We were at Trafalgar Square in London last week and it looked like Canadian environmental politics had followed us there. There were plenty of demonstrations in conjuction with the Copenhagen Climate Conference. One has to admire the dedication of the activists; it's been absolutely freezing and definitely not the weather for camping. Brrr.

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Day 3 started with breakfast at the hotel again. This time, Andy had a candied salmon frittata with ricotta and cress salad. Note the small yellow courgette flower in the salad and flower petals sprinkled on the frittata. Pretty.

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We decided to be indulgent and had breakfast on both days at the hotel itself. Expensive, but deliciously so with fresh local ingredients, beautiful presentation and warm service.

Andy had the Canadian Breakfast: hash, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages and (not shown) multigrain toast.

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Andy and I left for Victoria on Saturday morning. The initial plan was to get there ourselves via buses and ferries but I was getting too stressed out about getting the right bus times and coordinating transfers so we decided to go there by coach (and ferry) and then come back on our own. The coach journey was easy and comfortable. It was about an ( Read more... )

I am home. The flight was long, long, long. Nothing much else to say about that. I watched "Forever Enthralled (Mei Lanfang)", Monsters vs Aliens, an episode of CSI: NY, some parts of Ice Age 2, and a few short lifestyle programmes. I had my eyes shut for about an hour (note that I didn't say I slept). That means I have now been awake for almost 24 ( Read more... )

On Saturday, Andy and I went to the summer night market in Richmond. We missed it last summer, being busy with household matters after moving and by the time we thought about it the market had finished for the summer. The market has been in the news recently regarding the sale of counterfeit items such as 'branded' wallets, handbags, sunglasses, ( Read more... )

I bought some postcards to send to family in the UK and the next thing I was looking for was of course stamps for postage. I was inside New York New York Hotel at that point. After asking around the shops, I was directed to a stamps vending machine in a corner ( Read more... )

I came across this very thoughtful installation when I was at Tokyo Narita airport. It was a bit of a trial having to go to the toilet sometimes when one is at the airport, particularly if the toilet cubicles are not large enough to accommodate a trolley. I often have to just carry my bags into the cubicle one by one, and hope that the toilet ( Read more... )

We have now been in Vancouver for about 50 hours (just over 2 days), and in our new home for this month. The flight here was a bit of an event. It was delayed by 3 hours due to some mechanical problem and another plane was brought in to carry the passengers to Vancouver, but it was just about the oldest plane that I've ever seen, not the cleanest ( Read more... )

Andy and I went to the Canada Expo in Leeds today. It was a little disappointing actually. Much smaller than I thought (didn't really justify the £12 ticket price for that scale of event IMO...) and the jobs sections were not particularly useful for Andy. They were mostly for people still staying in the UK and looking into going to Canada, finding ( Read more... )