Very quick update

I am studying for exams. Will be done on the 13th, then I'm sure I'll send up yet another totally boring blog to let you all know how I'm doing and what's up for the holidays. Will likely be in Ottawa sometime the week after exams to check out housing possibilities, so will be contacting anyone still left there (oh right, it's just you Ky! :P).

That's it, that's all, wish me luck! Oh, did I mention these are probably the very last school exams I will ever write (with the exception of the Bar exams, of course)? Yeah, all paper courses next semester. Woot!!

BTW....

By the way, I know this is months and months after the fact, but I realised recently that when I posted my pics from my trip to the Bahamas, I missed one of them, one which I think is one of the more interesting ones....

So, I know that just looking at the picture it doesn't seem very interesting, until you figure out what that little fish is. And trust me, it's not actually that little. It's a barracuda, although I didn't know at the time, and I also didn't know that you're not supposed to wear jewellery while snorkelling since barracuda will go after anything flashy. I swam up nice and close to this guy (I know you can't tell I'm that close from the pic, but I was probably about 15 feet away), then realised it was bigger than I thought and creepy, so swam in the other direction. Then a few days later when Adam and I were doing a tour of the aquarium at Atlantis, the guy giving us the tour told us all this stuff about barracudas, and I realised that's what I'd seen!! Scary!!!

Nothing doin'....

So, I decided that I should update because people are asking me what's new in my life. The only problem, is that there isn't really all that much to update.

Panda, my little bunny, has gone to a new home (not the one in the sky, the one in Orillia with my best friend) because my allergies got too bad. Luckily my best friend (herein referred to as 'M') was looking for a new little animal anyway, so it was pretty much perfect timing. And apparently Panda's even getting along with the cats in the new home, so at least she gets some friends and stuff too, rather than having my wimpy cat be scared of her all the time!

Um, what else? I got bangs. Like real bangs, right across the forehead. I've been trying to take a picture to show people, but the pictures that I take of myself keep looking like I'm sucking in my cheeks, so I'm going to have to get someone else to do it, I guess. But I really, REALLY love them. And Adam does too, which is nice especially since I was scared he wouldn't!

Hmm... went home for Thanksgiving with Adam and my sister, which was so nice because Adam had SO much homework and he worked all weekend, but he offered to go with me (and therefore be able to take his car instead of busing/renting a car) because he knew how much I wanted to go home. Plus it was nice to have him there along with the family. Thanksgiving weekend was yummy yummy, especially since my mum is such a fantastic cook and baker - I was so spoiled all weekend!

The next weekend I was in Montreal for a Conference on the Prevention of Genocide. It was so incredibly interesting, amazing speakers, really made me think and taught me about some things that I didn't really even know were going on in the world. Plus I got to visit Montreal for the first time (I don't count driving through on my way to Warped Tour a few years ago). I LOVE LOVE LOVE that city!! I seriously felt like I was back in Europe again, the atmosphere is so cosmopolitan and so laidback. I was really wanting to work there, after being there for the weekend - even looked to see if the firm I'm working for next year has an office in Montreal that does IP (they do). But then someone pointed out that Montreal's the place you want to be able to go to for fun and relaxation, and that working there might actually ruin it because you'd have negative associations with work (although hopefully work won't actually give me negative associations, but you know what I mean!). And I think that's a good point. And I will be very, very close to Montreal when I'm in Ottawa, so maybe on the rare occasions when I get weekends off I'll head over - wouldn't that be nice??!! Ottawa friends, if you're around, I'm down for it! :D

This past weekend, my mum was down visiting, and since it was her birthday last week my sister and I took her out for sushi on Thursday night, which isn't exactly something she gets to do often considering where she lives!! Then Friday during the day, while my sister was at work, my mum and I wandered around Kensington Market, had some delicious vegan/gluten-free food (woohoo for all my dietary restrictions!), and then Friday night while my sister was at a meeting mum and I went to see The Elephant Man (thanks to tickets comped for my sister!). The play was okay... the acting of some of the people, especially the main guy, was phenomenal, but I think the directing really made it way too cheesy and over-dramatic. Although that may also have been a result of the time in which the script was written, we didn't really know. But either way, it was fun to get to do something like that with my mother. Then after the show, mum went back to my sister's and I went up to Adam's for the night, since he was in town. We watched a very interesting and slightly creepy show on spiders, which believe it or not actually did a pretty good job of making them seem like cool little creatures instead of terrifying beasts, then went to sleep cause I was so tired. I basically just slept at his house and then went back downtown the next morning, because I wanted to spend as much time as I could with my mum while she was down. We wandered around downtown, went to a cool photo display, then headed up to my Aunt's for a visit. And that was this past weekend.

