saw people who were carrying bunches of flowers and pulling their personal shopping carts. They were obviously doing their weekend shopping. I had been told by a number of friends who lived in Paris that French people have very small fridges in their kitchens. This is mainly due to lack of space but also to the philosophy that everything they cook has to be fresh. So people do food shopping often. The fridge in our rented apartment is a size of what a regular cupboard space at home would be. I have to say that I really like the philosophy of eating fresh, buying produce regularly.

Then we passed by the local marche. If the local marche doesn't inspire you to cook or eat fresh every day, nothing will. Food is displayed in such a glorious manner. It makes me want to move here. Such a silly reason for uprooting everything I know and love, but a country that loves, fosters the love of food (among many other things) has much to recommend them.

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We then headed off to the Bastille Market. Even though we were running a little late, it was curious to see that the market was closing up so soon. It turned out that we were actually an hour behind; we had forgotten about the daylight savings time in Paris. Regardless, we managed to see some really cool stalls. The seafood here is unreal. If we did not have other things to see or do, I would have bought a whole bunch and taken it back to our apartment to devour.

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Posted in Homage to Hunger, Stefan, Travel

We were so tired by all the walking and lack of sleep that we pretty much fell asleep as soon as we got settled in our seats on the Eurostar. If we were living in the UK and making pounds and not dollars, I would be going to Paris every weekend! The train ride was very quick and so inexpensive.

We had rented an apartment in the Latin Quarter but we were confused as to where to pick up the keys. The agency we rented it from had just inserted a standard reply (to pick up keys from them) but also gave us other instructions to pick up our keys at the apartment (due to our late arrival). Because English was not their first language, queries via emails were a little ambiguous.

So here we were, in the City of Lights, tired, dirty, travel weary and hungry (we all know, I don't deal well with hunger...hungry soon amounts to hangry...) and had no idea where to go. On our part, I am ashamed that neither of us took our high school French more seriously. I would understand parts of instructions but not enough. There is no reason not to learn more especially since officially, Canada is a bilingual country. I am so enrolling myself in classes when I return.

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Posted in Stefan, Travel

So did I mention that we had a bit of a yuck flight across the pond? It was more than a little yuck, it was actually a lot yuck. For some reason, perhaps it being an older plane, there was just no way we could contort our bodies to get comfortable. On top of it all, the cabin was so unbearably hot, to the point of discomfort. I can say that I fly quite a bit and I have never, ever had to take my socks & sweater off, roll my jeans up to my knees and just sit there uncomfortably in a tank.

It basically meant Stefan and I were starting a brand new day in London after pulling an all-nighter in a sweltering sardine can. It made our tempers with each other a little short throughout the day.

We arrived at Heathrow and I was quite shocked to see how run down it looked. I am sure the other terminals must be nicer but the one we arrived in was quite shabby. Stefan breezed through customs with his British passport, although I think they questioned why he had a British one and I had a Canadian one. If only I didn't need to live in the UK for 5 years before being able to apply for dual citizenship, I would definitely have gotten one as we plan to have more vacations in Europe.

We took the underground to King's Cross where we were to pick up our tickets for the Eurostar to Paris. It was surprisingly easy although I found the compartments quite small in comparison to our subways at home. Stefan's head was almost touching the top of the doors. The only issue we had were our bags. I can't figure out whether we (more Stef because his clothes take up so much more room) packed too much or whether we were using the wrong bags. They were not fun to lug around. Next time we go away, I shall heed my friend's motto of "pack light, freeze at night."

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Posted in Stefan, Travel

I promised my parents that I would write about what I am seeing and doing on my vacation as I did, all those years ago (pre-blog but one of many reasons that I started LBG) when I was traveling in Australia and Asia.

So here goes.

Enroute...

Our plane ride that seemed chock full of "school trippers" was unexpectedly calm. You never know with the mini humans between the ages of 10 and 18. They always seem like gamboling, overexcited, overgrown puppies. I am allowed to say this because I was once one of them.

We experienced some minor turbulence while having our very "lovely" melted plastic plane dinner. I am convinced airplanes can do better with food. After all, I traveled on Singapore Airlines when I went out east and the food was quite good. I don't understand why Air Canada cannot do the same.

Back to the turbulence.

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Posted in Stefan, Travel

It's THAT time of the year again.

I really must move to a country where we don't have to do any taxes. I think about the accountants at work and feel so bad for them. They ALWAYS seem to be in tax season, having to do month end and all sorts of things that I would rather someone put bamboo splinters underneath my nails.

That's why I love my accountant and will never do anything to upset him. He's just one of the most best natured men that I've ever met and I do give a small prayer (not all the time but especially around tax time) that he lives a very, very, very long life.

All this being said, I should get back and go through all my darn receipts. Next time you hear from me, I'll probably be in Paris!

