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Maui Wowie

6

When Dave and Jenny asked me to film their wed­ding in Maui, there was no way I could say refuse. Soon1 I found myself in the only place in the world where Koa grows, and every tree I passed made me won­der if it would even­tu­ally be made into a ukulele or gui­tar. I was only there for two days, but it was worth every moment in the delight­ful weather, spend­ing time with some of the nicest peo­ple I’ve ever met.

The entire wed­ding group gath­ered for din­ner at Mala restau­rant, over­look­ing the Pacific Ocean and the islands of Lanai and Kaho‘olawe. At this time of year, the Maui sun­set passes in the blink of an eye.

I learned that there are only twelve let­ters in the Hawaiian alpha­bet (which is why so many of the words look the same to me), and the lan­guage uses Spanish vow­els. Each vowel is usu­ally pro­nounced by itself (Wailea is said “Why-lay-ah”). I was sur­prised to see most signs in both English and Japanese; it turns out there used to be a sig­nif­i­cant Japanese com­mu­nity in Hawaii, although most of the Japanese tourists go to see Pearl Harbor instead.

All the locals are super nice, per­haps due to the fact that tourism is one of the only indus­tries left in Maui2; it seems like most peo­ple liv­ing there are in the ser­vice indus­try in some form or another3.

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  1. “Soon” being a rel­a­tive term when com­pared to the lim­it­less of time, as it took me roughly a full day and three planes to get there, from Ottawa to Chicago to Honolulu to Kahalui. [↑]
  2. The other being agri­cul­ture that’s mostly been over­shad­owed by com­pe­ti­tion from Philippines. [↑]
  3. As opposed to those from Honolulu, who have jobs related to the mil­i­tary in some way. [↑]
Date  October 29, 2011
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Categories  Daily Life Photos Video

UK Detour, Day 11: London

3

Mike was between jobs, so I got to shadow him with­out being too intru­sive. That not only meant I got to check out his favourite haunts, but meet more impor­tant peo­ple in his life.

At one point, I had to with­draw some cash (since Mike had pre­vi­ously lied to me about my credit card not work­ing), and it was strange to sud­denly find three dif­fer­ent kinds of cur­rency in my wallet.

men on benches

So close yet so alone.

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Date  December 19, 2010
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UK Detour: Day 10, Chartres to London

5

On my last day in Rochefort-en-Terre, I receive an e-mail ask­ing for sup­port for my Wu Wei theme. This isn’t uncom­mon; ear­lier this year, Wu Wei was cho­sen to be part of the offi­cial WordPress.com repos­i­tory, and I’ve been flooded with such e-mails since. What stood out about this one, from a Michael Harvey, was the fact that he was in London, read from my blog that I was in France, and offered to show me around if I hap­pened to be stop­ping by.

I told him it’d be lovely if I could go, but I’ve no place to stay, as I’d only planned on going to France. On a whim of his own, he offers to let me stay with him, and tells me I’d feel at home as they have two cats.

For a while I turn this idea over in my head, as there’s most cer­tainly a risk involved in liv­ing with some­one you’ve never met, least of all whether or not you’d even get along. Eventually, I decide that I couldn’t give up on the chance to see more of Europe. Fate opened a door, and I only had to step through. I couldn’t say no.

And so, armed with a ticket for the EuroStar and a box of assorted mac­a­roons (one of the spe­cial­ties in Chartres) for my new host, I set off for London.

Chartres train station

In Chartres, wait­ing for the train to Paris — Gare Montparnasse.

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Date  December 11, 2010
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France: Day 9, Rochefort-en-Terre

8

It’s so nice to be accepted into another fam­ily, and to be able to live the way they do for a bit. You get a taste of some­one else’s life and habits. That’s when a trip is more than just a visit to a dif­fer­ent place, and becomes an experience.

And on our last day in Rochefort-en-Terre, there were still things to do and dishes to eat.

cleaning mussels

Cleaning the mus­sels for steam­ing in white wine and onions. This is how Frédéric won Misun’s heart.

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Date  December 6, 2010
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France, Day 8: La Roche-Bernard

3

La Roche-Bernard is a small com­mune 30km due south of Rochefort en Terre, with about the same pop­u­la­tion. It’s said that the town has more boats than peo­ple; the rich leave their ves­sels in the port until they have a few weeks of vaca­tion, and take off from here after arriv­ing by car or train.

It was orig­i­nally a viking colony, taken up as a fort because it con­trols access to the river that runs through it. The hills above are still pock­marked with stone walls and canons on the hills above.

