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new leaf
2007-09-12 17:48:00
One of the plants in our pond has big purple leaves that look almost like iron. We didn't think it was real at first glance, but it is definitely alive. As you can see, it is growing a new leaf. It's very appropriate to our current circumstance; getting engaged and buying a house is a huge new chapter in our lives.
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meet the neighbours
2007-09-11 17:47:00
Rajeev and I have been enjoying our new patio, especially in the evenings when it's still warm enough to sit outside. There's plenty of protection from the wind, which is something we were lacking at Dallas Road. I still miss the ocean view immensely; when you've lived in that kind of luxury for almost a decade, it's very difficult to be without it. I have upgraded in other ways with this move, but the daily changing ocean/mountain views were priceless and I miss them.We've slowly been meeting our neighbours. Here's Kevin, the neighbourhood tom cat who has decided he likes our patio. He wanders in every day and makes himself at home. This would be great if we didn't already have two cats that we want to encourage to go outside (mostly to use the litterbox of the great outdoors). Even though Kevin is a geezerly old guy whom my cats could easily outrun, his presence means that Leica and Bailey are more wary of going out. Having been indoor cats all their lives, they aren't exa...
More About: Neighbours , Meet

our new hobby
2007-09-10 17:38:00
We've spent the past couple of weekends getting acquainted with our new place, especially the garden. While it's been landscaped and well cared for in the past, it was neglected while the house was on the market (a few months). We have ripped down a truckload of ivy, blown a lot of leaves around, hacked back the bamboo, weeded, and cut the grass. We still don't know the names of most of the plants in the garden, being first time house owners, but we figure we'll just maintain it for the first year and see what flowers.It sure takes a lot of time, though. Now I know why friends have always seemed to disappear into a black hole when they bought houses -- there's no time for anything else in the first little while.
More About: Hobby

the local thugs
2007-09-09 19:41:00
Crows like the berries on one of our trees. Every evening they gather in huge gangs and muscle their way around the neighbourhood.
More About: Local , Loca

sky
2007-09-06 19:44:00
So I don't have an ocean view any more, but at least I can go out on my patio and look UP.

the new view
2007-09-05 19:38:00
The day after we moved in, city workers began digging up our street to put in a gas line. Our peaceful oasis turned into a noisy construction zone complete with piles of dirt, and the street was closed off for a couple of weeks. The up side: it's gas! We can get a gas stove! (someday in the distant future when we can afford it ...)
More About: View

location shock
2007-09-04 19:24:00
I haven't posted in awhile due to all the upheavals around moving. We've been in our new house a couple of weeks but some of us are still having problems adjusting. And the "office" is still a table surrounded by boxes.It's a gorgeous house we've bought, with everything on our wish list. Yet after living on the oceanfront for 9 years, I feel claustrophobic in the new place. I can't see for hundreds of miles, I only see my garden and fence. I've wanted to live on ground level for a long time, yet now that I'm here I miss the old place. It's a strange feeling, and not one I was expecting. It's a bit like culture shock, only around a location. I know I'll get over it, but it's taking time.As for the cats, they are in denial, and sleep under the duvet most of the time. They tend to emerge after the sun goes down, to explore, sniff, wail, and knock things over. Consequently Rajeev and I are in a state of sleep deprivation and neither of us are getting much work done. Plus it l...
More About: Shock , Location , Loca

the view from my window: not
2007-08-17 00:59:00
As we prepare to move, the pile of boxes is taking over. I can't even see the view anymore.
More About: The View , View , Window

shamelessly asking for money, honey
2007-08-15 19:58:00
What a busy summer it has been. I'm exhausted. We got engaged, bought our first house, and went on a holiday to the Kootenays all in the space of 5 weeks. Our apartment is a sea of boxes as we prepare for the big move this weekend. Then of course there will be the unpacking, dealing with freaked-out cats, and adjusting to life with a huge mortgage.Speaking of which, even though our wedding is a year away, we're not quite sure how we're going to afford a honeymoon anymore. Our dream is to go to Spain, but we might not even make it off the island the way things are going. That's why I've decided to add this little widget to my blog, shamelessly panhandling in internet-land:Raise money with ChipInThis way, anyone can "chip in" to our honeymoon fund. All amounts are welcome, no matter how small. I figure it's worth a try ...
More About: Money , Honey , Sham , Shame , Mele

our new oasis
2007-07-27 02:00:00
We just bought a house!This is a shot of our new back patio area, complete with stream, pond, bamboo, and hundreds of other details that I can't wait to explore.The inside of the house is gorgeous too. It's been a wonderful, exciting, stressful week as it all came together much faster than anticipated. We have to thank Patrick Schorle, the world's greatest realtor, for finding us a house that had everything on our wish list. In fact, it was only the 5th house that he took us to! We imagined months of shopping around, but it turns out that it wasn't necessary. When you see the right thing, there's no point in looking further.As first-time home buyers it was a steep learning curve this week as we navigated the maze of brokers, realtors, banks, rules, inspectors, etc. but we have somehow managed to survive intact. We move at the end of August.yippee!
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the view from my window: fog
2007-07-26 20:42:00
From sweltering heat to winter weather in one week. This has been the view from my window for the past several days. Bizarre.
More About: The View , View , Window , The V

