going to the experts

i can't decide if the best part about Maid Days is the folded triangles on my toilet paper rolls or that all my crap is neatly piled, but i love it.  and especially on a day like today where i woke up looking forward to crawling back into my bed in the evening.

and i would be there now if the fire alarm wasn't screaming (and it screams something fierce and likely unsafe for human ears).  instead, i have opened a bottle of velvet fog and am waiting it out.  shame it is getting darker earlier now or i could enjoy my beer on my balcony and admire the uniformed firemen that come when this happens once each month.

but instead, i am watching the television show that my mom has me hooked on, come dine with me, a channel 4 programme from the uk that is kitschy, hilarious, and real.  which is much more than i can say for american reality tv shows and reminds me of life in england when i had dinner parties for my international friends and had to balance halal, vegetarian, south african meat eaters, and 5 flatmates in a shared kitchen.

and on the topic of food, i made my very own meatballs last night!  all by myself!  for the first time!  and they are delicious.

icy cold on a hot summer's eve

here i am again, sunday evening.  home alone.  and thrilled.  honestly.

one of my recent issues that has contributed to the wobbly moment has been the pressure i have felt to make the most of the summer months in calgary.  to take advantage of every opportunity to get outside and socialise.

and like last weekend, i feel as though i have managed quite fine.  a solid run followed by beers on the patio of one of the city's best pubs with far too many laughs between friends, a luxurious morning sitting on my own patio with coffee and a smoothie while reading my book, a saturday afternoon at the calgary folk fest listening to adorable boys play their guitars from the big rock beer gardens, and a sunday of huevos rancheros at my local breakfast spot with some mountain equipment co-op shopping in preparation for the juan de fuca trail next week and a walk in my community with an iced coffee.

but (and this is a rather large but that could alter the course of my next few weeks), i am currently sitting on my couch watching pvr'ed tv and am not cleaning my house or going for a run because i am icing my foot and ankle.  i have no idea what i have specifically done to it, but i know that it is a recurring injury that i normally keep in check with good running shoes, but wearing cowboy boots last weekend seems to have exacerbated the situation.  and standing in rubber flip flops yesterday was exceptionally painful and i am my worries continue to grow that this will not be cleared up by this friday, which is when i fly out to vancouver island.  eek.

it started with a seed

over 4 years ago (and i remember this because it was just before the last world cup), i went to london with my bf at the time and my parents, who were visiting from canada.  we rented a sedan, took ourselves for a holiday of live theatre and sightseeing, and visited portobello market.  and in that lovely market, we bought some seedy bread.  and one of those seeds got stuck between my teeth.

like, really stuck.  stuck so badly that for a few days i had a constant dull ache on that side of my mouth.

eventually, with my mad skills in the flossing department, i got that seed out and there would always be a larger space between those two teeth than any of my others.

i adapted to this by carrying around my favourite kind of floss to make sure i thoroughly floss after eating anything that had a tendency to get stuck in there.  apples, beef, anything stringy.  gross, but i never got the 'floss more' lecture from the dentist because i became mildly obsessed.

and when my sis and bro-in-law and i were sitting down to a cold beer and a bite to eat in victoria last weekend before boarding our plane back to calgary, i noticed that i had a hole in my tooth.  a hole in my tooth!  i had my sister investigate it (yes, in the restaurant) and we agreed that it was most likely a cavity, which seemed inevitable.  i made sure to get in to the dentist the very next day and when they told me that my tooth was actually broken and that they suggested repairing it with a crown, i braced myself for the freezing, the drills, and the awfulness of the dentist in general and went for it.

but being frozen that evening really threw me for a loop and put me in a bit of a funk that lasted through the week.  the miserable weather and confusing text message dating certainly didn't help, but the invasion of having someone's hands in my mouth and not being able to feel half of my face for a number hours seems to have had quite a psychological impact.  and it wasn't nice.

i dug myself out of the funk that week and had a lovely weekend full of beers on patios, hikes in kananaskis, and a patio-hopping fundraising event full of food, wine, and good friends.

