Seeing Red

This weeks Photohunt Theme is Red

I'm away for this photohunt. I'll try to catch up when I return to my computer.

Looks like the type of weather we have had lately too..

My Night Adventure

I'm really tired but wanted to share this evening in Vancouver with you.

The Evening View of Vancouver

Views of Vancouver

That's it, no manipulation, just what the eye saw.

It's All About The Sales

Yesterday, the mascots of the Vancouver Olympics were unveiled to a crowd of school children in Surrey. The mascots strutted their stuff and had children in a frenzy. The new mascots are named Quatchi, Miga and Sumi. Here's a run down on what they actually are.

Miga - a snowboarding sea-bear inspired by the First Nations' legends of the Pacific Northwest. Miga, is part sea-bear and part orca whale.

Quatchi - a Sasquatch with a long brown beard and blue earmuffs.

Sumi - an animal guardian spirit, who flies with the wings of the thunderbird.

Mukmuk - a Vancouver Island marmot sidekick is considered an honorary member of the mascot team.

Here's the catch, they don't look like their descriptions. They are very Japanese animated and to me don't represent The Great West of Canada at all. Most adults are totally embarrassed with the mascots while children love em already.

Of course all of these mascots can bring in millions of dollars in merchandising. Right now they are hoping the mascots will bring in $600 million in sales.

Now for a bit of history:

The first Canadian Olympic mascot was Montreal's beaver "Amik," during the 1976 Games in Montreal. Calgary's "Hidy" and "Howdy" in 1988 were by far the most popular pair of cowboy hat-wearing polar bears. The first official Olympic mascot was "Waldi", the dachshund during the 1972 at the Summer Games in Munich.

The Roar Award

Canadian Swiss has nominated me for the "Roar" award. I'd be happy to spread the cheer and pass on the honor.

Here are the details: Those people I've given this award to are encouraged to post it on their own blogs; list three things they believe are necessary for good, powerful writing; and then pass the award on to the five blogs they want to honour, who in turn pass it on to five others, etc., etc. Let's send a roar through the blogsphere! The image at the top right can be copied and pasted onto other blogs. Also, a small size of the award for sidebars can be found over at the writing circle site.

I think that’s pretty cool, don’t you? Okay. So let’s start.

I originally started my blog for a handful of reasons. I wanted to start blogging, improve my writing, wanted to see SEO wise how the blog would function, I wanted to keep in touch with Europe and finally I met so many interesting friends and connections that I wanted to keep on blogging. Blogging for me is where I can connect to people as being an expat can get lonely at times. I think my blog title sums up what I blog is about, mainly Switzerland, my wonderful husband in Canada and photography.


A Great blog:
1. Is updated regularly.
2. Keeps your readers involved.
3. Gives you a great laugh and picks you up when you are down.

Now to my awards (first random people):

Just Call Me Mausi (Christina) - She grew up in Vancouver, Canada and found herself on the other side of the pond in Germany with 2 beautiful kids and a lovely husband. Her baking and organization skills are incredible while mixing in a bit of zesty ideas. Best of all, I've gotten to meet her entire family.

Letters From Home - A blog I recently found because of the expat meet up from Christina's blog. Ian's writing style is incredible and I'm so glad he's such a great writer and blogging joy to read.

Renny's Terella in Norway - My wonderful blogging friend who has been a loyal reader from the beginning of his blogging debut. He loves all things Norway and is a network evangelist. He's hooked many into reading his wonderful blog about Norway.

Ms - Mac - An expat Scottish/Aussie transplanted into Switzerland. She's got 3 little darlings, a wonderful husband, lots o humor, great posts, and makes me miss Switzerland with all of her great and funny photos. She's had her blog much longer than me and I just enjoy all that she has to say.

My French Window - A fellow expat living in Switzerland with her French husband and 3 bilingual children. Pumpkins is also an aspiring photographer.

So there. It was a difficult choice to choose only five, but you can find my blogroll on my sidebar. It’s there for a reason, you know. ;)

I've also left off a few people just so others can send them awards. ;-)

A Day in the Life Of

Normally the weather isn't this wonderful, but here is a look at my early mornings and later nights from the past week. A start to the day. I look out and there is light. Brrr, it's cold out!


I've arrived a few minutes early for my bus, enjoy the beautiful colors and light as I get ready to go indoors. I could sit here for hours with views like this.


I take the Seabus and eventually arrive at the Science World stop. There are always wonderful views here.

The morning was pink yet foggy, full of great photo opps.

And Off the SeaBus, the day ends. Just beautiful.

This is the view from North Vancouver around Burrard Inlet. Vancouver is so beautiful when it's blue. We are nearing those days since the cooler weather brings snow and blue skies. And I guess when I get out, the views I have are incredible.

Photo Hunt - Hot

This weeks Photohunt Theme is Hot

With today's photo hunt, I could only think of how the past few days have ended, just red hot and incredible. There was some sort of physical attractiveness for me as I could photograph. Here's my red Hot photo.

Happy Hunting!

How to Get Me to Stare

The Day Ends Perfectly!

I've been waiting months for a moment like this. And I was finally in the right place at the right time with camera in hand..

Needing A Day Off

Over the weekend, I sat through a course without seeing sunlight. That was difficult to say the least, but 2 days in a row made me sore and stiff.

Yesterday I woke up just as early, but the pay off was much better. I came home as the new British Columbian record holder in the 200m breast (2:52.26), for my age group (30-34). I still got beat by the male next to me by 9 or so seconds. But I bettered my personal best time from last year by 1 second (2:53.49). Now I have 4.5 seconds to shave off to get to the next record (2:47.41). I do have a goal in site..

