Sunday, May 31, 2009

Ya-Ya back from La-La Land


hey gang!


how is everybody? it's been awhile since I've posted....I have been swamped at work (organized the most challenging Travel Plan ever - 5 travellers visiting 4 cities in Asia - 7 (yes, 7) drafts of the itinerary before we finally decided what to book - it was insane but I loved it!).


Then I went on a little trip of my own ( finally! ) down to Los Angeles with 3 girlfriends from work. I was down in La-La Land from May 22-26 and the weekend before (May Long) I was busily cleaning my apartment because I, like many people I think, like to come home to a clean house from a trip.

So yes - L.A. was great! 4 nights, 5 days of pool-time, sunshine, shopping down at the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica - my fave store was called "Oxbow" a cute French-owned surfing-style store, which is just my style ( I also love Billabong and O'Neill and all that stuff) and I bought a few cute things there (on sale of course!), and the sales guy was quite cute himself! :) sigh. He told me my legs looked great in a skirt that I was trying on...needless to say, I bought the skirt. LOL!

We stayed at the "W" Hotel in Westwood which had an awesome pool area (photo attached) and we visited a few great restaurants and lounges . We had dinner at one placed called "One Sunset" on the Saturday night, then one friend and I went to the Chateau Marmont ( dark and smoky, paid $35 for 2 martinis - unbelievable!) then over to the Beverly Hills Hotel (gorgeous, gorgeous and I felt like I travelled back in time). Sunday night was dinner at "Dan Tana's" on Sunset as well, which apparently is a fave of George Clooney, but alas, George was not there that night. It's a tiny little restaurant with huge portions of pasta and more pasta. After that we went to the Mondrian Hotel's Sky Bar, which is an outdoor lounge around their pool, which was pretty great. Lots of very friendly people - once they overheard our group was from Canada, they would come over and introduce themselves, it was interesting to see.
Overall, it was a fun, outrageous, girls getaway which was just what I needed. I hadn't been on a plane or a real holiday in five years ( last trip was to Las Vegas in Sept 2004). Now I am happy to be home again, but already planning future trips .

Hope everyone is well and fine, thanks for stopping by!

: ) J.





Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Collector cars and the Canucks



Hi all !



yikes! I have to say how say how terrible I feel for the Canucks and us fans after last night's game! We had such high hopes. Well, hopefully next year. I'm now going to root for whichever team plays against the Hawks. I have nothing nice to say about them. Boo.



In other news though, just thought I'd post a piccie from this past Saturday...I went to "PoCo Days" with my friend Tracey & her hubby John, it was alot of fun! There was a community block party, mini street market, dance presentations, and a show & shine of collector-style vintage cars (some real beauties).




After the block party we found a local pub ( Samz Pub ) which had great food and great service. If you are ever in downtown PoCo and need a pint or good martini- that's the place to be.

Have a great day! See you at the Voting Booth ! ;0)








Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Safety Week oh yes it is...






well some fun at work today....since it's "Safety Week" (so I'm told), we had a few of our finest from the Burnaby Fire Department drop by work over the lunch-hour to talk about fire safety or something.... fire extinguishers and smoke detectors and prepping for an emergency. blah blah blah. Never mind all that, the best part was getting to ride in the fire truck for a minute, and play the siren!

what a hoot! :)


Sunday, May 3, 2009

great sale!


Wow, it's already Sunday night and time is definitely flying.

Saturday I hit the 40% off sale at Pick of the Patch and found some great stuff!..a sheet of alphabet stamps by Technique Tuesday, some more flowers, some more bling, "milk chocolate chip" micro-chip letters, buttons (my first buttons!) and a new "thank you" stamp. I was inspired by my new purchases, and made a Mother's Day card.

Today I met up with my sister Caroline for lunch and girltalk and a bit of shopping around at Metrotown. I didn't buy very much there, only a couple of cake rounds as I plan to bake a cake for my mom next weekend.

So, I hope you all have had a lovely weekend so far. Let's hope our Canucks do much better on Tuesday night !