Botanical Beach Bumming
2007-07-20 22:00:00
Here are some pics from our recent camping trip. Here's our campsite at French Beach . Putting all the tarps up guaranteed that it didn't rain ... much.Sputnik the barbeque.Sputnik in action.Rajeev made me this cool fire poker.Early on Saturday morning we drove out to Botanical Beach. Low tide was at about 7 am, and low tide's the best time to see Botanical. When we got there it was quite foggy. We could hear whales blowing offshore, but couldn't see them through the fog.When the tide is out, the beach is dotted with small pools filled with sea life.We spent the whole morning beachcombing and finding interesting critters in the pools.We had the best guide in the world: Dr. John Davis, ocean expert extraordinaire.Fortunately the fog lifted in time for lunch on this gorgeous little beach called Botany Bay. Much nicer than the one in Australia, scenery wise.
More About: Al B , Ming

the view from my window: heat wave
2007-07-11 17:32:00
Hot weather has finally reached us after the longest, dreariest fall-winter-spring in memory. Temperatures are in the late 30s C with no wind, which is practically unheard of on this island in the Pacific. I happen to love hot weather, so you won't hear me complaining. This is the kind of weather I live for.Here's a shot of my living room taken at about 8 am yesterday. That's the calm Juan de Fuca Strait with the Olympic mountains in the distance. I'm facing southeast, towards Seattle. Can you spot the cat sleeping in her condo?The cats are constantly flopping themselves down lately, pooped from the heat. It's quite adorable.
More About: The View , Heat , View , Window , The V

a few thoughts on Edmonton
2007-07-06 22:19:00
For a town whose main attraction is the world's largest shopping mall, I was amazed to see that people walking around downtown Edmonton had a pretty sloppy fashion sense. Two days here was plenty, and no I didn't go to that mall. In my opinion the whole place looks much nicer from the air, especially when leaving it.Rajeev had to be in Edmonton for work last week, so I tagged along for the ride. The main reason was that Rajeev wanted to introduce me to some old family friends who are the closest thing to family he has in Canada. We had a nice evening with them, but poor Rajeev was still severely jet-lagged, having just returned from India two days before. Here we are on the terrace of the bar at the Fairmont hotel, which was the nicest place to eat I could find in the center of the city. Note the celebratory "we're engaged!" martoonies. At this point we hadn't told many people our news, and it was nice to keep it just between ourselves for a few days.
More About: Thoughts , Mont

insert wedding bands here
2007-07-01 22:08:00
We're engaged!Rajeev got back from India and popped the question before he even unpacked. No ring, no grand proposal, just the real deal. It was quite unexpected, and so was my reaction. I was so happy and surprised that I burst out laughing. He looked at me, confused, eyes widening, and said "I'm serious." I realized that he was waiting for a response, so I blurted out "Absolutely. Yes!" before dissolving into another fit of giggles. He knew where it was coming from. Happiness was bubbling out of me in giggles and I couldn't make it stop.It's been such a happy week, telling our family and friends the big news. Our life together seems to be one celebration after another, and I think that's an auspicious beginning.It is a very profound thing to find someone you know you will spend the rest of your life with, and even greater when that person comes from the other side of the world. Think of the logistics and life circumstances that led us each to the same salsa class in October 2...
More About: Wedding , Bands

yay, he's back!
2007-06-24 08:50:00
I'm heading out to the airport to pick him up now.happy, happy....
More About: Back

the view from my window: rainy summer solstice
2007-06-22 08:42:00
A few people climbed up Moss Rock for sunset on the longest day of the year. Unfortunately it was overcast and raining, due to this year's crappy weather which doesn't show any signs of improving now that it's "summer." Believe it or not, these folks were actually howling like wolves when I took the photo. Perhaps it was a forlorn cry for the sun to pleeeeeeeease come back?
More About: Summer , The View , View , Window , The V

