the stories that I'm telling.

Tag: love

  • #tbt – Friendship reunion in Cannes!

    #tbt – Friendship reunion in Cannes!

    In the time that I’ve been travelling, the glorious technology of iMessage & Group Chats has been a complete lifesaver, helping me keep in constant touch with some of my best friends in Canada. I have a group chat with 2 of my friends, Julie and Komal, that is essentially a haven of love, positivity, and support as we share each others fears and excitement while building our lives and careers from three different cities.

    Komal is currently producing a documentary about female CEOs and entrepreneurs called “Dream, Girl“, and thus was invited to speak on a panel at the Cannes Film Festival this year in Cannes, France. You know France… just around the corner from Portugal? In a series of events that still seems to good to have been true, we all decided to go to France together in support of Komal and in search of sunshine.

    The trip was four women in total: me, Julie, Komal, and Taylor (another very good friend of Komal’s and overall talented woman).

    Cannes was all booked up by the time we planned this trip, so we opted to stay in Nice, which is just a 30 minute train ride away from Cannes.

    Four women. Five days in France. Here are the numbers on what we got up to:

    • number of delayed flights: 0 (win!)
    • number of hours spent on the beach: at least 24 – we made a point of clocking hours in the sun
    • number of small children that we saw poop into a bag while on the beach: 1 (gross.)
    • number of parties that we snuck into: 1 (Komal said, “act like you belong”, and we went with it)
    • number of parties we tried and failed to sneak into: 1
    • number of creeps that we met: 2
    • number of wonderful people that we met: many, many, many
    • number of ways we tried to sneak in: 5
    • number of celebrities that we saw: at least 10
    • number of reunions with a friend from Cambodia: 1
    • number of friends that Julie and I made while dancing till 7am: more than I can remember, that’s for sure.
    • number of minutes that Julie and I were on the Cannes-to-Paris train instead of the Cannes-to-Nice train: 45
    • number of panelists on the “Cutting Edge Collaborators: Women Achieving in Film” panel discussion: 5
    • number of red carpet photos taken between the 4 of us: 20+
    • number of vlogs recorded: 10+
    • number of times we used the word “glam”: 50+
    • number of times we were glam: always
    • number of times we felt immense gratitude for this trip with these people: constant. Still feeling grateful as I relive the memories now
    • number of photos we took: surprisingly few, and all the best are below.

    Leaving Kevin to go to France just a week after his implants surgery (and on an expired travel visa!) was actually pretty scary. But it was worth every second of it to enjoy the unique experience of travelling to be a cheerleader for Komal. Also pretty cool because it means that Julie and I had 2 European-adventures together in 2015! It was a rough year, but the bright spots were very, very bright.

    Airport reunion!!
    On the beach in Nice, where we logged our tanning hours
    The view from the window in our Nice Air BnB
    All glammed up and ready for Cannes!
    Couldn’t break into the party we wanted into 😦
    That’s Haim the Band sitting behind us…
    … but I’m excited because we’re drinking Ruinart Blanc de Blancs
    strutting on the “red carpet”
    Grabbing drinks with my friend from Cambodia, Alice (not pictured)
    The day after mine and Julie’s night time adventure
    Also the day of Komal’s panel discussion & red carpet event
    Komal on the red carpet!
  • Roadtrip Day 1: A Moorish Castle and Palace of Pena

    Roadtrip Day 1: A Moorish Castle and Palace of Pena

    We typically take our sweet, sweet time when doing anything, but because we were on a road trip, we had certain goals for where to be and when to be there by. We were also exploring unfamiliar territory, and perhaps underestimated how much time we’d want to spend in certain places.

    That said, everything that we saw on the first day of our Road trip was within the magical area known as Sintra, where castles and natural beauty abound. There are tons and tons of incredible sites to see in Sintra, but we oriented our trip to the advice of our friend Soledad, and selected those she described as ‘must-see’ items.

    We visited 2 different castles on that day, and they couldn’t have been more different: The Moorish Castle, and Palace of Pena.