I know, I know, my life is fascinating. I've been reading everyone else's blogs, and mine really are nothing compared considering where everyone else is hanging out, but if you want to know what's up with me this is it - NADA!! Ah well, it's a fairly relaxing last year of school before the intensity of articling starts, so that's awesome.

Anyway, that's it and that's all. If I get a good pic of me with the bangs I'll post it, otherwise I'm out until my next incredibly boring post!!

Huh

Note: I edited out the name of the firm I'll be working in (see the red font), because I don't think that anyone on the internet needs to see it. But for those of you who know me, you've already either seen the name, talked about it with me at other times, or can contact me to ask. :)

So I just signed in, to see that my last post was posted on May 12 or something. Do I suck at posting, or what? (Although to be fair, I think it was even before that that most of the people who will read this posted so I guess I'm not that bad :p)

The problem is, I really don't have that much exciting to update. I guess the biggest and most important thing is that I got an articling position, starting next August. I know, it's totally crazy that the whole articling position search happens this summer, when we don't even start working until next summer. But that's the legal profession for you - nothing if not a big fan of ridiculous, extensive rules!

So I'm going to be working at a firm in Ottawa, and I'm really, really excited about it. I only applied to a couple of firms in Ottawa, because I didn't know if I really wanted to go to that city (even though I do love it there and have family there) and, yes I'll be honest, be that far away from Adam. So to be completely honest, I was kind of looking at that interview (it was my first one) as a 'practice one', and I almost even cancelled! But thank frigging goodness I decided to go, because the minute I got there I could tell that I would like it. The people were so laid-back and non-pretentious (trust me, I've been at enough firms in downtown Toronto to recognise the difference!), even though it's a huge firm and the Ottawa office is actually the national headquarters. This is a perfect example of the firm in Ottawa: the building they're in is on Elgin, just a few blocks from the Parliament buildings, all that stuff, so they have every reason to be pretentious. But I walked into that building in a full business suit, and people in the building (not in the firm, but still) were looking at me funny for being so dressed up! You go into a building of a Bay Street firm in Toronto, not wearing a suit, and people will look at you funny! So I immediately felt comfortable.

Then, the interview was so much fun. There was a lot of laughing and joking, and the people were SO nice. I met with the Director of Student Affairs (she is so nice, it's incredible, but also I think one of those no-nonsense people, which I totally appreciate!), and the head partner of their IP section (Intellectual property - as in what I want to do for the rest of my life, probably), and another partner from that section, and an associate from that section. So I'm taking that to mean that they're pretty much hiring me to work in the IP area, although I'll still have to do a rotation in the 'business law' and 'advocacy' areas as well. We also talked almost exclusively about IP (when we were talking about law stuff), so that was a big sign too that that's what they want me for. They have a really good IP department, especially since the Ottawa office is their national office, so it'll be an amazing experience for me to be able to learn the ropes there!

I managed to convince them that I wasn't a huge Toronto person, which is true, but I think everyone says that so they don't necessarily believe it. I would be completely content to not ever work in Toronto, although I probably will end up there eventually down the road. But I have no aching desire to be one of the Bay Street folks, and Ottawa is a seriously beautiful city (although I guess I don't really have to say that to most of the people who will read this!).

So yeah, basically, I'm excited! Next spring I will graduate, hopefully with honours (which I will need when I decide to go back and do my Masters and PhD), then I will do the Bar Licensing examinations for May, June and July, then in August I will move to Ottawa and start the practical side of learning to be a lawyer! And none of my Ottawa friends will be there anymore, which sucks, and a few of my family members won't be there anymore because they've moved to Guelph (haha, kind of ironic, so close to Toronto), but I still have some family and friends there, so I'm sure I'll have fun. Oh, and a girl in my class at law school is working there this summer (at the same firm), and is staying for articling, and I really like her, so that'll be fun!

So that's my big news.

The other big, exciting thing that happened to me this summer didn't actually happen to me, I just got to witness it. My best friend from back home got married! And I got to be the Maid of Honour!! It was SOO much fun, and one of the best weddings I've ever been to. It was pretty informal and laid-back (that's twice I've used that word in one posting!), but very pretty, and everything went pretty much exactly as the bride and groom wanted, which is amazing and rare!

I'm not going to post pictures of the wedding on here (except for one), because they're all posted on my facebook and those of you who don't have access to that can just contact me if you want to see pictures. But I am going to post one of me and the bride:

Isn't she a beautiful bride?? I love the colour combination of the yellow and the pink. So Melissa, and so pretty! Anyway, it was a lot of fun, the whole weekend, and I am SO, SO glad that I got to be there for it.

