hello Privy Council Office!

someone googled (remember when google wasn't a verb?) 'jason kenney' from the Privy Council Office in ottawa and found my blog. eek. weird. i sometimes forget that the internet is for everyone and that this little piece of it that i have carved out is not just for me and the people i know.

i wonder if they hire people to monitor blogs because i could do that!

i also get a lot of searches for

• starbucks london fog (hint, starbucks does not sell a London Fog but does sell an earl grey tea misto with a shot of vanilla which is exactly like the second cup London Fog)
• marks and spencer snowy balls (which still makes me laugh)
• right bank/left bank in paris
• swahili or habari
• sea urchins
• shavasna (om)
• things to know about [fill in blank with whatever random piece of information i have written about in the past]

i will be really impressed with myself when someone googles 'gonads' and gets here. or better yet, googles 'gonads and jason kenney' and gets here!

omnivore's 100

i stole this from k this late sunday evening when i am not in the mood for bed, or for writing much else (as witnessed by my inability to post for the past few weeks). it is the omnivore's 100 and was fun to do. i copied it from her and deleted all the hyperlinks, but check her blog out if you want to know what half this stuff is (i had to look up a bunch).

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating. (except here they are red because i cannot figure out how to strike anything through)
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk/ linking to your results

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos Rancheros
4. Steak tartare (just the other day and i loved it)
5. Crocodile (it tastes like salty chicken and is gross)
6. Black pudding (surprising considering my proximity at times to the places that eat this 'delicacy.' but no, i wouldn't try it.)
7. Cheese fondue (but i don't know what the big deal with the fondue is)
8. Carp
9. Borscht (i don't think i've ever had beet soup, but i surely would try it)
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich (raspberry j is best)
14. Aloo gobi (i am not sure i have had exactly this, but things very similar to it)
15. Hot dog from a street cart (my most recent one was a sausage in a bun in prague and it came with a pickle!)
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (i think so, but cannot remember an instance and i'm sure i would not like it)
19. Steamed pork buns (nothing about pork excites me and if i were to eat it, it would have to be some sort of pork roast)
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes (a life without tomatoes would not be worth living)
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras (i don't know a whole lot about foie gras, but have heard of some unethical farming practices to get those livers to grow so much. and liver, ew)
24. Rice and beans (it is a staple is so many countries i have been in and has its own name in cuba, but i cannot recall it at the moment)
25. Brawn or head cheese (had i wanted to try it, germany would have been the best place, it is everywhere)
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche (one of my favs in mexico)
28. Oysters (raw or smoked, delicious)
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda (but yum!)
31. Wasabi peas (i once ate a few bowls of these in the coolest restaurant in hamburg, germany - then proceeded to steal a beer glass)
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (i have this issue with soggy bread)
33. Salted lassi (i have never liked the idea of the lassi and have yet to try one)
34. Sauerkraut (again, the germans)
35. Root beer float (the best kind of float!)
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (but not together, so i don't think that counts)
37. Clotted cream tea (in the lake district in england... so rich and so good)
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail (twice in the last year - south africa and paris and i enjoyed it much more than i thought i would)
41. Curried goat (i have eaten goat in many forms - thank you africa - but never curried)
42. Whole insects (chapulines in oaxaca, mexico. blech, but i did it)
43. Phaal (maybe i would try a bite)
44. Goat’s milk (not just plain milk, but cheese made with it)
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more (i had a scottish flatmate, he introduced me to nice scotch and hot toddies)
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala (just not with the chicken)
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut (heavenly, and i don't typically like doughnuts)
50. Sea urchin (no, but i did have one stuck in my foot for weeks)
51. Prickly pear (mexican street food includes cactus)
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone (there is some nasty poaching going on with this stuff in south africa, and i am pretty sure my former next-door neighbour was in on it when i lived there and when he pulled hods of it out of his freezer, i politely declined)
54. Paneer (my favourite is the paneer tikka from hashmi in nairobi - if you go there, order it!)
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle (something i should have tried while i was in deutschland, apparently)
57. Dirty gin martini (i had my first last year and it is surprisingly delicious and dangerous...)
58. Beer above 8% ABV (i think)
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores (back in the brownie camp days)
62. Sweetbreads (like maybe if i was on amazing race and this was the only thing keeping me from being a millionaire, then maybe)
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst (funny, i read a lot about this this past summer and there is even a museum devoted to the stuff in berlin, but it did not appeal to me so alas, i have not eaten it)
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (mmmmm..... churros)
68. Haggis (in Edinburgh and it was pretty tasty)
69. Fried plantain (hello africa, and not too bad, but i am off bananas because of the many and varied uses of all things banana-like in east africa)
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette (no, no way)
71. Gazpacho (i made it once and described it as tasting like blended salad, but it was good blended salad)
72. Caviar and blini (wait, not together, but this one confuses me)
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu (and mostly because i am afraid of exported food products from china at the moment)
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail (and one time in paris, which was so parisian and delicious)
79. Lapsang souchong (sure, i like tea, just doubt that i would like a smoky tea)
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum (sounds nice)
82. Eggs Benedict (hollandaise is not my favourite, but the avenue diner in calgary does a fantastic version of these eggs)
83. Pocky (no, but i have had a very similar italian treat)
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant (oh, yes please!)
85. Kobe beef (what do you think the chances of the kobe beef fast food at u of c is actually kobe beef?)
86. Hare
87. Goulash (my mom made this a lot when i was growing up and i never cared for it, but had it again in hungary this summer, not bad, not bad)
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam (unless i ate it when i was little, i don't think i have ever eaten spam)
92. Soft shell crab (never the soft shell variety)
93. Rose harissa (not yet, but i will)
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano (i did not like this one bit and have no idea how the mexicans go so crazy for this national dish)
96. Bagel and lox (i think i have lived off of this for days on end at times)
97. Lobster Thermidor (never the thermidor variety)
98. Polenta (the first time at an italian dinner party and i only give it a medium)
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee (is that like code word for marijuana?)
100. Snake