    Let’s start with the Moorish Castle.

    The Moorish Castle was the decidedly more ruin-y of the two. It is a military fort built around the 10th century by the Muslim populations that occupied the Iberian peninsula. It acted as a control tower for the Atlantic coast and land to the north, serving as an outpost for the city of Lisbon.

    For a building that’s more than 1000 years old, it was in pretty decent shape. All of the exterior castle walls remain, and we were able to walk up, down, all around, and catch amazing views throughout. From the top of the castle walls, you can see all that’s built up in the Park in the centuries since: a town, castles, mansions, etc. And yet, you can imagine how it felt 1000 years ago to look out and see no evidence of other people. Placed atop a large hill, this place is definitely an impressive and well planned military location.

    And not *just* military either. After the large castle walls had been built, people began to settle just outside of them. A “second circle of walls” was later built to protect these settlements.

    If you’re interested in the nitty gritty history timeline for the Castle of the Moors, check out Wikipedia.

    After the Castle of the Moors, we headed to the Palace of Pena.

    While it was cool, the Palace of Pena (Palacio da Pena) is one road trip stop we could’ve done without. We crammed a lot of sites into this road trip. That’s not usually our style, but we went a bit overboard with expectations for what we wanted to see. In its defense, it’s part of a large garden complex, but we only saw the castle itself, because it was raining and we were rushing to see another place afterwards (more on that later this week!). By rushing to see the Palacio, we cost ourself some appreciation of its history. The routinely under-informational museum pamphlet also didn’t give us the full story of site.

    Here’s what Wikipedia has to say:

    The palace’s history started in the Middle Ages when a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Pena was built on the top of the hill above Sintra. According to tradition, construction occurred after an apparition of the Virgin Mary.

    In 1493, King John II, accompanied by his wife Queen Leonor, made a pilgrimage to the site to fulfill a vow. His successor, King Manuel I, was also very fond of this sanctuary, and ordered the construction of a monastery on this site which was donated to the Order of Saint Jerome. For centuries Pena was a small, quiet place for meditation, housing a maximum of eighteen monks.

    In the 18th century the monastery was severely damaged by lightning. However, it was the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755, occurring shortly afterwards, that took the heaviest toll on the monastery, reducing it to ruins. Nonetheless, the chapel escaped without significant damage.

    For many decades the ruins remained untouched, but they still astonished young prince Ferdinand. In 1838, as King consort Ferdinand II, he decided to acquire the old monastery, all of the surrounding lands, the nearby Castle of the Moors and a few other estates in the area. King Ferdinand then set out to transform the remains of the monastery into a palace that would serve as a summer residence for the Portuguese royal family. The commission for the Romantic style rebuilding was given to Lieutenant-General and mining engineer Baron Wilhelm Ludwig von Eschwege. Eschwege, a German amateur architect, was much traveled and likely had knowledge of several castles along the Rhine river. The construction took place between 1842–1854, although it was almost completed in 1847: King Ferdinand and Queen Maria II intervened decisively on matters of decoration and symbolism. Among others, the King suggested vaul tarches, Medieval and Islamic elements be included, and he also designed an ornate window for the main façade (inspired by the chapter house window of the Convent of the Order of Christ in Tomar).

    Having done my Wikipedia research, it’s clear that this place’s history actually fits well with many of the other sites that we saw in Sintra and in Tomar. That information was definitely not in the pamphlet we received upon entering, but either way we had a fun time. It’s by far the most colourful castle I’ve ever seen, which gives it an almost-comical appearance.

    All this site-seeing constituted just part of our day. Enjoy the photos below, there’s more to come from our final (and favourite!) stop coming soon.