but that was not what was on my mind later in the evening after i was at the dentist, as i was on the phone with a call centre in india, half my face frozen, having an ugly cry because i didn't know the difference between a modem and a router.  but the nice, young fellow on the phone wasn't bothered and sorted my internets while i felt sorry for myself.  but i bet that if he were located in canada, working at midnight, and having to put up with a whiney mess like me, he would not have been nearly as patient!

cruise halong

things i did in halong bay

• ate squid, shrimp, crab, scallops, and fish caught fresh fromt he waters on which i sailed.  it doesn't get any tastier than that.
• on the topic of food, i ate all my meals with a chinese family who were wonderfully pleasant.  my western manners had to take a back seat amongst all the slurping, chewing, and burping though.
• more with the food (it really was very memorable!), our chef created table decorations out of food each night that we were encouraged to take photos of.
• i sipped countless iced coffees and halida and tiger beers on the top deck of our boat, the lagoon explorer.
• visited a photogenic fishing village of 40 families and 150 people who live, work, go to school, and play on the water.
• when i asked why there were so many dogs in the floating village and if they were for protection, the guide told me that they were pets and 'sometimes for eating.'  well, of course, thinks the silly white girl.
• had a great guide (clad in his Ramani shirt) who wasn't pushy, wasn't trying to be my friend, and who studied tourism at the uni in hanoi.  very professional.
• kayaked amongst the karsts and had a few thoughts of being all absolutely alone in the bay and how rare you get to have that experience.  i wasn't panicked or worried, just calm.
• took a tonne of photos.  even took my camera off the green idiot box setting and played around with what i learned in my photography course.
• thought and thought and thought and managed to set some goals for my future.  i've already set some pretty concrete goals for my 29th year, but i really didn't know where i wanted to be in the future.  i am still not 100% sure, but i have a better idea.
• got a titch of a sunburn on my shoulders and legs.  i broke the cardinal skin care rule - put sunscreen on even if it is overcast!
• slept soundly for 2 nights in my cabin as the gentle rocking kept me asleep and i woke up to the birdsong outside my open cabin window.
• i learned and observed how squid are caught and touched them when they were still alive to watch them release their ink.
• did i mention the food?!  my favs were the shrimp, tomato, and mushroom soup, the egg fried rice, the fish, the BBQed shrimp, and the pumpkin soup.  oh, and the crab, which the waitor needed to help me with as he expertly ripped the shell off it in one fluid motion.  i'm not sure if this is typical vietnamese cuisin, but my suspicion is that it is luxury vietnamese food because i can't imagine anyone eating that amount of protein unless you've signed up to the atkins philosophy of weight loss (and heart disease).
• collected fabulous shells, much larger than i've seen elsewhere.  i rinsed them in my bathroom sink to make sure i'm not bringing any critters back with me.
• crawled around a cave where 'foreigners' had broken off stalagtites (or mites?) to make into decorations to sell before the area was declared a UNESCO world heritage site, but the cave was still pretty neat and outside there were wild orchids growing and friendly dogs that i couldn't imagine eating!

ironing + beer - ruffles = contentment

i just spent the last few hours ironing whilst enjoying a cold beer.  there were more than a few times i thought, 'why do i insist on buying so many shirts with ruffles?' and 'i used to pay people to do this for me!' and 'why didn't my mom ever grab a beer when she was doing this?'

now admittedly, i like ironing more than the average person, but i have a word of advice for the intertubes here.  when you feel as though life is overwhelming you, do your ironing.  it is amazing how much better you can feel if you just tackle the pile of wrinkled fabrics.  the rest will follow.

the emerald isle

oh ireland.  how i loved ireland. 

i loved irish boys, irish beer, irish radio, irish scenery, irish hospitality, irish restaurants.  i didn't love irish weather though.

cold, cold, cold.  that was all i felt for two full weeks although it only ever got to -3.  but it didn't take away from venturing to the following places:

• dublin - staying in a fancy hotel, wandering the streets on christmas day, introduction to irish pubs, invitations from strangers, window shopping at clarks, guinness!
• kilkenny - a lovely castle, a really large bar that would have been fantastic had there been more than one bathroom in the entire place, a hotel room above a pub, my first true irish breakfast (sans black and white puddings), graveyards, long walks, fish and chips, smithwick's ale, learning that it is pronounced 'smithicks'
• cobh - staying with a 'new' friend, sharing bottles of wine until the wee hours, talking and talking and talking, fresh fish, mulled wine, sharing ideas about development, careers, and relationships, rock of cashel, murphy's stout, boot shopping
• kilarney - green rolling hills, gorgeous national park, fantastic clam chowder, a lovely little b & b, friendly people
• cliffs of moher - stressful driving at dusk, gorgeous coastal towns
• galway - happy new year!, charming company, oak bars, fresh oysters, more guinness, more boot shopping, extra long walks along the sea, warm cups of tea, my favourite irish city, italian boots
• derry - no-fun protestant north, fascinating history, fresh ira grafitti, city walls, best b & b hosts ever, more irish breakfasts, funny accents
• giant's causeway - photo shoots on the rocks, best weather of the entire trip, the ocean, beaches, surf shops, views of scotland
• belfast - terrifying history, stunning queen's university campus, even more phenomenal meals, black cab tour of the protestant and catholic areas that suffered most during the troubles, scouring marks & spencer shelves.

driving on the left was far easier than i thought it would be and we couldn't help but laugh as everytime we listened to the radio (constant lady gaga, take that, and jason derulo...) or watched tv all they could talk about were the 'trecherous conditions' and really, they weren't that bad at all.  the roads were relatively clear as it was christmas holidays and only crazies like us decided to tour around ireland in the dead of winter.

i wish i could give a further breakdown of my trip, but i am sort of sick of recapping it for anyone and everyone that asks.  but i will soon be uploading my photos to facebook so keep a look out for them there.

would i go back?  yes.  would i go again in winter?  no, but only because i would love to see many of the places in the summer not because going in the winter was a bad idea.  would i like to spend more time in fewer places?  yes.  would i like to get to connemara next time round?  yes.

my bags are packed...

well, not quite.  and i am afraid of the packing challenge that lies ahead of me.  one of my flights has a weight restriction of 15kg for checked baggage and i am not quite sure how i am going to manage this one.  i am not one who is known for their ability to pack lightly, no matter how i try.  but i am going to do my best to be economical with my space and weight and not overpack.  the key is going to be neutrals, laundry, and key pieces of clothing rather than 'options.'

almost all of our accommodations have been booked in ireland so far and i am really very much looking forward to spending christmas at the fitzwilliam hotel in dublin.  our other hotels/bed and breakfasts include:

• skeffington arms hotel
• the rafter dempsey's
• redwood country house

it seems that as the irish are serious about eating breakfast, that will be the most important meal of the day and if we play our cards right, we won't need to eat again until dinner!  i am sure that pints of guinness will keep us full too!  at least once we park our little rented mobile at each location and head out to the pubs to enjoy the local flavour of each place.

my concern is that we will be driving A LOT and not have the chance to spend as much time in each place as we would like.  but this is typically me and i am not terribly surprised at the way i have planned it.  but i will take as many photos as is possible so i can remember my favourite spots in case i ever want to return.

i am sad to be leaving my fam for the holidays, but i am very lucky to have a dear friend awaiting me at the airport in manchester.  we have years to catch up on as well as a wedding to attend!

about time for a goal check in

1 - get enough sleep.  well, i have had some lie ins in my new nest and have loved every minute of them.  not sure that i have figured this out because i tend to get a lot of sleep on the weekends and not enough during the week, but at least i have come to understand the value of a good night's rest and what happens to me if i don't get this regularly.

2 - buy a home.  i love it.  love, love, love it.  my nest is so nesty.  and mine.  and sometimes dirty.  and sometimes spotless.  and often times the location of entertaining my friends (although i need to invite my fam over more often in the future, but that would entail securing a few more chairs!).  check!

3 - reduce my level of anxiety.  i still have bad days, but most of my days are good days and i can identify the anxiety before it hits me over the head and am slowly improving in my capacity to deal with it.  i have reduced my daily medication levels by one step and am just going to hang out here for awhile before making the next step.  but things in the anxiety department are good and i think i am getting better at acknowleding my anxiety, my triggers, and what to do to prevent it from blowing up.