riparian entertainments

(july 14, 2008)

i had made a plan to go for a riverside picnic for our first proper german sunday together, had bought a picnic basket, and prepared the menu. but when we woke up on sunday morning from a night of drinking german beer in all of the soldier’s old haunts (and our new neighbourhood pub), we had to postpone the picnicking until we both went back to bed to rid ourselves of our 12% hangovers.

we did manage to make the picnic a reality even though i had to sneak by our new neighbourhood pub wrenched with guilt from having stolen fruit from their bartop fruit bowl 12 hours prior (maybe it was there for their customer’s enjoyment??) and it was my idea to stop to get a coke from the shop nearby. and the last time that i remember voluntarily choosing to drink coke was over a year ago when i was hot as balls at the egyptian pyramids. i really don’t like coke, but at times it is a healer.

our picnic got underway, my soldier graciously carried the picnic basket although i don’t think he realised it was about a 3km walk, and we arrived to find our picnic table free and got more than a few ‘bon appetites’ from passing germans (who knew that phrase was so universal?) as we laid out our spread. bakery bread, brie and tilster, raspberry salad, fresh tomato and basil, french wine (bought at the grocery store for a few euro – love that!), and milka chocolate.

a wander back to our flat and en evening spent watching the second pirates of the Caribbean while drinking tea (me) and milk with canadian imported oreos (him) rounded out a day that hadn’t started out exactly as planned, but turned out perfectly in the end.

and thankfully there was no bird involved in this german sunday.

courtesy call

(july 9, 2008)

when i don’t need to wake to an alarm and roll out of bed to throw on the least wrinkly clothes to get to work on time (as much as i love mornings, i am beginning to think that i am not a morning person), i like to leisurely take my time after i wake up, have a cup of tea, listen to a cbc podcast, read my book, do the previous night’s dishes, and stay in my pyjamas until i am good and ready to get moving on the nesting that has to be done.

