Coulda Woulda Shoulda

It has now been over a year since we got back. We left London on January 17, 2008 and arrived the same day back to a world unknown - Canada. We had no idea - nor did we speculate - what was in store for us when we got home. What we knew for sure was that we needed rest, calm, stability, quiet, same old same old for a good period of reflection. We didn't need adventure or escape or incomprehensible challenges. We knew we needed to be able to sleep in a bed for more than 3 nights, to not have food dictate our daily itinerary, to not have to wonder whether we would be understood. Home gave that to us. We were surrounded by wonderful friends and supportive families that were willing to help us in any way they could reintegrate back into this world that seemed very far from home. I think I've always called it home. This year has taught me that it is, in fact, home and that even though lots of places around the world felt like home, this is the one place that really defined that word...

My interest in education and nurturing the next generation probably started years ago when I was a Girl Guide leader. Part of me thought back then that I just liked to be bossy. There was one moment, during a weekend camping trip, where I saw the light in a girl's eyes and I knew that this was a feeling that I wanted to witness again. She was a small little blond girl, 9 years old and while very out going and precarious, she was terrified of fire. All the girls had to try and light the stoves by lighting matches at least once as part of the tasks to compelete their 'Overnight Camp Trip'. And this girl was petrified. So, I helped a little. I showed her how to do it. We practiced with wood and then got ready for the real thing. I could see the fear in her eyes and yet there was a determination. She was GOING to do it, even if she was completely convinced that she wouldn't. And then she did. On the first match try. And the look on her face was one of beaming accomplishment...

I have quite a few things that I want to write about here but after a weekend cooped up with the WORST COLD OF THE CENTURY (and after living through yellow dust in Korea, THAT' saying something) I am still just trying to focus on lifting my glass of orange juice to my mouth with out sneezing, coughing or falling asleep. But there was something I just read that I wanted to share. Because I like it. And I sometimes know how lucky I am that travelling and living around the world and having someone like D has allowed me to put things in perspective that other people struggle with, that I used to struggle with and that I am now quite happy is not one of my struggling points (although I have many other, one of which is rambling on when I SPECIFICALLY SAID I did not have the energy to do so.) Here is it

My sister C reminded me today of a time that seems almost light years away as I sit look out a window of the PILES of snow and the MINUS of degrees in weather. This is a shot of me finishing my 2nd 10km this October. I kinda like how I'm in mid air. And thats a look of joy and satisfaction and MAN DO I KICK ASS on my face. So, I'm physically AND mentally, flying. And that fuzzy person? Taking the picture in the left hand side of the screen? Well, that's my biggest cheerleader, D. I decided to take on a long distance running challenge thanks to friends of our L&J. L had done loads of long distance when we were younger, so she pretty much breezed through the 10km that got me addicted to running. She set up a running schedule for us, I think it was 10 weeks in advance, and by sticking to it, I surprised myself. I remember the first couple of days, struggling to complete 3.5 km, wondering how it was I thought I was ever going to go 3 times that amount without my lungs givin...

You may have noticed my blog has been less about travelling and dreaming and more about stuff, or how to reacquaint yourself with stuff after you've spent 6 years avoiding stuff. I managed to find something today, however, that would MERGE both the travelling AND the gadget-stuff type life. See it, Post it, Love it, Make Out With it After spending hours of potential sight seeing time and millions of pennies at various Internet cafes uploading photographs, I can say that THIS is perhaps the best $500 value you'll find. Standing in from of the Eiffel Tower with the most beautiful sunset? Don't want to leave it but have the EXTREME URGE to share the love? Take the picture. Upload to your site. (note: okay, sorry, you'll need to find a wireless hotspot to do so but hey, you get my drift) I realise phones do this but phones do not have the pretty-ness of this beauty NOR do they all have that wonderful touch capacity that Aston Krucher was showing us before Christmas. This pe...

http://deartoronto.com/2009/01/05/33-seen-reading/ I started following this woman and her blog awhile ago and have really been inspired by her creativity and innovation. Watching this story makes me miss books. It also makes me miss being around people who work in the book industry. There was a lot of drama and always a lot of anxiety about the future but this type of story reminds me that there is hope. People do read. And at the end of the day, if your stress is related to getting them to do so, well, that's a stress I can get on board with.