Other that than, I really have no news. I've been working on my golf game (I now own my own clubs, gloves, tees, balls, and golf bag - yes, I'm becoming a true yuppie), and I'm getting better although obviously I still suck. But considering now I've played about 10 games of golf in my entire life, I think I'm pretty good for that little experience! But yes, I do still suck. I play with Adam mostly, which is good because I don't feel any pressure then, and he's really good about helping when I want help but saying nothing when I don't - he would be such a good teacher, if he didn't dislike kids so much! hahaha.... But yeah, I actually really enjoy playing golf, which is kind of strange since I don't like any other sports, but I guess golf is a different enough sport that someone like me can still be good at it (someday...).

Mmmmm... yup, that's about it. I spent my summer doing a fairly small amount of work, since the professor I was researching for was away most of the summer and didn't have much for me to do. I still got paid the whole time, which I was feeling guilty about until I remembered that I pay $12,000 a year for tuition, and the school is paying me for my summer work since it's work study, so I say to hell with the guilt! So mostly I spent a lot of time watching tv, playing on the computer (and yet I still didn't manage to blog), and travelling to Guelph and/or Toronto to see my man. I also got to go home a few times, which was nice, since usually it's a once-a-summer trip to see my parents. But my sister has a boyfriend who lives up there now (since last September, actually), so she wants to go up a lot, and when the two of us rent a car it's the same price or even a bit less than taking the greyhound.

Okay, so now that really is it. If I think of anything else interesting (although maybe this isn't even interesting!), I'll write it, but I doubt I will!

Snorkelling!!

I know, it's been just a little too long, but I finally got my scanner up and running, so I thought that I would at long last post the pictures I took while I was snorkelling in the Bahamas. Here they are - well, at least a few, I'm not posting all of them so if you want to see more let me know. But these will pretty much give the idea. (See the post a while ago for the actual description of what happened during snorkelling).

PS - as you'll see, since the underwater camera I bought for the day was obviously not of great quality, the colour in the pictures isn't anywhere near as amazing as it was in reality. So just multiply all the colours times like 100, and you'll get a better idea!



Some neat-looking coral, at the first dive site.










A bunch of fish, including one really bright blue one at the bottom of the photo - again, the picture just does not give it justice.






If you look closely at the fish in this picture, you can see that it had a very colourful tail. If you'd seen it in real life, the number of colours on one little fish's tail would have blown you away!







I think this picture hopefully gives a better idea of how brightly blue that one type of fish was.







Another picture of a bunch of fish.







This is the only picture I took at the second dive site, because I wanted a picture of the plane (it's a movie prop, used in Jaws 4), but otherwise the fish were all the same kind. There were supposed to be Eagle rays there, but I didn't see any.




So here are the sharks that I dove with!! The lighter coloured fish are just regular fish, they were only about a foot long but look a lot bigger because they were so close. The sharks were about 8-10 feet away. You can see the rope that the dive/bait box was dangling from in the center of the picture.




Here's another picture of the sharks, when the bait box was first lowered and they were still all just interested in that. You can see the bait box in the bottom left of the picture.





Here's one more picture of the sharks. I left the yellow thing in the corner of the picture, because it's the rope that we had to hang on to while we were in the water, so I wanted that showing.




This is the sharks after the bait box was taken out (after we came out of the water!). You can tell they didn't like that the bait box was gone, because they're all right at the top of the water which apparently they don't usually do - they just had followed it right out of the water.






And here's the sharks when the guys started throwing the fish off the boat. That was the only time I really felt scared, when I saw them all frenzied. Even though I had just been in the water with them, I did not want to get anywhere close to the edge of that boat!!!








See, I told you this post would be less depressing than the one before this one!

Warning: extremely depressing

I've been putting off doing this post forever, but it needs to be done because it's a little bit too important to not let people know what's been going on with my life.

On April 5, my ex-boyfriend and good friend Chris Catling was killed in a car accident, just about an hour east of Sault Ste. Marie. His best friend, Jeff Beach, was also killed in the accident. No wrongdoing on anyone's part, just terrible northern Ontario winter weather, as always.

This means that of the 3 serious boyfriends I've had in my life, men that I have actually loved, 2 of them have been killed in car accidents. And that's enough to give a girl paranoia, as I'm sure you can imagine, so of course now every time Adam drives anywhere I make him call me to let me know he got there safely!!

Chris was a brave soldier who really wanted to go fight in Afghanistan, and who was doing really well with his course in the air force. He had really grown up and was being incredibly successful with his life goals. He loved his family, especially his niece and nephew. He was a great guy who loved to have a good time, and who wanted to always make sure that the people around him had a good time too. And I have to admit that it was nice to know that there was someone out there who loved me so much, even years later (besides Adam, obviously!). He did have a girlfriend, though, who he was serious about and loved very much, and was planning on moving to Alberta with when he got sent to the base there. The feelings that he had for me (and that I had for him, too, to a certain extent) were more based on just caring for each other, but I think we both knew that we would never work as a couple for many reasons.

