Living in an Animal World

J has been crazy busy at work, and I haven't been so crazy busy at home so I got a bee in my bonnet about taking a trip on my own. My parents always had the Discovery Channel on the TV when I was a kid, and I can't remember a time when I wasn't fascinated by cheetahs. It seemed like a good idea to see them in person, and I booked a two week-long volunteer gig at Na'ankuse Wildlife Sanctuary in Namibia to get up close and personal with the cats.

It was a long flight to Namibia, including a layover in Johannesburg. I met with the driver and another volunteer, Monja, at the airport in Windhoek, and we drove the 40km or so to the sanctuary. Namibia is the second least populated country, and all I could see was dry brush during the drive.

Once we pulled in the sanctuary, we were shown to our tents, which was a short walk away from the main buildings. I was to be the lone occupant of this grand palace...

We quickly dropped off our things and began exploring some of the grounds while the others were still away on their afternoon activities. 

Luckily, we ran into Josh, a long-time volunteer, who offered to take us into a cheetah enclosure. Samira is a 14 year old cheetah whose teeth aren't in great shape due to her previous owners not feeding her the proper food. She's living out her twilight years at Na'ankuse, and she's still stunning to behold.

She patiently let us pet her, and I tried not to mind the fact that she hadn't been fed yet and she had some massive drooling going on. 

We visited the baby warthogs afterward, and they were more curious about us then we were of them! They tried to eat pretty much everything attached to us including shoelaces and pocket flaps. By the way, my shorts and shoes were clean before I got in with the three little piggies!

We also saw lots of random animals such as peacocks and duikes wandering about.

The sanctuary also functions as a farm so they also have typical farm animals such as sheep, chickens, and goats.

The vervet monkeys also warranted a visit, and we petted them through the fencing. They were perfectly friendly and sweet, and it was only later that we found out that they were supposed to be vicious due to mistreatment by the previous owners. We didn't see any of that and stroking their fingers weirded out me a little as their little hands are just like ours!

The sun sets quickly here and is gone around 5:30pm, and the day's heat rapidly dissipates soon thereafter. It's cold enough for people to huddle around the bonfires after dinner, and I had to put on multiple layers. The drop in temperature happens so quickly that it's a bit of a shock.

Time also moves as slow as molasses since there is pretty much nothing to do - no internet, no TV, no mobile phones. There is music if someone plugs in their ipod to the communal speakers, and the only light is from your flashlight. As you can imagine, people turn in pretty quickly, and I found myself tucked into bed by 9pm most nights snoozing away to the sound of jackals, baboons, and a distant lion's roar.

Spain at Southbank

There's always a ton of stuff going on in London, and J finally had some free time so I convinced him to venture out with me to the Spanish food festival at Southbank. I miscalculated our tube stop, and we got off a bit too early and popped up outside of the National Gallery, where there was some kind of Indian festival going on. This is why I love living in London so much!



There was a concert, which inspired J and I to try to bust out some Bollywood dance moves (fail), and we nabbed some free samples of mango lassi.

It's a fairly short walk to Southbank from the National Gallery, but thanks to a dangerous combination of terrible sense of direction and incurable curiosity about side streets, the walk ended up bieng much longer than J had counted on. Oops.

Thankfully, the weather was more than pleasant and J was in a forgiving mood since he knew we were headed to food. By the time we got there, the place was positively heaving with people!



The stall holders from La Boqueria, the world famous market in Barcelona, were the main draw of the Spanish food festival. We had visited the actual La Boqueria when we were in Barcelona, and I remembered the fabulous array of meats and fruits. Unfortunately, the stalls were a bit of a letdown and much too crowded.

We headed toward the parking lot in the back, where I knew there would be fewer crowds and better food, and we hit pay dirt. J got his favourite at La Raclette, which is a dish of potatoes, onions and cheese with broiled cheese scraped on top, and I scored a risotto ball and stew wrap that was ginormous and crazy good. We finished off our gorge-fest with a salted caramel brownie.