last week, on a few mornings between 9 and 10 my doorbell would ring and i wasn’t sure if it was the downstairs bell ringing or the one immediately outside my door. as my front door has foggy glass so you cannot see through it but can see movements, i would have a minor panic attack and would try not to move so as not to make The Squeakiest Floor Ever squeak and to draw attention to the fact that i was inside my flat but just not answering the door.

as my german is at best abysmal and i did not want to meet my neighbours with bed head, a cup of tea, and my striped pyjamas, i would sit still and patiently wait for enough to time to pass to assume that if anyone was outside of my door they would figure i was not in. sort of like how they count to 5 on LOST.

late last week i poked my head out of my giant front window and saw the mailman riding his bike away shortly after the bell rang. what a nice courtesy to ring my bell when i have mail! no more need for me to creep quietly around in the mornings to conceal the fact that i am taking my lady of leisuredom seriously.

and how about that mailman on a bike?!

vultures!

yesterday was a rather liberating day. as days go. i formally declined the offer of employment made by my organisation and i sent out an email to everyone in my office to sell my stuff. i have already made some money for the Paris Fund and don’t anticipate having trouble getting rid of the rest of my things.

it is sort of fun selling all your stuff and i seriously recommend it, unless of course you need that stuff. it was a bit wild – all these kenyan women in my flat, nattering away, trying to bargain, and picking up EVERYTHING (even the stuff that is nailed down) and asking if it is for sale and for how much. i had to save my handbags before someone tried to pay me and walk out with them!

but today, i am spending the morning at home, with a cup of tea and the bbc (tea and the beeb are pretty much a running theme in my life) because i slept nearly 11 hours last night and woke up feeling meh. and i am so done with being sick, i am not going to work because sharing an office with 2 other people is a ticket to illness and if my colleagues are going to cough like they have tuberculosis and refuse to see a doctor, then i am staying at home with my tea and the beeb.

memorable mpumalanga moments

(may 4, 2008)

did you know that some people in south africa go grocery shopping without shoes on? i did not. and i was so amazed i started checking out everyone’s feet that passed me in the produce section. (and the electronics store, as it so happened)

the south africans take their biltong seriously. and their sausage. and all of their meat products. now i remember why the last time i returned from the rainbow nation i had to take a meat vacation. this time, i need to take a chip vacation. although i have become a chip connoisseur that could handle any british chip shop, i need to take a step back from deep fried starches.

the part of south africa where i lived a few years ago is very different than a mpumalanga mining town. i am so happy that i got to tour around more of rsa. there are some phenomenal rock formations around those parts, which works for me because rock formations are sort of like my new hobby.

when you order red wine at a restaurant, pub, or hotel, they give you the biggest glass of tasty wine for a few dollars. it is great. and the would-be beginnings of a drinking condition.

however, the food situation is not so great. there are the ever-delicious chips, but little else besides meat and squished sandwiches that are not to my taste. i did fit in a few pieces of milk tart though.

alarms are everywhere and so is paranoia. but i sort of get it after almost being mugged in broad daylight in a shopping mall. sort of.

i remember the highway driving in the western cape to be nerve wracking, but i thought it was just that particular driver. no, south african highways are frightening places. and the government has wasted a lot of money on stop signs that are largely ignored.

afrikaans is still as beautiful as ever. and my sarcasm is still intact. but it still fascinates me even if i don’t care for the sound of it. i mean, who makes up their own language?!

i watched a lot of the discovery channel and saw the very first episode of Miami Ink, a lot of myths busted, and how things are made. i also drank a lot of tea. sweet, sweet tea. i think that time should always be made for the preparation and enjoyment of good tea. and not the milky kenyan stuff.