     

    The Moorish Castle is super old and sits atop a hill
    As you can see, the view is amazing.
    So is the wind!
    The stairs are also quite something!
    we found a cat, of course.
    view of Sintra from the Moorish Castle!
    From the Moorish Castle, we could see Palacio da Pena
    Then we drove there, and Kevin sniped this wicked parking spot directly in front of the entrance
    not a bad welcoming start, right?
    you can’t tell from the photos, but this place was pretty packed with tourists. We complained about them constantly because we’re a bunch of spoiled snobs who don’t like others getting in the way of our jokes at historical sites.
    oh hey there!
    checking out the view!
    and here’s that view I was checking out!
    now I’m the one getting checked out!
    the great thing about travelling with Kevin is that he always takes your photo, and they’re never blurry.
    the tiling in the room was pretty next level
    and just look at that plant holder! everything in this place was intensely detailed!
    great view, right?
    some type of old-school phone
    art!
    more art! #selfiegamestrong
    couldn’t resist a photo of these hip cats!
    who doesn’t want a violin + matching vase. Tons of these on kijiji for sure!
    I made Tyler take a photo of this because I really want this wall paper in my house one day. Obviously it’s perfect.
    the detail of the design here is pretty bonkers – this is just a simple handrail on a staircase!
    I thought it was cool that they had a proper running water situation happening up here. If memory serves, it was one of the first of its kind.
    inside the castle there’s a museum-type route that takes you through various rooms
    a lovely chair that somehow warranted a photo
    birds in house!!!
    siblings in the house!!!
    moose in the house!!!
  • Life with a garden in Alte

    Life with a garden in Alte

    The garden at Avo Olimpia’s house in Alte is not just for lemon trees and orange trees. It’s also a place for herbs and flowers.

    Many, many flowers. In particular, roses.

    When I was growing up, my grandparents had a truly incredible rose garden. I frequently remember walking through the garden with my grandparents, examining the roses, learning their names, and choosing favourites. I’d never expected to experience rose-induced nostalgia, but as winter ended and the roses began blooming in Alte, it hit me. And it kind of freaked me out, too. Kevin and I would walk through the garden, he’d pose question about a flower, and I’d know the answer. For a small amount of time, I felt the like the Jason Bourne of gardening. Totally weird, but also nice to be reminded that there is lasting evidence from that time in my life, beyond simple memories.

    Beyond roses, the gardens in Alte are filled with the types of flowers you typically only see in bouquets in Canada. The weather here is far more forgiving, which means that plants which die during the winter at home actually survive here. Not only do I get to see unique flowers, I also get to see flowers that are larger than I’ve ever seen before.

    Take a look below to see some shots Kevin has captured in the garden over the past couple of months. Beautiful colours, beautiful flowers, beautiful memories.

     

    All the fixings for homemade hot sauce.
    Kevin’s attempt at homemade hot sauce.
    me with a Pomegranate tree at Kevin’s Avo Maria’s house
  • Back to the beginning: a few days in Lisbon

    Back to the beginning: a few days in Lisbon

    Back in December, when Kevin and I were in Canada for Christmas, we planned out a trip that would involve a couple of weeks in Lisbon followed by travels through Spain, all the way to Paris, where we’d then fly back to Cambodia.

    We booked plane tickets to Lisbon, Portugal for January 4th.

    Back in November, I’d been planning a January trip to Vietnam with two of my lady friends, Julie & Komal. Due to the complications of life and travel visas, that hadn’t worked out. However, Julie planned to be in Lisbon for 2 days along with Kevin and I.

    When Kevin was hit in the mouth with a hockey stick on January 2nd, I was admittedly freaking out. Not only had we booked tickets to Lisbon, but my friend had booked a trip to meet us there. Needless to say, we didn’t miss our flight. I hopped Kevin up on pain killers and got him on the plane to Lisbon. His godfather met us there, and showed us to an incredibly wonderful few days in one of my favourite cities that I’ve been to yet.

    Many photos are attached, because we were able to cram lots of fun into a few short days. One of the most important things to note is how much we were able to do while also being completed relaxed. Julie was coming off a serious bout of food poisoning, and Kevin was obviously also in quite a bit of pain. However, Lisbon is such a welcoming and easy-to-access, non-touristy, relaxed place that were able to really make the most of our time there.