I heard about it on the 6th, and I went home on the Sunday, the 8th. Jeff and Chris' wake and funeral were done together, which is nice since they were so close. The funeral was a full military affair, with the bagpipes and everything, which would have meant so much to Chris because he loved being a part of the Canadian military. It was so hard to see Chris' family looking so sad, and it was also hard because it also brought back all the memories from when my other ex, Mike Barker, was killed in a car accident in 1999. But I went with my friend Robert, who I had met Chris through, so it was nice that we had each other for support.

Since then, it's been strange, because it's almost getting more realistic and sad for me as time goes by, because I didn't see him or talk to him everyday, but I would talk to him about once a week on msn. I keep signing in to hotmail and half expecting to have an email from him, which is weird. I made myself delete him from my msn, because I felt like I had to kick in the reality of it, but I really didn't want to because it just made the whole thing so final. But I do feel like one good thing came out of this: I think that I finally dealt with my feelings over Mike's accident! I know it's strange, but I don't think I ever really dealt with that properly - I couldn't even make myself say the words 'he died', I would say 'fatal car accident', or maybe even 'passed away', but that was as close as I could get. So dealing with those emotions is probably a good thing for me, although obviously I wish that it wouldn't have come about in that way!

Anyway, sorry to write such a depressing post, but I had to do it. Now I'll post some pictures of him, just a few.


This is a picture of Chris and my friend Robert, when I was in OAC (when Chris and I were dating). I know he looks like he was about 12, but I promise he was only 9 months younger than me.





Here's me and Chris at the Eaket Christmas Formal, winter 2000. Awwwww.








And here's Chris (on the right) and his friend Gord (on the left), in their fatigues.





All right, that's all. I promise the next post will be happier.

Spice the Cat

So I'm pretty sure I've blogged about my new kitty a few times already, but I don't think I've put up any pictures. So here's my new little kitten. She's not really a kitten, she's probably almost 2 years old now. But she still acts like a kitten! She lives with me while I'm at school, not at home with my parents, which is nice (although sometimes she's pretty freaking annoying but that's okay).

Anyway, here's Spice:


















This last picture is my favourite, because she's totally sticking her tongue out at me - how rude!

Christmas time is here!

Well, actually Christmas time was here about 3 months ago, as we all know, but as we also all know I'm lazy, so I haven't posted about it yet. So I'm going to do one super quick post today, because there's really not enough exciting about it to to more than one blog.

Two days after Adam and I got back from the Bahamas, we drove up to my parents' place. My sister and her boyfriend, Fred (yes, I did mention that my sister is dating Fred, right? Weird.. but surprisingly normal at the same time, after all) were already there. Luckily, a couple of years ago my parents joined up with a couple they're friends with to build a new cabin, and it's winterised (unlike the rest of our cabins), so that's where Adam and I and my sister and Fred were staying. It's also where we set up the Christmas tree, did Christmas supper, etc.

Adam and I arrived Christmas Eve, and my parents had been nice enough to wait to decorate the Christmas tree until we got there, which was awesome. So we did the traditional decorating of the tree, put up decorations around the cabin, etc. and it was really nice. We had the 'faux-fire' going, but also had a 'fire' going on on the TV (b/c the dish had some channel that just showed a fire burning - I know, we're dorks). And we listed to Christmas and Chanukkah music that I downloaded, and it was good times. Mum had made 'wassail' (like spiced Hot Apple Cider) that was sooo good, although not spiked unfortunately. ;) Just kidding.

The next morning we all got up, and when Mum and Mikey came down we opened up all of our stockings, which were ridiculously full. Then we had an excellent breakfast, then it was time for presents - of which there was seriously a ridiculous amount. But hey, isn't that what Christmas is all about? :p (hahaha...) Presents took a couple of hours to unwrap, because we do it in turns one by one so we can all see what everyone got. My parents got Adam a deep-frier for chicken wings, because Mikey had refused to get the vegetable steamer that I had recommended because he said that veggie-steamers aren't 'manly' enough for one guy to give to another. Men and their rules, eh?! I got a bunch of good stuff, as did we all, although I'd already gotten my biggest present before my trip to the Bahamas - my new camera!! I also got these amazing Bose speakers for my iPod from my parents (mostly my step-dad, I'm assuming, since my mum wouldn't know what to get in that area). He always knows what to get, it's amazing! Adam and I had agreed not to get each other presents, since we'd already spent so much on our trip. But Fred got my sister a personalised canoe paddle, which was beautiful, and so cute because that's so them! My mum got my step-dad like the best toy helicopter you can get, which was crazy cool and realistic looking. And my mum got lots of good books and some really awesome art supplies from Mikey. And we all got a bunch of smaller stuff, so we all had a great Christmas overall!

Then it was time for a quick lunch before we started making Christmas dinner (and the boys started playing with their new toys, of course). Christmas dinner was super yummy, and it was so much fun to have me, Robin and Mum in the kitchen making things. I know, so uber-traditional to have the girls cooking and the boys playing, but whatever, it was fun!