my favourite hotel in the world is in a town called graskop. an establishment where contemporary artists design each room differently and there are pieces of art in the restaurant, the stairwell, the bar, the bathrooms, and the lobby is my kind of hotel. i also loved the bartender named rodger whom we named my wooden chicken after. (the carved chicken was a sign of love purchased from the side of the road and is probably not nearly as freaking hilarious to anyone else but me.)

i now own 2 pairs of converse. i can’t bring myself to throw out my old ones though, even with their holes. i am pretty much ok with that.

i love vacation.

le pays des milles collines

the country of a thousand hills is very hilly. and very green. and very friendly. and very orderly. and very different than nairobi.

i have been here only 3 days and have been enjoying what rwanda has to offer, which includes good cheese, good coffee, good museums, good hiking (gorillas!), and good roads.

at the moment, i am avoiding the monsoon outside as i wait for my bus to depart from ruhengeri back to kigali and dreaming of a bathtub full of hot water and a cup of tea after a very uphill hike to see some gorillas this morning. i am also at this moment wishing i spoke more french and wishing i was a millionaire and could just hire someone to drive me in a very comfy car back to the city and then spend the night in a swank hotel while i process and recuperate from the last few days.

pictures and more stories to follow...

life in the camps

(february 28, 2008)

i visited a number of idp sites today, i say sites because the idp camps in kenya are not as you would typically imagine. they are in police stations, churches, fields, showgrounds, and various other types of compounds. one of the best parts of the day was driving around the rural areas surrounding nairobi and watching african life go by. the woman carrying huge loads on their heads, the matatu repair shops, the markets, the dusty towns, the children in their school uniforms walking in lines along the road, the shops called People’s Choice Shop or Miracles General Store or Here It Is Pub, the countless roadside signs for churches and christian groups, the never-ending fields of tea (which is perhaps the most vibrant colour of green), the lorries trudging along (often chock full of people or agricultural products), the ever-present advertisements for milk or phone credit, the barclays atms at the most arbitrary locations, the villages with names like Banana Hill...

in the camps, the first thing that struck me was just the amount of people living in one area and how much they resembled recreational campsites. as usual, the kids stared at me until i waved and then they smiled and probably continued to wonder what the hell has been going on since early 2008. one of them told me (in swahili so i needed a translation from my colleague who was laughing while she explained) that i was the smallest white person they had ever seen. and somehow this gave them license to crawl all over me, twisting my arm behind my back, and covering me in the red dirt that they were covered in. once we established that i was not a toy, we all got along fine and wandered around the camp hand-in-hand. i often wonder if they just want to see if i feel the same way as they do because i remember thinking that same thought when i was young about black people.

of the places i visited today, i was impressed with the camp managers’ organisation, the considerations made for those considered most vulnerable (pregnant and lactating women, orphaned children, and HIV+ people who need to access clinics to receive their ARVs) and the ways in which the communities worked together to make the camps as liveable as possible.
it also made me smile to see that many of the idps were dressed in their best clothes. men walk around in suits and women wear heeled shoes, which is impressive to a heel-hater such as myself. it is admirable how life continues for the displaced people: women cook and wash, laundry hangs, children attend classes, parents discipline their kids, teenagers flirt, women sit around braiding each others’ hair, children play and tease each other, and men sit around and visit.

visiting the camps made the situation kenya is facing more real for me, as i can easily just live in my suburb and go to work and talk about the crisis and then come back home and have no worries about what i will eat, where i will sleep, how safe i am, or what my future holds. it was also nice to be warmly welcomed and to see people acting rather than listen to what needs to be done and where the gaps are, which happens in my days. granted, the locations i was at today are small and manageable and a distance from where the worst violence occurred. surprisingly, visiting the idp camps was an uplifting and motivating experience for me.

on days like this, i love my job and appreciate my life.