    Rather than crash at a hotel, we rented an AirBnB through a group called Travel & Tales. The fine gentlemen who run Travel & Tales, Pedro & Duarte, rent out a series of apartments in the chic Lisbon neighbourhood of Principe Real.

    One of the most bizarre things about Lisbon is how similar (also better than) it is to San Francisco. Hills are one such similarity, and when Kevin’s godfather drove us up into Principe Real, and then parked on one of the steepest hills imaginable, I knew we were in for an authentically Lisbon experience. Pedro helped us check in and hooked us up with some free SIM cards for our phones, and we were off on an adventure. Oh, and the apartment we were renting? Absolutely beautiful. Historical. Interesting. Clean. Well-located. I cannot say enough good things. It really represented the best of what Lisbon has to offer.

    Relative to other European capital cities, Lisbon is geographically small and rather inexpensive. And yet, as the capital city of the once-massive Portuguese empire, it’s jam-packed with history, old-world beauty, and remnants of the colonial wealth that created it.

    The city has many interesting neighbourhoods, and an hour or two of walking can really take you through a great cross-section of the best of Lisbon. We walked everywhere and saw a lot. It also helps that the hills of Lisbon mean you’re never far from an incredible, heightened view of the city. From old plazas with fountains and monuments galore, to the city’s oceanfront, where colonial ships once presented their wealth to kingdom, to ruins, and one of the first elevators in Europe, we walked and saw it all.

    Kevin took a couple of much-needed naps, as well as an afternoon trip to a private hospital to see if his lip was actually recovering, so Julie and I also had a couple of long exploratory jaunts. On one occasion we hopped in a cab to the Belem neighbourhood. There, we sat by waterfront along the Tagus river and enjoyed some lovely January sunshine. We also saw the Jeronimos Monastery, and the “Monument to the Discoveries”. We also caught a glimpse of the Ponte de 25 April (April 25th Bridge), which is essentially Lisbon’s version of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. It’s 27th largest suspension bridge in the world. I highly suggest you click on all those links and read what Wikipedia has to say about all these sights. So many interesting things to learn! On another jaunt, we decided to start walking and just see where we ended up. Turns out that we ended up at a lookout point behind a neighbourhood that had enticed us with a long yet lovely staircase. It was the perfect spot to watch the sunset, though regrettably I didn’t have my camera. That type of magical experience is exactly what makes Lisbon so enchanting.

    With all that walking, we obviously needed to eat, and Lisbon had us covered there as well. Because Lisbon is so old, almost every building is special in some way, which makes dining that much more interesting. We opted for a couple of low-key local places for lunch, and tried some fancier dining at night. Portuguese food is simple yet delicious, and I think that would describe our Lisbon culinary experience as well.

    If you can’t already tell, I’m a big fan of Lisbon. More than that, I’m a big fan of spending time with the people who I care about. I’ll let you see more of what we did by perusing the photos below. What really made this trip special was getting to explore a beautiful city with Kevin and my dear friend Julie. If you’ve never considered visiting Lisbon, I suggest that you add it to your to-do list, but more than that, I hope that you make the time to have interesting experiences with the people who you love.

    streetcar sighting!
    Ponte 25 de Abril
    enjoying a traditional Portuguese lunch!
    and later, having an espresso with a freshly made pastel de nata!
    walking the streets of Lisbon
    one of the many beautiful pracas (squares/plazas) that we explored.
    we were lucky to be there in time to enjoy all the Christmas decorations
    and fountains, of course
    from the pathway to the first elevator in Europe, you can see Carmo Convent, which was destroyed in the Great Lisbon earthquake in 1755.
    to our left, the entrance to the elevator. Behind us, stairs to the top of the elevator.
    the view from the top
    outside our ‘apartment’.
    walking to the bars in the Chiado neighbourhood we came upon a Heather-sized door!
    some traditional Portuguese decor in our temporary Lisbon home
    enjoying dinner in Faz Gosto, which is located in part of a former convent
    Poor Kevin, eating clam soup with straw 😦
    the decor in Pensao Amour, our bar of choice.
    early morning at a market in Lisbon

     