The rest of the night we just hung around in the cabin, listened to music, talked, watched TV, etc. - very relaxing. The next day Fred's parents came by for a visit (b/c they're also really good friends with my parents), so that was nice, and they stayed for dinner. The day after that, Adam and I went with Mikey down to the gun range to do some shooting, since Adam had never done anything like that. He was pretty good at it for a beginner! And it was nice to have Mikey and Adam do some 'guy stuff' together too. :) That afternoon our family friends Amber and her mum Marlene came to visit, which was great cause I hadn't seem them for forever. Then that night (or maybe the next, I don't remember for sure) we had a big bonfire with a whole bunch of guests, and got to see the Rawns, and watch some old home movies of when we were kids, and it was all lots of fun.

And then Adam and I went back on the 28th, and hung around T.O. (and I went back to London for a couple of days), then celebrated New Years' Eve at his cousin's (and his cousin's girlfriend's) place, which was laidback just the way we like it!

So that's all I'm going to write about Christmas. I'm also sharing a Christmas 2006 album on here, so click on that baby if you want to see pics. Now I'm all caught up!!!

Christmas 2006

Photobucket Album

No news is... bad news, in this case.

Yes, it's taken me 3 days to update this since finding out, but on Thursday I found out that I'm not getting an interview at that firm in Toronto. So I'll be in London again working for my prof, which is good cause I do like the job and I like him, but sucky cause it would have been fun to live with my sister in T.O. and make lotsa moolah. Ah well, I'll just have to rack up debt some more - I'm so good at it, I might as well not waste what talents I have! ;)

Anyway, that's all, just thought I'd let you all know.

On a plus side, my mum and her best friend (who is also my sister's boyfriend's mother) are down this weekend to see my sister's play (she was awesome in it, as per usual) and get their Christmas present massages. We just watched To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar; they hadn't seen it, and I knew they'd love it. What a great girls' night! :D

Update. And by update, I mean letting you all know there's nothing exciting going on in my life.

Hey all, as you can clearly see from the subject line, my life is unexciting. School (nothing exciting), work (for the prof I worked for the past summer still - interesting to me but no one else), and boy (again, interesting to me but no one else). That's all that my life consists of. I'm waiting to hear from one firm about a summer job, so will definitely update when I know what's going on with that.

We (the law school) did have our Career Fair yesterday, and my roomie and I who both applied to this one firm got taken out for dinner by the 2 women (and we were the only ones who got taken out), so that was pretty cool. They'll be contacting people this week or next about interviews, so we'll see what's the what. If not, I'll probably end up working with the prof again, which is cool cause I like him and like the work.

And yeah, that's about it. I know it's entirely unexciting, but I thought that I should at least let you all know that I'm still alive. Oh, went to St. Patty's Day party at Adam's place cause it was also Owen's b-day. Blah blah blah, drunken idiots, etc. Woot. Entirely not my scene, but that's fine. And went for a makeup lesson at the Clinique counter on the following Sunday, which was super helpful. Seriously, a makeup lesson is the most exciting part of my life right now. Again, woot.

So yeah, if I think of anything else I'll update again, but otherwise, hi and goodbye!

One last goodbye to Precious

This past tuesday, the 26th, my cat Precious (who I have had since September of 1996) was put down. About a week earlier my mother had finally taken her to the vet, because she was having a hard time grooming herself and wasn't eating much. The vet found a mass under her tongue, gave my mother antiobiotics to give to Precious, and told my mother to come back in a week to see how things had gone. My mother went back Tuesday, and they found that the cancer had spread throughout her mouth, so they decided to put her down. Luckily (?) my mother had been pretty sure that was going to be the result, because Precious was eating even less and kind of hiding, which is what animals tend to do when they know they're going to die. So Tuesday morning I called home and got to say goodbye to Precious over the phone, and tell her what an amazing cat she had been and how much I was going to miss her.

Precious (I know it's a ridiculous name, but I was 14 and I got her because my previous cat had just been run over by a car and killed the week before, so give me a break) was a great cat. She always knew when something was wrong and would run up to comfort me. She slept with me every single night in my water bed (without ever once puncturing it!) until I went away to university. When I first brought her back from the Humane Society, she would bring me her catch of the day of mice, squirrels, birds, etc. - until she brought one home that was still alive and I made it clear that I didn't really like it!! She had this cute little thing that I taught her to do, where she would dip her paw into a glass of milk, shake very daintily (I didn't teach her that part, obviously), and then lick all the milk off ever so cutely because she was such a prissy little thing. And when it was raining or snowy, she'd walk so that every single time she picked up one of her feet, she'd shake it to get the wet off. And her tabby colouring on top and white underneath and on her legs, combined with her long fur, made it look like she was always wearing bloomers, so she looked extra dainty and prissy when doing stuff like that. But she was also a tough cat who spent a lot of time outdoors hunting, and who never once fell victim to a natural predator, so she definitely wasn't really that much of a priss! She had that 'cat attitude' that cat lovers know and adore; she was usually willing to let you pet her, and was pretty friendly, but she was very demanding when she wanted to be petted, and if you took your hand away before she was done with you you'd (very gently) be getting claws in the back of your hand!