La Vilaine

La Vilaine is the main river run­ning through La Roche-Bernard, flow­ing out into the Atlantic Ocean.

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Date  December 2, 2010
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France: Day 7, Rochefort-en-Terre

2

We drove nearly 400km into Brittany along the west coast of France to Rochefort en Terre, a small town of only about 600 people.

Normally this would take about four hours, but the high­ways have a 130km/h limit (off­set by a toll to access the high­way), and this cut an hour off our travel time. Not that it mat­tered, as the French coun­try­side is won­der­ful to watch, pop­u­lated with hills and a vari­ety of colour­ful foliage. There are also end­less cows roam­ing the pas­tures; I finally under­stood why cheese, but­ter, choco­late, and cream are so promi­nent in French cuisine.

It’s strange to be in a place that’s so remote. To go for orga­nized sports, you have to drive to the near­est city, which is 30 min­utes away. At the same time, all the ameni­ties are a 5-minute stroll away. There’s no traf­fic here, no light pol­lu­tion, and no noise save for a bark­ing dog or two. In this part of the world, the cul­ture is rich in his­tory, but the life is rel­a­tively untouched by the com­pli­ca­tions of urban living.

cat

The first cat I’ve seen in a week. He’s grown old and docile, and luck­ily, this means you can pick him up, put him in your lap, and he’ll be just as happy as by the wood burn­ing stove.

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Date  November 30, 2010
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Categories  Daily Life Photos

France: Day 6, Paris

2

It’s been rain­ing almost non-stop across France ever since I got here, so when I woke up to a sunny day, I had to take the chance and head out to Paris. I decided to see how far I could get on foot from Gare Montparnasse, my goal being a cross­ing of the Seine.

Paris is divided into arrondiss­ments or dis­tricts, spi­ral­ing out­ward from the Louvre like a snail shell, with each one hav­ing a char­ac­ter­is­tic feel. I began my walk in the 14th arrondiss­ment, and trav­eled north.

After about four kilo­me­tres, the stiff­ness in my legs told me I should head back. But Paris is dense and full of cul­ture and his­tory at every turn; on every block over there’s some­thing that catches the eye, and you never want to turn around.

Fountain of Saint Michel

Fontaine Saint-Michel, located in the 5th arrondissment.

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Date  November 13, 2010
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Categories  Daily Life Photos

France: Day 5, Chartres

3

I’ve been step­ping out of my com­fort zone. Having far too com­fort­able a life at home meant I grew com­pla­cent. I had no wants, which meant I didn’t find the same plea­sure in the sim­ple things as I used to. Here, I live with­out a cat, with­out a ukulele, with­out a reg­u­lar chance to shower, with­out locks on the bath­room doors, with­out speak­ing the language.

I needed to be reminded of how other peo­ple live, and expe­ri­ence things I never felt com­pelled to do in Ottawa. It hasn’t been easy. I mem­o­rize French phrases, and hope no one responds out of a pre­dicted path. Even then, I fall back on an English-French dic­tio­nary, and Pouvez-vous par­lez plus lent­ment, s’il vous plaît, just in case. It’s some­thing I’ve been forc­ing myself to do, and at the end of the day I’m never disappointed.

Daty croque monsieur

Various styles of croque-monsieur, a grilled ham sand­wich with cheese melted on top of but­tered pain de mie, a pack­aged French bread that’s per­fect for toast­ing. Every bak­ery and fam­ily has their own ver­sion of this.

In the back is shred­ded guyère (a medium-bodied cheese), being sliced is mont d’or (very creamy and salty, and stuck to my teeth), and already halved is Camembert (which was super rich with a smell rem­i­nis­cent of a garbage, but cer­tainly didn’t taste like it…still, I had a hard time get­ting over the smell).

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Date  November 10, 2010
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Categories  Daily Life Photos

France: Day 3, Chartres

3

It’s been a great pace so far. No plans, no sched­ule, no goals, no stress. I didn’t want to cram a bunch of activ­i­ties on this trip; I’d much rather take it easy and enjoy myself, so I can absorb as much of the cul­ture as possible.

People would ask me if I was excited to come here, and I couldn’t say that I was, prob­a­bly because there wasn’t any­thing spe­cific I felt com­pelled to see. Sure, I’ll prob­a­bly end up vis­it­ing some of the touristy, must-see sites in Paris, but more impor­tantly, I want to live the life, to be a local for a while.

girl buying bread

The defin­i­tive image of France: a young girl dressed smartly in cha­peau and tights waves to the baker, who comes from around the counter to hold the door for her as she leaves the store. Of uncor­rupted inno­cence, sim­ple rit­u­als, and fresh bread.