  • Final thoughts and photos from my lovely trip to Canterbury

    Final thoughts and photos from my lovely trip to Canterbury

    My week in Canterbury was one of the most unique and special trips I’ve ever been on. I don’t think that I’d spent so much uninterrupted ‘grandparent time’ since I was a kid, and as a kid I rarely saw the adults being anything other than a caretaker/entertainer for me.Having this one-on-one time was really the best, because we were able to explore Canterbury through each other’s eyes, and there’s no more enjoyable way to connect with someone than by exploring a shared interest. My Nana Ev has now taken 3 winterly sojourns to this beautiful town, in a beautiful apartment. It goes without saying, this place and this experience are meaningful for her, and I can certainly see why. The youthfulness of the energy in Canterbury, combined with the freedom of living in a truly walkable city is a perfect reflection of the life she lives. For those of you who don’t know my Nana Ev, she is truly on fire with regards to living life. She’s one of the busiest, strongest, and most independent women that I’ve ever known. Visiting her in this special place, taking the time to connect about our family and our lives, taught me so much about much grandmother and my grandfather and who they are as people. It was a really special glimpse into who I might become one day, and I’m so grateful that I had the opportunity to make this trip.

    Our time in Portugal has given Kevin a similar opportunity to reconnect with his grandmothers, both of whom retired to the Algarve after years of working in Toronto. Similar to me, Kevin spent a lot of time with his grandparents growing up, but as he went away to school, began his career, etc, those opportunities for grandparent-ly connections became less and less frequent. Now, we live with one of his grandmothers and regularly visit the other. While the suffering of Kevin’s dental injury is very real, he recognizes and appreciates this unique trip and the time he’s been able to spend with his grandmothers, exploring his family history and his own connection to the Algarve.

    He’ll be on here once in a while with his own posts about our experiences here in the Algarve, but it’s safe to say that we’re both feeling incredibly lucky to spend so much long, uninterrupted time with the people that we love. If you take anything away from this blog post, it’s that time with family is important. Life can be crazy busy, but I promise you that it’s worth it to take the time to connect with your grandparents. I know that I’m already looking very forward to the next time I can get back to Canada and see mine!

    phone booth #selfie (our selfie game is getting good, non?)
    Dover Castle #Selfie
    Nana said we were related to this guy, so we took a #familyselfie
    family #selfie
  • We went home for Christmas!

    We went home for Christmas!

    Despite the fact that I’d been planning to go home for Christmas for months, my actual journey to Canada was fairly last minute. When I finally made a plan, I’d decided to spend the first week of December alone in Phnom Penh while Kevin went to Dubai for work. The night before he left for Dubai, we decided it was probably not smart for me to spend all that time there alone, so I booked a one-way ticket to Canada for the next night.

    And there it was. Instead of doing my Christmas shopping in Phnom Penh, I hopped on a flight and went to Canada. When I arrived at the airport, I had to call around to find Tyler to come pick me up (turns out I’d given him the wrong arrival time). When I called my mom and said “I’m at the airport in Toronto”, her exact (happy/surprised) reaction was “Are you fucking kidding me?!”.

    She hadn’t expected me home for another week.

    So, there I was, staying in Grimsby. I wasn’t sure when I was leaving, but I’d resolved to enjoy my time with my family without rushing around too much. I’d get up early, go to yoga, Christmas shop with my mom, etc. Then in the afternoons and evenings I worked. Since I work Australian hours, that was the arrangement that worked best. Sometimes I also went to Toronto to see my former colleagues at Influitive, and used their increasingly beautiful office space to get some work done.

    Other benefits of being in Canada? I got to decorate for Christmas, I got to play with our beautiful (spoiled) cat Jean Luc Picard. I got to see friends and family (though certainly not as many people as I wanted to see).

    Kevin came back to Canada almost two weeks later, just in time to engage in some Christmas party hopping in Toronto.

    Christmas party season rolled right into actual Christmas, which rolled into my parents’ friends Doug & Kathy visiting, which rolled into New Years. Somewhere in the middle of all that, we also found time for a super wild night out at the Grimsby Legion!