When I went away to university I was sad because I knew I couldn't take her with me, and that even if I'd been living somewhere where I could have pets, she'd be totally unhappy living anywhere but the country. So I was worried for a while that she would think that I had abandoned her. But eventually (and it took just the right amount of time), she and my step-dad adopted each other. So every time I would go home to visit she would still be happy to see me and cuddle with me the whole visit, but I got to be happy knowing that she had someone else who could be 'her person'. And she would sleep in my parents' bed with them every night, and if my step-dad for some reason went to bed later than usual, she would come out and meow at him to let him know that it was bedtime. She was a cute, smart, wonderful, loving cat, and there won't ever be another one like her.

Now, I haven't posted this until today, because very sadly the mother of a good friend of mine passed away on Monday, and so I have obviously been preoccupied with that. In fact, I even feel a little guilty writing this whole big blog and being so sad over my cat when losing a mother is obviously so much harder and more horrible. But I loved Precious very much, and she was my 'baby' for over 10 years, so I think she deserves this. I'm just going to post a couple of pictures of her, to show just how cute and sweet she was.

This is Precious lying in a cardboard shoe box - she always loved laying in them for some reason.







Here's Precious chilling out by the window, basking in the sun.







This is a funny picture of her yawning - I love that my mum got her at just the right moment!





Here's one of Precious and Mikey this past Christmas - Mikey is her other 'person', and I'm so glad that they ended up adopting each other!






And here's another picture of Precious at this past Christmas, with our beautiful Christmas tree in the background. She had a great time with us. We had Christmas in the new luxury cabin, which luckily is winterised. That's where Adam and I and Robin and her boyfriend stayed (I will probably be doing a post on it soon), and also where we had the tree, the present-opening, and Christmas dinner. Precious would come down with Mum and Mikey every morning, and go back up with them at night, and get to be smack in the middle of all the action getting lots of affection all day. A pretty good last Christmas for a kitty!!



This last picture I'm going to post is my favourite one of Precious of all time.



Goodbye Precious. I loved you very much. I have Spice (my kitty with me now) and Panda (my bunny), but I will always remember you and love you. Thank you for being such an amazing cat.

My very last day in the Bahamas... retold amost 2 months later!

All right, so this is the last post of the last day of the Bahamas trip, finally! Of course, I've done significantly better on this trip than on my European trip, so I should congratulate myself on that at least I guess!

In my last post, I put up pictures of the landscaping in the Atlantis waterpark, to give you an idea of what it looked like, what kind of swimming there was, etc. But I noticed that I didn't really have any pictures of the pools, just of the beach. You can see all the pictures of the swimming pool, including the big waterslide that we went down and the slide that went through the predator pool, if you go to the Atlantis website. Just go to the photo gallery, then to the 'Activities' pictures, and you can see it all. I was going to get the pictures from the website, but they have the whole privacy thing going on, and I didn't feel like going in and viewing source and all that, so if you want to see you can look for yourself!

So today, I'm going to put up the pictures of the Marine habitat, with all of its cute and awesome creatures! Like I said in my last post, we went and looked at the waterpark first, so that I could take pictures. Then we went and had lunch (some very yummy pizza at the pizza place at Atlantis), went back to our hotel room to change into our bathing suits, and drop off my camera and other valuables since we had our bracelets showing we'd paid for the waterpark and that would be all we'd need, then headed back to do a tour of the Marine habitat then actually go swimming in the waterpark. We'd been told that there was going to be a tour of the Marine habitat at a certain time, but when we showed up there had been a switch shift, and the new people said there wasn't a tour scheduled. I was pretty disappointed for a second, because I really wanted to do the tour and hear all the cool facts, but then one of the women called a guy over and asked him if he could take us around. So we ended up getting our very own personal tour of the habitat, which was even better! The guy knew SO much about all the fish - I know that's their job, but it was still really impressive and very interesting. He also explained all the decorations and how the hotel had created all of this stuff based on the Atlantis myth, how they thought the machines and everything had been used in the Atlantis culture, etc. I know it's not really really, and that it's a myth at the most, but it was still really neat to hear about!

The Marine habitat was in a series of tunnels, walking through from one end to the other, and also going through themed rooms showing inventions, machines, etc. that were thought to have been used by the people of Atlantis. Along the way were the various aquariums with the different fish, the pictures of which you can see below...

