To Travel Again

Ah to travel again.. It all starts with an idea in your head...

We've stuck to Canada since August 2005 at which was the time we last visited Switzerland. Besides that, we took 4 days to go to the Okanagan and also Osoyoos. I don't remember doing much more than that traveling wise. This year we drove down to California so I could spend my vacation moving back up to Canada. You might call that travel, but I certainly don't call that vacation time.

Unless I look back in this blog, I'm not so sure I can find much more evidence of more than 3 days vacationing. You can only imagine why I must be longing for a good vacation. It is sort of staring us straight in the face. P and I both haven't had one! Nor will we totally get one until Christmas at which time everyone takes some time off.

My point is that P has finally told me we are going on Vacation next year. If it takes you more than a second to figure out where we will be spending at least part of our trip, you better stick around this blog a bit longer.

My main goal is to see areas of Amsterdam, France (Alsace/Chamonix) and Switzerland where we both have not seen enough. Actually I will be photographing because that is what drives me to complete excitement. His main goal is to relax and shut me up since I'm obsessed about moving back to Switzerland.

Our next main problem will be deciding the exact dates, time off, who we will visit and where we will stay. We are really hoping to spend some time staying with friends, even blogging ones to counter such costs.

But one last thing, we are planning almost a year in advance. We want to see the wine crush or the Autumn festivals. It's just an idea building, and keeping me sane as a struggle living my life as an Expat in Canada.

I want your feedback as we are still in the idea stage of our travels...

Origins in North Vancouver

This weeks Photohunt Theme is Original

I first thought of unique or original. Soon after I totally forgot what photo I wanted.

This building is one of the original buildings in North Vancouver. In particular it's an old school house with an entrance for boys and girls on either side of the steps. This beautifully restored building is just a few blocks from where wee live. It also is a great place for kids to play and watch incredible sunsets and view of Burrard inlet.

Autumn Colors

Even with the windy ever changing weather this weekend, there was more sun than rain. As a result, I found a few great colors of Autumn around North Vancouver via my two feet and my eyes.

The Leaves of Lonsdale Ave.

Autumn colors.

Fallen Leaves..

Of course I hope to take more pics because I just love autumn colors.

The Fall Festival

As we welcomed in Fall yesterday, North Vancouver actually celebrated with a Fall Festival. I say actually because festivals are like blue moons here in Vancouver, they seldom happen!

One thing that I miss a lot about Switzerland are the many festivals. Most European cities have festivals for every occasion. It's one easy way to wear away the blues and to enjoy what your village or city has to offer. You'd think people this way would take notice, but that's not really the case.

Here in Vancouver, festivals are quite minimal and are never "that" advertised. In advertising, I'm talking about putting up signs on store windows, having people tell others via word of mouth. You know enough to get the word out to make you want to go watch and attend that festival.

It was really nice to see Lower Lonsdale bringing in the autumn season, but North Vancouver has much more room to grow and share in the festivals with heart, sole and culture. That is something all of Vancouver really lacks.

For those of you living in Europe, I'm sure you know what I mean.

How many festivals do you attend?
Christmas festival in the street?
Fall festivals?
Fasnacht?
Summer Festivals.?

Maybe it's just something I don't see as much here because the cities are much bigger.

There was one band at the festival that reminded me of just that. Sorry I didn't take pics, but imagine a 4 year old playing alongside his father in a goofy costume. Talk about cute!

Trying to Figure It Out

Do you ever just feel like you want to accomplish so much in the weekend, but of course know it all will not happen? That's certainly happening to me this weekend. I want to accomplish all so much. I'll give you a bit of a taste of it. I wanted to go to the gym, swim, go car shopping, go shoot some Autumn photos, do some baking and go grocery shopping.

The Autumn weather has been windy, thus making the weather an unpredictable partially sunny day.

I've also been working on photography which has totally been on my mind lately. Here is my flickr graph (available tomorrow).

As Fall starts, we also start our new schedules.
I'm not sure if I'm ready for the change but it's already here.

Photo Hunt - Paper

This weeks Photohunt Theme is Paper

And while I didn't think I had much to display of paper, I thought I'd be a bit creative and post a macro of a paper t-shirt of the Canadian kind.



This is P's favorite way to fold Paper. I agree it is mighty cute. And as most of you have heard, the Canadian dollar is hovering equal to the dollar. Something that hasn't happened for 31 years.

Happy Hunting!