why I hate dental hygienists
2007-06-19 00:40:00
I dread my bi-annual teeth cleaning appointment like the plague. It's not the poking around with the sharp instrument on tender gums that I hate so much, or the frothy fluoride that makes my saliva gush into pools under my tongue, or even the aggressive flossing and lecture on how to brush ('cause hey, if I haven't figured it out now, I never will). Those things are all part of the cleaning process which I'm prepared to endure twice a year.No, it's the terminal PERKINESS of dental hygienists that makes me want to run screaming in the other direction. Why, oh why are they all like that? Do they take classes in Perkiness, Cheerines, Ask Stupid Questions, and Talk-to-your-patients-as-if-they-are-5-ye ars-old at Dental Hygienist school? What about Be As Perky As You Can As Early In The Morning As You Can?I can't stand it. I hate small talk at the best of times, and I'm generally not in a good mood to begin with when I visit the dentist's office, so small talk there only pisses me...
More About: Hate

recipes: veggie heaven
2007-06-16 01:07:00
We decided to try an organic fruit & vegetable delivery program a few months ago and we are LOVING it. We use a company called Share Organics, who use bicycles to deliver bins of greens to our neighbourhood every week. We customize our order online and pay online, making the logistics super easy.And this is the result: a new bunch of fruits and vegetables every Tuesday. It's like Christmas every week, opening up the bin to new goodies. The photo is of this week's bin. Look at all those amazing colours!We often get vegetables we've never cooked with before, so it gives us the opportunity to try new recipes. The organic stawberries are the best I've tasted in a long time. In the winter we only get tasteless strawberries from California. The local ones are what REAL strawberries taste like. I had almost forgotten.Share Organics emails out a weekly newsletter and there's always a recipe for a fruit/veg that's in the box. Here are some of my pasta faves so far:SINFULLY RICH FETTUCC...
More About: Recipes , Heaven , Reci

it's as if they were waiting for him to leave
2007-06-14 01:20:00
Rajeev's car has been severely dive-bombed by seagulls. The other cars on the block are clean, but this one had multiple direct hits. I'm toying with the idea of leaving it like this and picking him up at the airport in his new Guano Mobile. Welcome home, honey. On second thoughts, he'll probably prefer all this crap to that which he's experiencing in India right now.
More About: Leave , Waiting , Wait , Were

what I thought of United 93
2007-06-12 23:03:00
While the Boyfriend is away I decided to rent some movies that we wouldn't watch as a couple. Normally it's not too difficult to choose movies that we both like, but our tastes aren't always in sync. He tends to go for feel-good movies, comedies and stuff that doesn't make him "think," as he puts it. Whereas I will watch films with difficult content if they meet the following criteria: they teach me something about the world, they are examples of brilliant filmmaking, they are documentaries (I love a good doc), and/or they're about plane crashes (I admit it, I've always been a disaster freak). "Unit ed 93" met all those criteria and blew me away.Teaching me something about the worldI felt that it was important to see "United 93 " to learn a little more about what happened on September 11, 2001. I remember waking up that morning to the sound of Judy Madran on CBC Radio saying "The United States of America is under terrorist attack." My first reaction, like many people, was "huh?"...
More About: Thought

bon voyage to bollywood
2007-06-09 03:25:00
Rajeev is on his way back to Bombay for a couple of weeks and the cats & I are already in withdrawal.I just dropped him off at the airport, and the apartment is strangely quiet. The cats are sniffing the area where his suitcases were, pacing around like little tigers, and I know they'll be pestering me for double attention.The cats have trained Rajeev well. They demand daily early-morning cuddles (on the couch for Bailey, in the bathroom for Leica) and he absolutely can't say no. I think he loves them as much as I do. Tomorrow morning they're going to get a rude shock when they realize he's gone and they're left with That Chick Who Doesn't Care How Cute We Are If She Hasn't Had Enough Sleep.
More About: Bollywood , Voyage , Bon Voyage , Olly

Rajeev's In and Out Party
2007-06-05 00:04:00
We finally had a party to celebrate Rajeev's new status as a Canadian landed immigrant (that was the IN part). We also wished him Bon Voyage because he's returning to India for a couple of weeks (that was the OUT part).The theme was "Canadian" so several people came dressed in red and white (or brought smoked salmon) ...True to the international theme of the party, there were several nationalities represented: India and Canada (of course), Germany, France, Switzerland, UK and USA.You were never sure which language you'd be listening to ... but with Peter around, that's par for the course!The kitchen crowd (aka Martini Shakers):Checking out the view:Hey! We have the same shirt. C'mon, give us a hug:Anybody need little flags with Canadian on one side and Indian on the other? We have about 50 left over ...
More About: Party