This is one of the regular-sized stingrays. You know, the kind that killed the Crocodile Hunter!







This wee little guy is a bonnethead shark. Looks like a mini hammerhead (was about a foot and a half long), but apparently is the only shark (or maybe there's one other, I can't remember) that doesn't need to be moving all the time to have water flowing through the gills or whatever. This shark just sits on the sand, sensing prey along the bottom of the water.



These are mini stingrays, each about a foot and a half in wingspan. They're apparently the one type of rays that live in flocks, so there would be a whole bunch swimming around together in the habitat - pretty cute!




These fish were pretty cool. The silver ones are so thin that they are the only fish not affected by the tides/currents - they can just keep swimming through! And the brown coloured guy was all coloured and scaled on one side, and plain on the other, and both eyes were on the coloured side. Very weird-looking!



Here's a picture of one of the Eagle rays, about 6 feet wingspan I think. The spotting colour on them is really pretty.




Here's a closer-up picture. Sorry about the flash reflection!








This is a goliath grouper. These guys are fascinating! He was about4 feet long, and I think like half a ton or something! They're so big that they can't really swim, so to hunt they let out a sonic boom (seriously!) to sense the fish around them, then they suck it all in!





Here's a picture (I know, not a very good one) of the hammerhead sharks, the ones that were under the rope tunnel in the picture in my last post. I think there were about 4 or 5 altogether in their little pond.




This little guy is a lionfish (from Deuce Bigalow, if any of you recall). Beautiful, but poisonous to humans! Well, and other predators of course. Again, sorry about the reflection of the flash.




This is the only even remotely decent picture that I managed to get of the most awesome (in the true sense of the word) part of the Marine Habitat - Zeus, the Manta Ray. His wingspan was 14 feet, which means that they're going to have to release him soon because at 15 feet he'll be too big for the Habitat. Adam and I were just standing by one of the glass windows, listening to the tour guide speak about the different fish, and then all of a sudden this massive thing swooped around the corner. I believe that I eloquently said "Holy Shit, what is that!?". Since this is the only picture I have of him, and it obviously does not even remotely do him justice, I thought I'd post a few pictures of manta rays that I found on the web.


From Wikipedia.










This picture on the right of the black and white manta is from this website, which has some great pictures of mantas, and information about them as well.


Basically, manta rays are one of the coolest animals in the whole entire animal kingdom, as far as I'm concerned!



This is the predator tunnel. You could walk through, and you were completely surrounded by sharks, barracudas, and other predator fish. Which apparently never eat each other. I guess cause they're fed regularly, so why hunt each other and put all that effort in if you don't have to!


This is a sawtooth shark. When Adam and I first saw it, we were walking around outside above the aquarium (like in the pictures from the last post), and we saw it swimming around in a pond beside the hammerhead shark pond. Except that all we could see was this giant shadow of a terrifyingly shaped creature, and I was totally creeped out. Once I finally saw what it was it was less creepy, but it's still a scary-looking fish!

This was how close you would get to the sharks if you were walking through the predator tunnel. They could see you through the fiberglass or whatever it was, and they'd stare at you and swim straight towards you until they hit the glass. An interesting experience, knowing something's trying to eat you!



Here's a Caribbean reef shark in the predator tunnel. This is the same kind of shark that I swam with when we went snorkelling.



And here's a picture of a barracuda. If ever do get the snorkelling pictures scanned and posted, you'll see why I'm pretty sure that I did see a barracuda when we were snorkelling. It was funny, because when we saw this guy, the tour guide told us that barracudas stalk their prey, and that while you rarely run into them when snorkelling, it's important to remove any shiny jewellery because that will catch their eye and make them think you're a fish. Too bad we didn't know that at the time that we went snorkelling!! Oh well, obviously it ended up okay, but when I realised later that we were probably being stalked by a barracuda, that's a shivery little feeling to get!


As my last picture to post, I will put this one of the predator feeding time. You can see the guy in his wetsuit, just little, at the back of the picture. The dark area under the water is the path where he walks out, to throw fish into the water so that all the predators come up and eat. I also have a video of it, that you can see here.


So that's all of my photos! As for the waterpark photos, there are also some really good pictures of the Marine Habitat at the Atlantis website, so check that out if you'd like some other cool pictures.

After we did the tour of the Marine Habitat, we went swimming, went down the waterslides that I talked about in my last post, and spent a bit of time lying on the beach chairs at the manmade beach. A very fun and relaxing day, in all. That night we had dinner at the buffet, and I took some last minute pictures of the beach and hotel area, so that I could show everyone. I've already posted those pictures in previous posts. After dinner we walked around the Marina Village again, and pretty much just relaxed, and also did some packing up of course.