I'm currently at my desk, F5-ing my web browser screen on this website just to get the MOST UP TO DATE INFORMATION from the MacWorld Keynote 2009 speech. It's in these moments that it makes me want to run out, buy a Mac and start preaching the good word around to techy's alike. Its only natural to live up to my coke-bottle-glasses image, isn't it?

2009 is here. Does anyone remember Y2K? God, that seems like, years ago. Well, 9 years ago to be exact. I have lots of way in which I am going to alter my perception this year. I will not call them New Year's Resolutions because really, that is just setting myself up for disaster. But I am going to look at this year with new eyes. And hope that with each day, I will keep the awe-ness that I so cherish in daily discovery and observation. I'm going to slow down. Say no. Prioritize. Stop and smell the roses type thing. I'm going to not let the snow get me down and leave my house anyway. I'm going to try to relish in my distractions and not rue them. I'm going to remember that endorphins are my friends and 10 times up and down my steps can do the trick if it's -20 outside. Wishing you all new hope and adventure.

This year has been yet another one of discovery. As we inch closer and closer to the new year, I'm getting that old reflection feeling that I suppose comes with this time of year. I'm also realising that as we enter 2009, I wonder how I will finish the sentence "This time last year I was..." There have been ups, downs, highs, lows and more adventure then I expected. There have been disappointments and surprises, laughter and tears, frustration and joy. All lives are filled with these types of emotions - whether ride the roller coaster with a backpack or in the car on the morning commute, it's hard to constrain life into the box in which you had expected it to squish. I should have been writing more this year because I have been through some periods which I think were important in this journey I'm on. Sometimes its easier to leave it in your head for awhile. And I imagine, now that I have some time off, the thoughts will crystalise into a better message then wh...

....THE REST OF US!! Christmas has always been a sea of change for D and I. Over the past 10 years, I've spent it in many place most memorably last year's Moscow and of course all of our years in England and Ireland. This year is no exception. Being home for Christmas is like this added bonus to at the end of another year in transition. I actually started shopping earlier this year, sent my cards on time, had a budget, stuck to it - well, okay, MOSTLY but I only have one week to be frivolous - and and soaking up as much Christmas music as I can. (For those of you needing Christmas music 24/7, I found this AMAZING radio website) We get to partake in our own traditions - mimosas on Christmas morning - and old ones - time with family over the holidays. Our Christmas actually begins this Saturday with the arrival of my mom. My grandmother arrives as well on Sunday. My sister, bro-in-law and nephew will be there - I can't remember the last time I had that many of my family mem...

....seems to be a lot of random information. I find it facinating, that you can be sitting there, at your desk, working away on a project, completely focussed on the task at hand, and then suddenly, out of no where, comes a thought from an experience that you hadn't recalled in years. This morning, I remembered - or should I say my brain remembered it, I didn't really have anything to do with the involuntary thought that was had - being in the basement of the Sangrada Familla in Barcelona, looking at all of the architectural drawings of the amazing church that is yet to be built. I remember it so distinctly because it was a basement but yet all cream coloured with arc entrances and beautifully lit. Just a very warm fuzzy place to be. And, as the thought came and went, I could only wonder WHERE DID THAT COME FROM? And of course look forward to the next little travel jaunt my brain will take me on.

I am no longer AS ANGRY as I was yesterday but I'm still pretty steamed although calm enough now to retract the statement that we are resembling anything like a dictatorship. I will say that I am still engaged in what's going on in this country right now and am still appalled at the way politicians think we're all stupid and can't see through their motives. We need an Obama. The latest....

I cannot go into depth right now but I must register my EXTREME RAGE that I am feeling towards the politicians in our country. In a nutshell, the non-governing parties have decided for the WHOLE of Canada that they know better then the VOTERS who should lead the government. I can reveal that I did actually vote for one of the non-governing parties, which makes me EVEN MORE PISSED that instead of getting down to the business OF THEIR JOBS they are more focused on their own political gain. No matter who you support, you must recognize this BLATANT HIJACKING of the government and one of the highest fundamentals of Canadian society that we hold dear. No, not beer. DEMOCRACY. The country voted 2 months ago. And now, people within our government are trying to CHANGE what those votes mean. THAT'S why this is important. It must be stopped. Here are some places you can have your say: Canadians for Democracy Rally for Canada This is a time to act and stand up for the democracy in our countr...