eagle fight
2007-05-30 20:36:00
Last weekend we went kayaking at Sidney and got very, VERY close to an eagle fight!We set out from Roberts Bay, having rented kayaks from Northern Wave (the best kayaks I've ever rented, by the way). We only intended on staying out a few hours, so we paddled around various islands and took it easy. For Rajeev and I, it was our first paddle of the year and the rental kayaks were different (and much better) than we'd experienced before so it took a little getting used to. They were sleek and fast. Of course, we're used to kayaks that are loaded down with camping gear, so empty ones now seem incredibly light and tippy.I wasn't sure how my shoulder would handle paddling, after being so sore the past year, but it seems to have healed well.When we got over towards Coal Island we noticed a lot of bird activity on some small islets. Eagle s were flying back and forth from the islets to the tree tops on Coal. We wondered if they were picking over a dead animal.By this time, our group of...
More About: Fight

on the un-planned weekend
2007-05-25 01:48:00
In the past year, every time a long weekend approached we would plan the hell out of it. Camping/kayaking trips requiring heavy logistical coordination were the norm. Then of course we needed a day to recover from the weekend, dry out all the gear, do laundry etc. It wasn't very relaxing but we got a lot done.This Victoria Day, we just let the weekend arrive and didn't plan a thing. The weather was too cold for kayaking anyway. An amazing thing happened: our social schedule filled up in no time and we were busy all weekend! And that includes two ferry rides, a visit to Salt Spring Island and Saltair, an overnight in Nanaimo, lots of food & socializing, the discovery of a great cafe in Ladysmith, and two super tango lessons.Let's start with the tango. Michael and Beatrix were in town so we took their milonga class on Saturday. Rajeev loves milonga because it's a fast dance and the music is usually upbeat compared to the often sombre old-fart stuff you get with tango. He's also g...
More About: Weekend , Plan , Anne , The U

welcome to spring in Victoria BC
2007-05-18 18:25:00
I have just finished creating an ambient video that truly captures the essence of spring in this city. It's called "Watching the Grass Grow." Yes, that's right. It's an hour of long video shots filmed at ground level, making you feel like you are literally watching the grass (and flowers) grow. I filmed it at Beacon Hill Park, Ross Bay Cemetary and the University of Victor ia .The DVD is for sale on my Ambient Videos blog if you'd like a copy. I've also written about it here.For your viewing pleasure, here's a short preview. Enjoy!
More About: Spring , Tori

the view from my window: ritzy yacht
2007-05-16 17:52:00
Looks like it's that time again. You know summer has arrived in Victoria when the rich and famous start parking their yachts in the harbour. This one cruised by my place yesterday. It's a small one, by ritzy yacht standards. I mean, there isn't even a helicopter on board...
More About: The View , View , Window , The V

the benefits of working part-time
2007-05-12 18:34:00
I thought I would post this cool image by Teesha Moore because I was inspired by the quote. As I'm now working part-time at the production company and part-time on my own creative projects, these words really struck a chord:"If a man has important work, and enough leisure and income to enable him to do it properly, he is in possession of as much happiness as is good for any of the children of Adam."For me the key words are "leisure" and "income." When you're working full-time, you have income but not enough leisure. When you're unemployed, you have too much leisure and not enough income. It's all about balance. You need to decide when your income is "enough" for you to create leisure to pursue your passion "properly."Truth be told, I hate working. Always have. This article "10 Reasons You Should Never Get A Job" says it better than I could. I would love to be self-employed full-time and be master of my own schedule, but the hurdle is financial: where is the income going to come ...
More About: Time , Part , Benefits , Working , Benefit

the view from my window: kayak rescue
2007-05-10 18:21:00
The other evening I witnessed a rescue operation in the sea in front of my place. What attracted me to the window was the sound of sirens -- lots of them. Twenty minutes earlier, I had seen a police car race down to Clover Point, which is not unusual since it's a common party place in the evenings. But now there were about four police cars and two ambulances heading down there. It could only mean one thing: someone was in the water.I got out my binoculars and scanned the ocean. It was really rough out there -- white caps, big waves and high winds. Sure enough, I saw two coast guard zodiacs fighting with the waves. One of them was pulling aboard a yellow single kayak, and the other was racing back to shore with two men wrapped in blankets. They were well enough to walk to the ambulance, so it didn't look like they were too hypothermic. But if they'd been in the water for 20 minutes, they're lucky to be alive. The water around here is extremely cold year-round.The biggest hassle t...
More About: The View , View , Kayak , Rescue , Window

my modeling career (take 3)
2007-05-09 19:34:00
If you live in Victoria B.C., get a copy of Douglas magazine this week. My photo is on page 42, in an article about Wild Play. It's a teeny weeny picture. Here's the full size one: What I'm doing in this photo is going through an aerial obstacle course called TreeGO. It takes 3 hours and costs only $39. It's so fun! I'm looking forward to going back to WildPlay this summer and doing a bungy jump this time. Looks like my shoulder will be able to handle it. Yippee!
More About: Modeling , Career , Deli