Amazing deals...

I love Groupon. It makes me buy things I didn't know I wanted or needed, simply because it's such a good deal.

http://www.groupon.com/

Check it out.....sign up and just wait for the deals to roll in!

"Loneliness does not come from being alone, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important."

~ Carl Jung

It All Happened So Fast...

It's my mother's birthday today.
She's 60 years young.
I am 30 years old.

I am the exact same age she was when I was born.Turning 30 didn't make me feel old. My mother turning 60 did. I guess 'old' isn't the right word. I think it made me feel like I fell off my life plan. Knowing where she was at this time in her life and comparing that to where I am, I feel a little bit behind. And by a little bit, I mean a lot. At 30 years old, my mother was married, had 2 children, owned a house, had a career, a dog and a cat. She was with the man of her dreams and now that I had come along, she also had the child of her dreams. =) From what I understand, she didn't have the dog of her dreams, but life ain't perfect.

Me: Not married (single, in fact), no kids, I don't own a house and I don't have a dog or cat. I live with a dog and a cat, but they aren't mine. I own a car, I have a career and that's about where the similarities end. So now you can see where I feel little bit behind. I wonder where all the time went and how long have I been aimless floating through time. I think everyone gets lost at some point, it just takes some of us a little longer to be found. I don't know if I am found yet, but this sudden realization is certainly encouragement to hurry up and get found. We'll see how that works out.

On a happier note, I was searching for a special 60th birthday gift and kept coming across really strange ones. People have weird ideas around the word "special".

Here are a few of my favourites:
First item was this lovely door ornament. You lay it across the bottom of the door to keep out draughts. I'm guessing this appeals to old people as they are always concerned about draughts. I also learned that "draught" is the proper spelling, not 'draft'. I mostly included this piece as one of my favourites because it was educational and weird.


Next was a set of "Wobbly Wine Glasses". Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't people generally steer clear of 'wobbly' stemware? I would think it would be one of the last things you would want to have off balance and full of red wine. I think these all failed quality control as normal wine glasses and now the company has found a way to market them as novelty stemware. I applaud their efforts.

Last, but not least....quite possibly the best gift on the website...The Singing Bird Clock. Mother, if you are reading this, you almost got this as your present. Just imagine it, a bird chirping, in your kitchen, every 15 minutes. I was curious about the choice of bird used....was it a chickadee? a finch? perhaps a crow? One could only be so lucky to receive such a wonderful gift...

Then I remembered that I already bought her a gift when I was in Hong Kong last.....maybe for Christmas, Mom...

~Bean

Breaking Into Summer and Vodka...

Even I will admit how late this post is. What can I say? I'm a busy person. Just ask all the people who try and make plans with me....it's next to impossible...

So I started the summer with a camping trip. For those of you who know me, camping has never been at the top of my list of fun things to do. In all honesty, it's never even made the list. Whenever I think of camping, I imagine how unpleasant it would be, no electricity, flushing toilets, comfy beds and the bugs. And then, of course, there's the Blair Witch. Nobody wants to run into that in the middle of the night.

I had been asked to join a friend and her family on their annual vacation to Ross Lake. After much debate, I decided to take the plunge and go. What's the worse that could happen? The lake runs across the BC/Washington border, somewhere around Hope. We were planning on fishing, so I had to buy two licenses, 1 for the US and 1 for Canada. While I may seem cheap in other aspects of life, I will always spend money on fishing licenses. =)

We drove up on a Wednesday night after work. I actually missed a hockey game, but I got over it. It took us about 3 hours to get there, the last part of the drive was along a gravel road. The more I hang out with Helen, the more interesting things I learn about her. At this time, I learned that she has almost no fear behind the wheel and thinks that 85km/hr on loose gravel is slow. Surprisingly, we made it there unscathed...

The first night was pretty mellow, dinner, drinks and campfires. Seeing as I was a bit apprehensive still about this whole camping thing, I decided to sleep in the car. At the very least that would protect me from bears and drunks. Almost froze to death in the middle of the night....I questioned whether it was summer at this point. I got up ridiculously early the next morning, it was probably around 5AM, but that was purely for survival. I had to get up and get a fire going in order to defrost. It was July 1st, first day of fishing on the lake. Eventually everyone else got up and so began the fishing competition. It wasn't really a competition, but if it was, I totally won. I caught 11 fish that day, only a few were keepers, but it's quantity, not quality, that matters in my books.