For all of you ambitious young political types, it's now EVEN EASIER to become Prime Minister. First you poke a stick at the current Prime Minister until he calls an election. Then, you proceed to LOSE the largest defeat in DECADES for your party. Next, slither away into oblivion until you see the opportunity to EXPLOIT the system for your own benefit. Next steps? Secretly agree with the loser kid on the playground that you will let him be your right hand man IF he promises him and his party will vote AGAINST the bill that the current PM and his party have put together after YOU RAGED about needing economic change. Then, once voting a big baby NO to the bill, you exploit the fact that in the Canadian system this is what they call a NON CONFIDENCE VOTE and you have now forced the hand of the current government to CALL AN ELECTION. The cherry on top? Well, you just swoop in and offer to take over yourself. Cause, you don't want to put Canadians through ANOTHER election. Piece of ...

It always brings me great pleasure when an injustice is brought to justice. And working in the serving industry to fund my university (well, okay, it funded all the FUN parts of university because my parents contributed to all the schooling) I can appreciate what an exhausting job it can be. So this story makes me believe in just desserts and what I like to call ' travel karma ' or in this case ' dining karma '. Don't Let Friends Dine and Dash - But if They Do, Be Sure to Rat Them Out on Facebook The best part of this story was what the dashers employer did. Now that is what I call industry loyalty and a little bit o' work karma.

I always like to give a shout out to ideas that I find are very inventive, even if the presenters of the said idea are actually trying to sell me something. I actually don't mind that - I'm a bit of an ad junkie in a way and have been known to purchase a product just simply because I liked the creativity of the ad. It's not really enough any more to just have a product that does stuff or makes my life easier. What I really want to see is HOW CREATIVE you can get to get you hands on my dough before your competitors come along and do so. And so, when I stumbled upon the new Dell campaign, I had to express how impressed I was with this ingenuity: Good News Day Pay attention to the scrolling bar. The attention to detail (and the tongue and cheek way of doing so) made me giggle.

The best part about being back in Toronto is how easily I can get access to all of the things I love about the places that are NOT Toronto. Like, thanks to David's Tea , I'm able to have authentic, Chinese green tea, as referenced in this entry , any time I want. I can bring myself back to that afternoon in the tea museum, pretty much every time I pour a cup of tea. I was able to have some delicious kimchi jigae a few weeks ago with a vegetarian friend I introduced to Korean food. The restaurant looked exactly the the ones in Oe Dong D and I used to frequent - tons of tables crammed into a tiny space, full of Koreans enjoying their food. They even had the cutlery boxes on the table AND the napkin boxes as well. There's an Irish pub right around the corner. It has the old wooden booths, the Irish beers on tap and (although a little OTT) the girls all dressed in kilts (also because kilts are kinda Scottish and..well..you ge the picture) The beauty of all these experiences is ...

THE ECONOMY SUCKS RIGHT NOW!!! And do you know what else sucks? THE FACT THAT NOTHING ELSE IS IN THE NEWSPAPER. OR ON THE RADIO. OR ON THE INTERNET. And now I'm helping to perpetuate that problem but BLOGGING about it but mostly I wanted to blog this. That I'm not sure whether being away for 6 years has sheltered me from all the bad=ness that seems to happy ONLY in North America or whether this is really bigger than all the headlines about Afghanistan or Iraq or the Tsunami or global warming. Because I remember talking to my family when I was away wondering why they were getting so obsessed with one thing or another and now maybe I realize that maybe JUST MAYBE the MEDIA WAS OBSESSING THEM. Because I'm being bombarded with this information that is only about ONE THING. A thing that I suppose is really important but is potentially being dealt with EXTREMELY BETTER in parts of the world where they have actually had real problems like droughts and bombs and fear of N. Korea th...

So, there has always been the if/what if/when conversation in my house regarding entry into the whole mommy world. But I have to say, that my favorite blogger and her friends has done it again, showing us just what can happen if when those creative types take mommy-hood by the kahoonas and SPEAK OUT. Momversation If/when the mommyhood fairy visits me, I hope I'm as innovative as all of these lovely ladies.

For as long as I can remember, I have not been very good at math. This tends to make sense as words are more my friend. My family and friends often refer to math-gone-wrong as 'A Math'. There was a recent conversation at the cottage that turned everyone into laughing hyenas as I said something to the effect that "5+5 is like 11", not EXACTLY 11, but just LIKE it. You get the picture. And so in honour of A Math, I had to add this video. credit where credit is due as I'm not sure where this came from, just know that I feel just that bit more vindicated.