good no good

good – i wake up at 5:30am for my taxi to collect me at 6:30am to get to the airport by 7:30am for my flight to mombasa

no good – the coffee i make in my new maker is a touch on the strong side

good – i make it to the airport in only half an hour

no good – i find out my flight is delayed for 2 hours

good – i sit and have tea with my colleague and get to know her and kenya a little better

no good – the total disregard of the boarding rules and the mad rush to get seats

good – i chill out and read my BBC Focus on Africa magazine while i wait for the madness to cease

no good – someone has taken my seat once i finally get on to the plane

good – i finally get my seat sorted and get comfortable with no one beside me

no good – the pilot’s kamikaze flying techniques that made me afraid to go to the bathroom for fear that we might crash and i would be found in the loo

good – we arrive safely and get to our meeting

no good – it is hot and sweaty

good – there is a beautiful view from the government office of the indian ocean and the mombasa harbour

good – our meeting ends at 2:00pm and there is plenty of time for me to spend the afternoon laying by the rooftop pool and read my book (ok, this is really good!)

no good – gross crows that freak me out everytime they swoop down to get some crumbs from the nearby restaurant

good – back in my room watching tv that has more than 2 channels in kiswahili, a great novelty

no good – the oprah episode that is on is one with howie mandel and deal or no deal, a show i don’t even really understand

good – i am about to find myself some www then grab dinner at the rooftop restaurant at this hotel

really good – my job right now!

less well composed than i had planned

i was just in kisumu last week and i was preparing a post in my head that would include everything i wanted to say about the political rallies for the upcoming election, how the town was rather nice (sorry, city, they are quite proud of their city status) but lacked decent restaurants, and how i had some lovely meetings with the provincial governement guys which were pretty much circa 1954 and i swear that the old big african men who used to run the show sat on that very same fluffy velvet furniture and they were served the very same milky tea by the woman in the shift dress as i was. but i have yet to get around to it. partly because i spent the better part of yesterday (ok, the entire part of yesterday) recovering from a hangover from red wine. and everybody knows (especially glenda) how that feels. no good at all. so i read one and a half books. because even when i am hung over, i still do not have a tv and have to do something to amuse my sorry self. reading it was.

i finished Acts of Faith and i must now recommend this (you must be sick of my recommendations on books, but i really have read some good stuff recently). all about the whole aid thing in southern sudan during the war between the SPLA and khartoum government. tis long, but tis worth it.

i just realised, after catching up on inspired by dooce, that yesterday was remembrance day and i didn't even remember! that is bad. and like i said on her blog, it is especially bad considering the circumstances. yikes. i need a poppy.

now i am in nakuru and there is a lake, like kisumu, and there are jacarandas, like kisumu, there are meetings with goverment men on squishy orange and velvet couches, like in kisumu, and there is a hotel with questionable sheets, like kisumu. and this whole travelling for work thing is getting old already. oh but wait, on wednesday i go to mombasa and buying more kanga and hanging out by a pool in the tropical sun is not old. could perhaps never get old.

my travelling partner and colleague is convinced that i am anemic so i am off to find something with iron to eat. besides red meat and dark, leafy greens, i am drawing a blank as to what else i can eat. and rural(ish) kenya is really not the place to try and remedy my diet, but i will give it my best attempt. she suggested liver. ummmmm.... no.

oh, and i am going home in 30 days and i am so ridiculously excited for this trip.

confessions

(september 5, 2007)

• i have not been for a run since last thursday and am feeling rather guilty about it


• i had chocolate fudge cake for lunch twice last week


• i have made a rule that i cannot have chocolate fudge cake again until i have been for 3 runs


• i feel as though my life makes more sense when there are rules


• i did do pilates tonight and i really need to get a yoga mat because otherwise my flatmate is going to start wondering why his keeps disappearing and coming back smelling like my feet


• i am having lunch with a man i hope is in uniform tomorrow


• i am pretty sure that i am in over my head at work, but shhhhhhhhhhh..... don’t tell anyone


• i have also been given an opportunity to demonstrate that i can do it


• i am beginning to like the feeling of being protected and taken care of, it is an adjustment