Summer Ends

Well today and tomorrow will be raining again here in Vancouver. I was just getting used to the dry weather with picture perfect sunrises and sunsets.

Most people, including famous celebrities are saying summer officially ends on the 21st this year but that actually is incorrect. Summer actually ends in approximately 3 days on the 23rd. That's the day when we have exactly 12 hrs of daily and 12 hrs of darkness. I of course had hearing those words because I love sunshine 24 hrs a day.

I'm happy to know the week before ended in so many great sunsets. This sunset was straight from my Cannon G7 once again.

Remember that Strike

Well that strike is still happening in Vancouver!

Yes - see this link for a short blurb about the strike. The stinkin strike has affected every city around Vancouver because garbage doesn't get picked up regularly because the other transfer stations are over flowing with visitors.

Other bad things which happen are permits are slowed to a grounding 25% of normal besides day cares, rec centres and other essential services are non-existent.

What a long time it's been, some 10 wks almost now.

And we have sunshine today!

I'm off to hopefully take photos today.

Like in a Dream

It was a bright an early morning. I got dressed quickly and we all rushed out the door, so I could go to my mom's friends house.

The day was different. I was being treated and chauffeured off to school. Actually I got a great breakfast first and we still had time to spare with my mom's wonderful friend. I remember going past the normal roads on the way to school, but this day was different.

A few hrs later I was playing at school when the phone rang. My kindergarten teacher wanted to tell me I was the proud owner of a new baby brother... And a big one at that.

I was so happy I was crying, just like a dream. And that's my memory 27 years ago today when my little bro was born.

He isn't so little anymore. We live far apart now but still manage to keep in touch a lot more via phone. I'll try finding a pic of us together today to post up at as well. And that sunset pic was from last weekk. It was like a dream too.

Happy Birthday Bro!

Chocolate Pomegranate Seeds

Chocolate what? I asked.

Here try one - A Chocolate Pomegranate Seed...

Guess what happened? They tasted incredible!

So I have to figure out how to make them. Here's a quick basic recipe that isn't so extravagant.

And it's my favorite treat, chocolate!

Use - 10 min 5 min prep

Change to: batch US Metric

2	large pomegranates
1	bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
	wax paper

1. Refrigerate the pomegranates (not required, but it helps).
2. Remove all the seeds and place them in a colander.
3. Gently rinse the seeds, then lay them out on paper towels to let them dry.
4. Lay out a large sheet of wax paper on a a cookie sheet which will fit inside your refrigerator
5. Melting the chocolate the easy way: put the chocolate chips in a glass container (I'd use my big 4-cup Pyrex measuring thingy) and microwave them until they're melted, stirring occasionally; don't overdo it, though- you don't want the chocolate to burn or get tough.
6. Melting the chocolate another way: in a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips (if you don't have a double boiler a metal or oven-safe glass dish over boiling water works too); stir constantly while melting so you don't scorch the chocolate.
7. Add the pomegranate seeds to the melted chocolate (making sure the seeds are not wet on the surface, or else the chocolate can seize) and fold gently with rubber spatula until the seeds are thoroughly covered, then spoon out globs of the mixture, whatever size you like, on to the wax paper
8. Place the wax papered cookie sheet in the refrigerator and let the chocolate-covered seeds cool overnight (or for as long as you can stand before tasting them).
9. Keep refrigerated- they should keep for 3-4 days, at least, although I doubt they'll last that long once you taste them.
10. Enjoy!

Photo Hunt - Plastic

This weeks Photohunt Theme is Plastic

Something plastic?

While on an enjoyable shopping day in Bern I spotted these Plastic Wrapped Bern Bears. These are Bern Bear Cookies, or what I think is as close to what you'd find to a cookie in Switzerland. Notice the Bear inside the flag, well that is the cantonal flag of Bern. Bern actually has quite a lot of history and can be written as Bern, Berne (French) or Berna. Feel free to Check out all of the great information Wikipedia shows.

Of course, these Bern Bears are wrapped in plastic to keep them fresh. A cookie like this could be eaten for a certain festival or celebration, as I was told.

Everyone see the plastic wrap? Aren't great creations!


Find players: PhotoHunt

Summer News Flash

Summer finally arrived in Vancouver. Yes we finally have sun and 25C plus (77F) at 5pm. Actually in Abbotsford it reached a new record of 30.1C..

It's finally great to have sunshine!