After I won the fishing derby , we hung around the campsite, mostly drinking. I vaguely remember specific details of the camping trip beyond this point. I do remember almost always having a drink in my hand. And yes, everyone else was drinking too. In fact, everyone else started at 7AM with booze in their coffee, where I didn't start until at least after lunch. At one point I remember whittling sticks with a ridiculously sharp knife, which just goes to show that drunk people, combined with other drunk people with knives, can be volatile combination. Hope was only an hour away...

On the Saturday, three of us decided to hike up to Hozomeen Lake, which sounded like a great idea when you look at pictures, see below:The trail is just under 7km each way. On the way up, it seemed like a pretty decent hike. Mild inclines, relatively clear trails. We got to the top feeling rather proud of ourselves. The way back down was a bit of a different story. The first bit seemed fine, I was even racing with the dog at certain parts, but after the 3rd KM, it was like the energy was sucked right out of my body. I always thought downhill was the easy part, apparently I was wrong. By the time we got back to the camp, my feet were killing me and I was exhausted. Actually, we were all exhausted. For some reason, we had forgotten that before the trail even starts, there's a 2km stretch along a gravel road. At the end of the day, we had hiked close to 17km. Not much else happened that day, some people went swimming. I was not part of that group. The temperature of the water was perfect, if you're a trout who enjoys glacier fed waters. I gave up my days of polar bear swimming many years ago and have no plans on revisiting.

After much more fishing and drinking, the camping trip was over and it was time to head back to the real world. I have discovered that I love camping, especially the fishing and will definitely be doing more of it.

Here's a list of things I've learned about camping:

1. There is no Blair Witch at Ross Lake
2. Some outhouses are not as horrible as you think
3. Corn Beef hash tastes better when cooked on a propane stove and served on a paper plate
4. It's never too early to wake up someone to go fishing
5. The water is always colder than it looks
   
6. Don't put chocolate bars in the cooler
7. You can live without your cellphone for up to 4 days
8. Don't walk by the fire when you have been drinking
9. It doesn't matter how old you are, catching frogs is always fun
10. And finally, Vodka tastes good in anything...

One day I may post pictures, but don't hold your breath....


~ Bean

Bean

June 6th, 2010

Ubud - Day 3

Today is my last full day in Ubud, and Bali for that matter. Girai picked me up at 9AM, as planned on her scooter. I was a little apprehensive at first about jumping on the back of the small bike, but figured what was the worst that could happen? We toured through the rice paddies for what seemed like hours. There was some amazing scenery. Sometimes it felt like the terraces went on forever. I took some cool shots of some pretty extensive ones, eventually I'll get around to posting them.

We also visited a place called the Elephant Cave, but I felt no need to go inside, as it looked small and cramped. Outside, the rock face was carved into some pretty cool designs. It was a pretty crowded area, so I didn't stick around long. I wandered into the nearby forest and found some Banyan Trees, which have the coolest root structure. I took a few artsy pictures and wandered along the path for a while, but didn't find anything too interesting.

After vacating the crowds, I headed to the Ubud Market, to more crowds. It was so busy, wall to wall stands and people. Lots of tourists, lots of souvenirs. It always seems like there are lots of souvenirs for women and not so many for men. I spent a few hours wandering the stalls and picking out Sarongs for people, but the heat was killing me. I took off with my goodies and headed for the pool.

Finally, I ventured into the Sacred Monkey Forest. It was the best part of my entire trip. That might be an exaggeration, but honestly, there were monkeys. Lots of them. How could anything compare? I was taking pictures on a young one and I felt a tug on my backpack. Next thing I saw was a little paw through the view finder of my camera. They seemed fascinated by the lens. They could see it moving as I was focusing and zooming in, which worked in my favour, because I got a lot of shots of them looking right at the camera. I probably spent 3 hours solid in the forest and it's really not that big. They have guides there that spread food in the main area to bring the monkeys out in hoards. They climbed all over anyone who brought food into the forest, which freaked out most people. I just thought it was funny. As I was leaving, one climbed up my shoulders, so I had to wait until he decided that I really didn't have any food.

Tonight I went to the Kecak dance. It's a dance, with songs sung by a choir of all men that sit in a circle around a large fire. It tells a story of the Hindu epic Ramayana. The story is a little hard to follow, but thankfully they handed out brochures that explained it all. The chanting was mesmerizing. The guy sitting beside me was entirely too into it. I kind of thought he was going to get up and join in. The Kecak was only about 90 minutes, so I walked back to the hotel. I grabbed a drink at the bar, enjoyed the company of a Swedish guy I met the day before at the pool and headed to bed. I leave for Hong Kong tomorrow, back to reality, back to the grind.

This trip has been amazing. I can't wait to come back, hopefully next year!