• i made leek and potato soup last night, it was a bit too salty but won rave reviews


• i have been trouble getting up in the mornings lately so i have instituted a bedtime of 9:30pm but it is currently 10:15pm


• i took my newly named laptop (lucille, if you were wondering) for her first spin on kenyan wireless and i think she liked it


• even though i made a rule that i was not allowed to buy peanut butter (due to the unfortunate incident(s) of eating it right out of the jar with a spoon...), i bought a jar but it is just a little one and i have yet to use it for anything but spreading on toast


• i can’t get into The L Word but am really enjoying the first season of Six Feet Under – i am also really enjoying renting bootleg copies of tv shows for my evenings’ entertainment


• i watched Brokeback Mountain for the 4th or 5th time last night and it is still as heartbreaking as ever, i swear it is the music


• i spent last weekend napping, reading, drinking tea, running from monkeys, watching elephants and hippos sloosh around in swamps, trying to locate the top of kilimanjaro through the clouds, eating, and drinking wine and i am not sure why i am so lucky to be able to do that on a random september weekend

• i also spent some time last friday night on the side of a dirt road after dark with a flat tire about 20km outside of the park gates and with a jack that did not work – my job was to sit in the car and not be noticed and not protest about being told to sit in the car, i did pretty well at my job but it was damn scary and thanks only to a truck full of nice men in suits am i not trampled by an elephant, eaten by a tiger, the victim of armed robbery, or any number of other roadside calamities you hear about in this country


• i’d rather be at home today sitting at the kitchen table with a glass of wine with my mom than anywhere in the world – happy birthday momsy

can hi com

i went to a party at the canadian high commission yesterday and i can't tell you how exciting it was to see hockey sticks, a hockey jersey, and snowshoes on the wall! we are such geeks. but we throw a decent party.

the most memorable part of the evening was the bathroom. it was exactly like bathrooms are in canada! with metal stalls, soap in the dispenser, washing instructions in french and english, and paper towels. it was heavenly and germ-free.

i went to a child labour workshop this morning and there is some bad news about conditions on the tea plantations in kenya. i don't have any details (they have not yet been published) but it got me thinking that if a product is fair trade that doesn't necessarily mean that the workers are paid fairly and that children are not employed. it just means that the producer gets a fair share of the profit, if i am correct (and i am no trade expert, so perhaps i am wrong and correct me if i am way off) and not that the employees get a fair share of the profits. because how could anyone regulate that?

apparently there are some nasty multinational corporations in kenya that operate these tea fields, which makes more sense why they do not have tours of the tea plantations like my fam and i wanted to do while they were visiting.

if i wasn't feeling guilty enough for drinking coffee that exploits workers now i will feel sufficiently guilty for drinking tea that is picked by children. geez, i just can't win.

about those gorillas... i am still curious how much you would pay. leave anonymous comments if you like, but i am really interested to know what people think.

sometimes a girl needs tea

it is day 3 of lent and i do not miss chocolate too much. this could be the result of the dismal selection of chocolate in this country, the substandard quality of cadbury's, and the sheer lack of mini eggs. i am not going to lie, giving up something you rarely have is not too difficult. but i have only had 2 coffees this week, which is truly astounding considering the amount of coffee i have been consuming the past month. i have substituted my morning coffee with an evening tea, but it is earl grey and so delicious. and sometimes a girl just needs tea.

lately i have been in need of tea. i am in the middle of conducting some cleansing. no crazy diet or supplements just a cleanse of my life that includes refocusing and rejuvenating. and if that doesn't sound new age-y and flighty, i don't know what does. but i need it and i can credit 25 for teaching me to know myself better and before i left for zanzibar i could sense that i needed a life cleanse and since i have been back i have done well to stay off the booze, the caffeine, the chocolate, and spend time alone doing things that repair.