A Photo Contest

I've entered the Canadian Photo Contest on Travelocity.ca

You do have to be a resident of Canada to enter.

For those of you who know me, my passion is photography.
I've started this contest late, so I'm in need of 200 plus votes.
If you like my work, Please vote for me!

1st Osoyoos Photo

I've thought about entering a few of my photos.
If you like my work, please vote ***** for me.

Second Crater Lake Photo

Please feel free to browse my entries or make another recommendation.

Please make sure you just click on the stars ***** to vote. No need to register.

The contest is open to entries until 23:59h (11:59PM) PDT on Monday, September 10, 2007.

Please scroll down for the normal posts.

An Incredible Sunset

Last night was absolutely incredible. It was warm, virtually no wind and just colors that are awe inspiring for me at least. It's just one of those Vancouver evenings that you don't want to end. But then you realize it's Sunday night and you need to get ready for work again!

Practice with the new Cannon G7
(I've been testing it a lot, image quality especially.)

And just before we went inside...

If you are able to catch Vancouver on a clear evening, I'm willing to guess the sunsets here are some of the most incredible on this earth. It was definitely a lucky evening for me!

Bird Watching in Vancouver

Since we knew the weekend would be wonderful, P and I decided to enjoy it to the fullest. We made it out to the Reifel bird sanctuary in Delta, BC. It's a full hour drive for us even though it is local. But that was after I went to the gym and did my swim workout also. Delta is as you might guess right on the water. And yesterday was quite a windy day.


Here's a snapshot of what we saw while we were so occupied and thrilled for the sunny day.

The beautiful entrance to the sanctuary.

I'm so fascinated by these red winged black birds. They come out to feed the second you look like you aren't around.

Who knew we'd do some cow watching!

These large spiders were fascinating. It was a great chance to try out my new camera's limits. I'm fairly impressed especially with how windy it was!

The turtle even knew he had to take advantage of a sunbathing day!
All in all a really great day.

Photo Hunt - Music

This weeks Photohunt Theme is Music

I don't have a specific music theme that screams music so I found something special to me from Switzerland with a touch of music.

This was beautiful music to my ears. I was fortunate enough to catch this from my very old 2001 digital camera. I'm fascinated by what I was able to capture now after seeing how slow my camera was. For me this was music to my ears.

Music or not?

Actually the traditional music of Switzerland starts with cow bells and alpen horns.


And finally anywhere in Switzerland is just music to my ears.
If you know me quite well, you'll understand what I mean.

Find players: PhotoHunt

A Sunny Weekend

We haven't had to much of the good ole sun all summer long. Most Vancouverites look forward to the warm sunny summer weather but we didn't get that much of it. At least all of us feel extra cheated because the sun never seemed to come during the weekends.

So I'm hoping this weekend screams sunshine as my camera is screaming to be used and I'm screaming to use it. Hopefully a few more photos will follow post weekend. It's supposed to be about 21C here. Just perfect.

A Wandering Tour

There are so many simple beautiful colors that I run into daily. Here's a snap shot of a few of what North Vancouver is about while I practice with my new Cannon G7 point and shoot.

Some of the flowers shining during a rain shower.

Beauty during a break from the rain.

A Normal view any day from the North Shore.

Construction is everywhere and soon will be less views to enjoy by all.

Since I enjoy wandering, I thought I'd share a great Swiss Site which wanders and treks around Switzerland.

Nikon Did It Again

Just as I've been pondering a way to save up for a high performance DSLR, Nikon has come out with a new sensor and a few new flashy cameras to make me drool. I read it first on dpreview which gives you a comprehensive look at the new camera, including everything the camera has to offer.

The camera in question is the new D300 which boasts a self cleaning sensor and 12.3 mega pixels, plus 9 frames per second shoot ratio. Some other impressive stats are it's 3 in screen with new live mode, a D300 powering-up in just 0.13 seconds, with an almost imperceptible 45 millisecond shutter lag.

This isn't a camera just for a novice photographer, especially when you see the price. I'm more interested in what the lenses and shots can do for me on paper to share the beauty with others.

If you are interested in looking at a new camera, you might check out all reviews of the Nikon Cameras which come out this fall.

Window Shopping

I just love window shopping. These colorful boots caught my eye on a trip down to Granville Island. Granville Island is a great place to go see the public market, window shop, buy fresh fruit, pasta and meats and support local artists.

I've got shopping on my mind because I need to find another pair of shoes.