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Posted in What's Buggin' Me

It feels like everyone on my team is addicted to this show. I remember that when it first came out, Stef and I were watching a lot of TV, so we made a point not to start watching a new series. Regardless, every so often in the past 4 seasons, I would occasionally watch one or two episodes and think,"Man! This show is SO fucked!"

I am ashamed to say, I still succumb to peer pressure from time to time and the girls decided it was time that I got into the loop. So for the past couple of weekends, I've been plowing through the DVDs. I am telling you (for you lucky US people who have TiVO, although I just found out that we now have it too) that THIS is the way to watch a show.

I don't have the time or attention span to sit through TV advertising lately. Most of them are so inane anyway. I like just being able to watch a show in its entirety with no interruptions.

I must say that I am really digging the show and so far my favourite characters are Hurley, Sawyer and Sayid (we just started season 2...I am guessing characters change over time).

The thing I keep bringing up is why does everyone look so good all the time? I mean, they were in a plane crash for Pete's sakes. They really need to stop putting so much make up on, especially on Kate. I know they have their luggage but who really has the time to put that much lip gloss on a deserted island where random things are trying to kill you? Ditto with the wardrobe changes. And Hurley? Why is he still SO big? I watch "Survivor" and I know if you're being physical and not eating carbs, you become the size of a twig.

Stefan tells me I have to stop telling him these same things after every episode. But secretly, you know you're thinking the same thing I am too.

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Posted in Glued To The Tube

This is one of my very favourite questions to ask Marie at the start of every fashion season. She always responds with "You are retarded!" and "Who plans what their look will be every season?" You see why we're best friends. We have no issues with abusing one another.

Fashion is such a funny thing.

I do think there are many people in the world who do plan their wardrobes seasons ahead. I however, am not really one of them, I kind of just buy what I feel like. I do have a couple of pet peeves when it comes to fashion:

(1) Having no personal fashion identity -- you know the girls I am talking about. The ones who travel in packs and wear variations of the same thing, and the ones who look as if they ripped a page out of a magazine, went to a store and told the salesperson to get them "the look" regardless of whether the clothes complement their body type or personal taste.

(2) Taking fashion too seriously. At the end of the day, it's only clothes, people should have fun with it.

So when I ask Marie the question, part of it is mocking the silliness of the industry. My answer is usually something really random like "Marie Antoinette mixed with 90's grunge and 20's flapper girl" and we'll laugh. Then Marie will swear she won't be seen near me if I come close to dressing what I described above.

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Posted in Coveting, Fashion Smashion

This will be a long entry, so be forewarned.

About two months ago, I got a phone call at work that I never wanted to ever hear. Even though deep down inside I already knew before she had uttered the words. My mother had been diagnosed with cancer.

It wasn't completely unexpected, she had been having some issues for awhile, all of us are medical junkies so we read up all the possibilities of what it could be. And you pray that it's not what you think it is.

The indomitable Mama Kang has cancer.

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Posted in Family Shenanigans, Lurves

Stefan and I didn't have our regular Oscar competition this year. In fact, I barely got to see the ceremony hence the reason for my lack of my annual fashion report this year.

Although here are my two cents. Whoever is styling Jennifer Hudson needs to be shot! Her tatas were about to make an appearance and while I think every girl (big or little) is permitted to look sexy, rippling back fat is never sexy on ANYONE.

Anyway, Stefan and I realized that neither of us had barely seen any of the Oscar nominated movies this year, so we decided to catch up.

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Posted in Reviewing

I need to go through my categories and streamline them I think.

How do people come up with just a few?

Anyway, I thought I would come up with this new one because you would think after two years of marriage-ness I would be well equipped to deal with it. Alas, I think I will always be in my perpetual state of selfishness and competition to ever really be the type of lifetime companion people dream about. The good thing is that Stefan knows this trait of mine well and finds it vastly amusing.

I was reading him excerpts from MetroDad, a new addition to my RSS feeds when I mentioned once again, how I wish he had a blog.

"What would you do if I did start one and it all of a sudden became really popular?"

Silence.

"I would be SO angry!!"

"I know you would be. That's why I haven't started one. You'd think it was a big competition"

I hate to admit it but he's right. Gad, I really need to get over this competitiveness with Stefan...

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Posted in Conversations, Married Life, Stefan

You know whenever you see nature shows, you see monkeys tend to pick at each other, comb their fingers through each other's backs and pick stuff off whether it be dirt or lice? It always reminds me of my own family.

I am not sure who started the picking trend, definitely not the parents as none of them are pickers really. It's the second generation who are, siblings, cousins -- my oldest brother being the worst instigator.

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Posted in Family Shenanigans, Me-ness, Weirdness

I know.

It's been a really long time since I have written.

It is not for lack of things to write about but more the lack of time. I had been working on a huge deadline for an upcoming project the past few months and it was all I could do just to be normal. But now it's all over. The project was a success and now a couple of weeks of respite before working on the next one.

The hard thing for me to do now is to get back into the habit of writing. Don't you find that the less you write, the less you feel inclined to do it?

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Posted in Me-ness, Randomness