A Girl in the World

Friendship

Dubrovnik, fashion modeling, Madonna and beautiful Montenegro

May 13, 2009

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And we’re back. From another insane weekend of turbo travel. Exhausted, happy, and a little more worldly. This time it was a romantic weekend with my Cynthia. Best friend, almost-lover, rock, shield, love.

We found cheap flights into Dubrovnik from London. And then somehow, through a friend of a friend of a friend, we found a beautiful flat inside the old town for a great price. Fantastic view of the hills and the water.

We spent one day exploring the Old Town – wandering the Saturday market, eating dried figs, walking the city walls and sunning ourselves in 24 degree weather. Shiny old cobblestone streets, beautiful squares and amazing views of the Adriatic sea. Travel like this is good for the soul. Time stretches. People suddenly become more approachable, beautiful, friendly. And you approach life and love with arms wide open – like everything is possible. Even if only for a few days from our busy work schedules, these crazy trips are healthy for the mind. They remind us that there is a world out there just waiting to be explored.

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Day 2 we hired our landlord’s husband to drive us into Montenegro. In all honesty, I became enamored with the idea of Montenegro after watching James Bond. It looked so romantic, beautiful, exotic. Well, apparently that whole scene with the train and the outdoor cafe wasn’t even shot in Montenegro! Ha. Regardless, it was a beautiful day of winding roads, mountains and bays. We crested mountain peaks that opened to gorgeous valleys below. Montenegro is stunning. Like an oil painting, all the little uninteresting parts up close come together to form a gorgeous whole: terra cotta rooves, turquoise waters, rolling hills and mountain valleys. Absolutely stunning.

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Interestingly, my favourite moments are of the simple times: singing Madonna in the car with our driver/friend Zoran; accompanying Cyn in not-so-pretty-side-of-the-road bathrooms; quiet sunsets; watching a movie in bed; rum and tea in beautiful cafes. It’s the time with loved ones, set in beautiful backdrops, that make these trips so precious.

However, a girl weekend really isn’t a girl weekend without SOME insanity:

  • Becoming impromptu fashion models during sunset in the Old Town square of Dubrovnik (we posed with Italian tourists, for photography students, for strangers)
  • Being harrased by ODMs (Old Dirty Men – as my Mom calles them) everywhere we went. It was a running joke between Cyn and I that we were Thai concubines visiting with our Russian boyfriends. Ha!
  • Ice cream twice in one day.
  • Getting engaged to each other on the seaside cliff during a full moon.
  • The baby kitten that I agonized over during our first night. Do cats eat bread?!

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To view all pictures from the trip, click here

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Mallorca Top 10

April 11, 2009

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Latin mixes in the clubs. Imagine Lady Ga Ga’s Poker Face mixed with Latin beats and you can understand why we were out dancing until 5.30am every single night. It doesn’t matter the venue. If the music is good, the night can stretch for hours. And that’s exactly what happened at Moon during our first night in Palma. We were all completely exhausted. It was a Friday night (and Friday nights are always a write-off because we’re always so tired after the long work week), we’d just had dinner and were about to go back to the hotel but decided to have just ONE drink. Well, the ONE drink turned into 6 hours of dancing, drinking and inappropriate silliness.

Dancing to Latin music all night long. Because I must have been Latin in another life, anything Latin energizes me like nothing else! I don’t remember for how long, with who or to what song, but we girls spent hours and hours and hours salsa-ing our way through the night.

Wellies brunch at Puerto Portal. Puerto Portal is about 15 minutes cab ride from Palma. It’s a very posh beach town. We went for a long brunch – monk fish, banoffee pie, cappuccino and chocolate bombs – under the warm warm warm sun.

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Maria gets engaged to Pete the army boy from Seattle who is stationed in Germany. And then gets divorced. It was Maria’s birthday weekend celebration and as such, she had the free pass to do whatever she wanted, with full knowledge that we would take good care of her. Well, she got engaged to some random guy we met on Friday night and then abruptly broke it off in the cab ride home at 6am. =) He even got her a blinky ring! Poor Pete. =)

Lambrusco. Sparlking, sweet, red wine! The kind that you can drink non-stop without noticing its effects. Delicious stuff! Great with tapas!