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Date  November 7, 2010
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France: Arrival

3

Getting here was most cer­tainly the most gru­el­ing trip I’ve ever taken. From door to door, it took me 21 hours to travel almost 6000km, car­ry­ing with me nearly 90 pounds of lug­gage (which isn’t that much of a stretch from my body weight).

I was mainly focused on mak­ing it safely and with all my stuff, so tak­ing pho­tos wasn’t a pri­or­ity. Traveling alone is cer­tainly a lot more dif­fi­cult than with a com­pan­ion, because you can’t leave suit­cases with some­one and do some­thing quick like walk down a street to find a sign, or go to the bathroom.

talking to a pigeon

Giving a pigeon a stern talking-to. Birds are brave here.

At Gare Montparnasse.

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Date  November 6, 2010
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See you in France

14

Got a ticket booked for France in the Fall. Instead of stay­ing in Paris, I’m going to be liv­ing with Frédéric and Misun in the town of Chartres. That way I’ll save money on acco­mo­da­tions, since the train goes to Paris every hour, only takes an hour, and is much cheaper than a night for a hotel there.

With three weeks booked, I know I’ll be able to go at my own pace in the city, with plenty of time to spend with Frédéric, Misun, and the boys too.

books on France

These three Frommer’s books came in one pack. I was happy to find one that focused on Paris alone.

My French com­pre­hen­sion has rusted to the point of being non-existent, so the dic­tio­nary and phrase book seemed like a good idea too. It’s filled with hilar­i­ous pho­netic pro­nun­ci­a­tions, like “ehs-kuh tueh praw~ lah peel-uel” for “Est-ce que tu prends la pil­lule?” or “Are you on birth con­trol?” in the Getting Intimate sec­tion. I wouldn’t be sur­prised if Paris was the only city to have this sec­tion, which includes trans­la­tions for “Harder!”, “Faster!”, “Deeper!”, and “May I come inside?” (although I sus­pect the last one isn’t exactly the mean­ing I’m thinking).

Paris Moleskine

I also bought this Paris Moleskine, embossed with the city’s name on the spine. It’s over­priced for a note­book, but worth it for the con­ve­nience. Contains con­densed ver­sions of all the most use­ful infor­ma­tion, includ­ing num­bers for trans­porta­tion com­pa­nies (includ­ing air bal­loon!) and city maps.

More sta­tion­ary porn beneath the cut

Date  June 20, 2010
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Categories  Photos Random

Back To Life

2

Christmas lights

Thumbnail: Present wrapping paper
Thumbnail: Cat under Christmas tree
Thumbnail: Scented infuser sticks
Thumbnail: Blue-pink gradient
Thumbnail: Powdered candy
 

The hol­i­days are over. I sus­pect that I’ve eaten more choco­late over the last two weeks than ever in my life.

The two New Year’s par­ties were great, although I missed see­ing Rob at Aaron’s. I did get a New Year’s kiss though, some­thing I nor­mally feel awk­ward about when the cou­ples are all par­tak­ing and I hide behind my camera.

The holes in my ceil­ings have yet to be fixed, and it makes me cringe every time I walk into my bed­room or bath­room, so I spent all my time in the liv­ing room. Every day, I’d wake up, eat, play games, watch movies, then fall back asleep there.

On occa­sion, I’d visit friends or see a movie, if only for the sake of get­ting out. Some nights, I’d open the blinds and let the burn­ing sky pour in, just so I could know that there was some­thing out there out­side of my lit­tle microcosm.

I’m glad to be back to life. I was feel­ing so lack­adaisi­cal and dis­con­nected, drift­ing aim­lessly with­out any rea­son or pur­pose. In a strange way, I feel recharged, if only because I had two weeks with­out a reg­u­lar schedule.

Date  January 6, 2009
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Categories  Daily Life Photos

Going Home

3

Bike in snow

I’m going home today. It’s been a great trip. Just one more stop for lunch with an old boss before I make the drive back to Ottawa.

Cracking pole

I miss sleep­ing in my own bed. It’s been a dif­fer­ent bed almost every night. But the trip was also filled with good peo­ple. People who are truly touch­ing. And cats.

Bike in snow

I’m not feel­ing as over­stim­u­lated as I expected. Maybe I’ve been too busy for it to sink in.

