Monday, December 29, 2014

       
       


Sunday, December 21, 2014

Waimea

We have a childhood friend who now lives in Hawaii. I contacted him before we went and coordinated a surprize visit from him, for an early birthday present for my brother and a catch up- It's been too many years since street hockey and snow forts...

Since the surprize was had (and it went so good) we decided to make a day trip up to the north side of the island: reason being there was this huge surf competition on, the Billabong Pipemasters. 


The day we finally went, the competition was actually called OFF because the waves were too big!

But it was beautiful- stormy and wet and those waves were dramatic. We still stopped at 3 or 4 beaches along the coast. Warning signs everywhere not allowing swimming. There were still surfers out there but it was intense. 


(People taking risky selfies)


It was a great day out. Thanks GK for taking us to the 'country' for a beach day

Thursday, December 18, 2014

in the heart of the volcano

Despite all of our trips and practically living in the shadow of Diamond Head, we finally decided to climb the crater. 
Once as kids we had gone on a drive to the inside of this defunct volcano- but I'm not sure that we even got out of the car!
This time my parents and I took the city bus to the base- and walked right in, and then up the hike to the look out. 


At the top there is what actually was a war time bunker/look out. And the view. Oh, the view. 


It was so freakin hot. And when we got to the top there wasn't wind, a breeze. Just still, and hot. 

As we passed some Aussie girls on that last flight of stairs- on their way down I overheard the best conversation I heard all week:
Q: "is THAT a breeze?"
A: " no, I think that's just us walking against the air..."
Exactly. 

Aloha

Just got back from a wonderful break away with my family- besides the wedding in the summer we have not gone on a family trip together for some years. We went to Hawaii- and spent most of our time in Waikiki. 
Waikiki is like our old neighbourhood- we spent a lot of family trips their growing up, and honestly our end of the beach has not really changed. We have pretty much only ever stayed in the same 2 hotels (that are across the street from each other). My mom was reflecting though on the early days- when we were little (like 30-35 years ago) the big difference was that we were the only kids at the beach. The only 2. It was more of a honeymoon destination, or for people on r&r from the army. Now, it's packed with families and people of all ages enjoying the sun and surf. 


Super relaxing. By Thursday I had decided I did not want to go home. Like, ever. And my tan isn't too bad either. 

Wrap it up

I was so glad to wrap up this year with another bookbinding class at Atira- the women's resource Center on the downtown east side. 
People were in festive spirits and as it turns out I wasn't the only workshop running. Another lovely lady had collected pine and cedar boughs from near her home as well as around east vancouver- I joined them in making a wreath for my door. 
Over the few hours I was there I made books with 5 or 6 ladies. Had some lovely chats, ate treats and had a surprize visit from, none other than Santa himself. 

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Halloween

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween-
Mine was good and busy with basically 3 parties and 2 costume changes...
How that happened I don't really know. 

At work we often come up with a group theme and this year someone, who neglected to actually dress up originally suggested Disney princesses... But we're and art school and all so it developed into "princesses gone bad/villians gone good" which was much more fun. We had a bad fairy with her 'arrested' placard from booking and over the hill cat woman. I was Nancy de Vil, you know her as Cruella, but this is before she went all bad. 
We also decorated the office- I am quite proud I put all my love of CSI and Dexter to good use and made this chalk outline of Bambi's mom. 
After work I went to the law firm where people went all out
And after that, a friends party where the theme was cults- that's a whole other post, but I went with friends in a group costume and we were a hit. Come on. You have to be a group when partaking in cult activities...but it looked something like this:
And this:

Monday, October 13, 2014

Ms. Lily Allen


Or Phase 2 of my musical mavens. 

Lily Allen hasn't toured in five years. I thought my chances to see her were long since passed- she had good reasons. Got married and popped out a few kids so I really thought that might be it. Let's just say it was one of the most pleasant surprizes this spring that she would be touring through Vancouver again. It felt like forever since I'd bought the tickets and the show happening. I wound up taking my brother as my date- he did not know her music, and had never been to the Commodore so I thought it would be a good introduction to both. 

The opener was Lolawolf who sounded and looked very familiar and then we realized after she was Zoe Kravitz (sounds like her dad, looks like her mom)


Ms. Allen came on and stole the show. She played everything I loved and she had the crowd digging it. She was cute and funny and totally charming. 

And yes those are baby bottles on the stage. Ode to her new life... Less about drugs and parties, more about babies...

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Float on

This is about 2 things: one, I've been watching a lot of Fringe lately, and two, the temptation of a Social Shopper coupon for trying Float House was burning a hole in my pocket.

It was pretty cool I have to say. I scheduled it for the end of a week, among a few long weeks of the start of school. The floating was a bit surreal as it's hard to imagine that some salt can have that much of an impact on buoyancy. At times it felt like I was bumping up against the sides and at other times I was miles away from the edge. No sound, no light. Except the sound of me snaping my toes echoing
in the water. I was in there for nearly 90 minutes and I must admit that at what was probably the hour mark, I came back from somewhere. Somewhere. 

And if floating in a sensory deprivation tank will get me all that close to Peter Bishop, then sign me up. 



Monday, August 25, 2014

In the wild

What another glorious camping trip! Probably the last of this year. 
For something different we went en masse, 5 couples. Double campsite, tent village. Lots of meat, lots of bacon. Lots  of stories. Lots of wood to burn.  Characters, plus one beast of a dog. 

Sampson freezing his legs off