Needless to say, I was completely forgiven by then. We could barely walk with our bellies so full so we decided to head back home. We encountered a women's acapella group performing "California Dreaming" by the Eagles along the way. It was lovely, and we stuck around for a few more songs before hoofing it to the tube stop.



London, thanks for reminding me why I love you.

May Flowers

I feel a bit bad about complaining about London weather all the time, but the drizzly weather and lack of sun really does get to me, especially considering I'm used to sunny California weather. But I have to say, when the sun finally comes out over the city, the entire city comes out to play!

We finally got our first warm day of the year this past weekend, and J and I decided to take a stroll through Regent's Park and celebrate the weather with an ice cream. When we got to the park, it looked like pretty much everyone else had the exact same idea.

It was the most crowded I've seen the park in the last three years! I think the beautiful flowers had something to do with it. 

Every few months, the park's gardeners plant fresh flowers in certain parts of the park, and they really outdid themselves this time around. You never see the gardeners unless you're at the park at the crack of dawn, and I wish they could see how much people were enjoying the fruit of their labour.

Everyone was taking pictures of the beautiful blooms, and it was actually so warm that the tulips were starting to wilt!

I think the sheer amount of sun and warmth got to J pretty quickly, and we checked the rose garden to see if any of the roses had made an appearance yet before heading home. No such luck! But we did get to admire an entire avenue of blossoming trees. I wish I could sleep in a bed of these blossoms.

Of course, the warm weather didn't last, and it's rainy and gusty again, but I can't be too disappointed since I have some fun travel plans. Onward and upward!

Babies and Cameras

My friend's baby's getting bigger every day, and we've been meaning to do a photo-shoot for fun before we blink and he's walking and talking.

It's crazy to think that I knew him when he was just an idea in my friend's mind, and now he's here and growing faster than a weed!



I don't think he's ever seen me without a camera stuck to my face, and I hope we're still in London so I can watch him grow up and become a Wolverhampton fan to spite his Arsenal dad.



Watching my friend with her baby is pretty amazing.



She can make him laugh even when he's tired and cranky, and she can tell when he's getting too hot in his clothes.



I love watching them together, but it made me realise how very difficult being a mother is. She had brought her lunch, but she didn't have a chance to eat it even though I was there to help with the baby. Sometimes, no one but mommy will do. I got exhausted just watching her, which makes me think that a baby is still very, very far away in my future. 

Gone to the Dogs

Still not working, and I guess that's not a bad thing since there's been a ton of work going on in our flat!  Our fridge needed repairs, and our windows are being refurbished as part of the building works. J is crazy busy at work, so I guess it's a good thing I'm around to make sure we still have windows at the end of the day!

When my flat isn't being torn apart, I've been gallivanting around town and visiting friends during their various lunch breaks/ afternoon teas.

One of the funner outings was taking my friend's dog to the pool for doggy swimming. He's got a bad hip so this is actually doggy therapy to build up his leg muscles.

The water was quite warm, and we had the pool to ourselves so we had a blast throwing the ball and watching him swim after it. Doesn't he look adorable in his doggy life vest?

I also got to spend some more time with the baby, who's getting even cuter every time I see him! He's such a happy baby, and I rarely see him kick up a fuss.

I love talking to him, but whether he understands anything I'm babbling about is a question mark.

More good news: spring has finally sprung! The temperature these days is actually nice enough that I can get away with a light jacket, and I've finally resumed running outside. And not a moment too soon, as I have a rather long race in October that I need to be training for. I've managed to work my way up to 9 miles, but I still feel like I'm behind in my training plan so I'm using the time off to catch up a bit on my exercise. Fingers crossed I stay injury-free!

Easter in Dubai

The weather in London's has been pretty miserable, so I was really looking forward to our long weekend getaway to Dubai. It's been pretty grim, and even though it's supposed to be spring, it definitely doesn't feel like it.

Dubai is a bit farther than I would've liked (7 hour flight), but it was the closest place that we could wear flip flops and not have to wrap up in a jacket or two. We booked a red-eye and got to our hotel, Le Royal Meridien Resort, freakishly early.