last night is a perfect example, i went for a run (yay for a whole hour of running), had cereal and taost for dinner, read one of my 3 books on the go by flashlight due to the absence of electricity, practiced my french (or more like stared at my cahier d'exercices blankly and then furled my brow for about a half hour before retiring), listened to ray lamontagne, and went to bed by 10:00pm.

which brings me to another thought i have been thinking lately. often people will say things to me like, 'what an adventure it is to live in africa' or 'what a great experience you are having' and i know what they mean and that their intentions are good, but the reality is that this is just my life and it just happens to be lived in kenya at the moment. i am grateful that i have been given this opportunity (thank you canadian international development agency) and that i have met people who have made it more fun along the way, but this whole 'experience' is my life. tonight i plan on going to french class, getting some groceries, and going to a movie and it doesn't get much more mundane than that.

butterflies

i am excited. i am heading to the airport tonight to catch my overnight flight to london and then to meet my parents at the airport tomorrow morning. i don't remember being this excited to travel in a long time, which is strange considering the places i have had the opportunity to visit recently.

it is strange, i also feel like i might miss something happening in nairobi in a week. i guess that is what you get for still being new in town. but i feel as though i will appreciate all that the english have to offer in my whirlwind trip of the country. and it will be so great to see my grad school friends from all over the world and to spend some family time since i will miss christmas in calgary this year.

and to drink yummy tea.

and to eat fish and chips and/or roast beast.

and to shop with my ma in london.

and to visit my bitty nana.

and to see the peak district again.

and to eat some greasy indian curries.

and to see kevin spacey on stage.

and to get a little christmas cheer.

and maybe, just maybe, to see tony blair and/or hugh grant at heathrow just like in love actually.

oh, and to graduate!

i need more shavasna

6 hours of sleep is not enough for me. but by the time i get home from work, get any errands done, make dinner, eat, and visit a little bit with my flatmates, it is midnight! i have wanted to be knitting, reading, writing, sudoku-ing with my evenings free of mindless television viewing.

last night i managed to get to a yoga class where the shoulder stands left me with a slightly bruised vertebrae. but there is something to be said for a yoga instructor who, in his indian accent, tells you to "inhale de-e-ply, exhale comple-e-tely."

part of the problem with being so tired is that i end up eating more in attempts to get energy and then avoid doing any exercise because i am overtired. i think this is called Sleep Deprivation and i am pretty sure i suffered from this condition throughout my academic career.

i went to a meeting in the nairobi suburb of Karen this morning (which is named after the danish women who wrote Out of Africa, a colonial errrr.... masterpiece?? or as i know it better: The Movie During Which I Fell Asleep And Woke Up A Few Times And DIDN'T MISS A THING) and during the meeting's necessary tea break, we went to the garden so people could drink their overly milky tea, eat mandazi (sort of like kenyan-style donoughts), and shoo the warthogs away. yes, there were warthogs at the meeting.

i love warthogs and i enjoyed having them at our meeting. just when you don't feel like you're in africa, you see a warthog at a government meeting.

and did you know that in kiswahili 'simba' means lion and 'rafiki' means friend? that brings my knowledge of the language to approximately 5 words. but i intend on taking classes soon, in fact, i just texted mary the swahili teacher now, asante sana.

lazy days of summer

i had a massage today and it ranks among the best massages i have ever had. but one problem - it made me so relaxed that i didn't feel like doing much the rest of they day. so i have read a few pages of an article and watched the england/sweden game of the world cup, picked my sister up from work, cut some beans for dinner, and made some tea. and that would really be the extent of my day, how sad.

a visit in numbers

4: pieces of checked baggage my parents brought with them
1: bags filled with stuff for me
1: family sized bag of mini eggs
1/4: amount of the bag i have already eaten
7:00pm: time they managed to stay awake until on their first night here
1: roundabouts driven around the wrong way
2 or 3: serious concerns about driving into the curb on the left hand side of the rental car
4: pairs of shoes purchased
275: stairs climbed up to top of york minster
1: afternoon tea at betty's teahouse
3: cups of the best earl grey tea i have ever had consumed at betty's
1: hours before i had to visit the ladies room after 3 cups of the best earl grey tea ever



















