My Birthday last month

Last month I celebrated my 30th birthday... fun times. It was on a Sunday, so when Andrew woke me up I had some relaxing time to peruse the treats he had put on the table for me... flowers, a card, some chocolate, and a couple magazines I like. The card had a "coupon" in it for a kiteboarding lesson, which I'm so excited to use, but it hasn't been windy enough since my birthday to give it a try. It might take a couple more months for the wind to pick up, but I'll def be out there asap!

After reading my cards and opening presents, Andrew took me out for brunch at Ridges, the resort we used to go swimming at a lot. It also happened to be Mother's Day that day, so the whole place was full of moms and very loud kids, but that's okay. We all got a welcome drink (champagne) at the door, so that was nice. Any place that puts a drink directly in my hand upon entry is good! Nice and relaxing after a bit of a drive to get there.

Here's the view from our table... pretty nice!

And we were seated right next to the live entertainment... this guy was really good and I loved listening to him while we ate.

After brunch we took a stroll around the grounds of the resort and had little game of tetherball... with racquets. Not quite sure what it's called, but you can imagine how it works.

The next day at work I was called to the office to pick up a "package." Thinking it was the book I had ordered on Amazon for Andrew's masters, I wasn't too excited, but when I got to the office it was actually this amazing flower arrangement from our friends Dave and Nikki in Brisbane. It was SO nice of them to remember my birthday and think of me!

As more cards came in the mail that week, the table was getting pretty crowded with birthday stuff. If you sent a card, see if you can spot it above!

At the end of the day on my birthday, Andrew and I played on the worship team at our church (as we do every 2-4 weeks). Andrew usually plays bass, electric, or acoustic guitar, and I always play keys.


Overall it was a good birthday... probably a bit more low-key than if I'd turned 30 in Vancouver, but that's okay. Thank you so much to everyone who made the day special by calling and sending cards... very kind of you!

Getting Crafty

For the past couple years I've been coveting these Havianas flip flops with a Swarovski crystal on them. I always promised myself that the day my old Roxy flip flops bit the dust, I'd go out and buy these.

The day finally came a few weeks ago where my Roxy ones broke, so I happily went off to the store to claim my new flip flops. But as I stood there in the store trying them on, I wondered if the $39 price tag was really worth it.

I tried to justify it by telling myself that I don't buy shoes that often, these ones were really cool, etc etc, but I just couldn't justify spending that much on two little pieces of rubber. So I decided to leave them there and think it over while I went grocery shopping.

At the grocery store, I happened to pass by a bin full of no-name flip flops for $1.99. Problem: no crystals! But I tried a pair on anyways, and they fit and were comfortable, so I bought them. On the way home, I stopped by the craft store and bought:

A pad of sticky crystals (not Swarovski, but whatever), and a bottle of crazy glue. When I got home, I did a quick glue job, resulting in:


Even better flip flops than the Havianas... I got TWO crystals on each foot... guess I one-upped them!

The Rocky Zoo

Here I sit at 2:20am, unable to sleep after a busy day, so I shell tell you about our visit to the Rocky Zoo last weekend. It was our 2nd time going to this free zoo, and it's always a good time, especially the chimps, Cassius and Octavius ("Cassy" and "Ocky"), who are both around 40 years old.



At first Cassy was way up high in his cage... but this loud Philippino lady convinced him to come down to the observation window and give her some kisses thru the window (see first pic). I tried to copy her, but Cassy was not too keen on kissing me (see second pic)... but at least I got my pic taken with him.

The Rocky Zoo is a free zoo, and is linked with the Botanical Gardens beside it. Discovering this little gem in the midst of Rocky has made living here all the nicer. It's full of lush tropical trees and vines... a really nice place to go walk around and relax and see some interesting Australian animals. There's also a nice path along the river that's good for running on.


Here is one of the dingos... playing dead I guess.


Here is a freshwater crocodile... you can tell them apart from saltwater crocs b/c of their long, pointy snout. They usually don't feed on humans, but last time we were here this guy took a snap at a kid who stuck his fingers thru the fence (marked, "do not feed your fingers to the croc")... the kid pulled away just in time though! This pic is not too great b/c you couldn't really take a good pic thru the fence... Andrew was trying to hold the camera above the fence, without seeing the viewfinder.


Leaving the zoo... here is Andrew driving our little car (we call it the "Blue-Bottle")


Here I am trying to operate the canon-launcher. It was made in Germany, and used to fight in WWI in Turkey (Galipoli), where it was seized by the Aussies and brought back to Oz. Now it sits in the Botanical Gardens in Rocky (they traded it with Sydney for a big gun), next to the giant war memorial in the gardens. It blew my mind how such a heavy piece of equipment has traveled so far around the world. (By the way, this thing shot 15cm canons up to 8km!!)


This is an emu. It was making these strange noises... like a grunting pig. We seriously thought the zoo had wild pigs when we heard this noise from a distance... but when we got closer we noticed the noise was coming from an emu! This one was about as tall as me. An interesting thing about emus is that the male bird sits on the eggs, and then raises the young for the first couple years, not the mom.

More Vancouver Pics

Here are a few more pictures of my recent trip to Vancouver for Em's wedding. The first one is of my friend Cathy, who is having her first baby in a couple months. It's funny b/c when I saw her at Christmas she was all excited about being pregnant, but you couldn't even tell she was pregnant at all, even when she pushed her belly out after eating a big lunch! A few months later, you can totally tell she's really pregnant! :)


I also got to hang out with my good friend, Alysa. Alysa and I have been great friends since doing our BEd together at UBC 6 years ago, and she's one of the funnest people I know. In April she and I went to her friend's Passover celebration meal, which was really interesting. At the front door there was this Jewish flamingo, complete with the Jewish hat and 2 curly locks... we nabbed him for a picture.

Part of the meal involved re-enacting the Israelites' escape from Egypt. We were all given roles to play, and Alysa was the Pharaoh (see above). We went thru all the plagues, including the plague of boils... the host put these little yellow circle-stickers all over us (boils), which you can (kind of) see in the picture.

One of the most creative parts of the meal was the dessert, which was the parting of the Red Sea made out of cupcakes (maybe the icing should have been red?!). Such a cool idea!

That's all for now... more to come!

~Corinna