This post is a little viral in that I stole the idea from Jen, who stole the idea from pinsandthimbles . A writing exercise where you write 25 things you love in specific details. It reminds me of the opening moments of the film Amelie, where the narrator outlines what Amelie and her family "aime".

My list:

1. I love cuddling with Jaime.
2. I love listening to the sound of the wind blowing through the trees.
3. I love eating eggs benedict on a lazy Sunday morning.
4. I love listening to the sound of crisp, red leaves swishing around my feet on a cold, sunny autumn morning.
5. I love the smell of a fresh Christmas tree.
6. I love listening to crunch of snow beneath my feet in a world blanketed with snow.
7. I love sitting in a big comfy chair with a good book on a rainy day.
8. I love the infectious sound of Jaime giggling.
9. I love arriving off a flight to be met at the arrivals hall by the smiling faces of friends and family.
10. I love watching cats chase laser pointers.
11. I love the sound of rain landing on our tent when we're safe and warm inside.
12. I love pulling the caps off all the jars in our spice rack and smelling the rich spices.
13. I love sitting round a campfire chatting with good friends.
14. I love that in French my husband's name means "I Love".
15. I love walking on a white, powdery-sand beach in the sun.
16. I love the satisfying "click-thunk" noise SLR cameras make when you take a photo.
17. I love warm toast with butter and Vegemite.
18. I love my mum's roast chicken dinners.
19. I love floating on water.
20. I love the smell of bergamot in a really good cuppa earl grey tea.
21. I love watching the scenery go by when travelling by train.
22. I love when something makes me have a really good belly laugh.
23. I love the sound of a well-played cello echoing through my heart.
24. I love the costumed children, the smell of firecrackers, and the pure cold and dark of Halloween night.
25. I love being caught up in the moment.

I came across this artist's blog a few months ago. I love the simplicity of her pencil drawings. And the recurrent bee theme is awesome.


Link: Renee French

I'm testing out some polling applications. There is no write in vote, so if you choose "other", you can always vote in the comments.

Its been very hot lately. Today's high is supposed to be 34 degrees, which could set records for this area. All night I dreampt about Vegemite. For breakfast I had three pieces of toast with butter and vegemite and now my tummy is happy :)

Ok, I think now I have all the bugs sorted out of my new template. It should be working now, but if anyone finds any problems, please leave a comment about it. Cheers.


My new template is a tad problematic. Should have things sorted soon.

First off I'd like to go on record saying I don't agree with the modern Olympics. It seems like a tremendous waste of money that could go to helping a larger number of people. If the world still needs the Olympics, they should do it the old fashion way; men wrestling naked on the steps of the acropolis of Olympus.

But as is the way of my information addiction, I cannot help but absorb the news of the current Olympics. CGI fireworks, stand-in cuter-than-life singers and giant basketball players aside, one cannot miss the medal tally. Its nice to see smaller countries getting on the scoring board; Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and even Togo all have medals. Good for them. But know who's missing? Canada, that's who. Which wouldn't be quite so pathetic if it weren't for the fact that we will be hosting the Olympics in less than 18 months time.

Now I know what you're all saying, "that's the winter Olympics", which is true. Let's hope Canada can improve itself in that traditional forum. But considering 90% of the population of Canada lives within 200 km-wide strip in the SOUTH of the country, where everyone gets a pretty decent summer, and sports like soccer, swimming, and baseball are so popular, you would think we'd be able to pull in at least one medal.

If Canada doesn't pull it's socks up soon, it's going to look pretty lame.

I haven't really put much interest into paring down my inbox in my gmail account. The search function in good, and there is so much room it's not like I have to actively delete stuff. Still, last month Jaime managed to shame me into feeling that I shouldn't have 2800 emails sitting in my inbox. Though I have pretty good faith in the gmail search, I still don't like to just archive stuff without putting some label on it, so it took me a while, but I now have a paltry 27 emails in my inbox.

Last month I received my Climate Action Dividend from the British Columbia government. The idea is that the government slaps an extra tax on petrol and then pays everyone in the province a $100 bribe. Anyone with a vehicle then uses said cheque to pay for their more expensive petrol. But for those of us without cars, we can use it to make some kind of purchase that will benefit the environment.

So I decided to buy a bicycle. I can't really call it a benefit to the environment as I don't drive (dedicated victim of public transit) and will not be using this bike to commute. Not because UBC is a good 10km from my house, and it almost all up-hill, but rather because riding your bike in traffic is fucking dangerous! While I admire the hordes of folks who do it, I would never. While you might be in the right most of the time, car/truck is always going to win in head-to-head battle.

So my new noble stead is merely for getting some exercise. I have the benefit at the moment of living across the street from the beach. And the beginning of the seawall bicycle path. Which means almost ten kms of beach on one side and forest on the other. And while you have to watch for other cyclists, rollerbladers, skateboarders and pedestrians who don't understand the difference between walking path and cyclepath, there are no cars to deal with at all.

While my eco-bribe only covered 1/5th the cost of my bike, I am very happy to have a bike again. My old all-terrain mountain bike is moldering in my dad's garage in Canberra and according to him is not worth shipping over. My new one is super-comfy. Shocks on the front, shocks under the super-padded seat. My only regret is that I umm-and-awed too long and missed out on the 2008 model which was bright red. The 2009 was black and more expensive, but is comfortable to ride and that's the most important thing.