1000's: sheep seen from side of the road
about 10: black lambs
1: sunday pub lunches
3/3: days with rain since my mom and charlie arrived
1100AD: the age of the oldest thing charlie could find in york
4500: words left for me to write on my papers
3: times my mom has had chocolate cake since arriving
3: times i have had a bite
4: cities we've been to in 3 days
countless: times we've talked about the rest of our family at home

a proper waste of my time

Four jobs I have had.....
1. Cultural Activity Leader at Mount Royal College
2. Community Resource Worker at DDRC
3. Smiling Happy Employee at The Gap
4. small business owner/operator (sounds fancy when i write it like that)

Four movies I would watch over and over...
1. Love Actually
2. Brokeback Mountain
3. Heat
4. Napoleon Dynamite

Four places I have lived...
1. Mazatlan, Mexico
2. Lancaster, UK
3. Bredasdorp, South Africa
4. Lacombe, Alberta

Four TV shows I love to watch...
1. The National (online, as I am without a tv)
2. ER
3. old episodes of My So-Called Life and Dawson's Creek
4. Jeopardy! (seriously, i couldn't think of anything else because i don't watch tv, but i do like alec)

Four places I have been on vacation...
1. Havana, Cuba
2. Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras
3. Australia, New Zealand, Fiji
4. Italy

Four websites I visit daily...
1. BBC/CBC/Globe and Mail
2. all my email accounts
3. blogs, blogs, and more blogs
4. i check the exchange rate pretty much daily

Favourite foods...
1. sushi
2. vegetables (any kind apart from cooked peas, cream corn, or raw cauliflower and broccoli)
3. anything mexican in mexico
4. auntie joey's milk tart

Four places you would rather be right now...
1. running beside the fields of sheep
2. argentina or guatemala, since i have been researching them both recently
3. ottawa, because i actually love politics that much
4. sharing tea or wine with my ladies in a warm kitchen, there is actually no where else i would rather be than doing this

rolling, brewing, steeping, baking, cleaning, eating, typing.....oh and thinking

i finished one of my three papers today and it felt great! i also sent off another job application so i feel like i am rather on a roll. and i would like to take advantage of this situation of wanting to work and not procrastinate, but i think i am all tuckered out from the exertion of the first paper (ha! if you consider baking cookies, cleaning my bathroom, making and then consuming copious amounts of tea and coffee, eating loads of toast and cereal for snacks, talking on msn for hours, making iTunes playlists, and getting a pedicure hard work!) my eyes are slowly closing and it is only 1am, much earlier than my recent 4am bedtime.

but i am trying to work hard (well, apart from the time i waste doing god knows what in this tiny room) because my parents come for a visit in 3 days!

my hockey mom

i drank my first full pint of guinness last night and now i am hung over. i tried tea, a shower, water, and now i am on coffee and toast trying to alleviate the symptoms brought on either from the beer, the wine, the mad dancing, the piggy back competition (which thanks to all that piggy back practice i got on the streets of calgary during the playoff run, i clearly won), the late night chips and vinegar, the dirty kebab, the slice of pizza, or the 4am bed time.

when i retrieve my camera from a friend, i will post some pictures, i am sure there are some doozys of me on there in my finest irish form.

these pink sticks the nhl players are going to use is fantastic, i think that canada is held together by hockey moms. they keep t ho's in business (it's roll-up-the-rim-to-win season, isn't it?!) and they keep buying giant suvs to lug all that equipment around in, clearly stimulating the economy at every turn. but more importantly, they raise the future gretzkys and iginlas, phenonmenal players and people, and it is a damn hard job.

if my hockey mom were here, she's be saying 'mod-er-ation' over and over, but she might make me some soup too.