4 - take better photos.  photography is technical stuff!  but i am nearly through the introductory course in photography at mount royal college (sorry, university).  i like it, i need more practice, but i think i am starting to understand equivalent exposures, f stops, and the diamond of taking good photos.  green idiot box, no more!

5 - become financially confident.  i wouldn't exactly say that i am confident, but i am doing ok.  with the current upheaval in my work and the recent home purchase, i am a little nervous, but confident that it will be ok.  i have yet to deal with my gst for the past year and am not great at keeping my books for my accountant, but we can file that under 29, can't we?

6 - be happy where i am.  this continues to go really, really well.  i never thought i woud be so content in calgary, but i am.  and am in no hurry to change that.  i did have a titch of concern that i was not utilising the summer months to their full capacity, but there were a number of other factors at work there and i will work on that one (see goal #8).

7 - visit friends who live in other places.  i have failed pretty miserably at this goal (and with only 2.5 months left of 28, there is little chance that things will turn around), but i am going to england in december for a very dear friend's wedding and am then carrying on to ireland where i will meet up with a friend from home to go on a great irish roadtrip, yippee!  beer, irishmen, and the isle of green, what more could a canadian girl ask for?!

8 - make the best dating decisions for me (the goal formally known as sort out my relationship).  i'm still dating.  blah.  i have had a great time, but i am getting a little exasperated with the whole process and after a few hopeful episodes, i am still as single as ever.  i suppose as the goal is to make good decisions, i have done that.  but in doing that, the results have not exactly borne the fruits that i had hoped they would by now.  another blah.  but i will just keep soldiering on (but with fewer soldiers and more civilians).

all i can muster - another dang list

oh, what a day. it is nearly 1am and i am just finally unwinding. it would not be a bad idea for me to schedule in unwinding time regularly...

but hot damn, am i thrilled with the current weather in calgary! i am not typically one to talk a lot about the weather, but +30 degree forecasts for september 23rd? yes, please!

i feel like i have so much to say and i am doing all that i can to start typing a list of (somewhat) interesting points, because it just seems to be happening rather often around this here blog. but in the interest of me getting up and making it to work by at least 10 tomorrow morning, i present you with... a list.

• i was interviewed today by a local television network. and they are going to translate it into mandarin, which is sort of neat.
• i am going to be taking a 2 day course on social impact assessments courtesy of my job, which is fantastic and i am really looking forward to it as it is something that i feel will be most beneficial if i ever decide to return to the world of non-profits or international development
• my nest is getting nestier by the day. and thanks to my step-dad and brother, all my furniture has been brought up the stairs and into my space without any issues. i am also having 2 more pieces of furniture delivered tomorrow (which is my lucky lady deal of free delivery) and then the painting decisions will begin
• still no run in's with my next door neighbour so no opportunity to drop something to see if he picks it up (as i am sure you were all eagerly awaiting that update)
• grey's anatomy starts this week and although this isn't exactly my own update, you will soon stop having to read my musings on whether or not george dies (i am sure he dies) and whether or not izzy is going to live (she will, but her condition and quality of life will be questionable)
• i made my first 2 purchases from etsy.com the other day and am eagerly awaiting their arrival in the mail. i have found some pretty adorable stuff and some pretty awesome blogs from my time spent perusing etsy's delights and will be sharing them shortly
• i found out that stephen lewis is going to be the keynote speaker at an event here in november and i will do anything that i can to get myself in there, even if it means volunteering as the bathroom attendant. and to boot, jian ghomeshi will be the master of cermonies and i am pretty sure he would love me if he met me.
• i just realised that it is only tuesday (and not wednesday like i thought for most of today), which is great because i was really beginning to feel behind on the week there for awhile

and now that i have finished my well-deserved beer this evening, i am going to head to bed. and hopefully not dream about all that has to be done this week (repaint the exterior of a 3 story building, coordinate 80 volunteers, write and distribute meeting notes, kick someone out of a committee that is technically open to anyone, watch grey's anatomy, buy an extension cord so my tv can be plugged in to watch grey's anatomy, put together 2 more chairs, clean and iron and fold and sweep and dust and tidy and organise, etc - or as they say in kenya, ee tee cee, ee tee cee)

madly, deeply in love

i have fallen madly and deeply in love with my new nest. you might think that this is an impossibility (to be so in love with an inanimate object), but you would be wrong and here are the reasons why:

• i have a dishwasher! this probably does not come as a surprise to anyone in north america, but in any of the places i have ever lived on my own i have never had a dishwasher. and that is a lot of dishes to do by hand. here, i get excited when i have used up enough dishes to necessitate a wash (and it doesn't happen with only little ol me here)
• living by myself is amazing and i had forgotten how wonderful it really is. i can sleep with my door wide open, wander around in the nude looking for my dental floss, listen to music or talk on the phone as loudly as i like, and when i want it, the silence is just grand.
• i can see a grocery store, a liquor store, and 2 starbucks from my front door. really.
• although incredibly expensive, buying furniture for my nest is fun.
• having people over for meals is one of my favourite things. especially when they cook everything, bring it all over, defrost crave cupcakes for the occassion, drag along picnic blankets to sit on, and give me housewarming gifts that have my name written all over them. my friends are great.
• my fam helped me move my stuff in, wash all my new dishes, and christen my home by cheers-ing with ice-cold beer. my family is awesome.
• my to do list has grow exponentially. i love lists. and i love checking things off to do lists.
• baths on sunday mornings because you don't have a shower curtain yet are fine, just fine.
• i now live 5km away from my office. and my own home office is pretty swell too.
• spending a whack load of money on fine, german flatware is sort of like a big 'eat this!' to the universe. i love a substantial spoon. and i love that i can afford to buy own.

food links if you find yourself in san francisco

i finally got myself up and running yesterday and battled the hangover with a mixture of starbucks coffee (where is a t ho's when you need it?), a panna cotta from miette (it was divine and they gave me a dollar bill back when i returned the jar, which made me smile), two mahi mahi fish tacos from taylor's automatic refresher (oh, i forgot how good real mexican food really is), 3 organic heirloom tomatoes purchased from the farmer's market, and a drip coffee from the bluebottle coffee co.

all of these delights (sans starbies) were found in the ferry building and if you are going to come to san francisco, i must insist that you get yourself to this place to eat your way through it. even if you do not have a hangover. there is a man who sells nothing but mushrooms! and a real cheese shop! and produce that made my insides warm! i do love a market.

continuing on with my theme of food, i went out for passable indian food last night and then to an indy club called popscene to see a band called music for animals. it was good. the beer continued to disappoint, but the company was fun and meeting the band afterwards made me feel sort of like a rock star. or more like a groupie.

and then this morning (hangover free, yippee!), i tried to get to mama's for their famous brunch, but was scared away by the length of the queue and happened upon a gem of an italian cafe called cafe divino that serve some of the best eggs benedict i've had along with an excellent cup of coffee.

and i still have one more evening, an entire day, and another morning to finish eating my way through san francisco!

first day in the bay city

i love this place! and to save time writing and instead do important things like sleep so that i am rested up for another busy day tomorrow, here you have a bulleted list:

• i've only walked through one cloud of marijuana smoke since arriving
• the BART transit system is rather easy to navigate and the trip from the airport to my hotel was effortless, which is always a relief (but who puts carpet in public transit?!)
• there are a lot of good looking dudes in san fran and most times, i have no idea whose team they play on
• i had a delectable cupcake from kara's cupcakes in ghiradelli square, where i also got to sample some of the famous ghiradelli chocolate
• dinner was lovely (wild salmon, asparagus, mushroom, tomato, and artichoke heart pasta) and gave me another dairy stomach ache (this dairy thing is really getting out of hand)
• there are A LOT of hills in this city
• the twirly whirly road is really cool
• when i needed a caffeine injection to get me up and down those hills, i stopped at boulange de polk for a chocolate croissant and a cappuccino, it was magnificent
• there are some really cute little boutiques in the russian hill/nob hill area of the city and i know i would be a frequent visitor if i lived here
• because the flight this morning was westjet's inaugural flight to sfo, i got a lot of free stuff. who knew that westjet has their own lip chap?
• i forgot that american beer sort of tastes like water until i ordered a pint. i could probably drink 10 of those to match my 5 at home!
• my bird's nest of hair compared to many of the people on the streets of san francisco
• there is an anthropologie within 3 minutes walking distance from my hotel (which is also great!), which could be potentially dangerous

yay for:

• having a McNally's with mr McNally himself (ok, so i had a grasshopper and he had a McNally's) when i met the founders of the Big Rock Brewery at a function they hosted
• the exchange rate of canadian to american dollars being nearly .90 in preparation for my upcoming trip to san francisco
• the sun has decided to grace us with its presence three days in a row
• a reunion of old friends that i had been actively avoiding since returning to my hometown that ended up being a blast and perhaps the beginning of a friendship regeneration (just in time for the friend edit!)
• more nest shopping (but i had to forego camping to fit more nests in, sadly)
• a new hair cut and colour that make me look sort of like meg ryan (but not really, just the hair bit). now i just need to learn how to do it so it doesn't look like a rat's nest or at least like a tamed rat's nest
• dinner tonight at Farm, a restaurant i have been dying to try

preoccupied with sickness

i should be writing about how AMAZING my sister's wedding was, how she looked like a princess in her dress, how much fun we had throughout the whole day, and how happy i am that everything worked out perfectly to result in the best wedding ever.

or i could be writing about how excited i am to be going to the caribbean tomorrow to lay on a beach, drink cold beer, and read books all day.

but instead, i am on day three of a sickness that is taking over my life at the moment. fever, congestion, shivers, clammy, achey, coughs, and general ickiness. blah.

highlights of the eastern european adventure (part i)

i am back at my nest and wow, was that a jam-packed, intense, fantastic, amazing, and exhausting trip! i seem to forget that i have trouble sitting still when in new places and even when we decided to have 'quiet' days, it was nearly impossible for us to just sit back, relax, and watch the world go by. no, there was too much to see, too much to do, and in some cases, too much to eat and drink. my legs are exhausted, my calves are more toned than ever, my lower back aches from the many mattresses, my cholesterol levels are probably skyrocketing, and my liver probably needs its own vacation, but man alive, was that all worth it.

highlights include (and i hope to be able to collate these into some not-so-steady streams of consciousness in the near future, but i seem to suck at writing about things in the past):

berlin
- the marathon walking tour with terry brewer that ended 12 hours after it started when we bid adieu to our favourite tour guide at an east berlin pub where the beer doesn't get any cheaper, the decor hasn't changed since communism was all the rage, and the sausages are served with toasted white bread and pickles
- the german history museum. i now understand a hell of a lot more about the reformation and how that carved out our modern world. seeing the documents that led to the greatest chasm in the christian religion was pretty damn cool.
- a new pair of birkenstocks
- the best chocolate shop with the cutest little chocolate hearts, thank you soldier
- seeing history that i actually lived through (even if i was 7)
- staying at a hotel with the best buffet breakfast ever (caprese salad at 8am is always welcome)
- walking, a lot of walking. like more than a lot.
- more pretzels. pretzels are great.

czech republic
- tourists, lots of tourists. mostly those who just stepped off their ryanair flight from northern england and sport their bikini tops in the centre of prague...
- the views of the castle (which were probably better than the actual castle, including the entry fee)
- the fancy blue outfits at the changing of the guard at the prague castle (even if the soldier was totally unimpressed with the wrinkled uniforms, the lack of unison, and the non chalant attitude of some of the czech soldiers - geez, critical)
- ice cream for dinner
- beer, delicious, delicious beer
- garlic soup that makes you breath garlic fire for 12 hours afterwards. delicious!
- reminding the soldier that there is no 'oslovakia' on the end of czech anymore
- pilgrimages to plzen and ceske budejovice to visit the homes of pilsen and budvar (pilsen being the home of pilsener beer and budvar being the original budweiser that can no longer call itself budweiser thanks to american anhauser busch...)
- you heard it here first, budvar is the best beer in the world. hands down.
- watching the opening ceremonies and turning to the soldier and saying, 'holy shiza'
- meeting the ever-friendly canadians decked out in roots gear at an irish pub to collectively cheer for the canadian, kenyan, british, and south african olympic teams coming into the olympic stadium
- street meat
- a little underground pub devoted to the rolling stones and too much beer (which led to nasty hangovers and day-long train journeys whilst hung over, blech)
- the museum of communism and its groovy t shirts. they really have a fantastic graphic designer who has done their posters and paraphernelia. which is the epitome of irony, really. clever and ironic.
- experiencing post-soviet influenced communist rule for the fist time. fascinating. absolutely fascinating. i must learn more about what it was like.
- a language where every language seems to end in -ska or -ky
- another country that loves hockey as much as canada. eh!?