I’ll be leav­ing in the early after­noon to catch the sun­set in the 250km stretch along the 401.

Date  November 24, 2008
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Categories  Daily Life

Weekend in Toronto

8

I’m dri­ving out to Toronto tomor­row. Instead of a long vaca­tion, I’ve decided to do long week­ends until Christmas.

I’m pray­ing for a safe drive, as it’ll be my first win­ter with the Civic, and the fact that it already snowed in Toronto today. I’ve always pic­tured myself in my car, warm inside, pro­tected from the cold out­side. I like that idea.

As per usual, I’ll be pack­ing all my cam­era and video gear.

I’ve been so busy get­ting ready for this trip — orga­niz­ing plans with peo­ple, get­ting my pic­tures printed and framed, pack­ing, doing extra work for my first boss — that I’m already feel­ing some­what over­whelmed. It’s going to be four days packed with peo­ple, so I know I’ll be feel­ing over­stim­u­lated by the end.

Normally, I don’t like to have things this tight, but there are so many peo­ple I want to see. If I could, I’d fit in Andrew and Alex, maybe even explore on my own.

I’m still pretty excited though.

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Date  November 20, 2008
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Categories  Daily Life

Four Day Vacation

3

I’m in Toronto right now, at John’s house. He has the cot­tage for his birth­day week­end, so I took two extra days off work to see him. It’s kind of strange how much I’ve been see­ing him lately. In the past, we’d go over a year with­out see­ing each other because he was in Windsor for law school and I was in Ottawa with­out a car. But now that he’s been called to the bar and I’ve obtained the Civic, things have worked out.

We plan on going to the Ontario Science Centre today — some­thing I’ve wanted to do for a while1 — then dri­ving up to the cot­tage tonight. We’ll spend two days at the cot­tage2, maybe take a day trip to another town, and drive back on Sunday. Aaron also called me yes­ter­day about his co-ed baby shower on Sunday, which i’m not sure if I’ll be attend­ing yet, since I’ll have dri­ven eight hours that day.

Sunsets and Audiobooks

The drive was absolutely amaz­ing. The weather was per­fectly cool, and the sun took its glo­ri­ous time set­ting over a few hours. I think the most sat­is­fy­ing part is get­ting to the sec­tion of high­way where the 417 splits to the 416, and one can stay in the left lane and accel­er­ate through the turn, leav­ing all the traf­fic behind.

I lis­tened to some audio CDs of Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking on the way over. The con­cept is that our first reac­tions (made within a few sec­onds) are often intu­itively cor­rect, and that even after think­ing about some­thing for a long time, we end up going with our gut feel­ings any­way. We’re made to believe that the more impor­tant some­thing is, the longer we should take to make a deci­sion. I’m espe­cially guilty of this3. Wally lent them to me in an effort to help me act faster so I don’t miss any oppor­tu­ni­ties. Not sure if they’ll help me, but the way it delves into processes of the human psy­che is a very inter­est­ing lis­ten nonetheless.

Feeding Butterball

Left Dolly lots of food, and I’m hop­ing she doesn’t eat it all. The rea­son why I feed her by hand is because she doesn’t have any sense of how much to eat, and bal­loons up if not con­trolled. In either case, I expect a lot of poo in the lit­ter­box when I get back.

New Game

I bought John a copy of Assassin’s Creed for his birth­day, which thank­fully was on his list of games for which to watch. It was devel­oped by Ubisoft Montreal, the same stu­dio who made Prince of Persia, and plays very much the same way. An open-world con­cept with lots of stealth ele­ments. Certainly a game I could get into. We take turns play­ing, and it’s made me real­ize that I haven’t been play­ing much myself in the last few months.

A Sense of Overstimulation

Life has been some­what over­stim­u­lat­ing lately, and I can’t blame any­one but myself. After spend­ing a day shop­ping for house­wares with Julie last week­end, the house is a big mess, with things scat­tered over the coun­ters and floors. I haven’t even had a chance to write about the last time I came to Toronto. It seems like life is going faster than I can keep up. I’m just try­ing to enjoy it, espe­cially when the weather is this beautiful.

After all, life is for the liv­ing. This won’t last for­ever. I get to look for­ward to some time alone when every­thing is settled.

  1. I don’t think I’ve been since grade 4, so over 18 years ago. [↑]
  2. Last time I was there was two years ago [↑]
  3. John says that I tend to over ana­lyze things to the point of paral­y­sis. [↑]
Date  August 21, 2008
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Categories  Daily Life
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