Tapas. My favourite thing about traveling to Spain is being able to have fantastic, cheap food! RBK tapas just two blocks from our hotel was amazing. Very local, packed full of people at 1am on a Saturday night and so so cheap.

We lost a purse. A passport. A wallet. And an iPod. And an hour later we found the purse, the passport, and the wallet. The iPod and cash were gone, but at least we didn’t have to make our way to the Greek embassy in Madrid to get Maria another passport, to ensure that she could get back to work on Monday morning. Near disaster, but not quite – thankfully!

La Sue Cathedral. It’s gothic, it’s huge and it’s the only cathedral in Europe situated next to the sea. From afar, it’s extremely impressive. We sat by the wall outside the church listening to guitar music.

Acai berry fruit salad. We had this for breakfast on Saturday morning. Refreshing, great for a hangover and apparently a fantastic antioxidant for your skin.

Our lack of cultural sightseeing, in exchange for dancing, lounging, coffee-ing and sunbathing. I know that this top ten list is anything but culturally enlightening. To be honest, Mallorca didn’t turn out to be a cultural-discovery type of destination. It’s a party island and party we did. =)

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Back from Mallorca

April 6, 2009

COMPLETELY destroyed from a weekend of celebrating Maria’s birthday in Palma, Spain. Updates later. When I recover from feeling like death.

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The blessing of girl friends

March 24, 2009

A lot of things have happened in my life over the last 1.5 years I’ve spent living in Europe. I needed change, I needed to get away from some pain I had with A, I needed a shake up. I had planned for my time in Europe to be short – a year – and knew that I would be back to my normal life in no-time. Well, a little less than two years later, I’m still here but in such a different place emotionally and mentally. Sometimes I think about how different things would be if I hadn’t left and I know that I probably would have been just as content and happy —- but a little less exposed, and much less knowledgeable about myself and the world. Times like this change a person. You outgrow a few things, you learn a lot and if you’re watching carefully, you become aware of all the amazing gifts and blessings that come your way.

Like girl friends.

The two best loves of my life right now are M and C. The relationship that we share has been medicine for the heart. Before them, I hadn’t had any close girl relationships in a very very long time. Having had a boyfriend for nearly 6 years made it really hard for me to get close to other people and because I’m actually a very private person, it makes it hard for me to get close to people regardless! But, there is something so special and unique about having true girl friends.

We cook together and share family recipes. We will kiss each other goodnight after a long crazy day at work. There is always a tea-time check-in and a bedtime laugh. We push each other to live our dreams, to get rid of silly boys, to live up to our potential, to stand up for ourselves, to smile often, to worry less, to dance, to laugh. To laugh, to laugh, to laugh.

Our relationships are so open and honest. They’re the kind of women I can cry to about nothing, I would swim naked with in the ocean, whose secrets will be buried with me to the grave. They are family and laughter and joy. Their love has been a true blessing in my life.

If I come out of this time abroad with one thing that has been truly life changing, I would really have to say that it has been the blessing of girl friends in my life. They are food to the soul.

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St. Patty’s paella brings some inspiration

March 19, 2009

On Tuesday, to celebrate St. Patrick’s day in good ol’ Ireland, we went out with the Arabic team. I know it’s not politically correct to refer to your friends as “the Arabic team” but since we work with country teams all the time, we really do refer to them as the Arabic team. =) Dublin was packed full of green-faced revellers and I wasn’t really in the mood to go and hang out in smelly bars with drunken people. So we opted for a long dinner in, at a Spanish/Italian restaurant in the city centre. So grown up huh? Skip drinking for a civilized meal. =)

We had two huge paellas, the best Italian garlic bread I’ve had and some mediocre house wine.

The best part about dinner: I came up with one of my best ideas yet.