The hotel was booked solid, so they couldn't grant our request for an early check-in, but they did comp us a free breakfast, which they didn't have to do and was really nice of them. We switched over to the tea lounge while we waited for our room to be ready. I quite liked their method of keeping my tea warm - much more effective than a tea cosy!

The wait for the room was totally worth it - the room itself was huge, and they upgraded us to a beach view that we could enjoy from our fab balcony!

We changed into our bathing suits and went off to explore the hotel grounds and the pools (four that I could see). We found a kiddy playground, and I even managed to convince J to hop on the swings with me. It's been too long - I couldn't really get much momentum going and needed J to push me.

After the swings, we saw a path leading straight to the beach, and of course, I had to investigate.

The water was beautiful but cold! I couldn't get over the sight of the high-rises built right up to the sand. Another odd note - Dubai's public beaches have a dress code! Luckily, we were on the hotel's private beach where it doesn't apply, but we did see quite a few ladies in burkinis.

Once we were in our bathing suits, we pretty much stayed in them for the rest of the weekend. We spent most of the time lolling by the pool with the occasional dip in the water to cool off. I can tell we've been in the UK for too long as both of us got pretty bad sunburns despite staying in the shade! I don't even know how that happens!

The hotel service was amazing! There were waiters circulating constantly to bring drinks and food, and others were passing out eucalyptus-scented towels and spritz bottles filled with ice water to cool off. J and I have stayed in some nice places during our travels, but nothing beats the service we had in Dubai.

We did manage to escape the pool a few times to check out the Mall of the Emirates. Dubai is famous for its shopping, but a mall is just a mall. I wasn't that impressed, other than by its sheer size (there's a ski slope in the mall), and we left empty-handed other than with a sun hat for me.

Our visit to the mall was the only time we saw the natives, and I noticed that most of the service people we encountered were from South Asia and the Philippines. I wondered why that is. We also saw a bit of the fabulous wealth of the country with the high-end shops filled with women in burkas and loads fancy cars parked in the valet driveway.

It wasn't really an exploring kind of vacation as all of Dubai seems to be made up of new built high-rises. The architecture there is very different from other major cities, and we caught a faraway glimpse of Burj al Arab, the tallest building in the world. I particularly liked this sign. Tee hee.

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Our weekend ended much too quickly, and J and I are now back in London with smarting sunburns and hopefully, enough sun to last us through April since the weather forecast isn't looking too cheerful.

Babies and Cupcakes

It's seems like it was just yesterday when I was helping to organise a baby shower for my close friend S at Bea's of Bloomsbury at One New Change...



I was the token American, and it was the US apparently that gave birth to the idea of a baby shower so I was responsible for knowing what was supposed to happen. Since this was a first for me, I thought it'd be nice if we stuck to the basic idea that we all show up and bring baby presents for the expectant mother. Works for me! Since we are in the UK, we had a traditional afternoon tea to celebrate.



I guess we had the tea in the nick of time because the baby arrived soon afterwards, three weeks before his due date! I was fortunate enough to be one of his first visitors, and he was either yawning or sleeping during my visit. I had never seen anything so small and so stinking cute!





Since work is slowing down again, I spent Monday playing hooky from the office and visited S and the baby. I missed celebrating S's birthday, so I baked some cupcakes for her to enjoy.



I couldn't send J empty-handed to the office so he got a batch to share with his workmates as well. I wonder what happened to the sixth one??? ;)



It was so nice seeing the baby again, and this time I wasn't too scared to hold him. I've never held anything so small and so breakable before so I was a bit terrified at first but I got the hang of it pretty quick. I had too much fun cuddling him and joggling him, and it was hilarious because he was awake and made the cutest faces if I paused mid-joggle.

Now that my work project is on hold and possibly coming to an end, I suppose it's time to decide what to do next. Find another project? Maybe go to pastry school? Things are a bit unclear at the moment, so I'll probably be puttering around the kitchen and back to running at the park since it looks like the cold snap is finally coming to an end. Hallelujah!