ok that is all i can muster in one post, stay tuned for more highlights.

living in sin

is tough, tougher than i thought.

i don't tend to do things half-way and this was no different. i gave up my job, gave up my lovely little nest in nairobi, and moved to a country i had never been, where i did not speak the language, to be with someone i had not lived in the same country with since november 2007.

sounds a bit romatic when i say it like that.

the whole cross continental move was made tougher by the fact that when arrived our flat was not ready (or the outgoing tenant's new flat was not ready so somehow that meant we had to stay at a hotel and wait an extra 5 days and pay for a hotel in EUROPE for 5 nights, grrr....) and then once we moved into our new (love) nest, the soldier left for 11 days to play bang, bang, you're dead somewhere in a field in germany. to practice for a war that he will not fight in because he has already given the queen the finger-under-chin-flick and left the army (and for which i am eternally grateful).

so i wandered around the streets, price compared, purchased the necessities for a 3 month stint, read a lot of books, listened to a lot of music, saved birds, and wondered if this was perhaps the worst decision i had ever made.

then he got home, was filthy, showered, and the fighting, arguing, and bickering began. it sucked. who cooks (me), who cleans (me), who makes coffee better (me), who makes the bed (neither of us), who picks up their clothes (pfft, where would they go, back in the suitcases/boxes?), and who works (him) and is generally exhausted monday - friday (him).

but i think the worst of the adjustment is over. it ended when we decided to sit outside in the 36 degree heat on saturday afternoon and have a beer and a bite to eat. those beers are just so delicious on such a hot day that we had 3. did i also mention they are big?

the shops here close on sundays and as i had neglected my housegirlfriend tasks late last week, we were thin on the ground in the food department - we had to go for a shop.

and there is nothing like healing a relationship like going grocery shopping together. drunk. if we were not living in germany, i would have been mortified by my breath reeking of beer instead of just mildly uncomfortable as it were.

now i feel things are on the mend. due, in large part, to having the www at home (also my job and more tear enducing as the rest once german call centres were factored in). and this monday morning i was up at 6:30am seeing the soldier off to work (paintballing is considered work, thank you british tax payers) and feel pretty good about the future.

i am melting again and feel that perhaps a very large, very cold german beer is in order. it's sort of become a hobby.

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.

my warmest regards

(july 1, 2008)

happy birthday canada! you don’t look a day over 125.

yes, i am still alive and haven’t been eaten by the germans.

it has been a whirlwind week where we unexpectedly had to stay in a hotel, got into our flat late, and punched each other in the wiener about a hundred times. that is why i affectionately refer to the Love Nest as the Wiener Punching Nest, but i am sure that will change soon. or whenever we get the internet working in our flat, whichever happens last.

here are my first observations of the little german town that i now call home:

the buildings are very pretty and very old. and are just like a fairy tale. according to my reading on the subject, this makes perfect sense as the brothers grimm were german and gathered up all the folk stories and combined them into what we now know as fairy tales. hameln, is the home of the pied piper, the creepy story of the man who drove all the rats out of the town then used his little creepy pipe to entice the children to chase him out of the town as well. pervert.

i love my new nest. love it. want to import the whole of it to canada in september (which is where i intend to live at the end of this little european adventure, if i have not mentioned it before). our third floor flat has got to have the squeakiest floor i have ever laid foot on and a little breakfast nook that i like to call Heaven (ok, no i don’t because that would be as creepy as the piper himself) – it is where i intend on eating lots of healthy breakfasts (once we find a table and chairs) of produce bought from the bitsy streetside markets. our bathroom is adorable (apart from the gross german style toilet) and i love the windows in european houses. who needs a screen?! just open the whole thing up and let the fresh air in.