    Around that time we started thinking about where we were going next. Wanting to visit Kevin’s grandmothers, we booked one-way tickets to Portugal.

    So, that’s where we are now, reflecting on the places we’ve been, and where we think it makes sense to be.

    Being home in Canada felt great. It was comfortable and comforting and exciting all at the same time. The weather leaves a bit to be desired, but I was so happy to be there.

    Here’s quick run-down of the highlights from our trip back to Canada (photos below document some but not all of this nonsense):

    • Decorating Christmas trees – probably my favourite holiday activity
    • Started a new family tradition (hopefully): Post-breakfast nature walk on Christmas Day
    • Went to back to back parties in Toronto, driving in from and back home to Grimsby both nights, in a ridiculous caravan containing me, Kevin, my brothers, and (for one night) my friend Kirsten
    • Watching Mitch carry Kevin several blocks on our way home from the bar one night
    • Making an elaborate birthday brunch for my Mom
    • Many, many visits from friends who were generous enough to come to Grimsby to see me and Kevin. Seriously. Our friends are the best.
    • Decorating some truly absurd gingerbread cookies with my friends Graeme and Eric who stopped by for a whirlwind of a visit.
    • Eating delicious homemade fish tacos while visiting friends in North York
    • Doing most of my Christmas shopping in downtown Grimsby
    • Tearing up the dance floor at the Grimsby Legion with friends (some of whom I hadn’t seen in ages) – the bartender said we were the most lively people they’d ever seen there
    • Tweeting for 1 week from the People of Canada Twitter account (more on this later)
    • Kevin flipping out when he got a used Eibach spring from a Williams Martini Formula 1 Car. This was a really big deal, pulled off thanks to my awesome dad
    • Spending lots and lots of time with my entire family – laughing, talking, loving.

    Overall, it was a great trip home, and I’m hoping that we can get back to see everyone again next year (or perhaps even sooner). I have lots of thoughts on how I feel about living in Asia vs Canada vs somewhere else, and what that experience has been like for me. I’m saving those up to share them later. For now, enjoy a variety of photos from our trip home!

    PS: huge love and apologies go out to all of the people we didn’t see or didn’t see enough. 4 weeks seemed like a lot of time, until it was over.

    PPS: much thanks to my incredible mother, who emailed me all of these photos today (and who let me use her phone for most of my trip home to document all of our antics)

    Mitch carried Kevin for at least 15 minutes…
    Elevator #selfie!
    Mitch piggy backing Vicky, piggy backing me
    reunited!
    Luc eating his Christmas present – cat grass!
    Luc in his new Star Trek Captain Chair
    Christmas Day breakfast with the family
    Kevin and I on our Christmas Day nature walk with the family
    Family photo along the escarpment
    Jenga with friends & family
    Tyler trying to tame Jean Luc
    Hijinks while I’m napping
    Post Spa-Day pedicure
    A real-life used Eibach spring from a Williams Martini Formula 1 Car. Kevin’s favourite Christmas gift by far.
    Kevin friend fish for the whole family for Christmas Eve dinner
    Drinking champagne from the championship trophy for the Nascar Canada season Championship
    Deer in the backyard!
    The boys getting back into Grimsby
    Grimsby #Selfie
    Dressed up and ready to go to the Legion!!!
    We put up a bird feeder!
    Post-Christmas Day Dinner swimming in my Aunt & Uncle’s new pool!
    napping over the holidays makes you a target…
    Jean Luc under the tree
    My favourite of our 2 Christmas trees
    Christmas tree #2!
    Baking cookies!
    Family stockings…
    Our note to Santa on Christmas Eve
    Christmas Eve with the family
    Did all my Christmas shopping in downtown Grimsby (and on Amazon, obviously)
    I saw Santa driving a car!!!!
    The result of Eric and Graeme helping me to decorate our gingerbread cookies
    My friend Eric helping to decorate
    Erica and Kevin rocking out at the Grimsby Legion!