The next morning, we got up and had our breakfast buffet, then finished packing up all of our stuff. I went down and got our tickets for the Charter bus back to the airport. We left the hotel at 11:30 am, I think (I don't completely remember), and the ride back to the airport took about half an hour. The Bahamas airport, like I mentioned before, is pretty small and dinky. We had to wait about half an hour or so in line, but then we were checked in. After another about half an hour we'd gone through security (the security measures weren't exactly reassuring, let me tell you!), and we had about an hour and a half to sit in the very small waiting area until it was time to board. When we boarded, we walked right out of the waiting room, through the one door leading out, and walked across the tarmac to the stairs going up to the plane! Then we were on board, and starting (on time!) on our trip back to cold, cold Canada. The flight took about 3 and a half hours, going through security and everything was fast because they didn't really stop us at all, since our declarations were way below the maximum spending for a week, and then Jack (Adam's brother) picked us up at the airport and we were home! Well, Adam's home in Thornhill at least. It was a little depressing to be back in the cold after our gorgeous week in the Bahamas, but also nice to be back in familiar territory, too.

And that is the end of our Bahamas adventure!

Bahamas Days 6 and 7

So on Tuesday, the day after we went to Ardastra, we mostly just hung out and relaxed. We were going to go to the Atlantis waterpark, but it wasn't super sunny out, and we went and checked the weather network on the internet to see what the next day was going to be like, and it was supposed to be a lot warmer and sunnier. So we just went over to the Atlantis to see what the deal was (we could either get just the pass for the Marine Habitat, or a pass for that and the waterpark area). Once we figured out that it was a pretty good deal to get the pass for both, we went and hung out around the Marina area, had some Starbucks, relaxed on the beach, (I) had a couple of drinks, etc. Nothing exciting at all, and it was fabulous! :P I think that that may have been the night that we walked all the way around the path by the Marina, but I'm not entirely sure. Relaxing time tends to all kind of blend together!

The next day, Wednesday, was our last day, and the weather was absolutely beautiful - perfect for spending the day swimming and walking around and enjoying outside. We got up, had our breakfast buffet, then headed over to Atlantis to get our passes. We decided to do the Marine Habitat first, so that I could take pictures without having to worry about my camera getting wet or leaving it while we were swimming. We walked around the waterpark very first, so that I could take pictures of all of that to show everyone. So here's a bunch of the outside waterpark/beach area.
Here's a picture of me and Adam, with the Atlantis Royal Towers behind us. That bridge room between the two towers is the Michael Jackson room, which I talked about in a previous post.






This is a picture of the Atlantis Coral towers, and just some of the waterpark area - that water is actually part of the Marine Habitat, I think where the sting rays were.






Here's the whole wide view of the manmade beach in the waterpark. It's SO nice and pretty, and the water is actually attached to the ocean and comes in through a canal that they made - it's just the beach itself that they made.

This is one of my favourite pictures of the landscaping in the waterpark area. I loved that the landscape was so beautiful - even though it was obviously all planted, it was still native flora of the Bahamas, and it looked like the landscaping everywhere else, so it didn't feel artificial. The water is more sting ray area.







This is one of the really nice waterways in the waterpark - again, artificial in that it was planted and manmade, but still so nice anyway!





This is Adam leaning over the bridge that goes over the canal where the water from the ocean comes into the manmade beach. They had so many fun watertoys, including these huge paddleboats with gigantic (like seriouly 5 feet in diameter) wheels, so that you were paddling to turn the wheels. We were going to try it, but then ended up not doing it, which was too bad because it would have been neat! You could also rent those bike things that you could ride along the bottom of the ocean, which I talked about before in one of my previous posts, that Adam and I were going to do instead of snorkelling.

This is the big waterslide thing in the waterpark. It looked like a huge pyramid type thing. There were two waterslides on each side. One side was more for little kids and people who didn't want to do super steep rides. The other side (the side not shown in the picture) had a crazy steep slide that was just a regular slide, then they also had one that you could go down in single or doubles watertubes, and when you got to the bottom of the slide part you would actually ride through a clear plastic tube that went through - get this - the shark/predator area!!! So you were sitting on this tub, drifting through the water, and all around us were sharks swimming around. That was pretty damn cool. I wish I could have brought my camera when we went down that, but obviously I didn't want to get it wet!

This is the rope bridge in the waterpark, which you had to take to walk over the pond with the hammerhead sharks. It was rickety and swingy, which made it fun cause it was just a tiny bit dangerous feeling. Of course, the part that it actually went over was really shallow and the sharks probably couldn't have actually swam into, but still!






This is another picture of the waterslide structure, but unfortunately you can't see the waterslides we went down (we did the shark one and the super steep one - which I almost chickened out of doing, but made myself!). But it shows how cool the whole thing looked.



So that's all the waterpark/landscape pictures. I have a whole bunch of pictures of the Marine Habitat, but I'm going to post those in the next one because it's just way too many pictures altogether!