I was talking about the Lonely Planet book that I’m reading — it’s about the couple who actually started the Lonely Planet empire. They were young twenty year-olds looking for some adventure in the mid seventies. With a few hundred pounds in their pockets and an old beat-up van, they decided to DRIVE from London to Sydney Australia. DRIVE. Through Europe, the Middle East, India, Asia and across to Australia. They arrived in Sydney with 37 cents between the two of them and the blessing of British passports that gave them the legal right to earn some money to get back home.

I’ve decided that I want to do this. It’s got the exact combination of insanity and danger that i thrive on. And I’m looking for adventure seekers who are willing to join me – preferably big and burly so that you can fight off attackers when we’re in the middle of nowhere Iran in our old beaten up van. Oh, someone who knows how to change a flat tire will also be an asset.

Any takers?

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BCN with Maria

February 1, 2009

What a funny weekend we’ve had in Barcelona!  It has poured cats and dogs for two days straight.  My boots haven’t had a chance to dry yet and I’ll be flying back to London in two hours.  =)  What a laugh.  It has been a weekend of fantastic food, great conversation, lots and lots of sangria and so much rain!  We were silly enough to decide to take the double decker tour bus yesterday while it POURED rain on us on the top deck.  Maria lost her 10 euro package of cheese and we got soooo drunk last night at Cerveseria Catalana that we collapsed in our hotel room and didn’t wake up until 11am this morning.  =)  

I love travel with Maria.  We’re both such butterflies when it comes to agendas and planning and responsibility. Something always goes wrong, in the funniest of ways.  So fantastic.

BCN - La Boqueria market

BCN - the sangria that kicked our butts

 

Now I’m flying back to London where it’s supposed to be snowing, snowing, snowing!!!!  

THREE MORE DAYS until South American summer in Argentinaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

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LON —> BCN

January 30, 2009

Barcelona for the weekend!  Me, Maria and sangria!  =)

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Aphrodite Taverna

January 11, 2009

I know I’ve said this a million times before but again, I will have to say it tonight.  London is like a magical little tickle trunk of people from every corner of the globe.  Tonight, we went to Aphrodite Taverna, a tiny little Greek restaurant just up the block from my flat.  There were 19 of us total, for a reservation of 15.  Portuguese, German, French, Yugoslavian, Kiwi, Spanish, English, Greek, Canadian and Morroccan.  We were loud, conversing in 5 different languages, a jumble of foreign words being thrown across tables all throughout the night.  ”Sante!  Yamas! Salut!  Cheers!”.  Wine, olives, kalamari, lamb…food food food…. talking talking talking…laughing laughing laughing.  It was chaos and craziness and hugs and kisses and “Happy New Year’s” and good-to-see-you’s and laughter and gossip! 

A friend told me a few weeks ago that in the 8 years that he has been in London, he has lived 2 lifetime’s worth of experiences and memories.  Nights like these — where serendipitous meetings between friends of friends reveal just how small the world really is, where there is great food, great wine and great company, where language knows no boundaries and conversations are no-holds-barred — remind me why I’m here.  It’s for the people.  It’s for the moments when, in a tiny little Taverna in Notting Hill, bustling with bodies, everything suddenly goes in silent slow motion.  You smile at the scene — at your friends, touched by gorgeous candlelight, mouths open, heads thrown back in laughter — and you think to yourself:  this is perfect.  I am happy right here, in this moment.  This is bliss.  And you are thankful.  

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Cooking with Gordon Ramsay

November 11, 2008

We launched this new YT series called “Cookalong with Gordon Ramsay”.  With the recession upon us, there are stats that suggest people are choosing to eat out less and eat in more.  The point is to watch Gordon cook a recipe in one hour and then go and do it yourself.  We’ve been asked to film ourselves and then post on YouTube.

Last night, we went over to our friend K’s house to make Angel Hair Pasta apps, Duck breast and Tiramisu.  =)

The result was a gong show of a night and only some very minor burn injuries.  Great times!!

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Eurostar nonesense

November 3, 2008

Paris to London 20:00

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