I wish I could say I have more photos to share, but I'm far too tired to do anything. Maybe by the weekend.

Photo Hunt - I love the Outdoors

This weeks Photohunt Theme is I Love Being Outdoors

This weeks photo hunt was easy deciding the topic, now picking the photos was the hardest part.

I decided to go with the theme of loving the Outdoors. Of course that would include, nature, photography, travel and all things Switzerland. Of course, every photo has a special place in my heart because it was while I was living in Switzerland.

I'm in a class for the next two days followed by an all day swim meet. I seriously don't think I'll have any time on the computer until next weekend. But I'll try! Happy Hunting

Just My Luck

Last night, I dove into the swim pool and they experience a complete power failure. I'm told to get out of the pool and leave.

This morning, the most firey sunrise ever is right before my eyes. The windows are too cloudy to get any sort of photo to show anyone...

What's next?

The Day in Chaos

Today Started off windy, rainy and chaotic with a few downed trees and power outages.

The day came to pass with a showing of blue skies (a total dream!)


Followed by ducks scrambling for P's droppings of bread.

Followed by an impressive showing of a Heron.

You also might note that we had a bit of showing of snow, but nothing compared to the Swiss Alps.

Following My Passion

You Should Be a Doctor

You are practical, sharp, and very intuitive. Optimistic and energetic, you are a problem solver who doesn't get discouraged easily. You are also quite compassionate and caring. You make people feel hopeful. You're highly adaptable and capable. You do well with almost any curve ball life throws at you. You do best when you: - Are always learning new subjects - Use your knowledge to solve problems You would also be a good therapist or detective.

What Should You Be When You Grow Up?

And all of this time I thought I was on the right career path!

Photo Hunt - Being Flexible

As life has given me many twists and turns, I know I live my life having to be very flexible. My days are long and hectic and I take pleasure in finding the little things that make me smile.

This weeks Photohunt Theme is Flexible

For this photo hunt, I've found my flexible cutie.

Doesn't that make you smile! And yes I was lucky enough to capture that this spring.

Where's the Sun

I must express my utter jealousy for all of you out there who get many days of sunshine a year. That is the type of weather I grew up with in California, but it's certainly not the type of weather you see in Vancouver.

Astrid who lives in Provence writes about Autumn in Provence. She tries to be subtle but the lack of summer here has brought me to drooling at her beautiful days 320 days a year.

She writes:

"This picture (not shown), taken a few days back in our garden, I had in mind sending to my brother to tease him. He's always asking me how the weather is and I always answer oh not so good you see, in the daytime we have just about 19-20°C, so quite chilly... Then I laugh my evil laughter :)"

Astrid, you've done a good job at making more than one person jealous! As she shows off her palm tree, I'll show off my backyard, full of evergreens. They are everywhere..

I'm curious to know how much sun you get a year? Please list your city and a guess.

Vancouver Sites

Down Town Vancouver and False Creek

You are looking at an area of Vancouver which will become a popular stomping ground for many of the Athletes and parties going on during the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

This is what typical Vancouver weather looks like.

For now, I can't imagine how crowded it will be come as I stand usually alone taking in all of the sites, especially on a day like this.

There is a mini taxi boat which comes to pick up passengers, but it only runs from time to time.

Tuesday Humor

What do you do in Your Spare Time? Fish in a puddle?

Seven Random Things Meme

From my French Window tagged me for the Seven Random Things Meme. I won't be too creative but I'll list some random facts most people don't know at all.


1. My family is originally from Oslo, Norway and the other half somewhere in England. I wanted to visit the family I still have living near the border of Germany and the Netherlands before I had to leave my life in Switzerland, but I never did. Some of P's family is originally from Ireland but his mom's side comes from old Quebec.

2. Since pre-school I would day dream about living so far away and in my mind it was in Europe. To this day, a day won't go by without me feeling the need to go back to live where I feel like I belong. I long for living in Europe as much as one craves turning on the tv. I'd like to pick Switzerland but France, Germany or the Netherlands would do just fine too. Now the pressure is on dear P to say yes to my dream.

3. I'm a very competitive person but the only way you can really tell this today is by my punctuality and the presence of me being near the front of every line. Must be genetics.

4. I saw a home computer from age 1.5 years, was literally learning on one by age 5 and learned how to program in C and Visual basic at age 7 in order to play video games. That means I've been using the computer for about 30 years of my life already.

5. I've been accessing email and on the internet since 1992 when there were only 2 choices for Internet providers. The Internet ran on a 5600k modem and took almost 1 minute to get online.

6. My original email name was thought up while driving on the road. I got it from the phrase think it, believe it, achieve it. But the actually name is a biking company minus some vowels. I still use a version of that name today.

7. My first ever friend from Switzerland I met using an online group or some other internet means. I met him in person less than 1 month after being in Switzerland and stayed in his lovely farm house. He has helped me learn a lot about Swiss culture too and has been a great touring guide to different areas of Switzerland. You can find him on blog roll also.

Here are the rules which you must abide by if you are tagged.
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.
3. Tag 3 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

******

I am tagging my dear Swiss Friend PFlight2000, Canadian-Swiss, Green Haddock.

Classic Cars

This weeks Photohunt Theme is Classic

Every year during the Canada Day Parade in North Vancouver, we get to see a lot of classic cars. Here's just one of the many that were shown on July 1, 2006.

Enjoy your classic Photohunt and weekend!

This Morning

You'd think it was a little earlier but it wasn't... A beautiful morning