there are some rather dark complexioned germans. i suppose that anyone who had been here would know that, but i was surprised. i still wished i looked less european in this setting, however, because then i could be forgiven for NOT HAVING A CLUE what anyone ever says to me. apart from giving directions to the german man in overalls (it begs to be mentioned) to the potato house restaurant when he asked me on the street.

boyfriends in camouflage uniforms are delightful, even if they live in gross and stinky army blocks with other gross and stinky soldiers. but that should all change once he is delicately plucked from the grips of that damned army. just need to get over this dumb army exercise that he is on for the next 9 days, playing soldiers.

beer is sort of like a food group of its own and it is also what i live to call Heaven. it is so delicious and all the kinds are so equally delicious that you just order a beer and it is always delicious. please remember the poor (german? greek?) server who spilled an entire delicious beer all over me in your prayers. the poor dear felt so bad, he brought us shots of ouzo then more beer and didn’t charge us for any of it. little did he know that i was just so happy to live in my new nest that day, you could have spilled the entire bottle of ouzo on me and i wouldn’t have minded.

although our little town is little, i love that there is a bakery around the corner, two pubs within spitting distance, and you can walk to get groceries (walking back is the tricky part, so i do things in shifts – i got nothing but time). i am not so in love with the church choir that is singing on a tuesday evening, but i am drowning them out with my new itunes playlist summering in europe tunes. rumour has it that there is an ikea down the road that has my name written all over (rumour about my name, not the existence of the ikea), so that should make my afternoons of housegirlfriend-dom a titch more exciting.

there are about a million and two other things that i could report, but i will leave you here and get back to entertaining myself sans soldier in these most delicious late sun evenings of summer that i have been missing in my former equatorial home.

i am ready for this

(may 4, 2008)

wow, that was perhaps one of the best holidays i have ever had. it was as much about being in south africa as being with a certain someone who managed to organise the best trip that included just enough road tripping, sightseeing, relaxing, eating, and visiting. amazingly, we never felt too tired (except for those times that we had had a few too many glasses of south african wine or namibian beer and had to eat steak or éclairs in the morning to remedy the problem) and paced all of our mini adventures so we kept busy and time managed to slow... right... down, which pleased us just fine.

i got back in the early hours this morning and found my kitchen infested with bugs, including ants making a new hill in my sugar bowl (you give your housekeeper a week off in the rainy season and the bugs just take over) and you know what? i don’t really care.

i don’t care because i have approximately 4 weeks left in kenya and am ecstatic not about my departure (although a change is definitely in order) but about my arrival. if my plan stands, i will be making a brief stop in the hometown for wedding dress shopping (not mine, before you get your panties in a knot), hanging out with the fam, and general june enjoyment then heading to europe where i will be summering in germany.

i intend on finding some new hobbies, reading a lot of books, and getting used to living with a soldier who has to wear the scary uniform to work every day. somehow, i think it will be doable.

a recipe for A Perfect Weekend

• a nice and long saturday morning walk full of sun and flowering jacarandas
• brunch of huevos rancheros with bacon (for him) and toasted bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon (for her) at a newly discovered restaurant with a lovely garden, impeccable service, and strongly brewed coffee
• replacement of a newly purchased cheapo brand of fridge that was delivered without freon with a brand spanking new shiny white LG at no additional charge
• grocery shopping to fill a new fridge with vegetables and cheese
• a visit to a photography exhibit of one of the refugee camps in kenya
• cold beers on the patio of the Stanley hotel on a hot afternoon with great convo and lots of laughs
• dinner at a friend's house with homemade bruschetta, jokes about kenyan idiosyncracies, and chats about terrorism, immigration, and elections over good red wine
• a sunday morning run to maintain the fitness, harvest the freckles, and try out the routes around the new homestead
• collaborative kitchen efforts to make delicious omelettes and hashbrowns for a leisurely breakfast in the peace of the patio with oj and coffee refills
• pedicures with two lovely ladies while sipping a capuccino that resulted in the reddest toes ever
• sunday evening at the bowling alley with a canadian, a brit, a south african, a kiwi, and an american sipping tuskers while sporting the sexiest velcro shoes and marvelling at the canadian prowess on the lanes
• gooey roast beef and tuna melts in the crisp evening air to round out the best nairobi weekend in a long time